I've been lazy

I won't lie. I've been really lazy and unmotivated. So in terms of knitting/crocheting, I havent' done THAT much, and I think it's partly due to the fact that I got fed up with the baby hat from DaleGarn, which had pattern that wasn't exactly well written all the time. I mean, it's not a difficult thing to knit, but for a while, I was doing things wrong. Ugh. So it is sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to pick it up again. I guess if I have time this weekend, I'll pick my way back through all those little loops to fix those mistakes.

But in other news, I finished my Totoro...and Adam kept trying to take it home with him. (And he knew it's for the amigurumi swap this coming Wednesday)! I am really pleased with it, despite the fact that my finger definetely is a bigger fan of knitting than crochet.

I'm also still working on these mittens. My goal this time is to finish them by Christmas. Certainly I can finish these mittens by Christmas. I just have to finish the pairs!

And in non-knitting related news--these are my trollbeads so far. The new Spring collection comes out this month! Can't wait!

Aching finger

I think I prefer knitting to crochet. I fear that my crochet hook is really kind of uncomfortable. I probably need one of those squishy things to put on the hook...but I don't know--depends on if I decide to become a hard-core amigurumi factory.

My SnB group is having an amigurumi swap, and I am making something pretty cute. Though before I could start, the incomparable Andi had to teach us the basics of single crochet, increases, decreases, and making a circle shape. Then I picked my pattern, and started on it. But pretty soon, it started taking on a very odd shape: all steep on one end and flat on the other. Actually, it looked rather like a yarmulke. I contemplated making a yarmulke, but decided that maybe this really wasnt' the time to do that.

But this was my first attempt at crochteting the start of the amigurumi...

So I ended up ripping it out, and starting over again. Got about 5 rows in before I started getting rather sleepy, and decided to pick it up again in the morning.

As I did a few more rows in the morning, I realized I still was getting that odd half-flat shape, so I tried again, but this time used a stitch marker to keep track of where I was (I suppose my memory must be going?

It started looking a little more like a bowl, or a mini bucket hat, as evidenced in the next picture.

Then I started getting really excited and kept on going, even as I watched a rather bad "action/suspense" movie on Lifetime (it was something with Lauren Holly being a police officer and a serial killer, who was obsessed with killing the doctors who chose not to abort him, etc., etc. Quite a cop-out at the end. But anyway, the amigurumi is shaping up, and together and is looking quite neat already. As I mentioned, I have a love-hate relationship with crochet; I like that I can make amigurumi, but I hate the way that my fingers ache. Or maybe it's because I've been doing this throughout the whole day? And tomorrow, I'm going to try and not do too much amigurumi--I must do my readings for school! And class prep! Stuff like that, which is supposed to make me look all responsible and grown-up

Now as far as knitting, I've also been working on a baby hat for my friend's baby (who is going to be born in February). Anyhow, it's not a difficult pattern, but it's not well written--I think because it's originally a Norwegian pattern, and something gets kind of lost in the translation. So I've done too many increases, when there really should only be two increases per row. What a pain--I have to rip back a bunch of rows so I can set things right. I'm not in the mood to do that right now, because of the amigurumi.

But when the hat is done, it should look very cute.

Before I started the crochet amigurumi, fear struck a chord in my heart, and I decided that I should knit one small toy/amigurumi in case crochet took a while to figure out.

Behold the Kiwi!

Here I am!

The new year begins. And with that, I share with you some of my goals for the new year.


1) knit something lace. without getting the random, abstract holey-patterns.

2) Write an actual knitting pattern.

3) de-stash. This means: no new yarn, unless I absolutely need it. I think some of my dream projects may need to take a back-burner for a little while. And some people may get some lovely yarn as a result of de-stashing.



















And this is my attempt at #1:

I've always said that I hated knitting lace. The reason is that I end up with holes in all the wrong places and can't quite figure out how to get back to a place where I should be. But after seeing the scarf that someone in my group made for her secret scarf pal, I was inspired. I loved this pattern so much (Brooke's Column of Leaves) that I just had to try it. When I went to see my friend NK a few days after Christmas, her grandma took us to this yarn store (Birds of a Feather), where I saw this sparkly yarn. And you know how much I LOVE sparkly. So of course, I had to get it...and was wondering the entire time what I was going to do with dark grey sparkly yarn. Make a lace scarf, of course!

