Confessions of a Bad Blogger

It's been an entire month since my last post. I've started a new schedule at work. Whereas previously I was scheduled to work 30 hours per week, I'm not scheduled for 40 hours per week. However, due to low mail volume and the general restructuring of work schedules, I've been lucky to get 30 hours per week under the new schedule. They're in the process of adding new cities to our facility's current volume, so hopefully I'll start getting more hours soon. And I need them because my trip to Italy isn't going to be cheap.

About a week and a half ago, my sweetheart was in an accident on his moped. Luckily he came out of it without any serious injuries, although his leg was in quite a bit of pain and his computer was broken. It killed me, not being able to be there to take care of him. I sent him a surprise package of silly things to cheer him up, but he hasn't gotten it yet. You'd think that for almost $40 in shipping charges, it wouldn't take more than a week to fly a little box across the ocean. And yet... His computer is still at the repair shop, which has seriously thrown a kink into our lines of communication. Ever since the accident, we've been pretty much limited to text messages (and the occasional "hello" on Google Chat while he's at work). It's been hard, but we're dealing with it.

Aside from those two things, June has been pretty uneventful. I've started learning some embroidery, and I've continued working on my knitting patterns (which I'm now documenting in a new blog, Agnellino). Truthfully, I haven't been blogging because nothing's been happening (and because I don't think anybody reads this!).

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

I finished my second sweater design, Beatrice. I'm so thrilled with the way it turned out. I took everything I learned from Rosemary and incorporated it into this raglan (I did a ksp decrease instead of a k2tog, and I used a smaller needle on the neck). This sweater was inspired by rainy days, The Sound of Music, and sweet simplicity.

Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes

Last night I finished knitting the first sweater of my own design. There are a couple of things I will change about it when I write the pattern, but overall I'm very happy with it. It looks exactly like my sketches! I never really thought I would be able to write my own patterns, but Flavio inspired me to try, and the way this sweater turned out has given me a lot of confidence to try more complex designs. I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve that I want to try out soon: a baseball-style raglan for boys, a cloverleaf eyelet sweater-blouse for girls, and a unisex mesh-like beach hoodie.

In other news: apparently I got a contractual 33-cents/hour raise at work, I'm reading Stephenie Meyer's new novel The Host, the Old 97's new album Blame it on Gravity is frigging a-mazing, gas is too damn expensive (and I'm too damn broke), and every day from 2 to 4 pm you can get a route 44 cherry limeade at Sonic for 94 cents + tax (making it an even dollar here in Wichita).

Mostly About Knitting (okay, all about knitting...)

I've been knitting like mad lately. Last week I was foraging in the garage, and I found the sweater I knitted for myself 4 years ago. Well, knitted but never finished. So I finished it. Then I knit Ysolda Teague's "Verity" beret. Now I'm knitting Ysolda's elephant. Next up I'll probably finish the brown & pink striped baby sweater and knit some socks (I just placed my first order with The Loopy Ewe...2 lovely skeins of Dream In Color Baby). Sometime this summer I'd like to knit Ysolda's "Coraline" sweater with Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed in Paper Rose.

I've also been spending loads of time on Ravelry. I love this site!!

Over The Moon

So Flavio is officially the greatest thing since sliced bread (although it should be noted that in Italy, this is not so impressive, since they've only had sliced bread for about 5 years now...and how many great things have really happened in the past 5 years?). As a knitter, I've found my lack of Adobe pretty crippling because there are so many rad patterns on the internet, and of course they're almost all pdf files (with the glorious exception of Knitty, of course). I had to delete Adobe a year or two ago because my computer was ultra-low on memory, and at the time I wasn't really using it. Recently, I've been trying to re-download it, but it wouldn't work! It would quit on me about halfway through the install. So today I made an offhanded comment about my lack of Adobe, and Flavio was like, "Oh, well, what about Foxit?" Which I'm apparently not hip enough to have ever heard of. So he sends me to the website, and less than 5 minutes later I've got a program to read pdf files. And now I've got goo-gobs of fabulous new knitting patterns, mostly from Ysolda Teague (whose name Flavio & I love so much, we've decided to give it to our future baby girl, should we be so lucky to have one someday).

