Things I Hate . . . errr, Dislike Intensely

When you live with a child who sees the world as black and white, with no shades of grey, the word "hate" is a bad word. I am routinely lectured on my use of the word "hate," even if it is the word that best describes my true feelings.

For example, I HATE washing dishes. The fact that I spend 50% of my waking hours either dirtying dishes (meal prep and cooking) or washing dishes, it's a pretty strong feeling being evoked by the sight of yet another mountain of dishes teetering in the sink. Especially I've gone to bed, leaving a clean kitchen, and wake up to the mess caused by a group of miscellaneous children who have decided that they needed some bedtime snacks, and a teenager gets up at midnight for a little refueling and decides turkey bacon and eggs make a good snack and leaves the egg smeared pan and plate drying on the stove, and hubby gets up in the morning and fixes breakfast and leaves the cereal box, rice milk carton and cereal bowl on the counter. Can you blame me if I growl a bit about how much I hate dishes?

I also hate bitter cold weather. Winter is fine, as long as you can step outside with a reasonable amount of warm clothing protecting your body. However, when the temperature and wind chill combined dips into the double digits below zero and your teenage daughter asks you to drive her to school and you forget your mittens and the drive is too short to truly warm the engine enough to heat the car and your hands are so cold when you get home that you can hardly turn the key in the ignition to the off position, "hate" seems like a very reasonable word to use.

Alas, now I even have a knitting "hate." Nupps! Believe it or not, I am knitting nupps for the first time in over 30 years of knitting and now I know what all the fuss is about. I used to hate bobbles because I had to turn the work so many times. But I learned to knit in both directions and I no longer hate bobbles. They are a piece of cake. But nupps . . . grrrrr!

It seemed like a fun little pattern. I picked up some Land O' Lace yarn from Creative Fibers in New Prague. They had a lovely little sample scarf knit up from a Land O' Lace pattern. So scrumptious I just had to purchase the required two hanks and pattern. I cast on for the scarf and was rolling along merrily when I discovered that this was a two-ended scarf that needed to be grafted in the middle.

No problem, I cast on the other side, knit it to the same length as the first side, then transferred both sides to the same needle and started knitting both ends at the same time. Then I arrived at my first nupp. Argggh! I wrestled and fiddled, perspired and pouted, growled and grumbled. It was official, I joined the Nupp Haters of the Knitting World.

The scarf is now in time out, whilst I seek out a pair of Addi Turbo Lace needles in the appropriate size to see if the pointer tips will make nupps less objectionable or not. If they don't, I'll be heading directly to the frog pond and seeking a nupp-less lace pattern for a new scarf. Life is too short to spend precious knitting time HATING.

In the meantime, I've gone back to knitting Arwen for Peeps. I am working on the hood right now, then I will have the sleeves and the cabled band left to finish before sweater #12 is off the needles. I am also continuing to work on Hockeyman's Japanese-inspired Blankie whenever I'm sitting in my armchair, watching television. I am also carrying around Hubby's Annual Birthday Socks as my travel knitting project. Plenty of projects to keep me busy without returning to the dreaded nupps.

Feel free to send any tips for knitting nupps my way. After all, what we need is LOVE . . . especially in the knitting realm.

Busy Holiday - Relatively Speaking

I've been a busy little bee over the past 2 weeks. Having made the decision to stay home for the holidays made for a relaxed, quiet time with family (and a few friends). An uneventful holiday season had the added benefit of allowing a bonus of ample knitting time.


As you can see from the photo, I have been working on a number of projects. First of all, as soon as Amused Revamped was finished, I cast on a blanket for Hockeyman. Having made a blanket last year for Dancing Diva, I was not about to make the same mistake twice of making a twin-sized afghan out of worsted weight yarn.

This time, I opted for Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Thick & Quick, which is working up so fast, my head is spinning. The pattern is my own adaptation of Mason-Dixon's Modern Log Cabin blanket. (Ravelry Link) I am enlarging it enough to cover a twin bed and hope to have it finished in a few weeks.

Because of it's large size and weight, it has become my "recliner project". So, obviously, because we had a hockey tournament up in Hibbing this past week, I needed to find a more portable project for the car trip up and back. I decided to pull out a couple pairs of UFO socks.


