Geek/Knitter Moment

This evening I'm enjoying a total geek/knitter moment. I bought myself a Roomba and can now knit and vacuum at the same time. *LOL*

You gotta love technology!

Mental Health Day

I used to work with a guy who took what he called "Mental Health" days off work. He wasn't really sick, but needed a day off to avoid losing his mind. I've been working tons of extra hours lately (the Hindenburg Computer System Conversion continues), but today has been, happily, a day completely OFF from the office. And boy, did I need it.

I've spent it watching things I'd TiVo'd but hadn't had time to watch, watching "The King's Speech" on DVD (which I really liked....Colin Firth makes me tired heart go pitty-pat), and knitting a bit on some socks I've been working on a little at a time for ages. The day's nearly over....because it's been rainy today, dark will come early. And I don't even care. I'll happily go to bed at a ridiculously early hour, Kindle in hand, and read myself to sleep after a page or two.

Sometimes you just gotta take a Mental Health day. :-)

Some Days It's Just Not Worth Chewing Through the Restraints

Have I mentioned that we're going through a computer system conversion at work? It's kind of taken over my life, to tell the truth. By the time I get home from work and do the few things I absolutely HAVE to do, I'm too exhausted to even pick up the "mindless knitting" I keep in a basket by the recliner. And I mean MINDLESS. Knit in your sleep kind of things. But I'm too tired to even pick up the needles, much less knit.

Here's an idea of how tired I've been: one night last week I fell asleep while eating dinner. HONESTLY!! Anyone who actually knows me knows how unlikely it is that I'd fall asleep during a meal! *LOL*

Today has been an unusually trying day, so while eating my sandwich for lunch, I decided that this will be the after-work plans today:

1. Stop at Mickey D's for a salad.
2. Go home.
3. Call Mom.
4. Take a long hot shower and put on flannel jammies.
5. Eat salad while watching something mindless on TiVo. Maybe Gilmore Girls.
6. Make a big mug o' tea.
7. Log TiVo podcaster into KnitPicks podcasts I've not yet heard.
8. Knit something mindless while catching up on podcasts.
9. Repeat step 8 until dozing.
   

It's a gray, rainy day; I love rainy days. They pull the tension out of my body like a warm bath. So this should be a perfect evening for the "activities" I've planned for myself. I'm in definite need of some yarn therapy!!

STILL Knitting Dishcloths

Okay, how bored am I with knitting dishcloths? VERY. I am kicking myself for promising a dozen and then waiting so long to get started. Even knitting them two at a time in varied hues isn't helping.

I got so bored with them over the weekend that I laid them aside and knitting a bit on baby socks (see my sock-knitting blog, link at right). But even while enjoying that little respite, the dishcloths were looming over my head like a cloud of doom.

Okay, maybe it wasn't quite THAT bad, but let's just say I'll be really glad to finish them up. I have cloths 9 and 10 nearly finished, so that'll leave just one more pair. I'm going to try to finish them up this week in the evenings after work so I can work on something FUN over the weekend.

I don't even want to think about the fact that it's nearly time to start Christmas knitting. I still haven't finished my last pair of summer socks!! And it's JULY for cryin' out loud!

It's time like these that I have to sit back, take a deep breath and remind myself that I knit for fun and relaxation. After all, I'll have another camping trip coming up soon, and that should provide enough knitting time to finish up that last pair of summer socks. I might even have time to knit up some more baby socks while I'm in the tent.

So.....next on the agenda is to decide what I'm knitting for Christmas, make sure the yarn is either in the stash basket or ordered in a timely fashion, and give myself plenty of time to work on the projects without putting myself in a bind.

Yeah. Right. ;-)

Haley's Doggie Sweater

I finished Haley's doggie sweater this morning and sewed the buttons on it. I hope it fits! I'd forgotten how quickly this little sweater knits up. I was down at Mom & Dad's last night visiting relatives who were in for a visit, and didn't work on the sweater at all. So really I only had a little time for each of three evenings on it and finished it up this morning. Pretty quick!

