I’m still alive

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Suzanne

Well, apparently I dramatically exaggerated my potential early death from the crud because (a) I’m still alive and (b) I don’t actually have the crud, which is weird, since I was sneezing so much. Maybe I scared the cold away.

Or maybe it really was rogue ragweed?

I can finally show off these quilts I’ve been working on, these are gifts for their teachers. You’ll note that they are fraternal twins, just like the boys.

The pattern is from the Terry Atkinson book Happy Hour. Super simple, but very effective. I had the penguin fabric at the shop in the two colorways, I debated between something Christmas-y like this, or just plain everyday fabric, and the boys had no opinion — so I made Mark decide. He liked the penguins, so away I went. I didn’t have enough of any one red to do the blue quilt with just 2 fabrics, and I didn’t have enough different greens to make the green and red quilt scrappy-ish, and I wasn’t going to go BUY anymore fabric…

I took these pictures in a hurry this morning before delivering them, so there aren’t that many pictures, and they don’t look that great, but there’s not much to see. I used a computerized pattern from Anne Bright called Christmas Snow. It is VERY dense, but the snowflakes are gorgeous. I used Hobbs wool, and washed the quilts, which is why they are both so crinkly already:

If I had a longer throat on my longarm, I would have done this pattern even bigger, but I ran out of room.

For those who are wondering, yes, I have made quilts for the boys’ teachers every year since kindergarten. That’s it, though. I’ve always said I was only doing them through elementary, so this is the last Christmas when I’ll be scurrying at the last minute, even though I’ve known for a year that I’ll need another pair of quilts for teachers…

Now, to finish a lap quilt for one of my niece’s before Friday (piece of cake) and to try to finish Mark’s scarf by Saturday (mmmm….I have at least 12 more inches to go, but I stayed up until 1 AM and got 8 inches done last night, so I’m thinking it might be possible…)

Of course, I could always still get the crud, and he’s been complaining about a stomach bug, which he’d better not share, so I’m not going to get too overly confident on this one.

I may have to wrap up a scarf with the needle and ball of yarn still attached, but that would be par for the course around here…

Do you think they noticed?

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Suzanne

I have been sneezing all day long. Since I’m pretty sure there isn’t any rogue ragweed around, I think that means that I’ve caught the crud and by tomorrow morning I’ll be on my deathbed.

At least I’ll have cute socks on.

These are my Absinthe socks, I’ve shown them before, but I just got a brand-new pair of Mary Janes last night.

My sister is probably cringing in horror at my fashion sense, but I think I’m cute, and that’s all that matters.

I totally wore this combo to church today. Black pants, black Mary Janes and LIME GREEN socks. I was wearing a black shirt, too.

I was showing my socks off to a friend, who is also a knitter, but she’s a more practical knitter. She doesn’t understand making socks. She actually said “Those are great, but why would you go to all that work for a pair of socks?” I think her implication is that no one really notices your socks.

HELLO??? I’m wearing black pants, black Mary Janes and LIME GREEN socks. I’m pretty sure people noticed.

Maybe they’ll remember me for my keen fashion sense, what with the lime green socks and all, when I’m gone. You know, since I’m probably catching the plague and going to die soon.

Work avoidance

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Suzanne

I should be quilting. Everything else is more fun.

Like going to the post office in my small town, and having the carrier see me, and grab the package that was waiting for me and handing it to me over the counter — it wasn’t so much that he was being kind to me, as it was that this meant that when he delivers my mail later, he won’t have to get out of the car and bring the package up to the house. I don’t fault him, it’s flipping COLD outside, and I would try to stay in my car as much as possible, too.

I knew the package was coming today, and I knew it was yarn, and I wanted a glimpse, so I tore it open in the car and had a slight freak out because my first glimpse was BROWN.
IMG 0024 Work avoidance

And I was pretty sure I had ordered green yarn.

Well, it didn’t take long for me to realize it was just brown tissue paper, but I didn’t get my first look until I got home:

IMG 0029 Work avoidance

I had trouble capturing the color, it’s actually darker than that, but suffice it to say: it is super gorgeous.

IT’s going to be this, hopefully:

(The pattern is Elphaba Pullover, if you click the picture it will take you to the Ravelry pattern page. I’m planning on long sleeves, and I got more yarn than necessary, I figure this way I can make matching socks. The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Moorland.)

One of the many things I had to do yesterday was accompany a middle school choir concert. I decided I needed new jewelry, something that was not huge and in your face, but more than a simple pendant. This is what ended up with:

It has matching dangly earrings. It’s substantial, in a delicate kind of way. (Which totally makes sense, you know it does, don’t try to argue with me)

I tried to take a picture of myself in the mirror wearing it, but I used the Hipstamatic program, which made the necklace and earrings look OK, but it has green tinges around the edge, which did nothing positive for my chin. It looked like I had a fatal skin disease.