Actually, it was decided for me because Hubby's birthday has snuck up on me and it is time to cast on the Hubby's Annual Birthday Socks (HABS). I needed to finish one of the pairs of UFO socks in order to free up a pair of needles to use. The first socks I pulled were the Peppermint Twist socks I started ages ago with yarn I won in a drawing. They are Tofutsie Sock Yarn and I have to admit it is not my favorite yarn to handle. It was a loosely plied yarn, which made it very splitty. It also has a fairly harsh hand. However, I will reserve judgement on whether I'll knit with it again after I've worn and washed them a few times. Some of the most delightful yarns to knit with do NOT wear well and I'd rather have long lasting socks that weren't quite as fun to knit than spend all that time knitting something wonderful to end up throwing them away after a couple wearings.


Knowing that the Peppermint Twist socks wouldn't take that long to finish, I also brought along another pair of UFO socks. I think the yarn is Trekking XXL Sock yarn but I wouldn't bet my first-born child on it. It was an emergency knitting project I picked up at Coldwater Collaborative when I had forgotten my knitting bag at home. Being the obsessive-compulsive knitter that I am, I was unable to go on without something to knit. Hence, another pair of socks was born. However, this little project doesn't have a fancy name yet. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to ideas.

Finally and of course, as soon as the Peppermint Twist socks were off the needles, I had to cast on the HABS. So far, I haven't done much more than start the toes. I need to dig out a knit stitch dictionary and do some hunting for a nice textured pattern.

The yarn is some received through Wool Girl's 2008 Sock Club. It is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock and is 90% superwash merino and 10% nylon. It has the beautiful hand of a nearly all wool yarn and I'm hoping that the nylon will make it a longer wearing sock yarn.

Whew! As if all that knitting time wasn't enough, I also managed to find time to finish a 500 piece puzzle with my hubby and parents AND a 750 piece puzzle all by myself. I still have a 1000 piece puzzle waiting in the wings but will wait to start that one after I finish the Yet To Be Named Socks.

Then again, I do have two more days of holiday vacation before homeschooling starts up again in earnest. And I absolutely love puzzles.

Hmmmmm . . .

Merry Christmas to All

I'm spending the next two days with my kids and wonderful Hubby. You can bet this new sweater will be seeing a lot of wear this holiday season.


Oh, by the way, those swirly designs on my t-shirt aren't really there. They were the early snowflakes of the lovely Christmas Snowstorm we're enjoying. Eight inches so far, with at least that much more on the way. So happy we're NOT traveling this year.

Off to build snowmen with the kids . . . Merry Christmas!

Another Drive By Posting

I'm on my way out the door in 15 minutes to start the now normal craziness of our daily existence - namely, running kids to and fro, whilst knitting frantically in the spare minutes of waiting for them at one location or another.

So, rather than wait until I have #11 all finished, with tails woven in, buttons sewn on and blocked into lofty loveliness, it seemed prudent to share it with you now. I plan on doing all the weaving and button attaching on the road today. However, since it will be dark long before I get home again and my night time photography skills leave a lot to be desired, I figured you all would enjoy the unfinished version.


The yarn is Aslan Trends Del Cerro, purchased from Coldwater Collaborative on sale last spring. The buttons are also from Coldwater. The pattern is my own cardigan version of Amused by Jordana Paige. It was a super easy rewrite, in that I just didn't join the cables and kept knitting downward to make it a cardigan. I also lost the deep ribbed waistband and cuffs because that design feature just doesn't work on my rather buxom torso. I split the cuff so I'd have an excuse to add yet more lovely buttons to the sweater.


I love how the cables just pop in this yarn. However, it was not an easy yarn to use. It was a fairly loosely plied, 10-ply yarn. So it was super easy to split the yarn while manipulating the reversible cable stitches. I almost (ALMOST) abandoned cabling without a cable needle on this project because of the splittiness of the yarn.

I am debating the placement of the buttons on the collar. I am thinking that the collar might be wearable as a turtleneck, as well as in an open collar style.

Sweater Number 12 is in the knitting bag and nearing completion as well. I am working on the sleeves at the moment. After that, I have the hood to knit and then the cable band that will run up the front, over the hood and down the other side left. More fun cables to look forward to!

I do love cables but I'm in the mood for a change.

Fair Isle, anyone?

Wednesday Night Bullet Points

Not to be a thief or anything, but after several weeks of insanity (schedule-wise) and a total absence from the blog sphere, Sheepish Annie's weekly wacky random-osity seems to be the best way to catch up on all the bloggable tidbits that have been bouncing around this nutty noggin of mine. So here goes . . .

• Hockey tryouts are over and Hockeyman made JV-A. He's also been guaranteed some playing time on the Varsity squad by the head coach. Hooray!

