Allyson's Birthday

I now have a niece who is three years old. Yesterday was Allyson's birthday. We actually celebrated on Sunday afternoon. The birthday party didn't have quite as many presents as Christmas, but the ones there were went over pretty well. She had a Tinkerbell themed party. Grandma made cupcakes complete with Tinkerbell toppers and papers, and we had Tinkerbell cups, plates, napkins, and headbands.








Mom getting the cupcakes ready.


















Allyson preparing to blow out the candles.

















Lauren watching the festivities.

















Allyson enjoying a cupcake (notice the frosting mustache).

















Time for presents!









We had a good time during their visit. They all left early this morning so we said good-bye to them last night. I got to play with both of my nieces quite a bit yesterday. Lauren finally warmed up enough to be around me without her mom for a little while (just in time for them to leave). She still called me (and everyone else) Papa the whole time. They are both cute little girls. I'm sad to see them go, but I should be able to see them again this summer. Maybe by then Lauren will be able to say my name.

Presents!

The last few days have been filled with presents. It started out on Christmas morning. Allyson and Lauren particularly made quite a haul. Santa (i.e. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Papa) spoiled them rotten. The biggest hit was the toy grocery carts. They got one for each of them, but Allyson still freaks out if Lauren even goes near hers. Allyson seems to like the Tinkerbell suitcase we got for her, and Lauren likes the stuffed dalmation puppy we got her (Allyson likes that, too). It's funny to watch the two of them. If Lauren goes near Allyson's stuff, Allyson freaks out, but if she plays with Lauren's stuff, that's okay. Right now I guess Lauren's too young to care what's hers and what's not. Perhaps in not too much longer they'll both freak out when the other touches her stuff. What fun!

The presents we got for people all seemed to be well-received. Mom was surprised by the scarf I knit for her, but really liked it. The biggest surprise for her was the nice leather jacket Dad got for her.


Yesterday, she wore both of these presents together.

















I also knit a scarf for my sister-in-law, Amy. It turned out really pretty, though not as long as I would've liked. It still works as a scarf, it's just a bit on the short side. Amy was sitting on the other side of the room from me when I took this picture, so it actually shows the whole family, which is kind of fun.



Justin is wearing the hat that I made for him. He liked it and wore it the rest of the morning while we opened presents. I also made a hat for my father-in-law, Mike. I'd made him one a couple years ago, but this one is much nicer. Also, while I'm not a big fan of the color, he really likes it. The last present I made for anyone was the vest I made for Donna, my mother-in-law. She knew I was making it, but I wouldn't let her see it until it was all done. Unfortunately the pictures I took on Christmas morning of her with it on were all blurry, but I did take a few pictures of it sitting on a table, and those turned out pretty well.
The pattern for the vest is one I came up with myself. I'm pretty proud of it because it looks nice, and it actually fits Donna.

These were all of my knitted presents for the year. The last two, Mike's hat and Donna's vest, were both done kind of last minute. Donna's vest was last minute because I was busy and didn't have time to start it until two weeks before Christmas. I actually finished it on Christmas Eve. Not bad, especially for making it up as I went. The nice thing about Donna knowing about it, is that it wasn't weird for me to constantly ask to measure her. And that made it so I could get it to fit her the way she wanted. She's thrilled, and said she was going to wear it to work today. I got a bunch of stuff, too, that I had asked for and a few things I didn't ask for. Michael got a new Garmin GPS from my parents and we've been playing with that the last couple of days. I got some yarn, hiking boots, a Longaberger basket, and a few smaller things. It was definitely a good Christmas.

Merry Christmas

One of the greatest things about living here again is having family close by, especially during the holiday season. I'm particularly blessed to have parents and in-laws who get along. Since we've been married we've all celebrated Christmas as one great big family. This year my brother Justin and his family came up from Colorado. We all crammed into my parents' house for Christmas morning festivities. Michael's parents joined us and we all exchanged gifts. It was so fun to watch the little girls opening their presents and the squeals of delight that followed. It's been the perfect Christmas so far. Lots of fun with the opening of presents, breakfast all together, and lots of snow. What more could a girl ask for.

