New toys

Greetings from the new house! Good news, I have high speed internet and didn't have to pay $400 for equipment! Woohoo! Our water is still cloudy, though, and I REALLY need to do some laundry today. I don't want to use our washer because I've been told the dirt in the water will kill the machine. Great. Guess it's time to head over to Grandma's house next door and see if we can use her washer.

I got some new toys this week as well as a new house :D

I LOVE this book! I got it when Crafter's Choice was doing a 50% off day. Too bad they didn't have the other 2 books in the series because I would have nabbed them too. I think the best part of this book are the ideas for cuffs and button bands. Most of the necklines I couldn't really see using. It does provide a few patterns at the end as well as basic instructions on substituting any of the basic necklines provided in the book (scoop, V-neck, etc) in another sweater pattern. Very useful. I can't wait to design a cardigan now...lol All those button bands really have the old brain juices working.

I think I may be doing a lot of designing and knitting for the next week or so, though, since our water is not up to par for washing yarn for sale. I have been taking showers, but I don't want to be selling anything that I'm not sure is completely clean and fresh and fluffy.

My second new toy DH presented to me this morning. That man is wonderful, but I have to say he is COMPLETELY incapable of holding onto a Christmas present for more than 2 days. His excuse this year was that He got a smashing deal on 2 of them and that since he got one too that it shouldn't count as Christmas since it wasn't just for me....lol So, here it is, my new not quite Christmas toy:

It is charging plugged into my computer as I type. I have to admit that this is a REALLY cool new little toy. I have kinda wanted one, but they are seriously expensive. One of the perks of where DH works is that he always seems to acquire electronics for amazing deals. We have a tiny little Vio laptop that he got for $100 from a coworker because it had a few issues and was out of warranty (DH did a system restore and the problems were solved). He has a GIGANTIC 22" widescreen flat panel monitor for his computer that he just got for $50. My computer tower was the old office computer from his work that was going to be thrown out. We replaced the video card and the Ethernet. I got my fabulous LCD monitor for my birthday that was acquired in like fashion. It was really a mouse, keyboard and monitor. I suppose I should also mention the PSP that he eventually traded in for a PS2...lol Now that I write all this down, Most of the electronics in our house were acquired in this manner!

DH told me that the early ipod was really the Microsoft guy's fault since he delivered them to him yesterday and he knew he couldn't just hold onto them for a whole month! Apparently said Microsoft guy had been doing a contest with the people at DH's work and DH answered every question correctly. As his prize, he could have 1 ipod for free, or 2 for $50... You know that a single ipod is like $150 right?! So, now I'm waiting for the cute little black ipod to charge up :D

It snowed here in Colorado last night and because of the snow I took DH to work in the morning and picked him up in the evening. It is now a 45-50 min drive to his work now.. ugg. To compound this, apparently people seemed to forget how to drive in the 2 inches of snow that were on the streets last night, and the cities decided to wait until AFTER things started to freeze mid rush hour to send out the snow trucks. I was about 30 minutes late picking DH up and then it took us a whopping 3 hours to get home last night!! I suppose this wouldn't have been all that bad if I hadn't experienced the ultimate knitterly disaster. I pulled out the Rogue sweater to work on (which I had dutifully packed in the diaper bag) I knit a few rows and finished off the ball of yarn I was working on and then fished around in the bag for the second ball of yarn I knew was supposed to be in there. I dug everything out of the bag and THERE WASN'T ANOTHER BALL!! I was in the car for 3 hours without anything to knit *sigh* I probably could have finished the entire body of said sweater last night. I now believe that you can never pack too much yarn, and too many projects. You never know when you might unexpectedly be in the car 2 1/2 hours longer than normal!

