Take Two!

Okay, this is the NEW version of the Baby & Bears Sweater for Grown Ups! I'm now knitting a size Large instead of the XL. I also changed the color scheme up a bit, using the Baltic Sea for the cuff and then doing the striping as before. I actually like this one better, not sure why, I just do. I probably won't be doing much more knitting on it for a bit though. The holidays are less than 2 months away and I have some holiday knitting to do! Mainly, I have volunteered to do some knitting for a charity event my friend Val hosts at her house every year for AWAIC (Abused Women's Aide In Crisis) - the local shelter for women and their children who are trying to escape from domestic violence. What Val does is she has folks make things or donate things that she then sells at this open house at her home and all the proceeds go to the shelter. She's been trying to get me to donate stuff for a couple of years, and this year is it! I'm going to do some stash busting and hat knitting! I'm also still slowly working on the sweater for my Sweet Baboo, maybe I'll have that finished for the holidays too. I seem to have temporarily lost my sock mojo, I say temporarily because I'm sure it will return, but socks and I are taking a break for right now.

In other news, my Sweet Baboo and I went to go see a really good movie this weeked, It Might Get Loud. It is a documentary film about guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. The filmmakers had these three musicians come together for one day in January 2009 to talk about music, and specifically, playing guitar. It was really interesting! If you like rock music at all you would probably take something away from this film. Also, something that was really cool is that here it opened at one of our second run theaters (although it never played in the first run houses..) so the price was only $3. Pretty sweet!

Finally, my work has really been rough these last few weeks. I am finally seeing a little light though, once I get through this week one big project will be done. I'm one of two coordinators for implementing the PLAN Test at our school. The PLAN Test is a precursor for the ACT, it is a pretty neat test and should give kids some really helpful information. Our district got stimulus funding to give this test to all 10th graders. There are over 600 sophomores at our school! That is a HUGE thing to organize!! I don't recommend taking on a project of this magnitude - I keep wondering why I spoke when I said, "I'll help with that". I wasn't thinking! Oh well, it is nearly done. Just a few more rough days to go...

Halloween is soon - we are going for the superhero approach in our house. What are you dressing up as?

And We're Off! Also - I'm a Moron!

We started our B & B Sweater KAL on Thursday! You can still join us! It is totally open to anyone who cares to play along. I cast on and started my cuff of my first sleeve on Thursday. I didn't get any knitting done on Friday, but here is where I got to on Saturday:

It's looking pretty good! But then I slipped in on my arm and I discovered a problem. After all the work I did with knitting gauge swatches and getting the correct needles I wasn't careful about deciding what size to make. I just assumed that I'd make an XL and that would be perfect. On my arm I discovered, not so much:
This is a pretty baggy sleeve. I guess that is what happens when I assume things! So, I went and did real measurements on myself and on a sweater that I have that fits me nicely. I need to knit a Large.
I could hide all sorts of extra stuff in a sleeve like that!
I did learn something from this experience though. I learned how I want to use my two colors. I had originally thought that I would make the left sleeve all the blue/brown - Baltic Sea with a green cuff and then go to stripes in the body. I was going to make the right sleeve all green - Wasabi with a Baltic Sea cuff. What I discovered is something that I actually already knew:
I love the way these two colors play off each other. I don't know why, I just do. So, since I have to rip out what I've started and start over what I'm going to do is make both sleeves with Baltic Sea cuffs and then do the striping every four rows - makes it easy to keep track of increases. And then continue the striping on the body too and use Wasabi to make my edging all around the body and the neckband. I think that will turn out great!

F.O. - Quick & Easy Baby Hat

This is the Quick & Easy Baby Hat. I made it for a co-worker, who as I type, is at the hospital having her first baby. I don't know if she is having a boy or a girl, so I tried to be gender neutral. My co-worker's favorite color is brown, and I thought this light green went well with the chocolate brown and wasn't too girlie or too boyie. The details:

Pattern: Quick & Easy Baby Hat, free from Ravelry
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK, a superwash that is really soft!
Method: Circular
Cast On: Saturday, October 10th
Bind Off: Tuesday, October 13th
A view from the top! This truly was quick and easy! It was a lot of fun to knit and I really liked the yarn. I hope the baby enjoys it! :0)

F.O. - Bella's Mittens

I have a F.O. to share:
These are Bella's Mittens. They are a Christmas gift for my DH's cousin and our friend, Katie. She never reads this blog so I don't have to worry about her seeing them. She is a HUGE Twilight fan and so I know that she'll love these! And brown is her favorite color too. Here are the details:

Pattern: Bella's Mittens - free from Ravelry
Needles: US 8 Circular and DPN
Method: Magic Loop
Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande - very, very soft!
Cast On: Mid September
Cast Off: October 9th - I would've finished sooner if I had not caught the flu!

We've been experiencing a beautiful fall here in Anchorage! This photo was actually taken a couple of weeks ago, but is shows some of the amazing fall colors around Westchester Lagoon:
Isn't that great! The mountains don't have that much snow anymore, we had a warm, southerly wind blow through. But, you can feel it in the air that snow is not far away at all!

My friends and I are starting a KAL this week for the Babies and Bears Sweater for Grown-Ups. We have a group on Ravelry. You should join us!

Flu!

