I changed into nice clothes last night before starting dinner, then worried that I was probably going to dump something down my front while I was cooking. It happens way too often. If I had my new chicken apron done, I could've thrown it on over my new top and skirt, but it wasn't done and wasn't likely to get done any time soon...and somehow it clicked that the apron wasn't going to sew itself...



And I've got an apron now!

The instructions for this thing are extremely vague. If I didn't have some experience sewing clothes, I don't think I could've pulled it off. It took me three tries to get that stupid flounce to fit right. I don't rip seams out and redo them if I can help it, but since I'd taken the cute packaging apart I was determined to get a cute apron out of it.

I don't love the way it hangs on me, but it'll cover my clothes, which is what it was supposed to do in the first place. (Okay, I did have a couple of delusions that it would make me look all cute in the kitchen, but that's probably going to require more than just an apron.)

And here's the Rabbit Proof Scarf --



My original plan was to keep going until I ran out of yarn. Then I figured out that my 50 gram skein actually weighed 70 grams and had to make actual decisions about when to stop.

I've hit the point where I cannot face counting another nineteen rows of lace weight garter stitch, so I guess it's done.

Halfway into the Sasquatch Shawl, I stumbled across a thread about using sock yarn for shawls and read the distressing news that nylon/wool blends won't block. But I'd already fallen in love with the way the color and the stitch pattern were getting along together, so I kept going. How badly could it possibly turn out?

By the time I cast off, I had a short ruffly blob and little twinges of panic were starting to nibble at me. So it sat and sat some more, because if you don't try to block it or felt it or sew it together, you can keep telling yourself that it's going to work out just fine.

Last night, I wove in the ends and spread it out on the living room floor and guess what?



Seems like you can block this stuff after all!

Pattern: Bigfoot Shawl (from Wrapped in Comfort by Allison Jeppson Hyde)
Yarn: 3 Skeins Patons Kroy 3 ply
Needles: I can't remember -- whatever size the pattern called for.

In case I had any doubts about it being December, the DVD player doesn't like the kids' brand new DVDs -- or the other DVDs that I know should work. And the microwave doesn't seem to come on at all -- but even though it doesn't light up or make microwave noises, the food gets hot. Needles to say, I'm now terrified of the thing!

And the kids have been playing a three day game of "How far can we push Mommy before she winds up in a padded room?"

On the bright side, microwaves and DVD players are relatively inexpensive (at least compared to new wells and month long hospital stays) and I seem to have won the game with the kids by sending them to bed early.

And I've got my own Christmas toys...



That's enough sock yarn for six pairs, two new sock knitting books, and a set of Harmony DPNs. Not pictured are Knitting Nature, a bunch of quilting notions, and enough fabric for an entire quilt. Or the wonderful surprises from Bill that I'll be posting about later.

And when I signed into Ravelry last nigt, there was a message asking permission to use my picture on the pattern page for Garter Stitch Stripes. Which probably isn't a big deal, but it makes me feel like a "real" Ravelry member.

And I stayed up late with my Mystery Stole...



I can't decide whether to shorten it or keep going as written. If I shorten it, I get to do the short rows and wing quicker. If I don't shorten it, and it winds up as long and unweildly as the Rose Garden Stole, I'll be really annoyed.

After reading through the Ravelry thread on lengthening/shortening, I'm as confused as ever. Maybe I should just got knit on the thing.

I am in possession of a strawberry cheesecake from Costco. My husband's favorite kind of cheesecake. The kind of cheesecake they said they wouldn't be carrying again until after the holidays.

It's enough to make me feel like a competent homemaker and not a flake who, after doing the same dumb thing at Thanksgiving, didn't stock up on diapers a week or so before the big last minute shopping frenzies. Costco actually wasn't bad -- everyone was in the toy section at Walmart where I had to be too, because Heath was desperate to spend the $5 gift card from his Sunday school teacher.

It's not quite enough to make up for the total stranger who walked up to me next to the pie case and wanted to know if Quinn was feeling better since he'd thrown up in church on Sunday. I'm not even sure if my new apron is enough to make up for that one.



Isn't it going to be cute? I've been wanting something like this for quite a while now, because I always slosh water down my front while doing the dishes. And I get to make this one myself. And I had a 40% off coupon, so it was only eight bucks. And it has a chicken on it.

I'd rather be sewing an apron than wrapping those last few presents. But I don't think rest the family would agree with those priorities, so as soon as I'm done typing this, it's time for another round with the tape and scissors.

I've got an hour before the rest of the family shows up and, except for the wrapping, things are pretty much as done as they're going to get.


I was absolutely not going to get into one of those "finish all my WIPs before the end of the year" frenzies, but it happened anyway.

First, I was going to finish the things that just needed felting, or seams, or little things like that. So there went half the WIP list.

Then I started picking up the Sasquatch shawl, and somehow knit my way through 300 yards of sock yarn in two and a half days.



And now it seems silly not to finish the Rabbitproof Scarf and get it over and done with...

I'm having such a great day!

Finally got my eyes open enough to look at the clock and realized that I had to have four kids and myself ready and out the door to church in fifteen minutes...

Quinn went into a coughing fit and by the time I hustled him out into the hallway had already thrown up on the church carpet...which I didn't notice, because I was focused on the mess on the hallway floor...

The Sunday school teacher grabs me by the shoulder to stop me from walking back into the church with my skirt caught up in the back of my underwear...

I'm thinking maybe I should go back to bed before anything seriously awful happens.

Today has been my day for finishing the Christmas projects. Except for one last button that I need to find and sew on, I am done!

The button is for the flap of Dad's iPod cozy -- one of the few things I swore I'd never ever knit, but he's getting an iPod for Christmas, and has been having so much fun with it and its accessories and is so hard to buy for, it seemed like the perfect gift.



The eye pillows are stuffed and whip stitched together. I started out trying to follow a pattern by a big name designer, but didn't really like her patchwork and while I was digging through my stash and trying to figure out what it was that I wanted to do for mine, I came across a bunch of one inch squares left over from my unfinished tea pot quilt. Two nine patch blocks side by side were about the right dimensions, and then I still had squares left over, so I did a strip of them across the back. And then I felt like I needed a layer of batting in there, and if I was going to go to all of that trouble, I really should quilt them... The only thing from the published pattern I did follow was the size.

