Have you ever wondered about phobias and how they work? You have about 10 cats and your best friend has a total panic attack at the thought of saying, "cat" that they have to SPELL it rather than pronounce the word. I've always pondered those phobic people with genuine interest and concern. The people I know with phobias are truly petrified when it comes to their particular issues. Some people know when their phobias developed, some don't. It a very curious thing.

Now there's me, no normals fears tremble within the recesses of this weirdo. I LOVE heights. Spiders intrigue me. Snakes are cool and I love nearly every sort of pet there is. I like fishing and have been hunting with my dad. Crowds, spaces, water, inclosures? Nope. So what could possibly bother confrontational, protective, extroverted weirdo me? It makes no sense. I am terrified of biscuit cans. You know the kind you peel the paper off of and they BLOW UP? Well, some blow when the paper peels and some of them, you have to trigger the explosion, but they FREAK ME OUT!! The other day, I put one down after I peeled it, because I wasn't ready to face the fright yet. As soon as I turned my back, the sneaky little thing blew! YES, I jumped and screamed. I ALWAYS do. Even when I am pushing the spoon into the crease of terror I am screaming slighty. POP and AGH! The pulse is racing and I slowly calm down. Why do I keep BUYING these things anyway? I guess I'm facing my phobia, but I'm not getting better. My only revenge is that I EAT the biscuits to punish them for scaring the heck out of me.

Do any of you have any strange fears? I'd like to think I'm not the only weirdo out there =) so, if you can share, that'd be cool.

Check out the work of a budding artist! Those are birds at the bottom, btw, a momma and a baby bird, just in case you can't see it.

When I first learned about the concept of Blogging, it sounded interesting, but since I was only mildly curious, I never checked it out. I was Internet saavy, online shopping rocks, especially for knitting supplies. I searched patterns, yarn, and even joined a knitting forum or two, but would soon loose interest. Then came the Saxon Braid Scarf pattern, which although VERY cool, had a couple of minor errors. So, very LLOONNGG story short, there was a search for 'saxon braid errors' that lead to a forum that led to a BLOG that led to Mica starting THIS blog which she generously allowed me to participate in. We were so excited to find such an interesting subculture of knitter bloggers!

When we first added a counter to the blog ( I say "we", but MICA did all the work on that front b/c I had no idea of what to do with html code at that point ) we watched this counter almost constantly! We were so excited when it reached 20 and 50 and 100, 200, 1000!? and so on. Ecstatic is more like it.

In the beginning we had scarcely any comments and we were a little worried, but we've relaxed since then, because we have several faithful regular commentors, and we love every single one. It's been so cool to make new friends this way! We already feel very close to you, and I thank you for that, not just here, but personally as much as I can every time you comment. Something has been missing, though.

We are comfotably settled into blogging, we have lots of new friends and we still watch our counter very closely. The milestone numbers are climbing higher and higher! Our comment number flucuate a bit, but they are always pleasantly high for us. The COUNTER though, is really starting to snowball! I can't believe how FAST the numbers are starting to climb and it's SO cool that we have so many hits. Those are the numbers created by lots of lurkers! We LOVE those people, we have over 7000 hits, which for us and our humble newbie blog feels a very Scottish Grrrand!

In view of that, Mica and I would like to take this opportunity to THANK, not guilt you out, but THANK you, our dear loyal lurkers, very sincerely, wherever you may be. You steadily and faithfully drive up the numbers on our little counter and we appreciate that now and always! Thank you, thank you, again and again. I hope you keep visiting us for a long time to come =)

Oh WRETCH! Oh BLAHHHST! I have had so many false starts on this project that I have started to hate it, and by 'hate', I mean an expressive HAYTE in a very pronounced Cockney accent, starting now: "I very decidedly HAYTE this harrible proeject. So I figga, I must, at dis poynt, relinquish it to the GAHbidge, if ya pleeeze. Dis whole awful bizniss must be put to da scrappa to mayke a fresh staht. Tank ya kindley."

I have very reluctantly went along with those of you who said, "Throw out the PINK - it's WEIRD!!!" I SO wanted the pink, but it was NOT TO BE. So that's THAT!

I ALSO, **sob** very reluctantly gave up on both wide AND random stripes. SAD, I know, but true.

NOW.....since I must get busy on a gift, I am going back to my old standby - a certain Bernat Baby pattern I've done, although not quite rightly, in the past. So far, it's good. Since I want it LARGE, I'm running two strands together & upsizing my needles. I made a tiny swatch and I like it! Hmmmm, it's better already, I hadn't liked ANYthing I had done up until that very moment! That's a new feeling. **sighs with relief**

Once upon a time somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant, there lived a very strange little girl who just loved to sing. She would sing along with Snow White, impersonate Cher and even do her best to keep up with Sarah Brightman's Christine, although everyone in her village would scramble for the earplugs at the very thought. You see this little girl, while being small, had the lungs of a long distance runner. She was a willful child, who really was convinced, in most cases, that she knew exactly what she was doing.

