Guess what I found on Friday? December 31, 2007 ~ 1:15 pm
Posted by Julie in : Technobabble , comments closedA Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
The weekend has obviously been spent in front of the Wii, playing the sports pack that came with it. And also the Metroid and Mario games Rick got me for it. I am the champion of homerun derby. It feels good to say “Yeah, I got my exercise for the day. I played some baseball and boxed a little.” and by that mean, I stood in front of the Wii for a couple of hours and worked up a sweat. Nice.
It wasn’t a total loss… December 27, 2007 ~ 1:30 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedThe holidays weren’t all bad. We did get to spend time with the girls, I spent a fair amount of time with Rick, and I got to see Samang’s first brush with Christmas (how to tire a 6 month old baby out: give her five million Christmas presents and a bunch of wrapping paper. She went strong for about 40 minutes and then crashed and burned.).
I got some really great gifts, too. A WooLee Winder and a gift card to my favorite knitting store in the city from my mom. Gift certificates to the Brooklyn Academy of Music so that I can see Patrick Stewart doing the Scottish play from Jordana. Rick is buying my plane tickets to and from Florida. And I bought myself some stylish Merrell boots last night because I needed some waterproof and insulated boots. That reminded me of being a pirate. Arrr.
I’ve taken tomorrow off and I have no idea where that’s going to lead me. Rick might come down, or I might go up to Massachusetts. If I don’t do that tomorrow, I have big plans for yarn shopping and catching a movie. I’ve already seen Sweeney Todd, but I might go again just for the “By The Sea” sequence, which is brilliant. Or I might see National Treasure 2. I think a day to catch my breath is just what I need. Hope you all get one as well.
I heart the holidays December 26, 2007 ~ 11:57 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind, Fambly, Random Insanity , comments closedMy past three days have involved a 911 call, a trip to the ER with Rick’s mom, a fair amount of time spent at the hospital, a bomb scare at work this morning, and eight calls (and counting) to my office from someone screaming “She’s going to throw a bomb! Die! Die! Explosions!”.
How was your Christmas?
I love Thursday night football. December 20, 2007 ~ 12:51 pm
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedTonight there is a Steelers game on. I was looking forward to a long spree of uninterrupted knitting on Puggy’s mittens during it. However, since Rick told me we’re going up to Massachusetts for the weekend and I don’t have any of the presents that weren’t shipped wrapped, I’ll be doing that tonight. They fill a rocking chair, so I think it’s going to take a while. Crap.
Oh well, the drive to Massachusetts takes three hours. Plenty of time to knit. If we go up in the daylight…the yarn I’m using for the mittens is dark, and I don’t think my booklight is any match for it.
Effin’ the o’s December 19, 2007 ~ 10:53 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedI have training for our new phone system in about ten minutes (yeah, we need training. Because apparently there’s something where they’re logged into the computers were on. Or something. It’s vaguely reminiscent of 1984.) But, in the meantime, I give you something cool to look at:
Pattern: Rockin’ Socks by Gail Marracci with modifications for a diabetic recipient
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool (wool and seacell)
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony DPNs, US Size 1 (for heels) and 2 (for rest of sock)
Size: Women’s size 8 1/2 or 9, I think. Bigger than my feet and Judy’s - she likes things loose on her feet.
Made For: Rick’s ma, Judy
Would I make this again? Not this pattern, no. Because I have a sneaking suspicion that the instructions for short row heels are off, and that’s the whole reason I bought this. But the yarn is lovely, if a bit unevenly spun at times, and I think it might bloom more after washing. I think she’s going to like them a lot.
Newsflash December 18, 2007 ~ 12:03 pm
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Random Insanity , comments closedThe socks were finished at 11:44 PM last night. Now onto the mittens.
Admit it, you guys are all tired of the knitting content, aren’t you? Just for those of you that are, I will add that Pepperidge Farms Chessmen suck. No other shortbread cookie leaves me with a weird aftertaste in my mouth. As a matter of fact, the only thing I expect an aftertaste from is cough syrup.
Which reminds me of when I worked at a grocery store on breaks during college, and there was this one woman who would buy two bottles of NyQuill every week. Every week, people. And she never had a cold. How sad do you have to be to drink freakin’ NyQuill for a high? And how high was her NyQuill tolerance that she was going through two bottles a week? I mean, one dose and I’m on my ass.
