No Time To Post!

Well this is definitely going to be a quickie post. I have just a few minutes before I head over to my friends house for her Cookie Lee party. Pretty stuff!! It will be a lot of fun.

I have a few progress pictures to show you:


I have finished the heel and am now on the gusset decreases. I love this part of the sock because the rest is all down hill. I should have this finished up in no time. I haven’t put too much thought into what sock I will knit after this so I guess I better get down to it.


I also casted on for the Saartje’s Booties at work last night. It was so low that I almost got the whole thing done. I hope to have both done by the end of the weekend. These are going to be for my cousin Renee’s baby that is due in March. I am using Lout Gems Fingering in Crabapple Blossom. I love this color!!

So that’s all for now. I have been oogling this for my next big project, after Ballet Cami is done. I won a skein of Merino Oro in a contest a while back.

-Michele-

And We're Back

PS. Make sure to drop by Alyson’s blog for her destah to save Bitty sale. She needs the funds to help her poor little dog who had surgery. She has some great stuff and awesome prices.

Wow, I thought that after 4 days off I could get back to work as usual. Not the way it happened. I was trying to post yesterday but it was crazy. I am staying at my boss’s house again to watch the dogs since they are out of town so I have been running back and forth from my house to theirs. We live a little farther now that we moved. I don’t really sleep all that well at their house either (their dog is old and LOUD) so I haven’t been feeling great. Despite all that and the extra job I managed to cast on for Ballet Cami.

I just finished the ribbing and am about to start the body. I think I will knit a few rows before I start the decreasing to give it a little longer length. The last thing I need is a top that shows a little skin :-) I have been knitting like crazy lately and it has a lot to do with the new job. Aside from the day after Thanksgiving it has been dead! That’s good for me I guess. The last time I worked I knit the heel flap for the second striped sock and read a bunch in my book. It’s nice to have all that time to knit and read but the time does pass really slowly. It’s ok, I keep telling myself it’s just till Christmas.

So about the Striped Sock…I figured out that it’s pretty hard to take a picture of a sock when I have not knit the gusset. Can you believe that both the sock and cami pictures were on the same table? The light does weird things sometimes. So it’s back to work tonight so I should get pretty far with the knitting. We’ll see how busy it gets.

-Michele-

Happy Turkey Day!

Well this will just be a quickie post to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be heading to a friends house for the afternoon. Mostly all of our family is in California so we will not get to see them this year. It’s ok because we have plenty of new family here :-)

I remembered to get a picture of the second Striped sock this time. I hope to be at least to the heel by Monday. I won’t be posting on Friday since I will be working. The hubby and I know someone who sets up a store in the mall from now until Christmas and she needed some more workers so we jumped to help. We will be working evenings and weekends. The hours kinda suck but its ok, it’s only until Christmas and it will bring some extra cash. So I will be stuck at the mall the day after Thanksgiving…

So bye until Monday! Have a good weekend!

-Michele-

New Yarn!

So Angie and I made it to the Orlando Needleworks Show on Saturday. Even though both of us haven’t been feeling 100% lately we had a blast. I was not going to miss it just because I couldn’t breathe the night before. My sister has lived with severe asthma her whole life but I was told that I had slight asthma. But that was a long time ago and I haven’t used an inhaler in like 5 years. So there I was, the night before the Needleworks Show gasping for breath, well it wasn’t that bad but I was definitely not comfortable. I ended up being fine but I really was not going to let that stop me from going. The Show was pretty good (compared to the last one we went to…) and it had quite a few booths. We oogled and squeed over yarn. I swear we were separated at birth or something. Every time I grabbed a skein she was looking at the same one. We did buy a bunch considering we’re almost always broke. I got a skein of Pagewood Farms Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in Bird of Paradise and some pretty fall looking Roving from…(dang I don’t have the name with me, but I’ll get it!) we even made it over to Sip N Knit to sop some more. I got a skein of Araucania Ranco Multi Sock Yarn in the blue-purple color. Both of the yarns are gorgeous!!! I can’t wait to spin up the roving too. I thought I lost my drop spindle but I found it after tearing apart my knitting areas. We did not make it to IKEA but we did drive by the exit. That whole area was packed! There was no way we were making it in there.

