Better than it sounds!

Tastes better than it sounds!  Ground beef and pickle tacos.  Ground beef cooked with taco seasoning mix ( 2lbs. meat and 2 pkgs taco seasoning mix), served in white corn tortillas and white corn/nopales tortillas!  Add dill pickles and cheese and......Ta Dah!  Ground beef and pickle tacos, kind of like those at http://www.malorestaurant.com/

Theirs are still better, but these are good!

Shirley brought me the tortillas from a grocer in Imperial Valley, they are waaaaaaaaay good and fresh.  Thank you Shirley!

More of Camp KnittyhaHA

Tina "smooshing" color as only Tina can do.  Beautiful in an instant.  Magical where the colors meet.

Ever seen a crab who knows how to knit?  This is one does , and he wasn't the only crab there who knew how, there were at least 5 or 6 other crabs with projects in various stages of completion.

And this is Cat Bordhi  (Socks Soar on Two Circs, New Pathways for Knitting Socks and many more wonderful books)on the left and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) on the right with their "Chicken of the Sea".  A late entry into the homework presentation.  Some art just lives on forever and ever and ever and ever................

This is the view out of the huge atrium-garden dining room.  Beautiful .  Just to the left of this was a giant totem pole that was a favorite perch of 3 bald eagles.  

It was soooo 

 fun!  These photos don't even start to do it justice.  The most fun you can have as a knitter.  Imagine 60 other, wait---make that 58 other women and one man, all like minded knitters who love knitting socks.  From all walks of life.   Nurses, teachers, surgeons, college professors, airline pilots, housewives, yarn store owners,  lawyers, professional dog competitors, and on and on.  All with one goal in mind for 5, almost 6 days.  Socks and fun.  You don't have to be an expert knitter.  In fact, you don't even have to knit socks.  Both years I met at least one person who had never knitted a sock, and one didn't plan on learning.  

I want to go back right now!

Camp KnittyhaHA

Well, finally, I am home.  I am tired.  It sounds crazy, but the last two days I really didn't get much knitting done.  What with the scavenger hunt, Fish Tycoon, yada yada yada, plus our big homework assignment not being due until Friday afternoon (which I procrastinated up until Thursday night), I used any spare moment to knit away on my socks.  

Here is Ringo, the Drunken Party Monkey in his Yellow Submarine.  He is in a kelp bed surrounded by sea creatures and little anemones.  there were all kinds of sea creatures.  As soon as we get the Flickr page up, all of our Camp photos will be available to view.  Until then.............happy knitting!

Life at Camp KnittyhaHA

 If you are going to learn to dye yarn, why not learn from the best?   Here is Tina Newton from Blue Moon showing us how......................

  

     

And here are my 3 hand dyed skeins of STR Mediumwt!

And here is Ozzie's Monkey to be!

Melissa's wedding and Cow Clogs

Ringo is the luckiest Drunken Party Monkey ever ! Not only did he stow away in my bag, he got to smooch up on the bride!  

And here he is ..................................................................and here are my new Cow Clogs, Carson got them for me for my birthday!  They will look great with my STR socks!  The agenda for this afternoon---Lush at Universal Studios, then on to Arc Light to see Sunshine Cleaning, by the same people who did Little Miss Sunshine.  Next Blog post---final touches on my "knit something from the sea assignment" and repacking!  Later!

KnittyhaHA bound!

I have officially started the journey northward!  Here are my crazy gazanias and their yellow-gazania brick road...............

and here is the border fence outside of the sand dunes.  Amazing to see an actual fence on the border now.  It always amazes me that the border is so close, and with the fence now you can tell exactly where it is, instead of the vague its-over-there-somewhere notion. 

I promise new pics and a little blogging everyday.  I am doing some serious work on my KnittyhaHA homework tonight, so until tomorrow, happy knitting!

.....join me tomorrow with photos of Ringo, the Drunken Party Monkey at the wedding......................

Cool Knitting inspiration for free!

If you haven't joined Ravelry yet, you need to check it out!  Go to www.ravelry.com and join.  It may take a day or so before they send you the email officially "inviting" you.  It is "place for knitters and crocheters.  Tons of free patterns.  Say you wanted to do a Clapotis .  You could do a search for it under the patterns tab.  There are 10,314 different Claps that are posted on the site.  You can scroll through them to see all the different types of yarns they have been knit in.   Want to do a Baby Surprise Jacket ? There are 6,768 of them listed there.   It is a place where you can organize your stash, projects, needles, search for ideas, join special interest groups such as knitters who like the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series, all kinds of stuff.  And it is free.  It is like my space for fiber fiends!  My name on Ravelry is knitterati.

