Tuesday, May 30, 2006

I may have hit the point of no return



First off, I have to say that I don't know what the crap is up with the positions of these pictures. There's something wonky going on with the system. Needless to say, I've been busy with the needles since the semester ended. Ocer to the side there is something I'm quite proud of. My very first crocheted item!! Granted, I don't know who exactly is going to be making use of dishcloth around here, but it's done and relatively mistake free.

In actuality, I finished that thing a long time ago and just found it while I was cleaning under the cushions of my overstuffed chair. I still had to tie off the end and weave in the ends, so technically it's stll a new FO.

Next to my wonder of a dishcloth and below are two possible causes of the terrible pain that kept me up all last night. I finished my hourglass sweater last week so started Green Gable with some gorgeous Berroco Cotton Twist I got at the shop. I've been a little hestitant with the use of cotton, but I love the color so much and the patterns cute so I went for it. The pattern is fine, but I ran into a good bit of trouble with the needles. I started using Denise Interchangables size 6 with a 20 inch cord. At first, there were so few stitches that even the 20 in was a bit long, Quickly though, I began running out of space. I had to mess with and regroup the stiches so much that it was taking forever to finish a row and putting a ton of stress on my hands and wrists. Not fun. I went to switch to a 32in addi turbo, but the size 6 addi and 6 Denise are totally different! It's like a whole size different. I fretted with the 20in's for a while longer then gave up and went with the larger ,longer pair. It's coming out better that way texture-wise and since it's a top down raglan, the gauge isn't of as much importance.

This guy here is one of my fabulous Mega Boot Stretch socks. I tried and tried to get a picture of the finished one alongside the one far along in progress, but the flash on my camera was making them look all gross.

So on the topic of my horrid night.....perhaps it was due to obsessive knitting or maybe it was just from cleaning. Whatever the cause, I had a terribloe, terrible run in with my old pal tendonitis and was up all night unable to move without sending shooting pains through my arms. It was awful. I finally got up around 8 and began searching for medication. I finally decided on some painkillers I have leftover from something or another. We had not a bit of anti-inflammatory in the house. Luckily, someone was kind enough to go fetch me some since I could not move either of my arms of my fingers by about 9am. That was a really big blower.

On the bright side of the day, I met with a man about the AC and he fixed it, but needs to come back and do about $800 worth of work practically rebuilding the thing. Bad news is that by about 7, anything resembling chilled air stopped moving through the vents. I HATE my furnace. At least having that short time with cool air gave me one less thing to be miserable about while I sat in the kitchen all day not being able to knit or manipulate anything on the computer. I did get to read a good chunk of The DaVinci Code though. I already know the story so it's not quite as intriguing as it could have been if I read it sometime before everyone else on the planet.

So now my pain has subsided (I'm hoping it's for real and not just because I have like 30 doses of pain meds/ Motrin in me) and I'm exhausted. Tomorrow is going to be a long day so I'm going to bed. Whenever I get the AC fixed for good I'll take a picture of it. I don't even want to touch it's wooly goodness in this mess. Maybe I can cause mysle fot have have a dream about being somewhere cool and wonderful where Ican frolick in my Manos : )

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I'm so ashamed

I had my last final of the semester scheduled at 8 am yesterday. I woke up at apporximately 8:06 and still had a 45 minute drive to campus. I think a fuse must have gone or something while I was sleeping and someone fixed it. That's all I can figure. All I know is that my alarm was set for 5:30. I woke up to hit the bathroom and noticed that it was light outside and that the numbers on my alarm clock were blinking. I can't think of a momnet were I've felt closer to death. Luckily, my teacher in that class is really nice and he let me make it up later in the day.
I have knitting shame, too. I finished knitting my hourglass sweater. I began to slave away at the neckline seaming. I got about a quarter of the way through and realized that I messed the whole thing up. I read and reread the seaming instructions over and over again and didn't see where I was going wrong. I don't know what's wrong with my brain. Anyhow, I finally realized my error in comprehesion and now have to rip out all that I've done. I don't think I'll do it tonight because it may drive me crazy.
In order to ease the suffering I figured that I'd be inflicting on myself tonight, I bought some Opal sock yarn in a pretty brown/pastels colorway and some orangey-peach Cotton Twist for a Green Gable top.
That's all for now. Maybe I'll go ahead and start this ripping. It's best to just get it over with, regardless of my possible loss of sanity.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Mentally Defective

