Bigger News

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.

A Night of Relief

Things have been a little hectic around here lately. They'll continue to be that way through this weekend but for now I have one night where I can take a breather and...relax? Well, not really. Still working. Dyeing yarn for the shop. But at least kind of relaxing. What have I been up to? Well...

There was a bachelorette party for my future SIL.

There was a graduation for my brother.

Who won an ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) award.

There is/was general revelry over the upcoming wedding between the aforementioned crazy kids.

There has been a little knitting. I've been working on The Road Scarf for the EEROP April/May KAL.

As you can see I've started the 4 stitch pattern over again.

There will be one more repeat of these 4 sections to go. That should make a nice length scarf. I've also been working on another scarf based off this pattern. But I've added some other stitch patterns in.

Some sections look better than others but it's been fun just trying new stitches. If you want to join in and help Children's Emergency Relief International, there's still time! This is a quick knit so you could easily finish one by the end of the month.

Also been knitting a little on my Rivulets socks.

I need a few more repeats of the pattern and then I can knit the ribbing and bind off! This sock seems to take forever with these tiny (size 0!) needles. Unfortunately, I still have another one to make. :::sigh:::

In addition to knitting I've also been organizing some upcoming knitterly things. Last Thursday I was elected VP of Workshops for the Atlanta Knitting Guild.

So I'm already getting together ideas for fall workshops.

The charity knitting group has also been given the awesome opportunity of working with Project Hope to knit sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves, and prayer shawls for mothers and their children in Romania. Project Hope works to combat child abandonment in Romania by providing support to families so they won't have to give up their children to orphanages. If you're interested in helping knit an item or 2 (or 10!) visit the thread on Ravelry to see what still needs to be knit. I've picked out a 6 year old boy to knit for. Now I know what all that green yarn I purchased at Stitches will be for!

I leave you tonight with a picture from my brother's senior project on urban development.

This raccoon is in a picture of a nature preserve/walk type thing that my brother designed. The expression he's making makes me giggle.

Not Peru

But still a pretty good post. I will get around to Peru but I just finished putting 125 pictures on Facebook so now I have to get motivated to pick out 10 or so to go here on the blog. Today I'm placating you with pictures of yarn and knitting.

Saturday I dyed almost 5 pounds of yarn. I just finished reskeining the 6 new colorways tonight.
I really like this color, Double Split.
When my yarn supplier gets bulky yarn back in stock I'm thinking I'll dye some bulky in this color and use it to make a sweater for Warm Woolies.

This is another color I really like, Building Blocks.
This is a repeat color and it seems to have come out pretty true to the first batch. I'll be selling these (plus about 6 other colorways) at the August Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting next week and also in my online store. Plus, a whole whack of yarn will be going to my LYS, Rare Purls!

I forgot to take a picture of the color I decided to keep for myself (though I almost stole 2 or 3 other skeins). I think I'll wait to show you until I've picked an appropriate pattern. Something sophisticated...

I started working on a Mystery Sweater (#3) for Warm Woolies. There was a knit along for this that took place earlier this month but I got a late start. The pattern is interesting but also simple enough that I've made a decent amount of progress in a little less than a week (I'm working on clue 3 of 5 at the moment).
Penelope came to "help" me take a picture.

Here she is "helping" me with the skeiner earlier this evening.

Breaking the Silence

So what have I been up to...?

1. Knitting
Warm Woolies Mystery Sweater KAL #2. This is a picture of the shoulder piece. I've actually joined for the first sleeve and knit a few rows. I think I may rip it out though, I recently learned how to pick up stitches and make it look nice (amazing how actually reading the directions in your beginning to knit book can help you).

2. A Wedding
Two of my close friends got married last weekend at Pensacola Beach in Florida. I'd never been to beach wedding before but it was beautiful and tons of fun.
Bye bye shoes!

My friends Kelly and Steve with Kelly's son Brayden during the sand ceremony. Lovely!
The McMansion (on the right) where the reception was held. Kelly's cousin lived there and it was basically on a private wharf/peninsula. He was a really nice guy and opened the whole house to the guests. The setting was amazing. I had a lovely time hanging out with friends all weekend and enjoying a mini vacation.

3. Guild...ing
Last night I drug Albert to the Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting so he could help me with my table of hand dyes.
It was the first time I'd ever taken the yarns on a road trip but I really hope that there will be more chances for me to do so. It was so wonderful to hear all the nice things people had to say about my yarns. And seeing them all laid out was pretty awesome too since they normally live in a plastic container in my living room. It made me realize that I actually have been productive. And I actually sold some things! This picture was taken after several skeins of sock yarn had already been made off with :) My wheels are turning with new ideas that I can't wait to try. Thankfully summer is just around the corner which should mean more time to dye.

4. More knitting and a little designing
Sorry for the horribly frumpy picture. This is the half and half sweater sans one sleeve. Made from all hand dyed yarn. It's a youth medium so it's a little small on me but only in length so I'm on course with size I believe. I'll be writing up the pattern and offering it in some form here and on Ravelry, but that's a whole other set of tasks.

