Secret Pal 5 Questionaire

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

I'm a near yarn snob. I absolutely love good quality yarn! I rarely use brands such as Red Heart. I also don't use eyelash yarns much, I prefer natural fibers.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

I can do basic crochet - Thanks for teaching me Grandma! But I much prefer knitting. I like the end result a lot better. I don't spin, thought it might be fun to learn how.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)

Allergies to environmental stuff, but nothing else that I know of. Some perfumes make me sneeze but not enough to avoid them. :)

4. How long have you been knitting?

I started knitting a couple years ago and gave up because I wasn't comfortable with it. Thankfully, Janet developed an interest and we took a couple classes at a local yarn store this fall. Since then I've been a knittin' foo'.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Hmm...no, but I could get one. I'll try to post an Amazon wish list on my blog soon.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

I like soft sandalwood and lavendar. Also berrie scents are nice.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

Um, yeah. Unfortunately!

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

I love embroidery (not cross stitch).

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

Let's see...I like most kinds of music. Everything from Jazz to hiphop. Just not too much country (though I do dig the Dixie Chicks). I just bought the latest Black Eyed Peas album...thumpin! Yes on both mp3's!

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

I tend to wear blue, pink, or black a lot. If anything, I love jewel tones though I'm on a pink binge. I really can't stand summer colors (like turquoise).

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

No children, two cats who think they're people and a few fish.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)

Well, I would like to go into Intellectual Property in entertainment media. Really, do you want to read about this? I could blah blah blah forever!

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

I'm really in love felting yarns right now. So far I've used Lamb's Pride (nice and soft, but a little furry) and Cascade 220 (love it but I wish it was soft like Lamb's Pride). I'm also very interested in Berroco's suede and Plush! Anything soft!

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Cheap acrylics, anything that feels dirty (there are some yarns that are plush looking but just feel dirty to me!) or is scratchy.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Actually, I'm on a knitting burnout. I've been feeling kind of down so I haven't really had the desire to knit. Other than that, I guess you could say my current obsession is felting bags. I'd also like to try a lace scarf.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Hmmm...I like difficult things. Or at least, things that are perceived to be difficult, like mittens or socks.

17. What are you knitting right now?

I started a Man Sweater - it's only 2 inches deep. I also have a lace Alpaca scarf that I've been working on for awhile. I work on it during my lunch break. I'm also starting a new purse.

18. What do you think about ponchos?

OK, I made a poncho for Mom at Christmas time and I hated the way it turned out!! It was the basic V type.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

I don't think I have a real preference. Whichever gets the job done is fine for me. However, when it comes to socks, I do prefer double pointed as opposed to circular.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Definitely bamboo! I'm curious about wood too.

21. Are you a sock knitter?

Yep!

22. How did you learn to knit?

First, I bought a book. I think it was "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting," Or something cheesy like that. After I gave up, I went to Two Sisters and Ewe to learn even more basic stitches.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

Well, I do have Mom's poncho to frog and do over. Stupid poncho!!!

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

Let's see...I don't know! I love wild animals. And cats...and, well pretty much most animals. I can't say that I'm a huge animated character fan - they're all cute. Not one sticks out in my mind.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas!!

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Shelley china, preferably the Dainty shape. Faythe got me started on that one. I also collect yarn and all knitting accessories!! I like a good book too. I'm sure there's more, I'll update this thing when I think of them. :)

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

None!

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

Hmmm....I'm interested in more knitting books. I already have the Stitch n Bitch books and am always interested in more patterns!! I also love fiction that is based on historical fact. Wow, I'll have to research this one some more!!

Age of Innocence

Have any of you read a really good book with a beautiful story that can only get better at the end? Have you read THE AGE OF INNOCENCE?? And yes, I'M YELLING because I'm over dramatic like that.

OK, I just have to say, I was very disappointed with the ending. Why would Newland just walk away from his lost love, when he now has the chance and family approval to be with her? What the hell??

As I read the last paragraph I was shocked and felt ripped off. I read it again, because you know, I was so excited for him that I was speed-reading at this point and thought maybe I missed something. And then I realized, IT WAS THE END. I even checked to see if someone had ripped out the last page of my book. BUT NO! THE END!! With a brutal slap in our faces, the author ended the story without a valid explanation (at least to me). I mean, she was so lengthy throughout the rest of the book about who was related to who, what was acceptable, why it was not acceptable, etc, I just expected a bit more in the ending.

