Week 6 (omg, of 50!) Challenge

This week's Challenge entries will take us through day 30, not quite one-eighth of the 250 I'm shooting for.  Later, I'll move the earlier Challenge posts over to another page.
Monday I wore my favorite Westbound Woman tan stretch slacks (with added cuffs -- I have to hem every blessed thing, why not add cuffs while I'm at it?).  The blouse is by Millenium, and has small square and round studs on the front (bib area).  It's a booger to iron, but a fabulous color.  I added an 18" silver chain with a silver & turquoise cross, plus another longer silver chain.  There's a silver bracelet too.  The sandals are my studded Trendsetters, and the purse is another fave: the aqua croc!

Tuesday it rained on my parade, and everyone else in middle Tennessee, but I had on something lovely: this Silkland Woman 100% silk multi-color print blouse!  Paired up with my ancient Investments black poly pullons, with added cuffs, and the Modern Metals tri-color multi-chain necklace, gold and onyx hand made earrings (from the big craft fair), and my black BORN shooties.

Oops, looks like I forgot to change purses!  But the aqua croc actually works with this blouse.  We had the photo shoot indoors, because of the wind & rain.
Wednesday is full of woe (or so the rhyme would have it), and woe = blues, so that's what I wore.  My very old royal blue East Fifth trousers, with a blue & white checked Lauren by Ralph Lauren shirt, the bright blue Alfani sandals, the navy purse, the heavy golden & rhinestone chain, and some cute articulated fish "fishhook" earrings.  Disco found them at a flea market and bought them for me, she's so sweet!

 Incidentally, she's blogging again.  Check her out at http://discodamespursuitoflife.blogspot.com/
Tell her you want some stitchmarkers, if you want to make her day.
Thursday I could smell Friday on the wind, which is why I wore the tan stretch cuffed trousers again--hey, Plaidman did laundry during the week, so they were clean!--with a Croft & Barrow Woman coral & blue paisley print blouse, the Trendsetters, some coral & goldtone beads in a long loop ($2.50 @ WalMart!), matching earrings ($5 @ WalMart), and a light caramel colored purse.

And at last!  Friday!!  I got seriously casual for Casual Day, but it's still designer goods.  The jeans are Gloria Vanderbilt Signature, the polo shirt is also Gloria Vanderbilt; I put on my beloved old SAS sandals and a single heavy gold chain; the navy purse reappeared.

These jeans are some that Sis gave me, rather long for me but I see "everyone else" wearing them rolled up so I followed suit.  I'm not hemming jeans if I don't have to do so.
See those sunglasses?  My mother gave me those frames.  She passed away twelve years ago.  I adore big sunglasses, so that's how I've used these -- with prescription lenses, of course.  Thanks, Mom.

Promises, promises

I said I'd post some about my last trip to Texas.  Sorry for making you wait; I know y'all are just about to turn blue holding your breath for this one.  This trip was about as spur of the moment as it's possible for me, since it started with the airline reservation being changed the day after I bought the tickets.  I did have the sense to ask for a wheelchair at check-in -- it's only about a 2 mile walk from the check-in to the gate!  Much nicer to ride that distance, and my assistant got a pre-boarding pass for me, too.  While sitting at the gate, I rewound the Shibui Sock (light green, sorry don't have the ball band handy).  I usually don't do a lot of people watching, but did see two young boys traveling alone (separately).  I showed them some Fuzzhogs, and they each took one.  I had cast on and knit the first few rows of my Jadeite Color Affection, when it was time to board.  After getting situated on board, before takeoff, I took a pic of the shawl.

I think that's about eight rows in.  I knit a bit, and gave away another Fuzzhog, and just before landing I had this much done:

