Decisions

So, I've been trying to go back to full time at the non-art related company I work for for some time. I was told that they just didn't think there was enough work for me to do, and they didn't want me to get bored. Two days ago another department posted a position and I told my boss I was going to apply for it. Suddenly, I can come back plus get a nice raise. Funny how that worked. Now I just need to decide which department I would rather work for - my current one where I love my co-workers and am comfortable, but will have some down time, or the new department where the people are much older and stuffier, but where I will be kept constantly busy with absolutely no down time. It's more of a data entry type position then what I currently have. Both positions will pay the same, so I just need to decide if I want to learn something new. I have until tomorrow to let them know. I hate being bored, so the no down time sounds nice, but my current position will give me more of an opportunity to move up. AAARRRGGGG

Motivation

I am supposed to be working on my thesis. I have a meeting with my advisor this week, and of course I have procrastinated up to the last minute. So now I am going to have to go in with 1/2 of what I was supposed to have written, and it won't be nearly as polished as it should be. I do believe that I am going to have to either meet with her more then once a month, or work out a deadline that I have to e-mail her my progress weekly, even if it's just a rough outline or notes. She won't need to necessarily read what I send, as long as I have the deadline in place.

I finally finished Chevrolace!

They are a little loose around the top of the leg, but I like them enough that I will deal with it. I have also started working on a new project. It's the Carie Cropped Flare-Sleeve Cardigan from Fitted Knits (both ravelry links). I am knitting it with Cascade Jewel, because the required yarn is WAY too thick for someone not built like a waif.

This is my first attempt at knitting math, so wish me luck! I know the picture stinks, but I'm hoping that if I make myself give updates I'll actually finish the project in a respectable amount of time. I'm all about the motivation.

Sunday's

Sunday is thesis day. I'm not really in the writing stage yet, so I spend Sunday's reading books that will help get me to the writing stage and journaling ideas. This method has been working well for the last several weeks - I have a better idea of what I need to do and have actually been able to think about the thesis, which is a whole heck of a lot more then I have been doing in the past couple of weeks. Today, however, my thesis books are putting me to sleep. Plus, there's football to watch. While I am currently at work and can't actually "watch" the game, I am able to keep the Fox Sports page up. Since this page constantly refreshes itself, I can keep up with the score. This does not make me want to focus on reading Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day

Instead, here are the yarn pictures I promised last week.

Lorna's Lace in Safari. I love this color way, which surprises me. Typically I like more subdued color ways and the semi solids. But this just called to me. The fact that it was on sale didn't hurt, either.

This is the Buckingham Yarn. (Again, sorry. I can't find a better link). It will be used for the Juno Regina scarf, if I can ever figure out how to read a chart without getting frustrated and confused after the first repeat.

Also, I chopped off about 10 inches of hair.

I'm the one in the middle.

Ok, I'm going to try and finish the chapter on getting from the zero draft to the first draft. I know you're jealous!

Happy 2008!

I have a lot of stash yarn. One dresser and and two plastic storage towers full. A lot of it is really nice stuff - I have a friend who spins but doesn't knit, so I get a lot of her stuff. For 2008 my goal is to actually use some of this stuff! I'm not going to call it a diet, because then I will just want to buy everything I see. But right now it feels like my hobby is buying yarn, not knitting. This year I want to be able to call myself a knitter again. I want to organize my stash a bit better. Right now my organization relies more on just remembering that I purchased yarn at some part and having a vague remembrance of which bin it got put into. I think organizing the stash will help me rediscover some of the yarn I have.
I am finally finished with all of my Christmas knitting. My poor father was the only one who had to unwrap a ball of yarn on Christmas day! I finished the red scarf from last year, finally, along with a matching hat for my mom. I didn't get any pictures. Christmas at my parents tends to be complete chaos with all of my brothers kids, so I didn't bring my camera home. My dad got to unwrap one sock and the cuff of the second. The finished one fit, which was nice. I thought I had the second one finished on Wednesday, but after sewing in all the ends I realized the second one was a good inch shorter then the first, so I had to rip it back to the toe decreases and add that inch. Everyone loved their gifts. When I visited my brothers house later that day my SIL was wearing her socks. She absolutely loved them!
I am currently working on Juno Regina from the Fall 2007 Knitty issue. This issue had so many fabulous patterns. I attempted to make it with Cashwool, but that felt like knitting with floss. I had trouble working with the yarn because it is soooo thin. I'm not good with lace weight to begin with, and I think this is a little thinner then other lace, so I had to take it out. I am using Bristol Yarn Company's Buckingham (sorry, only link I could find!), which is an alpaca silk blend. It's a sport weight, so the scarf will end up being more of a wrap, which is perfect. It's a pale blue shade that is absolutely gorgeous. If the light and camera cooperate today I will try to get pictures.

