Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Scatterbrained

Yes, that is me lately. 80 thousand things going on, both in life and in knitting (I consider these seperate worlds, by the way), and I find myself unable to focus on one thing for long. It's frustrating. I got halfway through the sleeves of the itty bitty size 3 needles sweater for me and set it aside because it was becoming just an absolute chore to pick it up. That began my couple of days obsession with fingerless gloves. I banged out my first pair with no trouble at all, with a lace panel on the top too even! Got started on my second pair with some Silky Wool that I got 40% off at an LYS that is or now has gone, out of business. Got one glove made and set it aside last night to play with a skein of Noro Sekku that I also picked up at the going out of business sale. Got some rounds crocheted on a doily. My end table is now overflowing with WIP's. I don't like that. Personal matters have been overwhelming though. My oldest son finally got himself in some real trouble a couple weeks ago after going in the wrong direction for a few months. My days are now being crowded with court dates and lawyer meetings, community service, school admissions and job searches. He seems to finally have woken up and seen where he was heading (it's amazing how a couple days in a real live grown up jail will do that for you!), and is making a real attempt at turning his life around. It's all exhausting. I thank God for the knitting, it allows me some down time to relax, but even that has been effected by my just total feeling of restlessness lately. It's also been VERY warm here, perhaps some cold weather will help me settle in more. I need to make a pair of fingerless gloves for my mother in law and some socks for Marcus, both for Christmas. Also ordered the last 5 skeins to compete my Lizard's Ridge Afghan and don't even know WHEN I'm going to fit that in....Ok, I must go try and settle this child down for his nap or give up the idea entirely. He's been in there singing and dancing in his crib for an hour and 26 minutes with no sleep in sight. How long can a full moon last anyways?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Ideas, Projects, Ideas, Projects and a Great Rainy Day!

Well I haven't written lately, my apologies, but  I sure have been busy. Both with knit and non-knit related things. I'm big on always trying to move forward or else you start to slip back and there's nothing good about that. So I am always trying to improve upon something, pretty much every day. Be it myself, my home, a way of doing something, ect... and I've been doing a lot of that lately, which is good. =)

On the knit front, I discovered the other day that the Wake County NC library(s) have gone COMPLETELY online. You can now do everything that you could do at the library, in the comfort of your home. You can check your account, renew your books and most importantly, for me anyways, search through and request hundreds of knitting titles while your son comfortably naps in the next room. Yay! I went a little nuts. Request, request, REQUEST! Yesterday, I happily picked up my first batch of 'holds'. It included, but not limited to, New England Knits, a scarf book, a bag book, 2 at a time toe up sock book (this REALLY got some ideas flowing!!) and a few others. Oh, Stitch and Bitch Superstar Knitting and a Suss Design book. This morning I was supposed to go running for the first time in a week. (My mornings have been SO busy!) And  I got up and it was pouring. Consistantly. It never does that in North Carolina. We get spotty showers here and there at best and are ALWAYS in a drought. I remember being in my new apartment for 6 months a realizing that we had yet to have an actual rainy day. Well today we do. So I happily got myself a cup of coffee and started in with the new book collection. Demarcus joined me. He likes my knitting books as they usually have something in them he finds interesting like babies or toy props. He sat right there with me looking at them and pointing out the things he knew, working on his words. =) What a GREAT way to spend a morning!!

I also have discovered SweaterBabe.com in my absence from blogging. What a great site and I am beyond envious of her talent. If I can just get through Christmas with the boys, I will be ordering a LOT of patterns from her!

We also have this great thing here in Wake County called FreeCycle which is pretty much where you go to get rid of something you no longer need or want but it's still perfectly good (or mostly). I have given and gotten SO many things from this! (I'm lucky that in Wake County there are 10,000 members, which makes for a lot of giving!). I've gotten everything from sofas and loveseats, kitchen tables, TV's, a king sized pillow top bed set (inluding the bed), you get the idea. This is over about 4 years worth of time. It is hit or miss, something when you REALLY need something you will not see anyone posting one up, but with patience, just about everything becomes available eventually! Well the reason I am writing about this and how it is knit related, is I FINALLY got a printer! When Marcus and I split up the beginning of this year, I left him the printer when I moved because though it was a house purchase, he had purchased it, so it just didn't seem right to try and take it. So I didn't. That ment I have been printing everything at the library since April and at 50 cents for a colored sheet and 25 cents for a black and white, lets just say I haven't been doing a whole lot of printing. Well now my 'printables' folder in my email, which is just smack FULL of knitting patterns to be printed....... can finally start being printed. In color, no less! =)

Some projects rolling around in my mind right now that I need to get to soon are the Lotus Bag from Stitch and Bitch Superstar Knitting, especially since when I went on KnitPicks I found that the yarn averaged $2 a ball and you only need 4 balls to make this great bag. Also fingerless gloves. I need some. SweaterBabe has a great pair of cabled and a pair of lace ones at only around $3 a pattern, but sadly, I do not even have that on the pre-paid credit card right now so I went in search of a fabulous free one. I found it at Elann in their free pattern section. Also, I've got socks on the brain. A million of them to try. For me, for Demarcus and even for Marcus, who has his faults but faithfully wears his hand knit socks pretty much every day he is not working. =)


Ok, well that is enough rambling for today. I need to finish pulling myself together and perhaps start to tackle that closet that I could fit so much more in if it were just organized! (Progression, Progression, Progression!!)