Weekend of Thanks

What a busy few days this has been. Thursday I headed south to see the in-laws for Thanksgiving. My nearly two-year-old niece and my sister-in-law's foster children, ages six and eight were with us for the occasion, and I have to say that there is nothing like a bunch of kids to invigorate a holiday function. the kids kept us up and playing, whether at the Wii (even Grampy got in on the action) or out in the backyard with a baseball. Some examples of the cuteness:





Every time the 6 year old caught the ball he'd fall on the ground, forcing the 2 year old into fits of giggles. The eight year old was an ace at the wii and annihilated most of us. Thank goodness that she wanted to take a break from beating our socks off to join me in playing a little dress up with my mother in law's fancy gloves. I love that unbeknownst to her, the 2 year old flashed the sign for "I Love You" in the picture above. How very fitting for a day of family togetherness. And yes, I did manage to slip in a shot of our cute kid pooch Brisco Fancypants.
Friday I got to meet up with a couple of friends who live near the in-laws and do some knitting. Well actually Lara and I knitted while Guy and Jesse played with Photoshop and sent us on a second honeymoon to Niagara Falls - see how I'm cheerily punching him because he has a beer and I don't:


This was the first time that Lara and I got together to knit. She'd been telling me that she's a baby knitter and that there was no way that she'd be able to make something without a pattern. I completely disregarded what she said and coached her along as she designed her very own mitts. See Lara, you ain't no baby knitter anymore! They turned out great, and I'm thinking I might need to knit me a pair of those.



Friday night we decided to head north to our friends cabin for the rest of the weekend. Up there it's normally cold and snowy by now, but instead it stayed in the 60s. Bad for my friend, an avid snowmobiler (or if you're like some Alaskans, snow machiner) but good for me, 'cause I got to spend hours sitting on the deck knitting and drinking coffee/wine/beer. Here's the view of the lake just a short stroll from the cabin and me knitting on the porch, wearing in the hat and mitts that steph sent me for the knit knack hat exchange.


If you're wondering about the grin, it's due to the fact that the cabled sweater pattern that I am working on finally clicked. I had started this, my first human sized sweater, back in August and pretty much haven't touched it since early September. This weekend I decided that come hell or high water, I would make some progress on this damn thing. As I was knitting along I just couldn't see where this is going even though I had the picture and was following the pattern correctly. Finally, I put down my knitting, pulled out the pattern, and re-read it from start to finish. There it was, at the start of the pattern: top down construction. Ah-ha! I flipped my work over and finally it all made sense. Talk about a "duh" moment! I was able to make some headway after that.

We got home mid day today with enough of the day left to deck the halls. I let Guy and Mike take care of the lights, with their little assistant Brisco, sporting his 2007 Christmas sweater, Buster. Brag alert: For those of you on Ravelry, our little Brisco's picture is on the pattern page for both that sweater and his 2008 Cables & Bits Christmas sweater. You better believe I'll be shooting for a trifecta next year.


Now I'm off to enjoy the Christmas lights and work on another Cables and Bits for Brisco's cousin Rocky (my sister's dog).

Vermont Hat

Here's a hat that I knit a couple of years ago, when I was newly fascinated with fair isle. I couldn't find just the right pattern so I pulled out my graph paper and played around creating something that would be easy yet interesting. I knit one for each member of my family that lives in Vermont (Californian thinking: They must need a lot of hats - it snows there!) so it got the very unoriginal name, Vermont hat.
Pattern: Vermont Hat
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Miracle Tuesday

My Nonny has been in the hospital since Sunday night. Monday morning I got a call from my mom that they didn't expect her to live past noon that day and the pneumonia she has comes with a 60-70% mortality rate. I took off work and spent the entire day by her bedside, waiting and watching as she was supposed to be dying. And then I did it again on Tuesday. When the doctor came in to see our family yesterday he literally called her a miracle - he hadn't expected to be seeing her again. I can hardly put to words what an emotional roller coaster this has been. Nonny's still not out of the woods, but today is another day that I have with her, and for that I'm thankful. I tell you what, that 87 year old woman is quite a fighter!