I just realized that my new necklace will look totally gorgeous with my new sweater. Too bad I haven’t made the sweater yet. TOo bad I have million other things to do first.

Oh, look, it’s “Take Really Out of Focus Pictures” Day

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Suzanne

Now, in theory I could try again to take IN focus pictures, but that would require changing socks again, and taking the memory card back out of the card reader and putting it into the camera and finding a spot with better light and…I just don’t have it in me.

These adorable socks are called Absinthe, the pattern is from Knitty.com. I even used the yarn that the pattern calls for, which is much prettier in person, vs. this lovely out of focus picture. I knit the plain toe section a little bit longer, and only did 4 repeats of the leg pattern (instead of 5) because I was running out of yarn, (thanks to making them longer in the foot…). My cabling still needs work, but I’m pretty happy with them.

I finished the second one on Sunday (the first has been done for awhile). Naturally, that meant I could start a new pair of socks (though I did finish knitting a Christmas present before I let myself start the new sock:

These are called Blueberry Bubbles. They are going to be stinking adorable. The cable just wiggles it’s way up the side of the sock, the right sock will be the mirror image. The cable pattern is super easy — no cable needle. You just pass a slipped stitch over two knit stitches, and then a yarn over in the next row. I’m using some hand-dyed yarn I bought online about a year ago. I had started different socks, but changed my mind. When I found this pattern, I knew this pair of socks is what this yarn really wanted to be.

Oh, and I might have ordered some yarn to make this sweater: Elphaba Pullover. In a dark green, though. Cause is’t Elphaba, don’t you know? **

But now, I must return to the customer quilting on the frame. IT is a beautiful quilt, but the stitch in the ditch is…tedious. More tedious than stitch in the ditch is normally, because it’s not long straight lines: it’s 1 inch or less lines. Stop and start and stop and start…and…you get the picture.

And I’m doing it uncaffeinated. I have gone cold turkey: I have not had a drop of Pepsi in 3 weeks.

I only mention this because I could REALLY use a Pepsi right now. Like, you might get me to agree to just about anything if you offered me a Pepsi. Well, maybe not ANYTHING, but…I can just about taste it, and feel the sugar rush and the caffeine rush and…yeah.

Like I said, I’m off the stuff, and I know that I will be a better, healthier person for doing so, but damn it. I WANT A PEPSI.

**In case you don’t know: in the book and musical “Wicked” Elphaba is the name given to the Wicked Witch of the West. She is green. Plus, there’s the whole Emerald City thing.

Woosh

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Suzanne

That’s the sound of:

(a) Time passing while I was having fun.
(b) Time passing while I wasn’t having fun.
(c) The freaking wind that’s been blowing for the last bazillion days.
(d) All of the Above

And the answer, of course, would be (d).

First, the fun: running/walking in the Race for the Cure — my official time was 49:40 — and it was slightly longer than a 5K. Out of 910 timed finishers, I was 535th. Go me! If I hadn’t stopped to use the porta-potty, or try to get a rock out of my shoe, I might have finished…505th! More importantly, I raised $849, and that’s really all that matters. (And there’s still time to donate, click here, you know: just in case you were waiting to see if I actually finished the course or not. Ha!)

I learned a lot, like…I need to get there earlier, in order to get in to a porta-potty BEFORE the race starts. The lines were INSANE. Right at the race start, there were like, 10 or 12, and the line for EACH was 20 or 30 people long. I thought I was going to make it all the way through, but at the halfway point, when I saw the opportunity, I decided to take it…

Thank you to everyone that supported me and my efforts. I’m planning on trying again next year, and am already working on trying to more comprehensively solve my shin splint problem.

Second, the not fun: well, there isn’t really anything specific, just…you know…life! Some days are really quiet and then other days are super busy with stuff out of the house. I’m in the finish line to the production of South Pacific, and our 2.5 hour rehearsals are stretching to 4 hours…which doesn’t get me home until 10:30/11 PM.

Oh wait. There is something specific: Joe had a big bike accident on Friday. He flipped and landed with the end of either his handlebar or one of the foot pegs (a metal tube) centered right on his belly button. We were able to get into the clinic right away to get him checked out: thankfully there was no internal damage, however, we are treating the wound on his belly like a burn. It’s healing well, and I will spare you the picture that I took for posterity. It’s just as gross as you can probably imagine. He couldn’t stand up straight for a day or 2 — that’s a lot of trauma on those poor ab muscles!

Third: the WIND.

We have had such gorgeous weather all fall — harvest is already finished (they were still working on corn until after Thanksgiving last year…), but this week, Mother Nature has reasserted herself and the wind is crazy-making.

At least it isn’t snowing. Yet.

And now, it’s time to continue trying to get caught on up work:

I’ve got a cute customer quilt on the frame, but all I really want to do is this:

That is Phoebe Mouse. Isn’t she stinkin’ cute? Yes, she still needs legs, a tail and the rest of her dress, but I needed her to have eyes and ears first.