Rocky Road

and please, not the song, I do not care for John Denver but I like him better than John Boy.

I won another contest by commenting on what my favorite desert is. I like to chew my ice cream, it is the same with cereal (Kashi Crunch, bring it on). Devon is a Pastry Cook. How cool is that. Now get this...she had Bubbleknits, of Alabama Fiber Dreams dye up ROCKY ROAD yarn!! Bubbleknits is one of my favorite blogs. You have to mark your calendar as she will have new yarns available on 4/4/08.

Devon, Thank you so very much. This yarn is delectable!

Look at how spot on the colors are

There were also three stitch markers to match.

As I have been so lucky following Chan's links to contests, I hope you will follow me to Bea's contest at Baa, Baa, Blacksheep.

I first read about it here at Rabbitch's. You must go also visit there and read her last few posts.

Please stop by Robin's The Knittin' Coop and wish her the best for Milo. Please check out her tank top. It is just gorgeous

I am still working on my socks and have about 20 more rows to do on the toes to finish up today but I wanted to share some knitterly goodness of some of my friends.

Check out Wendy's bag. Isn't that just the greatest color selection and random pattern repeat?

Robin of For the Love of Fiber is working on another mystery shawl. I do not know how she does it. But she was able to post a fantastic close up of the pattern and colorway together.

My pear tree last evening at 7:00

This is a view of my home from the street

Bilby, Who's got the Bilby?

I received my Easter Bilby from Denise on Tuesday and would have posted immediately but I can home to ants. But I digress. As you may have read earlier, Denise does not have Peeps down under so we did a Easter exchange. Just look at her beautiful art work. The note card is available on her site as well as the magnet in the middle. I have the magnet at work where I will see it daily. The art on the magnet was featured in the Vogue Knitting (Winter 07/08 issue). What I loved about the t-shirts on Cafe Press was they have a V neck in plus sizes, this is my favorite.

Denise also sent a Cherry Ripe. Who knew Cadbury made different candies for different countries. It was delicious. I just found this site where we can order About Australia & British Delights. There was also bar of Lemon Myrtle Natural Soap. She also sent a package of 100 Collector's Stamps. Thank you Denise. I'm still daring you you to show us your purple hair with the bunny ears!

Saturday Morning

This was my sunrise this morning. I was trying to take a picture of my pear tree but it did not show up. Now go and check out Robin's from the same morning. We live in the same state. Saw the same sun rise. Isn't nature amazing.

My Garden

The pear tree at two weeks.

My lone Hyacinth. It was forced in house many, many years ago and has doubled in size. It is a deep dark purple.

Ants: I had this problem last year but I did not think it would happen so early in the season. I left an empty soda cup on my coffee table and when I got home Tuesday and went to turn on the remote there were tiny ants traveling up and down this empty cup. Now my coffee table is about 15 ft from the front door. These little suckers were coming in from the front door following the edge of the area rug turning right along said carpet and climbing up the coffee table to the empty cup. I had just walked in from a 40 minute commute and this was not good. I had to pee. But I could not stand to let them do their thing a second longer. I grab the closest thing at hand, 409 cleaner, spray the ants, the table, and found where they were coming from. I sprayed all around the edge of the carpet out to the front door. Oh, I have to go! I'm determined to finish this killing spree. I then grab my swifter, add a dusting pad to it and swipe the area I had sprayed. This is getting to me, I don't want to wet my pants. Globs of paper towels, a couple of swifter dusting pads and then I went to the bathroom. The cats were watching in panic as their Mom (maid) must be out of her mind. This was not the routine. We must be fed! They all followed me to the bathroom. Pia, of course, yelling for the group. Finished up, fed them and cleaned up some more. All was right in our world.

Now tell me, do the ants send out 1 guy to scout for a sticky empty cup of soda. Did they investigate all 1000 sq ft of my place to settle there? How the hell do they do it? Did the lead guy have a bugle and then called in the troupes. Why not the kitchen sink? The was a sticky empty bowl of ice cream sitting in the sink. I'm not sure what gods plan was for these tiny creatures but they sure get to me.

Graffiti!

I am beyond lucky. I won this Graffiti - 450 yds Superwash Merino - Fingering Weight from Amanda of NH Knitting Mama while helping her PMS. You must go to her shop to see all the knitterly goodness she creates . Thank you Amanda.

Double Lucky! Donna of Random Knits was having a devil of a time getting the colours she wanted to knit for this. Since she offered, I said I'd take the Brown Zephyr off her hands. Put all the names in a hat and I won. Please stop by her blog to see her Shetland Shawl which took Second Place but best seen here.

