Moving back to Wordpress if anyone wants to find me: http://mander.wordpress.com/
I still plan on using Vox to share pictures with pals on my Friends list, stalk my Voxy loved ones and answer the occasional QOTD.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Hope everyone's got their pinch-protection green gear on today. Jim and I found ourselves childless on Saturday (one kid was already spending the night at Grandma's, so we tossed the other kid onto the other grandma's doorstep and peeled out of there before any protest could be waged), and we were lucky enough to make plans with friends for dinner, sitting down to a proper Irish feasting of corned beef and cabbage at the local Irish pub:
We also got a little...
Happy. ;)
I have to admit, as fun as bar-hopping with my friends was, the resulting hangover the next morning (a headache and mild distate for anything fried, nothing major) reaffirmed that I am really better off being a homebody. Still, there was lots of music, merriment and good times to be had.
Not a whole lot of knitting this week... I'd set aside the pair of socks I'd been working on to make some progress on Sam's baby blanket (still unfinished... he'll be lucky if he gets it before he leaves for college), and just picked up the socks again. I've been working some part-time hours at one of the local yarn shops - seriously, does it get any better for a knitter? - and it's hard not to get inspired to knit when you're surrounded by all sorts of yummy fibers. (Damn, that sounds like I'm describing a breakfast cereal, doesn't it?) I hope I'll have some completed projects to share soon.
In the meantime, here's a bunch of gator mitt pictures. I ended up felting them slightly and now they fit *perfect*. As you can see, they've also been seen having quite the time around town:
List three things you'd buy with your last $20. One practical, one frivolous and one of your choosing.
Practical:
Baby formula (can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to switching to cow's milk next month, the cost of formula is crippling me) - most would agree that feeding your baby's about as practical as it gets.
Frivolous:
Plymouth's Confusion yarn. It's the mother of all novelty yarns which isn't usually my thing but I'm intrigued to see what this stuff looks like all knitted up.
Plymouth's Confusion yarn. It's the mother of all novelty yarns which isn't usually my thing but I'm intrigued to see what this stuff looks like all knitted up.
My own choosing:
Hmmm, let's see. I'd say $20 is about a week's worth of grande caramel macchiatos, am I right?
Hmmm, let's see. I'd say $20 is about a week's worth of grande caramel macchiatos, am I right?
They are, in a word....
Seriously, I don't think it's possible to have a bad day when you're wearing alligator mittens. Warm to wear, and highly amusing. Grace has already requested a smaller pair. Pattern is from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, yarn is Cascade 220 Wool.
I fear these crafty little alligators aren't to be trusted, though. They already tried to eat the pug:
... and were sizing up the baby for dessert:
Lucky for Sam I showed up when I did, or who knows what might have happened.
(P.S. - Happy birthday, Mommy! You don't look a day over 40. And I'm not just saying that to stay in the will.)
As you can see, a certain kindergartener has been quite busy celebrating. =)
She's not the only one who's been creative this week - I finished a hat for my SIL, only my second Fair Isle Project:
Pattern is Magknits' Fake Isle Hat, yarn is Noro Kureyon #157 and Lamb's Pride Worsted in Onyx. I should mention that it is a supreme act of love that I'm giving this hat away because I just lurve it so much, despite the fact that the brim completely obscures my eyebrows.
Look at me, being all Frenchy and stuff! I knew basic conversational French back in high school (and got to use it too when I traveled Europe when I was 17, which was an awesome experience) but sadly forgot pretty much everything I knew after years of non-use. My father-in-law lent me his Pimsleur French audio CDs, so I've been listening to them in the car. So far I know how to ask a Frenchwoman if she understands English like nobody's business.
Anyways, I've finished a couple of projects... small projects, but after taking an eternity to finish Jim's socks and other languishing projects, it feels damn good to be able to cast on and finish something the same month I started it.
First up, socks for Gracie -
Yarn is Encore Worsted #793, a pale blue that she requested. They knit up super fast since it's worsted-weight yarn on (relatively) large DPNs. Grace has been wearing them either to bed or with her pink cowgirl boots, and her cousin Victoria's already asked for a purple pair.
Also started and finished my first RAOK, a neck warmer for my Nana -
She's kept us supplied with diapers all year long and treated us very well this Christmas, so I knew she had to be the first person on my randon gift list, to thank her for looking after my family! Pattern is the Luxe Neck Warmer from Tracy Ullman & Mel Clark's book, Knit 2 Together. I just love how this turned out, I want to knit one for everyone I know in every color imaginable. I used 1 skein of
Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande and let me tell you, this stuff is divine. I've had alpaca yarn in my stash but never used it before this project, and I am so in lurve with it now.
