Missed Last weeks post

So I missed posting last week, to be totally honest I was just to out of sorts to want to post.  I went to the Doctor and discovered what is causing my back pain, it was a little bit of a shock and ended somethings that I either needed to do or liked to do.  Such as running, while I am not a fan of it I needed to start running again to help lose some extra weight around my middle.  I was told I will probably never be able to run again.  The jarring movements of running could cause more damage to my back.  Which also means horse back riding is out for me, while I could still ride a gated horse I cant really ride my own anymore.  Not that I ride much and more.  Everything that I have to look for in exercise for my own safety is a little depressing.  I now have to work harder to lose the weight I want to get rid of and will have to start dieting. Which I will not start to much of that until after the first of the year. Because of that I did not feel like writing anything.  Though I did start a new sock on Thursday November 17th.  I started a plan sock to work on when I went to Magical Beast and Where to Find Them, I really enjoyed the movie and knit about 3 to 4 inches on the leg of the sock.  Then on Friday November 18th we went to Dr. Strange.  That movie was something that my husband wanted to see move then me, but it was still a fun movie.  If I didn't have my knitting I would have gotten a little restless during that movie.  I knitted another 3 to 4 inches on the leg of the sock.  I did not knit that weekend for some reason.

Now on to this last week, which has been much better, except for the sock candy incident. On Monday I got my knitting out of my bag, it was not in a knitting bag just loose in my big bag. It had a Junior Mint smashed into the part on the needles and in some to the yarn ball.  So I had to wash my knitting with the needles in it in order to get the candy off.  By Thursday it was dry and ready to start being knitted on again though I have not really started knitting on it again since I really need to work on the project that I am making for my mother's Christmas gift.  I have been working on it this week and worked on it yesterday while we were waiting on the book store to open.  They were giving out $5 gift cards to the first 100 people in to the store.  I was able to get one Christmas present while I was there.  Then we went longboarding.  We just cruised around Walter Hall Park playing pokemon for a couple of hours. Then I hit up the yarn store, where I was able to get some good deals on yarn.  Then we went off to the Outlet mall to try to get the Husbands a new pair of converse just to skate in.  That was a total bust but when we went into the skate shop there I did get a new skater dress and a new tee shirt.  Over all a good day.  Right now the Husband is working on some homework I am about to do some online Christmas shopping, then some knitting and some other writing that I need to do.  Tomorrow I am going to do some designing.  After all I have new yarn to play with.

Not Much to Say

Well as the title of this post states I do not have much to say this week.  I have not worked on any articles or essays, I have hardly done any knitting.  I am mostly getting on here and posting because I want to get in the habit of Sunday mornings being a blogging time.  So here is my week in a nutshell.  Monday everything was peachy went to work did some knitting, came home and did my normal thing. Tuesday woke up with a sore throat went to work drank tea all day did a little knitting came home and did normal thing (I think). Wednesday I woke up at 1 am started wishing for death because my throat hurt so bad, didn't fall back to sleep until 4 am.  In between 1 and 4 I found out who won the election, read several facebook post about it and finally decided to play games on my phone until I finally slept again.  Then my alarm goes off at 5 am. I get up shower because I sweated so much (I think I had a fever that night), and generally got ready for my MRI and texted my office manger that I was not feeling well and would need the day off.  Went to MRI, may I or you never need to do that again or ever, came home wait for PCP to open.  Went to PCP was told I was sick, thank you I already knew that, Husband was told next time not to share by PCP.  Got medications, and then slept.  Thursday I went to work because I am the only closer on Thursday. Friday felt much better went to work.  Saturday felt great other then the sneeziness from dusting.  Wednesday through Saturday little to no knitting done.  And now we are on today, in which I feel horrible, Husband wants to go out later so I will give in and go to bookstore with him.  But I really want to stay home and play pokemon and maybe knit some if I feel like thinking that much after this.  I am really think I am going to go turn on the main computer and go watch some pokemon XYZ and play pokemon or something equally childish.  Why because I enjoy it and don't feel well.  And I know in two months even if I don't feel well I will still have to be a grown up and do my college work so I should enjoy being childish while I have the time.  With that said, have a good week hopefully I will have more knitting done next week and maybe I will work on my articles this week so that I can post one on Saturday.

Monday

Good Morning World! I don't know about you but I hurt,  I think that I may have done too much yesterday. It is that or there is just no place that I can sit in my house with my back hurt.  I sit here with my first cup of tea.  This morning it is Lavender Earl Grey with honey to sweeten it and milk.  Ever since visiting England I have found a love for milk in my tea. Einstein, mostly known as Ein in our house is trying to help me write this morning he is purring for all his worth on my lap as I type.

He settled down after we took this picture and he is now resting mostly in my lap with his front pawls on my arm.  He is nothing if not helpful when one is working on any computer. 

