It's a sock!!!

Well, we're still at Mom #2's house, but the good news is, we're going home today!!! I'm excited because I haven't gone anywhere in a week, other than outside once to attempt to build a snowman without gloves(yeah, I know), and to dig a trough for the dogs.
I've been missing my kitties pretty bad. I'll be so excited to see them. I'll have to take some pics, and post later on. : )
In other exciting news, I FINALLY FINISHED MY FIRST SOCK!!!!! Do ya wanna see?? Here it is:

Ta-da! I'm very proud of the way it turned out, and it actually fits my huge foot. I was afraid that it would come out too small. So I'm very proud of myself. I've been wearing just the one sock on my foot last night and this morning.
Other than that, not much going on. I changed my scarf so that it has a garter border, rather than the ribbing. It was looking a bit weird. But now it looks a lot better.
Anyway, I probably should get dressed and start on getting all of our shit together. I'll talk to ya'll later!!

Well, we're still at Christine's Mom's house. There's really no telling how long we're going to be here. Christine's car simply CANNOT handle snow. It snowed more today. We were supposed to go to the apartment to check on the kitties and Maya. I didn't get to go because someone needed to stay here with the dogs in case they got stuck out there. See, we're in Broken Arrow. The roads, from what I understand, are fine here. However, in Tulsa, where we live, the roads are fucked up. In Tulsa, they haven't gotten any of the snow up from the last time it snowed, let alone this snow. So the driving is pretty dangerous out there. From what I understand, people had abandoned their cars. So, they were afraid that they would get stuck. They weren't even able to make it to the airport to take Zac, Christine's brother. I was kinda disappointed that I didn't get to go see the kitties. I had been excited since last night. The plan was that they would drop us off on the way to take Zac to the airport, and then Christine's Mom would come get us when she was done. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to see my kitties, and get some much needed affection from my love. But it didn't happen, so I was pretty upset.
Anyway. I guess that probably sounds kinda selfish, but it's just the way that I feel....But, they went to the store and brought me home Subway, which was really nice. Christine's Mom also got me "cabin fever presents", which was incredibly sweet of her. She got me yarn, and one of those I taught myself knitting kits. Which is totally cool, because the kits come with stitch markers, yarn needles, a stitch holder, two sets of needles, a gauge checker/needle size checker thingy, point protectors, and a stitch counter. She also got me some gloves. She also got me some really pretty yarn. It's in a bunch of different shades of pink. Very pretty. She says that she wants me to make something for myself. I'm making a scarf with it. I'm doing it with a border of ribbing, and stockinette stitch as a background. I dunno, I'm just kinda playing around with it. I don't really care how it turns out, I just want to experiment.
My sock has gotten much bigger. I'm on the gusset. Just plain knitting now. After that I'll just have the toes to do. At some point, I would really like to try two at a time socks. I found some really pretty sock yarn on knitpicks that I would like to make Christine some socks with. It's Chroma Fingering Sock Yarn. I LOVE all of the colors. So freakin pretty. But I'm thinking for Christine, I'm going to use Roller Skate.
In other news, my Mom is letting me get one of those electric cigarettes. I've been struggling hard to quit smoking, and I figure that this is the best alternative to smoking. You get the nicotine without the smoke, pretty much. You can smoke it anywhere, which is awesome. I really can't wait to try it out.
Anyway, that's about it for now.

Snowed in...

So. It's snowing outside. We're currently experiencing the big blizzard of 2011. Yesterday we came over to Christine's Mom's house. We went out and got some stuff. I ended up buying some clothes. Has anyone ever shopped at Rue21? OMG. I found some awesome deals there!! I got a sweater type thing for $6, a t-shirt for $1, and a flannel shirt for $8. I also got Christine this cute argyle sweater jacket thing for $12. There's nothing I love better than a good deal, so I was very excited to find this el-cheap-o stuff. But anyway....we're going to be here until it's safe to go back home. We brought all the dogs here. The cats stayed home. We left them a huge bowl of kitty chow and a big bowl of water. I miss them.
Katie drove me insane last night. She was crying and barking ALL NIGHT. I am SO ready for her to find a new home. She is really and truly driving me insane.
Other than that, last night I worked on my sock. I officially have two inches into my ribbing now. I'm pretty proud of the way it's turning out. I know I screwed it up and all....but it's turning out so damn pretty!!! I just love all of the colors that's in the yarn. : )
That's pretty much it for now....I've just been playing my sims and working on my sock. Hope everyone is safe and warm!!

