Harlot

You might recognize this lady.



Mom and I went up to Lyndhurst, OH (suburb of Cleveland) today to hear her speak and get the new book. It was sooooo much fun and she is a really funny speaker. Look at everyone else who thought so, too.







When Mom and I got to the Joseph-Beth bookstore, almost all of the seats were already occupied. I had Mom grab a copy of the book and purchase it before they ran out. (The store had 90 some copies and those were gone before the talk even began at 2pm. I think the store was slightly surprised no matter what they say.) I ended up sitting on the floor along side the seats where they wanted people to line up for signing after the talk. I sat next to a woman who was working on a Forest Canopy Shawl. She and her friend were very nice and complimented my shawl to no end so they were my new best friends :)

The sock had its picture taken.



Steph gave a funny speech warning knitters of the dangers of CHOKE. She had some really funny comments that made me wish I could write faster or have a great memory. The question and answer section was really funny because it was "off the cuff" and spontaneous.

My seating location ended up being absolutely great because I was 4th or 5th in line for signing.



Here are some other people waiting in line for their books to be signed.



I got my picture taken with the sock and Steph. We both agreed that I was nuts to be making knee highs in black yarn.



The bookstore's cafe area had some special Yarn Harlot drinks. Click on the picture for a closer look.



All in all a very fun day :)

In addition, this morning the chiropractor was able to fit in an appointment for me before leaving for Cleveland. My back suddenly had shooting pains in it on Wednesday while I was sitting at work. It felt like someone was had stuck a dagger in my shoulder blade and was ripping it down slowly. The chiropractor said it was caused by a knot pinching a nerve just like what happens to my dad. (Thanks Dad for passing on those characteristics!) My back popped soooo much when the doctor adjusted it. It was kind of disconcerting. He said to keep an eye on it and regular adjustments should make the pain not come back. In hindsight, sitting in a car all day probably undid all of the good work he had done on it. Hmmm, oh, well. I need to get back into doing yoga more reguarly. It always helps my posture and back strength.

OH! And look what I got in the mail from Andi . . .



New sock yarn from Austria. Yummy Austermann Step :) I seriously think my sock yarn stash has now exceeded my ability to knit it up during my lifetime. ;)

The only downside to the day was not getting an email that I was expecting. Don't you hate when that happens? Me with the overactive imagination is now imagining all of the things which could have happened to prevent that. Some of the situations are more plausible than others but that doesn't seem to stop me. *Sigh*

Finished

Hanging out,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

Look what I finished! This shawl has to be the fastest FO I've done in a long time. I didn't have to keep the pattern with me which was very nice. The color reminds me so much of the new green leaves of spring.

I'm still working on the various socks. Maybe this FO will give me incentive to get them done!


In other news, I got the educational leave from work for my study abroad! It is so exciting! Now I don't have to worry about having to find a job when I get back from England. I'm going to be on cloud 9 the rest of the day! (Can you tell that I am excited by the number of exclamation points I am using?) :)

Springtime!

I love that in spring everything seems dead one second then suddenly, in the next, it springs to life! The grass is bright green, the sun has finally decided to appear, birds are singing, etc. etc. :) Here are some pictures of the flowers around right now.





In honor of spring and new life, I've started another couple of projects. Well, one is a re-start. I wanted to finish up the Mohair Forest Canopy Shawl that I was making a while ago but had run out of yarn before making the border. There was no way to get more yarn since I bought it off DeStash and it originally came from Italy. My only option was to rip back a pattern repeat making the shawl a little bit smaller but with enough yarn to finish it. Anyone who has ripped out mohair can tell you what a nightmare it is. So this project languished in my knitting basket since (I just had to look it up) the end of November (!). Well, yesterday, I ripped back then started knitting the last couple of rows. To my surprise, working with so many lace sock and lace shawl patterns recently has completely changed my lace technique (for the better, I assure you). The added border would have looked soooooo different that it would not have worked. So I made a drastic decision; rip it all out and start again. That was not fun at all but yesterday and today I have been knitting with a vengence and am far along with the shawl version 2.0.







I've also been working on a test pattern for a lady from the Socknitters group. She needed testers and I am a sucker for toe-up, cable/lace patterns. I am using up the darker of my two Kool-aid dyed skeins.



I am also still working on the Sodera socks just not as hard as I once was. :( The black yarn, while looking sexy, is hellish to work with when you drop a stitch or are working in poorly lit areas. I'm getting close to the end, though.




Everyone is feeling the excitement of spring. Yesterday, the horses all broke out and ran down the road. The owner of the barn had to go and gather them up. It isn't bad when one gets out because he or she hangs around the barn with the others. When everyone gets out, however, it is time to go wandering! Houdinis!

Södera

Södera,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

I just got more yarn so I can keep working on them! Have I said that I love this lace pattern?

