Borderline Obsession

I don't know about you, but my weekend went by much more quickly than I think it should have.  It was Friday evening, and then suddenly ZIP it's Monday morning, and the alarm is waking me up.  Dear Diary:  WHYYYY???

It was a good weekend - not busy at all, and not incredibly productive, other than in my knitting.  The weather was very nice both days - Saturday was warm and sunny, and Sunday was cooler with sun in and out all day.  Saturday morning, The Tim and I went to a Lowe's near our house, because he wanted to get some tomato and herb plants.  We were successful with that, and we also got a rosebush to plant to replace the one that died a couple of years ago.  I hope this one "takes" - I loved the pretty roses right outside the door!  Fingers crossed.

But mostly all weekend, I worked on this:

As you may remember, I was working away knitting the sleeves most recently.  Well, they were both completed, and it was time to introduce them to the body of the sweater.  Keep in mind, this is the first time I've ever made a sweater that is constructed this way, so there was a lot of hope involved.  And from what I can tell, the operation was a success, so that's good.  I worked in this over the course of two movies ("The Space Between Us" [stupid], and "Suburbicon," [OK but much darker than I was expecting]).  By the end of the day on Saturday, I had both attached the sleeves and added some inches beyond that.  And I was pleased with how it was going.

However, on Sunday, it occurred to me that warmer weather was coming, and that meant I needed to decide how to proceed.  You see, I want to finish it because I want it to turn out and be wearable.  BUT - at the moment, it's really heavy to knit with all of the pieces joined, and could be quite uncomfortable for knitting if the weather is warmer.  So my choices were to a) try to finish it sooner rather than later, or b) let it languish until the fall.  OK, so I included the "b" option because it did briefly occur to me, but I wanted to go with "a" from the get-go.  Why?  Because it's so close to being finished at this point!  And it would be more fun for me to be able to pull it out next fall and think, "Well, I can just wear this right now," instead of still having to finish knitting it.

Which is reasonable and also makes sense.  Except that now finishing this sweater is ALL I can think about.  And it's not necessarily "hard," but I am at the point where there are both cables and decreases, so I need to pay attention to avoid having to rip back all of the time.  So for instance, this morning, I had to tell myself not to pull it all out for the 15 minutes I had to knit - because by the time I pulled it out, got the pattern set out and was ready to start, the 15 minutes would be over!  I'm already thinking about whether or not I'll have any time to work on it this evening, and any other evening this week.  And frankly, I have other stuff I should do!  But I am borderline obsessed now with finishing it.  I just hope that other than the few too-warm days we're supposed to have this week, that spring will both arrive and stay for a bit so I can get it done.

Plus, who knows if I'll see something shiny and become completely distracted???  It could happen, you know ...

Things From the Week

This seems to have been a week where some people were in rare form - and not always in a good way!  It was topped off this morning for me when, on my way to work, a woman with a really cute dog came up and stood next to me waiting for the light to change to cross the street.

Me:  Your dog is really cute.  Is it a puppy?
Woman:  Just shut the f*** up and don't EVER ask me that!

Ooooo-kay.  I tried to think of why she was so mean and rude, and yes, maybe she had already been asked the same thing 100 times before I saw her.  But you know what?  She is lucky to have a healthy [looking] dog.  And I know that even when I was in the deepest darkest of moods, if someone said anything at all to me about Dug, I was nice in my response, even if it was a brief one.  Because it takes two seconds to say something nice and go on with being in a crap mood.

Anyway.

But other stuff also happened. 

Yesterday, for instance, was Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I was going to post a poem, but got completely distracted with this below, and was unable to think of looking up any other poem in the universe without laughing so hard I cried.

It's still hilarious to me today.  This will likely be one of those images where I will only have to think about it and it will amuse me.  Forever.  

Then there was the Bill Cosby trial, which has fascinated me from the get-go.

Last year:

Me:  Wow, look at these allegations against Bill Cosby - that's nuts!

The Tim:  Everyone has known about him for years, that's nothing new.

