What's up tonight?

[brandienee]

Anyone doing anything awesome?

I plan on taking it easy. Knitting a little of H's sweater and having some wine. I am totally content doing nothing but sitting on my couch and just pointlessly exist for a while.

[crimewatcher]

Sewing. Thinking about opening a bottle of wine myself. I bought a couple to try when family was visiting but no one wanted any.

I have a netflix movie I wanted to watch too.

[nsl]

H is home before the boys are in bed for the first time in a week, and it has been SUCH a week--I'm way behind on lesson planning after having to cancel my plans to go on campus for the last three days because #2 has been sick. Ergo, I'm working on lesson plans (and checking in here periodically) upstairs while he handles dinner. Once I'm at a good stopping point I plan to watch some mindless TV and have a relaxing evening with him and the kids.

[baconlettucetomato]

We're playing with the new TV. And by we, I mean DH. I'm on here(obviously).

[MrsAggie]

Brandie, I'm new to the knitting scene. As in I've only made something that looks like a fat teddy bear scarf just to practice technique. Any suggestions on where I should start? I was thinking a baby blanket might be easier.

Also, I keep wanting to watch True Blood because I work tomorrow and I've been off the past couple of days so it feels like a Sunday night to me.

[ilovelamp]

Beer, Netflix, and going to bed early tonight. DH is out having a guys night because I have to work early (yuck).

[styme46]

I'm sitting here watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and thinking I should've really gone to Target tonight. But I didn't feel like it. I'm sure that won't change tomorrow either, but we need toilet paper and I still need to get a couple things for baby's room. I'm going to freaking buy stock in tp and tea bags. We go through both of those things around here like they are going out of style.

I'm also willing labor to start so I can have this baby before MIL gets back from her mission trip to Mexico on Sunday. This sounds bad, but if you knew my MIL, you would understand. I still have yet to figure out a way to let my mom and sister be in the delivery room and not her without her being butt hurt. It's impossible.

[prettyinpink]

Just finished dinner and am deciding if I'm going to just curl up and read or if I'm going to go sew, or crochet. Choices, choices, choices!

And I went shopping after work today to get something for E to wear to my brother's wedding and happened to have this FAB dress jump out and insist that I buy it. I have no idea what I will wear it to but it fits amazingly and it feels like a power dress!
www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/zbrandskiosk/women/elle/dresses/PRD~1139077/ELLE+Striped+Peplum+Ponte+Dress.jsp

[verycontrary247]

No. This weekend sucks.

I worked a double today and I have to open tomorrow. H brought me Chipotle and now I'm going to bed

[kpol]

Cute dress A!!

It's morning here and I just made a latte and will enjoy that while M heads off to work. I absolutely hate his schedule. Hate, Hate, Hate! It's supposed to get better after this two-week training mission is over but we'll see.

I'm researching a few trips today and need to go to the commissary, later.

[basilosaurus]

Does sushi, happy hour, fireworks, more drinks + chocolate souffle count? If so, that's what we did, and it was awesome.

Also, today was a state holiday, so we got to spend the day together, mostly at the beach. After a month apart, it was needed.

What trips, kpol? You know I love talking travel!

[kpol]

Aug 18, 2012 3:41:51 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Does sushi, happy hour, fireworks, more drinks + chocolate souffle count? If so, that's what we did, and it was awesome.

Also, today was a state holiday, so we got to spend the day together, mostly at the beach. After a month apart, it was needed.

What trips, kpol? You know I love talking travel!

For now just Jeju Island for a long weekend after UFG, and Chiang Mai-Bangkok?-Phuket for Christmas. You and others have convinced me to do Chiang Mai for a longer period of time instead of Bangkok but we'll still probably do a day there.

[basilosaurus]

Chiang Mai was awesome! Bangkok is still worth a day. Maybe more if the weather isn't nasty like it was when we were there. Definitely do a cooking class if you can. One of the highlights of our 2 weeks in the country.

Honestly, Phuket wasn't anything great. For us, it was the beginning/end of a (wonderful) cruise, but the area itself was easily skipped. The areas the cruise took us to were awesome, but that requires a bigger time/money investment.

I would have liked to get to Jeju, but we never made it. We met random Americans in rural Korea who loved going there, equating it to Hawaii, so I'd say on that recommendation alone it's worth the trip.

[kpol]

Aug 18, 2012 4:38:26 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Chiang Mai was awesome! Bangkok is still worth a day. Maybe more if the weather isn't nasty like it was when we were there. Definitely do a cooking class if you can. One of the highlights of our 2 weeks in the country.

Honestly, Phuket wasn't anything great. For us, it was the beginning/end of a (wonderful) cruise, but the area itself was easily skipped. The areas the cruise took us to were awesome, but that requires a bigger time/money investment.

I would have liked to get to Jeju, but we never made it. We met random Americans in rural Korea who loved going there, equating it to Hawaii, so I'd say on that recommendation alone it's worth the trip.

