Hooray!!

My hand seems to be much better. I knit at noon yesterday with minimal discomfort and went at it a bit more last night while watching "Inside the NFL". [Have I said just how happy I am to have HBO again?? Am I a geek or what?] If I keep on track knitting-wise, meaning no further injury to my hand, I should be able to get this cardigan finished up in a week. Maybe when I get to sewing this up I'll stop being so lazy about the Isabella!

It's been a bad week for my back. I had to go home early Tuesday and yesterday and get horizontal. I am feeling MUCH better today. Just minor ache. I was into major tweak on Tuesday but getting flat and taking naproxen really seems to work. Sometimes faster than others but if I can keep myself from jumping on my bike too soon I should be okay. I could have ridden today but decided to err on the side of precaution. And I'm glad I did because sitting is a bit uncomfortable still.

The Huskies are playing USC this weekend. They are going to get mauled. And unfortunately it's an evening game so it's not like I can record it in the daytime and speed through it at night. Ah well ... maybe they'll surprise everybody.

Oh my little no bark-y miracle!

My little Tinkerbell can be a bark-y dog. She is a terrier after all and the squirrels are ALL out to get her. No, seriously. They taunt her. They run along the fence and flip their tails. Not to mention all of the other distractions out there - people walking by with dogs and without dogs and the other dogs in the neighborhood and the wind and the ... well, you name it. Sometimes she's quiet for hours outside and other times I am up and down a million times bringing her in or trying to quiet her down. Enough. I thought I'd try one of the citronella anti-bark collars and lo and behold - it works!! She hates it, of course, but it keeps here much quieter. She'll do one little bark, which is acceptable and much better than her little doggie tirades. She spent a good two hours outside last night, which is garbage night and her bark-a-thon night, typically. Just a couple little woofs. Ahhhh, bliss.

I enjoyed the peace and quiet and tried to calm myself down after all of the aggravation yesterday. No knitting although I was just really really wanting to pick up one of my 3 (or is it 4?) WIPs. I read catalogues and the newspaper and did the crossword puzzle and cooked dinner and watched TV and my fingers twitched for my knitting. Tonight I will pick up something and see how the hand is doing. I guess I could sew up my Isabella ......

Can you hear me screaming??

I wish I hadn't taken my run already because my frustration level just went up another bazillion points!!! Gaahhhh!! I could make this whole entire post nothing but a rant but I'd rather just take a few deep breaths, count my blessings and go on from there. Oh but I'll rant just a teensie bit .... I was SO looking forward to rehearsing with my new band this week but got a phone call saying that the new keyboard player had a conflict with Tuesday and could only make tonight at 8 and they were just going to go over instrumental things. So I figured okay ... Thursday. No, that was off too and he'd get back to me tomorrow. Dang! I know we're all busy and it's hard getting 6 or 8 people together but CRAP!!!!

So now here's where we start looking for the good -- ummm ... I can knit!! I didn't get much of anything accomplished knit-wise this weekend. Saturday was an Oktoberfest and Sunday .. football! The Seahawks played a real nail biter. And won. I started working on my latest bag and ripped it out once and re-started and I'm going to have to rip that out as well. That's fine - I'd rather get it done right. Perhaps I'll work on the sleeves of the Scoop de Jour tonight and see if I can't get them finished this week. That would be a very good goal. My hand doesn't hurt much - but then again it's only 2 pm and I've got a lot of work left to do this week.

It is getting colder. I've had a fire downstairs the past two nights and I think I'll take the fan out of the bedroom window when I get home too. Fall is definitely here.

I got creative ...

unfortunately, my creative bug came to me at ... oh, around 2:30 am. And I couldn't get rid of it until around 4 am. Zzzzzzzz I hit the alarm when it went off at 6:30. Well no, I didn't hit it. I turned it off. But I was only 30 minutes late. Not too bad.

Anyway it was that skein of Lamb's Pride sitting on my dining room table that did it. That perfect Kiwi green. I want to felt it and I was thinking of what kind of bag to make and I came up with, what I think, is a very good design idea. So - you know what that means. Everything else is now going to have to be put on hold until I can whip this prototype out and get the monkey off my back. I don't know when though. I have a busy and fun weekend coming up. Maybe I'll give up sleep for the weekend.

Busy busy busy day at work again - to end the super busy week. In fact I should be stepping away from the machine and trotting over to a meeting right this second!

What was I thinking?

