Then and Now

I thought I would share family photos with you today. I am in a sentimental mood (no surprise really) and I thought you might like to see what my family looks like. Then and now. In the first photo, I believe I was around 7 years old. Which puts it in 1983. My mom made all of our shirts (and my skirt!). In the second photo, the entire Anderson clan (7 children, 14 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren plus all associated spouses) gathered for a surprise 80th birthday party for my Grandma. She's the lovely lady in the rather overly large wicker chair. That was in 2001.

Thank you.

I want to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts, and prayers. My mom's passing was peaceful and she suffered none during that time. I am going back up north this Thursday to spend time with my Dad and brother. I appreciate all the emails and comments you all have made. :) It's such a good feeling to know that I have such wonderful friends.

Thank you.

Cheap books for a small price.

Having subscribed to Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits magazines, I now get many "Buy My Product" type mailings. They are like the ColumbiaHouse cd offers. You know, buy a certain amount for a certain cheap price and you ONLY have to purchase 20 more at full price in 6 months to fulfill your end of the deal. Well, I decided to get online to Crafter's Choice and see what they had to offer. Their special deal was 3 books for $1 a piece (plus shipping and handling) and you only have to purchase 2 full price books in the next year. Not too shabby! I actually ended up with the above four books for $15 (somehow I got an extra book for $1). They arrived yesterday and I am very very excited to have them. Especially for that price.

I have taken the week off work to just be quiet and mellow. I have spent some of it shopping with Chaun (Ross, Target, Bath&Body Works) and the rest of it knitting. I got started on the T&QWoolease sweater I mentioned in a previous post. It took some wheelin' & dealin' but I was able to get the required quantity of yarn for under $30. Not too bad! I expect that sweater to be done sometime this week. I am also working on the Starsky. One more front and I can sew it together and pick up the stitches for the lapel. After those two are done, I am going to get started on the SWS sweater that Chaun designed and also the Michael Kors sweater that I posted about way long time ago. Yes, those will be very nice fall sweaters to have. :)

Flash

See Flash.

See Flash sit on my knitting.

Who is this Flash? Flash belongs to Jerilyn. Jerilyn is a good friend of my family. With Dad being home for the past few months, Jerilyn took to leaving Flash at our house so she didn't have to take him on her travels (she travels for her work). He has become a family member. He is a strange dog in that he grew up around cats. So, he acts like a cat. Case in point: if I left ANY knitting lying around, he would find it and sit on it. If I tried to take it away, he wouldn't move. He would just look at me as I struggled to push his dead weight off the item. Really quite funny.

My Mom 1949-2006

I love you Mom.

Get to know me

Four Jobs I have had:
(all these jobs are in sales)
American Tourister (luggage store)
Big Dog Sportswear
Starbucks
ProSource Floorcoverings
Four Movies I could watch over & over:
(I won't cheat like Chaun did...)
Lord of the Rings movies
Disaster movies (Armageddon, Independence Day)
Jurassic Park (all of them)
Alien (all of them)
Four Places I have Lived:
Hawthorne, CA (0-5)
Cameron Park, CA (5-25)
Roseville, CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Four of my Favorite Tv Shows:
Project Runway
CSI (all of them)
Grey's Anatomy
Any cake/cookie/sugar sculpture competition on Food Network
Four Places I have been on Vacation:
Idaho
Bryce & Zion Canyons
Europe
Hawaii
Four of my Favorite Dishes:
Ranch Dressing (can that be considered a food?)
Eggs scrambled up with bacon and ham
Garlic Bread
Pig Ribs
Four Websites I visit daily:
Bloglines
HPY
My news page, myway.com
Hm, I guess I only have three. Pretty limited by the dialup connection...
Four Places I would rather be right now:
At my parent's house
At Chauntel's parent's house in Idaho
Somewhere where noone knows me and asks for nothing from me :)
Rhinebeck with everyone else elbow deep in yarn & sheep (I could do this one too)
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Yeah, noone. :)

This post contains NO knitting. Hope you can handle a Mom post. :)

So far, I have taken a very pragmatic and sensible approach to my mom’s bout with cancer and her impending death. But at the same time, I still wonder why. Why my family? Why are we having to go through this at this time? I have lived a pretty charmed life. I have never experienced the death of a close loved one. In fact, I often joked with my mom and dad that I was laying down the law that they were to never die. A few weeks ago, it hit me that this is not the last time I will be dealing with this. Not only in my life, but in the lives of everyone around me. That thought actually made this whole ordeal a little bit easier. To see it as the cycle of life. Maybe that’s why I am going through this. To be able to offer support as we grow older and people in our lives start to pass away. Noone can understand what this is like unless they have been through a similar situation. I don’t know what the true reason is and I may never know. But the thought that maybe I can help someone I love get through this horrible experience…it just makes it a little bit easier.

