No End In Sight.

I realized late yesterday morning that if I want to wear the green shawl to a wedding on Saturday, I better get cracking.

So, Harry's been on the sidelines for the last 24 hours and I've been knitting like the wind.



Here's a close up of the beads I'm doing instead of nupps.

I have one more repeat of chart b, then on to 2 or 3 of chart c, then the bind off. If I don't eat, shower, sleep or pay any attention to my family, I just might make it.

It's a beautiful pattern. But I can say with all honesty that I'll never make it again. I still haven't gotten completely relaxed with the repeats, so I'm constantly having to count stitches, look back and forth between the pattern and knitting, and even with doing that, I'm still making mistakes. It's all just so time consuming.

*I swear if I don't get one compliment on this damn thing on Saturday night, I'm giving it to the first person who asks for it.*

All Good Things...

I'm starting HP tonight.

Think she'll still continue to write and create??

Stashing Like It's Nobody's Business.

I got my Ravelry work cut out for me. I'm not the only one either. A few of the Weds. Night Stitch N Bitch girls came over while Hubs and The Boy were out of town. Our main objectives were to sit, knit, talk, eat and laugh. All of those things happened and we also had a yarn exchange. When I asked if the others wanted to do it, I thought they'd bring maybe 5 skeins of yarn each. Since downsizing into the fiber closet, I really didn't have much to give away. Others, however, had plenty. Everyone so generously gave away ball after ball of beautiful yarn, knowing they would be going to a loving home. One brought a stack of books to give away. One brought a wooden spindle and roving. One brought knitting bags and handmade totes no longer needed. I'm in awe of how generous everyone was. It was sweet.

This is the only photo I took, but if I find more I'll post them. My living room was wall to wall fiber. It was heaven! This represents maybe a quarter of what was traded.
Introducing...my haul.

Yeah, that's alot, and not even all of it. (I get a little giddy just writing that, never mind turning around and looking at it sitting on the desk behind me. It blows me away, how awesome people can be.)

And look, I'm still knitting. Almost to chart b! I have one more repeat, then I can start it. I lengthened the shawl a bit. The yarn I'm using is thinner and I want it to wrap me up like a big woolysilky Zephyr hug.

The Frog Theme Continues.

Frogged the Spring Things Shawl last night. Ribbit, ribbit.

I have no idea why I can't do this.

I was just starting to groove along with the pattern. I was feeling confident that my pattern repeat brain fart had been a short lived issue and then I found a mistake about 19 rows back. I couldn't live with it. Ugh.

I tore it apart, placed the yarn, needles and pattern in a ziplock bag and shoved it into the closet.

What's next?

Brooklyn Tweed Makes Me Want To Barf.*

Is there anything that kid can't do?? Yeah, scroll down and see his spindle spun yarn. Hello?? No one should be *that* good. No one.

I swear in my next life I'm going to marry a fabu photographer that makes me (and my hand knits) look like a million bucks. Plus, I'm going to pick beautiful yarns and colors to go along with the perfect patterns. Then, it's going to take me less than a week to complete anything I pick up.

How does that sound?


(*I'm fully aware of my extreme jealously of his talent. I'm a faithful reader and lover of his blog and I'm just kidding. Please don't send me hate mail.)

It's Not That Easy Being Green.

Sometimes my knitting wants to give me a hard time. This shawl is an example of that. I had issues with unnoticed mistakes and then last night with the stitch count not working.

I have everything square now, but I still can't seem to get a good flow with this shawl. It seems like it should be such an easy pattern, and eventually I think it will be. But now, right now....I'd rather be taking a nap.

Hmmm.

Clue 3 Done!

Last night, while watching my beloved NY Yankees come back to win the game in the bottom of the 10th inning, I finished clue 3.


I haven't been blogging much, things have been busy and I really haven't had anything interesting to say.

I have, however, started a new shawl, which I hope to have done by August 4th. Now if I could just get past row 12.

Spring Things Shawl pattern.

For Stepherz

AAhhh, preggie feet photos. Not for the faint of heart.


1.***NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!***

2. Stepherz showed her preggie feet from one year ago, mine is from 20 months ago. And no, I'm not pregnant.

3. They tell ya that you are going to get big ankles- maybe. No one warns you about the swelling so bad that you can't put on pants or shoes, no matter what size you buy.

4. Again, not pregnant now or anytime soon.

Picnic!

My best friend Tanya is back in the states after spending 7 months or so overseas in Japan. She and her husband are coming over this afternoon and of course, things have snowballed into a picnic for 13 or 14 people. Yikes.

No knitting, still dealing with the head cold, and The Boy is sick too.