I was looking at the Modified Clapotis I had started and thought it might be wise to check on the yardage recommended. hah! I am not even close with the novelty yarn I thought would work! I would definitely have enough of the recycled cashmere but it would not be a very interesting scarf with that. So .... I guess I'll rip it out and think of something else to do with it. I do like the way it goes with the two strands of cashmere (even though they're all wrinkled now) so maybe I'll just make a simple drop stitch scarf and then hope the kinks get washed out of it.

I have been thinking that I'll do a lace leaf pattern scarf with the yarn my Secret Pal sent me. The colors remind me of autumn and there are a couple pretty lace leaf patterns - Knitty's Branching Out, which I've already made, or Liesel. They look very similar, don't they? Or maybe I'll check out some wrap patterns. There is a lot of yarn in that skein.

I actually haven't been doing much knitting because my left hand is still hurting. I took some naproxen this morning and only knit a few rows last night on my sleeves. I had to stop because the purling hurt too much. Doesn't that suck??!! Once work calms down a bit and I'm not typing so much I am assuming that the inflammation will calm down. And in fact it's not typing as much as it is copying and pasting, which I have also been doing a lot of. Terrible when work gets in the way of life, eh?

My awesome Secret Pal

Check out these fantastic goodies from my Secret Pal! She said this is her first secret pal exchange and I'd say she's got it nailed, wouldn't you?? My super favorite color of green Lambs Pride and then a gorgeous skein of a wool and silk blend. Can you see the beautiful sheen of this yarn? It's a very generous skein and I think I should be able to make a simple wrap or large scarf from it and it would be stunning. Then the cute buttons - perfect for a felted bag and a Rowan Felted Collection book. Just wonderful! Thank you SO MUCH, Secret Pal!!

Work is getting in the way of my knitting. I've been laying off because of the soreness in my hand. Tomorrow is Wednesday lunchtime knitting so we'll see how I do there.

And I got some great band news yesterday! I have been rehearsing with 2 bands, one of which has been working but lost one of its singers so I auditioned a few weeks ago and now they've got jobs in October and a new keyboard player and want me to join up! Unfortunately I made plans to go visit my sister on the weekend of one of the jobs but that's the way it goes. I can do the second one, which will be an early Halloween party. This means now two a week rehearsals. I am SO excited!!

I had a ggggreat run yesterday. It's so funny how some days I can barely make it for 30 minutes and other times I'm just flying! I must say I prefer the flying days.

Oh I could just kick myself!!

My Secret Pal's first package arrived on Saturday. I was so excited!! She's a VERY mysterious pal, unlike me. I took pictures and what did I do with my camera? I left it on my desk!!! I had to bring my laptop in to work today so I was packing that up, AND my clothes, AND my lunch AND my workout clothes ... well I sure as heck hope I left it on my desk and not laying in the road somewhere between home and work. Nah ... I must have left it on my desk. Too bad I can't call up Tink and ask her to take a peek for me. Anyway, it is a most excellent package with some gorgeous buttons and wonderful, stunning yarn. I'll definitely post it tomorrow, assuming I can find my camera.

All in all it was a pretty wonderful weekend. Friday was just vegging out. I has purchased some very lovely, skinny ladder yarn at Tuesday Morning, which is a type of "odd lots" store that someone mentioned on Craftster as having yarn once in a while. I started tossing all sorts of oddments into my basket until I realized that they were NOT cheap, even at 50% or more off. So I contented myself with two skeins of a lovely pink/silver/purple for a new scarf. I thought something with a drop stitch would work to show off the yarn. Friday night a tried a couple things and ended up with two strands of recycled cashmere and one of the ladder yarn. And since everyone else in the knitting community is doing Clapotis, I thought I'd do a modified version.

Saturday was errands during the day. I was just finishing up the first of my 12 row repeats of that Modified Clapotis that evening when I realized that my printer had clipped a few very important characters and I'd have to look it up. But at that point my doorbell rang and so I put it down and spent the rest of the evening with two of my girlfriends. They had generously volunteered to come over to help me clean out my closets! Oh no ... it's not something I could do on my own, easy as it sounds. And we had a wonderful time! And I ended up with organized shoes and clothes and bags and bags and BAGS of things to take to Goodwill or whatever. All color coordinate .... *sigh* ... gorgeous.

