Around the House

Well, today is my last day of work until after Christmas, AND it’s supposed to snow two inches tonight, so if I’m not feeling more festive by tomorrow morning, I suppose there’s no hope for me this year. 

Let’s look at some scenes from around the house, shall we? (Please forgive the dark pictures–the solstice is coming, so the days will be getting longer soon, thank goodness!)

Our clear Christmas tree. This year, I really wanted to add some natural elements–I was thinking pinecones or acorns, or birds or something. Maybe next year. As always, I think our tree is beautiful and magical.

The gift pile. Most of the ends have now been woven in, and the only knitting I have left is one glove and two sleeves. And yes, that wine is absolutely necessary. We have now moved on to blocking.

Obviously, these are the hats blocking. Blocking (for non-knitters) is when you wash your finished project and then lay it out to dry in the shape you want it to be. It does wonders for the texture of your knitting–everything smooths out and becomes much softer and drapier. To block the many hats I’ve made over the past months, I used balloons set in coffee mugs, so that they would be nice and round, like the heads they will soon be warming, and so that they would dry a bit faster, since the air could circulate all around. This worked really well.

Although they did look a little creepy the next morning.

We need a little Christmas

Christmas is next week.  Next week.  N e x t.  W e e k.  Oh my.

Well, all those unfinished objects from last week are slowly but surely becoming finished projects.  David and I have decorated the house and listened to carols and bought gifts for eachother and watched Christmas specials and enjoyed egg nog etc. etc. etc. But for some reason, no matter what I do, I just can’t get caught up in that holiday mood yet.  There has been some added stress this year, what with the extra job and the general job-hating that’s been going on (luckily, I can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for that one), but really, is that a good reason? 

We’re going to my parents’ house for Christmas this year, so I’m hoping that being home, seeing all the decorations of my childhood (what is left of them anyway, many have gone the way of my favorite Ms. Green Pompon Head ornament, may she rest in peace), watching White Christmas with my dad, and eating my mom’s food will bring back that festive feeling.  We shall see. 

So, about new knitting.  Well, the pile of knitted Christmas stuff is growing at an alarming rate, and that is because I like the knitting more than I like the finishing, so I continue to merrily cast on for new stuff and ignore all those unwoven ends and unblocked garments.  Hence, a hat for our neighbor, Shannon.

Isn’t that cute? Can you tell those are owls?  The pattern is called Who? and I’m too lazy to link to it. I used a tiny bit of my leftover applewood malabrigo and nearly 1 skein of brown Lamb’s Pride Worsted. I finished this last night and wove in all the ends, and then I sloppily (I did mention the eggnog, right? ahem) embroidered on some owl eyes.  Here’s where we begin with the cheesy-ness: I embroidered blue eyes for David, brown-orange eyes for me, and then skipped 5  owls (to represent the 5 houses between us) and did green eyes for Shannon!!!!  I’m so happy about this, I can’t even tell you.  Maybe that’s all it takes to get into the Christmas spirit.  Owl eyes.

OMG!! UFO’s!!

This morning, my unfinished objects conducted an intervention, each in its turn shaming me for my lack of initiative.

A sleeveless, collarless sweater, which I am now panicking over because I’m not sure if the recipient will like it or the color (which David, who is closely related to the recipient, chose).  Looking for encouragement from David was a huge mistake, though:

Me: I’m thinking about ripping out that sweater for ______ (you probably know who you are anyway, but let’s keep the mystery alive, shall we?).  I’m just not sure about the pattern or the color.  Do you think she’ll like it?

David: I really like it.

Me: I know, but do you think SHE will like it?

David: I think she SHOULD like it.

Me: I know, but do you think she WILL LIKE IT??

David:…..

Me: [head explodes]

So that’s where I am with this sweater.

Number 2: A luxurious baby alpaca scarf.

This scarf.  Oy.  The pattern said it would just use one skein of the fairly-expensive-but-worth-it-for-squish-factor, yarn.  Well, one skein made a potholder sized scarf.  Maybe, if I sewed it into a circle, it would be a cowl, but the recipient is not really likely to wear a cowl, so I needed more yarn.  I bought another skein and hey, look!  Now it looks like a scarf!  for a toddler.  shoot.  So I bought ANOTHER SKEIN AND NOW IT REALLY BETTER WORK BECAUSE THIS HAS TURNED INTO A $45 SCARF.  So I’m putting that off, just in case I have an anxiety attack at the end.

