Somebody in this house marked a dog

Yesterday, in the middle of a snowstorm, somebody in the house took the girls for a walk and met up with their doggy friend - "Queen Mega Mouse-Snacker"



In the middle of a two hour walk, this person had to pee. So this person went off trail and into the bushes.

The dogs all followed, of course, because being dogs... everything is their business and they need to know what's going on at all times.

Queen Mega Mouse Snacker apparently has never seen a person pee before and may have gone closer to inspect.

Somebody in this house was evidently taken by surprise and didn't manage to stop the flow fast enough.

Yes, somebody in this house peed on a dog.

And it froze.

Somebody in this house may or may not have somehow, sorta, kinda, forgotten to inform the owner.

FO: Cowl aka neckwarmer that is not a headband

I made so many cowls for Christmas that I was really bad about noting down any details. Okay..basically, my fingers were too busy to pick up a pen and my basement is still a jumbled disaster of craft supplies, yarn labels and piles of gifts slated for re-gifting. (Seriously? A snowman night light? Why would anybody pay for this?)

This particular one is a simple ribbed neckwarmer I made for R. I also made about three other ones this year. The pattern is easily adaptable to any yarn or needle size.



I used Mission Falls - Superwash Merino Wool. Love this stuff! Super soft and squishy and not itchy at all!

Needle Size: US 8 - 16" circs
Cast on about 88 sts
K2 P2 until you run out of yarn or you feel the tube is long enough.
Bind off in pattern.



These are good to have around in your emergency gifting pile. So far, the cowl is doing it's job nicely and keep R's neck warm. As a far as I know, my dad is still wearing his over his ears :: here ::

The doggy faces I love

Dayna

Nori:

Wanna see something that is totally cool to us and probably not so, to you?

Put our names in alphabetical order. Whenever I ask people to do this, it's evidently a very confusing request, so I'll do it for you:

Dayna, Natalie, Nori, Risto

Now take the first two letters of each name and place them in the same order.

DA
NA
NO
RI

What do you get?

Pretty flukey, huh?

"I'm Sleepy Because... "

Let's play a game, shall we?

Finish this sentence: "I am sleepy because ..."

I'll start first.

I am sleepy because you woke up in the middle of Tuesday night yelling "Augggggh!".

I am sleepy because you woke us both up in the middle of Thursday night dancing in your sleep, twirling your finger and yelling "Whooo! Whoooo!"

I am sleepy because you woke us up last night laughing....

This is not a good habit for you.

FO: Iron On Transfer Onesie

I decided early on that our nephew needed a onesie depicting his dad's favourite phrase.



Especially since he's about to start figuring out this thing called walking.



It was a huge hit. I just hope it fits him because he's big for a 9 month old.

FO: Twill Blanket

This is the blanket that I squeaked in before the end of the year.

This is the blanket that made me realize it is entirely possible to start and finish a blanket in 2.5 days.

This is also the blanket that made the cracks in my sanity a little wider.

The timeline sorta went like this:

Thursday evening: 

I made up my mind that R's mom absolutely had to have a woven blanket for Christmas. I chose my colours.

Friday evening:

I measured out the warp.

Saturday evening:

I threaded the loom



If I didn't have to eat, sleep, use the washroom, go to work, or do some last minute christmas shopping, it would have looked like this by Sunday evening. As it was, I didn't actually finish this until the Tuesday evening before Christmas.



Between the selvedges and the quality of the finished fabric, this is definitely the best one I've completed so far.


We almost kept it for ourselves.

(** Not sure if anybody is actually interested in all the weaving details like the draft or the tie-up. If you are, just let me know and I'll post those deets.)

Vindicated!

All my years of guilt for never becoming the perfect doctor-child that my parents wanted their first born to be have been completely erased by this one simple text message I received from my sister on New Year's Eve:

Dad just called me. Aunt P is constipated.

I love my aunt, but I'm really glad I'm not the one that suffered through four years of medical school to discuss manual disimpaction with her because my dad decided I was the one qualified to deal with it.

Resurfacing

Christmas 2009 has now passed in a hazy flurry of sewing, knitting, wrapping, weaving, packing, unpacking, eating and more eating. I don't even know where to begin. I feel like I'm in that part of a movie where everything is really noisy and screechy and then the next scene cuts to complete silence.



Yes. This is what I'm talking about. Let's just savor this moment of silence and stare at the pretty bird ornament.

