Randomness

I don't really have anything to post about, just thought I'd pop in and say I'm still alive.

Here's a cool quiz I borrowed from Vik:

You Are an Angel

A truly giving soul, you understand the spirit of Christmas.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

And check out this hillarious video I just saw advertised on TV: (Yes, it's real)
http://www.catfishgrabblers.com/
The video I saw was called "Girls Gone Grabbling."
For those non-rednecks among us, grabbling or noodling as it is more commonly known, is an Okie pasttime among only the most country Okies. It involves sticking your hands into random holes in rivers or lakes and trying to get a catfish to bite your fist so you can pull it out. Oh yes it is. And not in nice clear, black water either. In red muddy, gross water. Where you run the risk of ramming your fist into a beaver or a water moccasin.

Funny story about that, when I was in college my roomate and I and a few friends were sitting around on a Sunday evening with nothing to watch on the television set and this show came on PBS called "Okie Noodling." We were so caught up in the hillariousness and also redneckedness of it all that we watched about thirty minutes of it then SOMEONE CAME ON THAT I KNOW! He is actually in Wikepedia on this page under "Noodling as a Sport" highlighting his appearance on David Letterman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling
He was the janitor at my cousin's elementary school and he married my dance teacher's assistant and he did construction and props for a play I was in at a community theater.

Here's the Okie Noodling Site (you know you want to get one of those tank tops):
http://www.okienoodling.com/

No, I have never been noodling.

Told you this post was random!

We did Secret Santa this week at work and due to swift personnel changes, I got my boss and she knew I had her and she knew I knit so she asked me to knit her a scarf. I was thinking Cinnibar from MagKnits or something cool and intricately cabled. I actually went to Michael's Sunday to get some Paton's wool but I got 2 different (barely) colors. So we were running some errands the other day and she had to go to Hobby Lobby so I told her she could just pick out the yarn she liked (she gave me really random coat colors.) So we're walking through the yarn and as I'm heading straight to the wool, she stops. AT THE FUN FUR. Oh yes she did. And picked out the 17 shades of bright colored, glittery fun fur. I could hear my needles at home cringing. But I paired it with a strand of black acrylic and knitted it on Size 17 Needles and it wasn't nearly as hideous as I thought it would be. It actually turned out kinda cool for fun fur.

I got the sweetest second package from my SP 9 Pal. She sent this great merino sock yarn in black, pink and grey shades and also some Knit Picks self-striping sock yarn that I've been looking at and some delicious chocolates and a "Chocolate Christmas" book with a ton of cool recipes and a Knitter's Journal.
Thanks Secret Pal! You've made this round so much fun!

Pics soon, I promise.
I'm still learning with the new Mac Book and can't figure out how to insert links instead of the whole web address.
Hopefully that will soon change!

Weekend Update

Wow, how has a week gone by? And how is it seriously about two weeks from Christmas?
We have had such a relaxing weekend. Saturday we got some shopping done (almost totally finished!) then just relaxed and went to dinner and today I got most of our gifts wrapped and did a little cleaning. It's so nice to have a whole weekend with nothing planned!

Oh, and I got the best early Christmas gift ever! A new Mac Book! I've been playing around with it and reading up on how exactly it works (this is my first Mac). But I'm really liking it. Over the break I hope to have time to set up a new blog with Dot Mac.

On the knitting front, I'm cabling! Wahoo! Thanks to the nifty little tools my Secret Pal sent! (Still need to post a pic of the beautiful Berroco Ultra Alpaca she sent in the last package). Also need to get pics posted of my cabling progress. I wanted to tonight but Blogger is not cooperating.
And I'm almost finished with the Brea bag. Berroco has such cool bag patterns out. I just need to finish the gusset and sew it up and line it (never lined anything before).
We'll be at the in-laws for quite a stay over Christmas so hopefully I'll have some quality knitting time.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

First Sock Pictures!

Finally, here is a pic of my first pair of knitted socks. I had two bad starts on different patterns but ended up sticking with these.


Pattern: Classy Slip-Up from Knit Socks!
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Merino Superwash in Thoroughbred colorway
The yarn was great to work with. It's super soft and has just enough give.
Can't wait to get more of her yarn... I really like the Smoke colorway
My guage was right on but the pattern came out huge! (Had this problem with another pattern in this book.)
The socks are really bunchy around the ankles. I adjusted the length of the heel flap on the second sock but it still feels pretty big.
I read on a blog that machine washing and drying really softens up superwash and shrinks it a bit so I tried that and it did make them fit a bit better. And made them really soft.

Closer look at pattern:
(An attempt, at least.)
How are socks so incredibly difficult to photograph?

Can't decide what to make next! I have a little something I'd like to make for my SP 9 pal and I still want to conquer the Brea bag but first I need to sit down and figure out cables.

I've also been lurking on the Red Sweater KAL and reading up on Susan's sweater progress and am itching to make a sweater.
Or more socks.

We had a big snow storm come in Wed. night and the clinic was closed Wednesday and Thursday! So we're enjoying a relaxing 4 day weekend. Been watching movies, knitting, sitting around, cleaning a bit. Even did a bit of shopping today. It's been very nice. Tomorrow the plan is to get the Christmas garb out and start decorating.


Here's a picture from the ski trip:
The weather couldn't have been better while we were there, 40's to 50's most days and one day we even hit some mild snow flurries.
And the last picture is a bouquet of Anthuriums my mom made for a wedding shower a few weekends ago. They don't usually have that white vein down the middle- I thought they were just stunning. Mom and Dad have a flower shop in the town where I grew up and Mom does amazing work.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!