Bless me father for I have sinned

It has been 3 weeks since my last post! 3 weeks!

I'm sure I've managed to successfully shed any and all readers at this stage. If there's anyone out there still hanging on, I applaud you. I also offer yarn (more on that later. Oh, the things I do to keep people hooked!)

On returning from NYC, which was a total blast, I tried to upload some bloggy goodness. The weather did not cooperate though, and was so cold that the contacts in the camera didn't meet those in the batteries! The camera now lives in the living room, which is many degrees warmer than the spare room/home office.

The house I live in is a red brick, mid-terrace 2 story, which was built in between World Wars one and two. It's not a big house, and though I realise that families with many children were raised in houses just like this, it seems hard to believe at times. The building has been added to, which gives us the teeniest kitchen in the world, and a bathroom. The back yard is the size of a large envelope, and would originally have been just for outhouse space and a washing line.

As I move from one rented property to another, I always find myself playing a game of "if I owned this house". Some places, I'd have put in soundproofing, or a back garden that wasn't just concrete, or killed the neighbours, but in this place, the magic word is insulation.

I don't think there actually is any, at present.
Certainly not in the built-on bit. If we go to bed and forget to close the bathroom or kitchen doors properly, we can see our breath in the morning.

On the plus side, we're not really bothered by bugs - we've never seen a moth - as they'd prefer to take their chances next door.

Erm....so yeah. Cold house is not good for electronics. Hence no photos. Hence my laziness slight apathy towards blogging.

To be honest, the thing that I've been doing most since I got back is wishing that I was in New York. I could really picture myself living there. In fact, about 6 years ago when I broke up with the big bad ex, I was all ready to get my paperwork together and apply for a greencard. I procrastinated for a year, to see if I could do more drama stuff here, ended up teaching theatre for 2 years, and then met a nice boy.

Ok, this post has to win the award for most rambly evah! (tm)

This possibly has something to do with the fact that I'm getting married in 8 weeks, 4 of my friends have announced that they're all going to give birth over the summer, and I'm facing the possibility of yet another move of house. It makes me far too sentimental, or thinky. Yes, thinky is a made-up word, but a rather good one. It's not as deep or impressive as pensive but it gets the point across nicely.

...and the blonde rambles forth.

I have been doing some knitting, in the course of all of this. I got not one stitch done on my trip, but I did manage to aquire some truly delicious stash - of which there will be photos later.
I skipped most of the big yarn stores, as I was so impressed in just two of them that I blew my yarn budget for.....well, I don't know how long, but I may not be buying any more this side of summer!

My first BM shawly stoley thing is finished. Not blocked, but at least it's off the needles. The second one has been started, and I'm still on my first ball of laceweight! At this rate, I'll have two balls left over, so I have to figure out something pretty to make for myself. After the wedding. After the wedding...

I'm running up some bootees for a friend who's about to pop out twins as some mid-shawl brain candy. They take no time, and are all garter stitch, which is the perfect foil to lace. I feel like I'm cheating by making them out of stash ack-rylik, but I figure that she'll appreciate the ability to throw them in the washer and dryer when she's got two to look after.

Still haven't finished the moss stitch cardigan.

Everything else is on a back burner til the shawls get finished. I should be casting off the second one at the weekend, but I guarantee that I'll still be running around at the last minute to get them done, for I do hate blocking lace. I'm seriously thinking of splashing out on some blocking wires to help me through things.

This might be a good place to stop for today, lest I keep babbling incoherently.

Bleurgh

We're home. Or, at least, in Dublin. Catching train to Belfast in just over an hour.

The jetlag hasn't even hit yet, but my brain is like peanut butter, and there's some starting to dribble out my ears. Technically, I've not slept since Saturday, and while dinner is being made in my MIL's kitchen, my stomach is demanding a bagel or some french toast as a carb-tastic way to start the day.

I also managed to foo up slightly. I thought I had tomorrow to recover and sit on the sofa in my jammies, drinking tea and clutching my head. Instead, due to a fabulous able-to-count incident, I'll be wading through 3 weeks of work that's waiting for me as we speak.

I may need some more coffee.

My pooter-fu sucks some days

Well I did try to update again yesterday, but the terminal I was using decided to do a windows update when I was a paragraph in, and ate my $5. I was less than amused, and didn't trust it enough to use again.

Thankfully, there's a nice ice cream parlour a couple of blocks from our hotel (everything seems to be a couple of blocks from our hotel) and it has machines that actually work and have passed health inspection.

I attempted to get to School Products yesterday, but having walked the entire length of Broadway to get there and find it closed, I am less confident of my "fu". Still, we're heading to Staten Island tomorrow, where I believe there's a yarn-tastic branch of Michaels.

For anyone in the neighbourhood (how I love being able to say that!!!) Knitty City are having a birthday celebration on Saturday, and I have it on good authority that there will be cake. Mmmmcake.

We decided to avoid Times square for new years, opting to watch it on tv and have the sensibleness of our decision confirmed for us instead. Plus, there was a rocking fireworks display in Central Park, which was visable from our corner. I do like the park. It has lots of crazy squirrels.

