Not a lot of kitting going on here!

This week was very unproductive with the knitting!  I had Lasik surgery on my eyes on Thursday, which made me pretty useless all day Thursday and most of Friday. 

Then-on Friday night, our friends Rene' and Tim from Columbus came out for a visit!  It was so great to see them and we were really touched that they made the drive!  Their visit was supposed to be a surprise, but when the hubbs mentioned their names for an unrelated reason, a picture of them in their Ohio State jerseys in downtown D.C. next to the monuments flashed in my mind.  Saturday was the big OSU vs. Michigan game.  BUSTED!  The hubbs should know by now that he can't surprise me, and if he so much as THINKS about the surprise in the same room as me, I will figure it out! 

We had a great time down in D.C. checking out the monuments and then up in Annapolis.  We ate some seafood on the dock and watched the ships go by.  We got some coffee in the coolest Starbucks ever-the one in the basement of the Maryland Inn.  Then-back to the apartment for some beer and conversation.  What a fun time!

Jaimie was VERY proud of his parallel parking!

The women whose pictures were etched into the Korean War memorial.  It was so touching to see them acknowledged!

Honest Abe- he's even bigger than the history books say!

This monument is a tribute to the women who fought in Vietnam.  Most of them were nurses who cared for our wounded soldiers.  This monument was completed in 1994, and the sign explaining it says that 'now the Vietnam memorial is complete".  I think that's cool.  These were the women who really paved the way for my generation of soldiers-though their bravery so far outshines my own that I hesitate to put myself in the same category.

WWII Memorial.

I DID actually get SOME stuff done this week. Here is the beginning of the sweater I am making for my mother for "Christmas"-which she probably won't get until Mother's day!

And here is the gray yarn which I just completed this evening.  I will use it with the red yarn from last week to knit a OSU Christmas stocking for the hubbs. :)

Red Yarn, a Healthy Carbide, and My Mother's Christmas Sweater

This week I made another skein of yarn!  This one is red and I tried to correct the mistakes that I made with the black one.  I definitely overspun the last one so I tried to spin this one a bit less.

But unfortunately, what I ended up with was uber underspun yarn!

Some of it is fine, but some isn't twisty enough.  Hopefully the next skein will balance out the two and be perfect.  I have noticed that spinning this one, which was wool was more physically difficult for me than the first one.  It was easier to draft in that the fibers seemed to stick together more than the alpaca did, so They were helping me out a bit in that way, but I really had to tug on them to draft out as thinly as I wanted to go.  It wasn't a big deal at first, but when I was spinning and watching a movie (so I was spinning for a few hours) my left thumb was a bit sore.  I'm not sure if that is just the way it goes or if it is specific to this yarn.

In other news, the hubbs and I have been keeping a good eye on Carbide to see if he is getting any better, and he isn't limping anymore-which is wonderful news!  We are thinking that he won't need surgery for a while yet, which is great because now we can save up a bit more beforehand.

Also, some of our good friends from Columbus OH let us know that they are coming out to visit us next weekend!  I am super pumped because I definitely miss them and it will be so wonderful to see them!

As for knitting, I only just started the sweater that I am making for my mother.  I decided to go a different way with it because the first sweater that I planned to knit for her was giving me some gauge issues. 

I really like this one and I think that it will look beautiful on my mother.  I especially love the XO cable pattern on the sides of the bust.  That is how my mother signs off on all of her notes to us-and has since we were little kids and she would sometimes include encouraging notes in our lunchboxes.  Well, she actually did "XXXOOO"- so I might have to alter the pattern to reflect that!

And finally, I started a super cool gift for the hubbs.  I am making it for our second anniversary next August.  I am starting now because I think that it will really take THAT LONG to complete it!  Unfortunately, I can't post photos of the ongoing project on here because, as far as I know, he is the only person who READS this blog! haha  If anyone else ever does read this blog and is curious, feel free to check it out on Ravelry (to which the hubbs does not have access!).  My userid is "twopeasinapod" and it is in "my projects".  Oh-and by the way- I am designing the entire project myself.  It is my first time, so I am pretty pumped!

I MADE YARN!

Oh yeah. You read it correctly. I made YARN! Or... something that vaguely resembles yarn anyway!

I feel like I improved a lot even just between my first and second skeins.

For some reason, the hubbs thought that I was very cute while plying (or "twisting" as he calls it) so he decided that it was a kodak moment. 

Once it was plied, I let it soak in a sink of hot water with dish soap for 20 minutes.  Then I soaked it in water with cider vinegar (I was fresh out of white vinegar!).  Then one more rinse of cold water to get rid of that "salad dressing smell".

