Sunday Funday

Okay, not really, but it wasn't all bad. This was actually a pretty productive weekend. I cleaned a little, purged the guest room a little, knitted a little, decorated a little. I even planted the amaryllis I bought a month or so ago, which is a good thing because it had started without me.



That's about 6 inches of stalk there, and I'm doing my level best not to make jokes about its appearance. Sadly, it's quite crooked as a result of growing in a box (it's also as pale as a software programmer, same reason) but I have hopes that exposure to some warmth and indirect sunlight on my kitchen table will straighten it up and turn it green. Alas, because I am mentally 12, I have the only "boy" amaryllis out there.

Other than that, nothing new. We got the Christmas tree up and lights on it, but haven't made it to the decorations yet. I have an entire cargo area full of stuff going to Goodwill, and I might actually drop it off in a reasonable time period since it quite effectively blocks the view out my rear view mirror. I even found DH's missing pants and about ten socks I'd been looking for mates for - the cleaning lady used to use the guest room bed if she folded my laundry, and DH came in one day and dumped all the camper stuff on top of it without telling me. I only just excavated down to it today. SIGH. Anyway, the room is still a wreck but at least there are a couple of pathways available that allow someone to get TO the bed without breaking necks or ankles. I'm pretty sure there will be another Goodwill trip or six happening in the next week. You'd think DH would feel a little guilty seeing his gigantically pregnant wife hauling stuff out of the guest room for the arrival of HIS daughter, but you'd be wrong. o.0 (No, Cookie, you don't have to kill him. Yet.)
Oh, I did finish Aunt Scarf #2, this time using the EZ sewn bindoff as described here. It looks to have done the trick, but no photos until I soak and block. I'm pretty happy with the scarf itself and the appearance of the bind off, so I'm certain I'll pick out the edge of the green scarf and sew it EZ style. Then I'll wrap them and congratulate myself heartily, which will ensure I will either forget to deliver or forget to mail them for two months.

D'ya ever wonder

Why all my posts are about Random? (Hint: it's cuz my life is like that. All. Over. The. Place.)
No babies yet. This is the good thing about posting infrequently - if I posted every day and then missed a day or two, I'd get a thousand emails (okay, like two) saying, "OMG did you have the baby yet?!?!?!!!1!!" Instead of that, I just get to hear it from coworkers, daycare people, and random neighbors. "What, you STILL haven't had that thing?"
No, I had it, but I had the doctor insert a basketball into the empty space because I so enjoy the preggo cow look and the inability to fasten my shoes. o.0
DH can't even help me these days - he threw out his back. And yesterday, instead of going to the hairy male chiropractor like I suggested, he went for a massage to the cute little blonde with the blue eyes. And now it's worse. Since I can't say it at home for reasons of marital harmony (or maybe I already did, I can't remember) I'll say it here: HEY HON? I. TOLD. YOU. SO.
Whew, I feel much better.
He's figured out how he injured it, too. He was in the recliner the other day and the Bug came along and hung off the back of it, tipping the whole chair and the DH over on his little legs. DH said it took a minute to figure out how to get out of the chair and get it upright and off the Bug without putting more pressure on him. You'd think the kid would learn, but the reason DH figured it out is that Bug tried to do it again last night while I was off knitting.
Wanna see my favoritest new-to-me thing ever?



Yes, my friends, it's a bookshelf. A grown-up bookshelf. From Craig's List. DH thinks it's tacky. He thinks all bookshelves are tacky. (Before you ask, no one in his family is much of a reader. I can't think of a single bookshelf I've seen in any of his family's houses.) See that top shelf? With a few exceptions (mostly stuff that's tucked away that I haven't found yet) that's my whole knitting library. The bottom shelf holds half the Bug's books, that until now have been stacked in odd places, tucked here and there. He keeps finding ones he hasn't seen in a while and saying, "This is for MINE?" like he's received a great gift. I love that he can get at his books now. And that they're easy enough for him to put away. And that the bookshelf is securely anchored to the wall. o.0
I knitted a whole repeat of Aunt Scarf #2 last night and weighed, and determined that I have about six repeats left. This makes me happy, since even with the nesting and cleaning and laundry I can manage 1-2 repeats a night. I will be doing a sewn bind off, and if I like it better I'll pick out the bind off on Aunt Scarf #1 and do a sewn bind off on it too. That will mean my Christmas knitting is complete. WOOHOO! That gives me a little time to finish the remaining 2.5 votive sleeves, but since my aunts know nothing about those, if I don't finish them I'll still have Christmas knitting done early. Heck yeah.

