Just finished a vest for Ken that I’m really very pleased with the results. I feel all warm and gooey inside!

Going through a big change in life, so I’m taking my sweet time adjusting which means less blogging. Nothing personal.

I am, however, going to share a latest knitting project: Victor’s Warminizers 2012!

Piggy mittens (forest, leaf, orange, purple, navy, sky and orange, purple, navy, sky, forest, leaf). Hard to see are the little tails on the back of his hands, the little ears on the edge between the sky/leaf sections and the navy/forest sections and the orange “stop losing your mittens!!” cord that goes through his sleeves and helps him swing his mittens around toys/weapons and drag them on the ground (sigh).

Cowl to match; often to be found not around his neck but up over his ears and forehead like a ginormous, hair-messing headband. Looks goofy. aka Perfect.

Fall:
I’m used to fall taking a few weeks – like 4-5 in coming. It’s been much shorter here, though I don’t know if that’s regional or just a weird fall (I suspect the latter, from what I’ve heard). We’re possibly getting snow this week, and overnights are just *barely* over freezing. Awesome, but also hmmm… early… not sure about that. It *does* mean I need to stop avoiding knitting mittens and get my butt in gear knitting mittens. I’m done one for me (that’s one mitten, not one pair), and just have a thumb for one of Ethan’s, and Victor’s are still wound in little balls and sitting waiting. Good thing their “light winter fleece” gear still fits from last year!

I’ve also some baby stuff to finish up, and socks to darn and sweaters to knit and a hat and maybe another pair of socks (but they can wait).

Piano:
Last weekend, Sharon and some extra help brought her piano (that’s now ours) from her house (she’s been slowly moving into a different section of her house and spreading some furniture around) and this weekend we moved it into the office and it looks *great* there. It was in the foyer cause that’s the only wall it would fit on without moving furniture or blocking windows/mirrors but it looked wrong there. I’m glad to have my foyer back the way I liked it, and the piano looks so good in the office – you can see it from both doorways. The office was rearranged because Ken’s job may be changing and the office needed changing to accommodate. More on that when things are firm(er).

Spare Bedroom:
Awesome in that we have one now – a *heated* one! We’d been using the extra bedroom on the 2nd floor as storage for boxes, intending to have the 3rd floor be our “guest space”, but given it’s not insulated or heated it’d be a bit chilly for winter overnighters. So we moved all the boxes upstairs and set up a bed that Sharon brought and it’s a proper spare room now (which is, surprisingly, a big relief for me). It’s also going to double as my sewing room and knitting stash room since the office is now Ken’s domain (+ piano).

Kindergarten:
I’ve started going in to help Victor’s teacher once a week for an hour. Last week I helped the students, two at a time, practice writing their names. They’re all really sweet and nice kids and I really enjoyed my time there.

Colon:
(What?! Yes.)
I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy at the end of the month. TMI? Tough. MY blog. My Mother’s oncologist recommended that my sister and I have one once we’re 35 since Mom was so young when her cancer was diagnosed. The usual time recommended is 10yrs before the diagnosis or 50yrs with no history. It’ll be done by the local hospital, which is nice. I’m a little… apprehensive about it. It’s a simple procedure, and I know complications are super rare, but they still happen and they’re pretty bad when they do. Plus there’s the whole “preparation” for it which will be so.much.fun. I’d rather go through childbirth again, but then that’s the devil I know.

Minecraft:
Ken got me (and Ethan and Victor) hooked on a new video game. Normally I’m just an observer, but I’ve actually bought my own copy and play it myself. It’s a pretty simple game, but has a lot of creativity and potential in it. We can play together on a field that we customize and build on, which is lots of fun. The boys *love* watching us play, and we’re planning on teaching them how to play themselves. The boy that lives down the street from us came over to play on Saturday, and they had lots of fun (him playing, E and V watching). Problem is that for two nights now I’ve been playing it in my dreams.