And while I spent a few hours knitting the first 12 rows repeatedly, ending up with the wrong number of stitches and holes in the wrong places, I frogged them and started over again. I'll admit that the first rows aren't perfect, but after a while I can handle it. As for memorizing the pattern, no way can I do that! My memory is starting to get patchy now, and for me to memorize a knitting pattern where I have to keep track of yarn overs, decreases...yeah, right. But it has gotten to the point when I can sort of watch TV and knit at the same time. Ok, I can "watch" the TV commercials and knit at the same time. The first few rows, I had to talk myself through the pattern. Anyone who would have happened upon me would have heard: "slip one, knit two. one, two. Slip, knit, pass slipped stitch over...yarn over...knit two. One, two. Purl two. One, two. Knit seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...okay. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Knit two together. Yarn over...where am I? Yarn over...no, I did that..." and you get the idea, right till the end, where I say to myself, "Yarn over, knit four, slip one...One, two, three, four...huh? I missed a stitch somewhere? Great, I have to start over again."















This other scarf is the Vogue anniversary scarf, with 25 individual flowers. While the scarf and flowers are not difficult to knit, the process of weaving in all the ends is quite tedious. If I do this again...hmm. If ever, I will make sure I have lots of time to weave in ends. This scarf went to my secret pal in my SnB group exchange.

Shall I learn to crochet?

Actually I've been so busy, especially with work (leading up to Christmas) and dealing with busy crowds...selling a lot of Trollbeads in the past two weeks (I swear, I must be the only one selling them to new people)! I've been working nearly every day, actually, and am quite exhausted. (Today, being the day after Christmas, I am especially exhausted). On Christmas Eve, I didnt' sleep well (no, I was not expecting Santa Claus). But I was just so exhausted, not to mention that I had some bizarre dreams that I was yelling at my ex-boyfriend (!) about Very Awful Things that happened. Very weird.

My (current) boyfriend ;) gave me some knitting things: a bag from knitty.com, a t-shirt about not sharing needles and a mug that says, "knitaholic". Cute, huh?

In trollbeads news, I had a bit of excitement: I have a Facebook fan club for Trollbeads, and a couple days ago, a couple of the artists for the beads actually joined the group! How cool is that? And my mom and dad got me a necklace that I've been coveting (trollbeads, of course). I have no beads as of yet--I sold almost everything I love to customers, because, well, profit is not a bad thing to have at all.

In knitting news: scarf swap (I put my camera somewhere and I am too pooped to go find it and its memory card) was cool. I finished the scarf I made for my secret knitting pal, who turned out to be Laura. I used the pattern from Vogue Knitting. My scarf is BEAUTIFUL (the one that was knitted by the incomparable Meg. I will post pictures later (when I figure out where I put my camera...) Thanks to Meg!

And because the scarf swap was so much fun, we're doing an amigurumi swap. Now, I am a knitter, not a crocheter, so this will be interesting. I found a cute knitted pattern that I am dying to try, and I think I may try to crochet something. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants that I need, in order to get a little better at crochet. We'll see how that goes. I may end up knitting two little amigurumi things instead, but I'll try my hand at crocheting something a little simpler to start with. We shall see how this works out.

Whoo-hoo

This week, we discussed factor analysis in statistics. I don't remember a thing from the lecture. Because at this point, it doesn't matter, but maybe in the future, it will, and I will have regretted not paying 100% attention. it's a bit like having senioritis.

And today was my LAST learning and conditioning class. We talked about amnesia, which is something I hope I never have. Today was also my last reading processes class, and it's like having a huge weight lifted off my chest, though I still have to finish up a paper (I am seriously almost done), write an exam, and study my head off and get all this reading done prior to the exam, so that I can at least squeak by with a B or a B- .

