I will return to knitting soon...

Ravelry link

Cute denim for friend's newest addition.Thanks J for the orange cotton yarn. I like the Rowan denim yarn. Maybe I will knit me something in this yarn ... soon.

ravelry link

Let me continue to sing the knit-from-stash song. This yarn has been in stash since Feb 2007 from J. It is squishy soft and gorgeous, not to mention tricky, colorway. It wanted a simple pattern and the Heather Hoodie was it. Buttons are from the same etsy seller that I found the Military Cardi buttons. It is very soft and very warm!

G: *click* *click* *click*. I can hear your clicking.
me: Yes. The needles are bigger than my last project. They make more noise.

Seriously. The US 10 Addi Turbo makes a hollow click sound, vs the US 6 Addi lace needles, which barely make any noise.

The Citron in Baruffa Cashwool Bordeaux is done. That was a lot of stockinette. The finished shawlette is light, warm, and very soft. I got more than the mindless knitting break I was looking for. But it is all in the pass now. It is wrapped up, put away, waiting, to go to its recipient.

Last Saturday, I dragged J to a thrift store. Because I needed spoons. I do not want a set of flatware, just spoons. DH likes to eat yogurt while driving to work. I like to eat cereal in the morning, sometimes also in the afternoon. DH does not remember to bring the spoons back from his car. I get tired of reminding him. This results in spoon shortage, no matter how often I run the dishwasher.

After we finished the required spoon gathering, we wandered the isles. I saw some garish acrylic crochet throws, not garish enough to be kitschy cute. At the back of my mind, I was thinking there will be fun stuff. Mom find fun stuff at garage sales / discount stores / whatnot, maybe I will too. I have a couple of good finds from thrift stores, but not often. The store was nicely color coded. This is very helpful to monochromatic me (not so helpful for colorful people, like J!). I found a Brooks Brother heather charcoal merino turtleneck (and a black / white embroidered cotton dress). There was also a few very cute, unfortunately colorful, sweaters that I had to pass on.

On second look, before checkout, J spotted a small hole on the bottom part of the sweater. "no worries, I have yarn/thread that may match this color". So I left the store ~$14 lighter, with a dozen spoons, a merino turtleneck, and a cotton dress.

I used J's suggestion of Cascade 200 Superwash Black Heather to fix the hole. DH declared it not noticeable. Woola! This ultra fine gauge sweater is light, warm, not very pilly, just the sort of sweater my Dad prefers. And bonus, it is Made in Hong Kong :) I was very amused that the find + a little effort = end result that put me in a good mood. I even did my 1:2 closet clean up this morning. Next time, I shall spend some time in the Men's section, maybe I will find a gem for Dad.

ravelry link

Like all Vogue Knitting patterns, it required improvising, which became a few 'features' that I do not like in the leftie (first glove). Since they are for me, I will not be reknitting. I suggest anyone attempting Almeara Gloves to start with the right glove. The instructions are clearer and would made it easier to muddle through the left glove.

Thanks J for the yarn! I am still holding out (barely) from buying yarn for projects that I want to knit. Trying. Not. to. Buy. Yarn. for. Myself. Fortunately, the next project, the 100th project on Ravelry, is a prez.

Today, I was generally frustrated and not happy with the job search. I took a break and went grocering, after getting kibbles from generic-strip-mall-pet-store, I went next door to Trader Joe's. Why, yes, I've been going to that pet store for 10+ years but have only managed to stop at TJs a handful of times (see DH's no more stores). I got a few things and then wander over to the wine isles for no good reason. I was just browsing ... then I saw it - Black Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon "Fat Cat". I smiled. I grabbed a bottle ... ah. It has been many life times since I had this wine. I just hope it is as good as I remember it.

So, to honor this reunion, I named the project I started today, with Baruffa Cashwool, in Bordeaux Burgundy color "Fat Cat" (ravelry link).

I am half way through the Almeara Gloves by Jared Flood (ravelry link). The gloves are lovely. The pattern is ok. My end result is passable, to keep for myself, not gift. I muddled through the index and thumb. I used the tried and true method of crappy camera phone pic (see entry on the hockey jersey) to obscure the uneven stitches, the was-that-really-suppose-to-be-a-purl-stitch-in-the-middle-of-the-cable ...

You see, my fuzzy aggressive chewers do not get squeaky plushy toys. They get hard bones- the kind that will take out your toes if you kick them. And I kick (and step on) them a lot, since they leave their toys ... well, wherever. Anyways, It was great amusement to watch Boris squeak and attack this little plushy, and then take a nap on top of it.

Oh and I had to take this picture, of a well loved and new toy (more for ginger, their boxer).

