Happy New Year

Yule knitting is done, and almost all delivered. The last bit gets dropped off tomorrow. There was this whole snow thing....

Here's the tally:
angora socks for Mom
DIC Shrug for Em
hat and mittend for Jake
socks for honey and me
socks for S&M
hats for J (for after the brain surgery)


Now I'm knitting for me. I've started the Pentagon sweater from Knitting Nature by Norah G. I'm changing it up a bit by knitting the body in a rib instead of stockinette. It think it will fit the curves better. I'll let you know. Oh, and the yarn showed up today for my Diamonds jacket from Knitpicks. Auburn yarn. It's going to be yummy, I just know it.

First, I need to cast on Nate's socks. He's Em's guy and I just learned his birthday is the 2nd. Yep, like the day after tomorrow. I think they're going to be late. It's not my fault he's got size 13 feet and lives 1500 miles away. (okay, maybe the distance part is my fault..)

BRRRRRR (or How 3" of snow can shut down a city)

So while I was sleeping on Sunday it snowed. A bit. Like 2-3". Not bad, unless you live in the Portland Metropolitan area. This is enough to shut the city down for at least one day. Totally. I still went to work that night, without the legally required chains. I didn't know, and fortunately, I didn't get caught. Now I know to check the ODOT site during inclement weather. Now I have chains in my truck. Now I'm staying home as much as humanly possible, because, Baby, it's cold outside. Good for knitting, bad for pretty much anything else you might have in mind. Oh, yeah, and it means the heater is now turned on. Household temperatures in the 60's, not too bad. Temps in the 50's, wrong, very, very wrong.

Head Banging and other such adult things

Well it's anniversary week here at Snuzzleheim. Eleven years ago we were handfasted (several years before the legal marriage thing). An ancient Celtic (and Nothern European) tradition, handfasting is a marriage that lasts for a year and a day. After that time, the couple has the choice of continuing the relationship or walking away (I know, very watered down, but work with me here). Annually, Hubby and I recommit our handfasting and celebrate our anniversary by tacking on a day each year. We are up to eleven days. What do you do, you might ask. Very little housework and lots of play. For example:

Metallica - fantastic concert. Warm up acts not so great (I knit the foot and heel of a sock during them). However the main act was fan-freaking-tastic. Only managed 2 inches of the leg. I cried through a couple of songs. My eardrum is still sore, and I must be getting old because my neck was stiff the next day. By the way, I don't recommend headbanging while working with size 0 knitting needles, someone could lose an eye....

Here's the sock
STR in Fred Flintstone

Capital steps - Hilarious. Best way to spend election night.

Cleaned my office - stressful, but productive. My new computer should ship any day and school starts soon. I'll need to be able to find the top of my desk.

Rearranged the house. And I do mean house. Now I have a spot for my indoor garden. (Which is distinctly different than Hubby's garden.)

Worked on a new sock pattern. After 4 tries, I finally got something I like. Now to finish, photo, write and publish. Give me a couple of weeks. It will be up on Ravelry.

Can we fast forward through the holidays, cuz their stressing me out a bit. Perhaps I should make a list, and plan this whole thing we call holiday knitting....

I was swallowed by my office...

no really. It jumped right out and swallowed me whole. Tonight hubby helped me excavate. It was a wreck. Still is. At least I can walk across the room now.

Hubby says this room is a mess because the rest of my life is so structured/scheduled/orderly that I need a space to say " Nope, not gonna do it, not gonna clean it, I get to make a mess". I'll take that. I'll try to post again soon. Many WIP's including a - ssshhhh - book. Yep, sock book. Patterns and all.

OFFF report

I took the weekend off to go to OFFF. Well worth the trip!! My first thought, I didn't bring enough money. About 20 oz of wool, 4 skeins of sock yarn and a new spindle later, I decided to head back to Portland to meet Mimm to go to the Quilt Expo. Wow! Too much for one day. I'll post pics soon, I hope.

Hat Attack and other stuff

Hat Attack started this week. As I did in Sock Wars I, my weapon was mailed the very next day (let's all hear it for night shifters!!). Unfortunately, I've discovered I am allergic to Therapi. Let's all hope I'm killed off soon, before the yarn gets me.

I'm desperately searching for my Scarf Style book. I want to knit something out of it with the other 2 skeins of Knitters Without Borders. Other 2 skeins you ask? Yes, well, there's an interesting story behind my getting away from the Yarn Harlot's visit to Portland in April with 3 (yes, 3) skeins of this limited edition yarn. You see, I was sitting there, minding my own business, and bought my 1 skein, like a good girl. But the bad girl in me wanted more. She discovered that the lady sitting next to me was not going to buy any. Bad girl talked nice new knitter into purchasing one for her (I paid for the yarn, of course). Then, during the night, a lovely announcement was made, stating that there was still more yarn, and if we wanted to purchase another skein we could, so I did. Three, one became socks, but the other 2 I want to make into a body-less sleeve and neck scarf for riding my bike in the cooler weather.

