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Looks like I’m trying the switch. I’m currently at Blogger. Visit me there until I’m all set up!

I was reading All Buttoned Up today and was inspired by her messiness and well, normalcy. I’ve been feeling in a funk lately about the perpetual state of mess in our house, torn between just wanting so say the hell with everyone else…no one plays, paints, knits, fixes, putters, or relaxes until this place is clean and organized, OR, realizing that I’m a mom with two little boys and while some semblance of order is necessary, there are more important things in life than living like Martha Stewart.

So, with the thought of keeping it real, here’s the mess that I try to create in:

This was actually a cleaner day today. It’s just me in my dining room, a small sea of toys and Knittybaby meandering in the background. Usually the sea of toys is much larger. Little Man and the Skeptic are downstairs in the Skeptic’s shop, fixing, puttering and other shop-like stuff. I know, you’re thinking, “The Skeptic gets a shop and you’re sewing in the dining room?!?” But our basement is an old basement, built when basements were not meant for sewing/knitting/spinning rooms. The Skeptic often tries to get me to knit down there while he’s working, but it’s not exactly cozy. So I’m happy with my yarn closet and whatever I piece together around my messy yet happy house.

What am I making? Curtains, for the playroom/craft room. I do share an upstairs room with the boys, but it’s mostly playroom with my craft stuff all hidden away in the closet and on shelves. I finished up the last two curtains today and will take pictures the next time we get a sunny day.

Today was a lovely day. The boys were in just the right mood. I got out to yoga class and stopped by the Textile Center to sign up for a sewing class and a full weekend spinning class. I’ve decided that I need some uninterrupted time out of the house to really focus on my sewing and spinning so I’m a bit more comfortable with both. Right now it’s a lot like when I started knitting: slow and careful. I want to get to the point where I don’t have to think so hard about it.

It’s late and I want to get back to my mittens. I started casting on the second last night and don’t want to lose my momentum. Thanks for all the kind comments!

So I have found my colorwork mojo. After much experimentation I finally got my groove back, knitting like this:

Both colors held in my usual hand. The green I knit just like I usually do, wrapping the yarn around my finger. I had been knitting both colors that way, but that was what was slowing me down; the yarns kept sticking together and when I’d lift up the red the green would come right along with it (Shetland is sticky!). So I started just lifting the red up to knit wrather than wrapping it around. This eliminated the grabbing problem and it’s been pretty smooth sailing ever since.

Can you tell the difference?

This being my first real fair isle project, there are of course, mistakes. I have one squished spiral. Also, yarn dominance came into play here. I had read before about how color will be more dominant than the other, depending on if you are carrying the color in the back or front. I switched halfway through. Can you tell where?

Notice the red line going up along the thumb? See how thin it is and how it changes just past the thumb? That’s where I switched. To tell you the truth I had always thought, “Yarn dominance? Yeah, right.” I really didn’t think it would matter but I am amazed at the difference. Although, I still don’t get why carrying one strand in front or in back should make a difference, it just does. Anyone care to explain?

I think you notice it even more on the palm. See how the bottom looks more green and the top more red?

See the glaring pattern mistakes? I’m calling these my learning mittens. I’d like to do another pair in Koigu eventually. I love the colors but I’m not lovin’ the shetland.

Here’s another weird thing I can’t figure out. After the cuff, the first four rows of the colorwork is done in slip stitches, but it doesn’t seem to match up right and I’m thinking I goofed it up somehow, but I’m not sure how. If you’re making these, do yours look the same? Is that red line supposed to be connected all the way across? I wish I could get a closer shot.

Well, I’m off to try to finish this one up, tonight maybe. I really need to keep my motivation going and get the second one done. My eyes are starting to wander to some other yarn already, but I’m going to push through or else I’ll never get done.

TV report: Little Man currently thinks the small TV is broken and it is going downstairs to the Skeptic’s shop for repairs. On the upstairs TV we unhooked the antaene completely so he gets nothing but fuzz. Amazingly, once he realized it didn’t work he barely mentioned watching all day. I think we’re just going to leave it unhooked for awhile to break him of the habit, then hopefully we can get back to our afternoon Mr. Rogers ritual. I like letting him watch then because I can get Knittybaby down for a nap and cooking shows are on afterwards, so there is no begging for more TV. It was interesting. He was very calm all day long.

