Sorry, I've been so dull lately... maybe these pictures will be interesting...

Ok, so I'm totally psyched about Secret Pal 4!  I emailed my SP AND received an email from my own SP.  (Was that confusing?)  So for the benefit of my SP, here's the answers to the SP survey...

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer high- a nd/natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
 I don't like 100% acrylic yarn.  I don't mind many of Lions Brand's yarns such as Wool Ease and the other new ones they've been coming out with.  Recently, however, I have been buying mostly online from Elann or Patternworks.  I go for affordable yarn that seems nice (although I did recently get a taste of Rowan and am thinking about starting a savings so that I might obtain more).

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
 I don't spin, but I can crochet, but I prefer not to (it hurts my wrist).

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
 Nope

4. How long have you been knitting?
 It'll be two years soon!

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
 Yeah, but it is soooo outdated.  I'll try to keep my Knitting Library up-to-date, so you know what books I have.  I absolutely love all knitting books!  I subscribe to both Interweave Knits and Family Circle Easy Knitting.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
 Vanilla, spicy, or citrus scents.  Candles are fine, but I have to be very picky about bath products because my skin is super sensitive.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
 Yes!  I love sugary candies.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
 Mostly knitting.  I've dabbled in soap making, sewing, and scrapbooking, but knitting is my passion.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
 My computer can play MP3s though most of them are from college and I haven't listened to them in ages.  I generally like anything from the 80s (from pop to hair metal to metal metal).  I'm also a big fan of John Mayer, Ellis Paul, and Bon Jovi.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer?
 I like lots of different colors.  I prefer rich, bright colors over pastels.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
 Just me and my boyfriend.  No pets, we used to have a hamster.  I'd LOVE to have a cat, but the landlord has a no pets policy.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
 If I could figure that out, maybe I would be faster at getting my butt out of graduate school.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
 Anything soft.  I like Araucania Nature Wool and the Peruvian Wool from Elann.  I'm willing to try anything.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
 I don't know of anything in particular.  All I can say is if it is itchy, that's no good.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
 Socks.  Although we had a fight the other day, socks and I have reconciled our differences.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
 I love making sweaters.  They take a long time, but I love in the end when I have a beautiful new garment to wear.  For example, yesterday morning I had a class, and I was wearing my Klaralund and was totally distracting myself by staring at my beautiful stitches and my excellent seaming.  And just overjoyed with the sense of "Wow, I made this!"

17. What are you knitting right now?
 Argyle socks for me, Socks for my sockapalooza pal, Mariah (soon), Ruffles scarf, an afghan, legwarmers, mittens

18. What do you think about ponchos?
 I tried to make one and it failed, so I gave up on them.  I am a big fan of capelets.  I love my Rowan capelet.  (Wow, I just realized I need to update my finished objects page!)

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
 All I will say is DPNs are evil!

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
 I love bamboo or other wood needles.  Aluminum isn't bad.  I try to avoid plastic.

21. Are you a sock knitter?
 Hells yeah!

22. How did you learn to knit?
 My super wonderful and talented grandmom taught me.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
 That would probably be Ruffles or the Afghan.  Although there is a mitten from a while back that never got a partner and probably never will.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
 I love cartoons (adult ones that is... but not adult like porn, but adult like grown-up).  You know, the stuff on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim... Family Guy, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hungerforce, Venture Brothers, King of the Hill, and the Simpsons.

25. What is your favorite holiday?
 I don't know.  Ones that give me a day off school?

26. Is there anything that you collect?
 Not really... my mom keeps buying me Longaberger baskets, and they are nice for putting yarn in, but I wouldn't say I collect them.  We don't really have room for collections.

If there is anything else, you'd like to know SP4 just send me an email!!

Oh, and here is the link to my 100 things about me... that might give you some more ideas.

And lastly for today, here are Joann's version of my glove pattern...

The second glove is about 1/3 finished.  I didn't knit much last night (I got caught up in watching Sex in the City on TBS while folding laundry), but if I put my mind to it, I could finish the glove in a couple of hours.  My plan is to finish the second glove and assess how much yarn is remaining.  If there is enough, I'm going to make mitten tops for these that will pop on and off.