I've been a busy, busy girl lately. Between finals, papers, and all the other random craziness that comes along with being me, I've surprisngly done a lot on the knitting front. The majority of this knit-"doing" falls into the shopping category. I'm attributing it to a mixture of angst from missing MDS&W this year and massive stress spending. I was telling one of the customers at the shop today that I can think of few days within the past week or so that I haven't made a detour to at least a craft store on my way home from school. Some of the stuff I didn't bother to photograph. Needles and whatnot aren't a ton of fun to look at. My first bit of goodness is this here skein of Mountaincolors sock yarn. I got it with plans to make pomatomus from knitty, but the yarn is way too thick. I'll tell ya, I love that girls sock patterns but the gauges are always T.I.N.Y. I have little to no desire to buy or knot with yarn that is so small.
Items #2, 3, and 4 are these little beauties. On the left is something that I don't recall, but it's pretty nifty and I can see it morphing into a loosely knit scarf so I can show off its bumpy goodness. The red furry stuff is something I got on massive sale at JoAnns. I think it is destined to become either a warm scarf or possible some sort of shrug. On the top right is some Mega Boot Stretch sock yarn from Lana Grossa ( I think). It porduces some pretty awesome footwear.
These here are some balls of a blue and brown yarn I spied quite some time ago and keot lusting after. I finally went back and got 5 or 6 balls of it to make a sweater. Probably a cowl neck one. Yes, it is of the super crappy fiber content variety but the colors rock.
And, because I couldn't exactly justify all the yarn purchases without actually turnong something out......Here is Kate (a la Winter '05 Knitty) lounging in my living room. Her one arm is a little wonky and the stitches are perhaps a little loose for all the polyfiber I stuffed into her, but I think she's cute anyways. You can also tell from her mouth that I'm not exactly a pro at embroidery. Oh well.
I additionally am almost done with my Hourglass sweater. This picture doesn't really do it much justice, but it does display the "almost done" element of it. At this point, that's probably the most important thing to it.
Here's a closeup of one of the raglan decreases. It's mainly just to see the colors better. I like it.
And finally, on par with my usual stress sock knitting, I present my Spring '06 Finals week sock crafter from Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock in the Black Pearl colorway. The pattern is one of the simple lace ones from Sensational Knitted Socks. I don't recall which pattern it was offhand.
To be honest, the colors didn't come out quite as gorgeously as I had thought they would when I bought it. The yarn is SO SOFT though. I love it to death. I've heard it doesn't wear particularly well, but we'll see. I probably won't be wearing them all that much.
I've actually started working on another pair of socks out of a darker shade of the Mega Boot....yoy can see a little of it poking out in the right hand corner of the photo above. This yarn is so cool. The effect of the colors blending is really unique. I followed a link on the Yarn Harlot's blog and fell in love with the yarn. I'm loving it even more now that I was able to score some of it. I'll have photos of that one soon.
That's about it for the moment. I think I'm going to try and manipulate a new camera put of my mom in reward for my excellent grades. I guess I'm a little old for things like that, but hey. If you've got it, use it.
Sixteen Candles is on now so I must run. Hopefully now that my semester is almost over I'll be better with the updates and such.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Clearly, I suck

I'm the type fo person who gets irritated rather easily. One thing that gets me is when the people who's blogs I read go for long periods of time without a new post. I vowed not to do this when I started here. However, life happens and the next thing you know it's been an eon since the last time you've posted.
I have no photos to show. I have no FO's. I an a loser.
My semester ends in two more weeks (I think, hope) and then I plan on knitting as much as possible. I also plan on purchasing a digital camera and an iPod. The camera will help with be able to take and post pictures. The iPod will just serve to make me happy, and if I'm happy I reason that I'll be more likely to do productive things like knit and follow thru with the posts.
Here is a little breakdown of what I've been doing, knitwise.

1) Almost done with my hourglass sweater. Really, really almost done. I was set to purchase my last ball of yarn for it today but someone beat me to it.

2) I have an awesome felted bag that is all knit, but I have to figure out how to line it, buy fabric, and get the handles on there.

3) As a quick pick-me-up, I knit Kate from the winter 2005 knitty. She's cute. However, she currently has no eyes. I plan on hitting JoAnns tomorrow after I deposit my paycheck. That way, if any yarn or something should fall into my basket, I'll be able to pay for it.

4) I've picked back up a pair of socks that I had set down some time ago. I'm a fan of the socks. I may have mentioned them in a previous post, but I can't remember so I'll talk about them again. They're in a stone-ish colorway of the Skacel Fortissima with the little glittery bit in them. I don't recal the name of the stitch, either, but when combined with the color it reminds me of pretty marble slabs.

