Frustration Station

Friday night Connie and I cast on the Debbie Bliss Cabled Jacket in Cashmerino Superchunky. We were slightly discouraged by the way the pattern was written. We both found it a little hard to follow at first. Once we got going we both agreed that knitting at 11pm had clouded our judgement of the sweater and we knit along happily. Until I got to the raglan decreases for the sleeves.

I spent all day yesterday worried, frustrated, and a little bit angry. I think I spent more time with my knitting sitting in my lap puzzling over how far to keep going and how many stitches to decrease.

I did my math and I asked others in the house and even made outside calls to Connie. We all agreed that the math just didn't add up. We searched the internet, we were sure there had to be other decreases somewhere, this was another mistake in the pattern that was not corrected in the revisions.

Turns out there are more decreases that happen naturally with the pattern rows and the numbers do work out. ALL DAY!!! So much wasted knitting time.

I do however ring in the new year with the back of the Cabled Jacked (no pictures because I do not have my camera at the bf's house). From now on I will have more faith. I must have been so hung up on the other corrections to the pattern and Fridays frustration with the format of the pattern that I knew this had to be another problem. After all it could not just be me could it?

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas. My present from blogger was to have my post from earlier lost even though I did save a draft...hmmmm strange.

Anyway, Christmas is over for another year and I can't help but have a huge sigh of releif. Our Christmas slowly went down hill. My poor Grandma is so forgetful and she got progressively worse as the day went on. By the time dinner came it was all she could do to concentrate on the gravy and the veggies were not yet cooked. But it all turned out fine in the end.

I even finished the socks for my cousins. I had to knit a sock a day for two days but by bedtime on Christmas even the socks were finished, wrapped and under the tree.

Speaking of my cousins this is us in our matching reindeer PJ's (a gift from my mother). The second pic is of them fighting for dominance.

And a close up of us girls.

Since the Christmas knitting is over I can't seem to look at another sock right now. (even though I still have one more sock to finish for Aaron's sister and I might see her on Saturday) I have been working on Rapunzel. I haven't worked on it for so long but it is such an interesting pattern. It keeps my attention because it takes so much of my attention.

Connie and I are thinking about casting on for our Debbie Bliss Cabled Jacket soon too. Very exciting post Christmas knitting.

This old house

They say that Christmas can bring back childhood feelings. Perhaps old houses and family homes makes you feel like that as well.

Last night my mother and I came to my Grandmother's house. I will be here now until Boxing Day. I packed my bags full of knitting projects that will be impossible to complete so I will not run out of things to do and prepared myself for a rather sad Christmas. This is of course our last Christmas in the family home. As a child I was here every other weekend with my parents. My cousins and I have "the girl's" room, my parents have their room and my aunt and uncle have their room. I have never had a Christmas that I can remember when I was not here. My grandma says she feels that my grandfather is still in this house. I don't know what I believe when it comes to things like that but there is a certain feeling here.

Last night when we got here and I went up to bed I felt like such a little girl again. I am an adult with a job and a house of my own on the way but when I lay down in my bed last night, turned out the light and rolled over to sleep I felt so small.

I am going to miss this place. Over the years of going to school and growing up I didn't come here as often as when I was a child but this house means so much to me.
I better get back to all of my Christmas knitting because I have to get at least two socks done in two days. Will I do it? We shall see.

Is it time to panic yet?

I was making so much progress on my Christmas knitting for a while I thought I might make it. Now I'm starting to think that I have three people who will be getting one sock with a promise that the second sock is yet to come. I have one more half of a sock to finish before I am to that point at least.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for two weeks. I thought the hoiday felt so late this year not starting until the 22nd but now I am kinda glad. Mind you I am exhausted and have some kind of cold, chest, sinus, head ache think going on. But with the holiday starting right before Christmas it means that there is a week after Christmas and New Years is over to enjoy the calm/come down.

I think this has been my most stressfull Christmas in my memory. Things are changing in my family and traditions are changing. This will be our last Christmas in the family home we all love. We have sold my Grandmother's house and are moving her closer to us and where there is help if she needs it. I love Christmas but I wish we could just fast forward to next year. Just jump right into the new traditions instead of suffering through the last of the old traditions.

I am leaving tomorrow for my Grandma's house so we can get everything ready for the rest of the family. Hopefully I will have lots of time to speed knit before my cousins arrive and they can get a whole pair of socks.

