Knitamazoo(tm)

Well Christmas has come and gone and my house is now empty. Mom and Dad were the last to leave and they left Thursday before New Year’s. I didn’t move from the couch for a couple of days and managed to finish these socks. (I know this isn’t a picture of the finished ones, but I haven’t gotten around to taking it yet.)

I had a wonderful time over the holidays. My Mom, brother, his fiance and I did a special musical program for church. We even remembered to take some pictures while we were still dressed up. I just now noticed that my hubby was the only one not wearing dark colors. Guess he didn’t get the memo. Anyway, you can see that we did have a white Christmas. It warmed up and rained after Christmas day so all the snow is gone but I’m sure it will be back very soon.

Santa was very good to us. I couldn’t believe the amount of gifts under our tree. I don’t know how we got them all under there but we did. Cosmo was the only kitty who was interested in Christmas at all this year and his interest was limited to this stupid pink troll head that was in the stocking of cat toys that we bought.

My Mom did such an awesome job shopping for me! But really, how could she go wrong buying yarn and needles? It was so funny when I unwrapped the sock yarn. I bought the exact same color of Sockatta yarn earlier this year when we went to Frankenmuth. What was really strange was that the ball she bought was the same dye lot as the one I bought. Crazy! She also got me some Addi Turbos, some Inox (since I haven’t seen them around here), Fiddlesticks dpn’s in size 1 and Clover bamboo dpn’s in size 2. Now I can have both socks of a pair going at the same time.

My lovely future sister-in-law gave me a gift certificate to one of my LYS’s. Isn’t she just the sweetest? I spent that and some of my Christmas money on this yummy yarn. Three skeins of Noro Kureyon, a ball of Sockatta, 2 hanks of Koigu KPPPM, 1460 yds. of some yummy laceweight (and no I can’t tell you what it is as I’m at work and I can’t remember), and a 52″ (I think) Denise cable. The Monday after Christmas Mom, Dad, hubby and I went to Frankenmuth. While there we hit the outlets, Bronner’s Christmas store and I of course made them stop at Zeilinger’s Wool shop where I found the patterns for the Fibertrends Flower Basket shawl and the Sheep shawl. That laceweight is destined for one or both of these.

So vacation is over and I’m back at work. My new position at work keeps me fairly busy so I haven’t had as much time to update my blog or join chat which is a bummer. But my days are going by pretty quickly. And speaking of jobs, my hubby got a call yesterday and was offered a job that he had a phone interview for the day before. It’s a 6-month contract back where he was before. Even though it’s only a 6-month thing at least he’ll have his foot in the door and other projects are coming up all the time.

I almost forgot. Now that hubby is employed again, I signed up for my first ever knitting class at my LYS. I’m going to learn socks on 2 circs! I really want to be able to do them both at the same time and am really excited to be taking a class. It starts next Wednesday and I am about to burst!

Well that’s it for now. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And now I think I’m going to go join Cosmo.

I got up Sunday morning to discover this in my living room. I’m pretty sure that Cosmo is the guilty party as he seems to be the only cat that has any interest in the Christmas tree at all. I’m happy to report that no garland was eaten (I’m basing this assumption on the fact that I did not find any glittery cat barf anywhere in the house) and I was able to repair the damage quite easily. I bought them a kitty stocking for Christmas filled with catnip toys but I’m thinking of replacing them with hairball remedy and coupons for the kitty spa. Speaking of the kitty spa, both cats have appointments next weekend. They are both scheduled for pedicures and aroma baths. Gotta smell nice for Christmas!

On the knitting front, I finished the SIL scarf last night. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Vital statistics: Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style, Rowan Soft Baby yarn and Clover 16″ size 8 circulars. Again, the bamboo was a little too grabby for this yarn in my opinion and I wouldn’t use them again. The picture is a little dark (what can I do? It’s still dark out when I leave for work.) but you get the idea. I’m not sure if I want to block it or not and I have a few days to make up my mind.

There’s one last piece of absolute must be done Christmas knitting to be completed. That “thing” for my brother. I may end up making my first foray into Magic Loop for this one and I really don’t want to go out and buy size 13 dpns just for this one project. I’m not sure that I’d ever use them again. But this is very close to being complete. Then if I can figure out what pattern I want to use I can try to get a scarf done for hubby by Christmas. I’m just glad that I’ve got most of the knitting done now. Maybe I’ll have some time to clean the house before everyone arrives.

