Day 30 (The End!)

Kathleen-
Well, NaBloPoMo has taught me several lessons.
a. Not doing this again next year!
b. Can't write a good post every day, or even every week when I'm writing every day.
c. November is not a good month for this in my life.

I'm off shortly to catch a plane to NC for a wedding, and though I'm taking some work, I have hope that I'll be able to knit (hard to work in the airport waiting areas), though I'll need to work on the plane. I'll be in NC for significantly less than 36 hours, which is a bit crazy, but there you go.

I'll not have e-mail or internet while I'm gone, but I'll be back Sunday, maybe even with pictures!

Day 29

Kathleen-
Another exhausting day at work, and hosting Game Night tonight means I have little to report. I do have pictures of the new yarn I bought for Mike's hat though (when all else fails, post yarn pictures).
I knitted at game night, but I'll be ripping out most of my progress. I'll have a bit of time to knit at the airport tomorrow (of to NC for my Aunt's wedding.....)

Day 28

Kathleen-
I'm exhausted, and had a rough day topped off by hitting my head hard enough on the shelf in my office to draw blood.

Therefore...
Random Fact #5.
Although I've successfully combined patterns (see my coronet with shedir top shaping), and modified patterns (adding length to pretty much everything), but if I succeed with this hat pattern for Mike, it might well be the first pattern I've made up from scratch (though with much in the way of inspiration credits!)

Off to nurse my headache....

Day 27

Kathleen-
I have yarn! (New yarn I mean). I took the smooshy (still one of my favorite yarns ever) to Borealis tonight to buy white yarn for the snowflake hat, and was browsing around. I looked at the white with the smooshy, and decided that the blue was too light...so then I browsed myself over to the Auracania Ranco in Color 106. And it came home with me....

Random Fact #4.
Although I'm still super sensitive to scratchiness, I've slowly worked up my tolerance to wearing 100% wool. Now I wear wool sweaters all the time.....though only of nice soft merino!

Day 26

Kathleen-
Lovely to chat tonight!

I missed my random fact yesterday, so today you get two in lieu of actual knitting content (sock #2's heel is partially turned!).

Random Fact #2
I'm well known in various restaurants and bars in the Twin Cities for knitting in their establishments. So much so that I regularly get "you're the one who knits!" when we sit down. Usually I knit socks, though other knitting has been known to creep in. (Mittens, scarves, baby sweaters, and occasionally even adult sweaters)

Random Fact #3
I seem to have a little love affair with patterns by Jenna. You may know this, given that I've now knit two Shedirs, an Eris, and I'm in the process of knitting a Rogue. But I also pretty much love everything she has designed with cables on it. Incidentally, I'm considering another Eris in a different yarn.

I'm writing my amalgamation pattern for a hat for Mike. I'm drawing inspiration from the BrooklynTweed Red Light Special, as well as a bunch of other hat patterns found on Ravelry.

Day 25

Kathleen-
Can I put in a plug for the always lovely Smooshy sock yarn from Dream in Color? I buy mine in Borealis, and its what I'm using for Grandpa's socks. I think if his feet weren't so big around, I'd have no worries about getting a full pair of socks out of them. Certainly I think I could get a pair for myself easily out of the (450 yard!) skeins. And its machine wash and dryable (though they suggest taking it out of the dryer before totally dry).

I buy mine at my much adored Borealis Yarns, and I would of course be happy to enable you with some with some color guidance (try that top link).

Last night I pulled out the last repeat of Grandpa's socks (stupid mistake), but tonight I think maybe I'll get to turning the heel on sock #2!

Today I spent time browsing Ravelry with Mike trying to get a handle on what he wants for a hat. You see, he's decided that a new hat would be a helpful thing to have. Of course we already did Christmas presents, but I think this might end up being an early Birthday present. So far we've established that it will be two color with snowflakes on the brim, and will have a double layer over the ears. I'll be searching for the perfect yarn (I'm actually thinking of using Smooshy in Summer Sky as the blue, and then find a white.....)

Day 24

Kathleen-
It really turns out that I can't write a good post every day, or even a good post once a week when I'm posting every day. I have nothing to report. I spent a good part of today working, and the rest running around with Mom. No knitting to report, though we once again visited Borealis.

I'm about to go traumatize the occupants of a divey little karaoke bar with my knitting, but thought I'd better post first in case we were out late.

In honor of this, I think for the last few days of NaBloPoMo I'll post one random fact per day.

