What a froggy week.

It has just been one of those froggy weeks for me. Never never try to knit a complicated pattern when your eyes are trying to close. 

I apparently have too many things going at once again- go figure. I was happily knitting away on my baby surprise jacket thinking I had a handle on it, when I realized something was rotten in Denmark. I was all the way to the neckline decreases and somewhere along the way I lost track of my increases. Now that I have a visual of how it is supposed to look, I realised that I had a stubby sleeve. WTF Chuck! 

So yesterday I ripped the whole damn thing out. Rather than try to figure out where I went wrong, I will just start over with a fresh mind. 

My poor Alien guy ended up with a lopsided face too, I lost track of where I was on my graph and skipped a couple of rows. Don't worry, I am not going to frog the whole thing. I am on motif #4 and I am only ripping back about 4 rows so it is not a tragedy. 

 

Since things were not going so well on those two projects, I worked on my bath mat. I  think I only need about 10 more inches and it should be a good size, I am trying to keep shrinkage in mind for this since it is 100% cotton.    The Rug is only 17 inches wide, I figured this way it will be about the width of floor space between the potty and the tub. Yes I know, not much space at all. I am planning the length for right around 37 inches. So yay- I am almost done with a project! I have found that commercial rugs are either ity bity or they are too wide for my bathroom. I think this one was an after thought in the house, because the other bathroom is much bigger.

 When we first moved in here I called dibs on the big bathroom, but that boy vetoed me. How does that happen? And since when do men need the biggest bathroom, I have way more junk than he does!

I finally gave up on Hobby Lobby getting my beads in. Whoever does the ordering for that department completely sucks!! I ran out to Michael's last night and picked up 5 more of those little flippin' tubes of beads. Paid more than twice what I paid for them at Hobby Lobby, but I am annoyed with them, so for now, they are on my boycott list. To top things off, the damn things, are just a little off in color and size. I am hoping that I am the only one that will notice there are actually 3 different beads in my scarf. But, even so, I happily sat watching the X-Files and stringing beads onto my yarn. Once the beads are strung, the knitting goes PDF ( pretty darn fast) so I should be finishing up the scarf in the next couple of days.  Not that I plan on being able to wearing it this year, I think we had our last freaky snow yesterday, but at least it will be done! 

Raine and I are going to see Horton Hears a Who today, so it will be good theater knitting ;) 

I am really going to work on finishing up some of these things here before I start yet another project. 

Peter Snow Tail

Friday we had another huge snow storm...gotta love the Midwest! The official recording was 10.5 inches but I  am thinking I should have stuck a ruler in my yard to see the actual.

Dawn, here is a big 'ole snow pile for ya after that boy finished cleaning the driveway two days later. Keep in mind we have several piles like this and a lot of it has melted already.  Apparently Saturday night the brothers decided to go 4-wheeling through it. The Goof Balls!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!! Mine was uneventful, which is as it should be.

Those folks in the Bluff are industrious. On my way into work yesterday I spied three mature adults building this right across from the station. Too Flippin' Cute! Peter here is taller than the average man, and I know that 3 people can stand behind him without barely being seen.

My co-workers tell me the trio had been out there on the Village Green for over two hours building him.  Since it was such a beautiful day everyone on the east side of town seemed to be out for a walk. And of course, they all stopped to take pictures of Peter Snow Tail with their camera phones.

Thank goodness for camera phones or I would have been pissed about missing a picture of this. 
It will be interesting to see how much of him is left when I go to work today.

Don't you hate it when someone moves your stuff???  Ok so maybe it wasn't the neatest looking conglomerate of things, and maybe I did over take the dining room table but, dammit, we never use that room! 

I think I have mentioned that the brothers play Wii on Saturday nights. I would not think this Saturday would be any different than any other right? Well - I guess it sucked to be me. Apparently the sisters were tired of not being included in the Saturday night ritual and when I came home from work, everyone was playing a dice game on the dining room table!!! 

Where were my projects you ask? Piled on the card table thats where!!!! Is nothing sacred? Men! He would have had a conniption fit if I moved his things!

Since I have ADD this month and am working on so many things at once, I really haven't made a lot of progress on any one thing. My bath mat is coming along, ( my standard mindless project for when I am too tired to concentrate). I am making pretty good progress on that one, so I must have been tired alot this week...LOL

I was seduced into starting the EZ Baby Surprise Jacket by a KAL group on Ravelry.  Yes, I have officially joined the ranks of EZ Knitter! I think it is coming along ok. It is kinda hard to tell. I am not real crazy about how the psso's are looking, but I keep going forward. I am blindly trying to follow Elizabeths pattern because I can't get the visual in my head yet. 

I haven't done squat on my alien piece, I haven't had a real clear mindset to work on it so it just sits for now.

Remember those toe up socks I was trying to work on? Well F@#%  those toe up socks! I realized if something is sitting in ZZZ land for too long, it is just not meant to be. If you hate the process, frog it! Because it will be a UFO forever!

So that is what I did, frog the damn sock that was going no- where, and started one I knew I would like. 