The happenings(or lack thereof) of Today

We just got home from another evening at Christine's Mom's house, or as I like to call her, Mom # 2. : ) We had a good time. We had dinner, and later we had some wine. I basically just sat and knit. I worked on my sock cuff, which is almost up to a full inch! Woo-hoo! I mess up on the ribbing, but I am NOT frogging again. I was thinking that when you're working on ribbing, you need to purl the knits and knit the purls, but apparently I was wrong? So I started knitting the knits and purling the purls, or that's what I THINK I'm doing, and it's coming out fine now. I'll have to remember that for my next sock. I'm pretty proud of it so far. And I REALLY ♥ LOVE ♥ the colors. : )
Christine ended up getting sick last night. She had diarrhea. Poor baby. She slept on the couch, because she wanted to be close to the bathroom, and she just doesn't like being bothered too much when her stomach is upset. I came out every couple of hours to check on her, and make sure that she was okay. I set up the couch for her with some blankies(one that I had crocheted for her : ) ) and some pillows. I made sure that there were waters in the fridge, and got out Mistro, a dragon that I had crocheted for her last year. I came out at one point and she was all curled up. I wanted to give her a forehead kiss, but I didn't want to wake her. I know that she has a hard enough time sleeping without being sick.
Other than that, we went to a small town to go to a Tastee Freez. Has anyone ever been to one? They have pretty good food. I had a really good burger, and a dipped cone. She had a frito chilli pie...I think that's what it's called...and some tater tots, and a chocolate covered cherry ice cream thingy.
We got our tater tot casserole dish back from Christine's Mom tonight, so I'm planning on making that tomorrow night for din-din. As for now, I'm thinking about tackling the cheez-its and playing some sims, which I never did last night. I promise, as soon as I actually have something done on my sock, I'll post a pic! I'll talk to ya guys tomorrow.

FRUSTRATED

Katrina is driving me insane. I'm sorry, I know she's a puppy, but my God, she is. She pees and poops everywhere but outside. We've had her a week now, and she's pottyed outside three times. And that was it. I think it was just random coincidence. And I'm the one that usually get to clean up the messes. I get to clean the bathroom every morning because her and Aurora have peed and pooped everywhere. Aurora is no better. I went outside with her earlier, and she would not go. I was out with her a good ten minutes at least. I even tried running around, because Christine had said something about them running around gets their bowels moving or something. It would be better if we could put puppy pads in the bathroom with them, but Katrina tears them to shreds. And we put a baby gate up over by the bathroom door to keep them enclosed in the rest of the bathroom, in order to prevent them from pottying over by the door, so we don't step in it. But, they hop over the gate anyway. I'm just frustrated.
In other news, sock knitting isn't going so well thus far. Last night I had left my knitting on the floor by accident, and one of the dogs had gotten a hold of it. I went to work on my sock, and one of the three needles had fallen out. Then I cast on this morning, and moved all of my stitches to their needles, and I guess I messed up somewhere, because I came up missing a stitch. Anyway, we're going to her Mom's house tonight, so I'll try again tonight.
And she just called me into the bedroom to clean up dog puke. LIKE I DON'T CLEAN UP ENOUGH FUCKING DOG MESSES ALREADY!!!! Could I PLEASE have a break. I'm just gonna get off here for now. More when I'm less frustrated.

