Wednesday, August 15, 2007

meatheads, meatheads, rolly polly meatheads!

Made a quick present for my sister for her birthday, and loved it so much that I made one for evie and i! it’s larissa’s meathead hat! I LOVE this pattern! Evie won’t keep hers on, but you almost can’t tell that my sister is forceably holding her arm down. :)

yarn is lion brand wool-ease thick & quick. and yes, we are missing our embellishments above our left ears but they will be coming soon! (still not sure what to do...)

evie and tante

tante in her birthday hat!

i love my hat!

Evie and mommy’s adventure day! (also known as the day from hell)

Yesterday was my day off, and Evie and I were off to the yarn store! We had tried to go to Needlework Unlimited on Sunday, but when we got there they were closed due to power outage. :( I was SO bummed, I don’t really get to go yarn shopping, plus DH would be there to help pick colors and to play with Evie... So yesterday was our do-over. I called first to make sure they were open, that they were. Then Evie finally went down for her nap… And slept and slept… Why do they sleep super long when you DON’T want them to, and when you DO want them to they don’t?!? ugh. We finally left around 1:00 once she woke up from her long nap. The plan was to shoot down to south Minneapolis, get some food and then get some yarn. Well… it didn’t work out so well.

We tried the detour of 280, which worked well… until we hit 94. 94 was stop and go. At 1:30 in the afternoon. Lovely. Evie was NOT happy. Once we passed Cedar Ave, we were flying, but the damage was already done and telling a 14 month old ‘we will be there in 5 minutes honey!’ doesn’t do anything. Finally I put some cheerios in my hand and tried to give them to her. This quieted her down as long as it was continuous cheerios… which is convenient as she is rear facing in the middle of the car in a giant britax marathon. No problem, I can fold my arm backwards if it stops the crying. We finally got to noodles by lake Calhoun. Evie’s little face was tear stained. Enter moment of feeling like mommy of the year #1. of course AT noodles she was totally happy. Flirting with everyone and ignoring me. And eating tons of chicken and mac & cheese.

Back into the car and off to needlework! Plopped evie into her hotsling and in we went. That lasted… about 3 minutes before she was arching her back trying to get out. So I let her out. She was only happy if she was running around the store screaming (in a happy way). If I tried to hold her, crying and screaming (the bad kind) and tears. So my child ran around the yarn store and I followed her around to make sure she didn’t touch anything. mommy of the year moment #2. Great way to pick out yarn, I highly recommend it. I grabbed some Debbie bliss cashmerino DK for my sweater I’m hoping to make, I think it will work and we got out of there. (oh, and I did see 3 balls of yarn that looked like a little one got ahold of them and destroyed them, evie did NOT do that, I swear. I would have fessed up or bought them or something had it been her, I didn’t let her get into any of the yarn. Yes I will let her happily run around but I won’t let her destroy things, happy or not.) So thank you needlework employees and fellow customers! I’m sorry for the 14 month old running around the store happily screaming and smiling at you (but crying at me).

I didn’t want to reprise the fun in the car so I just plopped our full Ziploc baggie of cheerios onto evie’s lap. In the course of our trip she dumped it into her lap, car seat, seats of the car next to her, everywhere. Our trip by the way from south Minneapolis to st. paul… I gave up on 94 while waiting on the ramp from 35w (it was a dead stop, 3:30 pm) and decided to drive through the u of M and just take university over. Bad idea. BAD idea. It took FOREVER. Not only is traffic a mess due to the whole 35W bridge collapse, but it seems that all the other roads in the area are under construction!!! Ugh…

We stopped at borealis to return a ball of yarn and get some yarn for a toddler surprise jacket (for evie) and even though I shook her off outside the car and thought I got them all, we were dropping cheerios randomly through the store… mommy of the year moment #3. I did try to clean up after us but I’m sure we missed one or four. I’m sorry borealis friends! Evie was much better behaved here but I let her hold her yarn and we didn’t stay long.

Stopped by DH’s work to say hi as we were right there. Took the wrong road home and went through como park. Wow, so many trees down from the storm the night before! Ouch! Oh, and on our adventure I was noticing that so many of the trees in the area are in rough shape. This drought is really starting to hit home.

Evie fell asleep, like all little boogers, about a half mile from our house.

So. My new favorite yarn store, until a new 35W bridge is built and opened, is Borealis yarn. I’m sorry needlework, I do love you but it’s just not feasible for me to come to south Minneapolis anymore. Plus that sock yarn wall at Borealis! Swoon!

