Happy Christmas

Yes, I had one :D

Hectic. Insane. Too many people in my relatively small house. But you know what? It was fantastic all the same.

Hope you all had a great one too. Here are some pictures from the day:

It's not giving up...it's self preservation

Well my fellow DBers, I must ashamedly admit that this month's challenge managed to thoroughly kick my ass.

Surprisingly, it was not the much belothed buttercream that did me in. No, in fact, I made a beautiful, shiny, fluffy buttercream on the first try. I caught it as it tried to curdle 4 table spoons before the butter was full incorporated. It came back together beautifully after giving it a little steam bath over the double boiler. So, no buttercream horror stories here.

No...it was the genoise. I don't know what I did wrong, honestly. Well, I know what happened the first time I made it. After reading that some people were having issue with the genoise drying out after cooking for 12 minutes, I opted for the lower end of the spectrum and baked for 10. Bad idea. It didn't get done all the way through. So, attempt #2, I thought it had done fine. Apparently not. There were spots that were still not fully cooked, the damn thing clung to the buttered parchment for dear life, ripping off half of the actual cake in the process.

I managed to still decorate it (minus the mushrooms) but I highly doubt it's edible as, at this point, it's basically a lot of buttercream, some raspberry real fruit jam, and maybe, somewhere in there, a tiny bit of genoise.

I must admit to being completely embarrassed. You know, if the buttercream had defeated me, fine...but a cake?!?! I can make a CAKE. Ugh. Chalk this one up to a bad experience.

(Oh, for anyone who's wondering. I didn't bother to waste the resources making the mushrooms since the cake it pretty much a lost cause. Seemed a little wasteful considering I don't like eating meringue.)

Really? Seriously?

Yes. More baking. More baking cookies even.

In all honesty, I'm blogging so I don't fall asleep with the last batch in the oven and burn the house down.

So.Tired.

Logan wanted to take some cookies to work. Unfortunately, my greatest success on the cookie front (the pecan sandies) were eagerly devoured by us, and happily finished off by the dogs (no, that wasn't SUPPOSED to happen.) So, here I sit. Baking. Again.

One batch of cranberry white chocolate target knock off cookies (especially appropriate since he works at target) and one batch of pecan sandies. This to round out the cranberry orange pinwheels, the peanut clusters, the fudge, and the peanut butter balls (donated by bex). Yup, those boys are gonna be on a biggest sugar high ever.

Ahh, salvation! Timer is going off! To sleep with me!

Tomorrow:
1 - Another batch of pecan sandies (because bex and the boy are whining about not having any)
2 - James' christmas carrot cake
3 - Jesse's christmas cheesecake cupcakes.
4 - knit the other edge of eileen's shawl so I can get it blocked.
5 - oh yeah, I should work somewhere in there too!

Finally

I was beginning to think it wasn't possible.

I haven't touched Eileen's shawl in over a month. Why? Because after numerous attempts, I could NOT get my head around how to knit on the edging.

With a little over a week until Christmas, I resolved that I H-A-D to get this done. So yesterday I picked it up again. And spent the day completely frustrated and in tears.

Seriously, I can follow a chart! I can knit! UGH.

UGH
UGH
UGH

OMG are you serious?

Well, you wanna know what it was? THE CHART IS BACKWARDS! You know who had to point this out to me?? Logan. The boy. The boy who doesn't knit. He says to me "Well, if the knitting is backwards when you knit it, then why don't you turn the chart around?" What? Read the chart...BACKWARDS?!?! Blasphemy.

But I'll be damned...it worked. And so, after a day of tears and much knit throwing...I have successfully knit the edging onto one side of Eileen's shawl. Tomorrow, I will tackle side two.

Wish me luck!

Cookie Overload

Well hello. I'm back in computerland. Didja miss me? Likely not. Ah well, such is life.

I spent my weekend in the kitchen.