It's been a week since we've been back home and I haven't managed to make myself do much of anything except slug it out on the couch. I blame this mostly on the purgatory that is trying to will yourself asleep because your body demands it but is f$%@-ing impossible because your brain is trying to decide between a) not breathing and suffocating or b) breathing and suffocating from the mothball fumes that are embedded in the duvets and pillows that your parents have unearthed from storage to cover the 14 people (not) sleeping in the house.  But let me not speak of this anymore because every time I think about it, I hold my breath, forget to exhale and start to see spots.

R and I actually had friends come over for New Year's Eve and didn't cancel on them at the last minute. (We kinda invited them at the last minute, so I guess it would have seemed odd, even for us, to cancel immediately.) But...it was an awesome evening. Exactly the sort of fun, low-key event we were aiming for. Plus we got to hear a "dad-walking-in-on-sexytimes/penis-through-the-crocheted-afghan" story that is now going down as the most unbeatable amazing i'msohappyithappenedtoyoursister cringe story ever. I laughed so hard, I almost peed.

All the handmade gifting I did this year went over pretty well. Except for the hat I made for my dad. He seemed to like it, then I caught him trying to hock it to my cousin's wife - for her son. I may have made the hat a bit small for the old noggin.

Pictures to come. I haven't managed to upload anything yet and I'm afraid I was too busy with everything going on to take more pictures of my FO's. Ah well. Time to move on and start planning for 2010 anyways.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Plotting

Next year, people are getting yellow post-it notes and a Bic pen.

Sleep is Entirely for the Weak.

You know when you sorta, kinda have an idea of what you want to make for someone? Then you waffle. Then you waffle a bit more. Then you can't decide on yarn or a pattern. Then when you have the pattern, you don't have the needles. Then when you get all the materials, you decide that the person would like something better? Then when you actually have your shit together, it's five days before Christmas?

Yeah.

*felt beads*

OR ... you finish knitting a cowl or hat and then you look at it and think "Man, that looks really pathetic. We better go get them something else".

I lament the fact that I can't just give someone one thing. One?

Not possible.

*i'm trying to be soothing and calm*

So I totally ran out of time on this handmade christmas thing, but I gave it a good go.

Final tally:

- two hats
- five cowls for girls
- three cowls for guys
- one handwoven blanket for my mom, a second one WILL. BE. done by tomorrow evening
- homemade granola
- two pairs of fingerless mitts
- one flower brooch

(Now that I have tallied this, it looks a little sad. That's IT?)


I still have to do:
- applique on a tshirt
- sew up a couple of stuffies
- three cowls for girls (two can wait until the 25th)
- three cowls for guys (not due until the 25th)
- one pair of armwarmers (not due until the 27th)

I did not manage to:
- knit socks for my sister's boyfriend, even though he asked super nicely and it's the only thing he wants
- knit socks for R, even though he really needs another pair
- weave a blanket for my sister or my dad
- finish the rag quilt for R (didn't buy enough fabric for the border and no matter how I do the math, I will need to buy more fabric for the f*$@ border)

However, I did find out that it is entirely possible to measure out a warp, thread 432 ends through heddles and reed, and weave 3/4 of a blanket between Friday evening and Sunday evening - while making granola and completing a cowl from start to finish.**

** Please note: it is not enough time to simultaneously make breakfast, clean, make dinner, do groceries or walk the dogs. You will also feel dehydrated and a little wonky from lack of sleep and a steady diet of chocolate and sugared dried mango.

Twelve Days 'til Christmas?

I know I work better under pressure but whoa ... how on earth did this weekend get away from me?

All I managed to accomplish was knit two cowls. Whatever. Two FO's. Big Whoop. Don't even bother with the positive encouragement. I've still got about a gazillion to go.

This was my day yesterday:

Wake up
Shove a croissant into my mouth
Take the girls for a walk.
Come home.
Take R to his exam (personally, I think exams on Sundays should be banned)
Come home.
Make a tea.
Shove a croissant into my mouth.
Finish tea.
Leash up the girls.
Walk to R's building where he is writing his final.
Walk home.

It's freakin' 6:30pm.

Did every minute task I did, take two hours?

Sometimes, I really wish my girls were little elves with beards.

I went. I gave. I remained standing.

I'm a pint of blood lighter. (Actually, two pints..since I've now donated blood twice. Okay...both statements are technically incorrect since my body has now replenished itself. Where was I going with this? Evidently, nowhere.)

No fainting... which is awesome. Because another girl almost did black out and now whenever I happen to see her on campus, I think "OOH, that's the girl that (almost) fainted." 

I brought my book "Spin Control" with me to check out while I was waiting. I actually didn't get very far in it because it only took me nine minutes to fill the bag.

I guess...from wherever she was viewing it from, the nurse felt compelled to ask "Are you going to be a dentist?"

Maybe the photos of pre-drafting fleece made her think of floss?