My knitting basket runeth over

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a frenzied two days of opening presents. It was wonderful. I may have to throw out every toy they already own to make room for all of the new loot.

It actually all began on Thursday when my Mom came to visit. As she was putting her coat on she told Meaty that there are presents at her house for him. He was very excited and demanded that we immediately go to her house to get them. I told him that we could go on Sunday and open his presents. We argued for a few moments before he conceded defeat. He then demanded "Gammy, go get my peasants and bring them to me." She almost did it, only a person with a heart of stone can resist my son. Luckily my heart is granite. Much to his great disappointment there was no bringing of presents that day. But the idea of present was planted in his mind. All he could think about was "peasants."

On Saturday Prince Meaty was up at the crack of dawn ready to go get his peasants. We went to see my In-Laws that day. During the drive I re-cast on for the red sweater. I've decided to begin with my personal adversary: the sleeves.




Once we arrived, we played with cousins


We opened presents, fed ducks, and had a good time. Then we cleaned up and his extended family came over. There was food and laughter and more presents. Highlights from that day include my little pink drill, The Greatest's Michigan flag and this



I got 10 ounces of alpaca. It came from an alpaca farm that is literally five minutes from my in-laws. It is un-dyed. That brown is the natural brown of the alpaca. We went to their website and we think we know which alpaca it came from. It is impossibly soft and wonderful. As you can see I've already balled one hank and begun knitting a test swatch. It knits beautifully and has a nice drape. I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet, it must be wonderful. I think it would be nice for a lacy shawl, or maybe a scarf. I'm kicking a few ideas around in my mind.

Then the next morning the children woke up to this.



Pork Chop received her much coveted Cinderella Castle. Meaty's favorite gift was his huge fire engine. It really is fortunate that Santa brought him a fire engine, as the castle has caught fire four times. Bird was just happy ripping paper off packages, but she does seem to enjoy her new chair.



Everytime the commercial for this chair came on she would watch and laugh. When she opened her present she seemed unimpressed with the colorful box. But then I put her chair together. She sat in it, put her hands in her lap and then just looked around for a moment. She then threw her head back and just laughed and laughed and laughed. I think she likes it.

There were even a few goodies under the tree for me.

I got these



I've always wanted a pair of boots like this. They are so comfy and fit surprisingly well for shoes I didn't get to try on before buying. I just love them.

I also got this



It is a beautiful shade of blue/gray, like the perfect summer sky before the storm. The Greatest did good didn't he.

But the fun wasn't over yet. We then went to my Parents house where there were more cousins, presents, and cookies strategically placed near the edge of the counter where little hands could grab them without adult intervention. (the ham was also near the edge of the counter, for some reason they didn't abuse their ham privileges the way they abused the chocolate.)

The "kids" (aka The Greatest) also got me a foot spa. Last night after the kids went to bed I sat on the couch with my foot spa and cast on for this



I may or may not change the border lace, but for now I really like how the center panel is turning out.

Lest you think The Greatest went unloved. He received clothes, tools, a computer game, a curl bar, and (I think this was his favorite gift) a coffee grinder. He spent the evening laughing and playing Burnout Revenge (also new) while I was happily knitting. He is now busily brushing his teeth with his new Sonicare toothbrush. I think he had a nice time as well.

Spreading the Christmas Spirit

Oh, I know you thought I was gone, or drunk on eggnog (watch yourself candsmom I know where you knit). But I've been hiding here, plotting my next move.



This tree is so blinding with literally a million lights they haven't noticed me here by the Santa Bell. (Seriously there are a million lights. I've counted every stinkin' light. How else do you think I've occupied myself sitting up here)

I've been working my special brand of evil in quiet ways. Taking apart her socks and re-casting them in a smaller size so they wouldn't fit. Manipulating button holes so no button on earth would pass through properly, they are all either too large or too small. She's now searching for that holy grail of buttons. Like the real chalice, it doesn't exist.

But my most beautiful display of treachery is the havoc I have visited upon her latest sweater. She should have realized it was knitting too beautifully. I was helping her knit, that's why it was knitting so quickly. But my version of helping greatly differs from the accepted definition. She finished the back, both of the sleeves and half the front. She laid them out this morning to take pictures. The body is looking good.



But imagine her shock and horror as she laid out her sleeves and discovered this.



There was much swearing about a faulty row counter. A few tears. Then some muttering about "fucking Boyd" as she frogged the sweater.