I'm a bit tired. Will rant more about this later. SHAW!!



I had to add a photo, blogs are so boring with a bunch of type. Is this a gladiola? I'm terrible with flower names. Anyway, found this beautiful lady growing at Balboa Park. I've never seen them speckled like this.

But wait, there's more!! I recently enjoyed one of my days off walking through Balboa Park and snapped a few shots here and there.



I love Balboa Park. It's so relaxing. Even when there's a lot of people, it's still a nice place to walk and check out the scenery.





Listen, as long as I've lived here, I've never been in this plant-thing-a-ma-jig. I don't even know what it's called, it's never open!! I just know there's interesting plants and tree's growing inside. It looks weird to me.



Someone being very patient and watching my purse while I took pictures. hehehhehe. This one is trained well. :)



One of the towers over looking the flowers. It's so beautiful!



Construction near the Old Globe and the yard with the modern art in it. Looks like they're creating more spanish looking buildings.



The koi have gotten SOO BIG!! This is just one of many. First, check out the lilly pads which are much bigger than my hand with my fingers spread out. Then, check out that fish!! Some were so big, you could actually see their huge scales! See that rectangler shaped thing just to the right of the fish? Well, some rude person dropped it in the water - it was a letter or a brochure. Anyway, you can use that to guestimate the size of this fish! Absolutely beautiful!

Oh, hello!

I've been so tired lately, I keep forgetting to blog. It's as if I'm suddenly feeling my age, WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! I used to be able to stay up late every day, get up early and still put on a good show at work. Or even pull several all nighters! Hell, I used to be able to have a left-over-from-the-night-before-buzz and still put in a good day at work! But alas, those days are behind me. Seriously, if I have a glass of wine, it's not long before I'm bouncing when I walk and speaking German to whomever I believe would be impressed. I'm such a loser, I mean, lightweight. Fortunately, I'm also a cheap date (one drink maximum). Meanwhile, I'm having a really hard time getting by with five hours of sleep each night. Still, I find it incredibly painful to go to bed by midnight. I think I was doing fairly well, until I worked that midnight-4:00AM shift. Now my nightowl self is back.

Anyway, enough complaining...I got a haircut!! I can't remember if I mentioned that fact. Yep, I'm now missing approximately seven inches. Give or take. Now my hair is all flippy and cute. I just love it! It has personality! It's happy! All the gay guys at work noticed my new cut immediately - all the straight people said nothing. Hmph. Go figure. If it wasn't for the boys, I would have thought I had a bad cut!

OH YEAH and I'm going out of town this weekend!! Well, actually, the 4th-6th. I can't say where because Apollo reads this blog and it's a surprise for his birthday. All he knows is our destination is east of California, we have to take an airplane and it's somewhere I haven't been. That's practically the whole US!! MU WA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!! I'm loving the suspense! But even more, I love that he's so excited. I love surprising people. It's gonna be so fun! I'm really looking forward to watching the fireworks at an exciting place, rather than my neighbors balcony. Of course I'll come back with pics.

Faythe's birthday is on the 30th (or in approximatley 35 minutes). I sent her package which includes OPT. I'm curious to see what she says. As soon as she's opened her package, I'll be sure to post a pic.

Laura's newest obsession...

HATS!! Laura's became a hat-knittin' fiend!

Here's her first hat AND felted item:



And one of her Plush hats.



She is absolutely IN LOVE with Berroco Plush. She buys it whenever we're at a new store and she see's a new color. Give her a set of needles, a ball of yarn, and you'll get a unique "Laura" in return! Updates on her line will be posted...

heheh

A special thanks to Brianna for passing along this fabulous read. I wish I were this creative.

Uh..*blushing*...hehehhehehe

Your Deadly Sins

Lust: 40%

Wrath: 40%

Greed: 20%

Pride: 20%

Sloth: 20%

Envy: 0%

Gluttony: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 20%

You'll die while in the throws of passion - the best way to go.

How Sinful Are You?

SP5

ARGH!! Due to crazy work schedules and general flakiness, I've yet to post my Secret Pal 5 questionaire. SORRY!! I'll do that this weekend. :) Thank you Secret Pal for your patience. :)

Commitment makes me nervous

As you can see, my blog is constantly changing. OK smarty, NOT the posts, the title! "In the pond" just wasn't working for me, so I changed it. I'd like to get some sewing labels made with this new title on it for gifts I make people. Wouldn't that be cool?? In a sort of nerdy way? :) Yes, I'm easy to please. Ok, not easy but...oh forget it.

