What can I say?

This week has been madness. On top of teaching lessons and shipping for Tweet Tees I've been packing and getting ready to go to Moldova to do missions work for two weeks. I leave on Saturday so I've been rushing around doing all the last minute things that need doing for a trip of this size. The hardest part is that I'm going by myself so there's no one to call and ask, "Did you remember toothpaste?" "Have you got an extra set of batteries I can use?" "Would you like me to bring the laundry detergent?" I have to do it all. And for the first part of the week I kept thinking of things that I might need. But today I picked up (hopefully) the last few items. Everything seems to be in order. I'm even getting a cell phone that I can use for the 2 weeks that I'll be gone.

However, my poor little apartment is seriously suffering from this craziness. Right now on one side of my room I have all the boxes full of tee shirts for Tweet Tees.

And on the other side I have all the stuff that I have to take with me to Moldova.
All those things laying about in bags have to be packed into my little black backpack (barely visible in the bottom left corner) or in the big blue hiking backpack. There is also stuff on the dresser that you can't see that has to be packed as well. And the giant yellow and white box in the top right corner is going as well. That's an infant car seat that I'm taking to a friend who lives over there. He and his wife are expecting a baby in about a month. It's also stuffed with various goodies so it's quite large and bulky.

I also picked up one of the most important items for the trip today.
Yeah, you better believe I was taking some yarn with me! Granted, I'm not taking it all. My original plan for travel knitting was to take some Artyarns sock yarn that I bought back in January and knit some Jaywalkers. However, to find a pair of knitting needles in the size I wanted I was going to have to drive all the way across town. I have done so much driving in the past 3 days that I don't want to see the inside of a car for a long while. So, I decided to go down the street to the local Joanne's and pick up some bamboo needles and yarn for Warm Woolies sock knitting. I thought I might only find bamboo circs but I found some bamboo DPNs in size 10 1/2 which is exactly what I needed. Of course I really like Paton's Classic Wool so I picked up some. The multicolored skeins will go for the socks and the orange skeins will be used for when I get back to make a sweater. Which reminds me, some of the ladies on Ravelry asked me to write up my pattern for the last sweater I knit for Warm Woolies because I had made it in the round. I want to get on that before I leave or else they may have to wait awhile.

Also on the Warm Woolies note... My serial knitting habits have paid off big time with the Arctic blanket.

I'm using leftover scraps of Bernat Softee Chunky yarn for a baby blanket for Warm Woolies (sensing a charity knitting trend here?). I only cast on 69 stitches so there are 8 repeats of the pattern as opposed to the 17 in the original. I really like this project. Since it uses large needles (size 13) it goes really quickly and the lace pattern in easy to memorize. I could see myself doing a full size version of this as an heirloom piece one day. I just randomly interspersed the changes in yarn and I love how it is turning out. I've just got a very little bit of each of the yarns left so I'm hoping to wrap this up before I leave on Saturday.

Week Recap

Wow, it has been a very busy week. I'm still without a personal home computer so I have been jetting to my parents house, the library, and using my cell phone to check my email. None are optimal of course. My parents live on the other side of the county which, normally, wouldn't be too much of a problem except that I live in one of the largest and most populated counties in the state. On a good day it takes only 30 minutes to get to their place. A good day happens on Sunday afternoon around 3:00. On a normal day it takes an hour to get there. Normal days are much more frequent. And posting at the library is the worst. I always feel like people are looking over my shoulder as I try and read personal emails or update my facebook status. I only went there once this week when I had exhausted all other possible routes and absolutely had to check my bank account. I did sign up for one day of internet usage on my phone. It could check my email, tell me the weather, and not much else. But at least I got the notice about one of my private lessons needing to be rescheduled. I've once again made it back to my parents house though and this makes for a much nicer posting experience. I've just spent the better part of an hour checking other blogs that I read. I haven't touched Ravelry yet but I'm going to have to because I need some patterns to take with me on vacation next week.