I went yesterday, with the boys pediatrician (who I’ve found out is a knitter and spinner) and had a great time! Bought some lovely yarn, some super cool merino/samoyed (yes, the dog) yarn that blooms into two separate colours and looks super cool, and some really nice top (a type of wool roving that you spin into yarn). I’m really feeling like it’s time to try spinning (yes, said that last time I came back from a yarny event). I need to buckle down and get some mittens and sweaters done before I can start, though. I’m almost done 1 of Ethan’s mittens, then there’s Victor’s and sweaters for each and a few hats. Hopefully I can whip through them quickly.

We finally tried out the furnace this week. Freaked the heck out because the pressure indicator was off the chart high so we rushed around trying to lower the pressure until finally realizing we just needed to take off the indicator cover and push the needle back onto the scale and it whipped into it’s happy place – it had “fallen” off the scale, essentially. Heating the upstairs, that night, meant we turned off the downstairs registers because the heat wasn’t going up as fast as we needed for bedtime. After a few hours, though, we turned everything off. The house has, despite seeming otherwise (no insulation in the roof, no idea about the walls), stays warm for a ridiculous amount of time. Weird. We’ve had the heat off since then, despite chilly nights and rainy/chilly days, until today. It’s on now, with all registers open in the hopes of finding out how the system works over a bit longer time.

Finished! (buttons don’t shouldn’t count)
I’m super pleased! It’s long – like just under my bum long, which is why it’s so wide at the bottom hem – and the perfect shape (cause I may be fat but I’m hourglass fat!), and I love the colour because who has an orange cardigan?! ME!

Here it’s blocking in what has become “Mommy/Kelly’s room” – the 3-season porch (I practically live in there). Perfect because there’s a breeze going through and it won’t make the room smell like wet dog sheep.

$30 for the yarn and 8m of work (with, like, 6.5m of it being in the time-out corner for a pattern misdemeanor). No buttons yet but who knows how long it’ll be before I get them and I kinda don’t care since I don’t expect to button it much. It’s all casual, baby!

Gimme a day or two for it to dry (yay full-submersion blocking!) and I’ll show you it on me. All kinds of awesome!

The cardigan I’ve been working on is called the Shapely Boyfriend, but I’m referring to it as my Shapely Husband for obvious reasons. I just finished the collar/band edge, tried it on, and Uhoh.

That diagonal "seam" is the raglan seam, and there's too much fabric at the top edge. Sadly the cardi was worked from the top down, so I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to fix it - likely rip out and reknit and graft the two together. A pain to do, and I'm going to have to snip out the ribbed collar edge and hope I can graft it on afterward (I hate ribbing, so I don't want to undo it completely).

I like how the sweater fits, though, so it's worth it.

(excuse the lumpiness, especially at the bottom edge – it’s unblocked).

Remember my Hannah Hat? I’ve been working on some matching mittens to go with it and they’re done and they’re lovely and I love the concept and execution of it. Let me show you:

The Inner Mitten – wearable by itself. It’s a fingering weight yarn (think socks) so it’s not for *very* cold days, but cool enough to want *something* days.

The Outer Mitten – wearable by itself, though a bit more baggy. It’s a worsted alpaca so it’s *really* warm.

TOGETHER! They’re super super warm. 1 + 1 = 3 here.

I don’t feel the cold. Period. Even on windy days. They’re a bit bulky, but only a bit, and more than make up for that in warmth. I love that the cuff isn’t bulky yet they’re long enough to go up and under my sleeve to keep droughts out. I’m not sure if I’m going to sew down the tab or put in a button/toggle (had originally planned that but worry about it getting in the way or being uncomfortable).

The mitten-inside-a-mitten idea wasn’t mine, but the rest is my own design and I’m quite proud of them. I’m thinking I’ll need to make another Hannah hat in the alpaca, to match when I’m wearing them both together. I’ve also made a cowl/gaiter in those two yarns (it doubles as a hat – I’ll post about that another day) so I’m all set for warmth and love the colours.

