Wakey wakey.... pancakes and bakey....

No I'm not cooking... whenever I see the sunrise at this angle I think of the time a bunch of co-workers and I did the Cancer walk all night and as the sun came up the next morning and 99% of the people were sleeping in tents around the football field/track stadium, we... all 12 or so of us marched around screaming "Wakey wakey pancakes and bakey" until everyone was awake. We then went on to win the coveted "Most Annoying Campers" award. Look... see that dot at the top of the picture... there's a ghost out here with me, it's not the moon. The moon is just above my right shoulder.... that's a ghost. I'm going to have to start taking more pictures out here in the dark. And if you are wondering what that thing is in the foreground... it's a telescope stand. I can see Saturn from my house... take that Mrs. Palin! I wanted you to see the sunrise, since I know most of you are still sleeping or just getting to sleep.

Jody went to get the results of his PET scan yesterday... I'm kicking myself for not going with him. I'll go the next time. The cancer is still there. The mass is gone, but there are still cancer cells. So the treatment continues. Maybe 4 more, possibly 6 treatments. Then the radiation. Mr. Pessimistic (that looks weird) isn't very chipper about this news. When he told me, and had that dejected look on his face, I optimistically said... "that's better than 37!" I don't think it helped much. He did mention that he's looking forward to going to Garland tonight. He hasn't chatted and spent time with his good buddy Dave in quite awhile. It would be nice if his Neulasta has worn off. He was pretty achy yesterday, in the ribcage.... he said it felt like he'd taken a beating.

Jolea is having a grand time, check out her blog... over there in the right hand column.... She found the little surprise in her luggage... didn't say much about it. I bet she's planning on planting it somewhere. She's hoping we'll forget about it.

Jeff called me Wednesday afternoon from Scotland. He's having a great time... walking down the road! He's so... literal? I guess you would call it that. When you ask him what he's doing or been doing, he just replies simply, walking.... sitting.... sleeping.... eating.... If you want details you have to ask him for them. "Where are you walking?" "Down the road." "Where is the road?" "In Scotland." "What part of Scotland?" "The lower part. Gotta go Mom, this will cost me a fortune. Bye. Love ya!" There you have it, our complete conversation and it took all of 7 seconds.

Jacki wanted me to post a picture of my sweater I made this summer, so here it is. These pictures don't do it justice... it looks much better on, as most sweaters do. This one is made of a rather thick cream colored cotton yarn, in a double seed stitch, so it has a up and down texture.

That was the front.



And this is the back. These buttons took me a month to find. Buttons are like jewelry, they are an accessory, you just can't throw any old thing on there and call it 'done.' These have a real natural look almost like abalone. They don't really button or unbutton. I don't like making button holes on sweaters or on the sewing machine on sewn garments. I'd rather have a zipper. I do zippers really well. On this sweater I just over lapped the two pieces and sewed the buttons on top, stitching all the layers together. It still looks like it would unbutton, but it's sewn shut. It's a sweater!!! It stretches!!! Pull it over your head! So this one has that S-E-xy button down the back effect.

This is the second time I've made a sweater from this pattern. The first time I made it I was approached by a woman in Wal-Mart and she asked me where I got that top? I thought she was talking about the top Jolea was wearing. No... she meant my top, the sweater I was wearing. I told her I'd made it, she asked me how much I would charge to make her a sweater. I asked her if she had ever priced hand made sweaters in a store. She said she had never seen a hand made sweater in a store... this is probably because she shopped in Wal-Mart. I told her to pop on over to Neiman Marcus and price one and then get back to me. Aunt Shorty said there would be moments like this.... knitting is a labor of love, rarely one you can make a living at, because the average person couldn't afford to pay you for it. I always tell people it would be cheaper for me to teach them to knit. Now you are wondering what I did with the first sweater like this??? I gave it away. I had followed the pattern and the pattern was made for someone who was short waisted, unlike myself. I made this new one longer waisted and nipped in at the waist to give it a more fitted look. I like my sweaters to have that fitted look.

In the past 10 years that I have been knitting, I have managed to make a sweater a month during the summer when I'm off work. That's almost unheard of in knitting circles. But when you make sleeveless pullovers or tank tops, it's rather easy (and when you can have the luxury to knit 12 hours a day.) It does result in blowing out the disks in your neck. This year I opted to slow down the pace and just do one, saving the pain in the neck of having a pain in the neck. After all, I was vacationing abroad this year... and no I have not finished that project I was knitting on in the Virgin Islands. I'm not loving that yarn.... it's hard for me to finish something I'm not really in love with.

I'm working on these.... socks, no my foot is not in traction. This is how a sock is knitted, sometimes, as there are several methods. I prefer to use 5 needles and knit in a circle. Some people use two circular needles, I've tried that before and it works well for thick yarn when you're making slipper socks. Some people like to knit the two socks at the same time on two circular needles, it's supposed to speed up the process... I just end up fighting two balls of yarn, which takes up all my time. I can knit like this quiet fast and that's what I like to do... knit fast. I don't think a project should last more than a month. That is, unless you keep putting it down to start something else. Which is a common problem with knitters... we want to knit all the yarn, all the time.

Here's another shot of the sock, I want you to know this is a bad angle for my leg... makes it look REALLY fat and my foot looks REALLY tiny. They are in proportion to each other I assure you.

Well that's about it for today.... I smell someone cooking breakfast.... mmmm. Wakey wakey!