Bi-Craftual

It's been a while since I posted. This was not intentional, life has just been busier than usual. I've been knitting on socks, but mostly have been working on something for me! My newest book obsession is Knitting Lingerie Style. Yes, they have patterns for thongs, bras, and corsets, but they also have some gorgeous lacy things that aren't so risque. I knitted the Essential Top in no time, wore it on Thursday, and spilled lunch on the front before I took a picture. Once it's washed and re-blocked, I'll take a picture and post it.

Today is a beautiful day, and I'm taking advantage of a nice back porch and some sunshine. I've got good coffee, my i-pod, a crochet hook, and 17 colors of Cascade 220. It's a Babette day. Every once in a while I run back inside to block more squares and put them together. Here's what I've got so far:


This thing is fun! I strongly recommend that everyone makes this blanket. If you don't crochet, this is a great opportunity to learn. Granny squares are very easy and quiet mindless, and they hardly take any time to crochet. The pattern calls for koigu, and there are a lot of people using louet gems, but Cascade is less expensive and makes a bigger blanket. The construction is based on log cabin - start with the big center square, then make strips that build on each other. The second strip is 2 six-round squares, the third is a bunch of 4-round and 2-round squares, etc.

One thing that I seriously need to work on is getting gifts done early so I don't freak out before birthdays and holidays. My brother's birthday gift is done (purchased, not handmade - I get lazy sometimes), and I just started mom's mother's day gift:


It's a springy clapotis made out of SWTC's bamboo. This stuff is silky, strong, and is really nice to work with. So far I've just started the straight rows, and have only dropped one stitch. Can't wait to see how it looks once there's a little more done.

My hands are a little tired so I'm on my way to the park to meet friends. Enjoy this beautiful day, because they're calling for more freezing temps and snow this week.

Tired Auntie

It's Monday, which is my favorite day of the week - I get to spend all day with the nephews. While it's always fun, I end up absolutely beat and the older (and bigger) they get, the more exhausted I am at the end of the day. My brother taught Hoss (the 2-year-old) to go up to pretty girls and say "What's happening hot stuff?". A friend of mine stopped by, who Hoss has a big crush on, and he didn't stop saying it. Little Buddha (who is now only 3 pounds shy of his big brother) is starting to put words together and is so excited about everything! It's great that he's talking, but he doesn't stop. It's nice to be home to peace and quiet.

Yesterday I had a wonderful adventure.


A friend took me sailing on Percy Priest. While it was frigid, it was great to be in the sun. January and February are so horrible - dark, cold, and all around dreary. It drives me crazy every year. So when I get the chance to be outside on a sunny afternoon, it is greatly appreciated.

As for knitting (and crochet) I finally picked colors for the Babette blanket.


It's all Cascade 220 - some regular, a few superwash. I love the colors. Blankets are great because you can pick colors that you don't work with much - while I can't wear that pretty gold in the top left of the basket, I can sure crochet squares with it.

I'm also working on a little weekend project that's a surprise for a couple of people. It's a bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats, pattern slightly altered (of course). I can't get enough seed stitch. It's my favorite.


It's just about knit o'clock, and my project for this evening is the Uncle Argyle Scarf from Son of Stitch 'N Bitch. It's so much fun to work on, but takes forever and ever and ever. I feel terrible that what was once a Christmas gift is now turning into a Valentine's gift. At least the recipient is patient. So far 18 pattern repeats are done, and the pattern calls for 23. If I get 3 done tonight, 2 tomorrow, then I can block it on Wednesday and give it away on Thursday. Hopefully.

After a week of housesitting, it's strange to be home again. I love this little apartment, but it was really nice to take a jacuzzi bath every night. I did check out this thing they call cable tv and there was never anything on but cheesy reality shows and crappy movies. Do people really watch that show about Scott Baio? He was cute in Charles In Charge, but it's been 20 something years. Waiting for me at my doorstep was a flyer from the cable company, and it's safe to say that it's not worth the money.

So far I don't think any mice are dead. The traps haven't worked, but they have been eating the poison. Thanks to a heads up from Betty, I picked up a thingie you plug into an outlet and it's supposed to emit a sound that scares away rodents and spiders and such. We'll see if it works.

