Felt Like Knitting

Wow!

We don't often see this much snow around Atlanta (about 4.5 inches).  It was really pretty out there this morning.  I shoveled for about an hour (which used up close to 500 calories according to my Lose It! app).  Then it was on to making vegetable soup, spaghetti sauce, playing cards with my in-laws and Steve, and doing a little bit of laundry and knitting.  

I hope that it is safe and warm wherever you are!

Edited to add the current Atlanta traffic map.  I've never seen this much yellow/orange/red before!

 

Paperwork

A belated "Merry Christmas" to those of you who celebrate.  We had a nice, relaxing day.  In fact, I didn't change out of my pajamas until I decided to get a shower in the late afternoon.  And then I put on pajamas again!  Nice...

We had a white Christmas this year.  According to what I've heard, it's the first one here since 1882.  It sure made it pretty outside.  Church was cancelled yesterday so I got two pajama days.  :)

And what did I do?  Watch movies - no.  Knit - no.  I cleaned!  Two of my brothers are coming down and I got ready for their visit.  I've mentioned before that I tend to move piles of stuff around when people come.  This time I finally attacked some of the junk.  Yesterday I went through two boxes of old school papers and here is part of what I had to recycle...

What a relief to have that sorted out.  Now I'm on to another bedroom, getting groceries, putting a roast in the crock pot... and I just got a text that they are only 6 hours away.  Time to get back to work!

Annihilation

If you have gotten to know me through my blog or in person, you might say that I'm kind of a quiet or reserved person.  Not today.  Today I'm showing you my other side.  The side of me that likes the sound of this:

annihilate:  to destroy the substance or force of, to cause to cease to exist, to vanquish completely.

We have a fruit fly problem.  And I am on a mission to destroy conquer annihilate these little pests.  I Googled and found a list of ideas and have tried a few.  I really am a little shocked at myself at how satisfying it is to kill these flies.  I usually catch and release things I find in my house, but there is no mercy for these boogers.

*  Swatting:  Effective?  Fair.  Satisfying?  Yes!

There is something very satisfying about swatting one into oblivion.  But then there are the residual fly parts on the cupboard door.  Plus did you know that fruit flies carry yucky diseases?

*  Bowl trap:  Effective?  No.  Satisfying?  No.

This didn't work but I think it's because the hole size wasn't right.

*  Hair dryer:  Effective?  Okay.  Satisfying?  Yes, fun even.

The idea is to suck them up on the intake side of your hair dryer which pulls them into the heating element.  It's fun to see them get sucked in but often they fly away before the dryer gets close enough.

*  Oven trap:  Effective?  Very!  Satisfying?  Very!

I recommend this method.  I sliced some bananas onto a plate and let the flies wander in until there were about 25 of them on there.  "Slam!" went the door and "whoosh" went the gas.  Except that I forgot what temperature was suggested and I set it at 450.  When I told Steve about the technique, he said "Yeah, I think you got it hot enough."  Mwahaha!!!

*  Keep things clean:  Effective?  Yes.  Satisfying?  Ugh.

This is harder for me but more effective.

May your weekend be bug-free and full of knitting!  I'm off to wash some dishes...

Long weekend with lots of knitting

This Labor Day weekend is turning out to be great!

Friday I had a teachers meeting (I'm teaching beginning praise guitar) and later in the afternoon I made it to Cast-on for the afternoon KAL (which this week was just like knit night).  I worked on my Seagrass Lace Socks for a few minutes before I went to pick up Emma where she was getting frozen yogurt with friends.  Yes, I did get some for myself because it was hot waiting in the car.  :)

On Saturday I met a fellow Raveler at Cast-on and we had a great time.  We have a lot in common!  We both bought yarn and buttons for Never Not Knitting's Shawl Collared Cowl.  I got Rowan Cocoon in the Clay colorway.  When I got home, I couldn't resist and I cast on right away.  The weather was beautiful and I was able to sit out on the deck.  Steve and Emma were at Dragon*con so I had the afternoon to myself and got a lot done.  Then we grilled out for dinner - such a nice day!

"Fargo" from Eureka and Emma (dressed as "Claudia" from Warehouse 13 )

After church yesterday, we constructed a geodesic dome in the school playground.  I think the kids will really have a great time with this and it was fun to put together.  In the afternoon/early evening there was... more knitting!  The cowl is done.  It's almost done drying and I'm hoping to sew the buttons on later this morning.  I love quick, fun projects!!!

Today promises to be fun, too.  Emma needs my help with an assignment for her creative writing class.  She's supposed to sit at Starbucks and "people watch" then write about three people she sees there.  Drive her to Starbucks and knit while she's working?  I'm all over that!  But if she doesn't get out of bed soon it's not going to happen.  Because this afternoon I'm going to make cards/knit with Mary, Lydia, and friends.  Guess I'd better get moving!

