Vivid Creation Fibers

Post Holiday Mash Up

2012-01-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

I hope that your holiday season went off with a bang this year. Or maybe I don't, bangs might be bad things like a blown circuit or the tree catching on fire. Whether it went off with a bang or not I hope it was spectacular nonetheless!

I was rather glad to see Christmas day. That meant I had survived the holiday stress. I got a lot of really nice Christmas presents: new pots and pan set (since my old ones were flaking their non-stick coating into all my food, yay for chemical aftertaste!), clothes, Amazon gift cards, a skein of yarn I forgot I'd picked out for myself 2 months earlier (my mom gifted it to me), and plenty more. Festivities with the family were wonderful as always and I didn't come in last place in the Christmas Day game-a-thon.

The day after Christmas I boarded a plane and spent the next 2 weeks in Romania. I had an awesome time. The best part was getting to connect more deeply with some of the kids I met during the summer (I was also in Romania in July, remember?) and making new connections with some of the kids. I think there's something in their hearts that draws them to people who they have seen before, even if their brains don't remember you. One of the things we got to do was deliver Christmas presents. There were some handmade items from EEROP in there :)

New Years was a crazy celebration where the whole city shut down and everyone sets off fireworks. Nothing says, "Let's start the year off right!" like lighting questionable explosives in the middle of a street! This is one of the biggest events of the year for Romanians so it was really cool to get to experience that.

After arriving home I have been slowly recovering from jet lag (my sleeping and eating schedule is completely erratic) and trying to get motivated to do more than just sit on my couch in my pajamas all day. I do have grad school work that needs to be done but this does not require clothes or (much) movement so that doesn't really help things. The only thing I have been really motivated to do it knit. There's something about this time of year that's really inspiring: the holiday knitting is done so there's no deadlines to meet, the air is cold (and there might be snow), the slate is wiped clean from last year, and there's the feeling of hope for a better year than last. Anyways, all that sappy stuff to say that I've cast on at at least 3 projects in the last few days.

Item 1:
Scrunchable Scarf

This was actually started in the Atlanta airport the day that I left for Romania. I knit on it some while I was there and finished it up shortly after getting home. I used a bulky wool (Cascade 128, one of my favorite bulky wools) and a size 10.5 needle. I cast on less stitches (somewhere in the range of 25 or 28, can't remember). The pattern was easy to memorize and this was a great take along project (it's also part of EEROP's year of KALs). I used two full skeins and the finished (washed and blocked) scarf ended up about 6 feet long.

Item B:
Antonia's Fighter Bomber Helmet (a.k.a. the Thorpe Hat)

I started this Tuesday evening and finished it by Wednesday afternoon. Used a little over 1 ball of Revolution from Bollicine for the actual hat and some hand-dyed for the contrasting crochet trim and braids. US size 9 needles and crochet hook as recommended. Just a word of caution, this is the small size and it almost fits my huge noggin; the sizing runs big. To me this looks a little like a helmet and I immediately thought of a little girl who I met in Romania who would look perfect in this. She's a beautiful little girl of about four but there's a strength in her eyes that says, "I can conquer the world!" So this is named after her. Also an EEROP Year of the KAL pattern.

Item the third:
SIL's Christmas Socks (Show off Stranded Socks)

Hazel Knits sock yarn in Camo Chic. US size 1 needles. Two at a time using magic loop. Cuff down. Finally started these the other day. I read a good review of the pattern and it was one I was considering so I decided to go for it.

Item Lastly:
Mossy Ridge (Not So) Toddler Socks

Yet another EEROP Year of the KAL pattern (if I'm hosting can I still win something?). I'm really into this charity knitting thing...Making these in a not so toddler size by doubling the worsted weight yarn (Paton's classic wool, another good go-to yarn) and knitting on size 10 needles (or maybe they're 10.5, I didn't really check). Everything else is just as the pattern notes. I like how these are turning out but they do require me to read my knitting pretty closely which means I can't space out and read blog posts or watch new movies and tv shows that require me to actually follow the dialogue. Should be a quick knit though.

Also still on the needles is the wedding blanket that will never end. I did finish the fourth square and started the fifth so that's positive.

Totals for the year:
Charity: 2 completed, 1 OTN (on the needles)
Self: 0 and 0
Family and Friends: 2 OTN

Horrible

2011-12-19T19:05:00.001-05:00

I'm the worst sort of person. Here's what I gave my non-knitting sister-in-law for Christmas:

If you wish hard enough they'll become those socks you wanted!

My brother got a card. There was an apology inside for not having finished his tie. There was no yarn because I haven't found some yet (anyone know of a good variegated black/grey sock yarn?). There was no pattern because my printer has decided it's done playing nicely with the ink cartridges. This is the first year that I haven't finished my Christmas knitting on time. Of course I had a lot more to do this year but still...it tastes a little like failure.

In other crazy pants news: Last night when I came home (late) from my parent's house I noticed my downstairs neighbors had a candle burning on their patio. I was a little concerned because it was pretty close to the vinyl siding wall but they had Christmas lights on so I figured that they would come out and blow out the candle in a little bit. I came inside and did some stuff around the apartment and I kept thinking about the candle. I don't want my stuff burning down because some idiot left a Christmas decoration burning on their porch all night. So, I went downstairs to see if they had blown it out (P.S. It was after midnight at this point). They had not. Then I realized I was going to have to take action. So I go and get a cup of water, sneak down to the front of their porch, lean over as far as I can, then chuck the water in the direction of the candle. Success! Candle goes out, no siding was melted, the complex was saved. Now I just have monitor their porch to make sure they don't do it again.

Almost a Scrooge

2011-12-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

This year I was almost a Scrooge. I almost didn't decorate for Christmas or put up any sort of tree. A few weeks ago I decorated my porch with lights (through the aid of a glass of wine). Today I put up a Christmas tree. Sort of.

It's 2 feet tall with fiber optic lights. But I did decorate it. If you consider Charlie Brown's pitiful branch to be a tree then mine is ballin'!

I have some little retro Christmas ornaments that were just perfect for decorating my tree with. There's all the holiday classics:

A gingerbread bear addressed to Nancy from Bobbie from Christmas of '87 (whoever those people are, not anyone in my family that's for sure).

The Christmas wishing well (what?).

This psydo Russian chap on a sled with only one arm.

The Noel...um, light post? street sign? water tower? next to the Christmas tree.

The slightly creepy clown/snowman/elf riding a cork rocking horse.

And everybody's favorite: Frosty the Janitor Snowman!
Please note that I also decorated the tree with some festive old school cranberry type garland. It really adds to the nostalgia.

The tree is on top of the t.v. stand/chest. I did find my Peruvian nativity set which I put out beside my Cabbage Patch kids Christmas set.

The Hispanic Jesus and '80s consumerism together at last!

The whole Christmas set up looks like this:

Tree, tree-smelling candle for that authentic "I Just Cut This Baby Down Myself" tree smell, lighter (for lighting candle), dragon shaped incense burner, Peruvian nativity, and Cabbage Patch kids (P.S. If they ever start putting those things in Happy Meals again I'm going to tear it up.).

Merry Christmas everyone! Only 8 more knitting days until Christmas! Oh crap....

Amazement

2011-12-11T22:33:00.001-05:00

For the last three days I have done something that will astound and amaze you. Perhaps even to the point of calling me a liar. Yes, what I have done for the last three days is something rarely seen in these parts and rarely even heard of. My friends, I have been relaxing.

Yes, I know. It's hard to believe.

I have been sleeping late. I have not been working for 12+ hours every day. I haven't touched anything remotely graduate school related until this evening (and then I only spent about 3 or 4 hours on it as compared to my usual 6 or 7). No, I have done nothing and it's been amazing.

I will have to go back to the daily grind soon but I felt that this hiatus in chaos must be shared.

I have only done things I enjoy. Like finishing some Christmas presents.

Basic dishcloths.

And indulging in some geeky reading.

Honestly, I can't get enough of magazines like this. I'm a dork and I know it.

I have been taking some time to breathe and get myself right mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It will all be over far too quickly but, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy myself.

Tough

2011-12-01T16:18:00.001-05:00

Sometimes life is tough. Really tough. This week has been one of those weeks for me. On Tuesday I went to the doctor for my ankle which was still swollen and still had a limited range of motion. My general practice physician wasn't especially helpful. She told me it might be this or it might be that and that I might want to stay off it for a few days or ice it three times a day or get better shoes and I could get x-rays if I wanted. I was frustrated when I left so I called the podiatrist whose office was right next door. I got an appointment but not until 3 hours later. And I was on the other side of town from my house and there was morning traffic. I went to Michael's craft store thinking I could at least look for yarn for my brother's Christmas gift and found they didn't open until 9 (it was about 8:15). So instead of shopping I pulled over next to a little median in the parking lot and slept for an hour. Then I checked my email and updated Facebook on my phone and headed back to the doctor's. This time I was able to at least get a little more information. The podiatrist is pretty sure I have tendentious in my ankle and that all the walking last week aggravated it. He took x-rays and it's not broken or fractured so that's good. Then he put me in a walking boot for a week to help keep the ankle stable and hopefully get it to heal faster.

If the swelling and pain aren't better in a week then I may have to get an MRI. After leaving his office I was in a terrible funk. Podiatrists are expensive and I don't have that kind of money right now. Finances have always been a huge issue for me. I let my money woes rule my thought life way too much. When I got home I had to take a real hard look at my bank accounts and I realized that the situation was not good. Then I had to make some tough decisions. I spent this morning applying for more part time jobs. Not something I wanted to do since I already have 20 hours of school work and 20 hours of nannying on my plate right now. But it had to be done. I also have started to contemplate the idea of a roommate. This has really not been pleasant for me to think about. I moved 18 months ago so that I could fit all of my stuff comfortably in one apartment. I needed space to run my business and my charity and I couldn't do that effectively in my one bedroom apartment. I have finally gotten my office to the place I want it to be and now I'm having to think about living and working out of here.

This is my stash wall and in front of that are donations. Yes, all those boxes and bags are donations. And this happens quite frequently.

This is my desk, winding station, and shipping center.

Dyed yarn storage on the left and more yarn and donations on the right.

My light box and misc. office supplies.

Now try to picture a bed, dresser, and chest of drawers in there as well. Yeah, tight squeeze. I don't want to have to do it but it may come to that. Today I also found out that the internship site I wanted for the spring has a very high chance of not working out. I can videochat with the head of internship department but I just don't know if it's worth wasting any more time over. I've contacted two more possible sites and now I'm waiting to hear back from them. This leaves me with about 4 weeks to find a site, fill out 30 pages of paperwork, and have it submitted to the school. On top of all this I still haven't raised enough money for my trip to Romania at the end of December and my computer sporadically runs slow and gets super glitchy. Forgive me if I seem whiny. I try to make all my decisions based on faith (I say try because I'm only human and sometimes I don't make the right choice) and I really feel like I did the right thing by leaving my full time job but that hasn't made things any easier. On the plus side, Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It seems like at least once a week I meet someone with a connection to Eastern Europe or Russia that has helped me further the work we are doing. I keep getting donations weekly and people are already excited for the knit alongs and crochet alongs we will be doing on Ravelry next year. So I know that being able to spend more time on EEROP was a step in the right direction. It would be really nice if some other things started lining up as well. Needless to say I'm very much looking forward to this weekend and spending some time with my family watching football. It doesn't seem like much but I think it will be a nice distraction from a rather crappy week.

Pressure Cooker

2011-11-28T18:09:00.001-05:00

First, let me offer a belated Happy Thanksgiving! to everyone. I have seriously been neglectful of the blog this month. Which means I have to catch you up rather quickly:

1. Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law at sunny Universal Studios in Florida.

I rode the hugely popular Forbidden World of Harry Potter twice

rode all the roller coasters and saw several shows. It was nice to see some of the Christmas decorations going up. Which reminds me...I need to get out my Christmas decorations here at the apartment.

We had a great time despite the fact that I may have sprained my ankle. Apparently walking on hard concrete for three days in a row and standing in lines for hours at a time isn't so great for you. My left ankle is swollen pretty bad so tomorrow I'm headed to the doctor's early in the morning to see what's up.

2. The Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project "headquarters" (a.k.a. my office) has been overrun with blanket donations. Just as I had sent 40 off there were at least that many to replace them. It's really a wonderful problem to have. Thankfully my mom came and helped me organize said office/headquarters and now things are looking much better in here. Once I get the latest batch of donations sorted, tagged, photographed, and stored I will try and take some pictures of the new office space.

I did finish seaming together some patchwork squares but alas, no picture of the finished blanket yet. Also, if you're the knitting or crocheting type stop by our Ravelry group. We're getting ready to do a huge year long knit along/crochet along with tons of options for participating.

On another crafty charity note...the crafting group at my church was featured in the local paper the other day. Pretty cool!

3. Christmas knitting. Oh dear. The title of this post says it all. I'm in a real pressure situation here, folks. I didn't realize how much I still have to do!

There are washcloths, and lots of them, that need doing.

There is a wine cozy to finish. Er...start.

A tie, a pair of socks, and a knitted toy that also haven't been started yet.

And then there is a vest that is two shoulder seams away from being finished but for some reason I lost steam right at the very end.

Gah! Enough typing, must go finish some knitting. Only 26 days of holiday knitting left!

Fool Me Once, Shame On Me. Fool Me Twice...

2011-11-08T13:54:00.000-05:00

Never has such a simple and small project given me such a headache. A project I have made probably 50 times before. A pattern I have memorized in my sleep. The most basic of the basic...

A washcloth.

But not just any washcloth you see. This is part of a set of washcloths I'm making for my mom for Christmas. And my mom has only qualm with the washcloths I make: she doesn't like how the look for all the odds and ends knit up together.

The natural, red, and blue washcloth on the end is what she's talking about.

So, being the loving daughter I am, I took great care to divide the skein of cotton in half and then find the middle of each of the individual balls. The thinking was that I could increase using half the ball of yarn and then decrease using the other half. Sounds simple. Sounds logical. It wasn't. I started knitting and increasing until I got half way through and then started decreasing. After about 10 rows I realized that there wasn't going to be enough yarn left to finish the dishcloth despite my calculations. So I ripped back about 15 rows and started decreasing again. I made it further but it's become obvious that I'm not going to make it again.

The little bit that's left for the last 15 rows.

This means I have to rip back again and try and get everything to work out. I just don't have it in me right now so I'm going to go crochet some blanket squares together.

Don't Hate

2011-10-31T17:39:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-19T00:03:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-12T20:50:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-04T13:10:00.000-04:00

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.

Planning

2011-09-29T12:06:00.000-04:00

I have tried to set myself up a little schedule for how I want my day to day activities to go. Some days I have planned to work on stuff for the charity, some days are for schoolwork, some days are for the online shop, and sometimes I have to clean the house and wash clothes. Despite my best efforts this does not seem to be working. My schedule should be something more like the following:

10:30-Wake up (later than intended because stayed up too late the night before).
10:45-Make "breakfast" from whatever is in the fridge and/or pantry (typical breakfast foods include: spaghetti, leftover casserole, grilled cheese, or cereal).
11:00-Make a list of what I intend to accomplish while drinking hot tea.
11:15-Check email, receive a phone call, or open mail. Continue drinking tea (second cup may be needed).
11:16-Change entire plans for the day based on said email, call, or piece of mail. Never finish drinking hot tea.
Spend the rest of the day doing other stuff than what was planned.
2:00 a.m. (the following day)-Pass out in bed.

Don't get me wrong. I like being busy. I just wish I could plan a little better for it.