Finally count:

4 batches of sugar cookies.
4 batches of pecan sandies.
1 batch of raspberry white chocolate filled cookies.
1 batch of super fudge.
1 batch of not so super caramel.
1 bag of chocolate covered pretzels.
Not one but TWO Caramel Pecan Cheesecakes

Oh, you want to know what I still have left to bake?

1 pan of lemon bars
1 batch of cranberry orange pinwheels
1 batch of pumpkin pecan cookies
1 batch of chocolate peanut blowouts
1 or 2 batches of filled peanut butter cookies
1 batch of chocolate cherry surprise cookies
1 batch of pastry pillows for Logan

Why, you ask? WHY? Because, it's Christmas and it's what I like to do. I have several packages to send out to friends and family, near and far, and baking is what I know best. Well, and knitting takes too long.

So, I spent my weekend working my ass off. And loved every minute of it.

Best Christmas Ever

Yup, you heard me right. I'm already declaring this the best Christmas ever. (Pretty funny considering I just posted a rant about it.)

I gave my mom her main Christmas gift last night. No, no, don't look at me like that, I took her to the Mannheim Steamroller concert in Spokane. I can't even tell you how much fun we had. And the concert was just fantastic. They had so much fun up there.

Our seats ended up being perfect. Were were in the second row of the balcony, which, though we could have had closer floor seats, allowed us to actually see (as mom and I are so incredibly short). It was seriously a blast, and it's something that mom would never do for herself.

So, Merry Christmas everyone, even if I am a little early.

My next mission(s) should I choose to accept:

1 - The Daring Baker December Challenge, it's a doosey
2 - Get my boy to buy me a Christmas Tree
3 - Conquer the fish hat or find a suitable replacement
4 - Give away the fudge I just made so that I don't eat it! :P

Where to start?

Ugh. Just ugh. Maybe I'm not built for colorwork. Maybe the chart isn't good for stranding (which I originally suspected.)

Regardless - I'm screwed.

I had the fish hat planned for 3 of my christmas recipients. I've now made the hat twice, with very little success. I'm WAY not happy with it.

I don't know what to do. 20 days to christmas. Better find a solution soon.

The things every knitter wants hear

So, I had an interesting experience last night.

Logan was being really needy last night. The problem was, he wasn't being very communicative about it, so he just kinda got pouty about it. Anyway, he finally asks me if I can knit with his head in my lap. Well, c'mon, I can knit with the 12 pound dog in my lap, I'm pretty sure I can knit with a 12 pound head in my lap. (Incidentally, I know that the human head only weighs 10 pounds on average, but Logan has an abnormally large head...anyways) So, he asks if I will knit while he lays in my lap.

Of course, I had to ask why. Well, apparently, my boy enjoys the same things about knitting that I do. He says, specifically, that he likes to listen to the sound. He likes the clinking of the needles and the sound of the yarn sliding. He said it relaxes him and he really likes it.

Wow. Seriously? A (non-knitting) boy who understands the zen that us knitters know so well? Just wow.

I was completely blow away.

The FO report

Short and sweet - since all the people who care can see the info on Ravelry:

1 - Gram's Nautilus hat in Merino Bulky from Handpaintedyarn. A Christmas knit!
2 - Amelia's Koolhaas in Cascade 220. Another Christmas knit!
3 - Celtic Cable Hat for Trevor, which is GORGEOUS. I recommend this pattern to anyone who wants to learn more about cabling. This is also a Christmas knit!

So, yeah, I'm totally busting out the Christmas presents right now.

I'm about to start the specs on a faire isle hat that's going to be for Logan's dad and my uncle. And maybe my brother in law too, since it seems like something he would like. We'll see.

Tender Potato Bread

So, what have I been going on about all month???

Well, at the beginning of the month, I received my first challenge as a Daring Baker. I'm a geek, I know. But it was SO much fun. The premise is, each month the group is given a recipe and we all have to complete the recipe before the deadline and post about our experiences. It's a bit of a social experiment. Take bakers of varying prowess, give them the same recipe...allow only minor and very specific recipe modification and see what happens!

