I can't say that I made everything (such as these incredible mice in Mollie Makes) I planned to for the Easter basket this year, but I did manage to finish this cute little bunny from Fuzzy Mitten. He was easy to knit up, though stuffing the fact required a bit of finesse to make the shape just right. Or maybe I'm obsessive. This pattern comes with all kinds of cute outfits that you can knit. I just made the jacket before I ran out of time, but I'll be making the dress at some point; there's also a vest and a hoodie, so I'd encourage you to grab this pattern;) I'll be posting the details about the yarns I used over on Ravelry if you want to find me there (kdmade).

Because of my ongoing paranoia about chemicals going into my family, we purchased an egg dyeing kit from Whole Foods again this year. Again I boiled the eggs before reading the instructions and realizing that you are supposed to cook them in the dye, and again shook my fist to the heavens in frustration. Last year, I just used the dyes cold anyway and the color didn't really take. This year, I made the dyes with boiling water and only used 500 mls of water instead of the 750 they recommend. I just took the cooked eggs out of the fridge and we made sure to supervise Bean as she used spoons to get the eggs in and out of the colors and they worked great. The yellows don't really get too bright, but the pinks and greens are fabulous. The splotchiness in the photo isn't really on the eggs (that's just Hipstamatic being artsy); the colors also dyed fairly evenly. We'll definitely be doing this again next year, though I will remember to boil my eggs in the dye and I'll be saving pantyhose to try out this super cool decorating technique. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll be buying pantyhose to do it, who the heck wears pantyhose anymore?!

I've finally knit for Bean.

Elsie Cardi
Originally uploaded by kdmade

You'd think I would have at least knit her a hat, but no. I'm a bad knitting mama. But I finally found a pattern I love, that knit up in only a few days (hello?! Knitting baby sweaters makes me feel like a knitting superhero), and will be perfect for when we all start school in the Fall. Also, I'm a sucker for raglan sleeves. And patterns with no seams to bind.

I used Knitpick's organic worsted cotton and it knit up like. a. dream. Such a fantastic drape, much softer than I thought it would be. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

I chose not to do the crochet trim even though I was planning on doing it in a contrasting color. I just finished knitting and felt it was perfectly sweet the way it was.

These are some faboo vintage buttons I scored somewhere.
I put it on her this afternoon and she smiled and smiled. I think she understands "handmade".

Gutless. And a Quilt-a-long!

I am slowly putting together my first knit frog dissection (!) I had the pattern for a while, so long in fact that I think there is now a pattern for a dissected fetal pig and a lab rat (can we get a dissected worm? Please??). After storing my downloaded pattern for a good year or so, I finally knit the frog up, and then puttered around waiting to find a dissection pan to put him in. I think I thought I'd find one at a yard sale or something. But then I thought I'd check out the supply companies that I get stuff for school from and, sure enough, they have dissection pans that don't cost and arm and a leg. I put dark cork in there for the backing because I had some lying around. I'd love to have something that is the color of the blue wax that you usually see in those pans, but I want to get this done in this lifetime, and I think the dark brown is a good background anyway. I need to snag some pins from the lab at school and then needle felt some guts. Of course I will need to do some research because we need to have anatomically correct frog guts. I don't do dissections in my classes so I'm no expert at this. The male and female human reproductive systems? That I could render in felt. Frog innards? Not so much.

I have gotten together the fabrics to have the baby quilt I made OVER A YEAR AGO finally quilted. I'm just going to have it sent out because I don't want my first quilting project to be a quilt top that is really special to me. Quilting is a funny craft because there's this large part of it that I don't feel I can do on my own. Sucking it up and handing it over to someone else to have quilted is proving to be a challenge. But babies grow up fast, I'm now realizing, and I need to get this done quick before she's too big. That, and the last bunch of fabric I had for the backing and the binding turned into her Easter bonnet before I realized what I was cutting into, so I can't have the stuff lying around for too long. It may turn into a sundress.

Getting all of this ready to go has me thinking about quilting again and so I am thinking of joining a quilt-a-long. I wasn't even going to entertain the idea because I work on so very little sleep these days and time in the craft room requires some planning to make sure that Bean is looked after. I'm much more of a spontaneous creator, so planning time to be in the craft room doesn't always work. I just might not be wanting to make something at that time that was set a few days ago. But the fact that this project is jelly-roll friendly AND that I happen to have a jelly-roll lying around means that I'm going to try to give it a shot. If I do it, it'll be the first twin-sized quilt I've made! Stay tuned. Or better yet, join the fun over here!