I finished the Striped Sock on Friday but didn’t get to post about it yet. The toe came out great. This was the first time I grafted a toe in fingering weight yarn. I started the 2^nd sock right away but I haven’t got very far into it.

I finally finished Fetching over the weekend. I don’t know why it took me so long. I knit the first one back in February and never thought twice about the 2nd one. Since it is getting cooler here I had the urge to just finish them. I was surprised that it only took me a day to knit it. The first one took me a couple of days. Maybe I am just getting better at this?

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Needles: 4.5mm Bamboo Dpn’s

Pattern: Fetching (Knitty Summer 2006)

Pattern Designer: Cheryl Niamath

Date Finished: 11/18/2007

Now that I have been finishing things up around here I can cast on for Ballet Cami. Maybe this week? We’ll see…

-Michele-

Happy IKEA Day!

Today was the grand opening of IKEA and it should be a holiday. Or we should have had the day off at least :-) It is a definitely a big deal to us. I was so excited when I first heard about it. Now I want to go really really bad. Hey maybe I will get to pop in there when I am in Orlando on Saturday? I don’t have any idea if we will even be close to it but what does that matter? Did you know that they have free childcare and cheap meals? Crazy…


I am going to drone on again about the Striped Sock. I was not home until late the past 2 nights so I have only knit about an inch. But as you can see I am ready for the toe. I am dying to have this thing finished!! I have already had someone stake a claim on them. My mom emailed me that if they're are too small (like the Horcrux Socks) she will take them off my hands. How sweet of her! I haven’t decided if they fit me yet. I can get them on but they are a bit snug…

In other news…I think I am going to throw my Zune against a wall. Well it’s not the Zune’s fault, it’s the makers’. Yes its all Microsoft’s fault…Ha that capitalized all on its own…do you think its because I am typing in Word? This is all a conspiracy. Anyways, today they released an update for the Zune software so I did what it told me and I downloaded it. Little did I know that it would completely screw up my entire library. All of my songs are posted now on the wrong albums. Carrie Underwood is listed on Timbalands album and so on. I logged on to Zune’s website to see if there is tech support or something and I came across the tech support forum filled with annoyed customers and a little tutorial on how to fix the problem (that they knew about yesterday but did not fix or at least remove the update!!) but I couldn’t figure it out. I even uninstalled the whole thing and reloaded it but the stupid CD looks for updates before installing. Conspiracy!! At least I did not have my actual Zune hooked up to the computer when all this went down so it is safe for now. I hope they fix this quick!! All I need is another thing to not work around here…ugh

-Michele-

I'm All Over The Place

I did not have one thing planned for this weekend. I wanted to knit, finish unpacking the last few boxes, clean house and all that. Well let’s just say I was BORED. Saturday I did get that last box unpacked in the living room. We cleaned up our room too and got a new fan (this time with a light) and it looks good. Now only the guest bedroom and office are a wreck. I will get to them. After we moved our furniture ended up shifting around and now it seems like I don’t have enough to go around. I badly need a medicine cabinet/cupboard in the master bath and maybe a dresser for our room. We got rid of the big ugly thing we had but we never actually had a bedroom set so now we have our stuff in the old drawers stacked on an old coffee table. Sounds worse than it looks but it works for now. I don’t have any furniture besides a bed in the guest room so I’ll probably be looking for a dresser in there too. The office…well lets just say that it’s a catch all for the stuff that doesn’t have a home yet. It is the office/craft room/storage closet. I really need to organize in there but I have been waiting until we pick up a desk that came from my old office. At least the living room and our room look decent right now. I’m sure that was more than you needed to know about our house right now.

