Well I finally got around to getting a picture of the hallowig I made in the Spring. Those are sunglasses my Mom has had since the 1960′s.
I am planning on wearing this to the Halloween parade. Hub finds the combo of the wig and sunglasses frightening.
Need to keep stitches dry? No, not those kind of stitches, stitches from surgery. Anyway, if you need to keep stitches dry, you might want to take a look at Glad Press and Seal. It’s that stuff that you use to cover bowls and it will stick to human skin. You are smart enough to figure out the rest.
The first time I made a baby blanket it took so long that the child was old enough to knit for himself by the time I was done. I swore I would never knit another. Then one of my favorite cousins got pregnant. She came for a visit early in her pregnancy and I resisted the urge to consider doing a baby blanket. But as the pregnancy progressed I weakened. During her last trimester I faltered and asked my Mom if we should knit a baby blanket together. She thought it was a good idea.
Hub had picked up Kris Percival’s knit knack kit last year in California for me and I decided to use the basket-weave baby blanket pattern. It appealed to me because the blanket would look good on both sides andthe pattern was not too complicated. For the yarn I used my favorite Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Child’s Play colorway. It is just so cheeful that I cannot resist it for baby items.
This was one project that really benefited from blocking. Due to the texture of the basket-weave, the blanket looked a bit crunched up when it was done. Once it was blocked, however, it relaxed into a smoother, more uniform texture with lovely stitch definition. Overall it was a good knit and looked so pretty that I wanted to keep it for myself as a lap blanket. But I finally packed it up and mailed it off to Ireland. Hopefully little Ruby is enjoying her new blanket.
And my Mom, she never got around to helping me with the knitting.
Back in the Spring I took this picture of the front window of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. It is a very cool knitted New York. The little knitted cabs and pigeons are adorable.
A few weeks ago I decided to finally teach myself how to do Magic Loop. Maggie, from my knitting group, had given me some lovely yarn for Christmas with a pattern for arm warmers. It was the perfect project to learn and practice Magic Loop. I also had some minor surgery scheduled that I figured would leave me laid up for about two days at home. While I was laid up I planned to finish the arm warmers, update my Ravelry account, and finally blog about the projects I have finished. A perfect little plan. But my surgery ended up being a little more major than expected. I found myself in the hospital for a few days. Then I ended up at my parents for a week recovering.
If you ever want to get away from it all, I would recommend going to stay with my parents. They do not have internet access and very poor cell phone coverage. The food is good and Mom and Dad are very entertaining. You will have to say the Rosary every evening, but it is good for your Catholic soul.
I am ridiculously fair. And by fair I mean lacking in skin color. In high school biology sophmore year, when the first period class discussed albinos, I was used as an example by a girl I knew. The teacher assured that class and subsquent classes throughout the day that I was not an albino. Some people were not convinced. When I entered the classroom for the last period of the day, the teacher took one look at me and started laughing. By that time both of us were tired of the issue.
This lack of pigmentation has led me over the years to become more and more rigourous with applying sunscreen to avoid sunburn. But the sun is relentless and I end being sunburnt in odder and more random places like the base of my neck on only one side; a dime size area on the back of my left knee; and so on. However, I have now been sunburnt on the oddest place ever, my eyelids. This seems to have occurred because I was wearing my regular glasses for a few days, instead of the usual contact lenses and sunglasses combo.
My eyelids turned a bright pink color, not unlike my usual eye make-up, and became sore. At first I thought it was a skin irritation and chucked all my eye make-up. Then the real fun started as the peeling began. Because the skin was so delicate to the touch I could not put in my contacts. I also could not put anything on the skin because it just increased the burning feeling. Little pieces of skin got into my eyes, got caught on my glasses and stuck onto my face. Up close I looked like I had some crazy sort of molting disease. After the initial peeling subsided I was able to put an eye cream on to soothe the pain. Unfortunately eye lid skin is not the most absorbent and I end up with a weird greasey look. And bits of flaking skin stay stuck to my eyelids.
Today my Mom stopped by. I had told her what was happening but she clearly misunderstood because she said to me, “I told your father your eye lashes got sunburnt and are falling out. He wouldn’t believe me.”
“He shouldn’t believe you! My eyelids got burnt, not my eye lashes.” She then took a good look at my eyelids and was visibly disgusted. I think I need to research if there is eye shadow that contains sunscreen.
From the lack of content on this blog you might think that the knitting has stopped but I have actually been knitting up a storm. However, I have mainly been producing gifts, Christmas gifts. I cannot post pictures because I do not want to ruin the surprise for the recipients. But one lovely gift is going out in the mail this week so I will post a picture once it reaches it’s destination.
We are having a new roof installed over our porch. I am ridiculously excited about the new roof. You know you are an adult when home improvements cause you to be giddy.
Suck. Never try to substitute them for Crunchy Cheetos. You have been warned
I have suddenly become obsessed with Crunchy Cheetos, which I keep calling Crispy Cheetos. This is confusing Hub because he in under the impression that I like the Puffed Cheetos, which are entirely different. This all started because I was forced to eat out of a vending machine last week and I selected the Crunchy Cheetos because “I haven’t had those in years.” Little did I know what I was starting. In an effort to control this craving, I only buy the 50 cent package. Because of this, yesterday I did a little tour of local convenience stores in search of them. You would be surprised at how few convenience stores carry the Crunchy, as opposed to the Puffed, Cheetos. None of my local stores even carried a version of the Crunchy Cheetos made by another company. Cheetos apparently dominates the local cheese doodle market. Who knew? I actually walked out of one store because the cashier was taking way too long to ring up a gallon of orange juice. I may be obsessed but I am not willing to wait more than 5 minutes in line to buy Crunchy Cheetos. It didn’t help that all the other adults in line behind me were buying coffee.
On another note, last night I finished the Luxe Neck Warmer from Knit 2 Together ( I did wash the Crunchy Cheeto dust off my fingers first). It is a cute and quick knit. I used some leftover yarn and knit it up on size 10 1/2 needles. I was concerned that it would be too small because my gauge seemed to be off. However, my gauge turned out fine. It appears that I miscalculated my gauge in the feather and fan stitch pattern. With the stitches curved how does anyone figure gauge in that pattern?
I did run out of yarn so it is only about 6 inches long but the size is good because it fits under my coat nicely. If you look at the projects on Ravelry you will notice that some people replaced the purl row with another knit row for a smoother effect.
The most exciting thing about this project is that I finished it in two days. That is a personal best for me, the world’s slowest knitter. I was so inspired I even wove in the ends and blocked it. Right now I am waiting for it to dry so I can wear it. Of course, tomorrow it is supposed to be suddenly warm. I figure if I keep knitting wintry stuff Spring will really come just to spite me. I still have not had the opportunity to wear the slouchy beret I recently finished. It has been windy, rainy, and damp, but just not cold enough for a hat, particularly a hat that smells like sheep when wet.
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