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July 31, 2004

Whoa!

Please excuse the changes that are occuring midstream while I'm revamping. I have this need right now to just feel freer with just about everything and it's sort of the trickle down effect, I guess.

Blog-O-Rama

I've only been away for about a month or so. But there are so many great blogs out there that I haven't seen!! I've been adding this and moving that and everything else in between! Does anyone know what happened to "superfluous"? I really liked that blog...

Blah, Blah, Blah...Gripe, Blah

I'm confining myself to the house for a bit because my mom just had surgery. Still working on my sampler and a few other projects. I made a little wristlet baggie to knit with a ball at a time while I'm walking around the house. I was thinking of felting it though I didn't follow any directions for felting. It's that Noro yarn again. It just looks so dang good felted! I want to just slightly felt it because I don't want it to lose much size. But if I did, I'd have to leave it to dry for a few without being able to use it! I would put it on my progress bar, but that darn thingie isn't working well. I can't see the color anymore. What's up with that? I may have to take it off until I can figure out what happened.

Knittyheads?

I noticed that knitty has a ring for people who use the knitty coffeshop! Isn't that great?! I am going to try joining today. Course, I've got quite a few rings on here to begin with. Well, what's one more going to hurt, right? ;)

Happy knitting everyone!

Posted by stacey at 05:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 30, 2004

Meeting Expectations

I found it!

When I was moving, I found that other not so ample sample that I knit experimenting with some fair isle techniques. Here it is:

I never think about the pic until after I've already shot and uploaded them, but I should've taken a pic of the center. The "floats" I believe they are called are all aligned against the sides on the inside. But I think they are still so long that if I had actually made a sock with the same type of floats, my toes would constantly get stuck in them trying to get into the sock. Sheryl of SWS told me that there are ways to rid myself of those problems and I think I saw a few of them in my SNB book. Maybe I'll try that next time.

I found this too!

Speaking of Sheryl, why do I ever try ordering books from anywhere other than the LYS? I tried ordering The Sweater Workshop over the web from a very well-known online retailer. I waited for a month for this book and there was such a problem with the correspondence between the retailer and myself that I didn't get the book! It may have been that I wasn't able to get to the web often enough in the past month to check on the status of the order. But little did I know that the book was only fifteen minutes away from my house at SWS! I picked it up yesterday and I've been working on my sampler. No pics yet though because I'm only at the k1, p1. I would have been further, but that's another story...

Another Story

I have yet to finish the sleeves and side seams on my CHUNKY KNITS sweater. But I'm so fearful that it'll just be crap! I can do all the parts. But the piecing together frightens the bejesus out of me for some reason! Think it could be a phobia or something? Well, I saw the reviews on Jacqueline Nee's book and I thought I'd give it a try. Maybe if I can get a good success with it, I'll gain the confidence to get back to that seaming thing. Ya think?

So here are my notes so far: Never-ever-never-ever-ever-EVER knit at three in the morning...unless you ARE wide awake. EVER! Notice the word "are" is in all caps. Yeah. Not just THINK you are...know what I mean? I had to start over three times with just the casting on and the initial linking into the round! I should've known something was wrong because I've never had a problem with that. Even the very first time I used a circular needle. But, silly me, I just kept plugging along. Sometimes that can be a very heroic quality. But there are times when it is just plain, stupid! Like last night...On the THIRD attempt, I was off to a great start. I passed through the garter stitch in a breeze. Did the little stockinette section. All the stitches were so neat and sweet from the cast on up. I was feeling pretty good. The knitting was looking very good. But it wasn't until I got to the k1, p1 ribbing rounds that I realized something was a little off. The whole piece was warped! That's never happened before. What in the world? Well, I blame it on the needles. I am using the cheapy kind. They bow and turn and snap back so fiercely it isn't funny. Sorry folks. The book recommends 6,7, 8's on a sixteen inch. The only ones I had were the cheapy kind and I just couldn't wait to try the sampler! You understand, right? I figured, it's a sampler, what could it harm? Well, a lot, I guess. I noticed when I casted on for the next attempt that it kept turning and, well, it was just a nuisance. No wonder I had to cast on so many times. Also the fact that I was extremely sleepy but I was just so excited to finally have the book and some time to steal away with it.

Oh well.

I started another sampler right afterward, mind you. Uh-huh. Going on four o'clock by this time. Anyway, it's not so nearly as neat as the one preceding it, but it'll do for now. I made sure that I got to the k1, p1 rib with no twisting and then I let it go for the night. I mean, the morning. What's wrong with me anyhow? :)

On the Job Front

Well, actually, I punked out. :) Instead of continuing to play phone tag (which wasn't on purpose-he kept calling after 5:30 when I wasn't expecting calls of that nature). That is, until he caught me and I knew I'd have to decline the position, I left a message to the director of the college to tell him the reasons why I couldn't take the position but that I was very grateful for the opportunity. Know what happened? He called me back with a better position. How'd that happen? This position is more of a 9 to 5 on a daily basis instead of the travel and the extremely flexible schedule than the previous position would have entailed. Still full time, still benefits. A little more pay and a little more responsibility actually. I don't know. It just may be doable. Let you know how it works out when I get all the details and if I decide it's a good fit. Knit a prayer into those next few rows for me.

