FOs- Fuzzy warm things

It took three attempts to get the right mitten right, but finally, it's done. The headband wasn't very cooperative either - I wanted to do it in 2x2 2-colour ribbing but apparently the mechanics of that are a bit beyond my understanding - today, anyway. So it's stripes instead, in 2x2 broken rib.

I like having the left and right mitts in reverse colour schemes, it makes the set a bit more playful looking. A word of warning though: Moda Dea Aerie does not like to be frogged. It especially does not like to be frogged more than once. Fortunately you do get good yardage out of their 50g balls; I had a bunch of little balls left over, probably enough to do another headband. Into the charity bag it goes.

I also sewed in the ends on the baby blanket and put the leftover yarn from that into stash. SO... -4 balls for the fuzzy mitts and hat, +5 balls of baby yarn = 174 balls left in stash. Not that I'm counting. :)

Now I'm back to Peter's sweater, Yumi's shawl, and my socks. I need to fit in Mom's birthday present soon, but it's small and already WIP, so I'm not too worried about that today.

Two days left in January. Thank heavens that's nearly over!

Knitten Kitten Mittens... and movies!

Ok, so I was working on the 2nd mitten while watching movie with Peter, B&K last night (review to follow). Did not pay attention, knit it too long, said "oops" and put it away to fix today. Today, frogged it, put on another movie (review to follow), and reknit. The left mitten. Again. This was supposed to be the right mitten. Oops. This I discovered when I had finished seaming it up and was about to knit the thumb. Frog again. Remember, this is muppety yarn, so this is now a Kermit mitten (ha ha funny me). It doesn't like to be frogged more than once, due to the fuzzy. It resisted. It broke in a couple places. It is now a completely frogged and re-wound into several smaller balls, pile of fuzz.

So I said to myself: "Self, you need to step away from the mitten and start the hat." Started the hat. Shaker rib in stripes. Nice! Except the shaker rib eats yarn, and there wouldn't be enough for the hat. Crap. Frog again. Go to work. Explain to Alison why her mitts/hat are going to be slightly delayed. She says, "oh, could I not have a hat? I don't wear hats. Could I have a headband, instead?" YAY!!! Because there IS enough for a headband, once I finish the mittens. I will make it in ribbit... er ribbing, and it will be lovely and soft and warm. But not tomorrow, I have chores and homework to do. :(

So now: movie reviews!

Bon Cop, Bad Cop - Very, very clever, witty in a purely Canadian way. A few disturbing moments (this is about a serial killer, so can't be all funny banter!), but overall a well-crafted and smart piece of filmmaking. All four of us enjoyed it immensely.

Accepted - Ok, didn't have very high expectations of this, being from the "American Pie" factory, but it was actually a charming little movie. Think "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Animal House", with a few other cliches thrown in. Basically a long homage to post-secondary comedy films, but with a good message in there about what higher education really should be about. AND - Lewis Black. That was a very cool surprise. :)

And now, bedtime for me. Tomorrow is laundry and food inventory (let's play "what the hell is in my freezer?", kids!), and I have to drop a load of stuff off to Sally Ann and hit the library for my research books before I go to work. Maybe whip up some lunch/dinner for Peter. He cleaned the kitchen again while I was at work. :)

My first mitten!

At the request of Alison (a sweet girl I work with at Michael's), I've finally learned to knit mittens. She had two balls of each colour left over from when I finished her scarf, and could I please make her a hat and mittens? So, figuring the yarn (Aerie by Moda Dea) is approximately the same weight as Patons Shetland Chunky, I grabbed the "Cool Weather Accessories" booklet and finally cast on for the "hands" portion of Happy Hands 'n Feet. The feet, are of course the chunky socks that I love. :)

The mitts are knit flat on a 4.5mm needle and then seamed up and the thumb knit last (also flat) and seamed up. I made an "oops" on the first attempt (dropped a stitch about 6 rows above the thumb hole, rippity rip!), but the second attempt came out great. I did change the pattern a little bit, using more contrast colour on the cuff and thumb. I think it looks awfully cute, and is VERY fuzzy and warm! You might remember Aerie is the yarn I knit my blue fuzzy shawl and the muppet hat from, last year. Fun stuff.

So now, I need to make the mate. And I'm thinking, since these are definitely left-hand and right-hand mitts, that I might reverse the colour scheme for the opposite hand. That would use equal amounts of the opposite colours, so whatever's left will be even for the hat (I hope there's enough for a hat, IIRC there should be. I'll have to go back and look at the muppet hat post).

