Embossed Leaves

Finished another pair of socks!
Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from Interweave Knits Winter 2005 (also in the book Favorite Socks).
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Fingering weight 100% Merino, dyed by me with Kool Aid
Needles: size 2 dpn

Notes: I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. I made a few modifications to the pattern. I changed the heel from stockinette to slip-stitch and I did fewer decreases on the toe. The pattern called for decreasing down to 4 sts, I decreased to 16 sts and I'm glad I did.. the toe on these would have been very pointy if I hadn't. I really do like this style of toe decrease though, it compliments this pattern very well!

I don't know if I will make these again. The pattern is lovely, easy to follow and goes quickly. However, I find that I like the appearance of the sock better when it's not stretched out (i.e., not being worn). These will be going to my mum for her birthday. Now if I can just keep my dad from throwing them in the dryer...

I would like to thank everyone who participated in my poll. I appears that the overwhelming majority prefers my WordPress blog, so I will be switching over. However, we are going to be running it off our own domain so it will take a few days to get it set up. I will be keeping the blog running here in the meantime. :)

Yarn Porn!

I just received my Knit Picks order! Yippie!

They are running a clearance sale & I snagged some sock yarn at a fantastic price! I've never knit with their Memories sock yarn before, but according to the folks at Ravelry the yarn is supposed to knit up fairly well, although is highly prone to felting. Well, I guess I will just have to keep these all to myself then... darn! ;)

Spring Prairie

Hawaii

Rocky Mountain Dusk

Yukon

They also kicked in a couple color cards: Palette & Telemark! I love this store! :)

Oh, btw, I would love your opinion on something. I have been playing around at WordPress for the last few months & I'm getting heartily sick of updating the same info on 2 different blog sites. So, I'm going to get rid of one. Which should I keep? Take a peek at my other site & let me know.

The Insurance Battle

Today I had my first (of many, I'm sure) talk with Blue Cross. Apparently the referral I had was a "global office visit" referral and did not cover the operation, even though it was performed by that doctor. They said I need to call Dr. Randolph's office and have them submit a request for authorization. Ok.

So I call there and am told that, because the operation was performed at the hospital & not "in office", I need to contact surgery scheduling at the hospital & have them do it. I did find out from the lady at the office that I wasn't supposed to get a separate referral, they (meaning surgery scheduling) were supposed to submit said request prior to my operation. So, not my fault. Ok.

Call surgery scheduling. They are going to "try and get the surgery retroactively approved" but need me to call my primary care physician and have them issue a surgery referral. I told them that Blue Cross said I didn't need to do that. But, whatever.

So, tomorrow I have to call my pcp and have them do a retroactive referral and then call the hospital billing dept. and let them know what is going on. Somehow I just don't see this being cleared up anytime soon. (sigh)

On the bright side, I came home to find such loveliness blooming in my backyard...


Also... Honey & I are working on setting up my own website (since I already own the domain). I have set up a blog at wordpress to get a general idea of how I want it to work with multiple pages. Please, take a look and let me know what you think. What aspects do you like/dislike from my blogger site and which aspects do you like/dislike from wordpress. I'd really appreciate the feedback!

Much Ado About Puppy

After hearing about the problems my dear Joanne (nobody messes with my Joanne!) has been having with Blogger I decided I would give wordpress a try. After all, you can have your own domain name & separate pages attached to your blog. Cool... Well, after 2 days of fussing with it and still being unhappy/frustrated with wordpress I decided not to switch after all... they won't even let you change the colors on the template or modify the html! And all the cool stuff comes at a cost. So, for now, I'm sticking with blogger. (Sorry Joanne, I hope you figure the commenting thing out!) I did end up purchasing a domain, which now means I have to figure out what do with it... (sigh)

In puppy news, I decided to give the whole "cooking" thing a try. She had her first home cooked meal this morning...

steak, peas & redskin potato

Ms. Corrina is now eating better than we are! This definitely gives me peace of mind and the cost ends up being about the same... probably less in the long run.

I will leave you with a bit of a puppy romp. This is her at the dog park this past weekend. :)