Knitting away

In these cold winter days, I've been knitting. Shocker. My latest project is making socks that are both comfortable and fit Christopher's unique feet. He has skinny legs, then huge arches, then average feet. This makes the gusset decrease very interesting and very unique.

For those wondering what the hell a gusset is, I found this picture from About.com that color-codes the different parts of the socks - the purple part is the gusset. In the socks for Chris, instead of the even line you see, his is a jagged line and fits his feet quite well.

As I mentioned, I knit Chris a pair of socks for Christmas. While they mostly fit, they were really tight over his arch and they were too thick of yarn of it to be comfortable. I am determined to make him a pair of socks that he really likes.

I have sock yarn that I made my first pair of socks with. I am knitting with size 0 needles, and for anyone out there that's a knitter, you can appreciate how small that it. I'm apparently really hard on small knitting needles. When I knit that first pair of socks ever, I was using size 2 wood double point needles. I snapped a needle in half very early on. Oops. This time I'm knitting with a metal circular needle, and while I haven't broken anything in half, I have managed to separate the metal needle tip from the plastic cable. Go me. I should really glue it back together, but I know I'm going to forget about it and I'll remember each time I knit with those needles.

So far I've only had to rip out portions of the gusset twice. I've had Chris try on his socks numerous times to make sure everything fits correctly. The good thing is once I figure everything out, I will have a pattern for future reference.

I've also been thinking about different patterns I can use to knit through my stash of yarn. The stash is slowly getting smaller, but I would like to get down to the point where all the yarn fits in the buffet.

Other than knitting, I've started work on landscape plans for the house. I took pictures last summer of various areas of the house that I want to work on. My mom has told me before how much fun it is to look through gardening magazines in the dead of winter. I have lots of specific plans for the backyard. I started work back there last year and want to build on that. What I'd eventually like the front yard to be nothing but garden. That will take some time though and lots more planning.

Another fun weekend

It seems as though we've been getting together with friends more often lately. I suppose most people are getting tired of being cooped up by the cold and need some kind of escape. I celebrated with at a friends' baby shower (co-ed showers are quite fun) and we got to see our long-lost and often inappropriate friends that moved out of state a while ago. It was great fun!

I am slowly working through my large stash of yarn. I want to get it down a lot before I buy more without having a project in mind. I have amassed quite a collection of remainders, leftovers from projects past. The small bits come in quite handy from time to time, but an entire drawer is filled with them and I am bound to create more! In the back of my mind, I keep mulling over the idea of trying to knit another sweater for myself (preferably one that would actually fit me!). I have a particular pattern in mind and have enough yarn to make it. I've just wanted to work through more of my non-dedicated stash first. Of course, there is lots of baby stuff to work on since so many of our friends are pregnant. I have had lots of fun planning and creating. Here's my latest creation: Mango the Giraffe

Productive weekend

I was finally gripped by motivation to do some cleaning and organizing recently. I don't make resolutions, but the after-holidays period tends to be one in which you pack away any decorations you put out and life gets back to normal.

I actually had the motivation to clean today, not just guilt about not having done it for a bit. It was a refreshing change of pace. I did those weird little projects that I'd been thinking about for a while and just hadn't done. Example: the fan cover in the bathroom. It has been plastered with dust and grime for months and today I actually cleaned it. It looks so nice! Then I made the mistake of looking at the bottom of the bathtub. That cleaning will have to wait.

Chris and I started talking about plans we have for the basement. We're thinking grander thoughts than simply a random collection of stuff. It might actually be a usable space at some point.

It feels good to get some projects done at home because work is going to be a bit strange soon. My boss's boss is going to be taking on the responsibilities of another division director as he transitions to a new position. I'm hopeful that everything will work out just fine and that there won't be any major major hiccups, but who knows. What I'm really hoping for is a state budget that doesn't involve cuts to cities larger than what we predicted. If it's not larger, we won't have to go through yet another revised budget process this spring.

2010 was quite the year, filled fun memories and new last names. Happy belated new year to all!

Merry Christmas!

It has been a wonderful Christmas celebration so far! Because of when Christmas fell this year and the fact I have to work on Monday, we decided to postpone Christmas with my parents until next weekend. And since our celebration with the Mitchells isn't until Sunday, Chris and I got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning/early afternoon together.

This year we opened up one gift last night, one gift and stockings this morning and we'll give presents to one another at both set of parents' houses. I made Chris a pair of warm wool socks (I was really nervous about the fit, and while they are a little tight in certain places, now I know for future socks how I need to make them). Chris gave me an ornament with our adorable faces on it to commemorate our first married Christmas together :) Banjo got treats, which he carried around the house all evening long!



We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation last night in true Christmas style and enjoyed the crackling fire. We also video-chatted with family. Good evening.

This morning we warmed up the pecan roll we got yesterday (yummy!) and opened up another gift and the stockings. A chipmunk fell into Banjo's stocking and couldn't get out until Banjo gently pulled it out this morning and proceeded to play with it, then kill it.