What is Your Christmas Elf Name?

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

I was pretty impressed that I got a sock name!! heheheheh

The rush is on

I am making progress on my Christmas knitting but am in a slight panic. I still have one more week before my winter vacation. I think of all the time I will have for knitting when I am on holiday. However my holiday starts on the 22 which doesn't leave much time for finishing Christmas projects.

I am getting closer though. I have a total of about 4 and bit socks left to go on my list. The slippers for Aaron can wait until after Christmas because they are not a surprise gift. Our gift to each other this year is the house.

The yarn came in for Connie and I to make our Cabled Jacket. I am so excited to get started but we are both resisting temptation until after Christmas.

Off to bed and work on my K socks before visions of yarn balls dance in my head.

What are knitting friends for?

What a night! Last night was the gift exchange between my knitting friends. We always have such a good time when we get together I think we should do it more often. Unfortunately Meghan wasn't feeling well. The only postive was that it gives us an excuse to celebrate her birthday again!

All of those girls are so thoughtful. I had wondered to myself what we could all get each other on our budget but we all thought of something different. Connie took a much more artistic picture of her gifts so go check her out.

Connie gave us each these cute books to make sock pattern notes in, some gift tags for handknitted items (perfect this time of year), a sock pattern, a keychain sock blocker set and point protectors for dpns.


Lisa had these cute boxes with our names on them. Perfect for little notions and accessories.


Meghan gave us some sublime yarn with a pattern for fingerless gloves ( I smell a new year knitalong) some cute stitch markers and a keychain sock blocker set (great minds think alike ladies)


I would like to say thank you again because.... well... presents are nice, and I can't think of a better group to share them with. If I left out anything that the girls gave it was because I am still shocked by the amount of things that you can do on a budget. It says something about the Christmas spirit and the thought that counts.

(This was our house on Tuesday putting up the Chrismas tree)

Now I have to get back to my Christmas knitting. Is Greys Anatomy a new one tonight because last week I was very disappointed.

What a weekend can do for knitting

I promised pictures of my progress so far on my Christmas knitting. I really have been working my little fingers off this weekend and was feeling a nice sense of accomplishment last night. Then it was back to work today. The real world you might say. This is when I tell myself that knitting all day long is not the reality of my life and that I may not have my Christmas knitting finished by the time Christmas comes.

But for now here is the baby blanket for the bf's sister. I do love this pattern. It is a little tedious to knit but looks beautiful when it is finished.

Pattern: Debbie Bliss Shawl
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a lovely purple colour
Needles: Knit Picks Options size 3.5mm
Date Started: September 10, 2006.
Date Finished: December 7, 2006.

Next up...This season's second pair of Thrum mittens (Again a Fleece Artist kit)


And last but not least the fleece artist socks for my sister-in-common-law (The mother of the baby recieving the blanket pictured above).


And that is about it. And with only a few short knitting hours available to me tonight I better skiddadle and get back at it. Only 14 days left everyone. YIKES!!!

A Christmas Knitting Weekend

This weekend was full of Christmas and full of knitting! Friday night was Christmas Panic at Unwind. When I left it was around 11:30 there were still three people left and they had just started watching another movie. The idea was to knit all night, working on Christmas gifts. I myself spent about 6 hours there. Wow...now that I think about it that was a long time of just relaxing and knitting. I think we all needed that. The night flew by.

Saturday was my afternoon with my bf. Then we had a friends Christmas party to go to. I did not take my knitting! Man was I missing it. The people at the party were very nice and I didn't feel left out but while they were drinking excessively and playing poker I was wishing I was knitting.

Today was our Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Since the bf and I have bought the house he can no longer avoid these family situations. It was actually pretty fun and this time I took my knitting!

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of all of the work I have been doing!

Memories

I have been looking back through old posts and remembering times over the year. I have knit so much and this blog really is a scrapbook of my knitting life.

The saddest part of my little trip down memory lane is how long ago I started some of the things that are still on my WIP list. Some of them were on the list before I started this blog.

I think I know what my new years resolution will be this year.

Now we're knitting

What I need is for it to be the weekend all of the time. I got so much knitting done this weekend and managed to fit in a Christmas party with my dad and a Christmas party for my nephew at my bfs work and some shopping and laundry on top of that. I impressed myself that is for sure.