Then when the gloves are finished, I will finish up legwarmer 2 (damn I forgot to take a picture of legwarmer one!)  Sockapalooza sock is progressing slowly... I'm mired in 2x2 rib for 80 stitches on size 1s.  Another inch or two and then I'll get into the pattern portion.

Tomorrow I will post a picture from Joann who just made a lovely pair of gloves with my fingerless pattern.  Hoorhay for Joann!!  (Oh, and there is mentions of my pattern over in the Knitter's Review Forums here and an entire folder for it here).

There was like 10 other things I wanted to mention, but my brain is not functioning so well this morning.



January 24, 2005
After two hours of shoveling snow, 2 turkey sandwiches, and a glass of red wine, I decided to have negotiations with the sock yarn.  Sock It To Me from Elann volunteered to be the spokesyarn (although I believe that the Opal forced it at scissor point because the Opal knew I didn't want to talk to it).  The Sock It To Me in the soothing chocolate color and I sat down for a conversation...

    SITM: "Why are you so angry at us?  Look at the pretty pairs of socks you've made for yourself and Kevin and your mom.  And look at your Pipis, they are wonderful."

    ME: *grumble grumble* "That's because they were made out of NatureSpun Sport, a nice yarn."

    SITM: "Aside from being loose, the argyle sock made out of my sisters is very nice."

    ME: "The stupid label was in metric that's why I used the wrong needles it wasn't really my fault!  It was yours!!"

    SITM: "Silly girl, if you didn't just jump right in and start knitting, but took the time to knit a gauge swatch, you would have seen the problem and corrected it instead of foolishly forging ahead."

    ME: "WHAT?!  Gauge swatch!?!"

At this point in the negotiations there was a violent struggle.  I shook and strangled Sock It To Me.  As I threatened to hurl Sock It To Me across the room for the death blow, a small voice from the knitting basket pleaded "just knit a few rows on the size 1s, you didn't try Sock It To Me on size 1s, just please try before you kill her!"

With a huff, I grudgingly agreed to try it.  I cast on 30 stitches with Sock It To Me on the size 1s and knit for 10 or so rows.  The resulting fabric was pretty good, it wasn't super dense, but it wasn't fishnets either.  Negotiations resumed...

    ME: "I'm sorry.  It seems as though you do work on size 1s."

    SITM: *slightly hoarse from the strangling* "That's ok, we will forgive you.  Now will you knit the sockapalooza socks with us."

    ME: "Well, I'm not going to make any promises, but I will try again under the condition that Opal remains out of my sight until I've finished these socks as well as the second argyle.  I'm not ready to forgive Opal yet."
 
    SITM: "It's a deal!  We'll try to make you proud!!"

With that, we shook hands and I cast on for sockapalooza sock attempt 3 (or 4? or 8? I lost count).  After 10 or so rows of 2x2 ribbing, I'm liking what I see, but am being cautious, so I'll reveal what pattern I'm using after I feel a little more confident about the sock.

For now, here are some more snow pictures.  Tomorrow look for legwarmer 1 and Kool Aid mitt 1.

In knitting news... I hate sock yarn!  I hate all sock yarn, if it wasn't for this sockapalooza I would absolutely quit knitting with sock yarn forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don't understand how I can use needles smaller than what is required for the gauge and still knit a loose, ugly fabric.  I really don't feel like investing $40+ for two each of size 0, 00, and 000 circulars just to create a freaking sock that looks right.  And stupid Knitpicks is out of stock of their cheap white sock yarn.  Do I shill out the money for new yarn and hold to strands together or the needles?  Can you tell the Opal yarn knit up like crap and I'm so freaking pissed off?!  On freaking size 2.25mm needles, it looked like my 1x1 ribbing was for fishnets!  Why can't I knit up a nice tight fabric?!  Loose and crappy is fine for something I keep for myself, but I can't give someone else something like that!  To top things off, my Kool Aid yarn absolutely will not dry, so I can't even play with that to make me feel better... not like it will once it is dry, since I need to rewind it into a ball and it is already a tangled mess.  I want to go back to bed...



January 22, 2005
Ok, so I saw a weather report yesterday that predicted only a few inches of snow for this part of NJ, but this morning the weather is predicting anywhere between 10-20 inches!  How that's a crapload of snow.  Kevin and I made a brief excursion out to get beer and milk (you know, the essentials!).  With football games tomorrow, you can't not have beer.  Later this afternoon we are cooking a full turkey dinner!  Hooray for snowed in feasts!!!

