Long Overdue Sheepcote Photos

Okay, so I finished this sweater way back in March.

I just never got around to posting the pictures of it, which have been sitting on my camera since March. But here they are now. Late winter/early spring was a bit of a blah time for me, but hopefully spring and summer will renew my interest in both knitting and blogging and get me back on track with some other things as well.

Anyways, I am vey happy with the way the sweater turned out. It could have been a size smaller, but it is still very cute and wearable. There is something satisfying about finishing projects and about being able to say, "Thanks, I made it," to compliments.

I have two sweaters currently on the needles. The much anticipated February Lady Sweater is about halfway done. However, it is on pause as I race to finish another cardigan, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan (in yellow) for a wedding in the beginning of June. I also have the Citron shawl on the needles, but I'm waiting for another ball of yarn to arrive in order to finish it.

Hopefully, updates n those projects won't be so delayed.

 

How Does My Garden Grow?

I love growing plants. Or maybe, I just love the idea of growing plants. Either way, since about high school, I've spent time and money on attempting to get plants to grow, with varying degrees of success. Currently, the oldest plant in the house is a hibiscus plant Pippin and the cats gave me last year for Mother's Day (though in all fairness, before that, I had a shamrock plant I had kept alive through college until Bode decided to eat it, knock the pot off the counter, and scatter the roots beyond all repair).

Anyways, for many years, I've spent this time of year browsing around various garden centers, planning for the day when I had my own home and could grow all kinds of things in my own yard.

So, now I have my own home, and I started planning my garden. I picked out a patch of the yard, it was kind of low-lying, so I figured we should build a raised garden bed. I researched it, and started to plan it out...

And that was as far as I got. Husband and I just never got around to getting the materials, the thought of weeding wasn't impressing me (chalk that one up to hours of my childhood spent in a giant flower bed, pulling what I thought were weeds, but usually turned out to be the plants that were supposed,to be growing there).

After taking those factors into consideration, I decided that container gardening might be a better option. After all, we have a big, beautiful porch that gets very little use. I invested in some Earthboxes, plus wrangled up two more from a previous (failed) experiment with container gardening. Then, I went out and got soil, fertilizer and plant and got set up for planting.

Knowing that he'd spend the entire time barking if I didn't, I figured a way to allow Pippin to join me on the porch. I looped his leash around one of the rungs on the deck railing, and brought him out a bowl of water. Pippin then spent my planting time happily assisting and napping (mostly napping). Once the dog was situated, I set about planting.

It didn't take too long for me to realize just how heavy a cubic foot of dirt is (because , face it, you can call it potting soil or potting mix, or whatever you'd like, but really, it is dirt). Of course, it wasn't until I had two of the four boxes planted that I remembered that my mom gave me a pair of gardening gloves last year. At that point, my hands were so caked with dirt that it seemed pointless to up them on. Next time, I'll remember, really, I will. By the end of my project, I noticed the huge mess I had created on my porch. But the plants were planted.

My Earthboxes were filled with tomatoes, zucchini, bell and jalapeño peppers, and strawberries, there are two hanging planters on my porch railing with dahlia bulbs, and we put in a flower bed with some lily bulbs in front of the fence (though I'm starting to doubt that those will grow).

Now, if I just can remember to water everything.

 

 

Ambition or Insanity?

The other weekend, my mom and I went shopping. It was Mother’s Day and although it is one of the four days I have agreed to golf with minimal complaining and whining (the other three are my mom’s birthday, the Parent/Child Tournament, and a Breast Cancer Outing), we got through one hole when she decided she didn’t want to golf, so we went shopping instead (no complaints here). While shopping, I came across a really cute skirt, that I could justify purchasing for a couple of reasons: 1. I could wear it to work and 2. Jeff’s cousin was getting married in June and I could wear it to the wedding. In my head, the skirt would go great with a summer weight yellow cardigan. For the remainder of the day, I fruitlessly searched for that elusive cardigan, with no luck. Then I went home and searched online for the cardigan, with the same results.

