Seeing red.

What’s red? Well…

1. This:

Full frontal shot:

I know, this picture of me is horrifying.

Pattern: A Better Bucket by Amy Swenson (direct link to PDF file here)
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Burgundy, one skein
Needles: Knitpicks Options size US 8

Not much to say about this one - I was in the mood for a quickie. It was Malabrigo March. I thought the hat was cute, so I decided to join a Buckethead KAL on Ravelry. It’s a great hat, if a little big; next time (there may be a next time: it’s a great pattern!), I might do something shocking and unexpected like try it on as I go. My husband says it’s fine… he says he likes everything I make, though, so that’s no help. I’m sure I will wear it, especially when I want to be all incognito (because that happens all the time. I’m a superspy, didn’t you know?) - this is the oversized hat to do it in!

The brim is fabulous (you believed me when I said I didn’t have much to say? Aren’t you gullible, Reader!) - it’s got this really cool construction so that it’s double-layered. Which means that the cast-on is a bit fiddly - but it’s worth it. Trust me. It also means that the brim has a really nice quality - not really stiff, but definitely not floppy, either - (Ah, the double entendres are all over the place!). The hat itself is so warm and cozy; if it wasn’t for the unfortunate timing of the project (late March in my parts isn’t particularly cold), I’m sure I would have worn it several times by now. No matter - it’s all ready to go for next winter!

2. What else is red? Ummm, meat cooked rare, or in my case, very rare (No, I’m not really implying that I am meat. This one is such a stretch, but points for effort in trying to work it in?). ‘Scuse the formatting from this point on - sometimes I really hate WordPress.

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Interesting little quiz, grabbed the idea from Dee’s blog. It’s surprisingly accurate for something that takes less than five minutes!

3. One more something red: my eyes. I’m tired! I actually have another couple of red knitted items to show you, but I’m going to save them for next time and go to bed instead. Oh, who am I kidding - I’ll go to bed, but I’ll read just one more page of Twilight until I’ve read 50 “one more pages” and it’s a bit later than this. I wasn’t sure it would be my cuppa, but I am so hooked. If you haven’t yet, youhavetoreadit. Have to!

P.S. Notice I completely didn’t mention or apologize for, ahem, my prolonged absence. Why bother boring you with the details? I have this chronic condition called life, and it periodically gets in the way of regular posts. I’m here now.

Loopy Swap Loot!

I got my Loopy Swap package today from my pal, Sarah. Did she spoil me, or what?!

1. This made me smile before I’d even opened the box:

2. Hmmm. So, when I opened it at the proper end, there was this:

And how cute are those buttons, by the way?

3. Here’s a shot of everything that was inside:

Wow. Wow. Right?

4. Of course, as cool as all this stuff is, my most favorite part is the knitty gift! Sarah made me Monica’s Fingerless Lace Mitts with Cherry Tree Hill yarn in the Mountain Hideaway colorway. I don’t remember ever having seen this colorway before - but I love it. I love the mitts. They’re so pretty and warm! I’d wanted to make myself some mitts before winter is over this year, since my hands are always cold, but probably wasn’t going to get around to it. Now I don’t have to!

Seriously. Did I mention that I love them? Are they not drool-worthy?

5. Part of the swap assignment was to include something that reminded you of home:

A pickle puzzle (almost immediately stolen by Cole - he did let me take pictures first) and magnet from Tony Packo’s outside her local baseball stadium; yarn (Plymouth Happy Feet), sock pattern, and pens from her favorite LYS. The yarn is different from anything else in my stash; kind of reminds me of embers dying in the fireplace. I really like it!

6. Bags! And there is the card Sarah sent to explain all my goodies, as well:

Okay, here is a teensy confession. I was so excited to get my package, and the first thing that came out of the box was the Target reusable shopping bag. I knew there were other things in the box - knitted goodies, even! - but did that stop me from playing with that Target bag for a full minute before I pulled anything else out? Nope. I guess I’m just that easily amused - I opened it, zipped it back up, opened it again - I’ve never seen one that zips into a little portable deal like that, and I have wanted to either buy or make a reusable shopping bag for a while, so I played with the shopping bag and wondered why I’m not genius enough to come up with something like that… I am completely silly sometimes.

