Pizza, pink and pony

Mom just called to say someone is selling Cherry Tree Hill yarn at a yard sale so all you get today is pictures!

Cell phones

Why do they always ring when you step away from them for one second? Or when you drive through a dead spot, you get the call you've been waiting for since morning? Grrr.

Having fun with TOFUtsies and Anastasia socks. Pictures later. (I've decided that I love the yarn even though it smells like seaweed and is splitty. Also pattern is a little fiddly with two socks on two circs so I am going to have to do one at a time. Disappointing)

I'm going to Home Depot/Lowes to pick up some potting soil, pots, and plants. Wish me luck. Like before, pictures will follow.

Pirates, grog and seaweed, oh, my!

Our summer reading theme is the sea this year but really it has evolved into pirates.

I created this reading map for the theme. And this is my pirate name. Arrrr.

My pirate name is:

Mad Anne Flint

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

part of the fidius.org network

yarn and sock p0rn

I am weak . . . Look at what I brought home yesterday!

I was at a library conference in Columbus yesterday and was planning to meet up with E after it finished. Well, that meant I had 2 whole hours to kill. So where did I go? To a Yarn Shop, of course! One of the two Yarn Shop locations is near (ish) where I was so I went there to knit for a while. Well, the sock yarn selection called me over and I found this wonderful stuff.

I've asked the Socknitters, Project Spectrum Flickr group, and Socktoberfest Flickr group members for pattern suggestions. I am thinking something with a fairly simple flower or leaf pattern. I know both groups will have a ton of suggestions! The color of the yarn is perfect for the Project Spectrum colors this month. I just love it.

Look! Pictures of a project finished weeks and weeks ago!

Sexy ;)

And a project I finished yesterday! A baby hat made out of the Kool-aid yarn I dyed months ago.

The colors ended up pooling a little unexpectedly. Who knew it would group itself into dark and light sections?

I hope the new momma and baby enjoy this hat!

Project Pologomy

I'm on the back of the Ballet Camisole. It's been a fun knit so far. If I work on it tomorrow, I should be done very soon. This picture doesn't capture the colors well. The one from last week was much better.

I haven't worked on the Black and White socks at all this week. Oops. I'll get back to that soon.

A friend from library school just had a baby so I started on a little baby hat for her new daughter, Annie. If I hadn't left the WIP at the barn a couple of days ago, I would have been finished with it in no time. That is the nice thing about baby stuff, there isn't much to make!

Overheard in New York

Overheardinnewyork.com won the humour category of the Bloggies last year. For those of you who don't know, the Bloggies are like the Oscars for blogs. I just discovered it on Friday and immediately signed up for its RSS feed. This was one of today's posts:

College guy #1: Okay, we need to go to the grocery store.
College guy #2: But that's so boring! How am I going to update my Facebook status? Drew* is shopping for groceries? That is so lame!
College guy #1: Dude, you really can't live your life based on an imagined Facebook profile status. It's just not healthy.

--116th & Broadway

:) Be warned if you don't like cursing, this blog does include a lot because it is snatches of conversation heard on the street.

The solution to my problem

I'm working on my black and white socks while attending the Web 2.0 workshop. I love it when professors let me knit during lectures. It helps me get so much done :)

I'm almost ready to start on the heel. I think I am going to do a Sherman Heel on this pair. The Naga socks used this type of heel and it was a lot of fun to do. The heels will be white like the toes.

My problem with these socks is, because I am putting an intarsia design on the leg, I need to work the design flat instead of in the round. This is a problem because I would be forced to have a seam down the back of the leg. Now, remember that I hate weaving in ends? Well, I hate seaming stuff together even more. But I really wanted to do this design (yes, I do know that intarsia will result in me weaving in lots of ends). Wasn't satisfied with it but willing to overlook the sewing because the finished product will be awesome.

I went to The Knitters Mercantile yesterday between the end of the workshop and meeting up with E. I started talking with another knitter about my conundrum about the leg of these socks. We talked about picking up stitches on both sides then doing a three needle bind-off, sewing the sides together, etc etc. Then she hit on the perfect solution. Her suggestion was to just make eyelets, weave a ribbon up the back, and that is how the sock will be held together! Genius. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

I'm not going to show you the design fully until it is finished. You will have to guess what it is from partial pictures in the next couple of days. A little challenge for you :)

Ballet Camisole

Ballet Camisole beginning,
originally uploaded by bookworm knitting.

