In lieu of a regular post...

Still recovering here, but thought that I would share the fiber related pictures from my recent vacation...Enjoy!

If you look closely at the center of the photo, you will see me petting the yarn and choosing which skeins will be coming home with me...

Yarn: Paca-Peds by The Alpaca Yarn Co.

Colorway: Tye Dye

Yarn: Koigu for Endpaper Mitts

Colorways: 2120 and 2235 (from top to bottom)


Yarn: Socks that Rock (yep, I went all the way to LA to get some)

Colorways: Shrinking Violet and Ruby Slippers (from top to bottom)

Forced hiatus...

I thought that I would be updating this blog with vacation pictures and descriptions before now, but life has again gotten in the way...And, I'm not going to be sharing those things with you now. For my very few readers who don't know what has been happening in the past week, I have found myself in the middle of a little medical emergency...I'm doing all right now and I'm out of the hospital after partaking of a few days of inpatient care, but I have a long road ahead of me. I am not shutting this blog down because there will be knitting again and I will return, but I am going to take a break for now...Thanks for being here!

Checking in...

Well, I'm still alive but this past month has certainly kept me busy...I've been working at three jobs during the past month, and one of those jobs ended yesterday. So, I'm down to the two jobs that I'll be sticking wtih for the forseeable future. Can you hear the relief in my voice? The two jobs are still going to keep me busy, but I will at least have my weekends off! Those two days might just mean that I will again be able to pick up my knitting after nearly a month hiatus...It was a forced hiatus, to be sure, and I am so looking forward to reintroducing some knitting into my life! Of course, that also means that I will be reintroducing my presence at this blog with one new feature...Mrs. Ha-Ha purchased a digital camera for our family yesterday, so you will now be treated to some pictures of the knits that I keep mentioning in this space. To answer the big question (although I think that all of you already know this), the SSCCG was not completed by the ceremony and is still not completed. I am planning on diving back into that this week and will hopefully be able to get it off the needles in the next couple of weeks. The other good news? We leave for LA and Vegas next Saturday! Oh, I can't even begin to explain how wonderful a vacation sounds right now...I'll be back soon with knitting and vacation pictures!

Running on fumes...

Well, I didn't expect for it to take that long to get back here, but it has been a pretty crazy week! It's been my last full week at my current job before I start my new job...That doesn't quite mean that I will be done with my current job as I am putting four more Saturdays in there to take care of my last clients. I'm definitely feeling excited about starting the new job, but also a little nervous which is pretty typical for me...I haven't knit a single stitch this week, which is typically my therapy, so I hope to get some in over the weekend. I think that could help me to feel more relaxed about starting the new gig...

Mrs. Ha-Ha and I are visiting her parents for the 2007 Pumpkin Festival this weekend. My mom is also joining us for the event, so it will be a big family weekend...It also means that we get to eat pumpkin pancakes tomorrow morning! Yum!

I haven't made much progress this week on the SSCCG...I'll blame it on the craziness of the week, but I also feel the pressure to get on with it so that I can have it done in a timely manner. It's probably a bad sign that people have started to remind me that it's still okay to give a commitment ceremony/wedding gift within 12 months of the event. I really hope that I don't have to apply that old rule of etiquette...

I've spent a little time on what sweater I might want to make with the yarn that I'm going to allow myself to purchase during the big diet...I have been thinking of Morrigan from "No Sheep For You" or the Threepenny Pullover by Veronik Avery (in Interweave Knits Fall 2004). But I'll continue the search for a little while because I might as well enjoy the planning and then purchasing of my last yarn until May of next year...

Well, there are chores to be done before I can leave this afternoon for Pumpkin fun so I had better get on with it. I hope that all of you have a great weekend!

It's official!

Yup, I have officially decided that it's time for a yarn diet. It's going to look a little different than I first planned, so I'm going to lay it out here. This is both my way of providing myself with a reminder about the basics of my yarn diet, and also to try and convince some of my knitting friends (hello Cynical Knitting Gal!) to join me in my venture! If nobody joins me, I'm still going to do this on my own, but I know that it would probably be easier and more fun if I had some company! So, here's my plan:

1) The yarn diet will start today (9/8/07) and will continue through my birthday (5/23/08).

