Bootie Call (Subtitle: A Sock Monkey is Having His Way With Me)

For eight frickty frackin days I've knit nary a stitch except for these:



Baby booties. They're for small feet. They're not time killers. They're mindless. Right?

Horse hockey!!!! These booties are a nightmare of endless seed stitch and double layers. They're charming, and they'll be deliciously cute when I'm through with them. I've been hell bent on finishing them. There's a plethora of new babies expected in my corner of the world but as for this little product after 8 days of knitting...well, they may not be finished until the children are in kindergarten!

Today I abandoned the bootie call so that a sock monkey could have his way with me. A friend and I spied this on TV yesterday. I had to make it. All bootie discipline went out the window.

I cast on, I knit, and just an couple of hours later, I have this to show for myself:



I bet it won't take me 8 days to embroidery a nose, eyes and mouth either.

Damn booties!

Eghads!

I've got moths



I've got wool



Cross your fingers that the moth patrol comes through!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

So DH had a birthday last weekend. I surprised him with this:





You know, to try to compensate for my amazing stash of this:





The birthday celebration included steak and cake. I made his favorite cake -- angel food with strawberries.


As any man, now 42 years wiser, would do, he hid the cake in the plastic storage container in the oven out of view of 3 little cake loving boys.


A few days later, as any mother, now 40 years wiser, would do, she preheated the oven to cook meatloaf for her darling brood. She got this:





Yep, 350 degrees completely melted the cake container to the grate:




The melting plastic made little spaghetti-like strands that, to my 3 little boys, looked almost edible but smelled like melted plastic.

Nothing short of a blow torch will remove this pan from the grate.

That's okay, I hadn't even eaten a piece yet which helps me feel quite self-righteous when I say I've lost 2.75 in. in my waist!

Autism Speaks

The band, Five for Fighting, is donating a generous amount of money to Autism Speaks *each time* this video is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. The video is beautifully done…..and educational.

http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

Thanks for supporting these, our beautiful children, who are on the spectrum of Autism:

Knitting then and now

Knitters know that knitting hasn't changed in the big scheme of things. Oh the tools have improved, our techniques have strengthened, but the knit and purl stitches are still the basics of everything knitterly.

I knit my first dishcloth last night. I wanted something small and mindless to knit while I watched a movie, and what else was I to do with all the cotton yarn I have left over from my dad's sweater? I knit a dischloth.

I finished it quickly and it was very mindless. When I was done I realized that it is the identical classic dischloth pattern that my grandmother used when she knit dishcloths for gifts. See? That's mine on the left and her much-loved and used cloth on the right. Knitting doesn't change and, apparently, this pattern will be timeless in our family.



I used mine to remove my makeup last night. I may never knit another DISHcloth again as this was soooo soft on my skin (much softer than my regular washcloths).

I think I'm addicted...

Pi anyone?

So I've had my eye on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl for a while now, but it wasn't until I bumped into someone (a new friend!) on Ravelry that I decided to jump off and do it. She had stumbled upon someone who varied EZ's increases to 4 simple increases EVERY round. I'm knitting EZ's Pi in st st with 4 increases every round (see the pretty increase spirals)!

I also opted out of EZ's start method instead I used a simple join in the round. I like the hole. What can I say! This is such a very addictive pattern to work up. I have a really hard time stopping. I'm also using it to bust through stash. There's a little bit of everything in here.

In other news, I designed my first sweater -- for a dog. This time, I think the recipient dog will be more appreciative than my own yarn-chewing Schnoodle. I knit it top down in one piece, and while it's a very basic dog sweater, I'm very very proud of the fit and the engineering that I did. I don't have any pics of the dog wearing the sweater yet, but here's some of the FO.

I measured the dog's neck, multiplied that by my gauge, cast on, joined in the round, and knit a long turtleneck. Then I made some increases. When I got to the leg holes, I worked the piece flat in two pieces, binding off two stitches for each leg. After the leg holes were the desired length, I joined the two flat pieces and knit in the round a bit longer for the stomach before binding off and working the back flat, ending in 2x2 rib. See?

Back to Pi...

Christmas 'o Christmas

Here I sit, working on my second one-skein project of the day. The first was a hat knit from some old bulky stash -- it's remains are becoming a dog sweater for a dog friend who needs a sweater (no, not my yarn-chewing, unappreciative fluff of Schnoodle).

I'm thinking about Christmas, the boys are overflowing with excitement. Eli has tried to convince me that he can sleep with his eyes open on Christmas Eve despite my telling him that Santa just won't come until everyone is asleep.

Tomorrow we feast - Cuban style. Pork tenderloin, frijoli negros, flancito. The presents are wrapped, Santa is ready, and as I try to reflect a bit on the year behind me and the new year approaching, I can't say anything better or more eloquently than my pal mamacate said it.

In my early 30's we were 5 years into trying to start our family. I relied on angel friends (including mamacate) through those years. On December 18 of this month, I turned 40, and we are now 8 years into parenthood -- a family bursting at the seams with 3 busy boys. A healthy household with more blessings than we can count. May I live intentionally, embrace each moment instead of pushing through it. Celebrate the magic and not-so-magic all around and live it -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- fully and with great intention.

Ditto Cate, ditto!!!