A Major Award!!!!!

Frah-jee-lay, that must be Italian!

Not this

THIS!

Ok, so it's disappointingly not a leg lamp, but I did win an award! Actually, my team, headed by me, won an award. The Arc Aspicio Team won the Human Resources Leadership Award, Sister Eymard Gallagher Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for our Community Involvement initiatives. I can't tell you how much it means. I didn't think I'd ever be wrapped up in that kind of thing, but to be recognized for my efforts and those of my team by people who wouldn't know me if they bumped into me on the street. I had to give an acceptance speech and everything. It was so hard for me to not thank the Academy, God and all the little people who helped me get to this point! Ok, maybe it wasn't so hard, but I did give maaad propps to my team, Lynn Ann and the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. The big trophy we got is now sitting in the office, for all to enjoy. We also got a miniature version, which Lynn Ann said I could keep as a token of all my hard work and dedication to our Community Involvement Efforts. I'm still riding the high from Tuesday's award ceremony. I went with no expectations except free dinner and drinks, and walked away with an award! I knew I had been nominated, but I didn't know we had a shot!

 In other news, I went to the Glee Concert Last Thursday. It was AWESOME! I was a little far from the main stage, but my cares about that melted away when Mark Salling (aka Noah Puckerman) appeared on the second stage right over my left shoulder! I unexpectedly turned into a screaming fangirl. So unbelievable. I also swear that I was NOT the one who pulled Darren Criss into the crowd at the end, but I'm pretty sure the chick next to me would have if she had been closer to the stage.

Sue's going to be PISSED when she sees the New Directions used her confetti canons!

Anyway, now I'm headed for Virginia Beach. My brother-in-law retires from the Marine Corps after 21 years. Looking forward to a fun weekend with family.

Insurmountable Sweater!

Look! Sleeves!

Last post, I mentioned how I was teaching myself how to knit "two at a time." I figured it out and got most of the way through my socks.* Even though I rarely suffer from "second sock syndrome",** I do suffer from "second SLEEVE syndrome." Hell, I have even been suffering from FIRST sleeve syndrome. My first bout of the ailment happened when I was making the Rayne Wrap Cardigan for my sister. It took me FOREVER to finish the first sleeve, and another FOREVER to finish the second. For that sweater, the sleeves were the last things I had to finish, so if I really had a big problem getting through them, I could have given up and turned it into a vest.

I have a confession to make. I've been ignoring the fact that I've been plagued by this sleeve syndrome again. This time, I have been battling it for about nine months. How embarrassing! I've been avoiding confronting the problem, even to the point of taking it "out of sight out of mind" by burying the sleeve in a project bag at the bottom of my knitting basket. It's not my first battle with this particular sweater. I've effectively been working on it for 19

The sweater as it has been finished to-date.
It has been completed up to the armpits.

months now. The sweater? My "World Champion Cardigan" (aka the Ruby Red), which I started soon after the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. I got up to the arm holes last September and started on the first sleeve. I've been working on it off and on for the past nine months. I only got halfway up the arm since then.

Yesterday, I decided to come out to myself and acknowledge the problem. In doing so, I have also devised a solution. I have frogged^± the first sleeve, cast on and finished the cuff pattern of the second, and started to work them two at a time!!! This not only ensures that they will get done at the same time, but also that any increases, lengths or design characteristics are consistent between the two sleeves. Hopefully this will get my rear in gear to finish this blasted sweater under the two-year mark! I'd like to give myself the ultimatum of not starting any other projects until I finish this one, but we all know that's not going to happen. I've got waaaaaaay to much gorgeous sock yarn waiting patiently in my stash.

And for your viewing pleasure: my recently finished Haleakala Socks.

Of course, the day after I finish them, it is around 100 degrees outside!

*I got about three rows past the heels and one of my needles snapped in half. I had to transfer the socks to double pointed needles and finish them one at a time. 

A particularly dire case of SSS.
Ironically, this comes from Felicia Lo, the woman
behind Sweet Georgia Yarns, which 
I have used twice in my sock-making career.

**Second Sock Syndrome (SSS) - An affliction for a lot of knitters who often finish the first sock of a pair and do not complete the second. Symptoms include: wearing mismatched, handmade socks; unfinished objects (UFOs); occupied DPNs; and multiple half-skeins of sock yarn. It is often treated by two at a time knitting, and/or public ridicule by fellow knitters. 

± The knitting term for quickly unraveling a project after finding a mistake or being frustrated/unhappy by the results. You might be asking what amphibians have to do with knitting. What do you do when you unravel knitting? Rip it, rip it, ripit, ribit, ribbit. A relative of the also popular, but less dramatic, "tink" - literally knit backwards.

'Tis May!

Man, I'm pretty bad at keeping up with this blogging thing. I had wanted to do it every week, or at least every other week.  Though I guess monthly is better than never.

Cruise Shawl

There's not a super whole lot to report I think I've only finished two or three projects since I last wrote. I finally finished the shawl I started on my cruise. It came out very nicely, but it doesn't want to stay in the shape I blocked it to. I might have to try it again.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on it, though, including a bunch of random ones coming from people at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival last week.

I finished the self patterning spiral-y socks a few weeks ago, too. I'm very pleased with them. They're very warm and comfy as well.

Spiral-icious

Another project I did was for my coworker. She found her hands were getting cold so I offered to make her some fingerless mitts.  Not just any mitts would do. She's a sassy old broad and she needed some sassy classical mitts. I made her some red and black victorian style fingerless mittens. I don't think she's really worn them yet, but she sure liked them!

Sassy Mitts

Another piece of news is that I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival for the first time last weekend. I didn't really find any yarn that I HAD to have, but I did buy 2000 yards of some Virginia-made cotton/wool blend for ~$50. There are a couple patterns I want to try out with it.  I also got a yarn-bowl and some size 1 circulars for making two socks at a time.

My loot

Speaking of two socks at a time, I'm working on  my first set of 2-at-a-time socks using the String Theory Caper yarn and the Haleakala pattern from February's edition of the Cookie A Sock Club. They're coming along pretty well, but I'm dreading the point when I have to rearrange everything for the heel flap. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm going to have to transfer the stitches to dpns then back to the circulars. Should be fun!

From the work side of things, we had our spring celebration/Search Dog Foundation fundraiser on Thursday. It went really well despite our guests of honor, John Stewart and canine Lani, arriving about an hour and a half late.  But they got there and it was good.  We managed to raise $3000 for the organization in one night! My colleagues did a great job of organizing the silent auction and the part as a whole.

Now all I need is for my Yankees to come back around. They haven't been playing very well recently. I hope our favorite catcher-turned-DH gets it together soon. He's losing the mental game and I know he's better than that. Maybe Girardi should put him in as catcher every once in a while so that he gets some confidence back. He's one of the pieces of the heart of the team, and you can tell that his struggles are weighing a lot of folks down. I hope he finds his mojo again.