In continuation of yesterday's blog, I produced this fancy blog poll. I thought about this while working on the blog yesterday: my Mom liked large dolls and therefor, bought large dolls for DSeester and I when we were growing up. I preferred small dolls and couldn't convince her that I didn't want large dolls. I remember her trying to convince me to like large dolls. I don't play with dolls any longer but I'm still of similar mind, I prefer small people and not big people. I'll take the babies any day, adults can go to their corner of the earth and leave me alone. I don't dislike all people, just the stupid ones. That leaves about 1% of the adult population, maybe less. I don't think I'm going to touch that rant but get back to topic. I'm just curious how many people out in blogland prefer the huge projects like afghans vs. small projects like scarfs. I am not sure how I would answer this blog poll because my ultimate preference is an aghan. I tend to avoid them now because my linen closet is bulging at the seams. Plus,
1) I'm trying to branch out in creativity.
2) I don't always have enough yarn to make an afghan.
3) Yarn talks to me and it doesn't always say that it wants to be an afghan.
4) Sometimes a pattern begs me to try it out.
5) Sometimes it is a mood of need - instant gratification.
Having said all this, the blogpoll is for your overall desire of projects. I'd have to choose large projects because I really do enjoy and prefer making afghans over anything else. I guess that is why I constantly make blankets that I sew for all the little kids in my life. I like the little people and the large projects - what a great combo. It may also be a nurturing desire - something homey, comfy and warm. Maybe someday I'll be psychoanalyzed and understand myself.

Last night I worked a little on the Lion Brand Afghan contest blanket. DH was in a bit of a mood so I spent some time helping in the kitchen and trying to smooth the feathers that I didn't ruffle and didn't know who/what did. We all have these moods and every time he has one, I learn to have more patience. I wanted to snap at him last night but then I realized how patient he is when I'm moody. It was hard to make myself relax and not snap but I forced myself to do so. I feel good having consciously made that decision. He so deserves my patience.

I have some new patterns swirling around in my head. I jotted them down in my journal and will let the details swim around before I put my hand to them. The two I have swirling currently will destash quite a bit of things lurking in the home office. If only I knew how to make more time in the day - 24 hours just isn't enough.

At lunch yesterday, I worked on the fingerless gloves. I updated the progress bar above to prove this. I need to take a picture and let you see how nice they're coming along. My left forefinger takes quite a beating so I'm going to try wearing one of those rubber finger condoms and see if that helps. I may not be able to knit and not feel - we shall shee.

Your Japanese Name Is...

Naoko Nakayama

How's that for not having a drop of Asian blood? No blood but I have a name! I wonder what my Japanese coworker's name is - Oh, I already know. Hehe

Since I can't show you the afghan I'm making for the Lion Brand Afghan Contest, I had to share the Japanese visual. The afghan is coming along nicely. I will probably finish off the base color skein and that'll be the end of it. Afghans are my passion. I love working them, thinking about them, finishing them and then using or gifting them. It is the one thing that I've made the most of in all my years of knitting and crocheting. DC Ruthie has a passion for doilies. She loves working with the small thread and I suppose the patterns and then the outcome of all those tiny stitches. I have a vintage doily book that I just love and I may try my hand at creating one of the patterns. I know how and it isn't totally frustrating to me but every stitch has me jamming that tiny needle into my cuticle. Do you think I can be trained to not do it? We Shall Shee. It was so cold and wet here yesterday that I only worked a few rows on the fingerless gloves. Today I have to hit the post office at lunch so it may be another day with little progress on that project.