Anyways, that was my day yesterday. Today I'm trying to take it easy because I had a pretty busy weekend (vended at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival in Berryville, VA which meant a 9.5 hour drive there and back), Tuesday I was with a friend at a speaking engagement, and yesterday I helped my sister-in-law and brother clean their old apartment. Today I have the windows open, a cup of hot tea, incense burning, and my lap top at the ready. I'll probably do a little laundry and run the dishwasher and tonight I do have a meeting to go to but I'm planning on spending most of the day parked in the chaise lounge finishing paperwork, knitting, and maybe reading some blogs. It will be a productive day just not as crazy and unexpected as a usual day. I hope. Just to be safe I'm not going to read any emails, open any mail, or answer the phone for the rest of the day.

Scarf knitting for a peaceful work day.

Productivity

2011-09-28T13:52:00.001-04:00

I am a chronic list maker. I have to-do lists for the year, the month, the week, the day, the hour, the next 30 minutes, and sometimes the next 5 minutes. My desk and kitchen table are littered with notebooks, post it notes, and scraps of paper sometimes bearing the exact same list. I even have a notepad and pen in my bedside table so that I can (and frequently will) write notes to myself just before I doze off to sleep.

Just a typical view of my kitchen table.

The other day I had such a list made and I actually completed much of what was on it: I went grocery shopping, got my oil changed, re-skeined and labelled yarn, completed the remainder of my paperwork for my next trip to Romania, vacuumed, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, updated my blog, and put the kitchen back together after a previous day of dyeing. I was up at 9:30 and spent two hours on the computer before I even got dressed answering emails and updating my charity website. And yet, at 7:30 when I was all finished with the above mentioned tasks and was setting out for my evening walk I felt like I had been unproductive. I felt like I should have done more, like I should have worked on my CV or my support letter for my trip. Or I should have loaded the car for the festival (even though there are only two boxes to load and it will take all of 10 minutes in the morning). The problem, as I see it, is that my gauge of productivity is off.

When I used to teach I was always going 150 miles an hour. At one point when I was teaching band I was up at 5:30, at the high school by 7:20 to teach a class, over to the middle school by 8:30, taught all day until 4:30, then a brief break and back to the high school by 6 for rehearsal. And I was in the church orchestra and hand-bell choir, teaching private lessons, and spending my Saturdays at band competitions. Then, when I started teaching 1st grade I was also running my charity and my dye company in my "spare time" after work. And still teaching private lessons, serving on leadership at my church, and, for a brief time, dating. I was used to going full out but at the same time it was killing me. That's why I decided to go into business for myself. But now, when I don't have a day where I feel like every moment is jam packed and I end the day feeling accomplished and not dead tired, I feel like something is wrong.

This was what I was pondering over on my walk tonight and I've decided it's time to retrain myself. Just like I had to literally reteach myself how to breathe after my sinus surgery (because I had such a badly deviated septum and horrid sinus cavities) I'm going to reteach myself what normal productivity is. This means that if I accomplish a lot on the to-do list I'm not going to be too hard on myself if there is one or two non-critical things that are still on there. I'm going to allow myself to see answering emails as important (because they are). I'm going to start viewing a clean load of laundry as an accomplishment and not as just something extra that needed to be done. In short, I'm going to enjoy my self-employment for all the reasons I originally intended to.

Argh

2011-09-22T19:23:00.002-04:00

I'm beginning to think I'm not destined to finish this mitered squares blanket. I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel for at least another 2 years while this thing sorts itself out. I believe that after tonight it deserves a time out. Why? Well...

Remember my plan to make big mitered squares to flank the sets of four multi-colored mitered squares? I cast on one night not too long ago for the first one:

Big mitered square #1. US size 9 needles.

The first time I tried on the size 9 needles I realized after about 7 rows that it was coming out too short. So, I ripped and cast on again with more stitches. Then I realized after a few rows that this was going to take FOREVER on size 9s. I ripped again. Then I pulled out some size 13 (or were they 15? who knows...) needles, did a cheater gauge "swatch" (10 stitches, 10 rows), and cast on a third time. This time it seemed, things would work out.

Attempt on large needles.

And, lo and behold, it did. For the most part.

The large square laying on top of the four multi squares. Seems like it will work!

So, then a little time passed and I knit on some other stuff and then I decided I needed a carry around project so I cast on for the next solid colored square. I knit away happily following my directions and finished just minutes ago. And this is what I had:

Second large mitered square (top) compared to first large mitered square (bottom).

!^%&$#% It's too big. Seems I never corrected my notes about the number to cast on and I cast on the number needed for the size 9 needles and not the larger ones. Which means not only did it come out too big but I knit way more stitches than I needed to thus eating up more time. And now my options are: rip it out and re-knit; knit the other large squares then rip and re-knit this one; cry, scream, and act totally undignified, then rip and re-knit this square; or send this blanket to time out, cast on for different blanket, rediscover the mitered squares in 2-3 years, rip out the offending square, re-knit it, and finish the project. Right now I'm leaning very strongly towards this last option.

Recent Aquistions

2011-09-21T14:00:00.000-04:00

As of late I have finally begun to cash in my birthday gift cards to various craft stores. For those interested, my birthday was back in June. I know it has taken awhile to get around to using them but I'm one of those types who puts their gift cards in random places and then happens upon them months later. It's like second birthday! Anyways, I had gift cards to Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and Jo-Ann's (I call this the craft store trifecta). I used my Jo-Ann's card awhile back to purchase The Big Book of Quick Knitted Afghans, some US size 17 circulars (for said afghan projects), and some paint that I needed for a sign I was making.

The book with my first project from it on the needles.

The pattern I was making.

I have actually finished the afghan I started from this book.

Did not intentionally drape this exactly like the picture from the book. Ok, maybe I did a little.

So, that was one gift card well spent. The Hobby Lobby one was next. I snagged some yarn for the Square, Not a Circle blanket and the newest issue of the Debbie Bliss knitting magazine.

Yarn for the blanket.

British knitting magazine.

I still have not decided how to spend the Michael's gift card yet. I was really hoping that one of the stores would carry a pair of US 10.5 circulars with a 60" cable but apparently Addi is the only company that makes circulars that long. I will probably be needing more yarn to complete my mitered squares blanket but I may use some white I have in my stash instead of the purple and "berry" colors I have. In addition to using the gift cards I also treated myself to some goodies a few weeks ago when I visited the Whole Nine Yarns in Woodstock. I got a skein of Ella Rae and a skein of Nature Spun. I was thinking a hat would be made out of these fun, bright colors.

The Ella Rae was a natural choice. See where it's from?

I'm a Romanian at heart!

Authentic

2011-09-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

I have the good fortune of calling a very talented and lovely woman both my friend and mentor. From time to time Deanna will invite me to do cool things with her which is really a super nice gesture since she has lots of much cooler friends and a husband and three children she could easily pick over me. Thursday night I got to spend some great time with her at the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta watching Wicked.

As a former music education major it shames me a little to admit that I have never seen this musical and as an avid reader is shames me further to admit I haven't read the book either. After having seen the musical I really want to read the book. And the songs were fantastic; the girl playing Elphaba had an amazing set of pipes!

But hanging with Deanna is more than just getting to see a critically acclaimed musical. There's usually some good food and always some good conversation and last night I even got a surprise.

About a month ago Deanna was off in Germany doing a series of really big speaking engagements. Deanna and her husband were missionaries in Germany and know people in pretty much every European country (as far as I am convinced) so Deanna knows her way around the continent. For part of her trip she was visiting friends in Norway and look what she brought me:

Real live Norwegian knitting patterns!

Oh, but the goodies don't stop there.

You know, just an authentic Austrian knitting book.

A wonderful Austrian knitting book picked up in, you guessed it, Austria. So very, very cool. This book is a classic.


CABLES!!!

And it's all about cables. Cable charts, pictures of cables, cables on sweaters, cables on socks.

A sweater pattern full of cables. Can't read a word of it but just look at the craftsmanship!

Deanna had no prior knowledge but I harbor a deep love of cabled things. I might even consider tackling one of the majorly complex looking cabled knee sock patterns (with detailed instructions on how to shape the calf) in this book because....

She also bought me sock yarn. From Austria. With which to make socks like Austrians do. I'm one lucky gal and Deanna's one heck of a friend.

Back to School*

2011-09-15T13:03:00.001-04:00

*The pictures in this post have absolutely nothing to do with the post.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go back to my former place of employment and help one of my friends who still teaches there. She has a bit of a wild class (not unlike the class I had my second year teaching) and needed another set of hands to help control the chaos. Since I have the time now I decided to go help her out. I know how these things can be.


The Romanian chocolate I ate the other night. It had rum in it. The rum may have fermented. I got drunk just opening the package.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still enjoyed being around wild and crazy children. I was afraid that I was just going to be turned off to the whole teaching/being around kids thing after my experience the last 3 years. But I wasn't. In fact it was nice to be able to help her and I remembered why I love kids in the 1st place. On the other hand, it was nice to be able to leave after an hour or so and go home and eat decent (non-cafeteria) food and take a nap.


A cake. In the shape of a Storm Troopers head. Full of awesome.

The good thing was I proved to myself that I could handle a "real" job (I was a little afraid that self-employment would make me never want to go back into the "real" workforce again) but that it seems I enjoy it most on my own terms (getting to show up when I want, wear what I want, set my own hours). So, I guess I better find a really flexible boss or a job I really love and wouldn't mind compromising on (I'm thinking the latter will probably win out).

Mai cat. She iz watchin you park yur carz.

After a rather productive day yesterday (there was also a trip to the hospital to sort out a bill, some birthday yarn buying (from my own b-day back in June), picking up my contact lenses, and fixing/making discussion postings for grad school) I feel completely unmotivated. I think knitting might solve this. Then I am making something. And that's productive, right?

Happy Labor Dabor Day!

2011-09-05T14:02:00.001-04:00

Happy Labor Dabor Day! Today I plan on taking it easy, which for the single, self-employed gal means laundry, reskeining and listing yarn, doing the dishes, reading for school, and sending emails. Pretty much like a normal day. Except at some point I plan to watch a movie and knit. Which is not an everyday occurrence but does happen pretty frequently. So...pretty much status quo around here. I hope the rest of you are doing something cool too for Labor Day; the day when we celebrate work by not working!

I have been under the delusion that I might be nearing some sort of finishing point on a few of the blankets so I thought I would confirm or deny that this morning.

The Square-Not-A-Circle Blanket

The Square-Not-A-Circle Blanket feels like it should be close to being done. I'm running out of bulky scraps to use on this thing. Measuring from the corner to the center it's about 23.5".

Sorry for crappy, blurry picture.

If I double that I get a diagonal of 47. I think that means the sides are about 33". I need the sides to be at least 42" so that means I still have a ways to go. Close, but not to finishing yet.

Obsession Blanket

I've decided to call this the Obsession Blanket since I'm obsessed with making it! It's getting quite big and unwieldy. It measures about 32" down the side.

See, 32" down the side.

The directions say to knit until it's 61" from the cast on edge. Over half way there! But still, not ready for finishing.

Moderne Log Cabin Blanket of Doom

Finally we have the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket (of Doom) that will continue to plague me in my dreams even after I have cast off (for the final time, since each block has to be cast off). It's huge, it's got tiny stitches, and I'm never promising anyone an afghan again. Even if they get married underwater and have their first baby in space. Sorry Space Baby, no blanket for you! I really love my friends so I'm sticking with this one but I really want it finished before Christmas. Thankfully proper etiquette says you can send a wedding present up to 6 months after the wedding. Christmas would be just over that line but I think I can push it and they'd still be ok. Oh, and I only just started block 4 of 10. So, yeah. But I knew this one was nowhere close to being done and I wasn't even trying to convince myself otherwise.

So, none of my current projects are to a point where I can think about them being done. But today it's a holiday and it's raining so there will be knitting. I'm very excited about the rain because it's been over 35 days since it's rained. Yes, you read that right, over 35. I couldn't get data back further than August but I bet it's closer to 40 or 45 days without any rain. Which means it's been miserably hot. Since last night (when it started raining) the temperature has dropped over 20 degrees. That calls for a celebration in and of itself. I'm going to go sit on my cooler by the stick and say stuff to people (not really but I will knit and try to pretend like there isn't laundry sitting in the hallway).

"Dabbling" in Crochet

2011-08-31T14:42:00.000-04:00

I got to thinking the other day about possibly teaching myself to crochet. Now that I'm self-employed I have a little bit of free time to learn (if I so desired). I've heard some people claim that crochet is faster than knitting and I thought this might be of some advantage in the blanket making department. I mean, there's an afghan hook the size of Texas that can apparently be used.

Giant afghan hook

My previous experience with crochet has been rather limited. I can make a chain but that's about it. Then I remembered the purple mitered squares blanket. I needed to start piecing it together and I didn't want to sew the thing up (I hate seaming with a passion). A quick Google search on crochet seaming and I had a rough idea of how things were supposed to go. Of course I pretty much adapted the whole thing to Whatever-Way-Worked-Best-For-Me which I'm sure made needle artists everywhere cringe. This is one of the drawbacks of teaching myself something new. I usually just interpret it as best as I can and jump right in. Case in point: for the first year or so after I learned to knit I purled backwards. Side note: I did eventually fix the back of that sweater. And no, I haven't finished it! Thanks for asking...

I assembled all the supplies for seaming.

Squares and yarn

Blurry crochet hook (not blurry in real life, only in crappy-taken-at-10-p.m. pictures)

Then I got to it. My first set of squares came out quite well I think.


First 4 squares seamed together.

It took me an entire movie (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which Daniel Radcliff sports some very voluminous hair) to finish seaming all 16 squares together. There was only one mishap. I had originally intended to seam the squares with the "fraternal twin" squares opposite one another (you can see that in the picture above). Well, one set got mis-seamed.

Fraternal twins on the same side as one another.

Not a huge deal and definitely not something I'm ripping out a whole half hour of seaming to redo.

After spending a whole night dabbling in crochet I don't think I could leave my first love, knitting. It would be like saying I was just going to go make out with that guy who's not my boyfriend because he looks like he might be a better kisser. In the end nothing is as good as it seems and everything takes a little work. Plus, I got a sore thumb from crocheting. Not sure how that equates to the kissing thing but I'd rather not work that one out.

Random Monday #2

2011-08-29T19:39:00.000-04:00

Apparently I've done a Random Monday post before so this is #2.
1. I slept a lot today.
2. I also got a lot done today (groceries, Goodwill, vacuuming, sending emails, washing bedclothes, etc). I guess it all evens out in the wash then.
3. I tried making fried tuna patties last night for dinner and they were the most disgusting thing I've ever made. I made spaghetti tonight. Much better results.
4. I have an insatiable craving for ice cream. Even after eating spaghetti.
5. I'm obsessed with this blanket:

If I'm not knitting on it then I'm thinking about knitting on it.
6. I have the entire first session of Daria on DVD. I will be watching it and knitting on this blanket tonight.
7. I also have Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Ernest Goes to Jail. I might watch these and knit.
8. The only problem with loving this blanket is that when I finish it I know I will want to make another from the same book.
9. This is a problem because I have lots of Christmas knitting that needs to get started and 3 other blankets that need to be finished.

Pathological Need to Snuggle

2011-08-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

One of the gals on Twitter and I determined that the reason why I'm making so many blankets is that I have a pathological need to snuggle. I think we're on to something.

Exhibit A:
The Moderne Log Cabin Blanket. Production has been temporarily halted as I ran out of red yarn 10 rows before the color block was finished. I have plenty more I just need to dig it out.

This thing is huge and I'm not even finished with the third block! This makes it a little unwieldy to drag out and around but it's good mindless knitting when I do pull it out. Would love to be finished with this by October but seeing as how there are only 8 days left in August that may be a pipe dream.

Exhibit B:
Square, Not A Circle Blanket.

