Monday, September 27, 2004

A Little of This, a Little of That

I'm planning to get a little knitting done tonight, even if it's just two rows.

It's about 6:45 PM and I could go to sleep right now. How I'll manage to stay awake, I do not know.

One of the guys at work told me his wife and daughter had knit for a short time. They are "product" type knitters rather than process knitters, so they aren't knitting as much now. He said they made a few scarves but they wanted them to be done quickly. I was kind of hoping he'd say they were still knitting, possibly getting the chance to find a knitting buddy, but it doesn't sound like they enjoyed knitting. Instead, it seems they were knitting just to make the scarves they wanted. There's nothing wrong with that. It just means they won't be interested in hearing about my yarn quests or my pattern obsessions.

Although I'm not a huge fan of Lion Brand yarns, I got in a new catalog from them today. I do like Cotton-Ease and I've been wanting to try the sock yarn.

In the catalog there's a little shell entitled "Simple Shell." It's knit in a new yarn called Incredible, which is 100% nylon. Part of me wants to try this yarn but I'm wondering how comfortable 100% nylon would be.

I'm getting ready to check my son's backpack for homework. At first I was surprised that 4 year-olds would have homework but I think it's a good idea. The children get to keep using what they learned and parents get to reinforce what is learned. I love it. I also love knowing what he's doing in school.


Sunday, September 26, 2004

Where did it go?

I posted to this blog last week. I believe it was Thursday. Where did my post go?

In any case, the week has been colorful. This, of course is nothing new.

I have about nine rows done on my Klaralund sleeve. Other than that, I've basically been reading knitting/crocheting blogs, books, and magazines whenever I get the chance.

Still haven't had a lot of free time and the allergies have kicked into high gear for me.

I was hoping to already be asleep now (11:45) but as tired as I am, I can't seem to fall asleep. You would think the allergy medicine would at least help me fall asleep.

Going to try to squeeze in knitting/crocheting time this week. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do it but I will.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

I'm rambling

I ripped the sleeve for Klaralund and cast-on again at lunch.

The ball started falling apart and I thought about how nice it would have been to have a ball winder.

Life is still hectic so I''m not getting to knit...or much else I plan.

My son still doesn't want to go to school. It's heart breaking and frustrating. He'll tell you how he had fun. He'll talk about things they are learning. In the morning, however, he just doesn't want to go.

I really don't know what to do. The teachers are still telling me to give it more time and that he's fine.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering about my job situation. I'm part-time but I'm not sure if I'm considered "permanent." As a part-time worker, I get no vacation or holiday pay.

Fatigue is still a major issue but the foot is healing beautifully. I can walk normally. Well, I think I'm walking normally but in reality I may still have a slight limp. I can't run but walking is pretty cool to me right now.

Maybe I can wear cute shoes next week. Maybe my son will want to go to school next week. Maybe my son will feel better and not wake up during the night next week. Maybe I'll sleep better next week.

Maybe the good times are just around the corner.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

I'm not going

I'm not going to DC.

It has been expressed to me that it is not wise for me to put undue stress on my injured foot. It's true. I knew it was true. Still want to go. I know, however, that going would probably have been painful. Who want's pain?

Rose is going. Christina is going. Kim (Busymamaof2 from KR) is going. Evelyn is going. Claire (from another group) is going. Knittens is going. I won't get to meet them but I hope a few of them meet one another and have a great time.

My son is not feeling well. This was probably the kicker for me decided to not go. He and hubby took a ride out for a little father-son time, as my son wanted to go somewhere. He fell asleep almost immediately. A long trip would have been bad for him.

We didn't get much sleep last night. He kept waking up. He was having problems with his allergies and he was, of course, irratable during those waking moments.

Maybe I'll get to knit a few rows of something today.


In Klaralund news, I started a sleeve on Friday. I got distracted in the doctor's office and did something crazy. I ripped it out and started over. I guess I got caught up in something else because I'm planning to rip it again and start over.

I may try to add some increases to the bust area to accommodate this area. I really don't want to make an extremely large boxy garment, so I'm thinking a little shaping might be a good thing. I'm still new to altering any pattern. Therefore, I'm not sure if I will really alter the pattern or if I'll just save alterations for a pattern of the future.

