I should go back and see how many times I’ve started a post with “I’ve been slack.” This one may take the cake, though – it’s been nearly 5 months since I’ve bothered to blog. Part of this is the problem of it building – not only do I post on the blog, but I put pictures in the gallery, and list projects on Ravelry. One or two are not a big deal, but once you’ve gone a month or more, it gets to be daunting and you put it off – and off – and next thing you know, it’s the end of January.

So here’s a post that’s mostly pictures – but you’ll get the idea.

September:

Mark goes bald – all in one day. Actually, it was for a really good cause – he had his head shaved for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which raises money for children’s cancer research. In the end he raised $690, and spent several weeks being mistaken for Mr. Clean.

Also in September, Mom’s cousin Dori was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. They held a benefit to raise money for her treatment and for her family. I made lace scarves out of Noro Kureyon and Silk Garden.

The bottom one was actually one of Mom’s Christmas presents, but this is the only picture I got of it.

In September we also took a family trip to the beach (with the MINI club), and celebrated Shea’s 18^th birthday. Sniffle, sniffle is all I have to say about that. During our trip, I worked on a pair of socks for a sweet lady (Donna) in the MINI club. These are my first pair out of Berroco Sox, and I must say I loved it.

I also knitted some boot socks for OtherMom, who along with Dad has recently moved to the NC mountains, where they actually get snow. These Cherry Tree Hill DK socks should fit the bill quite nicely.

I finished the socks to go with my orange sweaters – Lorna’s Laces Gold Hill was the winner, and it was the Sockapalooza 4 pattern (I think – don’t quote me on that).

At some point in September, I also started the Mystery Stole 4. More about that later.

October:

October is mostly a blur. The MINI club took a trip to an alpaca farm (gotta love it when you can combine interests!). I came very close to kidnapping this sweet girl and bringing her home with me.

Sometime in there I finished up Mark’s Gentleman’s Fancy Socks, made with a Trekking Pro Natura. Another great yarn – washes up beautifully.

Somewhere in October I got tickled by the top of my washer and dryer on laundry day – now that there are 2.5 wool sock addicts in the house, we’re running out of drying space!

November:

November was busy, full of play practice, mountain trip, and a new roof.

Of this roof, I can say four things:  it was time, it was expensive, it made for a very noisy 2 days at home, and it was worth every penny.  We had weeks of driving rains in December, and my kitchen would have been a disaster.

And I can’t forget to mention frantic knitting for birthdays and Christmas:

Mark’s Happy Feet Footies – knitted during our trip to Fontana – it was a slightly rainy, cool weekend, but the leaves were still beautiful.

At some point I finished up the Mystery Stole, which by now had decided that it’s fate was to go live with Grandma – I knew she would love it. Yarn is Malabrigo in color Molly (I think), with 1000+ beads hand-knitted into it.

As anticipated, Grandma flipped over the stole!

I knitted socks for Mom and Lee for Christmas:

Great Adirondack Silky Sock – pattern is Mockery

Happy Feet – basic ribbed pattern (in size 13!)

I made fingerless mitts for Sarah’s birthday:

(thanks to Jennifer for modeling) – Sweet Georgia Speed Demon, Berry Hill pattern (and enough yarn left over to make a pair for me!)

and socks for my sister for her birthday:

2×2 ribbed socks, Mama E’s C*Eye*Ber Fiber color English Roses

December:

December came and went in a flash – we had Mom and Lee in for Minnesota – visiting for Hayley’s play and my birthday, and the rest of the family here for the play and for birthdays. Hayley had a principle role as the Minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress. The play was phenomenal, and H had a great time, and did a fabulous job. If you haven’t seen the play, the Minstrel and Jester are the main narrators, with several parts of the narration sung. Here she is with the Jester:

In mid-December we got the sad news that Dori had passed away.  She was young, with pre-teen and teenaged children, and it was a sad loss.

By the 3^rd week in December, the big girls were home for college, and we had Christmas break. It was busier than usual, and definitely noisier than usual, but we had lots of fun. Holly was “bored” – nothing to study, and her computer was broken, and she needed something to do, so she asked if she could knit something. I said sure, and we found some yarn, and she knit a 7-foot striped and ribbed scarf in 3 days. There was enough yarn left, and she made a ribbed beanie.

Then she needed another project. I took the girls to the yarn store, always an expensive thing to do. Shea picked out 4 gorgeous yarns for a scarf (I’m still waiting for her to send pics, as she took it back to college), Holly got yarn for a beret, and Hayley got yarn for a scarf and legwarmers. Here’s Holly’s beret:

It was much bigger to start with – too big and floppy, and we tried to hand felt it, with no luck. We decided to throw it in the wash machine and see what happened – and here it is. A bit smaller than planned, but really cute, and Holly loved the idea of felting. This was a common sight around our house during the month that Holly was here:

That still wasn’t enough – she ended up making another beret-type hat and another beanie before she left.

I made her a school colors scarf, and a pair of socks (of which I apparently didn’t get a picture):

The “M” is for her school name.

I finished up a pair of socks for me in Sweet Georgia Boheme – the pattern is Simplicity from the new Eclectic Sole book.