Yes, I had to hang it on the tray table latch to get a picture.  Couldn't do that now!  I have eight of the twelve contrast color A stripes done.  If you've knit this puppy you know where I am.   So, I landed in Austin a little early due to a terrific tailwind.  I had packed all I needed into the medium size luggage, and set that down inside the large size, so really only had one bag to wrangle off the carousel.  And I got help with that -- if you're wagging a cane folks want to help.  I figure that's only right, so I let them.  Sis showed up in Memaw's car (Memaw doesn't drive anymore, thank goodness!), with the Peerless T!  My how that girl has grown up.  She helped her ma get the luggage in the trunk, and accepted a Fuzzhog.  (Are we tired of these silly things yet?)  The three of us went to The Egg & I for lunch, then picked up Pup at his new digs.  Then it was on to the house.  I had a wonderful surprise there, as my brother and sister-in-law had come from Oklahoma to spend a few hours.  I hadn't seen them in several years, so this was a treat.  SIL looks great, she's lost a lot of weight.  Bro is still more or less bear-shaped.  I didn't ask if they objected to seeing their faces on here, so you won't see them.  So, there we were, the three surviving siblings & dear old Pup.  I can't think that there will a lot more such occasions; Pup has dementia and I have my health conditions, so I guess it's a toss up as to which of might shuffle off first.  Well, we had a nice visit, but Bro & SIL had to go home.  Before leaving Bro passed on something our nephew had told him about wanting another puppy.  Nephew had arranged to go to a breeder for a pup, and when he arrived the breeder said there was a second pup available if he wanted it.  So Nephew calls the wife, and gets the skinny, she telling him "It goes puppy, BABY, puppy".  So I guess they're "gettin busy" so he can get another puppy!  Love it!
There was a pool party planned for Peerless and her classmates, and I think 4 or 5 little girls showed up.  Mr. Sis grilled a nice batch of burgers & dogs, and we had sides too.  Pup & Memaw stayed inside, and I stayed with them.  After the party & dinner both our elders went to their respective homes, and when Mr. Sis got back we all just deflated and went to bed.
Sunday after breakfast, Sis & I "retired" to her second closet (!!).  She is a professional, and really works at looking the part.  Piecing together this story, Sis had been trying to lose a good bit of weight, while still wearing her same old wardrobe.  Eventually, some weight came off and these clothes started hanging on her -- not the look she wanted!  At this point she was pretty close to the size I am now, and really tired of wearing old clothes.  So she went shopping, as only Sis the Super Shopper can, buying a lot of clothes but rarely paying more than 50% retail for any of them.  And she was buying nice clothes, Charter Club and various designer names.  Anyway, she started wearing her new wardrobe, believing she'd be wearing these things for a while based on the long slow process she'd been thru to lose weight.  However, as sometimes happens, she suddenly lost about 20 lbs, and then over about a month lost another 10.  And she was back to baggy clothes!  Unacceptable!!  So, she sorted all these too-big clothes into the second closet, meaning to take a lot of them to work to sell to other ladies there.  Then she found out I was to visit!  So for four hours Sunday, we had a marathon sizing session in her closet.  I was in and out of pieces one right after another for four freaking hours.  But  now I have a nearly new wardrobe; actually, some of the blouses still had tags on them.   Two big moving boxes of clothes just arrived via FedEx on Friday last.  I'm going to have to refigure how I'll be storing the yarn stash, since I'll need the closet in the the front bedroom for my own second closet!   I am just thrilled, what a nice gift from my Sis, with whom I used to get so angry because she would raid my closet!  Sis and I figured that with what she gave me and my own puny wardrobe, I could go to work for 250 days (about a year) without repeating an outfit there.  So, if you've been paying attention, you've seen the first 3 weeks of that process here.  I'm gonna need a spreadsheet, I think.
One thing quickly became clear: I needed some better bras!  And appropriate bling to wear with my "new" duds!  On Tuesday, Sis & I went shopping, Sis-style.  First we hit Hancock Fabrics for supplies needed for (oh noes!) more Fuzzhogs -- I'm commissioned to produce one for each of the cheerleaders at Miss A's school.  More on that later.  Then we went to TJ Maxx for some padded push-up bras so I be a sexy Mama.  While there we picked up some bling.  Then we went to the Clothes Mentor for more bling.  I need to call those folks, and tell them that Nashville needs them!   What fun!  Check out these pics (sorry, cell phone & night time shots -- bleh!):

Some of these items came from Savers, which we did not visit until Saturday just before my flight home.  The Plaidman hung up an accordion-style hanger to hold these in the master bedroom, and it looks like an art installation.  

Well, it sounds like dinner may appear soon, so I'll close this & come back to my travelogue in another post.  

