Sharp Pointy Sticks

There's nothing more appropriate than...

...handwarmers on a 90 degree day, right?

Here are my finished handwarmers.

Pattern: Woman's Handwarmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha, not quite one skein used.
Needles: US Size 6 DPNs, US Size 6 16 inch circular needle (used as a straight needle)

Pattern mods: None, kinda.  I knit the pattern as specified.  No extra rows, no mods on the spiral ribbing.  What I did change were the actual directions.  These are cast on at the bottom and knit in the round to the thumb hole.  Once you reach the thumb hole, you knit back and forth to create the opening.  The pattern specifies using a 8 inch (or is it 12 inch?) circular needle because the weight of the fabric tube can only be supported be the circular needle.  That size circular needle is damn near impossible to find.  I couldn't find one anywhere, and I wasn't too keen on buying one for a one time use.  So, I knit onto a 16 inch circular and knit back and forth as specified.  It is tight, those first two or so rows of the thumb hole.  I can see how a circular needle would be easier, but it is possible to do so without a special needle.  Once the thumb opening was done, I redistributed the stitches back onto the double points, joined, and continued knitting in the round to the finish.

This is an easy pattern and a super quick knit.  It would be a good gift (duh!) and a good stash-buster.

Walk, walking.

Here's a short, pretty crappy video of Liam trying to walk.  The best he has done is 6-7 steps.  Ignore the name tag on the back of his shirt.  It's leftover from the Music Together teacher training we did earlier in the day.  Ignore the jerky movements of the camera.  Juliana was kicking my arm.

Knitting in the Car

Last weekend, we drove down to my mom's house.  If all of us are going, then I usually don't drive.  I load up the iPod with knitting podcasts and knit for the majority of the trip.  A three hour trip down and back adds up to a lot of knitting time.

I cast on for the Lace Ribbon Scarf immediately after finishing my handwarmers.  I ended up ripping out everything I had knit because I completely wonked up a row, and I cast on again in the car.  The yarn I am using is Knitting Notions Classic Merino Bamboo in Winter Sky.  I bought this at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival.  I think the yarn and the pattern are a perfect match.

Sometimes this is the only time I get to put my feet up and knit uninterrupted.

Juliana slept for most of the trip down.  Liam slept for part of the trip.

I finished two repeats of the pattern.  I think maybe I need a chauffer.

Sick of yarn? Buy fabric instead.

Over in CESOB (seriously, check us out) on Ravelry, there are quite a few talented sewers.  Me, I can't even sew on a button.  Like a dumb ass, I got sucked into the Great Hexagon Along of 2009 (English paper piecing for the rest of you).  I bought a shit ton of fabric, even though I CAN'T SEW!

I think these would look good in my kitchen/dining room so I intend to make placemats and/or a table runner.  Something like this.

I also bought this.

And this.

Yep.  A metric shit ton of fabric. 

Pretty Baby

Lest I leave you with the illusion that she's all sugar and spice and everything nice...right after I took these pictures she pooped all over her outfit and into the Bumbo chair.  That was not pretty.

Read, read?

Read, read?  Liam will ask you this as he drags a book over to you.  He likes to read to himself too.

How freaking adorable is he here?  He's reading Bedtime for Francis in his Poang chair from IKEA.    I love that I have a kid that loves books.

Bitchy Ranty Post

I've tried to help.  I've tried to comfort. 

But, you know, what.  I'm done.

Go fuck yourself.

edited to say: that I have calmed down and am no longer so angry.  I'm still done with it.

Uh, yeah, yesterday.

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by eating leftover lasagna and fresh banana bread for dessert.  He brought me a bouquet of wildflowers.  Then we watched the Reds play and laughed ourselves silly over Liam's latest antics.  Exciting anniversary, huh?

Here we are in late September or early October of 1995.  We had been dating for 7 or 8 months here.

Our wedding day.  Ugh to my blonde hair.

Our family on Christmas night 2008. 

Nine years and two kids later, we're still as good as we were in 1995.

Yo! Yo! Yogurt!

I made yogurt in the crock pot a week ago.  It was so easy to do.

Excuse the crappy picture.  That's the yogurt fermenting in the crock pot.  It took a whole Sunday to make the yogurt, but it's remarkably simple.  There's very little to do except pour the milk into the crock pot then add your starter culture to the cooked milk.

I followed the recipe here.  We eat a lot of yogurt so I thought I would try to make some to cut down on our yogurt bill. 

This is the finished product with some blueberry puree.  Doug, who does not like plain yogurt, loves this yogurt with fresh fruit and a sprinkle of sugar.  Liam eats it up.  The only downside is that it is not as thick as commercial yogurt since there are no thickeners added.  Next time, I'm going to try thickening some of it by "filtering" it through a coffee filter over a colander. 

This was well worth the whole five minutes of my time it took to actually make this.

Daddy Watching

I think I've mentioned that Liam is head over heels for Doug.  Liam is such a Daddy's boy, completely enamored with and enchanted by his father.  Yesterday, Doug was outside grilling steaks for dinner.  Liam climbed up on the couch and watched him the whole time.

What happens when Doug gets out of Liam's sight for just seconds?