Anyway, now that I have my new blog title, I'm looking for a new design. Of course I've yet to conquer that boring look up there...blech, a sans serif in a rounded corner box. *sigh* Listen, I'm still learning. But eventually I WILL change the template! Hey, I'm just pleased I can create links. Er, whatever they're called.

But as usual, I digress. So, I'm looking for design ideas. You know, something simple. Maybe a cursive "Uniquely Rayleen" with a small logo next to it. An animal? A flower? Any ideas?

Which reminds me, isn't this beautiful? I love these simple trilliums that grow in the wild at home.





Now that I've had five hours of sleep, I think I'll go outside in the sun. It's not hurting my eyes any more and I don't feel so queasy. :)

Craziness and Knit-Nerdom (an oxymoron or just a moron??)

Tonight, er, this morning, I work from 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM providing excellent customer support to sport fanatics. Now, after all this hard work of turning myself from a night owl to a day person, this is going to ruin all my efforts! I'm sure I'll be able to stay awake, but will I be able to provide helpful support? HAHAHAHAH!!! I already feel a bit crazed just thinking about it. An excellent combination when providing computer support.

Speaking of crazy... Laura, Janet and I went on our first Yarn Store Field Trip. We embrace our Knit-Nerdom with pride and have decided to visit all yarn stores in our area!! Our first store was Common Threads in Encinitas, CA. It wasn't hard to find, but you could miss it if you weren't paying attention due to the small signage. The only parking is on the street though you shouldn't have to park far.



My first thought when I walked in the store was, "Horror upon horrors! What happened here??"



The yarn is grouped in sections such as acrylic blends, felting wools, cottons, and more. (I didn't learn this until much later) But other than that, it's all sorted by COLOR! I freaked out a little bit.



I spent two hours combing through the yarn.



At one point, I asked one of the very friendly ladies in the store for some lace yarn. She said I needed to look in the color section I was interested in. I was stunned.



Honestly, I did try to focus.



They had a tremendous supply of novelty yarns.



At one point I had selected some denim looking yarn in this cotton section.



But then I got distracted by these beautiful yarns and put the cotton back.



After a while, the yarn all started to look alike.



It was about this time I started to figure out the yarns were not only divided in sections according to color, but also by content (almost two hours later - I'm a bit dense sometimes).



Even Janet was overwhelmed and started yawning...IN A YARN STORE.



Fortunatley, there was this beautiful kitty, Coco (I think) the Ragdoll Siamese, that allowed me to take her photo. She snuck away after I pet her. A bit of a diva (in a cat?? NO WAY).



I guess you could say I was pretty overwhelmed with the way the store was organized. I personally wouldn't design a store like this; if I didn't know what I was looking for it would be hard for me to shop here. However, the combination of textures and colors was much like candy - an amusement park for lovers of yarn. The staff was friendly and helpful and even stayed open late while we looked through patterns and yarn. There is much more to the store, but I couldn't post all the pictures. I guess you could say there's a LOT crammed into a small space. One irritant was that we were constantly bumping into each other or strangers because the space was so narrow. It broke our concentration while we were digging through the yarn trying to find matching dye lots, etc. Because I was so overwhelmed (where do they put varigated colors? How do they decide which color section to put a yarn that has several colors??) with the layout, I ended up not making any purchases. However, I will defnitely visit this store again and recommend you visit it if you're in the area!

Common Threads
466 S. Coast Highway 101
Encinitas, CA. 92024

760-436-6119

commonthreads@fiberartshop.com

Store hours: (Closed Mondays) Tues. Thur. Fri. & Sat. 10:00-5:00 Wed. 10:00-7:00, Sun. 12:00-5:00

Stay tuned for pictures from The Black Sheep, a few blocks down the road from Common Threads.

Tom, my poor, poor boy

Oh my... Where did we go wrong??

I'm stunned beyond words. I mean, he's actually getting weird. Why is it Hollywood affects some people more than others?

