I guess I have to stop whining

about other people not updating their blogs, if I don't either.

Haven't been knitting hardly at all - I want to kick myself in the butt, I don't know WHY, but I just can't seem to do it. However, I have cleaned up and organized my living room and it is much, much improved and makes me feel all calm and happy when I look at it. Now for the bedroom and kitchen, and life will be goooood.

I'm supposed to be working on lesson plans, and also just can't seem to do it. I'm browsing various websites instead. But, but, my house is clean! Kind of! So I am a virtuous person! Who will be whiny and grouchy when she realizes, later tonight, that she is in no way ready for Monday. Sigh.

I also had my first real shopping Black Friday. We FINALLY got a wireless router, and a navigation system (for less than half of what we'd budgeted! We have $70 left over from what we had saved up for it), and a wireless headset for my husband's phone when he drives, and, AND - I got a sewing machine! Completely unexpectedly. I'd been tossing around the idea in my head, because it makes a lot of sense, but I was afraid I'd buy it and then never use it. But I walked past one on sale, deeply discounted, and decided to go for it. I got some clearance fabric, a pattern and some remnants and now I'm really really thinking about opening it up and trying it out (instead of doing the aforementioned lesson plans, of course) but the thought of those same aforementioned lesson plans is stopping me.

Someday I'll be one of those people who wakes up early and jumps right into their to-do list...right? How do I go about that? It's like a secret club I don't know how to join.

The demise of my knitting funk has been greatly exaggerated...

Blah. My mom's socks fit her, so maybe I'll finish up the cuff, teach myself 3-needle bind-off and be done with something.

Started my friend's sweater over, but in seed stitch and I can't keep track of whether I'm supposed to knit or purl and keep ending up with ribbing. Beh.

No progress on anything else...and I don't feel good about it. I just got an ipod so maybe I'll do a quick knit or - ooh!- crocheted ipod cover to get my groove back...

AAUGH!

The fuzzy blue mohair with white speckles I'm using for my friend's wrap sweater is coming up short, AGAIN! It's vintage and I don't know the yardage. I just guess. With disastrous results, twice. Boo. I picked out a different pattern and have cast on for it - I'm praying that I have enough yarn for THIS one. Also that I can still finish it for the holiday. Sucks.

A Bright Day for Knitting

I'm out of my knitting funk! I took another look at Mom's almost-done socks, which I had decided to rip back because they had "so many" dropped stitches, and could only find two. TWO. One of which I fixed right then. I must have been in a really bad mood (and being somewhat of a drama queen) when I made that decision. So happily, I can just keep knitting since they're almost done and since I have at least 2 and a half more pairs to knit before mid-December.

I'm also reconsidering the Magic Loop vs. dpns verdict - picking up the Magic Loop socks and knitting on addis again after bamboo dpns? Really, really nice. I love the feel of the metal needles and how smoothly the yarn moves over them. And it sure is nice to have both socks done at once...

It's looking like I may just finish that wrap sweater in plenty of time for Eid - although nobody seems sure exactly when Eid's going to be. Sunday? Monday? Something like that. The kiddies at school love to ooh and ahh over how fast I knit it - they're used to typical progress on size 1's with fingering weight yarn, so the sudden switch to 10.5s and two strands of yarn makes a big impact.

I've been not busy per se as much as overwhelmed - although fasting has gotten much easier for the past 10 days or so, it's still hard to keep up with my normal daily routine.

My Knitpicks order arrived, so I've made a little progress on my circular shrug. Mom's socks have been set aside for now, unfinished and needing to be ripped back. I cast on for Dad's on dpns and am midway up the foot - I have to admit, I like dpns better. I think I'd rather work the two separately but simultaneously on two sets of dpns than do Magic Loop, which is sad because Magic Loop is really pretty neat. Oh well...

My current goal on the wrap sweater is to finish the one I spontaneously decided to knit for a friend before the 23rd or 24th, since that'll be Eid (Ramazan bayram) and I want to gift it then. The back of mine is knit but set aside until hers is finished.

