Woo HOO!

Sweater For Baby Tess,
originally uploaded by zukeeper.geo.

I did it! I completed my Baby Jiffy Knit Sweater, aka Sweater for Baby Tess before the end of the Olympics. Yay me!

Progress!

I sat down and read and re-read the instructions for the baby sweater and it finally clicked in my little brain. So now I have two sleeves and a baby shrug, lol. Seriously though, it is starting to look like a sweater :) Not convinced I will finish in time, but at least it's looking better!

Help!

Calling all knitters! I'm stuck. I have never knit a sweater before, nor have I ever had to use stitch holders. I am to this bit in the pattern and I just can't wrap my brain around it:

Next Row: K25, put these sts on stitch holder for front, K30 (sleeve; divide remaining sts onto 3 stitch holders – 49 for back, next 30 sts for other sleeve, and remaining 25 sts for other front.



Sleeves: Work in Stockinette st for 4 inches, after last P row, decrease 6 sts evenly across row (every 5th st). Work remaining 24 sts in K1, P1 ribbing for 1 ½ inches. Bind off loosely.
Pick up stitches for other sleeve from holder and knit same as first sleeve.

Did the bit I italicized, then stuffed the rest of the stitches on stitch holders. So... Does this mean I am to only knit on the first sleeve now? Then cast off the sleeve and go on to the next sleeve, leaving the middle bit untouched?? Then how the heck do I pick up the stitches for the next sleeve? Honestly the words just fry my brain, I'm too visual for this lol.

Update

Woot! I am to the point in the pattern where I need to start placing stitches on stitch holders. Stitch holders?! Missed that part of the instructions. I own two holders, I need 4. Sigh. I shall be stopping on the way home from work today. I have momentum going, can't stop now ;)

By the way, I switched patterns after the third time I frogged the first pattern. By the third time I came up with one stitch too few I decided that the stated stitch count had to be wrong. So I went and looked at similar patterns, found one that used the same size needles and the same weight yarn and I was off again. And guess what? The first few rows on the new pattern were the same as the old pattern, just one stitch fewer ;)

I don't know what you are talking about...

Ravelympics? What's that? Halfway mark? Don't know a thing...

Err. Yeah. Not a single stitch has been knit. First there were the two frog puddles opening night, then there was a tummy bug that made me not want to move again, ever, let alone knit. And then there was real life and yikes! So this weekend is catch up time. But frankly, I knew that time was going to be an issue and chose a project that would reflect that. So I still believe I have a chance to finish ;)

Err.

I used to love Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. Then they started turning more into bad erotica than paranormal mysteries. The last book, Skin Trade, was better. But I have to say, if you want to read Flirt, do what I did and get it from the library. It's a two hour read, easy. To call it a novel is a huge exaggeration. Really, it should have been released as a novella in a collection.

It wasn't bad. But it wasn't either. And it reads as a slightly regurgitated version of The Laughing Corpse (not my favorite early book anyway) crossed with a college girls' night out. And while it only had one sex scene, surprise, surprise! Anita now has a new man for her harem. Joy.

Sad thing is, I will be first in line to put Bullet on hold at the library. But no longer first in line at the bookstore...

Oh. My. God

So far the Ravelympics have not been a good time for me. Aside from the frogging issues of day 1, day 2 was spent feeling sicker than a dog and absolutely no knitting was accomplished. Blech.

And today I have to work (double blech!), so there may not be much knitting accomplished today either. And really there shouldn't be any knitting since today is my 19th wedding anniversary and my dear hubby's birthday and should be spent with him :)

Let the games begin!

And the frogging... I have frogged my 5 Hour Baby Sweater twice already. At the moment my needles are absolutely barren and I am tempted to pick up my sock instead. But I would probably mess that up as well at this point. My head just isn't in the game :(

I'm set for the Ravelympics,

are you? This year I am going to try and knit a baby sweater for a friend that is due next month. I hope she gets some use out of it before the weather gets too warm, lol. I'm also going to try to finish my Monkey sock that has been on my needles for well over a year now lol. I do need to go look through my needles and see what sizes I have,the baby sweater pattern calls for size 10.5 needles and I am pretty darned sure that mine broke somewhere along the way. I keep forgetting to look for new ones when we go to Walmart. *Sigh* Now it's only a week 'til the Olympics, I guess I had better remember soon, lol.