July 12th Bullets

• Today is my 4th wedding anniversary.
• My mom and her boyfriend are going to be here in 3 hours so that Hubs and I can have dinner like adults, in a restaurant without the word "friend" or the letters "lies" in the name.
• My house, like always, is trashed.
• I woke up with a sore throat and a headache at 3 am this morning.
• I still have both.
• The last thing I want to do is go to a fancy-pants dinner.
• What I want to do is go back to bed.
• But I'm putting on my big girl panties, my make up, my nice clothes...going to my anniversary dinner, sickness and all.

Spinning Blah's

My wheel has been collecting dust for a month. It's sad. I have no idea what to do. I can't spin when The Boy is up and I'm too tired to spin at night.

I need some guidance and the spinning guild near me only meets once a month.

I have no idea why I'm moaning and groaning about this....it just sucks that I don't have enough time in my day to do more things. And it sucks that I don't have a super experienced spinning teacher who's willing to come and teach me spinning and keep me on track.

Spinning blahs suck.

Finished Clue 2

I finished clue 2. I'm happy about it. And I'm positive that it's not an 8 legged yucky crawly thing.

I started to watch Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine this morning. It's disturbing. The images shown in the movie will haunt me. I don't understand those who say we have a right to carry arms and protect our homes, dressed up like camo-nuts.

We all know the American society is violent and disturbing. Watching them shoot up stuff in the woods won't make me sleep better at night.

I have no idea what the answer is. I stopped watching the movie after about an hour and a half. Maybe shutting off the tv once in a while is the beginning.

I started baby knitting:

Oh how I love baby sleeves!

I'm considering making a second Mystery Stole 3. I have black cotton yarn and red beads.

I also have plenty of other knitting on the needles though. Some people have startitis, I have A.D.D.

I'm Feeling A Little Sick.

I started clue two of MS3. I also get the daily digests- literally hundreds of posts in neat increments of 25. It makes it easier to skim and read what I want- from who I want.

Anyways, there's been guesses as to what the mystery stole theme would be. Some have been clever, some from left field. One has me shaking.

A spider.

Who the hell wants to make a shawl with a spider on it?? Never mind that, but who would want to wear it??

Please, someone, reassure me that it's not a spider!!!

Ew.

I have to go shower now.

Rhinebeck?? Yep, I'm Doin' It, Too.

Hubs might divorce me when he sees the date, but I got my hotel room for the Sat. night in Oct. for NY Sheep and Wool.

Yipeee!

Who else is going?

Make That 3, No, Wait...4.

Four babies due in the coming 6 months or so! Eek! I love babies!!!

I found out last week that I'm going to be an auntie again. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's a surprise (again, ugh, so was the first one) and I can just see my brother in a few years hating life. He has no job, no money, not married....things are rough and it's only going to get worse. He has such a dreamer's view of the world.

Besides that, my cousin is due in a month and a half. It's a surprise (again...see the pattern here?) and the baby daddy isn't even in the picture for both of her kids.

I'm going to make them something, I started my cousin's baby sweater yesterday. Her firstborn daughter still carries around the baby blanket I made for her a couple of years ago.

My friend Jenn is due in a few months. She has no idea what she's having, but I'm excited for her and her husband.

Robin, one of the New Haven SnB members, is due in a few months also. She's such a trooper, with strength that blows me away. She will be an awesome mommy, I just know it. And since mommy is a knitter, I can't, no, won't even use acryllic. lol

And Mr. Squirrel is out of the basement and running around our backyard. Atleast, I think that's him. There hasn't been any noise coming from the basement since yesterday morning...so either that's him or there'll be a funky smell eventually.

I'm Bad At Keeping Secrets.

Usually I can't keep a secret* to save my life. I'm awful. My friends all know this, and sometimes use it to their advantage. Sometimes they will tell me something, with the intention of me telling everyone.

Not in this case though.

Sachi, my beloved Northwest US friend, told me a secret a month ago. And as of today, I can let that secret out. (I didn't tell any of my blog or knit friends, I swear. I did tell Hubs though. I know, I know. I had to tell someone!)

This is Sachi's secret.

Go buy stuff. And if you ever need to buy me something, do it there.


*I have no problem keeping confidential things confidential. I can keep certain secrets- but none that involve good things, such as getting married or having a baby or starting a small business. So if you ever are in any of those situations and need someone to keep quiet about it, don't talk to me. Ok?


And as a side note. There's a squirrel in my basement and that *freaks* me out.

Mystery Stole 3 Has Commenced!

This is the first official photo of Mystery Stole 3. It's beautiful!

And here's where I'm up to:

It's the middle of chart B.

And look what we found! Remember when The Boy hid my size 9 Denise Interchangable?

Found it! More like, I found him walking around the house with it in his grubby little hands. I've spent the last 2 weeks searching my house for this damn thing, lol.