Papa

To his grandkids, my dad is Papa. To Lauren, we're all Papa. We realized Monday that she was calling my mom Papa as well. Yesterday she was calling me Papa. It's cute, though. When one of us walks in a room or catches her attention in some way, she gets this little grin on her face and says, "Papa!" in that breathy little girl voice only small children can do. Yesterday Allyson and Lauren were at the kitchen table and I walked in. Lauren looked at me and said, "Papa," and Allyson said, "That's not Papa, that's Jessica!" It was really cute. So, now I'm Papa, too.

Well, it's Christmas Eve and the knitting is officially done. I still have to weave in ends and steam block the edges, but that shouldn't take too long (I seem to say that a lot about these last projects...). Three more presents to wrap: Donna's vest (once the weaving and blocking is done), Allyson's Tinkerbell suitcase, and Michael's last present which was supposed to be here Monday and isn't yet. The snowstorms between Portland and here delayed its arrival, but according to UPS it should be delivered today. Just in the nick of time.

On Nieces, Christmas Knitting, and Snow

Well, it's been a busy few days around here. The snow has continued to pile up. Justin and Amy and their girls arrived safely yesterday morning at about 3:00. I spent most of the day at my parents' house visiting with them and Michael came over after work. I'm still finishing up a few Christmas presents and was working on a hat yesterday. "What're you doing?" was a frequent question from both girls. Mom gave Allyson some short wooden needles and some scrap yarn so she could "knit" too. For her this consisted of wrapping the yarn around the needles again and again until it was an unrecognizable mess. When I asked her what she was making she said it was a sweater for my daddy, but it was kind of small. When Lauren asked what I was doing and I told her I was making a hat her response was "Ooooooh." She then proceeded to tell me something, but I'm not really sure what it was. They're funny little girls. Allyson warmed up to me pretty quickly this time. I think it helps that she was old enough to really interact with us when they came to visit last October. Lauren's in a mommy phase and doesn't really like anyone except mommy or daddy. Yesterday my mom was playing with Allyson in the bedroom they're sleeping in and Mom said, "Hi, Lauren!" Lauren looked at her and started wailing. She likes to look at Michael and I. At one point when she was wandering around the house I held out my hand to her and she gave me five, so I took that as a good sign.

They're fun little girls and it's good to spend time with Justin and Amy. This will be a busy, fun week. The Christmas knitting is nearly done. I finished the bulk of the knitting for the vest on Saturday, blocked it out that night and left it to dry all day Sunday. I started the hat Sunday and finished it yesterday. The picture I took of Allyson wearing it with my phone didn't save for some reason. I've started putting the vest together. I have one more side and shoulder seam to sew, then the edging around the collar and armholes to knit, which shouldn't take too long. I should be able to wrap it tomorrow (hopefully).

Here are the promised pictures of the snow from the other day.




This is early Thursday morning. It continued to snow until around 4:00 that afternoon. The snow did settle some on Friday, so it was more dense and less deep. It snowed more Sunday and yesterday. When I was getting ready to go to my parents' house yesterday morning, it took a good half hour for me to get my car out. Michael had cleaned it off Thursday morning around 9:00, but there was still about a foot of snow on my car yesterday. Plus, I tried to shovel our walk, since it snowed Sunday afternoon and yesterday morning, but only got about halfway before I decided it was too much work and was taking way too long. I did have to shovel some around the car. The snow had drifted up almost over the wheels. Plus, all the snow that was on my car ended up in front of and next to my car. I had to dig a bit from in front (I was backed into the parking space) so I could pull out without high centering the car. I did all this with jeans on, which was not the most brilliant idea. By the time I was done, my jeans were covered in snow from the knees down. I had to come back inside and change before I left. Yay for snowpants.

Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland

Today is officially a snow day. The Idaho State Police have issued an advisory that non-emergency vehicles should stay off the road. Does this actually stop people? Not really. Last night around 7:30 Michael shoveled our front walk (for the second time) and when I went out to check on him, it made me want to play in the snow. All my childhood snow cravings came back in a rush. So, once he was done, I bundled up in all my snow gear and we headed out. We went for a walk, which sounds crazy but was actually a lot of fun. I tried to make a snow angel just behind our parking lot, outside of the gate that keeps cars from coming in that way. That was not the greatest idea. I'm not used to snow this fluffy. It's been so cold lately, that the snow's moisture content is securely locked in crystals of ice. This means it's not suitable for making snow balls, snow men, or snow sculptures of any kind. This also means that, despite it's depth, it's not a good idea to fall backward into a snow drift on top of asphalt. Now, I didn't really hurt myself, but I was definitely expecting a softer landing. The walk was really cool. Christmas lights in a snowfall are so pretty. Michael took a couple pictures with his phone that I'll post later.

It snowed all night long and all of our plans for the day have been cancelled. I was supposed to have lunch with my friend Juanita, but that didn't happen. We'll reschedule, though. But I was looking forward to that, for sure. It snowed all night. I think we've broken records. And there's no sign of it letting up anytime soon. Michael has shoveled five times since this started, and probably needs to again. We actually walked to his parents house (they don't live all that far from us), but that was the longest walk to their house I've ever made. The waist deep snow made for slow going. It's fluffy, but it's deep. We've been camped out here since about 10:00 this morning. Michael's being nice and snow-blowing his parents' driveway. It'll be an interesting walk home, that's for sure.

Wool Socks

I love wool socks. They are wonderful. Wool tends to get a bad rap, and many people think of wool as a synonym for "itchy." While there are definitely wools that are itchy (especially if you're allergic to wool, which I, fortunately, am not), but not all of them are. There are some very nice, non-itchy wools. And socks made from this type of wool are the best socks in the world. Particularly if you live in a northern climate (such as Idaho) where it snows and temperatures can drop below zero for days at a time. Sadly, I only have two pairs of wool socks. My first pair of adult socks are made of a variegated green wool and keep my toes nice and toasty. Here they are:


The other pair I finished a couple months ago, but I'm not crazy about them. They were my first experiment with double knitting, where I knit both socks at the same time. Because of this, they are knit from thicker yarn than is usually used in sock knitting and they don't match. This is intentional, so that I could tell the socks apart as I was knitting them. The more experienced double knitters use the same yarn for both socks so that they end up with a matching pair, but since it was my first time I did not do this.


As you can see, they're a bit odd looking. I didn't weave in the ends because I don't really plan on wearing them. Although, I did wear them on Sunday under my boots when it was ridiculously cold. My other wool socks were in need of washing and I was desperate for wool socks to keep my toes from freezing. Fortunately for me, I now have enough sock yarn for at least six pairs of socks. My mom got me a bunch of sock yarn for my birthday. I started one already, but I only have the toe done.

Thoughts

I've now been on my Christmas break for about a week. Traditionally, I use this time to catch up on sleep. Strangely, that it not happening this time. I like sleep. Sleep makes me a happier person. For some reason, sleep does not always like me. The last couple nights have been not good. I even took something to help me sleep last night, and I was really sleepy, but took forever to fall asleep, and I still woke up a lot. Then I woke up at 5:30 or so and couldn't go back to sleep. I did finally sleep a little more from about 8 - 9:30. I don't like this. Normally I would try to exercise more, or something, but it's ridiculously cold outside, so I don't really want to go for a walk. Though, today is warmer than the last couple days, that's not saying much. According to weather.com it's 9 degrees Fahrenheit right now and actually feels that way, too. The last couple days the windchill has been pushing us down significantly below zero.

In other news, I finished one of my last Christmas present projects. It only needs to be blocked, which I will do tomorrow. The vest for my mother-in-law is progressing nicely. I think I'll probably finish the left front today, which puts me ahead of schedule. I'm at the armhole shaping point right now. From here on to the end of this section goes more quickly. It looks like it'll get done in time for Christmas after all.

Christmas time is here!

There are officially ten days until Christmas and counting. And I'm not done with all the presents yet. There are two still on the knitting needles. One is nearly finished, which is good. The other, a vest for my mother-in-law, is less than half done. Considering I just started it on Friday, though, I'm doing pretty good. The right front is finished and I'm about to cast on for the left front. According to my calculations, I'm right on track. I managed to stay this way by staying up until 2:00 in the morning to finish the right front, but that wasn't entirely by choice. I went to bed at 10:00 and got back up at 11:30 when I was no closer to going to sleep, and in fact feeling more awake than I did at 10:00. So, I got up and finished the right front. Since I'm not using a pattern, but designing this myself, the neckhole shaping was a bit of trial and error. Now that I know what to do, the left front should go a little more quickly.

