Happy Halloween!!

or, as I like to say "Happy Day Before My Birthday" :) That's right, tomorrow marks the start of my 30th year at 6:47pm. Remember, I'm an engineer, so I start counting at 0, not 1, so even though it's my 29th Birthday, it really is the end of my 20s!

I have a small bowl of Candy for kiddos today, but given we only had 7 trick-or-treaters I'll still probably have excess. The down side of living on a block of old folks :( No one else turns on their light. I get such a kick out of seeing kids dressed up. . . especially the really little ones that can't really properly pronounce 'trick-or-treat'!

37 Things Meme

Well I was catching up on blog reading and I saw this meme on Cynical Knit Gal's blog and it seemed a good distraction.

1. Do you like blue cheese? Does a bear poop in the woods? :) Yes, yes, YES! I especially love crumbled blue cheese on a salad with Italian dressing, though that is apparently a New York State thing, because if you ask for it anywhere else they look at you like you have 3 heads. Wings are not the same without blue cheese dressing, either (someone please tell me why here in VA places give you RANCH with wings? EEW!)

2. Have you ever smoked cigarettes? Yes.

3. Do you own a gun? Directly, no, but I do hold a concealed carry permit because of the guns Jake owns. I won't disclose just how heavily armed our house is for fear of scaring you :)

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? Black Cherry

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No, not usually.

6. What do you think of hotdogs? I think it's best not to think about what they are when enjoying their deliciousness!

7. Favorite Christmas movie? It's a Wonderful Life. . . . definitely!

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Bolthouse Farms Blue Goodness juice

9. Can you do push ups? Yes

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Besides the obvious answer of my engagement ring? I have these gorgeous white gold & black pearl earrings (yes, it's rose gold & white pearl in the picture but there is no picture of mine!) made my Richard Messina that Jake bought me for Christmas several years ago. They are hand hammered and are perfectly concave such that the hoop is a perfect lens. They are an amazing work of art and beauty.

11. Favorite hobby? Dance, though I don't really get to do it anymore.

12. Do you have A.D.D.? Though it would be a convenient excuse for my spazziness, I do not.

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? Yes. I can't wait for my prescription to stop changing so I can get lasik.

14. Middle name? Ann

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
1 - It's 3:30 and I haven't showered yet. . . I should do that
2 - I forgot to take my allergy pills the last two days
3 - I wonder if the Reese's Cup I put in the freezer is frozen enough to eat yet?

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? San Pelligrino Limonata (YUM!), Water, Canadian Club & Vernors

17. Current worry? Honestly, nothing off the top of my head. I do need to find a place to have dinner for the wedding, but I'm not all that worried about it. .. something will work out!

18. Current hate right now? Election Ads on TV

19. Favorite place to be? Home (any of the places that qualify as home to me!)

20. How did you bring in the New Year? Oh I was VERY boring in 2007. Jake was out of town so I hung out at home by myself with the pooches!

21. Where would you like to go? Home for Laura's 30th Birthday, but airfares are INSANE so that's not going to happen :(

22. Name three people who will complete this. No clue.

23. Do you own slippers? Yes - many more pair than I need!

24. What shirt are you wearing? Jake's Sweatshirt from basic training (or maybe AIT?) over a t-shirt over a sports bra and cropped pants (I just got back from the gym)

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I have some sateen sheets that I enjoy, but I think satin would be too cold.

26. Can you whistle? Sure.

27. Favorite color? RED!

28. Would you be a pirate? If it would it match my current salary!

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever pops in my head

30. Favorite Girl’s Name? Aubrey

31. Favorite boy’s name? I can't say that I have one

32. What’s in your pocket right now? No pockets!

33. Last thing that made you laugh? Beaverslide Yarn. There is a story there, from Jess and Jen's visit last night, but I'll let you make up your own :)

34. What vehicle do you drive? Ford Escape

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Thankfully I've never been hurt all that bad. Most embarrassing injury was my senior year in high school when I hurt my wrist in the middle of a competition routine and left the floor because I couldn't focus on anything but the pain - and my team got disqualified because I didn't finish the routine :(

36. Do you love where you live? I wouldn't say love. I don't dislike it, I'd just rather be more in the mountains. I'm not so much an Ocean girl :)

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? Just one!

