It's WHAT below zero?!?

Have you noticed that everyone’s talking about the weather? In particular the freakin’ cold weather? Oh yeah, it’s cold. Would you like to know exactly how cold it was when I woke up this morning? According to the news it was -16. That’s 16 below zero… Fahrenheit. Oh yeah, and without wind-chill. Of course, they didn’t mention what the temperature was factoring in the wind-chill. I think they thought it might scare everyone into staying indoors… Screw work, it’s just too cold out!

Yeah, that was my mentality this morning….Unfortunately I have an overactive sense of responsibility that managed to drag my butt out of bed. Out of my nice, warm, comfortable bed I might add. My poor car was having that mentality too. Fortunately I was able to pry the cold grip of winter off her and start her up. She didn’t like me much. I could tell because I had to turn the ignition three times before she finally gave in. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want me to go to work this morning!

Aside from the artic temperatures, there are several things to be quite happy about today.

1. It’s sunny out. Do you even remember the last time you saw sun? I’m thinking it was back in August, but even then I could be wrong.

2. It’s Friday. Lord knows I love Fridays!

3. The weekend will be here in another 5 hours! And I have another great weekend coming up. There will be knitting, there will be hanging out with perma-grin generators, there will be no blizzard on the way…. Life is good.

Craptastic is My New Favorite Word

Did you ever notice how craptastic weather has a way of ruining plans? Well, ruining is a strong word, perhaps changing plans is a little better. This weekend the weather was spectacularly craptastic. We probably got over a foot or two of snow. All I know is that I was driving like a granny in my 4WD Jeep! It’s amazing how fast 25mph can seem when the snow is coming down like mad. That never ceases to fascinate me. What also always blows my mind, are the people who think they can drive normally in weather like that… That’s right buddy, keep driving 50mph and just ignore the sliding, I’m sure you won’t hit that guardrail.

So I braved the craptastic weather for several reasons. One, there was knitting to be had downtown. It seems nothing can keep me from knitting with the girls on Saturdays. Not even the fact that while I was sitting there my ass became a frozen popsicle and my fingers could barely move. Ha! That doesn’t stop a real knitter! It only makes her (or him) stronger!

Also, I had plans to meet with the perma-grin generator that afternoon. Apparently, only two things could make me think that it’s perfectly OK and sane (though that is questionable) to be driving in that weather: Knitting, and Perma-grins. It turns out, that not everyone feels this way….shocker. And when I say everyone, I mean his friends that were supposed to join us for bowling.

Bowling was doomed to be another event that I mention in my blog before it happens and then, inevitably, doesn’t come to be…. Damn you blog curse!

Even though we didn't end up bowling and the weather was craptastic, he and I still ended up getting together to hang out. We got snowed in at his place, we watched movies and talked (isn't it just dripping with cheezy romantic overtones?) And, in striving to keep this a knitting related blog, he watched me knit for a little while, just to see what it was all about! Its funny how people who don't know how to knit become slightly mesmerized when watching a skilled knitter. Have you ever noticed that? They just sit there and stare.... kind of with the deer in the headlights look. I haven’t asked him if he’d like to learn yet. Perhaps I should save that for another day…

All in all, it turned out to be a great weekend, despite the weather and the blog-cursed plans!

More Knitting Content Than You Can Poke a Stick At

To those of you who were filled with curiosity about the exact number of squares on a scrabble board, you're curiosity is about to be lifted. There are (according to the trivia guy in his infinite wisdom) 225 squares.

Moving on to how crazy life has been recently. My date went wonderfully. We had a blast going to dinner and then we hung out and watched TV, he's a fan of the new show LOST too, that is always a plus. Because he's such a sweet guy he bought me flowers for our date! (and because I'm probably the biggest dork on the planet, I took a picture of them to show you!)

Yep, the dorkdom is just oozing out of my skin at this point.

Thursday night he invited me to go to a trivia night with him and his friend here in the city. That's two trivia nights in one week! And guess what? We won! Not only did I go to two trivia nights, but the team I was on won both nights! The only common denominator on each team was me.... so I'm thinking I'm a genius and I just happen to be the trivia queen.... HA! Yeah right! I don't know who I'm trying to fool there!

So I thought I'd show you just what I drove through on Saturday (last Saturday when I went to the knitting meetup I was telling you about)

That's my driveway. I absolutely love the way it looks when all the branches get covered in snow. I swear it feels just like I'm driving through a painting sometimes.

This Saturday I met everyone for knitting again. It was fabulous. I worked on this the whole time:

It's looking pretty good if I do say so myself. The only thing that annoys the crap out of me is that the bottom likes to roll up. You can see I had to hold it down just to take a decent picture of it!

So besides all these things I have some extremely exciting news. In April I will be having a once-in-a-lifetime type event going on! Chance has it that USAir is probably going under sometime soon. Chance also has it that my dad has accumulated roughly 200,000 frequent flyer miles through them. So what are we going to do with these miles before they are completely unusable? We are taking a trip to England!!!!!!!! We're going to be there for two weeks. We've already booked the tickets (which were completely free, how cool is that?!?!) And we are going to be renting a flat so that we have a "home-base" sort of thing to come back to. Though it's still in the works, the plan is to travel from London to Scotland and I think we're going to take an over-night trip to Paris! I have to admit I am truly excited about all the awesome yarn shops that must be in London!!!!

Because a lot of our travelling within the country is going to be done on the train I have decided on a project using little needles that will probably take me awhile to finish. This is the sweater I'm going to be doing, complete with yarn because I was so excited I had to go out to the LYS this weekend and get it!

