Tis the Season

For knitting. I didn't take the time to post before Christmas because I was doing A LOT of knitted gifts this year. These are the gifts I gave away:

For my niece who loves playing with pretend food lately:









For my other niece, who is 7 months old:



For my sister-in-law, who loves beanies and neon green:



For DH's godmother:



Peekaboo mittens for my mom:



Another helmet liner for my uncle who rides his bike in Washington (rain or shine or snow!):



For DH because he requested a brown beanie:



For my aunt who has been requested knitted socks if she happens to get a Secret Santa who knits (remembering I'm one of two knitters in the ENTIRE family):



Mittens for a cousin:



And a ponchette for my grandma:



I still have a pair of socks to finish for a Christmas present, which go with the scarf for DH's godmother. It is taking longer than planned. I was supposed to be done by tonight since she will be here for New Year's. It is 4:30pm and this is where I stand:

First Sock:


Second Sock:


I am in complete denial and believe that I will somehow be able to accomplish the goal of finishing this sock by tonight. It's not just a river, folks!

We have also been busy because we adopted this adorable guy:



We named him Oliver. You can see how tiny he is by comparing him to the shoe next to him or my foot (had some trouble cropping that out, but it does display my felted slippers). He is definitely a playful guy. It was quite an adjustment for our first cat, Leo, but they are getting along much better now.

And our family Christmas picture for the Christmas cards. This was taken before Oliver was added to our family :)

The F Word

That's right, frogging! For those of you who aren't knitters, frogging is when you have to rip out some knitted work. It's called frogging because you have to "rip it, rip it..."

I HATE frogging. It's fun to do, but it's so hard to see your hours of hard work unravel away in minutes. It pains me. That's why I was having such a hard time understanding how one of the women from my knitting meetup didn't seem to have any trouble at all. She showed me a sweater that she had been working on and all that was missing were the sleeves. Then she looked at me, shrugged, and said, "I think I'm just going to frog the whole thing." I think my eyes might have popped out of my head. She was so nonchalant about it, like it was no big deal. When I expressed my sorrow for her hard work that was all about to be for nothing, she said she wasn't really worried about it because she went into the project thinking that this might happen anyway.

All of this to say that I am proud of myself for frogging just the toes of my socks. Thank you G for your guts and positive attitude about frogging.

Why I thought 7.5 inches was long enough for my socks(when it usually takes 9 inches) beats me. I think I was just so proud of myself for finishing a sock in 24 hours. I guess that's no longer true because it wasn't really finished. After the first sock was "done" I told myself that it would just be a very fitted sock. As I was working on the second sock, I told myself that maybe I would just give them to someone with smaller feet. As I got to the toe of the second sock, I decided that I had put enough effort into these socks to rip out the toe and do it right. I mean, it's not like it was almost a whole sweater.

Here is the comparison of the two socks:



As you can see, the the socks are lined up and the one top is much shorter.

I'm really glad I fixed the short sock (that looked like it was meant for a child). Can't wait to wear them :)

Sock in a Day

That's right, I finished one sock within 24 hours!!! It's miraculous. That has to be an all time record for me. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have much else going on.

Here's the sock I finished in 24 hours:



And the conversation I had with my husband about it:

Me: (While modeling the sock on my foot) Babe, do you like my sock?
E: Uh, are there holes in it?
Me: Yeah. That's called lace. It's pretty!
E: Hmm...When my socks have holes in them I usually throw them away!

Awww, the mind of a non knitter. Gotta love him!

A couple of days ago, I also knit up a couple of these Knit Turkeys, which is a free pattern from Webs Yarn



I think they are adorable (and a super quick knit too). You can also see my Thanksgiving tablecloth in this picture. The hubby would like me to do one for Christmas too. I think it's cute when he enjoys my projects :)

Two weekends ago, I went to Portland to visit my cousins and nieces. I was so happy I got to visit with them, and so so so sad that I forgot my camera!!! Argh! The four of us (cousin, her 3yr old, her 6mo old, and me) when to a yarn shop together called Happy Knits. This place was awesome. Not only did they have a play room for the kiddos, they also informed us that it was soundproof (not that we shut the door on the kids). Apparently the building used to be a recording studio. Great shop, awesome lighting!





Although the picture is small, I assure you that my 3 year old niece is holding yarn and needles and believes she is knitting. That's right, we start them young. When asked what she was making she said, "A hat for Addley (her best buddy)." Then she said she needed some glue. Ha ha! Love it!

