Mariannes Motifs

War Eagle

Yesterday, me and 87,451 of my closest friends watched the Auburn, Tennesee SEC Football game in Auburn Alabama.  This was the first college football game I have attended.  It was a blast.  My favorite parts were the bands playing.  The Auburn band was AWESOME.  The did a great halftime show with a whole Irish themed medley where they marched in formation to form a big Shamrock. 

The game itself was the battle of the defenses as neither team appeared to have any appreciable offense. It was very crowded and my crowd phobia did rear its ugly head for a while. I pretended I was in 5.11 Tactical Pants, armour, and tried to go to my happy place.

We had a nice fun trip though.  Auburn is a very pretty town.  I had the famous lemonaid from Toomers Drugstore, and we got comped an extra hotel room at the Marriott Courtyard in Columbus because they didn't have a suite with two beds.  It was a nice girls getaway.  I enjoyed sleeping in the ENTIRE bed without  any 3 year old jumping in in the middle of the night.

Loom Knit Mock Cable Dishcloth Pattern

Loom Knit Mock Cable Dishcloth

Designed by Marianne Case  ©2008

 Moderate / Easy

Measures approx. 8” x 8”

 This mock cable dishcloth looks nice on both sides.  This makes a nice gift washcloth paired with some handmade soap, or make in a baby color as a baby washcloth.  It could also be used as a square for a blanket in the manner of Mason Dixon knitting. Give yourself a smile when you do the dishes, wash your face, or clean counters.

I am so pleased that my very first pattern, the Mock Cable Dishcloth Pattern will be the October Loom-A-Long project for the Ravelry "Loomin' Dishcloths" group.  This pattern is free for all use, so enjoy.

Download loom_knit_mock_cable_dishcloth.pdf

 

Fashion is so stupid

High fashion is one of the stupidest things in the world and if you don't believe me, check out this clip from the Spring Summer 09 Prada Fashion Show where not one, but at least two models tripped on the ridiculously high heeled platform shoes they were forced to wear.

Of course I being a sort of chunky girl myself, relish laughing at the uber skinny models falling on their skinny little asses in front of everyone.  This is ALMOST as good as those "stars without their makeup" pictures from People Magazine where you get to see that Nicole Kidman really has acne just like any normal person.   I realize that this is an evil impulse on my part, however I can't help it.  Sorry.

Let them eat cake

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said Wednesday that there were shortages of gasoline in parts of metro Atlanta, and he called some of the panic “self-induced.”

“There is ample fuel in the city,” he said. “It’s not everywhere it needs to be, but we do not have a crisis in the sense that we don’t have fuel coming in.”

Ok, then.  Thanks, Sonny.  You neglected to ask for a waiver for Atlanta's low sulfur fuel until there was already a clear problem with shortages and price surges after hurricanes Gustav and Ike.  Then you are going to downplay the stress Atlanta residents are going through by blowing it off like this?

I was a good citizen - I did not top off my tank.  I waited until I really needed gas to try to fill up thinking that I did not want to make the problem worse and the supply issue would work itself out.  Well, now I have less than 1/4 of a tank and I have not seen a single gas station with gas in the last 24 hours.

Great.  But there is no problem.  I guess not when you are the governor and ride around with a driver and a state car.

Political Funny

Could this be the solution to the political warfare in the house?

10 Great Things That Happened This Summer

Ten on Tuesday this week is 10 Great Things That Happened This
Summer

1.  My 5 year old started Kindergarten.

2.  I learned how to knit with needles (again.)

3.  My blogging for money started to really take off.

4.  I started selling lots of books on half.com.

5.  My 3 year old started being able to read, use the computer, and generally be a genius like his brother.

6.  Georgia started getting some rain and water levels aren't as low as last year's major drought levels.

7.  I got a new super wonderful housekeeper.

8.  Blog freebies:  free pearls, free cookbook, free air freshener, free t-shirt, free makeup, free hand made greeting card.

9.  One of my Squidoo lenses got really popular - Coolest Knitting Patterns using just squares and rectangles.

10.  My newest blog was introduced - Crohn's Disease Relief.

Running low on gas in the ATL

Most gas stations are out of gas in Atlanta right now.  Jin and I both have most of a tank of gas, so I guess we have to see how long that will last us.  Jin had to stop at 3 stations before he could get gas yesterday morning.  Interesting.   I wonder what will happen if people can't get to work.  I better remember to bring my laptop home so I can work remotely if I have to.

I guess we will have to start hoofing it in some comfortable walking shoes.  Maybe we need to check out stock in bicycle manufacturers and Clarks shoes?

Atlanta does not have a very good public transportation infrastructure - the MARTA only goes in 2 directions across town and bus coverage is spotty as well.  This hurricane IKE gas distribution crisis highlights what we have all known is an ongoing problem.

Babysitting Central

I've got a houseful of kids over here and we are having fun playing with little people, finger puppets, my little ponies, and all sorts of stuff.

The kids are all getting along very well.  Cory is so sweet.  She is famous for talking like an Ewok.  One time she walked up to me and said clear as day "I want more" while handing me her juice cup.  I think she can talk perfectly well but she gets along without it because she always gets what she wants without having to say it. 

I drank a 5 hour energy before Katie and Cory came over.  It is wearing off now.  Help.  Those work pretty well for a while but I don't know about 5 hours.  They are not fat burners that's for sure.  Its like 1 cup of coffee's worth of caffeine and a whole bunch of vitamins.  No scary ephedra or anything like that.  I can't take that kind of stuff.

Ahh... I made it to Saturday

I had a customer switchover last night that seemed to take FOREVER but finally was done.  Yay.  Anyone know of any St. Barts villa rentals? I needa vacation! 

Today we had all the excitement of going to the fish store.  (Tropical pet fish) and I scheduled in a nice nap.  My second knit dumpling bag is alomst 1/2 way done.  It might be done by tomorrow if I can get knitting.  I will be babysitting little Cory tomorrow so that might eat into my knitting time but it will give me nice cute little girl pictures for digital scrapping.

Next weekend I am going to be attending my first ever college football game (War Eagle!) so me and 90,000 of my closest friends can hang out together and watch Auburn play.  Should be interesting.  I don't think this is going to be quite like the Basketball games I attended back at my Alma Mater Beloit College.

Cricket Loom - looks interesting

I was reading the new issue of Knitty magazine and they had a review of a small portable wood weaving loom.  I've always been fascinated by weaving and I know my niece Lydia is too.     This intrigued me when the reviewer talked about the kids being really into using the loom.

This might be a good Hanukkah gift for my nieces, eh?   Here is the manufacturer's page - schachtspindle.com

Cricket Loom
Schacht Spindle Company
$135
11" x 18" x 6"
weaving width: 10”

Here's some quotes from the review in Knitty:

The first thing that struck me when I unpacked my Cricket was the quality of the materials. It’s wood, not pressboard or plastic.  It comes with everything you need to weave your first project: two stick shuttles, a warping peg, threading hook, two table clamps, and 8-dent rigid heddle reed and two balls of yarn.  The tools included, again wood, are suitable in size for both children and adults – no mini threading hooks or shuttles...

Once I got to the party and demonstrated the basics, the loom was swept away by a group of kids ages 4-10. I only heard from them when the sharing wasn’t happening. In true post millennium fashion, the kids traded off between the Cricket and a Wii.