I've wanted to make something like this forever, but was intimidated by the flax seed, which sounded hard to find and expensive. It's cheap. Really really cheap. Almost cheaper than the powdered sugar I bought for the mints we also made this morning.

Grandpa's mittens are all seamed up --



Pattern: Flip Top Mittens by Debbie Bliss, from Knitting Daily (minus the embroidery and bobbles!)
Yarn: Bernat Camouflage
Needles: Denise size 7



And since I was on such a roll, I decided to seam up that little purse from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. It's still going to get a lining, but it's no longer a curling tangle of reverse stockinette and I cord.



Now I can try to figure out what I was working on before I put aside everything else for the Christmas stuff.

I ordered this yarn from Elann years ago, planning to make myself a Booga Bag. But after I finished the other two felted bags I'd had planned, my own bag never happened.

Then I saw the pattern for the Buttonhole Bag and thought maybe it could be one of those, but I never got around to casting on until a couple of weeks ago.

Before I got a chance to felt it, the washer broke, but it's sort of fixed enough for me to wash clothes, so --



I'm not sure if I like it if if I'm just glad to have used up the yarn.

I got up with the chickens this morning and finished Garter Stitch Stripes, which has far more ends than any project should. But it's worth all of the finishing if I can get a sweater this cute out of three partial skeins of Red Heart Super Saver.



It's an easy knit. The stripes are kind of entertaining and don't require a whole lot of concentration. And the pattern is sized to fit all four of my kids....guess I'll be making a bunch more of these!

I also wove in the ends of my Buttonhole Bag and tossed it into the wash before the kids were up, then we got all of our schoolwork done before a new friend came over to quilt, and while she was here I started two presents I've been planning and finished them except for the filling I need to pick up in town later this week.

Oh, and I cast on those mittens that should be easy but have been making me nuts.

I'm exhausted, but feeling a lost more optimistic about getting things done by Christmas.

I've been keeping a dead woman's sweater in our freezer for over a week now, and my husband has barely said a word. I really need to remember that the next time I'm tempted to complain that he's not an enabler.



I picked up the half-finished sweater at the same estate sale where I found the old quilt. It was so wonderfully soft and pretty that I had to bring it home and make it a shawl. But it's mohair, and it's fairly determined to stay a sweater, so I keep it in the freezer and struggle with it a few rows at a time. Doesn't help that it's crocheted and I can't figure out quite how it's supposed to unravel. Just when I got one stitch pattern deciphered and started making some fast progress, it went into an edging.

I suspected when I bought it that it would probably be difficult, but I want it. And I found the perfect pattern last night while I was flipping through Wrapped in Comfort to find the page I needed for the Stained Glass Sasquatch.

The sooner I defeat the mohair, the sooner I can cast on. And I really should get it out of the freezer before Bill gets annoyed by it.

I've been haunted by the idea of dead women's WIPs since this summer when I came across a partially knit aran sweaer at an estate sale, still on the needles and with the pattern. It was creepy. I buy yarn and needles at estate sales and thrift shops all the time and have never really thought about who didn't get to finish what they started, but the partially finished sweaters get to me.

(No, I didn't adopt the aran, which was made of Red Heat Super Saver.)

Well, the appliance guy has been here twice, the second time with reinforcements, and the washer still won't fill with water. But he's ordering parts and will be back soon.

I suppose it's a good thing that the machine died before I had a chance to felt my Buttonhole Bag. If it'd been the last load I ran, I never would have had the nerve to felt again.

My big goal for December is to make it through the month. I've abandoned all plans of finishing the Christmas knitting, or getting a few more of my own projects done before the calendar rolls over into 2008. Instead, I'm going to focus on survival.

I don't know how this month got so busy, or why I have so ridiculously many things going on, but there seems to be something every day from now until the end of time. I was going to put off getting the stove fixed until after the holidays, because it was a button I didn't absolutely need. Then another button failed, which made me feel better about waiting a couple of weeks to see if it was going to keep losing a new number every couple of days.

So the washer died. That our family of six can't go a couple of weeks without. A couple of days has just about done me in, and if the guy can't fix it when he comes tomorrow...

I don't want to think about how ugly that would be.

Now that today's scheduled chaos is over, I'm looking forward to snuggling up with Garter Stitch Stripes. Maybe I can get through the neck shaping and cast on for the back.

If I had energy, and hadn't just hauled all of my fabric scraps back out to the sewing room, I'd try some little owls.

There's a new Knitty?! Already? It doesn't seem possible that it's time for a new one, but I'm not going to argue.

I can't believe how many patterns I've just fallen in love with, especially since my dial up connection isn't letting me see pictures of most of them.

Ice Queen makes me think I should learn how to knit with beads. It also makes me want to click over to Elann and order some Silken Kydd. So far I've resisted the temptation, but just barely.

I don't know if the babies truly need Doddy, but I want it for me.

Jeanie...with those wonderful floating cables....I don't have wonderful enough words for it. Or the yarn.

Laughing Carrots is in the queue, but do I wish it came Quinn-sized. And was a pullover.

the sky is falling...

Saturday was supposed to be a nightmare of ice and snow. Ladies at the quilting group were talking about it on Thursday. My parents called to warn me about it on Friday. I'm sure if I'd watched the news, they would've warned me too.

Nothing happened.

Now, we're supposed to be having the storm of the century. So we've battened down the hatches, stocked up on water because when the power goes so does the well, found the candles and oil lamps...and so far so good. The power went down for a few hours this afternoon while we were at church having the kids' ornament exchange. So they decorated ice cream cones with green icing in the dark while I called around and tried to convince someone with electricity to keep my poor freezing chicks until it came back on.

It's back now and I hope it'll stay that way. I've got plans for tonight that do not involve sitting in the dark and jumping at noises, or chasing screaming toddlers around by candlelight. I have mittens to cast on and 2 1/2" strips of quilting cotton to cut, and a bag to sew, and slippers to quilt...

It practically followed me home....

On the way up to Costco yesterday, we passed a sign for an estate sale. There wasn't a good opportunity to circle back, so I put it out of my mind until we were on our way home from grocery shopping with only half of what we needed because Leif had the most spectacular meltdown of my entire parenting experience. And by then, I really needed the distraction, so we followed the signs off the main road and into a run down trailer park.

