Ack! Grr! Time for a Yarn Diet

So this year I set out with a huge goal of not pulling money out of my savings to cover for the short falls in my spending money, and also to not have to pay off my credit card. My plan was to have money set aside every paycheck as my spending money and to have to plan out how that was spent. I also was planning on not using my credit card any more. Well then life got in the way. So far this year I have had to get a handle on my credit card debt and pay it off before the interest rates shot up, pay for my 30,000 mile tune up on my car and pay for my registration. I've also had a little bit too much fun spending money on knitting things.

I looked at my savings account tonight, to transfer some money over to my checking so I could pay for my dental bill, yet another expense, and I was saddened by where it would be after this transfer. Now I put money into my savings account every pay check and I have money going into a 401(K). The initial saving of the money isn't hard for me, its the not spending of the saved money that is hard for me. I keep getting frustrated with myself because I'm supposed to be saving money for a wedding and for life after the wedding, yet I can't seem to stop buying things, mainly fiber related items.

All of this is leading up to say that I am putting myself on a yarn diet. I will allow myself to buy something knitting related every two weeks if money allows, but if I'm low on funds then no yarn for me. After all I have enough yarn to last me for quite awhile.

In other news I bought the supplies to start making stitch markers tonight. I think I am slowly building up the skills to start selling things to help support my yarn addiction.

I cabled!

It isn't much and its just a start, but I started my first scarf using cables on Wednesday. Its a lot easier than what I thought it would be and I'm enjoying watching the progress. I think I keep messing it up a bit, but that is okay because the scarf is for me and no one else will know. Pictures to come...

Helping someone that helped me

I don't talk about my experiences in high school much. Part of it is because it is the past, and part of it is that it seems to make people feel bad for me when really they shouldn't. I am a cancer survivor and a much stronger person because of my experiences. I met a lot of great people and am who I am today because of the cancer and the subsequent events that followed.

While I am really positive about my experience with cancer I will admit that there were some tough times and I am thankful for my friends and family that helped me through those experiences. I am posting this blog because of a group of people that made having cancer less scary.

I went to Camp Okizu my first summer after getting diagnosed with cancer. I had just gotten out of the hospital and was at my lowest point health wise since getting diagnosed. In spite of all of this my doctors encouraged me to still go to Camp. I'm so glad that they did! I may have been really sick for most of the time and had to spend time in the infirmary, aka "The Inn", but I had a blast. I was put in a cabin with an amazing group of girls and we called ourselves the "Superstars", I swam in a lake, I did archery, I learned how to make some new friendship bracelets, I developed crushes on some of the boys, I went to a dance, and I spent every night under the stars. Basically I experienced all of the same things that a normal teenager would at a summer camp. All the girls I was with had been through cancer and chemo, in fact all of the kids had. We could easily ask each other about our experiences, we could say how much it sucked, or how awesome our doctors were. After having these talks we would then move onto other things like the cute guys at camp and who was hooking up with who. It was amazing to go from normal teenage things to talking about cancer then back to normal teenage stuff.

After I left camp that week I had a whole new perspective on my experiences and I looked forward to the following summer, which I did go again and had a blast again. In fact that was the summer that I met some more really great friends and really built up a group of friends that I wish I was still in contact with. Some of those friends have passed on due to their battles with cancer and the others have moved on to live great lives, but we will always have the great times at Okizu.

You may wonder what is so great about this camp and why I want you to vote for them on Facebook so they can get some much needed money, it is because all of these experiences were completely FREE! They didn't charge any money for those experiences, but offered the chance to escape for a little while. They offer three different types of camps, cancer kids, siblings, and family camp. It is a little bit for everyone, and let me repeat this, FREE! But it is only free because of the support of both private and corporate donors, so please click on the button at the top and vote for Camp Okizu. Thank you!

Resolution Update

I feel like I am chugging along with my goals, although the whole keeping my place cleaned up thing has been a bit of a struggle. I did do my dishes last night which is huge for me, and I took out my trash this morning which cleaned out part of my fridge.

I casted on my first “sock” last night. It is actually the Loopy’s Red Sock Kit from Loopy Ewe so it is a teeny tiny little sock, but its a sock and I think it will help to teach me method before getting into the whole actually fitting someone part.

Another little plus for me is that I finally called to cancel my gym membership last night. Since I started going to my gym at work I don’t need to keep paying for a membership. That should help to balance out the difference in my paycheck with my change in health insurance. And I actually worked out during my lunch hour today all by myself!

Hey she's Knitting!

Tonight was a wonderful night out with my boyfriend and some of his friends. It started with going to a really delicious revolving sushi restaurant and then we migrated over to a British pub. While at the pub most of my DBFs friends were doodling on some paper (they are all into the art scene and really good at what they do) and DBF was talking to them and well, I was kinda just sitting there. So I nudged DBF to get the car keys and I went and grabbed my current knitting project. Can't say what it is because its a gift. But when I pull it out one of the girls goes " Hey she's knitting!" I almost, in a smart ass way, said "Hey you were drawing!" Luckily I held my tongue and just said yes I am. I just thought it was interesting that it was perfectly normal for them to be doodling in the pub while it was odd for me to be knitting. Then again I guess it was an unusual thing for me to be knitting...in a British pub...eating Spotted Dick...with a group of Asians...after eating sushi made by Mexicans. Okay...the whole situation was just interesting.

