It's about darn time...

Finally, finally, finally, a project that I started in mid-June is about to be finished!!! A fellow mom who has a son and daughter-in-law in Iraq for the Army asked me to make them blankets after I had given her one. I had picked out the colors so fast, and actually found the green I used at the craft store on base. Maybe that was where I goofed up. I got the first one done relatively quickly. I was plugging away at the second one, and, horror of horrors, I ran out of the green!!! Eight rows away from being done, 3 of those rows being green, and I was out of the color I needed!!! I figured that, while it was irritating, it was no big deal. I'd just go back to the craft store on base and get more, right? If only! The green I bought on my first trip was the wrong shade. It was too dark. They were out of my forest green. And they don't place new orders until their supply is all but depleted. Even then, there was no guarantee that they would order the color I needed. So instead, I had to hunt a place down online that I could order it from. Thank goodness for Joann's!!! They had it, I ordered it, and about 6 weeks later, I got the yarn. Unfortunately, that put it too late to finish the afghan for the WIPs Wrestling I'd entered it into for the Ravelympics. I sat down to finally finish the blanket, and.....it was still the wrong color!!! At first I thought it was a dye lot issue, and if that were the case, I was completely and totally hosed. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that big of a color difference would not be a dye lot issue. It turned out that the yarn I got from Joann's was soft forest green, not forest green. It made a huge difference! I don't know if it was a mistake on my part or on theirs, but either way, I was a bit annoyed. Well, I placed the order again, quadruple checking that I ordered the right color...and it came in the mail yesterday!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! DH wouldn't let me open the package until we got home from being out and about in Sacile, so I didn't even bother to try and get it from him until this morning. I was so happy when I opened the box and saw the right color!!! YAAAAAAY!!! I've already knocked one row out of the way and am on the second green row...then there's a bit of claret, soft navy, and natural business going on before the final round of green. And one row may not sound like much, but when you're working a round ripple that's this size, one row can take a good 20-30 minutes...I'm just so happy and relieved to finally be able to finish this project! I was beginning to think I wouldn't get it done before their deployment was over! LOL And now, back to my hooking and your regular scheduled programming.....

S.P.E.W.

Yay for hats!!! My hat for the duel was quite a hit! :) I really enjoyed making it, too, so when Molly said she thought it'd look good in pink (incidentally her favorite color and my least favorite color, yet the color of yarn that seems to rule my stash...), I took up the mandate at once! :) That one got done just as fast as the green one for Elladora (who is actually in Hufflepuff, not Slytherin...she just likes greens...) and turned out looking great too, despite my dislike for the color.


Then the discussion of the hat bracket came up in the dueling club. A few of the crocheters were surprised to discover that the last round in the bracket is knit, even though I know that our coordinator specified that on more than one occasion. But their concern reminded me that I'm still pretty new to knitting. I've only just finished my first knit hat. So I've come to the decision that after I finish the hat for the present duel, I'm also going to do the knit one for the practice. Just in case I make it to the last bracket. I'd rather be prepared for it and not make it than to make it and then be in trouble with my less-than-stellar knitting abilities! I've decided that I'm going to send the hats to my own small part of S.P.E.W. October is breast cancer awareness month, so I think that all the excess hats I make I'm going to find people that have lost their hair due to chemotherapy to send them to. The first hat has cables, and that's something I've never tried before. I was a little nervous at first, but I watched a tutorial on knittinghelp.com, and WOW! I laughed at my apprehension. It's so easy. It's definitely slow going, due to both my lack of knitting experience and my two little boys that aren't content unless they're causing trouble...but if I make it to the knitting of hats in the duels, I may have a fighting chance...so long as the boys aren't anywhere around...lol

And on a happier note, I'm am very pleased to say that my owl stepped up to the plate and took off with his package for Miss Elladora...here's hoping my hat gets there before hers gets to me!!! ::crosses fingers::

I do it to myself...

...though I have yet to figure out why...I am a repeated offender of the "p" word...Procrastination. In fact, if it weren't for my amazing husband, who not only got up with the boys this morning (since I ended up staying up until 4 am reading...) and mowed the lawn and washed dishes and took out the trash and swept and mopped and cleaned the kitchen this morning, I'd still have a really messy house. LOL And now I sit here with no picture of myself for Monday (well, I have pictures of me, but I haven't taken a new one of me), am bored and stopped halfway through my friend's house hat (all it is is a knit stitch!!! BORING!!! lol) and am sitting here at the computer, staring blankly at the screen while I rip Harry Potter to my laptop, thinking of all the things I don't feel like doing. I wish I knew why I was so un-motivated. Maybe if I knew why I was so against putting dishes away or cataloging my stash or cleaning my craft room that my little poltergeists tore apart or knitting or reading or anything, then maybe I could take positive action to counter it and become motivated!!! Arg. I annoy the crap outta myself sometimes...