Estate sales down here are fun, the kind where someone apparently takes a roll of masking tape and slaps a price on anything that doesn't move out of his way. This one was being run by a dealer, but it was still worth the detour. I bought a handful of crochet hooks because I still want to try to figure out that whole amigurimi thing, and a half-finished sweater made from some lovely soft yarn that I've got to make into a shawl.

And I drooled over the three old quilts, but I'm cheap and twenty bucks is out of my budget.

They had some old tools that looked neat, but I don't know what actually qualifies as neat or what it should cost, so I passed those up and mentioned them when Bill got home from work.

Turns out the neat old tools really were neat and well priced, so I headed back first thing this morning and spent eleven bucks for two hand drills and an old milk can and this --



They still had all three quilts, but this was the one that demanded to come home with me. I don't know why. Lone Star is far from my favorite quilt pattern, down below Irish Chain, or Dresden Plates, or baskets, or even Sunbonnet Sue.

But this one wanted to come with me and I feel weirdly protective towards it. When the dealer referred to it as a "cutter quilt" I cringed. This one isn't going to get hacked into hot pads and place mats.

(I guess this qualifies as a Show and Tell Friday post, even if it all happened a day late!)

Yesterday, I left the kids at home with their daddy and went to church to play with the quilt group. There were gorgeous scrappy quilts and grownups who are just as excited about fabric as I am. And there was cheesecake. Sadly, they only meet once a month, and won't get together again until the end of January.

I'm just itching to get out my scrap bins and rotary cutter and start slicing up fabric to make a quilt like the one Barb did, but I was barely awake enough to get Bill's lunch together this morning and should probably avoid sharp objects until I get some more caffeine into me. The kids weren't up yet, so I pulled out Garter Stitch Stripes, decided I really can't live with the color combination I'd started with, and cast on a new version.



These colors are so much better! I had my heart absolutely set on the pumpkin orange until I started knitting and realized how garish it was going to look. It didn't look any better after sitting in my knitting basket for two weeks, so I slid it off the needles and cast on with some calmer colors. I still want the pumpkin, though. Maybe there are some other colors that would make it less frightening.



The Quickie Cowl is all sewn up and ready to go out in the cold, but this one isn't for me. Neither is the pink one, which Alex took off with before I could get a picture. I'll get my own, as soon as I can come up with a skein of Softee Chunky in a color I like. Which might be another week, because I don't think Walmart has it in brown and Michaels had to move their store out into the middle of nowhere.

The stitch pattern is so easy and this works up so quickly that I could see myself whipping out a dozen of them. I probably won't, but it's easy to imagine.

There was an absolutely terrifying moment Sunday night when, after convincing myself that I really did want to start working on my Mystery Stole again, I pulled out the stuff and the pattern wasn't there. I had the portion of Clue #1 I was working on, but not the page to tell me what the symbols meant. And I was sure that the files had been deleted from the Yahoogroup when the pattern went on sale.

Thought the PDF files would still be on my computer, but the second one wasn't because I printed it out on that library trip from Hell.
Connected to the internet and logged into the Mystery Stole Yahoogroup even thought I absolutely knew the files weren't there any more, and guess what? I must've hallucinated that post where she said she was taking them down.

It was all way more dramatic than it sounds now, because I was sitting in the dark and hoping the computer noises didn't wake up Leif. And even though I knew I could just buy the pattern, I knew the odds of my working up the enthusiasm again after waiting to get the pattern weren't all that great, and that it would probably go the way of my first two Mystery Stoles.

But the patterns were there and I made it through the first clue and well into the second before realizing that I'd better stop for the night before I really messed things up.



I love this lace. I love the color of the yarn I'm using and the fact that it held up after I tinked the same row at least three times before finally deciding that one missing YO wasn't going to kill me.

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do some more work on it becase this is the kind of project that I can't do with anyone else in the room, but I know I won't have to talk myself into it.

I'm all excited about the quick and easy one skein projects this weekend. 101 Designer One Skein Wonders found its way home from the library with me last week, and there are about a dozen things in there I want to make.

I cast on for the Essentials Mini-Purse, but now that the cute leafy part is done, I'm not 100% sure if I want to finish it or not. Thirty-six inches of I-cord and a lining seems like a lot of work for something I don't know if I'd ever use...
but the lining would be good practice, and Alex would probably take it of my hands, and it really is cute...



Then I was playing around on Ravelry and found the Quickie Cowl. I started it last night, using some Bernat Softee Chunky. A couple of hours later, it was almost as long as the pattern called for. I spent this afternoon making it longer and now I've got a few more rows to go and a seam to sew up, then I'll run it through the wash and see if it softens up like the other projects I've made with this yarn.

If all comes out well, it may be a Christmas present for my mother. And if there seems to be enough of the pink Softee Chunky left over, I may start a second one for Alex.

Today would have been my first Black Friday in years without a baby in my arms, but Bill was scheduled to work and not even the promise of crazy ladies at Joann's or 99 cent snuggle flannel (with a 20% off the entire purchase coupon to make it even cheaper!) was exciting enough for me to want to leave the house before dawn with four kids in tow.

I've still got snuggle flannel from previous sales, and after that yarn sale at Michael's last week, I'm all set with the cheap acrylic for a while. Even if there were better yarn deals out there today, I don't really need any of it.

So I've been hanging around the house and adding stuff to my Ravelry Queue and printing patterns and digging around for yarn.

And I spent a couple of hours on my Bigfoot Shawl --



There's a lot more to it now than there was when I took the picture. I think I might be at the point where I can enjoy the knitting instead of holding my breath and hoping I'll wind up with the right number of stitches at the end of each row.

This was supposed to be for Alex, but I'm loving the colors so much it might stay mine. She got the Rose Garden Shawl, so it's not like the poor kid is deprived.

I don't think it's worth bothering with a detailed autopsy. I can figure out a lot of the reasons this little sweater went so wrong (should've added some sleeve shaping, the gauge could be looser), but others (why does the top bulge out like a mushroom?!) are beyond me. And I don't think it matters because I plan to lose this thing as soon as possible.



