I try

Working on getting it together around here.  I've had lots of waiting room fun, which equals lots of knitting time.  But sadly a lost camera cable is causing me grief today.

I'm almost done with some socks out of yarn from Gryphon's shop .  It's her traveller sock yarn and I am loving the sproing! quality.  I am so happy that it is not doing any funky pooling or striping but the colors are just spotting around like a good handpainted yarn should.  Very happy with it.  (No pictures!?  Nope.  I will find the cable for the camera somewhere in this house.  Big Brother was using it last and he's in school, so we all have to wait to see.)

The pink and purple socks are riding in the backseat of my car right now.  Being neglected.  I'm at that boring long stretch of the foot and got distracted by the fun lace of the other socks... so... not much happening there.  And since I can't exactly show progress, all is good.

Thursday I am running away from home.  I have it all planned but it feels like running away!  My long-time-childhood-friend-stitching-group is going off to Destin Florida for a girl's weekend.  I'm going to win the prize for the biggest haul of stuff because I am bringing along all the big almost finished projects to wrap up.  Mark's blanket, the pinwheel jacket, and those socks.  I think I can get a bit done on them all.  I would love to wrap up at least one of them.  Hoping the 5 hour drive is enough to finish the socks.  I'm carpooling and in the passenger seat this trip.  Ahhhhhh.   A whole weekend with nothing but knit time.

And if I run out of things to do?  Well, of course there is a place to restock my bag,  Unwind with Yarn.  I have to make a comment here about craft store names.  When you try to get creative it can sometimes bomb bigtime.  All the good ones are taken.  My mother, not sure what she was thinking, opened a shop in Highlands NC years go when she was a full-time resident.  She named it "Needlepoint... is pretty wonderful".  Complete with those "..." in the legal name.  We teased her about it a lot.  When she sold it to her employee she promptly renamed it "Needlepoint of Highlands".  It was a thriving business though so I guess a name is just that.

I got tagged

Kaya, over at sisterly knits tagged me. The Power of Seven. So here goes...

1) Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. (check!)
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. (see below)
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. (hoping these will play along)
4) Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (done)

Seven things about me:

1) I drink way too much Diet Coke.  I have a small caffeine addiction.  I must have the stuff in the house.  I go to the grocery when we are running out. (I fasted today for my lab work for my physical and as soon as I gave my blood I went to the machine at the hospital.  It's that bad.)

2) I have a degree in printmaking.  The fine art kind, not the poster or book making kind.  If you are wondering has it come in handy? Never.  But I finally went and got several things framed not too long ago.  I'd really like to have a working studio one day.  I had one of those instructors who did not believe in A+'s but I got A's.  So I was good.  I like to think in the negative that way.  Doing it backwards is a challenge.

3) In spare time I use graph paper to design house plans.  I'm kind of a freak about it.  I love to flip through home magazines and would miss HGTV if it went off the air.

4) Give me a challenge and I thrive.  Every day stuff, not so much.  If it's one of those situations I'm your girl.

5) I am a horrible house keeper.  I do not understand the joy people get from the act of cleaning.  I like it clean and want it done but I am terrible at it and can ignore the small stuff for an embarrassingly long time.

6) I'm a huge procrastinator.  I'm always the wait til the last minute to do it girl.  Must be some how related to needing a challenge.

7)  I like being alone.  I need to be alone.  I love my friends and family and need them too, don't get me wrong!  My ideal day though is alone.  I get a lot done when no one else is around.  I always come out of a day with a lot of time to myself a whole lot more pleasant.

So who's tagged?

Kathleen 

Rhonda 

Christina

FiberChic

Tammy

Christy

MeShell

Can't wait to knit

How long does it take to knit a short row heel?  As long as I waited for the doctor and then a few rows more.  And who knows what ick I may have picked up while waiting in there surrounded by people with all manner of coughs.

I had three people ask me what I was making, not counting the nurse.  One man actually moved closer to carry on a conversation.  He was intrigued that I was not looking at my knitting.  My doctor's office is located off the hospital atrium with a wall of glass, so there is good people watching.  And the place was packed today.  He was nice enough and very interested.  He was telling me how his mother once knit a blanket, which when she switched to longer circular needles she accidentally went up a needle size too and the thing is trapezoidal.  He said she still uses it though.  He went on to tell me all about his father who knit a sweater and a hat and never knit again.  He wanted to know how I knew how to do "those rows that don't go all the way across"  Yeah, it was a long wait.  

he also told me a funny little joke:

There's this preacher who just does not have the knack for reaching his congregation.  His wife takes up knitting and brings it to church and all of a sudden his sermons are amazing.  This goes on for months until his wife is called to help look after the kids in the nursery one Sunday.  The preacher panics, looking for his wife.  When they tell him where she is he announces no sermon today.  Turns out she wasn't knitting at all, she was using sign language to feed him his sermons.  

(Well, I thought it was cute.)

Impatient? Me?

Wow, for some reason these colors uploaded funky.  All of them have a weird overcast washed out quality on my computer.  Huh.  Oh well, the colors are much prettier then what I'm seeing.