Summer knits look like this.

Tiny. Lightweight. Sky blue. And portable. This is a pattern Geisha from Knitted Socks East and West. Lots of lovely pattern choices in that one, I tell you.

Why don't I knit socks more often?

The Finish Line.

I made it. I finished Stella's stocking just now, as in, the day before Christmas. It needed to be done in time because I have this thing about having the one stocking, the right stocking, for life. Mine is a crocheted stocking with my name embroidered on it. And it's the right one for me. I looked a lot of stocking patterns before settling on this one. I considered cutting it out of felt and appliqueing it, knitting it, crocheting it, and (in a moment of weakness) buying it. But when I stumbled upon this pattern, I knew it was the one and set about gathering fat quarters. Don't ask me why I waited until this past Monday to start cutting when I knew full well that the stocking had to be done in time for her first Christmas, but I did and so this week was a little, um, crazy. Thankfully, Andrew is on winter break and he happens to be the most sane person I know so my insanity was nicely counter-balanced and I don't think our daughter will suffer any ill effects. At least she can't feel completely neglected by a parent who holes herself up in the craft room for hours on end when there is another parent (albeit, without breasts) who is willing and able to spend quality time raising her, right? Well, whatever, she has a kick ass stocking.

I had to do things a little differently (of course, why make anything simple?) and I cut as many of the strips as I could cut from the striped fabric I made. This meant that I had more patchwork than the pattern called for, so I changed the shape of my stocking to be taller and narrower. I think it's a little too narrow now that the binding is on, but it'll work. Of course my squares aren't lined up perfectly, but that's the kind of quilter I am. Whimsical: that's the look I'm going for (*eyeroll*). I loved doing the simple quilting, and on one side I used white thread while on the other I used a sort of hot pinkish orange. I was originally thinking of bedazzling her name on it with a letter in each square with my faboo kandi thingee, but the squares are really small (1") and I don't want to mess with the simple charm of it. I used white fabric with some silver sparkle to it, so it's definitely got some holiday bling going on. So for now there is no name on it, but that's something I'm willing to figure out for a future Christmas.

I bunged up the binding by putting the loop on the wrong side (insert expletive here), so I just tucked a little loop of some narrower seam binding of the correct side and stitched across the top. It works fine and looks OK.

The real joy of leaving this very important task to the absolute last minute is that I also had to juggle making my other Christmas presents (which I also conveniently left until the last minute) into the schedule. I am not kidding when I say that my planner for this week has entries such as: Piece stocking, cut batting and backing, pediatrician appointment, burn holiday cd. You know it's bad when you have to write the steps in your planner. Anyhoo, I am just about done with the crafting (Andrew is getting a gift that is still on the needles, but he's taking it a lot better than I am) and am now, finally, beginning to get seriously excited about introducing Bean to her first Christmas.

And here is the ornament I made her, which will be going into her stocking:

♥

Shoes To Fill

Right-0, so the knitting project is going terribly. Despite having knitted a gauge swatch (I am so virtuous), I felt like the fabric was a bit too loose as I was knitting, The measurement for the cuff was over an inch under what the pattern called for, which seemed about right to me since the hem and cuffs needed to be blocked anyway. But then, as I finished the decreases and measured the bicep circumference, it came out an inch too big. Huh? Then I checked the gauge of the piece and found that I was knitting 5 more sts to the inch than it called for. So much for my swatch-making abilities. Still, I'm perplexed by the cuff too small/bicep too big dichotomy. I frogged it and will leave it alone for a little while because I have baby shower craftiness to get to. Oh, and as a mental note to myself: buy a ball winder. I never understood why people couldn't just wind a ball of yarn themselves (this is relaxing to me, and sometimes involves Andrew holding the skein - bonus bonding time), until I tried to wind 1200 yards of lace-weight yarn. Oh, now I get it.

