Project Update

A green cowl for me.

Hand dyed sock yarn from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks, knit up in a twig lace pattern, with the ends grafted together to make a seamless tube.

And a Space Invaders Hat for Josh.

Josh's hat was designed for his birthday. It's double knitting, so it's completely reversible and super warm. It's also made to measure, so it shouldn't squish his curls too much.

Happy Birthday to me!

A snapshot of my yarn haul from yesterday.

A closeup.

Dream in Color, a yarn manufacturer in the Chicago suburbs, had a warehouse/mill ends sale yesterday, my birthday. I brought home about $300 worth of lovely hand dyed yarn for $75.

It was great!

Happy Halloween

Shetlandish Shawl

Designed for an auction benefitting Family Rescue in Chicago.

Close up of it on the dress form.

A shot of it blocking.

Merino silk lace weight yarn with glass beads in the edging. The beads don't really show in these photographs.

Inspired by Shetland lace knitting traditions.

Mushroom Galette

Mushrooms, red wine, fresh oregano, cheddar cheese, pastry crust, what could be better?

The guts, pre-assembly.

Can't figure out why this one is sideways, I'll fix it and re-upload.

The galette, assembled and waiting for the oven to finish heating.

Inspired by the SmittenKitchen, I love her.

Dinner

I'm on a bit of a pizza kick.

Heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese, and bacon. Yum.

Feet

Also for Danilo, although he'll have to grow a bit.

Another awesome pattern from Knitty.com.

July Cleaning

Our living room.

Not anymore though, just for one day.

We cleaned out our closet, we pared down our boxes, our apartment looked like hell, and then we got it all back into the closet (including several new boxes). We took a lot to the dumpster, and a carful to Goodwill.

It sucked but it feels good to have done it.

Pee Pee Teepees

Because it's a funny name, and because Maria was having a baby boy.

Two pee pee teepees.

And Danilo obligingly peeing on one.

Elephant Update

A few gratuitous shots of the pair.

Kaufman Stadium

Josh, trying not to look too excited.

Me, not trying to look anyway but happy.

And two attempts to take our own picture with my cell.

Beachathon

Sandy and I made tropical cocktail costumes for the Beachathon.

I was a Mai Tai and she was a Blue Hawaiian.

(We decided to put our "names" on our backs as our costumes might be a little obscure)

Mai Tai in progress.

Cocktail umbrella hat prototype.

Mai Tai try on (it ended up being shorter to accommodate running).

Cut out fruit, and the Blue Hawaiian.

The race ended up being a little lame, but we had fun getting the costumes up.

Feast

This is what happens when I have an extra day at home.

Chopped veggies.

Blanched brussels sprouts.

All the veggies ready to roast.

Roasted.

The turkey breast, it fell over in the oven, still tasted great.

I also made cornbread stuffing and gravy, but they weren't very photogenic.

10 Miles

Before

After

The Infamous Hat

Last week I entered a design competition at a local yarn store, sponsored by a big yarn company. You had to use their yarn, so I designed a three color hat with a graphic olive branch pattern around the sides of the hat with a fancy "braided" edge and fancy two color decreases at the top.

Friday night I found out that I took third place, and that I was going to have my pattern published by the big yarn company!!!

Originally only first place was going to be published, but Mr. Charles liked our designs enough that he decided to publish the top three.

So I spent the rest of the evening feeling rather giddy (the whole weekend really, well, actually I'm still feeling giddy). Josh and I went to our favorite Thai place to celebrate.

So here's the side view. It looks better on a real head, this form is a bit small.

And the front view.

The card listing my info, I didn't realize that they wanted the title of the piece where it says "description". I would have put "Olive Branches" instead of "color work hat". Oh well.

And my Certificate.

Updates

Because I've been lax.

I knit up these cute little garter stitch elephants for a coworker's new nephew.

And the edge of another shawl/wrap/scarf that I knit for myself. It's the Bitteroot pattern from Knitty out of some lovely alpaca yarn that Sandy and Derrick brought me from upstate NY.

The alpaca is all warm and soft, the beads aren't as noticeable in the finished product as they look here. They're subtle. It's a little sheddy, but I'm hoping it will stop at some point soon.

Lace

My Emily shawl blocking.

A blend of merino and silk yarn, kind of shiny.

The First Elephant

The garter stitch elephant, a free Ravelry download. Pretty cute. I have another one in the works in green.

They're for a friend to give to a new baby. The sex is unknown and the nursery theme is Noah's Ark, so I went green and yellow with the elephants.