bad blogger

So it would seem I am just terrible at being a blogger. I can't hold myself to a scheduled time to blog or generate enough things of interest in my life to even talk about. I've just been soo busy. It's work all day, rush home, rush to the gym, work out, back to home, eat shower bed. Day in and day out. And tomorrow I leave for vacation so I doubt I'll blog then. Oh well, maybe I'll figure this thing out at some point, or maybe just aim to post once or twice a week.

slow like spring

My knitting has be lagging, which is part of the reason my blogging has be lagging. I keep knitting on the ribbed socks. They look the same, only bigger. About an inch to go and I can start the toe. I'm still enjoying the sock, and it gets knit on the train, which is close to the only knitting I've been doing lately. Part of the reason for that is my gym schedule, and part is, well I don't know. The winter maybe. We just keep getting hit with snow and cold and snow and ice and it is getting old. Spring needs to be here now. I was looking at my skydiving pictures from last season and my mouth was just watering. I want it to be warm and sunny with blue skies, and I want to be crouched in the door of a plane ready to exit. I seriously miss it and am totally jonesing. My tunnel trip couldn't come at a better time I think. Just 10 more days or so and I'll be in warm and sunny California, visiting with family, soaking up the spring time weather (my parents are there right now and have not been stingy with the details of how nice the weather is) and getting some much needed tunnel time. With the road trip and the lazy days I'm hoping to get quite a bit of knitting done. The branching out scarf is nearing completion. I knit a repeat or two here and there and the yarn is running out. Very encouraging. The baby sweater hasn't gotten any love. I'll finish the branching out scarf first.
Sunday should have been a productive day for me. I got up at a decent time. Went to the gym. Got home showered and ate, and as I was knitting away on branch out I just got so tired I couldn't stay awake. I laid down in bed (about 3 or 4pm) and didn't wake up until Monday morning! I can't imagine what I was so tired out from. I though all this exercise was supposed to give you more energy, but all I seem to do is go to work, come home, go to the gym, come home, shower and go to bed. day in and day out. And I had just the worst time trying to sleep last night and the night before, probably since I slept too much on Sunday, but that doesn't make me feel any less tired. It's getting annoying. Perhaps the lack of sunshine and warmth is causing my fatigue. 9 days and counting to California.

too cold to think

It is 0 degrees outside today.

It's about 50 degrees in my office. Colder with wind chill, because I sit beside big cold leaky windows. I am wearing all of my sweaters, scarves, gloves, and I am still cold. Soon I'll be putting my coat and cap back on. It's nice for all the daylighting and view, but I wish the windows weren't so crappy. I hope our new office space has better windows.

how about that

It's Thursday. This is somehow suprising to me. I wasn't expecting it to be Thursday so soon, but I can't say which day I think it should be. Weeks turn into blurs. Monday and Tuesday last forever, but before I know it, it's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, and so almost the weekend.
The socks are slowly chugging along. Nothing else is getting knit. I haven't had much knitting time this week other than on the train. Today I think we have a lunch time presentation on something or other, so that may give me some sock knitting time. It should keep me awake too. I have this aweful habit of passing out during presentations. Espically around lunch time. I don't mean to. It could be the most interesting thing I've ever heard but I just can't stay awake. It was like that during lectures in college too. I used to crochet or draw or do something to keep me awake in lectures. It's as if nothing in me is engaged and so my body shuts down. But if my hands are moving it helps keep me engaged and I'll stay awake.

The ex-jaywalker

The socks are coming along. I turned the heel last night and decided they would just be ribbed socks. I really like the way it is turning out, even better when I tried it on.
We're getting swamped with storms out here. I don't even know where they are all coming from. Rain and snow and freezing rain, wind and ice and cold. Crazy weather. I woke up at 5am this morning to the sound of running water thinking my roommate was running late in the shower (he normally leaves the apartment around 5am) and then realized that he had called last night saying he wouldn't be home. I didn't figure out until I had gotten up around 6am that the 'running water' was actually bouts of pouring rain outside. This kind of weather makes me want to curl up with my cat and a warm blanket and some tea and knit all day long, which, see how it's wednesday, isn't happening because I'm at work. I am drinking lots of tea and thinking about knitting though.