Today's random fact:
Though I seem to frequent karaoke bars, I NEVER sing karaoke. Too many karaoke kings and queens among our friends. :)

Day 23

Kathleen-
In the squeaking in under the wire category...as I type it's 11:48 pm.

I spent all day today discovering fiber tools in antique stores, none of which we bought. A bunch of old spinning wheels, a swift, carders for spinning, a flax comb for making linen, and a needle sizer, all old and interesting (and out of my personal price range).

In other news, I'm just about to start the heel of sock #2, and Mom and I went to Borealis today, and are probably headed back tomorrow. Need to get all her yarn shopping in since she lacks a LYS.

Day 22

Kathleen-
Happy Thanksgiving!

We're back from a raucous Thanksgiving gathering with Mike's family (it's a patented family tradition. If there are 11 people at the table, there are at least 13 conversations going on). Our requested contribution was rolls and JAM. The last said with the proper emphasis by Mike's Grandma. I'm one to follow directions in these things, so this morning I baked rolls, and I took a selection of jams to Thanksgiving. Blueberry, Peach, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Grape Jelly.

An enormous quantity of food was eaten, and a good time was had by all, complete with much discussion of hockey, and a tour of his Aunt's workshop for her fleecewear business.

I'm off to work on my gusset increases on Grandpa's socks. Mom and I are planning on going antiqueing in Stillwater tomorrow, along with a bit of yarn shopping (imagine that!).

Day 21

Kathleen-
Mom and I are having a quiet evening at home watching old episodes of CSI and knitting on the socks. Did I mention this? As I'm racing to knit socks for Grandpa, Mom is knitting socks for Grandma.

Best of luck on your bug bitten foot, the emphatically speedy knitting, and the cooking for your most favorite holiday of the year! I'm making rolls and bringing jam to Mike's family's Thanksgiving, which, if all goes according to the norm, will involve a lot of discussion of hockey.

Happy Turkey Day! I'll be feverishly knitting on the sock!

Day 20- Flight Status Edition

Kathleen-
I just got back from knit night, and I'm sitting on the couch checking the flight status of Mom's flight approximately every 30 seconds. Mom arrives tonight and stays through Sunday, and we're doing Thanksgiving with Mike's extended family this year, it should lead to some good stories!

Knit Night was a banner laughing time tonight. I don't even know what we were so amused about, but we were laughing and laughing and laughing. Naturally, I worked on Grandpa's Socks. Almost to the gusset on sock #2. Just one more repeat to go.

Oops! Her flight is in. I'm off to the airport!

Day 19

Kathleen-
I'm squeaking in under the line with a brief post for the day. But the excitement of the day is that we spent all evening cleaning in preparation for my Mom arriving tomorrow night for Turkey Day.

I knit exactly 2 rounds on Grandpa's socks today, so its not even worth picturing.

So that's my quick useless post for the night. I said I'd blog every day...not that the blogging would be up to my usual standards.

Day 18 (Geeky Post)

Kathleen-
We spent all day playing a game called Here I Stand, which is about the Protestant Reformation in Europe. (Told you it was geeky). This would be a giant board game with about 8 billion pieces, and very complicated conditions on everything.

And for the first time in the history of me playing big complicated games, I managed to win! Much celebrating ensued.

And I knit on Grandpa's sock #2. A lot. However, no pictures, as I still haven't replaced the batteries in the camera.

Day 17

Kathleen-
A sweater? I want to see this mythical sweater (which I'm sure is beautiful and fits very well indeed).

Today....what the heck happened to today?

Oh right. IKEA. So have I mentioned our recent houseguest? Our friend W has been staying in our guest room most of the week as he waited to sign his lease. Having signed his lease, he went to Ikea.com to order furniture for delivery. And then discovered that the delivery fees were, to say the least, prohibitive. So he enlisted our help (and Mike's large car) for a quick run to Ikea.

Quick and Ikea should almost never exist in the same sentence. By the time we finished the top floor, it was noon, so we ate lunch. Then on to the bottom floor...which took another hour plus. You see, he's starting from scratch, and I was supervising the shopping, and saying things like "laundry basket" "bathmat" "plates and cups." So then we loaded up Mike's car and another car, delivered stuff to the new apartment, and got the bed put together and the kitchen stuff dealt with. The rest we left to him

I think in the end he has the basics, and can be pretty happy with his studio apartment. But it took a long time, and pretty well killed our day.