Poor little guy -- I've knit him two sweaters in a row that absolutely don't work. So much for quickly whipping out a couple of nice sweaters for the boys to wear to church...

I had a minor tragedy yesterday afternoon. While I was slogging away on the yoke of the baby Cobblestone, there was a sad little snap as one of my Denise cables left this world. A dozen or so stitches immediately escaped, but none of them laddered down and I got them all onto a new cable, so it's all okay now. I've just got to mail the broken one in to get it replaced.

The Flickering Flames skirt (which for some reason I keep typing as the candle flame skirt)is as done as it's going to get anytime soon. I still need to replace the ribbon at the waist with some elastic and sew a slip for her to wear under it, but that's not knitting.




Pattern- Luna Flickering Flames Skirt

Yarn-
(this is exactly what the label on the bag read!)
Sale Yarn!
Factory Surplus
Tangled Skeins
100% miscellaneous odd lots of undetermined fiber content

Needles- Denise size 9 and 11

This doesn't have the shaping called for in the pattern because I jumped in without figuring out how much yarn I actually had. So I went up bunch of needle sizes instead of increasing, and it came out okay.

I've got three new projects on my needles to play with -- hope no more of my cables break!

I found the second skein of yarn! Today was a lot warmer than it's been, so after we got back from grocery shopping I dug around some more in the sewing room and found the yarn I need to finish Quinn's Baby Cobblestone. And the IK issue with the pattern for the striped garter stitch sweater, the one that I've been so annoyed about losing.

So I can either work on the Cobblestone yoke or swatch garter stitch tonight. I finished Alex's lace skirt last night, but apparently left it in the van so I can't take pictures until Bill gets back home with it.

After not spending a lot of time online lately, I've been browsing blogs and Ravelry and finding all kinds of neat stuff:

How did I not know that there's a free pattern online for a felted skull? Probably because it's in crochet, which I don't know how to do yet.

This hat by Kathleen at Dakota Dreams is gorgeous, and she's got another one with elephants, and a tam with pumpkins...

Pat is knitting gorgeous new mittens and I've printed out the pattern, even though I can't make heads or tails of it yet.

Sure, go ahead and start the sweater even though you only know where the first skein of yarn is. The other one will turn up before you need it.

Sounded like a good idea that the time, but now I'm almost out of yarn and the second skein isn't in the bags of nice cheap acrylic or anyplace else I can think of. I could stripe the yoke with the leftover yarn from Heath's Weasley Sweater, but I don't really want stripes. I could go to Michael's to buy another skein of the same color, but I've really got no business going back and buying more yarn after Wednesday's little adventure.

At least I've got some options, I just don't like any of them. And I'm anxious to finish the yoke and see if it fits, especially after all of the math I did (with the help of the JWS Top Down Yoked Percentage Sweater, but it was still math!) to figure out the decreases.

I didn't expect to make it this far this quickly. I was sure I'd trip over that skein of yarn long before I needed to go looking for it.

Now I need it, and the odds of tripping over it are very slim because the sewing room is really cold and really dark and I don't expect to spend much time up there until the weather warms up.

Maybe I'll keep knitting and hope there actually is enough yarn in the first skein.

Show and Tell Friday

Apparently, one of the perks of owning an antique store is that people show up and offer you some really neat junk they don't want anymore. And the perk of being the granddaughter of an antique store owner is that I get some of the stuff Grandma doesn't want, or the stuff she's pretty sure I'll want.

We've got an eighty-seven year old farmhouse that we're decorating, so it all works out very well.



The latest treasure is a wooden carpet sweeper. I didn't know they made them out of wood, but to be honest I never gave much thought to when they started making carpet sweepers or what they used when they did. And, to make things even cooler, she tells me it works better than the new one they have at the store.

Why she didn't keep it instead of the new one, I'm not sure, but I'm glad to have it. Especially if it will work in the sewing room, because I hate hauling the real vacuum cleaner outside and across the porch and up the stairs.

Go by Kelli's House for more Show and Tell Friday links.

Yesterday, despite the fact that I was up before dawn moving chicks from the incubator into their big-chickie home on the front porch and running a bunch of errands I really didn't want to do, was a pretty terrific day.

Before picking Mom up at 11, so she could watch the babies in the lobby while I took Heath in to the eye doctor, I made it to the grocery store, the post office, the library, and bought a pair of shoes. We spent the whole day at a dead run until I got all of the kids tucked in and immediately went to bed myself where I laid awake for hours thinking about yarn and waiting for morning so I could play with some of it.

The Michaels ad in the Sunday paper promised that all of their yarn was 25-50% off. It all of my will power not to drive up to town Sunday morning, because I was so sure they'd be sold out of all of the decent stuff. They never have any decent sale yarn left when I make it up mid-week, but they were re-stocking when I got there.

Cotton Ease, which I've been lusting after since they released those new colors a while back, was 40% off. Bernat Camouflage was 30% off. I stuck to my budget, but it would've been easy to buy a whole lot more.

My box of goodies from Knitpicks, which I didn't get to open until this morning because I didn't want anyone else seeing how much yarn came into the house with me last night, came. The Campfire Shadows and the Maple Leaf Shimmer are even prettier than they are in the pictures.

And I had Lace Style reserved at the library.

So now the Campfire is screaming that it wants to be Icarus, the Deep Woods I already had in my stash wants to be Kiri, and the Maple Leaf wants to be something rectangular...that Red Heart Strata I bought a while back wants to be playground mittens and a Sideways Shortrow Watch Cap...

I love the new yarn. And the yarn I already had in my stash.

I need to knit some sexy underwear for my neck. Today is going to be a long one, so I'm especially glad I stumbled across some fun patterns to be excited about while I'm doing what's got to get done.

Bella Paquita takes my breath away, and it's a free pattern. Wonder if I could manage to knit that...

I can do this. It's "just" a 52 stitch panel of cables with ribbing on either side. There's a chart to follow, and I've got my little magnetic chart board. And I really want this sweater!



It's time to quit hiding from it and do some knitting. I ran out and bought the yarn a couple of years ago, then chickened out and never cast on. I dug out the pattern a few months ago, then chickened out and never cast on. I finally cast on and got the first row wrong, then let it sit for a couple more weeks....

I don't know why I'm so afraid of this thing.

