Friday, April 25, 2008

Sigh.

In order to properly piss off the pair of socks I was making Damarys, I started another pair. Did I tell you I got a new book that I love Love LOVE? Well! I started These (the first socks shown "Embossed Leaves"). I love them a lot. The cuff is weird and I had to learn a new cast on, and the toe is a Star. Yep, not a toe shaped toe, a star patterned toe. Too. Cool. Anyway, here's mine so far:










(Tofutsies in a black/grey/white color). That little tiny bit took up half of 5th Grader and all of CSI. They may become Christmas socks - I have a few pair to make (not including Damarys' socks which may or may not be in time out until 2017). I am making them on size 3's instead of 2's because my 2's are being otherwise occupied by another pair of socks I'm ignoring:












OK, enough socks. Wanna know why I feel like a 90 pound weight is off my shoulders? These past 2 weeks I've been doing this:











That's a lot of math and figuring and writing and erasing and making pretty this:










My co-workers are infinitely thankful the mailman took it off our hands before I vomited on the floor. No more proof this/print that/and this/and oh this/kill me now. They love me, but I think they are ready to sell me off for chocolate, or something equally quiet.

Sigh. Squee!!!

OK, so now I wait (quietly so as not to get evicted from the office). They laughed at me for wanting a yarn tattoo with my earnings (should I have earnings). Guess that is pretty funny, except that I'm serious. Oh well.

This weekend I am going to see my Mom and visit with my Aunt Rere, who is down from NY. You may remember her (the socks, not the skeins):










Its nice to see my favorite Aunties so quickly. AND, Sue left with yarn in her hands... wonder if Rere can be converted?

Enough from me for now, I really should get SOME work done. Have a great weekend.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Toothless Wonder, and a little frog

Last night Jake lost his first tooth. Finally. All the cool kids were doing it, guess it was finally Jake's turn. Travis pulled it, since it was just laying there - it wouldn't stand up at ALL. I had some cute video of my closed bathroom door - with Jake and Travis on the other side and it sounded like this:
J - But it's gonna hurt!
T - No, I'll just get a little piece of tissue and you wont feel it. You don't want to have it fall out when you're eating supper and swallow it do you?
J - But what if it hurts?
T - Let me try, and if it hurts I'll stop.
J - OK. (pause) But Dad,
T - All done.
J - Really? Let me see!

Unfortunately when I played the video back today I had to turn the speakers up REALLY loudly to hear them and it was still muffled. Oh well. It was too cute. Here's some pics.













I also wanted to show you Sean's mad basketball skilz...
















Oh, and I made myself a spindle and using some of the alpaca roving I got in August, I made "yarn". It is not easy, not very pretty, not intuitive to do and I generally suck at it. I don't know if I will do more, I just don't get it apparently. Like crocheting socks I suppose... lotsa people love it - I suck at it. Here's what I have:













And finally... Let us fondly remember Damarys' sock. Seeing as how I apparently lost touch with reality and the relationship of gauge to fit, I frogged the beautiful, too-small-to-fit sock. I will try it again on size 2s once I have regained some confidence...and a tape measure. Good thing I still have 8 months and 1 day til Christmas, eh?

[ETA - I LOVE the new "save as you go" feature of Blogger that helps morons that close out the innernets before publishing not have to retype their blog entries.]

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Blah

I've been sick since Friday. I hate being sick! But, it is giving me marginal time to work on some crocheting. This morning I need to sit with the truck at the shop which should give me some sock knitting time. Hmm, sick + chart = ? Hopefully nothing bad. Anyway, that's it from me, maybe tomorrow I'll be back to work.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Just a quickie

Here are some pics from my weekend:

The view from my room at the Gaylord:










The rays and fish in one of the ponds inside the hotel:











And finally, Jake and Sean at my Mom's house:











I am making progress on the jacket, I've finished the back, one front and about 1/2 of the 2nd front. Today I should be able to stitch them up and start the sleeves. Tonight is the Doro concert - Everyone is pretty excited. I have almost no voice and am trying some hot tea. I am not a fan of hot tea. Oh well, hopefully it will work. That's it for now, more tomorrow.

