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so in love

Oh my gosh.  I didn’t know I could fall so hard, so fast.

I love this scarf so much.  I cast on while the boys were playing after breakfast and I made it through 20 rows before calling it a night.

Totally gratuitous shot of my sparkly nails.

I love these yarns so much.  Each row is so delicious to knit I can practically taste it in my mouth.  I love seeing the colors line up, and seeing the mix of garter, stockinette and reverse stockinette.

I will confess that this is going to be called my “Organized Chaos” Vegas scarf for a reason.  I wanted to stay true to my original plan, and my original rolls of the die, and flips of the coin.  Luckily I’d prerolled 63 rows for the original scarf, and I decided to use them all, exactly as is.  I only did one teensy bit of pre-planning.  Two of the yarns (Bonsai and Tiara) had pretty short yardages, under 100y each.  I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t run short, so I quickly tallied up how many rows of each color I had prerolled, and assigned the rarest number to the Bonsai, which had the shortest yardage, and the 2nd least common number to the Tiara.  The rest were nearly the same, so I plugged them in randomly.

I did find it interesting to note that although the rolls didn’t seem “random” in the sense that threw people off on FB and in Rav (some numbers occurring repeatedly, or too close together), in my case it turned out that my non-appearing random numbers actually had a pretty even split of the rolls.

Wait, did that come out clear?  Let me rephrase- some people rolled the same number in succession, and chose to re-roll the “non random” number, or swap it for something else.  While the rolls really were random, it was bugging some people that they weren’t turning out “even”.  So what I found entertaining was that even though in some sections of the 63 rows the same colors kept coming up, so that area didn’t feel “even”, overall I got a pretty good split.  See:

Yarn 1: Polaris (gray with sequins)- 11 rows

Yarn 2: Bonsai (green tape)- 8 rows

Yarn 3: Marble (jewel tones)- 13 rows

Yarn 4: Campus (darker green/purple)- 12 rows

Yarn 5: Tiara (mauve with sparkle)- 9 rows

Yarn 6: Party Angel (fuchsia with sparkle)- 10 rows

Which means that yes, out of 63 rows (of which I counted row 1 as my cast on and row 63 as my bind off) I had each of the 6 yarns coming out with 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 repeats.

That’s pretty cool to me!


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new beau

I was originally planning on just hitting up Walmart or Zellers and grabbing some random chunky yarn in colors I liked, or assorted random yarns in 1 color I liked, but Maaike convinced me to check out my LYS first.  I’d been hesitant ‘cus I didn’t want to end up with an $80 scarf, but I went.  And I fell.  Hard.

I’d been thinking something with blue in it, something bright, something to make my eyes stand out, since I’ve got a black winter coat.  I was looking at first at the chunky yarns, trying to find one yarn in 6 shades that I liked, but Diana who works there counseled me to just pull out anything that made me happy, and pile it on the table, and we’d go through it together.

These are what I decided upon.  The huge (almost 400y!) Marble Chunky was the first one I was drawn to, and we kept with the jewel tones and played with texture.  The Marble is 100% acrylic but I don’t care.  I’ve worked with the DK weight before (Jakob’s blue cardigan and my burgundy Clapotis) and I always enjoyed it.  I knew this ball would leave me a ton of leftovers and I plan on making at least a pair of slippers for myself from them.

Going clockwise we’ve got  Kertzer’s Tiara, which is a 72% Wool, 27% Nylon, 1% Polyester aran weight.  It’s the mauve one and it’s got a sparkly strand wrapped around it.  Next we’ve got the fuchsia ball of Debbie Bliss Party Angel, which is 72% Mohair, 24% Silk, 4% Metallic.  I don’t find it sheds at all, and I love the sparkly core it has.  The gray/white ball might be my fave of the bunch, and I hope to make another project with it one day.  It’s Rozetti Yarns’ Polaris, 65% Acrylic, 31% Wool, 4% Other.  That “other” is sequins!  It’s got sequins!  They’re prestrung about every 18″, and I. Am. In. Love.  It’s super soft, cushy, amazing.  Next up is Berroco’s Bonsai which is 97% Bamboo, 3% Nylon  and a lovely tape-type yarn with wonderful drape and shine.  The dark-looking one is another I fell for, Berroco’s Campus.  It’s 50% Wool, 40% Acrylic, 10% Alpaca.  Cushy, lovely, and I think my first time that I can remember knitting with an alpaca content.  Another amazing yarn I hope to use again.