Yesterday other then finishing my post on the air show, I did 5 loads of laundry and put all 5 of them away. Dishes, well more like loaded the dishwasher there is still not enough to run it so after dinner tonight I should have enough to run a load of dishes. The best part of the day is I finally settled on a design that I like for my mother's Christmas gift. This year my mother asked me to make her a shawl.  Since I normally make very lacey shawls that I don't think my mother would wear much I have settled on a lace edging to a shawl style scarf that I am designing just for her.  I think that once the pattern is done I will post it for sale on Ravelry and my Etsy page.  Once the pattern is done I will post links to both places.  I probably will not post the pattern until at least December, just because I don't want my mom to find it since she does have ravelry and knows of my etsy shop.  I am toying with a very lacey shawl design right now but it is still in the very early stages and I don't think it  will be ready until summer.  I struggle with shawl designs, I find it hard to make it look like what I picture in my head.

Also on the designing board right now is my simple cuff down sock. I am writing a pattern of everything that I do in my simple no pattern cuff down socks right now so that I can share the pattern that I will be using come January first.  My no pattern sock is a combination of things that I like from other patterns and something that I have found that works for me when I want to make socks that are simple and do not feel like caring around a pattern.  But I will go more into that when ever I post the pattern up here. Soon to come on the design boards up a doubt will ever leave the design board is the requested cock sock.  Last year for my husband's work dirty Santa he asked me to make him a cock sock, and I did.  It was such a hit that he asked me to do another one.  This time I plan on using sock yarn and making it festive, meaning color work will be involved.  I am a little embarrassed to say that I have ever made on much less that I am designing one to be more festive.

I am honestly a little disappointed that it is already Monday, yet at the same time I can hardly wait for Wednesday.  I am not ready for the weekend to end, but my MRI is on Wednesday and that will put us one step closer to finding out what is wrong with my back.  I need to know so that I can figure out how to fix it.  My Husband thinks it is because I am not active enough and that it has caused my mussels to shorten and that I what is causing the issues.  Maybe he is right but it could be something else, I just don't know and I am tired of hurting most of the time.

 So if I do not make it back on here before the weekend here is a quick look at what I am working on this week.  Completing the writing and edits of the Sock Article (I am just not happy with it yet), working on the shawl scarf, finishing a pair of no pattern socks, along with the pattern for the no pattern socks, and working on the Autumn poncho that I put down in January or February of this year.  It will soon be weather that I can wear it in. I hope that your Monday goes by quickly and has no bad surprises for you.

Wings over Houston

As promised I am sharing so about the Houston Airshow that happened October 22 and 23. This year I went on Sunday the 23 and have to say I loved that the crowd on Sunday morning was quite a bit smaller then on Saturday's from previous years. This year the Blue Angels were the main military demo group.

Sunday morning we got to the Airshow around 9 in the morning. Since my husband's squander had a plane out there we helped set up for the day.  After helping set up the cover and laying out the Challenge Coins, Patches, Stickers and Tee-Shirts they were selling for the Family Readiness Fund.  Which pays for the yearly family day, a Christmas party (if they decide to do one) and any emergencies that may happen (such as sending flower if there is a death in the family or something drastically bad happens and they need to help someone out).  The Husband and I left things in the hands of the other people that were out there with us and walked around a little.  Once we saw what we wanted and the flying demonstrations were about to start we got some food and went back to the plane.  I sat at the table knitting in between sales, while my Husband and four of the people who he works with walked around the plane and answer questions about her.  I only went out from under cover to get some pictures or video of the demonstration flights.  I find the air show entertaining and even sitting under the cover so I don't burn I do get to see most of the flights.  With out further a due here are a few pictures from Wings over Houston:

 

This is me with my dpn behind my ear and our F-16 behind me. (I had just got done making some sales.  There are actually four chairs behind me but the only time the guys sat down was to eat). 

 

I think that these were some of the torah torah torah planes but cant remember now.

 

This is just one of the bi-planes they had out there. I love the old bi-planes and miss the wing walkers that I got to see at other air shows.  There are not many wing walkers left nor to many air shows that allow them due to the danger.

 

And finally here are two of the Blue Angles.  This picture was taken as they were taxing out from where they park the jets to the actual run way.

Well I hope that you enjoyed this post about the air show.  I should have posted sooner so that I could remember more interesting details but there is always next year. 

Change in focaus

I have not been on here for quite sometime.  The reason for this is because I have had a major change in focus over the last few months. With changes that are being made to the master knitter program I no longer feel the drive to get something that is nothing more than something for bragging rights.  I can find no reason or drive to continue at this time. I will not say that I will never want to go back and finish the program but at this time I no longer want to and haven't wanted to in a long time.  While I have learned a lot from the program I feel that there is more to learn by doing my own thing.  To be honest the master knitting program stole my knitting mojo for a while.  Since deciding to stop I have halfway finished a shawl and have almost finished a pair of socks that have been on my needles for almost a year.  I am working hard to finish some projects while starting only a few. 