Friday, April 11, 2008

LOVE my job

Hey there, I hope you had a nice Friday. I am staying here and it is SO beautiful. Travis and the boys will be coming later on but for now I am in a very nice suite all by myself. I am taking some cute pics that I will share on Monday too. I am making a little progress on the sock (I am on the 2nd half of the heel) and I think (sigh) it will fit. I am also most of the way done with the back of LetterBaby Jacket 2.0. I really should have spent the last 2 hours working on it... OK, 3... but I took a nap for 2 and piddled on here for a bit. Pretty soon I need to get dressed for dinner. Ok, I just noticed that someone has crocheted the lamp cords. Yep, I'll take a pic. How cute!

That's it for now, dinner in 40 minutes which = 30 minutes to crochet, 5 minutes to put on my skirt and 5 minutes to walk over. Have a gerat day!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Cliff update

Thank you for all of our good thoughts and prayers, it's much appreciated. Cliff's doing good, and this is about as good of a best-case senario as you can get. His tumor is spread from a spot on the back of his throat where his tonsils were. Surgery is set for 5/5 then some radiation and hopefully all will be well! I am thrilled and maybe now I can get some sleep.

Also, thank you for the congrats, I am so excited by this possibility, also humbled and scared. I am putting together my package for them and it should be in the mail next week. Yay!

I haven't been working on anything but that - I'm crocheting from my pattern in the larger size (you know, the one that required the math not the counting) so I have dropped the blanket for sale, Damarys's socks and mom's sweater. Nothing like a deadline to kick you into gear!

That's it for now. Tomorrow I have a site inspection at the Gaylord and I may take the sock for some pics, but I'm not sure. I will have a LOT of time on my hands to knit and crochet and I plan to use it all! Have a great weekend and I will share pics on Monday.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Good stuff

I got an email this afternoon from the magazine that I submitted the LetterBaby jacket to and they want me to send it to them for review! I am SO excited! I love love love it, but you know, that never really is a good gauge of how other people will like it. Anyway, hopefully I'll have good news on that front when they decide.

Cliffy had his scan today and goes to the doc tomorrow for results. I am very concerned but prayerful. It will be good to know what we're dealing with, you know? So, pray hard!

I managed to get a pic of Sean's new hair cut - but I couldn't manage to get him to look at me when I did it! Is it just me or does he kinda look like Caesar?











And finally, I started on the heel turn of Damarys' socks, and hopefully they will fit this time. More pics when I can put it on my foot! Good thing we wear the same size shoe, eh?

That's it for now, remember - pray hard!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Stuff to do, stuff to show and a headache

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. I made $170 at my yard sale, I was thrilled! And I STILL brought a whole truckload to Goodwill. All I keep thinking is what the heck did I sell? Well, the Beatles albums went (and for those that know me, they know that is BIG), lots of baby clothes, books, knick-knack stuff, drinks sold well too. All in all, a great day. I parlayed that money in to 2 bras from Fredrick's at the Mall (yep, I went to the mall and survived!), dinner at Red Lobster and groceries at Walmart (including a swim suit). I completely blew my WW points on Saturday - like WWWAAAYYYY blew my points. Whoops! I'm better today.

My desk is pretty full, which is no surprise since I feel like I've been doing nothing today except blog reading, picture updating, Ravelry playing, etc. So, right after this post, I will get to work! sigh.

I got to the heel turn on Damarys' sock, and I love it. However.












We have a problem, and apparently she is fond of her toes and won't let me lop them off (I asked). I don't know if it is my gauge (probably since have not learned this hard hard lesson) or what, but I need to rip back my perfect little short row heel VERY carefully and attempt to pick up the stitches at the exact moment I started the short row because I do NOT want to try to find my place in the chart if I screw it up. I honestly think it would be easier to frog the whole thing and have a mulligan, so wish me luck. Otherwise, it is beautiful - I love how perfect the "toe up" toe looks and I am really liking this heel, but I don't think I quite have that "wrap & turn" thing quite down. Well, maybe I'll get it right when I have to re-knit it.