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Now playing: Maroon 5 - This Love
via FoxyTunes

House elves and owl deliveries

The term has just started, but I was still already up all night with my nose in a book...I've heard that Potions can be a killer subject. But there I was, falling asleep on my book, when I saw what turned out to be our very own house elf! At first I was indignant that we had our own elf, but Haxal seemed quite content to be so subservient. I guess being one in a long line of house elves would brainwash anyone. Not to mention that she's been at it a few years. Maybe I could get an inside view of the house elves' oppression to make for a stronger argument for S.P.E.W. Hmmm...we'll have to see.

In other news, I was nearly overwhelmed by owls today! I feel like I"ve been spoiled already! I was bombarded with not one, not even two, but THREE packages! :D Granted, two of them are because of things (mainly yarn) that I ordered online, but I still love it when they come in! The third package was my prize for completing the most projects in the Ravelympics in Team Hogwarts. :)

They're my first *ever* stitch markers! I *love* them! :D Nearly all of my muggle friends think I'm off my rocker for getting so excited over this stuff...LOL THANK YOU for my package! :D

Now I think that since the homework assigned from my first day is done, I'll set about learning how to enchant some needles so I can make so hats for S.P.E.W.! :)

The Dish on Dishcloths

I just finished my second ever dishcloth! :)

I really enjoy working with cotton yarn...it's so soft! And I'm loving the bamboo needles! I can't seem to get the cast on tension to be the same as the cast off, unfortunately, which makes for some...interesting...shapes. I wonder if there's a secret to that...Anyway, I stumbled across the pattern for this dishcloth while I was looking around The Leaky Cauldron for ideas and resources for the sock swap...there's one row that looks a little strange, but that's because I had to frog some of it due to a mis-count and when I put the stitches back on the needle, I accidentally twisted them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until I was almost done. :( So this dishcloth will have to stay imperfect, which also means I can't give it as a gift. And yes, I am that anal. LOL I changed the border to the dishcloth just because I liked the border on the snitch dishcloth better, and I also added a few extra rows to make it taller. And for some reason, I can't find my crochet hooks! They seem to have gone AWOL on me, and that is not good! Therefore, I've not yet been able to weave in the ends...nor can I start on the ear flap hats that I wanted to for my boys! Double :( . Maybe I'll try my first ever socks instead...

More gushing...

I have to gush some more, but this is in a different vein. My husband is amazing! :) He set the alarm on his phone for me to get up in time for sign ups for HSKS6 this morning. Actually, he set it for 10 minutes earlier than I needed to be up so that I could get my cuddle time. Heeheehee. Than when exhaustion hit me full-on at about 10 am (I am not a morning person...quite the opposite, actually...and I stayed up until 1 am before going to bed and getting back up at 7....), he let me run away and sleep and have peace and quiet....kid-free....It was wonderful! And then (because no, it does not stop there!), when he came down to wake me up, he brought me food in bed! It wasn't really breakfast, since it was noon, but it was breakfast food and the same general idea. ;) So then I come upstairs, he's got my laptop on but won't tell me why...he thought he could be clever without me seeing it, but he didn't hide it under all the yarn nearby, so I saw the external hard drive he bought me. :D I love my husband!!! And now I'm off to knit some more! :)

Gush-fest

Ok, I'm only 12 rows into this dishcloth, but oh my gosh!!! I don't know if it's the cotton yarn or the bamboo needles or the pattern or some combination of the three, but I'm already loooooving it!!! These bamboo needles make it hard for me to have the stitches too tight (which is awesome!) and the yarn is so soft, and it just looks so.....perfect! I've barely started this project, and yet, I think I'm already in love.....

Double Whammy!

So yesterday I got the package with my first ever sock yarn and first sock knitting book. Today I got another package with two firsts rolled into one! I got my first ever circular needles! They're also my first ever bamboo needles! It was a very different feel from the plastic and metal that I'm used to....it also feels quite different from the straight needles. I'll have to share the picture later, when I'm not on my husband's laptop. I couldn't even wait to open them before I took the picture, so there are only 13 pairs shown, but I got a total of 14 pairs, sizes 1-15! (Yes, I can count....there's no size 14....lol) And for a reeeeeeeeeeeally good deal, too! The arrival of my new friends is right in time for the sock kit swap, at that! I'm so seriously stoked about that. Sign ups for "new students" aren't for another 10 and a half hours (and yes, I am counting!), but I'm as good as started...minus the little detail of not knowing what colors to send...LOL


