Happy Xmas, New Year, everything!

So, I spent Christmas day on a plane back from Las Vegas. I really enjoyed it! Good eats! Good shopping! Good gaming. I took the $200 that I won and we ate with it that night. I didn't take that many pictures but they're found here. I took a few pictures out the plane window. It's amazing to see a desert and then a city pops up. I admit that I ended up leaving the camera at the hotel for most of the trip. I also finished some socks.


These were made with Colinette Jitterbug on a 40 inch size 2 (magic loop). Pattern was Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern.

Beady Inspiration

My god! Two posts within a week! Things have been hectic and I had been forced to stop and do some beading. I had class this weekend so I was forced to write up the instructions for that, so we'll start there:


Yes, I am quite happy with how this turned out. The tea cup is one of a set of 4 that I had picked up in an antique store in Old Town Alexandria.

Class itself went well, I thought. There were only a couple of students so the pace was slow. Also, I think this may be a better fit for a beginner pattern.

The tiger eye cabochon went to the Bead Obsessions staff party gift exchange. I was trying to decide between that one and this one:

Yeah, inspiration struck and finally, between the beading and the knitting, I was truly inspired. I just hadn't been for a while. And in the mean time, I've been struck with a need to make shawl pins. "Need" I say. I've given one away as a present so far...and the one in the picture may end up on etsy sometime soon. It would, of course, be after I wear it.


That's a purple glass heart that I've had for a while and I've been trying to figure out what to do with.

still beading

8am at Target

It seems that 8am at Target in Parsippany, NJ is very similar to 8am at Target in Alexandria, VA. You have 10-20 cars with people sitting in them waiting for the Target to open. Yes, I have sat at Target here at home waiting for them to open. The one at Potamac Yards, that area gets crazy if you go on a weekend so you might as well go early when everyone else is still asleep! Well, I was successful. I found a $40 dress that fit me perfectly and is a muted purple/grey color with lace and lining. I think I'll wear it to my other friend's reception next summer as well. I also found some jewelry to match as well and what was going through my head was, "These look great but 1. They could be of so much better quality if I made them myself! 2. I must stop and examine this style of necklace so I can recreate it. 3. The quality really would be much better if I just made it myself! 4. Why do I travel and not bring my own jewelry supply???"

I spent last night in Brooklyn with a friend. We went to Hill Country for more BBQ cuz we were both craving it. I had about a pound of meat consisting of prime rib (don't get the end cut), moist brisket, and a pork rib. Oh, and some diet coke. That's right, no vegetables. Our eating adventures were ruined by this couple sitting next to us. The woman was complaining about how the food wasn't done right and how the meat was too fatty and not cooked enough. I was ready to reach across the table and smack her.

The drive time back went remarkably fast, even with the weather. It snowed last night in Brooklyn and it rained all the way back and I still made it in just under 4.5 hours.

Lilfe spins out of control

Work's been crazy. People wonder why they haven't seen me? I've been at work. Currently, I'm in NJ. I left work at 3pm this afternoon to get to NJ. I'm here for a friend's wedding reception tomorrow. I sat through traffic in DC. And then I got to sit on the NJ Turnpike for a bit and knit and send emails. I even shut off my car a few times. And finally, after 7 hours, I get to my destination after driving up and down the road looking for the hotel. And as I get my stuff in the room, I look at it and go..."Wasn't there supposed to be a nice dress type thing on a hanger here? Oh F-! It is sitting back in f-ing Virginia on my f-ing couch by the door." The reception starts at 11am tomorrow morning. There is supposedly a target in the vicinity. I guess I will be hitting that at 8am tomorrow.

Mid Thanksgiving break

I finished some socks. Just in time too cuz I'm going to see the recipient for a hockey game tomorrow! Cornell vs. BU at Madison Square Garden. How awesome is that? The arena is going to be all red and white cuz both schools are going to be all red and white. I'm going to see people I normally see once a year. Going to eat some good food, watch a hockey game, hang out with some friends into the night. Gotta love New York! Anyways, it's on my way home.

