Planes Departing Logan and Tropical Storm Danny...

The former Hurricane Danny is making its way by Massachusetts. It's raining and cool, so we finally have some decent sleeping weather...or at least normal people do. Saturday mornings are a war of wills between me, Tubby and Munchie; who double-team me when they feel it's time for breakfast. As long as I don't wake them they'll hold out until 6:30 or so, but if I make make an early trip to the bathroom, they inevitably win the battle.
The first plane left Logan this morning at 5:45 AM. (Side note: the first plane to leave every morning is carrying lobsters to the west coast.) The second plane went out at 5:47, and the next one went out at 5:49. Generally, I'm not bothered by the planes at all. I'm not in the direct path of any runway, and unless the planes are departing to the east, I don't even hear them. For the most part, the planes take off to the north or south, but it is dependent on the weather and the wind conditions. This morning, they are leaving to the east. No plane left at 5:51, so Munchie took the opportunity to use this time slot to her best advantage, in the hopes of getting an early breakfast no doubt. I'm pretty certain that Munch thinks I'm a cat, and not just any cat: HER cat. (I'm about to describe her most annoying habit, so if you don't have a strong constitution, you should probably skip down to the last paragraph in which I blather on about my knitting.) Munch likes to "groom" me. She licks the side of my face right along my hairline, with a tongue that is comparable to a 120 grit sandpaper. It hurts, and it bugs the crap out of me. She generally pulls this stunt in the morning when I'm not fully awake yet. After a couple minutes of her trying to lick me while I thrashed around trying to get away from her, the next plane took off at 5:54. Clearly, it was time to get up. My roommate just came out of her room for a sec, and probably thinks I'm insane to be sitting at the computer at 7AM on a Saturday...
It is supposed to rain all day, so I'm half hoping that I'll see my new and improved sump pump in action. It has been so hot lately that the ground is totally dry. Here is my new pump and backup system: just waiting patiently for the water table to rise...




(Yes, those ARE asbestos backed vinyl tiles. As long as I don't touch them, they are no danger to anyone. To remove them I have to bring in a specialist, and after all the repairs made to my house this month, the tiles aren't even on my radar.)






So I'm cruising along on my project #3, which I suppose I can call FMB. It is going so quickly that I should probably get about six inches done today without a problem. I'm probably going to go about eight inches or so in orange before I start a two shade, colorwork band. Maybe I can get that posted tomorrow...we'll see.

My computer is finally home...

So my computer is fixed. It cost a king's ransom, but it's as clean as a whistle. Of course it is completely empty and I need to reload everything, but I'll do it over the weekend. My yard sale has been postponed due to an approaching hurricane, so I'll have lots of time for indoor activities...

The Red Sox are getting killed 9-2, so I thought I'd come load photos of my progress the last 10 days or so. First a quick welcome home to my friend D, who was away at Prince Edward Island on vacation, and didn't see Munchie for nearly two weeks. When she finally came for a visit, Munch immediately sat on her and didn't get up until D had to leave.

My afghan is actually about six inches longer than this photo portrays, but it's a good indicator as to recent progress. I was not yet using the lifeline when this shot was taken. It is saving me a lot of aggravation.

My twirly skirt is showing an inch of its third tier. I don't think I'll get back to this until next week because of my hands. Plus, my third project needs some attention, which leads me to my next photo.




This is the re-do of the gift for my friend S. I cast on differently than the one I frogged in a previous post, so it doesn't have the nifty orange square, but it'll be cool once I get a little further along.















My last photo is of a creature that was waiting for me when I left for work a few days ago. She was so striking that I ran in the house to get my camera. Generally, I'm not that hip into spiders, but you have to admit she's pretty cool looking.

Project Runway is on in about 45 minutes, so that's all for now...

Tuesday is Knitting Night!

It is Tuesday, so my knitting group is meeting tonight. More often than not, everyone comes to my house. We watch the Red Sox (tonight vs White Sox), look at patterns any of us have picked up since we last met, and admire progress made on UFOs. The group started a couple years back with two other founding members. Unfortunately one of us passed away, so my "group" chugged along as a two-some for two years. In the last 6-8 weeks, we've welcomed four (!) new members...five if you count our youngest member who started attending at 2 1/2 weeks of age. She's only been to a couple meetings, so she really hasn't mastered anything to speak of. And she appears to be bored, because she sleeps most of the time...

I've been putting a lot of time into my twirly skirt, and my carpal tunnel is not so coincidentally acting up. I'm a really tight thrower. Between the tiny linen yarn and the size 3 needles, I think I'm doing myself in. I even wore one of my wrist braces to work (which I rarely do) because three of my fingers were numb and tingly yesterday. To give my wrist and hands a rest, tonight I will be casting on the maroon and orange item for my friend S that I ripped out two weeks ago. I'm feeling really guilty that I haven't finished it (or even re-started it) in the promised time frame, so I'll get that cooking. It is Cascade 220 on size 10 1/2 needles for those of you who forgot.

So that's pretty much it. Computer in shop. Tim Wakefield starting tomorrow (sit down Penny, you suck). Not remotely prepared for yard sale. Hand-washing dishes for the foreseeable future. Learning very cool, very complicated stuff at work. Close friends bought a house less than a mile from mine and move in one week from today: might kidnap the wife and bring her to knitting night...

