It’s been a rough last few days. Watching my website come up with the 404 error “Not Found” error was a bit nerve-racking. I knew it would all be okay but I had to give the internet time to recognize my new address (the underlying address behind erica-lee.org). It was also frustrating to load stuff up to my new server and not have it recognized. Well, yesterday I saw the light at the end and things are good. I’m know there are links that will give you an error, if you get something like that please let me know since I haven’t had time to check everything myself. I know for a fact that the “recent reads,” “cards” and “music” pages don’t work. It takes a while to get everything loaded up. And the new blog isn’t completely done either.

Also for all of you Bloglines users, I’ve reconfigured the subscribe button for Bloglines on the sidebar so that the new blog is now readable on Bloglines.

So what I have been up to for the last four days while waiting for my site to download and upload?
I’ve been spinning! I had to watch the computer on Wednesday so I brought the wheel into the office and spun. Working on the Cotton Candy yarn has been both challenging and fun. It’s my first merino and tencel blend and it’s superwash, so it was much “slicker” than the merino and silk blend that I had been spinning with. Since I started spinning again, I didn’t want to stop and decided that I was going to fill the bobbin or spin the four ounces I needed before I could spin anything else. I managed to get all four ounces on the one bobbin. So Cotton Candy is waiting patiently for her friend to be spun up so that they can be plied together.

As soon as I finished the Cotton Candy yarn, of course, I knew exactly what I wanted to spin. I almost couldn’t get the bobbin off the wheel fast enough. It’s the fiber that I’ve been oogling over since I saw it at the store in June. I’ve decided to nickname it Garden because it’s like a spring garden with the pink, green and hints of yellow. I have eight ounces of it and hope that I may be able to spin enough from it for a cute vest for me. I’m not going to hold my breath by I’m going to see what I can do. I’m spinning it a bit thicker than the Cotton Candy yarn and seem to be getting a DK weight yarn. Spun it’s absolutely beautiful, the photo doesn’t do it justice.

I’ve also been working on the Crazy Green sweater, I think I’ve knit about an inch and a half on it since last weekend. That’s definitely progress. It’s not enough progress to photograph though.

Then there are Bryan’s Dad’s socks. Those are coming along quite nicely. I finished the first sock last week even though I’m going to have to redo the toe, it’s pulling in the middle, I’m going to rip back and graft the toe together a row or two before I originally did. On the second sock, I picked it up again on Saturday, finished the second half of the ribbing on the cuff and am working on the heel. I still have to reinforce the base of the heel on the first sock and parts of the toe too.

Somehow in the middle of all of this, I’ve also managed to read over 100 pages of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote for our next book group. And also read about 50 pages of The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I’m transferring my website to a new host today. If you can’t access my blog or anything else for a bit that’s why. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

I’ve tried to publish a new post recently and it’s not working. I hope to be back up and running soon.

I knew this would happen. All of this talk about the Knitting Olympics and the Special Knitting Olympics is causing me to have start-itis. Arg. I was going to concentrate on my sweaters that need to be focused on - Hobo and the Crazy Green sweater. But NO my mind is saying, “Start something new.” I think the Special Knitting Olympics is more my speed because with the Knitting Olympics you have to start a challenging project during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and finish it before the end. I know that’s not going to happen so I’m signing up for the Special Knitting Olympics.

So what am I going to start? I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I do, I’m thinking I’ll start either the Summer in Kansas shawl or The Flower Basket Shawl.

Instead of adding photos to the last post and trying to fit them in, I decided I would just create a new post.
So here they are with a little commentary, warning some of it may be a little redundant.

We went to Kansas for a belated family Christmas. I had to work the day before and the day after Christmas at my two jobs, so we weren’t able to be with my family on Christmas. We arrived in Kansas on Sunday, January 8 and celebrated Christmas with my parents and grandfather (Gpa) on Monday evening.

