Superbowl 2010

We’re just in it for the snacks and funny commercials.

Go uh...hey who's playing this year again?

Arg! Me Pillowcase Arg!

I taught an assortment of people to knit roses for felting today. I was unable to fully gauge the success of the class but most people seemed pretty happy went they left. I had hoped to felt the roses in class but due to different levels of ability and speeds and hungry children no one felted their rose during class. I’m still learning to estimate the timing on these things.

Once my students disappeared I popped through the door into the quilt shop where they were working on the “Stack the Deck” wall hanging rescheduled from last weekend due to weather. I jumped in late and managed to put together the center of my wall hanging. I haven’t quilted anything for 5-6 years, so I figured a wall hanging would be a good warm up for a lap blanket or something during the next of the “whack” classes. After I get the borders on I will post some pictures. I went with a random assortment of hodgepodge.

I stayed for the next class and learned how to make pillow cases made with a French seam. I chose the most unlikely of fabrics for the body (pirates, no one wanted anything to do with the pirates) a red and black marbled fabric for the accent and some checkered bit with hearts. The color combination turned out beautifully. I’m quite happy with my pillow case. So it the pillow case’s recipient. I’m going to make myself one right away, that was fun and pretty quick.

Touch My Pillow And Walk The Plank!

Pirates with heart!

Will You Be Mine?

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day goodies, I’m holding a class on Saturday at Loops of Yarn in Sumter, SC. We’re making felted roses. Why give your loved ones flowers that wilt away? Now, you should still give them candies they eat because I wouldn’t deprive anyone of candies.

I wuv you!

Starts at 11am. We’ll be making a few roses and felting them right there in the store, so people will walk right out with a rose in hand.

Back to the Basics

Recently, the topic of a master knitter program has found its way into conversations in which I am involved. Is there a program like that? Yes. You should do it! You think so? Yes! Or something along those lines.

I knew about The Knitting Guild Association’s Master Knitter Program. I’d read the catalogue and looked at the descriptions of the three levels. I’d read the article in Knitty Magazine  about it. I’d tossed around the idea but never committed to it. I mean heck, I barely know how to cable and I have yet to try color stranding. It seemed a bit like putting the cart before the horse so to speak.

I looked at the arguments for and against the program in general. The arguments against the program tend to be along the lines of ”I don’t need someone to validate my talent.” Perhaps not but it’s always nice when someone does. And who doesn’t like papers that say you are master of things? But people looking at the program as a validation are missing the point. It’s not about having someone validate your work. It’s about a challenge and a learning journey.

Still, I hesitated. Maybe I would feel more prepared for this journey if I started with the Basics, Basics, Basics course? If I decided I didn’t have what it takes or it was a silly waste of resources, I would only be out the fee for the one course. If I felt encouraged and inspired to go on, I would have a nice secure foundation on which to build my knitting empire.

The materials arrived in the mail very quickly after signing up. I read through them probably three times before procrastinating for even longer. I was motivated enough but resistant. Perhaps I feared that my instructor would receive the swatches and faint away in horror. Eventually, I forced myself to sit down and get started.

Lesson One: Increases

Bar Increases

 You hide these bad boys in the purl parts of the ribbing. I fretted a little over the fact the instructor’s examples of ribbing looked much tighter around the bottom.

Right Slanting Increases

Notice the bind off edges on the first couple of swatches are mixed. I like this kind of visual learning. You can ask me what I think something will look like but I really want to see what it looks like.

Mirrored Lifted Increases

I never tried a lifted increase. I had to watch the video on these a couple times (knittinghelp.com) to make sure I was doing it right. I rediscovered my hatred of weaving in the ends. I checked my new Lily Chin’s Knitting Tips & Tricks to find her method of weaving in ends quite disappointing. I find the diagonal weaving method tends to show through my work. I prefer a double stitch method which is the recommended method. I just find it difficult to do in a ribbing situation. Stockinette is pretty easy though (Knitty.com has a good article on how to do these).

M1L and M1R

I spent a lot of time knitting the make 1 increases while making all those fingerless mitts – at the thumb increases. Of course, I did all my making in the same direction instead of mirrored. It actually came out fine because the thing wraps around the thumb but I think I would mirror them in the future. I had thought about that at the time but it seems the pattern only called for one.

I love me some yarnovers.

I have quite a bit of experience with yarnovers – as both increases for lace shawls and as decorations for the same. I love yarnovers.

Labeled and packaged and ready to go

All the increases are ready to mail off for examination under microscope, fainting away in horror upon receipt, and returning to me with notes.

Carcassonne

We keep our board games in the top of a closet in the living room. One could find the prerequisite traditional games like Monopoly, Sorry, Risk, and Life. Like many families, we have argued over the advantages and disadvantages to owning Baltic Avenue, pushed cars full of pink and blue pegs around hoping to hit a Payday, orchestrated the kamikaze to ruin the conquering plans of a significant other, and smacked a game piece that looked enough like a Hershey Kiss to make you hunger for chocolate across the room while cackling with glee. However, it is our less common selection of games that garner the most attention from the Wolf Pack.

Teen Wolf learns to play Carcassonne

“You guys have a lot of weird games.”

Ordinarily weird is something to avoid but in the world of ambiguous teenagers, weird is sometimes good or bad, or good and bad at the same time, or a little good but mostly bad, or … yeah, who the heck knows really? In dealings with teenagers it is usually best to ignore the actual words coming out of their mouthes (chances are they don’t really know the meaning of them anyway) and look for context clues. Gestures, facial ticks, muttering under their breath. And even then, you must be very careful not to jump to the obvious conclusion because frequently teenagers are only going through the prerequisite motions of disgust or displeasure because it is not acceptable to let on that they are having fun, especially if parental units are involved. There must be eyerolling and teeth gnashing. It’s in the rules. Except that they don’t follow the rules. Because they are too cool. Or something. Can we still say cool?

