Brainstorming...

I recently read a post on someone’s blog and they mentioned creating a list of knitting related things they want to accomplish in the new year. I am the type of person who makes new year’s resolutions (i.e., exercise more, eat less, stay in touch with friends more, etc.) but each year I find that those things don’t get accomplished.

But I think a list of knitting resolutions may be more doable. So I am brainstorming about what I want to accomplish with my knitting next year.

Here is my list so far:

1. Knit the Free Knitting Pattern Holiday Ornament from Lionbrand for each person on my list.

2. Knit a complete pair of socks for my sister. (Either Cranberry Biscotti or Vivace Socks).

3. Knit a complete pair of socks for my mom including a pair of slipper socks.


4. Finish Isaac’s 2nd sweater before it no longer fits him.

5. Knit at least three projects from my Ravelry queue.


6. Blog about knitting more.

7. Make knitted jewelry (like Bijouterie, Chandelier Earrings,


8. Buy Noro Daria Multi and make the Daria bracelet for gifts.

It is a start.

Plugging away

I am still plugging away on my one sock. I have turned the heel and am now working on the gusset. I have picked up all my stitches and it seems to be doing okay. Of course, to get to this point, I have had to unravel it partway three times and put it one lifeline. I have learned where I will put my lifelines on the second sock.

I have had a few nights of too little sleep lately. I usually have horrific night terrors but it seems like for the past week every time I try to go to sleep my brain keeps running like a movie in fast forward. It jumps from subject to subject and there is music playing in my head too. It is hard to sleep when your mind is racing so much.

I am looking forward to having Friday off for the 4th of July. Ryan is on call and it is almost a guarantee that he will get a call that someone’s air conditioner is broken. We aren’t making many plans. We would like to see the fireworks from downtown Fitchburg but I am pretty sure we can see them from our house. Other than that, I want to clean my house from one end to the other and knit.

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!! You are the best!

I was talking to her the other day and I mentioned how bad I feel when I think about the fact that there is less than six months until Christmas and most years I have a lot more knitted gifts made and I have a list of knitted gifts for every person who gets a gift from our family. I have one gift made for my mother-in-law and that is it. I feel so bad and I know that I will be kicking myself the closer it gets to Christmas when I have to buy more gifts.

I do know that I want to make the Woolen Collectibles Afghan. It has 12 squares and each square features a different cable pattern. Of course, I have no idea what yarn I will use, or who I will give it to.

I have a great husband. He works in air conditioning and most of the jobs he has extra copper wire and tubes which can’t be used for any other job so he takes them up to the recycling center and gets some money for it. Well, while I was looking through the latest WEBS catalog, he made a proposition that after he turns in the money we will split it… he’ll keep his half for tattoos and I can keep the other half for yarn and knitting related gear. How cool is that?

Rain, rain, go away.

So I fixed my sock. (A big thank you to Kelly for her help and to all who replied on sockknitters and for the love of socks!!!) I just finished a backwards row, flipped it right side in, and started knitting clockwise instead of counterclockwise like I had been knitting. It feels so much better to be doing it the right way. It has grown so much too. I should be able to start turning the heel tonight.

By the way, this pattern is the starter stockinette sock from Knit Socks!

This weekend consisted of washing the equivalent of 12 standard washer loads of dirty clothes. Of course, that also meant folding and hanging and lugging the baskets back to the apartment and then putting them all away but we now have clothes to wear which is good for all of us.

I also cleaned the bathroom, baked my mom's cinnamon apple squares, attended the Greek festival where I ate yummy spanakopita, went grocery shopping, and talked to my mom.

Last weekend I baked a batch of blondies with white chocolate chips and they came out perfectly. Yesterday I made a batch with chocolate chips and they were too dry. I think it's because the weather was so different this weekend compared to last weekend.

The only thing different that I did was used chocolate chips instead of white chocolate and I cooked them in two metal cookie sheets instead of the Pampered Chef cookie sheet. Of course, that could have been what made the difference. Well, now I know for next time.

Update on Knitting.....

So what is new….

Let's see, my mom flew up from Florida for a visit which was wonderful since my daughter and I haven't seen her in almost two years. We had a great visit. We didn't do anything but visit, watch movies, and walked on the beach on the way to the airport. We did stop by a yarn shop on the way to the airport as well. It was an unplanned stop but it was great because she had a sale for Superbowl Sunday and I picked up four balls of sock yarn for $20.00.

On my needles right now is a ribbed baby hat. I am trying to knit through my stash and I have a ton of baby yarn so I will be making hats to donate.

I am having a bit of a difficult time because I don't fell all that creative lately. But I figure I will just work on baby hats until I get more inspired.

Things have been hectic with doctor's visits. I had a dermatology appointment, a CT, and I go to the doctor on Thursday. My daughter went to the dentist on Monday and had 4 teeth pulled (which was unplanned). Plus she has three more visits since it is her b-day in three weeks and it always seems there are a lot of appointments around birthdays.

Well, enough rambling...

Short Rows

Today is the strangest day. It is 71 degrees here in New England in early January. And my mom told me the other day that it was snowing in Daytona. Crazy Mother Nature.

So I kept seeing patterns that called for short rows, well, no matter how much I liked the item, I was petrified of doing short rows, (although I must confess I never knew what a short row was, they just sounded hard).

Well, I started my Campfire Socks and I am now ready to turn the heel. I was reading the directions and they describe what a short row was and I realized I have already done short rows. They were in the stocking pattern and they were in these really cute animal finger puppets I have been working on. Now I feel like a dope for stressing so much about something I have been doing.

My socks are going well. I had a spaz attack and read the directions wrong so instead of knitting the last 2 rounds 8 times, I knit all three rounds but noticed my error after the 2nd time. Duh, that would explain why it said repeat 2 for 8 rows plus the first three to have 19 rows.

Princess Ivi and I saw National Treasure 2. I love Nicolas Cage. What a hottie! Anyway, the movie was good and I have a request for the DVD and the original DVD for our collection.

Socks

So in keeping with my resolutions, I cast on for my first sock. I am using Cider Moon's Campfire Sock. They will go to my daughter, if they look okay.

I am liking it so far and hopefully, I can handle all the multiple needles.

New Year's Resolutions

So I normally don’t make resolutions because I never accomplish them but my sister talked me into making some for 2008 so here we go….

2008 Resolutions

1. Keep in touch with my family and friends better.
2. Knit one mile per month.
3. Use at least half my yarn stash before buying more (unless emergency situation arises).
4. Knit a pair of socks.
5. Knit all Christmas gifts.
6. Exercise more.
7. Take more pictures.
8. Post pictures on my blog and Ravelry.
9. Knit something for myself.
10. Knit more for Princess Ivi.