Inclement weather

So if anyone has been watching the news at all in the last week, then you're all aware of Hurricane Earl which will be passing by the East Coast.  Reports only expect high winds and rain, but we're being careful to prepare for power outages.  Anyway, (as I'm sure you'd expect) Friday's open-knit class is canceled as weather reports project that we'll get hit with the storm on Friday.  I've posted this message in the Bella Yarns group discussion board on Ravelry and figured I'd double post it here as well, just in case.  I'm sure we'll all be just fine, but take care of yourselves anyway.

...in which I follow a photo heavy post with no photos

I'm all about balance :)

So tonight I had my first seminars of the new term, and I'm feeling pretty good about these classes.  They are higher level courses so the seminars aren't graded which means that if I miss one, I don't have to make them up.  That's great if I fall a little bit behind, although I do try to make it a habit to attend the seminars because it's easier to stay caught up that way and I can ask questions before a major assignment is due.  I'm taking a humanities class, which is turning out to be pretty interesting even though I thought it was going to be some dull art-history type class (no offense to any art-history majors...or teachers).  Just in the first two chapters (which were grueling to get through by the way) I found that I'd read many of the works that they mentioned and had viewed several of the films so I picked up on a few of the references.  That felt pretty good.  I'm more well-read than I thought, lol.  Sometimes it pays to have the occasional nerdy habit :)  And my screening & assessment class is just fascinating!  I love anything psych related, and so far this is right up my alley.  I think this might end up being my fun class this term!  But either way, they're both better than my last two, and any time I've completed a math class, the following classes always seem lighter in terms of the work load.

Aaron's working the golf tournament up near the Comcast center again this year.  He's gone for 12-14 hours at a time when he does this.  This year he's working nights so Linda is taking Alex tomorrow and Wiena is taking him on Wednesday so that Aaron can get some sleep while I'm at work.  He'll have to miss the family reunion this year, which isn't that unusual in and of itself but this year he's gotten over much of his problems with his father and was actually going to go...now he can't and everyone was looking forward to his being there.  I'll take the boys myself.  So anyway, with his schedule, I won't be making any of my knitting groups again this week.  Craft night is out again.  I'm not sure how I'll work out Young Men's but I'm sure it'll fall into place (it usually does).

Another draw back of Aaron's schedule...my cousin-in-law had her baby this morning at about 5am, and I can't go see her in the hospital because I can't bring Alex in there.  My MIL will bring her my warm wishes but I really wanted to go in and visit her at the hospital.  I'll just have to hustle to finish the monkey blanket (which I steeked today!) and bring it to the house.  The blanked it considerably smaller than I thought it would be, which is probably due in part to my stranding (gauge always gets smaller), but I checked my gauge pretty carefully for this project...at least I think I did.  Anyway, they can use it in the car to cover the car seat or something.  And she's only about 6lbs & change so she may actually get to use this for a little bit.  My boys were horses.  They were born the size of an average 3 month old, so nothing small ever lasted more than a few weeks, lol.  So, I'll be trying to fit in the final stages of this blanket, while working on the swirl shawl and doing home work.  The only productive thing I managed to do in the last 24 hours was to steek the blanket-halves, and to organize my pattern folders by putting loose patterns in page protectors and organizing the binders.  Let's see if I can get some decent photos of the final stages of the blanket, and put them up by the next post.

What I did on my summer vacation (photo heavy)

Sea Lion at the Mystic Aquarium

Me & Alex in front of the "King & Heir" statue

Beluga Whale

watching the whales

Cheese!

or not...

Sting Rays

Sharks

pinguins

Rescued sea lions from California

Posing after the show

First day of the term; bored to death

So, it's the first day of the term and my humanities class is a real bore so far.  This book reads like a travel agent brochure on various forms on art, and how they will greatly enrich my life.  Not that I'm not into different art forms, but the way the text is written is bugging the crap out of me.  I sure hope that things improve after this introduction chapter, otherwise it's going to be a long 10 weeks.

