Settling

All is quiet on the blogging front, but not really in reality.  We are busily going through our hastily packed boxes and trying to find spaces for everything.  The clothes are in the closet, but not all of them because it's, you know, cold again.  The dishes have been put away but the crockpots are still looking for a place to call home.  The crafting supplies have no idea what they are doing since the death of my sewing desk, but the stash is safely hiding in its cupboard.  The one part that is without a doubt, one hundred percent done?  My books.

There is already talk of a fourth bookcase coming into our lives on account of just how many books I have.  This may be the third time Chris has moved them in our year and a half of marriage, but I never fully unpacked them before now.  I guess I always worried that he might judge me on the sheer number of books that I have collected over the years.  But happily there has been no judgement.  He even helped me unpack, sorting out the final half of the alphabet and reading random lines of Tolstoy and Mead.

My favorite part of the new place is probably the kitchen.  It is exactly the type of kitchen I've always wanted -- small but not too small, with a wall of shelves and real cabinets with real handles (You laugh but there were no handles on any of the cabinets in our old place).

I love that the place is painted with all white trim/fixtures/whatever you call cabinets and such.  I'm sure it is impractical but it makes everything so much brighter.

As we've unpacked we've also enjoyed Chris' new work schedule that has allowed us to eat dinner together every night this week.  That combined with a new kitchen can only mean one thing.  Cooking!

I highly recommend the Southwest Mac n' Cheese from Budget Bytes.  It's the second meal I've made from her website in the past week and they've both been a hit.  A bit spicy for Chris' taste, but that's my fault.  I love some spice in my cooking.

All things considered, the move has been one of the best things that could have happened to us.  And not just because we now have a screened in porch for after dinner tea.

See?  There's still knitting and reading happening here.  But more on that later.

A Life in Boxes

This post has no pictures because I am posting it from work (shhh! don't tell!)  I have a million and a half things to do, but I thought you should have a head's up -- we're moving again.  This means there is sure to be some sort of disaster or life-altering event in the near future.  Be prepared.

You may remember when Chris and I moved back in July.  Just before our one year anniversary we packed our things, left our cramped apartment in the overpriced neighborhood in the north part of the city, and moved ourselves downtown.  We found a place in our budget.  Where if one of us lost a job we could still pay rent.  We found a place where we could finally have a dog.  A place big enough for the two of us plus a home office.  A place I could walk to work through a really nice historic neighborhood.  We thought we found a place that hit everything on our check-list.

What we also found was mold, mail theft, drug dealers, domestic disputes, teenage hooliganism, 76 hours without water, and gun shots.

I pride myself on my ability to make things work.  I may have had horrible living conditions in the past, but I always survived with the thought that someday this will make a really great story.  But with our bedroom now smelling like sewage, we have decided that it is finally time to give up our spiral staircase in favor of somewhere that won't poison us.  As we have told friends and family that we have a place to go the collective group has given a sigh of relief.  Evidently no one felt safe there.

We've been doing a lot of research on places, trying to find a place we can land once we convinced the current apartment to break our lease.  Sadly, everything in our price range has actually looked worse than where we currently live.  Until Monday I was resigned to burning candles and carrying my new taser until August when we would inevitably move to an even less desirable neighborhood.  But then we found it -- The Place.

I'm hesitant to talk up The Place too much.  I'm concerned that we will once again find ourselves with serious concerns, be they health or safety.  But so far it has hit everything on our revised list.  There is running water, the leasing office is consistantly staffed, and I think I can walk the dog without counting footsteps or listing appropriate body locations hit.  There is no tolerance for innapropriate behavior and we did not see a single cigarette (not one!) on the ground when we took our tour. 

As of yesterday morning we were hoping to break our lease and find an opening at The Place.  As of last night we were packing furiously.  We move this weekend.  I don't know how to explain it other than God looked down and decided that enough was enough.  This is our chance to escape and we are taking it.

I hope to be back soon with tales of my new screened-in porch once we have safely relocated, and I'm hoping that is sooner rather than later.  But in the meantime, let me leave you with this one awesome fact -- I fit the entire contents of my yarn cabinet in one box.  This can only mean that I need to buy more yarn!

