Chasing the Blues away.....

....and the Virtues of a PB&J....otherwise known as the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich....can cure the blues in my humble opinion, unless of course your blues are related to weight gain! When was the last time you had one? If you are like me it has been awhile. Not sure what possessed me, but, I am glad it did!

How do you like yours?

Of key importance is deciding whether you want chunky or smoooooooth? Natural or lots of corn syrup? I prefer natural smooth. My favorite brand is "crazy richard's" which, I always call crazy dave's not sure why...You can pour off some of the fat and reduce those calories.

I like smooth...I think life generally has far too many ruts...and bumps, so I prefer to leave them out of my peanut butter.

Then there is the jelly/jam selection....a crucial component to a good sandwich...

There is the old standby, grape....but let's face it, grape jelly does not taste as good, when you can not buy it in those fantabulous flintstones glasses....am I right? The smurfs never did it for me.....
My favorites are apricot, black raspberry or strawberry. Homemade is best. What are
yours?

Remember to cut the crusts off........it is a little extra effort, but....it has amazing benefits. Eat one side with crust and one without........and you will see what I mean. and of course, Wonder bread makes the best PB&J's.....plus the wrapper is just sooooooooo cheerful!

My mom used to tell me crust made your hair curlier....so if, you want curls eat your PB & J with crust.

When you are done smacking your lips......I guarantee that you will be smiling... and what's a few extra calories, when the endorphins are charged up for a great day...

This weekend, a friend took me up to NYC to see the John Dillinger band, of "Hang on Sloopy" fame. He wrote those lyrics at the age of 16. They were together for the first time in 32 years....and I had a blast. It was at BB Kings place right near Times Square. Good food, good music and lots of smiles. That is Ken Arenson below...and John Dillinger is in the center in the photo to the right.

I had not been in NYC for awhile, and it was very cool to be amongst the hustle and bustle on a friday nite.

Saturday, I went to an Art Gallery benefit in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia...to benefit AIDS care. Saw some interesting art, including a sculpture made entirely out of dildoes...too funny.

Bicycles with toilets attached. There was only one handmade piece of clothing, which was a knitted tank top with fabric inserts.

Sunday, I spent the morning vaccuming up blossoms that covered my deck from the trees.

Spring is going so fast. My lilacs and irises are already blooming and that usually does not happen this early. Here is the view from my blogging window.

On a knitting related note, I began the Silver Belle Jacket by Debbie Bliss from the Vogue 25th Anniversary Mag on April 11th....in violation of only two new projects going at once, 376 stitches for the peplum…yipes!

....and as I am working on row 1, I am thinking this is smelling like a UFO… before the first row of the peplum is done. ;-) I hate chart knitting, for anything but, lace!

After getting through the first row, I started the second, which is when I realized the first row was wrong…because I had read the chart right to left which is the standard way to read a KNITTING CHART!!!

I had to find the magazine and study the photo…to figure out where I went wrong. frogging 376 stitches sucks and took the better part of the morning…but there was no way I was going to cast on those 376 stitches again!

The first important thing to note in this pattern is some bimbo, decided to start the first chart row from left to right….I envision this took an entire board room and think tank to screw this up…Why do people create standards to follow.....and then ignore them?

(Exerpt on reading knitting charts from the book, "knitting for dummies"!!! “You will follow the chart bottom to top and right to left. The second row will then be read from the left to the right. “) It would have been nice to have left us a NOTE….stating in clear english….start these charts left to right!!!!

The next complaint is the charts are too tiny…so I went back to the original pattern and blew up the charts….if anyone wants a copy of these large charts, just email me…and they are yours.

Now that this is straightened out, I am contentedly working across row 2….once the pattern is established it will be easy to remember, but, screwing up the first pattern repeat…is a fast road to the UFO heap!

Found a lot of good info on the silver belle here which included someone’s pattern row table for the peplum(sorry, I forgot where I found this)…to use in each section. This was the biggest help.

So merrily knitting along on the peplum and contemplating as I knit all the modifications others made that I found on ravelry, longer peplums, more buttons, different collars, sleeve edgings…etc. Ravelry is an amazing site, once you get used to navigating its offerings.

