New Year, new resolutions

I don't really care for resolutions, in that I tend to pick something I struggle with, then feel bad when I fail. This year, instead of making resolutions that would change a bad habit, I'm making resolutions that will bring creative energy out to the world. Here they are:

Write more: I will set aside time each week to write. This won't be writing for the newspaper, but writing for me. It may be about knitting, cooking, crafting, life... who knows. I will give myself permission, and make the time to do it.

Knit a sweater: This is a repeat. Four years ago (really? how did that happen?) I bought fabulous red yarn while on a trip to Ireland. It was our last day there, and I hadn't been able to find knitting wool anywhere. The only yarn shop we saw was closed the day we went through town. Finally, in a little store near Doolin, I came across some yarn. Two colors -- red or black -- sold by the kilo. I'm not sure where I found room for 2.2 pounds of red yarn in our luggage, but it came back across the Atlantic with me. I searched for a pattern, and finally found it -- Owls, by Kate Davies. I'm going to start swatching as soon as I get through a few quick projects. I think it will be a quick knit, and can't wait to do it.


Make a maud: Inspired again by Kate Davies, I'd love to make a maud. It's a delightful warm wrap, that looks incredibly cozy and stylish.

Make Henry's quilt: I saved parts of Henry's baby clothes to make a crazy quilt. I think it's time to start the sewing. I'll make the maud the warm-up to the quilting, I think. But first, I've got to take the machine in for a tune-up. It's been too long, my friend.

Wish me luck. I wish you joy.

Sip n Stitch!

A while back I signed up for a yarn and coffee club. It's a neat idea: You pay money, and then an indie dyer sends you some hand-dyed yarn, hand-picked locally-roasted coffee, and a mess of goodies. I'll get three shipments, one every other month, for six months. This one was through The Unique Sheep.

This is the first yarn club I've ever participated in. Here's the photos:

The whole haul.

The yarn, Luxe (25% silk, 75% superwash merino) in a rich collection of browns, yellows and reds. Plus, coffee candy and a Unique Sheep fake tattoo.

The coffee and the Coffee Cozee (the fabric sleeve on the pint glass). I've used that every day this week. It's so cute, and far, far nicer to hold than a cardboard sleeve.
It's like my coffee gives my hand a hug. You can find the Coffee Cozees here.

I would definitely do this again.

Pics, progress, news!

First, a big apology to my secret pal -- It's taken forever for me to get these pictures up, but you'll see I've been busy.

Here's the wonderful package that was waiting for me after our trip to Florida. The outside was sealed with the cutest tape -- it had red, winged balls of yarn printed on it. Inside was this adorable sheep postcard and three skeins of Candy Apple Cotton Fleece. It's super soft, and lots of fun to knit.


This picture is closer to the actual color of the yarn, and shows just why I know the yarn is fun to knit. I've been busy with it. This is the Ballet Tee from Loop D Loop. It's my first adult-size garment, and it's been going really well. It's knit on US 15 needles, and goes fast.

I worked on it all weekend, while I watched movies on TV. My husband had to work, so I was left home alone with the new cable and my yarn. No complaints here! I've been exhausted, so it was nice to have a few days to be lazy and relax. Since I was knitting, I still felt productive.

I watched The Hunt for Red October on Saturday and Spiderman 2 on Sunday - and knit the whole time. I'm about half done with it. I'm making the larger of the two sizes, and hoping I didn't make a mistake in that.

The smaller size is for people who wear a US 2-8 dress size, and the larger size for those who wear a 10-14. I typically wear an 8, but I didn't really like the idea of wearing something that's on the top end of a small size.

I'm also ready to share some news -- I found out a few months ago that I'm pregnant! Hence the utter exhaustion. And, another reason I'm erring on the large size for the Ballet Tee. It's just starting to get warm out, and I'll have a bit of a baby bump by the time I can really start wearing it. I figured a bit of extra room couldn't hurt.

The pregnancy's also the reason I needed the 19 skeins of the Classic Elite. I'm going to try making the Mommy Snug in time to actually wear it when I'm gigantic this fall. Here's the sweater...



And here's my swatch. My gauge is a bit big, so I have some math to do before I actually start knitting. I think if I knit the smallest size, it'll still fit about right, given that I'm getting bigger stitches.


