If You Can't See...

...it says "National Champions." Yep, on Friday UGA secured it's 4th back-to-back(-to-back-to-back) national gymnastics title. And on Saturday 2 of our girls placed first in their events. It was well worth the drive up there 3(!) nights in a row.
Saturday was also the day of baby-sitting Munchkin #1 (#2 is on the way and due to arrive in August/September). Is he not the cutest thing?!?! And so well behaved too.
And, yes, there was lots of knitting.

These are for a mitered square child sized blanket. I can turn out one every 45 minutes to an hour. Each square is made with a fraternal twin. Same number of rows before a yarn changed just reversed order (ex. if I start with purple and after 3 rows change to multi then on the "twin" I start with multi and after 3 rows switch to purple).
These 2 have subtle changes that you might not catch unless you were looking for them but you can really see the fraternal thing on the squares in the lower left hand corner above (because they are worked with a majority of one color and only have 4 rows in the contrasting color).
Changing it up keeps it just interesting enough that I haven't grown tired of knitting them...yet.

I had to give you a view of the reason why I love my apartment.

That is the view from my office windows. It's like living in a tree house. I could totally be a member of the Swiss Family Robinson.

And, look close...can you see it?
Right in the middle is a blossom. The trees are full of them but, unfortunately, they were a little hard to capture.

For now I'm off to knit more mitered squares and wait for the groomer to come (45 minutes late and counting...grrr!).

Trying to Remain on a Schedule

I'm trying to update somewhat regularly but sometimes I'm a little behind on the photo content which means I usually put off blogging for another day or two (or three). I don't know if anyone actually reads this thing regularly but I'm an avid reader of other people's blogs and I love opening them up every few days to a new post. Therefore, I try and post on something of a schedule (I was trying for every day but let's be honest here folks, we're all busy people).

I say all that to say...here is my post for today, sadly pictureless.

Since I finished with the vest I started working on a mitered square blanket. I was surprised at how quickly I finished the squares. I made 2 full finished squares plus 3/4 of another one yesterday. That was about 3 hours of knitting total. I'm hoping to crank this thing out in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday was rather exciting. After I left work I rushed home. I was going to meet my aunt at 5:30 to go to Athens for the NCAA gymnastics tournament. I figured if I could be home by 4:30 I could change and go to the gym for 15-20 minutes before I rushed back to my apartment and got ready. I miraculously made it home by 4:30, threw on a change of clothes, and was at the gym by 4:40. I was on the treadmill for 3 minutes when I heard my phone ring in my bag (which was weird in the first place because I usually turn it off when I'm working out). I jumped off and looked to see who had called. It was my aunt. I figured she was running late and almost didn't bother to listen to the message but I rethought it and decided to anyways. Boy was I glad that I did! She had actually left work early and was 10 minutes away from my apartment. The look on my face must have been priceless. I jumped off the treadmill and bolted to my apartment. I actually was ready to go (minus a shirt change) when she arrived at 5:00.

The tournament itself went really well. It was a long evening but the girls looked really good. The University of Georgia Gym Dogs came in first and they and LSU, florida (boo), Alabama, Stanford, and Utah will go on to tonight's Super 6 finals. Yes, I said tonight. I'll be up there again cheering on UGA. And Saturday I'll be up there to watch the individual competitions. Some knitting should be done during the car ride but I don't like to knit during the meet. Too much is going on :)

Finished!

Here are the knee high striped socks for your viewing pleasure.
HJS Studio Shaping Knee Sock
US size 6 DPNs
Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Red and Caron One Pound in Deep Violet

I really love my knee high socks. I love them so much I may have gotten carried away in displaying my affection.
The socks needed a rest after all the jumping around the living room.
Penelope didn't pay much attention. She was more concerned about what we were going to watch this evening.
One of these looks good.
Since finishing the knee high socks I'm currently holding auditions for my next knitting project. I do have some things I want to do for Warm Woolies and the pink sweater is still lurking in the knitting bag as well as that tank top I wanted to finish in time for summer so we shall see...

I Had Good Intentions

I took my second knee high sock to work to knit on it during the knitting class I teach in the mornings. Then I was going to bring it home, finish it up, and sew in the ends. Thus, I would have some cute pics of my new socks.

So, where are these cute socks you ask?

Why in the bag under my desk. Right where I left them.

:::Sigh::: Oh, well. Tomorrow then...

T.G.I.F.

