Wishful Knitting

Here is a sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts- my current source for projects : ) I made it for my tiny elf after the first sweater I made for her only fit her for a day- I thought I could do a lot more knitting right after she was born- HA! It didn't take long to knit and I only made two little adjustments. I made the body length much longer than the pattern called for. I wanted good coverage and that's what I got. I also made button holes and put buttons on it rather than the beads being pushed through the band. As an aside, you have to really go by the measurements of the child and not the "sizing" in the book to pick the right size. This was the 2 year old size, and she was closer to one year. I am thrilled with it. The yarn was Debbie Bliss Merino DK. I loved the yarn and the pattern and I will definitely make another one of these- for the elder elf- here she is trying it on for me!

Happy Spring from Italy! (No one really needs to know that the elves got their Easter baskets a week late : ) These two little guys/gals were knit from a pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts- which is a great book. I used the possum yarn my hubby brought back from New Zealand. It's a bit strange, the yarn. It has a merino feel, but then has real hair that fuzzes like an angora. It works well for a little bunny. Of course, the elves didn't pay much attention to these bunnies and played with their other gifites after devouring the meager chocolates they got- except the tiny elf who just held the M&M's in her hand until they were good and soft. I am pleased with the bunnies and the only change was the faces. Nanny Nonna did a splendid job as my resident bunny face creator. I think the faces look fabulous! Of course, we were up til the wee hours working on these, but that's to be expected!

I hereby swear I will never knit with Karabella Aurora 8 again. Even though it is soft and wonderful, it can be hateful when it comes to gauge. I think I said earlier that the gauge really changed after it was washed. What I should have done was to wash all the yarn and then re-knit the gauge swatch and then knit the sweater. (Who thinks that sounds like fun???) What I tried to do (and failed) was to knit the gauge swatch, then calculate how much bigger the swatch became after washing, then make the size that would fit AFTER washing. The opposite of shrink-to-fit. Uh, yeah, not so much. The sweater was just too small. I decided to frog it and start over. It wasn't fun to have all that kinky weird yarn. Then I gave the yarn a bath, and with the trusty help of my two elves, dried the hanks. Now, re-knitting the sweater bigger, I think I am going to run out of yarn! Lovely. By the way, I didn't re-do the sleeves even though every OCD bone in my body wanted to. So, t...

So, here I am not getting things done. No, I was productive today, and here I am whittling away precious time doing this. Oh well. I can likely justify this as needing "a break." The children woke up in their crabby pants this morning, which didn't really make for the most fun day. I have ends to weave in and ends to tie up before the big move! (it is becoming ever more and more a reality!) I am still struggling with the neck for the flashdance-esque Hourglass, and should be done with it by bed time tonight. No comments on what time that might be. I ran out of stitches in the decrease raglan sections but it was still too wide, so I came up with a center decrease of some kind. I think it looks okay, but we'll see after it gets washed and re-dried- all before weaving in the ends, of course. And then there's this, which I think is cute- it will be a kitty (Kate to be exact), but this is as far as I have gotten....I think I will try and get finish her for el...

It's the weekend...so, we are lucky enough to get a visit from my sister. (We don't have too many weekends left : ( So, what's a girl to do? Make her sister try on her new sweater! Looks great on her- not too flashdance with a tee underneath. She was kind enough to pick up that extra ball o'yarn for me. And yes, we have decided that I am one skein shy of a sweater. Here's a photo of the kids, just because. Oh, and mom, you can make comments right on the blog if you want. No one has ever tried, so let me know if you do. Where's your blog?????

