Big Sky Yarns & Crafts

You know my mom is here...

My mom arrived yesterday and we have packed a week of fun already in two days. Here are the top 10 reasons you know my mom is visiting:

10.  The dust bunnies were cleaned out from under my dresser.

9. The Tupperware is now organized and all lids are securely attached and in neat stacks.

8.  You can see in the refrigerator and anything that can be seen can be eaten.

7. The floor is mopped.

6. The pile of mail on the microwave has been organized accordingly (i.e. 99% was junk mail and thrown away)

5.  Christmas decorations have been artfully arranged like we know what we are doing in the Haesemeyer household.

4. BOTH bathrooms are clean complete with soap and clean towels. The rugs are even washed.

3.  Food was purchased that involves more than milk and the Honey Nut Cheerios box.

2.  Christmas presents have her name on it.  And even others get Christmas presents this year as well.

1.  The top layer of dust has been removed from most surfaces.

Thanks, Mom, for spending $300 on a plane ticket to visit so that the first thing you get to do off the plane is go to Walmart and be happy about it. We love you.

Jolly Green Giant's Shoes

Again, if I knit for you, cover your eyes and scroll down past this pic:

This is all I have to offer, the Jolly Green Giant's loungewear.  Still Lamb's Pride Bulky (and honking US size 13 needles) from The Brown Sheep Company in Charcoal and Limeade (I believe). As per my new felting-slippers-philosophy, I have not felted them yet and am waiting until I meet my friend for our festive Christmas exchange to better encourage a perfect, custom fit. 

The what appears to be a goofy Charcoal edge sticking out it is a bumper on the side of the slipper that, after felting, becomes this charming rounded edge. All from a couple of rows of stockinette stitch that rolls in on itself.

I know you were concerned, so I will let you know I did mail out ALL of my packages (warrants all caps, don't you think?) and buy stamps for my Christmas cards in the same transaction, so I officially fainted at the large sum of money that I never saw but will never see again.  Then I smiled, wished the guy at the post office a merry Christmas, and moved on.

I have not started my Christmas cards as of yet, but at least they are in my hot little hands. My mama comes Thursday for two weeks, so I must clean so that she is glad she made the visit. Ahem.

What didn't kill me yesterday in buying enough postage for a third world country, my workout today did.  Mondays and Tuesdays are my husband's days off, so we thought if we worked out those two days and then just jam one more workout in at the end of the week we would be brilliant.

My legs burned from yesterday's pillaging and it took everything in me to make a respectable showing today. And I wasn't all that respectable on more than one occasion. I read somewhere that instead of thinking of how much pain you are in, you need to tell yourself, "I am getting stronger." I am so strong I could not even cross my legs today at a doctors appointment as I waited for my son. I honestly had to pull on my pant leg and place my leg on the opposite knee. I would have laughed myself right off that chair had it not hurt so much.

Enjoy your knitting marathon with only 10 days left for knitting (9 if you open Christmas Eve). Now that is my kind of exercise.

Rubber Chicken Factory

One of my favorite treats every year when I am wrapping presents and getting boxes ready to mail is watching The Muppet Christmas Carol.  Where else can "rubber chicken factory" and "light the lamp, not the rat, light the lamp not the rat" (say faster and faster as your tail is on fire) fit in seamlessly with Dickens?

The whole movie is fabulous and, because we know the ending, the Muppet cheer is extra fun while Michael Caine is Scrooge. The Muppet Movie is one of my all time favorites as well, especially when I need a little pick me up.  Side bar:  one of my other favorite brain boosters is Stuart Little 2 because of the great music.  Can you tell I have kids in the house?  Long after the kids are gone, however, I will be watching these movies more times than I should probably admit.

I am so behind (I AM mailing everything tomorrow even if MY tail is on fire) that I am going to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol again this afternoon.  Wrap on. 

Who's on second?

Disclaimer: 

If I knit you things for Christmas and you have not received a gift from me yet, you must move on. Except you, Mom. This is wool related. (My mom is allergic to wool. I hear you gasping.  I know, I know, a tragedy of most mammoth proportions.  At first I thought she was lying, but it is true. How can she be related to me?)

Diversion: 

My design,#9 French Scarf (that link is to the pattern page on Ravelry, published in the Winter 08-09 issue of Knit Simple, has been found lacking.

