Recap (I know - shocker!)

I can't make promises of daily, weekly, or monthly recaps. They are empty promises at this point. So I promise to not forget I have a blog and keep updating it as much as possible.

So, here we go with the recap.

Life is good, wedding planning is (not yet) fun. There are so many details to take care of and of course we want it to be perfect. I think once we have a caterer down then I can start thinking about all the fun details that I want to incorporate. We have decided on a Spanish theme, since we were engaged in Madrid, and our families both come originally from Spain. I feel if we had an Argentinian themed wedding (from my side of the family) or a Guatemalan or Mexican themed wedding (from Tony's side) we would be excluding each other. I have so many ideas, my mind (and binder) are exploding!

I am also trying to loose a little weight. Not a lot, just a little. My workouts have become so monotonous that I have hit a physical plateau. I know I overeat (just ask my friends, I really do) so I have been really trying to watch how much I eat. So far, a little has been lost. I will let you guys know process as it happens (or not).

Now, what you all came for - the knitting.

Do you remember my Avita pattern? You can find it here on ravelry. Well, I cannot tell you how touched and flattered I am that so many people have made my little design. A wonderful knitter (and amazing photographer) even has me thinking about perhaps turning this into a little girl's dress.

Sara was even so kind as to send me pictures of her adorable pink version. Thank you so much Sara, I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to show people your adorable version. If you guys want to see more pictures of Sara's Avita, visit her ravelry site, or her blog. I am trully flattered that ONE person likes this pattern, and as of today 105 people have it in their queue on ravelry.

Speaking of queues, mine is ever growing. And I mean evah-growing. Every day I see more and more patterns that I want to make, and I even managed to get all my stash (well - MOST of it) into ravelry so that I can see if I can use any of it for my queue. As many knitters think, non-stop I am sure, I need to quit my job and learn how to burn calories while knitting so that I can do nothing but knit all day long, and not gain any weight.

I have managed to do some knitting:

Iselita vest

Named after my dear friend Isel because when I saw hers I needed to make this. She told me I could make it as long as hers was still prettier than mine, and I got really close I think, but hers is still cuter.

I actually started it in during our trip to Spain, so every time I wear it I get a flash of memories of knitting on a train on our way to Toledo. Isn't it crazy how certain garments will bring your mind back to a different place and time?

Anyhoo, I was almost to the armhole decreases when I realized that it looked really small. When I re-read the pattern I realized that I had not done the increases after the waist ribbing. oops. So I had to completely restart. It was worth the wait. I get a lot of compliments at work, which is where I usually wear it.

More details on my ravelry page here.

Vest for Papi

For all of those that don't know me, I am a MAJOR daddy's girl (shocker for those of you that do know me - I know) So before I make Tony a garment (it's in the works people) I wanted to make my dad something. I sent him a bunch of patterns and he dismissed each and every one. He explained to me what he wanted and I decided to create my own pattern. He deserves all the math that went into this one for sure.

Yes, he is doing a "body-builder" pose in that picture. He is going to kill me for posting it. :)

I think it turned out pretty good. I need to re-block the armholes so they are a little bit wider. I always have issues binding off loosely for some reason.

You can see more details for this project here.

Rayne

Another Isel copy (whaatt! The girl has good taste!)

Oh.my.gosh. I am so in love with this one. I want the fall to come because I want to wear it all over the place. I made it extra long because I am tall, and because I wanted to be able to wrap it all the way around me.

Love love love. The yarn is super soft (although it does shed, and I rayne dust bunnies still from when I was knitting it). I really want to wear it all the time.

I could not really get an excellent picture depicting how happy I am with this, but not due to lack of trying. I took quite a few. And you can see some of them, and the project details on my ravelry page here.


What I am working on now:

Valpurina

My little spring/summer project. I forgot how much I liked cables!

Ash

Such a flowy number, also perfect for spring. I am THIS close to finishing it!

