Lots and lots to celebrate

I've been very, very aware of the fast that I haven't posted in a week. I'm bummed that I let a whole week go by without putting anything up. But I did. Sorry, guys. I've said before that I feel like I do a lot better with structure, and I've had very little of that lately. But there is good news on that front.

I got a job! And I'm thrilled about it. There's a million things about it that are just what I was hoping for in a job, and I couldn't be happier. So starting Monday, assuming things go as planned, there will be structure again! And not the temp company kind where there's structure one week, and then for three days another week, and then nothing for a few weeks. This is reliable structure, just like I like it. I can't wait to get started.

So that's the best news, and it was already a good week. Yesterday was the Boy-Creature's birthday!


We got fondue for his birthday dinner, and I baked him a strawberry cake with strawberry icing. The kitchen smelled amazing, and I didn't even bake it here, since the oven is still on the fritz. Just the cake itself smelled delicious. And yes, there are only ten candles on that cake, but he turned twenty four, not ten. It's just that by the time I got the first eight on, he decided that was enough and wanted me to light them already. I made him let me put two more on so they'd be in the shape of a star. Please also ignore the fact that there are two mismatched candles right in front, along with ignoring all the junk on the counter. He really wanted some of that cake, so there wasn't a ton of time for a photo shoot. Not long after that picture was taken, the cake looked more like this.


It's a really tasty cake. There's even less of it now, and we only cut into it at lunchtime today. We wanted to cut it last night, but we forgot how freaking long a fondue dinner takes, and we didn't get home until ten thirty, and we were both stuffed. Upon coming home, I fell into an immediate food coma and had more super crazy weird dreams. So we had strawberry birthday cake for lunch today. I wish I could say that wasn't all we had for lunch, but alas, it was. Yet another reason I'm looking forward to going back to work. I eat better when I'm planning out lunches to take to the office.

Snomygawd

Here's a picture of my backyard yesterday morning:


And the front:


Now here's the backyard this morning. Notice any differences?


And the front:


I did not go to work, today or yesterday. I have gotten lots of knitting done, and unpacked four boxes of books.

A momentous occasion

Image source: this fantastic bakery, makers of some crazy-gorgeous baked goods. I especially love the Chanel-inspired cupcakes.

Happy 100th post, everybody! I'm celebrating with a new header photo. Like it?

It's a really good day for it, too. There's quite a convergence of knitting-related awesomeness today. Not only is it Knitlove Wednesday, but today just happens to be the day I hit 1000 posts on the Ravelry message boards and my two-year Ravelry anniversary! I joined back when there was still an invite list and a 2-3 week wait, so I was really excited when I finally got in. So when I posted about hitting 1000 posts, we were joking that it'll be no time at all until I get to 10,000. I mentioned it only took two years, and then checked how long it'd been, just out of curiosity. And there it was. "Raveler since February 3, 2008" Yay me!

In actual knitting news (read: things people other than me might actually care about), my Kaleidoscope sweater is coming along.


I did my very first provisional cast-on for the sleeves the other day (or at least my first successful provisional cast-on. There have been several failed attempts), and I'm nearing the end of the yoke. I think I'll do one more round of decreases, since I don't want it to be quite as off-the-shoulder as the original design, and then I'll move on to the sleeves and the button band! I oughta start looking for buttons soon, too. Mom will be in town this weekend. I bet she'd be happy to help me look. Maybe she'll even give me some of hers. Maybe. She's got a button obsession that has yielded buckets and buckets (literally) of buttons.

Since I'm nearing the end of the sweater (sort of), and I've never been a monogamous knitter, I've been thinking about other things to cast on. I was planning to cast on a washcloth or two, until I remembered that my one ball of kitchen cotton was used for packing material in one of the boxes that hasn't made it to Texas yet. Luckily, those are coming with Mom this weekend, so I won't have to wait much longer. I'm thinking I'll do EXFOLIATE!, in honor of my recently developed crush on David Tennant, thanks to the posting of many, many Hamlet and Doctor Who videos, not to mention the scads of photos. He's on my desktop now, too. I'm also planning to knit a Skully dishcloth, too, since I have a whole ball of the stuff, and I don't know what else to do with it. I haven't been bitten by the dishcloth bug yet, and I'm not yet convinced I will, so we'll see how it goes.

Those won't take long, though, so I'm thinking I'll cast on a lace shawl after that. It'll be my first! I haven't decided which yet, but it'll probably be the Haruni shawl, in some Pagewood Farms sock yarn I got in Las Cruces this summer.

So that's all the knitting news from me on this, the second anniversary of my Raveling adventures. I think I'll go knit on my sweater now.

Turkey turkey turkey

Wanna know what I'm thankful for?


Hand-knitted socks.

I started decreasing for the toe while we waited for the THREE turkeys to finish cooking (Seriously. They're not kidding when they say everything's bigger in Texas), and I finished and grafted the toe while fending off my second turkey coma of the week.

It's been a pretty good week.

