The commute

Today I drove my car in to work. I actually feel like I could have biked in even though I did it yesterday. However, I have errands to run and my back/hip thing was bothering me a bit yesterday. Better not to over do it. Anyway, here's the deal. It took me 45 minutes to drive in and another 10 to park and walk to my office from the garage. That is only 20 minutes less than my time to commute by bicycle. Granted this is only the second time I've taken this particular freeway route from S's house and the traffic did seems a bit worse today than last week when I drove so maybe there was a traffic hassle I just didn't see. But jeepers! That is NOT much of a time savings. Plus which being in a car in traffic on the freeway in the morning puts me in a very very bad mood. And don't even start with taking the bus. That would take me at least as long as riding my bike because of having to walk to the bus stop, etc. I think I hate taking the bus more than driving. So yeah - that's the kind of mood I'm in this morning. Not a good one. Plus which it's cloudy and starting to rain. The good news is that it's supposed to be in the 80s by the end of the week. Perfect timing for getting my house on the market.

I still haven't gotten around to taking pictures of the Shibu Shrug. I only have a few more rows to go on the sleeves and I will be casting on the back and joining the pieces, then doing raglan decreases. I didn't have a whole lot of time to knit last night so my hand and shoulder didn't get tired. Maybe I can get another couple of hours in tonight - depends. I am so busy sometimes that it feels like my lists have lists. I don't feel like I'm handling this stress well at all - and that's with all the exercise and knitting! I would be a basket case if I didn't have those stress outlets. Either that or drunk all the time.

I have been thinking of what to take for a knitting project for Hawaii. Socks. I haven't knit anything for S, so I'll get some nice cotton sock yarn and there's my Hawaii project. Easy, portable, useful. I might bring my hibernating Liesel along, just in case I feel like lace.

ouch ouch ouch

My ride this morning was a bit painful. I wish I had thought to bring a stash of naproxen to work. I'll have to make a point of it. Because there is so much riding done at an incline I've aggravated the lower right of my back and it radiates down to the top of my hip. Not comfortable. I'm going to run over to the main office here in a minute and see if they have any stashed away in the medicine cabinet. If not I guess I'll make do with any kind of anti-inflammatory. It's not so bad that I can't ride but right now it just hurts. It added a couple minutes onto my time this morning. That's rather disappointing. But going home on Friday was better. I got all the way up to Main Street from the trail. Of course my goal is to bike all the way up to the house and that is a lofty goal in more than one way.

Speaking of lofty goals - getting those darned sleeves knitted! I need 14.5 inches. I'm two increases away from total stitch count and about 2 or 2 1/2 inches away from 14.5. I got a good bit of knitting done this weekend but stockinette can be a long, slow haul. In this case the fabric that is coming off my needles is so beautiful that I don't mind. I should take some pictures, yeah?

It was a very very busy weekend. Saturday I left the house at 9 in the morning and didn't get back until 4:30. One errand after another. I got Tink dropped off at the groomers at 9:30 and she had almost as long a day as I did. She was the very last doggie there. She looks beautiful though. I dropped by my house, which is looking just awesome and is nearly ready. I did some shopping - no okay, lots of shopping but didn't buy much but a couple pairs of jeans. I wanted some shorter ones for Hawaii. Something that I could wear my flat flip-flops with in the evening and/or any time I felt like wearing long pants. But Saturday night - that was when I got the majority of the knitting done. I knit until my hand and arm started hurting. That is also the other thing about stockinette - all the purling makes my left hand and shoulder ache.

Sunday was a first for me - I got a bouquet of Mother's Day flowers! Imagine my surprise. S's daughter met up with us for lunch and gave me flowers. Dang! I wanted to be a wicked step mother. I'm going to have to work harder on that one, I guess.

A very productive lunch outing

Yesterday I went to the Mother's Day sale at lunchtime with another knitterly friend. She is fairly new to this and has no real stash. I feel duty bound to remedy that situation. Plus which we all need an enabler when we go to a yarn sale. Luckily there wasn't much there that caught my eye except a couple bins of Colinette yarn. It is so bloody expensive that I have never purchased any, only drooled over it. A $50 scarf? No thanks. There was some wool in beautiful colors but chunky and I have enough chunky yarn. I am getting away from those big chunky knits plus it's spring and I wouldn't even want to touch it until autumn. The other was Enigma, a thick and thin ribbon yarn in some gorgeous colors - like a Monet painting. And it was half price. Half. So I bought all six skeins which is plenty to make a top and have some left over. It reminded me of the Waterlily top from IK Spring 2006. That was made with Colinette yarn but Giotto, not Enigma. I think it'll work out just fine. The Enigma colorway I have is more green and purple. It will suit me.

