The Last Day

There are a couple more gifts I wanted to share with you before we wrapped up this holiday season and 2006 for that matter. I spent the majority of my knitting time the week or so before Christmas on a sweater for my brother. This has been a secret knit for a while as I wasn't sure if he ever looked at the blog. I know that his wife reads from time to time, but I figured I really wanted it to be a surprise, so I better err on the side of caution. So, this is what he got Christmas morning: A 3/4 finished modified Durrow Sweater in charcoal Kilcarra Donogal Tweed ordered directly from Ireland from this wonderfully friendly and fast ebay seller Irish Yarns and Crafts.

I had planned and really wanted to finish it (and I believe I could have), but after discussing issues with his sizing, it made more sense to have him try it on and check out the measurements before it was all sewn up and finished. My sister-in-law had helped by measuring his existing sweaters, but his arm measurements were way off from what the finished measurements were in this pattern. Let's just say I am really glad I decided to finish it later. Once the body was on him, I could tell I was going to have an issue with the neck openning. After talking to my other sister-in-law who also recently finished a Durrow for her husband, she turned me on to what is apparently a fairly common issue with this sweater. Again, I saved myself a ton of work by decided to do a pre-fitting. I now know what to do to finish this puppy up and should only have to rip a little of the front and possibly the top back. You've got to love the internet. Now if I could only get myself in the habit of doing full Google searches on patterns BEFORE I start them!

The best part was that by decided to hold off on Brother's Sweater meant I had all of Christmas Eve to work on whatever I wanted. This meant that the socks I was making for B (and had planned to finish this week while I was off for a belated Christmas present), got a second chance to become an on-time FO. I got them out first thing that morning and decided if I could get to the toe before he got up (I was about a 1/3 into the foot), I would be able to finish them that day. Well, sure 'nuf a disk worth of 24 episodes did the trick and was half way through the toe by lunch time. I ended up adding them to the toe of his stocking and then alternating all the other stocking gifts with pairs of plain store bought socks to through him off. It worked! When he got to the last pair, he pulled them out and said - oooh, and warm snuggly socks! But didn't realize they were handknit! So then I whispered - I made them. And he said - Your kidding!! That was the best present I got!

And they fit!! The pattern is the TechGuy Socks from MagKnits in the 3X1 rib version made in the amazing Socks That Rock. For the body of the socks I used almost a full hank of lightweight Obsidian and for the toes and heels a bit of lightweight Black Onyx. Both colors I either called or emailed them about. I had some issues with these socks, mainly running out of the main color yarn. Luckily Blue Moon happened to have one hank of exactly what I needed to finish them out properly!

And since a week off from work also lent itself to lots of Jenny time, here is Jenny in her new favorite place:

Wrapped up in the microfiber blanket my mom got us. She LOVES this thing! We wrap her up in it before we leave the house and you can see it in her face as she goes - Ahhhhhh.

Have a safe and wonderful New Years Eve tonight!

Hits and Misses

Wow. How is it that Christmas is over already? I guess I should have known that if the rest of the year went by so fast, so would the holiday season. The last week and a half have been a flurry of activity. I am super happy that our package to France made it before Christmas. The post office estimate put it there either right before or after, so we figured it would probably not make it in time, but we were lucky. Overall, I think most people enjoyed their hand-knit gifts, but there were a few misses.

First of all, I wanted to share with you my goal for gifts this holiday season: no money. That's right, my goal was to make things from things I already had (except for the 2 'larger' projects I was working on and had planned out since before summer). I nearly made it. The main gifts I was planning for my family, however, I just couldn't get my head around at the last minute. And because I kept telling myself it should be easy, I had left them to the last minute. I would tell you about it, but there is still an incarnation of them in the works for B's parents and Auntie (which will be, of course, late). So for now, I will show you what I did for B's sister and her family...who you can read about here.

First up, we have the Father and Son hats.

I had two leftover hanks of Lamb's Pride Worsted from the fair isle class I took many moons ago. They remind me of chocolate-mint (And although the light one is clearly green, they decided to call it Khaki. Seriously?). So, for Dad's hat, I started out with the green by casting on and then knitting for two rows in a 2X2 rib, then I switched to the brown and finished the hat. I did the opposite for Son's hat (although, I also only knit with the brown for one row since I wanted it to look proportionally similar). I used the Hat Recipe and head sizing estimates in Knitting Rules! and managed to completely over-think the crown decreases both times. Dad's hat hides it better. Son's hat, not so much. I HATE the way my nephew's hat came out, but then I realized that I was making this for an extremely active child who has been known to feed caps to the family dog, so I figured it was fine and moved on...

