i have many memories of computers and they all revolve around apple, including that one PC i had that i immediately wished i had saved for a mac. my first real computer? an apple IIe. i played oregon trail on it constantly (we did have a TI-86 before the IIe but i couldn't really do anything on it but a few lines of BASIC.) my high school graduation present? an apple performa 450 (the last bunch of computers before steve jobs came back and rescued apple from the brink.) then there was the flirtation with windows that lasted all of 6 months and then i got one of the first imacs and it was all over. i was hooked forever. i even managed to hook some friends.
so yeah, i've wanted an iphone since there were rumors of its development.. and finally i have one!
it's here!
can you see the excitement? i'm taking it slow and savoring every moment! but i already sat down today and sewed up two cozies for it (the first one didn't work out so well.)
this is the winner (the loser is here.) one seam to lessen bulkiness. tight but not too tight. the lining is flannel to protect the screen (i have a screen covering protector on its way.)
the lining
can you believe that i actually have two different skull and cross bones prints in my stash? how fortuitous of me! here's the quick stats in case you want to make one.
two pieces of fabric, 6" tall by 6.75" wide. the lining should be cut with pinking shears to 5" tall (it will not be seamed on the bottom. seam up both the outer fabric and the lining on the shorter side the rectangles using a 0.5" seam allowance. pink off the excess fabric on the seams and press them open with the seam in the back. sew across the bottom of the outer lining with a 0.5" seam. put the lining inside the outer fabric, right sides together, and seam up the top opening at 0.5" seam allowance. press open that seam and turn right side out. tuck the lining in and press again. done.
works great.
and here's some other crafty news. i started the frock camisole! (ravelry) i'm using the artfibers zodiac (now called zoe) that i bought in san francisco last year. so far i'm chugging along. i didn't do a gauge swatch but i think that it's going to work out ok based on what i've already knit.
it's coming along SLOWLY. all those limbs are becoming tiresome. i'm thinking about making it a cat instead of a bunny. smaller ears and a tail! will be cute, me thinks.
yes, it's hot outside so this is the most you're finally going to get of flair. thank god for air conditioning. it's soupy out there!
complete
so here's the basic details. it took about 10 skeins of ming (50g balls) and i have some leftover that i can make cowls out of for christmas presents. i adjusted the pattern for my gauge, added some short rows for the bust area, and used snaps instead of buttonholes.
all in all, it's a fine knit. i'm not 100% happy with it. i don't think that the neckline is very flattering on me and i wish it were double-breasted like the pattern (but that's my own fault because i didn't measure myself ahead of time.) i will still wear it though because the yarn is beautiful and it DOES fit regardless of my knitting flaws. i learned a lot of great lessons on top-down shaping (again) and i think that i'm finally ready to design something for myself. we'll see!
on to the next thing! i did cast-on for the frock camisole but have yet to take pictures. i got a little sidelined this week... i got lasik eye surgery on monday! put me out of commission for 24 hours but i can now see 20/20 on my own. i'm so happy. more details on flickr.
two: i forgot that my casio point-and-shoot is not such a bad camera to have on hand at all times. it really does take decent pictures.
i refer you to ravelry for details. i'll talk more about what i did differently based on nancy's notes when it's all said and done.
what's next? still sewing on the snaps to flair (only two halves of two snaps left to go!) then i'll do a damp blocking of the bottom that i reknit and we'll be done. finished a second swiffer cover and would like one more. working on a kinda-secret knit for sharon. gotta swatch for the frock camisole! it's a summer of selfish knitting methinks.
you're going to see the pictures below and think "wow, she's all done with flair!" but no, sorry. i am not.
before blocking...
after blocking...
i knew this yarn would grow upon blocking (according to my swatch which could have lied but didn't, thankfully) so i knit to the length proscribed in the pattern and bound off. then i blocked to see if it would look good on me, and it didn't. 10 inches in length is not nearly enough for a tall woman like myself. it was way too cropped and made me look all stumpy. sadness. i thought i was done!
