June Already

Wow, June. Wow. About a month ago I couldn't wait for this week - now, not so much. It's my last week at school - physicals were last night. So the next 3 days are all paperwork, cleaning, and moving. I found out yesterday that my basketball training room has to be empty by Friday. Ha. I would love to know exactly where they expect me to put everything. As it is, it's crazy enough putting everything into the inner office to attempt to stem theft over the summer. So that was my view last Saturday afternoon. My baseball team warming up for the Regional semis. A game that was originally scheduled for Thursday, but was rained out. Twice. What a game. 12 innings. Lost. Walk off homerun. Heartbreak. Due to the length, and use of all 3 decent pitchers, it probably would have been really hard to beat the team (that won 12-0 in 6 innings) we would have had to face on Sunday, but you never know.

It's been a weird spring like that - my boys track team imploded last week at regionals. The 2 relay teams that were supposed to win States didn't make it out (DQ'd). One boy got mono and couldn't do anything, one is still fighting appendicitis - he's going to States though, and the State champ in discus broke his throwing hand (the one that his college scholarship is based on) punching something a wall (I think) after his girlfriend broke up with him. Funny how things can all go wrong at once.

Anyway, Monday sees me working at the hospital. I'll try not to complain too much (but working in-patient when I'm an ATC is really stupid and I'm not happy about it). It is only for 5 weeks, then it's a week off before the family vacay to Cape Cod - I've heard reports that my nephew is already very excited - and then it's back to school to get ready for football. So I'm sure it'll all fly by and before we know it, I'll be complaining about whiny high schoolers again.

Onto the knitting type stuff. Sunday was the last day to turn things in for May projects in the House Cup. I managed to get something done for every class. The blanket was done in record time (finished it up on Thursday).

Pretty darn cute if you ask me. I did get a little tired of working on it because it was all blanket all week, but so glad to have it done. Maddie also likes it alot.
It's one of her new favorite sleeping spots. Never mind that there are 4 other blankets draped over various pieces of furniture in that same room.
I got this hat done as well. It's not my favorite, but it'll do. Kinda hard to see the pattern in that pic, sorry about that.
That's the progress on the fronts of the sweater. It seems to be going slower than the back did - I think because the initial burn to knit this has flickered out. Still love it - just don't have that crazy urge to work on it 24/7.
Because I finished up all the HP stuff early - I let myself spin this weekend. As you can see by the very full bobbins. I'm going to work on plying it up this weekend. It's gonna take forever. But it'll be very pretty laceweight - my first ever handspun lace weight! Gotta get myself worked up for it.

So with a new month comes new assignments for the House Cup. Not so in love with them this month. It's really hard to fit things that I wanted to get knitted into the assignments - and the "profs" are being very particular.The one that I do love is Defense Against the Dark Arts. This month is the study of Crucio - an Unforgiveable Curse, it causes excruciating pain - a form of torture. So the assignment is to work on a project that isn't finished due to the pain it causes you. Therefore, I will finally be finishing the Jewelled Steps socks. Yeah, from last March!
That's the start of the second sock. And the curse is continuing. The book knocked over a can of soda, I used the wrong needles to start and had to rip and re-start. Very cursed socks. Hopefully it gets better from here on out.

Holiday

I love holiday weekends. Especially when the holiday happens to get nice weather. I was busy this weekend - Saturday spent with Meagan (getting very little knitting done), Sunday was family day - Ellie has much better pics (I only managed to get a few of Aubrey - who is getting big, by the way), and then Monday I went to the South Euclid parade with Kaylee and company.
Kaylee is also getting big, as you can see. It was a very nice little parade - only one marching band, which I thought odd. But there were plenty of lollipops - and that was all that mattered.


After the parade, I spent the rest of the day with Meagan, crocheting furiously on what is the last project for the month of May in the HC. Sunday I was finally inspired for Herbology. It's going quickly, which is good, but mostly due to the fact that I didn't do much else but work on it on Monday. This will actually end up pulling triple duty - HC, baby blanket contest at KotS, and actually be done way ahead of time since the recipient isn't due to enter this world until December or January. But this way I'm not slogging along on it when I'm busy with Christmas knitting. I finished up the other projects for the HC this weekend too.
The book scarf. In all of it's double knitted coolness. Even if you think I live in a realm beyond Dorkdom, you need to see the coolness in this technique. Both sides get knit at the same time, on the same needle, no sewing the 2 pieces together. Seriously cool. And if you don't think so, please don't leave a comment telling me so - I'm enjoying my new trick. I didn't manage to get a decent picture of the hat I finished. I'll do that some other time.
But that's it for now. Gotta go get ready for work, hopefully there won't be any impromptu add ons to the schedule today - track is at regionals and baseball plays tomorrow so we should be good to just get paperwork done.

Such a Dork

I really am. And there are times when it just hits me full force how big a dork I really am. Like this week. So last Wednesday night, I had a brilliant epiphany (again) and started work on a project for the House Cup. The assignment fot Muggle Studies was to create something based on a tv show or movie. I know that some of you have absolutely no appreciation for Monty Python and their particular brand of genius, but they make me laugh, every time.

