Knitter's Black Hole (or the sweater that never ends)

I've hit a knitter's black hole on DH's sweater. I'm at 15.5 inches of body, I need 16. I've been at 15.5 the last upteen time's I've measured. I swear it feels like I've done 50 rounds since then. But I'm still at 15.5. I'm always amazed at my ability to forget this portion of sweater knitting. It happens on every sweater body that I've done. Sleeves usually don't drop into the black hole, there's lots of increases or decreases to keep things moving along. But bodies? Especially big square bodies for a certain boy? Those stretch onto never never land. And the main stitch pattern? It's 1 X 1 rib. I must love this guy a lot. I love how it's turning out. The pattern is so squishy and soft, I keep threatening that I'm going to keep it for myself. It's a really well written pattern so far, easy to follow and adapt for different gauges. But it's hit the black hole and I'm not sure it will ever come out. 15.5 is haunting my daydreams. But I better get back to it. Unfortunatly, it won't knit itself in my absense. I'm just so ready to get to the break for the sleeves and start the 4 X 2 rib on the chest. It'll be a great break from this!

Stocking update - pattern almost done, chart is inserted, adobe downloaded to convert to PDF. Now all I need is to insert pictures and reword a couple unclear sections. Look for it within the next 2 weeks. I'm planning to offer it as a free PDF download here.

Cheap Glasses

For a while yet, people around the Knittyboard have been singing the praises of Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! They have some of the cutest glasses, and amazing prices!I think the frames above are so cute, I'd love them in black or pewter coloring. Of course, the threads starting coming up about a month after I paid several hundred for my new frames & lenses. I definitely have plans to order my next pair from Zenni Optical though. I've heard their customer service is fantastic and the glasses arrive quickly. I love it when I can find a great price on something like this! My prescription changes so frequently that even just changing the lenses can get pretty spendy!

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Blogstalk: Favorite Color(s)

These pictures are probably the best representation I can find for my favorite colors. I love rich, deep colors, jewel tones. Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, Emerald Green, Royal Purple. These are the colors I wear the most, and the colors I use the most. I also use/wear a lot of natural tones, tans, chocolate browns, creams, charcoal gray.

Ready for Spring...

It's cold. Very very cold. I'm so ready for this cold spell to break. It hasn't gotten above 25 F all week, our nightly lows have been in the single digits. See my weather girl over there? She hasn't been able to take off her parka in over a week. It's so cold that the INSIDE of my windows is frosted over. I dropped a magazine behind the couch last night and went to pick it up this morning. It is frozen to the window behind the couch. I can't get it off. Even Lillie is cold. She's been very snuggly and curled up in her bed.

I'm so ready for Spring. The icy roads are getting really annoying, mainly because people are determined to either drive extremely slowly (10 - 15 mph) or to drive extremely stupid (turning in front of me and nearly hitting a pedestrian that I was allowing to cross). I'm ready for it to all go back to normal. I love the snow, but not when the snow has a half inch of ice over it.

Ok. I'll stop complaining now and return you to your regularly scheduled blog feeds.

Massage?

I love a good massage. But it is so expensive! If I got a massage as often as I wanted to, I'd forever be in debt. We've tried out massage chairs at various different places, but they never feel like the real thing. Today I read about new Massage Chairs and they sound pretty nice. They aren't cheap in any way, but if you want a massage in the comfort of your own home, these look like the way to go. They are called Human Touch massage chairs and they are supposed to feel just like a professional massage. The chairs can go at several different angles and have a variety of features to give you a custom massage every time. Once we get a larger house, I'm going to have to look up Human Touch Massage Chairs again. Maybe the prices will come down by then!

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New Haircut

Got my hair cut on Saturday. I'm not completely sure that I like it yet. I only get it cut about twice a year, so I really should pay a little more to get haircuts I love, but I always end up deciding at the last minute that I want to get it cut and having to go to one of the cheapo places that accepts walk-ins. It's pretty cute from the front, I'm just not positive I like how short the layers get in the back. You can't really tell how short they get here, but the shortest layer in the back is only a few inches long. Makes it hard to straighten it enough so it doesn't stick up.

And no one's mentioned it yet. I cut off 6 inches of hair and no one notices or mentions it. Makes me wonder if it's just an awful cut and no one knows how to tell me or if I'm just that easy to overlook normally. But DH likes it. And I'm learning to like it. So I guess that's what really matters.

