Getting there....

I just bound off the Irish Hiking Scarf for my mom just this morning. I want to at least weave in the ends tonight before I post some pictures. I do need to wash it and block it, too, before I send it to her, since she is allergic to some natural oils and musky animal smells.

I FINALLY get to go to one of my knitting groups tonight. I have been missing so many of my groups due to classes and board meetings. It seems every organization here in Greenville tries to meet on Monday nights. It ends up being very annoying when you are trying to balance out commitments and schedules.

Between the storm fronts making me sick this weekend, and my laundry room retrofitting duties (new hoses, new vent ducts), not much other knitting was done this weekend. However, I did start looking for baby blanket patterns, and found this nontraditional one on knitty.com. If you have used KnitPicks Merino style, please let me know what you think of it. I want to use natural fibers for my baby blankets since they are more fire resistant than synthetics. Plus, the knitpicks would be inexpensive. And with the baby costs piling up, I am all about saving some benjamins!

Good Morning Greenville!

Here is what it looks like from my back porch this morning:

Time for a rude awakening. It is still raining, and it is an icy slush out on the roads. My husband will either get pissed when he realizes the new satellite dish is freaking out, or he will just pop in a DVD. I don't know, I give the chances 70-30. Of course, he is still sleeping. Why be awake when you don't have to go to work?

I am nearly done with my mom's Irish Hiking Scarf. Maybe then I will get around to finally posting a picture.

Wish me luck. I have to get to my training and massage appointments today (trying to keep my back in shape during the pregnancy). If I cancel, I have to pay anyway. So I might as well try. I will do okay as I have 4WD; I am just worried about everyone else driving too fast for the conditions.

So please, take it slow! :)

Oh, and something hilarious. I swear my baby belly has grown significantly in the last day. It is kind of funny. Because my DH said to me last night, "You are DEFINITELY pregnant." Then I looked in the mirror and was shocked! I was not this big when I looked in the mirror in the morning or the day before. What the heck?! It is amusing and scary at the same time, to see one's body go through changes so fast.

Squee! STR 2008!

In the back of my mind it was lurking...I have not heard anything from Blue Moon on paying for the 2008 Club. I was starting to wonder, because it feels like January is almost over already. But I checked my credit card online (Thank God for online banking, because it really has made my life sooo easy) and behold! The charge for the club posted yesterday. Yay! That means I am on my way. I just have to check to see if my friend has seen hers go through or not. I had to send in her registration while she was away on a cruise, so I am a little worried about whether she will be signed up or not.

It took me 9 days to recover from that hellish virus. I am calling it the mondo virus. It seems to wipe out everyone in its path except DH. Go figure. Anyway, since then I have been making a concious effort to Get Ready for Baby (GRB). Lots of reading and phone calls and baby registry junk and organization. And I know my poor husband is stressing out about his work projects. He gave me the puppy dog eyes this morning asking if I could come in and help out. I don't know what the heck to do sometimes. Of course he says he would rather have me organize the house, but the poor man seems to be so stressed. So I have to go in. I may not work for a salary anymore, but I can't get it all done as one think I should. I am going to have to make a conscious effort to work even more. But it is hard. Being pregnant makes one so tired. I spent the whole afternoon running errands (to conserve gas) and by the time I came home, all I could do was sit there with my feet up. It is too hard to try to work in the kitchen from a stool. It strains my back too much.

I hope all of my SC friends will go and vote in the primary this week (Revised to say: Jan 19if you are voting Republican. Jan 26th if you are voting Democratic. Sorry, I blame the TV news for dumbing it down for me and my forgetfulness.). I can't stand seeing on TV how 6 inches of snow in Michigan, and I think it was 30 degree weather, was keeping people home from voting. WTF?! I remember my parents voting in every election in Alaska, no matter what the weather was like. And I would think, that like Alaska, 6 inches of snow in Michigan would be considered a "routine" snowfall. No biggie, break out the shovel and ice scraper and get on with life. The snowplows are out so you should be able to catch the bus to the polling place. I mean, come on. People have no excuse. And before I hear excuses about those less fortunate, YES, I have been without the benefit of a car until I bought my own AFTER college (college paid for by ROTC scholarship and work money). And I struggled to pay it off in 4 years. Yes, I wanted a nicer car, but I bought what I could afford. I rode buses to almost all of my jobs in high school, or walked and took the bus to jobs and classes. I know what it is like to walk home alone at night, on top of 4 feet of snow in the dark cold next to a highway hoping you don't fall down into traffic. Or walk to 6 am ROTC workouts 5 days a week in all sorts of weather. And never did I complain about my situation. You just suck it up and deal. The only excuse would be if your shift schedule vs poll times made it impossible for you to go. So that is what I am saying about voting. It is a privilege not matter what the weather is. And if you don't think it is, just look at what that cutie Chavez is trying to pull in Venezuela. Well anyway, enough of politics. No matter who you vote for, just vote.