I am feeling pretty darned good this morning. It's lovely outside - blue sky although a bit chilly. I am getting the long ride to be more comfortable. I did some research on the Internet and found a couple ways to ease my discomfort and it worked like a charm! I cut over 3 minutes off my time coming in. I also ate 100 calories of carbs about 1/2 hour before I hit the road and that helped too. Maybe next week I can do it every day. We'll see.

I worked a bit on the interminable stockinette sleeves. I have about 40 more rows to go before I hook them together with some cast on stitches for the body. It's good TV knitting. I was too tired to stay up and watch Lost last night so I have it recorded and that's on for tonight.

Two more weeks to Maui!!!!

It got a little easier!

Yeah! Going home last night was a bit easier. I still had juice left when I got to the end of the trail to start biking up the hill. Unfortunately some ass pulled in front of me as I was toiling away up the hill causing me to stop and it's nearly impossible to start back up from a standstill when you're on a hill. So I walked the rest of the way home. But yay for me! I was not nearly as knocked out as I was on Monday. Hopefully tomorrow I can work my way further up the hill back to home. I also had changed into my biking shorts which made the ride a bit more comfortable and I've been doing a little research to add further comfort to the ride. The other thing I learned is that I need to be bringing a total and complete from the skin up change of clothing. I had done that on Monday but didn't realize how crucial it was until yesterday when I had to walk around all day with a damp bra. NOT nice at all.

Got an hour's worth of knitting on my Shibu Shrug at lunchtime yesterday and another hour or so last night. I am doing the sleeves at this time and it's just stockinette which goes slowly. Once I get the sleeves done and start working on the body of it I believe it'll go faster and then when I start doing the front part in the round, it'll be super fast! I found the pattern on Ravelry. It's called #03 Perky Little Apple Green Shrug. The designer won the fastest crochet contest. This bit of information I found out while reading her stuff on Ravelry. How odd is it, since that particular green is about one of my favorite colors, that I am NOT doing this in green but rather lavender. It's going to be beautiful in this yarn.

Today is the start of the Mother's Day Sale at Weaving Works, my LYS. One of my friends from work and I are going to go up at lunchtime. I got some good stuff from there last year. In fact, the yarn I used to make the T-twist was from that sale. There is a sweater pattern I found (where else? On Ravelry, of course) and I think it would work well in Rowan Calmer so I'm going to keep my eye out for that and also I'm going to purchase a copy of Fifi because I have the Calmer for that project and would have cast on last week had I had the pattern (which I am SURE I purchased but I cannot find it).

Clearly the Burke Gilman trail is NOT flat

People always say it's flat, but that's a relative term. An old railroad grade, the Burke Gilman trail has long long loooong gradual climbs. I believe that they are no more than a 5% grade but oh baby, when you're tired and/or hungry .. whew. I was both this morning plus it was bad weather and a bit windy. I only added 30 seconds to my time from Monday. I was hoping to be faster. It'll come. Even though the weather was not as good it was still beautiful when I started out - right by a river and the first thing I saw was a rabbit, then a rooster (!) and then a bunch of ducks. Pretty cool.

Last night we saw "Corteo" .. that's the name of the Cirque du Soleil show. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately we were in the very first row and so sometimes we couldn't see the big picture. We did have a very good view of the rigging which is just incredible.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Little Knits. I had ordered some more of their Ella Rae Shibu and they called to tell me that they were shorted on their order and didn't have the full bag of moss green I had ordered. Dang! I took a bag of a color called Straw. Yellow is supposedly the "it" color this spring.

Today is my knitting at noon day. Sweeeeet!

The day after the round trip

Well that was something - biking back home last night. Oh I made it, but it was not easy. First of all, my bike seat is not so comfortable after about 30 to 45 minutes. This is something I need to address. Second, the trail seems to get steeper the more tired I get. I have to say though that I am quite proud of myself that I biked essentially 30 miles yesterday. To be perfectly accurate - 29 miles. 14.5 each way. I am not sore this morning though. I am very grateful for that. And I did not ride in today. I think three times a week is going to be just fine for a couple weeks. We'll see how I feel at the end of next week. I don't want to mess up my knees.