But that’s not the only cool bag! Have you ever seen a Piddleloop bag? Me neither! Isn’t it adorable? Perfect size for sock knitting. And there’s a little notions bag that I think came from Piddleloop as well. So cute, and I love the chocolate / pink and red / pink color combinations.

7. More stuff! Sarah, you went a little crazy. Not that I don’t love it all and appreciate it very, very much!

I wanted to wait until I’d taken pictures to open the bucket o’ candles, but then forgot and opened them anyway, so that’s why the packaging might look wonky. They smell really good, though! I can’t place any of the scents for sure, probably because I’m still sick. Some kind of pie, and fruit. Pretty much they’re just yum. And then! Those felted stitchmarkers from jelby - adorable! And the Sephora nail file, and stickers, and key chain… little cute things make me happy! The Oscar Wilde magnet (says: “experience is the name everyone gives their mistakes”), the hippo (also a magnet), and the sticky notes are all coming with me to work!

Thank you so much for all of it, Sarah! It really made my Saturday extra happy.

Hippo says he feels his jedi ninja powers would be taken a bit more seriously if I’d remove that tag from his ear.

When it rains, it pours.

Just a quick, “yes, I’m still alive” post. The last few weeks have been exhausting, frustrating, and downright hard, and I say without reservation that I am DONE with this month and the last, and really need March. Maybe it will be better. Here, I’m going to sound like the stereotypical sad country song, or a that-can’t-be-real-life soap opera:

My son caught the nastiest virus ever. He had a 103.6 degree fever and a horrible rattling cough.

My husband caught it.

Then, I caught it. Worse, the baby caught it. We have both been sick since Friday. I have yet to have a day since then where I do not feel worse than the day before. My little girl’s version progressed into bronchiolitis, and she has to have breathing treatments throughout the day. Because of all the mucus and accompanying violent coughing, she is having trouble holding down formula, and we have to keep switching back and forth between formula and Pedialyte. She can only have one ounce every ten minutes. She is not a happy camper. Which means, neither are we.

The sick has been in my house for weeks as it gets passed from one to the next. I am, well, sick of it. Because I feel up to nothing, I try to knit in my bits of free time but usually fall off into internet surfing or online shopping stupor instead. I have a friend who says she knows she is stressed when she starts reading bunches of fluff magazines instead of books. You could probably measure my stress level by the amount of time I waste online. Not the healthiest stress-busting habits, but I also feel horrible right now, so I can’t exactly take it out on the elliptical trainer.

A pack of dogs managed to find a way into my husband’s goat fortress last night and attacked the goats. Of course it had to happen while it’s just me and the kids here. I caught them before they had gotten too far with the attack, and my bathrobed and slippered, screaming and banging rampage was enough to run them off, but not before they gave the smaller goat several puncture wounds, one of which punctured his trachea. It’s going to be another $450 or thereabouts to get him cleaned up and taken care of. He’s spending the night at the vet’s.

Today we received word at work that a junior was taken into custody yesterday, thanks to a tip off from another student who said he saw a hit list in the student’s possession, which detailed several staff and students that he planned to kill before taking his own life. Next to each name, he listed the weapon he would use. The list and the weapons were found at his home.

So, really. I try to be optimistic and think about all the good in my life - there is plenty. And even though it might not seem so lately, I try to keep the boring whining out of my posts. But, please. Enough. Can it be March now?

I sup tonight with a harlotry

I can’t help it. She’s not like the other girls, who demand so much attention

That Little Scarf in Posh Yarn Sophia 4ply in Oak - 15% done

 

or who really belong to someone else.

Loopy Swap Prezzie (Ravelry link) - I’m not telling what it is, what color it is… nuthin.

 

She’s just so

Seductive

She leaves my fingers blushing (they’re tinged pink after she’s had her way with them - a small price to pay for pleasure)

 

Ravishing in red

(man, does she look good in garter stitch)

 

Easy.