after a week of mulling it over, i decided that 1) the yarn was too beautiful to waste and 2) this is my first major knit since the birth of the peanut so i want to wear it all the time. therefore, cropped was not going to cut it. so i had to cut it. yes, you heard me. i tried to frog it but the fibers were too sticky to make that worthwhile. i threaded in a smaller size circular needle as a life line and cut off the bottom with some scissors.
what i ripped out
it was scary but worth it. i'm now going to knit on it to 12.5 inches and then do 1.5 inches of seed stitch. that is just the right amount of length for a girl of my height.
to distract from the negative progress on flair, here's a swiffer cover.
exciting, i know. it works great but is a little large once wet and washed. the one i'm knitting now is a smaller version of the one i found on ravelry. (here's the one that i really made.) i can share the information here if you like. just let me know. i love the fact that these things save me time and money. for really-o. it's so much easier to use one of these than my wet mop and bucket.
on saturday next, we all leave on vacation for a whole week! i'm so excited! we're going to the outer banks in north carolina with my side of the family, and staying at a house with a pool that's only a block away from the ocean. i'll be reading and knitting the whole time. i can't wait.
oh, and there was some interest in the peanut last time i posted. she's great. teething like mad (she has 4 teeth coming in at once, no joke.) and changing up her nap schedule to boot.
mmmmmm
we've been taking her out to the park as much as possible.
two seconds before i flipped out the screen
and she really loves looking at herself on the camera's screen.
after
here are two videos to top off this post! hopefully it'll be enough to tide you over till late next week. i've got freelance to get done before the popknits submission deadline on the 15th of june. if you're planning on submitting, don't forget!
you may have noticed that my twitter feed lately has been filled with the doom and gloom of apartment hunting in NYC. it's probably the WORST time to be looking to move (what with all the recent college grads coming to make their way in the world) and i was feeling pretty low last week. it's a long story which i can't get into here, but the good news is that we've worked something out to let us stay here till october. looking for a new place in fall will be much easier especially with all of this advanced notice. i feel so relieved! i also think that i may have lost about 5 pounds with all the worrying. now i can get back to my regularly scheduled program.
i have two FO updates to clue you in on. first is a skirt that i finished two weeks ago.
madras skirt
i've had this madras print in my stash for almost 8 years now! i remember buying it when i first moved here and i was living with my grandparents in new jersey. now you remember my last skirt and the issues i had with it? here's what i did differently.
redrafted the pattern bringing in the waist an inch, the hem up two inches, and the rise the same both front and back. i also drafted another piece to make facings for the waist (sorry i don't have pics of those. i will do better next time!)
yes, i even did the glue stick zipper thing and it was awesome. worked like a charm.
the only thing that i'll do differently next time is to rip out some of the seam on the zipper before sewing because i could not move the zipper down to sew around it without doing that. ripping while in the midst of sewing is near impossible. i'll do it before hand.
all in all, i love it! i'm going to do the exact same thing on my next skirt, whenever i get around to it.
so i'll confess that there was a little bit of secret knitting going on which is why my updates were pretty sparse last month. i participated in the circle of friends blanket for our fellow spider, amanda.
amanda's baby blanket
she really loves it and we were so happy to make it for her!
progress on flair continues! it's really my only active project right now and i'm almost done with sleeve #1. i should be done with this thing before we go on vacation june 7. can't wait to get south and enjoy some beach and reading time!
