Friday, December 30, 2005

Mom's socks

So this year I was a little bit behind on my Christmas knitting. In fact, my dad did receive one finished sock and one half finished sock for a gift. I was even knitting on it Christmas morning before anyone woke up, but it still didn't get finished.

As for mom's present. First she got a Branching Out scarf I made way back in the summer. Second, she got two balls of yarn with an IOU for a pair of socks to be made out of the yarn! Erin's been a busy girl this Christmas season and really should be cut some slack. I really had no time to even start them and mom understood.

Well, this nice (or you could also call it mind-numbing) car ride from NY to NC has provided me with some excellent time to start on her socks. (Incidentally I finished my dad's socks on Christmas day).
I decided I really wanted to try Grumperina's Jaywalking socks, plus mom really liked the pattern, so I tried it. It's very easy and pretty quick. The only things I've changed, and am planning on changing for mom's socks is instead of knitting a heel flap and all that, I decided to make it a short-row heel. It's my favorite and it just tends to fit better. Also, mom seemed to think that the "seams" made by the pattern might be uncomfortable on the top of her foot while she wears shoes so I only did the pattern for the leg. It still looks cute I think.

By the way, the yarn is from KnitPicks. It's called Dancing and it's made out of cotton, wool, nylon and elastic. It's a bit stretchy and pretty easy to work with. I'm sure mom will love them when I'm finished. I think her favorite part is that they'll be machine washable! Anything to make life easier right?

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A Very Merry Christmas

It's almost been a week since I last wrote. I feel so disconnected! Anyway, my mom loved all the comments you left. She definitely got a kick out of them.

So where do I begin to catch up on my past week. Well, Christmas Eve, my family and I drove up to my apartment to move up my larger things (also to put up the drapes, which of course, I forgot to get a picture of. Don't worry I will definitely get one!) That was quite the trip. It turned out that my matresses wouldn't fit up the stairwell so my brother and dad ended up hoisting the things up over the balcony to get them in! Don't ask me how they managed that!

Christmas day was wonderful. It was very festive and everyone loved their gifts. Some of my particular favorites were this:
It's a mix of some type of wool (I can't remember but it's similar to Corridale) and mohair. It should be interesting to spin up. And of course, as fate would have it, my spinning wheel was moved up the day before... Ah well. I had this to play with:

My mom and dad actually went out on Black Friday at 5am to pick this up. It's an mp3 player. It's one of those things where I probably wouldn't have bought myself one of them, but now that I have one I absolutely love it (and it's come in handy on the 13 hour drive to NC!)

I also got a bunch of kitchen things for the new apartment which will definitely come in handy. So the day was spent with the family and I spent the night hanging out with an old friend who was home for the holidays. All-in-all it was a fantastic day.

A bit of a side story here. I was going through the stash to try and separate what was mine and what was my moms when I came across a project that apparently has been in the bottom of a bag since this summer. What's crazy about it is the only thing left to finish was to bind off for the armhole and sew in the ends. Don't ask me why I didn't finish it. I must have gotten sidetracked. Well, I decided to finish it up and now I actually have a finished object to show you, however it's extremely out of season (and out of focus... sorry about that!)

At least I'll be able to wear it when the summer comes around again!

Anyway, yesterday we drove down to MD, spent the night at my grandmothers, then today we drove the rest of the way to NC to visit with the relatives. I actually only got here a few hours ago and I think one of my first question was "do you have an internet connection?" They do. Wireless no less and now I'm feeling slightly more connected!

Well, I hope everyone's holiday was wonderful. I'll be updating again soon now that I have an internet connection.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

The Drapes Story aka Why my Mom is the Best Mother in the World.

It is time for the long awaited, much anticipated drapes story (or maybe I'm just fooling myself into thinking it's much anticipated!)

This past weekend my mom and I went to JoAnn's because they were having a huge 50% off sale and we had been throwing around the idea of making some drapes for the three windows in my room. We discussed what I wanted, then she let me loose in the home decor fabrics section. I went up and down every aisle trying to find ones that "said something" to me. Just when I was about to call it quits and go with a somewhat plain, slightly boring solid hunter green with green swirlies on it fabric, I came upon the section that really did it for me. Not only the section, but the perfect fabric. It had an antique, sort of tea-dyed beige background with green and eggplant purple (though both were sort of diffused and not so solid) squares on it, along with antique looking butterflies on it. I was in love with this fabric. And I mean in love. I was prepared to spend the $100 on it because I loved it that much.

So we took it to the cutting station where my heart was broken because there weren't enough yards on the roll that they had. Not only that, it was clearance, so they couldn't order me more... Slightly disappointed at this point, I trudged back to the section that "spoke to me," though now I'm not so sure it wasn't telling me to "kiss off, you can't have the fabric you want!" Anyway, I found a similar fabric with the same sort of unevenly tea-dyed beige background, only this one didn't have the squares of color, it just had colored leaves on it, the leaves were the same sort of green and purple that was in the butterfly fabric so I went with it. It still spoke to the nature lover in me so I took it knowing it wasn't my first choice and I settled on it, which has never been something that sit well with me.

We cut the fabric, I paid the (now seemingly ridiculous because it wasn't what I really wanted) price of $100 on fabric that I settled for and we came home. We didn't get to work on the drapes until Sunday afternoon, and then it was just me. Mom told me to cut the panels so she could get to sewing them the next day. She explained to me how she wanted them cut, so I laid them out, showed her again just to make sure I was doing it right. Then I cut. I wasn't really comfortable with it though because sewing is not my forte. Ask me anything about knitting and I can tell you everything about it, but the language mom was using on me about sewing was like Greek.

The next morning I see that mom had started working on them after I had gone to bed. Mom got up to see my dad off to work and she comes into the living room with 4 little words... "We have a problem..." Turns out I cut the panels wrong. Instead of cutting 6 2yd panels I cut 4 3yd panels. To say I was slightly upset would be an understatement. I just spent a ton of money on this 2nd choice fabric only to cut it wrong and need to buy more fabric just to make up for it. I think I may have been more upset with the fact that I was uncomfortable cutting the fabric, mom knew I was uncomfortable and yet she still made me cut it. And she told me I was cutting it right, trusting in the fact that I'm a "smart girl" and could figure it out myself. Kind of childish, but I couldn't help what I was feeling at the moment.