It's Sunday.

And I have more random.

First, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish terrible things upon all the people involved in the Bob the Builder videos. Extra fleas in the armpits for the writers and the people who do the voices.

Second, we did make it to the zoo yesterday after spending most of the morning cleaning. Somehow I managed to have this idea on the same day the city opened the zoo and train for free and had a festival in the park. This was neat, except that the train ride that usually had a 5 minute wait required Bug to stand in line for 30 minutes. There was enough going on to keep him mostly entertained and he only considered melting down once, but all in all he was great. He rode the train around the pond, then we went off to the zoo, and by the time we hit the ice cream store afterwards, he was out. We woke him up for the ice cream, which ensured that by 7:30ish last night, he looked like this.



Third, this makes me happy.



Fourth, so does this.



Fifth, have I told you how much I hate Bob the Builder?

Sixth, for Elizabeth and her shampoo-mohawked-son.

Almost up.

The time, that is.
This weekend was all about the Christmas. We got our tree, I baked and baked and cleaned and baked, and STILL only had four batches of goodies. We had friends over for holiday light watching and cookies, though, and we barely made a dent in the goodies, so I suppose that means I just need to have people over again, right? The Bug LOVED the lights, and had a grand time watching the horses and mules pulling wagons and buggies through the streets. We saw about six different Santas (and only one Mrs. Claus - reverse polygamy?), a couple of Marines in full dress (so very handsome) collecting donations for Toys for Tots, and the local food bank collecting money and canned food. The Winterhaven collection gets our food bank quite a chunk of change every year, and I just love it. This means I also participated in BigAlice's food bank contest!
I made a dent in the quilt too, though I am having to revise my original plans yet again in order to have any hope of finishing this thing. Have I mentioned before that I hate machine quilting? I think I might have. Anyway, the lovely and talented Cassie gave me a hint about hand-quilting, so I might try it again on a top I have waiting (and waiting and waiting) to be finished.
I didn't even touch the stole, but I have hopes of grafting it tonight. I'm a little trepidatious about it, though - when I graft socks, I take them off the needles because I can do it without instructions that way. I'm not entirely sure I'll have the fortitude to do it with several inches of laceweight. Maybe I will try only taking a few stitches off the needle at a time... And finish the quilting... And the laundry... And some shopping... Sigh.

Cutting my losses

The knitting on Juno Regina is finished. I laid it out last night and decided I didn't really need to have 42 inches of stockinette in the center. According to the pattern, that leads to a blocked stole of 80 inches, and I think that's a little too long for a woman who will never stand up again. So, I am calling her done. (The knitting, not the woman.) I have 36 inches in the center, which I figure will block out to somewhere in the mid 60s, and I think that will be just right for MIL. Grafting may ensue this weekend.
In the meantime I have been working on FIL's quilt. I started the top years ago when MIL was first injured. She woke up from her coma and the first thing she asked for was the quilt Gramma made her. It occurred to me that FIL didn't have a blankie of his own, so I set out to make one. Like usual, I sewed the top, bought the backing and innards, and let it sit. I have come to the realization (again) that I hate machine quilting. If I had a long arm, I might feel differently, but since I have neither the room, money, or quilting obsession to need one, that's out. ETA: this is an example of a high end long arm. There are cheaper ones, but this is the mack-daddy. Note the prices. Scroll past the prices for a picture and note the size - that is a full sized monitor and keyboard hanging there.) I will finish FIL's quilt, hopefully this weekend, and then, somewhere in the future, I will just have to learn to hand quilt. (I know people send their quilts out to have someone else with a long arm finish the quilting, but that just doesn't feel like the right solution for me.) Anyway, I have the majority of the center block quilted, and the rest is all straight lines or easy free-motion stuff, so I hope that it won't take me too terribly long or be too much of a hassle. I still need to finish the votive sleeves for my aunts, and I hope to whip out a hat for the Bug so the Yule Cat won't eat him. There's an adopted stray in this neighborhood who's big enough to do it, too.
I have also decided that it is now too cold to go outside barefoot anymore. Sigh.
The DH returned from his business trip, and I am SO HAPPY. I gotta tell you, I don't know how single parents do it. I know you rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done, but holy cow, just those four days was hard and exhausting, and I only have one relatively easy child to deal with. I would just like to take this moment right now to tell any single parents who might read my blog: you are amazing, thank you for doing the hard work, and I hope that your children someday thank you for everything you do to raise them well.
This weekend looks like baking, decorating, baby snorgling and light watching for me. (Oh yeah, and the aforementioned quilting.) The babysitting gig is back on, though probably not for the whole evening like I'd thought. My friend's son developed a hernia and had to have surgery Tuesday (7 weeks old, damn) but he is doing so well that his parents will likely go to their concert anyway, just for a little bit. So YAY, I get to snorgle a tiny baby. I didn't make any dough for cookies ahead of time (see above whining about my hard four days) so I will have to do that this weekend and hope that the DH doesn't mind running for supplies. Oh yeah, and I have a hair appointment tonight! YAY for pampering! Maybe I will stop on my way home for some baking things and hope that the high from the pampering will offset the hate of the shopping...

