resolutions

i have some health-type new year's resolutions (getting proper sleep, exercise, nutrition, blah blah), but this morning on my walk to work (exercise!) i thought, what about resolutions in other areas? like...

1. finishing one project before starting another (so terrible at that)

2. getting a super-early head start on any deadline-ish projects (hello, birthdays and xmas)

and the biggie:

3. no buying new materials except for storage-related items! we have a "storage room" that is an absolute disaster - i really need to bite the bullet and get it sorted. get rid of things that we will never ever need or use, and come up with a proper system to organise the "keepers." i already have ideas dancing in my head for a system of crates that could be stacked out of the way against the wall, or hooked together to form the base for an inflatable mattress if we have guests over (because really, it is crazy that we have an entire extra room but still make guests sleep on the sofa!) but of course all of that involves work... i think until i make some headway on this, there must be no new non-storage-related projects. except for gifts of course. and finishing things i've already started.

linky link

just noticed this link to my knitted kodama from threadbanger - there are lots of other great items linked as well! knitted eyeballs and celery anyone?

merry xmas!

big day! done and done! we served a lovely dinner for nine - turkey, stuffing, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, braised chestnuts, squash & chard, home-made bread, and a buche de noel - everything but the turkey was vegan!




then i hit some quilt stores with my friend jen. regina quilting was... an industrial quilting factory, kind of a bust. sew sisters, i didn't get to see because the boy was asleep in the car. but cock-a-doodle quilts was a hit! flannel for next year's xmas jammies (this year's only got done on the 23 december, eep) and some of the number's fabric that matches the boy's quilt, so i can make a spare sheet and pillow case!



then, we added the finishing touches to our gingerbread house - or "cookie cottage" as the boy calls it - a few fir trees...




... a christmas tree for inside...



... and an attack by godzilla!

it's almost here!

can you believe that tomorrow is christmas eve? and i'm almost ready! i'm never 100% ready for anything it seems, but i'm pretty close. and i think the broken foot/chest infection/braces headache misery should play well as excuses. today is my last day at work before 5 days off, and tonight and tomorrow i'll be cooking and crafting up a storm. i have everything i need for dinner, i just have to do the prep. aside from the traditional turkey, everything will be vegan - the stuffing, the sides (mashed potatoes, squash & greens gratin, braised chestnuts, & brussel sprouts), the bread, the dessert: bûche de noël. i found a whipped icing recipe that i successfully veganised before, and this time i am upping the ante a bit with cocoa butter instead of margarine. should be super yummy! recipes & pics to follow after boxing day!

now, i just have to finish all of those knitted gifts, and pyjamas for the bambino...

why didn't i know about this before?

advent calendar lace scarf! every day of advent, a different lace chart to knit. wish i had known about this in november, and wish i had been more on top of things anyway so i'd have time for it! will have to make a note to remember for next year...

ugh.

i'm home sick and feeling a wee bit sorry for myself when i can work up the mental energy for it. the rest of the time, i am watching season 4 of mad men (the clothing! the furniture!) and devoting my hands to the mindless task of running in the endless ends and otherwise assembling the felted wreath i knit last year (or was it the year before?) it's incredibly boring, but i don't have to angst about making/fixing errors, and it's about as much as i can concentrate on right now.

and, the results so far are pretty nice.

tree is up!

and the ginger bread house is still standing! i told my son that we still have to add the trees etc. - didn't have time for it before our tree-trimming party on saturday. i didn't even get to assemble my mincemeat tarts, but there was still so much food... i guess we will have them on christmas eve!

productive = happy

this is my big week, the week i've taken three days off to see to some appointments and get ready for our holiday party. so far i've assembled and sent about two dozen greeting cards, repainted the living room, got the piano tuned, got a haircut, made two kinds of dip (artichoke and herb-curry), picked up a couple of presents that i worked on a couple of years ago, picked up a bunch of groceries for the weekend (including these awesome compostable wooden forks), went to mccall's and fell in love with the total awesomeness (what is kransekake? i want to make one!) and bought some supplies for a gingerbread house, took the boy to see a play, bought some kid-style musical instruments (finger cymbals, jingle bells, a triangle), had lunch with a friend, etc. tomorrow we are shooting a video that chs will use for fundraising, getting a tree, baking & building a gingerbread house, and generally cooking and baking and cleaning all day.