She is currently tearing the basement apart looking for me.



*insert evil laugh here* It will be hours before she returns to her yarn. She never looks in the most obvious places.

Lest you think I am completely without a heart. Here is some Christmas Joy.





Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Love,

Boyd

Our Anniversary

Today is our eight year wedding anniversary.



Please forgive the photo of the photo but we were married in the dark ages before everyone had a digital camera, so a photo of an old photo is the best I've got this morning.

I fell in love with The Greatest the moment I met him. Who could resist this handsome face?



I would have run away with him that night if he had but asked me. It took him two months to get around to asking me, and two more months to get around to actually marrying me. I wonder what took him so long.

It hasn't always been easy, ours is not a perfect marriage, but it is a perfect love. He is my best friend. He gets me, he really gets me. I'm free to be myself, all parts of myself, even the mean, ugly, or crazy parts of myself. I've felt this way since the moment I met him. And I hope he feels the same freedom. That's why we don't have a perfect marriage. All that freedom means we are also free to disagree. A freedom we sometimes abuse, but we work very hard to reach a compromise. I love this man in a way I can not imagine loving another human being.

Happy anniversary baby.

I must be doing something wrong.

This red sweater is coming together entirely too easily. This is just too effortless for something I'm not even sure I want to make. I finished the front, or was it the back, I can't tell which it is since they are both the same, anyways I finished it in a day. Yesterday I made this



It's a sleeve, just in case you couldn't tell. Since the front and back are exactly the same, and the sleeves are exactly the same I now know roughly how much yarn I'll need to finish the sweater. I'm going to have enough to make this sweater if I want to.

If I keep this pace up I'll have the other sleeve done today, the other front/back done tomorrow and the collar done Friday. I could be blocked by Christmas.

But I'm not sure I want to. I'm not fully committed to this project. But this sweater is easy and mindless. I think I'm going to end up making this sweater because I don't have any better ideas right now.

Hiding from my knitting

Since my failure to find buttons, and my recent explosion of frogging I have felt rather un-motivated to knit.

I ought to find a new pattern for The Greatest's socks, or just knit him a simple rib sock. He was just saying this morning how much warmer the sock I knit him were compared to his other dress socks. But the love is gone for this project.

I've started knitting this



I'm using my Merino Style formerly known as Hopeful. I've eliminated the cables, I think they merely make the sweater look lumpy. The endless stockingnette is actually comforting. It is rather nice to make something square and mindless. I've got the back done, or maybe its the front, they're the same either way.



I'm not entirely motivated to do this sweater because

• I'm not sure it's entirely what I want. Sure it's got the neck I want, and the bell sleeves, but otherwise I'm not sure about it.
• I'm not sure I even have enough of this yarn to knit the sweater. I'm keeping my tails very short.

So this morning instead of knitting Bird and I made playdough.



We were going along just fine until the kid radar kicked in. That internal monitor they all have that lets them know when one child is having more fun than the other children, thus requiring their immediate intervention. Subsequently the red playdough was a bit burnt. I'm not sure I'll ever get the smell out of the curtains, but otherwise it was all moldable fun.



We used kool-aid to color the play dough. I think it came out beautifully.



I'm very tempted to place an order at Knitpicks for some dye-your-own-something-or-other just to try my hand at kool-aid dyeing. It would occupy me while I'm avoiding my knitting.

Swimming in the frog pond

Come on in! The water's fine!

Sure I was at the gates of the promised land. Only a few buttons from Finished Objects. But my papers weren't in order, I was missing a stamp on my passport. I begged. I pleaded. I cried. Yet still they wouldn't let me in. I was turned away, alone and unloved, with my heart on my sleeve and my yarn in my hands. What I glimpsed through the bars looked wonderful. I'll have to try again next week.

So I turned my attention to a forlorn forgotten project, The Greatest's Jaywalker socks. They're brown, they're manly, and they're knit on an impossibly small gauge. I got this much done.



Did you catch that? Seven inches. I was in the home stretch to the heel turn, where the sock becomes exciting, before the monotony of the foot body. I decided to have The Greatest try them on to see if the diagonal pattern caused the fabric to pull in a strange way, like a skirt cut on a bad bias. Just wanted to make sure the design was inherently wearable. He pulled it on his foot and loved how tight it felt, very fitted, then he was unable to get it around his heel. It is too small. Seven inches of too small. Fate can be so cruel sometimes. So now his Jaywalker sock look like this.