Then it occurred to me.

I’m a knitter.

Why don’t I just find a pattern for the cardigan that I like and make it out of a summer fiber (as in cotton or linen)? That would be way easier than searching for a cardigan that may or may not even exist. After some digging on my Ravelry queue, I discovered that I had already purchased the perfect pattern, the Teal Top-Down Cardigan and purchased yarn to make the cardigan. And what kind of yarn did I buy? A cotton, model, silk blend in a light butter yellow. All the stars were in alignment.If I’m being perfectly honest, I must admit; the pattern isn’t exactly what I wanted and I envisioned a bright sun shine yellow, not a soft butter yellow, but those were concessions I was willing to make. So I dug out the yarn, set up the pattern in Knit Companion (which, by the way, I completely and totally love and must write an entry about it, but not today), cast on, and began knitting away.

And then it occurred to me.

I’m knitting a sweater for an event that is less than a month away.

That is a serious deadline. And I don’t always do well with deadlines.

I spent the next couple of days trying to convince myself that; while taking on the project was indeed ambitious, there were several factors that prevented it from crossing over into crazy. I kept reminding myself that the project was knit with a worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles, that would make it go quickly and the majority of the cardigan is knit in stockinette, which makes it a pretty mindless project, and I do have backups for what I can wear with the skirt, if needed.

So, I’m still plugging away at it, and with the wedding only 25 days away, I’ve gotten this much done.

Maybe I am crazy.

 

 

And There Goes the Day...

Since this month’s schedule came out, I’ve been looking forward to today. A day off, during the week, no meetings to attend, no lunches to cover, just a day off where I could get things done. And I had the day planned, I was going to go to the gym, groom the dog, deep clean the upstairs bathroom, catch up on laundry, do my grocery shopping, do a full change on the litter boxes (we have scoopable litter, so I usually just scoop every night and add more litter when necessary, but every once in a while I still need to completely empty the boxes, wash them out, scrub down the litter closet, and put everything back together filled with fresh, clean litter), and get the laptop moved upstairs (putting my laptop upstairs as the house computer was one of the conditions of getting the iPad). Oh yeah, and I needed to go online and order some new bras, I’ve had to toss a couple in the past few weeks.

And yes, I do realize that there was no way all of that was going to get done today under the best of circumstances, especially when you consider that I’m a lazy procrastinator that is way too fond of sitting on the couch, knitting (or playing with my iPad) and watching SportsCenter, I was still optimistic that I would at least get a couple of things done.

So, I still got up at the usual time, let Puppy out, started the coffee and stayed up to have coffee with Husband before he left for work. Then it happened, my phone rang, and the caller id said it was Boss Lady. That is never a good sign, let alone at 7:45 in the morning. And sure enough, someone had called in sick and could I go in to our branch way out in Nowhere Land from one to five. Dammit, of course I could. And, yes I know I could have just said no, but I'm bad at telling people no. Plus, there wasn't really a good reason for me not to come in.

Okay, so the bad news was, no day off. However, the good news was, I didn’t have to be at work until 1, so I could get a couple of things crossed off my list. You know, provided I got moving. And did that happen? Of course not, after an hour of playing on my iPad and watching SportsCenter (in my defense, I did purchase some new bras during that time), I decided that the best use of part of my morning off would be to take a nap, but just a little one. We all know how that goes, another hour later, I forced my lazy ass out of bed and drug myself, complaining the whole while to the gym. By that point, there was only time left to shower, get ready for work, and enjoy half a lunch with Husband.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like my job. But I was so looking forward to the day off. My position is limited full time, meaning I can get anywhere from 30 to 39 hours per week. That means, I tend to get some half day shifts (or when I’m covering lunches for our Motor Bank, quarter day) which means I don’t usually get a full day off in exchange for my monthly Saturday. And then couple of times I have gotten a day off, it has been on a day where I still had to go in for a staff meeting or the like. This was going to be a whole day completely off.

