Wednesday, February 27, 2008

My First Sweater!

Here it is, the Tangled Yoke Sweater! Finished in all it's glory! This is the best picture, the color is pretty much right on. (I don't know why this is underlining everything! Sorry!)Here is a picture of the perfect buttons! Notice the celtic design to go along with the celtic-y cable of the tangled yoke! Yeah.
A full on body shot. I kinda jacked up the button band. I'm not so good with numbers and decided to go for it without doing the math. But hey, it's my first sweater. I still think it looks pretty good. No back shot, because I messed up the cable back there a little. Not bad, and my hair will cover it, but I still don't think I should document it with photos!
Oh, and this next shot? I wore it to my going-away-dinner for the library, and when I came home, there was a hole in the armpit! I have to fix it, but I can't find a yarn needle anywhere in this moving mess! It's my mission for tonight.

Oh Project Runway is on tonight! So excited! I shall work on the "cancer cape" shawl, it allows me to knit and watch tv at the same time. Awesome! This allows me to pour all kinds of good thoughts into the shawl, such as joy, laughter, peace, hope and love! I love knitting and watching tv. Throw the whole charity and making someone else feel loved in, and it's like a perfect night!

Also have a pair of monkeys started with some old yarn. I'm saving my smooshy yarn for up north when I'm missing my library peeps. I'll pour myself a cup of coffee in my new library mug and cast on a nice, challenging pair of socks for myself and remember all the good times at the BML.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

On Knitting while Moving

Yeah, the whole trying to knit a prayer shawl while in the midst of moving thing? Not going to well for me.

Yes, this picture is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to turn it. It was the cobweb stole right after you drop the stitches and you get those pretty runs, you can see one down the middle. Well, about two rows later, somehow I screwed up. Over and over and over again. Then I frogged it. Totally. That's a lot of lace to frog. But now I'm trying the Print o' the Wave Stole, which seems much more beginner lace user friendly. We'll see . . .

In the meantime, I decided to go and use my Borders gift certificate that someone from work got for me since I'm leaving next week. I came away with this awesome haul.
Hope's Boy and Schuyler's Monster are biographies. Hope's Boy is about the foster care system and Schuyler's Monster is about a young girl diagnosed with autism because she couldn't speak, but it was a misdiagnoses of some other disease. Persepolis 2, a graphic novel I have to read now that I've heard that the movie was awesome, and The Spellman Files is a mystery that's supposed to be kind of funny. Awesome right? Look what I got on the way home :
Look familiar to anyone? Oh that would be a ticket, for turning where I shouldn't have. Now, I am accepting responsibility here, ok? But are all of you familiar with the Michigan Left Turn system? Woodward Ave.? Look, the only way you can turn around on Woodward, let's say if you've passed your turnoff because you were daydreaming about the cool books you just bought, is to pull all the way over to your left, get in the little turn around lanes that dot Woodward like grains of sand, and do a u-wie. These are perfectly legal, it's the standard of turning on this side of the state, ok? Oh wait. EXCEPT at 12 1/2 mile. Supposedly there is a small sign telling you this, which I missed. And there was a police officer there whose job that day was pulling people over who happened to miss (or just ignore) that sign. Crap.

But look what else I found at Border's that day? It still makes me smile, ticket and all.

Chocolate Rabbis! The inside of the card says "Hope everything's kosher for your holiday celebration. Happy Easter - Happy Passover. How cute? Next time, Tangled Yoke deliciousness.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

A Story in Pictures


What's this? A valentine? For me? How sweet!


Look, chocolate for me, and chewies for the new puppies! My goodness, even a new hat with a cute elephant! I'll share with my daughter!



WHAT?!? - I've been assassinated! With a gorgeous hat and lots of treats! Go Redqueen! (She could take this whole Hat Attack thing! Check it out on Ravelry.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Alpena

I'm here! I got here pretty uneventfully. It took a long time, apparently long enough for my assassin in hat attack to finish her weapon. She didn't mail it until today though, so I'm still knitting furiously.

It's cold here. But I gather it's cold at home too. The blowing snow up here yesterday was crazy! It was like a blizzard at times, you couldn't see anything. But the views from my nice warm cozy ( now anyway, since I've taken control of the thermostat) house are gorgeous. I can't take any pictures cuz I don't have a camera. Mine broke and I couldn't find my sons. I'm hoping my husband will advance me on my paycheck because there are so many great photo ops up here!

Like puppies! Oh my gosh are they cute. A shorkie and a yorkie poo. Teeny tiny little tyrants. We have to let them out three times a night and when they come in they think it's play time! They are best buds. They love to play tug-of-war, with anything, even a receipt from the grocery store! They are still getting the hang of the whole "dogs must crap outside" thing though . . . .

My hat is 3/4 done. I will finish it. I must. Otherwise I lose not only my life, but my dignity! I've done laundry and cleaned the house, painted one wall of of my daughter's bedroom. I couldn't reach the ceiling to tape it, so I rigged the two step on top of a cooler and tapped the ceiling on that wall. But since I didn't really want to take a trip to the Alpena Regional Medical Center emergency room quite yet, I decided to let Joe tape the rest of the ceiling. It's time for knitting don't you think?

I interviewed for a job at the Alpena County Library today. I'm afraid I am very underqualified. It was for a grant writing position. This library rocks seriously. It's huge and it has all these special collections and conference rooms which are used for serious conferences. Our conference room at my library is the only one we have, it's used for everything. Very different. This library has departments! With separate rooms! For goodness sake, it even has an IT department. Staffed by one IT guy. We don't really have an IT department. We have Kristin who is very computer savvy and the computer guy who is the IT department for the whole city of Clawson. Needless to say I was impressed.

But I did find out that I can finish my bachelor's degree through a program at Alpena Community College and then through and online program from the University of Wisconsin, I can even get my MLS. That was very exciting. Even Joe sounded excited when I told him.

So I'm off to do some therapeutic knitting on my doomed hat attack hat. Pictures maybe next time? I hope!