Mr. M. was very sweet when I got home, dripping sweat. I actually walked up the hill from the trail. My legs were like rubber when I got to the end of the trail and immediately it goes up hill. I just wasn't able to make it so I walked the last few blocks. He took Tink for her walk and I got into the hot shower, which maybe saved my muscles from getting too sore today, and then took me out for Thai food. Instead of unpacking more stuff I blissed out in front of the TV with my knitting. Nicccccce.

I am still just absolutely loving the fabric that comes off my needles with this Ella Rae Shibu. I should bring the magazine in and scan the picture of the sweater I'm making, since it's one of those no name patterns. I ordered more of the yarn to make tank tops. My sister had a knitted tank top that she wore to death. I'd like to make her another one.

Tonight we're going to see Cirque du Soleil perform. I haven't seen them since they were here in Seattle for the Goodwill Games. I don't know ... you do the math. A loooooong time ago, that's for sure. The show has been getting good reviews. I'm excited about seeing it. And it'll keep me from feeling guilty about not unpacking more stuff. Oh it'll have to be done but not right this second.

Big weekend - Bigger bike ride

This weekend was the big move. I have decided to move to S's house while my house is finished getting ready to go on the market and while it's on the market because it's just too difficult to live in a house that has to stay picture perfect. Unfortunately work's been rather busy so I had someone come help with the packing on Friday while I worked. Right after work I had to quick jump in the shower and then head out to Snohomish to hear my friend Michael McGarrah. He was playing a show in a lovely, small venue. It was good to get out and it ended early so we got a good night's sleep and hit the ground running the next day. Unfortunately, this being Seattle and all, it was raining. Sometimes hard. I had a crew of 3 to load up the truck and the van - the big truck full of my things that go into storage until we find our house and the van full of stuff that I need while living at S's house. Oh what a long day. And again on Sunday, but at least it was beautiful and sunny.

So I'm kind of settled in. Tink loves it out there - big yard to run around in and new smells. I took a recently vacated bedroom in his house and turned it into a closet. And now I know - he always said that his daughter had too many clothes. No no, not the case at all. She had a very small closet. Very small. I have put my stash up on a shelf and brought in a couple more for clothes, and an extra rack. Shoes are all over the room - not strewn but on racks. It's a big walk in closet.

I rode my bike in to work. It took me 1 hour and 16 minutes to go 14.5 miles. Although the ride was all on the Burke Gilman trail, which is supposedly flat, there are some areas with elevation. It's going to be nicer riding home because I was going uphill a lot of the way here. I also think I'll be able to get my time down significantly since I couldn't quite find the trail when I set out this morning.

As you may imagine, not too much time for knitting this weekend. I found an hour last night and it was lovely. Doing nothing but knitting and relaxing knowing that most things were put away.

Hoorah Hoorrah the First of May

Oh and it's a nice day too! In fact I rode my bike in with just my bike jacket and shirt - no sweatshirt! And the lilacs in my front yard are just starting to bloom. I am going to miss that tree and I will harvest as many lilacs as I can this year. Although I don't have much time. I am moving this weekend into Mr. M's house. My house is getting close to being ready for the market. One more week should have it ready. And it's just about impossible for me to be living there while it's being shown so off I go into the country. Well okay, it's not really the country but for me, it sure feels like it! My bike ride is going to be over 15 miles each way. I think I might bike 3 times a week and drive in Tuesday and Thursday so I can run on those days. It might be too much to bike all that way AND run. I like to run so this way I can keep my wind up and still not have to commute by car that much. I do not like that. And I absolutely HATE the bus so this could work out quite well. Especially since it's just for a couple months until we find our own place closer in. I'm going to be in great shape by the time we move, that's for sure!

Still forgot to take a picture of my finally finished socks. The ones I've been carrying around since November. They're cute. And instead of finishing Isabella I started another project. I have totally and completely fallen in love with Ella Rae Shibu, a silk yarn that is just too gorgeous. I searched and searched and searched through all my magazines and finally came up with a shrug pattern from some silly magazine that I don't even subscribe to. So many of the patterns I was finding in VK and IK that were written for silk yarn were either too fine of a gauge for this particular yarn or consisted of acres and acres of stockinette stitch. Now while this shrug/cardigan does indeed have a fair amount of stockinette it also has an interesting collar that has a very simple lace pattern that should go well with this yarn. I love it so much I got on Little Knits yesterday and bought some more to make some tank tops out of.

