.. when I'm not blogging.

Truth is, I'm only blogging right now for two reasons. One, I actually have something to say. Two, I've now received FOUR Christmas cards, commenting on my lack of blogging (HA!) Not to mention, actual phone calls. I have to admit I'm feeling the love.. it's nice to be missed.

As for the something to say, I've been soooo uber busy holiday knitting, and I mean BUSY. I planned it out in three groups. Group one and group two.. DONE. Group three's knitting to start tomorrow, ending with a mad sprint to Wednesday. I have it all under control. I can do this! I can!

The bad news? Because everything I've knit lately is a gift, I can't show off anything yet. Next week though... lots of pictures and details.

More of something to say? I designed a pattern. It's absolutely nothing special.. just a basic ribbed hat. But there was a need. See, Richard has a pretty big head. As does his dad, and my brother. Knitting hats for them can be downright difficult without adding pattern repeats or tweaking stitch gauge to compensate for several more inches than the typical hat circumference. Such a pain in the arse.. AND I'd never get exactly what I was looking for. Something was always "off" about the finished item. So I figured, that's it.. I'm just writing my own...

Presenting... Gargantuan Melon. It's a free .pdf download, both here on the blog, and on Ravelry. Because dammit, I'm not the only knitter who needs to knit for obnoxiously sized noggins. The great big bonus? Because this hat is so springy, not only does it fit a gargantuan melon, it also fits a child sized head! Multi-purpose... I love it, and I didn't even plan for that.

I'll try to post again this week... but there is that mad sprint and all.

Twice in less than 7 days. Wow! Are you shocked? I am!

So, I'm still up on the post election high. President-Elect Obama. I love the sound of that. And, I'm extremely proud to have put all the time I was able to spare, into helping the campaign. I have very high hopes, but I'm not an idiot either. Things are likely to get worse before they get better... particularly economically. These times, they scare me... a lot.

In other news, we made frybread this weekend. Thanks to Laura for emailing me MY recipe when I found myself unable to find MY own damn copy! I did find it eventually, but now I have it stored in my email folders as well as on my cookbook shelf. Whew!

So we made up a single batch to go along with some chicken chili (no pictures because I'm an idiot) and it was an awesome pairing. We used this recipe.. sort of. A few things we did different were, dried northern beans from the pantry vs. canned ones. A WHOLE LOT LESS cumin than the recipe calls for because I hate cumin. No canned chiles.. instead we chopped up a jalapeño and cooked it with the onions. The final step of adding the sour cream was the secret to making this a fabulous dish. Its definitely a keeper!

Now one of the best things about making frybread, is the leftovers. They make awesome sammiches, and even better toasted the next morning for breakfast...

And if that isn't enough fat on a plate..

pair it with a bowl of steel cut oats, sprinkled with a bit of sugar, and a splash (or two) of half and half. Its my favorite breakfast, especially on a cold morning.

I also started a new project last night, mostly to escape some of the never ending knitting of this year's spinning guild holiday project, which I can't show you yet.. obviously. Its halfway done, and I have plenty of time. Don't look at me that way.. I needed a diversion!

You may remember this handspun (or maybe you don't - I'll remind you) I tried to knit it into the boutique scarf (rav link here) some time in the last year, but it wasn't the right yarn, and I frogged it. Then I tried to make a mini clapotis (rav link here) out of it unsuccessfully. But after picking up the new Interweave Holiday issue last night, I think I have a winning pattern: Hourglass Eyelet Scarf (Rav link here). I'm really loving it, especially the easy 4 row repeat. This represents only about an hours worth of knitting last night, so I can see it going pretty quickly, which is just the sort of diversion I needed.

Lastly, its Monday. And I totally fell off the wagon doing this...

I only heard about My Morning Jacket through my friend Kira (Hi Kira!) and wow, was I missing out. Its a bit jammy (and you know I like that) plus you can hear a bit of Coldplay in there, and definitely some Allman Brothers (Coldplay and Allman Brothers Band, never thought I'd put those two sounds together!)