So there you have it, my recap. There is so much more to come, I promise, but I cannot tell you when. :)

I know, the suspense of when I will come back is almost as strong as the suspense over the Democratic nominee!

The mother of all updates

I, lomester, hereby swear, that I will, from now on, not subject you - my 5 loyal readers - to any more crazy updates. Instead, I, lomester, promise to continuously update my blog, thereby eliminating remarks such as "update your blog all-ready" from such friends as Reese.*

Phew - now that that is over! Let the updates begin!

From my last post *ahem -tease* you guys might have deduced that I went on a trip! Tony turned thirty this past July (gulp!) so, being the amazingly wonderful girlfriend that I am, I treated him to a little 7 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean!

It was such a nice, relaxing time! First we stopped in Old San Juan, where the humidity completely messed with my camera and I almost cried thinking that the poor machine was broken. The day turned out to be absolutely perfect. We really enjoyed walking through the streets of this little city, and although completely packed with cruisers wanting to buy sou verniers, we managed to find a nice quiet little restaurant where we had some Puerto Rican and Spanish tapas, and a nice bottle of Sangria. The best part, the waiter was Argentinian.Next we spent a day in St. Thomas. Again, as soon as you get off the ship you are overwhelmed with how "turisty" the place is. Everyone is trying to sell half off diamonds, and perfumes and makeup and jewelry, and it is all stuff that you can get at home. So, we asked a local what beach we should go to where there were not a lot of people, and he suggested Sapphire Beach. We got in a cab with another couple going to the same location, and headed on a 30 minute bumpy windy drive. I am not sure if I will accurately describe the cab, but picture a big golf cart that fits 10 people. The roads were so hilly, and I had not had a drop of rum. My recommendation, have some rum before you get into one of these. :) The couple we rode with ended up being a blast to hang out with. They live in Chicago, but vacation in the same exact Virginia Beach location we go to every year - at approximately the same time! What a small world!

I did get some knitting done in St. Thomas, as you can see above, but not much. Why "not much" you ask? More on that later. The picture on the left is the view from my beach chair, then there is me knitting, and my Kusha Shawl.
The last place we went to was St. Maarten. St. Maarten, for those of you that do not know, is split up into French St. Maarten and Dutch St. Maarten. We spent the day in the Dutch side, but did have lunch in a wonderful (although horrifically overpriced) little French restaurant.

The whole vacation was absolutely perfect. When Tony and I go on vacation, we always want to see this and do that, and go here and explore there, and we never get the chance to just... be. This was the point of this vacation. To not plan on going snorkeling, or rock climbing or mountain biking...just to be. This being got my pant size in trouble, cause being mostly meant hanging out by the pool having the Royal Caribbean drink of the day, but I see a Detox diet in the future.

For all you nosy people (I am one of them, so this is not an insult), you can check out the rest of the birthday celebration extravaganza here.

Now that the "life" portion of the update has been completed, here is the "knitting" portion of the update.The pictures above are of a little "habu party" we had at Olga's a few weeks back. Isel's best friend was very very smart and got married in New York. Therefore, we made Isel go to Habu and get us some stuff. You know, just a little somethin' somethin'.

It is always fun to hang out with these girls, and when there is some lovely yarn to play with, even more fun. Isel brought me back a Kusha Kusha Shawl kit. I was so excited! I stared at it, and looked at it, and told everyone about my lovely steel and merino shawl that was coming up! I did not want to cast on or do anything until I went on the cruise, so I patiently waited. Then when the day came, and we were waiting to board the ship - I took a deep breath and cast on. My one way of describing this was : painful. I had bought some addi naturas since my steel addis would have not worked well with the silk and steel, they would have just slid off the needles. But the naturas were worse! The joints are not good at all. My work kept getting all tangled up, and the steel kept falling off the needles. I cast on 4 times. I was so disappointed that my vacation project was not going as easily as I wanted to.

