blogger, shmogger; snow shmow

What's up with the updated blogger? It is supposed to be easier, but I can't figure out how (or where in the template) to add things with html code. Mainly I would like to add my flickr badge back in. Anyone know how to do that? Other than that I have made a few small updates to the blog appearance...(not very exciting stuff)

This weekend I went to the Twin Cities. The plan was to meet Blue (who was riding with a friend), and for us all to attend another friend's wedding. Unfortunately, the crazy winter storm prohibited travel starting late friday night (I headed over friday afternoon).
Another twist occurred; the friend I planned to stay with had a baby Friday evening (contractions started that morning). She wasn't due for another week, but they arrive when they want to. So I called up my cousin and arranged to stay with her and her family. I had a great time there, they fed me the best food and I got to play with their adorable baby the whole time.

I went to the hospital on Saturday (before the wedding) to check out the newborn. She was really cute (surprisingly- they usually just aren't that cute). Then I attended the wedding, stag. It was fun and nice to see old friends. There was no dancing for me, even if I had someone to dance with, I am pretty sure the new knee isn't up for it quite yet. I called it an early evening and headed back to my cousins, the accumulating snow made the drive back to my cousin's long and treacherous.

On a knitting note, a few petite gifts were given to the babies - small socks, little square booties, and a hat.

(delicious cream puffs made by my cousin's husband, photo by one of them)

Kiwi money

Blue's mom was able to finagle some New Zealand dollars (ordered from a bank, I believe) especially for us. She gave them to us as part of our going away present. Aren't they pretty? There are little translucent windows in them.

Old photos

My mom recently acquired some old family photos. I have no idea who any of the people are in these particular photos or when they were taken, but maybe I have some new found ethnicity that I never knew about??? Check out the birds on the wires!

Exchanges

Blue and I were across the state on VD, but exchanged a few items the next evening while we drank some delicious Zin and enjoyed each others company. He got me the most exquisite and well presented chocolates I have ever seen (or tasted) from Candinas, a small chocolatier in Verona, WI. I just had the chocolate raspberry truffle, mmmm.

I made him a few toys, the scotty dog, and a cow (or bull) finger puppet (Last year he got the burro). These little finger puppets are cute, and although not really that technically difficult to make, they are challenging due to their inherent smallness. So although blue's most prized knitted items are toys, he only gets them on special occasions. There are 10 finger puppet patterns (I think) in the Weekend Knits book, I only have 8 left... (maybe 8 more vdays will do it)

Things that made me laugh today

- after i got to the dentist this morning, i noticed my new coat still had the tags on it- oops :)

- thinking about a story my mom told me this weekend about a drunken trip to a brewer's game that had many hilarious twists and turns but the kicker was that on the way home, shortly after making bedroom voices to truckers on the cb, her best friend got sick. So they pulled over and she ended up misjudging her step and rolling, head over heel, down a steep and tall embankment (the bf, not my mom), oh it still kills me.

- yoga, and trying to do the splits... and seeing that only 2 people in the room are even remotely close

- a story i read a couple weeks ago about yoga and being banned from gyms because farting is still funny ( crazy aunt purl), it keeps making me laugh, especially when people start snoring during relaxation at class

Links instead of pics...

Today I found lots of neat sewing related pages, mostly linked off HELLOmynameisHeather. She has a tutorial on a new (to me) anchor knot for hand stitching, a tutorial on fabric yo-yo's - which make way cool quilts, and a free pattern for baby booties. I have seen oodles of these baby booties on people's flick'r pages and they are so cute! There is also a link to a beautiful fabric gallery. This site has lots of fun little stuff too (free patterns!). ...Makes me want to become a full-time toy maker.

I was also happy to hear something on the news today, supposedly naps reduce the risk of heart problems. That's what I like to hear! Hopefully all my recent napping will pay off in the long run and help me ward off an encroaching flu... grrrrrr.

Is it just me or does this bunny have really wide hips/butt?

The Windy City, and then some

This weekend was spent in Chicago. I had a friend who needed to be visited and my little sister had a graduate school audition at Roosevelt University, so we combined the two. Saturday afternoon we went to the Museum of Science and Industry and viewed the Body World 2 exhibit. It was about what I expected, very interesting and a little disturbing. The skin and skin with hair on it were really the worst for me.