The only dark spot on Saturday was that the Huskies lost. To Ohio State though, which is nothing to be ashamed about. Contrary to the Seahawks who lost to Arizona on Sunday!!!! Oh ... I don't even want to talk about it.

Sunday I visited the remodeled Seattle Aquarium with my nephew. It was very interesting. I had a great time.

And now another huge week ahead. Hopefully I'll get the rest of the stuff for my secret pal's box and get that out this week. My friend Ruth is having an open house for her new office space. And I'd like to get some good knitting done, if my hand will cooperate.

A gorgeous morning

What a beautiful day. Too bad the cement trucks are outside my window again. Probably all day long too. I am just hoping that this is not going to be going on for the whole time they are working on that building. It's very nerve wracking.

This morning has been busy busy busy! I'm just now taking a breath. I have nearly finished up with the web sites for the start of the real autumn quarter, which is good news because I have to build a brand new one from the ground up for a new course one of the people I work with is just starting to chair this year. And I can see that it's going to be one of those last minute jobs. I don't mind really. It sure makes the time go by quickly when you're working that hard. And then ... then I get to start a brand new project and I'm really looking forward to it. Not to get too geek-y but it's a database thingie that I'm going to put together. I have some great ideas and now I have to figure out how to implement them. That's the fun part of my job.

Okay - here's a terrible confession and perhaps by laying it right out here in the open it will keep me from doing this again. Yesterday I didn't run. Why? Because I had a new skirt on and I wanted to wear it to noon knitting with my buddies and I didn't want to be all sweaty sitting there! Oh yeah .. I'm going to run and run hard today! Nobody will be around to see me sweating this afternoon.

But while I was knitting yesterday my left hand and shoulder were hurting something terrible! When I purl it really hurts and, of course, those sleeves are stockinette stitch. It's a combination of knitting (or rather, purling) and using my keyboard that is aggravating my hand/arm/shoulder. This morning I could hardly squeeze the brake handle with my left hand! I totally laid off the knitting last night. I guess this would be an opportune time to sew up Isabella, wouldn't it?

Does this go without saying ...

that I'm not looking forward to summer being over? This time of year we are just blessed to be able to go to the grocery store and have fresh strawberries and blueberries and blackberries and peaches and nectarines and pears and melons, just to name a few! It won't be long now, I know, that our only choices will be oranges and apples. I do eat apples all year 'round and I love them, but it is also nice to have other choices, right? So you can bet I'm taking advantage of it. Just last night my salad comprised pear and strawberries and spinach - which was a lovely combination. But I also had grapes and blueberries to hand and I had to choose - fruit salad or veggies? Actually I didn't choose, did I? Best of both worlds.

The one single thing I will be thankful for when the weather turns is that it'll be too cold to keep my office window open. It is so noisy out there!! I can barely think sometimes when the trucks are going, revving and beeping. I don't hate my little cubbyhole of an office way out here. It's nice and I get lots of work done because I don't have many distractions, people-wise. But oh the noise is so terrible! And the spiders ..... but we'll let that one go. I have heard of people see much much worse.

I had such an awesome run yesterday even though it was beastly hot. I looks like the clouds are going to stick around for a bit longer today so hopefully I can have another good run and it'll be cooler. It takes me so long to cool down when it's 80 degrees outside.

No knitting last night although I hope to get some good work done this lunchtime with the lunchtime knitting girls and tonight. I am chomping at the bit to start something new but I will NOT until I can finish some things. In fact, I was feeling guilty about my poor Isabella, languishing and awaiting finishing. I put it in it's work bag after it dried and then cleaned up and put the project on top of a shelf so it's not right in my face. I need to take it down and plop it in the middle of the table so I have to look at it all the time. I'm only a few hours away from completion!!

The lust for yarn

I can't explain it. I get emails advertising yarn sales and I always look! And lust! I just don't understand where it comes from. I have yarn for projects enough to last a year. Or more. But I'm always on the look out for something.... else. Something more. Today I got an email from Little Knits and I was drooling over the raw silk. I think I'm going to be a good girl today. I need to get my bike tuned up, not buy more yarn!!

Slow going on my Scoop de Jour sleeves. It'll get there. A few more evenings sitting watching TV should do it.

It is HOT here! Yesterday in the 80s and we're expecting the same today. I'm going to have to get out and have my run soon before it gets too hot.

Go you Huskies!!