The stupid batteries in my camera died.  I'm charging them so I can get some more pictures of the snow (as well as the knitting pics I've promised you).  Here's the snow at 2:30pm today...

That's our backyard as seen from the window in our living room.

Oh, and this is the last picture I got before the batteries completely crapped out on me...

That's right, the Kool Aid yarn!!  The colors aren't quite that bright, but it is close to accurate.  I used Watermelon/Kiwi for the green, Raspberry for the blue, and Grape for the purple.  As you can see at the top of the picture, the purple kind of tainted everything when I lifted the yarn and the purple ran all the way down.  For a first attempt I'm very happy with it and can't wait to knit something (dry faster you stupid yarn!!!).  I'm not sure what... maybe some house socks or a quick set of mittens.

The first thing I have to show you is the finished Shake.   I finished Master Shake earlier in the week and never posted the picture...

I made a schematic for Frylock, but when I knit the first piece it was way too narrow, so I got pissed at it.  Maybe I'll try again this weekend.

I finished the first argyle sock, which now belongs to me.  I won't make the second one until I finish my sock buddy's pair (more on that in a minute).  I don't have a picture of the finished sock, but here are the pics I took last night.

So, the real sockapalooza sock... I really want to use the green Opal I showed yesterday, but when I searched through Nancy Bush's book, I couldn't find anything that would fit the gauge AND my sock buddy's foot.  D'oh!!  Then right before bed, inspiration struck and I scoured my Knitting Page a Day calendar for sock patterns, and boy there are a lot in there!  I think I found one that might work, but I want to try it out before I reveal which one it is.  So look for that later this weekend or on Monday.

Finally, the legwarmers are chugging along.  I'm almost finished with the first one.  When I get that done, I'll post a picture.  Right now it just looks like a purple tube and who wants to see that.

OH OH!!!  How could I forget?!?!?!  I played with some white Lamb's Pride and some Kool Aid earlier tonight... I think it turned out well.

Boy, I have a lot of things to show you in the next couple of days... I hope you can wait!



January 20, 2005
Today is going to be a lot of ramblings, so look out!

First off, by a fortunate turn of events, the class I am taking was cancelled this morning.  Unfortunately I had already gotten up early and over to the classroom when I really would have like to have slept in on this cold, cold day.  But I guess it is good because it is giving me time to post as well as prep more thoroughly for class tonight.  (And time to eat lunch!)

Secondly, after talking with Jody last night, argyle sock will not be for my sockapalooza buddy.  The fabric is just too loose.  Not that I want to be a perfectionist, but if I'm gifting this to another knitter I want it to be great.  It is no big loss because I'll just keep the argyle socks for myself.  I'm thinking of using the green Opal yarn I got a long time back at Stitches East for my sock buddy.

Because it has been so freaking cold, I cast on for a new project.  I'm making some legwarmers out of purple Lamb's Pride.  I checked out a couple of patterns for an idea of how many stitches to cast on, but am basically knitting a 1x1 ribbed tube.  Jody mentioned how 1x1 ribbing isn't that different from seed stitch, which we all know I HATE!  However, 1x1 ribbing is a lot easier for me because when I use seed stitch it gets really tight and I often forget if I'm supposed to purl or knit the stitch.  The legwarmers are flying along, I'm about halfway finished with the first one.  Hopefully they will be finished over the weekend.

We still haven't caught the mouse.  All of the food that can't go in the fridge is in a plastic storage bin, which is annoying because if you want pretzels you have to dig to the bottom and then shove everything back in, but not too hard because you don't want to squish the chips.  This mouse seems immune to the lure of peanut butter.  Kevin read on line that a mouse couple and its offspring and produce over 1 million mice in a year!

Oh, and in closing I totally support everyone who has posted the War President mosaic and links to the Faces of the Fallen.  It is an absolute disgrace that we elected that man to another 4 years in office.  I would also have posted the picture, but everytime I see that man's face I want to puke and I didn't want to continually look at his face on my blog.



