Hibernation

Dear Blog,

I am sorry I left you for so long.  I don't know what happened to November.  One day it was here, the next it was gone.  If you feel that I do not love you anymore, you are wrong.  I have been passing the time knitting like a crazed women on meds.  I do not have any pictures because I am too lazy to put them onto the un-rewritable discs that the stupid pharmacy make me pay $4.99 for each time a take pictures.  I have failed you miserably and for that I am sorry.  Now, get over it.

Hibernation:  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary hibernation means one of two things: 1."to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state." or 2. "to be or become inactive or dormant."  Last night I thought for sure hibernation was setting into my household.  My husband and I both went to bed at 8:30...and it was wonderful.  I thought for sure we were becoming dormant and then I remembered last weekend. 

Last weekend a beautiful snow descended upon our western Kansas prairie, and I went into a knitting frenzy.  I made delicious soup, settled myself on the couch and started/finished I don't even know how many projects.  Now, if by dormant the dictionary means that for all intensive purposes I never left the couch, then by all means call me dormant.  But, because the production of knitwear does actually require me to sit down (not always..I used to knit while bartending) does that in fact mean that I am dormant?  I choose to say no. Do these sudo-dormant days of endless knitting, soup eating, movie watching in fact create an end product....yes!  So my conclusion is that I am indeed not dormant, just choosing weather appropriate activities. (I know, I know....I would do these activities in the middle of the summer if I had air conditioning, but touche) 

This is my favorite weather.  I was born in the winter and I think that every winter I feel like I have come full circle into my time of year.  I love the cold.  I love wrapping up in all of my woollies.  I love taking walks in the cold. I am so happy to be having a winter baby, I just can't imagine how my knitting would have turned out otherwise.  I love the winter.  Weird I know.  But if I could live in perpetual winter, or at least a longer winter and cooler summer, I would.  Happily.  Graciously.  I envy those who do, doesn't anybody have a job opening in Canada!  (I'm up for anything and have a wide variety of skills sets....just FYI).  To me winter is the baring of the soul of nature.  There are no pretty, green coverings, no beautification, just raw, unkempt beauty.  The starkness and contrast of bare trees and earth against soft white snow and crisp, fresh air is like refreshment for the soul.  A re birthing if you will.  Nature needs a birthday and that comes in the winter.  It's a time to rest, recoup, reheat the soul...to hibernate.  

Happy hibernating.

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest, my absolute favorite time of the year, came and went without a hitch this year....well, for the most part.

We start off with several work days and this year we decided to make the balls for the berox bigger..(I've been waiting all day to type that!) I mean, who doesn't want bigger balls, but I digress...  Anyway, everybody is happier in this state of bigger balls because bigger balls means more meat and more satisfied costumers. 

There were a few unforeseen problems, we'll start with the obvious..

1. Bigger balls use less dough.
2. Less dough usage means more dough leftover.
3. More leftover dough means making more cinammen rolls...and finally
4. Bigger balls means less berox. 

Crap.

We didn't plan on that...but what we did plan on was that there were two really big weddings going on in town and a free engagement dance at the local American Legion.  We'll be fine.  We weren't.  We sold out of those babies in a hour flat.  We had to start selling the hot berox for the food line for the people that buy them by the dozen (usually frozen), and even then we were worried about making it to our 7:30 deadline.  I left early from the stress of it (actually, I'm pregnant, and I couldn't stand on my feet anymore), but everyone seemed happy and got their berox fix.

My Aunt Emmy happily making her balls! (Seriously, it never gets old!) These balls are actually for Galuskies (cabbage rolls..no idea how to spell the German name).
Happy October (the best month in the whole calander!)

Baby Surprise is here!

Introducing.....my first baby surprise jacket!!