I'm going to try to sneak in a little nap now. I'm exhausted and a little down about missing the event today. I had even made out little cards with my name and e-mail on them to help stay in contact with fun people I might meet.

I know not going was the best decision. I just really wanted to go.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Anything is Possible

The weather has quieted down. It's raining softly but there is no flooding or strong winds right now.

If the winds aren't bad, I'll be making it to the DC tomorrow. I'll probably stay until about 4:00 depending on how my foot feels.

Let's hope it all works out!

Wish I could have made it to Knit Happens but I guess that wasn't meant to be.

Friday, September 17, 2004

Bad News

My toes are not broken but badly bruised. I'm not supposed to do a lot of walking, yadda, yadda.
Ivan has us under tornado and flood watches.

We're expecting (and getting) heavy rain tonight and tomorrow. They are expecting the rain to continue Sunday but they aren't sure how much rain we'll get on Sunday. The winds are supposed to be rough.

Getting ready to log off because the thunderstorm has already begun and it's supposed to be bad.

At least Ivan has weakened. I wish it would have just died before it ever hit land and destroyed so much.

Some people here are still recovering from Isabel, especially those with less income and resources.

Doesn't look like I'll make it to DC.

Hobbling along

I cannot believe it but it has happened again. I have injured myself.

Yesterday evening, while cooking dinner for my hubby, I somehow managed to knock a bottle of steak sauce off of the counter and onto my foot. It slammed into my foot. Let me say that again. It slammed into my foot.

Most of the impact was on my toes.

The bottle is made of heavy glass. It hit the floor after it hit my foot but did not break. After the pain subsided enough for me to talk, I wanted to pick up the bottle to break it.

For the rest of the night, I had trouble walking and was in awful pain. There was a teeny bit of bleeding but nothing significant.

This morning, it's hard to walk.

I don't understand why this keeps happening to me. I guess I'm doing too many things at once, don't notice my surroundings, so I hurt myself.

It could be worse. The bottle could have broken. My son could have been nearby. I could have knocked the pan over when I fell from the pain.

I don't think there's a break but if there is, there's not a lot they can do for toes.

At least it's not the whole foot.

This could change my weekend in drastic ways.

I'm still going to the Knit-Out...


Thursday, September 16, 2004

Weekend Plans and Recent Arrivals


I'm still going! I'm so very excited. Planning to meet Christina P at some point during the day. I'm taking Klaralund along on the trip with me to knit the sleeves.

My Knit-Out andCrochet bag arrived as well.

In the package was a brochure from last year's event and an informational page for this year's gathering.


I'm guessing they included last year's brochure to give you a better idea of what this year's Knit-Out & Crochet Too will be like. Here's a close up of the little sticker on the brochure.



I'm still hoping to hit Knit Happens on Saturday, just to be able to see the store and all the pretty yarns. My local shop has great yarn but variety is the spice of life. I'm looking for a little JalapeƱo.

My Rowan New Member Kit has finally arrived. (They sent me an e-mail saying they had run out last month.) It's for a rug made with Linen Drape yarn. Since I love the feel of Linen Drape, I'm still debating whether this yarn will actually become a rug. It could easliy be used for something else. The funny thing is, these colors match my living room quite well.

I've been wanting to try something from the Rowan Denim yarn. I had not bought any of the Denim yarn yet because I have other projects to finish and was still a little concerned about the bleeding of the dye. Good fortune and blessings came my way, however, when I wonderful lady acquired this yarn and did not want it. She said I could have the yarn if I would send her the shipping cost. I sent her the shipping cost, plus a little something for her because she was just so sweet! I'm just amazed at the kindness of others sometimes. Guess who's on my Christmas list!

I've also been wanting the Hand Knits for the Home book as well as Knits from the Heart. Michael's had marked these books down to $5.00 each. Since they retailed for more than 5 times that amount, I decided to treat myself.



I still have not started my DNA Scarf. I've just not had time. Hopefully, the pre-school thing will continue to get better and I'll get the chance to start it soon.

Speaking of pre-school, my son is doing well, according to the teachers. He still doesn't want to go but does well, participates, and still says he's having fun. Life will be so much lovelier when he gets used to going.



I took Klaralund to work with me but was too busy running errands at lunch to knit. I'm really thinking this weekend will be perfect for this project.

