Tired and cranky is the new black

I'm overcommitted, as usual. And under-rested.

Last night, Bean suddenly developed the screaming heebie-jeebies that burglars were going to break into her room and take stuff. She saw a shadow on the wall (a tree) and, quite simply, freaked the hell out.

I ended up letting her sleep with me and Dr. Pig slept in the guest room. Normally, this wouldn't fly with us, but she was terribly upset. I put her to bed in our room and went back later. When I got into bed, she pretty much wrapped herself around me and slept that way. (Well, she slept. I don't sleep so well with a leech attached.) That alone lets me know we made the right decision on sleeping arrangements, because she's never, ever done this before. Normally, if she has a bad dream, she'll get into bed with us for a few minutes and then go back to her own room.

Hopefully, she'll get over it today, because the whole sleeping with Mom thing is not going to become a habit. Yeah, yeah, famous last words and all that, but I sleep poorly enough as it is. I'm not inviting a hyper monkey to sleep with me. The way she flips around in her sleep, you'd think she was spring-loaded.

So, if anyone has any advice about how to get a small child over the fear of burglars (extensive discussions of the fact that we have a locked gate on the backyard, a dog, and a burglar alarm were to no avail), I'd appreciate it.

Breakneck speed

Bean has a doctor appointment this afternoon and I'm picking her up a bit early from school because, although I remembered that her first soccer practice is tomorrow night, I completely forgot that she might need oh, say, sweatpants since it'll be in the 30s and maybe some cleats and, you know, soccer clothes. Somehow I don't think pink polka-dotted tights, a flippy skirt, cowboy boots and a princess cape will cut it on the soccer field.

Tomorrow and Friday, I get to have some extended "me time". I'm going to a two-day class with Fiona Ellis!!! The cable portion sounds fun, but I'm really looking forward to learning more about fair isle and sweater design (one whole day on how to design your own sweaters!).

You've heard of sick and tired? I'm tired of sickness.

Bean has a persistent cough; no fever just a bad cough. She was treated with antibiotics a couple of weeks ago for "walking pneumonia". I had the cough as well, but my doctor just gave me hallucinogenic cough syrup. We were both doing better until Dr. Pig came down with The Cough. I nagged him all week to call his doctor. He still hasn't done it and now the whole family has The Cough again.

I had to sit Dr Pig down and explain to him that no, it's wasn't a piece of toast lodged in his throat, the fact that he swallowed wrong, or anything else that was causing the cough because those things make you cough for a few minutes rather than TWO WEEKS and that by not getting it treated, he was reinfecting the rest of us thankyouverymuch. So, now I have to make an new appointment for Bean and call my doctor. I did manage to convince Dr. Pig (obviously, he's not a medical doctor) that he needed to call his doctor ASAP today. I swear a PhD just pushes every single bit of common sense straight out of the brain.

Poetry

Lines and Squares

by A.A. Milne

Whenever I walk in a London street,

I'm ever so careful to watch my feet;

And I keep in the squares,

And the masses of bears,

Who wait at the corners all ready to eat

The sillies who tread on the lines of the street,

Go back to their lairs,

And I say to them, "Bears,

Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!"

And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine,

As soon as he's silly and steps on a line."

And some of the bigger bears try to pretend

That they came round the corner to look for a friend;

And they try to pretend that nobody cares

Whether you walk in the lines or the squares.

But only the sillies believe their talk;

It's ever so portant how you walk,

And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears,

Just watch me walking in all the squares!"

B is for Bernice

A new toy

My first ever sewing machine. A Bernina Bernette 82e. Dr. Pig keeps referring to it as a "Bernice".

Because I really need a new hobby.

I hemmed Bean's Girl Scout sweatpants. They had been previously held up by that iron-on tape stuff and the force of my will. Now, maybe they'll actually stay up!

I going to take some beginning sewing classes so I can learn to read a pattern and how to really sew something. My hope is that I can learn enough to make a few simple sundresses for Bean for this summer.

The last week has been Seattle weather combined with seriously strange San Francisco type fog. I can't get decent pictures for the stash sale until I get some sun, so it's postponed for a few days (hopefully).

A bad case of stripes

On the left, a Jaywalker in Madelinetosh sock yarn in Peony. On the right, a plain 64 stitch stockinette sock in STR in Hard Rock. I have no idea why I suddenly had to find a sock for both of these yarns, but I had to and I had to yesterday. (Seriously, I was up until midnight because the Hard Rock was going to behave if I had to stay up all night.)

It took me ages to find a pattern and needle size to get both of these yarns to behave reasonably well. My first attempts resulted in socks that were pink on one side and brown (or gray) on the other. Not exactly what a knitter wants to see.

The Hard Rock was especially worrisome after trying and failing with a Jaywalker. Eventually, I ended up with 64 stitches on size 1 needles as the magic bullet. I'm knitting the Madelinetosh on size 1s as well. I'm a bit worried about that, because that yarn is thinner than the STR. However, the Jaywalker pattern produces an extremely firm fabric, so I'm hoping it will be fine. I'll probably go down to 0s on the foot and hope for flashing rather than pooling.

So much for finishing a few items before casting on for more. At least they are socks and not sweaters. And, I did say I'd knit 10 pairs of socks this year...

Teaching

My mother has a friend who is knitting caps for Army members in Iraq. Mom knitted a little bit quite a while ago, but never really picked it up so I'm teaching her.

It's been interesting. She's really eager to learn and a good student, but she's terrified of messing things up. Right now, I have her knitting a swatch. I told her that once she could knit more than five rows without me needing to see her work, I'd get her started on the hat ;>

I gave her the pair of In Vino Veritas Monkey socks. The more I saw the color develop, I sort of knew that those socks would be for her. They ended up the tiniest bit long for me, so they fit her perfectly. She was delighted and could barely bring herself to take them from me - although once she put them on she changed her mind!

I don't do well at knitting for others on a deadline, but I have no problem giving away a finished item. I start out knitting almost everything for me, but at some point, I'll start to feel a slight distance from the project. It's not a "crap, this is not going well and it's pissing me off" distance, it's just that I think my subconscious realizes that the finished item belongs with someone else.

I've been sorting through my stash and am planning a stash sale for next Monday. Rowan Kid Classic, Rowan Cork, Cotton Ease in the original bright colors, Alchemy Lone Star, Seacoast Handpainted sock yarn, Trekking XXL, Koigu, and lots of Socks That Rock including some 2006 Sock Club kits - yarn and pattern. There are probably a few things I'm forgetting, as well. Buy my stuff!!!

Getting it done

At long last, I finished the collar on Bookworm.

The collar instructions didn't make any sense to me, so I changed them up so the cable cross on the collar was a bit higher up. The collar is a bit short, so for next year I'll take out the bind-off and do one more repeat of the cable cross for some additional length. I'll probably have to lengthen the sleeves for her as well, so it'll all work out.

I knit the 2-3 year width and then knit about two inches longer than the 4-5 year length. It's a bit long this year, but it looks cute. I've found that many Rowan children's patterns are extremely wide, so I always size down in width. What I love about the Miss Bea's patterns is that they are very easily adapted for a larger child. I can see getting another 2 or 3 years of use out of my Miss Bea's pattern books. And, since many of the patterns use Rowan All Seasons Cotton, my stash of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease comes in very handy! For this one, I had a large stash of All Seasons Cotton (17 skeins for $40 on Ebay a few years ago).




