Minions (who do my bidding) and Followers (who do not)

About Me

My photo
Mama, wife, knitter, blogger, spinner, wannabe something or other. That's enough, right?
Showing posts with label chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicago. Show all posts

Friday, March 9, 2012

FO Friday :)

It's that time again: FRIDAY!

In the world of knitting, it means it's FO Friday. Now, I do have something to show you but I want you to know that I have not had clearance to actually show you. I don't really think she's going to mind; after all, it was a test knit so I would have to show it off eventually, right?

So, onward.......

I have finished the Lothlorien Hat! I actually finished it earlier this week but, of course, I couldn't show you then!

Yes, I am wearing this on my head...

First of all, trying to take a picture of a hat on your own head is incredibly difficult. I'm amazed that I was able to get any sort of a decent shot. It's a crappy iPhone photo but it, at the very least, gives the color some justice. This is pretty close to the actual color.

Anyway, specifics...

Timeframe: started January 25, 2012; finished March 5, 2012
Pattern: Lothlorien Hat by Katarzyna Fiszer (here is her blog, in English and Polish, and here she is on Ravelry)
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Babyboo in Olive
Needles: US #4 - 16" circular & DPNs
Size: Um.....adult? It fits me and that is what is important.
Modifications: Since the original is written to be knit flat and seamed, I guess the biggest modification I did was converting it into the round. However, doing that required some extra brain power. Working from the original chart gave me a fake seam up the hat and I wound up frogging it and sort of re-writing the pattern to be worked in the round...everything from the number of stitches to be CO to where the increases would be to where in the chart you start the pattern. It wasn't as difficult as it sounds because I already had the original chart to work from. I also changed how the crown decreased because it looked a little strange to go from the pattern to plain stockinette at the decrease so I gave it a little pizazz (translation: I did kind of a "fade out" with the pattern).
Overall: This pattern was lovely to begin with and now that it has been converted to being worked in the round, it's even better (in my "totally non-biased" opinion......okay, I'm biased. Sue me!). I think that when I do it again (because I probably will), I'll need to make it longer...but not a full pattern repeat longer (which might not make any sense until you see the actual pattern). I sent Kasia my recommendation of where to add length without doing a whole pattern repeat and making it too long. I think I might also change the number of stitches I CO with because it's a little too big for me...and then I would increase accordingly. Otherwise, it was fabulous! It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did but I kept switching to other projects in between......but it's done now and that's important :)

Look Ma! I'm blocking...sort of.

Extreme Close-Up!

The first photograph probably has the "true" color...these two are a bit too green. It's definitely an olive color, not grass...

Anyway, that's it for FO Friday. For more FO Friday fun, visit Tami's blog....





And now for something completely different (with reference to Husband's job hunt and other things).

Husband had a face-to-face interview this week in Chicago. It didn't go as well as he'd hoped but it could have been worse. We're expecting that he's probably not going to be offered that job. Whether they have something else that would fit him better is another story (and a story we don't know yet).

Tomorrow, he's headed back to Chicago...but not to stay in Chicago. The company he's had several interviews with in San Francisco is having him come out for a face-to-face interview on Monday morning. So, he's driving down to Chicago, staying in a hotel, flying out Sunday morning (very early), having the interview on Monday, flying back to Chicago on Tuesday, and driving home Wednesday morning. It's going to be a rough couple of days around here but we'll be fine. The reason he's doing it on such a timeframe is because it was cheaper to do it that way. They're reimbursing him $400 for flights and $100 for hotels and paying for the taxi from the airport to the hotel to the interview to the hotel to the airport. Woo.

Here's a montage of things I've put up on Craigslist recently.........just to get them out of my house.

A "Maryland" glass - probably from the 1960s

An "Ohio" glass, also same era

Cold War Era Emergency Drinking Water - military issued, probably in the 1950s

A bull beer mug...with a bell for service :)

Like Soda......anyone remember this?

I have a bunch more stuff up on Craigslist besides these...actually, I haven't put the soda up yet but I'm sure I will soon enough.

And, for your viewing pleasure........

Look Mama! I'm in the toybox!

I jump up like a Jack-in-the-Box!

Hope you're all having lovely Friday adventures!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weekend trip to Chicago :)

So, I mentioned in this post that I had won a contest. I finally picked my pattern. I chose Queen Alice socks (that's the link to the Ravelry page)...I haven't started them as I have a few other projects on needles. Someday, I'll make those socks :)

In other random events, we spent the weekend in Chicago. We went to see some of my husband's family. It was Little Man's first trip out of state, first trip to Chicago, first trip to Ikea, and first trip to see this branch of the family. It was a good trip. We had dinner on Saturday at Joe's Crab Shack (Little Man slept through the whole thing)...followed by a trip to Ikea. We found a few things we're thinking about getting and we picked up some curtains for Little Man's room (so I can get rid of the old lady ones my grandma had in there). Husband also went to Super Dawg on Saturday night...he likes hot dogs and I'm not about to object.

We had some entertaining things happen while at the hotel. I was going to give Little Man a bath in the tub with me (it was just easier to get in with him - don't judge me!). I had to have my husband hand him to me. So, there's my husband holding Little Man (who was butt naked) and I was getting into the tub...when all of a sudden we hear this "pfffftttttt" sound. I turn around, my husband is just standing there with a look of shock and horror on his face, Little Man is grinning his toothless grin at daddy, and there's brown-green poop all over the tile floor. So, I cleaned that up while my husband put him back in the diaper (in case he wasn't done - he was). We had our bath where, at the very end, he urped (it's like burping but it's the spit-up part). That sucked. So, I had to clean part of him again. Then, I gave him to my husband in a towel and told him to go put the diaper on him. Well...I'm getting out of the tub and I hear "Little Man!" from my husband in the other room. I go out there and, apparently, Little Man decided to pee all over the duvet cover before daddy could get the diaper on. All I could do was laugh. First the poop on the tile and now the pee on the duvet...

Anyway, on Sunday (yesterday), we got up and got moving around 11am. We took a trip to Michigan Avenue for some reason...we were going to see about getting me a new coat (didn't happen). It was busier than hell and we had a time frame. So, we went on to Glen Ellyn to see the family...with a stop at String Theory Yarn Co. in downtown Glen Ellyn. I was only in there for 15 minutes but I managed to do $130 worth of damage. Oh well. Perhaps after Christmas I'll post pictures of what I got my hands on...but not right now since I may have found someone something for Christmas. Just sayin'.

We had dinner with the family and got home last night around 8:45pm. We also purchased an IPass for my car because trying to move the one back and forth is a pain in the ass. We bought it on the way down but I forgot to mention it. It's so much nicer to have that...and it was nice that the interstate wasn't under horrible construction again. I hated going down there when the construction was going on. No one knew how to handle the extra-narrow lanes.

So, weekend in Chicago. And I have either 13 or 15 followers...woo-hoo! My site lists 13 but when I go to do editing and looking at the blogs I follow, it says I have 15. Hmmmmm...

I think if I get up to 20 public followers, I may have a contest to rid myself of some yarn :) Or not. I don't know. I'll have to think about that...