Ok, I know I post about my daughter alot, but I just had to share a couple things she's said recently.
Today I said to her, "Dev, you need a bath." and she said to me "well you need a mask."
Yesterday Devan was standing on the couch, gazing out the window. Because it is winter, all the leaves are off the trees and you can see down the mountain into town. She says to me real dreamily "Mommy, there's a whole world out there waiting for you."
She broke a candy cane into two pieces, one large and one small. I asked her if I could have part of it and she said, "you can have the smaller piece, I'm allergic to the small pieces."
Not to be all 'kids say the darnedest things' or anything, but she really does blow me away with some of the stuff that she says. Of course I know that lots of this stuff is just regurgitated stuff she's heard on tv, for example when I tell her to do stuff she says "sorry, i don't speak monkey" which is obviously something she heard on a lemony snicket commercial. She's a funny kid. i don't know, I drank coffee and couldn't sleep and that's basically all I felt like saying.
I finally picked up my photos from some pictures I took back in the beginning of July while my brother and sister were visiting. I have two cute ones to show you
Look at my little girl, she loves her uncle Evan so much:
And here's Evan trying to learn to knit:
I'm going out of town tomorrow, and I'm hoping that I just have a sympathy sore throat (mr. handsome is diseased right now) and not the real thing. Saturday is my brother's wedding and I'm psyched for it, especially now that I've found something to wear.
I gave Jon's grandmother and his aunt their mini-sweater ornaments tonight and they seemed to really enjoy them. His grandmother and aunt told me I have good tension, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because, coming from them, if you've seen some of the stuff they've knitted, well you'd feel warm and fuzzy too.
I'm trying to think of which projects to bring with me. If I just bring 1 plus the yarn & pattern that I'm having delivered, I should make major progress on both, instead of fooling around and not ever finishing anything.
I guess I'll think about my projects while I am trying to fall asleep. Maybe things will be clearer in the morning. Next time I post, I hope to have a picture of Evan in his Weasley sweater, and Cady in her Hermoine hat * I might pick up another skein of Lamb's Pride Supreme Purple and knit her a matching scarf (2 side cables, and the wavey/bobble thing in the middle)..and if I'm really ambitious I might make some mittens as well!
I'm trying. I don't know if I'm doing it right. Does it look ok?
I'm itching to start a new project. Today I ordered yarn for
this jacket. No, I'm not making the hat. I'm using a burgundy heather, instead of green and I'm still kinda 'ehh' about the fair isle. I actually don't have an opinion about fair isle, except that If it were up to me, Gjestal Strikkedesigns books would be burned ceremoniously in the street. Other than that, you know, I'm still 'ehh'. I'm just into the toggle buttons and the wide ribbed cuffs.
I still haven't finished the christmas presents. Tomorrow I'm going to give some out. Jon's great aunt Margie gave me a book of crochet pig and piggie bank patterns. If only I knew how to crochet, i'd be making pigs like nobody's business. (Did you know I have a thing about pigs? I'm afraid it's serious. Someday I'll post a picture of my pigs.)
I'm totally tired now. Oh. I just saw a rerun of David Letterman, and this little pug was on stupid pet tricks. it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The girl would say ' I love you, Odie' and the dog would say 'i love you' and it really was saying it. Craziest thing. I taped it because I was touched by it. Dogs can be amazing sometimes.
How was your Christmas? Aside from not finishing the vast majority of my gifts, we had a great time. On Christmas Eve we baked lots of cookies, a turkey, cornbread, etc. We had a grand feast, jut the 3 of us. After dinner Devan watched the lion king. I worked on some last minute cookies. After Devan had her bath and went to bed, we wrapped her presents and watched TV. I think we watched the Apprentice finale, which we'd Tivo'd a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it cut off right before the winner was announced so it was a pretty big let down. Yes, we know Kelly won, we just wanted to see it.
I made a couple more mini-sweaters and then I went to bed. We woke up christmas morning and opened presents. Then I made a big breakfast and worked on some last minute gifts (that never got finished). We had a great afternoon and evening over at Jon's parents. When we came home I made a great bean dip and then fell asleep on the couch.
