Weekend Yarn

I really didn’t do a great deal of knitting last week. I spent much of the week dealing with a sinus infection. The headaches I was getting were making it near impossible to concentrate on anything. I’m still not feeling right, but it’s much better then last week.

I worked on Charlotte yesterday; she’s a few rows away from being done, yippee! I can’t wait, I get so distracted by new projects, and it’s nice to finish off some stuff. I’m almost ½ ways through thing two from the mystery kit. My sister will be getting the finished things (no I’m still not telling what they are).

My mother surprised me on Saturday with a late B-Day gift. She was going to pay for a drop spindle class for me, but the woman from the store never called me with any of the information. Instead, mom went and got me a ball winder. She’s known since hubby got me my swift for Christmas that I wanted one. I’m so excited. Is it scary that a ball winder gets me excited these days?

I also had a little bit of a yarn drama on Saturday. I spent Saturday morning cleaning and straightening the apartment. I had a paper shopping bag on the floor of our office with the 3 skeins of Dale Baby Ull I bought a few weeks ago. Apparently the dog must not have liked the smell of this bag, because she marked it and ruined it. AGHHH…. I was ready to cry. Hubby calmed me down. Later in the afternoon, we went out, and I decided to go on a yarn expedition.

I drove over to Handknits in Englewood, where I never seem to have any luck. I wound up being pleasantly surprised. I was finally able to use my gift certificate from Christmas I picked up 3 new skeins of the Ull in the same color I originally bought (Yes!) and two in a baby pick color. I also picked up “Confessions of a Knitting Heretic” by Annie Modesitt. I almost picked up yarn to do the “Market Squares” bag from A knitters dozen, but I didn’t like the selection of Lamb’s pride they had. I’m almost tempted to make it out of Cascade 200, since it’s on sale this week at WEBS for $4.70 a hank. Then again, I have too many projects going on as it is.

I did start organizing some stuff per hubby’s request. Most of my stash is stored in Rubbermaid containers. I do have a tendency to keep new acquisitions and the numerous WIP’s all over the apartment. DH asked me to keep them in a neat wicker basket, so I did. Here are my yarn purchases for this year (not too bad for 5 months) I still need to put my WIP’s in here as well.

Almost 30

My 30th birthday is tomorrow.

I've spent the last few days being very introspective. Have I accomplished what I’ve wanted to accomplish? Am I satisfied? What more do I want out of life?

To make this really short, I’ve come up with is this: I am very satisfied, I have a wonderful husband, we’re relatively healthy, we have great friends, a nice roof over our heads, a steady job that I’m good at and that still finds new ways of challenging me. I’m looking forward to my next decade, to god-willing starting a family and to whatever else is on the horizon.

Things

Well, “thing one” from mystery kit 4 is done, it came out really nice. I will not give away what it is yet, so don’t ask. Other then that it’s been quiet.

I’ve been enviously reading everyone’s reports on Knitters review of Maryland Sheep & Wool. I’m hoping I’ll be able to go up to Rhinebeck this year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Finished Object

My husband got all excited this morning. I finally finished a WIP. The silk spring scarf I started before the wedding is done.

It’s so soft, and I loved working with silk for the first time. I’m still debating on whether I’m going to keep the fringe on the ends, as I was knitting it I didn’t like it at all. It’s growing on me; my husband and a co-worker both think it’s cute.

I received my mystery kit from Inspirations yarn yesterday. I was like a little child with a new toy; I wound the skein of yarn and cast on right away. I took hubby to the doctor this morning and got another few inches done, this is cool, I’m still clueless as to what it is though. Maybe it’s just my fried brain. Here is what i've done so far:


By the way: I had pictures of both the Scarf and the mystery item so far, but for some reason, I can’t get to photobucket’s website today.