It's been over a week since the mousetrap went off on my finger (twice) and here's the progress:


It still hurts, but only if I bump into something.

While it's been a fun week, there hasn't been much knitting. I'm still trying to finish a kickass Christmas present and am about 2/3 of the way there. It's the Uncle Argyle Scarf from Son of Stitch 'N Bitch, and it is so much freakin' fun to knit! The recipient saw it last week, and loves it, so the home stretch shouldn't be bad.


Isn't it purty? Notice the little red thing attached to the working yarn - it's a yarn guide and I couldn't do fair isle or double knitting without it. Because I'm a continental knitter, I hold both yarns in my left hand and the guide keeps them from getting tangled.

This scarf is so cool that I'm now about to design another one for me. Other than this scarf, I'm working on a couple of designs and a whole lotta socks. The vacation socks still need to be finished, and I'm teaching a class and have to do homework along with everyone else.

It might be time to make some hot chocolate and look through my favorite book - 1000 Great Knitting Motifs - and start thinking about the next double knitting scarf. Maybe I'll dream of a jacuzzi tub...

Eek!

Plans are made to be broken, right? I was so looking forward to a relaxing day of knitting and watching football, but alas, a small creature has ruined it.

Friday night I heard a noise on my kitchen counter. When I went to investigate, I saw a tiny little mouse coming out of a box of soft batch cookies. Eeeewwwwww! I don't hate mice, but they sure aren't my favorite roommates. I bought poison and traps and haven't caught one yet. So today I am deep cleaning my apartment, with the game on in the background. The home is due for a good clean anyway, but I was hoping to put it off a little longer.

The kitchen is now CLEAN, and the only place I've seen droppings is there, so hopefully I won't find mouse poop anywhere else. The thing that freaks me out the most is that it's a studio, and my bed is 2 feet away from the kitchen counter. It's no fun to be in bed, trying to sleep, and thinking that there might be a mouse near the end of my feet. Gross. I'll get that rat bastard and kill him. Trust me.

The good news is that I'm housesitting this week, and will hopefully kill him before I'm home again.

Last night was best friend's birthday party, and we had a blast. I was almost done with her socks when the mouse appeared, and didn't quite finish them in time, but there was plenty of time to knit the legs while playing Charades.

Of course I ripped and started over with a new pattern shortly after I turned the heel on the first design. She ended up getting socks with baby cables: that 2-stitch cable where instead of doing a real cable, you knit 2 together and knit the first stitch again. They were a lot of fun and there's enough yarn leftover to make myself some too!


The best part is that she LOVES her socks! This picture was taken after breakfast this morning - she put them on last night and has not taken them off since. And they fit perfectly!

As of yesterday, Abbie and I have now been friends for half our lives. We are so different - in looks, personality, careers, family lives - every way. But we get each other. And we're always there for each other. When we hang out it feels like we're in high school again, but instead of sneaking out of my parent's house to smoke cigarettes, we're sneaking around her house trying not to laugh too loud or else we'll wake her baby. Life's funny like that.


I'm so thankful for Abbie, and all of my closest friends. I'm thankful for their families, who have become my family. They make life so sweet!

Icky

I'm sick. It's my annual sinus infection, and it's a bad one. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon.

When not sick, you forget just how much sickness affects your mood (and knitting). I'm mad because the doctor's visit and prescriptions cost way too much money, because all food tastes terrible, because my nose is chapped from kleenex, because the medicine makes me drowsy, and most of all, because the knitting mojo is shaky at best. It also sucks that I'm missing work. I had to cancel a knitting lesson and am missing stitch 'n bleep. Ugh.

This morning I decided to knit some worsted weight toe-up socks to help pass the time. I'm wearing my favorite handknit socks - lime green mini-cable socks out of Cascade 220 superwash - and there's some off-white 220 in the stash. I swatched and swatched but nothing seemed to work. I'm too lazy to purl, so that rules out ribbing, and lace doesn't work with the bigger gauge.

So I called my dearest best friend to talk about our plans for her birthday this weekend. I was sitting there, staring down at my favorite pajama pants (that I stole from her years and years ago) thinking 'what a pretty stitch pattern':


Then I thought about how I have some time on my hands and should make her something for her birthday. It took way too long for me to put 2 and 2 together, but once I got it, I started knitting.


