Oh no!

I think I've lost my mojo. My blogging mojo that is.

I've been trying to think of why and have come up on empty. I think it's time for a new look.

Tomorrow will be a mish-mash of all the things I didn't blog about in February. I will be fun.

See you then.

On the hunt.

Superman and I spent Tuesday afternoon hunting down a new living room suite. It was horrible. We went to 3 different places only to realize that we are doomed to have the same ugly set we already have for the rest of our lives or until we can afford to pay five thousand dollars for the one perfect couch we did find. Seriously, made me want to yank my hair out. Either we found the right style (contemporary) with the wrong color (anything not sage green) or with the wrong type of fabric (leather being the biggest offender!). I have picked out a few of my favorites online and hopefully we will b able to figure something out through it. Here have a look. See I'm not that hard to please, right? Sigh! We have another round of shopping to do this Sunday. Wish me luck. Have a great day! *I don't know if you will be able to see my list, drop me a note if you can't.

Monday, random.

Happy Presidents Day!

Today I have a random assortment of facts, quotes and pictures. Since I'm a home executive (read stay at home mom) blogging first thing in the morning makes me feel productive.

Oddly enough doing 5 loads of laundry in one day doesn't. But only because I hate putting clean laundry away. Is it just me or does it just seem futile. I mean it's gonna end up wrinkled and in a pile sooner than it took me to sort it fold/iron/hang again.

Oh random, OK.

• My buddy Rachel is in London right now. She is moving there in April. While I'm very happy for her, I must say that I really don't like her for it.
• Last Thursday (Darwin's bicentennial birthday) Jess, my oldest, randomly blurted out during dinner "Momma, I thought monkeys hibernated" I died laughing, it was hysterical.
• Lily corrected her by saying "Jess, monkeys don't hibernate they eat fleas!" I tell ya, who needs cable TV when you have kids.
• Yesterday I fell off my bed. I was awake when it happened and Superman was home (in the living room) at the time. I landed on my head and my legs went over it. My neck hurts this morning. I played it off like it didn't hurt cause I was embarrassed. Superman had tears rolling down his eyes from laughing so hard, but I'm sure he was concerned on the inside.
• I hate this scarf now. Even though I have committed the pattern to memory I keep making really stupid mistakes.
• I have a cold. I may not make it through the day. Send decongestants.
• Guess who this is.

I think I've covered all I wanted to. I'm off to knit on the scarf that never ends, drink tea and stare into empty space. Send decongestants and a neck brace.

Have a great day!

All Better

I had a conference with Jess' teacher yesterday. I sat there and watched the way in which she was teaching her. It made last night's homework time much, much better. Apparently my way was confusing my girlie because it was so much more different than that of her teacher.

I'm so glad we got that straightened out. Jess is a smart girl,l it's her momma that has issues, but you all knew that already. Moving on.

Meet the new love of my life.

I've done about 8 million repeats of the pattern and have loved each and every one.

Now I'd like to introduce to you my new best friend and a gift I picked up for someone.

My new (and first) sewing book is exactly what I have been looking for. It explains words like "bias" and "seam allowance" and"sewing" in a way that I can understand (it says "simple" right on the cover!). It's about time I acquired one too, because I feel a mess of curtains and 2 needle rolls coming on. Wish me luck yo!

The other book is for someone. That is all.

Now, I'm off, I'm on the hunt for a cardigan pattern.

Shh! I'm hunting caowdigans.

Have a great day!

Mothering, FAIL!

Signs that you are a bad mother.

• You keep wondering of she has a problem.
• "Don't you get it" keeps popping into your head.
• You have the urge to snatch her homework, stuff it in your mouth and chew it until the frustration is gone.
• Your daughter looks upset, as in, she's near tears upset.
• You say in a really loud voice "oh for goodness sake!"
• You quit and send her to bed. Homework unfinished.

I'm so freaking ANGRY! I hate that I upset her, it's First Grade Math for craps sake!!!!!

