It's already been a while since since our holiday knitting night at Joanna's apartment. She made us pumpkin muffins and, not surprisingly, they were amazing.

We never ended up taking pictures, so I don't have any to show here. That's probably a good thing, though, because we were all making holiday presents. The thing I was knitting ended up being the wrong size! Luckily, between eating pumpkin muffins, talking, and watching a follow up on the Bachelor, I hadn't gotten that far anyway, so I was able to replace what I had ripped out over the next couple of days. I hope this one isn't the wrong size!

Thanksgiving, by the way, was awesome! My cousins from Arizona got here on Wednesday night, and I've been spending all the time I can with them.

Today is October 1st

and I'm getting sick. I had a tiny sore throat this weekend, and it got a lot worse today.

However, I still got to finish my first October UFO. This should have taken about 10 minutes, but in true Adina fashion, I messed it up first. I had already knit the last row of k2tog, but for some strange reason (I'm blaming it on my sore throat), I knit an extra and then a row of k2tog again. Luckily, it was still easily fixable. I have a habit of making every hat I make for myself a little bit too small, and this one is no exception. However, I think it is still wearable, and I have a nice blue fall!
In other news, the knitting night at Kathleen's was lots of fun. Kathleen always seems to outdo herself, and I never cease to be amazed at her knitting progress. She finished her first mitten, and now has one mitten and one sock (a true knitter - good thing it's UFO month!)
I took a picture of the baby blanket she is knitting, before remembering that the mother-to-be hasn't seen the blanket yet, so I won't put the picture up until the baby is born.

Meanwhile, Joanna taught herself to cable,Kathleen taught Amna how to knit continental,
Sara reunited with a pair of knitting needles and learned how to cast on,

and I worked on my first sock (which is now, technically, another UFO while I finish my other UFOs).
We ate a delicious gourmet meal cooked by Kathleen's boyfriend, Justin, and had yummy cookies that Kathleen had baked. The next time we knit together will be in New Orleans when we visit Jen. Or, more likely, on the plane.

Finally

A knitting group at my apartment! Soooo much fun. I made peanut butter cookies and my mom's tuna casserole! Both were a hit, although most of the cookies burnt (though a few did not) and the casserole turned out to be more like tuna pasta (it did not stick.) But my friends assure me that it still tasted good.

Amna, Kathleen, and Sam came. Amna spent most of the time untangling her yarn, and she still finished her scarf! Kathleen was (she's probably done by now!) making a beautiful scarf for her boyfriend, and Sam learned to cast on! He is our mannitter.

And in other news....I finally went the other knitting store. They have Lamb's Pride, but not as much as School Products. They do have a lot of yarn, though. A lot of cool yarn. I got sock yarn... and they have a sock support group once a week! I'd better start those socks!

Meanwhile, I have so many bag/purse ideas . I'm still working on the bag I started at Kathleen's place so many weeks ago, but I can't wait for the next one! And the yarn I bought is sooooo nice. So soft! My newest love.

I'm finally having a knitting night at my apartment! On the agenda for today: cleaning my apartment and knitting. Then on Tuesday (the big night) I'm going to try to make time after work to cook dinner. Sam is even going to try to make a guest appearance. Any man who will learn to knit is a keeper!

At the knitting night at Kathleen's, two weeks ago, I had no idea what to knit. I brought a book with me, as well as ample yarn and needles. It seems that, for various annoying reasons, I was unable to knit the things that I had been working toward. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Grey sweater started last year: couldn't find one of the needles!
2. Dad's sweater: couldn't find (either of) my knit1 magazines, one of which contains the pattern
3. new projects from new knitting books, such as "Sexy Little Knits": When I bought yarn for one of these patterns online, it turned out to be more or less useless (more like thread with parts hanging off of it) than yarn - not at all useful for the patterns.
4. sweater I started crocheting last year: couldn't find the crochet hook - besides, wanted to knit for this group, at least for right now
5. gauntlets I'm almost done with: started binding off and almost made it but found i didn't have quite enough yarn to finish (very annoying!) took some of the needles for another project and now they're somewhere in my apartment.

