And again, with feeling...

Here we are again; another foot of snow fell overnight and into this morning. Snow day. I wonder how many snow days we'll get this season. It sure it shaping up to be another snowy winter. Last season we surpassed the city's previous snowfall record by about 30 inches, and that was just ridiculous. I'm not sure how anyone deals with more than 100 inches of snow in a season on a routine basis. Our city certainly isn't equipped to handle this much snow in a timely manner. I expect they won't even plow our cul-de-sac until late into tonight. This morning already, I have seen three of my neighbors get stuck. Hey neighbors, stay home. The snow is too deep for your average fuel-efficient tiny car (this is Madison, after all.) It gets stuck under the body of your car.

Meanwhile, I have been working on some knitting. This is another Christmas present, and it's almost finished. I didn't quite follow the recommended color pattern, but I love denim yarn so much, and this seemed like a perfect application.

Slithery Snake by Zoe Mellor
with Rowan Handknit Dk Cotton, Tahki Cotton Classic and Rowan Denim

The meteorologists say that we're to get another 4-6 inches over the weekend. At some point I've got to stop being frustrated and just let it happen. I'm sure that'll happen any day now...

Anatomy of a Snow Day

In my opinion, it's a little early in the season for the weather to be this nasty. But what do I know? I've only lived in this state for 17 years (non-consecutive, but still). Maybe I'm just getting less tolerant as I age.

Thankfully, I bought decorations for gingerbread (graham cracker) houses yesterday, so that's what we did this morning.

I have directions from our preschool about how to make gingerbread houses with graham crackers and Royal icing. Each year parents make some basic houses and bring them in for the kids to decorate. We used a tub of regular vanilla icing to attach the candy.

Generally, it's one of those activities that is fun, but takes a lot of preparation and a lot of clean-up for about 20 minutes of activity. Rather a negative cost-benefit ratio, but you know. One of those things you have to try once, at least.

The other day we made gingerbread cookies and that was considerably more fun and productive, if you ask me, because I gave some of the extras to the neighbors. Our recipe is from our preschool:

Gingerbread Cookies

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening (or butter)
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups flour
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Cream together sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and molasses, beating well. In a separate bowl, sift the remaining ingredients together. Then add to the mixture, mixing well. Cover tightly and chill for about three hours or until the dough is stiff enough to handle.

On a floured surface, roll the dough to 1/4" thickness. Using your gingerbread man cookie cutter, cut dough into shapes. Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.

Bake in a 350 oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheets for two minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks. (I use simple powdered-sugar frosting for them.)

Let's hope I can find something a little less time-intensive and less messy to fill the afternoon!

The Winding Road

I'm not afraid to admit that some of my days are meandering. Like this morning. We were supposed to have a playdate with some friends, but I think M might be coming down with something, so we stayed home.

She wanted to paint, so I pulled out the craft supplies and ended up deciding to completely clean out the craft area.

That culminated with finding my bead box. I immediately decided to make some stitch markers for the playdate friend's mom, a good friend who knits. (Immediately, meaning of course I hadn't finished cleaning out the craft area yet.)

I have always been like this. When I was a in high school, for creative writing class I wrote a short, slice-of-life story about how my mom would tell me I needed to clean up my room before I went to the pool with my sisters. So I'd go into my room, find something under my bed and instead of cleaning everything up, end up getting completely distracted by a long-lost book or scrapbook or something else. I honestly have good intentions, but I am not the world's most organized person. I get the sense this was overwhelmingly frustrating for my parents.

After I made the stitch markers (three sets, actually), I decided, hey, there are some earring hooks in here. Why not try my hand at making earrings, too?

So I did. Two pair, actually. I might give them to my sisters, who are infinitely more organized than I am. Their rooms were always organized, clean and straight. Mine was not a disaster, but it was cluttered.

But that's Ok. Because sometimes I think my distracted mind has allowed some room for happy things to happen in between.