A lot of relaxing was in order and we managed to get in quite a bit of it while we were there. And I bonded with Milly, the grey kitty. (Shown here in a December 2001 photo.) Milly was my first kitty and is still very special to me. She’s 15 years old, has always had the attitude that she is the top cat and expects us to treat her in that way, which means when she enters the room any attention being given to another pet must be stopped immediately to acknowledge Milly. Even though she has that attitude, she’s a very sweet little cat. Her meows are little crackling meows with squeaks. Milly and Lucy, the other cat in the house, took full advantage of the trundle bed being out in the spare bedroom. They each had their own bed to sleep on. (I’m waiting to get the photo from my mom.)

Time spent with Gpa is always wonderful. I’ve realized that he whistles to himself in the same way that my Great Grandma (his mother) did and I love it. I remember being a teenager and Great Grandma would whistle to herself while she was reading. There was something so calming about hearing her whistle, like everything was okay.

Family stories and Gpa’s knowledge of things are always fascinating. He has videotaped every Christmas since 1982 and we watched a few of those videos that have now been transferred to DVD. Clothes and haircuts are always fun along with what was THE toy that Christmas for us. It’s also interesting to see everyone together and hear the voices of family members that are no longer with us. I especially love hearing my Grandma (Gpa’s wife) sing. I had to get a photo of everyone on our last evening in Kansas. It’s fascinating to me that we can spend two hours after dinner just sitting and talking.

Knitting accomplishments this week:
1. Finished my grandmother’s hat, including a knitted-in hem. I was afraid I would run out of yarn before I finished the hat, so I did the hem last by picking up the cast-on stitches and then hand-stitching the hem to the hat. I also had to change my planned pattern for the hat and did stripes around the crown of the hat instead of the fair-isle pattern as planned. It looks really nice though. The mittens need to have the ends sewn in and the joins at the thumbs need to be reinforced.

2. Worked the foot of the first sock in the pair of socks for Bryan’s dad. I’m reinforcing the toe by knitting it with sewing thread. I don’t want to find out two years down the road that he’s quite wearing the socks because he wore the toe out beyond repair. I’m going to go back and reinforce the base of the heel later. On the second sock, I’ll make sure to knit with the thread on the heel and toe to avoid any extra work. I hope to finish the first sock by tonight so that I can contribute to Amie’s Two thousand six socks project. Two hundred twenty-five socks have already been knit for the year. Fortunately, the socks don’t have to be started this year, they just have to be completed. And a pair counts as two socks!

3. Worked more than an inch of the everlasting Hobo sweater.

In other news this week, I hosted my first book group and it was quite a success. We had some very interesting discussions about Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Everyone really liked the book and we’re reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote for our February book. We alternate between fiction and non-fiction monthly, so it will be a good way to mix things up a bit.

I’ll be adding more photos to this post soon.

We arrived home on Thursday. Not having been home for a year and a half, it was very hard to leave my parents’ house. I miss Milly, Lucy, my parents and Gpa. There is something so comforting about being at my parents’ house.

Our visit was very nice. As I mentioned before we visited the local library, such a sad example of a library. Wednesday was our day to get out and about town, at least more than the other days we were there. We went out to lunch and then visited the new local yarn shop, Yarn. It was a nice shop and has been open about four months. There was a nice selection of basic yarns and a bit more of the fancy stuff than I usually like, but that’s what sells and there are fuzzy scarves everywhere this season. It always strikes me as a bit funny that some things that were popular with knitters two and three years ago are now popular with the big stores. I even see fuzzy scarves at Walgreen’s. I did manage to make a few purchases (or should I say, Mom made a few purchases for me). I got The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd, which I’ve wanted since it came out and two skeins of navy Cascade 220 for a hat for my dad. He’s sending me a sketch of what type of hat he wants.After the yarn shop, we went to a cute new flower shop in town and got some fudge, it was absolutely delectable. We also ran other errands that needed to be run around town, the usual stuff. Update January 20: I forgot to mention that Yarn is a huge improvement over the store that’s been in town for years. Yarn is a store that definitely wants to thrive and spread the love of knitting. The other store that’s been there for years I tend not to go to because it has nothing that I want. If you live within an hour or two of Hutchinson, it’s worth the drive.

