Sarah to the rescue!!!!

Last night my friend Sarah came over to watch Lost (I think I am becoming obsessed with this show, it is messing with my head) and to do some knitting. This is becoming a much enjoyed Saturday night ritual. Anyway, I decided to start on the "Yo Drop It!" scarf from the Stitch N Bitch Nation book, because I really didn't feel like starting over on my brown cardigan sweater (from the first SnB book). I need to start this sweater over on size 5's because I am a tight knitter who can't change and my gauge was just coming out way too tight on the size 4's the pattern calls for. So, I started on the scarf feeling confident about doing the yarn over's because I had the SnB handbook nearby to refer to. Except I just was not understanding the whole concept of a yarn over (its been a while since I've done one) and I spent probably close to 2 1/2 hours making the same mistake over and over before Sarah set me straight. I was making it way harder than it needed to be by thinking that the yarn over was a whole stitch in itself rather than the simple act of bringing the yarn to the front. So, now that I know what I'm doing with this, its pretty darn easy and pretty fun too. Here is my progress so far:

It's hard to see in the picture, but I think its coming out pretty good. This is also my first project knitting on straights (not counting dpn's). Its a little weird to get used to after knitting so much on circulars, but I think I could get used to it.

I have to say, this has been a great birthday week. Sarah gave me some gorgeous Noro and Cascade 220 yarn to make the Booga Bag pattern, which I have been wanting to make for a while. She also gave me the Mason Dixon Knitting book. What an incredibly thoughtful, just wonderful gift. I feel very lucky to have the incredible friends that I have. Here is the yarn and the gorgeous basket that she put the yarn in:

It's not the best picture, sorry about that. Here is the basket:

Isn't that beautiful? Now I have a stash basket for my growing yarn stash!!! Sarah says now I need a stash weasel!! Ha ha ha... Speaking of my growing yarn stash, here is the yarn that Debbie and Kim from work gave me:

I'm thinking of doing a scarf and some socks with these yarns, I really love the colors. The bear kit will be a challenge for me, I've never knit with the eyelash type of yarn. I will probably start the bear next quarter when I am not taking a full load at school. :-)

Okay, enough blogging and admiring my yarn stash, I need to get off the couch and get going so I can get psyched about algebra and going to the library today for some serious studying. Woo-Hoo!! I will leave you with a picture of one of my cats, Della, she is taking advantage of a chilly Sunday morning in Seattle to do some serious relaxing...

I'm not a Slacker!!

I know that probably no one really reads this, but I will apologize anyway for the length of time that it has taken me to post again on my blog. Let me explain to you what I've been doing. Well, the biggest thing that has happened is that the fall quarter has started, and I am taking a whopping 20 credits at school and am continuing to work 40 hours a week. So, you can imagine how that has been keeping me quite busy. I am taking Spanish 101 (I've taken it before, but its been a few years, I want to be a bi-lingual (Spanish) elementary school teacher, so its important), American Popular Music (I get to write a paper on Phish, how cool is that?), Elementary Algebra (I have a great teacher, she is making this class fun for me) and Nutrition (I'm finding out how bad I eat when I am taking 20 credits and working full time). School is hectic, but I am enjoying it and doing pretty well too. And, amazingly enough, I still find time to knit!!
I haven't been feeling that well over the last month or so. My nasal allergies have been going nuts which is never fun. I am going to try accupuncture for them on Saturday. Any insight anyone has on accupuncture would be great.
Justin and I also went to his mom's in Southern California for a few days, then we went to Ensenada, Mexico for a few days for Justin's cousin's wedding. That was a lot of fun and a much needed vacation for us. I spent a Sunday with my best friend Julia, we were driving around looking for yarn shops in the area, and would you believe it, they were all closed!!!! People knit on Sundays!!! I had thought about going out to the Knit Cafe in Santa Monica, but decided against it. In hindsight, we should have done that instead. Oh well. I was all excited to go to Mexico and look for yarn shops, but the only one in Ensenada, no one seemed to know where it was. Sigh. Oh well. On the other hand, I did bring my knitting and enjoyed a lot of time outside in the patio area knitting and gazing out at the ocean, check this out...

It was so nice, I could handle seeing that every day. So, as soon as we got back, school started and its been super busy ever since.

So, yesterday was my birthday, I am now officially a "30-something". I'm not freaking out about this, I think my 30's will be great and I am embracing them. I have finally figured out what I wan to do with my life, I am happy where I am, and things are good. I got some cool gifts for my birthday. Some friends at work gave me a bunch of yarn (the perfect gift!!!!) Unfortunately, the battery on the digital camera has died, so I will take pictures when the battery is charged up again. Before it died though, I did take some pictures of some other stuff. Justin's mom gave me some really pretty yarn that I saw in California so that I can make a really cute V-neck sweater pattern from the Cascade website. I love this yarn, I can't wait to get started on this one.

I think this is going to come out sooooo nice. A couple of weeks ago, I got some yarn that I bought off of eBay. I am working on the cardigan sweater from the first Stitch N'Bitch book. I am on the back part, I only have about 23 rows done, I think the back is 94. I didn't include all the skeins, only two.

Last weekend I got creative after seeing this on an episode of Knitty Gritty on DIY, my favorite show. I made some point protectors for some of my needles out of modeling clay, the kind you back in the oven. Here's a closer look:

I need to practice and get better, but it was fun, and I think its a neat idea. I did finish my checkerboard scarf right after we got back from Mexico, here it is:

I think it looks pretty good, and its getting cold here in Seattle, so it was perfect timing. Well, I need to sign off and get ready for school. We are discussing Elvis tonight in music and I am excited for math (who would have ever expected that???) so I can find out how I did on my test on Tuesday. Thanks for reading and happy knitting everyone!!!!