I got an awesome Christmas gift from my husband – a beautiful sweater chest for the end of our bed, made by a good friend of ours.

I made a sweet pair of booties for Zoe, my new niece-to-be, due in June. Her mom and dad refuse to dress her in pink, so I figured green was cute, and thought it would be fun to give them a baby present WAY in advance.

January:

Just before the end of Break, the girls went to see my sister for a photo shoot. Brenna is an awesome photographer, and she shot well over 100 pics of them. These are some of my favorites:

We are so blessed!

It’s now January 20^th, Inauguration Day. I had taken the day as a personal day, as it was a teacher workday – it would have been ½ a day of meetings, then I would have left for a doctor appointment. As it turned out, it snowed last night, the workday was cancelled, and my doctor’s office is closed. Of course, the roads are 98% fine, but that’s how it usually goes. Hayley was disappointed that we didn’t get as much snow as Shea did in Charlotte – they got 3-4” and campus was actually closed today.

One more thing before I go – many of you out there know Alison, designer and knitter extraordinaire, and one of the best people I know. She has been truly sick these last few weeks, beyond anything I can comprehend (if you want details, they’re on her blog), and I’m asking for your prayers for her. There’s a running joke in the comments on her blog that God must be getting really tired of hearing her name, there are so many people who love her and are praying for her. Alison – we love you, and hope that you recover soon!

With that said, I actually won a competition today during our Faculty Back-to-School Carnival. Faculty/staff only, no kids, with competitions like cornhole (I didn’t know what it was either – it’s apparently beanbag toss), knock-out, scooter races around the gym, racing rubber ducks down the waterfall (not enough water, they all got stuck multiple times), and more. This was a clever way to bring together nearly everyone in the school to actually do something fun, and it worked very well.

I had signed up for the rubber duck race only, figuring I’d save the more sports-like events for the, well, sportier. We had seen “chilling marbles” on the signup sheet, but no one seemed to know what it was. Once I saw it, I knew that I had found my sport. Back story – I have monkey toes. I pick up dropped things (see clumsy above) with my toes – why bend down? Mark has always called it lazy, but the girls do it too. So we went outside (in the rain) and saw a large washtub, filled with about 8″ of water and a few hundred marbles, surrounded by chairs. The object, of course, was to pick up as many marbles as you could with your toes in a minute. The first group of 8 played, and when time was up they had picked up anywhere from 9 to 27 marbles. Sarah and I knew we had to get in on this, so we pulled off our shoes and socks, rolled up our jeans, and had a seat. When we finished, I had a big pile, and while people hollered out “21″ and “25″, I was still counting (and proceeded to count the rest out loud) – until I reached 38. Yes, folks, I am the reigning Queen of Chilling Marbles. Even with my gimpy toes – I rule.

It took me only 38 years to find my sport – anyone up for a challenge?

These are not the worst of the search phrases – there are lots more that are too gross to mention. And this post probably just got me several more hits just like these. Yeesh.

As I was racing home from work yesterday (my first day back after 2 missed days, 1 for a migraine), still with a headache, I called the Queen and asked if it was crazy that I was coming up with an odd version of the 12 days of Christmas in my head, but mine went something like this:

4 days before the new employees come, and here’s what I have:

12 bio changes
11 pointless emails
10 pounds of paperwork
9 payroll questions
8 background checks
7 “no thanks” letters
6 want-ad phone calls
5 minutes to eat
4 new contracts
3 workers comp injuries
2 handbook changes
1 huge mound of paperwork

If only this was everything there was to do, I could maybe de-stress a little. I could also be stressing slightly about sending Shea off to college NEXT WEEK. Though creating the song helped – at least I got to giggle for a minute. That and an Icee saved the afternoon, and of course I got to go hang out with some of my knitting buddies last night (missed you Kim, Cindy, and Karly!).

Between this and the rest of my life, there hasn’t been much time for knitting. OK, well, I’ve been reading a lot, but only because Hayley dragged me into the Twilight series, and I couldn’t put it down until I’d read all 4 books! I’m going to give you the rest of this post in pictures.

For anyone thinking that the office was too “knitting-heavy”, I give you the new and improved version:

We now have the knitting/dragon/moose/MINI theme in full swing.

Including what I like to call the “Wall o’ MINIs”.

And the desk, with the pile of paperwork I brought home to work on today (yes, I’m posting when I should be working. I promise I’ll get it all done.)

Then there’s my cool new knitting bowl – our friend Jennifer has recently become a full-time potter. I told her that I’d heard this cool idea about a bowl to hold your yarn, with a slot to thread it through. She took the idea and ran, and look what she brought me on Saturday:

She wouldn’t let me pay her, since I had given her the idea, and she’s already sold a few. Instead, I asked what size shoes she wore (and she said “7, why?” before looking down at the sock I was knitting, then she said “Oh.”) After a quick try-on and a next-day finish to the 2nd sock, these became Jennifer’s socks:

I also recently made a cute pair for socks for a sweet new baby at work – Skylar Neveah. This yarn is Miss Babs in Watermelon, left over from Holly’s socks.

Unfinished knitting hanging out at the house:

Sock #1 in Mama’s Pajamas from Mama E

Artisokka Rose sweater in SWTC Bamboo – halfway through for the second time – first was too small.