Andi asked what color the Ballet Camisole is. Ask and ye shall receive! I don't have the ball band for this yarn on hand so I can't tell you what kind of cotton it is. I'll look that it up later.* I am hoping this time I have a better grasp of measuring.

*OK, found the ball band. It is Tweedy Cotton Classic, color # 466. The yarn is made up of 4 or 5 strands each of a different color (greens, blue, purple, yellow). I really like the way the colors come together.

Size does matter

Apparently, I have no idea how to measure myself for sweaters/tank tops/other tops anymore. I started on the Ballet Camisole the other day and was trucking along quite nicely. Until, that is, I realized it would fit someone twice as big as me quite comfortably. Oops. Time to frog.

I love the color of the cotton yarn for it. But, damn, this stuff is splitty. I have to keep a little bit of my attention on it at all times. At least the pattern is knitted in the round (<3) so I won't have to be seaming it up later. I'll post a picture once I get another couple of rounds finished.

Naga socks

I've finished!

There is something about the backs (and sleeves) of sweaters and the ribbing at the top of socks that seem to take forever to finish. I just kept knitting and knitting but it took eternity to reach 2 inches!

I really liked the pattern on these socks. The scales are fun to watch develop and cables along the leg are just fun. (Of course, to me, cables are crack.) For some reason, I couldn't wrap my head around the pattern until I reached the repeats on the legs. I should emphasize that the pattern on the foot and the pattern on the legs are the SAME. (The only difference is that the stitches are arranged a little differently so that the leg just has a cable running up the side.) Throughout the foot repeats, I had to keep the pattern with me to keep glancing at it to make sure I was doing the pattern right. Didn't need to do that on the leg. Guess it was some sort of weird mental block.


I should have picked another color for the pattern, though. Four colors had too much going on to see the scale patterns. I might have the perfect color for another pair of these. We'll have to see. That yarn might want to become something else.

I'm planning on gifting this pair. I have to show them off today and then they are in the mail!
"Carolyn: oh, like cinderella, i get lucky because i have small feet
Carolyn: except, instead of a prince, i get socks"

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

Call me a web 2.0 dork. I have a workshop for my MLIS this weekend about web 2.0 and what it means for libraries. One of the library blogs on my Bloglines list mentioned this video and it is definitely worth watching.

Feeling guilty again

He is really good at making me feel guilty for riding. Yesterday afternoon, Java was sleeping out in the pasture when I went out to go riding. We didn't do anything too intensive. It was nice to stretch our legs. Today, I didn't ride because the weather was crap. Rainy, cold and possibility of snow (again!).

I'm still working on the Naga socks. I am going to make the leg 6 pattern repeats which is the same number of repeats as the foot. They are going a little slowly because working on the 0s are hurting my hands/arms so I need to keep taking breaks.

I cast on for another pair of socks yesterday.
Sock knitting machine, that's me. I'm going to use up the Cherry Tree Hill black yarn with this pair. The toes, heels and design on the leg are going to be Cherry Tree Hill white yarn and the rest of the sock is black. These socks are being worked on 1s (they looked lonely without socks on them so obviously I needed to cast on another pair). It is amazing the difference between the size 0s and 1s. My hands/arms don't hurt working with the 1s for hours on end but a little while on the 0s and they hurt like hell.

I made the white toes at The Needling Yarn yesterday and started working on the black during a movie last night. (How to see if someone is worth keeping around: not one disparaging comment about my knitting and a complete understanding that I can't sit still for more than 5 minutes without doing something.) I definitely had to work by feel and not by sight with the black in a dark theatre. The movie was really good. It was a story about the bogus autobiography of Howard Hughes written by Clifford Irving. He completely made up correspondence between him and Hughes. It kind of reminded me of Catch Me If You Can crossed with the book, Dutch, an autobiography about Regean that the author made up sources and people in Regean's life. I like intelligent and yet funny movies.

Snake socks

I got the Gras socks packed up to this morning and stopped by the post office on my way to work. It makes me feel so accomplished! I just hope my friend likes them.