Knitting update

Another week has gone by, and a lot of knitting has happened. I'm nearly done with the first of three balls of yarn on the super secret Christmas gift project, so it's coming along well. Especially considering it was only a week ago that I had to start over. So thank goodness for that.

The sock is coming along. I turned the heel yesterday, and I'm through the decreases and now I'm just knitting the foot. See?


I'm having a few annoying little doubts about the heel. I think it may be a little too big, but I couldn't decide. So I'm still waffling about whether I want to rip back and redo it or not. I can definitely say that I like the flap heel better than this one. It just feels sturdier to me, like it'll last longer. But then I've never worn hand-knit socks, so I don't have any frame of reference for how well they'll hold up. Other than those little hesitations, it's going well.

There is one other little bit of news. Remember this sweater?


The sweater that I finished back in July? Well, confession: I hadn't actually, entirely finished finished it. I just finished the knitting. But it's cool enough now to wear a sweater, so I decided I want to wear it to the big Thanksgiving dinner we're having this Saturday, with the whole family. So I sat down yesterday to weave in all the ends- and there were a lot of them. So it's actually finished now. Hooray! Finally.

A knitter! With actual knitting!

My god, how long has it been since there was some knitting on this blog?!? Way too long. And I've gotten so much done!

Introducing... (wait for it...)


My first socks! They're finally done! And now they get to sit around for two months until Christmas. But still, it's a marvelous feeling, finally conquering something that had so many missed starts. And the second one went so much faster than the first. I think it was because of the combination of feeling more sure that it would turn out right (since the first one did), and because I have very little else to do these days than knit and read and write and send out resumes.

But during the whole driving across the country part of this moving trip, we did stop at one yarn store. There was a new one that opened up in Santa Fe right before graduation, and I never got to go while I was still there. So this time I made sure we went there. And I got my very first KOIGU!


All the knitters out there understand why I'm so excited. It's Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino, which is one of the most beloved yarns out there. I just wish I could have afforded more. But two skeins will have to do for now. It's just so pretty! And my camera kinda washes out colors, so you can only sort of tell from that picture how gorgeous it is. I have no idea what I'll make out of it, but it's gorgeous, and I can't wait to knit with it.


I also got a mini-skein of Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Draco, because it was only two dollars and the little baby skeins are so cute. I should have put something in the picture for scale, because you can't really tell, but this picture is just about actual size. I figure I'll make a cuff or something out of it.


And finally, I ordered a skein of Cables and Lace yarn. The handsome and oh-so-manly proprietor is a Plurk buddy of mine, and he announced a couple of weeks ago that he would be closing down the shop. So unemployment-enforced yarn diet or no, I scampered over to his site and bought of skein of the Spider's Breath in Seahag (from his Old Man and the Sea line) immediately. It's way less blue than I expected, but just as beautiful as I'd hoped. Again, my camera does weird things to colors, but it's a deep, dark foresty green. I've already decided it's going to be a Whisper Cargidan, from Hannah Fettig's pattern. I had planned to make that sweater out of a different yarn, but the Cables and Lace is so gorgeous, I can already tell I'll get plenty of wear out of it.

As for what I'm actually knitting now, that's a secret. It's a certain Christmas present for a certain someone that doesn't know about it, and I've got a few more presents in the queue, too. So I'll be busy. But not too busy to cast on at least one more something for myself. I think it'll be the Avalon scarf from Susan Pandorf, in my Lime and Violet Intentions yarn. I've been excited to knit with that yarn since the day the nice mailman brought it to me.

One last thing: this is only-quasi knitting-related, in that someone knitted it, but I'm kind of in love with this girl's sweater on the Sartorialist.

Incidentally, if you want to see more of my knitting, you can click over to my Flickr photostream, over there in the sidebar.

Wanna see something cool?

What began as this:


Turned into this:



in just a few hours! It's nearly half a sock! My very first sock! Too bad it isn't actually mine. It's for someone else. Assuming it doesn't somehow go horribly wrong. Also, as that someone else is nearly two thousand miles away (you know who you are), I can only assume that if they fit my feet, they'll fit hers. And if they don't fit her feet, I have every intention of taking them right back! The good news is, I seem to like sock knitting, so I'll just knit her some more, if I have to.

Dedicated to my bestest best friend

So last month, when I went back to Texas, I left my camera at my best friend's house. The good news is that she found it. The bad news is that she's being LAZY and has not bothered to send it back to me yet! I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS! SEND ME MY CAMERA! DO IT NOW!

It's driving me crazy. Not only do I have a bunch of yarny goodness that I'm unable to add to my Ravelry pages, but we took a bunch of pictures that weekend that I want! And to make matters worse, I'm being all ridiculous and anal, and I'm waiting to knit with my delicious new Mmmmalabrigo until I can take a picture of it while it's still all pretty in the skein. It's my very first Malabrigo, and I can't bring myself to use it! It's torturous!

SEND ME MY CAMERA, NEAVES!!!

Ok, I'll lay off the exclamation points now.