Noro Ho (ro)

Lately all I want to do it knit things with Noro. I picked the sock I started up so I could finish it and I got all enthralled with the colors. Then I was shopping with Jen at one of our LYSs because our birthdays are a week apart so we go there and spend our birthday 20% together. Before I went I was looking through books and the internet (and Ravelry) trying to see what I'd like to knit.

I decided I wanted to knit 2 things... One was a simple lace weight stockinette scarf, like Amy Singer is making.

Now it’s not like I don’t have any laceweight yarn at home. I have plenty (like the camel and silk blend I got at Rhinebeck in 2007 or the 100% silk Tess I got at MD S&W). But this 100% alpaca just did me in. I had to have it. HAD TO. The yardage is fabulous and the cost (less the 20%) was right so it just jumped into my hands and I had to buy it. I haven’t started it yet because I can’t put my hands on my US 1 circular needles. I guess I need to do a little cleaning up of the yarn and WIPs this weekend.

So back to the Noro.

The other was an Eye of Partridge shawl (Original here and one in progress here).

Originally I wanted to make the shawl out of Silk Garden, which I thought would be fantastic with the color runs. But they didn’t have such a great selection. The colors they had in stock didn’t captivate me at all.

So I wandered around, looking at all my other options and found the sock yarn. They had a ton of the Kureyon Sock in some really fun colors so I ended up with this. How beautiful is this yarn? I love doing the shawl because it’s fairly mindless but has beautiful results.

I have 2 skeins which I hope will make the shawl long enough so it won’t point at my butt when it’s finally done.

I also finally had an opportunity to peruse some of the knit blogs I’ve not been able to read for a while. I got to the Yarn Harlot’s blog and saw what she’d been obsessed with and clicked on links and went to Ravelry and DAMN IT! I had to knit one! HAD TO!

I resisted. I really did. But I found myself pulling into one of my LYSs and purchasing two skeins of two different colorways. I started and kept going and going till I had to make myself stop and finish the Peppermint Baby Blanket:

Then I went back to the Noro and finished the scarf.

I’ve been working on the sock at lunch.


It’s almost all Noro all the time at my place. I’m addicted. Crap!

Out of the mouths of 10 year olds...

It was cold here on Thanksgiving, so I wore some of my knitwear, specifically my steeked vest. My nephew #1 and I were cuddling on the couch Thanksgiving afternoon and watchin Journey to the Center of the Earth. He picked his head up from my shoulder and asked:

"Aunt Chrissy? Did you make this?" (scroll down)

"Yes I did"

"WOW!"

It's nice to know my nephews are being raised with a healthy respect for hand made things.

Fun Fact!

My car smells like Urinal Cakes.

Seriously.

Projects with fiber?

Yeah – there have been a bunch of projects. I actually finally finished a pair of socks. Remember when I used to finish a pair of socks all at once? I really got off the sock kick. The Noro threw me for a loop last December and I only finished ONE pair of socks this year. Until this past week. I finished the Red Heart socks.


The dye job was a little splotchy but I’d use it again; if I didn’t have enough sock yarn at home to make 3000 pair of socks. In which case I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t have a ton of sock yarn at home.

A new blankie project! It’s for a baby that’s due in December. I think it’s the perfect choice for a crocheted blanket. CUTE!! It also means I have to busta move on this. I have 6 repeats done of 40. 34 more to go!

Funny how the last new baby I knit for was born in January and this one is practically one year later. That’s a quite a time lag between baby blankets.

The big boy blankets continue to be ignored. I was hoping to have them done by Thanksgiving. That’s not going to happen with the peppermint baby blanket needing to be done in a few weeks. I really need to devote my time to them. The boys will be so bummed if they don’t have them at least by the end of January (which is when they guessed I’d have them finished). I want to have them done this year.

There are so many things I want to start. I have quite a few pair of socks waiting in the wings. I won’t allow myself to start them until I finish the second sock with the Noro yarn. I bought some pretty yarn from The Fold/Blue Moon at Rhinebeck that I want to make a pair of fingerless gloves with. Or maybe another pair of Mrs. Beetons. I love that pattern and they would pretty up my denim jacket.

