Snap Shots

The current status of my Ivy League Vest. I'm a few rounds past the beginning of the arm hole steek. Does it look any bigger? We have been playing furnace wars the past 2 weeks. Last night Joy #1 was super whiny about not having the furnace on. Nothing like a teenager on a mission. Here she is warming up over a pot of potato soup.

And then the oven after the shortbread came out...

And as soon as I left to go to knit night her and Joy #2 staged a coup and turned on the furnace. Ugh...so I lost furnace wars. It was 58F when I left so not terrible. I do not want to discuss that what she was wearing when I got home! A tank top and sweatpants. Really!?! I think I was duped.

Formulating a Plan...

My business partner and I are big into budgets. Personal and business. I live on a budget every month and it is a good thing. Knowing where my money goes and why is empowering. Self control is a fruit of the spirit after all and my budget keeps me in control. Tess (my business partner) and I have recently sat down and looked at the numbers for the rest of the year and unfortunately we are going to have to suck it in for about 3 months. "Sucking it in" in small business terms means the owners take a hit.



It would be really easy to get discouraged over the finances but if God has taught me one thing through owning my own business is that He has taken me through the lean times of those first years and He can take care of me through this season too.



So...today I'm counting my blessings. I am thankful that because of my business I am able to be a more hands on parent. My desire for being a stay at home mom is not possible but this is the next best thing. I can pick up and drop off after school. I can be there anytime rain or shine they need me and they can come to the office and hang if they choose.



I am thankful that thanks to my super fab budgeting skills everything should get paid. There won't be any extra and December is questionable but I think I can squeeze by.



I am thankful for my family. Because of them (my mom especially) Joy #1 will get her yearbook and Joy #2 will get a winter coat. They were the only things I was really concerned about.



I am also thankful for spiritual growth. In the past I would just sucked it up. Live in denial, went without and pretend everything is fine. I've recognized that it is pride and even if I wind up with a part time job at Walmart that's ok. Being honest and earning a living for my family is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm not asking for a hand out. I'll work for what I have and God will provide.



And...I'm thankful for the never ending Ivy League Vest knit using finger weight yarn and small needles. This project keeps growing and the yarn barely looks touched.

Rainy Day

I wanna go home and knit on my vest. I picked it back up and am working on it as much as time allows. I've started the arm hole steeks. I'm back to feeling like I'm progressing. I'm also enjoying listening to Brisingr while knitting. Love the Eragon series!

Ok, done whining...back to work.

My weekend summed up

• The Liberty church of Christ hosted a wonderful weekend. Their theme was Fruit of the Spirit: Gotta catch them all. A play on words from Pokemon. Great lessons, classes, and singing. And those kids are so much fun!
• I stayed at a members house by myself. Well, the host couple was there but, other than that just me. I slept so well!! And get this, they had house guests earlier in the week. They had come up from MO to see the Yarn Harlot. Crazy!
• I ventured off to a yarn shop Old Mill Stitchery.I picked up a skein of Noro 1/2 price and some grey Cascade 220. I plan on making my nephew a Turn the Square hat. This will be my first time with both these yarns. I'm hoping to have enough left to make Joy #2 one too.
• Did a little knitting but wound up going with some ladies to the goodwill. Actually that took awhile because we used Stephanie's GPS and hit every thrift shop in a 20 miles radius. It was fun but can you believe I didn't find anything? GPS are cool.
• Finished one baby hat and a few rows on the Ivy League Vest.
• I chaperoned 9 kids and they were all perfect. I didn't even have to tell anyone to please stop horsing around in the church building. This was also Joy #2's first "official" youth rally. He has been attending with us for 4 years and now he is "of age" to really be apart of it all.

Grape Jelly and Yarn

This weekend I am taking our youth group to the Liberty Youth Rally. Liberty is only 45 minutes away but we will stay there the whole weekend. I am so not ready to go. Big shock. The past two days I have been in constant motion only really sitting still while I was at knit night last night. I plan to get a lot of knitting done this weekend but have been kicking projects back and forth. I think I've decided to bring the Ivy League Sweater and some baby hats. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with 8 balls of yarn on the sweater but really, I won't be moving around much so it shouldn't matter. If I can work on it at knit night I can work on it there. And the baby hats will be the simple project for when the sun goes down and the lights are low.

