...cuddling up with the ones you love
...taking a break with good food, wine, and family
...playing loud games with neighbors
...playing silly games with your brother
...playing creative games with friends...and their beaver
...being adults but not acting like them
...hoping your best friends can find some peace when The Worst Thing Ever happens
Mom's Sock #1. I kind of got to a stopping point, because I wanted her to be around (she's coming up for Thanksgiving) to make sure I got the sizing right. She says just to make one like I'm making it for me. But she's got a larger foot than mine, and I don't want to take chances. So here it stays for now.
Joe's Cigar Glove #1. Once again, I'm waiting for a fitting. This is my hand, so it's a little baggy. Joe tried it on, and the knucks were fine, but I want to get the length of the ring finger correct. So waiting for him to get back from Sarasota today. Then again, we'll be too busy working on the house to do any fittings until after the family leaves.
Started this sock at the laundromat this morning. Because, yes, sadly, my dryer is toast. Well, technically it's just soggy bread. Because it doesn't dry or heat anything anymore. Tried the old tricks again, and I think it's more than just the heating element. Of course, I had one more load in the washer when this was discovered. So Sunday morning trip to the laundromat. The yarn is Sockotta, and it's okay. I like the patterns of the yarn, but the texture isn't my favorite. I think it'll make a nice bright pair of socks, though. I picked it up in St Louis when I was on a yarn high.
So that's about it. Joe should be home any moment, and the rest of the evening will probably be devoted to dusting, vacuuming, and detumbleweeding the house. If you have furry pets and hard floors, you know what I mean.
Yeah. I thought so. This is our office nook leading into the laundry room (note the awesome new washer). So we recently realized we needed our armoire-turned-stereo-cabinet-office-storage to really be an armoire upstairs. Everything came out of it, and we moved the beast to the 2nd floor for blankets and clothes. And this is what I'm dealing with today. Yeah. Wish me luck.
Yup. Michael Franti & Spearhead. Way excited. Saw them at Mountain Jam, and to me they were the highlight. Am prepared to do lots of jumping and dancing and screaming.
I don't think it turned out bad at all. I wanted my most pliable cat, Otis, to pose in it, but he would have none of that. Smart cat. It's more of a tunic shaping, so there's nothing complicated about it. But I'd like to have more instruction on the seams, so maybe I'll try another mini-test-sweater with another pattern. Not that I expect perfection, mind you - just don't want TOO much crap going on.
This is my new washer. It is awesome. I had a smile on my face when I told Joe I was going to wash clothes (for the first time in 2 weeks at home). And then I put the load in the dryer. I don't know if the dryer was intimidated by Ms Neptune or if it was sad from the loss of its faithful companion of over 10 years. But I've had the same load in the dryer for about 2 hours now, and nothing's happening. I'm so very, very sad. Mostly because we'd hoped to wait a while before plunking down the cash for another appliance. And now, even if I order it tomorrow, it will probably be another 2 weeks - even for pickup. I'm so very, very sad.
So I bought this lovely yarn back in March when I met Snarky for the first time in NYC. We went to the Green Market and found such wonderful things - including this bounty. Strangely enough, my house is closer to the farm than Union Square is. Nonetheless, this looked like nice happy yarn to me.
On the left is Joe's first Cigar glove (in Cascade 220 The Heathers), and on the right is the beginning of Mom's socks (Tweed Cascade in charcoal). Playing it safe, I had them pick out their own yarns when we visited this most excellent yarn shop in St Louis. The glove is coming along better than I thought, but then again I haven't tackled the fingers yet - just held aside the thumb and pinky for working later. Mom's socks SHOULD be a no-brainer. My first socks were nice comfy socks in worsted. Then I went to sport weight, then to sock weight. I'm going to stick with worsted for now, since they're quick and comfy in this cold weather. I'll tackle more sock yarns when I get a few more socks under my belt. I'm still not as consistent as I'd like.
Wool, glorious wool!
Sheep, Llama, Alpaca
Just look at the yarn
And your lips will smack-a
Who needs money anyway
Who really needs food –
With WOOL,
Once again, WOOL,
Fabulous WOOL,
Glorious WOOOOOOOOOOOOL...
