Holiday

I'm stopping by to wish everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day. And please, while you are out enjoying your freedom by boating and grilling out, remember the people who made and are still making it possible for you to enjoy that security.

I stayed at my parent's house last night because we are going to my aunt and uncle's lake house today. Therefore, I have some internet access. I've been able to check email and facebook so I decided to update the blog a little.

I'm over half way finished with the second gauntlet/mitt. These are a really quick knit if you can manage to work on them all the time. However, I have issues with knitting monogamy. I've been spending most of my time lately working on my tank top (Honeymoon Cami) for the summer. Maybe I'll finish it next week at the beach and be able to wear it.

On a totally different note, I did the Los Angeles Times Crossword puzzle this morning and almost solved the whole thing (I was 2 words short). W00T!

Truly Vexing

There are some things in life that leave me truly scratching my head. Technology can be one of these things. Today however, I managed to finally figure out how to work my RSS feed successfully. You want to know how to make an RSS feed work please do not ask me. I pushed a lot of buttons, cursed a lot at my computer, and relied heavily on information I found on RSS feeds on Ravelry. It was like a mini tech support. I know that the only way my RSS feed is working is shear dumb luck.

There is something else that vexed me today though. The United States Postal Service. Perhaps if you live outside the US you are fortunate enough to have a more operational postal service than we do. In America the Post Office is a thing of the past (well, almost). They are notorious for being slow and inefficient. And I got to be a part of that joy this afternoon.

I went to drop off some letters that were of some import so I needed to send them through certified mail with a receipt. I tried the automated postage machine but couldn't quite get it to do what I wanted so I admitted defeat and went inside to wait in the line. On a side note, there was a woman at the automated machine that had about 20 packages, all of different sizes, that she was trying to send. Thankfully, she was letting other people cut in front of her as needed, but seriously?!?! At 4:30?!?! Why not come back at, say, 10:00 p.m. The thing is open 24 hours. But I digress.

The line inside the post office wasn't too bad, maybe about 6 people ahead of me. Unfortunately, I had to listen to Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on the tv while I waited (I hate that show). Things are moving along pretty well for awhile until we get to the 2 people ahead of me in line. Then everything just stops. Not like, we're moving slowly, or a teller had to leave for a minute...No, I mean, dead stand still stop for 5 minutes. This doesn't seem like a long time but when you have already been in line for 5 minutes and you have a headache and just want to go home and lie down, 5 more minutes is an eternity. A few minutes later I realize the problem was that one of the tellers had closed her window. I mean, she's sitting there messing with her computer but there is a sign that says "Next Window Please." By now the line is, literally, out the door. The place closes in 5 minutes. Why in the name of all that is holy would you close your window?!?! No wonder you people have a reputation for being incompetent cows!!!

Thankfully about 3 more minutes passed and the line started moving. On another side note: I know my times are totally crazy and probably don't make sense, it didn't really make sense to me either. All I know is that when I left I had been in line for almost 20 minutes. The worst part of this whole ordeal though is that I had left my knitting in the car very foolishly thinking this would be a quick process. I really only have myself to blame.

So, when I (finally) made it home (and after a nap and a quick trip to the gym), I knit.

This is my Honeymoon Cami. Coming along quite nicely thanks to 2 nights of knitting while watching Lord of the Rings (I'm a dork, I know).
And, I have cast on and started working on the second gauntlet.

I started this one this morning. Thanks to a day full of assemblies I was able to make a lot of progress on it.

Tomorrow: Only one more day of work (with students) and, hopefully, no more run-ins with inefficient government agencies.

I do want to say I that I don't truly think all postal service employees are incompetent cows. I just want to point out that some people do not make the best choices when dealing with customers. Or maybe the whole US postal system is jacked. I know how government agencies are. I work for one. And probably the most screwed up agency there is. So, if you work for the postal system and feel I have taken a personal jab at you (which, I hope you realize, I am not) and you want to call me a lazy, uneducated prick, feel free. I work with middle school kids so I have a pretty touch skin.

Good Intentions Should Count for More

I had every intention of posting yesterday but Blogger was down so I was forced to wait until now. This is ok however, since I discovered something about my gauntlet.




This is the picture from yesterday of my Elvish Gauntlet:

Notice anything maybe a little odd? The little peaked part that should lie nicely at the fingertips is lying nicely at my wrist. Now I would swear on a stack of Bibles that I followed the pattern correctly. But it came out upside down. Then I started thinking, Mitts are like socks. Socks are worked from the top down. In this case the "top" is actually my fingertips. I've been trying these on backwards. If that is indeed the case the opening for the thumb should have come after the lace pattern not before it (as I had done).

Luckily this was an easy fix. I just put the gauntlet on the other hand. Problem solved.

And it doesn't make the lace look "wrong" or "weird" in any way (at least not that I can tell).

But then I got to thinking, what if I had read the pattern wrong? I thought when you read lace patterns in the round that you read them from top to bottom and right to left, every line, like so:
But then I worried that you read them the "normal" way, like below:
Needless to say, I'm going to knit the other gauntlet starting with the ribbing first and then the lace, working the lace just as I did for the first one. If it's wrong, well, I had the intention of it being correct, and I think that should count for something.

Tonight I'm going to work some on a new project (yes, I have second gauntlet syndrome).

This is half the needed stitches for a Honeymoon Cami. I'm not going on a honeymoon (or getting married for that matter) any time soon but I like the pattern. I just hope the yarn knits up tight enough. Don't need to be scandalous with this!

And I want to leave you with my new most precious gift.

This was knit for me by one of the little girls in my knitting class at school. She finished this in one day. I saw her knitting it one morning and commented that she must have multiple projects going at the same time. She very slyly commented that she had just started this one and that she did indeed have other things she was working on. And then the next day she gave me this as a farewell gift (it was our last day of class). Needless to say, I almost cried. I guess being a knitter I can appreciate the work that goes into receiving a hand knit item. Even if it is just a small little purse. So very sweet. I could not have asked for a better going away gift.

The rest of tonight I will be watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and knitting my tank top. I think I have seen this movie about 15 times (I saw it 4 times in the theater alone) and can quote it pretty much line for line (even the extended edition) but I absolutely love it.

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 :)