Crafts New & Old

If this time of year isn't a good time to take stock in one's life, I don't know when is. Not to be sappy, thankfully our family is rich in things that matter a lot to us, like health, love and happiness. Ok, I will admit to being a grump, especially in the last month. BUT, it was nice to convene with my sisters and their families and Thanksgiving and be truly thankful. I feel like what money can't buy, we got. Unfortunately, you also need money, too. But that's another matter, and not one for this post.

I'm also immensely grateful for listening to my inner knitter eight years ago. She was screaming at me to learn how. Although my grandmother had taught me to crochet as a young child, it didn't really 'stick'. I loved to peruse her skeins and skeins of bright acrylic yarn in her attic, though; I definitely remember that.

For the past few years, we've been cutting down our own Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We like to get a jump on the season, as we both really enjoy Christmastime. And each year, I climb up on a chair and put her at the top of our tree:

This is my Christmas angel. I made her in Kindergarten when I was five years old. She is, admittedly, a little worse for the wear. Each year I marvel that her Kleenex wings haven't ripped, however. (And each year I also marvel that I made her at public school.)

Here we are, still crafting 31 years later. The great thing about my blog is that my family doesn't know about it. They can't read what they don't know about, so I can talk about gift knitting to my heart's desire. This is for my mother for Christmas:

It's not quite finished, but should be done tonight. It's a Basic Cardigan Vest for Women by Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure & Simple fame. Wow, was this simple. And pure. And knitting. ;) This is Peace Fleece worsted in Baghdad Blue. It's a little more purple than shows here.

I plan to place one button on this vest. I'm actually binding off the front edges with i-cord and I hope to be able to manage an i-cord loop to put around the button. But I've never done that before, so we'll see how it goes. It's amazing what a little undivided attention can accomplish, though.

I picked this button up at Jennie The Potter's stand at the Madison Knitters Guild annual Knit-In earlier this year. Jennie has scads of cute knitting pottery and gorgeous buttons. This came in a 3-pack, but I think one button is fine for this vest.

Yeah, I think I'll keep them. They're the ones I want in this foxhole we've dug out for ourselves. I hope you enjoy your holiday season and keep people around you who lift your spirits.

FO: Helena!

It's suspicious that I only blog when I have something finished. At least, I think it's suspicious. I'm afraid of boring anyone with WIPs and complaints, which seem to fill most of my days and nights nowadays. Heard of a little thing called the crashing financial economy? It's lately affecting us directly. There has been talk of moving to Singapore. (and not as a joke, either.)

But Knit On, dear friends, isn't Elizabeth Zimmerman's advice pertinent as ever?

For Halloween, we traveled to visit family on the East Coast and I had a lot of precious knitting time. I was able to crank out most of the skirt of Helena and all of one sleeve, too. My plan was to use a worsted weight wool to knit a holiday sweater for the three-year-old in our house. I had this O-Wool Classic in Sumac that I got (drastically reduced, mind you) awhile ago, and thought it would be perfect. Helena (Ravelry project link) calls for DK-weight wool, however, so I decided to knit a size 2, but knit the length to a size 4. I ended up just knitting and knitting and I think, all told, this is really closer to a size 5/6. And thankfully so. The little lady has long arms (like me) and she'll be able to wear this next year and maybe even the year after that.

She likes it. I love it. I think it's the prettiest thing I've ever knit and I'm very happy with it. I already have black leggings to match it for Thanksgiving (and a black shirt for underneath) and green/red leggings for Christmas. We'll get as much mileage out of this sweater as possible. After all, it's 86 degrees every single day in Singapore. (sob)

Ladybug buttons (what else?)

Two-Day Beret

Yes, it really only took two days. Although I knit a lot during those two days. Heh.

