THE CRAFTY WORLD OF CHEZ CLUTTER

I haven’t been keeping up with this, and am finding it more and more difficult to do so..and th is is getting spammed constantly.

you can find me on Ravelry, you can find me on Facebook.

email me:  cheryl.perry@gmail.com

SNOW!!! Why did we get snow??? Is the universe trying to confuse me?? 

I have been laid up with my back the last 4 days.  It went out on Saturday morning and I have been either flat on my back, or hobbling, since.  It is more flexible today and less painful, but it’ll still need a day or two til it’s back to normal.  The next question I will get asked I will answer in advance –no I did not see a chiropractor.  The one I trust moved away (he’s in my Facebook friends–and the fact that he is sexy as …. has nothing to do with the reason I like him).. Anyway since he left I don’t trust any of the locals.

April will be a scouting month. There are scouting activities every single saturday this month.. plus monday nites.  

Easter is on it’s way.   I will make the traditional Easter/Christmas dinner. Our family eats the same thing ever year for eternity.  No one wants it to deviate from the ham, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, sweet potatoes and green jello salad dinner.   Now that Brian is 1/2 grown we don’t do the easter egg hunt thing anymore.  We still color eggs though.

Poochie isn’t doing well.  Dave has to lift her to stand and she stays in the same spot all day while he is gone.  I hold her dish while she eats.  I called the vet and she is going friday,and at that time we will have to make THE DECISION.  I dread the thought of it.  She turned 9 on April 1st.  

I haven’t been knitting at all, just looking at knitting books and knitting magazines.  Just not motivated right now.

Well have a good day and thanks for noticing!

don’t know that anyone is even reading anymore due to the lack of posts.  Been sick again.  I am so tired of being sick. Hopefully now that spring is here I will get better and stay that way.  

Someone told me today that they came on to CHEESE CLUTTER to see what was going on.. CHEESE… LOL

What’s new here?  We are swamped with boy scout activities; the end of year school stuff will be gearing up before long; The hubby is on a new schedule, at a new place, so he is home two hours earlier than he was for the last 1-1/2 years; the easter holiday is upon us… I’ll be cooking the same thing we had for Christmas, boring yes, but it’s a tradition; I am not knitting a whole lot, jsut when I get together with the knitting peeps (Donna, Betsy, Heather and Leslie); I am finding lots of people from my past on Facebook; then there is RAVELRY. 

As it looks right now I may not be going to MSWF. My husband has a scout camping thing for leaders he is supposed to go to  for the weekend.  Why do things always fall on MY weekends??? So I said I’ll give up MSWP but go to RHINEBECK.  

I can’t believe it’s April. I need to do the taxes.  I should change the blog’s title to CHEZ PROCRASTINATION.  

I am going to see what to make for dinner now.  So have a good day and thanks for noticing!

OK, I got this from Charissa, who got this from Yarny old Kim who got it from someone else. I think it sounds like oodles of fun!

The first three people to comment will get something fibery from me!

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a fibery gift – yarn or roving. You might want to include info on whether you are a knitter or spinner.

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Who’s in?

Good Morning! How are you today?  I haven’t posted for a while, but that is just procrastination.  I have become a terrible procrastinator. Between Ravelry and Facebook, I keep myself computer busy. So here is a little update.

I am tired today,but I went to bed at 11 pm and didn’t sleep well and was up early, so it’s no wonder.

Hubbo took my van today because it is going to get inspected. The garage he has been taking it too is about a block from his brother’s house, so he drops it off in the morning and picks it up when he comes home. It’s always something with the vehicles.

FACEBOOK:

I am so disgusted with The green trading cards today.That is an application on Facebook.  It is a “collection” game that has “albums” and “photo cards” that you collect and trade. Today,  everyone is  disgusted and is threatening to quit. The developer is blaming facebook, not himself, so who knows what is really going on.  They have it set up now that you can send some one ONE card and then it wipes their name off the list for the day.  So that’s it. How do they expect people to trade doing that?  I guess they want everyone to buy (with green trading bucks) them in the store or from the trade page, but no one will get any cards.  I mean you could possibly get 40 cards a day but they will be from different people.  My friend from Ravelry, BECCA, sent me about 15 cards  yesterday. Now I can send her ONE card back.  Anyway, who ever is responsible has just screwed this game/application up big time.  People are m.a.d. I am not m.a.d. But I am disgusted.   It is taking the fun out of it.