I started a new sock, as well.












Embossed Leaves from Interweave. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah in Seafoam. This yarn is indescribably luscious. The color variegations are light enough that they don't obscure the pattern. Normally, I loathe mint green with a passion, but it works here.

So, that's one more sweater off the WIP List and the second pair of socks started out of my 10 pair that I will knit this year. (I am trying to knit 10 pairs of socks, rather than a bunch of sad singletons as is my usual wont.)

Mission Possible

My goals:

1. Finish Something Red. All I have to do is knit the neck and fronts, but there it sits.
2. Reknit the top half of Soleil into something that fits.
3. Finish CeCe
4. Knit Anne Hanson’s Twinings Stole for my mother.
5. Figure out where I went wrong on Bless and reknit that part and finish it.
6. Finish the Lace Wings scarf.
7. Finish Vintage Velvet scarf.
8. Finish the Log Cabin socks.
9. Knit 10 pair of socks
10. Knit Simurgh
11. Have stash sale
12. Knit fair isle vest from Rowan (can’t remember pattern name)

This is a fairly modest set of goal, since many of the projects are at the halfway mark or beyond. However, the 10 pairs of socks and the stash sale are musts. I have some lovely yarns that are too heavy for Texas (Rowan Kid Classic and the like), the wrong color for me, or things that I am just not going to knit. As for the socks, I have lots of sock yarn relative to the number of socks I have completed.

However, to that end I present Drunk Monkeys!


It's a lousy day, so I had trouble getting a bright shot, but in this one, at least the color is accurate.








The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy and the colorway is In Vino Veritas. I was a bit iffy on the colorway at first, but now I love it. I have plenty of socks in bright colors, so this is a bit of an antidote.

I love knitting this pattern because it goes quickly and the pattern is quite fun in a wide variety of yarns.

And the Oscar goes to...

Last week, Bean came home from school very, very tired and had the subsequent meltdown. During which she hit me on the arm. I told her that, if she did it again, she'd be going to her room. Predictably, she did it again and was sent to her room amidst much wailing and gnashing of teeth and door slamming.

After listening to piteous sobbing for a few minutes, I took her the kitchen timer so she'd know when she could come out.

I open the door and she's got a framed photo of the family in her hands and she's touching my picture. She turns to me and, between sobs, says, "I'm just trying to remember what you look like when you smile."

To my eternal credit, I did not laugh.

Until after she went to bed. At which point I laughed so hard I scared the dog.

A is for Anticipation

And Alchemy!




Alchemy Synchronicity
Rich Berry

What will it be?

Dizzy Lizzy

While I'm working up to face the Bless debacle, I decided I needed to cast on for a quick bit of gratification.

I've loved the Lizzy sweater in Naturally Noro since the book came out.

It has all of the characteristics I like most in a sweater. It's mostly stockinette with one key detail, in this case the ruffles, providing a bit of a punch. It has 3/4 sleeves!

I was very interested to read Stephanie's post about good quality yet inexpensive wool. It got me thinking about how I choose my own sweaters.

I'm short and I don't like bulk in my sweaters. No worsted cables for me. It isn't very cold here so, as much as I love wool, I have to be really careful about the design of the wool sweaters I knit. I've been knitting for 17 years or so and I have yet to knit a pullover sweater in wool. I need to be able to let the front hang open or I'll bake. Several years back, I bought enough Noro (color 124) to knit Butterfly. Then, I started hearing about how warm and toasty the sweater was. And this was from people who live in actual cold weather! Made me think twice. Ergo, Lizzy. It only uses 7-8 skeins of Kureyon.

Here she is!











I have the fronts and the sleeves completed. The fronts mostly match. I tried to pick two skeins of yarn that started pretty identical and got lucky with the rest. The color sequence changes at the top where I had to add a skein, but it's similar enough to not bug me at all.

This is pretty much instant gratification as far as the main part of the sweater. It's been soothing to have something quick. Even the ruffles look pretty simple. Only 5 rows! And it's SO much fun to watch the stripes emerge.

Ignorance is Bless

A few months ago, I dug Bless out of her hiding spot and seamed her up. Then, she went back into hibernation, awaiting only a collar and her ends.

I knew the sweater wasn't fitting quite right, but I told myself all it needed was a good blocking. I tried it on yesterday. Blocking isn't going to fix one arm being two inches shorter than the other. Rats!














See where the right side looks a bit shorter at the collar and the armhole doesn't look as deep?

The hopeful person thinks, "Ah, it's just laying funny."

The hopeful person deludes themselves into thinking, "All I need to do is put a collar on this sucker and weave in the ends and Bingo!, new sweater."

I'm facing the reality that I'm going to have to diligently count every row on the good sleeve and then figure out if the problem with the bad sleeve (Bad sleeve! No biscuit!) is in only in the raglan (I know at least part of the problem is there) or in the sleeve as well (Next on News8! When sleeves go bad!).

Sigh...

Hat head

Carole and I seem to be on the same wavelength today.

I am not a knitter of hats. I never quite get them right.

Nevertheless, I knit Dr. Pig a hat.

I used the Monsoon colorway of Socks That Rock that I received in last year's Rockin' Sock Club.


I wound the skein double, which gave me a nice hat yarn.


I also knit a Calorimetry. Everyone and her dog has knit this pattern and I can see why!







What with the lovely 50% off sales at The Woolie Ewe and The Shabby Sheep, I decided to buy quite alot of "scarf yarn". I always see interesting scarves and they are a wonderful way to try out new stitchwork without the bulk of a sweater. I never seem to have anything in stash that is suitable. Or, rather, I do have it in stash except that it's part of a sweater quantity and I'm not touching it until the sweater is finished and I know how much I have left over!

I received Knitting New Scarves for Christmas, so that's also some inspiration. The Calorimetry is knit in Manos. I am going to knit a matching My So-Called Scarf, but I'm going to do the neckwarmer version with the buttons. That will leave me just enough yarn to knit a pair of Fetching mitts! All my coats are black, so this really doesn't go, but I don't care - it's a gorgeous colorway. Far more beautiful than I've been able to get on camera.

I forsee more Calorimetries in my future. It's a great way to use up a small amount of yarn leftover from a scarf. This one could have easily been 2/3 the size and still been quite warm, so the pattern is pretty flexible. Mmm, tasty!

Fabulous recipe!

I love recipes that can be used as a base for whatever I happen to have on hand. I am a regular reader of the blog Cook & Eat, and a few weeks ago, she posted a recipe for rugelach* dough, suggesting that it was the perfect base for savory as well as sweet fillings.

We had our New Year's Day party and I was still in the mood to cook and I thought I'd play. I made two batches of dough - one with barely any sugar for a savory filling, and one with a bit of sugar for a sweet filling. NOTE: the dough was very shaggy but, much like pie crust, after a night in the fridge it was really gorgeous.

The sweet filling was semi-traditional. I took half a cup of apricot preserves and stirred them up with a fork and added 1/4 teaspoon of powdered ginger. I whizzed up half a cup of slivered almonds in the Cuisinart and then whizzed up enough dried apricots to also get a half a cup. To the almonds, I added about 1/3 cup of brown sugar and a heaping soup spoon full of white sugar and mixed all that up.

I rolled out the dough into my rectangle and then cut it in half with a pizza wheel. I spread the apricot preserves, then spread on the almond/sugar mixture, and then added the minced dried apricots.

