Look what Scout and I did today!!! We played with yarn and dye and ooooh, it was fun. However, we are both totally type-A and ended up doing it in between a workout at the gym(her), ordering a couch(me) and going for a run(me), and taking our two girlies to gymnastics (both of us, though in separate legs in order to accomplish various stages of dying, microwaving, etc.)
And, because this is NM, I managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders while we were at it!!
Oh, click the picture for more pictures. We're calling it "strange little scout". ;)

First of all, let's please note that it is February 27, and I am wearing pink capris, a black short-sleeve tee and sandals, because it is 70 degrees. Sorry 'bout that, Seattle. I'll stop gloating now.

Look what I got today!!

It was the very last One Skein at our LYS! I have been coveting it like crazy and I was very happy to snag the last one. I can't say what the lone skein of yarn is for, but it will be used in May for Project Spectrum.

Here's one project I will absolutely be doing from this book:

And there are so many more. Get yer paws on this book as soon as you are able! It rocks.

My freaky kitten, Rocko, just ate a HUGE piece of spicy baked tofu. First of all, it was spicy enough that my lips are burning. Second of all, a cat, the ultimate carnivore, eating a huge hunk o' tofu??!! I knew he was a total weirdo.

As for my medal count, I think I'll grant myself a gold for Pirates since I finished it more than a week early AND it was a successful first attempt at fair-isle. As for the sisters' gifties, they are not done, but I am making good headway. No medals, but I think a blue ribbon or two may be in order. I'm pretty sure they'll be done by the goal timeline, the first week of March.
Speaking of the beginning of March, Trader Joe's opens here in Albuquerque on March 10!!! w00t!!! Other than family and friends, TJs is the only thing I have misssed about Seattle.

I just want to note that it is February 24 and today was gorgeous and in the mid-60s. Look at the forecast!!
I was on my way home from a quick errand this evening and to my west was a gorgeous sunset, while directly to my east the Sandia Mountains were basking in the sun's glow and suddenly all was right with my little world. I worked this morning, and even had a really rough day, but when it was over, I picked up my girl & had to practically wrassle her out of the arms of her very loving preschool teacher, then stopped by Village Wools to deliver a forgotten stuffy friend of Scout's Supergirl, ran into Cari and Noelle with whom I chatted for a long while and it all adds up to a pretty cool new life for us here.
Beautiful turquoise skies, pretty mountains, an almost-finished house of my dreams, and cool girlfriends. How could I not love it here?

What is it about sock yarn that is so addictive???!!
I am NOT joining the Rockin' Sock Club, at least not until after we close on our house! However, I did find the perfect yarn for my Sockapalooza pal's Peak Experience Socks. Look at all those mesa/desert/pueblo colors! Plus the lovely blue, just like the sky here and the hints of green brush that dot the high desert terrain. Perfect! It's from the lovely Brooklyn Handspun.
And now, would you feast your eyes on this gorgeousness??

(The picture is a clickable link to the shop.)
Luckily, for me, it's out of stock!!

Also, if you're a Lorna's Laces fan, lots of gorgeous colorways of Shepherd Sock are on sale at Little Knits!

By the way, if you want to be impressed, take a gander at Margene's Sock Stash!

omg, how much do I hate Celine Dion? Can't she go back into hiding?
Want to know something else I hate?
Adults who wear character clothing.

It turns out Carole was right. The Vesper "strange little mama" stripes beautifully, which means I think it's actually better-suited to Peak Experience. I'm going to save them for March, when I can work on them for Project Spectrum, since they will feature plenty of pink & red.
I need to get down to business on the sisters' gifts. I want them done & mailed before the end of February! Yikes, wait, that means in six days! Ok, within the first week of March!

Tell me a couple of your random pet peeves!

Dublin Bay wins! I cast on and so far, the way the SLM is striping is awesome.

Also, I stopped by my under-construction house to take the "from the front door" picture, but there's a massive pile of dirt obscuring the door. So, I took one from the end of the sidewalk. Keep in mind this is a brand-new subdivision with plenty of construction still going on, so take the PortaPotty with a grain of salt. Or air freshener. Oh! It's painted now, too!
As always, click for bigger views.


