Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, it's been Thanksgiving for 15 whole minutes now. I've got quite a lot to be thankful for. Loving family, awesome friends, great dog (even though he does pee on said friends' coats--sorry Phollower!), decent health, and lots of great times. Oh, and I'm thankful for beating Guitar Hero 2 on medium tonight. I thought I was hot stuff playing the requested "Freebird" at the end of the show at Stonehenge. Then, I saw this video. Damn...

Sockie Stuff

**Warning: Very Picture Heavy Post!**

First off to answer Lorr's question as to how I got the Austermann socks to match up so well, I have to say "I dunno". I did absolutely no work to see if they would match up. These are down to the row count the same though :)

I've been going a bit loopy buying sock yarn these past few weeks. With buying Socks that Rock for my downstream SP, frantically lurking Sunshine Yarn, and visiting my LYS, I should be set for quite awhile on sock yarn. Not that it will keep me from buying more.

Socks that Rock in Jingle Bell Rock for my downstream :)


Check out how vivid that red is!


Socks that Rock in Beryl colorway for me. I just had to get a skein of Beryl for myself since that's the name of a dragon in the Dragonlance series :)


Spiral-y Beryl


Look at the blood red flecks in Beryl


Gryffindor Self Striping from Sunshine Yarns. Completely worth stalking her etsy shop waiting to buy a skein after ogling it for months!

Close-up of Gryffindor Self Striping


'nother close-up of Gryffindor Self Striping


I just can't get enough of this stuff!!


Celestial Merino Dream in Pansy. I'm seeing some cable-y socks in this color :)


I've been doing some knitting, too. Finished the Austermann freakishly alike socks and started Clapotis v 3.0. It's all Christmas knitting, too!

Whew!

What a weekend! Good thing I have this week off for vacation time :)

Saturday, I drove my mom and sister to Washington, Pennsylvania to meet up with my grandparents. They're taking vacation this week to spend time with our family in Pennsylvania. Wonderful time for my mom's car to decide to die completely, and alternate transportation like flying or taking a bus were very prohibitively expensive. I knew I did the right thing though when I saw my sister's reaction to finally seeing our grandparents after 3 years. The drive back Saturday night wasn't too bad considering I was by my lonesome self in the SUV. I had Harry Potter audio books on my iPod to keep me company.

Grandpop, Grandmom, Mom, and Chelsea

Sunday started much too early by some church-y person ringing our doorbell at 10. Leave pamphlets on the doorstep to be disposed of later, don't ring doorbell especially on a weekend morning. >.<

Apparently, my road trip Saturday set off flags with our bank because I got a call from them Sunday morning. I guess gas stations and a $7 Quizno's sandwich are suspicious activity. Meh.

I have had some knitting time, too. I'm still working through the Austermann Step socks. I was shocked Friday night to learn that the striping on both socks are matching perfectly.

Socks that are Zoe approved for matching!

Tonight, I hope to finish the toe of the second sock and get put a "DONE" stamp on this project. I have lots more holiday knitting projects left!

Just need a toe!

SP and Swappy Stuff

Wow, what a day! I've been running around like a crazy woman most of today. Feels nice to be able to sit a spell. I was able to get about 90% of Christmas shopping for Hubs finished. I even got a good deal, woo!!!

Knitting action has been limited this week to the Austermann socks I showed in the previous post. I have one finished and have the cuff knitted on the second.

I had something weird happen today while I was waiting in my car for an oil change. Valvoline was really packed, so I had about a 20 minute wait in my car for an open bay. No biggie, I had my sock in progress with me, so I sat in my parked car and knitted. A little bit later, a lady comes up to my window. She said that she noticed that I was knitting and asked if I could teach her how to knit. I'm not one to horde knowledge, so I got her business card and will contact her about showing her the ropes.

Speaking of teaching folks how to knit, Wednesday's foray into teaching knitting was a smashing success. Within a few minutes of learning how to cast on and do the knit stitch, all four ladies were garter stitching away. I had a blast :) So did Bandit, even though he was attempting to run everyone off with horrendous gas!

This afternoon I was greeted by a package on my front stoop. Thinking it was some of the sock yarn I've been ordering. (Gotta stock up before surgery in December, you know!) Upon picking it up, no way it was a couple of skeins of sock yarn. It was an SP package from the Winter Cheer exchange!

Opening the package


The Motherlode! Hey, how did my secret pal know that I don't have any salt and pepper shakers? Oh, and notice the Dick Francis book "Longshot" in the background! *squee*


TEN Skeins of lightweight mohair and wool blend. Trust me SP, it's plenty cold here for this yarn :)


To top it off, my SP got me Magic cards!!! I had to call Hubs at work this afternoon to tell him that. These will fit very nicely into my Auroch deck! :D

Thank you so much SP! You rock!!

