A million inches

That's what it feels like I've been knitting. A million inches of the same pattern, blah, blah, blah.
But the end is in sight!! I am done with the body of the wrap, and now I just need to pick up and knit the end pieces. Holy cow I can't wait. I'm also done knitting Katie's sweater. All I need to do know is sew up the two seams and add the buttons. Whew! That's for tomorrow, as well as her quilt. I haven't decided how I'm going quilt it, but I'm about to just tie it and let it be done with. Dunno. Not much to share, but I'll leave ya with some great pictures of my son's happy soccer dance.















Cute, ain't he?

May I introduce...

... Katherine Grace, born Friday, August 19, 2005. Isn't she adorable? (no, I haven't got the sweater done) She's so tiny and irresistable. (no, the quilt's not done either) I just wanted to hold her and rock her (i'm working on them, i swear) and take her home. I really would have liked to have one more, but my husband, and my body, didn't agree to that. I guess we could always find one that's already cooked. Or just offer to babysit. Yeah, then she can go home at the end of the day.

Well, that's all. I promise, I'll finish the stuff s-o-o-n.



Just one more picture

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Have you noticed the new look? I'm not so sure that I like this one all that much, but we'll try it out for awhile. It's kinda like trying on outfits, or yarn, sometimes you go through a few before you find the one you like.

Knitting news- I'm blocked on the baby cardi I'm making for Katie. I am not a fan of garter stitch, hours and hours of garter stitch. I need to get the lead out, or it will turn into the sweater that never was for her big brother, Nick. That was why I started to knit. Well, maybe I should say when, but not exactly why. I am a fiber freak. I love fabric, and I love yarn. I was to the point that I was buying yarn just so I could have it. It was outta control! I decided if I was going to have it, I needed to know how to do something with it. I tried to crochet. Blech!! I was terrible at it. My tension was horrid and I ended up with a big loose pile of yarn. The only stitch I was any good at was the afghan stitch- which, basically, is knitting- so I decided to take a stab at knitting. I bought a "Learn to Knit" kit with Cotton-Ease and a baby hat pattern and I was hooked. My first ambitious project, after the baby hat that never got finished, was a sweater for Nick. I got it all together, put the ribbing on, everything. But no one had told me to bind of in rib, so my edges were all nasty looking. I am too neurotic to give someone a gift that is not up to my par, so it sits in a bag with all my other crafty stuff, hoping to someday be frogged and re-worked . I did make him a really cute hat with some fun yarn poking out the top, but the sweater fell by the wayside. He's a baby, he'll never know. (I tell myself, as I my mother reminds me of "all those projects you never finish". Hey, I'm getting better.) So today I am going to march my little butt downstairs and finish Katie's sweater! I swear.

Later Tater!

Note to my husband- quit buying donuts!!!

We have no bananas...

...because I used them to make banana bread. I got the recipe here, with a few modifications. It called for 2 1/4 cups bananas, but I only had 3 bananas, which equals 1 cup. I added unsweetened applesauce to make up for it. YUM! Hey, I never realized how fun it is to type bananas. Bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas- I'm going. Try it, you will too.

Also, I crashed my yarn diet. Yeah, that lasted all of 30 seconds.
Officially, I could make the Christmas excuse, since everything is for gifts, but I won't go there. I have no self-control. I admit it! The only reason I make it as a vegetarian is because cake counts as vegetarian! That, and the image of all those poor little chickens flopping over because their breasts have been engineered to be so big that they can't even hold themselves upright*! And the cows, all 'roided out and all. I bet the have acne like you can't believe, and tempers to boot.

* I have a theory that avian flu is really just the chickens and the turkeys getting back at us for making them that way. All I can picture is them flopping over on their tiny little heads and plotting their revenge on the humans. Attack of the large-breasted poultry!!!

Yes, I did buy a book about scarves. I never thought I would. I mean, who needs a book to show you how to knit 20 million inches of garter stitch, seed stitch, etc. Not me. Then I looked at this one. It has some really great scarves and wraps. I'm going to knit the cable scarf, and the backyard leaves scarf, and Ene's scarf, and a few others too. Plus I had a coupon for 40% off at JoAnn's. They certainly do come in handy.

I am still knitting on my wrap, but progress has slowed. I had to knit up a baby sweater, which I'm 80% done with. And I've been sewing, too. As I mentioned before, my sister-in-law went into labor on Friday morning, and by Friday evening, we had a niece. Her name is Katie, and I haven't gotten to see her yet. I hope to see her tomorrow or Monday, and I also hope to have my goodies for her done. We'll see.

I'm being paiged by Aidan to "cover me!" What is it with 5 1/2 year old boys and turning everything they can into poop? He won't sing the normal lyrics to songs, like "Twinkle, Twinkle", instead it's "Poopy-poopy little poop". Boys.

Steff

A Block for Charity

So, I don't know this man, and I've only been reading "At MyKnits End" for a short time, but I think it's an important remembrance of a life's love. And I also don't think anyone reads my blog, but I'm putting this out there so that maybe someone else will stumble upon it and put it in their blog. Go to "The Knitty Gritty" and send in a square. Mine is in honor of my granfather, whom the loss of was quite crushing for me and is still tearing at my heart.

