Wagon=happy!
Look at this face!
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Happy Holidays
I started a bit of holiday knitting.
Madelinetosh Eyre “sequoia”
60% merino wool, 20% silk, 20% baby alpaca. Worsted weight, 120 yards. It is delightful to knit and slowly becoming a “Lacy V Scarf”…
I also finally got my yarn for the “Tea Leaves Cardigan” … Tosh Merino, “crumble” I adore it and cannot wait to cast on, however… I will have to wait since I have a lot going on.
Longies for baby August
I am making a series of longies and shorties for Laura’s baby boy, August. Although his name makes me think of intense heat, ocean winds and Margarita’s this baby will be born soon! He is due in December, but she is getting very close and from the sounds of it he is going to be bigger than her first bundle of joy, who was no preemie! I made a pair of shorties and longies, both using a basic knit pattern with 2×2 ribbing, but this pair I wanted to try a new pattern I got from Ladybugz Farm, Dragonfly Longies. I liked it. Simple to read and understand, as the rest of Victoria’s patterns are. I have not made crochet longies in awhile since starting up with the knitting patterns and now I remember why I love them… there is sooooo much stretch, they are thick, and they are so much easier to frog back and start over. I had to do the second thigh about 3 times. For some reason I kept coming up uneven, missing or adding in extras stitches. In this picture, I took it last night, I was not completely finished… I added a couple more rows of waistband, a drawstring and I am still trying to decide what type of edge I want to give the ankles. Crochet is so decorative, it is hard to come up with a manly… or, uh baby-boyish type of edge. The yarn is Cascade 220 in a delicious key lime type color and I added in some fun stripes after finding a scrappy that I thought went well with them. As soon as I finish-finish I will post a pic. I also have to snap some pics of the other two I made, but I saved the (dreaded) kitchner stitch for last. I have to spend some time weaving in the ends as well.
I got some delicious Malabrigo in the mail today. If you are a reader you know that I went on a huge online shopping binge. I got some of the new Twist… its 8 ply, super soft and I am excited to knit it… so much that I wound it up right after I opened the box. I took some pictures of it wound and before winding, but I am having computer & camera issues (long story). I think it will be the most popular yarn type they sell now. Much more durable and it has some lovely new colorways. It will be a favorite for sweaters. I almost decided to cancel my order of “Crumble” for the tea leaves cardigan, so I could swap to Malabrigo Twist… but I think it would have been a little more expensive since the hanks are only 150 yards. I am itching to knit it, for real.
In fact… see ya’ll later.
Today’s mail
I found some organic merino and BFL in my mailbox today. The first one is “Dragonfly” and the second was not in my original order, it was a consolation prize due to an inventory mishap… it is called “Southwest”
I got some very bad news late last night. The girl I ordered my Tosh Merino contacted me to tell me that as she was packing up my order of “Golden Hickory” she noticed that the skeins did not not match up well. I was seriously upset, but looking back on her site I noticed she happened to have 6 skeins of “Crumble” and since that was my first choice, I decided to go with that and a bonus skein of a merino slik blend to make an Xmas gift for Josh’s mother. I had no clue what color she would like so I had Josh pick it out. I hope she will like it and I hope my 6 skeins of “Crumble” match up. I cannot take anymore yarn heartache. I seriously should have consulted my horoscope before this last yarn buying binge.
Food4Life Gluten free bread
This post is 2 experiments in one. I am blogging from my iPhone with the Wordpress app for the first time and I also wanted to share my experience with Gluten Free bread.
I tried Food for Life white bread. It is sold frozen in my local Publix grocery store for about $6.99. The loaf is small, but it is heavy as a brick. When I got it home I decided to thaw it. The next day it was still heavy… I was nervous. I opened the package and the first thing I noticed was the texture. If you left a piece of pound cake outside in the sun for week, it might be close. Then I noticed that it was falling apart. I handed a crumbly piece to my toddler and he gobbled it down, then proceeded to ask for more! I was surprised, since he does not normally eat much bread. I took what was left after pulling the broken chunks off and I had about a half piece left. Since everything tastes better fried, I fried it in a pan with cheese, tomato slices and raw onion. It was pretty good. The flavor was intense, but it tasted like bread. Today I tried it again, this time I made a meatlaof sandwich with mayo. It was not bad. It felt good to eat an actual sandwich too… Even if the sandwich weighed as much as I do! Now I am excited to try the other gluten free breads out there.
Wordpress on iPhone works. However, I find it a bit tedious to type with one finger. I missed the space bar a lot, which annoyed me. Also, I can insert pictures, but it is not just that simple. I can’t seem to choose placement of the pictures. All in all, it seems to be a useful app for quick blogging, but if you have more than a paragraph to post, I suggest using your computer, laptop or netbook.
As the freakin’ dishes pile up, I’m blogging…
Elmo’s world is on and my son has turned into a zombie. I almost sat down and watched with him… then I thought about the pile of dishes in the sink. It is worse than usual. I forgot dishwasher tabs at the grocery store, so I have 2 left until Saturday. Dishes are the absolute worst household chore in my opinion! Seriously. I would rather scrub toilets, floors (by hand), clean grease, organize, wash the dog or even (EEK, gasp!) scrub poo from cloth diapers! I have not yet figured out why dishes annoy me so much… but I do know that I love restaurants for the absolute reason that I dont have to pick up and do the dishes. Nothing needs soaking, has baked on anything or has food sticking to it. Restaurant food is usually worse than my own food (What can I say? I am a pretty good cook!) but I choke it down if I am thinking about a clean sink at home. (Notice I am blogging… not washing dishes?) Stupid dishes.
