All everyone has been talking about the past day or two is the weather – this snow and slush and ice we were going to get and how things would shut down. My office sent out “emergency closure information” and even though I knew it wouldn’t happen, I secretly hoped today would be a snow day. I mean really, can you blame me? A chance to stay home from work on a cold wintery day and do nothing but knit? (Ok, maybe a little laundry too, but mainly, knit)

I got up this morning at 5 (like usual) hoping… looked outside, and saw a little smidgeon of snow (a dusting, from what I’m used to) and from a S & G perspective decided to look to see if schools were closed (I had been told my office closes mainly based on schools, so I figured why not). And to my surprise, schools in my county are closed!

off to the side of the house – nothing much of anything really!

Still not wanting to get my hopes up, I followed procedure – i checked the online page, and no updates yet. I Knew if I was going to work on time, I had to shower soon, so I stalled as long as possible. Watched a little morning news, caught up on some emails, still no updates. I finally gave in at 6 and showered. Got out, checked for an update, and found that we have to check back at 10:30 am as we will “likely be open in the afternoon”.

Realistically, the roads won’t be bad, and I’ve driven in far worse. Besides, I guess a few hours is better than nothing – but I had really wanted to chill out in my jammies all day. Don’t they know I have clogs to felt? And baby hats for Alex to finish?

Speaking of, Aimee, Cristi and I all started a Baby Squash Hat (from the 101 Designer 1 skein wonder book) last night at knitting. Speed demon Aimee was almost finished with her decreasing as I was packing up to leave, while I am juuuust about ready to start my decreasing. Cristi was woozy from her hot water heater escapade and was understandably much slower than her usual knit it in the blink of an eye speed (plus she-who-lives-by-2-circs was magic looping. Yes, really!) Anyway, I wasn’t done with my hat and since I was using Aimee’s book to knit from, I really had noooooo choice but to purchase the book so I could finish the hat before next week. We will not discuss the fact I should not be buying any books (or that I just bought the 2-at-a-time Socks book last week) until I get my knitting room organized and set up as I want it. Soon – I know what I want to do in there, I just need a free weekend or two to finish it up.

A lack of finishing up is why you haven’t seen the office yet – it is EXACTLY the way it was when the painting was finished and I said I wanted to get some accessories unearthed from the garage and hung before I did the reveal – it looks like that will be in February sometime, since this weekend I am away, and next weekend we have company. I can cross my fingers for the decorating fairies to swoop in, but barring that, or the HGTV/DIY channel answering my smoke signals, February is about the best I can do.

I’m off to do something with my 2 hour delay – i can at least finish up the hat in progress.

Happy wanna-be snow day!

ETA - opening in an hour. Least the hat is done except for the icord! Off to get dressed and brave (HA) the snow.

Designing patterns, rooms, whatever – it’s not easy! I give plenty of credit to the folks who do this for a living, you certainly earn your money!

I know, because I’ve been dabbling in both recently. I don’t know that you can call messing around with stitches to see what happens designing per se’, but I have this picture in my head of what I want the stitches to look like, and until I get it right, I’m afraid it will haunt my needles. Last Thursday I banged out one square for the Charlotte Knitting Guild blanket drive. I wanted to say I had done more, but the ride home was not conducive to knitting, so it was only 1 square. Then during the weekend, I started and finished another between shopping, and cooking for company and the usual weekend craziness. Last night, this idea came to me, and I have been messing around with the sticks n string trying to get it right – and maybe my mistake is I am using the Red Heart soft yarn for the blanket squares as my testing yearn, I don’t know, but it isn’t turning out quite right.

That’s one finished square, and one in progress. The other finished one is either downstairs or in my truck, and I didn’t feel like searching for it for the picture. I know, you can’t see much of anything in the pic. The bottom purple one is a take on granny’s favorite dishcloth, with a pattern inserted into the center. Sadly, taking up space with the missing square is the pattern notes, so I can’t tell you where I found it. It knits up quick and easy though! (When I locate the missing square and pattern I will update the post).

I wanted to get the pattern idea out of my head and onto the needles quickly since I wanted to bring squares to Cristi on Wednesday, but we’ll see how it goes. I know Charlotte Yarn is a drop off spot for the squares too so worst case I can drop ‘em off there. I’m hoping tomorrow night after work will turn out to be a sprawl out n knit kind of night.