Thanks, Steff

Oh where oh where

This is my adorable little puppy when we first got her in February. Wasn't she the cutest thing? She's still cute, but not quite so tiny. Her name is Jesse. Well, this morning when I went to put her in her bed, I couldn't find her. I called and called and called, but no Jesse. I then noticed the front door was ajar and my three year old was in the living room (Abbey). I was sure Abbey had let the dog outside. It would not be unusual. She's allowed to let the dog in and out, but always via the back door. I was upset. I hollered, although not too badly. My family came over and we searched. I had to go to work, so the search was called off. I was heart-broken. When my husband came home for lunch, he called to ask about the dog and I told the story of her disappearance. Okay, he said, we'll find her. About 20 minutes later, he called to say he had found the dog. Oh thank goodness!!!! Where was she? Stuck under our bed. Yep, stuck under our bed. Some kid had decided she needed a fort, so he (I'm relatively sure it was Aidan, since he is the resident fort builder) stacked pillows all around the bed and coaxed the dog under it. Now, I'm not saying my dog is dumb, but push on the stinking pillows and they will fall over! In all fairness though, she is getting a bit too big to go under the bed without getting stuck anyways. Well, at least she is okay. I'm sorry my family spent 2 hours calling and hunting her. Ugh. Maybe she learned to stay out of there. And the kids definitely learned not to put her out front because she might run away. Lessons learned.

And my sister-in-law went into labor this morning. Soon we will have a niece. Yay!

Later! Steff

Reading & Knitting

Well, it's been ages since my last post. I feel like a disappointment. When I started this thing just a mere month ago, I promised myself I would write every day. A lofty goal, I guess. Time to get back on track.

I have been reading. I just finished a book by Piers Paul Read called "Alice in Exile". It was very good. It's all about a modern woman at the turn of the (20th) century. It was somewhat predictable in spots, but overall good. I enjoy historical fiction and this had a lot of references to WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, as well as the very birth of the women's movement. Plus, it was from the bargain table at Barnes and Noble. That is my favorite place to find books. Also, they have an awesome sale after Christmas on the website where everything is even cheaper and you get free shipping on anything over $25. I got 10 books this year for $34!!! All right, enough of a plug for B & N, like they need it.

On the knitting side, I have yet to frog my poor sock. It's waiting for me so patiently while I have moved on to other things. The lacy tank is on hold. The yarn just isn't right. It's thinner than what's called for and I am not liking the look of the lace pattern with it. Not filled in enough in the spots that are supposed to be filled in. Plus, I was reading the instructions, and noticed that the size I was making would for sure not cover my monster boobs. ( yes, I have monster boobs. It is nice sometimes, but mostly not. When I buy clothes, the size that fits the boobs usually engulfs the rest of me and I can't wear a button shirt without the buttons wanting to burst open, even when it fits the boobs. I can sew, but I haven't figured out how to alter things for them. I know I could use darts, but that doesn't always suit the item I'm altering. Anyway, I know some would like the boobs. It just fits my theory that we always want what we don't have. And if we did have what we wanted, we wouldn't want it anymore anyways.) So the lacy tank is waiting for some new yarn, which doesn't work since I am now officially on a yarn diet. I swear! I only bought some yarn to finish something I already started, which doesn't count, and some other yarn which doesn't count cause I wasn't officially on my diet yet. (See how easily I rationalized that? Scary, yo.) The extra yarn was Sirdar's UpCountry DK. Nothing fancy or expensive, but a good basic yarn. I like Sirdar. They're kinda like a much nicer version of Lion brand. They have better quality, yet still inexpensive yarns as well as higher end yarns. Lion brand I think is getting a little out of control. Has anyone seen the new fall catalogue? $6.99 for 55 yards of a wool/acrylic blend? Are you crazy? Yes it is bulky weight, and yes I do really like it, but it took two skeins to make a scarf for a little girl. Good thing I have Jo-ann's coupons.

I didn't have a plan for the UpCountry, but then I got the new issue of Vogue Knitting. First, did you see that jacket on the front? LOVE IT!! Even my husband, who won't even look happy while in the presence of my overflowing amounts of crafty gobbledegoop, said I should knit it!! That was a first! I don't know if I will, I'm still trying to track down the yarn, or an appropriate/less expensive substitute. Maybe... In the mean time I am working on this...


The Lace Wrap from the same issue. There are a ton of things in this issue that I would like to do. Lots of good traditional things, with some funk thrown in. Really, though I need to start looking towards Christmas knitting and sewing. So much to knit, so little time. And, as Felicia puts it, my eyes knit faster than my hands.

Well, I've got to get mt butt clean and ready for work. Hopefully it won't be busy and I can knit!! Man, i've got a hard job.

Later, yo! Steff

I have YARN!!

Yeah!!! I'm so excited. I have yarn. Yarn, yarn, I made it. I made yarn that looks like yarn. Yarn that looks like yarn I would want to knit with! I can't believe I did it. The whole niddy noddy, wet, set, dry thing worked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
Here's another look, up close......

All right that was a lot of self-congratulatory hooting and hollering, but I couldn't help myself. So, in interest of keeping my knit karma in balance, I present you with these-


The Ugliest Socks Ever To Be Seen...

Yes, they are ugly, aren't they? Well, they are worsted weight, problem one. Not any socks that could be worn in any shoes, strictly around the house type of thing. I did like the way they were knit though. I got the pattern from about.com. They actually have quite a few free patterns for all different things. I'm thinking about trying to adjust the pattern for sock weight yarn. Also, they are little elfin sized socks, problem two. They look all deformed and stuff. But, and this is the important part, they fit the recipient. All but the cuff, which I mentioned prviously. Well, I have started my second pair of ugly socks, but I don't think they will ever match the ugliness of the first. We shall see.

I also started the Friday Harbour sock pattern from Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the Road" book. It was pretty enjoyable, until I read the directions. Remember, I have a problem with that. Damn! One of these days I will learn my lesson. Until then, it's of to tink-land. Actually, I think the frogs would be better for this one. I can never tink back in a sock for mor than a row or two. By the way, you should really check out Felicia's version. Not only is her knitting awesome, but her pictures are beautiful. I am definitely having blog envy.

Well, time to go stuff my pie hole with something yummy. NOT ginger sesame tofu2go snacks. Not good. Not good at all.

Steff