2) I will allow myself to purchase one more sweater's worth of yarn, which I will likely buy on vacation in October. I am unlikely to be able to avoid wanting to purchase souvenir yarn and I would really like to be able to have enough yarn to make one more sweater, so I'm going to just allow myself this one purchase during the yarn diet.

3) I will accept yarn gifts (I know that I should have a yarn gift coming from a contest that I won a while ago, and there's no way that I would turn that away) during the yarn diet.

Okay, so it's pretty simple when it gets right down to it, but now I've told all of you and I will feel tremendously guilty if I give in to the yarn temptation...If anybody else wants to join me, then let me know!

Hi...

I'm finding it hard to get my brain in a position to write anything of interest today (the title of this post should be some indication of this fact), so I'm going to keep it simple. In fact, I'm just going to make a list...

1. It was a great holiday weekend! Mrs. Ha-Ha and I stayed at a Marriott resort north of the city and spent most of our time baking by the pools...It was a great getaway that will hopefully keep us going until our big vacation next month (we're going to LA and Vegas!)!

2. I'm still working hard on the SSCCG, which is becoming increasingly larger, hotter to hold (the 90 degree weather certainly doesn't help with that), and slower going. It's all exactly what I would expect from a project of this size, but it is hard to maintain my focus sometimes...Then I think of the the happy couple cuddling under it, and it does make it easier to keep on working!

3. This is my second to last full week at my current job, and that is a really strange feeling. I am guessing that it's going to continue feeling strange until I start the new job and settle in a little bit. I'm looking forward to starting and moving on with this new chapter in my career!

4. I am contemplating starting another yarn diet. I haven't bought too much yarn recently (I did go to Stitches, so I picked up some new yarn), but I have a lot already and it seems like a good time to try and use some of it. That said, I am thinking that I would allow myself to save up for one more sweater's worth of yarn (I'm really wanting to make some garments right now, and I really don't have beyond one sweater's worth of yarn at this point) and I would still accept any yarn gifts that happened to come my way. If I follow through with this, then I think that I would at least set it up to last six months. I'm still turning this over in my head at the moment, so we'll see if it comes to pass...Of course, the fact that I even mentioned it here means that I'm probably going to do it because I'm going to want everybody to hold me accountable!

Well, that's all that I can think of right now...I really do think that I might have baked my brain a little too much this weekend! Have a good day...

A meme to finish the week...

There is definitely not noticeable progress with my knitting at this point, so I thought that I would do a meme that caught my eye several months ago before I had my own blog. I'm interested to see what I have done, what I want to do, and the stuff that I don't plan to touch with a ten foot pole...So, here goes!

Edit the list as follows: bold for the items you’ve done, italics for the items you plan to do someday, and leave as is for the items you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket

I-cord

Garter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with banana fiber yarn

Domino knitting (modular knitting)

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Knitting with your own handspun yarn

Slippers

Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)

Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book

Scarf

Teaching a child to knit

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)

Knitting to make money

Button holes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Dying with plant colors

Knitting items for a wedding

Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars

Olympic knitting

Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn

Knitting with DPNs

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Fulling/felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener BO

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching

Long Tail CO

Entrelac

Knitting and purling backwards

Machine knitting

Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn

Stuffed toys

Baby items

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

Jewelry

Knitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Freeform knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair

Hair accessories

Knitting in public


Well, as with anything, I'm sure that half or more of these could change by next year...I kinda like the fact that I'm never entirely sure what I'm going to end up doing next with my knitting as it certainly keeps it interesting!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Only 56 hours until the holiday weekend...

Well, I didn't know the number of hours off the top of my head, but I think it's clear that I'm looking forward to the long weekend! Mrs. Ha-Ha and I have decided to treat ourselves to a brief hotel stay north of the city on Friday and Saturday nights...We're going to have plenty of down time complete with an indoor and outdoor pool! I can't wait...After a week of telling the rest of my clients that I'm leaving, I think that it will definitely be exactly what the doctor has ordered!

I haven't made much more progress on the SSCCG, but am on to a new color at least. I've got five color stripes after this current one, which seems pretty manageable until I remember that each row is longer than the last. I feel pretty good about the timing left for the blanket, but I need to keep working hard...