I have been making slow progress on my Chain Melody socks. I hope do be done by the end of the week since I only seem to be able to get about 5-10 rows done in the evenings before I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Contests and places to Visit...Chan is having her 1st year Bloggiversary. I'm still trying to sort out who talked me into to doing what. Then head on over to Cinnamongirl blog to enter to win some malabrigo. While we are at it you have to go to Ponyknits and enter her contest. She too is offering Malabrigo. Hope my lucky Chan charm holds up as it was through her initial links that I won all the above.

Spring is coming slowly.

I started my garden in 1990 and have not taken care of it in the past three years. I can not tell you what these are but they are still coming up. Blue was one of the colors I was putting in my garden. This has lasted.

This is my one and only crocus

and my Aristocrat Flowering Pear week 1

a blog with out Kitty Pictures, not!

Pia is a box
I moved all the spinners and scratchers into the hallway to see what would happen.

One last thing. We did not win the 2008 Washington Post Peeps contest. You can check out the winner here and all the finalists

When I posted about our Peeps Diorama. (more about that tomorrow). I received a comment from Denise that they do not have peeps in Australia. I wrote her and asked if I could send her some and was she willing to give me her mailing address. She wrote back and said they had the Easter Bilby and she would send me one. What fun. Totally off the cuff. Well, I went to CVS my local drugstore and picked her up yellow chicks & purple bunnies. Could not resist picking up some jelly beans, chocolate mints, bunny ears (which I hope to see modeled soon). CVS has so much to choose from for Easter that I had to put back more then half of what I wanted to send. Found a cute little lamb, pictured here with Jejune's Lulu, and that went into the cart. Then reading her back posts saw that she does not buy or have access to some knitting mags. So I went to my mag stash and threw some of those in. OK, I've gone this far, so I went to my yarn stash and sent her two skeins of Patton's wool. Nothing special but colors I thought she would like, plus you can't go wrong with having pretty colors of wool on hand for felting. Then as a last minute addition, I added my box of Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies I'd just received from a co-worker. I am looking forward to receiving my Easter Bilby.

Edit: read about Peeps here. I just took it for granted that everyone knew what peeps were. This is one on the great things about blogging we meet people and learn about all cultures

I needed to leave work early yesterday for my 6 month dental appointment. Love getting the teeth cleaned. So I don't know if I missed my Bilby. You have to go to Denise's web page and see her beautiful drawings. She is a very talented artist. I brought one of her t-shirts with the Blue Willow painting. I've collected Delft since I was 18 and was drawn to this one. It was hard to choose.

In Other News

You need to bunny hop over to Chan's blog & tell her a story about something you got talked into doing! She is having her 1 year Bloggiversary and wants us to entertain her! The contest will run through midnight on April 1. So hurry on over.

On the Medical Front

I've been seeing my GP for sinus infections since last November and had temporary results. On the third visit in three month I asked "do you think I should see an ENT" "Good idea she says" And they get paid the big bucks! (I checked my insurance claims and they were paid $180 for each office visit, FGFS, and office visit!) I had to wait 6 weeks for the appointment so just went to the ENT this Thursday. She did the scope and took pictures & culture. Numbed me with Lanocain, back in 1986 went I was last to an ENT they used c0caine to numb. I am to use the Neti pot morning and night. I was only using it in the morning when it was bad. Use breath right strip (got the generic CVS ones) at night. Gave me a script for Veramyst. Then make a appointment for allergy test (They have a special nurse that does that and makes her own appointments). Test to see what I may be allergic to. So she knows I live with 4 cats. She said I will not need to give them up. I know I'm not allergic to cats. So I say" and what would be the purpose of the allergy test? What will it prove? That I can be allergic to my cats, pollen, air pollution?? Or is this just another "procedure" to go through, spend more insurance money? OK, I'm leaving this subject, it get me riled up. As Gypsy Rose Lee said "you gotta have a gimmick" and the doctors sure have theirs.

Speaking of cats you have to drop in here. Kristen has such great history & pictures posted about her furry family.

Knitting Paintings

You have to check this out Goshdarnknit, Shoofly. Look at her paintings. Rania Hassan is one talented lady.

Blog Video Challenge

Indulging My Inner Knitter came up with this idea. I thought this would be fun. You all get to see pictures of my knitting and of my furry purries. Here you can hear what I sound like. I'm a New York city gal who has been in VA since 1966. My Sister says I have a souther accent! But get me to talking about NY and I fall right back into it. When I moved down here it was like the country. As they say you can't take the city out of a NYC gal. I have uploaded this to You Tube but for the life of me I can't seem to get it to post correctly.