I think that's it. I'll spare you from my ranting on and on with nothing to show from myself. As soon as Kate has vision, I'll borrow a camera and post a pic.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Happy Happy, Joy, Joy!!

I got my lovely Regatta Blue Magic Stripes!! I didn't even know it had come. I just went downstairs yesterday and there was my little box sitting on the kitchen table. Now I'll have something that's not all hot and woolen to knit in Texas. I'll bring my hourglass sweater, too, if I can come up with the moolah to purchase the rest of my yarn. I had three balls of it at home for which I couldn't find a worthy project. I saw on someones blog an hourglass sweater made in a similar color, and I had to do it. I had been thining about the hourlass sweater for a good while but hadn't really set my mind to it. When we got in the new Manos shipment at the shop, I stashed about 5 skeins. According to the yarn requirements, I'd still be a skein short. I've been hearing reports that many people have gone over on yardage, so I'm figuring I'm probably going to have to buy 2 more skeins somehwere else. I thought I had finished knitting the body last night, having used about 4 skeins. I then cast on for my first arm. However, this morning when I examined the body, it looks way short even though I went a alittle over the given length. I added a good bit to that, eating up the rest of ny yarn. I have a little left over in the ball I'm using on the arm, but when that's done (in not too many more rows), I'm fresh outta Manos. Hopefully tomorrow I can buy atleast two more of the stashed skeins. That'll get me through finishing the body for good and both arms. I probably wouldn't get much farther than that on my trip anyhow. Especially if I have my jaywalker to do. I'm also considering taking some of that disco yarn I got awhile back to work on some other sock pattern. I'm dying to go thru that Sensational Socks book.
In other news, I really need a pedicure and hope to take care of that tonight before I go to bed. Additionally, This morning when I got up for work, I threw on my robe and felt somethign wet slap up against my calf. I looked and founf that someone, more than likely Riley, had taken the liberty of barfing all over my robe during the night. I'll have to remember to wash that.....

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Bad to the Bone

I'm a bad, bad, bad blogger. I don't even want to look at the date of my last entry because it will cause me such horrid shame. I've been busy with school and all that good stuff, so blogging (and sadly, even knitting) has been on the backburner. I haven't finished a project in Lord only knows how long. I did manage to pop out an ultra cool cable accented hat (Coronet from Knitty, to be specific) in some brown Teseo. I'll have to get some pictures together tp update right. Hmmm, what else? I finished knitting a realy noce scarf out of some green Cyprus Mohair and Kid Mohair, both by Feza. Again, I'm lacking any photographic proof. In my defense, I'm also really bad at paying my phone bill and seeing as how I've been using my phone to snap pictures, I've been camaeraless for a good while. Also, I've just been lazy about it. Let's see....I've been knitting away on an Hourglass sweater out of Last Minute Little Gifts. I love it and can't wait until it's both completed and not Spring/Summer so I can actually wear it. I don't quite know what it is with me and my knitting of wool sweaters in the warm months. Last year it was the Pastaza fair isle started sometime in July, I beleive. I'm going to Texas next week and would like to have something non-wool to knit. I did get notification today that my Magic Stripes backprder is FINALLY going being shipped. Maybe I can do my second jaywalker. This will show you how my brain has been functioning for the past few days, but I've been seriousl considering whether or not I want to knoit my next pair of socks together or one by one. Doing the two at a time is best in the loing run, but I'm finding that my 'second sock syndrome' easliy morphs into a 'lose interest while I've got half of two socks done' problem. At least when I have one sock done I can put it on my foot and look at it. I thik that's about it for now. I'll have to make a note to take some pictures tomorrow so I can add some eye candy on here. Words can be so dull.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

What's the opposite of progress?