Fathers Day

Well, Fathers Day has come and gone. Woo. I guess it's one of those days I'll never relate to. Some interesting facts Aimee found:

• 63% of all youths who commit suicide come from a fatherless home

• 90% of all homeless and runaway children come from a fatherless home

• 85% of all children who exhibit behavior disorders come from a fatherless home

• 80% of all rapists motivated with displaced anger come from a fatherless home

• 71% of all high school dropouts come from a fatherless home

• 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from a fatherless home

• 70% of all juveniles in state operated institutions come from a fatherless home

• 85% of all youths in prison come from a fatherless home

I think we turned out pretty good!

Operation Pink Thing (OPT)

Phase one of Operation Pink Thing is complete. Phase two to commence tomorrow evening. I'm sure nobody else is as excited as I am, but as usual I will force it on you! Like when people say, "What are you making?" and I begin with this long story about the yarn, the yarn store, the pattern, the stitch complications, how I frogged it, etc. And the look on their face says, " 'Hat' would suffice." Anyway, I digress...



Speaking of pink things, I went to the San Diego Zoo Tuesday. I can't believe how much it's changed in the past couple years! Some pink things I saw there to commemorate OPT:



Did you know the flamingo's nest on these mounds of poop and mud?



There was only one baby. It looked like a cotton ball with black legs and beak. It will eventually turn gray, and at approximately three years old will turn pink.

And then there were the baboons. Beautiful in a disturbing way. The fact that the watering pool was made in such a way the baboons were forced to bend over with their rear-ends facing onlookers was not lost on me. I didn't manage to get a photo of this guys face, but it wasn't pink anyway. I'll get better ones later. There were other things on the baboons that were pink, but unless you wanted a close-up of female baboon genitals, I'm sure this one is good enough.



I'm sure this flower has a name, but I didn't have enough foresight to find out what it is. Is it some sort of hibiscus? Anyway, it's sooo beautiful. I love the colors, I'd love to use this on my blog.

Earthquakes

Sunday morning we had an earthquake and I missed it. I was driving on the 5 at the time and probably thought it was just a bump in the road.

AND THEN,

There was an earthquake tonight!



Of course, I didn't feel this one either. I did get the message about the tsunami warning. However, I was well inland even IF there was any danger. My friends and family that live directly on the coast were all waiting and watching, but alas...nothing.

I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have any large earthquakes, I'd noticed that the quantity of earthquakes in our region was a bit low.

Laura's first hat

Janet, Laura and I have temporarily changed the location of Tuesday Night Knit. Rather than meeting at Janet's house and tormenting her poor husband with chick chat and incessant chatter about knitting, we now meet at The Living Room over by San Diego State.

Laura has graduated from scarves!! Of course, she still makes them but now her new obsession is hats. Now that she has conquered double pointed needles, nothing can stop her! Here she is finishing up the last couple stitches:



Of course, this hat needed to be felted, so when she put it on it was HUGE! Now you may be wondering, did Laura just get get home from Cinco de Mayo or from work at a Mexican restaurant? Well that's what I thought! Forget that it's June 13 and she doesn't even work in the food industry! Apparently, she was tired of her nice work clothes and borrowed her Mom's muumuu. (I'm edumacated but I still had to look up the spelling of that word!!) I say, HEY if you're comfortable, why not? Of course, now I'm hungry for carne asada.



She's so proud. :) Janet has also become the Sock Queen. She's making socks for everyone in her family. Her latest pair involves a delicate lace from the top to the ankle. I can't wait to see the finished product!



I myself am working on a Not So Secret Pink Thing so I can't post any pictures. But I will say EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I'm really excited about it. :)

We usually meet around 6:00ish. So if anyone wants to show up and join in, come on over!

Is your state dumb?

How smart/dumb is your state?

Anyone? Bueller?

Anyone know where I can get buttons that look like flies? If you're familiar with the Stich n Bitch books, you can see some bee buttons on the bee-hive hat. I'm looking for something like that, but with flies.

I have a fabulous hat idea that NEEDS fly buttons. It was dreamt up at tonights knit gathering...hehehehehehehheheheh!

Yarn booty!

I knew I wouldn't be able to go to the sale at Two Sisters today, so Laura graciously offered to pick up some items for me. It's so hard to make a list of yarns you'd like when you can't see what they have to offer!! Instead, I asked her to pick up some yarn for unfinished and future projects. I'll have to add this booty to my bin o yarn:



This is all I got, but it's probably a good thing. I would have spent much more if I had gone instead of taking the Notary Public test. (Don't get me stared on that topic, puuuulease) I'll probably go in to the store on Tuesday and buy some more yarn. I'm such a yarn ho.

