Vacation plans

Yesterday marked Dan's first day of vacation, so good on that. we've been taking it real easy - getting ready for our little trip out to Hershey, PA tomorrow. Jackson is already at the breeder's for his vacation as well. I've got to start thinking about packing - it's maybe a 5 hour road trip... we're only staying for 3 days so I'm not worried about clothes - it's the knitting! Do I bring the socks? hats? hope-and-donald scarf? Something completely different? Do I bring 1 project? What if I get bored? Do I bring more projects? Still need to think it over.

Thursday was supposed to be "hat day" - I was going to work on a pixie hat using bulky yarn from my stash, a second baby hat and a chemo hat for my gram. Well, I didn't wind the yarn for gram's hat because I'm not sure about the color. I didn't start the second baby hat because I didn't print out all the pages of the pattern. And I didn't read the pattern / yarn label carefully on the pixie hat and ran short on the yardage (pattern called for 80 yards. my skein had 35 yards. groan). So it was kind of a bust, but I pushed onward and dug out the berrypatch pattern (I printed out in 2004!). I have gotten through the crust brim, and am about ready to start on the filling, but the pattern is somewhat confusing to me. I started to sift through it and then got distracted by putting the knitting all over the dog. He is such a good sport.

"King Jackson"


"Good Sport Sorta-Sunflower"


"Dachshund knitting"

I'm a knitting celebrity!

There's a real post coming, but can I just say how cool it is to be mentioned on LimeNViolet?! Especially when you have a knitting friend here and I just finished telling her that I sent Violet a birthday card... and then Miss V herself mentions it! And Alcariel was in the podcast too and also gave me a shoutout as she was my kick-ass magic yarn ball swap pal.

We immediately spooked the dog shouting to Dan to come in here to listen as well.

That really just made my day! :)

New Yarns!

Last week (thursday) I ordered from theloopyewe and yesterday (monday) my order was here! Amazing service :) I got two skeins of yarns I have not yet tried out- Seacoast and Duet Sock Yarn - gorgeous!



Today I met Dan for lunch at Panera - yummy! He found a heart shaped chip in his bag - pretty cool -

then I went to check out a new LYS, Madison Wool - at first glance inside it's a small shop. Very small. More like what I remember Yarns Down Under looked like before they expanded. Michelle (the owner) is very nice and chatty and quite welcoming! She showed me all kinds of neat stuff - she carries things that you can't get at saybrook yarn, so that's cool - for variety. She says that it looks like Wednesdays will be knitting "group" but I'm welcome anytime to come in and knit :) Awesome! She has an assortment of ggh - not the too frizzy / funky yarn - but stuff you'd want to knit with! There was also Cascade, Sheep Shop (gorgeous!), Lobster Pot, and a few more I decided to sample:

I got 4 skeins of a great grey-green organic merino / organic cotton blend from o-wool - thinking about a baby sweater / hat set....


The pictures do not do them justice! Each of these are from Blackberry-ridge - there was a simple seed stitch scarf in the shop that was just beautiful! I'm thinking that or one of the multidirectional scarves or argosy or whatever else I can find on ravelry would be awesome!
Great shop - I look forward to potential wednesdays and more shopping!

Tomorrow I'm going up to the hospital to wait with my mom while my dad has his series of procedures done. I think I'll take the "Hope & Donald" scarf with me - they are his parents, so it's a way for them to be there too... And maybe one more project just to break it up, I have no idea how long of a day it will be.

Now it's quiet

It's been a busy weekend here. After the fun adventures of waiting in traffic on Friday and going to the ultrasound appointment (by the way - we didn't find out the sex of the baby. We're having a baby!) we went out to a great restaurant - Cafe Goodfellas - so delicious! Scarface was playing while we were there - i want to watch Goodfellas now! On saturday we got the garden started (marigolds, carrots, garden beans, sunflowers, zinnia, poppies) and then had company over.

Today we finished the garden (already started tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, and planted seeds for cucumbers, cosmos, marigolds, corn, nasturtium) and I'm pooped. Kinda feel like working on the sock, but I don't know how much more I can push my fingers :)

In my blog-reading, I've come across a great site: 5 Minutes for Mom - they've got some great prizes coming up to win... It may be a little early for some of the items, but an ice cream maker? Dude! I'm already in love with my sno-cone machine.

Sock Progress

I started my Go with the Flow Socks - so far they seem to be moving along well, I think I'm only going to do 15 repeats on the leg, not the 20 in the pattern. I am really enjoying working with the Reynolds Soft Sea Wool too.


