Not a real post

Well, we're still trying to fit Jess' Christmas haul into her room. She was so much fun to watch. Not only did she get into the gifts but she really got into the whole idea of Christmas this year, which was very cool.

We are not done yet, Wednesday we leave to visit Nate's family.

A big thanks to Jillian who shared her IK subscriber access with her readers. I now have Salt Peanuts saved. I have the back and left front done. It doesn't look like I'll make my self-imposed New Year's deadline, but that's ok.

Oh, Carma, you're package arrived on the 22rd. THANK YOU! Jess loves her outfit, Nate's been living in his pj pants, I love my book (alterknits) and the T shirt made an appearance Christmas Eve. (Pictures to come, the camera is charging.)

D'oh!

Salt Peanuts progress...

...Which is stalled because I cannot find my pattern. I'm hoping I left it at Lesa's on Monday, otherwise I'll have to call Interweave and have them send me a copy. (or buddy up with someone who has a copy of IK spring 2004.) Note:color is much brighter in person Rowan Cork in Sour.

Jess' white cardigan, minus a bit of finishing. Oh, and those snaps gotta go. We'll be heading up to Joann's and finding some other snaps. (must have snaps, so I have been informed.) It seriously needs a good blocking. I tried to steam block it, because we had some water quality issues lately and the last thing I wanted was to knit a white sweater and have it turn yellow from bad well water.

Y'all wondering what this is? (Besides a giftcard) You are looking at Nate's CHRISTMAS BONUS. whoo. hoo.


Jess got an early Christmas gift the other night. We put up her bed that she's been wanting for months. Did she play in it? Yes. Did she sleep in it? For a whole 40 minutes.

For some reason, Blogger will not displaythe date/time for me or let me alter it in any way. Stupid blogger.

Things I've learned in 2005

1. In terms of knitting a project, i like to make it up as I go along. Also, I'm really bad at taking notes. This is something i need to work on.

2. I can ususally guess correctly in sizing others. I am really bad at sizing myself. I make everything too big.

3. I am told I am a fast knitter.

4. I have a very serious case of "wheel envy".

5. I am a sucker for a knitted item request delivered with puppy dog eyes.

6. I seriously need to expand my area of interests, so that non-knitters do not look at me like I'm crazy.

we had a little Christmas party at Lesa's last night (who finally has entered blogdom.) It was a lot of fun. I cam away with some goodies that I still need to photograph.

Jess white cardigan is knitted, blocking and waiting to be sewn together.

I started on Salt Peanuts for myself with some suprer cheap rowan Cork I scored on ebay. Pictures to come

A white, cabled Christmas?

The 2nd Hermione hat. done and drying.

Progress on Jess' white sweater. She has requested a "smooth" (read: stockinette) cardigan. I've decided to make her a saddle shouldered cardigan, since I have never made a saddle shoulder garment. Also, she has agreed that I may put one cable down each sleeve, mainly for my benefit, to ward off boredom. I have the back and part of one sleeve so far. She has asked if I could finish it so she could wear it for Christmas. I'm hoping to have it done.


To reward my progress, I am (finally) making myself a pair of Sweet Mary Janes. I want to thank you all for the positive things you've all had to say about this pattern. I absolutely love seeing everyone's take on this pattern.

Tomorrow we have a Christmas party being held by one of Nate's co workers. These things are so weird for me, because:

1. Nate and I are usually the youngest couple in attendance by at least a decade.

2. Being that my father and brother have been working in the steel mills a good number of years, I usually run into many people who either know one of them, and /or remember me as a child.

I've been assured that this party is very casual, so I need not dress up. This is very good news since there is virtually nothing in my closet to be considered anything but casual.

Carma, since you were wondering, I will be wearing a pair of non-faded jeans, a (store bought) orange sweater, and my rocket dogs. I might even go a little wild and wear makeup. Possible do something to my hair, but don't hold your breath.

Jess is so excited about Christmas, she is LITERALLY bouncing off the walls. Next week will be very LONG.

Deja Vu

Ok, y'all may be asking why the heck I am knitting the EXACT SAME HAT the I knit myself a few weeks ago. It's because the first one was way too big in the ribbing and keeps getting blown off my head.

Note: see the mug, Carma, it's holding hot chocolate with homemade raspberry flavored marshmellows. Yum.

Now maybe you're asking why I haven't just reknit the ribbing on the first hat. Well, when I went to block the thing It grew. Alot. so I had thrown it in the dryer to let it shrink up and felt a bit.

So, here's hermione hat take two. This means I am using the yarn I set aside for my mittens to make another hat, so no matching mittens. I do have some alpaca in my stash to make some fair isle mittens.

