Spring?!

Guess what I woke up to this morning! That's right, snow.









Crazy, huh? By the time I took these pictures, it was already melting. An hour later most of it had dropped off the trees and flowers. I hope the poor lilacs will recover! The tomato looked a little shell-shocked.

In other picture news, I finally took a picture of my finished Forest Canopy Shawl that I made from a skein of Copper Penny from Earthly Hues. It reminds me so much of fall leaves.


I've been playing with the drop spindle recently. On the Lime and Violet Ravelry group, there has been a movement to spin up some of that fiber you have been intimidated by or that you think is just too pretty to use. This is some CJ Kopec 100% merino in Cowgirl Chic.

I started spinning it up at the Equine Affair (basically a really big teaching clinic for horses and riders) a couple of weekends ago. I've been getting better and better with it. Having spun on a spinning wheel made it much easier to use a drop spindle. It has been a challenge learning how to spin merino and use a drop spindle but it has definitely been fun.

Next is a pair of linen handtowels from the Mason-Dixon Knitting pattern. These were good mindless knitting projects. The first one took me a little more than a week to make. The second one, however, only took a weekend. It was the project I took to work on during my 2 day workshop. It made the time go much faster :)


I noticed something funny when I was packing for the overnight stay. Even though it was only a 2 day thing, I had 3 different projects with me. One project was the handtowel. Another is a shawl in the final stages of knitting on the border (after having to rip back a few rows because I ran out of yarn 6 inches before the border was finished. Not that I'm bitter or anything). The third was another shawl not even started yet, only yarn and a pattern.

I was rummaging around my stash trying to figure out what the third project could be in case I somehow miraculously got through the other 2 projects. I came across some sock yarn mom had bought when she was on vacation. It is Regia silk, a silk/merino blend. I love the yarn but I didn't really want to make socks out of it. Instead, I decided to make the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits (hurry, they have their 5 most popular patterns for free until May 14th!). The pattern calls for a laceweight so my shawl is definitely going to be bigger.



It has been a really fast knit. I started it on Sunday and am already close to being finished. There are just 2 charts to go. Unfortunately, somehow, my accident prone self hit the back of my hand on something yesterday evening. Within seconds there was a lump, bruising and lots of pain. It was kind of hard to drive home from work yesterday. I definitely didn't knit last night. Today, I have a lovely bruise, a bump and less pain than before. Fun times. Darn accident prone self.

Meltdown

So this week is not going to be fun. All of my practicum stuff is due on Thursday (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!), I have my first book club meeting on Thursday night but I don't think anyone is going to show up nor have I re-read the book (The Devil Wears Prada), I have a 2 day workshop the next morning which will require me to wake up around 5 am and drive 3 hours in order to get there, I should have gotten a parking pass for it but I didn't, I should have rented a room for Friday night but I haven't, I have a 1 page book review to write for the workshop, also have to put together a 3 minute booktalk for the second day of the workshop, oh, yeah, also need to read the textbook and a novella (An Uncommon Reader) before the first day (have already read the Uncommon Reader and loved it and have skimmed through the textbook but that was almost a year ago), and, on top of all of that, I have to do the "fun" assignment for my stupid class which is 21 in-depth (aka really hard and involved) questions as well as participating in the online discussions regularly. So I'm thinking of hiding in a hole with my knitting, curled in the fetal position . . . .

I'll post again after this week is over! Might even have pictures of the various projects I've been working on.

random

So taking a typing speed test while having a head cold and being on cold medication isn't really the best plan. . . .

61 words

Speedtest

Tax season hatred

I HATE, HATE, HATE taxes. They are the bane of the public library staff. They are EVIL. And this tax stimulus package is even more EVIL. It makes this tax season worse than normal because people who don't normally file are coming in with no idea what they are supposed to do or what they need. Don't get me wrong, every tax season is bad because people always come in with no idea what form they should fill out. (How do you get to be in your 40s and have no idea what form you should pick up?!) But this one appears to be even worse than normal. You could not pay me enough to work for the IRS right now. I can't wait until tax season is over. I was discussing with my boss whether or not it would be worse to be an accountant right now. She pointed out that accountants can at least choose how many clients they can handle (and who they choose to be a client). The library gets everyone else (and usually the confused ones). Tomorrow should be "fun."

Best in Show

**ETA: Did you know about flickrSLiDR? The flickr badge just wasn't working out well because something with the coding for the javascript version (the one that acts like a slideshow) wasn't written correctly so it wouldn't post. FlickrSLiDR, however, let me embed the entire set as a slideshow. Enjoy!

The edible book festival I made that VERY red cake happened last Tuesday. This flickr badge has all of the pictures I took there.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Doesn't it look like a lot of fun? The best part was winning Best in Show for my Mount Vesuvius cake. The liquid jello, lemon juice and baking soda worked perfectly and lava flowed all over the place! Though it did make the cake rather lemon-y . . .