Fuzzy Love

Coming to Terms with Mental Illness

Josh: keep surfing!

Remember how I said a friend (the aforementioned Josh) asked me to knit him a hat? Well, to say that the request threw me into a tizzy would be an understatement. No one outside of my family has ever asked me to knit him anything before. After a little discussion, we agreed that he'd like something along the lines of this:

A watch cap. Simple. Piece o' cake.

Except that, since most of my friends are relatively unaccustomed to hand-knits, I wanted to be sure that this hat would dispel any lingering myths that might persist in their minds about them. That is: that they are itchy, chunky, and generally look hand-made.

So I decided to knit the best damn watch cap on the planet.

The pattern is the Classic Watch Cap (Ravelry link) from the book Hats On! and the design is based on the official watch cap worn in the real Navy. One by one ribbing. Ten stitches to the inch. Size 2 needles. With the flipped up part, twelve inches long.

Yes, I do have some perfectionist qualities that get in the way of my everyday life. Why do you ask?

That's a week worth of exclusive knitting right there.

(You know, if all those WWII knitters had just used chunky yarn a lot more soldiers would have had warm heads.)

Meeting the Harlot

If you aren't into knitting, you might as well surf on. At best you won't care; at worst you will find this disturbing.

The Yarn Harlot came to our neighborhood bookstore last night. For those who don't know, she's a knitting comedy writer (really). Mark didn't get it AT ALL, but off I went as soon as he got home to take my place in line. It was a long line.

I was number 94, but no matter. My place in line was next to some lovely (and very funny) knitters and the time actually passed very quickly. I'm not sure how many people were actually there, but I know it was over two hundred and that the book store was a mite surprised.

Anyway, thanks to the people in that knitting group I've been going to (who waited much longer than I did), I got to sit right up front (thank you!). And I mean RIGHT up front - second row. So close I could have almost poked her with a needle.

And she was interesting and so damn funny. Much of her talk was about the meditative aspects of knitting, which is something I'm hugely interested in (well, meditation in general is something I've been thinking about lately - little did I know I'm already doing it on a regular basis). Anyway, I laughed until there were tears - seriously. Plus I adore her accent; it's Upper Canadian with just a touch of rural Nova Scotia (and lo and behold, she has family in Dartmouth), and half my family shares it. That accent makes me homesick.

Most impressive: she managed to be charming and sincere at the same time, even though I was number 94 in line and didn't speak to her until almost 10:00. She had to be exhausted.

I honestly loved her. She gave me a Canadian test. When she said that she was going to, I did a deer-in-the-headlights thing for a second: "Is she going to want me to sing the anthem in French?" and "The Yarn Yarlot is going to think I'm lying about being from Canada!" It did involve singing,* but not the anthem. I passed. Phew.

Her new book, by the way, is really funny.

ETA: I'm on her blog! Tiny, but I'm there: first picture, second row, black shirt.

*If you are Canadian, you can complete this song: "When you eat your Smarties..." Apparently it's something we carry with us forever.

Malabrigo March Madness and an Announcement

I caught the Malabrigo bug. It wasn't hard. Over the month I ended up with six skeins total (please, admire my restraint) and, at 216 yards a skein, man does that make for a lot of projects. So I've been knitting like a fiend all month. Here's some of what I've (pretty much) finished. My apologies for including a couple of things you've seen before, but I couldn't resist the mosaic maker. (Expect to see a lot of these in the future.)

1. Foliage  2. The Boy Hat  3. Mini Mitten 
4. Koolhass  5. A Better Bucket (felted)  6. Celtic Cable Neckwarmer 
7. Foliage  8. Easter Bunny  9. A Better Bucket

By the way, with the exception of Koolhass, all those patterns are free.

Malabrigo may be my new favorite yarn. It's 100% wool but incredibly soft, the colors are fabulous, and it knits up quickly on 6-8s (4mm-5mm) needles. I'm actually looking around for little projects to use up the leftovers. And it is the perfect yarn for hats and scarves; not only is it soft, but it pills like crazy if you knit it into a very soft and squishy sweater (like I did). It's best for things that don't get a lot of swishy action.

But no more Malabrigo for me for a while; I'm (eep!) on a yarn diet. The reason for this is simply that I have, in my possession, the yarn for the top twenty items in my queue. Yes. Twenty. I can't continue to ignore the stash.

Granted, these projects are oft-times in my queue because I have the yarn for them, but that's no excuse. That's all stuff I want to knit, after all. But remember way back last fall when most of my (22-mile) stash fit into four tidy plastic bins?

It doesn't anymore. Now there's a lot of overflow, a lot of unfinished projects, and even a huge bag of Cotton-Ease (it was on sale).