Muscari socks in Lorna’s Laces – love these, but they are definitely not a car project.

Gentleman’s Fancy Socks for Mark – getting there!

All right, now that I’m feeling guilty for doing this instead of working, but slightly relieved for finally posting, I guess I should get back to work. Have a great week (or 2!).

Anyway, before she left, Hayley moved in to Holly’s old room, and we’re fixing up her old room as an office/yarn room. We can’t move the computer and its assorted stuff in there until we get the electricity upgraded in that room, but we can do just about everything else needed. The only thing really missing at this point is a comfy knitting chair for me, and we haven’t found one we can afford yet. Looking in through the door to “my” corner:

Notice that the swift and ballwinder have permanent homes, much to Mark’s chagrin. The unit the swift is on has wheels, so I can just roll it to where I need it.
The desk area:

We found this great desk at World Market – we wanted something really simple, yet elegant. Mark picked the curtains, and we chose the wall color based on that. Backwards, I know, but it worked for us. Here’s my little corner, sans chair:

Bookcase with knitting magazines and ballwinder, and a yarn-holding moose. The red pig was Mark’s choice – he found it when we bought the curtains and had to have it! Imagine a nice comfy chair right here – it will be my quiet getaway place.
And of course the closet:

I’ve been kind (OK, OCD) enough to label it for you so you can get the full effect. You never really know just how much yarn you have until you put it all into one place. I still have to move other craft stuff in there that has been stored in my room.

In other news, the Socks of Kindness are finally done. They weren’t hard, but the repetition kicked my butt for a while. Now that they’re finished, I absolutely love them, and hate that I dragged them out so long.

The yarn is from Mama E – Signs of Spring, I believe an exclusive KnitPicky colorway that I picked up back in March when Mama was here for the dyeing workshop.

Currently there are lots of boring socks on the needles – a brown one for Mark, a rainbow one for me (which may be frogged), one for me in Mama’s Pajamas (another Mama E exclusive), and my carry-around striped one. Oh, and another pair of cute baby socks for another new baby at school. I’m waiting for some yarn to come in from Turtlegirl – she was destashing and just happened to have some SWTC Bamboo in a colorway that The Queen sent me a ball of a few years back. I think that it’s going to become the Artisokka Rose sweater instead of the ArtFibers, which just doesn’t do the pattern justice. I know, poor ArtFibers yarn just can’t decide what it should be. I’m starting to contemplate Clapotis.

I’m off to go get ready to go get my girl – I’m so glad she’s coming home. It has been SOOOO quiet around here!

We (and I mean that in the royal sense) have graduated, or at least survived it. Holly’s family came in from Korea, did a whirlwind tour of Winston-Salem and Atlanta, and went back home, taking her with them. We’ll see her again at Christmas, but that’s a long time away! Before she left, I made sure she was appropriately knit-covered:

Fountain hat from Interweave Knits – pattern here. Yarn is some funky hand-dyed we found on Granville Island in Vancouver.

Basic socks in Online Summer yarn.

Also on hand is yarn for socks and a scarf and hat in Holly’s new school colors, sent by Mom with her graduation gift. Fortunately I have a few months to worry about that.

Hayley’s chorus teacher and his wife welcomed their first baby, Madeleine. We thought socks an appropriate gift (aren’t they always?), and the teachers at school just flipped over these:

My own pattern with a ruffled edge in leftover Lorna’s Laces in Happy Valley.

Sarah and I joined the girls from the Charlotte Purls and the Charlotte Knitting Guild for some fun on WWKIP Day in Charlotte. There were lots of knitters, knit shops, pizza, and even snow cones! And of course, door prizes. Sarah and I both got prizes for being the people who had driven the furthest to the event – I got the Little Box of Socks (I love it!) and Sarah got Stitch ‘n Bitch on CD.

Stacey gave me a hard time about my lazy-person chair, and the fact that my ball of yarn was conveniently resting in my drink holder:

We ran into the lovely and talented Jan Smiley again, and met Connie with the cool Columbine wheel.
I of course had to pose for pictures with Cristi and Stacey.

Before we headed for home, we made a quick detour to Charlotte Yarn, where we’ll just say we had a great time and found lots of stuff we loved!

Fast forward to last Thursday, when we left for Waynesboro, Virginia. Now Waynesboro is not really that exciting, but it is where the Blue Ridge Parkway officially starts. Mark and I, and about 30 of our MINI friends, met there to drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway this weekend. The Parkway itself is 469 miles, but driving to the top and home from the bottom added considerably, and we put about 1100 miles on the new MINI over the weekend. We made stops at key sites for photos, hiking, eating, and spending the night. We had a great time, though I was truly happy to be out of the car when we got home. I got teased a good bit about always having knitting in my hands, but I managed to finish about a sock and a half of this pair, along with bits of another pair, during the trip.
They’re officially known as Spring Forward socks, but I can’t stop referring to them as Sproingy socks. The twisty-turny pattern was perfect for the drive we were doing at the time. I did have to put down my knitting at a few points, this one in particular (this is a GPS photo – the pink is the road we’re on):

It does look pretty bad, but realize this – it’s down the side of a mountain. Down, the whole way. I held on pretty tightly, and Mark was ghostly white by the time we got to the end of it. It was worth it, though, for these gorgeous views.