I’m even more excited to re-start than I was to start!


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i’m sorry

It’s not you, it’s me.

I’m just not that into you.

I love you, I’m just not in love with you.

However you wanna put it, I’m breaking up with you, Vegas Scarf.  I knew it wasn’t going to work out between us, but rather than change the rules I decided to keep going.  Every row made my feelings obvious…I didn’t like where this was going.

I know you didn’t expect me to end things tonight- I didn’t either, honestly.  That’s why I was right in the middle of a row when I pulled you off the needles.

I know I made you think we’d work it out.  I’m sorry if I teased you by holding you up to my neck to be sure, even though I secretly knew that we didn’t “click”.

You’re good enough, long enough, but not wide enough though I take full responsibility for that, having ended it where I did.

Somewhere out there is someone who would have loved you.  Loved your Fun Furry kitch, your insane amount of black, and your combination of colors that I really had thought I’d grow to love.  That someone, unfortunately, isn’t me.

I’m moving on.  Tomorrow I’m going to go out and pick up someone else.  I hope you’ll be happy for me.


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study study study

I try to be good when it comes to school work.  I make a study schedule for Yannick and myself, and in it I break down each section into daily pages, and as long as we read/make notes on those pages on that day, we’ll be on track.  Usually he falls behind, and I nag.  This time it’s my turn.  First I was so busy on Sunday that I didn’t have a chance to get my pages done.  Then Monday I was out all day and had such a headache that night that I told myself I’d catch up at work the next day.  I did get some done yesterday but not as much as I’d hope, and work was busy today too, which means tonight I can do nothing but study.  No knitting.  No visiting the forgotten loom.  Just notes, notes, notes.  Study, study, study.

I did cast-on for my first socks of the new year.  These were cast-on last week, en route to visit my 3rd surgeon for my 2nd second opinion, while my mom drove.  Long story short, since neither my surgeon nor the 2nd opinion surgeon could find the hernias that I swear are there (and I’d know, as I’ve already had 3 fixed), I visited a laparoscopic surgeon to see if she could help.  She also couldn’t find the hernias, and focused more on my pain and less on my claim of the physical symptom of the hernias popping out, but in the end she thought she could help, if to do nothing else but to rule out the hernias.  I’ll be having diagnostic laparoscopic surgery in May.  If she finds hernias, she’ll fix them as they’re found.  If no hernias are found, hopefully she’ll find whatever is causing the popping and the pain.

I was sore, dejected and feeling ignored after the appointment, so I didn’t knit on the way home.

Here’s the tiny amount of toe I did get done on the way there.  My January sock.


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slippers and capes and friends from the past

Tonight an old friend from high school came over.  I hadn’t seen her in at least 5 years, and it was great to catch up.  Because of her visit, I didn’t get to knit.  I did, however, get to witness the exploits of two very hyper, newly-minted superheroes.

(Capes by Maaike, as a birthday gift for Henri and one for Jakob so he wouldn’t be jealous.  Secret Identities of “Jakob” and “Henri” by me).

Aren’t those capes awesome?!?  She made them herself, and they are absolutely everything a young superhero could ask for.  They originally had a lukewarm reception, as I’d expected since my boys are not good with change.  But a few days later suddenly the capes were all they could think about.  Seriously, you have no idea how hard it was to get this photo- every other pic I took was very much an “action shot”.

I found another project that I haven’t shared yet- Ribby Slipper Socks.  Back in October my aunt had surgery and I made her a pair of slippers to keep her feet warm and cozy while she’d be resting.