Wish me luck

I had an interview today. Part of me thinks I am jinxing things by mentioning it here, but internet love and well wishes has worked wonders for others in the past.

As promised...

I went to the Blues game last night. We won, which was a good thing, because I needed that excitement to get me through the rest of the night. We took the metro-link, St. Louis' version of public transportation. After the game we went to a friends, who lives near the rink. We thought we had until 12:30 to get back to the metro stop, since the sign said the last run west was at 12:45. I assumed that the last train west would go ALL THE WAY west. At 12:45 we hopped on the correct train, only to be told at the next stop that it was the last one and everyone had to get off! So we were stranded at Union Station at 1 am. Luckily (it seemed at the time) one of the people with me got a hold of a relative to come get us. Only after we got picked up did we realize we may have been better off trying to catch a cab. Luckily everyone made it home safely, but it was a stressful night.

In knitting related news, I finally photographed Foliage!

I haven't worn it much yet, since I live in Missouri and we are having some crazy weather. In the last two days we went from 40 degrees to 70, back to 40. I took this photo this morning on my back porch with short sleeves on. It was comfortable out side in said short sleeves. Now, it is freezing out. Hopefully I will get more chances to wear the hat!

All in all, this is a good project. It took me less then a week to knit, used up stash yarn, was well written, and kept me interested.

Here's a shot on the progress on Oblique, as well.

I haven't figured out to lighten images or correct the color on my photo editing software yet, and didn't want to take the time to figure it out now. The top photo shows the true color better, but is just a little too dark. The bottom photo is lighter and shows the detail better, but looks gray as opposed to navy blue.

Well, back to knitting. Christmas is only 23 days away!

Foliage

Hi! I've been knitting! I have no actual proof of this knitting, since I am at work and the camera batteries are dead, but I promise you I am telling the truth. I cast on for Foliage yesterday using leftover Lamb's Pride worsted in Raspberry. I love love love this yarn (plus I may be over-caffeinated right now, which could explain the enthusiasm). I originally purchased the yarn two years ago to make my mother a pair of Fuzzy Feet for Christmas. The pattern called for two skeins. I only used a little bit of the second skein to finish the toe on the second slipper, so I have most of the skein left. I am a little worried about the itch factor, since there is a little bit of mohair in the yarn and I tend to have problems with hats anyway, but the yarn is so dang soft that I decided to risk it.
I ripped the Little Red Riding Hoodie from Domiknitrix, which really didn't have a lot of progress on it. I decided that I really didn't need a knit hoodie, and since the whole grafting the pockets AND sewing in a zipper seemed a little advanced for me I decided to scrape the project. Now I have 12 skeins of Cascade 220 in navy. I think I am going to cast on for Hourglass from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I cast on last weekend, knit 6 rows, changed my mind on the yarn for the pattern, ripped out the 6 rows, then realized I didn't have enough of the other yarn so changed my mind back. I have yet to recast on. I will though. Eventually. Soon. I have wanted to knit this sweater for a while, because it is the perfect combination of casual-cozy and stylish, so I could wear it to work when I want to be comfy without feeling like I look like a schlump.
Work is still being done on both Orangina and the child's first socks.

Also, the blues lost last night. To the Blackhawks. This does not make me a happy camper.

Brotherly Love

My big brother left for basic training for the army on Tuesday (I was going to include a picture, but since I've never asked him how he feels about pictures being posted on the internet, I figured it might not be a good idea. I also wanted to post pictures of my ridiculously adorable nieces and nephews, but for the same reason I won't). I couldn't be happier for or prouder of him. He has four adorable kids and a wonderful wife. He has wanted to join the military since high school but for one reason or another never did. He is finally doing what he wants, and in the process was able to choose a really, really cool career path.

Let's Go Blues!

One would think that by age 25 I would be a little bit more responsible one it comes to things. Especially money things. Apparently this is not the case. There is always a point in the pay period where I promise myself that from now on I will follow a budget and eat at home more. Then when I get paid I go to the grocery store in order to be more responsible and stay in. As soon as the groceries are put away, though, I end up deciding I'm too tired to cook and go out. *sigh* I am at the point in the pay period where I am promising myself that I will do better next time.

On what was meant to be a more cheerful note, I am a HUGE hockey fan. I 've gone to 1 pre-season game and two regular season games so far, and am hoping to go to a few more (which may be something I need to address in regards to the above paragraph). Since I am from St. Louis, of course I love the Blues. We are doing better this season, so I am REALLY excited.

