Proof

Proof that I am getting some knitting on the cable bag and not just playing with my laptop 24/7 (it's really more of a 20/7 mixture). I've finished the first half of the cabled bag and started on one of the handles. It WILL be done and at the store by Thursday. It's going to be an awesome class! I'm starting to feel really good about all the classes. If you're in the Hernando area, you really should stop by!

A Ransom Note

Hannah,
We have your sunglasses. If you ever want to see them again you need to bring chocolate and Diet Dr. Pepper to That Yarn Shop (or just show up). If you don't we'll keep playing with them using Laura's photobooth feature on her laptop (did you know that the apple lights up when you take a picture?)
Sincerely,
Laura, Tori, Amanda, and Kathy (oh, and Sam was here, too)

Sock

Here's a picture of the sock in progress for the Advanced Sock Class at That Yarn Shop. Check out Kathy's blog (www.knittingjunkie.blogster.com) for a picture of the cable swatch for the class on July 10th.

New Computer

I'm playing on my new Mac Book at That Yarn Shop. Kathy has free WiFi, so I've gotten to play to my heart's content. We've been playing with the photoboth. Here's an Andy Warhol version of Kathy, a heat sensor version of me (at home) and a comic book version of Taylor.

Cranky

I might have been was a bit cranky earlier. I took a nap and then took a break from the knitting to go see the movie Evan Almighty. I loved both the nap and the movie. The movie really put things into perspective for me. There's a point where Morgan Freeman is explaining that when people pray to God for patience, he grants their prayer by giving them an opportunity to prove their patience. I've always felt that I was meant to be a teacher and a knitter yet I was complaining because I have been given a multitude of opportunities to teach kniiting. I am really and truly excited about being able to teach these classes, I am just feeling a bit pressured to get all my ducks in a line. I also have another stressor that several of my close friends know about, but I'm trying to not borrow trouble by blogging about something that may or may not happen. We'll know for sure by Wednesday, either way.

On a positive note: Look at my pretty half sock.

I try to have one plain easy-peasy sock on my needles for when I'm waiting in line at the gas station or bored at work. This is the great Three Irish Girls Sock yarn in Quinn that had all of the knots (Jenny did send me a new skein that is even more pretty). The mess behind the sock is what my desk looks like most of the time. You can see the lovely Sock Bug pattern (Crooked Cable) that I want to start at some undisclosed time in the future (maybe for Sockapalooza?) Have a great Monday all!

Today is brought to you by the letter "stress" and the number 3

3 is the number of projects that I need to finish this week. That does not include this:

The lace bag (it is to be named at a later date) is done knitting-wise and is currently being blocked. It will be put together, have a lining added, and then some buttons by Tuesday (Mom's sewing the lining, Thank Goodness). Next we have the cable bag. It has been designed and "swatched" and redesigned. It will be going on the needles as soon as I stop hyperventilating. Then we have my Hogwarts socks for the swap. There have been a ton of some issues, but I think all will be well on that front soon. Finally, I need to design a pair of socks and knit up the samples for the advanced sock knitting class I am teaching at That Yarn Shop in August. I also got a phone call today from Melissa asking if I still wanted to teach an advanced sock class for her (I'm thinking that the advanced classes will each be 2 sessions of three hours but I haven't decided yet). I have decided that I want each class at each store to have a different pattern that we use. This may seem like a lot more work for me, but I want people to be able to take both if they want and learn something a little different at each. I can't wait for my vacation in July. I never thought that I would need a vacation from knitting, but I guess there's a first for everything. :)

Buckeyes

These socks were knit for my future sister-in-law. My younger (I can't call him little because he's much taller than me) brother is getting married. Luckily, he chose a great girl. I've been plotting for quite a while what kind of socks to knit Emily. What colors should I choose? What pattern? When Sheri started selling the Cider Moon yarns, I knew I had a winner. Emily went to Ohio State. Matt and her both love football and went to several Ohio State games last year (as well as some Bills). It has been known to become quite cool at some of this games, so Emily might appreciate some thicker socks. I got the yarn in the Glacier weight. I was still striking out on the pattern, but when I went to the Cider Moon website, I found this. I highly recommend the Campfire Socks pattern. It is great fun and not a hard knit. Perfect, let's say, for a 24 hour round trip drive to a wedding shower (to be honest, I did get distracted from the socks by other yarns that were purchased along the way). So the Buckeye socks are done (they have been for a while, but I've been lazy about sending out mail). Emily, you are now officially part of the Linneman Clan!

The decision has been reached

Like you really thought I could wait until September to buy my Macbook. After spending several hours in the Apple store, I was convinced to buy it now (mostly because they offer free classes on things like podcasting during the day and the summer would be the only time I could go). I'm really happy about it right now and I can't wait for next week to come so that it will be here. The part that really sold me was the photo booth (and the free printer and ipod mini). That is the coolest feature EVER. Look for more raving on the subject later, now I am tired and must go to bed. I'm teaching socks in the morning.

