I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat...

I did taw a puddy tat! I Did! I Did!

Here is the "Puddy Tat" (Boots, of course) checking out Mr. Tweedy(bird)

Greenjeans as it blocks:

Mr Greenjeans was officially put into wearing rotation today:

Funky Button, purchased at my LYS. Love! The! Button!

And now I continue work on the felted clogs for man's feet. First slipper completed. The pattern is a big tricky in that you have to follow along closely each row. Because of this, it was necessary to cast-on an item that would be portable. Of course, I cast on during the boy's basketball game this weekend, which was not really tricky, but did require full attention. Note to self: casting on socks while a basketball game is in progress is not recommended knitting activity if you want the boy to think you're watching his game at all!

The sock I began will be documented soon. Stayed tuned. By the way, have I mentioned that these socks will be For Me? Why do we knitters feel guilty when we knit for ourselves? It is our talent, our money, and our time going into our craft. But, to ease the guilt, believe it or not, there will be another hat produced soon. I'm a sucker for a 6 year old boy's big eyes requesting a hat like his big brother's!

HiJacked

What a crazy week this has been! We were hit hard by a blizzard Tuesday evening, which left everyone crippled Tuesday night and most of Wednesday. At the height of the blizzard, our high efficiency furnace vents continued to become drift-covered and would have to be dug out, as the furnace would quit every 2 hours or so. Also at the height of the blizzard, my man was experiencing some chest discomfort and shortness of breath. We were able to get him to medical attention early Wednesday afternoon. All tests came back normal, which was a huge relief to us.

Saturday a friend called because she had just received a troubling email from me. According to the email I was stranded in the UK and needed financial help to get home. When I attempted to access my email, I was completely locked out! The password had been changed. Through some fancy footwork, we were able to get back into the account, change the password, get the hijacker's email deleted as a contact (which they had inserted into the account), so that they would not receive notification that password was being changed. While we were in the email, the hijackers came back in, locked the system up, changed the password again. However, this time when I got the email link to change the password, their email was no longer notified and we were able to get in and delete everything and shut the account down. YIKES! Amazing what these hackers can do. My apologies go out to anyone who received that email.

I learned a valuable lesson from this...don't use free email accounts! There is virtually no assistance you can get if something like this happens. I have read many tales online today about just such a thing happening to others. We were lucky on that one because an old email of mine was still attached to the account. I was able to get into the old email account with some quick thinking and fancy footwork.

And today, when I thought I'd FINALLY get to sit down and do some relaxing yarn and needle work, I was loving on the big boy Toivo and found a flea. Yes, a flea. Middle of winter, middle of an indoor cat's back. He is now isolated in the guest bedroom, where I currently sit blogging away. Everything else is vacuumed and/or headed for the washing machine. I'll call our vet in the morning and see if I can get some flea medication for all three without having to take Toivo in. I did capture a flea and put it in a baggie. Let's hope they will do that, because Toivo and vehicles are not a pleasant combination. Traveling just doesn't agree with the boy. Seriously. He explodes. Out of several ends. Not pretty for anyone involved.

So, now I'm wondering..."what next?". Maybe I'll sit down and work a bit on the man's felted clogs. I am nearly finished with the first clog and I showed the boy and said "Here's dad's first slipper. You think that will fit?" If you've not felt knitted items before, let me tell you, the knit item pre-felting is Gy-normous! You should've seen the look on the boy's face! Then I explained to him the wonder that is felting, but he still thinks I've knit these too large. Can't wait to take my boys through the process of felting. Oh, and Mr. Tweedy is off the needles and I also cheated on the clogs and began a pair of socks. For me. More on all that later.

What follows is my limited photo documentation of the blizzard of '11:

It all begins:

As the day turns to night, the snow begins drifting up the back door:

The drift grows as the wind and snow blows:

(Notice Heimo's ball? Apparently we were keeping him busy through it all!)

The drift reaches the door handle:

Snow sticks to the window screen, obscuring wooden kitty's view:

The viewing hole grows ever smaller:

By bedtime, we are no longer able to see out the back windows:

The following day, good friends (including boy with young man hat), come plow and shovel us out, so that the man (who is experiencing chest discomfort), doesn't have to go out in it.

Drifts have taken over the yard. Waist high in places, fence high in others:

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

All About the Feet (and someone's head too)

The Christmas socks, Dad's socks are on his feet nightly. I enjoyed a visit with them this weekend, just myself, and was witness to his nightly ritual of donning Christmas knit socks and slippers. I did notice, and I know he'll never tell me, that they are a bit too short. The pattern called for 7 inches but I believe the next pair needs to be 2-3 inches taller. Or maybe I should just knit knee socks for him.