It might be a little chilly today.

We got the funkiest storm yesterday. I have never experienced a winter storm with thunder and lightning. Don't you need warm air for thunder? It was in short supply yesterday. (Well, maybe a CEO was talking a lot in Tucson.)

This was yesterday's scary sky, made slightly scarier by the fact that I took this while in my car. (I wasn't driving - I was sitting at a red light that turned green right as I took the photo.)


We got lots of rain and hail in about 20 minutes. It's a good thing it didn't last longer - the streets were flooded just from that little bit.


We even lost power briefly, though I had a fire going so the Bug wasn't terribly worried about it and it was back on before I could get a candle lit. (HOW again did the pioneers manage to knit by the fire/candlelight on long winter nights? Geez.)
Alas, I did not get as much crafting done as I wanted, but since a few of my plans are falling through for the weekend (and it occurred to me that I can stop knitting on this stole whenever I want and just graft 'er and call 'er done) I'm feeling okay about the state of things.
The DH is still in Chicago, and the Bug has been asking for him. It's sweet and heartbreaking, both. Poor little guy doesn't understand where Daddy is, though he WILL talk to him on speakerphone. (He is fascinated by the little box that sounds like Daddy. Or maybe he just wonders if Mama stuffed Daddy in there after all that threatening... Har.)

Uh-oh.

It's crunch time in pacaland. I managed a measly 10 inches on the stole this weekend, and nary a stitch on the quilt. I did get it re-basted, which counts for something, and most of the quilting motifs are straight lines, so we shall see. The problem is this: the DH is out of town for the better part of the week (freezing his butt off in Chicago, ha ha) and I have about a thousand scheduled things to do this coming weekend. Not so much time for the finishing of the crafts. I have to get a tree (yes, I know, I don't have to, but I wanna real bad), I have to babysit (oh poor me, I get to snorgle a wee mite of a baby for a few hours), and I have to go look at Christmas lights with my friends. Woe is me, wahhhhh. Yeah, I know I shouldn't be complaining about any of this, because it's all fun stuff, but I am starting to feel the pressure of the finishing of the gifts of the season. (Only three prep clauses? Drat, must try harder to be obtuse.) ANYWAY. Next Sunday my buddies will gather to see the Festival of Lights at Winterhaven, and then will return to my house for hot chocolate and cookies, made by moi. Which means I also need to make cookies. (Yes, I know, I could buy them, but home-made cookies are one of those mustn't-cross-or-you-are-doomed lines. I would never be able to call myself my mother's daughter if I bought them. It's my neurosis, leave me alone.) All of this complaining about various fun schtuff is designed to make you feel sorry for me that I must indulge in my two favoritest hobbies for long hours each night this week before having a fun-filled weekend. Sucks to be me, right?

This is from last week, but it's still appropriate for today:

Thursday? Are you sure it isn't last Saturday?