A couple more shots of the house. They didn't paint the garage door yet, but it will match the house.


Isn't she beautiful??!!

Ahhhhhh, a little exercise can really make life's little nuisances fade away. I'm all sweaty and I'm glad.

However! Two things that are frustrating me: one, a ways back, I bought (HELEN, do NOT click the link!!!) a top-secret pattern to knit for my sister and I planned to cast on for it tonight, but it turns out I downloaded it onto my old computer and I've lost my print-out. So now it looks like I am going to have to re-buy it. I know, it's only $4.50, but it's irritating, nonetheless.
Also, and this is just a wee bit whiney, but I have finally given up on ever receiving my third Secret Pal Six package. My SP was in touch a couple months ago & said it was soon on its way, but it either never made it here or got intercepted or something.

Scout tagged me with the front-door picture meme, but I'm going to go over to my new house and do it from there, since I doubt you want to see my apartment neighbors front door mat, which by the way, has ladybugs and a fanciful, cursive "Welcome" emblazoned on it.

Oh! I need to have a little poll!
I'm trying to decide between two patterns for my beautiful strange little mama yarn from Ms. Vesper.

I was all set on Peak Experience, which I'm also knitting for Sockapalooza, but then I saw Beth's Dublin Bay socks. What's a girl to do??
(ahem... apparently evil imbedded Blogger doesn't like my javascript poll, so just comment instead, ok?!)

Also, thank you to Carrie who clued me in as to why my blog looked so effed up in IE!!! I think it's all good now, but if you are an IE user, please let me know. I use Firefox, but I tested it on my laptop in IE and it's all better on my end.

Ok, have a lovely day one & all!!

I am so annoyed. At some point, I tweaked something, don't ask me what, and now IE users don't see my sidebar-- instead it winds up at the bottom of all my posts! Stupid Microsoft! Stupid me! Stupid imbedded blogger!
I'll be changing to WordPress soon, and when that holy day arrives, this should be a lot more manageable. Until then, can some lovely web goddess peek at my source and tell me if there's an easy fix for IE problem?
Thanks!!!!

Mmmmm, life's good. Kids are in bed, I'm watching my boyfriend on the Olympics, I'm making good progress on my phase 2 Olympic Knitting project, and I'm drinking hot cinnamon tea.
Oh, and I don't have to work tomorrow.

By the way, if you're curious about my knitting history at all, I've added links in the sidebar to galleries from 2003-4 (I started knitting mid-November of 2003, so I didn't get much done before 2004) and 2005.

Q: What kind of socks do pirates prefer?
A: ARRRRRRgyle!

No, I did not knit a pair of argyle socks. I did, however, finish my "Pirates" hat.
Avast ye!



This was my Knitting Olympics project-- baby's first fair-isle. Welll, it was a lot easier than I anticipated, so I finished rather early. My next Olympian feat? Finishing the sisters' long-awaited secret pressies!

Here's a closer view of my cute pink skullies.

The deets:
Pattern:We Call Them Pirates from Hello Yarn
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, one skein each of #300 & #103
Needles: Addi Turbo 16" US3s and Bryspun Flexible US3 DPNs (hated them)
Modifications: Since I was using such a soft, lovely yarn, I skipped the lining and instead knit a few rows k2p3 ribbing at the beginning. In retrospect, I should have done a couple more rows, as it has a tendency to curl up a little on the sides. I may eventually pull that back and redo the ribbing, but I'm happy enough with it for now.

We are not so Valentine-y chez moi, but given the fact that we have a seven and four-year old, we play along to a certain extent. So yes, we are all wearing red and/ or pink today. Buncha dorks.


Can you feel the love?

I'm making decent progress on Pirates-- almost to the halfway point. I was being all cute with this picture, because the hat totally matches my blog, but the flash washed out the pink & the pirates look white, so use your imagination.

oh. my. god. This is hilarious. The content is funny enough, but the title truly makes it grade A+ comedy.
Beutiful art made with kintting. Apparently when you make really gory stuff with yarn and two needles, it's no longer knitting, it's KINTTING.