Surprisingly easy to knit, (pun intended!).  I was worried about figuring out how this little guy was going to go together, but it literally just plopped in place.  Like it couldn't imagine being any other way!  How do you like my stripe "design"?  Another one of my wonderfully placed stripes (attempt to make beautiful red hand-dyed NOT RUN OUT!!)  I have to say, I just keep getting better at this striping thing.  It makes me want to cry a little...I'm that good, not to mention prepared!  I think being prepared is always the key.  Don't ever just go down to your stash and say, believe how many yards it says your project will take...bring a striping friend just in case.  Definitely DO NOT go down to your stash in a panic and try to find a companion yarn to magically insert a stripe just any old place...be prepared, like the boy scouts.

I just had to make the Yarn Harlot's adorable baby booties.....

I actually ended up with three of these adorable little guys...in three different sizes to boot!  These are the closest matching two.  That always happens to me..the first one always turns out monstrous and the other two more closely resemble something that wouldn't be put on a giant baby.  This happens when I knit socks as well, but I just tell everyone one will be bigger than the other, and deal with it.  Cause I ain't knitting three socks!  It is a strange phenomenon I must say, and I haven't really encountered anyone else with this problem.  If you have this problem, please let me know I am not alone in the foot wear knitting world!  Thankfully, these little guys have ties!

It's about scarfing time!

IT'S ABOUT SCARF TIME!!!  Sorry...I didn't mean to yell at you I just got a little excited!  I love scarf weather.  There is just something about the crisp autumn air the puts a spring in your step.  The crisp apples, the different colors all around....I just get excited!  After the heat of this summer, it is nice to cool down and throw a scarf on.  I made this cute scarflette last Christmas for my sis.  She hates putting things around/over her head because it creates so much static..(I think it's awesome watching her walk around like she's plugged into a light socket.  Sometimes I don't even tell her that her hair looks like it's trying to reach Pluto...why would I?  It's just so darn funny.)  So this was a perfect solution, I just added a button and off she goes.  I am kind of sad to see the other worldly hair style go bye bye..but...

I love bulky wool.  I don't hardly ever knit with it because I couldn't actually wear it on my skinniest day.  It's great as and accessory, but not great if you don't want to look like the Stay Fresh Marshmallow Man. 

My favorite green scarf will be back in the rotation again this year.  It has felted  into a different version of itself.  It's still my favorite though and extra soft but the alpaca has a tendency to spring off in tiny tufts and attach to my eyeballs.  The pain we go through for our knitting...if it only knew....

HAPPY SCARFING!!

Flowers...con't..

So, my obsession with the Louisa Harding flowers didn't exactly stop at say, one or two projects.  Like I said, they sort of take over your life...like the first time you tried Nutella...that stuff rocks!

This shawl was for my little friend Onesti.  My mother started it as a prayer shawl, and when she was in the hospital at the end of her earthly life, I picked it up with the need to work on something that she had worked on too.  I will never be able to look at this shawl and not think fondly of my mother, and little Onesti got to have two wonderful sets of hands making this for her. 

Onesti's mom was the proud recipient of these beflowered items.  All my designs except the mittens, which are EZ's Curled Tipped Mittens.  Yarn is of unknown stash origin.  

And speaking of mittens......

I am very proud of this design and it will be coming to you soon via Ravelry.  My hubby bugged me for these shooting mittens FOREVER!  I finally gave in and he is the happiest hunter around!  Warm, but you can still pull a trigger...priceless.

Going Back...

So, baby surprise is waiting on buttons and a bath.  So before I indulge you with baby surprise, which by the way went together practically on it's own, I thought I would take you back for a while to some past projects...

This is Rachelle's hat...it is my own design.  Sadly, I do not have a cool ravelry link for you to buy the pattern, but it is coming soon!  The flower is a Louisa Harding design.  I may have mentioned once or twice that I did get to spend some time with Louisa in the south of France (I am totally name dropping and proud of it!) and this is one of the really fun things she contributed to our knitting party.  I kind of went nutso on the flower making...as you will see later.  The yarn is Knit Picks Crayon Boucle in Lime.  Very fun. 

