365 days and a few hours later....

It's my blogiversary (well, yesterday at this hour!) To celebrate, I decided I would figure out how to put titles in my posts. And I did it. It wasn't hard, I just had to look in the help of Blogger. So, yay, I have titles now. And I've been putting tags on some of my old posts, just being a little OCD about that. Tomorrow's my committee meeting. My mom is making cookies for it. :) Icebox cookies, a very favorite cookie from childhood. Except I suppose she's going to bake them, and I always loved going to the icebox (the freezer at my grandma's house was always called that) and getting a slice of some frozen cookie dough. Ben and Jerry's has nothing on this recipe LOL. Don't get me wrong, they are super good baked too. I'm going to save a couple for Rachel's lunch box this first week of school. Home baked cookies in the lunchbox: it's a good thing. Night.

Booty Club Installment #2

img_1044, originally uploaded by mbakewel.

I'm so excited to try the Yarn Pirate BFL, it feels so soft and fuzzy, and I think it will make exceptionally cozy socks. No pattern ideas yet.

Seahorse and Pirates!

Well, I guess it's no surprise I've been spending a lot of my online time at Ravelry. I've also had a bad case of start-itis and started a few new projects: A log cabin blankie (a la Mason Dixon) in some bulky weight acrylic on size 15 needles. OMG they are huge! (That sentence should bring out some freaks, huh?) We were at Joann's picking up a cable needle for the Robin Hood Hoodie from Adorable Knits for Tots (yeah, that's another thing I just had to start for some reason) and Sammy grabbed this Pattons Melody from the shelf and mauled it - she was clearly in love, plus she had drooled on it, so I kinda had to buy it, and I suppose there's plenty of time to refine her taste in yarn when she gets a little older. For now, it will make a nice blankie to cuddle and love. OK, so that's 2 of my new projects. What else? I made a seahorse from a pattern I got at this etsy shop. Check out the octopus too! Love it. And it's done even :) Gave it to Ben for his birthday.

I started my Yarn Pirate Booty Club Rum Runner Drunken Bees while at jury duty last Wednesday - I so almost got picked for a 1st degree murder trial that was going to last 2-3 weeks. I was juror number 3 for several rounds of rejections and I was just sure I would be stuck there for weeks and then, finally, the defense rejected me. And then, instead of making me wait around to see if some other court needed me, they sent me home at 1PM, too cool! So anyhow, no photo of the sock - it is probably not going to work out because the yarn and the pattern compete with each other, but I'm going to give it a little longer to see if it grows on me. And I think that's it for new projects.

I'm still on the pink gable, it maybe needs about 3 more inches at this point. I keep trying it on to see how the optional belly/hip increases are going, and so far, so good. When I cast on for this, I cast on the largest size. When I got to the end of the decreases, I measured myself and I actually am more in line with the medium (and coincidentally, I'm not nursing anymore, either), with about 1.5" negative ease. I ripped the last couple inches of decreases and just continued on from there, but still using the length for the XL size. It may or may not be clear from my self portraits (mostly look at the sleeves, I think), but it is soooooo much better fitting now. Looking closeup my stitches are uneven in a lot of places, I think this comes from the constant start stop on the bus in the car on the couch with kids climbing on me etc etc, my tension is not so very even. It's not the end of the world if it stays like that, but I'm hoping it will even out a bit when it gets washed.

Before	After

Here are some garden shots from a week or so ago - and before and after shots of some amazing peaches I got at The Produce Station in Ann Arbor. We ate most of them just plain ol' juice dripping down your chin over the sink, but I've been wanting to try making homemade peach ice cream because store bought always seems a little off somehow. It was yum! :)

Before	After

Oh, and I also finished the pirate hat for my little brother - modeled here by his lovely niece. He likes it. I can tell because even though I gave him a wool hat on a 90 degree August day and he was totally sweating, he tried it on and grinned. And then he asked me for washing instructions. Such a smart brother. But Smart me made it out of washable wool. And even though he's running away from winter this year, he says it gets breezy by the ocean sometimes, so maybe it will come in handy after all.


Non-Knitting: If all goes well I will advance to candidacy after my first committee meeting on Friday afternoon. Since I just submitted my draft thesis proposal to my advisor this afternoon and I should have already sent it to the committee members so they can read the darn thing before Friday, and it's possible that it's total crap and in need of major revisions, well, I'm just hoping that all goes well. Wish me luck.

Antsy

Here's what I found when I checked my Ravelry invite status today

* You signed up on June 13, 2007
* You are #8634 on the list.
* 2 people are ahead of you in line.
* 16282 people are behind you in line.
* 34% of the list has been invited so far

2!!! 2 people in front of me. My toes are wiggling in anticipation! :)
Soon I will have to confront the true extent of my stash with photographic evidence thereof.

Sockapalooza socks are here

Beautiful Sockapalooza Socks Arrived!