We got a lot of strange looks when we were stopped anywhere as a group, and here’s why:

(We’re the front car on the right in both pictures.)

We had tried to visit a yarn shop in Staunton, Virginia, but they apparently had a staffing issue and were closed. There was a sign on the door stating this, and they gave a number to call in case of emergency. It took me a few minutes to decide that me being there probably wouldn’t qualify as an emergency, so we left. We did have a few extra minutes in Boone (9, to be exact), during which I popped into a cute little shop called Laura’s Yarn-Tastic. Since time was limited, I bought the only thing I knew I could buy without a pattern or yardage needed – sock yarn. They had just gotten in a great shipment of Miss Babs sock yarn (and chunky yarn – oh man – need more time!), so I found 3 that I loved, and we were out of there.

From top: Rainbow, Rock Wall, Rose Garden (got my 3 R’s for the day!)

So, that’s it – 5 weeks in review. I promise to try to do better, if there’s anyone out there still actually reading!

Our beach trip was great, though way too short. The drive down there pretty much did me in, so I was on the couch or in the rocking chair on the screened porch during our downtimes. It was great being there with 2 cars – on Saturday morning the girls took off to do what they wanted, and Mark and I took off on our own – wow! What a difference from our normal “dragging the kids around” vacations. This was the last big family trip before the big girls leave for college, and that made it just a little bit sad. We won’t be a family of 5 for much longer – suddenly it will be 3, something we haven’t had in almost 13 years! The girls spent most of the weekend running around taking crazy pictures (with my camera), so I didn’t really get to take too many. Here are some of the good ones:

On the way…

The ice cream shop in Calabash

Silliness on the beach

Silliness around town

As you can see from the pictures, they just didn’t have any fun at all! Now that we’ve taken Holly to both the mountains and the beach, we asked which was her favorite. Definitely the beach, she said. I’m not sure how 2 mountain-loving people have managed to have 3 beach-loving girls.

There was of course knitting at the beach. We even stopped at the one knit shop in town, Knitting Up a Storm. It was a nice shop, run by a very nice British lady. There was nothing there that I would consider particularly unusual, though she may have had every single color of every single line of Regia sock yarn in stock. I did come home with some Regia silk, some Happy Feet and Universal Pace sock yarn for Mark, and some gorgeous Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee sock yarn for me. I spent most of my weekend working on these – they are Artichoke socks in the gorgeous Pagewood Farms merino/bamboo blend (colorway Creamsicle) that Tricia sent me for Christmas. This yarn is so soft, squishy, and shiny, and I need more. Right now!

I also finished up some Tidal Waves in another Pagewood Farms merino/bamboo for Mom (for her birthday – these went to her along with the socks in the last post, which were for Mother’s Day). These came close to not going in the package – Hayley developed a strong love for them, and tried them on more than once!

Also, for OtherMom for Mother’s Day, I whipped out some Fixation footies in between coughing and fever spells (I believe they should earn double points for that!).

Finally, I managed yesterday (on a trip to have lunch with the MINI folks for the club’s third anniversary) to finish up the socks I worked on during Hayley’s softball games this season (they finished 1 and 8, but they had lots of fun!). She picked this yarn and loves them. I did make them a little long, since she’s growing faster than ever, and her feet just keep getting bigger.

The best part of working on these socks was the reaction of 2 kids (1st and 3rd grades) to my knitting and the yarn. They had never seen anyone knit. The little girl, in particular, wanted to know how it all worked, and Sarah and I patiently explained the different parts of the socks (Sarah was at the toe, and I was at the heel). The self-striping yarn, in particular, fascinated her, and she kept trying to guess which color was next. I let her pull the yarn out of the center of the ball until the next color change, so she could see it. I believe by the end of that game we had created 2 future knitters!

These last few weeks of school are always crazy, with every group having an end-of-year party. Add to that all of the graduation stuff, baccalaureate, etc., and Holly’s family coming into town, and it equates to large quantities of stress. I suppose I should go finish up the grocery list so we can have food this week. I’m desperately looking forward to a 3-day weekend next week, and praying that I will feel good so I can get some stuff done around here!

Due to our unusual staggered vacation this weekend, I spent last night at home all alone.  Mark and the girls are at the beach, and today Holly and I will join them.  Holly, however, didn’t want to miss her last day of school today, and had to be there at 7 a.m. – and since I wasn’t working today, I was not about to get up and take her.  I asked her to see if she could find a friend to spend the night with, and ride to school with this morning, and she did (and they say teenagers never do what you ask!).

After work yesterday, Sarah and I attended a self-defense seminar put on by one of the teacher’s husband, a tae kwon do master.  It was fun, funny, and man was it a workout!  My butt may never be the same.  Sarah then took me to pick up my car (oil change before the long drive), and I was on my way.  I stopped at the grocery store to pick up my favorite “alone” dinner – Stouffer’s mac & cheese, and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.  I also stopped at a discount store and picked up 3 Sterlite clear tubs – I was going home to have fun with the yarn!