In other news... I finally got my long-awaited last year's birthday present! Sweetie promised me a diamond ring one very romantic night in Manhattan last year - and then I waited... and waited... and waited. And then I finally asked where it was. And then I waited some more. And then I realized it was a week before my NEXT birthday, and I still hadn't gotten it, and I laid my foot down. He wanted to get it from Turkey, and we couldn't go this year... so I had to point out which guys we know bought their wives or fiancees nice jewelry HERE, and if they could do it, he could do it... so one week after THIS year's birthday, I finally have a diamond ring. And it's so pretty and shiny and makes my hand look elegant and feminine, and I'm very happy.

Minor Update

Still haven't finished mom's socks, but I'm almost there. I should get cracking, it's Socktoberfest plus I'm really, really behind my own sock/holiday schedule.

Finished the back of the wrap sweater - I've decided to make one for a friend at the same time, piece by piece (hers should go fast, she's tiny) so it's time to cast on for the back of *her* sweater. I might give hers sleeves if I have enough yarn...but there's time for that later.

Had to order dpns from Knitpicks to finish my circular shrug, so I'll have to wait for those to get here.

Working my way up the calf of the socks. It really does go a lot faster after turning the heel. They seem excessively long and skinny and I'm really worried about them fitting - I'm following the Knitty pattern where you plug in measurements and I'm hoping it's accurate. Mom's feet are much narrower than mine, so maybe I shouldn't worry that I can't fit them on my feet... can't fit her shoes on either.

Other than that (which I work on at school, often while teaching) I haven't gotten much done on anything else. Fasting is really kicking my *** this year - I fall asleep every day when I get home, wake up to eat, and fall asleep again. Today I decided to stay up after eating at 4, so I might get something done, but everything else has to wait for the weekend.

Success!

I can't believe how much it's possible to get done in one day when one wakes up before 12 on the weekend! Among my achievements are a moderately clean house, and substantial progress on the wrap sweater. It's knit on 10.5s with two strands of vintage thick-and-thin wool I got at an upstate Goodwill several years ago. It's a little fuzzy, but I figured for an almost-free fast knit I could deal.

I really, really want to cast on for some more socks or for some sort of shrug or wrap in my deep heathery red Wool of the Andes... and all progress on my circular shrug is on hold until I can find some size 9 dpns as I've now decreased too much for my circular needle to handle. But I want to at least finish my mom's socks first. Maybe I'll go turn that second heel right now.

Nobody's updated their blogs...so I guess I'll do mine. Although I hope nobody reads it - this is very much a practice blog. I don't WANT anybody to read it until I figure out how it all works and whatnot.

Still no FOs, but I have turned the heel on Mom's socks (when I start to add pictures of things...maybe that's when this stops being a practice-blog). Which hopefully means I'm almost done, because I'm almost two months behind on my holiday sock plan. Good thing it's almost Socktoberfest.

The house isn't clean either. Beh. Well, if I'm awake at 10 am on a weekend, and drinking a large iced coffee, things look a bit more promising than usual on that front. Inshallah.

Edited: It's raining. How appropriate. I haven't decided yet if I want to add a header explaining the blog's title or not. Not sure I could explain it - it's very personal.

Knitting therapy vs. a clean house

After a bad weekend, I need something to make me feel
a. better,
b. competent, and
c. calmer, ASAP.
Which pretty much means I need an FO. I also need a clean house, and dinner. But I think knitting will win out.

My current WIPs are basic ribbed socks for my mom, a wrap sweater, and a circular shrug. But having indulged in stash therapy (ie. buying a bunch of yarn) yesterday mid-bad-weekend, I can also now indulge in the process of deciding what to make out of all my new yarn. I guess my bit of self control after all of this indulgence will be NOT casting on for a new project until I have the aforementioned FO - hopefully the socks. (Do fingerless gloves I already finished count if I finally weave in the ends?)

First post

Test.