As far as my other work-in-project (aka I'm so crafty I make people! great stuff!) we sat in 2 hours of traffic today on the way to the ultrasound appointment - for nothing! I didn't see any emergency road work being done. Sheesh. Anyway this is cool:


Doesn't this little foot need a sock? or booties? :)

29 and doing fine

Having a birthday is a pretty good way to start off a vacation (or retirement, however you want to look at it). Yesterday I turned 29, which I'm still trying to wrap my brain around - I don't feel 29, I don't look 29 (so I hear), but I'm okay with being 29 so I suppose that's all that counts. I spent the day getting a whole lot of peace and quiet - I played with my yarn, read a bit, knit a bit, watched some dumb tv shows, did whatever I wanted when I wanted, went out for sushi (only veggie rolls for me) and then for ice cream. A very good birthday indeed. And I have the best husband ever - he and Betsy tried to plan a surprise visit for me, but life happens and she couldn't make it - next time! He also surprised me with presents:

T-shirt from noisebot.com - feels so soft!

Drop spindle kit from Flawful Fibers on etsy!!! eeeeeeee!! I'm so excited! he was a bit annoyed with me for buying that other one on monday - I truly forgot I sent him the link to etsy and it was a total impulse buy!! I'm hoping to try it out today....

I've started my sock for Summer of Socks - I'm using Reynolds Sea Wool that I bought on Monday (love this yarn BTW) and I *think* it's the "Go with the Flow" socks from the Favorite Socks book (I don't have the book in front of me to confirm that) - I've got the cuff done and I'm starting on the leg. After lunch I'm thinking I'll pop in a Muppet Movie dvd and keep at it.

I am excited to start a new pair of socks (even though I do still have to finish Dan's socks...) because I finally finished my Sock Madness pair!! That only took several months. They were hibernating. Oh well. They were my first pair with a short row heel and I think I liked the making of that sort of heel, but fit wise I like the heel flap. I put them on this morning for photo ops and then forgot to take them off - very comfy!

School's Out Forever!

Oof, and what a day. I don't know why kids think that just because it's the last day of school means they can do whatever they want. Oh wait - that's what they did all year, why should they bother to show a bit of respect today? Ugh. But it's done! And I'm done!! And I wasn't told off (or hit!) they are all bark, no bite. Let the relaxing and knitting begin!!

I went to The Yarn Barn to treat myself - the end of school / my career there and it's almost my birthday.

I decided to try out some Soft Sea Wool - in the "Dark Pink" colorway - I think it looks like a Kool-Aid color. I also picked up a skein of Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton in a natural color to make a baby bolero from the One Skein book. And I splurged to get myself a skein of Lobster Pot Yarn in Salt Rose to make maybe a hat for me - I've lusted after that for a while now.

I also decided to open up a new addiction for myself this summer (along with learning crochet, embroidery, cooking, photography and getting ready for baby.) Louet's Drop Spindle Kit - oh baby!


There's a beautiful navy, aqua / teal, and copper fibers inside...

That's all positive. There is negative though:

Those kids and their nonstop talking during the movie and then my having to look up and redirect them to stop talking. Somehow I missed the cast on for the next square - so my scarf went from 5 squares across to 4 squares across. Not a huge deal, but if this is going to be a potential Christmas gift, I want it perfect. I was only 6 repeats in (out of 26) so I will frog it and start over. I've got the time.

Projects!

I'm so excited - I decided on a project, worked on it (and pretty much only it) and it was done before the due date: Father's Day - even though I won't see my dad until the end of the week. I made him the Knitpicks Bow Tie

I used Cygnet Wool Rich Four Ply yarn that I got from a swap - Color is "Denim Mix (2137) - used less than one skein. It was an easy pattern once you got going on it, but man - using those US1s messed with me after a while. I tried to tie it myself following online directions but couldn't get it to work, so I'll leave that to Dad and hopefully I'll get a picture with him in the tie. He prides himself on being able to tie a bow-tie. I'm excited for this somewhat goofy project as I haven't knit anything for him yet. I think he'll get a kick out of it.

Friday (the almost last day of school) Dan and I went into NY to see my brother perfom at the pit - very cool. They had the audience write down a word for a later improv thing and of course I wrote "knitting". Of the two papers my brother pulled, one of the two was mine. The other was "Banana Hammock" - so, after acknowledging that he pulled the paper his sister wrote he made a joke about getting a knitted banana hammock for Christmas. (anyone know of a pattern? that would be funny). **Edit to add: I googled "Knit banana hammock" and one of the first things that came up was the thong from knitty HAH!)

