Baseball Action Night! and Knitting!

Tonight, Sarah and I went to PGE Park to watch the Portland Beavers play the Reno Aces (AAA baseball). It was "Stitch and Pitch" night - local knitters got together (many with their non-knitting husbands and friends) and took in the game while working on their knitting projects. The Beavers lost 5-2.

Around the fourth inning or so, a foul ball came screaming towards us on the first base side. It headed straight towards Sarah, and literally straight towards her belly! I instinctively reached my left hand out to protect her, and the ball glanced off my finger and hit her thigh. It would have hit her straight in the baby otherwise, and the baby is due in three and a half weeks! She suffered only a small bruise on her thigh and is fine, but I sprained or bruised my finger and required ice for the rest of the night.

Baseball is so exciting! (and it's very hard to type with only one hand)

Baby Kurth almost catches a baseball in the face at Week 36! Sarah shows off her knitting project and the offending baseball, as the Beavers lose on the field.

Stitch Markers for Sock Summit

Today is the day! Sock Summit officially starts today with registration, check-in, and marketplace setup. I've been working very hard over the last 2 weeks to get stitch markers ready for this amazing event, and they're ready at last!
















So if you're coming to Sock Summit, you can find Bumblebirch stitch markers in the Marketplace at booth #800, with The Periwinkle Sheep (and buy her yarn, too, while you're there!)

interdisciplinary

Knitting is stretchy, and cotton is not. This is frustrating, but so rewarding. It's going to be so wonderful when I'm done with this phone cozy!

a summer of socks

In preparation for the Sock Summit in August, I have been brushing up on my sock-knitting skills.

My latest endeavor: the Temperance socks.

You'll have to forgive the cruddy phone camera, there's no hope of a better picture until I can swipe Paul's camera for a day! Until then, imagine some beautiful, manly, black socks and some bright blue and yellow ones with a diamond-print.

a new year of knitting

One of my first projects to start off the new year has been to organize my knitting: the yarn, the projects, the patterns, and the plans! Yesterday I tackled the stash. My particular challenges are:
space - we live in a studio apartment
categories - all of the yarn was intermixed
cat - she gets into everything she can reach

Here is the stash in all its messy glory:



These baskets are so disorganized! I have to search every basket for the certain yarn I'm looking for. There are printed patterns everywhere.



Look at all this fiber! I should have like 100 sweaters by now!


First I bagged multiple skeins of yarn together as well as WIPs, re-matching labels with the yarns by wrapping them around with a rubber band. I found that I had several partial balls of some yarns--no more of that now that they're all together! I decided to organize the yarn by weight rather than fiber, because 1) that's how I choose the yarn for projects and 2) it's not being stored in a dark closet or cellar, so no worries about moths. Here are the organized baskets:


Olive kitteh approves of the new orderliness.


Bulky


Worsted


Sport


Fingering (just sock yarn right now)


The last basket has circular needles, swatches, my new winder, and bagged yarn I'm trying to trade/sell.


My notions/current small project box looked a lot better after cleaning out all the extra labels, yarn snippets, and swatches.


I put current projects in my project bag. I hope this will help limit my WIPs.


I collected all of the paper and sorted out the patterns I wanted to keep.


I slipped them all into sheet protectors and organized them into a binder. The sections are by use. Here's is what I have so far:
Techniques
Hats
Scarves
Mittens/Gloves
Sweaters/Tops
Socks
Bags
Baby items
Toys


Here's the finished product, yarn and needles tucks safely away at the top of the bookcase:

working hard

What a week! The first half was hectic and the second half was dragging...so slowly.

I've developed this little tactic with my boss: when he has something big going on, that needs to be my big thing too. For example, he left town early Wednesday morning for a conference. That means that Tuesday was filled with emergencies and urgent To-Do's. And computer failures, of course.

