One more before Midnight

I have to squeeze one in before the end of the year. i've been meaning to post for days but haven't taken pictures of my recently finished products. yes, there are new products. many, really.

where I've been...the summer was a blur of morning sickness and a new job. not at all fun. i lost my knitting mojo until about october when a new niece would be born. finishing something for my new little niece jump started my knitting senses and i realized i only had a few months to knit for my own child.

so now that i've settled into pregnancy and am not feeling horrible everyday i've been working away on clothes for the lil' one. pictures to follow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR...for me it truly will be a NEW year...

In Record Time

..at least for me. Maybe there are knitters out there that routinely finish sweaters in just 6 days but this amazed me. I decided, on a whim, that I wanted to make my mom a mother's day gift and that it would be a sweater. I found the pattern on May 1st, bought the yarn and dug in for a weekend of knitting. I finished on May 7th just in time for her arrival (my parents came for graduation). She's seems to like it. I love it and want one of my own.

The yarn is hand painted which made for some variation in the color. Of course I forgot to get a picture of my mom in the sweater, but it looks really nice on her.

Also, I finished up my Hey Teach! but need some buttons and a shower before I model it. This is the first sweater I made for myself that I actually like. I must mention I've only made 2 other items for myself: both vests (both too big and bulky). I now have hope that I can make clothes for myself and others.

Its a great feeling!

Not about Knitting at all...

I found this blog while looking for a home made deodorant recipe. It seems really awesome and I thought you (two who read my blog) would find it intriguing as well...

here it is: Passionate Homemaking...you'll like it, I promise.

And if your wondering, I want home made deodorant for a couple of reasons. I've always kind of (fleetingly) wondered about the effects of putting all those chemicals straight into your armpit could do to you body and now it seems that it can do a lot...breast cancer, Alzheimer's etc. Also, Dan has super sensitive skin and has tried many an alternative to the highly chemicalized deodorants with no luck. I bought him a natural deodorant at Whole Earth that works for stink but not for sweat. The recipe in the blog above has really good reviews so I'm excited to start.

Also interested in her simplifying the bathroom section. Think about how expensive bathroom products are...I know I can spend $12 on a bottle of shampoo which is ridiculous...She seems to have a lot of ideas for homemade everything! Shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, aftershave. All of this equals less waste, less money and NO harmful chemicals.

As you can see, I'm excited about this. Anyway, check out her blog...

A Wonderful Man

Yesterday I woke up to this....Shadowy but you get the idea.

He's great. Need I say more?

As a break from the bobbles, I started a new project on Friday. It is coming along very quickly. I hope it fits!

I really love this colorway. Its called Atlantis. It is very fun to knit with.

The End of an Era

With graduation only 2 weeks away I thought I should take some time and blog, you know, before its all over. After all I did start this blog in order to take some of the stress away from my social work education...and now its almost finished. Which, by the way, is extremely exciting!

I really only have to finish my final practicum hours and write a paper for my elective class. I've presented my research and my committee signed off and told me that I passed! So I am at the end and nervous about the next step. Now the real work starts.

Anyhow, I thought I should make a final and awesome entry as a "student" because in just the blink of an eye I will be back in the realms of those who have "real" jobs. Not that I am ending the blog or anything. I will probably need it more in the next steps of life. Now I have to put all that stuff I was reading and writing into practice, which should prove much more challenging.

As you may have surmised, I haven't been working this semester or rather, I haven't been making any money. This situation has been a bit of a shock to my system, in particular, to the system of my yarn addiction. The system being: I see yarn, I buy yarn. It has forced me to go into the BASKET and find some yarn that I already have.

And what do you know? I have lots of yarn worth knitting and some that was almost completely knit into wearable garments. This first item was going to be finished for my wedding last June. It wasn't. But the main piece has just been sitting in my room for the last year. I decided to pick it up and finish it about a week ago. It was so close to being done I wonder why I didn't just do it last year.

Here is where I left things about a year and a half ago:

The results took me only a few hours to finish. I really like this design. It was my first time doing anything like this so the pattern kind of confused me, just because I wasn't sure of the way it would come together. Well, this is a very simple and easy construction. Basically, knit a rectangle to your measurements, knit some lace border, fold the rectangle in half, sew the edges of the rectangles about half way up and sew the lace border around and put it on.

Well, that might sound complicated but its really not.

The Lacy Hug Me Tight from Knit 2 Together, one of my favorite pattern books.

Some lace detail, my first time with lace. There are a lot of mistakes but its pretty hard to tell.

The next item was a frogged piece from some yarn that Nate and Michelle gave me two Christmases ago. I was trying to knit my first sweater and it was just not working. I think that either I was flawed or the pattern was flawed. I haven't done any further research with this but let's say the pattern was flawed.

