Now that my SP5 has received her final package, I can share something with you all I have wanted to since I read it on her blog. I was afraid linking her might cause an unexpected chain of revealing events, so I chose to wait until now to share it.

Before I do though, I want everyone to know how much fun I had with my SP5 pal. She is a warm, gratious REAL person, and it turns out we have quite a bit in common. As I have told her, I plan to continue stalking her blog, and hope we remain in touch!

drumroll please
I was lucky enough to be spoiling Ailsa, of Pick Up Sticks. Now before you go perusing her general blog, I ask you to PLEASE go read THIS POST. It is so honest, so true, and really hit home for me. I too have found my tribe

I also heard from my SP6 pal this morning, and I must say, the SP Gods have once again smiled upon me. Instead of an International Wool Fairy (Hi Emily!) this time I have an Elf! She and I already have had a wonderful little email exchange, and based on our similar tastes (and a mutual appreciation for Vin Diesel) I think this is going to be another wonderful SP round.

Went to PT this morning, which felt GREAT. I am seeing improvements and despite my being really bad yesterday, Im not in as bad a shape today as I had feared last night. I have a few hours before I leave for my haircut and then off to SnB. I do have work to do, I’m just less than enthusiastic about doing it. The rules of the universe demand I do some actual work to get paid though, so I guess I better get moving.

Before I go though, just a reminder -I haven’t added any new links to the donations page in a few days but there are still a ton of things we all can do. Our help will be needed for a long time to come. And have you seen the latest tally on Give a Little?

Meant to post this yesterday and somehow forgot!
Go read this – NOW (and if you havent read Christine’s blog before, after you read that post, go explore the rest, you will NOT be disappointed!)

A few more go reads:
Elbow Deep in the Dye Pot – I havent gone back further than the 1st page, but the entry from today is just… – go see for yourself!

This editorial in the Star Tribune

I have no idea why that song is stuck in my head, but it is, so I made it today’s title (it’s U2 btw, and no I havent heard it recently, just popped into my head as I sat down to post – lyrics here, in case you want to sing along :wink: )

I updated the donations page again, thank you Kimberli & Anastacia for some new info! And as of their last update, Give A Little is up to $65,516.43!! Plus, they have a listing of what prizes will be drawn this Friday, and a list of the other prizes available, and wow wow wow is that list long!

I restarted (and finished) Square #3 last night, and will be starting # 4 after dinner.

Front of Square 3

Back of Square 4

This is another super easy 4 row pattern from the 365 patterns a year calendar

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: K2, *P2, K2, rep from *
Row 4: P2, *K2, P2, rep from *

Quite similar to the fleck pattern, but different enough I think. I’m psyching myself up for moving on to a cable pattern eventually, tonight’s will be another fairly simply square, but maybe tomorrow at SnB I will get some tutoring and take the plunge

On another note, PT is going well. The therapist says Im still in pretty bad spasm, but the pain is much more tolerable for me, and I have learned how to stretch and strengthen the neck muscles and shoulder muscles that are clenching up. I have ot be careful about PC and knitting time still but it’s not hindering me (probably because Im not cutting back as much as I should – shhhhhhh!)

Off to make some dinner and figure out which square will keep me company while I catch up on Rescue Me from last night, and a few other Tivo’d programs I haven’t been able to watch yet. (I know what’s coming on Rescue Me, I think. I just hope I’m wrong)
Edit – added after watching – I HATE WHEN I’M RIGHT! And no coming attractions? Is this the last of the season? I have issues with just about everything on the show tonight *sigh*

After battling to get gauge and figuring out how many stitches I needed to cast on to get an 8 inch sq (which Im assuming should have been easy, but wasn’t of course ) I have 2 squares done. And of course, because I am trying different patterns on different squares (I may even get brave and try a cable in the mix) the numbers aren’t the same per square (or that’s just me and my weird knitting?) I have one garter square, and one in a fleck stitch. Really easy 4 row pattern, once you do 1 repeat it’s ingrained into memory and very easy to read from the knitting. I will probably do a few of these in different colors, since once I started I had that square done in about 3 hours time.

Fleck St (multiple of 2 sts plus 1):
Row 1 (RS): Knit.
Row 2: Purl.SS
Row 3: K 1, *p 1, k 1; rep from * across.
Row 4: Purl.
Rep Rows 1-4 for Pat

Right Side

Wrong Side

Not too sure the pictures (scanned, camera is in the car, Im lazy) do the color or pattern justice but it looks pretty in person.