See, I have to specify last Saturday because I am really not ready to have only a week to finish the quilt and the stole for mailing. Dec 17 is my (self-imposed) mailing deadline, and I'd really really like to be able to ship these things off so they will be under the inlaws' tree Christmas morning. My inlaws don't have much to look forward to, due to the lack of MIL's health and the level of constant care she requires. Since the DH's new job meant that we couldn't go to their house for the long visit like we'd planned, I can at least hope that the little gifts I make ease the sting of missing their grandson a little. (I can say that because I get to munch his cheeks and hear him say "I LAHK EET!" (I like it) every day when the Christmas lights come on.)
Really, though, I am not terribly stressed. I am not so much in the Christmas spirit in the house, but I LOVE seeing lights on more neighbors' houses each day on my way home. I love that this weekend DH will finish the shrubbery lights (and maybe I will have time to go get the lighted grapevine moose from Target that I have coveted for years). I don't watch many commercials (oh TiVo how I love thee) and don't go to the mall, so for me, the approach of Christmas has been slow and deliberate. I limit my exposure to the bits I could do without, and the rest of it maintains that magical quality it had when I was a kid and Mom was in the best mood she'd be in all year. (This does not mean to say that I didn't stress about the cost of the as yet unbought gifts on Tuesday night when I discovered that I'd inadvertently paid December's mortgage TWICE. Oy.)
Yesterday I found a channel on XM radio called Radio Hanukkah. I had no idea. It was hilarious, listening to traditional sounds of the music, the minor key, the clarinet-ty tunes, over a reggae back beat, complete with some Jamaican-accented rap. (I do recognize, unversed in Judaism though I am, that it is highly unlikely that was a traditional song.) Awesome. I love the festive holidays. All of them. Secular, religious, patriotic, all of them. Spectacle is my favorite mode of expression (so long as the spectacle is not me, of course).
Anyway, I suppose I am being so effusive with the love of the season because last night I got lots of sleep. The previous night (that of the mortgage payment discovery) was quite restless, sleepless and yucky. Even the dogs had nightmares. Last night, I was in bed at 8:30 and I slept until almost 7am today. Completely glorious. They say you can't "make up" lost sleep, but it sure feels wonderful to try.

Sunday, with sky

It is Sunday, and we have a blue sky for the first time in several days. That storm that is pounding the northeast was a big one, and it covered my little corner of the world for four or five days with heavy black clouds. We got days of drizzle, which was actually pretty nice. The wind stayed low, so all the dust was washed from the trees and plants, and I think they all breathed a big sigh of relief. I also noticed that this year was Tucson's warmest November on record. No wonder it seemed hot for so long. (Of course, we're due to be back up in the 70s again this week, so maybe it's the warmest December too?)
I am chugging along happily on the second half of Juno. I expect to be finished with the lacy bit tonight, and then I will have days of stockinette and eyelet ahead of me. That's actually pretty nice and makes for good distraction-knitting. TV, SnB, all that stuff is doable in the body of the stole, so I get to make good progress during the week too. I have another votive sleeve started, but I want to chug through the rest of the lace on Juno while I still have weekend.
Months ago I mentioned to the DH that I wanted to make him a sweater. He was pretty noncommittal about the whole thing until Tuesday, when he announced that his new office is freezing, and how about that sweater you mentioned? I told him it wouldn't be done for Christmas, but I'm on the lookout for a pattern. I am thinking top-down raglan with wide ribbing and a zipper. (Yes, La, a zipper. I prefer zippers in man knits.) I am thinking one of the Valley Yarns worsted wools. A while ago, I asked around to other Ravelers who had used Valley Yarns in some of their projects, and the unanimous opinion was favorable. And cheap! And lots of colors! (Too bad the DH only wants gray. Not even the luscious caramel brown I picked out that would go so very well with his complexion... Sigh...) Whaddya know, looks like I might be a sweater knitter after all. I plan to finish the eyelet cardigan before I start his though - I can't be too giving or it will mess up my reputation.
Speaking of that, anybody wanna knit a pair of mittens or socks/slippers for kids for Christmas? They are needed by 12/17 (I think, but check the project blog for correct information) and will go to underprivileged children. I know there are lots of hands out asking for donations this time of year, but surely we knitters can come up with some mittens for these kids? I have some cotton/wool sock yarn I'm going to double up for a little girly pair, and if I have time, I'll get some more yarn to make a few more.
Also, BigAlice is having a One Skein Food Drive. Go, read, participate, and maybe win some stuff!
And now, since this started out boring and got worse is getting long, I have a funky sky pic for you. This was the front of the storm rolling in last Wednesday.

