She's Baaaaaack!

Yes, my lovely daughter is back from camp. She had a blast! I could "watch' some of what she was doing through their website - they posted pictures. It was weird to have two whole weeks to myself, but just as I was getting used to it, she's back. It actually is taking a little getting used to. I had oodles of time to knit while she was gone, and finished a sock (must find the picture) and started a new one, plus started a Gryffindor scarf for her. I was going to try and make is a surprise, but I'm not that fast of a knitter, so I just showed her when she got home. She is pretty excited, and also asked for a matching hat (and belt, too!) I am going to be so tired of knitting in maroon and gold.

In other news.....we are getting ready to leave for Hawaii on Monday. We will fly to Honolulu and take a 7-day cruise, plus stay an extra 2 days in Honolulu at the end of the cruise. Of course, a hurricane is heading for the islands right now, and I also saw this morning that there had been an earthquake! Goodness! I'm glad we aren't there right now.

Now I need to go see if I can get her to go to bed, ha ha......

She's Gone

Sigh, my daughter has been gone to camp for a week now. Boy do I miss her. It's much too quiet around here without her. But, I have taken the opportunity to knit in secret for her, so I can't say too much about what I am knitting. I've stopped knitting on my socks to work on her project. I only have a few rows to go on my socks! I can't wait to finish them.

In other news, my tomatoes are getting big! I wonder how long it will be until we can eat them. Here are a couple of pictures - one of just the tomatoes, and one of our balcony facing away from the tomatoes showing our other plants, and one of our cats:

And here is my daughter, just LOVING the fact that mom took her picture while waiting for the ferry to camp!

OK, back to the knitting. Gotta finish my project before she comes home!

Promises, promises....

So here I am just to show you that I am intending to blog more often. Here's what I want and plan to do over the next few days:

Add pictures of my current socks in progress
Add pictures of my tomato plant (it's so lovely!)
Add pictures of this totally cool plant that is flowering but I don't know what it's called

Yes, many plans have I. What will I really do? Well, I will pack up my daughter for camp. She will be gone for two weeks starting on Sunday. What's a mother to do? A single mother, that is....she will knit Christmas presents for said child. Fingerless gloves, here we come! And I will most likely then have the time to take those pictures and post them!

The packing will commence tomorrow night. Oh, and Friday night we will be going to the Harry Potter movie before picking up the latest book at midnight. Of course, my lovely daughter is planning on taking that book to camp with her, so of course I will not be able to read it! I will have to console myself with reading the older books (she is taking book six as well) to remind myself what happened in the past.

And I found out that I am a Ravenclaw. I took two quizes, and I would link to them but I don't know how, and both came up the same. I wish I had time to participate in the Hogwarts Sock Swap. Someday....

A Year Passes....

Wow, I can't believe I let a year pass without posting a thing. I guess I decided it was too time-consuming. I barely have time to knit, let alone write a blog. But I keep reading all these other knitting blogs, and they look so fun. And I love seeing what other people have knit. So here I am to try again.

I did finish those socks from last June, and now I am almost done with another pair. In between, I knit a bunch of scarves and hats for Christmas presents, as well as a baby blanket for a co-worker. I'm glad to be knitting for myself again, as selfish as that sounds. I am down to the foot on the second sock of this particular pair. I will try to post a picture this weekend.

We are going to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow. Can't wait!

One Down, One To Go!!

I finally managed to find the time to take & upload some pictures of my current project. It was a sock-in-progress until tonight, but I just grafted the toe so now I have to start the 2nd sock. As I was grafting, my daughter was sitting next to me chanting "knit, knit, knit!" She loves these socks, and wants me to hurry up and knit the 2nd one so she can wear them. Can we just pause to reflect for a moment that my 11-year old daughter and I can wear the same size socks? Good grief!

I'm glad she likes them, because I am not really sure I like them very much. They actually look better in the picture than they do in real life. I think they have too much gold in them for my taste, although I do like how the stripey pattern turned out. I was able to finish this sock up this weekend because my daughter spent Saturday night at a sleepover birthday party, so I had all of Saturday evening and Sunday morning to myself! I watched "Memoirs of a Geisha" while I knit last night. I enjoyed the movie, but I wasn't completely riveted to it, so it was perfect for watching & knitting at the same time. I spent most of today doing chores & errands, but made a special effort to get the toe grafted so I can start the second sock this week. I will be anxious to get the 2nd sock done now, so I can start on socks *I* want. I recently bought some Opal "Ladybug" yarn that I am REALLY looking forward to starting. She's not getting those!!

Knit, Knit, Knit!! Get those fingers flying!

Yeah, I knit tonight! A whopping four rows, but still, it's progress. Still have to work on the pictures. Part of tonight was spent talking to people from our condo association, as there will be some demolition & reconstruction going on in my bathroom. Evidently the showers were built incorrectly, and water is escaping under the floor and into the walls. So they need to fix it. But at least I don't have to pay for it myself.

Lots going on this time of year. School activities, birthday parties, etc. People getting married, celebrations at work, on and on. I just want to be able to come home & work on my socks. Or the baby blanket I am making. I started it for a co-worker, but her baby is due in a couple of months and I know I won't be done with the blanket by then. For some reason I'm really focused on the socks. As much as I love the blanket pattern, and yarn color, I just don't want to knit it. So, I'll just work on it when I feel like it, and whoever has a girl baby first after I am done gets it. Hmmm, like a little contest! It is a beautiful rasberry colored yarn in a lace pattern. But I have to concentrate when I am knitting it - perhaps that is the reason I often don't want to. Not much time for concentration around here!

Enough for tonight. Tomorrow, hump day. Yippee!

The question of each of my days....will ever get time to knit?? Today the answer was no. Same as yesterday. Friday night I did manage a few rows on my socks. But Saturday and Sunday were crazy busy, as usual. First we helped out a friend with yard work, then went shopping for new frames for my daughter's glasses. Found a good sale at Mervyn's, so bought her some tops there. Came home, did laundry, cooked dinner, figured out the grocery list for Sunday's weekly grocery shopping trip, and fell into bed! Today (Sunday) was church, more shopping (!) and then the grocery shopping on top of that. Found my daughter some swim suits for summer and pants & tops for me. Yeah! Not that shopping isn't fun, but I really wish I felt like I had some time to sit down and enjoy my knitting. The socks I currently have going are Lorna's Laces Socknitter's Rainbow. I am using a pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. It is the "Baby Cable Rib" pattern. I'm not sure I like the pattern with the color patterning of the socks, but I'm sticking with it. I have had this yarn for a long time, and I have a lot of other sock yarns I want to try and I'm not about to rip it out now! My daughter likes them, maybe I will just let her wear them! There is too much yellow/orange in the yarn for my taste.

I already know the next pair of socks I want to make. They will be the Opal "Ladybug" colorway. I will probably just do a plain knit in order to have the pattern of the yarn show up the best. But first I have to finish the ones I am working on. I am about 3/4 done with the first sock.

And now, time to sleep so I can work tomorrow!

Wow! I've been sucked into blogland. I've been reading so many knitting blogs that I decided to give one a try myself. I thought this might be a fun way for friends & family to keep up with what I'm doing, and maybe it will give me some incentive to knit faster. Just to introduce myself to the thousands of people who will be reading my blog (ha ha!) I am a single mom living in the Pacific Northwest. I work as an accountant by day, knitter/internet surfer/homework helper/maid (justing kidding) by night. I have one daughter who is just finishing up fifth grade. We are looking forward to a break in the homework this summer.

Onward to setting up this blog! Pictures hopefully to follow!