This vest is my second venture into knitting something I've designed myself. The first was a hat commissioned by a lady from church for her daughter for Christmas. The daughter was wanting an earflap hat, but her mom couldn't find any in colors her daughter would like. So, she asked me to knit one for her in pink, purple, and white. This is what I came up with:




I'm pretty pleased with it, I must admit.

All of my actual Christmas shopping is done, though. I did order one more thing for Michael last night that he'll really like. According to my calculations, it should be here around the end of the week.

Hiking

Spring has finally arrived and, as usual, is very finicky. Since the weather has been so nice lately I've been wanting to go hiking. As I'm sure you know, North Idaho has lots of great hiking places. There are even some right in town. It would help if I actually knew how to get to them. Having grown up here, you'd think I'd know. Sadly, that is not the case. Last year we found some trails on Canfield at the end of Nettleton Gulch Road, which isn't terribly far from where we live. On Sunday we decided to go hiking around back there in the afternoon. Upon our arrival we discovered many people on dirt bikes. While pedestrians are allowed on the trail, we opted not to stay and risk getting run over by said dirt bikes. This caused a bit of a dilemma. You see, I know that there are pedestrian only hiking trails on both Canfield Mountain and Best Hill. Sadly, I do not know how to get to them or even a vague idea of where they are. I have hiked on both hills as a teenager, but the last time was probably close to ten years ago and I wasn't driving then. There is a park that is right at the base of Best Hill that we decided to go to and see if there were any trails we could follow leading out of there. There weren't but we were so desperate at that point that we just started walking and made our own trail. It had been raining for a good portion of the day at that point, so the tall grass was very wet, and by the time we finished so were our pant legs. We had a good time. At one point we were nearly attacked by a "wild" animal. There are a few houses up on the hill and we strayed dangerously close to one. We were going to give it a pretty wide berth, but wanted to pass it on our quest to continue going up. There were two dogs that spotted us and started barking and running toward us. One was on a chain. The other...was not. It was definitely not pleased by our proximity. Once we realized the lack of restraints, we quickly turned and walked back down the hill a good ways. We ended up not getting very far up the hill because we had to backtrack so far, then go a good bit over so as to give the house in question a really wide berth. By the time we got just a little above where the house was (and significantly to the side of it) we were getting tired and decided to go home. Now, if I could just find a map of some actual hiking trails...

Updates

So, my once a week minimum of blogging hasn't really worked out for the last month and a half. Things have been a little nuts. Between Michael's arms and my own health issues, it's been rather interesting. It turns out that Michael did actually fracture his elbows. When he landed on his hands with his elbows locked, they came close to dislocating from the pressure exerted but couldn't, so the radial head where it connects into the joint fractured in both arms. Yay. They didn't put him in casts or have to do any surgery or anything, but he hasn't been able to lift much over a pound for the last month and a half. Which means I have to do any heavy lifting and take out the trash and carry all the groceries and everything else. Normally Michael insists on doing all that stuff, so it's been interesting. He's slowly but surely getting better, though. The soft tissue in his forearms took a beating too, so his wrists have been hurting a lot. He's scheduled to go back in to the doctor in the next week or so to follow up and make sure everything's healing properly, so he should be back to normal before too much longer.

