02.25.08
Norwegian Stocking
Here’s my first finished sock! Ever! Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Halfway there- I’m not quite emotionally ready to cast on the second sock, but I swear I’ll make the second one! I won’t let Second Sock Syndrome control my life. 8-|
It is such an extremely thick, hot sock. As soon as I stick my hand or foot inside of it I feel like I’m going to erupt into a fit of sweating. Not quite the dainty little stocking I pictured! Oh well, it’ll make a great snowboarding sock!
Here’s an inside-out shot – I have to say I’m very proud of my first attempt at colorwork! It’s kind of uneven in places, but the puckering isn’t too bad at all!
It comes up to my knee when on, and the top is a little loose, but I’ll just add a little elastic thread to fix that problem. I’m still in love with the pattern of x’s and o’s. I’m a sucker for awesomely mathematical/logical geometric patterns.
As soon as I finish both I’ll make my hubby take a cute little photo session of me in my toasty knee-highs!
Making these socks is the first step towards fulfilling my dream of having a set of “knit woolens” like the American Girl Kirsten had. Ever since I was a little tot I’ve loved Kirsten’s Swedish patterned hat, cardigan, mittens and stockings, and now I can make them for myself! You’re never too old for the American Girls! Kirsten was always my favorite. Too bad I don’t have a drop of Swedish in my blood. Nada.
02.22.08
Stockings, take 2
Ok, I know you’re anxious for an update (well, at least one person is!) and I want to get to the heel flap on the first stocking before I post a new pic, but I will say that I frogged the whole project and started over with size 2 needles. I’m almost to the heel on the first sock, and as soon as I get there I’ll post pics! I’m very happy with take 2 of the Norwegian Stockings!
So, carry on, and expect more later (probably this afternoon).
02.18.08
Madrona Fiber Arts Sponsors of The Winter Retreat
Madrona Fiber Arts Sponsors of The Winter Retreat
Oh, that’s why all the knitting blogs keep talking about going to Tacoma. Apparently there was a Knitting/Fiber retreat there this past weekend. *pouts* I wanna go to a knitting retreat!
Norwegian Stockings – Ribbit Ribbit Rip-it!
No time to write, because I’m at work, but I just have to share my sorrow about these stockings I started on Valentine’s Day. I absolutely adore the pattern, Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush, but apparently I knit really loosely, because the socks are looking like they were made for a giant! I’m using Dalegarn Heilo with size 3 dpns.
Right now the gauge is supposed to be 2 inches = 14 sts x 15 rnds. Well, 14 sts x 15 rnds = about 2 1/2 inches right now, and that amounts to the sock being about 2 1/2 x 6 = 15 inches in diameter unstretched, and these seem really stretchy. I was kind of hoping they’d be delicate, dainty stockings, not thick boot socks. Maybe I’ll make another pair out of a thinner/finer fiber another time, then I can have some thick ones AND thin ones. I love the pattern sooooo much that I wouldn’t mind making several pairs!
I’m going to go buy size 2 dpns – and maybe a pair of ones too – on my lunch break so I can get started on the new socks. Any advice before I go a-frogging?
02.13.08
Just Wanna Knit!
Wow, it’s 2:15, but feels like it’s way past 5:00 and way way past “time to go home.” I don’t know why I’ve been so antsy this week! Seriously, if I’m being completely honest, all I want to do right now is knit. Knit, knit, knit, I’m obsessed with it! I have $50 of birthday money to spend on knitting stuff, and I spend many hours each day thinking of how should I spend this precious cash: perhaps a set of interchangeable circular needles? Addi Turbos? some expensive wool for the hat I wanna make for My Chris? Should I buy a yarn bag? I should I just save the money and not buy anything? definitely not that last one…
I kinda want to play sick and leave early, but there’s no way I could bring myself to do that today, I feel too good to pretend to be sick! Even with Aunt Flo the old hag visiting this week I still feel great! Just too antsy to be sitting at work doing endless Expense Reports for my 3 bosses.. (seriously, how do they amass so many receipts in one month? I wish they’d spend less money for my sake. That’s a good enough reason, right? To save their poor Assistant the pain and suffering of entering countless 75-cent toll receipts and expensive donor luncheons at fancy pancake houses, the frustration of finally finishing a report only to have one of them dash in the room saying “don’t press print! I found 5 more stuck in between the seats in my car…” You’d want to spend all day knitting too.
