Weekend rundown

How in the heck does the weekend go by so quickly? All of the sudden it's 11:00 on Sunday night and I got only a small amount of everything done that I wanted to do. I met Kim for coffee on Saturday, where she was kind enough to forgive me for being late, and kind enough to give me some Gaywool dye. We chatted and knitted until it was time to get ready for her son's prom. I came home for the afternoon and then was out again to a Pampered Chef party. Once I got home, G had gone out with one of his friends, so after Catie went to bed, I spent the evening knitting, spinning, and listening to the last of Pride and Prejudice. A very nice evening, I must say. Once upon I time, I would have been mortified at the thought of spending a Saturday night like that. Apparently this is yet another sign I'm getting old. All that's missing is the prune juice.

Sunday we went out for a nice breakfast, went for a drive, then headed home for a lovely date with the weedflower bed. As I was trimming a shrub, I decided I didn't like it any more. So out it came. (Thanks, G). It felt good to be decisive. Some weeds, though nowhere near all of them, got pulled. Some fenced got fixing. I went to our local farm store to check out the seeds and get ideas for our little veggie patch. Then, the highlight of the night. Due to the miracle of iTunes, we finally got caught up on Lost. And I finished up the first of G's Trekking XXL socks. I've started the second, and think, after a couple of tries, I got the striping matched up. Here's number 1, and I'm happy to report it fits perfectly.

So I guess it was a somewhat productive weekend. I had visions of getting ALL the laundry done, not just a couple of loads. I wanted to try out that new dye, but didn't get there either. We still have a not-so-clean house/garage. And the back yard--yikes! As I always say...next weekend...

We've survived a whole week without anything breaking down. What a relief. Both vehicles are running. All our major appliances are still humming along. Thank god. If anything else broke, I was gonna really lose it.

I've had some good knitting/spinning the past few days. I've been working on G's Trekking XXL sock. The gusset decreases are done, and I'm just cruising along on the foot. I'll be cruising here for awhile becase, as I've said before the man has freakishly huge feet. Here's the progress thus far.

I'm into knitting anklet socks. Saves on yarn, and things get done at least a little more quickly.

I continue to improve (at least I think so) at spinning. This is some dark wool that was given to me. Cleaned, carded, and ready to go. Amazing, eh? I've slowly getting better at consistency, but there's still some think and thin spots. It's getting better though.

Next project...dyeing. But do I dye the wool before it's spun? Or dye it once it's yarn? Any suggestions? Which is better for a rookie dyer? Is that how you spell that? I have so much to learn.

A good weekend

Well, Sunday night. I've been on call this weekend at night, but it hasn't been bad at all. I've gotten several hours of sleep each night, which is great. I finally got my package to Ann for our 40 Days for Others project. Apparently everyone in Caldwell had something to mail as well. I was there for about 40 minutes standing in line. But I did see one thing that made it all worthwhile. A woman there was picking up boxes of "hatching" eggs. I was totally intrigued by the idea of getting all these live eggs in the mail. So many little potential chickens sitting there on the counter.

Also yesterday I hit the LYS with Erica for my next Sock Club sock and yarn. While there, we discovered that this weekend was a "fiber-fest" with all the local yarn stores participating. So of course I had to participate. I hit 3 other yarn stores. Drop a Stitch in downtown Boise, Handmade in Eagle, and Knit One, Quilt Too in Kuna. I got a couple of things at the first two, but I have no pictures to share because they're for my SP.

Today has been laundry day. And knitting/spinning day. I'd much rather just knit and spin on a Sunday, but clean undies are important too. And C probably wants clean diapers. So I guess it's not all fun and games, but pretty damn close. All in all, a good weekend.

Goodies

My secret pal is seriously the best s.p. ever. I got a great package a couple of weeks ago. And now...a bonus. Candy for the grown-ups, treats for the critters and books for Catie.

Here is a close-up of one of the books. The baby is wearing these this adorable knitted outfit...hat, sweater, booties, AND pants. As I was reading the book to C, I kept looking at the baby's clothes.
This cute little number is making me want to start a new sweater for Catie. Right now I only have only one project going. A pair of socks. That's it. For me, that is nearly unthinkable. I've been bored with knitting lately, but maybe it's just lack of projects to choose from. So maybe 7 is too many, but 2 or 3 to pick from and to alternate may be the way to go. On that note...I think I'm gonna dig out the yarn. Or maybe the KSH for Birch, or maybe...

