And we are back!!!!!!

We're back! The computer and I are back! Wooooo hoooooooo!!! Freakin' my goodness..so much for 'we can pull your data in 24 hours'. Sheessssshhhhhhh...oh..and in the long run..it was ONLY the DC Jack that needed to be fixed. NOT.A.SINGLE.BIT.OF.DATA.LOST!!! To add insult to injury, as I went in to pick up the computer, the kid behind the desk handed me a paper stating in bright, RED, lettering with an arrow, that I Owed $786.00+! For a change (due to the 'few' pictures I have for you here) let's shorten the story and just say, I didn't, I have my computer, I have my own copies of the data now...and the store got to honor my service agreement, and didn't get to take another $200 from me for the data they pulled, after they reformatted my hard drive, they got to fix their mistakes, and I took the pieces of broken data DVDs home to throw through my own shredder. *ahem* as it should be.

Now, I wasn't just resting on my laurels while the computer was gone. I have been busy..wanna see?

Two camo hats for the Vets down in Balboa Hospital (which really need to be mailed out)..

Did some PINK things for the month of October

Started a PINK blanket using my NMCRS Basketweave Blanket pattern over (<---- ) there. And then using some I Love this Cotton! yarn (you can pick up from Hobby Lobby) to make a bunch of Chemo Caps to surprise Mom with. With all her gratitude she's had for the ones I've made for her, thought her Doc's office might like a few for other patients...I'll bring them to her over Thanksgiving. So, if you see her, don't tell!

Went to New York for some 'daughter' time. (and brought along a whole lot of her undergrad books with me!)

Met some friends...and check this out...first picture, middle --- IS A KNITTER! And not only a knitter..but she's designed her own purse as one of her first projects!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talents abound I tell you!

Made some chili for stuffing the daughter's freezer....recipe to follow soon....

Soaked up as much as I could of the last of the beautiful colors up there...

Cooked up some more pumpkins to stuff into her freezer....

Check out the easy way we found to stuff the quart bags! Slide the bag into the tall plastic cup, fold the bag over the top..and you're good to go! (Now I have to find a cup to keep in MY kitchen!)

Made some Potato-Leek soup for her freezer (recipe also over <--- there, too!) Which after it was frozen..led me to....

Drop one of the FROZEN packages onto my toe, cut and bruise it up really well! OUCH!!!

Made some Beef stew...also for the freezer....

Finished the pink blanket particulars:

NMCRS Basketweave Baby Blanket, ver. 2

5 skeins of Bernat Softee Baby in Rumba Rose (actually about 4 1/2 or so) Used the yarn double stranded.

(US) 8 (5.0mm) for the top and bottom borders and (US) 10 (6.0mm) circular needles for the body of the pattern.

Knit pattern from rows 1-208 as written, then repeat rows 17-28 once more, before knitting rows 209-225 to finish the blanket.

Went to Stella's and had their Monte Cristo French toast...ohhhhhhhhh let me tell you that was some really good breakfast there! YUMMYYYYYYY. It's one of those places that if you like breakfast foods, you're not going to go away hungry!

They also serve a HUGE mound of what we call fried potatoes. And yes, you can order the 1/2 size as well. Which I wish I had. Soooooo much good stuff! (And their blueberry pancakes are just as good, too!)

After a wait of probably 3 or more years, made daughter the Coronet hat from Knitty.com that she's been waiting for. Proof that all good things come to those who wait? hmmm..made it from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran on size (US)8 (5.0mm). Quick, fast and very soft.

Had some Coldstones Strawberry Cheesecake Ice cream cake...another yummy find....

Made more Rice Krispy treats (recipe also over <---- yonder) to leave with the daughter...

Started another Norwegian Star hat from the "Hats ON!" book that I love so much and this one

FITS! Actually it might be a wee bit large, but it comes down over my ears the way I prefer to have cold weather hats fit. With the knitted in hem, this is going to be warm! Size large this time with Cascade 220 white and navy yarn on (US) 4 (3.5mm) and (US)6 (4.0mm) addi turbo needles.

I'm now working on Mom's sweater. I'm using Paton's Classic Wool in 'Too Teal' with 'Nellwyn Cardigan' Pattern from Leisure Arts book, Cable Confidence. Now, either I'm not reading the pattern well, or it's got a lot of mistakes in it. Either way, I've had to re-write my copy of the patten several times. I've gotten it started, and I'm doing it all in one piece rather than 3 pieces at once time as I did Dad's vest...which led to....

pulling out 6 snitches and knitting them back up again....

and being off by just one row. Which led to...

pulling back out 3 stitches again...

and knitting them back up to where I am in the belief that I've done it correctly this time. But I'm not holding my breath just yet.

Even if it wants to make me think I've got it covered at this point. I want it finished before flying to Mom and Dad's over Thanksgiving for her Dec 1st birthday. Guess I really should be working on it now. Right.after.I.get.my.tickets. Small details, I'm sure. Still reading? Good job.