While my mac & cheese cooked up nice and brown on top (yum!), I broke out the yarn.  All of the yarn.  My, what a sight to behold.  The problem with the yarn being cooped up in non-see-throughable containers is that I forget what I have.  I petted, played, sighed, and admired.  I had threatened to come home and roll around in it, and take pictures of it in comprising positions, but someone had already packed and taken my camera, so you’ll just have to believe me.

In the end, the yarn (which was in 2 large containers and 2 big plastic bags) ended up in 2 large containers and 3 smaller clear containers.  The sock yarn, being king of course, got 3 clear containers of its own.  One is for the really good yarn – CTH, STR, LL, Mama E, and any hand-dyed (including mine).  One is for the “other” sock yarn – Regia, Trekking, Online, Louet – you get the idea.  Both of those are rather full.  The third is for sock yarn remnants.  Some are actually full balls, but they’re 50 gram balls and wouldn’t make a full pair of regular socks, so they’re in with the remnants.  I actually have some really good remnants – maybe I’ll make a pair of Monstersocken some day.

The rattan chest in the living room that formerly held most of the “other than sock yarn” stash now holds the good stuff – shawl yarn, Noro, some llama – the stuff I’d like to see most.  The former sock yarn container now contains all the felting yarns and all of the other stuff – the stuff I probably won’t need too often.

While eating my yummies and playing with yarn, I watched most of the 2nd DVD of Firefly – still loving it, though Shea says it’s the most implausible show she’s ever seen.  Well, yeah – combine the future with the prairie days, and it’s a bit strange, but I love it.  And obviously there’s a knitter on the costume crew.  You’ll catch glimpses of knitted shawls and sweaters in every episode.  In one of the episodes last night, I saw Zac Efron playing a very young Simon, and I was impressed that I actually figured out it was Zac – he looked very different.  I stayed up late, watched Lost, and slept in until 9 this morning.  

I suppose I should go start packing!  It’s very strange to only have to pack for me – other than the bag of food I sent with Mark and the girls, everyone packed for themselves.  One definite bright spot in this whole growing-up mess.

Of course more feeling-good time leads to increased knitting time, and I’ve been cranking it out. First I finished up the Big Bad Brown Socks – aka Classic Socks from The Knitting Man(ual) for Mark. He picked the pattern, I picked the yarn – Louet Gems fingering in (I think) Bark. I like the yarn after it’s been knitted and washed, but while knitting it I tended to think of it more as string than yarn – it made my fingers sore, and made me seriously rethink the enormous quantities of it that I purchased back at Christmas.

Next I finished up the Mardi Gras socks. They’re not for me, but we’re not going to talk about that. Suffice to say that the intended recipient likes the yarn, and the socks are a bit small for me. She will just have to wait, however. The yarn is my own hand-dyed (KnitPicks Bare merino/silk – very yummy!).

Part of my increased knitting time has been due to good movies (and thank goodness, the end of the writers’ strike), and we have seen a few. We watched August Rush, and though the story was pretty improbable, it was still really good, and the music was awesome. Then Friday night I watched the original pilot of the Firefly series, Serenity. I had heard so many good things about it, and I really loved it. I can’t wait to watch the next episode, but I want to wait until Mark watches the first one, as I know he’ll really like it. I tried to explain to him that it was like a combination of Star Wars and an old Western, but that just didn’t make much sense to him. Then I looked it up online and saw that that was exactly what Joss Whedon was going for when he made it!

When we went to see the Harlot, I cast on for a new pair of socks for me, with some great Mama E yarn (her warehouse is back open, BTW!), Signs of Spring, that I picked up when she was in town. It’s in super bright springy colors, and I knew I needed a funky pattern. Through Ravelry I found the Socks of Kindness, and knew that they would fit the bill perfectly. Here are 2 pics of the first sock in progress – the first shows the color best, and the second shows the pattern best.

I also started a more mindless pair of socks today, and am surprised at how quickly these are going. They are yet another pair of Tidal Waves, in some really yummy Pagewood Farms merino/bamboo/nylon blend. The color is called Meadows, but it is really very aqua, and they are cute enough that Hayley has already threatened to steal them when they’re done.

I should have lots of knitting time this week, between a chorus concert and softball. Oh – and how could I forget this – the new MINI is here, and Mark is over the moon, and very busy making modifications! And yes, it looks very much like the last MINI, but we’re not allowed to say that.

I have decided to put a sock project in the car and leave it there, and only work on it when I’m riding. Since we go on lots of drives, it will be fun to see how many socks I manage to make “just” in the car. This one is an automatic, so it should be a little easier to knit while Mark’s driving. Unfortunately, I will be driving at least one way on an upcoming 4-hour trip, so there’s knitting time I’ll never get back.

Of course this much longed-for baby needed something special, and I decided to attempt a Baby Surprise Jacket.  It took some doing, and trusting, and a little ripping to get the striping just right.  Observant readers might recognize the colors – this is the leftover yarn from the Siena Fair Isle Hat that I did for a Fair Isle class.  Shea can be seen modeling the hat here.  I knitted and read instructions and knitted and read some more, and came up with this amorphous blob.