While bedside with Nonny I started and finished my own pattern for a cabled hat, which I think I'll probably call Tuesday's Miracle. I need to refine the pattern since the one I made turned out child sized and I want it to fit an adult. After that I'll post the pattern. I'll be back in the hospital with her tonight as well as on and off throughout the next week, so I'll probably be working on that more and posting blogs a lot less.

Another Tuesday Miracle, my nephew Cooper crawled for the first time! I got the text from my sis while with Nonny, so I told her and she grinned ear to ear. Here's a video of the benchmark:



I swear one of these day's I'll have a post that doesn't start with a catastrophe!

A Little Thing Called Gauge

The termite situation is nearing to a close - by tomorrow construction should be done on my walls and we'll have had a visit by our friendly neighborhood exterminator. The gods must have been smiling on us because this whole debacle hasn't set us back as much as I originally anticipated. Knock on wood! Knock on wood!
As any good knitter would, I used knitting to deal with my stress and was able to punch out a Pi Topper while making numerous To-Do lists (just ask my hubby how effective the lists are). Apparently I was a little more distracted than I thought because I didn't even notice how huge this was until after I had added on the embellishment. While it's perfect sized for a person with unruly dreadlocks, it's WAY too big for it's intended recipient, a middle aged woman going through chemo. Evidence:

Time to find a friend with dreads to gift this too, 'cause I'm sure as hell not frogging it! I've started over on this project with needles 3 sizes smaller, but the second time around it never goes as quickly. I've got an interpreting workshop this weekend, so I'm sure it'll be done soon enough.

In other news...

I broke my new knitter friend Erin's LYS cherry.
Erin had already become a major stasher of craft store yarn, so I figured she was ready for the next step in knitting addiction, the Local Yarn Store. She was so overwhelmed, which I knew because she kept repeating, "I'm so overwhelmed!"

I took her to the newest LYS in town, Swatches, which I had never been to before. It's a cute little shop where I met owner Fran and her friend/assistant/talky-talker Janet. I have to admit that I felt like a super baby knitter talking to them - I can't imagine what was going through Erin's 6-month-old-knitter mind! Talking to them did firm up my resolve to start working on creating my own patterns again. Here's what I got, which I'm thinking I'll make into some sort of lacy mitt:


The best part is that while I was there I got to meet Angela, the maker of True Love Fiber, the yarn porn from last post! She was really sweet and was sitting out front of the shop knitting with her son. I'll tell you this, there's nothing cuter than a boy knitting his first skull and crossbones washcloth!

Termites Schmermites

We just found out that termites are ravaging our walls, so we're going to have to basically replace all the studs. I'm not happy about this at all.
To brighten this day, I just came across this gorgeous sock yarn in my stash that I had forgotten about. Wake Up by True Love Fiber. I got it at Ancient Pathways, the owner of which messaged me on Ravelry to let me know that she had saved a skein for me after I had commented how much I loved the colors of one of her projects that used this yarn. Very cool lady!!!
With no further ado, Yarn porn:

Calorimetry Revisited

Two years ago, I like oh so many other knitters, excitedly knitted up a Calorimetry only to find that it was HUGE! Seriously, I've yet to find a knitter who was able to follow the pattern to specifications and yield a perfect Calorimetry. Here's mom being a good sport on Christmas day wearing the one I gifted to her:











Her extreme good will continued all through Christmas morning as she didn't take it off until all presents were unwrapped. Oh, and I forgot to mention that not only did I knit up one of these huge head coverings, I knit TWO! Evidence that I knit a second one, apparently hoping that it would magically turn out smaller than it's predecessor:







Denial. I know.





This was pretty much the last time these head coverings were seen until yesterday when I came across this monstrosity and decided to do something I've never had the heart to do before: I frogged the entire project. I've always though there was some level of shame in frogging, but in all actuality it was almost a cathartic experience, and on top of that I got to knit with this lovely Katia Mexico yarn again. Win-Win! Honestly, with the exception of the size issue, this pattern is a good and simple one to make - I don't think I spent more than an hour or two on this bad boy.

So with no further ado, I give you Calorimetry revisited:




Maybe I can get mom to pull her Calorimetry out of whatever closet she stashed it in so I can frog and reknit hers as well.

Yes, that is Mike in the background pretending to stab me with my own knitting needles

Getting Started

Yes, my obsession with knitting has finally compelled me to start a blog.