1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
I guess I am – I really love wool yarn.
2. Do you spin? Crochet? No. No.
3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) No.
4. How long have you been knitting? About a year and a half.
5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes
6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) Oranges and Cloves
7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Yes – I love Dark Chocolate
8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? I was a rubber stamp freak for several years – I have over 1000. I also like to sew with felt and have made my brother, sister-in-law, and niece Christmas stockings and now I need to make Fletcher one.
9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) James Taylor, Barenaked Ladies, The Eagles,
Yes, iTunes is the coolest thing ever invented!!
10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? My favorite colors are pink and blue.
11. What is your family situation?
This summer will be the 25th anniversary of our first date – We live in Baytown Texas, work in Pasadena Texas and have another house in Austin Texas. I have a 22 year old son and an almost-20 year old daughter – no more teenagers in the house – YAY!!! My daughter was born on my birthday, July 8th, so we share the day. I really missed her when she moved into the dorm this fall – that’s where I came up with the name for the blog.
Do you have any pets? We have a 12 year old Dalmatian, Holly, and three cats, Noelle, Rudy and Miss Kitty.
12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
I want a loft on 5th street in Austin -
and a summer house in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard. Okay, any house on this page would be okay:
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
I love Noro yarn – of any kind - and anything else that looks like it.
14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I do not like really thin yarn – I guess that’s why I am having so much trouble learning to knit socks.
15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
An iPod cover, a mini iPod cover and an iPaq cover, all in Noro Blossom #5..
Noro #5 – doesn’t that sound like it should be a perfume or something?
16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I like to felt small things – I have been making some bowls.
17. What are you knitting right now?
Little Bitty Special Companions
18. What do you think about ponchos?
I am not a poncho person, but Go Martha!
19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
I like them both but I really like the ease of circular needles – it seems like everything you make with circular needles is easier.
20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo
21. Are you a sock knitter? No, not yet. But it seems like a good thing to carry in the car so I’m trying!
22. How did you learn to knit?
All of you wonderful bloggers out there! When Knitty first came out I followed a link to Jillian Moreno’s blog, from there I discovered Yentala, from there I discovered Hill Country Weavers – and by the time my husband sat me down and said he was ready to buy a house in Austin, the first thing that popped into my head was “Oh my Gosh, Hill Country Weavers!!” They have referred to me in there as The Football Wife.
And Stitch and Bitch - I carried it around religiously!
23. How old is your oldest UFO?
I have 2 that tie – After I gave my brother and sister-in-law Fletcher’s sweater, Molly wanted one so I ordered the pattern from The Yarn Co., in NY since his pattern came from their book. I have not gotten very far on it because, hey, this is Texas, and sweaters are not very practical down here. I figured I would get back to it once football season starts.
The second one is that damn iPod cover I started for College girl and worked on at several Dr.s offices, and subsequently at the hospital when my husband was in there twice in February. After I talked myself into believing that it was NOT cursed, I lost one of the needles. I don’t even want to look at it right now.
24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Hello Kitty. I have some Hello Kitty checks and everyone always comments on how cute they are.
25. What is your favorite holiday? The 4th of July.
26. Is there anything that you collect?
Birdhouses, Cobalt Blue votive holders
27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Interweave Knits, Creative Knitting.
28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
The Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics
I thought it was really cool this morning when I opened up the paper and there was a big story about knitting in the Houston Chronicle....but I was surprised there was no mention of knitting blogs!! That's really how I learned to knit - I don't know anyone personally who knits. And I've never actually knit in front of anyone else who knits - okay, once. Last summer I started a baby blanket and thought it would be perfect to take on the plane - no thinking, no row counting, etc. On the way back from Boston the lady next to me took my needles out of my hands and said "You're knitting way too tightly!! You're not holding your yarn right!! Let me show you." FREAKED. ME. OUT. When she gave everything back to me I put it all away and tried to go to sleep. Was I going to knit in front of her? NO WAY!!! I have tried organizing a Stitch and Sip night at our local Starbucks but it never has gotten off of the ground... (maybe I just don't want anyone to see me holding the yarn wrong. ha-ha )
That's the beauty of blogs - if you want some help, it's always there - heaven knows Shelby has offered a million times to help me with some socks! (and I really need to take her up on her offer) and Ann..or was it Kay?.. sent me several emails explaining the different ways to make a perfect square when they started their Afghanalong and even added lots of encouraging words for a new knitter. And shhhhhh...if you're bored at work reading someone's blog is a wonderful way to pass the time for a minute or two - Time for a Blog Fix! (shhhhh! Don't tell my boss - Wait, he can't fire me. He can't really even gripe at me - he doesn't pay me!! And if he does gripe at me, it won't be nice when we get home. I promise. )
And now I have discovered I have a twin somewhere in New York. How wonderful! I haven't even gotten to send her an email yet and discuss the wonderful life of a mother with college aged children and to see what else we have in common, but I can't wait.