Oops

I am working on the Sodera lace knee high socks right now. I LOVE the lace design because it is so easy to memorize and looks great! The pattern is a little difficult to take a picture of because it is in black yarn. They are going to be very nice ;) I still need to decide between a black, red or green satin ribbon for the top of the socks. Leaning black right now but the red would be striking . . . .

The only problem that I am having with these socks is that I will definitely not have enough yarn to make knee highs. Oops, guess I should have looked at the ball band to see the yardage of the skein. So I'll need to stop by Kim's to get more black on Wednesday when I work another short day.

I'll post a picture of them a little later.

Dublin Bay socks

Dublin Bay socks,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

Finished these this morning. I love the purple colour!

I cast them on 3/8 but didn't work on them till this weekend. For some reason, they just seemed to fly off the needles once I seriously started working on them! I used the Dublin Bay lace pattern for them but tweaked it a little. I didn't feel like making a cuff-down sock so turned it into a toe-up instead. It probably made the lace pattern slant a different direction but I am happy how it turned out. The pattern was really easy.

See the little bit of yarn to the right of the socks? Yeah, that is all that I have left. Another reason to do toe-up socks; Koigu doesn't have a whole lot of yarn per skein.

Next up: Sodera :) I can't wait to get started on these lace knee-highs! Mainly, because after I finish them, I will start working on the Clessidra knee-highs.

!!!!!

I got into the study abroad program for which I applied! I am going to be doing a graduate level class in London for a couple of weeks during July. The class is worth 6 credit hours which hopefully will transfer entirely to my MLIS program. If it does, I only need to have 2 more classes then I would be done! I can't wait to go travelling again!

6 weird things

This meme has done the rounds of the blogosphere many times over. I've been thinking of it for a while and finally came up with 6 weird things about me. (Note: I am sure there are more but am not aware of them!)

1. Whenever I eat snacks like M&Ms, chips, jelly beans, etc, I have to eat an even number of them. If I grab an uneven number, I will bite the odd one in half so it is even. This applies to colours, too. I like having even numbers of the same colour and will bite the odd ones in half, too. I know this sounds a little OCD.

2. I forget I am holding things and will drop whatever I am holding. I've dropped more cups than I can count which is especially annoying in bars. It also makes picnics or potlucks interesting. When I pick black raspberries in the summer, I have to make sure I don't drop the carton with the berries. All of that work for nothing!

3. I get the colors orange and yellow confused. Now, I am not colorblind. I know the difference between the two. No, when I see the color orange I will say "yellow." I might be thinking "orange" but will say "yellow." This only happens once in a while with yellow but almost always happens with orange.

4. I can't stand the noise from electronics. The noise of computers and TVs (when the sound is off) drives me crazy.

5. Horroscopes are my guilty pleasure. I probably read 4 or 5 a day. (Yeah, I have too much free time at work.)

6. (This last weird thing was really hard because I kept thinking of things and then forgetting them. I know I thought of the perfect one but can I remember what it was? Of course not! So you are going to get this lame one and, if I can remember, it will get changed.) I can't stand messy tables at restaurants. I will basically bus my own table during the meal. You know, stacking all of the finished plates and utensils together. Wiping up condensation from the glasses or any spilled liquid. That kind of thing.

I'm sure no one else can think of any weird things about me! *Snort of laughter*

A play within a play

Do you ever feel like you have a conversation within a conversation but are not sure if that conversation is really happening or if it is just in your head? And you definitely can't ask the other person because it might be all in your head and they will look at you like you are nuts. Frustrating.

PS Socks finished

I finally Kitchnered the sock heels together and weaved in the ends! They've only been finished for 2 weeks!



Here is a closer look at the afterthought heel.



On to the yarn store to add to my sock stash!

Drooooooool

The new issue of Knitty is out (yea!) and I so want to make this pair of socks! Love, thy name is Clessidra. <3

So what have I been up to recently? Frogging, tweaking a pattern, casting on, frogging again, casting on again (all on the same project) and with a little bit of knitting thrown in there, too. I'm working on the Grecian Plait spring sweater also from Knitty (waaaaay too many nice patterns!). I finished this sweater a number of months ago but never sewed it together because I hate finishing up projects and weaving in ends. Secretly, I think I realized that there is no way that I would have fit into the size of sweater that I had made. See, I did do a gauge swatch but apparently I have no idea what size I am.

Anyway, I decided to make that sweater again because it is grey (perfect for Project Spectrum), I want a cute sweater for spring, and I really did like the look of the pattern. Well, sort of. You see, it still had that pesky problem of sewing the back, front and sleeves together. So I decided to re-write the pattern so that I could do it on a circular needle and have no side seams. This might work well in theory and not so much in real life. We'll have to wait and see.