A few comments: Yes, it was wonderful. Yes, I spent way too much money. No, I didn't meet Yarn Harlot, but then again unless she poked me in the butt with a knitting needle and told me to hold her sock, I wouldn't have taken my eyes off of the feast before me. 4 hours and 2 trips to the car later, I still didn't see everything. But I do have plans for several hats, even more socks, and a
My poor husband was such a good sport, considering he was surrounded by knitters.
And yes, I'm frogging that scarf. Just not yet. I'm almost done with Joe's sock, and I have an adventure today that will push all negative scarf thoughts out of my head. Forever.
This is Joe playing with a rented toy. You see, we needed to put the recently-felled maple lumber somewhere to dry. So we needed another building or shelter. Because a large house, a detached garage, and a garden shed just aren't enough on our little 0.33 acres. So we opted to get one of those temporary shelters that people use for cars and (ahem) boats. In order to build the shelter, we needed a place to put it. So this little dirt-and-rock pile that had been hanging around since the Shed Demolition of 2003 needed to be moved and/or flattened.
Because you don't want the lumber right on the ground or exposed to moisture, Joe built a floor that the shelter would rest on. So last Sunday we went to Lowe's and got, oh, 24-2x8x12s and 7 sheets of OSB. The mud flaps on the truck scraped the whole way back from the store. Basically, Joe built decking first, then put the OSB on top of it. Here is Joe working with the wood. I just like it because it's a pic of him in coveralls. Mrrow.
The finished floor, as it looked this morning. This of course was BEFORE we went through the grueling task of erecting the skeleton of the shelter. And realizing it was really a 4-person job. And that the instructions SUCKED! And that the floor wasn't big enough. But two hours and many frustrated, awkward moments later - we did it. All by ourselves. But we were too tired to even go into the house to get the camera. We went in, had some beer, some fried chicken and mac & cheese (mmmmmmm...), and we've been watching TV ever since.
This will be a strange week, due to many things scheduled this week, resulting in a perfect storm of commitments. But I did finish my scarf - just finished weaving in all the ends. Once I wash and block it, I'll post a pic. But until then, I think I need to go pass out.
This is BTU - both his initials AND the cutest nickname for a kid-of-a-Tech-grad - EVAH! Props to my dearest friend Amy for this award-winning picture of her amazing little boy. Well, I guess Senor Noodle had something to do with him too. Heh.
Here's the Branching Out scarf in a cashmere I bought on a trip to NYC. Is this the best yarn with which to do this project? No. Was this the best project to start having only knit for 6 months prior? No. But I love how it's turning out, major mistakes and all. And it's sooooo soft. One more skein to go.
Joe's 2nd sock. For some reason this sock's coloring isn't as random as the first one - more blue/purple in big chunks. Oh, well. At least I started Sock #2 - now it's just a matter of finishing the dang thing.
A simple checkered scarf for me. I started this project (a) because I got this great superwash yarn on sale and (b) I wanted something I didn't really have to pay attention to. This is my knit-while-watching-Lost project, since I don't have to look at the needles much. It helps when there's a heavy Sun-and-Jin episode with lots of captions. Like last night - egads!
Okay - that's about it. I gave up on Joe's illusion scarf, because after doing the trial B of BEER! I realized I don't like illusion knitting - on a scarf, at least. Didn't like how the wrong side looked. And to me, scarves shouldn't have a wrong side. So I'm going to make him a HP PofA scarf - but I have to buy the miles of yarn first, and that's not in the budget at the moment.
Also starting up Cigar for Joe's Christmas present (it's not a surprise - he's picking out the colors). And maybe a tank for myself. You know - just to get over that first hurdle of making actual clothes.
Better go - boss is coming. Man, I'm going to get fired for this one of these days.
On a day like this, most of the cons of NY (higher cost of living, NY attitudes) seem to fade away. Sometimes I just can't believe we live in a place so beautiful.
The tasting tent on the Little League field. Notice the Clouds of Doom in the upper left. They threatened, but they never followed through.
The only drawback was that we were held inside this beer-vs-wine prison. You could have fine local beer, but you couldn't be near the food. So we kept circling back around to the beer area, eventually just having the guy pour the beer into our wine glass then sneaking back to the food area. Sucky NY liquor laws. I shouldn't complain. I can buy booze on Sundays.
The edges of the storm, hours after it hit Montgomery. It seemed to hover in the east all day, but our Sunday afternoon was bright and even a bit warm. You can barely see our house peeking out through the trees over the middle of the long building.
