3:30 am I must be crazy

It’s is almost 3:30 in the morning and I am wide awake, and posting to my blog. Am I crazy? Yes I do believe I might be. I have been awake for almost an hour. I got up e-mailed my make-up girl and wrote out some thank you cards for work. I ran out though, I still have about six more for the guys that donated to a collection in our honor. I never know what to say in these things. Oh well, I’ll probably hit the 24 CVS on the way to work and pick up another small box and do the last ones before work so I can give them out today.

Oh well, I think I’ll go check out the KR board and pull out my sock to work on.

Pleasant dreams to everyone else.

Countdown

T-Minus 11 days till the wedding. I have not touched any knitting in several days unless you count me finishing off a trio of cadbury egg chicks for my mother. No, there are no pictures still. Ick, Ack, my aunt borrowed my digital camera to take some photographic evidence of how the guy she hired to finish her new wood floor, completely botched up the job. It’s horrible.
Well, by Friday the entire wedding will be paid for and all the final appointments (except for my dress) will be done. Then it’s just patiently waiting and worrying. Is it normal to worry about every little detail that could possible go wrong? The worse part is, once the wedding here in NJ is over, I get to start worrying about the one 6 days later in Ireland. Aghhhh…. Okay I feel better after a good scream.
The apartment is officially ours, sister moved out over the weekend, but it is a disaster. There is stuff everywhere. I know it will all get straightened up, but I just have no idea when.

Wednesday Rambling

I came so close to getting to Purl Soho on Saturday. I need 2 balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino to make “Mrs. Dashwood” for my cousin Brook. The fiancé and I were going to be in the city Saturday, I new I wouldn’t be long, so I figured I could run in before we had to meet up with friends at 2. Unfortunately, we were running late (my fault) and I didn’t have time. Then I thought I’d make it before they closed, but one of our friends was 45 minutes late meeting us and we didn’t finish until later then I expected. We got the car at exactly 6pm. The same time they closed, we drove by anyway and they were locking up. I could kick myself.

This is supposed to be the part of my blog entry where I show pictures of my current knitting projects. Those haven’t been taken yet, so anticipation will just need to build. There’s not much to take pictures of anyway. I have 4 or so inches of the “Union Square Poncho” done, 3 Easter egg chicks done, and the almost completed, completely taking too long, sock that will never be done.

New project, broken needle

In my dazed and confused state of Friday, I couldn’t sit still, I felt the need to start a new knitting project(no, the socks are not done yet). I decided to cast on for the “Union Square Poncho” from weekend knitting. I had an annoying thing happen. I broke one of my boye interchangeable needles. I had cast on with my size nines, and realized the only cable I had handy was too short, so I found one of the others upstairs that was perfect, I unscrewed the 9’s and screwed them into the second cable. First one went on no problem, second one wasn’t going on right, it was connecting, but wouldn’t tighten all the way. It was so strange. I knew it was going to go. I took it with me to the movies and got about 12 rows done, when it finally broke. The set was only about a year old, if that, so who knows what happened. Saturday I was up in Ridgewood so I stopped into Majestic Yarns and picked up and Addi Turbo, I can’t stand knitting bulky yarn on my denises’ and I’m a circular junkie.

I’m hoping the weather is nice this Saturday, we are suppose to be in the city for some pleasure rather then crazy wedding to-do’s. I’m going to convince the fiancé to come to Purl with me. I need a small yarn fix.

I’ve decided that my blog needs an overhaul. Let’s see when I get around to doing that.

Apparently weddings bring out the worse in people.

A cousin of mine, who until this Friday, I thought I was close to, called me to tell me that she and her husband would not be attending my wedding. Now on Tuesday I received her response card saying they would be gladly coming. So, what happened in a few days?

Apparently she realized her 11 year old son has a baseball game that same day and she doesn’t want to scar him, by not being there. (This child plays several sports and has for years, I’m having a hard time excepting that her not being at this game would be that devastating.) While on the phone she told me 1) I would understand when I have children of my own and 2) that I couldn’t be upset that she wasn’t coming. I explained I was very upset she wasn’t coming and she told me she’d see if she could do anything about it and she’d let me know. I was taken aback, I told my fiancé and sister of what happened and the there of us were a little confused. (This is not normal behavior/response from this individual).

So, late Friday night I find a voicemail message from her, telling me “She made a few sacrifices” for me and came to this compromise. Her in-laws will be coming to spend the weekend, and they with her husband will take the son to the baseball game, so she can attend the wedding. That she hopes that I will someday understand the sacrifice she made for me.