I'm afraid to calculate the miles now.

Since I have already perused all the Spring magazines I want to, I should have a stable queue at least until Summer and there's no need for more yarn until then, right? So (heh hemm) I hereby solemnly swear that I will not buy ANY yarn until June 21st. And then only with the gift certificate that my husband will surely get me for my birthday in early June (hint, hint honey). The yarn diet will continue either until I can fit everything into my four tidy plastic bins, even if I have to sit on them to do it, or until the fall magazines come out. Whichever comes first.

Except that a friend just asked me to knit him a blue hat (which I am so excited to do) and I don't have any appropriate yarn for it....BUT THAT'S IT!

Note: Knitting a Foliage in worsted with only two pattern repeats makes a beautiful toddler hat. When done in pink, the leaves look like flower petals and a certain little girl will wear the hat all day, inside and out, until you make her take it off for bath because she doesn't need to felt it.

Spring!

The weather has been beautiful the last few days. It's been lovely: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, soccer balls, and snacks on the deck. We can't get enough of being outside. Honestly, this is the best time of year in Colorado, hands down. The sun isn't too hot and burny yet, the grass will soon be green, and the crocuses are already coming up. Sure, we will have at least one snow storm after the leaves come out, but by then it will feel like a novel last peek at Winter.

I think the kids were out and about a good four hours yesterday; much of that time was spent scooping melted snow out of the sandbox and pouring it down our slide (we are so bad about putting that thing away each winter). Liam has also been holding extended chats over the back fence with the kids behind us - while perched on the top of the wet and sandy slide - and once again I'm wishing for a Backyardigans (fence-free) neighborhood. 

And then it is time for my annual Spring Surprise Extravaganza: "Do I still fit into last summer's clothes?" So far so good, although I haven't yet dug into the riskier stuff (like tank tops) and the bathing suits aren't even on the radar yet (yikes). Also not good for the self-esteem: I haven't shaved my legs in a while. To do that I have to either wait for a weekend or get up a whole lot earlier, as a certain little girl has no patience for my showers.

Anyway, my first Spring sweater is coming along nicely. I'm through one sleeve and almost the whole back of Geno, but the little tiny stitches make for slow going. And tired fingers don't help either - I have to take breaks for heavier yarn from time to time.

With Spring comes bolder bunnies. A rabbit came to visit us this morning and Liam said excitedly, "It's the Easter Bunny!"

And Olivia announced the other day, "Me Eeya. [What she calls herself.] Me pwincess. Fight bad guys." Influenced by her big brother at all, do you think? (Not that it's bad or anything).

So I hate to leave you, but I have to get outside again as it's somewhere around seventy today. Yay!

Playing Hooky

Once in a while, Mark takes a random vacation day in the middle of the week and we all go do something fun. Yesterday was one of those days. We usually go to one of those places that are god-awful crowded on the weekends but manageable during the week, like the museum. The kids and I have been there a few times lately and Liam was dying to show Mark the dinosaurs. Plus it gave us all a chance to visit the Planetarium; even though the shows are only about twenty minutes long, I've never been too excited about taking two kids by myself, and without popcorn even.

But let me tell you, the Planetarium has changed since the last time I visited one, sometime in the mumblecougheightiesmumple. What I remember is something like Lite-Brite, but this show was pretty much a computer-generated IMAX* on a curved screen. Very dramatic; Liam was completely mesmerized. Olivia, not so much. She was pretty wiggly until we snuck some forbidden pretzels into her. You do what you gotta do, right? Anyway, Liam has now got the Planetarium on his "must see" list for museum visits. Good stuff.

Then, by five o'clock, we were all in our pajamas on the sofa. We had a popcorn dinner and watched a movie. Not a bad day, all 'round.

While we watched the movie, I seamed up Kite.

I thought it would be too big, but it's right on for Spring. I'm really happy with it. And the most fun: picking out ribbon! Joann's has little five-packs that matched the pink Cotton-Ease perfectly. I figured it couldn't hurt to have extra - I imagine the ribbon will take a beating. And Olivia loves it, thankfully. She actually jumped up and down when it was time to put it on this morning. Oh my sweet baby girl, do you think you will always do that for my hand knits? And once she had it on: "Mommy, it's umphy!"

* The movie did talk about the extinction of the dinosaurs, which greatly concerned Liam, and we talked about that for a while afterwards. "But some of the dinosaurs made it, right Mommy?" Poor kid; I hadn't meant to get into that quite yet. Like I said, I was picturing more of a Lite-Brite show.

To the Queue!