Something Old and Something(s) New

The something old is my laptop. I've had it since I was a Junior in college (so almost 7 years now) and I'm thinking that it might be time for an upgrade. Mom's laptop exploded 2 weeks ago and would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. I've been helping her hunt down a decent deal and in the meantime have fallen to lusting after this. If you look in the FAQ, teachers at a K-12 institute can get the discount price on the i book and the free nano. (Kathy there are deals for homeschoolers, too) I could give Becky my old Mini if I got a nano. Hmmmm... But Becky and Trick have convinced me to wait until September (the promo doesn't run out until the end of the month) they say that it'll be cheaper then . Why do I need a new laptop anyway you might ask? Here are some simple reasons why:

1. My battery is totally dead and that makes my laptop less than mobile.
2. I heard a loud popping noise coming from the laptop that scared the bejeezus out of me this weekend.
3. The USB connectors are old and don't like to hook up to my mini
4. I think the camera on the Mac would be an awesome feature and might postpone me getting a new digital camera for a while.
5. My laptop frequently overheats and turns itself off

On the new side of things, I fell off the wagon on Wednesday and ordered some new sock yarn (I couldn't resist, her prices are really good). On Friday, some really cool stuff from Woolgirl arrived at my door (that's fast). First, look at how awesome the package came:

It had a free sample of SOAK wash and a little sheep stitch marker inside. Look at the yarn inside:

It's so pretty, I wish I could be at home and play with it all day long. From bottom to top they are...Cherry Blossom Fibers in "Jade Rose" (it's self-striping), Lavender Sheep in "Sexy Chocolate Cherry," Three Irish Girls in "Quinn," and Miss Babs in Forest 2." Being the new yarn flibbertigibbet that I am, I immediately wound the Three Irish Girls on Saturday. I was really upset to find multiple knots (I was also about to teach a sock class at the time, so the timing was nothing but poor). The class went fine, and when I got home I emailed Woolgirl (Her real name escapes me at this moment). Within a few hours, she got back to me and resolved my problem. I cannot emphasise how much I like this store. It reminds me of the Loopy Ewe before it became so crazy popular that you have to stay up until midnight hoping for a sneak up of your favorite yarn. I still love Sheri, but I'm okay cheating on her from time to time with Woolgirl. Here's a final picture of the sock at the point of the first knot.

The cat that you can't see very well is Becky's housewarming present. She misses Humberto, so I thought I would get her a little cat of her own. Each cat is handcrafted individually and has a little saying and birthday on his card. You can see more of them here. She also has a very cool pirate string doll that might just hop into my cart when she has her Posh sock yarn come in. After the Posh, I am on a yarn diet (stop laughing Kathy, I really mean it this time!) so that I'll be able to afford that new laptop in September.

A Bear in Drag

I've been trying to use up stash yarn to try out some of the patterns I've bought over the years. It's amazing how many binders of knitting patterns one can collect. This pattern is a more recent addition, but the yarn has been in the stash a few months (It was originally going to be a diaper cover). Here's all the specifics:

Yarn: 1 skein Cascade 220 Quatro in Orange.

Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple. I bought it a Jimmy Beans but you can see it here

Needles: 16 inch circs in size 6 and 8 (although I might go up to a 24 inch circ. in the size 8 if I knit this pattern again.

Mods: Pattern was knit as written except I made the bottom edging in rib (it was still knit on size 6s)

Notes: When I knit this pattern again, I will add button holes on the straps and use buttons to attach the straps. I might also do a picot edging at the hem. This dress seems to be a bit small (I knit the 1 year old size, but I'm thinking it might fit more of the 6 month year old), so I might cast on a larger size. What I really love about this is that it used just under 1 skein of yarn and was a very quick knit. I see this being a staple for little girl baby showers and just change up the yarn to make each one unique.

Why I've Been AWOL

It seems like the past two months have just flown by and I've been doing the bare minimum of blogging. Here's what's going on in the life of LaLa.

1. Baby Showers got out of control. I knit for 2 others that I didn't even blog about. I had a total of around 9 showers I went to this school year. So far there's only 1 in the works for next year, but Dora's having twins (we're not sure about the genders yet, so I' going to hold off a bit before starting something).
2. End of the school year was crazy. My assistant went on medical leave in March and I just kept constantly busy at school. I was also asked to be Faculty Chairperson and head of mentoring for next year. I figured I'd be up at school a lot this summer, so I decided to teach Science in summer school. I had forgotten how much I loved the structure of teaching a "real" subject. So now I'm at school from 7:30-1:30 everyday.
3. Ravelry. I got my invite the other day and now I can't stop playing. It's just as addicting as the Knit Pligg.
4. The Knit Pligg. I don't want to even guesstimate how many hours of my life I have spent hitting "random story.

I still owe you a crazy hotel story form PGH and a look at Emily's socks. I'll try to remember to do that today. Plus a finished a Little Girl's Sundress yesterday at Knit Night.

Road Trip

In case you missed the memo, I went "home" to PGH this past weekend. On the way I worked on Emily's (my future sister-in-law's) Buckeye socks. Here they are at a rest stop in Ohio (you should have seen the looks I was getting from the Muggles). I figured an Ohio State fan needed some pictures of her socks in the state of Ohio (Also the yarn, Cider Moon, is made in Ohio so I guess the socks had their own homecoming in a way)
I found two new favorite yarn stores on the trip. One is Yarn Haus in Nashville, TN (they sell Nature's Palette Sock Yarn!) and the other is Bloomin' Yarn in McMurray, PA. A great deal of money was spent and sock knitting techniques were discussed at both places (plus at the Canonsburg store and the one outside of Louisville \, KY). I'll post some picks of the finished Buckeyes, tomorrow. In the meantime, here's Becky with Lizzie.

'Tis The Season

'Tis the season for wedding showers! I knit this little garter up for MC's shower last Tuesday. I'm proud of it because I made up the pattern as I went along and it actually worked out pretty well! The shower went well, also. It was the first time I've hosted a wedding shower (or any type of shower) so I was a bit nervous.

In other shower news, this past weekend, I drove (well, mom drove and I knit) to PGH. We made several yarn shop stops along the way (4 in all) and had a great time! I'll update again tomorrow with pictures of the traveling socks I knit for Emily along the way and a crazy hotel story. There might even be a picture of Lil Sis, Becky!