Clap, Clap, Clapotis!

So---yes now I know what all the hub-bub is about on the knitting blogs when someone working on a Clapotis finally gets to the stage where she (or, of course, "he") can finally start dropping stitches. I have arrived at that point. I shout it from the rooftop - I HAVE ARRIVED!! And, it really isn't too terrifying either. This will be the preferred project during the Tour de Lance, ahem, I mean Tour de France. What will it be like this year without Lance? Will there be fewer comercials? (One can only hope) Will Phil Liggett find the words "I've never seen anything like it!" missing from his vocabulary? (Again, one can only hope.) Will we see even more of the rest of the field - cute outfits, cute bods, cute hair? Oh - I digress - this is a knitting blog!...and my husband does check in from time to time.

I also wanted to add a photog and another round of thanks to my SP (of Secret Pal 8)for all the wonderful things she sent me before she headed out on vacation. She is a dream. I'm having a wonderful time, too, with my SP (see the link to knithole on the right hand margin of this blog). She is beginning her journey into the wonderful world of spinning and is spinning up a storm.

And, finally - the philosophy for today's post. It has to do with worrying when worrying isn't needed - it has to do with just trusting that things will work out. Maybe all of you reading never have this problem - but I do. I worry too much about how life's little (and big) things will turn out. I think I don't have enough faith that God will see me through everything. The Clapotis is a little thing...God saw me right through it. Here is another little story..

I had to contact a client last week who had given us some CDs of an economics course they thought we might be interested in listening to. Well - I never did get around to using them and when the client called last week after at least 2 years of us holding on to these things I had to scramble to find the CDs. I found them, but there were several missing in the series. I was in a panic. This was a big client of ours and while we consider them friends just as much as clients I was dreading having to call them and tell them I could not locate the missing CDs. (What had I done with them? And why had I kept them so long in the first place? Not smart.) So...I investigated purchasing a whole new set for them, mustered up my courage and called. As soon as I uttered the words, "it seems there are a few CDs in the series missing" - the wife jumped in to say "yes, yes - you don't have the whole set - we have some of them here - don't worry" Boy was I relieved. It worked out for the best and fortunately I had not purchased the new set. But, the time up until I called them was a bit stressful.

Isn't it funny the things we stress over when really - compared to other folks on the planet- we lead pretty easy lives. It's all perspective I guess. Have a great week!.....Kate

Thanks Secret Pal

Thank you, thank you secrect pal!! Your wonderful package arrived on Friday. I've taken a photo to post here but haven't had a moment yet to download it from the camera. I will surely be doing that soon - hopefully later today. I love the yarn - I think I will use the beads with the yarn - for sure. The blue is sooooo pretty. The Eucalan is terrific. I love that stuff and only have the tiniest bit left in my current bottle. The note pad is needed and will be used starting today. I also loved the photo album - that got me thinking about Christmas in June! Thanks again so much. You are terrific! I hope you have a wonderful vacation ( I hope you're off to vacation-land). Hugs to you...Kate

The Knitting Love/Hate Relationship

This is a painting called Calm, Chaos and Frustration. It is from: http://www.artdeanne.com/Gallery.html

I am finishing up a vest that I have been working on for about 4 months. It has about 10 different yarns in it. It is worked sideways and has a pretty cable trim around the neck and shoulders.

I've had a love-hate relationship with this project.

First I loved all the different yarn. Then I hated how the striping was working out. Then I loved trying something other than what the pattern said to do. Then I hated the fact that I made the front pieces too wide and had to frog a large portion of the work. Then I was excited to get to work on the cable trim. Then I could kick myself for trying to trim some of the "fuzziness" off one of the yarns - because my scissor got a little crazy and snipped some stitches (oh - that was so dumb and I will never use any type of fuzzy yarn again or even better I will never use scissors to repair anything on a knitted item!). Then I loved attaching the trim and putting the vest together. Then I hated having to re-attach the trim to the front twice to get the cables to lay right. Then I loved adding the single-crochet to the edging because the piece is finally coming together and looking finished. Then as I was adding the single crochet to the bottom front edge some of the basket stitch on the edge just started un-raveling - what's with that!? Ahhhhhh! But I was able to pick up the stitches and re-secure them with the crochet edging and it looks fine. This has been the hardest "simple" project I have ever done.

I have to say though...the love part of this relationship wins out every time.

New Yarn Order

I have ordered yarn to make this sweater from Interweave Knits latest issue. The color looks like lavender, however it is really a powder blue. It will be a challenging project for me. The yarn is currently back-ordered (sigh!) but that is ok. I have a project bottleneck right now with 3 out of 4 projects nearing completion (inching towards completion). I just can't start another until one is finished. So - good thing my yarn is back ordered. I'll keep you posted.

My last post was something fun that I wanted to try on my detour into blogging. I got the idea for the post from some other blogs I've been reading and it really is a fun exercise.