I do like Farm Town, but the one feature I don’t like is that you can only send one thing per person per day.

I’ve been blocking alot of applications lately because I am not interested in them. One of them I just blocked was DOGWORLD. I lost interest in that real quick.

People send you application after application and it gets to be a bit overwhelming.

KNITTING

Apparently Dave doesn’t like what I was knitting last night.  Actually I thought it was rather funny.  He never says much about anything but we were in the living room watching American Idol and he says “WHAT ARE YOU KNITTING?  (not like a question–more like OMG WHAT IS THAT?) IT LOOKS LIKE FUZZ HANGING OFF YOUR NEEDLES”. Then I let him feel it and he said “IT IS FUZZ”. So I guess he doesn’t like baby mohair.  LOL.  It’s a wrap that I saw at the festival.  Like a big scarf thingie.  It’s Be Sweet Baby mohair, and if you have been in KNIT ONE you have probably seen this wrap done in Pink.

I went to the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival on Saturday. Sandie met me there. We had a nice time looking at the stuff. She bought a nice sweater kit and some buttons. I bought a pattern, some Be Sweet, some bunny angora fiber and 2 square crochet hooks.  Yvonne pointed something out that I didn’t even pay attention to–that most of the vendors were local. Funny, when I was there I didn’t even notice thatuntil she mentioned it to me.  There was some beautiful yarn, beautiful knits and darling babies around.  My original reason for going was to take a crochet class by Robyn Chachula, but I ended up only being able to go for a few hours because hubbo was working and Bman was at a friend’s house and had to go for 12 and had to be picked up at 5.  So I  had a nice time with Sandie, got to meet Robyn briefly (I just ran in to her) and helped the economy a little.  LOL.

THE AMAZING RACE:

I do love this show.  The opening episode was great.  We laughed so hard at the competition with the cheese wheels.  Who ever knew that cheese could be hysterically funny?  If you saw the show you know what I mean.  We’ll see how the people are as time goes on.  The ones I didn’t like right off the bat got eliminated. Yay! I didn’t want to listen to them argue.

SURVIVOR:

It was an interesting first episode too. New tricks by the show right away. I didn’t like the girl who got voted off, Carolina, so I was happy to see her go. My son liked her for OBVIOUS reasons.  He said “Ooh la la” everytime her and her boobies came on the screen.  The “naked Mormon” was unbelievable. I don’t know what the motivation for that was, except attention.  Jeff looks like he was botoxed or something.  He has his hair dyed black like last season. Are he and that girl he met on the show still a couple?

GREY’S ANATOMY:

I am loving Addison being back at Seattle Grace. I read that PRIVATE PRACTICE was cancelled, so maybe she will come back permanently.  I also have heard rumors that KATHRYN HEIGL and TR KNIGHT will be leaving at the end of the season.  Good riddance. They aren’t doing anything with George right now and Izzie has really become a pain in the butt.  KATHRYN HEIGL thinks she is a big movie star now.  Hey does anyone remember the show HELLO LARRY???  McClean Stevenson was on M*A*S*H and he thought he was this big movie star and they killed him off so he couldn’t come back.  He went on probably THE LOUSIEST show on tv.  BIG STAR, uh huh.

AMERICAN IDOL:

Unimpressed. I did like Danny, the last guy that sang last night (who is a Robert Downey JR look-a-like) but everyone else pretty much sucked canal water.

My sinuses have been killing me.  My sinus passages are so dry I wish I could put a hose up my nose and squirt them out.  Actually there is a little thing called a “neti pot” that you can use for sinuses and I know alot of people that use them, but I don’t have one.  I know people that swear by them. It’s like a little tea pot that pours salt water up your nose.

