Black and Gold Super Bowl

Last night the Saints made it into the Super Bowl. They played a wonderful season and the whole state has been thrilled to watch their progress. I have to confess...I am not a Saints fan at heart. I love the Dallas Cowboys and actually get amused when the Saints loose, like they usually do. I have been caught up in the Saints fever lately and have enjoyed seeing everyone so behind their team. On Fridays, you see people wearing jerseys or black and gold all over town. Especially this past Friday. The whole state was excited about Sunday's game. They had made it once before to this point, but lost. The game was closely fought. It went into overtime and the Saints emerged victorious. It was fun to read emails, message boards and Facebook statuses. Everyone was talking about the game. We heard neighbors popping firecrackers and the phone lines both land and cell were overloaded. It was something Saints fans had waited 43 years for. A Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see how the next two weeks go. New Orleans will be ready for a party no matter the outcome of the game.

Phillip's Lid

Phillip decided he wanted a hat and knew exactly who to come to get get one made. He wanted one in Saints colors. Having the "small" amount of yarn I have (NOT!), I was able to accept his request. I found a pattern that was a little different than the one I usually made. Different in the way it decreased at the crown. I am not thrilled with the crown, but Phillip is happy with it. I think I will go back to old trusty. That hat never lets me down.

Scarfy for My Baby

Now is was Cara's turn again for something Mom knit. I made her the wrist warmers a couple months ago. She now wanted a scarf. We looked at the patterns I had favored on Ravelry. She quickly found one she was happy with. I looked at her with surprise. How could she make a decision so quickly? There are 100s of patterns to look at. I have about 75 scarf patterns favored, yet she found one she liked after looking at three. Oh. Ok. She had gone to Michaels with Robyn and already purchased the yarn she wanted...something not already in my stash. I enjoyed making the scarf. It was my second lace pattern. I like doing simple lace. I like the way you don't know how all of the increases and decreases will look until you are a couple of rows down. It was a fun pattern. One to keep for later.

Don't Remind Me

Usually once a week we order pizza. Robyn and I watch one of our favorite reality TV shows (lately Project Runway). We eat pizza and discuss details of the show and how we would never make the foolish mistakes the people on the show make. Cara sits and eats with us and immediately pops off to enjoy some computer time. Phillip is in the bedroom watching football or some old war movie. As I was sitting the pizza boxes on the counter, I noticed some new writing on the lower right hand corner of the box. "Dominos Pizza 50 Years 1960-2010". Perfect. Dominos and I are both turning 50 this year. I remember how worked up I was my 29th year about turning 30. Once it happened, I realized it was no big thing. Turning 40 did not affect me at all. I know I am due for some teasing. When Phillip turned 50, the girls and I teased him mercilessly about being eligible for AARP. My turn is coming. A couple of days ago, I was applying for a passport. I came to the box on the application for hair color. I was unsure what color to put. Well, it was a mousey brown before I starting highlighting it with blonde. I started doing this when Cara was 4. We had gone out for breakfast and the girl behind the counter told me how nice it was to be taking my granddaughter out for breakfast. The girls tease me that it is more gray than blonde or brown. I asked the lady at the post office (she was processing my application) what she thought. She looked at it and saw what I meant about which color to put down. After a few seconds, she said "gray" and wrote that down. I am not thrilled about the number 50. There are worse things that can happen.

Trade Off

I have a friend Amy, who is a sewing whiz. I wish I could machine sew. I have taken sewing lessons twice. Let's just say the bobbin hates me. The top of the stitches will be lovely, nice and even. The underside is just knots. I don't know what I do wrong. I have accepted that I can't use a sewing machine. I have a bunch of stamps I am selling though one of my Etsy stores. Amy has recently been bitten by the stamping bug. We decided to make a trade. I would trade her some stamps and knit her a scarf and she would sew me three project bags. She has wonderful fabric and I was so excited to get some new bags to put my projects in. Actually, I was only keeping one bag for me. Robyn got the other two as Christmas gifts (although a little late). I love the style of the bag. It fits over the wrist and is the perfect size for a ...well you know what I always make. Right?

The Headband

As usual, I was piddling around on Ravelry reading the message boards and looking at patterns. It is not like I don't have a ton of patterns already printed out, and you can tell that I tend to make the same hat over and over. I guess it is like collecting cookbooks, yet you seem to make the same food you always have. Anyway...back to this picture. I saw a post that had a ton of responses. Being the rubbernecker that I am, I peeked in to see what all of the excitement was about. It was a thread about a headband. I had never given headbands a thought. The more I thought about it, it began to sound more and more interesting. I looked through the patterns and found one that looked intriguing. It had a lace pattern and I had been wanting to give lace a try (other than the yo/k2tog). Robyn was interested in a headband, so cast on I did. This pattern was a lot of fun and I learned a couple of new stitches along the way. She was happy with how it turned out and wore it to school once it was completed. I felt good to see her wear something I had made. I don't usually get to see someone wearing the items I knit.

Lady in Red

Red accessories always crack me up. Phillip has this thing about not wanting any of us wearing red shoes, earrings, lipstick, and the like at the same time. It is something that I always found funny. It is interesting to think about the things that drive us crazy or make us uncomfortable. Most of the time, it is easy to see the reason behind the negative feelings. Sometimes, you can't put your finger on why something bugs you. You just know it does. I would love to know why this bothers him, but I am not sure I really want to know.

End With A Hat...Start With A Hat

Well the new year has come and things are as we left the old. I am still knitting hats and loving it. I go into the closet and dig through my stash of yarn. So many colors and textures to choose from. Sometimes I just close my eyes and stick my hand into the warm fuzziness and go with whatever I pull out. Other times I have a singular purpose and go straight to the yarn I want. The pattern is in my brain and I no long need to look at the pattern to see how many stitches to cast on or how long do I knit before I start the decrease. Each hat is the same and different at the same time. There is something comforting to the sameness of my knitting.