Like I said, small but highly satisfactory; if you throw in the belated Jim socks and the felted bag, that makes four finished projects this month alone. For me, this seriously rocks! Next up on the knit to-do list is gator mittens for myself, a Fake Isle hat for my sister-in-law, aforementioned purple socks for my niece and maybe some cabled mittens for a friend.
Pretty cute, although for something so little it took a helluva lot of time to felt and even now it's not felted very much. I'm guessing it's the small amount of silk content - yarn is Boku #4.
Not sure how often I'll use it, since I'm unable to carry anything smaller than a diaper bag these days, but it was a quick & easy knit and I love the colors.
Deceptively harder than it looks! Not that I've spent all evening playing it or nothing....
Not to be mistaken for gym socks. Har dee har har har.... oh, I kill me.
Yarn is Ditto from Universal Yarn.
This was my first time knitting him socks and what you can't tell from this photo is that my husband apparently has freakishly small calves and ankles for a man, and so the socks don't hold up very well. So I'm not really happy with them at all but Jim's making a good show of pretending to like them by wearing the baggy things right now. Note to self that the next pair of socks I knit for the man will be RIBBED!
So we're slowly recovering from all the holiday joy, and getting back into some semblance of a routine... Jim's back to work and Grace is back in school (practicing for the school's speed cup-stacking team... not exactly sure what it entails but there's actually a tournament in March for it), and then it's just me and Sam hanging out together. After a week of being plopped on the couch and watching an America's Next Top Model marathon, I think I've finally gotten the "I'm-a-jobless-slob" bug out of my system and an ready to tackle some new things, plus a few home projects like clearing my bedroom of all laundry baskets and bulldozing the pile of papers and crap out of the den. (I know... I don't believe me either.)
Our New Year's Eve celebrating was pretty subdued... Miss Meghan came over for a traditional southern New Year dinner - pork roast, hoppin' john and collard greens. Mmm mmm. We also placed pennies on our doorstep for luck. We promised Grace she could stay up until midnight - she lasted until 10:30pm. She made us promise to wake her up at midnight "for the hugs and kisses and happy new year stuff", but it was a losing battle. Naturally though, we were yelled at the next morning for not trying hard enough. ;)
Sam had no problem staying up, though - I was rocking with him in his room 10 minutes after midnight, and spent most of the evening slumped with him in an armchair. Damn fireworks in town woke him up, grrr, then it went downhill from there. But again, I wouldn't wish for it any other way - a year ago, I'd have given my right arm to be awake half the night with a baby, so it's all good. We're slowly working out a bedtime routine plus modified CIO plan... nothing too hardcore (I can't stand letting any baby cry for too long), but hopefully setting a path so that Sam can learn to fall back to sleep on his own during the night. So far this week he's still waking up in the night, but for shorter periods and longer stretches of sleep, so there's been definite progress.
So I keep thinking about posting my resolutions for 2008, but honestly apart from the usual plan for healthier eating/lifestyle, I'm pretty content with the way life is going in general. =) However, I DO have a few knitting resolutions for 2008 -
-- I will set time aside each day to work on projects, especially Sam's baby blanket. I've decided that Sam's blanket is going to be my Grey's project - if Grey's Anatomy is on the television, I am working on that blanket. It might take 3-4 TV seasons to finish, lol, but finished it will be!
-- I will perform RAOK - Random Acts Of Knitting. To my peeps, you won't know when or where, but one day there will be a package on your doorstep and you'll find some knitty goodness in there. Just you wait...
-- I will search deep into my stash for project yarn before high-tailing it to a yarn shop.
-- I will continue to challenge myself and try new things, like new cast-ons and fair isle knitting.
Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of knittyness.... nothing but good things for 2008. =)
Recent Comments
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bellawest said:
The alligator got drunk didn't he? You, my friend, are a gator enabler ;-)Why do grandparents never take both kids... read more
on Erin go Bragh -
CharacterKnits said:
One word: YUMMMMMMM. Wait! Is that a Scottish man in the background?? read more
on March 017 -
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LOL - I hadn't noticed that drunked gator first time through... I wanna come drinking with you! sniffle... read more
on Erin go Bragh