a need of inspiration

I got put on call today (at my request) because of a flippin headache. I'm trying to get some things done around the house despite the fact that the headache refuses to leave. I've thought about planting my backside on the couch with some knitting in hand, but the baby sweater I am currently working on just isn't doing it for me. I originally started out with a Debbie Bliss ribbed yoke pattern and that sweater was just way too huge. So I tweaked the numbers and decided that instead of a stockinette stitch I would do a reinforced heel stitch to jazz it up a bit. Well, I got to the yoke part and just didn't like the way that the yoked rib was looking with the reinforced heel stitch so I frogged it. Then I decided to go with a cabled fabric look. I like the cabled fabric but not with the heel stitch. *sigh*. So I am currently thinking of frogging it and doing the whole thing in the cabled fabric but I just haven't brought myself to frog almost the entire front of the sweater yet. I've got some seaming to do on a sweater so I may do that instead. I hate when I'm not feeling the groove of a project!

the pink sweater

Finished a baby sweater for a pregnant coworker over the weekend and got it to her just in time for her shower. The sweater is based on the Helena pattern from knitty.com. I changed up the bottom of the sweater, though, and used the ribble pattern from the Socks, Socks, Socks book. I loved the yarn...... Sheep Number 3. I've used the yarn before for some socks so I knew I wanted to do the sweater in the same yarn. Its such a soft pink.
Now I'm working on finishing another pair of socks, working on my Malabrigo sweater, and the sweater I'm knitting for Nathan. And just to add some more fun to all of that, I'm making a swifter cover from the Mason Dixon knitting book.

while I've been whiling away the time.

Four weeks ago I had knee surgery so I've been out from work since then. I didn't feel much like knitting the first couple of weeks as I had to endure pain and physical therapy. The upside to this is they gave me some good pain meds so it made up for it. I HAVE managed to get some knitting done lately, though. I am working on a baby sweater for a coworker, some socks, and a couple of sweaters. The sweater piece in the picture is the front of a sweater I'm knitting for my youngest son. I've got one sock done and about 10% of the second sock. The yarn is from my good friend the Knitwitch. Its a worsted weight and I do believe the colorway is Sagittarius. She'll have to correct me if I'm wrong. It has a really nice feel knitting with it. The pattern is Red Dwarf by turtlegirl. I've never been much of a toe-up sock knitter, but this is a fun pattern. Also, after a much anticipated wait, my LYS Sugarfoot special ordered me some Pagewood Farms sock yarn Glacier Bay in the colorway Crayon. I am loving working with this yarn and highly recommend it if you can get your hands on some!
I go back to work in about a week and a half so we'll see how that goes. Besides the physical therapy I 've been trying to take some walks around the neighborhood to build up my endurance in anticipation of my 12 hour shifts I'll be going back to!
Also posted is a picture of my cat Zooey surfing facebook.

Harry Potter

I went for my second viewing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today. I saw it on opening day with my husband (who bears a striking resemblance to Dumbledore), Ramone (aka calicoknits), and another friend who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. I had promised my boys I would take them to see it so that's what we did today.
Now, we're just kinda chilling out and I'm about to work on my February Lady sweater some. I'm doing it in Malabrigo in Olive that I got from Sugarfoot Yarn in PTC. Its super soft and goes well with my reddish hair.
I imagine I'll see HP again before the weekend is out. My stepdaughter is out of town right now and she'll want to see it when she gets back in town as well.

summer knitting

While on vacation, I managed to finish a baby sweater for a friend of mine who just had a baby. I had started completely different sweater and one sleeve to go when I totally misplaced the yarn I needed to finish it. I grabbed some Rowan Calmer out of my stash and took it with me to do a "do over" while we were on vacation. I did the Elizabeth Zimmerman baby sweater on two needles. The pattern February Lady is inspired from it. I had been wanting to knit February Lady and figured this was a good way to give it a test run. After completing the baby sweater, I went to Sugarfoot Yarns and scored some malabrigo in olive to knit my own February Lady. I'm still on the garter stitch yoke right now.
On another note, I've got some pictures of the mailbox I painted for my husband for father's day.

little cable chemo cap

I had a request for the chemo hat that I designed, so I'm posting it in the blog for all who are interested. Its a rainy day here and I'm trying to get motivated to get some domestic chores done.
Project info

Tags

Needle and yarn

Needle

US 10 / 6.0 mm

US 8 / 5.0 mm

Yarn

Bernat Softee Chunky Solids & Marls

How much?

