Infrared Peapod

2009 Rewind: New Years Eve/Day

2010-04-07T01:27:00.000-04:00

The morning that we left Phoenix, we had to be at the airport at 0630 in order to shuttle in and return our rental car. We flew all day and lost 2 hours due to the time zones. Then we landed at Dulles Airport in VA, drove 2 hours back to Annapolis in rush hour traffic, and finally got home. We THEN decided that we should leave for Florida right away, so we did a quick load of laundry, repacked the car (including the Carbide) and started driving. That was pretty stupid-we were very tired. But we made it in once piece and were happy to have a few hours jump start on when we were going to have left!

We went down there to visit my dad and step mom. I have never visited him- and only recently met her. We didn't speak for years and are just now working to rebuild our relationship. He was very happy to have us, and we were happy to be there.

My dad is a very bad influence on little Carbide, and (much like Erin) likes to encourage him to do things that he isn't allowed to do (such as get on the furniture). Bad dog!

My dad loves German Shephards, and has one named Gema. She is pretty cool and mostly likes to lay on the couch and swim in the pool-although I wouldn't mess with her. Jaimie also loves German Shephards (which is unfortunate, since they are one of my two least favorite breeds). I thought that these two pictures of Jaimie and Gema were funny-at first he is very quizzical look on his face and she looks very serious-and then she licks him and they seem to be getting on just fine after that! I think that she is very beautiful.

For Christmas, the only thing that I could think of that I really "needed" was "big girl clothes" since from the looks of things, I won't be in the Navy for much longer. My dad took me clothes shopping and bought a few nice professional outfits for me. Then we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch-which is one of the best restaurants on the earth.

I wanted to knit something for my dad for Christmas- but he lives in Florida and works in Texas. So I obviously couldn't knit a sweater or a scarf or hat (I don't think he would wear a scarf or hat nomatter where he lived). I thought about it a lot and finally decided that socks were the way to go. Argyle socks. In shades of blue, which is his favorite color. He also loves sailing, so I tried to keep the names of the colors in a nautical theme. One blue is called "Deep Water" and the other is called "Caribbean Blue". The third blue (the super pale one that I used to make the X's) is called "Blue Haze". Even though it dosn't have an "oceany" name, I thought it would be acceptable since his favorite musician of all times is Jimmi Hendrix (who else?!) and he wrote a famous song called Purple Haze. This might sound a little 'out there', but when I told him about it, he got it, and that is the important thing. :)

We had a really fun time on our visit and look forward to many more trips and most of all to repairing our broken relationship-and maybe even building a new one.

2009 Rewind: Christmas for Real

2010-04-07T01:11:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent Christmas with Jaimie's family in Phoenix, AZ. The weather was much warmer than I am used to for Christmas- but MUCH colder than weather.com promised! I brought short sleeved shirts and skirts. It was 40 degrees. I was so flippin' cold!

But Phoenix is really beautiful. You are in a valley surrounded by amazing black topped mountains. When I take a picture of it and look at it, even I don't think that it looks real. It all looks photoshopped. God has blessed us with so much variety in nature!

It was especially wonderful to get to spend time with Jaimie's mother and sister. They are both cool cats, and I know that they miss him as much as he misses them. We stayed at their house and spent a lot of time chatting and catching up about life. I cooked almost every meal-including a Litchfield family tradition; "Eggs Litchfield" for Christmas morning breakfast. Everyone really loved it-but I think that is only because they haven't ever had my mom's. Since I grew up eating my mom's Eggs Litchfield, I wasn't very impressed with what I came up with-but then again, I guess she has had a few extra years of practice. :)

This is just one of the extremely cute children in Jaimie's family.

Jaimie and his mother and sister, myself, and his sister Cayla's then boyfriend, Jason.

Believe it or not- this is just over half of the Clark family. They are a fertile bunch!

I'm not sure what we will do next year for Christmas, but this visit to Phoenix was really fun. And most importantly, I know that it meant a lot to Jaimie and his mother that he was there. He hasn't been home in many, many years for Christmas. We really want closeness with family to be a value that we instill in our own children, so we are making sure to be strong in that area ourselves before we go creating any spawns. :)

2009 Rewind- "Christmas"

2010-04-06T22:32:00.000-04:00

Jaimie and I decided to visit his family in Phoenix, AZ this year for Christmas. It was the fair thing to do since we went to my family's the year before. And even though I was the one who suggested the idea-as the weather began to change and Christmas was approaching, I found myself really bummed out that we would be in for such hot weather on Christmas!

I have never been in the south for Christmas before. Being from Rhode Island, we often had a White Christmas. Then I spent 6 years in Ohio, and 4 of them I returned to my homeland. :) I have had 27 very cold and usually snowy Christmases.

So rather than bring all of our gifts for eachother all the way to Arizona, we decided to celebrate "our Christmas" the weekend prior. And I think that God was listening to my prayers-because we got 2.5 feet of snow here in Maryland! It. Was. Awesome! Carbide played in the snow and Jaimie and I drank cocoa, started a fire in the fireplace, and looked out the window at the beautiful falling snow. It ended up being a really special day-and the best part was that it was just the two of us. Err... the four of us actually. Carbide and Mischief were very much involved. :)

Here is our "official" 2009 Christmas Picture.

I decided to knit Jaimie a Christmas stocking. Then I also decided to spin the yarn to make it! This wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't BRAND NEW to spinning, and if I didn't have this "brilliant idea" smack dab in the middle of December. He is a huge Ohio State fan (Go Bucks!), so I decided to make it in OSU colors.