I'm going to be doing the one on the left. The colors are the same except I'm substituting the red for the gold. I think it's going to be awesome. The real challenge though, is going to be resisting the temptation to start it before the trip!

Because I was just slightly tempted after I bought it, I decided to start a sweater for myself on Saturday. I have had this yarn since Christmas two years ago! I'd say it's about time I did something with it. It's out of Rowan Calmer and the pattern is the Retro Prep Pullover from an Interweave Knits magazine. I've made this one before out of a sea-foam green color and I love the way it fits so I thought I'd try it out of Calmer.

It looks like the beginnings of a tam in this picture, but I assure you it is going to be a sweater.

And after I took all these pictures I started....well, I started a pair of mittens for myself... I'll try and take pictures of those soon, but as you can see, life is just not letting up anytime soon. And if you add in the fact that chorus practice has started up again, you've got one busy girl on your hands.

Crazy, crazy, crazy

Ok, this is a little update to assure everyone I haven't fallen off the face of the planet! Here I thought things would calm down after the holidays.... apparently I was wrong. But not wrong in a bad way! I have been having the best time recently!

On Saturday I went to our favorite hang out spot and knit with the wonderful Rachel and Beth. We really had a very nice time and it had definitely been too long since we all got together. Of course, it was a little scary getting there because there was so much snow on the road. I suppose that just shows you how far I'd go for knitting. I'm like the postman (or woman).... through snow, and rain and fog, I'd go to knit!

The excitement of Saturday certainly didn't end there..... Saturday night I had a date! I realize that in my 100 things I wrote something like:

7. I believe the right person for me is out there
8. I’m in no rush to find him

Well, just because I'm in no rush to find the person for me doesn't mean I'll turn down a date! We ended up going to a pizza place for dinner, very casual which helped calm my nerves! Then we went to a college basketball game. I have to tell you, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy myself because I'm not a huge sports fan, but we had such a great time. After the game we walked to a bar not too far away for drinks and to wait for the traffic to clear (it was a really big game so there were a ton of cars). I really can't get over how well we got along. There weren't any awkward silences, we just talked and laughed all night long... It was great! He asked me out to dinner tonight so I'm excited about that.... only this time I think it's going to be a little less casual, yikes, I hope I don't get all nervous.

Ok, on to some knitting related stuff. Monday night my mom and I drove down to Binghamton to visit my brother and go to trivia night. Seeing how my trivia knowledge isn't any better than it was last time, I needed something to occupy me while everyone else came up with the answers! It's a good thing I ended up bringing my mom's sweater to work on. I really got quite a bit done. Considering it's 260 stitches on size 3 needles, it takes a good bit of time to get through one round. I think I added about an inch to it. Pictures soon to follow.... Our team actually ended up winning, though I can't say I contributed much!

Since I seem to be having trouble focusing on making this a worthwhile blog entry, I'll leave you with a bit of trivia.... How many squares are on a scrabble board?

All about the kittens...

I finally have something to talk about other than mittens! I know some of you may be shocked, but personally I'm relieved! There has to be more to life than mittens.

A few nights ago, my mom and I were sitting on her bed talking when Pippin (my cat) comes up on the bed and he had something in his mouth. It turned out to be one of those little plastic things that you pull off the top of milk lids to open them. He was so fascinated with this thing. One minute he's a completely normal kitten, then next, he's like a monkey on crack trying to get this thing!

I understand it's completely normal that kittens really like to play with objects, but what happened next seems so strange and fascinating that I just had to share it with you. On an impluse I took the little plastic thing from him and threw it off the bed. He immediately went chasing after in, again a very normal response for a kitten. After batting it around a bit on the floor he jumped back up on the bed with it. For reasons still unknown to me, he dropped it right in front of me, so I picked it up and threw it again, and again, he tore after it.
A couple seconds later he did this:

He dropped it in my hand and waited for me to throw it again.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: Pippin, the amazing fetching cat!

That's right, we were playing fetch. This went on for the next half hour or so. Eventually the novelty wore off and I needed to have some dinner so I discontinued our little game but that doesn't mean we'll never play it again. In fact, he played it with my mom last night. It really was the funniest thing. Don't you feel special knowing there is such a thing as a cat that fetches? I know I do! Maybe I should take him to the circus or feature him on that show called Pet Star on Animal Planet.... No then he'll just become this stuck up, famous cat and there'd be no living with him then!

No knitting pictures to present today. I can't imagine a few more rows on my mother's sweater to be very noteworthy and warrant a picture! So instead I'll show a picture of Ramses. I swear this cat gains a pound a day! Remember what he used to look like?


Well look at him now!


I know there isn't much of a point of reference, but believe me, he's huge. Keep in mind these pictures are only two months apart! And not only that I think his eyes make him look old and somehow wise in this picture. He's so gorgeous, and not a little bit fascincated with laying on my knitting patterns when I'm trying to read them!

Kicking off 2005 with........ mittens

First off, I wanted to thank everyone who left me such nice comments on my last entry. It's so nice to get back into the swing of blogging again! I feel like it's been so erratic recently, but looking back, that's exactly what it was! Who on earth has a completely calm and orderly holiday season?

Now that said holidays are over we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming.... I finished up those mittens for my nephew on Sunday.

Did I say mittens? I meant finglerless gloves with a flap to go over the fingers. You see what knitting a hundred pairs of mittens will do to you? I have mittens on the brain I tell you! But then again, I think you all already knew that. And it looks like there will be more mittens in my future. My aunts saw the mittens I made for my grandmother during our little present party we had on New Year's Eve and guess who wants pairs for themselves now? Yep, and not only that, but my uncles tried on the pair I made for my brother.... and you can just imagine where that led....