phew!

and for your viewing pleasure, here are just two of the wow-i-never-knew-that-existed things i saw at mccalls:

cardapalooza

how did i go from feeling so far ahead of the game to so far behind? happens every year i guess. didn't get a lot done on the weekend - the knitting continues (there is nothing better than knitting xmas gifts on an old-fashioned train rumbling across the snowy countryside with family, friends, and santa himself on board!), and i bought more yarn, to tie up the jams i made (are they supposed to be a secret? i don't think my coworkers check my blog... whoops).

foolishly i kept putting off the cards - hadn't even thought of what to put on them, and then yesterday i thought "maybe i will just get some tree-shaped rubber stamps and go crazy with that" and then i thought "maybe i could get a tree stamp and a pear stamp and a partridge stamp" and then i just went ahead and did a drawing of a the tree i wanted. for the ones i send out, there will be glueing (that word looks wrong no matter how i spell it) and stamping, but i've put a version here as well for anyone else who wants to send them out!




the cards i did last year and the year before are available too: santa baby and cookie wonderland.

another busy sunday

today: eggnog, mincemeat (both need to ripen a couple of weks prior to consumption) and was also the big jam day - strawberry, and caramelised red onion relish with balsamic (recipe from more put a lid on it) - 18 wee jars of each for coworker xmas gifts plus extra for home (i am seeing sandwich cookies in the near future). and i finished up by making gingerbread dough.

too tired to type now!

oh holidays, holidays

two more hand-made gifts scratched off the list today!

and, some frustration.

after last night's visit to the one of a kind show, i've got sleds on the mind. i've looked at photos from citizen kane, and made up a plan based on this simple design. so today i headed off to fairbank lumber on the advice of a friend. no ash! but, they recommended unicorn universal woods. would they be open on saturday? of course! or, you know, not, as i learned, crying alone in their parking lot. but at least i know whom to call now.

of all the home-made gifts on my list, this is the one most likely to end up bought.

tomorrow's home-made xmas gift project: jam!

more yay and boo

yay is starting the second skein on the biggest secret surprise holiday gift. boo is wanting to take a pic for ravelry and realising i've misplaced my cardreader. sigh.

yay is getting a head start on xmas baking last saturday! every dough that requires being put in the fridge to chill for a few hours or overnight is now chilling in my freezer - pastry for tarts, cookie dough for cheese biscuits, shortbreads, pecan crescents, and viennese icebox cookies. the last three i made vegan - the viennese icebox cookies ask for an egg, which i susbstituted almond milk. i think it will work, we shall see!

also yay is ttc-ing it to work again - so i can make proper dinners (well, those that are braces-chewable). last night we had colcannon (made with locally-sourced potatoes and cabbage from our organic box), baked ham, and broccoli (also from the box). yum!

pie love

madame benoit's apple pie recipe, by request! this is from an old cookbook that my mother collected section by section out of canadian homes magazine in the 1950s, and then assembled with a weird spring binding (that i guess came with the magazine as well?). according to the open library it has a total of 1,056 pages! this one is missing a few (e.g. the index after i think "p") but is still pretty hefty.

the pastry recipe is mine - she has pages of them in her book, but this is my standard no-recipe-needed pie crust (the basic rule is twice as much flour as fat by weight, and don't forget the acid). i don't look for other pie recipes unless i'm feeling very fancy. if you are making pastry from scratch, start well ahead - preferably the day before.

