Knitting in Transit

Remember when I talked about the "Violent Crumble-Off" a couple posts ago ? Well, you can view an absolutely hilarious (well, I think so anyway) commercial from 1982 for the Violet Crumble candy here . It's from 1982. That should give you some idea of what to expect. I've got the collar on the Ribby Cardi. I may redo it...pick up fewer stitches. It just seems large. After work tomorrow I'll probably pick up a zipper and finish it tomorrow night in between vacuuming and washing dishes. Yup. Exciting Friday night planned. Hopefully I'll have finished Ribby Cardi pics to share on Monday!

Looks like Johan Santana is headed East...to the Mets . I guess I can remove "pondering whether Johan Santana will be traded" from my "interests" on Facebook .

Ah...the end is in sight on the Ribby Cardi. Sunday when I got home from the cabin I decided to sew on one sleeve. Of course, first of all I had to get Zoey off of it. Monday night, after a fun, unplanned trip to the Yarnery and La Cucaracha with Heather, I sewed on Sleeve Number 2 while listening to the State of the Union. All that's left are side seams, sleeves seems, collar, and zipper. And perhaps some sleeve shortening. Not too much left to do. I'm so excited. My goal now is to have it done for the Superbowl party on Sunday, but I think it may clash with my purple Vikings T-Shirt. Yesterday while I was at work, Heather called to see if I had any time this week or weekend to head to the yarn store with her so she could pick out some yarn for me to make her a hat. I quickly considered my demanding social schedule and said, "Tonight!" Off to the Yarnery we went, where she picked out this lovely fiber (and I ran in to someone from high school...random). Mmmmm...it...

The weekend did not get off to a promising start. I spent the approximately two-hour drive to Chippewa Falls listening to David and Nate talk about routers, WANs , LANs , wireless networks, reverse firewalls, and something about breaking the Internet. Since it was dark, I could not distract myself with knitting. All I could do was stare out the window at...the dark. I'm sure there were some cattle out there. Once we arrived at the cabin, things took an upward turn. I learned to play Farkel (which I ALMOST won), had some food, and was introduced to great cabin fun via " Poke the Pirate ", a game no doubt intended for four year- olds to practice their avoidance skills...avoiding getting poked in the eye by the wayward pirate as he flies through the air. When 30-somethings with access to copious amounts of beer and liquor play, it has a very different feel. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were dead (I didn't get a chance to purchase more until Saturday afternoon ) s...

I'm heading to Chippewa Falls this weekend to relax with friends and hopefully tour the Lienenkugel Brewery . I'm bringing the Petroleum Blanket (that's what I've decided to call it for now...tongue in cheek), and hopefully will have some progress to show. I haven't touched it since Sunday night. Zoey the Cat will spend another weekend alone, but I know she will be okay. I've left plenty of food and water, some lights on, the door to my closet open since she likes to sit in there, and as an added bonus...I left two pairs of jeans laying out. One on the bed, one on the couch. She likes the texture of jeans . I also left my sleeves for the Ribby Cardi on the coffee table since she likes to sit on those . They'll need a good lint- rollering when the sweater is done! A fun little story for the day. Recently I got a friend request on Facebook from someone with my last name that lives in Texas. For those of you who know me, you know my last name is...

I had my first Arabic Dance class last night...more popularly known as Belly Dancing. How did it go? Well...I look like a total dork. I felt completely clumsy, uncoordinated, and silly. So yeah, it went pretty well. Now I need to go out and buy some finger cymbals and a hip scarf. Perhaps with the correct accoutrements I will not feel so dorky. Poor Zoey the Cat has been somewhat neglected as of late. I was gone most of this past weekend, and I'll be gone this coming weekend as well. With my class two nights a week, she seems a wee bit lonely. Sigh. I guess that's why I didn't make her get out of my basket of clean laundry the other day. You can see here here peeking out. If Zoey is neglected, that means my knitting is being neglected as well. I've made no progress on either the Ribby Cardi or the Baby Blanket. I think I will take the Baby Blanket to the cabin this weekend, as the pattern is very easy and I will be able to work on it and visit at the same time. The pat...

Chocolate Cream Pie! It's a good thing too. First of all, everyone at the Saturday night dinner shindig voted for Chocolate Cream and second of all, that Banana Cream Pie recipe I had? Not so much. It's actually a COCONUT Cream pie recipe. If I've learned anything in life it's that people have very strong feelings about coconut. They love it...or hate it. Little in between. I forgot to get a chocolate bar to make little curlies for the top, so I substituted some crushed up chocolate cookie. Yum! It was a fun gathering, and it ended as all good gatherings should...men in one room playing video games...women in another playing cards . The rest of my weekend was devoted to sheer laziness. You would think I'd have gotten more knitting done. Here is what I did manage to accomplish: Look! Finished sleeves. Ooh....they are a little long. I may just roll them up. OR, I could be DARING...thread a lifeline...do some cutting....and bind off at a more appropriate length. Yeah...