Socks, Tater-Tot Casserole, and a somewhat Job for Christine

I started knitting socks today. I got mad at the square that I'm knitting. We're currently not on speaking terms. Well, it's my own fault. I had to rip out some stitches, because I managed to forget to yo on one of the rows. Whoops. So I ripped back, and in the process of ripping, I managed to drop a couple of stitches. So I had to rip back even further than where I had intended whoops. So I lost track of things. And now, I'm on the very last part of the square, and my decreasing is off, so naturally I'm just frustrated. So, I'm taking a little break.
So, yeah, I'm knitting socks. I had founds DPNS on Wal-Mart last night. I have NEVER seen them at Wal-Mart before, so you can imagine my excitement. AND they actually had the size that I needed for the socks. So, I bought those and started on my socks today. I ripped it out on the first try, because my ribbing didn't seem right. So, I started over. I just got done with my first row. Whenever I get done with my ribbing, I'll post a pic. I'm using this stuff. It's coming out really pretty, from what I can tell.....of my first row of knitting...lol. I have big feet, so I figured stretchyness might come in handy for socks. I dunno. I don't know anything about knitting socks, so this is kinda a trial and error run. Apparently knitting socks it supposed to be wonderful....like the ultimate knitting things, but I don't know yet. I'm still trying to get back used to using dpns, so we shall see. I have crocheted socks before. Have I mentioned that? I can't remember. Anyway, I made Christine two pairs of socks. One in sport weight in this blue kinda color. And then another in worsted weight in purple, as an experiment. I wanted to see which she preferred. If maybe a certain one breathed better, or kept her feet warmer, but she had no opinion lol. Oh well. I tried.
Moving on....hmmmmm....oh, Christine did manage to get some work at a restaurant that we visit frequently. I have no idea what she's going to be doing there. I would guess either wash dishes or wait tables. She hasn't gotten home yet, so I'll post tomorrow and tell ya'll how it went. Apparently it's an under the table kinda deal. Which is fine by me, because we need any kinda money we can get right now.
Christine has been working out recently. She's been going back to the gym, and has lost ten pounds!!!! I'm so proud of her! It's not that I think that she needs to lose weight or anything. I honestly love her body the way that it is. She's nice and cuddley. : ) But she's not meant to be big. She's 5'2 and has a very tiny bone structure. Like she's supposed to be in the 100-110 range. And her back and knees and her body in general is constantly bothering her. So she really NEEDS to lose the weight, for her health.
God knows I could probably manage to lose the weight. I just don't have the motivation. I'm ok with my size. And Christine finds me attractive the way that I am, so I really don't see the point. I know that I probably should for health reasons, but I just don't want to. I used to be like super self conscious about my body. I'd go on diets, take pills, go for walks and all that lovelyness. I got down to about 155. But, I gained it all back. Maybe once I have a job and some money, I'll look into joining a gym.
Speaking of a job and money, I really do want to go back to school. I would really love to study web design. I had back in the day, when I first went to college. I kept getting distracted by a girl who shall not be named. All I'll say is, it's the worst relationship that I've ever been in, by far.
But anyway, I suppose I should get something done around my house. I have dishes that need to be done, and my living room needs to be straightened. Yikes! I still have to get dinner ready! I was thinking that I could make tater-tot casserole. In case of none of ya'll have ever had tater-tot casserole, here's the recipe that we use. It's good!!!

1 Can Cream of Chicken
Tater-tots
1 tube Ground Turkey/1 lb ground beef
Onion Powder

De-thaw your meat. In a small casserole dish, put press meat to the bottom of it. Put some onion power on top. Pour cream of chick on top and make sure it's spread on evenly. Then, layer some tater-tots over the meat. You just need one layer. Put in the oven on 350. Cook for about an hour, or until the meat isn't pink. When it's done, sour cream goes GREAT with it! : )

And I just realized that Christine's Mom has our small casserole dish!!! Damn!! Maybe I'll just make some hamburger helper. Oh! Here's another idea. If ya'll are ever looking for a healthier alternative to hamburger meat, try ground turkey. It tastes just as good, I promise! : )

My Kids are Giving me a Headache

God knows I love them. But really. They are. I just got done taking everyone outside. Then I had to go clean the mess in the bathroom. That was fun. There were torn up puppy pads everywhere. And I mean, when I say torn up, I mean they were like in SHREDS. To make it even more fun, there was piss and shit everywhere. Now everyone keeps getting into everything that they shouldn't. Like the trash. Or bugging the Poor Valley.
All I want is to sit and knit in solitude for a good....I dunno maybe an hour or two. I want to have to sit and have nothing to think about other than where I'm at in my pattern. If I start knitting right now, I can't just have my happy little knitting solitude. I'll have to worry about stopping in the middle of my work to stop somebody from getting into something. *sighs*
In about a half hour it's nap time for my children. It will not come soon enough, I'm telling you.
In other news, last night's dinner went pretty good....well other than the Alfredo noodles not cooking properly. I don't understand what I did wrong. I let the noodles cook for twelve minutes just like the box told me. I guess next time I need to let them cook longer.
My appetizers almost caught on fire. They had been in the oven on broil for all of two minutes, and apparently they gotten all smokey. I think there's something wrong with our damn broiler, because the last time I used the broiler, the texas toast caught on fire. And they had only been in there like 2 minutes. Anyway, since my broiler was acting a fool, I went ahead and just set the oven to 450. They turned out just as good that way. Ben decided that they smelled good or something, because he stole one right off the little plate that I had put them on for Christine. Christine said he didn't even chew.
The cherry-o cheese pie turned out really good. Actually I'm fixin to go grab a slice for my breakfast. tee-hee. And I'm thinking that now it's time for my little ones to take a nap, because everyone is acting kinda tired, and I don't want anyone stealing my cheese pie.
I'll post some pics when I finally get the second square done and sewn to the first one, which I really do think should be today, because I don't have much left to do. I'll talk to you guys later!! : )

A bunch of stuff.