hungarian apple pie

pastry:
1 1/2 to 2 cups pastry flour
2 tbs sugar
a shake or 2 of salt
5 oz shortening of some kind (butter, lard, margarine, vegetable oil shortening, or some combination of any of the above - i use half-and-half butter and lard), cold and cut into bits
1 tbs vinegar or lemon juice
4 to 6 tbs ice water

filling:
2 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and sliced in 1/8ths
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

topping:
1 cup pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine

for the pastry:
combine dry ingredients with a fork. add shortening however you prefer (a fork, a pastry cutter, two knives, your fingers) blending until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
sprinkle over the vinegar (this is essential for flaky pastry - the acid keeps the gluten from "activating") and a tablespoon of ice water, mix in with a fork. add additional ice-water as necessary until it starts to hold together in big clumps.
spread the clumps around a pie plate and press in to cover in an even crust just under 1/4" thick. take whatever pastry is left over and roll into a rope; use this to make a decorative edge. put the pie plate into the fridge to chill for a few hours or overnight.

for the filling:
combine the sugar and cinnamon. use to coat the apple slices. arrange neatly in the pie crust.

for the topping:
combine flour and sugar, then rub in the shortening as for pastry. sprinkle over the apples to cover.

bake the pie for about an hour at 350F. allow to cool for a while before eating, or you'll burn yourself. we tucked into our pie hours later, and it was still warm!

full steam ahead

wow. so i knit an afghan for my mother-in-law for xmas, and didn't i feel special for finishing it early, especially when she decided to head south for the winter a full six weeks before yuletide!

problem was, while i was finished knitting, i wasn't really finished. i still had the accursed blocking to do. and, there was the question of where to block it - it's really a whole-dining-room affair, and there was the chance that she'd be staying over a night or two before it was ready. so, i arranged to block it at the house of my friend and neighbour, amylovesred.

problem was, i went to the fracture clinic (did i mention that i broke my foot seven weeks ago?) on the monday morning (after we found out about mil's travel plans) and the doc said i should start putting weight on it, and go without the cast - at home at the very least, but preferably all the time. one day of that and i was toast. so did i find the energy to make the one-minute walk down to amy's house with my pins and boards? no, i did not. and suddenly it was the very busy day before the day when mil was coming to lunch, and too late to block it anywhere.


before:


why not, i thought, just iron it? it's briggs & little, and i find all wool to be wonderfully forgiving, and b&l the most forgiving and hardy of all, so why not give it a shot?

and you know? it worked! and i'm sure it didn't take much longer than soaking and pinning would have, not counting the days it would have taken to dry. it was certainly tedious - i started from the middle (the pattern is a rectangle, knit from the centre out to each end), pinned what would fit on my ironing board, spritzed, pressed, and moved on to the next section. but! it is done. and it looks so nice. i'm quite pleased with myself.

after:

since last i posted...

stuffing, dishes, sweeping, mopping, mashed potatoes, carrots, kale, roast chicken, gravy, more dishes, putting everything away, and it must be naptime by now, don't you think?

sunday morning

so far today: wholewheat blueberry pancakes. so good! i used soft organic whole-wheat flour & buttermilk. buttermilk makes the best pancakes.



next, apple pie! we had two pounds of the tiniest apples in our organic box this week. here are eleven tiny apples...



... covered in cinnamon sugar...



... and streusel topping from madame benoit's encyclopedia of canadian cuisine. this is the apple my my mother always made.



now, i need to make stuffing and roast a chicken!

another one bites the dust

another xmas gift is completed! and again no pics or anything because it's a surprise. maybe i should be proactive and write a bunch of blog posts with patterns etc. scheduled to publish starting boxing day.

another xmas is nearly at our throats

i love it, i do, but so much to get done! i'm beginning to wish i had a swift, looking at the 10 skeins of yarn that needs winding for a gift i'm just about to cast on. only one gift is done so far, one is about three-quarters done, and one about a third. so far behind!

also, there is the wreath* i started last year. all i need to do is the yellow centres and the assmbly! it's just finding the time, sigh.