Pattern: Moss Stitch Beret by Kent Turman
Yarn: 100Purewool 3-ply in Azul Profundo
Needle: 3US

I'm truthfully not sure why Kent has one cast on provisionally on dpns. It takes a special kind of talent to cast on 90 stitches in the round provisionally on dpns. Quickly, but not quickly enough, I realized this would be an easier task on a small circular needle. Otherwise, I knit the hat a little taller than called for because I knew I wanted to pull it down over my ears. It was snowing here just yesterday. Yeah, this hat has to be functional and cute. But really, when you are staring down another "numbing" winter, cute really takes a back seat to functional.

While the little one and I were sick, we ended up getting a new camera. Hooray for entering the land of DSLR. Hooray for pick-me-up purchases whilst ill.

Snack in black and white

Warm Heads, Warm Hearts

These hats were so much fun to make, I almost wish I had more children.

Almost, but you know, not really. I love my kids, but we've been passing around an intestinal bug and I am glad we only have four people in the house.

Very Warm Hat by Meg Swansen, a handout from Knitting Camp '07
Chart by Tiennie Knits "Norwegian Star Earflap Hat"
Yarn: Cascade 220 Paints #9867 & Cascade 220 white

Ah Success

Finally. I made a hat that fits. You'll have to trust me on the fitting part--he did not want to wear it for the camera. (Give it a month for the temps to dip down a bit...)

Pattern: Very Warm Hat by Elizabeth Zimmerman (a hand-out from Knitting Camp 07)
Motif: A modified "We Call Them Pirates" chart provided to me by Stacee (knittingelephant)
Yarn: Cascade 220 (.4 skeins of blue and gold)

Blue and gold were chosen because those are the colors of the boy's coat. Not for any team affiliation. I grew up in Ohio and had to say this *first thing* to my mother, who still believes if you wear blue and gold you are, even if you don't mean it, rooting for Michigan.

Try, Try...Try Again?

This is my second attempt with this hat. I tried it last year, as well.

This time it's too big. And it's made with a large seam that's designed to cover the ears with double the fabric. I like the idea in theory, but in practice it means that there's a big, chunky seam running right through the pattern. And you can see it, especially since it's too big for his noggin.

So, ever emboldened (?!), I've decided to try again, but this time I'm using Meg Swansen's V. Warm Hat (Rav link) that I got at Knitting Camp last year, and N has chosen the motif from the We Call Them Pirates hat. Should be interesting! At least this one is completely lined..it's basically two hats, one knit inside the other. I hope it'll work. It has to..it's the third time.

New Start

I know we were asking for it, but starting in the first grade instead of Kindergarten turns out to not be the most seamless experience on the planet. But he has stepped up and has taken the whole thing in stride.

Tuesday when he started school it was 92 degrees. Today, two days later, it won't even hit 60. Things are just very weird here, overall. The whole school experience and weather wackiness have left me feeling a bit unmoored.

But I did finish a baby cardigan for a baby shower I'm attending in a few weeks. It's the Easy Baby Cardigan by Knitting Pure & Simple, made with stash yarn: Sheep's Gift from Joslyn's Fiber Farm. It's very lovely and there was plenty in one skein to make this sweater. I might even crank out a hat to match, since I already bought pink Robeez for the little one, who is due in October. She'll need a wool sweater, if today is any indication of the Fall and winter that are ahead of us.

The Summer Away

It appears as if I took the summer "off" from blogging. The truth is there are a whole lot of reasons why I haven't. And they seemed to overwhelm the reasons why I should. And that is all.

We still haven't sold our house. I'm convinced at this point that we'll spend the rest of 2008 here and a good portion of 2009. We have about 40 days left on our listing, and after that we are not relisting it until after the holidays. Who wants to spend Nov & Dec keeping their house immaculate for showings? Not I, said the fly.

So it works out Ok. Really it does. Thankfully my husband is his own boss in his new venture and he has been working from our house since July 1. He can continue to do that, with semi-weekly commutes to Boston.