Abbie will be getting a pair of toe-up eyelet birthday socks! It's an easy knit, and works up fast on just 40 stitches. I'll do a short row heel and a 5" leg, and will be able to make a pair out of 1 ball of yarn. Now I'm much happier and instead of thinking about how bad I feel, I'm thinking about my amazing best friend and how much she will love her cozy socks.

Knitting makes everything better.

Back From Cali

Long Beach was a blast!!! It was tiring and overwhelming, but Dana and I managed to cover the entire show floor, take some cool classes, hang out with some amazing people, and made it home with about 200 pounds of luggage between us. We saw some cool fibers too, from buffalo to possum. Yes, you read it right - possum. It was surprisingly soft too.

While the last few weeks of traveling have been fun, I am so glad to be home. The nephews and I had a lot of fun play time today, I caught up on some knitting this evening, and am about to crash.

To Market, To Market

Tomorrow morning Dana and I are hopping on a plane for LA - we're going to Market!

It's the TNNA show (The National Needlework Arts Association), and I'm very very excited! We'll be roaming the Long Beach Convention Center checking out all kinds of cool vendors and seeing what's new in the knitting world. Unfortunately, the dreaded ankle is not much better. I'm hoping that the yarn will drown out the pain.

I've got a few knitting projects for the trip: the vacation socks from Florida are still not finished, and that's an easy plane knit. I just cast on for gloves made out of Colinette's Jitterbug, colorway Toscana, and I'm kinda winging it and not really using a pattern, more like a guideline. Should be interesting. I really want to get some work done on my double knitting project, seeing as how it was a Christmas present, but it's so bulky and doesn't travel well. We'll see if it fits in the knitting bag. I'd better finish some projects soon because there will be so many cool ideas at market that I'll want to knit when I get home.

Please send my ankle good healing vibes, and wish us luck!

Just Call Me Princess Crankypants

Vacation letdown is setting in.

From my couch, I can see piles of Christmas pj fabric, yarn, books, needles, and patterns that need to be put away in the stash closet, there are even more piles of dirty laundry, and a decent pile of dirty dishes in the sink. My fridge is starting to smell funky, and my bathroom is a wreck too. I actually want to clean and get things done, but this darn ankle is driving me insane.

Why is it that when you're in vacation mode, nothing seems to get to you? I'm glad to be back at work, but all I do is run around all day and by mid-afternoon the ankle is freakin killing me. That's when I turn into Princess Crankypants. I've called bro several times to ask if there's anything else I can do to heal faster, and his answer is to rest. Not what I want to hear. So I sit here and look at the piles and piles of things that need to be done.

I tried to rest last night, but the knitting mojo is off. My current favorite project is a belated Christmas present for a good friend, and I want to finish it as soon as possible, but I keep messing up the pattern and not realizing there's a mistake until 5 rows later. This isn't the kind of thing you can frog - it has to be tinked stitch by stitch because it's double knitting and the whole idea is new to me. It's amazingly fun to do, and I hope to get the mojo back tonight.

There's a really good reason for me to heal the ankle asap - and I'll talk more about it later - but I'm going out of town on Thursday and will be walking and walking and walking all weekend. It's a really cool trip and I want to be in top form.

So tonight I rest. I'm not going out with my friends (which really sucks) and I'm not getting anything done but knitting. It's time for pj's and hot chocolate, and maybe a little icing of the ankle, and there's a great football game on tv. Hopefully the crankiness is on its way out.

Merry Merry!

I'm hopped up on coffee and cream cheese braid (my favorite Christmas delicacy). Today I made 6 pairs of pajamas in 4 hours. It's a personal record.

The gifts are done, and I even had time to make myself a little somethin'. Here's the rundown:

PJ pants for Dad (goldfish), Sis-in-law (flowers) and Bro (monkeys for the monkey):

Curious George / fire engine pj pants for the nephews:

Fair isle snowflake hats for the nephews:

A shawl thingy for mom (which I gave to her last week on her birthday, although it's a birthday / Christmas gift). Back:

Front:

And of course, the Alchemy silk scarf for big Sis:

And the little somethin' for me! Tennessee Titans PJ's!