So, November is my first month as a Daring Baker. And to be honest, when I saw what the challenge was, I just about died. Tanna, of My Kitchen in Half Cups, our hostess for this round had selected...Bread. (You can find the recipe on her blog)

I've always considered bread one of those magical foods. I know people make it at home, but I just always thought of it as something I would never learn. Bread scares me. No, no! Not THAT kind of scared! I'm the bread queen, I love to EAT bread...I was just afraid of making it.

Well, I certainly wasn't going to pass this up. This whole thing is about learning right?

So, I dove in head first. Then this emerged from my bowl:



Seriously - what is that? It was sticky. No, it was different from sticky...it was...alive. I swear. It clung to EVERYTHING. Now, we WERE warned that this was sticky dough...but apparently, my "vision" of sticky dough was off. LMAO. It was, however, very fun to play with. But then again, I've always been a "get my hands dirty" kind of girl. So, 4 cups of flour later, it was slightly more reasonable. LMAO



After the first rise, I got to form the bread. This is where we were given the most creative freedom, forming the loaf any way we wanted. Well, I have a think about bread braids. I wanted a braid. I took half my dough and made a braid. Heh. Guess what? Too big for the baking sheet....WHOOPS!



So, I opted for a smaller one:

Prebake:


Done!


I also made a loaf and another braid this time around:


Can I tell you how proud of myself I was. Seriously, it was tasty! I actually made bread!

Now, being me, you know I couldn't leave well enough alone. I decided I needed to make more bread, this time, more...adventurous bread. O.M.G. I thought the first batch was good, well, let me tell you, bread is better with CHEESE. Indeed.

Cheesy rolled loaf:


Cheesy Braid (Cheese on top and kneaded into the dough):


And, what Logan said was the best of them all, cheesy ham rolls:


So, another firm, GO ME! I conquered my fear of bread! So much so that I think my next adventure in bread will be honey whole wheat. YUM! But, that will probably wait until after the holidays! And, I've finally earned my logo - YAY!!!!

Absence

It was a holiday weekend, what can I say? Too busy to blog.

Let's review:

Wedenesday - DAY FROM HELL. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong...ALL FUCKING DAY. Pardon my french. I'm still rather upset about how that whole day went. Anyway, I managed to write a manual from scratch for work, bake a cheesecake, and bake two pecan pies. Go me. It was also Girly-Bonding-TV night. So Bec and I watched our 3 hours of disgusting TV, and loved every minute of it. I managed to knit a hat for Gram's Christmas too. Go me.

Thursday - Family mayhem. Oh, I'm sure you expected that right? Dinners (yes, plural) were great. The pecan pie was good, the cheesecake was phenomenal (let's not talk about why I only got half a piece). Anyway, good day.

Friday - For the first time in years, I was not one of the crazies out at 4am. I wanted to sleep, what can I say. Besides, most everyone is getting knit gifts this year, so I didn't really have the need to shop like I usually do. Despite that, Bec and I headed out about 10am and had a BLAST all day. We bought stuff for ourselves (imagine that) and got some really good deals in the process. We had fun and we did good.

Saturday - Yarn shopping, YAY! Um...not much else. Not even knitting. I don't really know what I did all day. Oh, did have a nice date with the boy. Took him to go see Beowulf in 3D - too cool! And he took me to dinner. It was nice, we don't go out much in general, but very rarely is it just the two of us. It was a good night.

Sunday - Believe it or not, after a weekend on non-production, I was extremely productive Sunday. I completely re-arranged our bedroom. No small feat considering how much furniture is in there and the fact that I only had to remove one small bookshelf from the room to move everything around. It's much better now, I'm much happier. Also got in a few hours of Oblivion, which is, obviously, very important LMAO.