When it rains, it pours

I've had a bad 6 weeks. The fuel pump went out on the Jeep. The pickup needed all new tires. Work has been a bit challenging. The computer crashed. We owe the IRS gobs of money. And Friday, our hot water heater quit working. So we've been trekking to my parents' house for hot showers each morning until we get a new one this week. Granted, I don't have the troubles outside my house that Lorette does, but I just keep feeling like we can't catch a break. I think things are over and we can relax, then bam, something else happens. I'm living in fear our house is going to come crashing down over our heads. Not much else can go wrong, right?

I haven't done as much knitting and spinning as I would like lately. Actually, I haven't been doing any spinning for awhile. This week is the spinning guild meeting, so I'll have to break out the wheel and get busy. I've stopped and started 2 different pairs of socks about 5 times. I can't get the right gauge on either of them. But I think I've finally gotten it right on G's new socks. I can't get the light right for the picture, but at least it should fit him.

And on the subject of socks, I just have to say how proud I am of Erica. It took me 6 or 8 months of knitting before I was brave enough to learn to knit socks. She has been knitting all of about 3 months and just jumped in. Yesterday she learned the magic of turning a heel, and I think she's now hooked. I've created a monster, folks.

Today was Easter Sunday. I hope everyone had a wonderful day. We had dinner at my mom and dad's. G was in charge of dessert. He made chocolate mousse. Catie had to try some. I think she liked it.

So now it's back to the ol' grindstone. And please-oh-please let nothing bad happen this week.

On speaking a foreign language

I love weekends. I wish it was the weekend all the time. Maybe I'd get tired of not working, sleeping in, going out to dinner and then to a bookstore, knitting all day, etc. But then again, maybe not. It was a great weekend, needless to say. Well, except for the doing taxes part (ouch!).

Over the past few days, I've finished a cotton dishcloth and the baby socks.

The baby socks were a blast. Fast and easy. I started on a new kid's hat tonight. I also started reading Knitting Rules. I kept reading parts of it out loud to G, but he "didn't get it". Actually he said he was only "getting" every third word. How could he not understand the language of knitting? He's been living with it for 2 years?? Does he not listen to anything I talk about? Apparently, he must only really listen to 1/3 of what I say. At any rate, I'm enjoying it so far, and am now getting into the more technical parts of the book. Tonight, I'm going to learn about gauge and why it's important. But isn't it more fun just to jump in and start knitting?

Tonight was the second meeting of our knitting group. And I'm happy to report that we've gotten another person into our grasp. Kim came, thinking she'd be social and just hang out and visit. But soon, she found herself being inexplicably drawn in by the allure of the sticks and string.

It can't be avoided, Kim. Give in to the urge.

In Catie news, we're convinced we have a genius on our hands. She said something that sounded suspiciously like "doggie" a couple of times today. When the doggie(s) were actually in the room and walking up to her. And she's starting to 'read'.

And what's that she's reading? Not just any book, mind you.

That, my friends, is an American Family Physician journal. That's my girl.

Proud mama/wife moment below.

Today we got a local newspaper to find this. I can't stop showing everyone I see that my baby was on the front page of the Local section of our paper. That's all. Enough bragging for me. Sorry.

Socks, secret pals, and more.

I'm now totally and completely hooked on baby socks. Maybe 3 hours of knitting and I got this. #2 is half done. I don't even have feet that are that big, so it doesn't take all that long to make socks for myself. But this instant gratification is hard to deny.


Also, I learned today that apparently I'm a STR pusher. Kim is now obsessed like the rest of us. And she started an Irish Hiking Scarf. I've never known such power. (insert evil laugh here)

To make today even better, I got my secret pal package. This is the first time I've participated in a S.P. Exchange. I always felt a little jealous when I'd read others's entries about their pal and gifts and such. Well, now you can all feel jealous of me. Because my S.P. rocks. Check this out

Trekking XXL in blues (my fave), wash mitts, soap, lip balm, a little card so I can keep track of what size needles I have, and best of all, Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. Unfortunately, I have a feeling there may have been some other goodies/candy in there, but our well-mannered dogs got to it before I did. Sorry about that, SP. But I LOVE all this stuff.