Two crinkly brown balls, just reeking of wasted potential.

And since I was busy frogging and kinda reveling in its destructive nature, the awesome power of erasing things from existence I did this



to this



Yes, Hopeful is no more. May she rest in peace.

I'm sure Boyd is around here somewhere. Stupid little blue needle. He's probably giggling with glee. When things go this badly it is always the work of Boyd.

Why I will always be a ghetto knitter

I unpinned my cardigan today. It is so soft. Blocking has performed some sort of complex magic upon it. It has transformed my sweater in a way blocking has only done once before *cough Adams shawl* The purl stitches around the cables no longer pull in. The cables really pop. The stockinette at the top is flat and beautiful. I spent at least ten minutes hiding from the children just petting it. On my bed it was lovely. On me, it's another story.

I have decided that there are a few issues with this sweater. I'm not going to list them. If you can't see them then I'm not going to point them out. I'm just not as excited as I thought I'd be. Maybe I just need some buttons.

Here's my point. If I had done this with simply soft I would probably be thrilled with it. So what if it's not perfect. I knit the entire thing for eight dollars. It's close enough to perfect. But with this sweater, with this yarn, I want it perfect, not just close enough. The yarn is perfect, I want everything else to be worthy of the yarn, the pattern must be perfect, the knitting must be perfect, the finishing must be perfect, and the final results must be perfect. It's too much pressure.

So I guess it's back to the ghetto for me, where close enough is good enough.

We don't need no stinkin' crosswalks

With my cardigan safely blocking I have turned my attention to The Greatest's Jaywalker socks. I should bite the bullet and finish my corset, but hey, I've always like to live life on the edge. Plus the poor guy deserves something for all he does for me. And since we all know Evil is never going to surface from my pile of UFOs (unfinished objects), the very least I can do is knit him a pair of socks. I think they're coming along swimmingly.



I like the stitch detail.



I haven't tried them on, but I should because I'm wondering if the diagonal stitches will pull. We'll see. So far The Greatest loves them. Or he's lying and saying he loves them because he loves me. I'm cool with it either way.

Ghetto Knittin'

Why yes, yes it is. It's my Alpaca Cardigan with Glitter that contains neither alpaca nor glitter blocking on a garbage bag. Despite my lack of buttons I have bravely forged ahead and finished the neckline, seamed, and am currently blocking this puppy. Isn't she pretty? The quest for buttons continues.

On a different note: from time to time there are movements that sweep blogs like viruses. Certain patterns that everyone must knit, or yarn everyone must buy, or memes everyone is dying to answer. I'm joining one such movement.



Candsmom and Olga have begun a moveoment of proud Ghetto Knitters. Come on. Most of us learned to knit of Boye needles with Red Heart. Admit it. It's nothing to be ashamed of. And although I am learning the beauty of other fibers Acrylic still has a valuable place in the world. Come out of the closet and proudly brandish those hot pink aluminum needles. I know, I know, my Alpaca Cardigan with Glitter had neither alpaca nor glitter, it had cashmere. But I'm blocking it on garbage bags, that should count for something. I still remember my roots and visit for the holidays. Everything I knit for my children is acrylic bought at Wal-Mart as a rule. If I've got high end yarn I got it in a huge ass cone on e-bay, or from Knitpicks, which barely counts as high end. Let's not forget the Cashsoft was a guilt gift for Greasefest 2005. I'm still Ghetto at heart. So Ghetto Knitters of the world unite. Can I get an "Amen"

Button, Button,

Who's got the button?

After two hours and four stores? Not freakin' me.

I'm almost done knitting the Alpaca Cardigan with Glitter, which as we all know I'm knitting in Cashsoft not Alpaca. I love it. It's wonderful. I've re-done the collar four times because I want it to be right, I'm that anal about this sweater. It's a cardigan which needs buttons.

I've finished knitting Bird's Cable Cardigan months ago. It's seamed, blocked, loose ends woven in. It should be done. But it's a cardigan which needs buttons.

I should be done with my silk corset, which is actually knit in alpaca not silk (technically it's an alpaca silk blend, but you get what I mean, I'm a subber). I only need two inches on one sleeve and I'm done knitting. But it's a cardigan which needs buttons. Twenty four freakin' buttons.

And no one in town has anything suitable. Either they're too purple, or too blue, or too tacky, or too sparkly, or not sparkly enough, or my favorite: perfect but too big to go in the button holes. I don't even know what I'm looking for, but I'll know it when I see it, and I didn't see it yesterday.

