Hospital knitting was interesting. Josh's grandmother was admitted after she stopped breathing during her radiation treatment. When we saw her she looked amazing. She is such a strong lady. I sat and worked on my sock for awhile while we talked. We left when Josh's mom got into town. I'm glad things turned out well, it was a scary little bit there.

I'm still sick. Work called and is not letting me work after next week. I understand the need to cram. So, I had to call in monetary support from the family. It will all work out, I'm sure. I just have to keep focused.

In other news, have you signed up for the Woolgirl Sock Club? You should. I did (I think, unless she's full already), as an after the bar exam treat.

You know it figures...

Just when I stock up on pink yarn for next year's adoption knit fest, we decide to adopt from South Korea. Where you can't choose your baby's sex. Just great.... so now I have to figure out what exactly is gender neutral. That is afterthebarexam. Please feel free to spam me in the meantime with your favorite gender neutral colorways. If it's a boy, Josh has picked the name Atrades. Pray it's a girl.

Ow..

Lately anything has been causing the most painful bruises ever. It doesn't help that I'm majorly clumsy and pale, so everything turns a nice bruised banana shade. Right now, the top of my foot has a bruise from where Tick stepped on me with his giant claws. Ow..

I got my Loopy Ewe package today! Pictures are forthcoming. Yesterday I updated my Ravelry account a bit, putting all my sock yarn on there (except today's batch, of course). Here's the Yarn Love I never got around to showing...


That's all I've got. I've been studying my butt off. All Saturday was spent taking a practice MBE exam (6 hours of multiple choice questions). I scored a 55% unscaled. I need a 68% scaled, and there's no way to know how much they will scale it this year in my state. So...more studying! I studied last night on Property and moved my score from a 42% to a 62% in that subject to there is progress.

I'm going to throw something in the crockpot and take a nap. Then more Property and flashcards.

Gurgle, gurgle

Have you ever drank a lot of water (or Capri-Sun in this case) just so you could move your stomach around and listen to that gurgling sound? No? Really? Oh. ...me either, I swear. Gurgle, gurgle. No, that wasn't me. I swear I'm not that easily amused. I'm a very serious lawyer knitter.

I cast on for a dishcloth this weekend for a quick project. I cast off on Hogwarts Sock number one. I must say my kitchener is vastly improved. I realized right before falling asleep that my first kitchener attempts were back when I was knitting through the back loop as my version of the knit stitch. So when I did kitchener, back in the day, I was purling every stitch. That completely explains why it looks like a line of purl stitching on the knit side. I had always wondered how I flubbed it so bad.

My birthday was, well, uneventful. I'm getting past the fun birthdays part, I guess. I spent the day drugged up and sleeping most of the day. We went out to dinner and Josh had to go back to work. I don't think he came in until after 1 am. I got three cards and half of my family called. My brother stopped by for two hours, but didn't mention my birthday. It's pretty typical, and I'm not mad. Birthdays aren't a big deal in my family. I definitely could have used a big deal type of day yesterday, but I wasn't expecting one. Sometimes you have to make your own kind of big deal.

Sick of Birthdays..

Tomorrow is my birthday. I am sick, sick sick. It's a combination of stomach sick and sinus cold. Strange combo. I dread the fact that I will feel bad on my birthday. Josh is getting reservations at Benevita and I've been promised a funny card. He and I are big "card people". For my 16th birthday he got me a card which said "Happy Birthday from me and the cat from hell". The front was an adorable orange kitten wrecking havoc on downtown Tokyo, like a kitty Godzilla. We have contests on our anniversary and Valentine's Day to see who can make the other one cry with their choice of mooshy card. Really all I want is to feel better. I'm about to take some Benadryl and pass out for a bit.

I also dread that I have a practice MBE on Saturday for 6 hours and am exhausted. Hopefully after a nap I can get 50 practice questions done. And all tomorrow until dinner. What a way to spend a birthday! It's okay because everything will be better. After the bar exam.

Lest I sound all woe is me, I picked up three skeins of yarn at The Loopy Ewe yesterday. Two of them are the Duets line she's carrying now (that exact colorway was one of my three, slightly different than my normal crazy color explosion choices), some Zen String and a stitch counting bracelet. Switching from one color to another for heels and toes will be a new skill for me to acquire. After the bar exam. I hate how I have to post-script everything I say with that, but that's okay. Right now life seems like the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, all black and white. I imagine on July 28th, walking out of the bar exam, everything will be in Technicolor, like the Emerald City.

