Cleverness, Thy Name is Gleek

Very often, I find a simple idea and think, "why the heck didn't I think of that?" Such is the case when I was browsing around the other day and came across a very smart idea for something that has bothered me for a long, long time, (think through three children's infancy and toddler hood). When it is cold, and I'm carrying my kids, their pants ride up around their knees and their little legs freeze. I've noticed this on other babies too. So, what is a mom to do? Well if you are smart, like Gleek, then you simply whip up a pair of tiny leg warmers. Me? I just wait around complaining about a problem until someone else comes up with a solution. See.

But seriously! They are so spanking cute, and they were so easy to make, why didn't I think of them? Come to think of it, why don't I ever have any good knitting ideas? I am just not a person who says, Gee, Mimi's legs are exposed to sub-zero temperatures, perhaps a pair of legwarmers would take care of that problem. Gee, I need a new sweater, I guess I'll go make one, and I think I'll design it too. Gee, my feet are cold, and I have all this wool, perhaps I'll write up a pattern for some felted slippers. Gee, I don't like the way that this pattern is written, I think I'll change this and that to make it better. Me? Not so much. I am beginning to realize that there are people who think up this stuff, and then there are people like me, who follow the directions and never design things (except for once, I made a Barbie hat without a pattern). I had a friend from Poland who taught herself to knit by looking at books. Then, she cranked out about a sweater a week of her own designs. All the knowledge that she had was from books, and her understanding of how yarn and needles worked. (I know it isn't fair to compare myself to her, because she also taught herself English from a book, but still.) I don't get it.

The legwarmers were a break from the nonibag. Actually, they were a break from taking a break from the nonibag. There is no reason under the sun that I shouldn't be done with that thing by now. I got the stitch picking up all straightened out, I've got about eighty percent of the bag itself done, I just got bored and put it down for a while. Then I pulled out the size fives and some Magic Garden Buttons yarn and made those little legwarmers. Shall we see them again?

She was a somewhat reluctant model, as you can see. She missed her nap...But she is workin' those little legwarmers!

Right now, I am felting a pair of clogs in my washer. And I think that I have, in the past, spoken of how I detest my front-loader when it comes to felting. I am not exaggerating when I say I've been at this since about six o'clock. It is now 10:40. I've made good progress though, they are only slightly too large for a Sasquatch. I literally boil water in my electric tea-pot and pour it over them to get the water hot enough, thanks to my energy-star. I love that thing for all the laundry it does, it is like my own personal laundry work-horse, it is better for the environment, not to mention it is the only appliance I've ever purchased (albeit used), it's practically one of the kids. But for felting, it is no friend of mine. At this rate, I should be done about the time Ben goes off to college. And for the record, trying on wet clogs is not fantastic.

The Question on Every Super-Model's Mind Today:

Well, does it??

Blah Blah Blogaversary

Today is my blogaversary, it has been one year since I started this little endeavor, and while I am not sure that I've done it as well as I could have, I do enjoy it. I have had a few accomplishments that are notable:

• I finished my first ever sweater


• I learned to check and recheck gauge


• I knit lace


• I knit lace socks


• I finished several projects


• I made my first, second, third, forth, fifth and sixth pair of mittens (granted, four pairs were small enough to fit a Barbie doll, but still.)

So, what's in store for the next year? Well, I see some more knitting in the future. Another sweater, maybe two. I would love to say that I want to double my output in the next year, but unless I break my other knee-cap I don't think that will be possible, and I don't plan to do that just so I can knit more! But maybe I can match it, and then we will see.

I know that I've never really told the story of my knitting, so I will regale you with the tale, you can decide if it has been worth it or not.