Got a couple more rows done on Peter's sweater too, but these mitts have my full attention now. They're fun! I guess the next step would be mitts knit in the round, and then gloves... maybe next year. So many things to do and learn. I have to say though, Peter was totally impressed by the mitt-making process. He thinks it's clever that "someone figured that out, and wrote it down, way back when." He's very right. :)

FO! Baby Blanket

It needs the ends woven in, but the "Be Mine" baby blanket is done! The pattern called for 31 1/2" wide x 42" long, with the checkerboard border on all sides; I "downsized" it to a 27" square with the checkerboard on the start/finish ends only. It's certainly big enough for a wrap-up or to drape over a carseat/carrier, I think, and it's very cute and soft!

Today didn't run quite according to plan (does it ever?), I ended up doing a fair bit of housework alongside my frighteningly-motivated hubby. Now our kitchen, living room, and dining room are all clean, tidy, and presentable. No small achievement! And we got groceries, had a visit with Sandy&Dan (go Bears!), and had a lovely stir-fry for dinner. I even baked brownies.

Now, time for a bath and bed. It's been a Good Day. Look! A blankie!

Why sleeping in is bad...

Something wonky is going on with my subconscious/REM sleep whenever I sleep late on the weekends lately. I've just woken up from a series of increasingly messed up dreams, one of which involved stabbing a dear friend through the eye with a piece of commemorative silverware because he stole my story. Weird, but just in case - N8an, sorry about the eye, but get out of my brain, ok hon?

So now it is Sunday, and I'm prying open my eyelids and preparing for a day of quiet domesticity. Going to bake some Amish bread, knit, do laundry, knit, do a small and quick grocery run, knit, make some honey-garlic chicken & stir-fry veggies, knit, watch some TV, knit, and go to bed early. And hopefully, not dream weird stuff. Honestly - I dreamt I was awake, in bed, but couldn't move - how screwed up is that?

Ok, tea is ready. We have normality - I repeat, we have normality.

Stash = 192

I had already decided to knit from stash for this year when Wendy started the "knit from stash-along" on her blog. And, I had decided to do a stash sort/organize/inventory/purge over the holidays (ok, I'm a month late, sue me!). Today I got 'er done. Only took about three hours too!

192 balls or skeins, not currently in use. I didn't count stuff for WIPs because they are, well, In Progress. 192 balls or skeins, inventoried by manufacturer, name, colour, dye lot, weight, fibre content, and intended project (if any). That's also not including the nearly-full green garbage bag of purged stuff (part balls, oddballs, and stuff I just don't like anymore), which is going to one of the local gals - she's collecting yarn and needles to send overseas (Kenya, maybe?).

So the four bins is now down to three bins and a rolling tower cart. One bin 2/3 full of heavy weight yarns - mostly White Buffalo. One bin 3/4 full of chunky weight yarns - mostly Patons Shetland Chunky. One bin 3/4 full of worsted weight yarns - whoa, what a mix! And the rolling tower cart (two big drawers, four little ones) full of DK, sock yarn, and laceweight.

One WEE catch though - the fourth bin? The empty one? Yeah, it's going to be full again tout suite - with WIPs. See, I found in the bins many many MANY UFO's. And some I went, "Oh, cool!" And some I went, "aw, geez...", and some I just threw in a corner to be evaluated later. So I have a new strategy. Wanna hear it? Sure you do! My new strategy is for every WIP I finish, I resurrect one UFO and am allowed to start one NEW project. So I won't get bored of the old stuff and will progress on the project list; also I'm going to stick to my "no more than four WIPs at a time" system. Which means throwing two WIPs out of rotation for every one finished... hm. This could get complicated. Let's call the strategy itself a WIP, shall we?

And now, work. Dagnabit. But tomorrow, knit knit knit!!! Woohoo!

Non-knitting post, for Friday fun!

Got this from Leanne, an intriguing meme... mine is brought to you by the letter "N"...
"So here's how it works. You get a letter from someone, and then you list ten things, themes, theories etc in your life that begin with that letter."

Disclaimer: It's 10:30 at night, I've worked both jobs today and had a minor injury [1], so who knows how this will come out. Ok, here goes:

1) Nutrition. As in, mine sucks, but I do try. I hate most fruits and veggies, can't digest beef and most dairy. I frequently forget to take my vitamins. Still, I function. It's a WIP.

