February 7/8 – From Super Bowl to Super Busy

Sunday was a relatively relaxing day for me. I played guitar and sang for Mass as usual, then went home for rest & relaxation. There was a lot of knitting on my agenda, as I wanted to make maximum progress on my mosaic mystery sock knitalong. The mystery is pretty much gone since a number of folks have finishe dtheir socks and posted images. Still, I’m really enjoying watching the design emerge.

Mosaic knitting is beautiful and deceptively detailed. It looks more complicated than it is, and I particularly like the fact that only one color of yarn is carried at one time, since the opposing color’s stitches are simply slipped, or carried upward. When I had stopped working on these socks in deference to the Iron Knitter Round Two scramble, I had finished through clue #3, which ended right before the start of the heel. There’s design work on the heels, so these will be best suited to wear with clogs or similarly open-backed shoes.

I completed the heels and began working the foot, which has a diamond design on top, very similar to my Cosmos With a Twist. And so I knit. I wtached Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which I interrupted to switch over to Puppy Bowl VI. I resumed the movie after the conclusion of the hilarity and cuteness overload. The Super Bowl followed, and I watched and knitted, and knitted and watched. The Saints were victorious (as it should be, especially on a Sunday!). But eventually I had to get to bed. The next day would not be so restful and relaxing.

Ultimately, it was a long, grueling day at work. I arrived just before 6:45 a.m., and after getting a large cup of coffee proceeded to begin checking materials that had been completed on Friday afternoon. And the number crunching went on throughout the day. We did have a business meeting at lunch for leadership to present the results of 2009 and goals for our group in 2010. As a bonus, a good lunch was provided: Chinese food, and lots of it. Much better than the two slices of pizza I had brought from home! But this was just a hiatus from the pressing matter of the day, checking numbers until my eyes crossed. I finally mustered the energy to shut down my computer at 7:15 and dragged my tired body home…for some more knitting, of course.

It’s only a brief respite, though, since more number crunching is to come!

Knit on!

February 5/6 – The weekend at last…wintry as it is

Friday was challenging at work as I pressed to move forward on projects that are due next week. All the while I was wanting to be knitting, too. The Iron Knitter Round Two has been underway for several days, and a handful of participants had already posted photos of their completed socks. Throughout the day folks in the office headed out to work from home since a blustery snowstorm was dropping giant flakes over Columbus. And yet, I stayed and worked.

Once I got home, I started to work on the socks, but I got rather tired rather quickly. I actually went to bed before 8 p.m., thinking it was more important to rest at that particular time. It worked out, though, as I slept a solid five hours, then got to keep on sleeping! All the while, the snow came down.

At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, though, I was wide awake. So, I got up and returned to my sock knitting while watching Animal Planet. Having decided the day before that I wanted to trek up to the Columbus Zoo, I stopped the knitting for this adventure. And I am so glad that I did! I had some neat moments with a number of animals, but none compare to watching the lion cubs! In the forty minutes I watched them, I snapped almost 400 photos. A number of them are terrible, naturally, as the fences always create focusing issues. And the snow and ice that had collected within the fence added to that complication. Still, they played and played and played, and then the played some more!

Cubs 2010

Once I got home, I resumed my knitting. At last, the Iron Spring socks are finished…

February 3/4 – Iron Knitter Not Made of Steel

It was bound to happen. I’ve been reading online about a number of knitters who are unable to work certain stitch combinations due to a malady, usually some kind of repetitive motion injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Feeling invincible, I’ve been knitting like a maniac (in case you couldn’t tell) without regard to the tools of my craft – most noticeably my hands.

I discovered Wednesday evening that I had developed a callous on my right index finger, but one spot on that finger was a major pain point. It turns out that as I have been knitting with my Addi Lace Turbo needles, which are very pointy, my technique has been to slide stitches along the needle by pushing the needle rather than pulling on the stitches. This one spot on my finger is obviously where I’ve pushed the most. I would’ve expected a visible sign of the problem, like a bruise, but there is nothing more than a white dot on my finger. But golly, it hurts if I push on the needle right on that spot!

