I’m More Domestic Than You

Sorry to say it Word Press, but I’m leaving you for a sweet PHP blog that will be up on my new domain shortly.

I’ll post a link when it’s official.

I don’t want to ruin surprises, but at the same time I craft nearly every gift I give and I’ve got this compulsion to document it all. I’m just going to go ahead and post everything I craft without saying who it’s for.

I love knitting up small creatures - today I made a wee cupcake for my friend’s birthday this month [in keeping with my resolution to remember and acknowledge everyone's birthday], but as far as I can tell (and as far as I’ve been told), it looks more like a decorated mushroom. Which is fine, right? I made him in a few hours with stash yarn. First I knit a rectangle in stockinette stitch and sewed it up the side, normally I would have just made it on DPNs and had no seam at all, however I could not find the right DPNs anywhere this morning, so I knit it flat. I did the base by just casting on a few stitches and putting in a few kbl every other row and then decreasing with k2tog and s1-k1-psso to make it into a sort of circle, and I grafted it on. That’s when I gave him a face, so his personality could come out. He looks a little dopey and I wanted him to look a little rough, like a tough cupcake - a Parkdale cupcake even!

I was chatting with Dad on the phone through much of this process and he suggested I give him eyebrows and then Richard thought he could use some arms as well. And while I am painfully aware he does not at all look like the cupcake I had intended him to be, I still think it works. His eyebrows are the same style of eyebrow that Lindsay stitched up for her sockmonkey, Harry. I can’t take any credit for that, but they do look fetching on this little fellow. This is the first time I’ve crocheted anything usable. The top and arms were crocheted and the middle and bottom were knitted. I’m not that into crochet just yet because every time I try I get super frustrated and it vexes me. This wasn’t bad at all though!

This weekend at the Stitch n Bitch, we’re knitting lingerie! I’m knitting up an easy example piece and making a little pattern package for the girls so everyone can make something saucy. I’m making Frenchy from Naughty Needles, this is my swatch/beginning of the front flap. I love the way this yarn knits up, it’s soft and fast and the colour selection is usually decent.

I’m thinking the menu for this week should be saucy too, to keep with the theme! Maybe something like falafels in salsa? Molten caramel cakes? Sweet and sour wantons? Or maybe just all three?

Part of every night is reserved for actual work, work where I must make the internet look pretty, and tonight while I was doing that, I came across some really, really fun brush sets for Photoshop. Look what I can do with them!!

I can get girly and mess around with flowers and swirly things, and sometimes people ask me to make them swirly girly type sites and now it’s a little easier for me! I have to admit, I really like the little butterflies.

I can also get sketchy and messy, with so much already done for me! I’ve had this font for almost a year, but this brush set is sooo sweet with it!

There are a bunch more that will make great backgrounds with the opacity turned down and some others that I’m not sure what to do with, but are a fun sort of modish meets geometry vibe.

On a final geeky note, I also grabbed some new fonts today. I have 545 fonts, behold today’s favourites!

I’m off to knit a few more rows on the lingerie before I jump in the shower and head to bed - I hope I get a chance to work on the tea towel tomorrow!

I have to remember to take breaks from crafting and friends to post about the fun! How long has it been? 3 weeks = too long. This blog is like my crafty notebook of all the little treasures I make, so I’m going to try to remember to come up for air.

Just before Christmas, I ordered a couple of needlepointing patterns from Sublime Stitching (This aint your gramma’s needlepoint!) for my sister and of course I bought a few for myself and to use at the Stitch n Bitches as well. My folks had just given me a sweet set of dishtowels from IKEA for Christmas so I was all set! Naturally, I went straight for the kitchen-themed pack and cut out a cute 50s inspired pin up with a tray (and heels, no less). Transferring only took a few minutes, and came out very easy to see!

I started on her right away and got some of the outline done on Sunday. Needlepointing is one of those things I never really got into before, it’s fussier than cross stitch and honestly, that’s fussy enough. When I found this site on Craftster though, I fell in love with the patterns and this is my first actual try at it. So far, so good.

