guess whose back?

i took a break. sorry.

i wanted to write what I was feeling without censoring myself. for that i got a journal. i highly recommend journaling. it has been very therapeutic and i'm sure i will continue for quite some time, but now i'm ready to record my life in a more public manner.

to play a quick game a catch up in the last few months:

1.  i have successfully weened myself off of sertraline. there was a nasty month or so in there (a huge thanks to aaron for being most supportive. but i am officially off of "happy pills" and feeling much more like myself than i have in about a year.

2.  i have combined all of my genealogy blogs (originally there were 4, i'm crazy) into one blog. for the up-to-date-latest on my genealogy efforts check out heborola.blogspot.com

3. i finished knitting my winter cabin blanket

4.  aaron hurt his knee playing frisbee. pretty badly. the jury is still out as to whether or not it is an ACL tear, but it is leaning more towards "tear" rather than "no tear". he has an appointment with a sports doctor today.

the most important update to come soon...

a log cabin with yarn

i have four great friends who each brought 5 balls of yarn with them from seattle to san francisco in december. from there, the balls of yarn traveled with aaron from san francisco to wellington. now they await their fate as as awesome moderne log cabin blanket.

my colors are dove gray, hollyberry, evergreen, and chocolate. i wanted it to be wintery with a hint of christmas coziness, but not overtly christmasy. here is what i have so far:

it is currently 23" x 23 1/2" and getting longer everyday. it's perfect tv knitting, but i must admit the rows and rows of garter stitch (knitting every single row) might be getting to me.

the knitting must continue

so while posting up in a local bar/cafe here in wellington, i noticed a sign for a local knit night that occurs wednesdays, fortnightly (every 2 weeks). i decided that it would be a good thing to jump right into this making friends bit and decided to go to the next one.

however, when the day arrived it was a bit more daunting. would they like me? would i like them? would any of them be my age? suddenly i didn't want to go. aaron gently told me i sounded like a 5 year old on her first day of kindergarten (true). i sucked it up. i went.

it was definitely not like my usual knit night. there was about 10-15 women ranging in age from late 20's to late 70's. i felt a bit out of place. not because i was new, but more because of my knitting style. i was knitting a wool sock in the round on 4 metal dpns. most of the other knitters were knitting on bamboo or plastic straight needles and using acrylic. oh, rachel, how i missed you.

the women were all really nice and made me feel quite welcome. i might have even made a new friend. she seemed to be about my age and lives in my area. she offered me her name and number in case i wanted to go grab a tea or coffee sometime, which made me really happy.

at the end of the night, everyone put a few coins into a tin, and then you drew numbered balls (the same amount as the amount of coins you donated) and the winner of the raffle got the coins. it was odd, but fun. i was definitely enjoyed the experience and hope to go to the next one as well.

socks, oh my!

i am a knitter. i mostly knit hats and scarfs, but have also knit a sundry of other items including, washcloths, fingerless mitts, beer cozies, and even a sweater (no photos, yet). all of this is well and good, but the item that i most want to make is socks.

i've knit one pair of socks before and it wasn't my favorite item. the needles were oh-so-tiny as was the yarn (very fiddly) . and after thousands of stitches, you have, um, one sock. you have to do it all over again! and this time, it needs to match the previous sock exactly. that being said, they really are one of my most comfortable pair of socks. every time i wear them my feet are happy.

i fantasize about being a sock knitter. i think logically it is the most perfect item to knit.

• it travels anywhere
• everyone needs/wants/wears socks
• you can knit in the summer and still wear the result
• $15 could give you a completed project
• can you imagine having this drawer full of hand knit socks? yea, me either.

what to do? i am thinking about purchasing sock innovation: knitting techniques and patterns for one-of-a-kind socks. perhaps seeing those beautiful patterns will make the task at hand less daunting? or maybe more inspired?

a rather long but boring update

no new news, so you will have to make do with somewhat boring news from the many facets of my life....oh, yes, sit down for this.

i have been knitting a semi-boring stripped scarf for the last few weeks. yes, weeks. i don't know why scarfs take me so much longer than any other item. it was an attempt to use some last bits of yarn that i wouldn't normally have any use for color-wise. what i am mostly proud of is that i have succeeded in making the stripes totally random. this required a pep talk from aaron, and i found myself opening (and closing) microsoft exel, in an attempt to create a pattern. once it is finished i have one or two other ideas in mind for using up some spare skeins...then maybe i'll have earned some sparkly new yarn (actually, decidedly un-sparkly).

