Crazy Week...Crazy Weekend...

Author: Liz / Labels: , , ,

Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything seemed to happen all at once? Of course...Everyone has. This week was one of those for me. Work is crazy, play is crazy...Life is crazy! Now that's not to say that crazy = bad. On the contrary, most of the stuff that's happened this week has been good and enjoyable...most, not all.


First of all, this past weekend was round 1 of Solo and Ensemble contest. An entire day of me playing for high school kids performing. It takes a lot of energy but it's always fun. This year, the day started off with me breaking a piano -- yep, I broke the leg right off. I went to angle the piano so I could see the singer a little better and (one big crraacckk later) one of the legs was lying on the ground. Now, I may be a strong woman but...I'm not that strong. I'm figurin' that it was already cracking before I tried to move the piano. Needless to say, the rest of the day the kids gave me a hard time about breaking pianos! Of course, it didn't help that I also had one almost roll away from me too. See...Crazy!

Second of all, work has been one big case of the dramas for the past month! People being let go, hiring new people, said new people quitting, rearranging staff, not good staff, etc., etc., etc. ARGH!!!!!

Thirdly, Sunday (after an intense day of cleaning and doing housework chores) my washer gave up the ghost. I got this washer free 2 years ago when I moved into my house and I
was hoping then that it would last a year...I guess I've gotten the life out of it. After 2 loads of normal wash, I threw in the load of delicates and went about more work. When I went to empty it and hour later I realized that it had never agitated! Now, I can't get it to even drain the water that's in it!
Again....crazy!

Finally, some happiness --
I've basically finished my first knitting project this year. This is my second cardigan and so far I'm loving it. I absolutely adore the cabling on the arms! All I have left to do is to get/install a zipper. And so far, since I'm wearing right now (left it on after taking the pic!) I'm loving the fact that it's SO warm.


Now, here's hoping that this week might, just might, be a little less CRAZY!!

Knitting Challenge #1

Author: Liz / Labels: , , ,

Ok, so technically this challenge started last year -- on Christmas Day.

But, I'm counting it as the first of the new year (since that's when most of the work on them will occur)...


This is the first half done of my very first pair of knee socks! I've been wanting to do a pair for a while now and finally started the Treetop pattern on Christmas day. I've had to modify the pattern a bit because I have HUGE calves and TINY feet. These are knit top down so I started with the large for the leg and then added extra decreases around the ankle to give the stitch count for the small foot. The foot fits GREAT and the leg is still a bit tight but doable!

Another change I made was to do an Eye of Partridge heel instead of a ribbed heel. I think that the eye of partridge holds up better over time and I like the look better. (Even if the ribbing isn't continued down the heel!)

I also thought that I would get SO bored doing the super long leg but the diagonal cabling actually really kept me interested. I do have to admit I thought I would also hate the cabling. I've only done cabling on one other pair of socks and I couldn't stand it. Which was very odd seeing as I LOVE cables! However, now that I know someone else who has done that pattern and also hated it, I think it was a case of a bad sock cabling experience.

I'm quite relieved to realize that cables on socks doesn't have to be an excruciating job!

A New Year - A New Blog

Author: Liz / Labels: , , ,

...at least it feels that way... GEEZ it's been a LONG time.

Dear 4s of followers, I will make a concerted effort to keep this going this time. Sometimes life gets in the way and although that may sound like an excuse...it did a bit in my case.

Since August, I've gone through a very busy fall season at work, a very fun Halloween with Draculess (my 5 1/2 year old niece), friends going through hard times, house getting broken into, Thanksgiving, brother getting his van totaled, Christmas and now a brand new decade.

I was without a computer from about mid-November til New Year's Eve and everything, and I mean Everything I did online fell behind. I managed to almost keep up with the email but lost some of those too. But I had told myself that when my laptop quit working I was going to look into getting a mac...I did it. I went to the Dark Side. It's ok, I feel I belong here anyway! So now that I have a working computer again....

I'm also setting myself the task of challenging myself with my knitting this year. I wanted to try colorwork last year and never got around to it. I will this year. As a friend put it -- it's out there -- now I have to do it.

The first challenge however is Ravelympics. This is where you challenge yourself to do as much as you can within the time frame of the Olympics. From Opening Ceremonies to Closing Ceremonies. And I'm shooting for at least 1 pair of socks. Ugh. It usually takes me about a month to do so 2 weeks might be pushing it. I will prevail!

I apologize for the lack of visual goodness in this post. I promise it is coming...it took enough energy for this "non-computer" nerd to get the layout changed. But it's pretty, no?

Until the next...