I love this yarn, and I think it was just crying out for a great pair of slouchy socks. :) Now I am a happy sock knitter and have a portable project again.

 Isn't it funny how, when you like what your working on, it goes pretty darn quick.

ET phone home

What have I been up to?? Oh Boy...well where do I start. Hmmm I guess with work, work and more work. My department hosts an annual Polar Plunge for Special Olympics.  March 1, it was a balmy 29 degrees...yes, that's right, I said 29 degrees! The water temperature was posted at 34 degrees, I seriously think that was completely false! I was not one of the 219 insane peoplethat plunged into the icy waters of Lake Michigan but I did get wet and it did not feel like 34 it felt more like minus 34!!   

The park district had to bring in a back hoe to clear a path for the plungers. The beach was so covered in snow and ice that you could not see any sand at all and it was exhausting to walk through.

 Usually myself and my fire department cohort sit on the rocks to take pictures of the event but there was so much snow and ice covering it that we could not climb the rocks, we could not tell where there was a solid place to stand. Not only that but the Chief strictly forbade us to even try (WTF)! I suppose it did not help my cause that I fell right in front of him.  You can see in the picture below how much snow and ice was on my usual perch. 

My poor son-in-law was coerced into plunging, actually I believe my exact words were " if you're going to marry my daughter you have to do the Polar Plunge" Good hearted boy that he is, he braved the elements and plunged.  (That is him with his arms in the air.) And, bless his heart, he plans on doing it again next year! I don't know how he did it! I personally did not think I was ever going to thaw out. In fact this was the coldest I have ever been!!

Note the shelf of ice where the photographer with the tri-pod is standing. I am not sure if he realized there was nothing but water beneath him. 

For anyone who is interested, our Plunge raised $110,000 this year for the Special Olympics!! The best one we have had in 9 years! More plunge pictures here!

Still in charity mode, Lynda from California sent me two dozen hats and two dozen scarves to donate to our local homeless shelter. Lynda is amazing!! This is the second installment of hand knitted and crocheted hats that she has sent to me, the scarves are made from fleece about half of them were made and the other half purchased. I've been feeling pretty lax, because with everything that has been going on the last month or so, I haven't been able to make anymore myself. Lynda sure puts me to shame when it comes to this endeavor. I will have to kick it into gear and get that sewing machine out and make those fleece hats I planned on making a couple of months ago. 

Here is what is happening on the home front. A big fat nothing! I am so disgusted with Hobby Lobby! Probably my own damn fault for buying the beads there in the first place, but at the rate they replenish, I will not get this scarf finished until next year. I have learned my lesson, I will buy beads online from someone that counts them!

My pretty beaded alpaca scarf has been living unhappily in this basket in the meantime. I had to ask for the beads to be ordered today since the last three times I have been to the store the hook as been empty.  And go figure, the damn things were 50% off today. 

My toe up socks have been placed on the back burner as well because I was being too retarded with them and have had to rip back several times. I guess I am not in the right mind set for them right now. 

Yesterday my sock swap package came. Sarah and I opened it together and what fun, she kept pulling stuff out of the little read bag, 3 balls of Peruvian alpaca, a ton of adorable stitch markers, a little bag to keep them in, beautiful hand painted sock yarn and the best....a pound of Brazilian coffee...absolutely divine!!

The one thing that I have been able to work on is my alien scarf. It is slow going because it is my first real experience in chart reading and I don't want to screw it up. I am so enjoying the process of this scarf. I keep stopping to stare at it as those little green faces start to pop out at me. I am in love with illusion knitting!! It is so magical and I am still in love with it. Of course my daughter wants one too now. And freak that I am, I have been showing everyone at work pictures of it like it is a new baby or something. 

Of course, I am pretty darn sure I don't have enough yarn to finish... yet again, poor planning. I would have sworn I checked the yardage when I ordered, but clearly I do not have enough yarn. How aggravating!

Here is ET

Now you see them...

Now you don't!

It has been a sad day on Sesame Street today. I had to go back to the bone doctor about my elbow. Apparently when he said "don't lean on it" he really meant DON'T LEAN ON IT!

Ok, so maybe I leaned on it, a little bit. I couldn't help it, I don't do broken or sicky very well. The damn thing started filling up with fluid and, instead of getting better, the pain was making me nauseous.

  He had to aspirate it today. In layman's terms that means take a big freakin needle, jab it into the most painful part of your elbow without warning your first or numbing it. Then draw out this disgusting liquid, and show it to you. Then give you a shot of cortisone in the same freakinplace, which burns like a MFr! Lie and say it will feel better soon. Well apparently his definition of soon and mine are two different things! 

Ok - to be honest, it is starting to feel a little bit better, but I still feel nauseous from the pain and had to take some Vicodine to take the edge off. I've been feeling pretty muzzy today and just wanted to whine about it. I know, got any cheese to go with that? I am going to try really hard to take better care of it. 

I need to find myself something mindless to work on, since there isn't much mind to work with today.