*Sigh*

Farmville and Fishville are addicting. Until a few days ago I'd never wanted anything to do with Facebook. But then I read a blog post about Farmville and got curious, lol.

But I need more neighbors! Please won't you be my neighbor? ;)

Good grief!

Is there anyone out there besides me who thinks that TV has to cook up something juicy all the time to keep our attention? Previously it was Jon and Kate (and thank God that's almost disappeared from my news now!). Now it's Leno/Conan. Shut up already. I don't give a flying flit who gets the Tonight Show spot, but I imagine Johnny Carson is spinning in his grave over this mess. But I don't particularly like Jay, and I never liked Conan, so I never watched either of them. And with all of this bru-haha I think even if I were a devoted fan I'd be so disgusted I'd never watch either of them again.

NBC has a public relations nightmare on their hands. Or do they? When I think of NBC I can't think of a single show on there I watch or have watched in the last few years. Yet it's amazing how Conan's ratings have sky rocketed since this all hit the news... Is it cynical of me to be sitting here thinking that this whole mess is just a giant publicity stunt to gain NBC viewers?

Remember that book when you were a kid...

...Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?

Well that was my day to a T. I've been on the verge of tears all day long (thanks PMS, you suck!). I finally had my interview today for the promotion I was supposed to get. It was pretty lame. Then the boss said he wanted to talk to me when the next person came in to cover me. She was late, and by then the boss was busy with our Loss Prevention Audit and couldn't talk, so I never got his take on the interview. And now I won't even see him until Tuesday. And then joy of joys, we get to do role-plays. Fuck role-plays, do I have the job or not??

So I cried the whole way home from work, totally frustrated and really heading for pissed off. I'm starting to feel completely jerked around about this job. If I don't get a solid yes or no answer soon I'm applying to work for the competition.

I used to like my job....

Isn't it cute?

Got a special someone you want to send a valentine to? From February 1-14, 2010, more than 60 volunteers come to the Loveland Chamber to lovingly hand-stamp each Valentine card sent to the ‘Sweetheart City,” Loveland, CO.

To have valentines re-mailed with the Loveland postmark, enclose your pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelopes (add extra stamps/postage for heavier/odd shaped valentines)and mail in a large stamped envelope to:

Postmaster - Attention Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538-9998

Deadlines for re-mailing and delivery by Valentines Day, Feb. 14:
Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing outside of the U.S. to other countries and international destinations should be in Loveland by Monday, Feb. 3.

Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing within U.S. and outside of Colorado should be in Loveland by Saturday, Feb. 8.

Valentine cards/envelopes destined for re-mailing within the state of Colorado should be in Loveland by Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The Olympics is coming!

In one month it will be time for the Winter Olympics. This year I am captaining Team Colorado for the Ravelympics 2010. I'm also hoping that The Yarn Harlot will put together the Knitting Olympics again this year, as it was a lot of fun 4 years ago :) (I knit a Dayflower Scarf then. This year I hope to knit this baby sweater as my main project as well as enter with my red Monkey Socks in the UFO category, lol.

The baby sweater claims to be a 5 hour sweater, but I know my knitting skills and speed and the amount of time I will actually have time to work on it and judge it a worthy project for two weeks ;)

Dammit!

The most comfortable bra I have ever owned just broke! I've only had it since Aug. and the underwire just snapped in two today. When I put it on this afternoon I thought it was fitting a bit odd but I was in a hurry and just shrugged it off as an oddity. It wasn't uncomfortable so I didn't think of it again until I got home and took it off. I thought maybe the wire had just shifted and I was all set to move it back. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered it was broken.

I loved that bra, darnit. And I've never had an underwire break that soon after buying a bra. So I rated the bra on the store's web site and sent off a peeved email to customer service. I guess it's time to start looking else where for bras now if the quality has gotten that poor.