I found a pattern that I reaaallllly liked and decided to frog the first sweater and make it into something more interesting. Here is my progress so far:

Here I have the back, left front, and the right front almost finished. This project is making me nervous for a couple of reasons. The first is, it is knitting up so quickly that I think I must be doing something wrong. I started this just 8 days ago and I'm almost done with the main pieces. Second, I don't think I have enough yarn to finish it. Yeah, I know I probably should've made sure I had enough but I just decided to go for it. Third, I can't seem to find this yarn in the U.S. anymore, which I guess isn't that big of a deal but I really like how it is progressing and don't want to wait for any extra yarn to be shipped from London. The end result should look like this. Which is interesting and wearable at the same time just like most of Norah's patterns. She is great.

I was going to keep going and tell you all about our Opening Day Weekend and about all the new plants we bought at the UW Greenhouse but I've lost some steam so I'll leave you with these tidbits:

This isn't my knitting project but I was around during the whole process so I hope you enjoy Dan's Ernie Sweater. Doesn't it look great?

Our first cactus garden. Ouch! The outcome was worth the pain. I can't take credit for the idea of putting 10 cacti together but I can take credit for re-potting this one. It was a very time consuming and delicate process. Definitely worth trying.

Spring...At Least in My House

Spring Break has come and gone, graduation is looming, jobs are being lost and found, my final defense is in 3 weeks! its cold again, and my favorite tv show of all time is bitter sweetly finished.

but...

my house (its really an apartment) is an amazing place to be. i love waking up here and getting ready to face some of those aforementioned things knowing that I will be able to return to its comfort later in the day.

this arrived on the first day of spring. hard to believe something so huge and beautiful came from such a small space.

on the knitting front; another anouk for a very special little girl.

Savin' Daylight...

I almost made my self imposed March deadline. Dan's black socks are on his feet and the last two items on the list are now on the needles. They should be done in the next 2 weeks and sent off to their new owners.

I'm calling this one a cloud blanket for obvious reasons...at least to me. Is it obvious?

And another prayer shawl. I've been putting this one off for awhile but I will finish it soon.

And look what showed up here the other day...

This amaryllis had been dormant for two years. Now all of a sudden it has a stalk. You won't believe what this will look like in a few days. I'll keep you posted.

Spring is coming!

I Know this is a Knitting Blog...

BUT...

I've had a cookie breakthrough! Yes, that's right a cookie breakthrough. You may not have known this but I was a quest for a chocolate chip cookie that did not end up looking like this and I found them and even made them myself. Now I'm sure those cookies actually taste pretty good. In general, I find that cookies taste good no matter what. But I think we all know that they taste so good because of all the butter, sugar and CHOCOLATE that is in them. And, if they look "bad" who cares. Right? Right.

But I still wanted to be able to make cookies that look like they could have been purchased at a sea level bakery. Anyone who lives at this altitude knows that baking is not exactly easy. But this recipe worked.

See!

Not only do they look good; they taste really great, they're not greasy, they're super moist, they have NO BUTTER, they require NO MIXER!, and they only took 45 minutes (from pulling all the ingredients out to shutting off the oven), no kidding.

Here's the link to the recipe I used. And my list of altercations (of course i made altercations!):

I used 1/2 c. whole wheat flour in addition to the 1 1/2 c. flour suggested

I added 1/4 c. plain yogurt (I mixed it in with egg, sugar etc.)

You can add these or not but I do think the yogurt adds to the overall super moistness of any baked item. Just be sure to add more flour (whether it's wheat or not doesn't matter, i just like the taste of wheat flour) if you use the yogurt.

MMM! They are delicious!

and because this is a knitting blog :)...this is my most recent project, almost finished. Do you think it has anything to do with my quest for the perfect CHOCOLATE chip cookie?

Craftivism

That's what we did last Monday night. The CVS at UW hosted a KNIT-IN to benefit one of the elementary schools here in town. The purpose was for knitters and crocheters to make as many scarves, hats, mittens, and other wintry items as possible in 4 hours. I cheated and started ahead of time, as I think many people did.

It was a great event. Every table was full of people knitting or crocheting for a cause. And, apparently many thought it would be a good place to learn to knit or crochet because I ended teaching about 6 people how to knit.

This left little time for me to finish my project,

which I ended up turning in a few days later. Although I did finish Dan's project which was also a beanie that I forgot to photograph...oops!

In other knitting news: I forgot to mention that I finished Dan's slippers (in January, I think). These were on that large list of items I wanted to get done by March.

Side note: I love that my husband knits!

They turned out pretty nice. They fit and all. I think I've finally tweaked that slipper pattern enough to make them work with cheaper yarn than the pattern calls for. And, I guess I was in a hat mood after all that craftivism so I knitted up this little ditty for a co-worker's new baby.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Barely Knitting...Or Anything Else

Famous last words: "I haven't been sick in at least 2 years! Can you believe that?"

