What a week!

We went down to my parent's house last weekend for Tulip Time in Pella, IA. It was a good time to reconnect with friends and let the kids run around with old classmates. We were on our way home Sunday night and got a call from our neighbor that a storm had gone through that morning and had taken a tree down in our yard. An hour later we came home to this:

The bad part was that it hit our power line on the way down and pulled the electrical box off the side of the house. See the flash mark on the side of the house?!? (Just to the right of the two gray boxes still attached)

The tree destroyed our fence, took out another section farther down, and lifted, moved and bent our new awning on the porch. My husband is building a storage shed and the winds took down one of the walls he had just put up the day before we left.

A great neighbor loaned us a generator so we could keep the freezer and refrigerator working so no food loss which was wonderful. But the worst part?...No power for 3 days and then no Internet for almost a week! Do you realize how much you can't do without the Internet?! Sheesh, I felt like such a dope. Always going to the computer and then realizing I can't do that until the Internet is back up.

So, no pictures of yarn today but I started a pair of Monkey socks to try out the Handmaiden Sea Wool and the yarn is just as nice knitted up as it feels in the skein. It is my first pr. of Monkey socks (free pattern by Cookie A. at knitty.com) and I really like the pattern. Easy enough to be my first pair of lace socks and it goes fast with a 12 row repeat. I have my first leg done and am ready to do the heal flap. Cookie A does such a great job with socks! Pictures soon.

More FO

I finished my drop stitch scarf and my Lady Eleanore last night. I am off to my mom's for the weekend and will use her steamer and blocking board for the large pieces. It is nice to have a mom with yarn shop in her basement. she has all the cool toys. Pictures on Monday...promise.

I smoked my neighbor because I just gotta be me.

Type out the sentence you end up with, in the subject line and post it as a comment.

Pick the month you were born:
January------I kicked
February-----I loved
March---------I smoked
April-----------I dry humped
May-----------I choked on
June----------I murdered
July-----------I did the Macarena with
August-------I had lunch with
September---I danced with
October------I sang to
November----I yelled at
December----I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a Mexican
6-------a gangster
7-------my cell phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18---- ---a spoon
19-------myself
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an ipod
29-------a permanent marker
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White--------because I'm cool like that.
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink----------because I'm NOT a homosexual.
Red----------because the voices told me to.
Blue----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want.
Green--------because I just gotta be me.
Purple--------because I'm cool.
Gray----------because I was drunk.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars.
Orange-------because I just don't like people.
Brown--------because I was high.
Other---------because I'm a ninja.
None----------because I can't control myself.

Now type out the sentence you made, and post it to my comments! Copy this to your blog. Let's play!

I'm in trouble...

I got this in the mail yesterday from Knit Purl http://www.knit-purl.com/Products/Product.php?Product_ID=404 and I am So in LOVE! It is Fleece Artist Handmaiden Sea Wool. The picture doesn't show it's shiny yarnness.

A close up, anyone?

I have a cheap-o camera so the colors are a little dull here. But trust me, it is amazing. I think my yarn pal for Sockapalooza deserves some Sea Wool yumminess. After all, isn't it the Sockapaloozer's way - to spoil your sock pal? She deserves nothing less. I will need to go get her a different color however. She seems to favor the reds and purples...and (cough) you need to order two skeins for free shipping....I'm in trouble.

Meanwhile I am getting to the end of my drop stitch wrap for the Paris sweater. It looks like a big scarf right now because (obviously) the dropped stitches some at the end. Again the colors don't show real well here but it is a very pretty soft green, with bits of pink and lavender and a gold thread. I am not much of a pastel girl but it looks fantastic with the Paris sweater.

A close up...

So pretty. It will look even better in a sidewalk cafe' on the streets of Paris!

Paris sweater FO

Remember this?
It is now the FO: Paris sweater

I am calling it the Paris sweater because I made it for the Paris trip and used three different patterns combined to make it. The lace on the bottom is from the Knit N Style - June 06 - Pattern #15. I duplicated two rows for the sleeves. The body is a modified version of the Shapely Tee from White Lies. The neck shaping and finishing is my own. It ended up too big so I had to pull it in a little with some crochet. I haven't blocked it yet so hoping some of the puckering of the neck will smooth out.

The drop stitch wrap is about 8" done. A picture of it to follow at a later date.

While taking pictures guess who wanted HIS picture taken? (Notice his Target gift card now on my sweater - he calls it his credit card) And no I haven't taken the Christmas lights off my deck yet.

And then the Jr. Highers wanted in on the game...

The middle one in gray isn't mine. She is a good friend that comes in frequently for food before (and after) school. We just keep collecting kids at our house...

Spring

We woke up this morning to this:

And with another 2-4" expected today, I decided to make this:

I am ready to sit and knit while X is does this:

He is a huge Thomas the Train fan. Welcome to Spring in Minnesota...

Chocolate Robbers

My husband's love language is gift giving. He takes so much pride in Christmas gifts. When we got married last year he made it very clear that the Christmas stockings and the Easter baskets were HIS responsibility. So Friday he stopped by Target on the way home and came in with 3 (THREE) bags of Easter candy for the kids....granted we have 8 kids but 3 bags!?! Sunday the alarm went off at 6:00 am so he could go out and pay out all the eggs before the kids got up.

While getting ready for church I looked out my bedroom window and saw a gray squirrel pick up and orange egg and roll it over and over in his paws trying to get it open. I ran upstairs and told the kids to look while running for the video camera. When I went outside on the deck he got it in his mouth and started running up the tree. He only got up about 5 ft. and it fell out of his mouth. When the egg hit the ground the egg popped open and the candy fell out. The squirrel was more interested in the egg than the candy and soon lost interest and left the candy laying by the tree.

The kids were concerned about their candy stash and were eager to go out and beat the squirrels to anymore of the eggs. I assured them that the squirrels aren't interested in the candy but just curious and so their candy was safe.

About a 1/2 hour later we sent them out for the hunt. The older ones got their allotment quickly and they helped the younger ones find their eggs.

While taking pictures we heard..."I found a 1/2 egg with a wrapper!", "Here's one! No wait, it is empty", "Another empty one!, Darn squirrels, they stole our candy.", "Here is an open one and M&Ms are all over the ground. Are they still good?"

All told I think we lost about 6-8 eggs to the squirrels. Considering we started out with 3 bags, I don't think the kids suffered much loss.

On the knitting front, Lady E is a little over 1/2 done.

Mom and Dad were up for the weekend and I took my mom on a mini yarn crawl on Saturday. I mentioned to Vince that I didn't have money so I would look and not buy. He handed me his card and said go get something pretty. I asked if I had a limit and he said, "I don't know. $100?"

I laughed and said something about not knowing what he was doing and he replied: "Yes, I do. I am making my wife happy." See why I love him?

We went to two shops and I ended up buying some Classic Elite Yarns Provence :

Gratuitous curious cat picture. Meet Cassy.

and Blue Heron Yarn Marshgrass:

for a wrap/shawl to go with the sweater. Vince has a business trip to Paris, France in May and he is taking me with his for our Anniversary. This will be my "sitting in an outdoor plaza, drinking a glass of wine" sweater. I'll post pictures after the trip.

Don't they look pretty together?!?

While taking pictures X thought he needed his picture taken too. I'll end this photo-heavy post with him. He has the best smile...