I am really looking forward to this long weekend. I didn't really get a break last weekend because of the class and I was so tired afterwards that I needed a few days to recover. I think I will spend most of the time cleaning out my closets and knitting. last time I seriously cleaned the shower, I completely missed the spot under the built in soap dish and it is really nasty now. Of course I am going to make an attempt to get my license on Saturday. I also plan to do a little more research on the towns that have culinary schools I am interested in.

I want to finish the the Charade and Leyburn socks done so I can free up my needles to do some more Christmas gift knitting and crocheting.

Our first of three classes at the GymNest on Thursday nights is full of four year olds. They were fairly well behaved, but last night didn't involve much actual tae kwon do. The class description specifically says it is for 5-7 year olds, but the Nest doesn't seem to go by their own descriptions. Four may be old enough for their gymnastics classes, but it is not, generally speaking, for tae kwon do classes. One parent even expressed some concern about the size of the class and the age of many of the students. Most are signed up on a weekly basis and we will lose a few as the weeks go by, but I am sure there will still be a few kids I wish had waited a year before starting.

Stash enhancement

With the motorcycle class this past weekend I forgot to post a pic of my haul from Fearless Fibers. The two on the left are from the sock club and the two on the right are ones I ordered just before the sock club yarns shipped. Deb kindly combined the shipping for me. The little envelope contains the tags I mentioned in an earlier post.


Here's the first Charade Sock. It is in Fearless Fibers Superwash in the Marrakesh colorway. I love the color. I intend them to be a Christmas gift, so I hope I can part with them when the time comes. The socks fit me well and I think the recipient and I wear about the same size shoe. I thought I might get bored with this pattern, but it went so quickly, when I actually worked on them, that I didn't get bored at all. I ordered another set of 2.75mm dpns so I don't have to keep knitting the second Leyburn sock on 4 needles. I have discovered I really prefer 5, especially on the gusset.

We plan to take our "written" exams at the DOT this Saturday to get our motorcycle licenses. The DOT's manual had a few questions that I thought were odd, but I got most of them right, so I think I will be fine. I will probably look through the manual at least once before I take it. I am incredibly thankful I don't have to take the driving test at the DOT. I wouldn't pass on our bike.

If you haven't noticed the addition to my sidebar, I suggest you take a look. I am referring to that large red button I added. I am trying to raise money for childrea of northern Uganda. You can also join GuluWalk in if you are in the area or there is one in your area. Raise a little money, take 7-9km walk on October 20th, or just donate to me or my lab's team. We would really appreciate it! Even Sarah McLachlan is joining in.

My site feed

I know I have a few subscribers to my site feed so I want to warn you I have been messing with my site's feed a little. If you really do like reading about my boring life, after my blogroll is a link to subscribe to my blog's feed. Sorry!

I passed!

So did Josh and Amanda. Actually everyone in our class did. This past weekend we took the motorcycle safety course through Kirkwood. Friday was 4 hours in the classroom and Saturday and Sunday was mostly learning how to ride with a little classroom time on Saturday and the driving test and written test on Sunday.

I can't believe how sore I am. I don't remember feeling this way after the last time I took this class, but that was 6 years ago. I know the booklet we received was completely different from my old one and I don't remember doing a lot of the riding drills either. I know the driving test was also a lot different. Now all I need to do is get my license from the DOT by taking their written test and figure out how to ride our bike.

I am really glad I took the class again and that I passed. I felt fairly comfortable most of the time, but there were a few drills I know I will be practicing a lot when our bike is in working order. My favorite parts were going around curves and weaving around cones. I wish we could have gone faster. I must say I am jealous of Amanda's new bike. It's so shiny! I think our bike will be ready in the next couple of weeks. I hope to ride it a little before it gets too cold.

We watched the UFC 74 that Amanda recorded last night. It was good to see Couture win again as well as GSP beating Koscheck.

I received my yarn from Fearless Fibers on Friday. Four skeins of sock yarn and some cute tags to include with finished gift socks. I love the colors. For my socks club skeins, one has some lovely shades of brown and the other is and orange and red that will be perfect for some Fawkes. I ordered two others which Deb kindly shipped with my sock club order. One I bought with the intention of using it for Fawkes, but now I think it has a new purpose in life. Not sure what that is yet.