Oh, and this. Jess has been requesting a white sweater. Yes, I know this is a disaster waiting to happen, but really, how could I tell her no.

sweater drama

{Enter: the bathroom. Erin is standing on the lip of the tub, modelling her nearly finished knitted sweater, and looking critically at her reflection in the ajar medicine cabinet mirrored door.}

Nate enters and is startled, as he thought the bathroom was unoccupied.

Erin: (disappointed sigh)

Nate: (puzzled)"What are you doing?"

Erin: "Looking at the sweater I made and don't think I'll ever wear."

Nate: "Why's that?"

(Erin leans over and shuts the cabinet door, so that nate may get a full view of said sweater.)

Nate: "Whoa."

Erin: "...That bad?"

Nate: "NO. Not bad at all, just..it...doesn't look like something I figure you'd wear."

Erin: "Yup. I agree." (Pulls sweater off and throws on the floor. A few seconds pass.)

Nate: "I don't understand. You spent all that time knitting that sweater, and now you won't even wear it?"

Erin: (putting her cardigan back on) "uh huh"

Nate: "Uh, ok."

{fade out}

Don't know what I'll do with it. I'll probably frog it sometime down the road.

tid-bits

I finished my sweater! Although I need to rip back the ribbing and tweak the neckline a bit. Shouldn't be too bad. I hope to get a picture up by Thursday.

My cousin, (well, my cousin's daughter) was in town last night and we had dinner with her, her husband and their four month old little boy. The last time I saw her was when she was 12, over a decade ago. They are in the process of moving from Alaska to Florida, and will be travelling down the east coast visiting friends and family for the next two weeks. I don't think I could do that with a baby. Best of luck to them.

We are still tree-less. Nate's hoping to get home early today so we can get one. Jess is starting to get very anxious about not having a tree. She is so excited about Christmas. This is the first year she's really gotten into it, and it's great to watch.

Now that I have my holiday stuff finished, it's time for me to think of the big month...January. January has 6 birthdays, and an anniversary in store. *sigh* time to start all over again.

Weekend update.

Since y'all seem to hate it when I tell you of my Holiday progress. I guess I'll refrain from telling you that not only is all my shopping done, (Save one bed I need to pick up and do not have room to store until Christmas) but also half of my Mother's. (She has an upper respiratory infection. But she is recovering nicely.) I also won't tell you that I have all gift knitting done, except for some last minute gloves requested by my Stepdad. Or that I'm nearly done with my sweater that I intend to wear to our Holiday party on the 17th.

I will show you the mound of packages I have yet to send out.

(Stalker Angie's Prize is in there somewhere. I promised to send it last week, but with the snow and last minute obligations that I've encountered in the last week, I haven't gotten to the post office. I'm sorry, Angie.)

NOTE: Carma, yours is on the bottom, and no, it's not a computer.

Also the pile O'Christmas cards to send out. Some waiting for me to divy up Jess' school pictures, all waiting for stamps.

If it makes y'all feel better, we are still tree-less. With the snow and Nate being called out to work this weekend, we have made no progress in the tree department.

Although this weekend, Jess asked me to teach her to knit. It was more of an assisted knitting, hand over hand, but we had fun. she made up a song to remember the steps.

She wanted to make a scarf for Elmo. As you can see we didn't get to the "weaving in of ends" lesson.

snow

The snow kept Jess and I in last night,Nate in traffic for a few hours, and apparently, a boeing 737 to skid off the runway. I gotta tell ya, I am SO HAPPY that there's no snow day today, or I just might lose a bit more of my dwindling sanity. Cabin fever's setting in and winter's not even official yet.

Unfortunately, neither Nate nor Jess has been too cooperative in letting me finish my sweater, so I have no real progress to report.

Mom was planning on taking the grandkids for a sleepover tonight, we'll see if that happens.

My plans for the day are shot. I'm going to have to cancel on Jill, AGAIN. I'll be spending my day shoveling out. Nate (Mr. 4x4) doesn't need to shovel to get out.

Ok, enough of my complaining about the weather.

Have y'all heard about Stalker Angie's (see sidebar, I don't feel like linking) contest? It's design contest for Stalker Angie Gear and blog. If any of you have a talent for this kind of thing, I suggest you check it out. But hurry, the deadline is the end of the year.

Meme

Sweater update. I have hemmed the body of my sweater, and knit one of the sleeves to the elbow. I'm hoping to get quite a bit done over the weekend.

In the meme time.....