In knitting news, I've started a sweater for the doggie to wear when we go up into the snow. And today I'm starting a sweater for DH. So pictures and details of that to come.

FO: Diagonal Knot Scarf

It's done!
Stats:
US 11 needles
Hand spun, about a bulky weight
70% Merino, 30% Tussah Silk, Plied with 100% silk threaded with glass beads
Diagonal Knot Scarf Pattern
Mods: 13 Stitches wide

This turned out beautifully. I haven't blocked it yet because I was too excited to wear it. I'm going to spin up the rest of the roving to make Nautilus as a matching hat.

The yarn, she's done!

Final stats:

116 yards, base roving was 70 % merino, 30% silk, 2 ply, with a ply of 100% silk sewing thread that was strung with glass size 6 seed beads. I love it. I'm going to be using it to knit The Diagonal Knot Scarf on size 11 needles, over 13 sts. It will be thin and probably not terribly long, but it will be so pretty and soft. I love how this ended up.

Apparently I'm not as indecisive as I thought...

88% Barack Obama
87% Hillary Clinton
86% John Edwards
85% Chris Dodd
83% Bill Richardson
79% Joe Biden
67% Mike Gravel
66% Dennis Kucinich
59% Rudy Giuliani
55% John McCain
41% Mitt Romney
38% Mike Huckabee
30% Tom Tancredo
27% Fred Thompson
23% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I have no idea which way I'm voting, but apparently I'm a little clearer on where I stand than I thought I was. I was mildly surprised to see the results. I need to research, research, research before the election comes up.

New Year, New Technique

I'm learning to spin beads into my yarn. You can barely see them in there, but they are the little clear flecks. Only one is really in focus, but one or two more are slightly out of focus at the bottom of the picture. I'm spacing them about ever 12 - 18 inches. I am absolutely loving how this yarn is coming out! This is one of my favorite things that I've worked on. The roving is 70% Merino, 30% Tussah silk, color way Seamist, through Woodland Woolworks. I got a luxurious 8 oz of this stuff! I spun up 2 bobbins, probably about 2/3's of the fiber, so work the beads into. The beads are strung on a chocolate brown 100% silk sewing thread. They are size 10 seed beads. The yarn has a gorgeous texture and is a dream to spin. Love! Depending on how much I get, I think this is going to be a really airy, drapey scarf. Big needles, US 10 or 10.5 and just a little bit of openwork. Something really simple. I'll show you more pictures when this one is done.

In knitting news, I finished my Oblique sweater. It's fantastic! This was such a fun pattern to knit and went relatively quickly, when I was focused on knitting it. The back took about a week, each sleeve probably took 3 days of knitting and each front took 2 - 3 days of knitting. So I could have finished this within 3 weeks. But instead, I ADD knit it and was distracted by 2 pairs of socks, a baby hat, a baby sweater, a crocheted afghan, a knit baby afghan, and 2 shawls. And only 2 of those previous items are actually finished. Oy. I need someone to control me. I need to do a great big update on knitting, but the weather hasn't been cooperating. See: http://www.union-bulletin.com/local_news/
We came through the storm just fine. Lost power for 25 or 26 hours, and lost our car port roof and my greenhouse. But no major damage. Many, many people were not so lucky. It's devastating to drive down the streets in the older parts of town. There are 200 year old trees there that came toppling down with these winds and they did an impressive amount of damage. I've heard reports that individuals with weather stations on their houses clocked wind gusts up to 85 MPH, but the official report is 78 MPH. Of course, that 78 MPH gust took out the power to the official weather station, so we don't know if it got any worse. All in all, Friday was a pretty rough day for many in my county. There are still a few areas without power, but most are back up now.

Anyway, once it clears up and life settles down a bit (hopefully this week) I will be taking many pictures to share. Lots in progress to update you on! And the super secret sock pattern is about half way done. I'm at the directions for the heel now and... Well... I know what type of heel I used, but I don't really know how to write it out so it makes sense. So we'll see what I come up with. I'll figure it out sooner or later!

Have a great night, all!

BlogStalk: Fave invention of the 20th Century

When I saw this topic come up, my mind immediately went to cell phones and digital cameras. I use them every day and they are an intrinsic part of my life, but I would adapt to life without them. Humans are amazing in their ability to adapt to their situations. So I know I could live without cell phones and digital cameras.

Wanna know what I've decided I can't live without?