I'm really psyched for this weekend. I'm hoping to meet lots of nice people, have fun, and make at least one square for Warm Up America.

I'm going to take pictures and I'll post them when I get back.

Hoping to meet some friendly knitters and crocheters!

Friday, September 10, 2004

TGIF

I'm so glad the week is coming to an end. It's been an eventful ride.

Pre-School has been a good experience for my son. The teachers say he's doing well and enjoy having him in class. Unfortunately, he still doesn't want to go to school. They are still assuring me that this will change and he'll get adjusted.

I've pulled out my knitting several times but have still not been able to knit a single stitch. Right now it's only 7:30 pm and I'm so very ready to just go to sleep. I miss knitting but I just have had no time to knit. Now that I have a few minutes to myself, I'm too tired.

In fun knitting news, the new Knitty is up. There are EIGHT, yes, eight patterns I like in this issue. My favorites from this issue are Blaze, Zigzag, and Skating Queen. I must knit at least one of them...once I knock out my WIP's.

Maybe I can knit up some energy.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

What a week

It's been a stressing week.

Pre-School has been tough on all of us. Although my son says he likes pre-school, he doesn't want to go. The teacher assured me he does fine after I drop him off and the day car providers at the school say he's great. Of course, it's a battle to get him geared up in the morning. He says he just wants to stay home with me. Even if I decided to cut back his hours, I'm not home any more. I'm working again. It's only part-time but the hours could pick up.

I'm looking forward to when he's used to the new routine. There have been a lot of changes for him so I know it's probably a major adjustment.

In terms of knitting and crocheting, there just hasn't been time. I've been going to work, pre-school and everywhere else with yarn and needles tucked into my purse but have not done anything. Maybe, just maybe I'll get to knit something tomorrow.

With all these knit-alongs I've joined, I need to be knitting something.

Monday, September 06, 2004

Knitting Along

KAL's

I started the back...errr, I mean swatching for Klaralund yesterday. We were driving out to Richmond and I figured this would be a good opportunity for knitting. I made an error, which I caught early. I decided to frog but when I did, the yarn broke!

I should not have been shocked but I was. I gasped and my 3-year old son asked me in an alarmed voice, "What happened, Mommy? What happened?"

I assured him everything was okay and that Mommy's yarn had just broken.

Everything, however, was not okay. I also found a weird place farther down in the yarn that has some weird blob that is totally inconsistent with the rest of the yarn. Hopefully this is just a bad skein.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to knit a little bit on Klaralund tomorrow.


The DNA-Along began yesterday. I was ill-prepared. I am prepared now, however. At least I believe I am. I'm going to use Paton's Grace in a beige, taupe-like color. With a little luck, I'll be starting that tomorrow.

Since we were going to Richmond, I had hoped to get to Got Yarn. Unfortunately, they were closed. Fortunately, I did check before we left. I didn't want to venture too far off of the path we had planned, so I decided not to try to visit any other yarn shops on this particular outing.

Instead, I did drop into one of Richmond's Ben Franklin Shops. They had Trendsetter and Patons yarns. What they did not have was good service. I'm not sure why I expected good service but I did. They definitely lost money with their inability to provide quality service. Maybe that's not a part of their standards.

We did stop at Knitting Sisters for a short visit. I picked up a shawl pattern, another skein of Cotton Tape, a few small items. They were quite busy but friendly, as usual!

In any event, I have been tremendously busy trying to prepare for my son's first week of Pre-School. That has kept me from knitting, posting, or pretty much anything else I would normally be doing.

I'll work hard at achieving more this week.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Henry's Blanket is Done!

The Healthful Throw for Henry is done. You really must see it! It's adorable!
http://redvelvetcake.typepade.com

Be sure to click on the picture of the blanket so you can see it up-close.

In case you haven't seen my entries about Henry before, he's a little boy who was diagnosed with acute B cell lymphoblastic leukemia. Here's a little information for you.

Thank you to Patti for letting us know about Henry so we could pray for him and be a part of making this beautiful blanket. Thank you to Henry's parents for being so gracious. Thank you to Henry for being a little fighter!

Thursday, September 02, 2004

A day in the life

Since Blogger and Photobucket still aren't playing nicely together, there will be no pictures today. Hopefully they'll work this out so I can try to post some pictures for tomorrow.