I had too much filling, but it kind of oozed out on the bottom (line your baking sheets with parchment as she recommends!) and caramelized and I am all for anything caramelized, so I was in heaven.

The second filling necessitated the use of the term "pinwheel" rather than rugelach. My Jewish friends were endlessly amused that I made ham rugelach!

For the ham and gruyere pinwheels, I whizzed up some leftover ham from Christmas in the Cuisi until it was minced and then shredded some gruyere. About half a cup of each. I spread each strip of dough with some cranberry mustard, sprinkled on a bit of gruyere, added the ham, a sprinkle of grated parmesean, and a bit more gruyere. Sinfully good!

I don't have any pictures because none of it lasted very long.

The only thing I would change is perhaps basting the tops with a bit of egg wash so they get all golden brown. I didn't feel like it and they turned out fine, but that might be a bit more fancy.

The delightful thing was that all of the filling ingredients were things I had in my fridge or pantry. I'm thinking about my next version already. I have some asiago cheese in my fridge. That and some pureed sun-dried tomatoes and a bit of parmesean might be very nice indeed.

*Blogger suggests that, perhaps, I meant to say lachrymose, archangel, or Delacruz. Ahem.

Resolute

Or maybe not.

I love reading everyone else's knitting goals but I only have one goal and it's for the first quarter of this year. I want to either complete or frog every single project I have on the needles. Even the ones stuffed into that bag in the back of my closet. I will allow myself to cast on for new projects during this time, but only if I'm really finishing knits.

This week's goal: the neck on a sweater for Bean and finish my first Hedgerow sock. I can work on my Twinings stole only if I make significant progress on the other two.

Next week: knit the second Drunk Monkey and finish the collar for Bless.

After that, we'll take it as it goes.

Stuffed

First, a lovely picture of Bean from the Christmas pageant at church. There are many interesting animal choices in the Christmas pageant. The little ones are sheep, ducks, etc. There is an amazing two-person camel.

Bean was a peacock (they come in with the Three Wise Men - I still prefer Bean's term for them at age three: The Three Surprisemen).

The lead peacock has not only the fabulous headdress, but also a gorgeous full-plumed tail. Really amazing stuff.














I received a little something other than the breaker box from Dr. Pig. Yes, the sheep looks like a bear and he meant swift instead of "wool winder", but inside was a large wooden swift so I'm not arguing.















The package is magically reloading as well. It's a Bean!








Hours of fun were had with the box until it finally expired.

As for the stuffed part, take a looksee.

Yes, we are having a New Year's Day party.


The plastic containers with the blue lids hold the really, really good stuff.










On the bottom is Hattie's Goat Cheese Torta. The stuff of legend. Susan may no longer be with us, but I think of her every time I make this.

The middle layer is blue cheese and walnut dip.

And the top layer is Pan-Fried Onion Dip aka OH MAH GAWD.

You take a couple of softball sized yellow onions and cut them into slices and saute the slices in butter and olive oil on medium until they get a bit soft and then on medium low for about 45 minutes. Add some salt and pepper and maybe some cayenne or Tabasco to season them up.

Meanwhile, mix 4oz of cream cheese, half a cup of mayo, and a cup of sour cream together. Don't bother with any of that low fat crap. This stuff will kill you dead even then so why bother.

Once the onions are all golden brown and delicious, take 'em off the heat and let them cool. Pulse them a few times in the Cuisinart to get them all chopped up and then add them to the sour cream mixture. You may need to add a bit more S&P at this point, but I'd let it sit in the fridge for a while before doing too much seasoning.

Try to keep away from picking at the stuff until the party the next day.

Pre-Dawn Manuevers

Excuse me whilst my brain takes a little giggle break to recall the Eddie Izzard riff on Dr. Heimlich and his maneuvers.

Much better now.

And yes, I do mean pre-dawn. As in 5 o'clock am. That's morning am just in case you might be confused.

My favorite yarn store, The Woolie Ewe, has a ginormous annual sale the Saturday before New Year's Eve. When I say ginormous, I mean this is the kind of sale where late arrivals get 30% off. The sale is so good that people camp out for it. You can tell who used to camp out for concert tickets because they all have chairs and blankets and a big old Thermos.

It used to be that, if you got there before the owner, you received 40% of all yarn in the store. I've done it, but it's awfully early and I usually don't need all that much and my brain kind of goes into excess spree mode when confronted with that good of a deal on all that lovely yarn.

This year, from 5am until 8am the sale was 50% off of anything in the store. And I did "need" some lace needles.

I did manage to have some restraint. I bought precious little yarn*, going instead for 5 pair of Addi Turbo Lace needles, a copy of Kaffe Knits Again, an Ella Rae felted bag book that had some really groovy bags in it, and some yarn. I limited myself to buying yarn only for specific projects rather than the "oooooh look at that!" approach I have taken in the past.

Well, mostly. Three skeins of KSH fell into my bag (Marmalade is a really lovely orange), however, I am sure that I can find something (other than Birch or Kiri) to knit with them.

Now, off to recover.

*Upon further review, the three skeins of KSH were joined by enough Debbie Bliss Cathay for a shell and 4 skeins of Lang Silk Dream which I will use to knit Drifting Pleats from Knitting New Scarves. Still, I passed on the very lovely Mountain Colors afghan kit and the stack of Hanne Falkenberg sweater kits, so I feel the very model of restraint!

Sleeping it off

Dr. Pig got up considerably prior to the crack of dawn to take his parents to the airport. Because it's really great to schedule your flight at 8am.

He came home and got back in bed and at some point Bean got up and got into bed with us. We spent pretty much the whole morning in bed and have now gotten our various selves bathed and dressed and are preparing to play the family Christmas present - Dance Dance Revolution. I predict alcohol will be involved on the part of the adults.

I'm mentally prepping for the big enormous giant fantasmagorical sale that always happens the Saturday before New Year's Eve. This year, it's everything in the store on sale, not just yarn. The bad news: it's from 5am to 8am for the big discount. The good news: Addi Turbo Lace Needles for 50% off (providing I get there in time for the grab)!

I've spent the past several days battling the Allergies of Death and am now tired and cranky and not much interested in anything requiring effort.

Merry Christmas to all

May all your yarnidays be bright! And all the attendant joys of the season and the holiday of your choice.

We're pretty much all set for the holiday festivities. It should be a nice, relaxed Christmas.

Freakonomics

So, everyone but me has read Freakonomics by Stephen J Dubner and Steven D Levitt. I've seen Dubner interviewed a number of times including a hilarious section where he interviewed the hamsters on America's Next Top Model (a shameful addiction, but even Dr. Pig finds it an entertaining train wreck). I always thought Dubner looked vaguely familiar but, since anywhere I go someone usually comes up to me and swears they know my sister (I don't have a sister), went to college with me (at a different college), etc. etc., I just figured I was imagining things.

At any rate, my friend Lex posted today about the untimely but strangely inevitable death of David Enloe, the guitarist for one of my favorite bands in college: The Fabulous Knobs. The Knobs did a version of Tumbling Dice that, for my money, beat Mick Jagger half to death. These were the days when REM was just getting bigger than college pubs (instead they started playing college auditoriums).

There were lots of other fabulous bands in North Carolina in those days. My all time favorite was The Right Profile. Reading about Enloe's death made me wonder what ever happened to the guys in The Right Profile. I couldn't remember their names, but I remembered the band vividly. I still have an old cassette tape they gave me that I love.

Google is your friend.

