happy christmas!

totally made up on the ‘fly’

sitting at the airport and inspired by the domestic abilities of my dear chi, armed with take-out-boxes of homemade treats to keep me focused, my trusty knitting bag and the realization that it truly is the week of christmas~ i take my husbands advice to write out the always better-late-than-never cards.




the goods: frog tree fingerling weight 100% suri brushed

size 3 needles (all i had at the time)

c/o 13-14 sts
knit every row until desired length.

all sorts of yumminess.

with my chi and her most fantastic kitchen within grasp at last… here comes the homemade version of the vosges caramel marshmallows.

truly one of the greatest things on earth.

why i am happy....

those i miss...

today i will have a corndog....

i will look forward to a pint at the tam with your friends.

i will remember you by your stories.

i will miss you.

one year older....

hey i was woken up early by opal barfing on my pillow.

it soon got better~ but should birthdays really ever fall on a monday?

highlight- my itouch (sadly the iphone is not compatible with my current cell phone cancellation policy). but without the mobile capability of the iphone the itouch is equally as cool. yes.. i even put stitchminder on it.... beware fellow knitters~ technology is on my side.

thank you my friends for every last wonderful birthday wish. and thank you ms. chi for the flowers that you send every year that make me happy.

little g's mathching grandpa's 70th b-day scarf

the dog motif is taken from the dougie dog scarf by Lucinda Guy in her book handknits for kids: 25 original designs for boys and girls. i made the adult one for my father’s 70th birthday and so i made this for my nephew to sport around with grandpa. the little man’s is single stranded and grandpa’s is double.

details: pattern: manly scarf by jennie.

1 skein kraemer yarns tatamy tweed dk (same as grandpas)

.2 skein kraemer yarns tatamy tweed dk in electric blue

.01 skein harmony in cream for the embroidery details on the dog- a gift from sarah.

1 button

notes:

decided pocket should have a button. ~thank you leigh for these fun star buttons you gave me!~

knit using a single strand. the end scarf is 6 inches wide rather than 8 inches double stranded on dads. the finished length is 53” in length... some nice young man at the car dealership yesterday tried it on for me for size (perfect!)

oh my. adding the pocket stressed me to some degree. in the end i chose to knit the pocket into the scarf and add the pocket back for a neater front finish.

done :)

popular

pops gave me some love for my macbook air screen protector. so, in turn i took the screen measurements and of their laptop computers and made them each one.

for syl i appliqued a birdcage... not the real thing but much less messy.



for dad i went simple. i only added a seam binding (boiltex seam binding~ vintage pre 1950’s) border in a darker blue to the wool felt.

if only i could get the mitered corners correct....

sigh.

for pepper.

our little man enjoyed his ornamental cabbage for a nap. today i bought a flat of them from shades of green.

i know he would have enjoyed them.

why i love my birthday…

yes it may sound selfish but to be honest this is my favorite time of the year. years ago my mother would celebrate my birthday with a pumpkin pie.

since then i love everything about the fall and i am lucky my birthday falls in the season.

my dear boston friend sent me john & kira's “chocolate fig pumpkins” for my birthday this year with wonderful handmade and great crafty goodies which make me smile!



what a lucky girl i am.

oh sad, oh sad that i can write this.

this is my finished father’s 70th birthday scarf.

i will be giving pops the scarf when all the kids go home for thanksgiving. i can blog about it because i am certain that dad has never seen my blog. so no chance of ruining the surprise…..

...as he is now seventy years of age i am ok with this.

details:
manly scarf (ok lame name) pattern can be found here
thank you jennie for the free pattern!

3 skeins kraemer yarns tatamy tweed dk (750 yards) ~ my choice of a cotton blend tweed in a dad like color (walnut)

size 8 needles

knitting double stranded.