(knitting news to come soon. I have been knitting A LOT! I’ve finally ripped myself away from ravelry long enough to work on things and have been finishing things, starting and finishing some smaller things and getting SO MANY IDEAS! I LOVE RAVERLY!).

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

we and our peeps are safe

35W bridge collapse. i just can't believe this. how, how? my sister was supposed to be on that bridge, on her way home from work. she took an alternate route home. my cousin was sitting on that bridge in a bus not an hour before. i just can’t believe this! i’m in shock. i’m at work. i should just go home. i’m worthless right now, just in shock.

so damn scary.

please check in and let me/the internets know you are ok!!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

bummer... no sheep for me

i have been so excited to go see amy from knitty at the minnesota knitters guild tonight. but... someone, a little someone, decided that a double ear infection would be so much more fun. so we are at home. had we gone as planned, we would have worn these...

knitting nerd mommy

i'm IN!

i got my ravelry invite last thursday and wow. WOW! go join! be patient while waiting, poor casey and jess are working as hard and as fast as they can!

i AM knitting. made a hedgehog for evie that just needs to be felted, stuffed and given a face. look how cute it is already!

hedgehog - pre-felting

i also need to block evie's robin hood jacket (have i been ignoring it for so long?!?). i'm also working on another uptown tote, this one for a friend who wants one just like mine, same colors and all and since she helped us with the colors in our townhouse i'm making her a bag!

and lastly i'm working on my ribby cardi, though the cotton yarn is proving to slow me down. i'm torn between using the cascade 220 i have hanging out, and just sticking with the cotton. i can't wear wool well and i really want to wear this sweater so...

back to ravelry! still working on getting my projects in, next up is my stash! look me up if you are on, my screen name is coriw!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

ravelry!?!?!

ok, i thought i was above this but i am DYING to play in ravelry and am trying to wait pantiently for my invite to come but as i read more and more blogs it's driving me CRAZY!!! does anyone out there have a ravelry invite they would like to share?!? PLEASE!?!? i'd be your best friend ever! :) THANKS!!!

p.s. first birthday pics coming soon! big party today, yea! the birthday girl is currently out, she didn't take a nap before her party and finally crashed once the presents and cake were done. :) she was great all day though!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

One year ago today…

One year ago today I was minutes from going to ron’s work to pick him up. We were off to lunch and then my OB appt. I had slept in as long as I could, I had been up in the middle of the night having contractions. Nothing big but regularily for an hour or two. I had been online with two other june mommies who were also having contractions, which was kinda cool. We were all kinda excited about it, our babies were coming soon! I didn’t think much of it, I figured I had a long way to go, at least the end of june but it was nice that my body was starting to practice. I started charging our camera batteries, just to be ready for things to come. Contractions slowed down and I crawled back into bed with Ron.

So I drove on up and picked up ron at work. We went to famous dave’s for lunch, I had no idea it would be the last food I’d eat for days. I had a burger and fries I think. Ron was looking at me disapprovingly as I was not supposed to have too much salt (damn swelling!). We joked that maybe my numbers would be so bad that they would just send me to the hospital, but we didn’t really mean it. (I had also put my camera and batteries into the trunk of the car, just in case!) We had extra time afterwards so we went to target to pick up some stuff for when evie was born as I was on bedrest and didn’t want to send ron out alone to pick up granny panties and pads for me. While at target I took my blood pressure. It was high, really high. I felt terribly, I had been trying to be relaxed while we were out but I did need these things, like I could go out once evie was born or on the way home from the hospital… I hated feeling like a walking time bomb, you can’t really FEEL high blood pressure so it was hard just sit on the couch doing nothing... We were then off to the OB office. We went to the location that was across from the hospital, not the one downtown as we didn’t want to pay for parking.

Got to the office, don’t remember too much other than once we went back and they took my blood pressure they immediately told me to lie down on my side. Then they came in with a 24 hour urine jug, I had done this twice already so it was no surprise but so not fun to go all the way downstairs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Since it was Friday they asked that we returned it the next morning to the hospital lab so they could get my numbers right away. Ron and I thought this was pretty lame but… (and do that on bedrest how???).