** i love how i finally get my pictures off my camera and am ready to upload them and flickr is down. that's typical of my week.
i know it's been a while! it feels like ages to me. last week was a total blur but i did get a lot of knitting done while being blindsided by other things around here. first off, do i have any readers in sunset park, brooklyn? we're thinking about moving there and i would love to hear more about it.
so i've been knitting, doing freelance, answering popknits questions, and being a mom these past couple of weeks and it's been stressful but rewarding. rewarding for you all as well because i have two (actually 2+!) FOs to show you.
first, the long awaited peanut pants are done! why do gauge swatches lie? i swear that my gauge swatch told me that these would shrink a lot more than they did. oh well, better too big than too small right? she can wear them in the fall or even next year!
peanut modeling her pants
the pattern was very easy to follow. (ravelry) it's one of those plug-in-the-numbers type deal which means you can use it with any yarn. the only thing that i messed up was that i read the short-row bottom directions wrong. in the end, i made a much more roomy bottom than i would have liked but it wasn't a deal breaker.
the pants were great for traveling. i knit on them during the few times that i've been on the subway in the last few months. it was a here and there project and did the job well.
two weeks ago, my dear friend kaitlyn gave birth to her second daughter (congrats kaitlyn!) so i decided to cast-on for something for little cassie.
elijah was a great stash-busting project! (ravelry) i used some leftover bubblegum pink cotton-ease and i think that he's just perfect.
close-up
big thanks to ysolda for making this pattern SO easy to follow. i did it all with two circular needles and even then it was easy to change the pattern from dpns. i can't wait to give it to cassie.
now what? i'm going to pick flair back up tonight and then i'm going to cast-on for another quickie project. i bought a swiffer mop last week (in violation of my proctor and gamble boycott) and want to make some knit covers for it. i'm hoping to keep the floors a little cleaner over the next few months. i mopped the floors last week and was a little disgusted with myself. i should be better about that seeing as the peanut is always picking food off the floor!
later this week i'll bring you the last bit of FO goodness, a spidery baby blanket and a new skirt! (peek over at flickr if you want a preview.)
this post is brought to you by grand theft auto 4 which arrived on our doorstep this afternoon. hallelujah!
thanks to everyone for your warm wishes and support for the launch of popknits. it's been a labor of love for some time now and i'm really excited and especially nervous to see it live online and getting pattern proposals already! haven't seen any sock proposals yet, hint hint, but you never know what's going to come in the door in june.
anyway, let's get back to blog business. i have a small amount of progress to report.
mmmm, i love this fabric
flair is coming along nicely. i had one hiccup and had to frog back a little but not much. i did end up putting short row bust shaping in...
and i think it was a good idea! it fits well and will be even better once it's blocked (everything's a little tight right now.) i'm feeling positive about it.
one leg done, the other started
the peanut pants are creeping along slowly. i was on leg island there for a while, but i feel a renewed energy to knit them. they seem HUGE right now but according to the swatch they will shrink considerably.
garter stitch cuff
i opted for an easy peasy garter stitch cuff. nothing big here.
in other crafty news, i hope to sew this weekend! i've been meaning to drag out my sewing machine for over a week now but it just hasn't happened yet. i got some great fabric for skirts at brooklyn general.
new fabric
and i also have one from the stash that i'm using (sorry no pic.) tonight, i'm casting on for elijah (ravelry) as well. there's a certain baby being born right now that will be lonely without it. hopefully i'll have some pics later this week.
here are a few peanut pics to end the post.. i love shots of her eating!
cheesy!
this is what she looks like after eating mac & cheese. the hair! yuck. i can never give her mac & cheese for lunch. it always has to be dinner so that she can be bathed afterward.
messy
i gave her lentils recently. she sorta liked them but they ended up everywhere. next time, they will be mashed.
books!
and she could spend hours looking at her books. it's one of her favorite activities!
so the bath puff was everything that i thought it would be. basically a complete failure.
bath puff
looks cute, right? it's already been trashed. i finished it on sunday night and tried to put it to use monday morning. soap refused to lather on it so i was glad that i hadn't thrown away my old puff. then 8 hours later, it was still frakkin' wet! ugh. dishcloth cotton is really only good for dishclothes. maybe this puff would have been good in some acrylic blend? i have no idea. i'm certainly not going to make another one.
to distract you from the utter failure of the puff, i bring you food and peanut.