Really enjoying seeing how this blanket is taking shape. I'm just using up bits of bulky odds and ends I had laying around. It's seriously depleting my bulky yarns! The only problem is the needles. Using my Boye interchangables and have linked several cables together with the connectors. This is a great beginners set of interchangable needles but they're just not doing the trick any more. The joins between the needles and cables aren't always smooth, the cables are extremely unflexable, and when I join the cables together to make them longer they don't lie flat. This makes moving the stitches around extremely difficult as they usually snag or get log jammed at one of the "corners" where the cables are connected. I really want some 60" Addis but I'm not sure I'm ready to fork over $20+ for the pair. Especially on my self-employment salary.

Exhibit C:
"Assuring" Afghan.

This may actually be my favorite blanket that I'm currently working on. I love that it's going fast thanks to big needles and worsted weight yarn held double. It's interesting enough that I have to sort of pay attention to it but not so complicated that I can't watch a movie or read a few blogs while working on it. And I can attest to the fact that even though it's acrylic it's still warm as I've had it on my lap for several nights working on it. Will definitely be making more afghans from this book when I finish this one.

Exhibit D:
Purple Mitered Square Blanket. While I haven't done anything with this recently it's still marinating in my room ready to be called to action. With several of the above blankets getting too large to schlep around this might be the perfect "on the go" project.

Now I'm off to snuggle with my blankets and satisfy some deep seated urge in my being.

Why I'm Going to Knitting Time Out

2011-08-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

Remember how I said I was going to make squares for the purple blanket?

And I still had the square blanket to finish (It only looks like a circular blanket in this picture. I assure you it has corners)?

Well, instead of working on these projects I started another one. Another blanket. A large one. A VERY large one.

It lives beside my bed and is for late night knitting.

I might have a problem. I'll go sit in the Uncooperative Chair. Just as long as I can take a blanket to work on.

Purple Blanket

2011-08-07T20:44:00.000-04:00

Awhile ago (April 2008) I started a purple mitered square blanket using some acrylic yarn (Caron One Pound and Jo-Ann Sensations Rainbow Classic).

I made a bunch of squares when I was teaching a history of film music class at the middle school. We watched a lot of movie segments so I would knit on squares while the movie played. After school ended (or maybe even before) I got a bit tired of constantly making the same type of thing over and over. I was making them in fraternal twin sets with the striping reversed on each one but it was still getting old. So... I let the blanket marinate in a plastic bin. For over 3 years (wow, didn't realize it had been that long). With the collection for childrens blankets going on through the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project I decided to resurrect the purple blanket and see how much work needed to still be done on it. I started by finding all the squares (plus one square that had been started and was still on the needles) and gathering them all in one place.

Then I separated them into sets of twins.

I had 16 squares. My plan is to make 4x4 blocks using two sets of twin squares. Fraternal twins would face each other across the large square (all this will become clearer in the pictures below). First though, I needed to measure them to get a rough idea of how big the squares were and how many more I needed.

Each side measured roughly 6.5".

Then I began making the 4x4 squares. First, I placed fraternal twin pairs across from one another.

Then I placed another set of twins.

I continued until I had all the squares matched up.

Then, to make my life easier, I pinned the 4x4 blocks together with safety pins. The cat helped.

I ended up with 4 large 4x4 squares and one partially started square.

Then it was time to hit the drawing board. I need the blanket to be at least 50"x50" to make it a decent size. My plan is to make large 13" garter stitch mitered squares to go around the 4x4 squares. I needed to figure out how many of the 13' squares were needed. Note that in the pictures below the sizes are actually not correct. I was originally figuring that the squares would curl up to about 6" due to the stockinette. Now I plan on using the larger blocks to pull them out to their full 6.5".

From left to right we have the largest size to the smallest size blanket.

The largest size would produce a 65"x65" blanket. I would need 21 plain 13" squares to make this one.

The middle size would make a 65"x52" blanket and take just 16 plain squares.

The smallest one would take 12 plain squares and measure 52"x52". While even the smallest one would produce a decent sized blanket I may try for the middle size. I like blankets that are a little longer than they are wide. I will probably frog the one square that is on the needles and not worry with it (if I finished that square I would have to finish at least 3 more to make a 4x4 square and then figure out how to work it into the overall design). So, now to knit 16-13" mitered squares in garter stitch and seam the whole thing together by the end of October. And did I mention that I didn't weave in any ends on the small squares yet...

Summer Knitting

2011-07-29T13:56:00.000-04:00

Here is the thing about Georgia in the summertime: it is hellfire hot here. Molten lava from the sun hot. 90 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight hot (you think I jest). And it's humid. Can't breathe because the air is so thick humid. I can see the haze on the city humid. It may be hotter in Arizona but they have a dry heat (I don't understand dry heat but I hear it is a magical thing, like unicorns and fairies) so it actually feels hotter here. The northeast is experiencing a little taste of what we in the South affectionately call "Every Summer of Our Freaking Lives." I'm sorry if I have no sympathy. The only place hotter than Georgia is New Orleans, Louisiana. I spent several weeks there one summer and lost half my body weight in water every minute I was awake. This, if you couldn't guess, is my least favorite time of year. The heat literally makes me ill and the only cure I have found is ice cream. So, until October rolls around I will trying to consume as much of this tasty treat as possible. I feel it is the only way I will make it.

One would assume then that any knitting I have been doing is small, light, and made of cotton. This is actually what I have been working on:

A large wool blanket made with bulky yarn. Ah! Perfect summer knitting. Ok, in reality this thing is huge, heavy, and hot. Sometimes I sweat a little while I work on it.

The blanket is for a collection of blankets that the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project is doing. 154 blankets for 154 orphans. By November. Tell your friends. I need more full sized blankets and 8" or 10" blanket squares. Seriously, tell your friends. Teach your children to knit. Teach your significant other to knit. Learn to knit with your feet and hands simultaneously. Send me blankets! (or squares)

The blanket isn't the only thing I've been working on. In fact that's just a few weeks old. While I was in Asheville for the Friends and Fiberworks Summer Retreat (vending) (2 weeks ago) I finished up my Red Dragon socks (finally).
Hotel room photo shoot.

Close up of "scales."

And on the sock blockers.

So glad to have these finished. I always want to jump right into another pair of socks but I'm wisely waiting. They take so much out of me. Oh, details on these...um, I think I used a US size 2 needle. I know I cast on more stitches than the pattern called for (68 methinks). I ended up adding 3 reverse stockinette stitches to either side of the pattern on the foot and 6 on the leg (since the pattern is doubled). Used Lotus Yarns in the Hairdresser on Fire colorway.

Instead of starting socks next I started a little hat.

Worked from the top down (probably until I run out of yarn) in Vivid Creation Fiber's Hawaiian Hibiscus colorway. I was going for newborn but I think this is going to be a bit bigger (I'm such a precise knitter). Haven't really worked on it much since Asheville. Will probably be used for a sample in my booth.

Going back even a little further to the beginning of July (what sort of order am I blogging in exactly?) I made this little hat while I was in Romania.

I like making little international knits. This will be going to Project Hope for care kits for new mothers in Eastern Europe. I'll make some little magic slippers to go with it. I love how this was finished in Eastern Europe and it will eventually end up back in Eastern Europe.

In closing I leave you with a sheep picture, just because I can.

I'm going to go eat some ice cream.

All Romania, All the Time

2011-07-22T21:39:00.000-04:00

Let's see...where were we...ah, yes, Wednesday...

We started the day at the "Little Kids Orphanage" about 15 minutes from the Heart to Heart house. We told the Bible story of the wise and the foolish man and did the song that goes with it. Then we made bracelets and played with the kids before it started to rain and we headed out for the day.

Singing

Showing off our necklaces and bracelets.

Playing with the parachute.

The afternoon was spent at the second orphanage. We did the Bible story and song again and then started making necklaces and bracelets. It threatened to rain again so we took the kids indoors for play time.

We made this necklace at least 4 times. Needless to say I think she's a process beader.

Silly faces while cuddling.

Making a log cabin.

Love, love, LOVE this tough guy.

And his brother!

Thursday morning we went to the piazza for some shopping where I got some beautiful hand painted eggs and other souvenirs. That afternoon it was back to the baby hospital. The hospital was miserable that afternoon. It was super hot, the babies were dressed in long sleeved footed pajamas (!), and there was less help there. Romanians are very superstitious about catching a chill from drafts so apparently they had decided that the babies were too cold and needed to be bundled up. We were all sweating and miserable that day. After dinner that night myself and several other team members decided to walk down to the corner grocery store for candy, ice cream and Mountain Dew. Then we went for a little walk around the neighborhood.

The Heart to Heart house.

The neighborhood. We were in a pretty affluent area so there were some really nice houses and cars.

The lake (or was it a river?) along one side of the neighborhood.

Friday it was back to the "Little Kids Orphanage" in the morning where we talked about being a light to others and treating people with kindness. Then it was time for more games and climbing trees.

Singing "This Little Light of Mine."

The "Little Kids Orphanage."

Such a cute little movie star :)

We love climbing trees!

Doing a little gymnastics.

Eating sour cherries.
That afternoon we got to have a pool party with some of the boys from the second orphanage. The Heart to Heart house has a pool in the backyard just for such purposes. It was fun to spend a little time with the kids doing something that many kids in America have been doing all summer long. This is a special treat for them. By the end of the summer many of the kids (except for some of the youngest) will have come to swim in the pool.

Saturday was by far the toughest day of my trip. Not because I was leaving the next day but because I woke up at 2:45 in the morning sick from food poisoning! I spent the day in bed (or in the bathroom) trying to stay cool despite temperatures spiking into the 95-98 degree Fahrenheit range. Meanwhile the members of the team not affected by food poisoning held a "family gathering" of sorts for some of the orphans who had graduated from the transition program. In hindsight I think God was preparing me to go home because I was ready to be with my family after my illness. If I hadn't gotten sick I might just have tried to stay in Romania!

All in all I had a wonderful trip. The kids touched my heart and I saw a great need. The kids need supplies and clothes but they also need someone to come and hug them and tell them they are special and love on them. I would love to go back after Christmas to spend time with them again.

Last, but certainly not least, I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated handmade items to the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. I took 55+ handmade pieces of clothing and left them with the organizers of Heart to Heart to hand out to the kids once the weather gets colder.

This was the majority of the 45.2 pounds of my suitcase!
Now, 55 little people will be just a bit warmer this winter.

Next post it will be back to the knitting!

Romania Recap

2011-07-18T14:08:00.000-04:00

As promised here is an update of what I did while I was in Romania with Heart to Heart International.

Left Atlanta on July 1st around 5:30 and arrived the following morning in Amsterdam. Waited around for a few hours until I caught my flight to Bucharest, Romania. Was picked up at the airport by Jen, Jenny, and Carolyn then taken to the H 2 H house.

The house was pretty similar to something you would find in the US, just with more bedrooms and no A/C.

Sunday was church, lunch at the mall and then a chance to meet some of the kids from one of the orphanages. H 2 H works with 5 orphanages: 2 close to Bucharest and 3 that are further south. We went to one that was about 45 minutes outside of Bucharest.

School and girls dorms.

Some of the boys. There seem to be more boys than girls at the orphanages for some reason.

Boys dorms.

A room in the boys dorms. 6-7 bunk beds in each room. Each boy gets one cubby to hold all his things, which usually isn't more than a few pieces of hand me down clothing.

A box of communal shoes in the boys bathroom.

The music group. We got to listen to a performance by them.

This little man stole my heart.
We played with the kids and listened to their little band perform a few songs for us and then it was back to the H 2 H house.

Monday we all headed to the music camp that was being held at the girls transition house. I helped cook and clean while Todd, one of the team members lead the music camp.

Buying watermelon for a snack.

Music group rehearsing in the back yard.

Girls transition house. During the year this will house the girls who have aged out of the orphanage. They learn basic life skills like cooking, cleaning, and shopping in addition to finding jobs and learning to live independently.
By the end of the day Monday all the rest of the team except for the members coming from Canada had arrived (they arrived Tuesday night). On Tuesday we all headed to an orphanage about 15 minutes from the H 2 H house. There are primarily younger children at this orphanage.

We spent the morning playing and coloring with the kids. In the afternoon I went with a small group to the baby hospital. There are 26 abandoned infants and toddlers housed in one small wing at a local hospital. They stay there until they get old enough to move into an orphanage or are adopted by someone in country (Romania is closed to international adoptions). Because the babies are wards of the state we couldn't take pictures of them or the hospital. It was tough to see babies that were 8 or 9 months old that could barely lift their heads. None of them reached for toys or looked you in the eye when you talked to them. The backs of their heads were flat from laying in cribs on their backs all day. Thankfully it was nice and sunny in their rooms and there were some volunteers who would take some of the babies out every once in awhile. And when they learned to crawl they were taken to a special playroom in another area of the hospital for a few hours a day to get some exercise. We held the babies and loved on them as much as we could before leaving for the day.

This is turning out to be a longer update than I had planned so I'll break it down into two parts. Coming soon: Wednesday-Saturday.

Splinter

2011-07-14T10:32:00.001-04:00

Today I'm leaving for the Friends and Fiberworks Summer Retreat in Asheville, NC. Of course this is not without its difficulties. First the power went out rendering useless my skein winder and printer (both of which I needed). Instead I sewed buttons on a vest (no picture yet but it's cute, take my word for it). Just as I had decided to go clean out the car to start loading for the show the power came back on. I was able to print the patterns I needed (free with the purchase of one skein of aran weight yarn!) and also to start winding some yarn. That's when things really started to fly. Literally. The yarn got tangled and yanked the swift at a very high rate of speed towards the skeiner and one of the arms of the winder snapped.

Yikes.

Can we say, impalement?

Honestly, it could have been worse. I guess this is why metal swifts are actually useful. I was going to fix it with Gorilla Glue but the stuff was dried in the bottle.

I guess it does work. Maybe too well.

So my second option was a glue gun.

You know it's ready when it spews molten glue from the end.

The following are my steps to fixing a wooden swift with a hot glue gun:
1. Make sure glue is super heated (see picture above).
2. Burn yourself on the glue once to get things started on the right foot.
3. Rig the pieces of broken swift into position.
4. Haphazardly apply molten glue to pieces of swift.

5. Make sure you leave gaps and bits of splintery wood exposed.
6. Fill in gaps with glue and cover splintery bits with glue as well.
7. The more amateur this looks the better.

8. Burn yourself with the glue once more for good measure.
9. Unplug glue gun and voila! you're done!
Extra points if you get a splinter in the process.

Testing of the "fixed" swift is about to commence. I hope I don't lose an eye.

Edited to add: Have tested the swift and it appears to be working! Huzzah!

Back in the States

2011-07-11T14:40:00.000-04:00

Yes, I successfully made it back to the good ol' U.S. of A. yesterday. I'm taking it a bit easy today by doing some laundry, school work (yep, grad school starts back today), knitting, and planning for my trip out of town for the Friends and Fiberworks Summer Retreat where I will be vending. In the wee hours of Saturday morning (Romania time) I was struck with a truly nasty bout of food poisoning. I don't remember ever being so sick before. At one point I actually wanted to die. Like, truly would have gladly gone to meet my maker than to spend one more minute in such agony. So I'm still getting over that. Which sucks because I'm pretty hungry and yet nothing sits quite right with me. All that to say I'm enjoying staying close to home today and not really exerting myself.

I will share more about the trip over the next week or so here on the blog and on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project blog but I just want to say: the need is great. These are children who need love and clothing and a hug and a place to call home and enough food to actually give them body fat. These children need out but are stuck due to stupid laws and blind politicians. But that doesn't mean they are without hope. Which is why whatever you can do to help is much needed and much appreciated. A pair of socks might not seem like much but for a child who lives in a dormitory without heat and wears plastic shoes year round then socks help keep him warm and healthy when the snow starts to fall. A washcloth might not be a big deal to you but to a child who baths from a bucket that means they can actually scrub clean some of the dirt from their face. A bib doesn't look like much but to an abandoned baby it keeps the one outfit they get a day clean during feeding time. So do what you can. Make something beautiful and give it away. Visit a children's home in your state and play games for a couple of hours. Donate your unwanted clothing. Skip the latte and send your change to a children's relief agency. Advocate and be a voice for the voiceless. Whatever you do don't turn a blind eye. Because if not for the grace of God you could be the one on the other side of the orphanage fence.

