Thursday, January 10, 2008

I had hoped to have the collar done on my boring (but exciting!) black cardigan, but I've been doing actual work in the hopes of maybe earning some money this year.  Apparently if you sit on your ass* starting (but never finishing) random projects . . . well, no one seems to want to pay me for that.  I don't get paid for the paperwork either:

(Kat -- that's my sympathy wine!  Feel better?)

But in the long run, I'm hoping it will pay off.  I did send contract #2 off to the Stitches people today, so that's something.  I'll be teaching a bunch of Market Sessions in addition to some regular classes at Stitches West this year (California in February -- will I be able to stand it?).  I'll be busy, busy, busy, but that's good, good good!  And I already know I'll be seeing some familiar faces there, so that's very cool.

Anyway, I've got my teaching schedule finalized and I worked very, very, VERY hard on updating my website and mailing list yesterday/today/tonight, but it's after 11:00 p.m. and I'm not going to hit "publish" or "send" until I've had a good night's sleep (well, I don't know what that is, but whatever) and can proofread everything again.

Oh -- I almost forgot to tell you!  I finished up a class at the Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn Shop in Lansing yesterday, and boy, howdy has Linda shaken things up in there!  She's rearranged and moved everything up closer to the front of the store, and I absolutely LOVE the new look.  Go see it for yourself!

I have, of course, been knitting in between all the working:

This is (or will be) the back of the latest Entrelac pillow.  Should be done tomorrow (except that I just jinxed myself, and now it won't be).

And since I have nothing (nothing!) on my schedule for tomorrow, I'm going to go hang out at Rae's new shop until the kids get home from school.  Bliss!  Join me?

Sarah

* Note to any of my children who might be reading this entry:  Replace the naughty word with the word "bottom", and don't let me hear you using that kind of language, young man!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

I think I've got my new teaching schedule squared away -- I'm just waiting for one shop's approval and a couple of date tweakings, and it'll be ready for publication.  There are quite a few changes this year -- I was happily settled into a regular routine, but I'm shaking it up a bit this year due to some scheduling conflicts.  Change is good, right?

Irene asked me today why I would buy all this black yarn on purpose (or something like that -- I have a mind like a sieve):

Because I want a basic black cardigan -- is that so wrong?  I tend to wear my "plain" sweaters way more than my "fancy" sweaters.  This will actually be more of a jacket than a cardigan. There will be a collar, for one thing, and a zipper.  The pattern doesn't call for me to do anything to the front edges before I sew the zipper in (at least, not that I can tell, and I've stared at it very intently, waiting for it to say something in that regard), but I'm going to pick up some stitches on each side and then bind them off purlwise to get a nice edge.

I've blocked Entrelac Pillow #2: (excuse me for a minute -- Mica is standing in front of the monitor and I can't see what I'm typing -- oh, there she goes)

This pinned out to 20 inches square -- larger than I intended, but Nancy (for whom the pillow is intended) says she likes 'em big, so there you go.  And as usual, I like it much better now that it's all stretched out.  I've started the back pieces in diagonal garter stitch, but neglected to take a photo.  Boring!

And a second FO for 2008:

Yet another Stitch Challenge square (January 2008), but this one is worth a $10 punch on my Woven Art card since I completed it before the end of February.  Woo hoo!

Doesn't take much to get a "woo hoo" out of me.

Sarah

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Making progress:

Flattering, eh?  My circular needle isn't quite long enough to make it around my girlish figure, so everything is bunched up at the bottom right now.  It's looking very cardigany, though, don't you think?

Sarah

Friday, January 4, 2008

This is what almost two balls of Peace Fleece look like (minus some swatches) when they're being knit into a cardigan (this is the back):

Son Number Two has a basketball game tomorrow morning, and unless I forget to take the third ball of yarn along, the body of this sweater should grow quite a bit while I knit nervously in the bleachers.

This is what happens when black stockinette stitch gets too darned boring:

Woven Art's May Stitch Challenge (May flowers).  Cute, even though it needs to be blocked.  And it's the first FO of 2008! 

Yesterday and today involved errands, errands, and more errands.  We're (I'm) trying to catch up after being slugs throughout the holidays.  The kids go back to school on Monday (hooray!), and I'll have the house to myself again (hooray again!), although I seem to have an appointment with the dentist at 7:40 that morning (boo!).