Ha! You thought you were going to see some yarn, didn’t you? Because tonight is Monday, and I had declared Mondays to be spinning night. I had good intentions when I got home from work, but here’s what happened:

Skeptic going to work late
+TV obsessed three year old
+baby who doesn’t realize it’s bedtime
+exhausted mama who stayed up too late every night over vacation and went back to work today

=NO SPINNING!!!!

Knittybaby finally went to bed 15 minutes ago and I just don’t have it in me. Hopefully next Monday. I don’t even have the energy to knit or take pictures, and I really want to show you my mitten, but that would mean walking into the other room and I’m not even sure I can make it to bed.

On the TV issue. It is driving us absolutely nuts. Before Knittybaby was born we had a half hour a day limit: Mr. Rogers. On Sunday he lucked out and got an entire hour of PBS. Lately? Little Man is TV obsessed. Since Knittybaby was born his TV time crept up bit by bit, just so I could manage to nurse in peace or get Knittybaby to sleep. He was at about an hour to hour and a half a day, and while not happy we were okay with it. I figured come summer we’d get back to our 30 minutes a day limit. Now it has crept up to a good two, three, four hours a day and an all day battle.

From the minute he gets up, Little Man is whining about watching “just a little TV” or “just one more kid’s show” right up until bedtime, and I’m not kidding. He has tantrums. He gets sneaky. He whines, over and over and over. He figured out we were lying and there isn’t really a lock on the back, we were just unplugging it. The Skeptic unhooked the antanae, Little Man hooked it back up. We even tried just letting him watch as much as he wanted for a few days to see if he’d just burn out; no luck there. I feel like I am being stabbed in the eye repeatedly. His last words tonight: can’t I just watch a little TV? We are this close to putting it in the basement, which would be fine since we are not big TV people. But we do like our Netflix a few nights a week. But I’m not sure what else to do. We are trying tickets tomorrow. Two tickets a day, 30 minutes each. We’ll see…..

Thank you so much for all of your kind words about Knittybaby. It still truly amazes me what a wonderful, supportive and loving community the knitblogger world really is! Your support means a lot to us.

Knittybaby had another visit with his cardiologist yesterday. I was pretty nervous about it, as lately his heart condition has sort of slipped into the back of my mind. On a day to day basis there’s nothing much to think about. It’s more the long term that is serious and the matter of when he will be having surgery. When we first saw the cardiologist in June, it was looking like the recommendation would be to have surgery this year sometime. Although he was doing great at his last appointment, I was worried that this time the doctor would say, “it’s time” and while part of me just wants this operation done with, the other part of me just wants to wait as long as possible.

Well, yesterday was good news! His coarctation has stayed the same: no big difference in his blood pressure and the pumping chamber is good as ever. His doctor said he looks so good we don’t have to come back for another year!!! Even better, he did say that while more than likely he will have to have the surgery someday, in the meantime it looks like it could be a quite a few years. He just wants to monitor him and make sure that things don’t change. He also said if they do need to operate when he is younger they will probably just put a stent in his aorta rather than do the entire procedure. That way they can wait until he is older and there might be a better way to repair his aorta than there is now. So while that heart surgery is still looming out there, it looks like it will be a long way off, when he is older, stronger and more able to handle it.

Now if that last tooth would just come in.

By now, most of you have met Gracie, our adopted retired racer. We adpoted her after a rough racing career when she was just about four years old. It’s been a rough transition for her. She was so afraid and introverted (we guess because of the way she was treated) that she wouldn’t sleep or relax anywhere other than her kennel for about two years. Through lots of love and hard work, she’s gotten used to the retired life and is now a happy girl (although she still won’t climb the stairs to the second story of our house!)

Not all retirees are a shy as our Grace. Most adapt pretty quickly to their new life and just need more assistance on how to live in a house, such as “you can’t walk through a screen door” and “yeah, linoleum is slippery, isn’t it?” They are often called the “forty mile an hour couch potato” because that’s pretty much what they do all day. Surprisingly, they don’t need to run all day long. Greyhounds are sprinters and burn up their energy pretty quick. A short walk or a zip around the backyard and she’s happy. They are sweet and gentle dogs.

So why all the info? First, I love to tell people about these wonderful dogs who badly need homes. You don’t even want to hear what happens to the ones who don’t find a place, it really is heartbreaking. So if you are in need of a dog and really want to help, by all means check out this info. Not quite ready for a dog? Well, you can knit, can’t you??