Also---another  cool spot, the Twist Collective.   GO to Twistcollective. com  It is an online knitting magazine, great patterns.  I am not sure how often they publish, I think quarterly like Knitty.  AND Knitty, another great free online magazine with superb patterns.  Join them for free too!

Lori's has moved

To all of my knitsibs in Yuma---you know how we have to travel out of town for decent yarn, right?  I was in San Diego last Wednesday and on my way home I decided to stop in Alpine at Lori's Frames, Fiber, and Frills.  When stopped at the intersection, I realized it was no longer there:(.  But, if you turn left at that intersection you will see her shop up and on the right, with a parking area in the front.  It is nice, cozy, and she is so nice.  Stop in to see her when you pass through next time!  Later!

FInished Socks!

I mentioned them in my new "list of things knitted in 2009" in the side bar, so I thought I'd show you pics.  I pledge to keep a list of all things knitted in 2009.  There are 2 Christmas presents for my mom that technically were slated for completion PRIOR to Christmas but didn't make it.  Those don't count in this list.  I also pledge to get all knitted Christmas items finished BEFORE Christmas.  I need start planning towards that end right now!  OK, so here they are---

The first two are the Incredible Shrinking Violet Monkeys for Karen, which are being inspected by Tang.  

The next two are my Cloning Anemones in Tide Pooling.  I love the was the one above pooled.  Seems like most people don't like the pooling, but I really like it when that happens.  I think that in this pattern it shows the stitch pattern much better.

Off to work on the ridiculous goals I have set to be completed before Sock Camp!   Photos to follow soon (I hope)!  Happy Knitting!!!

Is it March already???

Yikes!  It is already March? Hard to believe.  I am know that I am WAAAY behind in posting.  Just seems like there is not enough time in the day to knit, eat, knit, work, knit, eat some more, watch TV and knit, and sleep.  I would rather substitute knitting for just about any of those other activities!  But, the front flowerbed was overrun with weeds courtesy of the recent rains, and it almost got away from us.  Here is what it looks like now:

The gazanias love it when you dead-head them and they loved the rains.  No weeds for a while now, so more time for knitting!  

Or for watching this little guy:

Meet Jackson, almost 8 months, who first appeared in my blog in July 8, 2008.  He has grown a lot and crawls everywhere FAST.  He has just discovered here that he can actually crawl under his excer saucer.  He is quite a little guy! 

That's it for now, gotta go pay bills!  Until next time, happy kitting!

Rangers lead the way!

Here are Billy and Aimee at Billy's Ranger graduation.  Notice the new Ranger tab on his left shoulder.  He just finished a grueling 62 day training, and graduated without having to be recycled on any of the training phases (there are 3).  Less than 20% of those who graduate do so without be recycled (aka failing one of the 3 phases).  There were about 170 graduates, including 1 from the Chinese Army, two from Canada, and one from 

Poland.

To say that the training is rigorous is an understatement.  There are intense physical and psychological hurdles as well as just plain dangerous stuff.  They learn how to walk up and down vertical cliffs (like Spiderman) with ropes, how to blow things up, how to parachute (Billy got a concussion when they "jumped" into the 3rd phase in the swamps of Florida), and how to do this:

These little dots dangling from the helicopter are actually Ranger instructors demonstrating how to get extracted from a "situation".  A bad situation.  They got there by sliding down a rope from the helicopter.  They later hooked themselves onto this rope and the helo flew away with them.

They also learned a lot of hand to hand combat skills, all based on ju-jitsu throws.  Completely awesome, they throw each other around like rag dolls.

He now moves from Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia (BTW, they had not even ONE yarn store) to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky (unknown yarn store status).  He will be assigned a platoon of about 40 soldiers (knuckleheads) who have just graduated from boot camp.  His unit (101st Airborne) is on deployment in Afghanistan and will be returning in March sometime.  It was an incredible thing to witness, this graduation---definitely one of the highpoints of life, right up there with college graduation or weddings ( even if Columbus is devoid of yarn to quench my habit).  Later!!!

