Sunday, April 8, 2007 - Happy Easter!

Sunday, April 8, 2007
Happy Easter!
Part I – General Rambles

Good morning and Happy Easter to all. It’s early as I write this and Mike is still asleep. It’s very quiet here. Just Alvin and I are up, hanging out on the couch – me with my coffee and her asleep next to me, as usual. Later I’ll do some baking though nothing special. It’s just Mike and I today. We didn’t color any eggs or make any baskets for each other, though he did buy me some Lindt truffles (one of my favorite things) and surprise me with them late last night. I gave up chocolate for Lent, so he didn’t bring them out until after midnight. One of the lawyers I work with in the office had given me a 2-pound box of chocolates for helping out on a contract negotiation and they had been staring at me from the top of my dresser for about 3 weeks now. He knew I had given up chocolate, but gave me the box anyway. Of course it was from a very good local chocolatier, Krause’s, if you’re ever in the Albany, NY area, and it was a lot of temptation, but I didn’t crack.

I really think I just transferred my chocolate cravings into yarn. I’ve bought so much yarn lately; I don’t know what I’ll do with it all. I did order a bunch of patterns recently from http://www.justonemorerow.com/9/cat9.htm: (not affiliated with this site in any way, just like the patterns)

· Tapestry Shawl (K-23)
· Heartbeat Sweater (K-24)
· Lightning Lace Jacket (K-15)
· Pacific Grove Pullover (K-12)
· Himalaya Tote (K-19) (pattern, not the kit)
· Ocean Lace Stole (K-06)
· San Francisco Shirttail (K-08)

I think they’ll inspire me to use up some of my stash. I wish I hadn’t found the site, though. They have patterns for just about everyone, in just about every size and they were having a sale! I just can’t resist a sale; can anyone? Once the patterns come (and my last email said they’d been shipped), I’ll sit down with them and see if what I have can be used for any of them, then I’ll start swatching. I’ve been so “off” lately that even a simple dishcloth has given me problems. I frogged a dishcloth last night about 5 times and then completely gave up on the pattern and wound the entire pile of “froggings” into a new ball of cotton. Maybe I’m “over” dishcloths for a while. Maybe I’d rather do a project that I can wear, so I’ll wait to get the patterns and see what I can do with them.

I do have some lovely baby alpaca to knit up into something. I bought 18 skeins (I think) when I was in Kentucky visiting my sister. I had planned to make a sweater from the book “Big Girl Knits”, but found I wasn’t quite ready for a project like that yet. I made such a mess out of “Cherry Bomb” from that book that I’m reluctant to try anything that complicated right now.
I’ve been reading over EZ’s “Knitting Without Tears” (Mike bought it for me for Christmas last year) and it makes so much sense that I think I’ll just make some swatches with the yarns I have and note the needle sizes, etc. so I’ll have an idea of what project each yarn might be good for. Swatches ought to be “mindless” enough for me for a few days. I mean, how hard can it be to cast on enough for a 5 or 6-inch square swatch and knit it up in stockinette? I saw Lily Chin once on “Knitty Gritty” and she suggested that, when swatching, you knit a couple of rows and then do YO, K2TOG for as many times as the number of your needle size so you don’t have to remember which needle size you used for the swatch. I thought that was a great idea and I’m planning on doing that with my swatches. I can just store the swatch in the ziploc bag with the yarn and I’ll have it and know immediately what size needles I can use to get gauge.

I’m also making plans to go to some sheep and wool festivals in the next couple of months. Fortunately, Mike likes to do stuff like this….at least with me, he does.
Here’s a list of the ones I’d like to go to, with links so you can check them out, too, if you want to:

· The Chancellor’s Sheep and Wool Showcase, April 14, 2007:
o http://www.friendsofclermont.org/events/sheep.html

· Massachusetts Sheep & Wool Festival, May 26 & 27 (Memorial Day weekend):
o http://www.masheepwool.org/aboutus.htm

· Finger Lakes, September 15 & 16:
o http://www.gvhg.org/fest.html

· New Hampshire, Columbus Day weekend:
o http://www.miragealpacas.com/MA.artstour.htm

· NYS Sheep & Wool, October 20 & 21, Rhinebeck:
o http://www.sheepandwool.com/

· Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival, September 8 & 9, Essex Jct.:
o http://www.vermontsheep.org/festival.html

The first one is just next weekend and I’m trying to organize a car pool with my knitting buddies at SNB. It might be easy, as it’s only about an hour or so away and has the added attraction of being close to the Webs shop (www.yarn.com) in Northampton, MA, so I don’t think it will be too terribly difficult to get folks to go there, too. Mike has even found some places he’d like to check out for his hobbies, so he’s pretty much sure he’ll have a good time, too.

Update on my WIPs: (Sorry, no pix updates today)

“Branching Out” – made the mistake of trying to work on it at SNB and messed something up. My stitch count is way off, so I’ll have to carefully tink until I get back to where it’s right and then keep going. This is NOT a project for any time that I have anything but the scarf to pay attention to. Not at SNB, not during a hockey game (PLAYOFFS ARE HERE AND MY TEAM IS STILL IN IT!), and not when there is anything distracting going on at all. Which of course, leaves not a lot of time to work on it. I figure if I can get a row or 3 done every day, I might make it by next fall….

Socks – can’t seem to make myself pick them up. I just look at them and think, “those are NOT fun to knit” and leave them in my project bag. Funny thing is, I want a pair of hand-knitted socks so I can see if they are worth spending time knitting. Is that weird or what?
Otherwise, I’m going to do some swatching and wait for my new patterns to come.

Part II – me
I’m doing a bit better this week. I saw my doctor this week and she put me on some new meds and we’ll see how that works out. I still haven’t joined the gym like I wanted to, but I think that might come this week. It’s been hectic for me this week.

My boss, who is very well liked, is retiring and doesn’t want a party. She is letting our office take her out to lunch, though, and I’m organizing it. We’re also having an “open house” type thing tomorrow so that others can come and say goodbye. I have folks from all over the agency calling me to see if they can contribute to a gift for her; she doesn’t want one, but she’s getting something anyway, and I’m trying to handle that, too.

I wonder if being so busy keeps me from being as depressed? That is something to think about, certainly. I know that the type of busy that I am makes a difference. When I’m doing things that I don’t perceive to be “my job”, I get stressed so much that I just know I’m going to screw them up, but when I’m doing things that I’ve taken on willingly and I think they are my job, I just deal with it so much better. Go figure.

Once again, I won’t promise a date for my next post, but I will promise to try to get here more often.

Until next time, remember, wear natural fibers; hug your cat!