I learned to knit in the summer of 2000, though I had been interested in learning for a few years before I found someone willing to teach me. (I am not the kind of person who looks in a book and learns things) The lady who took me on was named Ruth. She was a small town transplant for New York city. She was a beginner knitter. She learned from a beginner too. Can you see where this is going? Ruth taught me to knit a continental twisted stitch with a totally crazy cast-on, and she never taught me to bind off. She did teach me to knit in the round, and the very first knitted thing that I made was a Anne Norling baby hat. Not bad for a beginner. Then I immediately cast on another, cause I didn't need to know how to bind off to make those baby hats. They simply faded off on their own. Then, I sort of forgot how to cast on, and by then, Ruth had moved away. I spent several nights trying to remember how. I sat there with a ball of cotton twine that was never meant to be knitted, and I finally figured out a sort-of cast on. I started another hat, this time in seed stitch, even though I had no idea how to tell the difference between a knit stitch and a purl stitch, and they were twisted anyway. Then, B got a hold of a pair of scissors and chopped the hat, and all the yarn into a million pieces, I stopped knitting. I didn't even miss it. Then, when I was pregnant with Jack Jack, I decided I would knit a little strawberry hat for my baby. I had to relearn to knit again. But I prevailed. Then, while visiting Sadie in Denver, I thought that I could teach someone else to knit. Yeah, in retrospect, I probably had no business knitting in the first place, let alone trying to teach anyone else. So, she was confused, I was confused. It was ugly. And all the time, I was extremely uncomfortable knitting. It was literally painful to me. And the only things I could make were round hats, and flat scarves, because by then I had devised a bind-off that seemed to work (I'd love to see those scarves now, I'll bet they unravelled at the first hard tug!) Anyway, I went to Knit at Knite (a local knitting group) for moral support and to figure out why everyone that I saw knitting looked like they enjoyed it, and why they could make things, while I merely cramped up and knit nothing worth keeping. The good ladies there showed me what I was doing wrong, how to cast-on and bind-off, how to increase, read patterns, all the knitterly things that a knitter needs to know. I even figured out why I was so miserable, twisted stitches are hard to make. I can't stress how much they all helped me. Here is where I need to tell you that if you are a snobby knitter who frowns at beginners, you should go back to your knitting roots and remember that you, too had to learn once, maybe twice or three times, like me. The rest of the story is that I made a fabulous felted purse as my first non-baby hat project, then I bought sock yarn, and learned to make socks. But first, I had to learn to knit English style, because it looked so much easier. And I do find it easier, and I believe that it is all about ease. So there is my knitted history. I've come a long way, no? I only wish that I had had a camera to document my porgress through it all. But I do have this one picture, and I'll just leave you with my first purse, in 1 megapixel. I guess my knitting isn't the only thing that has come a long way.

What's wrong with this picture?

(I'm not talking about the quality of the photo, that is obviously wrong, but my camera simply refuses to focus anymore, and until I can afford a new one, I'll just have crappy pictures.)

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong,. I have picked up these hundred stitches time and again, and when I get to the last step, where I begin knitting in the round, it all turns out like a jumbled mess. I went to the website to see if there were mistakes in the pattern, and there aren't. What! Am! I! Doing! Wrong!? I've never made a nonibag, but the pattern seems straight forward, simple even. So why is it giving me such a hard time?

I sent the mittens to the windy city today. I thought priority post was in order, and so paid $4.60 (yes, you read right, four dollars and sixty cents to send a pair of mittens that probably weigh an ounce a piece!) and sent them off. Then found out that it is 65 degrees in Chicago today. Uh, yeah, I wouldn't exactly call that a cold snap, and there was no reason to spend that kind of money. But maybe it will cool off and there will be a need for mittens in Chi-town again some day. By the way, I used the House Mittens pattern from Charmed knits, done in large, and used Lion Brand Wool-ease. I may get made fun of here, but I really love that wool-ease! It is so cheap, and it knits up beautifully. I lika-da woolease....

Time to go show that noni bag who is boss.

groove is in the heart...

I'm slowly, and I do mean s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y, getting back into a groove around here. You might have noticed the three and a half weeks that have gone by since I last posted. But, take heart, now that walking doesn't cause excruciating pain, I plan to post at least once a week. See, I have to go down stairs to use the computer, and some days, it just doesn't seem worth it to me. I get down here and cruise the net for a few minutes, catch up on some e-mail , stare open mouthed at the huge job that is before me to put the place back into order, and then I head back upstairs to stare at other stuff that needs catching up on. It is not unlike having a newborn baby. I have sleep deprivation, my world is in total disorder, I am struggling to get things back to the way they were before, all the while I know that things may never be the same. But I am forging bravely onward.

I have been keeping up with my knitting, and that pleases me endlessly. I have increased my knitting time, and thus increased my output of finished objects. In fact, I just bound off the pocket to my second pair of Charlie Card Mittens. I am not sure that I am totally happy with the end product, but I sat up for two nights knitting and ripping and cursing like a sailor trying to get that pocket to look not-so-handmade. Today, I said, "What the heck, they are handmade!" and (sort of) let go of my perfectionism. It is funny to me that I am a perfectionist with knitting, and no where else in my life. I look around me and think: Why can't I make all the things in my life look like I do with my knitting? Why do things refuse to line up like stockinette stitches? And the answer occurs to me,: If I spent less time knitting (and reading, and surfing the net, and talking on the phone) I would have more time to make all the rest of my life behave like I used a pattern...

Did I ever show you pictures of the oh-so-cute micro mitts that I made to give for Christmas? I guess not, since I haven't been on this thing in weeks.

I got this pattern from here. I knit up four pairs, two for my neighbor girls, and I gave a pair to my mom and my grandmother. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the pairs that I made for them, because they turned out very cute. But the other pairs for my neighbors turned out pretty cute too, although my camera is not cooperating with me at all these days. Every closeup that I take is blurry. It may be time to look around for a new one...