January 18, 2005
There's a mouse in my house!  Last night Kevin and I went grocery shopping and as we were putting away the groceries, I lifted up an old loaf of bread to check it for mold before deciding whether to toss it out or not, and I found something worse than mold!  A hole had been chewed through the bag and the bread eaten!  Smart little critter did it in the back where we weren't going to spot it right away.  Since the bread had been sitting there for a while, we weren't sure if this was a recent visitor or something from a week or two ago.  Well, I found out this morning when I checked the brand new loaf of bread that it is a visitor who has not left.  Now, I'm not skiddish about mice, I like them... but in a cage as a pet, not wild and eating my food!  So I think we need to get a mouse trap.  Hopefully, we'll find something that won't be gross (like those scary snapping ones!) and in the meantime, I'm going to put all of our food into a big plastic storage bin so there isn't anything for the mousey to eat.  If he is smart, he'll pack his little bags and get outta here quick!

On the knitting front...

Thank you Ronni and Heather for your helpful suggestions about the scarf.  I've been thinking about it and I think I might have to go with the solution of sewing a piece of fabric onto the back.  Does anyone have an good suggestions for doing this?  Anyone ever done it and have any advice?

Anyway, what I've been working on instead of worrying about the scarf is my sock pal's sock (although I have many worries about this fitting her, so I'll be seeking a second opinion on Wednesday's knitting night).  I absolutely love this pattern that Jody gave me.  Check out my progress...

And here is the long overdue picture of afghan square 2!

In a couple hours, I'm teaching my first class of the semester; I always get very nervous about teaching the first class even though we are just going over the syllabus.  I haven't yet figured out a good way to stand in front of 400 people and get their attention.  The first words are always the hardest for me to get out, but once I get going it isn't so bad.  I still can't believe that I can talk for an hour and a half in front of 400 people... I used to visibly shake when I had to give presentations to classes of 20 when I was an undergrad.

Tomorrow I have a dentist's appointment, and I'm excited (not to see the dentist) but because it is a good excuse to sit in the waiting room and knit in the afternoon, since all my weekday afternoons are now supposed to be work time since the semester is started!  You can bet that sock is coming with me!

January 17, 2005
I NEED HELP!!! Ok, I had planned a post with lots of pictures of my progress on (new!) projects over the weekend, but that will have to be on hold. I blocked Kevin's scarf Friday afternoon, and it feels wonderful and looked wonderful. I unpinned it last night because it was dry and the damn thing curled back up!!!! Remember the picture of it from Friday... yep, it still looks pretty close to that. I can't freakin' believe it. So I need help... please any suggestions for making the edges stop curling over the nice DNA cables would be greatly appreciated. I'll try anything! If it helps to know, the content of the yarn is 37% acrylic, 30% wool, 30% alpaca, 3% viscose. Leave a comment or email me with suggestions!!!



January 14, 2005
Despite the high quality of ER last night, I still managed to knit 2 repeats on Kevin's scarf.  After another repeat this morning, the scarf is finished!  (Well, except for its bath and blocking.)

After I post this,  I'm going to block the scarf and that afghan square I've been promising you a picture of.  I can't wait to wash the scarf and lay it out.

It is 4pm now and the mailman hasn't brought my yarn yet.  Hopefully it will come tomorrow.  Tonight I'm going to work on Shake's glove.  It should hopefully only take a couple of hours, but I never wrote down what I did for the last one, so I have to try to figure it out.

Have a great weekend!!



January 13, 2005
3 more repeats and Kevin's scarf should be finished!  At my pace of 1 repeat a night (although I did 2 last night!), I should be finished by Sunday if not before.  Yarn from Elann should be arriving tomorrow or Saturday, so the timing couldn't be better!  I'll probably try to hold out on casting on for Mariah until closer to the Feb 1st start date.  I'm going to have 2 skeins left over from Kevin's scarf.  I asked him last night if he wanted a hat and he didn't sound to enthusiastic.  So they might end up going into the stash for now.

As much as I want to jump into something new when I finish the scarf, looking back at my goals from January 5th:

• Work one repeat on DNA Scarf or 30 minutes on Mom’s scarf per night
• Work 30 wedges on Ruffles or 10 rows of Knitting Afghan per night
• Finish Shake before starting anything new!
• Purchase yarn for Mariah and Kevin’s gloves (but not until 2 of the above projects are finished).