(a few yarnovers on RS rows, knit all the way on the WS. Oh, yes.)
This, by the way, is the Wool Peddler’s Shawl (Rav link) from Folk Shawls

 

I can’t seem to tear myself away. I know you aren’t supposed to fall in love with this type, but it was destined to happen. It’s the yarn.

Posh Yarn Laura in Squirrel colorway

 

(Thank you to those who messaged me about Jake. It’s definitely not the same here without him, and we are each in our own way still trying to adjust to his absence. I thought I would try to get on with the show here tonight with some knitting. )

RIP Jake 03.14.99 - 01.11.08

Jake suddenly ran out of luck and was put to sleep at 2:00 A.M. this morning. He had begun vomiting yesterday afternoon, and my husband came home early from work in the evening and took him to the emergency vet, where they informed him that he was quite ill but at least stable enough to wait for morning so he could see his regular vet. He was given something to control the vomiting and sent home. When I got up to get a bottle for the baby a little past midnight, I found a pool of blood on the living room floor. Jake wanted to go outside, and he was very weak and seemed aware that his time had come - he intended to die in solitude in his dog house, as many animals are wont to do. He obviously had very little time left, but we preferred putting him to sleep with one of us there with him to letting him suffer a last few hours alone in the cold.

He had internal bleeding, but we were never able to find out from what. There was no trauma to his body. We were told that he may have had blood vessels in his stomach, weakened by his last bout of bloat, which finally gave way. Or, it may have been a condition that he had had even before the bloat: unbeknownst to us, he may have had a tumor, since a rupture and sudden bleeding out would be a symptom of this. Still, we don’t know. All we were assured is that there was nothing we could have done, no way we could have known there was something else wrong, and no way a surgery would have fixed him. In the end, his death is a mystery to me, and I am both relieved that he didn’t cause his own death with his crazy antics, and deeply saddened that there was no way we could save him this time. I can’t believe he’s gone.

He was crazy because he loved us so hard. Every pet owner should be so lucky.

blustery days

It has been like this outside for the last three days:

This is perfect weather just now. Bitter cold. Ominously grey clouds in a great swath across the sky. My husband has been griping about the lack of rain and snow that was promised us by the skies and the weatherman - because he is never wrong! My husband is a little bitter because we’ve watched many a storm pass us by in favor of areas just a couple of miles away. It’s happened enough times to make it a geographic feature and more than just coincidence. The skies over our house are all bluster, lots of talk and no action - but I’m not complaining. This frosty gloom is enough to warrant this,

and this makes me happy. I can sit and drink tea and knit and read by the fire, next to a large window. Not much worth complaining about, if you ask me. I go back to work on Tuesday, and boy am I going to miss being able to just do this for a bit and feel like this is enough of an accomplishment for the day - no papers to grade or lessons to plan, and I have mastered the art of ignoring housework when there is a fire to cozy up to in the living room.

Of course, today I got nothing done. No knitting and hardly any reading, due to unexpected company in the morning for a few minutes that lasted until mid-afternoon. That’s okay - it was my parents, and I love to have them over; in fact, they’re the only company that I don’t mind just “popping over.” My mother fell in love with the clapotis I made that she is to pass along to my grandmother for me (I lost the battle of trying to make bright pink look good. My grandmother, however, can. I should have handed it over to its rightful owner long ago), and now she’s going to pick out a colorway she likes, and I get to make her one! I am more than happy to do this for her after all she has done for my little family and me, and I’m even more happy to knit this gift knowing that it will be much anticipated and desired by the recipient. Yay!