We’ll be having a quiet early-ish dinner, then watching National Treasure (while Im knitting of course) My honey has the rest of the week off (he took 4 days off and ends up with 9 days off work!) so he’ll be home with me, whilst I attempt to work on some sites that need tweaks, and start a new one that shold capture alot of my attention since I will be working with a new to me shopping cart package – should be fun! He is trying to talk me into taking at least one day off though, so we can go out and play together – we’ll see how the week shapes up.

No new updates on the donation links page but have you checked out the latest totals on Give A Little? Makes me proud to be part of the knitting community! Not just dollars given but items donated, blood given (which I will be doing next week probably) and time/energy used to do whatever can be done to help.

I’ll leave you with something that happened a little earlier – definately food for thought…

I was in line at a quick Target run to pick up some forgotten necessities, and the lady behind me was getting really grumpy with the lines, she was apparently in a rush. She was grousing up a storm when the man behind her said VERY LOUDLY “You should consider yourself lucky that you CAN stand in this line to pay for something you want but probably dont need while people down south have lost not only material possessions but their lives” The woman turned 12 shades of red, mumbled some sort of apology and left the line. A bit harsh maybe, but some people need to be reminded of what they have.

A few I did it’s actually!

1 – I finally made it thru the 1200 or so Bloglines posts I was behind – everyone has been posting up a storm! (sorry, bad unintentional pun) I didn’t leave comments everywhere but I did leave notes in alot of places. WHEW! (And now that I’ve said that, the little gremlines of Bloglines will probably decide to show me another 1000 or so that I missed…)

2 – I went and bought 4 skeins of Red Heart Soft Yarn, which is what my SnB will be using for our squares for the blanket we are making – lots and lots of 8 x 8 squares in my future!!

3 – I finished the front of that thing I wasnt so sure I was going to like and hence haven’t named it publically yet. And now that Im done with the front, and (knock wood) it seems to be going well, I will admit that I am making a sweater, for me. Nothing fancy, but it looked like a good way to get into a grown up sized sweater, and something I would wear. Im not using the Bernat yarn, I’m using Caron Simply Soft (which I must say, isn’t as awful to work with as I was afraid it would be. No sticky hands or squeeky sounds) I also reversed the colors – the main color is a lighter blue, the contrast color is a darker blue. Aside from stretches of boring stockinette and semi poorly written directions, it isn’t a bad pattern. (The directions have an error or two and are a little unclear in a few spots, but nothing that can’t be worked out)

My honey and I were out for an hour or so, he took the drive with me to pick up the yarn, and he popped into a computer store to occupy himself while I grabbed what I needed. (Had this been a LYS it wouldnt have been so quick LOL but we went to AC Moore, which made a quick trip easy) It’s actually a beautiful day here, so it was nice to be out, and spending time together.

No new updates to the donations page today, the ones there are doing a great job of getting money and actual items needed collected. If you know of something I’ve missed though, please let me know, I will add it! I’m still keeping watch over directNIC’s livejournal for my updates, as well as WWLtv’s page – things do seem to be stabilizing somewhat, yet there are still so many more people needing help, and evacuation. I think the most important thing we can all do (aside from contributing where ever and how ever we can) is to remember this isn’t a “this week only” sorta thing. Everyone is gonna be needed for months to come.

I know alot of folks have started viewing this politically, pointing fingers and making accusations – and I am not saying mistakes weren’t made (they sure as hell were!) but let’s get people safe, and let’s figure out what comes next – there will be plenty of time to disect this tragedy when all is said and done. BELIEVE ME – I have a whole long tirade on the things I have read and heard via scanner, I am angry and frustrated and appalled at many thing that have gone on . But I would really like it all to wait until as many people as possible have been saved and plans are being made for next steps…

Don’t know how many of you know from Foamy, but this angry squirrel usually makes me laugh. His latest rant is pretty direct and serious (AND CONTAINS PROFANE LANGUAGE so please don’t watch when kiddies are around, or from work).

And now, I’m off to get started on my squares.

More links:
Updated my donations link page again with a few more ways you can help.

More activity:
My local SnB will be making squares for a blanket – more on this at Kimberli’s blog.

More worries:
Some of my honey’s buddies in Tx have been volunteering at the Astrodome. As of late last night, there were 13 confirmed cases of Cholera – they are all safe as they are former military and have been vacinated, however if this continues, a quarentine is sure to follow

More hope:
After reading some of the accounts from the Astrodome (which I will see if I can get permission to share) despite the ravages of nature and the conditions these people have endured, attitudes are “surprisingly good”

Off to see if guidelines for our blanket donation have been finalized, and pickin’ up the sticks

Yes, here!