January 12, 2005
Working on only one project is definitely leaving me with out much to blog about.  I really want to finish Kevin's scarf this weekend.  I have about 20 more inches to go.  Interestingly it took me about 30 some inches to realize that I can cable without the cable needle.  I wish I had realized this sooner, things would have been moving much faster!  It is helpful to practice on the scarf since there is all that cabling on Mariah.

Tonight is knitting night with the girls.  Hopefully I'll make good progress on the scarf.  While knitting from a chart isn't the easiest for social situations, I don't have anything else... ok well there is Ruffles, but I tried working on that the other day and got so bored.  I don't know if that will ever get finished.  I need to take it with me on a long train or car ride where I have no choice but to work on it.

Yesterday Kevin and I went to see The Life Aquatic.  It was awesome because we were the only two people in the theater!  The movie was really good.  One of my ways of deciding if a movie is good is if right after the movie ends I want to see it again.  I definitely wanted to watch this one again!  Kevin and I had some good conversation about it on the drive home, which is also the hallmark of a good movie.

I'll just stop here instead of blathering on and on...

January 11, 2005
Ugh!  I am so lazy!  Yesterday I managed to actually get out of bed at 8am (yes, that's early for me) and exercise.  This morning I could barely drag myself out of bed at 9am to order yarn from Elann and then actually got back in bed, tried to read, and fell back asleep until 11am.  I think I need to start going to bed before 1am.

But the good news is I got some great yarn on the way!  I ordered the Peruvian Highland Collection Wool in Grape for Mariah.

I had considered knitting it in cotton like Jody, but for the price, I couldn't pass up the Highland Wool.  I'm using it for the afghan and I just love it so much.  I don't have a purple sweater, so I thought the grape would be a fun color.

I also ordered a bunch of the Sock it to Me yarn.  Some will be gloves for Kevin (the black), some will be socks for my sockapalooza buddy, and some will be socks for me!

I can't wait to finish Kevin's scarf so that I can start new projects!!

January 10, 2005
I hadn't posted yet today because I didn't have much to say, then as I was getting ready to eat my lunch, I thought of a great post.  By the time everything loaded on the computer so that I could start writing, the post was gone.  Stupid brain!

Oh well,  I made some good progress on Kevin's DNA Scarf yesterday.  I'm hoping that I can finish it by the weekend.  I can do a repeat in about an hour and each repeat is about 6 inches.  Here is 4 finished repeats...

I forgot to block the second afghan square yesterday.  Hopefully I'll remember tonight and I'll post that picture soon.  Square #3 is about 35 rows complete out of 82 total.

January 9, 2005
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments on my FOs.  I really love the capelet.  It keeps my shoulders nice and warm.  I think I want to make another!

Check out the link that Heather so kindly sent.  Someone completed my pattern, Sexie!!  It looks great on her and she said she liked the pattern, except for the crochet part (which Debbie wanted me to add).  It is so cool to see someone else make my pattern.  If anyone spots Sexie's in progress, let me know and I'll be eternally grateful.  Thanks again Heather!!!

I got my Sock buddy yesterday and I am so excited to start.  On Tuesday I plan to order yarn for her socks, Kevin's gloves, and Mariah.  If I've planned correctly I can get it all for under $50!  (Which might just tempt me to add more to the order!)  I'll let you know what I get as soon as I order it!  (Don't you just love the prices at Elann!)

I've been working a little on Kevin's scarf.  That part of my goals has been falling off a bit, but I vow to work on it more today.  Surprisingly pairing Ruffles and the Afghan has motivated me to knit a lot on the afghan. Yesterday I finished square #2.  I'm going to block it later, so I should have a picture for Monday.  I'm 15 rows into square 3 now!

Because I have no knitting to show, here's a fun little list that I found on JenLa with some minor changes.

