Cool - me in a nutshell

So cool :) Go to http://www.snapshirts.com/index.php and enter in your blog information. You will get something like this:



Muwahaha! Minions made the cut!

Must finish... in record time

And no, for once I am not talking about knitting.

This was waiting for me at the library this afternoon:



I cannot even get into how addicted I am to this series. This is something like the nineteenth book with same characters - but I still love them. Andrew likes them as well - although he says he just skims over certain scenes... or so he says...

But I have to finish off the book well before the Knitting Olympics begin - because trust me, I have no willpower when it comes to books I like. I will sacrifice sleep without a moment's regret (well, maybe a bit of regret the next morning when I am groggy beyond all understanding).

I ended up ripping out the plain vest I had started for myself. Then I turned my eye toward a bunch of other half-finished projects and ripped out the lot of them as well. I was worried that I wouldn't know exactly where I was in a pattern and would mess it up anyway - and who knows about tension... Then I cast on (from a previously ripped project) a raglan sweater in a red/orange/yellow/magenta variegation. The sweater will be too big for Willow (it is the 28" chest size), so I might just add that to the Dulaan pile (which I will mail off someday - I'm so motivated now after seeing the pictures on

http://www.nwkniterati.com/movabletype/archives/MossyCottage/001591.html

Sometimes I just wish I could knit faster.

Cousins

Here is a picture of Willow and her cousins:



Joy is on the left and she is 18 months older than Willow. Grace is on the right and she is a little over 4 years older than Willow. They are only back in the US for a few months - their family lives in China, where their parents are learning Mandarin. Willow had so much fun with them these last few days and was very sad to see them go.

Stay tuned...

I haven't abandoned you - never fear! My sister-in-law and two nieces are here visiting this week, so my knitting time has been temporarily replaced by play time. Willow's cousins, Joy and Grace, are 1.5 and 4 years older than her respectively, but she is having a ball with them. Pictures to come later.

Citizenship decree

Okay - check the sidebar - the Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, decreed that I have to go with my citizenship on this one...

So I am playing for



Yay team!

She Thinks She'll Keep Him

Look what Andrew brought me when he came home last night:



Forgive my poor photography skills - it was night time and if I had taken the picture in the window the flash would have reflected and the photo would have looked worse. Even better than getting roses, these flowers even smell! My mother-in-law has many flower/seed catalogs, and whenever I see a page with roses and the write-up says 'faint scent' or 'light scent', I lose all interest. I want my roses to come on strong. Thank you, Andrew!

Oh - WW update - make that 24.8 pounds to go :) Yes, I write that as I savour my Symphony bar with almonds and toffee chips. Don't judge me!

I have made my decision and handed in my intention to finish Veste Everest for the Yarn Harlot's Olympics Challenge. To see a picture of what the finish object will look like, check out:

http://www.royalyarns.com/ptrn/ITW/ITW-Fall-2005/09-veste-everest.html

As always, I am making a few alterations. I have read a few blogs of people who have already finished this project, and I am going to do one extra set of cable repeats to lengthen the body a bit. Not that I am particularly long or tall - just, uh, chesty. I am making the largest size (52" chest) even though that will be too big for me because I tend to knit tight and I would rather have the vest be more on the loose side. And I will be making it out of some royal heather blue Wool Ease so my husband can throw it in the washer and dryer with impunity.

Confessions and Options

I don't have a real project going on right now - I have little things that I can finish up in a day or two, but nothing that will sustain me through a few SnBs and nights watching American Idol.

My name is Jo and I am an American Idol addict.

I watched this show in the hospital less than 24 hours after I had given birth to Willow! I don't vote - I know the chances of my vote making a difference in a world of teenyboppers with cellphones paid for by Mummy and Daddy... And when I was in Canada, I have even seen a few episodes of the Canadian offshoot, Canadian Idol. Catchy title, that.