last week i had two separate people get in touch with me concerning genealogy. i have four separate genealogy blogs, one for each grandparent line. i post on these sporadically, when the mood hits. occasionally someone will contact me on the blogs, which leads to several emails. this is a great way to meet distant relation. it was exciting to share information with both people. i discovered my great-great-great grandfather was a drunkard that committed suicide by drinking rat poisoning after a night of drinking and beating his wife. less than charming. but validated by the August 21, 1884 edition of the st. paul daily globe.

my sweet parents bought me another subscription to a food magazine. in addition to the everyday with rachael ray mag, i am now the proud subscriber to the foodnetwork magazine. i really like my monthly fill of food porn, however, they are starting to pile up. i've noticed that i keep every issue because i might some-day-in-the-future i might want to this syndrome. i now have a binder and i'm methodically going through every past issue and tearing out anything i might want to make someday and then filing it in the appropriate filed section (breakfast, pasta, vegetarian, poutry, etc.) and recycling the rest. hopefully this will clear up a bit of space and lead to me actually making the recipes.

life has been going exceedingly my way lately. i hope it is for you as well :)

2010 = awesome

the holidays are over and things are settling down to normal again. sometimes, i forget how much i like normal.

to welcome in the new year, aaron and i played scrabble and had drank merlot. which was pretty low-key, but perfect. this is the first year that i can remember that i wasn't sad on new years eve. usually, i'm very sentimental about the last year, and feel bad that we have to move on to the next year already.

2009, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

i have decided that 2010 is where it's at... and so far i am right.

i'm excited to finally be knitting a project just for me again. i'm working on the owls sweater by katie davis. isn't it too cute? it's my first sweater, so i don't have unrealistic expectations. however, i'm trying it on as i go, and it fits like a dream. it has been a pretty fast knit too, i started it on new years day and am about halfway done.

jeepers creepers

remember how I got lasik back in august? I would you like to meet my doctor, michael mockovak. yes, the doctor who just 2 1/2 months ago zapped my eyes, was just arrested for trying to hire a russian hitman to kill his partner at clearly lasik. apparently, he was trying to make these arrangements in august, which was when I was his patient. creepy, huh?

in other, less crazy news, i've been busy updating my genealogy blogs herbst (paternal, paternal line), botz (paternal, maternal), ross (maternal paternal), and lang (maternal, maternal). i've been trying to include photos, and historical documents to make it more interesting to read. if you are related to me, or just want to humor me...go check them out.

knit-wise, i've been trying to use up scraps of yarn by knitting these mitered squares that will hopefully be turned into a blanket someday. i've done 4 this week and am pretty tired of it and I think that's my limit. i'm going to try to find a cute cowl to knit using only 123 yeards of dk weight yarn. so far, i think cat bordhi's, moebius is the winner.

random wednesday

1. happy veteran's day to all of our wonderful service men and women. our world is a better place because of you and i can't thank you enough.
2. i've started a knit night at a local pub every monday with rachel. this makes me happy. we were the recipients of many stares from men as they approached the bathroom.
3. lately i've really been into crossword puzzles. i have a new york times book that i've been working in and occasionally have the usa today crossword up on the computer. i'm not sure how this has started, but it's good for your brain, right?
4. i've also been slowly getting back into genealogy. i'm trying not to become too obsessed with it because that is how i burn myself out. 

• last week i ordered my great-grandfather's death certificate, my grandmother's birth certificate,   and my grandparents marriage certificate. it is all i can do to contain my excitement when i get home to see if they arrived yet.

• someone answered my photo request on findagrave.com and took a picture of my great-great-great grandparents tombstone (thomas ross and mary ann mccormick)

• i've also set up 4 new blogs to be genealogy related (one for each grandparent's surname/family)

• yes, this is me taking it slow
  

shrug

for those non-knitters who read my blog (yes, i'm pretty sure that's all three of my readers) feel free to skip this post. go ahead, move along. you will not be missing much. i'm currently making this shrug that i found in fitted knits: 25 projects for the fashionable knitter (thank you seattle public library). my version is going to be a navy color on the sleeves and a light gray on the ribbed border. i like projects like this for numerous reasons:

1. i will not have to wait until november to wear it
   
2. i can complete this project in a relatively short period of time
3. versitility. i'll (hopefully) be able to wear it with numerous tanks/camis
4. fewer balls of yarn bought = more money in my pocket

so far, i've completed the sleeves and the back. i've only got the gray ribbed border left. this was a really great introduction to raglan sleeves. i understand the concept much better now, and it was very easy to knit.