Hungover

Blogless Lynn agreed with me. It's possible to have a knitting hangover. I knit until my brain leaked out my ears on Saturday, and knit more on Sunday. First half of Juno Regina, DONE! (No pictures, as it looks much like it did last post, only 7 inches longer. I might even have stretched it a little to measure. I don't freaking care.) I am doing the symmetrical version, so I will put this half on a stitch holder and knit another one. I am thrilled to death by this, because if I were planning to knit it as written, knowing that I had to do another 21 inches of eyelet before I got to any interesting lace might kill me dead.
Today my hands are stiff and sore, my neck has a knot in it the size of Texas, and my brain wants ANYTHING (please GOD ANYTHING) besides tiny pink stockinette or tiny beaded wire. I might take an evening to knit SLOWLY on my eyelet sweater. Don't believe the schedule. The schedule lies.(Yes, apparently it's okay to knit fat blue stockinette/eyelet instead of tiny pink stockinette/eyelet. Shaddup.) It got coldish here last week FINALLY and I am wishing for my cardigan to be complete. If it doesn't fit, I might cry.

In the meantime, there is a fir wreath scenting my house in the most lovely way. It makes me wish I could put up the Christmas tree, and it makes me fret that my gifts aren't purchased or finished yet. Such a dichotomy. I think I'll spike me some eggnog and try to work it all out.

Soft hearts make for sadness

This time of year is particularly difficult for lots and lots of people, here and everywhere. The weather is bad, the holidays are coming, the usual family crap happens (or doesn't) and breaks hearts. The DH has been asking me what I want for Christmas, and aside from a few books, I can't think of a single thing I want or need. It was frustrating, really. I mean, who doesn't like to flounce out of bed on Christmas morning and open up all sorts of shiny new presents? I couldn't even think of anything the Bug wants or needs. (Except more candy, and more socks. That kid and his socks are a force of nature.) Anyway. I wanted this to be the next in a long list of perfect Norman Rockwell Christmases for the boy, with the twinkling lights and the homemade (Mexican) hot chocolate and the perfect presents, but I couldn't think of one single thing to get him.
And then I got the email for our company's Holiday Family donation thing. A list of things wanted and needed by a family that we will donate to. And I was shamed. I remember as a kid making huge long lists of things I wanted from Santa, or later, my parents. Excess. Spoiling. And I always got that, and much more. This family... The father? Needs a belt, and wants a baseball cap. A BASEBALL CAP! A simple freaking baseball cap and this man is happy. His two young daughters need long sleeve shirts and want dress-up clothes. His boy wants a NIGHTLIGHT. His wife wants a beanie and gloves. I can't even put into words what I'm feeling. (Of course, I will try, because I am nothing if not wordy.) Partly, I'm thrilled because, my god, a few of us here can help this family have wonderful new things. Partly, holy crap, my family is so lucky and we don't even realize it. (Partly major guilt because one time ten years ago I took an angel off a giving tree and didn't actually go buy that kid the toy she wanted. Yeah, still beating myself up over it, and no, I'm not gonna stop. The guilt pushes me to do something now.)
Anyway, the emotion bubbling up here is going to make me cry in my office, so we can't have that. What I want to know is: what is the world's softest superwash wool with the most beautiful colors? Where can I get a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nightlight?
How do I make sure I teach this kid to make the world a better place?