So, sorry for the absence. I'll try to get FO pictures up today sometimes, and I get to tell you about my secret project for the month!!! YAY!! Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!

I are SUPER-KNITTER!

Well, I suppose. Maybe a little?

Wednesday night was very productive on the knitting front. Despite being one of those days when I can't seem to do anything right, I managed to finish Amelia's Koolhaas. It's really nice, I'm quite proud of it.

Since it was Girly-TV-Bonding-Night I cast-on for Gram's second Christmas hat too. I finished that up at about 1am. Now, I'm not saying this was a super complicated pattern, but GO ME! A hat in what, maybe 5 hours? Yay! hehe Anyways, I think she will totally love it, so I'm stoked.

On Tedium

So, I'm a smart knitter. I can look at the pictures of a pattern and pretty much get the idea of what's going on. So, why oh why am I so shocked by the Koolhaas pattern?

Looking at the picture - suuure, easy 2x2 ribbing, pretty lattice work, that's most likely cables. Yeah. let's talk about 104 stitches worked completely in 1 stitch cables. OH.MY.GOD. I seriously wanted to rip my eyes out this morning. The effect is gorgeous, but this may not have been the best project to do FOR SOMEONE ELSE. I'm a selfish knitter. I don't mind knitting for other people, but honestly, things that require tons of my time, energy, and occasionally tons of my frustration, I want to keep. They should be mine. LOL

So, really, I'm just kinda bitching. This is a lovely pattern, and in all honesty, once I got past the tedium of the first row, it's not really all that bad. I'm through the first pattern repeat and the pattern is developing very nicely. I'm slightly concerned that I won't want to give it away, but I'll cross the bridge when I get there LMAO

Feeling Accomplished...

And daunted by what's to come.

I finally got through pattern repeat #12. That means time to bind off. The rows were seriously getting way too long for me to deal with and honestly, the last row was the row from hell. Other than that, it was a pretty fun project.




So, what's to come? Well, knitted on edging to be precise. I've never done one. I'm kinda scared of messing up this shawl, because I've already put so much time into it.

Solution? A test run. Tomorrow I'm going to knit a test swatch of 1 pattern repeat and try knitting an edging on. Wish me luck!

Knitting, Knitting, Knitting, Baking

Maybe even in that order.

I'm busting ass on Eileen's shawl. I have 2 pattern repeats left...maybe one if my skein of yarn runs out. Then I get to begin the adventure of knitted on edging. Ah well.

I think I want to start another Logan Christmas project this weekend, but the shawl is taking precedence, so we'll see.

With the upcoming holidays, I realized I have a lot of baking to do. Pecan pies, Caramel Pecan Cheesecake, possibly rolls. Can't start until Wednesday. Oh well!

Can't wait until the 26th so I can tell you about my latest adventures in baking, SO.MUCH.FUN!

Zen and the art of knitting

As I sat here this morning, working the longest purl row in history - okay, that may be a slight exaggeration - I was completely lulled by the rhythm of my own hands. It still amazes me, when I have the chance to knit by myself in a quiet house. The rhythm that my hands find is so soothing, so relaxing. Very cool.

Pride

And now that I've got that out of my system, I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!

I finished Logan's IHS yesterday. It's gorgeous, I love it. It also means that 1 of the 2 large projects for Christmas are done. YAY! I have a lot of stuff left to knit, but they are all smaller 2 - 4 DAY projects instead of 2 - 4 WEEK projects :) Good thing since there's not man weeks left to Christmas.



I've also got my head in the clouds because I completed my first Daring Baker challenge yesterday. I really, really want to give more details, but I am sworn to secrecy. Suffice it to say that I feel like I completed something that was quite possibly impossible for this simple little baker. I'm very very proud of myself. I want to make more and maybe next time I will let myself be a little more adventurous.

So much going on

I know, it's just the time of year, but I have so many things that I want to do...ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It's just...annoying. I always fooled myself into thinking that I could do it all.