A.  No, everyone hasn't known - I didn't.  B.  How did The Tim know this???  He will often come up with things like this, and after I have time to think about it, I'll just wonder how in the name of a small black dog named Pete he of all people knew.  

In any event, I was irritated last year when they declared a mistrial and this time around for various reasons I really wanted him to be found guilty.  I was 100% convinced it wouldn't happen though.  But then it did!  I still can't believe it.  We were talking about it at work yesterday, and then when I got home, The Tim and I were discussing it for a while.  We stopped though because:

Me:  Isn't it ironic that it happened on the first day of the Penn Relays?

The Tim:  Yeah, he was always running around there, being recognizable.

Me:  Do you think now Bill Cosby has to go around to all of his neighbors, knock on their doors, and warn them he is a sex offender?

The Tim:  You are getting way too much amusement out of this.  Could we please talk about something else?

Buzzkill.

One more thing on that topic though, and then I promise to move on.  This article in today's New York Times is really interesting.

On the topic of funny headlines, someone on Twitter posted this headline:

Duchess of Wales Gives Birth to Baby Boy : Palace

and then commented: "Palace is a crap name."

And then apparently the Daily Mail (in the UK) had a headline that needed some editing:

Rachel Weisz Walks Red Carpet for First Time Pregnant with Rachel McAdams

Which reminded me of a clipping from our hometown newspaper that my sister sent to me a few years back that never fails to amuse me.  There was a picture of a heavy-set woman smiling broadly and a story below about how she had been elected to some local office.  But the headline right next to the photo said: "Blimp Visits Wheeling." because of local excitement that the Goodyear Blimp was going to be on display for some reason.  To use an expression of my friend Lisa, it's Fried. Gold.

Of course there were lots of other things good and bad that happened, but that's it for now.  I hope everyone has a good weekend, with some nice springtime weather.  We have no specific plans, but I have a few things rattling around in my brain, so who knows what may or may not happen?

Neither/Nor

I'm currently experiencing a neither/nor existence.  For example, I'm knitting every day, but not spending any real amount of time on any specific project.  Case in point: I have been knitting sleeve #2 of my blue sweater, which I have really been wanting to finish.  Last night, I had 6 rows left until it would have been done.  And I left it.  Because I just couldn't be bothered.  

I would say the project receiving the most attention recently is my blanket - I added 3 squares (top, right) over the weekend.  But then I put it back down.  I do like the way it looks, but as I said, nothing seems to be "sticking" at the moment ...

I did finish reading a book over the weekend, and it was fine, but again - not inspired.  I've started this book, which I've had on my Nook reader for a long time.

Since it contains essays, I can easily pick it up and put it down, and don't necessarily have to have a block of time to read it.  So far I think I've read 4 of the essays, and enjoyed them, but like everything else, I'm not dying to finish them all as soon as possible.

Things are neither great nor terrible.  I'm neither ecstatic nor particularly depressed.  I feel like the guy on the greeting card who, instead of a smiley face, has just a straight line drawn where his mouth is.  You open the card, and it says, "Have a day."

Check out what others have going on for Unraveled Wednesdays.

It Was One of the Good Weekends

Well, it's Monday again.  And time for another team-building meeting later today at work.  Ugh.  Whenever anyone says "team-building" I want to throw up.  But I'll save that for later, and instead tell you about my weekend.  Which was lovely.

Admittedly, there are very few times when I don't enjoy a weekend - I mean, any day not at work is a day well spent, if you ask me.  But you know how every once in a while, even if you weren't travelling, or counting money someone gave you, or eating massive amounts of chocolate that will have no negative affects on your person, it's still a standout weekend?  That was this past one.