• Speech Team tryouts are over and Dancing Diva did not make the team. Boohoo!

• I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year for the first time in a decade. It was delicious, if I don't say so myself.

• Did I mention that I put a halt to all traveling over the holiday season this year?

• I DID! I decided that we have 2 Christmas left with Hockeyman before he's off to college and I wanted these holidays to be spent in my own home . . . making my own memories.
  

• Does that sound too selfish?
  

• I don't care if it does.
  

• It's cold outside. Really cold. Bitter cold. It was bad enough that everything was cancelled today for "Stormaggeddon" but this epic drop in temperature after the mildest November in decades is just pouring salt on the wound. Really!
  

• I'm still knitting away on sweater 11 and 12.
  

• Sweater/wrap 13 is in time out while I decide whether it is worth all the effort of knitting a complicated cable pattern in dark green tweedy yarn where it hardly shows.
  

• I'm all in love with some new projects that are clamoring for my attention. I've spent hours researching Fair Isle mittens and hat patterns on Ravelry.
  

• My car needed emergency servicing this week.
  

• Have I mentioned that the dealership is across the street from my LYS?
  

• When the serviceman asked if I was okay waiting for a couple hours for my car to be repaired, do you think he suspected my intention to yarn shop from the gleeful twinkle in my eye and sudden flushing of my cheeks?
  

• I shopped for a couple hours.
  

• Yeah, I bought yarn for hats and mittens for myself and Dancing Diva. And a couple books. And buttons for Sweater #11. And a couple more buttons just because they were pretty.
  

• Hence, the sudden urge to spend hours researching Fair Isle mittens and hats.
  

• Our garage door broke last night. It was scary.
  

• The big axel that has the massive spring on it and the pulleys with the wires that lift the door just snapped.
  

• For an hour, we couldn't get it open or closed. It just hung, drunkenly crooked, defying all efforts to make it move up or down.
  

• We finally got it closed but our cars were trapped in the garage, with no way to get out.
  

• Hubby stayed home from work today to call a repairman to fix it.
  

• And because his car was trapped by the stupid broken door.
  

• It's now fixed, thank goodness.

Well, that's about all for now. Everyone is gone from home tonight and I'm going to spend the next hour and a half of solitude doing what I do best - knitting. And watching whatever I want on T.V.

Let's hear it for total remote domination! Woot!

What's a woman to do?

I've been running crazy lately.

You ask, "So, what's new with that?" in that oh, so sarcastic tone.

Well, there has to be a good reason why I've reacted in such an uncalled for manner to the discovery that I've actually finished 10 sweaters in the past 9 months.

You think, "I would nave never been so blind to my own knitting output. I would have KNOWN I was knitting 10 sweaters this year."

Because, you know, it would be entirely reasonable to be kind of enthused about finishing the last two sweaters, one which is 80% done and the other is nearly 30% done, before December 31. An even dozen, one per month, that's kind of impressive, you know.

You mutter, "Here it comes. I know what's coming now."

The stress of Hockeyman's tryout for the High School Varsity/Junior Varsity really shouldn't have affected me, seeing as we've been going through this process every year for the past 10 years . . . well, not for high school but for team placements for our local youth hockey association.

You grind your teeth, "Quit stalling, lady. Just spit it out!"

The fact that Dancing Diva tried out for Speech Team at High School also shouldn't have been such a big deal, although I was on the speech team in high school and college myself and was only the teensy-weensyest bit thrilled with the thought of DD following in my elocutionary footsteps.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . AAAANNNNDDDD?"

Well . . . Actually it WAS my birthday this week . . .

"WELL?"



So, I started a new project.



"Uh-huh! Like we didn't see that one coming."


It's the Every Way Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2009. The good news is that I'm using stash yarn for it. After all, shopping for new yarn would have been really silly. What excuse do I have to go out and spend money on new yarn when I have so much stash built up already.

Really, how stressed out do you think I am?


"Whoa, DIDN'T see THAT one coming!"

Drive by posting

It's been a couple of very busy days here at Sweater Knitting Central. I've spent most of the past 2 days in the car and have several trips in store tonight. So just a quick update on the newest stash acquisitions.

I've decided to give stranded colorwork another shot. I did the tam for Peeps back in January as part of the Hat Trick KAL for Ravelry's Puck This group. It was not a pleasant experience, due to a number of critical mistakes on my part, which were previously enumerated here.