Why is it so ugly and deformed, you ask? Well that is because as I was knitting the foot, I forgot to do the shaping which WOULD HAVE tapered it in. I think this is because I have never knit a stocking before and have only knit socks-who knows. By the time I realized what I had done, it was 1:30 on our "Christmas Eve" and the hubbs and I were both really tired. He begged me to come to bed with him, but I was being really stubborn about finishing the damn stocking. Then it hit me-Christmas isn't about perfection. It itsn't even about stockings. It is about the birth of Christ. And as much as I really wanted to make everything perfect for our Christmas celebration-I realized that it was more important to make my husband happy. As a newlywed, I am still learning what that looks like. It seems that he values time together, cuddling in bed higher than he does perfectly knit Christmas stockings. Go figure. Men are so complex! It is only because I learned this important lesson that I even posted a picture of this ugly stocking. Hopefully I will have it finished and looking great for him by next year.

This is the AWESOME stocking that he gave to me. I love it. I have never seen a cooler stocking in all of my life! :)

We had a wonderful little "Christmas Breakfast". Trader Joes carries this gorgonzola cheese covered in dried cranberries and walnuts. It is amazing. They also have some fantastic assorted crackers. We love them-so that was what we ate while exchanging gifts. We also have these awesome coffee cups which were a gift from Elyssa. They say "Paris" on them (she knows how fondly we remember our trip to Paris together) and they fit together and share a saucer. They are the best coffee cups on the planet. I know. I have checked.

I love Christmas mornings with Jaimie. My parents were always pretty good about not rushing the festivities-you know it takes so long to think of thoughtful gifts for everyone and save up money to buy them, then wrap them-it is such a shame to rush. I haven't had a Christmas with my Dad since my parents got divorced when I was 19, but things seem a little more hurried at my mom's house at Christmas these days. So last year, though we really enjoyed getting to see my family, we were a little bummed out that Christmas morning was so rushed. When it is just the two of us, we don't rush at all. We take all day! And we dont' even buy that many presents-but we just feel free to take breaks to have a snack or watch a movie (if we just got one) or play with our new toys/whatever. Or just to make out. Mmmm. I just love Christmas with Jaimie. It seemed like it had lost so much of the magic when I grew up-like it would never be as incredible as it was when I was a little kid. But I really do feel like a little girl on Christmas morning when we are sharing the day.

Jaimie showing off his two favorite gifts- his new ipod (we have never had them before-so he is super pumped! Also I got a "K-bar" knife for him. It is called a "tac tool" and he was really excited about it. I am a really good bargain hunter-not as good as Erin, but still pretty good!

Carbide was really happy that he got presents also. His birthday is December 19th, so he sometimes gets frustrated that people try to "combine" the holidays. But he definitely came to the right family! Since Erin's birthday is Deceber 21st, I know all about this Sagittarian delimma. We make sure to acknowledge his birthday AND Christmas. Here he is with his scorpion from his Nana.

And poor little Mischief. He loves to play with balls with bells in them, but he always loses them after 15 seconds. Jaimie tied some bells to a length of yarn, and that seems to be working much better. For now.

2009 Rewind- Thanksgiving

2010-04-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

Since my sister Erin has peer pressured me to fix my blog- here we go.

The hubbs and I went up to Boston for Thanksgiving. Erin twisted my arm (not) to get me to go see New Moon with her (for her second time) and we had a nice time- until everyone kept getting nervous when they looked at me afterwards because they thought I looked like the "Volturi" since my eyes were still red and icky looking from the Lasik. Wha wha.

The littlest nugget-Elyssa- has a snake named Oliver. I like to call "her" Olivia to annoy her. This snake is really weird and refuses to peel himself like he is supposed to. Here are some glamour shots of him.

Meanwhile, Erin was rolling around on the floor with Carbide. So strange.

On Thanksgiving, in addition to my sister Elyssa, her boyfriend Dean and his parents and friend Elvis were also there. We had a nice time hanging out and discussing Alpacas. (Dean's parents have a farm! Super sweet!)

Mom and Dom, and their doggie, Jack.

The hubbs and I, and our little nugget, Carbide.

Elyssa and Dean (and Jack)

Dean and Elvis

Erin and her new hubby, Mike.

Erin is the only human that Carbide tries to mate with. I think it is because she crawls around on the floor with him in her "play clothes". He wants to marry her. I told him that she is taken. He is bummed.

Erin's "Twilight Bella Mittens". This is her pretending to be Bella and being awkward with a car.

Here, I am posing with Oliver. I was a little intimidated by him at first (being a snake and all) but I'll tell ya what- a few Grey Goose and pineapple juices and my inhibitions went away, and I let the thing ride around on my neck. (I can't believe that Elyssa went for that)!

After Thanksgiving at our mom's house, Erin invited Jaimie and I over to her and Mike's apartment (or their "treehouse" as she likes to call it!) to hang out. They know that clam chowder is my favorite food, so they went out the day before and bought a gallon of it. Literally. I was in heaven. You would think that I wouldn't have been able to eat any more after that HUGE thanksgiving dinner that my mom made-but somehow I found the space to go off on a whole pint of chowder! It was awesome.

While we were there, I taught Erin how to knit. She is making twin baby blankets for the twins that her friend is having. She did an awesome job with the knitting, and I was really impressed! Meanwhile, Jaimie and Mike played all sorts of video games. I always mix up which system it was on, but they played some games where you get to kill zombies and also where you are in the military and are out on missions. Jaimie loved every second of it, and it made me happy to see him relax a bit.