We've looked at a few cruises out of there but aren't sure just yet on how much time we will have available. M should be taking command right around that time so we kind of have to wait and see how that goes before making concrete plans. We're hoping to do 10 days, split up.

There is a cruise from Thailand to Australia that looks awesome and is reasonably priced but I think I'd rather have a few more days at the stops than what is offered. There's just so much to see and do here I want to make sure we fit it all in!

[audette]

Aug 17, 2012 20:15:48 GMT -5 MrsAggie said:

Brandie, I'm new to the knitting scene. As in I've only made something that looks like a fat teddy bear scarf just to practice technique. Any suggestions on where I should start? I was thinking a baby blanket might be easier.

Also, I keep wanting to watch True Blood because I work tomorrow and I've been off the past couple of days so it feels like a Sunday night to me.

When I'm teaching knitting, I usually start folks on a small square of knitting to get them used to the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Then I move them into something that involves a bit of shaping, like a slipper that is knitted flat and sewn together. That way they can learn about k2tog and p2tog and such. After that, I usually introduce knitting in the round, and use it for a hat. I find it best to introduce techniques one or two at a time for most students.

Now, that doesn't work best for everybody - we have one knitter in our knitting group who decided to jump straight from knitting squares to knitting socks two at a time on two circular needles... This particuarly knitter likes the challenge of biting off as much as possible with each successive project. It can lead to frustration, though, because until your hands are used to the motions of each stitch, larger more complex projects take quite a bit of time and effort. You get faster as you learn to knit, so later on those same projects won't be as hard or take as long.


*raises hand* My name is Audette, and I am addicted to knitting... I only brought four projects along on this trip (I'm oot for three weeks), but I brought my set of interchangable needles and have already bought some emergency yarn... I've also finished one of the projects, and am making dangerously fast progress on another, which might lead me to finishing all the yarn I brought along to work on that one. It's a cabled sweater for DH. The other projects with me are all socks.

[brandienee]

Mrs Aggie, I never saw your post; I feel like a jerk.

Audette has great points, start small. Get used to having a certain amount of stitches on your needles. Get your fingers used to the feel of knitting and purling. I started with scarves in a rib stitch. K2 P2 till the end of the row. It helped me count my stitches all the way till the end so I didn't lose or gain any new stitches. Once I got used to that, I moved onto knitting in the round, which is what I do most of my knitting in now, since I make more mittens, socks and hats than anything.

www.knittinghelp.com has great videos you can learn from. I still use online tutorials if I am confused about a complected stitch or pattern.

Audette:
I've been working on this sweater for H for almost 2 years. LOL. I wish it had some cables in it because it has become bor-ing. There is a lovely cabled cardigan on knitpicks that I want to make. But I have to finish this sweater first.

[audette]

Aug 18, 2012 9:48:09 GMT -5 brandienee said:

Audette:
I've been working on this sweater for H for almost 2 years. LOL. I wish it had some cables in it because it has become bor-ing. There is a lovely cabled cardigan on knitpicks that I want to make. But I have to finish this sweater first.

Brandie's info is all good, too.

Yeah, DH's last sweater was a super-boring cardigan and was simple enough in style that I had to be sure to do a perfect finishing job on it. It's never taken me so long to sew up the pieces of knitting into a finished project before! It looks damn good, but it took forever.

This sweater is really interesting. The guage info on the pattern sucks, so I'm basically reknitting it, because I got 1/2 done and realized that the guage was so misleading that the sweater was never going to fit DH. So I frogged the whole darn thing and restarted. And yet, I'm enjoying the pattern so much, I'm still happily working away on it. I'm now about 1/3 done. It's got really unusual construction for a cable sweater, and when I finish up the knitting there will be virtually no sewing needed, which is awesome after the last project for DH!

The socks along with me are relatively boring. Some boot socks for DH, and some lightly patterned tall socks for a buddy back home. The socks I finished up were from one of Wendy Knits books - Trilobite, which is a stitch pattern I love and keep coming back to. I just like the way it looks.

[basilosaurus]

kpol, we did a very small cruise out of Phuket. It was a sailboat, only about 100 passengers. Because it's so small we would go to uninhabited islands and just play in the water all day. Awesome time. It is 7 days, though. You could still do it with Bangkok and then see northern Thailand on a later trip. Starclippers was the cruise if you're interested.

[kpol]

Aug 18, 2012 15:38:43 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

kpol, we did a very small cruise out of Phuket. It was a sailboat, only about 100 passengers. Because it's so small we would go to uninhabited islands and just play in the water all day. Awesome time. It is 7 days, though. You could still do it with Bangkok and then see northern Thailand on a later trip. Starclippers was the cruise if you're interested.

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out!

ETA: Doesn't look like they're cruising in that area anymore but it looks beyond amazing