Not quite ready for FO pictures

I almost got those socks done last night, while watching a movie. But I got side tracked because I am on a mission to find the perfect top to make with the Ella Rae Shibu. It must have drape. It must have fluidity. It has to be a style that I will wear. I have gone through about 3/4 of my magazines, and all the books. I found nothing in the books but I have, I think, 5 possible projects marked in the magazines. After I finish going through the rest of them and marking possibilities then I will make a big ol' swatch and see what kind of gauge I'm getting to get the fabric I want and go on from there. There was a beautiful little cardigan someone had made and from this and posted pictures on Ravelry. However, it was a pattern they came up with and when messaged about it, she wrote back that she didn't know how to write up patterns. Is that not ridiculous? Come on ... if you can knit and you can make up your own pattern you most assuredly can write it up. I would much rather have had her say, thanks but I'd rather keep it to myself.

Still working from home. They are power washing more ... did the roof yesterday, which is now looking brand new, and the deck which I forgot was so pretty. This house is just going to be so beautiful when it's done. I am so grateful I can work from home. It would be terrible if I had to take vacation to babysit these guys.

Boy that was fast

T-Twist is done! That has to be some kind of record for me. I got this finished up on Saturday. It is really cute on. And after I got that finished I worked on those socks that I have been dragging around for so long. I am about six rows away from finishing those as well! I will get them done tonight. My dilemma is what to make next! I have the yarn for Fifi and I already bought the pattern but I have to work from home and my printer is out of ink plus the PDF is not on this computer. So, that's out. I am really really wanting to make something from the beautiful Ella Rae Shibu I bought from Little Knits a while ago. The color is gorgeous and it's 90% silk so the drape is also going to be wonderful. I just don't have a particular pattern that I think will work. What I may do is go through my stacks and stacks of back issues of Vogue and IK and see if something jumps out at me. It should have flowing sleeves and it can't be anything that needs stretch. I just might have to come up with something myself but ... well, we'll see.

I spent lots of time this weekend going to home improvement stores looking for stuff for the house - new knobs for the kitchen, lock for the deck door, carpet for the basement, etc. Not all that much fun, frankly, but it had to be done. And now it's pouring rain and they can't do any painting, obviously. But there is tons of indoor stuff for them to get going on. It's going to be hard to concentrate here but really I only have one tough chore - one that I need quiet to think about. So I guess I should jump on that while I am alone.

More working from home

I was working from home yesterday and again today! Why is it that when I'm really busy at work is when I have to work from home!! Ah well, at least the power washing is done. That was just torture yesterday. It went on all day long! This morning I had to tolerate the sound of the gutters being removed. hah .. reminds me of when I was in that little studio apartment in Paris. They were remodeling the building next to me and so many mornings I would be awakened by sledge hammers slamming into brick. This is a bit easier to take since the house isn't shaking. [However, if I could just close my eyes and magically whisk myself back there, I think I could put up with it.]

Anyway .... so this morning I needed to run into the office to pick up a few things. I stopped in the turnaround and ran into the main office and was chatting with a friend while I put a few things in the mail boxes, dashed back to the Annex and into my office where I picked up some papers and off I went. I was less than ten blocks from home when I realized I had forgotten something in my office so back I went. I am happy I realized it before I got parked and into my house!

Had a rehearsal last night. Dwain brought yet another girl to sing with us, since Chantal is going to be leaving in July. I really didn't want to be there. I have so much stuff to do at home. And I didn't think the girl was very good at all. I hope he doesn't hire her.

Only four rows to go on the T-twist. I can finish it up tonight!! Yay me! I won't have much time for knitting this weekend. Must get packing, for one thing. And shop for new carpet for downstairs and fixtures for the bath and kitchen. Do I have to say it again? My house is going to look so awesome!!!! Wahhhh

A WIP

Wow. This T-twist is a super fast knit. It looks like a baby dress in this picture but what you're seeing is the body of the top and the beginning of the yolk. Bad angle, sorry. I got the body finished up yesterday late afternoon, got the sleeves started and then put them on the yolk. I think I have about twenty more rows to go and then I can try it on. S took a look at it sitting on the table and said, "Is that for you??!!!" Well yes ... it does look small but when you look at the picture you can see that it has a large scoopy neck. I think it'll be fine.