The above situation reminds me why I love knitting out in public, or KIPing. It is always interesting to see peoples responses. It ranges from people telling me about there experiences with yarn crafts to guys hitting on me because I'm knitting to older gentlemen telling me about the amazing blankets their grandmothers made and are now family heirlooms. I also really enjoy the compliments on the objects I'm working on and have to suppress the urge to show them all of the other projects I have with me. I have to remind myself that not everyone wants to see every single thing that is on my needles or that I have knitted and that there is a fine line between interesting girl knitting out in public and well...that crazy girl who obsesses about knitting and won't shut up about it if you say anything to her. I mean I may be the crazy girl obsessed with knitting in my head and according to DBF, but if I want to make any friends in this world I do need to act somewhat normal while KIPing, otherwise I'll give a bad name to knitters everywhere and I really don't want to do that.

2010 Goals

I swear that I have started and stopped this blog like 10 times in the past week. I wanted to write this wonderful blog reflecting on this past year and looking forward to next year, but I just can't seem to find the right words when I'm sitting in front of my computer. So here goes...

This last year has been an interesting year. There has been a lot of good and bad during this year. It started out a little rough with my Great Aunt Shirley passing away, but then my wonderful nephew was born. I really got into my hobby of knitting while dealing with an abnormal biopsy of a mole that my dermatologist removed and abandoned my fitness routine. There are things that happened during this past year that will alter the path that my life was going prior to the years start and it is a little scary facing what those changes will bring but I know that with God and my family by my side it will all work out somehow.

Looking to this next year there is a lot to look forward to. Definitely a deepening in my relationship with Brian as well as just experiencing a fresh new year and decade. I look forward to the opportunities this year will be bringing. It is a big year birthday wise, my nephew will be turning 1, me 25 and my Grandma will be 80. Kind of amazing how it all lands in the same year.

I don't like to make resolutions every year, but I do have some goals for 2010. Some of these goals relate to knitting and some are just goals that I continue to make every year.

My goals for this next year:

1) Learn to knit socks
2) Blog more frequently
3) Learn to knit cables
4) Keep my place cleaned up
5) Knit a sweater
6) Go cash only and don’t pull money out of savings

I also want to get back to eating healthier and get into a fitness routine again, finding a balance between my knitting addiction and being in good shape.

Speaking of knitting addiction...I spun some of the fiber from my Phat Fiber Sampler Box tonight. The great thing about this box is that I feel like the fiber is great for me to practice with. I only spent $33 for the whole box and I got a lot of fiber in the box that I can spin. I may end up just spinning all of it for practice in trying to master the drop spindle technique then knitting it up into a little square or something. The fiber I used tonight was from Desired Haven Farm and the colorway was called Nebula. The colors were gorgeous and I really wish that my spinning was better. I may see about unspinning the whole thing and just trying again. I just can't seem to get my yarn to thin out when I'm using the drop spindle so my yarn ends up being the size of superbulky before I even ply it with anything else. I guess that is why I've heard that you really need to practice consistently to be good at using the drop spindle.

Happy New Year Everyone! Maybe I'll post pictures of my spinning failure some other time.

Christmas is coming!

I'm home at my parents and about to enjoy a week and a half off of work! I don't have to be back until the new year! I know it is going to be really hard to go back when the time comes but I think I will be ready too.

I flew on the airplane tonight to get here and I knitted the whole way, also while I was waiting in the airport. My plane was actually on time for once, unlike last years debacle of being delayed two hours then having to taxi back to the runway because of the idiot talking about planting bombs. I was actually a little disappointed. I was expecting a delay and thus more time to work on my brothers scarf in the airport. As it is I think I will be wrapping it up, unfinished, with a giant hershey kiss and a note saying to be continued. then I could atleast get his opinion on how long he wants the damn, I mean amazing scarf to be.

I am also working on a neckwarmer for my sister-in-law and want to make one more than the one I'm working on. She isn't really expecting me to have anything done for her yet so I know she will patiently wait for everything to be done, but if I play my cards right I will have it all completed for her by the time I head back down to my home in So Cal next Tuesday.

I was able to order a box of samples from Phat Fiber last Friday and was shocked to find the box in my cottage on Monday. I am still flabergasted at how fast it was shipped to me. I am also extremely excited about all of the samples in the box. It was hard to pack on Monday because I wanted to play with all of the new fiber and yarn that I received. But it will have to wait until I go back down next week, at which point I will definitely be spinning some yarn from the fibers I received and thinking of cool things to do with the nifty yarn samples I received. I am already scoping out all of the cool stitch markers found at Yarn Demon after admiring the amazingly cute stitch marker that was included in my sampler box.

Okay, off to bed because I have to wake up in like 6 hours to take my mom to work so I can have a vehicle to use tomorrow.