Have a great Monday!  Are you doing anything fun?

My Friday

I've been wondering if knit blogging is decreasing in popularity.  It sure seems like it.  This morning I read an article from a couple of years ago.  One thing from the article that stuck with me is that people often post about a finished project but not the process.  Now, I don't know that anyone wants to read about my knitting process :) but I thought it might be fun to see what today was like for me.  There is knitting involved so it can't be that boring, right?

Last night I realized I hadn't cast on the right number of stitches for today's LYS KAL so as soon I got up I finagled the increases to get the right number of stitches.  Knowing the stitches aren't quite right bothers me a bit but not enough to rip it out and start over.

Then I did a little cleaning so one of Emma's friends could come over.  Her friend's mom and I went to lunch at another friend's house to discuss the drama program.  The lunch was fabulous!  (In fact, I think I used that word several times while we were eating.) We had barbecued beef sandwiches, potato salad made with red potatoes and bacon, make-your-own salads with wonderful toppings, and a terrific, still hot from the oven peach cobbler with homemade whipped cream.  Wow!  I'd like to eat lunch there every day!!!

After that I went to my LYS for the beginning of their latest KAL.  Since I had already cast on and worked a few repeats I already have something to show.  Wanna see?

The yarn is Malabrigo Sock in the Primavera colorway.  The pattern is Wendy Johnson's Double Eyelet Rib sock.  I really like how the yarn looks in stockinette better than in the eyelet rib pattern but I'm still happy with it.  The color changes are just a little too contrasting for me.  Mary is using a Pagewood Farm yarn - I think it may be Fruit Freeze.  Anyway...the subtle color differences in her yarn will really look nice in the socks.

Then I played with the dog and now it's back to cleaning.  We're having a 16th birthday party for Emma this weekend.  It's a pool party but rain is forecasted so that means the house needs to be ready as a backup plan.  Here's the first thing I'll tackle...

Most of my yarn is ready to go back into my room after going through the freeze-wait-freeze process.  Guess I'd better get to it.  I hope you've all had a fabulous Friday and are looking forward to a great weekend!

Catching up and WIPs

Oops!  Guess I had an unintentional blog vacation again.  I was in Chattanooga the first weekend in June then there was Vacation Bible School and blogging got away from me. Here are a few random snippets of what's been going on...

*I was in Chattanooga at the synod assembly as a voting member for my church.  It was such a great experience!  In addition to attending to the business of the church, we attended workshops, worshiped daily and heard several inspirational presentations. One was by the Rev. John Nunes.  Among other things, he spoke about malaria and the effort to eliminate it by 2015.  If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, you should go.

*Did you know that getting rid of malaria can be as simple as using a bed net, being educated, and getting quick treatment if you are infected?  A $10 donation will buy a bed net and provide the education needed to use it effectively and learn the symptoms of malaria.  If you would like to donate, you can do it here.  (I would link to my personal fundraising page but it has too much personal info on it for me to put out on the Internet.  Let me know if you want to donate that way and I'll send you a link.)  Thanks for considering to help stamp out malaria!  I'll try not to go on and on about this initiative but I'm pretty pumped up about it!

*Let's see, what else has been going on?  I made fish tacos again with this recipe.  Yum!  I liked it better than the other recipe but Steve and Emma didn't.

   

*There has been knitting.  I'm making a chemo cap for a friend.  It's the Odessa pattern without beads.  (It's a long story but this was supposed to be done a long time ago!)  I'm also working on a prayer shawl (Little Colonnade) and Hamamelis.

*Oh yeah, I unbound (what is the proper term?) my Springtime Bandit and rebound off with a different method:  K2, put the stitches back on the left needle, K2tog through the back loops, K1, repeat.  I'm so glad that I found a stretchy bind off that works for me!  There are actually points to my shawl now.  That wasn't planned but it happened due to the new bind off.  And I love the Cascade Venezia I used for this shawl!!!  It's a merino/silk blend that feels so nice and is great to knit with.

*We've been gardening but I think that deserves its own post so more on that later.  I'll just say that I'm really excited to see cucumber blossoms!!!

Earth Day 2010

   

A bit of a breather

Did you all have a good weekend?  We had beautiful weather and I enjoyed being outside in it to cut the grass yesterday.  With the mulching blade on the mower, I didn't have to empty bags of grass onto the compost pile and it hardly seemed like work.  I did see a lot of things that need done around the yard, though.

I didn't get around to posting on Friday so I'll show you a finished object today.  It's Swifty (Rav link) from Mason Dixon Knitting's Outside the Lines.

