Harry Potter is Through!

I'm finally done with the Harry Potter scarf! Doesn't it look great on my hunny boy! He is so proud of it and is wearing it even though it is 90 degrees here! So glad to have it off of my needles!



I've started my next project. Its a baby sweater called Stripz by Minnowknits. It is so simple and a great first sweater project, if anyone is looking for one.

I'm doing it in a deep sky blue and a sage green. It will be a gift for someone who pops out babies with very blue eyes. The yarn is Manos Cotton Stria and is so soft. I know the lucky baby will love it. I might do the hat, too.

We've Been Adopted!

What is it about knitters and cats? Have you ever noticed that the majority of knitters seem to have cats. Even the blog Dogs Steal Yarn has been reporting on a recent addition to their family -- a cat!

We have been owned by a cat for several years, the ever mysterious Miss Kitty. We adopted her a few years ago. She was a feral kitten who was found on the side of the road and turned into a local vet. We brought her home and fell totally in love with her. As you can see from the photo, she is a beautiful tabby with a gorgeous white bib and white socks. She doesn't play with my yarn, but does like to bat at the ends of knitting needles and likes to chew on the wood ones. The only thing with Miss Kitty is that she is REALLY, REALLY shy. Most of my friends have never seen her. My cat sitter, who has taken care of her for weeks on end, has never seen her. She is a ghost cat.

On the opposite extreme is the aptly named Gray. Gray originally adopted the neighbor, John, across the street. John travels a lot so Gray has decided to split her time between the two houses and has adopted us. Every morning she is lounging on the patio furniture on my front porch. I have never seen a more friendly yard cat in my life. She lives to be petted, talked to and generally adored. We can't let her in the house as Miss Kitty is declawed. I feel I have the best of both worlds in the pet department: a cat to cuddle me in the house and a cat to keep me company on my porch and when I garden. Life is good.

FuzzyMabel

I was going to Atlanta for the weekend and had to get the oil changed in the big stupid SUV. I went to a place does the car wash/oil change combo thing, so I knew I would be there for a while. What do I do when I know my butt is going to be parked for a while? Why, I knit, of course! Much to my surprise, when I walked into the waiting area, someone else was already sitting there, knitting in public! And not just anyone, but Cynthia of FuzzyMabel.com fame! Let me tell you, she is a delight. This girl loves yarn! Then she told me the Earth-shattering news: She was opening a store on my island!!! An amazing yarn store in a small town in the coastal South, can it be true?

Time has passed and the store is open. Of course I was there bright and early the first day she was open and have been back on a couple of occasions to fondle her yarn. Check out the pics.

Cynthia is so great to work and really knows her stuff. She has such a great selection of yarns and accessories. She has a fabulous selection of needles, notions, books and patterns. You totally have to check it out. She even plans to offer classes! FuzzyMabel is located at 74 Boardwalk Plaza, St. Simons Island, GA. For those who are familiar with the island, the store is behind Calabash, near the car wash on Demere. She's at the back corner of the building and doesn't have a sign up yet. Just look for the number 74 on the door. I stopped by earlier this week to buy yarn for a Secret Pal project. Cynthia actually let me borrow some needles and check my gauge right there in the store. Run, don't walk, to her store!

We are an Ocean

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean." -- Ryunosuke Satoro

Photo taken 9/19/05, St. Simons Island, GA

Cicadas and Jazz

It's hard not to love where I live. Last night we decided to walk to dinner in the village. Even though it was warm and humid, the ocean breeze was perfect. The air was filled with the sounds of a jazz concert going on by the lighthouse and the buzz of cicadas . The moon was full and the color of butter. Life is good.

A Little Whine with your Blog?

It’s Sunday morning and I’m beat-up tired. Don’t you hate weeks that everyday feels like a marathon? This was my week to deal with that. I started teaching at the college again. I teach night classes on computer topics. The issue is they’ve assigned me to a different campus this semester and it is an HOUR away. Who did I piss off to get stuck with that?!! I have to leave the house at 6:00pm, teach from 7:00 until 9:00 and roll into the house around 10:00pm. I could deal with it normally but having an 8 year old child added to the mix is the main issue. Try to find a babysitter for those kind of hours on school nights! Whine, whine, whine.