Here is my dear friend Sadie modeling the Invisibility Cloak that I knit from Charmed Knits. I knit it as the pattern was written, but used size six and this beautiful alpaca wool that I picked up at a thrift store for a few dollars. It turned out that two skeins was just enough for the finished product. It is much less airy and delicate than the cashmere one that is in the book, but I like it nonetheless. I didn't block it, because I thought I would leave that up to her. When I went to look at blocking wires, the woman at my LYS told me not to block it. I guess you either love blocking or you hate it. I haven't blocked enough to really decide how I feel about it yet, but in any case, she can choose to leave it, or block it on her own.

But, in case you're curious, here is the swatch that I blocked, and it looked ok to me, although it took the scalloping out of the edges, and I think it looks pretty scalloped.

The snow came down yesterday and I was afraid to bring Jack to school this morning, so he is home and is now begging me to play trains with him, a mother's work is never done...bye for now!

I'm Baaaaack

The good news: After eight long weeks I am back in the land of the walking and am finally able to make it up and down the stairs. This means that I can actually update my blog, yay! The bad news is that I am blog-blocked. I feel like there is so much to say and it has overwhelmed me into a block. In all actuality, I could have updated last week when I got my brace off and was able to get around with little incident, but I just don't know where to start...

I suppose good place would be to give you a piece of advice: never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever break your knee cap. It is painful and for such a small bone, it causes a lot of problems. So, avoid making bad bets at the horse track, mixing with mobsters and ice-skating. Just don't do it. But, if you must, please make sure you can knit, because I am sure that I would have been in some kind of boredom-induced stupor by now if I hadn't had knitting to occupy my mind and hands. I literally spent five weeks completely off my feet and the first two weeks, I was too doped up to do much besides watch tv and knit. Seriously, God bless the bedridden who can't knit. I really feel for them. But also, God bless the genius who first spun wool and then used what ever was laying around to knit it. They were probably on bed rest or something. Ok, so the scoop on the knee is this, my knee cap broke into three pieces, I obviously won't be running for a while, I will have to have the pins and wires out at some point in the near future, I am doing physical therapy twice a week for an indefinite period of time, I have a five inch scar down my knee, I spend a large part of my day exercising the muscles and tendons in my legs because there was a lot of atrophy from not bending my knee for six weeks, (except for the cpm machine that I used for six hours a day for about four and a half weeks). That is pretty much it. I could show you pictures of my scar, but I don't want to gross anyone out. Mainly, my knees aren't very pretty anyway, but the scar is ugly too.

Ok, enough of that. Onto the knitting. There is so much to tell you, and show you. But I might drag it out out over several posts just so that I know I'll have something to talk about. For now, lets just say that I can knit lace and mittens and finish up things that have been left undone for a long time.

Here is a hodge-podge of some of what I've been working on. I know it doesn't look like a lot but don't be deceived, the stole from Charmed Knits is about nine feet long. And I've been working on those green angel's rest socks for about eight months. Those are the would be raffle socks which are now the super lucky Friday spelling test socks for B. The hat is mine, I made it for me and it fits and I love it. Better pictures to come, I promise!

These are my first mittens. I used the house mitten pattern from charmed knits, (who knew that that book would be so handy??) and then I used the Subway Knitter's Amazing Charlie Card Mittens as an inspiration for the pocket. But, being from Colorado, we don't have much use for Charlie cards, so I made it into a lego transport system. See the "button" that I used? I simply harvested the head off of some lego dude who has been hanging around the house for a while. The picture is blurry, but it turned out so cute. I wish that I was the brains behind such a great idea, but all the credit goes to Colleen over at www.subwayknitter.com Genius, I tell you.And here is B showing off his lego transport mittens. He really did like them, despite being a little unwilling to pose for the blog.

There are more things to show and tell you about, but right now, I am in the middle of getting ready to leave for a trip to Durango to see my grandfather who had a massive heart attack a few days ago. I will be there through Christmas because I would like to spend as much time with him as possible and since the kids are on break, why not?

So, merry Christmas to you, whoever you are! I will post lots of exciting things when I get back to town, now that I can move around whenever I feel like it!

Oh Snap! Part 2

This week will be a guest blogger. It is J, the wonderful husband of Shamaree. I am filling in for my wife because of a recent accident that she had. On Friday 10/19 she was in Denver with B and a friend and her daughter to go ice skating. I got a call from her saying that she had fallen and hurt her knee. She was unable to come home that night and spent the night in Castle Rock with her friend. The next day she somehow got in the car and drove home, picked me up and we went to the urgent care center to find out that she had broken her knee cap! Yea, like that only happens in mobster and gang movies doesn't it? "I am going to bust both your knee caps!" So now she has to see a specialist on Monday and he schedules surgery on Tuesday. She has the surgery on Tuesday and everything goes well. Now she has some wire holding together her knee cap and cannot walk, popping pills to keep the pain away. She is not able to get on the computer, which is downstairs, but she has been able to do some knitting, although she has complained about being unable to obtain the right materials to knit.
Hopefully she will be able to scramble down the stairs shortly to update this blog with all the new projects she has been doing and to tell her side of the story. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she takes the time to heal. She will be in a knee brace for about 8 weeks.