*mine is made out of briggs & little and white buffalo, in off-white with green leaves though

am i the only one?

i can't be the only one who is worrying about christmas cards. we need to get on it, now! my hope is to get harry to contribute something seasonal, but he may be a little bit too little. certainly the recurring theme in his artistic endeavours is less an aesthetic sense than a desire to get his canvas of choice so sodden with medium that a hole is easily worn through.

but if that leaves it up to me, then what?

happy hallowe'en!

what a disappointment! hardly anyone knocked on our door. i was bummed about not having time to do more decorating, but now i'm glad i didn't bother. any only one trick-or-treater recognized corpse bride. to her credit, she was shocked and appalled to hear that no one else got it.

i did it!

finished the secret knitted xmas present! whee. of course i've got a bunch more knitting to do for xmas, but so far so good.

also, spent a good chunk of the afternoon working on my corpse bride outfit. finished the dress, and took some pics along the way, which i'll post tomorrow. all done except the wig! there's my job for tomorrow i guess...

i need one of these...

custom leather thimble. between quilting and sewing velcro on the turtle, my fingertips are perforated! and the design of this is so simple. will add it to the never-ending to do list, i guess...

argh

of course the night before he needs his costume for school would be the night mr sleeps-like-a-log can't sleep, necessitating numerous visits from mummy and time spent sitting quietly in his room in the dark where i couldn't get any sewing done.

anyway, it's minus the booties, and the velcro needs reinforcing, and i had a clever plan for earholes, but it's done for now!



note to self: buy a thimble. hmm, maybe that could go in my xmas stocking.

c'est l'hallowe'en!

so i finally got around to starting h's turtle costume tonight. i was laying out the pattern pieces on the fabric and tg was hovering around making silly comments to which i would grunt in reply and then he said "look there's a cockroach on the counter!" and i turned around and instead of a bug it was actually a beautifully wrapped present! he had been trying to get me to turn around for 15 minutes but i was too caught up in what i was doing.

so i open it, and what is inside? a completely gorgeous pair of kai tailor's shears! and some extra bonus scissors besides! they cut like a dream, and the timing is perfect because i was just about to hack into the polar fleece not to mention all of the xmas pjs i intend to make and i ended up buying the elvis fabric to make a shirt for harry. so, lots of cutting in my future. triple yay.

i have now cut out all the pieces for h's costume (i wonder if i can cut through 4 layers of felt at once? yes!!) as well as a mad men-inspired dress for me. i think i'll cut out a skirt too before i go to bed.

and just for fun, here are a couple of snaps of my vv boutique haul for the corpse bride costume:

whoa

being somewhat dippy, i tend to believe in a kind of fate. if something is really difficult, maybe it's because you shouldn't be doing it. if things fall nicely into place, on the other hand...

i swung by value village on the way home today, to see if they happened to have a few things i would need if i want to be corpse bride for hallowe'en - a light blue formal gown, some sort of lace doily thing to dress up the bodice, off-white bride-y-but-wearable shoes, a twig wreath for my hair, etc.

i found all of these things, and a cute 1950s vintage cotton dress. score. also went to zellers and bought some cheap bernat yarn in two shades of blue for a wig, and facepaint. whee! i can pull this off in a week (considering i will spend all weekend making h's snapping turtle first), right? of course i can!

can't resist...

giveaway for a super-cute dress! straight from a decade i prefer to this one! check out in the heyday for a chance at a free fleur dress. lovely!

temptation

i always get the right ideas at the wrong times. i still haven't started the snapping turtle costume yet for little h (and now he wants it to be a skeleton snapping turtle) and we were talking about decorating the house (by planting skeleton seeds and growing trees with skeletons hanging from them - he's just under 4) when i had this idea - maybe i could get a couple of refrigerator boxes and cut them into tree shapes and we could have a scary enchanted forest, just like in corpse bride. and i could make a skeleton puppy, just like in the movie, and a couple of skeleton people (i even have a proper bowler hat for one to wear) and i could wear a tattered gown like the corpse bride herself.








this would have been a great idea if i had thought of it last month instead of worrying about xmas!

