Update Friday

Knitting

I am actually making decent progress on Good Friday. Last week I finished the Left Front and immediately started on the Right. As of today I am about two thirds done on it. I will most likely finish it up between tonight and tomorrow. The sleeves will be a work in progress by Sunday. I am actually thinking I could have this sweater completely done within a month.


Reading

Ya'll know I love love love to read and can rip through a book in no time at all. The last book I read was the latest installment from the Outlander series (Echo In The Bone). I actually took my time and prolonged finishing this book for as long as I could. I knew it was either going to be the last (which it isn't) or it would be a long time before another one was published (which it will be).

So now that I finished Echo, I decided to turn my attention to another wonderful historical series by Beverly Swerling.

Several years ago I read City of Dreams. Since then additional books have come out in the series and I never got a chance to read them. There are four altogether but I haven't decided if Book #2 Shadowbrook is actually part of the series (thus why I don't have it pictured here). From what I can tell none of the characters from Book #1 are in Book #2 but they do appear in Book #3.

Since it's been so long since I read City of Dreams I decided to reread it before progressing with the new ones. I wanted to have the characters fresh in my memory. The first book is set in Early New York around the 1600's. It's very cool for me to read a book that references places/streets in Manhattan from a long time ago.

If anyone is looking for a good set of books for light summer reading, I would recommend these in a heartbeat. Got my paperbacks from Amazon for roughly $7.00 a piece which is great considering they were originally $15.00.

Happy Friday everyone!

A Sweater In May

I finally found the perfect pattern for the Brooks Farm Yarn I bought at Rhinebeck 2008. For the past 1.5 years I have bounced this yarn from pattern to pattern thinking I figured out what I wanted to make with it. Finally about a month ago I settled on Girl Friday from Knitty Fall 2009. As of yesterday the back was complete.

I do love knitting with the Mas Acero yarn and this pattern suits it perfectly. With the exception of a small "thinking" moment on the pattern during the armhole shaping, the pattern is really easy to follow and knits up quickly. I generally wouldn't be knitting any sweaters until the fall since the warm weather is quickly approaching. However, with working nights 3 days a week I am finding that around 2am my body temperature drops and I freeze at work. So this will be a perfect addition to my wardrobe.

The weather hit over 80 degrees with high humidity this weekend and making it feel like summer big time. I love that the daylight hours are getting so much longer and am able to spend more time outside in the evenings.

Yesterday DB and I took advantage of the "summer" day and drove out to Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. It is such a quaint little village (click to see images). One where we both felt very comfortable and at home. We ate a beautiful late day outside lunch at Grasso's where the food was absolutely delicious. We walked along the small town strip and stumbled across the Cold Spring Harbor State Park. I noticed there was a hiking trail and, even despite being in a sundress and flip flops, we took a little adventure through the woods. Once we climbed up high we had an absolutely gorgeous view of the harbor. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera. After our climb back down to the water and walking back towards the Jeep, we ended our day sipping iced tea's in a small garden in the back of this little coffee shop (for the life of me I can't remember the name). We had it to ourselves where we could relax and enjoying the last remaining moments of a wonderful Sunday afternoon. We plan to go back and I will be armed with a camera.

*Ding Dong. Ding Dong.*

Ah yes the door bell still works! Can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. What's even more amazing is that I have been at my new job for 4 weeks now! Where has the time gone?

I've been working 5 days a week learning my new job. While it's similar to the work I have done for the past 10 years, there has been new stuff for me to learn since this is my first time working in a law firm. It's been alot to take in and I've had my ups and downs with it. Starting tomorrow I'll be moving to my permanent 3 day a week schedule. Guess they figured I was ready to move to nights. I've been told that nights are extremely busy and I am hoping this is true. I'll need to be kept busy to get through my 12.5 hour shift.

While I haven't been knitting for the past few weeks, I do have some knitting to share. I am almost completely done with my Slanting Gretel Tee. I have just the underarm stitch pick-up and bind-off to do.

I could of had this finished before I started working, but trying it on made me lose my desire. As you all know, I decided to knit this in craptastic yarn that I had in my stash for years, just in case I didn't like it or it didn't fit me properly. Well I can say that I like the sweater on me, it's just a bit too snug across my chest. It will probably fit me perfectly after I lose the 20-30 pounds I want to drop, but until then it will be relegated to the bottom of my sweater draw.

So will I knit it again? Yes I will, but with some changes. I will add about 2 more inches or so in the body length. It really is on the short side and I don't really think people want to see my belly if I reach up to grab something. Overall this is a nice easy pattern. Really knits up quick! I could of had it done in a month if I had dedicated myself to it.