The weather in Chicago this weekend was atrocious, it was below zero and there were wind gusts up to 4o mph. Because we spent quite a bit of time downtown, the full force of the wind and cold were fully grasped. The natural elements also helped to kick in a lovely cold+fever that I think could have been fought off otherwise.

The chilling temperatures also occurred in Madison (and all over Wisconsin) which contributed to the temporary immobilization of my vehicle, but after some heet, gas, jump #1, lots of time, and jump #2, it started again and I was able to drive home today. With a little more rest and some knitting we should both be up to full strength in no time.

Bloggiversary

I totally missed my bloggiversary last week (Jan 25)... it just didn't seem like I have been doing this blog thing for a year!

Over the weekend I went up even further north to my parents' cabin. It was beautiful and snowy, that area of the state has the deepest snow base and the snowmobiling is ever so popular. We didn't do too much, had some bloody mary's, went to a party at a bar, watched a movie, you know cabinesque activities.

Last night when we returned home I finally started on the second half of the wobbly circles tote and got about half way through with it. That means I only have .25 left to knit, but then there is lots and lots of end weaving in and the sewing of the sides which always takes me forever to get to, but not too long to complete once I finally set my mind to it.

Last week the snow and cold were just so and made the trees look like they were covered in spray-on snow. I liked it very much.

Snowy adventures

A friend from way south of the snowline visited the northwoods this weekend. We tried to do as many snowy activities as time allowed. On Saturday Blue took L for her first snowmobile ride, then on Sunday we put some tip-ups in the lake (didn't catch anything though). On the way to the airport Sunday, we stopped by the tribute to the mythical creature - the Hodag - and took some glamor shots.

There wasn't a whole lot of knitting that took place, but I did manage to finish my hat (seen in the pic) and a scarf. L started on a throw blanket for her brother - a very handy traveling project!

This morning Blue and I woke up to what sounded like an airplane circling the house. And when he went to put some tip-ups in, we found out indeed it was an airplane, with skis on it. It is so cute and little, but it sure makes me nervous. I can't believe this tiny lake is even big enough to land a plane THAT small! I went down to take some pictures of it, but was inside when it took off again.

Some F.O.s

I thought I would take this opportunity to post some pics of all the finished objects, that have just been patiently waiting to be photographed. So here we go...

I just finished this one yesterday. It is the ribbed scarf from the winter knits kit. I really like the uneven striping at the ends. The yarn I used was a 50/50 wool/alpaca blend from Berroco (ultra alpaca).


This little guy (also from winter knits kit) has a matching scarf, but still no nose, mouth or buttons... I also think he needs a hat, a top hat to be precise. I was thinking of cutting/gluing one out of black felt, we'll see if that ever happens.


And here are my second pair of lovely lace socks made out of gems opal sport weight, in some sort of greenish color. I am also gifting these, but one of these days I just might make some for myself!

This is the felted ipod case I made my mom to fit both her ipod and itrip. It still needs a fastener (velcro) and if I feel ambitious some vinyl windows for the displays.


And this one might be my favorite, a laptop sleeve for my macbook. Considering I just guessed at the measurements, it turned out quite well - if I do say so myself. I also sewed in the corners to make the bottom square and thankfully it is a perfect fit for my macbook corners. I think I might have to felt (and stretch) it one more time - it is about an inch too tall. It also needs some velcro and I have some groovy matching fabric to make a liner... if I ever get around to it.

More knitting in nature

While I was in Madison I picked up some alpaca/wool yarn for a scarf, hat, and mittens for myself. Unable to decide on a scarf pattern and unwilling to make up my envisioned hat pattern, I decided to start with the target wave mittens that I always thought were cute. Unfortunately, the child's large fits my dad (not me) and they just aren't as cute as the ones the little girl has on.

After making one I decided to move on to a new project, the hat. Half way through my made-up pattern I realized that it is going to be too big. No, I didn't do a gauge swatch- every time I try to, it ends up being off anyway, so generally I make it a rule not to swatch. Being disheartened and not in the mood to frog, I started on a snowman pattern in the Winter Knits Kit. It has turned out pretty cute and only needs a few finishing touches.

The scarf pattern that I think I have decided on is from the Winter Knits Kit too. It is a simple ribbed pattern with some striping on either end.

