July Package!!!

WOOO HOOO!!!! I got an awesome July package!

4 count them 4! skeins of Noro Kureyon!!! I LOVE NORO!!! I really like working with variegated yarns especially Noro, because it's always a surprise what color you will get next!

It took me a couple days to take the pics so unfortunately all the candy is gone and couldn't be included in the pics.

So on top of the 4 skeins of Noro, I got an awesome Modular Knits book. It seems like an amazingly scary and exciting book! I think it's just the challenge I need, I'm going to start knitting some swatches soon! The whole thing was again wrapped in a beautiful scarf (my June package had one too)!

WOW secret spoiler you really outdid yourself this time!! Thank you soooo much!!!

Edited to add:
I almost forgot to include my Bob pin!!! I was just looking longingly at my knitting bag and saw it pinned on there and realized I didn't include it in my blog!!! That's the trouble with not having time to take pictures right after I unpack the package! I start using everything! I was actually going to CO one of the swatches I wanted to try from the Modular Knits book with the Noro...but restrained myself until I took pictures and posted a blog. I'm going to CO soon! Also post another blog soon, since I almost missed last week I feel I should write a couple times this week. Alas, Catholic guilt thou art mine enemy...

???

I don't really have a title for this weeks blog. I'm writing under protest, maybe that's strong vocabulary but I don't really feel like doing it. I have to for the SOYL swap so I'm going to do it anyway. So here goes...I guess part of my protest about writing is that I'm exhausted.

I've been going all week long and it's not going to stop for a couple weeks, maybe even a month of this non-stop going. I started my week out at Great America with flourish. I chickened out on all the rides and we basically spent the day going around the lazy river and wave pool. Still the sun was draining!

The summer quarter started on Tuesday and I have a pretty rigorous schedule this quarter. I'm teaching 3 classed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first class is a new class so it's a little more prep time, but I also modify my classes each quarter a little anyway.

I spent all day Wednesday working on drawings for a new project I have, finally finished around 11pm. Thursday I was at school all day again. Friday, I had a meeting with a 'green' investment adviser, just some networking (which I'm so bad at!) Then I went to pick up the recycling from the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce (I've been working with them to help them make their practices more environmentally aware). Then d helped me rearrange my bedroom and put some stuff away along with vacuuming my living room! I love love love him!!

Saturday I spent the day alternately knitting and cleaning, which is why I'm just taking a brief break to write in between cleaning, which I'm going to go back to right now.

SOYL Contest

I've been thinking about this for a while, my favorite summer time memory. The first summer that came to mind isn't necessarily my favorite memory because it's not all good. So I've been struggling with this, do I choose something light-hearted and fun to talk about? Or do I get serious? As I think about the summers of my childhood, I remember being the pool ALL the time, reading, or day camp. This was all before the age of 16, after that I remember working all summer. So I decided to write about something more recent.

It was the summer of 2003, I had been dating derek for about 3 months, when he left for a summer program in Paris. There was a lot going on that summer, I was 25 and my schedule was packed. I was teaching 4 classes at an interior design college, I was taking 2 classes at DePaul and I on the weekend I set up in a grocery store and gave samples of wine and spirits. It was non-stop, as I write about it now I get exhausted.

My parents, sister and brother-in-law were in-town (they all live in Florida, where I moved to Chicago from) for my mom's cousin's son's wedding. It was the 4th of July, I had to work (wine and spirits gig) from 12-4pm and I was to go to my uncle's for a bbq afterwards. I was late, like always unfortunately as hard as I try I typically am 10-15 minutes late, so I was rushing into the store with a cart full of stuff I needed to set up my table and it happened. As I was walking quickly through the parking lot, I felt a pop in the ball of my foot. It hurt so bad I had to stop, but since I was 25 and invincible I took a deep breath and kept on walking. I hobbled around Jewel getting my stuff together to do my job. Which kept me on my feet for the next 4 hours. Then I just kept going! The craziest part of all of this is that the day after was the wedding, then I was leaving to meet derek in Paris the day after that!

So I made an appt to see the nurse practitioner at my dr's office, she looked at my foot and it didn't seem to have any swelling or bruising which are typical signs of being broken. So she thought that it should be ok in a couple days, gave me some pain killers because she knew I was going to Paris and I'm not about to sit around in my hotel room while I'm in Paris!

We all went to the wedding, I had to modify my shoe choice. I haven't worn heels since then. I left for Paris, met derek and had an amazing time! We spent a couple days in Paris, then took a train to Basel in Switzerland. I have to say that Switzerland is one of my favorite countries in the world! I would move there in a minute! Basel was great because we were staying at one of derek's friends houses. It was awesome because I was able to get off my foot for a while. We had so much fun there! Drank beer starting at 10am almost every day, went to the FC (Football Club) Basel against FC Zurich, in which we were in the 2nd or 3rd row. We were at eye level with the soccer players! It was incredible, the best sports game I've ever been to! They won which was awesome because everybody was celebrating. It was derek's friends birthday so he had a huge bash at the house. It was awesome we had the refrigerated keg up and running at 9am and the party started shortly afterwards and continued on until I couldn't party anymore and went upstairs and passed out.