Let me say, this project has an obvious flaw- it looks UGLY off the foot.  Long and skinny and seemingly non-atomically correct.

But on the foot they’re transformed!

Cozy and form-fitting, warm and snuggly.  I think I want to make a pair for myself.

I used some no-name chunky yarn in the teal color, the stuff I’d recycled from the failed crochet deep v vest.  I still think it’s Bernat Softee Chunky.  The black is Bernat Pounder worsted yarn, and I carried along some teal LionBrand Fun Fur for the last 4 rows, then bound off in the black only.  I’d only had a small amount of the fur yarn, so I divided it in 2 and just did as many rows as I could in each sock.  I used 5mm for the foot, and 4mm for the cuff.  It’s a free pattern, I forget the source right now, but if you search for them on Ravelry you’ll find them.  (Something is making me think they’re a free Interweave pattern, but I won’t swear by that).

Before my next surgery (which will be in May, as it turns out), I plan on making myself a pair.  That way I can be cozy and squooshy too.  🙂


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aren’t they called “waiting rooms” for a reason?

Today I had a doctor’s appointment.  It’s not the kind of appointment that most women look forwards to- think cold hands and torture devices.  In fact, the only plus side to these appointments is that my doctor can, and usually is, called out to deliver babies.  If she’s not bringing new life into the world, she’s hopelessly overbooked with at least an hour’s wait past your scheduled time.

So it was actually with eagerness that I set out this morning for my visit.  Sure I had to miss sleeping in on my “late morning” and drive into town, find parking and schlep through the snow.  But I got to bring my Vegas Scarf with me, and was SURE to get in at least a dozen of those long, long rows.

Not.

I got there, 5 minutes late for my 9:45am appointment, and checked in with the secretary.  “How’s she running?” I asked.  “Oh,” she said, not realizing she was about to totally disappoint me, “you’re her first patient today.  Come right into the room.”

Crap.  No knitting for me.

I didn’t get any knitting done in the afternoon, ‘cus I spent it doing something totally frivolous and fun- shopping!  Note- I don’t usually call shopping “fun”.  But today it was.  My neighbor C and her adorable daughter (the one I babysat on Sat) went to Fairview to spend some gift cards I’d received for the holidays.  C is MUCH more fashionable than I am, works in the industry, etc, and a few weeks ago we’d played a game of “What Not To Wear” in my closet and pulled out EVERYTHING that did. not. work.  Too big, too small, too 90’s…if it wasn’t making me happy, it went in the bag.  There’s a woman’s shelter C knows of that has a lending “closet” where women can borrow clothes for interviews, work, etc, and we’ll be bringing the huge garbage bag of clothes there.  Which meant I had empty hangers to fill!  We had a great routine set up where I watched the stroller while C went around and picked the clothes, then I tried them on while she went to change sizes, etc.  In the end I managed to take advantage of some crazy sales and get boots, shoes, a belt, a pair of skinny jeans, a dress, a sweater dress, a cardi, a long-sleeve T and a sweater (oh- and 2 bottles of nail polish)- all for $180!  It was INSANE- and thanks to her amazing sales-radar, I still have more money to spend next time!

I had a headache by the time I got home, and it turned into a migraine by the time the kids went to bed, so I ended up crashing early.  That means no knitting for the day.  So I’ll share 2 projects I finished over the last 2 months.

After my cousin told us he was having another baby, I knew automatically what I’d make.  He’s a huge HABS fan, but he moved out of our province and couldn’t root on his favorite team as much.  Whether the baby would be a boy or girl, I KNEW he’d like one of my HABSie dolls.

I used worsted weight acrylic yarn from my stash, held doubled, and appropriate needles.  Beyond that I followed my pattern as written.  I used the doubled worsted yarn because I wanted a larger toy than the original.

Ok I did make one teensy change…or rather, an addition.  I duplicate-stitched the year of the baby’s birth on the back.  🙂

As it turned out, my cousin had a baby boy so the HABS doll was perfect!