Off to reaquaint myself with some of my fave blogs and get back to work on some knitting projects. Keep on knitting!

Posted by stacey at 09:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 27, 2004

A Tearful Return!

I Love You, Blog!!

I have missed this blog and all of you knitters so much!! I have finally got the web connection up and I think I am ready for some serious blogging! Hmmm....Where to start?

(Note: I promise to get used to this wrap text feature, but for now, just bear with me!)

The Big Move

This was my family's first, big move since I was, oh about seven or eight, I guess. We moved from the inner-city badlands to this wonderful, little suburban development where there is peace and quiet. Great for knitting, you know. ;) There are quite a few houses around here, but it's so quiet, I wonder if anyone lives in them??? Yeah...it's that quiet.

This is one great house. It's big, but not too big. It's a two-level house with two full baths (what a relief! in more ways than one!), four bedrooms, nice-sized kitchen (with storage space!!! yay!), great garage and parking area space (you mean, no more fighting to park in front of where you live? yup, that's what I mean), a deck out back with a large back and front yard, washing area (with somewhere to actually fold your clothes-gasp! huh?), dining room, family room and living room. There is so much space for storage, we don't even want to get into that...but it is a welcome change to say the least. And don't forget the light! What light you say? The light that comes in the windows, silly! At the house I grew up in, there was barely any light that could come into the house. Can you imagine! If people in any way can be compared to trees, living things that need light to survive, I can't figure out why I'm still here!! You can even play hide and go seek in this house (as evidenced by my son and I when we first moved in)! I don't think it's too large that my folks will have issues when the time comes for us to say goodbye either. Anyway, it's a really nice, big, little house. :)

Movin' & Shakin'

Actually, the only thing I can say I've moved or shook about is that I took my Praxis exams and I did an interview for a recruiting position. I passed the exams. Yay! Of course, now I'm told that if I take the next series of tests, I won't have to take classes toward certification. What do they want from me, blood?

Okay, if you're in a really good mood, you'll want to scroll past this next paragraph, for real.

I enrolled my son at a nearby school that I believe would be really good for him. Problem is the school closes at 3:45 pm. I have to pay for before care already because they don't open until 8 am. But I can't afford that and after-care-and really who'd want their kid at school all day like that anyway? I've had to do that in the past because it was necessary. But, that gets really old after awhile. He's just a kid. At that point I knew that I wouldn't be able to take the job that I was going to be interviewing for because it happens to be full-time exempt and the regular day still goes to 5 pm. Also, I would have to travel a lot! A lot of late nights and even some stay over nights or weekends. I made an agreement with myself that once I graduated from college, it was going to be all about what was right for my son. I went to the interview anyway though because it was too late to cancel. The interview was the next day after enrollment. Mind you, I worked for these people for years as a student and then after I graduated on a part time basis so I really didn't want to let them down by cancelling. I didn't feel like I completely wowed them like I know I could have if I hadn't found out ahead of time that I wouldn't be able to take the job. But I did my best to make a good impression under the circumstances. Well, it's kind of good and kind of bad. I got a message by email that the director of the school was going to contact me to discuss the position a week ago. But I figured maybe he had changed his mind because I never heard back. It was a little bit of a relief. But then I got a message from my mother that I got that call back today around 5:30 pm. I haven't returned the call yet. I'm probably not expected to call until tomorrow anyway. But I feel just rotten about it all. I really would like to take that job. It's a salary and benefits and status (I'd finally have a full-time job!). It has a lot of responsibility and room to grow and that would be really good for me. But it's just not convenient for my little one. So....we learn to make sacrifices.

The Knitty Gritty

Last week, my family and I all went to Florida. Initially the plan was to go to Disney World for the kids (my son and my little cousin, Bria). But Universal was the final destination.

We rode in cars. Can you say, "Are we there yet?" There were a lot of stops because we were traveling with children. One stop was this place called South of the Border.

I'm telling you, sombreros reigned supreme in this little spot! I was so tempted to buy one with my precious few pesos, but I restrained myself, y'all! It was only just beginning! For all of you ladies who enjoy men in sombreros, I snapped this one! Nice looking guy, I thought. A little too tall for me though! :)

I also took some pics of the night life there around South of the Border (I'm also tempted to abbreviate the name of this place when I type it, but it might be taken the wrong way):

After our brief encounter with the wildlife at SB (how's that?), we were on the road again. Two little people got packed into the back seat. Meet Little Person One and Little Person Two! Fortunately, the suv we were riding in was equipped with movies and a dvd player for The Little People to watch. Unfortunately, out of the thirty movies that we brought, they were only interested in playing the same one...over and over and over again!!! Kids, gotta love 'em! :)

We stayed in a beautiful resort house with a heated pool that I never really got into. But the kids splashed around a lot! My son is now the proud owner of a new baby turtle which he has named, ahem, Donatello. For those of you who do not know, uh...Donatello is also a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Uh-huh. Moving right along...

We took two days to see Universal Studios.