4/22/08 - finished the peplum, but, I am going to put it all on stitch holders, in case I want to make it longer. It took almost five skeins. Very happy with the way it looks…..and the yarn I selected is very soft and comforting to knit. It has been a long time since I have done an aran project and I have forgotten how much I enjoy them.

4/24 started the sleeves…I am only increasing stitches every 16 rows instead of 8…and did 2 rows of moss stitch before beginning the sleeve chart. I prepared a sleeve pattern row table like the one I found for the peplum…it helps immensely.

If you want this file, just email me or post to the comments here. The directions leave a lot to be desired even for someone that has been knitting as long as I have. I have to wonder about some of the technical editors around...or editors...

There is an error in the sleeve chart, for the bobble pattern. It says k3 together, and it should

state P3 together.

Here is beluga modeling the sleeve. She is 13 weeks old today and thriving. Her and Koko have become fast friends. It is a lot of work training a puppy, but I am so glad I decided to do this. Koko has come out of her depression and is enjoying mothering this young pup.

Beluga's latest enjoyment is biting the white dandelion globes. It makes me smile everytime,I think about her face when she gets a mouthful of air and seeds.

Wishing you all a wonderful spring day....enjoy!

Smiles to you,

DC

Discount Furbaby Supplies Link for YOU

Here is a link below for discounted Pet supplies. I was shopping around for interceptor and frontline for koko and beluga....yes, it is tick time in the northeast already.

We had our first incident even though the Pet weather report said it was not time yet. I found a tick attached to koko sunday afternoon on her forehead. I got it out by covering it with vaseline and tugging and tugging on it with a tweezers. Unfortunately, it has made an ugly sore on her head. It was not a deer tick and she already has the lyme disease antibodies in her system with no symptoms, but her head was sore for a day or two.

I bought some sentry tick and flea topical treatment, but unfortunately she had a reaction to that Sunday evening, which necessitated an emergency bath...and calls to the sentry hotline. I was not impressed. I am returning the rest of my purchase. Frontline is expensive but, for my dogs there have been no side effects.

Koko had a terrible Sunday and I did too!

Beluga's paper training is coming along well. I am training her using those puppy pads, which are quite expensive. I use as an alternative the depends mats (for incontinent people). They are cheaper and larger and you can get a big box of them at Sam's Club for about $26, which is about the same cost as 25 regular puppy pads. I was interested to find out they make puppy disposable diapers...what will they think of next?

I am also training her to walk on a leash which is going remarkably well. I must admit that last tuesday, I pretty much hit my low point with the training, but, she has made major improvement since then, with very few accidents if any, now. I had forgotten how focused you must be to train a puppy...and how little sleep it involves in the first few weeks.

I am happy that I got the puppy, because she is very good for koko and they are really becoming good friends. Koko was becoming more and more depressed living without Max and I truly was becoming worried that she would die of a broken heart. She is so much more focused and energetic now...which, does my heart good as well.

Smiles to you,
DC

waist shaping calculator

If you have been following knitting daily's waist shaping tutorial they have come up with a calculator to do the work for you. Click on the above link and you will find it.

The basic premise is how to shape boxy sweaters into sweaters custom shaped for your own body....which, is always more flattering, no matter what size you are.

Happy April!.......the daffodils are blooming here, and the trees are showing signs of leaves....and the sweet smells of spring are upon us....go out and enjoy the colors!

We have a new puppy here...finally. Her name is Beluga...since she looks like she put her face is something very black...I figured it may as well be caviar...:-)

She is a just a bit over 3 lbs....but a force to be reckoned with. She has busted out of her gated space three times, and when barricaded, chewed her way through it. :-) She is now safely ensconced in a metal cage....and just waiting for her to bust out of that.

As you can see she has already become fascinated with my yarn....I am knitting her a small coat, as it is still quite chilly for a new pup. She decided to help me with the tension by pulling on the yarn as it was coming out of the ball. I am making the puppy coat out of bulky cotton chenille on size 13 needles. Will snap a shot of her modeling her new duds, when we are done.

Wishing you a wonderful restful spring Sunday....

Smiles to you,

DC