Also on the swappy front, I swapped off a skein of yarn this week that's been languishing in my meager stash for over a year. In exchange I received 6 gorgeous beaded stitch markers.


Byooteeful Stitch Markers from Curlytop

Evidence

Evidence that I actually still do knit. First a finished hat.

Me trying to look all Blair Witch-y but looking more like the guy from Men At Work...

Basic garter stitch and seamed hat for the knitting class I'm teaching Wednesday evening. Yup, you read that correctly, I'm teaching folks how to knit. Be afraid.

Oh, also on the needles are the Austermann Step socks using the basic sock recipe by the Yarn Harlot. Still loving this yarn; the aloe and jojoba leave my hands nice and soft after a long knitting session. :)


My third knitted Christmas project.

Frantabulous!

I had to make a new word to convey my thoughts of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's concert Wednesday night. It was frantabulous! Excellent music delivery, extensive lighting and laser effects, and fireballs. Tell me, how can a concert go wrong when fireballs are included? I could watch a K Fed concert if it included synchronized fireballs going in the background. Maybe I’m part insect, I’m just drawn to bright flashy lights…I digress.

Upon arrival, we were met with big warning signs that strobe lights will be used. That would have been really useful information to have known when I ordered tickets since my mom gets massive migraines from strobe lighting. Mom spent a decent chunk of the concert covering her eyes to not get sick when the strobes were in use. Luckily, it wasn’t too often, and she had no ill effects.

For ordering four consecutive seats a week before the show, I couldn’t have asked for better ones. Kris was really happy that we had an aisle seat, so he didn't have to keep his legs folded for three hours. :) I was actually pretty glad I wasn’t able to get floor tickets as, you know, it’s a floor and not staggered in height so short folk like me couldn’t see squat. We were seated in the lower level a few sections in front of a massive stack of amps. One of these days I’ll learn to take earplugs to rock concerts so I can actually hear after them.

“Sissy, don’t put that picture on the internet!” Oops. Here’s Chelsea before the concert.

The first half of the concert consisted entirely of their album “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” including an excellent narrator who presented the story found in that concept album. The trilogy of “Ornament”, “Old City Bar”, and “This Christmas Day” choked me up as usual. (They tell the tale of a daughter who can’t make it back home to see her father on Christmas. True tear jerker for me.) The guy who sang “Prince of Peace” absolutely blew me away with a fabulous soulful rendition.



Snowfall during “First Snow”

The second half consisted of songs from their other Christmas albums, “Beethoven’s Last Night”, and their soon-to-be-released new album. They performed “O Fortuna” which will be on the new album, and it completely rocked and had synchronized fireballs. J The lighting effects for “Wizards in Winter” mimicked the now famous internet video of the crazily lit house. Oh, and I was completely surprised when they tore into “Layla”.

All in all, it was a wonderful show. If you ever get the chance to see them live, grab tickets. I’ll be ordering tickets for next year’s concert in Indy.

meedely meedely meedely MEEEEEE!

Guitar Hero 2 was released today, and I picked up our copy after casting my vote this evening. Kris and I spent the evening running through career mode on easy mode to open up new songs and such. We finally have two guitar controllers for the game so we can play co-op or versus. (I totally beat him on "Heart-Shaped Box".) I'm rather shocked that my fingers are working well enough to type now. Best part of the game, the Trogdor song from Strongbad Emails is included as a song that can be bought with in game cash earned from gigs. Can't wait to get access to the Trogdor song!!

**Side note, the title is a reference to Strongbad's Guitar email if you're not familiar with SB emails**

Odds and Ends

As alluded to in my second to last post, Kris and I went to speak to the surgeon on Thursday. I'll be sans gallbladder as of December 12th - joy. Nothing like recouperating from surgery right before the holidays. :-/ I had Kris go in with me to keep me honest and go through with scheduling the procedure because I'm basically scared to death of surgery. Feh. Thanks for all your words of support to this scardey-cat :)

With the possibility of being laid up for up to a week or more, I went Friday morning to stock up on sock yarn at my LYS. 'Cause, you know, I might need more sock yarn... Pics will be forth coming later on this week as we've had crummy overcast weekend weather which doesn't help my poor photo skillz. :) I got Koigu, Wildfoote, and Fleece Artist sock yarns, so I have to be able to do these colors justice.

I finished my second Christmas gift knitting project this afternoon. A pair of socks!