Does anyone know where I put my book?

Hat Attack

started today. The pattern in straight forward enough, but i suspect my asasain is here in PDX. Could mean doom. must keep knitting. Now if i could just stop coughing...

Oops...

Hi, I'm back. Didja miss me? I've been knitting, but not taking pictures. OOPS.

Recipe time at String Theory. We were talking about jelly making the other night. One of the guys tells me about this jelly he makes from wine. Wine. Weird. He says buy the cheap stuff. Hey, I lived in Wine Country for over 10 years. If you won't drink it, don't cook with it. So I tried the jelly. Pretty good. Definitely not for anyone with alcohol issues. I'm not sure it's technically possible to cook out all of the alcohol.

Want to make some? Here's how:

Ingredients:
wine - one bottle - 750 ml - pour one glass of wine to steady your nerves, the other 550 ml goes in the pot
sugar - 3 1/2 cups - what's jelly without sugar?
certo - one packet - or one box of sure-jel , your choice
jars - 4 cups worth - I bought cute little one cup jars - gifts and all...

Place wine in pan. Bring to boil for 5 minutes. Pour out of pan and into measuring cup, you need 2 cups of reduced wine. Return wine to pan, add sugar. Bring back to full rolling boil. Cook at boil for one minute. Add pectin/certo/sure-jel. Return to boil, cook at boil for one minute. Pour into jars, wiping the edges free of jelly when you are done. Process as usual. I just tighten my lids, turn the jars upside down for 5 minutes and then turn right side up. Never had a problem with my jelly.

Serve with fancy crackers, toast, cheese, whatever.

Enjoy!!!

Poor Mom

My mom has a broken wrist. On the first day of her vacation, she obsessively cleaned the house, then the garage, where she promptly slipped in the water she was cleaning up and injured her paw. It's the dominant one. So, the quilting and learning a new piano piece are right out. As are driving, picking up the grandbaby (toddler), writing, mousing, cooking, cleaning, drying oneself off, and well just use your imagination. Actually, try not using your dominant hand for one hour of regular life. It's a real eye opener. I don't envy her. We find out sometime next week if she needs surgery. I may be taking another trip to Tucson. We'll see.....

The week in socks

First, we saw Rush play in Vancouver, WA. Fantastic show, Neil Peartt is still a god. That man can make drums sing, I swear! While there, and in transit to and from, I worked on these socks for my Hubby. They are the much maligned Motley Hue from BMFA . Plain ribbed sock, for his pleasure.









I finished a pair of Gypsum, also from BMFA. Plain vanilla sock pattern with a knife edge hem, knit from the toe up. I like the striping that some of these yarns provide, and a plain sock just shows so well.












And finally, a pair of Rivendell, that I have been working on for several weeks, again in BMFA, this time it's Tanzanite. I really like the detail of this pattern and can hardly wait for the book to come out. I hope Amazon gets it soon.








Here's a close up of the leg/cuff. Just wonderful.

Getting ready to take the Plunge

Needles poised, time set aside, first pair chosen, yarn wound,and ready to go. Tonight begins the 52 Pair Plunge. I (along with a multitude of other knitters) am going to attempt to knit a pair of socks a week all year. I'm adding a Flicker to the sidebar so that you can see what I've accomplished . Wish me luck
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New obsession alert

It's not my fault, really. I've discovered temari. If you haven't tried it, you should:

















it's embroidery on a sphere. first you mark the geometry of the sphere, separating it into sections, then you begin stitching.

What I've been up to (photo intense)

Well, first there was the Yarn Harlot's visit to PDX. I participated in the scavenger hunt:













I saw my friend TJ there. Yes, that's me in the picture, sporting my newly finished sweater. The colored stripes are leftover sock yarn. I figure the sweater will always match my socks. Wait until you see the next incarnation of this theme.










Of course, there is always the obligatory sock knitting. I'm up to about a pair a week now. I've committed to the 52 pair plunge, so watch for one pair a week for a year starting in June.










I found a t-shirt with my new identity.
















And this week, Birthday Yarn. It's Birthday Week here at Snuzzleheim. Both of our days are this week, so we celebrate for a week. We only do that which is neccessary to sustain ourselves. And we get gifts. I got yarn. Yes, it's hot pink, get over it. I wear pink, somtimes, occaisionally. Okay, so this will totally clash with anything I own. SCORE.

Tonight I start knitting pasties....

New Blog - New Day

Well, blogspot won't let me on my previous blog: stringattack, because I moved and my old email address is dead. So I'll try again. For old posts go to stringattack.blogspot.com.