Still no computer...No pictures for you!

My home computer has been down for over a week now; actually IN the shop since last Tuesday. It was awful not having it over the weekend...I raced into the office this morning to check the activity on a credit card that has been MIA for a couple days, and then called the company to freeze the card and order a new one. I realized I didn't have it when I went to pay for a couple patterns at Minds Eye Yarns on Saturday morning, although I didn't really think someone took it. It's probably in the pocket of the pair of pants I was wearing the last time I bought gas, and it'll turn up as soon as I get my new card. Better safe than sorry.

Yes, I went to check out Minds Eye in Porter Square. I was very proud of myself - I only bought three of Jen Hagen's patterns, and I didn't buy any yarn. They have spinning classes in this shop; a tidbit of trivia that I'll file in the back of my mind for later use. I'd love to learn how to spin, but I just cannot do anything else at this time. Seriously. BTW, the woman who owns the shop was very nice.

The weather here is still hot and crazy humid. I just couldn't bring myself to finish the front steps. My yardsale is this coming Saturday, and I'll just have to take comfort in the fact that the stairs look 100% better than they did before I stained them and primed the woodwork for painting. I can only do so much. And to add insult to injury, my dishwasher is now broken. What the hell? In the last three weeks, I've had to repair my central air, I've had to install a new sump pump, my computer caught FaceBook herpes, and my dishwasher died.

On a more productive note, my afghan and twirly skirt are cruising toward completion. I'm probably about 60% done w/ the afghan. I finally broke down over the weekend and started using a life line after each pattern repeat. I think I'm getting lazy, and I was ripping (actually tinking) more than I was knitting. Taking out lace is such a pain in the ass, and I just kept taking out and reknitting the same 12 rows. Now I'm back on track. I have completed one inch of the eight inches needed to finish the skirt. It is really quite rockin', but it is SOOO SLOW...eight gazillion stitches and all. ;)

So last night I added the stitches that start my twirly skirt's third tier. I don't know how many stitches I'm carrying, but it's a lot, and I will now begin my crawl to the finish line. Hopefully I'll get a picture up soon (if I ever get my computer back) showing recent progress.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm hoping to make it out to Mind's Eye Yarns in Cambridge, but I have chores to do first. (Never painted the stair risers last week. Anyone who knows me well enough to actually be following these posts would've guessed that for sure. At least they are primed and ready to go.) Anyway, when I was out in Seattle last month, I had the opportunity to meet knitwear designer Jen Hagen. (It was really a thrill - she's my new idol.) Through Ravelry she shot me a note saying that Mind's Eye is now carrying her patterns, so I'm headed over there to check out the store. My plan is to maybe buy a pattern or two, but NO MORE YARN...at least for the time being. I'm seriously thinking I may need a storage solution for my yarn. What do people do? Should I give it its own bedroom? I have a spare one. I could go grab an IKEA Pax system, and set the yarn up in style. Now I'm just kidding...I have to pay for my DELUXE sump pump with battery back up system first. Ask me about the yarn closet next week...

A link in lieu of a photo...

So I'm on day four with no home computer...talk about isolation! No email, no mapquest, no google, NO RAVELRY! My friend B said she had a sweater in mind that I would like and sent me the following link:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTabotanicity.html

I really like it, and may add it to the queue. (Although I wish it wasn't knit in sock yarn, sheesh. A sweater knit in sock yarn? That's even worse than my slow moving twirly skirt.) I would make it in a lighter color so that the lace skirt is more visable and maybe a smidge longer to be worn w/ leggings and boots. Cute. Thanks, B.

Preparing for a yard sale is a really overwhelming process. I have crap everywhere. Bags of clothing that had been slated for donation, bins of off season (and even current season) clothes I don't wear, bins of craft supplies, books, random housewares...all stuff I need to go through before it makes it onto the mountain of sale items in my foyer. My goal next week is to not beg or pay people to take stuff off my hands. That would rather defeat the purpose, as this IS a money making endeavour afterall.

I also need to put some of my stash up on Ravelry. When Berroco Medley was discontinued, I became obsessed with it and camped out on eBay bidding on every ball that came up. Now I have so much that I can't bear to look at it. It's a really cool yarn that has multi color bits running thoughout. It's great for bags because it felts into a thick, nubby, dense colorful fabric. I'm sure someone at some point will offer to take that off my hands. It retailed for about $8.95 per, and I must have at least 40 in various colors. Yikes...

Sigh...no photos.

So I can access my blog from work to make quick entries, but I won't have my home computer until probably next week sometime.
The plumbers were at the house most of the day yesterday ripping out my old sump pump and installing a bigger, deeper DELUXE sump pump with a battery operated back up pump. Who wouldn't want that, seriously? Don't worry, I have photos... Luckily for anyone reading this, I have no way to post them.
I have about another 1/2" to go until I begin the third tier of the twirly skirt. My afghan is about 36" long at this point. I'm half way done.
I'm planning a yard sale in about 10 days. I've been going through my stash and I'm going to dump most of my novelty yarn. I just sits in a bin, and I rarely touch it, so I'd rather give the real estate to a yummy wool/silk blend. ;)
Off to a meeting...bye!