Things got a little easier when I worked in the merino. The fact that it looks so pretty made me want to persevere. I still do not know if I want to felt the finished project, or leave as is. We will see as I keep going. I think it may be a while before you see this as an FO. I do have a couple of FOs to show you, but I am not too happy with my Royal Caribbean buffet look right now - so give me a few more days. More pics coming soon!














*this disclaimer is subject to people from work not having any more children which make me not have time to update my blog, any subsequent audits at work, and frankly, the amount of amusing anecdotes in my head. (Yes, I am not always this witty).

I am back!

Sorry kids! I know I have been gone for a while. I went to a wedding, and then had to work some extravagant amount of hours so I could enjoy this:While I was there I was planning on doing a lot of knitting. But all I got done was this (plus a little more):
I promise I will do my best to post a way more exciting, way more descriptive post later on this week. But I thought I would check in... I am in the process of catching up with my blog reading too (man you guys are some crazy busy knitters/bloggers!), and my email responses... so bear with me!

Having a Bad Day

Yes, I am... I got rear ended today and it has totally ruined my day. I am okay, and the car is fine. Well, the trunk of my little red Honda Element does not open, and my venti coffee I was enjoying is all over the car, but it will all be fine. Accidents happen, I know. As long as everyone is safe and healthy that is all that matters. However, sometimes the grumpiness takes a while to dissipate. Am I saying all this to get sympathy? Yes, I am. So hit me with some funny comments so I can get out of my funk.

This has certainly been helping today:
We had a girls night last friday and I asked Reese to bring Ava with her Avita top. I wore my Redgina just for the sake of a cute picture. She makes me smile.

OH! Speaking of Avita, I want to thank you all for your wonderful comments on my first ever pattern. I am so excited when I see that 6 people have added t to their Ravelry queue!

Another thought that has been helping me is the knowledge that there is a Gilmore Girls Season 2 DVD waiting for me at home. I am now addicted to that show (thanks Reese). I am planning on going home, opening a bottle of wine, watching Gilmore Girls and working on my next Secret Project.

Some of my most detailed oriented readers may have noticed that the Secret Michi Baby Projects on my sidebar have now become Secret Charlie Projects. That is because my dear friend Michi gave in to the pressure and found out the sex of the baby! In a few more months I will have a brand new "nephew"! I am so excited, although Michi and Reese are even more so excited as they plan Ava and Charlie's wedding. I am working on Secret Charlie Project 3, and ravelry users can check out the progress here.

Once that is done I am going to keep working on my Breton Girl. I started working on this last Saturday and just cannot stop. I love working with Elann Esprit! It is so soft and stretchy and I am very very excited about finishing this top.

My habulishious tunic is nice and finished, but the preliminary attempt at looking cute during a photoshoot turned out disastrous. Don't make me think about it cause my day has been bad enough already.

I can't stop thinking about other things that i must knit. I have to finish my Free People Inspired Sweater, and I want to make a Clapotis for an upcoming trip of a lifetime (more on that later), as well as this absolutely ridiculous shawl that I cannot get out of my mind. (it is MINE Iselita!). The ideas are just never ending, never stopping, ever flowing, and I love it.

I had a cheesy moment the other day when I told Olga (man I love gmail chats) " I never thought I would love knitting so much!". I am a knitting nerd with everyone in my life that is not part of my knitting life (does that make sense?). Everywhere I go I bring yarn and a couple of sticks to pass the time. But on days like today, when things are just a little bit off kilter, a little bit of nerdiness is well needed.

Shh... Don't Tell Anyone...

... but I am supposed to be catching up from a week long vacation from work. I am almost there. ALMOST. I returned from a nice relaxing time at the beach, refreshed, a little tanner, and ready to get back to the swing of things. It amazes me how a little short break makes your revitalized and eager to do the mundane chores that we get so overwhelmed with on a day to day basis.

