My Overstuffed Room

Sweater Day for Mr. Rogers March 20

Have you heard about this yet? 

I loved Mr. Rogers as a child and my children loved him too.  Did you know that his mother knit all of Mr. Rogers sweaters?  It will be his 80th birthday on March 20th and to honor his legacy, we all need to wear a sweater on that day.  And what could be better than wearing a handknit one?

The Anti-Knitter

Meet my nemesis

The Anti-Knitter.

Two and a half years full of concentrated determination whose sole purpose in life is to keep me from knitting, or living any kind of a life apart from him.

I've tried knitting while holding him but he prefers to have me wrap both my arms around him and have my hands where he can see that they aren't holding anything but him.

I've tried hiding from him.

I've tried to bribe the kids into taking him to play somewhere else in the house.

I've tried passing him off to whomever walks into the room.  I should add that 6 year old Harry, while not necessarily equipped to handle a complaining toddler, is a pretty good sport.

I have even, on occasion, tempted him with his all-time favorite drink chocolate milk.  It is a little startling how fast he can chug a full sippy cup down.

He is even boycotting the wearing of items originally knitted for Harry but never finished when Harry would have fit into it, thankfully the baby is a boy and can benefit from these items lovingly made especially for him.

In this picture he is letting me know that he does not wish to wear the cabled sweater vest to church this morning.

He has a favorite new phrase that he thinks is his ticket to anything he wants.  He yells it very loudly and repeatedly while holding out his hands in a wiggling motion or while clinging to my legs and the rest of the family thinks it is hysterical:

"I LIKE MOMMY!"

I love him. 

And now he needs to go for a nap.

Snow Day

Unlike so many people in the rest of the country, we really have had NO SNOW all winter.  Today the whole family was home for the day because of the weather.

The block looked so pretty covered in snow:

There was finally something for my husband to shovel (in a handknitted hat):

Our house finally looked different than it does in summer:

Even the birdhouse looked pretty:

I spent the day knitting my Santa Fe socks (no picture right now) and my Malabrigo sweater. 

It is the Neckdown Wrap Cardigan from Knitting Pure and Simple #263.  Right now the sleeves are on stitch holders and I am working on the body.

Have I ever mentioned how soft this Malabrigo is?  I love it.

Some NEW yarn arrived the other day.  I have been stalking this particular yarn for a while now on Ravelry.

It is the colorway "Banana Split" from sKnitches Syncopation line.  This yarn makes the most fabulous striped socks.  I'm not so good at watching for the updates to the sknitches site so I have only admired this from afar for months now until I read the page that said that she does custom ordering!  And fast! 

It (the yarn, that is) told me that it didn't want to marinate in the studio along with the other sock yarn.  And it doesn't care that I'm not finished my Santa Fe socks (or even sock - singular).

So I wound it into a ball.  Here's an action shot:

 

I have to go now.  It demands that I cast it on.

 

Thought for the day

I bought this piece at a local crafts show several months ago and it hangs in my studio:

MUCH clearer now

I love weekends.  This was the start to our Saturday morning:

Good hot Irish tea (with milk) and homemade pancakes.  Yum!

Food styling credits go to 9 1/2 year old Abby who pronounced this her 'commercial-quality' stack.

So, do the pictures seem a bit clearer?

Is this better?

How about now?

Or now?

And here?

Finally, STITCH DEFINITION!

That's right mis amigas, there is a new camera in town, AND it takes clear pictures.  No longer will you have to look at my blog and wonder if the two year old is the one taking all of the pictures.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

I'm Just Not That Into You

I will begin this post by saying that this summer will be my 13th wedding anniversary and that my husband and I dated for three and a half years before we married, so it has been quite a while since I have needed to use/ been told/ or generally cared about knowing good 'break-up' lines or rationales.  However, since I don't live in a cave on a hillside somewhere, I have heard a few and I've found them to be useful in my day to day life. 

There is one I use regularly when I am (trying to) explaining the behavior of one of the boys, lately the 2 1/2 year old (but easily the six year old too) to Abby.  Being older and wiser, almost 9 AND A HALF, she has chosen to forget what her behavior was like when she was the ages her younger brothers are now.  Several times a day I will hear, 'Mom, what is the matter with him?'  'I didn't do anything to him, really.'  or 'Why does he keep doing that to me?'.  And every time, the same answer comes out of my mouth, "It's not you, it's him."  a variation on a great break-up line.  It works. It makes sense.  And it is the truth.  And when Abby hits her teen years I can reverse the phrase to say to her brothers 'It's not you it's her'.

Lately I have been feeling some guilt over the fact that I have so many unfinished projects floating around.  I have justified it in many different ways.  I tend to move from one end of the spectrum to the other on this.  I respect those knitters who only have one project (and maybe a backup) that they are working on.  And then I hear a little voice in my head that says 'don't let that lovely yarn sit in a bag, CAST IT ON!'  To further compound the issue, I have bunch of projects that I like purely for the outcome, not so much the work in progress.

This one that was suppposed to be an oversized felted Christmas stocking was cast on almost five years ago.  There is nothing 'wrong' with it.  Why can't I just finish it?  I was looking at it yesterday when I had a revelation.   