In fact, I've already bought the yarn for them, except I've almost run out of the angora that I line them with so I'm gonna have to stop by some discount yarn website to try and find some. I think the best part about this, besides the fact that I obviously have an unholy love of making mittens, is the fact that my mom is commissioning me to make them for her so she can give them as gifts. That's fine by me! Not only do I get to get my mitten fix for the next couple of months, but I also get payed for it! Someone should really talk to my mom, she's fueling my habit and that's just not right....

I'm actually planning on taking a bit of a break from the mittens for a little while though. I might experience mitten burnout and nobody wants that. So I'm going to be chugging along on my mom's sweater for a little while. This is how far I've gotten as of last night...

You can kind of make out the lattice pattern... It's actually been going really well. I honestly thought that knitting an entire sweater on size 3 needles wouldn't grow as quickly as this one has. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised don't you think?

I'm feeling the need to knit something for myself soon. Don't get me wrong, I love making all these gifts, but I also think I really just need to make myself something after all the gifts I've made for the holidays. I'm not even sure I can remember the last thing I made for myself. Anyway, I might have to go searching through the stash to find a little something. So don't be surprised if you don't see any "mitten cakes" for a little while.... Of course, I know I've said that before and we all know where that led.....

Wow, is it 2005 already? Time has been flying, and don't think that I haven't been getting any knitting done on my extended holiday. Quite the opposite actually! Remember me telling you about some marathon knitting I did Christmas day to finish up my sister's mittens before I saw her again? Well here they are.

This picture was actually taken in the car, on the way down to Maryland. I needed a good background so I just used my pillow. I thought the pillow case made an excellent backdrop! You may notice a slight difference on these mittens. I'll give you a hint, it has to do with the cuff. When I was finishing up I was running awfully low on green, so low in fact, that I was becoming more than a little nervous about whether I'd actually have enough to finish. Let me tell you, that's a nervewracking thing when you're so close to finishing a present that you have to give on Christmas, knowing full well that there isn't a single yarn shop open if disaster struck. So I did what anyone in my position would do. I switched up the colors a bit! My sister sure didn't seem to mind when I gave them to her. In fact, I don't even think she noticed!

When we were out at the LYS buying yarn for my sister's mittens, my mom also bought some yarn so I could make her a scarf. She's perfectly capable of making herself a scarf, but since I had knit her a very lovely cabled scarf a few years ago, she thought I would be very kind of me to make her another one. The first one (which was made out of some extremely nice cashmere) was stolen when we went out to a restaurant...well I don't know if stolen is the right word. We were waiting to be seated and my mom had taken it off and somehow left it in the seating area. When she realized she didn't have it at the table she went looking for it only to find it missing. So out of the goodness of my heart I agreed to make her a new one under one condition... she's not allowed to take it with her into restaurants!

This is about half of the new scarf. She bought herself some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino to make it out of. Yummy! I actually used up all that she bought. It turns out two skeins is just not enough to finished a scarf.

But never fear, I had plenty more projects to work on. On the last night that my nephews were here my oldest nephew asked me to make him a pair of fingerless gloves because a friend of his from school had a pair that his mother made him. Again, being the big softy that I am, I gave in and started a pair on the way down to MD.

I'll be finished with those pretty soon. I actually did a lot of this knitting before all my relatives showed up. We had such a great time hanging out, playing cards, exchanging presents. We even took a trip down to the Corning Museum of Glass. If I wasn't so cranky from the car ride it might actually have been a lot of fun. But seeing how I was squished in the back seat of a minivan for two hours between my two cousins who were both football players at one time, I was just not entirely in the museum mood! Plus the fact that I couldn't move my elbows more than a centimeter from my body, there was no knitting to be done on this particular trip

Our ladies day out was very nice. I've never been so pampered in my life. However there was one hitch in the day.... the fact that I had to be up and ready to go by 8am. This was my first day to sleep in and I was up by 7am. It's alright though, the manicure and massage well made up for it. In fact, I was dosing during the massage!

I love it when all of us get together, we all just have such a good time. It's always so sad when everyone leaves. But it's nice to know I'll see them again in the summer! It's also nice that I get my bed back and don't have to sleep on the couch anymore!

Extended Holidays

My family has this interesting ability of extending the holidays. Christmas doesn't just last until Christmas day and then poof! that's it, take down the tree and decorations... Oh no, Christmas in my family lasts for another week if not more. Generally every year I still have presents to open on New Year's Eve.

This year doesn't look like it's going to be any different. Christmas day was spent with my immediate family. I was the third one awake... this is shocking. I'm usually the one who's waking everyone up... yes, I am that annoying child who jumps on the bed to wake up mom and dad so we can open presents, but not this year it seems. My brother was already up playing Ratchet and Clank.... I wonder if he's going to beat that game before I even get halfway... I have to say this year was great. My brother gave me rosewood circular knitting needles in size 8 & 9. I tell you, there is nothing more breathtaking than a full needle case... My big present this year was a digital camera! I love it! I can take 300 pictures without downloading them onto my computer... it's a beautiful thing. My mom also got me this crystal figurine of a spinning wheel that was pretty cool. I really didn't get many knitty type things this year, but I'm definitely not disappointed! After the presents were all opened, everyone fiddled with what they got for awhile. Me with my digital camera, dad putting together his new table saw, mom with her drop spindle and roving (courtesy of me!) and my brother with his new Bart Simpson Chia Head. Of course, I couldn't fiddle too much longer. I knew that I had to finish my sister's mittens before my dad's side fo the family Christmas party. I swear I knitted like a madwoman! I was already finished with one mitten and to the thumb on the second one. In one day I finished the second one, blocked them, sewed in the ends and knit the linings (pictures to come as soon as I figure out how to get them out of my camera!). I'm still shocked at myself. They turned out great!