I've gotten pretty much no knitting done over the past few days. I was really busy over the weekend, but I did manage to get the heel flaps and turns done on my baby cable socks. I have no photo evidence of this. Mondsay I went back to school, which was exhausting. I packed my socks up in the morning, along with my laptop, planning to knit and play internet games in the time between my first and second class. I ended up waking up really late and not getting my goods together, so I found I had to return home after class #1. That killed my three hour kntting/playing break. Today I was thinking that perhaps I could knit between class and work, but then I fell asleep in the parking lot for an hour and a half. The first day of school was alright. This being day two, my body realized that Monday had not been some sort of foul trick I was playing on it. I just couldn't take it today. First of all, my teacher wouldn't allow us to eat or drink in class. That meant no coffee. I just had to leave it sitting there on my desk, staring at me and emitting taunting fumes. Once I drove to work, I just set my phone alarm, threw a sweatshirt and coat over my head to block the sun and slept. I didn't get any knitting done at work, either. I did a few rows, but nothing that really counts. It was slow, but I had a lot of organizational bits to do. Considering my lack of knittong time, my mind naturally jumped to future projects. First, I decided on the yarn to make my flowerbasket shawl for the spring. I'm going to order a slightly varigated purple shade of Bamboo from SWTC. Second, I finally dug out the issue of Interweave with the bag I've been waiting and wanting to make. Turns out that I have the totally wrong yarn for it. For some reason, I thought it was felted bag and got a bunch of bulky wool for it. Upon looking at the pattern again, I came to find that it's acctually made of linen and silk yarn held together at a smaller gauge and not felted at all. I love the yarn I got for it though and I really don't feel like having some weird yarn imported from Japan so I can make the bag as per its specs. That would also turn into a huge expense and how can that be justifies when I have so many other yarns I wish to own? I guess I'll just have to modify the pattern a bit. Oh well. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. I need to head of to the shower now. I have to do as much as possible at night so I stand a fighting chance of getting out the door in the morning.
Cya

Friday, January 27, 2006

Oh, what FUN!!!

As usual, my pictures got all messed up during the publishing process. I don't know what's up with this thing, but it's really starting to grate on me. So, if you'll excuse the total disarray of things, I'll get on with the post. So I finished my jaywalkers sock, which is being modeled in the photo containing a whole sock. To the left of that photo is a progress shot of my baby cable socks.
I'm very happy with them. Making cables without actually having to use a cable needle often makes me happy. Below that pic is a closeup of the cable pattern. I think they'll be extra cool when I'm done with them. I'm going to do the heel flaps and possibly the turn tonight. The foot may take a bit because I have to reorganize all the stitches and knit both together. I'm using a size 2 needle, though, so even being worked together, they're not seeming to take as much time as the jaywalkers on size 1's.

This random picture of wooden reindeer is the main purpose of the post. When I got home from work today my mother informed me that she's decided to leave these Christmas reindeer out all year and she thinks it would be really cute if I knit them all little outfits for the various seasons/holidays. FUN. FUN, FUN!!!!! That'll be a hoot and half. She's already done some wardrobe planning. I'm going to tell her she has to pay me in booze so I can try and get through the whole ordeal. I think it's only reasonable that one drink in excess while creating handknit clothing for a family of wooden reindeer. It would just be weird without at least a few good beers.
On a totally off topic, I'm watching 'Monk' right now and it's just creepy to see the Captain. I just see Buffalo Bill dancing around in his woman-skin suit doing the "pull-thru" for the video camera. Sexy.
~*~ Please disregard all references to phote placement. Once I saw the published form of the post, I saw that the format totally had changed and nothing I said makes sense. I'm sure everyone's smart enough to figure out what photos I'm refering to in the writing. Sorry~*~

Pictures soon to follow

Well, turns out my fear that I was not going to have enough "Ithaca" yarn to finish my jaywalkers was spot on. I drove all over the place trying to find more or it with no luck. I did find the yarn in a different color, but I think that frustrated me more. I dislike that so-close-yet-so-far feeling. I had to break down and do the sensible thing in this situation, which was order it online. Anyhow, I did finish my first sock and took pictures. I just didn't get around to loading them on the computer. To pass the time while waiting for my yarn to arrive, I started some socks with a brown and white Opal yarn. I'm using a Fiber Trends pattern called Angel's Peak. What I'm turning out doesn't really resemble the pattern photo at all, but is an obvious pattern none the less. Interesting. Due to the very, very itchy nature of that yarn, I'm afraid I've already sort of postponed my work on it after only about two inches. To ease my pain, I purchased a crapload of sock yarn and a new sock book from the shop. I worked in a baby cable pattern into socks that I laready had on the needles and I'm loving it bigtime. This also fits in nicely with my plan of new project/ old project rotation. Those socks are coming along quite well. I only have about another inch to go before I do the hell so they won't take too much loinger. I'm doing both at one time, so it'll take a little longer. Well, that's all for now. I need to get some sleep so I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed for work tomorrow. I'll post the pictures tomorrow.