I know, these are TERRIBLE pics, but I thought they were better than none-there's one more at the end. Maybe not. Hey, since it's just me reading this, and I want a memory of the 2 am photo shoot, I am posting them! Yeah, in the mirror, not pretty. About the Aurora 8. So, while I was knitting, it was SUPER tight. I gave it a quick bath and it fits great! I am amazed and have a renewed faith in the whole swatch thing. Usually, I don't wash the swatch first, but I will start. Here are some terrible pics- hubby was sleeping as it was 2 am when I got done. I wanted before and after pics. I got the before, but not the after. I tried the sweater on several times while it was damp and it looks to be just fine. Amazing. I also read on another blog that someone else had the same experience with this yarn. That made me feel a little better too. The only thing is that the neckline has stretched out a ton. It's way too flashdance for me, so I will reknit it and add an...

I don't think I even enjoyed Halloween this much when I was a kid. As you can see, my enthusiasm is shared by Arthur over there. Now that I have 2 little elves, I couldn't be more excited. And I am not one of those moms who is worried about elder elf eating candy- heck, it's all about the candy : ) We are gearing up for lots of tricksters tonight- last year we had over 250. It was great to see everyone. I love it. Pizza, beer, costumes, what more could you ask for??? Well, we could ask for Nanny June to be here in Washington with us. It is my mom's birthday today. Isn't today a great day for a birthday? I hope she is having a wonderful day and I wish we could be together to celebrate. Happy Birthday Mumsey! In knitting news, I have been working on Hourglass and should be done after this weekend. Then, we'll see about the fit. Elder elf has now claimed Kate as her own. She said that tiny elf can have the coveted Artie cat , and she can have Kate. That saves me f...

These are stitch markers from Good to be Girl. (see sidebar- it's too late to link : ) They say "I knit with Greys" and are soooo fun. Maybe I will get better with indoor photography....maybe not. When I learned to knit, I was living in France as a foreign exchange student. My french grandmother taught me. I don't remember any details about the lesson. Not a thing. Really strange, nada. I know that she was trying to teach me and my french host sister at the same time. My "mami" didn't speak a word of english. I think I just watched and she said, "Non, non, comme ca!" a lot and that was that. I eventually learned to read french patterns and I made 2 sweaters while I was there. One was hot pink synthetic mohair- hey, it was the 80's after all. The other one was a nice cotton short sleeved "pull." I don't have any pics of me wearing either item. Sadly, we didn't discuss gauge and the sweaters were CRAZY huge. I mean so big ...

In keeping with the time theme, I need to keep working on Hourglass from Last Minute Knitted Gifts . Of course, I am about a year (or more) late. All the KAL's are long over. The party is over, everyone has gone home. I don't see this posted on anyone's blogs...but still, it's new to me, and I really like the style. I think most of the errata have been corrected in my version of the book, so that's an advantage to starting late. This is the first time in a long time that I am making something for myself. I would like it to fit, but that's another story. We'll see how it goes. This is being made out of Aurora 8 from Karabella in green. I figured it's my tribute to the Emerald City. It feels heavanly soft and keeps me warm while I knit it. When hubby was gone, I got most of it done, and now I have stalled a little bit, for no good reason. I had tons of knitting time last night and instead of working on this, I started a new project.... Kate . I don't ...

Could it be that I am turning over a new leaf? (he, he...I think I am too old for turning over leaves that lead to MORE self-discipline, but I could surely go the other way!) This is the quintessential "my mommy knits, so I get a holiday hat." AND she has it for the whole season- on time! We had a great time in the pumpkin patch and the hat actually kept elder elf warm. I don't have the pattern here in front of me, but if anyone needs it (ha! I don't think anyone reads this, so I can continue to be lazy!), just put a note in the comments and I will run upstairs and get it. Project specs: Yarn: Debbie Bliss cashmerino Pattern: Fiber trends, I think... Here's the tiny elf. She's wearing a make shift hat that I cheated with several years ago. I had alreqady purchased the pattern for the fancier hat, but I was making so many of these for friends' kids, that I needed something quick. After making the nicer one, I don't think it would have taken me much lon...