Anyway, I really like it and if you do too, there is plenty more to be heard on imeem! ETA: I'm not sure why imeem hates me lately with the shortening of my embeds, sorry about that.. the full song is on imeem however.

P.S. Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

I survived not only getting one hat out to my first target, but I got to take out yet another unsuspecting HA2 player, Michelle (seriously, click the link for the funny death notice!)

Funny, the work in progress sent back to me from my original target, is nearly identical to the yarn I picked out for her. I hope that means she really loves it.

So, I'm still alive. It turns out that as of right now, there is not another work in progress heading my way, as someone downstream flaked out, hasn't sent a death hat to her target, much less responded to any emails. I now sit and wait for my death to arrive in the mail, or for a mercenary mad hatter (extra players, not really playing the game until The Oracle calls on them to "make a kill". I know this all sounds confusing and downright silly, but its a lot of fun!

Also last week, I finished up spinning, and plying, my guild holiday wool...

It didn't come out at all like I expected, and I honestly hated spinning this. Because of that, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to make with it for the holiday swap. I've already cast on 2 different projects with it, only to be disappointed. Ugh. A felted stockinette table runner is sounding really good about right now.

Life 'round here is still quite busy. Jill and Danny's wedding is on the 11th and my dress doesn't get fitted for alterations until Thursday. Not that I'm in any rush mind you... the alterations are costing nearly as much as the dress. Highway robbery in my opinion.  If my Bernina was working I could just do this stuff myself. Alas its not, and I'm stuck.

But, mark my words.. I will not ever, be in another wedding. I hate weddings. Huge waste of money, and only marginally fun to attend.  Everyone should just fly to Vegas and elope. Seriously, save the money, elope and buy a house, pay off a school loan.... or something else.  I won't even go into my disdain for the jewelry industry, who suggest men spend THREE MONTHS SALARY on a diamond, probably mined by children in a war torn country. /rant over.

I'm also gearing up to spend weekends traveling to northeast Pennsylvania with other local Obama supporters. New York is most definitely safe as far as delivering for Obama. Pennsylvania is still a swing state, so we're doing voter registration and such, helping out the Scranton/Wilkes Barre offices.

And speaking of my hometown...

Ok, its Fox, so this should be expected, but split decision? Looks to me like the only McCain supporter on camera is the reporter.

Where on earth did summer go? I actually had to turn my heat on the other day, because it was 58 degrees in my dining room! I'm not ready. I'm so not ready. Its times like these when I think a warmer climate would be ideal. North Carolina? Tennessee? And if the political climate in the south wasn't such a diametric contradiction of my own views, I'd be packing up a moving truck.

The impending cold also makes me literally itch to knit a sweater. This is weird, because I don't like knitting sweaters. Too much investment in yarn ($) and time (I get bored and never finish them). And while I've always turned away from the, in my opinion, fashion disaster also known as the "shrug", I'm anxiously awaiting the pattern release of Elizabeth's Gordian Shrug (ravelry link here). Luckily, I'm a back up test knitter for this pattern, but damn... I'm cold now.

Other knitting... I signed up for Hat Attack 2, which started last week. The pattern was released on Tuesday, and I had a finished hat to send out to my target on Thursday. My first kill. Since I haven't received a hat in the mail from my assassin, I'm still "alive" and waiting for an unfinished hat from my target to keep playing the game. Confusing? It confused me too at first, but now I have the rules of the game down pat.

Its an interesting pattern, based on a Fibonacci sequence, which I usually shy away from for whatever reason.. I don't know. I despise the yarn called for in the pattern (SWTC Therapi) and opted to sub with Sublime Merino Cashmere Silk DK. It caused some gauge issues, but in the end it all worked out.

As for Music Monday... I know I sort of gave it up in my lack of blogging over the summer. However, I'm bringing it back with a bang. On Friday we celebrated International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I've been listening to a lot of Flogging Molly lately. Combine the two and you get...

If I don't blog again this week. Have a great one y'all!

I've never seen a dragonfly in our yard, much less on my porch. Luckily it stuck around long enough for me to run and get the camera.