I should be feeling more prepared

You'd think with all the delays we have had in our house plans that I would be feeling more prepared. In actuality, we are planning on the final big move on Wednesday and 80% of my house is still unpacked! Have you ever noticed that when you are cleaning or packing that you get all distracted and start sorting things, or move from room to room packing a little here and a little there? In my case, I do have a little justification in the form of a knee high mommy leach. Brendan doesn't think that I should be allowed to do work without him clinging to my leg, or better yet in my arms. This makes packing incredibly difficult. This explains why I am sitting here blogging instead of packing. Brendan is currently wrapped up like a burrito and snuggling in my lap while watching The Incredibles.

On Saturday we cleaned out our storage unit, which we have been paying $50 a month for a while now. I am absolutely astounded at how many books we have! In fact, we went through the boxes and came up with 3 boxes of books to donate, with still like 10 boxes that we're keeping. We need more book cases. How is it possible that even though I have gone through the house and purged things that we still have so much crap crammed into this little apartment?!

I managed to pack up the bathroom this morning; cram all of my stash (well most of it) into it's giant tub; pack up all my knitting books (only 1 box wow!) cram all of my business sweaters and yarn and stuff into 1 large and 1 medium tub; purge all of the old bills and such that I have kept on file (why do I keep these on file again?!); and made a giant list of people I need to call, things I need to do etc. I still have yarn and such on my desk that needs to go into a box or something, but it about killed me to even pack up my stitch pattern books. What if I need them before Thursday?! What if among all the moving and unpacking and cleaning I find 2 seconds to knit?! What if I want to knit something other than the Rogue sweater?! What if...

Ok, so I'm a little paranoid. I know I can survive until Thursday or Friday without all my fibery goodness, but it just feels so final to put it in a box and cover it in tape.

Well, the baby is asleep and now it is time to pull all the crap out of my sewing machine cabinet and put that into a box too. Let's hope we all survive this move. I have been looking at internet and surprise surprise, we are going to be living out in the middle of nowhere and have 1 option for high speed internet.... Satellite. I suppose the $59 a month wouldn't be so terrible if they didn't also include like $400 for equipment and installation *sigh* The next time you read a post from me, it may be from crappy dial up because they said it would take like 2 weeks to set up the satellite.

Crazy for Cables

Who would have ever thought that having 3 little kids who aren't really in school yet could be this busy?! It seriously took me 3 days to write a single e-mail to my sister. I simply haven't been home this whole week. I have been up to our new house 3 times this week and have gotten no work done! I have managed to save my sanity a little by doing some knitting. I don't know how much sanity I'll still have at Christmas when I may, or may not have managed to finish all of these cables, though. It amazes me how much more time it takes to knit something with cables than just plain old stockingette!

On the Needles:
Rogue #2

This one is for my Mom. As you can see, it's almost to the arm pits and should really be much farther along than this considering how long I've had it on the needles. I haven't touched it since Tuesday when I took the needles off and slipped it onto 2 36" Knitpicks options cables. Mom tried it on and it might have a little negative ease, but she liked it, and I think it will be beautiful.

It is knit in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, which is nice wool, but is definitely not Merino. Merino is still my favorite. The one problem with this project, and the main reason that it is not progressing quickly, is the fact that my computer refuses to print the pattern again. I have to literally sit in front of the computer with the pattern pulled up on PDF in order to knit on this. Hopefully it will get done in time for Christmas.

That would be far more likely, if I would stop casting on for new projects.... Like this one:

Please welcome the insane cabled scarf.

DH noticed when he rode his scooter the other day that there is a decided gap between his helmet and the collar of his jacket. He says he needs a scarf. He doesn't want a tube like neck warmer, he wants a full fledged scarf. Knowing that DH loves this yarn (he picked it out for his Rogue after all) and that he loves cables, I pulled out my new Stictionary and told him to pick a pattern. This is the pattern that he picked:




In truth, this is crappy yarn for cables. The mottled nature of the yarn likes to hide cables rather than show them off. After 3 repeats of the pattern, I looked at it and said "Why on earth am I spending all this time on cables when you can barely see them?!" DH then kissed me and said "It looks beautiful" *sigh* the things we do for those we love.

