Just when I thought I had my life back...

The kid goes back to school, and I dive headlong into a new position at work! Courtesy of a huge reorganization that the company just went through. And it's not done yet, but the part affecting me is pretty well over. I think. Sometimes I think it's just being made up as they go along.

*Shrugs* But, hey, it's all good for me. Except for the fact that I keep finding myself oddly obsessed with work. Things will settle down soon, I hope.

I have been knitting here and there, but I have no time to post a picture this morning because I have to get ready to, yes, go to work! My only consolation is that Sunday is time-and-a-half!

I've almost got my life back!

School starts tomorrow, and I am so darn ready for it! It's been a decent summer, but the kid and I are really starting to grate on each other's nerves. Tomorrow I stick her on the bus and (after I drive down to make sure that she gets where she needs to go, etc.) the rest of the day is mine! Glory! Glory! Glory!

I thought I'd take a quick moment to show you a blog that *I* am considering to be of vital importance to my sense of well-being. Yes, it'a a blog about...cupcakes.

Ze Apple Blossom Fairy, She is Finished!

It's not washed yet. I've been too lazy to do it properly.

I'm already planning the next one, and have a list of things I'm going to do differently. Like the skin; I used a marker to color the skin because I just couldn't wrap my head around how doing it in thread would look. Next time I'm going to use crayon and melt it onto the fabric with an iron. (I've been experimenting! It's fun! And waterproof.) I'll also do that for the sky and ground, and maybe a few other spots as well.

But before I can do any of that, I need to trace the image to the picture to the fabric. And, since I don't have a lightbox, I end up taping things to the windows. (I wonder what the landlord thinks?) However, our windows face southwest, which means we get sun ~all day~, and it's over 90f out there. If I even try opening the blinds, I'll melt.

Well, I have some knitting to keep me occupied while I wait. The vest pattern and yarn arrived yesterday! I haven't gotten yarn in the mail in so long! The KnitPicks
merino is so soft! I'm also looking forward to doing some colorwork too, once I get done with the ribbing. The ribbing being 12 rows of 224 stitches of K1,P1. That's (does quick math) 2688 stitches. Boring! I hope there's something good on t.v. tonight.

There's a cozy spot in Heaven...

For whoever came up with the idea of day camp! It's only three hours in the morning, but (gasp!) I have some time to myself! I don't have someone hanging over my shoulder going: "MomMomMomMomMomMomMoooommmmmmm!" I love my kid, but sheesh I am so tempted to say that I don't answer to that name anymore!

I did get to read the new Harry Potter book this weekend! Holy Smokes!!! I'm not going to say anything specific about it, for those who haven't finished it (and those who don't really care). I, however, am tearing my hair out that it will most likely be two years before the last book is released! I can't wait that long!!!!

Hmm, I seem excitable this morning. I'm going to throw in a few more of these:!!!!!!!!!!!, some of these: ((((((())))))), and a couple of these: #*#*#@@%%& for good measure.

So, I mentioned that I was doing embroidery? I don't know if I should really call it embroidery (Yes Mom, I know that it is). I'm just thinking of it as finding a picture and coloring it in with thread.

The first one I did was from a free pattern over at Needlecrafter.com. (You're going to have to click on the small picture if you want to see the whole thing. Shrinking the picture down did funky things with the background fabric )


The one I'm working on now is from the
Flower Fairies Coloring Book. I used a fabric pen to color in the skin.


I've just been making it up as I go, and having a lot of fun with it. Speaking of which, I still have an hour before I have to go pick up the kid...

Hellooooooo

Anyone remember me?

Yes, I guess I took a bit of a break. I dunno. I think I just needed to step away for a while. I'd say deal with some stuff, but I don't know that there was anything that I actually dealt with. Just the usual ups and downs of life.

