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!

Belated Pictures

I finally figured out how to get the pictures off of my cell phone. It only took me four days. Not bad.

This is Purl with Jackie from Saturday. It's fun to see her with a bigger dog. It doesn't happen often.This is one of the MANY wheels owned by the exes mom. It is double treadle, and there are all sorts of other special things I am supposed to know about it, but I don't. The wheel I have that is currently never being used is a loaner from the mom.

And finally...

This is the homespun. It will soon be joining my stash. The mom (sorry, don't want to use real names, but don't really know how to refer to his family anymore) loves to spin, but doesn't knit. She's had surgery on both wrists for carpal tunnel, so she really can't anymore. Luckily she likes to give the yarn away, so after I left a note saying how pretty it was I was told I could have the yarn. Yeah!

In other knitting news, I got several rows into Orangina when I noticed that it looked huge. I normally wear a medium, so that's what I cast on for. When I looked at the pattern I realized I should be knitting a size small, so I frogged what I had. I'll start again tomorrow. Also, my cousin is coming to stay with me for a few days while our mother's go to the quilt show in Paducah KY. She has already shown an interest in yarn and knitting the last few times I saw her, so I'm hoping I can further that habit in her!

Expansion

Wow. It's been a week again. Sorry about that. I have very little progress to show you, but I will make up for this with LOTS of pictures. I am about 6 inches into the l'il red riding hoodie, but I have decided that since it requires 6 stitch markers, and I just ordered these 6 stitch markers, I have to wait for them to come in before working on it any more. Yes, I do have plain ones that will work just fine, but they are plain. And boring. Luckily the new ones were shipped today, so I should have them fairly soon.

The color in the first photo is more accurate.

I turned the heel on my plain vanilla trekking sock (yes, I am still on the first one. Why do you ask?), picked up the stitches for the gusset, knit a few rows, and realized that the heel flap was WAY to short. I keep trying to make 2 inch heel flaps so that it forms a pretty square, but sadly, this does not work. So I ripped back to the heel flap and added an inch(Those who know me are shocked by this. Typically I refuse to rip, no matter how bad the mistake. For something like a short heel, normally I would live with it. I think this is a sign I am growing. Maybe I'll go work on the scarf. On second thought, fixing a sock heel is enough growth for now).

I am also working on a pair of pants for baby G. Last year I had a lapse of judgment and ordered enough knit picks shine to knit a shrug for myself. This was not the lapse. The lapse was ordering it in a bright green shade. I wear browns, and reds, and earthy tones. Not bright apple green. However, baby G's mom loves green, and the pattern calls for 2 skeins of knit picks shine, so I will get to use some of my stash.

I went on a yarn crawl on Friday with Deb and blog-less Sarah to celebrate both of their birthdays. We started and knit and caboodle on main street here in St. Charles. Here is the wall of cascade I gushed about earlier. It still amazes me. I swear I walk into this place and get overtaken by the wool fumes. I need to just get my paycheck direct deposited to their account. I bought yarn to finish the before mentioned sweater and a skein of sock yarn - I showed considerable restraint. Purl likes the sock yarn too, see, she arranged it artistically for me. It's Jitterbug and is beautiful. It has already been re-skeined. Our next stop was Knitorius. Unfortunately, it took us way to long to get there, so it was our last stop. We meant to go to another store after this, but getting lost took over an hour of our time. Here I got enough King Tut's cotton to make a summer sweater, and a skein of Lorna's Lace in black Purl (yes, I admit the name is why I bought it.I'm a sucker for things that make me think of my dog).

I promise to try and be better this week about blogging. I can't promise I actually will, though.

Grace Kelly*

I started a new job yesterday. I still work for the old company, but part time just doesn't cover enough. I could fit more hours in there, which would mean I would still have nights and weekends off, so I am considering it. But the new place as benefits for pt employees. I figure I'll give it another day or two and then decide. I really like having weekends off for fun stuff, like art openings, yarn crawls, and traveling!

It is freezing here now. Hard to imagine that just last Sunday I walked on the KT trail and took all those pictures! Speaking of...

On the right side of the trail there is a little waterfall. Since it always has water in it, even when there has been no rain for month, I'm a little dubious of its orgins, but it is still pretty to look at. I don't worry about the source too much, it's not like I'm going to drink from it or go for a swim.

Across from the water fall there is a memorial bench. It always has fresh flowers.
Purl found a stick on the trail. She does so much better on walks when she has something to carry. It keeps her from smelling everything there is to smell.
She's so proud!

I keep fight the urge to go back to the new yarn store. I really want to go get more of the cascade Jewell - maybe a sweaters worth? I should probably finish the one I'm working on first!

*The title has nothing to do with this post, but the song has been stuck in my head all day

It's Friday, I'm in Love

Actually, it's Saturday, but I am in love, and I love the Cure, so it works. There's a new yarn store in town called Knit and Caboodle. It's located on Main Street in St. Charles, which is a great location for a yarn store. The street is still paved in cobble stones and is lined with little shops that sell antiques and restaurants. Knit and Caboodle is located right down the street from Trailhead, one of my favorite micro-breweries. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was the WALL OF CASCADE! Any type of cascade in any colorway you can think of. The store is organized so well, which is great. They have the square bins on one wall and hanks of yarn hanging from pegs. It was well lit, and there a shelve for the pattern binders.

I went in just to look. I just wanted to see what she had. I ended up buying a hank of Jitterbug sock yarn and a hank of Cascade Jewell. I have no idea what I will do with this, but it was too beautiful to pass up. I will definitely be going back. I think it may be my new home away from home.

PS: I finally added a banner. I know my hand is glowingly white, but I'm new to photoshop, so I'm pleased that I got this far!

Not so Bad

I decided that I couldn't wait for yarn to come in the mail, so I went to my LYS and purchased four balls of pace by universal yarns to start my flower basket shawl. It is a sock yarn, so nothing too fancy, but it is working out much better then the lace wight was for me. I have finished two repeats.

The yarn is a dark brown, which I like for now. I may decide to over dye it later, if I can. We'll see.

He who shall not be named was is town this weekend. His plane landed in St. Louis Friday night at 8:45 pm, and he called to see if I wanted to have dinner with his parents and him that night. It went well. I brought Purl over to his parents on Saturday so she could play with their Swiss Mountain Dog, Jackie. They are close to the same size, and only a month apart in age, so they are a lot of fun to watch together. His mom is a spinner, so she made me yarn for Christmas. It is beautiful.

This picture really does not do the yarn justice. There is 400 yards of the dark brown and 200 yards of the peach. It is 50% alpaca, 25% merino, and 25% angora. I can't wait to knit with this stuff.

His parents had a party last night for a friend that is leaving for Officer Training School next week, so I went to that last night. It was odd, because I kept getting asked when we were going to get married. It wasn't really the time or place to say we weren't together anymore. His plane back to Oakland left St. Louis at 6:45 this morning. He has a gig tonight in San Francisco. I am glad I saw him. I am ok with how things ended up finally. More importantly, I am ok.

Today I have watched 8 episodes of the Dog Whisperer. Poor Purl doesn't stand a chance.