did i ever

post a pic of the ujein sweater? i don't think i did... it's hard to wear because the wool is too warm for summer, and the backlessness is too breezy for other seasons. anyway i wore it today (forecast: "it's 9 degrees now, but it will be sunny and 24 degrees later") so here is a pic of me in the bathroom at work:



so on the way home from work today, i swung by fabricland to get fabric for the bambino's snapping turtle hallowe'en costume. i also saw this awesome elvis fabric:



but i resisted, since xmas is fast approaching and i'm going to make pyjamas not just for the bamibno this year, but for the whole family!



the red print is for the kiddo, the light print is for me, and i got a coordinating solid dark red for tg. and a bunch of dark green piping and buttons the same for all of us so we'll all coordinate without being too obnoxiously matchy-matchy. it will still be obnoxiously cuddly cute though.

you would think

that considering i have been out of commission, i would be posting more. oopsie!

anyway i finished my ladylike sweater sweater during a mad men marathon that sadly ended with season two as those are all the episodes i could find online. not fair! anyway i thought it was a good match as i could totally see peggy wearing the sweater. don't you think?



now i just have to finish the mauve one, which is mainly a problem of staying awake long enough.



no pics of my other work-in-progress, since it's a gift, but you can see it on ravelry.

whee!

ok so i had decided one of the things i want to get the bambino for xmas is a toboggan, and i was looking around online and didn't see any that were just right (that may be because it is barely october, but whatever). then i thought "maybe i can find project plans for my dream sled and build it." and then after looking around for those, it finally occurred to me what the ideal dream sled would look like:



won't be working on this till my foot is better, but stay tuned for details!

the trouble with... my life

when did i post last? i forget. but certainly it was before i got braces (last monday) and broke my foot (last friday). i had set everything aside to work on xmas presents and such, but after the foot incident i decided "i wasn to do things for me me me" and went back to my yellow sweater, which i was sufficiently unhappy with that i frogged it entirely. have started from scratch improvising based on a memory of what i want it to look like. so far so good - body is almost done (i'm past the waist and shaping). whee.

also, i really like beatnik and when i was looking at my stash to see if i somehow already had enough yarn for it, i realised i could do that and the 1930s 3-hour sweater that i'm keen on, if i frogged the stripey dress i cast on and instantly got bored with. so, while i haven't frogged yet (hedging) i've almost done the back of the sweater (and yes, it does take more than 3 hours) while watching the trouble with harry, one of hitchcock's more light-hearted films, featuring a quite young shirley maclaine, and edmund gwenn (aka kris kringle from miracle on 34th street and (as tg pointed out) charlie from charlie's angels. very weird to hear that voice coming from a person instead of an intercom box (and it's sad that although john forsythe has done so much other stuff, that intercom box is how i remember him).

another day over and what have you done?

today: groceries, prepping food (quiche filling & crust & bread) for having cousin over for lunch tomorrow, squash soup, zipping around with the bambino, mailing packages, working on mil's xmas present (no pics in case she ever checks here!), going through photos, etc. failed miserably in my attempt to consume sticky toffee before monday's orthodontist appointment. did, however, buy "fancy" bacon, which will be cooked crispy and consumed with glee. and enjoyed a yummy steak along with salad culled from backyard and garlic bread (a simple meal, but one of my all-time favourites). best part was knitting & reading on the front porch while the bambino decorated the sidewalk, until i realised he was eating chalk.

it's beginning...

Xmas is less than 3 months away! And the kid now has an elf hat to go with his socks to get him in the spirit. I've written up the pattern as well, in case anyone else can't stop thinking about the holidays already. I've only written it up for their size (3 1/2-year-old with a big head) but it should be easy to size up or down, as long as your cast-on is divisible by 8. Here's the pattern! I knit it out of Briggs & Little Tuffy - bought on sale, that means a hat and socks for only $5! yay.