Happy New Year! Here is to a plushy start :)

• Knitted a beret for my neighbor who rescued the fuzzies when I was trapped in the hospital with the DH by the snow storm.
• Overcame variegated yarn issues and knitted an angora shawl, sprinkled some sparkles ona sparkly cowl, and a Noro scarf for someone who put up with me for all my life.
• Went to Madrona Fiber Festival with J and learned how to three color knitting - hold two colors in one hand, and third color in the other.
• Wrapped someone in need of some peace in Shalom
• Made booties for baby, and more [twin] babies.
• Gave soap a cozy home, a boy bear to a girl, and some sunshine to someone's birthday.
• Slogged through a plain sweater for someone who wants everything plain.
• Found homes for a chick, a panda, a penguin, and an alligator at our newly wed friends.
• Sent a Selbu Modern for a fellow crafter, and a Queen Anne lace scarf to a busy working mom who had a cold neck.
• Had an emergency scrubbie session with SiL.
• Gave a mini-Calorimetry to friend to hold her hair back while she sees patients and a felted pumpkin for someone who, I did not know, loves pumpkin.
• And lastly to my DH, who is from Hockey Town, and a huge fan of the Red Wings.

Good bye 2009, I am looking forward to continue to keep my sanity, and beat the job search ...

And special Happy Birthday Fuzzies! You are the best fuzzies ever :D

Speaking of time passing.. it has been almost a year since I drool over Jared Flood's Almeara Gloves gloves (ravelry pattern link) maybe that will happen next year.

is one of those words. I checked and double checked and triple checked and asked the DH to make sure it was correct as I finish the dup sts. It is a huge sweater, with lots of ease DH requested. Although I am not a fan of the dup stitch, DH likes the puffiness. He even pet the sweater a few times while I was working on it. I am so happy that it is done and he likes it. Yay!

Fuzzy has vet appt first thing tmw and I just woke up from a nap. I feel semi-human.

The in-laws left this morning after visiting this weekend. We always enjoy their visits. We had lots of food: snacks of pülla and goat cheese stuffed pepperdews (thanks J for the cheese), dinner of turkey breast with leek stuffing, stuffed mushrooms, simple ceasar salad, garlic mash, and eggnog cheesecake on Friday night, Pecan caramel rolls on Saturday morning, waffles and scramble eggs Sunday morning, and dinner out at JaKs Sunday night. I sent care package of a full cookie tin, two loafs of pülla, a cheesecake with them to BiLs & family.

I sneaked in a few hours of alone time on Saturday and visited J's sqishy cat, picked up some grocery items for Christmas dinner, and had Peking duck chat with W.

This morning I tried to clean up a little but did not get far. Either the lack of sleep or the cold meds really zapped me. I really want to finish G's sweater but couldn't muster enough energy to pick up the simple stockinette. Perhaps a nap first. Whoops I checked phone and missed a call from Mom. "... something something dad picked out a new yarn ..." . I better call her back. She said she had an ant problem in the house in the last week.. then she swatched the tiny 4 ply black yarn on US3 needle... "I feel like I was counting rows of ants..." "grumble grumble". They went back to the yarn store and she asked Dad to pick out a new yarn. I was cracking up (and cough cough!)

Anyhoo ... making mental list of prep for Christmas dinner... and may tried to summon enough energy to be productive. Oye. I might not make it. Happy Monday.

I did take advantage of a few hours of free time in SF (half a dozen shots on flickr) before meeting Mom back at the Oakland BART station. I took a walk down to the Ferry Building, then back to the Powell Street Cable Car turnaround, (the cable car operator smiled at me while I took these pics. aw. I miss SF!) then into San Francisco Centre (part of Westfield Mall now) to look for some earrings ..

Earrings ... I wanted some dangle earrings for an event last Saturday, you know, the kind of event one has to put on a dress. It has been many years since I looked for earrings. I have a few pairs of earrings. I do not know where most of them are, and if I find them, none of them would be right. I visited (in two different cities) - Nordstorm Rack, TJ Maxx, Target, Nordstorm, Something Silver, Bloomingdales, and Macy's. I failed to find what I want at the price I want. What to do? MAKE THEM MYSELF of course... and J encouraged!

me: "Hi Mom"
M: "What is the name of the yarn store you took me to?"
"Article Pract"
"what time are they open tomorrow? I want to take your dad to browse"
"hold on, let me go look" (turn down the meat balls...) "they are open from 11-6"
"oh good, that will be fine. that's all"

The meat balls were overdone (whoops!) Dad loves hand knitted sweaters. Mom did not have patience to knit him sweaters is the story she told me. (what about now?! heheh ) I knitted two sweaters for him already (and two for mom too). I offered to knit another sweater for him. Sunday morning, I called and reminded Mom that she should buy one ball, swatch, and I will procure the sweater amount.

This morning, she called to say Dad picked out "r-o-w-a-n ... 4 -ply", in black. She means "Rowan 4 ply Soft" - 4 ply merino. Dad wants a layering sweater, that does not pill, and in black. Mom tried to talk him out of tiny gauge "takes a long time". Clearly, he does not care about knitting a black tiny gauge sweater :) I asked Mom to swatch (tiny gauge!) and go from there ...