Sigh. I had such high hopes for the day too. And please, Department of Health and Human Services, keep in mind that I was planning on cleaning today before you declare my bathroom a health hazard.

Massive Writer's Block

It’s been awhile on here, but to be completely honest, I’ve suffered from a bit of a writer’s block. And by a bit of a writer’s block, I clearly mean one that could encompass the state of Texas in its shadow. Lots has been going on, but nothing to write about. There have been several times that I’ve set down, determined to write a post, only to discover that there was nothing going on in my head but a tumbleweed blowing around, putting words on paper (or in my case, on a laptop screen) seemed to be an impossible task.
But, I figured, the only way to move past this was to sit down and actually write something, anything. Actually get words onto the paper (or screen). So here I am, staring at the screen, waiting for words to come to me, and I’ve got nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. So we’re just going to go with some general life updates and hope that the writing muse comes back to me.

Life at the bank is still going pretty good. I’ve now passed the 90 days of work mark, which means not only to I now get PTO, but I also am able to sign money orders and sell prepaid gift cards. Now there’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning. As time passes, I’m feeling more and more at home with my co-workers. It just takes a while for me to warm up to new people. And every day I feel more and more like maybe I might know what I’m doing (which is usually followed by a moment where I do something so unbelievably stupid that I feel like a complete and total moron). Overall, I’m feeling much more comfortable, and it seems much less likely that I’ll search too terribly hard for a teaching job come fall. I’m content to have a job to fill somewhere between 30 and 40 hours per week, supply Husband and I with decent benefits, and leave me with free time to do things I like to do (you know, like write blog entries).

Most of my free time lately has been absorbed by my latest toy, Husband finally gave in and let me get an iPad. Since its arrival at the house, I’ve spent lots and lots of time getting it set up, learning how to use it, and finding apps to make my life easier (or just apps that do cool stuff). I have found some apps that quickly became indispensable in my life, but that’s most likely a whole separate post (yay, stuff to write about!).

I’m also planning out a garden for this spring. The spot Husband and I have picked out for it was rather low lying, so I think we’re going to put a little extra effort into it and build a raised garden. After my excellent experiences with canning last fall, I’m excited to grow my own stuff to can for next fall. Especially the ingredients for salsa, that turned out super yummy! I’ll also be either digging in or building a flower bed for some lilies in front of our fence, but that should be easy enough to do. I also took a little time to read the Hunger Games trilogy. Despite no longer being a teacher, I haven’t lost my fascination with literature geared toward young adults, just my primary excuse to read it (however, one of the beautiful things about a Kindle, or other e-reader, is that no one has any idea what you’re reading).

Despite being enamored with the iPad, I have, of course made at least a little time for knitting. I have discovered that I’m deeply unhappy with the current socks I’m working on. I intend to frog them, but somehow just haven’t gotten around to it. I’m waiting for inspiration to strike on what socks I’m going to make next, so for the moment, they are just sitting on the needles, waiting. I finally finished the Sheetcote pullover and cast on for the February Lady sweater, which was a personal victory, because I bought the yarn for it a long time ago and it’s been on my Ravelry queue for even longer than that. I’m extremely pleased with how the Sheepcote pullover ended up, and somewhere between pleased and annoyed that it turned out I could have made it at least one size smaller.
Speaking of one size smaller, my new year’s quest to become healthier was going great, but I’ve hit a bit of a stumbling block as of late. I had been consistently making it to the gym, at least three times a week, and doing yoga at home on a less consistent basis. I managed to drop almost 20 pounds and about 2 inches, but then hit a wall. I wasn’t feeling the greatest for a couple of days, compounded with an increased number of evenings where I’m scheduled at work until later, and my gym attendance dropped. I’ve made a promise to myself to get back into the habit of going, however. I’ve just got to grit my teeth and get through it on the days I don’t feel like going and adjust to going later in the evening on days when I work later. I’ve just got to renew my commitment to a healthier lifestyle and stick to it.

