It Has Been Far Too Long...

since I've posted a picture of Junior. Right?


taken 9/24/08

I think he has finally turned a corner and decided to give table food a real go. Last night he had peas and carrots and apples for dinner. Yaaaay! He's so big now. And he is getting harder and harder to entertain. Jaime and I play with him, and he has toys, but he just seems to need more excitement. My mom went with Jaime and Junior to look at cars and Junior was an angel (ok, those were my mom's words and of course she thinks he's an angel). When we're out of the house he's fine. I think he is just bored of his toys, his room, us.

Sooooo, knitting. Right. I've been knitting a little bit.







That would be palm cozy, Monkey's and Junior's blue jeans socks. They are all knit in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Jeans. I just can't get rid of this yarn! I bought two skeins for socks and only used a teensy bit from the second skein on my Monkey's. I'm thinking Junior might get his first hat this fall made to match his socks.

Ok, one more Junior pic for the road.


taken 9/24/08

I sure love that kid.

Introducing

Junior



and his Pinwheel Blanket.

A Title Would Require Too Much Thought...

School Update
School is finally over and I'm just beginning to catch up on my usual laziness. The school website is down so I can't find out what grades I got, but I'm sure I did well enough. Well enough for me at least. My dad won't be thrilled because I didn't get all A's, but whatever. At least it's OVER! I'm actually taking an online course through the community college over the summer, but it shouldn't be too big a deal.

Fun finals week story. So, I had two finals scheduled for 7:30 AM, one Monday and one Friday. (7:30 AM is an ungodly hour for a final to begin by the way) And one of them got pushed back to 8 (thank god!) because it wouldn't take the full time anyway. So I study Sunday night for a few minutes and show up Monday morning at a couple minutes to 8 with nothing but my notes for that class (for some quick cramming before the tests were passed out). And for some reason there's another class in the room. Uhh, did I miss something? Yeah, I call Jaime to check my Palm calendar and I've mixed up my 7:30 finals. I'm supposed to be in the middle of the other one, which is an open note test. Did I mention I had nothing with me?? So I cried and I drove back home and emailed the teacher begging to take it another time. Fortunately he let me, but I was completely terrified for the rest of the day until he got back with me. Yeah, my mind was soo not on finals, obviously.

Mom Update
My mom is doing pretty well. She made it through surgery all right and has only made me crazy a few times. The pathology reports said it was a recurrence of the sarcoma she had last time and she'll be starting chemo Friday, assuming they ever confirm the appointment. More than her annoying me, although like I said there have been moments, I've mostly been annoyed at doctors. We've spent so much time waiting for calls back and for appointments to be confirmed. I do realize that the nurses and doctors are very busy, but it gets frustrating. We actually went to a "Cancer Action" center yesterday and she picked out some scarves and a wig for when she needs them. She seems to be taking things pretty well right now. I'm just trying to prepare myself for whatever I may need to do to help her. I'm generally a patient person but she just gets to me for no reason, so I've been trying to work on that. Ahh, personal growth here I come.

Knitting Update
There still hasn't been a whole lot going on. When I get a chance to veg out I don't even have the energy to knit. I did manage to knit my mom a really nice washcloth for Mother's Day. And I finished up a child sized hat for Dulaan. Nothing terribly exciting. Oh, and I knit a bit more on my spiral scarf. Enough to finally conclude that me and Addi's don't mix well. Every pair I've had now the finish eventually starts wearing off. I'm thinking maybe it's like those people who can't wear a watch cause their chemistry makes the watch stop working. Something in my chemistry just erodes Addi needles. Yes, I am a freak :)

This doesn't relate to my knitting, but I just wanted to say a public thanks to my new friend Erica and her mom for knitting up a bunch of great things for Dulaan. Before winter break I mentioned on a knitting list on Facebook that I was knitting for Dulaan and that I'd be happy to send along stuff from anyone else who wanted to help. I am so glad that I decided to get the word out, Erica and her mom were awesome and put my donations to shame.

Random Stuff
*I've actually been reading a lot more lately. Hmmm, escapism much?? I just finished a great book by Jane Green. She is now one of my favorite fun authors. No, she probably won't change your life, but that's just fine.

*I totally owe you guys some pictures! I have a whole series from Polski Day with my dad. It seems like it was AGES ago. And I have a couple cute ones of my mom and I. And I might even get around to taking some pictures of my knitting eventually...