In the meantime, I've been having fun in doctors' offices myself. At the end of April I started having some intense lower abdominal pain and nausea, so I stayed home for a few days hoping it would go away on its own, and went to the doctor when it didn't. Since I thought it was just a bug, I went to my family doctor. After examining me he suspected an ovarian cyst. Well, that freaked me out quite a bit and they scheduled me for an ultrasound, but the imaging place couldn't get me in until the next Friday (the doctor visit was on a Wednesday). By Monday I was feeling worse and didn't want to wait until Friday for an ultrasound, so I called a gynecologist's office and was able to get in to see the nurse practitioner that afternoon. I ended up changing gynecologists at the same time, which was good. The doctor I'd been seeing was a jerk and didn't listen to me. I tried switching doctors within the practice, but apparently you have to get a special dispensation from the Pope in order to do that, or at least that's how they acted. So, I went somewhere else. And they are soooo much better. Anyway, they did the ultrasound that day and it wasn't a cyst. The nurse practitioner (who was very nice, but definitely not a doctor) told me there was a lot of gas on the ultrasound and that was what was causing the pain so to get some anti-gas medicine and I should be fine. I tried that, but still felt horrible the next morning so I called back to the doctor's office. This time they scheduled me to see one of the actual doctors the next morning. He saw me and decided I probably had an infection, so he gave me lots of drugs and made me come back a week later. So, I'm finally better from all that. Yay. Also, I've had abnormal pap tests for the last year. Last year I had this LEEP procedure done where they shaved off the abnormal areas with this electrified little wire. Doesn't that sound like fun? Well, things are still abnormal, so I had to go back to the doctor yesterday to see about getting that taken care of. Now, I'm going to a different doctor than who did the LEEP last year, because he was the aforementioned jerk. The guy I saw yesterday is so much better than my former doctor. He explained everything he was doing and gave me a lot more information about the way things work than anyone has before. Apparently women who've had the LEEP done can have pregnancy complications and have a higher risk of going into premature labor. I was not informed of this last year, and I'm thinking that might have been nice to know. When I went in yesterday I pretty much expected to have to have another LEEP done (and if I'd gone to the other doctor, who knows? I might have). I basically told the doctor that if he thought another one was going to be needed to just do it and not make me come back in a few more weeks. He then explained that there are more risks involved than I was previously made aware of and that it probably wouldn't be necessary since my last pap test was only mildly abnormal. Anyway, they ended up taking a biopsy (which isn't all that much fun either), but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. So, hopefully this will be the end of my incessant doctor visits, and hopefully the end of abnormalities.

Now that I've written a novel about all our medical issues, on to lighter subjects. Last weekend was the student recitals for the Northwest Academy of Music, where I teach violin. It was fun and my students did a good job. Also, I've finally finished knitting the sweater I started before Christmas. It's not entirely put together yet, as I'm in no real hurry to to that. The weather's warming up, I'm not going to be able to wear it anytime soon. So, now I've got three projects on the needles, two sweaters for me and one of a pair of baby socks for an upcoming baby shower.

The nearly finished sweater.

The newly cast on sweater. This is the lower back section of what will be a belted cardigan. The other sweater I cast on for myself isn't very exciting to look at. It's just dark brown stockinette stitch and it's rolling a lot right now. It'll have a really pretty fair isle type yoke. I'll post pictures when there's actually something to look at.

This is the first of a pair of baby socks. Hopefully they don't take too long. The baby shower's on June 8!

Insomnia

So, it's 11:00 pm on Tuesday night and I'm still awake. I went to bed over an hour ago, but sleep has been elusive. My mind keeps whirling with thoughts of people I need to call or email and things I need to do tomorrow. This is one aspect of myself that I don't particularly care for. Sometimes my brain refuses to shut off. I have a small arsenal of mental tricks to try to help me focus on one thing for a period of time, thereby shutting out all the extra mental noise and allowing sleep to creep in. Unfortunately, not even those are working tonight. So, on to blogging and Tylenol PM. I just took some and now I'm waiting for it to kick in. The blogging helps to rid my brain of the to-do list that's forming in my head. Here it is in no particular order. Tomorrow I need to email or call Mr. Duke and Mr. Sandford about one of my violin students, email (or more accurately, message on Facebook) Regina, email Shawna, call back Keith at the Academy and confirm the time for my new student, call the mother of my new student and touch base with her, call Monica, practice, talk to Nancy about this weekend, and make it through the day without falling asleep or throwing my work phone against the wall and stomping it into a million tiny pieces.

On a different note (ha ha), I now have nearly all of my music for my audition for the Spokane Symphony. Three more pieces came today via UPS. The remaining two pieces should (hopefully) be arriving in the next week or so via postal service. Last night I counted and I only have about 20 more weeks to go at my job before I can quit and get ready for grad school. Yay!!

