Last night, the cutest boy in the world took me to the karaoke bar where we met, sang me a David Bowie song [Absolute Beginners], and asked me to marry him.

I said yes.

I am a happy schmoo.

yayayayayay.

I love you, Jacob.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (283)

**Okay. Let's try this once more, with feeling. Try and comment, if you are inclined. I think it's working now?**

I'm delinquent. I know. I've sat down several times to write a post and then something happens, mostly Java homework and work stuff. (Although I will admit that I was posting last night and then got distracted by a game of Literati with my sister and Teamie JoAnna. It's like Scrabble but online. I'm kind of a dork.) By the way, SO PROUD of my sister Cathy - found out last night that she got into grad school! woo-hoo!

Anyways...I've been knitting my little fingers off on two things: my Sockapaloooza Socks (decreasing for toe on Sock #2!) and on this other Secret Thing. ( Don't you hate it when people say that?) It's so pretty, though, that I have to show you a little bit...

Pretty cabley yummy squooshiness.

I think I finally understand cabling without a cable needle, and I've got that braided cable memorized fer sure (thanks to my Must Have and this particular piece).

I knitted on this all weekend while I was camping with the Pants and his Parents. Now, I have a confession: I was a little nervous about this camping trip. The Pants and his Parents are extremely outdoorsy (some might call them the Wilderness Family) and I was a little worried about have to hike up a mountain and then crawl through a cave and hang-glide off a cliff to get to our campsite. I try to be an outdoorsy girl, I do, and sometimes I absolutely love it, but sometimes I'm just NOT.

Luckily, we got there and there was a big old campfire and a tarp to keep the rain out and lots of food and a creek right our campfire and a toilet not too far away (okay, it had a big pedal that you had to step on for a flusher, and it was on a weird platform, but it was still a toilet.) And did I mention the food? We relaxed and hiked around and fished. I caught my first trout:

I'm a fisherwoman.

and Jacob took a ton of pictures. Here he is, slinking around the forest with his camera gear:

Cute Photographer in natural habitat.

It was really great. Now I want to go camping again. Sitting around the campfire is perfect knitting time. If you want to see the rest of the camping pictures, they're over [ here ]. Warning: there are pictures of fish. And really scary pictures of me after three days of not showering.

So, it was a nice break, and now it's back to reality and I'm busy as hell again. That's okay, though. I like the busy. Especially when Maryland Sheep and Wool is SO. CLOSE. yayayayayayay.

Posted by Carrieoke at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Are you sick of me moaning about the pollen and the weather? Yep, me too. But it's SO. HOT. And it's only going to get hotter. Gah. I might have to put down some of the heavy wool knitting for a little while and knit on something a little lighter ... Green Gable, maybe?

Speaking of summery knits, here's one for you. I knit my sister the Caramel Cap Sleeve Top from Spring Interweave 2004 in July of 2004. I hadn't seen it in awhile, but it showed back up yesterday at Easter brunch:

Doesn't she look adorable?
Here's the back.

So cute. I love seeing the knits in action. She's wearing it over a little strapless sundress, and she just tied the belt over the sweater. Smart girl. It almost makes me want to knit one for myself!

(I'll admit, it's hard for me to see early Carrieoke knits and not cringe at the mistakes -- things that would be easy for me now, and were super hard for me then. This sweater is pretty okay. My first sweater ever - a Sitcom Chic - is hilarious to me now. I didn't know how to pick up stitches, so I just stuck my knitting needle through the edges and knitted straight from that for the buttonband. It's ... bad. But it also shows me how far I've come!)

Here's me and the Pants in our Easter best.

Not really our Easter best, but you know what I mean.

I may look like I've just gotten out of bed in that picture...we had a late Saturday night because Bling played at the Georgia Theatre. Fun show but kinda strange - a really popular local bluegrass band played with us, and they had a massive crowd ( because they are AWESOME.) So, there was totally a mass exodus after they finished so we had an enthusiastic but much smaller crowd. I realized that it's quite a mental shift to go from rockin' bluegrass to funky hip-hop, so I salute the folks who stuck around and blinged. Blang? Blung. ha.