Just got back from hitting the sale at JoAnn Fabric. I picked up the needed base yarn for afghan #2 so I can hit that again this evening. I also grabbed a copy of the new Knit 1 magazine. Even though the mag is focused at the 18-35 year-old group (yeah, I missed that boat) my friend and host of Knitty Gritty, Vickie Howell, has an article and a pattern in the mag. I glanced through the mag but haven't had a chance to read anything since I was trying to drive back to the office. Looking forward to a little reading time. I'm also trying to finish off a book - only 20 pages to go. I had planned on finishing it last night but we stayed up to watch the Olympics. I'm so glad we did (we were so close to not watching) because we would've missed all the people falling on the ice. The first fall made me squeal "Oh no!" I felt so bad for the couple but that was a serious dropping on the ice. I knew she was hurting but she was such a stoic coming off the ice. The only good thing from all the falls is that it gave the USA a great push to the top. How selfish is that thought? The skater from Canada does not have any broken bones but she's not able to skate in the final competition this evening. What a horrible end to your shot at a medal.

Being on this high, I've hopped back onto the ol' diet. Today is the first day and so far, so good. Bikini weather will soon be upon us and fatgirl would like to be able to wear a MuMu and feel good about it. Looks like it'll be a go for the sibling vacation trip to North Carolina. I'm looking forward to it - not only to have time with my sibs and their kids but also a chance to hook up with DC Chrissy and also childhood friend, David. Getting away from everyone's house is the idea behind all of it. A vacation away from it all. This will be a test for the future of vacations. With my kids being grown, I wonder how long they will be attending!?

And now a little sumpin to scare you, my personality quiz results. If you don't know me, you should be scared. If you do know me, you won't be surprised.

Check out my personality profile!

Extraversion Your average score on extraversion was 4, which is considered average.
Your score on Extraversion is average, indicating you are neither a subdued loner nor a jovial chatterbox. You enjoy time with others but also time alone.

Agreeableness Your average score on agreeableness was 3, which is considered low.
Your score on Agreeableness is low, indicating less concern with others' needs than with your own. People see you as tough, critical, and uncompromising.

Conscientiousness Your average score on conscientiousness was 5.9, which is considered high.
Your score on Conscientiousness is high. This means you set clear goals and pursue them with determination. People regard you as reliable and hard-working.

Emotional Stability Your average score on emotional stability was 4, which is considered average.
Your score on Emotional Stability is average, indicating that your level of emotional reactivity is typical of the general population. Stressful and frustrating situations are somewhat upsetting to you, but you are generally able to get over these feelings and cope with these situations.

Openness Your average score on openness was 2, which is considered low.
Your score on Openness to Experience is low, indicating you like to think in plain and simple terms. Others describe you as down-to-earth, practical, and conservative.

Yeah, all that bitchiness in one person just shouldn't be allowed in the gene pool. Luckily, neither one of my kids are like me. DC Ruthie is way worse than me (my view of life - the only view) - can you imagine? The oldest daughter's of two sisters - I wonder if Chrissy and Jacqueline are like us? We may share traits but I don't think they're as bitchy as we.

As you see, I finished Wheeling Willy. GBaby was impressed and it is now on his list of things to earn. I have to put the felt backing and magnet on it but to me, it is finished and earns 100% on the completion scale. This'll save me from changing it later.

The afghan is working out well. I had a few glitches to sort through on the yarn side but I have it under control and moving along. I just hope to be able to find the base yarn since it looks like HL hasn't restocked the shelves since my previous raid. Darn - guess I'm gonna have to visit yet another HL.

DSeester and I are going to mass on Sunday! They're having a polka band at the Catholic church in her town and then they're having a $7 sausage/kraut plate following mass. Who could possibly pass that up? Hehe - I really can't wait. I love the Catholic service. It'll be interesting to see what a polka mass actually consists of and how they incorporate it into the service.

Over the weekend I finished afghan number one. It is submitted and hopefully awaiting the request to see it in person. I have started the second afghan three different times but don't like what I see. The yarn shall continue marinating while I come up with something I like. The yarn I chose is too thin to stand alone and I'm having trouble coming up with a base yarn in a color that doesn't take away from the color pattern. I have a good idea what I want though so is only a matter of getting what I need. Then I'll be off on a knitting craze that won't end until it is knocked out.

