Goodnight tree

We woke up to Little Guy running fever and due to a chain of conversations have taken down the Christmas decorations prematurely. Normally we wait until New Year's Day and do a thorough housecleaning while recuperating from the night before (we aren't wild but some of us stay up later than others and morning comes too quickly when you don't sleep) but this holiday season has been a little more humid than others and we suspect our tree is growing mold, contributing to our lingering sinus issues and Little Guy's sudden sickness.

We hope.

SuperGirl was a big help and we got everything down. Thank goodness I'm not a huge Christmas decorator so everything is in a nice, neat pile in my dining room waiting to be sorted. I swept, SuperGirl dustmopped, and I dusted. It was then that I discovered the artwork the kids had been doing in the layer of dust on the tv screen. How we haven't noticed it before now, I don't know, but it is now as clean as the rest of the room. However clean that gets.

Hopefully the rest of the day is for my 2 baby projects that are coming along slowly but surely. I've rediscovered what a genius EZ's "Surprise Baby Jacket" is but despair to ever figure out what makes what go where. In further study of her "Knitter's Workshop" she has the SBJ pattern with several of her other garter stitch, knitted-in-one-piece-with-minimal-finishing patterns and I can only sit and stare at. How does she do it? Or did she just perfect patterns people had done for ages, like others do with socks?

The girl in purple socks

...and this was for one of the nieces. Got a tip from EZ's "Knitter's Workshop" on why my "ssk"s look so different from my "k2tog"s. About to try it out and see if that's what fixes everything. Will let you know soon!

Some presents revealed

Here is a showcase of the dishcloths I knitted, plus a purse. Apparently I didn't get a picture of the Ravenclaw hat and scarf but that was for a friend of ours to give to someone. Oh well.

'Twas the day after Christmas

I have received Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitting Workshop" book. I have started reading it and it is amazing how she jots everything down and shows that yep, it's just that easy to do whatever you want; just DO it.

Little Guy is putting all of SuperGirl's Barbies on the roof of her new Barbie house. Hubby and her Pawpaw made for her and it is the dollhouse of my 7 year old dreams (only I actually had nothing to do with the plans, they did it all on their own, love them), complete with a flat, felted roof with spindled railing. She is in tears. He has lost the beaded lampshade to her lamp stand. My day is only beginning.

I sat down to breakfast this morning and was leisurely drinking my coffee while planning the baby blanket for Crochet Queen's newest arrival (early February, here we come!). I had the blocks planned out, "x"s for seed stitch and "o"s for stockinette, when Hubby glanced over and said, "That football play will never work." That was when my day was supposed to be beginning.

Thus, so far I have had inspiration, two children with post-Christmas disorder, and a good laugh. Hopefully this bodes well for the new year approaching. We could use a good one.

A field of color

And now presenting the scarf for the nephew. It is crocheted width-wise, chaining in the blue until I had my length (roughly 2 yds since he is only 5 but I would like him to have the option to continue wearing it as he grows), with the end of each row leaving 5-6 inches of tail to have instant fringe when I finish, and single/double crocheting wherever I wanted in whatever color I wanted until it was balanced and wide as I wanted it. A great project to finish on the way home from Baton Rouge (took a little over 4 hours) and the crocheting was a great way to help massage my sore hand muscles from the frantic sock knitting. I had never thought I could get lactic acid build-up from knitting...

As for the Christmas project update, another sock ambition bit the dust and the person is getting a dishcloth instead. The dishcloth is a color I love (red) in a pattern I love (Debbie Bliss is amazing in her design; highly recommend her dishcloth pattern in her Spring/Summer 2009 magazine) and I'm nearly finished with it. I think she'll appreciate it over the socks, even though she had requested the socks 6 months ago. This will make an unexpected surprise and she'll still get her socks one day. Mother's Day maybe? (it's not you, Mom, as you know since I brought the dishcloth to knit at your house.)

Anyway, once I made that executive decision I felt tons better and finished the socks for my niece gladly, putting the sock knitting supplies away for another sock hiatus while I tackle the baby gifts that were next on my "to knit" list. That means the Christmas presents will be finished before Christmas Eve and I can go back to knitting at a slower pace. Well, maybe not. I'm still pretty depressed and project-hyper but that should work to my advantage. These gifts are for babies that have already been born so I'm late getting them finished anyway and even if I decide to avoid them and do something completely different (as long as it's stuff I already own, nothing new bought), things are still getting finished and there isn't a deadline to those that are on the list. Well, there is but who's counting? The older the babies get the more they'll appreciate it anyway and the gift really should be for them, not the mother, right? Hah, who am I kidding, but it should be like that.

...and depression breeds productivity?

I've had a bad attitude lately. Don't get me wrong, life is fine, family is wonderful, I've just been a downer and it's all me. I've been working on improving it. Triggers are the current circumstances I can't control and the fact that there is nothing I can do really bugs me... like REALLY ticks me off. Some days it's better than others. The negative side is I'm not good company the tired-er I get (is that even a word?) but the positive side is I'm a demon getting things finished. Understand, I'm not getting the things that need to be done by Christmas finished. I'm finishing the things that have been hanging around in drawers, final-final things for projects already done and the scraps were still hanging around (like the picture above; will discuss in a second), and finding things that need to be organized better and used up so I know what I have/where it is/how much I have/if I need it. (Last month it was baking and we are still enjoying the frozen products of that bout of crankiness and so are the friends and acquaintances that received the give-aways. I think they are looking forward to me getting depressed again because it breeds pumpkin pies. For me a baking depression breeds less freezer space and I can't do that too often.)

I told LMSS last night that this passive-aggressive attitude towards the 2 projects left for Christmas gifts was amusing but not great for the thrill I get completing things and crossing off to-do lists, not to mention the people the gifts are for that I have NO IDEA what to buy them otherwise. (I actually broke down and bought a Christmas gift for the 3rd pair of potential socks hanging around because I couldn't do another speed-sock-ing like last weekend.) Also, if you knew how much I had already made for Christmas gifts you would think I was crazy for balking at the last 2 pairs of socks.