Yarn Shopping

I opened up the Sunday paper this morning. And after reading many interesting articles (see, I am up in Sac and the Sacramento Bee actually reports national and world news), I got to the ad section. Would you like to know what I found there? I bet you would.... Five, that's right, FIVE Michael's ads. :)) Which means five 40% off coupons. And after I got over my amazement of the quantity, I read the ad. Right. All of their yarns are on sale from $2-$4. I think Michael's is trying to tell me something. Buy yarn. And they are oh-so-subtle about it. And the first thing I did after reading that ad was to try and figure out a way to get to my nearest Michael's today. Unfortunately, it's not possible. I am on Mom duty while Dad is at an overnight golf tourney in Nevada. I might be able to make it there tomorrow after he gets home and before I take off for the airport. But if not, I know there is a Michael's in Ventura. I know you are wondering why I am so desperate to get to this store. See, Lion Brand recently came out with their new catalogue. And it's wonderful! There are so many things I want to make but the one item I know would be quick and easy is this sweater:
It's made out of WoolEase Thick n' Quick. Which is normally $6 a ball. And if I have to pay $48 just to make a sweater, I would rather just buy one pre-made. I know, how unknitterly of me. But if this yarn is really on sale for less than $6 (remember, their ad states $2-$4 for all their yarns), then I can save $16 and do it myself. I am a freak for sweaters like this. Simple, easy, goes with everything...

Well, that's the plan right now anyway. Let's forget the numerous projects I already have on needles. I am about half way done with the Clapotis and 1/4 done with the Candle Flame Scarf. Those are the only two things I brought with me to work on. I do have pictures but I don't have the cord to connect the camera to the computer.

Kalah is coming over today for a yarn winding party. Well, she has 3 hanks of lace to ball up and that's it. :) But it gives us an excuse to hang out, eat pizza, drink beer, and talk knitting. I hope everyone has a nice, lazy day!

PS: Suzie: I am sorry I wasn't there at knitting for the cuddle fest. I was actually on a plane trying to cuddle with the cute guy I was sitting next to. Unfortunately, he wasn' t nearly as interested as I was in cuddling. :))

Candle Flame Scarf. A test knit for Chaun. And let me tell you, she didn't have to beg hard at all to get me to do this. :) I miss knitting with hpy's merino worsted weight.

Another Clapotis. It's a good lightweight fall shawl is what I have found out.

This is a future knit project. The yarn is VerdeAzul (again, from hpy) and the project is from Gathering of Lace. But considering I still have ...oh...39 hours or so left on the Fan & Feather shawl... yeah. This one is for 2007, I think.

Projects. It's all about the projects.

Following this post at some point today will be pictures of the current projects. I hope... Not really sure how this is going to work in Beta.
Anyway. I have my list of projects on needles:

Shinano sweater-knit in the round with Noro Shinano.
*Starsky-from knitty knit in dark red Cervinia Sorrento.
Babette-crocheted blanket from Interweave Crochet. Knit using Wool of the Andes.
Brown Cherry-Chaunwear designed sweater. Knit in the round with WotA and Merino Style.
Nameless Legwarmers-my pattern, knit in Andean Treasure.
*Candle Flame Scarf-Chaunwear designed, knit with hpy Rosa Vieja.
Fan & Feather Shawl-from Gathering of Lace, knit with cashmere yarn from Colourmart.
Homespun blanket-knit with 3 strands of Homespun on size 19's.
*Clapotis-yes, another one, knit with Marino Fondo from hpy.

Old Projects on needles:
Kyoto-from knitty, knit with CottonEase.
Ruched Silk Blanket-knit with silk, not sure where the pattern is from.

All starred projects are being worked on daily. All other projects (except the Old ones) are sitting in the Knitting Area. And there you go! I sure would like to see what all y'all are working on... only because it makes me feel less...obsessed. :)

New and Improved

Welcome to my new blog. I made the change because ... well, there has been a lot that has happened in my life in the past 6 months. I have been feeling that some major changes are going to result from my mom's illness. I don't know yet what they are but I decided to start with the small things that I can control. Such as the blog. Blogger has come out with Blogger Beta which is SO much easier to use. I don't have to go into the template and actually change the code. And I am not so Slow and Steady anymore. I did receive some suggestions of changing the name to "Slow & Steady to Fast & Furious" but considering my recent math calcuations... I am not feeling so fast and furious. :) But the name is still up for consideration. If anyone has any suggestions, I am very open to switching out the name. Just comment and lemme know!