I still haven't managed to get my second square done. *sigh* I wasn't really in much of a knitting mood yesterday. I know weird. But I did get a little bit done on it. I'm hoping to get it done tonight while Christine is at the gym. I enjoy my alone time at the house, because I get to have *ME* time. : )
Yesterday we got food stamps. They gave us $200 to last til the end of the month, which worked fine for us. Needless to say, we went shopping. Christine kept getting worried that we went over our budget. She always does that. But, we didn't. We got some meat. And some things for meals. : ) But we mainly got snacky items, because that's what we were mainly short on. We got two boxes of family size Cheez-it's. One for each of us lol. We are Cheez-it's addicts in this house. Especially me. And, sadly, I've managed to get Gia addicted to them too. She actually knows what the box looks like. It's crazy lol.
Tonight for din-din, I'm thinking that I'm gonna make some chicken Alfredo. I'm also gonna make some chestnut bacon wraps for h'orderves. Here's the recipe for them, if you care to try it:

Can of Water Chestnuts
Bacon
Dill
Worcestershire Sauce
Lime or Lemon Juice.

You just combine the dill, Worcestershire sauce lime or lemon juice and let them soak for about fifteen minutes. Then you wrap the water chestnuts in the bacon and stick a toothpick in them. Then, you just stick them in the oven on broil. Pretty easy huh?

I'm also gonna make Cherry-O Cheese Pie. Here's the recipe. That's pretty much my plans for this evening. I'm really wishing that I had some nicotine lozenges. I'm trying to quit smoking, and it my head hurts SO damn bad. : (

Oh, I forgot to tell ya'll that I had an interview with Aflac today. Didn't go so well. Not because of anything that I did wrong though. It's just, the dude realized that we're needing the money now. In order to become a sales agent, you have to get your license. That costs $400. Then he was saying that it takes six to seven months even to get really started. He was a really sweet guy though, and I seriously appreciated his honesty.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. It's about nap time for my kids. It smells like someone pooped. AWESOME! *eyeroll* Talk to ya'll later.

The past few days events....

