Tears of a Clown

More bad news arrived on Monday morning. My grandmother on my father's side passed away. I drove to my Dad's house in Alabama to help him and my step-mom drive the rest of the way to Wabash, IN. My Dad can't drive because of his accident in July. I'm now in Indiana with family. The viewing is today and the funeral tomorrow and then comes the long drive back. I wish there was more that I could do to help my Dad and his brother's and my step-grandfather. It's also very weird to be attending a funeral on my 30th birthday but these things aren't planned and we deal with what we are given. Knitting as usual helps keeps my hands occupied and maintains my sanity. Please keep my family in your thoughts today and tomorrow.

The Raven Paradox

While trying to come up with a title for this post I googled "green ravens" and discovered this very interesting wiki page about the Raven Paradox. Well, maybe it's only interesting if you're really bored but all I could think about while reading it was how Blue Moon has proved that not all Ravens are black. Like the case of Ravenscroft, the shades of green are very lovely and worked out quite well for my Mr. Greenjeans.

I love this pattern and I love this yarn! This was one of the best knits ever and I can't believe how fast I finished it! I made the size Large using size 8 and 7 knit picks option needles. I made the stockinette portion of the sleeves about 2 inches longer than called for so that the sleeves are full length rather than 3/4 length. I also knit the sleeves at the same time using the magic loop method. I lightly steam blocked it after finishing to open up the rib and cabled area and get everything even and laying nice and flat. I did manage to complete it with 3 skeins of the heavyweight yarn but barely, you can see how little I had left.

I haven't found a button that I like yet. For the pictures it's being held shut with a shawl pin that I have. When I find the right button I'll know it and I'll take another picture. It's pouring down the rain today so no outside pics. But that's our brand new door behind me to replace the one that the burglar messed up! We plan to finish the trim and painting this weekend.

You may also be able to tell in these pics that I've lost a little more weight. My total weight loss for '07 was 45 pounds! I feel so much better and my goal is to lose 45 more this year.

I hope everyone is having a good day. I keep giving my sweater (and me since I'm wearing it) little hugs all day because I love it!

Thanks for playing

Thank you everyone for voting for me! I did not win unfortunately. Congratulations to Rebecca, the January Knit Girl. I've never been very good at winning the popularity contests. I was never on student council in high school even though I ran many times. I always seem to come in second. Oh well. I have the oppurtunity to try again next month but I don't know, once you lose, you feel pretty defeated and who wants to go through that twice?

There is still a winner here though! And by random drawing that winner is blogless ikkinlala (a.k.a. NicoleS on Ravelry). What did she win? This beautiful skein of Socks that Rock lightweight in the Spinel color! Congrats!

Vote for Me!

Ok, 2 posts in one day, I know it's unprecedented! I just found out that I'm in the running for January Knit Girl. So, if you have time, please, vote for me! Voting runs until January 6th so send over all your friends too. If you vote and leave me a comment here that you did so I'll select a winner at random for some fibery goodness! And if you ask people to vote for me on your blog or link back to here on your blog I'll put your name in twice!

Happy New Year!

So much has happened since my last post that I'm not even sure where to start! Ok, knitting first. I finished all my Christmas knitting on time. Twelve hats and/or headbands and a pair of fingerless gloves. Here are all the hats together and the gloves. Then a few of the hats on their intended recipients. I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone wearing their hats but they were all well received and no major fit problems. All the hats were made with Rowan Cashsoft DK. The hats were all my own patterns and the headbands were either the Panta or the Calorimetry pattern. I had read about issues with the cast on numbers with the Calorimetry and cast on only 80 or 90 (made one with each cast on number) stitches instead of the 120 called for and it worked out great. If anybody is interested in seeing the patterns for any of the patterns for hats worked up just let me know. The fingerless gloves were the dashing pattern that I took a few rows out of the cuff portion so they weren't as long. This was a very cute fun little pattern and I plan to make these again soon!

We went on vacation right before Christmas to Hot Springs, North Carolina. We got a little cabin with a hot tub called Treehouse Cabins. It was very beautiful! We stayed there through Christmas. Then on Christmas morning we got a call from our next door neighbor saying that there was a ladder up to the back of our house and that they thought we were on vacation. Ummm, we are. So we called our house/pet sitter and asked them to check it out. When they got there they actually walked up on the guy leaving the house with our shotgun in his hand! And he just strolled on down the road. The house sitter asked the neighbors to call the cops but they didn't, and they didn't realize it for like 10 minutes otherwise they may have caught the guy. The shotgun is pretty much the only thing he took. He even left the shells to the gun. He also took a backpack and maybe some clothes and DVD's. The cops got a print they think. He busted open our shed and took some tools out of there that he used to break into the back door. Think we have to replace the door. We're pretty sure he ate some food. And he did weird things like move food from the freezer to the refrigerator. But the computer, TV, jewelry, etc was all untouched from what we can tell. We are dealing with claims adjusters and installing a home security system and a fence now.