Our local chapter, Greyhound Pets of America-MN is having a fundraiser craft sale the first weekend of February and we are in need of donated items. Anything will do: dishcloths, hats, felted potholders or bags, scarves…..whatever comes to mind! Items need to be here by January 27th at the latest so we have time to get it all ready. Want to donate something? E-mail me at knittymama AT yahoo DOT com and I’ll let you know where to send your item/s. If you’re local I’ll let you know where to drop them off. There are a few sites around the metro area. Your donation will help raise money, which means more dogs will be able to be adopted into homes like ours (and maybe yours!)

So, can you help??

We got snow on New Year’s Eve and it’s such a relief to have such beautiful weather. I absolutely love Winter. I love the starkness of it all, especially when out in the country. In the city however, winter loses some of its power and tends to just get drabby and dirty looking. The snow cleans it all up and everything is beautiful again.

The Skeptic and Little Man have been enjoying the weather. Poor Knittybaby is working on three teeth and a nasty runny nose; he’s just been feeling crummy so the two of us have been doing a lot of relaxing and cuddling in the house.

Good guesses on the mitten. It my first of Eunny’s Anemoi mittens. I’ve been experimenting on the best way for me to handle to two yarns for the colorwork. Thanks for the suggestions, we’ll see how it goes!

I cast on for another pair of mittens, these for Little Man:


They are Norah Gaughan’s Target Wave Mittens from Interweave Knits Fall 2006; also in her book, Knitting Nature. Little Man requested orange and white, a rare change from his usual love of blue.

This was my car knitting on the way home from my parent’s house, a sock in Lorna’s Laces sport. I was going to do the entire thing in garter stitch rib but wasn’t liking how the colors were looking in the stitch, so I changed to plain stockinette the rest of the way down.

I was tagged by Suz for the 6 Weird Things meme. Here I am in all my weirdness:

1. I only eat one item off my plate at a time, and always eat my salad last.

2. We don’t have a dishwasher and I’m happy that way. I actually find handwashing dishes kind of relaxing and really don’t mind doing them.

3. I’m a bassoonist. Okay, that’s not really weird but really, how many bassoonists do you know?

4. If my fingernails are just the tiniest bit long it drives me nuts.

5. I’m a freak about my floors and probably sweep the kitchen alone eight times a day. If I step on anything, even a crumb, it drives me nuts. You’d think with this fixation I’d have super clean floors, but with two cats, a dog, two little boys, a husband who can’t wipe his feet and hardwood throughout the house, it just means I walk around with a broom a lot saying “can you believe how disgusting these @#$% floors are???!!!”

6. I pierced my own nose in college. It took forever because I was too chicken to just poke it through and it hurt like hell. I went home for winter break two weeks later and my Dad was so embarrased he gave me $50 to get rid of it. Funny thing is I’m actually bummmed I took the $50 and wish it was still pierced, but hey, that was a lot of money to a college freshman. Maybe I’ll pierce it again one of these days, but then again, that money could buy yarn!

It seems everyone has done this meme already, and I’m too tired to see who hasn’t, so if that’s you you’re it!

“Floors? She’s lying….I always wipe my feet!”

I can hardly believe how fast this year has flown by. Last time at this year, I was on bedrest, cranking out the baby knits and hoping all those early contractions would slow down so I could just get up. They did, thankfully; I was able to get back to normal and Knittybaby hung in there until just a few days before his due date in March.

I’m actually pretty amazed at how much I managed to knit with a new baby and three year old to care for. I learned how to knit while nursing (hint: use a sling and circular needles!) and knit with a sleeping baby on my lap. I managed to plow through lots of little things this year: socks, dishcloths, scarves, hats, baby sweaters, but no grand scale knitting other than the baby shawl. So my knitting plans for this year (I hesitate to say resolutions) will be to knit (and finish up!) more large scale projects such as sweaters, blankets and shawls and to knit more socks up. A few that stand out are:

1. Knittybaby’s heart blankie. After his last cardio appointment it seemed like it could be quite awhile before he has to have his surgery, but I do want it done when that day comes.

2. My raglan sweater just needs sleeves and the neck.

3. My Color on Color scarf, while still a scarf, is definetly a large scale project that’s been dragging on two years now.

4. The Simple Knitted Bodice.

5. A lace scarf for starters then on to a shawl. Suggestions ofr a favorite lace book?

6. Little Man’s afghan. I’ve decided to make it a blanket rather than afghan, 34 squares rather than 68. I’ve got 8 squares done.

