Not only the title of a movie I own but encompasses my feelings too! I cant wait for Monday evening to come and I am even holding my breath even more because the weather is supposed to get all gusty tomorrow! I know that she will make it into Juneau but wether the weather hold out for me is entirely a different matter. The good thing is that I have a lovely future SIL who lives in Juneau who is more than willing to hold onto her for me if the weather stops the flight. I have decided the name and the winner of the naming contest is…Janyne, my sister. I’m not telling her name just yet but considering that she is the only one who suggested names, she would be the clear winner The name will be a surprise until I take and post a picture of her here in my arms…keeping my fingers crossed for a picture moment tomorrow about 5pm!!!

Knitting: I have been working on both pairs of socks, my Mums “Walk in the Garden” and my sisters surprise socks and listening to podcasts. I just finished an episode of the She-knits podcast and Sharon makes me smile all the time. She isnt for everyone because of her talk of kids but as I was a nanny for 2 years and I love and want kids of my own, I love hearing her talk about her family and the amazing bags that she makes and writes patterns for.

CONTEST!!!! I want to know about your favourite pattern(s). I know that I would knit the same K all for 2 rounds, K2 P2 for 2 rounds pattern into a pair of socks for ages and I have already for 2 pairs! I would knit another Mariah again and even though I want to rip it apart now, would tackle the PNW shawl too! Free or costly, web or hard copy, I would just like to know what you would knit over and over again. Leave me a note in the comments section and the winner, drawn at random from the number generator, will earn 2 skeins of Online sock yarn plus some little “Pelican” surprises. This will run until 9/9 – 2 weeks

Other knitting knews: My yarn is on its way from Lisa Souza and I cant wait to get started on the Rogue sweater. This will be the very first thing that I swatch and get moving on just as soon as I get the yarn. I have been waiting so patiently for it (ordered on 8/6) and I have heard that Lisa is very worth the wait!!!

There are more pics up on the flickr…the whale pics that I promised

This is hella long post but its the journal that I have kept over the past 2 months of everything. Enjoy and I will get back to regular posting after this:

4/26
It has been an interesting and quite busy few weeks here in KnittingFisher land. Both in the knitting department and the fishing/boat world. On Saturday evening, J came “home” to Sitka and helped me pack while watching episodes of “Earth 2”. I used to watch that show after “seaQuest DSV” and even though I wasn’t truly devoted to it like I was to seaQuest, I liked the Sci-Fi adventure aspect. J liked it too and we got thru the entire series (only 1 season was ever made). Thank goodness for public libraries DVD rental ☺

Anyway, we packed and moved my load o’stuff on Sunday and were ocean bound and headed to Pelican on Sunday around 4pm. I brought with me a backpack of clothes for the next 6 weeks and a tote with my camera, pillows, coats, shoes and, of course, my knitting. I kept it to only 3 projects and with one of them almost done and it only being the 3rd full day here, I am hoping that I will have enough to keep my hands and mind busy. The library here is small but a knitter runs it so there is no lack of new knitting reads and she even has the newest Yarn Harlot…Yay! I am limiting myself to the pages that I read so that I can make it last longer ☺ we have been hard at work on the boat and managed to scrape the bulwarks and paint them in a span of 3 days. Well, J did the scraping because “Its my boat” and he was feeling responsible for it. It’s a once in a lifetime of our ownership task so I didn’t feel too bad about him doing it. I offered and he refused me every time. I did give him a really good hand, wrist and arm massage these past 3 nights though. As of today, the boat is ‘Sandalwood Tan’, black, red rails and a almost white-grey wheelhouse. Too many colours for a boat and the tan looks almost flesh colored…not the nicest thing and J really wants to go back to dark grey…my suggestion in the first place.