Does it make me a bad mother that this one makes laugh so hard? See what happens when you run with scissors??!!!
Courtesy of Cari.

FO!!!







Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalker
Yarn: Lorna's Laces "Jungle Stripe"
Needles: For the first sock, I used Clover bamboo DPNs, size 1, but the tips split on me. I switched to Crystal Palace bamboo, which are shorter and much smoother, but I still warped one of them.Am I just really hard on DPNs for some reason??
Started: 01/18/2006/Finished: 02/12/2006
Notes: Not bad for my first socks!! I like this pattern a lot-- it was very easy to memorize the stitch pattern. For some reason, the second sock gave me more trouble than the first one and I made dumb mistakes and learned that trying to rip a patterned sock back is no good at all. No giving up here, though!

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Excuse me, I'm just having a parenting primal scream.
So, as you know, T is out of town visiting his terminally ill grandma, and I worked 8 (9) days straight to make that possible. It was hard and I whined, but it was worth it for him to be able to make that trip.
However.
I was desperately looking forward to Monday, when Silas would be in school and Viv would be at preschool for a few hours and I was going to get some highly-coveted time to myself. Well, hidey-ho, I guess the gods of childhood illness decided that it would be far too glam and comfy for me to get a freaking DAY OFF from anything, because Viv started coughing, croup-style, in the night and has a sore throat so bad it makes her cry when she coughs or sneezes.
So much for today's possible adventures. I guess it will be all about Kleenex, cartoons, Triaminic and knitting. At least I will probably finish my sock.

So far so good on the Olympic Knitting. Fair-isle is easier than I thought! I was so scared of that chart! I know it gets a lot more complex than this, but I think this is a good introduction.
Here's proof that I am knitting and watching.

It looks like Bode Miller is skiing down my hat!
Also, you know I must really love y'all to be willing to post such a tired, no-make-up picture on here. I'll try to pretty it up a bit next time I take a picture of my progress.

Just in case you are wondering about Jaywalker, here ya go:


Also, I have chosen the sock pattern for sockapalooza! Scout brought me home a few patterns from Village Wools, and from them, I've decided on Fiber Trends Peak Experience. I wanted something that makes my recipient get a feel for the landscape here. I'm looking at a bunch of yarns-- I want something with golds and reds with just a touch of brilliant sky blue, again, trying to create a feel of the colors here in New Mexico. Anyone know of something like that? Here are a few I've considered, but none is quite right.

I'm sure you think you have seen cute. But have you ever seen anything this cute???


(click to see up close & personal)

Those little "best buds" would be scout's girl and my girl, who love each other soooooo much. They are way too freakin' cute together.

And we're on the subject of lovely things, check out the mountains at sunset a few nights ago.

whoa, huh?

I've decided my game plan for the Knitting Olympics. I will cast on the pirate hat tonight while watching opening ceremonies, but since I am not yet done with my jaywalkers, I will work on them during the days until they are done, which should be Sunday sometime.
I made it through the 8.5 days of hell, errrr... I mean, work, and now I am off for four glorious days!!

Oh yeah, I am so making this.


From the anti-craft. I wonder what to do it on though. A bag? Maybe even a simple roll-neck sweater. Not a lot of places it would be appropriate to wear, but who cares? thanks for the heads-up, scout!

By the way, it was 66 degrees here today. [insert evil laugh here]

The following just went down in my house in the last five minutes:


Courtesy of Miss Vivienne.

Then, maybe two minutes later, my 7-year-old boy was dancing around with superballs down his shirt singing "don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?". Trust me, he didn't learn that song from me! Right, Scout??