But then dr. l came in, she was my favorite OB in the whole practice, the one that had been on call when I had my appendectomy and we really liked her a lot. She kinda kicked the bag with the 24 hour urine jug and said, ‘you won’t be needing this anymore! you guys are going straight to the hospital to be induced.’ Ron and I looked at each other, I was nervous but also happy that my worries would be over. I hated sitting at home feeling like a time bomb about to go off, not knowing how fast my pre-e would develop, when it would become TOO dangerous to evie and i. Dr. Levitan was a little surprised. She said, ‘so… this is normally when I get tears from people!’. Ron and I said, ‘we half expected you to say something like this, the camera is in the car…’ We asked and she said that dr. k was on call all weekend (it was Friday, about 1:00 in the afternoon). I was very happy about this news, if it wasn’t dr. l delivering evie, then I wanted it to be dr. k. She had been the one who put me on bedrest and she was very matter of fact and serious about this pre-e/high blood pressure thing and I liked that, I felt very secure in knowing that I’d be in her care. They told us to go straight to station 24 in the OB unit (I think that’s the station I can’t remember).

We headed over to the hospital, the whole block over, and called my mom and ron’s parents on the way over. (oh, and ron’s work since they were expecting him back!) Grabbed the camera and some of the stuff from Target (pretty good timing on THAT trip!).

Checked in, got a room and got me gowned up.

lots of fun ahead!

Started an iv and kicked in the mag sulfate. Wow is that stuff horrible! Burned going on and made me feel terrible. Started inducing me with cervical ripeners and I started having contractions. Unfortunately, after a few hours the mag killed the contractions and I started feeling horrible. I had pain on my right side, I thought it was heart burn but now I know it was my liver and the beginnings of HELLP. My sister and my mom were so excited and came up right away (I like how they didn’t even ask if they could come…). Ron left to go home to pick up a list of things (I didn’t even have a bag packed yet, I still had a month to go!). While he was gone I did not feel well. My mom and my sister were kinda annoying me, they weren’t doing anything in particular, just being excited and talking (imagine that!). Ron and I had been sitting quietly (well I was on the bed), but the difference in the room dynamic bothered me. They were chatting and excited and making noise whereas I liked the calm that we had before. At one point I had turned off all the lights in the room short of one light and it was still too much for me. I put the pillow over my head to block out the noise and light. Ron finally came back and I took some tums (with doctor's approval) and hoped to feel better. Finally they said that nothing was happening that night, my mom and sister left at 11 or midnight (promising to be back at 7, I told them to take their time, i knew nothing would be happening by then...) and after they popped in a different cervical ripener and we tried to settle in. I was in so much upper gastric pain, finally around 2 a nurse mentioned that dr. k left orders for morphine if I wanted some (don’t ask why I didn’t ask for pain meds, like I said I was not myself, I look back and think, duh!…), HELL YES I wanted some! I had planned on a natural birth trying for no drugs (I laugh when I think of how drugged up I ended up being…) but this was already much different than I had planned… With the morphine I was able to sleep, finally fell asleep and slept through til 7. my mom and sister came back and I shot them a look of death, they left to get breakfast and I tried to fall back asleep. not for long though, my breakfast was brought in, yea! I was STARVING! I started eating and felt sick. Then I puked and puked. Meh. Dr. k came in and said it’s common from the mag, no more food for me. Grrr…

sick and in pain

Waited around in pain, was to be checked at noon to see my ‘progress’. At 11 am I got a shot in my iv for nausea as I still felt sick. Around noon dr. k came in, checked my progress and said… ‘labs are going downhill, liver is not well, platelets are way down, you don’t feel well and you aren’t progressing at all, it’s time to get this baby out. I don’t want you to be mad at your baby for making you feel this way. We want to do an emergency c-section, ron here are some scrubs, I’ll have a nurse come prep you, I have a baby to deliver and we’ll meet in the OR’. I must have looked confused, baby to deliver? But I thought you said emergency? She smiled and said, ‘no worries, it’s this woman’s fifth child and she spits them out like watermelon seeds, I’ll be out in a few minutes. Don’t tell her I said that!’ ha! :)

I was fine with a c-section, at that point I couldn’t do anything other than lie on my left side, my BP shot up if I moved so I had no idea how they expected me to push a baby out. And I felt so poorly, I didn’t think I COULD push out a baby…

They wheeled me away into the OR, dr. k met me in there and she hugged me and asked questions/distracted me while they put in my spinal (she was asking about DH’s name, how it’s rare to see a young guy named ron, etc). got me numbed up, brought in ron, put up the curtain and started things. Ron was trying to distract me, asking what we wanted to name her (no, we hadn’t chosen yet!) and I agreed to Evangeline (his choice). I didn’t even really care at that point, I was waiting to hear our baby cry and would have agreed to anything to shut him up. They had to push on my upper abdomen to get her down, she was so high. Finally she was out! She cried and dr. k held her up so we could see her.