Fleece Artist socks, size small from the Fleece Artist ballband


Is it bad that I picked the sock size to best fit my foot and didn't ask for the recipient's size?

These were done in the basic stockinette pattern from the inside of the Fleece Artist ballband. With a few toe tweaks from Sensational Knitted Socks. Started them last Saturday and finished the pair this afternoon. Most of the second sock was knitted in a fit of laziness yesterday. Just recouping from a sinus infection me, some Dr Who episodes, sleepy poockie-pie, and the sock. I feel like I should get a reward or something as I knitted these from stash!


New Christmas sock project - Austermann Step with Aloe Vera and Jojoba

Shortly after finishing the Fleece Artist socks, I cast on a new pair of socks for Christmas knitting. No clue who will wind up with these socks, just have to have a size 8 foot :) Not very far into them yet, but I'm LOVING the Austermann yarn - so soft!

Thank You Indianapolis!

Out of character for us, Hubs and I have been taking in more concerts than usual lately. Yeah, that means we'll be going to at least two this year. For me to justify laying out money for concert tickets, I have to be damn sure I'll like the way a band sounds live before I order tickets. I'm picky about live music; performing for a few years through high school and college with some fab musical groups have spoiled my ears. Live music just isn't enjoyable to me if I hear warbly out of tune notes.


On a surprising move from my snobbish concert goer ways, Hubs and I went to see Joseph Arthur with Zoe and BP last month. Before going to the smokey bar to see him perform live, I'd only listened to the first few seconds off a CD. "Cool, it's acoustic. I'm in." was my only precursive reaction.

What I hadn't counted on was a fab, rockin' three hours! My favorite song of the night performance-wise was "Slide Away". Holy crap, does he have vocal range! Oh, and a theremin. :) We were TP-ed by a leaf blower towards the end of "Electrical Storm". I really enjoyed the off-the-cuff antics and improvisation, particularly around a story of the varicose veins on a fake leg they had on stage. The highlight of the evening was during the finale of "Honey and the Moon". Joseph came out into the small crowd at Birdy's and went right up to BP and had her sing along with the chorus into his mike. Thus sealing the deal that I had to buy a copy of that concert's live album. I still get a big grin on my face when I hear that song on my iPod. Fun times, good friends, and wonderful music! :) Yeah, I listened to the Joseph Arthur playlist for the majority of the drive to PA the next week.

Next Wednesday, we'll be catching Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Conseco Fieldhouse. As I got my mom and sister hooked on TSO last year, they'll be coming, too. Nothing quite like Christmas music in early November. :) They tour with a 14 musicians, 14 vocalists, and 2 narrators. I've heard that they're fab live, so I'm really excited about this show. I wanted to get tickets to last year's concert, but cashola was no-go-a. Look for a write-up maybe late next week, or hell, almost a month from now if I'm as up on my blogging as I was for the Joseph Arthur concert :)

Like a Surgeon...

Crap. I go tomorrow morning to speak with a surgeon about my gallbladder. I went to my primary doctor today for a sinus infection and asked for his opinion regarding my pesky gallstones. He recommended that it needs to come out. *sigh*

Can't wait to see what type of reaction I get when I tell the surgeon that I'm terrified of being put under. Too many Discovery Health Channel specials of "the paralitic drug worked, but I was still awake and congnizant" to leave me with warm fuzzies. :(

At Long Last...

My write-up of our trip to Pennsylvania!

Grandmom and Grandpop's House

The Good
The lenghty car trip to Honesdale went by without much note. I still hate driving through tunnels since they remind me too much of my poor driving in tunnels in Gran Turismo. No minivans going the wrong way on the interstate this year either. I did all the driving for the trip there and teased Kris about it the whole 12 hour drive :)

Sunday, my aunt cooked a full Thanksgiving spread for us to partake. Mmmm...turkey and mashed potatoes! I completely crashed afterwards, guess all the driving wore me out!

The Project

Kris and Grandpop Working

This year, Kris helped Grandpop put up a gorgeous wood ceiling in his workshop. They started Sunday night and worked pretty much all day, everyday while we were visiting. It was finished by Friday afternoon, much to the relief of Grandpop's back and Kris' shoulders :)


Close-up of the Ceiling

Grandmom and I agreed that Grandpop has a much fancier ceiling in his workshop than any of the ceilings or floors in our homes :)


Last Ceiling Board

Kris and I are thinking of finding a room in our home that we could put up a similar ceiling. Just such a pretty look!!


Kris and Grandpop Afterwards

Pretty Fall Colors
We were in Pennsylvania for the peak of leaf season. Boy, did we see some pretty mountains!



