Prizes! I have PRIZES!!!!

No, really.  Texas and I are riding in the Bike MS 150 in May of this year.  Well, Texas is,  I haven’t raised enough moolah yet.  So this is where I need your help.  Please donate.

Right here is where you can find my page.  I need to raise $300 to ride.  I need to raise this by April 7th so I can pick up our rider packets close to our house instead of an hour and a half away. (Yes, I want to avoid a 3 hour round trip. Call me crazy)

To try and bribe all y’all to donate, I’m going to give something away. For every $10 that is donated, you get an entry in a drawing.  The winner will have a choice between a Fire Stick, an Amazon Dot, or a Stitched By JessaLu regular wedge or box bag (you pick, I’ll pay). If I get to $500, I’ll pick two winners.

Since a bunch of you came through for Texas too, I’ll also enter anyone who donated to him.

So here is the breakdown:

• Donate $10 = get an entry
• Share the link on FB, Twitter and IG with #MakeSquishRide = get an entry
• Share on your blog and let me know = get an entry

I know you all have come through in the past for helping raise money to find a cure, not only for MS, but for NMO. I am always grateful for your generosity.

Happy Tuesday y’all!

 

Weekend Getaway

After watching my mom and I have fun taking classes, Nacogdoches finally gave in and decided to try rigid heddle weaving. ( I may be enabling encouraging friends lately – hi Mo and D!) Even though I’ve taken the beginner’s class, she wanted me to tag along. 

We stayed at the Post Oak RV park in the cutest little cabin. There are tiny houses for rent in the area and I may do that next time. I finished my last  Spunky Club weaving while there, so I am back on track. (details here) 

Nacogdoches got me that pair of socks in the upper left corner. How true they are.  That bit of pink in the bottom corner is a gift from the lovely Maureen.  Socks, hankies to spin and a project bag. I also recently received a pen from Cheryl that her husband made. That thing is ah-mazeing! If I can get a link to his stuff, I will share it here. He makes some beautiful wood projects. 

Happy Monday y’all! I’m off to L.A. For the week. What do you have planned?

On the second day of January

My true love gave to me…. an FO because of an Aussie.

Hey, it rhymed. Julia shawl, details here. But I will tell you that it took almost a year to knit. Because life. Well, and ALL the stockinette was slightly boring.

I’m now “working” on the sweater I started last February. I only have a sleeve and the bottom edge to finish. Again, life. I’m trying to buckle down now that it is cold and the month that Cookie makes me do things. In case you were wondering, she’s been making me do things since 2013. I don’t care if she now wants to be a Cow, she’ll always be a crisp, yummy, chocolate chip with walnuts. Because I want nuts today. Yes, there is a joke in there somewhere.

Happy Wednesday y’all!

p.s. yes, I know it is the 6th.

There was Rhinebeck

And here is my haul:

Not that I actually went to Rhinebeck. Anne was nice enough to do some shopping for me via texts and with some help from Cookie. I’ve been coveting Into the Whirled batts for a while and this year, the stars aligned.

I was doing this local dye day thing instead. I only have two things to say about it. 1) Stop touching my yarn! and 2) Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I KNOW how to dye yarn.

Maybe I do have a little more to say. Most of the ladies were nice and the hostess has an amazing collection of fiber tools. Also, my husband geek bonded with the hostess’ husband. What? You think I was going in alone? Hells no!

Then there was gay Halloween. Not as fun as last year because someone had a crappy attitude, but it still had it’s moments.

What are you doing for Halloween?

That would be me spinning

Please do not pass out.

• Fiber: Superwash merino
• Dyed by: me
• 1.2 ounces and 176 yards
• July 7 & 8, 2014

I left them as singles (because what the hell would I knit with half of that?) and tried a new blocking method. You leave you singles or over-twist yarns on the noddy noddy and steam iron it. Move it, iron it… etc.

If I had more patience, I’m sure it would have worked nicely. I have a tall iron, so I could only do little sections. About the 3rd time I had to shift the yarn, I called it good. You can definitely tell where it was ironed and not. I’ll wet finish it later.

It’s hot. Hot enough that I’m not excited about the tournament this weekend. Hot enough that I’m thinking of leaving my husband and showing up on Angie’s doorstep for the summer.  I may have mentioned to Texas that I was moving back to the lake house until October (it’s about 15 degrees cooler there) and he was o.k. with it. I figure 2.5 hours to the lake vs. 15 hours or so to Wisconsin… that’s about the same difference, right?

Besides, Angie has a creek, a new loom, a fiber room and precious kitties. You don’t think she’ll mind, do you?

Happy Wednesday y’all!

Canadian Post was FAST!

I may have gone on a little shopping spree and ended up buying those from Cathedral Grove on Etsy. (just ignore the new Stitched by JessaLu bags in the background)  I can’t leave a review until March 12th, so I’m just going to have to rave about them here for now. I bought one for me and one for a gift. Both the Cherry and Red Oak are beautiful – and you know the cherry is going to age amazingly. Now I don’t know which one I’m going to keep.

I gave one a whirl this afternoon a few weeks ago and they work wonderfully. The base is large enough to keep it upright and it turns evenly. No herky jerky weird stuff with your yarn. No rough or splintery parts. What he failed to mention in his listing is the little rubber “feet” on the bottom so you can use this on smooth surfaces, not just carpet.

Oh, and Michael (the wonderful craftsman) was fabulous at communicating. You know me. I want all the answers and ask the weirdest questions. He was patient and nice. He was even able to give me a refund on part of the shipping because I ordered two. Overall, a great experience.

Go, order one now.

I got a couple of fabulous knits in the mail. I may have to make a pair of those mitts myself because I love the construction.