I still have to finish presents and deliver them to everyone. I hope they don't mind the lateness.
Unfortunately my wrist is sore, so my already impossible list of presents is being put on hold even longer. I've been trying here and there to work on things, but I have to keep putting them down. I need to definitely make a reminder for next year to have my Christmas knitting done way early. Like in November.
I still have cookies to bake, and cinnamon dough ornaments to make with Devan. We'd also like to do some felt ornaments. How did Christmas sneak up on us like this! We're not prepared! I don't think we're having a party on Christmas Eve this year. That makes me sad because I really like making the big meal and having everyone over. I just don't think there's enough time or money this year to do it right.
I'd like to lay down and take a nap right now, but I have a box waiting for me at the post office...*yawn*
If I weren't so beat, I'd tell you about how my 8 skeins of koigu and my 10 balls of jaeger lux tweed came today, and how I bought stuff @ Treasure Island, but I'm dozing as I type this so I'll save it for another time.
I love these little mini sweaters. I'm a little obsessed with making them, and I've cleared out quite a few odd balls of yarn to make them.
This one is made from Kureyon:
Edit: The mini stockings are also adorable!
Mini Sweaters and Mini Stocking are patterns from Joelle Hoverson's book, Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.
Mini Sweaters are just about the cutest thing ever. And so simple and quick to make! Tonight I was laying on the couch, forcing Jon at gunpoint to rub my head, contemplating going to bed, when I decided to get up and make some christmas ornaments. I did some googling and didn't find anything that interested me, so I went to my Last Minute Knitted Gifts book and grabbed some leftover tweed from the Weasley "E". It's so cute and I can't wait to use up some more left over yarn making more sweaters.
All my time lately has been devoted to my husband's scarf. It's not tricky, in fact it's quite simple, but it's damned time consuming. I can't post pictures of it, or the other projects I've finished until after Christmas, or I'll ruin the surprise.
Weasley sweater is finished. I think they arms might be too long, as I purposely made them longer than the pattern stated, because they looked ridiculously short. It's no big deal though, Evan can just roll the sleeves up a little. I love the wool used in this sweater. I'm partial to really rustic feeling yarns, especially tweeds.
I woke up early this morning and drove first to the Yarn Loft in Sparta, which, as far as I can tell, doesn't actually exist. If it DOES exist, screw them, because there are absolutely NO signs.
After giving up on the Yarn Loft, I drove over to Denville to the Knitting Basket, which was really busy. Devan and yarn stores do not mix. She gets so excited and grabs everything. Basically it drives me nuts and I don't usually bring her with me. Because of her distracting me, I accidentally bought 2 skeins of yarn I didn't want. 1 koigu, 1 DB Baby Cashmerino.
I bought a lot of yarn, and some needles.
Oooh Koigu...
I'm not totally sure, but Goddess Yarns Emmanuella is probably my favorite yarn.
Ok, so I guess I'm not doing anything today. Dev and I just got all bundled up and went outside only to find that Dev's car seat wasn't in the car. Bah. So now we're watching Anastasia, and I'm working on Christmas presents.
Looks like I'm just about set for a cozy day of knitting. Hopefully I can make a nice big dent in my to do list.
There are 2 or 3 things I have to leave the house for today. 1. mailing my brother's package to him. 2. Checking the Yarn Loft in Sparta (which I have yet to actually locate, even though I've been told exactly where it is about 200 times) for koigu to make some lovely last minute socks. 3. If I can't find the koigu at Yarn Loft, I'm heading down to Denville to the Knitting Basket where I know they've got some. While I'm there I might look for some Rowan Felted tweed for a brilliant scarf idea I've got. If I go to Denville, what's 10 more minutes to Parsippany, where my favorite AC Moore is located? There's 1 item I need from there. Wonder if I can get in and out of that store with just that 1 item... I've done it once before, so it is possible.
I have trapped air or gas and I have this constant pain across my back and under my diaphram.... I don't know what to do about it and I wish I was dead..
