Last night I found that all of a sudden my bedroom floor, closet and everything on the bottom shelf inside were covered in mold. *Sigh* But at least I have my dishcloths! Really, these will never get old. Just finished up the last one after my big cleaning spree. This batch is meant for the lovely people who run a tiny cafe where we are having our Sayonara SnB this Saturday.
After just lamenting my lack of free time for knitting and blogging, I have been sidelined with an unwelcome stomach flu, leaving me at home on the couch this weekend instead of at the big, year-end, blowout camping trip with all my friends. But I'm trying to look on the bright side of things, instead of moping around. All this added free time that I wasn't expecting! Thank goodness for wireless internet and surfing blogs on my couch.
It's that time of year again. I finished another dishcloth last night!
And a meme all about me if you're interested. Thanks for the tag, Ann!
1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was 15, a year younger than all my friends, so while everyone was working full-time summer jobs, my mom took me with her to Japan, to visit a bunch of her quilting friends. They were lovely, but the heat, strange foods and language barrier made me extremely uncomfortable the whole time. It was my first time traveling overseas and I was pretty overwhelmed. By the time the trip was over, I was pretty convinced that I wouldn't ever be back here. Funny how things change!
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Do the dishes
2. Shower
3. Watch Ugly Betty
4. Upload photos to Flickr
5. Cast on for another dishcloth
3. Snacks I enjoy:
Oh, I love snacks. Where do I start? Anything salty and sweet, like chocolate-covered pretzels or trail mix with m&m's. Also, cherries, chex mix, wheat thins, mint slice... I could go on and on.
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Visit my family more than once every two years, get a personal trainer, start a college scholarship fund.
5. Places I have lived:
Cleveland, OH
Washington, DC
Lyon, France
Mie, Japan
6. Jobs I have had:
1. Babysitter (probably the hardest of all my jobs)
2. Caddy
3. Telemarketer
4. Dorm security guard
5. Information booth worker
6. Admissions Aid
7. Resource Center Intern
8. Assistant Language Teacher
9. Prefectural Advisor
7. Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better:
You! If you're reading this and haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged.
A finished object that fits!
I love my finished bright lite socks and would knit them again and again if I had the yarn (must go double check in my stash). The colors, the stripes, and the speed with which I could finish a sock on #3 dpns all added to my enjoyment of this project. They're being carefully packed away for my upcoming move and this year's winter (come soon!).
Recently, I've taken a hit in my internet-surfing, blog-reading free time. I hate to admit it, but I used to do most of my blog surfing and posting, for that matter, at work. My job was not that taxing and I had a lot of down time. But in anticipation of the end of this work year (end of July) and the beginning of the new one (August) things have suddenly picked up to hyper speed. Not only am I always busy at work, but my Saturday morning blog reading time is often dedicated to work-related emails. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about work. I love my job, and I am very excited about my new job in August. But seriously, how do all you full-time, "real" job-workers do it?
In the recent months I have let not only my posts, but the friendships I have made through my blog slip with the exception of one (hi, Mom!). I am still lurking on a lot of blogs, skimming while I gulp my morning coffee or at other bad times when I never comment, which I feel bad about. I don't feel a particular need to apologize for lack of posting, but I do want to take more time to stay in better touch with the bloggers that I still do love to read. So if you're still out there, HI! I'm still in the neighborhood and from now on I'm making an effort to be a little more vocal. That, or I might just keep following your progress and queue over on ravelry. :)
This is what I was going to name my post on my cute tiny cable sock that turned out too tight. Do I knit another too-tight sock, I wondered, or rip the whole thing out and start again, even though it looks so good (on a thinner foot)? Lucky for me, when I pulled it onto take a picture of the over-stretched ribs, it looked and felt just right. So yay, a finished sock!
After my too-big Ms. Marigold which is still sitting in the closet, I couldn't take another failed sizing issue. I'm casting on this afternoon for sock two, so that I have something small to work on when I head to Tokyo and back this week.
I've decided to let my finished Ms. Marigold sit for a while, at least until I've had a chance to wash and dry a swatch to check for shrinkage (although it's doubtful as things usually only get bigger in my washer). I also have my hands full with my visitors at the moment so it's easier to forget about it for a while than to sit down and take it apart just yet.
Thanks to my mom's good advice I went back to some trusty socks. I am still working on Hanami off and on and my crochet squares are progressing slowly, but it is good to have something like socks to pour my free time into. I 've never knit socks with such thick yarn (Silk Garden Lite) and I was shocked to see how fast I got to turning the heel! After seeing Lolly's socks a few months ago I was smitten and I picked up some yarn but it took me a while to get it on the needles. I just wanted to cast on as I will be on and off trains with my visitors this weekend and wanted to have something easy to pick up and put down. But now I am almost to the finishing point of the first sock! We'll see if I can cast off and on again for the second sock while I am still hot on this one.
I also re-knit the cable section on this sock because the pattern that I had decided on was more complicated and looked much more average in real life than in my head. Instead of four-stitch cables I started again with tiny two-stitch cables after reading this great tip which I had never heard of before! Just like that, my cable socks became a million times easier and now I am clicking right along again.
I am currently trying to work my way through the yarn I moved to my new apartment in a big plastic container, so that I can fit more of my knitting notions (and not just the yarn!) into the giant bin before my next move in July. So even though I have a lot of ideas and projects in the queue, I am just as happy using these yarns that I have been hoarding and seeing that space start to open up. However slowly that may be.
"Draw a crazy picture, write a nutty poem, sing a mumble-gumble song, whistle through your comb. Do a loony-goony dance 'cross the kitchen floor, put something silly in the world that ain't been there before."
-Shel Silverstein
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