Well, I never said I was sane. Socially acceptable most days, yes, but not sane.

Anyway, now for the above picture. Those are the pillow shams for our quilt that I had thought about making but I'm not a decorative pillow/pillow sham person so I wasn't sure if it would happen. I started with the one on the left and it turned out so good I made the one on the right. They look nothing like each other but they fit ("Like us" Hubby said) and I love how they turned out. I used the leftover partially sewed scraps for the left one, simply sewing more frames on until I had the deminsions I needed, and did the back as two panels overlapping. I even had a little fun by sewing the remainder of the bias binding as a trim around the edge between the front and the back. The right one was from scraps too but I was able to plan a bit more with bigger scraps, thus more piecing, back done the same as the left but in different fabric. This eliminated all those little scraps, blocks, binding, squares, strips, etc. and left only the big pieces of fabric which are now sorted by color in my stash to live on in another project one day. I love it. I love the new space and I love how this filled a space that needed to be there, I hadn't reached the time to do it until now.

I'm the left pillow, Hubby is the right pillow. Couldn't you tell?

Never again... until next time

This weekend was an interesting one. Great trip, wonderful seeing Hubby's older sister and family, and they enjoyed their presents. Only one present took A LOT LONGER than it should have and I was worried I'd have to stop at a convenience store to save my skin.

It might have been the setbacks because my family had to eat, thus I had to cook, thus 1-2 hours were subtracted from the "knitting time" allotted. It might have been the numerous times doing all the little things for the laundry and the kids, again subtracting knitting time. It could have been the Friday night supper with one friend invited over ended up a dinner party. So the sock which should have been finished Friday night was still a work-in-progress not only during the whole 4 hour trip to see them but the 2.75 hours we visited. I feverishly knit the whole way down, feeling my shoulders getting closer and closer to my ears, wrapped the finished sock when we pulled into their driveway, handed it to her saying "Merry Christmas. Here's the first half and excuse me while I finish the second half in your living room."

There was a posting on the Yarn Harlots Page-a-Day calendar this past week about unrealistic deadlines and for some reason the closer the deadline, the more in denial we get about REALLY, how long does this thing take and if we just concentrate harder, we can get it done in a fraction of the time. I should have taped the thing to my forehead.

All I asked for was to not have to take the socks back home and mail it the next day. Thank goodness I didn't and above is the picture of her modeling them. They turned out great and her son was REALLY interested in them and how warm they were. (Apparently he is always wearing her socks.) She ran off to hide these after I snapped the picture and I am thinking about a gift for him next year. He hunts and even here in southern Louisiana it gets cold out there in the deer stand. Hmmm... camo? High enough to line the boot legs? At least I have a year to figure it out.

The ride home I celebrated by looking at the knitting books they gave me for Christmas and crocheted a scarf requested by one of Hubby's 5 year old nephews. I can't turn down a personal request, especially when he knows the colors and design he wants. It turned out really cute and masculine, something I was deliberately trying to do because he wanted the colors of the rainbow and there are some family members who wouldn't take too kindly to a gay pride scarf.

In the meantime, I've dwindled my Christmas projects left down to 3: 2 socks and 1 purse. The purse is cut out so I'll finish that today and the socks have at least 4 days EACH to finish. No more of this 3 day maximum thing. Next time I WILL do a mercy run to the convenience store.

To thine own self be true

I was speeding along knitting a pair of socks for the sister-in-law we only see 2x a year (they are turning out FABULOUS! Pretty colors and self-patterning yarn always keeps me happy and that's good because I have 48 hours to knit the pair) and starting wondering why the other sock project that has been hanging around for the past 2 months has been... well, hanging around for the past 2 months. I love knitting socks, it doesn't take me too long, and there's enough major changes in the pattern to keep me interested. I'm already further on this current pair than that one and I started it 2 days ago and was carrying it with me EVERYWHERE just in case I got the chance to knit it. I even carried to one of the niece's school Christmas plays and Hubby said absolutely not was I going to knit while waiting for the play to start. I resisted the temptation to fling myself on the floor and have a "but I wannnnaaaa!" fit and just sat, itching to DO SOMETHING. Sitting still doesn't work well with me. Maybe that's why I taught lower elementary? But I digress...

I really was wondering what was it about that older pair of socks that made me not want to knit it. I had piddled with it a little but always by-passed it for any of the other projects, as in ALL of the projects I've been working on since September. It's been great to get them finished but these socks are part of Christmas too and they need to be done. I took them out of their little bag (I use the free cosmetic bags given to me by my make-up wearing M-i-l and Lola) and gave them a good look over. You know what it was? The needles. That's it. The needles were the reason why I was refusing to knit them. They are a different brand/kind than what I usually use and I had been trying them out to see if they were worth recommending to my beginner sock students. They are square and supposed to ease tension and stress put on hands while knitting, especially if you are arthritic. I'm not arthritic but anything that might make knitting faster and easier is worth trying. Instead, I had more trouble with my tension and laddering than usual and things seemed too slippery rather than that silky ease I get from my Addis. Note to reader: I am an Addi nut. I don't even care for Lantern Moon needles. Have heard Knit Picks might be worth it (and they come in such pretty colors) but I'll take Addi hands down any form any day. I do like Lantern Moon accessories though...

I don't care for square needles (obviously!) but I know others who swear by them and even prefer the 9" circulars that are square for their socks. I don't care for circulars while knitting socks either (too small a work space) but I'm certainly not going to knock it if that's what other's like. Too each his own, totally.