Something unbelievable is happening. The stars have aligned or it's my lucky day or somebody's watching out for me. Or my stash has finally reached small-yarn-store status.

I'm sure you've seen that the new Knitty is up, right? There's some nice stuff but, I have to admit, the project that is really calling my name is the adorable little-girl bloomers. Here; I'll just steal put in a picture.

If that isn't Olivia's style, I don't know what is. Can't you just see them with a tutu on top? And get this: I have some pink Rowan Wool Cotton in my stash that will work perfectly! In the stash!

I also like the Lace Ribbon Scarf, but that will work with lots of yarns; I'm sure I must have something...

Then I got my hands on the new Rowan magazine this weekend. There are two projects in there that I can see me actually making and good thing too, as the price for those magazines keeps going up and up. In my head they are still $20, but this one was $28.50 - a fact I didn't notice until the total came up on the cash register. I've been buying them for so long I feel like I shouldn't miss one, but I'll start if the exchange rate continues to be so sad.

Anyway, there are two projects in there that I love. Geno, even though it has a bit of lace, which is NOT my favorite thing to knit, but I can do in a quiet room:

It's in Rowan 4ply cotton, which I have in a lovely pale blue in my stash.

And Capri:

In Rowan Calmer. I happen to have come chocolate brown Calmer in my stash.

But the item I am itching to cast on for more than any other has got to be this (and, if you are on Ravelry, check out this one). I'll sew up Kite today and then I'm starting one - Easter is coming, after all. And guess what? I have some Malabrigo in my stash that will be perfect.

Oh, and don't forget to have a green beer today! Or a green tea; that would be nice too.

Riveting Stuff

It's been a quiet week, actually. Busy, but not much to report. Here are the highlights:

There was one randomly warm day of the sort that we sometimes get in Colorado and we spent that afternoon at the park. On the way there Liam asked me, "Mommy, don't call me cutie-butt at the park, please." Turns out there's a few things he'd rather I didn't call him.

Not okay: cutie-butt, sweetie-butt, love buns.
Still okay: darlin', honey-bunny, hun-bun, lovey boy, sweetie-love, sweetie pie,  huninny buninny (don't ask).

"No butt names, Mommy." I guess I can live with that.

I went to see The Other Boleyn Girl, which was...fine. It didn't exactly follow the book, and it didn't exactly follow history, but the costumes were fun to see.

I got a haircut.

I'm not sure if I look sweet there (which would be a bit odd) or brain-dead (which would be all too common). I guess Mark likes it (uh, the haircut), because he insisted on taking a picture the moment I walked through the door. Also, that isn't just a shadow making a stripe across my head; I was supposed to get my highlights redone, but the salon messed up and didn't allot enough time for it and I have to go back. Quite the commitment, highlights are; I'm not sure I care enough to be touched up every six weeks.

And in knitting news, Kite is coming along.

I'm halfway up one sleeve, so I hope to have this done by Monday. I'm going to like it, I think, except if I were to do it again I'd extend the lacey bits up a couple of inches to make more of an empire waist. Right now it cuts right through the middle of the sweater, which looks unbalanced to me for some reason. Oh, and if you look closely, you'll see the orange marker across the front courtesy of Olivia. I guess we'll find out how washable this is sooner rather than later.

That's all I got. I hope you all have exciting weekends (good exciting, not bad exciting).

Meet the Clampetts

We've started packing.

The funny thing about moving 6.1 miles, with lots of time to do it in, is that packing is difficult to do. It's gone kinda like this: pick something up, think about packing it, realize it could just be tossed into the car, do just that, carry it into the new house on the next trip over. In that way we have transported a whole bunch of the kids' toys, much of my awkwardly-shaped craft stuff, a collection of old baskets, a rug, and a couple of lamps. Also at the house are a few things that we have purchased since closing on the house (I had a Craigslist problem for a while), like some bookshelves, a daybed, and a big china hutchy thing. They went directly to the new house because, of course, there was little point in bringing them here. And then almost all our tools are over there. It's a bit embarrassing, actually, to drive up to your house with piles of stuff that aren't even in boxes, like we scavenged it all on our way over; our new neighbors probably wouldn't be surprised if Buddy Ebsen climbed out of our car.

So we really started with the easy-to-pack stuff that we don't use a whole lot, like most of my books and the black hole cupboard in the kitchen. I do realize that it is a luxury to pack at such a slow pace, taking the time to gather up all the gardening books into one box and to take The Muppet Movie DVD that somehow was behind all the books over to the DVD box and place it back in its case. Unlike later when we'll just toss everything together in boxes of mystery.