I'm finally getting back to the Naga socks designed by Abigail. I've been a bad test knitter because I started them a while ago but got distracted. I'm almost finshed with the foot and am ready to start the heel soon. I've never done a Sherman Heel before so this is a learning experience for me. I really like the look of the pattern but am having some misgivings that the Kool-aid yarn might not be the right yarn for it. The colors might be too busy for the pattern. Perhaps if I just had a dark purple and neon green (grape and lemon-lime), it would look better. Oh, well. We'll have to see what Abigail thinks.

After I finish the Naga socks, I am going to start on another pair of socks for a friend. This one will be using up the rest of the black yarn from the S&ouml;dera socks and some white. I think I will make the toes, heels and design on the leg in white with the rest of it in black.

I seem to be on a sock roll recently. It doesn't help whenever I go to a yarn shop, I usually pick up a skein.

I went into Kim's on Friday to show off the S&ouml;dera socks. She had just got in a test sample of TOFUtsies so I am going to work it up and tell her what I think about it. The colors are beautiful greens and blues. It reminds me of the perfect summer colors! I think I'll make a mini sock out of it. That shouldn't take much time to make.There has been a lot of talk about this yarn on the Yahoo Socknitters list recently.

On Saturday, I ran around Columbus like an idiot running errands from one end of town to another as well as going to a couple of yarn shops. People have raved about the Knitters Mercantile and now I completely understand why. The shop had a great selection and the people were really nice. They had a table in the back for classes and a seating area in the front of the store. I wore my S&ouml;dera socks because I thought I might visit yarn shops and wanted to show off. One lady noticed them and, from then on, kept telling people about them :) I felt very flattered. I bought a skein of scarlet and grey sock yarn for Dad. We'll see when I get around to that. It was dyed by a woman in Utica, OH which is in my county. They had a lot of her hand-dyed fingering weight yarn as well as Lorna's Laces, Opal and other sock yarns that I didn't actually write the name down (darn it! I even had a small notebook with me!).

I also stopped in Temptations in Dublin. (For some reason I can't find their website right now.) The store was kind of like a maze of yarn in the various rooms of an old house. Nooks and crannies everywhere. They had lots of different yarns but not a ton of sock yarn. They did have some tofu yarn so I picked up a skein of pink.

Yup, am definitely working on the sock yarn stash exceeding my life expectancy.

In every wood and every spring there is a different green

For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood and every spring there is a different green.

LOTR, Bilbo's song

That is probably one of my all-time favourite quotes and describes my world view quite well. To me it says, there is always something new out there so I am going to go see it.

What does this have to do with anything, you might ask? Well, I finished the pair of Gras socks that I was working on for my friend's birthday. This is the second pair of Austermann Step socks I have made and the love affair has not cooled. I love working with the stuff! Anyway, the color of these socks really is truly reminiscent of grass because it is not one shade of green. It varies from bright green to an almost brownish-grey-green with little flecks of brownish red in it.

When you glance out at the grass, you might just see one color but, if you look closely, there is so much more going on than at first glance. Metaphor for life? Eh, too highbrow for me. ;)

Fun with PayPal

Oh, dear. Teasecatalog.com takes PayPal . . . .

So I lied

I will actually get a picture of my Sodera socks posted sometime soon. I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics after work today to find elastic to keep the socks up (darn you cotton! *shaking fist*) and to buy ribbon. I couldn't choose between the black and red so I ended up buying both colors. Too bad they didn't sell the size I needed by the yard so now I have 2 full spools of it. I am sure I will find a use for them sometime.

I did find elastic but not the kind I expected. I thought I would have to get black elastic because, duh, the socks are black. They did not, however, carry black elastic in 3/8." At first glance they didn't seem to have any 3/8" at all! But then, what should I see in the upper right-hand corner of the elastic section? Why, it is clear elastic in 3/8". That is right, clear! So now I will be able to use it for another pair of knee highs I made a while ago (pre-blog time). I wasn't even aware they made clear elastic. I just hope it has similar qualities to the normal kind of elastic like being stretchy. Small detail with elastic.

I cast on another pair of socks today but these are going to be simple, simple, simple. It will just be my plain vanilla, toe-up sock recipe. I am making them for a friend and, luckily, she has the same shoe size as me. That means I don't have to be crafty and weasle her foot measurements out of her without making her suspicious. They are being made in Austermann Step, Gras. I love the greens! Luckily, I had the foresight (foresight! I know! Who am I and what did I do with Anne?) to have Andi buy 2 skeins of it. One pair for me and one pair for my friend. My love affair with this yarn continues. The toes of the socks are already done and I have an inch knitted on the foot. Socks from this yarn just fly off the needles. Guess it helps that it is plain knitting all the way.