Busy Week

We had Sarah's shower on Sunday, It was a wonderful turn out. The look on Sarah's face made all the stress and expense all worth it. The girls from my work are incredibly generous and gave her some wonderful gifts, as did the family. I'd say the kids are pretty well set and it is nice to have some new things to start out married life with. Sarah told me she plans on leaving most of it packed up until they move in a couple of months. New place with new toys!

 This is the towel wedding cake Kelpy made for her shower. Just beautiful, and we figured since Sarah did not have a "real" wedding cake, this would be even better. ( you can't get cellulite from a towel cake..LOL)

I had found these adorable matching aprons, Domestic Diva and Diva in training for both Sarah and Raine, on Sarah's I pinned a bunch of household cleaning aids and kitchen items. Feather duster, pot holder toilet bowel brush, kitchen scrubby etc. and made her wear it. She is a real trooper and didn't even whine about it, however, Raine, who loved her apron, was not so enamored of the photo session. These last four days I've had off have been exhausting and my arse is really dragging tonite.

On the knitting front,  did not get much done, just a little bit here and there.  I haven't done diddly poo on my toe up sock. I have had to rip it out two more times down to the toe. I keep screwing up the heel. I really need to pay attention to the pattern I guess, since it has spent more time in the frog pond than I like to admit. By the time I get to the second sock, I will have forgotten how the hell I cast on and will have to play the trial and error game all over again at this rate. 

Sheer desperation, boredom and freezing fingers prompted this project. While I was waiting to figure out why the hell I bought that pretty green yarn, and waiting for Hobby Lobby to restock their beads, I made these fingerless mitts out of some stash yarn I had laying about the house. I was too damn lazy to look up a pattern and just started knitting. Not my best effort but the do the job!

Saturday night that boy decided he was going to make french onion soup with Salisbury steaks...YUM. We had our usual Saturday night gang over plus a couple more for dinner. After dinner, the brothers played their stupid Wii golf, while us girls decided on an impromptu knitting lesson. Poor Kelp had left her knitting at home since the original plan was for the girls to go back to her place and leave the boys at mine. I gave sister in law Tammy and niece Gina each a skein of yarn and some needles and they were off. I love teaching other people to knit. Both are well on their way to a nice hand knit scarf! 

In the meantime I started another multi directional scarf.  Sunday night I got Kelp going on the same pattern. 

Yesterday I finally sewed the straps on my bagstopper and it is officially finished. Don't ask what took so long, I haven't a clue why I left it sit so long. Just laziness I guess.

I bought 4 more tubes of beads (it was all the store had) and worked some on the beaded alpaca. I wish I had a better idea of how many beads I needed. Next time I do one of these I will buy the beads from someone who sells them buy the count. I thought I had guestimated around 1600 beads, but I am not going to count the little buggers and string them too. I will just knit until I run out of beads again and buy some more.

Thank God for Ravelry! I was at a loss as to why I bought that green yarn, and was going through my queue when it dawned on me duh!  Aliens!! of course... I bought the yarn for the alien scarf. OMG I love this pattern!  This has to be one of the coolest patterns I have ever knit!

I haven't even finished one motif yet and already you can see the little green mans face forming.

Now if I can just figure out how to design one myself. I can think of tons of stuff I would like to knit this way.

My arm is still hurting but I have ditched the sling. it was too much of a pain in the butt.  And now that my arm feels better, I think on my next days off I will start my TKGA course. I am anxious to learn some new things. Now that Sarah's shower is behind me I can relax for a while and concentrate on me. 

My New Toy!!

SURPRISE!!!!

ISN'T SHE PRETTY??

Ok no not really, but I had you going for a minute didn't I...LOL Actually this is a concept car that we saw at the Chicago Auto Show this week end. Very Pretty, and Very Red!! Just my color! In fact, I think in two years when this baby is released I just might have to take one for a test drive! I should be just about ready for a trade in by then...I am hoping it will be good in snow...






Now... for the real toy... Friday night I finally took the plunge and we went to the Apple Store to that I could test drive this little beauty instead. Yup I am a convert. I turned Mac!! Bill Gates are you listening? I got tired of all of the IE errors and OS replacements, and Office upgrades, and all of the additional software purchases, and that infernal hourglass! I was going to get the Macbook Air, which I was seduced into, but then thought better of it and sent it back as soon as it got here. And Apple, bless them, paid for the return shipping even though I had changed my mind.


It is too bad these don't come in red though... I may have to look around for a skin for it. So far, I am as happy as a clam with it. Not that there was anything wrong with my Dell. It wasn't even 2 yet. Other than the fact that I bought a too big 17 inch laptop. I am streamlined down to this sexy little 13 inch now. Much lighter and much much faster. (No hourglass)
That boy has been researching Macs ever since I said I was thinking about converting (which I knew he would do). He looked into all of the techie stuff that I knew I wouldn't. I just needed to know it will do what I want it to do without coughing up a lung to make it do it.

My biggest decision came to this, did I want the 13 inch Macbook or the 15 inch Macbook Pro. I opted for the smaller, for the money I could not really see what I needed the Pro for. And who knows, since I have been without a desk top since lightening struck the house in '06 I have rarely missed it, but if I ever change my mind on that score, I will have more power in the IMac anyway. The only thing I don't like is the finish, I have to wipe the fingerprints off every time I use it because they glare at you. That and there was no little slot for my memory card :(
I can live with that! It works great!