I feel guilty not updating this every single day, but to be honest, I don't have much to say. It's extremely late and I've not had any sleep. Jonnyhandsome and I watched TV for awhile, and then I got the urge to clean our downstairs bathroom. Nuts, right? So I scrubbed and scrubbed and then I came out and finished the last sleeve of Evans Weasley sweater. The pieces are blocking on a beach towel next to the Christmas tree, which I've finally set up (it's fake). We decorated it tonight after watching the animated Robinhood
Devan kept hogging all of the really pretty ornaments, calling them her 'ingredients' and I had to do a little bit of adjusting after she went to bed. It's weird not being as particular about the tree as I usually am. I'm usually the kind of person who clusters ornaments 'just so' and can't have certain things in the same area as other things... now that I think about this, is there an actual kind of person like this, or is it just me?
After I finished knitting the sleeve, I found that Love Actually was on cable and had just started. So of course I had to watch it (<3 Hugh Grant <3 Colin Firth <3 Liam Neeson .. god, why are all the men in that movie so gorgeous,you know except Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman ) That movie turns me into a blubbering idiot. As it ends and you see all of the shots of people hugging and kissing each other, I'm sitting there all choked up and I look at my sweet husband and he's on the couch, snoring with his mouth wide open... lovely.
I'll update this at some point after I've seamed Evan's sweater with a picture of that and a picture of our lovely fake tree. I am so hungry for soda and chocolate. As you can see from my counter at the top of the page, I've not succumbed to the sweetness for 19 days. I'm drinking mostly water these days, and a bit of orange juice in the morning. Ok. off to take a nap now to dream of colin firth...
I'm still working on this darned Weasley sweater. I've got the front draped over a pillow in the family room, so that I can look at it from time to time and make sure it's to my liking. I'm self-concious about it now, because Jon asked last night, "is that middle bar closer to the top bar on purpose" Why yes, yes it is. I thought it would look better that way. Now I'm not so sure.
The sleeves of this sweater are driving me nuts. It would be a lot easier to knit this if I had Evan here, so I could periodically hold the sleeves up to him. My mom gave me some measurements but I'm not sure if they really help. Considering this is a drop sleeve sweater, I would think the sleeves may be shorter than, say, set in sleeves. Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Really.
And then we've got conflicting information on say, gap.com's size charts(says the sweater is 2 sizes too large), The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (those measurements are freaking me out because it appears that this sweater is 2 sizes too small...)
I guess until I can find a real, solid answer I can work on something else... I was looking through one of my bins of yarn last night and I found 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon #124. Oooh. I wanna play with it but I don't really have time for fooling around. I've got presents to knit! I should have started knitting for Christmas in July or so, instead of in November. I'm such a procrastinator.
Anyone out there used Jaeger Trinity??? How do you like it? What's the fabric like? I'm looking for something soft that doesn't have a lot of um...hair or halo or whatever. Also I want the fabric to be kind of warm, but not too warm.
So the Weasley sweater was meant to have an "H" on it, but Evan decided he'd rather have an "E" Eh, no problem. I just made a chart and got to work. Here's my progress thus far:
My wrist is hurting. I've been doing lots of knitting lately.
I need a babysitter. I want to go see The Life Aquatic because I think everyone here knows how I feel about Owen Wilson. <3<3<3
I made a list of goals I need to accomplish earlier today (well, looking at the clock, I guess it was yesterday). It's so easy to spend my days doing next to nothing, never challenging myself. But then I spend my nights unable to sleep, wishing I'd done more, fearing that I'm wasting my life and squandering all of this time with my daughter while she's so young and impressionable. The goals I made have to do with every aspect of my life. If I were to follow (listen to me, already doubting my abilities with my "if's") these goals to completion, I'd be so much happier and healthier, and so would my family. Some of my goals, for example, quitting soda, are relatively easy. Some require dedication and hard work. It's scary to try to change your life. I suppose that in a sense I'll miss the comfort of feeling unhappy about myself and my life when it starts to change, and that's why I'm apprehensive. blah blah what am I talking about?
In other news, I finished the back of Evan's HP sweater and I started the first sleeve. Why o why is this taking me so long. I wanted to do both sleeves at once, but I completely forgot and now I don't feel like ripping and restarting. My goal is to finish the first sleeve, and at least finish the ribbing on the second sleeve before I go to sleep tomorrow night. If I keep setting time limits and actually stick to them (like I did with finishing the back of the sweater) I'll definitely finish all of the projects I'm working on before Christmas. I have faith in myself!
