One Wizard Scarf Complete

Nice and big. Chris loves it. I will be making another here shortly. His love is not for the HP tie-in but for the double layer, super long warmth so he has picked two blues instead of any of the HP school colors. I found downloadable ebooks from my library while knitting this and it has resulted in a dedicated knitter. Well, that and the fact that I was a monogamous knitter for once. Makes me wonder how fast I could do a sweater if I tried. This was about 700 yards including fringe. I swear my hair is not that *big*.



Here are the wee children painting.

And now I'm off to soak in the tub and peruse my new books: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. I'm a tired girl tonight.

And the Hogwarts Scarf Begins

You can't get better timing than that. I finished my socks last night (after posting I immediately snagged one of them on a slightly raised nail and had to do repair work) and now the yarn for the Hogwarts scarf is here. However this scarf is not for me nor is it a gift -- a homeschooling mama is paying me to knit it!

How cool is that -- someone is paying me to knit. Rock on. It really doesn't get any better than that in my little world. Chris couldn't quite understand my excitement about this but when you haven't earned any income in almost 3 years any little bit is cause for a celebration. Anyway, do those colors look Gryffindor to you? The yarn is posing in the snow to get the best representation of the color. I'm not sure about the gold.

Boring Socks are Done and Little Girl is One!

From this. . .


to this. . .


And one goofy brother. . .


What a quick year that was! Not much knitting, but a wee girl is a good reason for that. She's really started communicating in the past week or two -- some signs (eat, more and book) and new words (bath and ball). She's had that moving thing down pat for a while but added climbing onto the couch and going backwards down the stairs to her repertoire.



For the knitting update -- the boring socks are finished. The yarn is some cheapo Knitpicks stuff that I don't really like (they feel rough and the yarn split a lot) and I even took off a recommended inch in length but they still feel too big. Apparently I like my shoes big. I buy size 9 shoes but when I put that in the sock wizard pattern generator it comes out with socks much too big for my feet. Anyway, these were fun to make and I have more sock yarn on the way for birthday gifts.

And lastly, I found a boo boo in the SnB Kitchner instructions. They have the four main steps but leave out those two preliminary steps (yarn into front stitch as if to purl, yarn into back stitch as if to knit) to get you ready to Kitchner. Laura, I wonder if this is why you are an unhappy kitchner-er?

Happy Knitting Anniversary

I've been knitting two years as of this past weekend. Sniff sniff. Who knew something so simple would be the key to happiness? Not me. I really wish I would have found it sooner. Maybe I would have been able to graduate from college without the extended stay, not wished away JCC's first year or had to count traffic cones as a way to entertain myself on my family's many driving trips. It really has been that much of a panacea for my restless brain.

I know all of you who read this from the strange little world of knit bloggers understand this, but if you're coming here from the homeschool or gardening path I encourage you to try it. All of our crazy great-grandmothers (playing with fiber has skipped two generations in my family) were on to something.

Knitting for Joe

Joe is my father in law and the only person (not including JCC) who has requested a knitted object. Bless him. Ask and you shall receive. . .



a balaclava. :)

From the Winter 06/07 Knit.1. Made from just over one skein of black Cascade 220. Took one day to knit. Not bad considering it's been lurking in my brain as something to do for over a year. Hopefully it will keep him warm.



To take care of another Thing to Knit, I made another Umbilical Cord Hat (SnB) out of 100purewool for my cousin's two month old son. Both packages are addressed and ready to mail. I'm feeling quite productive.

On Cooking

After 4 years of allergies my son is eating like a normal person and it is wonderful. Well, we're still on Feingold so not quite normal, but normal enough to celebrate. All of the possibilities leave me wanting to start cooking again. I cook dinner almost every night but it is not something I really enjoy. Like housework it is just something I do as my job.

However now that I can use butter, cheese and flour again I feel like maybe scrumptous food should appear on our plates. Lasagna sounds wonderful (though we haven't tried tomatoes lately) as does spinach salad with bacon and eggs. Tonight we're having Portugese Canja (chicken soup with rice and lemon) with garlic bread. Yum yum yum.

Part of my desire to cook comes from reading a fun new book: Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes and Other Kitchen Stories by Bonny Wolf. An enjoyable read with a ton of recipes (I'm thinking I should buy the book as I have so many pages dogeared.) The Irish Soda Bread is kick ass and takes 5 minutes to mix up and 45 minutes to bake.

Now that I've finished that I'm going to start another cooking book -- Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. Maybe I'll be trying French cuisine next.

The knitting has been unremarkable. More felted mocs, more baby hats, blah blah blah. Another friend is due with a baby soon and I still have two babies already in the world who need hats.

My first FO of 2007

Irish Hiking Scarf made with 3 skeins of KnitPicks Swish Superwash in the Fired Brick colorway. Despite having almost the amout of yards called for this is a bit too short (it is longer than it looks in the pic as it's wrapped around his neck twice) -- 53 inches after blocking. I'm not in love with the yarn even though it held up well in the wash. It's probably great for kid items but it just felt too plastic-y for my knitting enjoyment. I also didn't realize that *everyone* was making this pattern for the Red Scarf Project. Oh well.

Not too much else going on in the knitting department. I did receive some great gifts from my SnB pals (or knitting friends as JCC calls them) and spent my time filling a new notebook with a list of all my knitting books and what patterns I want to make from them. For actual knitting I've been cranking out felted moc slippers.

Otherwise we've just been living our normal life of playdates, parks and chores. I feel very busy with our rather relaxed life and can't imagine what it would be like to have a job outside the home or school with which to contend. We are very blessed to be able to enjoy the non-hurried life.