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!