Christmas sock ballerina pose: My boys snuggle so much. These are the feet of two kitties (Toivo and Heimo), for whom God knit them purr-fect socks: Snuggled so tightly, you can barely make out Heimo enveloped in Toivo's warmth! This quick little bit is not about Florence's feet, but rather her head:

she loved her hat and we had a mini lesson in hand-washing wool knits. I was worried she might not like the enormous pom-pom adorning the top and was prepared to tell her how to remove it, but she adores the pom-pom adorning the top! However, I forgot to take a picture of her wearing her hat. Darn it!

Re-Gifting

The Alaskan Gift Cowl has been completely revamped. I am now calling it the Alaskan Re-Gifted Cowl. I tore out the seam (which was no small feat as apparently I excel at seaming.) Couldn't find my darn seam yarn. I ended up cutting just below the seam and frogged to the cast-on edge. Then pulled random bits of cut yarn out of stitches, many, many stitches. Let me re-iterate: MANY, MANY stitches with cut up bits of yarn preventing them from frogging nicely. Lots and lots of yarn bits.

ANYWHO...........

Frogged back a reasonable ways - didn't measure, tried it on. The fabric was wonderfully stretchy so I didn't have to cast back on to mathematically calculate how to add increases to the beaded rib pattern. It just nicely (magically) pulled down over my shoulders. The cowl falls gracefully from my neck.

Et Voila!

Wore Re-Gifted today to work and received many compliments. Am pleased with it now. I knew I would never wear the bee-hive of fabric around my neck and the cost, the beauty and the sentimentality of the yarn just wouldn't let me stash it in the closet. It just sat on the desk near my bed so that I could ponder it daily. Yesterday, it came to me. I do believe I have enough yarn left to do a nice lace pattern SMALL cowl also. That should have been my task to begin with, but hindsight always wins, doesn't it? Substitutions are a crap-shoot, and I hit craps with that one! I do want a Fit To Be Tied cowl, and I will make one someday with more appropriate yarn.

Knitting blog world is floating around instructions to post a picture of yourself wearing a handknit. A picture not taken to show off a handknit. Didn't look too intensely, but do have this picture from the 2009 Thanksgiving family photo with me styling Amused. I wear the heck out of this one. The past two weeks I have worn a handknit to work 4 out of 5 days. (Why not five? Last Friday was Packer v. Bears day at work and I had to regale myself in Packer wear while the rest of the building (minus a few brave souls like me) dressed in Bears colors. I've never knit a Green Bay Packer sweater.

A Month of Hats

This must be the month of hats. Here is another which is a Really Warm Hat. The pattern is from www.knittingschooldropout.com but I've linked the pattern for you. I used less than a skein of Kraemer Yarns Bear Creek Bulky in Cotton Candy. Not sure if I can get two hats out of that skein, but I'm going to try. I even got the pom-pom right which is amazing as I am pom-pom challenged. I used www.hellyknitty.com pom-pom instructions. I got it right the first go, and didn't even utter obscenities or anything! This hat is uh-dorable! (it's a birthday gift for my sister-in-law - hopefully she doesn't read my blog, or if she does, she doesn't read this until her package arrives).

Color is truer in this second photo, and yes, that is Boots loving the handknits!

One, Two, Three

One, that is a picture of a happy kid. The boy's friend needed a hat. This particular boy wears a camouflage jacket in the winter. He wears Carharts. A camouflage hat was only fitting. He was tickled to be the recipient of a custom hat for himself. He wore it through dinner!

Two, I am toying with combining the man's name with mine to create a cute linked name like those the tabloids use for the stars. Thus far I've come up with Doughgerm. (neither dough nor germ is spelled correctly, but no matter)

and Three, have I mentioned that Boots likes handknits?

As Promised...

Yesterday started with some falling snow with a forecast for worse conditions as the day progressed. The announcement came over the intercom mid-morning that we would be having early dismissal.

Here's the drive to work:

This was the drive home:

Worse indeed! Had a nice, unexpected afternoon in the coziness of my home with some knitting on my lap. Mr. Tweedy's body came off the needles today, largely due to the amount of time I was able to dedicate to it yesterday. I'm pleased with it so far. Some of my modifications were a crap-shoot, but they appear to be working out for me. Of course, final product on body will be more telling!

I really like the cable ribbing, and am planning to do a larger section of it on the arms.

And so, as promised, Lisa came over last night with an absolutely gorgeous free-form loaf of hand-made bread. So pretty, I didn't want to tear into it. Of course, with artisan bread like this, it is an insult to cut it with a knife. This bread deserves to be torn into and ravaged! It is delicioso!!!

Should I mention here that it is sometimes prudent to complain to others? While I was trying to get a good picture of this lovely bread, I bemoaned the fact that I need a better camera or photo-shop so that I can take detailed pictures for my blog, especially of stitch detail. Lisa said somewhat innocently (I mean she knows me, but apparently...) "doesn't your camera have macro setting?" And what is that? I replied. She took the camera and said "Oh, here it is", and pressed the button of a flower. And it seems that I do have macro setting and was immediately able to take a picture of the lovely loaf of bread and later a picture of the cable ribbing. Yes, I have had this camera for 3 years. Go figure!

The bread has wings!