Eye Candy Weasley!

Quicky Friday even post. Just want to show off my Weasley.

It's Friday and I finally got to take a picture of the unblocked Weasley Sweater which I finished a few days ago. It was a beautiful, albeit cool, evening so we went outside for its photoshoot. Here's another picture of My Life's Work wearing his Weasley.

There is a teeny gap right where the collar joins the body at the top, his right side. I have to fix that. Maybe it'll be ok after blocking, we'll see.

I am proud of this sweater. For you HP fans, it's supposed to look sloppy like that. I added a bit of ribbing on the bottom and it still rolls. Also, I used ribbing for the neck. This is my first intarsia attempt. I made this sweater a bit big so it'll fit him next winter. Now, I have to make one for the little Queen, Opus II.

Here she is teaching 'Emily' her American Girl doll how to play piano.

Let's see, what else have I been up to? Oh, baking! Last week I baked 48 muffins for Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at work. Here's half of them. AND, I'm proud of the muffins, too! I only

set off the smoke alarm once!

We have been having some really awesome sunsets! Hopefully, I will be out there taking pictures of them soon instead of working.

Messed up the second Mudslide Sock heel. I didn't center the pattern over the instep so the heel and all will hit the frog pond tonight. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see how I feel. Details to come!

I am lining up my next project to be the Leaf Ribbing from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I think that will be a cool pattern for my camouflage yarn, don't you?

Pirates, Princesses, Mudslides, Weasleys, Puppets--OH MY!

Hi, remember me?

I'm in bad need of a post! Naturally, I don't have the camera and the PC and my pencil and my knitting together so I can only tell you about the glory of the forethought heel and toe on my completed sock. One Mudslide down and one to go! It's nice. I think that I could've made the leg a wee bit longer as I had enough yarn but the baby cable pattern came out really nice with the mudslide socks that rock yarn.

The Weasley sweater for DS - finished. I have to make one for DD next and will only make a few minor changes to the pattern. For now, please imagine pictures of both.

The other thing that had me very busy for the first half of the month was arranging my son's birthday party. We had 22 children and 23 adults at a very underated place on Long Island. The Long Island Puppet Museum and Theatre. It was a very different, cultural, fun party. The place was converted from an old garage into a Victorian era theatre. Roman Valdes, a self taught artist, is a master. He's married to a lovely woman, Eliza. Together, they run the theatre. He decorated the entire place with his art, designed the stage, makes the puppets that are in the shows and puts on performances. The performances aren't like Kukla, Fran and Ollie. No siree, they have a score, a dialog and even a light show! They're great! This I have pictures of..

Awesome puppets made by Roman Valdes, above and below.

Museum pieces, collectible puppets some of which are 100 years old!

The theme for the party was "Pirates and Princesses" and DH (with hair!!) and DS looked so cute.

It doesn't take much to have DD dress up and have a good time. She is a true princess.

and...always acts like a lady.

This is the ceiling, inside the theatre. Amazing!!

Since he's married, Mr. Valdes paints his wife, over and over again. This is Eliza.

Not only is he a great artist, he's a pirate, too. Great with the kiddies! They had a great time!

Please read more about Roman Valdes and his life's work here.

For now, I leave you with a picture of a little boy that just turned six.

He's my life's work.

Sadness & Happiness

I have completed one "Eleanor" sock and I have sock #2 about 30% done. I plan on working on it exclusively as a tribute to Gina Silva, a/k/a Gigi. Gigi was the founder of 'Socktopia' and designer (Monkey Toes patterns) and has just recently passed away. Eleanor is one of her designs and it is lovely. I plan to make another one of her's shortly. She will be sorely missed in the knitting world. Ravelry members can read up on Gigi in this week's newsletter if you haven't already.

In happier news, I promised to show our 100 day project. For those of you not in-the-know, the 100th day is a school party celebrating the 100th day of class. You know that I am the proud mom of a kindergartener and he had to make a project for this special day. They have been counting to 100 and the party was two days ago. Their project had to include 100 of 'something' so we did erasers hat I found in the dollar store to make an ocean and sky scene. Strangely, someone else made the beach and the water, gluing on 100 little fish. I thought that I had a 'unique' idea....hmmn.. Well, better erasers than sticky fish.

