Market Squares Update

Well I made it to the third tier in the Market Squares entrelac bag!

My tension varies quite a bit and the stitches on one end are always looser and therefore bigger than I would like. I am hoping that all will look okay once it is felted but time will tell.



The colors in the pic above are a little off the actual ones but they are close.

I believe I have two more rectangles to complete the third tier. Then I believe I switch to the color used for the first base band for the fourth tier. Then back to the first tier color which is the triangle row.

Of course, I also think I did the base band section incorrectly. I think I folded the inch of knitting the wrong side facing but perhaps not. But in either case it may look perfectly fine in the end.

Color scheme seems to be okay so far. Something else that you can't tell how it will look until you actually get far enough. My gauge is off from what it should be. So this bag will be a little smaller I believe. I just hope that the felting process doesn't make it TOO small.

Definitely an interesting project and I can see why so many have made several of them.
If you get a chance to look at the pictures in the pattern book they show how different it can look with variations in color and after felting. The pattern is in "Bags a Knitter's dozen" published by XRX books. www.knittinguniverse.com

Stressed Out

Many of my friends are in similiar situations as I am. Our parents are getting older, having more health problems and also having memory loss, confusion and other issues. Sometimes these issues are harder to deal with and more stressful when they are not living closeby.

My 78 year old Mom lives with me and her elderly problems are I am sure worsened by being on medication for over 50 years. She has always had some memory problems and she has always had a tendency to exagerate. Something is "ALWAYS" happening. She has a tendency to worry about things before you would really need to and gets herself all worked up. That of course makes all of her other health and physical problems worse. She will hyperventilate and get all panic-ridden.

Her neurologist does not feel she has Alzheimers but she does have dementia which varies in it's intensity. She hears things. Someone talking on the phone that she hears while she is at a distance from a phone. The church across the street having choir practice (all night) when all is quiet.

Her ears also produce alot of wax which makes things worse since she is also hard of hearing. Her hearing test showed that she hears at over 60Db while the human voice is usually 50-60Db.

Of course she hears me calling her perfectly well when I am not calling her but can't hear me when I am in front of her asking about something. Since things are so real to her, it never occurs to her that it might not make sense.

The worse part is her hearing people that I am no longer close to. Which of course just reminds me of that. I also worry that she might hear something that could cause her to do something unsafe.

I have an elderly cat at home as well who has elderly issues (loudly meowing for something) with arthritis and bone spurs in her spine. The cat needs supplements added to her food nightly and on alternate days in her morning food.

So I am the exception to my geriatic household. With the typical high stress work environment, changable priorities, emergencies, politics, etc, on top of the stress at home it can get extremely difficult to cope. I try to take some time to relax and knit. That helps a bit. Easier to do that than to try to have enough time to watch a complete movie on DVD in one sitting.

Things could certainly be worse.

My First Entrelac and First Felted Project

So I got Wool of the Andes yarn for the Market Squares felted Entrelac bag.

I am not sure how the colors I chose will work out but I will see. There is a function on the KnitPicks site that allows you to figure out how much wool you need for the project. That is they have a "form" with project size for that pattern with the recommended number of skeins of their yarn for the project for each color: A,B,C,D, and E. Unfortunately, it would be easier to choose if they had a graphic of the basic bag that would fill in the color choice entered for each so you can see the effect. Or at least something that puts the color choices in the order the pattern will use.

All colors except for the main take 2 skeins, the main needs 3 skeins. Here is a pic of the colors I chose but I forgot to put them in the order they will be used (without the repeats of course). So the color order of the skeins is arbitrary. Although the first skein on the left is the main color.
As you can see from comparing the in-progress project on the needles to the photo in the book, it is knit from the opening of the bag downwards. I am currently working on the second tier which is the first one using the main color and the first tier of rectangles.



Weird picking up stitches from the part already done to add on the next part.

Will update the progress when I can

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! No corn beef and cabbage for us tho. :-)
I had forgotten to pick up the ingredients during the week and I don't have the time to deal with getting them in time. Ah well.

The happy circumstance of the USPS package incident is that I have my order of knitting items from Knitpicks. I had wanted to try some of their yarns and their new circular knitting needles. I would have ordered their KnitPicks Options circular needle set but I didn't NEED them right now so opted to wait until next time. Instead I ordered the yarn needed for a felted Entrelac bag pattern and the book the pattern is in. Plus a couple of other yarns I have been meaning to try and two smaller circular needles which are not in the interchangable set.



