I Am Thankful For...

My family, my friend Nick, Ravelry and all my friends throughout the site, Lush and their wonderful products, all of the fantastic sheep that give up their coats so that I can crochet, spin, and knit, learning how to knit again, the Windy City knit group, the Stateline knit group, and my animals (Zeus, Athena, Hades, Wolf, and Ziggy)

Real Quick Post...

This week blew by fast. I have made good headway with my spoilee's package. Only bit more to go of things to make and a few more finishing touches. I am really hoping to send during the early send which begins tomorrow!!! Well off to relax for a small bit before working on my homework.

Look Look Look!!!

After many attempts to make my hands and my brain reconnect as to the right things to do so that I can once again knit... IT FINALLY WORKED AND... I'M KNITTING!!!

::happy dance::

::squee::

::happy dance::

I can do a long-tail cast on, and knit and purl in the Continental method! Even though I more dominant with my right hand, holding my yarn with my left hand is just more natural especially since I have been crocheting so much. I can not tell you how many times I have been attempting to get the hang of knitting again. I finally (after way too many tries) figured out that I was going wrong in my method. I have been trying the American way and it just felt way too cumbersome and I couldn't get the hang of things, which would lead to needles flying and me being pissed. Yesterday I nailed down the long tail cast on and Continental knit stitch through the help of a few books at home and some internet videos. Today I finally got the hang of the purl stitch and figured out what I was doing wrong. Even though it doesn't look like much, here is a tiny swatch of my CO, and 2x2 rib stitch! YAY!!!

Here is an extension I have 2x2, 3x3, and 1x1 all separated with rows of garter. I am so thrilled! :D

Some Visitors...

We have quite a few visiting animals frequenting our back yard. There is a constant influx of birds that are quite humorous to see dive into the bush and then pop back out. Unfortunately due to the sudden drop in temperature, the bush has lost most of its leaves in a short amount of time. Another comical critter in our yard, that I have dubbed Jabba Squirrel because he is a portly sight and just seems to get fatter. I swear, pretty soon he probably won't be able to fit into his winter home. He is so chunky I want to just poke him ;)

A Boring Post...

Let's see what has happened this week...

I had high hopes of going to an awesome party area of Chicago for Halloween with my friend. Unfortunately plans fell through. I could say plenty more but I will just leave it at that. Any plans that I do make on Halloween seem to fall through. It has been that way for years. I swear I have been cursed on what I consider my "new year". So instead of going out and having fun, I retired to the basement away from the ringing of the doorbell, that I let my parents answer. I had to get as far away from the doorbell because everytime it rings, my heart jumps (even if I know it is going to ring) and my heart is in a tricky state as it is. So no use trying to make it stop sooner than it should.

My car, Isis, is starting to die. It's sad because even though she is technically my second car, I have had her the longest and I got her when she was brand new back in 2002. I can't believe I have had her for seven years. I also can't believe just how much traveling I have done with her. I got her while I was living in Florida and she has been with me all through my moving including when I was living out in New Mexico. Ahhh those super long rides out in the desert, how I miss them so. Sadly, her breaks, spark plugs, wires, air filter, oil, O2 sensor, belts (which I found out are the original ones) need to all be fixed or replaced. And all costing way more money than I have. And because of this predicament I will be stranded in this prison of a town that I am living even more than I already am due to lack of a vehicle.

Thursday was fun. We actually got to finish three games of quidditch before we were rained out. I swear this Fall, if you can count on anything it is that it will rain on Thursday evening (when we have quidditch games scheduled). Oh well, it is still tons of fun even though we are out in the freezing rain and slipping and sliding around in the mud. Our matches this week were Ravagers vs Falcons, Falcons vs Hemlock, and Ravagers vs Hemlock. We (my team, the Ravagers) beat the Falcons easy-peasy. Their seeker is quite slow which makes us laugh because the snitch loves to taunt him. Unfortunately we lost to the Hemlocks. Their team is quite good and even though our chasers were scoring quite well against their team and our keeper did an excellent job of blocking their attempts, their seeker is one tough little bugger and ended up winning the game.

Well that is all I have to say... I could ramble on about my lovely MBA class having a group project due this weekend (lovely) but I will stop.

ttfn

What a Week...

This week seemed to fly by. I don't know where the time has gone. This week also seemed to be the week for never ending rain. And this week's quidditch match got rained out, yet again... What is it with rain and Thursdays?!? While I do quite enjoy the rain, the constant hard rainfall can get bothersome, especially when there are crops that should be getting harvested. This year's corn crop has seemed to be plagued by problems. First there wasn't enough warm weather to get the crops grown fast enough. Now the rain is preventing them from being dried out enough to get combined. If you do it while they are still wet, you will end up with a lovely moldy mess in your silo. Poor corn :( 

On a side note, 2.5 pumpkins down and 1.5 left to finish before Friday.
The baby blanket is roughly 40% done and that needs to be kicked out soon as well.
Hopefully I can get some good work done on Monday when I am riding the train for 4 hours or so into the not so local- LYS.

Where in the World is Winnie?

10/15- Winnie gave us a clue in her letter as to where she is. I think she is at the Ministry of Magic in London. Poor Winnie having to deal with pesky wizards spouting lies. Don't they know any better?
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10/24- Our second letter from Winnie has given us some interesting clues. It sounds like she is traveling all over. The first place I think she stopped this week was Larnach Castle in New Zealand. How lovely to travel there and skip out on Winter all together and go right into Spring ;) The second clue I am going to have to say is Stanstead, Quebec. Stanstead was combined with Rock Island and Beebe and were previously known as Tois Villages. I am unsure what the CLR and CLS clues mean in her letter though.
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10/31- From Winnie's clues I am guessing that she was looking for Cyprian Youdle in Queerditch Marsh and then ended up going to Appleby village located in Lincolnshire, which was sadly void of any shops. Clues- DNT
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10/7- One of the stops Winnie mentions is a Capital city which lies where there once was a lake. I am going to say that this is Mexico City. Her second place this week gives a clue that kites are flown and made there. I found little on this but am throwing out my guess that it is Chile because it is tradition to fly them during their independence celebration. Her third stop this week landed her in a location with a pink library and nearby carnival. I am going to guess she landed in Brasil. Curious Letters- OT
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11/14- Looks like Winnie has traded in South America for somewhere not as humid and has a lot more sand. She mentioned a book shaped library. Well, I found the Library in Dubai, UAE that is book shaped (i guess)  Seen Here -->

But I think this building is much more book like - Don't you?

This building is located in Turkmenistan and is the National Press Building. I have found little about the building itself except where it is located and the name of it. However, I think they took their inspiration from the Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. The second place Winnie mentions going is to see the pyramids in Giza, Egypt.

And more interesting letters -- DOTEOU