This has slowed my knitting just a tad. On Thursday I put a fingertip bandage on this pained finger, and that enabled me to resume my pushing technique. The bandage provides enough padding that it distributes the pressure from the needle tip along a larger surface of my finger (isn’t physics cool?). I may have this pair of socks finished Friday night – I just have to continue up the legs so they’re at least five inches from the top of the heel. The lace pattern has become easier as I’ve been working it for some time, though on the leg there are two different patterns, each repeated twice. These will be very pretty when I am finished – and then I can return to one of the other pairs of socks I already have going. The next round of Iron Knitter kicks off the day Ravelympics begins, coinciding with the Opening Ceremonies of the XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Lots more knitting to ensue…

Iron Spring

Knit on…

February 2 -Groundhog Day

Tuesday was an interesting day. It was relatively calm, for the most part, with lots of work to keep me busy during the day. I have deadlines looming, but I’m doing my best to stay on track along with the analysts I have working with me on the various projects. Shortly after lunch, the peak of excitement struck. Iron Knitter Round Two was launched at 1 p.m. ET. The clue sheet was released, though it took a little while to be posted, and then it took a number of screen refreshes before I could see it. On Ravelry, other competitors were posting generic questions, so I knew it was up and that it was in the form of a crossword puzzle. The team leader for my team (Ninja Needles) also sent out a handful of e-mails, all before I could even see the puzzle! By 1:35, though, we had all the answers and were just waiting for the Supreme Commander to confirm our answers and forward the pattern to us.

Since I came in to work, I had to wait until I got home before casting on. And my yarn choice changed considerably once I saw the pattern. It’s called Waiting for Spring, so the red home-dyed yarn just didn’t seem appropriate. Nor did the blue home-dyed yarn. So, I went to my sock yarn collection to seek inspiration. And I wasn’t disappointed! I selected my Panda Cotton yarn which is faintly colored in pastels, so definitely fitting the Spring theme for the pattern.

I cast on without distraction at first. The pattern is written as top-down, but I was determined to alter it to be toe-up so I can be comfortable with starting and finishing. As I have progressed up the feet (two at a time, naturally), this change is more and more appealing to me. The designer wrote a picot cuff into the pattern, and working toe-up I can certainly keep that concept intact. Plus, I can use a three-needle bind-off into the leg for the hem, so there still won’t be any sewing involved! Oh, I have learned so much about sock knitting in this past year (not even a whole year), and I enjoy leaning new things all the time. With this Iron Knitter competition, I’m working on my speed-thinking skills in re-structuring the patterns to be toe-up.

In other news, I am pleased to say that I have kept up with the Project 365 goal of at least one photo per day. There is only one day where I did not take any photographs, but I am not ashamed. That was a day in which I didn’t knit either. For my documentation, I did borrow a photo for that day, though, as it was also the day in which I scored my “kill” in Sock Wars. My target kindly uploaded a photo of her death package contents.

Project 365: January 2010

We’ve entered a new month and my schedule looks to be very much the same as January. Matt is having problems with his shins, so he will not be running any races this weekend. I do hope his legs heal so that he can continue to be a part of the team.

Knit on…

January 31/February 1 – And the Knits Just Keep on Comin’!

My weekend didn’t end quite as I might have hoped. There was plenty of knitting involved…indeed. I took a spill, though, on my way back from dinner. This caused some trouble for my already-bothered back. I ended up getting a ride to the ER with the emergency squad. The firemen were nice enough, which made the back spasms almost bearable. The staff at the ER were as gruff as I remembered – and it’s been a good six years since I’ve visited them.

The whole ordeal meant I didn’t get home until morning, so I took the rest of the morning to sleep, waking up just before noon. With my back still sensitive from the trauma, I spent the rest of the day on the floor so I could at least get some work done.