Saturday at the Symphony

Michael made it to see the Spokane Symphony last night. He'd been taking ibuprofen and it wasn't helping much, but we found some Naproxen with our medicines and switched him to that. It seems to be helping more, so he went with me last night. It was really good. The soloist was amazing. It was all 20th century music, and I loved it. We also went to the pre-concert lecture given by the conductor Eckart Preu, and he had the soloist come out and he asked her a few questions. It was fun. Today we haven't left the house, which has been nice. We've both gotten some much needed rest. Always good for gearing up for another week of work.

Keeping up

I've been trying to be better about blogging. I try to write at least once a week. So, here it goes. We'll start with today and go backward. This morning I was awakened by my husband standing at the end of the bed calling to me in a rather loud voice (I sleep with earplugs in, and I was dead to the world). He had decided to go inline skating this morning at the local skate park. And fell. Pretty hard. He caught himself with his hands, but hyperextended both elbows. This makes it difficult to do things like feed oneself or pretty much anything that requires the bending of an elbow. So, it's been an interesting day. We went to the doctor just to be sure it wasn't anything worse, and they x-rayed his elbows and said that nothing was broken and it would just take time to heal. I'm hoping he'll feel better in the morning. Things have been pretty consistently busy, though. My week days consist of working for ten hours, eating dinner, practicing, then maybe going somewhere because Michael doesn't really like sitting around the house a lot. Plus, we've disconnected the cable from our TV so we actually will do stuff, not just sit like lumps for hours on end. My newest project that I've decided I would like to undertake (in addition to preparing auditions and all) is a patio vegetable garden. Doesn't it sound nice to just be able to open your sliding glass door and pick fresh tomatoes and zucchini and whatever else you might wish to grow for your dinner? I think it does. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Last Saturday we went to one of the Spokane Symphony's special concerts. It featured Doc Severinsen, a trumpet player, and his group. He apparently "retired" to Mexico where he came upon these two guys who'd been playing together for a long time on guitar and violin. Throw in a percussionist (primarily hand percussion) and a symphony and you've got a concert! It was really cool, actually, and we had great seats. Although, at the Fox there's not really a bad seat in the house. Tomorrow we have tickets again for their classical series concert. Anne Akiko Meyers is the featured soloist for Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. They're also playing Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Sibelius's Symphony No. 5. I'm not sure that Michael will actually be able go with me, so I might have to find myself a date. It'll be fun either way.

Finally

I did it. I got accepted to the Master's program at EWU for Music. Not only that, I got a Graduate Fellowship. YAY!! I'm really excited. I'll start in the Fall term, which begins September 24. I got the letter in the mail yesterday, and I was so excited I was literally jumping up and down. Being so excited makes me do dorky things. This morning I signed the letter accepting my fellowship, then made a color copy of it to keep and possibly frame. I mailed the original off this morning.

On an unrelated note, it's still snowing here and it needs to stop. It's March 27th! I need spring! I'm ready for it to be sunny and in the 60s!

The First Day of Spring

According to the calendar, today is the first day of Spring. And it's snowing outside. It has been all day long. When it got sunny and rather warm a couple weeks ago I thought we were done with the cold white stuff. Apparently I was wrong. I know it's not uncommon to snow in March in North Idaho, but it's officially not winter anymore. It's not supposed to be snowing anymore. Apparently Mother Nature has other ideas. Well, perhaps I'll get to wear my sweater that I'm working on this season after all. Last week I mentioned that I hoped I'd made the first part of my sweater correctly when I realized I hadn't done so on the second half, and, fortunately I did. I will not have to rip and re-knit my entire sweater, which is good. The second half, though ripped back to about and inch and a half, is now about half done. I'm into the increases, after having done all of the waist decreases correctly this time. I have three more increases to do, then I get in to the lace part for the top. It'll be pretty. Now that I'm down to one project it's going quickly. I'm itching to start something else though. I started swatching for another project. I think it's a disease. But, I finished the swatch and haven't actually started the next project. I really want to finish this sweater. Especially now that I think I might be able to wear it still before spring really arrives.