They brought her over to the side to check her out. 5 pounds 10 ounces! Healthy, no worries. Called ron over and had him bring her over to me. (which freaked him out to no end. #1, he didn’t want to see any of the surgery/me cut open and #2 hold this tiny baby AND walk with it!?!? :) ) she was adorable. I was afraid to touch her, I don’t think my arms were tied down but I was afraid to move them. After a few minutes they had ron bring her to the nursery (holding/walking with her the whole way!), he took pics while they cleaned her up.

evie is here!!!

here she is!!!

daddy and evie in the nursery

I was just hanging out being sewn up. It was funny, I didn’t want to close my eyes, I was tired but I was afraid that they would freak out if I shut my eyes and relaxed. Dr. k said that my appendectomy healed wonderfully and that my uterus and everything looked healthy and great. Finally they wheeled me out (after transferring me from the table to a bed, THAT was freaky!).

I was in recovery for just a little bit when my mom and sister came in, and ron rolled evie in!

daddy taking evie to mommy in recovery

He passed her off to me, I was shaking from the spinal. She was so cute and all wrapped up like a little burrito.

mommy, daddy and evie

mommy holding evie in recovery

I wanted to see her body/hands/feet, etc but just didn’t have it in me. I asked ron, she’s fine, hands/feet/fingers/toes? He said yes so I believed him. I wanted to start breastfeeding but they said nope, not until I can sit up and I couldn’t sit up until I could feel/move my feet. That was depressing. I finally let my mom hold her (I had made a rule that only ron could hold her until I got to hold her, I wanted to be number 2, I didn’t want to be the last one to hold her!).

nana taking evie

happy nana

Then my sister got to hold her once she pried her away from my mom. Evie was so adorable.

tante kristi and evie

Evie was fine, developed a little jaundice but was fine overall. I on the other hand, was not. I had a terrible night the night after she was born, got no sleep (was drugged to the point that when I fell asleep I’d stop breathing and set off my oxygen monitor…so then I’d wake up, breathe deeply for a few breaths, fall asleep, stop breathing, set off alarm, wake up, breathe deeply, repeat throughout the ENTIRE night. I finally started crying, I was so exhausted and then a nurse came in and told me she had to weigh me for transport!?! She said she’d send someone in and she didn’t! finally a nurse came in and brought in my doctor and my doctor said ‘no more percocet until she asks for it!’ the mag sulfate and what they gave me in the c-section was enough to kill my pain, I didn’t need 2 percocet every 4 hours as well! (after my appendectomy I would take ONE percocet and it would TOTALLY wipe me out and they were giving me two!) And then, THEN giving me evie to feed! I can’t believe I didn’t drop her. I also can’t believe I let them do that but I was so not with it…).

mommy and evie

My BP was still super high, it sucked. I had vision issues, spots in my eyes, couldn’t handle sunlight, couldn’t read my computer… they finally let me out on Wednesday after 5 nights in the hospital. I was still afraid to do anything, I’d go for a walk in the hospital and they would come take my BP and tell me that I wasn’t allowed out of bed or off my left side for a few hours, only to go the bathroom. It was so frustrating. For weeks afterwards (it didn’t go down until about 6 weeks later) I was afraid to go on walks or do anything with Evie… she was worth it of course!

And that was one year ago today…

evie and mommy

and this was mother's day this year. :)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

it's may already???

So, I’m not even apologizing anymore. I know people talk of the ‘pressure’ to post when you have a blog, and I do feel it at times as I think, gosh, I haven’t posted in SO LONG. But I’m certainly not getting paid to do this, it’s just something I do, so it just has to happen when it happens. I hope everyone can understand, and I would be surprised if most of you don’t feel the same.

We finally moved into our townhouse april 11 th and wow. First off it was a mess, our closing was moved about 14 times. Ok not 14 but at least 4 times, and we had to change our moving day over and over. It was so frustrating. It was a big bummer that when we finally DID close on our first house ever, we weren’t even excited about it by that point. We were dreading it, waiting for a phone call as we were driving there to tell us to turn around, not happening today (essentially what happened the first time… after we both took the day off of work. For no reason, as it was 3:15 when we got the call that it wasn’t happening at 4... great use of our very limited time off I tell ya) so anyway. We closed and then moved the next day, Wednesday. Thank goodness for understanding movers. And then, it snowed on our moving day. It was great.

our townhouse!

