Gettin’ It Pegged…Loom Knitter’s Clique

I’ve recently gotten to know a little bit more about a wonderful loomy friend of mine…Robin McCoy!  She’s such a kick in the pants, and so willing and ready to help those in need; whether it’s for charity, or for all those questions that many people have on looming techniques.  She’s so ready to drop everything and lend a hand.  I’ve grown rather fond of our Robin.  :D 

So…in honor of this special day, I give you happy wishes, and a shared flash back:

Yes, it is Robin’s birthday today!  She reminds me so much of myself, as I have always been crazy about all holidays in general, and especially birthdays… sometimes I drive my family nutty with my giddy excitment, lol.  Robin has been talking about her birthday for the past month on the Loom Knitter’s Chat Clique, so I wanted to do something a little quirky for her.

In one of our chatty emails to each other, we discovered that we share a bit of the same past…we were both on the High School Band Flag Team…or Color Guard, as she likes to call it.  :)  I absolutely loved being on the team, and not only for the cool routines we got to make up, but for the fact that I got out of wearing, what I thought at the time, to be really dorky uniforms that the band had to wear!  I would be playing the flute, wearing those terrible polyester pants, and feathered hat, if I wasn’t twirling a flag.  Hehehe, yes…as a high schooler, all is vanity!  And another similarity, is that Robin also played the flute!…and sax, which I always wanted to, but could never afford. <insert pouty face>  So, I played the piano instead, which we already had in the house, lol.

Flash Back #1

Okay…see the band behind us?

See what I mean about those uniforms? 

And check out those cute little lacy anklets I’m sporting, lol!

Flash Back #2

Okay, as the hat says…this is the 80’s…so of course I’m sporting those huge sunglasses that take up my entire face, and make me look like some kind of weird bug!  I look like I’m straight out of the movie “Better Off Dead”!

This was one of the highlights of being in the high school band…we got to travel to British Columbia, Canada and perform at the World Expo of…you got it!  1986!

Oh the days…sigh.   Robin, I hope you have a totally awesome tubular birthday, and that all things rad come your way throughout the year!

Bethany~

Yippee!  It’s over!!!! 

I know…April is a very nice month in it’s own right, and I normally think so, too.  After all, this is when my first daughter came into the world 16 years ago.  But this year’s April was a killer!  WAAAAY too much stress and struggle!  Whew that it’s the last day.  :P 

We are all done in the other house.  We spent all day Sunday and Monday doing the last packing & loading & scrubbing.  Let me tell you, I think I almost asfixiated myself with cleaning fumes!  I was using bleach and Windex in the bathroom, and then in the kitchen, and added oven cleaner on top of it.  I didn’t even know I wasn’t feeling well until we broke for a late lunch and I felt dizzy, and my “lung pipes” were a bit raw.  I kept laughing hysterically at everything everyone said, even if it was “please pass the napkins”, lol!  My advice to anyone doing major cleaning…follow the instructions on the warning labels of the cleaning cans…they mean what they say!  ;) 

Things I’m looking forward to in May…

• getting settled in our new home
• going to my nephew’s wedding shower  (he’s the first of 10 nephews/nieces to be married)
• my hubby’s birthday
• Mother’s Day is always a shining light on the horizon!
• planting flowers in our new backyard
• Narnia movie #2 comes out!  (I think there are other’s I’d like to see opening this month, too, but I can’t remember…all the stress has knocked them clean outta my noggin’)
• getting a new loom along going in the Loom Knitter’s Chat Clique!  Most likely the Arm Chair Caddy!

By the way…the Peggin’ Pages Moving Sale is still going on all day today!  Hurry…sale ends tomorrow…as tomorrow brings a new day, month, and new happiness right along with it! 

Bethany~

Another thing we did over the weekend, was to go see the new movie out…

*The Spiderwick Chronicles*

This was a great movie!  All four of us enjoyed it thoroughly, which makes it an excellent “good for most ages” kind of fun. 

*Warning:  There are some pretty tense moments, and somewhat scary beasts…so for really young ones, or scaredy-cats  ;)  , it might not be the best viewing.

Our Family Rating:  Top Notch!  We give it 5 Stars!!! 

Bethany~

Hey, all!  For some time now, I’ve been wanting to highlight a couple of wonderful  tutorials by two very talented loom knitters:  Stephany McElheran, of Loomy Daze & Denise Layman of Knitting Without Needles. 

 Stephany has a very informative video produced at this link about how to YO Y2tog, & SSK, YO.  Definitely something to put on your need to watch list!

But what purpose do these techniques have, you say?…

Well, pop on over to Denise’s post here.  She explains further what uses these seemingly mystifying techniques serve!  For knitters, and designers alike, these skills are great additions to add your knitting know-how.

And as a little by the by…you probably have seen the great to-do happening over at the Purling Sprite’s site…she’s providing wonderful video tutorials all about knitting cables!  If you haven’t checked them out…by all means!  Pop on over!   

Ladies…I’m sending a BIG thank you your way for taking the time to push our learning a little bit farther.  You’re all brilliant! 

Bethany~

It’s definitely spider season! 

Now, my philosophy on spiders is to leave them alone if I find them outside (that’s their territory after all) and to smoosh them mercilessly if I find them in my house (that’s MY terrritory & they don’t belong!) 

Last week we had a GIANT spider crawling across our livingroom floor…towards me! Ack!  My daughters and I were watching a movie when my eldest suddenly shreeked, jumped up, grabbed a glass that was on the coffee table and trapped the thing inside.  I couldn’t really see it very well because it blended in with our carpet. (Happy thought if there are more of them lurking around!)  We slipped a thick white paper timidly under the glass so that we could carry it elsewhere and this highlighted it.  IT WAS HUGE!!!!  I’m talking approx 3inches across with legs!  UGH!  I had an uncontrollable shudder as I looked at the thing backing up and hunching it’s back at us. I’m sure it was hissing! (if spiders do :)  )  

We carefully carried the glass with our beasty outside to my husband.  He suggested we get a baggie and some cotton soaked in alcohol to gas it, so that we could take it intact to the health dept to have it identified.  We got him the only size we had in the house, a sandwich baggie…Ziploc, of course!  As we positioned ourselves to maneuver it inside, he paused and said, “Do we have any bigger baggies?”  We all laughed, because he had been so seemingly calm, but betrayed himself at that moment…how cute! 

Well, we still bravely continued…my daughter holding the glass, my husband holding the baggie, and me standing there shuddering  .  We almost got it in when the thing fought it’s way back out of the bag and we freaked and it landed on the ground where my husband, out of concern for all mankind, promptly smeared it as hard as he could.  My hero!

We’re pretty sure this was a hobo spider…yes, they’re poisonous!  If you click on the link, be sure to brace yourselves first…it’s nasty!

So, since then, needless to say, we’ve been shaking our shoes, plugging up the holes under the screen doors, and looking in every corner.  Last night, while my husband and I were watching Disturbia…an extremely tense remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”, we heard a shreek coming from the bathroom, and then our spider trapping eldest running into the kitchen to get another glass for the hunt.  She succeeded, but this time it wasn’t nearly so big (about as big as a quarter) and we’re not positive that it’s the same kind of spider as the first.  We did gas it, though, so that we could get a close look at it.  We’ll see.

A note on the movie…it was good, extremely tense in parts ( I thought my heart was going to beat it’s way right out of my chest a couple of times), but all in all, I don’t think it was as good as the first.  After all, even though Shia LaBeouf is a very talented up-and- coming actor…. who can beat Alfred Hitchcock & Jimmy Stewart?  

Bethany~