When I called DH to say I was on my way home today, he told me "I think someone sent you a sock." in the most deadpan voice possible. LOL, that sure motivated me to get home quick. And you see what arrived from my Sockapalooza4 pal Melissa: the loveliest socks which fit perfectly, not too tight, not too loose, just right, and made in Lorna's Laces Tahoe colorway, so many pretty blues and purples and dusty pink and teal. Just love'em, I do! I also really like the pattern she chose, Melanie's Twist, but she added in YO for the increases, which I think makes it even better! The pattern and the colorway work really well together.

She also included a cute Kentucky post card and some pretty stitch markers.

Thanks, Melissa!

Even though it's way too humid outside today, the air is at home on so I can wear my comfy new socks! :)

Meet Tux

I finished Pasha/Tux Thursday night, except for the eyes, which I ran out to pick up on Friday and sewed on Saturday morning. I used Plymouth Encore DK and size 3 needles and he's about 6" tall.


This weekend I worked a lot on a hat for my brother. I think it's just right for him. This is exactly the worst possible time to give him a hat, given it's been 90 degrees F here for the last week, but today it cooled way down and rained, so I sat inside and watched movies my kids picked out (Nausicaa and Bob the Builder) and knit all day. I figure I deserve a break anyway since DH led me and his buddy and 7 kids between us on a 4 mile hike yesterday! (Not that 4 miles is so far, but my son is heavy for me and 4 miles is far for him) :-) I love being in the forest - looking through the trees and seeing the critters peeking back at me and looking up at the shifting light and shadow and the million shades of leaf in the canopy.



My sockapalooza pal Abigail emailed to say the socks I sent arrived at her new Florida home, safe and sound...yeah!


Morning glories are going crazy..even growing up on the porch and climbing up the chairs if you look closely at the penguin picture. The grapes are starting to turn...soon it will be grape pie and grape jelly enough to last a year and share besides, because it looks like a good crop this year.

way, way TMI

So far today (in excessive detail) I…

• Woke up an hour late (stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading blogs and sewing on Pasha/Tux).
• Changed Sammy’s diaper (you needed to know that, right?) – well anyhow she makes a good alarm clock since she doesn’t have a snooze button.
• Got ready quickly, since I’m not allowed to have breakfast because I’m going to get a fasting blood draw for my cholesterol and sugar (just to get a baseline, nothing’s wrong that I know of)
• Got in the car, headed for school and called my sister about hair dying later today (got voice mail) – gotta hide my 34 gray hairs before they multiply.
• Made a u-turn when I realized that I had forgotten to bring my hair dying clothes.
• Snuck into my room (where Sammy is now asleep, sooo not fair that she does that for Russ and not me) and got my painting clothes, which will now be hair dying clothes, too.
• Drove to the health service and found got a parking spot with a meter that had 29 minutes left on it…gotta love that!
  
• Got back to the meter after the blood draw with 19 minutes left on it…wow, they’re fast!
• Called my sister again and found out she was at the People’s Food Co-op, so I went there to gather a tasty breakfast and lunch (last thing I ate was IKEA for dinner). Morning Glory muffin and vanilla latte, mmmm. For lunch I have an Odwalla and some yummy deli salads and a chocolate chip granola bar for snack time later.
  
• Drove to my usual parking locale near my sister’s house, walked three blocks from the parking spot to her place where I park my bike and rode my bike to the post office.
• Got some tape and closed up the box (couldn’t find the tape at home last night despite extensive searching by me and DH).
• Sent it off…estimate arrival by priority mail is 2-3 days, so, hopefully, Saturday, maybe Monday!
• Rode my bike to the lab, checked my email, compulsively checked my Ravelry status (I predict based on data I have accumulated thus far that my invite will arrive about August 11 :-)
• Posted this post…so that’s all for now.

Can’t wait until my pal gets her socks! Can’t wait until mine come too! Sockapalooza is cool! :D

Done, early even

Sockapalooza socks finished!

I am quite pleased that I finished last Saturday with time to spare. Detail on yarn and pattern in previous post. Socks and goodies are now packed and ready to go out tomorrow - I will head to the post office before school.

Today was a good day - coffee with a friend, with the bonus that it was at Beaners where they have a really good vanilla latte and air conditioning that works really well. I had a doctor's appointment with my new doctor who I picked randomly from the list of providers that take my insurance, and turns out she's nice and easy to talk to and gets to her appointments right on time, even toward the end of the day. Went to IKEA for dinner with husband and kids - again, air conditioning. We just turned the air on at home, but it will take a few hours to cool down after it's been soaking up the heat for a couple days.

I've been working on Pasha from Knitty for my husband - or should I say Tux? I've got everything knit but one wing, so hopefully I can start seaming up tonight.

I'll end with some of what's blooming today: The heat may not agree with me, but the flowers sure love it.