Not Laboring

So somehow, somewhere in the universe, the stars aligned and I had this past weekend off. Miracle, I know. So what to do with a weekend off? Go on a road trip of course!

Saturday Ellie and I headed west, to South Bend, and my very first ever ND game at ND.
Here come the Irish!
First play of the season!
The student section celebrating the first score of the season!
Victory formation!
Tradition.
Touchdown Jesus from the top of my section.

I met back up with Charlie, Rachel, Ellie and C4 and we eventually went to Red Robin for dinner - Ellie got some good photos, well maybe they're scary. And then we all went to bed kind of early. Breakfast Sunday at IHOP (pumpkin pancakes!) And things might have gotten a bit silly...
Sarah decided to make a mustache out of her straw wrapper, then the glasses came out, then the hood went up...
And then the bus boy brought us silly glasses.
Not everyone was so amused. But it was fun. All too soon, it was time to part ways - the Jerseyans went directly to Chicago to catch a plane, and Ellie and I went to the Christmas Tree store (I swear if there's one within a 50 mile radius, she will find it). And then we were off to Chicago as well. After checking into the hotel, we headed out to Navy Pier and happened upon the Stained Glass exhibit.
I took a bazillion pictures, but I'll only show you my favorites, and surprise, most of them are the work of Tiffany.
Seriously beautiful.
This one is not by Tiffany and was my most favorite, should have paid more attention to who and what, but I was distracted by the pretty!
I probably could have spent a lot more time wandering and admiring, but we had short time. This last one is by Tiffany, and it took me a few looks to figure it out, but here it is:
So cool how the light changes it!

We eventually made our way down to the Ferris Wheel, and hopped a ride.
Amazing how many pictures you can take on a 7 minute ride (and I probably would have taken more, but I restrained myself).
Then we set off for Michigan Avenue. Did a little shopping, took a few pictures, then started looking for a place for dinner.

We ended up at a Mexican place (so good! we both overate a lot) and then went back to the hotel as it got dark.
So I had to take some night time Chi-town pictures along the way.
Monday came (here's the view from our hotel room). And we went out to get some coffee and see some more sights.

First we went to Millennium Park, to find the bean.
Aka, Cloud Gate. Pretty cool.
Then we found this fountain - not sure what it's called - but it's kind of cool that the faces change, and then they do this:
Too funny. Okay, maybe I'm easily amused. We kept walking, went past the Art Institute and Grant Park, and finally hit the harbor. We sat for a while, finishing our coffee and watching the boats float.
We walked along the lake for a while, almost back to Navy Pier, then headed to the River Walk.
Found another fountain, and happened to be there for the 10 minutes an hour it shoots across the river.
The architecture is just so cool in Chicago, I kept snapping random photos of random buildings.
We happened upon the theater district, I think this picture will make the perfect title for a scrapbook page that will have to be made.
Then we went to the Pizzeria Uno, and had some deep dish pizza. Forgot to take a picture, oops. And then we went down Michigan Ave again, and wandered through the Swarovski store - OMG! I wanted just about everything in there, including the decorative store chandelier like thing.

And then we headed home. And it's back to work today. But it was so great to get away for a little while.

Long Overdue

This post is way overdue, I know. But two-a-days are finally over, and once again, I have survived, and no athletes were maimed or murdered. I can't guarantee that the coaches will survive the season though. It was a tough week at work, I called the ambulance twice. And am dealing with an issue with the football coach (which may be the reason that he doesn't survive the season - and that I may need bail money).

But enough of the work junk. Let's talk about some knitting. I mean, this is supposed to be a knitting blog after all. And it's been like a month since I posted anything about my knitting. First up, some stuff I think I've shown in the past. I recently finished the Shaelyn Shawl:
Didn't have much to do to finish it, but vacation got in the way of it being done last month. It's very pretty, I love Smooshy, as I may have mentioned a few times before. I think the fact that I've knit so many little shawls so far this year is making me a bit blase about them. I love them, they're just not breaking news any more. Won't stop making them though.

