My Secret Pal 9 presents

I thought I had posted about the first package I received, sans photos... but I can't find such a post anywhere... my deepest apologies to my SP9 pal! :(

Here are two (I hope!) photos taken today of some of the first package and of the second package I have received from my SP9 pal.

Stitches, stitches and more stitches!! Plus lovely Katia Mexico yarn, that begged to be squares for warming blankets. I was going to make two for the Project Gracious Parcels, but the first came out too big. It'll go to the first hand-wash wool 8" square needed request!

This lovely Rowan Tapestry (70% WOOL, 30% SOYBEAN) arrived a couple of days ago!

Thank you, thank you! I hope you don't mind that the first yarn went into a Knit Unto Others project!

Faster than the speed of bloggers...

There is a Graduate student tracking bloggers. Let's help him out. Click into his post and read all about it:
Measuring The Speed of Meme: An Experiment in which You Will Participate, Or Else...

Basically, he asks us to link to his post in the name of science. And asks us to spread the word by asking others to do the same... so do the same, okay? He will be presenting his results during the "Meet the Bloggers" panel at MLA 2006. I'm not really sure what MLA 2006 is, but some of you probably do. So, help a fella out, 'kay?

Here's what he needs you to do:

1. Write a post linking to this one in which you explain the experiment. (All blogs count, be they TypePad, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, &c.)
2. Ask your readers to do the same. Beg them. Relate sob stories about poor graduate students in desperate circumstances. Imply I'm one of them. (Do whatever you have to. If that fails, try whatever it takes.)
3. Ping Technorati.

He is afraid that no one will participate in my experiment. Let's surprise him! Go out and speed on the meme!

One.Word

Jumping on the One.Word bandwagon. Have seen it many places, most recently here. (I was going to do the My Life.My Blog one but was having a difficult time with some of the categories.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: tired
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): hypothetical
3. Your hair: thick
4. Your mother: aging
5. Your father: remembered
6. Your favorite item: computer
7. Your dream last night: scattered
8. Your favorite drink: diet
9. Your dream car: chauffeured
10. The room you are in: cluttered
11. Your ex: deceased
12. Your fear: poverty
13. What you want to be in 10 years? content
14. Who you hung out with last night? family
15. What you're not? thin
16. Muffins: sure
17. One of Your Wish List Items: kettle
18. Time: evening
19. The last thing you did: eat
20. What you are wearing: casual
21. Your favorite weather: Fall
22. Your favorite book: inspirational
23. The last thing you ate: shrimp
24. Your life: busy
25. Your mood: undetermined
26. Your best friend: Mike
27. What are you thinking about right now? lunch
28. Your car: Intrepid
29. What are you doing at the moment? thinking
30. Your summer: hot
31. Your relationship status: widowed
32. What is on your TV? nothing
33. What is the weather like? cool
34. When is the last time you laughed? last night Thanksgiving

A Thankful Day

Turkey Day 2006:

Attendance: Aunt/Godmother and her two children (34 and 19); Aunt The Middle Child and her Husband and two of her three children (41 and 42) and one spouse and 4 children (15, 15, 11, 2.5 (cutest of the cute!)); My Sis and her three (14, 12, 11); me and my two (18 and 16); Nephew 24); two friends from the neighborhood (16 & 14) and Mom - 23 for dinner; 14 staying the night (some of them were here last night, some will be here tomorrow night too!)

23 lb Turkey, 7 lb ham, 5 lbs potatoes, 4 lbs yams (fresh from the Amish Farmers, made into an orange, pecan, yam casserole); steamed broccoli/cauliflower, stuffing from the bird and from StoveTop; Cheese sauce; three kinds of gravy; 3 doz dinner rolls; many, many, many desserts.

Not.one.argument!!!!!!!!!!! An amazingly amicable year.

There always has to be one low spot... in a house with 4 full baths, one gets the mega-use - it's commode ran over, and over, and over and amid tears and I'm sorries, it got all fixed up - by me, with help from my Aunt Margie and her daughter. But still NOT.ONE.ARGUMENT!!!

Life is good! :)

Hope your Turkey Days were delightful!

+++++++++++++++++++++

I have knitted (and need to seam) two meathead hats. I have not had time for anything else due to the Thanksgiving preparations... Fiber use resumes on Saturday - when all the company heads to their homes - in three different states - the closest being 8 hours away!

Some fiber content...

I want to do everything I see. I want to help every cause. Unfortunately, my want and my ability often fall short. So I've been trying to help in small ways. One square (maybe 2, but not 10) when squares are requested. Same with hats, mittens and such when there is a short deadline. There will definitely be more than one Dulaan hat - since I have six already.

I want to help Firefly (see side bar for Project Gracious Parcels). I have lovely autumn-y yarn sent to me by my SP9 Spoiler. Perfect for this project. So, I cast on, knit a couple of rows. All seemed good. Knit a couple more - it grew an inch! Rip out, start again, cast on few, measured, all seemed good, it is still 8 inches (though I think that first one would have been closer to 8.5 or 9, had I continued)! I'm going to finish it... actually, just five more rows and it'll be an 8" inch square ready to mail the next time an 8" square is needed. There will be enough yarn left for a 7" square, if I can figure out how many cast on stitches I need this time! I hope there will be enough for two. If not, I'll send the one and try for more later - I promised two by the beginning of December. (tried to show a picture of the square in progress - no blogger luck today)

I know I could get two done by December during normal times, but next week is Thanksgiving and the gathering of the clan... It is not 'normal times' -- Time has its own way of rocking through a family-filled week - goes slow then fast then slow then warp speed and not much actually gets accomplished except making food, cleaning kitchen, eating food, doing dishes! :) Oh, and visiting! ;)

Makes perfect sense

I was born in Philadelphia, raised in the DC Metro area by a Dad from NY, Mom from Philadelphia and grandparents living in those places but originally born in Ireland. My Aunt Margie has the perfect Philly accent, mine has twinges of other, but I got Philly for sure! :)

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Inland North
The South
The Northeast
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Seven Inch Squares are needed

Stop by Firefly's Blog and read all about it!

She's putting together 7x7 7" squares to create a gift of warmth for families helped through Habitat for Humanity in her area. Drop by and see if you can spare a square to help her out.

More later... maybe.

What? No Pictures?!?!

I have been a poor blogger - no pictures to show of my knitting accomplishments!

I have sent 3 hats to the Soaring Eagles project.
I have sent a square (the only one I could get to be 8"!!!) to Grandmother Purl's project.
I have sent off my SP9 package.
I have finished 6 Dulaan hats. (you saw five on a previous post!)
and finished knitting a booga bag - that now needs felting.

And not one picture was taken!!! (I will take a Booga Bag picture - before and after - this weekend)

Suffice to say I have been busy and it's been too dark when I get home from work to use natural light and I'm just lazy! :)

Calendar Girl - November Thankfulness

"I love my, love my, love my Calendar Girl... each and every day of the year".

This is a possible contest/meme post for Chappysmom who has asked us to post our November calendar pages, searching for the beautiful scenes of November. Here's to the birthday, calendar girl - enjoy the cone! :)

There is something wrong with this picture!

30 degrees at 8:20-something on November 3rd. There is just something wrong with that!! :)