oh, hello, old friend...

things have been a little surreal lately. a little bizarre. a little nice. i realized i haven't updated this thing in almost a month, and i honestly thought, "well, what the heck have i been DOING?!" mostly, i've been working and having fun. so there's that.

i went to seattle for a brief stay last weekend to meet the munchkin, aka the nubbin, jammin, benjamin, ben, the nephew. it made me so sad when i left to think that the next time i see him at thanksgiving, he will be five months old. so much time to miss in baby time.

there are far too many "favorite" pictures to post from the trip, so we'll only do a few. i was there for a total of two days - the second day, we drove up to deception pass state park in washington and made our way down whidbey island to the ferry back. this was after a very satisfying hunt for rocks at north beach.


the prettiest seaweed in all the land.


ben is a noisy, vigorous little guy. he does everything vigorously. he even SLEEPS vigorously, with his grunts and coos and hoots. he's not fussy at all. he's just vigorous. however, get him in his wrappy thing in a noisy place (like, say, pike place market), and he's passed right the heck out.


me and dad in his humboldt state sweatshirt. i don't even own an article of clothing from humboldt, and i WENT there, for goodness' sakes!


i really love this photo. ben's first ferry ride! he loved the light, the noise... and he loves hanging his head upside down when he looks at the world.


oh, and in addition to pike place market on friday, we also went to the most hilarious brewery tour i have ever been on. redhook brewery tour - if you are ever in that area, you must go. me, my bruddah, and my mama.


our flight out of seattle circled around mt. st. helens. goodbye for now, pacific northwest. i will always love you.


i got home and finally finished up a few projects that had been blocking for lord knows how long. first, i made myself a sweater. i'm really proud of this sucker ( ihaven't counted the bobbles yet... the bobbles sucked).


although my initial desire was to make this sweater in some bright, crazy color (as i have been known to do on occasion), i also desperately needed a warm, black, awesome cardigan. so yeah... i went with it.


then the christmas knitting begins. this'll be for my mom, made using the springtime bandit pattern and good ol' noro kureyon yarn. i really want to keep it for myself, but i guess i'll settle for just making another one.

there's some serious ugly in this place...

i've been watching a lot of project runway, season 3. i have been particularly addicted to it while knitting this scarf. i kind of wanted a break from sweater and baby knitting, so i decided a lacy, yet still warm, scarf would do the trick. it ended up being far longer than any scarf i have ever made, full of crazy ridiculous colors, and generally full of awesome (in my mind).

so i give you the serious ugly scarf, knit up with lamb's pride bulky and using the mustard scarf pattern. i love! i love!


ah, luscious yarn.
\

the serious ugly colors.


and, of course, i decided i had to figure out what to wear it with today.


and... done!

and how could i forget... the space invaders scarf?!

goodness, what with my secretiveness and the lack of posting photos over the last week or so, i forgot to post one of the more awesometastic things i knitted this christmas. i give you... the space invaders scarf! i used the brilliant charts right here. thank you, photophilic_jen!



double-sided for super duper warmth.

we gonna party like it's your birthday.

tomorrow's my birthday! (but my party was last night).

the most beautiful cake ever, made by amelia. it tasted like grapefruit!


cake cutting is serious business.


amelia and will - post-sushi, pre-cake and pre-drinking.


i kind of forgot to take pictures, until the very end of the night. thus, the ridiculousness. this is smoove (who i love and adore and is absolutely insane) and thomas.


my old coworkers from eppley came! i love those kids. here's me and jc.


i think i was trying to channel america's next top noodle here. me and matthew. aw!


i finished my clapotis scarf on thursday night! yay. i wanted to get it off the needles before i left for europe. i was afraid i'd get back, forget about it, and find it years from now, slightly mangled. it was time, and i love it! made with dive autunno yarn.


details:


hi!