There was a point at the beginning of this month that I felt that I could not handle my silly little job, that the ridiculous requests were just too much for me to handle. All I could think about during the day was when I was going to get home and knit, and relax (with wine - there I admit it!), so I took repeated breaks to ravel, and read blogs, and send my Tony emails. Then I got home, and all I could think about while I was "relaxing" is how I had so much work to do. Amazing how the mind works - eh?

After a week of sun, sleeping in, and nice long workouts (I needed to earn my crystal light and rum kids!), I returned home to 160 emails that needed "immediate attention". UGH! I thought I would never get done. But I took a deep breath, did not think about opening my ravelry, bloglines, flickr (ok - i took a quick peek at flickr) and now I only have like 10 emails left to go!

So here I am - taking a break and showing you my latest FO:

Pattern: Razor Cami
Yarn: Patons Grace in Taupe- 4.5 Skeins - approximately 612 yds
Needles: Size 5 Addis
Modifications: I excluded the border with a second yarn, added 3/4 inch ribbing at the top and made the straps a little thicker.

Hopefully I will have my first ever pattern surprise up for you guys soon. Right now I am working on my Habu Tunic, SecretMichiBabyProject 2, a test knit that I will tell you guys about once I ask if I can tell you guys about it, and my Free People Sweater.

The best part - I am so relaxed and content when I knit... ahhh! what a break will do!

Teenie, Tiny Little Update

Believe it or not, there is a lot, a LOT of knitting going on. I have been taking my knitting to the pool on weekends and making progress. At first I was a bit weary of doing this. Tony gave me a look like I was crazy. Then last weekend I saw a lady crocheting a blanket poolside! Take THAT Tony!

I finished a little surprise pattern on our way and back from Pittsburgh. Hopefully I will have a photo shoot with the recipient in the near future and spend some time creating a pattern so all you wonderfully talented knitters out there can dedconstruct it and teach me a thing or two about pattern writing. I am expecting it, no worries! I also knit the first Secret Michi Baby Project (SMBP1). If any of you are on ravelry, you can check it out there - under lomester. I am not going to post any details until after the shower, she is so nosy my michi!

And I am today finishing my Razor Cami, AND I am swatching with my habulishoush silk for a summer tunic. See! I am knitting!

My dad's show went great and it gave me a chance to hang out with my disfuntional, crazy, but totally fab family. We really have a lot of fun together.
See how cute my brother is? I love that picture of us - and yes, that is redgina you see!
My two brothers and I. Yes, that is my camera, yes, I am nervous that he is holding it, yes, I did make him wear the neck strap.And of course, the man of the day... yes, he milked it and was a bit of a diva. But we are proud nonetheless.

You can see more pics of our little weekend trip here.

Seriously PEOPLE!!

I don't usually rant and rave much (hahaha - that was such a lie!) but I have to rant and rave now. I have told you all about ravelry. I love it, it's a fantastic site, frecklegirl and casey are awesome. There may be some of my lovely readers that are patiently waiting to get inside ravelry. However, it seems that there are some people that are not so patient. To that, I want to say, please be the considerate nice knitters that I know you are - please! frecklegirl and casey devote their free time to making this site all nice and pretty for all, and they need to do some things to make it able to hold this wonderful ever expanding world of knitters. So be nice, and wait, and then you will say "yay! frecklegirl and casey are so awesome! ravelry was worth the wait!"

end of rant - beginning of rave

I have the best knitting friends ever! Look what Olgita gifted me for my bday:Isn't it the bestest, cutest little bag ever? I still am trying to decide what to store in there since its super special. What? You are jealous out there in blogland? Well, don't just sit there! Go get yourself one! Sheesh!

Also, I gave myself a little birthday knitting gift (there were also birthday non-knitting gifts as well). Delishiousness! Habu Tsumugi Silk that I just stare at and sniff. Yummie yum yum! I am such a Habu member now - it is so pretty! I want to make a nice tunic from it, but it will have to wait.