...to one Pink Headband:

The careful observer would note that this is in fact crocheted. For whatever reason, when I tried to knit it, the increases looked super ugly, so I decided to practice my crochet. I started and ended with a crochet chain, then worked a few rows of single crochet (I think), increasing up, and the worked the body of the headband in double crochet (I think). Then finished with the single crochet again, decreasing down. I also crocheted around the headband to even out the stitches. I think it came out pretty cute and managed to use up all the leftover Lamb's Pride Bulky I used for my breast cancer scarf! Unfortunately, I heard recently that my niece is all about the purple these days, so I am hoping she'll still wear it.

Another stash buster was the Judy's Grandmother's Baby Sweater from Greetings from the Knit Cafe. Here's a picture of the back:

The ties wrap-around to the front and tie. It is out of Jaeger Baby Merino DK in the rosiest of pinks (217). It was GREAT yarn to work with, super squishy and soft. I made it with the intension that my newest niece could wear it this winter. Well, she grew too fast and it doesn't fit :-( Oh well, there will always be more babies, but it does make me sad that she won't get to use it.

Finally, I made one Hunter's Cap for my boss who just retired last week and bought his own herd of deer in Vermont. I don't encourage this activity, but the deer are going down whether he has a hand-knit hunting cap or not and this just seemed like an appropriate gift. Besides, the man has been more than generous with his support and encouragement over the nearly 6 years I have worked for him, so I felt it was due.

I made the hat with almost a full hank of Orange You Glad Lamb's Pride Bulky. This was purchased, as I did not happen to have a hank of safety orange yarn in my stash ;-) I used the Comfy Ribbed Hat pattern from the Knit Knack Kit and...it came out too small. I washed and blocked it out and it fit much better. (I used B's ginormous head as a model, since my boss also has a ginormous head.) He seemed to be genuinely tickled by the gift, which made me very happy!

All right people, that's all I got for now. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday no matter which one you celebrate(d). For those who celebrated Christmas, I leave you with one of Jenny's favorite new spots. That's right - under the chubby tree!

She's discovered that those bottom branches are mighty good back scratchers! I will share some more gift photos next time. Happy Holiday Recovery everyone!

The Towel is In

Yup. It's over. Not my Christmas knitting, but my delusional thinking that it was possible given the other things that had to get done this holiday season. I was still grasping at the dream until I got a phone call on Saturday night. Now, whether or not my last shipment gets to its destination before Christmas just doesn't really matter. There are more important things about the holiday season than whether or not I get my knitting done. Also, no one is going to love me any less if their gifts are late. And as someone recently pointed out, I'm pretty sure no one would really want me to injure myself trying to get it all done in time. So, that's that. I'm still going to try to get those last couple of gifts done, but if they don't get done, it's ok.

So what were those other things I had to do? Well, this year, the theme was mass production. This is a theme that I even carried through most of my Christmas knitting, too...which you will see after they are finally opened. However, there are a few things I can share. Like the cookies. Granted this was not the large-scale production Nonnahs was able to accomplish, but then you can see why I don't bake much. I decided that it would be way sadder to not participate in the cookie contest/exchange at my office than the trouble it would be to make the cookies, so I did. Thanks to Cora's shortbread recipe, I was able to crank out a batch of shortbread in no time flat. Now, they really were prettier than in this picture. The little bits were the tastes and all the corners turned into tastes as well, while the nicer pieces where for the exchange. I think they came out pretty good taste-wise if I do say so myself. Although, the fact that my cookies weren't covered in chocolate meant they went largely untouched during the tasting. Oh well. I have a bag full of cookies for my efforts.

The other thing on my list were goodie bags. My hair dresser (aka beauty operator if you live in Texas ;-) asked if I would be willing to make her holiday give-a-ways this year. She would pay me for my time (which I desperately needed at the time) and I got an excuse to play with bath salts. I ended up making Lavender Bath Salts from stuff I already had. B helped with the tags and Nonnahs helped design the arrangement. I think they came out really cute and super cheap to make. I will probably make something very similar for my own office give-a-ways next year, especially since I have a ton of the outer bags and the little baggies that held the salts left over.