doggie paws and kiddie mitts

Dog update: Jake is fine. He continues to be rambunctious and pokes his nose on the counters looking for any foodie opportunity to drive me nuts - but he has been thwarted by our putting everything out of his reach, even the things we don’t think he’d want, as that has been proven to be a false sense of security. It seems to be going around, though: in addition to the couple of commenters who mentioned that their dogs are similarly misbehaving, I noticed on my stats page (just curious, you know, about what brings people here sometimes) that there were two specific searches recently that led to this blog: “dog ate foil wrappers on chocolate” and “dog found plastic in puke.” Uh-oh. My dog is fortunate, as he enjoys tempting Fate and has yet to be caught by her, and I hope that all your dogs are likewise so lucky. There is a story on this blog about Phoebe, who had some very bad luck through no fault of her own; if you have time, you should take a look. A few famous knit bloggers posted links to her story, and their ability to spread the word helped to raise a sizable chunk of change to fund her recovery. It really is amazing (to me, at least) the way each person pitching in just a little bit can make such a big difference - it’s a nice example of how even the smallest ways we can help, really do matter.

falls off soapbox

I have a small bit of time to myself this morning. It’s so rare and precious that I’m determined not to waste it by going back to bed, even though I could use more sleep. Instead, I’m going to sit by the fire and work on either my husband’s socks (another post) or Anne Hanson’s That Little Scarf.

Have I mentioned - probably not - I have a bit of a knitty crush on Anne Hanson. I started reading her blog when Cara of January One posted about her Wing of the Moth Shawl, and it’s been love for both her designs and her blog posts ever since. I just finished her Two-Needle Mittens for Cole (yay for purple!) on the way to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on New Year’s Day, and I’m going to follow those up with this hat, also in purple.

Specs:
Knitted December 22, 2007 to January 1, 2008 (they don’t take that long; I just had so little time to work on them!)
Pattern: Two-Needle Mittens - Child
Size: Small
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Sweet Grape
Needles: US size 6 bamboo dpns
Mods: knit in the round instead of on two needles

I mentioned before that I’d had to start over because I was making them in the medium size. He barely measures small enough to fit into the smallest size, so I thought that if I went up a size, they would only be slightly bigger and he could wear them longer. When I had him try on the first partially finished mitten, I saw that they would reach halfway up to his elbow. Oh. Heh, I guess there would be no point in making a “medium” size if they were only slightly larger than the “small” size… so glad the portion of my brain responsible for logic picked up on that one half a mitten too late. Had I not needed to begin again in size small, I might have finished them in time to get them under the tree for Christmas. I considered staying up very late to get them done, but I decided not to stress myself out so close to the holiday. The drawback here (and my point) is that since I only had time to knit them here and there, the decreases at the fingertip are different. I screwed up on the decreases on the first one because my stitch count was off (I forgot to subtract a stitch at the beginning and end of the rounds to compensate for the conversion to knitting in the round), and so I winged the parts where my rounds didn’t match up with the pattern. It still came out fine and in fact still looked pretty similar to the mitten pictured in the pattern. I thought that these were such a small project that I would remember what I’d done and needn’t bother writing anything down, since I would finish the second one shortly anyway… right. This from the person that has to look in the hamper to remember what she wore yesterday. And then came the holidays and I forgot everything.

So, I purposely flubbed the second mitten’s decreases by not subtracting those two stitches, just as I’d done on the other one - but then I couldn’t remember how I’d done the rest. This is why I should give up on trying to be clever - my mommy-brain is already overloaded and can’t take the pressure! The first mitten ends with eight stitches to be bound off, and somehow I only had five left at the end of the second mitten. No matter, though - somehow, they still look (more or less) the same, and I’ll probably have to replace them with larger ones next winter, anyway. My only other quibble, aside from what is my own miscalculating-I-can’t-count fault, is sewing up the seams for the thumbs. I wasn’t quite sure how to do that neatly, since these are my first mittens, and so I used the mattress stitch; while they look okay, I’m not entirely pleased with them.

Here’s something cool I came across and used in the making of these mitts: the (very nearly) invisible increase as explained on the TECHknitting blog. The pattern says to M1, and I wanted something that wouldn’t show or worse, create holes, so I did a little internet digging. It’s easy, and yes, nearly invisible. TECHknitting, with “TECH-niques to turn HOME MADE knitting into HANDMADE knitting,” is a fabulous resource with a lot of helpful knitting explanations, tips, and tricks, and pretty diagrams for visual learners like me. If you’ve never seen it, have a browse through the subject index - it really is a wealth of information. I don’t know who writes it, but someone in Wisconsin has me all amazed at their knitting expertise, and grateful that he or she shares it so freely.

