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February 23, 2006
The Drama!
Thank God tomorrow is Friday. It's been quite a week! Drama overload at work. It wouldn't be appropriate to go into it here but after staring at pages and pages of HTML code trying to find the one teeny tiny piece that is causing a snafu, I don't want to have to deal with DRAMA! Grrrrrrrrr...
I've already had a nice soak in the tub and that worked wonders! And I'm about to brew a pot of tea and settle into a nice evening of knitting. Yes, I'm glad tomorrow is Friday.
Speaking of knitting, I am working a lot on my gift knitting. While I can't show pics right now I will say that it's for a little butterbean who is scheduled to make her debut in this world in April. I'll show pics next weekend! I promise!
I do have a confession to make. In a moment of weakness I succumbed to that Silk Garden I bought in Asheville. I couldn't help it! It made me do this:
It made me do it! I had no choice! I've had to put it in the other room so that I can concentrate on the gift knitting. It's trying so hard to distract me but I will be strong!
Posted by allison at 07:22 PM | Comments (9)
February 17, 2006
Fun times
Well, Geoff and I had a great time in Asheville Sunday and Monday. He was still under the weather so we didn't do too much but it was nice to get out of Columbia and see some snow! The best part? A visit to this place...
The name says it all. It was a definite yarn paradise. And Geoff was happy to see some nice comfy chairs right at the entrance where he could sit with his book while I did my shopping. I did very good in restraining myself. What did I get? Well, take a peek into my shopping bag!
Mmmmmmmm.... Silk Garden. This is destined to be an entrelac scarf for myself.
I also bought some yarn for some more secret gift knitting. Here's a little peek...
The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patiné. I've never knit with this yarn before and I am really enjoying it.
I hope that everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Part of my Valentine's Day gift was the romantic night in the B&B in Asheville. Geoff even had the owners place a beautiful vase of tulips in our room for me. My favorite! Of course, there was also a fun gift for me...
It's Sexual Innuendo Magnetic Poetry! Too funny! It was a perfect gift that we'll both have a lot of fun with. The words just crack us up. Words like chimichanga, cucumber and longfellow. Hours of fun in front of the fridge.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Ours will be cold and wet. It's been beautiful and in the 70s the past two days and tomorrow? Well, rain and highs in the low 40s. ARGH! I hate it when it's 73 one day and 43 the next! I hope I don't get sick...
Posted by allison at 10:40 PM | Comments (3)
February 11, 2006
Jaywalkers!
First of all, THANKS for all of the birthday wishes! Geoff and I didn't make it to dinner and I had to go out for drinks without him but I still had a great time thanks to all of my WONDERFUL friends. Geoff is feeling better but is nowhere near 100%. The doc says he has an upper respiratory infection and a kidney infection. Scary. But she gave him some super-powerful antibiotics and they seem to be knocking out the upper respiratory thing quickly and that's the thing that was making him feel miserable. So we are still planning on going to Asheville tomorrow but we may scale back the site-seeing. It's snowing up there today so it will be very cold and wet while we are there. But I'm hoping that a drive to a yarn shop is still not out of the question.
In more exciting news... my secret gift knitting! A pair of Jaywalkers!
(click the pics to make them bigger)
I made these for my friend Maura for her birthday. I had bought the yarn back in August with the idea of making some socks for her. The reason? It's Vesper sock yarn in the colorway Maura! Who wouldn't want a pair of socks whose color is their own name! So I was just going to knit them for her for no particular occassion but time started slipping away and the yarn got pushed to the back of the yarn closet. Maura's birthday is the day before mine and a couple of weeks ago it hit me. I need to make those socks for her! I was also itching to make some Jaywalker socks so voila! Maura's socks were finally born. She was gifted with them last night while the two of us celebrated our old age amongst friends.
I had a few problems with them because of sizing issues. I had knit about 4 inches of them in the smallest size before realizing they would be too small. The Jaywalker pattern isn't so forgiving with sizing because of the zigzag pattern. So I ripped them out and cast on again with the larger size. I do hope they fit her. They fit me and we're about the same size.