What I Believe

1. My son is the most amazing creature on earth.
2. My husband is the most patient creature on earth.
3. I am addicted to computers and have been since my first “real job” out of college. I like to program them, play on them, learn on them, and communicate with them.
4. Computers are the 20th century’s printing press.
5. The Internet is the 21st century’s printing press.
6. I like warm weather much better than cold weather. The only redeeming quality about cold weather is that it gives me an excuse to light a fire and knit warm things.
7. We do not remember to count our blessings enough.
8. Swimming is a great sport because it gets us closer to our origins than any other experience can.
9. We all need water: to drink it, see it, be soothed by it and fear it.
10. Angels on earth include children and those who work with them.
11. Angels on earth include hospice workers and Stephen’s ministers.
12. There is a God.
13. God is not perfect – just look at us.
14. God does speak to us – we just have a very hard time listening.
15. New York State is trying to kill itself. It will not succeed. But it will take a very long time to fail.
16. It is a great exercise to make a list of things you believe in…second only to developing your own personal mission statement.
17. Everyone needs to work.
18. By criticizing others, we tear ourselves down.
19. Whatever we focus on we will get. (Thank you Mike Rizzolo).
20. It’s a really wonderful thing that Quirky Nomads moved to Canada – they don’t get to vote in the U.S. any more.
21. I don’t protest, I vote.
22. I believe that: "By settling for abortion instead of working for the social changes that would make it possible to combine children and career, pro-abortion feminists have agreed to participate in a man's world under male terms. Pro-abortion feminists have corrupted feminism by embracing standards which hold that it is permissible to treat "unequals" unequally and for the powerful to oppress the weak. Women deserve better." ~ Connie Roland Alt and Judy Fetters
23. I believe the government has no business legislating on anything having to do with abortion.
24. The 5 worst politicians of our day are: Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, John McCain, and Eliot Spitzer
25. The 5 best politicians of our day are: oops – there are no best politicians.
26. No good deed goes unpunished…or unrewarded.
27. I don’t feel guilty about making money or having money.
28. Oftentimes the less money people have, the more they like to talk about it. I believe the converse of this is true as well.
29. People who spend a lot aren’t necessarily rich – they just spend a lot.
30. If you want to know how much money I have, see belief number 28
31. Bloggers tend to be a really angry group of people. I’m glad they “blog it out.”
32. Blogging is therapy.
33. Without trust, there can be no successful economy or society.
34. The zero-sum-game is a falsehood.
35. Watch out for those who constantly harp about conflicts of interest – they usually have plenty of their own.
36. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain …about anything really.
37. Half the people we meet will never like us.
38. Only a tiny handful of people are those I can count on for the really important things in life. I don’t know who most of those people are.
39. Squam is my most amazing place. I’d like to live there all summer.
40. Fiber is fabulous.
41. The needle is one of man’s greatest inventions, right behind compound interest (with apologies to Albert Einstein).
42. Labor unions used to be useful. I am thankful they existed. Now they are no longer what they used to be – useful. They need to change or go away.
43. We have no clue how the other 99% of the world lives. That’s ok, because we will start to figure it out soon - see belief number 5.
44. Fingernails are invaluable tools. When will airport security start to confiscate them?
45. Flying used to be fun.
46. Hotel bedspreads should be banned from society.
47. Looking like a slob is a cry for attention.
48. Life after 40 is better than life before 40.
49. Age is just a number.
50. Real age is a state of mind.
51. Those who get it mostly wrong: the weatherman, the Democrats, Sean Hannity, the daily newspapers, the TV reporters, and…add your own list on your own blog page.
52. Those who get it mostly right: Brian Lamb, George Will, Christopher Hitchens, Luke, Martin Luther, Condi (notice I only said “mostly”), you and me.
53. The best pie is strawberry rhubarb.
54. The best ice cream is chocolate.
55. It’s good to be on time.
56. It’s good to take vacations….regularly.
57. Children should be quiet in church or leave.
58. Adults should be quiet in church or leave.
59. Politics do not belong in church.
60. Would Jesus go to church? (Yes I know that is a question and not a belief).
61. If I live to be 85 I will take up sky-diving (with apologies to Fran Pullano for stealing and modifying her idea).
62. Rap music is the worst!
    ….more to come

More Interested in Blogging than Knitting

So, my new problem is that I'm spending precious knitting time blogging. I keep finding funs spots to check out. One that I check out every day is my Secret Pal's blog - Knithole - www.knithole.blogspot.com (I have to ask her where she got that curious name for her blog). So I took a button.


Then I found Grumperina - www.grumperina.com/knitblog . Well actually I had found her before, but I have this hope that I will always exude "positive-ness" in my blogging and just the name said - "negative-ness". And some of her material is, well, quite grumpy. But anyone who has such a dry sense of humor and is such a prolific knitter has to be included on my site. So I took one of her buttons.


Now, all of this takes time, lots of time for me because I am a new blogger. Can I have more time please? I'm going to knit! Bye.

Thanks SP!

Thank you Secret Pal for your cute note. I got it in the mail yesterday. Seems like lots of folks are making the Clapotis including our SP Host Erin. Did you see Erin's web site Mama E? Check it out - there's a link here on the blog. She has some great yarn and I think she has a contest or drawing going on. Hope you have a great weekend SP! Thanks again...Kate