Yes, next week I will be at the beach on vacation (or holiday if you are from outside the US). I'll be in South Carolina in a secluded little town with my parents, brother, and my brother's girlfriend (the ever charming and lovely BB). I had a really tough time trying to decide what to take as far as the knitting goes. Thanks to the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the 6 disks of extra, behind the scenes info) I finished the Honeymoon Cami. If the previous statement seems a bit nerdish to you, have no fear. My dear friend AG has been (and continues) to harass me about how much of a dork I am (this from the guy who played D and D growing up and watches Lost religiously). But it is very cute and, most importantly, wearable. The yarn wasn't very forgiving so if a stitch looked wonky when I was knitting it, it stayed a little wonky after I blocked it (Which really just involved me washing it in the washing machine and throwing it over the shower rod in my bathroom. But I like that it turned out fine after that. I like things to be durable.). I'm just pleased as punch that I made something that I can actually wear. It got put in the bag for vacation wear. So, anyways, back to the projects... I threw in the rest of the cone of Texas Cotton (used for the cami) because I'm participating in the Summer of Socks and I haven't started a pair yet. Then I threw in some stash gifted sock yarn that I used to make some magic slippers thinking I would try another pair of those and maybe some sort of wee little socks. I also started (and have almost finished) another vest/sweater for Warm Woolies. I say vest/sweater because I took the pattern for their simple vest and I'm going to try and add sleeves. I attempted the first one (this, of course being all of my own devising without a pattern or any real guidance) by using 8 lives stitches and some picked up stitches around the arm hole. But the stockinette ended up on the inside of the sleeve. Which would have been good if I had been working it inside out, but I wasn't. I got as far as turning the sleeve inside out and then the thought of trying to pick up those stitches again made my head hurt and I realized it was 10:30 at night the day before I was supposed to leave for my parents house and a week of vacation and I hadn't finished packing or cleaning and decided that vest/sweater could wait. Well, it's waiting for me in the bottom of my knitting bag. Next to a bunny hat kit I picked up in Savannah. And the perpetual pink sweater (of doom).

Today, after I squared away my knitting, I spent time running all around town and prepping for my leave. I had to make sure that someone covered my private lessons, that my apartment sitter was lined up, that there were plenty of (very) detailed instructions about everything from how to feed the cat to how hot the water gets (I have an obsessive compulsive disorder, so sue me), and that all the orders I filled for Eat Sleep Tweet got mailed off in time. On a side note: I really like this new job. I can't wait until it becomes a little more involved. I got a little taste of it this week but eventually there will be a mini warehouse in my apartment. It's very good for the organized, logistical side of me. Now I am ready to relax. I will (thankfully) have internet next week that I will check on a regular basis and maybe even post. Unfortunately, I won't get to put the pictures up yet. Once I get this new computer I'm going to do about 15 all picture posts of (k)nifty things that should have already graced these pages.

Happy Mother's Day!

Now that Mother's Day is over and my mom received her gifts I can show you what I've been working on for the past few days: a set of three cotton dishcloths.

Round dishcloth
Simple square dishcloth
Wheatfields dishcloth
Close up of the Wheatfields
Wrapped for mom
I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton and a US size 6 needle for all three. They took 4 days to finish. I'm quite proud of my quick work. I can't remember all the details of the patterns but they all came from the same collection and they are on my Ravelry page (Ravelry link).

I spent today cleaning house and napping. Early this evening I cast on for some lacy gauntlets. I'm still working on the mitered squares but I need something to break up the monotony a bit. I plan on knitting the mitered squares when I'm at work or out and about and knitting the gauntlets when I'm at home. I'll have more pictures soon but I'm a little tired tonight so they will have to wait.

Also, in other news, I have a new job! Yes, I'm still going to be teaching 1st grade and, yes, I still teach private music lessons (wait, I didn't tell you about that one? oops...), I'm just adding another hat I will wear. I'm going to be helping a friend of mine with his on-line store called Eat. Sleep. Tweet. If you are a fan of Twitter you should check it out. If you're not you should check it out anyways, it's pretty cool. I'm going to be in charge of shipping and distribution. Basically whenever you order something from the site I'll be filling your order and sending it to you. I'm looking forward to this new endeavor. It will earn me a little extra spending money...which we all know equals more yarn :)