Sundays are for spinning...

...seriously. Chante was kind enough to come over to give me some spinning lessons since my poor wheel has been sorely neglected since Christmas. Tisha and Maribel joined the fun as well.

There was knitting:
...and a whole lot of detangling:
I swear all I wanted to do was wind the Spirit Trail sock yarn I bought for Tisha at Rhinebeck so we could get her started on her first socks but we all spent more time untangling the damn thing than spinning!

There was spinning though:

Oddly enough I have no pictures of myself or Maribel at the wheel but they do exist, they're just on Maribel's camera. I'm not sure when she'll get them to me or up on her blog since she leaves for New Orleans in a few days.

Added later: Actually she blogged so go look, I'll wait...

Chante is an excellent teacher although I'm afraid we spent way more time talking, laughing and eating all the food Rinaldo was making on the grill. I do have a better idea of what I'm doing although the minute she left I tried to get going again and failed miserably but I'm hoping if I keep doing it for a little while each day I actually spin something of substance.

Rinaldo worked in the yard and grilled. Avery and Tisha's son Aaren played Wii and even Ian had a playdate with Chante's son. It was a fabulous way to spend a Sunday. I hope we can do it again soon.

Last night I stayed up to finish the RPMs:


The foot on the second sock looks a little smaller but they measure right. I suspect it's because the first one was already tried on so it stretched a bit. While I was applauding myself for finally getting to the toe I noticed a small problem:


DUDE I DROPPED A STITCH!!! Like a million miles back, before the heel! I need to get the fixed before I gift them obviously. Can you believe it's just been sitting there quietly all this time? I was so pissed. I'll fix them up tonight.

On my way home today I get to stop at the Post Office, there's some Socks that Rock there waiting for me. It's so nice to feel the blog buddy love.

Happy (?) Monday...

Look at what I have, pictures of the first RPM sock:


She is lovely, is she not? I have had such a horrible case of second sock syndrome on the other one. I have cast on about 7 times. Each of the six previous attempts ended up in my screwing something up somewhere. This morning on the train I seem to have rediscovered my mojo, I'm sure the Motley Crue blaring in my ears helped a great deal. Nothing like a little Too Fast for Love to get your head on straight!

It's been a rough week and it's only Wednesday. Although if we're being honest only Monday was tough. In a nutshell, Rinaldo left for a conference in Denver, Ian was home sick, my mother in law had 3 appointments that morning so got to my house fairly late. I decided to try to get to work anyway but not before attempting to visit the bus depot where Ian's lunchbox that my mother in law left on the bus last week was supposed to be residing. Took a bus and a train to get there,in the rain, no lunchbox. Go back to the train, no trains running due to flooding. Leave the train head down the stairs. Get close to the bottom, slip and fall down the remaining steps, bust my ass. Call Tisha, hysterical ,tell her I'm done, I'm going home.

I'm bruised and battered. I can't sit back against my chair and I have to sleep on my stomach. Otherwise I'm fine. We're doing ok with Rinaldo gone, I've got a bit of a system going and it's working so far. I'm off tomorrow to do some sharing in Ian's class for their project on families. Then Friday Rinaldo's back. Ian's been a bit weepy when I drop him off at school but he's been a trouper for the most part. Oh yeah and I have the PTA knitting class tomorrow night and have yet to finish my square. Of course I had lost it for a few days so that didn't help, but I found it last night and it's about half way done.

I had Rinaldo take a picture of me on Sunday in the Calio-Thing for Kathleen but I wasn't crazy about it. Much like those of us who shave our legs for the blog readers I felt you needed me to have on some eyeliner and mascara so I made Tisha take a few shots this morning:



...and the side:


The lighting in our office sucks and I probably should have taken off my glasses but they're new and I like showing them off ;)

I love the damn thing and it occured to me this morning that it makes a lovely teacher gift for the end of the year. I guess I should get the blog for the Love Thy Teacher knitalong going again. The end of the years will be here before we know it.

Happy Wednesday all...

I appreciate all the feedback on my Philly post. It would seem I have to go back, perhaps with a tour guide! For a different take on Philadelphia read the post that Bakerina pimps in her comment. As I was reading it, I was struck by how simliar a love letter I could write to the Bronx. Every city has it's beauty and ugliness, true love is when you can honestly say you love it for both.

I finished calorimetry (which for the life of me I cannot say out loud) on Saturday:

I've grown rather attached to it. It's very comfortable and keeps my hair in check and my ears warm. The pattern is a breeze and it (obviously) knits up very quickly.

On Sunday I decided to start on the baby presents I need to make. One of Ian's teachers is pregnant and one of Avery's is as well. I cast on for the baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting:


It went along really fast. I finished the left side at Knitting Group on Tuesday. Which was a blast by the way. My friend Tisha came. Chante and I were actually there at the same time and she brought her friend Shameka who is also a blogger. I worked on the kimono sporadically the next two days and amazingly I finished it last night:

The construction of it is kind of cool, it's all one piece:

I'm not a huge garter stitch fan but I like the way this came out. I may try the second one in stockinette.

Just so you can see where my head is at the moment. I have yet to finish my square which is the homework for the knitting class I am teaching.



If the teacher doesn't get the homework done, do the students have any hope at all?

Have a great weekend!