Still, I digress. In the late afternoon on Sunday I reached a point in the Purply Goodness pattern where I just needed a change of pace. The pattern had become monotonous, but not enough that I could knit it without constantly referring to the chart. I decided to change things up a bit. I have until the end of February to finish P.G. as part of the SKA (Sock Knitters Anonymous) contest, so I switched back to the Girls’ Night Out mystery socks I had started back in December. I had gotten through the first clue there but had more than a month to wait before the next clue would be released. I chose at one point to frog what I had done so I could cake up the yarn with my handy-dandy ball winder. Sunday afternoon I cast on again for these mosaic pattern socks…and then proceeded to watch the Harry Potter series on DVD. I got through the third movie – and half of clue #2 - before my medical emergency.

And on Monday night I resumed the pattern and the movies. At bedtime, I have finished clue 3 and the sixth movie. One movie to go, and two clues currently available. Clue #4 is the heel flap, and clue #5 begins the foot. Since the Iron Knitter round two will start on February 2, the Girls may have to wait a little while before they can be continued….

January 29/30 – Travel Adventures!

Friday night I drove out to Louisville to have a mini adventure. I haven’t been out of central Ohio in a while, so I took advantage of the weekend when Matt wasn’t competing. I stayed at the Best Western which is only a few miles away from the zoo, my key target. A winter weather advisory was in effect beginning at 7 p.m., so I did my best to get out of Columbus as early as I could. By 6 p.m. I was on the road and heading south. The snow held off for quite a while, though a few miles from my hotel I passed a line of four snow plow/salt trucks on the berm of the freeway…apparently on stand-by, waiting for the storm to arrive.

Arrive it did, and with quite a punch. I woke up Saturdy morning to see two solid inches of snow outside. It took a while for me to clear off my car, but I still made it to the zoo before they opened.

I made two full circuits of the zoo, though I skipped a couple sections on my first go-around. I was really hoping to get some fantastic photos of the female Amur Tiger, Etta. Her daughters, Anya & Irisa, are at the Columbus Zoo. Oddly enough, the two times I came up to her enclosure, she was just about to lie down and nap. Not surprisingly, she was fairly alert, even when resting her eyes. My patience and determination were rewarded…

There were more close encounters to be had, including a fun exchange with an orangutan. On my return trip, I also made a detour into Covington, Kentucky, to visit the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. This church has some incredible stained glass windows! I love the brightness of the sanctuary, among other things…

January 28 – Chocolate…yummmmmm

My subject for Thursday is rather random, but I wanted to step away from the knitting for just a few seconds. I had purchased a ginormous bag of M&M’s at Sam’s Club prior to the 48-hour crop a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been muching on them ever since. I did extract most of the blue ones to send to my Sock Wars target, but I didn’t take all of them out.

I can’t stay away from knitting for long however. We’ve gotten news that the next round of Iron Knitter will begin on Tuesday, February 2nd…Groundhog Day! That means I have just a few more days to work on my current sock project (SKA’s Mystery Sock). It’s possible that I can finish them up this weekend, in which case I will likely cast on (again) the Knitters Brewing Company mystery socks, Girls Night Out. I had cast on previously, after receiving my kit, but then I decided to frog them so that I could cake the yarn with my handy-dandy ball winder. I hadn’t gotten very far on them (fancy ribbing), so I wasn’t concerned about destroying my work.

Oh, and I am well pleased with the over-dying results of my Palette yarn. This is for the Peacock shawl I’ll be knitting for Ravelympics. I gave it a try on one skein of yarn, so I have six more to color to be done. Honestly, I like that the color isn’t solid, as it shows more green than blue in some parts, and deeper teal in others. February should be another busy knitting month!

January 27 – Can’t…not…knit!

There is an old adage saying “Idle hands are the devil’s plaything.” Or something to that effect. Perhaps I’ve taken that to the extreme in that I can’t seem to leave my hands idle. Sitting in a conference room listening to a speaker, I was really wishing it wasn’t taboo to bring my knitting project in to work on while listening. I’ve learned a lot while listening to/watching television during my home knitting sessions, so it’s silly to think I couldn’t also learn/participate while knitting at work! Alas, I don’t think this idea will catch on.