I also probably was not very nice to my annoying student on Wednesday. Call it a culumnation of frustration with her, but my irritation has been building over this entire semester. She always asks, "Is this going to be on the exam?"--but she never asks in class--it's always after class and she'll keep me for a long time, and I have been very annoyed with that fact. I was ready to lose it. She didnt' ask me, "Is this going to be on the exam?" but she did ask, "Should I study this?" and I said, "I can't tell you what to study or not to study, because it's not fair for me to tell you and not tell the other 55 students in the class." At this point, I knew I was getting snippy, but I didnt' much care at that point. For those of you who know me, you know I'm not the type to do that. But just all this frustration. Then I think she tried to kiss up to me, cause she was all like, "Well, I know that you must be so smart that you can understand this material so easily, but everyone studies a different way, blah blah", and the thing that went through my head...truth be told...I was one of the few people who didnt' get an A in anatomy and physiology, and I struggled with this very same topic that I teach. Ha! I think I told her something like how she just has to study her notes, get the book (which I recommended to her like 4 times! and she still did not get)!

I hope she is not in my class next semester. If she is, I will have to take a very deep breath. I have to stop writing about her, because it makes me mad all over again. I hope that if she plans to be a speech pathologist, that she doesn't make it into the program, because for someone to pretty much want to be spoon-fed all the answers tells me that maybe this person isn't exactly the type of person who would be able to think on her feet and be quick enough to come up with solutions. Much of what is done is, how do I say...we have to be able to synthesize all the information and be able to connect the dots between the various clinical things and anatomical and theoretical. And I can tell she doesn't get it.

Here's a good example. I gave an entire lecture on the cochlea for THREE DAYS. In my lecture (powerpoints) I had multiple pictures of the cochlea, which depicted the structures (including the basilar membrane, tectorial membrane, etc.) and she didn't understand that all the things I was talking about was all in the cochlea. She kept me literally for 2 hours one day, and at the end...she was like..."OH! So the basilar membrane is in the cochlea!"

Well duh. That's what the entire 3 days was about, and none of my other students had that problem. Or perhaps they took the time to look at the diagrams and photos. I know this is mean, but I don't want this student to do well on her exam.

Now I need to talk about happier topics, so I can go to sleep not feeling annoyed. Then I went to Joanns to pick up some knitting needles--the ones I needed are currently on another project, so I thought I'd just go ahead and get myself another pair. See, what happened is that I started a scarf for my SnB secret pal person, and picked it up...lost some of the stitches and my stitch marker for the beginning of the round fell off. I'm not about to count off hundreds of stitches again, so I am doing something different. I've started it already and I feel like I'm making progress. It's in a lovely shade, and the yarn is so nice and soft. It's definetely a unique pattern, and it's very easy (that is, I can watch TV and knit at the same time. Not that I have loads of time to do so--but tomorrow, I ought to be able to knit for a couple hours before heading off to work!)

Just a few more weeks!

A few weeks ago, some of us went to PnP, which was a nice, relaxing sort of trip. Considering that I've been an absentee member of the group this semester, this was much-needed and very much welcome--just to get away and knit. Not that I got a lot done, but I did get started on one mitten for a gift. Having tired of the pattern, I decided to start a different mitten pattern before returing to size 1 needles. It was tedious, to say the least! Once it's done, and once Christmas is over, I will post pictures of my gifts. i'd hate to ruin any surprises!

I also did lots of grading at the retreat. very, very exciting stuff.

In other news, I've just started on my scarf swap scarf. I am hoping it all turns out okay, but the pattern is pretty easy. However, it is knit longways, so it feels like it takes forever just to get one row done. It's going to be fun. Once I've got a little more, there will be pictures somewhere.

The Tech Bag is looking good--even though it's fallen by the wayside due to my other gift projects. I'm thinking this is actually a lot of fun, and I really like the idea of using color cables in stuff. So now I'm really getting into the color stuff, fair isle and stuff too. I'm getting some good ideas--just have to see if I can carry them through.

I'll be honest. I am a bona fide geek, but not by choice.

Why, you may ask?