Dear Deadline,

I see you there and I'm working on it. You're being very patient and I thank you. I don't wish you to go away because you are serving a purpose: you are reminding me that there is something I need to be doing even though the housework piles up. It's nice to have this to do. It makes me sit down, watch movies, and relax. However, I have a hard time relaxing when I realize that there is only TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LEFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

I would say "Never again will I decide to knit/sew something for half the family in the name of frugality (is that a word?) when I really just wanted an excuse to make everyone something" except I'm pretty sure I'll eat those words next year, just like I'm eating the words "6 pairs of socks in a month? Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey."

Organic

Take a bite
And cry
Because it tastes like it used to.
You weren't dreaming
Or getting too old
To remember after all.

A stitch in time...

Here are the quilts. The top one is a gift and the bottom one I did for me. It's "Hush-a-Bye" by Moda and I am a new fan of their fabric. The top was whatever colors I picked out at Hancocks and it looks just right for the person it's for. I tried to add close-ups of the stitch patterns, done by one of my knitting class ladies on her machine. I might be a new fan of that method too... certainly saves time! The added effect is lovely also.

Thanks for the memories

Well, as you can see, the pattern is still a work in progress.

What isn't is I actually own a new gas range. This was the result from making plans over a week ago to bake for the Thanksgiving holiday, giving me and the two elementary school age girls I'll have in my house, plus the ever-so-much-of-a-help 2 year old something to do. Can we say cookies and pumpkin pie? Yum. Anyway, those plans can only work if the oven works and it suddenly wasn't and began sending up a gas stink in it's decision. I found this out when I was trying to bake supper and we both were a little cranky. That led to a Sunday trip to Sears (who I have moderately forgiven after the fridge fiasco 2 years ago) which led to the purchase along with a new range vent because our current range vent sounds like a B-52 with speed issues. That's only when it decides to even come on. No kidding. We have to yell over it.

The appliances weren't here for the holidays but thanks to Mom's oven (it does work even if it is across town!) the pumpkin pies and cookies were still made. I also have the ok to use Crochet Queen's oven if I ever need to and she lives only 5 minutes away. The things you find out when something breaks...

Now to eat all the pumpkin pies. I'm actually not hungry. Freezer, maybe?

Thanksgiving was lovely and I finally finished Phase 1 of the Christmas presents. It's a bummer I can't post the pictures because the people haven't received them yet; I really want to show them off. I promise to after Christmas! Right now I have a Ravenclaw scarf and hat to knit for Hubby's friend's sister-in-law. I had forgotten she had hired me to do that, oops! This close to Christmas too! I've done these before several times but I'm still reworking my pattern as I go. The first 1-3 stages of those scarves I knitted evolved a pattern I really like but it still wasn't totally working for regular use. Hopefully this one does and there will be a hat pattern to match. My goal is to finish them both by Wednesday and move to Phase 3 of Christmas, plus finish the quilts when they come back from the lady who is machine quilting them for me. I CAN post those when I finish them!

Try, try again

Still working on the Helmet Hat pattern. Attempted to upload it through my documents here on Google and it's not working as a link. Hmm... let's see what else I can do.

Rounds all around

... and it is done! I finished it Tuesday and lovingly sent it home to the Crochet Queen via her husband who is the best handyman in the WORLD!!! Thanks to him I have a hall light that turns on and off from BOTH ends of the hall, a closet ceiling no longer threatening to cave in, and a link to another guy who does seamless gutters, thus eliminating the slight flooding of our front porch every time it rains hard. This is Louisiana. It rains. And it rains. And then it rains some more. We would like to utilize our front porch double rocker without the complimentary shower, thank you very much. Now to do something about the mosquitoes...

Anyway, back to the blanket. Crochet Queen said she went on ahead and gave it to her sister the next night and she loved it. She called it her "Old lady blanket" and Crochet Queen said "Watch it!" I laughed because it was crocheted by us two and we are a long way away from being old ladies. I love the Granny Square anyway because it looks like flowers.

As you can see there was still a ripple effect in trying to block the original diamond and get the dimensions of all sides to match. There also was a "wing" effect on the ends but putting a few rows of single crochet all around helped out. The scallop edge also was more forgiving and hid any bumps/ridges left from the attempt at blocking out the edges and done in that blue was darling. I really liked how the double rows of Granny Sqaures finished out the blanket. It really ties everything in and frames nicely, even though I didn't do it on all sides.

More Christmas projects are underway and being worked on/finished as I write. I'm really excited about some of them. Now to have them all finished before the holidays hit...

Present, Past, and Past Imperfect

Things had gotten desparate. The angles were ok (and I hestitate to say that; they might seem ok to someone who had never made anything in their life and didn't have an opinion on irregular borders, i.e. someone who doesn't pay attention that this thing looks like a lopsided mass first project of a kindergartener [not a comment on you, Crochet Queen, a comment on my wacky irregular stitch decreases when I should know better]) but I didn't like it. I didn't like working on it and it, again, was taking way longer than I thought it should take. So, I made a call to Crochet Queen after putting Sgt. Cribb on pause (it was at a part I felt I needed to pay attention to anyway) and asked her if she cared if the blanket turned out in an oval shape. She didn't really but wasn't going to be picky. I told her no, if she wanted a rectangle, by golly she was going to get a rectangle, not matter what. "The blanket has gotten to you, too, huh?" she said. I didn't want to confess to my impulses to light fire to the thing, even though Crochet Queen had already confessed her sordid ideas, but I did. We had a good laugh and I told her it still would be finished and not to worry.

I had the blanket laid out on the floor and was looking at it on the floor when I decided to try something I had thought of initially when the mitered corner idea took over. I could mark the tentative side point(s) (it's flatter there so I could fudge a little), start there by picking up a stitch and crocheting rows, picking up every other stitch along the sloping side as I came to it, keeping the border side straight, and increasing 1 stitch next to the slope side every few rows. I started, fully prepared to rip it out, and guess what. It has, for the most part, worked!