I've got new projects to show off, Ravelry is letting me update my projects, and it's almost bed time for the little guys -- yippee!



Pattern: Knitting Needle Knitting Bag
Needles: Denise size 9
Yarn: Brown Sheep Thick and Thin Special Heather, 2 skeins

I've knit quite a few bags already and never use any of them, but despite its slightly dangerous construction (someone has already ripped out a needle handle once) I seriously love my Knitting Needle Knitting Bag. It's a great shape, stretches out to an even nicer shape when it's full of yarn, and flops open wide so it should be easy to get at whatever's stored inside.



I burned myself out on berry stitch doing that pineapple hat last year, and didn't like the way it looked with this yarn, so I wound up doing seed stitch instead. It wasn't much easier on my hands, but the effect is worth it. Somewhere in my house or sewing room, if I didn't stupidly give them away, is a pair of well-worn wooden needles that I'll glue in place once I find them.



Pat wanted to see the fire helmet on a head, so here it is! It's very, very big, but since it's for two boys who happily wear the mixing bowl that I used to block it, I'm thinking it'll work out just fine.

Pattern: St. Elmo's Firefighter Hat from New Knits on the Block
Yarn: unidentified pale blue wool for the body, unidentified yellow acrylic, Knitpicks Merino Style for the badge

I really did get that shade of red with two packs of Cherry Kool Aid, which was all I had in the kitchen cupboard. I thought I'd planned to break out the red food coloring, but I don't think it could've got any redder.



It was supposed to be for Quinn, who likes hats, but Leif is the one with firefighter jammies, so he got to be my model. Turns out they both like the hat, but I'm not a nice enough mommy to make a second one.

It's sad. For the third day in a row, Ravelry won't let me do anything that requires clicking on a button. I can't add people to my friends, or get into my messages (especially sad since there actually was one for once) or add projects to my queue...

sigh It's happened before, but it's always worked again the next day. And I'm sure it'll work again soon, I just hate not being able to do things right now, when I actually have a chance to sit here and use the computer.

And what if it won't let me add my new yarn when it gets here?! It's not like I could keep the invoice and enter it later, or anything rational like that...

Knitpicks has lace weight on clearance, in colors that I've been coveting since they were first released. So, after a week or so of resisting temptation, I've got three skeins of Campfire Shadows and two skeins of Maple Leaf Shimmer on the way, along with enough worsted weight wool for six pairs of socks.

Since the weather got cold, I've been wearing my Horcrux Socks and my Traveller socks as often as I can. They're warm and cozy. They make my hated tennis shoes fit a little better than regular socks do. And worsted weight socks are fast to knit, at least at the gauge I used for those two pairs. So I'm determined to whip out some more of them to keep my toes warm.

And I've got nice toddler sweaters to knit. The kids and I went to a new church last Sunday and my baby boys were seriously under-dressed. I didn't even know you could under-dress a 21 month old! And I'm not about to buy them little dress shirts with vests and ties. Let alone IRON little bitty dress shirts.

I've decided that the answer is nice, mommy-knit pullovers. Something like Sherwood or this one that I stumbled across on Ravelry. If it turns out, that cobblestone pullover I'm sizing down for Quinn might be okay.

This is why I don't have a real sweater of my own yet. But I'm gonna have warm socks.

It's been that kind of a day.

I told the kids that if they got their schoolwork done and their messes picked up, I'd take them to McDonald's to play in the tubes. Which they sort of did, so I packed the Candleflame Skirt into my knitting bag and realized halfway there that I'd forgotten the pattern. We did have library books in the car, though, so I sat and leafed through The Quilts of Tennessee Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930 by Bets Ramsey and Merikay Waldvogel and came across this on page 4 --

"The thought and planning required to produce a quilt provides the mind with healthy activity."

Do you think it also applies to knitting? Do you think it matters if I actually make the quilts I'm thinking about, or does it keep my brain healthy to occupy it with colors and shapes that I may never actually cut out and stitch together? Or is it the math part that's healthy, and not the lusting after yarn?

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up lettuce for the tacos I wound up not making for tonight's dinner, and I managed to find everything we had coupons for and got to the check out line and none of them were ringing up. I'd feel worse if it hadn't taken the cashier so long to figure out that the coupons didn't start until tomorrow. So we've got to go back then. They were good coupons, and it would have cost twice as much to get the stuff today, so I'll wait and endure the grocery store a second time.

It feels like I haven't accomplished much today. I've turned the eggs in the incubator, and pulled together the books that need to go back to the library tomorrow, and called to see when an eye appointment was, and mailed a bill, and thawed the roast, and struggled with fractions, washed dishes and laundry, and turned the eggs again, cleaned red ink from a broken pen out of the carpet... I don't know what should have gotten done that didn't, but I don't feel at all productive.

Maybe I should've sewn together the Knitting Needle Bag, or redone the embroidery on the firefighter hat.

I can felt in the new washing machine! Did you hear my huge sigh of relief at about midnight last night when I was standing barefoot on the front porch and untying a pillowcase to see if the firefighter hat looked any different than it did before I put it in?



I should have taken before and after pictures, but the unfelted hat was so awful looking, I didn't want pictures of it on my blog. It was impossibly huge and it was a nasty shade of baby blue. But two wash cycles and two packs of cherry Kool Aid took care of those problems.

I've been thinking of making this hat since I first saw the pattern, but kept getting hung up over the red wool. Didn't want to use the skein I'd bought for a pair of color work mittens, didn't really want to order new stuff for a project I might never get around to....at least not as much as I wanted to spend the same money on other yarn for projects I might not get around to...

But I've had this pile of old wool that Grandma picked up at one of the auctions. It's in decent enough condition to use, but it's ugly. Especially the dingy blue skeins. I'd been planning to someday dye it and make socks or mittens for the kids, so it sat and sat until the day before yesterday I had the sudden compulsion to cast on for a fire hat.

Wonder if there's enough left for a giant squid?

We have candy!

We have candy in amounts I wouldn't have imagined possible, especially since I didn't go out and buy any and my littlest two only trick or treated a handful of houses. They rode in the stroller while the big two wound up with enough candy to more than overwhelm the rest of us. And it's mostly chocolate.

