Waiting

That's the name of the game for now. Baby J is officially due the 13th but could decide to make his appearance just any time. Every time I feel something even the slightest bit new or different, I'm convinced that I'm going into labor. I know that I just need to be patient, but that isn't my strongest virtue.

Other than being a bit stubborn, the little one is doing just fine. I really can't complain either, although this heat isn't so much fun. As long as I'm sitting down and I'm in the AC I'm great though. Just can't wait to meet him!!

I've actually been getting in some good knitting time recently, thanks mostly in part to finally getting into Ravelry. I won't go on and on about it, but suffice it to say that I'm completely hooked. My nickname is Allsmile, feel free to look me up if you're already signed up. I can't wait until it is public so everyone can get involved and we can get even more fun features. Ok, so I'm really just looking forward to not having to mess with my sidebar anymore...

So, what have I been knitting? Well, there was some baby knitting going on. I finished up a nice soft pinwheel blanky that is safely tucked away in Baby J's diaper bag. I figure he'll need something nice and homemade while in the hospital. I was hoping that finishing the blanket would be enough to entice him out, but no such luck. After knitting on that for a couple days straight to finish it, I was about done with baby stuff for the moment. I still have another blanket on the needles, his Trellis which is paused way too close to being done, and a sweet bootie needing some seaming and a mate.

Since finishing the pinwheel, I've really been working on just two projects: MS3 and a pair of socks. I signed up for the last Mystery Stole, but never got around to starting it. This time I have really gotten into it! Not enough to keep up with the clues, but still. Here's my progress so far.

More on the socks (and hopefully baby pictures) next time.

Fighting Startitis

Well, not fighting too hard. I've started two very happy projects in the past couple weeks. Of course there are still probably five more I'd like to start. I was doing so well with clearing out old projects too. Ah well, they won't mind waiting a little longer.

So here they are, the two I just can't stop working on.


On the left we have "Mediterranean Lace" from A Gathering of Lace. It is just divine. I'm using some lovely alpaca laceweight I've had in my stash forever just waiting for the right pattern. I have had a craving for some lace, though I'm not completely sure where I'd wear lace, but was having such a hard time finding something that appealed to me. I'm a bit picky about my lace apparently. For those who aren't familiar with it, this shawl as written has the beginnings of a regular triangular shawl in the back, but then it has two rectangles that make the front look more like a long stole. I'm leaning towards just making a straight triangle... We'll see.

On the right is my multidirectional scarf. I've seen these all over blogland (about 4 years ago of course) and have loved the pattern but just never found a good candidate for yarn. I probably shouldn't say this, as I've never actually knit with it, but I'm not a big Noro fan. To me they all feel pretty scratchy and for some reason I have trouble finding colorways that I like. But then I saw this Rowan Tapestry. The colors are amazing and it is SO SOFT! I couldn't resist this lovely autumnal colorway.

One requires a bit of concentration and the other is prefect for my podcast knitting. I could just knit on those two all day. Unfortunately, as it always goes, just as soon as I thought things were slowing down I got really busy again. I'm getting ready to graduate in May, so the job search is on. I went through what I now know to be the first round of on campus interviews at the beginning of October, but nothing came of them. I was trying to keep my spirits up and just figured that after the new year I'd start looking in papers and applying to companies I've heard of in the area. And then a week ago I was offered the opportunity for two more interviews, the first of which is tomorrow. *Sigh* I really want to get a job lined up so I can just enjoy the rest of school, but I so seriously hate interviews.

And to make things even more complicated, one of the jobs I'm interviewing for wants me to move to Cincinnati in a year. I don't really mind the move in itself. I mean, I love KC but Jaime and I have talked about moving. The thing is that I hate to leave my mom when her cancer could return at any time. If this job was my last resort, I would do it cause I must get a job. But I feel like there are still opportunities in town that I haven't checked out yet. If they offer me a job in two weeks though, I just don't know how I'll handle it.

Well, this has gotten you pretty much up-to-date on stuff in my world. Now if the interviewing and homework gods will just let me keep up.

Have a great day!

In Which A Bad Weekend Makes For Good Crafting

It's all over. That's a plus. So Jaime's car tags expired at the end of July. But being broke now, and with the promise of money coming out our ears by mid-month, we really had no choice but to wait for the money to get him new tags. But I'm not doing a darn thing, so he had been taking my car to work. No biggie. Not ideal maybe, but nothing terrible.

