Knitting Angel

The Winter of the Toothache

I fear that some of my readers (however few of you there are out there) may have thought that I had stopped blogging. Not so-- it has just been a crazy month. I had some work done on a tooth and there were disastrous side-affects, so I have spent the last three weeks in a haze of pain. Before that, the new semester started and that is an insanely busy time for those of us in academia, so I feel like I have been buried under work and a toothache. Unpleasant, you know?

I have done a little bit of knitting in the last month. I made these fingerless mitts from sock yarn I had sitting around (Anni's sock yarn, I think). The pattern is in Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. And it is the "Woven" Fingerless Gloves. Perfect for a Texas winter, which lasts all of one month, but actually I finished them in time for a cold snap that kept us below freezing with windchills of about 10 F. Yes, that would be 10 F in South Texas. Really, really cold by our standards.

Fingerless mitts rock not only for places that tend towards warm, but also for driving the car, walking the dog and doing other tasks when it is really, really cold. wearing these, I can still grip the steering wheel easily and keep my hands warm in a very cold car (at least until the heater gets going.)

As to what I am knitting right now, well it is a purple hippo. (No joke) A toy for another friend who is having a baby. There isn't much to see as all the pieces are knitted flat and then seamed, but I am working away on the hippo. It is a lot of easy knitting at the moment

As to my cross-stitch, I have started a new project called "The Village of Hawk Run Hollow." It has 12 panels and I was hoping to get one done a month this year but I am already behind. I don't even have half of one done.

Way behind, eh? The fabric cover over the q-snaps was made for me by my friend L. When you are working on a big project (as this one is) a lot of it hangs out from the edges of the Q-snap frames if you prefer to work with a smaller frame like I do (that is an 11 x 11). So the beauty of the Q-snap cover is that you can tuck all the excess fabric into the fabric cover to keep it from getting dirty and snagged. At first I didn't really get the idea behind a Q-snap cover but now I wouldn't work without one, it makes life easier.

Finally, I didn't need to do this, but I did. I bought a new needlepoint project.

I saw it hanging on the wall at my LYS (which is also a needlepoint shop) and for two weeks I could not get it out of my mind. I kept thinking about that camping cat. So finally I broke down and bought it and I have been looking up the stitches I want to use- I am going to try a few new ones, and I am super excited about the project. The finishing of needlepoint canvasses escapes me so I have no idea what it will become when done (maybe a pillow?) but still, I really just want to work on it.

That's it for now folks. I hope to be posting more often from here on out. I have a root canal on Tuesday to fix the tooth. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

The Holidays came and went.

I flew to LA to visit my family for ten days.

There I found my dad's "panther" Lisa pretending she's a Christmas present.

I cooked and visited and cooked some more with family.

I knit a bit- two cowls to be exact. I only have a picture of the first cowl (modeled by Mr Tiger- It was a Christmas gift.) The second cowl was made ina  rusty red color, also as a gift. That cowl saved me as my layover stretched from 1 hour to 4 because of a problem with the plane. Instead of freaking out I just knit nervously. There's nothing like bulky weight wool to make life better when anxious. Pattern: Encompass (Yarn Harlot)- yarn, Cascade Eco Wool + held double so that the cowls would be be impenetrable to cold northern winds (the cowls were going to friends in Minnesota and Upstate NY respectively.)

You can't see the stitch patterns but the cowls are heavy, warm, and were a satisfying knit.

I did almost no stitching while home. But I did start a new cross stitch pattern today (with the new year) There is little to show other than a brown stitched in corner, so I won't be showing that right now.

Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone and I hope that you all had a merry holiday season!

 

Black and white birds!!!!

Just a quick post- have been busy with end of the semester stuff, but I have a few finished pieces to show you.

First this is "Ready for Santa" by Plum Pudding Needlearts- stitched on a sparkly 14 cout Aida with DMC threads.

Those penguins are ready to decorate!!! I have to finish them before I leave because they will be a gift for my mom this Christmas.

Secondly, my puffin ornament has been finished.

My friend L took him home and finished him. He looks great (the back is actually puffin fabric too)

Love the oversized ice-skates!!!!! But the puffin is ready to jingle for this Christmas!

Anyway, soon I will be embarking on a large project and I have started a pair of socks and I learned a new cast-on for socks that is awesome (Estonian and learned from Nancy Bush on You Tube)

Anyway more coming soon- including a finished Father Christmas!!!