*This weekend is Memorial Day and therefore party weekend at Aunt Cathy's. It sounds like it'll be packed with random relatives this year, so it should be interesting. My family (and when I say family I refer to my dad's side) is unique and wonderful and beyond description. Gotta love em :)

Life Update

Ups and downs. That pretty much sums it up.

My mom's minor surgery went well last week, now we just have to make it through the next one this Friday. I'm not terribly worried about the surgery now, and I don't think she is either, it's the stuff afterwards that we're all stressing. My mom's still scared and unsure about the chemo. For a while I was really angry that she was worried about being tired or nauseated when it could save her life or at least extend it. And I was angry at myself for being selfish and thinking she should do what she could to stay alive for me. I'm starting to get over that now, I still hope she will decide to go through with it since the study she found says there's a 50% chance it'll help, but I can sort of understand her thinking.

Besides stressing about that and school and family and a job... I haven't been doing a ton of knitting. I started a washcloth for my mom as she was complaining about hers being really old and too rough. It's nice to be able to knit something that can comfort her in some way while I'm thinking about her and sending good thoughts. Almost a prayer washcloth :)

And of course I'm ridiculously behind on my blog reading and podcasts. Just not enough hours in the day. Have a great day everyone!

My Random Day

Hey, everyone else is doing it.

1. Is it weird that the only playlist I've created in iTunes is "Drinking Songs"? I am in college I guess...

2. My Aunt Vicki is coming into town for the week of Easter. Her birthday also happens to be on Easter and I've volunteered to make her a pair of socks. Why do I open my mouth??

3. Because of the above, all other knitting (should, in theory) be put to the side immediately considering my history with socks. And I'm thinking I should go for full socks, as opposed to ankle socks which is what I make for myself, which means more knitting.

4. I've decided on a project for my handspun, Panta. I don't have a link for the pattern, but everyone's made one and you can probably find it on Craftster if you search. I think I'll have enough for at least a narrower one and I love the pattern. Yaay! Oh, but not until the socks are done, right.

5. Saw some action last night. No, unfortunately it wasn't THAT kind of action. I swear we might as well be married... Anyway, right as we were getting ready to get in bed last night we saw two police cars pull someone over in the parking lot of our apts. As Jaime says, "It doesn't take two cops to write a ticket," so we were curious. Apparently (I wasn't watching yet) the guy got out of his car and tried to jump this like 6+ foot fence, which fell down. Then they had to like tackle him and stuff. Hey, you don't see this stuff here too often. Pretty soon there were 7 cop cars all over the place. They carted him off and didn't appear to find anything of interest, though they certainly looked. We maybe sat at the window and watched this for 40 minutes. Sakes, we are boring huh?

6. Tuesday night we're off to see wrestling live. Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Jaime's a HUGE lifelong wrestling fan. I never would have given it the time of day if not for him, but now I'll watch sometimes with him or at least keep up on the stories. It's seriously the same as the soaps with some fighting in between. Oh, and there are some cute guys too. Anyway, this will be my first live show and I'm actually pretty excited. Sports are always more fun in person. And I could be on tv :)

That's about all the randomness I have for now. I swear, I will get those pictures soon. Hopefully Monday will be nice enough for an outdoor photoshoot. Happy weekend!

Crafty Update

So I was gonna jump back in with a fun school preview, as I've been to all my classes by now. But I'm tired of thinking about school and I've been promising pictures. So we'll just do the crafty thing for now. So while I was away on leave, I did manage to get some knitting done. I knit a hot pad for the new place, as the old ones were kinda funky. But it's boring. I finished up Shopper after seaming it a couple times to get it just right. I absolutely love it, but of course haven't found just the right time to use it yet. And for some reason it got passed over when I was taking pics.

So the big new projects are the padded footlets for my sockapal2za pal and the famous kiri for my grandma for Christmas. I'm not so sure about the socks yet. I don't know if it's my gauge or the yarn or both, but the doubled paddy part is sorta stiff. I'm using Opal in two of the solid colors. Here's a terrible pic of it so far.



I'm hoping maybe after I get it washed the stiffness will go away. But that may just be because I don't wanna rip back. Any thoughts?

Here's my Kiri stretched out some.



I did have the pattern pretty much memorized, but I haven't worked on it much lately so I have to go back to the pattern now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it though. Lace is so much fun!

