Collage

Collage

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Back to school, back to school

That's right, it is back to school for me as of yesterday. I think I may have mentioned before that I am a few classes short of my Bachelors degree, and have decided that there's no time like the present to finish the darn thing up! School prep took up a good amount of time, plus we had our annual end-of-summer roast on Saturday, so it was a busy weekend in mi casa.

Some fun things have been going on, however. Thing number one is spinning! I haven't spun in a few months- time got tight and I had some deadline knitting that needed to get finished up, so now that almost all of that is done I decided to get working on my spindle again. I also plan to attend a few fiber festivals this year, and I would have a hard time justifying fiber purchases if I hadn't spun in months. No guilt now!


The fiber that is pictured is all that I have left of the teal Corriedale that has been on the spindle FOREVER. Its spinning up pretty thin, and I'm hoping to finish spinning and ply in in the next few weeks.

The other thing the hubs and I did last night was make breakfast burritos. This is an hour long process, because we make a bunch at a time and freeze them so we can have a quick breakfast in the morning. Last night we had pork breakfast sausage, bacon, mozzarella cheese, colby jack cheese, salsa, black beans, hot sauce, green enchilada sauce, and eggs to chose from. We pick and chose which items to add to each burrito. We were obviously feeling the Southwestern flair last night ;) They turned out great! I didn't take any progress photos, but maybe one of these mornings when I eat one I can remember to snap a pic.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Colorful

Looking at all the WIPs I have going I noticed that they are all very colorful, either due to variegated yarn or multiple solid yarns in one project. Its a little odd for me to have so many colorful projects going, but its kind of nice :)

First up- the blanket! I finished the sixth square thanks to a long car ride Sunday (its the black one at the bottom)
Only 4 more to go if I do the full size. I'm going to see how big it is after square 8- since I am using worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles its coming out a little bigger than the pattern measures, so I may not need the extra two squares.

Next up are my Hermione's Sunshine Socks! I am still loving these socks, but they haven't gotten much love since they are my take-along knitting. I'm not stressing; they will be finished before the weather gets too cold :)

My Spectra actually got a lot of love over the past few weeks. This has been my work knitting and, despite having to tink back a whole wedge the other night after I dropped an awkward stitch, I'm more than halfway done!
Its hard to see, but the JoJoland Melody yarn has long color changes that I'm really enjoying.

Last but not least, the new kid to the WIPs, my Swap Girly Mitts. These are going in the mail this week and I'm a little sad. Normally these wouldn't be my type of colors, but I am loving the yarn!
These are the Accidental Girly Mitts by craftyLis and I am liking how they are working up! My yarn is Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet dk in the Gems colorway (#59)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Halfway on Everything

See that group of progress bars over there --->

Notice anything kinda funny?

Yeah, they're all at about 50%. I think I'm in a rut or something, it seems like I've been knitting everyday for the past few days, yet all my projects hover at the halfway mark. I suspect nargles.

I feel that there are a few ways I could deal with this problem. I could

a) Cast on something new. Then it would throw off the balance of 50% on all the items.
b) Focus on one of the projects over the next few days, getting it far past the 50% point.

I'm leaning toward the first, because I need to start a small project that wont take more than a week. Any ideas?


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

It's Coming Back...

My desire to design, that is. I never really lost my design mojo, but this summer has been really busy with vacations and weddings (and wedding gift knitting!) and other hubalub, so designing has kinda been pushed to the back burner. The cooler weather we have been having totally has me wanting to dive into my yarn stash and never come out, so I thought the best way to channel that would be to finally put some of these ideas into pattern form. Wanna sneak peak?