Woot!

Red sock now has a cuff, lol. And a lifeline so I can frog back to pre-lace status if need be ;)

I was going to start knitting a baby sweater tonight, but then I remembered that somehow my size 10 1/2 needles got broken. And it snowed today, leaving the roads rather hellish so I didn't want to stop on the way home from work. (Hellish as in, 4 wheel drive and I was still having traction issues, no acceleration. Not that I wanted to go much faster than I was but....).

So I guess I will stick with the socks for the moment. Now that I have been knitting them I am antsy to get them done, lol. Guess we will see what the weather and roads are like tomorrow, maybe I can get a new set of needles then. Luckily, Baby Tess isn't due 'til March and even a slacker like me should be able to finish it by then. *knock wood*

Anyhoo, got a headache so I am going to head for bed.

Happy New Year!

Hoping for some changes this year :) Good changes. The biggest change will hopefully be change in my job situation. I'm still hoping for that promotion, but it looks like it may be sooner rather than later. The woman I would be replacing will be leaving (if all goes well) at the end of January, rather than waiting until March. Which means hopefully by the end of January I will have a new job, a higher wage, paid vacation, better benefits, etc. *Crossing fingers*

I wish you all a happy, healthy 2010.

Knitting again

I've really slacked on the knitting front lately. Mostly in favour of reading. I've read a ton this year. When last I left my reading blog I was at 98 books on May 20th. By now I have easily hit the 200 mark.

But now the weather has turned colder and I'm actually wearing my wool socks and wanting another pair. So today I turned the bedroom upside down trying to find the Monkey Socks I cast on in 2008 (lol). In the process I broke a light bulb in my lamp, shelved numerous books that had been piled on the floor and found a stash of candy wrappers in the bed that I believe the dear daughter stashed there after surreptitiously obtaining them from the Halloween stash.

I did, or rather the hubby did, find yarn and needles and I found my pattern binder. But I think I shall have to frog, since I've no idea where I left off in the pattern! Luckily, I've only really done the cuff ;) So that's my plan for the evening. See y'all later :)

Just a reminder...

With the New Year coming, why not start it off with a faster computer? Run your defrag program (windows has one built in). It may take a while, so start it before you go to bed. Fragmented files take up a lot of space on a computer and if that's something you don't have a lot of any way, reclaiming that space will help your computer run faster. (My defrag is STILL running, at 84%. I had 35 gigs of fragmented space, eek!).

While you are at it, download all the recommended updates for your system. And make sure your anti-virus is up to date. If it's expired, go buy a new one. I hear so many people grumble about how anti-virus is a money sink, but it's amazing how much worse that grumble is when they find they've a virus and that it's going to take 72 hours to clean their computer and a whopping $110. Buy the anti-virus. Most software comes with multi-computer licenses. Split the cost with another family member or a good friend. When the subscription comes up for renewal at the end of the year, you only have to renew it once, so you can split the cost again ;) It really is a wise investment.

And don't forget to back everything up! External and portable hard drives are cheap now, if you don't have one go get one. I can personally tell you how heartbreaking it is to have your hard drive fail and lose every photo you've taken over the last 5 years! I was lucky, most of them had been copied to a disk for the grandparents, but some of them are lost forever :( Not to mention if you move some of those photos off your computer you can open up some valuable free space on your computer again :)

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas to all and a very Merry New Year :)

I have to work Christmas Eve, but only until 6 PM and honestly, I'm not really convinced it will be all that busy. I mean really, who needs copies or stuff printed on Christmas Eve?? Maybe last minute photos as gifts, I suppose.

We are mostly done with Christmas shopping. Just have to wrap our little bounty now. Thinking about nagging the hubby to help me with that in a moment, whilst the kiddo is still at school. (Last day before break, bet the teachers had a great day, lol).

We are rolling out and cutting our cookies tonight and I made Peppermint Patties to take in to work with me. Yum!

Anyway, have a lovely holiday and I will see you in the New Year!

PS Lesson learned: No matter how tempting the idea to use powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out cut out cookies, DON'T. Even if a television cook says it is a good idea!