Celebrating our Knit Sibs

Fran and Shirley showing off Fran's mom's new wrap---really really cute

And here we all are gathered with our Knit Friends in celebration of our friend Dee Dee, wishing her not only good Knitting Mojo, but a wonderful experience in Iraq.  She said that on the first day she gets there she is going to find a new best friend and immerse herself in language and culture.  She will undoubtedly find someone, and their life will be all the richer for knowing her.  Good luck DeeDee, we will miss you but we look forward to hearing all about your experience on your blog!  On the upper right corner of this blog is the link to her web page.  The password is deedee.  You can bookmark it on your computer too, or if you don't know how, you can enter through this link.  

This is a short entry--gotta go knit.  Hope to see you all on Sunday!

Have You Seen DeeDee?

OK, you simply MUST COME TO KNITTING ON SUNDAY!!!  It is a mandatory meeting.  If you don't come we will send the knitting police out to find you and drag you and your knitting to Papa San!  I am so serious that I am even going to call Papa San and RESERVE THE ROOM to make sure no nursing students steal it out from under us.

In case you didn't know, DeeDee is going to Northern Iraq to teach English to Kurdish women who are getting ready to go to the University.  Women have not been allowed to go to school until recently, and there are many of them who are now ready for the University, but must learn English first.  Because of her travel experiences, Dee Dee was asked to go for 7 months.  She will be leaving within 2 weeks.  Please come to knitting to see her off as only Knitters can do!  

***Roll your cursor over the title, and you will be taken to a link that you can watch to see photos that she will post during her trip.  The password for this web page is deedee (of course!).  Some of you who went to Europe and couple of years ago will remember the cover photo.  You can go to this map to see where she will be.  The star shows the town where the University is located and she will be in a village near this town.   PLUS___________If you look at the right side of my page here, you will see a section titled under my hit counter called "My favorite links".  You can click on  "Have You Seen DeeDee" and it will take you to her web page, magically!  Want to learn more about Iraq and it's culture?  DeeDee sent me this---  go to

merlin.yumaed.org, then to online databases, and then to culturegrams.  You can look up any country--it is very interesting.

Hope to see you at Papa San on Sunday!!!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  Holy cow, 2009!  Can you believe it?  Sounds like the future.  I thought that by this time we would have cars that would drive you, instead of you driving them.  You know, hop in and tell it to take you to Nordstrom's at Fashion Square, and you could sleep while it drove.  Or, cars that hovered above the ground.  And remember the way that the Jetson family cooked dinner?  They had a contraption that they would talk to and Shazam! the food would materialize.  And the robot maid?  What happened to all of that?  Where is that technology?  Hmmmm...

My mom's shawl needs one to two more repeats, so it is in progress.  I did finish her Knitters Without Borders socks yesterday.  Her Spring Forwards were actually don BEFORE Christmas, imagine that!  I am now working on her Fixation Riverbeds.  Maybe they will be done tomorrow?  Perhaps?

This is how I spent my New Year's Eve afternoon.  This is my mom's Knitters Without Borders Sock, my toe covered by a green blanket, and the gi-normous fireplace in the lobby of the Hon-Dah Hotel lobby outside of Pinetop.  My mom and one of our friends were in the casino, so it was great knitting time for me.  I made my nest on  a big leather couch in front of the fire, and the blanket was something that t

he casino gave my mom for her "frequent flyer" coupon.  

Here are Carson and I before he left for Las Vegas on December 30.  His Bacon 

Scarf is thinner and folds well.   We think that mine has decided to be a Bacon Wrap  rather than a scarf because it is thicker and wider.  These are definitely curious scarves/wraps.  You can see more about the making of these on my Flickr page.

I will have mine at knitting next Sunday.

Hope to see you next Sunday at Papa San's !  Until then, happy knitting!!!

Merry Christmas! Happy Bacon scarfing!

Hi!  I have been bacon scarfing!!

Hope you all had a great holiday and are enjoying your family and friends. 

 I am in Show Low and this evening Carson and I made a bacon scarf.  The photo to the right shows it up close along with a felting needle.  the photo on the right shows the finished product.  First you lay out the paper--it is made by Artfelt and is the base of the project.  You lay the roving on it and tack it with the felting needle at the color joins and the edges, it keeps it from  falling off of the paper.  Then you squirt it with water until the fabric and roving are soaked.  You lay a piece of plastic over it comes with the fabric) and roll it up.  You stick into a knee hi nylon, tie a knot in the end, and throw it in the dryer.  

