Best Laid Plans...

Okay - today's post was supposed to read something like this:

"Yeah - rack up an 'A' for me on SAM5 - the Jacobean's are all done - Whoot Whoot!" Then I would give you all of the glorious details on the yarn, needle size, etc. Well - that was the plan.

Let's go back about 24 hours shall we... "Yeah - almost finished... only 13 rows of ribbing to do - no worries, I can knock that out in a short amount of time. Yeah boy - I'm gonna finish another pair of socks. Oh yeah - right on track, blah blah blah" There may have even been some celebratory dancing.

Then the 'little voice' starts speaking. If only I could just tell that voice to SHUT UP!!

Little Voice: "Hey - this sock is a wee bit smaller than the other sock"

Me: "Nope - I can stretch it out when I block it. The recipient's foot is smaller than mine. No worries..."

Little Voice: "Nope - I think something's seriously wrong..."

Me: "Nope - just a tighter gauge here for some odd reason..." Knit on, Knit on - blindly knitting away...

Then - I decided to check & compare this sock to sock #1. Hmmm - fits tightly on the sock blocker. Hmmmm - leg is going to be much longer than sock #1 - how can that be? I still have ribbing yet to do. Houston - we have a problem.

Then it hits me like a wet salmon - I started the short row heel one pattern repeat too early. ARGHHHH. So - rip, rip, rip I went. Back to repeat #3.... Only 3 more repeats (of 20 rows), a heel, and 2" of cuff + ribbing to do.

Sure I'll finish before April's over. NOT. Part of me wanted to continue and ignore the gross oversight just so I could receive April credit - how sad... So, I must have progressed as a knitter because I did the knitterly right thing to do - ripped back & will continue anew. Just not today. The pain is still too raw.

On the bright side - the 22" (yes - the 16" I reported earlier was a gross under estimate) of snow is melting away quite nicely & the sun is shining.

Here - look at Raja:
So much for knitting on the sweater today.

Ciao~

Ridiculous

Okay - this is absolutely ridiculous. I apologize in advance for what may seem as a continuation of my last post. IT SNOWED AGAIN!!!!!! Just when we thought spring was finally here, a storm "stalled" over the south central region of Alaska. Umm... stalled? Where were the other weather systems? Don't you know when you see someone stalled that it is polite and kind to help get them moving along? Hello - other weather systems? Where were you?

Anchorage received over a foot of snow. I can only provide accurate accounts for the east side of Anchorage - we received over 16 inches - IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS!! WTF?? (Why that's fantastic) The photo to the left is what I had to scape at the end of the school day. Actually - it's what I had to scrape after about 2.5 hours - I'd already scraped once, moved my car, went to coach my JV soccer game (at an indoor facility thankfully), and then returned to school.
Yes - Adidas Sambas (indoor, flat soccer shoes) are not meant for walking through deep snow. I didn't pack boots into the car (they are a permanent fixture there in the winter for safety reasons) as the weather forecast predicted rain mixed with some snow and (now get this) no accumulation expected. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Here's what the railing of our back deck looked like:
Now I know many of you might be thinking - "Hey, you chose to live in Alaska, deal with it". Some may also think I'm just making this crap up & using pictures taken back in December. There is no way I'm creative enough to make this up. Yes, we did choose to live in Alaska - actually chose to return here after 5 years of college in sunny San Diego of all places. Its a beautiful state & I do love & enjoy winter & the snow. So many fun things to do. But come on - April 25th? For crying out loud - enough is enough. It think it's fate laughing at my decision to return to coaching soccer. Have I mentioned we have yet to hold an outdoor practice? I've been trying to train 18 girls to play soccer in our high school gym. It's very difficult to teach positioning and space when you don't have any. What a shock when we play at the indoor facility. We were fortunate enough to play one outdoor game - last Wednesday - in sunny 60° weather!! Luckily they're a great, fun, good-natured bunch and are able to go with the flow.