Also, this hat, which matches an unphotographed (and *ahem* also unfinished) scarf.

I am ripping this out and am planning to replace the brown with gray (to better match the scarf) and I’m pretty much going to go with a different pattern. I really just started this, so I don’t feel too bad about not yet finishing it/ripping it out.

Next up, the lonely mitten club.  Oh my, this is embarrassing.  I have 4 gloves with no mates.  There is no excuse for this.

You know what’s even more embarrassing about these mitts?  See that long black one in the middle?  I made it yesterday and it’s mate is actually almost done–I just have to put a thumb on.  They are a replica of a pair of mittens worn in the first Twilight movie.  And I’m planning to finish the second one so I can wear it to New Moon tonight.  I will be shocked if I allow that information to make it into the final post.

My final piece is probably the closest one to completion.  It’s Ellie’s zip up jacket.

I just have to figure out what to do with the zipper tops (fold them over and sew them down or find some zipper stops for them?).

So, I have all these unfinished objects sitting around with first-child syndrome, messing up my house, filling up my yarn basket, using needles that I currently need, and generally acting out for attention.  And what do I do instead?

I buy more yarn, of course.

Fun with Cross Stitch

I spent my lunch today using this site to create cross stitch patterns.  I think these would make really sweet Christmas presents. 

Feel free to print and use.

I take it back–he’s not getting cuter.

I love my dog, really, but he can just be so very disappointing sometimes.

Case in point: Yesterday, while I was happily blogging about how cute he is, Maxwell was busy escaping from the $90, brand spanking new crate we got for him and tearing up the guest room. People! He pulled the steel door backwards into the crate somehow. This freaks me out because last time I checked, MAXWELL DOES NOT HAVE HANDS. So probably just as I was uploading pics of my brand new and very first knitted shawl, he was peeing on it. Then he went on to throw up, eat a piece of chocolate that he found god knows where, and pull my makeup bag off the table and onto the bed so that he could more easily rifle through it. Ugh.

Anyway, I have recently become obsessed with knitting a cardigan that zips up. It seems to me that shoddily-sewn-on buttons are choking hazards for babies, and since shoddily is the only way I know how to sew, I have to eliminate buttons as much as possible for the next few years on ellie clothes. Enter alternate fasteners: hook and eye-don’t like them, snaps: also need to be sewn on (see above), zippers…..awesome. So I’m sewing a zipper onto a cardi that I knitted up over the weekend and it’s super cute because it’s purple. Look!

Ignore the poor picture quality, I’m at work and can’t really mess with lighting and sunshine. I’ll worry about that when it’s finished.

For now, focus on the cuteness of the halfway-sewn-in zipper!

Three’s a Crowd

I have had some extremely successful knitting projects come off the needles lately, including, I know you’ll be shocked to hear: my very first, 100% mistake free finished object. It must be hard for you to believe that every other project I’ve posted about has flaws because I’m sure they look perfect here. Let me tell you a secret which is no longer a secret because it’s on the Internet: knitting is a forgiving craft in which mistakes are not immediately obvious, and also I purposely take pictures to make things look better than they are. Messy seam? Just put that in the back. One glove/sock is a bit smaller than the other? Some gentle blocking will fix that up later–let’s just put it closer to the camera for now (perspective is a funny thing). Whole project is a hot mess? let’s just photograph it from far away. No one will eeeever notice.

Anyway, let me show you my last three finished objects and see if you can guess which one is perfect and which are janky:

1. Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (I am so clever with this name)

• Pattern: Darling Darby Sweater
• Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
• Colorway: Harvest

btw–is Maxwell getting cuter or is it just me?

2.  My First Shawl (admittedly a less clever name)

• Pattern: Peasant Shawl
• Yarn: Auracania  Ararcaunia Araucania Ranco Multy (really, this took me three tries before I broke down and looked it up)
• Colorway: 319

This is the pic while it was blocking last night–I’ll put up a nice finished one at some point in the future.

And finally…

3. Applewood Meret – This one is all about the yarn.  I’ve been loving this particular color of Malabrigo for, oh about a year (why I didn’t buy it before is a mystery–it’s only $10) and finally bought it because it was discontinued and this was the last hank.  I loooove the color–it’s like flesh, but in a good way.