Anyways, Easter brunch was loverly, got to see the fam, and my older sister Michelle, who is delivering my first nephew in less than a month! I tried to get a kick out of him by leaning really close to her stomach and saying "hey! It's Auntie Carrie!" but he was resting. I am so excited about the new schmoo that's coming to the family!

Here's Sockapalooza Sock #2, nearing completion. I'd say I'm about 2 inches from toe decrease?

So. Close.

I'm actually going to stop knitting on these for a few days while I
work on some kinda secret knitting that I need to finish up.

Hope it's nice and cool where you are!!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)

Yikes, it's been a while since I've posted. It's been crazy busy at my office and at my house, and the pollen is OUT.OF.CONTROL around here. I'm loving the 80-degree weather but HATING the pollen. I come home every night with a headache. (I've tried Zyrtec and Claritin-D, so I'm thinking Allegra will be my next stop. I just don't want to be groggy or AWAKEAWAKEAWAKE. Gah.)

Anyways, I'll show you what else has been keeping me away from the blog:
1.Studying...

I'm taking a Java class.
It's a prerequisite for one of my grad programs. The applications to the graduate school are IN, I just have to complete my supplemental apps and get my recommendation letters. My statement of purpose is nearly complete. And now I'm getting nervous.

(And by the way, Java is so weird. It takes like a bazillion lines of code to write "Hello, world!" But I'm learning. Slowly.)
2. Recycling...
One of my very first "real" knits:

Chevron Rib Tank. Cute, but I just don't wear it.
And it points to my crotch.

That tank became:


Yarn for Green Gable.

I don't wear the tank, so why waste the Cotton Fleece? I want a Green Gable RIGHT NOW. Which leads me to:

3. KNITALONG!

Do you want to knit Green Gable with us? Well, YOU CAN! Join the Green Gable Knitalong by leaving me a comment to this post (make sure you leave me your email address.) You can also comment on the blog of my lovely co-hostess, Kelly of the Pajama Monologues! Knitalong blog found here. We're thinking that we'll start May 1, although we might move that up if we get too excited. hee.

So, git yer pattern and join the knitalong! Yee-haw!

That's all I've got right now. Sorry for the crappy pictures, but sometimes you have to resort to the cameraphone when the USB cable is at work. Ahem.

Posted by Carrieoke at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (56)

Hey there! Here's some friendly advice: When a friend warns you that some allergy medicine might keep you up all night, LISTEN TO HER. Because it's 2:00am and hihihihihi! I'm up. Upupupupupup. I'm drinking some tea and knitting to try and make me sleepy, but nothing seems to be working. Ridiculous.

Anywho, I've been wanting to blog anyways, so might as well. Even if it is late-night-loopy-blogging.

Last weekend, I went to see my dad with my sis Cathy. We had a blast - events included Margarita Madness at Chili's:

Dad rocked the classic frozen margarita.

Knitting on the couch:

Yup, the twin knits. She's pretty good, too.
(Although the weirdo holds the working yarn in her left hand!)
[You other weirdos know I'm just jealous because ya knit so fast. ;)]

Logcabin-ing:

I'm working on binding off more loosely to make it a little squarer.
But I'm gettin' there.

And, some cabling:

Loving. This.

So it was good times all around. Got Dad a DVD/VCR combo and watched movies and relaxed all weekend. And ate some yummy NC barbecue. yum.

And in a EUREKA! moment: the other night at knitting, Jodi wanted to knit a row on my Must-Have and I was all, dude, I don't have the pattern with me. And she was all, dude, the pattern's RIGHT HERE. Look at the knitting! And she described it to me, and something clicked, and now I'm just whizzing through this sweater! Before I had post-it notes on all three separate cable patterns, and now I don't have to look at the pattern. FOR REALS. I still have to pay attention, but now I feel like I'm really making progress.

Well. I guess I should try to get some sleep, although at this point I should just wait until the sun comes up and go to the gym. hahahahahahahaha. I hope you are all sleeping soundly right now, if it's time for that in your part of the world.

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (38)