Knitting Resolutions

I'll go out on a limb here, to state that my knitting resolutions for 2013 are
1. to become comfortable with left-hand (aka Continental) style knitting so that
2. I'll learn to knit Fair Isle/stranded colorwork, and also
3. To knit at least two sweaters during 2013 -- Terry's, and one for me! 

I made a border of garter stitch in the round for my green washcloth, which I worked entirely left-handed.  Since garter stitch in the round calls for knitting one row, then purling the next, I got some practice with both.  I want to start my stranded knitting with something small, like a pair of mittens.  Anyone out there have a favorite and easy (& free!) stranded mitten pattern to suggest?  Please leave me a link in a comment.  I'd also like to hear about other folks' knitting resolutions -- maybe we can "egg" each other on!

Pup's 1st Steelers sock is now 4.75" long; at 7" I'll split the insole away from the heel; add on the Malabrigo fingering (solid black) for the heel flap, turn & gusset; then drop the solid black and work towards the toe. I have some black reinforcing thread I'll hold with the Malabrigo, to strengthen it.  The toe wiill be worked in the same materials.  I believe I'll use black heels & toes for all 3 pairs.  Erin has seen a stitch pattern that she'd like to have for her socks, in a booklet I've got.  The booklet pattern calls for a heavier yarn, so I'll have to do some swatching to figure out how many stitches to cast on & the number of repeats to work around.  Oh noes, teh dredded knittin' math!   

White (after-)Christmas

When I left the house this morning (about 0 dark thirty, which is an expression I've used FOR YEARS and I should so sue somebody....), the rain was slight to moderate & spotty.  Of course, I don't rate a window or even an outer wall, so I never know what the weather gets up to while I'm stuck in my cubicle.  Anyway, I called the Plaidman to review his plans for the day, and he told me the snow (Snow!?!) was already melting.  No snow fort this year!  Boy that brings back a memory:  I know I was pretty young, not yet out of elementary school so this had to have happened in Pennsylvania.  Dad used to watch for the snowplow to come down the street, and slip the driver some cash to plow our driveway.  We'd have these two huge mounds of snow across from each other at the end of the driveway; instant snow forts!  Just climb to the top and level it a bit, them back down a few steps and stomp that area flat, then make a slough of snowballs and the war was on!  We'd hollow out small snow caves on the backside (where did ya think the snowballs came from?); Mom used to worry that one or all (5) of us would be buried in a collapsing mound. It never happened, but I did lose a boot that wasn't found until spring.  Snow suits, we hadz them.  Disco hears this kind of story from both her parents, and she seems to think it must have been fun, but she'd rather not go outside in "serious" snow.  Just a southern belle, she is. 
ETA: I just realized I forgot to mention the "progress" on Pup's Steelers socks.  It's sorta two steps up & 1 back:  I'd started over, as reported earlier, and had about 4" done for these men's size 10.5, when I had a thought.  Why not get the Plaidman to try on what I had done, just to make sure it would go over his size 8.5 heel?  No sooner thought, than done!  Unfortunately, it would just barely go over his heel.  Back to the frog pond it went.  I wound the yarn into a hank on the swift, and washed it the next day to relax the kinks.  In the meantime, I wound up a whole new ball of the yarn (I have 6 skeins!) and started over with an increased cast on.  It's now about 3" long, and will go over the Plaidman's heel quite well.

GO TEAM!!

Way to go STEELERS!! Heading to the Super Bowl again, let's see if we can make it our own for the 7th time. Pup & I talked on the phone after the game, both of us just tickled to see Franco & Rocky come up to congratulate "the boys". The Jets couldn't keep from tripping on their own feet, except for about a 10-minute interlude of having "it" together. I should have taken some pictures; both DiscoDame & I were in team gear. Pup has another bit of memorabilia that he wants to send, which will likely wind up in Disco's room. Her door has "Steelers Nation" and a logo displayed.
Of course, I knitted during the game--it's got so I really can't watch TV without some knitting in my hands. I'm still working on the Diamond Chain Lace stole, but I'll have to put it aside for a while as I have a commission for the Sgt. He'd like two more hats just like the two I've already made for him, thank you. Wouldn't be a problem if I could just locate the dang pattern! It's basically a watchcap, with ribbing that is first increased then decreased so that the large ribs are leaf-shaped. I'll have to go on Ravelry & see if I can find a link to the pattern on my projects page.