TUESDAY ALREADY!!!

My computer is sick (its running super dooper painfully slow and keeps timing out when I try to do anything on the internet....I'm suppossed to have high-speed internet.)

My child is sick.
My husband is sick.
I'm sick (Yes, mental counts...and yet they still leave me alone in a room with kids so I can teach them the ways of artistic lunacy.)(click on the photo of them...that's my group minus a few that weren't able to be there. This week we studied Monet's Regatta at Argenteuil. That's Ar-zjen-too....and you spit out that last syllable. They do good work!

My painting is...well...yesterday I decided to call it The Nature of Things....because it wasn't looking like much of anything (not that my paintings ever do). This morning, I'm a bit more pleased with it. Using astounding deductive reasoning, Kim correctly guessed that its is (suppossed to be) a group of Gerbera daisies. (never mind my orchid in the photo - its just their to confuse you....remember my mission, must drive the rest of the world mad so I'll appear as the normal one!). 1000 points to anyone who can guess where the butterfly is!

And the sweater which will inspire ugly sweater knitting across the world is taking shape. Here she is pretending to be a sweater on my dress form. One of the sleeves is knit to the armpit. Do you have any idea how many yarn ends will have to be woven in (1000 points to anyone who can guess to withing the closest 100!).

I have not had time this weekend to reply to any comments and I really really apologize. I will try to later today. Pooch asked if I sell my work - yes, its how I make my living. I sell through galleries and an agent, but I can send you listings of galleries you can contact to see work in personally if that was why you were asking (I have gallery locations throughout America, mainly concentrated in the south east. Email me at sherritzej@cox.net I also have a webpage which is

artwork of the mentally insane (Jeanette's artwork).

Oh the joys of getting to spread insanity like the plague o'er the internet!!!

In true Drew Carey fashion, I'm awarding points to everyone, but just like in Who's Line is It Anyway (my top favorite television show), points acrue and amount to nothing.

Rho, I LIke your answer.....I really like it. you get 100 points.
Ann gets 100 points for finding the ginger cat (which I didn't see until I crossed my eyes).
JF gets 150 points because she came the closest to what the painting really is (which means she may be closest to me in levels of insanity).
However, Kim gets 1000 points for originality.....knitting needles???? I can't find them...e.vn when I squint... I think Kim might be knitting TOO MUCH.

Yesterday's painting is entitled "Orchid" (can you see it....she's beautiful!) and that's all it is (alot of times I do have hidden images in my works). No ginger cats, no colorful corn stalks, NO KNITTING NEEDLES, but the beauty of abstract art is that no answer is wrong, the viewer sees what they see and conjures up their own interpretations and associations....and any artist who tells you that you're wrong thinks that they wear the illustrious robes of Constantine.

Today's painting is right at its beginning. I know what I want in it, and there's a hint in the background. (remember: you can click on the photo to see it larger)



How does my floor get so messy???? (this photo is taken in my studio....don't worry, all that paint is dry). (You think the floor is bad, you should see the walls and the furniture!)

And then there's the knitting....I have no room to talk when I infer that someone knits too much.
(i'm up to the armpits on front and back and have finished the upper left raglan.).

Hey All! (not that there is anyone there, but since I'm declaring myself insane, I'm allowed to talk to myself! (the voices give me permission today).
If you haven't noticed....I changed the name of my blog....why? Because I've been doing housework....and knitting....instead of knitting instead of housework.
(don't worry, I'll have you insane before you know it and then you'll be able to follow me!).
This is my new painting. Guess what it is! Anyone who guesses gets the prize! (no prize, remember, I'm insane so I can do that!). (in real life no one else gets me either....I'm one of those weirdo artist types....my poor kids and family....they have to live with me).

so that yarnage I succumbed to yesterday? Yea....I wrote to the knitting chicks that its just not fair about those knitting stores....putting that yarn up in such provocative ways....makes it like I've gone into the Chippendales photo shoot and their letting me pick which one(S!) I want to take me to lunch. I'm sorry....I have no willpower when it comes to that kind of temptation.
so here it is (part of the is that it is....the rest is in another bag (which includes some louet wetspun linen)....because when I break my yarn diet, I break it bad.....kinda like those chocolate hoho's I ate last night and the whole milk chai latte (should be outlawed, its so good).



and here's what its becomming.....recognize the pattern....yea, i'm obsessed with chevrons....and I really like my Wildflower's Wrap (and keep wearing it, which I shouldn't because it has to be photographed for the book still)....so I'm making another one.

Olympic Victory! Cabled Shrug

(click on photo to see it larger)

Here she is getting ready to cross the finish line! All that's left is the seaming! We're on a trip to Pensacola where I need to go to King's Sewing and Yarn store. I'm suppossed to be on a yarn diet....I will not buy yarn.....I only have to go check on some of the labels for a sweater previously made that the publisher needs the names of the yarn for.....I will not buy yarn. (I bought yarn....lots of it. the motherload. )
And now here she is done!


I decided to add a border on the wrist edges because it was too plain. I also did not make it as long as it is in the original pattern (because it would have swallowed me).


And this is a small group of the kids I teach! (I teach art in a local art school to children one day a week.)

More progress on the Olympic Shrug

Marathon - or rather, Olympic level - knitting day. I started shortly after 3:00 this morning (my maltese sometimes decides that she needs a cookie in the middle of the night so she licks my face to wake me up). I have at least one more 36-row repeat, and maybe a half of a repeat after that...tomorrow I will be teaching painting to a group of elementary age art students, and then I have homework to finish....I wish I could get done tomorrow, but it doesn't look like it will happen without a miracle. (the seaming on this garment is super easy).