Still, I have continued to make progress on the Mystery Sock knitalong for SKA and turned both heels on Wednesday night. In the process I also learned a great deal about wolves, coyotes, pythons and anacondas. 

February is nearly here, and with that the Winter Olympics are just over the horizon. I hadn’t really considered the Olympics to be something to look forward to since I haven’t paid attention to the games for a number of years. Ravelympics, however, has changed my perspective. Ravelry is hosting a challenge to its membership to try something new and different or challenge yourself in some way. I will be stepping up my knitting into the realm of lace for this event. The pattern I have selected to take on is called Pretty As a Peacock, which is a beautiful lace shawl that depicts a peacock’s feathers.

A few weeks back I ordered the yarn to complete this project, but I was a little disappointed when it arrived. The color name is Teal, so I expected a dark blue-green, but the yarn I received looks far more green. After going through their catalog, it looks like they don’t have the color I really want, so I’m going to add some fun to this project and over-dye the yarn I already have. Wednesday night, while knitting, I colored the first ball of yarn to see if I could get my desired color. It’s still drying, so hopefully my next post will provide the results. Here are th eremaining six balls, though, so you can see what I’m starting with. I will say that the dyed yarn sure looks like it’s colored as I’d hoped…

Knit on!

January 25 – Monday, Monday…

Can’t trust that day…wait, stop the singing. I’ve got work to do! Socks to knit. Places to be, fun to have. Well, not a whole lot in the fun department for me, though I had a nice day. I really wanted a nap around 4 p.m., but I toughed it out. Just after 5, Aerika and I cut out of work to enjoy an evening out. Dinner at Applebee’s was followed by a really nice movie. We saw The Blind Side, and I cried, of course. I’ve always been a fan of Sandra Bullock’s work, but this was a top-notch story, in my opinion. And Tim McGraw looks really cute as a clean-shaven nice guy…much better than the jerk he played in Friday Night Lights. Th eyoung man they cast to play Michael, though, was most excellent. His big puppy dog eyes had me tearing up practically from the start of the film.

For my photo op I stuck with my stand-by. I haven’t made a lot of progress on them, but my Purply Goodness socks are slowly but surely growing. I’m about 2/3 done with the legs, then I can move on to the heel flap from Clue #3. The whole sock has been revealed, so I’d like to finish these up this week before Round One of Iron Knitter comes to a close. .. It can happen!

January 24 – Closing out another busy weekend

I’ve had a lot going on these past few weeks, and this weekend was no exception. Friday night I ventured to the AAA Great Vacations Expo. My primary goal in attending was to obtain the free passport photos being offered to AAA members at the expo. Once I got that taken care of, I wandered around a bit to see what was being offered. I filled out every drawing form I came across and picked up a number of brochures. The big “score” was the AAA Tour Books, as I’m planning to have a number of adventures this year.

Of course, my day wouldn’t have been complete without a bit of knitting, so I continued making progress on my Iron Knitting Round One socks, which I’ve dubbed my Rockin’ Sox (since they’re made with Socks That Rock yarn). They’re getting there…I managed to finish the heels on Friday. Nothing but leg to go…

On Saturday I was looking forward to seeing Matt compete at the Otterbein Invitational track & field competition in Westerville. He sent a text when they got to the campus to let me know when he was running. A friend’s grandson is a team mate, and part of the pole vaulting contingent from the team. Trevor was fun to watch, and I was thrilled to snap a shot of him clearing the bar on a couple occasions. But my proudest time was watching Matt on the track. His first 800 meter race!

Matt - 800 meters

Sunday was a day of rest of sorts…I pretty much knit all day. After church I visited a friend who wanted to learn how to make cables in her knitting. It took about thirty seconds to show her, and the rest of the time I spent finishing up my Rockin’ Sox! I’m looking forward to seeing Sue’s cable work, and these may be my new favorite socks!!

Now I can finish up the Purply Goodness socks, as the last clue has been released. Hopefully I have about a week before the next round of Iron Knitter starts. Keeping my fingers busy in the meantime!