Even if you aren't religious I encourage you to watch this video from my church. The statistics alone are enough to move me to action.

Matchy Hat

2011-07-02T10:00:00.001-04:00

If I did everything correctly then this post should be showing up on Saturday, after I've already gotten to Romania. If not, well, then enjoy the extra post but be sure to read the one below this one for an extra crazy pants story about my life.

As I mentioned in the previous post I managed to finish a matchy-ish hat for the wavy scarf. I used the Noro Spiral One-Skein Hat pattern. I thought it was a little bit wavy and a good showcase for the yarn.

The spirals at the top are definitely the coolest part.

I didn't block the hat but I think that it will be ok. It worked up very quickly. I started it on Tuesday and worked on it when I took my baby sitting charges to the pool on Wednesday. Yes, I said the pool. And it was hot. And this is a wool blend yarn. But I'm hard core like that. Finished it up on Thursday night and packed it up to take with me to Romania.

Here the hat rests on my computer on Thursday afternoon while I read the Redshirt Knitting Blog.

Also, just for fun, I did a little photo shoot with the finished scarf before I packed it up.

Here it is drying on my bedroom floor. It was quite long.

I modeled it in my closet with the full length mirror trying to get the total effect. Things about this picture that I have noted: 1. My closet looked super stuffed in this picture so I cropped most of it out. 2. I look kind of inflated in this picture. Like I'm wearing three shirts. 3. This scarf is of Dr. Who proportions. Or maybe it's just because I'm super short and this is a loooong scarf.

Ohhhh! I made a pretty thing! So, there it is. My wavy scarf and matchy hat.

What to make next...

Moment of Panic

2011-06-30T20:46:00.000-04:00

I got a package today full of crocheted toys for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. We're doing a toy collection for the orphans for Christmas so some very on the ball people are already sending in donations which is awesome! Well, I took the bag full of toys out on the deck for a moment to try and get a picture in some decent lighting.

Toys in bag waiting for good light.
However, my friend Megan was over so I just figured I'd leave the toys out until later and come back. I went inside and Megan and I watched some t.v. and chatted and what not. After an hour or so I remembered the toys and went outside to get them. That's when I noticed that the bag, which had been sitting on the metal patio chair had sort of fallen over and a couple of the toys had fallen over onto the patio. Unharmed of course but they were dangerously close to the edge of the balcony. Danger Will Robinson... Cautiously I peeked over the edge.... Is that....

Do you see the blue speck down there?

Could that be one of the toy balls? In front of my neighbors porch? Crap it. I couldn't leave it down there. But what if my neighbors were out there or worse, what if I go poking around in their bushes/monkey grass and they come out (as they often do) to hang out on their porch. I thought about all these things while trying to calculate the time of day and wondering if my neighbors worked and what time they might come home from said jobs as I snuck around the side of the building and tried to causally see where my neighbors were and what they were doing. P.S. This is totally different from stalking. Please no one call the police. Thankfully they weren't out there and the blue thing turned out to be a piece of plastic or something. It looked way bigger from my porch (I should have known, I have a problem with depth perception).

Oh, and I finished a hat to go with the wavy scarf. More on that later.

Wavy Scarf

2011-06-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

The scarf is finally finished! I'd hoped to have it done over the weekend but Tuesday works too. Now let's hope I can knock out a hat in a day...

Here's the scarf pre-blocking and almost finished.

And here it is soaking in the sink of the guest bathroom. It has since been spun out in the washer and is blocking on the floor in my room but I forgot to take pictures. It turned out to be quite a long scarf (probably about 6 feet long) and I like how the colors blended together. The hat has been started but not much work was done on it because...

I came home today and found 4(!) more packages waiting for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. So I spent today photographing and packing those items away. I was hoping to use a medium sized suitcase but I ended up pulling out the biggest one I had just to fit the donations inside.

That's all my towels, undergarments, socks, a raincoat, and half my shirts plus two large space bags filled to the brim with donated items. Oh, and a roll of toilet paper. Because that's a commodity in Eastern Europe. Seriously. I still have a few things to pack but most everything else I'm going to try and fit into my carry on. Which includes a travel sized hair dryer and all my toiletries. I'm nothing if not adventurous.

Deadlines and Adjustments

2011-06-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

This working from home thing is going to take some getting used to. I'm used to having my store and charity be side projects so I'm having to train myself to actually block out the majority of my day to work on these things and not other stuff. It's a slow process. Especially since I took on a baby-sitting/nanny job that will run until the end of June. I did manage to spend a day working on updating the shop. I finally have all my products listed.

Including new beauties like Oriental Lilly.

I also photographed over 40 donated pieces of clothing that came for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. I'll be taking them with me to Romania next week.

Some super cute crocheted hats.

A warm hat and neck warmer.

Cute baby sweater and hat combo.

Two more boxes to unpack!

And speaking of Romania...I still haven't received my final information packet yet. The one with my plane tickets and packing list. Yeah, that one (I will not freak out...I will not freak out...). I'm praying that everything will work out.

The scarf I have been working on as my contribution to take with me to Romania is also not being as cooperative as I would like.

It's getting to just about the right size but my stitch count is forever off on the first 40 or so rows of the pattern. Right now I'm 4 stitches short. Which is more than slightly maddening. But I'm pressing on. And hoping to have this done by the end of the weekend so I can start working on a matchy-ish hat (it won't have the wavy multi-directional pattern but it will use the same yarn). I think I have a little over half a skein to go until the scarf is finished. Do-able? Yes. Probable? Hmmm....Knitting for tomorrow is mostly out as I will be helping my mom prep for my b-day celebration with family that evening and Saturday is somewhat out with a tubing trip and missions ministry meeting. I can probably manage to squeeze some time in there somewhere for knitting so it just might get done. That is, as long as I can get the right stitch count.

In other news, Penelope got her summer hair cut.

And I need to repaint my nails.

An End is a Beginning

2011-06-10T01:02:00.000-04:00

Oh wow, where the heck did May go? Month #5 of 2011 was crazy. I was so busy with a million different things. There were 3 festivals, the end of the school year (and as such, the end of my teaching career), and juggling the start of several new ventures. So it's no wonder that I'm just now able to get back to blogging. However, I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up the social networking on a more regular basis.

Now that I've ended my career as a teacher what am I going to do? Well, a lot actually.

1. Run Vivid Creation Fibers. That means more festivals and more time to devote to dyeing.

Section of my booth at the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival.

2. Running the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. We've been collecting and distributing clothing to orphans for a year and half now. Just since January we've collected 120 items. Currently there are two campaigns going on: a collection of items for me to take and distribute in Romania in July (ending June 25th) and a drive to collect 154 blankets for orphans in Ukraine and Russia (not ending until November). With big campaigns like this running pretty much all year I want to spend more time making sure the word gets out about the charity and logging and tagging donations.

3. Graduate school. I'm set to finish up in December of 2012 and next year I'll start my internship which will be like having a full time job (but not getting paid for it). Since I'm already taking a full load it will be nice to be able to devote more time to assignments instead of just after I finish a full day at work.

4. Personal assistant. Somehow I was lucky enough to swing a gig as a personal assistant for a friend of mine, Jonathan Merritt, who is a faith and culture writer. I clean, I file, I type book edits, I pick up dry cleaning. I pretty much do whatever is needed of me. I really enjoy having such a totally different job thrown into the mix of what I do. And because Jonathan and I have been friends for a few years we have a good working relationship.

In addition to these main four jobs there are other things I do. I'm very involved in my church's orphan care ministry, One.27, and I'm working with the leaders of our women's ministry to start a knitting group. I also baby-sit/nanny for a few families. I'm sure that there will always be a few "other" things that are going on in my life.

And what about the knitting? Mostly I've been making washcloths. Yep, washcloths. For selling, not using or giving away. So, I've been doing "work knitting." I have managed to start a Moderne Log Cabin blanket for some friends of mine who are getting married.

It's a little hard to see the white since it's against a white sheet but the finished blanket will be red, white, and black; a UGA blanket. I've been working on this since last Saturday but I've only gotten 2 squares finished. The wedding, unfortunately for me, is tomorrow (Saturday). They'll be getting a picture and promise that the blanket is on the way. It will be done though. I promised my friend Nick that when he got married he would get a handmade afghan from me. And I plan to make good on that promise. Even if it takes me until October.

I also picked up some new yarn today while I was on vacation in South Carolina.

I'm itching to begin some new projects, mostly hats and scarves, to take with me to Romania. There will probably be some project juggling over the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll keep up the blogging trend so you can follow along in the fun :)

Random Monday

2011-05-02T22:31:00.000-04:00

I've got a lot of random thoughts floating around that don't really connect so I'm just going to make a list. Here goes...

1. I did the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta this weekend. It turned out to be a pretty good show for a non-fiber focused event. I was the only yarnie there. But I got to meet a lot of cool people. The girl in the booth across from me actually majored in fiber arts in college and had moved into glass design. We had a cool conversation about dyeing and fiber. It's a small world, after all.

This was my first festival that was totally outdoors and my first with a canopy. My dad bought it as an early birthday present for me and I couldn't be happier! It worked great. We were shaded and protected and professional looking. Thanks Papa! You're the best :)

2. I got to watch the weirdest and coolest parade ever at the festival.

The Seed and Feed Marching Abominable. They've got a cult following in the city. They even had a PBS special made about them.

A precision attache case team. Bet you didn't know these existed.

The Atlanta School had some of their students dress up in steam punk. This picture isn't the greatest but I just think it's awesome that there were all these 13 and 14 year olds in steam punk get up.

Bagpipers.

"William" and "Kate" made an appearance.

Box Heros. Basically there are superheros made out of boxes. Really, really well done.

The Atlanta Roller Girls one of our local roller derby teams (Can I just say I love roller derby team names? And the names the girls give themselves. I have my roller derby name picked out but I'm not telling in case you try and steal it :)).

The Bridesmaid Brigade which featured girls wearing their bridesmaid dresses.

A guy on this bike thingy. You know, just because every parade needs one...

And, yes, a record breaking Gnome March. Didn't gnome they had these? Neither did I. But let it be gnome that they were out in force. Enough gnome puns...

3. For some reason I feel like avoiding grad school this week.

4. There are 20 more days of work left until I'm unofficially self-employed (I will be officially self-employed in August).

5. I finally updated the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages blog. For the first time ever I had some problems where the site was not recognizing a page. Finally got it fixed.

6. I really need to update my shop stock. But I haven't the energy. Must do this tomorrow.

7. My friend Jenn informed me this weekend that I don't eat or sleep enough. I'm beginning to agree with her.

8. I saved 27% on my grocery bill today. I'm no master couponer but I got enough breakfast foods (yogurt and cereal) to last me at least a month, some cleaning supplies for .99, health and beauty items for less than $5, salad, and organic dishwashing detergent. The most expensive stuff? The canned cat food and cat treats. Why do I have such a picky cat? I can't buy anything cheap because she won't eat it. All in all I think I did pretty good. If I can get it to 50% I'll be elated.

9. My friend Jenn (another Jenn) did a blog post about the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. It's such and awesome and lovely article! Many thanks to Jenn for featuring me. I love her and her family dearly, especially her two boys :)

10. I'm tired. And yet I have the strong urge to clean my apartment. Instead I'm going to take a bath and work on my grad school reading. Because nothing says "relaxing" like reading the standards for administering psychological assessments.

Living Situation

2011-04-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

This morning as I was driving to work I started reminiscing about my old apartment. What spurred this sudden look back was the fact that my house seems a bit in shambles right now. Even though, in reality, my old place was always in shambles, for some reason I wanted the comfortable feeling of being in a well known "home". I've only been at my current apartment for 9 months. I lived at my old place for 5 years. There's not the history here yet nor the lived in feeling of putting down roots somewhere.

When I moved into my old apartment everything was new. I was fresh out of college and about to start my first real job. By contrast, necessity drove me to move to my new place (multiple break-ins, one in my own building, and too much stuff for only 900 square feet). Work was the same old same old though I was contemplating a change (last fall was when I first started thinking about leaving my teaching gig). Everything else about my life was pretty well established. I even had a fairly serious boyfriend at the time (long since gone).

After the move I had to jump right back into the teaching scene and, as is typical, there were things that have gone undone since then. The office is probably the worst off with clutter abounding in every corner, most noticeably in this pile of old crafting supplies and pictures and an unused storage unit:

There are also half unpacked boxes all over. Stashed between the couch and the chair:

Behind the "dead cat":

And more in the office closet (which is actually ok because it's out of sight, out of mind). The bedroom is little more than a bed with sheets on it and massive piles of laundry (the original plan was to buy new bedroom furniture this fall but with me leaving my steady job I don't think that's in the cards any more). But that's not to say that I don't love the new apartment. The size alone is a major seller. It's got the second bedroom/office (great for yarn storage) and second bathroom which is nice for when I have visitors (don't have to clean the master bath!). The kitchen is big enough for "three butts" and I actually have a dining area. And while I miss looking out my office window to see this:

I get to enjoy this:

Which I plan on using even more once I have a little time to actually relax for more than 10 minutes.

So, while I had a little reflection this morning I'm even more inspired to start turning this new apartment into a home: hanging curtains, unpacking boxes, painting a wall or two.

Selling Out

2011-04-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

Recently I've gone through a bit of personal struggle over my business. Part of me wanted to be a purest and only sell yarn. The other part of me wanted to diversify to reach new clients by offering knitted goods. I didn't want to make my dyeing seem less important but, frankly, if this business is going to support me, I need to sell more stuff. And I've always considered myself a Knitter first (with a capital K) and a dyer second. While dying has definitely become more and more important to me (and even more so over the last 8 months) I still love knitting deep down at the core. I could sit all day and knit and be perfectly content. I do love to spend all day dyeing but it's just not as pleasurable to me. Not that I don't get a great deal of pleasure from it, don't get me wrong. But there is still an aspect of work there for me. In knitting, even when I'm making things to sell, it really doesn't seem like work. It seems like I'm enjoying myself while (potentially) making money. The only issue comes when I don't want to make something that I think will sell. I mean, there are only so many washcloths a girl can make before she starts to get a little bleary eyed.

Baby booties, another thing that might make you go bleary eyed if made in large quantities.

So, there was a little struggle. But in the end, the diversify side won. If you look at the dyers that are out there very few only wear the hat of Dyer. Most are also designers, button and shawl pin makers, or spinners as well. And some started with one of these other areas and moved into dyeing. And that's just talking about the lucky few who do this full time. Many more have dyeing as a hobby that makes a little spending money. So, why can't I offer my knitting? I'm no master but it doesn't take a whole lot of skill to make some felted coasters or baby booties. But people like that kind of stuff. There are a lot of people who are looking for something unique and handmade. Something that's not mass produced. Something with a little character. I could be that person. If that seems like I'm selling out or selling my dye abilities short, well, that's something I may have to deal with down the road. In the meantime maybe I can actually make knitting into a profitable venture.

Pile of knitted things to be felted.

On a side note: I will be at the Inman Park Festival April 30th and May 1st in Atlanta, GA and the Snellville Days Festival May 7th and 8th in Snellville, GA. If you're in the area please stop by! Inman Park looks to be a huge event with a Street Market and juried Arts and Crafts Market (I'll be in the Street Market). Snellville Days is a bit smaller and more folksy but they are both worth the trip.

That's Life

2011-04-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

Just some updates on this game we call Life.