4/27
Two days into it and the tan has grown on us. So much so that J, after taking one good look at the paint when it was dried that he wanted it ALL that color and started scraping the perfectly good black paint off the hull. That, despite best intentions and working hard on it all day long, took the better part of two days. I just finished painting the entire thing tan and it is looking pretty sharp. I don’t think that I would have chosen that colour if giving my druthers but now that its on and done (3/4 at least), I know that I DO like how original that it looks. I have to put on another coat still but we are fishing tomorrow and one coat is better than none. A friend has the boat next to us and after seeing me lay in the sun yesterday, he pulled out and offered his hammock for my lazing. I jumped at the chance and although it was much cooler today than it was yesterday due to the westerly wind, it was fun to lounge in a hammock. I didn’t do too much lounging though because I FINISHED MY MARIAH!! It looks so beautiful and I would only make one or two changes to it…namely in the hood area. Why put hoods onto a sweater if you cant wear the hood? I pulled it up and J said that I looked like Juggernaut from X-men. There is no shoulder shaping around that area so it just slopes down into one solid piece. Aside from that, I love, love, love it. It fits like a dream and looks so good on. I am going to measure and order a zipper ASAP. I am thinking that I want a black one to contrast with the red instead of a red one to match. A double zipper too so that I can have that cool 2 way thing ☺ I wish that I had it now so that I could wear it out tonight and everyday after this. There is a “girls night” tonight at a friend’s house and though I can’t stay as long as I would normally or drink excessively (like that is fun anyhow!), I am really looking forward to going out. Last night, J had a “boys night” here at the house and there were 8 guys over here playing Halo until midnight! It’s got to be a boy thing. I sat and knit on the Mariah hood from Hades because it was taking so flippin’ long to knit those last 14 inches. I swear, it took me longer to do that hood than any other part of the sweater, including the yoke.

4/31
I have gotten many compliments on the sweater, even without the zipper and I can’t wait to order one and put it in. The summer here is never that warm that I couldn’t be wearing a sweater if I really wanted to, especially out on the boat/on the ocean.

5/1
J has finally told me what he wants for a wedding and it IS a tie and white dress ideal for him. I was in the frame of mind that I could not have that but I understand that that is what is important to him. He really wants and needs that time to showoff to his family and friends. To me, simply because I am here, there isn’t that need in me. If I was home in MI, you can better believe that I would be having a huge to-do. Please note: If you have strong feeling about the special-ness of wedding gowns, please don’t judge me for what I am about to say* I hate the idea of buying a fancy-pants dress that I will only ever wear once. I don’t believe that nonsensical idea that “my daughter will wear it” because no one I know has worn their mothers dress because it was SO dated by the time it was ready to be worn again. No matter how “classic” a dress might be, about 25 years after it was at its height of fashion, it wont still be there. This also goes with the thought that there are no guarantees that you will even have a daughter, that she would get married herself or and she would have the same taste as you. No, for me, buying a new dress for this span of 2-3 hours borders on the absurd and foolish. That said, I would still love to wear one. I will look into renting a dress but there are no rental places in Sitka or Juneau so hopefully I can find a place that will not only rent but also ship it to me. I will dwell in hope. Everything else seems pretty easy to do in my mind. I am going to buy some pots and pot various green plants into them, 3 actually, and then use those with some little Christmas lights to decorate the stage. I want to have flowers in my hair, a small bouquet for me and a boutonnière for

I have been working on my shawl and now that the date has been moved back, I can take a bit more time with it and work on it in the loving caring manner that I wanted to, not feel rushed and stressed about it.

5/6
The body of the shawl is done and it looks fantastic! I am so happy with it and already getting into the ‘scalloped’ edging. Another person that I ‘know’ from her blog is also working on the shawl and left me a comment that the edging is taking just about as long as the body. I think that I must be doing something right because I am whippin’ right thru it ☺ I am already into the 3rd one of 14…on side #1…there are 14 on the other side too…so technically, I am 1/7th of the way done and I am very excited about that. It is looking pretty too and I have great visions of me in this. I will wear it with my dress, which you can see here (jcrew.com terrace strapless dress). Yes, I gave in and bought a dress but I am glowing because it is simple and pretty and cost me less than $150. I am going to borrow my sisters shoes and my old with be my Nana’s pearls. So I have all the Old, New, Borrowed, Blue bits taken care of and just have the massive headache of the rest of the wedding to deal with. Yes, I know that I said that “everything else seemed easy in my mind” but for heavens sake, I was way off. My Mum asked me so questions about things to do, other set-ups for the wedding and then my head felt like it was going to explode. This in addition to writing the ceremony because we are being very non-traditional and J’s sister R is doing the wedding. I think that we will borrow from other ceremonies but there is still the aspect of putting it all together and making it our own.

So tell me why it is that I am doing all the planning and organizing for something that I don’t even really want to have. Flat out, I am not really interested, nor do I want to have a wedding. I would rather skip the ceremony and have a big party with everyone there celebrating our union. I don’t know if I would regret this in the future/when I get old, but the headache that this is going to be in addition to starting a new job and training for a marathon, I just don’t know if this is going to be worth it all. I wanted to tell our family that we were going to Vegas or Fiji or Hawaii and go to a resort and have the hotel take care of everything for us, just bring the bride and groom. They could come to the wedding AND have a vacation all in one. I would love that. We could have the nice dress, pretty pictures, be original and have sun and surf all without the headaches of normal wedding planning. Yes, it would be a bit more expensive but it would be great to have a vacation like that. I need to tell J that I don’t want all this but he keeps saying, “That’s the girls job to plan all this. Don’t all girls love this wedding stuff and planning?” When I say No, I really don’t, he kinda laughs it off and pretends that I wasn’t serious.