Also, when I worked at the grocery store, the owner’s son worked as a stockboy and used to get high doing whipits off of cans of whipped cream. Ah, life in small town Pennsylvania.
Check it out! I talked about something besides knitting!! Now that’s a newsflash.
Christmas miracles. December 17, 2007 ~ 11:29 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Daily Grind , comments closedSome missions were accomplished this weekend. For instance, I got everything wrapped, packed, and shipped that needed to be. And for a pleasant surprise, even though I had six packages to ship (well, four boxes and two padded envelopes), I was in and out of the Kensington Post Office in fifteen minutes which is a land speed record. The Post Office manager has obviously learned his/her lesson at this time of year and had three windows open instead of the usual one, and one window was devoted to stamp sales and money orders, the other two free for package mailings. If only they were this efficient the rest of the year…
Rick’s ma’s socks weren’t finished, since I spent Saturday afternoon/evening with Lori, watching the play she’s in, and then going to the movies to see Atonement. (Which was wonderful and now I want to read the book - the Oldest has been telling me what a brilliant book it is for a while now, so I guess I have to give in and buy it.) Yesterday I spent a very windy day inside cleaning house. Not fun, but it needed to be done. In the evening I picked up the knitting and made it through the heel of the socks, which means I’ll finish them today. Then the mittens, then Rick’s other present, then Lori’s present (Lori has been warned that she will not get hers until after Christmas, and she’s cool with that, especially after I told her I would make her earrings as well and let her pick out the stones.)
And so here we are, a week out from Christmas Eve, and I might well still be fucked. But at least I’m resigned to it.
Christmas knitting hits everyone. December 14, 2007 ~ 2:46 pm
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Daily Grind, Urban Family , comments closedHow I know it’s crunch time for all knitters - I get a call from Aimee:
Aimee: Hey, did you knit the (some pattern) with (some number of stitches)? Because I’m doing it, and it doesn’t look right. Too small.
Julie: Yeah, I did that. I added 10 stitches to make it bigger. And you have to knit it longer than the pattern says or it won’t fit.
Aimee: Cool.
Yeah, then later, I realize that the number of stitches Aimee had mentioned (protected here because the recipient of (some pattern) reads the blog occasionally) didn’t sound right. So I texted her and told her maybe I fucked up and cast on too many stitches, so don’t listen to me and just cast on however many the pattern calls for plus an increment of stitches. And then I got back from lunch and looked at my project page on Ravelry and realized that I had not in fact knit (some pattern). I had knit (some other pattern). So I just texted her that.
Since when does staying up until 12:30 and wrapping and packing Christmas gifts like a mad dervish screw with my mind like this and make me into a space cadet? I must be getting old…
Christmas knitting. It blows. December 13, 2007 ~ 1:55 pm
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedWe are 12 days out from Christmas. I am a few stitches away from finishing sock one for Rick’s ma. Sock two will hopefully be done by the end of the weekend, because the woman has lost two kids this year and just came out of the hospital after having a small heart attack. She needs something nice in time for Christmas. Mittens for his step dad will be done by the end of next week, by hook or by crook, because he had a minor stroke and is in the hospital for rehab therapy. He also deserves something nice. After that, all bets are off. My original idea was that Lori would get one sock in a box with an IOU for the other. Rick would get one knitted gift, and I was not above putting the other work-in-progress in the same box with a note that says “I have this many more inches to finish on this project.”
One of the girls in my SnB came up with a kick ass idea last night that is even better: knit a mini version of the item in progress and stick it to an IOU. That way, the recipient knows what they will be getting, but I don’t have to wrap up the WIP and lose knitting time on it. It may make its way closer to completion because of this.
Christmas knitting, why do you kick my ass every year? You didn’t used to. Oh yeah. The first year, I didn’t have carpal tunnel. I could knit for hours on end. I miss those days…
December 12, 2007 ~ 11:43 am
Posted by Julie in : Shorty , comments closedI have to pee. I am simultaneously trying to plan a trip to Florida for next month with Rick and a trip to the spa in two weeks with Lori and Jordana. I may well explode.
ETA: Trip to Florida, booked. And I have peed. But I need to go again. Stupid water-drinking.