I'm back on the second pair of Dragonfly socks now; in fact I had them with me at Mom & Dad's last night and worked on them a little while during my visit. Everyone's grown used to seeing me with knitting in my hands, so no one was offended. *LOL* The "Snow Queen" Sockotta is working up into interesting designs. Mom said they look like tapestry. I hope to get some more sock-knitting time in tomorrow between household chores. And I really MUST do a few household chores tomorrow.

Which reminds me....where did I see that pattern online for knitted dust bunnies? :-)

Weekend Outlook

I work a flex schedule in the summer, so today is my last day in the office this week. I just checked Weather.com to see what the forecast is for the next three days. Is it weird that I'm glad there's a chance of showers and thundershowers each day?

Here's why I'm glad:

1. I don't need to do any shopping this week, so I can devote Friday to cleaning, laundry, and cooking next week's meals for freezing. (I just love to come home in the evening on a work day, pull a home-cooked meal out of the freezer and pop in in the microwave.)
2. That will leave most of the next two days open for....KNITTING! *happy dance*

I just love to get in the recliner on a gray, rainy day with a big 'ol glass of iced tea (I need to make a fresh batch tonight), a good audiobook on my Zune (which is ready and waiting), and my knitting (which is ALWAYS ready and waiting).

I currently have a big stack of UFOs because I'm trying to finish up my summer sock knitting. I've finished three pairs (see my sock knitting blog for details) so far and have nearly reached the heel on a fourth pair. After I finish the current pair, I want to knit at least one more pair of summer socks before I get back to my other projects.

I've been tracking my sock knitting time for the 10kH project and am now beginning to wonder if I should change it to 10,000 hours of just KNITTING instead of 10,000 hours of sock knitting. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. Even though getting back to my other projects will cut into my sock knitting time (and my 10,000 hour goal), it's a long-term goal anyway, so it won't really matter. Okay, decision made: leave it as 10,000 hours of knitting socks. Moving on.

I bought Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop for myself and have cast on the famed Baby Surprise Jacket as my first Zimmerman project. My first reaction on reading that pattern was "Okay. Now where can I find help with this?" *LOL* Luckily, my beloved Ravelry has an excellent BSJ Group, complete with its own Wiki. I've already joined the group and anticipate using it a LOT while knitting my first jacket.

I hope to spend some time this weekend just reading through the Knitting Workshop and absorbing the differences between EZ's style and other knitting books I've read. She's a legend, and I'm looking forward to learning more about her and her techniques.

All in all, it's shaping up to be a good weekend. Hope yours is great, too!

Finally Friday!

It's been a crazy busy week; I love having time off from work, but always have to pay for it when I go back to the office!

But, because I had three different medical appointments this week (all follow-up things, thank goodness), I had some productive knitting time in waiting rooms. Sometimes you really have to dig for that silver lining, y'know? *LOL*

All my knitting time was on socks, so I'll post a bit about that on my 10,000 Hours of Knitting Socks blog (see link at the right).

Happy Friday, everyone!

Summer Lovin' Socks

I finished my Summer Lovin' socks this evening! Take a peek at them on my "10,000 Hours of Knitting Socks" blog. :-)

Patience is a Virtue

....what a shame I don't HAVE any patience! *LOL*

When I got home yesterday, eagerly anticipating opening a package of sock yarn, I found a sticker on my front door telling me that UPS requires a signature in order to leave my package. *sniffle, sob*

Dang it. Oh, well. At least I know it'll be there when I get home today. The good news is that it's going to be a rainy, stormy Saturday, and I'll have a good excuse to stay in and play with my new stash additions.

Last night I was catching up on things I'd TiVo'd earlier in the week and knitted happily on my Summer Lovin' socks. I'm working my way up the leg now and hope to have enough knitting time this weekend to finish them up. Assuming, of course, that I can resist the temptation to cast on another pair out of my new yarn. *not making any promises on that item*

Simple Pleasures

I admit it.....I am easily amused. Simple things make me very happy. Warm sunshine on my face, a bird singing in the tree outside my window, a steaming mug of tea on a chilly morning. Those are all good things.