The slightly goofy keyboard player who had a Farfisa organ he would haul around to the detriment of his back, was always my favorite. Lex and I went all over the place to see them.

The keyboard player? Dubner. Stephen J. Dubner. To quote Popeye, "Well blow me down!"

Take a listen. Dubner singing Infatuation. Jeff Foster, who is still in the music biz singing God's Little Acre.

It wasn't just the magic of college. They really were That Good.

Ornament sale over with

Whew!

And now, pink eye

Yesterday, Bean told me that her right eye hurt when she hung upside down. My response was, "Then don't hang upside down."

This morning, she said it still hurt. I sent her to school and called the pediatric opthalmologist to find out if the surgery she had last January was suddenly going to make her eye explode (OK, I explained it in a vastly more adult manner to them, but that's what I was thinking.) The nice lady on the phone very patiently explained that her eye was not explode, and, had I considered pink eye?

Holy buckets! It's pink eye! And I had sent her to school to inflict the plague on everyone. I called the new pediatrician (LOVE HER!), got an appointment, called the school, picked Bean up and, sure 'nuff - pink eye.

In a fit of Christmas giving, I then took her grocery shopping at SuperTarget. She walked next to me and kept her hands in her pockets. We fast arriving at the point where dinner was going to be dry cereal and mustard, so I had to stage an intervention. Dinner will now be chicken breast, rice, and some sort of veggie.

Meanwhile, the electricity has gone somewhat wonky. We think it's a meter problem, but the electrician is coming in about an hour because the electric company won't. Keep your fingers crossed.

Brazen

Things have been hopping around here. Lots of parties, etc.

And, scary stuff, two break-ins in my small neighborhood just today. Two houses a few neighborhoods over were hit on Monday. Thank goodness we have an alarm system and a very barky dog.

Roches

I am a long-time Roches fan.

This is one of their better efforts. An a capella version of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. The Hallelujah chorus is a glorious piece of music under almost any circumstances (including my 7th grade choir class), but just watch how much fun The Roches have singing it.




There is an even better version on The Roches website taken from a Saturday Night Live in 1979. I couldn't figure out how to crosspost it here, so you'll have to go to the site to see it. It's very worth to see Suzzy totally jamming out on the tune. Hallelujah and interpretive disco-dancing!

Sadly for me, they were in town last weekend but I couldn't go.

At least I have YouTube!

Now, go buy We Three Kings - one of the best Christmas albums EVER!

Tater tots are a surprisingly effective sedative.

At approximately 3:30am, my body decided to wake up.

My brain then embarked on a very terse series of exchanges with my body that resulted in mutual "I hate you!" "NO! I hate YOU!"

And then it turned out that my husband had forgotten his breatheright strip and began doing impressions of boat motors.

I never did get back to sleep.

My body, having already messed me up good time, decided that what was really needed was a series of unremitting panic attacks. Given that I had several important tasks to accomplish today, I had to grin and bear it. Deep breathing, people. It did me no damn good during pregnancy, as Bean was sideways with her little feet crammed into my left hip. But, deep breathing.

I am presently freaking out over the following:

Bean's reading assessment. (She's been put in an advanced reading class. I'd like her to stay in the class, because I don't want to have to explain to her about not being in the reading class. The reading class only meets once a week, though so it's not like it's really that big a deal. The child reads all the books with no help. She's just not that great at taking the quizzes that follow. I can't blame her - the books are beyond boring.)

I can't find a check someone gave me. (I can get her to re-write the check so it's more embarrassing than anything else.)

I haven't opened my mail in three days. (But I did look at all the envelopes so I don't think there is some strange, time-sensitive missive waiting to repo the house or something, which would be pretty hard since that bill is paid automatically. But my mind goes there.)

None of this is anything worth getting worked up over. Intellectually, I know it. I'd be a bit happier if my brain and body could cooperate over this.

Dudes, I cannot do 3am. Let's hope I'm sufficiently wound up from today that I can watch America's Next Top Model and pass the hell out. I'm having tater tots with dinner. Nothing like some nice, comforting starch!

NaNoBloPoLalaTinkyWinky

Oops, forgot Dipsy. Or, as Bean used to say when she was very wee, "Mama, dat Sheepy!"

I'm sort of weirded out by the fact that I no longer have to make a post any post to post for posting.

And I'm sort of kind of in love with this bag.



Tell me I'm right because let's face it, how can I resist lime green with red tartan?

And, it would be big enough to take all my stuff, Bean's stuff, and knitting!


Why yes, I am trying to justify this purchase.

So, help me out here!

Something special for the last day of NaPloBloFoMoHOHOHO

Because I think Denis Leary is hilarious

Thank goodness for Stitch Witch

This AM found me frantically trying to "hem" Beans uniform pants with Stitch Witch. My mother is buying me a sewing machine for Christmas. Any recommendations for something for a person who has never used a sewing machine in their life? (Yes, I will be taking any and all lessons from whereever I buy it.) I don't want to spend more than around $250.

I'd like to get something that will last me a while and enable me to hem jeans and other heavy fabrics as well as do some beginning quilting. (If I'm going to learn how to sew, I might as well learn how to quilt since a quilt shop just opened up near me.)

You know those Mastercard priceless commercials? Yeah, mine would all deal in time rather than money. I have Too Much on my plate these days but I have been very firm about not signing up for anything new, so I'm learning.

Girl Scout Daisies - 1 hour
Dentist appointment with small child - 1 1/2 hours
Church cookbook meeting - 3 hours

8 hours sleep? Priceless

And, right now, I'd pay an awful lot of money to have had that 8 hours.

Maybe tonight.

Ladies Who Lunch

aka Cranberries for Carole

Carole has been all over the cranberry recipes lately, so I thought I'd give her a new one.

This is a relish they serve on a turkey sandwich at the Neiman Marcus Mermaid Bar. I grew up eating lunch there with my mother and grandmother and am enjoying going with my mother and Bean now.

Cranberry Jalapeno Chutney

Adapted from Neiman Marcus

12 oz fresh cranberries
1 C fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 C cider vinegar
3/4 C brown sugar
1 C onions, minced

1 T fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh is soooo much better)

1/4 C pickled jalapeno slices, minced

Put everything except the jalapenos is a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add jalapenos.

Allow chutney to cool before using.

Will store in fridge for a couple of weeks if it lasts that long.

Addictive on poultry and pork tenderloin.

It's also really good poured over cream cheese and served with Wheat Things. (OK, that's a typo and should be Thins, but it's funny so I'm leaving it. Wheat Things - the wheat cracker shaped like who knows what!)

At 5.30am, my body decided MUST WAKE UP NOW. Must Wake Up and Be Exhausted. Must be Tired must not sleep tired good better than sleep.

I hate waking up at 5.30. There isn't enough time to settle down and go back to sleep and I can't get up and Do Stuff without waking up everyone else.

So, I went to the library and picked up a few things and tonight plan to lay in bed and read trashy Janet Evanovich mysteries and watch the Dancing With the Stars finale.

And now, I will go to Border's to use my 40% coupon. It's pretty pathetic when you'd rather lay on the couch than save a ton of money on Christmas presents.

If Marie Osmond wins Dancing with the Stars I will Not Be Pleased.

We have an appointment to interview the potential pediatrician replacement on Friday. Let's hope The Bean doesn't break an arm or something in the meantime. Although that would require a specialist. Although my current pediatrician would probably tell me to put a Bandaid on it and wait a few days to see if it's really broken.