I’ve been spending the afternoon taking note of and bookmarking all of the LYSs in my area. One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday is take and adventurous trip to a random yarn shop in some distant suburb I have not yet visited. Sometime I’ll have to drag Sonja with me to visit the Arcadia Knitting Yarn Shop in downtown Chicago, and any other cool yarn shops down there. Here are some other nice yarn shops in the Suburbs.
I’d Rather Be Knitting – a small shop in historic downtown Long Grove, very cute.
Three Bags Full Knitting Studio – this shop is in what looks like an older two-story house, which makes for a very cozy, appealing venue for those of us knitters who equate knitting with sitting in a warm, homey living room at grandma’s house. A nice selection of yarn too, and I spied a heaping full bargain barrel too.. always nice!
Mosaic Yarn Studio – my favorite shop I’ve been to so far – as a matter of fact, I plan on going there this afternoon on the way to the chiropractor to get my not-broken-neck adjusted. I don’t know why I like the shop so much, it has yarn, needles, patterns, a table to sit at and work and everything else that all yarn shops have, but it just felt so cheery and friendly when I was there last time that I want to keep going back! The place is just packed with yarn too, like I have to be careful with my clumsy self whenever I walk through the store because Im afraid I’m going to knock over a display and send hundreds of dollars worth of fiber cascading to the floor to be trampled in the wintery-mix of slush, ice, salt and mud that graces the floors of all Chicagoland businesses this time of year.
Shops I’ve yet to visit:
Magic Needle, Inc. in Highland Park
The Gifted Purl in West Dundee
Have Ewe Any Wool? in Elmhurst
I think I’m now two-thirds of the way through Sonja’s Plaited Scarf, I can see the speck of light at the end of the dark and dreary cable-knit tunnel! Then I can start on a hat for my Chris. Any suggestions on a pattern for a beanie/hat for a guy who doesn’t like to wear hats normally? Usually store-bought hats don’t look quite right on him, so I told him I’d find a flattering one for him. I’d welcome any pattern/yarn suggestions – preferably a hat that’s not very bulky or thick and that won’t draw unnecessary attention. Unless it’s a gorgeous pattern that he’d WANT attention for!
Only 2 hours to go… grrrr…
02.12.08
WIP updates…
I’m still working on dear-Sonja’s never ending cable-knit scarf. I feel like it gets shorter, rather than longer. After this scarf is finished I will take a hiatus from cables for… a long time. I won’t say forever, because I seem to forget my crafting frustrations/boredom/anguish pretty quickly after they’re over, but right now I’m ready for a cable break.
The scarf is lovely though, and the yarn is so soft and cuddly. Actually, it’s too soft for my tastes – the yarn is Caron “Simply Soft” and I feel like the yarn fluffs and pills too easily – like it’s not twisted tight enough or something. I just don’t like the feel of it while knitting very much.
This weekend while we were on the Senior High Ski Trip to Wisconsin (Yes, that makes two weekends in a row on youth trips. Gah!) I had lots of time to knit, and since I was really tired of the pink scarf I decided to try my hand at hat-making. so I cast-on SnB’s Kitty Hat, and in no-time it was finished! Why couldn’t the scarf go that fast?
I was going to put kitty ears on it, but everyone laughed at me when I said I was going to, so I decided not to. 
I started making pompoms for the stringy thingys, and I got so so so sooo bored with the first pompom that I decided just to plop it on top of the hat and call it quits. I think it’s pretty cute for my first hat!
BUT apparently this hat has to be knitted in the round. I tried knitting it flat and put a seam down the back, and the it resulted in an unsightly bump in the back where the decs on the edge puckered up. Whatever, it wasn’t important enough to me to redo the whole hat. The reason that I didn’t knit it in the round is because my Dear Doggies ATE 3 of my wooden dpns, and chewed up the ends on my aluminum dpns! Yes, they ingested the wooden ones and we found bits of wooden sticks in their poops. So now I have 2 leftover wooden ones and only 1 aluminum one that isn’t chewed up! I could probably find a file at the church to grind down the sharp metal edges on the needles, but it doesn’t seem worth it. I think I’ll just end up buying a new set.