I guess there has to be a little letdown after the success. I screwed up the gel twice (Using electricity we run our DNA and RNA samples through gels to tell us how big they are. DNA and RNA are polar, so they have a "+" charge at one end and a "-" at the other.) when I was analyzing the mRNA I made from my clone. At least it wasn't the same mistake. I will do it again later today. I also dropped two vials of embryos I am staining. I think I recovered most of them, but I don't know which embryos were stained for which thing. Yesterday was not a good day at the lab for me.

After work Josh picked me up and we went to the Field House to work on some kicks. It was nice to kick the paddle after the crappy day at work. I am not even sore today! That doesn't mean I won't be tomorrow. We didn't do a lot because it was so hot and humid. Of course, the temperature dropped 10 degrees by the time we drove back to the apartment.

I haven't done a ton of knitting lately. I finally turned the heel on the second Leyburn socks and frogged the Charade sock to start again on slightly larger needles. It was just a little tighter than I wanted and the stitches were too stretched when I put it on. I have used up the yarn I frogged so I am about where I was before frogging. Liz, I am using bamboo needles because my other set in the size I need are in use for the Leyburn sock. They aren't so bad after awhile.

I had a dream last night that I was in a flood, not sure where, but I was carrying three bags, one of which is my project bag with the Leyburn socks. I was being pulled through the water by something and I could see i was losing stuff from my bag. I saw my crochet hook float away and something else. Well, I just pulled out my sock from that same project bag to turn the heel and I noticed I am missing a needle. I am sure it is on the couch or in my other bag, but then again, it may be lost in the flood..

Ok, I am seriously considering culinary school for baking and pastry. That one is near the town that has a brewing course Josh is interested in. It's also the school my cooking hero Alton Brown went to. That's not the only reason I chose it though.

Does getting a six-pack of Guinness as payment for proofreading make me a professional? I am getting paid for my work after all.

Oh yeah, because I am sure you all are wondering, my cloning was a success. Now it's just a matter of making some mRNA so we can inject it into the embryos and make the frogs glow!

I just started some socks I plan to give as a Christmas gift. I am quite proud of myself for being that prepared and for starting so early. The yarn for another pair of Christmas gift socks should arrive in the next few days.

I spent my weekend driving Mom around town, baking, knitting and playing new games on the Wii. Actually it's for Game Cube and it's Mario! I can't say the game is as good as Super Mario 64, but I am having fun anyway. The controls for Mario are essentially the same so I picked it up a bit faster than Josh for once. I need to get back to Zelda on the Wii, but I think Mario may get my gaming time for awhile.

I made brownies yesterday in lieu of the lemon bundt cake I intended to make, but I forgot to bring them to work. My scone experiment didn't turn out the greatest, but Josh still ate at least 4 of them. The biscuits I made for some biscuits and gravy turned out quite well. They are so good when they are fresh. I wish I had a toaster oven so the next morning I could toast them and cover them with jam.

After baking the brownies, I was in the process of cleaning up and while I was taking the flour container back to the pantry it slipped out of my hand. Flour ended up all over the floor and behind the baker's rack. I have a feeling I will find little piles of flour I missed for the next few months.

showin' some love for etsy

I must say that I love Etsy. I keep finding really great stuff on there. The yarn I have found and the nice needle cases I just purchased make me love independent retailers and handmade things. so far the customer service has been excellent and it is so easy to find the stuff you want. I especially love the handmade things I am not talented enough to make with my own hands.

I am still shocked that I made socks that fit someone. My downstream sock pal showed off her pal's Sockapalooza socks and the ones I made for her. She made some gorgeous socks also out of Koigu, but her Koigu wasn't as friendly as the Koigu I made her socks from. I didn't have a problem with the color bleeding or fading like she did.

Oh yeah, I have made some sock progress and hope to finish this one tonight. Free time is amazing. I also have more evidence that my cloning may have worked. The brownies turned out really well and now I need to figure out how to entertain my mom if she comes on Saturday. I think trip to the yarn shops may be in order. The "check engine" light came on in my car on Saturday and I really don't want to deal with whatever the problem is. I really wish the college students weren't coming back so I don't have to kick them out of my way and watch them buy cheap canoe beer*.

*Ask if you want to know what it means, but I will warn you that profanity will be used.

