Wow, it's been a while

So it looks like I've neglected the poor blog for almost two months. So, what's been going on?
Just in time for Random Wednesday - bullets!

• I had a birthday.
• I got a promotion. Basically, same job, just more work and more money. And I'll be a supervisor once they replace my old position.
• Lorelei's almost potty-trained. It's taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Sheep and Wool! Lorelei and I went to MDS&W on Saturday. I didn't buy much, but we did see a lot of sheep, caught a glimpse of a couple of bloggers, as well as Casey (who my friends claim had some tequila on him).
• I started a shawl that I had hoped to finish by last weekend. Yup - didn't make it. Getting close though. It's the Diamond Fantasy Shawl in Lisa Souza Sock! Merino, Violet's PInk Ribbon.
• I think I finished some socks. The Perfect Sweater is still "in progress" but I haven't touched it in at least a month.
• Lorelei and I are going to Disney in June. She's been in a Princess phase for months now, so I expect that she will totally love Disney.

Weekend Wrapup

• Oscars! - The Oscars were Lorelei's dad's favorite night of the year (because he was a huge movie dork), so of course I stayed up to watch the entire thing. It wasn't that late, but apparently I'm an old lady because I have really been dragging today. Anyway, I found the show a little boring, which I guess is to be expected since the writers only had two weeks to work on it. I didn't really care about many of the nominees or winners, I really liked the songs from Enchanted - I may need to see the movie, George Clooney looked good as usual, and I want to be Helen Mirren when I grow up - she's just so pretty and glamorous.


• I finished some Lorelei socks. She had requested some "red socks" but when we looked at the stash she was unhappy with the selection of reds and picked some black/white yarn. So I present "Lorelei's black socks."

Yes, they're pretty plain, but I'm really happy at the way they turned out.

• I started a pair of monkeys. I've already finished the first two repeats. I'm using some yummy etsy yarn that my friends bought for me - the colorway is Chocolate Cherry Truffle.
• Lost = GREAT!
• SNL - I actually thought it was funny for a change. Maybe that was because Tina Fey was back. The show hasn't been the same since she left.
  

Random Thursday

• I really meant to post yesterday, but as usual time got away from me.
  
• Lorelei and I have been sick the last couple of weeks. Lorelei just finished up the anitbiotics for her double ear infection this morning and I'm almost back to normal after my cold.


• FOs! - I got a little distracted by the sickness and Vday and I forgot to post pics of my FOs. First , Hedera. I LOVE these socks - the pattern is pretty, the fit is perfect, the old school KP Essentials is nice (the new Essentials is nicer, but this old stuff is still good), the color is perfect. But the pattern is so fiddly that I don't think I'll make these again. (Go to flickr to see other pics)

Next, the dishcloth from heck. I'd been planning on making this pattern for a while, I thought it was interesting and was just waiting for the right yarn. Turns out I HATE this pattern and will NEVER do it again. I only finished it because it was easier to just finish it. The yarn is still pretty and it's a dishcloth so it will get used.

• Last week was my first Valentine's Day alone in at least 11 years. Not much fun.
• The writer's strike is over. Yeah! New episodes in April, just in time for my birthday.
• I'm loving the new season of Lost. The flash forwards are adding some excitement back into Lost.
• Lorelei went ice skating for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Though it was mostly "Lorelei wore skates and made the adults push/drag her around the rink." She had a good time though and next time might actually try to skate by herself.

2007 Knitting Summary

37 completed Knitting projects

• 12 Baby items (including hats, bibs, booties, and mittens)
• 7 pairs of socks - 6 adult, 1 Lorelei
• 5 hats (not baby-sized)
• 5 dishcloths
• 5 scarves - 3 Branching Out, 1 Lorelei scarf, and 1 for me
• 1 sweater - Lorelei's wallaby
• 2 misc - Fetching and Cozy

Happy 2008!

FO Parade

I've been busy with Christmas knitting so here are some FOs that I neglected to post.

