Oh how I wish I was at home with Bryan today. He called in sick and is spending the day working on paperwork for financial aid for grad school. I know it doesn’t sound exciting but the day that was supposed to be sunny has been cloudy and I would rather be home. Just being in the same house is better than being at work. It’s one of those days, I can’t concentrate and I want to be home knitting.

I decided that since I love my socks so much that I would finish a pair of socks that I started about two years ago and give them to Bryan. Originally, they were going to be either for my dad or grandpa, but I hardly knitting three inches on them in two years. As soon as I decided to make them socks for Bryan, I’ve gone to town on them. I finished 9″ of the calf of the sock, knit the heel, turned the heel and am working on the decreases for the instep of the sock. I’m not working on them exclusively just when I feel like it. I did a lot of the work on Friday evening when we watched the commentary for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my favorite movie of the year and now one of my personal top 10), while watching Bridget Jones’s Diary on Saturday afternoon and while we were watching the new Amee Mann DVD on Saturday evening. It’s amazing how fast they go when you’re just knitting and not paying attention or counting.

Sunday, I also started a new little sweater for our new niece Paige. It’s Daydream from the Rowan Babies book. I bought Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino yarn, which is so soft! I couldn’t wait to knit with it when we got home from dinner on Saturday evening. It took me three needle sizes to finally get the correct gauge for the pattern, but it was nice to play with the yarn to get the gauge right. I cast on the back of the sweater on Sunday, while I was meeting with one of my students. I already have about 2.5 inches (7 cm) finished and
it’s is so cute!! I’m surprised to have so much finished already considering I didn’t knit last night, we went to see the Pixies! :)

I can tell I’m becoming a knitting addict again, when I came home for lunch today, I had to sit and knit a few rows on Bryan’s sock and four rows of the Daydream sweater. :) I still have to finish the Giraffe blanket soon! I will work on that tonight when I’m not working on my library grad school essays. :)

Happy Monday everyone! :)

The sun is shining today. Both outside and inside. I’m feeling a lot less rejected today. I came home for lunch and liked it this time! :) I even did a few things around the house that needed to be done before my sister stays the night tonight.
And this afternoon, I’m getting my hair cut, which always makes me feel great. I always feel so glamourous after I get my hair cut. :)

Tonight, we’ll probably go see Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason tonight. Then tomorrow, I’m going to be helping Meredith and her friend, Sarah, sew tube tops for their Solid Gold costumes for an 80′s party in December. Speaking of Solid Gold, check out this photo. A definite classic of the 80′s. I loved Solid Gold. I thought it would be so cool to be a Solid Gold dancer when I grew up. :)

I came home in such a state last night that I didn’t do much more than review some stuff for work, eat dinner and clean our apartment. I did manage to read a few pages of my new book The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer. I hope to get some knitting done this weekend. I’m feeling pretty good about potentially getting a lot done on the giraffe blanket. I hope to get a photo up soon! :)

Have a nice weekend!

I hate it when insecurities get the best of me. When I don’t get asked out to lunch with people who I consider my friends. It was bad enough that I realized they were going out to lunch, it was even worse when I saw one of them picking the others up to go out. I was hoping that they would stop and say, “hey we’re going out to lunch, do you want to go?” But NO! This feels like such high school crap and I feel like I should be past this but it still bothers me. I almost wish sometimes that I didn’t even try to see what other people are doing for lunch or even go out with them. The thing is is that I asked one of the three that were going out to go out with me for lunch today and she said she was going out to lunch. Then she saunters past me as I’m walking out of my cubicle not even saying hi. It’s so stinking weird and I wish that things like this didn’t bother me. It makes me feel like such a reject, sometimes I feel like I did in high school.

So now I’m home for lunch writing all of this when I should be eating lunch and enjoying the fact that I get to come home for lunch. Now I don’t even want to go back to work. I should just get over it, but it’s SO annoying!

I wore my socks yesterday! They feel great. Now I know what everyone means when they say they are the most comfortable socks you’ll wear. I have two pairs of socks that someone else made for me, they are very warm because they were made out of Jo Sharp’s DK wool. The Regia socks are just as cozy and not as thick. They are lovely to wear. Maybe I should finish those other pairs that I’ve started! :)

I worked from home on Monday and Tuesday. During my 1/2 hour breaks in the afternoon, I got a lot of knitting done. Yesterday alone, I got about 4 rows done on the giraffe blanket. I don’t remember the last time I knit 4 rows in half an hour on this blanket, I was usually averaging about 4 rows in an hour. So with those 4 rows, the two I did before I went to class last night and the 6 that I did last night after I got home from class, I did a total of 12 rows yesterday! That’s 1/3 of a block! I have 58 more rows to do on the blanket and I’ll finally be finished. Fifty-eight sounds like a lot but when each block is 36 rows and then the garter stitch edge is 8 rows – for six blocks it’s a total of 232 rows. I have 14 rows to go on the second to last block, the last block and then the 8 rows of garter stitch! I’m so excited, I might have this blanket finished by Christmas! After the knitting, of course, is the really fun part – sewing in all of the ends. It’s irritating but not a big deal because it’s something I can do while I’m watching tv.