Did I mention that ron’s parents were coming up the next weekend to help us paint? It was going to be a week after we moved in, we had a chance to kinda get settled and stuff figured out. Instead, they were now coming up two days after we moved in. it worked out in the end, though we didn’t get as much painting done as I had hoped. Oh, and evie and ron had rotavirus that weekend and then I had it a few days later. And evie and I also had a nice nasty cold which we passed to ron shortly thereafter. And did I mention that our close to new couch didn’t fit into our media room downstairs? HOM furniture thanks us for our business as we bought a table, 4 chairs and 3 bar stool chairs from them, and then 3 days later came back and got a big couch and lazy boy but in the meantime, we have a couch in our dining room. (any twin cities knitters interested in a basically new couch, used for 5 months, then in storage for 6 and then moved to a townhouse that it doesn’t fit into? Scotchguarded, has the stain warranty on it (which is transferable and I believe it is a 5 year warranty so you have just under 4 years of stain protection left? It’s very nice, has a chaise on the end which can be moved to either side… let me know, I can send pics).

But now, a month later, we love it. Our main level and downstairs is painted and the furniture is slowly finding it’s home. We have painters coming next weekend to do our hallways and the stairwell and we may just hire them to do the bedrooms as well as they have great prices and time is money. It’s close to impossible for us to paint with evie around, 11 months old and mommy and daddy up on ladders is just not a good combo. Her naps never last long enough and we’re just sick of painting.

What’s that? This is my knitting blog? Oh yes. Well. Evie’s robin hood sweater/jacket is still in pieces, I intend to wash and block it shortly, sew it all together and then take pics. It may just take a few more weeks until all this moving/painting stuff settles down some. I fell in love with the dollar and a half cardigan and went to needlework and snapped up some cathay to make it. started it at the harlot event. Knitted one ball worth of yarn and restarted it with smaller needles and a different ball. As the harlot says, it would be nice if those swatches weren’t dirty little liars! Got through that ball of yarn and decided to just give up the project all together. I am part of the dollar and a half KAL and I’m seeing all these finished sweaters and it is confirming my big worry about this sweater. The Michelin man effect. I tried to tell myself that it would be fine and I even changed the pattern and was using stockinette instead of reverse stockinette and I just don’t see it helping. I’m not looking for a high maintenance sweater that I need to block all the time or a sweater that I don’t like to wear because I feel it makes me look larger than I am. Blah. So, Evie and I will be off to Needlework to exchange this yarn for something else as I am just sick of it and don’t really even want to see it anymore. I don’t have tons of yarn money right now and I just can’t justify putting $100+ of yarn into my stash with no plans for it.

I have felt like a weight has been lifted from me since I’ve made this decision to give up on the dollar and a half cardi. I have been knitting on it for over a month and feel like I haven’t gotten anywhere, plus I have been worrying about the finished product this whole time and it was just way too much effort during a time that I just don’t have the energy to waste my time like that. I cast on immediately for a huggable hedgehog for evie. Had the yarn and pattern already, just waiting for me to decide to actually make it. it was done a little more than a week later (remember, 11 month old getting into everything and all our spare time is spent painting and rearranging and unpacking and childproofing and…), it was such a fast knit! I loved it! still need to felt it but evie already loves it in it’s unfelted form. :) I think it will be a hit. Just started on Sheldon from knitty. Sheldon is a slower knit, I’ve actually had some knitting time the last two nights and I may just need to find something a little faster, bigger needles, bigger yarn. I’m tempted to finally start my ribby cardi by bonne marie. I have some gorgeous 1824 cotton just waiting to be knit up into it… It may be just what I’m looking for. plus then I can finally make a sweater for MYSELF!

22 days until evie is one year old! Can you believe it? I can’t! She’s such an adorable little girl, she is giving kisses to us all the time. Eating everything in sight, having a blast at school (daycare center), terrorizing/chasing our kitties, etc. she’s pretty much done away with baby food, she wants REAL food! Crawls around like a bat out of hell and cruises around the furniture, cabinets, mommy and daddy, anything she can pull herself up on. She opens every cabinet, drawer, box, bag, anything she can find and of course, empties it as well! :) Once she finds something of interest she holds onto it with her super baby grip and then crawls away with it clutched in her little hand. Such a booger, but we love her so much.

little girl, pink dress, dump truck

she's getting so tall!

we've moved!!!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

HARLOT IN MN!!!