So after all that I wanted to get out on Sunday. I talked the hubby into going to the Volusia County Fair. It was nice. We got to eat, see the exhibits, eat some more, see the animals (no sheep or other fiber animals though), eat and see a concert. Did I mention we ate? The food was awesome of course. We had the typical fair type food, hot dogs and corn dogs, popcorn, lemonade and a turkey leg for the hubby. We even finished it off with a funnel cake. I don’t have any pictures so you will have to imagine how good it was, although I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that. Man I love the fair. I hope I walked off at least half of those calories while we were there.

I did get a bunch done on the Striped Sock on the way. I am about an inch away from starting the toe. My goal for having it done by the weekend was not met, but that’s ok. It makes it seem like my foot is huge but it is only slightly huge. I wear a size 9-10 shoe so the foot seems to take forever! I have tried it on so far and I like how it looks.





I got to finish up the gauge swatch for the Ballet Cami this weekend too. I washed it and dried it to see how much the gauge changed. I got gauge after it was dried but the gauge listed was after drying too so I think I’m good. I think I will cast on as soon as the First Striped Sock is done. The one on the left is before washing and the right is after.












I will leave you with a video from Diana’s walk this morning. This is sort of a test to see how the video looks. It’s kinda blurry because I recorded it on my phone while we were walking. Diana is so sidetracked while she is walking. I swear her nose never leaves the floor. Now I understand why you can’t let a beagle off the leash. Geez…this post was all over the place!



-Michele-

I'm a Loopy Groupie!

I finally got to the order that puts me into the Loopy Groupies. I was excited to receive the package because I knew it would have something special but I didn’t know how special!! I ordered one skein of Louet Gems in Shamrock for Saartje booties. Sheri also sent me a large Loopy tote bag and two skeins of Lorna's Laces in Motherlode. That yarn is gorgeous!! I don’t know why I never noticed it before. Sheri really outdid herself on this one. Wow. It was nice to get all the goodies.

I went to meet my Little Sister today but there was a big misunderstanding. She was at an elementary school in Satellite Beach and for some reason BBBS thought I wanted to go to that school. Its about an hour away from my work so I couldn’t go there. So they are searching for another Little for me. I wonder if she was as disappointed as me. I really wanted to meet her!

I’m still trudging along on the Striped sock. I am almost halfway through the foot now. At least the ribbing on the top of the foot is keeping it interesting. I want to have it done by this weekend but that’s asking a lot of me. We’ll see.

Well its time for me to head home for the day. I don’t think I will be answering any emails this weekend. I think our laptop is biting the dust. It won’t turn on right now. We have only had it 2 years…how long do laptops last? I really don’t want to have to buy another one so soon but it doesn’t look good… :-(

Have a good weekend, and happy knitting!

-Michele-

Good News!

I have a Little!! I got the call today that Big Brothers Big Sisters found me a Little Sister. Her name is Alexis and she is in 2^nd grade. I am excited and nervous to meet her. I get to meet her on Friday and since we will be meeting during her lunch/recess time I can bring my lunch too and we can go out and play after we work on school stuff.

I just remembered today that my real estate license is expiring in March 2008. I was trying to sign up for my post license course that I have to complete but the only class openings were not going to work for me time wise and they are in Orlando and Kissimmee. Those are both pretty far for me since the class is from 6-10pm on a Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday for two weekends in a row. I was getting really worried that I would not get my class done in time. I checked one other school that my boss used for her license and they have an online course that I can complete at home. That’s 45 hours that I won’t have to sit in a classroom. I was amazed, and it’s like $60 cheaper. That’s awesome!! So I’m all signed up and ready to go.

I worked some more on the Striped Sock. I hope to have it done by the end of the week. I hope I don’t end up wearing 1 ½ socks to the Needleworks show.

If you noticed, there was something new in that picture. I was trying to be good so I cast on a swatch for the Ballet Cami. I'm even going to wash it :-) The yarn was leftover Shine Sport from Sheldon. So far I like how soft the yarn is. The swatch is still small but it looks like it will drape nicely. I plan on making the Cami sort of big. I want a snug top but not really snug like the pattern suggests. I don’t think me wearing a top with negative ease will help anyone. I am going to make it longer too. I want it hip length. Is this a lot to hope for in my first top?