Thursday was a tiring day. We left my parents’ house at 9:45am and arrived back in Champaign about 7:30pm. We both had to work Friday, so no rest until Saturday for us. I did happen to finish Granny’s hat Friday afternoon after work. Now I need to pick up stitches and knit the hem of the hat. It needs it otherwise it’s a bit too big and the brim rolls up and you can’t see the cool braid around the bottom. I also need to block the matching mittens. Saturday, I went out with Miss M, Miss S and Miss S’s boyfriend for dinner at a local Thai place. Both Saturday and Sunday, I sat down to spin a bit, it was so nice and relaxing. I have about 2/3 of a bobbin complete with the cotton candy fiber. Bryan even snapped a photo of me spinning on Saturday.

We’re partially back into the swing of things. I’m back to work as usual and still loving the library, it’s very nice to have today off for the holiday. We’re taking it easy and just relaxing, we’ll probably see a movie today. Chloe is obviously taking full advantage of this relaxing day on the couch. Bryan starts classes on Wednesday. I think it’s going to be a great semester for both of us.

We’re in Kansas celebrating Christmas with my parents and grandfather (Gpa). It’s been a very relaxing few days and I wish we could stay longer. I gave my mom the Cranberry Lace Merino scarf. She absolutely loved it and I think she was honored to have received a scarf from one of my first handspun yarns, the second ever and the first that I ever spun with an intended project. I’ll have photos of her with it shortly. Also family photos will also be added soon.

Bryan and I visited the local library yesterday and were very disappointed in it. They’ve recently remodeled and it is so boring. It’s not an inviting library, it’s all beige with no decorations on the walls or even posters. The A/V section was embarrassingly abysmal, there are only about eight feature films in the collection on VHS tape and it appeared as though there were only about 15 DVD’s in the entire collection. After working in the library where I live now, I had high expectations, but this was so sad. I thought I would be able to tell my mom and dad about all of the great DVDs they would be able to check out from the library like Bryan and I do, but there aren’t any to check out. It’s obvious that this library wasn’t designed to encourage browsing, the fiction isn’t even divided out by genre. It’s made me appreciate what we have in the Champaign-Urbana area and how important the layout and colors are in a library. If you want people to come into the library and use it, you have to make it inviting and have the materials they are looking for. I know that gets into the whole issue of whether or not a public library should be a “popular materials” library or not, but if it will benefit the public and it encourages them to use the library and in turn fund the library, then in my opinion, by all means carry the popular materials.

When I was a child, my mom used to read Rumpelstiltskin to me that was illustrated by Edward Gorey. I always thought that the strange little man was so weird looking, I guess that’s just how Edward Gorey drew him. We loved reading the book and the pictures are still so vivid to me.

So when I saw this quiz, I couldn’t resist.

You will be sucked dry by a leech. I’d stay away
from swimming holes, and stick to good old
cement. Even if it does hurt like hell when
your toe scrapes the bottom.

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wow, my 300th post. So it has to be a humdinger to live up to expectations. :) I hope I don’t disappoint.

What have I been up to in the last few weeks that I haven’t posted? I’ve been working at the library, knitting and working on my library school application. I still love my library job, I’m tired after work but I feel like I’ve really accomplished something when I come home from work. As far as knitting, I’ll get to that later. My library school application is nearly complete, I’ll be sending it off today! I’ve had two essays to write for the application - a personal statement and an interview with a librarian essay. My personal statement basically wrote itself and is so much stronger than last year’s. I’ve done a lot in the last year as far as volunteering and now working. For my other essay, I had to interview a librarian. I interviewed the director at the library where I work and volunteer. It’s been a bit harder to write because I’ve had problems structuring it in a way that is readable and not choppy. The interview essay just needs a bit of polishing and I finished it last night. I just need to update my resume, which will take about 10 minutes and I can pack up everything to send off today. What a relief to get it off, especially since we’re leaving tomorrow to go to Kansas to visit my family next week for our “Christmas” celebration. It will be so wonderful to be at my parents’ house and to see my family. I haven’t seen my grandfather since a year ago Thanksgiving. It’s been way too long.