So I frogged the first attempt and wound the yarn back into balls. Then I cast on and knitted a couple of rows. Unfortunately, at this point, I started to actually look at what I was making and decided that the plaits weren't loose enough. (The plaits are formed by, on one row, bringing one stitch over another and knitting that then the other stitch and, on the second row, knitting with a needle twice as big as the other. Now, this would be a problem with a circular needle except that I have the KnitPicks Options set so I keep switching out the needles. I love that set.) So I decided to go up to a 9 instead of an 8 with the bigger needle. Hopefully that will make a difference. Long story short, I frogged what I had made the second time and cast on again. It is like deja vu all over the place.

Oh, and of course I am working on a pair of socks though they have been put aside for my pattern tweaking. I'm using the purple Koigu yarn that I got a little while ago. Though, my goal is to get a couple of WIPs done before I start anything new for a while (ha! Yeah, right!).

Sheldon completed

Sheldon, hats and booties,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

He was finished during the baby shower (oops) but all of the people there were fascinated with my knitting so they didn't really notice my procrastination! There was a definite green and yellow theme to the baby shower because the mom- and dad-to-be don't want to know the sex of the baby. Sheldon will fit in well with the other turtle gifts like a little onesy with turtles and a blanket with turtles on it.

The weekend was definitely a whirl of activity: Ohio to Maryland to Pennsylvania. I worked on Friday, jumped in the car and drove to the airport. I got all checked in (with an hour to spare before take-off) and went to the gate. The plane took off a little behind schedule. I had planned to carry-on all of my stuff since it was only a weekend trip. The plane, however, was completely full so I had to check my backpack at the gate.

I met up with Donnie easily then we picked up his friend, Laura, who is very nice. We hung around his appartment for a little while trying to figure out where to eat. Emily came from Frederick and we all went to dinner. We walked from Donnie's place to a restaurant then to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar. That was sooooo much fun. The piano players were talented, lewd and hilarious. They were really, really talented and knew so many different songs. Those guys must make hundreds in tips each night.

We ended up staying in the bar till last call. I have to say, I was really glad there was a group of us and we had a tall guy with us. All of the bars were pouring out people at the same time. We walked Laura home and were finally in bed around 3 am.

Morning person that I am, I was completely awake by 8. (Definitely regretted only 5 hours of sleep later that day.) Emily went home and Donnie and I wandered the Inner Harbor area. I got a greasy fry-up of fries, fish and crab cakes for lunch (yummy). It was such a beautiful day with the sun shining, blue sky and warm temperature. I was wandering around with a light jacket on!

Later that afternoon, Donnie dropped me off at the train station and I made my way to Philadelphia. The train was delayed an hour and a half because the train was having signal problems and the driver couldn't go the normal speed and needed to be talked through the switches so we wouldn't crash into another train. Poor Amy had to wait for me at the train station while all of this was going on.

Originally, the plan was to meet up with Amy, drop my bags off at my cousins' house because I was staying there and then go out to dinner with Amy. With the delayed train, plans changed. My cousins (and aunt and mother) were going out to dinner so we couldn't drop my stuff off at their place. So I had Mom leave an extra key at the hotel where she and Aunt Judy were staying. Then Amy and I went to eat at a Thai place.

I had a lot of fun catching up with her. Email helps you keep in contact but in-person interaction is so much better. The food was great. We went to a pastry place after dinner. Best chocolate cake EVER! I was sooo full.

Amy took me back to the hotel where we said goodbye. My cousin-in-law dropped off my mom and aunt at about the same time so he drove me to his house. All in all things went pretty smoothly.

The baby shower was fun. The decorations turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. The cousin my age and the mama-to-be's friends did a great job. All of us who were around got drafted into helping (not that that was a burden!) and it made the morning fly!

Later that evening, I took a taxi to the train station, took the train to the airport, and got checked in approximately an hour before the plane was supposed to depart. That seems to be a trend. The plane, however, was delayed 30 minutes. I ended up getting home around 11.30 and was very ready for bed! Whew, I need a vacation from my weekend!

My first bowl in a long time

My first bowl in a long time,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

Look what I have been working on recently. I haven't thrown pottery since first semester of senior year (little more than 2 years ago). It is really funny how quickly my hands forgot how to center a pot. A high school friend has a wheel and kiln in her parents house. Because she is in TX, I'm able to use them to practive my pottery skils.

The family's cat and dog are very "helpful." The cat wanted something the other day and, because I didn't give it to her immediately, put her tail around this pot while it was still wet. So the other side of it has a kitty tail imprint and she was covered in white clay. The dog is so grateful to have someone pay attention to her. :)

I've been knitting frantically for the baby shower. I have finished the pair of booties but haven't seamed them together yet. That is a project for later today or on the plane tonight. Sheldon has come to a bit of a standstill. This is what happens when I get new sock yarn! I get distracted from the other projects! I'll post some pictures soon.

Off to Baltimore tonight then taking a train to Philadelphia on Saturday. It will be really nice to see my friends and family this weekend.