CPR

OK, time to resuscitate my poor little dying blog. Frankly, it's the freaking sweater that's in the way of my blogging. You know that cable pattern that I marveled at in my last post? Yeah, well, it is the BANE of my existence. I know, I know...cabling is really NOT that complicated. It's true, with some focus and attention, this little yoke shouldn't be too hard. But I am making NUTTY mistakes all over the place and have probably ripped out as many rows as I've knit in the whole damn sweater so far (I really think that this is close to being true as I mentioned it to Andrew and he readily agreed.) Anyway, those cables in my previous post were completely frogged when I realized I'd messed up so much that I couldn't salvage it. I had worked and reworked the yarn so much that it was all felty and pilled like an OLD sweater, no joke. So I started over and just went really slow. I've still had to knit and frog a bit, but mostly due to general stupidity. To wit: last night I put the sweater down because I was at my first purl row that involved decreasing. Since this sweater apparently doesn't like to be knit after 9 pm, I put it down and picked it up today, only to forget that this wasn't a regular purl row (purl to end) but a purl row with decreases...and I didn't realize this until I'd finished purling the whole row. See? Idiotic mistakes. Anyway, I was at a brief impasse up 'till now when I realized that I didn't have the correct decrease directions written down (remember? The ones I'd lost but Laurel sent to me?) Of COURSE I wrote them down wrong because why should I do anything with the sweater that I don't have to repeat 18 times?? When I finish this sweater I will a) throw a party complete with party hats and favors and b) kill someone if it doesn't fit me perfectly.On another note, today Andrew, my Dad, and I went to Commerce bank to count some change. By "some" I mean this 5 gallon glass water jar that my parents have been filling with change for a bazillion years. Once my Dad had very partially filled this same container and didn't want to deal with taking it to the bank himself (this is before the days of Commerce bank and free coin counting). He said if I dealt with it, I could keep whatever was in there. I was probably still a poor college kid at the time so I eagerly (greedily?) took on the task by myself, which was no small feat considering change is flipping HEAVY and my biceps are puny. Well, 5 or 6 pillow cases later and I'd lugged it into the bank....only to find out that it was a few hundred dollars' worth of coins. I informed my Dad and he decided then and there that that was the last time he'd ever make a deal like that. So flash forward umpteen years, and we now have a completely FULL change jar. I mean full. See? Andrew and I struck a deal with my Dad where we got a cut of the profits and off to the bank we schlepped. We filled the bags in the machine so many times that the teller eventually just kept the machine open for us to dump the change directly into rather than closing and opening the thing again. I must say, those Commerce employees are pretty patient.

And so we come to the fun part: Guess how much money was in that jar. Whoever gets the closest will get a little present from me. Don't include the paper money you see in there, you can't put that in the change counter! Yeehaw! It's my first blog game! Let's say voting will last for a week (since probably no one is looking at this blog since I post once a century) and you can only vote once. And just so ya'll know, Andrew, my Dad and I all voted and I came closest - less than $25 off. Yeah, beat that.

Tangled Up

Here's the latest on my progress on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. In all, it's knitting up pretty fast and the directions are sort of clear. But the wording is funny in some places and I've found myself frogging more than I think I should need to for a relatively simple pattern. Of course, the truth of the matter is I should read through the directions BEFORE I dive in, but hey, I consider myself virtuous enough for actually knitting swatches, so forget pre-reading the directions. Besides, I'm a kinesthetic/visual learner (that's the kind of lingo you get after you teach for 10+ years) so just reading something isn't going to help me.Anyhow, I'm up to the 'tangled yoke' part which is a series of cables. It's fun watching them appear as I go, although slightly maddening since I have to be really focused or I miss a stitch and start a cable too early and the whole row ends up wonky. I'm now at the point where I CAN'T knit in rehearsal since I have to consult the pattern so much, which is a pain in the butt since we're doing Sweeney Todd this year. That means lots of sitting around listening to the alto, tenor, and bass sections going over their parts and every once in a while chiming in with the melody...Sondheim is a tricky fellow and we are a humble community theatre, so you do the math.

Sampler Efforts

I've decided to send some contributions over to The Sampler again. I haven't participated in a while, mostly because I hadn't been able to get my act together to make 25 of something (!), but I've been seriously digging the lavender scent coming from those flower stems that I made, so I thought I'd make some lavender bud bookmarks. I used some more of those pink and burgundy monogrammed napkins that were left in my box at work one day (you gotta love colleagues who know you well enough to understand that you'll be excited by random fabric in your pigeon hole) and made little hearts out of some scrap fabric from my first quilt. I KNEW I'd saved those 1" triangles for SOMETHING. Three cheers for upcycling!