Yesterday I had to work from home because I had landscapers whipping my back hedge and garden into shape. It looks wonderful. I'm ready for Step II - the new gutters and the outside paint. Just need to corral that contractor. Contractor wrangling - not a job for the faint of heart.

So this top is going to be done very soon. Maybe even tonight. Do you think I could gather the courage and whatever else it takes and finally finish that Isabella? I do so want to take it to Hawaii with me. It's going to look so good. Let's all send good finishing vibes my way.

A whirlwind of a weekend

I must say, working both Friday and Saturday nights really chews up a weekend. I took off as soon as I could Friday night but still I need time to wind down at home, usually reading in bed for a while until I can sleep. That means I am lucky to fall asleep by 3am and that's exactly what happened Friday. Oh but the gig was really good. They seem to like us a lot at that wine bar and it's a lovely place to play. Nice hotel, big room, and plenty of people. If only the dance floor were larger. We get lots of people dancing but it fills up too fast. Some people were dancing in front of the hostess stand.

The weather Friday evening (snow) and Saturday (more snow but not sticking) was miserable. I ran some errands on Saturday and got in a nice nap before Saturday's show at the Paragon. The crowd wasn't much though. Didn't stay long. Plus which we lost a good portion of the people during the first set because Dwain's crappy speaker system wasn't working.

This whole week is just one thing after another - huge week. Meetings today and tomorrow and hopefully the landscapers can start on the yard this week early. The weather permitting, of course. I am SO ready for spring. We have never ever had snow this late in the year here in Seattle. It's bizarre.

I did get a few more rows done on my T-twist. It's a quick knit.

Insomnia strikes again

O man ... I maybe had 3 hours of sleep last night. I say maybe because I last looked at the clock at 3 am [I know I know you're not supposed to look at the clock] and my alarm goes off at 6:30. I think I got some caffeine accidentally while I was out shopping last night. I was thirsty, drank what I was told was a caffeine free beverage but the tossing and turning leads me to believe that I was misled. So I am just dizzy this morning. I didn't ride my bike in, but rather drove. It's rainy and cold and I've got to run errands on the way home so I gave the bike a pass.

This weekend we are working both tonight and Friday night. Tonight's gig is at the Twisted Cork wine bar in Bellevue, where we played last weekend. The crowd is very nice but I don't like having the "stage" be level with the dance floor. That is a disaster waiting to happen. Like last Friday when a drunk woman nearly crashed into me. Luckily her partner was sober enough to see which direction she was heading and snatched her just inches away from falling into my mic stand, which would have of course smashed me in the mouth. That happened to me more than once when I was in my old band. And I'm here to tell you that it hurts like the dickens to be smashed in the mouth with a microphone. Not pleasant.

Bonnie called me yesterday with an update - she has bronchitis. Poor girl. At least she went to the doctor and got medicine so she should be okay for this weekend. Fingers crossed out there! It would be pretty hard to do the gig without her with just me and the new singer.

Well here's a first for today - knitting wise. I am wearing two garments that I have knit. I have on my brown Green Gables and my turquoise Scoop du Jour. Looks nice.

Well I've got tons of work to do and I've GOT to shake off this malaise. I'm a little blue today.

Urban chickens

Tuesday evening my friend Bonnie stopped by on her way home from work for a little chat. She was sitting in my big, comfy chair idly looking out the window as she was drinking her tea. All of a sudden she said, "Shelley, do you have chickens??" "Chickens? No!" I looked out my window and sure enough, there were two big roosters scratching and pecking in the dirt around the posts of the deck! I have no idea where they escaped from but as we were watching they started wandering on down the drive and back to the alley. Hopefully they're homing chickens.

Yesterday was a particularly intense day. Three of the secretary/support staff were out sick. The department administrator was scrambling around, scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get bodies to sit in the main office. I sat there from 3 to 4:30. I didn't have my laptop so I couldn't work on anything so, since it was Wednesday and I had my knitting, I worked on my T-Twist. And it was a nice break for me since I had been going non-stop all day. I was NOT looking forward to rehearsal but got Tink all walked, had my dinner and was just starting to get changed when Bonnie called. She wasn't feeling well. So I called Dwain and it turned out that the keyboard player had a gig anyway and the other singer, the substitute, was most likely busy as well. So -- FREE EVENING!!! WOOOOHoooooo!