In sadder news, my fish have been dying. Stupid me turned off the filter to feed them some frozen brine shrimp food a few days ago....I think it was only a few...and ... I forgot to turn the filter back on. (think: Finding Nemo, "We're swimming in our own....") Yep, it must've gotten yucky in there, killing some of my prize gouramis. Sigh. I will be more careful. At least I think that's what happened.

In happier news, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn. The colors look beautiful and I really want that green handpaint for something leafy. Or green monkeys. Or Jaywalkers. Or anything! Can't wait. My favorite kind of yarn, doesn't look like it will stripe. Yum!

Nothing new on the Weasley Sweater. It's down to the end and I'm draggin' it out because of sock knitting. Going to make something out of STR Mudslide next; it's in the planning stages so stay tuned for that.

More to come!

More Family...More Weasley...More Monkey

As I was saying Friday, before we were so rudely interrupted with work making that a rather short post, I have had a bad week. My poor son had his asthma flare up quite severely. This required us to nebulize and use steroidal meds which often adversely affect his behavior. Additionally, he was exhausted from being awake and being unable to breathe.

Monday morning, I decided that I wasn't up to snuff so I called in sick and stayed home with him. No telecommuting. Just he and I.

"Mom, are we...absent today?"

"Yes, baby. We're both too sick to go out. Mommy wasn't feeling that well and besides, I have to take care of you".

"Ok, just making sure that I'm absent so that I know where I am. A kid in my class was absent for five whole days, did you know that? and like...he was in Florida seeing Mickey Mouse. Do you think we could do that?"

Amazing what some parents are thinking, isn't it? Why is that acceptable? What kind of message does that send to them? "Schools not important and mommy and daddy want to save some money so we'll take a vacation when everyone else is in school". I guess they don't know about the truant officer.

The next day, Tuesday, we were all back at school and work. I was well rested and ready to tackle the rockpile. Pick-ax in hand, I set out for the day. I dropped off DS and then went to DD's classroom. We did a special project for career day and I got to be the guest speaker, telling them all about how to make license plates. Ok, ok, all the things they need to know about how things go from being a movie to going up to the satellites and down to your tv set. It was technology and broadcasting for four year olds. It was great. I have decided that there is a reason why I am not a teacher. 90 percent of them listened but a few strayed in the back, off the carpet and were talking. "Excuse me, boys and girls, if you're talking you're not listening. If you're not listening, you won't get a surprise present at the end". One little boy raised his hand and said that he knew how to talk and listen at the same time..... Very smart, these pre-schoolers.

After that, I went back to the house. The little doggie had escaped from the crate. She knows how to unhinge the sides now. I don't trust her. She may be better behaved but I still think that she doesn't care about the wood floor as much as I do and may do peeps on it. Nothing worse than puppy peeps on the wood floor. Turns it black. I went into the house, rehinged and tightened up the crate. I put her in there. I decided that it was such a nice day, no need for the big heavy coat. I emptied the coat pockets and put everything on the table. I put on a sweatshirt jacket thing. I saw a nice apple there and put the apple in my pocket. Dog in crate, check. Older dog relaxing, check. They have water, check. Coffee cup in hand, check. Keys in pocket, check. Go outside, slam the front door and just as it was closing...CRAP! THAT'S AN APPLE, YOU IDIOT, NOT THE KEYS! Keys were where the apple should be and the apple was where the keys should be. Both happy while I cursed.

Neighbor not home, spare key locked in her house. Blackberry in car. Car not locked. Cruise web for number of locksmith. Call. He comes. It's raining. I eat the apple. It's stuck in braces. He can't unlock the door but has his handy-dandy drill. He drills out the tumbler. I go in the house, dog loose yet again. Keys are fine. I pick them up and head off to work. I get there by 10 am. Not TOO bad, considering.

Let me show you my Weasley. It's all together now. I used three-needle bind off for the shoulders. I am almost regretting not knitting the sleeves in the round so I may do that when I make one for DD. It's lovely and I love Cascade 220 ... ok, even more than the Superwash.





How's that D, hah?

