Mind if I Knit?

i'm looking for a job

2009-01-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

Well, since I don't have a job, I figure there's no excuse for not doing my blog again...realizing that I haven't posted since my birthday of last year.

I'm lucky enough to have received some career counseling in my severance package from my former employer. At first I was psyched to have the counseling, as it was always something that I thought that I would need to find a career that I truly loved. But after my first meeting I was a bit skeptical. It felt like I was taking a class on how to look for a job not learning how to identify the job that was right for me. But I just had my third meeting and I'm really excited now. I have a HUGE list of possible careers that I am going to review and, hopefully, put into some kind of rating system so that I can decide which one(s) to move forward with.

In other news, I am finally finishing the afghan for my friends' wedding that was almost a year ago. According to Emily post, I have one year from the wedding to send my gift. I think I'm barely going to make it.

Along the knitting theme, I've decided no more tops until i lose more weight. I did the Back to School vest by Stefanie Japel and it fits great. But I still look like a cow! I'll have the yarn for another Stefanie Japel pattern next week, but I'm holding off until I am at least ten pounds close to my goal weight. Which means I have to start watching what I eat again and getting out and moving more. Should be easy since I don't have a job, huh?!?!?!?

Last, but not least, I am going to participate in a fiber artists' art exhibit. I've never thought of myself as very creative, but this sounds cool and I really want to do it. If you're interested, check out the Milkweed Project.

...it's my birthday...

2008-02-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

I'm officially old. I didn't really feel old until this birthday. 31! I'm 31, still single (albeit with a boyfriend), and I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Man that makes me feel old.

But, on the brighter side I've had some fun celebrations and got lots of cool pressies this year.

On Friday KM, JL, and SJ came over for dinner and to play board games. I cooked, even though it was my birthday. I really wanted to cook. I made Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup, Kona Salad with strawberries and peaches, Goat Cheese Puff Pastries, Chilaquiles, Beef Tenderloin in a chili sauce, and Panko Crusted Bluecheese Fries. For some reason I didn't think that this was too much food for five people. Hah! I liked trying all the new recipes, but would probably only make the soup, salad, puff pastries and chilaquiles again. The panko fries were a huge disappointment.

Oh, and how could I forget that DBF got me a DQ Ice Cream Cake???? Yum-my! I'm going to have the last piece tonight, since it is actually my birthday.

Anyway, we played Ticket to Ride and Smarty Party. Both really fun. I bought Ticket to Ride months ago, but we hadn't had enough people to play it yet. And I had never played Smarty Party, but it was fun, too. I like a little trivia!

And, on Saturday, DBF took me to a wonderful dinner at Fleur de Lys in SF. The restaurant was absolutely beautiful, the service was great and the food was delicious! I had the oxtail consommé "cappuccino" with a truffle duxelle. Then, because I hadn't had enough truffle, I had the filet mignon with sliced truffles in a truffle port wine sauce with truffle mashed potatoes! OMG - I was in heaven! And then it was all topped off with a Chocolate soufflé! Plus I had the wine flight. It was all just so good. I hope I get to go again sometime. When we got home DBF gave me my gift. He took the "My First Visit" pin, park ticket, parking ticket, and a picture of the two of us in front of the Tree of Life from our recent trip to WDW and had it all mounted and framed. How perfect! We hung it up in the house yesterday.

I also got other great pressies! Some yummy lotion, a couple of nice shirts, this really cool letter scale, a gift certificate to yarnmarket, a B&BW gift card, some cloth napkins and some hairbands. I can't remember if that is all or not. But it was a nice birthday. I guess we're just going to relax tonight, since I did all my celebrating over the weekend. I already used my B&BW gift card and redeemed my yarnmarket gift certificate. I bought blue and gold yarn so I can make some WVU socks!

Just because I feel old doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my birthday! :-P

i didn't need that fingernail anyway...

2008-02-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

I just got back from my annual trip to the desert with Andrea. The desert trip includes camping in an RV (I know, not really camping) and riding some type of off-road vehicle. This year it was a dirt bike - and only a dirt bike. Last year I rode a quad most of the time. But this year there were no extra quads, so I rode the extra bike.

I was doing okay. Until Jason decided to guide us on a ride that included a sand wash. Everyone else on the ride knew it was a bad idea, being that I am only on a motorbike once a year and even then only for a few days. But in choosing the route, that was not considered. I did fine for a few miles. I fell and asked how I could better control the bike in the loose sand. "Go faster" was the instruction that I got. So I did...

Unfortunately, going faster didn't quite do it for me. I started losing control, I slowed down, and I crashed anyway. I was mainly okay, but I did injure my first and middle fingers on my right hand. My middle fingernail promptly turned purple. Jason made me ride in the Jeep the rest of the ride. Now I am just waiting for the nail to fall off - ugh!

By Sunday (the next day) I couldn't bend my middle finger at all. That was the end of my riding for the weekend. I was bummed because I would like to improve my riding skills and actually be able to complete a ride. But I know there was no way that I could control the throttle with my middle finger sticking up.