Here's a scarf I made for Lorelei. Not really a Christmas present, but I did give it to her on Christmas eve (because that's when I finished it). I made a modified Palindrome scarf (I took out one of the able repeats to make it Lorelei-sized) using some red Plymouth Encore left over from Lorelei's wallaby.

Here is an unoriginal hat using some WOTA bulky hand-dyed (Redwood Forest?). I didn't have large enough DPNs, so the hat turned out a little tight, but I've been wearing it anyway because it's so pretty.
This is a last-minute purled beret that I originally started for Lorelei's cousin but I didn't have enough yarn so the finished size was too small for the cousin, but fine for Lorelei. After I realized it would be too small, I ordered more yarn and made another, larger one (this one I left knit-side out instead of purl-side). In the end, I blocked the cousin's so much that it ended up being too big.

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

You better watch out ...

This weekend, I took Lorelei to see Santa for the first time. Her daycare had Santa visit on Saturday, so we were able to meet Santa in a nice, familiar setting. Which was good since Lorelei started shaking as soon as we walked in the room. After she saw one of the other kids talk to Santa, she calmed down and went to sit on his lap.

S: What do you want for Christmas?
Lorelei: Chocolate.

More Santa and birthday pictures at flickr.

What happened to my week?

These last 7 days have been a little crazier than usual.

It all started with Lorelei's third birthday party. Actually it started with a visit from my parents and lots of time in the kitchen. I made a lasagna for the party as well as a cake, cupcakes, and blue frosting. In keeping with our Blue's Clues theme, I made a blue round cake with blue cupcakes to simulate a paw print (as seen in the Blue's birthday episode). [Photos will be added later, I'm pretty proud of that cake]

The party was good, though small. We only invited one of Lorelei's friends and her three local cousins. With friend's brother, there were 6 kids under 5 in my little house. More than enough.

Monday I took a day off work and wrapped presents. Santa is all ready to make an appearance at our house. BTW, Lorelei will have her first visit with Santa on Sat morning.

Yesterday, we had our first snow of the season. It was pretty, but it made the roads icy today.

All in all, a very busy week.

Random Thursday

OOPS - I seem to have missed Wednesday. Not to mention Tuesday.

• Hedera seems to be taking up my every waking moment (though of course, it's not. I have a job and a Lorelei and a house to get ready for a party.) I'm into the foot of the first sock and I love it more than I should. Especially since there are two rows where I knit row 1 instead of row 3. I'm not calling them design features. Features that will hopefully not be repeated for sock #2. The sleeve of my perfect sweater is starting to feel a little neglected. As are the Christmas hats/scarves/mittens that need to be knit.
• Lorelei turns 3 on Monday. I'm convinced that the "Terrible Twos" are really the "Terrible Threes". The tantrums for no reason, the arguing just because, etc. are all starting to drive me insane. Thank goodness, she's so cute and smart. Otherwise, I don't know how I'd put up with it all. Last night Lorelei wanted pancakes for dinner. So I served pancakes and she screamed. Then she stopped screaming, ate, wanted more. I made more. She screamed. I ate the pancakes. Then she stopped screaming and got mad because I ate them. At least the pancakes were good.
• My parents are visiting this weekend for Lorelei's party. It's Thursday and my house is still a mess.
• I broke the carafe for my coffeemaker on Monday. It was so traumatic that I still haven't fully recovered. It doesn't help that my coffeemaker seems to be discontinued so I had to order a replacement carafe directly from the company and I don't think they've shipped it yet. Thank goodness that they sell Starbucks in my office building. I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend.
• I know random posts are supposed to have at least 5 items, but I can't think of anymore right now.

Random Wednesday

It's the day before Thanksgiving. Let's see what's going on.

• I worked from home today so that I could go to the Thanksgiving feast at Lorelei's preschool. There was actually a lot of food and pie.
• Unfortunately, Lorelei decided that it was time to go home after we ate. So I didn't get to work much this afternoon.
• Luckily, work was dismissed two hours early for Thanksgiving.
• I got a lot of knitting done while Lorelei was taking a nap.
• I'm almost to the heel of the first Hedera sock. I'm over half finished with my mom's Christmas present. Still working on sleeve #2 of the Perfect Sweater.