I have big plans for next year, some of which includes knitting and some does not.  Starting in January I am going back to college.  I am planing on finishing my associates in general studies and then to transfer in to a major university for my bachelors in history. I want to focus on textile history, but may have to call my focus art history due to lack of programs that I can find. Along with going back to school I am going to do a 52 sock challenge.  You can find more on that in the coming weeks. Also I plan on putting up what I am calling blog articles in which I am focusing on one part of knitting and writing about it, covering mostly the history.  I am working on one and am hoping to have it up next week but am not sure that I will have it done by next week. Though this weekend is going to be a writing weekend for my husband so it can be one for me too.

Normally my Husband and I would either go somewhere for part of the weekend or I would have plans to do a ton of house work but I am being forced to slow down for the next month maybe more.  I have had issues with my back for about a year to a year and a half.  Anyone who has ever had a back injury can tell you how much fun it is.  Depending on the severity of the pain you are either walking non-stop hoping that the pain will stop or you are laying around trying to sleep all the time because when you are awake you are crying and wishing for death.  This latest attack of the back start on September the 23 and it was the type that you are walking as much as possible because it does not hurt if you keep moving as long as you don't step wrong and cause your body to wrench.  You don't move fast but you do get a ton of steps in.  It was starting to feel almost normal again when I stretched on Sunday September 30th and all I could do is lay around and cry. The specalist that I saw earlier the year and again this week called in stronger medications and put in to a MRI now I am waiting on insurance to approve the MRI.  After two days of the stronger medications I can honestly say I don't like them and think the stuff my PCP called in helps more.

The problem with having my back flare up this badly is I don't want to do much. I just want to sleep so I don't hurt.  That is why I don't know when I will be able to finish my article.  I am hoping that I wake up this weekend feeling like I do right now.  If I do then I will be able to write and knit. Which means that I can finish my article and post it here.  I can also finish the edits for the history of knitting paper that I wrote for the master's program and post it here since I do not plan on turning in any of that stuff anytime soon. 

I apologize for the rambling and thank you for reading my complaints.  I would promise not to do either again but we both know that would be a lie. Post that should be coming soon:  Wings of Houston, two knitting history articles, and the 52 sock challenge. Hope you come again, I am hoping to start writing here more now that I have my own dedicated computer again.

Harry Potter House Cup - wk1

Today I am going to talk about the first day of the spring term in the Harry Potter House Cup (if you want to play along you can find the group on ravelry.com).  Since I took the winter term off I elected to go back as a 7th year.  In week 1 I finished the back and got about half of the front done of my SuperSweater.  The pattern will be posted here when I am done with the sweater.  I will put it up for my size first and when I post I will try to add everything for the different sizes though if I don't have time I will be adding that information in later.  I still have ends to weave in on the back and of course will have a ton of ends to weave in on the front.

Goals for week 2:
Sunday: Finish front of SuperSweater, weave in ends, block back and front.  Do math for sleeves.
Monday: Work on pattern edits, start sleeves.
Tuesday: Work on sleeves.
Wednesday: Finish sleeves, block sleeves, seem shoulders, pick collar stitches.
Thursday: Finish Collar.
Friday: Finish seeming sweater.
Saturday: Finish Waist Coat.

All of these look to be goals that I can easily finish even with working all this week.  Sunday I will get pictures of the sweater finished to upload on to here and on ravelry along with making a pattern post.  My goal is to finish a knitted Super Girl costume before the Space City Con on Memorial Day weekend.  I know that I should have the sweater ready to go and hope to get my skirt and scarf done before that weekend also.  Even if I don't get all three things this month there is another con in June that I will have it done for.
Well I am off to do some knitting before it get to the time for my walk this afternoon.  I am trying to get 10,000+ steps every weekend.

Tired

Hello Everyone, I know it had been a very long time since I have gotten on here and have given you an update.  There has been no major changes on my status.  I am right now working on a Waistcoat (vest) design that I will be turning in to the master's committee as part of my level 2 work.  They don't care about the pattern other then checking that I can follow the pattern correctly.  I am writing the pattern for two reasons.  One I am wanting to publish some patterns and two I couldn't find any vest patterns that I really liked.  So I was bumming around on pintrest and decided that I should make a waistcoat pattern.  I have very little that I have to do in order to make it qualify for the master's program so there we go.  I have finished one argyle sock but the gauge was wrong so I started another one of them and not am at the heel flap.  I really need to work on that, I should be able to finish the sock with two solid days of work on it.  Maybe one if nothing was really going on.  Once I get the sock done at the right gauge I will move on to the wristers.  On Friday I will be ordering some more worsted weight wool so I can finish my swatches.  I also may order one skein of white lace yarn for the lace swatches. But I am undecided on that.  Yesterday I down loaded the newest directions, it doesn't look like it has any major changes in it. This weekend I am planning on taking pictures of all of m my finished swatches which I will upload  on to ravelry and here. 
I just finished listening to an audible book which was the last in the series to have an audible book version so I am having to switch to kindle book.  Which means that I have to find a new audible book to read.  I may go back to a different series that I have been listening to since the latest book in that series is now out and is on audible.  Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and listening to audible books while knitting makes the knitting seem to fly.  I am not much of a tv person so often get bored during tv shows or movies which is why I love the audible books.  I think that it is time for me to go and work on a pattern until it is time to finish getting ready for work.