If you do this, leave me a comment so I know and I can come check it out!

And I'm back. . .

Of course, I've been back for a while, but I've been busy unpacking gifts, clearing out and re-organizing cabinets to fit gifts in so they can be used (now I have TWO sets of dishes!), trying to earn myself gainfully employed and losing the battle of keeping the beagle from continually rolling in some sort of awful stink I can't locate outside. I've had to give him THREE baths! He is now on a strictly monitored potty schedule and is required to come back in the house as soon as his business is complete! Bath time by myself stinks. . it's usually a two person job, but Jake is out of town for work.

To keep me company, though, Jess & Jen are coming by for dinner and some knitting tonite. I'm making veggie soup in my new Le Creuset dutch oven. (yay!) Soup is good given the temperature drop that there has been - the heat had to come on in the house, so fall is definitely here!

Knit wise, I have no photos because Jake's sweater looks the same, only longer. I'm about to start splitting for the arm holes. Of course, he says the heat is on at work and he no longer needs the sweater. . . . . My knitting time has been primarily consumed with a wedding present for a friend who got married on 10/10. I can't tell you what it is or show any pictures until it's complete and the recipient has gotten it. It is in Ravelry, though (well, as a pictureless project) if you're curious what it is :)

I did get some delicious yarn recently that I'll share when I can get a few photos.

I'm trying to catch up on blog reading, too. Why is it always that going away even for just a couple days puts you weeks behind in life?!

TTFN!

Well, I had hoped to get back into regular blogging but somehow time seems to disappear each day! I am heading out for several days. We're going up to Michigan for my shower. Yay! Should be lots of fun to see friends and family. We haven't seen any of them since we got engaged, so I'll have lots of people ogling my fancy finger :)

And, uh, so much for not starting new projects. I cast on for another Caramel Cable hat. This one for Jake, rather than his dad. It came out of necessity for a simple project I could carry. My only socks OTN are the boyfriend socks and I have to pay attention with counting and the cables. My lace scarf is simple and the pattern is memorized, but I learned (the hard way) I need to finish on a purl row so I don't get any yo's in the wrong spot overlapping a regular stitch when you stop on a right side row and move the work onto the cable :) Jake's sweater is too big to come along places, so that was my excuse for yet another project!

I don't have the energy to re-post a gajillion pictures, but go here and check out the most awesomist swap package I got today, too. I'm doing the Malabrigo Swap on Ravelry - such an awesome group of people, and my spoiler Deb (who is sans blog) totally went overboard. I mean, all around I've been lucky in swaps with having great partners, but this package totally blew me away!

Have a great weekend, everyone, and talk to you next week!

Sweater Progress

Work on Jake's sweater has begun! I'm about 6" complete so far.

It's going pretty smooth, except for the horrifically skimpy yardage of the yarn! The 82 yards only gets me about 2 inches knit, which is ~12 rows, which means I keep running out! Because there is no way I'm weaving in the copious amount of ends 19 balls + some areas of using 2 balls at a time to knit I've learned to Russian Join. It's not as nice as a felted join, but it seems to do the job. BUT the yarn itself is pretty loosely twisted, so it's a little splitty after the join. I'm cutting out a few of the plies to reduce the bulk, but it's not necessarily helping with the fraying. So far, at least, I've been able to hide them inside, but I am worried about it poking through - and who would want this stuff on the wrong side?

I'm about to join ball #4 and I'm in the middle of a right side row, so fingers crossed!

Laziness (or S is for Socks!)

As I mentioned, Jake's birthday was Thursday. I made a lovely dinner for he & a few of his friends and we had a great night. Friday Jake hit the road with a friend for a weekend of fly fishing in western Virginia, which meant I was on my own. I was hoping for a burst of productivity to hit me and get a bunch of chores done, but not so much. Friday night, I went out with a girlfriend in from out of town. I made it to last call and didn't get home until 3am. For a girl with a usual 10pm bedtime, it was impressive to say the least that I made it without even feeling tired! Of course, I slept until 11am Saturday, though :) I did get out and run a few errands (buying shoes for my MOHs and yarn for their shawls) with Jen, and then we went to Doumars. If you are local, and haven't been. Go. NOW! The milkshakes, totally to die for!