Now, First off, I was pissed and this message just made it worse and I did for a few minutes think I may have been over-reacting. I had my sister listen to the message, and last night, one of my aunts and uncle. They all agreed that this was very strange and highly inappropriate. Right now I couldn’t give a S**t if she came to the wedding or not.

I have to say, weddings really help you to see not only who your friends are, but what relatives really think about you. It’s opened my eyes to things I really hadn’t noticed before.

Embarrassing: Maybe, Maybe not.

I have this really bad habit of talking to myself, and sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Yesterday was clean the kitchen day, as we are preparing to paint this week for the official newlywed move in. So I’m on the floor in front of some cabinets that lining with contact paper. Darling fiancé comes in and asked me why am I talking to myself as I were hosting a do-it-yourself show.

The truth is, I do that all the time, especially when I’m cooking. He should have seen me Friday night when I was making Shepherd’s Pie; I narrate what I’m doing as if I were Rachel Ray. Maybe this is a sign I need to cut back on watching food network.

All kinds

The other day at lunch, I’m sitting with two of my co-workers and I pulled out the sock I’m working on, to get in a few rows before we had to go back to the drudgery of work. One of them looks at me the following dialogue happens:

“What on earth are you doing?” She asks

“Making a sock” I reply

“Why” she sneers back

“Because I enjoy it” as I smile happily

With a look of disgust she just says “Oh”.

I’m not losing too much sleep after all this was one of the co-workers who brought her own alcohol to my shower. Oh well…..

Anyhow, I’m in a knitting doldrum, my sock is only slowly coming along. I’ve been so busy I’m only getting to a few rows a night if any; I should have been done with this already. I’m hoping to get some decent knitting time in tonight; I finished turning the heel, so I’m not too far from the end. I keep telling myself that I will not start anymore new projects. I’m so horrible with starting up something and not finishing it. I still haven’t finished Charlotte’s web. That’s a dozen rows short of being done. What is wrong with me?

Of showers and giddiness

My Mom and Sisters threw me a surprise bridal shower this weekend. I knew I was getting one, just not when, or where. It was so nice, I was completely giddy. I should have caught on though when darling fiance was stalling for time while out shopping. He's so cute.

I'm not comfortable being the center of attention so the whole shower thing was quite weird. I kept saying to my sisters, cousin shannon and my friend Mary "What am I suppose to do?" and they kept saying "you don't have to do a thing, just have some wine and enjoy it". Opening the gifts was such chaos, but so much fun. We had 7 people helping out. My sister liz and cousin shannon were dragging gifts to my sister laura and cousin Cathy who were opening gifts and handing me the opened gift and card. My friend Mary was writing all the gifts down for me, while my cousins Daniele and Christine were taking pictures and making the prerequiste bridal hat. As soon as I get the pictures downloaded from some of the camera's I will post. This hat was enormous and hysterical. It was so much fun and so tiring.

There was one strange thing, Four of my co-workers whom I am close to were invited and came. They brought there own bottles of wine and frangelica. I'm not sure how to read that.

My sister Liz is getting married in August, she has scheduled her own shower for June 4th, we found out that might have to change. She doesn't want to be surprised. This is going to be fun. Her's will be insane, her fiance's family is just as large as mine. I can't wait.

Public Service Announcement

The following Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by the letters: A.G.H.H.


When involved in work related training courses, repeating the words "I'm so bored, I'm so bored" over and over again 1) Does not make the time pass any quicker and 2) really annoys the crap out of whomever is sitting next to you. Please shut up and doodle like the rest of the class.

Thank you for listening.

Spamalot and Socks

AGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay, I’ve been wanting to scream since I walked into the office at 7:30 this morning. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can move on.

The wedding is taking it’s toll on me emotional. There are so many little things that need to get done. I keep freaking out that I won’t get them all done, it doesn’t help that I keep having work heaped on me to the point I feel guilty about leaving early to get things done. My boss told me yet again yesterday not to feel bad, but this was after he gave me three more last minute things to do.

My dress came in and I went for my first fitting. The dress is beautiful, If I can lose 10-15 pound over the next 7 weeks, I will be very comfortable dancing in it. As I heard on Ellen’s show Monday “Do more crunches, eat smaller lunches”

Speaking of Monday, This is what Mom, Sis, Fiancé and I did Monday night:



That’s right ladies and gentlemen, a musical adaptation of the classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The show is still in previews, it officially opens in March. It is the funniest thing I have seen in so long, This has the potential to be huge! Tim Curry, Hank Azaria and David Hyde Pierce are starring in it. If you are a Python fan, and are in or near NYC you will not be disappointed.