Tree in Grandpop's Orchard


80 pound pumpkin Chelsea grew that we brought with us for Grandmom and Grandpop


Rock wall by the back porch


Natural spring

The Fam
I'm really happy that we got the opportunity to meet up with all of my family that lives near Honesdale. On our last night of the trip, we joined Grandmom, Grandpop, Aunt Dar, Uncle Mike, my cousin Meghan, Uncle Dean, and Aunt Sue for dinner at a local Italian restaurant.



From the front going clockwise: Aunt Dar, part of Grandmom's head, Grandpop, me, Kris, part of Mike's head, Meg, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Dean. Yeah, no clue where I got the red hair from :)

The Bust
After dinner Friday night, we all headed up to Grandmom and Grandpop's house to chit-chat and watch Battlestar Galactica. (Kris and I have to have our weekly BSG fix!) Their house is located at the end of a gravel road past two other homes. Now, I'm VERY pleased to say that their evil vile horrible mean bitchy neighbors have moved out. *insert big cheers from me here* So, it was a bit odd to see all the lights on, no cars in the driveway, and a HUGE pile of teenagers hanging about the house. We all called the local cops to see what was going on. Turns out, a party was starting up after one of the old neighbors' kids broke in through a window. Brilliant, always have to have some neighborly drama when we visit :)

Overall, it was a wonderful trip that went by much too fast. I'm hoping to get out there next year earlier in the fall since it got pretty darned cold in late October!

Spooky SP Strikes Again!

Hubs greeted me yesterday morning with a package from my Spooky Secret Pal. Wow, what a haul, too!

Most of the Haul Plus...


New Halloween-Themed Knitting Bag

Spooky SP sent me a set of fall-themed gel window clings, a multi-colored pen with a black cat on it, a cute skully Pez dispenser, blocking pins, skully stitch markers, M&Ms, Twizzlers, and another fab card.

There were also FOUR beautiful hanks of Knitpicks lace weight yarn in my package. Two skeins of Shadow in Jewels colorway, a skein of Shimmer in Morning Mist colorway, and a skein of Alpaca Cloud in Horizon. The Alpaca Cloud is sooooo soft and pettable :) *swoon*



Two skeins of heathery Shadow


Zoomed in view of the Shadow


Close-up of the skein of Shimmer


Close-up of the delicate blue colors in the skein of Alpaca Cloud


Skull stitch markers, I can't wait to use these!!


Gorgeous card from my Spooky SP

Ok, consider me dense if I didn't get any hints at your identity, but who are you Spooky SP? :) Thank you VERY VERY much for your spoilage of me these past few weeks; you're a fab SP!

Crud

Yeah, I was hoping to post my PA trip recap post tonight. My gallbladder had other plans and decided to act up an hour before I came home. :-/ Hopefully, I'll get to write up that post this weekend and not spend all my time in bed sleeping wanting to feel better.

Holy SP, Batman! And Some FOs, Too!

Tonight, I was met by two packages from online secret pal exchanges. Do I feel spoiled or what tonight! It was so exciting to see a mailbox stuffed with packages and not with bills or junk mail :)

First off, I received my package from the Knitted Thing Swap from Celtic Coyote. She knitted me a fabulous Booga Bag from Noro.

Beautiful Booga Bag, but what's inside you ask?


Packets of hot chocolate and unscented Heal'em Balm for my hands

Thanks, Celtic Coyote!!

The second package was from my Spooky Secret Pal. I have to say that I am in awe of her card making skills; both I've received are clever and beautifully made. Spooky, I aspire to be half as good of an upstream SP as you've been!!


The Haul: Beautiful Card, blocking pins, Magic Stripes Sock Yarn, fall-themed Post-its, Hershey's chocolate marshmellow pumpkin, and a new Dick Francis book!!


Close up of the vampire themed card



Close up of the book mark which has a quote from William Butler Yates "When you are old and grey and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read".

On to some finished objects!

About a month ago, I finished a pair of Bluebell Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks for the Knitted Thing secret pal swap. They had a long journey from Indiana to northwest Canada to Midnight Farm, during which I though the postal service may have pocketed the socks! They arrived safely this week, so I can post a FO picture now :)


Bluebell Rib socks

These were made using two skeins of Knitpicks Gloss (merino and silk blend) in burgundy. I absolutely LOVED working with this yarn. Very soft, smooth, and non-splitty.

Finished item number two is the recently salvaged Clapotis. I used four skeins of Koigu KPPM, and it's a Christmas present for my see-ster :)


Obligatory finished Clapotis with poochie-pie picture

I am so glad that I was able to save her Clapotis. :)