I really do need to get back to the test knitting pattern. I do like it but I think my brain needs a break.

instructables

I just found this site this morning (thank you library blogs) and have totally become addicted to it. Click on this link to see a totally awesome way to use those old encyclopedia sets.

instructables : A bookshelf made of encyclopedias! YAY!

Searching through this site is going to be fun!

Almost finished!

I am sooooo close to being finished with the Södera socks. I am currently working the row where the ribbon is run through. The next step is working 1 inch in 2x2 ribbing and then binding off! I've woven in ends as I went or did Russian joins so I won't have much finishing left to do. Definitely not going to be doing a project in all black anytime soon! It is enough to drive you batty and/or blind. I'll post pictures of the finished products tomorrow though I still need to find ribbon.

I would have been done with these sooner but I decided on Friday to rip out 2-2.5 inches because my first set of increases were wonky. True, other people might not have seen their horrible wonkiness but I would and it would ruin the socks for me. I spent almost all of the car ride to and from Cleveland, the waiting time, and during the Yarn Harlot's speech working on the socks. The next sock is going to have to be something mindless that I can whip out in a couple of days.

Tonight, I'm meeting up with some friends from high school most of whom I haven't seen since we graduated 6 (!) years ago. One girl is visiting from Vermont but the other two live in the Columbus area. I guess we are just lazy/ over committed with other activities. It should be a fun evening and definitely outside of the normal scheme of things. I'm house-sitting this week so I would have probably spent my evening zoned out in front of their cable knitting. Instead, I'm tempted to knit at the bar and see what kind of strange looks I would get ;)

Some guys really know how to make you feel bad . . .

. . . for waking them up.




When I got out to the barn this afternoon, I found Java asleep in the sun. He was making little grunts which I took to be his version of snoring. It made me really feel bad for waking him up and making him go to work.



Capone decided to get into the action, too. Though he combined lying down with eating. How lazy!



Sam decided he wanted to roll instead of sleep. Lace ignored all of them (and me) and kept eating.

Time to get up!

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.

Distractions

I've been very bad with my knitting these past couple of days. I keep starting projects and putting them down to pick up another. Sheldon's shell is halfway done and the PS socks are starting to be pretty far along. It would be a good thing, however, if I actually did complete one project (preferably Sheldon as the baby shower is next weekend!).

I tried to run errands yesterday on my day off. "Tried" is the key word here. Here is a little rundown of my day.

1) Wanted to go riding. The icy snow nixed that idea.

2) Wanted to find new glasses frames and was actually able to find some slightly cat's eye frames but, sadly, without the rhinestones. They are from Wal-mart so at least I was able to save some money. Also learned, if I supply my own frames, they can put the lenses in. Hmm, vintage stores, here I come!

3) Make the foot on the one pot I have thrown. (Did I mention that I was re-learning how to throw pots? It is amazing how much my hands forgot in two years.) Actually accomplished this!

4) Do two errands for Mom in Columbus: dropping off a rug to be cleaned and dropping off her computer to be fixed. Accomplished the rug but couldn't make an appointment for the computer. Also had a difficult time fiding the Apple store at Easton. Easton and I just don't mix.

5) Go around to the yarn shops in the Columbus area. Didn't get to any of them. Not one. None! I only had time to get the rug dropped off before it closed much less going to any of the stores.

6) Meet friend for dinner. Definitely accomplished :) We got sushi and later went out for tea. Played checkers in the coffee shop using coins and jewelry. I had just bought some dangly clip earrings so I had plenty of pieces. The night was a lot of fun. I like not having to explain history dork jokes.

An extra task which I decided to add to my list was getting my hair cut. It was a totally spur of the moment thing. I was getting frustrated by the hair and its lack of doing anything fun. The hairstylist was snipping and cutting a whole lot more than I expected but I love the result! I am glad I left it up to him. The haircut, however, is what made me get nothing done. I ended up leaving the Heath area around 3.30 instead of 12ish. Little bit of a difference.

OK, off to knit. I feel like socks . . . .