I decided to get down to it with a pen and paper and map out exactly what it was that she had in mind for the drapes and see if we couldn't work with the mistake I made. Turns out we could. So I went to work relieved knowing that I wouldn't have to buy more of the settled on fabric. At one point during the day Mom called me and we talked a bit about the progress she'd made on the drapes. Turns out not much, I guess she was waiting for my help (possibly not the best idea in the world seeing how well I "helped" with the cutting).

I got home from work to find mom, sort of in a bubbly mood, saying she had to show me the progress on the drapes. So I went into the sewing room which was scattered with panels of fabric on every surface it seems. She held up one of the panels and smiled at me. Obviously I was being dense, a long day of work can totally do that to you, because it took me at least a minute to realize that the fabric she was holding up wasn't the 2nd choice leafy fabric, but the first choice antique butterfly fabric! I was totally taken back. Mom explained to me that because we found a way to make it work with the panels I accidentally cut, it turned out that the orginal fabric would work, so she spent the morning out at JoAnn's buying me the fabric I really wanted.

This is just one of many reasons why my mom is absolutely the best mother in the entire world. So what's going to happen with the 2nd choice fabric that I bought? The fabric that does match my most beautiful drapes? Mom's going to make me a bed spread... Totally the best mom.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Sock progress update

Still not a ton of progress on the socks. This is how far I've gotten so far. My dad may end up opening a present with one finished sock and a promise for the other one to be finished in the near future. This wouldn't be the first Christmas where I've given him an unfinished knitted object. The last time it was a Dale of Norway sweater that was given to him in pieces. Though in my defense, I did finish that sweater before New Year's. I'm sure I can do the same this time. But again, I don't want to push it. I've given my wrists a good day or two off now and as we all know that's just a crime when Christmas is only 5 days away. Yikes...

Oh I have an excellent picture to so you.... This is why my final was cancelled last friday. And yes, I was driving and taking a picture at the same time, however you can see, not only was the road just fine, but there was no one else on the road, so I only would have hurt myself! It was actually quite a nice ride home, it reminded me of the Chronicles of Narnia. I just went to see the movie with my mom that past Wednesday and the woods with the snow sticking to every branch of the trees definitely reminded me of the snow covered woods in Narnia! I imagined some fairytale creature would come walking out of the woods at any moment. (Cut me some slack, it's a boring ride so I have to entertain myself somehow!)

I have an excellent story to tell you about some drapes. I know, a story about drapes sounds pretty dull, but this one is really great. However, it's going to have to wait. I have my final tomorrow morning and I need to do some more studying. I promise I'll have the drapes story for you soon!

Monday, December 19, 2005

Walking down memory lane...

Thank you to everyone who congratulated me and my new job! I have to say, I'm pretty excited about it. What I'm not excited about is moving all of my stuff up there. I've gotten a little bit of it moved already, but now I have a lot of the big stuff left to move, i.e. my bed, dresser, bookshelf. Speaking of my bookshelf, it was a complete mess, full of old papers, miscellaneous things and pictures. I spent most of the weekend cleaning it off so that I'd only take up what I absolutely want to take up.

I ran into some pretty interesting things while going through everything. Things that I haven't seen in years and some things that I had totally forgotten about. It's funny when you find a letter from a guy who you knew in high school professing his love to you and how he's always had a "thing" for you... and you don't even remember getting this letter... hmmm.. And then there was "the box." You know the one, the one where you keep all the old letters and pictures of old boyfriends, not to be opened for at least a year or two after you've broken up. Boy did that bring back memories. Luckily it only brought back good memories. It's funny, I know for some of those my heart was totally broken, but now when I think back on it and look at all the old letters, I don't feel anything but nostalgia and fond memories. It's interesting how after a few years you completely forget the bad times and all that's left are the good.

And then there were the pictures. Oh my god the pictures. Some made me cringe, some made me smile and sigh and others made me laugh my butt off. Those all went into a box to be sorted someday in the future when I'll cringe, smile and laugh again at them.

It was fun and frustrating at the same time to go through all of those things. Fun because it's always fun to go down memory lane, frustrating because everytime I ran across something I'd take a few minutes, sometimes more to reminisce on it, all the while knowing that I really didn't want to spend all weekend going through this stuff. And then there were times when I would stand in the middle of the room, look at the piles of crap all over the floor and feel so overwhelmed because I didn't know where to go from there so I'd just stand there, for minutes at a time not doing anything and then I'd get mad at myself for not doing anything and then I'd feel overwhelmed again...vicious cycle. Those were the times when I just had to walk away for a little while and do something else. God organizing and purging your stuff can be frustrating.

All-in-all, it turned out fine. I got rid of the things that basically made me say "why the @#$% do I have this?" And kept the things I thought I could use or were really sentimental. It really felt good to finally get rid of some of that stuff. Sometimes you just have to sit on those things for awhile, because you know after a few years, they are no longer sentimental anymore so you can get rid of them then.

So, in a totally unrelated topic, we had a huge ice/snow storm here last Friday. I'm a bit peeved about it because the final that I had on Friday has now been rescheduled for this Wednesday. I just wanted to take it and get the whole thing over with, now I have to drive back up there just to take the one test. Oh well, I suppose it's ok because it just means that I won't have to spend as much time at work on my last week! It feels so good to say that this is my last week of work here! Thank the lord!

As far as knitting goes, I finished my brother's socks and started a pair for my dad. Unfortunately I didn't work on them as much as I wanted to because I spent most of the weekend organizing and not only that, but my hands started hurting a little when I was working on them. I think it's because they're such tiny needles (size 1's) and I'm trying to go faster than I should. I've got to be careful with that. Don't want to put my hands out of knitting commission, where would I be then?

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Doing the happy dance because today is a great day!

I have so much to tell you and so much to show you, so sit back and relax, cause this is gonna take awhile!

First off, let us all rejoice. Sing praises and throw your hands in the air, by all that is good, the mondo mittens... they are done!
I hope this will be the last pair of mittens I make until next year at the very least. Of course, we all know deep down I love making these mittens, I suppose what I don't love are deadlines...

They are now wrapped and ready to go. I finished these well ahead of schedule, but wouldn't you know it, because I'm now left with a week and a half until Christmas I seem to think that a week and a half is plenty of time to finish my brothers pair of socks, which it is because I'm close to finished...