Knitting in Brooklyn

Last week I had the privilege to attend the American International Toy Fair as one of the most sought after guests -- the buyer for a successful toy store.  My coworker and I spent five days searching for gold among thousands of vendors, most selling a really great products.  In many ways it was hard to weed through everything to find what we were looking for, but we tried, getting cozier with some items than with others.

I admit that when we left I did not anticipate having as much fun as I did or being as well received.  We are both fairly young for our field, without kids, and then there is of course my pink hair.  But we learned quickly that in fact we were not as unusual as I had worried.  In fact the young families to whom we market, more environmentally conscious and determined to move past gendered stereotyping, now have a lot of purchasing power and thus made us extremely relevant.  It was an exciting position in which to find ourselves.

It was really exciting to see all of the fibery goodness coming out this season.  Including pom pom kits!

I wish this photo had turned out, but I was trying to snap it around people who were running over to touch it.  And believe me, the it was just as cozy as one would imagine a pom pom ottoman to be.  There were also weaving kits, knitting kits, and "here's yarn, what do you want to do with it" kits.  Nothing with 100% American wool just yet, but based on the quality of the acrylic I tested out, I'd say that is on the horizon.

But lest you think our trip was all work, let me assure you.  We made sure to take time to have fun, including heading out to Brooklyn where it seems no one knits in bars.  Honestly, I doubt it is that unusual.  I do it here all the time with hardly a second look, and Brooklyn is way more hip than we are.  But that did not stop one of the more entertaining encounters of my knitting life.  We were sitting at a table drinking a beer and I pulled out my knitting, as I am wont to do.  The Olympics were going and I was woefully behind on my entry for the Short Track Shawls.  I was knitting happily away when we attracted the attention of a fellow "artist."  Now I don't doubt this guy is an artist of some sort, but I found it very hard to figure out what he does outside of yell drunkenly at people in noisy bars.  What I did gather was that he was personally offended that I do not offer my knitting up for sale.  I told him it's something I do for the love of the craft, which he seemed to understand, but continued to insist that I should get "one of those Etsy sites."  Seriously, why didn't I think of that?  But then again he's the guy who has a traveling museum of Michael Jordan memorabilia but does not know that Jordan was from and played for Carolina.  In any case, somewhere on Instagram, in an account I could not spell, is a photo of me and my knitting with these guys.  Let me know if you find it?

I Used A Kettlebell (And I Didn't Die)

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone is having a lovely and productive day.  I went to a Superbowl party last night and got some serious knitting done while watching that train wreck.  Thank you Denver for making my Panthers no longer have the most pathetic appearance in recent memory.  Makes my life a little easier.

Lately I have been giving you a little peek into my personal health journey.  One of my coincides-with-New-Year's resolutions was to get my health back under control.  Because I am self-treating my migraines life has gotten a little more regimented.  Fortunately (or not) they seem to stem from an injury and not from a dietary or chemical imbalance, so I don't have to hyper-regulate my diet.  I can still eat gluten and sugar in moderation without suffering any ill effects.  Instead I am focusing on things like my sleeping patterns and exercise.  Until two years ago I was a full-time student.  I had weird days and functioned on strange sleep schedules.  One of the first changes I made when I started detoxing from my neuro-meds was how much I slept.  I was actually concerned I was pregnant because I was sleeping so much.  Turns out I just need 7-8 hours rather than the 4-5 I was used to from school.  A seemingly easy fix but one I struggled accepting.

The other modification I have made is a regular workout schedule.  It has become an obsession, which is why my knitting output has decreased.  I try to fit in something everyday when I get home from work and on my off-days I have been going for a run.  This is a big deal for me because I am not just doing cardio anymore, but have introduced weights into my routine.  I have a spinal injury that I rehabed as much as physical therapy could take me and now it is just time I man up and deal with it.  And it is working!  I've started out small, but as long as I keep at it the headaches are less frequent.