Seriously, thank goodness... This has been one of "those weeks." The first week back after a long break is always crazy, whether it's Spring Break, Thanksgiving Break, Christmas Break, or Summer Break. The kids are hyped from being off for a whole week with nothing else to do except watch TV and play video games. The teachers are loathing having to come back and try and make the final push to the end of the year. And to top it off, our brilliant school system decided to have 4 days of standardized testing this week. The kids have to sit for 2+ hours each morning in complete silence and fill in little bubbles. They can't even talk during their "stretch break"! I mean, it all seems a little cruel to me. And I have to stand there and read directions that, if you have the mentality of a 5 year old, you could easily infer on your own. Things like "Read the entire question and select the one best answer." No, I'm going to choose 3 best answers. Geez. I guess the real upside to all this has been the extraordinary amount of knitting time I've gotten.

Here's the Warm Woolies sweater vest. All it lacks is a good proper blocking.

Bad colors in this next one but it lets you see the seed stitch panel in the front.
Warm Woolies Seed Stitch Center Panel Vest (pattern available free here)
US size 9 circular needles
Paton's Classic Wool in Natural Marl worked held together throughout (approx. 2 skeins used though I had some of each left over)

I think this pattern has made me seriously addicted to 100% wool. I mean, I'm actually having delusions of owning a sheep. It's just that there would be no where to put it in my apartment. They need to kick it up a notch on those patio sheep...(you know, like the cows...only...sheep)

With the completion of the sweater vest I did a little bit of work on my second knee high sock which had been recklessly neglected and lying in my knitting bag.

Not much progress but some is better than none. As for updating my Ravelry page...well, Saturday is still part of "this week." For now, I'm exhausted and craving a warm bath and cozy bed.

Sweater Vest

Thanks to testing week at work I have been able to knit a lot on the Warm Woolies sweater vest. I sit for 2 and half hours each day and make sure that kids aren't cheating on their standardized tests. I made it to the back tonight. I actually had to rip back once because I had started the garter stitch edging incorrectly.
This is the front. The color is off but you can see the texture better this way.


I'm very pleased with how this is turning out. I hope to finish this by the end of the week and then do some updating on my sadly neglected Ravelry page.

A Stash of a Different Kind

As a knitter I have a yarn stash and a needle stash. As a musician I stash instruments and programs from performances. As a self proclaimed Brit I stash tea. As a woman I stash lotion, purses, and shoes. And my cat? She stashes catnip mice. We have a veritable infestation. I found 6 of these while poking around under the couch and chairs looking for stitch markers.
Penelope was infinitely happy. She immediately attacked 1 and then proceeded to guard the rest of her "babies" protectively.
Why was I looking under couches for stitch markers you ask. Well, because I couldn't find my little box of them. I thought that it may have fallen off the coffee table (the last place I saw them) and bounced under the couch. In the meantime I have been trying to make paper clips work.

These tend to snag though and having to use more than one is cumbersome and obnoxious (not to mention pokey, ouch!). I did manage to locate one lone stitch marker earlier this week.

It had come loose from the herd and was hanging out on the edge of the coffee table. I was hoping to find my markers not just because I needed them but I could just see Penelope trying to eat one and choking. That's all I need. So, a search began.

After checking under the sofa, coffee table, chairs, and tv cabinet, I looked in my knitting bag (the logical place) and in my desk drawers. I looked in all the decorative baskets. I checked the needle basket (again, I had already looked there 3 times earlier this week). I was completely stumped. I checked every place I'd already looked one more time. Then I came to the knitting bag again. There are all these cleverly hidden pockets on the thing. This time I made sure to open all the pockets and zippers and snaps. And then I lifted a flap and noticed a zipper I hadn't remembered was there...lo and behold....

Ummm, yeah. That would be them. Now I can go back to knitting on my sweater vest for Warm Woolies.

This is the pattern for their seed stitch center panel vest. It's made using two strands of worsted weight wool held together. I choose Patons Classic Wool in Natural Marl. I love this yarn (but then again I love most yarn). It's soft and it smells like a clean sheep! I know most people would think that sheepy smelling yarn wouldn't be a good thing but I grew up 3 doors down from the county fairground. I have smelled a lot of animal and clean sheep is definitely one of the better animal smells.

I'm also very excited because as I was knitting I found this:

A little bit of twig or a brier or something. It makes me feel rustic. It also makes me want to take up spinning and start a sheep farm but I digress...