My family is pretty lax about getting birthday gifts to the recipient on time, myself included. I think we take that crazy rule about giving wedding gift to the nth degree. You know the one, where you have a year to do so and still be in proper etiquette- I think you also have a year to write the thank you notes, too? Our gift-giving rule is about the same especially if we live a long distance away. My older sister was just out to Washington in early September at which time I gave her her birthday gift....mind you her birthday was in May! I suppose one way view is that it extends your birthday for months. I never realized just how fun it is to be on time with a giftie. The elves and I went to the post office this morning and mailed my mom her Halloween birthday box, which will get there right on time. This little Odd Fellow was in there. I thought I would post a pic of him with legs. I got so used to seeing the elves play with him around the house without limbs, that the appendages loo...

Well, I think I get a prize for the "most unusual." This prize is not new to me. When I was a kid, I also won the prize for "most unusual" pet. Oddly, my main pet ( I had quite a menagerie most of the time and obviously a very nice mom) was a dog. Her name was Muffin and I wish I could have her all over again. Anyway, my older sister took Muffin to the park as her pet. This was not very appreciated by me, but there was not much I could do about it. Her real pet was a kitty named Suzy who kept a very low profile most of her life. So, without a pet, but determined not to miss the contest down at the green box, I went to visit the Toomey's. They had a baby at the time, so I was able to get some empty baby food jars. I filled the jars with bees. Yes, bees, right off the clover. No worries, none of them were harmed. I put them in the jars and took them to the park in a wagon. So, I won the "most unusual pet" prize. Now, I should win the most ...

I was just discussing with my younger seestor how I feel about journals. We were having a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant, with one of her friends who will be leaving the Emerald City soon, and the topic came up. Clearly a blog is kind of like a journal. The reason I stopped keeping a journal was becuase if you go back and read it, it seems ridiculous- even if you just wrote it. I suppose the point is to just write it out, but still, that's hard to take. I was going to start a new paragraph here, but apparently that's not going to happen- haven't figured that out yet. So, off the needles is the Debbie Bliss silk scarf for said sister. It took two skeins and is over 6 foot long. It was easy to knit. I hope my sis likes it, I am annoyed with the "rolling" of the edges. I know that scarves will do that, but it was very minor in the picture, so I thought it wouldn't be that bad. The recipient claims she likes the rolling. We blocked it out, so that my have improv...

I recently got serious about trying to squeeze in some knitting time when I could. Unfortunately, the first "hog" was made because my elder elf was sick and I was keeping her company while she was sleeping. The second one was to keep things fair for the tiny elf! I love the way they turned out....the pattern is FiberTrends. There are lots of short rows and the second one has lots of mistakes, but felting makes it all better : )

To say that we had fun with our visitors would be an understatement. It was so comforting having that much familial support right here in our own home! I felt lots of love and support. I made a big decision during their visit- I am going to quit my job. I don't know why I didn't come up with it myself, but I needed my old sage soul-sister Bethy to help me-well push me, in that direction. I don't know why I didn't see it sooner. It makes perfect sense. It is about the only variable that I CAN control. So, I gave my 2 weeks' notice, and I am ducking out of the rat race for a while. (get the animal connotations?) I think the reason I hadn't made that decision is because I feel somehow like a failure. I guess I thought I should be able to take care of the family and work. I think it might have been better if my job weren't so far away and sooooo hectic. So, as my mother-in-law told me today, the party starts when you order the cake...we have already starte...

We are like roadkill stuck to a tire on a car that's going 100 mph down the highway. We are both exhausted. The in-laws will be here tonight, so that will be a fun visit. We need a break, yet there isn't much light at the end of the tunnel..... This is our dog. He makes us laugh and really deserves a walk. It's not looking very promising, but it might happen, we'll see. For certain I will walk him whilst the company is in town.

The end of another long day. I had to schlep into work today for 3 hours...not really worth the drive, but I figured I would take one for the team. The girls were a bit tiring today, but cute as usual.