The weather's not perfect, but I wish you were here anyway.

Today is my sweetie's birthday. He is the answer to my prayers, my dream come true. He has been a son to my father, a father to my daughter and everything I could have ever asked for in a partner.

He is strong, funny, generous, handsome, courageous, and a talented musician. He is my heart. My life would have been much different if I had never met him and I thank God for him every single day.

I didn't get to spend this birthday with him, he left yesterday to go to Iraq. Happy Birthday, baby. I am counting the days.

Finally finished

I finally finished the Sweetheart Shorts, can I get a WOO HOO?



They are done, ends are are woven in, and laundered just in time to go off to Iraq. I used Knitpicks Shine Sport and if you have never knitted with it I have got to say that you need to. I loved the feel of it when I was knitting these shorts, but it didn't compare to the way it felt after it had been washed. Really soft, I think it would make a nice camisole.

Here is a picture of my hand painted yarn. I don't know yet what I am going to do with it. It was fun and I will do it again, I just need to get a better place to do it than my kitchen. It's kinda messy.

I tried handpainting this afternoon for the first time

I have been wanting to try hand painting for quite a while. I read some books and everything that I could find on the internet and decided that I was ready to try a simple experiment this afternoon. I found a lot of helpful information and had fun playing around today, but there is one very, very important part of the process that I did not see mentioned in ANY of the things I read. It seems to be a very well kept secret among hand painters, but I figured it out for myself this afternoon. I will share the secret ingredient with you, even though hand painters across the globe may be angry with me for putting their well-guarded secret out on the internet for anyone to see. I have to warn you that I have not perfected the formula, I may have used too much of it, or maybe not enough, I am going to have to keep trying trying until I know for sure. Now without anymore stalling I am going to show you the one thing (quite possibly the MOST IMPORTANT thing) you will need to make your hand painting experience a pleasant one...



Being my first attempt I didn't get too tricky. No sophisticated patterns or anything like that. It is a study in pinks and browns and I will post some pictures once it gets dry and I can wind it up.

It will be interesting if nothing else and it was an excellent excuse to have a couple Rolling Rocks. You should never, for the love of chocolate, pass up an opportunity like that.

I saw this on Julie's blog and thought it might be fun.

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

"and possibly downright weird"??? I resemble that remark. Snort.

What a busy day I had and other randomness

My goodness, I hit the floor running today. By 12:15 this afternoon I had been to the base and gotten my military ID card, to Kinkos for a passport photo, downtown to the passport office to file my application, had breakfast with my sweetie, to the tire place to get four new tires (because we had a flat on the way to the base), and to the health department to get a replacement for my birth certificate. All by 12:15! Whew. I didn't do that much the rest of the day, went to the grocery store, did some laundry and some knitting.

I didn't know this until today, but you can go into the Tulsa County Health Department Office at 3rd and Utica and walk out ten minutes later with a certified copy of your birth certificate. I figured it would take several weeks to get it, I was impressed.

When we were at dinner Saturday evening we noticed that the sky was turning black (all of the guys in the restaurant were fine, none were harmed) and we decided that it would be a good idea to get back home. When we got home we found this in our yard.



It's hard to tell in the picture, but this limb is about 20'long and was about 5" or 6" in diameter. Our dog was looking at us like "Whatever, I didn't have anything to do with it."

Madeline helped me bake some cookies for Bob, Brice and Brandon. She was very helpful and kept a very close watch to make sure they didn't burn.



I have finished the Market Squares Bag, well I haven't actually finished it, but I have finished knitting the body of the bag and have felted it, I just haven't figured out exactly what I want to do for straps. I am thinking about something using this cotton filler cord, purpley wool yarn and these four silvertone D rings.



I am still working on the Sweetheart Shorts. I have bound off one leg and I just have the other leg left to do. I will post a picture of them and the Market Squares bag when I get them done.

We have a new addition to our family, Emilia, this is not a very good picture, but you can see how sweet she is anyway.



I have started a blanket for her, I'm using the basic log cabin pattern, except I am going to make the blanket one big square instead of a bunch of little ones. The corners look a little wonky to me, but I think I can remedy that when I weave in my ends. Believe me, there are plenty of ends to weave. It is about 15" across right now so I still have a ways to go on it.

I've created a monster!

Here is a picture of the Market Squares Baq in progress. In.progress. Infreakingprogress. I have completed only 10 of the 15 tiers in the pattern.



Of course it will be felted, but it is still going to be a ginormous bag. What the hell am I gonna do with this thing?

Let's see, I could pitch it like a tent and rent it out by the week, or fill it full of peanuts and hang it around an elephant's neck, or smuggle a small adult into the movies in it, or hang it on the flag pole and have it be only the second man made object to ever be seen from outer space. Maybe I could strap it to my back and go parasailing. A carcover? A tablecloth? One of those big windsock thingies at the airport? I don't know what I will do with it. I do know that if I fill it full of stuff it will be too heavy to carry around. Maybe you guys can think of a good use for it. Think about it, let me know if you come up with something.

Bow to the Master

I realize that some of you don't realize who you are dealing with, so I looked my name up in the dictionary and posted the definition here for you.

Amy -- [noun]: A master blogger 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

You may show your respect by sending gifts of yarn and knit related gifts, the Master has left the building.