GOLD!

Yup, been getting some shit for not blogging, yea yea, I could use the excuse that if I were to go online the first thing I would see on my homepage would be Olympic results, plausible, but not true, I've just been knitting. I got a gold for Team Clapotis and Team Chicago!! I cast on the Clapotis during the opening ceremony and finshed ahead of schedule. Officially I bound of last wednesday, the 22nd, block on the 23rd and wore on the 24th, and I'm very happy with it, mistakes and all, yes I made mistakes but taking my cue from the real olypians, I continued on. Not too much going on lately, work still sucks but I got a new little item from a vendor, a little circle of life from Roberto Coin, I'll consider it my olympic medal, hehe, it is 18k gold after all. Had a home visit from a volunteer from the Windy City IG Rescue, and no I do not have a doggy torture chamber, can I please adopt a dog now??? It would make a great birthday gift, Mona's would have been on March 23rd and mine is not too far after that, ugh! Also joined the windy city knitting guild, purely for the selfish reasons, a private tour of Lorna's Laces with option to buy, and a 10% discount at most yarn stores, gimme gimme! I saw a posting for a yarn dying job at said place, should I or shouldn't I. The pay wouldnt be any different and I doubt they would have health insurance, which I need, damned insurance! if not for you I could be doing something I truely love. Had a little olympic party tonight with Rachael, Shannon and Linda, Linda's project is almost done, but Shannon and Rachael didn't attempt. I made the Chili, Shannon the cornbread and Linda brought a chocolate torte cake, yummy. I had to rip out the Jaywalker sock the the gusset decrease, it was too loose and I need to decrease more, but I'm still not satisfied with the overall look, purely on my part, it looks a little stiff and not a supple as Linda's, she used a 1.5 US needle to my 1. Off to knit some more.

Happy V-Day

Armchair Knitting Olympian

The games have started and I am off! I went over to Linda's house who is hosting the recovering Rachael and we had ourselves a little potluck olympic knit off. I brought my famous mac and cheese reciepe, or actually Martha's Mac and Cheese, it's so good that it's a good thing, yummy. My project for the knitting olympics is the ever famous Clapotis. This is my second attempt at it, the first died a miserable death due to wrong yarn choice. I am so much happier with the Andean Silk form KnitPicks, it feels lovely, has a nice sheen and drapes beautifully. I am already to the point I was on the other one before I frogged the damned thing. I decided to do a different approach, I'm knitting it on regular ole fashion straight needles, not double points as I had on the first. I'm looking for speed and I'm getting it on the bamboos, maybe if I were knitting on Addi's I would be just as fast, but I didn't feel like buyig them and I missed my bamboo's sooo much. The circs kept slowing me down because I was constantly have to squish the knitting up to the point, I'm just not crazy about knitting on the Denises on a size smaller than a 7, the cord is not so fine as it could be. Speaking of needles, my hunt for the Swallow Caseins is over!! My nes favorite buddy Linda has a co-worker flying in from Australia for business and there just so happens to be a yarn store on her way home from work that has the needles we want. They are so pretty and shiny and clicky, I couldn't help myself from fondling Linda's at her house. The Jaywlaker socks are on hold for a bit, I'm just not going to make the KAL deadline, I'm not liking how they bunch around my foot after I've decrease the gusset stitches. I will eventually finish them as I already have new sock yarn reay to go and I WILL NOT start a new pair of socks until these are done, I WILL NOT. I'm thinking of joining the Windy City Knitting Guild, not that I would be able to make many of thier meetings as they meet on the same night as SnB, but they have an upcoming private tour of Lorna's Laces with the ability to purchase yarn there, maybe even off-dyed lots, YARN! I love their stuff, especially if I could get a deal, plus I already sorta know the owner and I should keep up the networking, because you never know, right?

Spinning

I'm spinning again, a little, and no it's not the exercise, I tried that once and it sucks! I finally filled one bobbin with the silk blend stuff I picked up at the Fold last November, heh, I've been busy knitting. I took me hours to figure out where I had packed away my lazykate, but I found it, and to my surprise and bad memory, it had two bobbins of spun mystery fiber ready to be plied, so plied I did, my second time. I've had my wheel for years and years and it always look really cool sitting there in the corner, a conversation piece if you will, but now I want to spin again. As you can see the blue stuff is badly plied, it's al twisty, I don't think I like my wheel, or at least my wheel doesn't like me. I check out the Chicago hand spinning group on-line and will have to go to a meeting and get some help, or perhaps the Fold might have a refreasher weekend class, I need help. As for the knitting, went to a open house at a LYS and picked up some Trekking XXL sock yarn in a very un-me rainbowy colorway. I don't go for rainbows, trying to avoid the how Punky Brewster thing, but I was intrigued by the way the 3-plied yarns slowly changes color ply by ply, I'm thinking a toe-up sock. I'm at a stand still on the Jaywalker sock, it's ok, had to work on a sock for my sock class and this week was kinds blah anyhow. While digging around in the boxes under my bed for the extra bobbins I came across some old photos, and found some of the very first ones of Mona, isn't that a cupcake shot if you ever saw one? She must have been only a couple of months old. I need to start filling out the paperwok for adoption, I just can't wait anymore. There's a really cute 8 month old IG puppy up for adoption named Gigi.

Blogging Blah

I've got the blogging blahs, I've just not been motivated this week to write too much. I've been knitting of course, going to work of course, taught three classes in a row, sunday, monday then tuesday and I'm tired. Wish I could have slept in real cozy today but the maid came and the damn cat always wakes me up to let her out so she can observe. About the maid, it's really nice, very cheap and she comes once a month. It also keeps me from wasting precious knitting time my cleaning. As nice as it is, it still is a little weird paying someone to clean your house, I'm just not used to it yet, I am a busy person but it's not like I'm a corporate exec that's always busy busy busy, I'm just lazy/busy. Blah. PS the pic above is a view up the 13 story north atrium at Marshall Fields on State St.