So, here is the blanket. The first picture is the current progress that is (thankfully!) working. The second and third are views of the mitered corner that I thought was going to work and didn't. I posted them because I wanted to show the whole blanket and my first attempt at the corner. I'm sure I could find a way for the mitered corner technique to work if I felt like doing the math and really thinking about it but I don't feel like it and it takes to long to miter once I actually start crocheting. The top picture method is working out better but still isn't as rectangular as what would be perfect. However, it is more of a rectangular shape and will have corners, plus I'm still going to crochet a border, add a row of Granny Squares already crocheted by Crochet Queen, and then see what the blanket wants for a grand finish. I asked CQ if her sister liked frilly (I like doing scalloped trim on Granny square blankets; I have one of my own that's king sized that was a huge stash buster and preggy project to use up all my acrylic yarn I still loved but would never use 2-2.5 years ago. It would be our current bedpsread (and I would have had made no attempt to make our lovely quilt) if Hubby tolerated that sort of thing. He drew the line at Granny Squares, thus the quilt idea was born) and she said not really but her sister wouldn't care because her blanket was finally going to be finished. The scallops don't really say frilly but I'm not going to decide yet. The blanket will tell me what it wants.

I've also had some more success on the quilting front: I've found the patterns I want for the Christmas fabric I had that was unearthed in Mom's fabric stash room (yep, those dresses I was going to whip up for Bailey that never happened... oh well, she would have outgrown them long before now) and the cute cotton prints I've been collecting for some reason. I had to take both groups out of my stash drawer (more like pry the drawer open and liberate them so the drawer didn't explode at some random, inopportune time) and put them in covered bins that are now hidden, um, STORED under the bed so that I had more clear space in the lived in part of the house. They now have their plan and I'm so excited! I've told myself not to start them till after I finish everything else I've started so we are looking at 8 months from now. Let's see if I actually wait till then.

The lastest addition

So far my plans are working. Doesn't look as nice and neat because the angle on one side is different from the other but hopefully by the next corner I've got it. I'm almost through with one corner (about to turn Sgt. Cribb back on and work away) and the verdict will be made at that time.

I now have a little friend living on my kitchen counter. It's a sourdough yeast starter. It's really a fairly large friend because it's in a big jar. I showed it to Hubby, said "It's alive" and he looked at me partially in wonderment (I hope) and partially in disbelief (probably more like it) that I would take on another living thing that requires attention, feeding, and care. Right now it's happy, bubbly, and I have to stir it once for 4-7 days. Then it will be old enough to use in my bread recipes. I'm watching it to make sure it doesn't turn purple. Apparently if it does that, it's gone rogue and must be done away with.

Speaking of bread, my fabulous family, I have made a REALLY GOOD bread using pumpkin and other yummy spices like nutmeg, honey, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. It doesn't taste like pumpkin at all and the spices only add a hint of sweet loveliness so it's a slightly sweet, moist bread that still can be eaten with dinner, not necessarily as dessert. It reminds me of those really good rolls they made when I was really little in elementary school, pre-3rd grade. I hope all of you have as fond a memory of those rolls! Expect it at the holidays!

Foiled again

Remember how I said I had it all worked out in my mind for Crochet Queen's blanket and it seemed to be fitting into reality nicely? Hah. I got down to the last 5 rows of squaring off and checked everything to see how it was shaping the blanket. Um, it was shaping the blanket but in the wrong way. With every getting-slightly-larger row it was subtly pushing the points of the blanket out, thus making this corner REALLY wide, as in becoming 1/6th of the blanket rather than the approximate 1/8th it should be. (And don't anyone go saying that when dealing with approximations and depending on how large your whole is 1/6 could actually be an approx. 1/8!) There was some consideration of still doing the other corners the same but there was concern on how the end shape/result would be, especially since the parts I was crocheting on were at a slightly tighter gauge than the rest of the blanket, thus less resistant. So I frogged it all (sniff! good-bye 2 evenings of hard work!), went up 2 hook sizes (gauge now matches), and am simply putting lines that get slightly smaller and will eventually end in the corner point. No clever little mitered corners but at least maybe the blanket will shape up normal.

Guilty, guilty

Hee hee...

So, you know my ever-long list of things to knit/make for Christmas in order to be frugal? (Don't ask me where buying the Noro Silk Garden sock yarn came in to the frugal part... maybe because it was on sale? but I'm not using it for any gifts... yet...) Anyway, I have this list and I'm working my way through it marvelous-ly and I've decided to take on one of Crochet Queen's guilt projects that has been living and loving like a kracken in her house for a year and a half. She's expecting her #2 child in a few months, is having pre-term labor, and I decided this is one way I could help. It's a lap blanket for her younger sister that she started as Christmas present, I think, and it's prolonged itself to possible gift 2 Christmas's later. In the normal theme of Crochet Queen's projects, the pattern is totally of her own devices. She learned how to make Granny Squares from me and made a whole bunch of them only to take one and start crocheting around it (again, sort of with my help because she was tired of crocheting Granny Squares and had started something more blanket-with-less-holes like and wasn't sure where to go with it) which turned into a slightly irregular long diamond. It was starting to aggravate her and I am now taking that and squaring it off by adding triangles to the straight lines of the diamond (I'll post pictures; I'm quite proud of my crochet innovation and I hope it works on all the sides. So far it's working on the first one) and will use the Granny Squares as a border, throwing in a few single crochet lines to hold it all together.

We'll see how it goes... Little Guy is still sick so all this is being done to the theme of "Charlie and Lola" and "Sgt. Cribb", but not simultaneously.

Debbie Bliss' "Rabbit with Sweater"

Here is the adorable little bunny I was dying to find a reason to knit. I found one and in the process am going to have to knit each of my children one (Valentine's Day presents!) and one for my niece (when she's old enough to not chew on it; it is chenille!). I unofficially name it Floppy for the cute ears, not in any reference to Black Adder.