Thanks, Erin! (Wha wha)

2010-03-29T10:45:00.000-04:00

So I have had this blog since September of last year-without a single follower-which was fine for me because it served as more of a personal diary and a record of my knitting projects than anything else. When the holidays came, I got super lazy about updating this thing and really haven't done it in a while.

Over the weekend, my younger sister Erin joined the blogging world, already has 15 followers, and referred everyone over to my blog! That is why I am posting this message-if anyone actually comes to my page and sees that i haven't updated the thing in months-this is to let you know that I will be updating it soon. I have many more knitting projects (one of which was for Erin-her Twilight mittens) to post pictures of, as well as general holiday stuff.

So thank you for stopping by! I'll try to get something interesting for you to read soon!

Love,
Erika

Not a lot of kitting going on here!

2009-11-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

This week was very unproductive with the knitting! I had Lasik surgery on my eyes on Thursday, which made me pretty useless all day Thursday and most of Friday.

Then-on Friday night, our friends Rene' and Tim from Columbus came out for a visit! It was so great to see them and we were really touched that they made the drive! Their visit was supposed to be a surprise, but when the hubbs mentioned their names for an unrelated reason, a picture of them in their Ohio State jerseys in downtown D.C. next to the monuments flashed in my mind. Saturday was the big OSU vs. Michigan game. BUSTED! The hubbs should know by now that he can't surprise me, and if he so much as THINKS about the surprise in the same room as me, I will figure it out!

We had a great time down in D.C. checking out the monuments and then up in Annapolis. We ate some seafood on the dock and watched the ships go by. We got some coffee in the coolest Starbucks ever-the one in the basement of the Maryland Inn. Then-back to the apartment for some beer and conversation. What a fun time!

Jaimie was VERY proud of his parallel parking!

The women whose pictures were etched into the Korean War memorial. It was so touching to see them acknowledged!

Honest Abe- he's even bigger than the history books say!

This monument is a tribute to the women who fought in Vietnam. Most of them were nurses who cared for our wounded soldiers. This monument was completed in 1994, and the sign explaining it says that 'now the Vietnam memorial is complete". I think that's cool. These were the women who really paved the way for my generation of soldiers-though their bravery so far outshines my own that I hesitate to put myself in the same category.

WWII Memorial.

I DID actually get SOME stuff done this week. Here is the beginning of the sweater I am making for my mother for "Christmas"-which she probably won't get until Mother's day!

And here is the gray yarn which I just completed this evening. I will use it with the red yarn from last week to knit a OSU Christmas stocking for the hubbs. :)

Red Yarn, a Healthy Carbide, and My Mother's Christmas Sweater

2009-11-16T00:35:00.000-05:00

This week I made another skein of yarn! This one is red and I tried to correct the mistakes that I made with the black one. I definitely overspun the last one so I tried to spin this one a bit less.

But unfortunately, what I ended up with was uber underspun yarn!

Some of it is fine, but some isn't twisty enough. Hopefully the next skein will balance out the two and be perfect. I have noticed that spinning this one, which was wool was more physically difficult for me than the first one. It was easier to draft in that the fibers seemed to stick together more than the alpaca did, so They were helping me out a bit in that way, but I really had to tug on them to draft out as thinly as I wanted to go. It wasn't a big deal at first, but when I was spinning and watching a movie (so I was spinning for a few hours) my left thumb was a bit sore. I'm not sure if that is just the way it goes or if it is specific to this yarn.

In other news, the hubbs and I have been keeping a good eye on Carbide to see if he is getting any better, and he isn't limping anymore-which is wonderful news! We are thinking that he won't need surgery for a while yet, which is great because now we can save up a bit more beforehand.

Also, some of our good friends from Columbus OH let us know that they are coming out to visit us next weekend! I am super pumped because I definitely miss them and it will be so wonderful to see them!

As for knitting, I only just started the sweater that I am making for my mother. I decided to go a different way with it because the first sweater that I planned to knit for her was giving me some gauge issues.

I really like this one and I think that it will look beautiful on my mother. I especially love the XO cable pattern on the sides of the bust. That is how my mother signs off on all of her notes to us-and has since we were little kids and she would sometimes include encouraging notes in our lunchboxes. Well, she actually did "XXXOOO"- so I might have to alter the pattern to reflect that!

And finally, I started a super cool gift for the hubbs. I am making it for our second anniversary next August. I am starting now because I think that it will really take THAT LONG to complete it! Unfortunately, I can't post photos of the ongoing project on here because, as far as I know, he is the only person who READS this blog! haha If anyone else ever does read this blog and is curious, feel free to check it out on Ravelry (to which the hubbs does not have access!). My userid is "twopeasinapod" and it is in "my projects". Oh-and by the way- I am designing the entire project myself. It is my first time, so I am pretty pumped!

I MADE YARN!

2009-11-11T03:08:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah. You read it correctly. I made YARN! Or... something that vaguely resembles yarn anyway!

I feel like I improved a lot even just between my first and second skeins.

For some reason, the hubbs thought that I was very cute while plying (or "twisting" as he calls it) so he decided that it was a kodak moment.

Once it was plied, I let it soak in a sink of hot water with dish soap for 20 minutes. Then I soaked it in water with cider vinegar (I was fresh out of white vinegar!). Then one more rinse of cold water to get rid of that "salad dressing smell".

