This week’s topic is “10 Things You Did This Weekend” and I actually had a pretty exciting weekend! (The following 3 weekends will be busy, too!)

1. The most fun thing I did this weekend was go with friends to the local hay maze! We hadn’t gone in a couple of years, but this year we were able to brave the traffic towards Half Moon Bay (mostly one lane per side) and have a great time solving the maze! My 7 year old even found the end for us!

2. “Teaching” my kids Japanese. My kids had been going to Japanese school for 9 years until they moved to the local public school this year. We wanted them to keep up their Japanese so we signed up for the local Japanese weekend school. Little did we know that we were somehow required to stay for the class (most parents do not stay) and help our kids at least. I guess I can look at it as free Japanese lessons (I’ve taken 2 semesters of college Japanese in the past) but I used to knit on Saturday mornings, so I’ve had to give that up for the time being

3. Learning Italian. I go to Italian class on Saturdays, and have had to miss half of the class now that I’m at Japanese class, then rushing about 20 min. North to my Italian class, but my teacher says it’s okay that I come late, so I’m still going every week.

4. Ice cream! Our school had their Ice Cream Social on Friday night. It was really fun hanging out with the kids and watching some pretty young girls sing Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” to the scared faces of the administration who hadn’t heard the song yet. Scary.

5. TV. I spend a lot of time watching TV in general, so I spent this time catching up on what I have left. I just found out that my 2 favorite new shows, “Free Agents” and “How to Be a Gentleman” were cancelled, so I sense some free time in my future …

6. Cooking. I went all “Will” (our former roommate once made 4 dishes at once, so I always think of him when I make more than one thing at once) on Saturday and made tacos and chili. We had the tacos on Saturday and the chili yesterday. I felt very accomplished!

7. Driving. Remember the traffic between home and Half Moon Bay? It took us an hour to go what usually takes me 20 min. And their pumpkin festival isn’t until next weekend!

8. Cleaning. I cooked on Saturday and cleaned yesterday while waiting for our friends to come down from the city. It was nice to have it done, but I still have so much to do!

9. Eating (out). Yesterday we went to the Half Moon Bay Coffee Co. for lunch (pretty good) and today we tried to go to the great Indian restaurant, Curry Up Now, but their website lied and they were closed today. We ended up at an Italian restaurant that was pretty good. I don’t know that I’d go back, but it was nice to get out with my husband (who never gets these holidays – who’s minding the store, anyway? ) and my oldest son.

10. And of course, knitting! I’ve been trying to finish my Stripe Study but it’s taking forever, and I borrowed 3 knitting books from the library so now I’ve got a huge queue that I really wanted to get to!

On Friday I started the Audubon Shrug and have been knitting away at that, but I’m really worried that the yarn that I have won’t be enough, and of course it’s discontinued! Rats!

While I enjoy some movies I don’t necessarily go straight to romantic comedies. I generally prefer comedies and action movies, but I’m not “girly” in the way that I have to see the latest romantic comedy unless I have another reason to watch. But I do have a lot of favorites!

In making this list, I’m reminded of a recent discussion on the Comedy Film Nerds podcast between what constitutes a “chick flick” versus a “romantic comedy”. I disagreed with some of their ideas, but it also made me think about whether some movies on my list fit into this category, since they are romantic, but not necessarily comedies (I’m going to now take “Pride and Prejudice” and “Persuasion” off my list since they are not comedies, but are romantic – would they be called chick flicks? But then where would you put “Bridesmaids”, which was not a “romantic comedy” because it wasn’t about romance as much as relationships among women).

So now I’ll try to stick to traditional romantic comedies and leave off the mainly romantic or “girl power” (“Thelma and Louise”, “Bridesmaids”) type of movies. My list:

1. Love Actually
2. The Cutting Edge
3. Sixteen Candles
4. The Wedding Singer
5. Notting Hill
6. When Harry Met Sally
7. Bridget Jones’ Diary
8. 10 Things I Hate About You
9. Four Weddings and a Funeral
10. The Princess Bride

BTW, the Wikipedia article is on crack. At least 25% of the movies on that list ARE NOT romantic comedies – for one, “Bride Wars” is about two women fighting about their weddings/friendships – it has NOTHING to do with their romances. Honestly!!!!!

10 Books You Would Recommend to a Friend:

1. Youth in Revolt – I just read this book series that the movie was based upon. It was so entertaining that it kept me working while reading at the gym! It’s about the foibles of Nick Twisp, an intelligent high school student in Oakland, CA. Nick spends most of his life trying to get back together with his “love”, Sheeni Saunders. It’s a great book. I like the second one in the series, but the last one was not as good.

2. A Confederacy of Dunces – I just loved this book. I even listened to 13 books on tape to read this book! I’m considering reading it again since I had such a good memory of it.

3. Switch Bitch – This is my favorite of Roald Dahl’s short story collections. I love all Roald Dahl’s books, but this one has got the best stories.