Back to my point - I need something larger than mittens, hat, or baby sweater to work on. Two tempting things have come up, but the time frame doesn't fit well. First, at the Yarn Harlot's site ( http://www.yarnharlot.ca ) she has proposed an Olympic Challenge - to knit something you have never attempted - or a using a technique you have never tried - to finish an entire project during the time of the Olympics - which isn't until mid-February. I haven't signed up yet because I am trying to think of something new to work on. I know I resolved to make something functional with cables - and I am pretty sure I could finish a cableknit scarf in 16 days - but I'm not really inspired to do that. I have enough yarn to make a man's sweater (again, something I have never tried before) and to make myself Veste Everest (but I honestly don't know if I could pull that off in 16 days - I would be ignoring my family more than usual and feeding them Kraft Dinner and hot dogs on alternate nights).

However, starting a project in mid-February isn't going to do anything about me jonesing to start something new now.

Then the other potential project I came across was the Red Scarf project on Amy Singer's Knitty blog ( http://knitty.com/blog/ ). Of course, the first thing that came to mind was knitting a red cableknit scarf! But then that would take this project out of the running for the Olympic challenge because cables would have lost their amateur status. I do have a Einstein Bagels not far from my house - maybe I can grab my SnB buddy some Saturday morning and we can score free bagels and have an impromptu SnB there.

Sigh.

What do I do?

Weight Watchers Update

Make that 25.8 to go :)

Mittens and Minions

Last Saturday I knit my first pair of mittens. Despite the fact that they were supposed to be women-sized and fit Willow *now*, I'm quite happy with my accomplishment. I had always been a bit skittish over the thumbs, but now I realize there isn't much to it. The yarn is the super-bulky wool from Handpaintedyarn.com in the 'Little Lovely' colourway and the pattern free from the Knitting Pure and Simple website. The mittens took less than 5 hours to complete.

The model, while loving the mittens, was not into modeling said mittens:



And here is the mittens up against my ubiquitous beige sofa background:



Yes, one is pointier than the other and I'm not really sure the reason for that - but since Willow loves wearing them, I'm not going to complain.

My LYS, Garden of Yarn, is having their yearly everything-on-sale sale right now. I managed to get into work 45 minutes early this morning so I could hit the sale not long after they opened... only to find out that the little old knitting ladies must have camped outside the store! The shelves were nearly devoid of the deeply discounted sale stuff by the time I got there. I did manage to get 10 skeins of dark charcoal Encore Worsted to make Andrew a sweater. It has to be this yarn because he loves throwing things into the washing machine.

And as for minions? Apparently people don't care to be called that.

Only Twenty-seven point Six To Go...

I wanted to let you all know that I weighed in a WW this morning and was delighted to learn I had lost 2.4 pounds... I'm only 27.6 pounds away from my next goal. Look at me go!

Really - the underwear pic on the fridge works.

Rest, Irving.

I knew there had to be some other reason I was upset today. I went to the CBC website to catch up on my daily Canadiana and came across this:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/01/04/Layton-Obit.html

The man, the poet, from whom I derived this blog's title, died today. I'm sure he was a lecherous old man given his poetry, but I loved him anyway.

An excerpt from 'Look, The Lambs Are All Around Us'

"Your figure, love,
curves itself
into a man's memory;
or to put it the way
a junior prof
at Mount Allison might,
Helen with her thick
absconding limbs
about the waist
of Paris
did no better."

And to finish with a line from Irving Layton's 'Compositions in Late Spring'

Rest, Irving.

"Death is a name for beauty not in use."

Resolute at New Year's

I'm feeling kind of serious right now. Don't get me wrong - not depressed - but I have enough things on my plate right now that I feel the need to just cozy up on the sofa, read my fluffy book and ignore the world at large.

But, I suppose I need to come up with some resolutions first.

First, a photo:



Isn't my Mom amazing? She knit this sweater for Willow for Christmas and it is gorgeous - hooded cardigan with cables throughout. You can't even see where she seamed it all up. I feel like I muddle through my knitting compared to her.

So, my first New Year's resolution?