Our son starts school tomorrow (!) and if we don't have to move him immediately to a new school, I think that's what we prefer at this point. Some may remember he's due to start kindergarten, but we inquired with the principal about whether or not he has made leaps of progress so as to sit well in first grade. A few weeks ago he was tested by a first-grade teacher who deemed his skills to be more than adequate for first grade, so off to first grade he goes. He'll be the young one, but we're confident that he'll do well. (And when he gets older, we can tease him about never learning to share because he "skipped" kindergarten.)

As for me, well...I'm just trying to ride the sea of change, for lack of worse imagery. Our daughter most likely will be home with me all the days because we didn't enroll her in preschool because we thought we were leaving. It's a difficult place to be in...leaving but on hold. Going but staying. But I think I've mastered it by now--we've been in a holding pattern for quite awhile.

Ear Cozies by Fiber Trends

I haven't blogged, but I have knit! Earlier this summer I churned out a few hats for the Iowa flood victims. There is still time to provide items for them, although now I suspect with the hurricanes in LA, MS and TX, Iowa's flood victims might get "lost". They are taking:

• mittens
• caps
• scarves
• afghans
• prayer shawls
• baby blankets
• dishcloths
• socks
• infants, children’s and adult sweaters
  

Everything should be sent by November 1 to:

Post office address:
Cottage Creations
At the Farm on Deer Creek
Carpenter, Iowa 50426

UPS or Fed Ex address:
Carol Anderson
4562 Zinnia Ave.
St. Ansgar, IA 50472

I have matching mittens in the works. It'd be so nice if you could churn something out to warm a little head in Iowa this winter. Many people there lost everything in the floods of June.

Superstitious

I try not to be superstitious. I inherited a few from my parents, though. When the salt spills I have to throw a bit over my shoulder, for instance. Innocuous, for the most part. However, the past two times I've blogged, I've come down with a big illness shortly thereafter. What's up with that?

I'm actually still sick. Low-grade fever and possibly heading toward another sinus infection. I'm trying to head it off with a neti pot. Thankfully husband is in town this week and has been picking up my slack.

Monday was the last day I was out and about. Here's a colorful photo of M, who is growing up so quickly lately. We had to take her to the ER last week with croup, but she has recovered.

Doing her best to beautify our house while it's for sale

Over the weekend, our son really got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels. Santa brought this new bike for Christmas, and it didn't come with training wheels, so there has been some motivation to ride it. Seeing as Santa also took the other bike that had training wheels. Santa's ways are mysterious, for sure.



Like about a billion other people, I started the February Lady Sweater. I'm using Araucania Nature Wool and although I had to fiddle with the numbers because my gauge is off, it's working up nicely. I don't know what those people at Araucania were smoking when they got 18 stitches for 4 inches on size 6 needles--the gauge on the label. I like this wool at 6 stitches per inch.

I've also decided to write up my diaper cover/wool soaker pattern and sell it on Ravelry. I have uploaded a total of three hat patterns on Ravelry for free, and they seem to be going over well. I like my diaper cover, because the design is very clean and has an adjustable waistband, too. We'll see how it goes. Right now I'm just trying to recover from this virus and make sure it doesn't go all bacterial in my sinuses. I'm sure blogging about it won't help, eh?

Published

I forgot to share that I finally published my Cherie Beret pattern (free) on Ravelry. You can find it here!

"I don't know where you went..."

I've been here the whole time, Internet. Just not feeling like blogging. When I have nothing but complaints, whines and moans, I usually refrain from posting. So that makes me a very intermittent blogger, at best.

But then a blog pal left a comment and said "I don't know where you went..." and it made me feel a little badly for not updating lately.

Let's see. Shortly after that last post, I had a vicious stomach flu that took a week to get over. I did finish my mom's socks for Mother's Day and they were semi well-received, although a week later she still had not tried them on. And I haven't asked about them since.

After that, I needed a sure-fire project to pick me up, so I knit my first lace: a Shetland Triangle Shawl for my oldest friend. We go back to the 4th or 5th grade, when she moved to my school. Somehow we keep reaching out to each other from time to time and I truly believe we will be connected throughout our lives. She's a very special person to me.

