OCD....Knitting

I made it! I kept telling myself, hold on for Wednesday, it will be here before you know it. It's here and I'm thoroughly exhausted, but alive!!

Christmas is always very hectic, not necessarily a fun kinda hectic. With the shared custody, for both me and my SO, it's a bittersweet time of the ultimate rule we learned as kids. SHARING. And like any 5 year old will tell you, sharing sucks! Especially when it's your coolest toy or your favoritist (only) child. But we survived, with no bloodshed, so all is well in our world again.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, cuz as per usual, we'll be spending New Years up north. I got new skis for Christmas so I'll be testing those out, and we also got a new (for us) snowmobile, so I might actually get to ride this year! Not sure if there's snow up there, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. If not, I always have sewing/knitting projects to keep me busy, and since our kids have the coolest parents ever! we'll be taking our new Wii up there too, along with all the games including Guitar Hero III, which I can honestly say is super addictive. I can't wait for a week of down-time to ring in the new year with all my favorite peeps!

I finished the Touch Me gloves in the nick of time and sent them off for Christmas Eve delivery. I haven't heard yet, but I hope they made it and I hope they fit the recipient. I'll know this weekend. I must say, they came out WAY nicer than mine did, much more fitted and seemingly softer too! I'd be happy to get them, I hope she is too!

I'm still working on SO's boot socks, into the home stretch now since I'm on the foot. It's been slow, but when you only get to do a row or two at a time, they take forever to finish. I've found a balaclava pattern that will suit my step-son for snowboarding, so I'll be starting that soon, maybe in time for our snow adventures up north.

I have no pictures of anything right now, cuz stupidly I packaged up the gloves for the waiting UPS man and didn't make him wait longer by taking pictures. I hope to get one or two when I see her, so I'll update my FO's then.

Happy New Year to all! May 2008 bring endless stash, tireless knitting, and some cool new patterns too!

Labels: Boot socks, Touch Me gloves, Up North

I think we got spoiled by the really mild temps for so long, and my body seems completely unwilling to adjust to the colder temperatures. I'm the type of person that starts wearing long johns and dressing in layers about October, that way by the time December rolls around I've acclimated. It isn't working this time. I constantly find myself cold and I HATE to be cold. We either better get a heckuva lotta snow soon to justify these cold temps or we better just zip forward to spring, toot sweet!

I've been MIA for a little while. I haven't updated my blog or Ravelry. I've been knitting, some, but life has been a little hectic these past few weeks. DD is in a play at school, which is this weekend and we're getting down to the final hour. I'm very excited to see the production, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It sounds like it will be very entertaining, not to mention really funny. I had to give DD a lesson in makeup, since she takes after me at that age (12) and she's not really a girly girl. In fact she's a little bummed about one aspect of the show and that is she has to wear some hideous DRESS! Totally uncool by her standards. I've already been instructed that there are to be no pictures of her in said hideous dress. We'll see.

Anyway. I've been knitting. I've got 2 pairs of socks going and still plugging along on the Touch Me gloves, although not as diligently as I should. Winter is here, and I'm sure my friend would love to give them to her daughter, while the weather is relevant. They probably won't be that well received in say, May. I need to kick myself in the butt and get moving on them. Also I've been doing some knitting on my Ultimate Sweater Machine. I made a felted laptop bag, and have decided it needs a flap. No problem, I can whip out 40 or so rows in almost no time. I just made a baby blanket out of some Joann's Rainbow Boucle, and have only to finish the edges off. I'm thinking of an i-cord edging, to keep the edges from rolling. It's 4 feet long and it really only took me 2 evenings to do 48" of stockinette. I promise to take pictures of all my WIP's very soon. I'm sure after the final show on Sunday, life will return to somewhat normal. Whatever that means.

That's all for now. It's after midnight and we have to get up early since DD is supposed to arrive at school by 7 a.m. in full makeup for a final dress rehearsal to be performed in front of the entire student body. Of course it's supposed to snow like mad, so wish me luck that we actually make it there in one piece.

Take care, and stay tuned for real knitting content!

Labels: Machine Knitting, School play, Touch Me gloves

I can't believe how fast this month is flying by! I'm still around, just slammed from every direction it seems. I have my new laptop working, I just haven't had much time to play with it. I've been knitting, but haven't taken any new pictures recently. I'll try to be better, I promise. I'm currently working on another pair of Boot Socks, for my SO, the Touch Me gloves for a friend (but the notes from my first pair are up north, so I'll have to wing it-yikes!) and I just cast on for a pair of socks for ME in the Lorna's Shepherd sock yarn, which I absolutely love. I'll post details for that pattern and some pics very soon!

Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day and I also hope you got some shopping done, if that's what you're into.

Take care!

Labels: Boot socks, Touch Me gloves

First of all, thanks for the well wishes and all. The dizzyness is subsiding and I'm starting to feel like myself more and more with each passing day. I took it super-easy this past weekend and have been trying to catch up on sleep and that seems to be making a world of difference with my head. I never mentioned that I actually hit my head, pretty hard, and that's what caused this BPPV, so slow down, don't be in such a rush, cuz that's how I went about banging my head. Hurrying to get from here to there! And look where it got me. I still have a follow-up test next week, so hopefully I'll get thru that with flying colors!

Anyway, on the knitting front, I'm happy to say I can now hog the digital camera ALL I WANT since I wisely bought the SO his own, newer snazzier camera to-call-his-own for his recent birthday. So, now I can snap snap snap to my heart's content and won't have to hear one word from him about how HE never gets to use the camera (for what I have no idea) cuz now his is actually nicer, newer, etc. and will probably sit on his dresser and collect dust! A small price to pay to have nag-free photo documentation! Of course I have nothing to show you, since I haven't actually documented anything recently except his birthday, but that will come with time.

I have been knitting, some. I am working on the Touch Me gloves for my friend's daughter. I'm doing both at once and taking very careful notes this time, since I so carelessly winged it the first time thru for myself. That's how I am any time I make stuff for me, sewing, cooking, etc. Just throw it all together and see what happens. But I am making myself slow down, write exact notes, so when all is said and done I may actually have a real pattern at the end of this. And, if I can repeat this pattern successfully then I'll happily post it on my blog. Probably for free, since I don't think it's one I need to sell. I'll sell what I spin, but this pattern will probably stay a freebie. So look for that in the future.

I'm also spinning a little. I'm still working on the batt that Miranda carded up for me. I'm about 2/3's thru that and hope to ply that up, maybe this weekend. This weekend is the last riding weekend up north before hunting season so we'll be packing the kids and heading up for one last time before it's time to put the dirt bikes away until spring. I'm sure all the colors have peaked but the weather has been so crazy I'm anxious to see how it looks up there.

That's all I have for now. Take it easy, watch your head, and have a great Halloween!! BOO!!

Labels: BPPV, Camera, Spinning, Touch Me gloves, Up North

Remember back in the day when your mom or dad would take you to the park and you'd get on the merry-go-round and they would push it and you would spin and laugh and yell "MORE, MORE, Love.To.Spin!" then you'd get off and your parents would laugh cuz you'd be walking around like a drunken sailor just off the bar stool. Well, this has been my life for the last 2 weeks. But without the merry-go-round and without the alcohol. Apparently I have some kind of middle ear infection or some crap, that causes me to be dizzy and stumble and fall over, for no apparent reason. Even laying in bed causes the room to spin uncontrollably. And not in a fun way. I even went and got a brain scan last week, and shocker of all things, I actually have one up there, but nothing else was wrong so they're still considering it to be a middle ear infection. Today I finished my 10 days of antibiotics and I still feel like crap. They switched my motion sickness medicine from Antivert to Valium which means I can't take them during the day unless my boss doesn't mind me napping at my desk, which I can't see him accepting, so no remedies for me during the day. And all the Valium really does is make me sleep, which I did ALL weekend, last weekend except for a few hours here and there, so other than feeling well rested the symptoms are not gone and we're going on two weeks here. Total DRAG!!

Labels: Hunter Socks, Shibori, Spinning, Touch Me gloves, Up North

Aww, that sounds so pathetic and desperate. It's really not that serious. I'm looking for 3 skeins of Touch Me in the purple color. A friend has asked me to make gloves for her daughter, and the LYS in my area doesn't have that color and might not get it any time soon.

I am posting this in case someone has this in their stash, and they don't plan to use it, for whatever reason. I KNOW I can purchase this online, so please don't send me a gazillion links for it (unless you have some reliable source that is super discounted-this stuff is kinda pricey!).

I was hoping to find someone looking to get rid of theirs and this way it would be a win-win for both of us!

If you have 3 skeins, in purple (there's a few different shades, I'll have to check with my friend for final approval of color), send me an e-mail with a picture if possible or at least the color number from the band. You can reach me at mnangel13 at yahoo dot com (make the appropriate changes for e-mail).

Thanks very much for your help! Have a great one!

Labels: Touch Me gloves

Labels: Spinning, Touch Me gloves