This said two days(!) before the worst cold in a decade hit me like a ton of bricks. I even went to a doctor. That is a big deal for me. Okay, well, the real reason I went (get ready to laugh just like my dear husband did) was because I saw a mouse in our garage in October, I think, and wanted to rule out Hantavirus. Yeah, I know. Laugh it up. The doc couldn't do anything, kind of laughed at me, and told me to start a Vitamin D regimen (he was realllllly into Vitamin D).

Today is Day 6 of stated illness and I am at about 60%. I thought I would be 100% by now but I was wrong. Who ever heard of a cold lasting more than 3 days?? This is ridiculous. Thankfully I worked out my practicum schedule so that I have Mondays off "to work on my research." So I am not missing yet another day of work.

The knitting has entirely slowed down. I only finished 2 things over this long period of time on the couch. One of the projects was not on the list but I squeezed it in for a friend's birthday gift.

Blanket #2 of 3. I like the stripes:

And Katie's present:

In other news: my husband is great! he gave me many presents for my birthday, as seen here and most of them had to do with knitting...what a man!

Maybe This is Possible

Two projects down on that list mentioned in the last post.

A wild baby blanket. If you knew the parents you would agree this is perfect for their new daughter.

And a cozy shawl for my Grandmother.

I even started working on that black sock for Dan. What else did I have to do while I sat in the midst of my first 7 hour custody trial? Apparently observing court will be part of my practicum. This is intense stuff and the knitting definitely took off some of the edge.

Did I mention this...

Out with the Old...

This week was my first week not working at the treatment facility in four years. It is a welcomed change. I am currently embarking on a four month hiatus from my job, not necessarily by choice but because it is required for me to receive my master's. I hope to return in June in a new/different position but for now...

I am currently working in the Agriculture Department at UW (yeah, that's right) under the counselor for the department So far, it is quite slow. This is FINE with me. I will also be working, some evenings, with the Drug Court Program here in Laramie. Along with these duties I will be writing my final paper (a non-thesis, thesis. Yes, that's weird)

Part of that non-thesis thesis will be conducting a knitting club with the kids in treatment. I am trying to "prove" (in some ways) that knitting has a positive effect on mood in children with behavioral problems. It should be really fun and hopefully give me the results I want. We'll see.

On the knitting front:

2 baby blankets on the needles, 1 almost finished the other just started.
1 prayer shawl on the needles, almost finished.
1 black sock for Dan, just started and neglected for the past 3 weeks. (one sock is done so...)
1 prayer shawl, still just a ball of yarn
1 baby blanket, yarn not yet purchased (what are some good boy color combos that are not blue or yellow or green???)

1 pair of slippers for Dan...FINISHED! but in need of a hot bath (okay, so not really finished yet)

I really want to finish all of these in the next 3-4 weeks but that may be impossible.

I also am feeling inspired to start designing my own clothes. Yep, crazy. I have barely made any real clothing items so I think I should hold off and maybe use someone else's patterns for awhile.

Here are some of my inspirations, just in case you're wondering:

Norah Gaughan
Kate Gilbert


Both brilliant designers if you ask me...I can't look at their designs without wanting to knit them and wear them.

Happy New Year!

So far, 2009 has been wonderful. I am fortunate enough to be on a break from both school and work and have been trying to soak up every second. Dan and I returned from a great visit to Casper and are enjoying our time off together (something that rarely happens). This time has consisted of staying up very late, sleeping in, watching the various DVD's we gave each other for Christmas (including Old School Sesame Street and the Original Star Trek), and, of course, knitting (both of us actually, yes, my husband is a knitter).

I tried to "not go crazy" on the knitted gifts this Christmas but did end up giving quite a few hand made items as presents. Here are some of the recipients...

I am most proud of the sweater that I made for my Mom. It fits her perfectly and she really likes it!

I was glad to get a good picture of at least one of the two-year-olds wearing their hat and mitten set. I got lucky with this picture of my niece Katherine. And the one of my nephew Cody, well, at least he tried it on for 2 seconds.

I had to show a picture of the two of them together. I think it is a little unusual to have a niece and a nephew from different sides of the family, who are the same age, and who actually know and play with each other. It is a nice blessing for Dan and I.

My 9 month old niece, Alissa, was much more cooperative with the picture taking.

Now my focus has turned to the UFO's (unfinished objects) that I have promised Dan. I almost completely finished the slippers yesterday and then ran out of yarn. I am also almost done with one of his socks. I also started a new baby blanket for a friend (this is one of three that I want to make before the end of March...all 3 of these babies are due within 2 weeks of each other!) I am also working on two prayer shawls, one for a friend and one for my grandmother.

Needless to say, the knitting continues...