I'm attempting to make a button....bear with me....this is one of my paintings.....now I just have to figure this out.

Olympic Burnout

I'm nearly to the half-way point and I'm finding myself NOT wanting to knit....or wanting to knit something else....is it just me???? The flame on my torch must have got wet or something.

Its been fun going through other blogs and seeing how people are doing...PLEASE PLEASE tell me your blogs because all I know to do is to go to the Yarn Harlots page that lists the participants and then go sporadically through the lists randomly picking blogs. I'm finding it more fun to encourage others than I am anything else.

Here's a photo of my project:
Mom, Why are you doing this to me????


Does anyone watch American Idol.....this is my first season watching! Simon said something I could finally agree with: The Twins "HISSY FITS".....the one dude is so on my nerves....I think I'm just going to call him Mr. WoaisAnyoneWhoCan'tAppreciateMyGrandeour , because he seems to think that if the world isn't bowing before him, than someone must be not appreciating his stunningness...and while they aren't at it, they better be appreciating his brother as well. I guess he's his brother's keeper.

For real culture, I watched the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show. That was impressive. I really liked the whippit (Eclipse Envy) and the Scottish greyhound (Margot).

Cabled Shrug

Here's the progress on Interweave's Cabled Shrug. On the eve before the Winter Olympics, I realized that there was no way I would be able to read that chart - it would be too slow and confusing, and errors were bound to occur.....so I wrote THE ENTIRE thing out in knitting nomenclature....6 pages worth....line by line.

This project has an omen on it that has me questioning my sanity about doing it. I'm not an overly experienced cabler - I can do it, but its not what I do well. I've been discouraged this weekend about my slow progress....so I explored on line to see if any other knitters in blogs before had left notes about their experience with this pattern. I found example after example of people that never finished. (!) Seems like getting through the first repeat was about where most people just stopped.....probably threw it in their pile of ufo's (not that any of us do that). Most comment complaint: can only knit when there are no distractions, ie. after kids are in bed. Its the chart.

I'm going to keep going anyway. I love the feel of the Chamoix and the soft subtle color in the bisque. I think that I should have used a 10.5 instead of an 11 needle, but I'm not starting over. I had to do that late Friday night after seeing that the 10 was knitting too tight of a fabric.

I've made some progress on Vogue's yoga wrap (#16, Winter 2006) despite still not finding the magazine. This is a shot of it on my dress form (I highly recommend these things if you do a lot of garment knitting). I'm thinking that I want to pick up stitches on the arm hole and knit a cap sleeve rather than the long attached sleeves in the pattern. Anthropologie has a similar sweater done with cap sleeves that I could probably wear a lot more (given that I live in Florida - still deciding though). For now, this gets put aside because.....

KNITTING OLYMPICS ARE TODAY!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! All week long I've pet my yarn or squeezed it (think: old Charmin commercials).


This be her (one of 9). I am definitely doing the cable wrap. Last night I looked on line for any blogs or information I could glean for troubleshooting the pattern. I was alerted that I NEED to take a close look at those charts - and I'm so glad! I can't read them - they are not reader friendly - and I don't read charted cable patterns well (I prefer charts normally). So I'm doing the painful operation of handwriting out the directions line by line (that way I don't have to keep track of which chart I'm on, and the 3 different line counts that I would have to keep track of).


This last photo is of a shrug in the Holiday 03 Family Circle. Someday I want to make it.

ARGH! Knitting Olympics start in just a couple of days and I'm swampled in homework (I'm back at school attempting to finish a fine art degree) and in my own preparations for class (I teach children's art at an art store)....plus I have to finish formatting the Wildflowers pattern for next week (its due to the editor).

Originally I signed up to do this Geisha Cape from Interweave Fall 03, but I don't think there is anyway I could do it. I knit a lot at my son's nightly karate lessons and my daughter's dance lessons as well as anywhere else I can....but I've started this cape before and its a bear to cart around. I think that I would get to frustrated with it at this point in my life.


So I've left comment back at the Yarn Harlot that I want to change my entry to this. I have some beautiful Chamoix in my stash that hasn't gotten cobwebs yet. I think this shrug is stunning and would love to do it in this scrumptious yarn THAT I ALREADY HAVE (note to self: my yarn diet has restarted as of this morning; it had technically started yesterday afternoon, but then this morning I encountered my first temptation, and failed. bad me. but who could resist Henry's Attic wool/silk worsted weight yarn, 1000 yards, at $39?).

alas, though, I was really looking forward to doing the Geisha.

Progress on the Vogue yoga wrap #16: I'm moving down the front side headed for the finish and then have one more arm to do, and the cap shaping on the first arm....the problem is that I've LOST my magazine! I hate having to go and buy another one, but it looks like that's going to have to happen.

Wildflowers Cardigan!

Its finally here in its completed form! This is Wildflowers Cardigan. Its a design of mine which will be published in Heather Dixon's book coming out in September. I just have to knit up a couple more little button backs (see the little flower behind the button closure?) and put a few more vintage buttons on around the collar.

I started working on the yoga wrap in the new Vogue Winter 05/06. The pattern is really easy to memorize and effortless to knit. It was the perfect project for doing on the airplane. I'm doing it in this green from Nature spun (sport weight). It was something I grabbed out of my stash as I was packing before I went to be with my dad. Its not the softest yarn on earth, but its affordable and lends itself nicely to the design. I can't wait to see the piece blocked out.

and last....no photo....I got my new yarn from Colourmart. Its a ruby red worsted cashmere (part of their soft twist offerings). Its gorgeous and yummy! I thought about making the clapotis out of it (I love that pattern), but haven't decided. I've got about 600 yards of it, so I'm open to suggestions.