2) Nothing. Nothing is something I've not been able to do, for a pretty long time now. Leisure for me is generally directed - reading, netsurfing, tv-watching, knitting (sometimes more than one at a time). Even when I was sick in bed I was knitting and listening to homework assignments on my iPod. Nothing - not so good. I tried meditating for awhile, maybe I should take a class. Then it would feel like I was doing something, when doing nothing.

3) NyQuil. Ok, this is just a funny, but that stuff used to work great for me and now it just gives me weird dreams. Which leads to...

4) Nightmares. Recurring ones, which I won't go into here, but suffice to say maybe I've got some issues in my subconscious. But hey, who doesn't?

5) Neighbours! We've got some lovely ones here, two of whom have become very close (like, how would we have got through December without them?) friends. Even ones I don't know well, I wave to and get waved from. So much nicer than my previous living area.

6) New things. As in trying, doing - not necessarily buying, but attempting to reduce guilt when I do. It's good to have new experiences, new hobbies, new habits, new friends - new yarn! Nope, no new yarn for awhile, but you follow me. Sometimes something different just peps up your whole day.

7) Needs vs. wants. (ok, that's n+w, I'm cheating a little). In the past year I've been trying to figure out the difference, and when which is appropriate. And really, there are very few things I need, other than the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and work to provide an income to pay for food, shelter and clothing. And Peter, of course. I do need him, and unabashedly so. Really, everything else is a want, and I have most things I want. About the only thing I want (ok, sometimes it's a need) is more time. Just like everyone else.

8) Nails. I need to grow mine out some and strengthen and paint them. It makes me feel girly, which is a Good Thing(TM).

9) Nicotine. I don't smoke anymore but Peter does, so it's still a daily part of my life. It's stinky and expensive but REALLY hard to give up, so I'm tolerant. Health risks aside (don't start me!), it's one of the lesser addictions, in my opinion. I'd rather him smoke a pack a day than drink a six-pack a night, or worse.

10) Nuptuals! Yes, I managed to think of an important N word. We're getting married, four months from Sunday. Holy Crap on a Stick. I think it might be time to get that organized.

And there's my "N" post. Tricky but a fun writing exercise. Not too deep I don't think? OH! Sunday I have a whole day off. Gonna finish the baby blanket and post pictures. That's a promise, folks!

[1] In an echo of Yumi's recent lunch disaster (scroll to Jan. 9), I had a microwave mishap with my corn chowdah today - air pocket or something which went "kablooie" when I stirred it. Kablooie as in an explosion of boiling veggies and liquid up the side of my neck and face. OWIE OWIE OW! Fortunately, I was next to the sink and a quick-thinking coworker basically shoved my head under the tap, and we got all the hot stuff washed off so I only have minor red spots (first degree burns), instead of nasty blisters or worse. I did, however, get to eat the chowdah once it cooled a bit, so I won. But man alive, did that hurt! Lesson: let microwaved food cool at least a minute before stirring. Seriously, that could have been very very bad. Crap, what a long footnote. Sorry, going to bed now!

Baby, it's cold... inside?

This morning it was -25 (celsius), plus windchill. So, like -40something. That was outside. Inside, inside our HOUSE, was 14. Celsius. Which, if it were outside, and the sun was shining, would be jeans and t-shirt weather. But inside, when it's bazillion below outside, in the winter, it's flippin' COLD! Yep, furnace stopped working. Crap. Need to get out of bed. But it's cold. Run straight from electric-blanketed bed to hot shower. Better. Wrap up in towels and robes and dry hair before changing (quickly!) into fleece long underwear and turtleneck sweater and warm socks and pants. Now, time to go to work.

Push button for handy-dandy remote start on car. Wait for "engine is awake" noise. It does not come. Push button again. Wait. Oh, there - no. Crap. Make grumbly noises. Bless the soul of Dearest of all Hubbies, who goes OUTSIDE to start the car. Wait a few minutes for warming-up of car. Bundle up hat, scarf, coat, boots, mitts. Go to car. Drive to work. With. No. Heat. In. Car. NO HEAT IN CAR!!!! FRAK! Park indoors in an attempt to thaw out car. Go to office. Remember (too late) that office is +25 celsius (with less than 30% humidity), and spend the day in tropical swelter. Then get back in car (still cold though parked inside) and drive home in FRIGGING COLD WITH NO HEAT.