I finished one of the bf's slippers. They aren't a secret so I needed his foot to measure. I also finished the toe of the Adare Manor sock so one down and one to go.

I also finished the hat for my bf's brother. I know he doesn't read this so I can post it without worrying about wrecking the surprise. Here it is! Please forgive the model as it was Sunday evening after the children's Christmas party and I was pooped.



Pattern: Fleece Artist Adriana Kit
Needles: knit picks options 4.5mm 24"
Date Started: November 20th 2006.
Date Finished: December 3rd 2006.

This pattern was a little different that what I expected. The hat comes out a little big (for my head and I have a good sized noggen). The pattern suggests that you can felt it to size but it would need so little that I would be scared of it felting too far.
Also the ties on the ear flaps were not i-cord as I expected them to be. I think if I were to do this pattern again I would make it an i-cord instead. I also did not make two ties off of the second earflap because I couldn't understand why I would want one long and one short on one side...hmmmm.

A question of etiquette

I do not normally mind knitting in public however there is the odd time I wonder if people think I am being rude. I sometimes have trouble sitting still and not knitting. Do my friends think it is strange that I want to pull out my knitting at a restaurant? Well most of my friends don't knit so yes. I have had a few strange looks when I pull my socks out at the pub. I have answered many questions while waiting at the doctors office or dentist. I have even knit through a few workshops and proffessional development classes. I am yet to knit through my staff meetings however (not because I don't want to).

I don't think that some people understand that I really am paying attention. I know another knitter would understand but those who don't knit don't get it! It is easier for me to pay attention when I'm knitting because well....otherwise I'm thinking about the knitting that is in my bag not getting worked on.

I was thinking about this this morning because I am going to a Christmas party with my father tonight. There are going to be some people that I should talk to but mostly people that I don't know! Would it look bad if I took my knitting to the party? *sigh* I'm pretty sure this is one of those times when I shouldn't knit in public.

A night of calm

This is the first night I have felt really relaxed in a while! I went to Unwind tonight to visit with the ladies. Quite enjoyable.

What is more relaxing that knitting and fish....they are supposed to be relaxing right?

This is my fish Kyle! Yes the fishes name is Kyle.

I bought the fish last year for my class when we were studying living things in the spring and he is still alive and well (we have wondered a few times but he is still swimmin'). Not bad for a fish in a bowl I would say.

And after tonight here is the progress on the Adare Manor sock.



I am excited about maybe doing the toe tomorrow night but I am going to be at the school until after 7pm tomorrow so we will see how awake I am after that.

Party

Isn't it annoying when you work for a while on a blog entry only to lose it. Grrrr. that was yesterday. So today I feel a little less excited to post what I already wrote about but some will also say it is my own fault for not saving drafts as I go.

Saturday was the bf's Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. Pretty good food and even better wine and a full day to recover yesterday. I don't drink much or very often so it was bad news. I'm glad this pic was taken early on because I really like this pic of us and I probably didn't look so cute at the end of the night tee hee hee.



I must say that I really like to see him in a tie. This was the second time in almost 5 years. I like an excuse to dress up a little and wear cute shoes.

I love that my bf knows me so well. He may not always completely understand me but he knows me. This was our conversation in the car on the way to the bank on Saturday. I pulled out my sock as we pulled out of the driveway.
"Sarah we are going to be stopping in two minutes"
"I know"
"but you can get a row done by then eh"

This is what I was working on. Meghan I love this pattern! Here is the Adare Manor sock so far!


And a close up of the pattern


And this is pattern I have chosen for my brother-in-common-law for Christmas. I hope he likes it.


And this is the colour and the progress so far.

A little boring so far since I have this fun sock to work on! Back to it!

Sock it to me!

I am feeling rejuvinated. On Wednesday I was trying to knit a sock and could not get into it at all. Since last night I have been able to think of nothing else. Particularly because I have cast on a new pair (and finished one mind you!)

Here are a pair that will be given away for Christmas.
So I have cast on another pair for Christmas. They are Fleece Artist sock yarn and the pattern is Adare Manor. A pattern by the talented Meghan Jackson and was a part of the Sock of the month club over at Pick up Sticks.


I love it so far and can hardly wait to finish this and get back to it.