So I hope I picked good colors that will work with that pattern. It is the Market Squares by Staff of XRX. I have seen posts by several people who have made it. Looks like a pretty good size for me to use and a nice look to it. And a big plus is that I would be doing two new techniques. Felting and knitting Entrelac - the interlocking squares/triangles. Will post the results when finished.

Don't drink too much green beer!

And The Difference Is?????

Thursday evening when I checked my mailbox (after my Mom and her health aide did so just before 3pm), there was a notice for a package from the U.S.P.S. . Although my Mom is always home, unless someone attempts a delivery before her Health Aide leaves for the day, she will usually not hear the buzzer. And since we do not have a doorbell she probably would not hear someone knocking at the door either.

As usual, the notice does not list the sender. I could guess that it might be an order I had placed recently, but then it might not be. According to the notice, I could request re-delivery or go to the Post Office to pick it up myself.
My post office is not the one located about 3 blocks from my complex. It is the one nearer (but not close to) our last apartment. To get there I could take a bus or take the subway 2 stops from is one.
Not too bad if I could carry the package. In the past, I have gone there on my way to work for a package and then taken it all the way into Manhattan. But Friday's forecast was for the storm, so I opted for re-delivery. Of course by the time I had gotten home and called the re-delivery section was unavailable so I had to call back in the morning.

When I called for re-delivery I had to listen to and respond to alot of automated questions and read off parts of the notice. One problem, the handwriting was almost as unreadable as my doctor's prescriptions. So when I was unable to respond correctly, I got re-directed to an actual person. He coped with my interpretation of the scribble pretty well. He said that no one can usually read the handwriting so at least I was not alone. One question was whether someone would be home for the day requested and I told him I would wait for it. The phone number I gave was the one to reach me at home. So I was set, or so I thought.

I was surprisingly exhausted after sloughing through the snow/slush and fighting against the stinging of the sleet. So I overslept in the morning and was running late with the morning tasks. Feed the cat, wake Mom and give her osteoporosis medication, make breakfast a little later, etc. But I knew I would have woken earlier or heard if anyone had buzzed me from the lobby.
Last time I had re-delivery they came at noon so I was not really concerned until then. Watched the normal Saturday morning cartoons and ate breakfast, logged online and downloaded my work and personal emails. I was hesitant about going out for the newspapers since that would be when they would try to deliver the package. But I finally decided that I had to. Dressed, coat and scarf, boots on, money ready, keys in hand, I unlocked the door, opened it and....

There was the package - re-delivery sheet attached, sitting just against my apartment door!

So, if no signature was required, what exactly was the difference between the original delivery attempt and the re-delivery that allowed the package to be left unattended in front of the door?

I don't get it... *sigh*

Sleet, Sleet, Sleet

Yesterday it was 68F with some rain. Then the temps started dropping until by night it was 38F. Warnings of an approaching storm were all over the news.

This morning the streets were wet and it was sleeting. Nothing seemed to be sticking on the ground, just on the cars and some bushes. On my way to work the wind had kicked up a little. That was driving the sleet hard against your skin. Ouch!

In the later afternoon I had to walk over a few blocks to a meeting in another building. It wasn't too bad to walk, winds were fairly calm and the streets were not too bad to walk on. A bit of slush. Of course there were those areas where the drains in the street were clogged and the slush was building into lakes but still passable. By the time we headed back to our office the winds had kicked up again and drove the sleet sharply against your skin.

Leaving tonight, there was a fairly good accumulation and the winds were still bad. Still sleeting with some snow as well. Some poor woman literally slid into the subway car I was in. Not hurt just startled.
This is my neighborhood tonight. Doesn't look that bad but the winds are really gusting and the sleet is non stop.


So do you think they will have cleared streets for the Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue tomorrow? Hmmmmm.... I wonder.

Spring Forward?

Sunday morning was the new date for the Daylight Savings Time change.
What a pain. My work PC and home PC had updates to change the effective date but not all the other electronics in the house!

But even my home PC seemed to not have known. Until I looked at the date/time pop up change panel and realized that somehow the automatic DST had gotten Unchecked. Once I checked it everything was corrected.

I went around changing all of the times on the electronics and clocks. Since I don't have any updates to correct the effective date for DST on the electronics I just set them all on manual time change. Of course I had forgotten that I needed to change my Mom's watch and mine. I never remember how to change the time on these. All those buttons. Which ones to push at the same time to invoke the SET function? Luckily, this time I found it pretty fast.

