Now that I’m back on the job-hunt, I have more time on my hands for things like blogging and knitting and thinking about cleaning my room and organizing my stash.

Instead I’ve been sleeping, knitting on Abalone (don’t ask…) and avoiding the rest of the things I just mentioned.

So because I haven’t blogged since St. Patrick’s Day, I figured I’d share my long weekend of festivities, since it was pretty awesome.

Thursday, March 17: I got three hours of sleep the night before, worked all day, wrote a lot of shoes that day and started planning on the night with my cousins. After work I went home, cleaned up and did my hair, got decked out in the greenery I had and left to pick up Abby where she did my make-up (I rushed, not knowing Katie wasn’t near ready so I neglected to do my own makeup) and we headed out to Greenfield to meet up with Katie and her friend Sarah. We went to dinner at Saz’s where I had an extremely weak G&T (it was pretty much nothing but Tonic. I wasn’t anywhere near buzzed after drinking it) and we carbed up to soak up the alcohol for the rest of the night. We then made our way downtown to Mo’s Irish Pub where we got large drinks and saw the Mayor and danced and got solicited for a wine tasting event (I called him a Mary Kay consultant with wine)… got more drinks and by 1 a.m. I was exhausted, drove home and was asleep by 2:30 a.m.. I called it a successful day.

Friday I spent in bed sleeping, knitting and generally just sitting around until early afternoon. I went to get a pair of shoes I’m going to be returning, bought a red shirt for Red Friday and Homecoming, and went to see The Adjustment Bureau with Marie, who gave me a KnitPicks gift card. I also had a delicious chicken wrap and, even though I brought knitting, neglected to knit anything but had so much fun with Marie. I went home and knit for the rest of the night and went to bed early.

Saturday I woke up at a decent hour for my doctors appointment, then fell back to sleep only to be woken up to my phone completely dying to the point where it turned off, about 30 minutes before the appointment. I finished with that, went home, showered and got the proper clean up I was supposed to get before, and went to lunch with Mom. After that, she told me she wanted to go to Knitch and buy me yarn.

She also never told me a number on how much I could spend. When I told her I could buy out the whole store, she capped me at a very decent price.

Have I mentioned how AMAZING my mommy is???

 

We went and I became totally overwhelmed. I knew I wanted some Cascade Eco and I bought three skeins of that. THREE! That’s 1200 yards of heavy worsted yarn!! I got two blue and one white/gray.

After I found the Eco, I couldn’t figure out what else to get so I wandered around and looked at what was pretty and soft. From left to right in the photo I got two skeins of Berrocco Vintage in Douglas Fir Green, Two skeins of Berrocco Vintage Chunky in Black Cherry red, two skeins of Berrocco Lustra in silver and light blue and two skeins of Ella Rae Classic Marls in Ocean which is a black and blue plied yarn that looks amazing.

I had hoped I would go under the price-point but, of course, I went over but Mom paid for it and they bagged it up into the biggest bag I’ve gotten from them. I still haven’t knit anything with any of the yarn but that’s because Abalone is taking over my life. More on that later.

After shopping with Mom, we went home, I did my hair and make up and got dressed up and went to dinner with Murphy. We had a lot of fun and she got me a gift card to Custom Tattoo for my next tattoo– design has yet to be determined but I have an idea.

After dinner with Murphy, I went back home, waited about an hour, talked to The Marine for a while, then went out to On The Rocks for lots of birthday drinks and hanging out with my birthday buddy, Luke. I drank, danced, drank some more, danced some more, didn’t spend a penny and caught up with friends I haven’t seen in months. Not to worry, kids. I drank tons of water before leaving and was stone sober before leaving the bar before a fight broke out. This is the problem with drinking in a high school town at a bar where the kids from high school go after turning 21. I was home for good with the heels off and my butt in bed by 2.

Sunday I knit.

Monday I returned to work, Tuesday I was unceremoniously booted from the job saying the assignment had ended when I was about 10 minutes from home. Wednesday I became insanely sick so I slept and knit, Thursday I had an interview for an amazing writing job I really really want, and Friday I knit and spent the night at Abby’s only getting two or three hours of sleep before taking her to the airport at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning. I have been sleeping and knitting since Saturday trying to kick this stupid cold.