Sicky break....

I think I have the worst cold I have had in about a year. For a while there, I thought it might be strep throat. Normally, I am a pretty tough cookie. But when it comes to that strep throat test, I will still to this day pull my hands out from under my seat and yank the swab from my throat using the doctor's own hands (I sit on my hands to try to prevent this.). I am such a big baby about the whole gag reflex thing, but I can't help it. I guess it is better that I am a baby about that than the drawing of blood and receiving of shots. I can do that like a champ. Anyway, the Airborne is helping me beat this back, but it sure is taking a whole lot of doses (compared to my average cold).

I wanted to go to a knit group last night, and to meet some new people at a ravelry meet up today. But it was not meant to be. I hope I will meet some of you at the Knitting Guild Knit Inn, when I hope to be noncontagious.

So I am going to postpone my Stitches East class reviews for now, in exchange for bedtime. Also, I got some cool new glasses this week. So I am debating on changing my profile pic. I really should. But I will have to come up with some other silly look than Princess Leia buns.

Knitting Resolutions, Revisited

This is the time of year that we all post our knitting resolutions. I do need to visit my own, and to see what my progress is. I know I have done okay against some.

Last year's resolutions were:

1. Practice knitting continental by finishing more washcloths, then starting and completing an entire project in continental. (Started this last year, need to become even better.) --> Oooh, did not do the last part. Need to keep this one on the list.

2. Restart fair isle projects and finish them, with good gage. --> Uh, no.

3. Knit a pair of socks every month. --> This one fell apart sometime around April. Hey, it was worth a shot. I just fell so far behind by doing other projects, and I am not the fastest knitter. I think I will drop this one.

4. Learn to dye. (Already scheduled for a class on March 3rd to learn to dye my own self-striping sock yarn. Yee!) --> I did take a dying class, but did not feel I learned enough to just up and do it without having to do alot more research. So I will revisit this topic this year. It is a keeper.

5. Start learning to design own patterns. --> Yes, I did take design classes at Stitches East, and will start working on my own baby hat patterns soon. Now that I have a kid on the way, I can feel more motivated. Plus that dreaded first trimester energy slump seems to be waning.

6. Complete another Morehouse Farm Sweater kit (from Stash). --> Started but did not finish. Need to keep on the list.

7. Go to Maryland Sheep and Wool. (Hotel already booked!) --> Done. This one was too easy.
8. Learn to crochet. --> Started to learn from a friend but I did not stick with it. Too many other knitting obligations like the sock a month got in the way.

Now to establish this year's resolutions:

1. Design and publish two of my own patterns.

2. Complete another Morehouse Farm Sweater kit (from Stash).

3. Restart fair isle projects and finish them, with good gage.

4. Start and complete a project in continental. This should be combined with resolution #3.

5. Dye on my own.

6. Use of some of my insane sock yarn stash by knitting baby items.

7. Put more of my stash and projects on Ravelry. --> Such a huge undertaking. I am just trying to still hide the stash in what is left of the new nursery (my former sewing room). Yikes!

8. Knit and/or quilt two baby blankets. One for stroller and carseat, one full sized.

9. Avoid Christmas knitting requests. This year, I will just say no. The only knitted Christmas presents will be surprises.

That is not bad. I still need to do alot more growth and learning in my knitting. I will also be helping a friend to learn to knit, so that will be nice.

I also promise, just because I am having a baby, that I will not ignore my childless friends. I will also not be one of those mothers whose only possible topic of conversation is what my child's poop is like (color, consistency, odor). I can't handle that. I must keep up with current events. Oooh, and a warning...I will be dragging the tike to knitting groups, as soon as WE are able. That is, after we are both on a schedule with sufficient rest.

I also have to catch up on so much that I have left undone since Stitches East. I need to write up Stitches East Class Review. I will try to get it done this weekend. In the meantime, here is my one picture from Stitches East. Two gals on Ravelry, Booksherpa (on the right) and Sweetness (on the left). They were really fun to talk to. And in the middle is my travelling knitter buddy, Mary. She is the same friend I go to MDSW with.

Seriously, what was I thinking?

I have been helping my husband at work (for free), travelling for knitting and football, taken on a buttload of interior design classes, and have other major changes going on in my life. Needless to say, the Christmas knitting did not get done. Ah well, I have a good excuse. And what is that you may ask?

I AM PREGNANT.

Yep, it whiped me out, totally. In case you were wondering, this is our first one, and yes, we were trying. Please, no horror stories. It is bad enough knowing that soon strangers will come up and rub my belly and tell my their pregnancy horror stories. I really don't need negativity in my life. Only positive thoughts!

