So very very proud to be #2 at something.

Observe here.

Stork's Nest Lace

Knitting is usually a pretty easy hobby--physically. The Yarn Harlot (do I even need to link, honestly?) refers to knitting as a sport. I think that she refers to the competitive nature of the hobby, but really---what other wonderful, magical sport allows you to watch a movie, have a conversation, drink a beer, and allow a cat to sleep on your lap, all while participating? (10 points for those who found my obtuse reference to the Simpsons embedded in the last sentence)

There are, however, some times when the sport does get a little physical. Reflexes need to be lightening quick when trying to acquire your first choice when this yarn dyer updates her website. The same thing happens here and here. It's best to purchase often so as to keep your mouse-clicking abilities in shape.

Another opportunity for knitters to display their physical prowess is one that I participated in last weekend. I blocked lace.

Lace is one of my favorite things to knit, but really must be stretched and tugged and pinned into submission with a good blocking in order to for it to really look amazing.

After soaking my Stork's Nest Lace scarf I began to pin:

And pin:

And pin:

I'm an agressive blocker, to put it mildly.

Until I had used literally every pin in the house and tips of my fingers were so sore than I was using the edge of a book to push the pins into the blocking board. (note to self: buy thimble)

My lower back was sore afterwards from the repetitive motion. (note to self: stretch out beforehand next time)

I assumed that I could quickly pin this out during Charlie's nap. An hour and a half later, Charlie was getting up and I had just finished. (note to self: you're an idiot)

Was all of the blood, sweat, and (almost) tears worth it?

Can you see the mistake?

I wholeheartedly say--absolutely. Here are the specifics:

Pattern: Stork's Nest Scarf, from Piecework, Jan/Feb 2008

Yarn: Fingering Silky Merino from Sundara Yarn, in Robin's Nest (from the Seasons Yarn Club, Spring colorway)

Needles: size 6

Mods: none, knitted as written

Did I learn anything?: HELL YES! Apparently I didn't know how to purl before this. For the last 7 years I have inadvertently purled into the back loop (ptbl) instead of a regular purl. It doesn't show on socks but it looks wonky when knitting back and forth. I pulled out my trusty guide and made a conscious effort to purl the correct way this time.

I can't wait to wear this. AND, I've got about half a skein leftover:

Hopefully I can squeeze a pair of anklets out of the remainder.

I've also been flying through my second pair of Undulating Ribs:

love, love, LOVE the striping

It appears that socks practically knit themselves when they aren't made out of a million cables or lace. (of course, I've jinxed myself now)

Now I just need to figure out how many knitting projects I will need for a week in Florida. I've got one that I am know that I am taking, but how many backups do I need? 2 or 3? Or 4 or 5?

I suppose that we can just buy clothes when we get there if I use all of the suitcase space!

Liar Liar Link-o-rama

So now I have THREE unfinished socks on the needles, due to no fault of my own (hah!).

The first:

Father and Son socks, Interweave, Fall 2006

They are beautiful, easy and by my favorite sock designer of all time.
The yarn is perfect. They are also for my number one sock recipient, who is always very appreciative. Problem? My thoughts kept straying to this pair:

Sweetheart Socks, Interweave Knits, Holiday 2007


the back detail

After I received my January installment of the Seasons Club I knew that I had the perfect yarn. I promised myself that I would go right back to Christian's socks! That I would even work on them concurrently (another hah!).

I finished these, so let's move on.

Right back to the first socks, right? No way! While I was finishing the Sweetheart socks, I received another sock club shipment in the mail, full of awesomeness. The lure of Sockdown: Ravelry! was too much to ignore. I cast on, again telling myself that as soon as I was finished I would (again) go right back and finish up the first socks in a jiffy.

Marina Piccola, by Kate Gilbert

This pattern is beautiful, but tedious. My mind started to wander...

Can you guess what happened next?

I received another package of yarn in the mail, this time from Meg of Twisted Fiber Arts. Her work with self-striping yarn is truly amazing! Sockdown: Ravelry! rolled around again, and (again) I had the perfect pattern. The challenge this month is to knit a sock from designer Ann Budd.

I would just cast on.

No, I'll cast on and knit just the cuff.

