Don't Hate

I'm about to confess something that will probably get me punched in the mouth the next time I'm out and about: I kind of wish I'd gotten some snow this week. Not the blizzard that slammed the Northeast but just a light dusting. We hardly ever have snow in Georgia. Last year we had a White Christmas with about an inch falling. It was the first White Christmas in 129 years. 129, people. Some places haven't been 129 years without a White Christmas. It's more likely that you'll see snow here in January or February. And one year we did have a blizzard in March. But October would signal hell freezing over. So, while I love the look of a "snow sky" (when the sky goes all grey or white just before it snows) my chances of getting snow this early are pretty slim. I think the idea of being stuck in the house all week like earlier this year must seem appealing or something. The coming of snow is also the end of the holiday season. By the time snow comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all done. And you know what that means? Christmas knitting is done too. And I'm ready to be done with Christmas knitting. I'm ready to be knitting on some new charity projects or making myself some new socks. But, alas, I have Christmas gifts to make. In fact, I have a quite a few I still need to finish. It might be important to note that I have only finished one (1) Christmas gift so far. This is not such a good thing. Maybe I can finish up the second tonight. The reason why I haven't gotten more done is that I took on a new nanny job and I've been baby-sitting lots more. And graduate school started back. These things now rule my life. So I generally try to stick to mindless things like washcloths.

Washcloths for a commissioned project.

I'm also trying to get a few rows in on the Log Cabin blanket too. Being all garter stitch helps in the mindless category.

*SLOWLY* growing.

Thankfully though, I have mindless projects to work on. Otherwise nothing might get accomplished around here.

Helen

As promised here is a recap of my recent trip to Helen.

Started the day with my mom and sister-in-law headed to Cleveland, GA which is only about 10 minutes outside of Helen. That's where Babyland General Hospital is.

The place is massive.

Babyland General Hospital is where Cabbage Patch Kids are "born." If you are not familiar with Cabbage Patch Kids you are obviously not a product of the '80s.

We had a fun time wandering around and looking at all the sites and acting like kids again.

Me and my SIL is front of magical baby growing cabbages.

I would have taken one home if not for the fact that I'm 28 and I already have enough people looking at me funny. I don't need a doll to compound that problem.

After we left Cleveland we went to Helen. Helen is quite unique in that it looks like an alpine village. It's also the home of the South's largest and longest running Oktoberfest. I don't know if that means it's been around the longest or if it runs the longest number of weeks. I don't think it really matters. During the summer you can tube through Helen on the Chattahoochee river. Right now it's too cold but it's still a lovely little town.

So, that's Helen! It was a nice little one day get away to start the fall off right. Now really is my favorite time to go to the mountains. The leaves are changing color and the air is cool and crisp. This weekend I'll be in Asheville, NC for the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. Come see me in the barn! I'll have to decide what knitting project(s) I want to take with me. I finished up two BIG ones this last week.

The Patchwork Blanket

The Square, Not a Circle Blanket

The Patchwork Blanket was made from squares donated to the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project for the Project 154 blanket collection. I have enough to do two more blankets I think. And I finally finished the Square, Not a Circle Blanket! It looks a little lopsided in the picture because of the way I tacked it down. The bind off was too tight. If I make another one of these in the future I will definitely change the way I bind off (I used the crochet bind off that the Yarn Harlot describes here, it's quite, um sturdy). And as you can see, Penelope loves them both. Especially the Square, Not a Circle one. She's been sleeping on it all day. It's going to be tough telling her she can't keep it. I think she will understand though since it's going to to a good cause.

Cheese and Whine

Taking a break from grad school work for just a minute or two. Took a brief walk down to the mailbox. I needed to mail some letters but I also needed to get up and move. I'd been sitting on the couch reading and typing for several hours. I had forgotten how much of a time suck graduate school postings can be. I had also forgotten how stressful taking two classes at a time is. The tension of this week has increased ten fold since school started back this Monday. Looking forward even less to next week when I have to travel and will have school work to complete on top of that. Just hoping that my final papers don't coincide with travel like they have in the past. That was torturous.

Haven't worked much on any knitting this week as other things have taken up my time. I have finished the patchwork blanket, just need to photograph the finished product. Almost finished with another Christmas present too. Have added a few other things to the Christmas knitting list so need to make a "Knitting Priorities" list soon to make sure I stay on top of things.

My apologies that this was such an uninteresting post. I have done some interesting things that I need to tell you about (going to Helen this past weekend for one) but I'm slightly unmotivated at the moment. Also my camera does not remotely load pictures and I'm too lazy to find the cord then upload, export, and select all the files I want. The next post will be better, I promise.

Hot Friday Night

It's Friday night which can only mean one thing at Chez Single Knitter: big party!

Ok, that was a lie. I'm sorry I lied to you. What it really mean is weaving in ends on a patchwork blanket.

Kickin' it in front of the t.v.

Sometimes kitty helps.

Sometimes she just sleeps.

It also means ice cream.

Kitty likes ice cream too.

And kitty pets.

And some crappy non-cable t.v. Why is there never a good movie on t.v. on Friday night? Why do they always assume people are out living it up? Not that I'm not living it up. Because I am. I even made dinner after resisting the urge to call for pizza. And I went for a walk. So, yeah. Big time Friday night. Be jealous.

The Best Kind of Day

Today is my favorite kind of day. Not just because I have the windows open and the central heating and air conditioning off but because today is a 100% bona fide Work From Home Day! That means sweatpants and no make up, computer on the couch, and snacks at the ready. And, if I'm good, I might allow myself to watch some Jerry Springer in the afternoon. Somehow this makes even the mundane tasks of filling out job applications, doing the laundry, and cleaning the trash can seem so much more pleasant. Of course this does increase the chance that the cute guy who works in the apartment office will come by to discuss something totally random with me. Lucky for him I did brush my teeth. The gleam off my incisors should distract him from my Capella University t-shirt and non-matching yoga pants.

I also love Work From Home Days because I get to work on my charity (my passion), update my blog (usually a long overdue activity), and knit (my other passion). Thankfully all those things are somewhat connected which makes me very happy indeed. Take for instance a New Project:

Piles o' squares.

These are squares that have been donated to make blankets for orphans in Russia and Ukraine. Last night I started stitching (or rather crocheting) them together. Now I have this:

Patchwork Blanket

As you can see I didn't really get the hang of it until the second/third columns but now that I have a better idea of what's going on I can keep trucking along. I also started my second knitted Christmas gift. Thankfully all my gifts this year are fairly small (no sweaters or blankets for family) so once this is finished I will be 2/5 of the way done! The most daunting gift will be a pair of socks but I'm thinking that if I start those in November and work on the washcloths I need to make sporadically throughout October and finish the felted wine cozy order and finish up that Log Cabin blanket for my friends who got married in June and then start on the final Christmas gift in December that I should have plenty of time to get everything done! In fact I will even have time to start another charity blanket! This one:

Not that I've been thinking about starting this or anything like that...

I even have the yarn picked out.

Hard to see the brown, sorry.

I'm thinking of calling it Mint Chocolate Chip Ripples or something like that. Or I might snap out of it and realize that I'm delusional and will be working until Christmas Eve to finish everything but that's doubtful. I did finish my mom's scarf for SAFF and washed and blocked it to boot.

Shiny and silky

Now I just need to add a little bit of ruching to the ends and we're set to go! Something easily accomplished on a Work From Home Day.