Knitamazoo(tm)

I did it. I survived i-cord hell. After my last blog entry telling you how excited I was to have 16 inches done and only 44 more to go, I discovered that I was using the wrong size dpn’s. I was crushed! A couple of my knitty chat buddies (Kirsti and Shetha) said to just keep going on the size 10’s I started with. (I should have been using 10 1/2’s.) But as I kept looking at it, I knew I wasn’t going to be happy knowing that I used the wrong size needles even if it didn’t really make a difference. So I tied off the i-cord I had made (it may become a cat toy in the near future) and cast on with the correct needles. A couple of hours later I had around 5 1/2 feet of i-cord and was ready to felt the booga. I used Plymouth Outback wool in lovely jewel tones.

Here it is pre-felting. I measured it but since I didn’t write the measurements down I can’t remember. (I’m getting old and the mind is going fast.) I do know the i-cord came to the middle of my forehead and I’m 5′9″. It took two cycles in the washing machine to completely felt and then I had to try to find a box to block it on. I finally found something that would work and set it up to dry. That was Wednesday night and this morning it was dry.

I poked the holes in it and threaded the i-cord handles through and I ended up with this.

I love it! It’s large enough to carry your wallet and a few small items yet small enough to not be a bother. Perfect for an evening out. Right now I am using it to cart around my new sock in progress. (I know, I know . . . I haven’t finished the Liberty socks yet. My excuse . . . I don’t really have one except that I’m not getting much gratification out of those socks right now and I want some socks to wear now.) And no I haven’t taken a picture of the new socks. Bad blogger!

But I do have a picture of the soap sock I started and finished last night. I was looking at some patterns the other day and ran across this. I thought it would be perfect for the lovely lavender soap that my SP sent me. I grabbed some cotton and cast on last night around 8:00. By 10:00 I had bound off and was making the twisted cord to tie it shut with. A nice quick, easy knit that I could do while watching tv.

Hubby had his second interview yesterday. He felt that it went really well. This job is a great opportunity for him though it is less money than he is making right now. We are really hoping and praying that he gets it, especially since today is his last day at his current job. They told him that they hoped to make a decision Friday (today) or very early next week. I hope they make a decision today so that I can relax this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, we were supposed to go camping again. We decided earlier this week to cancel our reservations as hubby just got over a cold and I’ve been fighting one all week. It’s supposed to be really nice this weekend with highs in the 70’s but at night it’s going to get pretty cool. So we thought it would be better if we didn’t camp. We’re debating about what we’re going to do. We may cash in some of our free hotel points and go somewhere or we may just crash at home. No matter what we decide to do, I will be off work on Monday and I still came in early today (7 am!!) so I can get off early. I’m looking forward to a nice long weekend!

Sorry for the stupid title but my brain has been in a fog lately due to the decongestants I’ve been taking. Really bad sinus headache or daily out of body experience . . . tough choice. Though it was made a little easier due to my low tolerance of pain. So I haven’t really been myself the last few days and I can’t think of anything creative.

Due to being out of my mind since I started taking these decongestants (alright, I’ve been out of my mind longer than that but the drugs only exasperate the situation), I figured I better not work on my bolero. After picking up all those stitches I don’t want to make a huge mistake in my medication induced stupor. Enter the Booga Bag. A nice mindless knit in the round project. I finished the bag itself last night and did the bind off this morning. Then I started in on the I-cord. This is my first time making the infamous I-cord (unless you count that stuff I used to make with the spool and then didn’t know what to do with it). The first several inches were a blast. Look at that! Whoa! Cool! How does it do that? I soon figured out how it all worked and went on happily knitting. After about five inches, it wasn’t as cool anymore and I soon realized that I was going to be knitting this monstrosity for the rest of my life. The pattern calls for five to six FEET of this stuff? Oy! I’m thinking a few more doses of decongestant are in order to make it through I-cord hell. As of this post I have 16 inches made. So, what, only 44 more inches to go to get to five feet? (sigh)

I think I need to look at something cute to make myself feel better. There. I think that helped. Now where did I put those decongestants?