Have a Great Thanksgiving!

Random Wednesday

• It's almost 10pm and Lorelei is still not asleep. It's ruining all my evening plans. And I'm going to blame her for the late posting tonight.
• My Lorelei is a completely different Lorelei than the Lorelei at preschool. The preschool Lorelei always listens, eats all her food, follows directions, and uses the potty. The home Lorelei does none of those things. I'm feeling distressed by this.
• OTN: christmas present (Branching out) - repeat #2, sleeve # 2 of the perfect sweater, and 4 repeats of Hedera sock 1.
• I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. I'm really not ready for the holiday/birthday season. Lorelei's dad ordered his own birthday present today and I have some ideas for Lorelei. I also need to buy supplies for the party and deep clean my house. Yeah!
• I swore to myself that I would send Christmas cards this year. Early. I need to get on that.
• I just finished watching this week's Heroes. It fills in all the holes, but I'm feeling a little underwhelmed. I think I was expecting something more surprising.
• Is it weird that I would really like to watch Sylar eat someone's brain?
• I downloaded a bunch of podcasts last Friday. I finally put them all on my ipod, but I still haven't listened to any of them. I still haven't listened to the last epipsode of Lime and Violet.
• I have come to the realization that I need more bags for my knitting. The plastic bag method really doesn't work well when I want to transport my knitting places. It also makes it hard to organize. Or maybe I just have too many projects OTN at once.
• I've been knitting socially a lot lately. I've been meeting people at work for lunch almost ever day to knit. There have also been some weekend events. I'm very proud of myself for being so social.
• Speaking of proud, it's day 14. That's almost half the month. Yeah, me!

Weekend Wrapup - Holiday edition

I had a three-day weekend this week, so I've gotten a lot done.

• I finished the Husband socks. Pictures to come soon. I hope he likes them as much as I do (he picked out the yarn and pattern) because they're a little too big for me.
• I cast on a pair of Hedera. For me.
• I started sleeve number 2 of the Perfect sweater.
• Lorelei likes her wallaby so much that she's worn it two days in a row.
• Lorelei and I visited with friends yesterday. I got some knitting done (and football watching) and Lorelei played with her best friend, Jonah. She was so sad when it was time to leave, she wanted to stay and sleep with her friend.
• There was also a lot of cleaning and tv watching.

Friday FO

It is finished!!!

Lorelei's Wonderful Wallaby (size 4) made from Plymouth Encore worsted in Red.

It only took about half the yarn I bought for it, so I think I'll use the extra to make Lorelei a new scarf, maybe a new hat. This has to be the nicest acrylic blend I've ever used. It's very soft and nice to work with. This pattern is mostly stockinette, so it was a very quick knit (about 3 weeks).

Random Wednesday

• Five more rows on the hood of Lorelei's wallaby. It's taken a little longer than I expected to finish the hood, but it's almost there. Then all I need to do is sew up the hood and the underarms - I've already taken care of most of the ends. Good timing, since it's starting to get cold around here.
• Heroes - was so good this week. I squealed a little at the ending. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't watched yet, but I'm glad that the person I thought was leaving the show actually has a bigger part. I haven't been totally thrilled by the season so far and this episode definitely made up for it. I hope the next episode is just as good.
• Potty-training - Lorelei has gone potty at daycare for last two days in a row. Is it wrong that I want to do a happy dance??? When we started potty-training at 18 months, I never thought that she'd still be in diapers at 3 years (though we still have 3 more weeks).
• Lorelei's birthday is in 3 weeks. I'm in the midst of planning a Blue's Clues party. Why Blue's Clues? Because a paw print-shaped cake is super easy to make (round cake and some cupcakes). After last year's Elmo disaster, I'm all about the easy. Though maybe next year, I'll do princesses. Make a pink cake, throw on some sparkly stuff, and call it a day.
• Lorelei's dad's birthday is also coming up. He doesn't get a party. Maybe I'll take him out to dinner. Lorelei would probably like to make him a cake. I guess he wants presents, too.
• I like cake.
• The Halloween candy that we bought to give out (but didn't because we weren't home) is almost gone. I may have eaten too much of it. Is it too soon to buy Christmas candy?
• The Yarn Harlot has a new hat pattern on her blog. I really want one, but I don't have any fat, pretty yarn. Actually, I don't have any fat yarn and my worsted stash is all solid colors. Maybe I need to go shopping.
• No Private Practice tonight. I guess I'll have to find something else to occupy myself. I guess it's good practice in case the strike doesn't end soon.