Okay - enough of my whining. I have been doing some knitting - just no blogging. Don't know what it is (besides the crazy busy schedule), but I haven't felt like plugging in the camera, uploading photos, and sitting down to blog. So sorry - here take a look at knitting - it always makes me feel better.

Progress on the pair of Jacobean socks I'm knitting for the SKP 2008. These will be a gift. They are toe-ups (I'm liking that!!) where I used the figure-8 cast on (so cool). The yarn is Spring Thaw (now that's ironic) from Shibui knits. It is fab yarn - mostly solid with just a hint of light striping.

A little shot of the stitch pattern...

Have I mentioned how much I love the short row heel? It is so cool & fits so well.

Okay - here's what I had to do before I could knit more today. The temps are lots warmer - so the snow is wet & heavy. However, it also helps the driveway to dry more quickly.

And... I might actually finish an adult sized sweater! Hazaah! This is the front of the "Not Your Basic Sweatshirt, Take Two" from The Yarn Girls - Beyond the Basics book. I'm at the point where I can decrease for the armholes & then separate for the v-neck. Yeah - I think I might have to ask for local knitter help when I need to seam this thing together - any takers?

Well - battery is running low & I only have a few more days to finish the Jacobeans for the April credit for SAM5.

Happy Winter, uh, I mean Spring.

Ciao ~

Did I oversleep?

Okay - please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it APRIL???? Did I sleep through the summer (and if I did - was it fun? Are we totally broke from spending all of our money on gas? Were the RUSH concerts fun? How about the family reunion in Wisconsin - how'd that go?) The reason I ask is that Anchorage & the surroundings have received over a foot of new snow over the past few days? I mean "WTF?!?" - (For those who don't know that totally means "Why, That's Fantastic!")

I knew we were premature in thinking spring had actually arrived in Anchorage. All throughout March I kept thinking, even as the ice was melting and the grass was emerging "just wait - more is on the way." It never fails; Ma nature lures us into a false sense of security thinking it's safe to put away the parkas, take the studded tires off the vehicles, and time to rake the lawn. - Then WHAMO! Sometime in the middle of March we're hit with a late season snowstorm that blankets Anchorage. Never fails. Until this year - Anchorage residents were believing more and more that yes, Global Warming is real. Snow was melting - lawns were visible and we were thinking that in no time - we'd be able to have soccer games outside - as they were intended.

Not so fast.... Saturday morning, April 5th, the weather forecast in the paper predicted 3 - 6 inches of snow. Yeah, right. But - lo' and behold, the snow was falling & sho' nuff - we had an accumulation around 6 inches. But.... the sun started to peek from around the clouds and the mercury was on the rise. The snow left behind after my shovel job quickly melted away - streets were clear and dry by the evening. Okay - just a little last minute hic-cup. I can live with that.

Well - Mother Nature wasn't through yet; spring forward to this morning, April 9th when my father calls at 6:15am. He was supposed to come into Anchorage (he lives about 45 minutes North) to pick up something from me at school. He'd call to say he wasn't going to come in because he'd heard Anchorage was expecting 6 - 12 more inches of snow! What?!? As I looked out the window, I thought he was smokin' crack since there was nary a snowflake to be seen falling from the sky. That didn't last for long. As my husband was headed out the door, he came in to tell me that yes - the weather forecasters were right - snow was falling and with a vengeance.

Roads were slicker than snot & it took me over an hour to take the boys to school & then get to work. Along the way there were several ditch divers and scores of cars fish tailing as they turning. Due to the hazardous road conditions - all after school activities were cancelled & outdoor soccer games are cancelled until Monday. Arghhhh

Please wake me when it's spring....

PS - The few nice things about the snow are everything is very clean looking and I feel a renewed need to knit. I'm past the heel of my Jacobean toe-up socks - more to report later... (including pictures - I just needed to vent...)