Happy December!

I am so looking forward to tomorrow, December 1st. The weather’s supposed to be just crappy, so the plans are…

1. Play Christmas music all day.

2. Set up the Christmas tree.

3. Possibly have a nice fire going as well, if I can convince the kids to go out in the freezing sleet to the shed to get some firewood. Perhaps if I bribe them with marshmallows…

4. I’m thinking a BIG crock pot of soup is in order, perhaps using up the rest of the Thanksgiving ham.

5. If all else goes well, there also may be some coloring, cutting, pasting, glueing, and other general ornament making frenzy.

6. If all that goes well, and if I’m not completely insane, we may also bake cookies, although that activity has not been mentioned to the boys. I don’t need them nagging.

Somewhere in there too, I need to get out to Hobby Lobby to buy one of those foam things that I can cut for a seat cushion for my Dad. Tune in tomorrow for the story of the Fugly Rug and matching seat cushion… (dum dum dum)

Grandpa 60’s Slippers

Grandpa 60s Slippers 3

Originally uploaded by YarnDork
Years ago when I was very little, my mom’s dad, we called him Grandpa 60, made us all slippers. He had also knit us dozens of hats, but these slippers were special because he had asked each of us for our favorite color. These were custom made. At the time, I was torn between 2 favorites, green and red, and that’s what I told him. My slippers turned out to be one of my favorite things he ever made for me. I had one red slipper with a green pompom on it, and one green slipper with a red pompom on it. When I taught myself how to knit, after I figured out his hat recipe, I told myself I had to figure out how he made those slippers, so I could make some for my boys. Here’s the recipe.

Pick out yarn and needles to match, maybe a size smaller to be warmer. Cast on enough to measure about an inch or so longer that the foot for little ones, up to 2 inches longer for bigger kids. So, if your kid has a 6 in long foot, cast on 7 inches. Or 8 if you want. They’re slippers. Now, knit in garter stitch until you have a square, then bind off. You could use any stitch, I guess, but I’d avoid lacey ones. Here’s the tricky part. You have to do a little but of origami folding to make this square into a slipper. I’ll do my best to explain it clearly. Fold the square diagonally so you have a triangle. Start at one point of the triangle (not the right angle point), and seam it up to the corner. Continue seaming about 1/3 of the way towards the other point. You’ll sort of have to eye-ball it. I’ve sometimes gone up 1/2 way. DO NOT seam all the way to the other point, as the part you’re leaving unseamed will be how the person gets their foot in. Now for the wonky part. Take the other point, the one you didn’t seam, and fold it down towards the toe, using a similar motion to folding down the cuffs of socks. If you want to be extra cute, tie up the toe point to that cuff point. If you want to be even more extra cure, put a pompom or a jingle bell or something else adorable on there. Presto! Elf Slippers!

These take just a few hours, depending on weight of yarn used and your personal knitting speed. For tiny ones, you can even add some of that squeezable fabric paint to the bottom to make non-slip soles.

Ode to Bill Cosby

Does anyone remember that Bill Cosby “Himself” show? I remember it as a kid, and laughing so hard I peed my pants. A few times. Now, watching it as a parent, there’s a whole new level of funny in there. Like the part where he feeds his kids chocolate cake for breakfast, reasoning that cake has basically the same ingredients as pancakes, and since his wife sent HIM downstairs to feed them breakfast, by golly, he’s going to feed them what he wants. Then the wife comes down, sees all of them eating chocolate cake for breakfast, and in a very loud voice orders Bill upstairs so she can repair the damage. Which, by the way, was exactly where Bill had wanted to be all along. As he says at the end of that little story…”We men are stupid, but we are not so stupid”, or something like that.