About this HP sweater. I bought my kit from a uk website, yarnwarehouse.com. I'm not terribly thrilled about the pattern itself, as it's just a photocopy and the instructions aren't all that detailed. For the sleeves it says increase every fourth row until there are 50 sts. Ok. Granted, you can't get much more straightforward than a simple pullover, but is there something wrong with typing out increase once on each edge of sleeve every fourth row. I understand what they mean, at least I think I do, but I'm sure there are beginners out there tackling this as their first sweater who don't understand, and would be annoyed with this lack of detail. Oh, also some of the directions are kinda backwards. Like they give you the instructions for the whole back. They'll say start w/ purl row and do st st for 45 cm/mark armholes at 25 cm/co 8 sts @ beginning of next 2 rows. Ok, don't follow those numbers because I just stuck random numbers in there, but as you can see, it appears that you bind off stitches at the armholes, when in fact you're binding off at 49 cm for the shoulder shaping. It's kind of screwy if you ask me. But no one asked me and as you know, from religiously following this journal, I am an expert on everything. Asking me would have cleared this problem up right away.
Oh well. I'm off to bed, as tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my (greatly improved) life.
I know I post alot about Nick Jr. shows, but I really couldn't resist posting this:
Me and Dev like Little Bill quite a bit. It's pretty nice and pc and cute and all of that. So today we're watching, and April's got choir practice. The girl who sings the ' This little light of mine' part, is this chubby girl. Guess what her name is... It's Tiny. How awful is that? Oh man.
Anyways, Today I'm making my Thanksgiving dinner. I've already baked the pumpkin pie which smells awesome. Unfortunately I have those Orka mitts, which seem great in theory. Unfortunately, every time I make a pie or something, I get a huge Orka thumb print in it. So my beautiful pumpkin pie has two different giant thumb prints in it.
I'm not making the turkey for another hour. I tend to start early, and my birds end up falling apart, which is muy molesta. Did I say that right? It's been a year since I finished up my spanish courses and I can't remember anything except Estoy entusiasmado cuando escucho la musica. and Odio la politica. Sorry there are no accent marks but I am not enthusiastic enough about this to go searching through the character map.
So Devan knows her numbers by sight. She was playing nickjr.com games last night and on Little Bill you have to count stars in order to get to the planet 'yubba' and she was able to do it without any help. We are so excited that we're going to Zany Brainy this weekend to get some flash cards.
Welp, I better go work on the Weasley sweater. I'm finally back to where I was before I ripped and resized it. (Backyardigans is on. They have the best songs. "Ridin the range, let's go, Ridin the range, yahoo!")
I've finished the Hermione hat! Yay! One present down, 1,000,000 to go! I took these pics before blocking the hat, so it doesn't look perfect, and so I'm not going to offer an enlarged view... so there.
Devan is a much better model than me. I couldn't be bothered to wash my hair or put makeup on today so there's no way I'd post a pic of myself. Do you like the hat? I'm happy with it, and I'm also thrilled that Devan's asked me to make her a PINK one. Oh I just love pink.
I may not be making much progress on my Weasley sweater, but I'm definitely consumed with Harry Potter knitting projects right now.
I've been working on Cady's Hermione hat, and like the pattern states, the cabling is thoroughly addictive.
I've also got Evan's Harry Potter scarf started, though I think it might be too wide for such a small boy. Maybe I'll rip and restart it, and give it to him when I come out in January, rather than for Christmas, because I doubt I'd be able to finish it before then.
I really do need to get working on that Weasley sweater though. I'm still only halfway through the back!
(Nov 19)
I've been asked to make a Christmas wish list, so here it is. Click on
Santa to view it!
(Dec 11)
I am unable to sleep, so I took time to make the blog archives work. of course, images that were on old yahoo server do not work anymore (read: anything before April 2005) so you'll have to use your imagination. Check the sidebar for a link if you're interested.