I've been blessed that I am not in this alone.  Some of the other girls from work are doing a weight loss challenge and while I am not trying to lose weight, the support we give one another has been very encouraging.  On days I have off I can frequently find a running buddy and we've done crazy things like take a kickboxing class for the first time together.  They understand that I have this weird head problem that can cause me problems and they have been very supportive as I figure out what works.

I have also found support through the Tone It Up community.  Bravo's new show Toned Up has been airing 30 minute episodes each week and is about two best friends who run a fitness company.  Somehow I found myself watching, probably while I was waiting for Chris to get home from work.  I was skeptical about it until I saw the first episode.  Their interactions and genuine enthusiasm were enough to get me to try a video (they have tons free on youtube), and that is all it took for me to get hooked.  Currently they are doing a program leading up to Valentine's Day called Love Your Body that is all about building confidence and trying new fitness.  I love it.  There are enough videos that I can try different things every day, and they are short enough that I can pace myself.  Last week I went out and bought a 10lb kettle bell.  This is a huge deal for me because I have not used anything other than 3lb hand weights.  And you know what?  I'm not dead yet.

So here's to a month of trial and error, slip ups and backslides, and finally feeling like I can conquer this thing.  Hopefully I will continue to have good news in the months to come.

A November Return

Hello all!  I hope you all had a good October.  Mine was different from past years.  I found myself at the end of September struggling with some health issues that made concentrating on anything very difficult.  I have talked pretty openly here about the car accident I was in several years ago.  One of the probable results is a series of headaches that I have put up with ever since.  Probable because there was so much going on in that month that it is impossible to definitively pin it on the accident.  I could go into excruciating detail (I actually just did but then realized how boring that really is) about the things I have tried to make them go away, but I like you guys too much.  Let's just say that October began with me paranoid and confused enough that Chris supported my decision not to let my doctor put me on any more medications and instead we are focusing on reducing my stress level and looking at other options.

Long story short, I decided to make myself take the month off from any obligations, including working on the blog.  But that does not mean I have not missed all of you.  In the midst of all the weird brain stuff writing has been something I really look forward to, even if it has become more of a struggle.

Alright.  Now that I have got that out of my system, time to go cast on all the things for Knit and Crochet House Cup!

Case of Ingestion

We suffered another loss here last week -- of the fiber variety.  This one fell prey to the foul beast who lurks behind our couch.  One whom all socks have learned to speak of in hushed tones only.  That great black beast known as Helo.

Thursday I walked both to and from work, having woken up with a migraine and deciding not to inflict my blurry state on the other drivers making their morning commute.  So I pulled on my favorite pair of handknit socks and over the course of the day walked a total of seven miles (I've been using a pedometer just for fun).  When I came home I took the dog back out for a walk, not realizing the treachery that would come.  We went on our walk, taking in the sights, fighting over how many bushes to crawl under or why he cannot go make the sweet little pit puppy across the way his girlfriend.  Finally we returned home where I collapsed on the couch, took off my shoes, and decided to veg out a bit in front of Veronica Mars.

After a few minutes I realized that I had not seen or heard Helo since returning home and decided to check in on him, only to find a most vicious sight.  Helo, the dog we so lovingly care for, eating my sock.  Yes, you heard that right, eating.

It seems Helo decided I did not pay enough attention to him, and thus decided to get my notice the best way he knew how.  Or he was just expressing his admirable taste in knitwear.  I am unconvinced either way.  All I know is that if we had a doghouse, Helo would have been in it.

Working in his favor, Gnome Acres had a big update on Friday so I was able to snag some replacement yarn.  He acknowledges that this makes him a very lucky dog.

Sneak Attack Yarns

I did a marvelous thing last weekend.  I took a vacation.  On a holiday.  In my current line of work that is rather rare.  Some friends and I went over to Asheville for the weekend to stay in a cabin in the woods, hike, watch movies, and maybe go drink some champaign in a bookshop.

And you'll never guess what we happened upon.