 

Black Friday

I think that the hardest thing about being single and on your own is the whole on your own part. I have lived alone for years now- about 8 to be exact. Before that there were always roommates or a boyfriend, or in a dorm, but never truely alone. And I guess I am not really alone now, since I sit here on my sofa with Milo next to me and Chloe at my feet. But I would be remiss if I did not say that I am often lonely. Especially during the holidays when there are families bustling off everywhere in their vans and kids running around. Most women my age have a kid or two, so it can be hard to watch them running around. I would like to have a sticky, smily face that looks up to me and mirrors my own. Sometimes I wonder what I did wrong  so that I ended up alone, without kids or husband.

Then I banish those thoughts. They come, and I try hard to just let them go by- Go away bad thoughts! I think the holiday season is often that way- it makes you gloomy. And then there are those stupid, drippy movies on TV and the commercials emploring  us to buy, buy, buy.  So when all these thoughts come rolling through my head I instead focus on being grateful. Grateful that I have a job, plenty to eat, and a roof over my head.  That I have students who make me laugh as often as they make me groan over a poorly constructed sentence. My little apartment might be super-small, but it is a home and it is mine. My car, while new, is not anyone's idea of grand (it is a Honda Civic) but it gets me where I need to go,  is super-economical, and a pretty shade of red.  My student loan burden may be large, but hey, I can make the payments. I have Milo and Chloe, who pile into bed with me on chilly nights, and a family that loves me, even if they are a few states away.  And friends. I have many good friends, and have been making new ones.  So today when I was feeling super-sad and upset that I am still "alone" I sat down to a big bowl of beef stew, crusty bread and a glass of red wine and gave thanks for the fact that I have all this food and the ability to take care of myself. There is much to be thankful for.

There. Feeling better already. Yesterday, while I was  baking my pie to take to a friend's house for the Thanksgiving meal, I went shopping online. In an hour, and for a little over $100, I had bought  gifts for my whole family (mainly clothing- and I got some jaw dropping deals). I tend to not spend a lot on gifts because just getting home and kenneling the pets costs me an obscene amount of money for Christmas, but I try to buy useful, practical things for the male family members and books for my mom.

And for myself- well for myself I went out to my LYS and hit their Black Friday sale. Came home with this:

I found the Cookie A book to be super inspiring. And I have been eyeing that sport-weight BFL from Abstract Fibers for a long time- it is almost 400 yards to a skein! Finally I just caved. I will find something for it, but really I just want to sit and pet it, it is so soft.

I now have more papers from my students to grade- I guess one really is never truely alone when you have 70 "kids" to deal with.  So I guess I better get cracking.

That time of year

The semester is over and yet it isn't over. We are entering the busiest time of year in terms of grading, writing recommendations for students, and getting ready for the holidays and all I can do is marvel at how fast it goes. Something about the fall semester--it is over before you realize it. I have lots of grading for this week and I am not going anywhere for Thanksgiving (aside for a friend's house for the meal)  so I will have a lot of time to work. I can actually say that I am looking forward to it.

So knitting. Not been happening lately. At all, and I am debating selling off my sweater stock of yarn. I have come to favor small projects, and I keep thinking that I should sell off my sweater yarn but I keep resisting, because in a year I might actually want to knit sweaters again. I don't know.

But I am back to trying to finish small UFOS. I straightened up the yarn corner in my living room the other day and found once such UFO (and it made no sense at all as to why I have not finished it). So I took it up and worked on it.

It is the famous Tulip baby sweater. I don't remember whose baby I had planned it for, but I bought it when I lived in Ohio so it was a while back.  Anyway, I put on the applied i-cord edging around the border and finished one arm. I now aim to finish the other arm and the neck soon. It was a satisfying knit for an evening.

Now that I have finished my puffin, I am working on my final  Christmas cross-stitch project. After I complete this I will embark on a large-scale alphabet sampler (my first big project.) Keeping in my love for white and black birds, its a little Christmas piece with penguins.

This is the first penguin of  three (and I still have to get his hat stitched on him.) All three have different Christmas decorations and it is a cute little piece that I hope to be able to complete and finish soon for my mom, as her Christmas gift.  (Stitching white on white is hard by the way- all the penguin belly made me go blind.)

Next to the my Q-snaps as you can see is a little pincushion with a scissor holder. A cross-stitch friend gave it to me and I love it. Its great to have some place to put your scissors while you work. A lot of the cross-stitch ladies are real scissor freaks. The scissors thing is not my thing. I got this sturdy but plain set from a needlepoint shop and I love them. The are sharp, they do their job and they are small enough that they can go on planes with me. 'Nuff said.

