while the cat's away..

Since I had to take a knitting break, that somehow equated to a blogging break. I think I just couldn't stand sitting in front of the computer waiting for it to load! The knitting break didn't last very long and when I first made mention of it, I didn't even really take one. I just took a break from the blankiet I had started. lol. I wore this:

sometime last month. I realized that I hadn't taken a good picture of it yet so here's a better one than the one I've got on rav. When I wore it, I noticed how much it kept riding up! It wasn't a lot but I'm not a fan of tops that ride up since when I'm in my husband's car, the heat, his leather seats and my bare skin don't mix well! I happened to have one more skein of the yarn I used for my wicked so I ripped back the ribbing and went to work.

I decided on doing a crossover rib instead of the ribbing suggested in the pattern. I like how it's coming out. Though with my right hand not being up to its normal knitting stamina, it's been slow going. I had to take a break from it.

So I started working on this again:

I had cast on for the gust a while back and had put it aside for other projects. When I attempted to go back to it, I couldn't remember which row I was on and had ripped back a few rows already so this past Sunday, I just frogged it and started all over again. I'm back to where I had left it. I hope I have enough yarn for it. I'm planning to do more than the suggested repeats just because I've noticed Ann's scarves tend to be shorter than I like.

A couple weeks back (probably the week I last posted!) I had wound some yarn while the monkey was over here. Here she is riding her bday gift from my sis, my husband, and I. And here was her first experience with a winder! Being that I'm a lefty and I had already started winding some yarn, it was hard for her to wind in the same direction as I had been going.

The yarn I had wound was two skeins of malabrigo that had been sitting, waiting patiently to be knitted into something stunning. Well, I cast on for this on Sunday.

It's the habitat hat pattern from Jared Food. Can I tell you even the charts are as beautiful as the actual knitting that's going on?? I'm on row 12 of chart C and am...29 rows away from completion. My mom was bugging me about her shawl yesterday That's because I asked her what kind of a hat she wanted and she said, 'What about my shawl?'. She doesn't get that hats are faster and right now, I need to just finish something! I want to cast on for the macduff hat (that's what the other skein of malabrigo is going to be turning into!). The winds have been blowing here and it's nice to actually experience Fall again!

I have been job searching and applying to anything that seems interesting and haven't had any luck. The one lucky thing that has happened but has nothing to do with the job hunt is that my husband came back for good on Sunday. I like to think the hat I started knitting him brought him home. lol. He has done what he can for his mother and stepdad and made the (surprise) trip home. The monkey was only too happy to see him yesterday. Now she's got another playmate when she comes over!

The surprise patterns from knitty have arrived. I thought this one was a fun one! Oh, and to the anonymous commenter who had misplaced his/her copy of the triblankie pattern please send me a message with your email address so I can help you out!

long beach marathon 2009

This is a really cool sand sculpture someone did for the marathon.It was a bit difficult searching for our parking but we finally did and got to the marathon at about quarter til 11am. TONS of people filled the streets! Many people had finished the half-marathon, the kids run, the bike portion, etc. We hung out around mile 26 which was located: There was a camera man blocking the sign below but he decided to pack up and go. I thought that was uncool because my sister hadn't passed him yet! :P Here she comes! My mom waited probably between the mile 25 and mile 26 marker for her and she actually was running/jogging alongside my sister. :) Here she is running by me! And here is the finish line! Here's my sister wearing her newly earned medal! She's waiting for her friend to finish. The final shot I leave you with is the lagoon we walked around to get to the restaurants!We were all unbelievably exhausted! Back home we go tomorrow..and apparently it's going to be pouring. :P

the aquarium

If you can think back to three weeks ago right before we left for SoCal, my husband and I took the lil monkey to the aquarium. First we had to make it through a night of her crashing with us. That has to have been one of the worst nights of sleep I've ever gotten. Here's where she was supposed to have slept: And here's where she landed after my husband got out of bed (his side of the bed).Here's a great white shark and a school of sardines!Here's the monkey 'reading the book.' And here she is getting out of a penguin egg. There was this boy who kept wanting to climb it and she wasn't having any of that. A grand time was had by all. We stayed until closing time and she was quite well-behaved. We were shocked.

present

I've been thinking about blogging ever since I got back from my MIL's house but there were too many things that I would need to discuss! First of all, my MIL is currently in the comforts of her own home. My husband and FIL are taking care of her along with a slew of nurse professionals. She's eating better than she was at the hospital. What's most important is that she is home. My mom and I will be driving down to LA on Saturday for my sister's marathon on Sunday. I've gotta start packing. I'm not looking forward to the SoCal heat. Goodness, after only being back at my parents' home for a week I've already been spoiled with cooler weather! Since returning, there's been a lot of purging, cleaning, and organizing. I'm still not finished. This is all stuff I would've done had we not had that emergency. Oh, I've been reading too! While I was at my MIL's house, I finally finished reading P.S. I Love You. It was a LONG read but good. I think I liked it about the same as I liked the movie. Although part of me wishes the movie had been set in Ireland like the book had been. When I got home, I looked through one of my boxes of adult books and whipped out Pack Up The Moon. Oh my goodness!!!!!!! I finished this book in two days. It was a great read. Sad story but the author did a great job of telling the story. Then I started Rosie Dunne (written by the same author of P.S. I Love You and apparently now titled: Love, Rosie) and I'm currently at a standstill with that book. Though I know I could finish it if I would just pick it up again! I'm boycotting. That's how wrapped up I am in the story. I can't take it anymore..all the back and forth. I really love the way the story is being presented though. The story is told via emails, letters, notes, cards, instant messages etc. Stories that are told in that format tend to be my weakness. I have also been able to get some of our thank you cards out for our wedding gifts! I've managed to write a few letters as well. It's been nice being able to finally catch up. All the while, my knitting was left by the wayside. I finished some mitts for my husband and I wish they were for me so I'm just going to have to whip up an identical pair for myself one of these days. I was also at war with that blasted sesame cardigan. Don't get me wrong, knitting a sweater in pieces does make it go faster but the assembling..ugh..I tried for at least a solid week to attach the sleeves but they kept puckering. Now that I'm home and have access to all my knitting books to help with the seaming of the sleeves, I've found other more important things to do. I needed time away. Maybe next week I'll tackle it again. Maybe. I did decide to start something yesterday though. The other day I was going through my knitting calendar from 2007 and purged a lot of patterns that I know I won't ever make and I stumbled upon the tri blankie pattern. It is made out of cotton so I whipped out my ziploc of leftover dishcloth cotton and got to it. Now I'm obsessed. So if anyone out there has some leftover dishcloth, please send it my way! It's supposed to be a baby blanket but I'm going to try to make an adult size version. We'll see how that goes. The baby version requires 96 blocks. I've got about 8 under my belt so far. lol. And a ninth one on the needles. I figured if I could do 8 blocks everyday, I'd have 96 in 12 days. HA. I'm funny, right? Here's what I've got so far.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

The Princess And her cake.