It’s all about the yarn

I’m still aimlessly looking for yarn for the sweater for my friend’s daughter. I took Thursday off to take hubby to the doctor and mom shopping for my sisters shower gifts. While we were out, I went to a yarn shop I had never been to. I spoke to the owner of the shop about the sweater, how I’m looking for something pastel colored and washable, and I wound up buying on her suggestion Peter Pan “Velvet touch”. It was very soft nylon yarn; she said it knits well, washes well etc. I am less then happy with it.

Here is what I knit up last night.

Now she’s right, it knits very well, I just am not happy with the stitch definition, I was looking for something cleaner, it’s my own fault though, and I should have realized it. This stuff feels and knits just like cotton chenille. So now I don’t know what to do.

The LYS around me are ridiculous and with hubby not feeling 100% I can’t get into NYC, so I may just have to give up on this sweater. I do have other things to work on.

On a personal note, I feel horrible. Maybe it’s just I’m coming down from the wedding high, and stress of hubby’s medical situation. Maybe it’s just that I had hoped that my apartment would be anything but the disaster it looks like right now, but I’m really depressed. Whenever I walk into my kitchen and see nothing on the windows and a Rubbermaid storage container blocking my cabinets I want to cry. I want my bedroom to look like a bedroom, I want to paint my bathroom and repair the wall in there. I know everything comes in time, but it doesn’t help that my sister moved out yesterday and Mom says her apartment looks great and will be set up before mine is finished.

It's only Monday

I am so tired; my boss just asked me if I wanted to go home because I don’t look well. I feel fine, except for the exhaustion and hating the bulls**t that goes on at my job.

On to more happy things; Timmy is feeling better, YAY! He has a follow-up on Thursday, hopefully that will go well.

I finally downloaded the pictures from Ireland off my digital, I haven’t had time to go through them all, but I picked out two to show off here.

Here are Tim and I in the church in Ballylongford (The church is beautiful).



Here are the Bride and Groom cutting the cake (This cake was like a brick to cut through).



I wish I could say that I accomplished mounds of knitting over the last few weeks but I haven’t (I wish continental allowed needles in carry on during international flights). I managed about 85% of the silk spring scarf I was working on, and last night I finally finished a sock. How horrible am I, it’s taken me forever to do one sock.

It’s very comfortable but, I have no desire to knit the other.

I stopped at my lys on Saturday, I hate going into this place, it’s unorganized, messy (there is yarn all over the floor) and usually I wind up coming out empty-handed. I was looking for some cotton yarn to do a baby sweater. The little girl will be 1 in three weeks; her mother only ever dresses her in pastel pink or purple so I was limited in color choices. I knew anything else would not be worn.

I found some lovely Rowan DK cotton in a lovely pink. I needed 5 skeins, they only had 4, and there was a purple but only 3 skeins of that. There was nothing else there I could work with, since I needed something machine washable and was limited in color.

It wasn’t a total waste however; they finally received a shipment of Koigu (I’ve been checking since October). I bought two more skeins, Yes, I admit it, I have Koigu problems, but look how pretty it is…

I’m either going to do socks (which I may have to go back for a third skein,(and yes Ironic socks)) or I’m going to do fingerless gloves for work.

Home sweet home

Back from Ireland and just in time.

The wedding in Ireland was beautiful and we had a great time.

We arrive back in NJ on Monday and went straight from the airport to the hospital. My husband wound up having to have an emergency appentectomy Monday night. Thank god it went well, he came home from the hospital Thursday and is feeling better by the day. He's on heavy antibiotics and we have to watch that he's fever doesn't come back (signs of an infection), and he's very sore, but that is is to be expected. Things could have been a lot worse.

I'll get into our trip more and post pictures once I can think straight.

Ireland here I come!

I'm off to the airport in a few hours, our flight to Ireland is tonight.

I'm sure the wedding their on Friday will be just as special as the service here was on Saturday; I can't wait.

I've got several books packed for the plane ride (Including The Yarn Harlot's "At Knit's End" and I have two knitting projects going in my luggage to be worked on during quiet time in Ireland.

I'll be back next Monday, Happy Knitting!

