These Days

These Days by Nico is one of my favorites I forget that I love. From a movie that I loooove - The Royal Tenenbaums. (Intriguing bio there on Wikipedia.) The song itself is haunting or wistful or both, mesmerizing. Not exactly a representation of how I feel these days. I just love it :)

I drove by a new LYS today completely by accident! Knit Happens just HAPPENS to be near my salon and PRACTICALLY on the way home from work! It was a beautiful, sunny day today and I should have stopped in but I was running an errand for work and I just feel guilty doing that.

Click on the link to their blog real quick - they have a snapshot of the store and it looks just awesome. There is no way I could hop in real quick on lunch!

A new FO - The froggy bath mitt for my nephew. (Yep, still working on Christmas 08) Fun, easy, quick. I'd knit the hand a couple inches longer if I knit this one again. It's just not a comfortable fit; it feels short.

Notice the hole by the eye? Yeah, it bothers me and there's a few other tear ducts if you will. I just figured that's what happened when you picked up stitches and knit. Welllll maybe when you do it wrong. Didn't find out I was wrong until after I was done. My previous method had me knitting INTO the work so that the stitches on the work were pulled wonky on the needle. What I should have been doing was put the new yarn on the needle by pulling it THROUGH the work. I think this will fix some of my problems.

And here's a little Jack for you. He's 5 months now but these pics are about two weeks apart.



He loves his car, handed down from his cousin. He's walking pretty well, jumping which just looks weird and drooling on everything. He's worse than the dogs before they get fed in the morning.

It looks like they added some bumper stickers - Starbucks, Army - I have to go look for our RunGP stickers ....

This is a race weekend. I'd like to finish a second man cap this weekend maybe. We'll see.

Who Wants Some WEBS?

Check this out: There's a contest over at KnitPurlGurl. She's giving away WEBS swag! Right on! Sure to be a nice pick me up for the lucky winner.

I've seen some interesting blogs recently (the look but I'm always running across great content, too) I'm inspired to change the look of my blog...

Knitting these days is slow :( I overdid it the other day knitting 4 inches of 2x2 rib for a hat while I was waiting for my husband to get back from Vegas. My wrists and thumbs hurt so I'm *trying* to take it easy. I'm also pretty sure eliminating gluten, corn and potato will help too. (It has in the past, that's not just a pipe dream.)

No-No-Noro

This is my 100th post!

And my first KAL!

And my first magic loop project!

And my first (major) experience trouble-shooting a pattern. It was a puzzle from the start and I do mean the very start - cast on 42 stitches so you have 24 stitches on each needle. Errrr. But I trudged on, frogging again and again. In the end the pattern was quite banal; the yarn makes it. Do use Noro or another awesome yarn if you knit this.

Noro's color striping is a bit unpredictable though I know this; I'm not a Noro virgin. Because this is going off to a sister that I suspect craves balance I didn't just knit straight through the ball. The first mitt ended with that really cool aqua and the second was going to turn to rust and yellow. With plenty of the aqua still in the ball I just switched over to the other end of the ball. Easy, I like the look. I think she will too....

Except I don't know which sis will be wearing these yet. I'd like to mail off all the knit gifts in one box, all together and let them figure it out. Meh. But I'm finished in time for the deadline. And that's a real accomplishment these days.

Etsy Goodies

Is it Tuesday because I think it might still be Monday. I am totally lost already this week.

Hurry and catch NH Knitting Mama's sale! It ends this Thursday 2/5. (It's February already?)

A friend of mine set up her shop: Hope Ink
Beautiful artwork. As described on her page: "...sharing the beauty and truth of the Scriptures in fresh and whimsical ways." She has an amazing hand that I've always admired.

A Note To Mom

Mom,

This is your Christmas present (2008). I know you've already read about it and that's my fault. I tell you to go see my blog yet I post details of all my Christmas knitting. Now that you're on Ravelry, too, I will post in code from here on out when knitting gifts. ...well, starting after this post.

Here is your Felted Oven Mitt! The card taped to the fridge is from the Surfrider Foundation. Big G donated and got a bunch of cool bumper stickers and this handy little card. Little G loves to stare at it.

Remember this yarn? I think you made a Lucy Bag for FR and this was the leftover. Beautiful Manos colorway. I doubled it with a dusty rose (I know you hate the color and the name of the color but it matched beautifully) from Creative Focus. Pricier wool than Lamb's Pride, but that's what Jessica Knits stocks. Next time you're here we'll catch them on a day when they're open. Cute little shop.

Look how close I was to running out of yarn. I was seriously sweating bullets. That ONE STRAND is all that's left of the Creative Focus. *wipes brow* Jeez.

And I'll go out on a limb here and vote this pic as your favorite. It's the pre-felted mitt in it's over-sized glory. No? Not your favorite? Why in the world, you ask, would I take a pic when it's huge and disproportionate? Well, two reasons: 1) This was its home for weeks. Probably the same time frame in which Peggy was knitting her Felted Oven Mitt and attempting to felt in her front-loading washer. (Peggy - this piece was the most difficult one I've ever felted. More than THREE full cycles!!!) 2) Take a close look at the colors. I started on the first ball and loved the bright colors. Moved to the second ball and was disappointed that the colors didn't pop like the other ball. Couldn't tell in the balls and still can't in the finished piece. Guess it works!

Here's a little treat for you. Just another Christmas gift (2008) I'm working on (for J, I think). I finished the Tudora (orininally for her) but I really wanted to start these Noro Mitts. I'm supposed to be part of a KAL (knit-a-long) but I am most likely waaay behind everyone. I have frogged this piece too many times. Once with just 4 rows remaining. I'll try to catch up - I have a trade show to go to in LA. Just an overnight trip but I'll have a lot more time there than I do at home. My goal is to at least finish this one and start on the next. The last bit of finishing news: I blocked one more piece of the Surface Woven Tote. I would have done the whole thing but I ran out of pins.

When I get back I will make an extra effort to get your mitt out in mail. Hopefully by then it will be dry. (That sucker is thick!) I'll probably call you sometime today to get you to come read this :)