I won a new book (love you eBay) - Favorite Socks. I have been wanting this book for awhile, but had not seen it on EBay and the shipping for Amazon is usually pretty high. I lucked out on this, and am thrilled. I've seen a few socks on Ravelry from this book that I really want to make. Now I just need to get back out to Uncommon Threads and get some more of this Comfort Sock!

OK, I need to get some work done and try not to let this headache get the best of me. Have a great day and I'll try to post pics of Sean's new haircut tomorrow. Oh, on Sat - I took him to get a haircut. SO cute!

Friday, April 04, 2008

I. Love. My. Job.

Over the course of the next 2 months I have 4 site inspections and a week-long trip to Ft Lauderdale. The up-side is that I get OT and stays in nice hotels. The down-side is that I wont be driving to the ones without Travis and will have no way to get to local yarn shops, and really, is there any other reason to travel?

I finished the button band/buttonhole band/collar of Mom's sweater, and moved the back I was working on to the Addi's instead of the plastic ones they were on. Love you Addis! It should go quicker now, but it is really hard getting used to the 3x3 rib for some reason.

I also am almost up to where my foot ends and ankle begins on Damarys' socks. I really love these socks, they look great but I HATE following a chart. NOT fun! Also, not portable, so that is my couch knitting.

Speaking of couch knitting, last night I started a new round ripple babyghan for an upcoming craft fair. They are such a big WOW with so little work! I'll need to get some yarn (shucky darn) but I do have quite a bit in stash to make it so I wont need much.

No updates on Cliffy yet, we should know more next week once he's had his PET scan and talks to the docs. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. My Aunt Sue is coming into town next week too, which will be cool (Hi Sue!)(she reads this...often!) We'll head over there next Sunday to hang out, probably at the beach. Not a fan of the beach, but I guess I can knit on a sock or something - not a place for Mom's sweater, or the sock-of-many-pages-of-directions. New sock??? Now there's an idea!

Um, weight loss progress - I've lost 6 lbs on ww since I started it, 6 weeks ago? I was doing really good at 2 lb a week, then nothing then 2 more lbs this past week. Fingers crossed I'll do OK this coming week.

That's it for now. Let me dig in to see if I have a pic to share:













This shows Sean during the "chocolate incident" and a pic in which I think he looks VERY much like me as a kid. (NTS: bring that pic to scan of me as a baby that looks like him).

Yard sale tomorrow at my place. 7am will be VERY early! Have a great weekend.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Everybody but my Mom

Go look here for a sneak peak at Mom's Sweater in progress. That is about 4 inches of back plus the button band that will go around the sides and neck. I made buttonholes. Can you see them, kinda? I'm terribly excited about them. Doesn't take much. That's it for now.

Happy April Fools to you too!

Good morning. It's such a blah day so far, and VERY hard not to grab a bag of chips to munch because i can, not because I'm hungry. Anyway, it was an OK evening, I've been gathering stuff up and cleaning stuff up for the yard sale on Saturday. I put an ad at the Flyer online. Hopefully I'll sell lots and be able to better utilize my new book! I also started to read my other new book. I love Stephanie and having the new book is like a blog post that I get to own!

Anyway, I did get a little done on the sock but its not going quickly because of the lace chart and that is making me put it down more and more. I still didn't remember to take a pic of Mom's sweater. I'll try to do that at lunch today. I've had to split them up, sock gets worked on at home because Damarys is at work, and the sweater gets worked on here because i cant work on the sock. Perfect sense, right!

The kids are doing OK, but I don't have pics to prove it. Sean woke up a couple times last night but other than that he was good. Travis got Sean's impetigo on his ear (!) apparently from when he held him on his shoulder and Sean's nose met Travis' ear. It's the funniest thing! So we put some of the antibiotic cream on it the doc gave us for Sean. It was $33, so I'm glad we can use it again!

That's it for now. I'll try to get on later to show everyone but Mom the sweater. Have a great day.