On the Catie front, I simply must post this pic. Please forgive me all my Catie pictures, but I just can't restrain myself. Can I help it if I gave birth to the cutest baby in the universe? I didn't think so. I love bath photos. All we have in our humble abode is a shower, so her bathtub is the sink. Here she is.

My husband is cool

Well, here it is Sunday again. Time to get ready to go back to work tomorrow. I have to be at the hospital early, so should get to bed. But instead, I'm here with you. You all should feel so special.

I did a few rows on the Chevron sock. But then I felt guilty because I haven't done any charity knitting for quite some time. So here's a pair of baby socks. I'm using my leftover Cherry Tree Hill yarn, and am just sort of making it up as I go. No specific pattern. Very daring for me. At any rate, I think it's so cute. I'm trying to resist just keeping them for Catie.

Now I have to put in a couple of plugs for G. Our hospital is starting a new class, Boot Camp for New Dads. G is the teacher/"veteran" instructor. Tomorrow is his training and his first class is Tuesday night. Now he can share all this knowledge he's learned from being a stay-at-home dad for the past 9 months. I think he's looking forward to it, and I'm excited for him.

He is also going to have a blues show on Boises new community radio station. It's online for now, and his first show is probably going to be next Saturday. Check out Radio Boise and Boise Blues. He's making me proud.

My first blog date

I'm so glad it's the weekend. So far it's been a great one. This morning I met my first fellow knit-blogger, Kim of Gib Knits. She and her son Joey met me for coffee at our local Moxie Java. How fun. It was HER birthday and she brought ME a present. How sweet is that? I got some yummy apple mints and pretty stitch markers that she made. Thank you, Kim. And thanks to Joey for putting up with all our knitting/yarn/spinning talk.

After getting home, I finished up the Branching Out scarf. I still need to weave in the ends and block it, but the knitting is done. It was a fun pattern, once I got into it. It took me a few pattern repeats to finally get into the flow, but once I did, everything went along nicely. Here you go--the not-quite-finished product.


I also started a new pair of socks. Now I'm back to dpns. These are the Chevron socks from Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is in my (and many others') beloved Socks that Rock yarn. Scottish Highland colorway. It's gorgeous!! We went to a friends for dinner, then it's back home to knit some more. It's been pretty much the perfect day. If only I could spend every day like this...

Girls night in.

Happy Wednesday. I have no profound thoughts today. Granted, I pretty much never have any profound thoughts, at least that I share on here. I don't even have much to write about in general. G is out tonight with the boys, so it's me and Catie home alone. And she's in bed. So I guess it's just me. It's actually kind of nice. We cancelled our cable yesterday. So instead of sitting in front of the tube, I'm blogging, knitting, and listening to Cast On. Now I don't have to feel guilty about all the wasted hours I spend sitting in front of the television. But I do have some finished socks for y'all.


Vital Stats:
Pattern: Windowpane Socks, a pattern from my LYS
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill in Blueberry Hill
Needles: Addi Turbo circ, size 2
Started: March 3.
Finished: March 25.

Now it's off to finish Branching Out. I feel so productive!!

Fun's over. Back to Work.

Well, it's back to work now folks. Vacation was great. Now it's back to the grindstone. I survived call last night. Needless to say, however, my white cloud is white no more. After 4 call nights of no admissions, last night kicked my butt. Part of the job, though.

I'm knitting away on my Branching Out scarf and will hopefully be done with it within a couple of days. I need to do some more charity knitting for Lent as well. But here's a picture of the completed sweater--on its intended wearer. I've told him I don't care if it's 80 degrees outside...he's wearing the damn sweater!

I also finished my Windowpane socks, and will have pictures of those tomorrow. But to tide you over, here's little Miss Blue Eyes for you all to enjoy.

It's done. It's done. It's done.

Well, after 7 months of off and on knitting, G's sweater is finally done. I finished the second sleeve this afternoon. It's on the kitchen counter blocking as we speak. It's been an endurance project to say the least. I have this incredible urge just to jump up and down. By no means is it perfect. One sleeve came out longer than the other. This is a mystery to me, as they both have the same number of rounds and I don't think my gauge changed. But alas, there will always be things I don't understand. But what I DO understand is this puppy is done! Happy dance at my house tonight.