It took 2 15 minute hot cycles in the dryer, then one more 10 minute cycle.  Then you put it in the sink and pour boiling water over it, which makes the paper dissolve.  

Amazing!  A wearable meat facsimile!  

It's Christmas time!!!

BBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! It is cold in the desert southwest triangle!  Cold in the desert is somewhere between the 40's and high 60's.  Mind you, that's the high.  We get colder at night.  Most people think that you can't get hypothermia here, but surprise!  You can!  

Speaking of getting cold, I know 4 ladies at San Luis High School that won't be getting cold because of a knitter who loves them!   Here she is:

 

This is Fran.  Fran has been a VERY BUSY KNITTER the last week.  See the abundance of capelets and scarves she is wearing AND knitting?  These are the products of ONLY ONE WEEK OF KNITtiNg!

Feel like a slacker?  I do.  SHe is wearing a capelet, three scarves, and is about to finish the capelet that she is knitting.  Here is a closeup:

Remember the picture of Maya knitting from her backpack two posts ago?  This is her mom.  Hmmmmmmm.............hey Maya, did you knit some of these for your mom and she is taking the credit?  Just wondering.   Maya was getting to be a seriously fast knitter last time I looked.  I bet that the lucky recipients of these knitterly gifts will be absolutely thrilled.   If you have ever worked in a school, you know how important the Secretaries are to the organization.  The Administrators can leave for conferences, etc., but when the Secretaries are gone, the whole thing falls apart.  Fran must get to work with some really great people, I am sure they all deserve these cool things.  

     

I wasn't going to knit anything for my TA's (kids who work in my office) this year.  So, I lined up all of my Christmas knitting and kind of mapped out my knitting schedule.  Then I decided to knit for my TAs.  As a knitter, it is hard to say no, even to yourself at this time of year.  So I started in with 2 hats and 4 pairs of fingerless gloves or wristwarmers.  Here are two of my TAs:

They went really fast.  I used a chunky weight yarn, size 9 needles, cast on 24 stitches and knit in a 2 X 2 rib until they were as long as I wanted, measuring from mid middle finger to a few inches past my wrist.  I picked up 14 sts on either side as if to knit, and did a 3 needle bindoff.  From the other end, I picked up 9 sts and did a 3 needle bind off, which left a thumb hole.  Just enough to keep your wrists warm, and you don't have to take them off to write, eat, or pass out tylenol!  

Better run---by the way, my blog topped 1000 hits this week.  I did have a comment from a reader from Sweden, but as I was trying to publish their comment I hit a wrong button and I lost it:(  .  If you read this, please write back, yours is only the second comment I have ever received on my blog!  I appreciate any feedback. Heck, I might even have a contest with a prize like some of my sock camp buddies.  

By the way---Sock Camp this year is during Spring Break, so I will feel even less guilty that last year.  I am excited--last year was Camp Crow's Feet, this year, it is 

Camp KnittyHaHa!  I wonder what the Blue Moon Crew has dreamed up, last year will be hard to beat!

I will post in a day or two---I actually finished my mom's Stahman shawl, I am knitting the border and will block it tomorrow:)  Happy Knitting1

Hi....my name is Blarg....

(use your best robot voice)

Hi.  My name is Blarg. I am looking for a boy named Blake.  I am Blarg the Monkey.  Blake is a boy who is loved by a knitter, which is a very good thing.

                                 

I have 9 green hairs and big green ears because I have supersonic hearing.  I have pink lips.  I have  a brown tattoo on my left shoulder.

If you kiss my tattoo good things 

will happen to you.

However, you cannot kiss my pink place under my tail because this is where I keep my Secret Monkey Powers.  

This is my friend Amy who is not a Monkey.  She also has a friend who is a knitter.This is a good thing.  When she wears her hat she has Special Powers, but not Special Monkey Powers. 

Good bye.  Must go find my friend Blake and get into some Monkey Business.... 

So much to knit, so little time!

Are you done with your holiday knitting yet?  Do you keep adding more projects to your list of gifts?  Mine keeps getting ridiculously long.  To the point that I am considering getting up at 4:30 or 5 every morning just to get some extra time in. I wasn't going to gift knitting to the TAs in my office,  but of course I changed my mind.  They are all getting wristwarmers or hats.  

 I haven't blogged in a long time because it takes up precious knitting time.  I am so excited tonight though that I can hardly go to sleep.  Why you ask?