A couple of things you will need to know for the hat: short row shaping, s2sk (like ssk, except you slip 2 tog, then one, and then knit through all 3 - a centred decrease from 3 stitches to 1), kfbf (knitting in the front and back and front of a stitch to make 3 out of 1.

back to work... time to relax

made it through the long weekend! final count:

* 1 skirt
* 1 pr pyjamas
* 3 lasagnas
* 2 polenta with rapini
* 2 chicken cacciatore
* 2 colcannon
* 1 big pot of lentil and swiss chard soup
* 1 batch of vegan peanut butter cookies which mysteriously disappeared within hours of baking

also, i managed to convince the boy to pose in his elf socks:



and i have just turned the cuff on a matching elf hat:



and i drafted some alterations to a pattern for a turtle costume to make it more like a snapping turtle.

phew!

it really is labour day weekend

busy day today - a trip to the library with the bambino's asl instructor, some sewing (a 1930s-ish bias-cut wool plaid skirt in time for fall, finally finished the second set of pjs for the beenster - well almost, i still have to add buttons) trip to the danforth, visiting with neighbours, grocery shopping, etc. etc. why am i not in bed yet?

is it too early to think about xmas?

of course not! i've got a to-do list going already of gifts to knit, and
stuff that needs doing around the house (e.g. paint living room). last
year was just horrible in so many ways, i am really hoping that this
year will make up for that in wonderfulness. so, i've already started
accumulating stocking stuffers, and have finished elf sock #1. really
hoping i have enough in the skein to do an elfy hat as well.

the list so far:

- elf socks & hat for harry (done by 10 december for holiday party)
- repaint living room
- build shelves in dining room (ambitious? moi?)
- gift for gogo (have yarn but haven't cast on)
- gift for siena (started but much still to do)
- gift for tg (need yarn!!)
- finish the *@# wreath
- need new cushion covers for living room
- update xmas card list
- make xmas cards!

and of course i need to figure out what to get for a bunch of other
people. never too soon to start!

city knitting

back to the city, back to the usual. knitting monday brought a return to the dreaded "surface" wrap, but i'm down to one last bobble row before i go on to the ribbing (thank goodness). also, i "taught" (or rather re-taught) jen to knit! another convert, and a way to get rid of leftover "hunter orange" yarn.

meanwhile, the slow-going spring dreams dress has grown a little more! i am reminded of the classic haiku by (i think) issa:

o snail
climb mount fuji
but slowly, slowly!



p.s. "amy's scarf" won first prize at the fair! whooo. "20000 leagues" sadly won nothing because i missed running in a few ends. blast you, intarsia!

i am stupid excited about this!

i am officially registered at the fenelon fair - exhibitor 1705! didn't get the quilt done (found out too late that you have to provide fabric samples - to prove you made the quilt yourself - and hadn't brought any [i don't think there were any scraps left, anyway] so i wasn't terrifically motivated to finish the last few letters - also it is the only blanket-type-object harry was willing to accept at the cottage - he calls it his "turtle shell" and if i tried to work on it he would say "hey, where's my shell?" and take it back) but the 20000 leagues cardigan is in, along with amy's scarf. yay!! cannot wait to go tomorrow and see the results!!

why am i still awake?

drove home from the cottage this evening, super-tired after a week of fun and relaxing and knitting (20000 leagues cardigan and amy's scarf are done!) and baking (cherry cobbler, raspberry custard pie with chocolate crust - i think i've got it this time - bread and pancakes pancakes pancakes) and swimming and the rest of it. wish i was still there. more later. sigh.

cottage plans

our week at the cottage is almost here! so i need to decide which projects to bring with me. the long-hibernating quilt is definitely on the list, because i intend to enter it into the fenelon falls fair. also i think the dreaded surface wrap, because it's mindless at this point and i want it done. and harry's squid sweater. is that enough? should i bring more? what about the "spring dreams" dress? it's the most exciting to me at the moment, but it was going to be my "work" project. i am keen to get stuck into the frost flowers though and see how it all works out.

so far, i've done 10 rows of 17 of the modifed half-chart i'm using on the sleeve:

holy slowly!

