Well, that’s better

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Suzanne

Hello? Is this thing on?

In theory, if you’ve saved my blog to your favorite Blog Reader, you should now be seeing a gob of posts showing up because…well, I don’t know why it wasn’t working for 2 weeks, but it’s working again now. (Knock on wood).

No wonder no one was commenting on what I was doing: you didn’t know I was doing anything.

So..yeah! Hello! I hope you’ll at least skim back through, and hopefully in the future, if I disappear for 2 weeks, someone will ask me about it sooner. As it is: thanks, Mom! I had no idea!

Feeling unloved

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Suzanne

I’ve been feeling…underwhelmed by the amount of blog comments I’ve been getting over the last 2 weeks.

My mom just now told me that my blog hasn’t been showing up in Google Reader, she has to come visit the site directly for updates.

Well, duh. I haven’t seen my blog show up in my blog reader, either, and now that I’m investigating, I can tell that there is a problem, but I can’t figure out what it is (yet).

So now I don’t feel so unloved, just really really annoyed about this stupid danged technology.

Knitting Olympics: probably not enough hours left

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Suzanne

Between meetings and being really tired at night this week: I just haven’t been knitting. I did knit for awhile last night and have evaluated where I’m at:

I timed myself this morning and it took me 2 minutes 48 seconds to do one complete round of 80 stitches. If I were able to just knit without having the yarn tangle, or have to switch the yarn color, or have anyone talk to me or need me to let them out or have to go to the bathroom myself: it would take me another 215 minutes (3 and a half hours…) just to do all of the plain stripes. The heel, patterned section, ribbing, bind off, and tail burying would account for another 2 or 3 hours (at least), so we’re talking a minimum of 5.5 to 6 hours to get this second sock done.

I’m just not sure that’s physically possible for me, especially considering I’ve developed a swallowing glass kind of sore throat…I’m not feeling guilty about possibly not getting it done though: getting one sock done was a pretty big deal to me, learning to do Fair Isle, and learning the short row heel were great accomplishments, so no matter what, I feel pretty good about this experience.

Want to see something super cute? I bought myself a new wallet yesterday:

It was either this polka dot one or a plain red one.

Actually, it wasn’t much of a contest.

Moving, an update

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Suzanne

Rearranging things

Mark and I have been sleeping in our new bedroom for about a week now. All of the furniture is now in place and I finally finished moving my clothes up yesterday. We’ll still be using the master bedroom bathroom, so I’m going to have to get used to having my clothes on a different floor, possibly even planning ahead enough to bring clothes down with me to the bathroom. Luckily, I have a nice robe, so I won’t be running around naked.

The bedroom is in desperate need of things on the wall, a situation that will be remedied as we bring things home from the shop. Two main pluses for our new bedroom: we aren’t directly on top of the furnace anymore: when it kicks on we can barely hear it! And the second is a plus now, but will be a minus this summer: the room is SO much warmer, I’m able to sleep with fewer clothes on. (Some nights I needed a sweatshirt on top of my flannel pjs. Now I’m down to just the flannel, and could probably go with shorts and a t-shirt.)

I’m working on finding homes for all of my stuff in the new studio, a process that will take a sharp right turn in the next few weeks as I fill it up with everything from downtown. I’m already trying to mentally prepare for a new way of operating: a place for everything, and everything in it’s place. Every square inch is going to be in use, and it’s going to be interesting…

Shop Update

Apologies to those of you who have seen this either in the MQResource forums, or will be getting an e-mail newsletter…

The fabric at the shop is looking much thinner, but the yarn. I’d still like to get rid of some more yarn, so, I’ve now got it all marked down by 40%, to maybe tempt some more shoppers. I wish I had more sock yarn for all of you sock knitters, but one of the main things I have is 51 colors of Cascade 220 wool. It’s great for felting, and felted bags are a great beginner’s project. I also have a bunch of other stuff, and at 40% off…maybe I can get rid of some more of it. I can only knit so much…

The fabric is all now marked down to 40% off as well, and I’ve listed bundles of fat quarters and fat 8ths in various combinations at crazy low prices, check them out if your stash could use some enhancement.

Most of the quilting and sewing patterns and books are marked down by 20% as well as some of the notions that I carry.

In Other News

I’m not sure I’m going to make it with the sock. I’ve run completely out of steam. I’ll keep going, and maybe I can pull out a miracle.

Lastly: I actually turned on a sewing machine for the first time in something like 2 weeks. Crazy.

Traumatic Day

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Suzanne

You’ll have to excuse the blurriness of my photos tonight. It’s been kind of a traumatic day, and apparently, blurry photos are the best I can manage.

First, the good news:

Yes! My first sock is done! I’m not entirely sure I can actually manage to get the second one done this week, but I’m sure going to try.

It might be hard, though, as my age seems to be catching up with me.

I found my first gray hair this morning.

I can no longer gloat about the fact that my YOUNGER siblings both have gray, and I don’t. (Of course, you can be sure I yanked that hair promptly, but now I’ll be on the lookout for more. Mark looked, and said he didn’t see any more, but I’m not sure he would have told me the truth at that point).

(And yes, I know I’m not really THAT old, and readers who are older than me aren’t at all sympathetic, but geeze, I bet you were kind of freaked out by your first gray, too, so please let me have my moment of whining…)

The other trauma I experienced today:

Joe’s feet, while nowhere near as big around as mine, are now the same LENGTH as my feet. Will’s aren’t quite as long, but they aren’t far behind. They’ve both been desperately hungry lately, so I’m not surprised by a growth spurt, but holy cow! I have big feet! And his are already as long as mine????

It was all so much that I had to take a nap. I may have to go to bed early, too.