Something finished. Shown blocking on a dinner plate!

Pattern: Rose Red (ravelry link)

Needles: US6 dpns and 16" circular

Yarn: Sublime Angora Merino DK (ravelry link)

This is my second Rose Red. My first one used some llama yarn I ordered from Hid N' Hills but unfortunately it just didn't work out. The gauge was off and the yarn "bloomed" a bit too much. Overall it was huge. (Mental note, that project still needs to be frogged, re-skeined and yarn re-claimed). This time my sub yarn was perfect.. PERFECT.

This was such a fabulous project to knit, and as usual, Ysolda's patterns are awesome. I'm actually a little sad that I've finished it. If I had more identical yarn in another color, I'd cast on another right away.

Now, want to see the other side?

I would have never thought of using a dinner plate to block a beret before I got this pattern!

I have to admit, that after taking so much time off, it is a little hard to get back at blogging. I mean, where do I start? Which activity from the past month do I highlight? What knitting project do I blog about?

Perhaps this is part of the reason why my little "vacation" extended itself.
But I'm back.. for now.. and I can't promise that I'll be blogging as frequently as I always have. Well, at least until the kids return to school anyway.

So what have we done this summer? Actually, not too much. Nothing exciting anyway. But, we did make a trip to Sandy Island Beach ...

(You will notice a complete lack of even a single picture of Cassidy. This would be because as soon as we get there.. every single time.. she manges to find a friend to play with and we don't see her, but from a distance for most of the day!)

Also in July, my spinning guild held its annual Summer "Dye Day" at Christina's house...

I didn't bring anything to dye, but after inhaling the vinegar fumes all afternoon, I couldn't resist going ahead and dyeing my holiday wool at home later that night...

I started out dyeing it "avocado green", but it turned out too much like baby poo. So I started a fresh dye pot with "sky blue" to try to over-dye that awful green... the result was, to say the least, very very surprising. I love the end result though.

And now for the most exciting news. The knitters among us will already know about Ravelympics, mostly because you just can't log into Ravelry without hearing about it. For the non-knitting readers, Ravelympics is sort of a take on the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics from the winter games, 2 years ago - but much much more organized. In a nutshell, Stephanie (the yarn harlot) had this idea... cast on a project, a challenging one, and finish that project before or during, the closing ceremonies.

Ravelympics is basically the same idea, but Ravelry forums are used to organize, cheer each other on, and see pictures of other's progress and finished items. There are even "events" for different types of projects, like "lace long jump" and "designers discus" (and the list goes on). Its cute, and its funny.. and its actually fun to be part of.

BUT... I held off committing to participate until the very last minute... the day before! So I totally missed the part where I had to actually "sign up for" a specific event. So no medal for me. And thats ok... I'm using this time to press on with the design of that lace shawl I've been talking about forever! I don't need a medal.. I'll have a beautiful, original lace shawl at the end, that I designed all by myself!

Since I didn't want to buy charting software, I searched and searched for an alternative, until I found what I needed. A font, specifically for knitting charts! And as soon as I installed it, I sat down to transfer my handwritten-on-graph-paper-chart into Open Office. I played, I tweaked, and did some more math.. then got started! I actually did cast on during the 8PM airing of opening ceremonies.

But by Saturday morning, several repeats into the project, despite the lace looking just gorgeous, I decided that my lace was too much for the body of the shawl. And that in fact, the lace I had spent so much time charting, would make a much better border for the shawl. I ripped it all out, re-wound the yarn, and sat down with my charting tools again and re-worked a new lace pattern. After 6 hours of more math and swatching, I had a new chart and casted on again...

Despite the poor lighting in an image taken at 10PM, I really do love this shot. Because I hope to make this pattern for sale as a .pdf download, I don't want to show too much. I am loving it, but I have at least 10 more repeats to go before I start the border section. Will I do it? I don't know... stay tuned!