Oh yes, yarn.  I nearly missed this shop as we walked past.  I actually do not know what it is called because we did not have time to stop in, but it was pretty cool to walk past.  And there were other yarn shops.  Most specifically Yarn Paradise and Asheville Home-crafts.  Sadly Yarn Paradise is closing, but Asheville Home-crafts is still alive and weirdly well.  It was the most fascinating hodgepodge collection of novelty acrylic and local handspun.  I got a Zauberball and this crazy skein of Cascade called Hollywood.

I think there is something really fun and crazy to be found in this skein.  Possibly something one might wear to a chocolate lounge.  Because oh yeah, that exists too.

Procrastination

I'm writing this while it is dark out, so I don't have a picture for you, but I am still procrastinating on these legwarmers.  Actually, that's a lie.  I procrastinated  until about eight last night and then I went into a state of panic.  I technically have  until Saturday, but I'm going away for the weekend so I need to get these done by Thursday.  I have about 6-8 inches left and not a lot of time.  I'm not sure how I am going to make it through to the end.

Procrastination has been made easy by our new friend Helo.  Boy has he been a handful.  Last week we took him to the vet to verify that he does indeed have heartworm.  They don't think he has a bad case and the treatment is not nearly as expensive as we anticipated, but he is on quite a bit of regular medication that requires periods of calm, something that is a bit hard for an energetic little guy such as him.  We've decided that he must have some terrier in him somewhere as he is just so active.  Oh, and did I mention that this medication can make him nauseous?  Yeah,  that was fun to wake up to.

Ok, enough procrastination via blogging.  To the legwarmers!  (and then work)

Helo

So yesterday when I said that we were going to maybe work on the apartment and maybe watch some How I Met Your Mother I really thought that was how the day was going to go.  Little did I know that our family was going to expand to include one more little furry behind.

Yesterday we went to the local animal shelter "just to see".  We've been talking about getting a dog since before we got married and our new neighborhood, while not unsafe, makes being home alone less appealing.  And as I discovered this morning, even when your husband is asleep in the other room it is nice to have someone by your side when random people decide to bang on your door at 5am.  As we walked up the door had a sign on it that informed anyone coming to surrender a dog that they are at capacity and that any animal left is at risk of being put down.

And that was just the door.  Once inside we were faced with four full kennels and so many sad dogs that we both just wanted to cry.  We spent a lot of time looking at a lot of different dogs and tried to find a way to take many of them home.  Finally we ended up with this little guy.  Helo.  Yes, like the BSG character.  And boy is he a sweetie.  He's smart as a whip and is very social.  Last night I woke up to find that he had taken a towel from the laundry and drug it to the base of our bed so that he could have a "bed" in the same room as his humans.

And he's ours.  We still need to learns how to sit and walk without pulling on the leash, but that will come with time.  For now I'm just excited that he and Cogsworth seem to be getting along.

Weekend Plans

Happy Monday everyone!  Today marks something very unusual in my marriage.  It is the second of the very first "weekend" that Chris and I have had off together in a regular work week.  That's right, after a year of marriage and working opposite shifts, we finally have weekends!  The possibilities are endless!  We could take a day and go to the beach.  Or sleep in and go to brunch.  Or finally check out some of these downtown running trails.  Or hit up some museums.  Or . . .

Or we could stay home and finally get this place put together.

Some people are surprised that we aren't done yet, but when you want to unpack together but only have one day a week to spend together, unpacking gets pushed to the back of the to-do list.  I mean, there are so many episodes of How I Met Your Mother left to watch and I have a long way to go on my legwarmers before we get to September.

Exhausted

Guess who's sick.  Again.  And I didn't even tell you about that bought of strep I had two weeks ago.  Chris has joked that he can't remember a time I was not in pain or dying on the couch, but it has just been a long hard summer.  By the time August came around I was so stressed and worn out that my immune system just caved.  And I'm not the only one.  Almost everyone I work with has been out sick at least once in the past month.  School is back in session in about two weeks and boy am I looking forward to it.