The gauge isn't right, so I need to frog and knit on smaller needles--I should go past the cuff just to make sure that they'll fit.

Two and a half pattern repeats later:

Ann Budd rocks my world.

I am smitten once again.

I promise that I'll finish Christian's socks next! Maybe I'll even make a schedule--one repeat of one sock, one of another, and one of the last, until I'm done. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't work well with schedules. This plan has failure written all over it.

And I did just get another sock club installment in the mail....

sigh

It Grows

Observe:

much prettier in person

This also grows:

welcome to Mt. Laundry

Question: Which of these will grow, and which will shrink?

Answer:
Grow? The scarf.
Shrink? Neither.

A Day in the Life of Charlie, Part II

Five minutes after putting on his first pair of Big Boy Underwear, they are pooped in.

The View from Up Here

It is a grey and gloomy day here in Houston, but I still can't believe that this is February.

Siamese Catfood Breath, about to leap to his death

Can you believe that we have a palm tree growing in our courtyard? Things are blooming, and I have had some seasonal allergies, in February. I'm sure all this ranting about the weather is boring all of the southern folks to tears, but when you haven't lived anywhere but Michigan, it is impressive.

Our bedroom view is not so picturesque, however.

If I were as awesome as Jason Bourne, I could easily leap from my window to the neighbor's window.

Christian claims that he sees a hidden head spying on us from over there sometimes.

Progress on Marina Piccola continues, despite almost being frogged yesterday because I didn't like the way that the ssk's were turning out. I have since stepped away from the ledge, and am back not loving it, but being able to live with the results. I actually tried to knit the pattern as written instead of second-guessing the intent, and presto!--things started to work. Plus, I love the colors and pattern together.

As much as I try to be, I am not monogamous when it comes to knitting projects, and as soon as this came in the mail, the sock progress ground to a halt.

It smells as good as it looks.

This is Sundara's new fingering silky merino, and it looks like she has just 2 skeins left on her website.

Since yesterday, this has been wound, and is beginning to morph into this:

It's an easy pattern to memorize, and it has tripled in size, thanks to the Oscars. I'd like to have it done before it is too hot here to justify wearing.

Cheers!

What I learned from putting Transformers in my Netflix queue

Autobots like to give golden showers.



P.S. This movie was baaaaaddddd. (and not in an awesome way, either)

A New Life

Being a Stay-At-Home-Mom is different than I expected at times. I didn't think that the days would fly by, but they really do. We have a rhythm, and often I'm amazed at how quickly the evening comes.

Being a SAHM means that I can make homemade spaetzle in the middle of the week, if I want.

I was hoping for a better picture, but this was all that was left by the time I got around to taking a picture.

I am even more sock-obsessed than usual lately. I've made this pair....

Sweetheart Socks, from Interweave Knit's Holiday 2007
using Sundara Sock yarn in color Tickled Pink

And this pair....

Marina Piccola, in Black Bunny Fibers
Fancy New sock blockers courtesy of Leggy Creations

In between taking a certain someone to the potty 400 times a day.

A Day in the Life of Charlie, Part I

Hop on Pop, his favorite book, thrown into the bathtub.

AWOL

Yes, I have been gone forever. I'll be back soon. Now that I've written this, I promise a proper post tomorrow!

Temptation, thy name is Ben, and sometimes Jerry

You do not want to eat this.

I warned you!

The post in which I expect to become a rockstar and fail miserably

I had just finished telling the Very-Soon-to-be-Doctor Husband that I wanted my posts to evolve organically, but I knew that I had a good story. I didn't want to go to the grocery store yet again this week, and after all we really need to get rid of the food in our kitchen before Moving Day (now November 26!). I raided our pantry and freezer for long-ignored and maligned "food" that we didn't want to move. There was the single can of green enchilada sauce to a half-used bag of frozen mixed veggies from the dark recesses of our freezer. I pulled everything together with the expectation that I could pull off an amazing casserole and humbly tell an amusing story to the blog world.

This plan went horrifyingly wrong. Well, not completely, because Charlie loved it. He even asked for seconds! I'm not sure how sophisticated his palate can be, considering that he would eat cat food if we let him. This became the casserole that tasted like freezer burn, the casserole that was inedible, and the casserole that kept on giving in the worst way possible.