I completed the second wedge of the Lace Edge Swirl Shawl (newly added to the Ravelry pattern database, thank you very much), and my numbers were off.  I was able to fudge it a bit on the pick-up row for the third wedge, but it bugged me so much that I had dreams about trying to get the numbers to work out all night long.  That and trying to knit a pair of lime green gloves (or maybe they were blue...) for some man I don't know.  Alex woke up last night the second I tried to turn the fan off, and then got up out of bed and ran around the room for a minute, at about 1:30am, so I didn't sleep well at all.  I spend the entire night in a state semi-consciousness to keep an ear open for him.  That being said, I was pretty tired when I got up today.  Work was slower today than yesterday, and I spend 7 hours putting bar-code labels on 410 skeins of Cascade 220.  Seriously.  I'm not exaggerating.  It was crazy.  I had to label them all, then put four aside for the shelves, and bag the rest for storage in the back room.  Both of my hands tingle and hurt a little bit now from all the label peeling, and bag stuffing, and heavy lifting.  On the good side, I'm scoring some gorgeous Cascade Heritage in a ruby red color for whole sale because we never ordered the bag in the first place, and I need that color to replace my Baudelaire socks.  It's a crying shame what happened to those socks.  First the heels blew out, and then carpet beetle larvae got to them and ate huge holes in the sole of one, and with all the repairs they just aren't wearable in shoes anymore but I can't toss them until I knit a replacement pair in the same color.  They were my absolute favorite socks of all time.  So I'll be knitting a new pair soon.

Speaking of knitting, I also got the Sheep 3 sample from the shop and I picked up two extra skeins of the same yarn to lengthen the sleeves with, and a button to put on it.  I'll be closing the hole up a bit as it's too large for the button, but it looked so good on the coat.  I've loved this thing for years and it's awesome to be able to bring it home.  The body fits great but I have these giant arms so I need to add a few inches.  I might even knit them extra long so that I can turn up the sleeve and cover the spot where I picked up my stitches.  That sounds good.  I think I'm doing it.

Lastly, today is Aaron's birthday.  He's 36.  Don't tell him I told you, lol.  I'm off to finally cut into his cake :)

Strange things

Learning by osmosis

This was a really strange Sunday.  It poured rain most of the day (naturally...because my hair is straight).  Alex had a really tough start to the day, and I had to take him out of sacrament meeting but he was just fine in class and sharing time.  Usually it's the other way around.  We had a baptism for one of my kids in primary so we stayed just long enough for him to actually be baptized, and then had to run to get Alex some lunch.  I finally took WD-40 to church with me and sprayed everything that is metal and moves.  The high-pitched squeak was just too much to take anymore and I did something about it.  Heather returned today and did sharing time, and brought some really great trinkets home from Utah for the kids for their birthdays.  And before I could leave, the Bishop caught me on the way out and let me know that they are releasing the primary presidency.

I don't really know how I feel about being released.  I sort of feel like I'm floating out there in the breeze with no purpose, as I've been the 1st counselor for two years.  I had a feeling that my time was almost up because Kristen paid me that really nice compliment that I seemed to have found my 'sea-legs' so to speak in the primary.  That's usually when they pull you.  Heavenly Father seems to put us (or at least me) in a job that I feel totally unqualified for and know nothing about, and then once I finally understand what I'm doing and how to do it, He figures that I've learned what ever I was there to learn and it's time for me to do something else.  It's happened every time, and I guess this wasn't any different.  So when I was released, I wasn't too surprised.  Now I'm about 3 hours removed from that moment and I'm just not sure how I feel about it. 

For a long time, I've gone down stairs and worked with the kids.  Some days were better than others.  As I've been in school, I've been putting to use the things that I've learned, and I've watched the improvement in many of their attitudes.  I've watched as some have moved away, been baptized, gone up to Young Men's and passed sacrament, fallen inactive, and as some have come from the nursery to join us in primary.  I've consolled some.  I've had chats with a few parents.  I held one in my arms in the hallway as they had a tantrum all afternoon.  I've leaned heavily on others who could always be counted on to participate in a pinch.  I've given lessons that caused their eyes to glaze over with boredom, and I've given lessons where even the most jaded of the oldest children got involved.  I've bribed them with food, and given them The Look (you know the look...that one that tells them that their time on this Earth is short if they don't pull it together).  I've seen one of my own children leave primary and another one join.  It feels like they need me, and like it will fall apart if I leave and yet I know that they have already called a new President who will call new counselors, and these ladies are exactly what this group of kids needs right now.  My time is past and I'm on to the next thing, or maybe not. 

Maybe it's time for me to just attend classes and meetings for a little while.  I've been teaching someone something for the last 3 years straight.  It'll be nice not to be nagged by the thought that I have to prepare a sharing time lesson in a few days, all while being in the middle of school work and trying to get that done.  It'll be nice not to have to worry about finding a substitute for a class because one of the teachers will be out, and then ultimately just teaching the class myself because no subs could be found.  I won't feel guilty anymore about all of the things our little primary aren't doing because we don't have the bodies to fill every position we have available.  There are some definite pluses, but its still a little bitter-sweet. 