1 skeins = 164.0 yards (150.0m)

Colorway

Color family

Brown

Purchased at

michael's

Yarn

Bernat Softee Chunky Solids & Marls

How much?

1 skeins = 164.0 yards (150.0m)

Colorway

Color family

Natural/Undyed

Notes

I whipped this up for the Yarn Harlot appearance at Knitch here in Atlanta. Since I don’t have a website, I posted the pattern for it here and also on my blog for anybody who wants a quick knit chemo cap for whatever reason. I modified the little cable fabric pattern from the 365 knitting stiches a year calendar.

Little cable fabric chemo cap
1 skein Bernat softee chunky beige
1 skein Bernat softee chunky cream
Size 8 circular needle 16 inch
Size 10 circular needle 16 inch

little cable pattern: (this has been modified from the 365 knitting stitches a year calendar)
rows 1 : slip1,k3; repeat from to end
rows 2 :* slip 1, k3; repeat from* to end
rows 3 :* cable 3 left, k1; repeat from* to end row
rows 4 &12: knit
rows 5 : slip 1, k3, sl1, k3; repeat from to end
rows 6 :* slip 1, k3; repeat from* to end
rows 7 &15: slip 1, k1, C3R, k1; repeat to last 2 stitches, C3R (this will involve using the 1stitch of the next round. Do not move placement of stitch marker. Start row 8 and 16 with 2nd stitch of round)
rows 8&16: knit
row 9 & 10: k2,sl 1, k3; repeat from to last stitch, sl 1
row 11: k2, C3L, k1; repeat from around (include 1st stitch of next round in C3L)
row 13 & 14: k2, slip 1, k3: repeat from to last 2 stitches, sl1, k1

cable 3 left: place next stitch on cable needle and hold to front, k2, k stitch from cable needle
cable 3 right: place next 2 stitches on cable needle and hold to back, knit next stitch, knit 2 stitches from cable needle

Directions:
cast on with beige color and size 8 needle 72 stitches. Join.

work k3, p3 in rounds for 2 inches in bernat softee chunky in beige. Knit one row.

change to bernat chunky softee in cream and knit one row

Change to size 10 needles and Follow little cable pattern for 16 rows .

Knit one row around

change to bernat softee chunky in beige with size 8 needle and k3, p3 in the round for 2 rows

next row: k2tog, k1, p3; repeat to end of round
next row: k2, p3; repeat to end of round
next row: k2, p2tog, p1; repeat to end of round
next row: k2, p2
next row: k2tog, p2; repeat to end of round
next row: k1, p2
next row: k1, p2tog; repeat to end of round
next row: k1, p1
next row: k2 tog; repeat to end of round
take long tail and run through remaining stitches twice. Pull tight and weave in ends.

Where NOT to be at 9pm

Last night as I was driving home, my car (that is also home to my many opinionated bumper stickers) started slowing down and I was cruising on I-20W. Now, I do have rather short legs and sometimes it takes an extra effort to extend my leg to the gas to keep my speed up, but the car was slowing down no matter what I was doing to the gas. I put my hazards on and started to pull over to the side of the road. The engine light came on. And despite my best efforts to try to drive slowly to the next exit...my car came to a dead halt. I had to call my husband and he came to retrieve me right away but it was a long wait as we live in Peachtree City and that's about an hour from where I work. It was cold. I was tired. And I have to say that the whizzing by of semi trucks by the side of my car resulted in quite a vibration of me and the car. It was rather scary. But my husband did come and rescue me. The car did not start so we had to leave the poor little thing where she was and come home and call a tow truck. Luckily we have a van and another older car that my husband drives so I'll be able to get to work to do some paperwork today and then go get my kiddos. However, I'm still trying to figure out what my cosmic lesson is in all this. I'll let you know if I get an answer.