Since I don't have anything to show for the last few days of knitting, here are the house slippers I made a little while back. My shoes came out a little small, which might be that I just wasn't being super-duper particular about maintaining perfect seam allowances, or because I put a few extra layers of felt batting in between the sole pieces to give a little cushioning. I am going to make a bunch more of these in different sizes, so my friends can wander around my house without the embarrassment of showing their holey socks (which is nothing to be ashamed about, I have my fair share of holey socks too).
And this is my first pair of baby booties. I have to admit the whole idea of there being a baby in the house in a few months still seems quite abstract. True, I go to the birth center every week for appointments and they hook me up to a machine that confirms that the being inside me that visibly makes my belly move around does indeed have a heartbeat, and true, my naval is almost gone and I can't reach the plates in the the cupboards because my belly can't clear the counter...but still, a real, live BABY? It's all a bit weird.

I ordered a bunch of really cute baby bootie patterns over here and then bought craploads of fusible felt interfacing that will last me for approximately eighty thousand more baby booties. Needless to say, this will probably be the baby shower handmade gift of choice for me for a while. Anyway, they were pretty easy to make, except for some tight turns which required a little finesse. I've already cut out some fabric for a few more pairs, and this time I've cut the fabric for the inserts a little smaller. The inserts I made for this first pair fit in, but they are a teeny bit bulky so I'll see if scaling them down a bit makes them fit better. Andrew picked out the fabric for these, which was a nice way to involve him in the process. I think I'll have him pick out fabrics for my projects more often, it adds a level of surprise and it's one less thing for me to obsess about...

It wasn't until I flipped these shoes right-side out and saw them as little booties that the reality of tiny little feet coming into the house seemed more grasp-able. What is about shoes that gives us such a strong image of a human being occupying them. If the news shoes the wreck of some disaster and I see a glove or a jacket strewn about I can generally handle it...if they show an empty shoe, I can't deal...what's that about?

Yarn, finally!

I ordered some yarn for this project from IK knits a while back. I found the substitute and colorway that I wanted, but had some trouble finding a source that still had it in stock. In the end, I ordered it and it got backordered and I sat around moping for a while. I didn't start any other knitting project, just moped. My recent adventures in frogging every single UFO I had laying around (the rewound yarn filled an entire large-ish tote bag) have made me wary (for now) of starting a project that I don't really love. Of course, I already have a great pair of socks that I was working on that I don't have enough yarn for and I don't yet have the heart to rip out (UFO #1), a brown cardi that I was working on a while back which I didn't frog because it felt too soon, but it's already too far in the past that I don't really remember where I left off (UFO #2), and something in a green linen tape yarn that I found the other day that escaped my frogging whirlwind (UFO #3), but who's counting?

Anyhoo, tired of moping about my lack of a pretty laceweight yarn, I went searching on etsy and found this lovely lavender skein from PennyRose Yarns. It was in stock, came quickly, and is a whopping 1200 yards, so I'm good to go. I'm not usually a lavender-wearing person, but being on bedrest has made me long for some pretty colors around me - - which explains why poor Andrew is perpetually asked to bring me a new bunch of tulips when the old ones peter out, even though there are 50 million other more important things he could be doing with his time. Anyway, I'm going back to bed, this time with yarn and needles, and I'm casting on. Look out!

Knitting Fever

Perhaps it's because I have a quilt day coming up this weekend, perhaps it's because I joined this knitting race (for some insanely odd reason, considering I didn't even have the time to check the site and realized today that the pattern had actually been posted yesterday), perhaps it's because it's still snowing here despite the fact that I am ready for spring, or perhaps it's because I'm still working my way through the fourth season of Lost (yes, I am always a season behind), but for whatever reason, I've been into knitting lately. A lot.

I like many of the patterns in the book Knitted Toys, but needed a small project when a little family emergency had us sitting in a hospital waiting room for a while a few weekends ago, so these mice fit the bill. They are cute, though I didn't pay attention to gauge at all and so they are more rat-sized and I didn't take the time to go to the store to get the perfect color of floss to match the ears. However, if baby spaghetti squash notices anything, I'll be surprised.

And of course, I'll be doing nothing but knitting the project for the contest, the Hemlock Ring Doily Throw, which I've been oohing and aahing over on Brooklyn Tweed for a while. Technically, I should be racing to the yarn and needles right now so that I can cast on, but I'm just going to take it slow and be happy about the fact that I'm really psyched about this pattern. This is why I was never good at competitive sports. I'm not much of a must-win person. That, and I'd rather be sitting on the sidelines knitting rather than chasing a ball around. Oh, who am I kidding, I'd rather be sitting on the sidelines poking knitting needles into my eyes than chasing a ball around. Yeah. I don't really like competitive sports.

