Quietish

On Tuesday, the kids and I made a trip up to The Gourmet Yarn Company to meet Candi Jensen, who was in town to sign her newest book Knitting Loves Crochet.

I had looked through it briefly when it first appeared in the bookstores, but I think I wrote it off as a book of pretty things that were not exactly right for me. (Read: too frilly and/or too small.) Then one day the week before, I went into GY and found that they had received a couple of the finished pieces from the book. I tried them both on and they fit. I was surprised and thrilled. I bought a copy for myself as well as the copy I intended to give away on CraftBorg.

Shelly met us up there so she could get some kid-time and keep them from destroying Margaret’s store while I had my copies signed. (Thanks again, Shelly *mwah*) The kids enjoyed the snacks that were out and enjoyed the company enough that they kept fairly quiet. This made me very happy.

Candi is incredibly nice and easy to talk to. I didn’t stay very long, but when book-signing time officially started, Candi and those of us that were already there sat around on the comfy couches and chatted. It was lovely and I wish I could have stayed longer. And now I am looking forward to starting in on the tank pictured on the cover!

Cian enjoyed himself too.

some non-knitting craftiness.

Finished some previously-stitched ornaments.

I had completely intended to work on stitchie ornaments throughout the year, at least one a month. I fell of the wagon on that way back in February. But I still have a handful I can give out at Christmas.

The other day I threw in the towel and went to Sears in search of a replacement for my crappy Walmart-Special sewing machine. I am now the proud owner of a lovely, but not too fancy, Kenmore, minus all the computery bells and whistles. I’m quite happy. I named her Madam Malkin. To celebrate, I put together a cute stuffed dog from a kit I’ve had since before I graduated high school. (My step-grandma bought it for me I think so I would quit bugging her and I’d have something to do.)

The pattern called for a bandana, but I decided to knit him a collar instead:

I forgot; I finished something else this weekend:

Pattern: Infant’s Fancy Silk Socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks, modified somewhat from the original.
Yarn: Shepherd Baby Wool 4 Ply
Comments: Ok first off: The yarn = yummy. Those who say babies can’t wear wool haven’t felt nice wool. Just sayin’.
I knit these socks shorter than the originals, which looked like they’d be knee socks on a newborn. That’s one baby gift down…

I was tagged by ofenjen . Although maybe some of this isn’t truly weird.

RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 12 weird things/habits about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 12 weird habits/things as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.

(more…)

Slipping in at the last minute with my SPS.

Here’s a fun picture of me with our rather large Cat, Demetrius. He’s better known as Meeper, because while you’d expect him to have a great thunderous MEOW, he actually just makes a pathetic meeping noise.

Other fun things of note: (because I’d rather call them that than “ugly background clutter”) The jogging stroller that we haven’t used in years but needed to be hauled out of Justin’s trunk so we could pack suitcases and stuff in there. Justin’s laptop case in front of that. The table we got from Amy. Justin’s work junk on said table. Box to send to Kelly behind that. Various other junk surrounding. Bit of the map of Vvardenfell we have taped to a cabinet in the kitchen.

I just revealed entirely too much about our college-dormroom-like lifestyle.

Because Justin finds it amusing when I bundle up to go on my evening walks, here’s another:

And look: A cute baby hat I knit in less than an hour for whatever charity Shelly finds that needs knit hats.

All finished with this lovely sweater, mostly knit under the radar while I traveled last week. Now the only thing on my needles is a newly-started fancy baby sock for one of my unending supply of pregnant friends, hehe.

It’s weird (and wonderful!) not to have a whole load of works-in-progress going, but the funny thing is that if I had simply waited a night’s worth of blocking instead of starting the aforementioned sock I would have had at least 30 glorious seconds with absolutely no knitting WIPs.

Anywho:

Pattern:
None. I used The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns a little, and made it with modified drop shoulders and slightly-rolled cuffs, hem, and neck.* I used 2 rows of seed stitch after each rolled edge for control.
Yarn:
KnitPicks Swish Superwash** in Deep Ocean and Baby Blue (Don’t tell T the name of that color.)
Comments:
I knit this for Kelly’s son, as she is one of very few people that can talk me into knitting anything for them. I don’t generally do it otherwise.
* This sweater is somewhat loosely inspired by Warner Bros’ take on The “Weasley sweater” that first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, every subsequent book’s Christmas (assuming Fred, George, and Percy at least still got monograms knitted into theirs), and finally the first Harry Potter movie. A Weasley sweater features a large monogram of the wearer’s first initial (which, according to Fred and George, is so they don’t forget their names), boxy construction, and rolled edgings.
** I’ve been going on and on about how shocked I am at how soft and pettable this yarn is. It is 100% Wool but it is hardly believable. I would sleep in a bed of this stuff. I’d never knit with their yarn before, and had wondered whether the quality was truly up to scratch. You have to admit, the prices would make ya wonder. KnitPicks hit a homerun with this line for sure though, and I totally intend to use it again sometime.

Everyone’s gotta get ahold of scissors and hack randomly at their hair at least once right? Behold: we have a pixie.

I have been knitting! And now I’m blocking T’s sweater. I knit it so fast, I haven’t even blogged about it.

I love projects with very nice soft yarn that come together quick and knit up fast. Yay! Finished Object post coming soon, methinks.

(Oh yeah, and I’m back home now.)

Pattern: Ariann, by Bonne Marie Burns of ChicKnits
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Natural
Comments: I love the way this sweater looks, but I think its going to take awhile for me to get used to how it looks on me. What do you think?
I blocked her twice. On the first try I didn’t block very aggressively and my bosom didn’t exactly fit very well. The second time has afforded them some more room, thankfully!
The sad thing is that I totally intended my sleeves to be 3/4 length. I intentionally knit them an inch shorter than it called for, since my arms are short to begin with. I hoped they would hit just under my elbow (which is much less than 3/4 I admit). After the first block in which I stretched them no longer than they naturally lay, the sleeve length was about where it looks to be on the model. Then after block #2, well. Cascade tends to g-r-o-w when you soak it. I should have realized that from when I knit my HP scarf.
Ah well. Next time I knit this pattern, I will make the sleeves extra short and re-figure the decreases so that my waist looks great and the girls still fit.

Had a good time with the Halloween stuff yesterday. I apologize if the pictures’ color or balance are wonky, I’m working with a monitor that I fear is not long for this world. Let’s just pretend it adds to the spookiness of the subject matter, k?

Although she was really excited about a cat/bat mask that Grandma had in her stash, Jamie ultimately decided to wear her Cinderella costume for the second consecutive year.

Cian, who has spent the last few days saying “no” to every question, complaining about everything, and generally being a grump, eventually was gently tricked into wearing 1/2 a pirate costume. Nothing on the head or face, of course.

The kids both got a pretty good haul of booty, only having done a few full blocks before heading home. Jamie perfected her princess-wave while shouting “thankyoubyebyehappyhalloween” after every house. Cian tried to invite himself into a good majority of the stops.

Pumpkins. Yay!