5/21
Yes, it has been a long time since I journaled / blogged. I have actually been busy and none of that time has been knitting. I had to sit down yesterday and give myself some knitting time and it felt so good to work on my sock. I thought that I didn’t have enough projects when I first came out here to Pelican. I only brought a pair of socks, 1st cuff 2 patterened rows before the heel, ¾ done Mariah and 2 more lace pattern rows for my Pacific Northwest Shawl to do the body. Here I am now, at the last 3 days of my “summer vacation” and I am done with the Mariah (minus the zipper), finished the body of the shawl (and managed to knit 13 scallop shells for the edging…ON THE WRONG FLIPPIN’ SIDE of the shawl. Now, I’ve done 5…on the correct side.), and started the gusset on the first sock. The socks really have taken backseat to my other knitting and when we went to Hoonah for this past week, a perfect time for me to knit on them, I didn’t take a single thing with me. I thought that I would be doing a lot more on the boat than I did, more for the sheer reason that the jobs were more technical that I knew, more physically demanding than I could do or, we only had one paint brush ☺ I did do a lot of reading and walking though and it was so good to spend the time with Jamie and work on the boat.

The ride there and back was good and I am finally breaking J of the annoying habit of leaving at 10 pm and then running all night to get wherever ‘there’ is. We get there and he is crabby and tired and then crashes at 6 pm and sleeps for 12 -14 hours. When I make him pull over and anchor up around 12, he gets some dinner, gets to bed around 1:30, gets up around 7 or 8 and then we get ‘there’ later in the afternoon. BUT, the difference is that he is functional until 10:30 pm and we can actually get some of the work that we are ‘there’ to do, done ☺

I cant wait to get back to Sitka and my regular life as it were. I know that I am not the kind of person that can sit around without a job and these past few weeks of not really being productive has been, quite frankly, driving me nuts. The days on the boat have been my life savers and I feel free and useful all at the same time. I cant wait to get back into the routine of a steady job and the satisfaction of a good days work. I am a bit nervous about starting something brand new but, like everything else in my life so far, I’m sure that it will go well and I will become a stronger better person and grow from it. I cant wait!

On the wedding front, after getting very nervous and having a really hard time thinking more and planning for the Sitka wedding, I had a serious heart to heart with J and realized that I truly didn’t want to have wedding in Sitka. I didn’t want to have to plan a wedding by myself or deal with all the stress that it would involve. J wouldn’t be back in Sitka until the beginning of October and I don’t think that everything could have been planned in that short of time. So I talked to him again about a wedding in Las Vegas being a better deal for all around. My biggest fear is that his mother is going to freak out over the idea that her eldest son is going to get married in “Sin City”. She has made disparaging comments about LV and really was pushing for a Sitka wedding. The good thing is that J thinks that it’s a great idea and his only hold up is that he wants ME to be happy with our wedding, wherever we have it. He doesn’t want me to be upset with not having a traditional wedding with all our friends. The positive side of this, including the fact that J was thinking about me and my feelings, is that I have very few friends in Sitka and my family, who really wants to be there and be involved, will really love the idea of going to Las Vegas for a long weekend instead of going to Sitka for a week in the rain.

6/26
On the road again…rather, on the water again ☺ We left Pelican last night, ran for about an hour and a half before anchoring up and having to fix an oil leak in the engine. The downside of the leak was where it was and how long the engine had been on. It had to cool off and that meant that it gave J time to sleep because he had been up since 3 am fishing. It was 8 pm. I couldn’t sleep however and played a bit with Garage Band on my Mac before climbing into bed about 10. It was the worst nights sleep of our life. J was up battling mosquitoes that I never heard, dreaming about crazy things like putting bottom paint on his feet so they wont itch, flipping on the LED light right next to my head and shoving his elbows into my face. Needless to say, I wasn’t really happy when he finally climbed out of bed and fixed the engine around 5 am. He was also confused as to why I was crabby about the light and elbows and wanted to stay in bed until 7. I did tell him and he did understand and cuddled with me when I got up to his calls of “Tasha, come look at the whales!” It was awesome seeing them, like always and it put me into a much better mood. I did go back to bed for a while though, mainly because I hate taking Dramamine and the ocean swell was something crazy. It was beautiful weather and there was no wind to speak of but the swell was about 7 feet and really close together meaning that we would rise and fall but also get hit with another wave mid fall and get pushed in another direction.