Now here is another surprise... That lovely lady Lynda from California wrote to me and told me she had 10 more hats to send for our homeless shelter here. The package I received at work today had not 10 but 23 hats and 24 scarves!!! What an amazing woman! She sure knits way faster than I do!! There were some knitted and crocheted hats, as well as some fleece scarves, some were hand made and some were purchased. She puts me to shame!! Friday I will be making another drop off at the shelter with the hats and scarves that Lynda sent, and the hats that I made. I still need to whip up those fleece hats so I am hoping to have that done on Friday too.

Dawn here are some snow shots for you from last weeks blizzardy weather....

Gratuitous Disclaimer: DO NOT TRY TO TAKE PICTURES WHILE YOU DRIVE IN A SNOW STORM... I know, Duh. But I couldn't seem to help myself.

Here is the scene through my windshield.

I had to roll the window down for this one

...and well, I might have been driving too fast for conditions here. And actually this one is from the week before, I just think the picture looks so cool wizzing like that.

Just as I suspected for this week, not much knitting going on, just work and , lots of party planning, Sarah's shower is Sunday and I can hardly wait.

The sock swap shopping is done, I can't show any pictures of the goodies yet, but it will be on it's way across the pond by tomorrow. All that is left is to pack and ship!

An alarm just went off on my computer...it just said "it's 1 o'clock" Think someone is trying to tell me something?

I can still knit!

I finally went to the clinic for xrays. The doctor said I fractured my elbow, put me in a sling and sent me to the bone doctor. Just flippin wonderful I am thinking! What a pain in the arse the sling is. Of course, I am defiant and say I am not going to wear that damn thing. But I found out quick enough that it really does help with the pain. Yesterday I saw the bone doctor and he tells me, no there is no fracture (phew) but... I ruptured the bursis sac on my elbow and that is why it feels like raw meat. I did not take my knitting with me because I was afraid I would get yelled at for using my hand when I am not supposed to...LOL

Well the good news is - I can still knit. The bad news, it is going to take about 6 weeks to heal and no heavy lifting, and no leaning on it. Duh, of course I am not going to lean on it, it hurts like hell!

So here is what I have been up to in the mean time. I crocheted these little Ipod socks for my two Ipods out of some left over sock yarn...fitting doncha think. Just a simple single crochet in the round until I got to the top and then I crocheted the flap flat, added a bobble for the button and viola! Thanks Dawn for the idea.

I finished my Noro Silk Garden multi directional scarf and wore it to work tonite. I love how the colors blend. I could not gauge the best place to start a new ball tho so that it blended in the same manner. I used a little over two balls for this and they seem like they wind each one with a different color starting. Still, I am happy how this one turned out. I made this one about 60 inches long.

I have almost a whole ball left over so I started Calorimetry last night and am about half done with it. It doesn't even look like the same yarn, does it. I am hoping to finish this tonite. Very easy pattern.

I did work a little bit on my toe up socks and started the heel gusset but that is as far as I got with those. My bagstopper is finished but for the straps, which I have pinned to, but not yet sewn on. No clue what I am waiting for. It is only 4 simple seems and I was at the sewing machine this week fixing a glove for my nephew.

I had just received my Basics Basics Basics course from TKGA right before I fell on that stupid car booger. I had wanted to start it right away, but I decided to wait until my arm was a little better first. Yes, I know, I have been knitting up a storm anyway, but I don't want pain to distract me from the course. This is something I have been wanting to do for a really long time, and I want to do it right. Plus these swatches are going to be examined by people that know what they are doing, so maybe I am a little nervous about it.

I joined an international sock swap on Ravelry and I get to swap sock yarn and some other goodies with a gal fron England. I plan to get the rest of my swap shopping done this week end so I can get it off in the mail to her.

I have pretty much peetered out on my Knit a Mile challenge, I have almost knit two miles of stash, and have reverted to some fresh yarn at this point. I met my original challenge and it was just the kick start I needed to get moving.

Saturday night the girls from Kelps work are supposed to get together, they have been knitting fools since the first session. I asked Kelp if they maybe wanted to learn the Multi directional scarf this week, so I think that idea is still on. I thought it would be fun to all be working on the same thing... I have plenty of yarn I can use for another one of those. Plus both of those girls are making afghans and we all know how boring that can get. A sassy scarf is just the thing to keep their interst peaked and this one is easy enough for a beginner.