This is my favorite of the bunch...I can't wait to make something out of it (most likely a purse). Oh, and the colors in this picture are more accurate than the contrasty colors above.



I normally wouldn't pick out these colors but Laura has this same yarn and it really started to grow on me! I can't wait to see what it looks like felted. :)

OH and I've been visiting some yarn stores in the area. Very interesting! I'll spill more details when I can take pictures and post them. I think the pictures will say much more than I can!

I have to go to work early tomorrow, Sunday, so I guess I should go to bed. Night!

Movie

I just finished watching The Notebook. I wasn't planning on watching this movie because I knew it was sad and because everyone kept talking about how good it was blah blah blah. But, I'm so glad I saw it! It's a beautifully written story. Not only that, but the movie is eloquently filmed. True, it's a sad story. But that's what makes it so beautiful. It really made me rethink my life, where I am, who I'm with, and more. The touching ending is like icing on a cake...it wouldn't be the same if it was topped with anything else. I recommend seeing this movie or reading the book (I'm planning on reading it). Sure, you might cry, but it'll be worth it. I guarantee, you will not regret it.

South Park

This site is so fun.

Paul#1 at work made this for me:



It's his interpretation of me. Note the friendly expression and knife. hehe It's always interesting to compare how others view you, verse how you think about yourself. This is how I feel about myself while at work:



My contact is hurting my eye.

Pimps, scarves, burritos!

Sunday Apollo and I decided to go to Chipotle's to pick up lunch, bring it home and eat in comfort (plus I wanted to knit). I'm telling you Chipotle's is SO cool! Apparently the closest location has been there for four years. Yeah! Only about two miles away in Hillcrest and I never realized it was there.



Anyway, it's sorta like a Subway Sandwhich, except with healthy Mexican (ok, Americanized Mexican) food. You pick one of the three items you want to eat (burrito, fajita burrito, or bowl), tell them what kind of meat you want (beef, carnitas, chicken, steak), how much rice, which kind of beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese and joila! You're done! Check out the simple menu at the top:



Bins and bins of healthy food!



It's so tastey AND you don't have grease dripping down your hands while you eat it! So far I've tried fajita carnitas and a few bites of a steak burrito. I couldn't believe how good the steak tastes...very smokey! I've been living under a rock for years, so you guys probably know all about Chipotle's!

So I took some pictures. :) Hey, it's Hillcrest, I don't think much surprises people there! Seriously, even the people in the pictures didn't look up while the flash was going off.

On our way home, we decided to stop and get some juice. Standing outside Albertson's was this guy Apollo has talked to occassionally. If you don't know anything about Apollo, know that he's friends with EVERYONE he meets! You cannot take that man anywhere cause he's constantly stopping and talking to people. I've gotten to the point where I just walk off and leave him. I know he'll find me eventually, after he's finished talking to three or four people he knows. Anyway, while he was in the store getting the juice, I stood outside casually aiming my camera from the hip, trying to get a photo of this guy dressed like a pimp. (My stealth shots don't really show the subject very well, however it appears you can compare and save at Albertson's...good to know, good to know.)



Oh yeah, back to the pimp part. He was dressed in a purple suit, white shirt and orange tie and shoes! I didn't get any good shots, but I enlarged one anyway cause I wanted you to see a bit clearer exactly WHY I wanted to get his picture for you (yeah, I was thinking of you guys as soon as we drove into the parking lot and I saw him standing there).



It turns out he and his lady were waiting for a cab that wasn't going to show up for another two to three hours! I know this because Apollo stopped to talk to him on the way out of the store (of course!!). So, we ended up giving Mr. Pimp and his lady a ride home! It was upon this encounter I realized his purple suit had alligator texture. Wow...in my own car! And I didn't even get to take a picture!! These fuzzy shots will have to do. *sigh* However, Tee the mailman knows approximately where the wanna-be pimp lives so I just may have to stake out the neighborhood to get some other shots. I'm told that he ALWAYS dresses like this. FABULOUS!!

So after dropping the two off at their home, (I had a pimp in my car!!) we finally got to eat our burritos. Check out the size!



My stomach hurt until morning. But it was definitely worth it!