After we decided we didn't have to cut our vacation short and head home right then and there ventured out to a place called Wolf Laurel and went skiing for a day to try and take our minds of things! Now this isn't really big skiing or anything. They blow snow and only had one run open but it was a blast! We did still cut the vacation short by a couple of days and I didn't get in as much knitting time as I thought I would but we are back home safe and sound.

Hope you all have a very happy new year!

Mr. Greenjeans Progress Report

After my Ravencroft yarn arrived I cast on for Mr. Greenjeans right away. I'm using size 8 knitpicks option needles for the stockinette section and just swtiched to size 7's as called for in the pattern for the change to the ribbing/cabling section. I finished one repeat of the ribbing/cabling when it hit me just how close Christmas is and just how little time I have to finish all those presents! Mr. Greenjeans is officially on hold until I finish all my Christmas knitting and get the Christmas cards in the mail. I'm loving this sweater so much that it has spurred me to knit up those presents very fast and I'm halfway done with them already! You'll just have to wait unil after the holidays to see how well they're turning out.

Time Flies

I missed posting for a while and then it was Thanksgiving and whoosh, it was gone, I swear, it happened just like that. I have so much to catch up on! First I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend for those of us in the US. I have many things to be thankful for this year. Wonderful friends and family, a good well paying job, a home in a city where so many are still without, and a stash that seems to keep multiplying like tribbles! I can't really complain.

We went to visit my Dad and Step-mom in northern Alabama over Thanksgiving and it was nice and low key. My Grandmother and Uncle were also supposed to visit but my Grandmother had a small stroke the weekend before. She is doing much better now and should be released from the hospital soon. Unfortunately we weren't able to go and see her due to the distance and I know she was disappointed. I miss you too Grandma.

During our visit I did get to go to an alpaca farm! My Step-mom knows a woman who started raising alpacas a couple years ago and started Tuscany Valley Alpacas. I got to feed them and pet them! She had some amazing fleeces for sale but alas until I get a spinning wheel I thought it best I stick to the yarn she was offering. My Step-mom asked me to knit her a scarf with the brown/tan color with the added boucle and she also purchased the dark, dark gray color for me as a Christmas present! This yarn is so soft and luscious, I can't stop petting it! The yarn and fleeces aren't listed on their website yet but if you call or email Carol I'm sure she'd be happy to tell you more about it.

Before we left for the trip I finished this pair of Fuzzy Feet slippers for hubby. The pattern is from Knitty.com and the yarn is Crystal Palace Carnival, Bulky weight and used every bit of 2 balls. They were a super fast knit, finished in one very dedicated to knitting weekend.I forgot to get a pre-felted pic as I was so excited to get them felted. While I was felting I also stuck my bunny slippers, from last year, in the machine with them, as they've always been too big and I was hoping some additional felting might shrink them down a little. It worked, partially, one slipper seems to have felted better than the other, oh well, they keep the toes warm. I think I may make myself a pair of the Fuzzy Feet out of all my left over bits of feltable wool and just make them crazy stripes or something.

I also got in some good knitting time over the Thanksgiving weekend and finished up my Lenore socks. These are from the October shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Loved this color, which is from the new Raven Clan series of colors from Blue Moon and loved the pattern, which was designed by the Yarn Harlot. I can defintely see knitting the pattern again and I've already gone to the Blue Moon website and ordered more Ravens, which came today! I have some heavyweight in the Ravenscroft color for a Mr. Greenjeans. I can't wait to cast on as soon as I finish this post! I also got a skein of Laci in the Haida color for Anne's Irtfa shawl. If you haven't seen this shawl, go check it out, it's amazing! And finally, a skein of Twisted in the Rook-y color. Not sure yet if this skein might become a Clapotis or if it might become the contrast color on a ribby pulli.

I also went to the New Orleans Aquarium before Thanksgiving with a friend and her child. I get a lot of questions about the condition of New Orleans and visiting New Orleans. So, I just wanted to say that the tourist areas of New Orleans are for the most part rebuilt and most visitors aren't going to notice if they come to visit our beautiful city. There are large sections of any problems from Katrina the city still struggling and even entirely empty but the tourist areas are back. The aquarium did lose a lot of their fish following the storm due to no electricity but they have been brought back and it was a lot of fun getting to visit an old favorite. If you have any questions about New Orleans or are planning a visit be sure to let me know!