I’m excited to finish it for my kitchen, though my kitchen is stuck in the 70s, not the 50s unfortunately. I’d like to stitch up some of these patterns for friends this year, so hopefully this turns out and I can start on some birthday gifts! Sushi napkins for Cait!

New Years was celebrated by knitting through the countdown! Thankfully, there are at least two other people who thought that this was a good idea and I was joined by…

my amazingly crafty sister Nikki, aaaaaaand

my dear Emerald!

Then this morning I had a wonderful discovery, I am certain that 2008 is going to be a great knitting year, I can rest assured because I was given a sign! I picked up the second Hedera sock for my mother and *finished it*. Done like, alllll done, no weaving or finishing left! Go me, kicking off the year with a finished project.

In person, and when photographed, there are glaring errors, but man this was a hard sock to knit! Frankly, I’m just proud of trucking through when it got rough, it would have been justifiable to either give up or put it in a basket and forget about it for a while. I’d like to try this pattern again sometime with different yarn. I’ll be knitting a lot of socks this year, so I’ll have the opportunity several times over, I’m sure.

2007 was an incredible year for us, so incredible that I have only been this thankful a few times before.

Why 2007 Was So Rad!

1. we settled into our new house and were finally all able to stretch and have our own spaces
2. the husband machine made a leap and quit his stable 9-5 to go for a much better offer to work from home and it paid off way more than we thought
3. I started hosting Stitch n Bitches at our house and I’ve been able to hang out with some of my favourite people on an almost weekly basis
4. my knitting has gotten much better and there are still so many things I want to learn
5. the husband machine and I celebrated 7 years of marriage this year
6. the kids are growing and changing pretty much everyday and it’s amazing to see them enjoying being around each other without a lot of fighting (toddler temper tantrums notwithstanding)

In 2008, I hope to…

1. remember and acknowledge everyone’s birthday
2. knit 24 pairs of socks
3. be even more of a domestic goddess
4. get two of the tattoos on my list
5. get in fighting shape to get preggers again because if we get preggers or not this year, it’s a good move

9 days since I posted last, I have been too crafty to type. Well, aside from Facebook, but yeah, that can’t really be helped at this point. So sit back for heaps of pics full of crafty madness, domestic bliss, great friends and yummy food.Our first photo has a wee back story. For Halloween this year Richard invited Aunties Em & T to come trick or treating with us. I had told him about Auntie T’s horribly cold Halloween experiences, and he thought she should know how much fun it can be. This was also around the time they were both granted Auntie status, and they each picked out a little gift as a thank you for being invited, you know because at their core, they’re both polite Canadian girls. So Talea gives him grass in a little purple guy with candy. Sweet. We all honestly thought he’d lose interest and I’d forget about it - but no! Look at this thing now!

It has officially out grown the purple guy, (who now holds mini M&Ms in the play room), and is living in it’s own terra cotta pot on the windowsill in the kitchen. Good call, Auntie T!

Sunday was also the day we broke into the sidewalk chalk Auntie Em picked out for him for Halloween. Weather hasn’t really been working in our favor for using sidewalk chalk for it’s intended purpose (what with all the snow), so we went hunting for black construction paper instead and made some masterpieces. Behold.

Monday we made a whole lot of Rice Krispie people, and some squares. I prefer to make people to the traditional squares because my Dad is a hippy that way and never cut them into squares when I was a kid. Also, my dear friend Brigitte and I used to make these while giggling and hunting for 2am snacks as teenagers, but by the time it came to cutting them up, we’d just roll them into balls, because we used to be lazy like that. Next time we’re going to go all sugar high and make them with chocolate features and royal icing clothes.

Tuesday I did a practice run of some special treats with the kids that I can’t post pics of yet because those secret confections are surprises for dear blog reading friends.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent knitting and ripping back and knitting and almost finishing, and cursing at and then reknitting and finally finishing exactly half of Talea’s Christmas gift. Naturally, I can’t post any revealing photos, (I love that this sentence would mean something entirely different on someone else’s blog!), but I can say that getting to the halfway point involved taking all of these pretty little beads and stringing them onto the thread for some hand sewing.