Just a quick post today. The only knitting I’ve done is on the booga bag so go look at the picture in the last post and imagine another few inches added on to that.

Last night when I came upstairs to go to bed, I was greeted by this view out my front window. My crazy neighbors across the street spelled Boo! out of orange lights in the bushes in front of their house. It’s not even October yet people! (Alright, it will be in what, four days.) They can’t even wait until the month of the holiday to decorate. I bet as soon as Halloween is over they will have their Christmas lights up and on. Now I’m all for putting the lights up early here in Michigan. My motto is do it while it’s still somewhat warm and you’re not freezing your fingers off but I won’t turn them on until at least December. Nothing like rushing the holidays. And poor Thanksgiving just gets lost there between Halloween and Christmas. At the rate we’re going, we’ll soon celebrate Halloween in June and Christmas in August.

Oh and before I forget, Happy New Year!

Where did the weekend go? I could swear it was just Friday evening and I was enjoying a nice long soak in the tub thanks to the wonderful lavender bath goodies my SP sent me. And now it’s Monday and I’m sitting at work. I keep trying to wake up from this nightmare but I’m beginning to think that I’m not asleep and I actually am at work.

No knitting Friday night or Saturday. My hands were hurting a bit so I decided to give them a rest. Saturday afternoon, hubby and I packed up a small picnic and drove up to Middleville to check out Yankee Springs Rec Area for possible future camping trips. We had to eat in the car as it was drizzling rain. After checking out the campground, hubby took me by the place where he had his interview. (BTW, they called him back for a second interview which he will have this Thursday.) After that we drove around some of the southern suburbs of Grand Rapids looking at the neighborhoods in case he gets the job. He doesn’t really want to commute in the snow or with the price of gas.

Sunday my hand was feeling better so I went back to knitting. Despite having a headache for the second day in a row, I sat down to pick up all 294 stitches on my bolero. It took me a couple of hours (lots of stopping, ripping out, starting again, taking breaks, etc.) but I finally got all the stitches picked up. I guess I should have taken a picture to prove that I’ve picked up all those stitches but when I got them all on the needle I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. So, I set it aside and worked some on my Liberty sock. All the gusset decreases are done so I just have to finish the foot and the toe. Then I have to do sock #2. These socks are going to take me forever to finish. Not only is the pattern time consuming but those blasted size 1 dpn’s don’t help either. I balled up some more sock yarn to start another pair. I think I’m getting a case of “startitis” again.

I have also restarted my version of the booga bag last week. I had started this several months ago but it seemed to be way too small pre-felting. So it sat in my knitting bag taunting me and begging me to love it. After I finished my hat, I wanted another project that would be good for in front of the tv so I resurrected the booga bag. I totally frogged it and started from scratch. After several starts, I think I’ve found the perfect pre-felted size for the bottom. I think it looks much better now and I have a mindless project for those evenings when I want to veg in front of the tv.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of breathing some new life into my Branching Out. It is such a pretty pattern and the alpaca yarn I’m using is so soft. Maybe after we get back from camping this weekend . . . but for now I’ve got to try to wake up from this nightmare called work.

Yesterday was going along very nicely until it was almost time to go home. Then some stuff came up that really stressed me out. By the time I got home I was so stressed that I was sick to my stomach. I had no appetite and all I wanted to do was put on my sweats and knit. I walked in the door and dropped my stuff on the floor and what did I spy on the counter . . . why it was a pretty blue bubble envelope. It was addressed to me and the return address said Your SP. I smiled. She had PM’d me a couple of days ago to be on the lookout for a package and I had forgotten all about it. Part of me just wanted to rip it open right then and there but another part of me wanted to savor the experience. So I went and greeted my hubby and kitties, got my sweats on and settled into my knitting chair with the package. I gently opened the envelope and was immediately engulfed with the most wonderful scent. Mmmmmmmmmmm . . . lavender! Everything was wrapped up in lavender tissue paper and I slowly opened each item. I was blown away! She sent the perfect gift for my stressful day. Just look at all this wonderful bath stuff. There is a bar of lavender soap, lavender scented bath salts, lavender bath balls, lavender bath confetti (this looks really cool), a lavender colored bath mit, a little lavender bag and a bar of . . . . CHOCOLATE soap! How cool is that? She wrote on the back “requisite chocolate.” And with my nut allergies this is the perfect kind of chocolate! I can’t wait to try it out. It smells heavenly. I just hope I don’t try to eat it! (Did you notice how it all matches my blog colors?)