I do have a third knitted project on the line, but I'm not going to share much about since it's currently driving me insane and it's technically a gift, but I just wanted you to know that I really mean it when I say there's a lot of knitting going on around here!

As I reread this post, I can't help but notice that it's pretty bland. I'm going to chalk it up to these flippin' pregnancy hormones which have me completely nutso today. I haven't been able to do anything right since breakfast where I burned the bacon, tried to butter the toast IN the toaster oven to keep it warm since I had to make more bacon and dropped butter into the toaster oven which I could then not get out, then burned the bacon again, THEN burst into tears and needed to be rescued by the only sane person living in this household right now (hint: he isn't the pregnant one). It's been a banner day.

36, 29

We are about 36 days away from election day, and the suspense is killing me. Really. I'm having more and more trouble talking about it without losing my cool, and I've had at least two nightmares about it. Even typing these few sentences has me a little keyed up. While flipping the channel between the two candidates on the talk shows this morning, I said to Andrew that I wasn't quite sure I was going to survive the next month or so.

Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that the universe is "watching", ready to smack you upside the head when you really need it. Well, this afternoon I stumbled upon 29 gifts and I've taken the pledge: to give 29 things away in 29 days. While deciding to sign on to this, I found myself focusing on the concept, not the length of time...but shortly after signing up, I realized that this may be the perfect way to keep my mind otherwise occupied for the next month. Rather than focusing on the impending doom that will befall us if we make the wrong choice on November 4th (See? I told you I get worked up), I'm going to try to turn my attention instead to what I can give. Maybe it'll be money to a favorite charity, maybe it'll be a hug to someone who really needs it, maybe it'll even be some time volunteered at the local campaign headquarters...but for the next 29 days I'm thinkin' good thoughts.

Om.

Oh, and P.S. - the photos are of my first ever attempt at a sock! Boy, it's hard to photograph your own foot in a way that artfully displays the sock!! In any event, it's a bajillion times easier than I thought it would be and I'm loving the self-striping...and the serendipity that leads to a little heel that's entirely yellow.

Visit 29-Day Giving Challenge

Goings On

There isn't much to report around here lately, which is why I haven't. Well, there isn't much unless you consider having three insanely adorable chicks to stare at all day blog-worthy news. For fear that my blog will turn into the chick-cam, I've tried to keep the myriad of photos I've taken of them away from here...hence, I haven't been posting.

OK, it's not entirely true that I haven't been doing anything other than staring at the chicks. Sometimes I take them out and play with them, too. No, really...I finally put some flowers into pots today and I moved a hosta from here to there. I swept and organized and fussed over the front and back porches so now I'm ready to be outside more. I also posted another bag on etsy...another vintage patch pouch, but this time I sewed it up with some cotton fleece in the middle to give it some stability. Oh, and the vintage patch punchwork (used to make the totes) that I found at a yard sale a few years ago? The same lady was having a sale this weekend and I found another piece of the stuff, so I have two more patches to sew. I went to the yard sale again hoping I'd find it...when I went two years ago, I tried to haggle her down since I was buying a lot of the embroidery, but she wouldn't budge. Stubbornly, I refused to take it all (instant regret, but ego intact). Well, she got me in the end because two years later, I forked over the rest of the cash for the last bit of it. I know it might seem odd that I'd find it at the same yard sale, but this is a mondo yard sale - - like I think the woman has a serious hoarding problem. Too bad for her, but fine by me because she has some great stuff to look through. I got a cool printed table cloth that will become something tote-like, some fuchsia satin (oh yeah), and another sweet little piece of embroidery with ducks on it. As for the punchwork, I think I might put a patch on a thrifted skirt and save the last one for something else.

I've also cast on another knitting project...another top for me, which is my way of avoiding the fact that I have some baby gifts to be thinking about for the very near future. And I've started burning a few gocco screens. Not sure what'll come out of it, but my gocco has been calling to me!

OK, enough is enough. The chicks are doing something cute...