This time, I plan on following the directions perfectly. No arrogance about working it out my own way to avoid buying the right needles or avoiding dpns. I will read every tip and hint and be diligent to implement everything that is written and suggested. I'll expect all of you to hold me accountable for this. Really. Please do!

On a side note, if you haven't heard about the Upper Midwest Alpaca Fall/Holiday Fiber Fair at the Hopkins High School on Saturday, November 7 from 9 - 5 pm, you can check out the info here. I plan to get there at 9 and to browse to my hearts content. After all, I deserve a little break from chauffeuring. It's been a very busy week.

Number 12 - really?

I am totally lovin' this whole design-as-you-go (DAYG) sweater making thing. I was exceedingly pleased with Bubbles Chickenpox Sweater, which was loosely modeled after the Design 26 I rewrote as a top-down pattern. Now I'm incorporating about 4 different pattern ideas into a new DAYG project.

It is Peeps turn to get a hand knit sweater from Mom. After a little consultation time with a generally indecisive Peeps, I came away with an order for a "hoodie." Now, after the great Halloween Horror of a Black Ballet Wrap for Dancing Diva, I was not about to start another bland, stockinette project, even in lovely green leftover yarn from this project. So I was on the hunt for something new, something exciting, something WONDERFUL.

A search at Ravelry turned up this lovely pattern (Ravelry link). Although it was a raglan, it was worked from the bottom up. I did some mulling and some calculations and some general imaginary knitting (my way of figuring out potential problems with my ideas) and discovered that by working from the bottom up, you could incorporate the cables without interruption as you knit. However, I decided to be stubborn about my new obsession with top-down knitting and came up with my own game plan.

I've decided to work top down, without the cable bands. I plan on knitting the cable band separately and adding it later. I've also added a faux cable on each raglan "seam", ala Mason-Dixon's Daily Sweater (Ravelry link). I also used a provisional cast on method, like that used in the Orange Blobbette sweater, so that I can pick up and knit the hood up from the neckline later.

Oh, and just to complicate things further, I picked up a new book yesterday at my favorite LYS (along with enough yarn for at least 2 more sweaters and several magazines - a total breakdown of my self-control occurred, which is fodder for a totally different blog post. Stay tuned.) which utilizes beautiful picot hems. So I'm hoping to figure out how to properly work a perfect picot hem from this book to finish Arwen for Peeps' hem.

To my utter amazement, I discovered this week that the Orange Blobbette and Arwen for Peeps are the #11 and #12 sweaters I've made in 2009. I had no idea that my latest obessession had resulted in 10 completed sweaters, with two more that could probably be finished before the end of the year. Honestly, who'd a thunk it? I was so wrapped up in the frenzy that I totally didn't have a clue how many sweaters I'd made until I looked at my Ravelry page of projects and physically counted them.

Oh, and with the new yarn I bought yesterday, I have stash for at least 4 more sweaters marinating. Really, when will the madness end?

Ding, Dong, the Beast is Done!

Yes, there is rampant rejoicing and delirious dancing in the streets tonight. The Black Beast has been conquered!

No more black stockinette. No more black i-cord. No more black anything!

It is done, has been tried on and approved by Dancing Diva, and it's washed and blocking as we speak.

Granted, such a momentous occasion deserves a much better photograph but it is dusk here in Minnesota, not to mention a bit cloudy and grey. All the fiddling with settings and adjusting brightness could not make my amateur photographic skills any less apparent.

But I don't care! It is done and I'm ready to move on to some bright, colorful knitting. Stay tuned for for bright green and pumpkin orange cable-ishousness in the very near future.

Woot! (Now back to the regularly scheduled rejoicing and jigging!)

Wild Weekend

No, hockey-loving friends, I'm not talking about the Minnesota Wild. I have absolutely no comment about them at this point. Not because I'm displeased with them but because the crazy schedule around here has kept me from enjoying most of the hockey games on television. As for the Gophers . . . I did manage to see several of their games. The less said, the better. Oy!

No, I'm referring to the insane schedule that continues to keep me running around evenings and weekends and interferes with all fiber pursuits.

This weekend, a swim meet in the far northern suburbs of Minnesota, at which Bubba (or perhaps we should re-christen her "Bubbles") did very well, bettering her times in every race but her backstroke. Whilst she is fast on the straight away, her turns are not good. So we'll be focusing hard on backstroke turns to get her times back where they belong. I also worked as a stroke and turn judge at the meet both days, which was a lot of fun. Unbeknownst to all you blogging friends, I have finished the certification process and am now a actual judge for swimming. Woot! It's sure a lot more fun to be on the pool deck than sitting in the stands at these meets. And since the pool environment is extremely warm, getting splashed occasionally is an added bonus. Really cools you down when a 8 year old's belly flop gets you soaked from head to toe. Refreshing!