After months of having to reschedule, Beth and I were finally able to make the trek down to Loren's farm for what we called, SteekFest. If you don't know what steeking is, and wonder why it might scare the crap out of a knitter, it is in plain English, knitting something with multiple strands of colorful yarn, top stitching the "channel" in which to cut using a sewing machine, then cutting it. Why a knitter would want to cut into knit fabric is very simple. Knitting multiple strands of colors is much easier knitting in the round, but you need to have openings for armholes, right? Chop Chop!

We decided that since we are all steek virgins, instead of risking an adult sized sweater, we would all knit itty bitty teddy bear/doll sweaters, and this way there wasn't a huge time investment if something went horribly wrong. Well, apparently my teddy bear sweater is hiding or mistakenly went into the trash bin during my last stash dive and divide because I was the non-steeking photographer instead.

Loren sewing her sweater...

Beth sewing hers...

Loren cutting hers...

Beth cutting hers...

And this is what the cut steek now looks like, all ready to have a sleeve sewn into it...

And when we were done steeking, we got out Beth's shiny new drum carder...

which turned out four soft FLUFFY batts of Loren's Albert Finney's lovely Finn lamb wool...

And and... then there was the visiting of the sheep...

We had a great time! Thank you Loren and family (animals included!) Oh, and we got to make the drive down in my new van. Huzzah! Now to read other accounts of Steekfest, see Loren and Beth's blogs. There are also several other pictures from the day in my flickr album.

Lastly, its Monday and that means music. I haven't come across anything new lately, but I have been revisiting music I've sort of forgotten about for twenty years, like this song...

There was a discussion on Ravelry's Lazy Stupid and Godless forum (of which I'm a proud member, obviously) about angsty music. I tried to remember my teen years and what I listened to when I was depressed and angry and.. well, I couldn't really think of anything. To this day, when I'm pissed off or worried, or nervous, or sad, I put on something fast and hard. One would think that to be counter productive, right? But for me, yeah, it sort of builds my anger, but before too long I'm dancing, and I'm happy again.

But... someone else mentioned "Dear God" and I remembered the very first time I heard it... And begging my parents to stay up late on Sunday night to watch 120 Minutes on MTV.

I obviously recalled my teenage angst.

It is so hard to post after such a long hiatus. Part of me wants to sit here for hours and tap out a long update.. but I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to try to pick up where I left off, and get back into the swing of things.
Summer is off to an interesting start though! The kids finished their school year last week, just as Richard's office has decided to transition from maintaining a working office to everyone telecommuting. Great in theory.. and with gas prices so high, its a money saver. But starting off.. during the kid's first week of vacation, when everyday is barely managed chaos. Well, lets just say, we all hope to work out the kinks quickly.

As for knitting. Boing! is still in progress, though I've taken a little break from it. The Celtic felted bag is in hiding - I actually hated the pattern as it was slightly confusing. And when I hit a glitch like that in a pattern, I'm completely turned off. Maybe I'll go back to it.. I'm not sure.

What I am rather obsessed with currently is Lizard Ridge. I've watched Paige knit on hers a few times on Saturday mornings when we all get together and well, I was smitten. A weird thing for someone like me who tends to walk right past the Noro at every yarn store. Its pricey.. and its scratchy. But I couldn't resist any longer. And whatta ya know.. I actually don't mind the feel of the yarn. Its also incredibly helpful to my wallet when Beth at Sheep Thrills gives us Ravelers a sweet discount.

The pattern tells us to knit 24 individual "blocks", much like a quilt. Screw that. Too much seaming! So I'm working panels using the equivalent number of blocks. One panel down (left) and the second one in progress (right). I'll be making four total. I've definitely slowed down a bit this past week with all of the changes here at home, but I'm still making steady progress.. and I'm not bored yet.

And oh, Its Monday! That means Music!

Love Rise Against.. And love Little Boxes. For those unfamiliar, Little Boxes is the theme song for the tv series, Weeds (Monday evenings on Showtime) Every episode features a different artist singing the theme (see here for the most recent release). If you have never seen the show *gasp*, get the first few seasons from Netflix and catch up. Its one of the best tv series, ever. Fantastic writing, great acting, hilarious!