Friday night, father and son are going snow tubing up at Seven Springs with the boy scouts. They went last year and had a ball and a half.  They said it’s lots of fun, but all I can see is dead people with broken torsos laying at the bottom of the hill.  Dave says I need to relax and lighten up a little, but this is my baby I am talking about.  It just terrifies me.  Gee why not play frogger on the highway with real trucks??  SO they are going and I will be home. Too bad I never started drinking, it would be a good night to get drunk to forget my worries.

We got a little tiny dusting of snow over night but it is nearly melted off already.  they are calling today a “wintery mix”.. rain, sleet snow.  we shall see what we get. Right now it looks like rain.

I.hate.rain.

Well tha

This pretty much sums up my feelings anyway:

“February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.”
-   Dr. J. R. Stockton

I am sick with a cold again. It’s driving me crazy.  I had about two weeks of feeling well the last two weeks of February.  I have hardly been out of the house since Christmas, between being sick  and snow.

This CUTE, HAPPY BOY is Ben Roethlisberger. The quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers after winning the SUPERBOWL.

I guess the BIG PARADE for the Steelers is today in town (Pittsburgh).  No, I won’t be there.

Knitting/Crocheting

So much yarn, so little time.

I am so happy that I have signed up for a lace knitting class at NATURAL STITCHES. Why? Because FRANKLIN is teaching it!  I can’t  wait to meet him.  I have his “little tome, ” It Itches”, which is a book of cartoons and essays for knitters.  If you don’t have it, you should.  He will be at Natural Stitches  for a book signing on February 28th and his class is on March 1st.

I am now working on the third incarnation of my  son’s afghan.  I think I have settled on the pattern now.  It’s a ripple, it’s crocheted, it looks good. One problem??? I will need more yarn before long and my LYS doesn’t carry it anymore, so I am going to have to order it online.

I am making a beautiful scarf from some beautiful malibrigo to match my malabrigo hat.  It is knitted in a waffle weave stitch and is coming along nicely.  I hope I finish it before spring. (The pattern is available as a free download on RAVELRY –look under malabrigo scarf.)

My son wants me to make him SACKBOY.  Sackboy is a character in the video game, Little Big Planet and Alan Dart has a pattern in Simply Knitting magazine.  Sackboy will not be knitting.  I thought it was kind of cute, the SIMPLY KNITTING (Issue 49), was in a basket in the bathroom and apparently he was reading it while he was in there. LOL.  He came out and said “MOM, CAN YOU MAKE ME THIS??”.  It just cracks me up that he was looking at a knitting magazine.  Then he also said there was a DARTH BILL in there, could I make that.  someone took the BARNACLE BILL PIRATE toy (by ALAN DART) and turned it into DARTH VADER.. or DARTH BILL as they call it.   Made me think of  “Chad Vader: Night Manager” on You Tube.  If you every have some time to waste, it’s pretty funny.

On the football theme, who on the Steelers could be nicknamed Sackboy?? LOL! I don’t know what made me think of that.

THE PITTSBURGH KNIT AND CROCHET FESTIVAL is the weekend of February 14th and 15th.  It’s at a new venue up in Cranberry.  Are you going?  I am going up Saturday with my friend, Sandie.  Alot of people don’t go because you have to pay an admission fee.  I think events like this should be supported or we won’t have events like this coming to our area.  I would like to take a crochet class that Robyn Chachula is teaching.  She is on both my FACEBOOK and RAVELRY friends list and I would like to meet her!!

OH! In case you didn’t know, the KNITTY SURPRISES are up!!

TELEVISION: The good news is that THE AMAZING RACE and SURVIVOR come back this month. ( The Amazing Race on Sunday, February 15th and Survivor on Thursday, February 12th) That will expand my television watching from  REAL STORIES OF THE HIGHWAY PATROL, COPS and OPERATION REPO.  LOL. My husband watches the Military Channel.  There are only so many times I can sit through HITLER’S BODYGUARDS.

My husband is turning 50 on February 13th.   I’ve known him for 36 years!!!! I met him when he was 14, started dating him when he was 17 and married him when he was 19.  I can’t even imagine.

Well, I guess I have updated enough for this post.  Have a good day!  Hopefully I will be back before MARCH.