Tuxedo Ruffle Tank Complete

Yuppers, here it is. I completed it after the first weekend of the Sweeney Todd production (which was smashing, if I do say so myself) and then scrambled to find another project to bring backstage on the second weekend of performances. More about that project later, if it catches...right now, I'm piddling along and considering dumping it. ANYHOO, here's the tuxedo top in all of her ruffly glory. I'm really not a ruffle girl, and I thought I'd hate the crocheted scalloped edging around the lace details, but it's actually not too obtrusive and I like it quite a bit. Notice the reappearance of those great purple buttons...I'd gotten a bunch and was still all nutso about them, so there they are again. And as I'd said I would, I laughed in the face of blocking and therefore have this lovely rolled edge, which is quite fine because I have a little short torso and am not fond of too-long tops (when will this 80's revival of the tunic end...PLEASE!?!?!). The colors in these photos are a little whack since I'm pushing the good photo daylight hours here, but I've been away from my blog for a while so I needed to update NOW!

I know that my knitting season is almost at an end...I never really pick up knitting in the summer, not for any conscious reason...I just think it's too hot and there are other crafts to fall back in love with. This has been my most prolific knitting season, however (this sweater for Andrew, this sweater and that sweater for me, this tank top, and these smaller projects I knit for the holidays) and I have a lot of really great summer knits that have peaked my curiosity. So, who knows? Maybe this will be the summer of clicking needles.

For now, though, I'm going to sit outside and watch the daffodils poke themselves out of the ground.

Here Is Where I'm At

With the tuxedo ruffle top.Lace inserts.

It's shaping up well. I've knit one lace strap and have the second to go. I'm not sure how much I'll get done this weekend as I have rehearsal every night. I'm not freaking out about hell week per se, but fussy lace knitting isn't easy during the run of a show. I really need a project that involves miles of stockinette stitch and I'm in crazy love with a dress from the Rebecca mag that Laurel sent me for my birthday, but I ordered yarn for it and I'm not thrilled with the colors. But in terms of the tuxedo top, I'm happy with the way the lace pattern turned out and I'm fairly confident that I'm going to continue to be a knitting rebel and not block at all. Ha HA!

A Swarm of Beads

I'm not really sure what you call a whole bunch of beads. A gathering? A gaggle? A collection seems way too boring. As I took this photo, it felt like I was looking at a swarm of beads...so there you go. Debbie gave them to my mom to give to me, so I'm not sure what their history is. But considering that the three of us are yard sale hopping buddies, I'd say they were picked up from some such place. It's a lovely mix of random shades and as soon as I finish with this post, I'm heading up to the craft room to mess with them.

Things have been quiet in blog-land for some time as I've been swamped with the few weeks before spring break and with endless Sweeney Todd rehearsals. My little community theatre is taking on this monster of a musical this year and there have just been rehearsals piled on top of rehearsals and lots of grumpy people trying to learn lots of insane music and lyrics. I've been knitting up a storm when I'm not on stage, but don't have anything completed yet to show for it. This year, I've taken to bringing my knitting on stage with me. There are so many stops and starts in the runs of the acts that we're doing right now, I can't tell you how many times I run to the wings to get ready for a scene I'm in and then something at the very end of the previous scene is messed up and I end up waiting - - miles away from my knitting - - for a half hour. Despite the fact that I've been hassled for trying to "multitask" during rehearsal, I submit that I am actually working hard at maintaining my sanity and therefore, the knitting stays with me. I think that from now on, when someone asks me what I'm knitting (why to people always do that when you knit in public? I find the question odd), I'll just say "I'm knitting sanity." These days, that's just about right.

And speaking of knitting, I worked up this little baby beanie a while ago, but just sent it out to a new member of the family (my cousin's first baby) just recently. Yay for quick and tiny knitting:)

Anatomy of a Snow Day

Well, it finally happened. Despite global warming, despite my lack of faith, we finally had a snow day. Being that Andrew and I are lucky enough to work at the same school, snow days are really spectacular. We both get to drop the stress and worry of the millions of little things that we need to do when we're at school and hang out together. Usually this involves cooking good things, watching bad TV, and arguing over who gets to play on the computer. This snow day was particularly grand as it occurred on a Friday and that means that no rehearsals/tutoring sessions/meetings were missed and will have to be made up. Nope, just some crafty retooling of lesson plans, and it's like the whole thing never happened. Beautiful.

For those of you who don't get snow days, or for those of you who are still skeptical about whether or not teachers are actually more excited than kids are about them, here was our day off:

Wake to a 5:30 am phone call saying go back to bed. Turn off alarm clock, giving it a little rough shove (show it who's boss). Spend a little time when you wake up an hour later wondering if you'd dreamt the phone call, check the TV and look for your school name if you are really worried about it (today, we just rolled over and went back to be for three or four more hours).

