Since the Last Time we Talked

It’s been a crazy week and weekend so I’m sorry for not posting regularly. I also haven’t been doing much of the knitting thanks to my hectic life, but I finally carved out some time last night to make this:

My slouchy hat from MadelineTosh on size 6 needles. It could have been a little bigger but it offers enough space to cover my ears while I’m keeping my wet hair warm.

So to start with the beginning of my weekend:

Friday I went to work and had a long day of stressfulness where I finally got out after receiving a few hours of overtime. Sadly they were at the expense of my sanity. I came home and showered and bummed around for a while, flirting via text message with an awfully cute boy.

Saturday I went home to do laundry, pick up my coffee table and generally bum around with my kittens; whom I missed tons.

Louie Bug is lost in thought, looking oh-so-cuddleable

Basking in the sun with his fuzzy self!

I finished my laundry and got out of there before mom was home from her patient. I left her a note and headed home.

The party started at approximately 6 for me; or as soon as I got home with the many bottles of booze, opened one and poured myself a SOLO cup of skinnygirl margarita: low on calories, high on tequila.

My bestie, Marie, came.

I fell at least once:

But it’s OK, my floor welcomed me and I was laughing too damn hard to care.

And the rest of the night is history; only to be repeated in the annals of Dating in the Milwaukee Moonlight.

Sunday I bummed around to try to keep the room from spinning. I had greasy cheese curds someone left behind, classic coke someone left behind and had to clean the house after a bomb appeared to have gone off. It was a fun night to say the least.

I finished the hat late on Sunday night.

Playing Catch-Up

I’ll admit: I haven’t really been knitting much lately.

Since the last time I blogged, I have gotten over my illness,

hung out with my kittens,

knit the heel on that sock (which doesn’t have an image because… it’s a heel), started a shawl I don’t have an image for yet, knit a pair of mittens,

Made with size 8 needles and one skein of Cascade 128. They're bulletproof from the cold wind of Wisconsin Winter

 

Started the decreases on a MadelineTosh hat I’ve been working on since Christmas,

I wanted to wear it tonight, but I think it’ll have to be on my head another day considering I have a lot of decreases still to be made…

 

and spun a bobbin of fiber.

 

Tonight: I have a date. With a very cute boy. Maybe I’ll have time to spin after.

I’m Dying

Has this been a title of one of my past blogs before?

Yesterday started gloriously: With my lack of voice. It took an hour and a glass of hot water to get it to the point where I could call work and tell them I was deathly ill and wouldn’t be able to come to work.

We got cable and Internet! YAY! Much sickly rejoicing was had while Carlos, the cable dude ran around our house trying to find a good place to drill a hole while missing the duct. I wheezed from the couch while the roomie and her sister tried to avoid my germs.

A friend brought me Cheddar & Broccoli soup from Panera and I devoured it while savoring the hot liquid at the back of my throat. He was so gracious as to give me some of his body heat while I shivered from fevers under the 6 blankets on my bed.

I ran out of Orange Juice, milk, NyQuil, Alka-Seltzer cold medicine and a plethora of other things while hunkering down in the house.

I knit about half a sock. I shall turn the heel today.

I vowed I needed to come into work today. This vow was a total mistake and should never have been made.

I woke up, late of course and looked out the window to a lovely sheet of white snow all over my porch and the street in front of me.

Son of a bee-sting!

I dressed, made tea, packed the DayQuil and a shot glass. looked like I was ready for the apocalypse but I ventured out into the cold, windy, and horizontal snowing street to unearth my car from the pile of wet and thick snow that had decided to become superglued to my car.

I’m wearing wool socks today under my newly winter-ized boots.

Remember when I didn’t knit socks? What on earth was I thinking?

An hour and a half later, wet, frozen and freezing, I finally made it to work. I felt like dying already. I walked through the parking lot only to get snow IN MY EAR, my eyes were tearing thanks to the wind and I couldn’t look up to see the shuttle coming to get me. Luckily he stopped for me otherwise I’d have had to walk even further in the cold snow and want to feel even more like dying.

I took a shot of DayQuil, it did nothing for me. I ate some Tortilla Chicken soup and it cleared the sinuses for about 20 minutes. Now I’m back to feeling like I need to sneeze constantly, wishing for my last review so I can go grocery shopping and go home to bed.

I guess that’s all the knitting I have to show for my weekend. A half a sock. These guys are actually going to be real-sized socks too! My boots go mid-calf and I want to be able to wear them with jeans and these socks. Should be an interesting venture and a lot of purling. Oy.

Not quite 10

Last night I spent at Brewed, the hipster coffee shop right around the corner from me. This is, of course, after I shoveled my way out of my house, bundled up in the woolens and made my way.

I blogged, wrote e-mails and then blogged again until my pint of mint-cocoa was gone and my belly was aching for some real food.

The porch and sidewalk were already laced with a good amount of snow but I left it until after I had sustained myself.

I should have taken a picture but the lighting in my room is poor at night and a flash would have made the plastic bins of my knitting stash look crazy but let’s give you a bit of a visual. My knitting stash is in 32-qt. boxes which stack upon each other. On the base of this pile is a black drawer storage compartment which holds all of my fiber. It has all been pushed and stacked in the corner of my room next to my giant wardrobe. This three-drawer case and the 6 totes total about 10 feet high of yarn.The bins are full to capacity.

That’s a lot of yarn.