Next Monday is an official holiday (Veteran's Day) which we have off from the university...and I am so excited. Not because I have a day off--but because I have a day off, I have time to do homework! I have the WHOLE weekend -- well, Sunday, PLUS Monday to write a paper (or at least get started), do my lecture planning, and my psychology homework and my statistics homework! And I can actually sleep a little more! Perhaps I'll even have time to pick up the clothes from the floor of my bedroom! Wow! Oh, yeah, and knit. And I will always have time for Dancing with the Stars, which is my guilty obsession and pure moment of being brain-dead for about an hour and a half. This is very exciting, indeed.

Other points of excitement: Although I have very little time to knit anymore, I do have a little more of the tech bag completed (there is a small mistake, but I will not point it out. It adds to the charm of the bag, I suppose. Isn't there something about those rug-weavers who have a small mistake to add their signature to their rugs?)

And, I have an actual vacation coming up (hence, another reason to be very excited about Veteran's Day; I can get homework completed before I go to Peak-n-Peek (or is it Peek-n-Peak?)

I just have to make it through the rest of this week. I've an exam on Thursday and I feel very unprepared. Hopefully with some maniac studying tomorrow, I'll at least be okay with the material to scrape by with a "B"--which is what I'll be happy with. I will buy myself something nice (i.e., a new Trollbead) if I can scrape through it all. I hope I can be okay on the exam--the material is not intuitive for me, but I'll try.

Human tetris

Is this not one of the weirdest things you've seen?

Whew

The next couple weeks, dear readers, are going to be hectic. I've been at work the past week, practically had a meltdown earlier this week (ensuing in sobs and sniffles--ok, so I was also sick--can I help it if I make a very bad sickie? And I really, really wasn't in the mood to teach, but I went anyway?) The upside--no statistics homework this week (YAY) but I know it translates to stressfully difficult homework next week. Ah, well. Can't win them all.

So what else--last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I worked at the store, since it was Sweetest Day (no, my boyfriend did NOT get me anything, since he stubbornly insists that Sweetest Day is a "fake holiday"). I think I have a little more work to do on him. It is my duty as a gift shop girl to make my men recognize holidays of all sorts. Especially where I am the lucky recipient.















In other news (here is more shameless plugging for our store--maybe someone will read this ? Our store is having a Trollbeads Trunk Show at Vale Edge Hallmark & Florist in Ravenna, Ohio on November 2, from 6-9 PM (mark your calendars, ladies, and bring your girlfriends. Guys, don't be like my boyfriend--get those women (mom, sister, girlfriend, wife, daughter, grandma, niece) a Trollbeads Bracelet. I guarantee they are very cool. Anyway, we will be having drawings for free beads...our rep will be there with what looks like a gazillion beads, and we have an amazing special for that evening: Buy 3 beads, get the bracelet absolutely free. If that isn't a deal, I don't know what is. Need a reminder about what a Trollbead bracelet looks like? Here's mine (I just need a couple more beads and I can finish this one off!)

It is also Hallmark Holiday Open House that weekend. Now, I've got a funny story about this. My parents completely forgot that the Open House is in just a bit over a week--and they couldn't figure out why I, or our day manager were so stressed out. Our employee is stressed because she has been trying to make sure everything is in place at the store (i.e., ornaments, cards, displays, etc.), while I kept bugging my mom to please bring home the things I need to print out and organize on the computer, so everything is all sent out and stuff. It just occurred to them today why both the manager and I were practically tearing our hair out (and this also contributed to my sick-stress meltdown on Monday, too).

Also, I've started the tech bag, designed by Andi. Pretty cool if I say so, myself. I am getting used to knitting with colored cables and stuff. Quite fun stuff.

Whew.

Only a few more days left in the week.

And, no learning and conditioning class on Thursday, but still I have Reading Processes.

Good thing: I am DONE with my first exam of the semester--so on Friday, I am going to buy myself a Trollbead for all my hard work (even if I made up answers for my question about Panic Disorders and Anxiety Attacks. What's funny is that my classmate also made up the same, or similar answer).

This is what I am getting:--Carly by Trollbeads. The story: A distinct voice and a unique personality. Carly Simon was one of the strong female artists of the seventies, who made quite the statement in the music scene with her hit “You’re so vain”.

I can't wait!!! I've not bought any beads since August (when my class ended). I've been very good about not randomly buying beads, but still have been lusting over them. Can you tell I am completely hooked???