potato dinner rolls
i saw this recipe for potato dinner rolls in the veganomicon and HAD to make them. they were so good! i'll definitely make them again but next time i'll wait until we have mashed potatoes on hand instead of cooking some up especially for them.
standing!
the peanut is pulling herself up on pretty much everything now. walking is not too far off in the future, methinks. i was loading the dishwasher yesterday (she loves the dishwasher and the refrigerator) and i caught her standing up using the open door as a prop. then she lifted up one of her legs and tried to crawl in! had to put a stop to that quick!
here are two videos that we've shot in the past two months or so. the first one is of the two of us. i pointed the camera at us but flipped out the screen so that she could see herself on camera. her reaction is priceless. the second one is of her crawling. she's pretty good at it now!
p.s. i'm almost through the raglan section of flair so i'll post something about it later this week, i think.
ok, i've got a spare 8 minutes before i need to get in the shower so i thought that i would throw this post up and be on with the day.
started two new projects last weekend. one i'm crazy about. the other i think that i was crazy to start.
first, the love:
the ming is lovely
started flair by knitandtonic wendy. full details on ravelry. the good things? the yarn. ming from artfibers is just luscious in every way possible. soft and shiny, and the colors are amazing! i'm enjoying knitting with it so far. the drape is going to be very serious so i decided not to do buttons/buttonholes. i'm going to do snaps instead. i have some large sew-on ones from joann.com and i'm going to back them with felt before putting them on. should work. we'll see.
sorry about the overexposure
looks good in seed stitch too! happy day.
the not-so-in-love:
cotton hell
a bath puff (ravelry). boring and hard on my hand. i can't believe that there are several people on ravelry who have made SEVERAL of these. i want to claw my eyes out and it's only the second row. i'm going to finish it though and move on. i need a bath puff. if it turns out to be a horrible bath puff, i'll chuck it and buy a new one for $3 at the pharmacy. no biggie.
i have good video of the peanut crawling but that will take me at least 15 minutes to upload. in the meantime, look who's trying to stand?! good lord.
only two more days and the peanut will be ONE YEAR OLD! holy crap. we managed to make it through her whole first year without any fatalities. amazing. i'll have photos to post after this weekend. tomorrow we're heading upstate to my parents' place for some R&R before the big party on saturday. KP's hoping to golf with my parents and i'm hoping to get a little knitting done. we'll see. it's a whole new house to explore now that she's crawling.
mobile!
here she is in action. i can't stop her now! good thing i ordered a baby gate from amazon yesterday.
in honor of the peanut's big day, i made myself that skirt. the drafting turned out pretty good and i got to work last week on the actual sewing. had some problems with the zipper, of course. i guess you can't install a regular zipper like an invisible one like i thought i could. lesson learned.
skirt done!
here it is! it fits reasonably well and it's lined with the cotton sheeting that i used as a template. check out that blind hem stitch! i used this tutorial to figure it out. in the end, my zipper looks passable.
my zipper install
but here's what i'm going to do different for the next skirt.
install the zipper along the center of the seam. i used this video tutorial to install it and she had it placed to the side of the seam. well, it didn't turn out that great and i think that my stitching would be straighter if i placed it on center. if anyone has any tips, please pass them along.
i'm going to make the rise the same in the front and back. currently, my pattern has an extra .5" rise in the front and 1.5" rise in the back. this is what my measurements said to do but i think that i can cut it back to .5" on both the front and back and just use one pattern piece.
i'm going use this technique for hemming a curved hem. MY GOD i wish i had seen it before i tried the first time. my first hem was ATROCIOUS. so much so that i ended up hacking off the damn curve along the bottom. i made the hem straight and, while it doesn't look bad, i think that it would look better curved.
still gotta cut out a little more on the hips. man this patterner's got HIPS!
i'll make the next one a little shorter.
so all in all, a good experience and i like the outcome. now what? i think it's time to cast on for the second sock. this one's a little lonely.