——————

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Clinque Facial moisterizer
2. Coca-cola
3. Knitting
THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Black jeans
2. Handknitted Cardigan
3. Old pink t-shirt
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS (at the moment):
1. Bon Jovi
2. Talking Heads
3. Barenaked Ladies
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS (at the moment):
1. "Jersey Girl" - Bruce Springstein
2. "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" - Barenaked Ladies
3. "What a Good Boy" - Barenaked Ladies
THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP
1. Love and passion
2. Fun and laughs
3. Understanding and caring
THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX (or same) THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Intelligence
2. Good sense of humor
3. Triangular shape (you know, broader shoulders than waist/hips)
THREE THINGS YOU JUST CAN’T DO:
1. Use Double Pointed Needles
2. Wink with my right eye
3. Run for more than a minute
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Knitting
2. Knitting (and watching TV)
3. Knitting (and reading blogs)
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Eat!
2. Sleep
3. Knit
THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING:
1. Professor
2. Researcher
3. Yarn Store owner (would never happen, but a girl can dream)
THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. AThens, Greece
2. Paris, France
3. London, England
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Travel to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian sites
2. Write a book
3. See the Mets win a game in person!
THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. I play video games
2. I use foul language
3. I'm competitive
THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. I wish I had my own washing machine and dryer
2. I like to bake cookies
3. I love pretty things
THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. Ben Stiller
2. Jon Bon Jovi
3. Jason Bateman

January 8, 2005
As Kristin rightly pointed out, I figured out the RSS feed!  Here's my new button!  (Boy, I hope this all works!!)

January 7, 2005
I joined the Sockapalooza that Alison is hosting!  I'm so excited I got in!!  I was too late the first time I tried to join, but fortunately from a good tip by Jody, I was able to get in on the second round of joining.

So for X-mas, our friends Bernie and Mary gave Kevin and me a couple of gifts.  They know our likes so well... Kevin got a book about baseball, and I got a skein of Artful yarn.  While at my parents, I knit up the pattern for a scarf and produced this...

Here are the modeling pictures of the Rowan capelet...

I've been keeping with my knitting goals (well at least the last two evenings).  I spent 30 or so minutes on mom's scarf and knit 10 rows on the afghan square the past two nights.  I actually finished my mom's scarf, so I can mail it to her later today!

And lastly for today... this really makes me mad...

If you can read it, the show on this channel is called Knitting.  However, the show is not about knitting.  It is a show on BET Jazz from the Knitting Factory.  Everytime I click by I get excited that there is a TV show about knitting, but then realize that I was tricked again!

January 6, 2005
Because I'm a follower, I signed up for Bloglines, so now I can get updates without spending hours just clicking through the blogs (though I probably still will).  Interestingly, I have many more blogs on my feed list than I do in my sidebar.  I'll have to update that eventually.

The more pressing matter is that I want to let people subscribe to my blog.  Problem is, I have no RSS feed and after spending way too long trying to create one, I've given up.  Since I host (well Rutgers hosts) my own blog, I don't get the ease of having it available through many of the "blogger" type programs.  So, my plea to all of you out there... if someone is a wiz at this stuff or knows a great website (or book) that would help me out, please leave a comment or email me!

Back to our regularly scheduled knitting content tomorrow...

January 5, 2005
Thanks to Christy, Amy, Lauren, Marcela, Grauwal, Ashely, Kim, Melissa, Kristin, and Julie for entering the contest!

I put all the names in a basket and pulled out the winners...

First prize... Lauren!
Second prize... Grauwal!
Third prize... Julie!

To those who didn't win, I wish I could give you all prizes!  Thanks for all your great stories!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I noticed during my daily blog read yesterday that both Jody and Christy have posted about setting weekly or slightly longer term knitting goals to start the new year.  Considering my list of current projects was a mess and out dated, I thought doing the same would help me actually finish a few things that have been sitting on the list.

So to start, here is my project list (I'll post this in a more convenient updateable place with percentages soon).

In progress…
• Ruffles Scarf
• Kevin’s DNA Scarf
• Mom’s Scarf
• Knitting Afghan
• Shake

Starting Soon…
• Mariah
• Frylock

Waiting in the Wings…
• Aussie Hat in Red
• Green Socks
• Red Socks
• Sparkle Socks
• Kevin’s Gloves

So here are my goals...
• Work one repeat on DNA Scarf or 30 minutes on Mom’s scarf per night
• Work 30 wedges on Ruffles or 10 rows of Knitting Afghan per night
• Finish Shake before starting anything new!
• Purchase yarn for Mariah and Kevin’s gloves (but not until 2 of the above projects are finished.