Last night I went to see the Physics Circus in Northrup Auditorium , presented by the Physics Force . Why Yes! They did play the theme from Star Wars before the show. You can read some older articles about it here and here . Yup. Totally geeky. Not as geeky as those math lectures though. If you read the articles, you'll see this show has been presented to thousands of K-12 students. I think they were all there last night. One young man was particularly impressed with the friction demonstration in which a tablecloth was pulled out from under a stack of dishes. He shouted, "Oh SNAP! Man! Did you see that?! Oh SNAP!" I don't know that I've ever seen someone quite so excited about Physics before.

Uh oh. Zoey the Cat and I had our first yarn misunderstanding last night. It was not good. I just want to stress that she is a-okay though! Here she is earlier in the evening, hanging out on my sleeves. Why yes...that is my Christmas Tree you still see up in the background! A bit later, I sat down to actually start working on those sleeves. Now, if I am sitting on the couch, Zoey wants to be on my lap. It does take her some time to get comfortable. She'll nip at my knitting needles, walk back and forth across my lap, knead my stomach, and maybe even grab the yarn a bit. Eventually, she settles down and we are both happy...me knitting, her just sitting. This has never been a problem. Until last night. The sleeves have gotten long, so it's been a little more frustrating trying to knit when she's doing her little dance on my lap. She also seemed particularly taken with the strands of yarn last night and kept grabbing and biting it. No problem. I knew she'd settle down on m...

It's 22 degrees! Yeah...and when I say it's warm, it really DID feel warm when I was out at the bus stop . It's all relative I guess. Of course, I heard the high temperature on Saturday will be 0. That's ZERO. So, Gigi...get your car washed today! Speaking of cold, I was going to be making a Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie for a little dinner shindig on Saturday night. Being so cold, I don't really feel up for that. I'm trying to decide if I should make Chocolate Cream Pie, or Banana Cream Pie (with crust made out of animal crackers). In the spirit of my blog, I will let all of you vote and whatever you decide is what I will make. I'm ALMOST done with the sleeves for the Ribby Cardi . I'm set to begin the decreases. I might be able to finish them up tonight while I watch the final installment of Comanche Moon . I'd like to have the sweater finished by next weekend. We'll see. Sigh...I just looked up Lonesome Dove on IMDB and now I know...

It was -4 degrees outside this morning according to KARE11 news. Despite this, I consistently see people on the bus that do not wear a hat. I'm baffled. It's COLD out there! Sunday I inadvertently left the house without my hat (I guess I was just SOOO excited to get to Bruegger's and have their Egg, Cheese, and Sausage Bagel Sandwich). Fortunately, I was walking with someone nice who offered his hat right about the point when my ears were going to freeze and fall to the ground. Equally baffling to me are the folks who don't wear mittens...and the people who don't zip up their coat. I'm not talking teenagers trying to look cool either. These are adults...people who should know better. Aren't they cold? I didn't get much knitting done last night. I cast on and knit one row of what will hopefully be a baby blanket, and knit about 5 sleeve rows. My friend Heather came over last night and we shared a bottle of wine, cheese, olives, and my very-l...

Look at the cool things that happen where I work! Okay, granted I do not work in this lab, but I do feel proud when I see some of the things happening here at the U of M! Go Gophers! The sleeves of the Ribby Cardi are coming along nicely. Honestly, I find sleeve knitting only slightly more tolerable than finishing (if I wanted to sew, I would!). Oh well. It's got to get done. Gotta keep the arms warm. My weekend was great. I had a wonderful time shopping with Gretchen and Nathan on Saturday morning. Nathan is so cute! Together we read, " Where's the Poop ?" and it was funny to hear him say " Poooo .... Poooo ". Aw! Scatological cuteness! That night, it was off to Zelo for a delicious dinner of Sea Bass and Ahi Tuna Spring Rolls, and then over to the State Theatre for Avenue Q. It was fun to go on a big date. :-)

I heard a rumour that Santa Claus has been reading my blog, back through the archives, and is waiting to get to the picture of my dad's sweater. So, here it is again! Speaking of my dad, he got his ear pierced! Yeah...I think I'll just call him Harrison . I've got a fun weekend planned. G and I are going shopping tomorrow, and then I am going to see Avenue Q at the State Theatre . I'll tell ya all about it on Monday. We'll leave off for the weekend with a picture of Zoey the Cat all curled up on the couch.