Had a little more cake...this one was carrot cake...

Worked on the sweater some more....

Had still more cake..Dairy Queen this time! (Love that center fudge part)

Shared this one with another daughter...

Made some stitch markers and row counters to go with some dishcloths to go

Hang out with some fabulous AC4C friends for the afternoon the other day while we toured the WRC Pregnancy Center that we will be knitting, sewing, and crocheting for next April, 2009 in between laughing and talking and winding up wool cakes for Camille. Say hello to Camille and Arlene and Shirley here!

I'm off to get some plane tickets for Turkey Day and work on a very bright sweater for awhile.

It's good to be back.

Learn from my big mistake...

So, I went back to Best Buy last night to pick up the data back up DVDs on my computer. After 3 hours of being there it now appears the hard drive is also fried along with the motherboard. They're sending the whole computer off to the geek hospital...and for a 'small fee' of $249 - $1000+ they'll also try to retrieve the information that I had failed to back up.

Please...if you guys have ANY kind of information on your computers that you don't have someplace else...stop what you're doing and back it up NOW! Oh, and they said last night that flash sticks can also fail and lose your information as well.

If they can't pull my information off at a cheaper price. I will have lost a whole lot of pictures..included tutorials I was about to post on line, which I can redo. But...pictures that were digitally emailed to me of my Grandparents..my kids as babies..etc..things from family members who have since passed away...and can't be redone. Add to that patterns in progress and other ideas that I've been working on..etc...

Lots of stuff can be redone. That's just a pain to have to go back and redo,...it's the stuff that I can't replace that had me in a big old funk last night.

Learn from my mistakes. Oh, and that means about 500 bookmarks not to mention patterns that I've paid for and downloaded, without printing or saving onto another disk..etc..all gone.

Go...save your stuff...Who knew that when we thought it was just an ac adapter/brick that needed replacing...that I'd lose about 8 years of work and family memories. And..just to show you how dumb I was...on the CF cards for my camera...I'd deleted all my knitting pictures off figuring I had them on my computer already and wanted to reuse the space. Nope..now they're all gone. What an idiot. So...here's your friendly public service announcement...go save your stuff onto a disk. If by some miracle they can pull my stuff off my computer and it's semi affordable...you can bet I'm going to save it not once now..but onto two sets of DVDs. Cuz this is just a big old pain in my backside.

We are temporarily....

mourning the loss of my motherboard....*sigh*...my computer decided to go on strike...and has now gone off to the geek squad hospital...be back as soon as possible! miss you all! What did Mike Myers use to say ? Talk amongst yourselves? Well...knit amongst yourselves please. We'll compare notes when I can download pictures once again..as life should be....oy!

How do you make your brother happy?

(Today's posting comes to you from way back on March 15 2008, while I was at home for Dad's surgery. I had misplaced the written recipe until this morning. My greatest apologies for having you wait ALL this time with your glass of milk ready to dunk in these cookies. Please for give me for this terrible delay. Oh, and if you click on the pictures, they'll get larger to make them easier to see.)

How do you make your brother happy? (And your Dad and your Mom...) Why you make him some Snickerdoodles, of course! And if you want any left over...you'll make a double batch, as I did here. (pictures will show double the written recipe amounts)

Preheat the oven to 400*F.

Gather your ingredients:
1C shortening (1/2 crisco, 1/2 margarine)
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C flour (unbleached)
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp of soda
1/4 tsp salt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Tbls of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

In a Mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, margarine (at room temperature) and crisco until smooth and creamy. Add in the eggs and mix in well.

In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients and whisk together to blend well. (flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt.

Slowly combine the dry mixture into the creamed shortening and sugar mixture in small amounts at a time until they're all mixed in together.

In a 3rd, much smaller bowl (a cereal bowl will work well), mix your cinnamon and sugar. (You may want to make more than the 2 Tbls of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon amounts so you can have left overs to top your morning toast with.) Blend well.

Roll into balls the size of small walnuts (here I made them larger because I wanted to really made my brother happy, but the original recipe says to make them the smaller size), using your hands to make them round. Then roll them into the cinnamon/sugar mix and lay them on the ungreased cookie sheets about 2" apart from each other. While they are in the oven, they are going to spread a lot.

Now, open your Mom's kitchen drawerl that's stuffed with 1/2 the dishcloths and things you've knit for her kitchen use over time and get out your Mom's 'Felted Oven Mitts' that you've knit up from Bev Galeskas' "Felted Knits" book (see? a knitting connection after all! and yes, I still need to make myself a pair...) put the cookie sheets into the oven and bake for 8-10 mins for the smaller size, 10-12 mins for the larger size, until lightly brown but still soft. Cookies will puff up and then flatten out.

Let cookies cool for 10 mins on the sheet before transferring them to cooling racks. If you've made the smaller size, you should have 5 dozen cookies. About 2 dozen size for the larger size.