In knitting news, I will be working on the tech bag sometime soon (my SnB group is having a knit-a-long)-- Andi over at KnitBrit.com will be teaching us all how to do that.

Argh

I have finished grading exams for my professor. Problem though--I need to do a corrected exam score, because no one-- I repeat -- NO ONE got a score in the A range! Ugh. And the prof gave me some complicated way of adding points to the grade, but I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to do it. I'm tempted to just make the highest score a 100%, since only 5 people actually ended up in the "B" range, before a corrected score. We'll see. I'll sleep on it tonight.

Know what's cool?

What's really cool?

Today one of the volunteer editors saw a picture of a hat that I knitted, and they put it up on the front page of that particular pattern--check it out! Very cool, isn't it?

And in other news--I am back to teaching, and taught my first class today, which went better than I thought it would. Now just need to get through the rest of the semester--LOL! Tomorrow I will write my lecture (somehow) and start grading exams. Hopefully the math will click for my students on Wednesday.

I'm skipping Rhinebeck this year, though :( Oh well.

Pooped

Frankly, I'm just a wee bit pooped. It's been a stressful couple weeks, what with school getting turned topsy-turvy, and my schedule changing like crazy. Not to mention endless meetings with professors and not a whole lot of time to myself. (But when I DO have time, I end up knitting a couple rows and watching a sitcom or something). Essentially, in the last week, I've had about 3 or 4 meetings with various professors and people of importance, which is tiring, considering one of them works at a hospital about an hour away. Well, actually that one isn't a professor, but rather, a former professor of mine, who I'll be doing my independent study with. For those who knew me back in the day, when I went to college, the words "independent study" combined with "short" and "balding" should give you an idea who I'll be working with. Not that I mind, but I'm just exhausted thinking about it. Despite that, I still wake up super early in the mornings--I blame all those early morning meetings that I've been running to!

One of the other professors that I met is one that had surgery this Wednesday. In anticipation for surgery, they quickly arranged for me to teach his undergraduate course in hearing science, and need I say, I barely remember any of those topics. And it frightens me when I tell people I am going to teach hearing science, and then they grimace, and brightly say, "Oh, you'll be great!" This includes the aforementioned former professor as well as some of my PhD student colleagues. I'll just tell my students to bear with me for a week or so; they do know that this was a sudden thing. Hopefully they'll forgive all the math that I may butcher. (By the way, I really don't like math, despite the fact that I have, in the span of about 4 semesters, taken three statistics courses).

The sad part is that when I knit (unless I am taking the time for appointment TV -- that is, Ugly Betty or Dancing with the Stars), I feel like I'm wasting time! And that's not a good way to be! I blame the PhD program!

Yes, I am alive!

I actually haven't been posting lately, mostly because (1) I've been lazy, or (2) haven't been knitting THAT much. Some, but not a lot. But I made some little baby sweaters with some oddball yarns that I have left over. One is this one:

It's a sweater from Debbie Bliss baby. Actually, i made another one, it's pinkish (actually makes me think of froot loops) but I dont' know where it is. it is somewhere in my mom's suitcase, and it's been squirreled away for my cousin, who is expecting a baby girl sometime this fall. I'm afraid to dig through her suitcase, because I dont' want to mess anythign up.

I'm also working on my Boatneck sweater from Fitted Knits. Had some issues with it (wrong gauge! Ack!) But I will be patient as possible!

I've also started classes again, so I was rather stressed out for a couple weeks, and not sleeping well. But a week or so ago, Amy, Martha, Andi, and I went down to Columbus for a yarn trip, really enjoyed Temptation Yarns. we also checked out Yarnmarket, which was pretty impressive and has a lot more yarn than you think it would.

In other (exciting) news--I have a ravelry account! Find me at jukeboxheroine! Whee! It's addicting, like myspace or facebook. But without the crazy blond hos who want to be your "friend."

Post #101

Well, I didn't realize that my last post was the 100th post! If I'd known, maybe I would have done something celebratory? (P.S., I apologize in advance for any wonkyness in the way the blog post looks--for all the empty spaces and words that blogger refuses to change. Oh well.)

