The One Without a Title

I've been away for a little while, not physically, but mentally, I took a bit of a blog break. I kept thinking about blogging, but the physical act of actually blogging wasn't really happening. As a quick catch-up, since last we conversed, I've become a year older, visited with a blogger friend in town (Deborah) who was here for the DNC, had unexpected visitors in town for the DNC, watched Obama give his acceptance speech at Invesco Field, started a new school term and M2 is now a sophomore.

So yes, life is quite busy, but the knitting, the knitting is easy. Heh, well, maybe not all of the knitting being quite so easy.

I finally picked up the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan again, in an attempt to actually finish something soon. I am now on the second front, about halfway through it, although I am currently screwing up the short tows. Once I get that resolved, I hope to to get this sweater squared away. I would like to finish this before fall is over.

During the Ravelympics, I cast on for a new project. I was never an official participant of Ravelympics, but I had high hopes for finishing Hey Teach. Hmm, that wasn't possible. While I do love the look of this pattern, I prefer for the designer to spell things out. I know this is a manner of personal preference. However, I am not one of those knitters who can look at my lace pattern and not follow the pattern. I don't love charts, I like it written out. When it comes time for armhole shaping, the pattern requires you to figure it out on your own. When I am forced to actually graph out the lace pattern, let me just tell you, I was not a happy camper. The graphing made it easier to see the decreases, but my poor, addled brain did not appreciate having to do it.

I'm currently on the first front. The piece pictured is the back and it was the longest. This one is not as simple as the Flutter Sleeve Cardi, which actually has the sleeves built into the fronts, which eliminates the need to knit sleeves separately.

I have still been working on Barn Raising squares, albeit a bit more slowly than the frenetic pace I maintained during the summer road trip.

Socks are on the needles too. I finally kitchenered in the toe on the first Artemis sock and have started a pair of socks for M2. Both socks are knit out of  Mary Kay's yarn. Hopefully I will have some pictures toshare with you next time of the socks.

Now, I go back to the crazy life of a midterm and assignments to prepare for and a college friend in town that I haven't seen in over15 years. Back to go stick my head in the sand for a little while.

Birthday Goodies

I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend. Mine was great. Very relaxed and relaxing. We hung out with some friends on Sunday evening for a bbq. Ate some Jamaican food, listened to some reggae and other Caribbean music and then came home and watched some movies. It was great to stay at home and spend time with M, just the two of us. And of course we were both off Monday and I have Tuesdays off, so it was a very nice, long weekend for me.

You would think on my day off that I would blog, but quite the opposite. I'm in fact, rarely motivated to blog on my day off. Instead I do fun stuff like laundry, washing my hair and twisting my locs. At least that was yesterday, but I truly cherish my time in the house alone. Hmm, lovely.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas about the tank. I'll probably pick up another skein of the yarn to see what changes I can make, esp. as far as picking up stitches around the neckline and armholes to perhaps make it more wearable for me. It is an ok top to wear, it's not horrible, but not loving it. So we'll see what can be done. It will probably be on the back burner till next summer, but that's a big deal to me.

On to my birthday, which passed over a week ago. All I can say is for the Birthday Card Exchange, you guys rock! My mailbox was overflowing with cards, which really made me happy! My mantle was full of cards. So much so, that I had an overflow station on top of the TV cabinet with additional cards. The musical cards that Del and Bron sent were too cute. And Michelle, that crafty girl surprised me with five, count 'em, five cards. So I had plenty o' cards for my birthday. My sister sent one from her and husband, as well as one from my nephew Chason with a new picture of him. Goodness all around!





Of course, some of my knitty girls had to hook me up with nice knitting gifts.
Nachaele gave me the gift of cold, hard cash which was to be used for yarn. But what the heck, I used it for me, so we're all happy! It's pretty much if I have cash, it's gone in a nanosecond. And Michaele provided the wine for the evening and a couple of bottles that came home wth me (as pictured in the mantle above).

Some Colinette Jitterbug in the Raphael colorway ::swoon::, more stitch markers! and a pair of Addi Lace turbo needles. Yay, I'm excited to have my very own pair of Addi Lace needles. There was also two skeins of Lacey Lamb laceweight in a beautemous red, which I forgot to include in this post. Sorry. But you can see it on Ravelry or Flickr.



And Joan, the Fairy Godmother indeed surprised with a lovely package. Sneaky girl, she is, asking for my address to send a card, which she did, but also included some neat things in her package. A bookmark in the shape of a buffalo (how did you know I keep losing book marks!-I've vowed to only use this book marker in my home library of books, so if I forget to take it out, it will only be lost in my house versus going back to the library!), a notepad with a knitting emblem from lantern moon, a wooden needle case with scrollwork on the case and two bars of Bison Chocolate (yes, I know there's only one pictured, the second is gone) in a milk chocolate bar with a truffle cream center. Yummy, yummy.
Thanks Joan! I loved it.



More knitting has ensued. A new project was cast on and has given me fits and starts with the pattern, but I will let you know about it soon.

Blogging might be sparse for a bit. I thought about taking a blog break, but I think I miss it a bit when I think of actually doing it. I'm working on some personal stuff, nothing major (and don't worry, no baby making is happening over here!), just doing some things for me, which may take away time from the blog. I do plan to blog, but it might be sporadic (which why is this really any different from the way I usually blog, I don't know).

Ciao,
W.

Birthday Card Exchange

So here's a little germ of an idea that started floating in my head yesterday after I went to check my mailbox yesterday. I used to love getting mail, fun cards and other packages here and there. Now picking up mail is just drudgery, bills and other junk mail. Rarely a card from a friend anymore. I hadn't checked my mail at all this week and on Saturday thought I should pick up the whack of mail I'm sure I'd accumulated.

When I checked my mail, I had a pleasant surprise, my Sockapalooza socks arrived (pictures and post tomorrow). As I have a birthday upcoming, I thought how said it will be to collect birthday cards this year in my mailbox, as I get very few cards anymore. In college and post-college, I was the person that had friends galore everywhere. I loved receiving cards and mail and sent them to everyone else as well. Over time, I've lost contact with many of my college friends. And at birthday time, I receive less cards and it's a bit sad for me.

What I propose (really because I love to receive cards and I'm hoping you do too)is that anyone who likes to receive cards, send me an email(awanda AT gmail DOT com) replacing the AT with @ and a . with DOT with the subject Birthday Card Exchange. In the email tell me your address and birthday and I will send you a card on your birthday. I'll send you my address and hopefully you will send me a card back too.

My birthday is August 27th and I would love to receive a few cards from my virtual, but also real, friends. Please don't think this is a way to ask for stuff, this is solely a card exchange. I'm not trying to hit up people, I just truly love receiving cards.

Let me know if you're interested! I thought it might be fun. If I get no response, that's ok too.

Happy 14th!

Today marks the birthday of my stepson, aka M2. He is 14 today. A little older, a lot taller, perhaps somewhat wiser? I'm so proud of the person he's becoming.

Happy Birthday M2! Let the festivities begin!!