So, it's been an interesting past couple of days. I guess you'd call it that anyway. The other day I started working on a blanket my Great Grandma Dix had made. She actually made two of them. Anyway, I always admired that blankets, and I always wanted to learn how to make them. I've been searching for the pattern for about the past three years now. So, with the help from some of the wonderful people on knittinghelp, I finally found the pattern. The pattern is called Sculptured Block Afghan. It's vintage, so sometimes it's kinda hard to follow. But, once again, I have been getting help from the fine folks on knittinghelp. I'm hoping to get my first square done sometime this year lol. Anyway, once I finally get one done, I will post a pic. I'll post a pic of the yarn that I'm using here in a little while. It's a really pretty dark green color from Hobby Lobby. It's I Love This Yarn! I actually do love this yarn, since it is so soft, and knits so smoothly. I'm using my knitpicks options with it, so it makes the knitting that much smoother. I loves it. : )
Yesterday, we got a snow storm. I'd say we probably got a good three or four inches. It was quite pretty to wake up to. I opened up our blinds, like I do every morning, to see what the temperature is and get a look at what kind of weather I will be facing when I'm taking the dogs outside. And of course, I always like to try to get as much natural light that I can into the apartment, to save on electricity, and of course because natural light is just SO much better than a lamp. Anyway, I took the dogs outside and froze my big old ass off. I wasn't using my God given brain and went out in my pjs, some converse sneakers(pink ones : ) ) and a good winter jacket. I didn't even have socks on. Yeah, I'm special lol. So I took everyone outside. Ben and Gia were thrilled about the snow. Ben kept running around and playing in it. Aurora wasn't too thrilled about it because her fur is so short. She was freezing her poor little butt off. So I carried her in so I could keep her as warm as I could in my arms.
The roads were icy and icky yesterday, and we needed essentials like toilet paper, tampons(joy of joys, I got my period yesterday), and puppy pads. We've been keeping Aurora and Katrina in the bathroom at night and during nap time, because neither of them are potty trained yet. So, anyway, I decided that I would walk my happy ass to the store. Well I got up to the store, and I was just getting ready to text Christine to let her know that I made it up there safely. I was right outside the store. Maybe ten to twenty feet from the door. I don't know, I never really was all that great about measuring distances. So, anyway, I was just getting ready to text her, and thinking about the crap that I had to get at the store, when all of a sudden some thug jumps out of a blue SUV and says "Give me your purse bitch!". He had a knife. I looked towards the door of the store, trying to figure out if I could run into the store without getting hurt. I didn't think that I could get away from him fast enough. I wanted to tell him Fuck No, you're not getting my purse. But, I was afraid of making him mad, and God only knows what he would've done to me if I did. So I gave him my purse, and this pink bag that I had brought along to carry the crap that I was planning on buying. My purse contained my id, social security card, and debit card. So anyway, a security guard had come outside right when this shit was happening. The guy got into the car, and the driver sped off. The SUV spun around on the ice, which I thought was quite funny. I mean shit, serves the bastard right for robbing me. So anyway, the security guard went running off after the SUV and got their plate number. Unfortunately, the dumb ass didn't throw my purse back out. But oh well. I called Christine and told her what had happened. I was pretty badly shaken up. I've never been robbed before. After I got off the phone with Christine, I went inside and explained to the security guard and the store managers or whatever what had happened. Then I called 911. I thought that the security guard was supposed to do that, but whatever. She was really nice and all, and she did a great job going after the car the way she did. So I can't be mad at her for that. So, I called 911 and explained to them what happened. Sometime while I was on the phone with the dispatcher, Christine had gotten to the store. God, I was SO incredibly glad to see her. She makes me feel so safe, and she makes me feel better. But anyway, while I was still on the phone with the dispatcher, the po-po got there. And I had to explain to them what had happened. The thing that sucked was, everyone was asking me all of these damn questions, and I was still in shock, and trying to process everything that had happened. And I was trying to remember everything that I possibly could, but it was hard you know?
Anyway, when we finally got home, I called the bank and got them to put a hold on my debit card. Then I called my Mom and let her know what all had happened. I didn't really cry or anything until later when Christine was playing her music in the bedroom. I guess I didn't really want her to see how badly it had shaken me up, and I had just been trying to not think about it all for most of the day. But finally I thought about everything. I kept thinking, was there anything that I could have done better? Could I have managed to run? Would it have been worth the risk? Should I have screamed? Would he have stabbed me? I should have had the damn pepper spray that Christine had gotten me. If I had just had it in my hand, I could have sprayed it in his eyes and ran into the store. I know what's done is done, and you can't take away what happened, but this is the crap that keeps running through my mind. I was so damn tired when we got home yesterday. I guess the stress of the events just wore me out. I was all cold and achy. I'm still achy today.
Today, I contacted the credit thingy(that's a technical term, by the way) and had them put a 90 day watch or something like that on my social security number. I also managed to find my id number so I was able to order a new GA state ID online, which thrilled me. SO, now all I have left to do is go up to the Social Security office and get a new Social Security card, when I got my GA ID back. They're sending it to my parents house, so my Mom will have to send it to me. But I don't care. At least soon I will be able to prove that I am who I am.
Other than that, I'm fine. Today, we've just been spending the day watching movies and chilling with the animals. The roads are still kinda shitty, so we haven't ventured out. I guess that's all I really have to say for now.