Monday, January 23, 2006

The never ending "quicky" project

I've decided that my jaywalker socks are never going to be completed. Not that I don't want them to be, or that I won't keep knitting away at them. I've been going and going. Each small section that I completed pleased me greatly. I did then leg. I did the heel flap, that turn, I slowly but surely finished the foot decreases. Now, row after row, I'm trying to tackle the foot. It just never seems to end. Not only that, it doesn't seem to grow! I didn't photograph it because it doesn't really look any different than last time, regardless of the days and work in between. At this point, I'm not even sure that I'm going to have enough yarn lef to do the second one. In a way, that gives me hope because I won't have to start on the second one immediately. That will give me some recoup time. Anyhow, that's about all that's been going on knit-wise.
In other news, I went to the Washington Gift Show today. It was out in Chantilly, VA. Due to lack of intelligent planning on my part, I agreed to meet Carole and the others out in Ellicott City at the shop. It occured to us there that since I live so much closer to VA, it would have been smarter for me to have just met them there. I ended up driving out there with Amy in my car, so I could just go straight home afterwards and Amy could be taken back to the shop by Carole. I walked around so much that I swear I thought my feet were going to be bloddy when I got my boots off. Leave it to me to wear big heels for a day of walking. I should also mention that I was absolutely broke. I didn't get a chance to hit the bank yesterday. I wasn't expecting to have to put gas in my car, so all my cash was eaten up. As I was trying to navigate my way home, my low fuel light came on, even though I had just gotten a little bit of gas before we headed out. It was one of my worst drives home in a long, long time, I was so afraid of running out of gas, I didn't really know where I was going, and I was totally exhausted. I got home okay, and immediately fell asleep, staying in bed until after 9pm. I was zonked out. Now I'll probably be up all night and I have to be up early to help with a meeting in the morning. At least it'll give me an opportunity to work on my socks.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have something to show next time.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

I love them, but COME ON!!

I'm making progress on my jaywalker socks. I finished the leg, heel flap and heel turn last night. I wish they were a little taller, but let's just say that perhaps my legs are a bit too "athletic" for knee socks. "Athletic" is code for too tubby. My legs may not be my best asset, but they are very strong and muscular. I like to keep that muscle safe by coating it in a layer of chub. I swear though, after knitting all those socks for the holidays using size 7 and 9 needles, I'm feeling the pain of using size 1's/ I knit and knit and knit tonight and only did about 1.5 or 2 inches. I'm not even done with the foot decreases yet. While I was at the supermarket, I picked up the new Knit It magazine. It has some cute stuff in it and I like that it's made ut of cheap yarn. The only problem is that of the two patterns that I
really like, one is for small children and the other is made out of a designer yarn that the store doesn't carry. I've heard of it though, so it shouldn't be too hard to track down.
In unrelated project news, I found my lamb's pride fair isle cardigan hiding behind my big chair in the office, I took it to work and made some progress on it. The fair isle part on the bottom is a little tight, but I think that after I block the hell out of it and it's stretched across my body, it'll look okay. I didn't take any pictures of it because it's balled up in my knitting bag. I like it, and I really love the colors, but I'm a bit concerned now about the shape of the thing. I made another sweater from the same book out of some pastaza at the beginning of the summer, which I really like, but the arm hold construction is a little wonky. I'm sure there's a technical name for the shaping that I can't think of at the moment, but it's one of those where you knit the whole thing from the bottom up and connect the arms at the underarm and knit the yolk in one big piece. The shoulders just kind of droop down. I wasn't considering this shaping bit when I knit the first sweater and I oversized it a little. I still really like it though. I'm just being a little over cautios with this cardigan, and that's taking some of the fun away from it.
I'm so tired now and my hands ache from the tiny needles. I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I'd like to get a good deal done on the foot. Who knows, If I get a little over zealous, I may even finish the sock tomorrow. I think that's a long shot, but hey, they're for me so what's the rush?

