Forward Motion

The last post of 2007

And the last finished project for 2007:

Pattern: Jaywalker from Magknits

Yarn:  Fiesta Baby Boom, colorway Madrid

Needles: Addi Turbo Lace size 1.5, 2.5mm

Method:  Toe up, two at a time, Magic Loop

Okay, why did I let the internet hubbub about this pattern running small scare me off for so long?  This is a great pattern!  I love these socks.  I wish I'd done a few more stitches for the gusset in the heel, so as to have a little more room there.  Once I get them on my feet they feel perfect, but it does take a little extra effort to get them on.  When in doubt, make the gusset larger.  The yarn is wonderful as well.  Soft and springy, the colors just ring my bell.  Okay, I can't ignore that one sock clearly is more green and the other is more burgundy, but so what.  Look how fabulous they look with my shoes:

I definitely see more Jaywalkers in my future.  The pattern is fun, quick, and easy.

A few minutes ago, we had our annual holy crap, that's enough gasoline don't make the fire department show up Christmas tree burning.  I think we beat last year's flamage.

That's 5'8" DH standing in front of it and I just missed the very highest peak of the flame, so I think we may have hit 25 ft.  Driving by on the big highway, you can see through the trees to our backyard.  I wonder what the passing motorists think when they see our sudden pyro display.

Mom went home on Saturday, taking with her not only the potholders I made her

but her mouse herd as well.

A rodent situation

Note - pattern link now included at the end.

My husband and my stepdad are having such a good time working on the tractor that my stepdad doesn't want to go home.  So I get my mom for a few extra days.  We've been knitting and playing board games, since the kids and the men won't give us a turn on the Wii.  It's great, she's a low maintenance guest and I have an excuse to ignore most of the housework while she's here.  She didn't bring enough knitting to keep her busy for an extended visit though. While I was showing her around Ravelry, she got the idea to make some cat toys.  I gave her my sock yarn scraps and free rein to the yarn dresser in the laundry room.

No, we don't have a cat, why?

Actually, Mom does a lot of craft shows selling painted metal critter shaped stuff (It's a little hard to describe, check out some of her Etsy stuff.)and pet themed stuff always sells like crazy.  She stuffed them with a little catnip and polyfill.  They're pretty cute.

We need a cat to test them with, though.  If her visit goes much longer we're going to be over run with mice.  Send cats.

Edited to add: This is the pattern that mom is using.  I believe she has decided she prefers to cinch up the tail stitches rather than seem them to make the mice more conical.  She's using one piece of yarn to make the loops for the ears and knots for the eyes.  She started making some out of novelty yarn which are hysterical.  I'll take an updated photo of the whole litter of them before she leaves tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

I've got a present for you!  The pattern for The Cut & Paste socks is now available. 

Go here or click from the left sidebar.  Please let me know when if you find errors.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful holiday.  Or a good Tuesday, if you aren't the holiday type.  Please take a moment and remember the soldiers who are far away from their families this year.  May they be close in spirit and soon return home safely.

Christmas Meme

Borrowed from Wendy.

Turns out my mom is on the computer when DH is not, so no yarn photos today.  My kids, Grace especially, are absolutely quivering with Christmas excitement.  I'm so happy to be done knitting potholders and back to working on Mr. GreenJeans and my Jaywalkers.

1.  Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Wrapping paper.  I love wrapping paper.  I love to buy wrapping paper.  I love wrapping boxes.  I have issues with Christmas paper that is primarily blue, as I don't feel that it is Christmasy enough.

2.  Real or artificial tree?  Real, but I'd rather have a fake one.  We had a nice fake one, but it didn't survive the last move, so we bought a real one that year.  Then DH & the kids discovered how fun it was to torch the live tree in the backyard on New Year's Eve, so we are stuck with real trees for now.  Next year we won't have a backyard we can burn things in, so maybe I'll get another fake tree.

3.  When do you put up the tree?  Usually around the 2nd week of December, depending on when we have time to put up with me dragging the family around to tree lots looking for just the right tree.

4.  When do  you take the tree down?  A day or two after Christmas the lights and ornaments come off, then it stands in the hallway getting drier and drier in preparation for the big fireball.

5.  Do you like eggnog?  It's okay.

6.  Favorite gift received as a child?  I think it was a record player.  The first record I bought to play on it was the Xanadu motion picture soundtrack.

7.  Do you have a nativity scene?  Yes, at least two sets, plus a few mini-sets.  I don't display all of them each year.  We have a kid's set with indestructible figures that Grace has in her room this year.  My best set is one my mom made in ceramics class in college.  I think it's gorgeous.  I still don't have all the pieces out this year, because they are in stages of repair.  I don't understand how my mom kept it perfect for nearly 40 years and in 2 years I've managed to amputate two sheep ears and whack off Mary's hands. 