Random, Random, Random, and oh yeah! More Random

I just woke up about a half hour ago. I'm not feeling quite as groggy as I did yesterday, and I just started on my first cup of coffee. So, I'm taking this as a good sign. :) I didn't really sleep all that great though. I got to sleep ok, but then I kept waking up. Christine was being a blanket hog last night. I'd wake up with barely any blanket lol. I know she was freezing last night, so I really can't be mad at her. Christine seemed like she was sleeping good, which makes me happy. She has really bad insomnia, and hasn't really slept good since July. :( I keep hoping that she'll get a good night sleep.
I got started on the dishcloth for my Mom. I discovered a pretty blue color of cotton in my stash that I think she'll like. I only have about 19 rows left of it, so I'll post some pics on here, knittinghelp, and ravelry for all to see. This is my first knitted dishcloth. I've crocheted dishcloths before, and I love them. They're really excellent for cleaning, and so easy to make! If this one turns out good, maybe I'll make a new one for our kitchen. Actually, I probably should make one of these dishcloths for Christine's Mom, or as I like to call her Mom #2. She also has that odd fascination with roosters, which I really don't understand. I mean what's so great about a rooster? The weird thing is, my Mom's fascination with roosters didn't really even start until we moved down south. Oh yeah. I don't remember if I told ya'll this or not, but I'm originally from New Jersey. My Dad was in the Air Force until I was 14, and we moved to Hartwell, Georgia, to be closer to my grandparents(my mom's parents). We were originally going to move to Anderson, SC, which is about a half hour away from Hartwell, but my Dad couldn't find any jobs there. He found one in Hartwell, so we ended up residing there. We lived with my grandparents from February til May, until my parents found a house to buy. Apparently we got out of there just in the nick of time, because people were starting to get on people's nerves. But anyway, that's the story of how we ended up in Georgia.
Anyway, I figure the dishcloth should take no more than a couple hours to finish up. I wonder if I should go ahead and attempt to make her another one, in time to go in the mail tomorrow....once I make up my mind about that, I want to get Christine's scarf finished, I want to get started on her fingerless gloves. Then I'm going to make a hat to match. :) So my baby will be totally stylin, and not freezing her ass off when we go outside! lol. Once I'm finally done making all this shit, I'm going to attempt to make MYSELF a pair of socks. I've never made socks before, and I never make anything for myself. So I figure, if I make socks, and I mess up on them, they're only for little ole me. Anyway. I suppose I should get to knitting. I will post a pic of good ole Rodney once I'm done. Ta for now. :)

No sleep and other Ramblings.

Well, I've been up about three hours now. I got up 8:30 this morning, and my brain is barely functional. And I've had three cups of coffee lol. Kinda sad huh? See I'm trying to reset my internal alarm clock. I've been having a hard time getting to sleep recently. Sometimes it's because of arthritis pains in my legs. Sometimes it's simply because my brain won't shut off. My brain is constantly going, which gets kinda annoying. I like to think of it as a pinball machine. It just kinda bounces from one subject to another all the time. So if you ever notice that in my writing on here that I get off subject, that's why lol. Oh and then I remember what I was talking about in the first place, and start going on about that. Kinda like now. I was on about my lack of sleep, and now I'm talking about my brain's dysfunctions. Jeez. Anyway.
I knitted some on the palindrome scarf. I had a hard time focusing on in because of my brain's lack of functioning this morning. It's kinda sad when you have a hard time keeping track of knits and purls. *sighs* Oh well. I'm thinking about making my Mom a dishcloth for her birthday, which is coming up on Wednesday. There's this rooster dishcloth that I have been wanting to make her for like ever now, but I haven't been able to, because of that problem that I had for years with lovely Miss Purl. The only thing is, I don't know if I can managed to get that finished in time to send it out to her for her birthday. I'm hoping to buy the yarn for it today and finish it tomorrow. A dishcloth can't take me that long to make, right? Gosh, I hope not. I would really love to make her a handmade gift. I've never done that for her before. And my Mom has done a lot for me. Especially this year. She has helped a lot while Christine and I have struggled with money and such. Plus last year was such kinda a hard year with my Grandpa dying. Oh....I forgot to tell ya'll about that.
Well, I suppose that I should start from the beginning....we lost my Grandma back in 2002. This had a tremendous toll on my Grandpa. My Grandma was the love of his life. They were soul mates. After my Grandma died, Grandpa started to deteriorate. We noticed that he was starting to forget things. One day my Mom called the house to check on him, and he didn't answer the phone. She kept calling and there was still no answer. She called the cops I think it was, to go check on him and he had fallen down and couldn't get up. Soon after that, we discovered that he had Alzheimer's. We, of course, decided that he couldn't live on his own. He moved in with my Aunt Pat after some debate with him. She added an expansion onto his house for him. After a while, my grandfather came to the point where my Aunt could no longer care for him. He had become a handful. We moved him to live into an assisted living facility, but they were not well enough equipped to handle him. So he then moved into a nursing. A really good one though. After about a year or so of living there, he passed away in March. It was hard for us, and in a way, it was something of a relief. We knew that he would be happier now, because he would be in heaven with my Grandma.
So yeah, it's been a really rough year. So, I would like to do something for my Mom, other than just send her a card. So I'm really hoping to get the yarn for the dishcloth and am hoping to be able to complete in time to send it out for her birthday. Anyway, that's all for now...