So I made some figures of the Monty Python characters from the Holy Grail.

And then, here's where the dorkiness comes out, I decided that it would be funny to take the pictures at a real castle, because there happens to be one not that far from where I spend every day. So I did. And yeah, I got some strange looks.

King Arthur and Patsy (complete with coconuts) debating the air speed velocit of European and African swallows.

The Black Knight, defending the bridge, even after suffering several flesh wounds.King Arthur and Patsy cowering in the presence of the Killer Rabbit.

Just a shot of Squire's Castle - obviously not a model.

Big dork. But it's funny and every now and then, you gotta find some funny in your life. As for "normal" knitting, I finished the back of the Herbology sweater Sunday night, and cast on the fronts (I'm doing them both at the same time, just to confuse myself) last night.

Didn't take a picture of the fronts, because I'm not all the way through the ribbing yet. And I started a hat Monday night - because you can never have too many hats.It's Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat, with Cascade 220 Superwash in cream, left over fromt he baby sweater I did for Jen D.'s baby.

Maddie was most displeased that she had to stay inside while I went outside. That's about all I got, everything is winding down at work - baseball has a playoff game tonight, and if they win, Thursday. LAX has a playoff game this week sometime, not sure when, it's not listed on the calendar.

Spectacularly Adorable

A post in which some may not be able to handle all of the adorable we've got. Just a warning.

The other day, the kiddos came over, and I started snapping photos, because that's what a good aunt who scrapbooks does. Mason was much more photogenic than Elliott. Elliott seems to be going through that phase where when you ask the child to look at the camera, they do everything but look at the camera.

Just look at that face. That's why he knows he can get away with the stuff he tries to get away with. The business of the day, was removing a shrubbery from next to Mom's garden so that she could expand this year. in the clearing out process, my brother came across a family of frogs/toads Elliott was thrilled. Mason wasn't quite sure what to make of them, so he stayed back a bit.And then there were smiley cookies. Notice, that the only time Elliott looked at the camera was when he was showing me his food. Does not bode well for family holidays, I feel the mashed potato trick will live on into the next generation.Hear no evil, see no evil, but he'll still scream at you! The chainsaw is the evil here.Aubrey did what she seems to do best, sleep. Even with the brothers running crazy and the chainsaw going, she slept. Notice that she's starting to get some cheeks to her!

Because this is mostly a knitting blog, I feel I should mention it. The Hi-Ho socks I showed you the other day? Yeah, they're now in time-out. Monday night I got down to the toe, and tried them on to make sure they were long enough, and... they fit only with great difficulty. Much bad language and thoughts involving scissors and a maniacal laugh ensued. I restrained myself, and came up with a new plan for Ancient Runes homework.

I finished Cinderella last night. Isn't she pretty? My first attempt at amigurumi (a style of crocheted toys, popularized in Japan) and I think she turned out pretty well. She doesn't have legs, just a rounded bottom (kinda like those blow up punching dolls that were around when I was kid) so she wobbles a bit, and doesn't like to stand straight. I like to think it's because she's already lost her shoe.

Chances are, if you have a young girl who is in some way related to me, one of these will end up at your house in the not too distant future. Hope you don't mind.

P.S. Can someone please tell Mother Nature to give the rain a rest already?! I'm supposed to have a sectional baseball game today, and it's not going to happen if it keeps raining!

Cranking it out

Just to start off with something different, look at the perfect tulip we have in the back yard right now. So beautiful! So perfect, and there's a second one just as perfect.
The Lily of the Valley is out and smelling wonderful too. That reminds me, I should really work on that scarf...

And one of the big huge irises opened up today. So cool. The one that opened last week got destroyed in the high winds we had here on Saturday - so sad.

Alright, back to the regularly scheduled programming. I have been knitting up a storm in the last week. Nothing like a good competition to make me amp it up. We'll start with the FO's. I finished the Sunshine socks on Wednesday - I think. Could've been Thursday. Whatever. They're done. And they're pretty, and I really like them.

So, now we move onto the Harry Potter knitting. For the class called Arithmancy, the challenge was to make something to do with Phi (pronounced fee, as Mom informed me). I'm not going to go into a long winded mathematical explanation, because this blog is about knitting and not math, but look it up if you so please, it's quite interesting. The short story is, something to do with the Fibonacci sequence, or the Golden Ratio - something to do with the spirals present in nature. So, I decided to make the Snail Hat.

It's really cute, and it's going to be really really warm. It's made with Cascade Pastaza (a 50/50 llama/wool blend) held double to make it a bulky size yarn. Really quick that way too.

So then I decided that I had to start another assignment (but not until the socks had been finished). Ancient Runes listed it's assignment as something based off a Muggle or wizard fairy tale, or something with a rune or monogram. So I got creative, in hopes that it'll get me bonus points. I pulled out some Fleece Artist Trail Sock yarn, in "Hercules" (there was a whole other sock idea for this yarn based on the myth of Hercules, that I was told wouldn't count because myths don't count as fairy tales, but legends do - weird). After looking through my stitch dictionaries, and sock books, and most of the 100+ pages of sock patterns on Ravelry, an idea came to me. And this sock, after much toil and rippage, is the result:

Now for the story of the Hi-Ho socks. Based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". The pattern is called "Crystalline", which I thought appropriate for mining of jewels. The colorway fits too - the dark background of the depths of the mine with flashes of color that represent the different jewels in the mines. Beads to add sparkle for the jewelled effect. I'm pretty pleased with my story telling ability on this one.

