The Noni Carpet Bag before felting. It just seems like there’s always laundry to do instead of tying up the machine with felting! But I need to get it done.

There were a few problems with the pattern. Not huge mistakes other than the missing word, but it could have been written a little easier. If you make it, start off with a purl row and make sure you use a different color marker to indicate the beginning of the row. I think extra little tips like these make an ok pattern into a great pattern.

I just finished up these socks. They’re a model for my beginning socks on magic loop class. Here they sit next to some the killer socks made from Yarn Pirate Yarn. Yarn Pirate is really amazing, and there is some more on it’s way really soon!

And my Cable Eight Top. I’m almost finished with the back. This has been a really easy knit. I’m slowly learning to always check for pattern corrections before I start knitting something. This one had a mistake in the cable – I’m glad I checked first. I’m thinking that I’m going to try to go with a more scooped neck for the front.

Other things I have in progress:
My hourglass sweater. I’m on pause with that one because I’m waiting for the 40″ Addi Turbo to come. Knitting the two sleeves at once on 32’s is a little tight. It works great for socks, but these sleeves are a lot larger.

The second half of my mittens two ways. I made these from the Bulky Malabrigo and made one fingerless mitten and one regular mitten. I need to make their mates.

And it’s taken all day to write this and it’s time to go home. I’m trying to be a good blogger, I promise!! It’s just not working very well!

I’ve been trying to get this house organized. It’s been really hard with the kids, they can make a mess much faster than I can clean it. And it’s been especially difficult to keep all their toys organized. Some time ago I went through and separated all the coordinating toys into big lidded bins. But since I’m not here all the time, Other People that I may be married to let them get more than one toy out of the closet at a time. And while it’s been really great that Other People help pick up the play room, Other People don’t sort through the toys and put them back into the bins they belong in. You see my dilemma?

As the weather has been getting colder, I’ve been sorting through the kids clothes that don’t fit anymore or that won’t fit next year. They’ve ended up in a big pile in the hallway. One pile for clothes that I want to keep in case we have another baby or for my sisters future children and one pile of clothes that I want to pass on to someone else. Needless to say, the hallway has been a mess for some time now. That is until I found the most wonderful invention, Giant Ziploc bags. I’d seen them advertised on t.v., but I didn’t realize how great they were. I fit SO much into one, it’s made from strong plastic, the zip seems really sturdy and… it fit SO much!

Now the kids clothes are all stored away and I packed away my summer clothes and stored them under the bed. I’ve still got a ways to go on getting the whole house organized (I have to say, I wish we had an Ikea SO MUCH) but it’s nice to be making a dent.

This weeks recipes are from Everyday Food issues 26 and 36.

Monday
Chicken Stir fry lettuce wraps

Tuesday
Beef Stew

Wednesday
Roasted fall vegetable soup

Thursday Honor’s Birthday
Chicken with tomatoes and mushrooms

Friday
Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce

Saturday
Pizza

Sunday
leftovers

It is soooo cold here! Usually around this time of year it’s around 70º to even 80º but today it’s 42º. This has been such strange weather, it’s rained SO much over the past few weeks. The poor dog today was sopping wet, so he gets to spend the day in the house.

I got the heat running here at the yarn store and I’ve spent much of my day standing on the heating vent. I remember when I was little, taking my blanket and making a little tent over the heating vent in the cold mornings before school. It’s funny the things we still do.

What funny little habit do you still have from childhood?

•I got the newsletter out and it’s up on the website to download (PDF). What a relief to have that all planned and done!

•Today I put in a new order of Misti Alpaca, I’m really excited to start carrying it in the store. It’s SO amazingly soft! And the colors… ahhh…

•Tonight is the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy. I feel silly saying how much of a Grey’s Anatomy addict I am. I’m not much of a crier, but I have to say, the season finale, I sobbed! I am a little too excited to be watching it tonight. And I can’t say how happy it made me that the girls of Grey’s were knitting!

•I’m here at the store now with one of my teachers, Guin (hi Guin!), and we’re working on figuring out the pattern for that amazing cabled bag I posted a picture of a few days back. I’ve already got a color of the misti alpaca picked out that is going to be so beautiful. So back to it…

I’ve been frantically working on getting my next newsletter for the yarn store mailed out. This time I’ve come upon hurdle after hurdle. Read about Jim’s problems with the printing company here. His account isn’t even half of what he’s gone through with them.

Thursday we paid $100 for overnight shipping, because the newsletter was taking so long. The came Monday afternoon. Um, yeah, sure, that’s overnight…

Now they’re here and folded and I’m determined that NOTHING will stand in my way (not even this stupid cold I’m fighting) of me getting the newsletters in the mail!!!

Wish me luck.

I got all kinds of shoes for my birthday. I also ordered these.

Today is my 25th birthday. Last night I was laying in bed thinking about birthdays, why we celebrate them and why mine is SUCH a big deal to me. I think celebrating a birthday is a celebration of life.

Today I will celebrate my life. I am very fortunate to have a healthy family, to be well myself, to have a place to live, to have people who love me, to get to do what I LOVE for my job – to be surrounded by yarn EVERY DAY!, to have the opportunity to grow and change and learn, to have found such a wonderful community of internet friends. I am lucky and today I rejoice in that.

I’m at the store today, the kids are with me and it’s dark and rainy outside. I LOVE weather like this. I’ve already had a nice sale to start the day. Later, my friend will come to visit me and we’ll start on a new knitting project (hopefully the cable eight top!). My birthday week celebration (I’m so spoiled!) will come to a close tomorrow with dinner with my friends.

It’s a good day and I think year 25 will be good to me.

I’d like this sweater from the new knitty. I’m not totally certain that I’d make it for Jim and if I did it would be sans cable, but it’s pretty great.

I’m also thinking about starting this pretty soon, maybe as a knit-a-long with my friend Brooke.

Cable eight top from the Spring ’05 Interweave. I think I’d like to wear it more as a vest for the fall/winter season with a crisp white button up.

What else?

I’d like to come with similar patterns for these three for the store. I think the felted bead bag is really interesting and I’m IN LOVE with the cabled purse, but that’s no surprise. And I think the felted scarf looks really elegant, it even looks comfortable which I think is surprising for something felted… we’ll see…

It’s been almost a year that I’ve been working at the yarn store in some sort of capacity. (I actually taught my first class ever on my birthday.) In that time, I’ve grown to love so many of the people that frequent the store. I think that is ultimately the reason that I decided to take over the store, I loved all of these people and I just couldn’t let go. They still needed this place and so did I.

I think the thing is that when your heart gets tangled up with all these people it becomes open to sharing their joy and their pain. It’s so exciting when someone brings in their new baby or comes to show me an engagement ring. But it’s also so devastating when someone comes in reeling from bad news.

I have a customer who has cancer. I hate cancer with every fiber in my being. I hate watching someone suffer and there be nothing that I can do about it. Some days she doesn’t even feel like knitting. It’s the scariest thing in the world and it is SO unfair.

Yesterday, another customer of mine lost her brand new grandson. He was born with tremendous birth defects and died in his mothers arms. I grieve today for a baby that I never knew, whose parents I never knew.

Things get messy when you allow others into your heart. But I think that’s really the joy of life, sharing it with others. I think I’m truly lucky to have the opportunity.