evie and i went off to see the harlot today, yea! i was going to have a mommy's night out, but yesterday i developed almost a case of mastitis. if you don't know what that is, you don't want to know and if you do, then you probably know how much it sucks. luckily evie knew what she needed to do and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate last night. i woke up feeling MUCH better and then i had today off for the harlot, so evie and i had lots of nursing time.

anyway, harlot time! party!

steph was hilarious as ever.

lots of knitters

lots of knitters!!!

karen, a nice knitter who was sitting next to us, teaching evie how to knit. :)

evie being taught how to knit by karen

steph blogging us

pics with the sock

cori, evie and the harlot!

evie, mommy and the harlot!

(i'm working on the format, sorry it's so lame and cutting off pics! gah! stupid blogger)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

three cheers for jess!!!

jess over at http://mikknit.mikk.net/ is the best! she reserved two spots for the harlot and now her friend can't come. so i get to go in her place!!!

thanks Jess! you are my most favorite minnesota knitter!!! see you tomorrow!!!

Thursday, March 29, 2007

um, er, what?

so back when i heard that the harlot was coming, i finagled and managed to switch my days off so i could go. i've been keeping tabs on the harlot's website here and there, saw that it was going to be at the wiliam mitchell college of law and laughed because i've been telling ron for weeks that there's no way more than 20 people can fit into the yarnery. thought i'd get some further info so i just went to the yarnery's website (which i did check back when and it had no info). it says to call to reserve a space. huh? er, what? so i called immediately. auditorium holds 400 (steph's website says 450 by the way...). i'm #425. i'm on a waiting list. i'm bummed. i drove to chicago, and then left my baby to drive to eau claire to see the harlot. i have been hoping that the harlot would come here, and now she is and i can't see her? and it's looking like i can't even get my book signed because they are handing out time slips at the talk so what, i'm waiting around until the end with my 9 month old to get my book signed? meh.

we're crashing the party.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

WE'RE MOVING - YARN FOR SALE!

stash busting going on... i did a little getting ready to move cleaning... and this is up for all of you to purchase!

if you see something you need and want to purchase, please e-mail me at coriknits AT gmail DOT com. first to e-mail me gets dibs. i'll keep this post updated with purchase status. please include what yarn you want to purchase, along with your location. all yarn is from a loving, smoke free home. stored in plastic bags.

a few stipulations... i'll send to the US ONLY. sorry, no overseas shipping (my hubby will be shipping from his work and he can't do it. sorry!) also, paypal payments ONLY. sorry. if you don't have paypal... who doesn't have paypal??? really? if you don't have it, then e-mail me and beg me and convince me that it's worth me waiting for your payment via snail mail... paypal is so much faster and easier for all. you paypal me, i ship the next business day. how cool is that??? you get your yarn faster!

ETA - shipping will cost a flat $6. the more yarn you buy, the better the deal!

so then. READY, SET, BUY MY STASH!!!

cherry tree hill yarn

Cherry Tree Hill Supersport yarn
Quarry Hill colorway
4 oz./250 yds.
retail - $23.75
$20

sock yarn

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton
(45% cotton/42% virgin wool/13% polyamide)
100 grams/380 meters
light blue (colorway 249)
$10

recycled silk yarn

Recycled Silk yarn - 4 hanks
100% silk
100 grams/approx 80 yards -
retail - $16 each
$50

severn

Berger du Nord SEVERN
100% cotton
blue 38 grams
purple 30 grams
red - full ball
retail - $5.75/ball
$12


FREE WITH PURCHASE OF SOMETHING ELSE!
I received this yarn for free. Buy something else and be the first to say you want it, it's YOURS! (Only one freebie per person please)

freebies

Plymouth Yarn Encore - two skeins TAKEN

Bernat Boa - two balls
Phoenix (orange)

Bernat Boa furs - two balls
Chinchilla (brown)

Friday, March 09, 2007

so called done!

finally done with one scarf, yea! once i'm done with the other one i won't be doing a scarf for a long long time. blah.

so called scarf FO!

good shot of the length

good shot of the length

action shot

i like to wear it like this, plus gratutitous evie shot

i like to wear it like this, plus gratutitous evie shot

with the leftover yarn (only used a little bit of the 2nd ball) i decided to make calorimetry from knitty. i think i'm the only person out there who looks utterly ridiculous in it. it looks better on evie than it does on me! :)

my calorimetry

it may look dorky but check out that button, it's super cool!

cute button!