Then I hung it to dry in my shower.

In the end it was 186 yards of black alpaca magic. It is very soft and it was fun to spin! I brought it to my little knitting group, and the girls there were really excited about it-even though many of them have been spinning for a long time and make really beautiful yarn!

I definitely overspun the crap out of both plies. The whole thing kinked up a lot, and winding it from the skien into a ball was a chore because I had to keep unkinking it. I will be careful not to overspin the plies next time!

Also, this week Ft Meade had a Veteran's Job Fair. The hubbs decided that I needed a suit for the occasion (since I don't have one). Here I am right before the fair.

The hubbs says that I "sell myself short" at job fairs/interviews/etc- and this one was no exception. I try to answer the interviewers questions very honestly, and I tell them when I know I am not qualified for a certain job. I am very aware of and comfortable with my skill set, but maybe some people inflate theirs? I'm not sure, but I think we should just be able to be totally honest and the interviewer should believe us. It seems that that is NOT the way that the world works, however, so it is I who will obviously have to adjust!

We didn't do much this past weekend. I was pretty sick so we had to cancel our plans. The hubbs stayed home with me and took really wonderful care of me. He made me tea, bought clam chowder for me (I am NOT a fan of chicken noodle-even though he swears by it. He finally gave in to my whining and bought the chowder). He went to the local convienience store and brought back one of those Nestle' ice cream sandwiches with the chocolate chip cookies on either side. They are pretty much the greatest thing ever. He was pretty annoying because he was trying to be very "hands on" with my healing process- but I'll tell you what- I felt 100% better after 2 days of his care. I couldn't believe it. I felt this cold setting in and I "knew" that it was going to take a week or two to shake it, but it didn't! I also found his concern for my VERY mild ails to be touching and very, very sweet. I am lucky to have him.

And finally- I just picked this book up last week.

It is awesome! This lady explains all about different kinds of fibers and how they are made into yarn. I'm sure that there is much more, but I am still towards the beginning where she is explaining the main kinds of fibers and where they come from. Great read! So interesting!

Halloween and Carbide

2009-11-02T11:34:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Halloween! The hubbs and I had a blast at a party last night. We weren't sure of what to dress up as, but I was thinking that a pirate theme might be a good idea-that way I could get him to be excited about dressing up also. The Halloween store that we went to had 3 different female pirate costumes- 2 of which were lame and the other was $75, not counting any accessories. Wha wha. We decided to be a witch and a witch doctor. Check us out!

Also, since Carbide has been hurting with his shoulder and hips and kind of confined to our apartment, he has been acting up. A lot. He is generally only an occasional chewer, but in the past week he has chewed something up every single time that we have left the apartment. A couple of days ago I went to the grocery store, and when I came back I saw that he had gotten into the garbage. My bad for not taking it out before I left-especially since it had his two favorite things in the world in it; coffee grounds and banana peels. Unfortunately, the grounds were still wet, and when he dragged them onto the carpet... they reflected their natural dyeing properties. I was scrubbing coffee stains out for a while, and now that the carpet has dried, I think that I need to go back in. But that isn't even the worst of it. The very next day when I went out to run errands, I came back to find that Carbide had gotten into my swim bag. He chewed up my soap (one of his other favorites). Then I saw pink plastic pieces on the carpet, so I thought that he chewed up my scissors. After a second I realized that in fact, he had chewed up my razor! I was horrified! What kind of crazed mutt would chew up a razor?! He also chewed up the actual razor part-and in a panic I was about to call the vet to ask what we should do, when I noticed something shiny on our carpet.

Oh yeah. It's what you think it is. Our brilliant dog managed to chew all of the white plastic around these razor blades off of them, eat them, and leave these behind. I couldn't believe it. I am thankful that he didn't eat them, but still couldn't believe it. I am looking forward to his orthopedic appointment on Friday. Hopefully we can get started with a solution to his joint problems so we can get back to our normal life.

Also, I was successful in talking my mother into wanting the pretty sweater. The problem was what I suspected-she thought that it would be too difficult and so she tried to convince me that she wanted the very simple and basic sweater. I told her that for the longest time I was scared to do any color work, so I did only cables, and I am pretty much the cable master. She thought that she wanted thick cotton because it is less hot than wool. I explained to her that you can't go too think with cotton because, though it isn't a super warm fiber, it is very heavy and will stretch the garment vertically. As for wool, it doesn't have to be super warm and scratchy; it can be thin and soft. For yarn, I chose Elsebeth Lavold's Silky wool in white, which has already arrived from Paradise Fibers (I LOVE that store!), but the pattern is still en route.

It seems pretty likely that the Navy will be giving me the boot. The hubs is dragging me to a veterans job fair this Wednesday. He decided that I should have a suit for it so it will be more professional. I went to Express and got the cutest skirt suit! It is actually kind of sexy, in a very conservative and professional way! I'll include a picture next time.

I finished my sister Erin's snowboarder scarf. I'll need the hubs to snap that picture, though, so I'll have to include that next time as well.

And finally, I am finished with the first of my dad's argyle socks. They are coming along better than the ones that I made for Jaimie, which were my first attempt at color work, but they are still pretty rough. I made some mistakes while knitting the pattern (which is pretty impressive since it is about the easiest pattern on the Earth) and I really had a bear of a time sewing the seams. I seemed to (haha) mess up the pattern. But I guess you can get away with mistakes like this when you are making it for your parents. If he liked painted rocks as paperweights for Father's Day, hopefully he will like jacked up argyle socks.

