In a Funk

The time to move back to AR is looming near, and it has me in a sour mood. The reason being that my husband's military job has him out of town until the day before my departure. So I sit at home alone, watch marathons of Sex and the City, and occasionally knit on Alison's Nightie. I packed approximately 5 boxes today, but didn't make much progress overall.

There are two good pieces of news, though. Firstly, I finished a top-down raglan shrug of my own design. It's a pretty piece, but it is made from an acrylic blend yarn and needs more of a blocking than my leaky old steam iron could deliver. I didn't wear it to our anniversary dinner as originally planned, but that was only because my husband bought me an entirely new dress for the occasion. We did snap a few pictures of it, although not in the greatest of lighting.







There are similar patterns to this in existence, but I really wanted this piece to have baby cable ribbed edgings. The yarn is Lion Brand Baby Soft in white. It has rayon running throughout that gives a very nice sheen. I would really like to work this pattern up in wool or alpaca, or at least something that can be blocked easily in order to really define the baby cable rib. I kept notes so that I might post the pattern to Ravelry, but who knows when I'll actually get around to doing so.

The second piece of good news is that I just got the Knit Picks ball winder and have been winding up a storm. Lots of partially used skeins and formerly hand-wound balls are now transformed into pretty little cakes. Strangely, there were no hanks that required the erection of the clothes hanger swift. Anyway, winding up everything in the stash provided a good impression of doing actual work. I mean, why pack up messy, knotted, half-used skeins when cakes stack so nicely in boxes, right? My feelings exactly.

Recovery time and knitting time go hand in hand.

It's been 5 days since my wisdom teeth came out and I am just now beginning to recuperate. Eating is still a challenge, but there has been plenty of time to sit on my haunches and knit. And knit I have. The end is in sight for Alison's Nightie. Twenty-one inches in and only nine more to go. After working on that project for 3 days in a row my attention strayed elsewhere. Yesterday I ventured out into public, swollen jaw and all, in search of Noro Kureyon. My favorite LYS was a little farther than I cared to drive, so I went to an LYS more conveniently placed near my home. I was disappointed to see they had no Kureyon, but I didn't want to leave empty-handed so I bought some circular needles and then went to the mall across the street.

A walk around the mall and then through Micheal's left me with the memory that I told my husband I would wear a dress out to our anniversary dinner this weekend. Well this particular dress and this particular weekend kind of require a shrug or something similar to cover the shoulders. So I looked through the yarn at Micheal's and picked out something lightweight with a little shimmer.

Upon returning home I promptly searched Ravelry for a pattern for a shrug or bolero that would go with my dress. But there was a problem in that I already had a specific look for the shrug in mind and I wasn't seeing it in any existing patterns. I decided to try to conjure up my own pattern (with the aide of an instructional book) and cross my fingers that I can knit this thing up by Saturday. So far, so good. I'll know more tomorrow.

With a Swiftness

If you've been stalking Ravelry recently you may have seen a post from a user called FizzTheCarbonated about a swift she made using 4 clothes hangers, a lazy susan, and some clothespins. Well, I thought her idea was mighty fine and I said to myself, "Hey, I have hangers and a lazy susan...I can build a swift, too!!" I dug up all the necessary ingredients, found a bit of tape, and assembled my masterpiece. And I spun my swift in glee. Then my lazy susan came off its ball bearings (or whatever was making in spin) and my masterpiece was no longer in operation. Damn. So I trekked off to store after store until I finally found a new lazy susan (at Target!) to purchase. I brought it home, re-taped various things, and was off spinning again. Swift Part Deux works like a charm..

..which is very good because I have three more skeins of Knit Picks yarn to ball up for Alison's Nightie. I don't have a proper ball winder, but that is a-okay because at least with this swift I can sit comfortably on the couch while balling up yarn, as opposed to standing on dining room chairs with the yarn draped over the chair backs.

Not to let a wave of DIY motivation go to waste, I decided that my closet was full of a lot more clothes hangers, and surely some of those would be fit for turning into sock blockers, right?

Yep.



It doesn't matter that I have only one pair of hand-knit socks that needs blocking. Someday the sock bug might bite me again. The best part about these blockers is that they can hang conveniently in closets or from doorknobs for extra speedy drying.

