“I dug a tunnel.”

“If our kids can’t knit we should turn off our tvs.”

“I really find it hard to believe that you’re a person that has to worry about short row shaping.”

“I think there’s something wrong with my yarn.”

barcelonaknits.blogspot.com/ < — I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I WROTE THAT ONE DOWN. Also it’s all in Spanish… Please tell me why this site is important?

Also, not written down anywhere, and really embarassing, but I will never forget crawling into Stefanie Japel’s classroom to retrieve my forgotten needle case, attempting to be unnoticed.  Totally didn’t work.

Uhoh, I almost broke the rules and posted this entry without responding to Michelle’s tag!  I am to share six quirky but unspectacular things about me.  Here goes nothing:

1.  I avoid door handles.  I won’t stand around and wait for people to open the door, but I will shove my hands back into my sleeves to avoid direct contact.

2.  I refuse to write on the first page in a notebook.

3.  I avoid microsoft products, except at work, where I do what they say for money.

4.  Before facebook existed I was a google stalker.  Now my online stalking time is so much more efficient.

5.  I don’t really know how to fall asleep before midnight.

6.  The sound of silverware scraping plates DRIVES ME MAD.  I can hear it across the room.  I make all sorts of attempts to look normal when I hear this sound, but if you know I suffer from this affliction you’ll notice the subtle wincing.

And I’m a weak link too Franki!

Greenjeans: The Class!

Originally uploaded by indiknits.

This is my Greenjeans Class at Make1! On the last day of class (Saturday) we all posed with what we had done. I’m seriously proud of what these girls accomplished, and even more thrilled that I was able to get to know these ladies over the course of our four sessions together.

We’re doing Christmas tomorrow. Jim and Connor are out the door to Sunshine right now, and Jonah is still asleep upstairs. The sleeping isn’t going to last long, so I must write with haste. And with not pictures! I promise, pictures with the next post!

I bought Favorite Mittens: Best Traditional Mitten Patterns from Fox & Geese & Fenses and Flying Geese & Partridge Feet this week, because the internets told me to, when I went searching for some help with thrummed mitts.  I have to admit, I picked the book up a few days earlier, judged it by its cover, and put it back on the shelf.  Now that I’ve read a few pages, I’ve realized that it’s a wonderful book.  I love that it talks about different mitt designs from a historical aspect.  It has also forced me to learn a new cast-on and two “traditional” increases.  Mitts are more than decorative paw warmers, and I had never thought about the generations of people before us who had to come up with ways to warm themselves.  Pattern by pattern, I am devouring the book.  I find that knowing more about the mitts, I am attracted to more of the designs than I would be, had I not read the background bit.

So I’m currently thrumming, which is really my way of stalling, because I’ve knit the body of Emerald three times now, and I’m just a tad discouraged.  Something is amiss with my gauge.  Never before have I had tension issues.  I can actually see the paired rows on the back of my work, the ones that I caution my beginning classes to look out for.  I have 1 sleeve finished, but it took me two tries to get that done.  And yes, I DID do a gauge swatch.  I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I was knitting the sweater while I was going through leaving my job, and all that worked up to that.  Anyhow, the mitts should be a satisfying and quick way to escape my tension issues.

2 interviews scheduled next week.

I think this will be the third or fourth time I’ve been kicked out of holidailies. What hurts me is that I can’t post entry after entry… You are only allowed to post to that darn portal once every 12 hours. Sure, that’s great when you think about the writing geeks who will hammer on the holidailies server, sending entry after entry up… But it sucks for people like me who feel actual physical pain when we realize that we are no longer able to write the way we were when we were twenty something. Is it like vision, the way you lose it when you become 40? Now that I’ve passed the 30 mark, my priorities have shifted. Even though I’m in love with the notion that I might be a “writer,” I can no longer act like it’s something I do.

Now I just blather on. Incoherently.

A couple of weeks ago I went to knitting retreat with the best LYS ever, Make 1 Yarn Studio.

It was fantastic and wonderful and I hope I can go next year.  Click on the photo and take a look at the rest of the pictures from the weekend that I posted.  I regret not having taken more pictures, but it’s impossible to knit and take pictures.  It’s also impossible to knit while eating.  And oh my, don’t get me started on the eating.  The weekend was full of wonderful buffets.  Buffets that were sensitive to the non-meaties.  And even to the non-dairies.  Of course, I took being on vacation as my permission to eat that veggie lasagna.  It had cheese and I did not feel guilty.