Bitter-sweet.  That reminds me that I was supposed to bake cookies yesterday.  Instead I spent the entire afternoon mending my knitting.  I've had a basket sitting in the corner for months now with my Ivy league Vest and multiple pairs of socks which all needed my attention.  Yesterday I fixed the split seam on my vest, and then sewed down the steeks so that I won't have any other issues.  I also darned about 5 pairs of socks.  I wear out my heels, and every pair of socks I own was in need of some form of heel reinforcement, or flat out replacement.  If I was smarter, I'd knit afterthought heels all the time so I could just pull them out and knit them again.  Some of these socks are going to need to be tossed just as soon as I can get another pair knit to replace them.  It's not like I don't have enough yarn to do it.  I just don't have a lot of time.  I should just knit a pair a month like the Yarn Harlot does, and that could help quite a bit.  It might even save on the wear if I had enough to alternate them more often that I currently do.  And I have at least three partial pairs in some state of completion right now so I'm off to a head start.  One pair has been on the needles for two years now, so I should really just suck it up and finish them already. 

Well, my butter is officially at room temp and my boys need to eat, so I'm off to the kitchen.

The end of the mini-project

first wedge in progress

This week marks the end of the mini-project.  There are some major changes taking place in the shop (think furniture moving) and we've got some of our fall yarns in.  We're trying to be proactive this season and knit the samples before the yarns come out so that we can put them out with the yarns and give people an idea of how some of them work up.  This is the Noro lace weight I mentioned before.  It's one full color repeat, and about 2/3 of the first wedge of the shawl.  This one is simple enough for a beginner, but has enough interest to keep a veteran lace knitter interested.  The lace edge is a very simple 10 row repeat that can be easily memorized.  I actually lost some progress on it because after working on it for two evenings, I realized that my needle size was too small (even though I was still getting over the 29sts per 4 inches that was listed as the gauge).  I decided that since this will eventually belong to me, and what with my being 6' and all..., that I should rip it back and knit it on the 5mm needle suggested by the pattern.  It's looking much better and I think it'll actually be long enough for me. 

My break from school is almost over (way too soon).  I got my books in the mail and started looking at the first chapter.  One class is on testing and assessment, and the other is on arts and humanities.  I'm feeling better about them than my classes last term, as the subjects are quite a bit more interesting.  We'll see how I feel about them in a few weeks. 

Now, off to knit on the shawl some more, and let Alex watch some Wallace & Grommit on Netflix instant watch.

a closer look at the lace edge swirl shawl

Today's mini-project: Noro bottle cover

His & Her's bottle covers, lol.

Today I decided that it was finally time to knit that second Noro bottle cover so that my husband can take hot or cold drinks with him and not have to hide the bottle because of the bright, girly, rainbow colors of the skein that I used for mine (Alex picked it, so you can bet it's pretty).  He liked that his drink stayed hot, but hated feeling like he had to sit in the back of the class to keep people from seeing it.  I promised him one, and today as I made him a pot of coffee, I remembered my promise and grabbed my random ball of Noro Kureyon out of the stash to knit him one of his own.  I even found him a bottle just like mine so that he wouldn't have to take mine all the time.  So, after working on it for a few hours of the day, I cast it off...put it on his bottle...and presented him with it.  He gave me a big smile, and a kiss on the forehead, so it's safe to say that he's a happy man.  Now his drinks that he takes to the gym will stay cold while he works out.  I'll post photos as soon as I can (he's playing Crack 4 on Xbox live so I can't upload photos right now). 

swirly bottoms

The pattern is my own, and it's pretty basic.  If there is any interest in it, I'll type it up and get it uploaded to Ravelry, and provide a copy by email for those who aren't on Ravelry.  It's one skein of Noro Kureyon (it only takes about half), and 4mm double-points or circulars (depending on your preferred method of knitting in the round), and a crochet hook for the tie. 

My buddy from work is back from vacation, and I was able to tell her that I'd mostly finished the garter stitch purse that she left me with when she went away.  I'm not a fan of knitting garter stitch (although I love the look of it...it bores me to death), and I don't like knitted handbags, so this project wasn't one that I was excited about, but it turned out to be the perfect project to knit while watching True Blood.  So after a few episodes, I looked down and it was almost finished!  I feel much better about handing it back to her to take over.  I'm on to another project now; The Lace Edge Swirl Shawl by Naomi (my buddy from work) knit in the brand new yarn from Noro: Kiremeki.  It's a rayon, nylon, wool, and cashmere blend lace-weight yarn with long, long color runs.  When I was receiving this yarn last week, I almost started to drool, so I jumped on the chance to knit this sample even though it's mostly worked in garter stitch (see above comment, lol).  I feel confident that the lace edge, and the pretty yarn will keep me engaged in the project.