Talk to you soon Sara, I promise!
A new friend made on the internet. And all because of this wonderful blogging world!
I almost forgot this - I joined my first Secret Pal!
I'm so excited - this used to be one of my favorite things to help with when college girl was in school - when she'd let me.
Soon I will have my very own secret pal!
I've done a few entries that did not show up..hmm, now where did they go? Just when you think you've got this blogging stuff down...pow!..your entries go missing.
Lets see, what did you miss? Not much, as usual.
I started a sweater for Red Sweaters, got to the point where you cast on more stitches in the middle of a row and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I was in the car with no reference material. I played with it all the way from Bastrop to Katy and gave up. I finally figured it out with a little help from the internet and I'm almost ready to do the neck - we're taking the convertible to Austin tomorrow but I'm taking it anyway. I have not been to Hill Country Weavers in several weeks - I have that on my schedule for the Saturday.
I got a pink mini iPod for Mother's Day to take with me to the Gym every morning (I can't stand the terrible job they do with the closed captioning on CNN - sometimes it makes me laugh right out loud, and then people look at me like I'm not supposed to be having fun on a treadmill) I still haven't got it loaded up with James Taylor songs - my computer at home is running on Windows ME - I practically have to carve emails in stone - and I don't think they had even invented iPods back then, so it won't work. So next week my computer will be cleaned out and be re-born into XP. I have put it off so college girl can come clean it out of any necessary pictures, etc.
Which brings us to College girl and her meltdown just in time for finals. I should have known something was up last week when she asked how much one class was costing us per semester. (FYI: that's a whopping $540 per hour, which totals out to be about $1600 per class.) Silly me, I thought she was thinking along the lines of how grateful she was that we were footing the bill. Nope. May I say again, silly me. I think she was actually wondering how mad we were going to be if she flunked a class...and it sounds like she might have. Looks like it's going to be a tense weekend.
And we were actually quite amused to read Tuesday morning that Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger got married Monday - we will actually get to see part of "The Honeymoon Tour" on Sunday night when we see him in San Antonio. (That's not what they're calling it, but they SHOULD!) We'll be on the 6th row so if she comes on stage we'll be able to see her very well.
We're leaving tomorrow at noon (it's always nice to be married to the boss) to go up and check on the "vineyard" - when we got up there last weekend the stupid digital timer we bought had NOT been working - the poor little pear tree was all wilted. If it has not been working this week I get the pleasure of taking it out in the street and running over it.
And as College girl sounds like she's flushing our $$ down the toilet, we got a VIP invitation to see the new Lexus RX400h - and we're still reeling from the $50,000 sticker price. I don't think I've ever mentioned the fact that I was a "Lexus Driving Bitch" for a long time. Not since last October....a very sad day, by the way....but right now I'm driving a VW Touareg. I don't like it. It's nice, but it's not a Lexus. In fact. I dislike it so much that right now I have a broken toe as the result of kicking it.
But that's a story for another day......
Black Spanich or Champanel Grapes (I don't remember which is which) - planted last weekend. Hopefully it's been raining up there - we bought a digital timer for the sprinkler and spent HOURS trying to program it....we know it went off once, but the next morning it was (I laugh when I say this:) programmed (ha!) to go off at 5 am - and, of course, it was raining and we couldn't tell if it had worked or not.
Knitting? I seem to do more blog reading than knitting. I discovered something called Red Sweaters that I thought I may try this weekend on the drive to Austin...we'll see.