I love the Green market at Union Square here in New York City! You never know what you will find. I also try to save items and drop them off there for the compost project. I can usually do that on the way to my office. Good idea since they are often heavy and could be a bit fragrant and not suitable for the office.

Here are some dwarf plants I picked up for my Mom yesterday:



A little sign of life and that Spring is coming, eventually.
Spring is supposed to start next week. The weather has been fairly warm for the last few days but the temperature is supposed to drop again.

Will Spring arrive soon and stay? Time will Tell!

Magic Loop Rocks!

Finally ordered a long and smooth enough circular needle to actually use the Magic Loop method. Some of the members of one of the knitting groups had mentioned having good dealings with a store on Ebay from the UK for Addi needles. At that time I had saved that store name but until recently never got a chance to order anything. I had wanted to get two circulars at a shorter length and one at a longer length. That would allow me to try to two circular method as well as the Magic Loop method. Unfortunately she did not have what I wanted in stock. I ordered one longer needle and one medium length and they arrived fairly quickly. It cost for two Addi needles with shipping less than the normal retail price for one of them here in New York.

The photo above is a hat I am working on using the Magic Loop method. The needles are not really at the positions I use when working on them but they are positioned for the photo.
Here is a site with a good video on the Magic Loop Method.
Have not gotten to the decreases yet but I am sure I will love it.

Magic Loop Rocks!

What a Slacker!

What a Slacker I am! No updates since December!

Well, I did catch up on the projects I had been working on in the meantime.


The St Vincents NICU knit-a-thon went well. They collected more money than expected and we did knit and crochet quite a few hats. The last hat total was 86. You can see the 9 hats I managed to finish for the project above.

I did finish and mail off the ONE red scarf that I did to the Orphan Project towards the end of January. One is of course better than NONE.

I may not have mentioned that a coworker liked the Preemie Project mock cable pattern infant hats so much that she had me make her a hat using that stitch pattern. Simple to adapt to adult sizing since I just had to figure out how many multiples of the 5 stitch pattern to do. Of course, when I finished her hat she liked it so much she wanted a matching scarf.

Here is the completed hat with the brim turned up:


Luckily someone in the Knit-a-thon project had converted the circular pattern to a straight pattern so I didn't have to figure that out. However it was a bit tough to get it made since she likes to fold her scarves in half and pull the end through. After starting the scarf I realized that to allow it to be long enough when pulled through I had to make the scarf REALLY long. The yarn and pattern made the scarf a little thicker and a little less flexible when shorter. I also could not switch between doing the pattern on circulars and the pattern stitch on straight needles. Because I would get the patterns messed up. That meant I had to finish the NICU hats before working on this scarf. Well I finally finished the scarf during our Christmas office holidays and the beginning of January. She loved the completed set.

Here is the scarf done except for the bind off and final weave in of the ends.


As for work for the Knitting group at work I have been very lax. We are trying to get alot of scarves done in more fall/winter colors so that the kids with Aids and their families have something to keep them warm and comfort them. I only managed to hand in one hat since I have been working on all the personal projects. I am not working on several scarves for them at the same time. Trying to alternate some colors to liven up the scarves. That means alot of weaving in which I hate so that does not help me make quick progress.

Here is the spiral hat I did turn in.


So I was a Slacker with this Blog but I wasn't completely being a Slacker.

Christmas is Approaching Fast

It is hard to believe that Christmas is just 8 days away!

I have friends that I have to mail items to. For some of them I have gifts and some others I have yet to pick something up for. *sigh* I also don't have boxes that I can use to mail presents in either. As for Christmas cards I haven't even started those! I am a mess...

Besides the store-bought presents a couple of friends have jokingly yanked my chain about expecting knit items for Christmas since I started knitting again during my Christmas holiday from work last year. Of course, I had toyed with the idea but did not get my brain and needles in gear early enough to actually be sure to finish something nice for them. But they succeeded in yanking my chain and I am trying to get a simple scarf done for each of them. Here is my in-progress efforts:

I was pretty far into the brown scarf when I realized that I should not have made it that wide. This is Lionbrand Homespun yarn which the label recommends 10 or 10.5 knitting needles. The brown scarf is being done using size 8 needles so it it really tighter and thicker. The gray scarf is being done with size 9 needles so it is a bit looser and more flexible. The idea is to make them fairly short, to be used under the coat. I might try to make them long enough to be wrapped once around the neck but I will have to see. These have to be ready for sometime the week of Christmas so I still have some time. I am going to try to finish the gray one and then judge on whether I will finish the brownish one or redo it in a less wide version perhaps using the size 9 needles.