I've frogged the sock I was working on. Hmph. Anyway, I was yearning for something else to knit, so I started a striped sweater like the aqua one I made a while back. It's brown with pale pink stripes. Soooo cute. I was going to make these sweaters for Sara's babies (she's having twins!!), but after finding the Ysolda patterns, I've decided to make Sophie and Elijah. And maybe Otto for her son, Brock. He'll be 3 in November, and there's no way that's too old for a teddy bear. I wouldn't want him to feel left out.

On a non-knitting note, Flavio's been amazing lately. First he was looking into visas and job openings. Then he was talking about weddings (he thinks we should have 2) and telling his colleagues that he wants to get married. Then he was looking at wedding rings and asking about fertility treatments. I dunno what's inspired it all, but it makes me so happy. It makes it feel so much more real...not like we've got a set-in-stone timeline for all of these things...but like it's not just talk, he's taking it seriously. Yay!! Man, I really hit the jackpot with this fella.

Sit, dog. Stay.

My fat schnauzer Max ran away today. Our big beast of a rottweiler, Xena, has chewed a big hole in part of the fence. Well, really, she's eaten the bottom half of an entire board. We figured Max was too chunky to squeeze through, but apparently not. A neighbor found him and called the phone number on his tag. Thank God for that. Anyway, he's back home now and seems to be pretty pleased with himself and his little adventure.

This morning I bought the current issue of Interweave Knits, but I decided not to buy Favorite Socks for now because I can get it so much cheaper on Amazon than at Borders. I don't need any of those patterns right now anyway. I was going through my stash the other day, and I found a couple skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Old Rose. I don't remember buying this yarn! I'm using it to knit the Child's French Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks.

While I was out this morning, I also finished buying Flavio's birthday presents. I hope he likes them!

Leaping Lily

Last night I finished my lovely lily pad socks. Searching for things to knit next. Here are some ideas:

• I'm really interested in knitting some sort of lace shawl/stole. Maybe the Bleeding Hearts Stole from the current issue (Spring 2008) of Interweave Knits. Dream yarn for this project would be Schaefer Andrea in the Indira Gandhi colorway (100% silk and 100% delicious), but it's wicked expensive ($52!!). I'll probably end up using Knit Picks Gloss in Aegean or Blue Bird (total cost for the project would be less than $12).
• I've signed up on Ravelry (awaiting my invite!) in hopes of finding the Jaywalker sock pattern. I'd like to use this Lana Grossa Meilenweit Color Tweed in Pink/Orange/Brown for the project. These would be for me!
• My mom wants socks for Mother's Day. She's decided on the Dublin Bay socks, using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Whisper.
• I want to make a little boy's cardigan as a companion to the little girl's cardigan I finished recently. I'm thinking about the argyle cardigan pattern in Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. I'll use Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in dark blue (for the body) and cream (for the argyle diamonds). I've already got some little dark metal buttons for the project!

Bad Blogger

I'm a bad blogger. I've rejoined the ranks of LiveJournalers because it's so much easier to log into. Because I'm always logged in. Blogger signs me out of Gmail every time I log in, which is inconvenient for me because Gmail is where I talk to my sweetie.

Still, I don't want to abandon my blog. I love this thing.

Anyway, updates:

• I finished the ribbon-edge cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Special Knits. Super cute.
  
• Now I'm knitting socks. Woohoo! I'm working the gusset of the second sock. I'm using the April 2008 limited edition Lorna's Laces colorway, Lily Pad. The pattern is the Retro Rib Socks pattern from the Winter 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
  
• Flavio & I are taking a trip to Annecy, a village in France, when I go visit him in Italy.
• They're changing all of our schedules at work. At the moment, I'm not very happy about this. But if I get an OK schedule, I guess it won't be so bad. Maybe I'll have 3 days off every week. That would be pretty sweet.
• It's cold. Wtf?
  

Sprouting

Wow, I suck at updating this thing. There hasn't been a ton going on, though, really. It's finally spring! I mean really, really spring. With rain and crazy wind and budding trees and sneezing and everything in between. Today I transplanted my grape hyacinth plants (pictured) to a bigger pot. Their poor little roots had gotten all intertwined in the tiny pot they'd been sharing. But now they've got plenty of room to spread out and grow! I'm excited to see them bloom.

I miss Flavio more & more every day. Especially lately, when it seems like he's always too busy or too tired to talk to me. I feel guilty for being upset that he doesn't have time for me. It's not like he's just blowing me off to hang out with his friends or anything. He's working and studying. Still...I wish we had more time together.