Lets see, the 'different' things would include a new position at my job. One with a lot more responsibility, which also means working more hours. Of course, this being summer and the squirt being home means cutting my hours back, but I'm looking forward to jumping back into the thick of things in September. (The extra money is nice too, hardee-har-har)

Creatively, I've discovered embroidery! I'll post some pictures once I can figure out where my digital camera is hiding.

I also have the Fair Isle Vest pattern and yarn (colors 'vanilla' and 'dusk') on order to make for Himself. And I've started the "Pie Man" sweater from Kim Hargreaves book Tadpoles & Tiddlers for my girlie.

And there's a ton of other things that have happened in the past few months, but I'll save them for later. And I will be back soon!

Insert Witty Title Here

It is really easy to get out of the habit of posting! My first excuse is that it was my Mom's birthday last week and we were too busy partying for me to even consider posting! (Mom, stop snickering or I'll tell everyone how old you are!)

Then there was work, lots and lots of work. Spring is definitely on it's way! No, really, it is.

I also ended up having to take the kid clothes shopping. It would have been nice if she could have waited a few more months, when she'll be in shorts and t-shirts, to have a growth spurt, but "Nooooooo". She had to go and shoot up what looks like three inches in a couple of weeks. And she's suddenly discovered skirts and dresses! If she doesn't watch it she might end up being a "girly-girl" after all.

But I have also managed to get in a fair amount of fiber fun. First I need to show pictures of the vest that I made a few weeks ago. (Yes, I finally got around to taking pictures of it!)


This was a really fun project! Because it was done in squares it just seemed to go up really fast. And by the time I was sick of doing squares, it was time to do the angels on the neck and armholes.


The only thing I don't like about it is that the armholes are too deep. But it should be easy enough to pull them in at the bottom without throwing off how the vest hangs.

I spent the past week diving into my "Finish it or reclaim the yarn" container. Two sweaters are now piles of yarn waiting to have the kinks soaked out of them, and two other sweaters are marked to get the same treatment. These were sweaters that I started for the kid over the last few years and never finished. Finishing them now would be pointless because they wouldn't fit her anymore, even if I could find the patterns! (I have since learned, if you put a project aside, make sure that a copy of the pattern and all the notes that I've made go with it!)

One of the old projects I yanked from the box I *did* actually manage to finish! This sweater was a one-sleeve wonder for at least a year. I don't know why. Some sort of weird knitting angst. But I've been thinking that I wanted a heavier weight sweater to wear, instead of feeling like I needed to wear a coat all the time. So I applied myself during the day yesterday and knit my butt off. Fortunately what I had done on the right sleeve was easy enough to 'read' so I was able to copy it on the left. (No, I don't know where the pattern is!)


The buttons were put on while watching The Incredibles last night.

Of course I had 9 button holes, and only 8 buttons that matched! So the top button is different, and slightly too large for the hole. I doubt that I'll be buttoning that one very often anyway.

The original pattern was the free neck-down raglan pattern from
SpinCraft Patterns that I downloaded a while ago. (I have gone on and bought several of their patterns since then. I really, really like them!)

So that's been my life the past week of so. I've also been knitting socks and am close to finishing my first pair in...well...a while. I'm also going to continue my dyeing experiments with some Lion Brand
Fishermen's Wool that has been hanging around in my stash. It has a slightly yellow cast to it, instead of being a pure white, so it will be interesting to see what a difference that will make in the colors when it's dyed.

Hooray! My family just came in from being out in the world, and they brought coffee with them! Hooray!

Funny Kid

(As the small one was walking down the hall to the bus stop)

"I Love you!"
"I Love you too, bunny!"
"I love you more than dragons!"
"I love you more than knitting!"
"And camera's?"
"More than knitting and camera's combined."
"...Whoa...That's a lot!"

The vest is finished! And I am much happier with it than I thought I would be. I do see one thing that I feel like I need to 'fix' on it, but it's nothing major. (I really should learn not to judge my work before it's completely finished.)