I spent at least half an hour looking for buttons for this last Wednesday, and the jacket hibernated until I finally got up the nerve picked it up last night to sew it up.  I tried 2 different techniques to sew up the sleeve seam (horizontal garter to vertical garter – not as easy as it sounds), and ended up going with kind of an overcast stitch that looked decorative, instead of trying to hide it.

Here are the final pictures once it was all sewn and buttoned up:

 While I was riding home from button-shopping, it occurred to me that this much-loved baby will have her own “Coat of Many Colors”, just like a much-loved child from long ago.  Welcome to the world, Meredith!

All of my normal “time off” buddies are out of town this week – no Sarah or Kim to hang out with (Sarah’s cruising and Kim’s visiting family), and even The Queen is out of town, so no Thursday night phone date! I was worried I’d be lonely, but thus far I have survived, and Cindy came over Tuesday to keep me company and give me my first spinning lesson. I’d say it was a disaster, though not the fault of the teacher. It was horribly overspun (The Queen said, “Of course it was. You’re a tight knitter too!”) and really resembled rodent intestines more than yarn. I will have to practice – and read a bit – and watch some videos. Just when you think you’re somewhat coordinated… Cindy promises it will get better.

So #1 is that I spun. Sort of.

2. Had a lovely anniversary (#18!) day trip with my husband.

3. Finished and blocked the shawl.

4. Started and finished 1.5 socks or so.

5. Bought Easter basket stuff for the kids.

6. Had a lovely Easter dinner with family and saw some people I hadn’t seen in 12 years! And made a rockin’ pan of au gratin potatoes!

7. Paid bills.

8. Filled out financial aid application for school – much harder and more painful than it sounds. The FAFSA is a cakewalk compared to this one.

9. Blogged! And learned how to use the new software – mostly.

10. Actually posted something to Ravelry, and pulled a whole bunch of FO pictures to upload when I find time.

11. Made a Sam’s Club run by myself (yes that’s a big deal – it’s very difficult for me to push a 100 lb. cart around and load all that heavy stuff into the car!).

12. Had a long catch-up lunch with a friend – we’ve honestly been trying to get together for lunch or coffee for 4 years now.

13. Caught up on my sleep.

14. Took H to the doctor for a shot.

15. Read 3 books.

16. Finally caught up through the current season of The Office.

When I look at that, it almost looks like I’ve been busy this week. OK, maybe not busy, but certainly not sitting around on my butt the whole time.

What I failed to mention before all of this was that the prior 2 weeks are my worst weeks of the entire year at work – just surviving them without going off the deep end is enough, but having a week off afterwards is priceless!

Fast forward to 5:41 a.m., when the phone rang and the nice lady on the message told us that school would open at 10:00, but they would evaluate road conditions and make a final call between 8:00 and 8:30. I got up at 8:00, figuring it was time to start getting ready. At about 8:10 the call came – school was closed. I checked the website and saw this message:

OK, maybe I’d better go outside and see how bad this really is – before it all melts.

Oh my – we may need the National Guard. Hopefully they will bring hot chocolate. The best part of all of this is that this is scheduled to be a 4-day weekend – Monday and Tuesday off. I think I can handle going to work tomorrow when I know I’ll have the next 4 days off.

I was wondering what all the noise was, but I wasn’t about to go look.

We have gotten completely back in to crazy, busy life, and I can tell that I’m burning the candle at both ends again – my body is complaining and not cooperating with me. I need to baby it a bit, but I doubt that will happen! Here’s a picture of the ottoman at my “knitting nest” – it will give you an idea of the insanity that is my life.

I got a belated birthday/Christmas package from the Queen, which of course contained yarn, but it also contained a cute felted purse, and it had 2 awfully cute critters to add to my collection – a Navajo sheep, and a qiviut musk ox from Alaska!

I did manage 3 pair of socks in January – one for me, from the Lime & Coconut Bubble Tea in the City Online (yes, that’s really the name),

and matching socks for Kim and Vanna for their birthdays in Aracaunia Ranco – Sweetpea socks for Kim, and similar non-lace for Vanna. I had taken these pics of the socks both naked and in their sock sleeves:

but those just could not hold a candle to the finished socks on their happy recipients:

As Kim is known to frequently say, “Too stinkin’ cute!”

We went on our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day yarn expedition – this year to Davidson and Matthews, where we visited the Needlework Center and Peace of Yarn. At POY, we had a celebrity-spotting:

Alison’s book! I asked if it was okay to take a picture in the store – the employee wasn’t sure, so Sarah told her, “She knows the author!” and I was allowed to snap the picture. It was very cool to see it in the wild.

Though I certainly didn’t need any yarn, these expeditions as well as my package from Tricia made my January and February acquisition pile look like this:

Out of that, I started a pair of socks with another ball of Ranco, but they quickly became the perfect example of pooling. There was a wide light stripe that would just not move, even after 2″ of sock, so I gave up and ripped it out.

Other current projects include brown socks for Mark, purple/pink Trekking socks for ???, fingerless gloves for Mark, the SeaSilk Michelle shawl for the auction, and a pair of socks for someone visiting next month.

OK, I think that’s nearly everything. I’m off to get the last few drips of hot water (oh, a house full of girls!) and then on to a family shindig.