Project: Healing Shawl (Shetland Triangle Shawl from Wrap Style)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy Sock in Gothic Rose
Modifications: 10 repeats, but I'm pretty sure I could have done 11
Received: Extremely well. Better than expected. Happy.

After that, I knit a cabled pillow, but I have yet to sew it up, so that'll be for the next post. I also caught the February Lady Sweater fever, and cast on in 100purewool's 3-ply. It's turning out lovely.

100purewool 3-ply in Azul Profundo

On a continuing personal note, our house has been on the market for just over a month. We are hoping to move before school starts, but we're not counting on it. The housing market, if you haven't heard, isn't great. But we are buoyed by the fact that a few houses in our neighborhood have sold in the past few weeks.

I continue to spend way too much time on Ravelry, and CESOB in particular. I've met some great friends there and would like to give them a shout-out. We just had a stitch marker swap, and these are ones I received from Lynnea. I'll post photos of the others in another post. I promise to post again in June. Although I can't promise it'll be upbeat.

Lovely stitch markers from Lynnea

Mother's Day

I think I've mentioned before that my immediate family doesn't know about this blog. It's appropriate because they also don't care about knitting. But it's also convenient for me because then I can dish about works in progress that are gifts and not have to be all hush hush about them.

This particular pair of socks is for my mom for Mother's Day. I haven't knit any socks ever for my mom, and I thought that since summer is coming, Sockotta (cotton/wool/nylon blend) would be appropriate. I actually don't often knit with true fingering weight yarn for socks (preferring the process to go a little more quickly) so I'm surprised at how quickly these are working up.

What happened is that I realized I don't want to knit for pay. I knit because I love it and I only knit for people who I truly adore. That doesn't translate well into knitting for random people for money. Thankfully we are financially in a position where I don't have to earn money. Anything I earn is gravy, and so I can continue to knit for love. And thankfully the people who invited me to participate in their store have graciously allowed me to bow out.

I felt so relieved, that I just knit and knit and knit on my mom's socks. And lo. They are going much more quickly than I had anticipated! Maybe I *do* like fingering weight yarn afterall.

Not Very Massachusetts

Our house went on the market Saturday officially. Let the craziness begin. In the meantime, I've determined just how much I guess I am not Massachusetts:

You Are 16% Massachusetts

You Yankees loving homo! You probably think Starbucks coffee tastes better than Dunkin Donuts.

How Massachusetts Are You?

Ack. I suppose it's not very scientific, but then, I tend to think since I've spent 29 out of 36 years of my life in the Midwest, I'm fairly Midwestern and probably always will be. It's not a bad thing, is it?

As a result of the above, I haven't been knitting much, well, much that's very interesting. I started knitting for a little online store--baby things. They are fun and pretty quick and I'm "designing" some items, so that has been creatively challenging and fun. But I also yearn to get back to my other adult knitting projects.

Where Is Spring?

Hi again. I feel the need to introduce myself. Hi. I'm Jen and I knit. Sometimes. Lately, not so much. And because I'm not too big on complaining publicly, and lately I've had not much nice to say, I've resorted to...well, not saying much. Which is probably not the right thing to do because I think about blogging quite a bit.

Just do it, right?

Genuine tagged me on her blog and even said I'm "very inventive" so I guess I need to follow through with that or lose her respect forever. This is a six-word memoir and it can include an illustration. Mine will not.

Reads, knits, writes; usually plays nicely.

Boring? Well, tough. In truth I would have liked to write something like "Writer saves humanity with poignant prose." But I have neither the ego nor the crystal ball to say that. So I'll stick to the here and now.

T&A
In other news, our daughter sailed through her tonsillectomy & adenoidectomy last week, but not through her recovery. It has been a tough, long slog. Two days after the surgery, she came down with croup and a nasty cold. Which meant she didn't want to eat. At all. Not even ice cream, popsicles or pudding could entice her. So it has been rough, but we're managing. She's almost 3, so she's got that 2/3 thing going on, too.