I am working on the Knit Cafe's Baby Kimono for a co-worker. I swear, it is such an easy knit but because I cannot stop thinking about how I want to finish my redgina, and I want to figure out the front of my free people cardi, and I want to make a secret project for Ava, and I have so many other ideas, it is going soooo sloowwwww.

But keep your fingers crossed that I will finish it by tomorrow so hopefully I will have it done this weekend. I have a special visitor coming to hang out with me and I cannot wait to get a chance to visit some yarn shops together. Maybe we will run into someone we know!

Oh and thank you to all that wished me a happy birthday and that I did not get a chance to personally respond to. I hate that blogger does not let you just hit "reply" and send an email back. My birthday was awesome! Let's see how I look when I turn 30!

Mee mee meeeeee!

I have been tagged by both knitannie and jade to tell you seven completely random facts about me. I think this will be as painful for you as it is for me because I am ultra boring and have been trying to come up with interesting things to tell you guys for about a week now and have ZILCH! So I will tell you seven completely random and uninteresting facts about me.

1) I dip my french fries in a self made mixture of mayonaisse and pete's hot sauce. My co-worker got me into it and I cannot stop.

2) I am going to copy knitannie. I cannot stand crusty eggs. (she cannot stand runny eggs) Seriously, I will puke.

3) I ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year and will never.do.it.again (till next year maybe).

4) My two best friends have "Maria" as the first or middle name. My first name is Maria.

5) My dad never remembers what day I was born. He wishes me Happy Birthday on a different day every year. No joke. However he does remember that after the hospital he went to have a huge sandwich in Avenida Irigoyen.

6) I am taking Tony on a secret birthday trip... shhh... I think I am more excited about it than he ever will be. If any of you commenters know where I am taking him, don't mention it ... it's a secret!

7) I love my Tony, but I also love my Saturday mornings when he goes to have coffee with his dad and I can stay at home and watch my shame t.v. shows that I have taped all week. (So You Think You Can Dance? Anyone?!?)

Pheww...that was tough. As was completely restarting my Redgina after the 32 mistakes that I kept ignoring and I thought would be covered by my hair became way too apparent. That is a picture of my latest attempt. I am hopefully finishing the back today.

Obsessed

I have a new obsession...Ravelry.com. frecklegirl and her husband have created this AWESOME web community for knitters. I am sure that all three of you that read my blog probably have read about this already, but I wanted to share my excitement as well. It is a great site to organize your projects, learn what other people are making, gawk at FO's, and meet new friends. If I were not so busy at work I would be spending my entire day doing this.

Right now they are still in testing mode, so they are slowly inviting people in. Go ahead and ask them for an invite! You may have to wait a little bit, but once you are in, you will not want to do anything else but hang out there.

In knitting news, I am doing the unthinkable. I am working on more than two projects at a time - yikes!


The first one is the Paper Bag I am making for Tony's little sister in exchange for the butt kicking spinning classes. I love the way this is turning out, but it is killing my fingers! The raffia (is that how you spell it?) is super rough to knit with, but I think the end result will be a super cute bag that she can use during the day and at night during the summer.



The second one is The Princess Capelet from Twinkle Big City Knits. This one is actually almost done now. It would have been done already except I cannot read. The pattern says to work 15 rows decreasing every 3rd row, and then work until there are 22 rows. I took this as to knit an additional 22 rows. So I had to do a bit of undoing and finished it really in one day. This one is a late gift for tony's older sister's birthday, and now graduation gift since she just finished defending her dissertation and is getting her phd.


The last one is my own creation. It is my first attempt at creating my own design - completely winging this. This is the yarn left over from the bolero fiasco... remember that? And when I saw this cute little cardi on colourknits flickr feed I wanted to try it. However, I am learning how to know my own shape, and the cute little model... she has no boobs, and has no hips, and no tummie - and me, I got all those. So I am trying to make this one longer. It is going to be a learn as you go type of thing... bear with me as I cry.