Bad doggies!
Busy February
The past couple of weeks have been very busy and chaotic in our family, so I haven’t had time to post anything for quite a while!
Two weekends ago we took our Middle School Youth Group (“Totally Friday”) to Bair Lake Bible Camp in Jones, Michigan for our 2nd annual “Deep Freeze” Winter Retreat. We had a great time! The camp had an ice climbing wall, which was really entertaining to watch. Some of the kids are little climbing monkeys! The adults that tried had a much more difficult time getting to the top…
My Chris is in the black jacket, and the other YP Ryan and his fiance Kryssia are on either sides of Chris.
Sonja, me and Kelly
Of course, the retreat is all about the kids and we spent most of our time following them around and playing/supervising, but this weekend was also really fun for the “grown-ups” because we got to hang out with our friends from college who work with the LEFC middle school group that came with us on the trip. My college roommate and maid-of-honor Kelly (blue coat above) helps with the group, and her now-roommate Kryssia is engaged to Ryan, the youth guy at LEFC. Ryan and Chris have been good friends since freshman year of college, as Chris discipled Ryan and a few other guys throughout college. Now that they’re both working with churches they like to do co-activities, and the kids really love getting together with the other youth group, so it works out for everyone!
Our growing groups!
We took a coach bus that’s been renovated into a “ministry bus” – the rows of chairs have been replaced with facing benches that encourage community/conversation/group games/etc. ALSO (and I think this is so cool) all the benches can be pulled out to lie flat for sleeping, and I assume there’s a way to put up a partition for guys/girls sides. Anyway, the guy who owns the bus drives church groups around for a living. Pretty awesome.
Ok, this is me in my snow cave. 
The theme of the weekend was “Man vs. Nature” – a take on Discovery’s Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls. Over the weekend we watched an episode of Bear Grylls in the snowy mountains of Patagonia, and several of the kids were so inspired by Bear’s innovative survival skill of digging a “snow cave” that we spent most of Saturday afternoon digging our own caves! Each kid dug a hole into the side of a huge snow-plowed drift, and after the holes were deep enough to crawl into, we dug tunnels in between each hole so we could slither into each other’s holes. Notice how I include myself in this snow party – I totally dug myself a huge snow cave! The above picture is me popping out long enough to say hello to visitors before climbing back in to continue digging my tunnel that connected to Sonja’s cave. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun!
02.07.08
You might be a youth pastor’s wife if… « so I married a youth pastor
You might be a youth pastor’s wife if… « so I married a youth pastor
Oh my goodness, I laughed out loud when I read this… check it out!
02.06.08
I didn’t break my neck!
Ok, I don’t have much time to post since I’m at work, but I just got exciting news from my chiropractor – I don’t have a broken neck! Haha, sounds silly, but basically I started going to Dr. Andrea because I’ve been having really bad neck pain and weird sensations on the right side of my body (numbness, tingling, etc.) after a fender bender a couple weeks ago. I’ve always had neck/back problems, but they’ve been getting worse lately.
SO, she took X-rays and told me that she was concerned about the way one of the films of my neck looked, and she was worried that I had “fractured my cervical spine” – broke my neck – so she sent my films to a radiologist. So I’ve been sitting on pins and needles since Monday, living on Ibuprofen and icing my neck round the clock at work. I rigged up my scarf with a gel ice pack so I can tie it around my neck. Looks ridiculous, but it works.
She called this morning and said there’s no fracture! Just a Stage II/slightly Stage III reversal of my cervical spine, which I already knew about. So, the neck problems are just being agitated from the car accident, no new issues! So exciting! I was mostly just horrified at the thought of wearing an ugly neck brace for 4 months.
So this is what a normal neck looks like:
This is what mine looks like:
My mom has a lot of the exact same back issues that I have, so either she passed them along to me through her genes or by teaching me bad posture . Oh well, love ya Mom!