8.  Hardest person to buy for?  My brother.  He's single and has enough money and just buys himself whatever he wants.  When you ask him what you want, he always says "Nothing."  Some years I just get him gift cards.

9.  Worst Christmas present ever received?  I don't know.  Probably clothing of some sort.  I hate other people picking out my clothes.  No, wait.  I think it was the globe flashy caller ID thing my dad gave us 2 years ago. 

10.  Mail or email Christmas cards?  I send out a few cards.  Some years.  Last year I never got it together in time to send them.

11. Favorite Christmas movie?  A Christmas Story.  Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-rah!  Whack! (off with the duck's head.)

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Novemberish.  I don't even think about what I'll get people until then.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  No, if I don't want it, I usually get rid of it before too long.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Christmas sugar cookies.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree?  Colored, blinking, racing, and flashing if possible.  The lights should ideally be seizure inducing.

16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night 

17. Travel or stay home?  Stay home.  In PJs.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? They're all the same except Rudolph.

19. Star on the top of the tree?  Yes, but here it is the 23rd and DH still hasn't cut off the big twig on top so our star can go there.  Maybe tomorrow.

20. Open presents on Eve or Morning?  Don't you even dare suggest opening on Christmas Eve.  That is just wrong.  Not even one present.  You wait till Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The 4 lbs. I've gained.

22. Best thing about this time of the year? Sharing the joy of giving.  And cookies.

Calling it even

The kids and I used to live about 2 hours away from my mom and we would visit nearly every month when DH was deployed or working.  She had this ornamental pond with a little waterfall that was about 3 feet wide, surrounded by large, decorative rocks.  It used to have goldfish in it, but the birds of prey ate them all.  On one visit, when Alex was about 7 years old, we looked outside to see him placidly pitching all the rocks into the little pond.  My step dad was so ticked off.  We made Alex roll up his pants legs and wade into the cold pond and get out all the rocks.  Apparently the pump had never worked right after that and it was kind of a lump of resentment in our history about it all.

Well, I think we are even today.

My stepdad wanted one of those little newspapers with all the local adverstising in it, I think they're called "Weekly Trader" or something.  You find them free in little racks outside every convenience store.  Well, he couldn't find any dry copies, so he brought one home that was soaking wet.  He had the idea to dry it out in the microwave.  All afternoon, he'd put it in for a while, then take it out and check it. 

I walked into the kitchen to see smoke billowing out of the microwave.  I opened the microwave to see the paper all smoky and slammed it shut again, yelling to my stepdad that his paper was cooked.  He opened the microwave, grabbed the paper and when it hit all the fresh air, it ignited into a big fireball.  It would have been best to dump it in the sink, but he was focused on getting it outside.  By the time he managed to open the door and throw in in the carport, the house was filled with smoke and he'd singed a fingertip.  Also, we found out our smoke alarm batteries have died.  Good to know!

We've tried to air it out all day, but it's still pretty smoky in here.  DH and I keep having to go off to the laundry room so we don't hurt his feeling by laughing about it.  The funny thing is, when I saw the smoke, the microwave only had 9 seconds left.  If he'd cooked it for just a little less time, it might not have caught fire.  Of course, we are thankful that no one was hurt and the house didn't burn down, but really, we think it's hysterical.

And I don't want to hear another word about that stupid pond.

Mind reading GPS

Phone conversation that I just had with my mother:

Time - 1:15 p.m.

Mom:  "Hi, we just now left Panama City."  (They stopped there to visit a plant that makes octagon houses.  Do you see why I can be so random sometimes?  My family is genetically coded for random.)  "The GPS says we'll get to your house at 8:00, so don't worry about feeding us dinner."

Me: "Mom, the GPS is wrong.  There's no way it takes almost 7 hours to get here from Panama City.  According to Mapquest, it's 3 hours and 49 minutes."

Mom:  "Well, you know we haven't even stopped for lunch yet."

Me:  "The GPS does not know that!  It doesn't factor a Cracker Barrel visit into the estimate.  It's just wrong, and I'm feeding you BLTs tonight."

Dear Shoe Industry- I hate you

Are you perhaps wondering why all the angst and drama over shoes?  The thing is, I don't really consider myself a shoe person.  I buy them mainly because I need something on my feet.  You know, no shoes no service. But recently I've been seeing shoes as more than just something to keep the mud out of my toes.  Having lost all this weight (which is killing me to keep up what with the Christmas cookies we baked today) I'm getting dressed and thinking I look pretty good.  Until I get to my shoes.  My shoes are ruining my new outfits.  I know, shoes as fashion, what a concept!  Those of you who know all about looking awesome are probably slapping your foreheads in abject disgust at someone who doesn't realize shoes are vital to the "look".

Anyway, let me show you the shoes that I wore most often.

