Long time no blog, huh?

I didn’t intentionally take a four month blog break, but somehow actually participating in life got in the way of blogging about life.  I’m sure that I’ve pretty much lost all of my readers, but if you’re still hear, leave a comment and say hello again.

We’ve done a bunch of traveling in the past few months, with trips to Healdsburg, Washington, and even Angola, Indiana in May alone.  Getting to spend so much time with friends and family has really helped me shake off the dregs of last year and enjoy the new year.  It also helps that a majority of my crafty time lately has been spent making cutey cute things for the babies of friends and family that will join us in the upcoming months.

For example, I knit both Elijah (elephant) and Sophie (bunny) for the babies of a friend of Evan’s from high school.  I used Zen string sock yarn for both (for more details, check out my recently updated ravelry account).  I would highly recommend both of these patterns because there is no finishing involved other than sewing on the eyes.  You start with the head and then pick-up stitches for each of the body parts.

Right now I am working on a knit baby blanket for a co-worker’s baby due in a few weeks and a quilt for the niece that is due to arrive next week.  Now that my schedule has calmed down a bit I hope to post more.

Miss E

Evan and I have really adjusted to life in the bay area.  This might be apparent by the fact that I never seem to have time to post anything any more.  Our social life and general outlook improved greatly when our friends from graduate school moved here in August with their children.

The thing that is still hard for me, after living here for over two years, is being so far from my family.  When I was in Oregon, I could visit on a moments notice.  The day my sister went into labor, I was able to drive up and arrive only an hour or so after she was born (she had a fast delivery).  My sister is going to have a second baby in July.  I’m sad that I won’t have the same accessibility to the new one’s baby years as I have had with my niece.

My mom and niece came down for a visit over president’s day weekend.  Despite the fact that my niece was suffering from a pretty nasty cold, we were able to have a pretty nice time cuddling, putting together a puzzle (over and over again), terrorizing both the cats and Uncle Evan with tickles.  Ever since she could communicate, my niece has been pretty adamantly opposed to getting her photo taken.  I have to resort to kinnearing her most of the time.

This visit I especially appreciated how she sings her way through the day (much like her Uncle Evan), her cackling real laugh, and the fake laugh that she uses to convince you of something, like to rent a ridiculous movie at the video store.  I see a lot of plane ticket in my future because I really don’t want to miss these moments with her or the new one.

Obsessed

I never find myself in front of the computer anymore. I have had two main obsessions that have been keeping me away.

1) Secret of the Stole II. I am a pretty competitive person and thus often set unrealistic goals for myself. Last summer (the summer of the houseguest I like to call it) I signed up for mystery stole 3, but was never able to keep up with the weekly clues as I can’t knit lace and talk to people at the same time. I then signed up for secret of the stole last year, but never ended up even starting that project because I felt guilty about not finishing the mystery stole first, so when secret of the stole ii rolled around, I told myself that I would keep up with the weekly clues. I just finished clue 5, so I’m still meeting my goal…barely. Pretty huh?

2) The DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I don’t even like playing video games, but Evan bought this game on Friday and I was pretty much obsessed with it the entire weekend. The game pretty much consists of a huge number of logic puzzles. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes logic puzzles.

It’s funny because when I bought Evan the DS for Christmas, I was concerned that it might be damaging to our marriage because he would be playing it when I wanted to be social. I wouldn’t have thought that the only damage to our marriage would be the bickering over whose turn it was to play Professor Layton.

What’s on my needles?

I haven’t talked about what I’ve been knitting in forever, so I thought I’d take a bit of time before my ceramics class tonight and share the projects that I currently have on my needles.

Project 1: Stacy from Big Girl Knits; yarn: Tahki Yarns New Tweed, color 032; needles: addi turbos size 6 and 8

Status: Sleeve Island. Both the front and the back of this sweater went relatively quickly, but I started the sleeves over Thanksgiving. I think that all of the ribbing plus having to increase every four rows (i.e. keep track of where I am) plus knitting both at the same time is making these sleeves annoying to knit. I made myself work on them last night.

Project 2: Lenore socks, October STR pattern; yarn: STR lightweight, color Lenore; needles: addi turbos size 1 (two circs)

Status: Second sock started. I just discovered that I messed up the top of the first sock. I could rip out the second sock top so that it matches, but I like the top of the second sock better. This is my car and about the town knitting.

Project 3: Cambridge Jacket, IK Summer 2006; yarn: Karabella Yarns Aurora 8, color 138; needles: knitpicks options, size 8

Status: I am currently working on the fronts. I feel like between this sweater and the Stacy sleeve, I have altogether too much ribbed knitting going on. I really love the Aurora 8 yarn. It is smooshy and soft.

Project 4: Secret of the Stole 2; yarn: Baywood Yarns whipped creme, color cabernet; need;es: knitpicks options, size 5

Status: I finished clue 1 on Sunday, so I am completely caught up. I originally planned to use this yarn on the first secret of the stole, but had too many other things going on at the time. I think I’ll like this pattern better anyway.

Here’s a better picture of the yarn:

2008, finally

I know that this has been a dark little corner of the internet the last couple of months. The end of last year brought a number of heartbreaking events to people close to me. I didn’t (and don’t) really feel that any of these stories were mine to share about on this blog. It also didn’t really feel right to write a bunch of frilly posts about knitting or other mundane life bits when poeple I am close to were hurting and I was hurting for them, so I left this blog quiet.

I am happy to leave 2007 behind and start again fresh. I just got back from a week in Kauai with Evan and his whole family. I snorkeled for the first time and I was surprised to discover how much I liked it. I hope that this new year brings more incredible firsts for me and for any of you still stopping by to read this blog.

Also, I am still looking for one more person for the Pay It Forward thing. I already have Jenny and fillyjonk, but I need one more.