I lived that last night, almost. It was my sock knitting class night, which we won’t even go into right now all the problems associated with that, but if you’re on ravelry, you can look up my beef under the forum for Remnants, entitled Etiquette question for LYS owners. Sock knitting class night means that I have to fix dinner early, so it’s ready for them to eat once they get back home, then package up all 3 boys, go over to my WW to weigh in right at 5:30 when they start, so I have time to do all that and then hopefully hubby will show up close to 5:30 since it takes me about 20 to 25 minutes to get to the class, and it starts at 6. He was only running about 10 minutes late, so that’s pretty good for him. I was stupid and waited in the parking lot instead of going ahead inside, dragging all 3 boys with me and weighing in while waiting for him. He had previously asked if the boys had eaten yet. I answered no, but that supper was ready, if he wanted that. He had wanted to take them to this pizza place that has kids eat free on Tuesdays. I said, sure, supper can be re-heated, and I won’t have to fix anything that next night. Just make sure, I said, to be home early enough to allow son#1 about an hour to finish up a school project. I assumed that hubby would know that said hour needed to be completed by 8, as that’s the time to begin the “going to bed” procedure. Especially on nights when baths are needed, which I forgot to mention. So, I do take partial blame.

I walk in from knitting class at 8:45. Sons 2 and 3 are in pj, running around screaming and chasing each other. Hubby is in sweats and a PJ top, leading me to believe they’ve been there for a while. Son #2, the informant (Bill Cosby Himself reference again), let me know that they just got home.

Son #1’s hour has just begun.

At 8:45.

pm.

This is the boy who get over tired easily and pukes and sleeps for several hours, and then wakes up fine, but if he pukes I keep him home from school because what if the one time I go ahead and send him he actually has the flu or something? I cut him off at 9:30. Tonight…no puking.

Yet.

This is why I never go anywhere. You see, he is stupid, but he is not so stupid.

Kristen’s Scarf

Kristens Scarf

Originally uploaded by YarnDork
This is the scarf I’m making for my almost sister in law Kristen. She’s set to marry my brother Kyle as soon as they can figure out when. I’m making her scarf in purple and Wool-ease wheat, which I love. I am also making the same pattern, but without fringe for Kyle, also in the Wool-ease wheat, but Kyle’s in in the thick and quick. So, it’s almost like they match. Sort of.

We had our annual visit to the portrait studio last night, and I have a black and white receipt proving once again that I have the cutest boys in the universe. Tonight’s my weigh in at WW, and then I get to run away to my sock club thingie while Daddy finishes son #1’s school project and gets all 3 boys baths and hair washed! Bets now will be taken concerning if all 3 things actually happen.

First Snowfall of the Season

First Snowman Boys

Originally uploaded by YarnDork

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we were very surprised to wake up to a great snowfall. It snowed for at least 4 hours. As you can tell from the background, it didn’t stick on the ground. But I guess the deck was cold enough until the sun broke through the clouds. The boys immediately wanted to get their gear on, and David started rolling up balls for a snowman. Here they all are, with the first official snowman of the season. David’s on the left, Patrick in the middle, and Russell on the right. See his grin, like he just stomped on something? He’s like that most of the time.

More on the scarves of Christmas tomorrow…

2 scarves down, many to go

Phils Scarf

Originally uploaded by YarnDork

Finished the “frogged too many times” scarf this afternoon while my Thanksgiving ham was in the oven. I love this pattern, and I already cast on 2 more. One in the same yarn, but different color for my brother (this one’s for BIL Phil) and one for said brother’s fiance in wait, this is cool, I must explain. I’m using Lion Brand Wool-ease. Comes in sport, worsted, chunky, and thick and quick. For Phil’s and Kyle’s (brother), I’m using the thick and quick. Kyle gets a colorway called wheat. A nice off-white with speckles of bits of darker yarn, sort of like a black cat laid on it. So, for Kristen’s(fiance), I’m using the wheat in worsted weight, and combining it with a purple I already had. They get the same pattern, and sort of the same yarn, but different weights, and Kristen gets her purple and some fringe. I didn’t put fringe on Phil’s and don’t plan on putting it on Kyle’s. Fringe is for girls.