I also want to start a laceweight project like Amy(Knitty) did a few months ago. I got this beautiful alpaca lace yarn for 20% off and I’ve been itching to cast it on. I also want to make Wisp, which I saw on Ravelry made out of Noro sock yarn. I have the Silk Garden sock (which is SO much softer than the Kuyron sock) and the color runs are perfect for Wisp.

There are some shawl ideas running around my brain also. I need to get them down on paper and see if they’re viable or not. Which means I need to see if I can actually create a pattern that looks as good in reality as it does in my brain.

It’s surprisingly hard to do.

(Sorry for the lack of links. I'll do that later when I can take more than 1 minute to post on the sly)

I do? Redux

Back at the beginning of the college football season, Cmdr K made a bet with me. So imagine my surprise when he asked me last week if I wanted to go to the RU game. The one this past Saturday. Rutgers vs Syracuse.

The game Rutgers won 35-17, making their record 4-5.

They’ve won 4 games.

I won the bet.

Cmdr K is freaking out. He was so happy in the first quarter when Syracuse was winning 14-0. Rutgers had it all tied up by half time. Here we are at the game, when Rutgers tied up the game. Ignore how lousy I look (it was raining and crappy and we were soaked to the skin. I had my hair tucked up into the hat, which didn't work).

He asked me if I wanted to go double or nothing, that Rutgers won’t have 5 wins. How can I marry him twice? Heh

OK, seriously now, there is NO WAY I will marry him. He is too scatter-brained. He is always looking for someone else to date, which is insulting, but it sure lets me know where he stands. He gets mad at me for the dumbest reasons. He is a 52 year old man who has yet to grow up. He is not a great catch.

I think the joke has gone on long enough. I have to tell him that I’m never going to collect on the bet. I settled before and I know how stupid that is. I’d rather be alone than settle.


He’ll be so relieved.

Look What I Got!

My birthday was last week and I was treated to some really wonderful presents. Firstly, I was lucky enough to actually have it snow on my birthday. I don’t think it’s ever snowed so early here in NJ. Naturally Bezzie said if there wasn’t snow on the ground by Halloween when she was a kid, it was unusual. I’d expect so in Alaska – sheesh!

I totally stole this picture of the snow from Shannonknits (on Plurk) or Midnight 2 Sticks (on Ravelry). She lives about 15 – 20 miles from me, and I know we both got hit pretty good with the storm.

I now work one day a week at one of our project sites, which is where I was on my birthday. It didn’t snow there, but it did rain buckets and we had thunder and lightening. By the time I got home all the snow was gone so I never got a picture of it. It was worth commemorating I thought.

Onto the present I got from Cmdr K. I don’t’ know if I mentioned, but he is a neat freak and really handy with the DIY stuff around the house. He’s done some minor repairs for me which has been awesome. Oh, and he’s a really good cook. A couple of months ago, he was cooking me dinner and he was amazed at the low water pressure coming out of the kitchen faucet. He went to get my tool box and he took the whole thing apart and determined that it was the actual arm of the unit where the water comes out.

Yes – that’s the technical term.

I have one of those faucets that incorporates the sprayer into the arm unit thingy and Cmdr K decided the arm unit thingy had gunk (another technical term) in it and that’s why the pressure was low.

You know where this is going don’t you?

So here it is, my birthday present from my non-BF:

It still isn’t installed but hopefully it will be soon.

When I got back into the office on Wednesday after my birthday, I discovered the BEST PRESENT EVER was waiting for me. As you know from my previous posts I work for small, petty people. Not a week goes by that there isn’t some dig at me and my work. Anyway, the other admin who I don’t report to came over to my cube to wish me a happy birthday and asked me (in a very hush-hush voice) if I had heard the news. No I hadn’t.

My Boss gave his two + weeks notice. As if that wasn’t enough, the admin I report to decided to retire. She'll still be around for a couple of months or so, working through a temp agency so she can train the person who is replacing her. I believe one of those days is the day I spend at the offsite office. I'll only have to deal with her for one day a week! I'm so happy!

I told my Mom that I got the BEST PRESENT EVER and she said:

"You mean besides the faucet?"

Heh.

I Voted!

Did you?

It was a hard decision but I decided the best thing to do was to vote for the First Lady. Which one of the two women would I want representing our country?

Heh

Not really, but it almost came down to that.