One week away...

There is a change in the air. And it isn't the weather.

My mail-in vote is finding its way as we speak to the King County Election Office. And I've never been happier to cast my ballot. Change is coming. Change is coming!

Project Update: That Damn Sweater

The baby sweater and I had another battle this weekend. Luckily, I won. But it was a close one.

Crunch Time

There is nothing better, then ending a crummy day, by taking a good long walk and crunching a bunch of fall leaves under your feet. It's amazing how that can make one feel so much better.

Hailey...

While my mom was in town this past weekend, she told me that our dog Hailey passed away. After a very long, very full and fun-filled life, Hailey had to be put down. She'd been having medical problems for nearly a year, but she always bounced back and was out barking and the birds and squirrels in the backyard the next day. The vet just decided she had nine lives.


(Here she is at our place Cascade playing with Kelli's daughter Cameron)

I'm sure her energetic spirit is running around in doggie heaven barking at the squirrels, birds and barking for someone to give her some popcorn (her favorite).

Say what you will about Celine Dion...

...but that woman can belt 'em out.

This weekend my mom came to Seattle for a girls weekend b-day trip. I gave her tickets to see Celine Dion for her birthday and we had a great time! It wasn't so much a concert - more like a theatrical performance really. And in case you're wondering, the answer is no - she did not pound her chest when she sang that little song from the "Titanic."

The words no knitter wants to hear...

"Oh yes knitting. That's carpal tunnel's favorite hobby," said the ergonomics guy with a chuckle. He was sitting in my cubicle and we were going over ways to make my work place more ergonomically feasible.

I'm willing to move my computer mouse to the left side of the computer, get use to doing it all backwards, but I'm not slowing down on the knitting. Gesh...the nerve.

Tough Love

The baby sweater and I had a lovely weekend. We got a long just fine, stitches evened out, the YO's all looked fabulous. And then we had a Monday. During Purly Girls the sweater decided to act up. And I wasn't in the mood to take it. There was swearing (mostly me), a lot of ripping out and reknitting. Then finally I decided enough was enough - I just stitch marked the hell out of it. I felt there was too much anger/frustration being knitted into what is so supposed to be a beautiful sweater for a sweet little baby.

But now, the sweater and I are back on track. There's nothing but sweet thoughts, bunnies, rainbows and cute kitty thoughts here!

And so it begins...

...our life wrapped in plastic.

Our place is now totally wrapped in plastic. No views, no fresh air. Just lots of dust and loud, very loud noises.

The workers were up bright and early this morning standing on the balcony with sledge hammers. At 7:30 am, it sounds like, well, workers hitting the side of your house with sledge hammers - several of them.

So what do you do when you're trying to eat your Cheerios before heading out to the bus stop when there are several workers standing on your balcony with sledge hammers? You smile, wave and then take their pictures.

Before I left for work....
When I came home...

The poor guy just kind of looked at me, smiled and waved back slowly as if not to startle the crazy lady behind the glass. I figured, it we were going to be having breakfast together every morning, then perhaps we should be friends.

But seriously, I'm trying to remain positive while I have no more view. And oh yeah, I work in a basement without windows. This could be come a problem in the dark, gray Pacific Northwest winter. Stay tuned to see if I do turn into the crazy lady behind the glass.

In the mean time, I'll just enjoy this picture I snapped of my view this summer:

Look what I won!

I was lucky enough to be the winner of Holli's blogiversary gift! She knitted a beautiful cowl - which comes just in time as fall blew into Seattle this weekend with some serious gusto! Plus, she threw in some goodies from King Arthur Flour - a pumpernickel bread base and a pizza dough flavor mix! She's a great cook (the pictures on her blog are mouth watering!) and she's a fan of King Arthur mixes so I'm excited to give them a whirl!

Thanks again Holli and happy blogiversary to you!

Trying to be smarter than the damn pattern

I know I'm not alone on this one. You read the pattern. You think, huh, OK. I can do that. Then you start. And somewhere along the line, things go all pear shaped. That is what is happening with me and the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman. It's not rocket science. It's a baby sweater, but it's a total pain in the ass to me. I've knitted, counted, sworn a bit, ripped out and then repeated this process. Three times.Photo by Supergirl.

Today I went and met up Rebecca for a little knitting, chai tea lattes and catching up. She gave me some advice, encouragement and direction. Among other things, the simple little stitch of YO has been thwarting my efforts. But I shall prevail. Either that or finally just get disgusted with the damn thing, rip it out for good and find another pattern.

Fall Apples

There's something about fall. I'm not sure if it's the crisp, cool air, the changing of the leaves, or the bounty of crops that come from the farms to over flow the tables at farmers markets. It could very well be all three of those things. But one thing is for sure, when the temps drop and the leaves begin to fall, I begin to cook (a bit more than normal). So when my Cooking Light arrived in the mail, I immediately curled up on the couch to go through and pick out several new recipes.

There was an article about the Shakers who live in Maine. The reporter talked about their rural, isolated life style. She talked about their their furniture. And of course their cooking. I don't know much about the Shaker's religious beliefs. I do like their furniture design style. And I gotta say, they make a killer Autumn Apple Cake.