Almost as good as receiving word from UPS that SOCK YARN will be delivered to my home today. *LOL*

I'm knitting summery socks to wear to work (with its chilly air conditioning), and found a deal on Sockotta at DBNY. So when it arrives today, I should have enough sock yarn to keep me out of mischief for a good long while.

.....or at least until I run up on another good deal, right? :-)

The Summer Lovin' socks are progressing nicely. I'm past the heel now and have started working my way up the leg. I tried them on again after I'd finished the heel, and the fit is great. *YAY*

10k Hours of Knitting Socks

I'm starting a new project today....10,000 hours of knitting socks! To document this project, I've added a new section to my blog that you can reach here. I've also put a link over in the navigation on the right under "My Other Knitting Blogs".

This will, of course, be a very long-term project, but I think it'll be fun to see how my skills progress over 10,000 hours of practice!

I'm still working on my "Summer Lovin'" socks, and still enjoying them. I'm nearly finished decreasing the gusset, so progress is being made. :-)

You Gotta Love Spring

Yes, I suffer from seasonal allergies...in fact, worse this year than I can remember in previous years. But, oh boy was it ever great to be able to sit out on my balcony last night in the warm evening air and knit until it was too dark to read the pattern! Today my eyes are itchy and red from the extra exposure to the ridiculous amount of pollen in the air, but it was definitely worth it!

I was working on my Summer Lovin' Socks, and am just an inch or so from starting the heel. It's going well, and I've learned that running a lifeline at the beginning of each pattern repeat is a great comfort. Why the heck haven't I been doing that all along? I remember reading about lifelines when I started knitting socks, but thought it seemed like unnecessary trouble to me. Dumb. Just plain dumb. If I'd had lifelines in my diagonal lace socks, I'd be wearing them now instead of having two lovely little cakes of gray yarn waiting for me to cast them back on.

I use dental floss for my lifelines. It's easy to thread through the stitches and has the unexpected bonus of making my socks smell minty fresh as I work on them. *LOL*

And so, here I am on my lunch break at the office, wishing I was at home on the balcony with my knitting. Ah, well....4:30 will be here before too long. :-)

A Good Couple of Days

I had to have a little medical procedure done today which involved some time off from work for prep yesterday and for the procedure today. So during my time away from the office, I managed to get a little knitting done. Of course. :-)

Yesterday at home I worked on my Summer Lovin' Socks. I'm really loving this pattern, and I've tried the socks on a couple of times already. I think they're going to be great!

Today in the waiting room and pre-op I worked on my Feather and Fan Scarf. It's a great "waiting room" project because the pattern is so easy to memorize and you can stop in the middle of a row without causing a total disaster. It's looking good too, I think.

If knitting never does another thing for me, it's made me a much more patient person in a waiting room! *LOL* Well, back to the couch with my socks. Life is good.

Mom's Market Bag

I just finished the "Grrlfriend Market Bag" for Mom. It's actually a lot cuter than it photographs. *LOL*

I'd knitted one of these for a friend for her birthday. Mom saw me working on it and just loved it, so I told her I'd make one for her as well.

Now that I've finished this bag, I want to cast on some summer-weight socks. I have a skein of Sockotta in my stash basket that's been singing to me lately, so I think the time has come to wind it into a neat little yarn cake and begin working it up. Now.....what pattern to try this time?

Decisions, decisions........

Happy Easter!

I hope Easter morning is as beautiful in your neighborhood as it is in mine! Bright sunshine and moderate temperatures are predicted, and I'm sure lots of little Easter egg hunters are glad for that.

I've been invited to a family gathering this afternoon at a cousin's home and knitted a couple of Basic Dishcloths for her for Peaches & Creme's "Juanita Rose" colorway. Pretty, pretty colors....I hope she likes them!

I May Have Lost My Mind

Ages ago I made a mistake on the heel of the Diagonal Lace Socks I was knitting. It was just a dumb mistake made by not reading the CLEARLY PRINTED instructions (*kicking self*), but a mistake all the same. Irritated with myself, I decided that it was a mistake I could live with and just continued knitting along.

