Afterthought Saturday....

My friend Cindy and I decided to take advantage of the sock of the month class at the Newton Beadery on Saturday. As you can see, my the flash on my camera decided to put out more than it's fair share of effort--I'm sure the girls are still seeing spots! I REALLY need to remember to turn off the flash when there are light walls to bounce off of. Did I mention that it is usually painful driving past me at night for the same reason---gotta love them bright lights.....
I found some really addictive Lorna's Lace to knit with--I really like the colorway. I'm not really feeling the love for the afterthought heel, but I am not completely jumping ship on the idea yet. I actually will make this sock with a standard heel and a pretty easy pattern then go back and get some worsted weight yarn to make the first pair of afterthought --and in a light color so I can actually see what I am doing. Why did I pick a dark color when I knew I would be picking up stitches (which I am not too experienced with..) and doing a provisional stitch with waste yarn? I have no defense--I think I partied with the STUPID monster the night before--because I was feeling pretty dense as I was trying to figure out if this was a "live" stitch or not...

Here is but a small selection of the yarn Julie has at the shop. If I had turned around, there was a whole other wall of yarn--but as you can see--even my camera was having focus issues after I played with the waste yarn and tried to pick up stitches. I did discover that I am a compassionate knitter--I tried to bring every dead stitch within a mile radius of my needle to life and I stuggled to only pick up the "live stitches"....

Julie is having all kinds of really neat classes in the coming months, so it is definitely worth checking out the shop blog and signing up. She will be at the Wichita Women's fair, as will Shelly from Twist, so check them both out.

After Cindy and I took the class, we headed to Enid, Oklahoma to take my van to a friend's brother's shop...(try saying that three times)..Remember the van that seems to want to just shuck off parts at the drop of the hat? Well, I had taken it to the mechanic here in town and they were going to do the sway bar, front left axil, and the water pump (when this car decides it wants to go to the shop, it REALLY makes it worth it...) to the tune of $900. That crunch you just heard was our budget going off the cliff...Thursday the mechanic calls me to tell me he can't replace the water pump without replacing the timing cover it is attached to. Go figure, it has a crack in it...and you have to lift the engine to do the replacement...Did someone take my van out to a party without me knowing?!!

Wanna know how much the grand total was going to be? Go ahead--ASK. You know you want to.....

$1900.00 +

Are you breathing yet...that was my same response...So I freaked and called my friend Lisa in Enid. Her brother (he is a mechanic) said he'd do it for quite a bit less so Cindy and I took it to him Saturday. And yes, when I count blessing, I include my friend Lisa and her family. They have been our car angels for more times then they probably want to remember...I did let the garage here in town do the sway bar and axil, since that seemed important to have those cooperate when I'm barreling down the road at 70 m.p.h. but the rest is getting done in Enid.

It was really nice to visit Enid--even if we did get there late. Next time I am hoping to go up earlier in the day so I can show Cindy around. I don't think they have any yarn shops in Enid. Darn.

Alls well that ends well. and excuse any mispelled words, spell check is not working on blogger today... again.