Blue and I have been up at my parent's house in northern Wisco for the last week and have been enjoying my family, the snow, and the chilly weather. Today both of my sister's went back to their various school locations, so the house is suddenly much more quiet. Fortunately, we still have whiskers to harass.

A picture diary

The last few months have been absolutely crazy. So I'm going to attempt a picture diary rendition of it.

Blue and I got engaged in early October.

(props to him on his ring picking out ability)

Shortly after, we got news that Blue was accepted into a PhD position in New Zealand, starting in February 2007.

(we will be in Christchurch, on the south island)

As if this wasn't enough excitement, not long after this big news, I tore my ACL in a rec soccer game. 3.5 weeks later (just before thanksgiving) I had surgery to repair it.

(they made me identify the correct leg to operate on before putting me under)

This successfully pushed back my defense date and graduation from school (MS program). However, I was able to come up with a rough draft of my thesis and defend it before Blue and I packed up all our earthly belongings (with lots of help from friends) and drove back to the north just in time for xmas.

(me teetering around trying to help)

Now we are back home in Wisco trying to getting all our belongings squirreled away and trying to visit with all the friends and family that are around for the holidays. After the new year I will again get cracking on my thesis in order to finish it before we leave for down under. I also have lots of physical therapy to work on in order to get up to full strength. My mobility has vastly improved over the last month, but it is still pretty painful and annoying!

Through all of this I have gotten some knitting done and gifted much of it for xmas including 3 scarfs, 10 washclothes, a mouse, a bag, and spherey. I have also been working on a few pairs of socks and other things that I can't think of right now. Hopefully the next post will include more knitting images and chit chat!

Children I will never meet

I have had a few requests lately to knit baby gifts for friends that have friends having babies. For the first item, I opted to put the finishing touches on a bunny (previously named sally) that I made several months ago. She now has a tail and a scarf and is going to Chicago soon. I believe I will be receiving a print in the mail in exchange for this one???

The other item I whipped up this weekend and it was fun to figure out. Somehow I have avoided making anything with a basket-weave pattern until now (which is kinda weird because I have always liked it). Decreasing in the pattern gave me the most to think about, but after a little internet searching and minimal frogging I got it down and am happy with the outcome. This item has already been traded for one frontline treatment for Mabes and a series of not so magnetic magnets.

Grass-roots knitting

The latest issue of Interweave Knits has a lot of content that is to be expected- a horrible man sweater, yet another annie modesitt sweater pattern (a yolk pullover to boot-referenced on the right), and lots of overly complex sweaters calling for way to many balls of unaffordable yarn. There are some redeeming points, a few manageable patterns, one gorgeous sweater (below on the left) that I will never make because of the aforementioned reasons, a pair of buffalo yarn socks and some interesting short articles relating to some grass-roots knitting issues.
The mother bear project is a Minnesota based organization that collects homemade (knit or crochet) bears and sends them to needy children in Africa. I'm thinking about purchasing this world war II pattern and contributing to the cause.
The next article I read was about was microRevolt which is an organization started by a woman in New York in protest of companies employing sweatshop labor. Her main project is a large nike blanket made up of donated 4x4 inch squares from knitters around the world. The blanket has made some tours, stopping at knitting circles and galleries. This site also has a program that will convert any GIF JPEG or PNG image into a knitting pattern (I think simple images would work best, but wouldn't it be cool to knit a friends face on something???).
There were a couple other notable links in this issue including an article on Japanese knitting
http://blogs.interweave.com/knits/
and London's Victoria & Albert Museum recently posted a knitting page on their site V&A Knitting
(FYI, this issue will be available in stores Nov 14)

Skittle

This was the first project I completed while being laid up. It is a pattern named Spherey by Jess Hutch, she has lots of neat toy patterns and used to put out a booklet of them for purchase, but has since decided to tunnel her energy elsewhere. Spherey is out of that booklet and I am ever so grateful to stitchkommander for allowing me to borrow her copy.