Many reasons, and this photo shows one---This is Maya.  See what she is doing?  Knitting!  Maya is Fran's daughter, and she is knitting away on her first scarf. Check out the length of the scarf--she did this in about an hour, after she finished her homework, of course!  She even has her ball of yarn tucked into her backpack.  Very cool Maya!  Way to go!  

The next thing I am excited about is Sock Camp 09.  The first year it was called Camp Cockamamie, and I didn't find out about it early enough to go.  Last year, It was called Camp Crow's Feet, I went, and the rest of history.  This year, it is called Camp Knittyhaha.   Seriously, and even better, it is going to be held DURING SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I am REALLY stoked!  It is going to be on Whidbey Island, I think.  More info will be sent out later, I can't wait!!! 

That's all for today.  I really need to blog a couple of times a week.  But dang it, it takes away from precious knitting time.  I promise to be a better blogger.  Seriously. It's "not that hard".  I have more photos from our knitting and the Garden, so I promise to post them next time, which will be soon.  Seriously.

Later!

Baby Surprise X 3

From top to bottom,  Baby Surprise Jackets by 3 different knitters with 3 different needle sizes and 3 different outcomes--

Top--Kelsie's Baby Surprise, knitted by me on size 4 needles with 1 skein STR lightweight.

Middle-Crew's Baby Surprise knitted by Shirley  on size 5 needles with 4 balls of Louisa Harding's DK.

Bottom-Gage's Baby Surprise knitted by Helen on size 6 needles with 6 balls of Knitpicks Palette.  

Next time, we will do the buttonholes differently--maybe bind off two instead of one stitch, and rather than yarn over to replace the decreases, wait until the next trip by and do a couple of  knitted cast-on stitches.  It would make for a much neater buttonhole, we think.

Gage's Baby Surprise!  Knitted by his Nana' and ready to keep him warm over Thanksgiving.  Helen used Knitpicks Palette yarn, held double (6 balls), with a size 6 needle.  

This BSJ will be gifted to Kelsie today. I used one skein of Blue Moon STR lightweight in Goody Goody, the RSC yarn for July.  It looks great.  There was enough left over to crochet some bouillions ala Prudence Mapstone for decoration.  A lot of her publications can e purchased on line and downloaded to you computer.  

I have a bunch of these bouillions as well as other small crocheted and knitted objects for a purse but haven't

 as yet put them all together on the purse form.  Darned day job keeps getting in the way of my knitting!

That's it for today, my knitting friends.  If you haven't checked out Ravelry yet, go to 

www.ravelry.com  and sign up to join.  It is like my space for knitters and crocheters.  It is a great resource, and it's FREE.  It might take a week or so for you to get the invite to join after you sign up online.  It is worth the wait though.  

I have to jump back into my holiday knitting.  

The pile of projects keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

Christmastime's a 'comin!

It won't be too long, time to get your needles warmed up!  Here are some things that have been knitted in our neck of the woods recently--

This scarf is for Carson.  No, he hasn't gone all Goth or anything,  the scarf was designed because he really liked the buttons, so I invented a place to put them.  No, I am not adding any more.  It's an asymmetrical thing.  Really big this year, the whole asymmetrical thing.  There are coordinating wrist warmers too, but I don't have a photo of them.  This pattern was dreamed up while I visited him in LA a couple of weeks ago.  It is a simple 2X2 rib.  K2P2 across, flip around, knit the knits, purl the purls.  Next row the pattern jumps one to the right.  That row starts off P1, then K2P2 and ends with P1.  Return trip--k the k, p the p.  Next row starts P2, K2, etc, ends K2.  return is k the k, p the p.  Next row is k1 p2 then k2 p2.  Get it?  It makes a diagonal.  Just enough detail to keep you awake.  

Remember this scarf from last post?  It brought 

in $250.00 for the Hospice Silent Auction!

  Which confirms my theory that at an event such as this, people will pay a lot of money for 

something for their kids or grandkids

if they like it.  It's a two-fer.  It's a christmas present on one hand, and a donation to Hospice on the other.  And it makes me happy to have created  $250 from $6 worth of yarn!

Speaking of Rats, check out DeeDee's multi-ethnic Rats.  I mean these are some BIG Rats!  Check out the tail on the last one--it is pointy just like the real thing!  Fran says EEEEEEKK!!!

Next post---Baby Surprises X 3---------