Weekend Wrapup

Considering that I think I only left the house once this weekend, I feel like I had a pretty productive weekend. There was cleaning, organizing, filing, paying bills, knitting.

I starting cleaning off my desk, finding bills, paying bills, filing piles of papers. Sent out some cards that I've been planning for months to send out.
I found my leftover Christmas cards from last year, so I'm ready to start this year's.

I cleaned the toilet in my basement (which is used as often as the others). When we moved into this house in May, the toilet bowl was nasty. I assumed that it was stained, so I wasn't in any hurry to clean it. Turns out, the previous owners just left it nasty. I was able to make it white again.

I finished some baby bibs for a friend in FL. Mailed those off. I forgot to take a picture, of course, but they were really cute.

I'm half way through the hood of Lorelei's wallaby. She tried it on yesterday and it fit great. Then she started putting my knitting needles in her mouth, pretending they were musical instruments.

I've been limiting Lorelei's candy consumption to 1-2 pieces a day. The good thing - she doesn't over do it on the sugar. The bad - this is still more sugar than she needs on a daily basis and this way it will last forever. But I've been good and haven't touched her stash. I'm not sure how long my self control will last though.

Happy Monday!

Cooking is fun!

Confession time: I almost never cook. I love frozen pizza. I love people who deliver food to my door. One of the biggest problems about where I live is the lack of other people to cook me food (few delivery places, few restaurants). It's not that I don't like to cook - it's that I'm lazy and don't like to clean.

Somehow, with all of my food baggage (and extra poundage), I managed to spawn a child who would love nothing more than to spend her days in the kitchen cooking. Lorelei will watch Rachael Ray with the same intensity that she watches Elmo. Lorelei doesn't like frozen pizza because there's nothing to "cook."

When Lorelei was about 18 months old, her daycare class would make cake for the children's birthdays. All the kids in the class got to help stir. Lorelei thought that was the best thing ever. I got her a little bowl and spoon and she would sit and pretend to make cake for hours. Last Christmas, she got some pretend food, little pots, and a tea set. She loves to "cook" for me and make me pretend to eat it. But lately, that's not enough for her. She wants to make real food. She wants to help make dinner every night and is not happy if there's nothing for her to do.

I should be happy, since this suggests that soon Lorelei will be able to cook for me and I'll be able to sit on my butt watching tv. But knowing my life, as soon as she's old enough to cook unsupervised, she'll get bored and I'll still have to do all the cooking.

November!

Well, it's November and here is NaBloPoMo post #1.



Last night, Lorelei the Pirate went trick-or-treating for the first time. We had planned to go last year, when she dressed up as Leia, but because of insane traffic we didn't make it home in time. This year I left work a little early, again there was insane traffic (it took me two hours to get home), but we made it just in time for the festivities.

Lorelei went trick-or-treating with her cousins (a fairy, a cowboy, and the youngest was a cow). She figured it out by the first house and had a great time. Her little bag was overflowing with candy by the time was she was ready to call it quits. I had thought that since it was her first time that she'd be finished after a couple of houses, but she kept up pretty well with her cousins for about three streets (she only missed the last few houses).

Now I'm afraid that since she had so much fun that she's going to want to do it again tonight. and tomorrow night. and every night for the rest of her life. Hopefully, the candy will last for a while and then we'll have the holidays to distract us.

ARG, matey!