so today i managed to sleep in a bit, went and got an oil change in preparation for my drive to chicago tomorrow, had a helluva time getting boombox to sally's (he puked AND pooped in his carrier on the way over, poor little guy), hung out there for a while to see if he was going to eat the kittens, then stopped at the bank, and finally made it back home. cleaned out my car, finished packing (!), watered the plants, and now i'm uploading photos and being a little lazy. i can't believe i'll be on an airplane in two days!

taking stock and some FOs...

i have so much yarn. seriously, you guys, it's getting kind of ridiculous. if yarn were water and i were stranded at sea, i would be struggling to keep from drowning. so my goal is to take stock and begin slogging through some of my desired projects with the yarn i already have. a revolutionary thought, no? to do this, i simply cannot set foot in any yarn-selling locale. sounds simple enough, right? hmmm... we'll see how i fare with that. i might actually post some of my finished objects for sale, too, since all my friends and i and my family already have all the hand-knitted goods they need for a while.

is there such a thing as having as many handknitted objects as one could need? i mean, really.

so anyway... i thought i'd actually post some of what i've been finishing lately. i still need to finish jes' birthday present, which was december 22. i am a horrible friend! it would be perfect for the cooler temps they're getting out there right now (it's hard to knit for a gal who lives in san diego). maybe i'll try to finish it today? maybe?

anyway, on to the photos. here's my big, cozy, cable-y scarf, modified slightly from the sharfik pattern. thomas bought me this yarn for christmas from yarns unlimited, and it's tweedy and warm and simply lovely. he had an interesting time at the yarn store - his first attempt ever at buying yarn was not too pleasant, apparently. i have a bit of both colors leftover... mittens, perhaps? something else entirely? i'm not sure yet, but something good will be made with the (substantial) scraps.


me looking kind of pale in said scarf.


my version of the bold and bulky mini cardi - i give you... orangina! knit up with lion brand bulky in butterscotch and citron. this was the fastest knit ever - i finished the body in about a day over christmas, lying sick on my parents' couch. the buttonhole area is kind of wonky, but whatevs.


the devil is in the details.


and one of my presents for christmas was three skeins of noro kureyon, colorway 166. noro = love, lemme tell you (as if you didn't already know). this is my personal fave as of late: the branching out scarf. so pretty!


me being silly. yes, that would be bedhead.


can i reiterate for a moment... SO SO pretty!


i've also picked back up rusted root, and it is taking me FOR-EVAH. it'll be one of those long-term, go-back-to-when-i'm-bored-with-other-unfinished-objects object. it's going to be awesome - if it fits. i'm going to be very sad (though not surprised) if it doesn't. i have patience problems, namely in the form of gauge checking problems. it LOOKS like it's pretty right on so far, but the sleeves are, so far, disturbingly full. if worse comes to worse, i guess it can get gifted.

ahem... i said, a-HEM!

to welcome the first real snow of the year, i also got to welcome and become the home to a nice little cold. fun! there are cold bugs having a party in my nose and throat. i wish they'd keep it down a little. those cold bugs sure are party animals.

i managed to sleep until 11:30 this morning. at 10:30, i thought, "i should really get up," plopped my glasses onto my face... then woke up an hour later with glasses marks pressed into my cheeks. a good look for me. so yeah. good times.

on the plus side of the ledger, i finished making and addressing almost all of my christmas cards, watched "batman returns" (it's a christmas movie... really, it is!), and worked on some knitting. specifically, i finished dad's present, the sharfik scarf. i am so in love with this scarf that i wish i could keep it for myself. i guess i'll just have to make my own one of these years. i also didn't take a shower until 3:30 this afternoon. yummy.

first, some "i just woke up and it snowed last night" pictures. this is the view out my window through my sorry excuse for a curtain. note the vw bus that hasn't moved since i moved in.


me gazing out the window.