So what did my coworkers get this year? Snowmen. Many, many, many snowmen. 60 to be precise. They are really picture frame magnets (you can put a photo in the space of each snowman's tummy). I found the kits at Michael's. So for about $12, I was able to make little gifts for all my officemates as well as the few people I send cards to each year. I was concerned that the little orange noses would fall off, but so far their glue has held really well.

And finally (and quickly because I'm hungry), I wanted to share a shot of my Deep V vest prior to it's bath. It is nice and clean and dry right now. On Thursday night, we will tack down the neck and he'll show us how to sew down the facings of the steeks. I tried it on last night and it definitely fits better, but there is a bit of room in the top. I have been trying it on with close fitting t-shirts since that is apparently what I am living in these days, but I think a button down will help to fill out the loose space. At least I hope it does!

I was there... *sigh*

My favorite, quiet beach getaway back home: the Ko'Olina lagoons, on the leeward side of O'ahu. It was pretty windy that day (if you look closely, off to the right, you may catch a glimpse of my goza blowing in the wind), but sunny and warm, and so relaxing. I could live there. Right there. Dee might come and visit me, but I doubt I could get her past the grassy areas.

Note the past tense in the title...and the sadness in my voice. I'll be posting more about my short-but-sweet vacation later. Suffice it to say I had a blast and a half- seven days full of family, friends, food, and fun! For now, all I have to say is- I'm back, it's cold, and there is work to be done. Soon to come: pictures of my colorwork KAL hat in progress!

"It's Happening Again"

That's right. It's that time again. Do you know what I'm talking about? Of course you do. Because you, like me, are probably trying to get through the unrealistic project schedule in time for Christmas. And if you're not, it's because you probably learned this lessen already. I did, a couple years ago (literally knitting the final hat Christmas morning before heading over to my parents to unwrap gifts), but as I've started to realize recently - sometimes, I'm not so smart.

So this year, once again, I'm pushing the envelope. Only I'm alternating between being in complete denial and complete panic. I got a big (non-knitting) project done today and delivered and the next one will be done on Monday. I've also streamlined everything (except for the last Deep V vest arm band) down to the 2 big projects left on the needles. I can do two monkey arm sleeves in a week right?

Just nod. Please don't really tell me what you think, because it will probably make me cry.

We've also got some of our Christmas decorations up. We got the best tree EVER. It is too short, very chubby and leans to the back. I LOVE IT. It makes me so happy. I keep walking by and saying "chubby" when I see it. Jenny also decided that it needed "a little something" and made her own contributions to the decorations. It's even appropriately color-matched!

Well, I better go because I have a lot of knitting to do. Fortunately, we got 3 DVDs worth of "24" to keep us entertained while I work.

My everyday knit

[I've finished my finals!!!] In early preparation for the cell phone law which will be enacted in California on July 1, 2008, K bought me a wireless bluetooth earpiece so I can drive and talk worry-free. He asked me to knit him a cozy for his earpiece, and I knit myself one as well with leftover Kyoto sweater obi yarn. Since I talk on my phone everyday, my striped cozy will have more "touch" time than any other item I will ever knit in my life. Question: which of your FO's do you use/wear the most?

Above Water

Well, let's just say that the craziness at Chez Dis has not taken a break. I'll spare the details, but pretty much imagine pretty much every part of your day having a hiccup...and you will have my current state of affairs. Fortunately, I did make time to go to Rebecca's on Saturday, which really helped to rebalance and I started to see the humor in everything. This came in at a good time, you know why?

Because Sunday afternoon found me stuck on the side of the 8 freeway outside of El Cajon with a flat tire! Of course, it did. The best part, no knitting and no book! [insert sarcasm here] After all, I was out for just a quick errand. I didn't need to bring entertainment supplies, right?
I decided that I may have to make myself an emergency knitting kit for my glove box...just in case something like this were to happen again. The good thing is that after being told that the wait would be longer than expected because it was Sunday, the tow truck driver got there in about 40 minutes and me and my doughnut-riding-roadster (...hmm, maybe Wendell has a new nickname...) were back on the road less than 10 minutes later.

So here I am trying to stay focused and trying to keep up my progress on my holiday knitting. I am officially done with the package on its way to France. And boy was it worth it. Who wouldn't want to knit for these kids? I have one arm band left in my Deep V vest and then it will be ready for its bath. And the remaining secret knits are progressing...finally!

And since we occasionally like to share our food around here (actually, I'm surprised you really don't get more of this because the three of us are very food-centric), I wanted to share my latest obsession: Brussel Sprouts!! Where have you been my whole life? Why did I never partake? The only explanation I have is that I fell for the line we are all given since childhood - brussel sprouts are gross. But there not! I mean it. Really. Try some!

