I could be sleeping....

I could be sleeping, but no I'm in court listening to trials. I say I could be sleeping because I'm so sleepy I can't stand myself. I haven't slept well for the last couple of nights because I have crocheted all night in my dreams. I didn't know that crocheting could be so tiring but apparently it is. I am working on a shrug and I'm trying to figure out how I can modify it a bit. So I guess in my waking hours I have thought about it so much that I am now dreaming about it. I think I have it figured out and once I get it part of the way done I will post a picture. I'm using a Knitpicks yarn Merino wool in the color Asparagus. I love it!! It feels so good and once done it is going to be beautiful I hope. I have never made anything like this before so I'm hoping that it is going to turn out ok. I'm going to be putting another order in soon I hope. I can't wait, I'm in love with their yarn. I am taking part in a spring purse swap for Crochetville and I can't wait to get my partners information so I know what I'm making for her. I had so much fun in the wool swap that I'm really looking forward to participating in this one too. I have never crocheted a purse before so I have been scouring the net looking for a respectable purse to create for my partner. I'm so excited!! I got to buy myself a new computer!! I can not wait till it gets here. It rocks and I mean rocks. I can now play my Sims, work on web page, work with my pictures and scrapbooking and anything else that I want to without the computer locking up on me. I can't wait!!!!!

Carol
www.stitchandprayer.com

Work?? What's Work

I'm at work today, not that I want to be here but I have to be here all the same. Especially if I want that not so fat check at the end of a 2 week pay period. It has been a very boring day and when it is boring around here it is soooo very boring and the time drags by. I could think of a bunch of those southern analogies about right now but I will leave that to your imagination. Oh well ok just one, time is dragging by so slow it reminds me of a hot southern day sitting on the front porch sipping lemonaide wishing for snow. LOL Ok that wasn't the best I could come up with but it will have to do for right now. See it has been so slow that my brain has started to puddle up behind my eyes and its making me one sleepy girl. So risking the fact that could get me into trouble, I have been knitting at my desk. Its a terrible picture I took it with my cell phone then tried to fix it on a photo manipulation program. It didn't work!! I still have an hour to sit here and do n0thing but answer the phone when it rings because my co-worker has left for the day and now her job falls on me too. Not complaining because it is slow today. I am so ready to go home for the weekend and hopefully this weekend will be better than the last. My intentions are to sit around and knit and do the normal stuff like laundry and cleaning of the house, but the kids are going to help.

Carol
www.stitchandprayer.com

Mom, Can I have.....It's only......

How many times a day can one mother hear, Mom, can I have______It only cost__________??? Or Mom I want_________? I mean really!!! I now know exactly how my mom felt everytime we passed by one of those displays next to the case register, you know those impulse buy displays. And speaking of, who's brilliant idea was it to put it at kids eye level right where they knew us mothers (and fathers just to be fair) would be standing the longest. Face it gentlemen, you are usually there alone and are as bad as kids sometimes, Oh I can not live without that high powered, micro mag light that opens cans and skins a deer. But for mothers its, mom can I have candy, no you can't we are going to eat dinner soon, but I want it, so spit in one hand and wish in the other (just kidding but I have felt like saying that before). Every day when the kids come home, and no I'm really not exaggerating about this, ok, you got me almost every day the kids come home from school and they need money for something else. I just got off the phone with my daughter who now wants money for pictures at school for Valentines day with her and a friend. She is in 6th grade why do I want to buy pictures that are already overpriced of her and a friend who she won't be friends with next week. Oh I guess I'm being silly I remember being in 6th grade or wait maybe that was....oh never mind!! I just get so tired of being I wanted to death. Earlier today my eldest son just has to have his explorer uniform by Tuesday!!! That's over $170.00 for that. I'm not rich, let me rephrase that, I'm not no where near rich. I'm broke!! He's going to have to wait till next week sometime. Then my daughters school wants money for several different things plus she has 2 projects due and the youngest has projects to do also. All this and I'm trying to get a business started as well. Geez, do I look like I'm made of money (oh good grief I'm starting to sound like my mom). I'm going to leave you today with a picture of our female dog when we first got her in rescue, this is her super model pose . She reminds me of today when I'm thinking, "Just what do you want now
Can't you see I'm trying to sleep??

Adventures in Hooking....

Hehe made you look with a title like that huh??? Calm down it's not what you think. I have started a baby sweater, in itself that is not that remarkable except for the fact that I have never made one before. It is proving to be a challenge because the pattern, for lack of anything better to say, is weird. To weird. To the point it makes no sense to me. Here, judge for yourself :

Yes, the pattern is actually written that way. I think that is where the sleeve is suppose to go but right now it just looks weird. I'm hoping the further I get into this sweater I will understand it better. I can always frog it and find a different pattern. I have never made any type of sweater before and this year I'm going to learn to crochet and knit sweaters. And as I loose this weight I'm going to make myself new sweaters and such.