Then I hung it to dry in my shower.

In the end it was 186 yards of black alpaca magic.  It is very soft and it was fun to spin!  I brought it to my little knitting group, and the girls there were really excited about it-even though many of them have been spinning for a long time and make really beautiful yarn!

I definitely overspun the crap out of both plies.  The whole thing kinked up a lot, and winding it from the skien into a ball was a chore because I had to keep unkinking it.  I will be careful not to overspin the plies next time!

Also, this week Ft Meade had a Veteran's Job Fair.  The hubbs decided that I needed a suit for the occasion (since I don't have one).  Here I am right before the fair.

The hubbs says that I "sell myself short" at job fairs/interviews/etc- and this one was no exception.  I try to answer the interviewers questions very honestly, and I tell them when I know I am not qualified for a certain job.  I am very aware of and comfortable with my skill set, but maybe some people inflate theirs?  I'm not sure, but I think we should just be able to be totally honest and the interviewer should believe us.  It seems that that is NOT the way that the world works, however, so it is I who will obviously have to adjust!

We didn't do much this past weekend.  I was pretty sick so we had to cancel our plans.  The hubbs stayed home with me and took really wonderful care of me.  He made me tea, bought clam chowder for me (I am NOT a fan of chicken noodle-even though he swears by it.  He finally gave in to my whining and bought the chowder).  He went to the local convienience store and brought back one of those Nestle' ice cream sandwiches with the chocolate chip cookies on either side.  They are pretty much the greatest thing ever.  He was pretty annoying because he was trying to be very "hands on" with my healing process- but I'll tell you what- I felt 100% better after 2 days of his care.  I couldn't believe it.  I felt this cold setting in and I "knew" that it was going to take a week or two to shake it, but it didn't!  I also found his concern for my VERY mild ails to be touching and very, very sweet.  I am lucky to have him.

And finally- I just picked this book up last week.

It is awesome!  This lady explains all about different kinds of fibers and how they are made into yarn.  I'm sure that there is much more, but I am still towards the beginning where she is explaining the main kinds of fibers and where they come from.  Great read!  So interesting!

Halloween and Carbide

Happy belated Halloween! The hubbs and I had a blast at a party last night. We weren't sure of what to dress up as, but I was thinking that a pirate theme might be a good idea-that way I could get him to be excited about dressing up also. The Halloween store that we went to had 3 different female pirate costumes- 2 of which were lame and the other was $75, not counting any accessories. Wha wha. We decided to be a witch and a witch doctor. Check us out!

Also, since Carbide has been hurting with his shoulder and hips and kind of confined to our apartment, he has been acting up. A lot. He is generally only an occasional chewer, but in the past week he has chewed something up every single time that we have left the apartment. A couple of days ago I went to the grocery store, and when I came back I saw that he had gotten into the garbage. My bad for not taking it out before I left-especially since it had his two favorite things in the world in it; coffee grounds and banana peels. Unfortunately, the grounds were still wet, and when he dragged them onto the carpet... they reflected their natural dyeing properties. I was scrubbing coffee stains out for a while, and now that the carpet has dried, I think that I need to go back in. But that isn't even the worst of it. The very next day when I went out to run errands, I came back to find that Carbide had gotten into my swim bag. He chewed up my soap (one of his other favorites). Then I saw pink plastic pieces on the carpet, so I thought that he chewed up my scissors. After a second I realized that in fact, he had chewed up my razor! I was horrified! What kind of crazed mutt would chew up a razor?! He also chewed up the actual razor part-and in a panic I was about to call the vet to ask what we should do, when I noticed something shiny on our carpet.

Oh yeah. It's what you think it is. Our brilliant dog managed to chew all of the white plastic around these razor blades off of them, eat them, and leave these behind. I couldn't believe it. I am thankful that he didn't eat them, but still couldn't believe it. I am looking forward to his orthopedic appointment on Friday. Hopefully we can get started with a solution to his joint problems so we can get back to our normal life.


Also, I was successful in talking my mother into wanting the pretty sweater. The problem was what I suspected-she thought that it would be too difficult and so she tried to convince me that she wanted the very simple and basic sweater. I told her that for the longest time I was scared to do any color work, so I did only cables, and I am pretty much the cable master. She thought that she wanted thick cotton because it is less hot than wool. I explained to her that you can't go too think with cotton because, though it isn't a super warm fiber, it is very heavy and will stretch the garment vertically. As for wool, it doesn't have to be super warm and scratchy; it can be thin and soft. For yarn, I chose Elsebeth Lavold's Silky wool in white, which has already arrived from Paradise Fibers (I LOVE that store!), but the pattern is still en route.