Saturday we started out by making a trip across the bridge to New Jersey.   We generally go there because gasoline is cheaper (even though someone pumps it for you - how does that work out??), and if we have other places we want to stop (Target, Kohls, the liquor store,* etc.), it makes it a worthwhile trip.  This time, we wanted to go to Target, the liquor store, and I wanted to stop at the Cherry Hill Mall to return a gift that was the wrong size.  We got an early start, which made it all very pleasant, because we were able to avoid crowds.  And it was one of those outings where everything we wanted to get and do went smoothly.  So by noon we were home again and had the rest of the day to ourselves.  I walked over to Loop since it was Local Yarn Store Day, and boy was it busy!  Which made me very happy.  I did buy two skeins of Andorra yarn from Kelbourne Woolens, for the Adventura Shawl by Laura Nelkin.  I hadn't necessarily planned to buy anything, but they had the sample shawl(s) there and they were lovely, and since I had a store credit which would cover the cost and still leave some in the account, I figured I'd go ahead.  I purchased a skein if Kelly Green and Lavender. 

(Images from Kelbourne Woolens site)

Then I came home and spent the rest of the day and evening hanging out with The Tim and the kitties, and knitting on a couple of already underway projects.  All in all, a lovely day.

Sunday I was inspired to go to the gym and work out first thing (I know!).  Then after breakfast, I decided before I took a shower, I'd do some cleaning (Again - I know!).  I have to say I was quite pleased with myself to have both things completely finished well before noon.  After then cleaning up mine own self, I headed out to get a few items we needed that are not available at places like Target.  Then I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting, watching a couple of podcasts, and watching the Penguins/Flyers hockey playoff game (the Flyers lost, but they gave the Penguins a good run).  

Besides the niceness of the weekend, I can also report that last Tuesday, my new great-nephew was born!  (You may recall I made this sweater for him.)

Introducing Oden Cassidy Groff:

Here he is with his big sister Penn - I think this picture is so adorable!

But my *very* favorite one is this one, where Penn first visited her mom Julie and new brother in the hospital.

From all reports, everyone is doing well, and Julie and Oden left the hospital to go home on Friday.  I'm sure they have many adventures ahead.

They had narrowed down the name choices to Rowan or Oden (which of course we assumed was "Odin" but it's none of our beeswax how they spell it.  As The Tim pointed out, at least they didn't do the celebrity thing and give the kid a name like Doorknob or Paper Clip), and I'm guessing Oden was chosen in the end because it's less common these days.  Anyhoo, he has arrived and is healthy, so that is the ideal.

I hope your weekend was a good one as well.  The weather is supposed to be more spring-like here this coming week, so hopefully that will be the case.  After all, we deserve spring weather, not only because it IS spring, but because of having to endure the aforementioned team-building ... ;-)

*technically, we are breaking the law buying liquor in New Jersey and bringing it across the state line to Pennsylvania.  So if I ever mysteriously disappear, you'll know we were busted.

Friday FO

Well, I realized last night that I finished a pair of socks a few weeks ago, and completely forgot to show you!  So today is the day.

You may remember at some point I showed you the wip version, with the happy combo of pattern and yarn. 

They are now finished and safely tucked away in my Box o' Socks.

Project:  Milo and Molly Socks

Pattern:  Zigzagular Socks (free on Ravelry!)

Yarn:  Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock, in the colorway Molly (sadly discontinued)

Needles:  Size 1US

Modifications:  None

Notes:  These may be my favorite pair that I have knit so far this year, and one of my all-time faves!  I have had this yarn in my stash for a long time, and decided that it just needed to be a pair of socks this March.  I came across this pattern, which I had saved into my Ravelry library a while back, and since it was particularly created for variegated yarn, I thought it might be a good match - and it was.  This pair was just plain enjoyable to knit in every way.  The yarn is wonderful, the pattern is well-written and once you get through the first repeat, it's pretty memorable and doesn't require intense concentration.  I highly recommend it.

Here's another shot of the socks, where the color is closer to what you would see in person.

**********

Happy weekend!  I hope whatever you have planned works out.  Our weekend is probably going to be quiet, though I am hoping to make it to Loop tomorrow for Local Yarn Store Day.  Especially now that Rosie's has closed, I want do my part to make sure that my two other local stores, Loop and Hidden River Yarns, stay in business.  Since Loop is about 1 1/2 blocks from my house, I'll probably head over there.  (Laziness usually wins out, especially on weekends!)