In other news....I had a "Super mommy" moment tonight. :D Today had been one of those days, where every little thing was irritating, the boys got into everything they weren't supposed to (including ransacking my craft room....which I still have yet to pick up....crafting stuff is everywhere) and so on. Well, I didn't get the e-mail to my husband in time to tell him we were out of diapers (minus the 6 in the diaper bag), nor did I call him in time, so he came home empty-handed. (Well, almost empty-handed....he did bring me my package. :D ) So instead of getting to run the dungeon I wanted to on WoW, I got to drive all the way back to base to get them and picked up a few other things we were out of while I was at it. By the time I got back home (which was a long and frustrating affair, what with the Italian traffic and all), I didn't feel like making the spaghetti I'd been planning to. Instead, I opted for the quick-fix mac & cheese with hot dogs. I set the pasta on to boil, took out the garbage and washed some dishes while it boiled. I go to pull out the other things I need before I drain the noodles, and lo and behold....I HADN'T BOUGHT ANY MILK!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! I took a moment to tell my boys they could get out of time-out (they'd been jumping on the couch), and ran away to lay down before I lost it. As I lay on my bed, berating myself for being so dumb as to forget that I needed milk to make the mac & cheese and for being at the commissary and forgetting to buy any, I was hit with an idea: goulash! I hadn't had goulash in a loooooooooooooong time, and it was one of my favorite things to eat as a kid. I didn't have any ground beef thawed out, but I had chicken (which was what was going to be for the spaghetti), so I ran back upstairs and fried the meat and added the spaghetti sauce, and voila! Not only had I salvaged dinner, but I had created something good, and on an impulse! If you don't know me that well, let me tell you that the genius in the kitchen is my husband, not me. Not by a long shot. And I managed to throw something together like that and it was delicious! My husband even thought so! Not only did he say it was "really good" (instead of the usual, "it's not bad"), but he went back for seconds, so I know that he really liked it! C also enjoyed it (as his sauce-y face and hands attested), and he and I both had seconds too. A didn't want to even try it, but I think I won out. :) 3 vs. 1! It's hard to accommodate all four of our tastes, so the fact that 3 or us liked it is a pretty big deal. Go team me! *happy, happy* *dance, dance*

And now I'm off to knit away the time remaining until I can sign up to get into Ravenclaw for the kit swap.....

SOOOO EXCITED!!!

So when my husband came home from work today, he came bearing gifts. Well, I guess "gifts" is kind of a loose use of the term, as I was the one that bought it all, but what else am I going to call 3 packages all for me that are yarn-related? I'm on a yarn high from feeding my fiber addiction...

For someone that's been crocheting as long as I have, you'd think that I'd experimented with many yarns, but the truth is, I hadn't. Red Heart was the cheapest, easiest stuff to get my hand on. Only since learning to knit and joining Ravelry have I really discovered how many kids of yarn there are out there. Wool, acrylic, cotton...fingering weight, sport weight, chunky.....it's amazing! A whole new world has opened up! Before this past month, I've not touched more than Red Heart's super saver, soft, and once light and lofty yarns and Caron's soft yarn. Now I've toyed with cotton yarn (which I must admit I love) and now get to play with more cotton and now sock yarn! I also got a book on knitting socks! :D Now it's just a waiting game until my first ever circular knitting needles come home....YAY!!! I'm on my yarn high!

Just around the corner...

It's almost time for the sock kit swap!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! Unfortunately, being over here in Italy, I have to be up and online at 7 am on Saturday to really try and get into Ravenclaw. I'm really hoping for that...keeping my fingers and toes crossed and everything. :)

I still haven't figured out how to post a pattern to this blog effectively, even with platformnine trying to help me. I'm just not getting what she's saying, for some reason. :( I added that Lordearon chart a couple months back, but the lines on it are all blurry and it's so small and hard to see. *sigh* Of course, I might figure it out if I were to spend more time trying to get it, too. But instead, since HSKS will be taking top priority (well, top priority in my hobbies, at any rate, certainly not over my boys....but I'm sure I can squeeze it in above housework...Heehee) in a couple of days, I'm trying to level my Paladin on WoW.

I've been grinding the heck out of that thing. I want to (ideally) be a well-geared (or at least decently-geared) level 70 with an epic flyer before the expansion comes out this fall/winter. Sadly, had I not lost the other WoW account, I would already (most likely) have had my epic flyer and be working on the gear issue. I'm not really sure who's more to blame for my loss of that toon: my husband or his friend. DH because when he "bought" the account, he didn't actually buy the account....he left it in his friend's name but took over the payments. His friend because he was the creep who decided he wasn't done with WoW and wanted the account back so that he didn't have to start over from scratch. So "lucky me" got to instead. All of the hard work I put into that level 70, just gone. With only 1200 gold and some odds and ends (like heavy netherweave bandages and a couple of pieces of fair armor that I hadn't equipped) to show for it. *sigh* So since I'm not sure whose fault it is, I'm just going to forget about placing the blame and level the heck out of my "new" toon. I'm up to level 57! Three more levels and I can finally start questing for my epic mount and head to the Outlands to level faster! Wahoo! LOL

But it looks like I need to start my day with giving my boys attention...they've really become little delinquents lately. Already! And they're only toddlers! *sigh* Off to play with the kids....maybe read a book (to share my love of being a bookworm) or color together (gotta get those creative juices flowing!). I will most likely blog on Saturday, once I know what House I got into! :)