It has hit me. I caught the flu. I tried so hard to avoid it, if I didn't feel so bad I'd be really irritated. It came on very suddenly and it hit hard. The irony is that there was a shot clinic at work on Friday in which I totally intended to get my flu shot, but I missed it because I was home with the stupid flu! Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I've been feeling really run down with the hectic nature of the start of the school year that hasn't calmed down yet. And I do work in a public high school, a cesspool of disease. I just HATE feeling this way!! Ugh!!

I am doing a little better than I was at first. For the first couple of days all I could do was sleep, occasionally eat, and drink water. I now can do a little reading, a little typing, and a little knitting.

Holiday Knitting

I have begun my holiday knitting. I don't have a super long list, but I just don't knit very fast and so if I don't start early it won't happen. I'm thinking of who all I should do holiday knitting for. I have a few ideas, but it is a short list. I'm trying to think of things that are fast, because frankly, although they don't seem big socks just aren't that fast. At least not for a slow knitter like me. I would love to do some charity knitting, I have a friend who I know would love for me to donate some knitted objects to a charity function she runs. I just always feel like there are not enough hours in the day. Maybe I'll focus on charity knitting instead...??? Hmmm...???

There is already snow on the mountains here. Winter is around the corner. It was snowing in Fairbanks this weekend. The start of the school year has been absolutely INSANE! I keep waiting for it to calm down so I can catch up! Haven't found that yet. Hopefully it isn't too far away because I really need to feel like I have a handle on what is going on with my 350 kiddos.

My friends and I have not yet set a date for the start of our KAL on the Baby and Bears for Grown-Ups Sweater yet. We will be together on Tuesday, so maybe we will get a decision then. I'll let you know. With holiday knitting having started and looming in my head it is hard to think about knitting something that is totally unrelated and just for me. But at the same time I haven't knit anything for me in awhile. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Rest of the summer - summed up!

I've decided to take a page out of my friend at One More Project's book to sum up the rest of my summer. She does these Friday Photos entries where she just has images. I'm going to provide some words, but not many, and just a lot of pictures. First, a video:

This is what 10,000 teachers sound like when they get together! It was crazy! And for me, totally overwhelming!
This is the AEA President, Jim, standing next to the Alaska banner. He is modeling the Kuspuk that NEA-AK loaned to each of us to wear as an Alaskan delegate. They were really nice! They were embroidered on the back with the big dipper, so just like the Alaska Flag. I wish I could have kept mine.
We spent a lot of time at RA sitting. And eating, this is Jerry and Lisa doing both. And listening to folks from CA argue about stuff. And voting. It was COLD in the Convention Center! I had to go outside to get warm. I also went out to get food because the food they sold at the convention center wasn't that interesting and it was really overpriced!
On July 3rd, we went to a Padres game at PetCo Park. It was a lot of fun! They played the LA Dodgers and it was the return game of Manny Ramierez after his suspension. Pretty interesting! There was a GREAT fireworks show after the game! I video taped it but it is pretty long. It would have to be it's own stand alone post I think...
Here I am knitting at the game. I was able to get a lot of work done on Arctic Knitter's socks at RA! All that sitting = all that time for knitting. The only other distraction we had was the announcement that our Governor at the time, she who must not be named, was resigning her post. That led to a lot of texting, emailing, and calling folks at home to try to find out more news.
When I visited the USS Midway I got the boys sailor hats. Don't they look cute!
In mid-July my BIL Paul came to Alaska for the first time. He came to meet his girlfriend, Kerry's, parents. We had dinner at the Double Musky.
Also in mid-July I hosted a tie-dye clinic one Monday evening at the house. I had some friends who wanted to learn how, and although I'm certainly no expert I did say I could teach them. Here's a very pregnant Julie Bean and Heather working away.
Here's Heather, Jenn, and Dave letting those artistic juices flow! The pictures are not great because I took them with my phone and the lighting wasn't very good. Our dining room light sucks...my darling electrician husband keeps telling me how it needs to be changed...and that is as far as the conversation goes!
In late July my best friend Wendi came to visit me for my birthday!
We took a Segway tour of Anchorage! It was FUN!
Here we are being goofy taking pictures of one another taking pictures with our iPhones!
For my birthday my sister, Wendi, and I got pedicures! And my dad made my traditional Thanksgiving Birthday dinner! YUM!
Just after my birthday I was able to hob-knob with Senator Begich at the Dog Jog. Winston didn't have much to say to the Senator, there were too many dogs to speak to!
In the first weekend of August I attended the Sock Summit in Portland, OR. This is the clock in the Convention Center. I really liked the clock, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how one was supposed to tell time on the clock!
I was able to meet and take a class from Cookie A.! It was a great class! It brought me a lot of inspiration!
At Sock Summit Sandy, Sylvia, Arctic Knitter, and I along with a bunch of other knitters worked at breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people simultaneously knitting. I think we did it! This picture was, of course, taken before the clock was actually started.
We went on our annual camping trip to Seward for Labor Day weekend. It was the same campground as the last couple of years, so I figured I'd show a picture that showed something different. Here's a smiling Winston in the field next to the Seward Elementary School with a hanging glacier behind him.
A self-portrait of my love and I.
Winston wants everyone to know that he is hungry!