Too Much Yarn

Woohoo! Pair #15!

I did it! Pair #15!! These are the David Socks I started in November. It's knitted in Bugga, Fierce Snake.

I should be finishing another pair of Bugga socks - Movember - the SKA November Mystery Sock, but I got sucked into knitting my Shur'tugal now (I sucked myself into it - I'm not blaming anyone else!) It's turning out to be VERY, VERY PRETTY so I will wait to take a photo when I'm further along. I just finished the heel flap so maybe after the gusset is finished, I will snap some photos.

Since today is my birthday, I'm heading out for my first present of the day - a shopping spree at the LYS with a 30% discount! I don't need anything, but it will feel good to just buy something at 30% off!

I will report back with what I bought (that way, I may control myself and not buy as much!). On Tuesday night, we went out with our friends and my friend's son is the waiter. I showed him my free dessert coupon and he said he was going to give us a free appertizer, but he can't do both. I said, we want free appertizer! Last night, we went out with another couple and then, went to see "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". I'd seen the Swedish version and overall, I was more satisfied with the Swedish version as I preferred the ending in the Swedish version - I think it was more true to the book. But if I had a choice, I would prefer to see the Swedish Lizbeth and Amercian Mikhail in the same movie. I was never drawn to Daniel Craig so I've not seen any of his James Bonds movies (and I've seen them all until Pierce Brosnan retired). So I've also not seen Timothy Dalton's versions. Tonight, I'm going out with my family and I've decided on a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant.

Mother Nature is trying to give me a good present tonight - maybe an inch of snow! Woohoo!

Pair #14

Today, I finished my 14th pair of socks - the Holidazed Socks by Anne Hanson. This is a club pattern and an SKA September challenge! One more pair to go to meet my goals of 15 pairs.

I am knitting the gusset of the David Socks (also from Anne Hanson), from the SKA November challenge. I originally knitted it for my husband, but since the first sock does fit me, I'm claiming it! For your recollection, this is sock #1:

We had snow then... today was 50 degrees!!

I continue to receive Birthday offers - 2 more dessert offers and finally, my Noodles coupon arrived. Tomorrow, we are going out with a couple; Beth's birthday was last week so we are celebrating our birthdays; we decided to have our husbands with. We are going to a restaurant where I have a coupon for a free dessert!! HAHA! On Wednesday, we are going out with another couple to a popular Chinese restaurant and then, we'll head out to a movie after dinner. On Thursday (my birthday!), I've asked the kids to keep it open so we can go out for a family dinner.

oops! Maybe I shouldn't have pasted all those free dessert coupons as one of them had a message "We're sorry. This offer has been viwed too many times". I hope the waiter will be Beth's son and he can take care of this.

I finished this pair of mittens for my neighbor. I managed to get another box like the one I used for the red mittens. I finished these in a few hours - maybe 5?

And I shall leave you with more cookie photos. These are the variety of cookies I made this year.

 

Where is the snow??

Can you believe it? 50 degrees in December in Minnesota!!! My husband is in a t-shirt as we venture out for some after Christmas shopping. I did finish a pair of socks before I approved going out. Will post more later.


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Merry Christmas!

With Christmas over, I'm feeling a bit relaxed and can't wait to be cranking out socks. I've mostly been knitting mittens this month, having completed 3 pairs for gifts. I may still finish one more pair for my son and maybe another for myself (maybe not!). But I will have yarn for next year's mittenathon. I was with my husband's husband last night and went over to the neighbor's for Christmas Brunch. Came home to open presents and I'm really trying to finish my son's mitten so I can get back to finishing some socks. Why? BECAUSE I have all these patterns in my head I want to knit in January! But first, let's review my goals set for 2011 and see what I have to do to meet those goals in the next 6 days. And so, here's a cut and paste from my January 1 post (in pink). And accomplishments in blue.

15 pairs of socks (must include 1 red, 1 brown, (not ready to knit black socks yet!), at least 6 Cookie A patterns, at least 6 sock club patterns (could double dip as Cookie A sock club patterns), 5 pairs to be gifted). Actual: 13 pairs completed, 1 red, 1 brown, 3 Cookie A patterns, 4 sock club patterns, 1 pair gifted.

11 shawls (haha! - must include 1 red and 1 green, at least 3 from Romi's 7 small shawls, 2 to be gifted) - Actual: 7 shawls. 1 green, but no red. I only knitted 2 from Romi's 7 small shawls ebook I received from Yvonne, but I ended up knitting a total of 4 Romi patterns.