 ”All-inclusive” is an important phrase to a foodie like me.  It’s a good thing I don’t drink.  I wouldn’t remember a thing from the weekend.

And on that note, this holiday season, Jim celebrates 2 year sober.  And I guess I celebrated that back in November.  Not that we were alcoholics, but still, I think it’s a worthy thing to celebrate.

Those of you who don’t knit probably don’t know what that is in the picture. It’s two legwarmers being worked at the same time, one *inside* the other. It took me several hours to cast on, and then another several minutes to get that first round going properly. But with the help of knitty’s article, Extreme knitting: 2 socks in 1″ by Kory Stamper, I got it all figured out.But then I forgot to do a gauge swatch. In fact, nevermind gauge. These are just legwarmers. All you need to know is how wide around you need them to be. And wouldn’t you know, I thought I could eyeball that. So I’ve been merrily knitting away for a couple of days now and last night I come across this: why a swatch is important. Really it’s just some knitter showing the process of “sweater planning,” but if you go on to read more you find that he finishes the most gorgeous men’s cardigan EVER, all because he started with patience and planning. I may be a convert in the world of gauge swatching.

And since I’m now thinking “hm measuring his legs might have been a good idea,” I got out the tape measure and measured. My legwarmers are an unstretched 7.5 inches. His thighs are 12″. Now that I’m clear on the technique of 2 in 1, I’m going to start again.

Okay, maybe wandering aimlessly was the wrong phrase back there. I actually tried to make knitty – winter 2006’s calorimetry. It turned out okay I think, but I did have to cast on a few less stitches, and I have no idea how many short row repeats I actually did. I just kept going until it was as wide as I wanted it to be. For me, knitting on vacation means not measuring for gauge.

And hey did y’all see that the new knitty is up?

As you can see, the first session went well. He didn’t make funny faces and he seemed to know exactly what to do with the cereal once it was in his mouth.

He can stay upright pretty well, but hasn’t gotten to the completely upright stage. I realize it’s only been a week.

And then we have my knitting. So many things to knit… I haven’t been keeping my photos up to date, so I’m making an attempt here. On top in pink we have a Christmas gift that I will explain after Christmas. I don’t think the recipient reads this, but just in case. The white bit of stockinette at the top is a swatch for a top-down raglan done in Cascade Pastaza. This is the first time I’ve ever even picked up a skein of this stuff. I think I’m in love though. It’s so soft, yet sturdy feeling. Amy at Make 1 suggested I use it. Of course, when she suggested it, I decided to ignore her and pick up a bunch of Misty Alpaca Merino, which was nice but didn’t knit to the gauge I was after. I went back to the store to go with her original suggestion, still not yet convinced. It wasn’t until I swatched the stuff that I realized I was dumb to have not listened to her in the first place… Sorry Amy.

The last thing on the bottom there is a sweater that’s been on the needles for months. I just can’t get motivated to finish it. It’s the Angelina from White Lies Designs. I’m knitting it in a wonderful Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight. It should be great once I get around to finishing it.

And last on my list: When I had Jonah I decided to keep a separate website with all the boring details of mommyhood. I didn’t want to bore the regular readers here with spit up and diapers and I figured the mommy audience would be tired of hearing about my latest knitting projects. Plus there was the fact that I wasn’t sure about posting my kid’s face on a website with a URL consisting of my real name. If ever he wants to run for office I may have already ruined his chances. It turns out that I have very little to say if not for the baby stuff, so I’m going to go ahead and smush both websites into one (this one) and get over myself and the fact that I thought having two separate websites was necessary.

My yarn shortage problem was solved by making a trip to everyone’s favorite LYS, Make One, where there was lots of Crystal Palace Kid Merino to be had.  (That’s a photo of Jonah’s tree.  The city plants a forest every year and when you have a baby you get to have a tree “registered” in his name.  They gave us a cool certificate to commemorate the occasion.)

On the subject of photos – there are new ones.  The easiest way to find the new ones – I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, trying to give you guys the easiest way, because sometimes you just check the baby part of the photos, but I’ve been known to forget to link new photos to the baby section…  SO the easiest and probably the best way for you to look for new photos is to look in the 2006 folder, under the specific month.  Tonight I have added some new pics to the 2006/September and 2006/October folders.  This month we got kind of lazy with the pictures.  October should be better – this weekend we’re going on a road trip to Seattle!