I am glad I didn't sign up for NaBloPoMo because I seem to be having a hard time making this thing interesting lately.

-Michele-

Race For The Finish

Angie and I really need to get this knit night thingy together. We met up again on Saturday and enjoyed 4 precious uninterrupted hours with coffee and knitting. I know it has been 2 weekends in a row but it was awesome. If we get the night set up I will have something to look forward to. And we are always so indecisive, having a set time and place will fix that. I have to say that this is the quickest I have ever received yarn from Knit Picks. We were able to open it and oogle it on Saturday. It came in less than a week! That has to be a record or something. So now I have the yarn for the Ballet Camisole in my possession but I have not cast on. I am being
loyal to my Striped Sock in order to have it finished. The yarn is beautiful and it is calling my name…I even got the Knit Picks Options tips and cable that I am dying to try…I really need to finish at least one sock before I jump in on that. Geez, I am already making excuses for myself.

BTW, did you see that the new MagKnits is out? There are some really cute patterns like this. and this.

I did get a lot done on the Striped Sock over the weekend. It seems like top down socks go faster that toe up. Hmmm…well I am past the heel now and racing toward finish line. I think they will be a bit snug but ok. I am slowly but surely talking myself out of sticking to a pattern. I need to stray a little to get them to fit better. I think my ankles are huge or something.

I did manage to snag a quick picture as proof that Diana and Jessie are getting along now. They both decided that they wanted to lie on the couch and sleep. Right as I was taking this Diana decided to come see what I was doing. They like to pretend that they don’t like each other but they do…


Wow, today seemed way more boring than most Mondays…Was it because of the time change? Blame the boring post on it too :-)

-Michele-

Contest

Just a quickie post to let you all know about a contest that Cass is having over at Shut Up, I'm Counting.

Be sure to mention that you saw it here for another entry!!

Stupid People

County workers suck. I am sorry if you happen to work for Brevard County but everyone I’ve dealt with just sucks. We have to hook up to the sewer at my office by the end of October (I know that was yesterday) and we have to get permits to do that. I called the County and got the septic permit. They told me to go to the City of Cocoa for the Building permit. I set this up and even got the City to rush it for us so we can start today. I showed up at the County (which is not very close to my office) to pick up permit #1 and rushed over to the City to get permit #2. The City, at 4:30pm, decided that they will not give it to me because we are county jurisdiction. I told them I was just there and they told me to come here and they said tough. Does anyone know how to do their job?? So there I am at 4:30 the day before we start work with no permit. I hate dealing with them…

Now that I have dumped all that on you I can go on. Since the City is right near my LYS, I popped in to get some needles to go in my Pal’s 2^nd package. Time is against me on that too, but it will get out by Saturday. She is getting some gorgeous yarn (that I almost kept for myself), stitch markers, needles, and a notebook. The Yarn is from White Willow’s shop and is called Sugar Berry.

I have been working a lot on the Striped Sock too. I am almost to the heel flap now. It may be a little tight; I have to learn to adjust my size because apparently I knit really tight. I like it though and I am determined to have them finished by Nov 17^th. Well at least one…would I look weird wearing one hand knit sock to the Needleworks Show?



I finally got a new purse this week. It has been a couple years. A friend of mine was in New York last week and had a list of people, including me, to find purses for. Can you believe they have Coach for $30?? It is a really, really good knock off. I love it. It makes me feel all rich and stuff…while I buy cheap yarn because I am broke…Ha

I hope everyone had a good night trick or treating last night. We had fun, we sat at the neighbors house and handed out candy. We did not have many kids at all. I was surprised because I always see kids in our neighborhood. Weird…We did see some …interesting…costumes and some really cute ones. One kid that came up with his parents couldn’t have been older that 1 ½. He really didn’t get what to do. Pick up candy, put it in bucket…He looked like he was having fun though. I can’t wait until we have kids and we can dress them up all cute!! Yea right...I have a hard enough of a time with the dog! Kids are going to have to wait.

-Michele-