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!

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?

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.

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!

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!

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.

My beautiful niece is a year old!  Surely there is some mistake here, because I feel like we were visiting her in her little incubator in the hospital just last week!  But, no–upon consulting my Ellie calendar beside my desk, I see it is true, she really is a year old. 

(If you have issues with gushing, feel free to go ahead and skip to the knitting pics as this next paragraph is going to be a bit tedious for you)I can’t believe how much she’s grown since we first saw her in the NICU at Children’s Hospital.  She was born a couple months early (I can’t help feeling a little guilty about this, since I was soooo impatient for her arrival) so she spent several weeks in the hospital before she could go home.  Since then, she has become the blue-eyed-curly-haired axis, around which our whole family revolves.  We can’t help ourselves!  And she may or may not have learned her first word and it may have been either Cat or Bubble, but these reports come from my mom, who (bless her heart) probably hears the Gettysburg Address and all 50 states (with capitals) in every sweet, drooly babble that comes out of that sweet mouth, so we shall see about that.

So bust out the crepe paper, pointy hats  and Tickle Me Elmo because there is to be a Rockin 1st Birthday Partay this weekend!  I made the cake last night and it is busy becoming resilient in the freezer until its big debut.  Of course, there is also a single cupcake for the birthday girl (because this feels “more contained” to my sticky-phobic family members–ask me sometime about why I grew up thinking popsicles could only be eaten during bathtime).   Besides the cake, which I admittedly asked if I could make, I was requested to complete a little short sleeved sweater, which I did, because I can’t say no.  Here it is:

And look at this little pleat in the back–so cute!!

Pattern: Spring Butterfly
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease (because it has to be machine washable)
Mods: No ruffles, just modern, clean bands of garter stitch at the arm holes and the bottom.
Mistakes: Many. i don’t want to talk about it right now.

Now, I know you might be thinking, “gosh, that is an awfully strong A-line there–it’s going to fit like a dress!” But you would understand why so much flare is necessary if you could see this child’s 4 square ball belly. You cannot resist blowing raspberries on this belly. It is like a blank canvas for raspberry blowing.

Here’s what else she’ll be getting from me and her Unkadunk:

Crayons, because she’s an artist

A hot pink dress, because I have no self control:

Remember Ollie? He’s been waiting quietly on the mantle to be introduced to his new mommy:

Okay, so that’s what Ellie’s getting, but I also have two more things to show you! (posting less frequently makes me seem much more productive, does it not?)

First, my mom took in a stray cat (which is very unlike her) and named it Chloe. Over the weekend, I saw that our Co-op sells catnip in the bulk spices section (which, by the way, is the absolute cheapest way to buy spices, if you can remember to save the jars), so I decided to knit Chloe a little mousey toy and stuff it with catnip. Well, it only took an hour or so to knit it up, so I decided to make another for my sister’s evil cat Dante, this time in bulkier yarn.  I will now point out the obvious and say that using thicker yarn results in a larger mouse. This particular yarn created Mouse-zilla. I could not insult Dante with this beast, so I made another one in sparkley pink, which ended up looking a lot like a pig with some unfortunate facial hair. I will let the cats choose for themselves.

Also, over the weekend, I got a little tired of knitting (don’t worry, I’m better now) for just long enough to take up a new hobby: Scherenschnitte. Behold:

Last August, we stumbled upon the Woodland Art Fair here in Lexington and had some fun wandering around and admiring the art, watching people, and sweating. We noticed last year that there were lots of yard sales in the neighborhoods around the fair, so this year, we got up early and trawled the nicer neighborhoods for new old stuff. The fickle yard sale gods smiled on us and we went home with:

A huge green rug for our echo-y finished attic and the most adorable cream vinyl chair! $7.00 each.

AND…

A set of four metal swivelly (but seatless) patio chairs. David’s been wanting to create some sort of oasis back there complete with fire pit and hammock. $5.00 each.

On the knitting front, I learned a new skill:

STRANDED KNITTING! I never thought I’d learn, but then I did and it really wasn’t hard at all! This is the Thorpe hat from ravelry in Cascade Eco+ and Cascade Lana Grande and it is BIG, which is good, because it is for someone with a lot of noggin’ to cover. Big brains, you know.

I also knitted this Swiffer Cover from the Mason Dixon book that I got for Christmas last year.

