Purls and Pugs

I HATE Yard Work

Most people have never seen $350 sitting in their driveway quite the way I did this weekend. We had 9 yards of mulch delivered on Saturday. We were so eager to get it down that no pictures were taken. Just imagine a red mountain in a driveway. It was taller than I am (5'4") and filled the entire 2 car driveway. When I say to someone 9 yards, it is very difficult to picture the neverending pile of wood. But let me tell you, it's a lot. A lot more than any human being should try to attempt in one day.

Some highlights:
Our back yard is on a hill. A pretty steep hill. We were using a new two wheel wheelbarrow (similar to this one). Jeremy would push up the hill and down the other side to get to the back of an island. As you can probably imagine, we had an incident. Have you ever seen a grown man, a wheelbarrow and a lot of mulch go flying through the air? I have. He's lucky he didn't break something, but it sure was funny.

At one point I was sitting in an island breaking up dirt chuncks at the bottom of the hill (different from the one Jeremy took a flying leap). I heard the phone ring on the porch, so I ran full speed (up-hill) to get it. Keep in mind this was about 8 hours into this hell. Of course the phone stopped ringing as soon as I got there-typical. According to my caller-id, it was my mother. So I called her back to find out what she wanted. When I told her what I had to do to get to the phone, she said, "Don't run for me." Um, yeah because I used my superhuman, telepathic phone reading powers to determine that it was you.  But to my mother's credit, her and my dad came back (they had visited earlier) to help us out. They felt sorry for us. I did, too.

It all was put down on Saturday. It only took 12 hours. Let's just say that walking, or even standing up at that point was very painful. The next house will have concrete yards...

Me, Myself, and my Boring Life

Yup, that's been it--nothing, nada, zip! And guess what, I am loving it! I've been a little uninspired to knit, but I should jump out of that one during my 4 day weekend. I get tomorrow off since I work too much!

So Alias was pretty wild last night. Kind of reminded me of the Resident Evil video games and Shaun of the Dead. Gotta love the walking dead. See Kate's blog for a little more Alias discussion. It was really good. Too bad it can't be that good every week. Ever since Sidney brought down SD-6 it's been kind of boring...Ah, those were the days--the first season.

Hope everyone has a great longer weekend!

Holy House!

That is what I have, Batman. Thursday was a really bad storm day for most of Illinois, but I think poor Plainfield got the brunt of the storm.

After working a 12 hour day and having to sit in the restroom at work because the tornado bells were activated, I came home to a holy house. From what I gathered from my neighbors, the hail was the size of golfballs and there was a lot of it. The north side of our house has holes in the siding. They even dented the wood of our screened in porch! We had damage, but nearly as bad as some other houses I've seen. Think machine gun to the side of the house--several clips. I need to make an appointment with the insurance company to check it out. When did I grow up?!

Needless to say, knitting was not very high on my list of things to do...

Baby got back

  The back is done of the Tennis Sweater. I cast on for the front and hope to get it done a little more quickly than the back. I should have more time now that I am on summer vacation. Don't worry, I have been working on Sitcom Chic as well. In fact, Sitcom Chic is the one I bring to work to knit at lunch time. Stockinette is always a little quicker than cables when you only have 30 minutes to eat and knit.

Last night Yoda and I ate dinner with my sister and parents. Yoda was able to run around in the yard. Since we don't have a fence, she really isn't off the leash that much outside. We took her to a dog park once, but that was short lived. She seemed to be the target of all the male dog's affections....
So, she was given a treat that she didn't eat until she came home. She carried it around in her mouth like this for about 15 minutes. I guess the time had to be right.

Little Bits of Everything

I'm still plugging away on my projects. I was almost done with the neck shaping of the back of the Vogue Tennis Sweater, but I decided it looked awful, so I ripped it and started again. One side down, one to go. I also have about 2 inches done on Sitcom Chic. It's nice to have time!

While I get some really cute pictures of Yoda, I miss a whole lot, too. Last night she was sleeping while laying in my arms on her back like a little baby. It was so cute, but if I were to move, she would have jumped up ready for action. So, instead you only get this bashful picture.

I'd also like to send a 'shout-out' to Lori and Lisa. These are two new knitters who I found out have been lurking around my blog. Feel free to leave comments, girls!!

You didn't really think that I would work on one project at a time did you? The Cotton-Ease has been eyeballing me. It was sitting there whispering sweet nothings to me. So I did it. I cast on for the Sitcom Chic. You would think that I am addicted to pink...

More pink?

Wonky Ribbing

I have also been working on the Vogue Tennis Sweater, don't you worry. I am to the neck shaping on the back. I just need to figure out how I am going to work the two sides of the neck...guess I'll have to pull out the other set of Denise Needles.

Doing the neck shaping.

Hello, Hourlgass!

This weekend was a catch-up for me. Jeremy and I vowed to do just about nothing. Well, nothing that we didn't want to do. I didn't have to get up Saturday and take an online quiz. I did get up early to take Yoda out, but that's a different story. I did however knit. And the fruits of my labor were rewarded. Please say hello to the Hourglass Sweater

Looking good...

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Chuckanaut Bay wool in Purple
Needles: Denise Circulars size 8
Notes: I am not a fan of the way the neck is attached to the sweater. I was also really worried that the neck was too big. It seemed to be a problem that quite a few people were having. So how did I fix it? Elastic. I bought some black elastic, threaded it on a tapestry needle and pushed it through the neck's 'channel'. I think it workec out pretty well. This is one of my best fitting sweaters to date.

Yoda also was very lazy this weekend and wasn't really up for an early morning photo-shoot, but I got her anyway.

Back to bed, Mommy....

Houston, we have arms

Last night I wanted to sit on the couch. Even though my house is a mess, I didn't want to do too much since I was beat--still am. Knitting wise, I didn't want to have to look at my work too much, so I finished the second sleeve on the Hourglass sweater. They are now attached and raglan decreasing has commenced.

looking good

P.S. I am thinking I need a mannequin. That way you won't be able to see my mess on the floor...

Tennis Anyone?

I promised a progress picture of the Tennis Sweater, so here you go:

Swingy Cables

I am getting closer to the neck shaping and then on to the front. I have found that I like the rows where I have a lot to do. I mean, I like the rows that I am decreasing and doing the cable twist and having to keep track of tons of stuff. That's the fun part--rather than the anticipation that I am going to do something.

Whew!

One semester down. Tons more to go. But at least I can enjoy the summer. Well, if it ever stops raining.

The past week I haven't been knitting. Had to finish those finals. But I am very close to getting the back done on the Tennis Sweater and the second sleeve on the hourglass. I might actaully finish something here soon. I will try to post pictures later today.

There is just so much to catch-up on...