But over the past few weeks, here is what has happened: I am in class (ugh), BUT it's not too bad, just at a lousy time in the day: right smack dab in the middle of the afternoon. But at least my friend Tameka (blogless) is in it, as well as this guy, who was in my quant class all last semester...but I couldn't figure out where I had seen him, and I found him on friendster.com. Turns out we both went to the same, small undergraduate college--and lived in the same DORM. Hilarity ensued--but even more so when this other guy (he looks a couple years older than me) overheard us and mentioned that he also went the same college, too. Ha! Small world!

But in terms of knitting content:

This is the Sunflower Tam from Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughn. Very pretty. A little aggravating at times to knit, becuase I had to pay attention to which stitches I was on, and oops, I dropped some stitches off the dpns at the end. And the tam makes my head look big, but it is kind of cute. I may make another of these in a different yarn, too. It's kind of hard to resist the pattern.

I also started a knitting project this past Tuesday from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel, and I have the yoke finished, and the beginnings of one sleeve. I'm really pleased. It's my exercise in stash-busting. After this, I think I'll try the mohair wrap sweater in Fitted Knits, or maybe something with this nice caramel colored yarn that I have.

In other non-knitting news, I am still in love with Trollbeads. We had our first private bead party on Friday, and actually it turned out to be fun and a good thing--and I'm hoping we'll have a few more in the future (it's a good way to make a good deal of profit in a couple hours. Not to mention that there are some CUTE trollbeads out now for the summer--such as this one:

From top to bottom : The Juggler, Circus Elephant, and Double Flower

The story behind the Juggler: The three balls (pearl, coral and lapis lazuli) dance through the air faster and faster, while the juggler slowly and effortlessly bends her back around the chain till she is standing on her head. A world-class artist.

The story behind Circus Elephant: The circus elephant is everybody's favorite. It tumbles good naturedly around the circus ring in its own playful way.

The story behind Double Flower (which is prettier in person, too): In the summer night, they open up. Fragile and soft in the moonlight, up against the cobalt blue sky that never really darkens this time of year.

A true sign of geekdom.

If you take this test, let me know how you scored!

Your Score: The Cultured One

70 Opera Composers, 60 Pasta

Great job! You were able to identify many pastas and many opera composers. This classifies you as a wonderful. And a nerd.

Link: The Pasta or Opera Composer Test written by batedserenity on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Whew!

All right, so I am back from vacation! I actually did sit down here a few times after I came home, but the idea of writing every single thing down into this blog just exhausted me to death. So here is a very quick rundown (as quick as I can make it).

Sunday (departure from Cleveland): We miss our flight (leaving at 8:30 AM. Damn. We're not sure if it's our fault or the airlines, or no one's. The line was impossibily long. We get booked on the 12:45 flight instead). In a way it is a good thing, because I was on the flight with someone I used to work with on my rotations, and my family actually got to eat a leisurely breakfast before we went. (And lunch, too, even though they also served us breaded chicken patty sandwiches, a salad and M&Ms.) But the best part?

This:






















I wasn't even brave enough to get near Anderson Varejao (for those of you not in the know, he's one of the Cleveland Cavaliers). My brother, on the other hand, has no shame, so he asked the guy for a picture with him. Anderson Varejao is incredibly nice, by the way. And I'm sure the girl with him (girlfriend? Quick shag? not sure) thought it was hilarious that all the people in the airport kept bugging the guy for pictures.

Arrival in Las Vegas: HOT Even though I hated the humidity in Ohio, this was worse. I baked instead of steamed. We did see the Bellagio (the dancing water fountain is beyond awesome--"Singing in the Rain").

Monday: Went all over to different hotels/casinos, and some guy at Planet Hollywood accosted us and asked if we wanted free tickets to a show, and a free dinner. The trade-off? We'd have to listen to a 90 minute presentation about Westgate Resorts. Okay. We did that. My brother prolonged the 90 minutes into two hours, by asking our salesperson a steady stream of questions. We saw Cirque du Soleil (Mystere) at Treasure Island. Way cool.

Tuesday: We saw the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and a Joshua Tree Forest (the largest in the world, in fact).