We had my dad's side of the family Christmas party on the day after Christmas. As predicted, it wasn't the most fun and heart-warming Christmas ever. I think this has something to do with the fact that I really don't know these people and they really don't know me. Every year we get together for this one obligatory afternoon. I see these people for five hours once a year. There's just something sad about that. It was also obvious to me while I sat there observing them (I tend to do this a lot, I'm an observer... what can I say?) that they know each other quite well, but my family is the odd one out it seems. Ever since we moved, and maybe even before we moved, we were never very involved with that side of the family. They're not bad people and we all get along fine, it's just that we're all so different. As evident by the fact that they don't know me well, I received a pair of earrings I may never wear. I'm not bitter. I'm just sad that every year we all have to put on a show instead of just enjoying the time we spend together. At least I got to spend more time with my sister and nephews. She loved the mittens by the way! And she had made me a beaded necklace in exchange for them!

On the other hand, my mom's side of the family is an absolute riot! I love hanging out with them. My cousins and I are really great friends and all of us love getting together. This year, they're all coming up here for our Christmas. There's no coming up, staying for a few hours and leaving with this bunch, oh no. They're coming up for a week! My grandmother decided that this year she was going to give my aunts and me appointments for massages and manicures (I'm the only girl grandchild who will be here so I was included in this little day of luxury!) The guys will probably go skiing if there is snow. I'm really excited because I found out my cousins will actually be able to make it this year. A lot of us are finding that with jobs or school we can't make it to our family vacations and it's really nice when everyone can.

So again, there might not be any posting going on for the next couple of days with my family here. I was going to post pictures of my digital camera to show you and then I thought it was awfully ironic to be taking pictures of a digital camera with a digital camera. Maybe I'll so you the glory that is my needle case instead!

Nephew # 1 knitting

Nephew # 2 knitting

ErLeCa=Enabler

Phew, what a week it's been. And here I thought I'd be less busy with no more concerts or rehearsals to go to. Ha! Boy was I fooled. My sister and nephews left on Tuesday. It's so bittersweet. I hate seeing them go. But the good news is I'll be seeing them in a week when my family and I drive down to Maryland.

I have to say, I have become the ultimate enabler! Monday night I was sitting there doing my thing, knitting mittens for my sister, watching my middle nephew kick some butt on his video game, when my oldest nephew comes over to me and just starts watching me knit.

Nephew #1: Is that hard to do?

Me: Not really, do you want to learn?

He tentatively shakes his head 'yes' and I'm up out of my seat faster than you can say 'knit stitch.' I'm telling you the boy is a natural! Though watching him learn definitely took me back to some of my earlier attempts to knit... dropped stitches, holes, and carried yarn found throughout without specific purpose. Ah... memories. Not an hour into teaching him, my middle nephew comes up to me and asks if he can learn too. Woohoo! Absolutely! Nephew #1 is 10 years old, I'd say that's a great age for kids to learn if they're interested. Nephew #2 just turned 7. I was very surprised at how quickly he picked it up, though I must say he was definitely distracted at times.

I feel like the ultimate aunt now! Not only did I get to teach my nephews to knit, but they actually wanted to learn.... and they're boys! Look out ladies, we're gonna have some competition for master knitters in a few years. Ok, so I know that's very far fetched because they're probably going to become more interested in sports than in knitting, but hey, you can't say I didn't try.

I did take some pictures of them and I really wanted to post them, but like I said, it has been a very busy week. One of my friends from high school came home for Christmas and we got together the other night. I probably stayed up way to late chatting and catching up, but you know, I'm glad I did!

I will try to post some pictures soon, but I really can't make any promises. I haven't even wrapped any Christmas gifts yet and what's tomorrow??? Oh yeah, Christmas Eve!!! Then I'm going to be driving down to MD to visit relatives so there won't be any posting going on then. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, but I really can't wait to get back into the regular swing of things!

I hope everyone is having an excellent holiday!

Thursday... what a great day...

I love Thursdays.... granted, I realize today is not Thursday, today is one of the most hated days of the week. But Thursday... that's a day to celebrate. There are several reasons why this Thursday was great.

1. Thursday is the day that comes before Friday and as we all know, Friday is a wonderful day.

2. The mail comes on Thursday and this past Thursday, the mail was very special. A couple of Christmas cards came from two of my college roommates...

What makes this even better is the fact that these are just some of the cutest cards I've seen all season!
Not only did I receive cute Christmas cards, but this also came....

I have been waiting for this game since I heard they were making a third one. That was approximately a year ago. I'd like to say that no knitting will be done because I will be obsessively playing this game... unfortunately that wasn't the case. The reason lies in something else that came on Thursday...

3. My nephews arrived on Thursday night....

Apparently being obsessed with video games runs in the family because they sat and watched me play my new game for about an hour, then they begged to start a game of their own. Being the wonderful aunt that I am, I let them. Little did I know at the time that I would have zero access to my game for the next several days. In fact, I haven't played it since Thursday. I'm not bitter or upset about this in any way. I feel time spent with nephews I only see two or three times a year is well worth giving up game time!