In other news, Ikea rocks. Not only do they put out a pretty darn good breakfast for 99 cents, they have cool lamps.

I'm assuming that Knappa Tulpan means Tulip lamp or something similar.















And then we found this lampshade which goes pretty well with the other embroidered stuff in her room. Lots of color in our house which does pretty well with white and accents of color.


It's the shade on the bottom left with the embroidered circles in pink, green, blue, and silver. The other embroidered shades are pretty neat as well. And, for some reason, I'm having trouble typing embroidered. It keep coming out as embroided.

All stocked up

One cannot have too many champagne glasses. Particularly when planning a New Year's Day open house.

Ikea to the rescue. It's a helluva drive from my house, but boy we did have fun!

The only thing left...

...of our holiday meal is some gravy and a few sweet potatoes. I'm thinking that Starbucks should round up all the leftover gravy and offer Gravy Lattes.

Meanwhile, I am in search of a jackety blazer kind of thing. Basically, I want a sort of gussied up blazer, but not gussied up in the Anthropologie vein. I tried on every damn jacket in that store and was increasingly horrified at the succession of ugly. I really, really wanted the red wide wale corduroy one. Until I tried it on and found out that the sleeves were excessively puffy. Linebacker Liz! Another featured a collar that made me look like a turtle. Yet another was a tease on the hanger and ended up making me look like something out of a David Bowie video from the Ziggy Stardust oeuvre. And not in a good way.

Banana Republic had a black velvet blazer. It completely lacked any style whatsoever.

J Crew was all knits. Gap? Ha!

There has to be a happy medium out there.

Back at the pediatrician today. Bean is still sick and they rather condescendingly decided they'd give her an antibiotic.

I'll be getting a new pediatrician next week. I already have a prime candidate. One of my best friends recommended her ped who turns out to be someone I'd known as a child. Her mom and my mom are friends and I know she's a kick ass human being. Pray that she's accepting new patients because I'd like a doctor who believes that medicine involves actually administering medicine to your patients rather than stringing them along for three visits until it turns into the second case of pneumonia in three months. (The doc wanted us to come back Monday but my husband squared off in his chair and gave doc The Look of Death and doc decided that perhaps he'd give us meds after all.)

The snow amounted to a total amount of what you saw on the dog's back. Texas Dandruff.

Holy Crap!

It's SNOWING.

It was in the 80s on Tuesday and IT'S SNOWING NOW! (OK, it's snowing and sleeting, but there is a certain What The Hell? quality about the fact that two days ago I was wearing shorts and complaining that I would never get to wear a sweater this winter.)

The only way you'll see the snow is on the high-contrast dog (click for big to actually see the snow. It melts the second it hits the ground. The dog doesn't have dandruff - that's snow. We rarely get snow. Hey! Snowmen for fleas!

Mmmm, champagne improves any meal!

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has plenty to be thankful for!!!

Fever 1, Thanksgiving 0

Oh, it's not that I'm not thankful. Believe me, I am. But I'd find it a bit easier to be more thankful had I not spent an hour in the middle of the night running all the hot water out of the house trying to steam the croupy cough out of my child. She's much better today, but I went ahead and made a doctor appointment. Pneumonia was only three months ago.

So, the Thanksgiving open house we were going to last night? Yeah, not happening.

The lovely Thanksgiving dinner we were going to eat out with my parents tomorrow? Probably not.

I plan on being up at the asscrack of dawn tomorrow to get to the gourmet grocery and buy out the prepared foods case. At least I have a whole bunch of champagne!!!

Better today

Bean is better today which means we are in an epic Sorry tournament.

Later, Gator.

ETA: Yahoo headlines state "Rollins edges Holliday for National League MVP award"

And my first thought is to wonder what Henry Rollins has to do with baseball.

(I guess he beat out Billie Holliday?)

Me: Bean, hand me that rectangular cake pan, please.

Bean: You mean rectangular prism.

Me: It's a rectangle and I need it for the cake.

Bean: No, Mama, rectangles are two-dimensional and a three-dimensional rectangle is a rectangular prism.

Me: Hand me that there pan or there won't be any cake. (I'm from Texas and, in moments of irritation, my grammar betrays me.)

Bean: hands over said pan.

We had a little dinner party last night and it was lots of fun. Just burgers out on the grill, homemade guacamole, and a Texas Sheet Cake for dessert. After everyone left and we got Bean to bed, Dr. Pig and I discovered that "Bill Cosby: Himself" was on TV. We laughed ourselves sick.

Liz's Really Good Guac

2 large avocados (I use Hass)
Handful of grape tomatoes, cut into a small dice (yeah, it's a pain but it's worth it)
Half and red onion, small dice
handful of cilantro, minced
1 small spoonful of mayo
juice of one large lime
salt and pepper to taste

Mash avocado with mayo and most of lime juice until creamy but not totally smooth. Add all the other stuff. Add reserved lime juice if needed. Test frequently to assure that the seasoning is correct.

You can make this a couple of hours in advance. Put a layer of plastic wrap over the guac and press it down directly onto the guac ensuring that full contact is made over the entire surface of the bowl. Generally, I scoop the guac into a different bowl than I mashed it up in because any guac not shut off from the air will oxidize and get gross. Some people use the pit, but that will not keep a wide bowl from turning brown at the edges. The plastic wrap will keep it nice and green!

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

This stuff is pretty sweet but it's really good. The cake batter will be very thin. This produces an extremely fine crumb and light texture.

¼ cup cocoa

1 cup butter

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

2 beaten eggs

½ cup buttermilk (I use the Secco dry kind that you mix with water - means I always have buttermilk in my fridge)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan.

In a medium saucepan, bring cocoa, butter and water to a boil, stirring constantly, over medium heat.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour. Pour the cocoa mixture over and blend well. Add the eggs, buttermilk, baking soda and vanilla. Spread evenly in the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

After the cake is out of the oven and while it is still hot, make the frosting and pour over cake.

Frosting: In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup cocoa and 6 tablespoons milk. Add 3/4 pound powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Makes 20 servings.

Morning at my house

Normally, we get Bean up around 6.45am, so she can be at school at 7.50. Weekends, she get to sleep later.

I was up first today, per usual. We have a small house, but the bedrooms are down two long hallways, so you can't hear anything from the back bedroom (Bean's) if you are in the den. So, we still have a baby monitor up just in case she falls out of bed or something while we still up watching TV.

At around 7.30am, I hear her screaming, "Someone come wake me up!!" After I recovered enough from my laughing fit to be able to walk, she starts in again, "Come on guys! Wake me up!" I go back and she's got the covers over her head and is fake snoring. Hilarious stuff!!!

Sock yarns

Once interesting result of my sock knitting extravaganza is getting to use all sorts of new sock yarns.

So far, I've used Socks That Rock Lightweight, Sundara, Shibui Knits, Dream in Color, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock and the discontinued Superglitz, and Colinette Jitterbug. I definitely have my favorites from among those, which I'll post about next week (when it's not almost 6 on a Friday after a very long week and when I don't have a lovely glass of Sauv Blanc in front of me that needs priority attention).

Day 15

Brain explodes

Triple Witching*

Tomorrow, all of my school volunteer duties have coincided:

11-12 work lunch/recess

1.15 - 2pm library

2.50-4pm Girl Scouts

Watch my head spin around and my hair fall out!