Face making is a necessary component for all games.

Anyway, the Wolf Pack likes playing the more unusual games like Munchkin, Killer Bunnies, Settlers of Catan, Axis and Allies, Dungeons and Dragons and Carcassonne. And really, what teenage boy could resist equipping a “Bad Ass Bandana” (Munchkin), offing some silly looking cartoon bunnies with a whisk (Killer Bunnies), becoming the wheat czar (Settlers), taking over ur bases (Axis and Allies), wiping out a kobold lair (D&D) and building a giant city in the shape of male genitalia (Carcassonne).

Welcome to Phallic City! Please enjoy your stay.

Hey, whatever puts a smile on their faces and keeps them out of trouble works for me.

Intervention

You know that show about the obsessive compulsive people who can’t organize or throw anything away? My craft space was on the verge of looking like something out of Hoarders.

Finding anything was nigh on impossible. It felt like I had a million unfinished projects buried somewhere in this mess. It was time for a rehaul, overhaul, anything with hauling in it.

My back feels a bit like a piece of wood and I’m suffering from severe lack of sleep. The outcome of this room is so wonderful (of course, almost anything would have been wonderful compared to before) that I think I may just live in there because the rest of the house needs a bit of hauling too and I don’t want to look at it or think about it very hard.

Chicken ‘n Dumplin

On occasion, I enlist Teen Wolf’s help in cooking. It recently came to my attention that when left to his own devices, he eats like a soldier huddled  deep in a trench somewhere in the middle of nowhere while surrounded by enemies. Cookies. Cans of tuna salad or chicken salad already all mixed together and packaged with crackers and a tiny paddle. Cereal out of the box. Or starves.

Now, lest you get the impression I am better than slightly capable in the kitchen, you should know that I spent most of my childhood warming up Chef-Boy-R-Dee or packets of oatmeal and do not quite know my way around the kitchen. Even so, at his age, I could follow the directions on a can of soup, or follow recipes to some degree, provided they were not especially complicated. I could make a sandwich. I liked to make chicken and rice using cream of chicken soup and Minute Rice. I liked fixing fried egg sandwiches.  Captain’s stomach turns at the thought but I liked to make fried bologna sandwiches too. I was capable of warming up left overs which in my youth didn’t happen in the microwave but in a pot on the stove with a little water added (my grandmother had a pacemaker and didn’t want to get a microwave, not to mention they were the size of a small pony then and her kitchen was tiny).

So, today we are cooking chicken and dumplins. I haven’t had homemade chicken ‘n dumplins in ages (Cracker Barrel doesn’t count). In fact, I can’t really remember when I did have it last. Before this evening, we had never let him use the knife to cut up ingredients. I’m not sure why except I suspect it has something to do with the fact I can barely get through cooking without burning and cutting myself at least once and the government has these high expections about your children retaining their limbs.

Teen Wolf helped me make a mix of seasonings to reuse later and create the broth. He also rolled out the dough. I had him read me parts of the recipe to try to get him used to reading a recipe and interpreting it.

We watched the dumplins float up to the top of the broth and chowed down on the finished results. He really likes chicken soup and dumpling type meals. Especially when they are homemade. He hates potato soup so I had to make it up to him with a soup he likes.

Bon Apetite!

Christmas Project

It is a tradition for the ladies of the family to take on a creative project over the Christmas holidays. This year’s project was a scarf knit in the round worn doubled around the neck or pulled over the head like a cowl. It is knit in Merisoft Handpainted (HP63) on size 10 needles. It was a very simple, quick knit. It’s delicious and warm. I think the yarn choice really gives it a luxurious look and feel.

I’ve recently taken to putting a bar of lavender soap in any box or bag containing yarn. I do not take the soap out of the box and buy it by the dozen at Dollar General. The rumor is that it keeps certain yarn munching critters out of your yarn. Even if this is not completely accurate, it does make your yarn and bags smell wonderful.

Mini Blanket Project

Earlier this week, Pusher told me that a representative from the Daughters of the American Revolution commissioned her to make these tiny quilts for a dollhouse to be used in some sort of educational film. DAR needed miniatures to fit a few different sized beds, including two cribs. The crib blankets were to be 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

I learned all this through a phone call by a frustrated Pusher. The larger blankets she had under control – it was those tiny crib blankets giving her trouble. She asked if I could maybe knit something.

I took a Louisa Harding and split the plies (1/3 of the whole) and knit them on a pair 0f size 0 dpns. Less than 2″ was barely enough to do any kind of pattern, so I decided to go with a drop garter for one and just a simple garter with some eyelet holes for the other. They turned out pretty nice. I hope to get some pictures of them in their new cradle home.

I Almost Got What?

I was in the knitting store today, helping the owner and setting up my store displays for upcoming classes I will teach. I met one of the women that was a judge in the county fair this year. She remembered my Cranberry Ulmus shawl very distinctly. The conversation went something like this:

“Yes, but I had competition.”

“No.”

“But there were other entrants.”

“Yes, there were other entrants but you had no competition. I’ll tell you something, you almost won best in show.”

She went on to describe this fantastic detailed Mother Teresa cross-stitched that was finally determined to be the winner. That was all very lovely but I was stuck on the fact I almost won best in show. Best in show? Crazy baby. Crazy.