Our holidays were quiet. I had to work Christmas Eve till 6, then we went to Unitarian Christmas Eve services which are always so nice. The candle lighting at the end puts everyone in the Christmas spirit. I really needed it. After working in retail, I was getting so tired of the consumerism of Christmas but the Unitarian service centered me and made me think about things. Christmas has never been a religious holiday in our family, so I’ve always thought of it as being about peace in the world, being with friends and family and a time of hope. Christmas Day, Bryan and I slept in and just relaxed that day. We were both feeling a bit under the weather and spent it just being together. We really feel like we have everything we need and want, so in lieu of gifts, we decided to donate to the American Cancer Society this year in honor of my aunt. It seems like something much more meaningful too.

New Year’s Eve was Miss M’s birthday, so we threw a birthday party for her that was also a New Year’s Eve party. It was really fun and we managed to pack 14 people into our living room. Everyone brought an hors d’oeuvres and Miss M brought her fondue set, so we had wonderful chocolate fondue. Around 11pm, there were about 6 of us left and we played Cranium, which was really fun. We toasted at midnight but the night was more about friends than the time. :)

So now to the knitting. I’ve finished the Rosepole mittens for my grandmother. The ends need to be sewn in but they are done. I’m now working on a matching hat. The hat pattern isn’t identical to the mittens but I found a pattern from Folk Mittens that I thought would work great for the hat that is very similar to the Rosepole pattern of the mittens. The overall hat pattern is based on the “Colorwork Hat and Mittens” by Rebecca Harris from Interweave Knits, Fall 2003.

The socks for B’s dad are coming along. Lately, I’ve been a bit distracted with the mittens though. I gave up on the two socks at a time thing. First, I couldn’t stand the twisting and secondly, I never felt like I was making any progress. Over time I know I made progress but it’s so much quicker to knit one sock at a time. I guess I’ll just have to get over my second sock syndrome and I think trying the two socks on circulars helped me on the way to recovery. If and when I start to think about the dreaded second sock, I’ll have to remind myself that I could have knit them at the same time and I’m sure I’ll get over myself pretty quickly.

After I finish the hat to match the mittens for my grandmother, I’m going to make myself work on my two sweaters. I have the Hobo sweater that has about 2 1/2 inches of the body done. And I also have the Crazy Green Sweater, which has been severely neglected this year. I started out very gung-ho about it and quickly lost interest when the many colors started to wear on my nerves. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do set goals for myself. Last year (I can’t find the post), I said I was going to finish either the Barbara shawl, the Hobo sweater or something else, I can’t remember. So I finished the Barbara shawl and love it. This year, I’ve decided I’m going to finish either the Hobo sweater or the Crazy Green sweater and it would be fabulous if I finished both. I really want to move on from Hobo to something else. I know I started over in October but, gosh darn it, I want to wear the sweater. I also can’t forget the sweater that I ripped out the ribbing on last February because the sweater was too short. And it’s been a year since I last knit a square for my Aran Afghan, I think it’s time to knit another one soon. It’s going to be a busy year for knitting. Isn’t it every year.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve started a book group. We’re currently reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, which is an absolutely fabulous book. Monday before I had to go to work, I read most of the day and read over 125 pages that day. It was a book that’s hard to put down. I had set a goal for myself to be at least half way through by the time we left for Kansas and I finished it Thursday night. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s not a book that’s easy to describe. Several people in my book group have said that they can’t wait to discuss this book.

Btw, I’m changing website hosts and may be offline for a few days. Not to worry, I’ll be back!