The big project I am  starting needs an insane amount of overdyes. I have chosen to buy five a week (about $10 worth) to spread out the economic pain, because it will be expensive since I have no stash of overdyes. I got the fabric for it this weekend (a 32 count linen) and have about half the overdyes bought. I am also thinking of joining a stitch-a-long with some of the ladies in my group on another project- that project calls for silks. Luckily it is done in blocks so I am debating buying the silks as I go.... because that one... well that one will cost a pretty penny because of all the silks needed.

Anyway that is it for now. I hope to have penguin progress to show you later this week.

 

almost finished puffin

Today I went up to the cross-stitch shop and finished up the Puffin. He looks Puffin-tastic as far as I am concerned. The pattern calls for a pair of over-sized ice skates for him, and I got the buttons a few weeks ago. Now I have to decide how I am going to finish him (he is supposed to be a Christmas ornament, and one of my friends at the shop, L the Air Force wife said that she would show me how to finish it into an ornament properly)-- I have to decide if I want to make him into a pillow or a flat ornament. Anyway I love the ridiculous ice-skates.

Another woman at the shop commented that they look as if he stole them from his big brother. I agree, but I think the oversized aspect makes them super-fun.  The sparkly fabic also helps to make him look super festive, but I have to say, sometimes it was hard to see where the stitches were supposed to go because of the sparkle.

Pattern: Just Cross-Stitch Ornaments Issue 2010, Threads are DMC and fabric is 18 count evenweave with sparkle.

Now I have to work on a small project with penguins that will be my mom's Christmas gift. Yeah there is something going on with the black and white birds over here.

 

Nothing says lovin' like a puffin in the oven

I have no idea what the above phrase means, but it was pronounced by one of the ladies at my Saturday morning cross-stitch group.... when she spouted it off we all laughed really hard.

This puffin will not be going into any oven- it will become a Christmas ornament for my tree, so I need to finish it up soon. I made good progress on Saturday, finishing up his belly and legs.

So at the moment it is a headless puffin. Soon, I hope he will have a head so I can move on to my final Christmas project.

After my other Christmas project I plan to start a large project. I recently acquired the "Alphabet Block Sampler" from Carriage House Samplings and I plan for it to be my big project for the start of the year. It required a mess of different threads in overdyes, none of which I have, and they will be expensive to aquire... so I am buying $10 worth of threads a week in order to make the blow on the wallet seem a bit less harsh.

Yeah, its gonna be intense to take on a cross-stitch project of this size, but I am looking forward to it! I think it is going to be fun. If all goes well after this big project I hope to do one of the other two big ones in silks. Yeah silks. I think I have gone over the edge on my new cross-stitch obsession.

My mom wants me to do the Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow, and that is the one that I am leaning towards, but my goodness, silks!!! Maybe I am crazy and I will never get through the ABC blocks, but I really want to make these, because I dunno, there is just something so inherantly badass about taking on a big project in silks....

Anyway, knitting on the blanket continues- there is not enough of a difference from my last photo to show yet. Besides the cross-stich group I spent a good part of the weekend outside because it was a glorious fall weekend, all sunny and sparkly. Chloe joined me outside with her rawhide and had a blast.

That is a happy dog!!!!! There is nothing like a rawhide on a gorgeous day!

Autumn finally showed up

In deep South Texas there are no seasons (so it seems). This morning it was still balmy, but by my 9:30 class I could feel the wind cut through my blazer as I hustled to the science building (just happens to be where I teach despite the fact that I am not and will never be a scientist). By the time I left around 5pm, it was just plain chilly and blustery.

Of course it will not stay this way- the warmth will come back and battle with the cool and that is pretty much what a South Texas winter is. None of the definate snow of an Oberlin winter, not even the gloomy clouds and biting wind of a North Carolina winter.... no just the occasional chill and many pleasant days. I hope to buy a house in a few years, and all my Northern friends are urging me to do so--they want to come and camp in my  guest bedroom during the winter months, and since I live in a small apartment at the moment, it is not possible right now.

Anyway October was insane. New car, my computer died, travelled to Atlanta and back, midterms to grade and a new president inagurated at the university where I teach all adds up to too much to do. November is no better in some regards- my weekends are already booked (the holiday party season seems in full tilt)- alas, very little knitting. I have started a baby blanket- "Op-Art" from Knitty is the pattern.

It is insanely easy once you get through the fuss that is the beginning- it is great sitting and knitting material and requires just enough attention that one cannot get entirely bored. It is yet another baby article, which I seem to be making a lot of these days.