At my household, we're anti raisins and nuts. I swapped out the raisins for dried cranberries and left out the nuts altogether. It was hit despite the fact that once again the hubby reminded me that he doesn't like dried cranberries. (I love them and put them in everything!). I'd say this was the perfect recipe to kick off my fall cooking/baking season.

AGH!!!!!

Ok. I'm taking deep breaths.

Remember the first sock I made for my dad's Christmas present this year? Remember how the yarn pooled on the leg, then striped perfectly on the heel and foot?

Remember how some people said, it happens, yarn pools. I accepted it and moved on.

I moved on to sock #2 and now look:

The damn thing is striping perfectly!!!!! Which means, it's not the yarn, it's ME!!!!!

And now I have to rip out the first sock and redo it, in the vain hope I can recreate my gauge and hope the yarn stripes. Otherwise, they'll look really, really silly. So much for getting a jump on my Christmas knitting. Am so annoyed! So annoyed I say!!

It's coming...

It's almost here. I've been dreading it for months. And now I can see it. Literally see it.


(The scaffolding is just on the other side of my unit.)

The building we live in is under construction for some major renovations on the exterior. Two of the other buildings are all ready all wrapped up. It doesn't look pretty. At least it doesn't look pretty from the outside. I'm sure it's even uglier from the inside. But I'll be able to give you an official report on that in a few days I'm sure.

Meet Joss

Hello world. This is Joss. And she's sporting her new hat.
It's a little big now, but luckily she lives in Idaho where it's good hat wearin' weather a lot of the time.

It's here! It's finally here!

After 8-10 long weeks, the yarn for my February Lady sweater is in! And it's so pretty! It's New Leaf Aurora Merino Wool. But before I can start it, I need to turn this:

into a baby sweater. I'm going to make the Easy Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman. It's a smaller version of the February Lady sweater so it'll be good practice. I just hope baby Joss and I don't wear our sweaters out on the same day. How embarrassing would that be?

Project Update: Kellan's Quilt

After a day of trimming, pressing, sewing, a lot of ripping out, some minor swearing (surprising I know) and one broken sewing machine needle, the binding on Kellan's quilt is finally on. I see the light at the end of this long, fabric tunnel. And I'm happy to see it.
When the hubby came in and saw me working on the quilt, this is the conversation that we had:

Hubby: "Wow, what is that."

Me: "It's Kellan's quilt."

Hubby: "Isn't he like in junior high?"

Me: "Close, he's two and half."

Almost out of blankey time. I better get sewing.

Christmas '08 Project Update:

Dad's sock. One down.
One to go.

Stay tuned.

Silencing my inner Martha Stewart

I was invited to participate in a cupcake smack down this weekend. A cupcake baking contest to see who could bake, create, whip up the best cupcake. All week I kept thinking, I gotta figure out what to make. I gotta get to the store. But when Saturday afternoon got here (my allotted store/baking time), a funny thing happened. I really didn't feel like baking. Despite that I had found a fabulous recipe and was ready to bake, I just didn't want to. But I felt I had to bring something to the party. Now, for you those of you who know me, you know how I love to channel my inner Martha Stewart. But today, I wanted to keep her quiet. And that's when the hubby and I hatched this plan:


Yes, that's right, those are the Hostess Cupcakes, Ding Dongs and Twinkies that you remember from your childhood (or maybe still eat). We showed up at the party and saw the counter top full of all kinds of deliciously looking homemade goodness. I proudly took off the tin foil and said, "I call these, "Silencing my inner Martha." then I put down the patter as everyone said, "Awesome" and someone reached for a Twinkie.


The cupcakes were all delicious and pretty to look at. There was even a contest; Best of Show, Best Cake, Best Frosting. Me, I took home the title of Best Effort.

Possibly the cutest thing ever...

could be this hat.

Project: Lilly's Hat from Stitchmarker

Yarn: Hat - Nashua Chunky Wool/Alpaca in Espresso

Rose - Shibuiknits in Blossom

Needles: Hat - 6 DPN Rose - 2 DPN

This projects calls for size 10 needles, but I started on 8's and it just looked so big. I ripped out and started over on the 6's. It still looked really big, so I switched to the DPNs instead of the circs and it made all the difference. It's a super easy project as I did the hat, first rose and leaf in a day of good relaxing!

This hat is for a sweet little baby girl who arrived a few weeks early and caught my knitting a bit off guard! Now it's time to hunker down and get to her sweater!

Getting back to business

There's been a lot going on around the Knitting Knot these days which sadly means, not a lot of knitting. But now, it's time to get back to business.

My dad's sock is almost done. I think. I still need my mom to measure his foot so I can get it just right. My plan is to have her measure it while he's asleep on the recliner in front of the t.v. Should be easy.

But this is an interesting thing with the sock. When I started it, the yarn was pooling instead of striping.

However when I turned the heel and start the foot, it began to stripe. Interesting, huh.