Back to the socks. Wendy's generic toe up pattern using Colinette Jitterbug. This color way kept making me think of a hot fudge sundae with a cherry.



I started out the week in Philly where I ran the half. It was cold, it was raining. Did I mention that it was cold? I still managed to finish in under 3 hours with little to no training the last month from illness and being overstressed at work.

Then I continued on up the east coast to Providence, RI for Thanksgiving. Pulled back into work on my travel day so we're going to have to talk about my days off when I get back about when can I take a day off for real? Two exhausting days working full days and did another 3 hours or so of work Thursday morning before I got busy with the turkey. And after that I pretty much just said "fuck it" to the work. I'm not a miracle worker, even though people think I can just make things happen with a quick motion of my magic wand. No. You're just going to send me to the mental facility THAT MUCH SOONER! My brain keeps seizing up everytime I log back into work. Edited to remove some overly emotional venting

Oh right, food. Sorry to side track into life. It's either bitch and complain here or not post at all due to all the negativity spewing out right now. Turkey turned out well. We get a turkey from Whole Foods every year. It comes all set to go, you just have to pop it into the oven. I made some ham/sausage maple stuffing Wednesday night and some sweet potato gratin. I love the stuffing! The sweet potato gratin didn't really do much for me. Cranberry sauce out of a can. Chinese sticky rice. That is a tradition my mom started way back when...instead of stuffing, we had sticky rice. There were also some green beans.

Pictures of everything can be found here.

Philadelphia Half Marathon

It was supposed to be a full but illness hampered my training and I only did the half. It was cold and it was rainy and it was cold. COLD! Even with my lack of training in the last month, I still managed to finish in under 3 hours. 2:51 and change. Which isn't bad considering this was right around my time from a couple of years ago when I did the Philly Distance Run, also a half marathon and I had actually just done the VA Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2 weeks prior to that and taken 10 minutes off. Ah...the joys of not training.

African Violets

Or, my interpretation of them:







December 16, 2007 at Bead Obsessions. It's a beginner level project.

Starts...

Did I mention I started the Swallowtail Shawl last Sunday? I'm using Schaefer Anne and size 8 needles.

The pattern claims to only require 437 yards of laceweight. Well, I'm using fingering weight and I've got 560 yards. My current plan is to run a life line after the required 14 repeats of the main pattern. I'm going to knit another 5 repeats of the pattern and then do the lily of the valley border. If I run short on yarn, I can rip back. If not, great, I can knit on. I want to use as much of the yarn as I can.

And also, I got a finished object picture taken on Thursday. Some scenes of the Sweet Life Knitters meeting can be found here. But anyways, this is the "Cozy V Neck Pullover with Deep Ribbing" from Fitted Knits.

It's really quite nice to know that I have some new clothes for winter.

Also, pictures from Stitches East can be found here.

Feeling better

• I'm feeling better. I've been sick for 2 weeks, at times being so incredibly tired that all I wanted to do was sleep.


• I finished that green sweater with the Lamb's Pride Bulky. There is no FO picture right now. K2P2 was about all the thinking I was capable of handling.


• I walked 13.1 miles today as part of the Nike+ Women's Virtual Half Marathon. I haven't moved in 2 weeks from being sick. I'm quite sore.


• Nothing new on the beading front. It took too much brain power.

Twas the night before Stitches

And I have a finished necklace:




It started with the setting. I didn't intend to set it using purple beads for the bezel but it worked out that way. Then, it started to take on a life and theme of its own. Wine! Grapes! Harvest! And this is what I came out with. Lots of fringe, a peyote strap. The portion with the stone and fringe is a lot heavier than I had expected but it certainly captures the theme well, dontcha think?

creative madness, eh...?

So it's the second time where after I do a race, I find myself sick and tired, and sleeping, a lot. Sunday was horrible race day and I went and did the Army 10 Miler. Lucky me, I was not the fatality. So, I'm home today with a sore throat and my brain is fuzzy. People from work were talking to me this morning and not all of it was making sense. And now, I'm sitting in front of my computer, knitting socks and thinking, "Gee, sock construction is really quite interesting. In theory, I could use generic toe up sock instructions and some sort of flat needle weaving stitch (not brick, not peyote) and make a small beaded sock or bootie. Make a swatch of the beads and then start the toe similar to the magic 8 cast on, no provisional cast on and increase to the foot, increase on gusset, do the heel turn and proceed up the cuff." It's the sickness I tell ya.

