Knitting Bloggers

I added a few new blogs to my blog list on the side there. I just can not read enough about other people knitting... :) I love it. SO, if there are any blogs that you read regularly that aren't listed, leave them in the comments and I will check them out. I'm always on the lookout for new reading material.

W spent the day cleaning the house. He is amazing. I went to the Botanical Garden and Art Fair with my mom, and when I came home the dining room table was covered with my things... I think that was my hint to put my things away. I'm in the middle of that right now... but taking a break... I'm SOOO bad at keeping my things corralled. You would think I would be better at it, I like being able to find my things, I like my house looking neat and clean, but I just can not do it. I try and try. Even when things get ruined (as in wonderful handspun yarn with BEADS that I spun) because I left them out and the dogs got it, it still doesn't make me get my butt in gear.... and that brought me to tears.... I don't know what it is. Maybe having a baby will force me to clean?!? haha.

After leaving my mom's house she called to tell me that a HUGE black bear had walked down the street not five mins after I left! CRAZY! I'm glad we didn't run into it, as we walked from her house to the fair and it would not have been fun to run into a bear. I love Alaska, you never know what is going to happen next! And, just an FYI, my parents live in a neighborhood... not in the boonies. They don't even back up to a park or land like I do. Bears are everywhere...

Another funny thing, when I was going through the many bags that somehow pile up with my things in them (4 large bags at last count. Not including my small knitting bags... those just have one thing in them...) it was amazing the number of rogue knitting needles I found. As an added bonus, I did find a gift card to Bear's Tooth worth $20! So, I guess there is some good that can come out of cleaning... and I better get back to it. Then maybe if I still have time, I can finish plying the yarn on my wheel....

Very Quick

Just wanted to stop in and say hi. I'm still knitting... the baby blanket is trucking along.... I'm on the last main color of the front so I only have about 5 inches left before casting off half of the stitches. I feel like it is moving along a bit more quickly now and I put it down long enough to be friends with it again. I also am now on the patterned part of W's sock and I'm loving it. It is holding my interested and really just cruising right along...

A customer at work told me today that it was awesome that I didn't find out the gender of my baby... she said if we were supposed to know that, "there would be a window". Love it.

Also, overheard was someone complaining that they won't be drilling off of the coast of AK for oil. And how oil drilling has been going on up there for a long time and nothing has gone wrong. Now, I rely on oil for a lot of things, but I also know that it only takes one mistake to ruin everything. So.... yeah...

Alright, off to bed as I have to open the shop tomorrow. One more day of work and then three off. Whoo hoo!

Whoa! New look...

So, I was bored and played with the new blogger design layout... we'll see how I feel about this for a while...

So just a quick check in... no pictures of course, but lots of things done around here.

*Finished test knitting the hat. LOVE it. Planning on knitting another one out of some handspun (without the color work...) that I have in my stash (that I got in a handspun swap on Ravelry. It is amazing). Also plan on knitting another colorwork one as a gift.... shhh....

*Knit myself some French Press Slippers to wear around the house. Still need to felt them, but that won't take long and will hopefully happen tomorrow. Pictures then! :)

*Still knitting that darn baby blanket. I'm seriously over it. I think I only have like 8 inches to go before I can cast off the front, meaning the back/hood should go quickly because there will only be half of the stitches... but I'm so tired of it that it is taking a lot of will power to even take it with me when I have time to knit... I'm bad....

* Started knitting W a pair of socks... not because I was tired of the blanket or anything. :) They are out of the book Knitted Socks East and West that I picked up while in Portland last year for Sock Summit. I went to the book talk and everything, it was pretty awesome. I also have the yarn to knit myself a pair of knee high socks out of the book. I swatched for them and really want them.... maybe in a few years I will show you that FO.

*Found these mittens on Ravelry and now I'm having a hard time deciding what mittens to knit myself. I might need a pair for every day of the week or something. Or maybe just a bunch of different left and right ones... who says your mittens have to match?!? Then you don't have the dreaded one mitten syndrome... hmmmm.....

Alright. I'm off to eat an ice cream sandwich (Costco now carries these amazing ones from a company called 600lb gorillas and they are all organic and amazing), watch Always Sunny in Philly and then head to bed.

Seward

Here are some pictures that I took while in Seward. Actually, most of them are from the trip down there. It is such a pretty drive. We hiked exit glacier and then took the pups out by a river, as they weren't allowed by the glacier (which we didn't know, and that was kind of why we brought them, so I felt bad...). I also went to the yarn shop for the first time, and it was pretty nice! They had a pretty interesting selection of yarns, some of which I had never seen, which was really cool. And, of course, I had to stop at the fabric shop.  I bought a kit for a flannel baby quilt and the end of the bolt of the amazingly awesome star fabric that just NEEDS to be a birthday quilt for some little one. I haven't even put it away because I love looking at it so much. :) Without further ado, my pictures.