I plan on taking a nice, long, relaxing, hot bath tonight. My only problem is going to be deciding what to use in the bath. Hmmmmmm . . . I’m going to have to think about this.

After I took everything out of the tissue paper, I noticed that there was something in the little lavender drawstring bag. I opened it up and found these. Such beautiful shells! According to the little card tucked into the package, my SP collected them especially for me. Now how did she know that the theme in my bathroom was lighthouses/nautical? I’m going to have to find a way to display these lovely shells. I grew up on the east coast and spent many hours scouring the beach for shells. These shells brought back many wonderful memories of childhood.

I just can’t thank my SP enough for all that she has sent me. Her gifts have been so thoughtful and I appreciate everything she has sent. She’s an angel and the best SP ever! I can’t wait to find out who she is.

In knitting news, I finished my hat last night and wove-in the ends this morning. I am really happy with how it came out. Looks kind of cute sitting on my kitchen counter. It was an easy, fast knit and I’ll probably make more. Now I just need to figure out how I want to top it. I’m not really a pom-pom on hats kind of person. I’m thinking maybe a tassel or I might just leave it as it is. I love how the decreases make a swirl pattern on the top of the hat. Maybe I’ll just leave it as it is. I tried to take a picture of me modeling it but that was a bad idea. Maybe this weekend I can get hubby to take a picture of me with the scarf and the hat.

Well that’s it. Have a wonderful knitty weekend! And for those of you in the path or area of Rita, take care and be safe! You will be in my thoughts and prayers this weekend.

Hi, my name is Dawn. (Hi Dawn!) And I’m a procrastinator. There. I’ve admitted it. (That’s the first step right?) I procrastinate. I have been practicing for so long now that I am a very accomplished procrastinator.

It all started in grade school . . .

Me: MOM! I need to fill out this family tree booklet for school with names, dates, pictures and everything.

Mom: That’s nice dear. When do you need to have it done by?

Me: Tomorrow?

Mom: TOMORROW?!?!?!? When did the teacher assign this to you?

Me: Uhhhhhh . . . last week?

And thus began my long and illustrious career as a professional procrastinator. I worked really hard during high school to perfect my skills and by the time I got to college I was a pro. My crowning achievement was my junior year in college when I did ten 1-page papers, five 2-page papers and a 15-page research paper in one day. And they were all for the same class. Which I passed by the way with a B. Pretty impressive!

So what is the point of telling you my history of procrastination you ask. Well, I’ll tell you tomorrow. (hehe) Just kidding. I tell you all of this so you will understand when I tell you that I am procrastinating yet again. I’ve been doing it for so long now that it just comes naturally. And I’m sure you’re wondering what am I procrastinating doing, right? I am procrastinating picking up the stitches on my bolero so that I can finish it. It’s really because I just haven’t had a good block of time where I can sit down with no distractions or interruptions to do it. But I have been productive in the meantime.

Yesterday I cast on for a simple roll-brimmed hat. I wanted a simple hat to go with my Misty Garden Scarf. So I give you my very first hat. I am using KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in the mulled wine color. Gotta love how quickly hats knit up and the repetitious knitting of stockinette in the round was just what I needed to keep my nerves calm during hubby’s interview (which went really well and we hope to hear next week if he makes it to a second interview). It was also nice to knit while watching hockey. Knit, knit, knit . . . SCORE! . . . knit, knit, knit . . . that was holding are you blind ref? . . . knit, knit, knit . . . what kind of power play was that? . . . knit, knit, knit . . . great save . . . knit, knit, knit . . . ow! that body check’s gonna leave a mark . . . knit, knit, knit . . . you get the idea.