Progress shot of that green sweater

Progress shot of that green sweater
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

The sleeves are done. I did a sewn bind off to keep it loose. I'm now at the part where I switch to the 7s and do the ribbing portion of the body. The 7s were on the 60 cable so now I try it on! I don't know if I'll knit with bulky wool again. It knits fast, but it certainly does add additional bulk and you can feel it when you do stuff like bend your arms.

Next week, Stitches East!

I'm really excited! I have washed Mom's Lace Sweater and it is currently drying. I hope it's dry by Wednesday night for me to pack up to take with. I've bound off the sleeves on the Cozy v Neck Sweater (aka that really bright green sweater) and will be continuing on with the body. If I finish this in time, it certainly won't have been washed. I'll have some socks with me to work on as I wander around and I think the "large" project will be a Swallowtail shawl, that is if I finish the green sweater. I generally need a large project to work on and I don't feel like looking for a pattern, then seeing if I have yarn, then making a gauge swatch. Not enough time. With a shawl, I just need to find the pattern (which I have), and find the yarn (which I've earmarked for this shawl), and find some needles and cast on!

First wear of the Monkey Socks

I wore the Monkey socks to work today. Towards the end of the day, I was in my boss's office with our head network guy who noticed my socks. The bright red stood out against the dark greys and blacks I was wearing. Then my boss asked if I had made the socks. Then the two of them marveled at sock construction. It's nice to know that I have work people trained :D

Necklaces come and go

Etsy shop alert. Stuck a necklace on the etsy shop. It's this one:

I thought it was time.

Some finished beady things and an iron chef

I said I owe you all pictures of some finished beady things. Well, here they are. First up is a labradorite necklace and earrings. I used some sterling silver softflex for the necklace. I really like that stuff!

Next, we have a piece that has come back from the dead. I had started in on the stone way back when but lost inspiration. Sometime in the last month, I was at Bead Obsessions when I saw Susan was counting out some Czech fire polished beads. They screamed at me about wanting to be in a spiral rope so I took some home. And I realized that the beads to compliment it in the spiral were beads I was using in this stone...and it all came together!


I have one more picture but I need to take a better picture.

Finally, I was at Wegman's last week and the first thing I saw when I walked in was:


Why couldn't I have seen that sooner so I could still get tickets to the cooking demonstration??? This is next Sunday at Wegman's. You can go get a book signed but you need to have purchased the book at Wegman's. Cover price has it at $40 but you can get 20% off. Sigh

Whee!!!!

The first 100 miles with Nike+!

Finished knitted objects post

I've had a very productive day. Most of it was spent knitting. I also took a knife skills class at Sur La Table and came home with a knife and stuff... :)

First up, a picture of the finished pair of STR Club's Grasshopper socks. Yes, I chose to make the knee highs.


Yes, they're done and washed. Finally, I can move on to other socks. Next up, we have:

Yes, that's right. I finished this sweater tonight. Finished all the seams, weaved in all the edges. Here's another close up of some details:


Amber helped me take these pictures.

One last picture:

I'm actually a bit further along than that because I got in some good knitting time while at the mall this afternoon. I like how bulky knits up fast! Once I finish the current skein of yarn, I want to do the sleeves first. The thing I like about top down raglans is that you don't have to do the body first. I like full length sleeves and I can deal with having a crop top if I run out of yarn.

2008 Women's Health Calendar

2008 Women's Health Calendar from the US Department of Health. It's free!

Some knitting, some beading, a visit from the Harlot

Well, first off, I would like to point everyone to pictures of the Yarn Harlot's visit to VA. Picture set here. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot is a great comedienne. The talk was hilarious and knitters from all over came out. Amber and I got there early and managed to get front row seats. Whee! If she is in your area, definitely make an effort to go see her.