Until Friday (only the 4th), when we both woke up from an afternoon nap (hey, just cause I don't do anything doesn't mean I can't get tired...) to find that his car was gone. We assumed that someone in the apartment office had it towed. Yeah, great! Jaime flipped out and after I finally calmed him down we spent the rest of the night trying to remember what "normal" was supposed to feel like. He talked to someone in the office Saturday, but she only works on Saturdays and had no idea what was going on. She seemed to deny that they had anything to do with it, suggested we try the police, and gave the name of the tow company they use. Hmmm, first hint that things weren't adding up.

So we searched for the phone number for this tow company, but they had no listing in the phone book or online. Must not get much business that way huh? Called the police station and they said that they can't tow a car from private property. Haha. Another dead end.

Meanwhile my wonderful Mommy, whom I may never speak ill of again, assured me that by Monday she would be able to get us the money we'd need to get the car back. Sure, she'd already given me $60 so we could pay our rent, but she's just that good. I got a lot of knitting done that weekend. Not much sleep, but my nervous fingers were flying! Here's some proof.

In honor of UFO August I've gone back to working on my Clapotis. It is so slow! And, I'm going to need another skein to make it as long as I want it. But I made progress none the less. You can click here for a close-up.

Sunday I went with my dad to Topeka (1.5-ish hours away) to see my Aunt Cathy in the hospital. She has been there for over a week now with some bad bladder infection turn kidney infection. I assume she isn't home yet, as I told my dad to keep my updated, but she was doing a bit better when I saw her. (Her kidney function was up to 25% and she had pretty much stopped hallucinating) On the trip, I got some work done on my socks. Gotta love passenger knitting.

Monday we called the office to get the number of the tow company. She apologized up and down, claiming that the tow company makes a sweep every so often and she didn't know whose car it was and she's soo so so so sorry. Hmmm. And gave us a cell phone number for the tow company. We called, they had the car. WOOOHOO! Yes it sucks, but it's better than it being stolen. Oh, and they'll even tow it back. No need to go to them. Again, I find this whole thing VERY ODD. But we want the darn car back, so ok.

We got the money they told us we needed, plus a little towards the car tags which we had to go get that day too. They called and said they were on their way, and to watch for them at around 11:45. Jaime, not wanting to miss them, goes outside at 11:30. At 12:30 they call and say they're running late (really??) and are probably 15 minutes away. At 1:00 they finally show. I watch from a window, and notice that they are having to jump start the car to get it parked. Hmmm, is that normal? I don't know much about cars, obviously.

Jaime comes back upstairs, not so happy. Turns out that the battery is beyond dead. The power locks wouldn't even work. The tow guys claim that the dome light was on when they picked it up. I don't believe it for a second myself. Oh, and they tried to charge us an additional $50 for towing the car back here. Which they didn't mention when totaling the charges over the phone and giving us no choice in the matter. Jaime said he only had $25 extra and they decided that was ok. People can be so kind.

So the car was back in the lot. And after an hour sitting on the floor at the DMV, we even had it's new tags on it. Sure, it won't move, but at least we know where it is. Jaime decided that he could change the battery, now we just needed the money to buy a new one. He was going to ask his boss for a loan, but he was away for a few days and it was making Jaime crazy not to have his car, and this whole ordeal, fixed and done. So I asked my mom for a wee bit more money. I will not complain the next time she asks me to vacuum the ceiling for her. At least not out loud.

Yesterday, Jaime got the battery and switched them out. I was terrified that after all this, something else would go wrong, but it seemed to do the trick. AHHHHHHHHHH!

I've also gone back to spinning again. I've been doing one length every day, and I can see such an improvement over the last skein I spun up. It isn't completely even, but much much more so. And I'm getting pretty good at adding in a new length of roving and even at reattaching the roving when there's a break. Those two things have been giving me the most problems so it's nice to be figuring them out. Of course, I still spin the spindle, park it and then draft, but it works for me so I'm not stressing it.


WW Update
I lost another good amount this past week, 4.2 pounds. I've so far lost 22.4 pounds and I'm so happy. I'm just a little over 10 pounds away from making my big 10% mark and I'm hoping to have it gone before my birthday in September. Wish me luck!

Have a great week everyone. I sure am going to try to :)

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 :)