Do you see how the stripes are so entirely different? I don't know if I was more tense on the first sock or the second, but judging by the evenness of the second sock I'd say it's probably the second. I think I subconsciously know that Christmas is only a week and a half away and that's screwing with my tension... and yet... I'm planning on just one more pair of socks. I have to make my dad something because I really haven't done any Christmas shopping (though shopping in general is hard for a poor college student!)

So I also wanted to show you pictures of the apartment... Be warned, it's quite sparse at the moment. None of us have entirely moved in our things!
This is my room. Obviously the TV won't always be on the floor and the room will have more color by the time I'm through, so ignore the glarringly white walls.

I am in love with this room. I have those three windows that let in so much sun. I tell you, sun makes me a happy girl! All this room needs is some plastic on the windows. I stayed here last night and thank the lord I had about a million blankets on my bed or I might have froze solid!

This is the living room. Again, the white walls will eventually be taken care of! Don't mind the books either, major studying was going on last night. As for the room itself, I think our little Charlie Brown christmas tree really warms the room up.

Oh and you'll be happy to know I fixed the bathroom door handle and now the door shuts all the way! It's amazing what a screwdriver will do isn't it?

I have very exciting news. First off I'd like to thank everyone who had their fingers crossed for me because guess who got a job? That's right! Yesterday I got a call about an interview, today I went to the interview and now I have a job. It is so exciting. What's really funny about it is, during the interview, the manager was looking over all of my past experience and I was telling him all about the things I've done and he looks up at me with a straight face and says "Do you want to be a manager?" I thought he was kidding! He was completely serious though. He said he started out as a chef and ended up being the manager 12 weeks later! Ha! So we'll see where that goes. For now, serving is just fine for me! Another perfect thing about it is I have to give my current job at least a weeks notice (though I'm not sure they deserve it!), then my family and I are going to North Carolina to visit relatives so I can't start until the 3rd of January, but he was happy with that, in fact, it worked out better for him. Woohoo! Doing the happy dance over here!

To say the very least today has been a great day. I went to the interview and then had one of my finals (not to say the final was great by any means, but it's over and that's great!) And now I get to lounge around, study for my final that I have tomorrow and knit a bit because I deserve it!

Friday, December 09, 2005

I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

Wow, can you say busy? This past week was the last week of classes. They are officially over. All that's left are a couple of finals. Then I'm done for the semester.

So, we got the apartment, officially (seems there's a lot of official things happening here!) and I've been moving some of my stuff up. Mostly the things I'm not using like kitchen stuff, dishes, glasses, etc. A few things for my room, but not many. It's funny how the character of a place can really come out once you start moving in. For instance, the bathroom door doesn't shut all the way. I found this out on my first day there. I went to use the bathroom and tried pulling the door shut. When it wouldn't shut all the way, I tried pulling harder and only succeeded in ripping the door handle off. Either I don't know my own strength or this wasn't the first time the door handle has been ripped off. My roommate rolling on the floor laughing her butt off pretty much confirmed that this has happened before.

Second, there are feathers in my room. Pigeon feathers. Haven't got the slightest clue how they got there. I checked all the windows, they're good and shut, I look around the ceiling (not really sure what I was looking for there...) and around the room, and the only thing I can figure is either they've been there for awhile, or they were blown in there through the heating vents... It's a mystery at this point and hopefully won't become a problem. I can see it now, some night I'll wake up and there will be a pigeon in my room!

Anyway, the job hunt is on. I have a couple of leads but nothing confirmed at this point. All I need is an interview to convince them I'm perfect for the job. That should seal the deal. Then I can officially move in...There's that official thing popping up again!

I have been knitting, but not nearly as much as I've wanted to. Luckily this weekend I'll be meeting with the knitting friends downtown at the coffee shop so I should be able to catch up. I'm working on the last lining of the last mitten...hopefully the last mitten for a long time. Also, the pair of socks I started for my brother are coming together nicely, but the variegated yarn is definitely striping in a swirlly sort of pattern. I suppose I can live with it. Once those are done my christmas knitting is done...officially.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Big News!!!

I am so excited about this big news that I was barely able to sleep last night. In fact, I spent the better part of two hours trying to convince myself that I really should be sleeping and I'd have plenty of time to think about all the things going through my mind later. Preferably during a time when I'd normally be awake.

I did finally fall asleep only to wake up early and start right where I left off... thinking about how exciting this is and trying to organize in my mind how it would all go... I do that, I'm a mind organizer. I think of all the possible angles of a situations, what could go wrong, how will I do this or what will lead to that, etc, so that I'm fully prepared and not taken by suprise if any of the things I thought of happens. Of course, the down side of this is that it's very exhausting, especially when it's your bedtime and you really have to sleep so that you can at least be a half-way functioning human being at work the next day.

And then I thought, screw work! this exciting news directly affects work and how long I will actually still be there. Which, in my perfect world, would only be another two weeks, but in the real world I'm sure will end up being a month to a month and a half.

So do I have you on the edge of your seat yet? Are you just dying to know what is so exciting that it could keep me up all hours of the night? Ok, I'll tell ya. A couple of friends and I have put down a deposit on an apartment. A really nice apartment, with new carpets, a new fridge and stove and a very lovely and quite large livingroom. And did I mention we have our own balcony?

It seriously couldn't have come at a better time. One of my roommates is desperate to move out of the apartment she's in because her current roommate is terrible (think: leaves dishes in the sink with food still on them for weeks at a time). My other roommate is also desperate to get out of her apartment, if you can call it that. It's basically a medium sized room with a tiny galley kitchen and a bathroom without a door. That's it. And me, I need to move up there for lots of reasons. The weather is starting to turn and the thought of driving through lake-effect snow seriously gives me a mini-heart attack. Also, I'd save a ton of money on gas and I'd be able to volunteer more at the zoo. And a ton of other reasons.

We just turned in the application today and if everything is alright (which I'm sure it will be) the apartment will officially be ours! It's the perfect location too. Halfway between the zoo and the school. Talk about perfect!

The reason I can't just go to my boss right this very minute and tell him I'm done!, finito!, no more!, is because, at this point in time, it's my only source of income and rather than rely on my nest egg, I should work until I find a job up there. I think it shouldn't take too long especially since I'm looking for a waitressing position. It's the only thing that will get the money I need for the hours I can put in.

