Saturday, December 26, 2009

My Job is Over!

Well the holiday came off wonderfully here, although we really aren't finished celebrating. I used to stress out hugely trying to have the Christmas of the lovechild of Norman Rockwell and Martha Stewart, but I have since learned that everyone is just as happy without my stress. What an epiphany!

Now we try to make sure there is tons of food including treats, that everybody gets a happy surprise to unwrap and that we get to be together as much as possible. My Christmases are so much better with a husband who pitches in to get ready. I took a pre-Christmas brunch photo of the food. That weird thing in the back is this thing that the Dutch of the area make and it's sort of a holiday tradition. Personally, I think it is horrid. It's a sort of sweet, crusty pastry filled with almond paste (yack) and then coated with frosting. It doesn't have to have the frosting, but honestly. Frosting, hello?!? Everything is better with it.

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Now, I'm tired!

Oh yeah, and I finished the knitting on Mom's sweater, so all it needs is buttons which is FANTABULOUS!!! After this, I just know that I can conquer any knitting project in the whole world. So, Mom, Thanks for picking such a challenging sweater for me! :|

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Hey and it's nearly time to say goodbye to 2009. Who's ready to slam the door and open one on a fresh, new year?

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Answers

Cookie: Only 8 because they are very big (despite looking fairly normal size when photographed next to my husband's ginormous gorilla hands) and because that was all I could fit into the Priority mail medium box with good cushioning.

Carrie: Because she dreams of them. She loves them with a passion that burns white hot. (and I am not even joking. Perhaps she will comment and tell you how she loves them)And she can't come for Christmas because she will be feeling poorly so this way at least she has 8 huge santa cookies to look forward to.

ToadyJoe: I wish you could too damnit! But I would help you cut them out and stuff. You can't keep helpers if you make them do all the work. I've tried it!

ETA: We're making pizza tonight and my husband's crust is so perfect I had to take a picture. If you look very closely, you can see a big blue skein of yarn over next to the giant coffee urn. What? You don't have yarn in your kitchen?
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I LOVE YOU TOO, AMY!!!

And I don't feel too bad about that. This year it hasn't been very stressful though so yay!

In fact yesterday, I was frosting The Santas (my sister and mom will know what that means) and my husband colored the blue and red, and packed up the old disposable pastry bags to help! Fabulous!
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I absolutely had to get them done yesterday because that cream cheese frosting needs to set up a little before you can MAIL YOUR SISTER 8 COOKIES!!! (which I did today)

(see that's going to make her pee)

Last weekend we had so much fun. I know I'm always gross about him and it's probably annoying and eyerollworthy but he really is good to me. Anywho, Sunday we decided to drive to the beach (which is like two miles away) to see how it looked with snow. It was very pretty, but not that frozen really.

I took this
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Not really that thrilling, but I like living here.

And there is obviously a conspicuous lack of knitting content right now, but I believe by this time tomorrow, I will have something to show! Did you know it takes approximately 7 hours to weave in an assload of ends. Half an assload takes almost four hours. I don't know why the math works out that way, but it just does.

Friday, December 18, 2009

8 random things

1. So, back in August or so, I made a decision to work on getting rid of some really negative stuff in my life. And I did it, and I'm finding out that it was a fabulous decision, because the main thing I rid myself of is WAYYYYYYYYYY more negative than I had any idea of. I feel like I dodged a bullet big time, and that makes me way happy! I made a big mistake, but I admitted it and made some hard decisions to redirect things. Accomplishment!

2. I've been spinning for Hub's next sweater on the Romney and it's turning out really nice. The first skein.
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After watching a youtube video by Beth Smith of the spinning loft, I feel like I'm really getting the hang of The "American Supported Long Draw" (or at least that's what they call it in the latest Spin-Off magazine).

3. The Stitch It Podcast group on Ravelry has inspired me to start using my breadmaker again, and I was using it TWICE a day! They inhale those wee 1 lb loaves around here (oh and I used the dough setting to make dinner rolls. LOVE) So, we got a 2 pounder off Ebay and it came today! French bread on it's way, yay!

4. We did some more Christmas shopping today and I MUST finish the last sleeve of my mom's Christmas present this weekend, MUST!

5. I've started twitting, or tweeting, or whatever. It's fun. More fun than I actually thought it would be. I'm Bammerkt; come tweet me (that sounds kinda dirty).

6. I found out if I just remove the tips of that damn Cormo fleece with a scissors, I totally love it, so I am gonna go ahead and do that now.

7. I sampled the Border Leicester lamb fleece I had and it is FAB. It washed up beautifully and easily and it's spinning up purdy awesome. Must decide what colors to dye the locks for blending.

8. I'm hooked on the blending.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Normally . . Or Yellow Alligator Shoes

I don't advocate being nice, and I actually hate the shit out of Spongebob, BUT . . .



Just about two years ago, my sister found out she had to have another surgery right after the holidays, so between Christmas and New Years', my mom and I drove there to go to a Dr. appointment with her about it. We went back home, and a day or two later, I drove back in a storm to take her for her surgery.

Leaving out the whining details, the hospital and every last staff person (until I ran into a knitter near the end of the day) was absolutely horrible. I saw them treat others very poorly also and on only a few hours sleep, I was a bit of a wreck myself. (don't worry the point of this story is coming)

I went into a cafe inside the hospital and there was this man, who worked there, and was laughing and showing off these really chartreusey yellow alligator loafers with tassels to a lady that was a cashier. He had on a matching vest and he looked pretty dapper. After I got my food and paid, that man noticed that I was juggling my stuff around and a tray and he helped me get a table and asked me if i would like help getting condiments and things. I promptly burst into tears. I was so grateful that somebody had been nice to me, that it just happened. It's not particularly normal for me to do anything like that at all.

