SpringPlum

Back in the Saddle

November 11, 2008, springplum Knitting, Warcraft, , 1

I promised myself that I wouldn’t do it, but my husband asked very sweetly this morning. And this is the first time that he’s ever asked me to knit anything for anybody. But it looks like I will be making another one of them. That’s right–They’re baaaaaack! They are becoming a Christmas tradition. Next year, I may have to start varying the colors or knitting them for the homeless just for variety. Or I could just be the crazy knitting lady who knits the same thing for people year after year. The good news is that this means I get to go to The Woolie Ewe after work. The chance that I will only walk away with the one skein of Cascade 220 that I need is slim to none.

Those that have been paying attention, know that I play video games. Because I pay attention, I know that not all of my dear readers care about the n00b ‘lock and blue guy that I pwned last night. For those who understood what I just said, try my new blog Lavender Blue.

How do I manage two time-consuming hobbies? Manage? Hah! Not a whole lot of managing goes on. More like streaking. The entirety of August, September, and October were dedicated to WoW, but for the three months before that, I only played Lost Odyssey and that only a tiny bit when my right hand started cramping from the project du jour. November has started out with more balance. Some mornings I come into work early feeling peaceful and relaxed–very zen. The night before, I knitted. Other mornings I arrive a little late, a lot frazzled, and with one eye twitching. The night before, I gamed. Gaming is exciting in a way that knitting isn’t and shouldn’t be. That’s not to say that accidently pulling your needle out of a half-finished shawl isn’t exciting–however, that heart attack isn’t the goal.

harry potter

When Your Mojo Takes a Vacation

November 8, 2008, springplum Knitting, , 1

My mojo took a vacation. Now, I have had missing mojo difficulties before in the past–usually when a particular project was kicking my butt. But switching projects for a bit would work miracles. This time was different–one day, I simply put the needles down and didn’t pick them up again for 3 months. World of Warcraft is partially to blame. It is indeed a huge time suck.

Still, there have been plenty of times when I could have knitted, but I just didn’t. I don’t know why. Perhaps one of the reasons is that I kept feeling more and more guilty as each day that I didn’t knit went by, and I started to feel like my projects resented me. Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of money on yarn, needles, and patterns (especially patterns) that I wasn’t knitting. And I hate wasting money. Of course, it’s not like the yarn would go bad if I didn’t use it right away, and patterns have no expiration date, so taking a couple of months off doesn’t waste any money. I also felt guilty about not going to SnB. Don’t know why. While I’d like to think that a few of the gals missed my sparkling wit, it’s not like they’ll track me down and key my car for missing a few (many) Sundays.

You know what? As soon as I decided to stop beating myself up over not knitting, I feel the mojo begin to flow again. Strange how that happens, no? This Sunday, instead of dragging my laptop over to Dave and Linnea’s to play WoW, I hauled out my knitting. I worked a few repeats of a very undemanding project–a cabled headband. Although I did have to find the pattern because I no longer memorized, I hadn’t forgotten how to knit. Today, in celebration of my miraculous mojo return, I bought the kit for Sheldon from KnitPicks.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

sheldon, Warcraft

WoW!

July 14, 2008, springplum Knitting, Video Games, Warcraft, , 0

Uh-oh! I haven’t been getting much knitting done. Having finished Neverwinter Nights 2, I downloaded the trial version of World of Warcraft. This may have been a mistake. Is it possible for a game to be too fun?

I do have a little bit of knitting news: I have finally made it back to SnB Sundays. Because of a few trips to Oklahoma and a headcold (in July, how did that happen?!?), I missed four Sundays in a row! In honor of the occasion, I started a new little project–the Cabled Headband from The Knitter’s Book of Yarn. Sometimes it’s nice to do a quick, little project in between all of my long-term ones.

Warcraft

I Didn’t Take My Camera

July 5, 2008, springplum Holidays, , 0

Summer continues. I have no new projects, but my WIPs keep getting longer. I’ve started sewing a robe for my husband. No, I’m not knitting him one–I must turn in my Diehard Knitter card. A little bit of self-awareness informed me that I haven’t the staying power needed to knit a robe for a 6’5" tall man. As it turns out, I need all my endurance just to knit him big-ass socks.

For the 4th of July, Matt, Dave, Linnea, and I all went to Lake Ray Hubbard for barbeque and boating. Except for a small meal break (mmm… fried catfish), we spent all day on the water. I rode the SeaDoo as much as possible and was dragged around the lake on a giant inner-tube thing. I flew off the tube with a dramatic splash and the boat had to come pick me up. Then everyone else had to take a turn falling off the tube because it looked like so much fun (it really was fun). There is a moment though, after you fall off, when you see the boat continuing to speed down the lake, that you wonder if your friends actually will come back for you.

No fresh pictures this post. I considered taking my camera yesterday. But when a bunch of people are hanging around in swimsuits, a photographer is their greatest enemy. Sorry. Here’s a picture from a couple of years ago of Matt and me in front of the Liberty Bell.