6/28
Yesterday started the move in to what will hopefully be my permanent new place. I called my new boss yesterday afternoon and asked for a key and he said though he would love to give me one, he was leaving town and the person who cuts the keys was out of town until tomorrow (yesterday). Luckily, one of my new underlings was around and she phoned me yesterday at 4 and said, “I have your new key!” I rushed over and got it and it looks, to all intents and purposes that I will be living in family housing, not the main (only) dorm. This is fantastic news! They haven’t had a director living out here so it might be a change for the residents but considering that most of them are staff, I shouldn’t think that there will be many problems. I will find out on Sunday or Monday if this is going to be mine forever but I truly hope and pray that it is. It would be so nice to have a separation from my work, even if I do live there. Another plus of this place? I can have pets here and I have been thinking and talking with J about getting a dog or a cat and we both agree that we want one of either…maybe one of each ☺ Keep your fingers crossed for me and in the mean time, check out my Fliker for some pictures of my summer! I’m going to be moving boxes like mad today but unpacking only a few just in case. I have fully unpacked and set up only to have to move again in 2 weeks and I wont be doing that again.

Cheers!!

I have been knitting like a mad woman the past few days and I am now 6 rows into the yoke. Good heavens, the darn thing is heavy and awkward and I’m not sure that its gonna fit!! The back is perfect but the fronts I am not so sure about, just because they look so flippin small. Its the ribbing, I know, and I have gauge so according to the pattern, it should be perfect…I pray! My goal is to get it almost done, just not blocked and sewn, before J gets back, and at this rate, its not gonna happen. I got thru all the pieces quickly enough, just not so much when they are all connected together! The Duh moment for the day. I am working steadly on that but there is no way I can get that all done before this evening.

The 4 P’s socks that I made were quickly snatched up, even before blocking and P put them on before I even had the ends woven in. Cider Moon Glacier is fantastic and I cant wait to knit with it again. I have over 3/4 a skein of Habanero left and I will 2 at the same time toe-ups with that and there are 2 skeins of Juneau as well. I had started a pair of toe-ups with that but I dont really like toe-ups so ripping that started toe out reallys isn’t a hardship.

The PNW Shawl has been put aside for a little while as J was in town but until he returns, it is #1 on the needles. When he is around, I make the worst mistakes and end up frogging and I really dont want to do that with this “wave” section of the lace because it is the largest thus far, both in stitch count and row count. Even the panels that follow arnt as large. I really am happy with it so far and I cant wait to wear it!

On a personal note, I am thinking about buying a truck. Its a ‘93 Ford 150 and its $4,500. There is no body damage or leaks and its in fantastic condition. Although it wont get great milage, simply for being so big, the engine is in great shape and I am excited about it. When J gets in we will go for a drive together but the guy has promised not to sell it out from under me. Yay!

I am normally a person who has a lot of self control. I exercise this control over my emotions, habits (with the possible exception of random acts of S.E.X.) and especially over my wallet. I know what its like to be poor and to generally go without and I dont want that for myself as I get older. I make sure that a large chunk of my paycheck goes into savings for that proverbial rainy day and for future travels.

After 5 YEARS of lusting, it rained, no it poured, on Thursday. I have wanted this item for, honestly and with no exaggeration, 5 years. What could possibly have my attention and my deepest feelings of want for all this time? A pair of Dansko shoes. Yes, its true. I have wanted a pair of shoes for 5 years. I know it seems a bit ridiculous but really, I just either didnt have the money (they run between $100 and $160 a pair), they didnt have my size is the pair I wanted (a BEAUTIFUL pair in mahogany cabrio leather that was too big), the leather was wrong (No WAY was I buying a pair of SUEDE leather shoes in a place that gets as much rain as Seattle!) or the red, cause I have this ‘thing’ for red shoes, was way too much (patent leather red doesnt quite say the right type of ‘professional’ to me). And then, I found them.

I walked into Brenners on Thursday to buy a new dress shirt for my amazing interview and there they were. A pair of “Lime” professional clogs by Dansko. I wouldnt call them lime though. They have streaks of new spring green with some lime and cream and sky blue in them. The effect is that of woodgrain and they look like spring. They are patent leather and just seeing them makes me smile and am SO glad that I waited for this rainy day. Yes, it was actually raining that day too Lo and behold, they not only had my size but the fit is perfect and I have had so many compliments that it only reinforces my happiness in them! I jokingly called them my “Lucky shoes” when I got them (they being green and all that back story) and thought of them as my 1 big treat for myself. I havent bought anything special for myself in a while (since the last batch of yarn ) and I was thinking that, hopefully, they would bring me luck.