Friday involved a whole lot of knitting on socks for my mom. I finished the first sock and immediately cast on for the second sock, to avoid ‘Second Sock Syndrome’. It is a sight to behold, really, this sucker has taken longer than I thought and I had to edit the pattern to make it work. Here it is just before I shaped the toe.

I’ll now go into great detail for the sock knitters, feel free to scroll on by. The pattern is a 4 row repeat, and I love the way it turned out. What impressed me the most about this sock is the heel, I’ve never shaped a heel like this before and it’s fantastic. Not only do we have a little slip 1, purl 1 action going on, but there is NO SEAM between the top of the sock, the heel and the bottom of the sock. Usually I pick up the stitches on the side and make a sort of triangle where the heel meets the leg and the foot of the sock and then keep knitting in a circle. This pattern worked the decreases differently, so you still pick up the stitches on the side, but you skip the triangle step and keep knitting in a seamless circle. Am I excited about this sock? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Jury’s still out on that one.

Saturday we spent the day getting ready for the Stitch n Bitch Cookie Exchange! You know that sounds like fun! I made Martha’s Checkerboard Cookies, I’ve been making them since I was 17 and the recipe was first printed in the magazine. They are fiddly to make, and involve a ruler, but who doesn’t like busting out the rulers while baking?

This of course set me up for an entire day of baking these, butter cookies and a practice run of salt dough ornaments.

Sunday was the Stitch n Bitch Cookie Exchange, and it was even more fun than I had psyched myself up for, if that’s even possible. My dear friends Cait, Talea and Emerald were there of course, along with more dear friends, Lindsay, Manda, Gillian, Andrew & Magda.

Here’s the spread minus Cait, Lindsay & Manda’s cookies (I took the pic before they arrived).

It was a yummy day full of laughter and good friends, which always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy.

This is me with my BFF Cait! She’s not fond of this pic, but it really puts across the cheer.

Naturally, there were cute friends posing with their cookies, and of course there was knitting, being a Stitch n Bitch after all!

Talea’s Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies and knitting that will become a bag.

Gillian and her Candy Cane Shortbread, and Andrew with his Chocolate Chip Cookies, unforch I did not get a pic of them knitting.

Emerald and her Amaretto Cookies, she was not having a good time purling at all.

Cait with her Buckwheat Surprise Cookies! Surprise! There’s Buckwheat in them! This pic of Cait knitting is a really big deal to me because she’s knitting on double pointed needles and that, my friends, is my most loved type of knitting.

Manda with her huge spread of goodies and her striped scarf. This needs some background, when Manda came to her first Stitch n Bitch, she was really lost. The wine didn’t help the knitting, but it did make for a fun evening, now that she’s knitting without wine, it’s coming together! I’m so proud of her!

I love my dear friend Lindsay for so many reasons, but things like putting on the Optimus Prime mask and declaring Optimus Knitting is one of those gems that really puts it over the top. She’s working on a Christmas gift that I wont spoil by writing about. I will say though that two weeks ago I really wasn’t sure if it was going to work out and now she’s a Knitosaurus Rex!

Magda with the Peanut Butter Cookies that gave her so much trouble, and her newest scarf. She struggled to learn and has now knit more scarves than anyone else in the group! Go Magda!

Monday was the day I got into the glitter, mod podge and Sharpies. I made salt dough git tags for everyone, if you don’t see your name/initial, you’re in the next batch.

First I rolled out the dough and cut as many stars as would fit on the cookie sheet, 2 hours later at 250, and voila.

Then after they cooled off (about 1/2 hour), I painted one side red, waited another 1/2 hour or so for that to dry and then painted the other side. Once they were all red and dry, I used a wee paintbrush with clear drying glue and painted on each person’s first initial. This one was made for Richard.