Today I decided that I was sick of being sick and I have rallied to try to get some work done around our apartment.  We moved in three weeks ago we are just now finding the floor underneath our boxes.  Today saw me unearthing the kitchen table for the first time

I have this crazy thought that if I use a table cloth maybe we won't stash everything on the table.  Like the pretty pattern will serve as some sort of protective shielding, immolating all the bills and cough medicine that try to reach it.  It is a completely ludicrous proposition, but one I am clinging to with as much ignorance as I can muster. 

This is part of my effort to make our place as beautiful as possible to accommodate for the rough exterior.  I have been very open with the fact that the neighborhood in which we live is not the nicest.  It is not the ghetto by any stretch of the imagination, but people here have more to worry about than how pretty the structures appear.  When we moved in everything leaked, there were ants everywhere, and the carpet was stained from countless substances.  But it has great bones, amazing lighting, and from all the crayon on the walls I think it is safe to say that this place has seen a lot of love.  It's just as exhausted as I feel and in desperate need of a face lift.  And while we don't have the funds to really overhaul a place we don't actually own, just keeping it clean and tidy has made a world of difference.  I'm sure once we get the pictures and artwork up on the walls we will see a real improvement in the aesthetics.

And if nothing else, at least I have a great new way to dry my laundry.

One for DC

Happy Monday everyone!  This week not only do I have my standard "weekend" of Sunday and Monday, but I also had off on Friday and Saturday because it was our anniversary!  I can hardly believe that we have been married for an entire year.  It feels like no time at all and forever all at the same time.  To celebrate we went to one of our favorite vacation sites -- Washington DC.

The actual space suit worn by Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, on display at the Smithsonian

 

Rather than paying an arm and a leg to stay in the city, we found an inexpensive hotel room in Alexandria and took the metro into the city on Saturday.  Alexandria is a lovely historic town on the Patomic and is very walking friendly.  One of the things Chris and I have found we like to do on vacation is to park the car once we arrive and not use it again until we are heading home.  The long walks are great exercise and allow us to spend more time talking and people watching, which is always fun.  We ate some truly amazing food, both at a surprisingly authentic Greek restaurant and at my new favorite, Bilbo Baggins Global Restaurant.

Sunday morning we decided to find a place for brunch and Google led us to this charming find.  The entire place is Hobbit themed, though not after the new film, but after the old cartoon I have dim memories of watching as a child.  The food was spectacular and we got to play Lord of the Rings trivia while we waited.

Saturday was our day in DC and we tried to cram in as much site seeing as we could.  We probably could have fit in a few more museums, but we had so much fun at the International Spy Museum that we did not move on until after noon.

The only part of the museum I risked photographing -- crawling through duct work!

We saw the ground floor of the American Indian Museum, everything we could find in the Air and Space Museum, the Library of Congress, and all of the American History Museum that was not closed for renovation.  Our mad dash walk took us past the Capital building, and we saw the outside of the Supreme Court, which is actually being renovated and so is hidden by a cloth barrier with a picture of the building.

He traveled all this way to see the Supreme Court and all he got was a photo and some stairs.

And of course I squeezed in knitting at every chance, making a bit of progress on my Camp Loopy 3 project (Theresa Gregorio's To the Ground).

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  We got up close and personal with a lot of history without feeling pressured to absorb it all lest we never return, which is how I like my vacations.  Now I have to go back to real life and unpack the rest of this apartment.  Or I could just sit here and knit while catching up on podcasts.  It really is one or the other.

Living with Bees

Well that was a long and unexpected hiatus.  You would not believe the ten days that I have had.  First of all, we moved!  We have wanted to get out of our old place and to a more affordable and locationally appropriate for quite some time and it finally came through.  On Monday we rented a truck, crammed everything we could into the back, and begged our families to help us move just this one last time.  Once again they have all vowed never to help us again and we have promised to hire movers for when we eventually leave this place.  Hopefully we can make it last for more than a year this time.

But before even that happened, things had gotten rather complicated.  Last Friday night I was packing up some stuff and went out on the back porch to clean off some baskets.  I found a bag out there with some of the boxes we use for moving and went back inside to ask Chris if he wanted to keep it.  He came out, looked inside it, and found some interesting items that made us want to investigate more.  I mean, how did that webcam end up out there anyway?  And what else could be in that bag.