This coming Monday is when the St Vincent NICU hats have to be turned in. I did not quite finish the 9th hat I am at the decreasing part so I should be able to finish it tomorrow nite. I don't think I will stay long at the gathering since I also have to do an errand that evening.

I still have to finish the red scarf for the Orphan project so I can send it in during January. I have not touched it in awhile and I am not quite sure how long it is. I believe the required length is 60 inches but I have to check.

Today I am taking my mom to her regular doctor for an end of the year check, get new prescriptions and a referral for a bone density and mammogram. The weather in NY is unseasonably warm with it supposed to get to about 80F today. The doctor's office is in a townhouse with steep stairs in front that we have trouble with in the best of weather so I generally try to get her there for a check before the worse weather really sets in. Since this is the only non-holiday eve weekend it has to be today.
Of course, everyone else had the same idea so we are supposed to be there for 3:30pm. Car Service picking us up at 2:45pm since we are close. But no guess as to how long we will be waiting once we get there to be called into one of the exam rooms, and then how much longer for the doctor to see Mom. Needless to say it is very hard to keep her occupied at the office AND she is always fretting when people in the waiting room are coughing or sneezing. Not alot of fun.

This is the last week at work before the holiday break and we are short staffed. I have meetings, still need to cover my area and deal with emergencies. We are having a lunch in house at my office area and usually we all cook something and bring it in. I just do not have the time or energy this year so it will be contributing to a fund to buy some restaurant food.

A few days later and it will be Christmas. My after Christmas present for my cat is bringing her to the Vet for a midyear (late by 2 months) check. Which probably means a later dental Vet appointment. She will be very unhappy and so will my pocket.

How did this year go so fast?

Knitting Project CatchUp

I am a member of a Charity Knitting/Crochet Group at my company. We meet the second Friday of each month to exchange tips, catch up on how we are all doing, exchange patterns, pick up more yarn and drop off completed items. Our organizer drops off the completed items to our main charity periodically.
Our last meeting for the year is tomorrow and we need to drop off all completed items so our organizer can deliver them in time for the holiday distribution at the charity. Eek!



I had turned in everything I had made so far with the exception of one adult/adolescent hat and a T shaped sweater (my first sweater) sized for a 2 year old. I don't know about you but seaming pieces together drives me crazy and I don't do a great job so I would avoid seaming the two pieces of the sweater together. As you can see, the sweater is in red and white so I also wanted to seam the sections with the right colors. And then of course was the final weaving in of the tails for each section as well! URGH!
Well I finally finished all the seaming and weaving in of the ends this morning so I will be turning it in tomorrow. Whew!

I actually had finished this hat ages ago and forgot about it when I turned in some other hats. It is from a pattern by Janelle Schlossman called the Blanche hat that she has posted on her AOL site and is linked to by a few free pattern sites.
It is a cute pattern using one size smaller circular needles for the rib area. I believe that the main stitch is called a double Moss stitch and I had forgotten all about it. Oddly I found it in a stitch dictionary recently and have started a scarf using that stitch pattern.

NICU hats - I finally finished the ninth hat and I think that will be it for those hats. We have not set a date to meet and turn in everything yet. If I have time closer to that date I will try to make it to 10 hats.

No real progress on my simple Red ribbed scarf for the Red Hat Scarf Project due to be sent to the Project address in January. I should get that done in time. (I hope)

Needless to say I have alot of other In-Progress items that I have not had a chance to work on, including the Irish Hiking Scarf.

I missed getting to the big Manhattan hotel sale that Smileys Yarns had recently. A once-a-year event for them. Too much going on at home and at work so I just couldn't get up there. It did not help that a fabric/yarn store that has been in business for years P& S Yarns, just below Canal Street in Manhattan is closing due to the building being sold and no luck in finding a location that was financially feasible at this time. I had recently gotten on their mailing list and my first mailing was the announcement and invitation to the Pre-Public closing sale. This was the same week as the hotel sale. I made it to the closing sale the second day and picked up some yarn and notions. I spent an hour on line to pay and counted myself lucky since while I was on the line they had temporarily closed the store to more customers. This was to make sure that they could service everyone on that line before they had to close for the day. I had heard from people on the line with me that the line to get into the store the previous day (first day of sale) had snaked down the street all day.
Yikes!