Maribel, Tisha, her son Aaren, Avery and I all set off at 7 Monday morning to go to Philly. We were there to see the boy king. After riding the NJ train to the Septa train, we arrived and headed over to the museum:





Sadly there were no pictures allowed in the exhibit so this guy who was hanging out in the entrance hall is the best you get:


We hit Rosie's Yarn Cellar on a recommendation from Gina. I liked the store a lot. The selection was good and the women who worked there were very helpful but I'm so in yarn diet mode that I couldn't think of anything to buy for. Truly sad.

We decided to do the tourist thing since we were there. We checked out some local sites:



...and visited the Liberty Bell, which was far more impressive than I would have imagined:



I will say though I still can't deal with the post 9/11 world. The amount of security we had to get through to see the bell was insane. It took longer to get through the metal detectors that it did to actually see the damn bell.

I can't say I loved Philly. For two girls from the South Bronx and a Harlem girl to say they were uncomfortable in an urban setting is saying something. I've been talking to a few people about it today and I think that it's because the city is truly depressed. There is no hope or spirit in the air. At our worst the Bronx and Harlem always have had pride and spirit. It could just be that we're used to our home but I was really put off by everything. A fight was breaking out in the mall food court when we were there, all the homeless people we ran into were so angry and aggressive. While we were eating a homeless woman came and asked for money, we all told her no but I had the rest of my food which I wasn't going to eat so I offered it to her. She took it, opened it and told me the fries looked cold so she didn't want it and gave it back...

...in the Bronx we would have taken it and sold it to someone else if we didn't want it ourselves;)

Easter

Easter started out the right way. My dear cousin sent me an Icelandic chocolate egg:



Which is cracked open on Easter morning and eaten in bed:


I'll spare you the shots of the boys and Rinaldo eating chocolate in bed, it may frighten you;)

Then we had some family come over for dinner and it turned into a day of games...

...the little ones played Candy Land:


...the bigger ones played Wii:



...and the biggest played dominoes:



Much fun was had by all. Tomorrow the trip to see Tutankhamon.

The week got away from me quite a bit. I did finish the first of the RPM socks for Tisha's daughter who's birthday was, umm, yesterday. I gave Tisha the first sock to show her, so she'd know there was something on it's way. I'm also a little concerned because, as you may recall I initially cast on for the smaller size but that was coming out too small. The problem is once you make some real progress you can see how stretchy the material is. So now I'm concerned that the larger size is too big. I'm not casting on for the second one until I hear back from Tish.

I started working on the swallowtail Thursday night but I was having issues with the cast on. I'm going to blame it on exhaustion. I'm hoping to try again today. Instead I started Calorimetry yesterday morning:


Man there is nothing like a fast knit to make you feel better about yourself;)

Ian had a blast at Go Diego Go on Thursday (hence my exhaustion). He was dancing in the aisles, jumping, screaming having an all around good time. By the end he felt like one of Diego's family:

It was one of the better kid shows that I've seen. Of course my experience was greatly enhanced by the fact that Chris Meloni was there with his kids. Man he does a fantastic Jaguar Jump;)

Now I'm off to clean, yuck...

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Obsessions

Carla had this meme yesterday and it brought up a fact about me that is only hinted at on the blog, I live to be obsessed. If I like something, I mean really like something it turns into an obsession. When I was young I took it very seriously. I once read a book about Montgomery Clift, then I rented or taped nearly every one of his films. Same for Ava Gardner and Louise Brooks. Josephine Baker lead to buying albums, watching movies, reading numerous books and visiting the restaurant dedicated to her. I've had the same experience with books. After I read the first Spenser novel I read the rest of them in a two week period (ahh the free time of youth).

I'm not sure why I'm this way but I have transferred it to my oldest son. When he discovers something he enjoys it becomes all encompassing. Yu Gi Oh, Crossing Jordan, Monk, even ancient Greece. He'll check out the websites, read the books, play the games whatever.

I think it's one of the reasons I appear well educated though I dropped out of school in 9th grade (I do have two years of college now but I find some things you learn in high school that I still don't really know). I've obsessed about the Tudors, especially Henry's wives. I've obsessed about Scotland, particularly in the Jacobite era. This leads me to read and watch anything I can get my hands on about the subject. Most of them burn out over time although I typically always have a fondness for these things.

I still adore Monty;)

It was a bit hard to come up with five things I'm currently obsessed with since I usually focus on one or two at a time but here it goes...

List five things I’m obsessed with:

Blood Ties a new Canadian vampire detective show. It's fun, not too serious, comes from a book series and has a nice young hottie for me,Kyle Schmid. Young hot guys a pretty much a prerequsite for my television obsessions.

Music - music is a constant. I may obsess on a certain singer or band but I must have music in my life everyday. One of the leftovers from my wannabe rock star days I suppose.

The Outlander series - This is one of the few book series that I remain obsessed with even between books. None of the others match the first but I love the characters so much that reading one of them is like catching up with old friends. The minute a new one comes out I start reading it and my husband kisses me goodbye for a few days while I visit the 1700s.

Bollywood movies/India - Maribel got me watching Bollywood movies awhile back but now it's grown into an interest in all things Indian. I love the food, the music, the spirituality and as soon as the book diet is over there's a few books on Indian history that I have on my list to buy.

Knitting (obviously)- Another long lasting one. I didn't realize how much of my life it would consume when I picked up the needles again 7 years ago but it's become fulfilling on so many levels that it is one obsession that has truly benefited me and in some ways changed my life. Mostly through the blog of course;)

What are your obsessions?