This isn't the best picture ever, but here we go:



Stats:

Pattern: Men's Neck Down Pullover (but with roller collar, hem, and cuffs) from Knitting Pure and Simple
Yarn: Lamb's Pride in Sandy Heather
Needles: Addi Turbos, size 9 circ

And on the upside, hopefully G can still wear it once or twice this year. We're headed to Helena Montana for the weekend and it's still cold there. We're such world travelers of late, are we not?

Good to be home

Well, Catie survived her first plane ride. Come to think of it, she had a lot of "firsts" this weekend. First plane ride, first rodeo, first concert, first museum, first time to Texas, first time to a yarn store. Okay, maybe not the yarn store part, but all the rest are true. We had a great weekend. The plane ride to Texas was a little hairy. She fussed most of the whole way there. Then not a minute after we landed she screamed, then passed out on my chest. Seriously. After a good lunch we hit a couple of yarn stores in Houston. Yarns 2 Ewe and Mary Charles Yarn Company. The rodeo and concert that night were a blast.

Saturday we went to Bayou Bend, a museum and garden. Gorgeous. I'm always amazed at places like these...places that were once upon a time someone's home. Could you imagine looking at this from your living room every day??

That's Michelle and Louis enjoying a little romantic moment.

From there it was off to Old Town Spring for the spring festival. What a cute place. Lots of little boutiques and shops, and then there were tons of artists' booths as well. And guess what? Two more yarn stores. Imagine that. The best one was Twisted Yarns. G and Louis were such sports about the whole thing. Saturday night we had Greek food, which I haven't had for a long time. Then it was home to sit and knit. While watching Bride and Prejudice. What a girl thing. It pretty much rocked. Here we are at dinner.

Sunday we sat a the local coffee shop and us girls did some more knitting while the boys did boy stuff. Computers and all that. Here they are.

G eventually took Catie for a walk in the stroller. I think she liked it. Whadya think?

Then we headed to the Natural History museum to see this. Amazing views of anatomy. I had a few flashbacks to first year of medical school. Ah, the memories. Sunday late afternoon and evening were spent on Michelle and Louis' patio knitting and visiting. To cap off the evening, Michelle has the first season of Lost on DVD. I haven't watched it at all up until now, but holy crap, we have a new show to watch and catch up on. Off to Netflix I go to look for the first season to add to the list.

Catie did much better on the plane ride home this morning. She still didn't sleep a whole lot, but was happier. Hence we were all much happier. And that pretty much sums up the weekend. It was a great time. Very relaxing and could've been longer, but still it's nice to come home and get back to our regular schedule.

I've been a bad blogger. Nothing really to write about in the Knitting on Call household. We're leaving for vacation tomorrow. We're off to Houston for a few days to visit Michelle and Louis. We'll be going to the Houston rodeo, checking out the area, hitting some yarn stores, and who knows what else. I'm excited to be going, and excited simply to get away for awhile. I haven't even really knitted much this week. I did some spinning, but I don't think I've picked up the needles since Sunday night. I'm hoping the vacation will boost my motivation some. I need some good knit vibes.

I realize I've been lax with the Catie pictures lately. I predict many pictures when we get back from Texas. Enjoy the weekend, and Happy St. Paddy's Day.

Just call me "Master J"

Tonight was a very big night. It was the first meeting of our new knitting group. It was at my house, so for once the table and kitchen are somewhat clean. So far it's a group of 4 of us from work. We're trying to come up with a name for our little club. Like the medical geeks that we are (sorry guys), we've decided we're going to have code names. So here we go... Veronica (a.k.a Scarf-Girl)

Then there's Sis (Awe-Some) in the front, and Erica (The Baby Hat Machine) in the back.


No pictures of me were taken, but I made the executive decision that I should be Master J. Really, I was just joking, I swear.

I just finished the first of the Windowpane socks. I started it last Friday or Saturday. 10 days for an adult sock is a personal best for me. It's so pretty, there's no chance for second-sock syndrome to kick in. I want to wear these puppies. Now already.


And here's another look--

I also today bought some Lion Brand cotton yarn. I've been wanting to learn to knit Continental, so I thought I'd work on discloths for Ann and practice a new technique at the same time.

That's the knitting news, folks. 4 days until vacation. We leave Friday morning for Houston to visit friends.

Warning! Messy house below!

One more day of hospital duty. I've had a light week, so can't complain too much, though today left a little to be desired, on many levels. I delivered a baby. Unfortunately, labor was induced by the local method of methamphetamines. The baby's fine, but it's frustrating to see this happen over and over. It's quite an issue here.