Everytime I picked up that pair of socks to work on them, that mistake glared at me. Finally, last night I decided, "Oh, forget it" and ripped them out and started over. Well....STARTED starting over. *LOL* While watching "Pulp Fiction" on TV and rewinding the yarn I got myself in a tangle, worked on the tangle until the movie ended, gave up and went to bed.

Ah well....as my hero Yarn Harlot taught me, there are no Knitting Police. Thank goodness.

Some Lovely Mindless Knitting

Tuesday I received some yarn I'd ordered from WEBS to knit myself a simple shawl. I'd actually started knitting one with worsted weight yarn, but decided that for the simple "dishcloth" shawl I wanted to make that heavier yarn was needed.

I just love getting yarn in the mail....that big ol' squishy shipping envelope just fills my head with project possibilities. Of course, what I REALLY need to do is finish up some of my UFOs, but oh well.....

I'd also decided that for this shawl I needed some size 13 nickel-plated circular tips and had ordered those (along with some other lovely goodies) from my favorite online source, KnitPicks. They arrived yesterday, and I spent the evening watching a Netflix DVD and knitting mindlessly along. Soooooooo relaxing!

But now I have a quandry....I've also received (from KnitPicks) some beautiful ON SALE sock yarn and a brand new set of size 1 Harmony wood circular needles. And I've promised myself that I absolutely will NOT start another set of socks until I complete the two pairs I already have on needles. *deep mournful sigh*

Gonna have to crack the whip on myself and get my other socks done so I can start MORE. After all, you can never have too many socks, right? RIGHT?

Hot Water Bottle Cozy

I finished knitting my hot water bottle cozy this afternoon. It looks like a little turtleneck sweater! I look forward to filling it with hot water when I get ready for bed tonight and tucking it under the covers next to my chilly toes.

I've been fighting off a cold the past few days, and it finally caught up with me this morning. Just a cold. But we all know what a cold can do for you. Chills, slight fever, mild headache, sniffly, snuffly.....BLEAH. I was happy to have my bottle cozy to work on, since it's an easy pattern that doesn't require a lot of headwork.

Even with the crummy cold, it's been a pretty good Saturday. :-)

I'm Back

So sorry I've been away so long....my beloved little MeggieDog was very sick and passed away on February 24. She was nearly 16 years old, and I brought her home when she was 5 weeks old. So, you can imagine how lost I've been feeling.

I still miss her terribly, but am improving a bit at a time. In the past few days I've started a couple of very simple knitting projects that don't require a lot of attention just to get my hands (and hopefully my mind) active again.

I'd finished my first "Regular Guy Beanie", so now I've put another one on needles. I'm going to do this one in stripes. I'll try to get some photos up in the next few days. I've also started a simple cabled hot water bottle cover. I've just discovered the joys of sleeping with a hot water bottle at my feet on frosty nights. How the heck does that thing stay warm all night??

More later....have a great weekend, all!

Back In The Groove

As I was saying in my last post, I've been dragging a bit lately, not being very productive at anything, not even my knitting. I began to wonder if I'd started associating knitting with pain, since I'd used knitting to preserve my sanity last year while waiting for back surgery.

Thankfully, my productivity is a bit better now. The weather is still icky (flurrying right now, in fact....big fluffy lazy flakes), but I'm able to pick up my Diagonal Lace socks and knit contentedly on them while listening to an audiobook or a KnitPicks podcast.

Had I told you I can listen to KnitPicks podcasts through my TiVo? That's a pretty neat TiVo feature. I'm not sure how I ever managed to keep up with any television series before TiVo. I never seem to be able to watch broadcast television when it's actually broadcast anymore.

Back to my knitting....today it occurred to me that it might help to toss in a charity item, so today I'm casting on a knit hat to be donated to a local charity that provides blankets and warm clothing to homeless individuals in our community.

I'm going to use the "Regular Guy Beanie" pattern on Ravelry. I'll keep you posted.