Last night I took three totes and spilled them onto my bed. I had my list of knitting projects needed and I found the yarn necessary, matched them with needles and set them along my bed for casting on. After 20 minutes of running to the kitchen to stir my dinner and checking things off my list, I would up with this:

Starting on the Left:

Koolaid dyed purple Merino knitpicks yarn to make a coffee cozy. I can’t seem to keep a hold of my old blue one and I think this bright variegated coloring will work perfectly around a pint of coffee whenever I feel like grabbing one.

Marine-blue Cascade yarn that will become felted coasters. I cast on 30 stitches, knitting garterstitch on size 10 needles. I’m sure the new washing machine will adore me.

One skein Wine-purple-red and vibrant blue Dream in Color Smooshy which I intend to make a Mara Shawl with. I’ve already cast on with size 6…maybe… needles and it’s looking pretty great so far!

One skein OnLine SuperSocke yarn and size 2 needles. They should make a delicious pair of socks to keep my tootsies warm through the winter. I know… socks… but they’re going to replace my blue and purple ones which are knit a bit too loosely so while they work, I’m sure these will work better.

Finally, some Ella Rae yarn to create felted nesting bowls for M’s Christmas present. I’m sure one day we’ll get together and she’ll get them.

Also on the needles:

The red scarf that has had 200 yards on it is still in the works.

The orange hat is about half-done. About an inch more and I’ll be able to start decreasing.

And actually that’s all the WIPs I have… Weird.

Hope everyone is faring the weather well enough! My windshield wipers are up and I’m ready to get home to a big cup of hot cocoa and some good knitting!

I know, I know

I should be posting more often and I will as soon as Monday rolls around and I have Internet again. Until then I had to trudge through the snow to make it here.

BUT! I didn’t have that bad of a walk because I was wearing WOOL SOCKS. That’s right. I was wearing my blue and purple knit socks that fit very snugly and keep my tootsies warm. I’d take a picture but they’re stuffed into my Aqua Stop Duck Shoes so I can keep my tootsies dry on top of warm. I have to go back to my place, shovel a bit more and then I’m free as a bird for the rest of my night. This will include a delicious rigatoni and sausage dinner, hot chocolate and a very aggressive bout of Startitis.

We’re talking 10 projects will be sitting on my needles by the end of the night.

Starting with some nesting bowls for my bestie, A scarf for my other bestie, a scarf for me, a hat for me, some coasters for the living room and a bunch of other things I haven’t yet decided on.

The yarn… it calls to me!

By the by! I started another blog so chances are you can find me there most days. 

Until next time, the weather is cold, the snow is falling, my feet are warm and I hope you all have a wonderful night!

Blogs I follow

As a knitter, I naturally gravitate toward knitters; especially their blogs. My Google Reader is full of blogs from people knitters and non-knitters alike and I follow them diligently. It’s my little way of keeping tabs on people when we can’t hang out all that often.

I thought I’d share some of my subscriptions with all of you, to give you something to check up on when you’re bored.

A simple search will give you the links to these blogs.

I came to realize that I check my blogs a lot more when I’m more active in the blogosphere so I’m going to make an effort to blog much more often about my knitting life and fun knitting-related things that make me smile.

Last night was a special night.  I got a Facebook ping from Jenny saying she was going to be at the Alterra on the Lake after 6 and I was super jazzed about going. I had remembered my knitting for once this week and missed Monday Knit Night so I was all set to go once work let out.

I met a podcaster, Eric, (check him out here) and we all hung out, ate some great sandwiches, had some great coffee and it was the first time in a couple weeks that I had laughed really hard. I miss those ladies! Thankfully, I won’t have to give up knit night as it’s on my way home every day so it won’t be an inconvenience to drive to Tosa every week.

I got some progress made on my MadelineTosh Tosh DK Slouchy hat. I’m knitting it at a very tight gauge so it will keep my wet-haired head warm in the cold winter of Wisconsin, which I fear will last until well into Spring. I’ll post pictures when I have more progress. Right now it just looks like a big orange blob.

I couldn’t help myself.

Lots of Boxes

I haven’t really been doing much knitting and I just realized I left my knitting at home today.

I haven’t been knitting because I’ve been MOVING!

I have my packing priorities straight

It all started on Friday afternoon when we brought up lots of boxes and started filling them with stuff I wouldn’t need for the next week. This includes:

4 boxes of DVDs. I don’t know how it got this bad
2 boxes of books, 1 box of cooking books, 1 box of pattern books, 1 box of knitting magazines, 1 box of books to go to half-priced books. And yes, there’s a full bookshelf still at home with books that won’t be making the trek to my new home.
3 boxes of personal care items. How did I acquire so many bottles of perfume?
6 bins of yarn and one three-shelved storage thingy of fiber. The threat of moths at the new place has been eradicated, even if there aren’t moths.
1 giant box of shoes with the cute storage thing that Mom got me for Christmas.
2 full sets of dishes
2 boxes of glasses
1 box of mugs
2 boxes of pantry items
1 lamp
and 1 bag of refrigerator magnets.

Mom and I packed everything into both our cars and made our way to Milwaukee and unpacked my belongings. It didn’t take long but we were both tired and out of breath by the time the last box and my spinning wheel entered the house. I moved boxes to their appropriate rooms, unpacked and started really falling in love with the space.

I’ll be moving all the heavier stuff next weekend with the help of a couple friend and UHaul, and I’ll be all moved in very soon! More knitting news soon to come.