Many thanks to heklica (her user name on Ravelry), who noticed a couple of errors in the pattern. We think we hammered them out and here are the correct 36, 44 and 48 stitch lines:

The 36 stitch line should read: (the whole line needs reworking, so I did not bold only parts of it)

K4, M1 p-st, p4, M1 p-st, k8, p8, M1, k4, M1, p4 – 36 sts

The 44 sts line should read: (bold indicates correction)

(K2, M1) twice, (p8, k8) twice, (m1 p-st, p2) twice - 44 sts

The 48 sts line should read: (bold indicates correction)

(K2, M1) twice, k2, (p8, k8) twice, M1 p-st, p2, M1 p-st, p4 - 48 sts.

I also posted these changes on the Ravelry pattern page that I linked above.

Back to original intentions.

So, as I have mentioned previously, CHRISTMAS has been quite loud the last couple weeks and I didn't know what I was going to knit for my beloved. Enter Bev Glaeskas and her fabulous felted clogs pattern. The link is to her pattern page on Ravelry.  She is the owner of Fiber Trends, which I did not know until working on this blog post. When I typed in felt slippers in the search engine on the site, you would not believe how many cute ones she has. Truly. Check it out and I will wait. Go on now. You too, Mom, even though you rarely knit with wool (her hands aren't as sensitive as the rest of her body to the wool). Julia at Wild Purls has the patterns for the felt clogs I am knitting. 

Here they are at their prefelted state:

I had to show you the super fabulous snowman on the front of Family Circle this month. Their are never enough snowmen in the world. Ever.

For the women's size 6, I used 1.75 skeins of of Lamb's Pride Bulky in M-06 Deep Charcoal for the sole and cuff and .75 of one skein of M-145 Spice from Brown Sheep Company.  85% wool, 15% mohair. This bulky (and worsted versions) yarn is some of my favorite ever.

The pattern calls for doubling of a worsted weight yarn and I chose to use a single strand of the bulky instead. Using US 13 needles and 2.5 stitches per inch, these fly off the needles. They even have a double sole.  The sole is by far the hardest part, I think. So, if you have not knit these before, hang tough at the beginning and then you will be home free.

Finished pic:

Reminder when felting:  place item(s) in a zippered pillow case so the fibers don't gum up your beloved washer, which would be too awful to discuss any further.

I love the magic of felting, especially when you have made a project before and have a pretty good idea it will actually work again.  The kids all wanted these (no, revision, one child wanted and then the other two jumped on the band wagon) and so last year I made them.  Here is my Ravelry page showing all the details.

Now sing this song: "One of these things is not like the others..." Yes! Isn't it funny how one felted more than the other? I hadn't had that happen before and I didn't even cry, I want you to know. After two washings, I figured the larger one needed one more wash but ran out of time before I was supposed to be at my friend's house.

So what did I do? I simply wrapped them in a Barnes & Noble shopping bag and told the lucky recipient not to flinch when she felt a wet gift. And to not smell them. (Isnt' wet wool just lovely?) She graciously agreed to not smell and not be shocked.

The smaller one fit her perfectly so while we finished our gift exchange and drank coffee like adults (sans children), I washed her one clog one more time in her washer. You know you are with one of your best friends when she doesn't even act like this is way weird to have to share her washer with her crazy knitting friend and not act like it is even strange.

Then it hit me. This is what I am going to do with my other slipper recipients. Get them as close to felted as I think they should be and then make them try them on when they are wet. Because, wet is your friend when felting. Only then (not dry as we all know and have tried) can I stretch them and make them fit perfectly. Or, make smaller on the spot if necessary too.

I leave you with yet another story from Kate:

"Mom, I know who was made second."

"Second?" I did not know where she was coming from, as their was zero segue. Zero.

"Cowboys."

"Really?" I still didn't know where we were going here.

"Sure, Adam and Eve were made first and cowboys were made second."

"Okay," was all I could muster.

"And why do they call them COWboys when they ride horses?"

Then she left the kitchen.

Dear Irina

Look what came in an email from Tahki Stacy Charles, in their free weekly e-newsletter:

 

Yes, it is a free pattern (Whoo hoo!), Mistletoe Top by Irina Poludnenko. I hope that link takes you straight to the free pattern. Better to sign up for their e-newsletters, which you can do with the first link to their main web site. I have thoroughly enjoyed receiving their e-newsletter. Much knitterly goodness.

Is that not the prettiest sweater? I just love it. The leaves and flowers are put on after you knit the main sweater (I know the flowers are crochet -- I'm not sure about the leaves). It is this kind of pattern that makes me want to learn to crochet NOW. I can only single crochet around rectangles, took me an inordinate amount of time to learn to turn corners and I don't even come close to speaking the language.

