Did you miss me?
It's been a while since my last post. It's been a very busy week at work. Part of the problems I was working on you can see below - one of our servers completely died, so I was trying to facilitate getting that problem resolved. It's partially solved, but not completely.
It's a sickness, really
I often wonder whether people who are very regimented and structured are drawn to the legal profession or whether law school beats that into your brain. I know there's a process during which you learn to "think like a lawyer". It's probably some combination of the two. In any case, these "skills" spill over beyond just the job and I'm somewhat regimented and rules-based in my knitting.
I always have three projects going at one time, which I alternate on a daily basis. For me, this is the optimal mix of having different things to work on to keep from getting bored, but still being able to finish things up on a regular basis. I always only work on one project per day - if I finish a project, I move on to non-knitting activities for the rest of the day and if I don't want to knit on the project that is in rotation, too bad. Occasionally I'll mix up the order if I'm going to be traveling and one project is more portable.
Poncho Update
As I think I mentioned before, I finished up half of the poncho for my niece, but it was too small. I will give that poncho to a friend for her younger daughter, but I didn't feel like finishing that up right away since I have so many other projects waiting to be cast on. So, I had to either get more of the same yarn or perhaps change to a different, more eyelashy yarn. I decided to go to Limited Too and see if they still had the poncho that inspired my niece. I didn't want to cast something else on until I figured out the poncho situation, so I decided to spend a day beading instead.
Beading
I bought the bigger beads for this necklace a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make them up. I bought a seed bead mix for a completely different project, but this mix matches the necklace exactly - what luck!
Here's a closeup of the pretty beads:
Love those colors and that look like dichroic glass.
I had a little more time, so I made some more beaded stitch markers with my red bead mix.
BTW, the Limited Too poncho was on clearance, so I just bought the poncho she originally wanted and am going to skip the knitting altogether. I'll finish up the poncho for my friend after I get a couple of other projects out of the way.
Valentine's Day Update
When last I posted it was Valentine's Day. Bill and Red gave me a box of candy the week before (they're not so good at waiting once they've bought something), so I figured it was going to be a normal every day Monday. WRONG! I came into my office and found a box sitting on my desk. It was from Susan and contained my favorite combo platter:
Chocolate! and
Isn't she a peach?!! She read that I love Tahki Cotton Classic so she sent me a few skeins. One of the reasons I love this yarn is because it comes in such awesome colors and this mix doesn't disappoint! And did you see that cute tissue paper?
Renee's Reviews
After such a long, stressful week, it felt good to have a fairly relaxing weekend. Saturday was the monthly Ample Knitters Twin Cities get together. I had to miss it last month, so it was really good to see everyone again and do a little group knitting. A group of people headed over to Needlework Unlimited for their big sale, but I was disciplined and skipped it. Later I saw this movie:
Loved it. There were so many scenes that I just loved. Any scene between Howard Hughes and Katherine Hepburn. The scenes where Hughes is struggling with his sanity. The scene where Hughes visits the Senator in his hotel room. DiCaprio did a great job with a character who is not very likeable, but you still sort of root him on and want him to be successful in battling his demons.
Today is my nephew, Michael's birthday, so Sunday we went to Mall of America to eat dinner and let him do some birthday shopping at Legoland. We had hoped to go to Underwater World also, but they closed before we had a chance to get there. I decided to only work a partial day yesterday, so Michael and I joined Bill and Red and Beth and her two kids for lunch and then a trip to the zoo. Michael and Red have gotten together a few other times, but now that Red is in school, the age difference between them doesn't seem to be such an obstacle. They both enjoy playing with the same toys now, so it would be cool if they could get together more often.
FO Report
I managed to get a little knitting in too and finished up a couple of things. First up I got the Berroco yarn from eBay and was able to knit the turtle neck on my sister's sweater:
I have mixed feelings about this project. Laura picked out the pattern from Vogue Knitting. The pattern calls for cotton chenille, but I had some alpaca in the stash that I decided to use. It feels soft to the hand, but when you are wearing it against your skin, it is really scratchy. So, I'm not sure she's going to wear it anyway. The pattern calls for a chunky cotton chenille for the turtleneck, but I wanted to something really soft and not scratchy, so Laura chose this cotton/acrylic blend. It does feel good, but it looks kinda weird because the color is so different. It looks a bit better on than in that picture laying on the floor, but I didn't want to photograph it on me since it's too small for me to wear.
The second FO was more successful:
A hat to match the booties. It's pretty cute. I decided to keep the front flap off since I just didn't like it. I should have attached the flaps to the Plush so that they come down longer, but it was easier to sew Suede to Suede. I think Saralee will like it anyway and hopefully it will fit the baby. I called her today to schedule a lunch to get together and give them to her.