I'm looking forward to nibbling on some tonight while I knit, because last night we walked and walked and walked and walked and by the time we made the drive home from our friends' house, I was too tired to do more than sit in front of a scary movie and finish a couple of rows on the Knitting Needle Knitting Bag. I'm getting SO close to having the seed stitch portion done.

I probably could have finished this morning, but I watched Knitty Gritty and got all excited about the felted bunny they were making and wound up casting on for the felted firefighter hat from New Knits on the Block instead of slogging through the seed stitch.

It has short rows, Quinn likes hats, and I need to find out if the new washer is going to play nice and let me felt in it.

I have new projects! Remember that list of six things I was excited to start working on? I've started knitting away at it.

Shrug This is done.

The Bed and Breakfast Pullover is swatched and cast on for the second time. The first time, I made a really stupid mistake with the set up row.



The Baby Cobblestone is swatched and cast on and I'm working my way up the body. Not in any big hurry, because it's not going to take long and it's good mindless TV knitting, at least until I get to the yoke and have to figure out the decreases.



The Candleflame Skirt is about three inches long and, as long as I don't run out of the unidentified yarn I'm using, it's going to be a fun project. The lace pattern is an extremely easy 10 stitch repeat and the rows stack up in a way that makes sense. I'm not sure why the designer recommends putting a stitch marker after ever single repeat. Of course, now that I've typed that, I'm jinxed and will do something so stupid that I have to frog the whole thing.

I was going to start the striped garter stitch sweater yesterday, but put the magazine someplace safe while I was in that housekeeping frenzy. sigh

And I keep making new excuses not to cast on the Reversible Rib Shrug, even though I'd like to have it done so I can wear it. I don't think I know where the yarn is... I'm using the needles I want to swatch with for something else...that provisional cast on makes me nervous...

It's been the kind of week when your husband wakes you up at 4:30am to point out that the water bed is leaking and you're lying in a puddle of water, and the satellite dish (or the receiver, they weren't sure but they'd send me a new receiver as long as I committed to subscribe for another year) goes belly up, and there's been too much housework getting done and not enough knitting.

But I did finish Shrug This --



Pattern -- Shrug This
Yarn -- Caron Simply Soft Heathers (1 skein Truffle)

I was trying to copy the modifications that sparklingscraps had made to the one I saw on Ravelry, but when it came time to cast on I went from memory and changed the changes. I put the cables in the wrong place, but did keep the ribbed sleeves which were what drew me to the pattern in the first place. Even if they aren't in the pattern as written. I also changed the gauge and the measurements.

I want to knit. Yes, I just about always want to knit, but right now I really want to knit. I want to start a bunch of new projects all at once and get them all done and then cast on for more. My hands don't seem quite as excited about this as the rest of me, which kind of stinks, but I've got patterns and yarn, most of it stuff that's been aging quietly in my stash, and I think I'm going to spend the afternoon pulling things together and swatching and casting on so that when I do have time for some serious knitting it's ready to go.

So far, the ever-changing list of things I've gotta start now is:

Bed & Breakfast Pullover
Reversible Lace Rib Shrug with Swing Shaping from Elann
The Luna Flickering Flames Skirt from Elann
The Garter Stitch Stripes Sweater from Winter 2003 IK
Shrug This
a toddler-sized Cobblestone Pullover

Sometimes, it takes me an awfully long time to figure out the obvious.

After I finished Heath's latest sweater and pulled it over my own head to make sure that the neck was big enough, it hit me that with not too much more time and effort that I was spending on his over sized sweaters, I could've made one for myself. The Cobblestone actually fits me -- like a second skin with five inches of negative ease - but the point is that if I'd cast on 30 or 40 more stitches, I could've been making a sweater for me.

Then, when I was rooting around in my sewing room for those wooden needles that I still can't find, I had to move the copy of Interweave Knits which has been lying open to the Bed & Breakfast Pullover for I don't know how long. And it hit me that I can knit that. I've been wanting to knit that. I bought yarn to knit that a very long time ago. I did think seriously about casting on at some point since Leif was born, but took one serious look at the pattern and backed away in terror.

Now, I can't figure out what I was so scared of. It's a sweater. With lots of ribbing. And a big panel of cables. I can knit cables. I can definitely knit ribbing. Hopefully, I can get gauge.

"You knit it!"
"It has holes!"
"I need to take it off now."



I can't say that I disagree with the little guy's evaluation of Presto Chango. Except for part about the holes. There are no holes that aren't supposed to be there. But if you stretch the knitting hard enough, you can sure make it look like there are holes.

Maybe it'll grow on us. I could improve it by making the front panel longer, but I'm not that motivated. I'm not even motivated enough to go out and buy a set of buttons. This neckline just isn't going to work for Quinn, who insists on tugging the sweater down as far as it'll go.

Now that I've got the front of my Knitting Needle Knitting Bag done, I'm more desperate than ever to find those old wooden needles. This bag is going to need a great looking set of needles. I love the way the yarn looks in seed stitch, and it's coming out bigger than I'd expected.

There's a set of size 15 Clovers at Joann's that I could get with a 40% off coupon. And that'd be the perfect solution, if I wasn't halfway sure I had two better sets already. But they're not in the drawers of the steamer trunk, or on the fireplace mantel, or in the box with the zillion pairs of old aluminum needles Mom picked up dirt cheap at an estate sale...

I'm about out of places to look. So do I buy a new set, or stick the bag on a pair of aluminum needles and wait?

Falling leaves are "eeewww!"

I like watching leaves fall past the big picture windows, but this afternoon Leif was pointing at them and saying "eeeewww!" That's one of his favorite words, right up there with "ow!" and "bite?"

Bill's theory is that since the leaves have fallen onto the ground, Leif thinks they're garbage. I don't know what's going through his little head, but it's sure cute.

Today's been a good day. We drove to the feed store and bought huge pumpkins, then stopped at Costco to pick up a pumpkin pie on the way home. The little guys didn't nap, so it's almost bedtime and I rented a couple of movies to watch while I knit. Maybe I can make some more progress on Presto Chango.

Now that Cobblestone is done, the Knitting Needle Knitting Bag is going to take its place as my mindless TV knitting. At least until I cast on something new.