My Sunday started at 5:30 a.m.

Allright, everyone! Guess why I got up at 5:30 a.m.:

a) I wanted to go for an early morning 30 degree weather
b) I needed to get ready for the TBS marathon of The Closer
c) I was visiting Reese and Ava woke me up
d) 60% off yarn

I know, you are all thinking a) because I am so dedicated to running and exercising. But you are wrong, I got up at 5:30 to make sure I got the SpringWater Fibers annual sale. Olga, Ava and I had decided on doing this about a month ago because we love yarn and we love yarn on sale. The sale started at 7 a.m. so we met at 6:30 to have enough time to stop by the local Starbucks. (A total necesity at this early hour).

The streets of Alexandria at this hour are very quiet. And so, when the light refused to turn green so I could make a left turn, I kinda-sorta got tired of waiting and kinda-sorta went. There were no police cars around, so I was safe. We drove down the road for about 5 minutes when all of the sudden I saw the shining blinking lights in my rear view mirror. There is NO WAY this policeman had seen me run that light 5 minutes ago! I pulled over (a little embarassed that my two knitter friends were in the car with me) and waited for an explanation.

He came to my window and asked me if I knew why he had pulled me over. I (of course) told him I had no clue. He told me my tags are expired. Now, I am very responsible and organized and I KNOW I had paid this. I explained this to the officer who listened to me and then told me "Well, I am still going to have to give you a ticket". So, I did what any respectable young woman would do. I begged. I said "oh, pleasepleasepleasepleaseeeee don't give me a ticket!! please pleasepleaseplease!!!" (this is an accurate reenactment and in no way an exaggeration). He took my license and told me he would be right back. At this point, the girls started giggling. I told them that if he left me off the hook, I would ask him for a picture for lomester. But I am generally not lucky in such things, so I did not expect it. I was so aggravated, embarrassed, sleepy, caffeine deprived...can you guys sense what I was feeling? After waiting a few minutes longer than I thought it should take for him to check that I was not a wanted criminal in 8 states, I knew he was writing me up.

I saw him coming back to my car and was prepared to continue to beg a little more. I didn't have to:
hee hee! I promised him that I would not reveal his name ( I actually can't even see it on his badge). And although I did not contribute to his "ticket quota" for the month, now he has a great story to tell all his officer buddies. This man could have completely ruined my day yesterday, but he chose to be a nice guy. Thank you nameless Alexandria police officer!

(btw - I came to work today and checked my files - I ummm, am a little, umm,... late paying my registration fees - but I SWEAR I thought it was paid!)

We stopped at the closest Starbucks and fueled up and made our way down to what we though was going to be a gold mine. We got there (i kid you not) at 7:10 and the place was packed. There were people sitting on the floor going through their collections of yarn they had just grabbed for 60% off. The leftovers were not even worth looking through. I know I am a little bit of a yarn snob, but the 60% off was not enticing enough.

However, we went to the nearby La Madeleine and had a lovely breakfast. We talked about running, and work, and yarn, and Ava showed me her Habu yarn catalog, which is really a very mean thing to do because now all I want to do is knit with yummie soft Habu. Mean Ava! :)

The first pic is of Ava knitting her pretty sock; Olgita plays with the sock; and then she gives me a hand with my Argentina knitting.

My dad is going back to Argentina to visit family so I of course have to knit some gifts. A scarf for my uncle (my own made up mocked cable pattern):
The accessory bags from Handknit Holidays for my grandma:










Olgita helped me with the first 13 rows or so. I have to get a zipper and line it with some fabric, and will show you the finished product as soon as I am done.

I also made Fetching for my aunt, and making Calorimetry to match them. I will show pics of those as well. I need to find a simple hat pattern for my other uncle. Advice/suggestions are completely welcomed.