This is how I've been fixing mine:

Yum! I trim off the little bum end and slice them lengthwise about 5 or 6 times. I heat butter in a pan (use at least a tablespoon, please) then add a couple/few cloves of garlic (the more the merrier!). Once the garlic has started to cook, I add the sprouts. As they cook, they get nice and brown on the cut edges. Don't be afraid to really let them brown, this is the best part! The photo above was taken part way through the cooking process, so you can see some of the slices starting to turn golden and brown. I add some fresh cracked pepper and some good salt and you are ready to go! I even added a squeeze of lemon juice the other night which was really tasty. The are nutty and have a wonderful texture even when thoroughly cooked. I hope you give these veggies a try. You will see they have been given a bad rap.

Do elves bake?

If there are such personalities as baking elves, I think I might apply. Friday (yes, all day) consisted of holiday baking. Lots of baking. Batches and batches of baking. I like (?) to bake for the holidays. The one year I didn't (when I moved back to L.A.) it was missed- both by me and by regular recipients of the holiday baked goods. And so, despite my hectic schedule as of late, I made a point to carve out some time for baking.

I knew this operation had to run like a perfectly well oiled machine in order to work. So, I measured out all my dry ingredients on Thursday night. Friday morning, I mixed all the dough, then I did all the baking.

First up, the perennial favorite and most requested of the holiday cookies: Snowballs. Sinful, buttery, pecany goodness, coated in confectioners sugar. I've got these down to a science.

Then, I always like to mix it up when it comes to the other cookies. I like to rotate old favorites, and sometimes I like to try something new. This year, I decided on simple ginger cookies. The recipe calls for them to be frosted at the end, but I think they're sweet enough as is.

Next, green tea shortbread leaves. I made these many years ago, but thought to resurrect the recipe this year. Generally I don't do cut-out cookies (takes a lot more time and I'm lazy), but I was inspired this year. It's basically shortbread, with a mellow green tea flavor. Something a little different.

And finally, now that I live with a dog and have so many friends now who also live with dogs, I couldn't very well leave our furry friends out, now could I? Peanut butter (all natural, sugar- free) dog biscuits. Again, with the cut-outs, but these were super fun. Hee hee...

Thankfully I was able to finish everything on Friday (night), because then I was able to hang out with Julia, Marnie, and Mary-Heather (and Kat, for a second) for a little knitting time and girl talk on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't able to stay for very long, but a short visit with the girls is better than nothing! Such a cozy Saturday afternoon.

And now, I must get back to packing. I'm leaving - this afternoon - for a week "back home" in Hawaii. It will be a short visit, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll be traveling with LA and two 5 month-old peanuts, which means I'm sure I will have some war stories to report)...wish us luck!

The Good, the Bad, and the Cute

Wow. This has really been my week. I guess it was bound to happen as things had been running pretty smoothly around these parts. And as they say about the Matrix - it just doesn't feel right when there isn't "something" going on.

The good news is that the electricity is back on. The bad news? It could have been on this whole week. Apparently neither B or I knew how to "properly" switch a breaker. The fun part is, it took the maintenance man the building property manager finally sent over 2 seconds to tell us that. Why didn't the electrician our unit property manager uses know that last Friday?

The bad news was yesterday I locked myself out of one of my bank account because I couldn't remember the super obvious passwords I had chosen. (I swear Nonnahs, it is amazing my world doesn't implode with the amount of stuff I can't seem to remember these day!) The good news is that I was able to find my account papers (buried amongst the 10 months of papers I have to file) with all my super obvious passwords on it, which means that now I don't have to go down to the office in person to verify my identity before they'll un-lock my account.

The bad news is that someone decided that the random dog poop left someplace in our building belonged to us and deposited it on our front door mat. (Seriously? Just because there is a dog in a unit, does not mean THAT dog made the poop...especially a poop that was clearly NOT made by a mini dachshund). The good news? High and Mighty Jerk who left it there, had to touch the poop to put it there. Ha!

The good news is that despite our current financial woes (aka the bad news), we have a plan. And I think as long as we can make it until Wednesday, we'll be ok. Not great, but Ok. And the good news on top of this? I have a stash. And I plan on using it. (At least I better, because the shocked looks I keep getting when people catch sight of it for the first time are starting to get a little embarrassing.)