Cobblestone Pullover

Cobblestone Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2007

It took three skeins of Sierra Pacific Accord, which I picked up for $1 a skein at Craft Warehouse last Christmas. Cheaper than Red Heart Super Saver, and about as much fun to work with. Not saying that's a bad thing, just that the two yarns are in about the same league.

I like this sweater. It could've been better if I'd used nicer yarn and actually adjusted the numbers instead of just working at a tighter gauge, but I'm not starting over at this point. And Heath loves this sweater, which is what matters.

The pattern is easy and was fun to knit, but it did convince me that I'm not a huge fan of knitting garter stitch in the round. I'll do it if I like the pattern enough, which in this case, I did.



It's also occurred to me that with the same amount of energy I'm spending to make Heath these over sized sweaters, I could just about make one for myself.

I actually got out of the house by myself last night to go scrapbooking with my mom and a couple of friends. Quinn's birthday is coming up, so I left home at 2pm to do some shopping first, and didn't get back here until almost 1am. I should've been back around midnight, but we dawdled and talked on the way out to the cars, then there was a line at the drive thru when I stopped to get my diet Coke, then the onramp to I-5 that had been open earlier was shut down for construction so I had to double back through town to use one farther North....luckily Bill was already in bed and not waiting up for me!

I found a couple of presents for Quinn (how am I going to Christmas shop for two toddlers, 15 months apart?!) and stopped at the LYS to see if she still had copies of the Summer IK. Those are all long gone, but I got the Holiday issue. And I stopped at Costco for a couple of Christmas presents I'd been meaning to buy if I could get there without kids before they sold out -- and the Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar is finally in -- yippee! I've spent the past couple of weeks darting into Costco at every possible opportunity to see if they had it yet.

And I stopped in one of the antique shops in Lebanon to see if they still had the crochet booklets I spotted when Bill and the kids and I were there last week. I couldn't really look at them with a baby in my arms and I hadn't been able to get them out of my mind. I was going to pick out one or two, but then I got sucked in by all of that pretty lace and they all had to come live with me.



No, I still haven't made a serious attempt at learning to crochet, but at a dollar a piece, I spent the same on the whole stack than I did on the Holiday IK issue. Even if it turns out that I can't crochet to save my life, they're wonderful eye candy.

And, despite all of this wonderful stuff that I haven't even really looked through yet, I've spent a good chunk of my morning on Ravelry printing and queueing patterns for cabled hats. I don't wear hats.

Smariek Knits has some great hats and scarves, which I'd seen before but forgotten. And Knititude is making me absolutely drool. I want the Sorelle Lace Edged Pullover. And the Chinese Lace Pullover. This is the same designer who did that Wisteria dress I was considering for Alex a while back, then forgot about.

I love this whole Ravelry queue/favorites thing!

While I've been fantasizing about lace and cheap pretty acrylic, I've been slogging along on Heath's Cobblestone Pullover.



Last night, I finished the second sleeve and got the pieces knit together on one circular so I could start the yoke. So now I guess I'm on the home stretch. Those alternating knit and purl rounds, with short rows thrown in to keep it from being too easy and mindless, are looking kind of ominous. I know I need to make the yoke shorter, but I'm not sure how to do it and still get the short rows and decrease rows to work out right.

My enthusiasm for the Sierra Pacific Accord is fading fast, especially after I've been knitting with it for a while and then switch to something softer like the Wool-Ease I'm using for Presto Chango. But I'm this close to having the sweater done, Heath is really excited about it, and I'm just happy to be knitting.

Why I'm happy knitting this and not something nicer, I'll probably never figure out.

It seems like we always wind up taking Bill's vacation time in October. We get home in time for the kids to trick or treat on Halloween, but I miss most of the scary movies on television and never quite manage to get my act together enough to decorate the house or carve pumpkins or any of the rest of it.

But we're home this year, with no plans to go anywhere, and no vacation time left if the urge did strike. I've got cheap paper mache tombstones in my kitchen window, and drippy red blood that won't quite stick to the window.



And while we were at Walmart looking for costumes and cheesecloth to use, I took my first trip down the yarn aisle in months and my heart sank a bit because the shelves were so empty. There's an ugly rumor that they're going to close the whole section, and the manager tells me it's true, they just don't know when.

But the end must not be here quite yet. They've got new colors of Bernat Softee Chunky and a new-to-me yarn, Caron Simply Soft Heathers. The colors are gorgeous and it's almost as cheap as the regular Simply Soft -- $2.07 for a 250 yard skein.

I'll be buying enough for a Mommy-size sweater on the way to scrapbooking Friday night, when there aren't any little witnesses.

It's cold in here. I'm bundled up in flannel pajama pants and an old sweat shirt I bought at a thrift shop while I was pregnant with Alex ten years ago, fantasizing about this and that.

I found great-grandma's hairpin lace loom while Bill was tearing off the roof and I was moving boxes from one end of the attic to the other, trying to get the whole thing done before I ran out of daylight or it started to rain. And I printed out the tutorial from the Stitch Diva Studios site. Now I apparently need to find a crochet hook.

Assuming I can figure out how to actually do hairpin lace, I'll order the pattern and some yarn. Drapy dk weight, according to the pattern description. Sounds like Callista to me!

The Driftwood Victorian Shoulder Shawl is even more tempting. I already know how to knit lace, I've got the perfect yarn, and the pattern isn't too expensive (assuming I can find a place that won't charge $4.95 to ship it.

I'm resisting that temptation because I have plenty of other shawl patterns I'm not knitting and I know darn well I wouldn't cast on for this one as soon as the pattern got here. It could happen, like it did with the Callista shawl, but it's not very likely.

Ravelry and my dial up connection are playing nicely today, so I stumbled across this. I've been meaning to knit a squid hat since I stumbled across the pattern on Knitttingpatterncentral. But the felted squid is much cuter. And then I found this one. The big kids are just a tiny bit fixated on giant squids. And any stuffed animal that will eat someone's head is guaranteed to be a huge hit around our house.

I'm having a bad night

My Hemlock Ring Blanket is all scrunchy. The receipt I need for a stupid rebate on the stupid washing machine isn't in the drawer where I know I put it. I can't get Ravelry to work, or get through to the library's website to renew our books...

Tonight has not been a whole lot of fun.