It was a spectacular football weekend. Not only was the weather awesome but the Huskies beat Boise State - a ranked team that last year went undefeated AND beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. It was an outstanding game! So very nice to see the Huskies winning again. And then Sunday the Seahawks opened their season with a win against Tampa Bay.

Needless to say there wasn't much knitting done. I did work some on the sleeves Friday night and Saturday during the game. Not at all yesterday. Instead of working around the house and yard I did work work and nothing much else. I haven't had a total complete day off since my vacation week. That's just how it is around here this time of year.

I'm working on getting my Secret Pal's first gift put together. Unfortunately everything I want to give her this time I had to order and one thing is back ordered .... ergh ... Hopefully I will be able to get it off to her before the end of the week.

I am going a million miles an hour

Wow .... I have been soooo busy! It's nice for a change but exhausting! Plus which here it is nearly 3 and I'm just now doing my blog!

I tried, I really really tried, to work on those sleeves last night but it was one of those crazy nights. The phone kept ringing, a doggie walking friend stopped by with two of Tink's playmates, so that craziness was going on and it wasn't until nearly 8:30 that I had a minute to myself. I made a vegie burger and sat down to watch Costas Live - a great show last night about old, injured football players and their lack of pension, etc. And then by 10 I was out like a light.

Tonight I am not sure if I'll get any knitting done either. It's opening game of the football season! Yay!! Football and knitting - a perfect combo, n'est pas? I'm having some company over for the game and pizza so I don't know if I'll get a chance to pick anything up. I will do some serious work this weekend. Maybe even start sewing up Isabella? For sure get a few more inches done on the sleeves. Sunday I've got tickets to the Seahawks season opener so that's going to take up pretty much all Sunday. I just must resist casting on anything else.

And now for the boring part

That length of stockinette stitch that constitutes the body of the sleeve, even when you're doing two at once, is just so boooooring! Even though you must count rows to make your increases (or decreases, depending on the direction you're going), it's just boring. I am starting to reconsider picking Tahoe as my next cardigan project, since is consists entirely of stockinette stitch with the exception of the cute button band and cuffs. I think I'll let it wait a bit and choose another project. I have socks for mindless knitting. Maybe I'll do something in the round, like the T-twist while it's still warm enough to wear. Of course, by the time I'm done with it .... But it should be a pretty quick knit.

Work is huge right now. I love being busy though so it's not too bad. And I sure sleep well.

What a morning

Talk about hitting the ground running .... whew, I have been going nonstop since the alarm went off at 6:15. Major disasters averted, things handled, and I didn't scream at anyone!! As luck would have it, it was not only raining but POURING this morning and the students had to do a lot of extra tromping around outside because of all of our construction around here but we're off to a good start. Thank goodness there is only one class like this - five solid weeks. By the end of it the faculty are exhausted and I'm usually hallucinating and drinking WAY too much.

I had a very busy and wonderful and even knitterly weekend. I got all of the ribbing done on the Scoop de Jour sleeves and a couple inches on the plain part. I photographed and posted most of my stash on Ravelry. Wow, that was a chore, I'll tell you. And I missed stuff and I didn't even go through my bins and do the odd things nor did I catalogue the 2 and 3 balls of things, except the Kureyon. So I guess I'm going to have to do it some more, but I feel like I really got a handle on it. Oh, speaking of "handles", my Ravelry name is PinkieDee. I could have used sgolard but you know, I kind of felt silly and whimsical and I thought, "What the heck" .. and so there ya go. And basically it's just a nickname I call Tink. Whimsy strikes us all now and then, doesn't it? What I didn't do this weekend is start sewing up Isabella.

And oh ... I had a wonderful shopping day on Saturday. Bought new bike shorts and my favorite store, Anthropology, was calling to me so I went in there and lo and behold didn't they have a couple of sales racks with two skirts I HAD to have, and a couple tops (okay .. 3) as well as a looooong cardigan. It was fun.

Sunday I did yard work and washed Tinkie and got my nails done and then had a really good rehearsal. No, we still don't have a new bass player but the old one ... he wants to come back!!! Un-freaking- believable. The leader said he'll let him rehearse with us only when the new bass player can't make it or something ... I don't know. I don't care who plays as long as they play well.

The weekend was supposed to end Monday with rain, but it didn't. It was gorgeous and that was the day I went to Bumbershoot. I wanted to see Joss Stone, which I did. And I was disappointed. I was hoping for more of the R&B cover stuff. She sounded good but I didn't care for the song selection at all.