Chris got me the movie Watchman, which I'm really excited to watch again, but it's not quite Christmas material. I gave Chris an ornament I made to commemorate our first married Christmas together. I used leftover yarn from the shawl I made for the wedding (which few people saw because it was too warm to wear it), leftover beads from the bracelets I made and paper from our invitations. A fun keepsake. We're both really excited about our gifts to each other and can't wait to give each other the remaining ones!


I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Snowified

Over the past month, I haven't had much to post about. I've been knitting constantly, working on Christmas gifts. Next year, I think I should work throughout the year! Besides that, there hasn't been much to blog about. Banjo doesn't spend much time outside since his paws get cold very quickly and he refuses to wear the booties.

Now I have something to write about: the snow. Our snow storm made the top headline on Google news yesterday. The worst since the Halloween blizzard some years ago (which I remember trick-or-treating in, snowmobile suit and all). This kind of snow storm makes me extremely grateful for (1) a garage, (2) a husband that shovels and (3) neighbors with snow blowers that graciously work their magic on the public sidewalks.

While I worked on Christmas gifts, Chris was outside shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling some more. He worked on our pathways, he helped neighbors dig out their cars when they got stuck, he raked off our roof. He is amazing.

The wind was whipping around, covering the windows with the fine white powder. The snow was whirling everywhere all day long as evident by Chris's face:


This is the view out the front of our house this morning. It's difficult to tell where the snow ends and the sidewalks and streets begin.



This is from the front porch - part of the large pile of snow Chris raked from the roof and shoveled aside. Last night, the mound was directly on the sidewalk around the house and was about as tall as Chris.Out the back of the house, you will notice the fence got a lot shorter. Chris stomped down some pathways for Banjo to do his business. This morning, Banjo was outside all of two minutes because of the snow and the below zero wind chills.

There are lots of people outside this morning digging themselves out. I saw a truck towing several cars that got stuck on the street last night. I'm glad we have such helpful neighbors!

Snow!!!

We finally got snow yesterday! It was wet and heavy, so heavy that a bunch of branches from the neighbors' pine tree broke off and fell next to the house.

It was a rude awakening for Banjo. He still likes to go outside, but he can't stand the feeling of cold and snow on his paws. We tried doggie booties on him last year without success. He didn't want to ruin his reputation in the neighborhood because of some silly looking booties. I will likely try that again this year because I think if he really tried it, he would like it. It would allow him to hunt moles in the backyard for a longer period of time (he caught another one yesterday and hid it under the deck).

While it was sleeting outside, I cleaned and organized inside. I let my room get extremely messy, to the point where it was frustrating just walking in. I pulled everything down, dusted it off and rearranged. I love doing that kind of thing because I like changing things up every once in a while. It makes things feel new even when it's all the same stuff. I finally got around to hanging more of my pictures too. They had been cluttering the bookshelf and now they are hanging in nice clumps on the wall.

Another project this weekend has been cleaning out knitting patterns. I have the tendency of saving any knitting pattern that I remotely think is interesting, which often means there's not a chance in hell I'll actually knit that pattern any time soon if ever. I decided to clean house, and it felt amazing. At the same time, I went through my stash and pulled out some long lost yarn for Christmas knitting projects.

This impetus for this cleaning was that I did something I told myself I wasn't going to do: buy more yarn before I worked through what I already had. That's one of the main reasons I hadn't started knitting my own Christmas stocking - it meant I'd have to buy more yarn. I finally broke down and got it though because if I didn't now, I never would. I'm excited to get started on it. There's little chance I'll get it done before Christmas, but at least I can get a running start at it.

I've also started realistically thinking about projects I want to get done next year. I have big plans, and hopefully those plans remain realistic! I think I'll be able to get a lot more done since we won't be planning a wedding! And for those of you who are wondering, we are still working on the thank-yous. We're taking our time because we're enjoying all the awesome gifts you got us!

Ghoulish Halloween Recap

We had about 80 trick-or-treaters this year (about 10 more than last). Chris wasn't working so he dressed up with me and we tag-teamed handing out the candy. We barricaded Banjo in the dining room to prevent him from eating the little monsters. He let out a bone-chilling howl each time we opened the door (Banjo made me write that - in actuality, all the kids asked "What's that?" He was mortified and will work on making his howl more terrifying for next year.) In addition to decorating the porch, we also put on costumes. Chris was a pumpkin and I was a bumble bee.

To kick off the Halloween weekend, we went to a costume party at G & P's. I was dressed as an Angry Bird (this was a blue bird costume for those who haven't enjoyed the game Angry Birds) and Chris wore the same pumpkin. The blue bird costume was actually one my mom made way back when and she wore it way back when. My friends determined my mom must have been quite silly and figured that's where I must have gotten it.

(Thanks for the pics Sarah)