Tomorrow is the christmas party and my bf's work. It should be a blast! We have a hotel room for the evening and it will be nice to see some of the people that I used to work with in the summer. I am looking forward to having a weekend to enjoy myself and not have stress on me. Plus I'm excited about getting all dressed up for a night out. I had to take the bf shopping for pants a shirt and a tie..this is new for him. He is a very casual guy but he cleans up nice!

Back to my sock!

A knitting standstill.

Tonight is my night to take a breath and relax. I'm sure that breath will extend itself to the rest of the week as my biggest stress at the moment is out of the way. Phew!

Unfortunately there isn't anything to show because I haven't been knitting much...ok ... at all.....I'm running out of time really fast too. YIKES.

So I will have pictures soon and hopefully more time to blog. For now I'm going to get back to knitting...something with bigger needles that will progress fast. Like a Hat for my brother-in-law

One down...many more to go

The first Christmas knitting item is finished (remember my list of about 10? I am a bit obsessed with lists so I added one to the sidebar).

They are the Thrum Mittens:


Pattern : Fleece Artist Thrum Mitten Kit
Needles : 3.5 clover bamboo dpns

I love these mittens and as a teacher they are great for yard duty. Somehow one never seems the same size as the other. I don't know if it is because the first one gets tried on a few times along the way or if my stress level is so through the roof right now that my knitting is getting tighter and tighter as the days to Christmas tick away.

Tomorrow I am going to see Wicked. I am so excited. It means Friday is going to be a very long day but it should be great. My friend and I have a car to take us to the show and we are going to have dinner before the show.

Other than that I hope that I get over my cold soon because I just feel more and more wiped out.

WAHHOOOOOO!!!!!

It is official news time! I didn't want to say much before in my ramblings because things weren't for sure and I don't like to...well you know.

Anyway! My bf and I have just been approved for a morgage on a townhouse! WAHOOO! I'm so excited and scared and.....man my mind is everywhere.

I usually love Thursdays because the house is empty and I get a ton of work done but tonight I can't concentrate. Usually I love to be left alone for few hours and tonight I can't stand it and am feeling very lonely.

I don't want to call my family when my parents aren't home but I'm dying to tell everyone about the house. Maybe I need to do some laundry to calm myself. Yikes I really don't know anything better to do with myself.

Last night's knitting did not involve the baby blanket or socks it was Thrum Mittens. They should be finished tonight I would think.

How sick do you have to be?

Today I was faced with that question. How sick do you have to be that you will miss out on knitting with your friends. The answer is simple. You have to throw up and have a pounding headache, spend most of the day unintentionally not eating and sign your name more times than you can count. This is a sure way to put yourself in bed for the night.

It is now just after 8pm I still have the headache but the sick to my stomach feeling is pretty much gone and I am fairly sure than baring any unforseens I will be at work tomorrow. I can't afford to miss a day of work(money wise and time wise there is just so much to do)

So my plan tonight is to finish this post, have a relaxing bath and then knit a bit before bed. I know that isn't helping me to get work related stuff done but I just can't focus with this pain behind my eyes. The question then becomes... border on the baby blanket (yep I'm finally on the border) or socks? hmmmmm

What happens to time?

I was just looking at my calendar, thinking, and planning and thought to myself...OMG where does the time go. I remember when I was a child how long a year seemed to be and how in November, Christmas seemed so far away let alone summer holiday away from school.

Now that I am an adult a year seems to go buy in the blink of an eye. Work is going crazy this time of year. I have family asking if we have started our Christmas shopping yet! (Does Christmas knitting count even if very little progress is happening?). When did it become November all of a sudden? OMG and then once Christmas hits it is only a few more months until summer and summer vacation. Then I have to wonder where my job will be then?

This question is becoming more and more a preoccupation on my mind. Partially because I have always thought that this summer should be a time when I think of getting out of my parents house and out on my own. Then this conversation turned into wanting to move in with my bf. All of a sudden, taking our time and moving slowly is right around the corner.

Tonight my bf and I sat down with my parents and had a talk about us moving in together. I feel so much more comfortable with moving ahead knowing I have their support. WOW!! I know I'm probably rambling on. I have so much in my head right now I don't know what to do with it so....while I'm trying to get to sleep I am blogging about my whirlwind life.

I guess the question I am left with is...if time seems to have sped up so much since childhood does it just keep passing faster and faster as we age? Any thoughts?