• Pattern: Meret (Mystery Beret)
• Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted
• Colorway: Applewood

Can you guess which is perfect?

The Trouble with English

So, my blog posts have been limited to once per week, in case you haven’t noticed, because I have a second job teaching English as a Second Language in a small town near Lexington. This means that three days a week, I leave the house at 7:30am and don’t get home till almost 9pm. It’s funny because I have never in my life been the type to work too much–actually, I have always seen myself as sort of a slacker–so this is a bit out of character for me. Why am I doing this?

Although we are poor now that David is in grad school, we are not in desperate need of extra income. In fact, I feel like we are doing better with money than we ever were when we were both making money. It just so happens that during a recession, the job of a social worker gets a little crazy. I have less time with clients and a lot more paparwork to do, which is not why I got into this field in the first place, so I’m becoming what I never thought I would become: burnt out and slightly jaded. I’m realizing that I need to get out of this field, but now is not the best time to be job searching, so I figured I would get some professional fulfillment from this new job. Think of it like my day job is my steady boyfriend that wears a sweater vest and drives a volvo, perfectly nice and makes me feel secure, but is not really giving me that lovin feeling, if you know what I mean, while ESL is like the leather wearing harley riding thrill seeker who you know you can’t depend on for any consistency, but it’s a fun little fling on the side*. Well, you can’t leave Mr. Dependable for Mr. Fun-on-the-side, because you can’t really expect to build a life with him, you know? I mean it’s all beer and skittles until he wants to move to Tibet and become a monk or whatever and you’re all like “uh-uh” and he’s like “you have no spirit” and you’re like “get a freaking job and grow up” and then he’s gone and all of a sudden Mr. Dependable seems like Mr. Right, but it’s too late now.

Wait, what was I talking about?…Ah yes:

So I like teaching better than the day job, but I now realize I am overextended, but I don’t want to give up this other job because it’s the fun one, you know? Anyway, enough rambling–these things will figure themselves out, I think.

What I really wanted to say in this post is that, although I am basically the Goddess of American English in comparison to my (mostly Spanish speaking) students, they have been bringing up some really tough questions that I am having some trouble answering. Questions like:

What is the difference between beauty and beautiful?
When are you supposed to say at vs. in? (I am at the grocery store/I am in the grocery store)
Someone called my daughter silly–do they think she’s crazy?

There have been many more, and now I just apologize for the language as a whole whenever something like that comes up because it’s the only good answer I can give.

*Obviously, I do not advocate cheating, this is a purely hypothetical situation and any similarities between these two fake characters and someone you or I know or think we might know is totally unintended and coincidental.

Surprise, Autumn is here!

First off, old business–here are the tiny fingerless mitts I made for my niece:

Fall in in full force here in Kentucky and it is a beauty. Most years, I get so excited about fall that I delude myself into thinking it has started around the middle of august. I sweat through the still 80 degree weather in my cardigans and socks while everyone else is enjoying the last weeks of flip flop weather. Not me.

This year was different, though. I was not ready for fall. One day I set the car at 73 degrees and a/c came out, then the next, I set it at the same temperature, but it was heat! Weird. Well, I’m all caught up now. There’s a fire in the fireplace (don’t tell my landlord, though , I have a pumpkin candle going, I bought a sweatshirt and I busted out last year’s cottage socks. Me and autumn are like peas and carrots now. Maybe more like acorns and squirrels. Either way we are tight and I’ve really enjoyed being surprised by the cooler weather and changing leaves.

Signs of fall:

Maxwell is a naturally cold dog, so he is digging the fire. Maybe he could use this:

Ha! Just kidding–I like my dogs like I like my men…with dignity.

Pumpkin candle impulse buy.

Last of the summer CSA. We are going to do the fall to winter one too, though so there will be plenty of hard winter squash over the next few months.

Yup, fall is for realsies.

One other thing you should know: this blog’s part time co-owner, Raven got a puppy!!! His name is Calvin and here is his cute self:

So, that’s what things look like around here. Not a ton of knitting, although I did make a hat last week, which will be it’s own post by itself because it’s so awesome. But that’s really about it. Hope you are enjoying the season as much as we are!