The other designing has been frustrating as well. Not because we don’t know what we want, but because we decided (and have been sticking to) no charging – we are only buying furniture or items when we have cash to do so. Well, that and the fact that we can’t seem to find “just” what we want when we go looking… I will say it is coming together – slowly, but it is happening. I uploaded a few pics over on the flickr account if you’re interested.

Otherwise, things are pretty much the same around here. I am trying to get into the “spirit of the season” but how exactly do you do that in 80 degree weather? Seriously, on my drive home tonight, it was 80! We watched people in our neighborhood hanging lights yesterday in shorts and t shirts! Eventually, I guess I will get used to it. Our tree is up, sans decorations, but that will change this coming weekend. The lights were, ermmm, presenting a challenge to us on Saturday so we opted for walking away and letting cooler minds prevail. We had company yesterday and spent a good chunk of the morning cooking and afternoon/evening hanging with friends, so we didn’t get back to it – although there was deep discussion regarding causes and solutions, I think I’m better off not knowing

I have a few phone calls to make and then it’s knitting and some TV till I fall asleep. I’ve been trying to stock pile my shows on DVR so I will have stuff to watch once the new shows are out (I so wish they would resolve the strike!) but there are some shows you really can’t wait on – the talk is everywhere! Ah well, least I still have Net Flix !

I am officially back in the knitting groove. Not only is the 2nd Dashing on the needles, but I went to knit night at BAM and happily communed with other knitters (who I missed and was glad to see!) That BAM knitting followed a very nice catching-up dinner with Cristi at Salsarita’s. It was great to meet some new people, and see some familiar faces and I’m really glad I went.

Despite the fact I did cast on for (and make progress on) the 2nd Dashing, tomorrow’s car knitting will not be for me. Our guild is running a bit shy on the 6″ squares for charity blankets, so I will see how many 6 x 6 squares I can bang out in that time frame. Good car knitting for a good cause – works for me!

I have to be up and out early so that’s all for tonight. I do need to take and post some pictures of the actual knitting happening here, but probably not before the weekend though. We plan to get the tree up this weekend, and we have a bunch of friends coming over on Sunday afternoon for football, and some real ziti (let’s not discuss the very sorry state of NY Style Italian food here, ok?). And of course, knitting!

This is me juuuust about ready to dive in! No, I didn’t do the thumb on my Dashing last night – but I did it tonight after work! (Pics coming, this is a fast drive by posting and I didn’t take any yet)

While it puts me slightly behind where I wanted to be, I will still have cast on the 2nd one before bed tonight, and will have it with me at BAM tomorrow night, which means I will probably end up taking it with me on Thursday – my only fear is finishing it before the drive is over, which is why I was hoping to get some inspiration for a different car trip project. Ah well…

My host didn’t exactly make it easy for commenting today though, so I’m not sure if no one had any ideas, or if no one was able to even get here… they did an Apache upgrade, which required an htacess file pointing to a php handler. A simple phone call resolved the problem, i just wish I had been warned ahead of time, or something. Meh.

In other “grrr, I don’t need this” news, my iPod is possibly sickly. It’s just under 2 years old, but of course out of warranty. If it dies (which I am hoping it doesn’t, PLEASE let me get thru Christmas at least?) I may actually replace it with a Zune or another similiar non-iPod iPod. I’ve been reading up, but am totally open to your thoughts/experiences, etc. What do you use? What do you like or not like?

OK, that’s all from here, I’m off to cast on Dashing #2 and try and warm up. BTW, I’m apparently acclimated to southern living now, because it’s 46 degrees out right now and I am FREEZING. Last year at this time I would have scoffed at 46! Maybe I’ll stop for a cup of hot tea on my way to the couch…

I know I set the clock back before I went to bed last night, but when I woke up at 4am (because my body knows it’s 5), that was little consolation. I really tried to go back to sleep, but no such luck. I stopped trying, got up and made some coffee, and started the day. I attempted to let the dog out, but she was having none of that, so I grabbed the Friday and Saturday papers, and caught up on the world around (*sigh* sorry I did), and by the time I was done with them, the dog was willing to head out for her morning routine. Once I had her back inside, and her paws wiped clean (I have learned to despise red clay, in case anyone is interested) the Sunday paper had made it’s way to my door, so I made another cup of coffee, and thumbed through that one too.