I think of that man a lot, but especially this time of year. It taught me that you can't always tell by looking at somebody if they're having one of the worst days of their lives, and one small thing you do for them just to be nice might make that day not suck donkey ass. And even though I really am a bitch, and I don't have a lot of patience for people and their bullshit, i do try to do something nice now and then. I often look at people and wonder if this is their worst day ever. (I don't think that really WAS my worst day, but you get the point.) Even on that day, i would never have guessed that two years later I would feel like that man changed my attitude a little bit and remember him and I bet he never thought of me again.

Kind of awesome really.

I've been spinning too, photos soon maybe - oh and I'm on the LAST SLEEVE of the poodle sweater and going to block the fronts and back today! WOO HOO!

Oh and we bought a bigger bread maker so I could keep up with the snarfing of the homemade bread around here!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Hello, My Name is . . .

Big Bag of AWESOME!!!

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Blending won, and now I have a 1 pound 9 oz. bag of beautiful blue/gray Romney which will soon be spun up to make a sweater for my husband. That SHOULD be enough of this lustrous, pretty (i really don't enjoy the word yummy associated with yarn. That's not a personal attack, I just don't like it). And I have enough of the natural colored gray romney for something else later. Eight ounces maybe?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Mr. D and I have in Common

In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the wonderful Mr. Darcy says this about himself,

"My good opinion once lost, is lost forever."

Unfortunately, one of my failings also.

The good thing is, once you're my friend (which takes me a long time) I will make excuses for you and you would pretty much have to eat people you murdered to lose my good opinion. The sad flip side is that once you have, no amount of ass kissing will really make me like you again. It really is a failing indeed.

Fun fact about Bams.

I finished some fingerless gloves for my mom. The color isn't quite right. The interesting thing is that I took two photos. Both have totally different coloration, and neither is correct. Isn't that super fun? (no)

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I guess the second one is closer on my monitor, but hey who knows what yours will tell you?

Also, I have mentioned this intarsia sweater that my mom picked out of a Rowan book for her Christmas gift. Last night i finished the right front while watching Dexter with my Darling Husband. That means I am really close PUHLUS, she only wants one poodle on each sleeve, so those are going to go like nobody's business. (please do not point out that it now will need blocking and seaming and the weaving in of countless ends because I am enjoying the delusion that I'm close to the finish line).

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It's my first foray with intarsia except for the skull I knitted using a cheat technique to knit intarsia in the round. It was quite a bit different from this really.

Remember?

yoked skully

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Not PC

So we're not the most politically correct couple in the world. In the car on the way to son's first band concert. Something happened and I was jokingly telling me I was upset about something very lame.

So he was laughing.

And I said "look, your wife is upset! This is not time to titter."

Of course he said to me, " huh huh huh huh . . . . You said tit."

How can I not love this man?

So, A Dilemma!

Awhile back, in summer I guess, I bought a really nice Romney fleece on Ebay. The fleece was gray, but all shades from a silver to a dark charcoal. It's really pretty fabulous. This lady had a super awesome crimp and a nice long lock. I bet she had all the rams bothering her.

Anywho, I washed the fleece as soon as it got here. Then I put it in fleece storage. (it's nice there - lots of friends and whatnot) So I pulled it out to process last week. I picked about two thirds of it and carded a bunch of the natural fleece. The batts spin up beautifully with a longdraw. So now comes the dilemma.

I've been reading the Ashford book of carding. It's fabu. It made me want to try all different stuff with all different junk floating around in my stash. In fact I pulled out a dyed four oz. batch of Suffolk to spin up some sock yarn, but I didn't love the dye arrangement (mine) so I thought I'd divide it up, card it all together and make more of a tweedy thing. Pictures of that tangent later (which incidentally, I love). So I was spinning up a sample of this romney and I thought, gray and blue would look fantastic blended up together, and hey maybe I should dye the last third of that fleece and blend it.

On Sunday, I dyed up that batch of unpicked locks. It turned out all shades of blue, from nearly black to a nice cobalty color in the silver. (There is quite a bit less silver than charcoal) The dyed fleece is just gorgeous. I carded up a straight batt, split it, blended about half of it with gray and then compared.

People I don't know what to do!! Once it's blended, I can't unblend it, and it is BEAUTIFUL. So damnit!

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I can't decide what to do!

Oh and I knitted a swatch with the dark blue and the blended blue and gray. Still didn't help me decide. So, you know, not any help.
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Anyway, I also have some finished projects to show and maybe a WIP, but later for that!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Uncle!

Even though things are hectic this time of year, we're having a blast.

I finished my Darling Hubs' sweater. It fits him just wonderfully and it is his THIRD sweater this year. What a lucky man. Here he is, in his famous 1978 JCPenney catalog pose, just for you all.

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Personally, I think he's the greatest, but nobody gets him like I do.

We had a very nice holiday and did all our Christmas decorating and even some of the baking already. I love the holidays. My mom helped The Chief put up the tree while I was making dinner.

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Ignore the devil eyes. I've always had my suspicions, but enough said on that score.

The kids helped get the decorations on and i did the rest of the house decorating the next day (after they all went back to wherever it is they go for the day). The house looks fabulous, and it's even snowing right now yay!

Moving on . .

The other night I happened to glance out the window and see this really pretty sky from the family room so I ran out and snapped a quick photo.

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Yeah just a random thing to share.

I have spinning and a wee bread mishap to show you soon too. Thanks for stopping, and sorry it took so long!