This doesn't look like much yet, but its a design that has been brewing for probably close to a year now.  Stay tuned for an actual pattern, hopefully in September!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Zucchini Tots

I found myself with a zucchini sitting on my counter and not much else in the fridge or pantry. I usually go home to eat lunch, so that gives me some freedom in what I want to eat. I found this recipe on a blog earlier this morning and, reading down through the ingredient list, I realized I had everything in my pantry and fridge to make them. They were quick enough to whip up during my lunch break and were quite yummy :)


You can find the recipe here. I highly recommend it!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Moderne Knitting

Since finishing the wedding shawl last week I decided I better get cracking on the other wedding gift I am knitting this year, the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket. I am really enjoying working on this blanket as it is perfect podcast or TV knitting. I started block 6 yesterday and I have about a month to finish, so I think I will make it as long as I work on it every day! Here's a new progress pic :)


For whatever reason my photos have been uploading upside down, but thankfully for the blanket it doesn't matter :)

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Recuperating

I was in a wedding this week (Friday) and had family visiting earlier this week, so I'm writing to say that the family visit went well, the wedding went well (however slightly crazy and stressful!) and I'm home recuperating. In short news- I finished the shawl on time and will be chatting about other knitting progress soon!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Slog slog slog

I feel like I am making no knitting progress, which isn't really true, but its hard to shake that feeling. I'm working on a lot of large/long-term projects right now, and I really just want to finish some stuff and cast on ALL THE THINGS. I thought if maybe I blogged about what I plan to cast on next it would help my castonitis urge :)

The very first thing I am going to cast on is the Accidental Girly Mitts. These will be for a swap package I need to get out by the end of the month, so they will go on as soon as the wedding shawl is done, probably by this weekend. I'll be using Plymouth Happy Feet dk in a purple and pink colorway. They should go pretty quick, which is perfect!

Next in my queue are the Mr. Pitt's socks, which I will be making for my husband. He is out of town right now, so its the perfect time to start on his Christmas gift! These will obviously be a long term project! I'm not sure how much hubby-free-time I will have to work on them, so I thought the earlier I started them the better. I'l be using Lang Yarns Jawoll in a black and gray colorway for these.

Lastly I leave you with a photo from yesterday. We had quite a storm pass through the area yesterday and I took this photo out my car window (I was parked at the time- you couldn't see the cars in front of you!)


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Not Like Me

If you know me at all you know I am frugal (aka CHEAP). You can probably tell that I don't live in a mansion or pull six figures, and honestly even if I did I still wouldn't like spending the money. However, the past week has necessitated a few purchases, and I thought I would share them today!

First up was some shoes for my friend wedding next week. The only specification she had was that they had to be silver. Our dresses are super cute, but they fall mid calf and not being super tall, I wanted something with a heel on it so I didn't look like Stubby McStubberson up there! After scoping on a couple of sites online I decided to go with these:


They aren't the most comfortable things in the world, but I'm wearing them around the house for the next week to try and break them in a bit. I got these putties for less than $20 including shipping! Score :)

Next up was a tote bag. I have had the same bright green tote bag for about 6 years now. Its nothing special- just  $5 I got at Old Navy that said "Green is the New Black." I used this bag for everything- knitting, school books, long trips, you name it this bag was perfect. Two weeks ago I noticed a small run/hole starting at the back and I new the day had come to partially retire the bag. It still works to carry light knitting projects, but I needed a new tote bag! I looked a few places and nothing caught my eye until I got an email from Cafe Press with a coupon. They were also running a sale, so I decided to splurge and buy myself a new bag!


I think this bag is hilarious, and its coming my way in about a week for less than $14 including shipping! They still have the coupon code on their home page, so if you are looking for a new bag (or shirt, mug, etc!) check it out.

I'm not sure I have mentioned this before, but I always use Ebates when I shop online. You get a percentage back of whatever you spend when you go through their site. Usually its only between 1-5% back, but it adds up, especially when I am buying textbooks for school. If I'm going to spend the money, I might as well get a little bit back, right? My account is set up to to deposit my money right into my Paypal account quarterly so there's no extra work for me. There's a link on the right hand side of my blog if you wanna check it out for yourself!