things i like today...

this is my kind of protest.


and this song... mirah, "mt. st. helens."

i found a reason...

i forgot about this song. and the video is really beautiful.


also, i had a phone in my mouth last night. technology.

things i like today...

listening to this song: e.p. hall, "emperor's note." and watching this video. the paper trees!


finding some awesome pictures of me from 5+ years ago and thinking i looked so incredibly different back then.


thinking it's thundering out - when really they're just tearing down the old school across from my house.


receiving this guy for ben! (purchased from the brilliant daniellorama).

things that make me happy today...

this song: band of horses, "i go to the barn because i like the."


my nephew.




and modeling his super rad knitted cotton overalls! (looks like the kid has some growing to do. get on that, kid). i'm planning a trip to seattle in august so i can hang with this little bumblebee before he is no longer a babe.

you can vote however you like...

okay, so i've not posted here in a while because, well, i've been a little uninspired. i have been knitting, yes. i have decidedly been making things. i just don't much feel like talking about them. but there are things i like on the interwebs, and so i'm going to share those instead. deal? deal.

danny macaskill insane bike tricks from 2009, somewhere in edinburgh.


this will never fail to make me laugh. a lot.


and i would totally have thom yorke's little alien babies. cover of joy division's "ceremony." did you know that not only did mt. st. helens erupt on my first birthday, but the lead singer of joy division killed himself on my first birthday?


okay, and i guess i'll do a massive photo log of everything i've finished from february until now, knitting-wise.

saroyan scarf, made with malabrigo. yum.


i made this from my head with yarn my mom gave me. and i love it.


fuzzy pink.


ruffles are nice, right?


pumpkin baby blanket for my friend, emily's, soon to be pumpkin.


baby overalls, organic cotton, for my nephew.


and another pair for baby ilan, sibyl's wee one, in germany. crossing borders, yo!


in action!


and i bought a gorgeous new painting from my talented friend, jeremy brightbill. it has hair and tea in it!

a new year, what what?!

i have SO many projects in the works right now. it's a little ridiculous. we have:
- a cardigan for me
- a baby cardigan
- one sock done, one sock needing to start
- a very fuzzy brown scarf
- a red leafy wrap

okay, i THINK that's it. i guess that's not so bad? that's not figuring in the projects that are more or less forgotten from a year or more ago. yikes.

i have finished two things that i love, though. so here you go: photo time. first, pioneer sweater in elsebeth lavold's silky tweed.


i did some increasing ribbing on the edges in an attempt to make it slightly more fitted. don't know how much i succeeded at that.


then last week i got super sick and decided to knit a freaking sweater. it took me about four days - that's how sick i was. i had in my mind a picture of the sweaters i wore as a kid at my grandparents cabin on lake despair in canada. you could only reach it by boat, and even in the summer, the cool nights required a good old fashioned camp sweater. i used the duchess raglan pattern for the body, but then pretty much did my own thing to make the sleeves extra long and fitted. i also ended up having to decrease the front and back every other row instead of every 4th row with the sleeves in order to get the top to fit correctly. oh, and i made it extra long, too - it ain't a camp sweater if it's too damn short. i pretty much love it.


me feeling ill.

christmas and post-christmas knitting!

i've been so busy knitting, i haven't had time to update! so here goes - this post will likely be photo-heavy and text-light. probably. maybe. well, we'll see.

first, my nephew, ben, loved his knitted baby blocks. and he can grab them! and put them in his mouth! he got his first tooth on christmas day, so i'm guessing he'll continue wanting to put everything and anything in his drooly little mug. this was over thanksgiving - ben's FIRST first christmas celebration!


here they are, minus the adorable, drooly little guy.


here's me singing ben the charlie brown christmas song.


true to form, when faced with all sorts of craft-related deadlines (finish a sweater, make 40+ christmas cards, finish dad's golf club covers, etc.), i decided to start a million other projects. like these legwarmers. i pretty much just did a cabled pattern, knit flat (because all my circulars were taken up with other projects), increased evenly up the calf. also? my cat is a camera whore.


this was another side project, made while i should have been finishing other projects. and i wonder why i felt so rushed the week before leaving for christmas? i started knitting this in seattle over thanksgiving - with a small baby, we ended up having a decent amount of downtime around my brother and sis-in-law's house, which is just fine by me. that's how i like my vacations - knitting, movies, some mellow sightseeing, maybe a candy apple and hot donuts from pike place market thrown in for good measure. i used the pattern from the leaf t-shirt, and then just kind of made up the rest on my own. i love the fit. this is one of my favorite finished objects to date.