It's been a while.....

Hmmmmmmm. So, it's been a while since I posted on here. A lot has changed since I last posted. I guess I should start with that.
Well first of all, I started crocheting for a couple of years. I get into my phases where I really love crochet or I really love knitting. Not that I love one more than the other. I guess one just interests me more at some times. Also in the time that I've been away, I met the love of my life, Christine, and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We'll have been together two years on March 29th. :) Since we've been together, I've crocheted her socks, a blanket, and a dragon. Anyway, we have two cats, Valentino and Aria. We also have three dogs, Benito, Gia, and Aurora. We also have a ferret, Mya. :) I'll have to post some pics of them later on today.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I picked up the knitting needles, determined to finally get that damn purl stitch down. I thought I had it, but I didn't. I swear, me and that stupid stitch have been fighting for a good....5 years or so I'd say? See I started knitting in 2001 I want to say....I was still in high school. I used to knit in school and got made fun of because of it. I didn't really care though, because I loved to knit. Still do. Just happens to be more popular now lol. Anyway, back to my point, back then, I didn't know that any other stitch existed, besides the knit stitch, and that elusive, mysterious purl. My Mom taught me how to cast on, and my Dad taught me the knit stitch. When I was first trying to get the hang of the knit stitch, I remember him saying that I was "already trying to purl". I think that I had put my needle in the way that you purl, but hell, I didn't know that at the time. So I was always very curious about it. I always tried to understand how to do it from books and all but could never get the hang of it. Back in 2007 or 2008, I picked up the needles again, determined to learn that damn purl stitch. If nothing else I'm not a quitter lol. Well, I didn't learn that stitch, but I learned a whole bunch of others, and I made some pretty cool things with the stitches that I learned. :) But that damn purl stitch always frustrated me so. I think it's one of the reasons that I lost interest in knitting for a while. But, me being the determined person that I am, decided to pick up the knitting needles yet again, and master the stupid purl stitch. I watched a ton of videos, and read through some of my little knitting booklets, trying to understand exactly what I was doing wrong. Finally, something just clicked with me. Before when I would try to the purl, I would have the yarn over the needle(instead of under with the knit), I would have the needle inserted in the opposite direction from the knit stitch. But I wouldn't put the damn yarn BEHIND THE STITCH THAT I WAS ATTEMPTING TO PURL! So, just like that it all finally came together, after years of struggling with it. I was so happy, that I nearly cried. And wouldn't you know, now purl is my favorite stitch. Weird, huh?
Anyway, now I'm working on a scarf for my Christine. It's the Palindrome. Funny how after I learned the purl stitch I moved right on to cables lol. The scarf is coming along really well. I'm almost done with it I think. I shall post some pics when I get done with it. I'm doing it in Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! in navy. It's really pretty. Also very hairy, thanks to all of my animals lol.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I shall post some pics of my animals later. And I will be updating my blog more often. And I have decided that I am going to expand this knitting blog to crochet as well, that way when I get into more of a crocheting mood, I can post about that as well. Anyway, ta-ta for now, fellow knitters and crocheters.....and yarn lovers in general!!!! :)

Dpns aren't as scary as they look

So, I've finally learned how to use dpns! I initially was scared to death of them, but soon realized it was just like regular knitting, just a few more needles. I encourage anyone who's afraid of them, to give it a shot. Really, it starts to feel natural after a while! I still think that circulars are an unnecessary evil, but maybe I'll change my opinion of them one of these days. I'm thinking that it's just b/c all the one's that I've gotten so far have too long of a cable. I'm thinking I'm going to ask for a set of interchangeables for Christmas. Seems like a wise investment to me.
On another note, I actually finished a project Thursday! GO ME! The structure of it was based on the Le' Slouch. Basically, I cast on the amount given, and knitted it to 6 inches, as the pattern required. I have the increases in the same place, but different increases. Same with the decreases.

Oh and today's my b-day. Yesterday, Mom and I went shopping. I got a shit load of needles and yarn, and I was happy. I also got the first edition of Stitch and Bitch, which I'm enjoying, a computer charger, and a pair of jeans. My poor laptop, Shaniqua, was charger-less for a week, b/c I left mine at my auntie's, when I went to visit for a few days. And, me being without a computer is like me being without my knitting for a week. Not a pretty sight, trust me lol.