Like a river

It seems it is time for another weekend. No one can complain about that, right :)

Life is like a river, once in it you have no choice but to follow it...somewhere. It has now been a month since I started working on this project with the new colleagues. I think I am really lucky there is good group harmony. There is so much to learn in my new position, I frequently feel overwhelmed and wonder why I chose to escape my previous office burn out. In fact last week there were days when I wished I was there in the frustrating environment. BUT Change always makes one stronger and better in the long run.
Some how it seems that I have picked up the role of the go-to-girl, I seemed to have given everyone the impression I know what is going on at all time of the day. Reality, I am just as confused as they are, but I might have a sharp ear, then take the time to read the documents and ask questions. Since we were all new a month ago, we were given the chance to pile in a bus and go tour together. Yippy, bus time equals.... knitting time!

So here is what I was hoping to do after 2 hours of cable knitting:
But this is what we actually ended up doing. I think is was still very cool. oh, take a look at the weather. A little too warm to work on the Mohair at this point, mid 70s.
Well, as I was saying the weather was nice until.... the wind picked up and we got slightly stuck in the river. So we put the Kenyian amd Nepali guy to work to pole us back to shore. BUT in the end the guides came out to save us. We just got a little longer boat ride. :)
Do you want to see the latest knitting or what we had for lunch? Always nice when the company buys lunch.
Enough pictures of me outside playing in the sun shine, it is time to show a complete sock I finished on the crowded train last night. It is Trekking with the Holly's sock pattern from Sock bug. Two people volunteers to be my model. You be the judge as to who is cuter?

In the one picture we have Ms. Brazil, and then in the other picture is weird cute character of the week.I have no idea what it was. A cute pink bear with vicious claws? thank goodness I got the sock back from him.

Started another new pair of socks, this one with cables and did I mention I now have 2 single socks floating around my room. oh well... here is a close-up on one of them.

Tomorrow I am going to try and meet-up with a new knitting group. Hopefully I will have lots to tell you then.

Lastly, I leave you with my Thai model posing with a frog. I also want to thank those who left a message on my blog last week. It was nice to know that I am not taking note of my life alone and that there are people out there reading my blog.

Rockin Flowers and... Knitting

Wow! The week flew by and it was another big week. Let's just start with this picture to put you in a cheery mood. ...

The week started with a lesson in flowers. Kind of fun but I think I will stick to knitting. It seems there are too many rules to the proper arrangement, not to mention I can't tell one purple flower from another. Actually, I can't tell the difference between a pink flower, blue flower, white flower.... etc. I think you get the picture. Didn't I mention earlier I tried to kill my flowers this summer and they only came back to haunt me???

The cool thing about the flowers, is I have them set in my doorway to greet me. Every time I come home I get a fresh smell as I walk in the door and the flower make me smile. Even my new daffodil hat is enjoying the flowers. This hat is really truly the last of the daffodil yarn. I barely squeezed it out of the scraps of the socks and gloves...

Friday night I went into the big city with my friends. As we will milling around I found....

Yes, these are crazy looking green shoes and they were in my size. I had not choice but to spend the $10. BUT, when I got home I tried to make my snazzy hand knit socks work with the funky green shoes.. and... seems I need to knit a pair of solid colored white or blue socks. Put that on the list of things to do!

Saturday I went to one of my favorite concerts around town. My friend sent me the invite a week ago, so I planned the 90 minute commute to fit my knitting schedule. This was about the right amount of time to finish my surprise sock. I have taken its picture with Penta-kun.

WHO is Penta-kun? Or better yet, WHAT is Penta-kun? I don't know... I was walking down the street and someone in a penta-kun costume was handing out this doll. So I got in line with all the little kids to get my very own Penta doll. I know you are all VERY jealous, I can see that look in your knitting faces.

Oh, I hope the yarn gods will be ok with me if I spend my yarn money on a Nintendo DS my friend was showing me some cool brain games and other nerdy games for the system. I am having trouble parting 2 months of yarn money. I have not bought any new yarn for 2 weeks! oh other things... had my first encounter with the Wii system. FUN even though Game-girl kicked me at every game!! Just means there is room for improvement, right? Also, Game-girl noticed the earthquake before I did ... I have not felt one of those in a while. It was just a small tremor and we watched our tea giggle back and forth... no big deal!

I will try to keep the earthquakes small this week and hope to have a new sock to show soon.

Socker!

Wow! I can't believe the week flew by so quickly. I have been working so hard that I am finding it hard to make time to knit. But I did take a few trips into town in the evenings which bought me some knitting time! Not to mention that the temperature are finally dropping a bit. While I am still optimistic to get the mohair sweater done by Christmas... I am not seeing time to have it done this month. :(

I finally got a little mojo going for the kool-aid socks and they are DONE!!! Thank goodness. The next easy pair is on the needles and I am hoping to thread in some cool pattern after they are knit up. It should be a surprise in many aspects. :)

The Brazilian girls and I went down to the local soccer game, after changing trains 3 times!!! It was a lot of fun and we were lucky our $25 seats were covered from the heavy rain that has been falling all day long. The game was scoreless until the last 3 minutes when the Brazilian player knocked in a goal. My friends were super excited. Here are a few pictures to enjoy.