By the time the man of the house woke up, it was almost 9. I made us our (now) traditional Sunday morning waffles (recipe is in that post somewhere) and plotted out my day.

disclaimer: that’s the 1st pic I posted, not today’s waffles.

It’s now several hours later and with the exception of the last load of laundry and sitting down with my knitting, things are pretty much done. I uploaded all the pics I have to Flickr (and just thought of a few more I need to take, and will during the week – gives me something to post about ). I added the new yarns to Ravelry, as well as the new project I started yesterday. (Woodland Stole is in very slow motion, and with the exception of a dream swatch in Magic Stripes (that is destined for rippage because I really hate the way it looks almost as much as I hate knitting the Magic Stripes yarn) there was nothing else on the needles. OK, not totally true – SOMEWHERE there is a no pattern toe up sock that I started a day or two before we moved that I cannot find ANYWHERE. I have looked, and looked, and it is no where to be found. What pisses me off most is the bag the sock-in-progress was in – the greenish/purply/blueish Lantern Moon project bag I got from a Secret Pal swap forever ago. I heart that bag, and while I know it will turn up as we get closer to being done with the boxes, I’m still annoyed it’s in MIA status.

Since I have house/work/SAFF/WIP stuff to cover, I think I will break it into separate posts. If I spill everything in one post, it will be long and annoying (to read as well as write!) I’ll cover the new job and the current WIP, and tomorrow SAFF and Tuesday, the house and whatever else comes along. Hey, I promised to update no later than tonight, and I *am* updating – just not all at once!

The new job is great. It’s very different than what I am used to in terms of environment, and while I miss the people I worked with over the past year SO much, it’s really nice to be doing something new. It isn’t as good as working with them and seeing them all day long, but I am emailing/IMing/blog stalking (Hi Jared! ) with those folks daily, so it could be worse. It’s good for me to learn new things, I am truly at my happiest when I’m in learning mode – I think I have said before if I won the lottery, I would be a professional student the rest of my life. The drive in is easy (20ish minutes of Podcast listening is a good way to look at it) but the drive home is less fun. It takes me about double the time it does to get in in the morning, and while I don;t mind the actual time of the drive, the parking lot slow driving kills me. (Allow me a slight stereotyping rant here – I think that some of the fine residents of NC that I share the roads with take the NASCAR thing very personally, and make it their mission to behave like their favorite drivers! HOLY STUPID DRIVING MANEUVERS – not a day goes by that there isn’t at least 2 accidents on 85 and 77, morning and night, that screw traffic up badly. And that’s just on the highways – let’s not even discuss the side streets. End of rant, sorry!)

The actual job itself and the raise and the ability to learn new stuff outweighs the icky drive home. I’m happier, and bottom line, I am very glad I made the move.

Next up in the IOU payout is my current WIP. The Charlotte Purls were doing a Fingerless Glove knit along. As usual, I was wayyyy behind in starting mine, what with packing, moving, changing jobs, all that stuff. The new office tends to be cold, so I thought what better time to get my butt in gear and start a knit along project. I went digging thru one of the few boxes of stash I can get to, and came up with some Classic Elite Princess in the Charcoal colorway. It’s soft and warm, and suggested gauge is dead on to the pattern I wanted to use – Dashing.

The Purls were due to meet at 2, and we had running around to do before hand, so I only got the cast on completed before I left to meet up with them, but when I put them down last night, I was pretty far along. Not bad considering I did more yapping than knitting when I was with the crew

Anyway, here’s Dashing #1

After much deliberation, I have decided it looks a little wonky because I am knitting it Magic Loop instead of on DPNs and the splitting the cables between 2 needles vs 3 or 4 for DPNs is skewing my view. Even though the grey is quite dark, it has been very easy to knit with, and I’m glad I went with it for these gloves. Too many people have had pilling issues with the Cashmerino Araon I had originally wanted to use, and I have to agree – I’ve made maybe 2 or 3 things from it, and they all pill rather quickly. Still love the way it feels and all, but the pilling is an annoyance. The gloves are super easy to knit, and the cable round comes up just as the 4 x 1 rib might start to get annoying, making it all bearable again. I hope to finish up glove one tonight, depending on how the rest of the night goes maybe even start the second. With a Frost Alert posted for the area I’d love to have these to wear sooner rather than later. I have some DVDs to catch up on (even though I should be reading some stuff for work) and dinner pretty much cooking itself (simple but yummy roasted chicken with roasted veggies and fresh bread.) Oh, did I forget to mention I made french bread this morning?