tooting my own horn

Today is my 42nd birthday. For those who are fans of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you know that 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. So, considering the magic of the number, I'm hoping that this will be a stellar year for me.
I've been quite deficient in blogging lately due to some health issues. I believe I am finally getting better and will be more faithful to blogging in this year of answers.
Happy Birthday to Me!

imagine me and you

This blog is a day late. I guess it balances the other one that was a day early. I wanted to post a true anniversary blog yesterday but my husband was running a virus scan that took all day. Apparently when I go to the ritzpix page I have to type everything in backwards thanks to some secret virus stuff. I had to write out everything and then type it in backwards. I really only use them because I can get a matte finish on them.
Enough said. I started, or shall I say restarted a sweater for my youngest child. I had started one for him but I had to pay far too much attention to the pattern for me to realisiticaly finish it in time for him to still wear it. So, I picked a different pattern that still requires a little focus but not not as much. Its from the Winter Vogue 2006/07. I've liked the sweater for years. Or maybe I've just like the hunky guy IN the sweater.
Ok, so, enough of hunky guys in sweaters that are not my husband. My fave picture is the one with us on the top of Mt. Tam and I have a red sweater and a hat on and I look like a 6th grader standing next to my husband. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Happy Anniversary

Tomorrow is me and hubby's anniversary. I've been promising him a sweater for 4 years now and I was able to finally make good on the promise. I broke down and gave him the sweater a few days early so he could wear it for Thanksgiving. The yarn is lion brandy chunky (I love my husband dearly but knowing how hard he is on clothes I couldn't bring myself to buy some really expensive misti alpaca to do a sweater for him). The colorway is spice and it looks really good on him.
The sweater is my own design (well, I used the little cable fabric pattern but the construction came from my own little head) and turtlegirl was a big help in giving me some last minute input on how to get my garter stitch edging from rolling. We decided it was NOT going to be too girly to put a row of crochet crab stitch on it and it looks GREAT! Thanks, Christi! I would actually add a link to Christi's blog but I'm just not that technologically suave. I can never link properly when knitwitch has her contests either.
The far away picture posted was at hubby's request since he wanted to get a picture that showed our "tree face" in it. If you look near the top of the tree, it has two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. We bought the face at a local craft festival a few months ago.
Perhaps tomorrow on our actual anniversary I will post some pictures of when we actually got married, back when I was skinny and cute and didn't look like jabba the hut. Do you know how hard it is to get a sweater to look good on jabba the hut? Speaking of that..... I have on needles (for Jabba the Hut) the country weekender sweater from fiber arts. Of course, I'm going to give it my own version with the little cable fabric instead of stockinette stitch and I'm going to add a row of cables in a complimentary variegated yarn in the place of the contrast yarn three needle bind off. I never can just leave well enough alone, ya know. I'm also considering knitting Strawberry Hill by Nora Gaughan. It looks kind of fun and might not look too terrible on Jabba when all is said and done.

long time, no blog

I don't have any pictures to post. I know, I'm a bad blogger. I did recently finish and send off a pair of yoga socks to a friend in Boston but didn't get to take pictures first because I couldn't find the friggin camera at the time. Perhaps she'll take some pictures of them on her feet when she gets them and then I can post those.
I finished an anniversary scrapbook for my husband and have it wrapped and hidden away for our anniversary on Saturday. I have his sweater pieced together. I just need to figure out how to sneakily sew in the ends and put on some edging without him knowing what I'm doing. That's going to be really hard to pull off since I'm working tomorrow and then he's off work and will be all up in my business the rest of the week. Maybe I can pull myself out of bed at 4am Thanksgiving morning and work on it.

Trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat

Halloween has come and gone. My kids went trick or treating on the golf cart (as is tradition in PTC) with my husband while I stayed home to pass out candy. The only trick or treaters we got were BEFORE my kids left to go out. Absolutely not a soul came by while I was at home with the cats and the dog. It did give me some knitting time, though, so I can't complain too much.
Jonah was a voting booth. There were slots on the top of his box so that you could "vote" for your favorite candidate. There was some stuffing of the ballots via candy and it appears that McCain is the favorite in PTC.
Nathan went as Heath Ledger's version of the Joker. I thought he looked pretty bitchin'.

I am the eggman

I just felt like saying that since that song has been running through my head nonstop for about 3 days.
The F.O. is a sweater for a friend at work that's having a baby. Its from the Nashua handknits book and done in Rowan summer tweed. It makes a very pretty sweater and is soft to the touch, but the yarn is just a bitch to work with. I have some leftover that I may make a matching hat with, but after that...me and rowan summer tweed are breaking up. I got a lot of smart-ass comments at work when I took it in to show it off. People were saying, "My 4 year old could wear that." I purposefully did not make a wee baby sweater. Babies wear them like twice and then they outgrow them. Also, everybody gives you all this cutesie stuff for your newborn but then when they got older, nobody gives you cute shit. So, I figured I would make this sweater so that her little girl could wear it when she got a little older. I did, however, also knit some socks and booties in Lorna's laces to fit a newborn, lest I be accused of not meeting her newborn needs. Geesh.
Also featured are some pictures of my boys' room that we just finished laying bamboo flooring in. My husband has been driving me bonker-shit about furniture arrangement and I am not in agreement with the layout of the room, but it seems that I've been vetoed. Also, the man has a thing about wire shelving. My stepdaughter has some wire shelving in her room with big plastic bins on them in leu of a proper dresser. So, please note that the wire shelves that my husband is using as a "room divider" in the picture are not of my design ideas. I watch way too much Clean House, Dress My Nest, etc. to try to pull that one off legitimately.

fallout day

http://knitwitchblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/knit-witchs-haloweenie-contest.html

The above is the url for a contest that Brittany from Knitwitch is having. If I actually had a clue how to paste the little picture and make a link, I would. But I'm stupid that way.

I had a really really really bad day at work yesterday. To make a very long story short the straw that broke the camel's back for me happened at about shift change and I ended up literally crying my contacts out. I was boohooing and when I settled down I realized that I couldn't see. So, Steven, bless his heart, had to bring me my glasses all the way from Peacthree City to Rockdale so I could see to drive home since I'm legally blind without corrective vision.
What a day. Damn.

Puss and boots

I've actually cranked out some knitting lately. I suppose I should have been working on some more painting of the boys' room but having all three kids by myself is worse than herding cats. Today I was trying to round up the children to go see a movie. I told them that once they were ready they needed to go get in the van. They couldn't understand why they had to go sit in the van once they were ready. I was thinking to myself, "If they were kittens I could just find one, put it in a big box and then go find another kitten and put it in the box and so forth and so on until I had all my kittens." *sigh*
Anyway, the picture is of the moc-a-soc pattern found on Ravelry and my own little hat pattern that I made for a pregnant co-worker. Its done in Patons Grace and some lightweight fuzzy yarn from Hobby Lobby that makes things sooo soft when you knit it with another yarn.
Also pictured is my cat TingTing with the booties. What she was doing with a copy of The Hobbit and some cotton balls, I have no idea and I'm just too afraid to ask.