Wake up late. Nice and late. Make some good coffee.

I mean, really good coffee. Maybe with a little nutmeg grated on top.Don't go outside, but admire the snow from within. Take some pretty photos.
Feel a little bad for the people who you can hear scraping their cars and shoveling the walks, but then remember they probably get paid a lot more than you do and remember that it all evens out in the end.
Convince Andrew to make crepes. Andrew makes really good crepes. I put lavender jelly in mine, or sometimes just lemon juice and sugar. Today we made them up with some really, really good sausage from farm to city where we get all of our meat products from (we only eat meat that came from happy animals and so sausages and fancy meat products are big deal in our house).
This one should be obvious, but stay in PJs and slippers all day.
Watch the first three discs of the second season of Lost (I'm a newcomer to this show...a few weeks ago when I was sick, I watched the entire first season that a student had given to me...when I came back to school, I BEGGED her for the second season and she didn't come through until the day before the snow day....coincidence?....I think not.) Start to like Sawyer a little. Start to dislike Kate.
Roast a chicken and some potatoes for lunch (OK, Andrew did this too...hey, I had some serious Lost-watching to do) and have a glass of wine WITH LUNCH. Lovely.
Next time I plan on photographing a roast chicken, I'll be sure to tie the legs first so that it looks more...um...ladylike when I photograph it

Watch more Lost.

Knit sleeve of sweater.Start knitting second sleeve of sweater.
Make chicken stock out of roasted chicken remains and have soup for dinner (again, all Andrew....but I was almost done with disc three!)

Blog about it all and then go and watch more Lost.

Snow days are like free days given to you. It's like someone says: hey, I'm going to give you this little bonus extra day in your life, do whatever you want with it. I'm happily full of good food, my hands are a little sore from knitting, I'm still in my PJs, it's about as simple and relaxed as it gets. And the best part? I get to sleep in tomorrow, too!

Long Overdue

Well, I haven't been sick with the flu for all of this time...but I have been trying to catch up on all of the work that I let drop since then. Grading, lesson plans, creating choreography for Fiddler (the Middle School show) and catching up on what I missed in Sweeney rehearsals...yup, I've been busy.

Still, I've had my tangled yoke sweater done for ages (wore it three times already!) and haven't put any pictures yet. AND I haven't revealed the winner to the giant change jar competition, so here goes:

Competition first...the correct amount was $2,024.95. We can't remember how long he's been storing his change in that jar, but let this be a reminder to save your change! Andrew and I have a little jar that's maybe coffee-can size and whenever we go on vacation, we cash it and get a hundred or so dollars for our slush fund. My Dad will be using his loot to pay for the trip to China we are taking this summer together:) How cool is that that you can go on vacation with change?? Anyway, the winner is Nancy! I'm happy that I'll be able to hand deliver her giftie since we work together:) She guessed $1,997 and was only $27.95 off (which is way better than my guess). I must say that Floribunda and Laurel all came really close too...you guys are smart cookies.

OK, on to the knitting. Here is my Tangled Yoke Cardigan:

It was a breeze to knit...until the yoke. I will concede that most of this was my fault...I counted wrong or got distracted or whatever. But I had to frog and knit the time and ungodly amount of times. I remembered it as 3 yesterday, but Andrew shook his head and said "no, way more." I guess he is the one who has to live with my cursing and the drama (throwing sweater on the floor to be left there for a few days: I am NOT going to finish the damn thing!!) so he probably remembers it best. Anyway, once the yoke was done, it was simple to knit again. I'm not one of those people who buys the buttons at the beginning - - I like to see the sweater finished before I make any decisions. So once it was done, I couldn't wear it right away, but I at least knew that I wanted lavender buttons. So I popped over to my good friend Etsy and found these. They look great on the sweater (most people who comment on the sweater mention the buttons...um, I'm sure they like the knitting too...) and I couldn't be happier. I used Swish DK from Knitpicks in Nutmeg, if anyone's wondering.

So all's well that ends well in the knitting world. I'm currently working on the Blouson sweater from Interweave's Summer '07 mag. I'm rushing to finish though, because I'm really excited abou a number of things from their most recent magazine. Oh, if I could knit just a little bit faster.

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.