Not so horrid fashion-wise, I suppose.  I think they are at least 4 years old and let's be honest, they are looking nasty.  My other fall shoe options are a pair of black boots and a pair of brown boots, both out of some synthetic leather-ish material, both bought on eBay for a total of $22 in 2003.

As I've mentioned before, apparently I cannot just walk into a shoe store and buy cute shoes in my size.  I don't know if it's just this town, or if it's like this everywhere, but you ask for a size 11 and the shoe salesperson just gives you this look of sympathy and a head shake.  I can feel myself working up a long rant about the lack of size 11 shoes, but I have other rants to cover in this post, so I'm going to take a deep breath and move on.

So I got my bonus and said to myself "Dangit, I'm buying some shoes."  I spent hours surfing Zappos and Endless and Shoebuy and Sierra Trading Post, looking for just the right shoes.  The other problem we have here is that I am cheap and picky.  Or maybe I'm just cheap and I use pickiness as an excuse so I don't have to fork over a huge chunk of money for shoes.  The bonus money helped with the cheap issue and it helps to figure I'll wear them for years and years.  Still, it has taken me months to get used to the idea that I could pay $90 and more for a pair of shoes.

When I found those cute Ecco Mary Janes at STP, I was so excited.  I was buying shoes!  Not cheap ones, either!  Then they didn't fit at all and I was irritated with myself for not researching European sizing better.  I sent them back and resumed searching.  I went to the local fancy shoe store, Burnham's, and tried on lots of shoes, hoping to get an idea what size fit best in what brand.

Then I ordered some Clark's Mary Jane type shoes from Endless.  $50, which was quite a bargain compared to the $93.95 that Zappo's wanted.  The box arrived, I tried the shoes on....

 

and no.  I love them, but no.  They are just the type of shoe I was looking for, but no.  See how the sides bulge out on the right shoe?  What is that all about?  It's not like it does it on both shoes.  Is one of my feet wider than the other?  Possibly, but I've never had this happen in other shoes.  Back in the box they go, back to Endless.

I learned that you can do the price matching thing at Zappo's and found those same Ecco Mary Janes that I had ordered from STP.  $102.56 at Zappo's, but they matched STP and it ended up being about $65.  And I ordered the dark red pair, because I am snazzy like that.  Or I'm trying to be.

Now look at this pair and tell me that I do not have some kind of shoe curse hanging over me.

They are Not The Same Color.

Seriously.  This online shoe shopping thing is not working out for me. 

I saw a coupon in the paper for 20% off any pair at Burnham's, the local shoe store.  I gave myself a stern lecture not to be so picky and vowed that I would leave that store with shoes.  I found two pairs that I liked enough, but couldn't decided between them, so I bought both.

The first:

The second:

At least I know they fit and they look good with jeans.  They are both clogs, though, and I really want a Mary Jane type like the ones that didn't work out.  I also need shoes in black.  I don't know where to shop now.  I'm thinking there's not much point in online ordering, since I've struck out 3 times now.

So there's the whole shoe saga to this point.  Pathetic.

However, I think for every pair of shoes I've had bad luck with, I've consoled myself by buying a skein of yarn.  Next post, I'll show you those.  Buying sock yarn is so much less frustrating. 

No real content here

palolo

hejira

sitella

loord

tisane

neeze

gharri

sonsy

filose

Those are all real words, apparently.  I know this because I have been playing a lot of Wordsplay.  I have no idea what any of them mean.

I would like to post something about my shoes or my yarn or anything more interesting than a list of odd words, but DH is on the big computer with all the photos.  He's on holiday leave now and he steam cleaned the furniture and the carpets today.  So it seems rude to ask him to get off the computer so I can blog.  Maybe tomorrow.

My mother arrives Friday and her potholder is about 1/3 knitted.  I hereby absolve to spend less time playing Wordsplay and more time knitting.

In which I do not analyze the pot holder

Although I have abandoned the delusion that anyone really gives a hoot about my shoe saga, I cannot contain myself.  I have much to discuss.  6 pairs of new shoes have entered my home in the last few weeks.  Not all of them remain.  My feet are a mystery that defies sizing.  But today is not the day that you find out all the fascinating details (I know, I'm so very sorry to make you wait.) because I want to make sure I illustrate my shoe ranting with photos!  And today it is gloomy and rainy and not proper shoe photo taking weather.

Oh, and I am feeling a little better.  Not so brain sparkly now, although that was fun.  I had very weird dreams once I finally went to bed.  My head is still mightily stuffed up, but the killer sinus headache has mellowed.  Alex is also really stuffy and puncuates everything with loud, snotty snifflles.  Send tissues, please.  Apparently he feels we need to conserve our Kleenex supply and he just keeps sniffling gunk back into his head instead of oh good grief would you just blow your nose already?!?