I’m very slowly working on a sock. That’s right folks a single sock.



Isn’t she pretty? I’m only 14 rows away from the heel. Huzzah!

Baby Whites

I caved, I bought yarn yesterday to make a blanket or something for my friends baby. I know I was leaning towards not doing it because I know she will not appreciate it, but my inner voice kept telling me to do it anyway. I didn't go crazy, I bought some Red Heart Teri (I hate acrylic, but this stuff does feel like a tericloth, and I really didn't want to spend $$$ on something that is going to be tossed aside). It's a crisp baby white since they don't know what they are having.

Sock gone awry

So, I had this brillant idea to knit some ankle socks (which i've only tried before to no avail). I found a universal sock pattern picked out some yarn from the stash, swatched, matched the largest gauge on pattern and went for it. I'm merriliy knitting along the cuff, the leg, heel flap, turn the heel, then try to pick up gusset stitches. First time, I think I got it then realize I hadn't knitted back across my heel flap so i'm now knitting but in reverse of my pattern, so all i'm seeing is purls... DOH! Frog, frog, frog knit across the heel flap, pick up again, start knitting, then realize pretty quickly i'm decreasing in the wrong spot. (Okay bit of a sidetrack now. I have to admit something, I am a impatient knitter, I have a tendency to read too quickly, I read, then knit. Sometimes if I read, looked at my work and reread, I would not do stupid mistakes, but that is me, rush rush rush, Bad Heather!). So I realize my mistake, knit the stitches off until I'm at the point of the mistake, fix it and continue another row or so. I look at my sock. It's horrible. This yarn although matching the gauge of my pattern is too thick for my liking (as a sock) and i'm really doing a crappy job at knitting on two circulars. Here is my proof.

See the lovely hole, obviously I need to really pay attention when picking up the gusset stitches, I probably should have picked up another stitch there and decreased it to avoid the hold. Then there are my joins. That is a horrible line going up my sock, it's not as if i've never knit with two circs before, DOH!.

So what have I learned? Well for one, I need to work on my socks. Practice makes perfect, so I'm going to try again. Second, I'm going to slow the hell down and think before I knit. Hopefully this is just a minor setback. I'm ready to start again. I'm going to try working with the yarn I bought last friday. At least the color changes will keep me amused for a while.

Trudging Along.

Work has been kicking my butt the last several weeks. I'm depressed, cranky and so exhausted. I took a mental health day on Friday to jumpstart me out of it and it seems to have helped a little bit. One of the things I did was visit my lys. I had a gift certificate and decided to browse, I really didn't have a project in mind though so I wound up not using it and instead bought two balls of fortissima sock yarn.

Over the last few weeks I've only finished off a few more rows of charlotte's web and the last of the two iPod cozies. I haven't even had the ambition to felt them. Well, I guess I better stop procrastinating and get ready for work.

Procrastinating and Felting

Well, I'm suppose to be working, but I can think of many other things I'd rather be doing.

I finally got around to felting the booga bag I made back in September. I know I know it took me over 4 months to throw something in the washing machine. What can I say, I am the queen of procrastination. (please excuse the poor picture quality)



I also felted two swatches for a couple of iPod cozies, one for the future hubby, and a replacement one for me (I really don't like the original one I made). The black one was made from a random skein of alpaca (I decided this yarn is too nice to felt, so I'm going to save it as an accent to a future project.) The purple one is from some reynolds lopi, I'm gonna go with that one. It'll make a nice think case, so my iPod won't get all scratched up in my purse. I'm going to try to work in some color, but I have to see if I can figure out a chart that takes into account the percentage of shrinkage once felted.



In the news of the Charlotte's web shawl, I only have 26 more rows to go, granted there's a fair amount of stitches per row, it's still only 26 more rows.

To gift knit or not to gift knit...

A friend of mine is pregnant and expecting her first child in June. This past weekend I received a phone call from her mother discussing her baby shower. Immediately, I started thinking about what cute knitted things I could make for this bundle-of-joy-to-be. Visions of hats, booties, sweaters and blankets in pastel colors and soft luscious wool ran through my head.

Then it hit me: What if she doesn’t appreciate hand-knit gifts?