pacalaga's my name

Obsession is my game.
Beware, as I out myself as a true knitting geek.
I looooove the Yarn Harlot's stories. Not so much when she's on the road, but her home life and her descriptions of same crack me up. This is my favorite time of year - she's in her element with all things woolly, the holidays ramp up and cause increasing hysteria, and the kids have school holidays that drive her mad. I LOVE reading about IT. So much so (okay, here's the really geeky part) that I reread her December archives frequently and chuckle to myself. And (and here's the really SAD part of the geeky part) I have worked myself into a bit of a lather reading about Christmases gone and stressing about how I won't have enough time. Yes, it's true - I have given myself a case of IT by reading about someone else having it LAST YEAR. Sigh. It's a wonder they let me out in public unsupervised.
Or play with pointy sticks.
I finally slogged through the remaining charts on the first half of Juno Regina. It's lovely, it's intuitive, it makes perfect sense, and it hates me with an unholy passion. I knit on it all weekend and made at least one mistake on EVERY. SINGLE. ROW. INCLUDING the stockinette/eyelet parts. Yes, it's true, I cannot count to six in a repeatable fashion. (I can do it like Bug does, apparently: ooooone, twooooooo, feeeeee, fooooooooour, fooooooooour, fouuuuuuuur, feeeeeeee, six!) I have figured out that in order to have this done and blocked in time to mail it for Christmas, I need to average two inches of the stockinette part a day (with four days for the other lacy end and one whole day for the grafting in the middle). Given my experience over the last two days, I'm not sure I'm going to make it. Sigh.

Bug says, "I ROCK, DUDE. And also, peanuts are good."

What do you get

When you use your cracked, peeling fingers to knit with cashmere laceweight?

Why, velcro, of course.



I don't know why my fingers do this. This year it's slightly exacerbated by the wire knitting, but they do it every fall, wire or no. Crack, peel, heal up, move on. They don't hurt, but they're making the cashmere a little tough to work with.

Speaking of the cashmere...



Through the first repeat of chart 3. Game on, Libby!

On a roll

One more votive sleeve done! I made a little mistake with this one, though - it's fatter in the center than at the edges, so I stretched the wire out to make it fit, and "sewed" up the ends before I washed the glass! Augh. The Bug had his sticky little mitts all over it (which will of course help keep the thing on) but it's cloudy and dirty. I plan to see if I can wiggle the sleeve off the glass and clean it and replace the sleeve without picking out one edge of the sleeve seam. ETA: I slipped it off and cleaned the glass, but now the top of the sleeve is a little stretched out. Must remember to clean the next one before the sewing up.



Libby and I are having a little race. She and I started Juno Regina about the same time - hers for her mother and mine for my MIL. We'll have a little yarn swap when we finish, as a pick me up. :-) We thought about having the yarn go to the winner, but that seems like a little too much pressure, what with all the self-induced holiday knitting (and soon, quilting) I've been doing anyway.

Wednesday was a bad bad day all around. A friend got some terrible, terrible news, the DH and I had one of those fights where we both dig in our heels and refuse to see the other side, the Bug was up all night coughing, and then they did that to Garcia. That is JUST WRONG, people.

Bug therapy will help, I'm sure.

Another one!

Yahoo! Yesterday I just couldn't stop knitting. The weather was lovely and cool, and our visitors and DH took off early for Phoenix to watch the NASCAR races. (SNORE) The Bug and I played in the yard all day, and I brought my knitting out while he dug in the mud and rolled in the dirt and all those things that little boys do when they're free to get dirty. (At one point, Greta was laying on the deck, and he sat down next to her, petted her ears for a minute, then lay himself down next to her for a snuggle. TOTALLY cute. Must remember to bring the camera outside more often.)

I powered through the pain and finished a second votive sleeve! Here it is, pictured with the first one I finished.



You can't see the silver beads on there very well, but they sparkle in the most lovely way in person.

There was a casualty, though:



My poor, cracked, sore fingers. It got to where the cashmere I'm using for MIL's Juno Regina (which is coming out beautifully) was hurting. Sigh. More cashmere therapy tonight, though really I just want to knit beaded wire.

I had a little Bug photo shoot last night. (He is fascinated by pictures of himself.)







Ugh. Mama gotta remember to put makeup on if she's going to be taking pictures of herself.

FOs abound

Okay, maybe "abound" is a bit of an overstatement, but I'm still on the happiness high from Thursday.

I finally finished Devan, and I LURVE it.





Specs:
Devan from knitty, newborn size.
MCY yarn (from ebay) fingering weight in Santa Fe gold, roughly 280 yds
Lanett fingering superwash, navy blue (I don't remember if that's the actual name but I lost the ball band), most of 1 skein.