1. Learn to knit cables. Functionally - in a garment - not on a 3 inch swatch to prove you *can* theoretically do it.

I'm also a bit put off by my size right now. I'm a person who has weighed a lot more than I currently do - and certainly have no desire to hit that personal best (cough!) again... but there is this apathy that is so easy to slip in to. I went to Weight Watchers on Friday night, and despite the fact that I had lost 2 pounds over Christmas (something I am entirely attributing to the fact that I was sick because I was certainly not very healthy in my eating habits)... the last time I was at the weight I at now... I was about five months pregnant. I'm not impressed by that. So, I have kept on plan this week, posted a picture of myself in my bra and panties on the refrigerator as a snacking deterrent (oh, and it works!), and have exercised every day.

So, number two:

2. Lose 30 pounds.

Number three is harder to lay down, so I'm not getting into it yet.

I have goals, but I don't consider them in the same category as resolutions. Resolutions infer than you have a determining hand in the matter. My goals this year include to get promoted to the next level in my job, have Willow start reading, and to move into a home of our own.

Family Portrait

I love this picture.

This is the first picture I have ever seen Willow draw where the people actually looked like an identifiable person. It's not an exact likeness - I mean, my legs are certainly not that long (!), but you can see bodies, eyes, smiles - and on the drawing of Andrew she even made sure he had shoes on. And for some reason she couldn't fully articulate, she had to be drawn in yellow while Andrew and I were green.

Hans Holbein, eat your heart out!

Recovering and Whatnot

We are recovering... the phlegm is abating and I don't sound like a frog anymore. With the help of Neo Citran and Mucinex, I even slept through the night.

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. I really wish I had thought to take a picture before the hordes (aka Willow) set in and moved things around.



Here is Willow in her Tinkerbell costume along with her Uncle Stewart and her new vacuum cleaner. It's a toy Hoover than works on C batteries and actually sucks stuff up. She's in love with it and wanted to vacuum Grandma's whole house. The dog, understandably, was terrified.



And a close-up of the Tinkerbell costume. Although we didn't discuss it with Stewart beforehand, I'm glad that it was Tinkerbell and not one of the Disney princesses... or Barbie (shudder!)



And the hop ball - I was so afraid that this wouldn't arrive before Christmas! It was an aerobic workout getting this thing blown up with a hand pump! It's still a little big for her, but she was bouncing away all the same - sliding off, getting back on, and jumping up and down again.



What did Santa bring me for Christmas? My big present was a Sunbeam Standing Mixer! I can't wait to try this out :) I also received S.M. Stirling's _The Protector's War_, two sweaters from Lands End, Canadian Halloween candy (Coffee Crisps!), a necklace with a jade pendant, a stained glass votive holder, and knitting money! I'm planning to get some of the handpainted merino from www.handpaintedyarn.com to make myself another Sweetness sweater from Knitty.

Happy Boxing Day!

Reasonable Facsimile

I’m trying to recreate this because it was a great post.

I’m sick. There are no two ways about it. Today was supposed to be a fun day. We were going to visit our friends Asami and Gara and see their new baby, Ray, for the first time. Asami’s Mom Keiko is also in town from Japan, so we were excited to see her too. Instead, I am having trouble breathing, look like crap, and have started to hork up green phlegm.

Merry Christmas.

Did I mention Willow and Andrew are also sick? Why does cold medicine last only 4-6 bloody hours? Most of us don’t want to wake up at three o’clock in the morning all stuffy and coughing!

It doesn’t feel like Christmas. It’s 50’F (10’C) out right now and is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. Willow and I shucked off our jackets yesterday while doing the last of our Christmas shopping because it was just too warm out. I feel like a git because I didn’t get my Dad’s present off in time. In an attempt to assuage me of my guilt, he said that the older you get, the less you care about presents.

What does it say about me that I already feel that way?

Don’t get me wrong - I’m looking forward to seeing Willow open up her presents tomorrow morning. As an adult, though - the entire thing seems so anticlimactic. We don’t have that sense of expectation or anticipation that made this season so magical when we Believed. All I am really thinking about is the mountain of work I have waiting for me when I get back to the office on Tuesday.