And just to show that I wasn't the laziest being in my house this weekend, I give you Cairo, the wonder cat. I came home from brunch on Sunday to find this:


Sorry about the wonky color. It's really hard to photograph a black cat who's hiding under the covers. Isn't she silly?

Pictures soon... I promise!

I got my first bit of goodies from my Secret Pal last week. They were in a lovely box on my dining room table when we returned from a week in Florida with my grandfather. It's some gorgeous Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Candy Apple.

What with vacation, then coming back to a super-crazy day at work today (Don't ask. You don't want to know. I just wish people would leave their stinking guns at home. Gah.) there's still no photos. This stuff is too pretty for me to take a cell phone pic, so I'm waiting until I've got a husband to bug about batteries and memory cards and what not.

But I'm so excited about the yarn, and about knitting something with it... I've got two ideas. The lovely (and quick!) Ballet T from Loop D Loop and some baby thing. Maybe the Baby Surprise jacket? Maybe the Garter Stitch Sweater and a matching hat? Or hat, booties and thumbless mittens on a string? Or, something to be determined once I've actually made the first thing and seen how much yarn is left?

Oh well.

Thanks, Secret Pal! I love it very much!

Yarn came! SP Package on the way!

The yarn for my sweater came the other day, but I haven't had time to take pictures and get them up yet. Hopefully this afternoon...

And I got an e-mail from my secret pal this morning -- my first package has shipped! I can't wait!

Curses! Foiled again! -- Happy update!!

Shade tree on back order. Another week or two before it ships. Oh well. That gives me more time to knit for my secret pal!

Just got an e-mail from WEBS... It's shipping today. No more waiting! Yahoo!

And, just like that, it's secret pal land!

I'm super excited! I managed to successfully sign up for the 10th Secret Pal Exchange. I got my giftee and sent her an e-mail, to which she has responded, quite kindly. I also received my first e-mail from my gifter. She said we have things in common. Hmmmm. Besides knitting? What fun! Two new buddies, in one day!

My gifter asked me a few questions. I dashed off a pretty quick, instant response by e-mail but wanted to elaborate here, just for fun.

1. Laces or cables. I said cables. I've got a sweater I'm trying to get going on (I had to rip it all out because my guage was so off that I think I could have work the FO when I was nine months pregnant) that has these lovely cables, and I so want to make it. However, there's also some lace patterns I've been oohing over since I got my first pattern book. It's also freezing in Wisconsin, so I want warmth. Who ever heard of warm lace? It's got all those holes in it.

2. Fingering, DK or worsted? Worsted. I've never had much cause to use fingering. That whole not-knitting-lace thing. I've got one pattern that calls for LOTS of cotton DK, doubled, but haven't actually bought the yarn yet. It's a ballet-style T-shirt thing from loop d loop. Since it's been 50 degreees here I'm getting excited about knitting that kind of thing.

3. Hard candy or gummies? Gummies. Not too fond of hard candies. They're usually too tart for me and make my teeth and eyes hurt. Weird, I know. I do like Lifesavers, though, and I like tart gummies. I hate Jolly Ranchers. Blech.

4. Which is more exotic/interesting: Japanese, Chinese or Indian. This one's tough. I'm fascinated by all three cultures, really. Japan and India are high on my list of dream vacations, and I studied China a bit in college. When it comes to food, Japanese and Indian beat out Chinese, unless I were to be able to get back to that crazy good place in Boston's Chinatown.

5. Facials/home spas? Not so much. Lotions, yes. Bath stuff, yes. I'd use stuff if I had it, but I'm not often driven to buy it for myself when I'm out shopping. I've got some clay mask stuff I use every few months or so. I got my husband to do that with me once. THAT was fun. I'd do that again.

In other knitting news, I've started the second thrummed mitten. It'll be done just in time for us to have cleared all possibility of real snow for the year. I need to learn to time these projects better. You know, start the tank top in March so it's done by June and start the mittens and scarves in September so they're done by Christmas.

My Rogue is now a big ball of red yarn. I need to rethink my guage. I'll try size 7 needles next, but if they're too small I'm going to have to go out and buy really long 7.5 circs. No half size needles in my interchangeable set. Boo.

And, Buddha's Birthday is coming up soon. Got to figure out gifts for all my dharma buds!