On to the knitting...  If I could unfurl this baby right now I would be doing a happy dance.  I am almost there.  These last few rows are so much bigger than the center of the pinwheel that they are just taking me forever.  I like the bit of red on the edge.  It's some fun.  This may be about the most obnoxious bit of knitting to come off my needles.  It's loud and colorful.

I picked up the yarn for my next project, a cotton top.  Not entirely set on which top, but I am thinking a lacy tee that I can wear over a tank.  I like these colors, thinking edge with the darker blue to give it some sass.  We'll see when I actually start the knitting.

Also picked up some Fiesta Boomerang.  Man that stuff is lush.  Big fat around the house socks for me.  Goofy colorful things.

And last but not least, in case you had forgotten about that blanket for Marky Mark, it's still in the works.  I've been avoiding it for a while now, it's gotten so big it it ungainly to work on.  And heavy.  I have to get it in just the right spot to be able to knit comfortably.  It's calling my name though.  About 2 more feet and it will be done.  It's over 4 at this point.  Just a little bit more to go.

**I have no idea what is up with Blogger today.  Weird colors, unintentional underlines, text in funky colors, so please excuse the weirdness.  I normally would not post this bit but I'm full of myself so I like to share just about anything**

Peek into my knitting bag...

Another color done on the Pinwheel.  I actually got to the next color last night, aqua.  This is fun to knit up.  I've gotten to the point where there are enough spaces between the increases so I might need stitch markers.  If you are looking for fun and quick this one definitely is that.  I think I may use the leftover yarn to make another for PeeWee, I have enough to make one that almost matches.  Much skinnier stripes for hers.

Yesterday I picked up yarn for a cotton tank top and I swatched for socks.  I'm not starting another project without finishing the Pinwheel Jacket.  Behaving myself right now.  The pink and purple socks are slowly moving along.  I'm just knitting a bit on them here and there.  It's a nice traveling sock.  A few rows while waiting here and there.

Not much exciting here knit-wise.  Hopefully the sun will come out today so I can get some pictures.  It's not looking promising though.  The clouds are thick and grey already.  Good hunker down and finish that jacket weather.

Knit

Colinette Jitterbug sock-ette,  aka short ankle socks with a short row heel.  The stripes are making me happy, I like a bright ugly sock.  I rarely find I am cold enough to wear wool socks out and about here in New Orleans.  Lacy ones, yeah, I wear those a lot and I think my next pair will be lacy.  These are knit on Addi Turbo 2's, smaller I should be using, this fabric is tight.  They should wear like iron.

The Pinwheel Jacket in action.  Well, sort of, because my printer is way the heck upstairs and I am too lazy to bring the laptop up there these days.  So I sort of skimmed over the directions and am hoping it turns out.  More overly bright colors in action.  I can wear them with the socks.  It looks like a Rasta hat right now bunched up like it is.

The spiral is cool.  I'm really uncertain how this is going to wear, but I am enjoying the knit itself.  I'm ready to put the stitches on hold for the sleeves and keep moving on to the finish.  This is surprisingly quick to knit.  This Noro Cash Iroha is delightful to work with.  It's wooly but not harsh in the least.  The cashmere content makes it soft and springy.  I love the color ways with the other Noro yarns but I just can't get past the scratchy feel in the skein.  Too many choices out there for me to pick up scratchy yarn.

The kids have been out of school for the week for Mardi Gras, which was fun.  (I know- a week? Marky Mark can't understand it either.  Hey, it means I don't have to be dressed at 7:20.)  We were a family unit, my favorite kind of costume.  PeeWee picked out Super Hero Princesses, yeah baby.  It was a whirlwind from my birthday until now, and honestly I didn't realize it's Friday.  Lots of catching up this part of the world.  Holidays always seem to throw me off a bit.

Everyone left the house so I'm off to pick up that jacket and get some more work done on it.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday to ME!

So I am sitting here in bed, having eaten my breakfast in bed, had Big Brother bring me my computer in bed and I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

What's on the needles?  The pinwheel jacket- it's not making much progress as I have not had a whole lot of free time the last few days.  There have been crazy schedule changes mid-stream, the norm for us it seems.  It's sitting in a bag on the couch.  PeeWee has decided she is not going to sit by and watch me knit, so the time has been really limited. 

The socks however have been all over with me this week, one is done the other started.  I really enjoy using the Colinette Jitterbug.  This is my third pair with it.  I like having the knitting to go stashed in my bag to be handy all the time.

Tonight I am off to a Mardi Gras ball, which means dressing up completely, something I do so rarely I had to go shopping to get the goods.   Seeing as this is the birthday celebration this year, I decided fun was the word of the day.   So as not to have a post with no pictures here it is:

 
I feel like a bit of a fraud in this getup but it is fun.  The dress was a bargain and the shoes are my birthday gift to myself.

I know this is supposed to be about knitting.  I'll be catching up with all that this week, as my resolutions kick in today, one of them being regular actual knitting posts, how about that?  Why no knitting pictures today?  Well, I would have to get out of bed and I am not ready yet!

How old am I?  I graduated high school at 18 in 1987, you do the math, it's not a milestone, that's next year.