Saturday night I stayed in and knit. I finished another blanket square and my Woolgirl Dog Days socks. The weather is finally going to start turning so I can start wearing knit socks. And, as I'm always falling behind, I'm coping out and making my ABC-along S is for socks with this post, too!

I'm sort of making a dent in WIPs now! I have another blanket square, leaf lace scarf, my goddess & Jake's socks officially 'in progress' and Jake's sweater and slippers in swatch stage. I'm going to try hard not to cast on anything else until something (other than the blanket square) else is done! It seems a little skewed that 3 projects are for Jake, though, no? At least he appreciates them :)

Finally looks like a pretty uneventful week ahead, which will be nice before we head to Michigan for my bridal shower. It's October 18! Exciting!

I'm rolling in green

Yarn, that is, not so much the cash :)

My Knitpicks order came in with the yarn for Jake's sweater and his slippers. 19 balls of Mainline, 7 of Wool of the Andes. And, uh, mainline, REALLY? 82 friggin' yards? Couldn't make some meatier balls? That's a WHOLE lot of ends in a sweater, which may force me to learn how to effectively do a Russian Join! I'm trying to work up the motivation to swatch ASAP because he really wants the sweater and will pester me whenever I work on something else now that the yarn is here.

Sticking with green, I started working with the Malabrigo lace I wound up on my fancy new nostepinne. The color is Vaa and it's becoming a Leaf Lace Scarf, which will be for me :) It's a super simple pattern and is going along pretty well so far. I'm trying to work on my backward knitting to avoid the purling back - recently my right elbow has been sore while I knit and avoiding purls helps it not hurt. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I trace my purl steps and repeat them on the knit side of the fabric, I keep getting the stitch oriented wrong. It's driving me bananas! I am pleased with myself for re-training my knit stitch to be fully left handed so I can keep my right hand/elbow stationary. I think it's even possible I'm a tad faster that way!

All this green needs to not distract me from my Dog Days Socks, though. I REALLY want to finish the pair before the next woolgirl shipment going out 10/13! The 2nd sock is fully knit, I just need to do the lace cuff, but I HATED the lace cuff on the first sock - a whole lot of fiddliness for not much visual effect IMO (you can't much see the flower lace in the varigated yarn!). Jake is going away fishing this weekend, so maybe I can force myself to do that rather than clean while he's gone!

My gift cowl is complete, but not blocked. It's Oh so pretty :)

Along with a box from Knitpicks, the mailman braved the downpour (literally, it was too much for the box so he had to bring it up to the house!) to bring me my Amazon order, too. Jake & I both got a book for reading, and I got Sensual Knits. I've been wanting it for ages since I saw the Transparency Sweater. Unfortunately, it appears even the cheapest yarn to make it will cost me over $60 (to keep it silk/mohair - elann has a nylon/mohair). So it will have to wait, but I really love the book. There are a lot of really pretty patterns. They all are a bit crazy on the yarn, though. I mean, who is going to use 16-23 balls of this Cashmere to make a sweater?!

Tomorrow is Jake's birthday, so today is officially his last day of his 2nd decade on the Earth. (I'm being technical here, he's turning 29, but that means he's starting his 30th year on the planet). He has requested white cake with chocolate frosting. The frosting will be homemade, the cake will be from a mix :) He also requested the cake be decorated with a chainsaw - no joke! It's his gift from his parents, my mom & I (who knew one could cost so much!) and not a surprise. We'll see how my artistic skills work! I'm also making spicy Chicken Parm (spicy sauce from this recipe) for dinner with a few of his friends coming over. Should be a nice day! I'm taking the afternoon off of work to clean the house and shop. Unfortunately for me, I'm not the cleanest baker, so I suspect additional cleaning will be required after the cake is done :)