P.S. – I found a better picture of the Lorna’s Laces sweater. Of course, I didn’t pose for a picture, so it’s not horrible!

I’ve been carless for nearly a week – Shea had a little bump up a few weeks ago (in my car, of course, not hers), and it’s been in the shop. We were supposed to pick it up Friday, but there were some problems with the repair, including an obviously bent corner on the hood that had been painted and installed anyway! Here are the before pics:

If you were reading closely in the first paragraph, you will see mention of a “heavy wool sweater”. Yes, after much knitting, ripping, pattern re-selection, and gnashing of teeth, the Lorna’s Laces sweater is finally finished. Please ignore the horribly crappy cell phone picture with really bad color, but my good camera seems to be missing, and nobody’s ‘fessing up.

Here’s a picture of the real colors, so you can get an idea.

specs:
Tonto Basic from Berroco
Shepherd Bulky in Tuscany from Lorna’s Laces
Purchased at Marin Fiber Arts in San Rafael, CA during March 2006 trip to visit The Queen

There are, of course, matching socks in Shepherd sock, but it’s really hard to get a good picture of your feet with your cell phone, so you will just have to use your imagination.

OK, I’m off to finish up the Christmas ham and au gratins (plain and eggnog cheesecakes already done and in the fridge!). Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

It’s a moose nativity scene! Leave it to Sarah to find me something with both moose and sheep:

And the baby Jesus moose – well, you know what I would say about him.

Later on, Kim came traipsing in to go to lunch with Sarah and me, and brought more goodies – Opal sock yarn (in her words – “so stinkin’ soft”) and the Harmony Guides Lace and Eyelets book! Yippee! The day just got better and better!

So here’s the birthday haul, if you’re keeping count. The sweater, neck pillow/warmer thing, and Origins Ginger Gloss bath stuff (my fav!) are from Mom. Happy birthday to me!

I’m off to order in some dinner (certainly not cooking tonight!), and snuggle up with my heated neck pillow and a good stitch dictionary.

Last night was the final performance of Hayley’s school musical, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”  They were absolutely fantastic, and they had so much fun with it.  Here’s a picture of her during one of the scenes (she’s in the Brownie uniform).

One of my favorite songs from this play is Lucy’s “Little Known Facts” song, in which she says:

Do you see that tree?
it is a Fir tree.
It’s called a Fir tree because it gives us fur,
For coats,
It also gives us wool in the wintertime.

Some of our other insanity involves college visits, applications, essays, and tests.  One senior is bad enough, but two might just drive me over the edge!  Add to that the play and play practice (now done, thankfully!), gymnastics, a dance, and the usual holiday parties that everyone and every group you’re involved with feels obligated to have, and we’re completely booked for the rest of the month!

For anyone who comes here not to read about my humdrum life, but instead to see what I’ve been knitting, well, here’s the last month’s worth of knitting for you!

Socks for Sarah’s birthday – I made her pick both the yarn and the pattern, and she made wonderful choices – the Laburnum pattern from SKS, and the Somerset colorway of Lorna’s Laces.  Thanks to Holly for modeling!

Mittens for me – a combination of a few patterns, and some Cherry Tree Hill dk weight in an Autumn colorway, which I won a few months back from the KnitTalk list.  These are just right for a NC winter – kind of like medium weight socks for my hands!

Socks for me – more Tidal Wave socks (love love love this pattern!) in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, can’t find the colorway, but think it’s a Potluck.

Sweater for me – not quite done – I’ve started and ripped most of this sweater 7 or 8 times, at least, in 2 or 3 different patterns.  It has now decided it will be the Tonto sweater from Berroco, and it’s in Lorna’s Laces bulky, color Tuscany.  I really do like it, and hope that it fits.  I would have done it in the round, but the patterning was just awful.  And it really doesn’t look two-toned in person, though the perfectionist in me saw this picture and seriously contemplated ripping it out once again.  I’m going to stick it out, though, but if it doesn’t fit right, there’s a different sweater it may become.

There’s still Christmas knitting to be done, and that’s what I’ll be working on for the next few weeks.  Most of my knitting lately has been in the car, at the play, at gymnastics, etc. lately.

Have a great week – hopefully I’ll get to post again some time before Christmas!

So the morning was great! I came home, and we had to leave shortly for Charlotte (about an hour and 40 minutes away) for Holly to take her TOEFL, a test for non-native English speakers required for application to a US college. We dropped her off at 5:30 and had to kick around Charlotte until the test was supposed to be over at 10:00. I can’t imagine a 4 hour computer test – ugh! Mark made arrangements for us to meet MINI friends Dave and Margie for dinner, and we ate at a great Italian place called Buco di Beppo, which advertises itself as “Italian Immigrant Dining”. It was great food, served family-style, and we enjoyed it immensely. We also enjoyed watching the giant 1/2 lb. meatballs go by on plates! After dinner, we still had over 2 hours to kill, so we headed back toward Holly, and wandered around a Kohl’s until nearly 10:00. She didn’t finish the test until 10:30, so it was well after midnight before we were home, and about 1:00 a.m. before we turned out the lights and got to sleep.