On top of the swim meet, Hockeyman was in a band contest conducted by Club 3 Degrees, a local Christian organization that fosters young talent through these judged contests. The photo is one of the band's official advertising and promotional materials. The first round was this past Saturday and Difference of Forever was one of 6 bands that competed at Destiny Christian Center. They received a grade of "B" for their performance. Considering Hockeyman is the oldest member of the band (at 16), and they were by far the youngest group there, I'd say they did a fabulous job.

Now they need to incorporate the constructive comments into their performance and prepare for round 2 of the competition, which is sometime in January. Anyway, the concert was interesting but the music was cranked. Way. Too. Loud! I brought and wore earplugs for the majority of the time that I was there, so at least I left with my hearing intact.

In knitting news, I did manage to finish the body of Dancing Diva's Ballet Wrap and am working on the sleeves. It is still not photo worthy because it is still just black stockinette. Albeit, it can no longer be called a blob but my photo skills are still too lame to attempt a decent photo of the progress. Hence, the photo of the band instead of fiber photos.

In the few moments of break on the weekend, I managed to get about 4 rows done on the Orange Blobbette. So, she's still a Blobbette, not a Blob. Maybe next weekend . . .

One can only hope to find more knitting time because - GASP - Christmas is a mere 2 months away.

GAAAACK!

Harley & the Orange Blobbette

Well, a little winding, a little swatching, a little casting on and we have a new Blobbette. Meet the beginning of my cardigan version of Amused.

The Blobbette is not the handsome cat in the background. That's Harley and he qualifies as more like a BLOB than a Blobbette, being a somewhat rotund kitty who doesn't like the "D" word any more than I do. The Orange mess in front of him is the actual Blobbette.

I had to coin that word because I'm not far enough along to call this sweater a blob. However, I am intrigued by this completely seamless, top-down construction technique. The pattern itself is a little confusing but if you follow it word-for-word, it generally works out. I ended up heading over to Ravelry and the Jordana Paige Group (Ravelry Link) for a little clarification. Needless to say, I am so glad I'm a member of Ravelry. It has been an invaluable resource.

The yarn is some discounted AslanTrends Del Cerro from Coldwater Collaborative. They have bargain bins in the back room and it is always my first stop when visiting. It's not often you can find a sweater's worth of the same yarn, so snagging it when you see it is key to stash building. The color is a cross between pumpkin orange and copper and I suspect the cable band will really stand out in this 100% merino wool.

As for motivation to keep working on Dancing Diva's Ballet Wrap, I've decided that it will be my travel/weekday project and Amused will be my evening/weekend project. So I'm plugging away merrily on Amused for the rest of today, before DDBW makes it's reappearance tomorrow morning.

It goes without saying that I've earned a little recreational knitting. Hubby returned from a trip to India last night. It was his first extended business trip in years and the kids were all a little . . . shall we say "grumpy" . . . this week. Single parenting, even for one week, is grueling. My hat is off to ful-time single parents. I don't know how they do it!

Well, I'm back to growing Blobbette into a self-respecting Blob. Ta-ta for now.

I Just Can't Take It Anymore

Whilst I've made a valiant effort to be a monogamous knitter until the Great Black Ballet Blob is finished, I just can't do it. There is no way to blog about a crumpled black mess that wouldn't show up in a photograph unless Jared Flood magically appeared and offered to take the picture for me. It's just stockinette, with a little garter stitch border, so there are no new techniques or tricks to learn. Even the use of Zombie training films has not kept the flame alive. Black is just not doing it for me.

So, I've been searching for the perfect next project. I've been dreaming of the perfect belted cardigan with some cabling. Being a plus-size person, all over cables would be a bit . . . should we say bulky . . . for my buxom torso. However, I could visualize the cables as the borders for the front and perhaps around the cuffs and collar. And since I have a several caches of sweater worthy yarn in my stash that have been floating in my imagination for weeks, all it took was finding the right pattern.

And today, I finally ran across a pattern I think I can use as a jumping off point for a cardigan. Amused was written as a v-neck but since it is a top down pattern, I see no reason why the cable can't be continued all the way down both sides of the front and this top becoming a cardigan. I can even envision a matching belt made from the reversible cable pattern. Of course, I need to wind the yarn into cakes and start swatching before I can cast on. But at least I have a plan.