Too much running around between everything that I do, then all my free time I needed to spend clipping out pictures from magazines and laying out a design board. (See below.)

I had signed up for Advanced Project in my Interior Design class series. It seriously was a ton of work. Because I had to design half of a house (12 rooms) in 6 weeks, right before Christmas. So I finished a little under two weeks ago. Thank God that the fictional family I was assigned aligned with some of my own personal taste. However, however, however I was seriously handicapped in the area of fabrics. Greenville is totally 10 years behind the rest of the world, and finding exotic/eclectic fabrics in my imagined color scheme (red, yellows/browns, icy blue) that work with 18C and art deco furniture took a few trips. Sometimes I really do wish I lived in a big city again. Because I struggle to even find fabrics for my own house. Also, I had to special order all of the glass tile and wooden floor samples I wanted from a place in Canada. This stuff was not available in Greenville. Sometimes it is just so frustrating. Well I guess it shows well that I was really the only student who designed the bathrooms and closets as well...at least color schemes and fabrics. Why not?!

What made it worse is I had two other classes going on at the same time, so I was in class 3 nights a week. I had no energy left for knitting.

Well, here is a picture of the finished board. Sorry it is kind of junky, as I had to take it with my cell phone camera since I cannot find my real camera. It does not show all of my tile and floor samples, as well as the extra notebook full of pictures of furniture and accessories that could not fit on the board. It is a ton of detail!

I hope to try to get back to doing some knitting this weekend. I feel finally like maybe I can settle down and do something creative for myself.

Not Dead Yet....

...I really have to apologize for being gone for so long. Wedding trips, Stitches East, family trip, and some other (to remain mysterious) major events going on in my life have really sapped my time and energy. Stitches East proved too busy to even do my cell phone posting. Also, our cable modem died in between Stitches East and a family trip, so I could not post. (I seem to remember telling my husband that our whole network was acting up and probably going down, but you know how guys are. They won't address it till its completely broken.)

On good news and bad news, the organic grocery coop project has ended. The conclusion is that it is not feasible. I am not surprised by this, and expected this outcome from the start. But I held out hope that maybe I was wrong. At least I will have some time freed up.

Hopefully as I get settled in this next week, and rest up, I can post some Stitches East fun.

Test post

Hello! Test post from phone. ;)

We're off to see the Stitches....

...the wonderful Stitches East!

Yessirree! I am off today, starting in one hour, to drive 8 hours with my friend to Baltimore. Wish us luck wrt traffic.

I am going to try to post live from Stitches East via cell phone, but since this is the first time, there could be some glitches!

Can't wait to meet up with my fellow Ravellers! :)

Git R Done...

(...an aside, this post was written 9/23 and I had yet to post it and take pictures. I apologize. I just got back from another trip to Florida, and now I am turning around to go to DC for a wedding. The good news is that I am finally going to see the capital! After that, I will go to stitches. Also, I have been helping my husband at work most days between trips. So it has been hectic around here. Anyway, here is my best at a partial post, I will see if I can swing my husbands laptop to post while I am on the road.)

...I so realize that I am way behind on posting some of the cool new things that I have purchased. And where I am on some things. As glamorous as traveling is, we all know that it distracts us from getting things done. So, here is my attempt at "Git R Done."

The new STR club kit arrived. I have not done anything with it. It is quite cool.

I purchased some Handmaiden Sea Silk to do a small scarf or shawl with. I don't think I have decided on what pattern to use just yet.

The new Cat Bordhi book. Yay me!

I finished my HW for Stitches East! Yeah, yeah all of my whining was just too much. It only took me a few hours. For all of the whining you would think it would have taken days or weeks like last year. But I have been on a real no-crafting mood lately. I was empathizing with a quilting friend about this. We both have been going home and just sitting there, watching TV, and thinking I really need to do XXX but not getting up to do anything about it. I guess it is a lack of energy? Not wanting to mentally tackle anything? Not sure. I am not home at night hardly. I think that contributes to it.

Next on my list is to tackle Part 2 of the Basics, Basics, Basics course. I have alot of feedback regarding my work on Part 1 to read through first. I have not had the focus to sit down and read and absorb all of that. Having worked for so many years under intense workloads and deadlines, I often find it hard to sit and read and truly absorb what I am reading.

I also need to start on my mom's Xmas scarf. So hopefully on these trips, I can get started on that.

Oh, and check my new tshirt design below at the bottom of my blog. You too can proclaim your sock yarn love! I designed it for myself for Stitches East, and decided to make it publicly available since the design website allows me to do that. You can see me wear it around the market on Saturday. :)