Now, if you have a brother like mine, you'll want to hide most of the cookies out of sight so your parents (who you really made these cookies for), will know where they are and have some left after your brother comes breezing through their kitchen - always dipping his hand into the cookie jar! And if you want to make your Dad happy, bring him a couple to have while he's still a 'guest' of his local hopstial so he can have something that tastes really good! And let him know what's waiting for his homecoming, if your brother doesn't get to them first. (after 12 weeks in the hosptial, he might think about that...)

And as a final touch, if you want to surprise your Mother (since you are using her kitchen, after all) you'll clean up and put away the dishes, and leave no tell tale signs that you were even in her kitchen: something you never quite managed to do when you were 10 years old and baking in her kitchen way back then. Trust me, you'll shock her (might be a good idea to have her sit down first)! (sorry Mom for all those years of messing up your kitchen when I was back in school).

Boys in Blue Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel

Boys in Blue Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel
©Cathy Waldie, July 18, 2008

Please respect the copyright of the pattern and the fact that this is a trade-marked logo. Absolutely NO money for any reason can be made or traded for any part of this pattern or the products made from this pattern. This pattern and these pictures are presented free to the knitting public and is to remain so for your personal knitting use only. If you knit this pattern, use your own pictures to showcase in your knitting archives. You may link to this web site, but you may not post this pattern on any other web site. This disclaimer must remain attached to the pattern.

(US) 7 (4.5mm) needles
100% cotton, worsted weight
Gauge: 16 stitches and 27 rows = 4 inches in Knitted design
Size: 17" x 14"

[ ] border stitches
( ) repeat directions inside parentheses x number of times
x = times
K = Knit
P = Purl
C/O = Cast on
B/O = Bind off
Sts = stitches
K 1 tbl = Knit One Through the back Loop
Tog = together
Kfb = Knit into the front and back of the stitch
Sl 1 = Slip 1 stitch

C/O 59 sts
1-6) K across, slipping the first stitch of the row
7 and all odd rows) K across, slipping the first stitch of row
8) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
10) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
12) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
14) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P35 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
16) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P9, K9, P2, K9, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
18) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P9, K9, P2, K9, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
20) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P9, K9, P2, K9, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
22) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P11, K5, P6, K5, P8 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
24) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P12, K5, P4, K5, P9 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
26) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P12, K5, P4, K5, P9 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
28) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P12, K5, P4, K5, P9 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
30) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K23, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
32) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K23, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
34) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K23, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
36) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P1, K4, P4, K4, P1, K3, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
38) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P2, K4, P2, K4, P2, K3, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
40) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P2, K4, P2, K4, P2, K3, P6 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
42) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P3, K3, P2, K3, P12 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
44) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P3, K8, P12 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
46) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P4, K6, P13 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
48) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P4, K6, P13 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
50) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P5, K4, P14 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
52) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P5, K4, P14 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
54) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P23 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
56) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P23 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
58) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P23 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
60) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P23 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
62) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P8, K4, P23 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
64) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K8, P21 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
66) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K8, P21 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
68) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P6, K8, P21 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
70) [Sl 1, K2, (P2, K1 tbl) x 3] P35 [(K1 tbl, P2) x3, K3]
72) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
74) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
76) [Sl 1, K2, P2 (K1 tbl P2) x 17] [K3]
77-80) K across, slipping the first stitch of the row

Begin decreases for the Towel Top

81) Sl 1, K7, *(Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO), K7* 4 times, end, (Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO) K8. (49 sts.)
82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92) Knit (slipping the first stitch)
83) Sl 1, K6, *(Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO), K5* 4 times, last 10 sts: Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO), K7 (39 sts.)
85) Sl 1, K5, *(Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO), K3* 4 times, last 9 sts: (SL1 K2tog, PSSO), K6. (29 sts.)
87) Sl 1, K4, *(Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO), K1* 4 times, last 8 sts: (Sl 1, K2 tog, PSSO), K5. (19 sts)
89) Sl 1, K2, (K2tog) 3 times, K1, (K2tog) 3 times, K3 (13 sts.)
91) (K2tog) 3 times, K1, (K2tog) 3 times. (7 sts.)

Tab Section of Towel Top

93) Knit, slipping the first stitch
94) Sl 1, K1, P3, K2.
95-109) repeat rows 93 and 94 of the tab section.
110) Knit, slipping the first stitch
111) Sl 1, K1, P3, K2
112-127) repeat rows 110 and 111 of the tab section
128) Sl 1, K1, Bind off center 3 sts, K to end (4 sts) (creates buttonhole)
129) Sl 1, Kfb next st, Kfb next st, K1 (6 sts)
130) K2 tog, K2tog, K2tog (3 sts)
131) Knit 1, K2tog, pass first stitch over. Pull tail through last stitch. Weave in ends, wet/spray/steam block. Sew button into center stitches on tab decrease row #91.