You'll also notice among the picture set that I have started in on something that is BRIGHT LIME GREEN. Yes, I know it is bright. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought it other than, "This yarn must come home with me to be made into a top down raglan!"


So it is getting turned into a sweater from Fitted Knits. Stockinette body with ribbing.

And in case anyone is curious, yes, I have been beading as well. I still need to take some finished object pictures though. For now, here's one of my work area


I'll point some things out. Front and center is a serpentine strap designed by Patricia for part of our cabochon class at Bead Obsessions. I think I need a highly artsy beady project each year and this would be it. It will be the kelp like strap on a necklace on which a lampwork mermaid will be swinging off of. In the upper left quadrant, you see a spiral necklace and the blue Chinese torquoise stone. If I could find my silver end caps, I would go ahead and attempt to finish it...

Grasshopper socks

Are done! And they're drying now. I need to take pictures. I've made a couple of necklaces. I need to take pictures of those. I just need to take pictures. I've also started in on a v neck raglan from Fitted Knits with Lamb's Pride Bulky in a lime green. Hee :)

The second of the pair

The second of the pair
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

Some progress. I've been taking the bus to and from work the last couple of days cuz the car was in the shop. Car is all fixed now and the right side looks like new! In that time, I started in on the cuff. I had just finished the heel flap by the time I went to bed Sunday night. It has just started up my leg. I just started the 3rd repeat of 7. Damn knee highs. What possessed me? I think I'll bring this to knitting tomorrow night.

Starts and ends

I'm onto the cuff of the second of the Grasshopper socks. Whoo hoo! It must go faster. My car is in the shop so I am taking the metro to work. That's 40 minutes of knitting time!

I have finished with the knitting of the Shelridge Farm sweater. Here's a picture of it before I did up the raglan seams:

Not too interesting here. I have finished the raglan seams and had started on the arm seams but I couldn't get it to work out right. One side kept being longer than the other. I think I'm going to take some time this weekend and sit down, baste, and then seam.

I also started a new knitting project. I am a big fan of Joan McGowan-Michael, the woman behind White Lies Designs, knitting patterns that are classic and elegant and just a little bit sexy.

It's the start of a little something that most people won't see me wearing in person.

The second of the pair

The second of the pair
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

Yup, I started it. See the little martini charm I'm using for the stitch marker? I've been wanting to make my friend some socks and was given the go ahead. But since I told myself that I can not start a new pair of socks until I finished this second one...I got started.

Labr Day Monday

Next set of house work pictures are here. I pulled up the carpets Saturday afternoon. Found a lot of beads on the floor. Overall it was quick work. I also included a picture of the wall sockets. It's one of my major annoyances about this house. You can tell which rooms I've worked through because those rooms don't have socket plates. I've taken them and thrown it out because previous inhabitants painted over the plates. There are layers of paint so I have to take a knife and cut it away from the paint on the walls. I will be replacing all of the plates in this house slowly. And when I am done, I will be calling in an electrician for a couple of jobs and having him replace every socket in this house that is covered with paint.

I also realized I was a bit over ambitious to have this entire room done this weekend. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't running and biking this weekend or getting together with people...but it's still a lot. So I think I'll be painting next week and playing with trim.

Saturday afternoon progress report

When you start a workout with the Nike+ system, you can choose "Basic" (run until you tell it to stop), "Time" (set a time goal, say, work out for an hour), "Distance" (I want to run 10 miles today), or "Calories" (I feel like burning 2000 calories today). Under the "Distance", there is a preset group of distances (think your average race distances) along with a custom option. I was thinking, as I crawled out of bed this morning, that 12 miles might be a good distance. But when I went to go set my work out, I was too lazy to take the extra 30 seconds to go to custom and instead just picked "Half Marathon". 13.1 miles...close enough to 12. Conclusion of the run. My body was fine through 12 miles. I pushed myself through the last 1.1 mile. Ow I hurt.