I finally found the pattern for the Fisherman's Hat. It's in the Knitter's Almanac and it's the Maltese Fisherman's Hat. Oddly, in the video for Knitting Workshop, the hat is shown with a button that fastens either under the chin while using the ear flaps or at the top of your head when earflaps are not in use. The pattern in the book does not include a button hole, so as a new knitter, who has never done a button hole, or sewn a button onto a knitted fabric, I'll be doing some research.

While flipping through Knitter's Almanac, I noticed a few more things I'd like to knit. It also reminded me of the desire to knit a shawl and to design my own little seamless sweater. Some day I'll do both things.

I still wonder why her (Elizabeth Zimmerman's) books don't have more color pictures. I can understand it would increase the price of books but I passed her books by for quite some time because I couldn't really tell whether I wanted to make the items the book contained. Seems like you'd get a better idea of how the projects really look in the case of items which are not worn by a model/person.


Since I have no intention of knitting Klaralund on the Balene needles, I figured swatching with them really didn't make any sense. I finally pulled the bamboo circulars in size 8 and have been riding around with them in the car. I have not had a chance to try to knit swatch as we are still preparing for preschool. Preparing for preschool has not been an easy task.

Speaking of preschool, I think my son is going to do alright. I took him to check out the school today and to meet his teacher. He did surprisingly well. I think he liked the idea of the new adventures with toys he'd never used.

They are supposed to bring a blanket for naptime, so I'm going to put the blanket I knit earlier this year in his book bag. They don't want the kids to bring thick blankets as there isn't a lot of room for storage and they think the kids will get too warm. I'm wondering, though, if his poor little blanket will get dragged, damaged, and experience little feet stomping apon it. I may have to rethink sending this blanket.

Finally, I've picked the yarn from my stash for the crocheted blanket and hat. Now I have to pick a time to start them.

I got another knitting catalog today. It's the Herrschner's Yarn Shoppe catalog as opposed to the general catalog. A few days ago I got a knitting-related offer in the mail from a company with which I have never done business. I'm wondering who is sharing my name and if they are getting a kick-back for sharing it.

Still having problems with pain. Still frustrated. Still trying to remain positive and have faith that the frustration and pain are only temporary.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

It's only September

Believe it or not, my JCPenney Christmas Catalog arrived today! Guess it's time to start thinking about my Christmas list, my Christmas projects, and my Christmas budget.

We had our pre-school interview for my son today. I think I really like the school where we're planning to send him. I'm hoping he'll like it too.

We got our list of school supplies, so I've got quite a bit of shopping to do to get him ready.l Fortunately, at his age, clothes only have to be comfortable. I thought there may be uniforms and I was concerned about being able to get them in time. I have nothing against uniforms, unless they are horribly ugly.

The interview was two hours long but very informative. The Principal was very friendly, very positive, and seemed very involved.

Hopefully my son will like it.

Klaralund and quick update


The Klaralund-Along begins today. The kick-off for Klaralund, as I'm sure you all know, is at Knit Happens on Sept 8. Unfortunately, I'm not very close to Knit Happens, so I won't be making it there.

I'm all set to swatch. With a little luck, I'll actually be able to do some knitting today.


Since my size 8 needles are MIA in every length in bamboo I'll be swatching with my balene, which I have never used before. I do have my 8's in bamboo circulars but I'm not sure if I want to knit them using the circulars or not. It will be a lot easier to avoid dropping a stitch with circulars but I'm still tempted to just knit flat with the straights.


A few people in the KAL have mentioned adding some shaping to Klaralund. I'm really interested in hearing about that! I imagine it would involve adding a few decreases and increases in the proper places but for me, I'm a little unsure of where the proper places would be.

I picked out a pattern for my crocheted baby blanket. I have not reviewed my yarn yet but I'm pretty sure I've got enough for a blanket and a hat.

I've been going through Knitting Workshop and Knitting Around but I still can't find the Fisherman's hat. It's been a little frustrating.

Hoping to find that pattern soon.

Until then the WIP's are:
1. Klaralund
2. Tie
3. DB Bootees/Shoes
4. Fair Isle Sweater

The next projects are:
1. Baby Blanket and Hat set
2. Making Waves Socks
3. DNA Scarf

There are several other projects calling my name but the above projects will be made next. There will very likely be a new one, a small one, added very soon.