The lines for the rides were great for knitting, if you know what I mean. :)

After the second trip to Universal, my aunt wanted to go to this place called the Holy Land Experience. So...we went. This place was built to sort of duplicate the experience of going to Jerusalem. It was pretty nice. There were no lines to stand in for rides. Whew! But they had little plays, musicals, people dressed up in biblical costumes and what not. There was also the re-enactment of the crucifixion. And the kids got to play with the animals in the petting zoo.

All in all, the kids had a lot of fun wearing the adults out!! :)

Of course, this entry wouldn't be complete without me telling you about the knitting I took along for the adventure...and you will never guess what happened to Forever. Well, I'll tell you after this: I knit a few small projects (a basketweave dish cloth and two hipster kerchiefs-one for me, one for my little cousin who had lost her $15 Universal cap) and then I finished the Hot Head Hat for the what, third time? Geez! Nothing too fussy though.

It was my first time knitting the Hipster Kerchief out of KNITTING PRETTY and I didn't really adhere too closely to the directions. Well, I couldn't carry the book along with me and for a fairly young person, numbers don't stick in my head too well anymore. But I did the best I could with my improvisations. :)

It came out nice-looking I think. Actually, I liked it so much I made another one for myself!

Forever

Nobody has learned better than I have that nothing lasts forever. Forever, is finished knitting and it is a bittersweet. Forever is my friend. I still have yet to weave in the ends, but then that is the final goodbye, right? You'll have to excuse me as I wax poetic on this issue:

I told you all I'd tell you about the problem I had with Forever. At the ends you have to do this yarn over combination. For all those who have done this simple pattern, you know what I'm talking about. As everyone knows, I would work like crazy on Forever and then put her down for awhile and then come back and then put her down for awhile to rest again. Forever was mindless knitting. There wasn't much to remember because it was just so familiar. Sometimes we go through life that way thinking that things will always be a certain way and that we can always rely on those things to stay the same. It isn't until it's all too late that we come to understand, again, that that kind of stability isn't so easily found in this world. The ground can come up from under you at any time it seems. Knitting on Forever offered me stability when things were not so stable around me. But there did come a day, when even Forever snapped back at me, reminded me. That particular day when I happened to pick up Forever, I must've forgotten momentarily the pattern or zigged when I should've zagged because I noticed a few rows back there was a gaping hole near one of those ends! It wasn't like the yarn over hole, it was a real hole about a half an inch or so just in from the yarn over end. I just stared at it and it just stared back as if to say, "I ain't going nowhere just because you staring at me." You know? So, I tried the trick that I know about knitting to that section and then trying to pick up the stitch that must've dropped. Didn't work. It made another hole somewhere else. I tried it again, thinking maybe I messed up on the fix up. Nope. Nothing. So, I tried going back a few rows to the hole and then I re-knit the rows I took out. Nothing doing. Isn't that just the way it is though? A problem arises and we do all we can trying to fix it. Try to appease it. Try to pacify it. Try everything. But in the end, it still stares at us refusing to go away? And my blanket, too, still came up holey. Finally I came to the conclusion that I had to just take it all out. Start afresh on that entire section of the blanket. Sometimes you have to go back to wherever you messed up and just start over again. Start anew. Do it right. Fearfully, I began the process. One by one, I took each stitch out of the blue until I reached the multi-colored row where the newest hole yet wound up. Then I took out that row and the next out as well. If it wasn't for those delicate yarn-overs and my own inexperience, I would have done it at the start. It's a shame that fear of the unknown can do that. But, better late than never, I guess. I could've gone on and let the hole just stay in there as a testament to human imperfections like the ones I had read about in the little anecdotes in some of the more popular knitting books and what not. But I decided, I had worked way too hard and had come way to far on Forever, to let it end that way. It was going to be right, or it just wasn't going to be at all. After I ripped it out, I was able to finish Forever without the extra hole. And it looks nice.

Posted by stacey at 11:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 15, 2004

Internet Thief

Hey everyone!!

That's It! I'm an Official Internet Thief!

I was allowed five minutes to be on the computer of my dear family member here just to check my email and I think I may have overstayed my welcome again!!! Well, what can I say? I had to let everyone know the news:

FOREVER IS FIXED!!

Of course, I've written this long, drawn out story of how it simultaneously paralleled (spelling?) my life. But I'll have to save all that for when I get back. Until then....

Keep on knitting!

Posted by stacey at 09:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 07, 2004

Missing You!

Hello everyone! I have a few minutes on a computer of a relative of mine and I just wanted to say I miss everyone so much!!!! My internet capabilities should be up and running very soon. I can't wait to get back!!!

Short and Sweet...

Summary: The house is great! Lots of space. But still opening box after box after box.....uh, after box. Sheesh! ; Taking exams so that I can get teacher certification and benefits. Passed the first two. One more to go!! Got a great interview scheduled too-even though I may not be able to take the job. ; Ran into some troubles with Forever. :( Stress, maybe? Tell you all about it. Trying desperately to fix. Bag is finished though. Yeah!

Let me now be courteous to the computer owner and get off!!!

Miss you all lots!

Posted by stacey at 07:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack