November roundup

November went by in a blur. I managed to survive Black Friday at my job. (Just barely, but I did.) A major upheaval is occurring, and I feel like I'm riding the top of a huge wave. If I can just stay on top I can make it to the other side, with my sanity (or what's left of it) intact. However, looking down is a bit scary. (Especially since I can't surf.)

Thanksgiving came and went, and so did my family. Dinner turned out well (nothing was burnt or undercooked-- a minor miracle) and I am the reigning champion at "Clue".

I've been having knitters ADD and have been going back and forth between projects. However, a couple of things got finished.

1. A scarf that we shan't discuss. (It's really warm and cozy and long, but I didn't really get distracted with it. Did I?)

2. A pair of Sixth Sense socks from Colinette Jitterbug yarn. I'm definitely a fan of this yarn.

3. A teal hat that now has a green stripe. See?



I think it needs a pompom and a matching set of mittens.

Also, it stopped raining long enough to get the science project finished and it was TURNED IN TODAY!!!!!! It's a happy day in my life. (DS#2 is pretty happy too. :)

Next time I'll bring green

Last night was the athletic sports banquet for the fall sports. It's still called a banquet even though there's no food. At all. When my older 2 went through the system, it was called a banquet but we all brought desserts. Now.... nothing. But, I digress....

All the sports meet together and the big awards are given and then the group breaks up and each sport has it's own awards ceremony.

We (DD#2's field hockey team) were there the longest. By a long shot.

How long, you ask?


This long.



Long enough to knit 6 inches of a hat. I could've knit another 20 minutes worth, but want to add a green stripe so I stopped. And then I got fidgetty.

Don't get me wrong. The team is great on bonding and "there is no I in team" and playing together and making relationships and developing as a person in addition to all the normal sport stuff.

But 2.5 hours to recognize all of that?

Next time I'll bring the green yarn.

(P.S. DD#2 got the Offensive MVP award for JV, so I guess I can handle long awards ceremonies.)

Socks and rain

I'm quite happy that those of you in Florida, and up the coast, did not get hit by the hurricane.

Truly, I am.

However....

The remains of the system have been hovering over our area for four days now, and that's enough.

Sloggly, slushy rain. Blech.

We have a science project to finish around here, people, that must be done outside using a dry driveway. (We meaning DS#2, but also me as the one who pushes children into hurrying along.) That project is due on Monday. Not the display board, but all the other work that goes along with the experiment, including data and charts and experiment results and such.

Dry, driveway, dry!

While the project is not getting done, my socks did!




Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug frangipana 145 (who knows what color this is really--I can't read it).
Pattern: Sixth Sense Socks from 6SoxKAL
Size 1 dpns, following the pattern as written.

Lovely, cushy socks!

DH and I both had the day off yesterday (a minor miracle). We decided to go shopping and we went to a bookstore where he told me to pick out a book.

And I did!

I was checking out each knitting book, but nothing was quite catching my eye when I saw this:



Knitted Socks East and West by Judy Sumner! I've been wanting it for awhile and snatched it up and it became mine! (Using a couple of coupons made it practically free which was just icing on the cake.) Judy is a poster on the KnitTalk group and it's even more special to own a book from someone I almost know. Plus, the book is lovely with fun patterns.

With the last pair of socks done, it's time to cast on for a new pair. Now, if I can only decide which one!

Time to decide

One week ago I decided to attack my Mirepoix vest with new vigor. The only requirement I had was to knit "a bit" every day. I didn't define "a bit" any further. It didn't need to be for any length of time or any amount of rows as long as I knitted on it every day.

I put markers to mark my daily progress and they really helped to keep me moving.

In one week's time, I've done 7 inches and am now ready for the bodice (i.e. the hard part).



Pulling out the rest of my yarns, I found this hot mess.



I still haven't decided on the color combinations.

To recap, I needed 2 shades of 3 colors for a total of 6, including the grey. I originally have 6 colors, but 3 shades of teal, 2 of yellow, and grey all by itself.

This is my first swatch.



Hmm...