Do you spend the time, money and energy on making something that will probably be looked at with a sneer of indifference? No, of course not! I keep trying to tell myself that this woman was an art history major, that she can recognize the time and love put into a hand-knit item. Then I tell myself “well, she’s always been a snob too…”

It’s really a shame that I’m actually wasting time thinking about this. It’s also a shame that some people are so shallow.

Promised Picture

I've been completely wrapped up in craziness and keep forgetting to post up pictures of my attempt at making an iPod bag. (See my post from 12/29)

To Dye For

I had a major hair dying mishap last night. The lovely Natural Light Caramel Brown haircolor I used on my hair last night turned it a not so lovely shade of auburn. My sisters said I looked like an oompa loompa from willy wonka. I've used this color before with no issues, so I'm very disappointed. I called Clairol's help line this morning they said that to tone it down I need to either go to a salon, or wait up to 4 weeks before I try it again. Ick.... I'm not sure what to do right now other then to wear a hat.

I haven't been a red head in over 3 years, I really hadn't wanted to go back either and certainly not less then 3 months before my wedding. Oh well, at least it's not the day before.

Game On

From the depeths of hybernation she has stirred. The project that has been haunting me for months. Charlotte's Web! Tossed upon the shelf of UFO's, testing my patience, silently tormenting me to finish her and mocking me each time I returned home from yet another fruitless trip to the local yarn store for the magic skeins of yarn that would finish her. Finally, this weekend, I found it, the second skein of color change 5 that matched the original color I picked. No more dragging this shawl around looking for a fifth color that might work as well as that lovely purple mix I orignially pick. No more well meaning clerks telling me to just finish it off in a solid color.

I had bought the original yarn for Charlotte at Knit NY months ago. I bought exactly one skein of each color. While working on color 4 I realized I was not going to have enough yarn, I needed an extra skein of color 5. Back to the store, but it was gone. I have been to numerous stores multiple times over the last several months trying to figure something out for a fifth color, never happy. I'm really happy now. So my dear 4/5 done shawl Charlotte I have one thing to say to you : GAME ON!!!

Happy Hump Day

I finished up a small bag for my iPod. I just wanted a little protective bag, to keep it from getting scratched up when I throw it in my purse. I had some ribbon yarn in an interesting rust color and even made up a chart for a cool design and did some colorwork on it. I’m a little disappointed with how it came out. I used black to add the design and it’s very muted against the rust color. I did learn some cool stuff though: Ribbon yarn is scratchy, it’s also a pain to seam and weave ends with.

I was supposed to have snazzy pictures of said iPod bag but alas, technology and I are not getting along. My home computer is a wreck, it crashed badly last week to the point it would not boot. I had two options at that point 1) reformat the computer or 2) reinstall windows only. In an effort to save information on the hard drive, I took the reinstall windows route. Well, that was not a great idea. Yes, I save the info, but other programs are acting all screwy. Right now, when I connect my digital camera to the computer it tells me that it’s connected until I go to transfer pictures, then it won’t read the camera. I can’t seem to uninstall the software for the camera, and it keeps giving me error messages when I try to reinstall. This isn’t the only program that is doing this to me either. I’m beside myself. I know what I need to do. I need to save EVERYTHING I want onto cds and then reformat the computer. It’s the only way; I need to start the thing over from scratch. Part of me says well, it’s not that bad, the other part of me says it’s not even worth it.

In other news I’m very cranky. I don’t know whether I want to scream, cry, or throw something or someone against the wall. I’m so exhausted too, I’m sleeping but I wake up feeling as though I haven’t slept in days. My face is breaking out, I’ve been late to work two days in a row, my mind keeps wandering, I can’t focus and I’m forgetting things. I had a skein of yarn in my hands this morning that I was suppose to put in my knitting bag now I have no idea where the yarn is. Obviously I put it down somewhere but where is anyone’s guess.
Okay enough complaining. I better start working, after all it’s Wednesday (hump day) there’s only 2 days left of work for the week after today and there’s only 8 more hours before I can go home tonight.

Merry, Happy, yada, yada

Wow. I wish I could say I have a really great knitting update, but the only thing i've knitted in the last several weeks was a swatch for an idea I have for an I-Pod case. Things in general have been crazy.

Christmas was lovely, I got some really great gifts including a sword, cds, dvds, several cookbooks, charms for my nomination bracelet, a swift (YAY!) and a gift certificate to my LYS. I'm so tired and it snowed last night. I best get showered or i'll never get to work.