It seems pretty likely that the Navy will be giving me the boot. The hubs is dragging me to a veterans job fair this Wednesday. He decided that I should have a suit for it so it will be more professional. I went to Express and got the cutest skirt suit! It is actually kind of sexy, in a very conservative and professional way! I'll include a picture next time.

I finished my sister Erin's snowboarder scarf. I'll need the hubs to snap that picture, though, so I'll have to include that next time as well.


And finally, I am finished with the first of my dad's argyle socks. They are coming along better than the ones that I made for Jaimie, which were my first attempt at color work, but they are still pretty rough. I made some mistakes while knitting the pattern (which is pretty impressive since it is about the easiest pattern on the Earth) and I really had a bear of a time sewing the seams. I seemed to (haha) mess up the pattern. But I guess you can get away with mistakes like this when you are making it for your parents. If he liked painted rocks as paperweights for Father's Day, hopefully he will like jacked up argyle socks.

Socks, Mittens, and Carbide

I am finally finished with both of my sister's Christmas mittens!

My husband is sponsoring a foreign officer from Jordan.  We were supposed to show him around the area and introduce him to American culture.  We had him over for dinner 2 weeks ago, and I made the most American dinner that I could think of- Roasted Chicken.  I also made hummus to try to honor his culture (though I'm certain that it was not as good as he is used to!).  In Middle Eastern culture, it is rude not to return an invitation, so even though this gentleman is staying in a hotel and doesn't have a kitchen to cook a meal in, he insisted on taking us out to dinner.  The Jordanian restaurant that we wanted to go to is apparently closed, so we ended up going to a Palestinian restaurant in downtown Washington DC called Mama Aisha's.  It was awesome!  We had hummus, baba ganoush and tabbouleh just to start with!  I had a fantastic beef and eggplant thing for dinner.  We basically forced down some dessert (baklava for them, rice pudding for me).  I was so stuffed that I couldn't even think about food.  The Jordanian officer we were dining with started speaking in arabic to the owner of the restaurant.  I obviously didn't know what they were saying, but they seemed to become fast friends.  When we were about to leave, another tray of desserts appeared on our table!  I understand that in Middle Eastern culture, being a good host/hostess is sacred-but I didn't know that that extended to restaurant owners as well!  I had the tough job of choking down another enormous portion of baklava (I know, feel sorry for me!).  After that, when we dropped him back off at his hotel, he insisted that we come up and try the cookies that his wife baked for him and sent along in his suitcase.  Seriously?!?!  She made two kinds, so he insisted that I try both.  His wife is obviously a fantastic baker, and both were amazing.  I didn't think that I would be able to eat for 3 days, but I was hungry again the next day- at, like, 5:00 PM!  What a feast!  What a fun night!    

I have started trying to use my wheel!  I obviously don't know what I am doing yet, but it is fun to learn something new!

Please excuse my mess!  As you can see, I have yarn, knitting books and knitting needles everywhere!  The hubbs was up all night on Friday and Saturday working on his thesis, so I was up all night (literally all night- until 0600!) playing with fiber.  Tough life.  Really tough.  By next August, he will have a Masters degree, and I will have about 100 handknit socks.  I wonder if I can put that on my resume'?

I have started a new project! 

My dad and I recently got back in touch. I couldn’t be happier. Anyway-Christmas is coming and he makes a lot of money, so he already has bought or can buy anything that he wants. I thought it would be nice for me to make something for him-like I did when I was a kid. (But hopefully a little nicer!)
He lives in Florida and commutes every week to Texas for work. I have always lived in the north and I’m not sure really of what to knit for warmer climates. Also-he was recently diagnosed with Diabetes. When I think of Diabetes, I think of two things. The first is cake, because I would be sad if I couldn’t eat it. The second is feet, because I always hear about bad things that happen to people’s feet who have Diabetes. I decided that he should have some really special socks for his feet.
He wears dress pants and a button up shirt to work, so I decided to stick with a black background for these socks. His favorite color is blue, so I wanted to knit these socks in different shades of blue. I realize that the aqua color is a tad girly-but my dad really loves sailing, and the name of that color is “Caribbean Blue”, so I decided to run with it. The other blue is called “Deep Water” which I thought was also a good choice for a sailing enthusiast.
I researched different kinds of cooler sock yarns (rather than the merino wool that I used to make them for the hubbs). I learned that bamboo is naturally anti-bacterial, which makes it a great choice for socks. Also, these are made of cotton and a little elastic nylon for stretch. Unfortunately, to get the gauge, I have to knit these bad boys with size 0 needles! Wha wha.
I plan to wrap them in blue tissue paper with some gorgeous blue wrapping paper and ribbon. I hope that he likes them.