I was feeling so poorly last night that all I could do was just keep knitting on this stupid second potholder.  I had decided that I was giving a set of potholders, even if I had to send them in the mail next week.  (DH is meeting my dad today and they are exchanging gifts and a tractor, I believe.  The things my family will do to avoid shipping gifts.  But that is why I was under the deadline, so DH could take these with him.)  And I had gone the easy route and started a plain, boring rectangle.  But as usual, I cast on too many stitches.  It was going to be huge.  As long as I had to start it again, I thought it would be more interesting to make a round potholder.  This was possibly due to that brain sparkly cold medicine.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me show you the first potholder.

Pre-felting it was about 10 inches wide.

Post-felting it was about 9 1/2 inches wide.  Didn't shrink too much.

I suppose I should have kept felting it, but it was good and thick and I wanted it to dry.

Around 8:30 last night I made it to the last row of the round potholder.  I basically doubled the pattern for a round dishcloth that I have made.  In spite of the first potholder not really reducing in size all that much and seeing that I was knitting an awfully big circle, I kept going and tossed it in the washer.

Here it is, just before taking its bath:

It took nearly an hour of repeated washings to get it felted to the point I didn't think it would felt any more. 

And it was still enormous.

I'm naming it the Major League Potholder.  'Cause this thing is on steriods.

Looking at it, I started to feel like it wasn't a good potholder.  It's the size of a placemat, for crying out loud.  I could imagine the recipient opening it and saying, "What the hell?  This is huge!  And there's a hole in the middle!" and then stuffing it in the same closet where last year's present from me sits.  Unused.  Then I decided that I'm not really that fond of the recipient and I'm not going to analyze this to death.  I don't really care whether she appreciates it or not.  I gave it my best effort and I'm sending it off with my best wishes to her.

Here's the finished set of Major League Potholders:

Need I mention that since I wrapped it last night, the round one is still damp?  I wonder if it will dry wrapped in a box by Christmas.  Now I have to start again and make a set for my mom.  She arrives on Friday, so I need to be done by then.  I want to do another round one, but think I'm just going to invent the pattern as I go, rather than trying to adapt the potholder one.  I'll aim for maybe a Little League set this time.

Caution: Posted under medication

I took some cold medicine a while ago.  The same cold medicine that knocked DH out cold for a whole day.  Not only has it not made me sleepy, it's making my brain all random and sparkly and my nose drippy.  I keep thinking of odd things to Google and I'm making typos that are revealing deep truths.

I think I only need to buy one more gift for DH and I'm done Christmas shopping.  I always end up getting more stocking stuffers for the kids, but as far as the big stuff, I believe that's it.  I did successfully felt the potholder and hopefully I'll remember to photograph it before I wrap it tomorrow.

Here's one of the stocking stuffers I got for the kids. 

This is for Alex, the Mythbusters fan.  It says "A vote for us is a vote for science and high explosives.  I bought it from Cafepress.  He's going to love it.  They also have some Runescape shirts there that I might get for the kids' birthdays in January & February.  I tend to overbuy at Christmas and save the excess for birthdays.

I think I've mentioned before that both my kids really like to listen to heavy metal music from the 80s.  Lovely.  Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc.  I do have serious limits on which songs they can listen to and I don't allow them to have unlimited songs of this type on their iPods.  But Alex discovered this CD at B&N the other night.

If he's wants to listen to Iron Maiden, I'd rather have him hear it in strings.  Maybe he'll want to practice his violin more.

When I started looking for this on Amazon, I couldn't believe how many of these types of CDs there are!  There is a String Quartet Tribute to nearly any band you can think of.  Metallica, Queen, Fall Out Boy, Coldplay, Aerosmith....it's crazy.  And not just strings.  For Grace, I found this CD.

For my young pianist, a piano tribute to Metallica.  At least she also likes Cyndi Lauper and happier songs.

I ordered some shoes.  I was hoping they'd be here today from Endless.com, but maybe tomorrow.  Then tonight, I took advantage of Zappo's pricematching deal and ordered those same shoes that I had tried before from Sierra Trading Post, this time in the next largest size.  At least now if they don't fit, Zappo's has the free return shipping.  And I got them in dark red this time because I was feeling skippy.  And that was before I took those pills.

Yarn yarn yarn.  I have some new yarn to photograph.  I ordered from The Loopy Ewe last week and again this week.  And maybe I'll order again next week, because she's going to have that gorgeous Noro sock yarn.  I'm so sick of knitting garter stitch potholders that buying sock yarn seems to be the best remedy.  I also have some Vesper sock yarn coming my way.  Yes, I am buying a lot of sock yarn.  Judge me not.

This medicine stinks.  I'm still not sleepy.  My nose isn't so drippy anymore though, so I suppose I'll try and lay down.