I hate winter. However, the house is now warm, because Peter has connections with the Furnace Guy. Sweet. I do, though, need to take car to my Car Guy and get the heat fixed. Either that or knit myself a seat/steering wheel/gearshift cozy and full face mask. Get car fixed is the quicker option. :)

Speaking of quicker, before driving home in the FRIGGING COLD, I went to the 3rd Wednesday knitting group. Saw some of the gals, had a nice chat, and got some work done on (a) my sock, (b) Yumi's fire shawl, and (c) the baby blanket. All the gals are of the opinion that the baby blanket is quite big enough (Hint: babies are small!) and that I should just finish the current ball of yellow, put the checkerboard on the end (skipping the side border, which is fiddly), and call it Done. Because really, the recipient won't know the difference, and it will still be a nice gift, and (more important) done before the baby actually arrives. S-M-R-T! Of course, it will leave a couple balls of fuzzy yarn left over but there are always more babies coming... and I can get on to other things.

And now, off to my nice warm electric-blanketed bed. :)

SNOW DAY!!!

I fully intended to go to work today - got up, made breakfast for Peter and me, got dressed, cleaned off the car, got in the car, drove to the corner, realized I'd forgotten my: a) Blackberry, b) security pass, c) parking pass. Went back to house, got a.b.c., drove back to the corner and headed down Bank Street. Tiny white powdery snow + high winds = very poor visibility. I did, however, see the DUMP TRUCK slide through the intersection right in front of me, about 10 minutes away from the house. Turned in at the nearest safe place, called home, told Peter to stay put, and crept carefully back home again. Snow day!

This morning, Hilarious House of Frightenstein and knitting on the baby blanket. Then we took down the tree (finally, but I still have to take down the village), and caught three back-to-back sequential CSI: Miami episodes (apparently, there's a fourth 'to be continued', dammit). Exciting stuff, finished another ball of yellow on the baby blanket and turned to Peter's sweater, got a dozen more rows done on the back. Phone call. S&D - "let's go for a walk in the woods in the snow!". Peter says "SURE!" Note to self: answer the phone to NOT get dragged out in the snow. We went. We walked. About a foot and a half of snow on the trails (thank heavens at least there ARE trails!), and we were out for an hour or more. Came home to slow-cooker chicken stew and bread machine bread. MMMMM! (though I have to say I prefer my handmade Amish bread to the machine-made French bread. This is quicker though!).

Then, out again, to be a good girl and go to class. Slight miscommunication from the Prof last week - we had to read 4 Greek tragedies to cover the next 4 weeks of class, not just for this week. So I'm WAY ahead on readings, which is good, because I'm behind on housework. :) Next week we get our term paper topics so I'm planning to get a headstart on that also. Got a few rows on my sock done during the break at class - I'm at the heel flap now and the colours are SO cheerful - however, the horizontal stripes make my 'cankles' look very ... cankle-y. A cankle, in case you don't know the term, is where your calf muscle and ankle pretty much make a straight line without any nice tapering. You know, like a cylinder. This is what I have, and the socks will, sadly, emphasize that. However, I love the colours so phooey on the cankles. :)

And now, after a nice hot bath and a browse through the Vesey's Seed catalogue, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be BLOODY cold, and I've got a day's worth of autoCAD to catch up on. But it was totally worth it. Snow day!

Lucky to Me!

(Title taken from a much-loved song by the Blue Shadows). This has been a Pretty Good week. Yesterday, I was given a pair of tickets to Saturday's Sens/Habs game - afternoon game, box seats, free food and beverages in abundance. SCORE!!! Hitch- game is at 2, I work at the store at 5. I stopped by the store on my way home to see about a later start (unlikely) and one of my lovely co-workers offered to take my closing shift. I. Have. A. Whole. Saturday. Free! WOOHOO! So I intend to sleep in (with Peter, of course!), putter on some house chores, go to the game (with Peter, of course!), pop in for a short visit with the folks, come home and have a relaxing evening (with Peter, of course!).

Do you get the idea that my having 24 FULL hours with my honey-bunny is a remarkable and wondrous thing? I may make French Toast for brunch, just to celebrate. With bacon. And scrambled eggs and beans and hashbrowns and strawberry smoothies. Hm. But then we wouldn't have room for all the free food (did I mention it's BOX SEATS???) at the game. Maybe a smaller breakfast and a big brunch Sunday. Yeah, that sounds good.