I think I've amassed one (or more) of each brand of sock yarn I wanted to try as a beginning sock knitter. Socks that Rock, Tofutsies, Panda Cotton, Yarn Love, Duets, Zen String, Lone Star Arts (on the needles, so soft!), Lorna's Laces (on the needles, love it!), and some random indie dyers. I look forward to systematically getting my needles into all of it.

So, even AFTER my haul yesterday. I am still refreshing like a mad woman on Momma Monkey's etsy shop. Check it out and tell me you don't want one of those kits! I want three of them, the only one I don't want is the one with the orangey-ish colorway. I will be good and maybe just buy the Eugenia sock pattern and afterthebarexam find some solid color pink yarn to work it up in.

Oh help!

I have a favorite brand of socks, that are nonhandknit. See them here. They are Maggie's Functional Organic Mantra socks. They're knee socks with sayings like "just breathe" or "i am calm" on the calf. My plan (and don't you steal it!) is to someday make a simple toe-up kneesock pattern with something similar in colorwork on the calf. Isn't that funny, me asking you not to steal an idea that I pretty much want to steal from the Maggie's people?

Anywhoo. The help I'm needing is to find another pair of these! They aren't available locally and I need three pairs, one for each day of next month's bar exam. It's a superstition. I have the black/justbreathe ones and the natural/iamcalm ones. If you have access to any of the others, please let me know. Normally I order mine through Frontier Co-op for $4.25 each, but the shipping on just one pair of socks from them is ridiculous.

I've decided to develop a costume for the bar exam. Same thing, pajamas, layered with a sweatshirt, these socks and my vegan fake Ugg boots. Comfort, and warmth is key. I can also study in the same clothes. There's trains of thought that studying in similar conditions can connect your memory to those similar conditions. You know, it's probably an excuse for new socks.

I am almost to the decrease on my first Hogwart's sock. I will have it off the needles by the end of the weekend. Or else. I'm serious.

I also got my grades back. I got an A on my paper on race-based jury nullification. That's only the second A I've gotten in law school. That was the best semester I had in law school. Oh the memories! To celebrate, I'm stalking the Loopy Ewe for a skein or three.

Baby Knitting..

It looks like I may have a bit more baby knitting to do. Monday night Josh dropped a bombshell. He thinks he'll be emotionally ready to start the adoption process around this time next year. If all goes well, we should be financially ready as well. I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor, because the last time we discussed this, he was having trouble even contemplating applying for a China adoption at 30 (which means we might get our Ellie at 32 or 33 if the wait is anything like it is currently). And now he's thinking about having a baby at 28 and 29 (actually probably closer to 29 and 30 if I factor in the wait depending on which country we decide on)? It was a bit of a shock. That means, we could have a little Edmison-Wilhelmi around here in two years. It's a bit of a mindshock from the five years I had settled into.

So, I'm delighted, and I'm trying to get my mind around it all. We have a lot of time right now, and I can't let this distract me. I have a bar exam to study for. That doesn't stop me from bookmarking some fantastic baby knitting. I figure I can make most things in a slightly large 6-12 month size and pick things that can be rolled up or modified depending on where we go and which little angel we end up with.

A Tale of Two Packages..

Look at what came in the mail today! Two adorable skeins of Panda Wool, the motherlode of office supplies, scrapbook stickers, Crystal Palace DPNs, a Lantern Moon project bag, all nestled in a larger bag. I noticed the name of the Panda Wool, Basil Curry and now I am hungry for Thai food. Thank you LJ SP! I was so excited over the office supplies, and last week I was wandering the Loopy Ewe looking at the Panda, wondering what it was like. I guess I'll find out soon! I am using the clever bag it all came in to stash my sock yarn. I was able to cram all my sock yarn into the bag, saving a lot of space in the stash closet.

The Hogwart's Swap sock in progress. I'm getting there. I'm nervous about having the other one done in time. If worse comes to worse, I will mail a picture along with the rest of the package.


Here's some pictures from my SP4's package last week during the camera death/battery recharging incident. Look at that yarn ready to be made into a monster, grrr!!

The best thing ever! A notebook with a cover page, with my name on it, spelled correctly, and lots of clear insert pages for patterns. I have found where I stashed all my patterns and am slowly filling this up.

This is week three of these daisies. Three weeks! I am not a daisy fan, but I've been on a big pink and yellow kick lately. Normally I prefer astromerias, but they don't last three weeks.

Thanks SPs!! You both made my week, helped me get organized and inspired. I couldn't ask for more. I'm going to go cover things in post it notes now.