On to knitting news. My mom's sweater is coming along nicely. I have about three inches, maybe four finished on the first section of pattern. I'll try to post a picture of that later. We took a little trip to the yarn store on Sunday. You better believe I didn't walk away empty handed.... but you're not allowed to laugh at what I got....

If you guess that's yarn for more mittens, you're right... My sister asked me for a pair so I thought why not? It's been few weeks since I've made a pair, I'm due for another mitten fix now anyway. I tell you this is an obsession! I need counseling for my mitten addiction!

I have to go see my yarn shrink now, I hope everyone in blogland is having a wonderful holiday season!

Finally something to show...

I promised you pictures did I not? Ok, here are a few of the things I've been working on recently. Remember way back when I went to Rhinebeck and started spinning that green roving? Well guess what? Two weekends ago I finally finished enough to ply it together. Doesn't it look great?

I know that looks like a lot, but it's actually only a very small hank. I haven't washed it yet, but as you all know I've been a tad bit busy.

I've also been working on that scarf for my coworker's sister. It's out of a mohair type yarn that I bought at A.C. Moore. I like the way it looks, sort of pepperminty.

I actually finished the knitting part last night. I still have to put the fringe on but that shouldn't take me too long. I liked working with this yarn, except of course for the fact that when I was finished I'd have a lap full of mohair fibers, but we all make sacrafices for the craft right? The best was when I was working on it before one of the concerts. We had a little down time so I decided to pull it out.... big mistake. Did I mention that our concert dress was all black? So there I was going on to sing with pink and cream fuzzys all over me! Oh well, I'm sure no one noticed.

On to the spinning I've been doing, I told you about that roving that looks grey, but has all those specks of colors in it right?

Unfortunately those specks don't show up so well with my camera. You're just going to have to imagine them there!

I started a sweater for my mom last night after I finished the scarf.... who said I had to do the fringe right then? I was in a non-fringe mood last night. I don't know what made me think starting a sweater who's first instruction was cast on 288 stitches on a size 2 needle would be easier than making some fringe, but oh well. I did the long tail cast on..... three times. Finally on my third time I had pulled out enough yarn to actually finish the cast on.

This is actually the first couple rows of garter stitch. At least they made that part easy. Then it came to the cast on four extra stitches and join part. What are those four extra stitches for you ask? Oh they're only for the cutting.... (insert cartoon pop-out eyes here) CUTTING?!?!?! Oh this should be fun. Well, I'm sure it will be months before I get even close to that part seeing as how the body is worked on threes. Yeah, it takes me a good half hour to knit one round. Longer if there's a pattern. Yeah, this is a marathon pattern....

And finally, because it was cute, I give you a picture of a couple of my kitties.

The one on the left is Daisy. She's our oldest cat, I think she's 8 and then there's Pippin who's trying to suck up to her. She's not buying it, by the way, because she know the minute she turns her head to look away he's gonna be up ready to pounce on her. I just happened to catch him in a non-stalking pose. He decided to be in the I'm-so-cute-you-have-nothing-to-worry-about pose. Ha! At least Daisy knew better. Me? I was suckered into taking the picture...

The Good, The Bad and the Cheesey

*Phew*..... That was me breathing a sigh of relief now that this week is over! I can't believe I made it through!

The concerts were, let's just say, really good and really bad. Friday night's concert was really bad. So bad, in fact, that the entire soprano section stopped singing for about a minute on a three minute song. How could it have gone so wrong? Well let me tell you! The organ that was playing our notes was in the back of the room, we were in the front of the room. There was about 100 feet between the organ and the choir and I'm not sure if you've ever heard of this before but sound carrys through the air relatively slowly. (That's why you see the jet in the sky before you hear it). Basically what happened was the choir and the organ were off. It was a disaster, but I will say that we sung quite well on our acappella songs!

Sunday's concert was fabulous, not only did we sing well, we totally rocked the song we completely messed up the concert before! I can definitely say that that concert was by far the best we've done on a lot of those songs.

So now I don't have practice again until next year! Ah, it feels so good to say that. I know next year is about three weeks away, but still, I get a certain satisfaction from saying 'next year'.

I'm very excited about this week. Why you ask? Well, Thursday my sister is driving up from Maryland with my nephews to spend the weekend with us! I haven't seen them since this summer and lets face it, having three kids in the house all ages 10 and under is going to be interesting.

It's my middle nephew's birthday on the 18th so we've decided to do something special for him. We're going to Chuck E. Cheese . That's right, it's that magical place "where a kid can be a kid" and where I'm afraid of the bodily fluids lerking in the ball pit. But hey, if the kids enjoy it, why not? After that fun filled lunch, we're going to take him and his brothers to see the new Lemony Snicket movie . That part I'm actually looking forward to. I read a couple of the books, they were ok, but the movie actually looks good.

On the knitting front, very little has actually been done, but I'm hoping to post some pictures tonight or tomorrow on some of my projects. And I'd love to post a picture of a certain package that arrived friday, unfortunate it's a Christmas present so it's just going to have to wait, but I assure you, it's soooo nice!

Directions and Space Bubbles....

In an attempt to keep my loyal readers coming back I'm going to post yet again! Amazing, I know, especially after I complained about how busy I was.

Last night was the first of two dress rehearsals this week. It was at LeMoyne College. After last night I am now thoroughly convinced that my directional skills are not nearly as highly developed as I was led to believe. I made it to the campus perfectly fine and in fact I was quite proud of myself having never been there before and not having the slightest idea of where it was located prior to going. Feeling a bit cocky now, I left my car armed with nothing but my music and a poorly printed map of the campus.