A couple more of my designs and as you can see, I'm flower crazy.  They're just so cute and you can take them off and wear them on a jacket or sweater if you like and so....my obsession with flowers, (excuse the pun).  These are more of my designs.  I never write anything down when I start something like this, but now I have to hold myself to it since I already said I was going to actually write down a pattern and possibly make it available on ravelry.  These are made out of my all time favorite alpaca, Blue Sky Alpaca, bulky 50/50 wool/alpaca.  I could cuddle up with a skein of this stuff every night. If it was butter I'd butter every piece of bread in the house and eat it up..Atkins be damned.

And last flower design of the day, certainly not the least.....

Once again, a gift started with out a pattern and voila!!  Cute red bag.  I did end up felting the straps, because unlike clothing, straps should just not be stretchy.  This is Brown Sheep, the most felt able yarn around.  And again...flowers.  I'm telling you, don't start with these things because one day you're just trying out the flower thing and the next day they are strewn all over your house adorning things like, coffee tables, table runners, every jacket you own.  Thanks Louise for the new addiction, as if I didn't have enough already.  (Note to Terese: I love you very much, but if you don't start using this bag that I slaved over I will steal it from you and use it for a diaper bag.  I'm not joking!)

And just to put my money where my mouth is......

Me and Louisa....looking very cheeky!!

Baby Surprise

 First I want to thank the Yarn Harlot for such a beautiful post on her blog for baby Marlowe.  Inspiring!

That is the first baby surprise and the second is that I finally started my very first baby surprise jacket for the impending arrival of my very own baby Cash.  I am using the most beautiful yarn that I got on vacation with my good friend Amber from a wonderful artist in Estes Park, CO.  Neota Designs produces the most wonderful hand dyed yarns and I haven't ever seen a red quite so deep and rich and beautiful and....red! 

I am anxious to see the whole "surprise" in the jacket and I am only hoping I can figure out how the thing goes together. 

Speaking of my friend Amber...I have been working on some sketches for her upcoming wedding next Sept. I am hoping to make her dress as I have made all of my friends' dresses.  We are in a bit of a tiff, but I am hoping everything will work out OK as it usually does with two women who know each other a little too well.  I was with her when I got the yarn for the baby surprise, and only the two of us would take 12 hours to get home on a 6 hour drive!  Needless to say it involved one of us sleeping, one of us driving and neither of us checking the map....oops!  Our men were very perplexed, but it's pretty much the run of the mill for the two of us.  You're talking away one minute and the next you are three hours out of your way....it happens!  Amber if you are reading this, I love you for who you are and I love getting lost with you! 

And for surprise number three....My main man and I finally got married last weekend!!!  I can't express how truly amazing it was to say those vows to him and recognize our commitment to each other.  My friend Amber also made me the most beautiful hairpiece and I am sorry to say that the picture does it no justice.  I didn't make my dress, as I didn't know what size I would be and happily, I was too busy knitting to really have the creative energy to make anything.  Those of you who know me will understand how rare it is for me to mark an occasion of this magnitude and not make something for myself to wear,  but when everyday you get up and don't know how big your belly is going to be, it can be somewhat intimidating to break out the shears and put them to some expensive fabric!  Instead I had a handmade headpiece and it was amazing...

Busy Bee

I have been a very busy bee the past few weekends...and I have the pictures to prove it!  Not all of it knitting, although I did get quite a bit of knitting done on our vacation. 

This was weekend one.  I am surprised at how long it took me to can just 22 cans of tomatoes.  As soon as I had help it went twice as fast, but bring on soups and stews....I'm ready for you!

Then off on vacation for 5 days of relaxing and fishing.  The weather in Nebraska was cool and I am happy to say I only wore shorts for part of one day.  My favorite weather!  I am a typical knitter in that I always wish I lived in Canada...or Maine...somewhere not so hot!  Maybe someday.

I put that sideways one on there to see if you are paying attention!!  Really though I haven't figured out how to turn them yet...still a good catch though!  And finally some knitting....