I just can't.

I knit like a maniac, and I'm so proud of what I accomplish. Then I look around the house. I need to vacuum, I need to pick up the dogs toys, I need to do the dishes (again), I need to clean the dining room table (you know, so we could actually eat there if we wanted to), I need to clean our bedroom. And that's just the housework. I need to pull up the tomato plants before it gets to cold, I need to trim back the roses, I need to clean the lawn before the first real snow. These are the needs.

What about the wants? I want to redesign my blog. I want to start knitting both a shawl and a scarf *gasp* FOR ME. I want to do a lot of things, and I just don't have time. It seems like picking one thing means sacrificing another.

I know, it's the same for everyone, and I'm not really in a super melancholy mood. I'm just...frustrated.

Don't do this.

Don't, under any circumstances, try a new, challenging, probably out of your league pattern on a day when you have slept in two days and you don't feel good and your boyfriend is being needy.

Just don't.

In other news...

1 - Started the Celtic Cable Hat for Trevor (boy's brother). It's...challenging. We'll leave it at that until the urge to throw it across the room passes.

2 - I'm horribly behind on uploading pictures. The Felted Lopi Tote is done and pictures have been taken.

3 - I got a new order of yarn...oy...that's a story all it's own.

4 - After having a minor heart attack over Eileen's Shawl, I realized that I'm dumb, and a lot farther than I thought - umm, like 20 inches close. Don't ask.

5 - Logan's projects - both of them - are coming along very, very well. I've spoken with both Kate and Kythryne about the last couple of things I need, so I should have those in the next couple of weeks.

I can't think anymore, and I'm stupidly going to attempt another two on Trevor's hat...

Alive...sorta

Okay...so...sorry for the prolonged absence...it's been a rough week.

Had a great weekend (last weekend) with my mom and Bec. We went yarn store hopping - which I haven't done in AGES. Of course, because I hadn't done it in ages, I spent more and bought more yarn than I should have. I think, considering the circumstances, I did pretty well. I went to Harmony and picked up some size 2 DPNs so I could (re)start my Lake Park Gloves, and two skeins of Noro so that I could make a small version of the Lopi felted purse. (that's done by the way, and on it's umpteenth run through the wash with the normal laundry - I have a top loader and it takes forever to felt - it is coming out nicely though.)



After Harmony, we stopped by Jo-anns, where I managed to spend $12 on nothing...I know, I don't get it either. Oh, I take that back, I did get a skein of white microspun for Heather's Christmas present (and then I tried to knit with it and remembered why Bec gave me her microspun in the first place - BLEH!)

Then we hit Boucle's. You know, Ricky may not have the yarn selection of Harmony, but I just like the shop better. So Bec and a bounced around there for a long time, feeling all the yarns. Yumm! I was good and only picked up a skein of Cascade in black (for a Christmas present) and a small skein of Brownsheep's Handpainted Originals, because I just couldn't resist the colorway. It's GORGEOUS!



So, Sunday, mom and I just bounced around town together, which is something we don't do nearly enough, but we always have SO much fun.

Monday, the week from hell began. Bec stayed home from work (mental health day) and so we started the day knitting and chatting while I worked. Then, we made the fateful decision to go to Taco Bell.

A note on Taco Bell - Bec and I both have fond memories of chili cheese burritos from Taco Bell when we were in high school. So when they released these new chili cheese nachos, we decided that we should ask if they were making chili cheese burritos again - well they are (YAY!) and we had one for lunch Sunday.

So, yeah, back to Monday, against our normally impeccable judgment, we went to Taco Bell for lunch again. Well...this decision didn't work out so well for me. Suffice it to say that I got the worst case of food poisoning I've had in YEARS. It knocked me on my ass from Monday afternoon to Tuesday night. It was HORRIBLE.

