Grrr... I'm at the end of my ball

I'm at the of my ball of yarn...time to make a new ball. This is a very complicated task with my 2 cats running the house. I'm having flashbacks to previous ball-windings with the hank looped around my big toes and my cats weaving through my legs, snapping delicate yarns with one bite (purring the entire time). I bought a ball winder, so hopefully by speeding the process up, it won't be as big of a disaster as usual.

Mardi Gras

So much for keeping up with this blog. I have been so busy with my "real" life that I completely fell out of the internet universe. With the exception of my work e-mail account, I have completely neglected all forms of internet communication for nearly 3 weeks. To my surprise, it actually feels pretty good ... well, at least knowing that I haven't been shopping on-line feels pretty good.

For those who would like to know what I've been doing with my time: A bit of knitting, Mardi Gras, Balls, hosted a bridal shower, exercise, cooking & Cleaning. (I've also been completely snowed under with work.) Yeah, I know the first half of the list is way more exciting then the second half, but the total confusion and hors d'oeuvres-diet that ensued with Mardi Gras as well as the Bridal Shower, made "Cleaning, Cooking & Exercise" absolutely necessary. Here are a few photos from my parade & Ball. Somehow I managed to not take any photos at my Dad's Ball.



My husband & I bought a new recumbent exercise bike a few weeks ago, and last night I had a stroke of complete genius. I can knit & cycle!!! The bike has a seat that makes you feel like you're sitting in a chair & no handle bars to get in the way. I tried to work on my shawl while riding, but I quickly realized that I'm going to need an easily memorized pattern for cycling. Now all I need is an easy-to-memorize pattern for JR's baby blanket, and I'll be exercising more than I have in the past 2 years!!! I wonder how she feels about basket weave?

Speaking of the Shawl, here's a new photo to show my progress. Not nearly as far along as I had hoped to be. I'm going to try to knit like crazy for the next few weeks. With luck and hopefully a few slow weeks at work, maybe I'll be able to finish by March 6th.

My husband and I went up to Birmingham this past weekend to visit my husband's brother & family. We awoke Saturday morning to SNOW!! It was the first time that my 5 year old niece and 2 year old nephew got to see snow. They had a blast building a 2 foot tall snowman with bits of twigs and grass packed into the ice. This was true Alabama snow...just deep enough to ALMOST cover the grass and leaves on the ground. Later while driving around to visit other friends in the area, I saw nearly a dozen of these short dirty snowmen in various front yards around town. Since snow is so uncommon in most of Alabama I kind of expected to see lots of snowmen, but I was surprised to see that nearly every snowman I saw was all decked out in either Auburn or Alabama gear. It reminded me of a short stort by David Sedaris. While working as a Christmas Elf at Macy's, the author/narrator comes to the realization that no one's unique. He comes to this conclusion after hearing one clever parent after another make the same smart-ass jokes and remarks to santa throughout the holidays. Then he begins to wonder how so many people could come up with the same exact idea, like asking santa for a master card or in this case giving your snowman a team hat and pompoms for arms.

Saturday night, my brother-in-law & his wife hired a baby-sitter, and we all went to see a concert. Against Me & Jimmy Eat World opened for the Foo Fighters. My husband and I both claim Jimmy Eat World as our favorite band, so we were VERY excited to see the show. I think that Jimmy Eat World only played about 9 songs. I would really like to see them as the headline act sometime. Against Me & the Foo Fighters were wonderful too. Mid way through the concert, the Foo Fighters lowered a second stage into the middle of the arena. Then the entire band moved to the new stage and played an acoustic set for about an hour. It was pretty cool, because the second stage allowed the band to engage the audience in back of the arena in the seats furthest from the main stage. We all had a great time, even thought we were the old people at the concert.

I tried to knit on the ride back to Mobile, but I fell asleep. My stole has doubled in length since the last photo I posted, but I still haven't even finished the first repeat of the pattern. Hopefully I'll have a few good afternoons of knitting this week, but with my parade coming up this Thursday, I doubt that I will have any time to knit.

Last week I was ill with a sinus infection. Then I had an allergic reaction to a drug, which made things 100 times worse. I don't know if any of you have ever had a moderate non-anaphylactic drug reaction, but for me it's like having the flu, bronchitis, & hives all at once. Luckily this wasn't the first time I've had an allergic reaction to a drug, so I didn't confuse the symptoms with the flu like I have in the past. Since I stopped taking it after 4 pills, the reaction only lasted a few days. A few years ago I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that lasted 2 months!!

