Vacation plans

Yesterday marked Dan’s first day of vacation, so good on that. we’ve been taking it real easy – getting ready for our little trip out to Hershey, PA tomorrow. Jackson is already at the breeder’s for his vacation as well. I’ve got to start thinking about packing – it’s maybe a 5 hour road trip… we’re only staying for 3 days so I’m not worried about clothes – it’s the knitting! Do I bring the socks? hats? hope-and-donald scarf? Something completely different? Do I bring 1 project? What if I get bored? Do I bring more projects? Still need to think it over.

Thursday was supposed to be “hat day” – I was going to work on a pixie hat using bulky yarn from my stash, a second baby hat and a chemo hat for my gram. Well, I didn’t wind the yarn for gram’s hat because I’m not sure about the color. I didn’t start the second baby hat because I didn’t print out all the pages of the pattern. And I didn’t read the pattern / yarn label carefully on the pixie hat and ran short on the yardage (pattern called for 80 yards. my skein had 35 yards. groan). So it was kind of a bust, but I pushed onward and dug out the berrypatch pattern (I printed out in 2004!). I have gotten through the crust brim, and am about ready to start on the filling, but the pattern is somewhat confusing to me. I started to sift through it and then got distracted by putting the knitting all over the dog. He is such a good sport.

“King Jackson”

“Good Sport Sorta-Sunflower”

“Dachshund knitting”

I’m a knitting celebrity!

There’s a real post coming, but can I just say how cool it is to be mentioned on LimeNViolet?! Especially when you have a knitting friend here and I just finished telling her that I sent Violet a birthday card… and then Miss V herself mentions it! And Alcariel was in the podcast too and also gave me a shoutout as she was my kick-ass magic yarn ball swap pal.

We immediately spooked the dog shouting to Dan to come in here to listen as well.

That really just made my day! 🙂

New Yarns!

Last week (thursday) I ordered from theloopyewe and yesterday (monday) my order was here! Amazing service 🙂 I got two skeins of yarns I have not yet tried out- Seacoast and Duet Sock Yarn – gorgeous!

Today I met Dan for lunch at Panera – yummy! He found a heart shaped chip in his bag – pretty cool –

then I went to check out a new LYS, Madison Wool – at first glance inside it’s a small shop. Very small. More like what I remember Yarns Down Under looked like before they expanded. Michelle (the owner) is very nice and chatty and quite welcoming! She showed me all kinds of neat stuff – she carries things that you can’t get at saybrook yarn, so that’s cool – for variety. She says that it looks like Wednesdays will be knitting “group” but I’m welcome anytime to come in and knit 🙂 Awesome! She has an assortment of ggh – not the too frizzy / funky yarn – but stuff you’d want to knit with! There was also Cascade, Sheep Shop (gorgeous!), Lobster Pot, and a few more I decided to sample:

I got 4 skeins of a great grey-green organic merino / organic cotton blend from o-wool – thinking about a baby sweater / hat set….


The pictures do not do them justice! Each of these are from Blackberry-ridge – there was a simple seed stitch scarf in the shop that was just beautiful! I’m thinking that or one of the multidirectional scarves or argosy or whatever else I can find on ravelry would be awesome!
Great shop – I look forward to potential wednesdays and more shopping!

Tomorrow I’m going up to the hospital to wait with my mom while my dad has his series of procedures done. I think I’ll take the “Hope & Donald” scarf with me – they are his parents, so it’s a way for them to be there too… And maybe one more project just to break it up, I have no idea how long of a day it will be.

Now it’s quiet

It’s been a busy weekend here. After the fun adventures of waiting in traffic on Friday and going to the ultrasound appointment (by the way – we didn’t find out the sex of the baby. We’re having a baby!) we went out to a great restaurant – Cafe Goodfellas – so delicious! Scarface was playing while we were there – i want to watch Goodfellas now! On saturday we got the garden started (marigolds, carrots, garden beans, sunflowers, zinnia, poppies) and then had company over.

Today we finished the garden (already started tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, and planted seeds for cucumbers, cosmos, marigolds, corn, nasturtium) and I’m pooped. Kinda feel like working on the sock, but I don’t know how much more I can push my fingers 🙂

In my blog-reading, I’ve come across a great site: 5 Minutes for Mom – they’ve got some great prizes coming up to win… It may be a little early for some of the items, but an ice cream maker? Dude! I’m already in love with my sno-cone machine.

Sock Progress

I started my Go with the Flow Socks – so far they seem to be moving along well, I think I’m only going to do 15 repeats on the leg, not the 20 in the pattern. I am really enjoying working with the Reynolds Soft Sea Wool too.

As far as my other work-in-project (aka I’m so crafty I make people! great stuff!) we sat in 2 hours of traffic today on the way to the ultrasound appointment – for nothing! I didn’t see any emergency road work being done. Sheesh. Anyway this is cool:

Doesn’t this little foot need a sock? or booties? 🙂

29 and doing fine

Having a birthday is a pretty good way to start off a vacation (or retirement, however you want to look at it). Yesterday I turned 29, which I’m still trying to wrap my brain around – I don’t feel 29, I don’t look 29 (so I hear), but I’m okay with being 29 so I suppose that’s all that counts. I spent the day getting a whole lot of peace and quiet – I played with my yarn, read a bit, knit a bit, watched some dumb tv shows, did whatever I wanted when I wanted, went out for sushi (only veggie rolls for me) and then for ice cream. A very good birthday indeed. And I have the best husband ever – he and Betsy tried to plan a surprise visit for me, but life happens and she couldn’t make it – next time! He also surprised me with presents:

T-shirt from noisebot.com – feels so soft!

