Sunday, February 22, 2009

A Month of Music

The boyfriend and I drove to the Quad Cities this weekend to see a Rod Stewart impersonator. His name is Steve Bobbitt. He was fabulous! He really worked the crowd; walking among the tables and posing for photos while performing. He had the mannerisms and movements down, the voice down, and of course the looks. My dad was most impressed with his sneakers, of which I never got a photo. Well, maybe I did, I'll have to peruse the pictures I took.
His performance was at the Rock Island Elks Lodge as a fundraiser for the Ladies of Elks dictionary project. The Dictionary Project, which my mom leads for the Ladies, donates dictionaries to every third grader in Moline.
Can you believe the lady here? The Rod Stewart impersonator man sat with me during his song so that I could have my picture taken with him, and the lady behind me, whom I DON'T EVEN KNOW, thought it would be funny to essentially vandalize someone else's picture. How rude. A friend is looking into how to edit the picture and get her bunny ears out of my picture. Can you imagine? !
This has been a month of music: The weekend before, we went to Rockford to see Motley Crue. Quite a difference in genre, eh? Felt like a couple of old timers at Motley Crue, as the kids in the crowd around us were all getting quite drunk. We ate popcorn and drank sodas. Yes, it's official, we're getting up there in age! Popcorn and soda at a heavy metal concert. I did not get to have my picture taken with any of the band members, nor did I get any good pictures. The camera police was out in force and I was asked to put mine away. They have no problem with people taking pictures with cell phones... I could've gotten my camera back out and tried again later, but I was asked nicely to put it away and I tend to follow directions. So, no Motley Crue pictures for the blog.
But here are a few parting photos of Steve as Rod:

Friday, February 20, 2009

Amusing Myself

I have made very little progress on the blog lately. I have made very little progress on Amused. Going to have to throw that resolution right out the window because this one is not going to get off the needles by the end of the month, unless I quit my day job and let the house fall to ruin around me. But, it's the thought that counts, and it was a darn good thought, that resolution!
I was at a training a few weeks back and during lunch break, I broke out Amused and amused myself with some knitting. The trainer came over and watched a bit. He asked if I was knitting a scarf (that's always the number one question). When I told him it was a sweater, he was very curious about the time involved. I told him it should take me about a month, but he wanted hours. Now, folks, I have absolutely no idea how many hours I put into a sweater. Don't even care to know, truth be told. He persisted in attempting to lock me down into an answer of hours, but I persisted in avoiding the math involved in answering the question. I am neither interested nor motivated to figure out the number of hours involved. He even threw out some estimates for me. Ladies and gentlemen, it was like a trial:
Prosecutor: How many hours would you say are involved in knitting a sweater?
Defendant: I have no idea.
Prosecutor: Would you say about 100 hours?
Defendant: I have no idea.
Prosecutor: More than 100 hours?
Defendant: I have no idea.
Prosecutor: Seriously, just a rough estimate.
Defendant: I have no idea.
So, finally, he gave up on me, watched the knitting process a tad longer and finally said "You know, you can buy sweaters already made."
I am pleased with the cable panels. There are approximately a gazillion stitches on the needle, as I continue to add stitches and add stitches with m1. I don't use cable needles, which adds to fun of this knit. I find cable needles cumbersome and clumsy and prefer to work without them.
Here are some new resolutions: Keep my blog updated. Try to knit more. Don't figure out how many hours are involved in knitting a sweater. So far, I have already met one of these! Also, need to figure out how to take a quality picture of knitting! I know the picture is horrible, but it's not the sweater, it's my picture taking abilities!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

On Why I Need A Swift and A Ball Winder

The coast is clear:
Boys are sleeping soundly,
I head downstairs to drape a hank over a kitchen chair
and begin winding my lovely yarn into a ball.

Heimo can apparently smell yarn.

He especially enjoys the smell of yarn being wound into a ball.

Must lick yarn that smells this yummy.

"What light through yonder hank of yarn breaks?"

Looks like yarn. Smells like yarn. Yep! It's yarn!

Makes a quick get-away!

Fierce yarn hunter has secured his prey!

And would you believe, once I finished this post (following kidnapping and recovery of above ball of yarn), this is what I found in the bedroom:

I guess yarn-napping is tiring business! (or exciting enough to interrupt a nap for!)