So, my dear friends, wish me luck in finding a job quicker than the Yarn Harlot can whip up a sweater for Rhinebeck!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

It's December... Is everyone ready???

Though there is only a week and a half of class left, they have decided to put us through docent training. If you don't know, docents are animal eduators (I didn't know what they were when I started this program, if you had asked me before the program I would have told you it had something to do with music). They're the people you see around the zoo or in a school presenting animals to kids, etc. Totally cool because yesterday we got to handle all the education animals (education animals are animals that are used to being handled and are used to teach kids about animals and conservation). Many of the animals are reptiles, like Lucille the Ball Python, obviously we have some real comedians there!

These snakes are seriously easy to handle, even if you're afraid of snakes. They just sit there, curl into a ball (hence the name) and chill. Then there was the water snake which was much more active and would crawl all over your arms if you let it. The trick is to just let it crawl through your fingers and not squeeze it or anything.

We also handled the salamanders which were really soft and slimey. Very cool. Then the blue-tongued skink. He didn't do much but sit there, flicking his blue tongue. There were also geckos that we held. Those suckers are quick! (Edited: I had to take out the skink picture, it was mucking up my sidebar!)

If you're into the cute and furry types and not the cold-blooded scaly types, then you'll like these next pictures.

This is Chi-Chi, the chinchilla. Pretty much the softest animal you will ever feel in your life. Some really cool things about them are each hair follicle has 6 hairs growing from it, making their hair very dense. If a predator tries to grab them it will be left with a mouthful of fur instead of a mouthful of chinchilla because they have the ability to loosen their hairs when frightened. I could go on, but there's more to show!

If stinky and furry are more your thing, then this guy will be perfect. He's an oppossum. A very, very stinky oppossum. And he drools... apparently it's normal! The ferret was pretty stinky too.

Most of the animals we handled were given to the zoo by people who owned them as exotic pets then realized how much work they are to take care of and that they really don't make good pets. Don't buy exotic pets people, or at least do your research before you do. Grrr.

Anyway, it was a very cool day! So knitting, yeah, there has been knitting. I'm just now working on the thumb of the second mondo mitten. I was extremely bad though. I actually started a pair of socks. Don't get excited! They're for my brother, for Christmas. More Christmas knitting. Just 25 days. I have to start knitting faster.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

More fun than you can poke a stick at.

This past holiday extended weekend has been a blast. Not only did I get to sleep in, stuff my face and knit like crazy, but I got to have the most awesome behind-the-scenes tour of the Seneca Park Zoo by probably the funniest zookeeper known to man.

First off, the knitting. After I finished most of my schoolwork I did nothing but sit on my butt and knit. Friday was one of those marathon knitting days where I just put in movie after movie. Not only did I finish another pair of mittens (which I think I mentioned already), but I finished half a pair of mondo mittens too! Woohoo!
These are the pair I was telling you about. I finished them in just a few days. Don't ask me where I found the time because even I don't know that answer. It's pretty much a mystery.

I'm telling you, as soon as this Christmas knitting is over I am going to be so happy. Don't get me wrong, I love to knit things for other people, but I hate the pressure and having a deadline. No one to blame but myself of course, if I didn't want to knit things for people I wouldn't. Anyway, I'm just really looking forward to knitting a sweater. I haven't in a very long time, probably since the England sweater. That was back in April. Yikes.

So I also had a ton of fun on Saturday. Meet with my knitting buddy and we spent nearly the whole day knitting down at the coffee shop. Too fun. I love it down there. Then Saturday night a friend of mine from my class came down and we went to see that new movie Just Friends. I haven't laughed that hard a movie in such a long time! Sure it was completely unbelievable, but sometimes that's what makes movies good.

And today. Today was completely and utterly fun. Anytime I get to go behind the scenes anywhere is always a great time. First we got a tour of the zoo, complete with hysterical stories and anecdotes. Then we were given some behind the scenes looks at the wolves, mountain lions, polar bears, sea lions and penguins. Too damn cool. I can't upload all my pictures now because I'm working off of dial up (I know, stone-age right?) but I will show you this completely adorable picture of a baby penguin:

The zookeeper is checking to see if it's feet are developing properly, but it just wouldn't walk forward for him no matter how much he tried coaxing it! It's hard not to fall in love with these animals what with how fluffy and cute they are, but judging by the stories he was telling us about them, when they grow up they can bite, and bite hard. This picture is at a funny angle, but that's because the chick was literally by my feet so I could only really get a top-down shot of it. Still very cute.

Going to this zoo and getting a behind the scenes tour was a fantastic way to end my fantastic long weekend. I hope everyone's holiday (for those of you who had one this week) was as excellent as mine!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Happy Turkey Day!

This will probably be my last post before Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has an excellent holiday. Mine looks like it will be fill with projects that need completing before the end of the semester, but I don't mind. I'm still getting a 4 day weekend which is extremely needed at this point.

As for knitting, you're never going to believe this and unfortunately I don't have the pictures to prove it, but I finished another pair of mittens in just three or four days! Ok, well, almost finished. I've completed the outer part of the mittens, I just have to knit the linings. I think all that sock yarn that I bought is calling my name. It's whipped my butt into gear. I was starting to really dislike knitting those mittens, but now I just have one more pair left and I am dying to make a pair of Grumperina's Jaywalker socks. Of course, the pair of mittens I have left to knit are of the mondo variety...I suppose I'll live.

I'm so looking forward to this holiday break. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm so thankful for this break, because for the first time in a long time I get to sleep in for four whole days (for someone who gets up at 5:30am most mornings, this truly is something to be thankful for). Also, on Sunday, a few classmates and I are heading out to the Rochester zoo to get a behind the scenes tour. This isn't an official school trip, but we're a dedicated bunch, so if there's a possibility of going to a zoo we jump on it, even if it's during one of our holiday breaks. Anyway, it should be fun and I should have some great pictures to share when it's over.

Again, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and don't forget to sign my Frappr map!

Updated to Add: Also, if your concerned about global warming and want to take action, join the virtual march to help stop global warming. Stepping off the soapbox now!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Longest Post Ever

This is just a warning that this is going to be a very long, very picture-heavy post. I've been really busy recently and I'm just going to throw it all out here in one post.