(note: a nice project to take on the go. i will be making the same scarf in a 6yr old size with the same yarn and a doggie pocket. that way grandpa and grandson can enjoy together)
:)

i picked a project that would use the first pair of needles dad bought me. a nice hand made size 8 made from walnut (hence the color of the yarn.)

end project 70in. long. so i ended up using 3 skeins of yarn in the end (instead of two) to get the length.

will use the same yarn for my nephew single stranded on a needle size 5. let’s hope it works out!

today i feel like....

.... dad's fat cat.
it must be time to leave the new mexican food alone for a while.

apples

i grew up on my father’s orchard. while he no longer lives in the house where we grew up, his new orchard makes me just as happy. today we picked some of his apples. with around 27 varieties, i am not sure just what we picked but my favorite were these sweet arkansas blacks.

good ol' farmer dad covers every piece of fruit on his trees with a “fruit” stocking. there are many uses for the stocking: ladies fashion, criminal use or as a father’s effort to keep birds and other animals away from his fruit while they ripen.

and as it turned out it worked.

for dinner~ fresh picked apples with cheese

why i love upstairs on the square....

libations available on election night...

(note blue font coloration)

Bridge To Nowhere Combo $16

A Glass of Pinot Noir

with Susie’s Stacked Chickpea Fries & Housemade Ketchup

Sarah’s “I Can See” White Russian $9

Cheney Oyster “Shooter” (Duck!)

A Wellfleet Oyster in a Bloody $11

these can be enjoyed at my favorite boston restaurant upstairs on the square... if you go~ please have a drink for me!

happy halloween!

puppy love~ the results of a boston on a diet

~she is now one lean mean opal machine~

stupid creepy scary halloween stuff for sarah…

black widow headband

this pattern was written by an austin yarn shop owner and blogger stacy klaus. her shop (the knitting nest) participated in the hill country yarn crawl and has recently been voted best new local business by the readers of the austin chronicle.

the kit consisted of cascade eco + (an aran weight yarn made of 100% wool), the pattern and this great plastic spider.

sarah~ i am sorry i did not know your head size so i fudged it and made the pattern to fit a standard plastic headband the sewed it on to the plastic one…..


now for the spider i could not help but gluing it to a bobby pin. sarah i cant wait to see a picture!

...don't hate me...

hardly able to control myself….

overly addicted to ravelry is a bad thing.

i know this because not only do i not have time to knit~ i also have a wealth of pattern ideas to confuse things.

this is bad because i can easily sit in front of the computer and weigh the pros and cons about different designs (even if i have no intention of knitting them… who the heck needs a felted handbag?!) and neglect things like eating and sleeping.

my social network is a bunch of virtual friends.

should computers be such an integral part of my knitting obsession?.... to the point where yesterday i considered changing cell phone provider in order to swap my current pda for an iphone to run stitchminder?

i did good this weekend.
i walked around yarn shops (hill country yarn crawl).
i found a pattern book.
i bought the book….
(sadly i bought the yarn online)

‘mila tells me gavin likes bright colors…. what do you think ‘mila?

i am too excited for words and i can’t wait for this yarn to come

acl 2008

the fratellis
spiritualized
the kills
silversun pickups
the raconteurs
tegan & sara





of course there were more awesome bands, however faced with the kind of heat that would melt your mascara to the brim of your hat (if you were brave enough to wear any)~ it was safer to take multiple shade breaks armed with shade break essentials such as:
camp chair with beverage holder
beer (with koozie)
water
sunscreen
hat
festival foods (of whatever sort is available)


...of course, forget the heat when one can have jason pierce sign your acl program or even just shake the man's hand...

~see you next year acl~

portugal jenny

sick at home today. not like me to be sick so i am feeling very sorry for myself. (even though it really is only a cold). i did pluck up the energy to finish the last bits of jenny that have been awaiting my attention for some time now...

i have to say i really like it. it is hard for me to believe that this pattern is the same as my ravelympics 2008 sweater only with a few modifications.

details:
rowan ryc cashsoft dk- 6 skeins shade 506
needles: us 3 & 6
size: medium (due to gauge- would knit a small)

note: used one less ball than pattern called for. substituted rowan hand knit cotton with the softer cashsoft dk.