I have picked up Monkey as well and I may try and finish this tonight while 'watching' the Superbowl. We'll see. Ready for the heel flap!


Time to go and get ready for the adventuresome day!

Next post, our "100th Day" project!

Intarsia ... Smintarsia! Weasley Sweater Initial

I did it! It's not perfect but it's very good. I gave myself an A-. I accidentally carried the yarn across 4 sts on the back. Once. Also, I wrapped in reverse on the straight part of the D.

Here's what I did"

1. Downloaded and installed the "Lumos" font. You can find that on the web in many places and it's free. There is also Parseltongue and Harry Potter.

2. Opened up Word and typed a "D" in font 650. I printed it out on plain white to hold it up to the graph paper to kinda get the right actual sized letter.

3. Went to sweaterscapes.com to print my own graph paper. It's cake. You only need do a little bit of math. See how to do it here. I read some tutorials on knitting intarsia.

4. I printed out the graph paper and printed out my "D" and miraculously, it fit in the grid nearly exactly after a few tries. (22 sts over 32 rows). Here it is. (oohs and aahs are welcome, I worked hard on this!)

5. Did a little penciling in. Unfortunately, with knitting there is no 'half cross' like in cross stitch. The "H" in the Weasley sweater is lots easier than making a curvaceous "D". I think I made it round part on the right a little too wide but it's very nice.

I then practiced for a few rows with some scrap yarn. Highly recommended and not a total waste of time. I then wound my bobbins onto 4 or 5 clothespins and .. knit. Across. I twisted, I followed, I dealt with the horrow of several bobbins strewn about. Suggestion: Do this at a table not in your lap. Kinda a pain, I know. I like the rocking chair best but this was only for 32 rows, I sucked it up. I twisted, I untwisted. I cursed a little, dagnamit! I asked God what possessed me to have TWO children who EACH want this and why I didn't name them Larry and Lisa because there would probably be nothing too difficult about making a damn L.

Then...I was done. Voila. It doesn't look as messy in person and it looks even nicer from far away, see below. It has that Weasley look, don't you think?

I will, naturally, show you this more than just here. I still have to weave in the ends which will tighten up the stitches and bring it all together (yeah...I think so anyway). I'm happy with it.

The Weasley sweater now has a back, a front and a letter. I need to knit a few more rows (like 10) and graph the shoulder seams. Then, pick up sts at the armholes and knit the sleeves. I am going to pick up each side and knit two sleeves at the same time because I hate to worry about counting the rows and thinking forever that one is longer than the other. They'll be fine.

For those of you who want the cliff notes, this is Cascade 200, red and yellow gold. I am using a size 8 needle and I am getting row gauge and I'm just a hair under in st gauge (about 1/4 of a st each inch). I modified the pattern to have four rows of k1p1 ribbing at the waist instead of just plain stockinette.

I love it! Happy Weasley Sweaters! YAY!

Just Wild about Harry Potter

Well, I started the Harry Potter Scarf. DS wants a Weasley sweater and as soon as he has his the little girl will want hers. I'll be a pro at intarsia after those two projects...I hope. Plus, I am getting good use out of Charmed Knits. A good investment for a very reasonable price. Even if you don't know who Harry Potter is (and that would mean that you've been on another planet for several years) you can use the patterns. I love it! I think I want a Weasley sweater, too.

On of the LYS's is having a sale and I am going yarn shopping today. I got up early and my headache and I cleaned up the house. I need to vacuum and then get the kids in year to go yarn shopping. They almost like it when it's for them but it's still a chore getting them into the car and such. Maybe they'll cooperate more if we take the DVD player with us and they can watch a movie.

So, the Weasley sweater pattern is available here on Alison Hansel's site. It is in the book at a larger gauge. Personally, I like the smaller gauge. You know, passion for itty bitty stitches, plus the letter will be clearer. Mine will have a "D" for Dear Son and an "E" for Dear Daughter. I am considering using the Lumos font and being fancy but we'll see. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew right now. I have a hard enough time keeping junk off my kitchen counter and feeding the dogs. No need to wind up with a frustrating project sitting in the knitting basket.

I think I want a Weasley for me.