I took this picture of my kitty this weekend also. She is sitting on the top of my desk looking down on me. Oh, this is Maggie Mae our 5 year old kitty. We have her mom also, Scarlet who is a red tabby. Maggie is our 10 year olds cat, she
sleeps with him and is very lost when he is not there. She loves that boy more than anything else.
You can't see here but on her left side there are two black spots and when she lays down they form he shape of a heart.

I can't wait to get off work so I can go home and knit or crochet, I never know which I'm going to do till I get there and of course how my hands feel. See ya'll later.

Carol L.

• www.stitchandprayer.com


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Gosh I can't wait!!!

I can't wait, I mean I really can't wait! I know you want to know what I can't wait for and I'm babbling and won't come on and say what exactly it is that I can't wait for. I just can't wait till the day that I get to open my shop. Securing the money to open is what is holding me up but I feel it in my bones that it won't be long now. I sure hope my fortune telling bones are right!! I'm looking forward to the first time I can help a customer or teach a child in my shop where I have time and supplies. I can't wait till I see that look in someones eyes when they create something out of nothing for the very first time. I can't wait till I make that very first sale. I can't wait till I can work side by side with my children and my husband stocking items or inventoring the items into stock. I just plain can't wait!!! I would like to have my shop in a small house where I have a small type kitchen and several extra rooms for yarn storage and a classroom. I know of a house that is for sale but I don't know who is going to loan me the money to buy this house. Its a good location and I would have to make some renovations like adding parking to the front and the back of the house. I want to make it easy to get in and out of easier since it sits on the busiest street around here. Close in the garage area and that would give me more show space I could use one of the bedrooms as a classroom and the other as a room for just sitting down and knitting or crocheting together. I would have the books and maybe samples of yarn in that room. That would probably be Raggies Corner. I have never been in this house but I have a feeling I know how it is set up and it would be perfect. I just can't wait. I sure hope it happens soon.

Knitting time again......

Just want to break out in song. It's knitting time again.....yea baby....ohh yea.... Ok, OK that stunk to high heaven!!! I am finally knitting the handwarmers my best friend asked me for a month ago. I haven't had time to get it done (well I did finish that baby blanket in the efforts to destash). I love to knit but it is a bit slower than crocheting and crocheting feeds the instant gratification need I have. I love the look of the knitting stitches and how it all comes together using just pointed sticks. By the way, it still amazes me with either crochet or knit, how you can take nothing and make something. How out of a ball, a hank, or a skein a sweater or hat or anything is made. It is amazing to me how thru the ages that these crafts have passed down from one generation to another and how no matter how the times change knitting and crocheting are always accepted. I think it's great that people of all ages, colors, sex, and nationalities are learning to knit and crochet and are finding out that both are great stress relief. What a nice thing to think that these crafts all of us can do in peace. There are no rules and there is not a wrong way or right way to participate in either craft. I know I'm at my greatest peace when I can sit and crochet or knit for hours with no one bothering me, which by the way is not going to happen in my house with 3 kids, bless their hearts. I think everyone should learn to knit or crochet, what a wonderfull world this would be.
I go tomorrow to the CPA to talk about opening my business. I think I'm getting closer to being able to do it. I can't wait!!! I can't wait to sign the papers on my own business, I can't wait till I open my shop and have a grad opening, I can't wait till I sell my first item. I just can't wait. Period!!! I think....no... I believe that I will do good business and I believe that I will make it. I wish I had the start up capitol without taking a SBA but I don't. I really don't want to go into business in debt. I would rather only have the normal bills like rent, utilities and such. I know I can sell enough to do that but to pay back a loan too. That's why I have to talk to the CPA I know he can tell me what I'm up against. It's like going to see the wizard!! I think too I'm going to take my business in to the city next to us because... they want way to much rent in this small town for anything good, we have nothing here but what I think is "bad business" and not enough of desirable busineses. I don't know, I'm still looking where to open. I have a lot to learn but don't mind learning by no means.

Carol L.
Mississippi Hookers
www.stitchandprayer.com

Baby Blanket

I made the cutiest ripple baby blanket over the weekend. I have all this stash, like most of us Yarn a holics or yarn whores, and I decided to take some of it out and do something with it. So I started to crochet and this is what happened. This is Maggie Mae checking to be sure that I didn't leave any tails hanging out.

I will write more tomorrow I wanted to share the blanket but I'm worn out now. I didn't get out of court till 7pm and it was a long day so I'm going to go take my eyeballs out (my contacts.. kinda of gross huh??) then I'm going to knit for a bit.

Carol L.

Mississippi Hooker

www.stitchandprayer.com

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Work! Bah!!