have completed row 3 of the main "frost flowers" chart! go me! not that it looks like anything yet though.

dumbest project ever

so i had this idea that my real problem in life is that i don't have any "spring/transitional" clothing, and if i did - say, an apple green 1930s-style day-dress with elbow-length sleeves and a bit of lace - my life would be infinitely better. why i would be thinking such a thing in the middle of july is beyond comprehension. so i thought "well i'll just look at knitpicks to see what's out there as far as superwash wool fingering in apple green is concerned." and just by coincidence they happened to have stroll on sale in a colour called "granny smith" (discontinued i think - it's gone from the site, so i guess i got the last of it).

anyway i've cast on and started knitting. i really need to swatch the lace, but kind of can't bear the idea of knitting a bunch of lace and not using it especially on a project of this size where i am likely to get bored well before i finish. so, if all goes well, this swatch will become a sleeve. i'm almost done the first chart. we'll see how it goes!

actual project:



inspiration:

peanut butter pie?

take two on the peanut butter pie experiment was better than take one (which it seems i didn't blog about), but i haven't quite hit the sweet spot. the peanut butter pie of my memories is a bit more custardy, and the crust i used isn't quite there - adapted from this recipe but cocoa without any sugar is a bit too bitter with this pie (which is more rich than sweet).

more experiments needed! recipe to come once the ideal is found.

finally!

after monopolizing the kitchen table for weeks, unable to find time to work on harry's pjs between my bad back and entertaining harry and other obligations, i finally managed to get one pair finished! grabbing 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there is really not that efficient a way to do it, though... especially when somewhere in the meantime i seem to have lost half of the buttons. argh.

it is also getting harder to get a decent shot of the young model as he likes to make funny faces and jump up and down!

keep on keeping on

not much news around here... i am pleased with how quickly the amy pond scarf is knitting up though. it's never quick enough of course, but it is already close to two feet long which means i am about a third of the way done! (the plan is to keep going until the yarn runs out, so it might be longer or shorter, but i'm hoping for roughly six feet.)

a strange twilight world opened up before me, and i felt as the first man to set foot on another planet, an intruder in this mystic garden of the deep

i've finished the back of the 20000 leagues under the sea curling sweater! and even though yesterday when harry was playing with my orange yarn, he said he hates sweaters when i told him i was using it to make him a sweater, today when i showed it to him, he thought it was pretty cool.

oh, boo

well i picked up some more briggs & little heritage from lovely laura on monday for harry's "20000 leagues under the sea" cardigan, and guess what? when i had a look at what i had already done, i realised it was waaay too large. i.e., size 12 when he is only 3. whoops! so i ripped it all out and started over, and now i have reached the same point in the pattern as i had before i frogged. i told my husband that this is the great thing about knitting - even if you make a mistake, you are rewarded by getting more knitting to do! he seemed somewhat dubious about that though.

does it ever bother you that your life doesn’t make sense?

I think that's the proper quote from the show, but in any case, close enough. My fingerless gloves are done! Just in time for a heatwave. But you wouldn't wear thrummed mitts or something in a heatwave, would you? No, fingerless makes much more sense. I've typed up the pattern, based on the supremely clever Tilting Tardis Cowl pattern by Novembergirl. Re-written to be in the round, and have thumbs, and with a few tweaks because I am incapable of leaving well enough alone. Enjoy!

squidoo

i have many things on the go - the amy gloves, the re-awoken surface stole, the stripey dress, the neverending quilt... but instead i just had to start on this old to-do-list-er today. so, i spent the morning charting and doing math. the style is the classic zip-front curling sweater, and the inspiration is the old disney movie 20000 leagues under the sea. the front features a diver with a crazy helmet and a starfish, the sleeves feature some generic fish, and the back - the back! features this:



only my giant squid will be orange!

i'll get some charts up once i'm satisfied with it all. or hey, maybe this will be my first for-sale pattern. i keep saying that though, don't i.