The only good news is that it didn't affect my knitting! Yay! I actually started on the booby scarf when we got off the plane and made pretty good progress over the weekend. I'm about one third done with that scarf. I also got a considerable amount of work done on the New York Scarf. The afghan is now too large to travel with. Which means that I should only work on it when I am home...still hard to do.

plaster city

2008-02-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

i'm obsessed

2008-02-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

Long time no write. I really did intend on writing more often while I was on vacation, but I was so beat after each day of diving that all I wanted to do was go to bed. In the next few days, I'll update the site with pictures from our vacation, diving, and Ray's wedding.

For now though, I have determined that I am obsessed. With knitting, of course. Not just the actual act of knitting, but with everything knitting. Yarn, books, techniques, accessories, everything! I find that I can't go a day without being on Ravelry and it's a good day if that is the only knitting site that I am on. Plus, I've started planning my knitting out WAY into the future. Even though I said I wasn't going to knit gifts all the time, I keep finding the best gifts in knitting patterns! I've already added like four occasions and thus four projects. And that doesn't include all the stuff that I want to knit for myself.

Like today. I bought the yarn and pattern to make my niece a little beret and poncho for her birthday. I've already got five projects that are in progress and another three that I already have planned out. And I just keep looking for more. I think my sister is going to buy the Princess Shawl pattern for me for my birthday - like I need a project that will take over a year!?!?! But I can't help it.

And let's not even talk about yarn. I'm really good at not buying yarn unless I have a project in mind for it. I only have three yarns (about eight balls) that are not assigned to a project. But man if I don't want to shop for it all the time. Online, in LYS, it doesn't matter. As long as I can see the beautiful colorways, getting to touch them is even better!

So they say that the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem. Do I have a problem? Or have I just found something that I really like to do? Can I find a way to do more of it?

know that song "kokomo"?

2008-01-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

So, it's day three of my Miami vacation and I'm worn out! We've been diving two days now, with our third (and final) day tomorrow. Day one was in Key Largo (my first time in the Keys) and while there were some cool fish (parrot fish and barracuda) we had several skills to complete so we didn't get to see much. Chris and I are getting our Advanced Open Water certification through South Beach Divers (ask for Sam). The first two dives were Navigation and Naturalist and we did them at the Molasses Reef. For Navigation we had to swim in a square and come back to the same place. Well, Chris and I had to do it three times to get it right! And for Naturalist we had to identify fishes, plants, and invertebrates. But since Navigation took the whole first dive and about half of the second, we didn't get to do too much looking around.

On Sunday we dove off of Miami. Those two dives were to complete our Deep and Boat diving skills. We did these at the Belcher Barge and Neptune artificial reefs. Definitely a lot more time to look around. We even saw a trumpet fish! Chris got a picture, I hope it turns out. By the time we finished our second dive the waters were pretty choppy and it was difficult to get back into the boat. My legs look like I went snowboarding again! Pretty sore.

Tomorrow we do our last two dives. One of them is Enriched Air Diving (Nitrox) to complete our Advanced Certification and the other one will also be on Nitrox, but it will be just for fun. Back to the Keys tomorrow. I'm hoping we get to do a different site than before. But I'll be okay if it's the same as long as we get good visibility.

And Wednesday it is off to Orlando!

lunch bag

2008-01-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist. Once I bought the yarn for the brown bag I had to make it!

I'm using Cascade 220 Paints in Cherry Berry, double stranded. I think it is going to look awesome once I felt it!

I know I should be working to finish the afghan...but I have resigned myself to it being sent after the wedding, which I have now used as an excuse to take a break from the never ending afghan. Plus, I have all that plane time that I can use to knit the afghan (but I might take the convertible mittens with me).

It's just that the afghan is taking so long. And it's the same thing over and over. I'm only about half done with the panels and I still have to make the edges. Remind me that I am never doing another afghan. Maybe a baby blanket, but I am done with afghans. I'll stick to hats, bags, scarves, socks, etc. Maybe a sweater thrown in here or there. Just something that I can imagine completing in this lifetime!

If any knitters are actually reading this...how do you keep yourself motivated on large projects?

run like hell

2008-01-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

So I just ordered my first ever custom colorway. I'm super excited, even though it's going to take 3-5 weeks for me to get it and it cost more than I've ever spent on yarn. But, it's an awesome colorway and the perfect variegated yarn for the boobie scarf that I want to make!

As the title of the post indicates, the colorway is called "run like hell" and I ordered it from Scout's Swag (one of my favorite places to get hard to find knitting notions). Here it is:

isn't it just perfect for a boobie scarf?!?!?!?

I'm so excited about it that I want to stop working on the afghan and start the scarf right away. I know, I know...the wedding is in two weeks. I'll finish the afghan first.

i have a blog...

2008-01-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of excited because I have a blog now. Not just a random blog, but one that really represents my interests and if flexible enough to include most everything. I have a few things left that are general in nature that I would like to take care of. Need it to link to the url that Chris got me. Need his help for that. And I want to make sure that I have linked to all of the appropriate photos for my travels and knitting. I'm sure more things will come up that I'll want to change, but I am pretty happy with it right now!

christmas in bakersfield

2007-12-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

sierra at tahoe

2007-12-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

walking in seattle

2007-09-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

vaca in seattle

2007-09-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

meeting millie in boston

2007-08-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

graduation in wv

2007-05-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

vaca in costa rica

2007-04-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

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Day 6

Day 7

Day 8