I did it! I finally did it! I finished all the knitting on my Clapotis last night around 10:20. I still have 4 dropped stitches that I need to run all the way down and the ends to weave in but it is off the needles and I’m happy! I don’t have any pictures to post yet but I promise you there will be pictures tomorrow. I went to bed extremely happy and content last night. And when I woke up this morning another happy dance ensued when I realized that today was August 9 and the new Vogue Knitting magazine would be on newsstands. (I am sure my cats are going to need therapy with all the happy dancing they have witnessed in the past 24 hours.) I have waited two weeks to be able to start the lace shawl in this issue. I am running to my LYS on lunch to pick up the magazine and my first pair of Addi Turbos to do this project. I’m so excited!

I found this on my garage yesterday . . . and it was there all day. This cicada had shed his outer shell and was drying his wings when I found him. He really startled me when I was getting in my car yesterday to go to work and he was still there when I got home last night although his outer shell was gone. I snapped a couple of pictures of him and an hour or so later he was gone. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid in NJ. We would find the shells all over in the summer.

We have had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes from our little garden this year and I haven’t been able to enjoy them due to a stupid canker sore which I am sure is due to eating too many tomatoes when we were visiting my mother-in-law. Oh the irony! The cherry tomato plant has hatched it’s evil plot to take over the entire garden and possibly our house. The thing is out of control and it is just covered in tomatoes. I’ve given away all that I’ve harvested but there are so many tomatoes that haven’t ripened yet that I should be able to enjoy some of them. We have also harvested two green peppers and they are delicious! If we do end up moving due to hubby getting a new job I really hope we are able to find a house where we can have a larger garden.

Ooooooooo . . . I just can’t stop the happy dance! I better get some control or my poor co-workers will definitely need therapy. I’m off to count the minutes til I can go to the yarn store! 75 minutes and counting . . .

What an exciting weekend it has been! I had a lot of knitting firsts this weekend and I am giddy with excitement! First off I managed to seam my shapely tank. This is my first garment and first time doing mattress stitch. It was so cool to watch the stitches lining up and the seam forming. Now I just have to finish weaving in ends and do the neck and armholes. The greatest news is that it fits!! Just like it’s supposed to! I was screaming and jumping around because my first garment ever fit. I can’t wait to finish it and wear it.

Secondly I did Kitchner stitch for the first time to graft the handles of the French Market Bag which brings me to my other first. First time felting! The bag is in the washer right now. First check looked good but there was still stitch definition so I put it back in. When I get it blocked I will post pics of it.

So I’ve had a rather exciting weekend!

Ok, so I should have known better. I could never keep a diary when I was younger so why did I think I could keep a blog? It would start out with the best of intentions of writing down my thoughts every day in a diary. And for about a week all would be wonderful. Every day I would sit down and let my thoughts and feeling flow onto the pages of my diary. It was a beautiful thing! Then I would get busy . . . and my entries would be less frequent . . . maybe every other day or just once a week. And finally the diary would be forgotten altogether . . . languishing in some corner and the only thing it was collecting was dust and cobwebs.

So I’m going to wipe the cyberdust off my blog and try to update it more often. I had all my handy excuses ready (I’ve been sick, I’ve been getting ready for my family to visit, I’ve been knitting . . .) but no more excuses!! I will update! Every day I will . . . well maybe I’m not ready for that level of commitment.

Starting now, I the Knitting Addict, promise all of you, my faithfull readers (insert cricket sounds here) that I will be faithful in updating my blog at least once a week if not more. There . . . I said it. Whew! That wasn’t so hard.

Knitting update: I did finally finish my brother’s scarf. I put all the fringe on yesterday and now I just have to wrap it up before he gets here tomorrow. I’ve also started the French Market Bag from Knitty. I like that it is mindless knitting and I can use it to unwind. I also have both sides to my Shapely Tank done. They need to be blocked and seamed. Then I can finish the neck and armholes. I’ll post pictures later.

So this is my very first blog. I just started knitting about 4 months ago and about 1 month ago I discovered knitty.com and the message boards there. They are a great bunch of ladies! Funny and so very helpful too. So after looking at some of their blogs I decided that I had to start one for myself. So . . . . . . here it is!!