In the meantime, I think I'll have to come up with some sort of bribery scheme reward system to keep trying to finish Dancing Diva's Ballet Wrap.

Hmmmm, any thoughts?

Progress of a non-fiber sort

Work has been happening around here, in spite of the lack of blog postings of late. Alas, they're mostly home improvement projects, instead of fiber arts. The stucco guys finished up yesterday on the final coat of stucco. I am pleased with the look, even without the shutters that will be installed later this week. Some electrical hook ups and shutters installed and the outside projects will be completed. Just in time, too, since we have had two (count them, TWO) snowfalls so far this past week. It's not cold enough for snow to stick around more than a day or so, so the still green lawn is somewhat deceiving. Trust me, winter is just around the corner.

I am still knitting but it is boring black blobbish stockinette on Dancing Diva's new ballet wrap. No photos because, well, it's just a bigger black blob. I have about 6 inches left on the body then I'll be heading out for Sleeve Island, to spend even more time stranded on boring black blobby knitting.

I have found one distraction to wile away the endless rows of black stockinette. After reading a few posts from a favorite blogging friend, I've learned about my complete unpreparedness for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. So I logged onto fancast.com and have watching some training films. I've now seen Night of the Living Dead & The Last Man on Earth. I'm not sure the second movie qualifies as a zombie preparedness training film, because the antagonists are more like vampires than zombies but I'm sure that some of the same survival techniques work in both sets of emergency circumstances. The problem is, there seems to be a complete lack of governmental leadership about zombie apocalypse preparedness. There doesn't seem to be a color code system in place to indicate the level of danger these monsters pose and forget about finding a comprehensive list of training films on any of the government websites. If I were the conspiracy theorist kind of person, I'd think there was some kind of coordinated anti-information attack going on here.

So, if any of you are well-versed in the whole zombie preparedness field, shoot me a list of suitable training films for perusal. After all, I've got an awful lot of black stockinette to slog through and I might as well multi-task.

Chicken Pox, Flu, Colds and other rotten viruses

With all due respect to the powers-that-be, we've just about reached the end of our patience around here with the whole virus thing.

Granted, we all survived. Bubba recuperated from her chicken pox with no additional complications, the rest of the kids were tested and are as immune as the vaccine can make a person, and Hubby is on anti-viral medicines and shows no sign of succumbing to the Varicella virus (yet).

Alas, though, poor Mom ended up coming down with a nasty flu. Not the deadly H1N1 kind but just bad enough to cause her to sleep for 14 hours a day, waking long enough to dose with high-potency flu remedies, then moan and groan until she fell back to sleep. Not the best case scenario early on, when Mom was the only one we were sure couldn't transmit chicken pox to Hubby, quarantined in his man cave and who needed regular deliveries of food, beverages and clean clothing so he could emerge periodically to dash through the house to his car to go to work.

With a couple of kids complaining of cold symptoms (no fevers, just sore throats and stuffy noses), no housework was accomplished during this past week. Needless to say, things are in chaos around here.

One little, bitty glimmer of silver lining to this massive storm cloud of icky sickness is the completion of another sweater. I think this is number 9 this year.

Meet the Chickenpox Sweater. When Bubba was at her most miserable, I cast on this cheerful little number with only a rough idea of what I wanted to do.

This is my own top-down design, just fiddled and fidged as I went, so there is no pattern, nor is there likely to be one. Since Bubba is outside playing today (catching up on fresh air and friendships after being quarantined for 10 days), she hasn't seen it or tried it on since I finished it. I'm debating between using a tie at the neckline, or buying a fabulous button and making a frog closure for the neckline. So, there are still a little finishing work to do but nothing I can do until I get input from Bubba.

Well, I usually close with something pithy or clever at the end but I'm feeling a little tired and shaky still. Guess I'll just have to go back to bed again. After all, I still have Dancing Diva's Black Hole Ballet Sweater to finish. Gah!

Chicken Pox First Aid For Moms

After a rather grueling few days of nursing an itchy but very sweet chicken pox patient, waiting on a worried spouse who has moved into an "apartment" in the basement to avoid further contagion and dealing with disgruntled siblings who are just a bit jealous of all the special treatment Bubba is receiving, it was time for Mom to take a time out and get some first aid for herself.