Monday, January 16, 2006

A lot going on

So much for me doing a ton of knitting for myself over my break! Oh well, stuff happenes I guess. Before the holidays, I was super busy knitting for my family. I followed New Years with getting massively sick. I was totally out of it for over a week, which is far sicker than I've been for a number of years. I really didn't do too much knitting then, mainly because I couln't really breathe and that put a major damper on things. I had to go to Ithaca for a few days right after I started feeling better, and that probably put me straight back to the sickhouse. It was SO COLD. Plus, the city more or less sucked big ones, making the possability of becomming sick again very not worth it. I did manage to knit some on the trip though, and now have a spiffy new pair of arm warmers. I did actually weave in the ends because I needed to wear them. That isn't captured in the photo. I bought some new sock yarn while I was up there. It's really neat looking color and I'm very curious to see what the color pattern looks like when they're knit up. It doesn't show well in the photo, but the yarn is a light blue/white/tan/ lime green mix. Very unusual combination. I'm thinking about doing the jaywalker socks from Magknits. Hmmmm...yes, I think tht's what I'll do.
Before my trip I had to organize my office a little bit, and I had a ton of yarn to deal with. I have yarn EVERYWHERE. I really need to do something about it. Im so disorganized, too. When I was trying to pack knitting for my trip, I couldn't come up with a total package of anything. I'd either be missing needles, a pattern, yarn....just no good at all. Before I go back to school I have to get it all in gear.
Here is an example of my lack of organization. I have several other shots of yarn here and there around the house, but for some reason I can't get them to load correctly. My new goal is to knit one old thing for every new thing I purchase. The arm warmrs cancelled out the sock yarn. I have to finish an old pair of socks though before I can knit the new ones. Speaking of which, I'm going to go back to my little socks now.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I'm so lazy!

I haven't made an entry for almost a month! I have nothing to show, knit wise, life wise, and have been doing nothing but being a big lazy butt. I have no excuse. Well, I sort of do. I've been nasty sick, which while it may not have caused my spree of laziness has most definitly contributited to it's further existance and depth. I lost my voice a week ago and today is the first day I've had it back. I'm feeling a lot better, but I'm still a bit nasty. To the outside observer, I would still be classified as someone one would dread being sat next to on a flight. Due to this illness, I've missed a whole week of work, so now I'm poor as all get out. On the bright side of everything, I'm going to Ithaca on Thursday morning. I was thinking that would be all good, but now my mom is coming down with the same symptoms that I had last Tuesday. Hooray! There's nothing quite like being stuck in a car for hours with a sick person, especially if you're just getting over something yourself. Well, I gotta run now. I'm trying to straighten up my office so my father can actually move around enough to feed the pigs while I'm gone. As I'm going through my stash, which makes up the majority of mess in here, I'm finding so many terrible things I've knit and so, so, SO mush yarn. I'm going to have to find a wasy to work through this stuff!
Happy New Year Everyone: )

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Christmas mishaps and Winter break knitting-spree

Too bad I'm too lazy to take some photos because I've got plenty to show. The pics will just have to wait. I really need to go to bed, but I haven't updated in in bit and figured I should.
I should preface this by announcing that I finished my semester with a bang, followed by a deflating fizzle that some academics may refer to as a "Statistics Final". Boy oh boy, was that just a big ol'crapfest. I won't go into it any further to save myself from mental trauma. I'm just glad it's over. Plus, the only reason I sucked so massively on my final on Friday was that my brain was so tired from kicking the asses of all my tests and assignments earlier in the week, the bulk of which fell on Thursday.
On to the knitting! I feverishly knit the second sock for my sister on Friday. It's another super-cool pair made of Kureyon in shades of blue......except that the second sock came out being green and purple. That was a bit of a problem. I SWEAR I checked the color number and dye lot. I KNOW I did. Since there was absolutely no way to pass it off as normal, I was forced to go yarn shopping today. I looked on Yarnmarket.com and saw that there are several Noro colors that are basically the same blues with just slightly different variations in hues and accents. I admitted to myself that it's altogether possible that I totally flaked on checking the color numbers and whatnot, especially since I could have been placing a memory belonging to the first time I bought Noro for sister socks. Anyways, I went to the yarn shop today and got new yarn. The only thing to do is to knit two more socks that don't match and somehow make them match the other two mismatched socks to create two matching pairs. Try making sense of that after a few drinks! It's all perfectly clear to me, and that's all that matters at this point.
While I was at the yarn shop, I also picked up a final hank of black Manos to finish off my OSW that's been residing in the corner of my office for a good while. Additionally, I got a new Berroco pattern book because I want to make a sweater or three from the new yarns they have out. As I was waiting in line, I glanced some sort of pure awesomeness peeking out of a basket. It's name is Smile, by Reynolds, and a scarf that was slightly psychoticly knit this evening out of it is currently wrapped lusciously around my neck. It's very pretty. I'll post a photo of it tomorrow.
Well, time for me to be off to bed. I have to work tomorrow and run like a thousand and one other errands. Blah! I'll get a legitimate vacation at some point.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Lucky Day!!