This, which I expected to be able to turn from water (or in this case, more like festering raw sewage) into wine...

A veritable menagerie of crap

Turned to this:

Warning: this doesn't taste nearly as delightful as it looks

Christian and I picked at it for awhile in the hopes that we would hit the good spot, and then eventually gave up and went to bed hungry.

On the knitting front....the Cable Rib socks are finished! Hopefully they fit the recipient.

I have a great gift for making socks look like they're different sizes in photos.

I really loved the Radiant Twist yarn. The colors are perfect and the yarn is the perfect mixture of tight spin coupled with the sproinginess that I adore. I assume that the base yarn is Louet but indie dyers are pretty tight-lipped about which yarns they use.

I have eagerly moved on to Mona's Mystery Socks. I love the yarn more every day:

I am totally smitten.

It's amazing how different the yarn looks at different times of the day:

An artsy shot with Grandma's cookie jar

The contrast between the yellows and pinks just isn't there at night. I find myself getting up in the morning and looking at the sock first thing to see what it really looks like in the sunlight.

Juliet continues to grow a few rows a day, but basically looks the same.

Tomorrow the family starts to pour in for Dissertation Day. I can't believe how quickly things are moving, after months that seemed to creep by. I have a feeling that we'll be throwing stuff into boxes at the last minute. This really isn't a change from how we usually operate.

Well, time to get a few precious rows in before bed. Cheers!

Counterproduction

It makes perfect sense that although I am dying to cast on a brand shiny new pair of socks, I neglect the existing WIPs entirely, and begin new, non-sock related ventures. Payback is a bitch, however, and I believe that my unfinished socks have conspired to jinx any new project that I attempt.

Exhibit A:

This Calorimetry is eating my head.

I look like a lobotomy patient. I assumed that I didn't need to knit a gauge swatch since I went down a needle size from the suggested pattern. It looked a little big while I was knitting it, but I assumed that since it was ribbed it would end up a little smaller. I'm contemplating trying to shrink it a little in the wash.

The socks that are out to get me:

Finished Undulating Ribs

Unfinished (but nearly finished!) Cable Rib Socks

And poor Juliet...

I keep thinking of this color as "Lion Brand Buddhist Mustard".

There appears to be nothing wrong with this (yet). Maybe the socks haven't noticed her.

Toys for evil parents

Actually, this isn't about toys that one gives to parents, it's about toys that are gifted to their children so as to slowly drive their parents criminally insane. Observe...

I don't know what this one is called, but if I had to guess, it's the
Brain Borer 2000: A Baby's Revenge

This toy is simple--it's got four turntables (but no microphone!), and when you push the button (actually, I'm sure that YOU would never push the button of doom, but your son surely will) the turntable rotates and a little song plays. Over. And over. And over. And over again. Until the batteries die and your child then begs you to change the batteries. This is no awarding-winning song either such as Funkytown or Sweet Child O' Mine. I don't know the name of the song (does pure evil truly have a name?) and I won't bore your brain with the tune here. There are gears/blocks that supposed to stack on this toy, but from a child's viewpoint they are completely optional. Anything can get thrown on this toy, and it takes amazingly huge batteries so it can handle the weight. Wooden blocks, cat toys, food, clothes, sippy cups and shoes have all ended up on this thing. Apparently it's tasty as well:

Undulating Ribs grows:

wine not included

And Black Bunny continues to beckon:

Look how pretty!

And I just downloaded Juliet, so I'm considering knitting along with NaKniSweMo. It's less than 50,000 stitches I'm sure so I might have to participate in spirit. I don't know how stringent the rules are.

Houston awaits!

Boo to you!

Hello from my perch in Palm Coast, FL. Charlie and I are spending some quality time once again with BooMa and BooPa so that Christian can work that much harder and be finished that much faster. (shall we chant: THE END IS IN SIGHT 1,000 times more to remind us?)

