New blog?

I'm not sure yet, but I may be moving my blog over to Wordpress. I actually copied my posts from here to there and everything...you can go and see it!

I hate the idea of starting a new blog when this one is so new, but I guess it would be better to do it now than to establish this one then decide to up and move it later.

I'll post here when I make my final decision. Any input would be appreciated!

Not knitting

On Sunday I had to pull out the sewing machine to hem some pants that B got over a month ago (yes, he asked me then to hem them. What of it?!). After the 20 minutes that took, I decided since the machine was out, I'd finally quilt this cross-stitch a lady from Stitch-In made for me close to two years ago:

I added the wording at the bottom, which says, "Remembering is an act of resurrection/Each repetition a vital layer of mourning/In memory of those we are sure to meet again/In loving memory of/Katherine Hatlak". I can't believe this has been sitting in a drawer for so long; I even bought the fabric not long after it was finished. It turned out beautiful, if I do say so myself! Too bad I can't show Dorothy, the wonderful lady who made this for me. She passed away a few months after finishing it.

Working on the wall hanging gave me the quilting bug. Except for the memory quilts I made after Mom died, and the wall quilts (I've done two of those now), I have always wanted to make a real quilt. I think quilting is an amazing art, and while I'd never do the fancy stitch designs on them (I stick with plain old stitch-in-the-ditch finishing), if I could make one that looked anything like these, I'd cherish it forever.

I'm really leaning towards some version of this, a Log Cabin Quilt, for my first:


But I also like these:



This, the Wedding Ring Quilt, is probably the "ultimate quilt" to me. I have always loved the graceful curves in this design. It, of course, is also one of the hardest quilts to make. Not that I'd let a little thing like difficulty stop me. I'd jump in full-tilt and only stop when the desire to cut every involved piece of fabric into confetti was raging inside me:

So maybe I hold off on that quilt for a while :)

Namaste

Like, OMG...

It's House, "valley girl" style!



This is one of the extras on the Season 2 DVDs. Totally awesome!

Namaste

Glad it's over

Another Christmas is over. This year was very quiet for us (since most of my family--except for the most awesome Grandma ever--isn't talking to me), and we were having a grand time. We rented movies, made yummy foods, and generally lazed about.

Then it happened.

One of my sisters decided to break the cone of silence.

She sent me some text messages, full of "Merry Christmas" and "I love you" and "I miss you". WTF? Do you expect me to forget what you did to me? I admit it, I replied to her messages. I asked her to tell dad the truth. She said "he does know the truth. It's not a game. Things got jumbled up". No shit. Why would I think this was a game when it's affecting my life the way it is? If she knows facts got "jumbled up", why is no one trying to fix it? I hinted for her to call me, but she didn't take the bait and hid behind more text messages. Funny how no one involved will actually pick up a phone and talk to me, they either text or email me (that should be past tense. This is the first I've heard from any of them in two months). Plus I think she was drunk, so it was probably better she didn't call, although the texts pissed me off more than enough. Way to ruin my Christmas....and I wonder if that was her intention all along.

Namaste

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. As you can see, my Grandma loves her sweater:

And it fits her perfectly!

Progress on the KISS purse:


Here is my new! improved! Bountiful Bohus:



I am so much happier with it. The neckline is perfect. After wearing it to my Grandma's on Sunday, the only bad thing I have to say is it's a bit big on me. If I do make another I'll have to make it one size smaller. Better too big than too small though! When I redid the neck I had to redo the button bands. I changed those to two-stitch buttonholes (from three-stitch), which work better with the buttons.
My aunt couldn't believe I made my sweater (or Grandma's for that matter)...I think she's going to drop hints next year for a handmade sweater :)

I had to show off some of my Christmas cookies. The ones on the left are Raspberry Poinsettias, and the ones on the right are Pecan Shortbread Trees:

The powdered sugar ones on the right edge are Chai-Almond cookies, which were OK. I overbaked them a bit so they were crunchy instead of crumbly. The cutout cookies I made didn't last long at all once B set his sights on them. It's amazing how fast he eats up those cookies.
I also made truffles to bring to my Grandma's, she stole all of those. I got one, and almost lost a finger in the process.

Namaste

Wow!

I can't believe this, Las Vegas has snow:


In other news, I have changed my browser to Mozilla Firefox, and I have to say, I really like it. I'm amazed at how much faster it is than IE. If you haven't heard, there is a major security flaw in IE; I read on Yahoo! that if possible, you should change browsers ASAP, since Firefox (and other browsers) don't have the same problems as IE does.

And in knitting news, I decided to do some surgery on my Bountiful Bohus. I didn't like the neckline on it (too wide, not good for a winter sweater), so I ripped it back and after about the 132,574,079 time I successfully narrowed the neckline. Now I can get back to my purse and B's sweater.

Namaste

Sweater Pics

Here is Grandma's Cardigan. I really like how it turned out, the color is lovely (Knit Picks Swish Worsted, Delft Heather), I just hope it fits OK! I need to stop buying buttons like these, though. I don't like how they droop when they're not buttoned up. Regular, 4-hole buttons from now on!

Front:

Back:


And of course I started a new project. This is the KISS Purse from Sally Melville's The Knitting Experience Book 3:

I'm using black Cascade 220 and a multicolor Noro Kureyon.

I can't believe Christmas is next week already! I have a ton of cookies to bake on Friday and Saturday for my Grandma's party on Sunday.

Namaste

All done with Grandma's cardigan!

Pics tomorrow....it's not done drying yet.

Namaste

Snow Day!

Oh boy! School finished yesterday, and my only client today cancelled because of the snow and ice, so I have a whole day to sit and knit. Preferably with a cup of hot chocolate and a kitty in my lap.

ETA: Oh my. The neighbor across the street from us ("Weird Guy") was out shoveling his driveway, and stood out in the street to stop the snowplow from plowing snow onto his driveway. They had a small stand-off, yelling at each other, then snowplow guy was on his phone, and eventually went around Weird Guy and continued on his way. 20 minutes later, a police car pulls up, and the officer and Weird Guy get into a heated discussion in the middle of his driveway (probably along the lines of "Don't mess with city workers trying to do their jobs, idiot, unless you want to go to jail").
Ah, the drama!

Namaste

Snow, Christmas, and frogs

I'll start with the last one since you probably were like "Yep, OK, ....huh?!"

Grandma's Cardigan is getting on my last nerve. I had the sleeves ALL done, blocked, ready to join on. But when I went to attach them, they were too small. Grr. So I cast on stitches around the armhole, intending to work them from the armhole down, but it was going to be too much of a pain in the butt to do it that way. So I took the cast on # and did some math, and now have a new! improved! sleeve measurement, and now my sleeves look like this:


Because it was just easier to start from scratch than fix them. At least the body is all done, otherwise I'd be seriously freaking out that I have to redo the sleeves with only 18 days left. I know a lot of knitters will work on a project on Christmas Eve night to finish in time to gift Christmas Day, but I am not one of those people. The more of a buffer zone I have, the better. With anything. I don't like to be rushed.

It's been snowing like crazy the past few days, including right now:


Which make the Christmas decorations look all the more festive (pardon the signage behind the tree):




I'm glad I decided to decorate this year. I haven't for the past 2 years as kind of a boycott on Christmas since my Mom died, since it was her favorite time of year. But I think she's happy I got over it and put up some pretty stuff...some of it used to be hers, too! The stocking is old...34 years old, to be exact. My great-grandma made it for me for my 1st Christmas. I love it.

And this is what I get for leaving my office door open a teeny tiny crack:


A cat sleeping on the heated massage table!

P.S. Awesome new Christmas album:


Namaste