no modifications to the pattern except i left out the contrasting cast on at the bottom of the body and sleeves.

mostly knit in portugal and was on a real roll- very nice to knit and fun pattern but put it aside for my ravelympics 2008 beaded jenny.

the ribbon and buttons were bought in estoril at retrosaria fantasia- along with the other wonderful buttons i found there. such a wonderful retro haberdashery shop!

my thanks to no two snowflakes….

just like the name she chose, nicole creates one of a kind high quality hand dyed yarns.

this wonderful lady created this 100% cashmere skein and called it “soft pepper.”

her eye for color and design captured pepper’s colors and softened them to alter them to my taste of soft blended yarns.

could you get more custom than that?

when it arrived i sat on my couch with anticipation and trepidation~ i thought it would take me months before i would open it but percy came and sat by my side and we opened it together.


after a smell he snuggled into the yarn~ not with my camera handy i missed it but in no time he was back on the couch and this time lying right on top.

yarn approved, sniffle.

our new family

meet oscar (top) the new member. oscar is a shih tzu who loves toys, playing and his mum. then of course the second down is mr percy and sweet opal on the bottom.

such q-tys we have..

poor chair...

happy fall

marimekko

owl baby sweater get's a marimekko outfit.....

denim yarn?

ok i ask myself why after my ordeal knitting with a cotton blend why i would move on to a 100% cotton yarn?

why?- for a missed baby shower for my friend michelle.

yarn: rowan denim~ from the ball band: “den-m-nit shrinks by one-fifth in length and fades just like denim jeans.” (a yarn destined to ruin any project.) shrink!! i will suggest hand washing in cold water.

2 skeins sh 229.

pattern: “owl baby vest” by jodi haraldson

i liked the way this yarn knits up…..
although it did turn my fingers blue as are my bamboo needles!


mods:

1. knitting front and back as two separate pieces instead of in the round. i prefer seems as they give the sweater shape. (however i don’t like seeming!)
back: c/o 54 sts; row 6 increase at each end of row.

front: same as above; note owl pattern inverse on every even row.

why i am not and never will become an olympic athlete.

why my ravelympics 2008 project did not pass the finish line…

1. i am not capable of completing anything i start because i can’t help from being distracted with other projects.
2. i am not capable of completing anything i start because i can’t help from being distracted with other projects.
3. i am not capable of completing anything i start because i can’t help from being distracted with other projects.

you get the picture. (i should be forced to write this out on a chalk board 100 times)

first a thank you fellow raveler~ 1knuttyknitter
(i could not have done it with out your help.)

here is the final product

made from five skeins of rowan cashcotton dk in sh 603, one skein of sirdar snuggly dk in sh 348, roughly 1000 + rowan large white beads and more of my fab portugal buttons.

mods:
1. increased length by 1”
2. increased sleeves to repeat pattern 2x
3. made fronts as cardigan
4. omitted the yarn overs in neckline for ribbon- instead:
5. from neck picked up and knit 24sts up right neck, 29 up right sleeve, 40 across back, 29 across left sleeve and 29 down left front (not 25, 35, 45, 35, 25) as stated in pattern and neck line fits great.

lyme regis

a four-day visit to britain’s jurassic coast to the quaint village of lyme regis during their carnival sounds like a nice place to be this summer. that is unless you are there to undergo dental surgery.

lucky for me i was just along for the ride.

best find… jurassic bar. (you need to look beyond the plastic oversized fish that adorn the entrance.) the chef/owner takes his boat out each day and serves up his catch in his restaurant that evening every day of the year apart from christmas and new years day.. .nice life…
we had dinner there every night. i would still be having dinner there nightly if i could only find enough faults in the dental work preformed on my companion (mil) to scare her into returning to the surgery.

alas i have failed.

another find: the town mill bakery. lunch: dorset rarebit & dorset apple cake.

a special lara find: all these fantastic old english knitting needles at a charity shop on the beach. 50pence. no kidding.

a find for a friend: vintage english horse brasses from an antique shop. for luck.