Wheeling Willy update - I'm finished with the cross-stitch part and closing in on the finishing of all the back-stitching required. This project should be finished this week.

I guess that is it for today.

I have about 20 stitches left of Wheeling Willy and then I have to do the outlining areas, cut it out and slap a magnet on the back. I worked on the afghan last night and have 9 rows on the needles. I only spent a little time on it since I had home chores to do and hopped into bed a little early. DH has a drinking expedition to attend tonight so there should be some time to make a little more progress. I worked on it while watching the taped episode of Knitty Gritty. I like the range of projects along with the different ages of the guests. I think it is a quality program even if I don't learn anything new. Sometimes it isn't so much that you can't teach an old dog new tricks as it is that the dog is tired while watching the show and believe me, the dog has probably seen it before.

I'm in a little bit of a cleaning mood so I think the work desk is going to catch hell today. As DSeester says, "You'll have that from time to time," "You know what they say in Pittsburgh," "If you go to school, you're gonna get punched."

I ordered two shadow box frames off Herrschner this a.m. A few years ago I purchased two Santa quilling projects. One for DC Ruthie and one for me. Today I saw they had the frames on sale so I scooped them up. I love having the free shipping code - makes life much easier on the pocketbook and enabled me to buy DC Ruthie a frame for hers, too.

Check out Mama's babies! I finally found a piece of glass for the picture. This has been a long, drawn out project. I found a black mat and a white mat and had to decide what I liked best. Once I decided on the black mat, I knew I'd want a white frame. Luckily HL had some frames on clearance (my favorite price) and that came home with me. Of course I bought the wrong size and had to head back for an exchange. Then when I finally got around to getting over to Home Depot, they tell me they don't cut glass any longer. Dang. I thought I'd have to end up over at a glass place or have DH buy a sheet and cut it for me. When DS and I were at HL the other day I asked and they sell glass already pre-cut. It took a long road to get there but hey, it is together and will soon be on the wall. Guess which one is me!?

On the way home yesterday, I made YET ANOTHER trip to HL. I was in search of yarn for the LB afghan contest. I found some that will work and home it came with me. Since DH was at his Dad's, I had some alone time to work on afghan patterns. I like what I came up with and can't wait to submit my work for their review. Maybe my name will be in lights at least once before I die.

I'm close to finished with Wheeling Willy. I showed him to GB last night and it was so enjoyable to watch his expressions of awe. He was at a loss for words. I never think of my work as making someone awestruck but it seems to do that to some. Seeing it on the face of 5 year old whom you adore just cannot be described. I look forward to finishing it so that he can earn it by being solo on the bicycle and I can start a new "goes to work" project. It may very well be an afghan since it needs to be pumped out for pictures. Looks like I'll have two jumping off the needles within the next 5 weeks. Push up that hump!

Pretty funny - DH was reading the new Discover magazine last night and he pointed out an article that mentioned knitting. It wasn't about knitting but did have about 5 pictures of what were SUPPOSED to be knitting. Yeah, they're pretty funny ---- every one of the pictures featured something crocheted. Someone didn't do their homework. Ignorance displayed in a science magazine amazes me.

I am about 70% on Wheeling Willy. It is hard to determine how far along you are when all you can do is guess by looking at the picture. Whatever - I'm getting there. Last night I sat down with the LB yarn and came up with a pattern for their Size 50 knitting needles/afghan contest. All I need to do is find the perfect colors and I'll be set to send in my application. I could use $500 or $100 gift cert to their website. Oh, hell yeah! Wish me luck.

Speaking of patterns, I have another one that I added to The Knitting Vault. The Heart Coasters finally got final approval and the pattern is now available for purchase. I now have seven patterns posted to that site. I fulled the coasters over the weekend and they're nice and fluffy. The stitches are still very pronounced but that is what I wanted. While these were being fulled, I threw a vest in with them. The vest had been through the process but didn't full to what I wanted. I like it now. Purrty! No telling what I'll do with this one.