No knitting news today. My brother stopped by last night and had dinner with us. After he left my hubby wanted to get an executive portfolio thing to take when he goes to his interview this afternoon. (We’re really hoping that he gets this job. He thinks this job is a good opportunity for him.) So by the time we got home from Office Max, I was tired and my hand was hurting anyway from all the knitting I’ve done lately so I decided to take a break. The “batwing” bolero is still waiting to have the stitches picked up and if I want to work on it tonight then I’ll have to get those stitches picked up before 7:30 tonight.

What happens at 7:30 tonight you ask? Let me tell you what happens . . . HOCKEY IS BACK!!! The first televised Red Wings preseason game is tonight and I have a date with the TV! I will be sporting my sexy Brendan Shannahan sweater and chanting “Let’s Go Red Wings!” like a crazed hockey fanatic. Can you tell that I missed hockey last year? Anyway, I’m really excited that I get to watch hockey again.

In lieu of knitting pictures (since there aren’t any anyway) I bring you these pictures. The reason for the post title. Major ick factor! This massive, ugly spider was crawling on my garage as I pulled in the driveway. He was so big I could see him 20 feet away. *shudder* I refused to park in the garage. (I’m not stupid. I wasn’t going to drive by that huge thing to park the car and then have to walk back out right by it giving it the opportunity to jump on me or something.) So I parked in the driveway and ran into the house, screaming . . . er, I mean quickly, and coerced my poor sick hubby into coming out to kill it. I did grab the camera on the way and took these pictures of the beast’s last moments. Hubby used bug spray until it got to the ground and he could squish it with a brick. And talk about a squish factor! This thing was the gooiest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve been creeped out ever since I found this thing. I hate spiders . . . really hate spiders. I know they are good for catching bugs and stuff but do they have to be so creepy looking? *shudder* And silent . . . you can’t hear them coming. There’s no warning . . . they just appear . . . floating gently down on their web to land on you. Ack! The only thing I admire about these icky creatures is their ability to spin but that’s it.

Now that I’ve managed to stir up my arachnaphobia, I will leave you with a cute kitty picture while I go in search of creepy, crawlies under my desk. *big shudder*

Rassen, frassen . . . stinkin’ blogger! I had a post all ready to go, I clicked Publish Post and . . . nothing. In the words of my “refined and proper” hubby, Blogger “took a dump!”

Anyway . . . what do you see in this picture? Your answer will let me see deep into your psyche. Really. What? You don’t believe me? Fine. When I saw this picture, the only thing I could think of was the famous Rorschach inblot test. I see a bat who’s radar quit working which caused him to fly into a brick wall and go splat. Not sure what that says about my psyche but that’s what I see. I’m just saying. And if you ever need to take a Rorschach inkblot test, go here for all the answers. It will even tell you what to say if you want to be diagnosed as having some type of psychosis.

Well no matter what you see in the above picture, it is my bolero. I finished the right side last night. (Gotta love Monday night football for knitting!) Now I just need to knit the edging. Maybe tonight I will have the focus and patience to pick up 294 stitches from the right front bottom, up around the neck and down to the left front bottom. Shoot me now. Please. If I manage to pick up those stitches without using the circular needle to strangle myself, I will then have to knit several short rows in 2×2 ribbing. Use a bazooka. Please. Then if all that doesn’t manage to drive me over the edge completely and I still have a shred of sanity left, I will still have to pick up stitches and knit 2×2 ribbing along the back bottom edge and for the two cuffs. I’m begging you. Shoot me before I start this insanity and completely lose my mind. Please? Oh, alright. I’ll suck it up.