And finally, the good news is that my friend Dr. Nyl who so kindly hosted us on our trip to Australia summer before last, is moving back to San Diego! And you know what? She's a knitter now, too!
The only bad news about this is that she won't be back until end of February/beginning of March. Although if next year is anything like this year, that will be here before you know it. Hopefully she will find the low humidity here in San Diego more knitting-friendly that Brisbane. She may also be a sock knitter convert. While she was here after Thanksgiving, she picked up her first Addi Turbo and Koigu for a little Magic Loop sock magic. Not being much of a sock wearer herself, she was planning to make these for her mom. That was at least until she tried on a handknit sock. I tried to tell her that handknit socks are unlike anything else, but until you put one on, you really don't understand. So I had her try on my only non-eaten sock, which she promptly wore for the rest of the evening. I was able to catch this picture as B was in the middle of showing her a plethora of our vacation pictures. Hopefully, her first pair of Koigu socks will be the first of many to come!

10 things for Thursday

1. My Deep V arm holes are crocheted and cut.
2. I tried it on. It is long.
3. I may be able to "shrink it" during the complicated washing and blocking process.
4. I may be cutting off the waist band, removing a bit of the body and reknitting the waste band. Later. When I can deal with it.
5. I'm down to 3 knitting projects for Christmas. I think I can make it.
6. Someone stole one of my new dryer balls out of the machine I was using. I had a feeling that was going to happen. Sometimes people really suck.
7. The good thing is that one dryer ball doesn't do all that much.
8. I still have NO ELECTRICITY in half of my condo unit.
9. Why do I feel as if this wouldn't be happening if we actually owned our unit?
10. I would like to turn off the electricity at the homes of the board members who can't be bothered to unlock the gate so we can re-set our master breaker.

And so this post isn't completely pictureless (or overly negative). I present the following pictures of Jenny. She loves the grass. She LOVES to run (really fast) in the grass. In the first picture, she is airborne.

In the second picture, she is the streak of a dog that is Jenny running full speed past me.

Don't worry she didn't turn into a tater tot since the last time you saw her. It's just a really funny angle. She is still as sleek and svelte as ever.

Happy Thursday. And to Nonnahs, Happy Friday before vacation!

Clipping and Cosmos

Well, I made it. At 1:30 am on Saturday morning, I completed the knitting for my Deep V vest class that was going to be held at 11:00 am that day. I was doing great until I made my way home from having had dinner with Nonnahs, Nasus and K on Friday night. Somewhere between K's place and my place, I got mixed up and kinda forgot to do the neck decreases on the back after I set the steek. I almost gave up for the night, but decided I would at least get it fixed. I got myself a beer, B and I watched the Grey's we were behind on, and I tinked. I almost ripped, but B suggested maybe tinking would be "safer". He "hated for me to mess it up after all that hard work". Hee, hee. I love it when B gives me knitting advice. In this case, I took it and a couple hours later, I had tinked, re-knit and was all ready to bind off my steeks.

Here is a look at what the vest looked like just after finishing the knitting. Once the shoulder seems were done, the vest resembled a very fancy potato sack.

I have to say, we had the most intense class yet. We worked solid for the entire class period and didn't even stop for our normal lunch break. We stumbled out of the back room at 3:30 looking tired, hungry and generally beat up. But, we cut. We cut it good.

You can see my crochet stitches above in the grey yarn. This was taken about half way through cutting the neck steek. I had a mild panic attack when my cut edge looked a bit more messy and just plain weird compared to when I cut my swatch. We decided that it was really just the difference in my tension (as I was crazy tight on the swatch) and that everything was A-okay.

Our teacher brought in martini fixin's and after you cut your neck steek, he shook us up a cocktail of our choice. I promptly requested a Cosmo, which probably wasn't the best choice given the lack of lunch, but it was exactly what the doctor ordered!

He also walked us through picking up the stitches for the neck band before he sent us on our way. We are to work the rest of the steeks and bands at home. Then we will meet one final time at the Knit Salon in a couple weeks to go over all the final finishing...and hopefully get a great group picture. I have about 3 more rows left in my neck band before I bind off and you know what? I think I will actually need to buy ANOTHER ball of Scarlet yarn!

It is finally looking like a vest and I am really excited to try it on. But I wanted to get working on the neck band before I cut my arm steeks because there are just so many stitches! And didn't want to put it down and not pick it back up again because of such a daunting task. I'll share some more pictures once it's washed and all the bands are done. I can hardly wait. I just hope that it fits like it is supposed to!