Now: on to Abalone. This is my Vest of Doom. I will be so happy to be finished with this damn thing.

I started it over after finding about 10 inches of too much knitting so I dropped about 1/3 of the stitches and it’s going to fit wonderfully. I finished the sleeve parts, grafted them together, knit the body edging only to realize that the sides were missing half the stitches necessary, ripped it out and started again. I would take a picture for you but it has all the edging stitches crammed onto one 40 inch circular needle, so it’s not recognizable. I’m hoping to finish the entire thing tonight and finish the sleeves, weave in my ends and call it done.

Until then, I’ll leave you with the promise I made quite a time ago: A Granny Square tutorial; tomorrow. Along with a picture of Abalone.

We’re sorry to report that Amanda has been buried under miles and miles of stockinette, learning to knit backwards, ripping out poorly-made edging, and an evil sickness that won’t go away.

We were able to catch up with Amanda while she was ripping out the edging on Abalone yesterday while sniffling and coughing.

“I stupidly forgot to double the stitches I picked up on the sides. The bottom came out perfectly with the increases I did so I have to start it over. I don’t want to talk about it,” she quickly commented, waving a size 6 40 inch Addi Turbo circular needle in the general direction of our notepad.

Since being out of a job due to the assignment ending unceremoniously last-minute, Amanda has been doing nothing but knitting and coughing. According to reports, she’s been sleeping until extremely late and  knitting until extremely late before repeating the process the next day. She comments that she’ll be extremely happy when the illness is gone.

At time of press, Amanda was not willing to disclose pictures of Abalone. “You wouldn’t recognize it anyway. It’s got all of the edging on one needle so it’s wildly scrunched up,” she exclaimed when we tried to photograph the mass of blues, purples and browns.

Let’s be honest here. You all don’t want to see the same pictures I took last week of my knitting.

Clapotis has NOT been worked on, but I bought two new skeins of red.
I ripped back Abalone after finding out that it was at least 5 inches too big (I was able to cross it in front of my body when it’s supposed to float on the sides).
The Baby Sweater has NOT been worked on.

I’m also working on hats for three representatives for the Wisconsin Assembly who voted against the collective bargaining-union busting bill. We’re knitting hats in orange and red- the two colors for their solidarity and fighting spirits.

So here’s a picture montage of my experiences at the protest this past Saturday. It was my first time at the Capitol, first time inside the rotunda and first time at Ian’s pizza on State street.

It started with a hat. And ended with a hat.

I finally have something to show for my knitting!

 

OK SO! I started Clapotis a couple weeks ago. I’ve been losing steam on it since I started Abalone but I’m already about 300 yards knit. And I’m running out of yarn. I’m working on prolonging it as long as possible before going to knitch to get more red. But here’s a really truly terrible picture of Clapotis.

The dropped stitches are nearly invisible with this idiot picture. I swear I’ll get some new ones as I get more stitches dropped. Clapotis is very tedious until you get to the dropped stitches.

This is also what happens when you throw Clapotis on the floor and watch the cat decide he needs to investigate:

Next I started making a baby sweater. Ellie is probably going to be growing rapidly so I decided to find an extremely easy sweater and I started working on it. It’s taking a while but…I’m sure once I get done and/or bored with Abalone, I’ll knit up the rest of the sweater:

Katie has a new affinity for pink but I don’t have any pink… so I thought Purple would be a good option. Plus it’s Superwash and it’s gorgeous.

I went to Sheep in the City this past weekend to break the yarn diet and came home with an extremely large skein of Happy Hands in The Tide is High. I also bought some roving that would match the yarn. And I got some camel silk and some BFL rovings. I’m so ready to spin!

I grabbed the Happy Hands  right away and started Abalone. Two days later I was done with all the increases and now I’m just to the stockinette.

It’s absolutely delicious. I’ll be spinning the roving unless I need a very large quantity in which case I’ll be going to Madison for the Knit-in and buying another skein.

I wish I could say I’m more interesting. I’m currently planning for California for the Marine’s return. Anyone know of any yarn shops in Oceanside?