Penelope wanted you to know that she "helped out" when I was labeling all the skeins for Thursday's meeting. (I'd laid the blanket out to set the skeins on to keep them clean while I labeled each one)
Technically I'm not *on* the towel.

:::Sniff:::

For only the second time in almost 4 years of teaching I find myself laid up on my couch resting from not feeling well. I realized last night that the more I keep dragging myself into work the less good I'm doing myself. Especially at this job. When I taught middle school band I never worked as closely (literally) to the kids. I was a bit emotionally and physically unattached to them. Teaching 1st grade I spend everyday in close proximity to children. They climb on me, squeeze me, and call my name all day long. I'm very much a physical and emotional epicenter for them. When I don't feel well continuing to try and tough it out just doesn't work like it used to. There's no chance for a nap during lunch time any more. I know that I need to take good care of myself. I tell the kids all the time not to come to school if they are sick, why should I? So, here I am, just now waking up from a nice long nap. I can tell I'm getting better: my cough isn't as frequent and I've used some Zycam to dry up my sinuses. I had to go to work for about 4 hours this morning because I had 2 conferences before school and I couldn't find the sub hot line number (note to self: find before next fall). I'll be back tomorrow because it's only a half day and then I have conferences after school. Thursday is another half day with less conferences (thankfully) and Friday is a full day but hey, it's a Friday, and the day before Valentine's Day, I can make it through one more day. Valentine's Day I'd already claimed for myself so I'll be sleeping late and probably dyeing more yarn for the shop.

Sadly, I have no real knitting to show you. The last time I made any significant headway on a project was last Thursday at the Atlanta Guild Meeting when I finished the body of a charity sweater. I've done a few rounds on a secret project that I started in December but other than that I've been looking for Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick in antique white to finish the Calla Lily and looking for size 10 DPNs to make sleeves for the sweater. I'm also gearing up for a Mystery Sweater Knit-a-long being held my LISMI on Ravelry. She's designing a sweater for the Warm Woolies 10 for 10 by 2010 contest and revealing parts of it in a knit-a-long. I do a fan girl sqwee! every time I think about. I'm ready to get started, have the yarn and everything, but the official kick off is the 20th.

For now I'm off to pay some bills and read a chapter for a book club that starts tonight.

Flowers Are Blooming

I blogged awhile back about knitting a Calla Lily for Stitches South. I finally picked it back up tonight hoping that I would finish it. I was trucking along, only about 10 or 15 rows from being finished and then...
the white chenille yarn that I'm supposed to carry through out, ran out. I wanted this to be done by Thursday when I go to the next Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting. I guess I'll be making a stop by Joann's tomorrow after work to see if I can find some more yarn.

On a lighter note, I found this in a box of little toys (usually from McDonalds or some place similar) that I let my students choose from if they've behaved during the week:
It works too! It's about the only thing that's working for Michael Vick these days.

An Open Letter and More

An open letter to my cat, Penelope:
Dear Penelope,

Please stop puking right by the front door. I know that you don't always like the food that I feed you but enough is enough. Also, I know that you puked up water this afternoon. You're just being difficult now. I know that you think doing this will make me more likely to buy your favorite foods but really it just makes me want to throw you out in the below freezing temperature. That is all.

Love,
Your Growingly More Disgruntled Mother
Penelope has taken to running around whenever I try and take her picture. She probably knows that the evidence these would contain would be condemning.
Ok, other stuff:

I had knit night last Friday at my house.

My friend BK choose Bella's Mittens as her second ever knitting project. She's ambitious, and doing great, I might add.
I helped her work our using DPNs for the first time (with splitty alpaca none the less).
Those pictures are only funny if you're read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

As with any good knit night we had some "inspiration."
Later that weekend (Saturday to be exact) we had snow flurries (pretty hard to see in this picture but it happened).
Because it was a long weekend I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning to finish my Burnished Tunic! I'm so excited about this and can't wait until it finishes drying so I can seam under the arms and wear it. The temperature has been hanging out in the 20s and low 30s (Fahrenheit, that's -6 to 0 Celsius) so it would be nice to wear something so warm.
I used Shepherd's Wool in Beaches doubled throughout on US size 11 needles from Boye NeedleMaster kit. I tried it on before I washed it and blocked it. It's super warm. I think I could go to Alaska in just this sweater and be ok playing out in the snow. Ok, maybe not that warm but definitely good for the weather we've been having around here lately.

Backing up just a little, on Saturday I went to a knit in at Kay's house (she owns an online yarn store in the area and invited me to knit night on Wednesday's and has taken me as a guest to the Atlanta Knitting Guild). The knit in was to help create centerpieces for Stitches South. I picked up a kit and have been knitting now and then on this:
It's destined to become a giant pink and white Calla Lilly. I'm excited that I'll be able to contribute to Stitches but knitting with 4 strands of yarn is killing my hands! Luckily that makes the knitting go super fast.

And...
The Warm Woolies children's sweater continues to grow.

I'm off to lay some warm wool across my lap and knit!