And if it wasn't Christmas and all of its splendor (code for: knitting presents I have NOT knit) I would cast this one on right now. Of course, if you knit this sweater, you look like her IN the sweater, right? (Am I cap happy today or WHAT?)

I have fallen in love with other designs by Irina Poludnenko, most of all the Cotton Classic Boatneck Pullover. The link is to the design page on Ravelry.  I first saw this as a sample at my favorite yarn store in Scottsdale,  Jessica Knits.  I keep running into that sweater and thinking I need to knit this NOW too.

 NOW is so demanding. So is CHRISTMAS. Knit on.

Ripple Perfect

Yes, it appears the time warp revisited the Haesemeyer household.

Hope you all had a wondeful-but-now-distant-memory Thanksgiving. My dad visited for a week and we had the most lovely time. We even went out TWICE BY OURSELVES!! Amazing. We had two lunches sans anyone else in the planet and it was truly lovely. I have a wonderful Papa.

Meanwhile, very little knitting has been happening. Is it just me or did life turn up a crank or two? Everyone seems to be out a bit more, everything a bit busier and I guess I am still in shock we are in December. Remember when we were all amazed ushering in the year 2000? Now it will be 2010 in less than a month. Staggering.

However, I did finish Ripple and one reason I have been so silent is I kept hoping it would stop snowing for me to take an outside shot in this perfect-lighting-for-pictures overcast weather. No luck. 

Instead, enjoy my huge Poinsettia Tree that my dad bought me from Costco while he was here:

 
  

I absolutely love the hat.  The pattern is a great one as well. However, I do recommend you read the entire thing and do all parts, as just because you don't want to do another repeat, it is better than ripping out a quarter of the hat when you realized you lumped two decrease rows together to get to the end of the pattern quicker. Doesn't quite look right. Just an FYI. The pattern also comes with a worsted weight version.  I can see myself making many more of these for gifts.

To recap, it is in Mountain Colors Bearfoot Sock Yarn, mill ends, 3.1 ounces (approximately 310 yards). I knit it with US size 3 needles so gauge was 5.5 stiches = 1" instead of the recommended gauge of 7 stitches = 1". I was concerned it would be too small for my friend (or me) because finished the pattern is written at 16.5" unstretched which would be tight on our 21" (22" me) heads. I think the gamble paid off because now it is 21" in circumference and feels so perfect on my head that if it wasn't Christmas I would make myself one right now. It fits over my ears perfectly and it is knitterly perfection.  

I know what you are thinking, "Shouldn't hats have negative ease to fit properly?" and yes, you are correct. 1" - 3" is ideal depending on preferences, but since this hat is supposed to be slouchy, I'm hoping it is okay for my friend. It can be worn low and not hurt in other words. If it is too loose for her, I will quickly weave in some tiny elastic and call it good.

 

What else have I been doing to be so quiet? Well, besides getting over sicknesses that, frankly, I cannot talk about anymore, I started taking exercise classes at a local gym. I have been losing weight for a while, and nearly 20 pounds total. Which is fabulous and I am thrilled and I know I look better, but I have more I want to lose and for some reason it is extremely attached to me, all this extra do-nothing-for-me and hurt-me-in-the-long-run weight.

So I kicked it up a notch and went to these classes. I figured I truly have no excuse now that all 3 of my kids are in school.

Two words:  hard core. They were fabulous. I almost did myself completely in Tuesday and Thursday and it felt great. To push my body around instead of the other way around was very liberating. Of course, this meant my body required motrin for a day or two and even the top of my thighs screamed with such menial tasks as getting up from a chair or using the restroom.

The best part is, the instructors tell you what to do. They even had extra energy to tap their toes to the music while I strained a look in their direction to see if I was even close to what they told me to do. They were all extremely kind to the green newbie and introduced themselves readily with a friendly smile, before they killed me.

The icing on the cake was my abs class Thursday. Having 3 kids has done wonders to my waist. I did make it through it, though my previous days' exercise tried to cripple me.

If you see someone look like a tomato in your class, it is me. I am trying to hide in the corner, though, so don't think I tried to take your spot. I just didn't know it was yours. Also, do know that if you are in the locker room, I am trustworthy though I heard while looking right at me "you can't trust everyone these days."

Sure, I want to lose weight for the health benefits and the skinny jeans hanging outside my closet for inspiration (mind you, if there were not cute jeans in the world I probably would never lose weight). But think of the best part:  how much less yarn it will require for me to knit a sweater.  The real reason I want to be thinner. Knit on.