It's a sickness, really
I often wonder whether people who are very regimented and structured are drawn to the legal profession or whether law school beats that into your brain. I know there's a process during which you learn to "think like a lawyer". It's probably some combination of the two. In any case, these "skills" spill over beyond just the job and I'm somewhat regimented and rules-based in my knitting.
I always have three projects going at one time, which I alternate on a daily basis. For me, this is the optimal mix of having different things to work on to keep from getting bored, but still being able to finish things up on a regular basis. I always only work on one project per day - if I finish a project, I move on to non-knitting activities for the rest of the day and if I don't want to knit on the project that is in rotation, too bad. Occasionally I'll mix up the order if I'm going to be traveling and one project is more portable.
Poncho Update
As I think I mentioned before, I finished up half of the poncho for my niece, but it was too small. I will give that poncho to a friend for her younger daughter, but I didn't feel like finishing that up right away since I have so many other projects waiting to be cast on. So, I had to either get more of the same yarn or perhaps change to a different, more eyelashy yarn. I decided to go to Limited Too and see if they still had the poncho that inspired my niece. I didn't want to cast something else on until I figured out the poncho situation, so I decided to spend a day beading instead.
Beading
I bought the bigger beads for this necklace a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make them up. I bought a seed bead mix for a completely different project, but this mix matches the necklace exactly - what luck!
Here's a closeup of the pretty beads:
Love those colors and that look like dichroic glass.
I had a little more time, so I made some more beaded stitch markers with my red bead mix.
BTW, the Limited Too poncho was on clearance, so I just bought the poncho she originally wanted and am going to skip the knitting altogether. I'll finish up the poncho for my friend after I get a couple of other projects out of the way.
Valentine's Day Update
When last I posted it was Valentine's Day. Bill and Red gave me a box of candy the week before (they're not so good at waiting once they've bought something), so I figured it was going to be a normal every day Monday. WRONG! I came into my office and found a box sitting on my desk. It was from Susan and contained my favorite combo platter:
Chocolate! and
Isn't she a peach?!! She read that I love Tahki Cotton Classic so she sent me a few skeins. One of the reasons I love this yarn is because it comes in such awesome colors and this mix doesn't disappoint! And did you see that cute tissue paper?
Renee's Reviews
After such a long, stressful week, it felt good to have a fairly relaxing weekend. Saturday was the monthly Ample Knitters Twin Cities get together. I had to miss it last month, so it was really good to see everyone again and do a little group knitting. A group of people headed over to Needlework Unlimited for their big sale, but I was disciplined and skipped it. Later I saw this movie:
Loved it. There were so many scenes that I just loved. Any scene between Howard Hughes and Katherine Hepburn. The scenes where Hughes is struggling with his sanity. The scene where Hughes visits the Senator in his hotel room. DiCaprio did a great job with a character who is not very likeable, but you still sort of root him on and want him to be successful in battling his demons.
Today is my nephew, Michael's birthday, so Sunday we went to Mall of America to eat dinner and let him do some birthday shopping at Legoland. We had hoped to go to Underwater World also, but they closed before we had a chance to get there. I decided to only work a partial day yesterday, so Michael and I joined Bill and Red and Beth and her two kids for lunch and then a trip to the zoo. Michael and Red have gotten together a few other times, but now that Red is in school, the age difference between them doesn't seem to be such an obstacle. They both enjoy playing with the same toys now, so it would be cool if they could get together more often.
FO Report
I managed to get a little knitting in too and finished up a couple of things. First up I got the Berroco yarn from eBay and was able to knit the turtle neck on my sister's sweater:
I have mixed feelings about this project. Laura picked out the pattern from Vogue Knitting. The pattern calls for cotton chenille, but I had some alpaca in the stash that I decided to use. It feels soft to the hand, but when you are wearing it against your skin, it is really scratchy. So, I'm not sure she's going to wear it anyway. The pattern calls for a chunky cotton chenille for the turtleneck, but I wanted to something really soft and not scratchy, so Laura chose this cotton/acrylic blend. It does feel good, but it looks kinda weird because the color is so different. It looks a bit better on than in that picture laying on the floor, but I didn't want to photograph it on me since it's too small for me to wear.
The second FO was more successful:
A hat to match the booties. It's pretty cute. I decided to keep the front flap off since I just didn't like it. I should have attached the flaps to the Plush so that they come down longer, but it was easier to sew Suede to Suede. I think Saralee will like it anyway and hopefully it will fit the baby. I called her today to schedule a lunch to get together and give them to her.
rdladd@arnan.com