Day 16

Kathleen-
I'm alive (and back home, hooray!). I also even have pictures. During my travels in Southern MN and WI this week, I was faithful to Grandpa's socks, which means:
Sock #1 is complete to the ankle. I'll start knitting up the leg as soon as I get sock 2 to the same spot.
Sock 2 is cast on, past the toe, and in the first repeat of the textured pattern.

I even have evidence:
You'll note that there's only one ball of yarn. This is because I wasn't smart enough to divide the yarn in half at the beginning. Thus sock #1 being on hold until I get to the same point on sock #2.

But that's not the real excitement in our house today. The real excitement is that Mike and I came up with mutual Christmas presents for the year, and decided to get them early. They arrived yesterday.

Behold, my extremely cute ipod nano. (Mike has the same model, but in silver instead instead of blue.) Sorry for the blurry picture, the camera ran out of battery right after I took it.

Day 15

Kathleen-
I've been felled by a headache (luckily, not till I finished my meetings for the day). So not much of a post today....I'm off to try and sleep my way out of the headache.

Short summary of the day: lots of driving and getting lost, being early and finding a cute yarn store, starting sock #2.

Day 14

Kathleen-
The answer to your question last post is that I pretty much have 3-4 sets of all my sock size needles (1, 2.5, 2, 3, and 4)...and I bet that's the norm for sock knitters.

Today I turned the heel of Grandpa's sock. Twice. The first time I managed to forget to start the contrast color at the usual place, which I could have lived with....but then I realized I'd somehow gotten it off center. So that was ripped out, and now I have a successfully turned heel.

And that, sadly, is the entirety of my post today. Sorry. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Day 13 (Laura Ingalls Wilder Edition)

Kathleen-
I hit the road for my Southern Minnesota travel at 6:15 am today, and was treated to a spectacular sunrise driving south. I spent an enormous amount of today driving through really rural areas of Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, both of which were extremely scenic (albeit in a bleak late fall fashion).

Driving between my 1st and 2nd appointments, I spent part of my time on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, and was inspired for this entry. I've been writing it in my head as I drive all day.

I started reading the Little House series the summer before 1st grade. I vividly remember my 1st grade teacher having to intervene with the school librarian because the librarian- a woman who was supposed to fill us all with a love of reading- maintained that I couldn't possibly be reading well enough to be reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. I know I read through the whole series for the first time beginning the summer before 1st grade and finishing the following summer. I then reread all the books at least one additional time, and many of the books separately throughout Elementary School.

She lived through an amazing 90 years. She was born in Wisconsin when it was still pioneer territory, and lived until 1957, living through the development of the car and the airplane. Can you imagine? I was thinking about timing- it's remarkable to me that a woman who my parents could have met as children experienced Minnesota as a pioneer.

I guess time is relative after all.

No knitting content (or pictures) today. Better luck tomorrow!

Although Laura Ingalls Wilder isn't completely responsible for my (sometimes obsessive) love of reading, I think she provided an important impetus. And clearly, I'm not the only one. Did you know her books have never been out of print? That's quite an achievement.

Day 12

Kathleen-
I envy you the Veterans Day holiday! Mike, of course, didn't work either, but I had to work, and I'm headed into travel (Southern Minnesota) for the rest of the week. The only fun thing about working today is that I wore one of my new and very cute Ann Taylor sweaters to work, and got compliments.

Last night we went pub-quizzing, and though we didn't win, we did quite well, and I even managed to make progress on Grandpa's socks.

I forgot to say! On Saturday, having to work the morning was somewhat mitigated by the arrival of a package on my doorstep. My long awaited Ravelry t-shirt had arrived! I'm wearing it at the moment (black, "I swatched Ravelry" with a swatch grid on it), and it makes me laugh every time I look down. A lot of people ended up with shirts that were either too small or seemed to small to them (because they're more fitted shirts than many people are used to wearing), so I'm counting myself lucky that I like the fit!

I'll be blogging from hotels the next few nights, so wish me luck on the internet connections!

Day 11

Kathleen-
I've decided to start naming my posts this month for the day of the month they happen on, at least when I'm uninspired. Better that then the terrible puns you'd get otherwise.

Yesterday was the kind of rainy gloomy fall day that makes you want to make soup, and even though today was sunny and lovely, the feeling pervaded, so beef stew was the order of the day, along with homemade rolls.

Other than that, I bought cute clothes at Ann Taylor....worked out..and that was pretty much the extent of my day.