So what do I do when dates like this arrive? I plan on not doing anything except helping my boss get out the door. That is my one and only must-do task for the day. If he has to be somewhere, like a meeting or a speaking engagement, my job is to get him there with everything he needs in order. That means thinking about all the little details for him ("Do you have a ride to the airport at 4am?" "Do you need copies of your workshop materials I think I've mastered the "travel packet" for him. The hard thing is, it takes months of working with someone before you can anticipate their needs.

Aaaand I found out just a couple of days ago that the handmade portion of the Hogwarts Kit Swap is due TODAY. My hands hurt. If I run out of yarn I'm going to be so. very. angry! I think I remade this very hat 4 or 5 times now. I have all these great ideas for my spoilee's package, but I can't blather about it here. She'll see. I want it to be a big surprise!

expelliarmus!

Completely surprising myself, my husband, and my duel partner, I finished my hat before she had a chance to start hers!





I finished up the decreases and loose ends during the commute, then took it over to the campus post office when they opened.

Sorry Pandora! but I do hope you enjoy your red hat.

20 oz day

I wasn't joking when I asked for the 20 oz. latte. I am SO tired, and this pumpkin spice latte tastes SO good.

Olive woke us up at about 3am and wouldn't let us go back to sleep. Paul put her in her private room (the bathroom) and I drifted back to sleep, but since earplugs don't fit in his sweet ears, her scratching kept him awake. Sometimes she scratches for a few minutes, gives up, and goes to sleep. Sometimes she scratches forever. She hates being separated. Paul tossed and turned in torment and kept me awake. Poor thing; I feel so bad for him. I got up to use the bathroom, gave her some attention while I was in there in the hopes she'd calm down, and then gave her a q-tip. Sounds like a strange thing to give a cat to play with, but she's obsessed with them. She'll play with it for hours. We won't be able to use that one on our children.

When I finally got back to sleep, I have a very disturbing dream and woke up nearly crying. I couldn't go back to sleep for awhile. Paul woke me up at 7, about 15 minutes before I needed to be out the door. Yay. He made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and I stopped at the campus cafe (which serves Starbucks) on my way in to the office.

The truth is, Olive really has gotten better. Sunday and Monday nights she slept through the whole night without waking us up. Last night is an example of what I went through by myself for the first 10 months of owning her--she just wouldn't sleep at night and there wasn't anywhere to put her away that she wouldn't damage. So when she wakes us up at 4 or 5am after 7 or 8 solid hours of rest, I'm thankful. Paul doesn't have that perspective, poor thing. I really wish we could find earplugs that work for his ears. I think that'd make it easier because he wouldn't hear her scratching.

Oh. And as soon as I woke up and pulled out my earplugs, Olive pounced on one and ran off with it. Then she brought it to me to play fetch, like she does with the q-tips. Cracks me up! She won't do this with her squirrel, Pimento. I think Grass might be too big for her too. Maybe I should make her some smaller toys, like a mochimochiland snail or mushroom. Something like tiny little prey.

My alter ego, Olive Bumblebirch, is working hard on Harry Potter-themed knitting projects. I've completed both History of Magic quizes so far, and knit a cotton washcloth for Herbology. After messing up the gauge for the Hermione Hat, I went and bought smaller needles. It made me feel better about starting over on my Transfiguration assignment. Maybe my "new thing" is getting gauge. Quidditch is going well so far--we found another spinner and have gotten our patterns. It's a race!

The Hogwarts Kit Swap is also about to start! I hope more people sign up this week! We really need more Gryffindors. It was originally a sock kit swap, but this term there's a choice of bags, socks, dyeing, or surprise. Ever in need of totes, I asked for a bag. There's also trivia and knitting dueling, and lots and lots of competition. Yay competition!

Tales of a Ravthlete

Well, the cheers of the closing ceremony have died down and all of the ravthletes have departed with their hard-earned medals.







These two medals are for the mug cozy.





This one is for the great purple tea cozy.







And these are for the fabulous Inga Hat.



I learned that I can, and should challenge myself. That finishing a project makes weaving in ends worth the effort. And that being part of a team was inspiring. It was a long journey, and I'm very proud of my team. Until the next Olympics!