Welcome 2010

Wow, it's been about a year since my latest post. I've been neglecting my blog duties. So what was 2009 like? Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up: Started knitting a shawl, got laid off, summer started, stopped knitting a shawl, joined Facebook, updated resume, found another job, Michaels, TJ Max and Whole Foods opened up across the street, got a hair cut, went to the Bahamas - overdosed on conch, went to a funeral, went to a friend's wedding, visited my friend 8 hours after she gave birth, had a terrible Halloween, went to another friend's wedding, had an early Christmas in Denver, and last but not least started writing in my blog.

I'm sure there are lots of things in between that I've omitted. If I remember, I'll be sure to add it in.

I haven't knitted in over 6 months. Now that winter smacked me in the face, I started getting an itching for yarn. Today's high is 28-degrees, perfect weather for knitting a chunky baby alpaca scarf. As soon as there's progress, I'll post pictures. For Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a stash of Donegal wool. She actually bought it in Donegal, Ireland - where she lives. My father-in-law, gave me a gift certificate to the Lamb Shoppe. Chritmas has treated me very well.

I'm hoping the new year will provide blog-writing inspiration. Here's to 2010. Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Gift Finally Complete!

Yes, I know. It's mid-January and I finally finished the Christmas gift I was knitting, as mentioned in my Nov 17 entry. It was a present for Timothy. The good news is, it's a scarf and we're still in the dead of winter. So, it's not that late. Late would be giving it to him on Palm Sunday. So yes. He was very happy with the gift. Especially since he had to borrow my scarf for the past few weeks. It was a much needed gift. There's nothing worse than getting a knitted gift from someone that you absolutely can't use. A pastel-pink toilet paper doily in the shape of a French Poodle, for example. I try to keep my gifts practical, whenever possible.

The scarf has a great pattern that has an old Celtic feel. It was easy enough for me to get through, but intricate enough in detail to impress. There are a few minor mess-ups, but the pattern is so forgiving that you hardly notice them. And with my subpar record for fixing knitting mistakes (see previous entry), it was better that I just moved on.

The hubby loves it. And I'm very happy.

Frogging the Gloves

I am fuming. Fuming! I started knitting some fingerless gloves for a birthday gift. They come in handy in the office for keeping warm, while freeing up your fingers for typing, filing and similar "digits-required" activities. The birthday is coming up this Wednesday. According to the pattern instructions, you can knit these babies in one weekend. Great. Sounds like the perfect gift to me.

I started knitting on Monday. Since I had the day off, I spent a good portion of the afternoon on my project. Hey, not bad. These are coming out pretty nicely. I was about 70% done with the left glove and then all of a sudden, something terrible happened. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what. I just know that I ended up with too many stitches. Not only too many stitches, but they just didn't feel right. It was very strange and a little difficult to describe.

I'm not very good at ripping out stitches and fixing my mistakes. If I can't make it through all the way in one shot, I'm doomed. Of course there are some minor exceptions. If I knit where I was supposed to purl, I can certainly go back and fix that. If I screw up the pattern on the current row, I can take it out stitch by stitch and fix that. Anything more complicated than that, well, like I said, I'm doomed.


So doomsday arrived and I sat staring at my work for about 15 minutes, trying to come up with SOMETHING. I tried taking out the first couple of rows and picking up the stitches. Didn't work. The stitches kept falling out of their loops. It was a mess. I finally decided to frog the whole thing. It was a sad moment. Very sad indeed.





The birthday is tomorrow and well, obviously, I won't have them done. I'm still determined to make them. But dagnammit! I wanted them to be done. *Sigh*

Michaels in the City

Such exciting news! Michaels craft store will be opening up across the street. No longer do I have to trek out to Queens for an exceptional variety of bargain-priced yarns. I was passing along the street with the hubby and noticed the signage by the construction site. It listed all the retail businesses coming soon. I pointed at the sign and said, "Oh, look. They're opening a Duane Reade, a Borders, a Chase Bank, a [insert quick inhale]."

My eyes widened. Timothy looked up, read the sign and said, "Uh-oh."

I grabbed onto his jacket sleeve and quickly jumped up and down. Not a comment, not a sound, just a spirited bounce that took over me for several seconds. I can't wait! I can't wait! I just hope they have their grand opening before my lease is up.

On another note, I still haven't finished my knitting project that I mentioned in my previous post. It's about 65% completed. It's going to be a very, very belated Christmas gift. I've actually taken the B train back and forth during my lunch break to get some extra knitting done. I'm so close, I can feel it. I promise to post it as soon as it's done.