Hence, a quick trip to the local nail salon for a pedicure and a set of acrylic nails (both firsts for me). You'll have to forgive the funky color of my skin. I truly do not have lavender feet. Because the scratch coat is going on the exterior of our house today, all the windows and door are covered with plastic, so the light coming in is somewhat filtered. Either that, or Hockeyman messed with the settings on the camera again and I'll have to exert some maternal pressure to get him to fix it. Anyway, the nail polish is lavender but my feet aren't.

As for the teaser for the Chicken Pox Project, when I snapped the photo of the yarn in my fading fall garden, I didn't have a design in mind. A conversation with Bubba and a few sketches later and we have a sweater design. I am making the pattern up as I go, working from the top down. I cast on a collar about as long as I thought she'd need, knit a few inches of ribbing, then divided it into sections for fronts, sleeves and a back. Some raglan increases and slip stitch front gives the sweater the beginning of the special shaping I'm developing as this sweater grows. How it will end up . . . well, that depends on my ability to make this one up as I go. I've done enough top down sweaters now that I think I can do this on the fly, ala Elizabeth Zimmerman.

Or pride may goeth before a fall. If I fail and need to do some frogging, I'm sure another pedicure will go a long distance toward soothing my bruised ego. Stay tuned for a potential "Frogging First Aid For Moms" edition.

Chicken Pox Emergency

Just when we were slipping into the regular school routine, life throws us a curve ball . . . Bubba (aka 10 year old DD#2) was diagnosed with chicken pox yesterday. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted.

You see, I had my kids immunized against chicken pox. Hubby never had it as a child (he had the test 11 years ago and he had no immunity) and since he is a world traveler for his job, we knew that he was at risk. So the whole family has been dutifully injected with weakened strains of the Varicella Virus. However, I missed the fact that this is a 2 shot immunization and Bubba hadn't had her second shot.

Compound that mistake with the fact that Hubby is also on immunosuppressive drug therapy for
Crohn's disease . . . and scheduled to go to India in a few weeks, right around the time he would fall ill if he contracts chicken pox . . . and cannot have the varicella vaccine anymore because of the Crohn's issues . . . and we cannot find his immunication records from 11 years ago to verify that he had both shots . . . well, you can see our panicky state of mind around here.

So what is a fiber artist to do?

Start a new project for the poor, scabby 10 year old who is quarantined to one room in the house for the next week or so. Besides sterilize the entire house, that is.

(The fact that I am casting on a new project before finishing Dancing Diva's new sweater has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I'm deadly bored knitting plain black stockinette. I'm just being a good mommy and catering to the needs of my poor, itchy, twitchy, widdle Bubbakins. Really!)

Another Blog Blob Sighting

In the spirit of the proliferation of blob sightings on a popular blog, I present my own shapeless blob of knitting for your viewing pleasure:

While I'll admit that you can see the rudimentary shapes of sleeves to come, the very blackness of the yarn, combined with the somewhat too short needle, should qualify this project as a blob. At least for the time being.

The endless rows of black stockinette are taking their toll on this intrepid knitter. I can't help but fantasize about soft pink yarn, tweedy purple yarn, or even the bargain pumpkin orange yarn that are all marinating in my stash at the moment. But Dancing Diva is living up to her reputation of holding Mom's nose to the grindstone and making me a monogamous knitter. At least for as long as I am working on a project for her ROYAL HIGHNESS.

(sigh)

Well, at least I can enjoy the temporary distraction of ongoing home improvements that are continuing at a rapid pace here at Chez Construction Central.

See my pretty new front door? Isn't it lovely?

(Edited to add: We're getting a new stucco front for our house, too. They have been pounding away all day, putting up the mesh screen stuff. I'm slowly being driven mad by the noise!)

Another one bites the dust . . .

Yes, folks, we have another sweater FO! I'm just on a sweater knittin' rampage around here. (Though nothing like Guinifer - her sweater production is AMAZING.)

I finished the neckband and sleeves two days ago. After a long and fruitless search through my button stash, I determined I had to make yet another trip to Coldwater Collaborative for the "right" buttons to finish this lovely sweater. (Darn, right?)

As usual, Carrie came through for me with the right buttons in stock. And, because I'm on a bit of a yarn diet around here (this is the only context in which the "D" word is used in this house because I'm always hungry for new yarn and calling it a "diet" isn't going to make it any worse than it already is), I put the blinders on and managed to walk out with the buttons and only the buttons. I swear, that has to be a record for me because I am constantly going in for "just one thing" and walking out with a sweater's worth of yarn.