That’s pretty much the highlights of what’s going on now. Let’s hope I also get over this writer’s block and back into the habit of regular posts.

Adventures in Pattern Writing: Episode 4, Put It All Together

See this?

Do you know what this is?

If you guessed that it was a draft version of the pattern for my Packer socks, you would be correct! After knitting and reknitting, procrastination, deciphering notes and scribbles, charting and recharting, fighting with computers, cutting and pasting, writing and re writing, with some cursing and hair-pulling mixed in for good measure, I was able to hit print on the first draft of this pattern.


I would celebrate, but it is only the first draft. The next step will be to knit another pair of the socks, using the pattern and making note of any changes that need to be made.  I haven't even started the test knitting, and I already have a list of necessary edits. I'm still not totally happy with the instructions for the short-row heel, I'm going to dig through some sources and make notes as I knit and hope to be able to refine the language a bit. I also need to measure the gauge once this pair is completed.  


The graphs might need to be adapted for use by a right handed knitter. Because I am left handed I knit backwards from left to right instead of from right to left, the way a right hander would. This sometimes changes the way graphs are read.

Despite these minor setbacks, I feel I'm making good progress on the pattern over the past few weeks. As soon as I finish the pair of socks on my needles, I will start work on the test pair, and make further notes about what needs to be changed or clarified. I've yet to decide on what player's number will be on the back of the socks and who the recipient will be. I'm not sure if I should keep them, as I already have a pair of lucky Packer socks (though are they still lucky despite now having seen two losses?). However, in my world, few people are actually qualified to own handknit socks. The pattern is designed for a foot wearing a woman's size 8 shoes, which does limit potential wears. I'll have to think about it.

Project Talk: Some Assembly Required

As a process knitter, I’m not a huge fan of finishing work. Why waste the time doing silly things like blocking, weaving in ends, and sewing seams when you could be actually knitting. I would think finding the motivation to finish would be easier for project orientated knitters, as it is a vital step in having a completed project (but seeing as I’m not a project orientated knitter, I cannot be sure. Anybody want to verify?).



Spatterdash Mitts, Done!

Thankfully, most of the projects I choose to work on don’t require too much in the way of finishing work. There are exceptions, the Carry-All Tote and Hey Teach! cardigan being the freshest ones in my mind. Thankfully, the Spatterdash fingerless gloves from Knitty.com didn’t require all that much finishing work. Just the usual blocking, weaving a couple of ends, two seams, and some buttons.  Okay, not some buttons, many buttons, a lot of buttons, 14 buttons per glove.

Definently worth the finishing.

But the end result is worth it. They turned out beautifully! The yarn is Imagination Hand-painted Sock yarn from KnitPicks.com in the colorway Wicked Witch, and it is amazing! I’m not a huge fan of it for socks, I have trouble with shrinkage and felting (I line dry, but machine wash, which might be part most of the problem), but the colors are amazing and the yarn comes out so soft after blocking! I think I’ll stick to using it for non-sock accessories. Stroll, also from Knit Picks, is my absolute favorite for socks, just in case anyone was wondering.

Sheepcote sleeves and start of the main body.

In other project news, I’ve completed the second sleeve and cast of for the body of the Sheepcote pullover, from the Twist Collective and am on the leg of the second of my Surfin’ Peacock socks, so I’m making progress, little by little. Once finished with the Peacock socks, I’ll be (hopefully) testing my Packer Sock pattern and after Sheepcote, I am absolutely, no excuses, finally getting to the February Lady sweater.

And a side note about the sleeves of the Sheepcote, the are 3/4 length sleeves on a yolked sweater. So I know that they look short and chunky, but I've tried them on and they are going to work out great for the sweater.