it's already being ripped. blah. at least it was fast.

it looks cuter on her :)

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

interweave knits - spring 07

what i want to make from IK spring 07 (i'm not going to mention patterns i don't like, just because i'm not into that. happy thoughts!)

pictures here! http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/preview/2007_spring.asp

entrelac socks by eunny! love these socks. would i make them... gosh, i'm not sure. maybe. we'll have to see. i LOVE the tutorial though!

ribs and lace tank by jodi - very cool. would need to wait until i wean evie first so i know what size to make...

dollar and a half cardigan - LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! i can't wait to make it. i even love it in that brown. i like the asymetrically design that the pattern is different on the fronts. so cool.

ruffled surplice (front cover) - i love this sweater! love it. i have to admit that i'm not normally into wrap shirts/sweaters on my body. and then ron made a point though that he can't see me in poufy sleeves and i think i agree with him. for some reason i'm still into the sweater though, i'm crazy.

roza's socks - great sock pattern. yea grumperina!

can i just say how incredibly cool it is to see patterns from people who are writing blogs that i have been reading for ages? i LOVE it! congrats guys!

(oh, and those who are having issues with the new setup? i don't have any issues with it. i like that the pictures seem clearer).

Sunday, February 25, 2007

that's more like it!

i guess i'll settle for 10.5" of snow. :) YEA!

snow scene

family picture!

little girl in the snow

pretty eyes!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

scarves suck, where is my snow???

Wow. I have forgotten just how utterly and completely boring it is to knit scarves! Wow. They just go on and on and on and...

I’m still on my first ball of malabrigo on my so called scarf. I like this yarn, it’s pretty. I’m wondering if I’ll need both balls of yarn, I don’t know how long I’ll last on this scarf, I’m SO BORED. I know I said I was alternating between the balls but I ripped it out. I thought that the scarf was being pulled along that edge as I carried along the yarn I wasn’t using. So I ripped and restarted it. now I’m thinking it wasn’t the alternating balls, it’s just that this scarf is biased and leans to the side. Anyone else? I’ll put a pic up of mine later so you can see what I mean. Anyway, I’m also annoyed that one side looks super cool and the other just looks like it was purled. I expected both sides to look super cool, but whatever. I wonder if I can make a matching so called hat. Hm… quick google search to see if someone else has done it and… hm. I don’t see anything out there. That may be too much thinking for me, we’ll see.

I’m also knitting along on my scarf with flounces here and there. I started it a week and a half ago on my day off. Wow, could these directions be written any poorly??? How confusing. I plan to write up this pattern a little better and put it out on my blog. Hopefully others will find it when they go out to the net to search for directions to that scarf. Lame.

Evie’s sweater is in a state of flux. I’m hoping to block it tomorrow and then seam the shoulders and start knitting that hood. I’m wondering though… I do want to wash it before she would wear it, should I quick steam block it, seam it and then knit the hood and THEN handwash it? hm… I think that’s my tentative plan.

I’m blogging at work (hence the no links). It’s super super super dead here today. And I’m pissed. We’re supposed to be having this HUGE winter storm, they wouldn’t shut up about it on tv, online, etc. 4-7 inches by the time we wake up this morning and then more tonight into tomorrow for a total of a billion inches. I’m all about snow, a billion inches? Bring it on, I can’t wait! YEA!

Well, like every previous storm we’re getting screwed. Woke up this morning to some ice pellets on the ground. It was a little icy but nothing bad and you can still see the brown dead grass everywhere. And now it’s freezing rain out. WHERE IS MY SNOW??? Poor evie, no pics of her in the snow yet because the one significant snowfall that the twin cities had was over new years and we were visiting the inlaws in WI and for the first time in years they didn’t get snow and the twin cities did.

Grrr.

The startribune.com (Minneapolis newspaper) says, “Announced by all the trumpets of the media, the alleged big one began rather meekly in the Twin Cities metro area Saturday, with a glaze of ice and spitting sleet that caused a flurry of spinouts but fell short of what many had expected -- and hoped for. But just you wait. "The worst is yet to come," a statement by the National Weather Service in Chanhassen warned. "Overnight, much of central and southern Minnesota received freezing rain and sleet rather than significant snowfall. Do not be fooled." Heavy snow was still expected in the region by late Saturday, continuing into Sunday, the service said. Six to 10 inches of snow are expected, with more in west-central Wisconsin. Strong winds are expected to whip the snow into a beautiful, deadly whiteout.”