Well, since there isn't much knitting news or anything else interesting at the moment, so I'll share the cat pictures that Cynical Knitting Gal took during her photo shoot on Sunday. Our cat, Indigo, is missing because he had a cold and was hiding from the camera. I'll make sure to get a picture of him to share sometime soon...In the meantime, enjoy Harold and Claret!

This is Harold. I adopted him a little over six years ago from my vet office in Iowa. He had been found on a construction site after having fallen in oil and, apparently, having gotten his head stuck in a brick. The vets had to shave all of his hair off in order to remove the oil, so he bore an amazing resemblance to Mr. Bigglesworth (Austin Powers reference) when I first met him. Truly, he almost looked like a rat with his long pink tail. Anyway, he has become amazingly handsome with long white hair and walks about with quite a bit of dignity. I think that he either believes that he's human or that he's royalty. Either way, it's really entertaining!

This is Claret. Mrs. Ha-Ha brought her into the family to join my boys (Harold and Indigo). This picture is actually a really funny representation of her because she rarely stays still long enough to be petted or have her picture taken, so they all end up vaguely blurry as her face is in this picture. Mrs. Ha-Ha adopted her from a Chicago shelter around 5 or 6 years ago, I think. She is a hopper, which means that her back legs move together and she moves a bit like a rabbit. She's really high energy, but so much fun to have around! Clare keeps it interesting in our home...

Well, I'm sure that you'll see more of these guys around, and hopefully I'll be able to introduce Indigo soon. Not that all of my readers don't already know these cats, but maybe I'll have readers someday who don't know them! :) Have a great day!

Yarn Swap!

I checked out the yarn swap at one of the local yarn stores with my knitting group friends, Cynical Knitting Gal and Chicago Sarah. I managed not only to unload some of the stash that I just wasn't going to use but also picked up one of the Tulip cardigan kits that the Yarn Harlot has mentioned a few times. I guess that I picked up one of the "boy" kits, but I think that it looks perfect for either a boy or girl. I got a little sappy when I chose it today as I have decided that it will be the first sweater for the baby that Mrs. Ha-Ha and I are looking forward to welcoming into our family someday in the relatively near future...To top it all off, it was way discounted because of all the yarn that I contributed to the swap! I like how that worked out for me...:)

So, as I mentioned yesterday or whenever I wrote last (the memory is short over the weekend), Cynical Knitting Gal very kindly offered to take pictures of my works in progress before we headed to the swap today. So, here goes (wow, can you believe that you're actually going to be able to see what I talk about! Pretty novel idea!)...This is the Wren wrap sweater in Lion Brand Cotton Ease, which as you can see has a LONG way to go...I'm sure that I'll get back to it, but I'm also pretty confident that my interest is going to continue to lag for a while as we approach (please let it be soon) cooler weather.

Next up are the socks that I am making for Mrs. Ha-Ha. They were originally meant to be for me, but they ended up being too small in the heel. Next time around I'm going to have to make a deeper short row heel (that 50% of stitches doesn't quite seem to cut it for my heel!)...

Here's the start of a sock for my brother, which I will likely be ripping out in the near future. Don't worry, little brother, you're still going to be getting socks, but I think that I'm going to do them over from the toe up. When you have a brother with size 13 or 14 feet (can't remember which off the top of my head), then it's a good idea to stretch the yarn as far as you can!

I haven't gotten very far on the baby hat and booties as you can see in this next picture. I've literally gotten as far as casting on about 3/4 of the stitches for the hat. The SSCCG has just been taking too much of my time to worry about focusing on gifts for a baby that will be born in December. There's plenty of time to worry about those gifts later...

And finally, we have the SSCCG. Mrs. Ha-Ha assures me that neither of the recipients of this gift are even aware of the existence of this blog, so I have decided to post pictures of this mammoth WIP. It's the Artful Afghan pattern from Lion Brand (my version is closest to the second picture down the page), but I am using various colors of Encore Worsted instead of the Wool-Ease that the pattern calls for. This is a pretty mindless pattern with fun results, though I do think a good blocking will make it that much better!