Happy Thursday y’all!

Keeping it playful

Yeah, the socks again. They’re mystery socks, so progress is regulated and I got nothing else going on with the needles. Once these are done, I have some lovely red yarn I want to make socks with. I just have to find the pattern. Perhaps one of these? (from an awesome Canadian designer)

Since this is the week of Texas working 12 hour overnight shifts, I should get a bunch of quiet knitting time in and make some progress somewhere. Someone also said I had to work on a sweater that is on the needles, hiding in a bag, and buried in my subconscious somewhere.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

If you are following along on other social networking things, this may be old news. I’ve joined a jiu jitsu class.  I wasn’t sure about it at first, with the floppy paw and all that but I love it.  The drills are all legs and core and cardio.

Those of you in the know, know that I’ve been working on losing weight for the past year and it has been going o.k. Since modifying the eating plan last month and adding jiu jitsu, I’ve lost 8% body fat. DUDE! Eight percent. Let that sink in a second. The scale hasn’t moved a huge amount, but my clothes fit differently and I’m finding muscles I didn’t know I had.

I won’t ever compete because it’s not like I can tell someone to take it easy on the arm while sparring, like I can in class. I actually look forward to going to class instead of dreading going to the gym.  I think this might be a good fit for me.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

Happy Monday, y’all! What are you doing today? Do you have pattern ideas for this yarn?

 

 

 

TNP on a Thursday: Pushed over the edge edition.

An NMO group I belong to recently regressed into a high school drama tit-for-tat fest.  I don’t have the time or energy for that kind of stuff and left the group.

The original post was political and divisive and the author couldn’t see the difference between opening a topic for discussion/sharing information and calling a group of people idiots.  (yes, it actually involved the word idiot) She then proceded to complain that the mods weren’t admonishing someone for posting information about a petition for controversial medical therapy that she didn’t agree with. After all, she got a message about her post not being appropriate.

I appear to have developed an intolerance for people who demand that you agree with them. I don’t care if I do agree with what they are saying or not. The moment you demean a person or group or their views just because they aren’t just.like.yours, you have crossed a line.

What has happened to the ability to talk about things without it devolving into name calling, drama or condescending attitudes?  To have a conversation and an exchange of ideas that are thought provoking? To understand why someone might feel different than you? To agree to disagree? *

My views are not yours. I have had different life experiences that have brought me to where I am. My views have changed over the years as I have grown, lived and matured.  They may change again. They are my opinions. You have yours. I respect your right to have them. I just don’t respect you as a person when you imply a group or someone (or their opinion) is stupid or “less than” because they don’t agree with you.

Needless to say, I have been withdrawing from groups and relationships because, as I said above, I do not have the time or energy to deal with it.  I do not have the graciousness or patience to overlook it right now. Maybe, in the future, I’ll change my mind.

Happy Thursday y’all. Who has my caffeine?

*I am very lucky to have a friend that I talk to regularly that has vastly different views on some hot topics and yet, we can have conversations about them. I can express why (or what) I feel about things. She can express her views. We can “yeah, but” back and forth and then turn around and talk about cute weekender bags. She gets it. And I wish more people did.

Happy Jug Day!

Obviously, I should not be knitting in the car. I messed up the cast on/first few rows for this 4 times. 4 times! I was inspired by Sarah’s giant gnome and thought it would be quick and easy to knit and that I could make some decent progress while traveling. HA!

Because of the busy week I had, I made absolutely no progress on the stitching stuff for this month’s CMMDI. Meh. It’s not like it hasn’t been sitting around for years already.

Next up on the weird travel schedule is the 2013 Rare Neuro-immunoligic Disorders Symposium. Luckily, it is in Dallas and I have Priority Club points to spend.  I will probably not be attending patient day in L.A. this year, (unless a magical pigeon drops a plane ticket in my lap) so at least I”ll get to see Sex Kitten and gain some knowledge.

Besides, I wanted to lose another 30 pounds before I saw those people again. Or something like that. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Happy Jug Day y’all! Stay hydrated!

Busy, busy. Tired, tired.*

Someone may have mentioned that it has been a month since  I did a blog post.

August! Texas! On a farm! With the alphabet disease.

I can’t even remember to check email, let alone blogs without someone telling me to do it.

Today was  a prime example. If I actually had to list all of the things we did before 10 a.m., all y’all would need a nap.

◊  ◊  ◊

Speaking of naps, if I’m not herding geese or coddling babies, I’m sleeping from pure exhaustion. (It’s hot y’all!)

Well, except for these socks I’ve been working on. One.row.at.a.time. Because my arm gave up the ghost and these may be my last pairs of socks ever.

Yeah, I know they don’t match. The one in the back has its mate and the footie in the front still needs one. I also just discovered that the new-to-me phone does not have a flash for the camera.

I beat veriz@n and kept my unlimited data, but I lost the flash. I I think I  still won the war.

◊  ◊  ◊

We’re not even going to talk about how I lost my mind and started talking high school football at the grocery store this morning. I heard what was coming out of my mouth and in my head I was screaming “what the flip are you doing?!?!?”.

If I start mentioning rhinestones on my purse, shoot me like a puma going through your trash.

◊  ◊  ◊

It could also be the stress of the upcoming round of chemo/infusion thing. Not the thing itself, but the logistics and having to spend a few nights in Dallas since Texas decided to go out and find a decent job. How dare he! Right?

Maybe it is forgivable since he’s able to keep my coffee stash well stocked. With the good stuff. Roasted and ground the day he brings it home.

He may be a keeper.

◊  ◊  ◊

Happy Sunday y’all!

*because really, I am too tired to come up with a witty title and I’m stealing hers. With permission and without prayer circles.