Tagg-ed

What a crazy weekend. That and the promised pictures are coming in another post tonight, I swear. I'll just summarize by saying it was crazy and post this up before I go walk the boys.

Here's the deal: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I am addicted to office supplies. I try to stay out of Office Depot. The same addiction extends to scrapbooking stickers so I likewise try to avoid Hobby Lobby unless there is a sale. The promise is that there is ALWAYS a sale.

2. On Fridays when I'm working more I go to Target during my lunch break and stock up on sale items. My favorites are their earrings, shoes and tank tops.

3. I could honestly eat the same foods everyday. Gummi candy, spaghetti, and vegetables with dip of some sort.

4. I have a hard time eating sweets, especially chocolate without a big glass of milk.

5. I decided last week to give up vegetarianism. My body craved meat. Now I crave the budget to buy the properly raised organic meat, but in the meantime, I'll support Arkansas' own Tyson.

6. When I was young I walked like Steve Urkel (the dork from Family Matters) with my hips slung forward. I fear that I still do that though I've been told that I don't.

7. I am not ashamed of going out in public covered in pet hair. No shame!

I tag:
Mel
Nell
and my SP from SP10!

Found a cool contest here. What is your favorite drink?

I finished the leg of one of my Hogwart's Socks. I stuck with it through all 7 inches. I'm proud, usually I get to around 5.5" and convince myself that's long enough. So I'm working on that heel flap. My other pair of socks has an inch or two to go before I start that heel flap.

I figured out what was wrong with my camera. The battery needed charging. I feel relatively dumb, it's charging though. In the meantime, I've had fun putting patterns in my pattern book. I keep finding piles of them randomly throughout my knitting room.

Yesterday my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble. I picked up the first copy I've ever seen of Interweave Knits. Oh. my. goodness. I put tabs on the pages where I wanted to remember to make those patterns. When I take a picture tomorrow you'll notice that is about all the patterns except maybe 7 of them. I don't know where to start.

Bar preparation classes have gone much better than last week's set. I really think I'm learning something. I wish all of law school had been like this. There's entirely too much "hiding the ball" in law school. I understand why, in real lawyering your client doesn't lay everything out for you neatly, sometimes you can't figure out what the applicable law is, etc. Still, bar preparation class reminds me of my undergraduate years and I like it!

2 days until Emma Grace, my niece arrives! I'll have lots of sock knitting to take to the hospital if she hasn't delivered by 1:30 Friday. She's being induced in the morning.

Pictures tomorrow of two socks, a secret pal package, some stash, and dog biscuits.

Furryness

The camera is still resting. I'm beginning to wonder if something happened while it was in the hot car. I'm giving it another day and then I'll start calling the Canon people for help. I dread that.

I was a bit baffled by the nylon fun fur type yarn I got yesterday. You know by now that all the yarn in my stash must have some conceivable purpose. Except for the Peace Fleece which I have vague sweater or shrug plans for. I had no idea what to do with the Modea Dea Wild. I will completely admit to being a yarn snob and I looked at that yarn the same way my husband looks at vegetables, or the same way I did at street signs in China. I thought about the possibilities, maybe a hat? A scarf of some sort? A really fuzzy pair of slippers? (I nixed that idea when I realized nylon would be really slick and we don't have carpets, I'd land on my bony behind. I had about decided on a nice generic hat or a boa type scarf.

Then I found this. Love at first sight. I have two skeins of yarn and two nieces (well, one niece, the other arrives Friday unless she decides to pop out before then). I'll be buying some worsted acrylic at Hobby Lobby and casting on after the bar exam. Funny how everything in my life revolves around that. I'll stash the monsters away for Evie and Ella's Christmas.

Oooh, shiny!

I got a package from my SP10. I am not sure why, but then the camera decided to die. I'm giving it a rest and will try again tomorrow. It was a $600 camera about 6 years ago. Now you could get the same camera-age for less than half that. Oh well! Here's the package contents in case I knit them up before tomorrow.

2 pretty skeins of Moda Dea Wild
1 skein of dishcloth cotton (yay!!!)
my favorite Bigelow Lip Balm from Bath & Body Works
Pomegrante lotion..yum
A magnetic weekly planner (my refrigerator is the height of organization now, pictures to come on that front too)
Soap! (it looks to be glycerin based and homemade..squee!)
And, for the grand finale.....a knitting notebook! Complete with personalized cover and lots of clear pages.

The strange thing is, now that I have this, I can't find my pattern stash. I know it's in my yarn closet somewhere..

Thanks SP10, you made my day! I was so excited pulling into the driveway and seeing that happy little priority mail box on the porch.