Too Many Scarves

Lace knitting and red...

Over the years I have grown as a knitter. I will try projects now that I never thought I would try. For a while there I thought I might never go beyond scarves and hats. Socks? Tiny needles or magic loop? No way.

Sweaters? Forget it. Those are much too difficult.

 

I've even tackled some lace...and thought I had gotten better at it. But I have to admit, My Not So Orangina is kicking my ass.

I have ripped back many times. I have been paying keen attention to this thing and yet I still keep losing stitches. I'll notice that some of the, what I call, eyelets, are lining up instead of staggering like they are supposed to. So I count my stitches and I have 102 instead of 103. I'm not dropping any...and I'll go back and see if I accidentally knit two together twice or something, but no. I'm a little stumped. But I must carry on. I just count the stitches every couple of rows so I catch a decrease sooner than later.

And this is just the front, I have to do the back after this. At this rate I may be done by July.

I needed a little something to make myself feel like a competent knitter. So I cast on for something else, even though I am really trying to keep one project on the needles at a time.

That's from Interweave Knits, Winter 2006. It's small and works well for the Lord Stanley Stashbusting Knit-A-Long.  It's been a while since I have worked with double pointed needles, as I use circulars and Magic Loop whenever possible. This is worked from the top down though so I had to start out on dpns.

We'll see how this works out. I don't have high hopes for it but who knows? I do kind of wish I had some red tweed like the picture in the magazine though.

It's funny, I never liked red before. I thought it was too bright and just not "me". But then, I bought some cute bright red heels and now I want a little red handbag. Or a cute little sweater. I'm thinking something like this (Ravelry link). But that's a long way off.

Knitting...really

I finished the Monkeys a while ago but didn't want to blog about them till I got decent pictures. I've tried and tried, but they just don't photograph well. So, I give you the crappy pictures I have posted on Ravelry:

They look really bright in almost every picture I take. Like this one:

Woah. My eyes actually have to adjust when I look at that one.

Anyway, they are much more muted in person and I am glad I finally put the Koigu to use after 3 years. I am slowly working through the stash.

From one yarn that was in the stash forever to one that was recently acquired:

Mmmmmmalabrigo.

The Wilco Scarf is done.

This thing is so soft, I want to wear it now, but it's 72 degrees out. *I did have it wrapped around my neck at one point while finishing it off the other night. It'll be nice though when it gets cold around here in oh, December. Oh, and for those of you that may have just popped in, I called it the Wilco Scarf because the colorway of the Malabrigo is Hummingbird and Wilco has a song called Hummingbird. That's it :)

*It kind of creeps Randy out though. We have these pictures  in our apartment and the other night he told me he finds the one on the right a little morbid. Kind of like digging your own grave. ???

Arizona...

I got home from Arizona, oh, over a week ago but haven't gotten around to blogging about it till now. (Last week was a tough week for me, evidenced by my not blogging about my dear friend Sarah's birthday till days after the fact. But I'm doing better now.)

Arizona was very nice. I highly recommend staying with my friend Brenda, aka PugMom. She will totally take care of you. She made me meals every day while I sat and knit. And if we went out to eat, she paid! But don't think I enjoyed the vacation just because I got waited on hand and foot. I enjoyed it because I got to spend time with this group right here:

That's Brenda, Nathan and her two pugs Belle and Bug. Here's a close up of Belle relaxing:   

I kept wanting to grab her little pink tongue. Bug doesn't photograph well being almost solid black with the exception of some white spots on her face. They're such tiny dogs but they make so much noise, it's hilarious. Those dogs are almost as entertaining to me as Nathan. 

He is one of the quietest babies I have ever come across and is nothing short of freaking adorable. He has such blue eyes..which is no surprise when you see his parents:

That's Jeff, Brenda's husband. You may remember him from a few posts ago. That's right, he's the one with the big flat screen tv. I didn't get to see that much of him when I was there which is unfortunate, Jeff is hilarious.

Nathan kicks a lot...which is why I couldn't get one decent picture of him in his little swing. But look! There's the blanket!

I'm glad it's getting use. And expect more knits for little Nathan, Brenda. How could I not knit for him?!

Definitely my favorite picture from the weekend. It's actually my screen saver now.

I hope it's not another 3 years before I see you guys :)

Earth Day

I've been thinking a lot lately about recycling, sustainable energy, going green and all that business lately.

As children, Tracey and I would go around the neighborhood with our wagon, collecting newspapers and cans that our neighbors would put aside for us. After a few trips my dad would load up the Buick and head to the recycling center. I even built my own compost box back when I was in junior high. Somewhere along the way, I stopped doing any of that stuff.

I'd gotten quite used to buying things then throwing them in the trash when I was done. It was such  a culture shock when I moved to San Francisco back in 2004.Recycling? Banning plastic bags? Hybrid cars or even better...bicycles?! But over the years there, I guess something sunk back in. I've started paying attention again and doing a few things differently. 

I've started using my own bags almost everywhere. Grocery stores usually, but most recently, Target. I gave the apartment a thorough cleaning last week and found a ton of Target bags stuffed in the closet. I've always hung on to them because they work perfectly for our bathroom and bedroom trashcans, but we have enough to last us for months. So, at least I am reusing them for something, but now it's time to reduce. No more Target bags for me.