PICT0613b

A Needle Was Involved

June 20, 2008, springplum Sewing, , 0

This has been another week that has been much busier than I expected during my glorious summer vacation. Putting everything off until summer apparently has consequences. Between getting the hail damage on Matt’s car fixed, a dentist appointment, a day-long benefits meeting for my new job, housework (ugh!), and shopping for supplies for my new project, very little knitting has been accomplished. But here is my new project that I started and finished.

sewing coverup1

For the love of yarn–that’s not knitting!

sewing coverup2

So glad you noticed, Observant Reader. I could not find a cover-up to match my new swimsuit (why does swimsuit shopping suck so much?). Since I was determined to have a cute little skirt to wear on our Florida vacation, I made one.

For someone who is used to making things by hand, I get such a rush from sewing. I’m not saying that I like sewing better than knitting–that’s crazy talk. But there is definitely a high to be had from sewing. It might be because of the danger factor. Sure, you can injure yourself knitting by sitting on a DPN or jabbing yourself in the lip with a cable needle. But sewing has machinery, electricity, and one really fast moving needle. And getting a finger stuck under that needle hurts worse than anything I’ve done to myself while knitting. Still, the high won’t last long, and this’ll be a knitting blog again soon.

Trippin’

June 16, 2008, springplum Family, Knitting, Travel, , 2

This past Thursday I drove up to Oklahoma to visit my parents. Despite a hailstorm and a cracked windshield, it was a pretty nice trip.

Last time I visited my parents, I dragged them to a couple of different yarn shops for a mini LYS crawl. This time my mom beat me to it. She found a new one for us to visit. This is especially nice since she doesn’t knit–although she does have the makings of a champion enabler. She took me to the L & B Yarn Co. in Norman, OK. This yarn store easily competes with my affections for The Woolie Ewe. L & B is a very swank shop and the women who work there are very nice. My dad was dragged along to the store, and they set him up their classroom with a soda so he could read his book in comfort. I walked out with–

and

Those would be Crystal Palace Yarn’s Panda Cotton in Roses and Prism Yarn’s Lacewool in a very pretty Mojave. The Panda Cotton will of course become socks one day, but I am still not sure what the Lacewool will be. Maybe the Spirit of the Southwest shawl or the Children of Lir.

We also went back to the Gourmet Yarn Co. and I acquired even more laceweight.

navy lace

Mom disapproved of my getting a navy yarn when there were more colorful yarns to be had, but this is the perfect color for the Scotch Thistle Stole that I picked up at the Dallas Fiber Festival.

You know what this blog has been missing? Cat pictures! Because I have no cats, you’ll have to settle for pictures of my parents’ cats. Sunny decided to help me bag books. And Sampson ignored me.

cat in a sack sampson

*Update*

This was on the coffee table when I got home.

no knot

Matt spent from midnight to 2 am getting the gigantic knot out of the sock yarn. A husband who will spend two hours unknotting yarn is super special.

oklahoma, yarn shopping

Yarn Swappin’

June 10, 2008, springplum Knitting, Work, , 0

This Sunday, the Dallas SnB had a yarn swap. This is what I came home with–

stash swap

I got rid of the cursed red Debbie Bliss and some overly bright Knit Picks Palette. A bunch of old acrylic went to a women’s prison charity. The trading was fast and furious, but I managed to score 3 different pairs of sock yarn. Wait…there’s only 2 types of sock yarn in the picture? Where’s the other? It’s busy, you see. Being a pain in my ass.

knotted copy

That’s a giant knot of Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock in the denim colorway. And that’s after I worked on it for over an hour. Argh.

On a much more positive note, school is out for the summer. My days are student-free until August. You’d think I would have tons of knitting time, but I’m finding that being a housewife, even a temporary one, involves actual work.

SnB

Alas, Multitasking

June 4, 2008, springplum Knitting, Work, , 0

Why can’t I figure out a way to knit and grade essay finals at the same time? Maybe I could use my feet to grade. I can flip papers over with my big toe and my pinky toe can type the grades into the computer. Anyone know why I decided to give an essay as the final? Someone stop my next time. There’s a perfectly nice scantron machine down the hall, and everyone knows students prefer multiple guess tests. Oh wait! It’s because I’m a responsible teacher and the kids need to learn more than just bubbling in. I’ve even had to leave my knitting bag at home this week so there’s no distractions while I grade these papers. The horror!

Off The Wagon

June 2, 2008, springplum Knitting, , 1

Oops. I forgot to pay attention to my fingers for a couple of hours and look what they did–

Sheep Shawl2 copy

They cast on the Sheep Shawl. Only four days early. That has to count for something, right?

Originally, I had planned to cast this on the first day of summer vacation to celebrate being student-free for three months. It was so hard waiting. I’d go to SnB and see all the neat projects that the other gals were working on, or I’s open up my stash and the Zephyr would tumble out to entice me, and then I got my brand new KP Options that wanted to be used so badly. So I decided–why torture myself? This is a self-imposed rule–no one’s going to punish me if I toss the rule out the window; my husband isn’t going to divorce me; my fish aren’t going to shun me.

I am loving this pattern even if I do have to stare at the chart for every row. But I think if I knit this again, I’ll purl the even rows instead of knitting them. To me, stockinette looks prettier then garter stitch. I appreciate that the shawl will be reversible though. Here’s a detail shot. I am at on the sunshine chart.

Sheep Shawl1 copy