This sock would probably be finished if I hadn't had to rip it out 3 times. Twice because of the beading - I didn't like the beads I used the first time, and didn't like the pattern I was using the second - and once because I screwed up the heel flap. The cables on the sides were supposed to be split for the heel flap - 3 stitches from each getting worked in. I didn't do that first time around, and failed to notice until I started picking up the gusset stitches.

See? Bad Annie. Pay attention! So I ripped out the heel and reknit it correctly yesterday.

Yay I followed the pattern correctly! Seriously, I think I'm going for a record on the number of idiotic mistakes I've made on this sock. And I'm not done yet. I've discontinued the beading for the top of the foot, if you were wondering, I don't think it would feel very nice in shoes.

Also HP related, but not sure if I'll use it for an assignment yet, probably will though, just need to figure out which one it'll work for, is this book scarf.

Looks nice right? Just wait, this is a new trick for me, double knitting. Ready?

See the other side? It's the negative, isn't that so cool? So sad that something as simple as knitting gets me this excited. But come on, you have to admit that's pretty cool, both sides get knit at the same time, it's crazy.

In response to a comment left on the last post, I am a trainer, and I am very good taping things like fingers and cuts and what not. However, in the sport of knitting, tape and band aid type-things interfere with performance. The adhesive tends to catch little individual fibers in the yarn, and that means that the yarn doesn't slide smoothly over the finger, which impedes speed, which leads to lower output. This is unacceptable. So bandaids are out.

I am happy to report that my finger is finally healed enough that I could start to work on the sweater again.

It doesn't look much different than the last photo, but it now measures 11 inches instead of 7.5. Woohoo.

I really didn't feel like I had gotten much knitting done this week, but when I sat down to think about what I had to photo and talk about for a blog, I realized I had a bunch. Will probably blog again later this week - I'm writing this as I wait for the arrival of the kiddos, and I'm sure that they'll do something spectacularly cute that I'll have to photograph and share.

It's May

You know that song from "Camelot"? The one that talks about May being the month where everyone goes a little nutty? Yeah I think I might fall into that category this year. More on that later.

Did you see the Derby? I know I didn't do a pre-post this year, and I didn't take any photos of the party or the pie, but wow, was it nuts. Who picked that horse to win? I mean really- when we went to check on who got the pot here, we had to drop down to people who had picked the 5th horse (Chocolate Candy, btw). The FIFTH horse. That's just nuts. Somehow I don't think that people are really thinking that Mine that Bird will get the Triple Crown this year. Hmmm.

So what else is new with me? I animal sat for the Perryites this weekend. Luckily, no dogs were harmed, and the goats were still alive when I left. TAR is down to the final 3 (no spoilers here) but I can't believe how it ended this week. I saw an ad for So You Think You Can Dance? - May 21st people! And somehow, even after eating Derby Pie and splurging on Doritos this weekend, according to my scale (not the official WW scale) I am down another pound this morning. Seriously don't know how that happened, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Onto the craziness - I signed up for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup Spring Term on Ravelry. Yep, I'll admit it, I'm a big HP dork. So the premise is that you get sorted into a House (I got Gryffindor!) and then you sign up for classes each month (3 month term). The classes are all classes that appear in the books and the assignments are somehow linked to the ideas of what that particular class teaches (ie- Herbology this term is focused on Mandrakes and the assignment is to either knit or crochet an actual mandrake, or to make a baby blanket for a mandrake). When you complete an assignment, you get points that go towards your House in hopes that you win the House Cup.

I've so far submitted for an OWL (a 3 month big project) in Herbology - which is to knit a cabled sweater. And since I've been wanting to do the Moss Cabled Cardigan in this very nice Northampton yarn from Webs since last summer, I'm doing it.

Such a pretty heathery green. Got started this weekend, swatched and adjust needle size. Did the 3.5 inches of ribbing and then started the pattern. Got past the first bit of cabling and realized that the single purl stitch between the cables looked all stretched out and horrible. Went to bed, and then ripped back in the morning. Changed the needles so that size 9 knits the right side (the pretty side that is the out side of the sweater) and a size 8 purls the wrong side. Results are much better. However, after 7.5 inches in less than 24 hours, this happened:
See? I suffer for my craft. I rubbed my knuckle raw in all the purling, i was so focused on getting it nice and tight to maintain the tension throughout, I sacrificed my finger. And now the sweater is on hold until it heals. See, this is how I purl:
So, yesterday I had to work on non-sweater projects. Did a little on the Lily of the Valley scarf, but not enough to show. And made it through the gusset on the second Sunshine sock.
Should get the sock done this week, then it's on to the second Rivendell sock before I'm allowing myself to start a new pair. Hmmm. I also have to get going on the regular homework for the Cup. But I'll blog about that later. Need to go get ready for work.