And, you guessed it, I've cast on for yet another sweater. This time, it's for Dancing Diva. She wanted a black ballet wrap sweater for dance. I found this wonderful top-down pattern (#263) at Coldwater Collaborative. I'm well on my way down the yoke and already dreaming about the next sweater in the queue.

After all, knitting plain black stockinette leaves lots of time for dreaming . . . another Daily sweater in pink? Or maybe a tweedy sweater coat in purple? Hmmm . . .

Unfinished Business

First of all, apologies to all who have asked questions in the past few weeks. The fact that we've been more frantically busy than usual, coupled with ongoing modem issues that keeps the internet out of reach for half of every day, made it super hard to get online to update the blog.

However, I'm back on a more regular schedule and, although the modem is still giving us fits, ready to catch up.

Guinifer asked when Hockeyman starts hockey this year. Hard to answer because he's a year-around player. He played in a spring league, had hockey camps all summer long and is now on a fall league. The official high school season will start late October. We are assuming he'll be on the JV team again, because there are 10 veteran defensemen trying out for the Varsity squad and he is in the bottom half of that group, in size and skill level. However, he should see plenty of playing time on JV because he'll be one of the top players at that level. It all depends on try-outs, though. So stay tuned in for updates in October.

Livnletlrn asked about Hockeyman's new camera . . . He purchased a Canon 50D, with extra lenses and a tripod. Based on the price ($1500 +), I'd say it must be a pretty good camera. However, I'm a complete novice when it comes to photography, so who am I to say. He's very happy with it and I can't wait to see what he does with it this year.

Rani asked how I do everything I do around here . . . Well, I fail miserably at some things. I'm a lousy cook and rely on pre-packaged and frozen entrees for most meals. I'm a horrible housekeeper and my kids have to pick up a lot of the slack on chores and cleaning. But now that Dancing Diva is an official Freshman at the local high school and Hockeyman takes classes 2 days a week through a tutoring facility, my homeschooling duties have lightened up considerably. I'm actually enjoying working with the two "little girls" (as they're lovingly referred to in our clan) on their school work. I'm even finding more time to whip up a few meals from scratch. Not too many, though, since I don't want to poison my family or make them think that I've been abducted by aliens and replaced with an evil clone.

Finally, here is the photographic evidence of actual knitting progress . . . This is a sweater in Plymouth Yarn's Kudo (55% cotton, 40% rayon & 5% silk) from the Noro Designer Mini Knits book by Jenny Watson. I'm working on Design 26 (you have to scroll down the page to see the actual design). Coldwater had this sweater on display a month ago, with the alternate yarn suggestion. Since I had a $50 gift certificate burning a hole in my wallet, I decided to treat myself to this lovely yarn and sweater pattern. However, I rewrote the pattern to a top-down version and am thrilled with the sweater so far. I'm nearly done with the body and will only have ribbing to add to the sleeves and the collar and I'll have another finished sweater.

I've been on a sweater knitting frenzy this year. Some of my friends are wondering if we're going to have a particularly hard winter this year. You know, like when the beavers make thicker lodges and wooly caterpillar have heavy coats. Who knows . . . maybe I am reacting to "climate change" in some weird way.

Oh, and by the way, I fixed the cable crosses on Cable Down Sweater. I'm just too compulsive that way.

Ahhh, pics at last . . .

My hubby was able to get the camera working again, so I can finally post pictures of all the work we've been doing around here, which has been the convenient excuse for lack of blogging time.

First of all, here is my kitchen remodel, in progress. So far, we've gotten new granite countertops, a new decorative light fixture (which replaced a very industrial looking florescent fixture) and new stools for the counter.

We still need to refinish the cabinets but I'm waiting to do that until we have ripped out an old desk on the opposite wall and replaced it with a full wall of cabinets. If there is a slight difference in the wood tones, we can refinish everything at once and get it all to blend. That is, if everything goes according to plan . . .

Here are also the long awaited pics of Cable Down Raglan. I haven't washed and blocked it yet because I'm pondering the necessity of fixing the mixed up cable crossings on the front. All of them should cross right over left but I somehow got it all screwed up. I know how to fix cables without unraveling everything but how much do I care about the error? Either way, I need to decide before I wash and block because the 100% wool will probably felt a bit when I wash it, making it harder to pull out the couple stitches that need fixing.

In the meantime, I've moved on to yet another sweater and am more than half done with it. More on that later . . .

So, what's your opinion? Leave well enough alone or fix the cables?