Off to enjoy my quiet by the fire with some knitting…

Who am I kidding - this one is screaming “Pick me!” much too loudly to resist!

2008!

I don’t always make New Year’s resolutions - in fact sometimes my resolution is simply to make none - but I think I could stand to have a few this year:

1. Read more. I really miss it! I’m shooting for at least ten, which may seem like nothing, but to me, working mom of two young ones (and a freak dog!), that would actually feel like an accomplishment. I haven’t counted last year’s, but I’m a bit afraid to look.

2. Be a better blogger: post at least once a week. More would be even better, but I want to try to keep these realistic and do-able, and I know that once a week will probably be a struggle at times (see #1 for reason why).

3. Be a better friend: reply to all emails within 3 days of receipt - this would be a big change for me. A good one, though, as I always leave those on the backburner due to reasons listed in - you guessed it - #1, knowing that my friends will understand… but I have great friends who deserve better than that from me.

4. Be healthier: eat less junk and start exercising.

5. Be a better mom: my little boy has obviously enjoyed the extra time I’ve had for playing more games and reading more books with him while I’ve been on break, and it makes me sad to think that when I go back to work, he will miss that. I want to find more time in my crazy schedule for just him and me.

6. Do something around the house every day, even if it’s small - like just one load of laundry, one dusty corner, whatever. Just so at the end of the day I can say I managed something, and maybe then it won’t all pile up on me as it tends to do… maybe I can enlist the help of a certain three-year-old, heehee!

7. Buy less yarn and use more from stash. Notice I didn’t say buy “none” - come on, that’s crazy talk! But I have been on a bit of a binge lately, and I’m buying much more than I’m knitting (again), so less would be a good idea. I haven’t decided how to work this one yet… again, I’m shooting for “do-able.”

There, now I’ve gone and said them all out loud, so I’m accountable.  Happy New Year, everyone.

The Amazing Inflatable Chocolate Dog: A Post-Christmas Tragicomedy

Our dog, Jake likes to eat. Not surprising - what dog doesn’t? - but our dog’s penchant for food makes it more, I suspect, than the usual expected doggie interest. Not many dogs that I know - not our other dog, that’s for sure - will go to the extremes that he will in order to steal a smackerel of whatever he can get his lips around. He isn’t fat (in fact, he seems to have lost too much weight with age, and I worry that he should weigh a big more), but he is large. Intimidatingly so, even. He has mastered the art of lightning-fast, soundless thieving. I have seen him place his large mutt mitts on the kitchen counter, and with a mixture of delicate precision and pure doggy gluttony, inhale an entire dinner for four. In seconds. Without knocking anything over - no tell-tale broken casserole dish on the floor, no displaced utensils, nothing. No evidence save the missing food. Had I not seen him in action myself - and he is so sneaky, that seeing it once or twice in the last few years is akin to a fairy sighting in a forest glen - I would never have believed the extent of his skill.

And yet, I am making light of a serious problem. Laughing because the alternative is to howl in frustration. Jake’s foodie antics are funny in retrospect, but at the time? Not so funny. This is a picture I took of him the day after Christmas.

Want to know why my chum is so glum? It’s kind of a gross story, but if you own a dog, probably not too horrific (You decide whether you want to make the jump and find out…).

The Christmas Frog

So, a couple of weeks ago I was commenting on the lovely snow pictures on Tammy’s blog, saying that they are all the more spectacular because it’s been unseasonably warm and not-winter in my parts. Not that I love being cold - I love being indoors with a crackling fire, some hot chocolate or tea, and a cozy book or knitting in my lap, while it is blustery cold outside. I love the look and feel of winter, so long as I don’t have to feel the cold part of it.