Then I covered the initial with glitter! I *love* glittter but free range use of it has been banned by the husband machine after an incident a couple of years ago with my sister. So I had to do it in a shoe box, but it worked!

Theeeeeen, I did that over and over (26 times, 2 are not pictured) and once the glitter was dry (not that it ever *really* dries) I covered them all in Mod Podge so no one has glitter in their houses. The inside joke would be ’so no one has a sparkle storm’, there are at least 8 people laughing their heads off at that right now.

So here we have Cait and Emerald’s gift tags, and I will show off the rest of them once they’re finished and maybe all strung up on something.

The rest of whatever time I end up with today will be divided between Mom’s sock, the second half of Talea’s gift, more salt dough gift tags and a batch of cookies or two to freeze till next week. Richard is having his party this weekend, so I’ll probably try to get in some of that prep work too.

Enough blogging, back to the crafting!

Normally, today would have been a Ladies Who Lunch day. Pay attention. It’s every other weekend with the off weekends being Stitch n Bitches, naturally. Saturday or Sunday are decided on earlier in the week, depending on what other plans we’ve all hatched. Anyee, as I mentioned yesterday, everyone was either sick or busy and Talea and I were planning on spending the day in our respective homes knitting under the gun for Christmas. However, Em’s plans changed and she was able to come over after all! Yay! First of all, know that we are so alike in some ways it’s kind of creepy (we scold the kids with exactly the same phrases at exactly the same time, and our recorded voices sound *exactly* the same) and, since the world has a wonderful way of balancing out, there are probably an equal number of ways we are not alike at all. This photo is an illustration of the similarity, that and how cute she is!

For this and many other reasons, she (along with Miss Talea) is now Auntie to my wee children. After she made a wonderful arugula salad, she jumped right in with the Christmas themed domestic bliss that is my house. Here she is in all her Auntie glory making Cinnamon Polar Bear Cookies!

They turned out so well I think we’ll whip up a few dozen for Richard’s Christmas party. The child is more of a social butterfly than I am (most of the time). I just love how wee cute and yet delish these things are, I am smitten by a cookie, I must be stopped.

I am more than a little surprised with myself for not taking a ‘May and YOU!’ photo of us today, but I was so wrapped up in the fun I totally forgot! Boo! No knitting was done on the sock today, because I must concentrate on this damn thing or I screw it up and have to rip it back. I took a break, to work on dear Talea’s gift. For about a week now, her gift and I haven’t been speaking. It’s fallen off double pointed needles, it’s magically increased stitches and magically decreased stitches, and frankly I’m at a point in my knitting education that I just don’t make mistakes like that anymore so it must be the project itself trying to vex me. I picked it up again tonight, once the kids were in bed and we’d settled in for a long night of smoking in the basement, it finally happened. Her gift and I made up! And since I’d imagine she may read this, I will only post a fuzzy photo of the beginnings of what is going to be a fantastic gift now that I don’t hate it anymore.

I spent a hilarious amount of time this morning playing with Little People. That sounds wrong now that I type it, it’s a line of wee plastic toys by Fisher Price. Anyhee, Helena is over the moon about this one. Maybe because it’s a mommy and her baby? Maybe because it looks like there’s a misshapen Siamese twin growing from the front of this poor kangaroo? No idea, but it’s a really big deal around here.

Then the plan was to make heaps of yummy things for tomorrow’s Ladies Who Lunch gathering, but my sister and BFF are ill thanks to my germy kids, and two of the other three have other plans tomorrow. So it would have been just Talea and myself (which I’m sure would be a blast anyway), but with the snow headed this way I thought it might be easier/more efficient if we just stay home and knit on Christmas projects. So the only baking that was done today was peanut butter cookies, of which there are *none* left as I type this just a few hours later. I sometimes use the potato masher or other random kitchen objects to make a different pattern on the top, but I was feeling nostalgic for baking with my Grandma (next weekend, perhaps?), and did the cross hatch like she always does.