I've been spending a lot of time cooking lately. I bought a Betty Crocker brunch magazine at the grocery store a few days ago, and a couple weeks ago I bought the latest issue of La Cucina Italiana (which I've decided to subscribe to), so I'm trying out a bunch of new recipes now. It's nice being back in the kitchen. I'm also knitting a lot (currently in the middle of two baby cardigans), growing flowers (besides the hyacinth, I recently planted lavender, poppy, and rudbeckia seeds), and eating a ton of gelato (so far, I've had bacio, stracciatella, red orange, lemon, chocolate basil, peanut butter, watermelon, and strawberry). I think spring must be my favorite season because I always feel so...reborn. My creative energy is through the roof, and all I want to do is explore. Explore new techniques. Explore new foods. Really just crawl out of myself and experience the world around me. It's a wonderful feeling!

Time of My Life

The past two weeks have been incredible. Flavio's visit couldn't have possibly been any better unless he'd stayed forever. He's the perfect person for me. He fits so well into my family--my mom already says she loves him like a son. He's sweet and gentle and affectionate and funny. He made me dinner and told me that my snoring is adorable. I miss him so much... Luckily, he's coming back this summer...hopefully during August, so he can go with me to the Jack Johnson concert in Bonner Springs (I bought tickets a couple days ago).

Otherwise, I've been knitting again. Yesterday I finished a cute little baby shrug from Simply Baby, and now I'm working on a mini-cable cardigan from Knitting for Baby. I figured this latest project would keep me busy for a while because I'm using a fingering-weight yarn on size 4 needles, but I'm knitting the smallest size (3 months) and it's actually going pretty quick.

The weather has been GORGEOUS the past few days. Today I'm wearing a linen skirt, a bright pink cotton sweater with eyelet trim, and pink/purple/aqua/yellow madras plaid ballet flats. I'm also doing lunch at Uptown Bistro, followed by gelato at Caffe Moderne. Because I'm obsessed with gelato.

T-minus 40 hours...

I really should update this thing more often, but the login process is a pain in the neck.

Anyway...Flavio's coming to visit in less than 2 days. About 40 hours, actually. Emotionally, I'm wavering somewhere between a state of elation and a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, I have a ton of things to do before he gets here, so at least I'll be busy instead of sitting around freaking out.

I've been knitting like crazy lately. In the past week, I've finished the striped baby sweater I started over the summer, plus I knitted a cute cabled sweater vest (modified from the original pattern, which had sleeves). Next I'll be knitting a little cabled cardigan.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should go to bed or stay up & clean. I know that I should go to bed because I have to work tomorrow night. But I'm not really very sleepy, and I have *so much* to do.

Cleaning Break...

Valentine's day was wonderful. I took my mom out on a "date." We saw 27 Dresses and had a late lunch/early dinner at Ted's Montana Grill (one of the few restaurants I really like). Friday was not such a wonderful day, however. Personal and professional problems abound, and I spent a good portion of the night blubbering like a baby. But in my experience, a little sleep cures a lot of problems, and by Saturday morning all was once again set to rights. And now I smell like arancia e cannella (orange and cinnamon), an odd combination which smells surprisingly...perfect.

At the moment, I'm attempting to clean up the mess I've made in the living room over the past several months, because Flavio's coming to visit in 11 days. I'm so excited to see him! I'm also watching Becoming Jane, which seems good, although I haven't been paying a lot of attention to it.

After I finished The Time Traveler's Wife, I was going to read The Fourth Bear, but it was horribly boring. So now I'm reading Fire Bell in the Night, which is good although so far not very compelling. I'm not very far into it yet. It's well written, but the characters aren't that interesting.

You don't always have to hold your Head higher than your Heart

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife. It was so...beautiful. In the way that sadness can be beautiful. Like Eva Moves the Furniture. So heavy and complex. So much love and so much loss and...so much sadness. I think I should've taken more time to read it. Not because I feel like I rushed through it and couldn't understand/appreciate it. Just because, when I read things like that, I need to process them bit by bit. Now it feels like an awkward weight dragging my head down to my heart. That doesn't make any sense. Anyway, the sadness will probably linger for a few days. It's coming at a bad time, too.