Drop spindle kit from Flawful Fibers on etsy!!! eeeeeeee!! I’m so excited! he was a bit annoyed with me for buying that other one on monday – I truly forgot I sent him the link to etsy and it was a total impulse buy!! I’m hoping to try it out today….

I’ve started my sock for Summer of Socks – I’m using Reynolds Sea Wool that I bought on Monday (love this yarn BTW) and I *think* it’s the “Go with the Flow” socks from the Favorite Socks book (I don’t have the book in front of me to confirm that) – I’ve got the cuff done and I’m starting on the leg. After lunch I’m thinking I’ll pop in a Muppet Movie dvd and keep at it.

I am excited to start a new pair of socks (even though I do still have to finish Dan’s socks…) because I finally finished my Sock Madness pair!! That only took several months. They were hibernating. Oh well. They were my first pair with a short row heel and I think I liked the making of that sort of heel, but fit wise I like the heel flap. I put them on this morning for photo ops and then forgot to take them off – very comfy!

School’s Out Forever!

Oof, and what a day. I don’t know why kids think that just because it’s the last day of school means they can do whatever they want. Oh wait – that’s what they did all year, why should they bother to show a bit of respect today? Ugh. But it’s done! And I’m done!! And I wasn’t told off (or hit!) they are all bark, no bite. Let the relaxing and knitting begin!!

I went to The Yarn Barn to treat myself – the end of school / my career there and it’s almost my birthday.

I decided to try out some Soft Sea Wool – in the “Dark Pink” colorway – I think it looks like a Kool-Aid color. I also picked up a skein of Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton in a natural color to make a baby bolero from the One Skein book. And I splurged to get myself a skein of Lobster Pot Yarn in Salt Rose to make maybe a hat for me – I’ve lusted after that for a while now.

I also decided to open up a new addiction for myself this summer (along with learning crochet, embroidery, cooking, photography and getting ready for baby.) Louet’s Drop Spindle Kit – oh baby!


There’s a beautiful navy, aqua / teal, and copper fibers inside…

That’s all positive. There is negative though:

Those kids and their nonstop talking during the movie and then my having to look up and redirect them to stop talking. Somehow I missed the cast on for the next square – so my scarf went from 5 squares across to 4 squares across. Not a huge deal, but if this is going to be a potential Christmas gift, I want it perfect. I was only 6 repeats in (out of 26) so I will frog it and start over. I’ve got the time.

Projects!

I’m so excited – I decided on a project, worked on it (and pretty much only it) and it was done before the due date: Father’s Day – even though I won’t see my dad until the end of the week. I made him the Knitpicks Bow Tie

I used Cygnet Wool Rich Four Ply yarn that I got from a swap – Color is “Denim Mix (2137) – used less than one skein. It was an easy pattern once you got going on it, but man – using those US1s messed with me after a while. I tried to tie it myself following online directions but couldn’t get it to work, so I’ll leave that to Dad and hopefully I’ll get a picture with him in the tie. He prides himself on being able to tie a bow-tie. I’m excited for this somewhat goofy project as I haven’t knit anything for him yet. I think he’ll get a kick out of it.

Friday (the almost last day of school) Dan and I went into NY to see my brother perfom at the pit – very cool. They had the audience write down a word for a later improv thing and of course I wrote “knitting”. Of the two papers my brother pulled, one of the two was mine. The other was “Banana Hammock” – so, after acknowledging that he pulled the paper his sister wrote he made a joke about getting a knitted banana hammock for Christmas. (anyone know of a pattern? that would be funny). **Edit to add: I googled “Knit banana hammock” and one of the first things that came up was the thong from knitty HAH!)

I didn’t want to bring in the US1s on the train, so I cast on for Argosy – I think it will be a potential Christmas present – if I can part with it – it’s a great pattern and works up seemingly quick!

Valuable Lessons

It’s the next-to-last day of school. Things have been somewhat calm / low key, the kids are on their loud volumes, but at this point, who cares?

I cast on for Argosy last night – needed a new project for knitting on the train this afternoon. I brought it in to school with me and knit a little bit while the kids played games.

Then I taught them Asshole obviously, the non-drinking version, and we called it “Loser” but the basic ideas were there. Someday they’ll learn how its really played and perhaps they’ll think of me.

NOOOO!

The last week of school is already hard enough. I’ve had two kids go on and on about how they can not wait for the last day to tell me off. Then I heard about hitting a teacher. When I told them it was a felony they wanted to know how much jail time it resulted in, because “They young and have the rest of they life” UGH. And then, because apparently my school can’t do math in, oh, the start of the year, we get this memo today:
“Please be advised that Monday, June 18, 2007 will be a school day (half day). The state requires that we have 180 instructional days and we are short one day. There is no reason why we cannot make Monday our last day here. We just need to work hard Thursday and Friday afternoon to ensure all work gets done, everything gets filed and all materials are properly stored for the break.”

I’m hopeful that not many kids will show, but given their parents and how they wouldn’t want to be bored at home, we’ll probably have a full house.

Insert big ol Lucy face here. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I need some vitameatavegamin.