A baby boy in a Jewish family means a bris, and my aunt had asked me for tips on making a baby-sized kippah.  She wasn’t sure about the yarn…or the pattern…or the hook size…and finally just asked me if I would be able to make it for him.

So I did.  I used crochet thread and a very small (1.25mm?) crochet hook.  The white was one thickness but the blue was thinner so I held it along with a white/silver strand, not that you can really tell from these photos.  I made up the pattern, both the increase rate and the colorwork, as I went along, and stopped when it “seemed about the right size”.  I think it was roughly 3″ across.

This is the inside, for those of you who like that sort of thing.


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betty boop cake

Remember back in October I showed a pic of my mom’s birthday cake?  And said how I would post more on it later?  It’s later!

bettyboopcake

(Today was actually a pretty fun and busy day.  I stayed home while Yannick took the kids to swimming, and started cooking the food/making dip/etc for Henri’s 3rd bday party tonight.  Once again I only used my camera, not cell phone camera, and don’t have it handy or the pics uploaded.  At least this post is about another birthday, and another sweet treat.)

This is the cake my sister Laura and I made for Mom’s 60th birthday.

I made the cake part, then Laura helped to decorate.  First I baked 2 (9″?) round cakes, both vanilla but one tinted red.  I wanted them a bit more dense than a regular box mix, so while I did use Betty Crocker mixes, I doctored them with less oil and added instant pudding mix.  That was on the Thursday before the party (Sunday).  On Friday I made a batch of buttercream, leveled the cakes, torted them (sliced them in half widthwise) and iced in between, stacking them, from the bottom up, red, icing, white, icing, red, icing, white.  I wanted a white layer as the top so none of the red would show or seep through the top layer of icing, just in case.  I then gave a quick crumb-coat over the whole cake.

I had more time that afternoon, so I started decorating.  First I took some of my leftover icing and tinted it a pale blue, then set it aside.  I rolled out white fondant until I had it almost long enough to go around the cake.  It took me 2 strips to go around the width, but I made the seams look like seams in the wood, so you can’t tell.

I dabbed the back of the fondant lightly with a q-tip in water, and pressed onto the sides of the cake, smoothing well to remove any air bubbles.  I put the cake in the fridge for a bit to set up.

Once the icing had crusted over I went back over it with the blue icing, mixing the two with my knife as I went, and chopping it up a bit so it looked frothy and bubbly.  Then I sat down to do the wood grain.

First I went around the cake, using a sharp knife to score the fondant lightly to look like the individual wood slats.  I went around the top edge and made little cuts as if the wood was weathered and beat up.  I went around the cake again with a black edible ink marker, randomly making little lines and drawing knots in the wood.   Then I used a food-only paintbrush, some water, and some brown icing gel and covered the sides and top completely.  First I’d use almost a 100% concentration of gel to go over the score marks, then I’d blend it out with the water, and some gel-tinted water.  I made sure to have it darker in some areas, lighter in others, and tried to make it look old and used.  The way the water reacts with the fondant leaves it glossy, so it looked like it has been shellacked.

 

Two black fondant “bars” with silver “nails” finished up the hot tub, and then I used some green icing in a squeeze bottle-thing to individually pipe each and every blade of grass to decorate my dollar-store platter.

Laura came over late that night once she got home from work, and she made Betty Boop’s head while I made the legs, arms and accessories.

The bikini and flip-flops were planned, but the boobs were a last-minute addition ‘cus she didn’t look properly “settled” in the tub without them.  🙂

And that was Mom’s cake.  We had made it secretly and Yannick delivered it to the brunch her friends were throwing, and she had no idea it would be there.  I heard it was a big surprise, and a big hit.  They were almost against cutting into it, but they did, and they ate it, and even saved me a nice, tall slice.

 


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covered in icing

My day  ended covered in icing.  Always, when I make the birthday cakes, since the parties are usually on Sundays, I bake on Thurs, dirty-ice on Fri and decorate on Sat.  So today was decoration day.  I knew better than to risk starting to make my buttercream while the boys were up, but I wasn’t worried about getting a late start because of how much I got done being home yesterday.