I'll have pictures soon! I need to wash it first. You see, the cat has decided that he likes it too, and managed to shed almost every light colored piece of fur on his rather large body all over it!

Completion Issues

*sigh*

I am "thisclose" to finishing the vest that I've been working on. Just four more knit squares and I can sew it together, put on the edging, give it a quick wash, and it'll be good to go.

But I am having a really, really hard time with it for some reason. I mean, I feel dumb to be experiencing such angst over a vest. It is different from anything I've done before, but that shouldn't bother me. I'm just afraid of people looking at it and saying (with "that" tone of voice, you know the one I mean, right?): "Oh...you made that?" Like when you call modern art interesting, because you really don't like it but don't know what else to say?

Or maybe I'm just being moody and irrational because I'm afraid of looking like a tank in a circus tent. Or it's that time of the month. Or I need chocolate.

*sigh*

1, 2, 3

The yarn a-soakin'


The tools

(I used the handles of the ice tea spoons for mixing the dyes)

The results

The two on the left are OK. The bluish/redish skein was done with purple. Once again I'm surprised by how well it took in some spots, but not in others.

The two on the right...I'm less that happy with. The red was just 'red', but the color didn't take well at all! It's just so blah. I tried putting some blue in spots, aiming for a lilac color, with very moderate success. The green, which is a mix of the yellow (orange) and blue, I am trying to convince myself is a "fern" color. Actually, it's just butt ugly. I think that eventually I'll just give them a bath in blue and see what happens then.

I can't believe that we're home having another snow day today! At this rate the kid's going to be going to school until July!

Pretty Yarn!

These are two of the skeins that I dyed last weekend:

All together now: "Ooooooooo!"

The bright one on the right is my favorite, that orange is just incredible. I'm about 1/3 of the way through a vest using the other bright skein and some black from my stash. Maybe 1/4 of the way. It depends on just how long I decide to make it. I'm going to dye one more skein in the same colors and see how far they take me. The darker skeins my small one has claimed as hat and mitten material, which is fine by me.

The last three white skeins I think I'm going to do in more solid colors. Maybe. (ain't I decisive today?) All I do know is that I have yarn soaking and the afternoon to play with it!

Wow!

I am so freakin' in love with the Wilton Dyes! Why?

(sorry about the glare from the tinfoil! I didn't want to 'dye' the cabinets, and I had run out of wax paper to use)

This was so cool to do, and so much fun! I started by soaking the yarn in a lobster pot of water and white vinegar for about an hour. I used a Pyrex pie plate to hold the yarn under, and no, I'm not sure how much vinegar I used! I think it was about half of a 16oz bottle.

Then I took two of the skeins and layered them around the edge of a casserole dish. I used red, blue, green and yellow (which turned orange) icing colorings. I'm not at all sure just how much coloring I used. Maybe about 1/8th of a teaspoon in a small squeeze bottle? (Can I be any more precise?) I filled the bottle twice for each color so I could make sure the yarn was good and saturated.

Then I nuked the yarn. Two minutes on high and then a two minute rest, which I did three times. Then I let it sit for a little while to cool off.

After that I moved the yarn to the sink so I could rinse it. I lost a lot of excess dye in the rinsing, and I wonder if that's something that might not have happened if I had 'cooked' it a little longer. Whatever. I'm certainly not complaining! The colors are fabulous!

The really fun thing was the way that the blue dye took. It's very blue in some spots, but it also faded to that really funky purple too!

I have four more skeins of white wool left, and I don't know how long I'll be able to hold off buying more! I mean, this was *so* much fun to do! And I have to admit that I am really pleasantly surprised with the results. But, next time, I really am going to have to remember to wear gloves...

(Oh, who am I kidding? I got a major kick out of poeple looking at
me and going: "What did you do to your hands?!?")

CrazyBusy

The past few weeks have just been a little busy.

