Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Like Jenga, or Connect-4. I'm not sure which.

So life is sifting out, blocks are falling into place. Figuring out to juggle the new job, a doggy training schedule, while keeping in contact with knitting groups, and church choir practices. Yeah, life got real busy, real fast. I'm figuring it all out, but it means that the time it takes to get blog post together...well, I just haven't been able to figure out WHERE that fits in. I'll get there. I promise. Also, don't know how you guys manage to NOT talk about work so well. There's SO much blog fodder in observing people! No, it's not you. :-)

The knit 2, start 1 program has been going ok. I'll hopefully have time to update before this time next week. With pick-churs and ev'rthang. I

've been trying to get pictures of the dog, but she mostly comes out as a blur. Now that she's comfortable with us, she NEVER STOPS MOVING.

11:41 AM CST |

Monday, January 29, 2007

The "Dynamic" Duo

So most of you who have animals know, the first night's a bitch. Hell, if you've seen Lady and the Tramp (which goes back into the DISNEY VAULT in TWO DAYS...order your copy today!), you know the first night's a bitch. There's whining, there's discomfort, and it's the first chance to determine whether you're going to be the dog's bitch or not. Whose will is stronger? I slept pretty little last night. No, I'm not complaining. I'm stating it as a fact. I slept for the blessed hours between 11 & 1:45, then from 4-5. That's about 4 hours total.

Now, Abbey was not awake for all of this. There was a trip outside, there was the 2 AM playtime to work out the adrenaline that develops from going from your nice warm fleece blanket to the -2 windchill outside. But most of it was her sleeping and my own strained attempts to listen to anything resembling whining. Justin was probably up from 2:30-3, when the real howling whining was going on. But then she quieted down, Justin went to sleep, and I went back to listening.

So please tell me, why is it that they're both asleep on the couch at 8 PM and I'M the one trying in vain to keep the pup awake...just til 9.

"Did you know, Abbey, that Bichons were the royal dog of Madagascar?"

"You're makin' that UUUUUUP!"

Editorial Comment: One of my pet peeves is when a blogger I've been reading gets married, or has a child, or adopts a dog, and suddenly that's all there is to life. I'm sure none of you would like to know the length of the dog's stools or how many times she ate today. Many cute pics are one thing, and I appreciate your enabling of my posting of them. :-D But I'm hoping that this place won't become all dog, all the time. Knitting content will resume shortly. That is all. Time to measure the dog's stool.

09:09 PM CST |

Stop the knitting!!!

I wanted to introduce the latest member of our abode.

This is object of grace and beauty is Abbey.

When we set out today, we were all set on a boy. Calvin was a boy, boys are less expensive. We spent the drive up to New Castle (yeah, she's a New Castle chick...one tough broad) swapping boy names back and forth and settled on Abner for Abner Doubleday, founder of baseball. Hey, I got to name the first dog, so it was only fair. But then we got there. And the only boy had his tail clipped. And since he and the girl were on sale because they are almost 4 months old, didn't get sold at Christmas, and since girls are just less aggressive, we went with the girl. And kept the name. Also named for Abbeys (like Westminster), Abigail Bartlet on the West Wing, and Abbey road.

I promise you more cutesy, only-mama-would-want-to-see-her-dog-THIS-much pictures in the coming days.

07:59 AM CST |

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Like a Meth addict in a Sudafed lab

I worked today at Knit One for the first time. If I helped you, thank you SOOOOO much for the patience. Say hi in the comments and say "I was the one who..." so I can start putting faces to names. I won't say much about work here. Plus, while I'm not tired, my brain is kinda...well...gone.

I came home and knit 40 rows on something (I'll show ya Monday) just to take the edge off

But now I can say I worked at a yarn shop(pe) for a day. Can mark that off the "to do before I'm 50" list. Next up...children. No, not really.

07:08 PM CST |

Friday, January 26, 2007

Wherein The Hubster makes a bad pun.

On teaching Justin to Purl...

SS: You're doing really well, Justin. Good job.

Justin: Thanks, Chief. [What? You have sillier pet names I bet.]
I guess I had a good teacher....showin' me the yarns.

Oy. No no ladies. Back off. He's mine.

06:22 PM CST |

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Wow! Is that what day it is?

Sorry about the lack of posting. That's all you get as far as a mea culpa. Deal. :-)

I'm also feeling very scattered today, so this post may read like something out of James Joyce.

Things have picked up around here. Joined the church choir, the Waterfront Knitting Group. Actively seeking a new job. Also been busy running around the house doing organizational things.

There's been some crafty activity as well. Lots, in fact.

Part of the organizational binge over the past few weeks has been to clean out my craft room, get things put away, yarn reorganized. Man that was tough. So much inspiration for so many things I can't start yet. Anyway, I have had circular needles stored in a small CD case for about a year now. The problem is that they keep popping out. Not to mention that when you pull one needle out, 5 come trailing along behind. Sometimes I move so fast that I don't put back the ones I don't need. This leaves me with a drawer full of sock yarn and plastic cables tangled into one of those complicated mind puzzler things. So a new needle case was needed.

I used fabric from the fabric stash and a hanger left behind when we moved into the house. I will confess that I had to buy iron on transfer stuff, but in my defense, I didn't think I needed it when I started. I thought I had some. What I ACTUALLY HAD was not iron on transfer material but FABRIC that you can run through your inkjet printer. Rah. A small but important distinction.

The pattern is one of two sewing patterns in the book that changed the world first Stitch 'N Bitch book. Lots of horizontal lines of sewing. Why waste it using a plain old sewing stitch?

I've determined that I hate sewing. No wait. I hate sewing with a MACHINE. Many people say that computers don't like them? My sewing machine LOATHES me. The bobbin thread snapped a dozen times. The side of the machine FELL OFF. The part that covers up the whole mechanism that goes up and down and does the actual sewing...yeah. FELL OFF. And it won't go back on. I had to tie it on with leftover yarn from...

The first completed Highland Sock! (How'd you like THAT segue?) I love it! It's snug all over but not tight. Not a finished project, as I need to start and finish the second one, but a solid halfway mark.

There's also been magnum opus knitting.

Here's one for all you long time readers (Hi Stacie!). Who here remembers the Antichrist hat? Anyone?

The Antichrist hat began in January of 2005 (check the archives) when I decided I didn't have enough color in my knitting. I went to Arcadia Knitting with a brand new gift certificate and a desire to embark on a real odyssey...the Fair Isle Sampler Hat from the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits. This thing is an incredibly socking stocking cap that changes colors about every two rows. I last worked on it in May 2005 when it looked like this.

That was 18 months ago! That's what this Knit 2 Start 1 project is about...committing time and effort to finishing these dream projects that would ordinarily stay locked up in a drawer for YEARS if I didn't need to finish them to start something new.

Today the Antichrist Hat looks like this:

Some of you more experienced knitters might look at the bottom and thing, "oooh, look how its all puckered at the bottom. She should have gone back and redone that." I have only one thing to say to that. ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS??? (Sorry Dad.) But seriously. ARE YOU? It took me 5 months to get to that point!!!! I really like that I'll forever be able to look at this hat and know the exact moment that read the Knitty article on color stranded knitting, got inspired, and learned how to do things right!

And as I almost just deleted this entire post by hitting the "back" button, I think it's time for me to post.

I wish you all good days.

11:48 AM CST |

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