1. Surgery recovery: It's been exactly two weeks since I had my tonsils taken out and my sinus surgery performed. I still have some tightness and soreness in my throat but I'm feeling human again. Monday was really rough, I still couldn't eat very well, there was a lot of scarring in my throat, I needed lots of pain meds to make it through the day, and I was super tired. I went to the doctor for a check up and to clean out some of the scabbing in my nose. That seemed to be the magic pill because that night I slept great and Tuesday I woke up with my throat feeling tons better. Recovery is still slow but at least it's steady. Most nights I can make it until about 4 or 5 in the morning before I have to get up for pain medicine. My biggest issue now is how to keep the cat from bothering me while I try and rest. She's definitely making up for the week and half I was away from home by following me around everywhere and giving me lots of kisses.

2. Work: Things have been the usual craziness at work except I no longer have the energy to deal with it (not that I had a whole lot of energy to work with in the 1st place). I'm just counting down the days until the end of the year. Two weeks ago the county office told us that, due to the large amount of snow days that we had to take this year, all employees had to make up 16 hours "somehow" (literally their words). They have already taken every day off we had until the end of the year and extended the school year the maximum number of days. So, myself and my coworkers are either coming in early or staying late each day for at least an hour trying to make up the time. So far I have 4 hours. I may doing this for awhile.

3. Grad school: Grad school started back this week (thankfully it was this week and not last week, not sure I would have made a whole lot so sense last week). My group counseling class seems like it will be fine but I'm a bit intimidated by my Tests and Measurements class. It's all about the standards of test administration and how to determine the validity and relevance of tests. It's very technical but the worst part is the book is drier than dust. I guess in one sense it's pretty straight forward as far as procedures go and what not but it's not interesting to read in the slightest. Needless to say I fell asleep at my desk today while trying to get a chapter read.

4. Knitting: All felting all the time. I've decided to carry some felted coasters and wine cozies at some of my up coming shows so I've been making lots of felted items. Not exactly exciting but it is what it is. And I'm knitting so that's always good :)

I think that about covers everything. Hoping to have something a little more interesting to post soon. I'm in the process of making up the week+ that I lost so there should be a lot of activity around here soon.

Achievements

2011-04-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

Exactly one week ago today I had surgery to remove my tonsils and adenoids, fix my deviated septum, clear my sinuses, and remove some polyps from my sinus cavities. Everything I have managed to do since that time has been chalked up as a major achievement since pretty much every day since then something has been hurting, irritating me, or not doing the job I think it should be doing (I'm looking at you pain medications). Here, in no particular order are some things I've done that I feel are press worthy:

1. I took a shower. On Tuesday but still. I took a shower.

2. I ate chicken nuggets. 10 in all. Over a period of three days.

3. I did not pass out. Not when they took out my tubes (which were three inches long with butterfly wings on the sides). Not when I had to leave the office after taking out my tubes. Not when I hadn't eaten anything in two days except medicine and Powerade. Not yet.

4. I finished a blanket.

It's just a little one made from scraps of my hand dyed yarn but I like it and I think it will be lovely and warm once it's blocked out.

5. I made some booties.

Again, nothing big and huge but right now I can't really handle big and huge.

6. I worked almost a full repeat on my Red Dragon socks.

I never understood what pregnant women meant by not being able to knit because it makes them queasy. Now, I totally get it.

7. I started a pattern. It will be for a set of items with a chevron theme to them. A hat with a chevron band, mittens with a chevron design on the back and a multi-directional chevron scarf. I did that one at 2 in the morning so I really think I should get a prize for it or something. I'm telling you about it because I want to be held accountable for actually finishing the pattern. I want to offer it as part of the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project's Game, Set, Match! campaign where we are collected matching hats and other knitted items for orphans. So, if you don't see updates about the chevron set in a few days start asking questions.

Now, I'm off to take another nap because I've been up for a total of 20 minutes and I'm exhausted.

Resting Up

2011-03-26T12:34:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday and it's raining and I don't want to do anything except knit and read blogs. Sure, there's laundry to do, the house needs to be vacuumed, I need to finish my taxes, and there are literally 5 boxes of donations for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project that need to be labeled, but I'm tired! As is customary for me I go through periods where I get extremely super duper out of control busy and, for awhile, I thrive. And then it all gets to be a little too much and I sort of have a break down and cry and really wish for some chocolate (there is a reason I don't buy sweets). And then I take a few days and I don't do a whole lot of anything. Things get accomplished but in small doses. For example, the dishes and the laundry will rarely get finished on the same day during this time. I'm in that final stage right now. Last week I was finishing up the quarter for grad school which meant I had two 15+ page papers due the same night (side note: I finished both but they were shorter than the required length. Got one of them back already and I made a 95 on it. All that stress for nothing.). I was getting ready for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival and then, on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (can't remember now, the time line was kind of sketchy) a family thing came up. It resulted in this:

My cousin William receiving a Purple Heart after an attack on his patrol in Afghanistan. You can read a little more about it here. I'm insanely proud of him and the other soldiers, mentioned and not, that were a part of this. We are so ignorant here in America of what goes on daily so we have the freedom to run our mouths, drive our gas guzzling cars, and own half the world's wealth. Obviously this hit me pretty hard. Especially since my cousins and I are very close, they're like my brothers and sisters. By Thursday night I was a hot mess. And then, it was over. I turned in my papers and posted my final discussions for school. I went to the fiber festival and had a great time. My cousin was discharged from the hospital and life went on.

I wish I could say that this past week has been less crazy but it's been just as much stuff, except, different. Different meetings, different job commitments, different deadlines. Still the same busy-ness. But today feels a little more calm. A little more relaxed. I'm sure I'll get stuff done today, just at a slower pace. And that's ok. For now I'm going to read some blogs and knit more on the big blobby blanket.

And not worry too much about the other stuff.

Saturday at a (Fiber) Festival

2011-03-22T18:11:00.000-04:00

First off I want to say a huge THANK YOU! to everyone who has written comments, tweets, facebook messages, emails, or who has told me in person how excited and supportive they are to hear that I will be striking out on my own in June. It really means a lot to me to have so many people in my corner :) I want to share with you a little of what my life is about to become. Here's some snippets from the Smokey Mountain Fiber Festival held this past weekend in Townsend, Tennessee. Warning: This post is picture heavy.

My humble little booth.

Left side:

Right side:

My friend and helper Jennifer modeling our cozy little hotel room at the Talley Ho Inn.

This picture is only funny to Jennifer and I but let's just say that everyone at a fiber festival has a story.

Booties that Jennifer made and then embroidered. And then gave to me to sell! Oh, the cuteness!

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Besides those huge balls of Red Heart Super Saver...

Beth one of our next booth neighbors. Beth runs the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival (which I will also be at).

A drop spindle demonstration.

Coldwater Alpaca Ranch which had some beautiful felted hats and lovely smelling soaps and lotions.

Mercedes of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks.

A weaving demonstration.

Spinning.

Handcrafted dolls and stuffed animals. This bear was used in the movie Paul.

Loom weaving in the booth across from ours. We heard the click, clack of her shuttle the whole weekend. It was actually quite a soothing sound. Plus she had some awesome handwoven placemats and table runners.

And, even though I had to finish up 2 papers for grad school and I was super stressed about having everything ready for the show, I was finally able to relax a little and start something new. A baby blanket made from scraps of my aran weight yarn. This will be a charity knit for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project since I have been neglecting my charity knitting to make swatches for the show.

Now that I have a three week break from grad school and only 6 more (working) days until Spring Break (I'm starting my break a little early because I'm having a tonsillectomy the week before), I can actually knit a little, read some blogs, relax, and breath. It's nice to be able to do that again.

Biggest News

2011-03-11T10:00:00.001-05:00

So, the time has finally come to break my biggest news yet! Drum roll please!

As many of you may know I have been an educator for the past 6 years. First in the middle school band setting and then in 1st grade general education. I love kids and I'm a pretty good teacher but the work is stressful and there's always more to teaching than just teaching. Then in November of 2008 I launched Vivid Creation Fibers. At first VCF was pretty small and I mostly just carried stuff online but then it began to expand and I started selling at a local yarn shop and doing festivals. And in 2010 I started the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. I thought the charity would just be a little Ravelry group for me and maybe a few people who stumbled upon it but in less than a year we had over 100 members. Most recently, in October of 2010 I started grad school full time. So for the past 8 months I've been working full time, going to school full time, running an expanding independent dye company, and organizing an international charity. To say I've been busy is an understatement. It didn't really surprise me all that much when I began to wonder about some of the commitments I'd made and began to reassess where my priorities were. Which has lead me to make a decision.

At the end of this school year (first part of June) I will be leaving my full time teaching gig to focus on my company, the charity, and grad school.

I'm super excited but also a bit nervous, as anyone would be I suppose, about stepping out on my own. This opportunity will allow me to focus more on traveling and doing festivals (I think I'm already signed up for 8 this year) and on getting 501(c)3 status for EEROP. Plus I won't have to worry about staying up late and trying to type up an assignment for class just hours before it's due. I'm hoping and praying that Vivid Creation Fibers will really take off so I don't have to get a part time job but that is still a possibility. Right now I have lots of friends who are willing to utilize my baby-sitting skills and I'm also not above cleaning a house or two for some cash so maybe I can get enough of those side jobs to make it work. We'll see. A lot of it is left up to faith but I truly believe I'm doing what I'm called to. This month has already been really good to VCF and to EEROP and it's not even half over yet!

I appreciate all the support that you as my readers have given me and I look forward to being able to keep in touch and network with you even more in the upcoming months. Until then it's a countdown to June!

A picture of me at the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival (SAFF) last year. So ready to start the festival circuit this year!

Bigger News

2011-03-05T13:13:00.001-05:00

I really meant to post this earlier this week but I guess subconsciously I just wanted to keep you all in suspense :) (And yes, there is still the biggest news to come)

The bigger news is that this summer I will be traveling to Romania! I will be going with H 2 H International and will be working in an infant hospital and several orphanages. I can't wait! It's been three years since I was in Eastern Europe and I can't wait to get back; it feels like it's been too long! In anticipation of going I would like to collect some knitted clothing to take with me. I know that H 2 H distributes hats each winter to the babies, children, and teen orphans that they work with. The Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project has information about collecting matching hat and scarf sets for me to take while I'm over there. I'm hoping there will be a big turn out for this collection!

In other, not so big news:
I finished R.J.'s baby blanket!

I finished some swatches (just need to weave in ends, wash, and block them):

I really finished a swatch (washed and dried and everything!):

Trick or Treat sock yarn
And I got to see some of my roving spun up at the guild meeting Thursday night!

I wish I could say that I have a movie on and I'm snuggled up with some knitting on this rainy, slightly chilly day but alas, I have grad school work to do and a cat who thinks that my arms and computer are her napping spot not my working spot.

Big News

2011-02-28T18:23:00.000-05:00

I have so much to tell everyone! So much in fact that I'm going to do it in small doses. Which means you'll have to come back later to find out what the bigger and biggest news is :)

The big news is that the Month of Love ends tonight! If you haven't posted to the EEROP Ravelry forum about your love themed knitting then do so today so that you can be entered into the drawing for a little post-Valentine's day surprise.

Part of the big news is also that my first festival of 2011 is coming up March 17-19. It's the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend, TN which is located relatively close to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. If you will be attending please stop by and say hello (and let me have a bathroom break as I will probably be working this festival alone and would appreciate the opportunity)!

Sadly I don't have any really big knitting news. I made a swatch of some sock yarn. Trick or Treat colorway as a matter of fact. But I haven't washed and blocked it so it just looks like a little rolled piece of knitting. I have almost finished R. J.'s blanket though!

I'm pretty impressed with how quickly this has gone. A little over a week's work and I'm almost done. It is a small blanket (only about 26" by 26") but I think that's helped keep it from getting too boring. Adding in the color block in the middle also helped keep it interesting. For some reason I'm under the delusion that I could never knit a full sized blanket. But I've already made 2 baby blankets and I didn't get bored or overwhelmed with either of those. Maybe some day I will have the gumption to tackle a bigger one.

Getting it Together

2011-02-22T21:10:00.000-05:00

With all this wonderful weather we've been having in the South (sorry Midwestern readers) I've begun to think about festival season. My first fiber festival of 2011 will be next month. Which means I need to start getting ready. More booties to knit! More washcloths to make! More yarn to dye! More swatches to knit!

Hawaiian Hibiscus

First I had/have to finish up some things...

Cross the seed stitch mittens off the list.

I love the puffy way these turned out. I think I might be heading out of mitten territory though. I don't know if I can make any more thumbs and still find enjoyment in them.

I've moved on to something bigger.

A blanket for my cousin R. J. who is due to arrive in late April. Once I finish up with this it's on to more swatching!

Things I Love

2011-02-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

I had originally planned to post this on Valentine's Day and then I had planned to post it last night but life kind of got in the way. Instead of moping about how it sucks to be single on Valentine's Day and how Hallmark can bite my butt, I thought I'd share some things I'm in love with right now. Oh, and I really don't hate being single on Valentine's Day (it's an excuse to eat lots of chocolate and watch crappy movies) and I most certainly don't want anyone to bite my butt. Just sayin'.

1. Grad school
Sure it takes hours of time to read all the material and do the postings each week and yes, occasionally the text is super dry and not very exciting but I love it! I love learning about how people think. I love learning how to help people stop thinking incorrectly. I can't wait to be out there helping people for real.

2. My charity
I love seeing the donations as they roll in. I love reading the thank you notes about the children we are helping. I love getting mittens like these (from Marcy):

I love knowing I'm doing some good in the world. It makes me want to go knit something really warm.

3. My company
I love that I get to play with color. I love knitting up swatches and seeing how the colors play together. I love seeing customers happy with their purchases.

4. The weather
It's been about 64 degrees F (18 Celsius) all week. I'm sitting on my porch enjoying the late afternoon sunshine right now. After record setting snowfalls this winter I'm glad to have a little spring.

5. Bing energy drinks
They fuel me.

6. Knitting
Duh. This is a given but I felt bad leaving it off the list.

I hope that you had a lovely Valentine's Day and that you're experiencing a little bit of spring wherever you are too.

What a Way to Start/End My Week

2011-02-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

Today was my first day back to work after being gone for a week for grad school. I was in Jacksonville, Florida as part of my residency program. I'll have two more over the next year and half. It was an amazing time! I made some awesome new friends, learned so much about counseling and psychology, and just enjoyed the time away from the regular job. Unfortunately it was back to reality for me today. And it wasn't such a pleasant reality either. My students had been horrible while I was gone, I wasn't really sure if the sub had followed the lesson plans, and I found out the administration was dissolving one of our classes and, because of that change, I would be getting another student. Which means I'm back at 21 students. Oh, and I spent almost 2 hours with 30 kids in my class today due to some of the teachers having to test. On the way home I sat in traffic for over an hour and half (my commute is usually 30 minutes). It was like Monday and Friday rolled into one.

Which is why tonight I will be making more little baby booties.

Easy. Quick. Cute.

Maybe I'll get around to these mittens too.

But, you know, only if it won't stress me out too much.

That's a Big Surprise...

2011-02-07T20:33:00.000-05:00

I had to go back and look to see when the last time I blogged was. I didn't realize it's been over a week! I took this yarn from last post:

And turned it into a pair of mittens.

The color is a little off but you can see the cable a bit better. These are the No Swatch, No Gauge Mittens by Jean Gifford that I have fallen in love with. I knit these with a strand of Cascade 220 in a light pink and some DK weight pastel multi-colored held together on US size 6s. It made for some super thick mittens but it was a little difficult to knit on such small needles.

As soon as I finished these mittens I started a new project.

Which is more mittens. I know that surprised all of you.

It's Here!