Well, I think that I will save the rest of the pictures for another day. I want to spread out this photo fun for at least a few days...See you soon!

The week in review...

I am starting to realize that all of those weeks that I've had in my life where nothing in particular happens (translate that to mean "boring") are the balance to the weeks in which everything possible changes. This past week brought a lot of changes in my life and I'm finding myself deep in the transition of it. Of course, as I mentioned earlier this week, I've gotten myself a new and exciting job, but I have to finish up at my current job before I can move on. Actually, it's not even that cut and dry. The two jobs will overlap because I want to give all of my clients the best possible opportunity to move through this change, too. It's hard and strange to manage my own experience of that while also attempting to help others to understand why I'm leaving. I know that it will all work out in the end, and that this is the best possible move for me right now, but it's still hard. As a result, I'm finding myself particularly grateful for Mrs. Ha-Ha (who always listens to me and supports me through these kinds of crazy transitions), my family, my friends, and my knitting therapy. It's really nice to allow myself to get a little lost in spending time with people that I enjoy and in my knitting projects over the weekend...It's just a little avoidance until the next work week starts, after all! By the way, the above picture is a cell phone picture of one of the cats in our little sun room where some of the avoidance takes place...

So, tomorrow my knitting group friend, Cynical Knitting Gal, is coming over to take nice pictures of my current projects! I'm really excited to finally have something to show all of you...And then we're heading to the yarn swap at Arcadia Knitting. I've gone through my books and yarn this morning, and have pulled out some items to take along with me. I have no idea if anybody will want to swap for anything that I've got, but I figure that I can just leave it for the charity donation if nothing is taken. That doesn't mean, however, that I am not hoping for some kind of exchange for yarn or goodies that I actually want to use! We'll see how it goes, and maybe I'll be able to report back with some new treasures to add to the stash.

Have a great weekend!

My brain is melting...

It's so hot in my apartment right now that I think I've lost the ability to think...I just spoke with Mrs. Ha-Ha on the phone and she is kindly bringing dinner home after work because I can't even decide what to cook. Pretty pathetic of me, and really awesome of her! Seriously, I enjoy summer, but I am going to be much happier when this heat and humidity dissipates! I also spent a lot of time working the SSCCG today, and I imagine that having wool spread across my lap on a humid day probably doesn't help matters. At least I made some decent progress, though! There's the thin silver lining for the day...Well, I'm going to guess that my crankiness isn't fun to read, so I'll spare you from this point. Hopefully, tomorrow will be cooler and my mood will be restored!

The news!

So, everything is finally taken care of and I can officially announce that I have given notice at my current/old job and will be starting a new job in a little less than a month. There will be a little overlap in time with the jobs, but I am so excited about the new opportunity that recently presented itself to me...Well, I think it's fair to say, even though I originally said that I wouldn't talk about work, that I'm a therapist and I'm moving from a private practice kinda situation to an agency! I am so excited to be working among other people (and they really seem like great people to me!) and doing work that feels really good to me...So, that's the news! It's going to be a stressful couple of months because I need to wrap everything up at the current/old job, but that's doable when I know that it won't last forever...I think that basically everybody who reads this blog already knew this news, so it's kinda funny that I waited to share but I am glad that I'm able to make the official announcement! :)

Still plugging away at the SSCCG, but I have also added a baby surprise sweater to my queue for an old friend who I recently learned was pregnant. I haven't made one of those sweaters yet, so I think that will be fun...

Okay, I have to get myself back to Chicago now, so I will see you all soon...I had a great time in Iowa, though, so it's sad to leave! I'm going to have to make sure that Mrs. Ha-Ha and I get back sometime soon...

The mystery continues...

I've been visiting my family in Iowa for the past couple of days, but thought that I would check in...Well, half of the event that I mentioned in my past post has been completed and the other half will be happening today, so I should have news for my readers in just a couple of days...Maybe even later today if all goes well! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this surprise of my mine...:)

I've been putting a lot of time into the SSCCG while I've been in Iowa and it has grown quite a bit...I'm just about halfway through (somehow that doesn't feel very reassuring to me right now), so hopefully the last half will go quickly! I have to go get a longer needle for it today because the whole thing is going to fall off the needles soon if I don't attend to that...I tried to pick up a longer one yesterday, but the store I went to didn't have longer needles. Bummer! Anyway, it's been nice to have some time to put into the gift and I'm just going to keep pushing myself to do more every day...