In other news, Molly-dog is doing much better. She still has a limp, but it is much improved. I've been keeping her in her kennel most of the day to keep her off of it. Hopefully, she'll be fine in a couple of days!



* In the financial world, triple witching occurs on the third Friday of the last month of each quarter. Stock index futures, stock index options and stock options all expire; causing an increase in trading which makes traders pull their hair out trying to reconcile and remember everything.

Playdate of Dooooooooooooooooom

One of Bean's friends came over for a playdate today with his little brother.

The damage assessment:

Dog running around yard at top speed suddenly started yelping and now has an inexplicable limp. I've felt all over her leg and she's not whimpering or anything. She walks around, just suddenly has a limp. This is not good but hopefully it's not Not Good.

My dead grandmother's really pretty lamp with the glass lampshade was slammed into the wall and now has a less pretty lampshade. Glue-able and I'll turn that part to the back. Sad, but nobody was hurt so I'm going to be philosophical.

Bean fell off the hammock and whacked her leg on the hammock pole.

P.'s little brother whacked the heck out of him with a stick.

On the plus side, no bleeding or fires!

Yesterday, we drove out to the Heard Natural Science Museum to see the animatronic dinosaur exhibit. We had lots of fun seeing fossils and tons of lovely poisonous snakes (behind glass) native to our area. And lots of spiders and other beasties.

On the ride home, I saw something on Dr. Pig's collar and went to brush if off and then saw it was a big ass spider. This thing was the size of a dime and had red spots on its butt. Fortunately, I had an empty plastic water bottle in the car so I managed to imprison the spider. I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't a black widow, but I was hardly going to try and smash the darn thing n Dr.'s shoulder when I wasn't sure what it was!

As near as I can figure, it's just a black house spider, but even those can mess you up a bit. A bite can leave you with an icky oozing sore and a killer headache, so I'm glad nobody was bit. Can't you just imagine us driving 65MPH on the highway with an attack spider? Thriller.

Bean always has some hilarious pretend going. Her bathroom has a separate bath and shower and these days, prior to her bath, she likes to go in the shower stall and "have meetings". Most of these meetings involve quite a bit of singing. After all, the acoustics in a shower can't really be beat.

So, one of her other pretends is that she is a teacher. She teaches the golden retriever class and will get on her scooter (we clean off the scooter and let her ride it inside as well since she understands that inside means not being a speed demon) and lead the class. Tonight she told me her teacher name: Mrs. Martinis. I found this too funny. She just misunderstood the name of one of the first grade teachers: Mrs. Martinez but the grade school teachers I know are all happy to be Mrs. Martinis once school lets out!

If the color portion of your printout is small, it's alot cheaper to just expense a color cartridge and paper and print it out on your own printer than pay Kinko's 49 cents a copy.


And isn't this the cutest Christmas ornament?















This is what I spent last week designing!

yeah yeah yeah

We used to have a little neighborhood bistro that we adored. Great food, great prices, great wine. And then the chef left and darkness fell on our little bistro because subsequent chefs were not quite as good. And then the light returned as the beloved chef bought the restaurant! MMmm, nothing like a really good meal that you didn't have to cook.

Even better were the two glasses of wine!

And pirate shoes (picture tomorrow).

When in doubt, post a picture of dirty sheep

I wonder what kind of Google hits that title will get me?






Sheep from Dallas Heritage Village aka Old City Park. (Link is to the page with the sheep shearing on it rather than the home page. I know my audience ;>)

It looks like the animal are right next to the street and, while they are close, they aren't as close as it appears. (It's also a relatively quiet street.)

Old City Park is a pretty interesting place. It's like having a historical reenactment festival all year 'round (ahem Carole ahem). To quote from the website, " Dallas Heritage Village is a living history museum portraying life in North Texas from 1840-1910. The museum is composed of 38 historic structures & boasts a working Civil War era farm, a traditional Jewish household, elegant Victorian homes, a school, a church & commercial buildings."

At Christmas, they have amazing candlelight tours.

My favorite building is the schoolhouse. All the kids were really taken with the McGuffy readers, etc. I'm thinking of getting the Bean a McGuffy reader for Christmas. The phonics, etc. that she is learning in her classroom fit amazingly well with the readers of old.

We toured a few homes that had reenactors in them. The best was the Sullivan home with the tour given by the family dressmaker, Mrs. Kennedy. She gave us some really interesting historical tidbits and she had some lovely knitting. I won the parental seal of the approval when I inquired about the historical accuracy of Addi Turbos (this was after everyone else had left - no other knitters in the group). And yes, there were cable needles in 1885! The woman informed me that she'd stopped knitting modern patterns and was now knitting exclusively from her time period in the park. I really wanted to stay and ask her a ton of questions about where she gets her patterns and what yarn she was using and did she spin and dye it herself, but I had to manage my group of kiddos. Maybe another day.

I've gotten absolutely no knitting in this week. Last night I was beat and that little voice calling me to the latest sock was completely quashed by the other voice reminding me that I had already ripped out that heel once by knitting when tired (KTI) and neglecting to slip the first stitch of the row on all of the heel rows. I didn't want to reknit it twice!

Today is a half day and we have parent/teacher conferences. The school very kindly emails you report cards in advance of the conference. I think it's fabulous, because you will then be prepared to ask questions, etc. Bean is doing very, very well in all areas except for a few behavior things like Not Resting Quietly at rest time. Good luck getting that to change and, if you do, please share with me! She's five, so I'm not inclined to worry about a bit of wigglyness.

Done in

We left the school at 9.30am and returned around 2.30pm. I'm beat. Bean is beat.

Funniest part of the day:

19 kindergarteners scaring the crap out of the sheep by baa-ing at them. Don't worry, I made them stop almost immediately while, at the same time, I was trying to get them to move away from the part of the fence near (very very near) the hind end of the cow.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Computer problems yesterday mean yesterday's post this morning and today's post this afternoon.

I used to be able to sleep.

Then I had a baby. Between one thing and another, I am an incredibly light sleeper who suffers from frequent insomnia. Which I loathe.

This time change is kicking my ass. I usually wake up on my own around 6am. Sometimes, I wake up at 5.30, but it's not that often and it's usually sort of nice.

For the past three days, I've woken up at 4.30am. Four Freaking Thirty Ay Em!

And, today, I get to be a parental chaperone on the class field trip. Nothing like a field trip when you'd rather nap.

I'm trying NaBloPoMo so I have to post today but I have nothing to say and now I will go the grocery store.

Boring me.

Interesting me (relatively speaking) will be back tomorrow.

Migraine

Yesterday afternoon, I was felled by a migraine.

My head still hurts.

This is really pissing me off.

And I hate the sun.

Soctoberfest Roundup

Retina-searing Monkeys
Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, size 1
Knit the first sock in September and the second in October







Ribbed Jitterbugs (my own pattern)
Colinette Jitterbug in Jay
Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, size 1
Knit the first sock in September and the second in October






Whitby socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road
Cherry Tree Hill SuperGlitz in Wild Cherry
Clover bamboo DPNs, size 2
Knit both socks in October





Rib and Cable socks by Nancy Bush from IK Fall 2005
Shibui Knits in Orchid
Brittany birch DPNs, size 1.5
Knit both socks in October




More Monkeys
STR in Rolling Stone
Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs, size 1
Knit the both socks in October
Cannot currently find other sock for photo op.




Man, that's alot of socks.

Christmas is upon me

My big project has been picking the annual ornament for the fundraiser for the childhood ministries board at our church. When I signed up for the job, I thought it would be a snap.

