Wishful Knitting

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.