in randomness, one of my favorite authors, arthur c. clarke, died this week. i distinctly remember reading childhood's end and rendezvous with rama as a teenager. ah, summer reading on our sun porch back in michigan! these two books really ignited a spark in me for great science-based fiction that has yet to die out. i really loved this article at wired about him. he was a truly great man and will be missed.
i don't know why i have so many problems starting a project. i can think of at least ten things that i'd like to cast-on for but then i get all nervous and think, "what if it doesn't work out? what if i wasted all that precious free time on it and it turns out to be crap." yes, i really do think that. lately, it HAS to be a sure thing. so i'm waffling. i really think that i should swatch and cast-on for flair but i hesitate. ugh.
in the meantime i've done some other crafty things. i'm working on a simple A-line skirt for myself. i've had this bonfit skirt patterner for years (i remember buying it at my old apartment so we're talking like SIX years now) and i've never used it until now. i think that i was a little intimidated by it seeing as my sewing skills are less than stellar, but i've got a little more confidence now and i gave it a shot.
my first drafting of the skirt (yes, i'm drafting on leftover christmas wrapping paper) didn't work out well in the hips. WAY too much hips. so i figured out how to cut them back and re-drafted the pattern. i'm working with some cotton sheeting that i bought at BG for my muslin, which i'm going to turn around and use as a lining when all is said and done.
fabric and zipper for my skirt
i also got this at BG. i saw those pink and red turtles and had to have it. should be cute when i'm done. so i'm thinking about installing this non-invisible (does that make it visible?) zipper as an invisible zipper. i know that i'll sort of see the zipper teeth in the seam but i don't care. will it work? i think so. i just ordered and received my zipper foot from sears the other day so i can get started tomorrow maybe.
i didn't want to be without something on the needles (and those miters? my god, i'm having trouble working on them. i think that i'll save them for our early summer trip to the NC outer banks.)
peanut knit pants
i'm making these knit pants for the peanut (ravelry) using the itchy fingers pattern i found through ravelry. i did all the measurements and the math and i think that we're on the right track. i even swatched! i took the swatch when i was done and threw it in with our regular wash and dried it. i'm glad i did this because there was a significant change in the gauge seeing as this is a cotton/linen blend yarn. so i have to count rows while doing these pants not go by inches.
under the hem
sorry this image is blurry but i wanted to show my waist mods. i did a turned hem instead of ribbing and i picked up all the stitches and knit them in except for this inch or so pictured here so that i can put in elastic. i'm waiting waiting waiting on a shipment from joanns. god, they are slow to ship.
that's what's going on here! oh yeah, and the peanut is crawling now and giving me all types of strokes and heart attacks as she does crazy stuff. i stopped her from killing herself at least three times today. but who cannot love this face?
about a week ago, i got this bug in my ear that told me that i should really finish KP's socks NOW so that i can just be done with them and move on. behold the beauty of knitting man-socks on size US5 needles.
ode to argyle socks
all the details are on ravelry. i made this pattern up but i have since seen similar ones in ravelry (just search for "socks diamond" and you'll see them) so there ya go.
diamonds
i placed them on the couch yesterday so that KP would see them when he got home. he immediately put them on and wore them all night. i suspect he's pleased! i really want to throw them in the wash though and hope some of the wonkiness comes out. let me tell you, near the end, i thought i was going to run out of yarn and have to join a new ball but thankfully i didn't. i realize now that i didn't because i totally forgot a whole row in one of the pattern repeats. whoops.
quickie mittens
i also whipped up a quick pair of mittens (ravelry) for the peanut using the SAME cashmerino i've used on every other peanut project since miss dashwood. i'm almost done with it! one more skein. i was hoping that if i made these mittens, spring would come. today it was 60 degrees. mission accomplished.
aside, do you realize that daylight saving time starts this weekend?! holy moses. where does the time go?