On top of that, my beloved pet bug died Tuesday night. I'm so sad. I know it's dumb, but I really loved her. I didn't realize how many times a day I came in to say hi to her and watch her and just check on her. I really did love her and I'm gonna miss her.



Wednesday...Halloween. I'm not touching that one. Logan was very sweet and got me my new Sims game for the Wii. It's AWESOME! I spent all day playing it. Totally fun. The night kinda went to shit, but oh well.

Yesterday was the first day I had felt human all week. Then...about 4 in the afternoon, Logan and I start getting sniffly...and headachey...and sneezy. Yup, you guessed it, we both have horrible colds. Ugh. Unbelievable. It hit hard and fast too. We were both find, then all of a sudden, WHAM! Head cold. Grrr.

That said, I made some FANTASTIC chocolate cake last night. I got the idea for making the cake from La Mia Cucina, who got the recipe from Orangette. Regardless, this is the BEST homemade chocolate cake I've ever made. Sooo moist and just deep and rich. This will be a layer cake soon. Very soon. These are so damn good. I should take a picture of them.

Anyway, I suppose that catches you up on my life and times. Next on the Agenda:

1 - Join the Daring Bakers. I got my invitation yesterday - YAY!
2 - KNITKNITKNIT! I have to get some Christmas projects done! No more personal projects!!!
3 - Explore the new island my Sim found yesterday - yes - this is important.

Knitter's block..and not

Can't...work...on...shawl. It's driving me nuts and almost stressing me out that I can't get myself to work on this shawl. OMG. I finally figured out what it is about this project that driving me nuts. The pattern is too in between. I don't mind mindless patterns. They are great for the days I want to vedge in front of the TV and do nothing because I don't have to think about them. I also don't mind the harder patterns, where I really have to sit down and concentrate on what I'm doing. What bugs me is the in-between. The first 6 or 8 rows of this pattern are mindless, I can multi-task while I do them. They I get lost. It's not that the rows are hard, but I have to pay attention to which row I'm on so that I get the stitches right. I haven't found the "lamdmarks" in those rows yet to tell me I'm on the right path. GRRR. So I sit down and start a repeat and I get into other things, then WHAM I hit row 10 and I have to drop everything because I keep screwing up. It's SO frustrating. Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

That said, I'm officially 1/2 way through Logan's IHS. Problem is, I'm not sure that the two balls of yarn I have are going to make a long enough scarf. If anything it will only be an inch or two shorter than I would prefer, so I can hopefully get that much out of a wet block, though I was hoping to avoid blocking. Oh well.

In other news, I'm starting on Logan's other super secret project today. The willow is in the tub soaking, so we'll see.

Aaaaand, that's about it.

All sorts of stuff...

Hmm where to start...

I'M OFFICIALLY A RAVELER!!! Yes indeed peoples, I got my Ravelry invite today. So, I've uploaded most of my recent FOs and the couple of things I'm working on currently. I can already see myself losing HOURS on this site. Wow. It's everything everyone has been raving about and more. Fan-FUCKING-tastic. I love it.

So, Eileen's christmas Shawl is coming along nicely. It's getting a little tedious. The rows are getting long and the pattern is pretty repetitive. It's going to be a rough go. But, I'll get through it, that's why I started early.

On the other hand, Logan's secret project #2 is MIA. Yes, I lost it. Well, I didn't lose it so much as I hid it from myself. I knew he was going to be home for several days in a row...I was in the process of cleaning...and I put it away...somewhere. Yeah, I know. Good thing it was going fast anyway. I really need to work on secret project number on too. I have the beads for it...and a couple of other supplies...but I have yet to begin assembly.

What else...OH! I joined the Daring Bakers. Yes, I know, I'm a dork. But really, I love baking and this looks like it will be lots of fun. Happy happy! I don't get to start until the November challenge though, so we'll see. Also on the cooking front, I bought 2 new books. A Williams Sonoma book on Desserts and a random book of like 200 muffin, coffee cake, down home recipes. SOOOO good. Logan says I have to make one of everything. This could take a while :P

Umm...that might be all for now. My brain is fried from the last week and yeah, I'm ready for an empty house and some sleep.