Here are the specs:
Pattern: Jaywalker Socks by Grumperina
Started: January 31, 2006
Finished: February 9, 2006
Yarn: Vesper Sock Yarn in colorway Maura
Needles: Addi Turbos US 1
Size: Larger size (CO 84 st)
I have another skein of Vesper sock yarn in the closet and was thinking of making another pair of Jaywalkers for myself.
I've got my Fiery Bolero out and ready to take with me to our little Stitch N' Bitch this afternoon. Looking back through my archives I noticed I haven't worked on it since late September! I've been doing a lot of gift knitting since then so it's been put on the very back burner. But it's back and I hope to work on it more regularly (as well as Butterfly!).
It's sooooo cold here today and raining to boot. Yuck-O. It will be nice to sit and knit in a warm coffee house with lots of hot drinks. The only drawback is that I have to get out into this mess to make it to the coffee house! Why hasn't someone discovered a way to teleport me there?!
Posted by allison at 12:00 PM | Comments (5)
February 10, 2006
Another Year Older
Well today is my birthday. The big 2-9. Not too bad so far.
My dear husband is sick at home, so that may or may not affect our celebratory plans for this evening... Dinner out and then some drinks with friends. Hopefully he'll be feeling better by this evening!
Tomorrow I will continue my birthday celebration by knitting with fabulous women. What will I be working on? Not Butterfly. I need to be in solitary confinement while working on that. My secret gift knitting is finished. Wahoo! So, I think I'll bring the Fiery Bolero and try to make some progress on that. It's been languishing in my yarn closet for months.
On Sunday, Geoff and I are headed up to Asheville to see Aimee Mann. We'll be staying in a cute B and B and then bump around town all day Monday. And oh yeah... there are yarn shops up there! Wahoo!
I think this may just turn out to be a fabulous birthday weekend! I just hope that Geoff gets to feeling better! It's hard to celebrate when your love is hacking up phlegm...
Posted by allison at 08:43 AM | Comments (8)
February 07, 2006
Dust. Lots of Dust.
Whew! What a crazy weekend and week it's been! Sorry I haven't posted progress pics of Butterfly like I promised! Why? Well there's been NO progress. See?
I haven't touched her in over a week because of my secret gift knitting. But that will be secret no more come this weekend and it will be all-butterfly-all-the-time.
As for the title of this post, it seems that dust has been a big part of Geoff and I's life the past few days. it all started Sunday morning when we woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to watch one of the university's buildings get imploded. It was AWESOME! I have never seen a building implode in person and I must admit that I am a big fan now. I want them to implode MORE buildings! Yeah! More! But as for the dust, I can do without that. We were only a block away from the building and the wind was not our friend. That dust cloud ascended on us faster than you could say "I think that dust cloud is headed for us." Everyone was scrambling with their faces covered in any way they could. Anyway, my darling husband wrote a nice piece for the university's website and he and his team created some wonderful photos and a GREAT video clip of the big event. Go here to read the story and at the bottom of the page is a link to the video. Soooooo freakin' cool. You gotta see it!!!
And the dust has found us again. This time it's not so easy to escape from because it's all over our freakin' house. Now it is not because we do not keep a clean house. You see, when we awoke this morning our house was spotless! But, in the name of progress, we had central heating and air installed today. You see we live in an old house and had window AC units and a floor furnace up until today. I stayed home from work to watch the mayhem unfold. Four men managed to leave every surface in our house covered in a layer of dust. Not so good for allergy boy who is now frantically dusting and vacuuming with our allergy-friendly Dyson (which I think he may love more than me). It was pretty fun to watch them install the heating and air. But it was not so fun to see them cutting into our hardwood floors! And our beautiful tile floors! AAUUGGHH!! But when they left this afternoon, we had central heat and air. Keepin' up with the Joneses.
Well, better get back to my gift knitting. At least I'll have a finished object to show this weekend!