I totally scored a perfect medium-sized knitting bag yesterday. I already had a gorgeous custom-made large one, for big projects or extra yarn stash, and I usually use my booga for teeny ones, but I was on the hunt for one that was roomy enough for extras, but would carry a small to medium-sized project. I stumbled on the perfect solution yesterday at tj maxx.
Firstly, love the pattern:

Second, look at how roomy and with three pockets inside:

Now, the best part, a side-zip pocket:


It's made by these lovely geniuses and it's even got some wacky text inside that makes me laugh.


That would be "there's a bit of ding-dong going on next door". I don't know if I'm just skewed, but that sounds naughty to me. And guess how much? Urban Outfitters sells them for $34. I paid $9. That's right, nine clams for a damn-near perfect bag. I'm just sayin'.

Also, check out this gorgeous fabric:


Ms. Beverly has offered to re-teach me to sew, so I am going to make Vivienne a little skirt. I can't wait to be able to sew again! I'll have to buy a sewing machine. Damn.

This is just a test post to see if my site feed is working. I've been having problems since Saturday. Please say "hi" if you see this, especially is you got here via Bloglines or LJ.

Is blogger behaving yet? I posted this socky diatribe yesterday and I know it never showed up in Bloglines and I couldn't access anyone's blogspot blogs yesterday. I can't wait to get rid of this imbedded blogger business. I like my site's look, but it's been a pain in the ass getting it to this point and there are still unresolved issues.

We went to a SuperBowl party at T's boss's house today. I held out until the second half before I pulled out my knitting. It just seemed like it would be weird of me before that point. Needless to say, I didn't get a ton done.

I am working eight days in a row. I've put in three of the eight so far. I'm doing it so T can go to Fargo and see his grandma for a few days, which also means I'll be on my own with two kids for five days. Anyone want to come over for drinks after bedtime?

I've been thinking hard on sockapalooza. My giftee seems to be a very experienced knitter, socks included. This will be my second pair of socks, and while I most certainly want them to be impressive, I don't want to give myself undue stress either. I'm so tempted to knit "Friday Harbor" as an homage to my origins (Puget Sound) and perhaps in a yarn like Lost Trail, Sierra or Indian Corn all of which remind me of my current landscape. I think they would be mighty beautiful socks. However, I don't know if all that charting just might kill me. I guess I'll get through Pirates first and see how well I manage that chart.

I'll be joining sweet Lolly's Project Spectrum, too. It sounds fun and with my new house coming up soon, I need to flex my craft muscles anyway.

edited to add a bunch o' stuff since stooooooopid blogger is all messed up!

I'm thinking this beaded sock pattern could be very cool! Hmmmm. Must think about this.

I was unable to knit tonight since I left my bag at work and this freaking FIVE-year-old I work with thought it would be hilarious to hide it. I went back there to try to get it and it was nowhere to be found. I had a feeling she was responsible since she's obviously such a beacon of maturity, so I called her & left a message. She finally called me back about 1/2 hour ago, so there went an entire afternoon and evening of knitting time. Can you tell I'm a little cranky about this?

It's a stellar afternoon here for two reasons!

1) We have stucco! For some reason, this makes my house feel real.


2) Julia sent me my very own "strange little mama"! Whoever snapped up that extra hank totally scored! It's gorgeous!


Now, if I can get some headway on my second Jaywalker this evening (havng ripped it out twice now), I will have had an almost-perfect day!

I thought I'd share a few pictures here, since I've merged my journal & blog and many of you haven't seen much of my life.
Firstly, for those who don't know, we moved to Albuquerque from Seattle about five months ago. This is a huge change for us. I had wanted to move for years and never thought I could convince my husband. But here we are! And I love this place so much, it's ridiculous. It's very windy and rather cloudy today and there are tumbleweeds flying around like crazy and I LOVE them!
Ok, so we are having a house built. Here are some pictures of its progress, but those are a little outdated. The drywall is now up & I believe they are about to start the stucco.

And here are some pictures of my kiddos on a hike with T one saturday afternoon. You can see why I am in love with this place, can't you?
Oh, it's best to click on "view these pictures as a slideshow"-- you see larger pictures that way.

I'm off to pick up Silas & we are going to swing by the house to see if they've started the stucco!