Anyway, all those boxes put a huge strangle hold on the hallways so, after unsuccessfully trying to wrangle the laundry basket through it all, Mark decided he might as well load up the car again (twice). So this house is slowly getting emptied and Mark is getting quite the workout. And I'm sure our neighbors are talking. For the record, we DO plan on hiring movers for the real move, you know, when the piano goes.*

I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down, but I have managed to finish another hat. It's the Koolhaas hat for Mark in Marine Malabrigo (mmmm...alliteration). He likes it, but he wouldn't sit still long for a picture and this was the best I could get:

You get the idea. I really enjoyed knitting it. The pattern takes no time to memorize (well, I always had the chart around, but it only took a few stitches of each row to know what I was doing) and the decreases at the top are brilliant. My plan was to knit a few rows to get a grip on the pattern, then stop and learn how to do the cables without a cable needle, but I didn't bother. Sure it was a little fiddly, but I apparently have a high tolerance for fiddling, because I just kept on going. So Mark finally has a warm hat, knit to his specifications. Just in time for Spring.

*When are we going to move, you ask? We're aiming for the 1st of May, having calculated that the kitchen should be done by then. That's the plan, anyway.

Hey, I Actually Finished Something

That's right; my first finished object of 2008. And technically it's not even finished because it's supposed to have embellishments, at which I suck. Tomorrow I'll go to Joann's and see what I can find, but the needles are down and the ends are woven in, so I'm calling it done.

Sooooo this is A Better Bucket done in Malabrigo Worsted, the pink/red Amoroso colorway (the top picture shows the colors best). Thankfully, after spending some time with them, the colors have grown on me. Considering how many neutrals I wear, a little shot of color on my head shouldn't freak me out too much, right? But what I really love is the folded-over brim that frames the face nicely without flopping in the eyes (a great feature in a bucket hat). I haven't blocked it yet, but that brim should flare out a bit more after I figure out just how I am going to block it. Another good thing? It was very quick: I cast on for this on Monday night and finished it this afternoon. That all means there will probably be more of these in my future. Olivia, for instance, has requested one of her very own ("Me Mommy? Baby one?"), so I'm thinking I can use the little bit of this color that I have left as a lining to a bright pink or deep brown one.

Then after I finished this I put in two rows of the Tangled Yoke before casting on for Mark's hat. Because you can't have too many things on the needles.

Full o' Surprises

Sooooo....there's this girl in Liam's preschool class. Her name is Kendall and, from almost the moment he met her, Liam has loved her. One fateful day in August the two of them walked out after school holding hands, both with shy but happy smiles. Same thing happened the next day, and the next. Well, it wasn't long after that Liam began planning their wedding (could she borrow my dress?) and naming their children (boy = Super). Of course all this was adorable, although I did secretly worry that Kendall would loose interest before he did and break his sweet little heart. But, thank goodness, they have settled into a lovely friendship. A friendship that is partly based on intense scientific discussion.

Get this: Liam and Kendall actually got into a tiff over Pluto's planetary status. Now, is this seriously what the four-year-olds of today discuss when adults aren't around? Kendall was aware that it wasn't a planet, because her mother is more upfront about the fact that all the books are out of date. Liam, with his glossing-over-the-finer-points mother and multiple viewings of a particular Magic School Bus episode, insisted that it was a planet (so sorry honey). And Kendall thought Pluto was made of ice; Liam: rock. Their debate went on for days until we finally looked the damn thing up. It's a dwarf planet made of rock and ice. Everybody happy now? Sheesh.

Another surprising thing: I went out to a knitting group tonight. It's held every Tuesday night at Colorful Yarns, which is so close to our new house it's a bit dangerous, actually. I got to meet some lovely people and see some pretty projects and knit along on that Better Bucket, which I cast on for last night in that super-bright-it-hurts pink-red Malabrigo. It's a great pattern and a quick knit, by the way. If I get any time tomorrow I should finish it and then I'll post a crappy picture (it's one of those shades that refuses to be photographed).

Anyway, I don't think I could pull off going to a knit night every week, but I'll try to work out something regular. It was really fun to say things out loud like Koolhaas and Silky Wool and even Ravelry and have people know what I was talking about (well, Mark does know all about Ravelry).

And finally, meet grumpy Liam. He's not really upset; sometimes I ask him to make a face when I take his picture, he cracks up, and I get a real smile. But I couldn't resist the combo of face and bed head here. Anyway, note the sweater. Its name is Jake and I actually knit it two years ago, but in a monstrous size, for some reason. By some miracle* I pulled it out yesterday and it fits him now. It's very soft and sweatshirty so Liam actually asked to wear it again today. Now ask me if I'm warm and fuzzy about that.

*Knitter Sue started one.