THEY DID!!!

I got the job that I was praying for and the one that I have been wanting and looking for for years. It is amazing to see how my pathways have led to this new one and I am so excited to get started. I will start my new job as Director of Residence Life and First Year Programs in July which leaves the entire month of June and half of May to fish with J! The salary is more than I hoped for, about 10k more than I make now and has full benefits, housing and a small meal plan. Its 12 months a year and I get to wear nicer clothing than jeans and a t or sweatshirt…I get to wear jeans and a button down! And my Lucky Shoes of course

I have been knitting these past few days to aliviate my nervousness about getting the post and managed to get thru not only the bubble lace on the PNW shawl but also 2 pattern rows into the “wave” lace.  On my Mariah, I finished the 2nd sleeve and am 5 rows into the stockinette of the back, past the ribbed/cables bit.  I have been watching the 1st season of Las Vegas obsessively and the plain K and P is perfect for being mindless.  For the lace I just turn on old episodes of Lime and Violet, to which I still laugh at.

Though I spent a lot of time knitting this weekend, nothing compares to being able to actually run and move. Yes, my fingers are in tip top shape and more conditioned than any other part of my body but because of my ankle/foot really hurting and needing ice and painkillers, this cancelled out my running altogether. And that sucks because I am so addicted to moving and I love running now. This is odd considering my body type but makes sense with the family history (my father ran in high school and college w scholarships) Its the only connection that I have with my father but I prefer to think of this as something that seperates me from my Mum and sister, both who hate running. But I love to run, especially on a treadmill or on the boardwalk in Pelican. Regular pavement is so much harder to run on! I tried running outside a week ago and that was the hardest thing that I have done running-wise so far. And I will try that again in a few weeks cause it was great to push myself

I love to read and do so voraciously. Its my nighttime relaxation thing and I just HAVE to read before I fall asleep and I have found that if I dont read, I dont sleep so well and it takes me longer to fall asleep. The Brian Jaques book is the most recent in the Redwall series to which I am addicted to as well I have been reading this series since 8th grade and have read and re-read the series as the new ones come out. Sadly, my copies are at my Mums house and as soon as I have a place to live on a more permanent basis, they will be mine again. I am ripping thru this one and it makes me smile. Girl meets God is an autobiography by Lauren Winner and is covers her faith life and she journeys from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. Its a fantastic book and I have read it multiple time and have gotten other books because of this one. Yes, there are little flags in the book, they mark reference points and other books. At Knits End is a treat like fine chocolate that you can only eat one tiny piece of at a time. It is special to me and is like a little treat at the end of a day. Yarn Harlot makes me laugh and nod and that is a good feeling to go to bed with.

I Love my Mariah. The second sleeve is coming along so well and its much faster than the first one.

I made a pot of clam chowder yesterday, Manhattan style, and it is SO GOOD. Its nowhere near as good as restaurant made or if I had followed a recipie…but its almost gone so that says something! I cut lots of corners and used a tin of Veg-All, tin of stewed tomatoes, 1/2 tin of tomato paste, tin of baby clams and a bottle of clam juice. The point being I wanted Manhattan Clam Chowder and I didnt want my Mum to send me any because I wanted it NOW.

Update on my Cafepress/Runagogo adventure. I ordered and they shipped my zip-up hoodie on April 8th. It arrived in Seattle on the 11th. It hasnt arrived here yet and its the 23rd. So I called customer service and right away, just after I told the guy about my shipping concerns, he responds with, “Well, I will send you out a new one today via 2 day UPS and you should have that on Thursday. If the other one comes, you just keep that one too.” YAY for awesome service and I am so hopeing that I will have it by this weekend. The joy of living in Sitka is the joy of flying or barging in all the things that we have here. Everything. And this means that shipping times are subjected to the whims of Mother Nature and despite the best efforts of USPS and their “Code” of Neither wind nor Rain, they obviously didnt have Alaska in mind when they were established. Granted, this was before AK was a state and before quite a few other states were in exsistance either, but my point remains! Hope springs eternal though and I have my fingers and toes crossed to have my sweatshirt by Friday.

Ah, the joys of dating a fisherman. J was in town and then out again and sometimes I swear that I dont see him more than I do! Life goes on however and if I dont get this job that I am hoping for, I will see him more than either of us can stand because we will be fishing together. An interesting thought and not just a little bit scary. The good thing is that we are both scared but in a good way and actually looking forward to that being the plan, should God will it. We both would rather I have the steady paying consistant job but if not, this is a comfy plan 2A (not plan B, cause plan B requires forethought that hasnt been thought yet!) We had a great night together on the boat and had a fun morning together pitching fish and a bit of odds and ends. Namely, the ADF&G numbers got repainted in black enamel and it looks so pretty and shiny.