I love the Lanett - it's slightly thicker and much squooshier than the MCY. I was a little disappointed in the MCY. It was thin and, although it was soft, it wasn't squooshy at all. It made a decently nice fabric, and since the sweater is going to be outgrown before long, I'm not worried about the thinness. This is southern Arizona after all. It also bled like it wanted to be white again. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and I'm still not entirely convinced I got it all. Blech.

Another FO: I finished my first votive sleeve! I lovelovelove the way this looks. I'm about a quarter of the way through another one (I want to make eight before Christmas) but, even though the second one was going quickly, I had to stop. The wire and straight needles are conspiring to chew up my already-peeling fingers. Still, I LOVE them.



I had a photo with much better lighting, but I forgot to use the macro setting on the camera. The beads sparkled in lovely blurriness, while you could see every tiny defect in the paint on my kitchen wall. Not quite what I was hoping for.

ANYWAY, I have restarted the MIL's stole - I think I'm going to do Juno Regina from knitty now. It's not as intricate as Cheshire Lace, and I don't think it will be quite as pretty in the solid yarn I have, but I think it will be easier for me to finish once I get past the charts at the ends. I'll have a better chance of finishing it before Christmas if I don't have to carry a chart with me.

And now, the Bug says it's time to go outside.

And so...

... I ditch the housecleaning and head off to the lake again. Things are happening with the DH's job that may either result in fast, major, life-changing things, or more poverty and denial of same with the magic of credit cards. I don't want to talk much about what's happening with his potential job yet, because a) we don't have any of the details yet, and b) it stresses me out in excruciating ways to think about it any more. In grand fashion, because I am Cleopatra, we are heading off to the lake to Not Think About It. The Bug loves the lake, mostly because we are not actually on the lake, but on a small dirt lot where he can roll and roll and roll in the dust and bring more inside the camper than he leaves outside. The DH loves the lake because he is all about the waterskiing, which he can't actually do while it's just the three of us. He is eagerly awaiting the day when the Bug is old enough to know not to jump out of the boat, and to tell Mama to turn the boat around because Daddy crashed on his skis again. I love the lake because I can sit quietly in the shade under a tree and knit and drink beer. Ahhhh.
I hope to finish Devan and maybe a little hat or bootees while we're gone. I know I said that last time, but since I only have part of one sleeve left and we're going a day earlier this time, I think it's doable.
I actually started my Christmas knitting! Yes, I know, you all hate me. I am knitting 8 little votive sleeves from Handknit Holidays. I knit and knit and knit all night long and got HALF of one done. 10 stitches, about 10 rows. Took. All. Night. (And then I realized that I didn't pick up a wrap on one of the short rows and it looks like crap so I have to frog. How DOES one frog beaded wire? And why do I keep typing fron?) Really, though, this isn't knitting, in my opinion. Yes, I'm making knits and purls and using needles and "string", but knitting to me has a flow to it. This is wire manipulation. I like it, but it doesn't feel like knitting to me. And I think I should have started in September.

Aaaahhh, weekend

I needed it. I'm still pretty stressed out, but I got to chat with some friends, have some downtime, and knit a whole lot, and I feel better. DH's job search is still ongoing, but we have hopes that a few resumes he put out will bear some fruit. Or a paycheck, that would be even better. We are making plans for the future and I'm pretty excited about them.
I still feel overwhelmed and restless. I always feel that way this time of year - after so many years of school, I feel like I should be learning new things, going new places, and meeting new people. I realized the other day that I've lived in Tucson longer than I've lived any other place in my whole life, and I'm kinda over it. Couple that with job stress and money stress and I'm just wishing I could drive away and start over somewhere. You know, with The Bug and DH. I always enjoyed the fall weather in southern Arizona, until I started reading all these knitting blogs from you New Englanders and others, and now I'm unsatisfied. I want colors, and crisp air, and frost on the flowers in the mornings.
On the knitting front, I have made progress on the eyelet sweater. Yesterday I knit compulsively on it. It was bizarre - I was actually bored and restless, but I couldn't put it down.