Socks, Mittens, and Carbide

2009-10-26T02:03:00.000-04:00

I am finally finished with both of my sister's Christmas mittens!

My husband is sponsoring a foreign officer from Jordan. We were supposed to show him around the area and introduce him to American culture. We had him over for dinner 2 weeks ago, and I made the most American dinner that I could think of- Roasted Chicken. I also made hummus to try to honor his culture (though I'm certain that it was not as good as he is used to!). In Middle Eastern culture, it is rude not to return an invitation, so even though this gentleman is staying in a hotel and doesn't have a kitchen to cook a meal in, he insisted on taking us out to dinner. The Jordanian restaurant that we wanted to go to is apparently closed, so we ended up going to a Palestinian restaurant in downtown Washington DC called Mama Aisha's. It was awesome! We had hummus, baba ganoush and tabbouleh just to start with! I had a fantastic beef and eggplant thing for dinner. We basically forced down some dessert (baklava for them, rice pudding for me). I was so stuffed that I couldn't even think about food. The Jordanian officer we were dining with started speaking in arabic to the owner of the restaurant. I obviously didn't know what they were saying, but they seemed to become fast friends. When we were about to leave, another tray of desserts appeared on our table! I understand that in Middle Eastern culture, being a good host/hostess is sacred-but I didn't know that that extended to restaurant owners as well! I had the tough job of choking down another enormous portion of baklava (I know, feel sorry for me!). After that, when we dropped him back off at his hotel, he insisted that we come up and try the cookies that his wife baked for him and sent along in his suitcase. Seriously?!?! She made two kinds, so he insisted that I try both. His wife is obviously a fantastic baker, and both were amazing. I didn't think that I would be able to eat for 3 days, but I was hungry again the next day- at, like, 5:00 PM! What a feast! What a fun night!

I have started trying to use my wheel! I obviously don't know what I am doing yet, but it is fun to learn something new!

Please excuse my mess! As you can see, I have yarn, knitting books and knitting needles everywhere! The hubbs was up all night on Friday and Saturday working on his thesis, so I was up all night (literally all night- until 0600!) playing with fiber. Tough life. Really tough. By next August, he will have a Masters degree, and I will have about 100 handknit socks. I wonder if I can put that on my resume'?

I have started a new project!

My dad and I recently got back in touch. I couldn’t be happier. Anyway-Christmas is coming and he makes a lot of money, so he already has bought or can buy anything that he wants. I thought it would be nice for me to make something for him-like I did when I was a kid. (But hopefully a little nicer!)
He lives in Florida and commutes every week to Texas for work. I have always lived in the north and I’m not sure really of what to knit for warmer climates. Also-he was recently diagnosed with Diabetes. When I think of Diabetes, I think of two things. The first is cake, because I would be sad if I couldn’t eat it. The second is feet, because I always hear about bad things that happen to people’s feet who have Diabetes. I decided that he should have some really special socks for his feet.
He wears dress pants and a button up shirt to work, so I decided to stick with a black background for these socks. His favorite color is blue, so I wanted to knit these socks in different shades of blue. I realize that the aqua color is a tad girly-but my dad really loves sailing, and the name of that color is “Caribbean Blue”, so I decided to run with it. The other blue is called “Deep Water” which I thought was also a good choice for a sailing enthusiast.
I researched different kinds of cooler sock yarns (rather than the merino wool that I used to make them for the hubbs). I learned that bamboo is naturally anti-bacterial, which makes it a great choice for socks. Also, these are made of cotton and a little elastic nylon for stretch. Unfortunately, to get the gauge, I have to knit these bad boys with size 0 needles! Wha wha.
I plan to wrap them in blue tissue paper with some gorgeous blue wrapping paper and ribbon. I hope that he likes them.

Also, I was speaking with my mother on the phone yesterday about what she might like to have for Christmas. She said that she has been looking to buy something for a while, but was hesitant to tell me about it fearing that I might try to MAKE it for her, and she "didn't want to trouble me". Sure. I've heard THAT before! Anyway- she has apparently been searching high and low for the PERFECT white sweater. She likes v-necks (she doesn't like anything near her neck). She also gets hot with bulky wool and would like something cotton. She is "long waisted" (longer torso than legs) so many sweaters are a tad short on her, and she would prefer it a bit on the long side anyway. I told her that I would design a sweater for her. Super sweet of me, hey? Too bad that I really don't know how to knit a sweater! I went to the library and checked out a book on sweater design called The Sweater Workshop. I'm not sure about this, now! Also, we are driving up to see my family for Thanksgiving and celebrating Christmas THEN- so I actually have a month less than I would if I was making this for Christmas! I sent her some pics of sweaters to see what kinds of things she likes and dislikes. She picked the MOST BORING SWEATER on the earth! It is just a (I think) 7x1 or 7x2 ribbed, v neck sweater. I am trying to sway her to liking this one:

This sweater is knit in a DK weight wool, so it won't be as hot as some sweaters can be. Also, I could extend the bottom ribbing of the sweater and make it longer for her. And it is super cute and sexy! But, my opinion really doesn't matter-she would be the one wearing it.