Wrong-o!

I never knew how hard it would be to pick out a nice ornament that people will want to pay a premium for in order to help us do things like provide certification instruction to our childcare/Mother's Day Out workers. And I was supposed to have everything ordered a month ago, but we have had trouble deciding on the ornament.

I discovered that I am Not A Shopper. Oh, sure, I'm pretty good at finding great deals on stuff, but that's because I shop at maybe 6 stores and if it's not there, I don't need it. Did I mention the ornaments need to be personalized? And dated?

Luckily, someone found an adorable ornament at a very pricey boutique. The one thing I'm good at it taking someone else's idea and running with it. I spent most of yesterday getting supplies and creating a sample. We have a professional artist on the board, who has agreed to paint all of the ornaments for a very reasonable fee. I'll post a picture once I get our final sample. I can't believe how cute this is going to be. Nothing like setting an unobtainable precedent for whoever gets this job next year ;>

Post Mortem

The half an hour drive to Plano was totally worth it.

Bean had a great time and so did we. All of the parents in our group had big ol' go-cups of wine and the kids all ran around and enjoyed the fun.

Bean came home with a truly ridiculous amount of candy and in this neighborhood they go for full size candy bars. Based on our normal patterns of candy consumption, we have enough candy to last us for the next three years or so. The mind boggles.

There were a ton of spooky houses that really went over the top, but there was only one house I found freaky - they had a huge sign out front that read, "The only ghost here is the Holy Ghost." Don't mind me, I'm going across the street to enjoy my pagan rituals.

My feets is tired and I have miles to go before I sleep having made a unexpectedly time-consuming volunteer committment this summer that I am now paying for. Oh well. at least everyone will love me when I'm finished ;>

Hope your Halloween was happy.

Halloween Costume Ideas

The party on Saturday night was a blast. The Dandy Warhols were excellent. Collective Soul was OK, but they aren't my favorite band.

Some of the costumes were brilliant.

I had great admiration for the woman in the Catwoman outfit if for no other reason than she was walking around in six-inch spike-heeled boots and a vinyl Catwoman outfit that left nothing to the imagination. And she looked damn good. That takes a bit more dedication than I have!

My favorite costume was my friend who wore a Playboy bunny outfit with a skirt made of dust mops and with little ashy cotton balls all over her. She was a dust bunny. What made the outfit was the fact that her husband came in a French maid's outfit complete with fishnet hose and full makeup. Hilarious!

The big, hairy Italian guy who came as the Tooth Fairy was also pretty good. Nothing like a six-foot guy with a pretty good gut dressed in a tutu.

Another friend is a pilot for Southwest Airlines. He wore his uniform and his wife went as that trashy girl who got thrown off the plane. It was pretty funny.

There are always tons of Hefners and Playboy bunnies. On one hand, if you are over 40 and have the body for it, I guess you want to show it off, on the other hand, there were at least 10 couples dressed like that so it's not that imaginative. Not that our outfits of SNL's Killer Bees was so original, but there were only two other bees at the party and they weren't SNL bees. There were also a ton of pirates and wenches.

The most time-consuming costumes had to be the "Birds of a Feather" who all had very elaborate full body bird costumes created from crepe paper. Amazing stuff.

Overall, it's a can't miss party. I do not even want to imagine what their bar bill was (open bar with premium liquor for 1000+ people - you do the math). I'll bet the party cost more than my house is worth. Maybe even a couple of houses. It's an amazing shindig.

Karl Rove Hates Halloween

We have a small child. Hence, we usually go trick-or-treating around 6pm. This is the same time at which all the other small kids in the neighborhood go out.

The lovely idea of extending Daylight Saving Time (which ain't saving us squat because the lights I'm not turning on in the evening are the same lights I have to turn on an hour earlier when we get up), means that we'll have to trick-or-treat in the DAYLIGHT.

I think it's a government plot against Halloween.

And, no, we can't just go an hour later. She's 5. By the time we get home and get her calmed down from the excitement, it will be plenty late enough. She can barely make it to 7.30 on a normal night.

Just another thing that makes me wonder if Bush and his pals understand the difference between President and Dictator.

Ah, screw it, she's just going to have to be tired on Thursday. We're going to go to a neighborhood party in Plano. It's not like most of the kids won't be fried at school anyway!

Dumb things I gotta do today

Go to Joann and get batting to stuff bee costumes.

Make bee costumes for me and Dr. Pig for tomorrow's adult Halloween extravaganza. Which is seriously an extravaganza. I have a friend who throws these over-the-top Halloween parties. This year, they are renting out the House of Blues (open bar, food, valet) and the Dandy Warhols and Collective Soul are the bands. You have to be on the guest list, have your wristband, and be wearing a costume or you will not be admitted. It's a helluva bash. Hence, SNL Killer Bee costumes.

Finish Whitby socks. (Didn't even know I started them, didja? Quickest socks EVAH!)

Take bags of candy for Halloween party and Sally Foster order up to school since I forgot to do either at carpool.

Make a Target run.

Fold laundry.

Walk.

Wish I had time for a nap.

Take Bean to sushi tonight (promised by Dr. Pig and I'd rather stay home and order a pizza).

This weekend is going to be a beating, but it will be fun. We have 4 parties to go to, not counting the Saturday night extravaganza. We aren't going to all of them because I value my tenuous grip on sanity. But we have to attend two on Sunday and that will be plenty. More than plenty.

A bustle in my hedgerows

Sorry about the title, but given what happened, I couldn't resist.

I scored some Sundara sock yarn in her last update. This is another yarn that is new to me. I decided to be something of a literalist. I love Jane's green Hedgerow socks and here I am with green Sundara yarn.

Hedgerow Socks ensued.

Love the pattern. It makes ribbing a bit more interesting and the sock fits extremely well. This is definitely a sock to knit in a solid or slightly varied color rather than a variegated yarn. The pattern is fairly delicate, so I can't imagine it standing up to a stripe or high contrast colorway.

There was only one teensy weensy problem.

I totally horsed up the pattern. Instead of knitting pattern A on rows 1 and 2 and pattern B on rows 3 and 4, I knit pattern A on rows 1 and 3 and pattern B on rows 2 and 4.

Oops.

I discovered this when I was about to divide for the heel on the first sock.

The yarn has been rewound and it and the pattern are in time-out for a while.

Sockety sock sock

Sorry, no Rhinebeck stories here. It's expensive to get to upstate New York from Texas. And worse, it takes a plane trip and a long drive. I'd love to go someday, but I have to, unfortunately, be realistic. The good thing is that I'm nearer to festivals in Taos and Colorado, and I'm planning a little trip next year!

Meanwhile, the sock obsession continues.

I find it interesting that so many knitters seem to go on jags of knitting the same types of projects. We find ourselves lusting for lace, swooning for sweaters, etc. Last year, I had a huge lace obsession and then went back to sweaters, but I seemed to also be less interested in knitting (I had less free time as well, so that was a factor). Now, I'm back in the game full force and it seems to be all about socks. I have three sweaters that are literally only a collar each away from being finished, and yet I am not interested. I want socks.

What are your current knitting obsessions and why?

Today, it's about Monkey socks. Now, I've had some problems with the Monkey pattern. I really need to knit it on size 0 needles to get pattern gauge, however at the gauge where the sock fits, my variegated yarns all seem to stripe and pool in a pretty nasty way.