I have Sarah's shower to finish planning, that is next week end and I am getting pretty excited about it. It should be lots of fun. Sarah told me this morning she was going to go dressed like a bum, I said the hell you are! I told her she did not have to dress up, but she had to look nice, after all, I am going to be showing off my beautiful daughter to my friends from work too.
She just gave me that... "Oh mom" look. Friday it it will be a trip to the party store for deocrations and games.
Knitting is probably going to take a slow down for the next week until her shower is over.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

Chicagoland got another hefty snow fall this week (well two of them to be precise) and you know how the snow tends to build up around the wheel wells and all. Well I hate that part of winter. I always knock those chucks of ice off my truck. So, I did so on Saturday, right before I went to work. A Huge car booger! Solid like a rock too. I have to admit, this was my own stupidity, but I was too damn lazy to kick the big ole car booger out of the driveway and into the snow bank ( I guess I thought maybe the car booger fairy would take care of it while I was at work...not so). Well it was still there, laying in wait for me when I came home at 2 am.
Somehow I managed to back my lil ole truck right up next it. I gather all my crap, my purse, my feed bag and my tote bag, grab my cup of coffee with my other hand, kick the door open and step out...yup you guessed it, right on top of that friggin car booger! And down I went! Right on to my mother freakin elbow! Not on my ass where I have plenty of cushion and could have bounced back with only my pride hurt...Oh no, right on the very point of my elbow, with all of my weight.
I am stunned, sitting on the ground, I did not even have a chance to drop anything and grab the door. I think I sat there for a few minutes waiting for my breath to come back. OMG I have never felt such pain. Not the, I hit my funny bone kind of pain, it was the OMG-I think think I jammed my elbow through to the other side of my arm kind of pain.
I tried to stand after a few minutes, and realized I cannot even pick up my conglomerate of crap that was laying about on the ground. I don't have the wherewithal to move away from my truck and close the door. Just stood there in the cold contemplating an emergency room trip. For those of you that know me, you know it was bad if I was thinking of going to the emergency room...I do not do hospitals except under extreme duress!

Well, thank goodness the brother's came out the door about that time, they realized I was not quite myself, picked up my things and got me inside the house...Phew and good thing too because once inside the house I felt I could solidify my decision not to go. Good brother's that they are they immedialty blamed that boy for not plowing properly. And, being the kind of person I am, I shifted the blame and explained about the car booger, which gave everyone a good chuckle and then they went home and that boy went to bed. I however, grabbed an ice pack and sat up watching tv, bemoaning my stupidity and wondering whose Cherrios did I piss in to cause this bad karma.

Well here I am two days later, and my elbow still feels like someone is sticking a knife in and twisting it! That cannot be a good sign! I had almost talked myself into an xray quickly changed my mind this morning when it did not feel quite so bad...that is till I put on my uniform shirt and OMG...there it was again!
The really sucky thing is...this happens to be my favorite leaning elbow...it is the one I wear out all of my uniform shirts on. Hurts like the dickens, does not accurately decribe it. The good news I can still knit... if I rest my arm just so.
Maybe I will have checked tomorrow....maybe.

Ok here is the scoop on my Clapotis...Not going so well. I think I made a mistake somewhere, because I am at the dropping stitches point and something does not seem to be adding up. I know, you really can't tell from this picture, but at least you can see how far I got. So I am going to tear the whole thing out and start over... I just keep reminding myself frogging is good for the soul. Clearly this is not a tv project. I will start over at some point when I can give it my full attention until I get the rhythm down pat - then I'll turn the tv back on.




Remember I said I order yarn to go with those beads?? Yah... well... This yarn does NOT go with those beads. Not to say I am dissapointed in the yarn, it just cried out for something different! Now this is how I visualize the multi directional scarf to be be! Noro Silk Garden Lite (it was on sale for 5 something a skein at Webs). This is the coolest looking yarn I think I have ever bought!! I love this! Looking at the ball of yarn, I have no clue how it is going to knit up and all three balls that I bought are wound different so it looks like each one is a different colorway. I have checked and rechecked the labels to make sure of the dyelot and they are all the same. But side by side, they sure don't look it. This is the first time I have used Noro, and I can see why people love it. I can't tell you what the colorway is because I never did learn to read Japanese (yah like they offered that in my school...LOL) but I can tell you that I am using a size 6 needle :) Crazy stuff, this yarn is.

As for the beads, well I strung them on some gray Andean Treasure I was using for Ivy...which is clearly going nowhere and probably never going to... So I shall re-allocate the yarn!

This is Christmas prezzie yarn from my friend Jackie- Knit Picks Felici in Hummingbird. You know, in the begining I was not so impressed with Knit Pick's sock yarn, I always found it a little on the scratchy and unyeilding side. But this yarn is soft and yummy and as you can see, I have already had it on my foot and my foot is liking it! My first time with a toe up pattern. I must have frogged this toe 25 times before I got the cast on looking right. I was all the way up to heel gussett and realized it was a tad big, about 8 stitches too big, so I frogged it back down to the toe to used my usual number of sock stitches. My foot is fat, but not quite that fat.

I have decided that I have way too many WIP's and am going to seriously get down to finishing them. Starting with the Bagstopper I restarted and promptly put down.

Now, to all those that are wondering what thing I bought myself for Valentines Day... Keep guessing...LOL.

It could be used in knitting, in a manner of speaking.

The one I ordered did arrive today, but you will still have to wait for the results because I decided I wanted a bigger one before it even got here so I am sending it back for exchange. ;)

Life is too short to be stingy with yourself!