A Paton’s pattern, out of print (yay ebay!), taken me a year to finish (oohh shiny’s!), but it’s done and I’m so completely in love with it.

It doesn’t have buttons yet, but will once I find the right ones.

(yay stitch holders!)

(my shoulders really aren’t that wide – that’s the camera angle Ken took)

Since it’s winter I’m only wearing it around the house. I keep it “closed” using a small, safety-pin type stitch holder between the girls and it’s a good look, so once I get buttons I’ll do the top few up and leave the bottom undone I think. I love it, though. It fits beautifully. Very comfortable, just the right length (few inches longer in sleeve and body than my standard long-sleeved t-shirts are), and I feel great in it. It may have taken a while to finish (yeesh!) but it was *so* worth it!

The Yarn Harlot

This is one of my favourite blogs. She’s also rather huge in the knitter-world. If you scroll down 1 entry (as of today) to her December 1st post, there’s a very well written (she’s an author, so that makes lots of sense) piece on gifting and knitters. From my point of view, it describes how I feel about knitting gifts (all of it, especially the stress and compulsion of it). If you know a knitter, please read this so you can understand them a little better.

Ironic that this comes on the day that, as I finish up a big piece of a something I’m knitting for someone to gift to someone else (it’s not as complicated as it sounds), I have a huge disaster and have to frog (rip back) the entire big something and reknit it. I’ve had a few good drinks and am dealing. Yay holidays!

I’m feeling especially productive (and good about that) today. I’ve just finished up making some trick or treat bags and I’m rather pleased with how they turned out. They should work for a long time and they’re cute (you can’t see in the pics, but the fabric is very sparkly).

I don’t do things half-assed, so they’re lined and the fabric pattern is oriented upright on all sides and the handles are well and properly anchored. These puppies are *sturdy*. The boys are super excited about Monday night. It’ll be our first time trick or treating. They decided on character costumes this year, so I couldn’t make them, but Ken and I are dressing up and those costumes we *did* make.

I also ordered some yarn for a “contract” knitting project (I say “contract” because it’s family, but not me giving to the recipient and I’m not buying the yarn out of pocket – and saying contract makes me feel important and fancy). It’s a cardigan for Rick, Ken’s step-father, to match one that he had made for his son and that his grandson now wears. I’m going to have to work *hard* to get it done by Christmas, but it’s a bulky weight yarn so that’s in my favour. Here’s hoping!

Ken just blew my mind.

It’s cold this morning, so he wore the gloves I made him last year to work. The gloves with a purpose.

Computing in a cold workplace gloves.

Gaming in a cold house gloves.

(Image not shown cause it’s a new-found purpose)
Smartphone friendly gloves.

Brilliant, yes? His co-workers don’t agree. He said they looked at them and shook their heads (!!). He explained their purpose and they.didn’t.get.it. WTH!? Are these gloves so incomprehensible?

We’ve big plans for this weekend, though not as big as they were going to be. We had planned on going to a Renaissance Faire that’s quite large and quite local, this Saturday. Unfortunately, when checking ticket prices and taking into account the higher cost of foods there and the costume rental for the boys that we’d planned and buying a few things we’re inevitably going to want to buy…. it was just adding up to too much. We’re going to skip it this year and go next. It might give me time to try making my own corset (eep! how do I come up with these crazy ideas?!) since mine is, now, about 2″ too big (equally “YAY!” and “Boo!” – I only got to wear it once so I may try to sell it on ebay or something). It still fits, just doesn’t support me well ifyaknowwhatImean.  I’m hoping maybe Ken and myself can go out for a nice dinner date tomorrow night,  instead.