When the girl learned to knit, she was a little trepidacious at first, but once she "found her feet" in the craft, the old over-confidence began to slowly creep back in. So, the strange, yet melodious little girl, singingly subscribed to two knitting mags, Creative Knitting and Vogue. In spite of the small voice of reason that would not be tolerated, she embarked on a "Very Vogue" scarf that was just too cool to ignore, the Leaf Pattern Scarf from the Spring/Summer 2005 issue on page 91. Unfortunately, she was not aware of the fact that she didn't fully understand yarn overs yet. OH she could DO a yarn over, she just didn't know ONE KEY VITAL DETAIL: The YARN OVER is not a stitch unto itself.

Confidence bordering on arrogance bolstered her to dive headlong into the pattern, and the strange little girl worked and worked to get the numbers right in her head. She knit and knit and knit, hundreds of little lacey leaves that in NO way SHAPE or form, resembled the leaves of the scarf in the picture. She twitched and toiled. She tweaked and squirmed, perplexed and stressed. She reworked and even changed the sequence of the instructions and gallantly struggled to make it work out, shaking her fist at those people, that person, wherever they were, that wrote the pattern that just wouldn't work. Even though the leaves she made DID resemble leaves, the just weren't the SAME leaves in the picture! "why?" she squeaked, then louder, "Why?" A small pause ensued, and then one little tear that in no way could have given anyone a clue as to what would follow. "WHY DO I PICK THESE PATTENS WITH CRAZY ERRORS?" she roared, in a foreign throaty voice.

Yes, the poor strange little girl was now starting to shape shift from cute and strange to beastly and VERY LOUD. The long distance runner lungs began to kick in with a vengeance. She shook her fist again yelling, "Khan! Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

What to do? She decided very emphatically that HER leaves looked better anyway. What else was she gonna do? Give up? NEVER! She would have her revenge on the elusive Leaf Pattern Scarf. (She may have thought about cussing at this point, we can't be sure, but she very well MAY have thought about it.)

Whatever the case, it was a good decision. It was time to relax and accept that her leaves were different, yes, but they were leafy at least and they would have to do. By this time, she had completely forgotten to read the pattern and it TOTALLY escaped her that the scarf was done in Stockinette Stitch, not Garter Stitch, because (obviously) she wasn't gonna be purling AND thinking about leaves at the same time, are they INSANE? (no they aren't insane, in fact, the sweet yet strange girl was in fact, now insane herself, but that's neither here, no there)

In a flash, she churned out two of these scarves. One with mostly green leaves and one with purple leaves for her best friend who really loves purple. She'd won, or so she thought. Then she moved on to the Lacey Leaf Scarf, when she finally got an inkling of a clue and got on the Internet and started looking for help. She finally learned the proper way to do yarn overs and the numbers finally made sense and AT LONG LAST made a scarf correctly. But she never looked back at the original scarf and only ever wore it once.

That is, until the other day when she had once again shape shifted from strange little girl into something beastly. This particular day she arrived at her looking glass only to find Sasquatch Freak staring back at her. Apparently she had drifted into a time warp. She thought that her hair was clean enough to throw into a ponytail for the evening to go to meeting, but she was sadly mistaken. She had already gotten all three children bathed and dressed and ready, it was nearly time to go. So she decided to try a little trick she'd seen on a talk show that she loves but will remain nameless in this case.

This 'trick' consists of a little baby powder and a blow dryer. Well, suffice it to say that in the case of the Sasquatch formerly know as Strange Little Girl, it didn't work so good. The hair began to grow taller and thicker, and as we all know, Sasquatch hair needs NO thickeners; it's already pretty dern thick. In addition to growing it turned a very disturbing shade of gross. No longer brown, not quite gray but just very, very, horribly inexplicably not human. She was already late, she couldn't wash it out, if she could only THINK! No longer was she strange/cute, just fuming, puffy haired, SASQUATCH, rage monster.

Stomping through her bedroom frantically, “A scarf perhaps? Did she even HAVE a girly, Jackie O type scarf that she could wrap around her head?” she wondered stupidly. Well, neither Sasquatch Freak nor Strange Girl was girly enough to own such a thing. But then.... her Leaf Scarf caught her eye. "It'll have to do!" roared Sasquatch Freak, and she tied her hair up in a spikey "Phoebe Do" with the scarf spray glued to her head.

Yes, she was Strange Little Girl again - which although eccentric and confusing while wearing a freakishly long scarf on her head, is always much more pleasant than Roaring Sasquatch Freak.