Also, I was speaking with my mother on the phone yesterday about what she might like to have for Christmas.  She said that she has been looking to buy something for a while, but was hesitant to tell me about it fearing that I might try to MAKE it for her, and she "didn't want to trouble me".  Sure.  I've heard THAT before!  Anyway- she has apparently been searching high and low for the PERFECT white sweater.  She likes v-necks (she doesn't like anything near her neck).  She also gets hot with bulky wool and would like something cotton.  She is "long waisted" (longer torso than legs) so many sweaters are a tad short on her, and she would prefer it a bit on the long side anyway.  I told her that I would design a sweater for her.  Super sweet of me, hey?  Too bad that I really don't know how to knit a sweater!  I went to the library and checked out a book on sweater design called The Sweater Workshop.  I'm not sure about this, now!  Also, we are driving up to see my family for Thanksgiving and celebrating Christmas THEN- so I actually have a month less than I would if I was making this for Christmas!  I sent her some pics of sweaters to see what kinds of things she likes and dislikes.  She picked the MOST BORING SWEATER on the earth!  It is just a (I think) 7x1 or 7x2 ribbed, v neck sweater.  I am trying to sway her to liking this one:

This sweater is knit in a DK weight wool, so it won't be as hot as some sweaters can be.  Also, I could extend the bottom ribbing of the sweater and make it longer for her.  And it is super cute and sexy!  But, my opinion really doesn't matter-she would be the one wearing it. 

And finally, the hubbs and I got some sad news this week.  Our little angel, Carbide, isn't doing so well.  It turns out that he has shoulder and hip dysplasia.  The poor dear needed to be knocked out in order to do the x-rays (this is, apparently the way that it is always done, but I didn't know that).  I know that Newfies are prone to orthopedic troubles, but I wasn't expecting this with Carbide for a few years yet.  He isn't even 3 years old!  Poor thing.  I will be visiting vetinerary orthopedic surgeons this week to see what they can make of our situation and what they think would be best for Carbide.  I love that little dog!  When I first got out of the Air Force and moved to Columbus, I didn't have a job (the Navy had claimed that I would go straight from the Air Force into the Navy-in fact, they jerked me around for a month and a half and I didn't know what was going to happen).  Also, my Meme' had just passed away, which is still the worst thing that has ever happened in my life.  And I didn't know anyone in Columbus- no job, school hadn't started yet.  No friends.  Jaimie was stationed in Germany.  It was a pretty dark time in my life.  But then there was little Carbide.  I had just gotten him.  All 18 pounds of fur that he was back then.  I know that this sounds really dramatic, but he was the reason that I got up in the morning.  As really, really sad as I was, I understood that I was responsible for that little creature.  Things would have been so much worse had it not been for him.  He took care of me.  Now, I will take care of him.  Maybe it is a blessing that I am not working now (since I am waiting on a military medical board).  I can be with him while he goes through this process and help him rehabilitate. 

We don't usually give him McDonald's obviously, but he had such a rough day at the vet's office that we decided to make an exception.  He was such a good boy and still waited for his release command before he inhaled that cheeseburger!  (ONE BITE!  I'm not kidding!)  Then I set up a little nest for him.  He loves to lay on the tile near the fireplace or the front door, or in the kitchen or bathroom since his fur keeps him so hot.  But I think that his joints are really starting to hurt him because he has been laying on the carpet more lately.  I put a fan on the floor and pointed it towards him- and he seemed to like it a lot.  Poor little guy.  He is also, as it turns out, allergic to Maryland, and we have to put this goop in his eyes twice a day for a few weeks.  AND he has had ear trouble since he was a puppy-which has flared back up and he now needs goop in his ears as well!  This poor little dear just can't catch a break!  I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a child-I am so upset over our dog being sick.  Motherhood must be heart wrenching!

My Birthday Present!!!

My birthday present from the hubbs arrived in the mail today!  He ordered it from the Woolery in KY on Thursday or Friday, and it arrived on Monday!  Free shipping!  I would like to do more business with that company!

I am super pumped!  I can't wait to start spinning on this sexy hunk of wood!  I still have a bunch of Christmas gifts to finish up, and we might be going up to Boston to visit my family for an early Christmas (first week of November) since we will be spending Christmas with the hubb's family this year.  So I need to get cracking!  Not that I'm complaining!  I am very blessed to have it be a "problem" to decide which craft/hobby to do first.  I am beginning to see this transitional time as more of a blessing than I had previously!