When I went to tuck the poor thing in she said "mommy, I'm sorry I don't pay attention". I explained to her that it was mommies fault and that all I really want is for her to do well and that I know I just wasn't explaining things well enough.

I left with tears in my eyes. I totally failed her and made her feel like it was her fault. I feel like such and ass.

Whining over, I had no where else to vent. Screaming into a pillow is not an option right now. I suck at parenting.

Today I answer a question. For those of you who don't care about all the knitting, too bad man, it's what I do, it's how I roll. In my last post I discussed the fact that I love my Malabrigo Sock Yarn and that it was not going to be socks. I decided to use the Leaning Ladders Scarf pattern. Now this prompted my buddy Grace to ask; that leaning ladders pattern sure looks a heck of a lot like the Lace Ribbon Scarf. how is it different? I'm glad you asked Grace cause I've been dying to explain the difference and cause all kinds of controversy over this. Now before I go on to tell you all about these two great patterns lets set somethings straight. First and foremost, both of these patterns are free on the interwebs. I do not intend to put down or offend anyone with my critique and the only reason I'm even taking the time to do this is because it's Saturday and apparently I don't have enough to do. So, to begin with I have here images of both charts (free and saved to my server so no bandwidth stealing, ok?) Now if you look at both of these charts the first thing you will notice is that I took a picture of the Leaning Ladders chart. This is because I'm dim and can't figure out any other way to do it because it's a PDF.

Leaning Ladders Chart

Below we see the chart for the Lace Ribbon Scarf. See how different both charts are from each other?

See the huge difference. The LRS has little grey boxes. The LLS is completely devoid of them.

They are basically the same, scratch that, they are exactly the same. The only difference is the pretty pictures.

So to answer your question Grace, they are not different. They are the same pattern by two different "designers". I chose to make the LLS because I came across that pattern about a year before the LRS was published.

Hope I answered that question I just know was burning a hole into your soul. I hope you didn't loose too much sleep over it.

Have a great day!

Feeling Better

Here we see the Sock that shall not be Named. Like I said before it is s deceiving little rascal. It is actually at least 3 socks in one, and that is not counting the other 2 or 3 times I have given this exact same yarn a chance to be my love. It think it just doesn't want to be a pair of socks or maybe it requires a bit of a patterning. Maybe next time. Right now, my attention is elsewhere.

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Impressionist Sky colourway. yum!

Needles: Inox 10in Straights 3.5mm (US 4)

Specifically with this little dream boat. The pattern is confusing me to no end, but it sure is entertaining. It's called Leaning Ladders, by Evelyn Skae. I have been waiting to find a yarn for this since April '07, which is when I found the pattern. The needles may change though, I'm a very tight knitter (some people may have compared my knitting to Kevlar) and although I like how it looks I fear it may not be lacy enough. We'll see.

Have a great day.

6 more weeks!

So according to the long standing superstition of the venerable groundhog, we here in Houston will be safe from the excessive heat and humidity that surrounds the city 8 months out of the year, for another 6 weeks. Hooray! In honor of this I took a holiday from blogging yesterday. I do however apologize for all of you people stuck with another 6 weeks of "real" winter. If you have snow or have looked forward to highs in the 30s then, well, sorry. Since misery loves company I tell y'all about a some evil treacherous sock yarn. remember the socks I was working on Friday? Well it's had 3 complete rips since then. I have literally knit a pair of socks and have nothing to show for it! The first time I cast on with 2.5mm needles 64 sts. Too small Second time 2.5mm, 72 sts. Too big. Third time 2.75mm needles, 64 sts. Too big. I quit. This isn't the first time this yarn has failed me. I love it, but it does not love me. That or I don't think it want to become a sock. We have broken up for the time being. Again. In non-knitting news, you'll be happy to know that.... I got nothing. Unless you want to hear about laundry and the fact that the Steelers now have the MOST Superbowl rings. More than the Dallas Cowboys! Neener neener! Actually, I don't care anything about it, except that it bugs my brother in law to no end, (Hi Justin!) and we all know that I live to be contrary. Hava great day! Go Steelers!