This map was not what you might call specific. It had a circle drawn around the parking lot with an arrow leading to the building we were supposed to sing at, said building was also marked with a circle. You would think that I'd be able to make my way from a parking lot to a building but apparently this concept alluded me. The problem is a campus looks much different in real life than a 2-dimensional representation.... who knew?

So imagine if you will, me walking around a completely unfamiliar campus, trying to hide my little map everytime a student walked by. For some unknown reason I felt the need to "blend in" and act like a student myself. Perhaps this had to do with the fact it was not so long ago when I myself was a student. Of course, I was trying to avoid acting like a student who had no idea where the heck she was going. Heaven forbid I ask someone..... I suppose my sense of pride was a bit of a deterant there. I now have a new respect and understanding for why guys generally don't ask for directions....

Finally after about 10 minutes of wandering (though I have to admit I made it look as though I wasn't wandering. I'd pick a spot about 100 feet ahead of me and walk there looking like that spot was exactly where I wanted to go and when I got there, I'd pick another spot....) I happen to notice another person in the chorale. Thank the lord in heaven because at that point I wasn't so sure I'd be able to find my car again!

The real trouble I think is not that the campus is laid out badly (or that I can't seem to find my way from a parking lot to a building using a straight arrow on a map) it was the fact that there really weren't any walking paths. Coming from a school that was almost over abundant with walking paths I found it a little strange that on more than on occasion in my wandering I was walking on a road or a grassy lawn.

So now, with the help of a fellow chorale member I made it to the chapel. Did I mention it was a chapel we were to sing in? Anyway, rehearsal was quite the experience. I'm not sure if you've ever sung with a large group before but in general everyone gets on risers and crams together for several hours, standing all the while. Being that most of the people in the chorale are over the age of 50, I was not entirely surprised at the amount of complaining going on. Granted, it just plain sucks to have to stand that long, period, but when you throw in the fact that the "personal space bubble" is nonexistant, people tend to get a little grouchy.

One older woman in particular, who I had the immense joy to be standing next to, sticks out in my mind. She talked every time the music stopped to complain about how she had no room. She moved around so much that she managed to smack the girl in front of her on the head with her music book, oh..., I'd say about 20 times. This girl was none to pleased, she had that look on her face that said "if this lady smacks me again, I swear I'm gonna push her off the riser!" This would be quite feasable seeing as how this woman was standing on the end. Disaster was averted when, having had enough of "no personal space bubble time," the woman stepped off the riser onto the floor for the rest of rehearsal. That was when I breathed a sigh of relief because I was about to start complaining about how much she was complaining.... ironic, I know.

The absolute best part.... I get to do it all over again tonight. I feel something like that greek in Hades who had to push a boulder up a hill all day just to find it at the bottom of the hill the very next day. Or something like that, I'm not very good with greek myths.

Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be able to find the place we're singing at tonight and I'll have the patience and tolerance of a saint to deal with the complainer!

Busy Week and Allergy Blues

Not much posting will be done this week and let me tell you why....

1) I have dress rehearsal for the concert I'm in Tuesday night and Wednesday night so two of my nights this week are shot. I'm going to be missing Lost on Wednesday which I'm slightly peeved about but as long as I can get someone to tape it, I'm sure it'll be fine.
2) The actual concert is on Friday night and another one on Sunday afternoon. There goes my social life for this weekend. "What about Saturday?" you ask.... well Saturday I'll be sleeping all day because I'll be wiped from this week!
3) Thursday night is Survivor night.... at least I'll be able to watch one of my shows and possible knit a little. I've been commissioned to make a scarf for a girl at work. She wants to give it to her sister for Christmas. It's turning out pretty well if I do say so myself!

I haven't even been knitting that much recently. I finished the mitten linings for my grandmother's mittens and then I was left with a bit of a problem. I had no other projects that I really felt inspired to start. So I started spinning some of the roving I got at Rhinebeck. It's gorgeous. I really love it. From a distance it looks like a purplely grey color but when you look closer you can see it also has green and pink and blue in it. I'll have to post a picture soon....(when I'm not busy....)

I have some very sad news. I went to the allergist last friday for the skin test. I shutter thinking about it. The scratch test wasn't so bad, but being pricked with about 22 needles was very bad. The nurse was very nice though. She tried to talked to me about my knitting to keep my mind of the fact that I was being jabbed so much. And the bad part is, in another week I have to go back for the other half of the needles.... that's right, they only pricked me with half of them!

So you think that's the bad part.... it's not. The bad part is we found out what I'm allergic to. I am allergic to dust mites. Ok fine, I can handle that, just get some allergen barriers for my bedding, and clean a little more often. If only that were the only thing I'm allergic to..... when they did the scratch test another thing came up itchy..... cats. I'm so unhappy about this. I'm keeping my cats though, I really can't bare to think of life without them. And besides the nasal spray they gave me seems to be working quite well. I've been feeling excellent actually.

Well, that's the news from my corner of the world. I'll try to post some picture soon. Stay tuned!

I'm jumping on the wagon...

Since it seems these lists are inescapable (and I wanted to see if I actually could come up with that many things) here’s my list.