There’s installment 1 of the IOU – this is getting posted WAY later than originally intended since I got sidetracked with dinner, dishes, laundry and moving the comfy chair out of it’s temporary location in the loft for a possible couch delivery this week. (More on that during the week.)

And now, I knit!

It is extremely hard to be anything but happy today – it is SO nice out!! Bright blue cloudless skies, perfect temps, light breeze – just exactly my kind of day. My only regret is we don’t have outside furniture, or I would be sprawled out there with the laptop instead of inside on the desktop to post this. Ah well, it’s on the list for the new place

See how nice it is outside?

That’s the second to last Saturday Sky I will take from here! Maybe 3rd from last, since we won’t be moving in until the Monday after we close. It hasn’t been a bad year here in our rental house, but it will be nice to live in a development where every house doesn’t look exactly the same.

Since it was so nice outside, I decided to see if I could find a spot to take some shots of the Woodland Shawl – ya know, the one whole pattern repeat I’ve completed? Sadly, the choice of backdrops is limited as we have done nothing to the outside of the house we rented. Therefore, I present to you, Woodland on Pathfinder, a study in still life.

I’ll be working on this tomorrow though, during Disc One of Season Two of CSI Miami. Who knows, maybe you will see TWO whole pattern repeats next time

This past week, two very wonderful women have bestowed the Rockin’ Girl blogger award on me, and I am very flattered. Jaime is someone I have known 7(ish) years now. We met way back when online, and despite hundreds of miles between us, and never having met in person, she is someone I can easily call friend. We share very similar tastes and personality traits, and even though she thinks she won the Vin Obsession contest, I know better All joking aside, Jaime is talented and artistic and funny and genuine – one very cool chick – and I am very flattered she nominated me for this award.

The other amazing woman who nominated me is none other than Kimberli, straight from some far off exotic location (she’s in China right now, and then is off to who knows where!) Kimberli is someone who I missed meeting up with while I still lived in NY, although I am holding out hope she will meander down south during her travels. She is smart and funny, and strong, and loving, and just like Jaime, although I have never met her in person, I wouldn’t hesitate to count her amongst my friends.

Thank you ladies! You both made me smile!

ETA – In my tired state, I forgot that I too am supposed to bestow this award to 5 rockin’ girl bloggers…
Since I know many of you have been awarded, I fear that some of these may be repeats, but that’s ok – trust me, having it passed on to you more than once feels really nice

» Erica – Amazing how a little thing like a “yarn swap” can turn into friendship, huh? Balancing life with 2 kids, a hubby and a dog, Erica still finds time to knit, and be a great friend.

» Tana – Tana and I have only known each other a short time, but the more I get to know, the more I like!

» Kristi – if you haven’t seen Kristi’s patterns, read her blog, or gotten to know her, you are missing out. Kristi is not only a very talented knitter/pattern writer, but she is also a really nice person to boot!

» Nancy – Ah Nancy! Here’s a relationship that should just never work out, but did. See, Nancy is a serious Ranger Fan – and me, well we all know how I feel about the Islanders. By definition, we should be like oil and water – and yet, all her good personality traits overshadowed her questionable taste in hockey teams (I KID Nancy, I KID!)

And last, but certainly not least –

» Sooze – Talented hand dyer, smart and generous too – Sooze and I don’t converse back and forth often enough, but she is still someone I think is well deserving of a Rockin’ Girl Blogger award!

And finally, one last item that made me smile today. Earlier today while we were running all over creation trying to get things done (and accomplished a lot actually) I made my honey pull over so I could take a picture of this mailbox. In a business parking lot!