Then, I bought 2 shades of pink and tried this out.



Double hmmm...

Then I put it all away and forged ahead on the ribbing.

Figured I'd deal with it later.

Now, it's later and time to decide.

Or knit another swatch.

Or two.

Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah!

Today was a day off work. Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah! (Spirits were slightly dampened when I found out that I somehow missed that I have to work tomorrow--I'm sure the schedule didn't say so, but then all of a sudden it did. Still, I had one day off and that was good.)

The day was started with me being all motivated. Balanced the checkbook, did paperwork and computer stuff. Knitted. Mowed the lawn. (So, I'm running late with that. The ground up leaves can just be called mulch.) The mower died so I switched to raking leaves. Found a spider on my back (Not an ordinary one but a rather spectacular one.) Ran screaming into the house and that was the end of that.

The kids had a 2 hour early release so we were going to do errands and such, but they were tired so instead we stayed home and they took a nap. (And maybe me too.)

That's the end of my productive day.

Except....

I finally got the nerve to put my vest on some scrap yarn and try it on.

And it fits.




Yippee-i-y-yea! and Hip hip hoorah!

I have about 2 more inches to go and then on to the bodice. And the colorwork. I'm starting to shake in my boots but am determined to keep going so I can wear it this year. And be done with it.

Joke

Q: How are the Redskins like a 'possom?




A: They play dead when at home and get killed on the road.



(Explanation for those of you who live in another country: it's the local professional football team that's doing very badly this year.)


Another 7 rows were knitted onto the Mirepoix bodice today, but I'll spare you the picture.

The daily knitting

November is NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month where one blogs every day for the whole month.

I, however, will not be doing that. (Surprised?) There's not a chance that I can keep up with that, so instead I'll just try to blog occasionally. That's all the commitment I'm going to give. November needs no more pressures, especially for one who works at a retail store. Shudder... Plus, Christmas is just around the corner and Christmas gifts may or may not need to be knitted.

However, I am committed to working on my vest for a bit each day. (Fuzzily defined to avoid pressure. See above reasoning.)

Today I've knitted between the orange marker and the needles. (natch). Five or six rows. Not much but it will add up.




But that's not all the knitting that I've done today. I've also finished this scarf. (I have no idea where it came from and what it was doing on my needles... All of a sudden, it was just there.)



16 stitches, size 15 needles, one skein of Cherry Tree Hill Bulky Loop Mohair. Color Champagne.

It's longer than 8 feet plus the fringe--just 'cause I wanted to use the whole skein. VERY warm and cozy.

The sock has also made progress (but has not lost a stitch!)



It's nearing the toe and going well.

(blah, blah, blah. boring. boring. Here's the interesting conclusion to tie this whole post together......)(Hahahahahaha--a conclusion sentence? You didn't think I could do that, did you? It's not happening today. Or on most other days, either.)

Another inch

We have recently upgraded to Windows 7, and so far, so good. Everything is working okay. Nothing significant is lost.

However, there has still been changes.

I'm trying out the new IE instead of the Avant browser that I used to use. That meant, however, that now my old bookmarks are now merged with my new bookmarks. And you know what that means...I have to repeat all that work of checking old links to see what still works.

Also, I lost my old picture editor and am trying out Picasa3 as both the editor and the picture uploader for Blogger. Things seem to be okay, but the learning curve is a bit steep for my middle-aged brain. Like, I just spent the last 10 minutes figuring out how to edit a picture. It turns out that my screen window wasn't showing the bottom where all the choices were. Huh. Move around the window and all was fixed.

I know, whiny, whiny, whiny. Moving on....

I've decided to knit a bit on the Mirepoix ribbing EVERY DAY until it gets the length necessary. That's the only way it will every get done.

This is what I did today (from the marker).





It's 8 inches now. If I do this much every day (or maybe even half as much), I should be ready for the bodice in another week. (and then it'll be decision time on the colors. I've been ignoring that for as long as possible.)

Of course, I still haven't tried it on, so I might have to start over. But I think not. (At least, I hope not.)