2 sweaters (jeez! I can't even finish 1 sweater last year, I'm making myself finish 2!!) Actual: BIG FAT ZERO.

1 vest (easier than a sweater?) Actual: BIG FAT ZERO.

AND I have to use up at least 11 skeins of yarn from Sanguine Gryphon in the above projects. Actual: I cast on 16 skeins of Bugga; 8 finished projects from 11 skeins, 4 projects still in progress from the remaining 5 skeins.

I haven't uploaded my photos yet, but I do want to share this recipe with you. This cookie was hit and it was shared to me by my non-knitter friend, Chris:

An Awesome Birthday Week...

My birthday is a week from today, but I'm already celebrating it! The week started with getting together with my non-knitter friend, Chris. We exchanged Christmas gifts and she gave me my Birthday present - it's not yarn! But I've been collecting the Swarovski's Snowflake ornaments so that's what she gave me! I came home and my inbox had 2 gifts! One from Christy (I was thinking, wow, 2 birthday gifts from 2 Christine's on the same day!) Speaking of Christine's... a Christine on Ravelry (she also reads my blog!) messaged me that her name is Christine, she's Asian, her husband is Caucasian, and she's a Bugga-ho! I have to add that our first-born is a son! Anyway... so Christy sent me a gift certificate from The Loopy Ewe. And, Yvonne sent me a gift subscription to the Twisted Head to Toes Club.

The next day, Ivan, from work, brought this cake in to celebrate my birthday since I'll be off next week. He also gave me a book on making those cake pops!

Throughout the month, I've received 15% gift certificates off from a gift shop I shop at, $20 from Coldwater Creek, $10 from Victoria Secret, $20 from Chico's (or was it just $10?). Today, I received coupons for free desserts from Biaggi's and Granite City Brewery, and Qdoba (buy one get one free).

 

Happy Birthday ##firstname##! #yiv1954451856 .yiv1954451856ReadMsgBody {width:100%;} #yiv1954451856 .yiv1954451856ExternalClass {width:100%;}

Dear Christine,

Offer expires 1/5/2012 and may only be used once

		Christine Petterson, We want to help you celebrate your special day. Bring in this email and receive
		Simply print and present this offer to your server, and you will receive your complimentary gift from us. Hurry in though, this offer expires 1/21/2012.

Still waiting for the free meal at Noodles. They never fail me.

Now, my turn to give... I haven't been knitting my socks. I finished the red mittens as you may have seen before:

I got them boxed up... and the recipient wore them yesterday!!

The other gift is the Cafe Scarf. Emily wore the scarf and mittens together:

I've finished another pair of mittens...

I finished one of Alex's mitts where there is a thumb opening and a flap so he can text with them.

And I started on another pair for the neighbor. I've finished one and I should be able to finish the mate tomorrow.

Yes, I have new yarn this week. Will show them in my next blog post. I've also been baking like crazy! Have a Merry Christmas if I don't talk to you before then...

 

TV Stand Found

As Christy said, you can't just buy one thing. You buy a new TV, you need a new sound system, you need a new stand. You buy new cabinets for your kitchen, you need new countertops, new hardware, new appliances, and maybe even new floors! And so, last night, we hit 3 furniture stores in 2.5 hours. We found a piece we both liked in the first store. It was priced at $1700, but on sale for $770. They had a 40% off plus an additional 10% off. The next store at a 50% off plus 10% off. We didn't find that piece we saw at the first store, but a different one I won't mind for $360. But it's smaller and I would want to get a book case or two to put the 2 front speakers. Third store had the exact same item as the one we liked at the first store. Its regular price is $899 and it's on sale for $539. How THE HECK can that be. Two identical piece of furniture... one has a regular price of $1700, the other at $899. Needless to say, we bought it from the 3rd store. We will pick it up tomorrow. This is a cut and paste from another site. This is what it looks like - it is solid oak and oak veneers:

This was one I was hoping we would go for from Ikea: (about $900) but there is no glass for my electronics and they get dusty VERY quickly as it is in the room with a ceiling fan and fireplace with blower.

However, in the process of shopping at Ikea, I did find this bookcase that it's in my wishlist for my yarn:

From last night's stores, I found this one that could be nice for yarn, too...

or

Nah, that's too small.... you know I have too much yarn.

Back to Ikea - how about this floor to ceiling (93" tall - about 8 feet tall)

I finished a pair of mittens last night. May try to work on Emily's scarf or start another mitten (or knit my socks!)

 

What else...