Last weekend I was sick as a dog, but that didn't stop me from getting together with my knitting buddies for some much needed knitting/relaxing/coffeeshop time. Though this time was slightly different. Jill wanted to learn how to spin up the roving she bought at Rhinebeck. So I brought along some drop spindles and some practice roving and the spinning fun was had by all!
And when I say all, I mean it. Liz, who swore to us she couldn't start spinning, she didn't want to, she didn't have the time for it and a million other excuses, decided after watching me teach Jill that she just wanted to try it.

Not just try it in fact, but take it home. Yep, she's hooked. And when she found out just how hooked she was, she realized that she was probably going to be spending money on some roving in the near future.
This is how most people react when they learn they're addicted to something. Don't worry Liz, it's perfectly normal!

After knitting Jill and I went to the mall for a bit of shopping and I found these... Not only are they the most hideous pair of boots I've ever seen, but when you look closer you see they're outer shell is knitted. I don't know about you, but I can think of about a million better uses for knitted fabric than for a pair of quite ugly, ugg-like boots. But then, maybe that's just me...

So I mentioned elephants too didn't I? Yes, elephants were involved this week when my classmates and I took a field trip to the zoo in Syracuse. We all were given a behind the scenes tour of the elephant barn and the tiger holding area. To say that it was awesome, would be an extreme understatement! First we went to the elephant barn and actually got to be in the pen, with the elephant, no bars or anything between us and this huge animal.
You really don't have an understanding of just how huge these awesome animals are, until you're right there, right next to them. A picture just doesn't do it justice.

The keeper was showing us a lot of the different behaviors they have her trained to do so that they can perform basic husbandry. For instance, he had her turn around and lift up her foot to have it worked on, because elephants feet are very sensitive and need care just like horses hooves.

One of the most spectacular moments though was when we each got to go up to her and pet her trunk. Of course, we had to be behind the bars for this because of safety issues. It was the coolest experience and hopefully just the beginning of what I'll experience in this program.

We really had an awesome time. After the elephants, we went to the tiger enclosure and went behind the scenes of where they sleep at night. That was pretty interesting to see.

Then we had a couple of hours to tour around the zoo. We had some fun playing with the tigers through the glass. They were really interested in my friend's umbrella. He would run from one side to the other and the tigers would chase it and get up on the glass. I took some video of it, unfortunately blogger doesn't upload video!

The penguins were incredibly cute too. They were really interested in our fingers and would follow them while we moved them back and forth along the glass. Too cute.

The whole day was such a great experience. It pretty much confirms how much I love this program and that it's definitely the direction I want to go.

So, you want to know where the mondo-mitten comes in? Well, I finally finished them up, including the linings. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of them. But I do have a picture of all the sock yarn I bought from Knitpicks. I went a little sock-yarn-happy. Don't you think?

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Knitblogger Geography

Hey everyone, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and starting up my own knitblogging map. So...where are you guys?

I'll be posting tomorrow about the million and one crazy things I've been doing this whole time I've been neglecting my blog duties! Want to know what I've been up to? I'll give you a hint... It invovled drop spindles, elephants and a mondo-mitten thrown in for good measure! Gotta love the combination!

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Last weekend's rewards...

As I said in my last post, I treated myself to an entire day of knitting and spinning last weekend for being such a good student who finished her reports on time. I have to reward myself with something or I think I would go a bit insane with the amount of work I have to do for school.

I finished plying the dyed corridale that I bought at Rhinebeck. I love the color in this yarn. It has all sort of purplish flecks that really make it interesting. I really haven't decided what to do with it yet, but socks are coming to mind. That is as soon as I finish all the Christmas knitting I have to do.

I started spinning up the second color way of the Merino/Tencel I got at Rhinebeck. I'm spinning it very fine (probably because I have socks on the brain and I can't help myself!)

I think what I like best about spinning finely is that the fiber lasts so much longer than it would if you spun it chunkier. That way you guarantee more hours of spinning enjoyment out of less roving. (I'm such a geek....)

I think I'm most excited about the knitting I got finished this past weekend. I'm already to the thumb on the second mondo mitten! As soon as I finish the thumb, it's all downhill from there!
Of course, I haven't gotten a single stitch knitted this entire week. I've just been too busy. Thankfully the weekend starts in just one more day. Good thing too, I feel a cold coming on and I'm going to need to recouperate.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

The Best Dog in the World

First off, this isn't an obituary or anything, it's actually a story about the best dog in the world, who's name happens to be Shelby. Shelby is our family dog and she's the gentlest, most loving dog who's sole purpose in life is to make her people happy... and occassionally chase some squirrels. She rarely barks, doesn't growl unless she's playing tug-of-war with you and her only fault is that she begs for pizza crust, which she only does because she knows we'll give it to her.

This story is about something that happened this weekend that proves, yet again, that she is truly the best dog in the world. I had a ton of homework to do this weekend, which I was determined to finish by Saturday night. Luckily determination paid off this time and I did finish it by my deadline. So Sunday, I treated myself to a full day of relaxation made up of much neglected knitting and spinning.

I spent hours and hours doing nothing but sitting on my butt, watching movies while I alternated between spinning and knitting. Here's where this all ties into Shelby being the best dog in the world. I was spinning while sitting on the couch with my wheel in between the couch and the coffee table, which just happens to be a high traffic area for pets. On one occassion, Shelby actually tried to get through by squeezing herself through my treadling legs and the wheel. She decided that maybe that wasn't the best route to get to where she wanted to go so she gave up.

However, a little while later she tried again. I just kept spinning away, thinking that she'd give up again. She really looked like she had given up, but she just kept standing there with her head under the flyer. After a minute this seemed really odd to me so I stopped spinning and told her to go lie down. But she just stood there. Thinking that maybe she needed a little encouragement I pet on the head and told her what a silly dog she was being, and that's when I felt it...

While trying to get through while I was spinning, she managed to get a wad of her hair caught and I just kept spinning! To say I felt horrible would be the understatement of the year! I quickly grabbed the scissors and set her free... The reason I say she is the best dog in the world is that she just sat there, patiently waiting for me to realize that her hair was caught. She didn't yelp, she didn't bark or growl or act strange in any way other than just standing there. And then, once I'd cut her free she ran and got her rope toy so that we could play together. Honestly, in my eyes, she is the greatest dog in the entire world!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Ok, time for the pictures

As promised here are some pictures from the Zoo Boo.

This is our fantastic mascot Lutra the Otter doing a little dance for the camera.