*Sigh* fun time is over now. It's time to get back to knitting on Alison's Nightie. Did I mention that I am using size 1 needles? Or that this piece needs to be at least 30 inches long (at a gauge of 10 rows/inch ?!)? And there are 288 stitches/row?? Crazy, I know. The good news is that I'm approximately 15 inches in already.

Changes keep happening

Yesterday was my last day at work. I was thoroughly excited about it for weeks, but now that I am actually unemployed...well, it just feels weird. I left on a good note, though. And just in time, too. Next week the store is going to get a completely new register system and a remodel. But the best part about all this newly found free time will be that I can spend more time working on Alison's Nightie, which has to be done by June 26.

So on Thursday night the husband and I saw Ben Folds live at the House of Blues. Holy hell, that was one awesome concert. We were really close to the stage, the performance was really spectacular, and he played all the songs I wanted to hear. Everyone know that I am a Ben Folds fan to the point of lunacy, while my poor husband is not. But even he thought the concert was one of the best live shows he's ever seen. I didn't get any pictures from the show, but I did get a souvenir t-shirt. It was one major thing to mark off of my life's To-Do List.

More changes are coming up quickly. In a week my wisdom teeth are getting pulled, which gives me anxiety to no end. But at least the damn dentist will stop telling me how badly they need to come out. And soon my sister will fly out to San Diego so that she can help me load up my stuff and haul it back to Arkansas. In August I will be an official med student. I just hope that knitting time won't be completely overshadowed by study time.

Today was a good day

Although I still have one more week to go at my job, today was my good-bye potluck party. I have to say that it was a pretty touching event. I was given a card that all of my coworkers wrote nice little comments in. I was surprised all day with sneak-camera attacks. One of the women I work with said she is going to print those photos out and make an album for me to take back to Arkansas. All in all, it was a great day. And everyone loved my spinach artichoke dip! I would have taken a picture of it, but that sort of thing doesn't photograph in an appealing way, you know? It is, however, super easy to make. Here is the recipe I use:

Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 pkg. cream cheese
1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and drained very well
1 can or jar artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend (the kind in the plastic tub that is often found close to the cream cheese)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper

Soften cream cheese at room temperature. Heat oven to 350. Lightly spray a glass baking dish (8x8 is a good size.) Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish and smooth the surface with a spatula. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. If you like an extra cheesy top layer, uncover dish after 25 minutes and top with a layer of the shredded cheese blend. Bake uncovered for another 5 minutes.


On the knitting front things are at a standstill. I had a moment of why-the-hell-do-I-keep-casting-on-new-things-when-I-should-be-working-only-on-Alison's-nightie frustration, which led me to throw my hands up in the air and turn my back to all the wip's sitting on my coffee table. I did, however, pick up a couple of cute buttons from a fabric store that I learned about from crochetgurl. The problem is that I am not sure if the project for which the buttons are intended will ever reach fruition. Oh, well. I'll write more on that once I decide whether to abandon it or just plow forward.

But all my facebook friends are doing it...

I stole this meme from some peeps on facebook to celebrate the fact that my favorite artist is finally swinging by this neck of the woods, and that the concert is a mere 9 days away(!)

Rules:

Pick an artist, and using only song titles from that artist, cleverly (preferably) answer these questions. This is harder than it seems! Additional rule: You cannot use the same artist I did, or duplicate song titles even if they were performed by another artist.

Ben Folds (including Ben Folds Five)

1. Are you a male or female:
*Girl

2. Describe yourself:
*Not the Same

3. How do you feel about yourself:
*Learn to Live With What You Are

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend:
*Satan in My Master

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation:
*The Luckiest

6. Describe your current location:
*In Between Days

7. Describe where you want to be:
*Landed

8. Your best friend is:
*Gone

9. Your favorite colour is:
*Silver Street

10. You know that:
*There's Always Someone Cooler Than You

11. What's the weather like:
*Trusted

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called:
*For Those of Ya'll Who Wear Fanny Packs

13. What is life to you:
* Fear of Pop

14. What is the best advice you have to give:
*Don't Change Your Plans

15. If you could change your name what would it be:
*Give Judy My Notice

Oops

I cast on another project today. I am equally ashamed and excited. It was an instant gratification sort of thing. It was an irresistible sort of thing. Follow the link and you'll see what I mean.

It's blocking now.