Sure. I’ll believe that one when I see it. I’m bitter. Every where else in the country OTHER than us has gotten slammed the past few years. Us, nothing. I’m sick of it. I’ll update you tomorrow and let you know who was right…

I wonder if I’ll get in trouble for knitting at my desk. I swear if any customers come in, call, e-mail, I’ll drop it in a heartbeat but this just sitting at my desk listening to the freezing rain hit the windows is killing me. Is it time to pump yet? Think anyone would notice if I went upstairs to pump every hour instead of every 3-5? Sooooo bored…

Sunday, February 18, 2007

vickie likes crepes too!

today we were off to the MOA (mall of america to those not in the 'know') for knit-out. see?

(evie, mommy and tante kristi! oh, and it was towards the end of the day hence all those empty chairs, i swear it was busy!)

tante, mommy and evie at knitout!

it wasn't as amazing as i would have liked it to be. i wore my shadow shawl (err... and didn't get a picture of it yet... doh!) and i think i was one of just a few who had a handknit on! oh well. my sister and i got lots of free swag but once i got home and sorted through it, i wasn't super impressed. lots of crappy, free on the internet so i'm glad you wasted the paper printing and then handing out a billion patterns of the awesome FUN FUR TUBE TOP!?!? and other amazing knit and crochet creations...

all the big yarn names were there, lion brand (passing out free bags that smelled NASTY! (anyone else???)), bernat, pattons, etc. got two orangeish red boa skeins and two light brown/greyish boa skeins... and two crochet hooks. so it wasn't a bust but wow, our recycling bin is full!

i know the idea of the knit out was getting knitting and crocheting out to the masses and it did that, so....

oh, i'm sure you are wondering about the title of my post! i almost forgot!

so i dragged my sister to the MOA when i was 8 months pregnant and found that i LOVE crepes! specifically THESE crepes! YUM! so today after getting our swag, we were off to get crepes. ron was checking out the menu on the wall and i bent down to check on evie in the stroller and when i stood up i saw her. and then did an obvious double take. oops, so much for being graceful. then i turned around and said hi to vickie howell (host of knitty gritty on DIY). she was very nice. :) he he! i didn't want to bother her and we were eating so no pic. sorry. she did say that evie's little outfit was so cute. he he!

hm... now what???

i have finished knitting the back, both fronts and the sleeves of evie's robin hood jacket. (i finished the sleeves today!)

front, back and sleeves done!

next up is the hood. the directions say, join shoulder seams, and then gives instructions on how to pick up the stitches to start the hood.

my question is, do i block all of my pieces first? block, join the shoulder seams and then start the hood? block it all when it's finished? what should I do?

thanks blog friends!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

*speechless*

*from the harlot's tour page*

2007- Cast off Yarn Crawl Tour

(Unless otherwise noted, all of these are times when I'll be signing and speaking.)

April 4th- St. Paul, MN - The Yarnery. 840 Grand Ave. 7pm (Please consider bringing a donation of yarn, knitted stuff or fibre arts supplies. The Yarnery accepts these items gratefully as part of their community action.)

THE HARLOT IN MINNESOTA!!!!!!!!!!

shit! i work on wednesdays! until EIGHT! someone is switching days off with me!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

busy busy!

tuesday are my day off. evie and i were busy today. evie didn't sleep well last night so we skipped our yoga bonding class this morning but we were off to my orthodontist appt at 1:50, and after that we went to the yarn cafe.

see, i'm dying to make the so-called scarf but have nothing in my stash that works. i didn't find anything there, it was a bummer. so finally we left but instead of going home, we went to amazing threads. i'm not normally a fan of amazing threads but gave them another chance (i just haven't been happy with my help there in the past). they had both yarns i was interested in that i couldn't find anywhere, malabrigo AND mano del uraguay. party!

i liked the malabrigo alot! it's so soft and pretty. picked up two hanks of it in a color alot like evie's sweater yarn.

while there they had a store sample of this cool scarf. picked up 3 balls of on line linie 194 solo yarn in coloway 08, plum berry. how cool is that scarf??? i can't wait to make it but those instructions are so weird. you actually knit INTO the yarn (which is more ribbon like, not so yarn like) and that is what makes those ruffles. crazy!

i've already started the so called scarf, i just had to figure out those stitches. it's going well, i'm alternating between my two hanks every other row so the color isn't that off. the one hank had more lighter/whitish areas than the other so i didn't want one side light blue and the other side dark blue, hopefully that evens it out. pics to come!