before and after

Ok, the after shots came before the "before". Posted are pictures of my stepdaughter's newly redecorated room. She got some new paint, new bed, new bedspread and new flooring. Actually, the bed was my old bed back from when I was a single girl. My darling hubby installed the flooring all by his not-so-little self. Its bamboo so its eco-friendly and you know that makes me happy. We got rid of a crap-load of things that were in the pit of hell formerly known as her room. Neecy Nash would have had a field day but I don't think we did too bad ourselves. Mostly, my hubby and I took everything out of her room and put it in bins, no matter what it was. After we got her room done, she had a week to put the things up that she wanted to keep... after that the rest was going in the trash or for a yard sale (we have yet to have the yard sale since we have yet to have a weekend that we are all home at one time). I have to admit that I've succumbed to making her bed and doing some picking up. I just can't live with the thought of it looking like it did before so for now I guess I'll be the one keeping up after it. Apparently my mother-in-law never trained my husband in making one's bed upon rising so I guess she's just following suit. We stripped the carpet up in the boys' room and I painted the baseboards the other day. Maybe I'll get it painted in between soccer games this weekend. We'll see.

Saving the planet

Those who know me, know that I'm a "no-plastic-bags" person and always saying, "save the planet."
I found this website and have emailed it to my friends whose email addies I could remember off the top of my head.
For anybody else who might read my blog, but didn't get an email from me, please check out this:



Global warming is an urgent, but solvable problem. That’s why I’ve joined the We Campaign, a powerful nonpartisan movement of concerned citizens that was founded by Nobel Prize Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. We're already a million strong -- and growing each day.

Will you join, too? Visit this site to learn more and add your voice: http://www.wecansolveit.org/

new toy

So, Walmart had the ipod Nano 3rd generation on sale this weekend and I broke down and bought me a blue one. I've been kind of wanting one but have been trying to hold out until Christmas. With it on sale at a good price, though, I broke down. Now, I normally keep myself quite entertained with all my knitting toys. I'm not a techno geek at all. Its a wonder I can figure out how to get on here and blog. But I have to say that I have been having a blast with my new ipod since my son showed me how to work it. I made myself a playlist (I intend to make a few more). I've entitled it Stay Awake and it has some Nirvana and Faith No More and Pearl Jam in it and it is designed for me to listen to on the way to work in the mornings and keep me awake. The older I get, the harder that hour drive to work is at 5:30 in the a.m. I love it because I can go and buy a single song without having to go find and buy a whole album. I've even downloaded me some Psychadelic Furs, Modern English, and The Cure. I know, I'm showing my 80s roots but there was a little bit of cool music in amongst Culture Club and The Thompson Twins.
On another note, I'm battling some lingering upper respiratory infection. I've taken a z-pack and managed to get rid of the rainbow-snot spewing forth from my head, but I've still got a cough and a tickle thing going on deep inside my ear.... you know, the one where you have to swallow and swallow to try to scratch it. I told my husband that it feels like tiny furry kittens are running around my eustachian tube. Meow. I just hope that the tiny kittens don't start using my ear as a litter box.

babies, babies, babies

Seems like everybody at work is having a baby. Geez. I've got some socks and a hat completed (cat bordhi sky socks and a cabled hat from a pattern on ravelry). I'm working on sock number two of another set and have one sock done on a third pair. In addition to all this, I've got the front and back of my hubby's anniversary sweater done and am waiting on him to get home so I can double check sleeve length. I've also got a sweater for my youngest son on needles right now and have the front of a toddler sweater that I'm designing finished.
Dang..... Just reading that made me tired.
On top of all that, we're redoing our upstairs flooring and repainting bedrooms. We're laying bamboo flooring because its pretty AND its eco friendly. So far, we've gotten my stepdaughter's bedroom repainted and my hubby had started on the floor before he had to go out of town. He'll be back late tonight and will resume flooring next weekend.
TingTing has become addicted to kitty treats and she will follow you around meowing like the friggin house is on fire or like one of the kids has fallen into a deep well somewhere until you give her some treats. The dog has decided that he also likes these treats (even though he has his own) and I had to purchase a dog-proof container for the kitty treats.
Posted are some pictures of TingTing and Zooey being snuggle kittens and TingTing getting her daily workout to work off those kitty treats!