Yes yes I could have started cleaning out the garage. Or the basement. What I did do though was laundry and knitting. All by myself. Ahhhhh niccccccce. Got lots done on the T-Twist. Should have taken pictures but I had to meet the landscaper this morning and I was running late anyway so ... no time. Tomorrow.

What happened to Tuesday?

I have no idea. It was a busy day yesterday. I didn't even have time for a walk at lunch. I had run on Monday - well, of course I'm getting back into it so it was run for 5 minutes, walk for 5 minutes, run for 10 minutes, ... well, you get the idea. I wanted to walk yesterday but lunchtime was eaten up with work. That's okay, I don't want to over do it. I think I would go absolutely stark raving mad if I relapsed yet again. Slow and steady this time. Going for a little run again today at lunchtime. I won't push it. If I am a super good girl by this time next week I should be able to do my whole run and feel good!

On Monday night I started another project - the T-Twist from Knitty. I have some pretty pink cotton yarn in my stash that I bought specifically for this pattern almost a year ago. I cast on Monday night and got this far before bed. However, yesterday as I was posting the pics on my Ravelry page and got to looking at other projects and reading about them I realized that I had better change to a size small. So I ripped it out last night and cast on again for a size small and got to just about the same point. I just love love LOVE the color of this yarn! And the twisted edging looks really nice. I find that I will wear my knitted t-shirts a lot. I did the Green Gables in brown last year and I still wear that quite a bit.

My sister is visiting her boyfriend, who is on location in Thailand. I just have to share this picture she sent me yesterday. It is so completely outrageous! And very cool. Check it out:
She and her boyfriend were eating in a restaurant when the elephant and handler came in. For a few bot they will give you a cookie to give to the elephant. She fed it and then it used it's trunk touching her looking for more cookies! She said it felt funny and was kind of scary too! Ya think?

Finally - I finished something

It seems like such a long time since I've actually finished a garment! Here it is - my Simple Knitted Bodice! It's completely impossible for me to get a good picture of this, since it's black. You're going to have to imagine the details - the purl ridges framing the lace insets, the deep V-neck also with purl ridges around. You can see the sleeves though, which I just love! I am going to use this sleeve again for sure. Since this is just a simple top down pattern it will be easy to adapt that sleeve. I can see now how a fabric with more drape would be more desirable for this pattern but I really wanted to use the Angora Soft because I need a closer fitting black sweater. Unfortunately I made a medium and I really should have made a small. It's a bit big around but I will wear it. It's pretty cute.

And now ... now I get to start something new!! And I'm tired of black, I can tell you that for sure. I have some great yarns in my stash - lovely colors. Should I start Fifi? (Even though I still need to sew up and finish my poor Isabella?) Or maybe I'll do the Ballet Camisole from the now defunct MagKnits [got a copy of the pattern off the cached link in Google]. Or ... Or I could do Juliet. I have options ... lots and lots of options. And there are always socks to finish. Oh .. .and the Cascading Cables, although I might have to wait on that until next autumn since it's coming on spring big time.

It was so warm on Saturday - over 70! I had to open up the front door to warm up the inside of the house. Tink was so silly - she would lay in the dirt in the sun until she was just baking, then come inside panting, drink water and go try to find someplace cool to lay down. Silly dog. We worked at a new club on Friday night so I was tired Saturday, having gotten a little less than 5 hours sleep. I just enjoyed the sunshine and sat and knit and knit and knit and knit some more. It was lovely. I had a day off from thinking about the house or the big event. Any time anything would pop into my head I would shoo it out. It was lovely.

What's not to love about the Top-down sweater?