I know I could try to find some on-line, but I don't trust the color pictures on the monitor, and the color must be perfect. I worked too hard to have ugly buttons.

I must confess that I'm a little afraid that Bird will outgrow her cardigan before I get buttons.

I would switch to knitting pullovers only, but I prefer cardigan. Stupid button needing cardigans.

I think I'm on to something

Just look at this sweet baby.



With such sweet little feet.



How do you keep such a sweet baby from becoming spoiled?

Simply store her in the fridge when not in use.

I spy with my little eye

What's this I see?



Why it is a completed sleeve! No, wait...



It's two completed sleeves. No wait...



It's a sweater with sleeves.

I would like to personally thank Kimberly for being the scary I mean motivating drill sargent to keep me going when the going got tough. Just the neckline, blocking and buttons, and I'm gonna look fabulous (I've already woven in most of the ends, how's that for motivated?). Let's not mention Bird's sweater that has been done since mid-summer and is merely waiting for buttons, not to mention the corset that needs buttons. I'm gonna spend an entire weekend just sewing on buttons. Hey, there's my hold trinity of finished objects, the cardigan, the corset, and Bird's sweater! FO land, Here I Come!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

This is our tree. Yes it is leaning just a little. Bird didn't like the beach towel we had oh so strategically placed under the tree. The other night she just worked and worked until she set it free, so this year we have the leaning tree of festivity. We decorated it the day after Thanksgiving. If you look closely you will see that over the weeks we have moved the ornaments to higher branches, so the lower three feet of branches are virtually bare and kinda smooshed looking.



My Santa Cabinet. I was gifted with this cabinet and half of a Santa collection last year. I've never collected Santas, I'm more of a Snowman kinda gal, but I've since learned that Santa is not without his charms. I've added three new Santas just this year.



Our dining room. On our piano is this.



The Greatest bought this for me when we were still newlyweds. I look forward to getting it out every year. When I was a child my Mother had a white mother of pearl manger scene with angels and camels and shepards. It was magnificent. Over the years it began to show the signs of living in a home with four children. The angels wings became chipped and every year we had to glue Joseph's head back on. This reminds me of that beautiful set. This year Bird climbed up and got a hold of it. She promptly dropped it and broke Joseph's hand off. I guess it's just not Christmas until we glue Joseph back together.



Our entertainment center. My snowmen are housed on it's shelves. Notice most of them are on the top shelves. My favorite snowman is this one...for obvious reasons.



That is most of our Christmas decorating. I've spared you the eight foot line of reindeer and the garland festooned banisters, they're kinda boring. But there are so many lights all over the house it takes us five minutes to plug them all in, and we have no need for other lighting at night. The Greatest just loves Christmas.

I've got a problem

I've got a real sickness. I can't finish anything. I've got start-itis. I am truly incapable of finishing anything. Not even my devotion to cashsoft can stop my mind from wandering. It's the sleeves. I always get distracted at the sleeves. Case in point, my corset that only needs two more inches on one sleeve. Then there's Hopeful. The body is done it merely needs sleeves. And of course my Alpaca Cardigan that I'm knitting with Cashsoft, the most decadent yarn I have ever knit with. I must stick to vests. I get to the sleeves and lose momentum.

And the worst part it what I'm contemplating knitting next.

I want to frog Hopeful, 'cuz we all know sleeves are just not going to happen for this sweater. And I want to use the yarn to knit an off the shoulder sweater, the kind where the collar folds down over the top part of your arms (I'm sure there's a real term for that, but I'll just refer to it as the top part of your arms. You all know what I mean, not the shoulder, but just below it). No real pattern yet, just a vague idea in my mind, bell sleeves, maybe a lace pattern, ribbing for the folded over part. No pattern, no real direction. And I want to knit it to wear for Christmas NEXT YEAR.

For this I want to abandon Cashsoft. I want to abandon it for Knit Picks Merino Style, which is nice, but no Cashsoft. I want to abandon it for a sweater with no pattern, that I don't want to wear for an entire YEAR.

We all know what happens when I try to knit without a pattern. What? You don't know? You've never seen me knit without a pattern. That's right, most of you are new. I think only Jackie was reading at that time. I once tried to knit a sweater without a pattern. I blogged my idea, a bit of my progress, then I just went silent about the whole thing. Entirely mute. It just disappeared like it had never existed. It was such a disaster I refuse to even speak of it, so don't ask. I won't talk about it, it's too painful to recall. Maybe someday, with therapy, but no I doubt even then. That's how well I do when I knit without a pattern. And I shall never refer to it again. For some *ahem, Miriam* the gift of design is given. For others *cough, me* the gift of following the pattern is given.

