Most of the time I tend not to knit the super popular sweater patterns that make their way in to the online knitting communities.  They either don’t go high enough in size to fit my more than ample body or I don’t find them attractive.  Shawls, hats and whatnot are usually fair game, but even with those I don’t always follow the crowd.  Clapotis?  Started several, never finished a single one.  Monkey?  Love socks and Cookie’s patterns, but I suffer from second sock syndrome (not finishing the pair for the uninitiated).  I’ve made a couple pairs of Fetching and an over large Calorimetry.

But sweaters for myself are usually not on my plate.  I’m an odd knitter.  If I leave a project sitting too long I will never pick it up and finish it.  Too long could be a week, or several years.  Some of you might remember when I was making Mr. Greenjeans.  I made it to just under the arms and then it sat.  For weeks.  I kept thinking I would go ahead and just finish it, but I kept thinking “Should I put the cables in or not?” and “Will I really ever wear this as I’ve knit it?”  I was in love with the pattern but not with the modifications I’d made.

I’d heard a lot about the Central Park Hoodie.  I think pretty much anyone who is involved with online knitting communities has heard about it at some point, at least in passing.  I’d not given it much thought because the pattern didn’t go up to my size, and my math skills are lacking when it comes to re-sizing garments.  But when I heard that they’d republished the pattern to include sizes up to a 60 inch bust I decided to take a better look at it.  I love this hoodie.  As I’ve already mentioned a million times, I love cables, and to me, this sweater screams “Hey!  Wear me on the weekends while you bum around town and get coffee and shop!”

And so, my frugal (some say cheap) self bought my very first singular pattern last week.  Most of the time I knit from free patterns online or from patterns in books or magazines I’ve bought.  I’m wondering if I’ll be more compelled to finish this pattern since I paid for it?  I’m hoping so because I really love this sweater and even though I won’t be able to wear it with the weather heating up, I’d love to finish one and love it so much that I make another before it’s cool enough to wear them.  The even cooler thing is that there are so many varying sizes that I could make one for practically every woman (and a couple of men) that I know.

It took so long for flickr to upload my picture that I’m almost finished with lunch! I finally gave up and hosted it through photobucket.

I’m hoping it’s not too large a picture. Anyway, this is my first super healthy bento. There’s leftover stir fried carrots and broccoli from last night, homemade hummus with a little cayenne pepper, cucumber slices to dip in the hummus. There’s also onigiri with star shaped nori on top, mini dill alligators devouring green olives (I took great pleasure in stealing their prey and eating their faces off!). Fresh strawberries and watermelon jello for desert. That’s a big lunch for less than 600 calories!

The weekend went by in a blur and I’m kind of reeling this morning. It could be because I haven’t had any coffee though.

Paul had to work on Saturday, but he was out of work by nine and we decided that we were going to take off and check out the town wide yard sale in Chloride with his parents. We all loaded in to their van and drove the 20 miles to the teensy little town out in the middle of nowhere. I made them stop the van so I could get a picture of the sign:

Chloride only had around 150 residents, but because of it’s mining history it’s become a bit of a tourist stop. There are gunfights, a few small shops, and this past Saturday they had their town yard sale. It was kind of neat to soak in some of the kitschy tourist stuff (like a renewing of wedding vows followed by a gun fight) and hit some thrifty shopping at the same time.

The wedding vows went quick, and the shoot out even quicker. You could hear the gunshots through the entire little town.

We walked across the entire “Main street” and then drove my mother in laws van around the other couple of streets. I found a few bags to store projects in and a brand new set of hot curlers for $2.00.

After we’d perused all the little yard sales and I’d gotten my Crocs absolutely covered in goat heads (Seriously, there were probably thousands embedded in each shoe!) we started heading out of town. At the last side street before you reach the highway there was a yard sale sign so we veered to the left and followed a dirt road for a few miles. That yard sale was the gold mine. I replaced two of my cd’s that were stolen years ago (TLC Fanmail and Alanis Morisette Jagged Little Pill) and the first 7 books of the Shannara series by Terry Brooks (In hard back!) as well as a whole bunch of paperback sci-fi books for Paul for a whopping $5.55. Before we left the yard sale I walked across the road and took a picture of a cactus in full bloom because it was beautiful.

I got a little more sun than I expected during our jaunt so now I’m sporting a bright red neck, nice ghost-white shoulders and red arms from the midpoint down. Hot! I got a nice chewing out from my husband because of it, so I suspect we’ll be picking up more sunscreen soon. Years ago I got a sunburn on my back so bad that it was blistered around where the edges of my bathing suit were and even after all this time - 10 years or so - there’s a part of my back that is darker than the rest. I can’t blame him for bitching me out I guess…just have to be more careful next time.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. We went out for breakfast yesterday at Golden Corral (One of our favorite buffet places) and that’s going to be my last high calorie breakfast for awhile. I’m finally going to start keeping track of what I’m eating and try and lose a “little” weight. I picked up a ton of veggies and some fruit yesterday when we went shopping and I joined a site called The Daily Plate. It’s similar to FitDay, but I like the layout better and it seems more user friendly. I haven’t logged anything in to it yet, but I plan on starting to use it today. It even has a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you should be eating for your weight to lose x number of pounds per week. It’s nifty!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a picture I found way too cute not to take yesterday:

I left a drawer where I keep a lot of my hand knits open the other day and Gutter’s decided it’s the perfect little hidey hole for him to sleep in. I’ve left it pulled out so he’s been in it most of the last three days. Adorable old snot!

Right now I’m just passing the time until all the utility companies open so I can pay bills. I’d much rather stay home and work on this than spend money on “trivial” things like electric and water

I’m basing the shawl off the Sunday Market Shawl by Vanessa Carter, but I’ve changed it a bit.  Instead of casting on 30 stitches, I did 60 because I like wider stoles that cover more of my back.  I’m also adding beads randomly through it.  I hope it turns out well…I’ve used beads in knit projects before, but not of varying sizes and since you drop every third stitch to create a decorative ladder I hope that the beads don’t cause issues with dropping them when it comes time.  I think it’ll be fine though!

I’m using a super super soft merino from one of the recycled sweaters.  I’m holding it double since it’s kind of between a fingering and sport weight.  This is such a nice, mindless knit after the Hemlock Ring.  There wasn’t a whole lot of thought involved with that after the center, but it felt like the feather and fan went on forever.  This is just plain old stockinette until right before binding off.  I can read or watch tv while working on it without worrying if I’m screwing up a pattern.  Every couple rows I’ll spread the shawl out and decide where to add a bead by marking it with a safety pin.  Simple!

I didn’t sleep much last night so I’m sure by the time I get finished with my running around today I’ll be exhausted.  Gutter woke me up at 4:00 this morning to let me know that I’m a bad Mommy for not getting up and giving him food.  Then Moxie decided she needed cuddles and threw herself over my hips, pushing Cordova even farther under my ribcage and making Paul wake up with a start saying “HUH?!” LOL, crazy.  So, because my husband and fur children are snots, I’m treating myself to a hazelnut caramel iced latte at Sonic.  So there!

Hope the weekend will be good for everyone…do something fun!