I'm just not that into it.

(sorry Greg Behrendt, but your phrase works really well on a variety of relationships, including ones with inanimate objects). 

There are the ones that are close to being done, but aren't. Why is that?

Abby's funky bobble hat, I'm just not that into you.  (Don't tell Abby.)

My sweater vest with yarn from the Taos Sheep and Wool Festival, I'm just not that into you.  but I will finish you.  And I know it doesn't help our relationship when I can't even take a clear picture of you.

Then there are the ones that don't have a prayer of ever being done.

The Lime n Violet pink ribbon knee socks, started and stopped so many times, I am just not into you.

Christmas legwarmers, maybe next November or October I'll be into you.  Hopefully I won't need that circular needle before then or you won't stand a chance.

I have a roving eye.  I'm really into the thought of making this:

And having to search for a shop in the US or Canada that actually carries the pattern doesn't even bother me. 

I can only hope that I will still be into it when the pattern arrives (and be finished the three projects I am into right now.)

Someone left a box of yarn on my porch!

I love brown Santa (the UPS guy).  My congratulations to the founder of the company.  At worst they'll bring packages like vitamins  (certainly not in the junk mail category, but not exciting either.)  Today brown Santa brought me a box of yarn.

Little Knits is a dangerous place.  Enough said.

Would you believe that I originally went to the site to order the sock yarn in the picture?  I'm not going into detail what the rest of the yarn is for since right now my nine-year old reads the blog and was sneaky enough to use it to check up on her Christmas presents - favorite quote, "Mom, how are my slipper socks coming along?  Did you finish them?  Did you finish Harry's?" (really, someone should be monitoring the child online).  Suffice to say, if I get this early a start for next Christmas, I'll be in great shape.  However I have a sneaking suspicion that next December I'll be frantically knitting with this yarn cursing myself for not finishing the projects, like now. 

Isn't this pretty?

This is from the Opal Yarns Hundertwassers Collection that takes its colorways from paintings by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian painter and sculptor.  This one is called "A Rainy Day Out On Sea".  Now, with a raging case of startitis, I just know that my life will be complete and perfect if only I cast these on immediately.  But no, that won't happen today or tomorrow because I continue to punish myself by finishing those unfinished projects, because some of them have been really hurt and have taken my non-attention personally.

And I finished another one!

I didn't mean to ignore this project, they were victims of those stressful pre-Christmas weeks.  These socks were made with Reynolds Soft Sea Wool.  I loved working with this yarn and intend to use it to knit a pair of cabled knee socks in the distant future (I'm just trying to be honest with you, anything else would be a lie).

Notice that no bare leg is showing and that is on purpose, but my congratulations goes out to those who stalwartly continue to shave their legs in winter.

These socks renewed by my joy in sock knitting because until them, something (surely not my knitting skills!) would happen and the socks would end up way too big and then my husband would get them. Yes, the man who threw non-superwash handknitted socks painstakingly knitted in our college colors of blue and orange (sounds ugly I know, but after four years at Gettysburg the colors do grow on you) into the washer and dryer and SHRUNK THEM, that man has an amazing collection of handknitted socks, whether he truly appreciates them will be the subject of another post.

Well, the process of knit - oops too big - give to husband could not be repeated this time since the socks are pink and while the man looks great in a pink dress shirt, I knew that there was no chance he'd wear pink socks.  So the the pressure was on.  I just wish that the yarn was superwash, which it isn't, despite what the owner of the yarn shop where I bought them told me.

Rowan Anise

I have been in love with

the Rowan Anise pattern for a while now.  I just love the pea coat style.  And for a while everywhere (knitting shops, online and brick and mortar) that I would go it seemed like I would find it or it would find me.  Then I purchased the British magazine Simply Knitting January Issue 36. (I just love that magazine, it goes along with my whole 'wanting to live in England' thing.)

And guess what is on the front cover?

Anise!  It found me, again.  This time taunting me that it could be knit in a weekend.  I would like to know, did the test knitters have three young children?

Of course, I have no Rowan big wool in the stash, because why should the stash ever contain what I need at any given moment, it isn't as if the stash is the size of a small yarn shop..well maybe it is but anyway...

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is approaching and I haven't finished spinning the fiber I bought last year and it is hard to justify the purchase of new fiber to a patient, long-suffering, but non-knitting husband if the rather obvious and large fiber balls are visible in the studio from last year.  So following this line of logic I need to use that beautiful fiber I bought from the Barefoot Spinner last year before I go back again this year and purchase MORE.  This is a wool/alpaca blend and feels HEAVENLY.

I am splitting the roving down the middle and spinning it from there.

And I am plying it! (the exclamation mark makes the thought of plying more exciting)

Of course, I have a bit more to go until I can find out if this can be knitted in a weekend as those cheeky British magazine editors suggest.

We survived,

my sock and I, that is (and dude, I totally brought the sock - being knitted, incidently of yarn purchased while out visiting my sister.  I call them 'Santa Fe Sunset'). 

Can you tell by the picture where I was on Saturday morning at 8:40am?

How about the fashion statement these glasses make?

That's right, the cinematic tour de force, the Hannah Montana Concert Movie. 

My life is now complete.