This is my Rosamund's Cardigan and I am using a scruptious yarn Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama in Peony.  I have actually already knit this project to this point one time before, when I realized an error way too far back...ok...the beginning...so I started it over.  Then I experience an enormous brain fart and suddenly my cables didn't look so pretty.  Not to worry, the lovely Max at Gove City Yarns hooked  me up as always and I am now back on track.  The baby blanket is in a stagnated state however, I am sorry to say.  But hopefully as the weather cools off I will come back to eventually. 

I had this whole system rigged up to make one gigantic circular needle, and sadly, almost every time I pick it up something goes wrong.  The last time I lost stitches, it was almost all of them and it was almost more than I could handle.  Where do I get off thinking that I can just make the biggest connective circle of knitting ever known to man and get away with it?  I only have a few more color changes left, so I am not giving up....but if I weren't pregnant, I would be drinking wine to get through it!

The Hunger Descends....

I am in approximately the 22nd week of pregnancy, and I really haven't had a whole lot to complain about so far.  I have felt pretty well, I've been exercising, and remarkably I have been eating pretty well.  Until this week.  It, (The Hunger), descended on me like humidity after a week of hard rain.  I was fine and then I discovered sweets...desserts, chocolate, lemon bars, chocolate covered peanuts...any and everything that has sugar in it.  It's not limited to baked goods, it could be fruit or veges or a lime aide...I don't care what it is, as long as I can get it into my mouth fast.  I made a batch of lemon bars last night, in the blistering heat, and this morning when I woke up I realized that I had eaten half the pan.....WHAT???  Did I black out and just shovel them in at Nascar speed or was I sleep eating?  Here's the worst part of all.....I ate them for breakfast.  They are just so lemony and gooey and lemony..I love them.  My world it lemon bar covered and if Willy Wanka walked in the door right now, I would do a little dance. Plus, he would probably bring me more sugar....and Umpaloompa's.

MY FIRST COMMENT!!

My very first comment has been posted...thank you Amber! Ok, she is totally my best friend, but here's hoping someday other people will join in and post away.  I was perusing the interenet today (I could totally while away and afternoon doing this) and I came across a new blog I am totally excited about.  Actually, I don't think it's really new, just new to me.  Bitches Get Stitches.  Steven is really funny and he's like me, we just blog to blog.  Both knitters, not really designers, just knitting and talking about it.

 Of course, anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a total Yarn Harlot fanatic!! I do mean that in the best sense of the word.  I just love her and she is so funny and...nobody on this planet could out knit her!  I am totally convinced of that.  I am still super bummed out that I couldn't go to sock summit, even though I don't knit a lot of socks.  Really I was just going for a Harlot sighting and of course, the flash mob!  I totally could have rocked that dance! 

So, I don't sell anything..yet and I don't design a whole lot.  At least, I design when I need to or when I want something to be a certain way.  I never seem to write it down or do it the same way twice.  I am working on that.  I did try for my lys, and Betty was very sweet about my attempt.  But, I did see my totally awesome mitton under a not so important looking pile of stuff in the bathroom so I am not holding out hope that she will want me to publish my pattern for sale any time soon.  How do you do that anyway?  Do I have to have a copywrite?  What if I don't want to put it on Etsy? 

So for now I knit and blog.  And read other people's blogs.  And look at really great designs and patterns for sale on other people's blogs. 

P.S.  I did design wedding gowns for 12 years, and shockingly, those crazy brides kind of drove me to the brink of insanity....maybe why I am not putting myself out there just yet.  But, you never know....

I love/hate lace!

I have a love/hate relationship with lace.  Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful to look at, but sometimes I wonder if, occasionally, when a designer is charting a lace pattern if they don't maybe, take a snooze in the middle of it and their hand jolts suddenly, drastically or not so drastically changing the chart just to make us all go a little crazy??!!  I really think that is what happens, I mean it can't be me right??...How could I do the same row over, and over, and OVER (insert expletive), and it STILL ISN'T RIGHT???   So, after a wonderful learning experience, I ended up with this beauty for my friend Katherine. Eleanor Cowl with the glorious yarn Sublime angora/merino.