Thanks for Noticing. (I don’t even know if more than two people read this anymore!!)

The Anticraft has a new issue up.  It only has one knitting project in it, but it is a very nice shawl.

Howdy, here I am again. I am getting back into the swing of things, getting things updated and stuff.

How is this happening?  Well…the kid is back to school and I am feeling 98% better than I was for the last couple weeks. Also I have my own personal rainbow!!!

My own personal rainbow

As you see, it is shining right down the center of my calendar.  It really does take very little to please me.

I went out to lunch with Betsy today. It was nice to see a human person (not that the ones I live with aren’t human, but you know, sometimes you wonder what planet they are from). I haven’t seen anyone since before Christmas.

This was the gift I made for Brian to give his teacher. Every year, except for one, I gave them a knitted item (usually a scarf of some sort)

Cowl I made for Brian's teacher for Christmas.

Pattern: Birthday Cowl (available as a free pattern on Ravelry)

Yarn: Angora Extra (angora/wool/nylon)

The yarn was lovely to feel. You had to be a little careful knitting with it, because if you tugged on it a little it snapped and then you had another end to weave in. I liked the pattern very much. It’s easy peasy, free and attractive. I bought some Malabrigo Worsted to make one for myself. It’s good tv knitting.

MMMmm....Malabrigo!

I also gifted myself with some lovely Lorna’s Laces sock yarn in the PANOPTICON colorway.

OOOh Ahhhhh - Lorna's Laces -The Panopticon

I was so THRILLED to buy this (for myself) until I told Yvonne and she said “oh, i was giving you that for Christmas”….     So I ruined Christmas for myself.      my bad.

and last but not least:

Jethro doing what he does best.

He is wondering why it has gotten cold outside.

They are saying snow tonite.  We shall see.  It would be a nice change of pace from the rain, that’s for sure.

Have a good day, and thanks for noticing!

Not a whole lot going on here. I have been sick since Christmas night, but am finally showing some improvement.

Haven’t done any knitting, I haven’t felt well enough.  I was finishing this cabled bag that was a UFO for about 2 years probably, and when I put the handles on I hated it, so I cut the handles off and threw it in the garbage. Bye Bye!  I hated the yarn. The cabling looked nice. I knew it was something I would never use so it got pitched.

Started knitting ABSORBA from the MASON DIXON KNITTING BOOK to use up some cotton yarn, since I have about 10 kazillion balls of it.  I love the pattern, but I do want it in the solid color, like in the book, I am not crazy about the color switching.  I will take a picture when I make more progress.

Started reading a book, but again, wasn’t feeling well enough.

What I did do the past couple days is build a jigsaw puzzle.  That is something I like doing and haven’t done in a long time.  When we were first married and had no cable or money, we did that alot; built puzzles, played YAHTZEE. That was our entertainment.  We got too busy to do that kind of stuff over time.  Now thinking of that got me thinking about some things.

I love jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles and sudoku puzzles and logic puzzles and the like.  Is this something that is going to fade out with “my” generation?  They say newspapers and magazines are going to the wayside because people get their news from the internet.  Will puzzles and other forms of written entertainment go with them?  Now electronic devices like the Nintendo DS have “brain exercising” games. Even books–now there are electronic reading devices and audio books.  Just got me thinking a little bit.  Do younger people do puzzles and things?  I am on the younger side of  being old, but I can see some things that I think “oh that’s for young people”.

I am glad the younger people have embraced knitting and the whole creative arts community.  Kids (of knitters) anyway, are being brought up  with creative minds. One of the gals I knit with (I think gals is a stupid word, but thought girls sounds even dumber) is a teacher in a middle school setting, and has been teaching kids to knit.  They are excited and grabbing on to it like kids in a candy store. My son has had some decent art teachers during his time in school (he’s now in the 6th grade) He has been exposed to alot of interesting art concepts and creative resources.  I love going to a show of some kind (like Handmade Arcade) where indie fiber artists have their products.  It is exciting and encouraging.  If you are reading this and have children or grandchildren, I hope you are kindling a spark of creativity in them. That is one of the things that will define the future.

Thanks for listening.