Fast forward to this morning – I heard talking at what the clock said was 8:00, but went back to sleep. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 10:00, when I heard voices in the house that didn’t belong to anyone who lives here! My dad and Deb had stopped by to drop something off, and wondered where everyone was. I came out of my room rubbing sleep out of my eyes, and they seemed shocked I was still in bed. I told them how late we got home, and thought that was it. I wrote them a check, and they left, and I wandered into the kitchen – where all the clocks said 11:04. Huh? It seems the infamous self-setting clock had struck yet again. Apparently, the former “always” date for daylight savings that was changed this year was today. We can’t stop the clock from resetting itself on these dates, and it’s driving me nuts. Once I wake up in the morning and see a clock, my brain is sure that’s the real time, and I feel stuck to that all day. I’m now dragging butt at 1:37 in the afternoon, though I slept 10 hours and have only been up for 2 and a half. I’m trying to finish up laundry and the stuff I should have done yesterday, but it’s really hard to get motivated!

I’ll end with a few pictures from the past week (since there is no finished knitting to show) – the new siding on the new room, and the cute turtle (Mark named him Buster) that was rousted out of his bed in our bushes when the siding man came! There are unfortunately no pictures of the woodpecker who has been tormenting us for the better part of 2 weeks – the goal is to scare him away, not take cute pictures, but he is cute – just very annoying!

Monday morning was only slightly chaotic.  I came home from work and grouted.  Mind you, I’ve never been the one mixing grout before, it has just been handed to me ready to go.  My first try yieded a very thin, sandy soup.  Whoops again!  My second try was too dry, and I tried to use it anyway, which was way too much work.  Mark convinced me to add water, and suddenly I had something of a consistency I recognized!  The remainder of the floor went much more quickly.  We lived one more night with just one bathroom – finally got the toilet back in last night and guess what – it still leaks.  But it’s an inside problem, and probably just needs new guts.  At least it’s not leaking into the floor now.

Of course I totally forgot about getting a before picture, but trust me – probably 40+ year old linoleum – long yellowed, and way beyond redemption.  Now we have this:

Isn’t it pretty?

The rest of my spare time lately has been spent on a shawl for Mom.  When we were in Victoria, at Beehive Wool, Mom flagged me down in the store and asked if I had the Fall 2006 Interweave.  “Of course!” OK, well, then she needed me to make something for her.  They had a display model of a Swallowtail Shawl made in Fleece Artist’s Peter Rabbit – a yummy, super fuzzy angora mix.  She wanted one, and I told her that I would make her one, but where was the yarn for mine?  She laughed, and I picked it out.  For once she picked the bright colors, and I chose more muted ones.  When I told her about my Bigfoot shawl, she asked when I would start her shawl.  I told her when it wasn’t 90+ degrees every day and I could stand to touch it!  I finally started a few weeks ago, and this has been a super-fun knit.  Due to a heads-up from the Queen, before even approaching the nupps, I sought out a better (read easier) way to do them.  I tried a suggested SL 2, P 3 tog, P2SSO, and it just wasn’t pretty.  I then read to use a skinny sock needle to purl all 5 together.  I broke out a never-used 00 double-point, and it was very nearly easy!  There were a few ripping episodes, but I had been smart with lifelines at the end of each section, and I only needed them once.  And no, we won’t talk about the tinking of today, we’ll only talk about the joy of binding this off!  Hopefully I can block and pull the points out this weekend.  It probably will end up getting to Mom when we head up there for Christmas, unless I can be convinced that it’s really needed before that!

Slightly closer-up:

Swallowtail Shawl from IK Fall 2006
Yarn – Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit

My next big project will probably be ripping out my LL bulky sweater from last spring – it’s just too short, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.  It’s hard to think about ripping it, but it will just sit otherwise.  I’d really like to start some more Christmas knitting, but if I wait until after Christmas, I won’t get it finished in time to wear it this winter!  I have a few second socks OTN as well, but they will just have to wait until they’re done to have their pictures taken.

In other news, today is The Queen’s birthday, so go send her some great birthday wishes, ok?  And if you happen to live near Snarkville, please feel free to pop by and give her birthday hugs – tell her I said it’s okay.  She hasn’t managed yet (though she’s totally forgiven) to post pictures of her wonderful birthday box, so I’ll have to post my mediocre pictures.  Here are her birthday socks (doesn’t everyone get birthday socks?):

Tidal Wave Socks by Deby Lake
Yarn is unnamed gorgeous sock yarn from Yarnzilla – 100% superwash merino and extra yummy – same stuff my Bigfoot shawl was made out of.  Edit – finally found out that this yarn is called One Sheep Hill!
Sorry for the crappy picture, but really, these socks just didn’t look right on my feet – they weren’t for me!

The other cool thing in the box was a set of my first stitch markers:

The coolest thing about them is their versatility – they have rings for small needles on one end and large needles on the other end.  They were so much fun to make, I can’t wait to make some for me!

Life is settling in around here with 3 teenage girls – well, as settled as it can be.  Some nights we feel like we’re living in a dorm – the squealing, the giggling, the running back and forth from room to room.  But all in all it’s been really fun, and I’ve really enjoyed watching the new relationships forming in the house!