I'm Loppy

for Loopy Ewe. Last Sunday while bouncing around and reading my favorite knitting blogs, I broke down and made my first purchase from Sheri. Now that spring is just about here I was looking at the yarns I was stashing for future socks. I wanted something springy and not a color in sight. So I got myself some Dream in Color DC Spring Tickle. I don't think I have to tell you all how hard it is to stop at one thing, so I added in a few fun items. I've been looking at the sock blocker for sometime now. Also, got the keychain sock blocker & the Kitchener Dogtags.

I'm moving right along with my Chain Melody socks. This is where I was on Wednesday. And as of 4 hours ago, before the power went out. Our weather changed this afternoon to very windy and cold.front side
back side. I'm using Addi Size 1 40" cable. Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss, Color Woodland Sage

I finally got a shot of Zorro using the spinner

Look what I won!

I made a comment on Allena's Spindle and Wheel blog about this Tam. They are my colors and just had to tell her how much I liked it. Now, when I made the comment I obviously did not read the whole post. On Thursday, Jan 17th Allena notified me that I won. Well, I was beside myself. Then I took off for the Knitters Retreat 2008. Allena said to not get too excited as she was very behind in sending out winnings of the winners of her monthly drawings. I was away from my desk when they made the delivery and I could not image what this soft bubble bag was. Maybe something from my PIF pal? Did I order something from MO? Oh, look at all this.

This was just a day after my post letting you all know about this Spindolyn. Looks like I am going to have to learn how to spin! Just like I said I never would make socks, or lace now spinning is on my list. If you visit her Spindle & Wheel web site you can see how to make a spindle and all other things to make and learn and buy.

My best guess is that the 8 oz of grey & white is this Gray Pin Drafted Roving. The other bag is 4 oz of Pinks, although the bag marked 4 oz is just as big as the other. What I'm wondering about is the skein of yarn she spun and the little bag of white iridescent fiber. She said if I post it she can remember what she sent! So one day I will have to post what I spin. Looks like another lesson in my future.

More kitty pictures. I speak of Stanley but he has not had as much blog time as the others. Stanley is Zorro's brother. Zorro is rough with him and Pia gives him the evil eye. But I'm slowly getting him to come into his own. This is now is new place to perch. You can read about the boys here.

Contests, Petition and great links

Not sure who is reading but I'd like to pass some interesting info on.

Chan told me about this contest over to NH Knitting Mama.

Melissa gave me the heads up on this petition. Go to Save Knitty Gritty

More good deeds, Stash and Burn will have a drawing if you make a donation for the House that Yarn Built.

And Sharon of Adventures of my Creativity is doing a Walk for Autism, read about it here

You have to see what Cass just got from Fanity Creations.

See this neat spindle that I found about from Kelly of Yarn Rambles. I don't spin, don't plan on spinning BUT I love tools and gadgets. Knitting, Electronic, kitchen (I don't cook either) it does not matter. I love them all.

I do keep up with other blogs besides knitting. One is Jeff Jarvis's BuzzMachine. This post is a hoot. Jeff & I go back a long way. I've been reading his reviews from TV Guide, People and other places he pops up. Then to find his blog!

Too late for the contest that Shelly the Heathen Housewife had but you have to read about her blankie wrap up.

Well, I've spent most of the weekend on the computer. So I'm off to cast on a sock that I got from Nicole Hinds. The socks I gave Robin for my PIF can be seen here.

Have to include some of my kitty's. Moved furniture around so I could sell some and this bookcase is now empty and sitting by the back door. Of course, Pia and Zorro took turns sitting on top of it. Then Sissy returned to a hidey hole that she has not been in since she was a kitten. That is because it is now Stanley's favorite place. Kids!!

Britney's Peep-out & the Peeperazzi Payday

Read all about it here Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. It all started with Suzanne, then a group of the gals in our department at work got on board. We submitted our application with these two pictures. You are only allowed to send two pictures. Hopefully we will get a call and the Post will send over a courier to pick up our diorama to take pictures as the winner. We work in the beauty industry so it was a perfect moment to pick. The rules stipulated:

"We want you to make a diorama of a famous occurrence or scene. It can be a historical, current or future event, or it can be a nod to pop culture. The main rule is that all the characters must be played by Peeps, those marshmallowy chicks and rabbits that start plaguing checkout lines in every grocery and convenience store this time of year."

So this is our take on a famous occurrence.

photos may not be reproduced without permission 3/1/08