My mini-vacation was so relaxing and peaceful. I spent almost the entire 5 days at home, creating a cozy space in my room. Decluttering. Sorting. And we had a couple of lovely, warm, spring-y days. It was all very therapeutic. And then I went back to my job and the weather got crappy again and I've been feeling very insecure and I'm just so frustrated with everything. This is not a good time to be burdened with the heavy sadness of an emotional book.

I just need to cry it out. I've cried twice today already. I'm sure more tears are on the way. I'm not a cry baby or an emotional wreck, but I think most girls would agree when I say that it's such a release to cry. So much more peaceful than yelling. It's got a lovely way of just washing things away. Crying is so final.

Avoiding Sleep

Update on the NYRs (new year's resolutions): it's been balls cold (to borrow a phrase from my Canadian friends), so walking Max has not been happening. But I've been eating so much healthier! And more regularly. And I made dinner tonight (pork loin with mushroom cream sauce). I deposited $100 in my savings account a few days ago. Also I've been pretty conservative with my spending. And less than a week left in January, and I've still got enough money for a latte in my Starbucks budget. Oh, and if I finish Franny and Zooey by the end of the month (which should be easy...I've read the first half in the past 3 days), I will have read 4 books in January, which is pretty much right on track to do 50 in a year. So yeah, I'd say I'm doing really well with my little lifestyle changes. It hasn't even been hard.

On a completely different note, I'm really shocked by the whole Heath Ledger thing. I still don't completely believe it.

On another completely different note, I've started up a new blog, Bright Copper Kettles + Warm Woolen Mittens. Just a place to write about all of the little things I love.

Monday Ramblings

Last night I actually went to bed at 10 o'clock. I slept for almost 12 hours. Pure bliss.

Only two weeks left until my appointment at work ends and my 5-day break begins. I'm really looking forward to having that time off work, which I plan to spend finally cleaning my room. I've already started the process a bit, by reorganizing my bookshelf yesterday. I also got some new bedding to spring-ify the place.

I haven't been keeping up with my resolutions very well so far. Well, I did walk Max (and Xena) once, and I'm keeping track of my savings (although I haven't added anything to the pot yet). I'm eating a *little* better, and drinking less coffee.

The sun is shining, so it looks warm outside, but it's actually pretty cold. This has been the typical weather this month (although it was pretty warm for a few days), which has made it less depressing. Also, the month is going by pretty quickly. I can't believe it's the 14th already. THANK GOD. And only a month until Valentine's Day!

Reclaiming Thursday

Now that Christmas is over, I'm enjoying my Thursdays again. Today I did lunch & a little bit of shopping with my mom. Really, I can't think of a nicer way to enjoy my day off than with green bean fries, a steamy cinnamon dolce latte, and the latest issues of Radar and Blueprint (my two new favorite magazines). Not to mention discussing books, J.J. Abrams, and Italian verbs with my sweetie.

Super-seriously looking forward to next Thursday and a new episode of Ugly Betty (finally!!).

P.S. Am also ridiculously thrilled that Obama is winning in the Iowa caucus. Have loved him since the '04 DNC.

Feeling Old-ish

I just found my first wrinkle, a laugh line. :-\

I'm only 23!! What the hell??

2007: In Books

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
If Aristotle Ran General Motors by Tom Morris
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Didn't reach my completely unrealistic goal of 50, but I think 19 is a pretty respectable total, considering I was in school for almost half of the year and several of these books were 400+ pages long.

Bienvenue, 2008!

A new year, but not a new me. I'm really happy with where I'm at right now. Of course there are things I'd like to change a bit, because there's always room for improvement, but I don't feel hopeless. It's a good feeling. :-)

I started the year at work. Maybe not the best way to ring it in, but probably better than being by myself at home. I did a little shopping this morning, and I was really proud of myself for not going overboard. I also spent the day taking down my Christmas ornaments and putting them in a couple of small storage containers I bought at Target. I have 78 ornaments now, and although that's probably more than enough, I know I'll never stop collecting them. Maybe I'll just try to limit myself to 5 ornaments per year, though. I think I accumulated 15-20 this year. Holy cow. I also got to talk to my sweetie twice. ♥

I'm exhausted with winter. Longing for leafy trees and warm rain and colorful flip-flops. I miss flowers and sweet bird songs and everything springing to life.

P.S. I've had the greatest idea ever. When I move out, I'm going to get a sister for Maximus. Her name will be Minimus, but I'll just call her Minnie. :-)