Wednesday, December 30, 2009

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?

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

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.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

'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.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

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.


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

...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?

Monday, December 14, 2009

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.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

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.

Monday, December 7, 2009

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."

Thursday, December 3, 2009

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.