We've just switched over to a new computerized POS (register) system at work, and it's like we jumped from the Dark Ages straight into the 23rd Century. The transition hasn't really been all that difficult for me, but it's been a huge change. And since I work in receiving, the stress really has been on accuracy. What's the point of having a high tech system that tracks every item in stock if the receiving is screwed up?

On top of adjusting to the new system, my immediate supervisor has been pulled away by the president of the company to be her assistant. She is still my supervisor (which is a blessing that I will not deny, the woman is awesome), but she's not able to do much of the day-to-day stuff in the department. As a result of that, I offered to pick up some more hours. Hey, it's more money to buy yarn pay bills with, which is always handy!

I haven't been doing a ton on the knitting front. I finished the glove that I had been working on and, to tell the truth, I really don't like the way it came out. It just feels...funky. I don't like the way that the thumb comes off of the palm, instead of the side. And it caused me untold stress doing the fingers for some stupid reason. As a result, I have given myself permission to not make the second glove. Why should I bother, if I'm just going to dislike the process? Chalk it up as another learning experience.

I have been slowly working on my Peacock shawl, sometimes only a row or two a night. I'm trying so hard to avoid mistakes, but they creep in anyway. As long as they're not glaringly enormous I'll be the only one who will be able to see them anyway. At least, that's what I keep telling myself!

I'm also working on a sock from some yarn that I bought from Elann forever ago. I'd forgotten how much fun turning a heel is. (Yes, I think it's fun! I'm just a wild woman.)

I also took the time to skein and wash a cone's worth of some very sheepy smelling light blue wool that I purchased in Vermont two summers ago. I'd like to be able to use it, but the smell gives me migraines! I also have some dark blue that I was trying to make a shawl out of. It's also going to get the skein and wash treatment.

My husband didn't even blink when he came home from work at midnight to find this in the kitchen.

I don't know why I had never thought of hanging yarn on the cabinet doors above the sink to dry! It was sheer brilliance I tell you! (OK, maybe not brilliant, but pretty darn clever all the same)

Next up is going to be some experiments in dyeing with Wilton icing dyes. There's a pattern in the book Dazzling Knits that I like, but I know that finding just the right colors of yarn for it would be difficult. I might as well do my own. If nothing else, I'll get a fun afternoon of playing with color and yarn out of it. And maybe *gasp* it will be another learning experience!

The Thrills and Chills will continue, I'm sure!

Isn't it gloverly?

Well, it will be once I'm done with it!

I've taken the pattern from
Knitting Fair Isle Mittens and Gloves and, while I'm enjoying it, it's been an experience. The book gives a basic glove pattern, and then instructs to "Change the number of stitches to fit the motif" that you decide upon.

Now normally that wouldn't bother me. It's just a little math, right? But last night, for some reason, I just could not wrap my brain around figuring out how to knit the pinkie! It didn't matter what I did, the pattern stitch was not fitting, and I could not figure out why! I started and then tore the thing out about six times before giving up in disgust.

Obviously my subconscious chewed it over while I was sleeping*, because when I woke up at 6:30 this morning, and I had the answer! I needed two more stitches to do the pattern. Of course, if I pick up those two stitches from the glove it will throw the stitches off for the rest of the fingers. I'm just going to have to adjust the pattern to fit the number of stitches that I want to use. Not a biggie, and the only person who will know the difference is me!

(*Am I the only one who wakes up thinking about knitting? (O.k., for some of you I'm sure it's photoshop ) I don't know why, but the fact that I did this morning made me extremely happy)

Yesterday morning I made the trek in the snow to but yarn to make a sweater for the kid. That was a mistake! Not buying yarn (how could that be a mistake?), but the driving! It took me 45 minutes to do what's usually a 15 minute drive. It wouldn't have been so bad, I actually like driving in the snow (more proof that I'm weird), but by the time I was half way there my body was already telling me that I had had too much coffee. And then it turned out that I was early and needed to wait 10 minutes for the store to open! Yikes! Happily, life smiled at me, and they opened the door a few minutes early.