More whining: Cars suck. I had to get a new battery for my stupid, oversized SUV (my husband talked me into this monster) and take my husband’s car in AGAIN to have the AC looked at. At least I got to knit while waiting for them to be fixed.

Misc. BS: working on the school’s fall festival, planning a birthday party for my DH, patching and painting a ceiling after a plumbing issue, finishing up work for client, etc., etc., etc.

You would think that I would sleep in today, Saturday, right? No, my internal clock always wakes me up at 6:30 whether or not I want it too. I did lie in bed for about 45 minutes before giving up and getting up.

Good news: the birthday party was great. My husband’s undergrad degree was in drama and he has done amateur and professional acting over the years. So I went with a movie star theme. I ordered a fake Oscar statue, movie props and stuff from the Net and plastered pictures and reviews from the plays my husband has been in all over the walls. We ate movie theater food like popcorn, hot dogs, pizza and nachos. I’ll post photos in the next couple of days.

Almost done with the Harry Potter scarf. I can’t wait to get it off of my needles. When you first learn to knit, you are so excited about doing the k1, p1 ribbing. Now, doing it endlessly and for hours is tedious. I can’t wait to start my next project. I was going to do a baby blanket but have opted to do a baby sweater. Hopefully I’ll start that tomorrow.

Thanks for hanging around and having a little whine with your blog!

Guide to Georgia

One of my blogger friends posted her concerns about recently moving to Georgia. She was worried about not being a traditional religion found in the Bible belt and about generally fitting in. I thought I would share my advice to her:

Here are a few more things to help you transition to the South:

1. If you haven't developed a tolerance for insanely high quantities of sugar, don't order sweeten ice tea (more commonly known as Sweet Tea). Order 1/2 sweet tea and 1/2 unsweetened tea. This will avoid you going into a diabetic coma.
2. You may trash anyone as long as you end the trash session with "Bless her heart." or "Poor thing." For example, "She tries so hard, but her house looks like hell, bless her heart." or "She has a knack of attracting men who are losers, poor thing."
3. Don't ever say, "Where I use to live, we did it this way." No form of this statement should be used. Southerners don't give a damn how they do it elsewhere. Saying this statement will mark you as a "Yankee," which is spoken with the same disdain as bitch.
4. When dealing with people, ease into real conversation. Don't ask the repair man when he is going to get the satellite dish installed. Ask him how his weekend was. Then you may ask about the installation. Southerners know that if you don't make polite conversation you are one of them those Yankees mentioned earlier.
5. Buy and read Southern Living magazine. It is the Southern woman's second bible. It has great recipes and gardening tips. If you are in a clump of women, one will mention an article in the latest issue and all the others will nod knowingly. Read it to fit in.
6. Going back to your Bible Belt concern, the true religion of the South is college football. 65 year-old-men still talk about games they saw when they were in college. In Georgia, Vince Dooley is a god. He was the coach at University of Georgia for 40 years. (BTW, he can't walk on water, but I bet he can walk on sweet tea!) Pro football isn't that important in the South. If you are trying to sound like you know what is going on in the world of sports, don't talk about the Atlanta Falcons, talk about the University of Georgia Bulldogs. Actually, nobody calls it University of Georgia, we call it by the sound of its initials, UGA (pronounced ug-gah). I know the first time you hear it, you'll think they are speaking caveman, but they are in fact talking about an institution of higher learning. Also, we don't call them bulldogs or even dogs. They are dawgs.
7. You will be asked a strange question by people who have lived in your area for generations. It is, "Who are your people?" This is a question that is asked to determine how much of an outsider you are. If you have ANY Southern relatives, use them as weapons. For example, "We just moved here, but I have a dear aunt in Atlanta. I have the fondest memories of visiting her as a child. Would you like more sweet tea?"