~Spring is in the air~

It has been a great weekend, beautiful weather, windows open, sun shining ~ I love it! I'm hoping that with the warmth predicted for the next few days that the snow will finally melt out of my yard bringing the much hated MUD! lol Beau (0ur chocolate lab) has begun his spring "allergies" consisting of a breakout under his chin and constant scratching. We aren't sure what causes this every year because it seems to happen before any of his "people" develop their allergy symptoms, but we will have to go and get him his new prescription and try to put the medicated cream on. The keyword being "try" as he has to see what you're doing and wants to EAT everything! lol What I also love is that all four of my kids are here :) Matthew is finishing up his spring break and Melyssa is just starting hers, so there was a three day overlap. The girls had a dance friday night and if I do say so myself, they looked beautiful! I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing up. Softball tryouts begin tomorrow, Em has been the varsity first baseman since freshman year and Nicole will be the varsity starting pitcher this year as a freshman following in their older sister's footsteps who also made varsity as a freshman as their starting third baseman. It will be so much fun to watch them play together for the High School. Emily fractured her right thumb playing indoor softball this winter and it has been slow to heal, we go back again on Tuesday to find out if she can start physical therapy and hopefully be ready for the first game at the end of March. Positive thoughts will be much appreciated :) I haven't managed to knit this week as my leg has been terribly swollen and painful by the time I get home from work, so sitting isn't an option. I haven't quite figured out how to knit for any extended length of time laying down. I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on Melyssa's owl mittens and then get some opinions from all of you on a project that is very important for me to finish quickly. Laptop update..... After locating the paperwork on this laptop, I was able to prove that I had a two year warranty on it that HP insisted I did not have. After fighting with 3 people from HP online who were "explaining" to me that my two year warranty was only good for 11 months (AAAAAAACK) and then fighting with two more people over the phone who were "explaining" the same thing to me, I finally was connected to a woman with A BRAIN! She, along with her manager, actually listened to what I was telling them, figured out that HP had made an error when logging in the warranty paperwork that we sent in when we purchased this machine; fixed the error, sent me a box and FedEx has picked it up to have the Motherboard, Operating System and Harddrive replaced as well as whatever else it needs. I then received a call from a case manager apologizing for all of my trouble and to tell me that since I had to purchase a battery last August because of their warranty error, he was adding another year of full warranty coverage when this one runs out. My daughter's words to me "You know Mom, sometimes I am so happy that you're a @itch"! Complement??????? lol Enjoy the rest of your weekend, we are cooking on the grill tonight! YAY

~Magic?... loop, not gauge!~

I've been knitting the Give a Hoot mittens by Jocelyn Tunney on Ravelry for Melyssa - as her College mascot is an owl. I have to say that although I love the pattern and the very unique thumb gusset, the sizing has been a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, before starting these I looked at a lot of the projects that had been done and read the comments, so I was forewarned of this issue before starting (for this, I love Ravelry!). However, even with this knowledge, using bulky yarn in place of the worsted weight, and a gauge swatch, I had to frog the first mitten 3 times before getting the correct size! The pattern lists the size of these as adult woman ~ I have small hands and they were working up too small for me! Now, I LOVE my dpn's and thought I had every size available until I realized I would have to go up to a size 9 after the ribbing - I DIDN'T have a 9! Now, being the stubborn, never say die Italian that I am, (because I only have 4 or 5 or maybe even 6 wip's I could have worked on) I decided that I would finally teach myself the magic loop method until I could get to the store and buy the missing 9's. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a piece of cake to do and although I will most likely go back to my beloved dpn's when knitting at home, I have realized that this will be a great way to knit socks (mittens, toys, etc.) in the car, at softball games, the beach etc. and not be searching high and low for the "dropped dpn" (I'm sad to say, that I drop them often and have been known to say very unladylike things while looking for them). The "almost finished" mitten on the left just needs eyes and I'm contemplating a backstitch around the owl (the cross-stitcher in me coming out) in blue to help it stand out and make it "school colors". As you can see by the picture on the right, there is NO WAY I will get a pair out of one skein of yarn - thankfully, I bought two :) My favorite thing about this pattern is the thumb gusset - it is fantastic! I will be making all of my mittens with this feature from now on. I hope you all had a great weekend - the weather here was beautiful - in the 50's, open windows, and a lot of melting snow. I REFUSE to think about the snow coming tomorrow and the "below normal" temperatures coming with it! Off to finish the other mitten!

~Motherboard and Owl~

Since I have the "first" post in a long time under my belt - thanks to the big fibery hug - I figured I better keep it going! I hope all of you "hug" knitters don't mind that I've wrapped my blog in the shawl/blanket as well as myself. I LOVE it and definately needed some comfort last night after talking to the people at the computer repair shop! My daughter that is in college has an HP laptop that is 17 months old. 1 year and 2 weeks after purchase the battery died - we coughed up 125.00 for a new battery..... ok, so things happen. At Christmas-time she came home and told me that the laptop doesn't always boot up, or it will boot up to a black screen, or shut down in the middle of a task, and one of the usb ports won't recognize her printer. Hmmmmmmmm... I spent a good week checking it out, updating her antivirus, running scans and updates etc. While she was in Italy (I'll save that for another post), I used it daily and it seemed to be fine. Well, to make a long story a little shorter, she called last Wednesday and said it wouldn't turn back on - after a bit of calming her down, talking and waiting it did boot up, but I went and retrieved it from her on Friday and dropped it off at the repair shop. As I put the laptop on the counter....... the owner grimaced at the sight of it - DEFINATELY NOT a good sign, and then proceeded to ask me... "is it about a year and a half old?, does the screen go black?, does it not boot up?, do you have problems with any of the usb ports?" After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I replied yes to all. She tells me she had the same laptop that had the same problems two weeks out of the box and that she has had a parade of them coming through the shop. After running a "check" of the system it is determined that the Operating System (the original Vista) is corrupt, the Motherboard is on its way out and that it isn't worth repairing at $700.00. WHY HP didn't do a recall on this laptop is a mystery since the original Vista Operating System paired with the system board failures on this model laptop was a toxic mix! (Deep breath) so for now she is using a $299 ACER (which works fantastic, I might add) that I borrowed from work until I can get her another new laptop :( Do any of you have suggestions/experiences/warnings on laptops for me? I'd appreciate any input I can get before I go and purchase another one? On the knitting front, I've made a few small projects (have too many wip's to talk about though! ugh!), one of which was this little cutie, I did in Melyssa's college colors. Her college mascot is an owl ~ HOOT! The Pattern is Bramble Owl Softie by: Sonia Philip I used Caron Simply Soft from my stash in Blue, White and Gray The inside of the wings was done in undyed Mohair The only change I made to this pattern is, I knit talons for him as he looked odd to me without them The pattern, although it is done in a LOT of pieces, was surprisingly quick to knit and put together (even though I dislike sewing pieces, I didn't mind this and would make it again) This little guy was a HUGE hit, now to make a College Penant for him to hold and he's ready to spread some college spirit! HOOOOOOT! :)