Lotsa Socksa

Since it's too dang cold around these parts to do much, Ben and Bash have decided to spend their days sleeping on the sofa in the sun and dreaming of the tropics...

And Mr. Bee and I have decided that February is 'Finally-Remodel-The-Basement-Storage' month. To that end, we will need to move all of the junk...uh...that is to say...priceless treasure... from the storage area on one side of the basement to (sob) my quilting/yarn storage room on the other side! Given the extensive plans we have for shelf-building, our total lack of knowledge or experience regarding construction matters, the length of time it take either of us to actually get anything accomplished, and our overwhelming lack of enthusiasm about this particular project, I am anticipating the quilt/yarn room will be off limits until at least the end of April when we try to unload....ummmm...I mean...regrettably part with... a lot of said 'priceless treasure' at our neighborhood yard sale extravaganza. So I spent yesterday afternoon picking up and making room to move the storage stuff over and then I gathered up all of the skeins of beautiful sock yarn that I've collected and set to spinnin' it up into cakes. It's gorgeous stuff, but I am so lazy that I will grab a lesser quality, already skeined, ball when looking for a new project. How pathetic. So I made Shaefer-Anne, Jitterbug, Fleece Artist, Sea Silk, Artisan, Socks That Rock and Blackberry Ridge cakes and brought them all upstairs in a knitting bag along with all of my double points. That way I don't have to dig around for supplies amongst all of the 'riches' that will be piled in that room. It's all organized. Smart no? Here is a picture of all of the cakey goodness.

Also meet my newest best friend. This is the book that Mum got me for Christmas (THANKS Mum!) unabashedly showing itself off with my new melted peacock Noro sock yarn (THANKS Donna). The book so TOTALLY ROCKS! It has a ton of stitch patterns; regular, lace, traveling and even some oddities. Armed with this and all of that sock yarn, I should be able to keep myself out of trouble for a little while at least. If I adapt one of the stitch patterns in that book to a sock does that make it 'MY' sock pattern? How does that work? Does anyone know?

While down in the quilt room, I also grabbed my poor bedraggled tiger cross stitch pattern that I started working on 7 years ago now. I put it away in lieu of quilting and then knitting and never got back to it. The pattern is nine full pages long but when it's done it will look like a photograph from a distance. The pattern is VERY detailed. I tried to work on it a bit last night. In the span of 15 short minutes, it made me wonder why I used to like counted cross stitch so much. You work and work and work and there is almost nothing to show at the end of that time. Teeny tiny fussy work. And apparently, my now seven years older eyes aren't as accustomed to counting those linen threads as they used to be. Yikes! I had to wear my purple-rhinestone-old-lady-librarian magnifier specs to see and succeeded in giving myself one heckuva headache in the process. I will finish this if it kills me, but I think now I am going to be ready to part with my extensive cross stitch pattern collection in the yard sale. Don't believe I'll be starting anything new again!

Mr. Bee and I got a recumbent stationary bike this weekend. I haven't been able to walk because of my ankle cyst and Boy Howdy do I need my daily walks! I've been a walker for years now. I need it as much for mental as physical health, if not more so! I've really been missing it and I'll bet Mr. Bee has been too, considering how unbearably crabby I've been this winter. So we got this bike to fill in the gap until the ankle heals; no pounding pressure on one's feet. It's a pretty sweet ride if I do say do. Even has a video game mounted on it with joysticks on the hand grips. The faster and harder you pedal the more advantage you have to win the games. Pretty smart! Given Mr. Bee's love for all things electronic, as well as all games, he ought to be totally paralyzed by Thursday!

You guys should have seen Mr. Bee trying to put the thing together. He was sitting on the floor which put him smack dab in the middle of Bentley and Sebastian's domain and they didn't hesitate to let him know by sitting on his lap (Ben) and climbing all over the parts, rubbing and purring to the top of his lungs (Basher). What should have taken 20 minutes took a whole lot longer what with all of the curiosity, lovin' and overall slobber going on. I was highly amused. Mr. Bee? Not so much. But he took it in stride. The price of having fur babies!

Off to go break into my sock yarn stash and watch TV with the boys.....

PS-The cornmeal chicken I made last night was a success, Mum! I put the recipe over on Molly Bee's Kitchen site! See the link to the left!