And then, of course, Lutra had to join us for a little photo op. (I wasn't kidding about my wings not matching my coat! Hey, it was warmth that counted right?)

I have to say, after eating the amount of candy that I did, seeing a giant M&M didn't exactly do wonders for my stomach!

And I couldn't exclude the Shark! All of these pictures look a little devoid of trick or treaters and that's because I took these early in the morning before they got there.

So, I'm sure you're all dying for some knitting content and apparently the universe saw fit to give me enough time to actually work on the mondo-mitten. I've dubbed it the mondo mitten because, let's face it... the thing is huge, not just huge... MONDO!

One mondo-mitten down, one to go... Oh wait, I have two uncles, both with huge hands... crap, three more mondo-mittens to go.

So in this picture the mondo-mitten doesn't look so mondo does it? Well, you don't have anything in the picture to give you perspective. I've decided you all need a little perspective on what makes this mitten so mondo.

Notice that you can't even see the full size of the mitten. The cuff ends about a third of the way down my forearm! Can we say MONDO?!?!? It hasn't even been blocked yet.... we all know that blocking makes fairisle slightly bigger...

My saving grace here is that I had my brother try it on... He said it was tight....ummmm, do I have giants in the family that I wasn't aware of? Or is it that I'm just that small? Tough call there.

I'll be putting a lining in too so I think by the time it's all said and done, it'll fit just fine...

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Zoo Boo 2005

The Zoo Boo was a ton of fun this weekend! (I'll have to post pictures on Thurs. please be patient with me!)

My main concern when choosing a costume was, will it be able to fit over my coat? It wasn't that it was all that cold this weekend (in the 50's or so) but when you're outside for hours at a time in those tempertures, it can get a bit chilly. So I got myself a pair of butterfly wings that fit over the coat (but, incidentally didn't match the coat in any way) and a headband with antennae. Throw in a pair of my angora-lined mittens and I was good to go.

I wasn't all the certain of what I'd be doing exactly, but it turns out my job was to stand by the butterfly house and hand out candy. I had so much fun!

There has never been a Halloween in all of existence when I actually got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. My entire life, with every house I've lived in (which is only three, but still), there has always been a really long driveway leading up to my house. Even when my family and I lived in a neighborhood, we still had the longest driveway there. These long driveways of mine have always been lined with trees. You could say my family has always liked having their space and that always involved a long drive way and a lot of forest around it.

Now you can imagine the little kids with their buckets and bags, dressed in their best halloween costumes ready to trick-or-treat till their teeth fell out coming to my driveway with it's spooky forest and god knows what sort of unimaginable monsters in it. So, needless to say, I've never had a trick-or-treater (or their parents for that matter) brave enough to walk down to the house to ask for candy! This is somewhat a blessing in disguise because we never bought Halloween candy and therefore were never tempted to eat any of it. This was not the case on Saturday. I never want to see another piece of Halloween candy if I can at all help it.

Despite being tempted and giving in to the call of the candy, the part where I actually got to hand it out was great fun. Especially seeing what all the kids were dressed as and getting to act all excited about how scary, or pretty or cool their costumes were. That part was awesome. Oh and the babies all dressed up in costumes were almost as cute as my kitten picture....almost.

However, the kid that was the cutest wasn't cute because of his costume, but because of what he said. I was dutifully manning my post handing out candy, when this kid dressed up as a football player comes walking up to me. He must have been 8 or 9 years old. I looked at him and asked "Are you the quarterback?" thinking that the quarterback is the most glorified position so surely that's what he was. He looked at me quite confused, almost as if I were speaking another language, then his face abruptly changed as if he finally realized what I said and swiftly turned around and ran up to his mom where he said "Mom, I need a quarter for the candy!" We all had a good laugh when it was explained that I didn't ask him for a quarter, I asked him if he was the quarterback. Too funny!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Old McDonald has.... the most stubborn horse alive... ei ei ooo!

Pretty much no knitting has been done this week. Apparently finishing so much last weekend meant that I wouldn't have time to do any knitting this week.... Oh well. I did have a great time yesterday during my clinical lab. We all went over to Old McDonald's Farm (yes, it's really called Old McDonald's Farm...how could I make up this stuff?) to groom the horses there and get familiar with the equipment, etc.

I'm not sure if I could really explain exactly what was so fun about it, other than these people are great, my professor is hysterical, in that really goofy sort of way (and when I say goofy, I mean it. On our first day out in the zoo, we were walking the paths and he came across a stick in the path, held it up and asked us what it was. Thinking he was looking for an educational answer we'd tried to answer him. None of our answers being right of course.... what was it?... A stick up.... yeah, maybe it's more dorky than goofy, but either way funny). Also, I was out working with animals. It really doesn't get much better than that. Unless, of course, I could knit and work with animals at the same time, then it could be better.

This is all of us... oh and the donkey wanted in on the picture action too. Frankly, I don't blame him.

We all worked in groups and groomed all the horses they had. There were about 20 miniature horses and about 5 big horses. I groomed two of the mini's myself and then worked in a group to groom the dirtiest most stubborn horse I've ever met. I swear this guy didn't want us to clean his hooves because he did just about everything he could to keep his weight on the hoof we wanted to clean.

After about a million tries on our part, my professor comes in and in two seconds had the hoof up. Damn that's frustrating. Well, I decided I'd try it again. I may have pulled a muscle, but I did finally get that horse to put it's hoof up for me. It felt so good to finally get the horse to do it.

So this weekend is the Zoo Boo and it looks like the weather might actully be nice. It's supposed to be in the 50's, sure that's chilly, but it's not supposed to rain and there may even be sun, which is the greatest thing in the whole damn world because I have seen nothing but rain for the last month.

But you know what can counteract the effects of seeing nothing but rain? Taking the cutest picture in existence. Seriously, don't try and tell me any other picture you've seen is cuter because I won't believe you.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

They're Finished!!!!

Finally, I've finished the socks that I've been working on since... um, I want to say July or August. I've just been so sidetracked with so many things since school started. Anyway, I'm wearing them right now and they are by far the most comfortable socks I've ever made. They're not itchy at all and they're so warm, which has come in handy this weekend with all the rainy, cold dampness we've had.

So, without further ado, I present to you my Mountain Colors socks.

Are they not fabulous? Umm, yeah, I'd say they are, but then I'm bias. I love how the striping turned out. They're not identical, which I also love. I know how some people like to have their stripes match, I'm not one who cares so much about that.