(I totally lifted this meme from Erin, to use as blog fodder)
TEN random things you might not know about me:
1. I HATE BANANAS.
2. Riding backwards on the train makes me ill.
3. I cry too easily, and it pisses me off.
4. I love stale popcorn.
5. I am very self conscious about the scars on my arms.
6. I like to "people watch". People often mistake this for me being "aloof".
7. I do not like to talk on the phone, and avoid doing so when I can.
8. I've been battling depression for quite some time.
9. I'm totally inept when it comes to hair and makeup.
10. In terms of musical talent, I am the "squib" of the family. (I had to fit a Harry Potter reference in.)


NINE places I’ve visited:
1. Niagra Falls, Stateside and Canadian
2. Victoria, BC
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Seattle, WA
5. Orlando, FL
6. New York City
7. Chicago, IL (duh)
8. Chattanooga, TN
9. Disneyland, Ca

EIGHT ways to win my heart:
1. Make me laugh.
2. Be considerate of others, unprompted.
3. Be genuine.
4. Be respectful.
5. Be yourself.
6. Be intelligent.
7. Be open-minded.
8. Have an opinion, no matter what it is.


SEVEN things I want to do before I die:
1. Visit Europe.
2. Have something published.
3. Go back to college.
4. Make a difference.
5. Watch Jess grow up happy and healthy.
6. Pick a profession
7. grow old.



SIX things I'm afraid of:
1. Screwing up this parenthood thing.
2. Serious illness
3. Losing my memories
4. Losing my loved ones
5. Failing
6. Disappointing my loved ones

FIVE things I don't like:
1. Having someone else's views forced on me.
2. those who cannot accept the consequences of their actions.
3. arguing for the sake of arguing. I have to leave the room.
4. When things are unneccessarily complicated.
5. Being considered unintelligent because I do not have a degree.


FOUR ways to turn me off:
1. Be disrespectful.
2. Pretend everything is okay when it is not.
3. Take things too seriously.
4.


THREE Things I do everyday:
1. comtemplate
2. spend time with my family
3. knit


TWO things that make me happy:
1. Family
2. Friends



ONE thing on my mind right now:
1. Concern about Jess' recent behavioral issues

mindless babble

Nate has cast his vote for the sweater. He like the tubey neckline. So, what I think I will make some modified tubey sleeves (Can't just make them as they are written. What's the fun in that?) I figure I will make raglan sleeves and then join with the back and I should get the same effect.

Right now I have a pair or two of Sweet Mary Janes I need to crank out.

Last night we had the first of our holiday engagements. This was a very casual vendor party at the marina. I was finally able to put a lot of faces with names, as many of Nate's co workers was there. At some point in the evening, as I caught names and remembered stories associated with that name, I realized that the other person was doing the same thing. ...Makes me wonder what Nate's been telling them...

While we were at the Marina Jess stay with my Mom. My mom, pulled me aside last night to ask me if I were finished with all my shopping. I am, she knows that, but what's she getting at. She pulled out a list and asked if i could help her with hers. Of course I will. I'm just thankful she asked me last night and not on the 23rd like she did last year.

Jess has come down with something that makes her sound like she's an 80 year old chain smoker, so she will stay home with me today. Hopefully we don't drive eachother nutzo.

Plan? what plan?

I've decided I want to make myself a sweater to wear to all the holiday functions I have coming up. You may remember that I had casted on for the hourglass sweater in the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. That has since been ripped out and the pattern abandoned. Instead I'm just winging it. My sweater is more of a cross between the hourglass and Teva Durham's Ballet tee.

So far, I have it knitted up to the armpits, with quite a bit of shortrows in the bust, so I will have a very fitted sweater. No picture yet, I have to tack down the hembefore it'll look like anything. Here's where I'm stuck. The body's done in the round and I'll be doing the sleeves in the round, but what kind of sweater do I want it to be? Should it be a raglan? Should I make it a set in sleeve? Should I make my own version of tubey from the new knitty? I know it's difficult without seeing the wip, but any suggestions would be most appreciated.

We have a winner!

After a stern email from me telling her to pick one, not two. Angie guessed correctly. Santa is indeed my Father in law. THat hair and beard...that's all him. In fact, he is mistaken for Santa by little kids quite often.

I bet you're all wondering what she won, huh? Well, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but you'll have wished you mde a guess.

Due to weather and conflicting schedules there were only three of us at the yarn swap last night. Lesa gifted me with this: (ain't it cute?)

and then Tara had a scad of old pattern books. I did go home with a few. A lot of them had Just one thing that I couldn't pass up. I promise to share as I go through them.

Today I have some cleaning to do, and some furniture rearranging. We are getting a new entertainment center, and we might possibly go get our tree. I'll have to dig out the Christmas decorations. It's about time though. I always my Christmas cards at the after Christmas sales for the next year, it's getting about time to dig those out and start sending them out.

Carma and the New Boy had to cancel their plans last minute. No weekend company for us.