Weekend Warrior

I had a very busy weekend. Starting with this little sweet thing. I actually made it last weekend. It only measures about 2 1/2 inch. The perfect size for a lost tooth. It was just in time, too. My Little Miss lost her first tooth on Friday. I've been feeding her various sticky candies all week in hopes of getting the little bugger to come out. Turns out all I needed was an uncut up apple. Then, I thought about many teeth I lost in apples. And so much healthier.Then there is the Dashing. This is the beginning of the weekend picture. The sad thing is that I am still not finished with it. That is because I spent all my knitting time on a second Koolhaas. I wanted to be warm for this...We took a drive up to Frazier Park. You would of thought that there would be more snow since the 5 had been closed for three days. Of course, it was the day after the freeway was reopened and the place was packed with sledders. We did actually manage to find our own private run that we slide down a total of three times. Okay, time to go home! Well, we really stayed with friends that lived nearby.

Here is my second attempt at a Koolhaas for myself. I ended up really not liking the way the colors were coming together. Also, the best part of the pattern, the lattice design,didn't show up very well. So, I frogged the entire thing. I think that I would get better use out of the yarn if it were a Huckleberry Ascot. So, in the end I don't feel bad for frogging a nearly completed project. Did I mention that I had gotten all the way to the crown decreasing? To finish up, I've made my own Icanhascheezburger. Our friends have this usually very sweet cat. This trip, he decided he was going to hang out on the highest spot in the house and avoid everyone, even one a certain blogger was trying to be nice and pet his head. So, I blew in his face. Then it got really funny 'cause he would get so mad. Here he is at the end of the weekend.

Paying It Forward

I got a huge compliment yesterday in my inbox. One of the bloggers that I read said that I made her day. Little o' me. Julie awarded me for making her day! You can read about why she does the crazy things that she does here.

So, here are my awards to those bloggers that make my day.

• Natalie- Because she introduced me to knitting and to blogging; and that the two go together wonderfully.
• Julie- Because she really did make my day, and made me feel special.
• Kirsten- Because I always enjoy reading what is going on with her blog.
• Victory- Because I love seeing the photos she posts and I like seeing what is going on in her brain. (I've been trying to pick it for 29 years--she's my older sister.)
• Connie- Because she is so sweet and it is so nice that she follows the knitters that knit her patterns.

Now apparently the five of you are suppose to post five people that make your day. I am not going to hold any of you to this. Ex specially since, Natalie is decorating a charity event this weekend and my sister is too busy bringing my 3 day old nephew home.

One more thing...since memes seem to be all the rage this week, I've seen a few 10 Unusual Things About Me. I thought it would be fun to list the unusual things that may be the underlining cause of my being so unusual...

1. I almost fell in the Grand Canyon when I was 4 years old.
2. Same vacation, I almost drowned. (my big brother saved me both times. He was handy to have around.)
3. When I was 5, I was in a car accident and they used my little brother's diapers to soak up all the my bleeding from my face meeting the side window. One year later, I had surgery to remove glass that had been healed over next to my nose.
4. I almost poked out my eye with a copper wire when I was 6. During the season finale of Greatest American Hero, too!
5. When I was 10, I hit my head on my bunk bed and a piece of oak got lodged in my head. My brother tried to pull it out and it broke to later heal over. I can literally use me head to "knock on wood,"... hahaha
6. I've knocked myself out cold, twice. The first time was in high school and all my friends called me KO (KnockOut). Ironically, those are my initials after I got married.
7. At some point in High School I screwed up my right wrist and can't bend it all the way back anymore.
8. I can't remember how many "head injuries" I've had. But all of my CAT scans have been negative...hahaha.
9. I actually didn't break any bones until I turned 18. I have a 10% compressed fracture of the T-12 vertebrate. That sucked.
10. When I was 25, I fell and fractured a teeny, tiny, little bone in my left wrist.

Surprisingly, I am still able to walk, talk and sometimes speak clearly!

"eeeeee"

I really wish I had my camera with me yesterday. I took a trip to my allergist to get my shot. I've been having more trouble with my allergies in the last six months and feeling very congested. So, my Dr. decided to stick a camera up my nose.

It really wasn't that bad at all. They numbed my nose with a spray topical. It completely numbed my two front teeth, also. I've never had my front teeth numb. It's enough to encourage you to brush three times a day. I felt like I would accidentally bite too hard, break them all off, and not feel a thing.

Then came the camera. It was kinda cool to watch the video. He went all the way back to my vocal cords. They shake like little maracas when you say "eeeeee."

Apparently, the left side of my nose is anatomically correct. The right side of my nose is significantly smaller. It explains why I feel everything on that side. So, now I am on a new, striker regiment. If I can't get myself comfortable, then surgery is an option. That is not an option! So, I have to start using my nose spray twice a day - I hate it - and rinse my nose daily. That is really interesting. You pretty much spray 1 cup of a solution up one side of your nose and it drains out the other.

I love my allergies. Knitting is the perfect hobby for me since I am allergic to most trees, grasses, and weeds. I spend a lot of time inside.

Not So Secret Project

I realized that I haven't told you about my "project" I am working on now. I've made 2008 my Year Of Giving. While visiting with my brother and his family, I though about how their son had been born before I started knitting, so he has never received a knitted gift from me. Then I thought about how much nice my brother and his wife are and that they deserve a nice little something, too. So, I am working a family set of hats and fingerless gloves. It's really cold where they live, so I picked up a bunch of malabrigo. Mmmm, warm and soft. But I don't want to give away too much on the blog.