(Is it just me, or are socks that you're wearing really hard to photograph without contorting yourself into a pretzel?)

By the way, the sock yarn is Mountain Colors, I don't remember the colorway because it's been that long (how sad is that?) and the patten is from an old issue of Interweave Knits called Priscilla's Dream Socks. I love this pattern because it's very basic. You can do pretty much any pattern on the leg that you want, in any gauge of yarn for any size foot. It's fantastic. Plus, the short-rowed heels are awesome. I don't think I'll ever make another pair of socks that doesn't have short-rowed heels. Not only do I not like picking up stitches, but I also don't really like the look of the heel flap, so short-rows are perfect for me.

I also finished up spinning that 4 oz of Merino/Tencel. This yarn turned out awesome.

Despite how nice this yarn turned out and how awesome the colors are, I just don't think it would be all that suitable for socks. It's a little bit thick, and it's going to be very drapey and not hold it's shape too well because of the tencel. I'm thinking it's going to be destined for a nice scarf or something.

Last night, I spent of bit of time working on the ginormous mitten. I've added a few more rows and I'm almost to the point where I have to make the thumb and attatch it to the mitten.

I think I'm going to wait on that though. I'd like to try it out on my brother's hand before I go too much further. I'd hate to put all this effort in and have it not fit by the time I'm finished.

Nothing irks a knitter more than wasted effort.

This weekend has been awesome. It's been the first weekend in awhile where I haven't gone anywhere or done anything except knitting, sitting on my butt and watching movies (and a little bit of studying for a test, but I'm not going to count that). I have needed a weekend like this since school started. Ah devine relaxation! I'm afraid it's going to be the last one for awhile too.

Next weekend I'm volunteering at the zoo for their annual Zoo Boo. I get to dress up in a halloween costume and greet all the kids, etc. Should be fun. I've decided to go as a butterfly. My mom found a pair of wings for cheap and obviously cheap is good. The zoo has a butterfly house so guess where I've been stationed? The unfortunate thing about the butterfly house is it's more of big mesh tent than a house, so if it's raining, that "house" is going to do me no good. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it's a nice day!

Thursday, October 20, 2005

H-I-P-P-O-P-O-T-A-M-U-S

Everyone has waited so patiently for my Rhinebeck pics and I finally have time to show you. First off, these are the wonderful ladies I went with (minus my mom who was taking the picture)
For some reason, we felt the need to drap ourselves in our fiber/yarn. When you're around that much crack fiber, you get a little loopy. Look at anyone's post from Rhinebeck, people were getting crazy!

I wondered to myself why I even brought the sweater I wore. It was freakin' warm most of the day! Not at all like last year. The weather just doesn't want to cooperate. When half the people in blogland want to show off their sweaters at Rhinebeck, the weather gods decide to make it warm... Not exactly sweater weather. But it's ok, we hadn't seen the sun for quite awhile so it was a nice change.

So you want to see the new additions to my stash?

I ended up with two 2oz hanks of Merino/Tencel roving from the Sheep Shed in colorway Magical and two in Berry. Also, a 4oz bunch of dyed corridale. I usually go for merino just because it's easy to spin, but I thought I'd try something different.


This may not be a huge haul, but, as they say, size doesn't matter... it's what you do with it...

I started spinning this merino/tencel in hopes of making a pair of socks. I'm just in a sock mood, and also Socktoberfest is on my mind. I can't wait to see how this yarn turns out when it's plyed. The colors are awesome and they're going to create some really interesting variegations.

Of course, I haven't got a clue whether this fiber combination will be good for socks, but it's worth a try right?

Again, time is against me. It seems I only have time to do any spinning or knitting on the weekends, and that's only on weekends when I don't have to study for exams... Speaking of exams, I have a bit of a funny story for you...

My animal management midterm was on Monday. My professor stressed to us before the test that spelling was important and that he wanted us to pay close attention to it. That's fine, because normally I'm very good at spelling so I didn't think it would be a problem for me. I study the spelling of animals that I knew would be hard to spell, like Przewalski's wild horse.

So I went through the exam without many problems. I knew there were a couple of things I may have gotten wrong, just stupid little mistakes, but I also knew I didn't make too many of those so I wasn't too worried. When I finished he test, my professor walked out with me to discuss the fact that he thought I would be perfect for the honors program at the school and to ask me if I was interested in pursuing that. Since I was in the honors program at my last college, I didn't think it would be a problem and I thanked him for considering me.

Then I went to my car and checked over my notes just to see if my stupid mistakes were really that stupid. Turns out they were. Remember back when I gave a presentation on the Hippo? I figured I didn't need to study that because I did some major research on that animal and I should know the information... well, I knew the information.... but I spelled hippopotamus wrong! OH MY GOD! Here I was being asked to be in the honors program and I spelled the name wrong of the animal I presented.... I'm thinking maybe my professor should reconsider....

It's ok though, I had a good laugh about it with my friends and it turns out it didn't make that much of a difference because I got a 95 on the test. It was just extremely funny and sort of ironic.

Well darlings, I must go, but I will leave you with an obligatory kitten picture....
Updated to add: I was informed that I spelled 'pursue' wrong which I've since changed....yeah, ok, so maybe I'm not all that great of a speller after all! Thanks Lynne!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

I need what?!?!?!

So... was Rhinebeck awesome? Heck yeah! In a very unexpected turn of events, Jill and Elizabeth joined my mom and I on our fiber expedition. We had a great time going out there together. They definitely made the trip lively! Except, of course, on the way home when everyone started falling asleep in the back seat! Apparently an overload of fibery goodness can do that to a person!

I was very good this year. Last year, after Rhinebeck was over, I swore that I would save up a ton of money for this year and just blow it all on fiber. Unfortunately situations have changed somewhat (ie. school, car payment, saving for an apartment, etc) and I didn't come anywhere close to spending as much as I wanted to. I promised myself I'd only spend about $40 on fiber and you know what? I did! Talk about willpower though! Every single vendor was doing it's best to persuade me to fall, but I didn't. I bought all my fiber almost exclusively from the Sheep Shed. This is mainly because they're what started me spinning in the first place when I went to Rhinebeck last year. However, I am a horrible blogger because I have to wait until Thursday to show you pictures of what I got! So, instead of going into detail about the awesome stuff I got, I'm just going to wait to show you on Thursday.