Last post I decided to host a little contest. The lucky Learning to be Thankful blog reader will receive a skein of Knit Picks Shimmer Turquoise splendor 440 yds and a pint of Jennifer's spectacular grape jelly. Excuse me while I hope over to random.org....

I'm back and our lucky number is...3 Tracey from Wool Windings. Congratulations. Tracey, will you send me your address again. I can't find it. Oops. Debbie I can hear your disappointment all the way from Canada. Maybe you'll find something cool in your post office box too.

Have a good weekend. Enjoy the cool weather and put on some wool.

How about a little contest

How about some more Yarn Harlot pictures? These were taken by CurliSue. Stephanie asked if she was my paparazzi. Funny!
And this guy made my day when he politely interrupted our chit chat to find out what kind of yarn I knit my clapotis in. He was featured on the Yarn Harolt's post about KC too. He was so nice. Are we all nice? Surely there are crazies that are apart of our group too. I wish I knew what his ravelry tag said. BTW- I used knit picks shimmer tripled. Turquoise Splendor.

Back at the homestead...the other day I put all the jars of jelly on the dining room table to snap a picture. They are still there but I have noticed that every day they are arranged differently. They were in a circular pattern Monday evening and last night they were in a three dimensional eight shape display. I think I'm going to leave them out just to see what they will be next. I suspect Joy #2.

Contest

So since I have managed to talk about grape jelly in just about every post for the past 2 weeks I'm going offer a little contest. You all deserve something for me going on and on! Comment on this post, only this post by Friday to enter. I'll randomly draw a name and the prize will be a pint of Jennifer's amazing grape jelly and a skein of KnitPicks shimmer in Turquoise Splendor (plus a little left over from the clapotis project). Enter to win! Tell all your friends or not. It may increase your chances of winning.

Fun only knitters can have.

Top L-R:Sandra, Mary Ann, Me, Renee, Mary :Bottom L-R Colleen, & Laura

The Leavenworth Yarnies had a fabulouso time at the Yarn Harlot event. Well, I think we've decided it was more like an adventure. We started our adventure to the city with dinner. We ate at Maker's Mark which was very cool. It is in the middle of the power and light district and thanks to Mary's husband we got the chef's table. I splurged on my meal and it was very good! Striped bass stuffed with crab and some fancy sauce. Yum. We relaxed and enjoyed each other's company so much that we were a tad late for event. Oops.






We arrived at around 7:15 or 7:20pm. The Yarn Harlot was already well into her speech. She was witty and spoke with much love about herself, knitting, and the value of what we do. I really look forward to reading this book! If you look really close she is there in the photo. All blurry and yellow. I don't know why my camera couldn't take a decent picture in the hall but it couldn't. Use your imagination.



Next, it was onto the signing. We all had ordered our books and tickets separately so we were in the signing line at different times. Here's my ticket. Do you see...do you see...



I had ticket #1. Out of ALL those knitters I was the first. Not that we stood in line by number or anything. But I was so excited to be the first person in KC to purchase her book from the event. I felt like I had the golden ticket from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory! Which is nuts because the ticket really didn't mean anything except that I was in the first group. I guess it's like being number one to comment on her blog.



We all got our books signed and she told me that she loved my Clapotis. I didn't say anything special or tell her how much I love her blog or anything. I just said hi. I should have rehearsed something witty ahead of time.



Then we hung out and visited with other knitters. Admired all the lovely handknits and try to recognize people off of Ravelry. Met up with Sue who came all the way from Oklahoma City by herself. That's a great knitter right there!

It was a great time. I really enjoyed an evening out on the town with my knitting peeps. They are great ladies and I'm glad I was able to see the Yarn Harlot with them. If I didn't have them I wouldn't have eaten a great meal, at an exclusive table. Or looked like a maniac running around a parking garage looking for the car. Or navigate to the event while loosing half the caravan we had. Or listen trying not to laugh while 3 people tried to tell Laura how to get back on track to the event via cell phone. Or enjoy their company and conversation while listening to a knitting icon. Things are so much better when you share them and even better when you share them with knitters.

PS)Bloglines hates me. It hasn't recognized my blog in over a week. I hear I'm not the only one.