All I Really Want

All I really want is for the freaking weather to stop.  But I'm sure the "winter sucks" rant is getting boring for some of you.  So let me move on the drivers in New Hampshire.  I realize that I'm from Maine, and I was raised driving in snow storms, where you had to stick your head out the window to see because the windshield wiper had stopped working (which probably says more about the quality of the car I was driving than the storms), and the people driving around me then also knew how to drive in the snow, but seriously?  It's all I can do not to stop my car and smack people for stupidity.  Okay, end rant.  I'll behave now, I promise.  Sort of.  I may or may not be crossing my fingers behind my back.

In fiber news, for those of you not on Facebook, I finished the Vintage Sock last weekend. 

Just one more sock to go.  I did finally get the second one cast on last night and I 've got the leaf sew in the leaf hole, so we're ready to cruise on it, once I finish this blog post.  I did take a quick break in between to make my friend Kate a coffee sleeve in a fabulous fuschia color, that coincidentally matches a scarf she already owns. 

I also worked on my monthly spinning quota for the 2011 Yarn & Fiber Stash Reduction plan.  Good news, I've met the spinning 4 ounces of fiber per month goal for January, February, and most of March.  Bad news, in poking around in my fiber closet, I found a bunch of roving and fiber that I did not remember I had, and which, of course, is not inventoried on my Ravelry account.  Bad news, as I spin it up, my Ravelry inventory count will increase, rather than decrease.  Good news, if I spin it up, it will take less room in the closet.  Trying to think positive here, which as most of you know, is a challenge for me.

In writing news, I hosted a meeting of the Misplaced Modifiers on Saturday, and I think it was productive. The bruschetta stuff Mary Kate brought was amazing.   However, as February was a short month, and I had slacked a bit, I needed to write 3,445 words by the end of the weekend to make February's monthly word goal of 8,000 words.  I managed it, but I'm not sure how good it is.  But I'm working toward the action packed end of the book, as I still have to shoot a couple of characters in it.  As of Sunday, I had 73,475 words and 244 pages.  As I'm shooting for around 100,000 words, I'm pretty excited that I think I'm nearing the end.  I think it may go over a bit, but I'm getting there :)

In health news, I had Monday off and visited the orthopedist and the allergist.  The orthopedist said I have a really bad bone bruise and it would go away eventually, but might take awhile.  The allergist is going to test me for all tree nuts, eggs, soy, peanuts, and a couple of other random things next Monday.  However, I have to stop taking my Zyrtec tomorrow, so I might be miserable the rest of the week.  We'll see how it goes. Shawn took Kiwi to the groomers and got her wings trimmed and her nails de-sharpened.  (She has already resumed sharpening them, the hateful little twerp).  Shawn couldn't resist getting her some new toys.  Here's some gratitious cute Kiwi pictures as well. Kiwi is at this moment sitting on my shoulder attempting to sharpen one of my fingernails.  She's a very odd bird.

I'm fairly pleased that I've made it two months into New Years Resolution Writing Plan and 2011 Yarn & Fiber Stash Reduction Plan, without violating it, and meeting the goals. Hopefully, I can keep a momentum going.  Although, seriously, I'm not going anywhere or doing anything next weekend period, except maybe go to guild. 

Stay tuned for further updates as they come in.

Money That's What I Want

Today I held a private knitting class on fixing errors at my apartment to members of the Concord Knitting Meetup as a fundraiser to help with Lora K's medical bills.  I just want to thank all those who attended and those who made contributions, even though you didn't attend, specifically, Mary T, Mary S, Tracy B, Nancy B, Sarah A, Heather M, Roberta L, Ellen R and Stephanie S.  With all of your help, we were able to raise $550.00.  Woo-hoo!! 

 

Because some members of the Concord group could not attend, there is a second session being planned, so if any other of my knitting friends are interested in attending, please email me and I'll put you on the information list. 

This week has mostly been spent dealing with a difficult week at the office, preparing for the class, cleaning my train wreck of an apartment, and getting snacks made. I also had dinner with some of my former Jetboil co-workers, Kristin and Lisa at Kristin's. It was lovely to see them both.

I did do some writing on Monday, so I now have a grand total of 70,006 words and 232 pages of the yet untitled novel.  I need to write another 3,445 words this month if I'm going to make my monthly goal of 8,000 words until the thing is done.  I wonder how long it will take me to title the novel, when I finish. I haven't thought at all about what to do about that.  Maybe I can brainstorm with the Misplaced Modifiers next week during our monthly meeting.

