just breathe

I feel like that's what I need to do this weekend....breathe. All week long I felt like a coiled spring just being wound tighter and tighter. I kept expecting to snap, but managed to hold it together. Ten hours of sleep yesterday helped with the relaxation and about 4 hours of spinning so far tonight has helped as well. I'll probably be able to finish of the CMF roving I've been spinning tonight. Plying will commence tomorrow/later today (it's not tomorrow until I sleep, so for me I still count this as Friday).

As is the norm for the weekend I work and the following week, very little knitting has been accomplished. I always take a project to work with me, but I just haven't been motivated to pull it out of my bag. I did manage to turn the heel and start the gusset of my second handspun Monkey sock in the CMF colorway I've Got You Babe. Also got the body of the Sorbet Tulip Baby sweater complete.

Right now though I'm going to focus on my spinning. I've got CMF Big Yellow Taxi that I'm spinning into fingering weight. When I'm done with that, I'll hand it off to my mom and she's going to knit socks for my uncle Jim. He's a huge Hawkeye fan (the colors are gold, black and white), and he has been doing my taxes for me for free as long as I've been working (detasseling since I was 13). He was almost giddy about doing my taxes two years ago when I bought my house. So as thanks for all the years of work he's done for free for us, we're making handspun, handknit Hawkeye socks for him. I can't wait to see his face!

I'm off to get food, watch the last three episodes I've got of season 3 of Smallville, and spin some more.

Two down!

Two patterns have been written, one has been sent out to the test knitters. I haven't sent the other one simply because I'm waiting on a couple of people to get a free account on the system I'm using. I'm lazy and don't want to do attachments to emails.

Now it's time for a little food/knitting/movie break, then I try to bust out the third one....or at least get a start on it.

And can I just rant a little? Don't companies have people testknit their stitch patterns? I'm using about 17 different stitch pattern books and liked the looks of one picture better than another. Then as I was writing it out, I thought it looked funky so I pulled out the needles to knit a swatch. Sure enough, instead of the little motifs I was looking for, I got zigszags of eyelets. Went to the book with the picture of a similar pattern that I didn't like as well. That one came out with the motifs the way I wanted them. What the heck?!? Needless to say, I used the second one because I just wasn't in the mood to rewrite a stitch pattern that should have been correct in the first place.

Now I'm done.

*thud*

So here I sit, in the middle of a 6-day work stretch. I worked this last weekend (Friday through Sunday), I've got tonight off, then I'm back at work tomorrow from 3-11. I'll be working Wednesday and Thursday too. Friday will be devoted solely to sleep. There will be no major partying this New Year's Eve for me. Just a quiet night at home, doing laundry and dishes and eating an enormous amount of junk food while watching movies. And waiting for my berry cobbler to finish cooking in the crockpot. Happy new year to me.

On the bright side, this morning marked the first time for me to not be carded while buying alcohol! Although, now that I think about it, they probably didn't card me because not too many underage people buy their wine at 8 AM along with dog kibble and oreos. Yep.....exciting life I lead.

I think I'll be able to finish my fifth crocheted bath pouf tonight and then log some knitting time on my Lenore sock. I'd like to finish the sock now, but I kind of want to hold off so it will count toward the finish-a-long that L&V will be starting in the new year.

So yeah...that's my boring new year's eve plans. Now I need to go move the laundry.

another one down the toilet

....or the storm sewer. Had planned on mowing my lawn today since it wasn't supposed to rain until tonight. But when I ran out to the mailbox it started sprinkling.....then it rained....then the power flickered....then it thundered loud enough to shake the house several times. All of which adds up to the fact that the jungle is going to be completely soaked and I won't be able to mow it today. I'm hoping this rain will let up some so I can at least mow the front yard so I won't feel so bad when I compare my yard to the neighbors' perfectly manicured lawns. I'm so ready to just hire someone to do the mowing for me.

And the green blanket is into the 6th stripe. I think there'll be a total of 9 if I end up using all the colors. I've got plenty of time to get this done. No problems. Especially with the weekend off and a stack of movies to watch.

To-do list for the weekend:
-do a general pick-up around the house
-finish the dishes
-mow (at least the front yard)
-go to the Apple store and get a new ipod
-go to Borders while I'm out
-try to get two more stripes knit on the green blanket
-swatch for the 5 secret projects that I've got to get going on


.....and I think that should be enough.

I'm being good....kind of

I've been valiently resisting the yarny calling. I actually didn't buy anything in the sneak-up at The Loopy Ewe tonight. We'll just look past the fact that I have something in my cart. It's for a future secret project. But I haven't actually bought it.....it's just sitting there.

I did buy a row-counter bracelet thingy off etsy over the weekend. I had admired Eliza's and so I just had to have one.

The knitting on the Green Blanket of Doom continues. I'm about 2/3 done with the fourth stripe. This is my at home knitting. I have been working on nothing else anytime I'm home since this must be done this month. Once I finish the movie I'm watching, I'm going to either hit the netflix movies that are stacked up or pop in LotR (again) and knit like a fiend until morning.

