Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!!!

I am not sure I am awake yet...

We are doing a slow intoduction to our "fur kids". This big guy here is Fromage (French for cheese).

I started my new sweater last night. It is a really nice lavendar sweater with a simple pattern on the front. I am making it to learn how to do a sweater in the round in a pattern. It's 100% wool from New Zealand and has been really nice to work with...

We are heading out now, time to go off to the French Corner for a nice breakfast before we go to our class this afternoon.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's!

TGIF, a little late

Yes, it's Friday... Well, it was. I had to get a bunch of stuff done and didn't get to updating until now...

Here is a picture of the Kitty Cat Sweater, complete with kitty cat (Tabatha).

Killing two birds with one stone, both the finished product and where I knit (great idea, thanks Scout and Carole!) I will post a pic this weekend of the infamous knitting needles on the car!

Not much happening today... I still have the on-call pager for the weekend, looks like we are going over to a friend's house for an informal gathering to celebrate the New Year. We are planning to celebrate our anniversary before the party. We made reservations at Zinc for dinner, should be great...

Time to hit the hay.....

2 in a row, time to hide....

Ah, it's finally Thursday...

Not much going on today, need to take the kid out to get a Cricket Phone (our last cell phone bill was too high. Cricket gives unlimited talk time, text message and free long distance, it should work for the kiddo), get the grocery shopping done, then try to finish up the Kitty Cat Sweater. I have an inch left to do on the neck, then sew up the underarm seams and I will be done! YEAH! I was hoping to have it done for tomorrow, but unless I wear it without washing and blocking it, that will have to wait until next week...

Saturday is our 6th wedding anniversary. Not sure what hubby and I will be doing that day. I am not the type to go out drinking all night long (and since I am on-call at work, that option is toast) so I guess we will try to make reservations at a restaurant for a nice dinner. Hubby suggested going out to 10K Waves for a private hot tub, but since they want reservations 2 weeks in advance, that may not happen. We will see...

Monday morning (9am Mountain time), our beloved Gators play in the Outback Bowl against Iowa. After our cruise, hubby and I went on an Everglades tour and picked ourselves up some really silly gator hats. We will be wearing them while we watch the game. We have a group of us here in ABQ (an Unofficial Gator Alumni Club) at Coaches on Central. Damn, 9am is too early to be drinking beer, I sure hope they have breakfast burritos!!! It should be a good game to watch. Urban Meyer (IMHO) has done a great job with our team this year! Any year we beat Tennessee (Rocky Top, you'll always be 2nd in the SEC...) and Florida State (Hey, another one of their players was arrested, big surprise..) it is a GOOD year!!!! GEAUX GATORS!!!

Hubby asked me to knit his black scarf for warmth on his motorcycle. THIS is a good excuse to drag him to our LYS to pick up his yarn. I am not sure if he wants this in 100% wool or if acrylic would work for him. I would make it in the Cashmerino I did my scarf in, but they don't carry it in black... Hmmm, maybe some nice alpaca???? I guess the wimple will have to wait for a bit... I am also still working on designing the next sweater. I have the yarn (a New Zealand wool in a nice shade of lavendar), I just need to figure out what to do with it. I will probably keep it simple and follow a pattern out of my Sweater Workshop book rather than getting too freaky with it. That way, I can really go nuts on the next one, once I figure out how much "shrink" the pattern thing really puts into the sweater. (and the matching up of the sleeves to the body)

Are we there yet??????

Holy Garbonzo Beans, Batman...

Have I mentioned I have ADHD??? ;-)

Yes, it's December and nary an entry for 3 months...

Things are going well... Just got home to ABQ after being on the road since December 1st.

We spent week one on a cruise to the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Martin. Beautiful! Went with DH, my parents and a couple of girlfriends. Also on the cruise was my favoritist NASCAR driver, Rusty Wallace. (YUMMY!) The weather was absolutely beautiful. We wandered around Nassau for a bit and I picked up a really nice perfume called Sexual. I have been looking for it in the States since then with no luck. Guess another trip to the Bahamas will be in order when I run out. We went out on a Catamaran (SP?) on St. Thomas and did some snorkeling. Snorkeling is one of my other favorite activities. There is nothing like the feeling of being still and becoming a member of a school of fish. Awesome. We went over to the French side of St. Martin (Marigot) and had an absolutely delicious lunch at a little French Cafe on the marina. Picked up some nice French Milled soaps and a beautiful rose sachet (along with some killer French Bordeaux). Then, we were back on the ship for the last couple of days of our cruise. Our dude in the piano bar (where we lived every night) was awesome! If you are sailing on Carnival and have a piano bar player named Ron Pass, go SEE HIM!

The next week was taken up with a business trip to Portland, OR. Good stuff, learned lots!

After that, I repacked my bags and went down to Florida to be with the family for the holidays. The weather was a bit chilly, but the company was the BEST!

Now, we are back in ABQ with our 2 dogs, 11 kitties, the iguana, fish and everyone else in the house.

Figure skating: Well, I must confess I have been off of the ice from October to mid-December. I injured my shoulder trying to get my motorcycle out of a strange parking situation. (NO, I DID NOT dump my bike...) That kept me sidelined for a while. I got 2 days on the ice down in Florida and I will be back on the skates on Friday here at home. Doesn't look like I have enough time to put a program together in time for the competition here in April, but I will try. Debating on which song to use, I have a K.D. Lang tune, a Dire Straits tune and a Bowling for Soup tune as the top 3 finalists. My second competition will use a Sesame Street song that I have always wanted to use!!!