So we investigated further.  He pulled out more stuff when something flew out and startled him, causing him to knock off his glasses.  I bent down to pick them up, laughing a little at the image of him jumping, dropping the bag, and swatting at his ear as it replayed in my head.  Then, like a scene out of a horror movie, I turned ever so slowly as I stood up and saw it -- dozens of yellow jackets rising out of the bag and heading towards me like a strike force.

I screamed.  Chris yelled.  We both dove through the door, slamming it shut as fast as possible.  We weren't fast enough. Chris had a sting on his leg and I had a gotten stung in the foot.  But then as we tore through the door some more got inside.  We ran to the bathroom, hurriedly closing both exit doors.  Standing still I realized that there were bees in my jeans, which I ripped off as fast as possible, getting stung on the leg for my trouble.

So there we sat.  Trapped in our own bathroom.  Him with one sting in the leg, me with one to match plus four or five in my foot.  Now, I'm not allergic to bees, but the one sting on my hand that I got at the beginning of the week was still having a topical reaction after five days.  It seemed that as we watched my foot swelled up in front of us, all shiny and painful.  And here we sat, afraid to leave our bathroom and face the bees beyond the door.

The rest is a blur of pain and tears.  We managed to get out of the bathroom, grab phones and my purse and left for the emergency room with a quick call to my sister to assure that it was the right course of action.  (Don't worry, I did not go pantsless, though that might have made me more popular with the drunks we met that night).  When we got to the car we realized we only had the keys to Chris' which was full of things we were packing.  Amidst more panic on my part and haste on his we finally realized we  had not idea where my keys were and had to unpack the car so that he could run the boxes back into the apartment and through them to the mercy of the bees.

We arrived safely at the hospital despite our many close calls and traffic violations.  We almost missed the turn into the hospital but I saw the sign at the last minute and Chris managed to cross three lanes of traffic at an intersection and then back into the turning lane so that we were not hit by oncoming traffic.  It was a stroke of genius, I tell you, the kind only given to those driving pregnant women to the hospital as they start labor.  Only later did he tell me that he had to wear his old glasses with the bad prescription because in the commotion we broke the good ones.

The lovely doctor at the ER examined my foot and determined that it would go back to normal (I didn't believe him) and gave me medicine for the pain which I took without question.  I would have taken rat poison if he told me it was the only way to stop the pain.  I was able to go to work the next day, on crutches, but I was not allowed to drive, which made packing and moving much more difficult.  On Monday when we moved I was next to useless.  I limped around putting things in boxes and tried to stay out of everyone's way.  (I did become everyone's hero when we arrived to find that our power and water had not been turned on as we'd asked.  I am quite good with a phone and a switchboard when I need to be. I think I was a telephone operator in a previous life)

So here we sit.  Mostly unpacked and enjoying our new home.  The swelling in my foot has finally gone down and so far there have been no more attacks by bees.  Though Chris tells me he found a wasp nest outside our door, so one really never knows.

Finding Some Order

Thank you all for your kind words and sympathies regarding Chris' illness last week.  He is doing much better with only occasional cough.  The doctor had told  us his eardrum was already healing when we went to urgent care, so now that he's a week out and done with the antibiotics he should be fine.

Last week was spring break for the local public schools, so work was non-stop crazy every day.  Several days I came home, sat down, and then realized I had sat staring into space for half an hour.  I really started to feel a need for calm and order to offset the chaos and noise of my day.  Normally I would find that in knitting, but even that was too fidgity for me this week, so I turned to a method proven successful by generations -- spring cleaning.

I'm doing this at a leisurely pace.  Tackling one or two projects a day rather than trying to overhaul and clean out our space all at once.  Project number one?  The stash.