The pattern is from Debbie Bliss' knitting magazine Spring/Summer 2009 listed in the table of contents as "Once Upon a Time". I totally did not use her recommended fiber because I was using this as a stash buster for the chenille I used on my "Anyone For a Shrubbery" hat (which the pattern will be posted here sometime in the future; trying to figure out how to with Blogspot). It worked beautifully as one because there isn't much needed. I tried to get as close to gauge as possible but didn't worry too much since this isn't going to be worn by anyone, just loved! I DID have to make sure the sweater fit the bunny because that was an important gauge to follow, or at least to make sure it was to the right ratio.

I don't think I attached the head quite right; the bunny stares straight up. I left it because that means it can smile into the lucky child's face when the child is hugging it and will never be tumped flat on it's face when it falls over.

Only took 2 full evenings and a morning to knit. It was well worth it, especially when Little Guy loved it so much he was carrying it around, hugging it and tossing it with all his blocks only to pick it up and hug it some more. This is a boy who sleeps with a baseball in one hand and a marble in the other only when he can't find his plush football!

Thoughts while looking at a painting 300 years old

I have never been alone.
I realize that now.
All the while
the women of my past
have been looking over my shoulder
watching as life goes
just like it did
the generations before.
And I also think
one day
I'll be doing the same
with the daughters
of my granddaughters.

"If anything is going to happen in this apartment I want it to happen to me first."

I'm working on the usual, found another Christmas gift I forgot I was going to make (shows checklists are still only as effective as the person writing them), and the other child who wasn't sick last week is now sick. The one who was sick is running around like a top. The sick one wants to be, and I really hate it for her because she's only going to be able to do a little trick-or-treating to a few of the neighbors and then stay home with me while Daddy goes to watch his game and brother goes to a little family Halloween party. However, she got to go to a sleepover last Saturday when brother was sick and had to miss so there was a little discussion on how these things just happen.

Last night, Hubby and I went to the local movie Friday Night Freak Out which showed "Ghostbusters." I had forgotten how funny that movie was, especially Billy Murray. I'm a big fan of his, which I'm sure everyone knows. But anyway, we were watching with a very enthusiastic but polite crowd (almost sold out!) and I noticed the interesting knitted clothes worn by several of the characters. Bill Murray wears a knitted vest that makes me think of some of the Noro yarn in patterns I've seen and Sigourney Weaver wears quite a layered group of knitted things (including skirts) that again made me think of how they would look worn individually and with updated accessories. The knitted things the secretary wears only screams 80s to me so I wasn't too intrigued by it (only reminded me of the fashions I didn't like even then) but it made me think of how styles come and go and repeat.

Take a look at the movie. It's interesting.

Holiday howl

Halloween candy is evil. It must be dealt with accordingly. That must be the reason why I have already opened both of the jumbo assorted candy bags and sneak a piece every few hours, right? Just trying to justify this insane behavior when I really don't care for it in the first place. It's in the house so I must eat it all so there won't be any more in the house?

My cure for this crazy-ness is to knit and knit some more. Oh yeah, I also have my regular machine back so now I can sew and sew some more to get those mending articles back to their rightful owner. I also have to track down SuperGirl (she's at a friend's house) to hem her ballet skirt but that one can wait. It only has to be done for tomorrow.

There have been sick kids the past 5 days so things have been a little crazy. I did finish another Christmas gift for a friend's daughter that I have to post. It is the cutest thing. The other things I'm working on I can't post because I'm never quite sure who's reading this or not. It might be you, it might not!

Everything is beautiful in it's own way

I love it when projects suddenly are finished a day early. I love it when that allows other projects that have been hanging around like stinky cheese monkeys to be suddenly finished. I love it when all the projects suddenly make the house more organized and clean, whether that is by providing a spot for things to go or by finding a way to my car to be taken to their true homes. I just love it. That stack of books overwhelming the poor little book shelf holding them to the right in the previous picture? Gone. The books are now organized in a large, oak bookshelf, stained by yours truly and Hunky Hubby. It is finished and standing tall and lovely. There is an even taller one in the front room for all the socially acceptable books and hardbacks but it needs to finish fully drying for another 24 hours. The kids' books are organized and separated in their rooms. They now have the smaller particle board bookshelves, i.e. shelves I'm not going to have a heart attack about when I found them markered and covered in stickers.

The separating of all the kids' books was interesting. I didn't realize how much I collected through the years and found lots of the old favorites from when I was a kids. (Note to siblings: if there is a book you want from when we were growing up, I probably have it. Let me know if you want it.) Most of the books had not been moved from the crates they were squatting in and I found lots of dust bunnies and a missing puzzle piece in the process of cleaning them out. Now everything looks like it belongs and it's BEAUTIFUL!

Just like the quilt, beautiful. Even Little Guy comments on the quilt every time he comes in our bedroom; he pats it and says, "Hm! Mommy's quilt!"

Now for Christmas presents to start on and finish. And a few baby presents. Oh, and another lap quilt. Oh yeah, I need to get my modern sewing machine back from the shop so I can fill bobbins for the antique sewing machine and use it. And that would enable me to finish the mending for that friend of mine...

Yep, still have more to do. But no more stinky cheese monkeys. These projects are sweet, cuddly monkeys I like having for company.

Beautimus

It is done. It took all day Monday to do it and my sewing machine is now having professional maintenance work but it is done. It is so lovely.

I probably don't need to tell you how frustrating it was when what I thought was a 3-4 hour project turned into a 10 hour one. I probably don't need to tell you about how 2 year olds can sense blood, sweat, and tears because that's when they decide to come "help." Or at least demand milk, water, and whatever else they feel like they need at that instant. It was at supper when I was sitting there, staring at my hastily prepared supper and the quilt with binding half done, half not, when SuperGirl asked me "Mommy, are you tired?" I said "Yes honey, and I'm ready for that quilt to be done." "Me too, Mommy," she answered.