It had seemed like my bolero had stalled out. I would knit and knit and knit on it and it looked the same as it had the day before. I began to get suspicious that my cats were somehow on the other end of my knitting happily unraveling it just enough so I never made any progress and were eating the evidence. But I am happy to report that there will be no cats horking up giant yarn balls and I have made some serious progress on my bolero. I got to knit quite a bit this weekend. Especially on Sunday. My hubby had a few of his Fantasy Football buddies over to watch football so I sat there and knit while they were discussing the pros/cons of offenses, defenses, and individual players. Now I like football. I enjoy watching a good game (though Sundays in our house means switching between every game that is on so you never see one game for more than 2 minutes at a time). But I could care less about the little nuances these Fantasy Football nuts talk about 24/7/365. Again, I digress. It did give me a chance to get some quality knitting time in and here is what I have to show for it. A bolero with the left side done and I’m working down the right side. Maybe I’ll even be seaming it up this week and working on the edging this weekend. I have high hopes again I know. But I can’t seem to put it down. I had to force myself to stop last night as my head was pounding with a sinus headache brought on by my allergies. Despite the headache, I knit on for several hours and finally had to just put it out of sight and walk away. It was really hard but probably for the best. I of course picked it back up this morning before I went to work and knit a couple of rows. And I’m anxiously awaiting my first break at work.

My anniversary present arrived Saturday. We didn’t even notice the box on the front porch but one of my hubby’s football buddies saw it and brought it in for us. So here is what he got me. I’ve been wanting both of these books for awhile. The Knit Socks book I borrowed from the library and had to photocopy the pattern I am using to make the Liberty socks. And there were several more that I wanted to make so this book went on the ol’ Amazon wishlist. The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns was the one I really wanted. I already have the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns and love it. I wanted this book so I could create a pattern for a sweater for my brother. Hopefully I’ll be able to design something that he will like.

Well that’s it. No more news. Move along. Nothing more to see here.

Yesterday, my wonderful hubby and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that 9 years have gone by already. In ways it seems like we were just married yesterday and yet it also seems like we’ve always been with each other. We didn’t do anything too terribly exciting (old married couple and all that). We went to WalMart to pick up cat litter, ate at Main St. Pub, and then stopped into Hobby Lobby. See I told you, nothing exciting. But there was 2 dozen roses waiting for me when I got home from work! Isn’t he sweet? He has also ordered me a couple of knitting books from Amazon. I think I’ll keep him!

I’ve made a couple of yarn acquisitions that I have neglected to blog about. (I know, 100 lashes with some baby alpaca yarn.) I’ve been a bad blogger and I apologize for keeping the yarn pr0n from you. So without further ado, here it is.

Last week I stopped by Handweaver’s to browse around and pet the yarn. Ok, ok . . . the truth was I was in there looking to get a yarn fix. I found a couple of skeins of Lily Sugar ‘n Cream for making dishcloths. I also picked up some Cascade Pastazza to make some more mittens. I haven’t decided yet if I like this color with the yarn I have for the cuffs, but since I’ve been working on my bolero and the mittens are on the back burner I have time to decide. I do love the color so even if it doesn’t work out I’ll keep this and make something else out of it.

Then on Tuesday of this week I stopped into Stitching Memories on my lunch hour. This shop is so close to where I work that I frequent it a lot. Right as you come in the door is all the sale yarns. Of course I had to stop and take a look and what did I find to my utter surprise . . . this lovely skein of Noro Kureyon! This is my first ever Noro yarn and I figured for $5 it was worth trying out. I also picked up another pair of Addi Turbos. These things are awesome!

Then finally my purchase from Hobby Lobby last night. They had all of their notions and needles on sale for 50% off as well as all of their knitting/crochet books. I picked up another dishcloth pattern book for fun, a few more skeins of Lily Sugar ‘n Cream because you can never have enough dishcloths (looks like I got the same purple again), another row counter, a yarn guide for using more than one color, and a set of size 8 dpn’s. All of this for only $16. Gotta love a sale! Oh yeah, I also bought something for my SP but I don’t want to show it in case she reads my blog. Don’t want to spoil the surprise!

In knitting news, I’ve made more progress on the bolero. I’ve divided for the front and am working my way down the left side. I was going to work both side at the same time but in looking at the pattern it was going to be too confusing. And since I’ve already messed up the math on this once (a big thank you to my hubby who isn’t as math challenged as I am for helping me see my error), I figured that I should just follow the instructions as written. Better to frog because I made a mistake following the directions then to frog because I tried to get cute. Speaking of cute, I leave you with a picture of the bolero in all it’s cuteness.