Posted by allison at 08:53 PM | Comments (2)
February 02, 2006
I've been tagged!
The other Allison tagged me for this meme so here goes... (scroll down for today's mini-post)
Four Jobs You Have Had in Your Life:
1. Cobbler: My first job ever was mending Birkenstock sandals for my neighbor who owned a Birkenstock store. It was a stinky job but someone had to do it.
2. Sonic drink girl: I had to get the drinks ready for all of the orders coming in. This job lasted about two weeks because a) I HATED IT and b) I got offered job #3 below. I am just not cut out to work in the fast food industry. And I'm ok with that.
3. Veterinary Technician: I did this from my senior year in high school through my senior year in college when I thought I wanted to go into veterinary medicine. Changed my mind about that.
4. Acquisitions Clerk for large public library system: I got this job when I decided I wanted to get my Master's Degree in Library and Information Science. It was a pretty fun job. We had a multi-million dollar budget so we were ordering TONS of books and materials. And I got to unpack all of the boxes and see all of the stuff first! I definitely had a lot of items checked out during that gig. Only bad thing was that my supervisor must have really hated me. I'm not really sure why. Seriously, I think I'm a pretty likable person and I'd never had a problem with anyone before. Anyway, she treated me like crap (giving everyone else cards on their birthday and where was my card?! Instead I got REPRIMANDED on my birthday for going online during work hours to view e-cards that people had sent me). Blech!
Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
1. A Chorus Line: I've watched it so much I've memorized the dance steps and all of the lyrics. Still haven't seen the musical live, though.
2. You've Got Mail: I just love Meg Ryan and in the movie she's a shop owner and I've always wanted to be a shop owner.
3. Stepmom: I love Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon and I just really enjoyed this movie for some reason.
4. Sex and the City complete series: I know, I know. This isn't a movie. But I really only have a handful of things that I can watch over and over again and this is definitely one of them.
Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Desperate Housewives: Love the drama. Love the characters. Just love it.
2. Will and Grace: I love Megan Mullally's character. She cracks me up. Sad to see that this is the last season!
3. King of Queens: This show cracks me up, too. Kevin James is just a funny guy. His stand-up is hilarious, too.
4. Knitty Gritty: Gotta have a knitting show on here! I just wish there were more NEW episodes. They repeat the same ones over and over and over.
Four Albums You Can't Hear Too Often:
1. Beatles - Rubber Soul
2. Beatles - Revolver
3. Ani DiFranco - Dilate
4. Iris Dement - Infamous Angel
Four Places You Have Lived
1. Chapin, SC (a suburb of Columbia)
2. Irmo, SC (a suburb of Columbia)
3. Columbia, SC
4. That's all. I really like it here! Born and raised! It's nice to have the mountains or the beach just 2 hours away.
Four Places You Have Been on Vacation
1. England
2. Germany
3. Prague
4. Amsterdam
Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. Bloglines
2. Yarn Harlot
3. Google
4. USC School of Medicine Library (this is my job... maintaining this site)
Four of Your Favorite Foods
1. CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE
2. proscuitto
3. chocolate
4. pesto
Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. In a yarn shop (with an unlimited budget)
2. At a Krispy Kreme (again with an unlimited budget)
3. On my couch, knitting
4. At the beach
Four People You'll Tag
It seems like everyone's already done this one so if you want it, consider yourself tagged.
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Now down to business. Thanks to everyone for the nice comments about the Brioche Scarf. It was a really fun knit and it was my first foray into the brioche stitch and it's really neat! Genius!
I've been consumed with some secret gift knitting right now but I promise to post some progress pics of Butterfly this weekend. I haven't picked her up since this past weekend so you may only get two inches of her! We'll see!
And I just got my "KNITS news" from Interweave Knits in my email. This caught my eye:
Has anyone heard about this? I looked on Oxygen's website but didn't see a mention of it. I'm interested to find out what it's going to be like. I love new knitting shows!
Posted by allison at 02:46 PM | Comments (1)