So I picked out yarn (Cascade 220) to make this sweater for the girlie:

and in her favorite colors:

It's going to be wonderful when it's finished, but so far all it's done is remind me just how much I hate doing seed and moss stitches!

(Gee, what a long post! Is it obvious that I'm trying to put off doing laundry?)

Hello Dolly!

I said that I wanted a quick, easy knit, and this fit perfectly! I found the pattern over at Canadian Living (followed a link from a link from a link, you know how that goes), and just fell in love with the doll pattern. I used Nature Spun Sport, I seem to have a ton of it in my stash for some reason, and size 2 needles.

There are some really nice patterns there! Check out the Lace Shawl! I'm saving that one for when I'm feeling really ambitious, which is certainly not today!

A little bit of snow

That's the view out of the livingroom window, and it's not going to change any time soon! Hooray! The perfect excuse to hang out all day watching the tube and knitting!

I managed to finish the heart hat a couple of nights ago (not a moment too soon), and now I'm fishing around for a new project. Something quick, something easy, and most important of all, fun.

Heart Hat

While watching my beloved Patriots take care of the Colts yesterday I managed to finish the major work on my heart hat!



All it needs now is the lining, which would go quickly if I could only find my 16" size 3 circs, and a tassel. Then I'll have a loverly hat to keep my ears toasty-toasty warm!

I've been trying to convince myself that I need to be more organized (HA!), and purchased three rubbermaid containers to replace the three cardboard boxes that have been sitting in the livingroom full of yarn. One of those containers is now designated the "Finish the Damn Thing, or Reclaim the Yarn" box. There are a few projects in there that are going to go the way of the dodo bird.

I'm not going to talk about what's in the three cardboard boxes in the bedroom closet. Nope. No way. Not going there.

It's about Gosh Darn Time!

I've only been trying to publish the post below since yesterday! I even sent an email to Blogger support to ask WTF was up? As publishing is happening now, I'm going to guess that either: someone was on the ball, or things just spontaneously decided to work. Do you think that my nasty vibes could be felt through the internet? That they knew I was researching ways to go it alone? I know HTML, and could learn CSS, but it pleases my lazy side to just be able to type and have the post just magically appear how I want it!

Thanks to Mother Nature there is no school today, so it's me and the squirt all day.
I'm already insane.
Irina's two favoritest presents were Aquapets. They sit there and chatter at each other, sing songs, and generally create a nuisance. And the really sad part is that we can't curse out an Auntie or Grandparent for giving them to her. No, the spouse and I went and bought them for her ourselves!

What Were We Thinking!?!?!?

At least I bought earphones to go with the GameBoy!

I Gave In

To startitis, I mean! I've got X number of partially finished projects staring me in the face, but I'm sure that you know what the need to start something new is like!

Last night I began a Nordic Sweetheart Hat. (There's a picture of it here) It's giving me double gratification, as it's a new project, and I've been wanting to do some colorwork.

It's a start:

Fortunately, the weather is suppose to be crummy here the next few days (did I just say that? I'm such a weirdo), and I have nothing to do but sit and knit the time away!

A New Year

And a happy one to all!

I don't do New Year's resolutions because, well, since when does anyone manage to "keep" a resolution? I prefer setting goals and making promises to myself.

So this year I promise to eat better, get more exercise, and generally treat myself better. After all, I'm the only me I've got, right? It's going to be a year of small, but personal, changes. Well...that's the plan. I'll see how it goes.

But I will crow and gloat and proclaim that it's been EIGHT YEARS since my last cigarette! And considering that the number of times that I've *really* wanted one but have managed to resist, I consider it a major achievement.

Let's see...This year I'm also going to try to knit more and read more. I did little of both this past year it seems, but at least the reading I did was quality. I'm not going to discuss the knitting...

I can't help to think that there's more, so I reserve the right to keep this a rotating list. Fluid, flexible, that's it, yes!