I didn't want to bring in the US1s on the train, so I cast on for Argosy - I think it will be a potential Christmas present - if I can part with it - it's a great pattern and works up seemingly quick!

Valuable Lessons

It's the next-to-last day of school. Things have been somewhat calm / low key, the kids are on their loud volumes, but at this point, who cares?

I cast on for Argosy last night - needed a new project for knitting on the train this afternoon. I brought it in to school with me and knit a little bit while the kids played games.

Then I taught them Asshole obviously, the non-drinking version, and we called it "Loser" but the basic ideas were there. Someday they'll learn how its really played and perhaps they'll think of me.

NOOOO!

The last week of school is already hard enough. I've had two kids go on and on about how they can not wait for the last day to tell me off. Then I heard about hitting a teacher. When I told them it was a felony they wanted to know how much jail time it resulted in, because "They young and have the rest of they life" UGH. And then, because apparently my school can't do math in, oh, the start of the year, we get this memo today:
"Please be advised that Monday, June 18, 2007 will be a school day (half day). The state requires that we have 180 instructional days and we are short one day. There is no reason why we cannot make Monday our last day here. We just need to work hard Thursday and Friday afternoon to ensure all work gets done, everything gets filed and all materials are properly stored for the break."

I'm hopeful that not many kids will show, but given their parents and how they wouldn't want to be bored at home, we'll probably have a full house.

Insert big ol Lucy face here. If it's not one thing, it's another. I need some vitameatavegamin.

YipYip

Thanks to the mental-floss blog, I have rediscovered two of my favorite characters from Sesame Street, the YipYips



And I got my muppet (Beaker & Bunsen Honeydew) inspired yarn!
Once I'm done with the tie, I will be casting on with this - maybe jaywalkers??

I got a lot done today so yay on that! And a lot of it was dumb stuff (cleaning out the pocketbook, sorting out an old mail pile, etc) - bring on summer vacation!

Virtual Vacation Q & A

(I took today off of work. Good day to dream about vacations!)

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why?
I want to go to Alaska - have heard it's just so beautiful and I really want to see a glacier before they all melt away!

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why?
It's so hard to pick one - I want to see them all for the different cultures and sights - Japan, China, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland (again), England (again), Russia, Egypt...

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries?
I have driven across much of the eastern U.S., driven into Canada (to Winnipeg from Grand Forks, ND)

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it?
Hawaii was so tropical - we went there for our honeymoon - it was spectacular! I've also been to Cancun, Mexico and the Virgin Islands - equally stunning.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why?
Hawaii and Ireland with Dan because each was a "big" trip for us... we travel well together :) Also the Virgin Island trip - my grampa had sailed down to the V.I. from Rhode Island, and sailed around the islands for 9 months - we went down to spend a week on his boat - it was awesome!!

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain.
There's plenty in CT I haven't seen yet - Mystic is a fun place to go to play tourist...

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker?
A mix of both - love love love the beach and just walking along it. Museums can be great - I like the natural history kinds

8. What's your favorite type of yarn?
alpaca, blue sky organic cotton yarns

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn?
fun fur, overly fuzzy / halo-y mohair-ish yarn

10. What items do you like to knit?
it seems like everything except sweaters :) scarves, socks, hats, and currently I've got a whole load of baby stuff on my queue

11. What do you pack, knit wise when you go on vacation?
more than I'll ever get done! Socks are good for travelling - and I like the two circs method so I don't have to worry about needles getting losts!

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit?
I'm all set to get started with embroidery and crochet - just need to give it a try, same thing with sewing.

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise)
nope

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite?
I love blues-purples-greens-raspberrys....i tend to stay away from brown and yellows

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)?
Sweet sugary treats - jelly beans, mike and ikes, wonka candies

Camera Play

This weekend somehow went by incredibly fast - especially since on Friday it seemed like there was not much that was going to be going on. Friday was the graduation for the 8th grade at school - it went off pretty well. Now there's just this week left - and it's all busy work! Tomorrow I'll do a lab with the kids I see, I took Tuesday off, Wednesday I'm thinking we'll do rock salt ice cream, Thursday (half day) maybe the egg drop, Friday (half day) hopefully it'll just be a movie day....Then Friday night we're off to New York to see my brother perform his stand-up.

Anyway, this weekend we had friends over and they extended their stay which was a lot of fun. They also brought their bassett hound, so Jackson got to be around another dog which is good for him!

It's not often that this group is together - cheers! (While I really wanted to enjoy the fruity-rum drinks I did not. Someone has to take photos!)


They played outside and I hung out with the whiny dogs, watching:



The dogs were even more miserable when I walked outside, but I think they were plotting something...