I was disappointed because it was a little big (loose knitter + non-gauge checker = things that come out too big), but then we washed and dried it and it now fits like a glove! AND, bonus: it didn’t fall apart in the wash! That is quality, my friends.

Over the weekend, I also bought some superwash wool so that I can start a series of projects for my niece, Ellie, who will get the most stuff for Christmas because: 1) I love her best and 2) she is little, so knitted items for her are fast.

Enjoy your week!

I didn’t realize how much stuff I’ve knitted since the last update until I hauled it all out to photograph it this morning.  I must say, I impressed even myself.  Here are the goods:

*Note: All the patterns are from  ravelry, so if you’re not a member, I don’t think you can see them

Transformer Mitts: Fingerless gloves in disguise.
Yarn: Cascade 220
Color: 9938 (Evergreen)
Pattern: Urban Necessity Gloves

Matching Fingerless Gloves and Swirly Hat:
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca
Color: Potting Mix
Pattern: Toasty (gloves) / Noro Hat

Summer Tank Top for Ellie:
Yarn: Peaches & Cream
Colors: Ecru & Peacock
Pattern: Winged it…

Curvy Cardi:
Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky
Color: Olive (it is much more green than these pictures show)
Pattern: Raspberry Layers

This one needs to be blocked and I still have to add a narrow seed stitch collar, just to finish off the neck, but in my mind, it’s pretty much done.

Isn’t that a lot of knitting?? I also just finished the main body of another sweater for another lovely lady, so I’ll be showing that one as soon as I finish the sleeves and ribbing.

Also, there’s been a lot of baking in the house lately because David is between classes right now, so he is going stir crazy at home. If it were me at home all day, I would have found something much less productive to fill up my time (like a private ALF marathon), but David has been cleaning and baking like a madman.

This humble loaf was my favorite baked good of this binge. It’s a “lighter, airy pound cake“, which is ironic because it calls for 2 sticks of butter.

Less successful was my Pavlova. It tasted like a stale, vinegary marshmallow. I know you’re mouths are watering right now. David even felt like it deserved a trip to the Discount Liquor Store to get some pink champagne, which cost about $2 and was a good match for this blackberry/lemon curd filled crater:

Luckily, I am just trashy enough to scrape the lemon curd and blackberry topping off the top of the pavlova before I threw it into the trash can. Then I put it on the pound cake.

Perhaps the most disappointing dessert of the bunch was a crepe gateau that was good, but not worth the two day long prep time that the recipe required

I’ve been enlisted to make the cake for my niece’s first birthday and I’m thinking of this strawberry one from Smitten Kitchen, which was also the source for both the pound cake and the crepe cake (for which I forgive her because it was the first bad thing we’ve ever made from that site). It will have purple icing, because if you’re going to have a child smash food all over herself, it might as well be pretty food.

Ah the tomato soup.  Behold:

You know, I never liked tomato soup as a child, but I’ve found that almost everything I hated as a kid, I love now, except for cooked cabbage, which still disgusts me because it smells like a fart.

You can get this recipe from the Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper.  Speaking of Splendid Table, I realized this past weekend that weekend NPR shows are like grownup Saturday morning cartoons.  My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is to stay in bed with a cup of tea and listen to Car Talk, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, and Splendid Table all in a row, and then to catch parts of Prairie Home Companion and This American Life  a bit later.  I think a lot of people miss out on this peaceful and special weekend activity because they believe that NPR is for liberals only.  Conservatives of the World! These shows will not offend you! They are safe for you and your children to listen to!

Anyhoo, let’s talk about the way poor people (aka me) decorate.  At our last apartment, David and I nailed books to wall and stuck this decal to wall behind our dining room table.  At our current apartment, we had not really decorated all that much, but last weekend, we stumbled upon a rummage sale at UK’s Art Museum and picked up several oldish frames for about $10 or so and decided to hang them artily on the wall, just like Anthropologie does (so many disappointments in my life begin this way.), so we hung them, but decided it looked a bit blank (shocking, I know).  So we traced lines around their insides and painted them blue (obviously).

Still to blank, we thought, so we dug out our old books and nailed them somewhat randomly inside the frames.  Just right–I seriously love it.  It’s like little windows cut out of the wall that look out over floating books.

So what do you think…cute or weird? Or both?  I think probably both…