Due to being sick I was a sofa-zombie for about 5 days. Since I usually try to steal every spare minute possible to feed my compulsion to knit, this sofa-zombie / drugged-up phase was no exception. Needless to say, I had a bit of a rough start with "Leda's Dream shawl". Now that I'm starting to feel better, I've finally gotten off to a good start. Though the pattern can't be memorized, it's very easy to follow and only uses about 5 stitches. I did have to learn how to do a provisional cast on, but that was easy once I watched the video clip on Knittinghelp.com.



I probably should start using my time wisely. I still haven't finished writing my Thank You notes for wedding gifts. I've done very little planning for a bridal shower that I'm co-hosting on Feb 2nd. Mardi Gras is just around the corner and having my costume altered is the only thing that I've done to prepare for my parade. I still don't know what I'm going to wear to the other Mardi Gras balls....Please God, let last year's dresses fit!! Laundry is piling up, groceries haven't been bought, and lately a home cooked meal is a rare phenomenon. Also, I haven't even started on Jr's baby blanket!! I think that she's due in June. I ordered 8 balls of Elann Super Cable Aran for the baby blanket. I think that I'm just going to pick a stitch pattern out of my new sampler book & keep repeating it until it's a good size. There are a few stitch patterns that seem like they would be used mostly on men's sweaters, but I'm kind of curious to see them used on a blanket. My husband & I are going to a concert this weekend, so hopefully I'll get started on the blanket during the car ride.

2nd post this year...I'm on a roll

Wow,

This blog is starting to look nice now that it has been edited a bit. Now I only need to fix the corners of each frame. I know how to fix it, but it's alot of work; I'm feeling a bit lazy now. I'm usually lazy when it comes to anything other than knitting, so I have to plan ahead and reserve those few moments if irrational motivation for the most important task. For instance: I have reserved my next spurt of motivation for finishing up the last 20 "thank you" notes for wedding gifts, the next will be for laundry, and eventually maybe I'll get around to fixing the corners on my blog.

I just bought some new yarn for JR's baby blanket from elanne.com. I gave up on the other yarn...it's just too thin and soft, my stitches looked messy, and I'm pretty sure that I would run out about half way through the project. I think that I've finally decided on the stitch pattern I want to use, so I'll be ready to cast on as soon as the yarn arrives.

I screwed up in my stole last night. Somehow I skipped a stitch and purled the stitch next to it. I went ahead and finished the row, because I think that my best chance of fixing it will be to go back to that spot and reweave it with a crochet hook, tweezers & a magnifying glass.

On a side note: My diet has been wacky since New Years Eve. I've been eating so much beef & dairy, which I usually avoid because it makes me tummy rumbly. I just cut the cheese and now I'm praying that no one walks into my office for the next 5-10 minutes.

Oops Changed my mind again

I can't seem to stick with any particular blog. I started to use a Typepad blog around August, but now I've decided to switch back to this blogspot account.

Alot has happened since my last entry: I got married, got my ravelry invitation, and Scout is almost a full grown cat. I finished that stripe scarf way back in the summer, and I finished April's scarf several weeks ago. I also knitted my first lace project, the ribbed and lace bolero designed by Kelly Maher .

Right now, I am still crocheting the same afghan that I started around last March. I'm having a bit of trouble on the first round of the edging. I've also started a few new projects, like a baby blanket for my friend who is due in June...though that's still in the planning phase. I also started a new lace knitting project, Leda's Dream Stole . I'm using jade sapphire's 2 ply mongolian silk/cashmere yarn in a gorgeous teal color. So far, I've made 2 swatches to get my needle size right, have successfully made my first provisional cast-on, and have completed the first 11 rows... Looks like I'll be working on this one for a while.

I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with this blog in the future.

Puddle Problems

Luckily my job doesn't have a strict schedule, because due to some "kitten issues" I was very late today. Before I left for work I glanced into our empty, soon to be spare bedroom and noticed a wet mark on the carpet in the corner of the room. Of course my first thought was "Oh the poor little kitten had an accident", but as I began to clean the spot I realized that this was no accident. Next to the spot that I was cleaning I noticed a little dried urine stain, and next to that stain was another, and another. I cleaned a total of 20 little urine stains that went around the entire perimeter of the room!! My baby kitty is Claiming Territory!!! I thought that she was too young for such a thing, but even more mind boggling is that she would claim an almost empty room...no furniture, no food, no cat bed, only an exercise bike that is never used.

Before I left, I closed the door to the room & quickly eyeballed the rest of the house for stains (fortunately she was only interested in that room ). Now that I've shut the door on Scout's giant litter box, I have a growing concern for the safety of my new dining room rug. I've taken great care to protect the rug, spraying it with "NO-Scratch" every morning. On my way home, I'll stop at PetSmart to buy some "NO-GO".

As for knitting news: Apparently my order for the Mango Moon circular needles never went through. However I did receive my US 15 rosewood circs. I'm over halfway through my scarf & I will probably start the shawl tomorrow.