Besides knitting I am working on another cross-stitched ornament. It is an ice-skating Puffin. So far, you cannot see much.

I am working on the bottom half of the Puffin. It is a bit of a hard stitch in the sene that it is 24 count over one and sometimes I have trouble seeing the stitches. But I need to get this Puffin done so I can turn him into an ornament for Christmas, along with the St. Nick that I stitched earlier this fall, and also, because I have another project I want to get done by Christmas.

Also, a few weeks ago I had an incident at the yarn shop.

I loved the colors and since they were limited edition I snatched them all up at once. Not sure what they will be (the most colorful, yellow, green and blue will be socks- I found a pattern but the other two may end up being shawls or scarves) but I had a rare moment of just falling down hard for sock yarn.

Not that I do not have enough yarn. And now that I have taken up cross-stitch I am trying to curb my buying because this new obsession is sucking up lots of time too. Once Christmas is past I plan to work on a big cross-stitch project, I have an idea for one but am unsure if I can tackle it or now. We shall see if I get any more confident in my stitching abilities.

Enough for now, I should be able to post more often now that the dread month of October is past.

Bye Bertha

Last week Bertha the ancient and wizened Mazda began to make an ominious clunking sound. More like a death rattle actually. I kept hoping it would go away but it became clear that something was very wrong with the car....

To repair the broken axle and the steering rod and pinon would have cost well over  a thousand. And I had already poured $700 into the car last month. I realized that this was it. Although I didn't have as much money saved as I would have liked I drove poor clunking Bertha for the last time, to a Honda dealer.

Six hours later I came out with a new Honda Civic in a deep red. It is my first new car (as Bertha was my first car and was used)  her name is a Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. She is small and zippy and sporty, she doesn't clunk when driven. When I get on the highway she actually goes when I step on the gas pedal. She easily drives in a straight line. She smells good and is pretty.

When the dealer took Bertha away (I traded her in) I cried. And cried. My old car, now gone. I had traded her in for a newer, flashier model. I felt a bit like a traitor and I have to admit I felt bad for giving up on old Bertie. But I had to-- she was draining too much money from my savings.

Bye Bertha

I hate the thought that she is probably being recycled for parts, but she is too old to be re-sold so that is likely.

Sadface.

Meanwhile this week my computer died. My macbook bit the big one and it appears to be unrepairable... it is the motherboard and even when they get you a new one I find that the repairs are expensive and leave the machine inherantly unstable. I will get a new computer instead. Right now I have to use my work computer for everything, which is okay, at least I have a computer. Because I bought a new car I will likely not get another macbook (don't have the money). Instead I am looking at getting a netbook or ultralight (like a netbook but technically a laptop but lighter and with less power than a typical laptop) for home since I don't need a powerful machine at home anymore (since I have the work computer).

Knitting has been almost nonexistant the last few weeks. I have worked a bit on a Halloween cross-stitch

I still have to do the border. I hope I can have it done before Halloween and manage to get it framed. My next cross-stitch project is a Thanksgiving one so I need to get cranking.

I have entered that busy time of year- grading midterms and conference-travel.... things are a bit crazy to put it mildly that it why I have posted lately. But I hope to have more posts soon!

Pig in a sweater

Over the past week I churned out another small FO.

I knit the "Five Hour Baby Sweater" on size 8 needles out of Plymouth Encore yarn. Used about 1.5 balls- it is in a melon color (orange, but not a true orange)

The sweater is being modeled by Porkchop, who is obviously too small for it. I'm not sure exactly what size the sweater is, but certainly not newborn. My guess it that it is around one year old size. Anyway, lots of babies are in the pipeline so to speak (I have three pregnant friends and a few others who hope to be soon) so I am just setting this aside for the moment until I decide who it goes to.

And now with the little sweater done I am stuck, again, without a real project to work on. It remains hot enough that getting back to the Kauni seems to be a bad idea (I love how all these other knitters are talking about "fall weather" on their blogs where they get to wear cozy stuff and there is a bite in the air. In south Texas "fall weather" means that it is 90 and not 100 out. It won't get cool until November-and it never gets truly cold  here.)  I could start another sock, but I am a bit tired of socks. Yet, I am a bit reluctant to start a shawl (still sore about all the bad shawl karma I seem to have). Don't want to knit another baby sweater (I could.) Maybe I should work on a blanket block? A toy? I dunno- I seem to have run out of ideas, although I most certainly have not run out of yarn... what should I knit?