In the afternoon my neighbor brought her 7-month-old daughter over for us to babysit, and my boys had a BLAST playing with her.  She was seated in her Bumbo like a princess on a throne, and the boys didn’t stop parading in front of her trying to make her laugh.  First Jakob would do somersaults across the room, then Henri broke in with a guitar solo, and Jakob wouldn’t be outdone, so he grabbed some maracas and got in on the performance.  It was a riot.

Luckily she practically put herself to sleep just before the boys went down, and I was able to get to work on the cake.  But I forgot to take pics with my cell, and my camera isn’t with me at the moment, so instead of cake pics, here’s an update on the holiday gifts for the boys’ daycare teachers.

This is what each teacher (5 in total) got.  A red platter, topped with a back scrubber, a crocheted chain-8 dishcloth, a crocheted soap-saver bag with a scented bar of soap inside, and a crocheted bath puff, all wrapped up in cellophane and tied with a ribbon of red yarn.

The chain-8 and bath puff are the standard patterns I’ve been using for years, and are linked from the projects on my Rav pages.  The soap saver I just made up on the spot, and is basically just a sc1-ch1 pattern around, with a drawstring near the top.  All was done with 2 shades of holiday Bernat Handicrafter cotton, plain white Handicrafter, and a 4mm crochet hook.

I’ve made these as teacher gifts before, but both my boys are with new teachers now so none of these 5 have received this gift before, so I didn’t mind recycling the idea.  The daycare owner, however, has already received this gift, so I needed to come up with something new.  She also happens to be pregnant, and due with a little boy any day now.  So she got this:

It’s 2 shades of Bernat Baby Coordinates from my stash, worked in a simple granny square, using a 4mm crochet hook.  I would have liked to have gone bigger, but it was late, she was leaving on mat leave the next day, and my hand was starting to cramp into a claw.


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another knitless day

What weather we had today!  Freezing rain and snow…luckily after bringing Henri to his 3 year checkup I was able to get him to school and then come home, and not need to drive into town for work.  That was a relief!  (Plus my belly’s been sore and it gets worse after driving from the push/pull of my leg on the pedals, so any chance to not have to drive was welcome).

Henri’s appointment went great, and he’s still 90th percentile for height and weight, meaning he hasn’t slowed down his growth since…birth?  3 months old?  I don’t remember, but he’s been almost off the charts since the beginning.  I assume he’ll slow down and meet up with the average standards at some point, but it’s not happening yet!  He’s only about 1/2 a pound and 1/2 an inch apart from Jakob, and everyone usually assumes they’re twins, especially since they beg to dress alike.

I spent the day working on fondant decorations for his cake for Sunday, so they’d have a chance to dry out a bit and be more stable by the party.  I also made a batch of buttercream icing (so easy and tastes so much better than store-bought!!) and dirty-iced the cake to catch any crumbs before the final decorating tomorrow.  Unfortunately I accidentally made the fondant pieces too big for my original plan, but it’s too late to change the cake so I’ll have to come up with a way to make it work.

No pics today ‘cus I have no knitting or weaving progress, I didn’t take any new photos of the kids today, and I’m keeping the cake a surprise until after the party.  I’d show you my nails but I’m redoing those tomorrow too.

Hope you had a great Friday the 13th!  Ooh- remember the movie Freaky Friday?  I just got a flashback of the original one, with Jodie Foster.  I must have seen it in the 80’s sometime.  I don’t know why it’s reminding me of this, but does anyone but me remember the TV show…what was it called….Rags to Riches?  About a guy who adopts like 7 girls, and they’re always singing, like when the blonde one likes a guy she’s mooning at him through a chain-link fence at a park and singing “I Will Follow Him”?  I used to love that show!


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knitting game kal day 3

No knitting today for me, I’m afraid. I spent my night making these instead:

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Which will all somehow get incorporated into the cake for Henri’s party this weekend.

How’s YOUR scarf coming?