While on vacation, I attempted to start some socks, but packed the wrong size needles, so I focused mainly on that little Spring Garden Tee I started in June.
And got all of the knitting done. The knots in the yarn towards the end really irritated me, and I haven't gone back to sew in the ends yet. So, soon I'll get to them. I hope. And then I need to pick up the neck to finish and then the sleeves. There's probably only a couple of hours worth of work to do to have it completely done, so I really should just sit and do it. And as you can see, it needs a good soak and blocking to get out the wrinkles.

So after the Tee was mostly done, it was Thursday of vacation I think, I started the Presto Cardigan, designed by Kate Jackson of my very beloved KNOTS. Such a classic cute little cardi, and amazingly, I'm loving the yarn. It's Berocco Remix, which is a blend of cotton, acrylic, linen, silk and nylon. But it's tweedy and wonderful, and will match a huge chunk of my wardrobe.
It's going to end up being the perfect "in-between" sweater, for those days in the spring and fall that are cool but not cold. Right now, I'm into the final decreases of the sleeves (so close to being done) but I haven't spent a lot of time on it this week due to the afore mentioned work stress.
And it probably would have been finished by now, except that there was a slight hitch with the fronts. Maybe you can see the problem?
Yeah, the medium size was a bit off between the fronts and the back, so Kate helped me work the math and everything is good now. So I'm going to finish the sleeves after I post this, and then I'll sew the fronts to the back and pick up the stitches for the ribbed edging. Hopefully, I can get the ribbing done tonight. and then it all gets blocked and then sewn together and it's done. Yay!

So last weekend was a bit of a milestone, the end of an era. Yep, I turned 30. So Sunday night, Mom, Ellie and me went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" (my birthday present from the Jersey Fam - thank you again!), and it was wonderful. I also started a new spinning project - as a little treat to myself. This roving:
Is spinning up to look like this:
Very nice. It's the first time I've used my Very Fast Flyer on the wheel. Loving it. I'm planning on doing this as a navajo-ply to keep the colors together.

This week I also picked back up my Miralda's shawl, in an attempt to get it done by month's end.
It's going well, but I'm still afraid that I'm going to run out of yarn. And seeing as I just got a box from KnitPicks, I don't really want to place another order just for a ball of yarn. Silly me should have remembered to toss that lone ball into the cart.

What came in that KP box? A whole lot of crazy, that's what. For some strange unexplained reason, I decided that it would be fun to make a Corrie Fair Isle Vest as the 3 month project for the HPKCHC starting in September.
It will be gorgeous, and I'm sure that I start off enjoying knitting it. But then some time in October I think it will hit me... 300+ stitches on size 3 needles using 9 different colors of fingering weight yarn! That have to be steeked!!!
I'm trying really hard to not think about the steeks - because they really freak me out. Taking scissors to a knitted garment - scary! Think about the pretty, think about the pretty!

Since I had been having a serious case of listlessness and apathy about all of my current knitting projects for the past couple days, I let myself cast on something new last night. A Daybreak shawl (I know, again with the shawls).
But lots of easy peasy stockinette with self striping yarn? That's a good time. And so I worked to that point last night (while watching the Steelers game and beyond), and so today I have to focus on the cardigan and will reward myself with the shawl if I get it finished.

Or maybe I'll work on my Poconos socks:
Pretty socks that I couldn't start until I got home and could get the right sized needles. Gypsy Girl Creations yarn in "Cattails" which really reminds me of the woods with the rivers and creeks flowing through. The first sock was knit almost entirely (except for the cuff and a few rounds beyond) during the football meetings I sat through during the first week of practices. Seriously, that's how much time I spent in meetings, enough time to knit a sock. Crazy. The other one, as you can see, has stalled out with the lack of down time at work. But it'll get there. Gotta finish it so I can start my Steelers socks with the start of the season. Alright, I think that's enough for now, and I've run out of projects to talk about any way.