*hugs*

FO - Calorimetry

Yarn - HandpaintedYarn.com "Amatista"
Pattern - Calorimetry from Knitty.com

So, I'd had this fantastically GORGEOUS purple yarn from Handpainted yarn and I knew I wanted to make something different, not just another beanie. So, I went with a headband and scarf set. This is the headband (duh).

So this pattern is er...weird. The gauge is just...off. The first time I knit this, I used the prescribed needle size and hit the gauge with no problem. Unfortunately, I got half way through the pattern and realized that the knitted fabric was HUGE. Too huge. Bigger than my head huge. So I frogged it and walked away for a while.

A few weeks later, I picked up again and just decided to haphazardly drop 3 needle sizes. It was size perfection. I still have to add buttons to it, but I really love how it came out.

FO - Camo Stripe Hat

Yarn - HandpaintedYarn.com "Rivera Sands"
Pattern - My basic beanie pattern

This was another stash buster hat. I made Logan a hunting mask out of this gorgeous yarn. The colors are totally camo and beautiful. So, to get rid of the tiny little ball that was left, I made a beanie! I actually really like the way it striped instead of pooling. Yay for happy accidents and for stash busting!

FO - Voodoo (to the third power)

Yarn - HandpaintedYarn.com "Shells"
Pattern - Voodoo from Knitty.com

Yes, this is my third set of voodoo. I also think it's my favorite. I love the way the pink spirals around the wrist. I actually got my first chance to wear these the other day and they are so incredibly warm. I'm in love. There will no doubt be more voodoo in my future. Love this pattern.

FO - Lace Skull Cap

Yarn - HandpaintedYarn.com Buotone
Pattern - Modified " Halley's Comet Hat from Marnie MacLean

This is a hat that I've wanted to make forever, but could never find a yarn that made me happy. Well, after I made my Wisp from knitting, I had enough of the buotone yarn left over for a hat or two, so I used part of the leftover ball for this. I love it. The pattern is pretty much verbatim, I just made it a lot shorter so that it could be more of a spring hat instead of a winter beanie.

Here's a closeup of the lace - I really like it. I would like to try and make a circular shawl out of this petal pattern, but I don't know if I have the energy (or the skill) to manage that.

FO - Ponytail Snowboarding Hat

Yarn - 1 skein HandpaintedYarn.com "Geoda"
Pattern - Free pattern from WoolyWormhead called "Tea Cozy Hat"

So, I found myself with a dilemma. I went snowboarding for the first time last year and I really liked it. But, I'm from California. I'm used to wearing a ponytail on the slopes and not having to wear a hat...so wearing my hair down was just...unnatural.

When I saw this hat I was ecstatic. It was perfect in theory, but I was a little skeptical that it would actually work out the way it's supposed to. But it does! I love the color of the yarn against my hair too. I couldn't be more happy with this one.

I've got more of this same yarn and I'm going to make a scarf and possibly wrist warmers to match.

FO - Sk8er Gurl Hat

Yarn - Less than 1 skein HandpaintedYarn.com "Noches de Otono"
Pattern - Just a basic beanie pattern I created/divined from multiple patterns

I love this yarn. It's gorgeous. Logan and I both have a hat in this yarn and pattern. It's the perfect skater gurl/boy beanie. Yup.

FO - Nautilus Hat

Yarn - Less than 1 ball HandpaintedYarn.com "Granate"
Pattern - Marnie MacLean's Nautilus

I've admired Marnie's patterns for a long time now, but until recently, I've not had great confidence in my knitting ability. It seems that since everything, I've decided there's nothing I can't do, and this applies to knitting too and I've been trying patterns that I never would have tried in the past.

Obviously, it was all in my head, because I had absolutely no problems with this pattern, it's not difficult, I was just intimidated. Not anymore!