Pea Pod Set

 

I got a good start on the baby pea pod set. I knit up one arm on Friday evening and the hat on Saturday. I was a little afraid to start first with the body so that is why I started with the smaller items first. Actually, that is why I've never knitted a sweater before. Large projects intimidate me. I'm all about the instant gratification, so I like small things I can knit up quickly and say 'yay another fo!'.
I know this doesn't make a ton of sense, because I could knit a sweater with the same number of stitches as a pair of socks, but sweaters just seem like such a huge commitment. So I'm starting with a baby sweater. Less of a commitment, and I've been in love with this pattern since I first saw it, and have just been waiting for a baby to come along.
It's knitting up quite nicely, and I am pleased with the yarn as well. I may yet finish it before my trip to california.

snow day

Last night I went to the symphony. Before hand as I ate dinner with a friend her mom called and asked how she was faring in the blizzard. We looked outside and thought blizzard? There's hardly an inch out there... It had been snowing on and off all day and the roads weren't great, so the friend I was supposed to go with couldn't make it into the city, but another friend who works downtown was able to join me. The show was lovely. On leaving the hall we braced ourselves for a trek into the fore-told blizzard, and though it was still snowing and very windy, I wouldn't exactly call it a 'blizzard'. You could see more then 5 feet in front of you.
It's amazing how quiet the world becomes when it snows. Walking the few blocks from the el to my apartment the world was blanketed in a fresh coat of white. The streets were un-plowed with very few cars on them, the side walks un-shoveled. I had a flash back to my child hood, leaving my mark on the pure ground, looking at it in amazement and joy under the moonlight after a fresh snow. And although there is no moon light in the city, no rolling hills and forests coated in white, and I am no longer 8 years old, bundled up, slipping out into a silent night, that walk home was magical.
Waking up this morning to the radio announcing that almost all Illinois schools were on snow day, I wondered if I really had to go to work. If the kids are home, shouldn't I be too? I guess the adult world doesn't work that way. Tromping my way through 10 inches of un-shoveled sidewalk snow, I wished I was 8 again so I could own that magical world for another day.

state street

Our current office looks on to state street. This supplies endless sorts of interest and activities. There are tons of protests happening in the city that I had never known about until I started working here. We hear everything that goes by, from the fire truck sirens to the random crazy person yelling at people, to the endless protesters. Usually the protesters are in a loose group and it's always unclear what they are yelling and what they are protesting.
Just now though, a small group of people, 6 or 7, dressed in bright orange suits went by. I think they were yelling 'stop the torture now'. Two of the people were walking as if they were handcuffed. They had black hoods over their heads, and when waiting for the light to change to cross the street these two people waiting on their knees.
I don't have a tv, and I tend not to listen to the radio news very often, so I'm not certain what torture they are protesting. Is it something happening locally? Or the on-going government torture of alleged terrorists? Maybe something else. Either way, for such a small group of people it was intense, and effective.

I give up

I knit you up. You were beautiful but oh so wrong. Rip rip rip. I knit you again. I added 10 stitches, I knit so loose the stitches were falling off the slippery needles. I knit all the way to the place of the first rip. Still enchanted by your pattern all was looking good. Trying you on you slipped nicely over my foot. And stopped at my heel. I give up. You win. Rip. Rip. Rip. You get a ribbed cuff, and will jaywalk only for the foot.

Annie commented yesterday that her daughter, also a beginning knitter, had the same problem with the pattern. The only thing I can think now is that I need to use a slightly thicker, stretchier yarn for this pattern. I have some left over from another pair of socks and i'll swatch with that to see. I should probably do a search online to see what people say about this. It just makes me so mad because I LOVE the way it looks with this yarn, but I guess it's just not meant to be. It looks fine with the plain ribbing too, but not as awesome as the zig-zags. At least I know the pattern will work on the foot, so I'll get to indulge myself a little, and maybe even finish the socks while I'm at it.

Baby Kimono

Blocked, sewn, adorned and finished. Ready for that July baby to come! Now I just have to knit the peapod set.