And now I wait for my goodie-stuffed Sampler to arrive in the mail....dum de dum....

Why I Love Break

Because it gives me time to put together ideas that have been percolating for a while. I saw an idea for sewing fabric leaves onto floral stems a while back. I don't have floral stem wire laying around, but I have been looking for a way to reuse the wire hangers I get from the dry cleaners which I can't ever throw away (I once tried to return them at the dry cleaners figuring they could be recycled - - they looked at me like I was nuts.) So here is my contribution for Valentine's day, up in the shop. Andrew helped me figure out a way to get lavender buds into the design, so they smell purty too:)

Christmas Morning Breakfast

And my Dad won't admit to table-feeding the cat.

Lots of positive kitty vibes being sent to Nancy and Bo:)

The Holiday Spectacular Post!

OK, I'm going to get over the fact that I'm posting about gifts, and let you see what I've been up to lately. Now that I'm finally done with crafting for the holidays, I'll be knitting some sweaters for myself (I have a hefty bill from Webs to prove it!) so here's what's been taking up my time:

Three Koolhaas hats (by Jared in Interweave's holiday edition...such a fantastic pattern that it's being offered here now!):These were actually simple to knit once I got the hang of the pattern. For some odd reason I felt it necessary to knit without a stitch marker the first time which made the process a whole lot longer. When you knit it, use the dang stitch marker (I did on the second and third hat and they whizzed off my needles.) I'll probably be knitting more of these in the future:)

Two aprons made out of a reproduction German fabric:

I also dried some herbs from the garden and the farm to go along with this gift (going to the cooks in the family). The aprons are from a pattern from this book here.One dragon hand puppet (Interweave holiday again) which will be huge on the recipient, but I think that'll make it cuter:One superhero cape for a superhero nephew (made it up as I went along):

The superhero, revealed:A pillow made out of the softest yarn in the world (picked out by Sophie). I also put a little heart from recycled cashmere socks that finally died on me this year. And a necklace for my mom:
And, whew! That's my interpretation of the Handmade Pledge! And I finished it all with a day to spare!!! Now, where is that sweater I'd started for myself a few months ago???

Merry Christmas!!

Deadlines Are A Good Thing

I was fully prepared to not send out Christmas cards this year. I got too wrapped up in making all of my gifts and hadn't even thought of a design for this year's card. My Gocco looked pleadingly at me, but I just decided it was one thing I was going to have to let go this time.

But we have family friends who we get together with on Christmas and one of our time-honored traditions is judging all of the cards they have received. It's a silly event that some people can't stand (after all, we are judging the taste of others through their card choices) but I love it. Last year, my submission was my first handmade holiday card and word on the street is that there is a new category for this year's contest: handmade. Being as how I am probably going to be the only card in this category, I thought I'd better get on it.

So I woke up this morning (first day of winter break!) with an idea to draw a pair of hands knitting because knitting brings me peace. In my half-awake state, I also decided that I'd draw a pair of hands holding a book open for Andrew because reading brings him peace. Or at least, as far as I was concerned at 6:30 this morning: reading brought Andrew peace. Before jumping out of bed I verified this --

me: "Reading brings you peace, right Andrew? Right?"

Andrew: "Huh? What? Um, yeah, reading brings me....uh....peace....snore"

(edit: Andrew has reminded me that I also tried to foist "playing golf" on him as a suggestion for something that brings him peace. His response? "Sometimes.")

and then drew up a design and Goccoed a bunch of cards (which I had to hand cut). It's important to point out that I heard last night that today was the last shipping day to guarantee Christmas delivery. Andrew thinks that's wrong, but at 6:30 AM today, I was convinced that these cards must get done NOW. Anyway, here's what came out:

I printed them in gold because the line drawings reminded me of diagrams that I used to see as a kid in books from the 70s....and for some reason they were always in weird colors. I'm pretty sure that no one is going to understand the meaning of reading and knitting with the word peace, but that's the kind of stuff that my brain thinks up in those moments before completely waking, so there you have it. Many of the cards we sent have some sort of hint written inside as the message like: Wishing you the time to do all of the things that bring you peace this holiday season. That, or something equally clunky.

So, in a whirlwind of inspiration, design, printing, and writing/addressing, Andrew and I managed to get handmade Christmas cards out on the supposed last-possible-shipping day and not a tear was shed in the process. Have I mentioned recently that I work well under pressure?