My neighbor has irritated me lately. She jumped in my path as I was on my way out for a walk last week and after trying to casually trade the BS neighbor niceties, she abruptly asked me if I could keep my dog from barking through the fence at her as she gardens. I just smiled and told her that before we lived in this house we were in an apartment where a barking dog was more valuable than an alarm system, but that I would try to notice him out there and bring him in. She then tried to lay some guilt trip on me about how her and her husband need to garden, since it relieves stress and they have been stressed lately. Well… now I am the one stressed! Every time I notice the dog outside I get paranoid that the neighbor lady is trying to garden and is now building up a bank of hatred towards us! Then some days, I have my hands full, keeping the palace clean and chasing after my little prince and I have enough damn stress of my own that I dont care if the dog is barking at her. I figure the next time I see her outside I will just pick up the pace and ignore her. Dogs bark, lady. Sorry! I bite though, so get out of my way… GRR! (Only joking, Haha)
So I went nuts spending and Josh cut me off! It snowballed. I just couldnt stop. It started with the Tea Leaves cardigan yarn, then I needed a few needles, so I went on KnitPicks and of course I had to get the free shipping… you know, you have to spend and extra $30 in order to save $4… it only makes sense. (Duh) then I hit a few Etsy shops, bought some handmade soaps and gifts for my customers, went to Jo-Anns for cheapie yarn to make my awesome Muno, then Eat.Sleep.Knit sent me an email bragging about Malabrigo Twist… IT’S 8 PLY!!!!! OMG!!!! So yeah I had to get some of that. Well before I knew it I over-drafted by $20, Josh transferred some more money to my account and told me “Your done!” LOL. OOPS! At least he did the math before Paypal tried to extract the funds. I dont do the math, I just assume it will all work out. Yeah, not the best advice… trust me. I am so excited to get all my yummies in the mail now. I had better get some projects done… Black Friday is creeping up and I have very little to list in the cart! I like the dragonfly longies I am finishing up for Laura so I might make a pair of those… Ugh, if only I could knit and crochet in my sleep!
YGG dolls, shrugs and other news…
Wearing the Wallaby sweater without tears!
So I got the sweater on him again, this time without a fight. I feel better now. At first I thought he had an aversion to handmade clothes! (LOL) I am glad I was wrong, since I have a bunch of ideas for toddler boy sweaters. I am reaching the point where I am nervous to make new wool diaper covers for him, since I hope to potty train him sooner than later. I think he will be getting a potty for Christmas. Among other things… I have my heart set on a play kitchen as well as blocks and some amurigumi (whoa hard to spell!) dolls. I recently found all the patterns for Yo Gabba Gabba. My son literally turns into a drooling, grinning zombie during this show and it gives me time to do various things, like clean a bathroom, cook a meal or just try to grab a power nap! He loves this show so much that if I sing the songs to him he laughs and starts giving me his jibber-jabber talk. The one about “Sleep” is my favorite. I literally played that show about twice a day for him for a month, in hopes that he too would learn to loves naps and bedtime like Muno and Foofa! I sing the songs to him before sleep and he loves it. Go TV brainwashing! Anything to make my kid sleep… seriously! So, anyway I found this pattern… which is a cute little Muno doll. And the other YGG charachters are in Ravelrys pattern list too. I was excited to see them all! No DJ Lance though. Sorry… Not even his hat as far as I looked! Making these charachters will be as close as we get to seeing them live.
I am going to be making a cutie pie girly shrug for Rachel’s little girl, Teagan too. I am pretty excited about that. I think I will be adding shrugs to the Hyena cart too. I found a nice soft washable yarn and ordered it tonight, I hope to get it started by Dec 1.
Other news I took some pics of Laura’s longies in progress tonight, but forgot to upload and now I am smelling chicken wings so I will have to uplaod them for my next post (sorry) I promise they are coming out super adorable. Josh and I are addicted to Pizza Hut wings… the burnin’ hot sauce is amazing!
My cousin Steph had her little boy last month and I have seen a few pictures of him, but I am in withdrawals. I need some more Ethan pics! I hope she is sleeping more than I was with my little one!
Tea Leaves Cardigan
I noticed it right away and loved it, queued it and couldnt stop thinking about it. Then I realized I have too many things going on right now to worry about it. Yesterday I noticed it was in the popular pattern list and I got a pang of jealousy. I started studying the details on the Ravelry page. Then I started obsessing over the perfect color yarn. I like the one the model is wearing, but I had a feeling I would like it in a lighter color. I got my heart set on “Crumble” and it was sold out, (everywhere) of course… then I found “Golden Hickory” —
Madelinetosh Worsted - Golden Hickory
So now it’s on! I bought the only 6 skeins I could find. I might not get started for awhile, but I am happy to be this far into what looks like a wonderful cardigan.