12 years ago this would have been the edge of the glacier. 

A sign showing the regression of the glacier. The years are marked on the road and the trail as you drive and walk in.

My dogs hate water. Snickers actually crossed the river at a shallow spot and then when we were calling him he was freaking out because he didn't want to cross where we were, as he would have to swim.  We had to walk him back to where he had crossed.... what a goof.

So that was my Saturday!! This Saturday is summer solstice... the longest day of the year. That also means we are going to start losing daylight. There is a HUGE solstice celebration going on downtown. I'll be working downtown, so I'll watch from the window! :) 

20 weeks down, 20 to go

I'm actually at 21 weeks now, to be super specific, but these pics were taken last week. I was doing so well at posting, but now with working both my jobs I'm not really home that much... so that will probably slow down to once a week again. So here are some pictures that show I actually am growing a baby.

Still no pictures of the yarn for the baby sleep sack. I am on the third color, which means I'm getting close to being done with the front... which I think will make it go a lot quicker since then I will only have half of the stitches to knit. Who knows though, I feel like the thing is taking years... I am going to be casting on for my test knit hat tomorrow and should have it done by the end of the week. I was so excited to knit something that wasn't that sleep sack that even the swatch was fun.... I am also going to start knitting myself a pair of French Press Slippers. That shouldn't take long. And because I'm teaching sock class, I might even cast on a sock... who knows. :) 

Other than that, things are pretty quiet here at the house. W is busy building (or at least thinking about building) his shed in the back yard. He has dug the ground out and now just has to figure out all the things he needs to buy and head to the store. I'll be excited to have all the stuff back in a shed instead of strung around the yard... We went to Seward this past Saturday and that was a lot of fun. I love it there. I want to move there so badly. I just feel like I need to live in a small town. I also bought all the stuff to make my own Italian sodas the other day at the store, which has been the highlight of my week so far! They are so yummy.... in fact, I'm going to go have one now with lunch and then get some sewing done... maybe I will have something to show by the end of the day!

Old FO pics

I know that I have promised pictures for a while. Here are a few to tide you over until I can get around to taking the others.... and I better get to taking pictures of myself... I'm getting bigger every day! First up, the Bringing home Baby romper. Just needs snaps and buttons... have to head to the store before I finish that up. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I think it will be perfect!

Next up, my nursing shawl. This was my first lace knit, and I have been itching to knit another shawl since this came off the needles. I just have a few things to finish up first (baby sleep sack, maybe socks for Weston, French Press slippers for myself)... I might have to start working on more than one thing at a time. Which is dangerous, I know... but with so much going on and me being so busy, it would be nice to be able to pick a project that matches my mood so that I can always be knitting. Right now, if I don't feel like knitting my sleep sack, I'm not knitting. That is wasted time. No time to waste!! Alright, here are the pictures of the shawl....

Alright, I have to walk the pups and head to work. I'm going to do my best to get pictures of myself tonight (my inlaws are coming over for dinner, so I will hopefully remember to get this done) and of the yarn for my sleep sack... I swear one day I will get my act together! 

Katrina Davort

Weston seems be be obsessed with soup lately. We went to Costco last week and I think he bought three different boxes of soup. Really?? Who needs that much soup? All I wanted was string cheese and dried fruit... Then when I got home from work last night, there was a whole crock pot full of homemade soup. What the heck are we going to do with all of this soup??? I guess I think it is a bit odd because soup reminds me of winter and I'm not really a huge fan of soup anyway... I guess I better start to warm up to it, because it may be all I'm having for the next month...

I still need to take pictures of the yarn for my baby nest I'm knitting. I'm almost on the second stripe, which is exciting. I realized yesterday that the striping may make it harder for me to do the button band, so I will have to think about it I want that to be striped, pick one color, or maybe hold two colors together when I knit it. I have also been scouring Etsy to find nice handmade buttons for it... (and no, none of the buttons in my mason jar FULL of buttons will do. This is a special project and it calls for handmade buttons.) This shop has the CUTEST buttons ever. It was all I could do to not order every set! I think I'm going to contact her to have her make me a special set, as I need 10 of a pretty similar size.

It finally rained! Not a ton, but the ground is wet, and I am happy. The weather still looks overcast today, so we might be getting some more rain, which would be fine... There are just too many fires here in Alaska already. I'm hoping the rain will help stop more fires and maybe even help calm the current ones down.

In other knitting news, I am going to test knit at hat for zigzagstitch. I'm pretty excited about that! I have never test knit before, but I've been wanting to try it out. I will post pictures as that progresses... I'm hoping to get the pattern today so I can head to the yarn shop... any excuse to go! :)

I think that is all I have for today... and for those of you who didn't understand the title, it is reference to the movie Juno. They joke about her house always smelling of soup.