My old kitchen aid stand mixer. It was my Christmas present from the husband and I've only used it once. But I made a double batch of bread last night in 20 minutes (it's rising slowly in the fridge all day). That batch of bread normally takes me about 40 minutes to knead by hand, not to mention the time for shaping and mixing and trying to get it the right consistency. It's a K5A, so it doesn't have the same speed control as the newer ones, and it doesn't have the hokey plastic gear casing that the newer ones do. It's pure metal and weighs in at 31 pounds! And I'm in love. I don't think we'll be buying bread anymore. This is just way too easy and fun. I think I'm in love.

The other thing I'm very thankful for? Pain meds. I'm not entirely sure what I did to my back, but I aggravated a many year old back injury in the last few days and I can't hardly move. It's very difficult to dress when you can barely reach your feet without crying. So I'm popping pills every 4 - 5 hours and hoping it loosens up in the next couple of days. I may be spending all weekend in bed, though it was amazingly sore and stiff when I got up this morning, 10 times worse than when I went to bed. It's nearly as painful as when I first injured it, normally my flair ups are at about half the original pain. I think I really messed it up this time around. So if it's not remarkably better by Monday, I'm headed to the walk-in clinic to see if I can get the big girl drugs. For now, It's naproxen sodium, very careful bending, and homemade bread.

And we're back!

Christmas vacation went really well. I started a new knitting project, which we'll discuss after I take pictures! We had a lovely time visiting our families and made a bit of progress on the moving front. Looks like we're looking at 6-12 months here and then begin the annoying process of relocating. It gets harder to leave every time. We really miss our families. But I'll do a big post later tonight, Just wanted to say that I'm back!

Traveling?

Hotel Reservations is the new reservation site on the web. They have hotels, flights, vacation rentals, and car rentals. Everything you need to get from point A to point B and save money doing it! You can book online or over the phone and they even have group discount rates. Looks like the simplest way to save money while booking for a large group. They guarantee that their prices are the lowest on the net. If you have a destination in mind, you can narrow your search by dates, times, and locations. If you just want to set off on a driving destination, tell them how much time you want to spend in the car and where you're starting from, and they'll give you a selection of destinations, with estimated travel times and cost of hotels. They may not be as large as some of the other hotel discount sites, but they do have wonderful prices and seem to be really easy to navigate. Next time we travel, we'll be checking out Hotel Reservations first!


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Done!

I just finished the last exam of my Landscape Design Program. It was a 12-18 month home study program to give you the basics of landscape design, to understand the theories behind it, understand design principles, etc. Not a lot of the art/design aspect, but a lot of the business end of things. Which is what I wanted. And I'm done. One more payment to go, and I get the little piece of paper saying that I finally finished something. Now I have to find something new. I need to look into finishing my AS or BA online, don't have time or money to do a real classroom route right now. But I could finish the management degree online. It feels good to be done with something!

Winter is Officially Here

For so many people, winter is viewed as a time of rebuilding. They see the plants go dormant, the snow come down and blanket the plants as a protective covering, the shorter days, and they see life rebuilding and repairing itself in preparation for spring.
Myself, I see winter as a time of breaking. It's been this way for years for me. If I'm going to struggle and fight with something, I more than likely will be dealing with it in the winter. Being cooped up more, dealing with the shorter days, looking at the barren landscape. It all causes me to re-evaluate where I stand and to attempt to change the things bothering me. So often, this is the time that my fears and feelings of inadequacy come back to me. And it's the time of year that I feel like something inside of me is breaking. Not breaking to the point of no return, but breaking so that I can be rebuilt.

Yesterday was our pastor's final sermon before moving. He spoke about fear, about stepping out into the unknown. And as he spoke, I began to see the last few weeks for what they were. My own fight against the season of breaking. I fight it every year. I try to push through it by keeping myself busy. Believing that if I ignore it, I won't have to do it again. This year, it snuck up on me a little bit. I didn't prepare for it, I didn't see it coming. So when it came, I was knocked off my feet by it a little. Little by little, the restlessness moved back in and I started floundering.

I don't know how long it will take me to work through this. So today I decided I had to deal with it. I baked and cooked, did laundry, went through my knitting projects to reorganize them, and molded soap for Christmas. I feel hollow tonight. I can feel the breaking. I know where it's centered and I know I need to stop fighting it. But some days? Some days I just want to escape back to summer. This isn't easy. It's emotionally exhausting.