Really that's what I think today, work BAH!! I don't want to be here I want to be at the house doing something I want to do and right now I want to take a long nap dreaming of opening my yarn shop and how its going to be. I really want to work for myself. I do not have any preconceived notions that I will not be working if I have my own business I know I will be working my fingers off. I know that it will be long hours and less time at the house. But... In the midst of working I will be able to sit at some point and crochet or knit and I won't have to answer to anyone else just me. I want to help and teach people to crochet or help selecting just the right yarn for their special project. I haven't gotten to crochet or knit in the last couple of days and what makes it worse is that I don't really have a project I want to do. Don't get me wrong I have tons of projects and patterns that I could be doing but nothing that has just jumped out at me. Guess I will make a dishcloth till I can figure out what I want to do. I may even make and afghan I haven't done that since before Christmas. What I would really like to do is learn to make socks and I think I could handle it till I get to the heel and that just scares the stuffing right out of me. I don't get it, I scream every single time that I have sat down and tried to make a pair of socks. If I could make socks I could make them big enough to fit my big feet and in every color possible that would match everything I own. Oh glorious day the day I can make socks.


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First Felting's

I did it!!! I felted and dyed my first project. Its a hat and its black cherry pink. I don't think it

turned out to bad for the first time and my daughter loves it and I will most definatly do it again sometime soon. I think this time it will be a crocheted or knitted bag or tote. Here's the hat let me know what you think, if in fact anyone ever reads the rantings of a mississippi hooker. I really enjoyed working with the dying and felting process I can see why this could be so addicting. My kids couldn't believe that Kool-Aid actually dyed this hat. My daughter asked me if I had tasted it to see if it tasted good, grossss!! She is a bit on the blond side (she really was blonde and dingy to boot, but I still love her). I used the Lion Brand Fisherman's Yarn. I was warned that the yarn was going to smell
stinky sheep butt when it got wet, I didn't think it was going to be all that bad but, in the words of my 3 year old neighbor, HOLY MOLEY!!! It Smelled to high heaven, if that's what sheep butt smells like we will not be raising sheep anytime soon. After it finished dying I took it to the sink to rinse out before putting it into the washer with jeans, I could see it now my sons and husbands jeans turning pink. Boy, would I be the one getting felted!! Anyway, I rinsed it out in the sink over a mesh drainer. When it was finished the mesh drainer was full of lanolin and you could smell it all over the kitchen. YUK!!! Truthfully, it wasn't all that bad and I would use it again I didn't gag or anything and nothing keeled over dead in the house. So, really its a big exaggeration.
Ok I did learn one big lesson, any item you intend to felt must be made twice the size because, duh, wool shrinks. I'm sure I knew that from somewhere. Oh and by the way, the reason it looks like a bowl in the picture is because I was drying it on top of my grandmothers bowl. The hat no longer looks like a bowl.

Everyone have a great yarn of a day,
The Mississippi Hooker

www.stitchandprayer.com

To teach a Male to knit

My husband goes thru periods of time where he gets bored. Who doesn't I ask him but he just gets really bored. He says he needs a hobby and I think he needs a hobby. I have suggested to him many times that I would teach him how to knit or crochet just till he finds that special something that makes him happy. And yes Gary it has to be special or you will never want to do it again. My thinking is that learning something new never hurt anyone. You may not like it and may never want to do it again but learning it will never hurt, unless he pokes himself in the eye with the knitting needle and that might just smart a bit. He has just never taken to the idea that he just might like to make something out of knit or crochet who knows where the possiblilities lie. He loves to camp and be in the woods I can think of bunchs of stuff he could make that would save money and time when he in fact goes camping again. Sunday he blew my mind and asked me to teach him to knit. I told him I would a little nervous because I don't know where this is leading and not sure I can stand up to his expectations in the teaching department. Well, I was excited so I ran out and went to the local Wal-mart and bought him some camoflouge yarn, I thought it might be more manly than some of the fru - fru yarn I have. I brought it home and offered as if to offer a sacrifice to him, I say hunny I bought this for you if you were serious about learning I thought this would be more manly. He liked it. Whew!!! Well that night after the kids had gone to my moms for a couple of days we sat down to learn to knit. He just about got it. He got the casting on, no problem. Taking that first knit stitch was a whole 'nother ball game. I have never seen needles go in so many directions trying to get that yarn thru that first stitch. I stood behind him and tried to help him that way finally he got that yarn thru. I cheered him on and he just looked at me and said thats it I can't do this any more tonight. So fast foward to last night, I walk in from the store and there sits my handsome husband in my chair knitting. Wonders never cease.

I have a crochet lesson to give this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. Its my first and I hope that I don't confuse this poor girl. I hope that I can be clear and concise and she understands. I would like for her to love this craft as much as I do.

Carol
www.stitchandprayer.com