My Mariah is coming along well and I have finished the first sleeve! And then I noticed that I didnt increase on the left side of said sleeve TWICE (after doing so on the Right) No, I am not going to frog it. I’m going to be lazy and pray the knitting goddesses out there wont punish me by sending swarms of moths and I will simply increase 2 more stitches on the L side in the last two rows before I slide them to the holder and begin on sleeve 2 and do it the right way on that one. Since the increases are in the seam I dont think that it will be noticiable. If it is, then I will admit defeat and frog but not before. Of course, I had to attatch a new ball 6 stitches before the end!! I would have done it on the edge if I had remembered and I will probably pull that back and do it right…but I hate “wasting” all that yarn. I know that its a bit odd but really, If I had not left such a long tail on the cast-on, I wouldnt have run out like I did. *Sigh*

I have been really good about working out and feel great for all my miles that I am logging for Runagogo and myself.

Unfortunatly, I did somthing to my ankle/foot on Wednesday and it feels like a sprain when I walk on it so today (Thursday) was full of ice and resting for it. No running for me until maybe tomorrow and if its not 100%, I will have fun with weights instead Either way, I will be at the gym!

This post has lots of tags mainly because this has been a busy weekend for me. A good kind of busy too and that makes me feel immensely satisfied; isnt that how we all should feel at the beginning of the week?

On the knitting front: Mariah sleeves finally got more attention and I am almost thru the second repeat of the cable, this time I remembered to do the blasted increases! It is easy to knit and memorise, even if it is cables. I am still in love with this red yarn and I cant wait until its a sweater I’m going to finish this sleeve and then CO the back. I think that I might go faster with the stockinette stitches and not feel so slow. Most likely though I will do the second sleeve so I can have 2 matching.

The PNW Shawl got plenty of attention too and I just finished another 4 rows before blogging and got 8 done over Friday and Saturday. This is coming up beautifully in the Anne and I couldnt be happier with the color. Wether or not I ever attempt a lace project remains to be seen. I just dont know if it is worth it for daily wear. For my special day however, I will knit just about anything!!!

I CO a sock in Juneau (Glacier by Cider Moon) and yesterday I got my box with 2 skeins of their Habanero colourway and another of Juneau. Why so much Juneau? Because I want this pair to be knee socks. One of the Habanero is for P’s socks and the other is for J (who LOVES his European Waffles!) I swear that I am adding more to than I am knitting from my stash for the LnV marathon! I’m too scared to count what I have now (and what I will add from Scout in 2 weeks) and I think that I will hold off and not buy ANYTHING else until at least August. You are my witnesses. No more yarn until after the wedding! I am going to CO P’s socks today because I want to get those done by May 1st or so.

Springtime in Sitka really is beautiful. The trees have started to sprout again and though nothing has turned that beautiful “new green” colour yet, the moss ON the trees has and that looks pretty too. New grasses are coming up and the daffodils are getting ready to pop. It has been quite windy here the past 3 days and will be for the next 3 if the Marine forecast is anything to go on. Its funny to realise that once you start dating a fisherman you no longer trust the weatherman on the TV rather, your trusted source is the computerised voice that comes over the NOAA channel.

No special plans for Easter here because it is a regular workday for me but I did get up earlier than normal and get in a 2 mile run at the school gym and did arm weights, leg lifts and crunches.

Hope you have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Just when you think that you have everything under control in your knitting, sometimes a really dumb mistake comes up and bites you in the a**. I was so proud of myself for knitting along so well on my Mariah sleeve. I had finished the C:A pattern and 2 repeats of the C:B and was well into the 3rd repeat when I looked ahead to the C:C and saw that there would be a funny stitch issue (cableing stitches that werent “that way”) so I looked back at the instructions and realised something.

I forgot to increase.

Not a single increase.

18″ of beautiful cable and even knitted goodness and I was supposed to increase at the 6″ mark and every 7th row after that. Um, yeah. Can you hear the amphibious reptiles calling? With a sigh and a resigned feeling, my 18″ of sleeve became 5.5″

The odd part of this is that I dont really feel all that horrid. I know how fast it went up and I know how fast I can do it again. I had made a misscrossed cable at just about that point so I guess it was just fate that I would have to rip this back I fixed the cable, started the increases and all will be right in the world.