Last night before I went to bed, I did two more rows on the Vicki Sever afghan square. So now I’m about 3 rows from being half finished with the square. :)

Last night’s class was so subdued. I only had two students show up. One of my students has a premmie son in the hospital, so I didn’t expect to see her. But the one woman I thought was doing really well, I figured would be back. I hope that everyone is there next week. It’s weird to only have two people there, but I was able to give them a lot of attention. We worked on the purl stitch and ribbing. Next week is casting-on, binding off and decreasing. They also start on their scarves next week too.

Thursday evening’s class is not being held this week because of Veteran’s Day. It’s a nice break for me and gives the students an extra week to work on their projects.

This was a quite productive weekend for me. Unfortuately, I didn’t work on the giraffe blanket. I think I’m just a bit tired of working on it and need a break.

The biggest news is I finally after 2 years, I finished a pair of socks!! They started out as the second pair I had ever knit and now after all this time, they are the fourth adult pair I’ve finished! I can’t wait to wear them to my class tomorrow evening. They’re the Regia Ringel pair with the green, purple, pink and orange stripes.

Yeah, they are finally finished. According to my knitting journal – I started the first sock on February 4, 2001 and finished it on April 20, 2002. The second sock I started on April 20, 2002. I have no idea when I finished it. This pair of socks was really three socks. The first sock I knit – the leg part of the sock was way too big and I had to knit the foot of the sock on size 1 needles. Then when I knit the second sock, it was a different size in the leg and the foot. I ripped out the first sock and reknit it. So the sock I just finished is really the reworked first sock. I’m just glad that I finally have a pair of my very own to wear!

I finished the Lang cardigan. I sewed all of the seams and realized that one of the sleeves didn’t look right at the shoulder seam, so I took it out. I have a sweater nearly completed but without a left sleeve. I also ripped out the button bands because I didn’t like the way they looked. I’ll do all this later when I have some time to really devote to it. It’s not a lot of work, just time consuming.

Also this weekend, I started another Charm scarf for my mom. It’s in the Trendsetter yarn called Charm in a black, white and grey. I found it while going through my yarn stash looking for some other yarn. When I found this, I figured, I need to get it out, make it now before I forget I have it and while I’m motivated to knit it. I knit about 10″ of it. So I’m about 1/4 of the way through.

And as if that wasn’t enough, I also started another square from the Great American Aran Afghan from Knitter’s magazine. I started the Vicki Sever square that was published in Spring 2001. It’s the one with the heart-looking cables going up the middle.

Going through my stash was a bit inspiring. It made me realize how much yarn I really have and how many projects I either have in planning or have already started.

I also managed to do about 6 more rows on the Hobo sweater, too. So I wasn’t short of knitting time this weekend, more like I just made the time to do it.

Happy 60th Birthday to my mom!!

I just have to post this. My hopefully being a future librarian, I just don’t understand how any librarian could be with such a dipwad like G.W. Bush. Is it because he makes her feel so smart? What do they talk about, since he doesn’t read books or even newspapers?

Thank you to Heidi for this.

Maureen Dowd’s column was particularly good today.

I guess the best thing to come out of yesterday was that I got some knitting done while I was watching Kerry give his concession speech. And then last night, I did some knitting while watching the news and Nightline. I also got about 12 rows of a pair of Regia socks that I started in February 2002. I had knitted two socks and the first one was very baggy, so I ripped it out and have reknit it, the reknitting has only taken about two years. I think I may have a new pair of socks by the end of the week as I started decreasing for the toe last night! :) So if anything we can all become like Madame Defarge in Tale of Two Cities.

Also the idea that people who voted for Bush are people with high moral values is such a crock. I am a person of high moral values, they are just values that are completely opposite of the Right-Wing’s values. I believe that we should take care of people; stop the horrible cycle of poverty; treat others with dignity and respect; treat gays and lesbians like the real human beings they are – they aren’t any different; not wage war; stop killing people, especially when it’s in the name of “justice”; make education a true priority – we can’t go on teaching to a test, our children will be even further behind and we need to look for ways to truly reform our schools. I have a very hard time with people who say that the Democrats or anyone who disagrees with the President have a lack of moral values. We don’t have a lack of moral values, we just think that dividing our country into black & white issues is dangerous. I can’t conceivably understand how anyone can call themselves a Christian, and treat other human beings so horribly. I was taught that you must be kind to people, respect your neighbor, treat others as you would like to be treated, care for the poor and work to make a difference in other’s lives. Those aren’t Christian values or Muslim values or religious values, they are people values. George Bush says he respects life but he’s waged a brutal war on people who have done nothing to us and he supports the death penalty. If that’s respecting life, I’m afraid of the opposite view.

Well, that’s my ranting for today. I just find the polarization of those with “moral values” and the others very disheartening.

It’s been a bit of grim day around here. The election results were extremely disappointing, but we need to use the excitement we had to get Bush out of office to work and make sure his extreme policies are defeated. I feel good about the fact that I have two Democratic senators representing me in Washington (Obama and Durbin from IL).

Josh Marshall states the situtation much more eloquently than I can.

I just have to say that it was very difficult to watch Kerry’s concession speech. I started crying with the ideas of where this country potentially can go over the next four years. I can just hope that they won’t be as bad as the last four years or this country will be ripped apart. We can’t live in a country that is so divided with a leader who so wrecklessly abuses our trust and declares unjust wars in our name. I fear that the terrorists see Bush’s victory as a victory for themselves, since Bush is their best recruiting tool. If the next four years are worse or the same as the last four, I really think this country will need some serious healing or we won’t trust our neighbors.