I was able to finish another diaper cover (before the surgery)! This is another soaker for Sam. It's from 100purewool's 3ply; the color is Brown Lilac and I just love it.

I also finished the second sock in a pair (after the surgery). This pair is made with Duet from A Swell Yarn Shop. I had traded for it on Ravelry a little while ago. I have to say while I adore the colors (cream, tan, pinks) I'm not in love with the yarn base. I found it splitty and squeaky. I think I've decided I'll mostly stick with wool/nylon blends for socks after this one. Superwash 100% wool just rubs me the wrong way. It feels too much like acrylic to me.

Even though they are heavy wool socks, there's something about them that says "spring" isn't there? (Despite the fact that we're supposed to get two more inches of snow tomorrow. On top of our 100+ inches for the season--we passed by our previous record of 76 inches awhile ago. Oh the humanity!)

No New Knits

Blog posts are daunting when you have no new knitting to show. But there has been stash acquisition and other fun things, so I'll go ahead anyway.

This past weekend the knitting guild in my city hosted a Knit-In and I came away with quite a few items:

Tribbles. More specifically, 12 Tribbles for free.
Won as a door prize.


Blue buttons from Jennie The Potter
I couldn't resist!


Pink Button for Imogen from Jennie The Potter
oooooooooo.


MC Bearfoot for Periwinkle Beret
to match my brown winter coat


Aussi Sock in Faded Valentine

I also may or may not have purchased 8 skeins of Black Water Abbey 2-ply in Ocean. She didn't have them on hand, so I don't have them in hand, but I think they are making their way to my house as I type. Or perhaps that was allllll a dream.

I do know one thing. This week is "Kids Week" at the local children's hospital and because we were there today for a pre-operative appointment, we got two "doctor bags".

Surgical masks turn out to be a really handy plaything when your 5 year old has a low fever. Can I just point out that...shouldn't every week be "Kids Week" at a children's hospital?

Miss M is scheduled for her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy March 19. Yes, we'd like a matched pair, please. No seriously, I know this looks and sounds ridiculous. But rest assured that we are not operating on our children willy-nilly. Our ENT is a very conservative guy and we all agree it's time to take hers out, too. Even the nurse practitioner who saw her today commented on the size of M's tonsils.

Ah life. It just keeps doling out the sweet and the not-so-much sweet.

Back to Reality

The lull experienced on this blog was actually a refreshing vacation in Jamaica. For six days we frolicked on the beach, soaked in the sun and ate delicious, authentic Jamaican food. Truthfully, I had low expectations for this trip. Let's face it: I am the mother of a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I know that vacation can have it's trials for little children. Especially an overseas vacation. But it was seriously very fun. We kept the activities to a minimum so as not to wear out the children (and thus ourselves) and we happened to get really lucky when we booked our stay at The Blue House near Ocho Rios. What an amazing place. They call it a B&B but it's more like a boutique, luxury hotel. We stayed in the cottage behind the house and there was so much privacy and the food was amazing.

There was even time to knit. I started and almost finished another Koolhaas Hat. I didn't bring dpns with me, so I had to wait until we got home to finish it. I'm calling it my "Rum Cream Koolhaas" because the colors remind me of Jamaica Rum Cream, the most delicious drink on ice that I've ever tasted. It's rather like Irish Cream, but so much better.

We brought a few bottles back.

Project: Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood of brooklyntweed
Yarn: 100purewool.com 3-ply merino in "Tostado" colorway
Mods: none (4 repeats, not 5)

You know, for all the complaining I've been doing about this winter, I was so happy to come back to 30-degree temps. Today it's 41 and the snow and ice is melting. Much of the week it's going to be in the 30s. That's all a girl can ask for--it's my 36th birthday tomorrow and I'm just glad it's not supposed to snow.

ETA: *sob* it snowed last night. I guess there are worse things, right?