It took 40 minutes to wash, 3 hours to dry (cotton batting is great for absorption and resisting dryer heat), and I finally tucked it around Hubby (who was asleep) at 1 a.m. It was beautiful. the crowning achievement was the next day when I had the bed made and he came home. He looked at it and said, "It looks really good!"

It's actually a little too long but it's still fabulous because we don't have to worry about the ends riding up while sleeping. The cotton batting is not too heavy (I was worried about that and almost changed it but something told me not to) and feels wonderful. It feels so good to have it done and on my bed. I can look at it and say "I did that. I did all of that. I didn't just finish it, I did it ALL." And the flipping thing is king size. [patting self on back for not shying away from what "experts" would say isn't a "good idea"] I did, however, make an emergency call to LMSS while sewing the binding telling her about wanting to throw the thing out the window while my sewing machine tried blow up. She talked me down off the ledge and said "Whatever you need to do to get it done, do it." Thanks, LMSS.

The other thing I feel good about with this quilt is it's totally us, one of a kind, well-made, and will stay on our bed for ages. It's not trendy or synthetic. It's our colors and our feel. When I was looking for bedspreads years ago I couldn't find any in the stores that were big enough and/or the colors/patterns we wanted and we were living with a cheap substitute bedspread. I say cheap because the fabric and sewing work was cheap; it in itself was not cheap, although was for a king-size bedspread. I've been patching holes on it from the day we got it, which means 2 years, and I'm happy to fold it up in the closet and have a bedspread that I have constructed from the ground up. If anything happens to it I can fix it.

I celebrated all this by doing all the laundry and housework that has been left undone for the past 2 weeks. We also are staining and finishing bookshelves for the house which means all the books will finally be organized and in the right place, i.e. kids' books in kids' rooms, adult books, photo albums, and nice books in front room, paperbacks in our bedroom. I'm so excited but of course that means cleaning more stuff out and moving things. It's going to be great once done. And we are actually enjoying the staining and polyurethane coating procedure so it hasn't been too bad. Of course it helps the weather has been gorgeous.

Keep your eye on the ball

I have to remember that things do not happen overnight. This means quilts. This means big, heavy quilts that are 7/8ths of the way done and still need time and attention for a few more days. No rushing.

I have to remember that the Little Things (like children) do seem to happen overnight and I need to drop everything and pay attention to them at every opportunity because I'll blink my eyes and they will suddenly be gone. This includes not grumbling about volunteering to chaperone Kindergarten field trips. She will only be in Kindergarten once, this will mean a lot to her and the teacher even though the 2 year old comes along, and I should not even think about the quilting time that is being lost. There will be plenty of quilting time later on when I should be sleeping.

I have to remember that I do still have work to do, even though it's not official work, and I do still have working projects to finish doing. These need to be done and out of the way because they are taking up room at Mom's house and even though they do not involve knitting needles and/or a sewing machine, DO IT ANYWAY WITHOUT THE KNITTING EVERY 5 MINUTES.

And the one thing I don't like about playing cards or any other game: it's hard to knit or sew during, but is possible. Even if it annoys the others. That's why I try to only play games with other knitters or quilters. They understand and are knitting under the table too.

I thunk a thought...

This is from the Yarn Harlot's Page-a-Day calendar, 9-27-09:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not.... Genius will not.... Education will not.... Persistence and determination are omnipotent."
- Calvin Coolidge

Of course in all things this doesn't ring true but right now it's a nice thought to me while not feeling too hot, kids are sick, it's raining, brain isn't working, and I still have things to get done.

Right now I'm going through my bi-yearly clean out phase where I go through all our clothes, linens, cookingware, etc. I have my little donation piles and they are starting to overwhelm Little Guy's room so I know I need to do a quick haul sometime soon.

Weekend separation

The quilt is being quilted at the moment. I've decided October is my month to finish it and starting in Novemeber it will be Christmas presents only. Well, not exactly be quilted on at the moment. It's been put up for a rest over the weekend because we had company last night and I realized that in the fervor of getting things knitted/sewed for Christmas, etc. I had totally neglected housework and other responsibilities and things were not acceptable for a friend to come show us our new boyfriend over dinner. So I put the quilt up and cleaned.

It actually worked out for the best because the quilt and I were starting to have issues. It's totally me, I admit. I had finished quilting the middle part with all the blocks and got really excited because that means I'm almost finished, right? Um, WRONG. I spread the quilt out on the table, stenciled in the lovely little pattern for the yellow stripe, pondered over what to do for the red, and totally knew what I was going to do for the blue. Imagine me humming a clever little tune, thinking how nice it will be to have it on my bed within the week, binding cut and sewn on, lovely. Then I put it back on the quilt rack and realized that it wasn't oh, the 12 inches wide my brain was thinking. It was about 20-22''. It takes up most of the space on my rack and that means at least 2 hours each square. Bummer.

I got a little aggravated but started stitching, thinking I could work through it, trying to ignore a sock project calling to me from it's bag saying "Hey, I'M almost finished! You can work on me and to heck with that quilt! Your husband is hot natured anyway and I'm not for him! One more gift to cross off on your list!" But I still stitched away, getting more and more aggravated that this project wasn't going to be over as quickly as I thought. Finally, it was too late to grumble anymore, I had tons of things to do the next day that required me to have a full nights rest ( like, CLEAN), so I put it up and away, hoping that the weekend break would work to get me revved up to work on it next week and not 6 months from now. Or even 2 years from now. It's happened before.

I'm glad to say that it's only Saturday night and I'm starting to get excited about working on it again and totally understand that it's going to take 2 more weeks. I'm going to cherish the experience and do everything right, or at least remind myself that that's what I'm doing because things that are rushed aren't done correctly. I'm also glad to say that I'm leaving the quilt alone until Monday so I WILL finish that sock and there will be one more gift crossed off the list. I'm down to the last 3-4 inches on the mate. I owe it to it. It's been so patient through car pools and doctor appointments.