2011-01-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

The weekend is here! Finally! I feel like it's taken forever to get here. On Thursday I thought for a brief moment that it was Friday. But, of course, it wasn't. Now it's here though! And I can relax. Or at least my version of relax. Which involves dyeing yarn and making discussion postings for school. Oh and doing laundry. But you know, it's not the 9-5.

I finished one of the fingerless game knitting mitts.

I even started the second one!

Since these are only about 6 inches long they are quick knitting. But the short rows make it fun. I can't wait to see how blocking loosens these up and relaxes some of the stitches. They are a little tight on my hands but I think that once they are blocked they'll fit nicely.

On a side note: I think I might be terrible at guesstimating mitten/fingerless gloves sizes (like, will these fit a kid or an adult?). I think because my hands are on the small size. I guess I should actually check a chart or something.

Now that I have an almost finished pair of fingerless gloves I'm about to turn these:

into, you guessed it, some mittens! (Mitten Madness total: 4.5 finished, this will be my 6th pair (once finished))

I love the weekends :)

Must. Make. Mittens.

2011-01-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

I have been taken by a strange desire to knit mittens and mittens only lately. I'm sure this has nothing to do with Mitten Madness. Or the fact that I can churn out a pair of basic mittens in two evenings. I finished the cabled fingerless mittens two weeks ago while watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for class.

I thought these were going to be too small but they actually fit me quite well.

And they're warm because they're 100% wool. The pattern is the Mock Cable Wristers from 60 Quick Knits.

Saturday I started a pair of plain mittens using the No Swatch, No Gauge Mittens for Kids pattern by Jean Gifford. I finished them up on Sunday, soaked them Sunday night, and they have been drying since earlier this morning.

This is really a pattern I can get on board with. You use whatever yarn you have and whatever needles you need to make a dense fabric. The resulting mittens are great for charity since they are guaranteed to fit someone. The yarn is some Classic Wool in the colorway Bird of Paradise. I will probably use this pattern as a template for designing some patterned mittens or for game knitting.

Since I finished the classic mittens I had to start a new pair of course.

This is some of the left over yarn from the No Swatch mittens. I'm making some more fingerless gloves. This is using a game knitting technique.

When a predetermined action happens in the show you are watching you wrap the next stitch and turn. The whole mitt ends up being made from short rows. I must say that I'm really loving the game knitting ebook that I bought. I would highly recommend it. It's given me lots of ideas for knitting projects and since I watch t.v. while I knit it's a great way to incorporate the two.

I guess that I have done some other knitting besides mittens. I'm still working on my Red Dragon socks. I'm past the heel turn but I don't have a progress picture to show for it. I also finished the pink sweater.

I think it's adorable. This isn't for anyone, it's actually for sale in my shop. I plan on adding a few more baby things and washcloths over the next few weeks. For now though I have mittens to knit...

Books

2011-01-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

As you may have guessed from the title this post is not about yarn or knitting. If that is why you are here then you might want to come back later. However, this is a fairly entertaining story so you might just want to stick around.

About 3 months ago I started graduate school through an online university. In order to pay for this school I took out some hefty loans. As part of my loan package each quarter I get a book allowance that comes in advance of my actual tuition. There are, however, some stipulations to this. You have to have x amount over and above your tuition and it comes at this time or that and what have you. Well, for my first quarter and half (because I started mid-quarter for one my classes) I had the book allowance but it kind of came later than I expected. No big deal but I had to be mindful of this. Fast forward to the current quarter.

I spent most of Christmas break waiting for my book allowance to come but I wasn't sweating it too much because I knew it would probably come the week before classes. Well, the Thursday before classes came and I still didn't have my book allowance. I went to the school website and read over some of the fine print and realized that I wasn't going to get the allowance this quarter for one reason or another (I suspect that it's because I signed up for an extra class this quarter and will not have enough over the cost of tuition to get the extra money for the books). The reasoning doesn't really matter but now it's Thursday, classes start Sunday/Monday and I need my books. Well, I had to do some personal finances arranging but I was able to get the money into my account by Monday morning so I could get my books. A little late but before the end of the first week.

I placed the order for my books on Tuesday of last week and ordered 2 day air mail which meant they would be here by Thursday. Plenty of time to get done with my postings for the week. Well, last week was the week of the Snow-Storm-That-Lasted-A-Lifetime so this threw off the entire UPS delivery schedule. There is nothing I can do at this point so I grin and bear it and stalk the UPS site for several days waiting for my package to ship.

Monday of this week I see that my books are on a truck to be delivered by the end of the day. Hooray! I was in Athens for much of the day at a gymnastics meet (watching, not participating) but I was expecting to get the box when I got home. When I pulled up at 9:00 or so there was nothing at my door. No box, no note, nothing. I check the UPS site and there is now a note that says "Due to circumstances out of UPS' control your package will not be delivered today." What the what?!?! Despite almost losing it I take a deep breath and pull myself together. It will be here tomorrow for sure.

Tuesday comes and I have to go back to my regular 8-4 job :( When I come home I begin monitoring the parking lot for the UPS truck. I had a book study meeting with my friends at 7 so I was hoping to get the package before I had to leave. At 5:30 or so the UPS man arrives! Hooray! I sign off on the box (after he has an equipment malfunction with his scanner thingy) and decide to open the box before I head to dinner. This is what was inside.

That would be a soldering station. A temperature controlled soldering station at that. I had a serious "what the hell" moment. I even opened the box in case my two, 5 lb. textbooks were hiding inside.

Nope, just a soldering station. At this point I begin to flip the frack out. My classes have been in session for over a week and I still do not have my books. I have two discussion posting due the next night that were based solely off the texts. I. must. have. these. books. NOW!

I send an email to the bookstore and check my invoice (for the record, I definitely ordered textbooks). I wait about 30 seconds before I get impatient and jump on the bookstore's live chat (because of course there's no phone number listed). I explain to the lady what's happened. She can't believe it (welcome to my world, sister). She says she can overnight the books to me. They will be here on Thursday (because they won't ship until the next day, Wednesday). This is unacceptable to me. I ask for a refund and get put on "hold" for 20 minutes. During this time I have a meltdown, try to put on makeup, and attempt to get ready for dinner with friends. Finally she comes back. She has refunded my money so I can get the ebook versions instead. I thank her, order the books, leave, and meet my friends. After I got home I (praise the Lord) had no problems getting the ebooks to work. But I'm still not thrilled. I love the feel of books and being able to whip them off the shelf for reference whenever I need to. I like being able to flip back and forth between chapters quickly and easily. But this will do. Last night I was able to finish my discussion postings and at least now I won't fail because I don't have the books (if I fail it will be for other reasons but certainly not the books).

So, there you have it. The saga of the grad school books. I'll be ordering my textbooks for spring quarter next week.

Super Productive

2011-01-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

For the last 3 days I've been stuck in my house due to ice and snow. Tomorrow I'll be stuck here as well. The snow is melting, a little. We still have between 3-5" piled up around my complex. The roads are the problem. If things warm up even a little it all freezes over during the night when the temperatures dip back into the teens (Fahrenheit). I haven't minded at all actually because I've been working on a lot of things. On Monday I updated the shop with new yarns and plan to add some more tomorrow.

In case you missed the update, this is Swamp Thing.

Tuesday I picked up and cleaned the entire apartment. I mean mopped, did the laundry, dusted, rearranged, the whole nine yards. The place looks awesome now! I even managed to do a good deal of work in the office which is by far the least organized room in the apartment.

Today (Wednesday) I spent most of the morning finishing up some assignments for grad school then I finished vacuuming and mopping. The rest of the day was for working on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project website and setting up a Facebook page for EEROP. And I did more laundry. I think laundry might be my least favorite chore. It takes forever to do and by the end of the week the hamper is full again and you have to start all over! Surprisingly I still had time to knit some. I started a pair of simple wristers from 60 Quick Knits yesterday and I've worked a little more on them tonight. I'm not using Cascade 220 as suggested but some gifted DK weight yarn. These are turning out a bit smaller than originally planned but can still go towards Mitten Madness.

Tomorrow I'm hoping that it will clear up ever so slightly. While I've appreciated the time to get some things done in the house we are almost out of cat food and sugar. Penelope will need to eat and I can't function without my morning cup of tea! For now I'm debating putting in a movie. It's 9:15 but I don't have anywhere to go tomorrow :)

So Much To Show You!

2011-01-10T20:27:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post for the past 2 or 3 days but I keep seeming to get busy with one thing or another and then blogging goes on the back burner. But today I had ample time to get ahead at a lot of things that I've been wanting to spend time on. I was able to dye yarn and work on the store today and tomorrow will be full of cleaning the house and continuing to try and get ahead with grad school work. Why all the time on my hands suddenly? Snow!

It started Sunday night around 9:45 or so.

And by 10:15 I would say we had almost an inch.

This morning was a winter wonderland.

Total for our area was about 5 inches. I know that most Northerners scoff at 5 inches but we Southerners are not prepared for this type of weather! The whole city of Atlanta has been shut down for the day. And it's pretty much shut down for tomorrow too. Roads are starting to ice over where people have driven on them and there is freezing rain and possibly more snow expected for tomorrow. I'm having a 4 day weekend!

I had to go to my car this morning to get some paperwork out and was able to get an idea of just how much snow had fallen.

I'd say that's quite a bit! The first thing that happened when I walked outside was I stepped off the curb into a 7" pile of snow, ice, and slush that filled my shoe. I thought that would be the end of my snow adventures but I kept reading about everyone sledding and making snow angels so I went out later to put some mail in the box. The consensus? It was cold. And my feet got wet again. And there was some idiot trying to drive who was skidding all over the ice and I thought I was going to get hit. So I stayed in for the rest of the day. And dyed yarn! New yarn will be going in my shop tonight!

This is a little sneak peek of Booberry, a one of a kind, limited edition yarn. Also listing some washcloths in the shop as well. I'm going to start carrying a few little knitted items to try and expand my clientele. In fact one of my recent knitting projects will go in there (as soon as it's finished).

A single button little girl's cardigan.

Since I spent so much time on the shop today I'm thinking tomorrow will be a good time to tackle some charity knitting :)

I Have Thumbs!

2011-01-06T18:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've always had thumbs (both of them, thankfully) but now my mittens do as well! In the span of a week my charity mittens went from this:

To this:

Yay! One set of mittens for Mitten Madness complete! Of course that means I had to start another pair. I decided to do some game knitting fingerless mittens/ninja gloves. I started with this:

And ended with these:
"Front"

"Back"

Me modeling one.

Game knitting is a lot like a drinking game. You watch a show or movie and whenever a much expected action or line is performed you change the way you're knitting. The game knitting booklet that I purchased has a bunch of base designs like these mitts and a few hats and scarves and such to choose from. The real fun is the various ways you can mix up your knitting. I chose to change the ribbing pattern on these as I watched Family Guy every night. It was pretty fun and definitely quick knitting. Next I want to try a short row hat. In addition to making a lot of knits for charity I've also been working on my Wyvern socks which I decided long ago to name the Red Dragon Socks.

Started with these:

And now have these:

Which look almost exactly the same. I never said I was quickly knitting on these. Just a few more inches and I'll be ready for the short row heel. I know I've done a short row heel but I don't do it very often so I can never remember the particulars of how to do them. At least I still have a little time to look up the directions!

Tonight I'm dyeing some yarn for the store. The online store will probably go down for a few days but while I get the new yarn photographed and listed but it will be back shortly. I had a major problem last night with my skein winder, 3 cones of sock yarn, and a my digital scale so that's set the release of my sock yarns back a little bit but they will be coming! In the meantime please follow the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project on Twitter and learn about all the cool things we have coming up :)

2011 Resolutions

2011-01-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

Drum roll please! Here, in no particular order, are my 2011 New Year's Resolutions!

1. To do more good stuff. I want to grow the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project into a full fledged, tax exempt entity. I want to do some more missions work. I want to knit more for charity. I want to continue to feel like I'm making a difference.

2. I want to make the things that are important to me my top priority instead of side projects. Read as: charity and business.

3. I want to do something risky. I have an idea of what this will be but I'm not quite ready to share it. I will when the time is right. For now I'm seeking out advice and trying to be smart about it. There is a fine line between taking a risk and being a damn fool.

4. Go clean with my cosmetics. I'm reading the book No More Dirty Looks and it talks a lot about the benefits of going clean with your health and beauty routine. Since I've switched to organic cleaners and do try to eat organic when I can I think this is a logical next step.

And...that's it! Just four things but four really quality things. This summer I will turn 28 and for some reason that has given me great pause. I'm not where I thought I would be at this point in my life (and have known that for some time) but for some reason 28 seems like too long to let that just continue to be. I want to at least say I tried something different, stuck my neck out, did something new. Maybe this year will be the year I find true love, land the perfect job, and make a million bucks. But if I don't then at least I want to say I tried.

Good-bye 2010!

2010-12-31T10:44:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again! The time when I review my New Year's resolutions and see which ones I actually stuck to. Tomorrow I'll highlight my new New Year's resolutions (which I must admit I'm pretty excited about).

Overall 2010 wasn't anything to really scream about. I was talking with an old friend last night about 2011 and I remarked, "You know, nothing really changed this year. I'm exactly where I was when we started 2010." And it's pretty true. I'm not richer (in fact I might be slightly poorer), I didn't find the love of my life (in fact I went through a pretty disappointing break up this summer), I didn't nab my dream job, I didn't really go anywhere exciting or do anything life changing. 2010 just kind of was. The biggest event was my brother's wedding which took up the better part of the year. Maybe 2010 is just a place holder for the awesomeness that will be 2011. I suppose we'll see.

On to the resolutions!

1. Have 3 things on my needles at a time: something for myself, something for a friend or family member, and something for charity. I think I kind of did this one. Currently I have 1.5 projects for charity on the needles (a pair of half finished fingerless mitts and a pair of mittens that lack one thumb to be finished) and a pair of socks for myself. I did just finish that huge sweater for my mom so I haven't started anything for friends or family at the moment. I know I didn't hold to this hard and fast all year but I still like the spirit of it. I'd say this was half success. Bonus points for being a good idea.

2. Dedicate 2 nights a week to working on my shop(s). Oi, this was when I had the Etsy and the regular online shop. What a nightmare. I quickly abandoned the Etsy shop after about 3 months when I realized it was all a lot of trouble that wasn't really worth it since I had another perfectly nice shop already in place. Lesson here? KISS (keep it simple stupid). As for working 2 nights a week on the shop(s)...that didn't last. During the spring I was working on my brother's wedding, during the summer I was dating, during the fall I started grad school, during the winter was more grad school. I really do want to start carving out more time for the shop though. New Year's resolution take 2? Possibly? This one was a bust for 2010 though :(

3. Vend at 3 fiber festivals/fairs. Almost a success with this one. Stitches South fell through (another big fiasco in and of itself...just a note, if you decide not to do a show and someone else is supposed to be sharing a booth space with you it would be nice to let them know more than a month before hand, you know, common courtesy and such) but I did vend at the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival and SAFF. One was blazing hot and the other freezing cold but it was a great experience and even though I proclaimed myself to be a dyer and not a Dyer I'm more excited about attacking the shows in 2011 and really growing the business. It helped that my friend Steph went along with me and is able to look at the festivals through a fresh set of eyes.

4. Do more local missions work. I'd say this was accomplished. Especially in the last 6 months. Sometimes it was uncomfortable but I stepped out and I've found some things I'd really like to be involved in. Plus it just makes you feel good.

5. To buy organic cleaners. Another accomplishment. I switched to almost 100% organic cleaners (as well as dishwashing and laundry detergent) and I've really enjoyed it. I think they work as well as non-organic and they don't smell like death in a bottle or melt my skin when I touch them. The best all purpose cleaner I found was the Green Works by Clorox all purpose cleaner. There are less than 10 ingredients in it and it smells pretty decent. It also cleaned the nasty ring around my tub with just a little elbow grease. A feat in and of itself. The other brand I use with great regularity is Seventh Generation which is the "bargain" brand of organic cleaners. I will say that the Seventh Generation all purpose wipes smell funky and leave my hands smelling funky after using them. Not skin melting and eye watering, just...odd. There are some things I haven't completely given up (like my toilet cleaner and Windex mirror wipes) but I'm working on it.