Lunchtime Frogging

So, normally I knit during my half hour lunch break at work. The demands on my time have gradually increased, due to my growing studio, as well as my desire to practice more and thus acheive goals I have had for several years now. This is all to the good, but it means that my time for knitting has gradually shrunk. Gone are the days where I worked on three and four projects at a time and got them done quickly. Now, I'm working on two projects, and one of them is for someone else. So, once I finish that one I'm going to have to limit myself to one at a time. The sweater I'm knitting for myself (which I've been working on since Christmas or so) I've been working on at lunch time. Now, it's with thin yarn on small needles, so it's taking quite a while. Plus, I only get about 2 rows done in a lunch break, which is only 8 rows a week, normally. I have worked on it a bit outside of work, but mostly not. At least not on the section I'm on now. I've finished the back and I'm working on the front. All this is so you fully grasp the sadness that I am about to explain. I've been happily knitting away, getting closer and closer to the 7 inch mark which means I need to increase for the bust. I'm already well past the waist decreases. Today I got out the pattern to double check the measurement to start increasing...make sure it is in fact 7 inches, not 7 1/4 inches or 7 1/2 inches. As I looked at the pattern I noticed a phrase. A tiny phrase. Only a few words, in fact. It was right after describing the first decrease row for the waist shaping. It said "work 5 rows even." Work 5 rows even. Do not decrease for those five rows. Then "repeat last 6 rows 7 times." Well, I had either forgotten that phrase or missed it entirely, because my decreases were every other row, not every 5 rows. Brilliant. And I was almost to the increases. I'd worked about 4 or 5 inches. And I had to rip it all out. Instead of tapering gently to the waist, it sharply decreased for the waist. This obviously won't work. So, I spent the bulk of my lunch break ripping out most of my work over the last month and a half or so. Always a lovely feeling. I managed to put all the stitches back on my needles very carefully. Of course a good half of them are twisted, so the next row will take longer than normal as well. I got started on that row (which is row 3 of the "work 5 even" section), but only got about a third of the way done with it before it was time to go back to work. So, that's my tale of woe. I'm just hoping I read the directions correctly when I did the back...

Umm...It's March Already

So, I just realized I never posted the results of all my Christmas knitting. And it's now March 6. And I'm not going to today either. I'm on my lunch break at work and my photos are at home on my computer there. Things have been quite hectic for the last few months. They still are, actually. Here's a brief overview of the craziness. I'm still playing for the Coeur d'Alene Symphony, which effectively eats up all of my Thursday evenings. I also volunteered to play with a select group for a fund raiser for the symphony which took place this last Friday. It went well, but there's something a bit unsatisfying about playing cheesy arrangements of moderate rock tunes (The Doors, for example). I also played a concert for the Helena Symphony in Montana, which sounded really cool at the beginnning and turned out somewhat less so. The conductor left a bit to be desired, as did the main members of the orchestra. Oh well. Live and learn, I suppose. And realize an entire weekend (including a 9 hour return trip due to freeway closures and bad weather) is not worth $240. I've also applied to the Master's program at Eastern Washington University and had my audition this past Friday. It went well, and I should hear back from them in the next couple of weeks. I'm fairly confident I'll be accepted, I'm mostly just waiting to hear about the assitantship I also applied for. That will make going to school immensely easier. I've also entered myself in Musicfest Northwest, which is an amateur concerto competition. The winner gets $600 and the opportunity to be a soloist with the Spokane Symphony, which sounds pretty good to me. So, I'm practicing for that. Also, I'm preparing to audition for the substitute list for the Spokane Symphony, so I have all that music to work up as well. Lots of practicing going on. We joined a gym this year, and I've been running. It's fun. I used to run when I was in elementary and middle school, but stopped. Now I enjoy it because I don't feel like I have to be faster than anyone else. Also, the only time I have available to read much is on the treadmill, so it works. Knitting has slowed down a bit, as I'm busier, but I still have a few things I'm working on. I'm finishing up a sweater for a friend at work (I just have to sew it up), and I'm working on a sweater for myself. Thin yarn and small needles make for slow going. Anyway, I've got to get back to work now. Lunch is over.