Knitting

I went to my first local knit night here in Virginia. Lordy, I missed knitting and chatting and knitting. It feels so good!

I'm working on Cloisonne Mittens (a pattern by The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Perl-McPhee). Main color is white, with deep purple, fuchsia (yes, that yarn again!), and turquoise on the wrist band.

Outfit blogging

Today, in honor of 14 degree F weather, I am wearing LL Bean flannel-lined jeans, thick woolen socks, my nice leather boots (to make everything look work appropriate), a white turtle neck and a lavender cashmere v-necked sweater.

This outfit works for the office and for knit night at Panera.

What are you wearing?

CFLs are horrible for picture taking

Especially when you're taking that picture with your cell phone.

Case in point: Here is a picture of a nice tweedy yarn:

Yarn. Tweedy. Is actually green.

What colour would you say this yarn is? Judging from the picture, a sort of greyish-blue right?

Wrong. This yarn, in reality, is green. Yes. I'm sure. It's really, truly green. A light spring green, like new growth on a willow tree.

CFLs make liars of cellphone cameras.

So much for NaBloPoMo

I spent most of yesterday knitting. Less than 50 rows to go on the Fibonacci scarf!

Packing, Packing, Packing

I think we may have a little too much stuff

Living Room, three layers deep

My bedroom, as you come in

My bedroom, as you go out

Muffin Man's room

Living Room, different view

And there are more boxes, in the hall, and in MM's play room, and in the kitchen. And we're not done packing (though it's really only the bathroom cabinets that are left. And my desk. And a few things in a closet. And the stuff we're wearing and eating. And three place-settings, two pots, and a pan. And the coffee machine. And this lap-top I'm typing on. Dear God, just how did we accumulate so much stuff?

In Attendance over Thanksgiving Week

My two grandmothers.
My mom and step-dad.
Me, Mr. Spock, and Muffin Man.
My sister, her husband, my niece and nephew, and the wonderful exchange student.
My Aunt and Uncle TandemBicycle and their daughter (cousin in picture).
My Aunt and Uncle JustAFewYearsOlderThanMe and their three kids.
My Uncle SnarkySenseOfHumor, my Aunt WorksWithSpecialNeedsKids, their two daughters, their grand-daughter, their eldest daughter's boyfriend, their youngest daughter's best friend, and the best friend's daughter.
My mom's Cousin MiraculouslyGetsYarnUntangled, her stepfather, her son, his partner, and their two kids.
And a brief visit by my mom's friends, FamousActorAndSinger and CollectsQuilts, and one of their sons, PlaysBanjoAndSingsBeautifully.

My mom hemmed some pants for me. We ate 4 tons of food. Mr. Spock and I figured out my parents home theater system and wrote up a user's guide for it. I knitted on a hat which I had to rip (thus the yarn detangling), and start again (it's much better now).

In short, I can't wait until next year.

Mystery Mommy has a new wardrobe!!

Mr. Spock made the spiffy new header for me. It isn't even my birthday!

Vacation in brief

NYC, y'all.
New yarn.
Visiting with friends.
MM saw two movies and The Lion King.
Lego Store.
Sushi.
Swimming.
Sesame Place.

Any questions?

Things I wish I would make time in my life to do

• Hawaiian Dance lessons. I loved doing Hawaiian Dance.
• Pottery. There's a woman who will be giving lessons in Round Hill. I haven't done any pottery since High School and I loved it.
• Knitting meet-ups.

Instead, I do other things:

• LCDC stuff
• CSB stuff
• NARAL stuff

All of which is important, fulfilling, and fun...but I wish that I could do the other things as well and still have time to spend with MS and MM, work, eat, and sleep.

Sigh.

Starting again on a sweater...this time, it's gonna be a vest

Deep V neck pullover in that lovely purple tweed. Couldn't find a cardi pattern I thought would suit both the yarn and the Rack of Doom.

I'll update here with progress, assuming I make any.

Sweater and hat for new nephew

He shares his birthday with Muffin Man. Born the same day, eight years apart. He is sooooo small! I'd forgotten how tiny three-week-old babies are!

And here, here is the sweater and hat I knitted for him as soon as we heard that he might be coming home with my sister-in-law and her husband.



The sweater is knitted in Lamb's Pride Super Wash Galaxy. Hat is knitted in red cotton/elastic (can't find the label...oops!). Buttons are from A.C. Moore.

The whole time I was knitting on them, I was thinking, "I hope you come home with them, little boy. I hope you come home." I'm so glad he did.

Mazel tov on the arrival of the shayneh yingeleh.

Sweater stalled

That Beautiful purple tweed is too slender to ever get gauge on that pattern.

The yarn I have that will achieve gauge is stiff, itchy, and in a color I'm not enamored of. Which leads me to the question: why do I have this crappy yarn in my stash?

I think I may have inherited it from someone.

Why didn't I give it away when we moved?

I didn't know it was quite that itchy.

Boy howdy.

So I have a beautiful purple tweed yarn and no pattern for it, and a beautiful pattern and no suitable yarn.

Methinks I need to make a trip to the yarn store.

Maybe I'll cast on for a vest for myself out of a black tweed silk/wool blend I found in the stash (not enough for that sweater, darn it!) if I can find a vest pattern I like.

Voldemort? That dude is going DOWN!

Demonstrating both a sartorial sense of style and an increasingly evident desire record his silliness for posterity.

Scarf update

All ends woven in. Trying to decide whether to add fringe first and then block or block, then fringe. What do you think?

Gryffindor scarf update

Knitting done. Weaving in ends 3/4's done. Need to block and add fringe.

Next up, possibly a hat to match. Definitely a cardi for me after that.

Meeting Haiku

Not allowed to knit
during sales meeting. Fingers
bloody by tonight

What do you think?

Should I knit this sweater in a purple tweed wool?

I really like the shape of it. Nice cropping to give the illusion of a bit more height, and the neckline is good for minimizing the EEROD.

Found today

The power cord for the keyboard (musical), some books I was missing, the coffee press, the square cake pans, and MM's digital camera (which is what started the search in the first place).

Also found today, a fact: my spicy ginger peanut sauce is EVEN BETTER over soba noodles.

The Gryffindor scarf is longer than MM as of today. Soon it will take over the world!

Knitting a Gryffindor scarf

Before starting it, I hunted high and low for my size six (US) needles. I was totally sure I had at least three sets (of circulars). Where the hell were they?

So I decided to knit it on size eights (US). It's a scarf. Gauge is meaningless in a scarf. Right?

I am half-way done with the pattern on the scarf and it's almost as long as the finished length is supposed to be.

Huh.

This morning I found all three sets of my size sixes. They were in the bag I used for carrying around the sweater I just finished. I used one set to knit the sweater and the other sets as stitch-holders while knitting on the sleeves.

Yeah.

I'm not always the brightest bulb on the marquee.

Sweater done. Buttons and snaps sewed in.

I'm pretty darned proud of it, actually. I'll post a picture after I've given it to the recipient.