Did you want a better close up? Little arrow pattern


I forgot to mention the super cool fireworks I viewed from my friend's 10 story building. WOW!!! the fireworks went on for an hour. I thought after they put the happy face images in the sky and hello kitty images up the grand finally was just around the corner.... not for another half an hour. I would love to see them again next year. I wanted to take pictures but I was afraid to leave my comfortable seat and plate of sushi. :) It was really a nice party to attend.

Friday night I met a friend an we went to a popular area along the river after a 90 degree day. It was wonderful to sit and watch the boats floating by with the cool autumn breeze. We counted 40 party boats out in the bay area at one time. nice way to end the week.

I took a picture of the socks guarding my computer in my new computer room. This is were everyone shares the signal. So when I am talking to you on Skype this is where my socks and I are.... :) Cozy isn't it?

I went to tthe park!

Look what I did at the park besides eat my lunch with a friend.

I got a picture of my fabulous new gloves. Now my friend whom I had lunch with wants a pair. hmm... not sure I want to do that since each finger took about 30 minutes.

I think there is hope that I may wear these soon since the weather seems to be cooling down for fall. I can't wait!!!

Summer of Socks count

I believe today is the last day of summer, unfortunately summer just keeps continuing!!! It is a ridiculous 35 degrees Celsius out. Yes, definitely not "knitting in the park" weather. To celebrate the coming of fall I don't have to work on Monday, although it will probably still be 30 some degrees in the 90.

As summer concludes and the SOS wraps up I must confess the socks are slowing down as more interesting winter projects start to take over. I only managed to to knit 8 and a half pairs of socks. I had hoped to knit more to get ahead on the 52 sock plunge. I may just jump off the wagon.... but I have all this stash to burn through!!!

To conclude summer I must show the half a pair of socks... maybe by Monday it will be a pair and ready to wear in the beginning of fall. This is my hand-dyed knit picks yarn with the little arrowhead pattern from Sensational Knits. 4 simples rows that threw off too many times. Even after all the pain of the pattern I can't wait to wear them.

More knitting adventures

I've been busy knitting, meeting and playing around... of course. Yesterday I finished the awful kool-aid sock and now I have one more to make. Can I finish it before the end of the month?? I would rather sit in the library and study that knit on the stupid sock. It looks really nice on and will be great for this heat wave we are in. Yes, it was another 90 degree day and too hot to wear any hand knit socks. :( In fact I ALWAYS wear my delicately hand crafted socks that even when I am not wearing socks... I am still wearing socks. (I have a bad tan line, albino white to a light white color.)

I went to my new knit group Tuesday night. of course I got lost on the way, did not take the address, phone number, etc... so I stopped into AmPm to ask where the bar was.... and the clerk kind of freaked out. "No not around here." I circled the block because I could sense the needles working nearby, and half a block away I found the group. It was a pretty cool group. But I am not used to knitting in bar. hmm.... but I will get used to it. there were about 10 people and they were all working on a variety of things. Once it cools down a bit more people will probably drop in.

I saw the coolest thing in the yarn store. It was kind of expensive but I am a glow in the dark fanatic. There was fingering weight glow in the dark yarn in 4 colors, 75 yards for $6. While I can't really justify the purchase yet.... uhm, I am definitely trying make it seem cheap. I could put hidden stripes or patterns in my socks. How cool would that be???

oh, I finished a glove and the other one is about half done. I did take a picture and with the background says 32 degrees, that is not in F.
I am surprised I did not have a heat stroke modeling the glove in the sun.


Do you want other curious pictures?

This is taller than that thing in Paris. :)　勝った、よ。

How about this building?

If you are watching the news you would know that it is empty for various reasons. Next week it should be back on track... well of a sort.

Mary Poppins, I am.

Today was a nice causal knit day. I thought I would take my super cool Mary Poppin's wheels out for a spin. I am not used to having hand breaks and no gears. But all the same I can break light speed and pass everyone on the street. :) I can even eat and ride the bike, all I need is a coffee holder and I will feel more at home.

Of course the first order of the day was to elbow in for some parking. As well as be attentive to where parking ticket are given out.
NOPE, this is not my granny bike. I think the parking fines are chopping off a finger. That sure would make knitting a challenge.

Here are the results of my errands.
I have two of the five fingers on the gloves. I am using the knitty Broad Street Mitten pattern slightly adapted. Ok, very much adapted. I am taking notes for the other glove in hopes they match.

I was glad I road the bike in the hot 85 wind, as walking would have been more tiring. When I got home I took this picture of my gloves with my neglected arrow socks in the garden. I must show this picture as I had to brave the mosquitoes!


I am just glad today did not involve 4 hours in the Karaoke room!