And finally, the hubbs and I got some sad news this week. Our little angel, Carbide, isn't doing so well. It turns out that he has shoulder and hip dysplasia. The poor dear needed to be knocked out in order to do the x-rays (this is, apparently the way that it is always done, but I didn't know that). I know that Newfies are prone to orthopedic troubles, but I wasn't expecting this with Carbide for a few years yet. He isn't even 3 years old! Poor thing. I will be visiting vetinerary orthopedic surgeons this week to see what they can make of our situation and what they think would be best for Carbide. I love that little dog! When I first got out of the Air Force and moved to Columbus, I didn't have a job (the Navy had claimed that I would go straight from the Air Force into the Navy-in fact, they jerked me around for a month and a half and I didn't know what was going to happen). Also, my Meme' had just passed away, which is still the worst thing that has ever happened in my life. And I didn't know anyone in Columbus- no job, school hadn't started yet. No friends. Jaimie was stationed in Germany. It was a pretty dark time in my life. But then there was little Carbide. I had just gotten him. All 18 pounds of fur that he was back then. I know that this sounds really dramatic, but he was the reason that I got up in the morning. As really, really sad as I was, I understood that I was responsible for that little creature. Things would have been so much worse had it not been for him. He took care of me. Now, I will take care of him. Maybe it is a blessing that I am not working now (since I am waiting on a military medical board). I can be with him while he goes through this process and help him rehabilitate.

We don't usually give him McDonald's obviously, but he had such a rough day at the vet's office that we decided to make an exception. He was such a good boy and still waited for his release command before he inhaled that cheeseburger! (ONE BITE! I'm not kidding!) Then I set up a little nest for him. He loves to lay on the tile near the fireplace or the front door, or in the kitchen or bathroom since his fur keeps him so hot. But I think that his joints are really starting to hurt him because he has been laying on the carpet more lately. I put a fan on the floor and pointed it towards him- and he seemed to like it a lot. Poor little guy. He is also, as it turns out, allergic to Maryland, and we have to put this goop in his eyes twice a day for a few weeks. AND he has had ear trouble since he was a puppy-which has flared back up and he now needs goop in his ears as well! This poor little dear just can't catch a break! I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a child-I am so upset over our dog being sick. Motherhood must be heart wrenching!

My Birthday Present!!!

2009-10-20T14:38:00.000-04:00

My birthday present from the hubbs arrived in the mail today! He ordered it from the Woolery in KY on Thursday or Friday, and it arrived on Monday! Free shipping! I would like to do more business with that company!

I am super pumped! I can't wait to start spinning on this sexy hunk of wood! I still have a bunch of Christmas gifts to finish up, and we might be going up to Boston to visit my family for an early Christmas (first week of November) since we will be spending Christmas with the hubb's family this year. So I need to get cracking! Not that I'm complaining! I am very blessed to have it be a "problem" to decide which craft/hobby to do first. I am beginning to see this transitional time as more of a blessing than I had previously!

Mittens and More Mittens

2009-10-19T23:28:00.000-04:00

I am 95% finished with Elyssa's Dragonfly Mittens!

You might be thinking, "Gee Erika, those look pretty finished to me". Good point, dear reader. Good point. I was trying to resolve the "these are the scratchiest damn mittens on the Earth" issue by washing and drying them a few times (they are superwash wool). The nice lady at FreshIsleFibers.com told me that it would help a lot. She was right. Unfortunately, it also shrunk them down just a bit-and they are now to small. So I ripped out the taper stitches in one of the thumbs in order to add 3 rows of length and then re-taper and finish the thumb. I threw it in the washer and dryer-and the thumb fits a lot better now. But I am wondering if the length is too short (for the hand) now. I might need to do the same thing for the hands. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case since that will require ripping out pattern stitches which will be much more of a pain to re-do, but if it needs it, it needs it. Also, the cuff is too loose... and I'm not sure of how to fix that without just starting all over again with fewer cast on stitches for the cuff? I'll keep you posted.

Our cat Mischief doesn't seem to mind all of the problems with them! Also-the sister that they are going to is probably his favorite human on the planet.

In other mitten news, I am almost done with my other sister Erin's Twilight mittens! I love this pattern-and I know that my sister will love it as a Christmas gift. The problem was that Bella’s actual mittens in the movie Twilight are not stockinette stitched in the palms. They have some sort of textured stitch. When I have looked at alternative patterns for these mittens, I found that the designers brought the textured stitch all the way around to where the cables are on the top of the mittens-which also isn’t correct. It took some doing (about 5-6 complete rip outs of the hands) but finally I got a textured stitch on the palms of the hands, while maintaining the ribbing on the sides of the cables and the cables themselves. Tiresome work! But now my sister’s mittens will look much more like the real ones worn in the movie!

I am pretty excited about this cardigan.

I have never knit or crocheted something for myself that I actually have finished. I have a lot of patterns stored up that I would like to someday make- even yarn for some of them, but I just always have some other project that I would like to make for my sisters or my husband that takes priority. Not this time. I forgot to put this picture up a week or two ago when I finished this cardigan, so here it is. I have worn it 3-4 times already, and people always compliment it. That really makes be happy since I have never worn anything I have made before, so I never know how people respond to the items. Anyway-just wanted to include this cardigan because I love it and I am really proud of it. By the way, the patern is from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop Crochet book.

And finally- I really must include some pictures of the hubbs and our super cute dog. It has been a bit chilly at night here recently, so we have been getting ample use out of our fireplace. These are pictures of my boys this past Saturday night.

Getting Caught Up

2009-10-14T12:41:00.000-04:00

As I wrote in my last post, I managed to lose my battery charger for my camera during the move. That made it so that I couldn't upload my pictures from the things which I was writing about. That situation is resloved now!