I must go and work on my sleeves. I'm going to spend time with my Cashsoft until I love it again. I will finish this Cardigan if it's the last thing I do. I'm determined to finish at least three things on my progress bars before casting on for a new project.

Who am I kidding? I'm sure I'll have pictures of the frogged Hopeful and new cast on tomorrow. Do they sell Willpower in an ingestible form, tablet preferred to liquid.

If they team up with Boyd I'm done for

I am the world's best mother. It's true. There are a lot of really talented, dedicated, patient, loving mothers out there who would give their own lives for their children. Yet here I am the world's best mother.

Yup. It's a pretty arrogant thing to say.

Where's my proof to back up such a bold statement you ask?

Here it comes.

In the past two weeks my younger two children have coated the kitchen in Crisco, painted their hair with nail polish, on a completely separate occasion painted the bathroom with nail polish, and they coated the cat from nose to tail-tip with lotion.

My only regret in these past two week?

It's not that I put the Crisco on a low shelf, or that I didn't install a child lock after the first nail polish incident, or even that the lotion made the cat puke everywhere.

I regret not documenting any of it with photographs. I rock! That's why I'm the world's best mother. I really wish I had taken pictures, especially of the crisco and the cat. They were so pleased with themselves. I should have taken pictures for future embarrassment. But they are such cute kids. Imaginative, innovative, tenacious, infuriating, only-alive-cause-they're-so-cute kids. And they're mine, and I'd give my life for them. Check out Bird apologizing to the cat.



The cat used to bite any child who came near her. But Meaty isn't afraid. He just grabs her somewhere around her middle and drags her where ever he wants. For the life of me I can't figure out why she doesn't bite him and put a stop to this? And how could they be so ornery? I mean look at these two. How could they cause such trouble?



At least they leave my yarn alone. My cardigan is coming alone beautifully. I swear lately knitting feels like magic. You take this long string, just ordinary string (alright maybe not just ordinary string, the particular string in question does have a little cashmere in it's fiber content) and with two sticks it becomes something more. Sometimes something good, sometimes something that's just wrong but always something more than ordinary string. I've finished the main body of the sweater.



And half of the sleeves.




Must stop blogging. Must continue knitting. Can not resist the call of pretty cashmere.

The exciting unveiling!

I know I know. Where have I been all week. I wanted to do my write up of Adamas. We all know I claim I've got it done. We all know I say it's wonderful, but where's the proof? Where's the photo? This is the internet. People can claim they're all kinds of things. So I wrote that I finished my shawl, but where's the proof? I wanted to come out of hiding. I wanted to do a photo of something I've knit and include my head. I wanted to say proudly I've made this. But I don't have anyone to take the photo for me. Or if someone is here I haven't shower yet that day, and I do kinda wanna look pretty in my shawl. I don't want the internet going "nice shawl, but that girl looks beat! She could use a shower". So today I've given in. In the interest of showing off my very cool FO I've found a substitute model.




Pattern: Adamas Shawl by Miriam Felton

Yarn: Gossamer by Knitpicks in Sunrise, 2 hanks

Needles: Size 5 Susan Bates Circular Needles

Modifications: None

Review: I can not gush enough over how much I love this pattern. It was absolutely flawless. It was interesting and challenging but not so hard that I got discouraged. I enjoy knitting from a chart. It's like magic to see these strange symbols on a page take tangible form as you knit. Keep designing Miriam because I want more. I couldn't get a really great picture of the entire shawl, but here are some pieces.



Just stop to admire that diamond pattern. I learned from this pattern that Adamas is the Greek word for "indomitable or untamable, it was given to diamonds because of their ability to scratch anything without being scratched themselves". Such a pretty word for a pretty shawl.



Just look at the curved edges. They were like magic. Before I blocked they weren't there, but after? Perfect points.



See it looks good on everyone.



I may have to fight her for it. I just love the shawl. I can almost get it through my wedding ring, it's so dainty and lacy. My Mother suggested I get a larger ring. I wore it Saturday to The Greatest's company Christmas Party, and it is very warm as well as beautiful and soft, and surprisingly fun to wear. I must make more shawls.