6. Find a workout plan that works for me and stick to it. I know I said that I'd given up on my eating habits and I wanted to work out more but the reverse actually happened. In February or March I was seeing my doctor for the 2nd or 3rd bout of strep throat in just 2 months time and I found this great little pamphlet on 1500 calorie "dieting". I looked through it and the amazing thing was, it was do-able. I wasn't going to have to scour the black market or whole foods looking for a year round jaboticaba dealer just to make a salad. This diet recommended great portion sizes that left me full but not stuffed and dishes that incorporated common fruits and veggies I could find year round at Publix. It was great! I lost 15 pounds in 6 months! Disclaimer: I also switched some medicine that I was taking that I was pretty sure was making me pack on the pounds. I still credit at least 10 pounds to this diet though. I wish I could tell you a magical website to go to and get this plan but there's not one. However, it's distributed by Merck so maybe you could check their website. And the diet is basically 80% fruits and veggies with whole grains and a little meat. Oh, and I never did start exercising regularly.

So there it is, my 2010 New Year's resolution wrap up. Tomorrow I'll list my resolutions for 2011. I'm ready for a new year!

The Incredible Journey

2010-12-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

This incredible journey doesn't involve Chance, Sassy, and Shadow. It involves yarn, needles, and a deadline. This is the story of my mom's Christmas sweater.

December 23 (Christmas Eve Eve)
11:20 a.m.: Start working on remainder of sweater (below is a picture of where I was when I started this epic adventure).

12:20 p.m.: Interrupted for pet break with cat.

Also, do the dishes, start laundry, and change from pajamas to sweats.
12:35 p.m.: Begin again.
12:58 p.m.: Fold laundry.
1:20 p.m.: Put in the third installment of The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King).
3:45 p.m.: First sleeve is finished! Celebrate with lunch.

4:19 p.m.: Start second part of the Return of the King. Pick up stitches for the second sleeve. Cat sleeps.

6:27 p.m.: Take a break for a progress photo. Also eat brownie with ice cream for "dinner".

6:42 p.m.: Back to work on sweater.
7:01 p.m.: Scheduled break to wrap all Christmas presents (this picture was taken the next day but shows the amount of wrapping I had to do).

8:50 p.m.: Back to work, though later than expected.
9:35 p.m.: Break for a bowl of chili.
9:40 p.m.: Back to the sweater...

December 24 (Christmas Eve)
12:17 a.m.: Second sleeve sans cuff is finished!
12:18 a.m.: Take shower.
1:14 a.m.: Start cuff, fatigue setting in, not sure I can knit 21 more rounds...
1:38 a.m.: Knit 10 rows on cuff. Call it a night.

11:00-ish a.m.: Start last 11 rows of second cuff (not totally sure on time, forgot to write it down).
11:34 a.m.: Cuff is finished! Pick up stitches for neckline.
1:00 p.m.: Finished for good!

The sweater was wrapped and then packed into the car before I left for the Christmas party at my aunt and uncle's at 2:30. And I also managed to bring all the supplies for wassail and a fully cooked mac and cheese (the cheese, beef, and crackers plate got forgotten, oops...). The sweater still needs to be blocked but I can do that at my parent's house sometime this week. Just have to get over there and do it...

Holidays

2010-12-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and will continue the good times into the new year. I had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, food, fun, and a lot of laughter. All my secret Christmas knitting got finished in time. I'll share those projects with you tomorrow. There is one that is especially epic in nature that ended up being finished just in the nick of time.

I got a lot of wonderful gifts this year: a trashcan, some new slippers, a beautiful sweater, new shoes, several cozy blankets (including one that was made by my very talented sister-in-law), some home decorating items, a good book, and...

a photo box! This will really help in photographing finished objects and items for my store. I plan to begin taking pictures of the yarn that I have in stock tomorrow so that I can begin updates before the end of the week. I tested it on some socks that I (finally) finished.

The Ron Weasley Banana Holder socks (a.k.a. the Skew socks). I had to rip back to the heel on the right sock twice before I figured out where I was going wrong (the beginning of the round started on the back side instead of the front). Thankfully it no longer has the weird, sharp turn like they used to. I also took a picture of the mittens in progress.

The color is finally right in this picture! Almost ready to start the thumb gussets. These should be clipping along now even though I'm already wanting to start another pair of socks since I finished the Skew socks.

Redneck Christmas

2010-12-22T20:25:00.000-05:00

I'm about to admit something to you all, I did a terrible job with my outdoor illuminations.

When I first hung them up it was really cold out so I just kind of threw them up. Plus, I was lazy and didn't want to pull out a whole other pack of lights. So yeah, it looks like I should be out there with a PBR in hand spying on my neighbors.

I was successful in making mac and cheese for our family get together on Sunday.

Just like grandma used to make (until she commissioned me to make it instead). Our family get together was lots of fun. And my dad got a little exercise in.

It's very important to make exercising part of your Christmas wellness routine.

I have finished objects that I can't show you yet because they still need to be given as gifts but I started those crazy coral colored mittens.

Still can't get the color right in these pictures but they are bright! Looking forward to working on these after the holidays.

Just Missed It

2010-12-15T17:41:00.000-05:00

My blogiversary that is. Which means I've missed it for three years in a row! Maybe that should be my way of celebrating. Just miss it completely!

I always get a little nostalgic this time of year. I enjoy joking about random traditions and how we should get rid of them but never do (and would never actually do it anyways). I enjoy being a kid again and sleeping at my parent's house on Christmas Eve with my brother and my aunt (and now my sister-in-law) then waking up on Christmas Day to see what Santa brought us (and yes, he still visits me). Being in a nostalgic mood and all I started reading my very first blog posts.

Back then I seemed to blog a lot more. And I felt like my writing, in some ways, was better. My technique, as far as knitting goes, has vastly improved but I enjoy reading those early posts and seeing what I was making. I haven't felt like my blogging this year has been particularly inspiring. So I reflected on why...

1. I used to actually chronicle a knitted garment's journey. I've really gotten out of that habit lately. I can't tell you how many projects this year were mentioned once on the blog then never seen from again. Or were never posted on Ravelry. Or worse, were never mentioned here and never posted on Ravelry. This must be remedied. I need to start pulling out my camera more. Then, even if it doesn't get to the blog right away at least I have documentation.

2. A knitting blog should be about knitting. Duh. But over the years I've thrown in stuff about dyeing and, most recently, my charity. It's ok to link to those websites and give a shout out every once in awhile but this blog should be about my knitting. When I have the time I plan on starting a blog for the charity. "When I have the time" being the operative, of course.

3. I need to stop being a Negative Nancy. Maybe it's just my perception of my writing but this blog isn't for me to throw my pity parties or go on about how much life sucks. Back in the day (when I knit to school, up hill, both ways, in the snow) I talked about ways I was challenging myself through knitting, what good I was doing with my knitting, what I was learning, and sharing antidotes. I need to get back more to that. Save the therapy session for a girl's night out.

So, my early New Year's resolution for the blog is to get back to the good ol' days. It may take awhile and I'll probably fall off the wagon a few times (as I always do with resolutions) but hopefully 2011 will be a better blogging year than 2010.

In the meantime I'll be reading my early Christmas present...

Naughty List

2010-12-13T18:14:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to not to get myself on the naughty list but...

I know I should be knitting on Christmas stuff but I have an overwhelming desire to make a bunch of little mittens out of this:

I realize it's Red Heart.
I realize it's acrylic.
I realize it's bright (brighter in real life if you can believe it).

I don't care.

For now, though, I'm staying on the nice list...

Flurries Don't Count

2010-12-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

Flurries don't count as real snowfall unless they stick. 11 days ago we were having tornadoes and now we have the first snow-type activity of the year. But it's not sticking. It's just making everything wet. And now it's even colder than it was when I woke up this morning. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas! It makes me want to start vacation today. Only one more week of work though! 40 hours....5 days...3 tests...1 winter party....1 pajama day....and a partridge in a pear tree. Then I'm free for two weeks! And my grad school classes will finish for the quarter this Friday as well and won't start for another few weeks either so I will truly have a break. Then I can catch up on all the things that need doing. Hopefully I will get the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project webpage updated. I've tried 3 times now without success. No idea what's going wrong but I will conquer it yet! One of our group members just took over 250 items of clothing to Romania to hand out to orphans and Gypsies. She should be arriving back in the U.S. shortly and, hopefully, she will have pictures to share (which I would love to post on the website if it will cooperate). What a wonderful out pouring of generosity from our group members to help make this possible! I did finally send out the last of the prizes for the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas clothing drive that we held over the summer. I custom dyed some yarn for the "winner" of the contest who knit a ridiculous amount of stuff (42 items) for the drive (for which we are all extremely thankful). This is a picture of her custom yarn:

Also been working on Christmas knitting but I can't show you that. I did finish one project that I'm incredibly stoked about and really want to show you but can't. I feel so clever having finished it. It's down to crunch time though so knitting has become an Olympic sport around here with a motto of "Go all the way or get tendonitis trying."

Lacking

2010-12-04T21:16:00.000-05:00

My writers block has kicked in and the more I try and fight it the worse it's getting. I have an 8-10 page case study paper due tomorrow by midnight and I can't get the wording right. It will be finished in time for sure but it needs some more tweaking. Until I can find my voice I'm trying hard not to pull out my hair and scream. It's incredibly frustrating to have the first half of your paper written and feel brilliant about it and then to be working on the second half and be utterly annoyed with every word I write. Just thinking about it is making me want to lie in the fetal position until everything works itself out. I want to be done and hate to have the feeling of something hanging over my head (especially when I don't want to turn in an assignment at the last minute) but I just can't make this happen. I think sleeping on it tonight and just allowing my brain some time to work it out will do me good. On to happier things!

This morning I sent off several large boxes of goodies for EEROP.

This box of hats and vests will go to H2H International for orphans in Romania. Included in the box is the November mystery knit along that I hosted on Ravelry.

I love how it turned out and I had the perfect little blue buttons for it (the pink string at the bottom is a tag explaining how to care for the item).
The next box is going to Helpful Hearts (when I get mailing address from them).

14 pairs of socks for children in Siberia! As I said, I don't have a mailing address for them yet but I hope they will answer my email soon.

The final box is going to Knit for Kids.

Two thick coats for children in Azerbaijan.
Penelope helped make sure everything was ready for packing/shipping.

She is so very helpful.

December: Day 1

2010-12-01T22:07:00.000-05:00

One of students proclaimed today, "It's the first day of Christmas!" It certainly feels like that. Winter arrived last night with a bang, literally. Yesterday we had a tornado touch down less than 2 miles from my apartment. Luckily I was in Atlanta with my brother and sister-in-law and even more luckily no damage was done to my apartment complex. The cat was really glad to see me though. Speaking of which... I got her shaved the other week when I was off work.

I guess I should have done this a month ago because she's kind of chilly now. She spends every night trying to get as close as possible to me while I sleep. I wake up every morning contorted because she's wedged herself between my legs or between my stomach and my body pillow. Or she's sitting right beside my pillow sniffing my head. Yes, my cat is beyond weird. When I'm awake it's not much better. Whenever I sit on the couch she has to sit in my lap. This includes while I try to knit or use the computer. It adds a level of difficulty to every activity. And speaking of knitting...Christmas knitting is coming along. But you can't see it. It's all secret stuff. With the arrival of the "winter tornado" we also got near freezing temperatures. This morning it was 34 F/1 C with a wind chill of 26 F/-3 C. I'm constantly fighting off the desire to cast on for a cowl and ear flap hat for myself. Must finish Christmas presents first. Speaking of Christmas... I put up my tree on Sunday.

It's not decorated yet. I thought I would get to that today but I have an 8-10 page case study paper due on Sunday and I really need to crack down on it. So, the tree might get decorated tomorrow. We'll see. It could have happened today if I didn't take a nap but I'm running on fumes right now so I needed to rest. Speaking of resting...here's a picture of my parent's dog.

This really doesn't have anything to do with this blog post. Except that he's resting. On the couch. Where he shouldn't be.

Hiking

2010-11-24T11:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a friend and I went up to North Georgia for a bit of hiking at Tallulah Gorge State Park (I call it hiking even though we technically never left a trail and our packs both weighed less than 50 lbs.).

It was a great day for hiking, 70 F/21 C and overcast, and the views were spectacular. We decided to hike down into the gorge to see some of the falls better.

There's a suspension bridge across the gorge. Very cool looking even though the swinging motion made me a little nervous.

There are over 1000 steps down into the gorge but it was worth it. Isn't this picture amazing?

The trails around the rim of the gorge were lovely with all the falling leaves.

Before we stopped for lunch we decided to hike to Inspiration Point.

Inspiration Point is perched almost at the very tip top of a 1000 foot bluff.

Not many people can say this was their view for lunch yesterday:

Just as we finished up lunch it started drizzling and by the time we got to the car it was starting to rain. We timed everything perfectly and were on the road back home by the time it really started to come down.

Needless to say, I needed a lengthy nap yesterday.

Today I'm dyeing up some yarn. I have a custom order of Juniper Moon Farm cormo that needs to be done as a prize from the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas knitting drive from over the summer. I'm also going to dye some yarn for myself (something that doesn't happen very often)! There is a new mystery knit along designed by LISMI that I'm hoping to get around to during the Christmas holidays that I would like to use my self dyed yarn for. I would like to start it before then but I still have Christmas knitting to get to, though it is coming along nicely. Oh, and I have to start Thanksgiving cooking today too :)

Vacation

2010-11-22T15:08:00.000-05:00

After much anticipation, my week of Thanksgiving vacation has arrived! I'm looking forward to relaxing and spending time with my family. And eating. I'm really looking forward to that. To kick off my vacation I spent this weekend with my family at Stone Mountain Park.

They were having their annual winter festivities so my parents took two of my younger cousins out for the evening. I came along to help with crowd control and to get my first taste of the holiday season. There was a snow angel (who does a presentation at the end of the night complete with a snowfall).

And I had my first Santa sighting.

Seeing Santa was pretty cool (even for a grown up).

Having the whole week off has put me more in the holiday mood than in previous years. In the past I've felt like Thanksgiving just sneaks up on you and then, once that's over, it's pretty much Christmas. This year I feel like I'm actually prepared for turkey day and Christmas parades and carols and all that jazz. And I've been itching to make some warm winter wear (even though the temps are back up in the 70s (Fahrenheit)/ 20s (Celsius) this week). Something cozy and thick and wool. What am I knitting with though? Cotton. At least it's red and green... (pictures of works in progress to come later).

Sometimes I Over Do It

2010-11-13T11:26:00.000-05:00

I wish that statement applied to making cakes or exercising or even online gaming but it does, in fact, refer to my tendency to try and juggle as many balls at once as I possibly can. You can imagine the outcome. At some point along the way my body will just throws up it's hands and says "Enough! You won't slow down? I will make you slow down!" and then I get grossly sick. Like strep for the 4th time this year sick. Like tossing and turning all night because I felt feverish sick. Like waking up with body aches sick. Yeah, something like that. Oh, and did I mention I was supposed to be baby-sitting all weekend? Um, yeah...Not happening. At least not until tonight when my antibiotics have had a chance to fully kick in and make me feel less like a zombie. Let's focus on happier things shall we?

When I was at SAFF I started making some fingerless gloves for myself. It was freezing there and fingerless gloves seemed like something that would be good for the cold. And I had a little sample yarn left over from dyeing to try.

Well, this is the almost finished product but you get the idea (they have been completed since this picture was taken). This is in my Olive: I Love colorway and I've really fallen in love with this color and dye job.

