Rockin Out

Mini-project! My friend Paul asked for just one hand-warmer, so I had to comply. He wanted it for his strumming hand when he plays bass... on Rock Band. They're fun and easy to make plus doing just one is super quick and gives me a nice break from starting more complicated things. And I got to use up some itty bits of Noro that I had in my stash. Bonus.

Feel the punk

The black and blue/green went unexpectedly well together. I think there may be some soft blue tones in the black yarn that blended with the blue really well. I was happy with the end result. Paul thinks it's a little warm for bass-playing, but it is only October. We'll see what he says mid-December.

I still owe you a write-up on the Aleita Shell, but I'm working out the kinks. It is just a bit big and I'm really hoping I can figure out how to make it more fitted then I can give a complete run down on the whole thing at once.

Right now I am knit knit knitting forever knitting the Lacey Hoodie with that teeny tiny tencel yarn. I am doing it in the round and I'm halfway through the bust increases. Although I am a little nervous that the increases may not be enough for MY bust, this is why we use lifelines. I'll try this baby on when I get to the dividing point for the v-neck and make a decision if I should rip back. Although I reeeeeeeeally don't want to. I've put a whole lotta time into this thing already. Here it is a week and a half ago:

sooooooo teeny

I did take it off the needles at one point to make sure it fit. Now it has about 7 more lace repeats. The picture there shows it with just one lace repeat (the part above the red lifeline). Do you like all my stitch markers?? Oh yah I am super paranoid. I took out about half of them once I got some more confidence about the pattern because they were becoming a nuisance. So now I have one marker to every two repeats. I don't think I'll go with any less than that. I already have two errors in there, but I am beyond caring, there's no going back for two teensy mistakes that are easily fudged away.

I am so dang proud of my work on this thing, I show it to people who don't even care. Joe's really nice about it and puts up with me showing it to him every five minutes, "Look baby! I did another lace row! Doesn't it look great!?" Then I spend like twenty minutes just smoothing it out and cooing, "Oh hellooo lovely, aren't you the prettiest ever? Yes you are!" Seriously, if this thing doesn't fit by the time I'm done I will have a complete and totally knitting breakdown. There will be tears.

I'm mulling over some other ideas for a brainless project to go with this one so I don't get completely burned out. Keep you posted!

Cables for Hubs

Sometimes it's very strange grocery shopping in my yuppie neighborhood since I am married to a chef. My grocer habits have definitely changed from what they were four years ago. Back then my regular purchases consisted of half of the frozen food section. I lived off of Lean Cuisines and stove pop popcorn. I'm not exaggerating.

Now, I think we buy a lot of stuff that anyone else would buy, except at the butcher counter. There, amongst men in jogging gear and women in peacoats ordering their skinless boneless chicken breasts and the occasional steak, I put in my order for my husband and myself. This generally involves the butcher going into the back and grabbing specialty items from his freezer.

I usually get the most looks when I'm alone. For example, when I ordered meat for a sauce I was making recently, 1.5 lbs ground chuck (for the meatballs), 1lb. of sausage, and five short ribs (I only needed one but Joe wanted more for 'playing around' with). Our big meat buys together the other day were two whole turkey legs, five slices of bacon sliced thinly, 1.5lbs of ground chuck again, and finally one huge chunk of bacon because they didn't have fat back. Yes, we asked for something called 'fat back' in front of a customer wearing spandex biking shorts who was on his cell talking about potential organ donors. Whatever! Joe's baked beans are the best!

He was especially happy because I finally finished some longer wrist warmers for him. Even though at first he critcized that they weren't long enough or snug enough and questioned the color choices, even though he approved them in the store. I would just like to say, I am not as picky about his cooking. Granted, I did not study knitting professionally nor do I get paid to do it for a living nor do I have someone hovering over me yelling instructions and criticism every five minutes ("TENSION! Watch that tension! This is crap! Throw it away! Do it again! FASTER!"), so yah my skills in knitting are nowhere near his skills in cooking and that may be an unfair comparison. Having said that, I would say that Joe's knowledge of knitting is about the same level as my knowledge about cooking and therefore when he throws disappointed looks my way I have the urge to hide his favorite knives. Oh yah, and don't think I don't know which one is your favorite Joe. You just brought it home the other day. Yep THAT one. I may forget that we have an extra soup pot floating around in the cupboards, but I know which utensils you like.

Below: Cables for Hubs

These remind me of Oscar the Grouch

"Now leave me alone and get lost!"

"Scram!"