Chocolate Stout Cake Recipe at Epicurious.com

This Chocolate Stout Cake may become Josh's birthday cake!

Supposedly we are getting some cooler weather starting today. I really hope so. At least we are getting a good thunderstorm today. I think my subcloning may have worked! I am not getting my hopes too high because I can never get any of my cloning projects to work the first time.

I have an excess of knitting time because there is no more tae kwon do this week! I only had to teach two classes on Monday night and I am free for almost two weeks. This means I may be able to finish a pair of socks in a week. I am going to make some brownies tonight to celebrate.

The start of the first one is the pic on the right. The pattern and yarn are working really well together. It's almost twice as long now. I have one more pattern repeat and then will start the heel. The stitch pattern is really easy to memorize. I had it down after the first time. You have to borrow some stitches from the next row and the previous row during each repeat which creates a little jog in the pattern but it is barely noticeable.

no more needles floating around in a bag!

I just ordered this for traveling while knitting and this for more permanent storage.

I woke up to an alarm and a flash of lightening this morning. Oh yeah, and a headache. I still have the headache, but the rain is gone. It is actually really nice outside right now. I was counting on the humidity the weather guy told me was going to be present today to get the wrinkles out of my shirt, but that's not gonna happen. At least not yet. When I stepped outside the cooler weather made me wish I had left earlier so I could have walked to work, but then I wouldn't have met another knitter on the bus today! I have never seen her before, or at least have not seen her knitting. She was working on the sleeve of a cardigan. She learned to knit in college and it looks like she spends time on the medical campus, as do I. Speaking of others on the medical campus. There are a couple more knitters on this side of campus and one of them mentioned some lunch time knitting. I hope that works out.

I started a new sock yesterday. It's based on the Leyburn Socks pattern, but I am switching it to a top down pattern. I started the toe-up version, but I didn't like how messy my short-row toe was and I thought about doing my normal toe but... Well, I think I like cuff-down better so that is what i am doing. I think toe-up is easier to do on circs (and this stitch pattern would probably be easier to execute on circs), but I don't have any in the right size.

If it doesn't reach the predicted 94 degrees plus oppressive humidity today, I may make some brownies. The oven will be on anyway since Josh wants me to make the stuffed peppers I made a few weeks ago. I just hope I can remember what I did.

Look what I just found!
Freezer Paper T-shirt Tutorial

River Rapids socks

My first lace project is done.
Pattern: River Rapids by Sockbug
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Prosperity
Needles: 2.75mm
Mods: eye of partridge heel

I love this pattern and the yarn. They fit really well and I am very much looking forward to cooler weather so I can wear wool socks again. More pics on my Flickr page.

Aurelie Socks

I started these at the cabin and have been working on them on the bus and the last few days I got in some knitting at work while the bosses are gone. I even got them to match!

Pattern : none, it's a basic 64 stitch socks with eye of partridge heel
Yarn: MacKintosh Yarns Aurelie
Needles: 2.5mm dpns

They are a little short for me, so I believe they will go to Josh's mom for Christmas. I pulled them out last time I was at their house and she really liked them.

ETA:

I didn't have to do anything special to make them match, but I like that you think I am amazing, though I may have just ruined that.

The Burrow Socks...finally

The Burrow Socks


Pattern: Toe-up with Judy's magic cast-on and Wendy's gusset heel
yarn: MacKintosh Yarns The Burrow

I am not a fan of the heel. It doesn't fit me very well; it's loose behind the ankle. They don't fit on my sock blocker very well either.


Speaking of sock blockers...

I got some new ones with hedgehogs! They are graciously modeled by a finished Aurelie sock. One of my roommates had a couple hedgehogs and they were adorable if not pettable.



I am on the gusset of the second Aurelie sock and with the boss gone I can get a little knitting done at work when I have downtime between washes of the embryos I am staining.





I made zucchini bread last night with my gigantic zucchini I picked up at the farmers' market this past weekend. I made a double batch of bread and I still had more than enough to grill for dinner. I am still working on the eggplant parmesan as well as the melon from the farmers' market. I think I still have a blueberry scone left, too! That's a lot of food for two people.

from my sockapalooza pal

I forgot to post this! This is the socks and the extra goodies that came with them. There is a journal with a "C" on it, beaded stitch markers, a mini sock blocker and pattern for mini sock, some pencils including a frog pencil, Soak wool wash and a blue metal box with my name painted on it.