so, now what? the only thing i have on the needles is my miters (forgot about them, did ya) i knit on one last night and will continue tonight but i need something new. i've decided to knit a pair of pants for the peanut using this itchy fingers pattern i found (ravelry). it's a great "recipe" pattern and i already swatched for it. i'll be using knitpicks cotlin in nightfall (which i keep thinking is called "midnight".) i just threw the swatch into the wash and dryer with a bunch of clothes because that's what i'll do to the pants when they're done. we'll see what i get and then i'll fill in the numbers and cast on.
likes it!
here's a gratuitous peanut pic just for kicks. she's trying out the new stroller we got, which i love. by the way, she's crawling now!!!! just started this week. huzzah!
next up? i'm making a skirt. at least, i think that i am. i may be making it too complicated on myself by trying this pattern that i have, but we'll see. and knitting? not sure. flair? maybe. ugh, i have too many ideas of what to make and no sure-thing.
well, i'm all switched over to using flickr as my primary image source. thanks everyone for the encouragement! i mentioned it at spiders on friday (yes, i actually made it into the city for a fun night on the town!) and had the most baffling conversation with lisa and virginia about how they upload pictures for their blogs. it's convoluted to say the least! so i'm going to write up a quick tutorial this week on how to streamline the process if you use a mac.
i do have an FO to show! i love it. i think that i even managed to make the right size for my head despite my laziness to make the bigger version.
gretel complete!
all the stats are on ravelry, of course. i decided to make the "regular" size and not the slouchy size after i decided that i really don't like cables. first koolhaas and now this, really, i'm done with cables for a while. they are pretty but so darn tedious!
from the top
now, about this DB pure cashmere. i didn't think that it was any softer than the cashmerino. it's nice, yes, but not as nice at the cashmere that jess and lisa got at rhinebeck two years ago. the plies of DB pure cashmere were perfect for a cabley project though. they really make those cables POP!
showing off the handknits
the peanut and i got a chance to go out and show off our handknits yesterday. it wasn't particularly warm but it was sunny!
ok, now for a little video i've been holding on to (no, it's not a peanut video. i still have to upload those!) saw this a few weeks ago and couldn't stop laughing. i love improv everywhere! (click through from RSS feed for video).
my apologies. the peanut is going through another growth spurt, i think. i swear that she looks bigger today than she did yesterday! she's been sleeping really crappy lately. a lot of late night screaming. yesterday, i was so bleary eyed and exhausted that i literally passed out when she took her nap. people, i do not nap. at least, i don't do it well. 9 times out of 10 i lay down to nap and my mind is buzzing and i can't fall asleep. so yeah, i'm pretty tired. last night she awoke again around 1:45AM and i had to go in and flip her on her back and go back to bed while listening to her cry. she was ok, just a little freaked out. if i had stayed with her, she would have cried for longer. yikes, i'm tired!
in my tiredness haze, i'm thinking about abandoning my gleek.net gallery. good or bad idea? i'll leave it there but i'm thinking about using flickr now as my primary place for images. i figure that if flickr ever gets bought out and defunct, i can always go back to my gallery because i keep everything saved on my hard drive. thoughts? i really want to use the flickr community more and uploading to two destinations is getting tiresome.
so anyway, speaking of flickr, i uploaded some pics of the spiders annual eat, knit, and be merry party at marie's that we had last weekend. we did a one sock swap and i gave my nutkin to its recipient, katie.
katie shows off my nutkin i made for her
i also made that cute bag too but didn't get a pic of it. you can see it on katie's site. i LOVED knitting the nutkin. it's cabling without cables. brilliant no? here's another pic of it.
love that toe
i did a short row toe for the first time. it was very easy and wow, i love how this one is finished. a little 3-needle bind-off right where the toe meets the foot of the sock. cute cute.
we are some serious knitters
i love how everyone in this picture is knitting. believe it or not, this party was a blast as are all of the spiders parties!