100 things about me

1. I was born in Annapolis, Maryland in1981
2. Green is my favorite color
3. I don’t wear a lot of green though
4. I’ve been in love twice
5. It didn’t work out either time
6. I’m not bitter about love.
7. I believe the right person for me is out there
8. I’m in no rush to find him
9. I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in psychology
10. My minor was philosophy
11. Apparently I’m a thinker
12. My mom thinks the cartoony picture in my blog profile looks just like me.
13. I’ve been asked if I’m anorexic on many occasions
14. I’m bitter about being asked if I’m anorexic
15. My friends & family know I eat like a pig
16. I’ve never dyed my hair
17. When I was a kid I used to think I could make the wind blow
18. I have reoccurring dreams about vampires
19. I don’t watch scary movies because I get too into them and freak myself out
20. The book Conversations with God changed my life
21. I’ve worn either glasses or contacts since I was in the 4th grade (9 years old)
22. I won several competitions for singing
23. I was the lead in two musicals in high school
24. I’m excited to have kids someday
25. When I’m thinking I rub the tops of my fingernails out of habit
26. I’ve never had braces
27. I have no cavities in my teeth
28. I have three nephews
29. My birthday is on the same day as Mother Theresa (Aug 27th)
30. I don’t like gold jewelry
31. I make funny faces to myself in the mirror every morning
32. I have a highly overactive imagination at times
33. I’ve been to China with a children’s singing group
34. Every summer I go on a family vacation with my mom’s side of the family
35. That’s 17 people total in one house for a whole week
36. That’s my favorite week out of the year
37. I cry at movies and TV shows where animals get hurt
38. I’ve thought about going back to school for zoology
39. I want to someday go to Australia and volunteer for an animal conservation project
40. I have very little tolerance for TV commercials,
41. they make me angry
42. and they’re stupid
43. I’ve never broken any bones
44. I’ve had stitches though …. twice
45. I’ve been told I’m graceful
46. I think I’m clumsy
47. I dance around the house when no one is home
48. I have to be in a good mood though
49. I love wrapping Christmas presents
50. I sing to myself… a lot
51. but again, only if no one is around
52. I can sing in front of big crowds
53. I have issues with singing in front of one or two people
54. My kittens make me feel more like a mom than a pet owner
55. They’ve also shown me I have more patience than I thought I had
56. The first concert I went to was Live on their Throwing Copper tour
57. I was in 10th grade
58. The drunk people there scared me at the time
59. I’ve learned to deal with drunk people after 4 years of college
60. I love reading sci-fi/fantasy books
61. Sometimes I wish I lived in their worlds
62. My over active imagination makes it easy for me to wish that
63. Sometimes I feel like life is one big movie without a soundtrack
64. I love video games
65. I used to think I wouldn’t be good at them
66. Turns out I am
67. My mom’s my best friend
68. I tell her everything
69. Can’t really imagine life without her
70. I can’t believe I’ve made it to 70
71. I’m not afraid of dying
72. I’ve been told lots of times that I’m an “old soul”
73. I tend to believe that
74. I live with my parents
75. I’m not ashamed of that
76. I hope to move out next spring
77. I lived on my own last year
78. It was the best experience ever
79. I’m a very emotional person
80. I hide it well
81. I’m very grateful for the life I’ve had so far
82. Ready for a cliché? I’m spiritual, not religious
83. I’ve never been political
84. Until this last election that is….
85. I’ve been to Paris with the French club in high school
86. I got to put my feet in the Mediterranean in Nice
87. The Mona Lisa was a lot smaller in real life
88. People drive crazy in Europe
89. I used to love it when my dad made rice krispy treats
90. He doesn’t make them anymore
91. My favorite hot drinks are Chai Lattes
92. I can’t stand coffee
93. I like the smell of flavored coffee though
94. I’ve been knitting for 7 years
95. It’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten into
96. I tried quilting but it just didn’t stick with me
97. Children laughing is the best sound in the world
98. It sometimes makes me cry
99. Told you I’m emotional
100. Yeah I’m at 100!!!

I hope you enjoyed this because it wasn't very easy coming up with that many!

Being Sentimental.....

As promised in my last post, I will be showing you all the festive goodness that came out of this past four day weekend. Our old faithful Christmas tree was put up:

Mom has really gotten into these theme trees since my brother and I left. She doesn't feel the need to put up all the ornaments that held sentimental value anymore. Nope, instead everything is white lights and angels. Oh and a little red ribbon for pizzazz.

When it comes to the sentimental ornaments, my brother and I went through them and picked out the ones we couldn't live without. We even fought over one that has been our favorite since the beginning. It's this little elf working on a Christmas light. It really is the cutest thing. Unfortunately I can't show it to you because this year it's my brother's turn to have it. Originally we did a coin toss and I got it so I got to keep it, well, last year the spirit of giving overtook me so I ended up wrapping it up and giving it to my brother as a present for christmas. I'm just a good sister like that. I wasn't always mind you, but I feel like I need to make up for all those times he got in trouble and it was actually me who started it.

So, without further ado, I will show you some of my favorite sentimental Christmas ornaments that I have hanging on my pathetically small four-foot Christmas tree.

This is the Gingerbread man that I've loved since we've had it. I think it's his smile that puts me in such a good mood!

And here's the little mouse sleeping in a santa hat. The bottom of the hat has sparkles on it which because the flash on my computer is so blinding, you can't see. And there's Ramses playing with the lights. I'm feeling a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation moment coming on so I quickly got him to stop playing with it.

And last but certainly not least:

Is that a Care Bear made of felt?

Why yes it is. I believe it's name was Sister Bear, but I could be wrong. You better believe we have the light blue Brother Bear as well. (I think it was one my brother couldn't part with). This ornament is actually as old as the original Care Bears cartoon. Yep, back in the day when Rainbow Bright and He-Man were new. And lets not forget the original My Little Ponies. Why are they bringing all of these cartoons back? Well, because they liked how our generation turned out and want to produce more of us of course.