Never enough yarn and never enough storage space for your yarn stash!

Rare Visit

I don't think I mentioned meeting some of the other people involved in the KNITATHON for St Vincent's NICU and the Little Missionary school in the East Village. It was nice meeting people. We met in the Little Missionaries school which gave us an opportunity to tour it and hear some of it's history. Very nice place and we all got a kick out of the children's sinks at just the right height for them to use. Everyone was very nice and we even met the organizer's two children who were a blast. The plan is to have another gathering in December where we can turn on our completed items for the NICU and funds collected for the Little Missionaries school. I have completed 7 hats so far and hope to get up to ten by the time I have to hand them in.

Thanksgiving was this past Thursday and I made a smoked ham (free for spending the required amount over a month or so at my neighborhood supermarket) in the Rival electric roasting oven I had bought at Target a few weeks ago. It came out nice and juicy but since I had both glazed it with brown sugar AND pineapple juice earlier, there was burnt hardened sugar in the bottom of the pan. What a challenge to get out! I did finally get the pan back to almost the same condition as it started in. Whew!

We had it for two dinners and the rest had to be eaten for lunch or whatever. Mom will not eat it more than twice so that left it up to me and Mom's health aide. The aide did help by eating some for lunch on Friday but that was hardly a dent. It was a 9 1/2 pound ham. At this point I have a little left but I don't think I can face anymore of it. I can imagine what it was doing to my cholesterol!

I have been having some adventures since I last updated this blog. I winterized the air conditioner in the living room just before a big windy storm hit. It turns out that the storm managed to rip the external cover off the unit sometime since it is gone. So I need to get another cover and install it tightly before the next period of rain and drop of temperatures. I also had "key/lock" adventures with the storage room in my complex where I have a storage unit. The key I had no longer turned in the door and I had to get security to let me in the night I was retrieving the now lost ac cover. Then in the morning I tried to get a key from the management that worked and since I had to try three keys I got my exercise. At least the door was on the same block. The last key was definitely the correct one for the door but it did not work for me and a work order was created for maint to work on the lock. In the meantime there is always getting security to let me in until it is resolved. *sigh*
The other adventure was lending my Sony camcorder to the office to tape the power off and power on procedures of all of the servers and the mainframe when the electricians had to add and correct some of the service. Since it is a Digital 8 Format tape I needed to copy it to VHS so we could play it at the office in the conference room. I would have liked to copy it right there but there were no available component jacks on that VCR and I did not want to risk messing up the connections. So I had it copying in my bedroom at home while I did a laundry. After the laundry was started I realized I had left some of what I had wanted to wash in the apartment. Nevermind, my cat threw up on my bed a day later so I had to do another batch of laundry anyway.

One of my co-workers who also joined the knitting/crochet group at our company had wanted to catch a movie over this weekend that no one she knew was interested in so she asked if I would be interested. The Fountain which just opened on Friday and looked beautiful. Has two wonderful leads who I have enjoyed watching in the past so I was game. We went on Saturday to the Astoria Kaufman studios on the other side of Queens from where I am. She picked me up and drove there. We got a bit confused with parking and settled on using a meter spot. Nice movie theater, very big, well maintained. The movie was beautiful but confusing as it jumped back and forth between different segments and timelines. http://thefountainmovie.warnerbros.com/
The music was very nice and I believed was performed by the Kronos group.
Since I have not seen a movie in a theater in ages it was a nice and rare visit.

About Time... About Space...

Well I finally have recovered from that horrendous cold. I had to resort to getting a prescription for an antibiotic from my doctor since I had a lingering sinus infection. It worked and knocked it out of my system.

At the tail end of my first week sick I had gotten some energy back so I decided to use the crochet pattern for a hooded baby blanket that I knitted before. Since I am not an experienced crochet person I managed to reduce the width of the blanket as I worked on it. It had started out at 28 inches and when I noticed what I had done it was at 25 inches. I drove myself crazy since I did not want to "waste" the time that I had already spent on it. I finally wisely decided to put that one aside and start a new one with a new skein of that yarn. I have done about 12 inches and so far I have not made the same mistakes.