Still working on grad school stuff which pretty much takes up the majority of my free time. There's a ton of reading to do and then 4 one page long discussion postings I have to make a week. I'm enjoying it but that does mean my other activities are severely limited and mostly relegated to eating and sleeping.

I did manage to start my Christmas knitting last week. I've got quite a few things I'm ambitiously thinking I can finish in just 6 (or less) short weeks. Won't show you the projects here because there are quite a few gift recipients who read this blog but I will show you the nice project bag I got from Joann's Fabric and Craft store for buying a butt load of yarn.

Grad School

2010-10-29T18:04:00.000-04:00

I can officially say that grad school is a major time suck. That's all I've done for the last 2 weeks: grad work. Grad work and getting ready for SAFF. And going to SAFF set me back on really accomplishing anything. Not that I didn't enjoy going of course. Thus, I have declared this weekend to be a Do Nothing Weekend of Freedom. The only thing I have scheduled is a massage with my massage therapist on Saturday (at my house so I don't even have to leave) and church on Sunday. The rest of this weekend will be for accomplishing long neglected tasks such as laundry, washing dishes, logistical/business stuff for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project, watching Interview With the Vampire, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, designing a vest for a mystery KAL that starts Monday, making s'mores, reading blogs, knitting, making placinte, sorting yarn, and organizing my online finances. That all sounds like a terrible lot of stuff but it's all stuff I actually want to do, crazy as that seems. Well, maybe not the laundry or washing dishes so much but I do need some clean clothes and dishes (oh when am I going to find a man to help me with all these menial tasks....). I'm so glad this weekend is finally here. I may not be able to sleep tonight from all the excitement....

Including 2 of the whooping 5 pictures I took at SAFF.

The full booth, which was TINY! 6ft by 8ft. But Steph and I made it work.

Me in the booth. Get the full effect if it's tininess?

Where to Start

2010-10-12T20:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I have a very limited time to do a post. I've got to hit the books tonight and do some work on papers and discussion postings. So, where to start...

Got a huge package in the mail the other day from a member of the EEROP group. It was stuffed to the brim with the following goodies:

9(!) hats,

fingerless mitts,

socks for Socktober Madness,

and 2 great sweaters! I love the little toggles and believe me when I say these will keep a child warm in the winter.

I finished another hat for Teanne and her mission trip in December.

And this was my view yesterday as I was working on grad school stuff:

Love this weather!

SAFF Confessional

2010-10-05T17:27:00.000-04:00

So, I have to confess something...until yesterday I wasn't really looking forward to SAFF.

I know, I know...sacrilege! Before you string me up by my toes let me explain.

1. I'm going this year as a vendor. This means I won't have as much time for perusing wares. And everyone knows I love a good fiber festival. But me in a room full of yarn and I'm like an alcoholic in a brewery, I just have to have some.
2. I'm not a salesperson. This sorta hurts the whole vendor thing. It's not like I won't tell you everything you want to know about my yarn but you have to ask first. I'm not about to hard sell you as soon as you come within shouting distance of my booth.
3. I'm not competitive. At least not in the sense that I'm looking to be the next Sanguine Griffin or Holiday Yarns or Miss Babs or any of a dozen other indie dyers. I work an 8-4 job everyday. I'm starting a non-profit. I'm involved in my church. I go to knit nights. I'm a full time grad student. Oh, and one day I'd like to have a social life.
4. I'm a Knitter. With a capital K. Not a Dyer. Dyeing is my hobby. I just happen to dye a lot so I have extra to sell. Not as much as someone who spends hours a week dyeing, week in and week out. But more than a healthy hobby should accumulate. And I'm ok with that. But see #3 above.

So basically I was feeling all uninspired about going to sell my yarn and feeling like everything I dye is sub-par and just being super critical of myself. This, of course, did nothing to help my enthusiasm for heading to a major fiber festival.

And then I booked my room.

And I starting thinking about the North Carolina mountains in the fall.

See more breathtaking photos here.
And I remembered the alpacas.

And the llamas.

I love this picture so much.
And the bunnies.

And the market.

And then I remembered the best part of all...

the fair food.

Suddenly I'm ready to go.

Weekend

2010-10-02T19:48:00.000-04:00

I've had a very busy weekend and it's not even Sunday yet! My grandmother moved from Arkansas to Georgia early, early, early this morning (I think they got in around midnight) so I went to her new house yesterday to help my mom put the finishing touches on things. Of course, I was late getting there because I was waiting on a parent to pick up a student until 4:20 at the school (lesson here: do not try and drive anywhere in or around Atlanta at 3:00 on a Friday). I stayed until a little after 11:00 at my grandmother's place sweeping, attempting to put magnetic closers on cabinet doors, putting together a bed, blowing up an air mattress, and cleaning. This morning I woke up earlier than I would have normally for a Saturday and drove to north Georgia. I have a friend who works at a boarding school/farm on the weekends and I went to help and meet some of the kids. I'm thinking about volunteering up there some so I wanted to get a feel for the place. I had the random chance to ride a plow horse backwards while I was up there! Bareback too nonetheless. Which is just as weird as it sounds. After getting home this evening I took a shower and put on my pajamas. All before 6:00 p.m. I sat down for a few minutes and finished sewing the edging on the prairie hat.

I think it turned out more Little House than I had originally thought. I think the original color of grey that they used in the book was what actually made it more sophisticated. Oh well, it's still cute. Just need to add the pompoms.

I'm still cranking away on the wave scarf.

I get a some time in every morning to do a few rows. I'm thinking 6 repeats of the 80+ row pattern should make it long enough.

Tonight I'm going to cast on for another hat so I can help Teanne when she goes on her trip to Romania in December. I'm thinking this one:

This hat is also from 60 Quick Knits. Speaking of charity knitting... I received some cute little socks from knitwitchery for Socktober! Can't wait to see what else starts coming in.

Coming Up Next

2010-09-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

The next few months have some big knitting related things happening. First it's time to start thinking about Christmas knitting. Actually, I should have started my Christmas knitting 2 months ago but I prefer the pressure of a deadline. Especially a fast looming, completely set in stone deadline. Who said I don't like to live dangerously?

The next big thing is another Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project drive. This is collection is to help a member of our Ravelry group, Teanne. She is going to Romania in December on a mission trip and will have the opportunity to distribute hats to gypsy children and orphans. Every member of the EEROP Ravelry group is encouraged to knit just 3 hats. So simple and quick but if everyone donates just 3 hats we could collect over 300 for Teanne to distribute! I'm calling it the "Hat Trick" for Romania campaign because in hockey a hat trick is when a player scores 3 goals in a single game. Clever, huh? I'm going to cast on tonight for this hat:

I think it's cute and yet isn't too "Little House on the Prairie." The pattern is from this book:

I picked this up using my birthday gift certificate from Rare Purls. I'm already in love with this book. I started a scarf from the book just the other day.

P.S. This yarn is too cool. It looks like Noro but is softer than Noro. It's Classic Shades by Universal Yarn. My only complaint is that it's a bit splitty but I can deal for those lovely color changes.

The final big thing is that EEROP is also starting a month of sock knitting called Socktober Madness! We're collecting socks in all sizes for distribution with various organizations that EEROP supports. The person who knits the most socks will win some prize goodies :) There are more details about all the campaigns on the EEROP web page. I kind of got a jump on things and started (and finished) a little pair of socks.

Going to get started on that hat now. Have the window open, listening to the end of a thunderstorm and enjoying the cooler (finally) fall weather we are having this evening. Perfect knitting weather!

Breather

2010-09-20T20:23:00.000-04:00

I thought I might take a little break from knitting for awhile. Nothing more than just a few days. See, I've been working really hard lately. Doing what? Getting all this ready to ship:

Those are all items for the Project Hope Christmas drive. Some of the items I've had lying around for awhile waiting for an opportunity to come up to be shipped off. Lots of the items though, were knit with this campaign in mind. You'll notice I even managed to finish this guy off in time:

There are still some tweeks I could have made to the collar but after making this sweater I feel like I have a better grasp of raglan construction. Especially from the bottom up. I don't know that I will be trying my hand at design again any time too soon though. Well, especially not on something so complex as fair isle. But I was able to make the sweater wearable and it will go to a little boy who was going to miss out on getting anything because his designated knitter got carpal tunnel :( I guess there was a reason I made this too small after all.

So, like I said, I was going to take a little break from knitting. Work on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages website and get ready for some up coming campaigns. Maybe organize all the donated yarn I've been getting.

I was going to do all that...

But my hands just needed something to do.

Knit On

2010-09-14T17:42:00.001-04:00

It's finally finished and I'm ready to talk about it now. The sweater that is. That's going to Project Hope for a little Romanian boy. And let me tell you, I'm super proud of this sweater.

When I started it almost exactly a month ago, I knew this was the sweater I should have been making all along. When I first looked at the pattern I had thought, this is the perfect sweater to make for Project Hope. But time got away from me and I thought the pattern would take too long to make. And I wasn't sure I had the right type of yarn for the project. But the pattern didn't take too long to knit up and the yarn I used was just perfect.

This is my sweater for Daniel, created from the Intrepid Pullover pattern with yarn I picked up while I was in Peru last summer. It's super warm and turned out really cute. I couldn't be more pleased. I knit through a lot of difficult stuff with this sweater and I was afraid there would be bad vibes in it but actually I think there are nothing but good vibes. I knit a lot of hope for the future into this sweater and positive thoughts that things would turn out ok. Out with the old and create with the new.

I kept the good vibes rolling by immediately starting (and just a few days later, finishing) some socks for the same little boy.

I did these two at a time using the magic loop method (of which I have become a total convert) and, again, they turned out better than I could have hoped for.

There is still one project that I'm starting tonight that will need to be finished up quickly but I hope that my knitting mojo is back. It's funny that it took some set backs for me to find it again. But then I guess that's what this picture is all about.

Labor Day

2010-09-06T17:13:00.000-04:00

Happy Labor Day to all my American friends! The day where we don't work in order to celebrate the fact that we do work (more specifically it's to celebrate the labor movement in the U.S.). I've been not laboring too hard all day. I did have to do some laundry and clean the bathrooms but I balanced that out by sleeping in and doing some computer work on the patio while enjoying this fabulous weather (highs of only 85 F/29 C today, it's starting to feel like fall)!

My knitting today has consisted of my stealth knitting project a.k.a. The Project That Is Working So Please Don't Talk About It Or It Might Disintegrate In My Hands. I'm officially Under A Deadline big time with this project and 2 more that haven't been started. Both are for the Project Hope/EEROP summer knitting campaign. I need to have the stealth sweater, a pair of socks, and a pair of mittens finished by September the 13th. I have faith that I can accomplish this since all the items are for a 6 year old boy so thankfully I'm not trying to knit a bunch of adult sized things in the next week. The official deadline for the campaign is the 18th and the really offical must-have-in-my-hands deadline is the 23rd but I want to finish a little sooner because, barring no unforeseen setbacks, I will starting my master's degree on the 13th! I plan to get my M.S. in Counseling Psychology. I've always had a heart for those who have been through difficult situations that have shaped their thoughts and behaviors. With this degree I hope to not only be able to diagnosis their disorders (psychological side of the the degree) but also to administer therapy and counseling to them (the counseling side). I'm really excited to get started in the program (which is all online so I can still work full-time) and see where this leads me. I didn't think I'd be back in school (ever) but I think it will really open up a lot of possibilities for me.

Today I also posted to the EEROP Ravelry group about the prizes for the Project Hope campaign. There are still a few weeks to get some knitting in so if you haven't joined in please consider it.

And speaking of EEROP...I have officially launched the EEROP website! There is a list of upcoming campaigns that I'm super excited about. I'm also hoping to post a special fundraiser to the website by the end of the week.

Ok, my hands are jumping to do something since I downed an energy drink a few minutes ago so I'm going to try and finish off this stealth project!

I Make These Hats Look Good

2010-08-31T19:07:00.000-04:00

My hat mojo is back! I finished up two super easy ribbed hats for Project Hope.

Purple hat in 4x2 rib, US size 9 needles, Vanna's choice yarn-a discount acrylic I think is actually pretty nice!

More Vanna's Choice (this time in silver), US size 9, 2x2 rib. This hat has pretty much convinced me I need to rock the watchcap all winter this year. In this color. But more like this hat (including those kick ass decreases).

I'm so glad I've broken my bad hat knitting streak.

I Don't Want to Talk About It

2010-08-25T21:19:00.000-04:00

Ok, actually I do. I've got a new knitting project on the needles and it is going well. But we all know what happens to my knitting when I start talking about it on the blog (see previous entries involving hats). So, instead I'm going to wait. I will show you my second skew sock though. I hadn't talked about it in awhile but I knit a little on it over the weekend when I was house sitting for my parents. However, the Curse of the Blog Mention seems to still have an affect on knitted items that have laid dormant for some time. Exhibit A:

See that weird bump right after where I've joined the heel?

Oh yeah. Pretty sure that's not supposed to be there.
Exhibit B:

This would be the other side of the sock. Last time I checked my foot didn't take that drastic right turn after my heel. Nor does the other sock look anything like this. Luckily I can rip back pretty easily to where I grafted the heel (heel grafting...I know, it doesn't make sense...but this sock is like that...) and restart the leg. But just for good measure...
Exhibit C:

I managed to pull one of the needles out tonight as I was taking a picture (not my original plan). I guess it was going to come out anyways. Now I have a reason to leave the sock lying decoratively on my coffee table for awhile. As long as it doesn't start mocking me...

Looking Up

2010-08-19T19:54:00.000-04:00

Since my last post about how crappy my day had been, things have been looking better on the job front :::knock on wood:::. Thank you for the kind words in the comments. I hate to throw my little pity party but it was so nice to hear people encouraging me to just hang in there. I have to keep reminding myself that no job is perfect and I'm very lucky to even have a job. And, of course, knitting helps. Today, I actually came home feeling pretty energetic instead of falling over from exhaustion. Could it be that I have (finally) caught up on my sleep? Or maybe it's just that I've been walking out of work each night as soon as I'm off the clock (instead of sticking around for another hour or so) and leaving it all behind me. Probably a combination of both. Anyways, I was feeling revved up so I did some chores and then dyed a little yarn.

Pink spaghetti! The color is actually a bit darker in real life. It's still a shade of pastel though. I'm thinking of calling it Bubble Gum. Hoping to post this yarn and another shade I dyed a few weeks ago in the store soon.

Still knitting along on a stealth project for Project Hope (stealth because it appears to be working out and I don't want to jinx anything by talking about it). Also planning on making a hat out of the rest of this yarn:

I think I can get another out of what I have left. That would make 3 hats from this yarn! Oh wait, I never told you about the second hat, did I? Hmmm...well, I was reading Knitting Rules! by the Yarn Harlot and in there it talks about teaching people to knit by having them knit a rectangle and sewing one of the sides together. It's the same principle as knitting a scarf, just on a smaller scale. For some reason it made me really want to try that technique. So I did. And, of course, I made it a little too long (remember I've been on a tear of sub-par hat making).

I've been pouting a little about this hat since I had such high hopes for it. And it's a beginners technique for goodness sake! This is supposed to be fail proof!

I guess I should know I can mutilate any pattern no matter how simple at this point. But today, as I was trying on the hat for a little photo shoot, I decided to try turning up the brim a bit. I'd tried it before but for some reason I couldn't get the length of the brim just right. Today, however, the stars must have aligned just so because I think I got it...

Looks pretty good now! Hopefully I've broken my streak of bad hats because I kind of agreed to make one more... We had someone in our EEROP group develop carpal tunnel and wasn't able to finish several projects she had hoped to contribute. It's truly unfortunate but now I have a purpose for the mittens I made and the fair isle sweater with the too small neck (I still have to fix it but now I have a reason to).