But I will leave you with that meme that's been going around. You know the one. Where you google "your name" needs... Enjoy!

Erin needs to understand that people don't like to see a pretty white girl with rap talent that would run circles around sir mix a lot.
I don't think anyone should be telling me to dash my hopes and dreams, especially when I can be as great as Sir Mix A Lot.

Erin needs to earn $15000, fast.
Oh dear, this one's true, but I can settle on just a couple thousand.

Erin needs to decide if she should try to work things out with her very hot husband, or get it on with the very hot neighbor.
Is this an episode of Desperate Housewives I'm not familiar with? Because you know it's only on TV where both the neighbor and the husband are hot.

Erin needs a makeover!
You know, I'd really appreciate it if one of my friends would just tell me instead of letting me walk around like it's 1990 and letting me believe big bangs are still in.

Erin needs to roll 3 dice, one for each point of wisdom.
And then I really need to get going because I'm going to be late to my medieval reenactment club meeting.

Erin needs to be more famous
Because clearly, I'm not famous enough.

Erin needs an exorcism, no?
So this is what it feels like to be possessed.

Erin needs to wear shirts
Well damn it! Here's another opportunity for my friends to step up and let me know that it's just not acceptable to go topless! Some friends...

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Rhinebeck's here already? Holy Crap!

It's Thursday, and you know what Thursday means right? It means I have my 5 hour break and have time to post! Good stuff huh?

Ok, first off, knitting. I know I've been neglecting that for awhile. In honor of Lolly's Socktoberfest, I give you a picture of the socks I've been working on. (I have to admit I've been working on these things for several months, but you all know how things come up!)
My second sock is actually farther than this picture shows. I'm about a centimeter from turning the heel. I can't guarantee that these will be finished sometime in October, but at least I'm trying. Time is a rare commodity in my house these days!

I've also started another pair of mittens. This time it's a pair for my uncle, who's hands are bigger than my brother's, so I'm making the same mittens I made my brother, but adding four stitches on to the sides. You'd be suprised how much of a difference four stitches makes!
Do you see how big this sucker is compared to my hand? Holy cow, this mitten is going to take me longer to make than the other ones did given how huge it is!

So I probably won't be doing a whole ton of knitting in the car on the way to Rhinebeck considering I'm now going to be the one driving. Plans have changed a bit and now instead of going out there with some blogging friends of mine, I'm going out there with my mom. I contemplated skipping it, but then the call of the fiber got to me and I just couldn't resist (even though I can't splurge on any of it!). Plus the chance to meet all of you is definitely a big draw as well!

In other news my friend's cat gave birth to kittens last week (I was actually there too, which was really cool because I've never seen anything being born before!) And this week, I got to take a few pictures of the fur balls. They're adorable and so helpless. They're eyes aren't open yet, but they do have some lungs on them!


This is them at only a week old. I'll probably be showing updates since I stay with my friend once a week to cut down on the driving. These little guys are killing me with cuteness. I almost can't handle it! And they're just gonna get cuter, I'm not sure how I'll survive!

Last night I went to a presentation on the deforestation of the rainforest. What a seemingly helpless situation that is. I'm the type of person who feels a great responsibility to this world, to the people in it and to all the life on it, so when I hear about this sort of thing, I become almost paralyzed with helplessness and the feeling that hope is lost. I've been grapling with these feelings for awhile and trying desperately to turn my helplessness into action. I've somewhat succeeded in this by becoming vegetarian (which by the way is going excellently, though I find I'm hungry all the time!).

What can I do? What will actually make a difference in this world? I'm only one person, but despite this, I believe one person can do more than they think. I can be the change I want to see. I can conserve and be less wasteful and teach others to do the same. The greatest thing I can do is educate others and spread awareness. I'm a pretty determined person when I want to be and I've never felt more determined than I do now. And I've never felt more like my entire life has been leading to this point, which is exactly where I'm meant to be. If you've ever gotten to that point in you're life, it's amazing. Knowing that what you're doing or working towards is the exactly what you were always meant to do is indescribable. Scary and exciting all at the same time.

I know you guys don't come here to read about conservation issues. And I really don't want to cram it down your throats either. That's entirely not my goal. But my blog is more than just a way for me to show my knitting and discuss the varying techniques that go along with it. It's a place where I can voice the issues that have been on my mind and help to formulate into words the conclusions I've reached. I promise I won't innundate you with all of this stuff, but sometimes I have to get it out of my own head and put it somewhere so I can be sane!

Ok, done with that. I hope to see all of you who are going to Rhinebeck. I'll be there Saturday, probably by noon or so wearing this:
See you there!

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Rhinebeck sweaters and penguins...

So I may have been a little premature when announcing which sweater I'm planning on wearing to Rhinebeck. It seems I greatly overestimated how much time I'd have this weekend to sew in ends. I have a back up plan though, not to worry. I unpacked my sweaters today and realized I have my pink cashmerino lattace cabled sweater. That's going to be the perfect sweater for Rhinebeck, really soft, really warm and the best part, it's already made! By the way, I plan to be there on Saturday.

I didn't have a whole lot of time this weekend because not only did I have to write a pretty big research report, but my friends from school and I went to the zoo here in Syracuse. The weather was crappy, but it didnt matter. It seems no matter what kind of weather it is, we're always gonna have a good time at the zoo.

I haven't been to this zoo in years, probably since I was in a freshman in high school (9 or so years ago). It definitely has changed since then. For instance, they have a new penguin exhibit, which was the coolest thing!
Not only did we get to watch the keeper hand feed them, we got to watch them swim after the fish she threw into the pool.

You don't really get a good idea of just how fast they swim until you are right there next to the pool and all you see are blurs.

One of the volunteers were there and we chatted with him for awhile. Once he found out who we were he told us we should have called ahead so that they could have shown us behind the scenes things! Well, there's always next time.

I didn't take too many pictures because the only pictures that were coming out well were the ones that I took outside. I did get this one though...
Just so you know, that tiger was made of concrete, and it was wet... and cold. So not only does my butt have to suffer through 8 hours of car time, but on the weekend it suffers being frozen on a concrete tiger! The things my butt does for education....

Well dears, that's all for now. I do have knitting news, but I don't have patience to post the pictures using dial up here at home! Remember, patience is a virtue!