We left Basel and took an overnight train with many stops and changes to Amsterdam, then went back to Paris for another couple days before coming back to Chicago. It was an incredible trip that I will never forget!!! I learned a lot from that trip, it brought derek and I closer and is part of the reason we are still together I believe, and for the first time in my life I realized I was mortal. I realized that I can get injured and have to slow down. I went to dr when I got home and found out I broke one of the bones at the ball of my foot, the sesmoid (sp?) bone and was in a boot for the next 2 1/2 months!

I haven't been the same since that injury, my body went all out of whack resulting in illness and a whole bunch of things that I may write about in another blog. I'm looking for my pictures, I've gotten a new computer since that trip so the pictures are on a CD somewhere...if I find them I will post.

It's been sooo long!

So I'm finally getting to writing...

I've been working on a shawl for myself. I recently inherited 5 skeins of thin (maybe fingering weight, I don't know yet?) black cotton from the WWKIP Chicago yarn swap. Angela called me and asked if I wanted it, so I took it. I was thinking about what I should do with it, when I received my first SOYL swap package and amongst the vast amount of yarn were 3(!) skeins of Provence by Classic Elite. I decided to make Ella by Wendy Wonnacott, however I was just shy (maybe 20 yards) of the yardage with the Provence, I thought I should hold it together with that black cotton I didn't know what to do with.
Making the border with only the black then grabbing the Provence for the body of the pattern. I've been working on it and am pretty happy with the results, I just need to loosen up on the border. I have a tightness issue in that I knit too tight. I call myself "Tight Ass" maybe I should revise that to "Tight-Ass Thomas J"?



I've been working diligently to follow the pattern. Honestly it's the most complicated pattern I've worked on since starting knitting, but I know how to do all the stitches and I'm just working my way through it and hoping it'll come out right. I was working on it while at my parents this past week and my mom said it looked like the picture, so I'm hopeful.

06-15-08

I've been bad lately. I haven't felt like writing in this blog...or the other blog I should update. After finishing the quarter and submitting grades on Wednesday I have really done nothing but knit. Knit Knit Knit.

I finished a market bag I was working on for my sister; I started, modified and finished a drawstring bag; I started and finished two head bands. Wow that's a lot in 4 days! I also decided that I'm going to start to sell my stuff on Etsy.com, after discussing this with a friend on Friday. I've been working on designing my own bag pattern, based on the various bags that I have made. I also bought a whole bunch of alpaca and cotton for the bags...Thank you Little Knits for having such great sales!

I also started to learn to spin with a drop spindle! It was a catastrophe!!! I ended up being allergic to the lanolin that was on the wool :( I came home with red, itchy hands! So luckily Katy also gave us some processed roving that I can use so that it doesn't continue. One of my friends (flourish on ravelry) post in a thread about me being like Thomas J from My Girl...allergic to everything. I am! It's frustrating and actually keeps getting worse as I get older! So now I'm allergic to lanolin, melons, avocados, outside: trees, grasses, flowers, pollen, etc. Not to mention dust. Okay, I'm done with my complaining...it's a part of life and I should be used to it after 30 years of dealing with it.

Well, for not wanting to write anything I sure rambled a lot...

Here's Smokey...she is sooo adorable!!!

Summer Project

This whole personal blogging thing is new to me, so I'm sitting here working on one of my WIP a market bag while I'm trying to come up with ideas. This leads into the fact that it's a knitting blog and I should figure out what I'd like to work on next. I want to knit a shawl or something like it. It's summer and everywhere blasts their A/C indoors and I hate it. I'm not a big fan of A/C (unless it's after a long day of working outside) and prefer to keep my place cool with fans. Honestly, it's all you really need if it's close enough to encourage perspiration to evaporate. Let me get back on topic...

Shawl. Light weight, long enough to cover my arms and sometimes my hands. Something that's durable and not going to be problematic if I accidentally leave it out and the cats (with all claws) happen to make it theirs or if it gets mixed into the laundry.

So there it is! I've got my next project, now I'm going to spend all night looking on Ravelry for patterns...

Out of Town

I will be out of town visiting my parents in Florida from June 24 through July 1, I'm posting so my swap partner will know. Since our June swap is to be sent out by June 25(?), I will be out of town to receive the swap. I will be having someone stop by to feed my kitties but I'm going to put a hold on my mail. Not sure but my swap partner may want to send the pack to arrive after I return that way I won't lose it (I live in a 64 unit building and sometimes packages 'walk away.')? Just wanted to put that out there...

I can't wait!