The Knit-Out for St Vincent's NICU and the Little Missionaries Day Care Center started on November 1st. I am not participating as designed with sponsors. I am knitting things to donate as part of the drive. So far I managed to make a couple of hats using double pointed needles and a mock cable pattern that the organizer had mentioned from the Preemie Project. Here is one in dark pink about 5 inches tall.


And another one in blue:


They are having a working session at the Day Care Center next Tuesday night that I hope I can attend for at least part of. Would be nice to meet more people.

Hope to have the time, never enough time. Have to take cat to vet for a midyear check since she is a senior. I have to see my doctor and take Mom to her doctor for end of the year check and new prescriptions, should also be taking her for a mammogram and bone density test, need to bring her to ear doctor for another cleaning since her hearing is getting worse again, need to research replacement stoves, need to get my bedroom window leak fixed... just not enough time,

I have things to put into storage. I have a little room in the small unit I have in my complex but I need to also go through the big storage room I have at one of the storage places to make room for some of the things I have in the partment. A big job.
Never enough space.

Wouldn't Ya Know?

Needless to say a lot of stuff has happened since my last post!

On the Good News Front - the newer hats for my friend's baby girl do fit her and they are coming in useful, I managed to send off 2 pink scarves to the Think Pink Project drive in time, I was able to send a box of Halloween cheer to a fellow Universal Monster fan stationed overseas, I got a free flu shot at work, I met a couple of my old high school classmates last Saturday for a catchup session (it's been about 30 years or more), I managed to send some of the TV show episodes from last season that I had taped for a friend overseas to him in time for his birthday, they are shampooing the carpet in my office tonight (hopefully the stain from spilled ginger ale will come out), Oh and today is my birthday.

On the other hand - I came down with a sore throat right before meeting my old high school buddies and managed to get one of them sick, it turned into a horrendous cold and I still have it, Although it is my birthday I have to clear the area around a couple of the windows so that my AC units can be inspected to plan for compliance with the new NYC law on securing them, My oven gave up on me last weekend and I can't call for service (which will cost mega $$) since no one can hear me with this cold, I had to clear out things in my office and get things off the floor so they can shampoo the carpet (did it in one day since I was out sick and taking today off for my birthday), my Mom's nurse misunderstood the supplies we needed so we got an abundance of something we rarely use and on the first round none of the item we really needed, the item we really needed arrived today but we still need another.

I have been so sick that I have not had the energy to touch any knitting. That and if I did I would need to wash everything well since I am sick. This cold is driving me crazy. I dry cough at night and spend my days with a runny nose and tons of tissues. At least this is not the flu - it is definitely a cold and sinus infection.. If the sinus infection does not clear up by Monday I will have to try to see my doctor.

So I am going to spend my birthday shuttling things to a small storage unit I have and rearranging things in my bedroom and living room. But it is definitely take out for dinner, No cooking for me tonight!

Wouldn't you know that I would get sick after finally getting a flu shot (my first) and that all sorts of other hassles would arrive while I was sick?

Friday the 13th, Oh My!

Okay, so I have not touched my Irish Hiking Cable Scarf in ages. I have not done any model kit building in ages as well. I am way behind on medically related appointments for me, my Mom and my cat. And of course, the laundry is never completely done. *sigh*

For better news, the two newer hats I made for a co-worker's newborn daughter (Olivia) do fit, my long time friend and co-worker's youngest son celebrates his third birthday today (Happy Birthday Timmy!), and the newborn hat I am knitting using Tahki cotton yarn on dpns for a new charity drive is looking okay.

Speaking of Charity drives - they are seemingly coming out of the woodwork and stressing me out. By that I mean that I want to participate in them but I am stretched in time, ability and finally financially. So I can't really participate in alot of them. I have to take a deep breath and besides picking and choosing, also prioritize that participation by whether I can meet the end of the drive deadlines and obtain and use the material type requirements.

I just picked up that Tahki cotton yarn which is really nice to use. That is for the Little Missionary's/St Vincent NICU Knit-a-thon - end date is 12/1/06
http://www.lmdn.org/knitathon.html

I am also trying to get at least one red scarf done for the Red Scarf Project for those orphans who have aged out of the system. Scarves due in for January.
http://www.orphan.org/red_scarf_project.html
Lily Chin has donated a nice pattern for the project which is a reversible mock cable. I am currently just doing a simple rib scarf using Lion Brand Homespun. Easier to handle on the subway commute and less likely for me to mess up completely.