Now all I have to do is wrap the gifts and try not to eat any more cream cheese braid until morning, which is easier said than done.

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a happy happy holiday!

Making Plans

First, a fish picture. Just Fish is just pretty and he's the best roommate I've had since his predecessor went to fishy heaven. He was a Beta too, named Buju Banton, and that poor fish had to live in several apartments, with several roomies, until he died a couple years ago. The nephews are so excited because I'm going out of town for New Year's and Just Fish is living with them for a few days. Just Fish would probably be fine at my house, but it's an excuse for the nephews to have some fun.


I jumped on the Quant bandwagon yesterday and am loving it! This is yet another Christmas gift, and a very manageable one at that. I used a yarn called Teseo, by Dive. It's a soft, fluffy wool that stripes perfectly for this design.


In order to make it through the last week or so before Christmas, I've been daydreaming about my post-holiday plans. I bought some gorgeous yarn yesterday - Lana D'Oro in charcoal and teal for a New Year's present, the Teseo for Quant, and some sock yarn for me - Regia in Kaffe Fassett colors, and some Lana Grossa that I've been drooling over.


I am desperately waiting until I can make myself some socks. I finally bought plane tickets to Florida for New Year's, and then started to remember how much I hate flying. And I have 2 long plane trips planned in the next month. Ugh. So I'm stocking up on plane necessities, like audiobooks, Dramamine, and portable knitting. My idea of a perfect vacation definitely involves knitting, and I'll have plenty of time to relax, but also have to think about which projects will be suitable for planes and boats. Socks are perfect.

It's been over 3 years since I've had a vacation, and cannot freaking wait! It's hard to leave my job for more than a weekend without missing the store and everyone there (I know, it's strange, but I work at the best place in the world). But once I feel the warm sunshine and see the ocean again, I'll forget all about TN and will come home ready to start a new year.

I just have to get through the next couple weeks.

The Titans gave me some great knitting time today - we won!!!!! The final score was Titans 26- Chiefs 17. It was a great day for football. Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's record for all-time yardage, and the Dolphins got their first win of the year. Better late than never.

Next week we play the Jets, then finish out the season with the Colts. The only problem with the vacation is that I will be away from the tv, internet, and civilization in general (which is generally a good thing) but won't be able to watch the game. It'll be tough to stay away, but maybe I can call friends in Nashville to get a recap. Go Titans!

Sugar, Yarn, and Wine

Whew! Yet again, December is doing a number on me. I really tried to have my Christmas / birthday knitting done in time so I could enjoy this wonderful month, but it hasn't worked out like I planned. Oh well. I'm still having a blast!

My favorite day of the year is Christmas Cookie Day. Bro, sis and I made cookies every year as children, and never stopped as adults because it's so much fun. We listen to the same A Very Special Christmas cd over and over, make the same psychedelic cracked-out cookies, and now we have 2 more cute little helpers.


Sis, sis-in-law and I cut out the cookies while bro puts together the colors. This year we had red, green, white, yellow, orange, burnt orange, brown, black, 3 shades of blue, spearmint, and a couple more that I can't quite describe. We make the usual Christmas shapes but don't stop there. There are numbers, elephants, rhinos, monkeys, fish, whales, aliens, hearts, guitars, cacti, pigs... you get the idea.


Note that there's wine in most pictures, because that makes it a little easier to deal with the little boys who have been pouring sugar sprinkles straight into their mouths. After an hour Buddha Bear was running in circles around the table screaming and Hoss was jumping up and down in the corner and then shaking his booty to the music.



These are the bleeding hearts courtesy of bro. The political beliefs in my family are all across the board, so we make fun of each other (and ourselves). I think the grey/green blob is some sort of camouflage camel.


And of course, most of the cookies have been eaten by now (I've got one left - saving it for breakfast in the morning).

I've been using the sugar high to knit even faster. Here's a goofy picture of yours truly in my unblocked new hat - Misti Alpaca Chunky. So pretty! It's now on my hat blocking thingy - a canister with an upside down bowl on top of it. It should be plenty cold this weekend so I'll put it to good use.