By the way, finally saw a cardiologist. Nothing is wrong. Everything is working fine. More great, fantabulous news.

All apologies...

Since I'm not sitting at a computer for endless hours I'm sorry to say that this blog has fallen on my list of priorities. However, other things haven't. Knitting is still happening (way too many project bags!) but isn't this other lovely?

The big quilt with the black, red, etc. is our new bedspread. Or it will be once I finish quilting it. It is now squatting on a quilt frame in our living room being used as a tent by the little ones. I love it all.

The purple is a throw that is a Christmas present for a niece, along with the purple purse that is for her birthday. They sort of go together but not really.

The purse I sewed up on a whim when I got mad trying to sew a knit dress for me (I don't think sewing clothes is my thing) from a quarter contest free pattern thing on www.allpeoplequilt.com
Love the vintage-style corduroy.

Where the quilting has come from, I don't know. I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Times they are a'changin'

Well, today was SuperGirl's first day of kindergarten. Both kids were up and in bed with me at 5:30 a.m., eager to start their day. I was also eager to start the day, but not 30 minutes before I had to.

We got everyone where they needed to be fine. I'm driving Hubby everywhere still; his shoulder is healing fine but still no driving with it. He was dropped off first and SuperGirl second. I had to do the carpool (NOT my 1st choice, I wanted to walk my child but so did all the other parents and there was no place to park within 2 blocks, it started raining, and Little Guy had fallen asleep with his shoes and socks off). We were barely on time so I made sure she knew her room number and dropped her off with the line of teachers waiting for all the little people to be dropped off. She hopped out of the car like a big girl and that was it. She was in class and I was driving home with tears coming out of my eyes because I can't believe she's that old, in Kindergarten, and so capable and responsible. But that's what we want, right? Kids that take those values and run the world?

I had another thought while through the car pool line. Excellent opportunity for knitting. Sitting there waiting for the cars in front to inch a little closer takes minimal attention and I can do that and knit at the same time. I'm looking at my Christmas present list and it's looking a little better!

... and the socks

#1- the rainbow sock from a Crystal Palace yarn. Soft and lovely. It will certainly be one of my nicer pairs! I'm knitting it in a stitch that I can't think of the name at the moment... will come soon. It's where you knit 2 rows, K2 P2 the next 2 rows, repeat this pattern.

#2- my purple socks. They were turning out so pretty I wanted to keep them.

#3- the Man's sock. Low cuff in 1x1 ribbing. We'll see if it holds up or gets frogged.

More worth at least several hundred words...

#1- Ahhh, the skein of cashmere and silk. Such fond memories...

#2-Cable and lace pattern for Phoebe's blanket. I'm actually enjoying it now and fixed my bo-bos from when I started. It's certainly one I learned a few things on, like reading patterns fully before starting and making sure to do the K5 at the end of the WS row, not getting carried away and purling everything.

#3 & #4- the Calming wrap and close-up on the bee stitch. The lift in the stitches is from knitting the purl bump below the stitch along with the stitch.

I promised pictures!

Ok, the first group.
#1- Hubby's sweater so far. Doesn't look like much but every round is done with love and lots of time. :) I didn't use a smaller needle for the ribbing because that would have meant US#0 needles, plus he didn't want it to cinch in; he only wanted it to form fit.

#2 & #3- "Sedna" from a Yarn Forward magazine or my Amazing Technicolor Dream Cardigan. Imagine 2 more colorways thrown in and you will have an idea of how it will shine finished! It's fun, the cotton is amazing to knit with even if it does split more than I would like when knitting the cables and bobbles. Not sure why #2 came out sideways... hmm...

#4 & #5- AAnt's Afghan so far. It will finish a queen sized bed when finished. Large, a little boring, but not too bad. The colors keep me thinking because I change them with every row. I did consider doing fringe at the color changes but I don't think the recipiant of this gift would like that.

More to come!

Saturation Point

I think I've hit project saturation. I was thinking this yesterday and shared the revelation with Hubby. He gave me a look and said "Do tell."

I honestly can't start another project until I finish at least ONE thing that I'm currently working on. I'm working on the following (and yes, I confess to knitting ADHD and a little lunacy on top of that, but really I'm very happy doing all this at once... if I had all the time in the world, no housework, and no one's else's housework, and no people to chase):

• Hubby's Sweater: dark gray/brown, stockinette (and only stockinette with a little ribbing on the edges, my pattern to his dimensions knitted all in one piece attaching the sleeves EZ style) knitted on US#2 circulars
• Calming Wrap: (waiting for Phoebe wrap) Bee stitch, dark blue and light blue
• Socks: I have 2 started and one nearly finished
• Phoebe's blanket (starting to warm up to cables that seem to last forever thanks to Sedna)
• Sedna, or my Amazing Technicolor Dreamcardigan (posted on Ravelry)
• AAnt's Afghan (I'm actually crocheting again!)

Those are the ones I've started. I've also unravelled a skein of cashmere/silk for a lady I met in the Knit Shop. Can you say HEAVEN?!?! I also got paid for it! Hubby said he wouldn't be surprised if he came in to find me laying in the middle of the floor, purring, tossing it around. I also have several dishcloths to make for Christmas presents, a dragon scarf for Mom, an alligator scarf for the knit shop, another pair of socks to knit for that charity auction, a pair of socks for M-i-l and another for one of the nieces (probably more Christmas presents, due to our financial position), and I'm sure I'm leaving something out somewhere. There's always something coming up.

I love the knitting. I really do. I love that I will never, ever be sitting somewhere bored because I will always have something portable to work on and something more complicated waiting for me at home. I just need to clone myself so that at least the socks get finished in half the time.