These are the my first ever fair isle gloves which I was attempting to make for myself. I loved the colors of the yarn and had pretty much decided that these would be the most beautiful gloves the world had ever seen. One small problem. Since I had never worked with fair isle, I was unsure about tension. They seemed much too small for my hands. Even at the beginning of this project, I considered ripping the whole thing out and starting from scratch with larger needles or less tension. But in the instructions the author wrote that, as with all color work, these would stretch with blocking. So I kept knitting away. But in my gut I knew that something was wrong. I should have listened! I learned from the ladies at my knitting group that they don't actually stretch THAT MUCH, and I will, in fact have to rip the whole darn thing out. Bummer! Here are some better pictures (since the last ones were taken on my cell phone)!

Also, last weekend Jaimie and I went on a hike with our room mate and his girlfriend. Here are some pictures of the beautiful scenery!

After our hike/photo op, we stopped at a restaurant called Pier 1 in a town called North East, MD for brunch. It was really wonderful. We all thought that we were super hungry, so we each ordered biscuits and gravy along with some kind of pancake or french toast. None of us were able to finish all of that food, but it wasn't for lack of trying! By far the best biscuits and gravy I have ever had!

This past weekend was the big Annapolis Boat Show. My dad and step-mother flew up to visit he hubbs and I as well as check out some gorgeous sail boats! I fell in love with one of them- too bad that it costs $2 million! My major gripe with sailboats is that the galleys are so small! I love to cook and I don't think that I could live for any length of time in a place where I had basically a small kitchenette to work with. The $2 million boat had a decent kitchen, though. I'll start saving my pennies.

My dad adored our dog, Carbide. He kept playing with him and talking to him. Very cute. I hope that he likes his real grandkids that much when we have children someday!

They seemed to have a really good time, which made me happy. I cooked a TON of food in preparation for the trip, and they seemed to really like it. I made my dad's favorite "cookie"- hermits. I brought those to pick them up from the airport. For dinner I made Roasted Red Pepper Humms and pita chips, New England Clam Chowder, Roasted Chicken (my step mother's favorite) with baby red potatoes and artichokes. For dessert- Angel Food Cake. I hadn't made a homemade angel food cake since I was 7 and made it for my father's birthday. That was before I understood how vital beating the egg whites was! I thought that I had been beating them for long enough and it was time to do something else- needless to say, the cake was only about 2 inches tall. Oops. This one turned out much better-and was much taller.

Since this is supposed to be a knitting blog, I suppose that I should blog about some knitting! I am very nearly done with my youngest sister's Christmas gift which is some illusion dragonfly knit mittens- to match her scarf from last Christmas. I thought that a pattern for dragonfly mittens would be the easiest pattern on the earth to find-but that turned out to be incorrect! I actually had to combine the dragonfly illusion knit pattern from her scarf last year with an illusion mitten pattern which I purchased from Fresh Isle Fibers. It worked out beautifully because I only had to fudge one stitch! (The dragonfly patter is 31 stitches across at its widest point, and I was allowed 30 stitches across for the mitten top.)

Unfortunately, when the yarn arrived, there were two problems. The first was that the color of the yarn was a VERY pinkish purple (more of a magenta than a true purple) so it is not the same color as the scarf that I knit for her last year. (It looked much different in person than on the computer when I ordered it. Go figure). The second problem was that the yarn is very, VERY scratchy. So scratchy, in fact that I think I might have to sew a fleece liner or something inside of it so the scratchy yarn isn't up against her skin. The good thing, though is that the yarn can both be washed and dryed, so once I am done knitting, I might try that a few times to see if I can soften it up a bit.

And finally, yesterday my friend Dharma and I went up to PA to check out a knitting and spinning wonderland called The Mannings. It. Was. Amazing. They had every kind of yarn and wheel. I really love the old fashioned looking spinning wheels that remind me of Sleeping Beauty from when I was a kid. There was a particularaly gorgeous Kromski that I was really into. There was an exceptionally knowledgeable gentleman there (Mr. Knisley, who teaches all of the spinning classes) and he walked us through the differences between all of the wheels. He had me sit down at that Kromski and tell him if I felt like there was a problem. The first thing that I noticed was that a large part of the wheel juts out at you and is about 2 inches away from your left knee. I felt a little boxed in. Also, since I am tall, he thought that the wheels with a lower orafice might be difficult for me to work with. I had mostly come to check out the Ashfords since you can buy them unfinished, finish them yourself and save some money. The Traditional wasn't as nice as I thought it might be, but the Traveler seemed like a great wheel. At The Mannings, they don't sell it unfinished, so I couldn't really save the money there. Also, the Lazy Kate that it has built in isn't tensioned, so I would actually have to buy another Lazy Kate in order to ply my yarn.

There was another wheel there-the one that my friend Dharma is in love with and will be buying. I walked right past it and thought nothing of it. It was plain as plain could be. Light colored wood. Vertical layout. Nothing ornate or fancy. I couldn't understand why she made such a fuss ofer this Lendrum spinning wheel. That is, of course, until I sat down at it and started spinning (or at least trying to).

This wheel was brilliant in its simplicity!

It is very smooth to treadle. It comes with a super fast flyer and 4 bobbins as well as a tensioned lazy kate for $622. That is more than we were planning to spend, but it really does include everything. It folds almost completely in half, and can slide under my bed or be easily transported. Also, the orafice is very high (the highest I saw yesterday) so I won't be hunched over to spin with it. And the whole top piece (everything except for the treadles) are angled forward towards the spinner about 30 degrees or so. I didn't understand why until I spun with wheels that didn't have that angle. It is so you can see the yarn that you have spun and know when you need to adjust your hook to let the yarn feed onto the next space down on your bobbin. Cool, huh? My name is now on the waiting list!