So, even though it was all worth while, I still think that lace charters have the hardest job in the world.  This coming from a lady that has had such a bad day of work that the only thing that would console me was a hot fudge sunday.  It was THE BEST hot fudge sunday I've had in a long time!  Like the button on my knitting bag says, "knitting is cheaper than therapy" except when you are knitting lace.  Then only chocolate, ice cream, wine  and/or an antidepressant will do.

When I slipped and fell...

When I had my fall the other day, I was miraculously uninjured...I know you are very glad to hear that!  The byproduct of my little spill was a gorgeous ice blue merino/angora cowl for a dear friend of mine.  A little sample...

No that is not my work computer!!  I have no idea what you are talking about!!!??!!

Where does the cuteness end?

When you think of all things baby, there is an underlying cuteness that could melt even the coldest of hearts.  I have been working on clothing for my baby, who will be here in December, and I have been having a splended time!  There have been some mishaps...(if I ever get this green blanket done I may acutally jump for joy, and believe me, that is getting harder every day!)  Really, what was I thinking of when I decided to put a feather and fan border around this honkin blanket anyway?  They don't make circular needles that big....hopefully, my wonderful yarn lady extrodinaire will come to my rescue...thank you Betty at Gove City Yarn (link further down).  Here are a few finished products.....

Louisa Harding's Harvey Kimono from her book, Natural Knits for Babies and Moms.  I used Panda Cotton from Crystal Palace in Denim and I have a ton of really cool vintage buttons from my travels and garage sales.  Strangely, I don't have very many red buttons, so these are mismatched....I think it adds to the overall cuteness factor!  This is the only newborn sweater I am allowing myself, as they are really easy to succumb to but not so easy to make your baby stop growing! 

This is Beanie hat, same designer and book....I know what you're thinking....no, I am not totally obsessed w/ Louisa, but she is a perfect gem and I did manage to spend a week in the south of France with her, not that I'm name dropping or anything!!! Ok, I'm name dropping, but I can prove it but I'm going to make you wait.  I am also going to make you wait on the cutest mittons ever, only because I have to retake the picture....And I also have to make you wait because just like one minute ago I acidentally slipped and fell, and when I got back up it turns out I had started a new project....they just sneek up on you sometimes..you have to be vewy, vewy careful....

Backyard Bash

Last weekend was our backyard bash her in Dighton, America.  Kyle and I put our car in the show and drooled over all the awesomely cool cars....last year we got stuck beside this amazing little red convertable.  This year we got stuck by......

The coolest Cadilac I've ever seen!  It's really amazing all of the work that goes into some of these cars, but it makes our humble, all original Chevelle seem like a CZ in a swarm of diamonds.  Here is our super awesome Chevelle....

Not bad for an eight year rebuild!!  It rains every year on bash weekend, and this year was no exception! It's never enough to amount to much, just enough to shut down the music for a few hours.  Fun was had by all, including a very young spectator, Mary Margaret, who is always casually elegant.

Not quite a newborn sweater

I have just finished this very cute sweater by Nikki Van De Car, Maile, ( http://www.whattoknitwhen.com/)
and even though, apparently, my guage was off (stupid guage) and apparently, I didn't have enough green tweed cotton,(stupid stash yarn)...it still turned out well, inspite of itself.  I always think that a well placed accent color stripe (panicked effort to save said sweater), and perhaps different colored collars and cuffs (another effort to stretch green yarn,all be it a foresight) always add a bit of whimsy to an already fantastic design!  I say, never fear a pattern taking on a life of it's own (constantly eyeballing that last, ever dwindling skein of precious green yarn) and forge onward....to a really cute, 12-16 month sweater that started as a newborn sweater!