Everything is at least started, except the pajamas. Best Friend is getting an alpaca scarf - Cascade's Baby Alpaca Chunky - in her signature color. I got lazy on this one and am using a pattern from a fabulous gift book, One Skein. It's coming up quickly and is so darn soft!!!


My super cool totally awesome project is for mom. She has a big birthday coming up next week and asked me to design something based on a shawl thing we saw this fall. The original was not shaped, made in garter stitch out of cheap acrylic, and the shawl collar was a total joke. She picked out some Pastaza to match one of her favorite outfits and we took some measurements. The fronts and back worked up fine, but the shawl collar was more of a challenge. It's all done with short row shaping and took a few tries to get it right, but that part is done. Now all I have to do is pick up about 300 stitches for the border, weave in ends, and block.

But at the moment it looks like one of those sea creatures that only lives miles below the ocean's surface.


The knitting has taken over my life and I've completely forgotten about dishes, laundry, and general apartment tidiness, so I must clean now. Hopefully there will be more updates soon...

Mmmmmm... Leftovers

There's still some dressing and rolls in the fridge, and my pants are still a little tight. I'm sad Thanksgiving is over. It's always fun to sit around with your family and eat all kinds of good stuff. And this year, somehow, I didn't have to bring any food!

After our early Thanksgiving lunch I went home to drink hot chocolate and watch football and knit with a friend. It's now officially Christmas / December birthday / Hanukkah gift crunchtime, and I am writing and re-writing lists and even made a spreadsheet to see if I can maintain sanity.

I LOVE this time of year! I might seem stressed out and slightly overwhelmed with all of the knitting to be done, but it is so much fun! I've got some pretty things done so far:
(and this is a spoiler alert for sis, dad, nephews, and Carrie)


I've started Dad's second sock with a fair isle border, sis's scarf is looking beautiful (but you can't really tell in the picture). The nephews' hats look great, although I'm still trying to figure out if earflaps will be added. The pale greenish thing in the middle is a crocheted washcloth out of Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. I bought 3 skeins for 3 washcloths, and think that I can squeeze out a bath mitt from the leftovers.


I'm head over heels in love with Misti Alpaca's Handpaint Chunky Alpaca yarn. It's starting to really cool off here, and every girl needs a new hat for winter. The picture is blurry and fuzzy (kinda like I feel right now when I've only had half a cup of coffee) but the hat is gorgeous. I brought it in to work with me on Saturday and all of a sudden we only have 3 hanks left. The sad part is that I dreamed about chunky alpaca yarn last night - my friend was knitting a hat out of Cascade's Baby Alpaca Chunky, and it was way too big so I was helping him with decreases and it was the prettiest shade of light blue-grey. Wonder if I'll dream about Alchemy Silk Purse tonight...

Prime Time Monday Night

It's Monday Night Football time!!!!!

The Titans are playing the Broncos in Denver tonight, kickoff is in 3 minutes so I'd better hurry. It'll be a close game, and I'm so sad to hear that Albert Haynesworth is still too injured to play. Also, Travis Henry (an ex-Titan who now plays for Denver) is out of the game too, and I was really excited to see our defense give him a good challenge. Oh well. It'll still be a good game.

My pick: Titans 20, Broncos 14.

I've been knitting a lot lately, and have had a ball designing Christmas and Birthday presents. I'm also doing some knitting for hire at the moment, which is keeping me very very busy. I've got 2 scarves on the needles (actually, on the same needle). I fell in love with the design of my sis's Alchemy silk scarf, so I'm using the same pattern for mine, so why not knit them at once? Dad's socks are coming along well, but I'm really psyched about the boys' fair isle hats. I'm toying with double knitting earflaps and have had a lot of fun playing with that.

Here comes kickoff! Time for hot chocolate, knitting, and most important of all, FOOTBALL!!!!!

GO TITANS!!!

Knitting Update, with Pictures!

The Clapotis is done! It was pretty wide after blocking, but has shrunk up a little from wear. It's soft, gorgeous, and makes me feel like a million bucks. Just what the doctor ordered. I LOVED working with Schaefer's Lola - it's a superwash wool that's perfect for winter socks - it knits up to 6-7 sts per inch, so they're not like your usual fingering weight socks. I think I need new socks now.