My Lola socks have become the socks that I work on in my down time at work. I swear, the next job I want will keep me so busy that I will want to knit because I am tired and need to relax, not because I have to have something to keep my hands busy. The good thing is that I can knit and watch a computer lab without care. I have gotten to the heel on one sock and will get the other to that point and then make my foray into the strange new world of short-row heels. I’m just a bit scared so please think happy thoughts my way Friday night and Saturday!

OK, this is quite picture heavy but I just had to share my adventure!

3/1 3pm

Well, here I am with my 10 skeins of Bare Superwash Worsted from KP’s, 5 jars of Jacquard Dye, also from KP’s. (Yes, its the same pic from yesterday)

I dug around and found the pot that I was searching for on campus and unfortunatly, it is too small. 10 skeins just dont fit well enough to be able to “swim freely” like every page of instructions has told me. These pics make me think of spaghetti You can see how full the pot is and I think that I would have been scared to play around with almost boiling water and that little bit of room. The up side to this is that I DO have a washing machine that is available during the day and the insrtuctions on how to dye that way make the amount of dye that I bought make much more sense. On this website it says to use “up to 3oz” of dye per pound of fabric to get the deepest colour saturation. I hope that I have enough dye to get a rich colour because, though it would be easy to do again, I dont want to have to wait for shipping if I have to order more.

3/2
I was so excited to get started and last night, I barely slept and then when I did, I dreamt about dyeing! I was rudely awakened this morning by my mobile ringing and it just happened to be the school…needing a last moment sub. I knew from past refusals that if I didnt take the job P would have to do it on his day off and without pay. I, on the other hand, would get paid and I know that the money would be quite helpful in the bank. So the yarn had to wait, darn it.

4pm: Picture me wading though 2 feet of snow with that huge pot. I, of course, drained most of it but highly soggy yarn is so flippin’ heavy. I got into the laundry room and got started! I set the washer to extra-small, Hot/Cold and emptied 3 of the 5 jars of dye into the filling washer. I wrung out each of the skeins and fluffed them and hung them on my arm. Every picture that I have seen regarding dyeing show people putting the skeins in all at the same time. So thats what I did The colour in the washer was so deep red it was like wine. The yarn soaked up so much of the colour, I was really amazed. Within 2 minutes, this is what I had: Ok, now here is where it gets dumb. Rather, this is where I get dumb. ALL the instructions that I read about washing machine dyeing said to agitate and then add the vineger then agitate again. ALL of them. No one gave me any other instructions. I didnt think and stupid me follows the instructions to the “T”. This is what I got: Foolish me. Because I was thinking so clearly, this is what my room looked like: I have to re-skein everything. 10 skeins at 220 yds each equals 2,200 yards…and 2 full days of standing, trying to untangle my huge mistake.

3/3
I started the day with 5 skeins looking like like: and greatfully, I finished at 9pm. P called to see if I wanted to get a drink and I was totally in the mood to celebrate my 2,200 yards. Its all dry now and looks so beautiful and the colour is perfectly red. I couldnt have asked for a better saturation or even tone. Of course, as I want to show it off, I cant really get the “perfect” picture. This one, though it is only the tie-it-together strand is the best picture of the ‘trueness’ of the red.

3/4
In hindsight, I thinkthat I wouldnt turn the agitate on. *sigh* Oh well, live and learn, eh? I am going to spend the next few, erm, days, winding this 2,200 yards into balls. I have wound one ball, knit a swatch and already have gotten 2″ into the sleeve. There would be pictures but those celebration beers have had an impact on my head and I dont really want to more enough to grab the camera and I had to put down the sleeve…to blog of course! I couldnt be happier with the colour and the yarn is so soft and bouncy. It has held up well over the dyeing and rinsing and squeezing etc. and is knitting up beautifully. My test swatch was nice and even and I got gauge with my KPO’s #7’s so again, that makes me happy. I cant wait to keep going on this and I just know that Mariah is going to be a fun knit. I love cables!!