Shortly afterwards, on the way down the hill to get our children’s picture with Santa at our favorite mall, there was this:

Those large specks in my son’s hair are actually big, fat, falling snowflakes. We stopped at an offramp to a) decide if it was snowing hard enough to warrant turning around and going home (too much snow in the pass = no way to get home once you’re down the hill) and b) take a couple of bad pictures with my phone. My son stood and smiled at the sky for a minute before he decided that even the wonderfulness of snow isn’t enough to make him want to stand outside and freeze. Back in the car he went, and we decided on continuing down the hill - the snow was only sticking in tiny little pockets on the sides of the hills, and just a bit farther beyond where we had stopped, it turned back to rain. And my son really, really wanted to see Santa.

The following morning, I went to call the dogs back into the house after I’d let them roam the yard for a couple of minutes (I am still ever watchful and paranoid because of Dog Shooter Neighbor). After whistling for them, I drew in a breath, and it was like a mouthful of ice water - except, of course, that it wasn’t actually wet. And then I wanted real ice water - it was that cold.

All this to say…

wintery knits weather is finally here! It came late, but finally, it came. Maybe it will stay for a while. It has so far.

This was - yes, was - the first Christmas knit. I made him a Zeebee. The Zeebee is such a cool pattern (Ravelryers can click here for my Zeebee project page)! I tried to hold on to it until Christmas morning, but I couldn’t do it. A certain little boy had been after me for a certain green hat for a while… so in the end, I gave into temptation and had him try it on…

…and it didn’t fit. Well, it fit, if you like the look of army combat helmets that don’t cover your ears. Also, the alpaca / wool blend that looked lovely in the garter stitch swatch suddenly seemed so heavy when it became this hat. Squishy, yes, but somehow, the stitches looked drapey. Unless you are a nun, your headgear should not seem drapey. I didn’t like this yarn in garter stitch, after all.

The hat lasted a day. I was about to resign myself to it when it occurred to me that I should just frog it and start over. I mean, come on, am I starting my own hat curse, here? First, there was this. What. Was. I. Thinking. Then, there was this - much better, even cute on my son - but it wasn’t originally intended for my son. It was for my husband, and somebody didn’t bother to check her gauge. Perhaps in an act of subconscious spite for my having made his hat to fit our son, he ended up felting it in the wash. It now fits my son’s Spiderman doll, maybe.

So, with no real successful hat stories in my repertoire, I decided that I was not going to allow the soft alpaca to suffer the fate of becoming yet another Hat Mistake. I frogged the Zeebee the day after I finished it. My son did not complain, and in fact made it very clear that he was perfectly fine with me taking it apart to make him a bigger hat to cover his ears.

I did a tag search of “toddler + hat” in Ravelry (no end of love for that site!) and decided on the Nottingham hat. The yarn used in that pattern matched the gauge for this yarn, and the cable and ribbing detail meant that the hat would not look like an army helmet. And I really wanted to make my son a hat in this particular shade of green, because it is a GREAT color on him.

It took longer than the Zeebee, and the cabling was tedious at times. Yes, I did have to frog back several rows at one point to fix a portion on which I’d entirely left out the cabling in four places - why do you ask? But the finished product? So worth it.

It covers his ears. It looks adorable on him. I’m not embarrassed to have him wear it outside the house. It was under the tree just in time for Christmas.

Specs:

1 skein Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes in Olive
Size US8 (5.0 mm) bamboo dpns
Started 12.11.07; finished 12.17.07
Size: child

Ravelry project page here!

Surprisingly, it even looks good on me in the child size. I could go up a size, but I think I like the snug fit of the smaller hat. I have enough olive green to make two more of these hats - my husband likes it, too! The yarn is a perfect match - soft, squishy, thick, and warm. I had originally intended to make my son a scarf with the two remaining skeins, but as it turns out…

he’s decided that what he really wants is a purple hat. So now I have enough Malabrigo in Sweet Grape for a hat, mittens, and a scarf (yes, I already made half a mitten, decided it was going to be too large, frogged and reknit a size smaller - why do you ask?).

P.S. Oh, yeah, one more thing? I hope everyone had an enjoyable, wonderful holiday!