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down memory lane for me..... On to knitting news.

I'd like to say that one can get a whole lot done on a four day weekend. These for example:

were started on Thursday night and finished Sunday morning. I can't even tell you how many different combinations I tried before I settled on this one. None of the others were quite right, hence the reason why I totally ripped out the blue and black ones. I think my grandmom's really going to like these.

I also started a booga bag out of some left over yarn I found in the stash. It's ready to be felted but I ran out of yarn for the strap so it may be a little short.... we'll see. I might have to do a little creative adding before I felt...

Twas the day After Thanksgiving....

Thanksgiving is now over. Funny how quickly the holidays come and go. This Thanksgiving isn’t going to go down as one of the most memorable in history, but it was wonderful all the same. The traditional fire in the fireplace was going, as was the football game on TV. We were particularly lucky this year to have snow.


As is tradition in our house, an over-abundance of food was cooked. My mom has a knack for making much more food than could possibly be eaten by seven people. I think one of the main reasons for this is the fact that she didn’t want anyone going home empty handed. Indeed I think that was an impossibility due to the fact that we not only had one turkey….. we had two.

That’s 26 pounds of turkey…..for seven people…..one of whom is vegetarian…..

Such are the holidays in my house. Another tradition has always been to put up the Christmas tree and decorations the day after thanksgiving.

Ah, there she is, old faithful, all tucked away. That is the 10-foot artificial tree we’ve had since I was ten. She has given us 13 years of service, dutifully allowing herself to be made and unmade year after year. Putting up with the cats who seem to be fascinated to no end by climbing through her branches. This year will be no different. In fact, she may see more climbing action due to the fact that there are now two new cats, still in kitten phase.

And then there are the various other Christmas decorations we’ve had packed away in the garage since last year…

And you thought your family had a lot of decorations. I’ll be sure to post pictures once there all up to show you just how festive a house can become!

As for knitting, I finished my Debbie Bliss cashmerino, cabled sweater in time to wear on Thanksgiving day. You should have seen me sewing in ends a couple hours before we were due to eat! I can tell you if there is anything I truly dislike about knitting, it’s sewing in ends. I, unlike most people I know, love to piece the sweater together. There’s just some underlying satisfaction I get from seeing those seams come together so perfectly. But the ends…..those I dread. But, I sucked it up and did them anyway and I was left with a wonderfully finished sweater….


If you’re wondering about the mittens….well….I frogged them. I wasn’t very satisfied with the way they were turning out and there was just something about them I didn’t like so….I ripped them out. It hurt, I know, but it had to be done. Today I’m going to be trying them again, in different colors and I think a different pattern. We’ll see if I like those better!

Weekend Update with ErLeCa

Allergy update: I am feeling much better! I am in love with this nose squirty stuff. I'm still a little stuffed up at times but man, the majority of the time I have been able to breathe! It's a lovely, lovely feeling. Unfortunately I have to stop using it on Friday because I have to be off all antihistamines, allergy meds, etc, seven days before my skin test.....bummer.

It has been an eventful yet relaxing weekend. I went to see The Incredibles Friday night. Excellent movie. I highly recommend it. Not only was it a great movie, but it had a great short film before it started. You know how Pixar always makes a short before all of it's movies. (My personal favorite is the one with the old man playing chess with himself!) This particular short involved a sheep and, if that wasn't already playing to the fiberholic in me, it also revovled around his beautiful fleece. I won't ruin the story for you, you'll just have to go see it.

Oh the knitting front, I will begin by saying I am the biggest hypocrite there is when it comes to knitting a particular item. We'll get to that in a sec. First, I have finished all the pieces of my wonderful, drool inducing, fibery goodness, Debbie Bliss cashmerino sweater. I started sewing it together last night.

I tried it on (because I'm that big of a dork that I have to try it on when only one side is sewn) and the sleeve is a tad bit tight so I think some blocking is in order. Other than that I LOVE IT! However, I'm slightly concerned about the amount of yarn I have left. I'm thinking the collar might not be as high as I want it to be. We'll have to see when I get there!

Now, on to why I'm the biggest hypocrite in the world. In a previous post I said I wasn't going to make any more mittens. Now I've made a liar of myself. But it's for a good cause. (I'm sure that's what all liars say, but I feel completely justified) My grandmom, who is 83 and still kicking, just found out that she has a heart arrythmia. This is the first major medical problem that she's had, which I'd say is pretty outstanding for an 83 year old who drives a Firebird. I kid you not, she has a Firebird in fire engine red. The real toping on the cake would be if it was a convertible, unfortunately she doesn't live that far on the edge! The women in my family are very long-lived. My great grandmother lived to be 95. And now my grandmom is getting up there, but I tell you she certainly doesn't act her age which I think is the secret to why she's so healthy! Anyway, I thought it would be really nice to make her a pair of mittens.

I wasn't sure I'd like the combination of light blue and black, but it's actually turning out really nice. I like how the light blue looks something like snowflakes. Now all you mitten addicts out there get to have another fix before I hang up my mitten needles for more than a few weeks! At this point, I can't guarantee I won't make another pair. Inspiration might strike and I may not be able to help myself.

By the way, I bought the best knitting book in the world this weekend: Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I've already made something out of it, but unfortunately I can't show you because it's a present for someone. Oh I'm so sneaky.

Hope everyone has a happy Day-Before-the-last-day-of-work-this-week day!