Still toiling away on the Simple Knitted Bodice. I finished up the sleeve increases and am now just knitting away on one sleeve at a time (since they're large enough for a single circular needle). The pattern says to knit the sleeves until they are 16" or desired length, then knit the 10 rows of purl ridges. My desired length is long, like on the model in the picture. Not quite that long, but long. Now I don't have long arms by any stretch of the imagination but when I put that on last night after knitting 10 rows after the increases and measuring on the table that it was 15" at that point ... well, it was still way too short. So I think I'll knit the sleeves to at least 17" before I knit the purl ridges. It could very well be that the Tilly Tomas yarn is stretchy, or stretchier than the yarn I'm using anyway. But one of the things I really like about this pattern is the belled, longer sleeves. So my point is that it's very nice to be able to just slip that thing on over my head and really, truly see how long the sleeves are! Yes!

I didn't end up having much time for knitting last night because the woman who my real estate agent hired to come help get my house ready for the market took over an hour to go through the house and yard. She just went NUTS over the back garden. Just absolutely LOVED it and said that it was going to be a huge selling point for the house. It is pretty cool but ... I don't use it. And I hate to garden. She gave me all sorts of directions on how to move things around, where to put mirrors, etc. And truly - this is not going to be an easy house to live in if it looks like a magazine! Which is the whole point. "We're selling the dream", she says. I can really tell the difference between how houses are presented for sale now as opposed to when I bought mine which was 15+ years ago! Then you had to have some imagination and people just made sure the house was clean and tidy. Now though you have to remove over half ... yes, over HALF of your stuff. She says people have to look at the place and say "I want to live like this!". I told her about a house that S and I looked at a few weeks ago, how lovely it was but .... "Who lives like this?". "Nobody", she says. And now I see - people bring portable storage units up to their homes, store everything but the bare essentials and live in a magazine advertisement until the house sells. Which sometimes is pretty darned long. I am SO SO lucky that I bought in this neighborhood because it's about the only one in Seattle that is moving inventory.

All of the things she wants me to do are do-able but holy cow -- it would be very very difficult to maintain, especially with Tinkerbell. She said if she were me she'd move to S's house rather than try to live there. This is a possibility, especially (well, ONLY) since his kids are going to be moved out by May 1. The problem with it is that S's house is way out in Bothell. On the other hand it is just a block or so from the Burke-Gilman Trail and while it would be a long ride, the trail is flat and I think I could do it, especially since the weather is turning. Much to think about. And here's another thing on the side of moving in with S - when she went into my office/yarn room she said, "You're not going to like this. Take everything out except the roll-top desk, chair and wall unit." Store my stash???!?? Arghghgh!!! If I went to S's, I could have it with me. That's a biggie.

Okay ... feeling a bit better today

Although I didn't get in any therapeutic knitting yesterday the sun is shining just a little bit and my mood is rising as well. If I could only ride my bike or run again. But I am bound and determined not to have another relapse, so I'm driving in every day this week. Taking it easy is not an option this week, but at least I can keep warm and not exert myself. You have no idea how hard it is though. I saw somebody jogging on the way home yesterday and had to fight back the tears. It just makes me a little nuts when I have to go so long without working out. I guess it's the endorphins. My doctor always teases me when I get something like this that he'd better get me well soon or he's going to have to prescribe antidepressants. Truly, he's not that far off the mark!! But I know that if I'm good this week then next week I can start running again. So, this is me being good.

Last night I got home and only had time to primp and it was off to the mall with my FMIL and some little girls to do some shopping. Tonight after work I'm meeting with the house Market Ready woman, tomorrow night it's rehearsal and then I got a call from the band leader last night and it looks like we're working Friday night! I tell you, I am going to do nothing but sleep on Saturday. Poor little Tinkie was left alone the greater part of the evening so she was very restless all night and kept me up for almost 2 hours in the middle of the night. I will be able to spend some time with her tonight so hopefully I'll at least be able to get my 7 or 8 hours. I am blurry today.

Noon knitting to look forward to though!! But now, time to dig in to work!

Clouds and drizzle and a bad attitude

That's me in a nutshell today. And I think it's 100% due to the fact that I'm still not feeling well and I can't exercise. A little sun would make it bearable. However -- Seattle. April. Extended forecast says don't expect any until the weekend. On the good side though it's supposed to be 70 on Saturday. That's something nice to look forward to.

Tomorrow a woman is coming to take a look at my house and tell me and my real estate agent what we should do to it to get it ready to put on the market. And I have decided that I have enough to do without worrying about the lawn care so I'm going to hire a gardening service to come mow and edge twice a month. Totally worth the money. Anything I can delegate at this point is worth it.

That's all the news that's fit to type.