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(Nov 22)
There. I finally did it. Now go buy me stuff:)
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(Nov 7)Take note of the changes along the right sidebar. I've been reading blogs, and that, of course, means joining knitalongs!
However my next task (which will be my next announcement)
is to create a holiday wishlist, as there have been several people asking for one.
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(Aug 6) Hi guys, How cute is this: I have a new little niece!! Bryan and Mandie's little girl was born last Sunday (I think)
and in the spirit of utter ridiculousness, I give you, Madelyn dancing.
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(June
1) Here is a little picture. Obviously, these are BF5 lyrics.
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(May
23) Sup dudes? I was kinda bored last night, so I made a picture.
again. only tell me if you like it. I have a fragile ego.
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(May
14) Going through a wave of depression. Don't feel like
doing anything except artwork. Here are a couple
pictures I made. You may have seen them, since they're
meant for my websites. If you've seen them as background
images, excuse the tiling, I'm fixing it when I feel
like it.
if you like them, let me know. if you don't, keep it to
yourself.
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(April 28) Ok... I've been on hiatus. Bear with me and
my broken links and pictures while I move all my junk
around.
Life is good and I'm glad my site is working again.
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(Jan 11) Due to real life
pals/family complaining about how little real life
content there is in this journal, I'm going to make a
real effort to include that stuff, and not just knitting
stuff. I hope this pleases you guys.
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(Jan 10) Today is the
anniversary of my Grampa's death. We still miss you so
much.
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(Jan 4) Congratulations
Michael & Tiffany!!
Welcome to the family,
Tif!
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(Dec 30) Just two quick
notes today:
1. We've got another
completed Casey's Coat.
click to see Vito!
2. I'll be out of town
for about 3 weeks. My brother, Mike, is getting married!
After that I'm going to be house sitting for my mom
while she is out of town. This will not have an affect
on you or my blogging, I just felt like sharing.
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(Dec 2) My brother has
been making me some pretty cool knitting charts. I think
they're mighty awesome and I'm trying to figure out a
project I can use them for. They're pdf files, except
the first one (which is actually not his design, it's
the work of someone on myspace.com) so go ahead and have
at them. If he makes many more charts, I'll disable the
links and offer the chart patterns for a small fee via
paypal, because, after all, it is his art work and he
deserves compensation!
click the images to view full sized charts: 2nd & 3rd images ?2004 R. Wuebker
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(Nov 28)My little sister is a knittin' fool. We shopped
all over for some good needles for her. She's been using
these kids plastic-y needles that I find to be really
uncomfortable and annoying. We tried some aluminum
needles but they were too slick and long. We finally
settled on some Clover Bamboo needles and from what I
have heard, she likes them the best. She's working on a
lavender scarf. I'll have my mom take a pic so I can
post it here.
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(Nov 28) I'm back! Christmas Knitting and yarn stash
enhancement is in full effect in this house. There's a
new(?) Knitting/Fabric store in the town my mom lives
in. It's called Sew Krazy. image is property of sew-krazy.com
They are currently squeezed in a tiny location just
chock full of amazing stuff! They have a whole shelf of
Kaffe Fasset fabrics, which you know I loved. They
had lots of yarn by Rowan and Brown Sheep. They didn't
have any Debbie Bliss. The shop is working on expanding
in a new location, equipped with a beautiful fireplace
(My mom and I peeked through a hole in the door) and
it's HUGE. This place was great and there's a cafe
called Muddy Waters next door. So this place will be
perfect to sit down, relax, drink coffee, and knit by
the fireplace when I go out to visit for 3 weeks in
January. The building is also really beautiful and
contains many other interesting shops. Check it out if
you're ever nearby.
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(Nov 18)Last year for Christmas, Mr. Handsome gave me an
EZ Stir. If you haven't got a clue what an easy-stir
is, (consider yourself lucky) it's a device that
attaches to your pots and pans and stirs your sauces for
you! Ingenious! I have still not taken the EZ Stir out
of its package. This year, I thought I'd make it easy on
my husband and anyone else who wishes to shower me with
gifts.
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(Nov 17)Looking for unique cards to send out this
Holiday season?
Check out
Loobylu
and Darling
Studio for some fabulous and unique holiday cards.