In which I distract you from my lack of pictures by redirecting you to other blogs…

I know I’ve been a bit absent around here lately and that is because I got a second job and have had a lot less time for all this internetty stuff.  I am still knitting, but goodness, once you factor in the uploading of pics and info to flickr, ravelry, and the blog…that’s a lot of virtual bases to cover!  It’ll get better, though, as I find some balance between work, work and home. 

I recently finished a tiny pair of fingerless mitts for Elle for Christmas and am almost finished with another pair for another little girl who will be turning 2 this week.  Happy birthday, Anna!  The tinyness of these mitts is ridiculously and painfully cute.  I’ll put a pic up next time I’ve got a camera handy.

So, since I have no real pictures to put up, I will link you to better blogs than this one where you can see some things I’m interested in/planning on doing/amused by.

One Pretty Thing has a post entirely dedicated to creepy halloween food.  I am very interested in making cookies that look like fingers this year, but this post is inspiring me to go all out.  Bloodshot Eye Cheeseball, anyone?

Uncommon Grace recently put up a really basic muffin recipe.  Fall is the time for muffins, I think. 

TECHKnitting, a site that has improved my knitting so much over the past year, has a tutorial about weaving in too-short ends.  What a clever lady she is.

101 cookbooks put up a nice autumnal recipe for corn pudding inside roasted Acorn (which I feel should be spelled egg-corn) squash.  This food blog often has really complicated recipes on it (ie recipes with more than 7 ingredients), but this seems pretty simple and I’d really like to make soon.

Mighty Girl is making me dissatisfied with my life with her amazing pictures from her trip to Greece.  Not cool, Maggie. 

Well, next time, I swear to you I will have pictures.  The mitts, the cowl I just finished and a hat on the way from my most favorite Malabrigo color ever!

Back in the swing

I’m back!

Oh, wait, did I not tell you I was leaving?

Oops, my bad.

Well, if you must know, I was extremely busy sailing the high seas on the Queen Mary II, with David, my mother-in-law, and my trusty room steward Larry, who didn’t even bat an eye when I asked for a frozen chocolate bomb, a club sandwich, a caprese salad, an egg salad sandwich, an order of fries and a cup of tea at 3am (and, lord love him, he asked if that was all I wanted as if he worried that wouldn’t be enough).

We sailed out of NYC and spent the entirety of Labor Day weekend becoming less and less satisfied with our real lives. It was glorious.

But, now I’m back. I did get a bit of knitting done over the last week or so–not much, be enough to write a blog so that my adoring fans (mom) will be subdued.

Look at these! Fingerless gloves! Now, I know what you are thinking “Another pair of fingerless gloves, huh? Seriously? You are becoming quite the one trick pony aren’t you?” First of all, that’s hurtful. Secondly, fingerless gloves have three very attractive factors: 1. They are cool. B. They knit up quickly and III. They are fun to do.

[On a side note, don't my fingers look shiny in this pic?  I don't know what the deal is with that]

These are for my beautiful cousin, Leah, who just started college (omg) as an Opera major. She gave us a tour of her campus a couple weeks ago, and showed us the practice rooms where she’ll be spending hours a day singing and playing piano. They are in the basement of a building not far from her dorm. I thought that commute and those chilly rooms might benefit from some knitted love–and with fingerless gloves, she can keep warm and play at the same time! Here are the specs:

Pattern: Cabled Fingerless Gloves
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice Solid (washability was very important for this one)
Needles: US size 4

Look what else I made:

Aren’t these the sweetest little baby socks ever? I just love them! My boss’s daughter just had twins–one boy, one girl–and, well, you know that knitters live for babies, right? Exactly, so I really had no choice. I would like to make little matching hats for them, but I think I may have run out of steam on this project, so the socks will have to do.

Pattern: Jimmy’s Baby Bootie Set
Yarn: Sublime Organic Cotton dk
Needles: US size 4 dpn’s

Well, dearies, that is just about all that’s been happening around here. This weekend, Raven and I plan to watch about 17 hours of So You Think You Can Dance and also the latest episode of Glee, so I’m sure some knitting will get done at some point. I’m working on a pair of worsted weight knee socks for David (winter biking means one leg will be exposed to the cold), so I’ll check in with progress on those next week.