Random Wednesday - Halloween edition

• Lorelei is dressing up as a pirate today. There are very few costume choices for (almost) 3 yo girls since I don't sew. And since we already have a princess dress for dress up (that's still a little too big), I went with the pirate. Lorelei keeps calling herself Captain Feathersword (from Wiggles). I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow.
• In honor of NaBloPoMo, I will try to post every day in November. NaKniSweMo sounds like fun too, but I'm already in the middle of two sweater projects.
• I started a Wallaby for Lorelei last week. It's already about half finished, but there aren't any pictures yet. I'm using Plymouth Encore worsted (in the requested Red color) recommended by the lovely people at the Mannings. I think it's the nicest acrylic (blend) I've ever used. And sweaters for preschoolers knit up super fast. It took me about 2 weeks to knit one sleeve on my sweater, in two weeks Lorelei's sweater is almost finished.
• Damages - I finished watching this show last week and after watching an entire season, I'm still not sure if I even like this show. The acting was great, the story was pretty good, but the way it was told was pretty complicated. I liked the use of flashbacks, but they would show the same scene 20 times without adding any new information. The show hasn't yet been picked up for an additional season, but I guess if it does I'll keep watching.
• I can't believe that November starts tomorrow. I'm not ready for the holidays to be here already. Though I have started planning Lorelei's 3rd birthday party. Blue's Clues, because that seems like an easy cake to make.
• OTN - Lorelei's wallaby (50% complete), my perfect sweater (45%), husband socks (75%). I also have a couple Mason-Dixon baby bibs that need buttons, but they're for a friend who won't give me her address so I'm not in any hurry to finish them.

Have a great Halloween and don't eat too much candy!

Rainy Days and Mondays

It's Monday and it's rainy. Is it any wonder that I'm totally unmotivated at work today?

I have been knitting lately. I finished a pair of socks for Lorelei. They're a little tight and they're wool - so she'll probably outgrow them before it's cool enough to wear them. Oh well. At least I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing next time. (I used leftover Opal yarn.)



I also finished a pair of ankle socks for me in Tofutsies. They're really comfortable but the yarn is kind of a pain to use.




If that's not enough, I've also started a Branching Out scarf. This picture is from last week, I'm over half way finished now. The yarn is leftover from Lorelei's scarf - it's wool/alpaca and very hairy.

Summer of Socks Update

We're almost a month into the Summer of Socks, so let's see what I've done.

Finished Socks - 0

Socks in Progress - 3

I tried a couple of new cast on techniques on DPNs. Those didn't work out too well. But then I tried Judy's Magic Cast On with 2 circulars (I tried it with DPNs too but that didn't work for me). I LOVE it. And I'm really liking knitting with 2 circs. I'm also about to try a new short row heel. So, not many (or any) finished socks but lots of learning.

• Jaywalkers - I'm almost to the toe (cuff-down) of the first sock. These have been pushed aside for more exciting projects lately, but I still love them. The beachy colorway is so pretty.
• Tofutsies footies - I recently bought some Tofutsies (because a friend was curious about it and that's the kind of friend I am). The yarn feels lighter and cooler than most of the sock yarn that I have used, so I'm making some ankle socks. I'm doing these toe-up on 2 circulars and I'm almost to the heel on the first one.
• Lorelei socks - Lorelei has been asking me to knit her some purple socks, so I've started. I've only spent a couple minutes working on these so far (usually when she bugs me) so I'm almost finished with cuff (cuff-down) on the first one. I'm sure if I sat down for a couple of hours that I could finish these up quickly. Maybe this weekend (yeah, right!).

I just finished up a big knitting project (pictures soon), so I should be able to finish up at least a couple single socks in the next week or two.

It's Friday

Here is a picture of the new Jaywalkers. I'm almost half way down the leg now (this picture is a day old). I'm really likely the beachy colorway, it feels summery. I hope this pair gets finished faster than the first pair (that took 9 months).

Lorelei got her hair cut last weekend (the second time we've had it professionally cut). She screamed when I sat her in the chair, but the stylist bribed her with a lollipop, so at least she didn't scream through the whole thing. Of course, as soon as she finished the lollipop, she was ready to have her hair cut again.

This weekend, it's my turn to get my hair cut. Wow, can you stand all the excitement in my life?

Happy Friday, everyone!