I also found my favorite book as a child while looking through my box of stickers- Hello Kitty's Special Present. She gets this yellow umbrella in the mail from her grandmother and has to wait and wait to use it. The day that it finally rains, is the only day she doesn't bring it to school. Luckily for her she has a smart and thoughtful mother who brings it to her at the end of the day so that they can walk home together in the rain with their umbrella's. I was always fascinated by umbrellas as a child and read this one over and over which is evidenced by the crease in the middle of the cover (which you can't really see in this pic).

it's been a while

I usually like to post on a weekly basis, but have been lagging behind a bit due to an injury I sustained just over a week ago. I tore my ACL and have been laid up ever since. My knitting is doing better than my blogging (and my thesis).
I have made countless washclothes. They are one of the best things to make because they are completely mindless. Don't get me wrong, I love the challenge of a new pattern and learning new knitting techniques and tricks, but when you are on drugs and in pain and just need something to distract you - not necessarily something to think about - washclothes are the way to go.
I have also been working on the poop brown socks oh and I made a mini-sock for Blue's big toe (who's toenail is in peril). He wears it at night in best effort to keep it attached. I think it is super cute and I used all of my sock knowledge to make the cuff and toe decrease thankfully no heel flap or gusset were needed.

Adopt a squirrel?

Last weekend was spent camping in the mountains of North Carolina. A group of grad students and co. gathered at a (free) group camp site just on the other side of this creek. Thankfully I was warned before departing on this trip and grabbed a pair of rubber boots (which I looked fabulous in). Unfortunately I was one of the only people with complete protection from this cold water and ended up doing a lot of running back and forth to the vehicles. It was a nice relaxing trip, whiskey was drunk around the campfire, smores were consumed, and many a strip of bacon was fried over the fire.

Today has been a little traumatic, mostly for miss Mabel. She went to the vet this morning to get checked out. I have found a good home for her, but there are other cats so we had to make sure she wasn't going to give them feline leukemia or F.I.V. (aka kitty HIV). Apart from the stress and anger towards blue and I she is a healthy cat, around 3 years of age, oh and with an upper respiratory infection. And she has been spayed already. This leads me to believe that she probably had a home and makes me wonder even more where she came from. How far did she travel? Why? Did they love her at her other home? Do they miss her? Are they trying to find her? We posted signs up last week at the major stop signs in our area, but haven't heard back from anyone. Hopefully mabes will be able to get over her bad day and continue to be the loving, quirky, cuddly cat that found us.

I almost forgot. We were camping just outside of Brevard, NC where they have white squirrels around town. On our way out of town on Sunday we took a little side trip to try and get a peek. They are so cute! And apparently you can adopt one too???

Mac and Mabel

This is the new mac I have been talking about. It is lots of fun and the photobooth and video making programs have been a hit with almost everyone... everyone who isn't camera shy.

The midwest treated me well and blue and I attended a sizable catholic wedding in the twin cities. It was lots of fun and I enjoyed getting glammed up for a change.

Since getting back on Sunday a kitty has adopted us and our porch chair. She seemed pretty hungry (she ate a pretzel that I dropped) so I picked up some cat food. Turns out I should have gotten a little higher quality food because her gas is a little out of hand. If she continues to stick around (and I don't see her going anywhere any time soon) I will have to pick up a little healthier cuisine for her. I decided that this little mug of her's looks like a Mabel, so Mabel it is.

This morning Blue got a rude awakening to a cat fight outside. Turns out mean gray cat (she terrorizes all the neighborhood kitties) had completely poled her up one of the support beams of our apartment complex- to the roof... She was hanging by her claws 2 stories off the ground with mean gray cat below. She was pretty shook up, but has managed to survive the day in order to terrorize us with her gas.

Instead of knitting...

I have been playing with my new computer. It arrived on monday. A shiny white macbook with all the fun stuff standard on a mac. So instead of knitting this week I have been playing games, uploading photos and music, playing with the built in camera (this image comes courtesy of it), relearning how to use a mac, and trying to find a driver so that I might print (I think I might be SOL there).

Next week I am headed to Sconnie and according to the today show, there should be peak fall colors while I am there. I am very much looking forward to that, I think fall colors usually come in early november around here.

I also learned that Tracey Ullman has a new knitting book out while watching the today show this morning. I didn't really pay attention to the interview because I was too busy playing connect four on my computer, but I did hear Ann Curry say, "I hear knitting is the new yoga" and Merideth was also talking about how she was a knitter because she started knitting 2 years ago, but never finished anything. Can she really consider herself a knitter then? Now I don't watch that show regularly, but the snippets I have caught have led me to believe that the show has really taken a dive since they hired Merideth to replace Katie.