By the way, I have forgotten to mention until now that I'm on ravelry...I promise that I'm not showing off because I know that a lot of people are still waiting to get on, but I thought that I would let you know that my name is "mandylee" there. If you want to friend me, I'll friend you back! :)

I'm off, but I'll be back soon with my news...

I can't talk about it yet...

I just got some really exciting news today and I can't share it yet, though I'm dying to...There are a few details to take care of, but I will share by early next week! The few readers that I have have been providing me with so much support in recent weeks and it's all led up to this very good day...Thanks to all of you! More soon...

The curse of a really bad day...

Seriously, wasn't it enough that I was having a hideous day at work? No, in fact, it seems that it was also necessary for the super secret commitment ceremony gift (that's just way too much to type every single time...It will now be known as the SSCCG) to have a serious mishap...I'm now going to be spending the rest of the night tinking...Where is the justice?!

The never-ending knitting project queue...

Since this is a knitting blog, I thought it would make sense to run through my current projects so that we're all caught up...First, and most importantly at the moment, I am working on a gift for some friends who are having their commitment ceremony in September. I am not sure if Mrs. Ha-Ha (she's decided to stick with that name, by the way) has told them about this blog, so I will have to get that information before I can tell you more about the gift. In any case, I'm scrambling with this one because I am starting to feel the time rushing on by...Let's hope that this one gets done on time! Second, I have the languishing Wren wrap sweater which I started at the beginning of the summer and haven't touched a whole lot since. This one deserves some attention soon, but I'm not sure if it's going to get it. Third, I am working on a baby hat and booties for a coworker of Mrs. Ha-Ha's who is expecting her first child in December. I'll admit that I wouldn't typically make a baby gift for someone who I don't know very well, but I really wanted to give these patterns a try...The last languishing works in progress are socks for my brother and Mrs. Ha-Ha. My brother's are standard top down socks and Mrs. Ha-Ha's are toe up (Priscilla Gibson Roberts style). That doesn't even begin to touch the knitting that I want to get done by Christmas...I made a vow that I wasn't going to do any knitted gifts for this Christmas, but somehow I can't seem to let a holiday go by without knitting something for Mrs. Ha-Ha. We'll see how that goes...Of course, my knitting ideas don't necessarily fit into the knitting time that I have available, so I'm just going to make myself exclusively focus on the secret commitment ceremony gift for now...We'll see how that goes! I'm going to take some crappy cell phone pictures of the projects that can be shown here, and I'll share them the next time around...In the meantime, have a great day!

Hey there...

Welcome to my new blog! To introduce myself, I am the Mandy referred to in the title...And the title of this blog refers to the dollhouse that my grandfather built for me when I was little. It was yellow with white trim and huge! I loved that dollhouse! It's still stored at my mom's house so I'll take a picture of it at some point and post it here for everyone to admire. In any case, he painted the address on the house as "523 Mandy Lane," which is a combination of my name and my birthday. I recently thought about that dollhouse and imagined that if I could have such a house that it would be filled with my yarn, cats, and girlfriend...I would have limitless time to knit and relax in that place because it could be exactly as I wanted (you have to love that about imaginary places). So, for me, it's the official representation of my perfect knitting getaway and now the title of this blog...

Primarily, I think that this will be about my knitting, though I'm sure that some other crafty pursuits could find their way into my posts...Not to mention my cats and my girlfriend (who will likely be called Mrs. Ha-Ha, which is a combination of our last names and wish to be married, but she is still deciding on her blog name). At this point, I am going to make a concerted effort to leave my work out of this blog, but you never know what might slip in here...

Oh, by the way, I don't have a digital camera at this point, so there are likely to be very few pictures, some pictures of rather poor quality (gotta love the cell phone camera), and perhaps a few great pictures taken one of my knitting friends. I am going to be getting a camera soon, so hang in there with me...I know that these things are much better with pictures and I will take care of that soon.

Well, I'll be back soon...