Other plans:
1. Pick one night a week for spinning and one night a week for sewing. Knittybaby is sleeping well enough in the evenings that I should be able to do that. Let’s say that Mondays are for spinning and Tuesdays are for sewing.

2. Try my hand at some dying.

3. Take some classes at the Textile Center and buy a membership.

So there, that’s 2007 for me!!!

Can you guess what this is?

I am slooooow at colorwork. We’re talking a good 10 hours of work here. I’m not joking. I can not find a rhythm. Suggestions?

Well, I’ve got a house to clean. We’ve got little people and grown ups coming over to ring in the new year with us and I’m excited to entertain. I wish all of my blog friends a blessed and wonderful 2007!

Christmas was lovely…

Little Man was thrilled, Knittybaby was teething yet thrilled nontheless, and Molly the cat only hissed at me once in five days:

We had such a nice visit with my parents, grandparents, and brother, and Knittybaby’s first Christmas was a wonderful day! The only downer was that some incredibly nasty person stole my brother’s I-Pod and laptop out of his car on Saturday night. Amazingly they decided to leave the Christmas presents in his back seat. I felt so bad for him, as my little brother is the absolutely nicest guy, yet he’s one of those people who always runs into bad luck. I was so sad for him. Aside from that, it was a fantastic weekend.

We decided to risk being in the middle of nowhere with crabby boys and took the very scenic route home through Minnesota. We’ve lived here now for nine years and have seen relatively little of the state.

We’re talking county roads here. We got lost at least three times and I had to give the map up to the Skeptic.

It was a beautiful drive and the boys slept the entire time. Four and a half hours of quiet.

Home again and enjoying gifts, Little Man is in his shiny new knight’s cape. He calls himself “Changing Man.” We have no idea what that means except that he runs around the house until he’s too tired and has to fall down. We dig Changing Man.

Beautiful handmade gifts:

The hat was a gift from the Skeptic. He purchased it at the Textile Center’s holiday gift sale. The clutch was from my brother and is handmade by his girlfriend’s good friend. Called Sinister Bags (I love that name), she sells them here.

The hat is beautiful, a 1920’s style, and reversible:

The clutch is tough yet pretty, I love it and was actually hoping for one after Angie told me her friend sold them. I had been eyeing them up at Craft-O-Rama. Look at the detailing inside:

The boys gave me yarn:

I was also lucky enough to get Amy Butler’s In Stitches, Shannon Okey’s Spin to Knit, and Ellen Ann Geisel’s The Apron Book, as well as a huge cutting mat and ruler, and a thread box and notions.

I knit two gifts: a hat for my brother which I forgot to get a picture of, and hand mitts for the Skeptic. He wants to get an action shot of them. In true Skeptic fashion he told me they were “nice, but slippery.”

I have some new knitting and a meme to do, but I’ll save those for another day. In the meantime, I’ll remind you to try to get in at least one little “Cap to the Capital.” It’s so important to give these little ones a voice. Mail them by January second:

I’m full of pictures today. I’ll say goodnight and leave you with some Little Man art:

The chicken:

Untitled:

This is making it hard to stay motivated:

Rain and mud in Minnesota three days before Christmas is just wrong. I’ve got gingerbread men and fudge to make, laundry to do and a house to clean. Plus gifts to wrap after the boys are asleep tonight. A little snow would give a girl some motivation, you know?

Now I have a stir-crazy three year old and teething baby. (He’s nine months today, by the way. Can you believe that?) The only thing worse than all of us being cooped up today would be dragging the boys around in this muck. I’ve succumbed to the TV monster and given up on the usual “one hour a day rule.”

It’s supossed to freeze. Does it look frozen yet?

As much as I wanted a nice dinner for Solstice tonight, reality has hit and we will be having Pizza Luce instead. I’ll tip extra for making them deliver in this crap.

I’ll be blocking this in a minute:

It’s actually comissioned knitting for the Skeptic’s friend at work. It’s for his girlfriend for Christmas. How sweet is he to think of hand knits for a gift! He even met me for yarn shopping to pick out the colors; they match her shoes. I’m so impressed with his planning ahead and attentiveness.

The yarn is Brown Sheep Bulky, doubled on the scarf along with Crystal Palace Kid Merino. I decided to do a dropped stitch pattern on the scarf and made a simple hat with a few purl rows for detail. Size 17/10.5 needles. I just hope she likes it. I’m a little nervous since I don’t know her, but Nate did a pretty good job telling me what she’d like.

In the time it took me to write this post, the rain turned to snow. I feel better now.