drew-o-rama

SLEEVES, OVER

UH, HOUSTON, WE HAVE COMPLETION OF ONE, REPEAT, ONE SLEEVE FOR PROJECT FUNNEL-NECK. FIRST SLEEVE FOR OPERATION EURO-TRASH IS UNDERWAY. WAITING FOR FURTHER ORDERS. OVER.

KNIT-O-RAMA, STATUS CONFIRMED. PLEASE PROCEED WITH SLEEVE FOR PROJECT EURO-TRASH. CONTINUE THROUGH COMPLETION. OVER.

ROGER THAT, HOUSTON. OVER AND OUT.

DRIVING ALL OVER FRICKIN' OHIO

SATURDAY
7:00 - Alarm goes off, hit snooze.
7:30 - Get up after Dan shakes me a few times and pulls off the covers.
9:00 - Eat bowl of Frosted Flakes, finally leave Cincinnati for Cleveland.
9:12 - Cast on for first Funnel Neck sleeve.
9:15 - Frog that, cast on again. Not quite awake.
9:42 - Frog again after realizing rib pattern is off, cast on again.
10:04 - Potty break (tea goes right through me).
10:45 - Cruising along on the sleeve. Past the first increase row.
10:58 - Boring central Ohio "scenery" makes it easy to concentrate on my needles.
11:10 - Potty break again.... Damn it! Forgot to switch to larger needles!!!! AHHHH! Frog back to ribbing.
11:40 - On new needles. ARRGH! Drop the needles and a few stitches! @*?#!
12:03 - Picked up the dropped stitches, knit a few rows, help Dan with directions to reception hall.
12:30 - Reception (they got married in Oakland, CA. Having reception thing for family and friends who didn't attend)
2:45 - Dan and I play on the playground outside the reception area.
3:00 - Back in car, knitting.
4:22 - Through the third increase row.
6:30 - Arrive at hotel, take a nap.
8:00 - Go out to eat.
9:14 - Decide against movie, got to Barnes and Noble instead. Look at knitting magazines and books. See an article about Tahki Stacy Charles. Intriguing. Make mental note of website. Visited when I arrived home today. Love, love, LOVE the patterns, including a saucy number using dropped stitches/ladders and a beautiful sweater which, I am assuming, would be a finishing nightmare.
11:35 - Through fifth increase row.
12:30 - Good night.

SUNDAY
9:30 - Check out, head to IKEA. Eat in the mod, sterile restaurant. Hoping for Swedish meatballs with lingonberry preserves... got some turnip, potato, carrot mixture dish that was yucky. Mmmmm, lingonberry juice. Found a cool desk, named "Jerker" (hehehe) and some cool kitchen stuff. Didn't find anything to put my knitting stuff in. *frown*
11:32 - Dan pleads with me to not buy any more knick-knacks. After coming to my senses, I thank him.
12:30 - Leave IKEA, on highway, knitting commences.
3:52 - More and more of this...
6:30 - Home. Made it through 18 inches of the sleeve.

The end.

A QUICKIE

Hello, kids. Here's a quick update to Le Pull Col Tunisien. I have finished the back and the right front. The left front is still on the needles as you can see in the photo. I plan on finishing that tonight before I go to bed. I am really enjoying this sweater. Using the two yarns has gone great so far, and using US10.5 needles makes it go really fast.

This weekend, Dan and I are going to Cleveland for a wedding and then to Pittsburgh to go to IKEA. I'm pretty excited because that means lots of knitting time in the car. I think I am going to take a break from the Phildar sweater and go back to either the ChicKami and start on the back or begin the sleeves for Funnel Neck. Maybe I will work on both!

I also want to say thanks for all the nice comments everybody has been writing. I really enjoy reading what all of you have to say (especially when you tell me I'm cute. Awwww, shucks.)

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

LES CARTES POSTALES

OK, kids, here is some non-knitting content for ya. In a post about two months ago, I mentioned that I had some cards printed up a few years back that I use for a variety of purposes. Tonight, I used one to make a thank you card for the head of my division at work. He bought tickets for the entire group to see a touring Broadway musical called Momma Mia. I was, like, totally excited to go since I grew up listening to my sister crank ABBA out of her record player. I remember hearing Super Trouper, Take a Chance on Me, the ubiquitous Dancing Queen, and tons of others flowing out of her room each evening. That had a huge impact on my tastes in music.

Anyway, the cards began their life blank. First, I decided what medium I wanted to use. In this case I decided to use collage. So, out came the Martha Stewart K-Mart translucent storage box containing all the scraps, wrappers, clippings and everything else I have kept for years.

I started pulling out anything I found interesting, or things that I thought the recipient would enjoy. I found some cool Japanese stamps, some origami paper and a cool photo of an old computer (the old kind that took up an entire room). Finally, I assembled them into a pleasing composition, wrote the greeting on the back and I was finished.

Usually, I scan the finished cards to keep for my portfolio. The card I created for my mom for Mother's Day turned out really well, as did the card for my sister's 38th birthday. I usually make Christmas cards for all my friends, too. It's a lot of fun. If any of you want some, send me an email and I will send you about 10 or so. I had about a billion printed, so there are way more than I will ever use.

I'M COMING OUT OF THE BLOG CLOSET

I just closed my other blog where I sort of needed to be anonymous. So, that means I can tell you a little bit about myself. And besides, I was really busy this week and didn't get much knitting done.

My name is Drew, aka mouse. Dan, aka fox, calls me "mishka" which means "little mouse" in Ukrainian. I currently live in Cincinnati, although a move to Boulder or Portland is in my near future. I will be 30 in October 2004 and I am planning on having a super cool Logan's Run party to celebrate.

I started knitting about a year ago after a friend of Dan gave me some needles, crochet hooks and yarn. The knitting didn't go very well at first, so I switched to crochet. After forcing myself to relax my tension, I got the hang of it and started crocheting scarves and hats. I even made a cardigan sweater for my nephew.

Because of the lack of hip crochet patterns, I picked up the knitting needles again. Inspired by the über cool Stitch 'n Bitch my first project was a garter stitch scarf knitted on size US35 needles with two strands of craft yarn! The size of the needles were, I'm sure, a factor in my success, since the scarf took maybe 3 hours to complete. Since then I have completed scarves, hats, bags, sweaters and tank tops.

I have a degree in graphic design from UC/DAAP. During the day, I work as a graphic designer in the marketing department at Xavier University. I also teach a competitive color guard at a suburban Cincinnati high school. Combine my work schedule, my color guard schedule and the "anti-finishing" gene that I inherited from my knitting mother and it takes me a while to complete projects.

I decided to publish a knitting blog after being inspired by Becky at Fluffa! and Megan at Not Martha. Plus, I love meeting people from all over the world.

My ultimate dream is to learn French and move to Paris. I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I really don't have a huge yarn stash... yet. I have a mid-century modern chair fettish. I am additcted to the internet. I love tea and hate coffee. I have a sister and two brothers. One lives in Buenos Aires and is fluent in Spanish. I love to sit on the sofa with Dan and knit while he plays games on PlayStation. I love Korean food. The only other person in my family that knits is my mom - she's really good at it - except for the finishing part...