Finally!!!!

Several finally's actually.

First is the fact that I finally mowed my lawn after leaving it for the last week and a half. In my neighborhood that pretty much a sacrilege. But it's not my fault. This is what I woke up to every day for the last 10 days.


I was actually dodging rain drops as I took that picture. It seemed like every day I had off of work, it was raining. So the jungle grew. But now it's been tamed. I may go over it again on Wednesday just to chop up the clods of wet grass that will have dried by then.

Another finally is this.


That's my first Super Monkey sock which is actually completed. I've cast on for the second one, but my knitting time has been eaten up by other things. This is Cider Moon Icicle in Superman done in the Monkey pattern by Cookie A.

Had a great visit this afternoon with Eliza and Michele (biblioknitter). Met up with them at Personal Threads and I actually was able to walk away with nothing. That may have been because I was still half asleep after working the weekend and only sleeping four hours. A stop at Starbucks definetely revved me up and got my brain working in overtime. Now my head is ready to explode. Thanks E!

I just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Time to grab some food and settle in for The Illusionist. Then I can get some sleep just to get up for work tonight.

a night off...

...and then it's back to the saltmines. It rained again right before I got up this afternoon, so I wasn't able to mow down the weeds in the backyard like I wanted to.

I've spent the night knitting on squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg project. I mentioned this on the latest Lime &Violet podcast and just wanted to get the link up somewhere since I didn't have it with me at the time. I posted a comment on Laura's blog to give her a heads-up and got an email back. She said she hadn't had time to contact any podcasters about a plug for the project yet, so she was grateful we had mentioned it. But she's not an LnV listener! She told me she knew that would catch up to her someday, so hopefully this is the kick in the pants she needs to get her going.

I'm off to knit some more squares, watch my netflix movies that have been collecting dust for 2 weeks, and maybe start spinning the other half of my CMF roving. Is it crazy talk that I'm actually debating whether or not to contact the CMF people and let them know I'm interested in spinning their Sock Hop yarn?! I quizzed Minnie all about it last Thursday, but I don't know if I'm good enough yet or not. Hmmm....something more to ponder.

State of the Me address

Ok....I feel the need to blog since I'm in something of a funk right now. But I'll start off with the good stuff.

Pirates!! I know people haven't exactly cared for this movie, so I didn't go into it with high expectations. I think that's what helped me get through it. Minnie, you were right about that point you made last Thursday. Once I knew to look for it, it was easy to spot. I did love how some plot points were resolved. But I was disappointed in Cap'n Jack. He just kind of faded from the story and afterwards I found myself wondering....what happened to Jack!? My opinion? Good movie, but I'll wait for it to come out on dvd before I watch it again.

Mom and Dad came to visit this weekend and we got my garden planted and some housekeeping stuff done. I've got strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatos, green pepper, and rhubarb in my (hopefully!!) rabbit-proof garden. The dead vines were cleared out of my clematis, weeds were sprayed, garden hoses set out, dead front lawn raked and re-seeded, a picture hung, and lots of food eaten. Mom and I also cranked out some squares to donate to a lady making blankets for family's in Greensburg, KS. I'm planning on hitting up my stash for some more yarn so I can do a few more.

But other than that, I haven't really felt like doing much fiber-related. Mom also frogged my finished Grasshopper sock for me. I may re-do it, but top-down and without the leg gusset. I've been working on my Borg Queen sock and finally managed to turn the heel this afternoon.

I went to a party at a neighbor's last night and managed to finally meet two neighbors that I had met in the year since I moved into my house. Just took some Veggietales videos over to one couple who has a 3-year-old little girl named Grace. She's adorable! I also got to meet the neighbor cop's girlfriend....I'm not impressed. To hear her tell, she's a stylist for an advertising agency.....I'm reading that as she's a cosmetologist who sometimes works for an ad group when they need help. Especially when she said she's from Kansas City. How many big advertising/commercial-making groups are there in KC? Whatever. My parents saw her too and weren't too impressed. But I'm done with that.

Still spinning on the CMF roving. I haven't even made it through the first 4 oz yet. That'll hopefully come later this week.

Guess that's all for the moment. I'd better start getting ready for work tonight. At least it's only an 8-hour shift thanks to the holiday.

Yay for movies!!!

I'm going to see Pirates 3 today at noon with a couple of co-workers. Here's hoping I don't fall asleep.....and that it's better than the second one.

And since I'm talking about movies, I'm going to point you all here. That's going to take you to the website for my friend, Sarah's, film school. This is the OTIS film festival for this spring. You have to put up with some commentary by a couple of acting students who are the emcees, but it's worth it. First up is Twilight Rain in its entirety. I've linked to an early 5-minute version of this, but the sound has been tweaked since and it's a wonderful movie. I cried. Go watch it. The next one is called Harold and it's cute and short. Third is Sarah's documentary, Blowing Sand. I'll admit that I haven't watched it all the way through yet (it's 30 minutes), but I fully intend to.

So go! Go now! And enjoy!!!