Unfortunately, we just lost to the Blue Jackets 3-0 (this photo is not from tonight. It's from last Saturday, when we also lost. I swear we are doing great).

I will knit again sometime soon, I promise. It was in the 40's here today, so I am thinking about pulling out some stash yarn and starting a nice cozy sweater.

Yes Susan

I did survive Florida. It was great.

This was our view. It was amazing. It was a private beach, was made it that much better.

We had mimosa's every day first thing. Needless to say, I did not get a lot of knitting done on my vacation.

My laptop was out of commission for several weeks. That, plus no knitting, plus crazy life getting in the way, means no blogging. But the laptop is back, so hopefully I will have more blogs coming in the future.

Florida, Here I Come!

Sorry, still no photos.

I'm at work right now, job #2 - the one I actually like. I really wanted to get this grant in today, but now I'm not so sure. It's not looking promising, so I'm sure that if I got off of blogger and myspace things would be going much faster.

I leave on Thursday to go to Florida for 5 days. I am very excited about this. I plan on making good use of this vacation time - working 7 days a week with no breaks means I REALLY need some time off. (Really, I don't mean for this to sound winy. I love the second job, which is why I work 7 days a week. If I didn't love it I would go back full time to job number 1 and get my weekends and PTO back. But I do, so it's worth it. I'm just really excited to be going on vacation).

Catch Up

It was been 98 degrees or hotter for the last two weeks here. It is too hot to knit, too hot to take pictures of the non-existing knitting, and too hot to blog. Heck, it is almost too hot to think. I took Purl for the first walk in three weeks this morning - with all that black fur she overheats easily.
I have gotten some progress on my child's first sock, but due to needle issues I have put the sock down for a while. I normally use bamboo needles for socks but found that mine were warping too much on this sock, so I decided to give metal a shot. I'm finding that the metal is way to hard on my hands - I have arthritis and for whatever reasons my hands seem to hurt much more when I use the metal dpn's then with the bamboo, so much so that the last time I knit on the socks my hands started to go numb (the fact that it was chilly where I was knitting did not help. Cold plus metal dpn's do not equal good things for my hands). I had brought the socks and orangina to work on at my knit night, which just happens to take place in a yarn store. Orangina was misbehaving again, so it needed a time out. Luckily, Knit and Caboodle carries a collection of the cutest kids patterns, so I decided to start a new project. My friends L & K have the cutest little girl - G. She is seven months old now, and since L's favorite color is green, I picked up some Cascade Cotton Rich in color 5800. The yarn is nice to work with - it's not hard on the hands, doesn't split. and stays spun, but only has 88 yards to a skein. I guess for less then $5.00 a skein I really can't expect tons of yardage, but I still haven't finished the skirt (knit bottom up) and am already on my fourth ball.
The Cardinal's participated in Stitch and Pitch, which was a lot of fun. It was 99 degrees out, but we won, so I'm glad I went. We went from loosing with no runs at the beginning of the 5th inning to scoring 10 runs and winning by the time it ended. Plus, it was the first time I had seen my friend Elephunning in several weeks, and she brought presents! (sorry, I couldn't find a better web page or remember the names of the other brands, but she brought back three different micro-brews, two of each kind, for both Deb and myself).
I have also had the pleasure of attending two Muny shows this month, The Pajama Game with my co-workers, and Le Mis with a college friend of mine. Both were very good. Le Mis might be the best show I have seen in a LONG time, if not ever.
Tonight I am attending a River City Rascals game with my parents, as long as it doesn't get too unbearably hot.
I will try and get photos of the WIP's before too much longer.

Practice Makes Perfect

I spent today perfecting my long tail cast on. I know many of you may be thinking that this is a basic skill that most knitters learn when they first pick up needles and yarn. I thought so too. But apparently I needed the practice. I re-cast on for the child's first sock FIVE times today before finally getting the right number of stitches with a length of left over yarn that did not make me feel like I was wasting perfectly good yarn.

BTW if you live in St Louis I highly recommend going to Trail Head brewery and trying their current seasonal - Honey Wheat. It is awesome.

Stuck!

I have a two year old nephew who we call dozer, because he doesn't let things like chairs, or walls get in his way. If something won't move he gets very upset and will inform you that it's stuck. He will walk up to a tree, try to push it and get so upset because it is "stuck." He also has a problem with being "stuck" in his car seat or high chair.

Remember when I thought the sock would be too big? So I ripped it out and started over with one less repeat? I should have left it. Oddly, The sock fits my leg perfectly.