Besides this, I've been preparing to do some scrapbooking. Now that I have my desk I have all my sb stuff set out and organized so I'm ready to go. I got two cute pictures from my mom, who almost never gets her picture taken, and I can't wait to get them on some pages. I really want to do a page about what all she's been through this past year, but I'm going to have to think about what I want to say and how I should design the page. She's so amazing.

So that's what I've been up to creatively. We'll see how much crafty stuff I can fit in once I really get into my new schedule. I'll be back soon with more :)

A Tour And Some FO's

I just couldn't stay away. There's still TONS to do, but I'm not feeling as overwhelmed. Wait till Saturday. Oh, and it's supposed to be 102 degrees on moving day. Woohoo!! I hate heat. We got about 7 boxes packed up this weekend and would have done more but that's all Jaime had stolen from work. Nearly all of my stuff is packed, he's putting everything off. It's sorta making me crazy, but this weekend I'll be relaxing while he's freaking out and packing. Oh well. And while packing I took out my old and not working Palm and decided to give it one more try. Yeah, It works now. I'm completely happy, except that part of me that's pissed I could have been using it the past year.

I've also been a a big finishing kick. I've decided that it'd be easier to transport knitted goods that are finished and in one piece than bags of WIP's. I've finished 3 things in the past few days! Does anyone even remember when the last time I finished anything was?? I'll have to update my sidebar soon. Here are two of the newly finished goodies.



At first I was trying not to start anything, but I'd been wanting to make a washcloth out of this yarn forever. And I figured it would be something quick I could get done. I don't think the color really came through, stupid rainy day, it's a really happy yellow. I may be nuts, but I think this is the most beautiful washcloth ever. I may have a new obsession. I also restarted and finished my Big Wool scarf. I won't be using it for a while, but at least I'm now down to only 2 scarves waiting to be finished, not inclusing clapotis. I'm also trying to finish one of the books I'm reading, and hopefully I can even get Shopper done.

Here's the tour of our current appartment. In case any of the photos are misleading, it's tiny. If it looks roomy, the photos lie. And as always, click to see the bigger version.



Note my "desk" on the coffee table. That is our entire living room, on the other side of the couch is one small end table and then the doorway into the next room.



This is my little end table. I have my current projects scattered around it and the books and mags I'm reading on top. The drawers have some yarn in them as well as all my knitting accessories. It doesn't always look quite that messy, but most of the time haha.



Obviously the kitchen. The one good part of this place is the big counter. I took this picture in the living room looking in.



Our bedroom. It's tiny. That's a queen size bed that completely fills the room. The desk is built in so we can't do anything else with the space. Don't tell Jaime I showed you his big butt sleeping hehe.



This little hallway-ish thing has our sink and the closet which I didn't take a picture of. We had to hang those shelvey things cause there isn't nearly enough counter space. It's usually much fuller, but we packed up the non-essentials (makeup and perfume for instance).



And an idea of our bathroom. It's pretty darn small too. Behind the door, next to the toilet, is a cabinet that has the water heater in it. Meaning we can't put anything in there. We do have some magazines on top though. Oh, and the bathroom really isn't that dirty...

So there it is. Can't wait to get some pictures of the new place. We move in less than a week!!! Have a great day everyone :)

Mid-terms...dun-duh-duh

It's getting to be mid-term time so I've been pretty busy, but I've still managed to get some pretty good knitting done. I finally got my mom's scarf to the right width and it's almots long enough. I can't wait to get it done cause it gets red fluff everywhere. It's soo soft though! I finished the second pot holder for Jaime, so now I've only got the scarf project going. I have no idea what I'm going to do after I finish it. I have a million patterns saved up, but not enough or the right type of yarn to make any of them. And no money to get any more yet. It's so sad :(

Yaaay Me!

Woohoo! I finally finished my poncho. And it is just a perfect as I had hoped. I finished the actual knitting Saturday night. I didn't think I'd ever get it done; every time I tried it on in front of the mirror, it needed "just a couple more inches." Finally I just said enough. Luckily it worked out perfectly. This morning I finished seaming it up and hiding all those little ends. I'm so proud of myself!

Since I suddenly had an opening for a new project (I'm trying to keep it to 2 knitting projects at once) I immediately started on a scarf for my mom. Of course I made it too wide as usual (a bad habit of mine is to make scarves too wide) so I turned it into a pot holder for Jaime. It's kinda sheddy (made of lion brand chenille), but it's pretty nice. So I've finished two projects this weekend over all. Pretty cool!!