4. Alan Mendelson, the Boy from Mars – This is my favorite Daniel Pinkwater book. His books are all good, but this one is so fun I really always recommend it.

5. Persuasion by Jane Austen – I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s books, and Persuasion is my second favorite. I suggest it because I’m sure more people would have read Pride and Prejudice, my favorite Jane Austen book, but might not find Persuasion. It’s about a woman who had been engaged as a young girl, but broke off the engagement because her family pressured her. She comes back into contact with her former love, and is still in love with him. It’s a great story.

6. Jane Eyre – This is another classic book that for some reason I didn’t read in high school but found a few years ago and really enjoyed. I loved this so much I went to see all the movie versions as well. I guess I’m just a romantic!

7. The Harry Potter series – I finally ended up reading this after a few years of my friend making references and my not getting them. I ended up reading all the books and really enjoying them. My son finally read them this year, and we’re looking forward to seeing the last movie in a few weeks!

8. Red Dragon – I really enjoy Thomas Harris’ books. I’ve read them all, and enjoyed them all, but I think Red Dragon was my favorite. It was translated into a great movie, Manhunter, with an amazing scene set to the Iron Butterfly song “In A Gadda Da Vida”.

9. The Shining – Some people think Stephen King isn’t a good writer, or isn’t “good enough” for book clubs, but I just loved The Shining. It is so well written and such a great story. Of course the movie is a classic, but the book is really good as well.

10. Oddballs – This is a story of William Sleator (his book, Interstellar Pig, is a great sci fi story, and his book Among the Dolls scared me to death as a child) and his siblings. It’s so funny, and both my kids and I were entertained.

Hope you try these books and/or the authors, they’re all good!

Here’s my recent bunch:

Talk about a lot of knitting! It’s been fun, though, trying new patterns and using up LOTS of yarn. (I still have way too much, though.) I’ve made a few that I haven’t sent yet, too.:

This one was originally a panel for a sweater I was making. Rather than frog it, I decided to crochet on a border, and make it a very small blanket. I like how it turned out.

This next one was an attempt to make a mitered square. I started off with a brioche stitch, which I enjoyed but took forever.

So I pulled it out, and decided to make a mitered square blanket pattern I had made before. This time, though, I was going to make it in one piece, rather than 4 I had to sew together. I vastly overmeasured the cast on, though, and it ended up being almost as large as my bed!

I finally re-cast on, and then finally finished this semi-mitered semi-square!

I hope some baby enjoys it immensely!

Actually, never mind. I looked through them again

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/elspeth

and there are no old projects I’m really proud of. I guess that means I’ve advanced in my knitting, or photo taking, or both.

Anywho, I decided today to make a few 2011 goals. I’m not usually very goal-driven and that probably has lead me to be where I am right now, feeling very unstructured and unaccomplished. So let’s see.

1) by the end of the year I would like to lose 13 lbs. Last year I started with Jenny Craig, which I do enjoy, but I only lost 11-12 lbs. I figure I can do the same this year, and I’ll be 30 lbs until my goal weight at that point. I can stand waiting 5 years to lose all the weight – it took me 5-6 years to get to this point anyway.

2) in the next 6 mos I would like to get another job. Preferably part time, but we’ll see. I’ve been feeling very adrift since I got laid off, and really loved having some income and feeling like I was helping the family, even though my DH says anything I make pushes us into the next tax bracket, so it might not be that great money-wise.

3) in the next 3 mos I would like to get our garage cleaned out. My DH decided, 8 years ago, to use our garage as a “staging” area for our stuff before we moved it inside. We moved from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom house, and of course it got filled up with stuff that wasn’t sitting outside in the garage! I feel guilty that he works full time and deals with so much stress and I don’t do my fair share at home, so hopefully I can help out more here.

And as to knitting/crocheting goals, I’ve got even more. Here they are, in order:

1) Finish the bib I’m currently working on.
2) finish baby blanket #4

3) finish baby blanket #5
4) weave in the ends of above
5) finish my black sweater

6) finish my red sweater

7) untangle the trash bag full of yarn I have sitting around

get a handle on my yarn stash again
9) finish my WIPs
10) work on my Ravelry queue, and last, but not least …
11) by 12/31/11 I hope to have only a half of the stash I have today. We shall see.

Any suggestions? Any goals of your own?

Yesterday was a bit better – I spent 12 hours untangling this unassuming skein of sock yarn that I bought 6-7 years ago at a now closed yarn store, and has been tangled for at least 5 years!

I’ve also been busy on my baby blankets. I finished 1 for my niece:

and my neighbor gave our kids some nice gifts again this year, so I decided to make a blanket for her daughter, who is due with her first baby soon. Of course I’ve been making girl baby blankets and she’s having a boy! So I started over with some nicely soft Bernat Softee, double stranded.