I also want to particpate on the ongoing Snuggles Project which makes little blankets for animals in the shelters. Not all shelters accept these donations but the organization has a list of those who definitely participate and often shelters that accept donations of towels will accept these.
http://www.h4ha.org/snuggles/

So many projects! So little time!

Time Flies

Can't believe it is October! That went fast...

Update on that drawing prize basket from AC Moore - nice basket but you might have been able to see that none of the yarn skeins had any labels. No idea what companies or what fibers or what lengths or what washing instructions... On a nicer note, the tote that you can see was actually one of the long ones on wheels. Not a regular tote bag.

Dental wise - the surgery is mostly healed. I am back to wearing the Invisalgn aligners to continue the orthodontic work I needed. I am not scheduled for another visit until January. (whew!) Just need an estimate of what work we need to do next year so I can adjust my health flex spending account.

Pink Scarf Project (Breast Cancer Drive) - Finally finished the second scarf. Not my best work but it will be warm and hopefully someone will appreciate it. I have to send off the two scarves this week.

There are so many projects that I would like to participate in either for charities or to cheer up someone going through hard times. One problem is having yarn on hand that meets any special requirements that these might have or being able to get it in time. *sigh* Yeah I know, deep breath. You can't work on everything.

I will just have to pick and choose which I can do within the time requirements

Unfortunately I doubt very much if I will have any knit items for anyone on my Xmas list. Just not enough time since I am SO SLOW.

Well I gotta get going since today is massive errand day and I hope to catch some sales on needed supplies, both for home and for knitting.

Happy October! Happy Halloween!

Unexpected

My Dental work is healing well and I am a lot less uncomfortable. I have a plan on how to pay off the cost of that work so that has reduced my stress.

On a happy note, a co-worker's wife had a baby girl (their second child and second girl) and I managed to get the pick hooded blanket that I had knit for them into the office when he was dropping by. Despite the best or worst efforts of the NYC transit system. I spoke to her the next day and she really like the blanket and the quickly made newborn hat I had stayed up to finish (and seamed badly). She is looking for come items in white or blue to coordinate with some of the baby's other outfits.

Not having any yarn to meet that criteria at home I decided to take a trip to AC Moore on Saturday if the weather looked okay, it has been rainy here. The weather cleared and off I went. THey were having a Yarn and Jewelry event at the store that I can get to. When I arrived it was like an obstacle course navigating around the customers and the demonstration tables scattered about the store. I managed to find the minimum yarn I was looking for and got distracted by some free patterns, "won't that be cute!". That meant picking up other yarn that might suit that pattern.

They announced the winner of the current drawing, and when that person did not seem to be there they picked another name. I usually miss those drawings since I often don't find the right table to fill out an entry form. The next drawing was in an hour and would be the last for the event. In my wanderings around the store I happened onto the entry table and dropped my name in.

While on the checkout line they did the last drawing and my name was called!
Some of the people were suggesting that I could put some of the yarn in my shopping cart back and save some money (yeah right - not the same yarns, unfortunately). A woman behind me kiddingly said she was going to tell them that she was me if I had not answered. Which she agreed wouldn't have worked since they ask for id. I told her that this was making up for the dental work fun I had been having. She was glad that something happened to help cheer me up.

The challenge of course was how to get my purchases home AND the basket since I was taking two buses. Thankfully, I am an advanced packer and managed to squirrel away yarn in my purse and my backpack. Then the basket went into this large black totebag I have along with more purchased yarn. I deserved refreshment and went over to the Starbuck's in this little mall I was in. Cafe Mocha in hand I was sitting outside when it started to drizzle. *sigh*
I was lucky and caught the bus and the next bus before I got too soaking wet. Of course when I got to my neighborhood it started raining there.


After taking a nap I started working on a hat for baby Olivia. This was the same pattern I had done quickly the other night in pink yarn. This one started with blue and the remainder was in white. I did a much better job of seaming and matched the purl rows around the hat. In the picture it is on the right. Then I tried a different pattern in blue with two eyelet rows in the body and starting with ribbing. That is the hat in the picture on the left.

Hopefully these fit her or will.

Mixed Happenings

Went to a funeral home on Saturday to show support for the co-worker whose father had just passed. The first traditional Chinese one I have attended in years.

Discovered that the doctor I need to take my Mom to is in between office locations.

Visited the street I had grown up on and boy has it changed!
Trendy shops, cafes, and storefront portions of the apartment buildings renovated. I am sure that the apartments are about the same but the landlords are getting premium high rents for the same lack of services. Go figure!