Right now you are all probably thinking words that are not fit for print..hehe


Foot note: I appologize for any mis spelled words...my spell check appears to be broketakated.

Oops, I almost forgot, Here is a picture of the shower invites Kelp and I made for Sarah. That Kelp is pretty darn clever with the paper isn't she.

Challenges

To start with... here is the reason why I needed Maria's help with this scarf...I could not have been more dense when it came to reading the end of this pattern. I must have frogged the last section a dozen times before I cried "Uncle". Seriously...does this look like a triangle to you? All I kept getting out of it was something that looked like a sock heel.
Thank God for Ravelry! I was at a loss. I get it now. I saved Maria's instructions but I think it is stuck in my head for good/ We'll find out for sure when I make my next one.


My Baby Love blanket is finished. I completely underestimated the amount of yarn it was going to use. I ended up using four full skeins of Red Heart Soft Baby. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to knit with the last bit of yarn as I finished the blanket when I realized I did not even have enough left to make an IPod sock out of it. This one turned out to be a good stash burner for sure. I decided this one will be earmarked for the Linus Project. It was a quick enough knit that if I need a gift I can whip one up in a short amount of time. This project has put me over the mile and damn close to the two mile mark.
I see that a lot of the girls are close to their mile if not over it already and still with 20 more days left in the Knit a Mile Challenge.

Every one has started talking about the February Challenge but I think I am going to bow out of that one. I have even looked to see what it is yet.

I have a couple of other projects in mind that I want to make. Plus I have Sarah's shower to concentrate on.
Invites have been sent, and for anyone that cares, they do happen to have been made out of recycled paper :)

I finally got back to my Bagstopper too. I have only the four balls of Isabella so I modified the pattern a little and decreased by 10 so that the bag would be taller this time. Super easy pattern. I gotta say though, the cotton in this yarn is not very fun to knit with. It kinda drags on my fingers and makes them sore. Not like the Peaches N Cream I buy for face cloths. Good thing I am not going to be wearing this yarn.

So on Saturday night Kelp has a few of her co-workers over for a knitting party. Kelp is a fairly new knitter and is trying to teach these gals how to knit. Good luck with that I say. So I am on my way home, giver her a call to see how things went and she says, still knitting. EXCELLENT!

Well I am almost home (1100 pm mind you) when I decide to take a detour and run over there. Really, all I had waiting for me at home was the usual brother's Saturday night in witht the WII golf. Like I was going to miss that fun!

Of course I have some knitting with me, that is a given. Usually I am a solitary knitter, or maybe knit with one other person. I have never been in a knitting group before. Well I guess I am in one now!! We had such a good time that the girls all want to do it again. I love it when I can teach someone new to knit and In fact, both girls were so hooked they stayed up half the night knitting when they finally got home, and can't wait for the next time. Kelp had them on a good start by the time I got there, and boy oh boy, talk about some ambitious newbies, they are both making afghan's for a first project. Of course, given tonite's blizzardy cold weather, an afghan souds like a damn good idea!

Oh and by the time I got home I think it was 1:30 am and the brother's were just leaving. And oh shucky darns, I missed all that colorful swearing because they can't golf worth a shi-ot!...LOL

I think I will truly be looking forward to my own Saturday night diversion!

1 Mile and still counting

YAY!! I knit the mile - and with plenty of time to spare!!
I am almost done with the Baby Love blanket. I will do the math when it is completed, but it should be right around another 500 yards to add to the count. Such a lot of yardage for such a small item :)

I was going to put this away for when I need another baby shower gift, but I decided to add this to the charity basket for the next group of items to take to the homeless shelter.
I had planned on sewing up a bunch of fleece hats for the charity basket as well, but instead I slept away the first half of my days off, then I sat and made invitations for Sarah's shower with Kelpy (who happens make the bestest ever cards I might add). Needless to say I got no sewing done on my days off and very little knitting. And I probably should no cleaning or cookling either.

Last night I finished my multi-directional scarf! Boy that was a long time coming. I read and re-read those ending directions and that last half triangle was not going to happen right. I found this very nice lady Maria on Ravelry, who very kindly re-wrote the instructions and drew me a diagram on her own scarf to show me. I must be part-tarded because plenty of other people out there have made this scarf according to the directions posted on line. They just did not make a lick of sense to me. I am not usually so stupid when it comes to instructions, but for some reason these were just beyond my simple comprehension!

It turned out perfect thanks to Maria! Obviously I still have to weave ends, wash and block but here it is!


Of course, as if I did not have a host of other things to be doing, I decided I have to have another beaded scarf and while Kelpy and I were shopping for card stick, I also shopped for glass beads to string. Yes, you have to string the beads and then transfer them onto the yarn. I am not finished with the beads yet, no hurry because my Noro for them that I just ordered isn't here yet. Do you suppose it is a little backwards, buy the beads first then find a yarn to go with them?? That's me, a back- asswards Virgo... go figure.