And now, I go tackle the carpets. Experience from my room has taught me a bit and I had 13.1 miles to plot out exactly how to execute the plan today. Seriously, I spent the run thinking "I will pull up carpet today. Must stop by Home Depot on the way home to get some paint color samples. Should take no more than 4 hours to get all carpets, tack strips up and the floor cleaned. I can slap on a layer of primer tonight and paint when I wake up in the morning. And I shouldn't bother showering immediately when I get home cuz the carpet padding and dust is just going to stick to a nice showered body so I might as well stay dirty." Yeah, so all you people, stay away from me today!

Weekend goals

It's Labor Day weekend! I have 3 days off, though I'll probably have to monitor work slightly. Whee! I thought I'd make a list of things I'd like to accomplish this weekend, just so I have a reminder.

• Run 10+ miles Saturday mornining


• Bike the full Mt. Vernon trail


• Get my entire yarn stash into pictures so they can be loaded into ravelry


• Organize the larges batches of beads


• Start putting all my necklaces up on etsy. Yup, that's right all. The ones I don't want to part with might be marked a little higher...but that's cuz I don't want to part with them as much


• probably a little much but pull up the carpet in the room upstairs with the yarn and beads

If I can do all of that, I think I will be happy.

Labradorite Earrings

Labradorite Earrings
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

And sometimes, I just need new jewelry.

A border on the pinwheel sweater

A border on the pinwheel sweater
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

I figured that I should probably post a progress picture on something to do with fiber. I mean, I still owe you people socks of my finished Monkey socks knit with Schaefer Anne! This is the Pinwheel Sweater. The crochet border feels like it's taking forever. I have been working on it while surfing ravelry.

Finally!

FinishedOrchid
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

After making 4 other orchids (Anne, Amber, Beth, Bead Obsessions), the 5th one is mine. This is the one that is shown in the orchid instructions. Class is Saturday. Pattern will become available on the site on Sunday. Before this year is through, there will be at least one more orchid. Next in queue is one for my friend Reshma.

Orange Julius Anyone?

Chill Out at Orange Julius. Aug 18,19,25,26. Saturday, noon to 4. Sunday 1 to 4. Free smoothie!

Things you can do with duct tape

Fun with duct tape. My house one of these days? Who wants in?

Knitting...a sweater!

I finally figured out why I've been so uninspired with knitting all summer. It's because I wasn't knitting with wool! So, I restarted the Mom's Lace Sweater from Shelridge Farms and have been happily knitting away for a week. I've finished the back and am now working on the front. After that, I've got the two sleeves then I knit the collar and seam.

When I originally started this, I was concerned about the raglan seam because my row gauge was a little tighter than what the pattern called for. I think I've got it calculated out correctly. The worst that would happen is that I'd have to reknit the raglan decreases and remove some rows...which is fine because then I would have leftover yarn rather than attach more yarn for a couple of rows.

What's hidden under that carpet?

This weekend's fun included pulling up the carpet in my bedroom. When I bought this place, I knew that there was hardwood floors underneath all the carpeting (except in the basement). I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was pull up all the carpeting upstairs, I had just never quite gotten around to it. When I painted the room a couple of years ago, I had left a purple ring on the carpet where I had accidentally dropped the lid to the paint can. Oops. Recently, I had gotten sick of the carpet. I also have long hair so the ones that fall off add to the carpet. There's a layer of hair on the carpet that I picked out a couple of weeks ago. Eww. So...in the beginning, we had:


And I worked my way across the room. I was going to pull it up in 3 strips and after I did the first one, I realized that the roll of carpet was too big for me to move on my own so I cut that in half and created 2 rolls. I decided that I was probably better off cutting it up into 6 pieces instead of just 3, especially with the bed in the way.

After starting into the middle third, I could start to see large expanses of floor. It was starting to look good.


That's one of the "finished" pictures where you can see the floor. Not bad eh? I think eventually, I will have someone come in and refinish all the floors. You can see score lines where they cut the carpet padding (insert mad Judy here) and there are a few nicks on the floor. But over all it's in good condition. Now I'm waiting for Monday night when I can put the rolls of carpet out for the trash. I think what I would like to do next to the room is to add some shoe mouding and some crown molding. After that, I will hang some pictures and decorate some more.