FO - Tweed Hats

So, I had this leftover tweed wool from forever ago (I made a purse out of most of it) well, I decided to make a hat out of it and get rid of the little balls ... except I didn't expect it to make two hats, sooo, Logan and I have gross couple semi-matchy matchy hats now. Shuddup. This one is mine. It's okay, for a stashbuster hat, but it's not fantastic.





This one is his. His is better..I know

Odessa

I just finished an Odessa from Magknits. While I really like it...I'm not sure that I will do another one...

Well, I mean, it was a super easy pattern, easy to remember and easy to execute. And the end product is really nice looking. Problem? I insisted on using beads that were technically too small for my semi-chunky yarn. But it's what I wanted hehehe. They are really cute on there and I love them and I'm glad I didn't compromise, but it took me a couple of hours to string them on and killed my fingers. I ended up having to use a thick cardstock to make a needle threader to thread the yarn through the beads since the hole in the beads wouldn't accomodate two widths of yarn and a needle. I know, I know this is my fault and not the hat's, but DAMN. Seriously, what a pain in the ass. And then, since the beads were tight on the yarn too, moving them as I knit was a huge pain in the ass too. Grr.

That said, I really do like the hat. I may end up breaking down and making another one. The color is so my mom that I may just give it to her and make myself one in another color. We'll see.

I'll take some pictures...at some point. I know, I know, this is what I'm alway the worst at...actually posting pictures of my FOs.

Oh, speaking of FOs, I finished a brown hat for Logan the other day. Yup, it's purty too. Sure, why not, I'll put it in the ever lengthening picture queue too.

I'm impossible.

Let the Christmas Knitting Begin!

Well, in truth, I've been PLANNING my Christmas knitting for some time now. But, I've finished my first of several pieces and started on a second one.

If I'm being honest, it's making me feel a little cheap. See, the thing is, Logan and I are going to Athens and Cairo in January, so I'm trying to save money for that, so Christmas is going to be a little smaller than usual this year. I'm knitting people things (small things at that) because it's relatively inexpensive on my end. I know, logically that the time and effort I'm putting into the projects makes them special, but come on. I dunno. Grr. Oh well. I'll have to live with it this year.

Okay, off to do more knitting.

Oh, I did take some pictures of my FOs (mostly hats) but I haven't uploaded anything yet, so too bad lol

The Return of Knitter Girl!

And so I have returned. It's been a long time since I've been in the knitting community. About a year ago, my life got turned upside down, and honestly, I just couldn't split my focus any further than it already was. So unfortunately, knitting was one of the first things that got dropped from the agenda. So yeah...

I'm happy to report that things are so much better now. I've returned to knitting, and I think I may love it more now than I ever have before. It's pretty fantastic to be back. I've been knitting like crazy! Nothing overly complicated, but I have a list of FOs that's probably 2 pages long. Okay, okay, that's an exaggeration, but not by much.

Let me put it this way. My Microsoft Money program asked me if my transactions entries for HandpaintedYarn.com should be "recurring transactions." Hehe...oops.

Sign of obsession #2? Do you really need another one? Well fine, I'll admit it. I spend too much time on the HandpaintedYarn website. Yesterday, the Fall Knitty was released. It's really fantastic by the way. Anyway, I'm scrolling through the patterns and I came across the Cherie Amour Pattern. I looked at the picture and go "Wow, it's so pretty. The Yarn looks just like HandpaintedYarn's Frutos del Bosque colorway. Well...I scroll down only to realize that it actually WAS HandpaintedYarn's Frutos del Bosque colorway. He...he... Obsessed...yes.

So anyway...I'm back. I'll have FO pictures in the next couple of days (hopefully) and I'm going to try really hard to keep up on this blog. I feel kinda bad abandoning my old one...but it feels like the old me, and I really want to move on. I've started everything new in the last year, and it only seemed right that I start this new too.