I did the one thing I said I wasn't going to do. I was pretty firm on this too, so I thought. Not going to post my stash on Ravelry...well guess what..I did it. Ok, so not all of my stash but a goodly portion of it. And in doing the prep for it, ie; photographing, sorting and such, I realized that I have already made a damn good dent in it. All those hats and scarves I have been making for the last couple of years have depleted quite abit of my stash. How exciting is that??? Mind you, the following two pictures is not by any means all of it, but I am starting to get it down to a respectable quantity. In fact, I purchased some guilt free yarn just this week!

A few years ago, I ran out of places to put my stash, which I do try to keep centrally located in my craft (read to mean junk) room. So I bought these handy dandy wire baskets to load up with yarn (see how empty they are getting?). Great idea right? Well no not really. Over time as they sat up there not getting used, some of the velour types faded dramatically and yellowed from smoke (yes we are evil smokers, hence the reason I keep my yarn sealed in plastic and away from light) unfortunately, I never thought of the long term effects of my basket solution. Actually, I never even thought they would be hanging up there for several years. I am salvaging what I can, but some of it will have to me 86'd I'm afraid. Ah well, live and learn.

I think it is time to empty out the baskets, don't you? Maybe use them for onions or something.

Baby Love

I am on the downward slope of the Baby Love Blanket now, and feeling a bit more comfortable in my mile goal...I am so going over it.. I just know it.

Dawn called me the energizer bunny the other day. Oh how I wish that was true! In my younger days I could say I resembled that remark but not so now. There was a time when I could stay up late and get up early and keep right on going through out the day.

Working close to a hundred hours in a week was common place back in the day, and then go out and dance the night away. Now I am happy to be able to get through a 50 and sometimes a 40 hour work week, and still be able to crawl out of be the next day and function. And on top of being older (notice I did not say old) I have to watch what I eat so carefully that if I don't, I am laid low for an entire day. That was the case the other day. I have gotten so good at pretending that I feel fine, people (myself included) tend to forget that I am not until I have one of those days. Sleeping is such a waste of time in my opinion I feel like I am missing out on the rest of the world by sleeping. I always figure I can sleep when I am dead.

Hmmm, maybe I better not say that too loud.

Thank God for mindless knitting. I just don't feel right if I had not knit something every day! I happen to be one of those unusual people that like garter stitch! I like the mindless part, since I think most of my knitting is done when I am half comatose. And I like the way it looks. I am not surprised when I read reviews on this blanket. All the things that people disliked about it are the things I like about it. And to boot, this makes a great stash down project! Sure it is not a challenging pattern, but I have plenty of that going on too.



Knit a Mile Challenge

Now that I have knitted an acceptable amount of mileage, ( can now add an additional 1125 yards to my count) I can get to work on some finishing up that scarf. I can barely deal with the guilt involved in leaving UFO.

If you look to your left, you can see the Blog Roll I started for the people involved in the Knit Mile Challenge. I thought it would be a fun way to keep an eye on everyone else's progress. Not that this is everyone involved, just the ones that are, so far, keeping track of their progress online. Challengers- I highly recommend that nifty little knit meter button. It very nicely calculates everything for you!!

There have been a number of factors lately that have kept me from knitting as much as I would like. work, being numero ono on the list losts to do this time of year. Then there is Blogger. I have been doing a little housekeeping here too (or at least trying to), Blogger can be frustrating to say the least. When I have nights like last night that challenge me to figure out a way of faking Blogger out, (it is that whole button issue all over again, WTF!) I become tempted to move my blog .

Ravelry has been taking up a good deal of my time as usual. Another good reason for mindless knitting. I can browse the boards there and not worry about losing track of my project. Kill two birds-so to speak. There is so much to see and do there and a gazillion groups to check out. I am fast becoming a group groupie. And that Casey is a genius!!! See the nifty progress bars??? I wish I new how to write code, if I did I sure as heck wouldn't be using Blogger.. hehe

Happy V-Day to me!

Yup - I have bought myself a Valentines present. Yes I know it's early. No you can't know...it is a surprise... :) It is a really big surprise and you will just have to wait til Valentines Day to find out...lol a little suspense is good for the soul. I personally, can barely stand the wait. ;)

No ... it is not Red but, It probably could be.

Hopefully I will have some FO's to share next post.

FLITTING TO AND FRO

FLIT! FLIT! FLIT!

My ADD has kicked in again. I am suffering from the too many project in my queue syndrome.
I started Clapotis the other night, but this project (which at this point is an unexciting looking little triangle with a bunch of purty stitch markers). And it requires a bit of concentration so it is completely unportable at this point. And having cast this one on in a finger weight, I expect it to take more time that my self gratification gene will allow. Knit Picks Shadow in Heather Sunset, (Still knitting from stash) was actually purchased for this pattern in mind so now I feel like I am on my way to completing something I started. (Hey girls, it is on clearance right now) I have been wanting to cast this baby on for a long time but never got around to it.



I treated myself to a couple of books this week too. I bought the Opinionated Knitter, Elizabeth Zimmerman of course, which has been on my wish list for a long time. I used the gift certificate I had won from 25 Things for Charity towards that purchase :) aaaannnnnnd I also bought No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting because I am a geek ;)

FLIT!