Oh, knitting. :) Still working on the socks, the sweater, the blanket, the shawl, and now a pair of slippers that were to be for a co-worker but he got fired (oops!) so they will go into the "by the front door" basket intended for people who come to visit, so their feet stay warm. They're in LB Homespun which is working up very nicely with my usual bootie pattern.

And now, since I just had the most FABULOUS sandwich... wait, I have to describe this sandwich. Toasted "everything" bagel. Schmear of laughing cow cheese on both halves. Fat-free mesquite turkey, pepperoni, and rosemary ham in between. Oh. My. God. was that a good sandwich... anyway, now that I've had my sandwich and tea, and gloated in the joy that is my day off (day off!) with hubby (with hubby!), I am going to bed. Have a lovely, lovely night.

Monday monday

Na na, na na na na...

Sorry, had a Mamas & Papas moment there. After a busy weekend it was a busy Monday, but I did get some knitting done on the weekend and even a little bit today. Update:

1) the baby blanket. This is growing steadily, about 1 1/2 balls of the main colour done now with four more to go... yikes. This thing is going to be long and narrow, I think! We'll have to see how it goes. That's TV knitting now, so will be working on it this week a couple hours, at least.

2) Yumi's "fire" shawl. At that middle stage where each row gets longer and longer but the shawl doesn't actually seem to grow. However, the ball of yarn is shrinking bit by bit so I expect to have a "ta-da" moment sometime in the next couple of weeks. Computer knitting, a couple of rows a night (more on weekend!)

3) Peter's sweater. Well, the back came back from the New Year's party - yesterday. Will have to put it in rotation with the baby blanket, I think. I'd like to finish it for his birthday in March.

4) Socks for me! Yes, I realized I had nothing on the go for me, so cast on Saturday night for some funky socks. The colourway is "Tequila Sunrise" (dang, can't remember the dye-er right now - I'll post it later). Bright yellow, purple, pink. Perfect antidote for this grey blah weather. About 1 1/2" past the ribbing, going on 2 circs for portability and (minor) increase in speed. This is "waiting around" knitting, in my tote bag for before class, doctor's appointments, etc.

I think four WIPS is enough for the moment, I don't want to get overwhelmed again. Started back to class tonight and we have to read four Greek tragedies for next week. Guess I'll be using the recumbent bike at the gym this week! Had a great workout today, mixed it up with the rowing machine and some of the leg machines, and a good stretch session. Every little bit helps!

S-M-R-T!

Well, after yesterday's day of rest, I felt reasonably human this morning - at least well enough to drive, which is my criteria for going to work. (Can I drive? Yes. Then I can go to work. Can I drive? No. Then I can go back to bed.) It's a good system. However, I got sucked into the meeting from Hades today (10 am to 3 pm, with a lot of circular conversations), so at noon ducked out and called the store to let them know I wasn't coming in (but I will be, tomorrow). Came home to a hot bath and going to shortly settle in with some warmed-over leftovers, knitting, and the Friday night CSI: Miami marathon. S.M.R.T.

Sleep and soup and knitting

Except, I don't have any soup. I do have a variant of that flu that's been kicking everyone's butt over the holidays and into the new year - felt cough-y and achy and blargh yesterday, this morning it hurt to get out of the bed to call in sick. Spent ALL DAY in bed with daytime TV, an audiobook of my course text, and my knitting. Knit while watching TV and then when I couldn't move my arms anymore (no, really), I popped on the iPod and listened to the british guy read the "Metamorphoses" at me while I napped. I hope sleep learning works!

A bit more progress on the fire shawl for Yumi, and knitted up almost a whole ball of yellow Patons "Be Mine" in the body of this baby blanket.(scroll down the link - it's the gingham border blankie). It's soft and fuzzy and gosh-darn cute. BUT - the three-colour checkerboard border just about made me mental, and I have to do it on three more sides. Louise says I need to learn to knit continental so I can do two-colour knitting more easily (read: less tangling up). Ziploc bags are a big help though.

No more progress on Peter's sweater as it's been staying at Sandy & Dan's since New Year's Eve party. Gotta go retrieve it on the weekend, but I'm about 1/3 of the way up the back now.

And now, dinnertime. No chicken soup in the house so I'm going to do Shake'n'Bake chicken with rice and wash it down with about a gallon of water - my lemon tea and honey has worn off and my throat feels awful - again. I hope this is only a 24 hour bug because I have to work at the office and the store tomorrow. I think if I'm back in bed by about 8:00 tonight I should be okay. Wish me luck!