Speaking of socks, this took me about 4 hours yesterday. I ran home and grabbed an extra circular and tapestry needle and wove in my ends, joined the hem, and knitted just a little bit, but had to put this one down for a break.


So I picked up the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. This is my second sleeve, and after this I get to join the front/back and sleeves and start the yoke. That's the super cool part of this pattern, and I'm so excited to see how it goes. This is my first Eunny Jang pattern, from the Fall 07 Interweave Knits, and I'll work on this today while I wait for the winter issue to come in the mail.


These are my dragon socks. It's Colinette's Jitterbug, in the color Toscana, and they're my first toe-up. I started them a while back and took a break and then lost them. Turns out they were in my t-shirt drawer shoved in the back with those shirts that I never wear anymore but can't quite get rid of. I've always loved the Dragon Skin pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, and the stitch count was perfect. The picture is a little fuzzy, but these socks are awesome and I can't wait to do the heel.


Before I started the Jitterbug socks, these were my dragon socks. It's the Pomatomus sock pattern from Knitty and I am so freaking proud of these socks because it's a crazy pattern done in twisted rib. The yarn is beautiful - my first ever Koigu project. They were so pretty that I ordered 2 more colorways and they're sitting in my stash because I am supremely pissed at this yarn.

I've worn these socks 3 times. I blocked them well and have hand washed them, 3 times, in my sink in the perfect temperature water with the best fiber washes out there, and they look like crap. It's hard to tell from the bad picture, but they're pilled and fuzzy and the pattern is already getting lost. It's not like I'm running marathons in these socks or running around without shoes on sharp gravel. I take very good care of them and they have let me down.

I expect some pilling and wear from my handknit items, but I have 2-year-old socks out of crappy yarns that look a whole lot better than these.

Koigu is so pretty and everyone loves it, and I love the colors. I've talked to a bunch of people who have used Koigu and while a few have had similar issues, most people say it holds up well. I'm asking you, is this just a bum skein or should I expect this from the yarn in my stash?

I loved the Pomatomus pattern so much that I'm getting some new yarn to make them again so I can wear them all the time.

It's time to go see the nephews and do some laundry. I'm also super duper excited about a little errand today - I'm going to the new Whole Foods in Green Hills! Mom went on opening day and went on about how cool it is, and I'm one of those crazies who LOVES grocery shopping.

Waiting...

It's blocking. The Clapotis scarf out of Schaefer's Lola. It's so hard to wait when your finished product looks so darn pretty.

I picked up my halfway done abandoned fall sweater project, the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and am slowly knitting through the sleeves, but all I can think about is my scarf.

Why I Love Tennessee, Round 2

I left work early yesterday (sorry Alicia!) to head out with some friends for a tiny weekend getaway to Monteagle (A sleepy little mountaintop retreat with amazing views, as you can see). Sometimes all you need is to drive for an hour and a half and feel (mentally) halfway around the world. It was a beautiful mini-vacation!


Today we went on a hike in Fiery Gizzard (great name!) I went there with my family many many years ago, and remember the sheer cliffs, up and down trail, intense rocky overhangs and water everywhere. So today we brought swimsuits and were expecting to hear the powerful waterfalls, but there was hardly any water. Tennessee (and much of the south) has been dealing with a tough drought for what seems like forever, and it was so sad to see a rushing creek turn into a standstill. One member of our group trekked around a slick waterfall and jumped in where the water was deeper, but after putting my feet in, I decided to stay dry. It was cold!


I snapped some great pictures, wish I could show them all. Below is an enormous old hemlock tree that must have been 12 feet in diameter.


I did bring knitting, of course, and wanted to knit on the porch last night after dinner, but there was too much wine around and it's hard to knit while looking at the stars - there were a bunch of shooting stars. Sometimes you have to get out of the city to see just how much light pollution effects the starlight.


Here is a current sock while driving down the highway. I got a lot done, but didn't count my stitches until about a half inch past where this picture was taken, and I have 28 sts on one side (how it should be) and 30 on the other (whoops). I have no idea when or how this happened, and am too tired to figure it out tonight. It's late, I just now ate dinner, and my legs are killing me. It's time to settle down with a certain project (felted clogs) for a certain good friend (who took me to Monteagle).