Scarf Woes

Ok, remember that scarf?  Guess what?  It’s been frogged AGAIN.  I am so angry at Lion for writing a bad pattern, or maybe for having yarn that refuses to block, and myself for not researching this sooner.  I kept having problems with the garter stitch border folding up over the reverse stockinette part that’s there to highlight the cable.  I’m pretty proud of myself for doing the cable, I found Wendy’s instructions for cabling without a cable needle, and it’s so easy, but I’m so mad at that darn scarf.  I had thought that the folding was due to using the wrong needle, see previous post about my stupidity.  So, I kept knitting along, with the correct needle and thinking, this folding will go away when I get it long enough, right?  It didn’t.  So, I finally had the brilliant thought to go and check it out on Ravelry to see if anyone else had had this problem and if it could be cured by blocking.  According to all the comments on that pattern, 2 or 3 of them were hibernating, and all the rest said the same thing.   Their scarf did the same thing and no amount of blocking worked.  I’m so mad.  I had already gotten to the part where I started in the second ball.  So, I frogged it and started a great pattern from someone else on Ravelry called the Go To Scarf.  It’s working great.  Now.  Phil had better LOVE this dang thing.

Chunky vs. Thick and Quick

Remember that scarf I was making where I bought the wrong yarn? Well, here’s what I did. I thought that it was looking a little tight, and since the instructions listed 10 1/2 size, that’s what I was using, even though I was using the wrong yarn. The yarn label suggested 13. So, after about 18 inches or so of knitting, I decided the best thing to do was to frog. I ripped the whole thing back and figured out that I needed to figure out if the one skein would make a long enough scarf. So, before I cast on, I unwound the rest of the skein, and found both ends, and made a big pile until I worked my way to the middle. I tied a little slip knit in it, and then used the slip knot and one end and worked my way to 1/4 of the yarn. Then I cast on using the bigger needle, thinking I’d work to that first slip knot, measure it, and multiply by 4 to get the approximate length of what it would be if I just used that one. It turned out to be 8 inches. Times 4. That’d be 32 inches for a scarf for a BIG man.

I went out and bought more. Note to self…next time, read the instructions better. It does look nice though.

Finished Socks

I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath for pictures of my latest sock projects, so here they are…

	The first 2 pictures are of the socks I made for hubby. I used Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks.com. One skein made one sock, so now I have one extra skein to play with.
	This one used my leftover green for the toes, and a blue heather, both Palatte, also from Knitpicks.com. I used the Stansfield 196 pattern from More Sensation Knitted Socks. I love this pattern so much I’m using it again for some socks for my sister. Hers will be purple, of course.
	This is my regular toe-up anklet pattern. Yarn is Autumn Palette from Knitpicks.com.

Christmas Knitting, so far

I have a lot to do.  Oh my gosh.  Went to Michaels for that sale, and bought the wool-ease I need to do my cable luxe tunic, someday, then went back again after I figured out some Christmas presents for family.   Came home and finished hubby’s wool of the Andes socks, which he promptly put on and slept in.  Now, I’m almost done with Lauren’s cape, I’m doing sc, ch 15 around the sides and bottom edge, and it’s taking forever.  I whipped out a ruffled boa scarf for SIL Deb, and started working on a nice cable scarf for her hubby.  I had bought the right yarn at Michael’s, and tried Wendy’s no cable needle cabling, which is great, and was thinking that the knitting seemed just a little tight.  So, I glanced at the recommended needle for the yarn.  It said 13.  My pattern says 10 1/2.  I was like what?  Then I saw it.  Pattern calls for wool-ease chunky.  I got thick and quick.  Wouldn’t be a problem, except that the chunky is 150 yards, and the t&q is 100.  So, I’m going to try to whip through this today and see how long it is with just one skein, otherwise I may have to go back.  Darn.