Love Story meets Viva la Vida

This is amazing!

Apples and Wine

A wonderful person posted this on the Atlas Quest messageboards! Just wanted to share it with more people!

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Now Men....
Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes,and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Bad things only come in threes...right?

I finished two really crappy nights at work this morning. At the rate things are going downhill, it'll be par for the course if I have a patient die on me when I go for my shift Thursday. Needless to say, very little fiber activity has taken place.

On the spinning front, I did manage to finish spinning up 4 oz of merino/tencel from Copperpot Woolies in Steel Roses. I've still got to ply it and I'm thinking Navajo ply just because. I might do that tonight if I feel up to it.

And today in the mail I got a box from CJ Kopek with my ravelry spin-a-long fiber. Eight ounces of the merino/silk blend in Envious Eyes. I had her leave out the glitz that was supposed to be in it and it's completely gorgeous and very much in my color comfort zone. Beautiful greens and blues with just a little bit of natural cream colored merino thrown in. Can't wait to get this on the wheel!

In knitting, I'm still slogging along on my two current projects. I'm almost done with the gusset on the first Lenore sock for my mom. I can't remember if I've mentioned those on the blog before. I'm knitting them up in Wollemeise in Granatapfel, a deep, rich red. The school Mom teaches at likes the teachers to wear red and black (school colors) on game days to support the sports teams. I had knit a pair of socks for her in another yarn that was red and black and she's worn and washed them so much that now they're pink and grey. So these should be done for her in time for next fall!

And then there's the bane of my existence....Mystic Roses. The KAL for this ended weeks ago. I'm just barely started on clue 2 out of five. I've seen pictures of this shawl finished and it will be gorgeous when it's done, but it's taking forever. I'll keep slogging away and hopefully finish it to wear to Estes Park in June. If it's not done by then, the back-up date to finish by is August for Sock Summit.

So that's the state of things right now. Just don't want to have the silence go too long here on the blog anymore.

I'm back baby!

Wow! Hadn't realized how long it had been since I last blogged! But I come bearing pictures.

First are my Holidazed socks. These were part of the December shipment for the RSC last year. Done in the medium size, STR mediumweight in Muddy Autumn Rainbow. I think this is going to be my new go-to pattern for the rest of the mediumweight STR in my stash. Easy to memorize and it's got so much ribbing to it that it hugs my foot nicely.


And here's a really bad, blurry, bathroom mirror picture of my Snow White sweater. I'll get a better one this weekend hopefully.


And my February Lady sweater. Don't know what's up with the squinty eye in this one...wasn't that sunny out when we took it. I'll try to get a better one of this over the weekend as well. Oy. Done in DiC Classy in Blue Lagoon. I ended up not making the sleeves full-length like I originally planned because....well...I'm not a patient person and I wanted the sweater done. Now I'm glad that I did them 3/4.


Last of the pics is one of my new hair! I still go to a hairdresser in my hometown 4 hours away because I trust her and can just walk in for my appointment and tell her to "have fun." It always comes out different and always looks good. You can't really tell from the picture, but that dark part is just in the front. The rest of it is about 4 different colors and I love it so much! Might have her keep it this way for a while.


Aside from that, I've been spinning some and since the weather has been nice I've been out letterboxing too. And I bought a Kindle 2 which is my new baby. It's so nice to not have to cart around a heavy book in my bag all the time.

wow...

Out of communication for nearly a month. Don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm back! Now where was I?

Remember these?

Imagine them about twice as long and that there are two of them. Other than that, I haven't touched them in over a month.

The Holidazed socks are finished, but no pictures yet. I keep forgetting or I wake up *way* after the sun is down.

Still no pics of Snow White either. I'll get Mom to take some for me when I'm home this week.

Here are the Fetching mitts that I made for our evening shift unit secretary. Done in the Little Lovely colorway of Malabrigo.

She says her cat loves them too and keeps stealing them.

I also started another pair of Lenores, this time in Wollmeise in the Granatapfel colorway. These are Mom's birthday socks for this year. The colors of the school she teaches at are black and red. Well, the socks I made her a couple years ago in Little Devil by Lisa Souza aren't red and black anymore, but pink and grey. So the Granatapfel was recruited to be Lenores. I'm doing the larger size on size 2s. Hopefully they'll fit Mom's instep. I'll have her try them on this week before I continue down the leg.

Finally, my February Lady sweater is slogging along. The body is done and I'm about 8 inches out one sleeve. I was planning on making the sleeves full-length, but I may just go with the 3/4 sleeves so I can finish quicker. What can I say? I'm not a patient person!

*collapse*

I'm home from the Des Moines Metro Knitters gathering. Second year attending and it was even better than last year. Great fun to reconnect with people.

The State of the Knitting

County Clare Leyburns - Didn't touch them all weekend. They were too big a pain to haul in and out of the bag with a sock attached to both ends of the ball.

Hollidazed socks - Got a bit more done on them. Heel flap of #2 needs a couple more rows, then I can start the gusset and head out the foot.

RSC Queen of Beads socks - A very nice lady at the gathering (ToastyToes on Rav) helped me string the beads for these so I'll be able to start the actual knitting soon.

Fetching mitts for Rene - Knit entirely this weekend for a secretary at work. Just need to do the thumbs and weave in ends. Out of Malabrigo in a pink called Little Lovely.

February Lady Sweater - To be done with DiC Classy in Blue Lagoon. Swatched this afternoon when I finished the second Fetching and didn't feel like moving on to the thumb. Swatch came out great so I'll be starting the actual sweater sometime this week.

And now I need a nap! Who knew that knitting and talking for a weekend could wear a person out so much?

catch-up

It's been a while, hasn't it? Time to play a little catch-up.

Have to go all the way back to early January. My parents had bought me a new stove for Christmas, so a weekend they were down to visit I picked one out at Lowe's and had it delivered. Here's my new baby, Frank (I named him after one of the delivery guys).

We're happily making beautiful meals together and I love the fact that the burners light on the first turn of the dial.

I also joined the Leyburn KAL on the rav Socks that Rawk! group. I'm using lightweight STR in County Clare. This has been marinating in my stash for at least 3 years now....maybe 4. All I know is that it was one of the first skeins of STR I purchased. These are being worked top-down and I've already had to rip out and increase from 60 stitches to 66 to make it fit over my instep. Things are going fine now. And I'm much further along than this.


Guess what? I've got a picture of Snow White!! Okay, it's only of it in the sink being washed, but it's a picture. I just couldn't believe the color of the water as I was pulling the sweater out. And I don't think it was dye. Considering this was mostly at-home knitting, I was pretty disgusted. But I keep my house fairly clean, so I couldn't figure out where this dirt was coming from. I guess it's just off the yarn from the spinning process. But ewww!


Finally, my sock yarn stash tried to rebel a couple weeks ago. It exploded all over my craft room, leaving me with a 4" path to get across the room. I couldn't stand for this little rebellion, so tonight I went through the offenders with an iron fist. Culled out at least 50 skeins that are now packed in the duffel and the white plastic shopping bag. They will be going to the Des Moines Metro Knitters gathering this weekend and divided among the knitters there.


Knitting on the second Holidazed sock continues, I've got another sweater planned soon, and I still need to work on my mom's birthday present and the Fetchings for the secretary on my hospital unit. But I'm going to get through the weekend first.