My pictures are still coming out all fugly. I'm not quite sure what to do about that. I feel like I have no control over this computer at all. Probably because I don't, really. Regardless of all that, I'm having a terrific day. Several good things have happened.
1) My aunt's funeral went well.
2) I got to pick up my pink saphire ring from the jewler. It's super fabulous. I should have taken a picture of it. I'll put that on my things t do list.
3) My cell class got cancelled v/c of Dr. McGraw's chronic intestinak virus. Poor lady. However, may I just say HOORAY!!!!?
4)My experimental psychology quiz for Thursday was cancelled.
5) My sister took me to Outback for dinner, and while I was waiting for her family to get there, one of my other sisters showed up and bought me a yummy cocktail. One just can't go out and not have cocktails.
and finally ....
6) I got my cell phone paid off.
See that picture up top? That's Carlota. She's my girl. Santa brought her to me when I was 3. We have a little toyland set up for Christmas. I'm going to have start knitting some new clothes for Ms. Carlota. Speaking of knitting. I finished my sisters hat. Well, almost. I still have to tie off the top and weave in the ends. If you look, you can see the yarn coming from my bag up to the top of my head. I tried to position it in the back, but apparently I wasn't too successful. I'm also making progress on the hand warmers for my nephew. I hope to finish those tonight, but I'm really tired. Well, Law and Order is on (surprise, surprise) so I have to go watch it. Adios: )-

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Finally! Photo Heavy Post!!

Okay, so maybe I still don't have this photo thing totally worked out, but I'm getting better. After I woke up this morning, I pretty much just sat around the house and tormented my mom. Above is some evidence. I was so tired this monring, I jusr didn't feel like doing anything. Yesterday was Midnight Madness in Ellicot City, so I had to work much, much later than usual. I also had a great big quiz early in the morning, so I was particularly sleepy and not too hot on the concept of working an 11 hour shift. After I got home, I basically just went to bed. I had to do an online quiz on early and late onset disorders tonight before midnight, so I had been planning on doing a ton of reading for that, but I was just too tired. That left all my reading for today, so after I was done terrorizing my mom, I started in. At some point I took a break and did a little Christmas shopping at Target. All the stuff I got for my niece has to be returned, but I was too busy to go back this evening. After I took my quiz, I cleaned the pig cages and let them play in the basement for awhile. Here's Angel admiring the housecleaning I did and thinking about what a freak of nature I seem to be.
I was able to finally get some knitting photos taken care of. Well, I guess I should say that was able to finish some things, and then find a way to photograph them. Here's me looking somewhat zomie-ish. It's Saturday, give me a break. I'm trying to show the stripes, but not doing too good of a job.
I also got some more yarn for my stash the other day at work. It's some Brown Sheep in a new color called prarie fire It will become a Samus (from the fall knitty). I didn't want to buy more yarn, but I couldn't resist it's rusty red goodness. Besides, I've been working really hard on my Christmas gifts and I'm going to have a lot of time in January to knit for myself.
Oh yeah, and I may have mentioned that I finished my nephews hat/scarf. I'm still working on the fingerless gloves, but they'll be done shortly. Here's a weirdo shot of me trying to work the camera properly, and then one that's a better view of the knitting, rather than a close up of my face and crazy-eyes.

Well, my phone is ringing off the hook and I'm sure it's my mom calling for me to come rescue her from my grandpas house. It started snowing about 2 hours ago and she drove herself down there and can't get back. Gotta love her.....

Monday, November 28, 2005

Been awhile

Here I am, the one who obsessively sits here checking and rechecking my daily reads, becoming flustered when people fail to continually keep blogging and blogging.....and I've gone and waited God knows how many days without posting a single thing. I think I'm just peeved that I can't upload any new pic's. A lot's been going on. The semester is almost over, Christmas is quickly coming....busy, busy. busy. I'm going nutty with my Christmas knitting/crafting. I'm full of the holiday spirit this year. It's enlightening, yet a little buggy because I just want to sit around making gifts, decorating, and baking yummy Christmas cookies and rum balls.
Even though these bits are pretty meaningless without photos, I have about two repeats left on my dad's scarf, got one of my sisters scarves started, and finally finished the cuff on one of my cousins socks. Also, I scored some excellent Kureyon for one of my other sisters gifts. I'm sooooo envious. I can't wait until After Christmas so I can start working more on stuff for myself. It makes me confident in my gifts though when I desperately want them for myself.
On a sad note, my Aunt Janice died this evening. She's been sick for a long, long time, but it still came unexpectedly. I guess she had a heart attack and died pretty quickly/quietly. It's sad, but at least she's not suffering anymore. The quality of her life was very poor.
Okay, I'm off to knit a few more rows before I hit the sack. Adios!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Harry Potter and some new loot