and one more ridiculous/awesome project - i decided this orange and hot pink leftover yarn i had were screaming to become hot pants. again, i was procrastinating finishing all of my other projects. i finished these this morning, and i am seriously, seriously in love with them. i predict a hot pants dance-off in the streets of bloomington. i also plan to wear these under a dress soon just so i can flash people all day long. i made these using seasha's studio shorts pattern - it took a little work to eliminate wrap and turn-related holes, but in the end, it worked like a charm.


on christmas morning, i was also thrilled to learn my mom's christmas sweater fits her like a glove! i think she likes it. i used the cabled pattern and sizing from rosamund's cardigan, but i centered the front cabled panels and, obviously, made it long-sleeved.


i was shooting for this sweater from j. jill, which my mom saw and loved back in september or so. i think it looks somewhat, kind of, sort of similar. right?


and to round this whole picture-laden post out, here's a sampling of photos from the last month. merry christmas, happy holidays, happy new year! here's ben and i over thanksgiving playing the "eat the baby" game, which he loved.


me and mom on the underground seattle tour.


the proper way to handle a baby. this picture slays me.


mt. rainier caused a traffic jam on the bridge back to redmond.


me pretending to be a ballerina in the nutcracker ballet. ah, christmas...


christmas time for real! the girl cousins at our family christmas party:


the museum of contemporary art in chicago. i need more plexiglas ceilings in my life, i think.


more plexiglas love.


trent con plexiglas and steel.


mom and dad at the macy's tree in chicago. aren't they adorable?


ah, christmas morning. one of my consistently favorite days of the year. maybe my only.


one of my christmas gifts - a page in the best book ever of all time. ever.


normally, i would be at work on a monday morning. instead? this was me at, oh, 11:00 this morning. i woke up, did yoga (rodney yee kicks all butt), drank coffee, and finished knitting a pair of hot pants. lovely. i love vacation.

the prolific knitter...

things for which i am currently thankful: bagels (one side with cream cheese, one side with peanut butter - crunchy, of course); open windows in november; football; coffee; laundry machines; my cat, boombox; super-ridiculous-fun weekends with friends; and perrier citron.

i have been crazy prolific with the knitting lately. like, it's a little frightening. i think really what it is is that i'm working on two sweaters right now. due to the sweater knitting, i have had the intense need to be able to start and finish a project in one night. add to that the fact that i have nearly countless single skeins or half-skeins of yarn, and the result is that i have a whole slew of hats and neck warmers marching off the needles lately. marching two by two.

first, though, i did manage to finish the farmer's market cardigan for my sister-in-law. christmas will come early this year since we will be flying out to seattle for thanksgiving, and the bro, sil, and newphew will be headed to maine for christmas proper. so yeah... had to get the thing done! it is so ridiculously cozy, and now i want one of my own. excuse the crappy photo - my house has no good lighting in it.


on to the small things. i've started getting pretty good at making neck warmers and hats from my own head. this one didn't even make it to my etsy shop - i'm selling it to my friend, susanne, instead! i used a stitch pattern from my grandma's ancient knitting book, then did a split bottom and a split, foldover top. i kinda love it.


the main stitch pattern - sort of a fake cable waffle thing going on. mmm, waffles.


i also did up a slightly bulky, slightly lacy simple tube neck warmer. available at famousthecat.etsy.com!


and last, but certainly not least, my friend, ian, has been clamoring for a handknit hat for ages. AGES. geez, will he just shut up already? in order to shut him up, i went for it. again, this is knit up with yarn from my ridiculous stash. the unfolded, slouchier version of ian's windy city hat:


the folded version. i thought i'd like the slouchier version better, but i think this is my fave way of wearing it. plus, the foldover brim gives those little ears some extra wooly coverage when the wind is whipping off the lake.


happy weekend!

shameless self-promotion: famous the cat designs LIVES!

this is my totally self-serving way of saying i finally got off my butt and listed some items for sale on my brand new etsy site! so far, i've got four fabulous neck warmers and a bag that i am kind of in love with. take a look if you'd like: famousthecat.etsy.com. i will be adding more soon, i'm sure - i realized just how much extra yarn i actually have right now lying around, and i figure i might as well make a little cash off my knitting addiction. for instance, we have the "living in a coniferous world" neck warmer:


in other news, i went to a sock puppet party on friday night (at which the birthday girl was not at all surprised after her husband gave it away earlier that day), which also involved the making of sock puppets. hey, we have to make our own fun here. this is my dino tube sock, which i adore.


my green tights are already pilling because i love them so much.


i also have gotten a LOT closer to finishing my sister-in-law's christmas sweater (needs to be done by thanksgiving, dammit). i've been fully enjoying fall, mostly because i can't stand the thought of gray... everything for the next 5 months. this was the crazy sky from my office on friday.


walking through the leaves.


i love this one - it looks like some weird, smeary oil painting.


sunshine in leaf form.