After a fantastic conference in Calgary, Alberta (NWACUHO) I am glad to be back in Sitka. Calgary was COLD! I had such a great time at the conference and learned so much more. I love coming back from events/training/conferences feeling like it was incrediblu benificial and that, not only am I raring to go but that I have fantabulous ideas for the coming year and rest of the semester. Granted, I came back to so not so good news about the status of my employment for next year (my grant runs out and the end of this one and the state legislature is unsure that I and my 3 co-workers are really worth hiring and making state employees). P made a good comment last night about the legislature looking at the “dollers and cents of the situation” to which I commented that it was “all about the dollers and no sense”. Quite a good reply if I do say so myself. Blame my mum for the pun-ny nature…its all from her Anyway, I got to talk to some really good friends that I see only once a year and made some excellent contacts for the future. I did learn about an excellent job oppertunity that I am stoked about applying for and since I know the guy, school, situation and type of students that I would be working with/for, I think that I would have an excellent chance of getting the post, even my supervisor agrees!! I am all about the editing of my resume in the next few days. In short, the conference was wonderful, I met new friends, chatted with old and renewed my love of Student Affairs and am feeling the pull back to Uni. So many less legal issues than dealing with/in high schoolers.

I am back to my knitting too. I had a bit of a scare in the Calgary airport where the screener dude asked ME if my knitting needles were OK to take on the plane. Makes me scared about what else could slip though. I thought that I would be knitting through the conference but during the sessions I was so busy taking notes, I didnt have time! I was glad not to though because that meant I was getting more out of it I took my mums CTH ankle socks, turned the heel and began the gusset on those and I took J’s Euro waffle socks and managed to fudge those up by switching mid row to K2 P2 and then switching back sometime else. Now, I love my J but I know that he is less than aware of his foot wear and that, because of the patterning and striping, it is totally not noticable. So I am leaving it as is. But it will have a Kitchenered toe so I figure that makes things even. I left the PNW Shawl here in Sitka due to its fiddley nature so it is still in its left stage. I will post pics when I move to another panel of lace.

I am TOTALLY excited that my Mariah yarn should be here today. My weekend is Friday and Saturday so I will be dyeing and I am dying to start. I chose Fire Red Jaquard dye from KP’s and ordered 10 skeins of Bare Superwash and 5 pots of dye. Now, I know that this may be excessive, but I did so for two major reasons. A) I havent any experiance with Jaquard dyes and I most certainly didnt want a washed out red colour. I would have it a very dark red rather than a washy red any day and B) Superwash, I have heard, sucks up the dye and no one could tell me if there was a saturation point (where no more colour would be absorbed) for any yarn. This totally relates to A. I dont think that I will need all 10 to make Mariah but I want to make it a bit longer in the body than it is listed and extra yarn is never a really bad thing. 22″ justhits the top band of my jeans when they are sitting where I love to wear them and I really hate it when sweaters ride up when you sit down. I am going to make it a bit longer and see what happens. Also, I am futzing with the pattern so I can make the body in one piece to avoid seaming as much as possible. In reading the pattern, I am thinking that this will be an easy task but I am still sending it to my Mum to double check for me. Good thing I have her!

On semi-non-knitting note, I am so happy that I got to make a trip to Lush in Calgary. The stores are always really small and it is truely a heady experiance to be in one. I had been wavering between trying some new things and being in there and getting to smell them made it all worth-while. The only new thing that I bought was Silky Underwear dusting powder and it is fantastic. I wore some the night I bought it and got compliments right away on how good I smelled…from guys!

Here is a shot of my new Lush stash: It is, left to right, 3 Sweet Japanese Girls ( fantastic!), A sample of Prince (for J), Buffy the Backside Slayer (on top of SU and one I cant live w/o), Silky Underwear (which smells divine, not too sweet or powerfully perfumy), a sample of Ocean Salt (which I thought was blue but I think the sample ad lost its colour), Tricomania (a solid shampoo that is coconutty and slightly vanilla and sandalwoody and awesome for my hair since I dont need conditioner. I had them cut the large block into two), Soft (in the tin. Its another solid shampoo) and Seanick (another SS).

Can you tell I like solid shampoos? They last so long for me, almost 3 months for my last bar of Seanick and bar of Tricho, EACH. The trick is making darn sure that they are out of the water after use and lathering them between your hands instead of rubbing them on your head. Admittedly, Lush is expensive but this stash should last me a year on the shampoos, 2 on the SJG and at least 2 on the Buffy (cause I have half a one left from Christmas 05!). I believe in using stuff that you love and that works for you and this stuff really does for me. SJG revolutionised my face care and made my normally very oily skin relax and not give out so much because it itself is oil (cocoa butter). I was shocked to have it “clean” my face and not completely break me out like lotion does. As for the shampoos, solid makes so much sense to me. They are a heck of a lot easier to travel with and take up so much less space in my shower, backpack and on the boat. They can be used like regular soap and are fantastic for washing small clothes like socks and undies in the sink of hotels/hostels/boat. Talk about my most loved item. I dont think that I could travel well without them, especially since they, unlike liquids, can be easily packed in carry-ons.
They are good for handmade socks too (see how this relates to knitting?)