Yarn p0rn

Got this lovely Koigu in the mail yesterday from Knit, Purl in Oregon. The purple is much more purple in person. I had gotten one skein (don't know what I was thinking only getting one!) of the dark multi-color when I was in NYC. The dye lot of this new one will not be the same, of course, but it is close enough. The pink is to help me finish up the Valentine's day socks. I can't wait to finish them but other projects call first. Namely, Sheldon.



I am just now working on his shell and need to attach the legs. The body was a very fast knit though I have heard other people that he is a fiddly knit. We shall see. I need to get Sheldon finished before the baby shower the weekend following this one.

This is what I was up to today. . . .



Sewing together squares for the Warm Up America! blanket. One of the women who came to the last program brought 55 squares this time. That is right, 55! She is amazing. All of them are exactly 7x9 inches and such even stitches. Thanks to her, we easily have 2 blankets and maybe even 3. :)

OK, back to Sheldon!

Socks and scales

Got this yesterday.


(stupid Blogger http://www.flickr.com/photos/bookwormknitting/394178478/)

I measured a couple of skeins this morning including a few that I had divided by hand. One of those, I was only an ounce off between the two balls. Of course, I counted each and every time that I wrapped the yarn around the back of the chair. This should make it so much easier.

Here is a current picture of the PS socks.


(again, stupid Blogger http://www.flickr.com/photos/bookwormknitting/394178472/)

OK, now I am getting off the internet and actually going to work!

Happy New Year (sort of)

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the Golden Pig, by the way. Yea, pigs!



I've definitely had a full day today, surprisingly. My friend was acting in a play this afternoon which included all-you-can-eat dining at the 7th annual Soul Fool Festival. I had no preconceptions before going into the church (the play was held in a church) and didn't know what to expect for the food. Frankly, for a small-town, non-religious girl, it was a bit of a culture shock. The people were all really nice, though. They play was funny, especially the one woman who stole the show with her dry, witty comments. She had a great sense of timing.

All of the food was fabulous and included a number of ingredients which I had never had before including rabbit (yes, Thumper bit the dust) and cow (?) small intestines which I also had later in the night. The first time I had no idea what the intestine dish was until I was told the second time that I had had it earlier in the day. (Does that make sense? It is way past my bedtime so I am worried that it might not.)

I had gotten there sometime around 1.30 and the play ended around 5.45-6. A couple of my friend's friends also came so we all went out for coffee to waste the time until 7.30 when we all were going to dinner at an authentic Chinese place. It was fun to sit around and talk there (at the coffee place).

The Chinese place was a lot of fun. There were 10 of us total. The food was cooked in the middle of the table in front of us. One cauldron-like pot had the spicy liquid and the other was mild. I started out with the spicy but then went for the mild. The food ranged from fish dumplings to shrimp with the creepy heads still attached (:P) to lamb and beef to more small intenstines to tofu to leafy vegetables. I've never had food prepared like that and it was so much fun! The variety was amazing to me. The camraderie around the table with everyone reaching over and around each other for the food was cool. You make a connection with a stranger when you share food like that.

Right now, though, I am very happy that I switched to the mild sauce. I have a tendency to get migranes which can be affected by the foods that I eat. Slight headache but I think it could have been worse if I had continued with the hot stuff.

I was definitely the first one to stop eating. Still full from lunch much less the wonderful variety of Chinese foods. American Chinese food had nothing on this stuff! I really liked learning about the food from the people there. All of this stuff I never knew.

After every single food item (including the seconds or was that thirds? brought from the kitchen) was consumed, we did kareoke. Haven't done that since a pub in England. It was a lot of fun sitting around, talking with everyone and looking through the song books.

I hope I made a good impression on the people there. I can be horribly shy around people I haven't met before. Guess it is a good thing to be working with the public. It is making me come out of my shell.

The people there at dinner kept assuming my friend was my boyfriend. Hmmmm. FOM or PFOM, anyone?

OK, after all of that rambling babbling, I am going to go to bed!

P.S. I knit all the way through the play. Am working on the PS socks which are featuring an afterthought heel. It is a simple stockinette stitch to show off the pattern so it is a really fast knit. I am beyond where the waste yarn for the heel is place and am off and running. W00t.

March of the Librarians

YouTube - March of the Librarians

Hahahahaha! This is march of the penguins in a whole new light!