Doesn't sound too difficult, right?  I figured this way I'd get some options of what to work on, but be working on things that need to be completed.  The only thing on that list that won't be completed anytime soon is the afghan, but with some consistent work I should be able to finish it, oh let's say before 2005 ends!

Here is another finished object from before X-mas (and I mean right before!).  Pasha the penguin!!

I promise tomorrow will be the last of FOs from the holidays!

January 4, 2005
So my new laptop is totally eating up all of my time.  I spent all morning working on it.  At first I thought, wow this is great I can sit on the couch and get my work done, but when I went to stand up after a couple of hours, my back was killing me!  For most of the afternoon and evening, I've been desperately trying to download or transfer the appropriate programs so that I might eventually be able to update my blog via the laptop.  No luck yet.

I don't know why this picture is so dark, but here you go... this is the sweater Kevin's mom made for me.

The colors are much brighter and prettier than this picture.  I'll try to get another one when the sun returns; it has been dreary the past couple of days.

I'm working on (although not in the past couple of days), mom's second scarf.  Here's where I'm at so far...

Furry goodness!

Did I mention that these two books came the other day?

And lastly for today, here's me from X-mas eve in my turtleneck shrug.

Contest (scroll down to the end of previous post) winners will be announced tomorrow.  It isn't too late to enter.  I won't draw names until after 1pm (eastern time).

(Oh, and list of current projects will return as soon as I sort them out!)

January 3, 2005
Happy New Year and all that jazz...  I have so much to say that I'm not nearly going to get to it all, but I'll try.  I haven't been knitting a whole lot because I've been busy with holiday stuff, eating, sleeping, traveling (ugh!), and playing video games.  I do have several finished objects to show in spite of the lack of significant knitting time.

Kevin and I spent X-mas with my family and we had a lot of fun.  Both mom and dad loved their gloves.  I would post the pictures, but I don't think either of them want their X-mas morning photos plastered on the internet.  I got some great gifts including a laptop, a bunch of clothes, some gift certificates, and this book...

This is Knitting School: A Complete Course.  My mom picked it out, hoping that I didn't already have it.  While there aren't any patterns in the book, there is a lot of great technical information, some stuff I knew and a lot I didn't.  This book will be a great resource!

After hanging out with my family and watching two Ben Stiller movies (Meet the Fockers and Dodgeball), Kevin and I drove up to spend time with his family.  We ate a couple of great dinners and got some fun gifts including a Lord of the Rings calendar and Lord of the Rings Risk.  The best gift of all was a sweater the Kevin's mom knit for me!  How awesome is that?!  And how much of a moron am I for forgetting to take a picture!!  I've worn it several times and it is warm and snuggly, and I promise to put it on later this evening and get a picture of it for tomorrow.

I should mention that the car ride between our place and Kevin's parent's place is about 5 hours.  Since Kevin does the driving, it did provide for good knitting time, especially for thick yarn on thick needles.

Kevin's mom took me to her other favorite knitting store, New York Knits.  Since I had a bit of X-mas money burning a hole in my pocket, I figured I would indulge myself.  I picked up two books...

After spending time with Kevin's family, we took his little brother with us back to our place for the night, before heading down to Delaware for a New Year's bash.  The party was a lot of fun and a great way to ring in the new year.

I have several other things to show you and tell you about, but I need something to talk about in tomorrow's post, so you'll just have to wait.

I am still working on changing some things around here and on the sidebar.  Please let me know if you notice any problems!

And again, because I'm lazy... the contest is open until Wednesday, so if you haven't entered, please read below and leave a message.  So far the entries are very funny!!

So here's the contest... what is your biggest or funniest cooking/baking mishap?  Since I won't be posting until Jan 2nd or 3rd, I figure your stories will keep us entertained until I get back.  Just leave a comment to this post and briefly describe your biggest or funniest cooking/baking mishap.  What will the prize be?  That I don't know yet, but it will be knitting related (a book? some yarn?) and awesome.  There will probably be a first prize and a runner up or two, so enter!!  I'll draw the winners randomly when I return from too many holiday excursions.

(Yes, I know there are two comments links, just leave your comment to one of them!)