 
 

In knitting news, I'm only a few rows away from starting to incorporate the leaves into the cuff of the first Vintage Sock.  I'm hoping that I might be able to finish the first sock this weekend, as I have Monday off, with the exception of visiting the orthopedist and the allergist.  I'm also hoping to get some writing in on Monday.

For the rest of the evening and for most of tomorrow though, I plan to do nothing but sit and knit, and I may even have a glass of wine. Maybe two even.

Stay tuned for further updates at this same bat-channel. 

The Hounds of Winter

 

Okay, haven't posted in a while.  I've been a bit aggravated.  Remember the snow rant?  Instead of me repeating the rant, let's just imagine it in your head and increase the intensity by a factor of 8.  So here's pictures of not the last storm, but the last big storm, last Wednesday.  These were taken from the windows where I work.  So of course, when I get home that night, I end up having to shovel a spot out, because god forbid my complex plan for larger storms.  So I sent a email complaint to the complex manager.  Then of course, my karma bites me on the ass, because the following night I spend doing my taxes until late, and when I finally get into bed, I look up and see a wet spot on the ceiling 5 feet long and 1 foot wide or so. So of course it's past 11 pm and I have to call and report it, since there were water bubbles in the ceiling paint.  They tell me to stick a screwdriver through the dry wall and let it drain.  Which was just lovely.  It was a steady stream for about half an hour. The picture is pre-hole punch.  Needless to say I got a whole lot of sleep that night. And of course Shawn was in Minneapolis. No word on when it's going to be fixed.  Shocker. 

So anyway, last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) we had pizza with Mary Kate and Daniel.  Daniel has been experimenting with making pizza dough, and since Mary Kate and I both have dairy issues, he made one using the Daiya vegan cheese.  It was much better than the last time I tried it.  Daniel mixed the cheddar and mozzarella versions together and it definitely made the pizza more cheesy. It was lovely and the crust was really good too.

Last weekend I also managed to do some spinning, working on the second 2 oz roving of the Foxfire Fiber & Designs at Springdelle Farm Hand Painted Cashmere & Tussah Silk Top in colorway Greylock.  I got about half way through the roving, but still it's progress.  I also met my writing 8,000 word goal for January and I now have about 65.451 words.  I'm hoping to have a completed first draft by May.  However, I've been slacking off since, so I have to get it together.

Last Monday I had my doctor's appointment and got set up with a new allergist to ferret out another possible food allergist, and to check out my knee. Good news, my knee cap isn't broken (after having x-rays), bad news, I have to go to an orthopedist to see whether I might have a cartilage tear. Sigh.

This past week, I didn't meet my writing goal. I'm going to try to fit it in sometime this weekend amongst all the myriad other things I have to do.  I did manage to get most of the taxes done while Shawn was in Minneapolis.  I just need to have one more document, and I can pay off most of our cruise we booked for December.  This past weekend was weird.  I did a lot of knitting.  Friday I went to bed early, so of course I woke up at 3:00 am on Saturday.  So I spent most of the day knitting and working on my vintage sock.  There's a picture of the toe leaf, and the toe shaped hole in the toe I had to knit. Then there's the picture of the toe, after I sewed in the leaf.  If I had to do these socks all over again, I'd just knit the toe normally and applique the leaf on the toe.  I think this is a detail that's just too fiddlely and not worth the trouble. 

In other news, Donna D helped me engineer a trade to get around my stash reduction plan rules so that I could get enough Noro Silk Garden in color 8 to do the Kyoto Jacket.  I traded 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden in color 292 for 6 balls of Donna's Noro Silk Garden in color 8.  So I reduced my Ravelry stash by one type of yarn, my net loss after knitting the jacket will still be 12 skeins as a result of the trade, I didn't buy any yarn, and Donna reduced her stash by 3 skeins of yarn.  Everybody wins! 

Sunday was my birthday, I turned 39.  Shawn and I were going to go out, but it turned out the places he was supposed to call to see if they could accommodate my dairy allergy were all closed, so we just went to Free Range Fish on Second Street and got some lobsters.  I didn't get a sculpture for my birthday.  Just stating that for the record, although Shawn does not read my blog.

That's about it for this segment.  Stay tuned for further updates.