And what would a less-than-a-month-to-Christmas post be without a Christmas knitting update?! I’ve finished yet another scarf for the heap o scarves that will be wrapped in the near future, this one is as blue as it is fuzzy - stand back. Skinny scarves are perfect this year because for some reason a bunch of gals I know LOVE them, and they knit up in just a few hours, so I’m happy to knit these things up all day.

Now, the final and most important update…Hedera. I really thought this was going to be it, a sock that I just could not knit. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case and I’m moving along at warp speed. At this rate I’ll actually be able to finish at least the ‘must knit’ part of my list! Here she is, in all her yellow glory!

I’m just about ready to turn the heel on this baby and then we’re pretty much home free!

Next weekend is my Stitch n Bitch Cookie Exchange! I care not how dorky it sounds, I love Christmas, I love Christmas cookies and I love my SnB group, so I’m really looking forward to this. I’m curious to see what everyone will bake.

Today was a much better knitting day than yesterday. Today, I started and finished a quick fuzzy scarf to add to the pile of Christmas scarves. I’d like to make a shawl or something from this yarn, it’s fuzzy but not too irritating to knit with. I often feel guilty for giving people scarves or pot holders or slippers as gifts because I’ve reached this point with knitting that allows me to knit a whole lot more than that and everyone knows it. So when I’m knitting socks and snowmen, it almost feels like I’m cheating whoever gets a scarf! I will say now what I say every year, I will start my Christmas knitting in the summer next year. Yeah, right.

In progress, this afternoon.

In far more important news, I have a handle on Hedera, or at least my slightly edited version of them. These socks are so pretty I wanted to make a pair for my mother for Christmas, but as I mentioned the yarn over before the purl was killing me. I’m glad I have found a way to knit up this lovely pattern, but I’m bummed that I can’t do it exactly as written. Hundreds, if not thousands, of knitters have made these socks in the last 18 months, so what’s wrong with me?! Since I made my edits, my sock no longer looks like it was pulled from the bottom of the salvage bin - it’s pretty. Essentially, pretty is what I’m going for so I’m happy with it. See?

Progress from watching an embarrassing number of Green Day videos shut up and watching a toddler fall asleep aww.

I’d like to say it was the progress on the Christmas knitting and finally getting a handle on the sock dilemma that spurred me to finish putting this sucker together, but honestly I had just stubbed my toe really hard on the half put together version I had abandoned in the hallway on Tuesday.

It had been in it’s flat box since it was dropped off on Nov 3.

I’ve coveted Trofast storage for the kids for years and when I get one it takes me nearly a month to put it together!

Tomorrow will be filled with baking, some as testers for Christmas recipes and something yummy for this week’s Ladies Who Lunch!

Hedera (from Knitty last spring), but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get the yarn over before the purl right. I tried and tried, for a while there I thought I had it! There are two sets of holes running through the pattern, one set is made with a yo, k2 the other with a yo, p2. One side looks so pretty (!) and the other looks like it was attacked by moths. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of the mess before I ripped it out. I did get a quick pic of the twisted rib though, I really like it.

Since I love this sock so much I’m not willing to give up on it completely, I’m going to switch the p2 at the end of each row to a k1, p1 so I can bypass the yo that comes before the p2. I know it’ll look a little different, but hopefully it’ll at least look uniform!

I wont even go into detail about my Christmas knitting list, because I’d rather just knit away at Hedera and think about it on Saturday, when I officially only have 24 days to go. I will say that if Talea’s project slips off the needles one more time, or if I get one more bead stuck on the yarn, I’m casting on something else for her, this is insane. I will mention that I’m looking forward to knitting at least one pair of socks each for the kids. Wee feet make for fun to knit socks! I’m also going to be knitting some Christmas trees to hang in the front window.

This afternoon my dear friend Lindsay came over for some much needed hang out time and knitting help. She’s taken on a large project to give as a Christmas gift and I am nervous for her. I have more than once wrapped unfinished projects (still on their needles) and when unwrapped, I just took it back and kept knitting.

Yay Christmas! I love the bells in the background.

Ok, so back to Hedera…