Saturday I made Apollo go to Michaels with me so I could use some 40% off coupons. I made him go through the line with a ball of Moda Dea Aerie yarn. He used to get embarassed but now he doesn't mind. *MU WA HA HA HA HA HA* He has fallen under my spell!! Or is it the spell of yarn? I bought three balls; light blue, dark blue, and cream and started knitting a drop stitch scarf on Sunday.



Note the net looking things that the yarn is in? They're Yarn Bra's. I've been using them for yarns that don't really take to center-pull balls. I do recommend these little guys! They keep the yarn in one place and from getting tangled up. They're also good for shoving a project in, along with the needles. You can find them at your local craft store or pull them off some fruit at your local grocery store.

I'm using a simple drop stitch to show off this yarn. You can sorta see the stitches here:



It is SO soft and luxurious. I started on it Sunday and finished tonight, Monday. I'll post pictures of it tomorrow. I'm very pleased with it and can't wait for a cold day to wear it (which is any day at the office).

Faythe and I have started a Scarf Club. Why not? It's not like I don't have enough projects to work on. Besides, scarves can be finished so quickly. Our first scarf project is The Jeans Scarf. The whole idea behind it is everyone has their own style and interpretation of what a particular scarf might be. Each has their favorite pattern, colors, type of yarn, etc. Some people like crochet, while others knit. I thought it would be fun to have a different theme each month (approximately) and compare what our interpretation of that theme is. Other friends will be joining in, and if it's OK with them, I'll post their pics here as well. I'm sure my favorite scarf will be the People Are Mean Scarf.

To frog or not to frog, is that really the question?

I'm contemplating frogging Brandon's blanket. It's got some serious issues. I foolishly made some changes to the pattern because I didn't think I was going to like the border. Consequently the border (if it even exists) isn't big enough and the blanket is curling in. And I look at it and I think, do I really want to finish this? I'm so bitter about it now. I'm really thinking about taking it apart and making something a bit simpler.

Yet one more project in the pond.

Work was terrible today. People are such jerks. Today I started to really hate people. Not only did I get to experience eight fun-filled hours with mostly irritated customers (and no, the customer isn't always right, in fact, in our case they're rarely if EVER right), I then got to drive home in 45 minutes of hellish stop and go traffic, sharing the road with people who drive ultra-expensive cars and insist on darting around all the other automobiles.

My faith in humanity has been shaken. At this point, all I ask for is two days off in a row. Just two days.

Shoes

Today as I walk around in my heels which are specifically designed to make your feet look small, I'm reminded of The Good Earth. I'm forced to take short steps, which greatly hinder my mobility and speed. Of course, the women of bound feet experienced even more difficulty and a greater pain than we do in heels, but still...I feel a bit of comradery!

Yards and yards of yarn!

Yesterday and it was my day off!! WOOOOOWEEE! I went to JoAnn's, PetSmart, Fry's and a local coffee shop, The Living Room. A weird combination, but I had a lot of fun, cause I'm easily entertained.

Anyway, you should see this new yarn at JoAnn's!! If you're familiar with the one pound skein of yarns, then you'll appreciate these skeins. In this first picture, I put a mint colored one pounder on top of the new yarn so you could compare them visually.



Here's the four colors they had...notice how nicely they varigate! It appears the varigation is much more gradual than your basic varigated yarn. I'm trying to think of something I can make with this yummy stuff. Notice the price, $7.99, though I think if you found it anywhere else, it would be cheaper



Notice the texture of the yarn. I don't think Faythe would like it, she has complained about textured yarns before. Something about her crochet hook and it getting tangled. All I remembered was hearing a lot of complaining and I blocked her out. hehehe



And check this out,



Yeah, that's what I said! 853 yards!!! I hear there's a purple version of this same yarn, so if you happen to see it, please let me know! My friend Janet is just dying to get her hands on some of the purple. Of course, I don't know what brand this yarn is, but I'll do some research and get back to you.

Oh, and look at these cuties:



As we were leaving Joann's, we witnessed a security guard chasing down a shoplifter. The shoplifter climbed into a car full of other teenagers and they drove off. It was surreal though, as he was dodging through the cars in the parking lot and in front of some traffic on a major road. Idiot!

I also spent a few hours in Fry's...I just LOVE Fry's! I got to hang out with a bunch of computer geeks and gamers. Love it love it love it!