Still makes me laugh just looking at the picture.

Now I need to finish up the list for today, and get some dishes and laundry out of the way so I can kick back and knit. Every window in the house is still open, there is a nice breeze, and it will be nice to put my feet up and relax.

I woke up this morning and the 1st thought I had was “I didn’t wake up 100 times last night because I couldn’t breathe!” What a wonderful feeling! And (even though I only slept my customary 5ish hours) I felt pretty good. Now if only he can catch up and feel better, things will be back to normal around here -whatever THAT means

We went by the house yesterday while we were out, and while they didn’t do a ton of stuff, there are definite changes. The latest pictures are here, last 6 shots were from yesterday.

When we were in the supermarket yesterday, I saw a SURE SIGN Of fall.

Pink Lady apples are BY FAR my favorite apples. They are tart AND sweet, and very juicy. When we lived in NY it was a bit hard to find them, but just like this time last year (when we came down to scope out places to rent) they seem to be available in every supermarket and produce place here. No good Chinese food, but Pink Lady apples abound! (Just a side note, as much as everyone complains about Pizza in the south, I have to admit there are 2 places we have found that have good, close but not quite home, pizza. It’s the Chinese food we can’t stand. Seriously. That. Bad.) If you like a good crisp apple, and can find them in your market, they are definitely worth a try. They are excellent for cooking, baking, and plain old eating out of hand. Maybe if these had been out 2 weeks ago, I wouldn’t have needed the Dr’s visit!

We did watch the CSI Miami DVD last night but all I knit on was a simple Project Linus Blanket (really just an oversized Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth) since I knew the Woodland Stole pattern was not mindless. Needless to say, I have not taken any pictures of the humble beginnings yet. I did get the index cards yesterday and now I just need to sit down and put one line of the pattern on each card, then I can test it out. I still need to cast on for fingerless gloves for the Charlotte Purls Fall KAL, and there are a gazillion socks I want to start too. See what one projects worth of monogamy did to me? I can’t show any loyalty now at all! It’s a beautiful crisp day outside, and there will be football to watch later, so hopefully between now and then I can settle on SOMETHING to knit, and will have something to show for it. Plus, I’m off again tomorrow – every Monday in September – so after an appointment in the early part of the morning, the day is mine to knit as I please

And finally, for Kristi (aka Fiber Fool)… Go ahead and grab a copy of the questions and post them to your blog too, or comment on hers so she can count your thoughts as well!

1. What is your current favorite color? I don’t have one per se’ – I like deep jewel tones, and I also like colors I can only describe as “Autumnal”. And recently, I have been on a green kick.

2. Had your favorite color changed over the years? Not in a really long time, no

3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? (Do you see it in the fashion rags or on the clothes rack or in the linen aisle right now? How about 5 years ago?) I don’t think it is trendy, although I am seeing more of the greens I like

4. What is your favorite color combination? I don’t have one. Something that works in clothing may not work in a bedroom, or something I LOVE in someone elses kitchen may not work in my own, depending on the accents. When knitting for someone, I try to incorporate THEIR likes and dislikes, coloring, eye color etc rather than making color choices based on what I like.

5. Is that combination a popular one? (Is it use in prints you see in the stores and catalogs and magazines now? How about 5 years ago?) I have been seeing a bit more of the darkish sagey green with a red accent here and there, and I do like that combo

6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? (Are you a stranded knitter? Do you prefer simple stripes? Do you prefer just accents at the hems/collars?) I will eventually learn stranded knitting. For now, I use variegated yarns as well as self striping and planned color changes to add color and interest to my knitting.

7. What colors look good on you? I have lightish blue/grey eyes that pick up what Im wearing so I tend to wear colors that compliment that. I FEEL good in deeper, richer colors. I have been told Red is good on me, but I don’t particularly like it on me

8. What colors look bad on you? Pale pastel-ly colors

9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them? No

10. What is your favorite neutral color? black/white/ivory/tan/brown/gray – if brown or gray do you prefer cool or warm versions of those or does it matter? And, how dark? I like medium warm browns as a neutral color

11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published? If yes, which one? What do you not like about the published colors? Not really an issue, if I don’t like published colors in any pattern, I change them to suit my likes.