In an effort to drink more water, I carry around a bottle all the time. And I reuse it numerous times. It pained me a little bit when I had to get rid of a bottle before I got on flight last weekend...just to buy a new one afterward.

I've been unplugging appliances when they're not in use. I used to always leave things plugged in, you know, just so they would be ready at the drop of a hat. Like it's that difficult to plug something in. Those things drain energy just by being plugged into the wall.

Along those lines, I've been turning off the computer at night. I admit it, I used to leave it on at night. Don't know why. I usually leave it on during the day because I am on and off it all the time, but there is no reason to leave it on while I am sleeping for 8 hours. (Ok, maybe closer to 10 hours these days now that I am not working.)

I've been thinking about buying locally more. Buying locally means less emissions created by trucks bringing it to you, etc. There are numerous farmer's markets in a 5 mile radius of here and I plan on taking advantage of them this weekend. I'm toying with the idea of growing a few veggies here in containers on the patio, but that may be a while off.

I've been using less paper. Instead of using a new piece, I'll use the back of a receipt to jot something down. Or I'll just reference the computer screen instead of printing something out.

Along those lines, ReadyMade magazine has gone digital. I love that magazine...there are some really cool ideas in there. Some of them are still a bit too crazy for me, but if nothing else, it's good inspiration.

And I'm even going to bring it back to knitting here. I'm not talking about ecologically conscious yarns here quite yet, but reducing the yarn stash. I have plenty of yarn. And there are a few projects that need to be frogged and can probably be made into something else.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Granted, all of these things are small steps, but I'm getting there and every little bit helps.

One of the best girls I know...

This past Tuesday, also known as Tax Day, April 15th, was my dear friend Sarah's birthday. This is so overdue, but I just want to tell you all a bit about the birthday girl.

She is one of the smartest people I know. Don't ever try to play any sort of trivia games with her...she'll kick your ass.

She can keep a secret like nobody's business. Trust me. She's got some dirt on me. And I'm fine with telling you all that, because even if you tried to email her and get the dish, I know my secrets safe with her. Everyone needs a friend like that.

She knows the best jokes. I won't repeat them on here, but the laughter that follows is always an uncontrollable, I-didn't-even-know-I-was-capable-of-making-a-noise-like-that laughter.

She is an amazing writer. I wish I had half the skills she does.

She is a great "therapist". You need to call and bitch to someone about something minor that is really bothering you? Sarah understands. She won't make you feel stupid, she will totally validate your feelings.

I miss her dearly. I wish she were still here in California, but I am happy that she has found happiness in Florida.

1999-ish?:

2007:

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

So excited...

Remember this blanket and this cute little boy?

Brenda recently sent me a text message saying that Nathan has been attached to the blanket. Sleeps with it all the time. Yay! Then she sent a camera phone picture:

How frickin' cute is that?!

By the time you read this, I am probably on my way out to Phoenix to go see these two cuties:

I am really looking forward to it because I haven't seen Brenda in 3 years...and I get to meet little Nathan for the first time. Just look at him. Who wouldn't want to meet that cute little face in person?!

Men and their electronics...

My last post sparked some tv envy I guess. Just this past Friday, my friend Brenda commented on my post:

"Oh crap. Now Jeff has TV envy. Thanks a lot! The first thing he said was "PS3 would look awesome on that!" The first thing I thought of was "WOW Johnny Depp would look awesome on that!" Looks like were going TV shopping..."

Then last night, I got this picture in my email:

You win Jeff. Yours is bigger by 4 inches  :)

Randy's big day...

This past weekend was a big one for Randy. He had been looking forward to this moment for a loooooong time. I'll just let the pictures do the talking for me.

Before:

and after:

Wait, let me scoot back a bit.

There we go.

He has worked hard to get here and I am very proud of him. He totally deserves it.

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Can't really figure out why, I think it's a combination of things though.

I'm going on almost three weeks of being unemployed though. I've settled into it a bit, but I think I've realized it's just not in my nature to really relax. There have been numerous times that I have held down more than one job at a time, working well over forty hours a week.  It's very strange for me to not have anything to do.

I've been knitting though.  I have been trying to stick to my "one project at a time" mantra...but I caved and started the Monkeys back when I was still working on the Tilted Duster. I just needed to look at something else other than navy blue. Then I finished the Duster and worked solely on the Monkeys.  I went to a Ducks game the other night and got quite a bit done there.

The game was a lot of fun, I haven't been to a hockey game in a couple of years. And the Ducks won, thereby ending the losing streak. Not their losing streak, they've been doing well, but the streak that has been going on for years now. Every time Randy and I go to a hockey game, the team that we are rooting for loses.

Anyway, I got a good three pattern repeats of the leg done during the game. Then the other night I turned the heel. Now I am working on the foot.

 

But, if you remember, there was the little incident with me casting on for the Wilco scarf out of nowhere the other day. So now that's distracting me. But, I must persevere. Finish the socks. Finish the socks.

I must cast on for Orangina soon. I already wound the yarn and it's just sitting there on the bookshelf staring at me. "What are you doing with that Malabrigo?! We had plans!"

*sigh*