Just a quick one

Just wanted to let ya’ll know I am alive, but very busy. I have managed to finish clue 1 of Mystic Meadows. Will try to post again this week with a full update.

There are not enough hours in a day

I just cannot seem to keep up with everything going on in my life.  I guess I just need to relax and not stress everything so much, but I feel bad when I let things slide.  Like right now I have a hamper full of clean clothes sitting right next to the closet - do you think I could take the 5 minutes it would take to put them away so that the pile of dirty clothes could go in the hamper?  If you guessed no then you would be right.  On top of that I have yarn and needles strewn all over my room from all the swatching I have been doing for the shawl KALs I have joined.  It would only take a half hour or so to put them all away, but again it doesn’t happen.  What is wrong with me - I am stressing out about everything and cannot seem to deal with a single bit of it.  I hope it is just a May thing and that June will be better.

I have managed to keep to my schedule for school while still working, knitting and watching movies.  I did manage to restart Cozy, work on Sunset Seraphim (kept to the 2 rows a day) and Mystic Light, swatch for Mystic Meadows and tried out several lace stitches for a shawl I am attempting to design for my Dream In Color Baby in Gothic Rose (I have 2 skeins which is 1400 yards and I have a picture in my mind, but cannot find the stitches I need - maybe I should get one of the Barbara Walker books).  I managed to find the needle for BILs scarf - this whole time it has been in my car under the edge of the floor mat.  So that didn’t get worked on as I found the needle last night - maybe tomorrow night as I have a movie to watch.  I did frog back Natalie’s sweater so now I just need to try it again and try to get the floats the right amount of loose, but not too loose - I may put in a lifeline in the last plain round so that if I have to frog back it is not such a problem.  Dad goes out of town tomorrow until the 7th and I plan on getting the other sock OTN so that I can knit them at the same time (so I don’t have to make notes) and working on them everyday until he comes back.  I also want to get my curtains made as that was one of the things I did not get done over the weekend.  Then I also need to get photos, paper, and other supplies together since mom and I are going to a scrapbook crop Friday night.  The room needs to be done as well as touching up the bathroom since we are having a couple of coworkers over on Sunday for a BBQ.  Plus I am sure there are several other things I need to do - the biggest one right now is getting to bed since I open in the morning.  So I will let ya’ll go tonight and get back with ya’ll soon.

Natalie Photos and a small update

Natalie was 13 months old on the 21st and my sister took her to a new photographer today - she wasn’t 100% happy with the previous photographer as they weren’t bad, but not what she expected for the amount of money we spend. This new photographer is more what my sister was looking for - professional quality photos, but in a relaxed, casual way that makes for more good photos. Natalie is just not a sit still type of girl and that is what the last photographer tried to get her to do - she just is so into learning about her world that she gets upset and so serious when made to do anything other than be on the go. Even with the relaxed mode we still got some serious ones, but they are so her. Here are four of my favorite shots from the photo shoot. Small knitting update below the photos.

Well, the knitting was good for Mystic Light, but I have managed no other knitting today. Yet, I am seriously thinking about casting on the Slow Bee Shawl - even though I don’t even have all of the beads and yarn I need. Somebody stop me please I think I have a case of startitis. I did have a nice mail day today - no bills and a yarn color card. My mom really likes the Icelandic Shawl that I got from Knitting Daily, but she is as I have mentioned allergic to wool. She loves the colors from the photo, but I was having a hard time even trying to search for substitutes without a color card (rather than one on the monitor). Well Sarah’s Yarn had a color card so I bought it and now that I have it I really like the colors they chose - I wasn’t sure from photos, but they do really go together. So now I can try to find a yarn that comes in the colors I need. Like I really need to purchase more yarn for another shawl project.

Well, guess I had better get off here and go study or maybe watch a movie since I have already spent several hours studying - got the 1st lesson read just need to go back and answer the questions. That might actually be better to wait and do tomorrow as that would be a good way to see if I learned anything. Talk to ya’ll later.