So the plans start with this afternoon when I pick up Ethan from school, early (to avoid the school-run rush) to go to a dr’s appt, handing Victor over to Ken at the dr’s office to give Ethan and I some peace while seeing the dr. Ken and Victor will then be driving to Logan Arpt to pick up Sharon (Grammy) who’s flying in tonight. They’ll eat out dinner, so no pizza tonight. Ethan and I will be hitting up a toy store after his appt and then dinner ourselves (and shoes for him cause BIG FEET!).

The toy store is because he has a bowling birthday party on Sunday. Because of Ethan’s aversion to loud noise, last weekend we checked out the bowling alley. Knowing how loud they are, I expected hands over ears, cowering, and asking to leave immediately. Instead we played an hour and the boys had an absolute blast!

The music was loud enough to hurt *my* ears, but Ethan was fine (?!). They even turned on the “Cosmic Bowling” lights and such shortly before we left and the boys were very amused by that.

As for The Deal… *le sigh*. I’ve decided to amend it that I’ll order the yarn once I’m *done* the sleeve. I’m done 4.5 diamonds worth of 7 diamonds up the center panel, but they’re going *really* slowly. I’m hoping to get to 5.3 because that’s when the sleeve, worked in a tube, splits (armpit) and it should go more quickly through the shoulder shaping. However, I’ve stuff.to.do today, so that’s not likely going to happen today. I’ve also decided, in the ultimate act of generosity and magnanimity, that I’m going to finish Ken’s cardigan first (that was harder to say than you’d think – this is definitely a sacrifice for love). It’s a nice cardi, though. Should go fast and has a nice detail around the bottom hem (scroll to the bottom to see a better pic).

Also! I got the most adorable shoes last weekend!! I went to the local outlet mall, looking for shoes that’ll work with my Renn Faire outfit (had strappy leather sandals last time that have since passed on their mortal coil). I found some that will mostly work, but were just too cute to pass up!

Kawaii!! Am I right? They were marked down from $110 (*gasp!*) to $32 (ahh!) and are *wicked* comfortable (weird! comfortable *and* cute shoes?!).

They’re heels/wedges, and add a goodly amount of height to moi, but that’s good for my posture. I’m already fairly tall, so what’s a few more inches to make me stand out even more?

Well, there’s 7 diamond patterns on the sleeve, I didn’t knit at all yesterday (bad day), and so far I’ve just started diamond #4. I’m hoping to be done it by evening end but feeling a bit unsure on that.

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.

Ok. I am com*plete*ly smitten with a new cardigan. Honestly, I know I’m a little more than a little crazy. But seriously:

Isn’t it just perfect?! I adore the colour (naturally), and the fit looks great (I’ll likely put in a button/toggle) and that yarn is quite affordable comparatively speaking).

Problem: I’ve got my current cardigan missing one sleeve and a collar (and, y’know, being put together and blocked), plus a cardigan for Ken, mittens for Ethan, mittens for Victor, mittens for me, and tea cozy to make, too. Ignoring the partly finished shawl (not-paying-attention-knitting), cabled purse, and socks that I’ve got on the side. Trust me, this is normal among knitters – having so many projects on the side and in the queue. So don’t worry about *that* aspect of my sanity.

So. The deal. I’m dealing with myself that if I can finish the 2nd sleeve *this* week, then I’ll order the yarn on Saturday and finish the collar, seaming and blocking while it ships next week (which won’t take long since it’s a MA company – I’d drive, but 2hrs each way is a bit much, gas-wise).

Then we’ll see how fast I can whip up that beautiful green lovely!

Um… and the other stuff, too.

I’m done! YAY!

Love it! Love the fit, love the fabric, love the changes I made (the sleeves belled out oddly and the waist wasn’t as small as it could be – so I fixed those aspects) Excuse the picture, I’m a bit hormonally bloated.

Here’s a better idea of the colour:

The only thing I’m not completely in love with is the cowl neck (and maybe the sleeves bell out too much). What do you think? Leave it? Rip it out and do a plain/boat neck?