mmmm, so happy
here is the lovely sock that nancy made for me!! (ravelry) I LOVE IT SO! i can't wait to cast on for the second one... and i think that everyone is just as happy with theirs!
hahaha, couldn't resist
couldn't resist a group shot! anyway, it was a successful swap and party. full set on flickr.
i've got some videos to show you and other things to talk about but it'll have to wait till next time!
when you have a baby, all you can think about sometimes is milestones. when will she smile? when will she eat solid food happily? crawl? walk? be potty-trained? with those milestones comes disruption, though, as we're finding out here at casa gleek. little peanut is going to crawl.. soon. she's obsessively getting on her stomach and thrusting her hips into the air. she's so obsessive about it that it's stopping her from sleeping well, and quite frankly, stopping everyone within two blocks of sleeping well! with age, the crying gets louder, unfortunately. so i'm a little worn out and i think that this post will be heavy on the pictures.
here, here are some happy peanut pics.
what's this?
happiness!
she loves those flowers sooooo much (thanks kate!) KP does a little puppet show with them and they make her giggle.
stop moving!
the eating part of lunchtime may not bring on the smiles, but funny faces from mom do.
in the box, yes, she still loves the box
cheerios make her happy too. especially the big yellow box.
standing!
and something that makes me happy: baby butt and legs.
know what else makes me happy? new things on the needles!
love yarn in little cakes
yep, i got busy on saturday night, winding up some yarn. then i cast on for gretel (ravelry)! finally something for myself. let's hope that it stays relatively cool outside so that i can wear it when i'm done with it.
and i also cast on for KP's second sock. he's not allowed to talk or ask about it again till it's done.
them's the rules. so i'm wrapping up this post so that i can watch project runway!
p.s. nutkin is pretty much done too. i just have to bind off the toe but i'm not going to do that until saturday when i present it to my secret pal. i'm SO nervous it's not going to fit. i've never knit for someone who has smaller feet than myself. i have confidence, but i'm not taking a chance by binding it off and weaving in the ends. i want her to love it and wear it!
well, this entry is going to be a quickie. i'm thinking that 2008 is not starting off on such a great foot. the peanut is sick and miserable. this is her first time ever sick and, wow, she is not good at it. our boiler is on the fritz (yes, it was just installed two years ago.) it died around 6PM when i was trying to run a hot shower and steam the nut. of course, it died right before i was going to give her a bath. the whole rest of the night was downhill from there.
over the past two days, i've not changed out of my PJs (though i HAVE changed those) and i've only had two or three seconds to put together to stare out into space much less work on the new freelance i JUST got. yay. i'm hoping for longer peanut naps tomorrow. today she could only eke out three 45 minute naps. sad.
so instead of continuing to whine (i've heard enough "i'm sick and miserable" whining to last me a lifetime!) here's an FO, for ya.
happier, toastier times
pompoms make everything cute
it's the toasty topper (another cute shot.) i double-stranded cashmerino aran on size 8s for it. all the details are on ravelry. i even made a cute little pompom for the top (thanks kaitlyn!)
hopefully i'll be back soon with a better, happier update. i do have other things to talk about but no time.
ETA: heat and hot water have been restored to casa gleek. less than 24 hours! nice service. the starter was blown and the repairman had the part on him. little peanut is doing a bit better today so i'm hoping that some of the worst of it is behind us. be back after the weekend!
kaitlyn and i had a wee discussion on the way home from BG the other day about whether we were process knitters or not. she seems to think that she is and i'm not sure about myself. you know, i really love the process of putting together a garment. i even think that seaming is not so bad. i look at a lot of new patterns that hit the interwebs and i think, "that's the same pattern as such and such with just a different cable or stitch pattern" ALL THE TIME. i can't help but immediately break it apart and find the common elements with something else. so i guess i AM a process knitter, huh?