Here is the back, and the front I finished this morning. I had to rip a few rows at the top to get the armscye to match the back, but it lined up pretty well, especially given that this is my first sweater. (Well, I've knit kids' sweaters, but those were knit from the button band around.) The front is roughly four days' work - two evenings, one full Saturday, and a tiny bit this morning. Compare that to four days' work (evenings only) on the Cheshire Cat stole:



Holy cow that's a crappy picture. Oh well, I'm too lazy to take another. Taken Friday after I cast on for the front of the eyelet sweater. (This was the comparison photo I was trying to describe last post.)
Anyway, I can tell I'm going to have to put in some serious time on the stole to have a chance of finishing it before Christmas.

Since my gauge is off on the cardigan (which, happily, allows me to knit the largest size and have it fit my extra large measurements), I think the pattern is wrong in places (notably the neck shaping for the fronts and the numbers to bind off at the shoulder, so far) and I'm messing with the armscyes, I think I will knit a sleeve next to see how they'll fit. I do wish there was some spreadsheet somewhere that would calculate the sleeve caps based on the armscye measurements (you know, a FREE spreadsheet) but in all my searching I only found visual aids that required graph paper and manual counting. I might try that, or I might just try to fudge.
Mmmmm, fudge.
Oh yeah, and go look at these. Y'all, that's sugar.

Where did my summer go? Why isn't fall here yet?

Yup, that's me. Always complaining. Summer goes by too quickly, but why isn't the fall weather here yet?
I am getting a handle on the work situation. The drama queen that was MDfC (the F stands for "former", by the way) had me all worked up, but a few days of digging into the work, and a few conversations with other more reasonable people have shown me that it's not nearly as bad as she made it out to be. I'm still exhausted and have much work left, but no one will kill me if I don't get it done by Friday. I told the manager it wouldn't be done, explained why (it helped that I'm waiting on other people who are doing Far More Important Things this week) and told him I'd get it finished as soon as possible. All better. Why she couldn't have done that all those months in the past when she was near tears, sighing heavily with all the terrible burdens of work she had to do, I will never know, nor care.
I have cast on one of the fronts of the eyelet sweater. This time I remembered to use a larger needle for the cast on, so the scallops are sweet and lovely and nicely defined. Tonight is lace night, though, so unless I finish the border of the stole, it will be all pink cashmere at my house tonight. Oh, poor me, I have to play with cashmere.
I found it mildly entertaining to note the difference between the beginning of the sweater and the beginning of the stole.

Drat. I took a picture last night, but the internet was being funky and wouldn't upload. I just remembered. Oh well, picture 8 rows of worsted blue yarn, which is wider than 12 rows of laceweight pink yarn. Master (Mistress?) of the Obvious, that's me.

If it's Tuesday, this must be

coming to you from the office.
Sigh.
The work continues apace. I am learning new tools in a crash course, brushing up my HTML skill (which, until this week, were limited to this blog. Oy.) and trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing. Part of the problem was the state of things left by MDfC, part of the problem is that this is a new product with a maverick developer and no one person controlling the outcome. And no one person to tell me what exactly it is they want. I have 14 items that may or may not apply, and since I don't know the product, I'm not intimately familiar with the content, and can't answer those questions myself either. Sigh.
DH has found his dream job. He applied over the weekend, and in his head has already been offered the job, accepted it, bought woodland property and moved in. The reality of course isn't quite there (see: he applied over the weekend), but please keep your fingers crossed for us. It would be a better job in a better town with a lower cost of living. That would be neat.
In fibery news, I have been knitting. It's the only thing keeping me sane, actually. I have yet to cast on the front of the cardigan, but tonight is SnB and I will do it there. I have been knitting a bit on the Cheshire Cat stole, but holy cow. Laceweight on size 2 needles does not a speedy FO make. I need to measure my gauge and the stated gauge of BigAlice's prototype and see if I wouldn't be better served to go up a size or two in the needles. It is making a lovely, soft, flowy fabric that MIL will love, though. Mmmmm, cashmere.
I also dyed some fiber this weekend. Dave of Cabin Cove did a post recently on predrafting his rovings, and I learned much. (Actually, I learned that what *I* thought was predrafting wasn't much, and that I might be happier if I took more time with the fiber prep.) I dyed up some roving with the big ol' box of Wilton's that I bought to make Bug's birthday cake. I think it came out pretty neat. (The colors in this photo are pretty close to true, though they don't really glow like that.)

I dyed four ounces and will try to spin close to fingering weight.
And now, off to work again. Sigh.