I asked Jen over at http://meangirl.blogspot.com/ to give a list of the top 10 songs on her iPod, so I am returning the favor with the top 10 songs from my Lyra (in no particular order):

1. ‘As Cool as I am’ - Dar Williams
2. ‘Escape’ - Enrique Ingles as (so cheesy, I KNOW!)
3. ‘Don’t Bother’ - Shakira
4. ‘Times Like These’ - Foo Fighters
5. ‘Heaven’ - Live
6. ‘Hurt’ - Johnny Cash
7. ‘The Letting Go’ - Melissa Etheridge
8. ‘Where Was I’ - Sawyer Brown
9. ‘Closing Time’ - Semisonic
10. ‘Try’ - Blue Rodeo

*********************************************

I don’t have a main knitting project right now so I am half-heartedly working on a few different things: a pink and yellow baby blanket, a pink Nippertail hat for my niece, and I am thinking about casting on Veste Everest from the Summer issue of Interweave Knits in a royal blue heather.

Someone Up There Doesn't Like Me

I just wrote this long eloquent post about Christmas, adulthood, being sick, and my top 10 songs on my Lyra and this bloody machine ATE IT!

I'm sick.

Bah Humbug.

Nippertail Hat (aka Red Hat the Second)

You will have to forgive the model's constitution - she has a bit of a stomach bug right now and was trying to eat her stomach-stabilizing crackers and watch 'Max and Ruby' in peace, but I kept on trying to pose her so I could take a decent picture of the Nippertail hat:



This was supposed to be my hat, but before I had a chance to weave in all the ends, Willow decided the hat was hers. I offered to make her one in any other colour, but she wouldn't budge. She wanted *this* red hat. (Dad, it must be your influence!)



It was a very quick knit - I started it Tuesday night at my SnB and I think only worked on it for an hour two nights later - and finished it Friday night. The pattern can be found in the archives at http://www.magknits.com and is called a Nippertail hat. There is one glaring bit of awkwardness in the pattern (about where you start doing the straight knitting to separate the two sides) but I think I can just forgo that and do it how I think it should go next time.



A view from above:



The colour isn't really this tomato-y - the yarn is 'Cranberry' in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks. I think when I make my hat (you know you can never have too many hats) I will make it with a single ponytail hole out the back because that is how I normally wear my hair on casual days.

I will try to take a picture of Red Hat the First later when I am a bit more presentable. Three year olds don't care so much about being presentable...

Resemblances

My SP5 downstream partner, Jen ( http://meangirl.blogspot.com/) posted this link ( http://www.myheritage.com/ ) where you could upload a picture of yourself and it will tell you which celebrity you look most like. The site looks like it is under maintenance right now, but when I was playing with it earlier, I was told (using a variety of pictures) I looked like Sofia Coppola, Liv Tyler, Audrey Tautou (from the French movie 'Amélie'), Katie Holmes - and with a 70% likeness, with Nora Jones. I'll take that Nora Jones likeness and run with it! I put in Willow's pic just for the fun of it and it came up with a 65% likeness to Mira Sorvino - not bad! When I was a child (like Willow) I was told I looked like Shirley Temple - but I think that was/is due to the ringlets more than anything else. As a young woman I was told I looked like Natalie Wood - I think that is because of my eyebrows.

Someone Stop Me...

From knitting more red hats...

Pictures to come...

Denim Project Finished

I was lucky to catch her in a photogenic mood...

A few months ago my friend Tara told me about a craft challenge her friend Shanda proposed, in which you have three months to come up with something along a particular theme. Tara told me that Shanda's theme was denim and asked me if I wanted to participate. I love challenges... but the thing is, I don't sew and that is the first medium that for denim that comes to mind. I asked Tara if it were okay that the project were denim-coloured rather than being made out of denim and she was okay with that... so, I give you:

Willow in Denim Vest



The yarn is Plymouth Encore's Colorspun in 'Sky Twist' and the child's vest pattern is from Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns." It took about 1 and 1/16th skeins... so I have quite a bit of this left to make a hat or mittens or other small thing.

A full-length view:



And the jeans? Levi's 501s in size 4T! I found them at Goodwill for $3.99 and they are in perfect shape.