i do like having finished garments to wear, though, and i do knit things up quick for functional purposes (ala peanut legwarmers.) so that really takes me to somewhere in between the two extremes (process vs. product.) over the past few months i've seen a lot of reviews for the new cat bordhi book and i thought i would give it a go. i feel like socks are old to me now. i really like making them but there are very few tricks about them that i don't understand. i have yet to do toe-up but i'm not mystified by it. the new pathways for sock knitters, on the other hand, really gets my brain churning. i'm dying to cast-on for a pair from this book RIGHT NOW.
what am i doing instead? knitting on two other projects. sigh. i'm not making a whole lotta progress towards knitting for myself, am i?
past the heel
anyway, i'm past the heel on this sock and since the recipient has a smaller foot than i do i'm sure it'll be finished in no time. i'm giving it a break for another day because my fingers were starting to hurt. it looks really small in the picture but once it's blocked, it'll look awesome.
toasty!
this is a toasty topper (ravelry) in the same cashmerino aran that i made the miss dashwood out of. needless to say, i have a lot of this yarn. i'm double stranding it like the pattern says and it's pretty dense. i'm sure it'll be extremely warm.
so what to make for myself? i'll be done with the nutkin and toasty topper soon and then i should finish up KP's socks and start something new. it's been pretty cold outside. should i cast-on for gretel with that cashmere i bought? not sure.
don't tell anyone.. but i'm knitting this sock for the spiders one-sock swap. no details as i don't really want to give away who it's for! all i can say is: koigu and nutkin (ravelry). i think that i've said too much already!
spiders one-sock swap (say that ten times fast)
so anyway, when i picked up the needles to cast-on for this project, KP cleared his throat and reminded me that i still had to knit him a companion sock to the first one i had completed. i think that i had to stop my head from spinning around and fire shooting from my eyes. after taking a good look at ravelry the other day, i realized that it's been 10 months since i've knit something for myself. at this rate, it may be a whole frackin' year until i do! no wonder the knitting mojo is so low. lovely virginia asked me if i would be casting on something for myself soon. god, i hope so! i'm hoping that this sock swap will give me an FO fast! like before the peanut turns one would be nice.
speaking of the nut, it's been a banner week here. i feel like whenever she gets her immunizations she gets smarter. some big milestone always occurs right after. this week, she spontaneously started clapping. before the nap, she had no idea what clapping was. after? she was clapping. amazing. i've been trying to get her to clap since she was 6 months old. really, it takes forever for the smallest thing with babies! i also introduced her to some new foods this week and... a FORK! my god, TOOLS!
look at that coordination!
now she no longer has to pick up the cold and wet cheese with her fingers (god forbid.) she loves it. i, of course, have to put the cheese on the fork for her, but she does put it in her mouth. she also, this week, started holding her own bottle. the first night she did it, she laughed like a crazy person after she was done. so proud she was. wow. by the way, this is so much more interesting than going to an office everyday. just sayin'.
and because i spend a lot of time on the internet, i'm introducing a new gleek.net feature.
p.s. i've decided to end all pretense of me using proper english. i generally do and i'm a pretty good speller as well, but my speech patterns are a helluva lot more conversational than the way that i write here on the blog. i'm changing that now. you may find that i sound a lot like dooce. thanks for the compliment. when i read her blog, i feel like i'm talking to my alter-speech ego. anyway, it's a new year! time to be more like myself.
so i'm just back from a good drilling at the dentist and in a FANTASTIC mood and thought that i would write a blog entry. thankfully for all of you, i will be writing it over the next few days for a wednesday post and you will be spared most of my bitching.
i've been obsessed with finding "new" and interesting TV lately what with the writer's strike still going on (COME ON!! i'm sick of reality TV!) everyone who knows me knows that i despise all reality TV but project runway. i'm so glad it's back on the air! i was actually sorry to see elisa go last week. she had really grown on me. it's too bad that the challenge itself was such a snoozer. god, can we get a little more creative please? pour on the pressure, apply the heat! i wanna see these designers sweat!
in an effort to get more project runway into my veins, i started (and finished!) watchi