There are others in the extended family network that can be expecting a little something from me this year, but not everyone. There are rules to everything, you know. First, it has to be something that they will wear. Some people just aren't into the home made stuff or don't live in a climate that calls for something knit. Second, I have to feel that they will appreciate the hard work and time that I am going to put into knitting a gift. Then every time someone compliments them, they have to sing my praises because the love that they own a little something knitted with love just for them. And because there is an exception to all the rules, if you are under 18, you get something regardless. That's a lot of knitting.

I've finished the Emilie hat with matching Fetchings. I modified the Fetchings slightly. I made the cables face each other like on the hat. I really like the way these look. I also lengthened the finger side by about an inch. I didn't want to make it too long though. The integrity of the pattern would of been compromised. Fetchings are on the right.On a funnier note. In the office there is a color cards of paints laying around. I can just imagine...
"Wow, I love that yellow you painted your kitchen, what is it?"

"Oh, American Cheese."I can't imagine painting anything "American Cheese." Of course, I also hate American cheese. I don't think that I have ever purchased it. The name does fit the color, though.

No more Frogging...

I've finished Haley's PreK set. I finished the hat and decided to leave the mittens. If it bugs me in the future, I still have a little yarn hanging around, I could frog and reknit later. The scarf was made up of whatever was left over. I actually knit both ends of the bolce yarn at the same time on the same needle to make sure they were the same length. That was something new for me!

Pattern: PreK Winter Set by Me! and no I am not sharing, it too embarrassing
Yarn: Frog Tree Sport Alpaca in #508 (doubled) and
Trixie's Loopy Mohair in Fall Flowers by Farmhouse Yarns

I was way to anxious to get started on this. It's the Emilie Hat from my new book, Knitting Little Luxuries. I am actually making this for someone else. Her favorite color is forest green, and I tried to find the darkest green I could in the Malabrigo Worsted. It's a little more olive in the sunlight and almost black inside. I am loving this yarn though. I have many more skeins of it. In red, black, variegated dark to light grey. So yummy. I've got them all up on my Ravelry. To end the post, I found this little quiz at Good Yarns. It took about two seconds and I'm happy with the results.

You Are 71% Creative

You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word. You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.

How Creative Are You?

Here I am, All Over Again

I'm still working on my first design, the Pre K Winter Set for my daughter. I've been experimenting with different needle sizes and various brims for the beanie. The mittens done and undone, and done again. Here is my progress so far.

See that lovely item on the circular needles? You may of seen it before. I actually finished this hat, took it to my LYS, was asked if she could display it while I finished the mittens and scarf, been asked for the pattern several times and I HATE IT. So I frogged the darn thing. Everytime my daughter puts it on it looks like a mushroom; a really weird and freaky mushroom. So. I've doubled the sport weight at the brim and tried different things: 2x2 rib, 1x1 rib, but I have gone back to the stockinette brim. In the original hat, I tried changing needle sizes the the different weights of yarn. This time I am knitting the entire thing on the same needles, a happy medium of the needles sizes used before. I hope this will get rid of the "mushroom" effect.

As for the mittens, I may redo the top 5 rows. Spread out my decreases a little so the top is not so square. But I promise I won't redo anything else on those. I'm dying to get started on a new project and told myself that I can't until these are done. I'm not worried about the scarf, that is just going to be made of whatever yarn is left over.

I did spend an hour at the LYS picking out beautiful Malabrigo Worsted. I'll share those with you tomorrow, when I can be home during daylight to take pictures. I think people look at me weird standing outside the dental office taking pictures of stuff on the grass. At least, they did today.

Uggh

I thought that I would be able to buy more Frog Tree Alpaca yarn at my LYS on January 2nd, but it turns out that my LYS didn't open until today. That's cool, I've waited patiently. I was getting all ready to go shop on my lunch break, and I can't find the gift certificate that I got for Christmas.

I've kept it in my knitting bag, cause it goes everywhere with me and definately to the knitting store. Somewhere in my memory banks I recall taking it out for some freaky reason and I can't remember why. This makes it more difficult in recalling where I may have put the darn thing. So, I spent my entire lunch break digging in my car and house to no avail.

Don't get me wrong, I am still going shopping after work, and I'm going to pick up some worsted malabrigo, also. I am going to pay cash. Then I am going to spend the next three evenings throughly cleaning my house. You know all those places like under the couches and in the garage. 'Cause Lord knows where I put that gift certificate down.

Too Busy To Blog

We've had a pretty crazy and hectic last couple of weeks. It's surprising how little knitting I got done during my time off from work. I finished my Top Dog right off the bat. Then I got a nice surprise from Ravelry. They asked if they could you my photo as the primary picture on the pattern. Of course, I had to add the pattern to Ravelry and whoever it is that is in charge of making sure the stuff is legit needed to have a picture. Since there are a whole two of us making Top Dog and I have the only picture...you can do the math. I still feel special!

Pattern: Top Dog by Erika Knight
Source: Simple Knits for Little Cherubs
Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed in Charcoal

Outside of that, not much knitting got done. I entertained at home and made my first Christmas Dinner, no help Ma! I spent time driving around SoCal and getting car sick because I tried to knit. My daughter had a wonderful time .And New Year's pretty much wrapped it up with way too high of a cover to get into a club I was way under dressed for. I'm am so not a party person anymore, can't keep up with the trends. That and I spend all my money on knitting and the kid.

I did get a lot done this weekend off of my WIP list. I finished one of the spiral boot socks and got all of my squares sewn together on the baby blanket. Now I have a lot of ends to tied in. I'll wait a couple of months to pick that back up. I also got about 8 inches done on the prairie tank. Now I am really almost done with this. I'm thinking that next Sunday I should be allowed to cast on something new. It's very hard to keep committed to this "work on WIPs before casting on" thing.