Wedding Pictures

As promised some more wedding pictures.

First off here I am in my mother's living room, waiting for the limo to show up.



Next is my sisters and I waiting for the photographer to shoot us in front of the house.



Next is a cake cutting shot.



And finally a kiss:



Enjoy!

Wedding!

It's official; I am now officially a married woman. Tim and I got married Saturday in a lovely civil ceremony filled with lots of family and friends. Then we had a really great reception, we had such a good time. Just like I was repeatedly told, the day flew by. Despite that we made sure we ate, drank, danced, sang, and just were really happy.

All the worrying that I had done regarding things going wrong was for nothing, everything was lovely. I woke up to blue skies and shining sun, everyone looked great, everyone and everything arrived on time.

The only casualty of the day was my dress. I was so nervous about the dress. Tim and I are getting married in the church in Ireland this Friday; I was concerned about keeping the dress clean. Well, I didn't drop a thing on it but, I managed to put my foot through the hem and then get it caught on a chair pulling the top layer completely off the bustle and ripping it. My sister and Aunt Shannon took a look and immediately got my Aunt Jackie to come look. She grabbed a needle and thread and fixed me up to get through the night. The dress is at her house now, she's mending it and she said she'd have it good to go before my flight Tuesday. YAY!!

Here's a quick picture, it's not the best, but I haven't gotten my hands on my sisters digital which had loads more pictures then this camera did. I'll post more as I get them.

Silk

Here is the picture of the silk scarf I tried to post yesterday:



P.S. 4 days till the wedding, I have turned into emotional jello the slightest little things are sending me into fits of crying.

Stash Indulgence

Yesterday I met one of my girlfriends in NYC for brunch. I was able to do a little yarn shopping while I was there; I went to Downtown Yarns and to Purl Soho. I didn’t buy much, but I’m happy none the less.

I’ve been antsy for some new yarn, it’s not that I don’t have enough projects going on, but I just wanted something different & new, I found it on Sunday. Downtown yarns, has some scarves, shawls, tops on display in the store, after browsing for a few minutes and not seeing anything, I was about to leave, when I looked up and saw this really cute scarf. It was made of silk and a novelty yarn with flowers on it.

I found the silk yarn (fiesta La Luz) picked out a lovely light color, found a cute novelty yarn (Cascade Malizia) and walked out a very Happy Heather.

The funny thing about the purchase is I didn’t hesitate, when I saw the prices of these yarns. I figured, it’s the week of my wedding, this is an indulgence purchase and I’m worth it. Go Me!

I had a very lovely picture that is suppose to go here of what I've knit so far, but I resized it incorrectly this morning and it's too big for the blog. Doh!

P.S. Five days until the wedding!

Feeling foolish on April Fools Day

Last week I found a pattern for a crochet baby blanket using the “Redheart Teri” I had bought back in February. It’s a blanket of afghan squares, “this is a piece of cake” I thought. I had taught myself to crochet, almost 18 years ago; I would do a small project, get distracted or put down and stop for a few years, and try again. Lately I haven’t been doing any crocheting, I’d rather be knitting. This was a very simple blanket.

I made a square and first, the gauge was way off, second, it was bulging in the middle. I changed my hook and made another square. This one was right on gauge, but again a bulge in the middle. I make a third, guess what, another bulge. Tuesday I brought one of the squares to a co-worker, who crochets, she thought I was just crocheting too tight. I tried again later that day and had the same problem. I tossed the needle & yarn into the corner of the room and said, “Forget it”.

This morning I’m getting ready for work when what do I see on the floor: the original square. I pick it up and look at it; all of a sudden it hits me and know what’s wrong. “Heather, you’re a fool”, I went to an old stitch book and looked up how to dc. Guess what everyone, how you create a dc and how I remembered are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! Yes folks I’ve been driving myself crazy because I was doing the wrong stitch.

I leave you now with two pictures. The first is of said foolishness (YES I do realize how bad that square looks), the second is of my cat pumpkin (just because).

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?