Slammed summer

Well - I'm in the crazy part of summer. Many of my friends and coworkers have birthdays this month, and it's the last full month before the September 15th deadline. Which means that my stress level increases dramatically!

I'm so close to finished with my Sonnet but I have run out of yarn YET AGAIN. I'm very close to finishing the second sleeve, but have another 2-3 inches at least on it, plus all of the seaming to do. (Insert groaning & moaning here.) Thankfully, Ravelry has saved me YET AGAIN. I am so grateful for the kind-hearted knitters out there willing to sell me a skein or to mail me their remnants of the same dye lot. Next time, I will do a much better job of calculating how much yarn I need for a project.

I need to get working on the socks for my family members. Christmas is coming!

Well - I gotta get back to work; just needed to think about something unrelated for a minute or two to clear my head.

Not a lot going on in my world, lately; been trying to be more active around the house and get things done rather than turning on the TV and getting sucked in. From the looks of my to-do list, though, that hasn't really been happening lately!

I'm training with some friends for fall 5Ks, and I am proud to report that I did massively better on Tuesday's run than I have in a while. I was very pleased since I had been so sick a couple of weeks ago and then spent this last weekend in New Orleans carousing with a girlfriend. Sickness (including a fever) + all sorts of indulgences should not = better run, but somehow it did. I am looking forward to today's run; hopefully, we'll have some rain this afternoon or at least some cloud cover.

I'm almost done with the first sleeve of my Sonnet; I reached the point where I begin the cap of the sleeve. I hope the second sleeve is faster than the first; I am sure it will be since I won't have the discouragement of thinking I'm out of yarn. That really messed with my motivation! I have a lot to do at work today so I'm out.

Summer's nearly over

Summer's nearly over and I'm back from my big vacation for the year. A girlfriend and I went to New Orleans to visit another friend for a long weekend. We had a good time and saw lots of beautiful scenery. When going through security, I didn't have any trouble with my knitting needles - I just had to chug about 16 ounces of water as fast as I could because I'd forgotten my Sigg bottle was half-full. I dind't get much knitting done other than the flight - we were going going going the whole time.

Now that I'm back, it's time to settle down and start working on some super-sekrit projects I have going on! I'll have to find time to work on the socks for my family. For now - I'm off to work on my Sonnet and get it out of the way.

Scarlet Letter! Except for sickness.

Heh - yeah, not the scary red A, but the scary red X or SOMETHING that says, "Stay FAR FAR AWAY!" All three of us have been ill. B has been sick for weeks now; three of the strongest antibiotics on the market haven't fixed him. He goes to a respiratory specialist next Monday. C had a really bad fever Sunday and part of yesterday, but we've been able to get her back down to normal. Her chest is really congested, but at least she's not feverish any longer. I wish I could say that my fever wasn't too bad, but it was. Did you know that the "standard" 98.6F human temperature was arrived at by taking the temperatures of 10 random people off the street? At least, this is what I learned in college, so hopefully that's correct. Who knows what the real "normal" temperature is? Due to my own nerdiness and curiosity, I know that my normal temperature is between 97.5 and 98.0 - so if I'm at 98.6, I'm beginning a fever. My temp this weekend got up to 100.9. I was finally coherent enough to go to the doctor today, and they gave me a script for the generic Biaxin. Nasty nasty horse pills - two pills once a day with food. Yuck. I popped two with lunch as soon as I got home, and I am feeling SO. MUCH. BETTER.

In other personal news, I am working on conquering my fear of deep water. Since I was feeling so much better this afternoon, I put on my bathing suit and got in the pool. B had left his snorkel mask out, and I decided that now was as good of a time as any to start working on it. No one around to make me nervous! So I put it on, got in in the shallow end, and fell in love. Wearing contacts plus never finding a pair of swim goggles that fit my face well meant losing my vision underwater. But today - I could see everything! I could see exactly where the dreaded drain at the bottom of the deep end was; I could see the few oak leaves floating along the surface; I could see the water bug swimming along near the wall. The whole not being able to breathe underwater still skeeves me out, but whatever, I'll get over that. I had so much fun swimming around! I am such a dork but this has bothered me for so long - I am so happy to be making progress at defeating this fear.

I've finished the body of my Sonnet and am working on the first sleeve. Making so much progress on the sweater is the only positive part of being home sick from work for two days. I had to do a little modification to the basketweave stitch for the center panel up the sleeves, but it still looks nice. I can't wait to finish it all, seam it up, and toss it in the washer!

OK - I'm off to do some chores around the house since they've been so neglected over the past few days. Poor cats could use some attention, too.

Post-holiday Mondays

Okay, I'm learning how to post from my iPhone. This is a little awkward snd I'm not sure the formatting will come out correctly.

The Tour de France is on! Watching the stages in the evening means lots of time to knit. Except for tonight: I spent a lot of time knitting over the weekend, and my hands are a little crampy. Instead, I gave myself a mani-pedi :). I made a lot of progress on my Sonnet; I'm all the way around to the right front! The yarn I ordered should be sufficient - I was a little worried about that. Well - I'm off to bed. Today was a little rough and I'm not feeling super.

Summer travels

Trips are one of my favorite ways to accomplish a lot of knitting goals. The recent trip for a family reunion was a perfect example. We have a few more trips coming up, and I'm looking forward to finishing more projects while we are in the air or on the road. The body of my Sonnet is almost halfway finished! At knitting tomorrow night, I'll have one of the more experienced knitters, KD, help me make sure I'm accomodating the sideways stretch that will inevitably happen. I've already cut out two inches and think I may be able to cut out another inch in the center of the back.

With the crazy heat we've had recently, it's been hard to do outdoor projects. Bradley is fixing a toilet tonight, and hopefully soon we'll have the pool up and running. We have a quote from a pool guy, and we're just waiting on upcoming paydays so we can have the cash to fund the operations. Carlina's sunflowers have been blooming beautifully; she's been lopping off the flowers and bringing them in for us to enjoy.

Well - I think I'm getting some dirty looks so I should get going on my chores (one of which is quite enjoyable - knitting some more on my Sonnet!!)

Vacation & road trips

We spent this last weekend on the road. It was my annual family reunion, and seeing everyone in my mother's family was wonderful. The gathering was at Cloudland Canyon State Park in Rising Fawn, Georgia. It's near Chattanooga and in the mountains - beautiful country up there.

I finished my Undulating Rib Socks on Saturday and cast on Sonnet! I was so pleased to finally start that. When I gave my sister and niece their socks, they were very pleased. Emily put hers on right away, but when Grace tried to put hers on - no luck. The yarn shrank in the wash :( Shame on me for not swatching them. I'm so disappointed. I suggested that she get them damp and slip them on carefully, and then let them dry on her feet.

My sister-in-law, brother, and father have all put in requests for socks. Mary and Kenneth are getting pairs of Padded Footlets; Kenneth is getting a pair of Eesti Trail Hiking Socks; and Dad is getting two pair of the same hiking socks. My poor Branching Out is going to be neglected, but thankfully, I have the counter app on my iPhone so I will be able to pick up where I left off. Kenneth picked out some beautiful yarn from KnitPicks - I can't wait to see how it looks and feels in real life.

The Sonnet is coming along nicely; I am using the piecrust basketweave instead of the box/moss stitch recommended in the pattern. I'm also cutting out an inch on each side since I have heard from every direction that the finished item will definitely stretch side-to-side. I finished about seven inches while we were on the road. I do love how Bradley doesn't mind driving...