See, there's even extra stretch! But, alas, I could not get it back over my heel. I had to unwind the Child's First Sock while it was on my leg because I was stuck!

I hope everyone is having a great 4th of July!

I just want to move*

This weekend I started a new job. I will now be the weekend gallery attendant at the Foundry Art Centre. I still have my internship there, and I will still be working at the other place, but now I have a paying job in the field I want to go into! One of the pluses is that when there are no volunteers I have to sit at the front desk, which means knitting time! I finished two repeats on my Child's First Sock and have most of the heel flap done. Yay progress!
I also spent a good deal of this weekend watching season one of Weeds. Must say I now love this show. It is hilarious. (It's also where the title of this post came from. It's a song that plays during one of the episodes. I don't want to spoil the episode, but the song is PERFECT for the scene).

Superhero*

My two best friends from college came to St. Louis this weekend. This resulted in lots of reunions and much drinking. It most likely resulted in me putting my foot in my mouth, as drinking often results in this for me. It was an awesome weekend and one I hope to relive as soon as possible. However, there was no knitting.


*We listened to a lot of Ani DeFranco, just like back in the day.

Take me to the river...

I have made progress on Orangina. I have finished the first skein and have about 12 inches of lace knit.
Unfortunately I dropped a stitch about 2 inches ago. I picked the stitch up, but as you can see, it looks a little bit odd.

I really don't want to rip back, so I'm hoping that I will be able to either block the mistake out or I will learn to live with it. Maybe I will make this the back of the tank so I can't see it. Honestly, I had to be right on top of the pattern with my camera to have the mistake show up in a picture, so that gives me hope.

I ended up ripping the cuff of my Child's First Sock out. I have tiny ankles, so there was no way the cuff was going to fit me. I'm going to re-cast on with 8 fewer stitches so that it will fit.
Purl is at the groomer getting shaved today. She's going to look so funny, but she does not handle the heat well, so it needs to be done. I have to go pick her up in a half hour, then we're going to go play in the river!

And it's one, two, three, strikes you're out

I went to a baseball game with my parents last night. We lost, but it was still a lot of fun. We were up as high as we could go in the stadium, but it was my first time to the new Busch, so it was still great.
I was trying to take a picture of the fire works that went off when we hit a home run. I missed the fire works, but this is still an awesome picture of the arch.

Tag

I finished my Cabo Halter! I finished it on Sunday.

Try to ignore the fact that I look like a complete dork here.

Pattern Specs:
Patter: Cabo Halter by Amy Butler
Fabric: I have no idea. I bought it when I went to Hagerstown, MD last year to visit family. It's covered in cats and I thought it was cute.
Mods: None, really. I didn't close the back below the zipper, because I thought it looked cute open, and I'm sure there are some accidental ones in there, but that's it.
Start to Finish: Technically, I cut the pattern and fabric out last July when I got back from MD, but my machine was broken, so I couldn't sew it together. I started sewing on Friday and finished it Sunday. All in all, I think I spent three days total on it.
Consensus: I love it!

Obligatory mirror shoot.

You can see the cute back of the shirt here. (I almost said cute back, but since you can see my back side I thought I should rephrase)

I got tagged by the meme going around by Deb. The Rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

1. My dog is trained with hand signals. She is incredibly stubborn, though, and will either pretend she can't hear you with out the signals or pretend that she didn't see them. (I didn't say she was well trained, just trained). She also rarely barks, and needs to carry something in her mouths on walks. Oh, and she is the biggest baby ever.
2. My maternal grandmother passed away on May 9, 2006. My paternal grandma passed on May 10, 2007.
3. My dad's parents had recently celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. My parents will have been married for 33 years this June. My grandparents met in junior high, my parents in high school.
4. I took dance lessons until I was 15, when my foot turned purple. It had hurt for a while before, but nothing weird ever showed up in x-rays. It turned out that I had an extra bone in my foot and it had to be removed. I spent at least a week on crutches every year between my sophomore and senior year of high school. I even had to go to senior prom on crutches. Turns out I have Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, which is why I had to be on crutches senior year – the injury refused to heal correctly. (I also had wisdom teeth removed due to jaw pain that turned out to be arthritis related).
5. I have had the same best friend since 7th grade. I am still friends with the girl I called my best friend in 3rd grade, I still talk to someone I met in preschool regularly, and I am closer to most of the people I hung out with in high school then anyone I've met since. We can go for long periods of time without talking, but when we see each other nothing has changed. And this is a good thing, because I still like the people they are.
6. When I was little I wanted to be an animal cartographer. Basically, I wanted to follow animals around and map their migration patterns. My dad was a cartographer and I loved animals. This seemed like the best way to combine the two. Now, I want to work with art. I have no artistic skills myself, but I appreciate both the beautiful and things that make you think. I get both with art.