Some Progress Made

Well, I have managed to add 6 rows back onto my Mystic Light Shawl since the frogging.  I am going slower on it now so that I hopefully will catch any mistakes before I manage to knit so far past it.  There has also been some progress on Sunset Seraphim - I think I have stuck to the 2 rows a day that I wanted to.  On my brother-in-laws scarf (hereafter called BILScarf) I have managed to make no progress since I have managed to misplace a needle.  I have decided that since I get Sunday and Monday off again (normally I get  Sunday and normally Thursday or Saturday and Sunday - it alternates and last weekend was my normal weekend off, but due to Memorial Day I get Monday off ), plus only having to work 4  days before being off for Saturday and Sunday, that I would frog back Natalie’s sweater and cast on Mom’s Cozy this weekend.

I did buy some blackout drapery lining, some white muslin, and a very simple white lace trim to make curtains for my room.  I cannot sleep anymore once the sun starts to rise and since my window faces the east I am normally up by sunrise if not slightly before.  This plays havoc with my system as I normally either go to work from 9 to 5 or 12 to close (sometimes they will throw in a different shift, but those are the normal ones).  I know that most people would be okay with getting up that early, but I am a major night owl so in order for me to function I normally sleep until 7 or 7:30 - this is because I normally cannot even think about sleep until after midnight.  I have tried tons of times to change my bodies schedule, but no matter what I cannot.  Anyways, the whole reason I mentioned the fabric is because I want to get the curtains made this weekend as well as finish the 2 dresses I have almost done for Natalie since they will be here around the middle of June.  All of that in addition to everything else.

Also, I just started back to school - I took a fairly long break between the last class and this one, but from here on out I have to go pretty much back to back due to one of the requirements of AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) for their Coding Basic course.  So if I don’t post except for once or twice a week it is because I am studying.

Well got to work in the morning and I wanted to get a bit more done on the first lesson so I will let ya’ll go for tonight.

Negative Knitting…..

I have managed to achieve negative knitting. You do this by frogging almost 70 rows of a shawl. I was going to live with the mistakes I had fudged in my Mystic Light shawl, but every row kept coming up with either extra stitches or not enough. I finally decided that I just could not live with all the fudging and frogged it back to where I was at Natalie’s birthday party as I am pretty sure that is when the original mistake had happened. I am actually really happy that I decided to frog it. I think that as easily as I managed to frog - not a stitch was dropped or picked up twisted (even with just ripping the needles out and winding the yarn to frog it) - I was meant to. No progress has been made since I frogged it this morning since I had to close tonight, but I plan on picking it back up tomorrow afternoon.

I have managed to work about 20 rows on Sunset Seraphim due to having to wait for my hair appointment. I did create a checklist showing me exactly how many rows of the plain knitting I have left as well as the stitch counts. The checklist also lists out the charts so that I can check each row off until I am done. If my math is correct I have about 138 or 137 rows left which means that as long as I work 2 rows a day I can be done in a little over 2 months. That would then allow me to concentrate on other projects. I am also going to try and work a stripe a day on my brother-in-laws scarf. Dad’s socks are going to wait - since the toe and heels are out of a solid blue I can cast on the second toe and work it until it is ready for the U of M yarn. I am going to do that and then work 10 rows on a sock and then 10 on the other back and forth until they are done, but only while dad is traveling (he has a bunch of travel planned for later this year) so that should allow me to get them done without having to worry about him seeing them. Mom’s cozy will be cast on this weekend and will be worked on during the day when she is at work - this will only be about 1 day a week since we normally work the same schedule - the only difference is that I normally have to close 2 nights a week versus her 1 night a week. Natalie’s sweater has been located (could not remember where in the stash it was) and I plan on frogging back the couple of rows either tomorrow or Thursday.

Well I didn’t mean to make a long post since I have to work in the morning so I will let ya’ll go and do another update later in the week.