We spent a wonderful weekend at Disney, and the brainwashing is really starting to work on Charlie, now that he has discovered that characters like Nemo and Mickey exist outside of books and off of t-shirts. We went to a WDW Not-So-Scary Halloween party where BooPa made sure that he collected his entrance fee in candy. Charlie helped, and since there was no charge for him to get in his haul was pure profit! Yes, we all did steal candy from a baby. Don't worry--we gave him all of our boxes of raisins in return. Pictures forthcoming, as soon as someone sends me a good one to post. (yes, I am talking to you, Aunt Kari)

I finished Christian's Red Dawn socks on the way down to the Disney compound. I am in love with the colors:

Yummy yummy!

Hopefully they fit!

The colorway is called Central Park from Cherry Blossom Fibers, and this truly does remind me of the time that Dr. Husband and I spend in New York City in October several years ago. These knit up so fast in sport weight on size 4's. I am really digging the sport weight yarn lately, which is unfortunate since now most everybody lives in a warmer climate. I'm not sure how much play these will get when we move to Planet Houston.

I immediately cast on these:

It is hard to tell, but the ribs, they do undulate.

They are Undulating Rib socks from Favorite Socks. I had to go down several needle sizes to get anything close to gauge (along with the rest of the world, if you check Ravelry). The yarn is the new Kaffe Fassett stuff from Regia. This is the first time that I've use any yarn that has nylon in it, and honestly, I prefer merino over all else. I love the soft and squishy. I'm sure that these will hold up wonderfully, however, and am loving the colors (Mirage Fog).

I'm racing through these since I am inspired to cast on some yummy Black Bunny that I have waiting in the wings.

Cheers!

Sexy Old People

You’ll have to forgive me for my absence. Hopefully the 10 of you that have been reading my blog are still here somewhere. A lot has been going on in the land of Siamese Catfood Breath, the most important is that THERE IS NOW AN END IN SIGHT. D-Day, as in Dissertation Defense Day (should that be DD Day?) is officially November 13 (2007!). We are over the moon.

Now, back to the sexy old people. Things were looking pretty bleak at the end of last week, so instead of sitting around watching Christian work, we all decided to head to Chicago for an overnight visit. Since we are broke, the trip almost didn’t happen after it appeared that we couldn’t get a hotel room for less than $220, but thanks to Princeline we ended up staying on the 18th floor of the Hyatt Regency for $100.

The Hyatt Regency is very pretty and in a great location, but apparently has cleverly disguised rice paper for walls. We had a sexy old couple staying next to us, and although we never met them, we HEARD them a lot. Sexy old people don’t care who can hear them. Sexy old people aren’t afraid to moan. Sexy old people aren't afraid to talk dirty when everyone can hear them. And what do sexy old people do when awakened by the toddler next door decides to get up (and stay up) at 4:30 in the morning? Have more sex! What do the parents of the toddler do at 4:30 in the morning? Wish that they were sexy old people.

On the knitting front, I have finished the cloud bolero and Charlie’s vest. My Sea Lettuce Scarf has been attempted and frogged once again and some mystery knitting are in progress. I leave you with a snapshot of my only souvenir, a skein of yarn bought at a Chicago store whose name is escaping me:

Conjoined Creations, color Clue, soy silk lace

I think that this would make a very pretty Storm Water Scarf. I love patterns that you can just knit until the end, and not have to worry about running out of yarn.

Cheers!

Sweaty sweaty knitting

The Chelsea Fleece Fair was, as always, a huge success. I am proud of myself because I only went over $15 of the budget that I had set. I picked up 4 different kinds of handspun, more than enough to make at least one garment for everyone in the family. I immediately cast on this:

After some discussion on Ravelry with Houston knitters, I decided that I needed a layering piece for the Houston ‘winter’. This is the Cloud Bolero, but instead of keeping it bolero length, I’m going to keep knitting until I run out of yarn (my favorite thing to do) and make it vest length (hopefully), much like this one.

I have had a lot of difficulty maintaining my interest on this particular project for the past 2 days, not because it isn’t turning out great, which it is, but because suddenly we are in the mid 80’s again, and it is too HOT to knit chunky wool and mohair! I forced myself to do several rows yesterday despite the heat, but I’ve also been casting about for a pair of socks to work on in the interim.

I’ve cast on and frogged two pairs, and am now selecting a third. Hopefully the yarn/pattern combination will work this time. I won’t show them because they might be Christmas socks, I haven’t decided yet. I can show you Charlie’s newest pair, covered in Siamese catfood breath:

My cat's breath smells like, well, garbage, to be honest.