Motorcycle: Injured shoulder kept me out of the toy run here in town. Now that it has healed and I am back, I will be riding it more often. (Now, I know why they made chaps. In 30 degree weather in the morning, they work wonders!)

Knitting: I have been really busy in this area. I am finishing up on a sweater that I am making with Ecological Wool. I finished one earlier, but I didn't like the fit. Still got some socks on the needle (from the cruise) and I will be starting a Wimple when I get the sweater finished. I saw a woman at work wearing one (never seen one before in my life). I looked at it and said "Self, you can knit one of those up in a week!" So I am going to head down to the LYS (AKA Village Wools) and pick up some fun yarn to knit it with... A HUGE Thanks to my MIL for the Gift Certificate to Village Wools as a Christmas Present! I will try to post some pix tonight, if I can find my camera. Last time I saw it was on the cruise...

New Years Resolutions (I don't usually make these...)
2. Post weekly
3. Get on the ice at least 4x per week
4. Turn the sewing room into a guest room that I can hang out in to get away from it all!

Been out of commission for a while

Wow, it has been a while since I posted...

Work has been really time consuming. I am hoping at this time that the worst is behind me and I can get back to doing the things I really love, notably knitting, skating and motorcycling...

We just finished having the family in town for Balloon Fiesta... We all had a great time... We sent my mom and mother in law up for a hot air balloon ride, they thought it was great... We did a lot of other things during the week also including the Taos Wool Festival, Special Shapes Glow, a visit to the Trinity Site (I had to work during that one), a few airport trips and a bunch of relatives that had a bunch of trouble getting home because an early season snowstorm in Denver ruined everyone's travel plans...

Hope everyone is doing well and I will be posting more often...

Been a long time...

Wow! It has been busy... Work has been nuts, I haven't had nearly enough time to play with the BLOG... I hope to get better soon. Here is my current FO, my latest pair of socks made with Toasty Toes yarn. I did a reinforcement on the heels because I was not sure if it would be needed or not. My last pair didn't have the heel reinforcement, we will see which wears better :-)

The next picture is my current UFO... I am working on an afghan for a friend. It is the Endearing afghan from the book "Big Book of Quick Knit Afghans" that I got at a local craft store. It is done on size 15 1/2 needles with 2 strands of yarn... It is turning out pretty well, I am about 1/3 of the way into this project and it seems to be going pretty fast.

I will try to get more regular updates on this :-)

Back to the skates, again :-)

Been another busy week at work. Still working on my next pair of socks, they should be done by Saturday, just in time for my knitting class at the LYS to learn Continental Knitting... I am really excited!!!

This week, I have gone back to the serious training on the figure skates. At my age (over 25... Hee-Hee), I am an adult competitor, so I try to spend 3 - 5 days per week on the ice working on jumps and spins. I am back training with my coach, Kevin, back at "Our Lady of the Outpost" (local joke). My skates are FINALLY broken in. I am going to take them out on the ice today to see if I need the left skate punched out on the side or if the heat moulding was enough to make the skates more comfortable. My goal for this year is to enter 1 - 2 competitions and possibly take the pre-bronze MIF and Freestyle tests. Who knows? :-)

Knitty stuff....

I wanted to show off some of the things I am working on and my finished stuff. This first item is my latest pair of sox I knitted with Toasty Toes Yarn (www.interlacementsyarns.com) on a pair of size 4 needles. I used 40 stitches, rounded heel and wedge toe.

This is the pair of sox I knitted for my knitting class at my LYS called "Knitting socks without a pattern". Not bad for my first attempt at freehand socks. I made it with Jaeger Baby Merino using size 3 needles and 44 stitches. It has a french heel and a star toe.

Last, but not least, my first attempt at a pair of socks... OK, I had NO CLUE what I was doing on this pair and the heel turn is up at the ankle :-) No biggie, they still fit, they are comfy and work great in my motorcycle boots.

Not much going on right now...

It's Wednesday. I finally got my bragsheet done for our mid-year review at work. This is the most stressful time for anyone here. It only took 4 revisions and 2 weeks to finish! I hope it does the job! The family has all left for their various parts of the country... We miss them already!

On The Needles: Almost finished with my socks! The Toasty Toes yarn is such a pleasure to work with. I wish there was a place to purchase it locally.

Meow and Woof watch: Roxie found a new friend last Friday. She was laying down in the back yard licking on something. She got up to come to the sliding glass door and there was a female mallard duck. Poor thing was alive but not moving much. We went outside, picked her up and called the vet (figuring they would know a wildlife rescue to take Roxie's new friend over to). The vet decided to keep the duck and nurse her back to health then release it. The duck had some soft tissue injuries, so it may take a week or so for her to heal, but the duck will be OK!!!

New Blogsite

Yup, I have been officically bitten by the blog bug. Just got back to work from an exciting weekend with my Dear Hubby's family ;-) They are GREAT! We went to see "The Barber of Seville" at the Santa Fe Opera last Friday. It was wonderful! The facility is first class and it was a beautiful night! On Saturday, we all went out to the local casino (Santa Ana Casino) for a fun little side trip. Everyone in our party won money at the blackjack table! To all of the dealers and Jake, our Pit Boss, we had a great time with you and hope you had fun with us!!! Still working on a pair of socks made from Toast Toes yarn (www.interlacementsyarns.com) that I found while at a LYS up in Colorado Springs on a business trip. Man, this yarn is AWESOME! It is SO SOFT! Finished the first sock while watching the Formula One Race and started on the second one while watching the NA$CAR race from Chicago! I looked on their website for local stores, but none of my local stores carried any Toasty Toes yarn. Looks like another mail order yarn...