LOST, forgotten camera parts, and fair isle gloves

2009-09-28T23:51:00.000-04:00

I had a rather eventful weekend. The hubbs and I have a room mate, and he and his girlfriend are equally as into the T.V. show LOST as we are (maybe more!). The thing was, that back when the hubbs and I lived in Columbus we started going to a bible study which was also on Wednesday nights. For a while we were good about catching up on the episodes, but after a while we drifted away. The solution? A LOST MARATHON!!! We began the festivities last Friday and tried to get through all 17 episodes, but we started at about 1:00 A.M- and we only made it until about 10:00 A.M. For some reason, the hubbs and I thought that we had only seen about 4 episodes... we turned out to be very wrong and saw very familiar episodes up until about episode 13... which didn't happen until this past Friday when we finished the season. What an ending! We can't wait until the season 6 premier!

Also, this Saturday and Sunday was National Alpaca Days- an open house event amongst local alpaca farms where you could visit and see the alpacas and speak with the farmers about that lifestyle- and of course, buy fiber and yarn! Super fun! I took some really cute pictures, but of course, I forgot my little camera's connector cable in Ohio! I ordered one on e-bay today, though, so I should be able to post some super cute alpaca pictures soon. Also, I forgot my Canon Rebel battery charger... so all of the pictures that I have been taking of my latest project to post on here are stuck on my camera. I took a few photos of my current progress on my cell phone to upload onto here-but obviously the quality leaves much to be desired.

My concern with this is that I haven't really done a fair isle pattern before and this glove really seems too small for me- but the pattern says that once it is blocked it will be a little bigger. I sure hope so, but just to be safe, I will block this one as soon as I am done with it to make sure that it will be big enough before I begin the second one.

I will post a link to this pattern also.

I am still working on the snowboarder gloves- I am done with about 4.5 repeats of the figure. It is just a very simple pattern and kind of mindless- which I definitely like sometimes, but I need a break from it sometimes also.

Erin's Snowboarder Scarf

2009-09-20T22:20:00.000-04:00

I just began my sister Erin's illusion knit snowboarder scarf.

If you are interested, I have posted the link to this pattern in the sidebar, as well as a link to some other shadow or illusion knitting patterns.

I think that I will be trying to cook pad thai. If it turns out well, I will include the recipe on here!

SUCCESS!

2009-09-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

I finally finished the socks! It has taken me a long time to get these done. I always tend to have a difficult time with anything in pairs. Once I get done with one, I would like to just be done and move on to something else, but since feet come in pairs, it makes sense that socks should also. I finished the first sock about 6 months ago, and just now got around to finishing the second. All in all, these weren't too terribly awful to make. They were more interesting than regular socks because of the argyle pattern, but not impossible to work on while watching a movie or something.

As for the yarn shortage situation that I was dealing with- I definitely wasn't going to have enought yarn, so I ended the sock a bit early. Jaimie actually prefered it that way because sock patterns always seem to want to make you have a weird pointy toe-but in the middle of your foot. Thankfully, I don't think that it is too noticeable when he is actually wearing the socks.

The yarn that I ordered for my middle sister's Christmas gift came in the mail the other day. Her snowboarding coat is navy and gold, so I ordered matching wool to knit her an illusion knit scarf of a snowboarder (also from illusionknits.com). She is thinking of buying a gold winter peacoat, so this will actually go with either one. I will post some pictures once I have some progress made!

A Wing and a Prayer

2009-09-16T05:07:00.000-04:00

My husband and I moved here to Maryland about a month ago. As we were frantically packing for the move (he is in the military and got short notice orders... VERY short notice), I thought that I grabbed all of the yarn that I needed for the projects that I had going. Turns out that I forgot at least one element from each one- a skein of yarn, a crochet hook, knitting needles of a particular size.

So I am just finishing (finally!) my first ever color work project. A pair of argyle socks for my husband. We graduated from Ohio State-and he is a big fan of the football team, so I wanted to incorporate the scarlet and grey. My favorite color is green, so I used that as the color using the least yarn in the pattern.

In the second sock, I tried to carry the black yarn behind the red diamond rather than doing it intarsia style like I should have. There is a lot of puckering. Boo.

But back to my forgetfulness.

I forgot my other black skein and as you can see- I am thisclose to being done with this sock, but I'm not sure if I will have enough yarn. If I don't have enough, I will be only a few yards shy, which is annoying but kind of funny.

In other news, I ordered some really nice sock yarn for a Christmas gift for my youngest sister. Last year for Christmas I knit a really cool 'illusion knit' dragonfly scarf in gray and purple for her. I asked her what she wanted this year and she wants some dragonfly gloves or mittens to match. No problem, right?

Wrong. I actually could find only one pattern for dragonfly mittens-and they were not that cool. I went to the same website where I got the scarf pattern (illusionknits.com) and they DO have a mitten pattern, but it has a different figure on it. I am going to try to merge the two together, but I really don't know how it will turn out! More to come on that one when the yarn comes in!

Here We Go

2009-09-14T02:48:00.000-04:00

I love the idea of knitting blogs. I enjoy reading about what other knitters are doing and creating.

I hope that this blog will enter into that dialogue and we can all discuss our progress together.

More later.