We also did a drive-by shopping stop (my cousin waited in the car while I ran in to grab this bag) at The Naked Sheep. We usually make a stop at this shop. Every time we go I think about getting one of their totes, but then talk myself out of spending the money. This time I got one and they had my favorite color, so I think it was meant to be.



The bags have gotten a little more expensive than I remembered, but I think that the quality is better too. Plus I bought it in Oregon, so no sales tax!!

Happy Halloween

Just a quick post of our pumpkins! Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween.

My pumpkin:


Hubby's pumpkin:


My niece in her Halloween costume:

Mouse or Bear?

I finished the hat for my niece, which will be part of her Halloween costume. As mentioned before she is going as a mouse. Surprisingly enough, I didn't have any brown worsted weight yarn in my stash. I went to Michaels with a coupon to get some yarn. I was looking specifically for yarn that wasn't on sale because then I couldn't use my coupon (I have been trapped by this trick before). I picked out my yarn (no sale sign to be found) and a couple of scrapbooking items that were on sale. When I went to checkout, they told me that the yarn was on sale (although the regular price with the coupon would have been less) and that the only thing I could use my coupon for was a 59 cent sheet of paper. I guess saving 24 cents is better than nothing! I swear they only give out coupons to get you in the store. Oh well.

Anyway, I found a knitting pattern that was called a mouse hat and here is the finished product:



Some say it looks like mouse ears and others say bear ears. I'm just hoping that it will look like mouse ears with her costume and then after Halloween it can be one of those cute everyday beanies with bear ears on it. Either way, I just hope it fits!

Last posting I forgot to include a picture of the husband and me attending our first Sharks game since moving. It was also the home opener. Unfortunately they lost, but it was still fun to attend.


Not the best picture of us, but pretty good considering we took it ourselves with the kitchen counter and camera timer :)

Yes, Of Course I Will!

That was my response when my cousin hesitantly asked me if maybe I could knit a up a hat for her daughter. Someone asking me to knit them something? Someone who totally appreciates handmade projects. The answer was simple. Of course I will.

She doesn't need just any hat. She needs something to complete her daughter's costume for Halloween. Her older daughter (3yr. old) decided that she wanted to be a princess. After that decision was made, my cousin thought it would be cute for the whole family to go along with a theme. My cousin will be a fairy godmother, her husband will be a prince (I think), and the newest addition (5mo. old) will be a mouse (like from Cinderella). So I searched on Ravelry for a free mouse hat pattern, I didn't really find one the I liked. I google searched and found a pattern to use, but of course now I can't find it again to post the link. I can't wait to see how the whole costume comes together and hopefully will be able to post a picture later.

Last night was knit night. This was my second time attending in 3 weeks. It seems like such a wonderful happy group of people. I really enjoy the knitting discussions as well as knitting during the silences (which would otherwise be awkward silences). This was my first time going to this particular coffee shop. The parking situation was ridiculous (especially for a Wednesday night)! After searching for a spot for over 10 minutes I told myself, "Okay, I will go down one more row and if I don't find anything, I'm heading home." Sure enough, not just one, but two spots opened up in that row. It must have been the knitting gods telling me that I should not give up on this knit night!

Here is a picture of the project I worked on there:





One sock down, one to go! Oh, the dreaded second sock...

And to try to get into the Halloween Spirit (on a budget) I have done a little decorating:





That's right! Color, cut, and glue. I got the Halloween print outs from Life is Good.

2010!

Well, here it is 2010, and I almost let it slip by without posting a thing! Lots has changed in the last year, but I will first share a couple of projects that I recently finished:

Thanksgiving Day Gloves


Box Bag


I am not much of a seamstress, so I was rather impressed with myself for completing this project. It definitely isn't perfect, but I finished it, zipper and all!

I'm not sure my reason for not posting, but it probably had something to do with navigating through my first two years of teaching. Why do I have time now? Because for the second time in my two years of teaching, I was laid off. The difference is that this year I was not recalled. On a happier note, I got married this year:





I love the picture of us with smashed cake. It was fun! So, since then we have moved and my husband started his new job. For now, I will probably sub (eh) until I find something. I figure this means I have more time to start posting on a regular basis.

After moving, I am now 40 minutes or so away from my friends. Not the end of the world, but not close enough for those last minute coffee dates. In order to meet new people, I started attending a knitting meetup. Hopefully I will be able to make some new friends and it would be awesome to have friends that actually "get" this knitting thing :)