And for those of you who have been e-mailing me:  I'm working diligently on my teaching schedule (with frequent knitting breaks), and it's ALMOST ready.  I don't know why you're being so impatient -- I said I would get it done over the Thanksgiving holiday, and that was only a couple of days ago, right?

Sarah

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Geez Louise -- I skip one day of blogging and I get whiners e-mailing me that they miss me!  (I miss you, too!)

Yesterday was a bit of a surprise, in a very good way.  Hopefully that will carry through for the rest of the year.

I had planned to meet up with Kat at ThreadBear in the morning, then head home for the afternoon (maybe a nap?), and then back out to Jane's for the regular Tuesday night knit-in.

We had a bit of weather on New Year's Eve, and woke up to, oh, I'd say about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground.  It was beautiful (I didn't take a picture).  The main roads had been plowed, but our subdivision's had not (we're low on the totem pole in that regard -- ooh -- can I still say "low on the totem pole"?).  I drive a station wagon which cannot get through 8-10 inches of snow.  It can get INTO 8-10 inches of snow, but it can't get back OUT.  I was stuck until a) Husband Number One cleared the driveway, and b) enough neighbors had driven past in their SUVs to tamp down the snow enough for me to get through, both of which had happened by 11:00 a.m.

I made it to ThreadBear and waited and waited for Kat, but she was nowhere to be seen.  Since she lives about two hours away (give or take), I figured she had stayed home due to the weather.  I was going to head back home for my New Year's nap when Kristi walked in, so I stayed to chat with her (and chat, and chat, and chat . . .) (I didn't take a picture). Many hours later, lo and behold, in walked Kat.  Hooray!  More chatting, and all of a sudden it was 6:00.  Time to head for Jane's house for the knit-in, but first Kat and I ran out to have some supper at Emil's (a local, family-owned, Italian restaurant).  A delicious meal, more chatting (I didn't take a picture), and all of a sudden I realized that I should probably get going to the knit-in.  I checked the time, and it was 10:16 p.m.  10:16 p.m.!!  Kat and I couldn't believe it.  I obviously wasn't going to make it to the knit-in, and she still had a long drive ahead of her, and it had been snowing heavily all evening . . .

Before we started scraping the snow off of our cars, I suggested that we peek into the windows of Rae's new digs which were just a few doors down from Emil's.  And hey -- the lights were on, and Rae, LynnH, and Rae's brother Nick were putting the finishing touches on the space, just in time for opening day (which was today, Wednesday).  We got a quick tour (It's gorgeous!  Go see it!  I didn't take a picture!) and then headed for home.

I wasn't going to make any resolutions this year (besides continuing to eat better, being greener, simplifying more -- all carried over from last year), but I like the idea of letting go, going with the flow and seeing what happens.  It certainly worked well yesterday.  If I'd left home earlier (when I had planned to), I wouldn't have stayed at ThreadBear long enough to see Kristi, which kept me there long enough to see Kat, with whom I got along so well that we decided to continue our conversation over dinner, which went so smoothly that the whole evening went by before we knew it, bringing us out just in time to celebrate the new space with Rae and company . . .

It was a very good day.

Oh, and knitting?  I didn't finish anything yesterday (or today), but I DID start something.  And I took a picture so you could see what it was that I was dying to get onto the needles:

Isn't it spectacular?  It's a black stockinette stitch cardigan.  I'm so excited!  It doesn't make for a very interesting picture, but you'll just have to bear with me while I indulge myself.  It's the Neckdown Jacket (#201) from Knitting Pure & Simple, knit with wonderfully squooshy Peace Fleece (purchased from Rae, appropriately enough).  Fun fun fun!!!

Today's "letting go" involved asking for chocolate mousse for dessert at Mongolian Barbeque even though it's no longer on the menu (it can't hurt to ask, right?).  They're not going to serve it anymore, which is why it was taken off the menu, but they had just enough left for me and for Son Number One.  Enough for us and none left for you!  Yum yum yum!!!

Stay tuned for my next post, when the black fuzzy blob will be even larger . . . can you stand the excitement?

Sarah

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