We also got our free dinner at Planet Dailies (yummy) and saw Lance Burton (yawn, I think I would have loved it more if I was about 18 years younger--am I really that old? eep.)

Wednesday: Last minute sight-seeing. Home. Finally we get to fly home...we arrive at the airport at 8:15 PM...dawdle a bit, as our flight does not leave till 11:30 (we're paranoid about missing the flight, given our experience with the flight on Sunday).

We make it to our gate after being lazy (dad gambled away his money on the slot machines in the airport)...only to hear an announcement that our flight has been delayed till 1:30 AM (Las Vegas time!)! So we wait in the airport for hours, half asleep/asleep. I talked to the woman next to me, who is a pit boss at Planet Hollywood. Interesting conversation and a very well-traveled woman.

I'm glad to be home.

There's my sunrise circle jacket, minus the buttons! Yay! I was worried because when I blocked it, it was so huge and I was worried I'd have to make it all over again, but after washing it, it started fitting a bit better. The sleeves are a bit long, but it's cozy and good feeling. I've found several buttons online that I really like, but I'll wait till I come back from Vegas before I buy them.

I'm going to place an order at knitpicks for some undyed yarn and a few needles...and maybe a book (so I can get the free shipping). We'll see. Martha's going to have a dye day, so I need to be prepared for it...even if I end up being a little cash poor this month.

Dream yarns

Ok, so here are some yarns that I want to try knitting with (hint: none of them are Noro)....The other day, I stopped by Miss Chickpea's, and I saw some awesome yarn...


Like:

Ozark Handspun

Lampes Lumps (pictured below)

and Bamboo yarn.

I'm also curious about this ceramic yarn that I've heard about...

In knitting news, I am seaming up the sweater! (yeah!) It's all blocked and everything, just need to put it together and find some great buttons.

In other (non-knitting) news, I have been busy these past few days, doing work--we have some HUGE events coming up, such as the Kent Fest, and our Hallmark Ornament Premiere...so we're getting everything ready and ship-shape. Not to mention that I think we're going to promote the heck out of trollbeads and Chamilia (did you forget what those look like? Here's a reminder:














In a few weeks, we're going to have a huge special on Trollbeads & Chamilia--buy 3 beads, and you can get the bracelet for $25 (regularly priced at $48--that's a savings of almost half, people! Interested? let me know...)

Today, I went to the library (huge used book sale), and I walked away with some really great books, like 3 textbooks (2 statistics books and one about advertising, each were 75 cents!) and a lot of books like The Poisonwood Bible (75 cents, looks like someone read it once), a hardback of "The Perfume" by Patrick Sueskind (So I have the German language version, but I'd like to see the movie sooner than later to compare...I am sooooo slow at reading the German, though that book may come with me to Las Vegas), Middlesex (1.50), "The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime ($1.00). Not bad. Many more. I also picked up some knitting books with some of the most horrifying patterns I've seen in my life, but each of them have like, one redeeming pattern or style...so I figure 75 cents per book isn't too bad. Not to mention a copy of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. (one dollar). Not a bad haul. Now I just need the time to read everything. (Oh, and I found a couple autographed books for a dollar each! How cool is that?)

Viva Las Vegas!

Well, in July, my family and I are headed off to Las Vegas (somewhere we've never been, for all our traveling)...hopefully it will be stress-free (I need and LOVE stress-free).

In other news, I have been busy doing things like...making ads for our store, websites, a store blog, etc...because we have Webkinz...lots and lots of them at our store. I'm not even kidding about how many we have. Think I'm kidding? This doesn't even scratch the surface. In the backroom, we have piles of boxes, too.

Not to mention that we have tons of events coming up, so I've been making coupons, flyers, mailers, etc., etc. See, I don't necessarily need to be an audiologist. Give me a computer and I can whip together a few choice things for a small business. Special talent of mine, I suppose...

But on the job front: I may have a per diem position through the university! I'm just in the process of all the paperwork stuff. Fun.

In knitting content...I was hoping to get the sunrise circle jacket finished, but I'm still finishing up the back (not too much left now! Maybe I can finish everything on Wednesday, except for the buttons? That would be great if I could!

This week, I will post some of the yarns I long to knit with...stay tuned...