So, my bus driver did not stop for me this morning. He went right past me, despite the fact that I was waving my arms at him, standing under a street-light, wearing a light colored jacket AND a bag with a reflective strip. He just kept on going. WHY? Is it because the woman with the ear-muffs and Wellington boots was not there with me? Or, perhaps it was because he appeared to be talking on a cell-phone? Aaaargh. I became one of those crazy people you see on the street, running after a bus, shaking their fists, and spewing obscenities (yes...I did call my very nice bus driver some very un-nice names). Of course, then I did what any mature 34-year old would do. I called and complained to my mom. Then I stomped across the street to the coffee shop (all the while muttering MORE obscenities under my breath), got a cup of joe, and headed to another bus stop to catch a different bus. Once I got there, I proceeded to tell the other man waiting about my ordeal. Lest you think I co...

Oh, how I love Ravelry . As I mentioned in my last post, I think I might be short a bit of yarn for the arms of my Ribby Cardi . I brought the label with me today...Peruvian Highland Wool Color 87M2, Dye Lot 615. I'd seen a skein+some in someone's stash for trade or sell, in the exact color and dye lot. Hallelujah! I bought this yarn over three years ago, so I am so excited to find the same thing! I dropped her a quick line asking how to arrange a trade or sell, then sat back and waited. In the meantime, I got a message from starsongky . She has seen my Knitpicks Sock Garden in Zinnia and wondered if I might be willing to sell it. I have a skein+some of this. I'm sure I won't use it, so I told her she could just have it. She wrote back with a " squeee !", and I'll drop that in the mail tomorrow. It made me really happy that she was excited about it. Shortly thereafter, I heard back from SandraD on Ravelry , letting me know she'd b...

Don't get me wrong...I am so lucky to be able to get so many places by bus and train, so easily. But easily doesn't always mean quickly. I gave a financial aid presentation at a local high school last night. We finished up a little after 8:30, but by the time I got home, it was almost 10:00. I just missed a train, which meant I missed my connecting bus by 5 minutes and had to wait 25 minutes for another one. Had I been driving, I'd have been home in 20 minutes. Sigh. The things we do to decrease our carbon footprint. I thought I'd share with you some photos of the fog in Wisconsin Sunday. Gretchen and I left Madison at about noon and headed home. The fog was thick and dense. Fortunately, we made it home okay. At about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, there was a 100 car pile-up on I90 near Madison. Knitting is going well. I finished up the back of the Ribby Cardi and have begun the sleeves. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have enough of my contrasting color for the sleeves....

That's my nephew Nathan, reading one of his Little People books this weekend. As most of you know, I flew to Indiana on Friday and then spent Saturday and Sunday driving back to Minnesota with my sister Gretchen and her little boy. Her husband drove straight through on Saturday. Now they are in Minnesota for good. No more Hoosiers in this family! Yes, the book is the same size as Nathan. He was so good in the car. He loved to dance to the music, read his books, and play with stickers. We had a lot of fun. I got really lucky with my flights. I was at the airport early enough to get on an earlier flight to O'Hare , and then at O'Hare early enough to get on an earlier flight to Indianapolis. Yay ! I arrived about an hour earlier than expected. The early Michelle gets the flight, I guess. Ah... O'Hare airport . So lovely. Especially the "C" concourse. Indianapolis? Not so much. Does anyone actually buy Proactiv at the airport? What they did have in Indy that ...

Well, it looks like the Friday Harbor Socks will be frogged once again. I finished them up through one pattern repeat last night and tried them on. This is a horrible picture. I have bad lighting. First of all, they are really tight. I'm using size 2 needles. Please don't tell me to knit a gauge swatch next time. Usually with socks I just get started...everything else I do check my gauge ! I swear! Second of all...well, maybe I just don't like socks with lots of yarn-overs. Now, maybe it's because these are tight so the YOs are stretched a lot, but I don't like all those holes. When I did the socks for my sock savior pal, I started several patterns with YOs and abandoned them all. Maybe because I live in MN I think socks with holes are silly. For some reason, the Monkey Socks I knit and received, the YOs did not bother me. Who knows? It's not really the YOs in the leg that bother me, but in the cuff I thought they looked bad. I think size three needles wil...

...and Happy New Year! I really bundled up this morning to stay warm at the bus stop . What really warmed me up though was the phone call from my nephew, Nathan at 6:55 a.m. Okay, it was really Nathan's mom calling and prompting him, "Say hi...say hi...say hi". He's 17 months or so. I did hear some random babbling, which was very cute and just melted my heart. Awwwww ! I'm not planning on making any New Year's Resolutions. Sure, I'll try to exercise more, eat better, and be more fiscally responsible. But, I try to do those everyday. Usually with little success. Instead, I thought I'd reflect on 2007 and share some of my favorite moments and things from the year. 2007 was a big year for me. Some big life changes that started in 2006 continued in 2007, all resulting in a much happier Michelle. My knitting also really took off this year. So, without further ado...here are some of my favorite things, discoveries, moments, etc. of 2007. Favorite New Breakfa...