The weekend we had reinforced my love for this area. I'll post more pictures in our gallery soon *Edited to add: They're HERE*, but I just don't have the brain power right now. Plus I need to think of my SP9 answers. Augh! Plus, no WW update right now - had a gain of a week, but couldn't get to the meeting due to work. We'll see if I can get it back down before my makeup meeting.
Goodnight!
I thought it turned out pretty cute - she wanted an all-yellow one, but I couldn't find yellow-only Fun Fur. So I had to get a little creative. And since this is my 4th one, I feel I can really make some rules for myself in the future.
First of all, I'm not crazy about how Cascade 220 felts. I've made a felted bag and two hedgies out of it, and it's not my favorite. It doesn't felt wacky or anything, but as you can see in the picture above you can still see the rows of the pattern, and I'm just not fond of that. The other hedgies were made from Patons Classic Wool, which is pretty inexpensive and can be found in Michael's and A. C. Moore - an advantage, since that's where I get the Fun Fur too and can match colors directly. And it felts perfectly, seamlessly.
Secondly, I need to pay better attention to the Fun Fur packages. Some multi-colors are all over the place, and some are, well, striped...
From the back he looks like a big fuzzy Easter egg. Don't get me wrong - he's still cute as a button. But when I'd gotten a few rows of the back done and realized it was striping Fun Fur, I was a bit disappointed. But not enough to stop, since I think this color scheme went better with yellow than most of the others I found.
Again, I'm not disappointed - this is a spot-on fail-proof pattern that's easy for even quasi-beginners like myself. And it's such fun to see the little guys go from spongy oven mitts to cute felted hedgies. I'm just taking a few mental notes for the future.
Off to a fun-filled weekend that will involve crafts (pottery!!!), Broadway tunes, and food. Certainly there will be interesting pictures to come.
A certain someone told me that E's birthday was earlier this week. Since he's one of the, oh, three people that read this hokey blog, I thought he deserved some props.
This was left on my desk Monday by my dear coworker Larry. It's hard to take a picture of a shot glass without glare, but it says, "Let's Get Loopy." He says he saw it and thought of me. So I did what any smart person would do and christened it with some good ol' JD. Several times. Ouch.
Finished Joe's Sock #1. Fits him pretty well - fits me better. We'll see when he gets the second one. It ended up being the perfect length - I had about 2 yards left of the Lorna's Laces skein (of course, I did have a bit more than that, but it was sacrificed into a smaller ball as a result of the Great Untangling when I started this project - I was hoping not to have to use it and potentially screw up the color pattern).
As a reward for finishing that damn sock, I started Hedgehog #4 for niece Megan. Here it is after just finishing the body. I love this stage - looks kind of like a hieroglyphic with one big boob. The shaping is done with short rows - a bit daunting at first, but easy-peasy. His "please don't shoot!" stance won't be permanent - the arms and legs wrap around once his little paws are knitted. I'm not a fast knitter (at all), but I knit this up in the time it took me to watch Before Sunrise for the umpteenth time.
CJ from the sawmill came by and started working on The Mighty Maple Logs. This kid looks 17, might weigh a buck fifty, and he plowed right through all by himself. He worked 9-6 and got through all but one log. CJ is awesome.
This is the usable wood - you can see the scraps in the background. This might not look like a lot, but each board is over 2" thick, 5-6' long, and weighs about 100lbs. Each board (other than the top middle ones) could be a table top by itself. Our next task is to get a temporary shelter up and dry these puppies for about a year.
Well, that's about it. Better get to work. Happy Tuesday!
First, let me preface this post by saying that I have only made 2 other pairs of socks before. One in worsted (full socks), one not much smaller than that (ankle socks). This is my first time with tiny-ass yarn and tiny-ass needles on a long-ass sock.
3pm on a Saturday of a holiday weekend, in the cold rain - and this is what the Wonderful Mr. Chambers does - he freakin' hauls ALL of the logs up our hill to where they can be sawn easily. Please forgive the bad pic - I felt it would be in poor taste to take photos of them in the rain while he was doing a great favor. So I hid in the house, poking the camera around corners without flash. Kind of a reverse Peeping Tom.
There are certainly bad sides to small towns. This ain't one of them. Mr. Chambers rocks. A very special Georgia-pecan-pie is coming his way. I only hope he isn't diabetic.
...even without a face, he's a cutie-pie...