So once my sweater bubble deflated, after the somewhat failing Gretel, I decided to cast on for another pair of socks. I went sock stash diving and came up with this Sanguine Gryphon yarn I bought a couple years ago. It reminded me of summer - sunshine, watermelons and fresh cut grass.

The pattern is from the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. It's the Angee pattern (my third from the book). This is of course another great little pattern by her. Really does knit up fast. Could probably of had the pair done by now if I had knit a little each day for the past 4 weeks. Never fear though, ya'll know I'll knock it out real soon.

After much deliberation I started another sweater today. I'll share it the next time I post. Hope everyone has a beautiful Easter!

Just Golden

The Olympics are over and I had some knitting success. I walked away from the Ravelympics with two Gold Medals. Two out of three medals isn't too shabby if you ask me.

I completed Kai-Mei for the Sock Hockey event and Jenny Cloche for the Hat Halfpipe event. Ravelry bestowed all finishers with some cool badges for completion of their respective entered events.

Ya'll have seen the socks but not the hat. May I present you with Jenny...

I have to tell you that I really didn't think I was going to finish it in time. I took advantage of the major snow day we had last Friday and hunkered down with the hat. After a few hours of knitting knitting knitting, I had put the finishing touches on the hat by early evening. I must say that even though this style isn't one I would really run to, I do love it!!! I even have enough yarn leftover to knit a matching cowl. So here are the stats:

Pattern: Jenny Cloche by Julia Madill
Yarn: Araucania Toconao (2 skeins held double)
Needles: Size 10.5 circs
Started: February 12, 2010
Finished: February 26, 2010

I did enter myself into a third event, Mitten Moguls. However, I didn't start them until Sunday afternoon. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish them by Sunday night so I chose to start them when I could just enjoy knitting them without a finishing deadline. As of today, I have the left mitten almost done.

Life Update

No knitting to talk about. No cooking done to wet your appetite. Just wanted to let everyone know that I GOT A JOB today!!!!

It's a temp to hopefully permanent position. I'll be working for a law firm within their Word Processing Center (exactly what I've been doing with my life for the past 10 years but in a financial setting).

The only downside is that it's working the night shift (seems to be the only real work available right now), BUT only for three nights (Mon, Tues & Wed). I've worked nights before, but over five days. I like the fact this is compacted into three and I have four days off that encompass the weekend. Plus the pay is really good. Also this schedule will also allow me to go back to school for my Masters in Education to become a Kindergarten Teacher if I so choose.

I'm just really so happy to have a job. One year ago today I got the phone call telling me I lost my job and now today I get a call telling me I have a job. I start my training on March 8th! Woo Hoo!!!

Olympic Knitting

As I mentioned briefly in my "Week In Review" post, I decided to participate in Ravelympics this year. Not sure if I was excited from fiber fumes, or just crazy, but I entered myself in three events. I figured at the time I could whip out a hat, pair of socks and mittens.

During the opening ceremonies I casted on for the Jenny Cloche hat. Didn't get but maybe five rows competed that night as to the fact that I had a killer headache. Right now I am around 17" on the required 21.5" length for the hat band. After that you three needle bind-off the ends together and pick up stitches to work the skull part. I haven't worked on it for about a week and the picture below shows where I stand with it.

On the first full day of Olympic events, I casted on for my Kai-Mei socks. I figured I would get this started and work on them as I knitted the others. However, once I got started I didn't want to put them down. So here is my first completed Olympic knitted item...

Pattern: Kai-Mei (Cookie A.)
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn (Colorway: Crimson)
Needle: Knit Picks Fixed Circ, Size 1.5
Started: February 13, 2010
Finished: February 23, 2010

I'm in love with these socks. Come to think of it, I pretty much love all the socks I knit. There is a Left and Right for this pattern. I did not make the same mistake as I did with the Rick socks and knit 2 Right's. No frogging done on these babies. I learned my lesson and paid attention.

So now I will be picking the hat back up and hopefully I can finish it in time. I am going to wind the yarn today for my Bella Mittens and cast on for them, but not sure if they will be completed by the closing ceremonies.

My Valentine

Valentine's Day has become so commercialized that I feel the true meaning of it has become lost in how much money can be spent on someone. To me it's all about acknowledging that special someone in your life, but in the simplest of ways.

DB and I talked about how we wanted to spend the holiday. He told me that if I wanted to go out for dinner we could, but in my heart that's not what I really wanted to do. We decided that we would cook a nice dinner together, eat by candlelight and share a bottle of wine.

I have to say DB really made this a Valentine's to always remember. He took care of/planned everything. He bought a bottle of our favorite wine and an assortment of cheeses to nibble on while our homemade pizza dinner was cooking. He even thought of dessert which totally surprised me.

What made this all even more special to me was that DB doesn't cook and he still wanted to make me dinner! He is the best!!!!