I keep my stash theoretically in a cabinet I inherited from my grandparents.  It has three shelves and is deep enough for a skein to lie lengthwise rather than on its side.  In the past few years my stash accumulation has increased to the point that it was no longer fitting in the cabinet.  The area around it in our bedroom has been taken over by excess skeins in boxes and tote bags, piled precariously so that when I went to get something it would all fall out onto my head.  So on Friday I emptied the cabinet, bagged up all the skeins in boxes, and organized everything by weight.  I also took photos for Ravelry, but I have yet to upload them.  Then I pulled out a few skeins and leftovers that I will never use and put them aside to donate at work.  Finally I started to pile it all back into the cabinet.

And it fit!  The door closed and everything and there are no more piles of leftovers and unfrogged projects sitting on the top.

I still have a lot more to do around the apartment, but just having that one bit of organization in the corner made me feel so much better.  And it is good to revisit what I have because on Friday I will be adding some new items -- from Stitches South!

Hints of Spring

There is something in the air.  Maybe it is because the temperature warmed up the same weekend that we started Daylight Savings, maybe it is because I let myself sleep in, but whatever it is I feel like I am on Spring Break.  And it is lovely.

Yesterday was so beautiful that after Chris left for work I walked up to the grocery store and bought a bag of veggies.  I'm pretty sure the guy at the counter thought I was a crazy hippy with my reusable bag, felt hat, and knitted shrug.  I brought home my loot, opened all the windows, and made a homemade pizza while jamming to Ivy.

Nothing says spring like fresh asparagus!

Today is just as fun.  The weather was lovely for a run and it was like nature ran out to say hello.  There were birds everywhere and a few trees were finally blooming.  The creek was singing happily and the air was just so crisp.  I tried to take pictures for you guys, but I just was not able to do it justice.

Now I think I'll spend the rest of  my day sitting by the open window.  Catching up on knitting podcasts and working some more on this.

Yes, there is finally warmth and I am already thinking of Christmas.

A Weekend in Purple Fairyland

It is finally March!  The temperatures have plunged back into the thirties and there is the constant threat of more snow (seriously, I love winter, but more?).  So far March has been a lot like February, but with a lot more purple.

I know I went unexpectedly off the radar for a bit, but it was with good reason, I promise you.  This weekend was the first in a year-long series of children's theater productions that will help benefit the place where I work.  As part of the deal, we set up a merchandise booth at the theater and sold all sorts of fairy-tale inspired items to little kids and their grown-ups who came to see a modernized interpretation of Rapunzel.  It was an absolute blast and I got to dress up my normal work clothes with various crowns and a lot of purple nail polish.  I do not think I realized until I sat down to paint my nails just how much purple polish I own.

I wish I had taken more photos of the table, but we were so busy that by the time I thought to do so we had sold almost everything.  All weekend we kept having to return to our store to look for anything that might remotely relate to the show so that every child who was able could purchase some sort of souvenir.  By the end we had two rubbermaid totes of a few crowns and stuffed animals and that was it.

Rapunzel the Giraffe was a big draw

Because I was there the majority of the past three days I did get some knitting done.  The Lateral socks made a comeback and I finished up the first sock.

I was not able to try them on as often as I normally would, so I started the toe decreases a little late and ended up with a wider toe box.  The yarn is so lovely, however that I don't think I will care.  I stopped at my normal length to avoid floppy fabric and it seems to fit just fine.  We will see after I finish sock number two.  Which may be a while because I finally got moving again on Twigs and Willows.

More on that tomorrow.

The Kindness of Neighbors

Our weather this weekend was splendid.  Well, my weekend, which consists of Sunday and Monday.  Sunday was a gorgeous warm spring day with budding trees and frolicking children.

Because it was so nice I decided to take advantage of the sun and do up some handwashing.  I was jamming out, dancing about in my best boho skirt and old men's flannel shirt when the worst happened.  As I leaned over to lay out my hand knit socks my ipod slipped out of the shirt pocket.  It was like watching a horror movie.  In seconds that stretched to minutes it drifted through the air and then hung from my headphones before disconnecting and dropping through the crack in the balcony floor boards.