Sunday was the KNIT OUT in Union Square Park in Manhattan.
I had promised to help with the Warm-UP America areas. It was a hot day with some shade over the area where volunteers were joining squares to make the blankets. We finished about 5:30pm with the cleanup and my friend gave me a ride to Queens. Needless to say the quick ride became alot longer than if I had taken the train. Ah Well!

Monday my Mom got a touch of a stomach virus. I ate the same things and was fine. I checked with her nurse who had recommended the caution of contacting her doctor. Since we had not seen him in awhile I know he would automatically want to see her. However, I was scheduled for a medical appointment that I could not reschedule. Since Mom's health aide was with her for the day and Mom was feeling a little better I figured I would check after my test. She was feeling alot better just tired. I got some sports drinks for her which she had that night and if she was not feeling alot better by the morning I was going to take her to the doctor. Did not seem an emergency situation. In the morning she was pretty much recovered but we gave her more sports drinks to help recover the electrolytes she had lost and continue to rehydrate.

Thursday I had dental gum surgery scheduled. While in the waiting room I finished the Pink Scarf for the Breast Cancer charity drive (see the link on the left side of the page). This dental work was intense both on work done and to my pocketbook. I was on a pulse monitor with drip anesthesia and out like a light for the procedures.

My dentist told me to stay home on Friday and rest. I did but was not able to rest as much as I had wished. My Mom's nurse came for her monthly check that morning. After that later in the morning my Mom's health aide got an emergency call that her daughter was ill and she had to leave a little after noon to go pick her up.
But at least she had assisted Mom with what she normally does on Fridays and changed her bed linens. So I just needed to check on her periodically and give her some tea.

This morning was another adventure. Mom had an upset stomach which meant more cleanup. To top it off I still look like a chimp with this swollen front of my mouth. My mouth is sore but I am not really in pain. I just wished I would stop looking like a chimp!

A mixed bag week.

Woo Hoo New Cellphone

Caved in and ordered a new phone. Not a chocolate or Razr phone. An LG CU500 black flip phone with rotating camera. I was converting fully over from AT&T to Cingular Wireless. I had checked after ATT Wireless became Cingular if the plans had changed or if there was a conversion but saw nothing. Never noticed any messages on the billing statements either. So I forgot about it.

This month is my 2 year anniversary of the plan I was on so I checked to see what was available. The company I work for does have a discount agreement with Cingular so I checked those out. Not too bad and there was a selection to convert from ATT to Cingular for former customers. Go figure!

Fed Ex found my building this time and the phone arrived before I left for work yesterday. I did not get a chance to look everything over since I was already late. I should have since I had to charge the battery for 8 hours. I had a meeting and a departmental party to attend that evening so I did not get home until late.
I charged the battery and it actually was fully charged in a few hours. So I played with setting it up. I could not tell if it had activated so I figured I would wait until this morning. Of course I forgot that my old phone was still on. But the new phone did not activate. Not too unexpected since I was converting my service.

Very nice customer service woman got my phone activated and confirmed my plan selections. Oddly the multimedia option I had selected did not show up so she added it. She tested calling the phone and all was well after a couple of tries. So I hung up and blithely thought all was working. Until I tried to access my voicemail and it rang busy. Calling my personal cell did not go to voice mail just the message that the person being called was not available. Oh no, another call to Customer Service.

Somehow this basic service was not connected so after a couple of tries it finally was working and I could access the initial setup of the voicemail box. Ta Dah!

I took a pic of my cat lounging on the bed and made it the wallpaper on the external display. It is her imitation of a dog - on her back with her legs spread out.

The memory card that I had ordered was delivered by UPS but left with my downstairs neighbor. Now the hard part, finding them at home and getting it. *sigh*
Of course I also need to get a USB cable from Cingular to really use the card for music or anything. Maybe I can get one today or order one.

And I have a slight headache from the party last night.

Vanishing Knitting Supplies

You see a pattern that you want to try, you have the yarn but where are the right size needles? I have so many Unfinished Projects that the needles are usually on one of those. In addition I am running out of places to put those unfinished projects. Not uncommon, you work on a project and get bored or something catches your eye and you put your project aside to try another.

Besides the common YARN STASH addiction, there is the common UFO problem. At least that is what I have seen Unfinished Projects called UFOs in various blogs/podcasts so I guess that is for UnFinished Objects?

Nothing is ever simple.