my little lovey, boombox. he's about 2-1/2 years old now, but he was born in the wilds of bloomington, indiana. one day, his mama (monster kitty - the sweetest stray cat i have ever met) just disappeared; about a month later, she showed up on my friend's front porch with six fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand fuzzballs. over the next month or so, i changed my mind roughly 15 times about which kitty i wanted to take home with me, but boombox had just a little extra sass. a lot of personality in that little furball, lemme tell ya.


finished! my very own noro kureyon mittens.
yarn: noro kureyon #212
pattern: warmest mittens
needles: US 4 (cuff) and US 5 (all the rest)


i know, i know... it is SO DAMN EXCITING! first pair of mittens EVAH!


i decided to explore cables with the warmest mittens pattern. yup, these cables were supposed to be in the MIDDLE of the mitten. however, i kind of like the side-cable look of them. the yarn colors are gorgeous, but let me advise anyone against ever buying this stuff. it twists and unwinds and winds up on itself the entire time you're working with it. in other words, joann fabrics' debbie mumm traditions yarn is a total pain in the ass. don't go there.


cable close-up:


and drumroll please... as mentioned above (i think? i don't know, i'm delirious), i finally finished the sharfik scarf for my dad for christmas. i don't know why, but those last three cable sets were impossible for me to finish. like pulling teeth. like knitting and walking at the same time. in short, impossible.


"i'm a model, you know what i mean," and i wear my little scarf on the catwalk. i also am a total nerd and have no idea why i look so serious here. smile, dammit!


in other news, the entrelac scarf is coming right along. i really like it, but my picked up stitches are a bit, erm, obvious. ah, well, i'll keep chugging away and see if i can't figure out what the hell i'm doing wrong.


oh, and? i have a football watching date on sunday. wahoo! i am way too excited about football this week. for serious.

thunderstorms in december? really?

it has been raining all day long - light, misty rain. then heavy, loud rain. then lightning and thunder rumbles. then misty rain again. my parents, bro, and sister-in-law came for a short visit this weekend, and we spent the bulk of the morning in my favorite bookstore on the square, the book corner. really, it houses hundreds of magazines, paper doll books, pop-up books, art tattoos, stickers, stencils... and a few books. which is probably why i love it so. i spent too much money there, but i got a jump on my christmas gifts. so there's that.

what have i been up to lately? let's get the non-knitting stuff out of the way first and foremost, shall we?

exhibit a: hanging out in my house, taking photos of my outfits.


exhibit b: petting my cat in orange tights.


exhibit c: making lists on my hand.


exhibit d: making christmas cards.


exhibit e: taking silly bedhead pictures.


whew! i'm glad i got that off my chest. now for the knitting. first, i had a lacy, gorgeous version of the branching out scarf that i had slaved over for quite a while. it was slated to be a gift for a friend's birthday. i had blocked it on my kitchen counter, then folded it up and set it on top of the towels in the kitchen. i get home from work and, lo and behold, my cat had gotten to it. at first i thought the damage wasn't so bad... then i saw the BIIIIG hole right smack dab in the middle. i still feel sick thinking about it. i have not pulled it out since to see if it is at all salvageable. it breaks my heart, but, hey, lesson learned: no delicates (or not so delicates) near the kitty's reach. damn cat.

so yeah... rest in peace, branching out scarf.


to try to un-break my heart over the scarf, i decided to jump right into a couple of other projects. i got some noro for the first time in years and decided i really needed a new pair of mittens. voila! mittens in the makings!

yarn: noro kureyon, #212
needles: US 4 for the cuff, US 5 for everything else
pattern: warmest mittens

i so, so love this pattern (super easy, super quick) and this yarn. i may do another pair with a big ass cable along the top of the hands. maybe - we'll see. i'm working on mitten number two at the present.


and my first attempts at entrelac! i'm not very good at picking up stitches, but whatever. i still think it looks pretty damn cool, if i do say so myself.

yarn: soy wool stripes, natural violet
needles: US 9
pattern: entrelac scarf