Hopefully the blanket will look better if I block it again. It looked almost great until I used it -- maybe it wasn't dry enough when I moved it? Hopefully Lowes can send me a copy of the receipt, but I won't be able to find out until morning.

I did get a couple more inches done on the Cobblestone Pullover while we watched a DVD this afternoon. And somehow I wound up knitting this on Sunday night --



I swear, I made it from casting on to binding off almost without it sinking in that I had a new WIP. Calorimetry, knit up with a partial skein of Encore Colorspun that I don't quite remember getting, so it must be more auction yarn from Grandma. I absolutely love the colors and wish I'd had more of it.

Oh, and I started Presto Chango.

Rumplestiltskin! Rumplestiltskin!

Knitter's Stash is the book that made me need to knit. I'd already made a garter stitch hat from a Learn to Knit Kit that I got at Craft Warehouse for 75% of the lowest marked price. I'd knit a couple of dishcloths with holes that weren't supposed to be there, and a huge rectangular garter stitch thing that must've had some intended purpose when I cast on for it. (Several years later, we realized that if you folded the thing in half it was just the right size to line the bottom of Quinn's cradle, so it did get more use than most of my projects.)

I was having fun, but the yarn and needles hadn't taken over my life.

Then I brought home Knitter's Stash from the library and found the patterns for Rumplestiltskin's Toddler's Jacket and the linen washcloths. It was late at night and I waited very impatiently for morning so I could haul the book and two kids down the street to the LYS and buy the yarn.

They didn't carry chenille (or the Euroflax for the washcloths) and the owner told me it was too expensive, that I didn't want to knit with it, and that I should substitute two strands of whatever worsted weight I liked. So I wound up going to Walmart and letting Heath pick out Red Heart Supersaver in an extremely vivid combination of purple and teal.

The sweater had horrible gauge problems and didn't fit. I wound up hiding it at my Mom's house because poor Heath wanted to wear the sweater his mommy'd made him and it just wasn't possible. I had enough leftover yarn to make a second sweater with problems of its own, but at least he did get to wear that one.

Fast forward to last week and I had these three skeins of pink chenille and no desire to use it for a hat, a scarf or a bag. Then I remembered this little jacket and decided to check out the book again and try it in the chenille.



This one's a little better, but I won't be trying it a third time.

This isn't meant to be a complaint about the pattern. I think it's been a mix of bad luck, yarn choice, gauge and maybe the alignment of the planets or something squirrely like that.

Daddy's not on the roof anymore

My babies seem confused and a little bit sad. After almost two weeks of vacation time, Daddy is done fixing the roof and has gone back at work. Even though there's no more thumping and banging and bits of exciting stuff falling down past the kitchen window, they keep pointing up at the ceiling, saying "Daddy?"

I've been celebrating the new roof section and our return to a normal life by knitting like crazy.

The Hemlock Ring Blanket has a couple dozen more stitches to bind off, then I get to try blocking it.

The little chenille sweater I was thinking of casting on is done except for the back and a whole scary lot of finishing.

Knittingparents is doing a KAL for the Knitting Needle Knitting Bag and somewhere I've got a pair of beautiful old wooden needles with impossibly blunt tips that would make the perfect handles. I did my lifetime quota of berry stitch on that pineapple baby hat for Leif a while back and the yarn I'm determined to use looks horrible in berry stitch, so I'm doing seed stitch which so far looks pretty darn good. If I can remember wher I put those needles, and handle that much seed stitch, this may be a wonderful bag someday.

I found some green Wool-Ease for Presto Chango, but the two skeins are different dye lots. I'm determined to make a green one, so I guess I'll alternate between both skeins to make sure any color difference blends. Or something like that.

There's a free Showtime preview this weekend, so I've got the sattelite receiver set to auto tune some movies I never got around to renting. And I'm going to play with my yarn.

What big teeth you have, Grandma!

When I was little, I couldn't sleep at night unless this doll was put away, with Grandma's bonnet covering the wolf's face, and Red Riding Hood's dress covering them both.



My Great-Grandma Walters made it. Red's and Grandma's faces are painted on, and the wolf's features are felt. I remember being nervous about those teeth and that red mouth, but didn't really think much about those dead, sharklike eyes until I was taking his picture yesterday.

No wonder the thing creeped me out as a kid!



And while I was looking for something else in the sewing room a while back, I stumbled upon a handwritten copy of the pattern, the same one that Grandma used.




Visit Kelli's House to find more great Show and Tell Friday posts.

This feels like fall knitting

I pulled out the Hemlock Ring Blanket last night and sat up with it for a little while, knitting just a few rounds. It's almost time to start binding off, but I made myself go to bed at eleven. There's no such thing as staying up just long enough to finish that last round and bind off a few stitches. It either would have been so much fun I'd have sat up and done the whole thing, or so miserable I'd have spent hours lying awake and dreading the rest of it.

So I went to bed and tossed and turned and thought about yarn and patterns and how I want to cast on for a new pair of socks from the Socken-Kreativ-Liste that both intrigues and terrifies me, and debated whether or not I want to use that chenille to make that toddler jacket now that I've confirmed it's possible and found a girl toddler who happens to be the right size and who I really should knit something for, and worried about the wooden needles with the blunt tips that I suddenly need but might've gotten rid of...

So I didn't get up before the kids and start binding off the blanket this morning like I'd hoped to.



The Cobblestone Pullover has been a happy knit so far, a good project to pick up and work on while I've got to keep my attention on other things. I've got about four more inches of mindless knitting before it'll be time to do some math and start the sleeves.

I'm sizing it down for Heath by kntting at a tighter gauge. Hopefully that means I can knit the yoke part as written and have it turn out okay. If not, I'll figure out how to fix the problems as they crop up. How bad can it get?

The Sierra Pacific Accord has been a bit of a mystery yarn. I've only found a couple of mentions of it online -- both of those knitters absolutely hated it. I don't think it's that horrible. It's cheap acrylic, along the lines of Red Heart Super Saver, but even cheaper. I bought a bunch on sale for $1 a skein last Christmas.

I did actually knit and wash a swatch, and it seemed to come out just the same as it went in. Okay, it was a baby hat, but that's as close to knitting and washing a swatch as I'm likely to get.