7. I collect recipes, but I don't like to cook. I'm good at it, and can make some pretty great stuff when I need too, but I don't often see the point. I live alone, and I don't like leftovers. Stuff tends to go bad, so it just makes more sense for me to pick up something pre-made. In all honesty, if you figure out how much money I waste on food that goes bad, it probably makes more sense financially if I buy pre-made stuff as well.

I'm only going to tag one person. Suze, you're it!

Catching up: super picture heavy

Hi. I haven't posted pictures in awhile, mostly because I've been too lazy to even get them off of my camera. So now that I'm finally getting around too it I have about a month's worth of pictures, mostly non-knitting related, to show.
This is my cousin at the zoo. Isn't she cute? She's standing in front of a giant fish tank inside a cave. I love how the fish looks like it's coming up to give her a giant kiss.

This is the baby elephant. I hadn't gotten to see her yet, so this is exciting. The matriarch of the pack died recently, so the pack is with out one right now. The zoo is wondering who will step up now that she's gone.

This is my cousin and I in front of the hippo tank. My cousin is only 17 so I'm thinking about making a shirt for her that says off limits. She kept getting whistled at while she was here.

I took her to my favorite place in St. Louis, Laumeier sculpture park. This is my dad's favorite piece, Ball? Ball! Wall? Wall! (sorry, RAC's website is down, and they have way better info on the sculpture's at Laumeier then Laumeier's website, so I can't link the actual piece. But it's there if you search. It also has all of the public art in St. Louis listed, so you should check it out). This guy in the picture was running across the top of the piece. Apparently Purl knew that this is not allowed, because she barked and growled at the guy. This may not seem odd to most of you, because that's what dogs do, but Purl does not bark, and she almost never acts aggressively. I always joke that as long as an attacker called her pretty and petted her she'd let someone come up and mug me. She's not very protective (most of the time, this is a very good thing. I don't want an aggressive dog. It would be nice if she was a bit more concerned with my well-being though. I mean, seriously. She's big. And while in most cases an 80lb rottweiler is more then enough of a deterrent, she's a big baby. Good thing I didn't get for anything other then a pet).

Still at the park. This is a picture of Chelsea taking a picture of me.

Actual knitting! This is the gauge swatch I did of Orangina. I finally cast on again yesterday, worked two repeats, and already am short a stitch. Lace does not like me.

Today is my birthday! My parents came up with my nephews yesterday to buy me new running shoes! Both of my parents ended up getting a pair, as well. This place really knows its stuff. My mom and I both have messed up feet. Mom's had surgery twice this past year due to hers, and I have arthritis, so we both need special fits. We found them here. My dad's an avid runner, so he was due for a new pair.

When my oldest neph got out of the car he was so excited to see me. The first words out of his mouth were "Aunt Becca, we got you a cake with your name on it!" My mom tried to remind him that that was a surprise, but he proceeded to tell me all about the cake. He's so cute. The youngest just discover smell, so he likes to tell everyone about it. He will come up to me and say "Aunt Becca, I smell!" while sniffing. He just means that he sniffed, but this cracks me up every time. The first time he did it I told him to go find his daddy, because I don't take care of smelly diapers.
After we got the shoes my dad took me to the opera. This was SO.MUCH.FUN! We saw The Mikado, which was so funny. We also did the pre-show picnic, which was a lot of fun. Next time I go I'm going to bring my own food, though. The provided stuff was really good, but the people who brought there own stuff looked like they had more fun. People brought in these really nice baskets with wine and really great looking food. The people sitting next to us had Red Lobster! There were some crazy looking outfits there. The man we sat next to in the show had on orange pants! And there were so many bow ties! I'm trying to get my friends together to just go to the picnic before hand. We can get dressed up and buy our own wine and just sit out and people watch.
Finally, here is a shot of the Cabo Halter in progress.

Apparently I need to clean my mirror. I now have the bottom section attached. All I need to do is attach the zipper and do the hem. Yeah!
And just in case anyone thought I would pay more attention to what I was doing while sewing then I do while knitting, don't worry. I don't.

I didn't have a seam ripper, either. I got to pick that seam out with a pin. I'd even gone over the stitch a few times, due to tension issues with the machine. Shiny. My mom gave me a seam ripper for my birthday. She thinks she's funny.