My goal was use up all of my Sundara Sock yarn, and I still have 2 tiny balls left. I’m determined not to let an inch of this gorgeous stuff go to waste.

I’ll leave you with last night’s dinner—Stir-Fried Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Peppers with Carmelized Tofu. This was a huge hit with everyone, and we’ll definitely be making this one again. Charlie ate the broccoli (bocky!), tofu (fufu!) and peppers (pepper!).

Strange Things That We Find on Our Floors

Charlie likes a lot of normal toddler stuff like trains, fishies and Barney (who is really not so bad compared to the Satan Spawn that is the Teletubbies). He also likes some strange things, which we find around our house all of the time.

Observe….

Exhibit A: Butterflies

I think that it is sweet that he likes butterflies. One of his favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle because there is a butterfly at the end. I even contemplated making his first birthday cake a butterfly since that was one of the things that he really liked. He’s obsessed with these teeny tiny butterfly magnets and we find them everywhere.

Not that weird? I agree. Read on…

Exhibit B: A potato

He discovered potatoes last week while visiting his grandma and has been scouting them out ever since. If I leave the pantry door open for a minute all of the potatoes are thrown on the floor. His favorite thing to do is to wait until he has my attention and then pretend to eat a raw, dirty potato. Go nuts!

Exhibit C: A pinecone (or 50!)

Last summer my soon-to-be Doctor Husband took our son on a walk and they came back with a freshly plucked pinecone. Charlie has been obsessed with them ever since to the extreme that sometimes he even wants to take one to bed with him. He knows exactly where the pine trees are when we go on walks, and begs for a pinecone when we round the bend. I really don’t mind the fact that he likes pinecones because 1.) I like to think that he likes them because he likes nature, 2.) they’re FREE and 3.) there is a never-ending supply of them.

Ok, knitting content.

Remember the Sea Lettuce Scarf? Frogged. I don’t have enough yarn to make it the way that I want. I have some mods in mind, but I’m really thinking that I’ll pick up something at the Fleece Fair tomorrow in order to really highlight this pattern. In the meantime, I’ve been making some Toddler team colors socks with the Dissertation leftovers:

I’m using this random number generator to determine the stripes, and am having a hoot of a time with them. Let’s not think about Michigan’s record right now, and just enjoy the socks, shall we?

Socky Beety

First off, I finished the Anastasias. What a quick and fun knit! The pattern is really easy to memorize and it seems to fly, even on size 1s.

How much do I love Hello Yarn? Let me count the ways, over and over and over….

I’m hoping that these will be my Houston winter shoes. Crocs are perfect for showing off hand knit socks.

Secondly, I’ve succumbed to the Sea Lettuce scarf. I’m still torn on whether I want to do the one that is 20 stitches across or the 32 stitch scarf (this one is 32).

I’m concerned because I only have one skein and am hoping that it will be a nice length. I don’t have high hopes for this though, and see another skein in my future. I forgot how much garter stitch sucks yardage. I’ve also had a problem sticking with any project larger than socks lately, and the urge to frog this always looms. Wish me luck, because as of right now, I really like the result.

And last, this book is changing the way that I cook.

It’s a wonderful read if you love the slow food movement. As a result I purchased this veggie cookbook, and am trying to cook exclusively vegetarian at home.

I made patty pan squash fritters with sweet potato muffins several days ago for dinner, and last night I made this recipe:

…which will never be repeated. Ever, ever, ever again. Although the soon-to-be Doctor Husband told me that it was good “for a beet dish”, he said it about 10 times, which is a sure sign that this dish was a dud. I thought that it was delicious, and Charlie acted like he was dying when he ate one bite. To any family who may be reading, don’t worry, we still think that turkeys are delicious and wonderful, and we won’t mess with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Tomorrow on the menu: fig and arugula salad with goat cheese croutons!

I hope that we can eat as well in Houston as here. I already checked, and Rice U. hosts a farmer’s market once a week.

I’ve also cast on a tiny baby sock, as my knitting ADD knows no bounds as of late.

I suck at goodbyes, and also conclusions, so I’ll just leave this as it is. Cheers.