I know I'm leaving out lots of bits, but I'm on a time limit here. Not like when I'm working from home *ahem*

More to follow....there will be much, much yarn porn when I get home.

Malabrigo cures excema. Feck, it probably cures things that we don't even know exist yet.

A little quicky

Net cafes are really few and far between in NYC. Everywhere seems to have free wi-fi access, which is fabulous but pox all use when your laptop is on another continent. We were about to break out the Visa and buy some tech, when we found a rather overpriced place with one chair between us. Joy.

So given that last night was our first here, what did we do? We went to an Irish pub, and drank Guinness and whiskey. Hardcore, that's us! Today, I've mostly been cursing the fact that I brought my big huge warm coat, as the weather here is positively balmy. Wind chill doesn't seem to exist over here at all. That, or the sky scrapers do a fantastic job at negating it.

Natural history museum is 2 blocks from the hotel, so we partook of that today. I'm now afraid of taking off my shoes, in anticipation of how fricking much they're gonna swell.

Have located yarn stores and gaming stores. Reports to follow at some point :)

Updates a go go

I'm currently sitting at the keyboard of a net cafe computer, and having made a mental note to wash my hands with 15 gallons of soap when I leave, thought I'd give a quick update...

Christmas was great. We had dad home from Sunday til yesterday, and he's doing really well. I got mucho, mucho shiny-o, and generally had a lovely time. The visitors never really left, which was cool, though the early morning starts both sucked and blew.

Tomorrow I be leaving on a jet plane. OH is having slight panic attacks, but is coping well.

I hope to update from NYC, with lots of yarn pr0n.

Hope y'all had a great holiday, and have a good new year, wherever on the planet you may be!

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas

Last night was our Dublin office party. Huzzah. Much sushi was consumed. Someone ate a huge lump of wasabi for a bet. And didn't cry. Naturally, this meant that my camera batteries were dead. Eventually, I will pull a finger out, I swear. Just not this week. Maybe I should get some of those new Duracell lithium batteries for my trip, and give up the idea that I'll actually go off and a) buy an adaptor and b)not only take it out of the packet, but use it.

The trip...oh yeaaaaahhhh!
This is my last day in the office this year. I am craving something deep fried and salty, so lunch will probably involve at least a cheeseburger (can I has cheezburger?) Overall, things are very, very busy, but rather lighthearted. I really like my colleagues. Working from home roxxors, but I do miss the office.

I'm leaving here at 4pm, or at least that's the plan. Jump on train, hopefully without my overfilled bags spilling their festive guts on the platform. Try to knit on train, and give up to have nap. Wake up in panic 20 minutes later, convinced that I've missed my stop and therefore my transfer.

....or something like that.

I have mittens on the needles, and My Booky Wook to keep me going at least. Since I arrived in Dublin yesterday, and won't see OH til Wednesday night, we had a mini celebration on Wednesday evening, and once more my "to be read" stack has hit body weight level. Wahoo! You'd think that this would mean I won't be buying any books for a while, but no. Barnes and Noble is one of the big points on our itinerary.

I am geek, hear me roar!

With all the fun, excitement and general pandemonium that goes along with the gorging-on-turkey, I won't be posting for a few days. I've also made the very sensible decision to actually chase up a net connection and check in online on Wednesday, so that I don't have to get up at 6am to go to the airport.

So happy winter festival of choice to everyone, and I'll see you on the other side!

The black hole of yarn

In the past two weeks, I've been rather quiet. This is directly related to my inability to cast anything off.

I mean, I've been knitting like a woman posessed, but am still not getting anywhere. You know those moments where you measure the length of an item, say, a sock, and you have 4 inches, and then having knit for about an hour, you remeasure, and still have 4 inches. Or 4.1 inches.

That's pretty much my month so far, in a nutshell.
My casting off like crazy mojo only lasted a week.

Argh.

I'm on sleeve two of the neverending cardigan. Once that's done and sewn on, I've to pick up stitches and add about 6 inches to the cuff as the pattern was horribly wrong.

Having finally decided on my Christmas knitting, I've had to tell the receipients that they won't be done til after I get back from NYC, as the most urgent project at the moment is knitting mittens so that we don't get frostbite as a souvenier.

Main problem with this is I have to start the wedding shawls as soon as I get home. The yarn is waiting for me, and I've decided on a pattern that's fast, effective, and will allow me to hopefully escape second shawl syndrome. It also doesn't take eleventybillion yards of yarn to make. I am not in the market for hundred dollar shawls right now.

Other than that, life marches on.

My dad should be allowed home for 2 days at Christmas, which would rock. My mother reckons we'll clear a 10lb turkey between us in that time, no problem. Even though my dad is on half portions, and I don't really like turkey. I'd swear she was a famine victim in a former life or something...

So, with two weeks to go, has FO panic kicked in for anyone else, or am I the only person throwing in the towel this early in the game?

You never know....I might get more done now that I've surrendered.