The retirement benefits meeting was interesting, but I wasn't able to determine his pension amount - which is the key piece to my yarn budget. It was more of an informational meeting on the Health benefits. So until then, my yarn budget is intact. But we did decide that he doesn't have to retire in 2012. He can wait until 2013. Whew... better stock up on more yarn this year!!

10 years ago, my company decided to demutualize (I should say, the company I work for - not a company that I own!). We were each given x number of stock options. We had 10 years to exercise the options or they will expire. The expiration date is today. Luckily, I cashed them a few weeks ago so I have some chunk of change that I'm NOT spending on knitting-related stuff. How sad... I should have cashed it 3 or 4 years ago where I would have gotten enough money to pay for Alex's one year of college! As is, I do have enough to upgrade our TV. I don't have a picture of the old TV, but I do have a picture of the Entertainment Center that is very nice. Our old TV was a 36" but it was very heavy and BIG. I listed it on Craigslist for $50 for anyone who wants to come and pick this up. It was sold within a few days: This picture was taken after we took the TV to the pickup truck:

Then, we shopped for a TV stand. My husband just wants the TV on the wall. But I'm trying to make him understand that there are wires that need to be hidden. It doesn't look good! So we're shopping for a TV stand. This one I found from Pier 1, it has some scratches, but it's too small as the cable box can't even fit inside the shelf. So it's going back.. in fact, the TV may go back because I want a Sony 55" and he wants a 70" (such a guy thing!) so we compromised to a 60". It does have wifi but it's not very intelligent as far as going to the web. The Sony one will allow me to use my iPad or iPhone as a remote. Sucky phone picture:

See, tag on furniture, tape on the TV - still waiting in case we want to return anything. The big speakers will be moved downstairs where yarn is currently....

OK - so, that's why I'm a bit behind with my knitting. I've put my blankets away so Diane, when I pull them out again, I will show you the size difference between the worsted and the sock yarn version. I still have only 3 squares of the worsted mitered but I have 4 hexagons here. I've packed them away. Out of sight, out of mind. I can't afford the time to work on them now.

I received the Santa Kit from Woolgirl a few days ago... It's cute. The yarn... hmmm.. may make a good vanilla socks, if it doesn't pool.

It's always so fun to open up Woolgirl packages:

My Sock Summit mug finally arrived. Should I stick knitting needles in there or start drinking coffee?

See the mountains and the trees resembling the Northwest? And socks!

I'm finishing up a pair of mittens - maybe today. I want to finish a scarf, too, but I want to knit socks, too! Well, first, I have to get out of my pyjamas (it's now 12:15 pm!!) - I had been working from home this morning since 8 am and I brushed my teeth but didn't change. I've decided to take the rest of the day off so I can run some errands... Tomorrow, more furniture shopping. I'll be sure to ask my husband to drive so I can knit in the car!

BTW - we need more snow! I have my Christmas tree up, but am just not in the mood to decorate it or wrap gifts or bake cookies. Can someone please send us some snow?

What have I been up to?

For each day that I haven't posted a blog entry, I felt just a tad more guilty for not sharing what I've been up to. As you know, with the first of the month, it means I'm casting on like a mad woman. Well, I'm not participating in any Sock Knitter's Annoynomous KAL for December. However, I am knitting Shur'tugal with Jennifer. If you recall, I had cast on the sock using this yarn, but even though the stitch definition looks good, I didn't think it was right until I use a Socks That Rock yarn. Well, I was right. I finished one leg and decided I should work on the other gift items. This was the original sock:

This is the new one:

Then, I cast on 3 pairs of mittens. I actually have 2 mittens done - not a pair. Just 2 singles. I'm like that... in case you didn't know that about me. Here they are:

 

Oops... I mean 4 pairs of mittens!

I'm putting the Shur'tugal on hold and working on sock #2 of Holidazed (on the foot now...) and sock #2 of David Socks. I'm not working on any shawls at the moment. I finished my Buttonwillow a while ago. It blocked beautifully, but I just haven't been satisfied with the photoshoots.

and

Emily modeled another shawl I finished a while ago... again, not happy with most shots.

Here is the major boo-boo: (near the top, I had missed one of the middle spine stitches).

but don't tell anyone!

I'm off to find out what John's benefits are going to be when he retires - in 2012? or 2013? Mostly, I'm going to learn how much yarn buying I have to give up when he retires.

 

November Destash

Will write more this weekend as I've been casting on like crazy! But in the meantime, my monthly record of the yarn that left my house:

SG Traveler in Ireland:

Bugga in Experimental Love Child, Ambush Bug, Archy & Mehitabel, Purple Spotted Buttefly, Nudibranch October.

and here are some creative ways to get rid of yarn and sock!

 

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