Today I got to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was good, but they cut SO much out of the movie. The parts they included were very much like I would expect from reading. I enjoyed it. Also, I love Lucius Malfoy. He will be mine. The only snag that I have to get around is the fact that he doesn't really exist. Additionally, I have decided that I also love Vincent D'onofrio on Law and Order Criminal Intent. Again I face the same difficulties of being enamoured with a ficticious character.
One thing I learned in the movie is that I have spent so, so long painstakingly knitting a now outdated scarf. Hogwarts has entirely new garb. What's the deal with that? My original hypothesis that maybe there's a new carf for older students was rejected. Now I think that the boys over at Warner Bros. just want to make a few extra bucks on new item sales. They must be on to something b/c I went straight from the theater to work and bought some stuff to make a second scarf in the new pattern. Yes, I am repulsively dorky.
It was also decided last night that I will be knitting my dad an Army scarf and hat for Christmas. I picked up some gold Pastaza at work, but there was no black. I went on a hunt after work and still no black pastaza. I believe now that they don't actually make black shade. Their "black" is actually like a dark charcoal with some white bits coming off. Not what I'm going for. I settled for some Lang something or another that's an alpaca/wool blend. It's quite nice and I think it'll work well. Plus, I'll score extra points for more interesting animal fibers tied into one project. I think I may throw some grey on the , too, so I'll have to pick up some of that Sunday when I go into work. Oh! I also got a new Berroco pattern bok and the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Noro book 2. It's pretty nifty. I have some plans for my winter break now.
Tomorrow is my sister and dads birthday party. I volunteered to make the cake, for which I purchased that Betty Crocker multiple layer cake pan thing. I'm make chcolate and yellow cake layer, with chocolate mousse filling. I made the mousse tonight and I'm a little worried that I won't have enough.If not, IO can make more tomorrow.
I'm so tired now and I have a big day tomorrow so I have to get some sleep.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

The worst movie ever!!!!!

I had a very pleasant surprise today. I woke up from my nap, still totally tired, and got a message that my night class was cancelled for tonight. I went to Micheals to check if they had any of the new cashmere blend yarn, which they didn't, and have just been hanging around the house. All was well until I stumbled upon a Scooby Doo movie on HBO. There was nothing else on, and I hadn't seen this one (I don't know if it's 1 or 2) so I just left it. It has GOT to be the worst movie ever, ever, ever made. It has to be. The fact that anything worse could exist.....well, I don't even want to go there.
I'm still working on my one skein wonder. I had to wind a new hank and it was in like three or four pieces. That's a pain. I think I have about 12 more rows to knit, then I can start on the arms. I want to make long sleeves on this one. If I was more responsible, I would work on some Christmas gifts. However, I have enough responsibility on my plate at the moment, so I'm going to continue doing something for myself.
I'm still so tired. I have a lot of work to do tonight, though. On top of what I had already, I saw that I'm supposed to be doing an online quiz tonight. I thought it wasn't being put up until Thursday. Oh well. At least I know what my plans are.My arms are tired from winding and I have to go change this crappy tv station. At least SVU comes on tonight: )
Also, my phone is off, which means that my camera is out of action, too. I'll have pictures up as soon as I pay my phone bill.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Owie

I think I may have seriously messed up my foot: ( I don't know what happened, but I could hardly walk this morning. It still is killing me.
This afternoon I woke up way, way late. Clearly, considering I say afternoon. I went and got my Dyson, then vaccumed (sp) my whole house. I love my Dyson....SO MUCH. They couldn't fix the steam cleaner, so we have to buy a new one.
In the evening, I took my mom and grandpa to a play. We saw the Violet Hpur, and it was pretty good, but a little strange. They're doing all sorts of construction around the theater enterance, so I had to park quite far away. He was really pissed about that and I felt terrible for him. They should really tell people when they buy the tickets that you have to take a half mile hike to get into the building. They even knew he was handicapped b/c we had to make seating arrangements and get a hearing aid.
I did very little knitting today. I guess I'm about halfway through my one skein wonder. Tomorroew I have to teach a learn to knit calss at 9am. I need to get some sleep. I have a bad feeling that the womans not going to show. I'm pretty screwed if she doesn't.