I did get some knitting done on my down time. The gusset decreases are done, and I'm onto straight knitting in the foot. I'm getting faster at socks, which is nice. Maybe I can actually get a pair done in a month, instead of one individual sock each month. I'm working on it. I'm avoiding G's sweater tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a better outlook on life and will be more into it. It's all about the attitude. And tonight I've got nothing but bad attitude.

And now for something totally and completely non-knitting related:

There's something wrong here. I can't quite figure it out. Well, besides the messy counter/kitchen. Let me think...Oh, wait. The dog is on the flippin counter!! G had left out some marinara sauce to cool a bit. Needless to say, the sauce is no more. I don't even like cats on the counter, but a dog?? What the hell? It's G's dog, that's all I have to say. Mine is much more well behaved. In all actuality, she'd probably eaten what was on the floor, and had taken off to hide outside. Does anyone else have issues like this, or are our dogs just freaks?

Brief update below

For anyone who is wondering, the second sleeve of G's sweater is progressing along. The finish line is in sight. I've decided I'm going to do a couple of inches a night. I've been working on it while listening to podcasts. As of tonight, I've now made my way through all the Cast-On episodes. I love Brenda Dayne's voice. Now I'm on to Pointy Sticks. I'm enjoying just listening and knitting. I've been doing this a couple of hours a night, and I think I'm getting more knitting done. I'm also working on the gusset decreases of my sock. I trade off on the 2 projects.

On the fiber front, I'm waiting for an order of roving from Crown Mountain Farms. We're getting our lambs in a couple of months. The kicker thing is that a friend of G's mom has offered to sell us a couple of alpacas. 2 white alpacas for $1000 total. Whadya all think? Tempting, to say the least, but we don't really have that much acreage. I would really like to buy more land, but it's getting incredibly expensive here.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll get some pictures of the sock and sweater on here.

And the Oscar goes to...

The title doesn't really have anything to do with what I'm going to write, but seeing as how the Academy Awards were on tonight, I thought it'd be appropriate. We did watch though, and I worked on the latest sock. And I hope I didn't offend anyone with my little string of cursing a couple of days ago. Sorry.

This is my hospital week. My group has 10 family docs that take turns doing a week of hospital duty. So this is my week. It's been slow so far, though I had a rough couple of hours yesterday. I'm not going to go into details, but one really sick patient and 2 admits kept me on my toes for awhile. Today was much better, and I actually managed to get my desk a little bit more cleared off, as well as some knitting.

Yesterday I started this baby hat, and I finished it this morning. It's the Umbilical Hat from SnB, without the umbilicus/I-cord. I made the same hat for both Catie and Danny. It's quick and easy. The yarn is Plymouth Encore, very bright and soft. I'm sending it on to Ann for Lenten knitting.

Also Friday night I started a new sock. It's Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in a pattern written by Jan, sock guru at the LYS. All the socks I've been knitting lately are Cherry Tree Hill. Even though I have many other skeins of STR, Trekking XXL, etc sitting here waiting patiently. They can wait another week or two. Here's the newest sock OTN.

My goal for the week is to try and get those WIP meters along the side. That and maybe try and come up with a photo album for both WIPs and FOs. Well, and both of those and to do our taxes too.

I was afraid this would happen

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. That was one of my favorite words when I was kid, by the way. Anyway, I've finished the increases on G's second toe up sock. I'm ready to start the short row heel thing-y that I'm still kind of freaked out by. Here's what we have so far


Here comes the problem though. Pictured below is sock #2. Note the very small pile of yarn next to the sock. No where near enough to finish the sock. Argh!


So I guess that means a trip to the LYS tomorrow to try and find a second skein. Damn.

As an aside, when I was little, we lived on a ranch with an irrigation dam in the creek. I couldn't figure out why you couldn't say "damn," but you could go to the dam. I also didn't understand why my dad was so much older than me, when my birthday was Aug 9, and his was August 12. Just a little embarrassing stuff so you can get to know me better.

So hopefully I can find another skein tomorrow, because I really want to finish this sock.

Tonight is another call night. So far so good. Well, except for the sock stuff. But otherwise, it's been a great night. Plus I've gotten another person into knitting. Now both Erica AND Veronica are getting into knitting. I'm so proud. Brings tears to my eyes.