Bam - here I go again! Oh sometime around two-ish am I was working on my unexciting multi-direction scarf when I could not stand to look at it any more and threw it on the floor. (The dog did not even lift his head because he is used to such unbecoming behavior from me. ) I am bored bored bored with and it and it is taking toooooo long to finish. I want it to be done. The yarn does nothing for me in this pattern, or anything thing else I have knit it into to later frog. I need instant gratification!

So I pulled up an easy baby blanket from Lion Brand and cast that on is some of the over abundance baby yarn I have laying around. (In this family someone is always having a baby it seems.) The pattern calls for a worsted weight but I am using double strand baby weight. Soft and yummy in New Mint and White Red Hearts Soft Baby yarn. Hey and each skein is 575 yarns! that will really boost my mileage won't it. Plus I am needing a quick knit to get over the scarf. See- I have all kinds of justification for this one!

No I am not giving up on this scarf, it just seems like it is taking for-ever to finish. It is currently my only take a long project, not that I have been able to take it along with me anywhere lately. Still, I will finish it is it kills me.

Maybe it is because this is such a busy month for me at work that I need to feel productive at home too. January is when we pack up all the files and start fresh. I love that! I feel like that is the point where I can feel free to stream line things, and it is easier for people to accept any changes because it is all fresh anyway. I need to feel like I am accomplishing something and this scarf is not doing it for me.

Oh well, one has to knit an ugh once in a while.

BUTTON BUTTON WHOSE GOT THE BUTTON

Well -I never understand Blogger, in my mind it does some crazy and unpredictable things. For the last several days I have been trying to get my Stash Down button to work, WTF. Blogger is seeming to want to add extra characters to my code and fudges up the button. I have removed element and redone the whole damn thing more times than I can count. I am almost ready to give up. I hate to let an inanimate object get the best of me. It just makes me even more determined to win.

You may have noticed I have been doing a little "spring" cleaning on my blog too. Adding stuff, moving stuff around, re-arranging the furniture so to speak. I have added a new blog roll for those of us that accepted the Knit-a-Mile challenge on Ravelry. There are a few of us ( as you can see- quite a few) that are going to be posting progress on their blogs too. No- that is not everyone in the group, just the ones posting their mileage in blog-ville.

I feel very good about making it to the finish line.

Knitting A Mile?

There is a Stash Knit Down 2008 group on Ravelry that is having a January challenge to knit a mile. A mile you say??? Yes I said a mile! That will be 1760 yards (holy crap) of yarn by Feb 15. Completely doable - I think. The challenge started Jan 5th and I have since knit a total of 280 yards. Not an auspicious start, but not bad none the less. And what a great idea!

Most of my week end was spent clearing out crap from of my junk room and turning it back into a craft room. What a feat! I had boxes of crap that had never been unpacked (I hate to admit we have lived here for 7 years). Stuff my dad sent me of my mothers after she passed away was in that closet along with a number of other mystery boxes. It was a wonder I had any room in that closet for my yarn stash! Which is probably why I had an avalanche nearly every time I tried to take something out of it. I repacked mom's scrapbooks and what not's. I went through every scrap of paper as well, old tax forms (more than 7 years old I might add), my 17 year old divorce papers, a few profit and loss statements from when I was a store manager, and training manuals from my old dispatch job. Talk about being a pack rat!

Needless to say most of that went into the trash. Along with a goodly number of dried out paints, some infinitesimally small pieces of material I had been saving for who knows what, and a number of other things that I am sure the garbage man was swearing about this morning...hehe

Things that needed to be stored went into Rubbermaid containers, condensed and repacked, and nicely placed in the bins. Plenty of room for fresh stash now!

I did do some knitting too. I have been plugging away at the multi directional scarf. I enjoy the pattern, and as long as I remember to go up-hill, it works out fine. I am getting bored with it tho because the yarn that so excited me in the skein is very un-exciting when it is knit up. The pattern has some wonderful possibilities, and I can see some of my stash being worked up this way, if I ever get through this particular scarf.

So naturally I started something else, as most of us do when a project becomes a chore.

I found another nifty pattern on Ravelry for this headband. I had two balls of Sugarloaf in burgundy that I also bought 2 years ago at Stitches but did not have a clue what I wanted them for. I loved this one, quick knit and the yarn is soooo yummy and soft. It was a dream on my head. Too bad someone has not invented feel-a-vision yet.

Of course I foo bared it and forgot an increase but it is still plenty wide enough. It took very nearly the entire ball of 81 yards. And since I had two, I immediately cast on my second one, which I intend to make correctly this time.

Most of Saturday was spent at the courthouse, waiting for it to be Sarah and Greg's turn to get married. For all that it was a civil service, the Judge was fantastic, and made it a very lovely ceremony. And even though we had to wait around most of the morning with a bunch of strangers, some wedding parties were in formal dress even, we had a blast. Sarah got a little upset when she lost my mother's ring (her something borrowed) but this nice lady turned it in and all was well.

The happy couple...Don't they look sweet!