Sedna-sedna-bo-bedna

(apologies to those who now have the Name Game stuck in their head)

I started my cotton cardigan with the cables and bobbles a few days ago. It's called "Sedna" and is in issue 8 of Yarn Forward magazine. I was trucking along nicely until it came to the establishing of the cable pattern when I noticed I was short a few stitches at the end. Not really worrying, I increased the few (around 3) and kept going. I ended up a few stitches too many at the end of the next row.

Uh oh.

I also noticed that the cables were a few stitches closer to the sleeve on one side then the other. This made things look a little funny because when you looked at the back of the sweater where the sleeves are, one side's cable will be nearly hidden by the armpit but the other side's cable will have plenty of room. Let's not even mention the front where one cable looked a little more crammed/scrunched than the other.

Double oops.

If anyone has done cables and/or sweaters there is an idea that sides should mirror. There is also an idea that you can't just adjust stitch numbers willy-nilly because usually those numbers are there for a reason, like something that will need those 13 stitches to fit into 7 rows down the line, or up the chart, as the case may be. This is my first cable chart project, and first serious cable project ("c5p2b", for instance), and I am praising the glory of ravelry.com for having their pattern definition information and allowing me to be a member. But even ravelry.com can not chuck me over the head and offer the suggestion that instead of barging into things, I might have planned and checked to make sure my numbers were right and marked the stitches to check for symmetry before doing it in order to not have to frog anything. Frogging cables are not fun.

I did frog it. I backtracked and checked my numbers, finding a mistake in the pattern for how many stitches my size (and all larger sizes, by the way) should have when you place the sleeve stitches on the holders. I moved on after voicing my wrath to the gods (I've taken to singing spirituals instead of cussing; it really amuses Hubby, especially when he came outside to find me cleaning chewed up bubble gum off my car floor mats and peddles after I STEPPED IN SOME FOR THE SECOND TIME IN 24 HOURS with Goo Gone, singing "Praise Jesus!") and marked the divisions where there is 2 pfb, p8, 4 pfb, p13, etc. and found that this time I only needed one extra stitch at one side and to move things over 1 stitch around one armhole.

Note to self (and any other curious persons): Use stitch markers (DON'T JUST KNIT IT) and read ahead when establishing any detailed important pattern. Keep the 2 year old out of the room when doing this or someone/thing might get hurt. Saves frogging and brain cells. And, by the way, you might want to leave the stitch markers in to save time later in the cable pattern.

If I really wanted to...

I would love to tell you tons of stuff. I'd love to write about all these socks I've decided to start and how I am slowly finishing them. They aren't all that innovative, they are for a charity event, and they are cleaning out the lessor wanted skeins from my stash so I am grateful. I'm in a down-sizing, keeping only what matters mood. Hence, there is a huge stack of odds-and-ends to take to Goodwill in a corner of Little Guy's bedroom. Will haul that away soon... I hope.

I'd love to tell you about Hubby's recovery from his shoulder surgery. Everything's fine, just needs time to let it heal, as in at least 4 weeks before even thinking about therapy. Good news for him, he gets out of doing yard work for 6 weeks, possibly rest of the yard-working season. News for me, I get to mow on Saturday mornings.

I'd love to update you about my job. There's nothing going on. Which should mean tons of knitting time but somehow that is not developing. I have to drive Hubby everywhere so that means extra outings with sprogs in tow (including getting him to work at 7:30 am... ouch) and taking care of all these little nit-piddley errands that have developed. I had to go to the DMV yesterday and sit for 40 minutes before they called me to straighten out the fact that I no longer have the lease car I traded in several months ago, etc.etc.etc. Joy of all joys. SuperGirl was sitting very patiently with me and Little Guy was asleep on my shoulder for about 20 minutes when she looked at me, sighed, and said "This is not fun at all." I agreed.

I've been eyeing some sewing projects but haven't started them. I haven't taken any pictures of anything. I have been really tired and unmotivated. The good thing is my errands seen to be waning for the moment and hopefully this weekend is relaxing and full of lovely knitting. One can always hope. I'll settle for on the boring side with a little bit of work and tons of Joan Hickson being Miss Marple. Tried to watch the newest Masterpiece Mystery Miss Marple and couldn't get past 5 minutes. Acting was crap. I'm spoiled.

Phoebe!

She is finally here! Born Saturday, July 11, weighing 7 lbs., 10 oz. She is beautiful, her mommy is beautiful, and the world is beautiful. We are ecstatic, finding new and fun baby things to knit. I'm reminded of the Phoebe blanket (an old knitting project versus the new) that I've been avoiding but LMSS assures me that it being a 1st birthday gift is just fine.

I'm back in Shreveport, getting updates from them every day while Mom is there doing the Nana thing. We're plenty busy here. Hubby had shoulder surgery 2 days ago from where he tore a muscle diving for a softball. The shoulder had been giving him trouble for years, lots of pain depending on how much he worked out. The surgery went really well. They found some extensive damage when they went in, some of which had been there for years, so I guess it's a mixed blessing he dove for the ball and did something bad enough to it it required surgery. He's trying to recuperate and I'm keeping busy trying to keep him from being busy.

New sock knitting classes have started and I've been whirling through socks like crazy, trying to get examples for the different stages of the classes and have the socks ready for a charity event for Granny. I've also been working on the wrap I started the first trip to wait for Phoebe and have neglected the others... I'll get around to it. Someday. All I have is time, now.

Toesies...

Finished the second pair of socks for LMSS. Did I mention I was learning how to knit socks from the toe up? It's coming along nicely but I feel like I'm saying that a little premature; I haven't finished the toe on the first sock yet. I can already see that I'm going to need to learn the figure 8 cast on. The long-tail/pick up cast on leaves a ridge at the toe. I don't mind it for me but I would mind it if it was on a pair of socks for someone else.

Still waiting on the baby... Contemplating what other projects to finish... and not sure where to stop. I'm dangerous when I'm left at home without something official to do.