Edit:

My downstream pal emailed me and to say her socks arrived!

River Rapids socks

Here's my progress so far. I started these on the 1st in honor of SAMKAL4. The heel flap and I had a disagreement, but we have sorted all that out now after knitting it about 5 times. There were dropped stitches and switching of patterns and all sorts of crazy stuff, but we are now in agreement on the eye of partridge heel.

Last night I made eggplant parmesan for Amanda and me. I baked it in the oven so it wouldn't be so greasy and it turned out pretty well. I love it when I make something for the first time and it turns out well.

Amanda also started her gauge swatches for her first knitted project while she was over. We did some yarn shopping yesterday and I loaned her my Denise set.

Socks for me!

My Sockapalooza socks arrived today! I wish I could show them and the goodies of with some of my wonderful photography, but my camera batteries died and I can't find my other spares. I will take pics tomorrow. At least I will have better light then! My pal blogs here, if you want to see a pic of them (scroll down). I have had fun emailing with her and interested in getting to know her through her blog and Ravelry.

Today Josh and I went to Davenport to drop off the Impala in preparation for selling it. One less car and a little more money is not a bad thing. We don't need 4 vehicle for the two of us. We stopped at the farmers' market and came out with a zucchini, eggplant, blueberries and two pies, strawberry rhubarb and peach caramel. After that we dropped our purchases off at his parents place and we went to The Simpsons Movie. I knitted the River Rapids socks during the commercials and trailers, but then they turned off the lights and I switched to the Aurelie socks. I dropped a stitch and was laughing to hard, so I gave up on the knitting and just enjoyed the movie. It was definitely worth seeing.

Ok, back to knitting and watching Josh play video games. I want to turn the heel on the River Rapid socks tonight.

Aurelie #1

Aurelie #1
Originally uploaded by chelsealynnw.

Here is the first Aurelie sock. I finished it on Tuesday night and then started the second one. It's just a little short for me so I may frog the toe and add a few more rows, but otherwise I love how it turned out.

I realized one of The Burrow socks is longer than the other. Luckily it's the one I haven't bound off yet so I will rip it back to the correct length and redo the ribbing. I guess that's what I get for knitting while reading.

I also started the River Rapids socks as my first socks for SAMKAL4 and the Sock Knitters Anonymous KAL. I love the pattern so far. It knits up quickly and easily. I packed up my Sockapalooza pal's stuff last night and I just hope I have time to drop it off before I go the GymNest tonight.

Oh yeah, as for how I can knit and read at the same time, I think it only applies to books I can get to lay flat and stockinette stitch. I haven't tried reading while knitting anything with a pattern stitch except when listening to an audiobook, and I am still not sure if I count that as reading.

Why does my library card always expire when I want to put a hold on something? The same thing happened last year. Now I need to go into the library again (I was there yesterday to pick up stuff I had on hold) and renew it. I wish the Coralville library was done with their construction and their collection was better.

Two more of my sock KALs start today. Luckily the socks I plan to start should meet the requirements of all my KALs! Is that cheating or just good planning? I still need to bind off The Burrow socks. Pure laziness on my part for not doing it. I started the second Aurelie sock last night and will take a pic of the first one when I get home.

Tomorrow is the day to send my Sockapalooza pal's socks. I am including 12oz of coffee I picked up at the farmers' market, some Soak wool wash trial packets and a crocodile shaped notions case. I washed the socks last night and they are still drying on my homemade sock blockers. I was going to make some biscotti to put in the box, but I didn't get around to it last night and I not sure it will happen tonight either. She's a coffee snob like me and most coffee snobs like biscotti. I still don't believe that someone is making socks for me. I have been told they are done and goodies including a frog something are to be included, but I still forget someone knitted socks for me. I probably won't get used to the idea until the package arrives at my front door.

I spent a lot of money last month on gas money for road trips, AAA, sock club yarn and other random stuff so I am trying to cut back in August. My savings isn't accruing as fast as I would like though having some money tucked away in a CD helps me feel slightly better. After purchasing a Wii and it's accessories plus a motorcycle and motorcycle classes I am running a little lower than I like. I am glad I got paid today and it seems the yearly raise happened this month. It's not a lot, but every little bit counts.