From this list, two things are apparent:
1. I need to clean/organize my apartment
2. I need to actually buy the yarn for the patterns in the books I buy - the patterns won't knit themselves!

So, when I went to Kathleen's I just through I bunch of yarn and a book in my bag.

When I got there, I decided to knit with some recycled silk my mom had gotten me when she visited me in Philadelphia. I casted on a number of stitches based on a pattern from speed knitting, but decided that the yarn would work better if it was not bumpy. Besides, straight knitting and purling makes socializing easier. But I decided that I would knit one long piece and flip it over and sew it up so that it would look like the "messenger bag" with a flap over it.

I worked on this bag at Kathleen's and the next time I picked it up was at Joanna's. But then on Friday I got my wisdom teeth out and since then have had very limited mobility. Sam knew I was getting better when, on Sunday, I asked him to help me find my knitting!

So I knit a lot on Sunday. I realized that I probably wouldn't use a messenger bag much, since my wallet along could barely fit in one (living in New York does that to you) and making an extremely long one would probably look very weird. But my work could be salvaged! I would use what I had done so far as the first of several panels, which I would sew together and line with something strong and durable and make a purse. I'm very excited about this and, as usual, running away with my imagination - I'm even thinking of finally getting a sewing machine (something I've been wanting for years anyway).

So far, I've just finished the two main side panels. Here is a picture of what it looked like yesterday, when I just had one and a half of the panels:So this brings me to knitting at Central Park, which is how I spent some of my Labor Day. So much fun! Yesterday, I finally went outside for the first time since the wisdom teeth. Sam took me to get some frozen yogurt. The five minute walk there and back made me feel so much better. I knew what I was lacking: sunshine! I knew for a fact that Jen and the girls were knitting in Central Park, so I decided to join them. Knitting is so therapeutic! I was kind of whacked out on pain killers and a possible overdose of antibiotics (I still don't know how many doses I took yesterday) but it was, nevertheless, lots of fun. I am definitely going to host the new knitting night at my place the week after next.

I've been seriously lacking in the knitting department. Luckily, Joanna, Kathleen, and Jen are bringing me up to speed. They are knitting machines! Hat machines, no less! Last week, Joanna and I went to Kathleen's house to knit, and today, the four of us knit at Joanna's (and ate her amazing eggplant parm). So much fun! Here are the pictures I took. (Yes, I actually remembered my camera!)

:)

A big shoutout to Jen, Kathleen, and Joanna! Last night, we went to Cafe Lalo (of "You've Got Mail" fame) and I taught them to knit (well, re-taught Jen and Joanna.) It was so much fun, and I'm so excited that I now have more people to read this bad boy (err, knitting blog.) My "students" were awesome. We are totally going to do it again.

Of course, my camera was at Sam's place, so I only had my phone for pictures. I took some good ones, but now I can't figure out how to get them onto my computer. (I have a trip to the Verizon store pencilled in for tomorrow evening.)

There was a mother and her son at the next table over who kept watching us. The mother was very proud of the boy, who much have been about seven, who knits. I think that's pretty awesome. At one point, they came over to our table to watch me knit a hat with five needles. I tried to explain it to them - I hope my instructions were clear enough.

So I didn't get to that knitting group on Monday. On Sunday, I ran Central Park and then went over to Amna's place. I casted on her scarf for her and we knit together for a while. But when I got up in the morning, I was exhausted. I guess the run had caught up with me.

Knitting and crafting has sort of been put on hold since then. I haven't really been doing anything special though -- maybe I've just been tired. Tonight Sam has a gig, so I won't be knitting/crafting then either. Oh well. I'm really looking forward to this one (not that I don't look forward to all of them.)

Not this Monday, but the Monday after that, I'm going to have a knitting circle, which will consist of me teaching Jen and two of her friends to knit. I am really excited about it and so are they - which makes me look forward to it even more. :)