These aren't good photos and the project itself isn't pretty like the ones in the book.  But the Swifty does work great!  I just tried it out this morning and was amazed by the dog hair and dirt it picked up.  I need to knit a few more of these.  Do you think I'll clean the floor more often if I have fun cloths to use?

Emma's drama production went well this weekend.  Can you believe I forgot to get a single picture?  I wasn't back stage for costuming and it never occurred to me to snap a photo before.  I'll have opportunities later because the group is taking their show on the road and will visit area elementary schools who don't have arts programs.  I think they'll enjoy acting for the school kids and I think the school kids will love the show.  

Now that much of the drama stuff is over I feel like I have a bit of a breather.  Time to catch up on some of this housework that's piling up around here.  I'd also love to straighten up my sewing room so I can make a few things for my wardrobe.  Lynne has been sewing a lot lately and seeing her lovely projects makes me want to make some of my own.

Have a wonderful day!

Spring seems to be here

Flowers from Emma's bouquet from drama

Good morning, everyone!  It is a beautiful day here in the Atlanta area and it is very springy outside.  Hopefully it will stay! 

Here's what's been going on...

Emma just finished working on a play with her drama group.  She was the assistant stage manager for Cast B and she learned so much!  It was a lot of hard work but she loved it.  One of my favorite parts of her work was that she blocked a scene where the main characters were being chased by bad guys.  Her vision was for it to look Scooby Doo-ish with the characters running back and forth, in and out.  Her idea worked and it was a very funny scene.  Although I don't know if the actors liked all the running around.  :)  I'm so proud of her!

I've been knitting but don't have much to show right now.  One of the ladies in the Ravelry Prayer Shawl group is working on a pattern and I offered to test knit it for her.  It's been a great project to have with me while waiting for drama practice to be over.  I'll show you a photo when I bind off, which should hopefully be this week.  I'm also knitting red fishnet mitts for Emma's role in the next play.

There is a new yarn store in town!  It's called Lovin Knit Yarn Shop and Studio.  They don't have all their yarns in yet but there was plenty to see while I was there.  They had Ella Rae Lace Merino (Rav link), which I hadn't seen before.  Have any of you knitted with that before?  The owner of the store was very friendly and the shop was inviting with stuffed chairs, a table and chairs, lots of windows, etc.  There was even a cute dog named Baby.  It's nice to have another store so close to me.

Well, I guess I should get my day started.  I hope you all have a great Monday!

Good morning!

It's a beautiful day here in Georgia!  It's not too cold and it's sunny and clear.

Our weekend went well.  How about yours?  While Emma had a full day of drama practice on Saturday, Steve and I cooked for a church reception to be held on Sunday and I got some lesson planning done, too.  We finished the day off with chili for dinner (It looked pretty with cheese, sour cream and sliced green onions and I almost took a picture of it for the blog but decided to eat it instead!) and watching the Olympics.  Then yesterday was church in the morning and the installation of our new pastor in the afternoon, followed by the reception.  Plus more Olympic watching at night!

I tell you, I am really going to miss the Olympics.  Usually I don't sit and watch TV at night.  But I got so much done while watching the Olympics that I may have to start watching more TV.  The following photos are not great, but here is what I accomplished in the last few weeks...

 

  
Moss socks - Even though I had finished the first sock quickly, these had been on the needles for a year.  It feels great to have them finished and I've been wearing them a lot.  I'm hoping to get better photos but right now I have a reluctant photographer.

I used Silver's Sock Class as the pattern (one sock on two circs) and really loved it!  I chose a stitch pattern from my knitting stitch dictionary for the mock cables.

 
Hamamelis Shawl #1 - This is the one for my friend that I knit from worsted weight wool.  I like how it turned out but I would like it even better if I had knit it from fingering weight yarn.  I loved knitting this and am looking forward to getting back to knitting the one for myself (after I finish a few other projects).

Palindrome Scarf - While I really like the look of this scarf and I didn't mind all the cables, it took me forever to knit.  In all fairness, I had other projects on the needles at the same time.  But scarves just seem to drag on and on.  Now I have to decide whether to knit February's Rainy Day Scarf or March's Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf for the 2010 Red Scarf Project KAL (Rav link).  I think I'll go with the Rainy Day Scarf since the other red yarn I bought isn't variegated.  (By the way, I ran out of yarn and only ended up with 57 out of the recommended 60 inches.  I'm hoping to block out three more inches.  Do you think it will work?)

Thanks again to Estella for having the idea for the FOFI Olympics and to Jennifer for creating that group!

I hope you had a great weekend and that this is a wonderful week for each of you!