The fabric is rather dense and not drapy at all. I think it will probably be too bulky to fit nicely under his jacket, so I'm thinking I'll do panels of cables at the ends of the scarf, that taper nicely somehow into nothingness, and then knit the center section of the scarf in plain old stockingette so that it isn't too bulky in the part that goes around his neck. The other advantage to this plan is that it will go quicker if only 1/4 of the scarf is cabled to all heck instead of the entire length... I'm devious and evil I know.

Now, I need to recycle the brown and cream yarn that I plan to use for my Grandmother's Christmas gloves. I want to do a simple 2 color fair isle pattern on them, but haven't picked it out yet. Cabled Scarf, Rogue sweater, Fair Isle fingering weight gloves, and some yet to be determined item for my Dad and Grandpa. I must be insane!

See..... I really am designing

I have had this hat sitting on my desk for about a month now, and still hadn't really gotten any pictures of it, much less written down the pattern. Well, today I did both. I think I need some more professional type pictures for the final PDF pattern, but here's what I've got so far:

Flower Petal Hat

The hat is knit from the top down with 6 sections that swirl around, much like a pinwheel (only in reverse).





Half way down the hat, the stockingette is gradually replaced with reverse stockingette, forming the tips of the flower petals.










The flower petals hug the head all the way down to the brim. A normal ribbing is omitted, instead tiny picots are added at the point of each petal to finish it off.












Pattern to come after I have had some experienced knitters proofread and test knit it!

Playing Catch Up

Please excuse me for my complete lack of blogging lately. For some reason I have been prioritizing things ahead of blogging... like dreaming about buying a spinning wheel on Ebay... but I digress. Please allow me to very quickly catch you up.

From the needles:
Mini Ball Band dish cloths... 6 of them to be exact.

I think we've discussed how I don't like normal sized dish cloths. I like mine smaller, just right to fit in the palm of my hand, so these are 5 pattern repeats across and 7 pattern repeats tall (that's 5 bricks wide, and 7 brick rows tall). The other advantage of my new and improved size is that you get a whole crap load of them for the same amount of yarn. All of these came from 2 balls of Sugar n' Cream (1 white, 1 colored). I have a bit left and I'm going to try my darndest to make 1 more, but I don't think it's going to quite happen. Think about this... There are 6 cloths here. That's almost a new, clean cloth almost every single day of the week! All for the bargain price of $4. They are cuter and more fun than normal scrubbies, plus they're washable. I feel better knowing that they aren't collecting germs like those sponges you leave under your sink.



Heartbrakingly Cute Baby kimono... and baby hat for my nephew due in December.

This is made from my very own handspun!!! Isn't it cute?! It's a little lumpy, but I think the garter stitch hides most of that. I think I'll thread a ribbon through the eyelets and I haven't decided if I'm using buttons or ribbons for a closure, but there it is.

Is it just me, or does the hat look a little on the small side and the sweater a little on the big side?


From the Wheel:
More of that Superwash Merino

I LOVE this stuff. I love it so much, in fact, that I bought a whole pound more of it! This is my 4th skein. It took a little over 2 skeins for the sweater, not even half a skein for the hat, and I think this bad boy is destined to be some socks to match the sweater and hat. This is the most beautiful and soft yarn. I just wish I was better so that it didn't end up so thick and thin, but I'm getting better. My mom says that it adds charm :D



What's not on my walls:
I have 2 very bare book cases in my living room. That is the extent of my packing so far and now that the move is approaching so quickly (have I told you that we are planning to close on our loan tomorrow?!) I'm starting to feel a bit panicky. I guess the next few days are going to be pretty busy.

Note to DH. I don't really think we're going to be moving stuff between houses on Saturday... That's only 2 days away!

Running around the house like hooligans:


























Gotta go make some money now... I've got a new gigantic mortgage to support.

Discerning Food Critics agree...

Multigrain Cherios are the best