I did complete one pair of Monkeys that fit nicely:














Cherry Tree Hill. Knit on size 1s. I have no idea of the name of the colorway. The colors are not quite as overwhelming in real life, however these socks are pretty retina-searing. I like them, they fit well, but I think the color is just too much for the pattern.

Monkey 2 (actually, this is more like Monkey 4, but the others were frogged)

Socks That Rock Lightweight. Colorway is Rolling Stone. Knit on size 1s. This sock is a bit loose, but it's not to the point of being floppy, so I'm not going to frog this sock - I'm going to knit the other one. These socks fit better when I used 0s, but the yarn pooled in a really unattractive manner. Sometimes, I don't mind pooling. This was not one of those times!

They aren't perfect, but they'll make nice socks for padding around the house. If I were a perfectionist, I'd rip and try another pattern. However, there has been a bit too much ripping recently and now I'm into Make It Work.

The DIC for Monkey 3.
The color is In Vino Veritas. I'm not normally much into wine colors, however my color choices have been changing quite a bit recently. My love for bright reds and pinks will never die. However, I've decided that I can try other colors and be happy.

It's a dark and stormy day here, so getting any kind of picture was work. This is the best representation of the true color.


And it had to be dark and stormy because Bean is Student of The Week this week. So, we had to bring in a big poster with pictures and I'm Snack Mom so I had three huge bags of snacks. You aren't supposed to park in the tiny school parking lot before school, but there was no way I was lugging all that stuff AND ushering my child through the pouring rain. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission!

Making socks that fit

Today's Sock Obsession Post is about ribbed sock patterns.

The first up is Nancy Bush's Rib and Cable Socks from Interweave Knits, Fall 2005. Now, Nancy Bush is a Sock Genius. I love almost all of her socks patterns. This one is no exception.














I'm knitting them in Shibui Knits Sock Fluids, colorway Orchid (Loopy Ewe, yet again). This is pretty typical of my color preferences, but in a new yarn. I am loving this yarn. It's thinner than STR, which makes it a bit more flexible for pattern choices and more suited to my sock gauge.

My gauge adventure began with knitting these socks on size 1s. The yarn started pooling. I never knit socks too small, so I went down to size 0s. The pooling got much worse and the sock started to look oddly tiny. Like, I Can't Get This Over My Foot tiny.

Hmmm.

So, I did the unthinkable. I went up to 1.5s. I don't remember the last time I had to go up a needle size, but that did the trick. Oh, there's a little pooling on the foot, but nothing offensive. This sock fits beautifully and yarn is incredibly comfy. I'm holding out for a couple of skeins of Rappongi, now.

I did make a few changes to the pattern. The heel seemed really strange to me. I couldn't figure out why I would want decorative holes at the base of the heel. It seemed like they wouldn't wear that well and that they'd be sort of uncomfortable. So, I knit the heel flap in the rib and cable pattern and then knit a regular heel and picked up the gusset as usual. I like it. The only thing I did wrong was not center the cable pattern between two purl stitch sections. It's not hugely noticeable, but I think I'll center it better on the second sock and then write down the changes and put a note in my copy of the magazine for future use.

Again, the technically perfect knitter would rip, make the changes, and reknit. I am still into Make It Work mode. I'm going to be wearing shoes that will cover up the difference and I'm not planning on entering them into the State Fair, so, frankly, I'll live with it. I'm sure some of you are saying, "How can you stand to do that?" I think it's a matter of not realizing the issue until I was almost finished with the sock. I've frogged this particular sock twice already. I really want these socks and "As God is my witness, I shall never frog these socks again!" (With apologies to Scarlett O'Hara.)

I knit for my pleasure alone. Sometimes, I get very technical and rip until a sweater or shawl is perfect. Other times, I find that the "error" isn't enough to matter to me. I finally have a sock that fits perfectly and works colorwise. I'm letting well enough alone!!!!

A whole lotta sockin' going on (and a mysterious beastie)

It's been quite busy at Chez Casa Liz. We've been all about doctor's visits and the outlaws have come for a visit and gone again. Now that I have my house back, I have time to post! The doctor report was fabulous! Bean's eye alignment is spot on and, now that she's had some time to adjust to not wearing super thick glasses, her vision is incredible. Seriously, we're talking super-hero - 20/15. I couldn't even identify the letters with my glasses on and she was reading them like they were right next to her nose!!!

I seem to have taken Socktoberfest quite literally, as I have been knitting nothing but socks. Sadly, there has been alot of frogging going on as well, but I've learned that, as I stated in the last post, I really prefer a sock with some ribbing in it. They fit my foot and leg better and I seem to have much fewer gauge issues.

Let's face it, gauge matters for different reasons on different projects. In shawls, I really don't care about the finished size, as long as it's not too small and I don't run out of yarn. So, gauge matters, but only in regards to yarn quantity. In sweaters, I can usually get at least stitch gauge and, if I can't, I can always go down a sweater size to compensate.

Socks are another matter. Socks have to fit. Floppy socks aren't very comfortable. Too small socks are flat unworkable. So, my thought is that, out of all the types of knitting we do, gauge can be hardest to get in a sock and it matters the most because a very tiny difference in gauge can really screw you up. I find that knitting a sock swatch does me absolutely no good at all. I have to knit the damn sock to find out if it's going to work. That can be pretty frustrating.

So, ribbed sock Number 1: Jitterbug Socks.

I have no idea why my legs look like big 'ole columns in this picture and can only hope that they don't really look like that!!!

Love these socks. The yarn is soft and squishy. I could have knit these quite a bit taller, even with the skimpy yardage, but I kind of like having them as short, flirty socks. They'll be great with some clogs, peeking out from under my jeans when I sit down.


I knit a picot edge and then a 60 stitch sock with a rib pattern of K3, p2, k1, p2, k2 - of course, the k2 at the end of the repeat and the k3 at the beginning end up turning it into K3, p2, k1, p2, k5, etc.

If you click on the picture you get an accurate color representation. My camera isn't very good at close-ups of knitting details. It doesn't do subtle.




So, now we get to play Name That Beastie. OK, it's really Name That Birdie. Over the past several days, there has been this very large and very weird bird hanging around the end of the block. Google was no help at all, so I called Wild Birds Unlimited who knew exactly what bird this is. Bean decided it was a Duck Duck Goose.



























It's a Black Muscovy Duck.

Duck, it's what's for dinner! (Perish the thought - the creek down at the end of the block is just nasty. I see people fishing down there and all I can think is that I hope they aren't eating what they catch because God only knows what's in there.)

More socks to come. I didn't really end up with finishitis per se. More like sockitis.

socked in

It's official. The Summer of Love sock is no more and never will be.

I liked that pattern reasonably well, but I will admit I thought the yarn was fairly ugly. I figured I'd knit it anyway and see what happened. What happened is that the sock turned out huge. So, I ripped and reknit on zeros. Still enormous. Reknit on zeros in the size small. HUGE! I can't get anything resembling a fit on the sock and decided that I was putting in good time on a bad project.

I think I do better at patterns that have some ribbing. The ribbing covers up a multitude of gauge sins and, generally, makes for a better fitting sock.

So, I'm dumping that sock and finishing the second retina-searing green monkey.

Then, it's on to the rib and cable sock from Fall 2005 IK. In a very pink and green Shibui Knits.

Unless my Sundara sock gets here first and I start Jane's Hedgerow socks.

Ribby goodness!