I gaped.  Screamed.  Took a picture (because how can you not).  And then ran downstairs to knock on the neighbors' door.  Big surprise, no one answered.  Over the next five hours of daylight I continually walked downstairs and knocked on their door, but no one answered.

I began to work on a plan.  Our balconies are built into the exterior of our building, but there is a large beam that runs down the middle to the floor.  I could shimmy down the pole and drop into the balcony below.  But that left finding a way back up.  I could also climb over the railing with a long pole and some packing tape and grab the ipod that way.  But nothing in the apartment was long enough.  Plus at this point the first floor neighbors were noticing the way I kept leaning out over the railing and staring at the second floor like I was going to rob the place.

It went on like this until Chris came home and took away the hockey stick.  After I ran back downstairs when it got dark and I saw a light on I despaired of ever getting it back.

Yesterday morning I woke up and found this outside my door.

And it still works!  I've baked cookies and taken some down to leave on their door in thanks.  I don't know if I will ever actually meet these neighbors, but it was nice to know that people can still be nice.  And that an electronic device that I have had for over 5 years still works.

Dyed Snowy

I had the best time this weekend.  My sister came to visit and we had tons of fun.

In the snow!  She got here Friday night and we woke up Saturday morning to actual snow, none of this icy slushy stuff we normally get around here.  It was awesome.  Of course any snow day requires hot chocolate so we hoofed it over to the grocery store.

Who doesn't love a fun hike through snow?

You may notice something a little different in these photos.

Friday night we dyed my hair!  I've never dyed my hair before, so it was quite the production.  There was bleach, tin foil, mascara wands, and Dead Sara. 

Surprisingly successful bleaching

This was actually supposed to be purple hair dye, but I'm very happy with the blue.  It is actually the same color as the last skein from the Club Dragonfly 2012.  I really must get going on that shawl.

Too Cold For Frogs

Never have I been so glad to be a knitter than I was on Friday, trudging to work in coat, boots, and handknit sweater, hat, cowl, socks, legwarmers, and mitts.  It was cold.  We ended up closing down early so everyone could get home ahead of an ice storm that had my car covered in a layer thick enough that I drove the half hour home with little peepholes and the hopes of slow, kind drivers.  Is this what it is like to live in real winter?  I think I could adapt, but it would not be one of the most fun things ever.

It has all melted now, and we are expecting to be back in the seventies by mid-week, but I have spent my rare weekend off hunkered down with wool and needles, hiding under those blankets I promised to Cogsworth.  Today I finished a major project (details once I get serviceable photos) and found myself casting about in all those projects I said I was no longer knitting, looking for something to do while I watched way too many episodes of The West Wing.

Lots of frogging.  Lots.  So far a shawl, a sweater, and two pairs of socks.  Remember what I said about the joy of letting go of things holding you back?  I had no idea that joy would include quite so many needles and project bags.  I need to hide all of this from Chris before he comes home or I will never again be able to complain that I have no yarn/bags/needles and thus need to take an Etsy shopping trip.

Weather Reflective Mojo

I don't know about where you live, but here in North Carolina the weather is getting particularly wacky.  On Thursday night it snowed.  Actually, there was this horrible incident in which my car window, the one in the driver door, seemed to come off whatever tracks it utilizes to get stuck down in the door.  In a rain storm that turned to snow.  I'm sure the sight of me standing in the parking lot yelling as I tried to get it back in place is one for which my neighbors will never forgive me.  And now today it is so warm that as I was running in my tshirt and shorts I found myself thinking about that bathing suit I bought last year but never wore.

As I am sure you can imagine this is doing a number on my knitting mojo.  I am torn between wanting to cast on snuggly alpaca shawls and lace weight cardigans.  I have a pile of yarn I keep pulling out to wind and then changing my mind.  As a result I have not succeeded in knitting anything new but am rather finishing up some sparkly WIPs.

So far I have finished two and I am hopeful that I will finish my Bombshell shorts next as they are all I have on the needles.  I think I can see the end in sight, which usually means I am about two thirds of the way done.  The goal is to finish them in time to wear over tights as that is the only way I can envision styling them.  I just may be pairing that a tank top.