Archive for April, 2007

Blinded by charm

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

I think it’s only fair to warn you that the following pictures may cause blindness. You may want to get your sunglasses before going any further.

I have a thing for anklets. I love ‘em. I hardly ever show my legs (blinding glare, egads!) so it doesn’t make much sense to wear one. I don’t know if it’s age or just plain defiance, but this year I might just toss my insecurities aside and bare the ol’ legs. If I’m going to bare the legs, then I can wear an anklet.

I found a pattern online (check out her Argosy patterns too) for a knitted one with charms so I set out to find charms and make one. I knit the first one the same as the pattern with the exception of using different yarn, which came out too long. (The tie takes up part of the knitted part and is too bulky. I’m afraid that it will come undone too easily.)

The next one, I crocheted with double stranded crochet cotton. Go ahead, call me a traitor. This one fits a bit better.

A ball of yarn with knitting needles, I (heart)2knit with a little sheep (I think that’s supposed to be a sheep) below it, and a cat with a ball of yarn.

Here are all of them that I attached. Moon with stars, a dragonfly (that I put on backwards, oops), and a dog on the other end. I didn’t particularly like this dog but I think it’s only fair the dog is represented too, don’t you?

I’m not sure which one I like better. I’m also afraid they’ll come untied and I’ll lose them so I’d like to get a real anklet and see what that looks like too. What do you all think? Knitted? Crocheted? Real one? None?

I’m going to SAFF this year! I wanted to go last fall but the timing just wasn’t right. I’m going to keep an eye on the weaving classes being offered and may sign up for one of those. Other than that, I’m going for the people and the shopping.

Under contract!

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

I’m a sad knitter. Someone told me I can’t bring any plants into California. I just recently bought a dwarf fig and a miniature orange tree (plant?), and I have a few other potted flowers I was planning to bring with me. One would think I would have enough sense not to buy new plants when there’s an upcoming move. Maybe I will smuggle them in and play stupid if I get caught.

The inspection went well surprisingly. Hell, I almost wanted to buy my house. However, ahem, you can be rest assured that I will be doing my own close inspections on any house that we consider buying in the future, and not putting our full faith in a “professional”. It’s possible that I’m maybe just a little too critical of this house, or maybe I was fearing the worst and my brain can’t comprehend that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. The things he found were mostly little and things we can fix ourselves. A few things we cannot and shouldn’t cost us too much to take care of. At least not to the tune of having to get a second mortgage. The papers were signed last night and we are officially under contract. Yay!

This concludes this episode in Adventures in Selling Your Home To Move Across The Country. Stay tuned for Whining About Corporate Apartments, Living (Temporarily) in Something The Size of a Matchbox With 2 Cats, 1 Dog, and a Man, With No Room for Yarny Things. (To be released around the first of June.)

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Irritation for the day: I discovered that I’m not getting email notifications of all the comments. I was going through previous ones and found some that I’d never seen before. My apologies, I wasn’t intentionally ignoring anyone. Stupid blog host.

Enabling Georgia knitters: The Oconee Yarn Company and Mockingbird Hilltop Farm. I’d also point you to the free llamas (not in GA) but I’m sure they’re gone by now.

Now for the good stuff!

Those are ends. A LOT of ends. Guess where they came from.

Give up? Or did you get it right?

Yay, it’s done! I have such a terrible habit of not finishing anything that I’m a little surprised myself. I finished the knitting Sunday after The Man left, and finally got all the ends woven in and seaming done yesterday.

Pattern: Color Block Baby Blanket, Knit It Spring 2007
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease
Needle: US 7 Addi
Start date: February 18, 2007
Completed: April 24, 2007

In house news (oh come on, you knew I’d bring it up), the inspection is tomorrow morning. According to our realtor, the new owner is back in California (ironic, isn’t it) and probably won’t be here, so we probably won’t get the list of demands until at least Thursday. If all goes well, and our realtor thinks it will, then we’ll be moving May 22 or 23. Daughter E is going to ride out to CA with me and the pets, partly because The Man doesn’t want me driving the whole thing by myself, and partly because she has some drama going on in her life. I’m hoping that she will like the area so much that she’ll be willing to get the hell out of Small Town and live with us for awhile.

I know you all are crossing your fingers for us. It means a lot to me, it really truly does. Thanks for listening to me vent about the stupid little things and hanging in there with me.

Friday, April 20th, 2007

BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE That’s what I’m doing. All over the place.

Just fyi, I’m writing this on Thursday but I’m not posting it until Friday. When it’s safe.

We got 3 offers in the last three days. The first one we didn’t even bother to counter. Not only did they really try to cut the price, but they wanted until the middle of June to sell their house, which they don’t even have on the market yet. If they didn’t sell their house by the middle of June, they could cancel the contract. Taking our house off the market for 2 months while they try to sell theirs just wasn’t going to work, especially in this market.

The next offer came yesterday (Wednesday), giving us until 5:00pm today (Thursday) to respond. They also took a chunk off the price but they’d already sold their house and were ready to move in. In 3 weeks, eek. We were going to counter the price on this one but agree to all their other demands. I called the realtor this morning (Thursday) to discuss the counteroffer and she stopped me, telling me another offer should be coming over the fax any minute. In came the fax with offer number 3, which is actually number 4 if you count the one we got last month. They didn’t ask for anything besides the refrigerator, and the offer price was better. The Man and I were ready to take it as it stood but our realtor suggested we counter. She called their realtor and negotiated a little better price, which they agreed to as long as we would purchase a home warranty. She typed up the new paperwork and I’ve signed it. They have until 11:00am tomorrow (Friday) morning to sign. I’m not worried about it since it’s already been discussed and they agreed to it.

Friday I will celebrate by leaving towels in the bathroom. I’m going to dirty up a few dishes just so I can leave them on the counter or in the sink. I will knit a few rows, then leave my knitting sitting out. And since The Man is coming in, I may let him do the same. (Except for the knitting a few rows part.)
So if you see this, it’s a done deal. Yes, there is still the inspection but let’s not talk about that okay? I need a few days of not being depressed over this crap.

Watch out California, here I come!