We had a fire (hard to photograph!)


And some fireworks...


Today I went out to an environmental "fair" in town, picked up a lot of information and some lightbulbs. I hope they do this every year - it's a good idea.

Tonight we're headed to my parents for dinner, then a neighborhood meeting (a sex offender moved in up the street), and hopefully all that will be done in time for the finale (I can't believe it) of Sopranos... and then it's monday again. but I've got tuesday off.

More Graffiti

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by nutmegknitter

First of all, sitting 1 hour and 20 minutes in traffic (to go all of 16 miles - 13 of which are highway miles! No accident either. Ugh) is not my ideal way to start a Monday or any other day. Combine that with awful attitudes of preteens, tweens and teens. Combine that with finding more grafitti on my tabletops. I teach 4 through 8 graders. How do they know to write such garbage, and then why do they think it's funy?

Project Updates

I finally took pictures of my "Works in Progress"!

First, my "Hope & Donald (Chevron Scarf)"

I'm using Ruby Sapphire yarns - I spotted the "Hope" colorway and bought it immediately - it's the cranberry colorway. I had this brilliant idea to make a scarf for my Nana using "her" color and one for my Grampa and requested the custom dye job for "Donald" - the colors are inspired by the ocean and the fact that Grampa loved sailing and was a captain. I was not a fast enough knitter to get anywhere near finished for Nana, and now that she's passed on and I'm sure is back with Grampa (where they belong. They are soulmates.) the scarf is going to be for me, in honor of them.

Next, the KnitPicks Bow Tie

I'm using a sock yarn that I got in a swap and I really like the color, though I'm a little worried about the fuzziness that seems to be happening. It's tough to knit at night / low light since it's on size 1!!

I'm also working on a "Big Bad Baby Blanket" using Blue Sky Organic Cotton (yummy) that I think I'll be keeping. It's a great tv-knitting pattern. I put it down for a while as I'm almost at the point where there's a switch in the pattern and I need to wind up another skein. So it's temporarily on hold. The bow tie has kinda taken top spot as I'm hoping it will be a Father's Day gift.


And I'm still plodding through the Sock Madness round 1 Mad Cow socks. I like them, they're easy to do, and really all I have left is the foot. Jackson approves.


Today my energy feels zapped. I'm trying to get through school work. I made banana bread with milk chocolate / peanut butter chocolate chips. Also feels like a lazy day. Like it should be summer vacation. Soon enough.

Yesterday / Today

We're getting down to the wire at school. I took Friday off and it was quite possibly the Best. Day. Ever. Dan's work schedule is such that he has every Friday off, so me not working makes it pretty sweet and we did a little bit of everything that all worked out nicely.

We slept in. We had a lazy morning. I played with my yarn and ravelry. We went out for lunch near the water - New England Clam Chowder and French Fries looking out on Long Island Sound - yum! We went and told a close friend about the baby.

We went to the doctor's appointment - I've gained 2 pounds in the last month, should gain about 4 more for the next appointment. Heard the baby's heartbeat. Found out I can have a hot dog! (There were some at last week's BBQ that looked so good, but I didn't know if they were ok - too much reading / conflicting information)

We (yes we) went for pedicures! I have the best husband ever! And afterwards he said that yes he would go back for more! We figured it out - we're a good team because I'll do "guy" things (go out to the bar, watch him play video games) and he does "girlie" stuff with me (pedicures, shopping).


On tap for today is to play catch-up with the house work we avoided yesterday. I need to work on some report card stuff. I also wanted to take pictures of my works in progress.

I just found these SATees and am thinking I will have to get a few items for my baby and for when people I know have babies. In high school there was this teacher in high school that I dreaded having (and then had him for 2 years in a row) - he was tough and didn't play any games. In retrospect he was one of the best teachers I had, even though I didn't go the english / literary route. He did vocabulary with us every week and Dan (who had him too) and I can still recall many of those vocabulary words- many are on those tees and on this list of 100 words every high school graduate should know. I can recognize the words and know that they were "Mikulak words" but Dan tops me in that he remembers their meanings!

Belated Thank You!

This post is overdue.

I need to publicly thank dragonknitter for inviting me into the world of ravelry. I have spent this week playing with it and OMG it's crazyfun! I've gone back through the blog (and flickr for the times I had it) to load in my projects, queued 39 projects, started to list the stash... It's a lot of fun and once it's open to the world this thing is going to be huge! The inspiration and ideas(easily searchable) are just brilliant!

Thank you again very much - I need to send you the absolutely biggest hank / skein / ball of cashmere and sea silk :)