Thankfully, the weather cooperated so that it was a nice cool 80 something degrees this weekend and not too humid. I could keep the windows open to let the room breathe. My eyes and lungs were a bit irritated by Saturday night and also due to all the dust, I ended up taking a shower and avoiding entering the room. I slept in the basement last night. The futon is not comfortable to sleep on if you don't open it out into a bed.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

Yes, I'm slowly settling in. I just realized that this month makes it 3 years in this house. That's the longest I've kept an address in the last 10 years.

Mmm...watermelon

The stone is an ocean jasper. It was given to my by Patricia a year ago from her trip to Quebec. I didn't know what to do with it for a long time but one day it came to me after seeing some watermelon tourmaline in her shop. I love (LOVE LOVE LOVE) the watermelon tourmaline. Those would be the pink stones that make up the bracelet. I have a 6 inch wrist. It is a beauty and it is not for sale.

Weekend in Philadelphia

My aunt normally resides in Switzerland but she usually makes it to the US on business at least once a year. This year, she was in Philly. Philly is 2 hours away so I took the train to visit. Pictures can be found here. At the end, you also see the new additions to my yarn stash. I got some GGH Silk (sport weight) for $4 a ball. It was originally $20 a ball, but it was on clearance at 80% off. Whoo hoo! I see some silk sleeveless tops in my future!

Another month, another necklace

Yes, I am very exhausted, but I've finished this necklace for tomorrow. It is going to an old family friend. She's like another aunt to me and has known my father since the two of them were in high school. It's been a long time. She's only in the country for another week or so, and in this area for one last weekend.



How do I part with this? Dunno. Never really got emotionally attached, I guess.

In other news, I haven't been knitting much. Instead, I decided to take a break from the endless ball of alpaca and work on 4 oz of a merino/silk blend from Lisa Souza. It's the "Shave Ice" colorway. I divided the 4 oz into 2 sections length wise and am going to do a 2 ply.

The riders are doing it, why can't I?

In in news of the TdF, it was an exciting week. Heck, no, not on the course! Two teams were pulled out for positive drug tests and one man (the leader!) was fired by his team and pulled out for suspicious activity! Me, I did a crochet cast off of my pinwheel jacket and started in on the first row of crocheting. My wrist is starting to act up again and at this rate, I will also need some steroids...

Continuing with the Monkey socks

Yes, I keep this sock in my purse. We had a fire drill at work today so Svitlana and I walked ourselves to Starbucks to get a drink and found a nice bench to sit at and wait out the fire drill. I, of course, pulled the sock out of my bag only to find that one of the needles had been pulled out so I spent my time putting the stitches back on the needle before we were able to go back inside.

Hockey fan!

This made me smile on the way home one night. Another hockey fan out in the open:

What is it with all the people from Buffalo? There's a lot of them here in DC!

From earlier this week

Sunday, I was down in Charlottesville taking the amaryllis class with Donna at Studio Baboo. I was incredibly tired but I did remember to take a picture of the new pattern:


Monday night was knitting at Clarendon. I met up with Anne (blogless) and we had dinner and shared this dessert called the Chocolate Coma:

It was REALLY good.

Continuing saga of the beads

My phone rang this morning. I was hoping it was from someone I'd wanted to hear from. Well, sort of. It was someone I wanted to hear from with something I didn't quite want to hear. It was a woman from UPS calling to say that yes, your package was supposed to have gone to Alexandria but we never pulled it off the truck so she just wanted to let me know that it was going back for delivery TO MY HOUSE AGAIN! ARG! Also, they were really sorry for the mistake. Well, I really appreciated the attention to detail and the phone call. So, I told her that if I don't manage to intercept the UPS guy and that package goes back to the shipping office, send it to Alexandria. I came home at lunch on a day when I put more code into production and we had network problems of all sorts to wait for the f-ing UPS man. I don't think he usually receives as excited a greeting as he did today when I opened the door and saw the brown uniform. So FINALLY, I have those beads for the amaryllis...which btw, is life size.

Other general administrative things

This


and this


will be going to etsy Monday night.