As to 2011, I’ve got the standard lose weight and find a new job resolutions, but I’ve also decided that this will be the year I untangle the trash bag full (!) of yarn that I have all connected. It will be so nice to get my stash even smaller than I did last year. Of course all the blankets I’ve made recently have been from new yarn, but afterward I’ll get some stash yarn used up, I resolve!

Happy 2011!

I started off with this set of squares, then when I pieced them together, I decided I didn’t like them that much, so I sent the squares and the blanket off to a charity that makes blankets for NICU patients.

Here are some of the other squares I made and sent out. I love these!

This was the first blanket I made. I started it a long time ago when 2 friends were pregnant. One I thought was having a girl, so I started the red, pink and white blanket, and then I realized she was having a boy! I started a blue and white one for her, then I gave up on both. (And my other friend ended up having a girl!)

So when a neighbor of mine told me she was having a girl, I quickly finished the red, pink and white one:

Then is when I decided to make blankets for the other girls coming in December. Baby Penny came first, and I finished her blanket in 1 week. It’s made out of Jo-Ann Sensations’ Cuddle, double stranded. I do like this yarn, and it’s pretty cheap, soft and easily accessible.

And I just finished the blanket for my niece, Josie. No picture yet, but it’s this pattern made out of Lily Sugar and Creme. I’m still weaving in the ends, then I’ll send it off.

While I was making Josie’s blanket, I started another one with the Jo-Ann Sensations Cuddle ends. I then bought some more, and am getting close to the end of that one. Pictures soon! I’m not sure where I’ll send that one – no babies on the horizon for me except my neighbor’s daughter, but she’s having a boy so I smell a new blanket in the works!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

I also brought out an old project about a week ago. I started a granny square blanket awhile ago then put it aside, the baby was born, and it was still in my yarn closet. My friend is very close to having a female baby, and this was halfway done in pink and red, so I brought it out and finished it for her baby shower last week!

This started my current obsession with granny squares! As of today I am the proud owner of “101 Granny Squares”, “99 Granny Squares” and “200 Crochet Blocks” and I’ve finished 16 different squares! They are really fun, and a great stash buster, as I am still desperately trying to use up my stash!

I am currently crocheting as many squares as I can stand for three different square-requesting groups on Ravelry:

Afghans for Pine Ridge
(Ravelry)
(Yahoo Group)

Are looking for any size squares to make into blankets for South Dakotan Native Americans. I’ve made these so far:

Share a Square 2010
(Ravelry)
(Blog post)

Shelly is collecting squares for children with cancer. I’ve made a few already, including:

and also,

Granny Squares for NICU
(Ravelry)

Sherry is collecting squares for blankets for NICU patients and their parents.

I’ve really enjoyed making these tiny squares. Here are a few:

I am addicted, and hope to post more soon!

I was CONVINCED that this sock yarn I bought from Etsy was exactly like the gorgeous skein that Chris dyed for me, and started a sweater with it, assuming I’d marry the two along the way. Well, I barely got started when I realized the Etsy yarn had very little black, and quite a bit of red and brown, and Chris’ yarn was mostly just red and black, and also a lighter gauge. Damn it! Then I ripped back 12 rows because I bought 10 MORE skeins of black yarn that I thought I would use for striping, but it ended up being too light as well. So, I have decided to keep knitting until I run out of yarn, then start a lace edging on the sleeves and bottom that I hope will look good enough to finish it off. I’ve been knitting up a storm, and am getting near the end of the ball.

I hope to finish a sweater, any sweater this year. I have been so distracted by work (my job is going pretty well, but it is becoming more at-home and less in-house than I would like, the kids (school starts in 2 weeks!), and just general malaise that it’s been hard for me to buckle down and get anything done. I hope to have a finished sweater to report within the next month!

As you might have guessed, I agonized over what knitting to bring with me. I’m currently working on so many raglans (I still have way too much yarn, and have been really good, but did buy maybe 15 balls in the past month so I’m nowhere near using it up) that I always have a sweater to work on, but which one? A while back I started Stefanie Japel’s Cropped Cardigan with Leaf Ties, which I’m enjoying, but I’m making it in Knitting Fever’s Angora Extra and it sheds! I don’t have allergies, but this yarn gets up my nose every time. Not good for a small space, I assumed, so I’ll have to put it aside.

I also started a pullover (since I was bored with cardigans!) in some of my sock yarn. It is so scratchy, though, and I’ve got 7 balls of it! I’m not sure how long this project is going to last. I’ve now got 2 easy places to donate yarn, so this might be being sent off really soon.

So the most applicable project to bring is what I’ve currently got packed. I made 2 ChicKamis recently, one in my Dale of Norway Sisik. Since it’s a tank and I had more yarn left over, I decided to create a shrug to match. I have since bought 1 more ball (1 of my new 15) of the yarn so I can make it a bit bigger, but we’ll see if I need to stretch the yarn out by adding some plain black. I’ve got tons of that. It is my standard winging it raglan cardigan pattern, and very boring. But I’m using up some yarn!

I’ll keep you posted on how far I get when I get back! Have a great week!