And I almost forgot - the Titans played the Falcons today, and it took all of the patience I could muster to wait until the hike was over to call friends in Nashville and find out that WE WON 20-13! Haven't found out the details yet, but apparently our offense was off but our defense saved the day. We're 3-1!

Did I Do That????

Fair Isle, my evil nemesis, I'm kickin' your butt. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but this looks even better in person - and it's a pretty bad picture.

7 years ago, when Benji first asked me to make him a fair isle hat, I didn't know it was difficult. Learning something new would be fun. My tension was so far off (this was when I didn't yet know that all of my purls were twisted - I didn't learn that until the winter of 2002). Since then, every year or so, I try again to get this fair isle thing right.

So I bought some Cascade 220 and knitted up an amazing swatch - 60 sts, in pattern, and 5" tall. My gauge was perfect. I cast on, did a stockinette cuff with a hem, and worked a few inches in the pattern. My gauge had changed - tightened - and went from 6 sts/1" to almost 7 sts/1". Thankfully I made the XL rather than Large, and it fits my head well. I took it to work today and made a bunch of people try it on (it's not done, so I put the live sts on waste yarn). It fit everyone - adults and children, thick hair and thin hair, men and women (ok only 2 men tried it on). I even got a gold star for the good work so far!!!

Benji - this hat better fit you. If it doesn't, too bad. You WILL wear it all around town anyway. It'll stretch eventually. And remember, my brotha, my birthday is exactly one month after yours. This year you're not forgetting it (again), and you're getting me a VERY nice gift.

Christmas in September

Sometimes it's hard to exchange gifts with your friends during the holidays. Everyone is busy running around and going to parties and traveling and hanging out with family, so it can be difficult to exchange gifts with friends. Such was the case with my my dear friend Carrie. We've known each other forever, live 2 blocks away from each other, and hang out a whole lot. To make a long story short, we exchanged our 2006 Christmas presents today (please don't judge - we both may enjoy procrastination and might be a tad absent-minded, but there are valid reasons that it took months. I think.) Her gift has been hanging out in my closet for the last 9 months, while my gift has been sitting in her office. So here goes...

My gift to her: felted clogs out of Cascade 220 and (not pictured) the new Feist CD - the Reminder. That gift was added last week. If you haven't heard it, check it out. It's very very good. Carrie LOVES the clogs, and they fit perfectly. I did offer to put some puff paint on the soles for traction, but she would rather risk injury and slide around on her wood floors. I'll keep the paint handy just in case she changes her mind.


Her gift to me: A nice assortment. Some Miso Pretty products (not pictured) and they smell heavenly. Here's a picture of the only bumper sticker on my new-ish car. In case you're not a football maniac like me, the "V" stands for Vince Young, quarterback for the Tennessee Titans.
It rocks!


Also, I receved "the Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook". I've already flagged most of the pages and am looking forward to trying everything! I think the first dish will be the red pepper risotto.


While I'm not a vegetarian anymore (I eat turkey and fish), I still would rather cook vegetarian meals, and this cookbook is awesome.

Thanks Carrie! And Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Road Trip Wrap Up

The road trip was actually fairly nice, and the wedding was incredible. My cousin looked so beautiful, her husband is so sweet and charming, and it was a great chance to catch up with my family.

Here's the best shot we got of the cousins

And some road trip pictures...

Dad lookin' cool in the front seat



Sis-in-law and I when bro hijacked the camera
(I was in the middle of making a goofy face and it didn't work out so well)



My brother acting like himself



Bro again, playing with the Rowan Felted Tweed (the color is celery)



My new sis-in-law wearing a beautiful Rowan tiara

As you can see, I didn't get much knitting done. The crazy family can be quite distracting, and I kept messing up the easy pattern. Being the youngest, I sat in the middle again, and there might have been some fights over cookies so the knitting was there for moral support. I did get some shots of bro-in-law driving, and of mom and sis in the way back, but they would hurt me if I posted them.

Congratulations to the bride and groom! I love you guys!