stitchingmystressaway.com

I am a woman who makes lists…deal with it

I will continue to edit this as I get things done for Christmas

Things to knit for Christmas, 2008

Jermaine

Socks - Not as high a prioirty but I know he’d like a pair. I’m thinking BFF Socks because, after all, that’s what he is.

Fingerless Gloves - I have to replace the ones I gave him last year because they started to pill 2 days after I gave them to j.

Dad ’s Cardigan (11/18/08)

Halfway through the right-front portion. It’s going fairly fast. The sleeves and the back will fly by.

Rose’s Spring Forward Socks (11/18/08)

This pattern flew off the needles for me the first time and it’s doing the same this time around.

Debbi’s New Year’s Day Socks (11/18/08)

I am using Scout’s Swag yarn for this as it was costume made in the Hokies colorway. I’m a little nervous about pooling with this yarn because Debbi doesn’t strike me as the type that would embrace a crazily pooled pair of socks

Ray’s Stranded Hat (11/18/08)

Thoroughly enjoying this knit as I often do with stranded projects. It will certainly keep his head warm!

Mom’s Socks (7/29/08)

Finished here

Mom and Ray

Draft Blocker - Not started yet. It’s gonna be a felted item and hopefully will be a quick knit? (11/18/08)

TV Afghan -  (11/18/08)-Started this a few nights ago and am enjoying it.

Courtney’s Socks (9/12/08)

Finished here

Not freaking out yet. Everything seems challenging but definitely not overwhelmingly so.

…it’s cuz I’ve done nothing but start projects and, because of that, probably won’t finish many for a while. (After a while, don’t progressive photos of socks during different stages of development get old?)

Oh and I’ve got some light reading to do for my class

(truth be told, I just got books that were in the same kinda ball park as my topic and didn’t have a whole lotta time to read through them. Since there is no limit on what to take out, why not?

Anyway, Knitting is keeping me sane. Thankfully, Christmas isn’t overloading me….yet. But I will be busy.

I know there are many knitters who do not knit for the holidays. I understand their decision and I respect it. But I’ll say for myself that I enjoy knitting for other people. It’s how I show my love. Thankfully I got a lot of my Christmas knitting done over the summer but that still means there is a nice chunk of it left to do. Top Left: Dad’s cardigan. I am making him the His Llama Cardigan from Knitting Classic Style: 35 Modern Designs Inspired by Fashion’s Archives. I am trying really hard not to refer to it as a Mr. Rogers sweater. Really I am. Top Right: Ray asked for a zig zag hat for Christmas and I was pleased to do so. I picked the Herringbone Tweed Hat for Ray. I hope he likes it. Bottom Left: New Years Day socks for Debbi, a VA Tech fan. Bottom right: My bouncer. You’ll have to take things up with her.

And we haven’t even begun what I plan on making for mom and Ray’s home and the two cutest behbehs evar, Abby Nadeau & Emma Stulak

(Thankfully they’re still small little ones and mom and Ray’s house stuff requires size 12 needles and will be felted )

I couldn’t be beaming more!

I wrote earlier about how proud I was to be part of something monumental when then Senator Obama received the Democratic nomination.

Now. Finally, my generation has something to be proud of when our children ask us those questions. Yes. They’ll ask us where we were when the Twin Towers were hit. But they’ll also ask us where we were when Sen. Obama became President-elect Obama. (GOD! It’s so good to type that)

The election day started voting at my old elementary school. (Yes I know it’s odd to go to where you went to elementary school to vote…I can’t help it if my pet-friendly apartment with a great rent and space just so happened to be in the same precinct I grew up in:-P)

Because I am a cheeseball, I wanted photos

mah honey and I afterwards. (This was the third attempt at this photo. The first two, I looked like a ghost)

Papa Walker and I. Look at my cheezy grin. I was only there for the sickers

We waited in line for about 90 minutes but it was so worth it.

So then Papa Walker and Jermaine and I watched the returns come in. Dad had predicted that we would know by 10:30. I didn’t think so. At. All. See, my first time voting was in 2000. Can that explain my cynicism? But wouldn’t you know it, we knew a little bit after 11pm!

Here’s the map

(as of this date, November 6, 2008, Missouri is pink and North Carolina is light blue)

I would like to take two seconds to brag a little. It will require, as Wayne and Garth would say, an EXTREEEEEEEEMMMME CLOSEUP!

see dis?

VIRGINIA TURNED BLUE!!!

My friends, along with countless others, helped make this happen. Ya Maureen and Mai!!

This was taken at the Fairfax office before we went out canvassing. Since I don’t have a pic of Mai and me together, I still want to give her her props. We went out canvassing together in McClean. Here’s a pic of her

I am so incredibly proud of the campaign…every data entry person, canvasser, phone caller, folks like Charlie, and even the puppies that were in the campaign office that helped with morale. We did it. We helped an incredibly smart, wise, thoughtful, pragmatic, sympathetic man to the White House.

I was in incredible awe to see an African American family become the First Family. Whether you agree with his politics or not, you witnessed history on Tuesday. Less than 100 years ago, many African Americans didn’t have the right to vote and now we selected an African American in charge of our government.

Our country needs so much change and I feel President-elect Barack Obama will give us that. I wish you the best of luck sir, you certainly have my support.

Take time out of your busy day tomorrow and vote. Too many fought for your ability to do so. Do it in honor of them

What do people do when they find out someone needs comfort?

Some bake dishes. Some write some encouraging words. Knitters make something!

There are two dear friends of mine that live in Pennslyvania. Chris and George. Chris was my roomie in college and George is her husband. They’ve been nothing but nice and supportive to me these years I’ve known them. When things got bad in a living situation I found myself in, they allowed me to crash on their sofa. George gave me my first beer and has been like a brother to me.

So when I found out his mom was battling cancer, I had to make something for her. Socks? eh…been there done that. Sweaters? way too personal…everyone has their preferences and that would blow a surprise. I knit her the Swallotail shawl out of some Malabrigo Lace that I had in my stash.

Pattern: Swallotail Shawl by Evelyn Clark from Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn(s): 3 Skeins of Malabrigo Lace (held double throughout the shawl)
Colorway(s): Violeta
Needle(s): US 7 / 4.5 mm
Casted On: September 20th 2008
Casted Off: October 27, 2008
Modifications: The pattern suggested fourteen repeats of the budding lace pattern. I did 24 to make it bigger. Like many did on Ravelry, I replaced the nupps with beads.

Here is a close up of the beads

I found an incredibly awesome way of putting on the beads from Debby’s blog. This method might have slowed the knitting and beading process down a bit when I got there but at least I didn’t have to keep pushing beads down my yarn when I was working the non-beaded areas.  Truly genius Debby!

I knit this shawl with the yarn doubled, which made for a thicker shawl. Truth be told, I often wonder what the point of laceweight yarn. I had a hard time thinking that they provided much warmth. That said, the night I finished this shawl, I was wearing it around the house and found myself quite snug in it…still think I prefer fingering weights for shawls though

Thoroughly enjoyed making this shawl and I hope it gives Mama Stu some comfort as she kicks cancer’s ass!

The past seven days I:

• Have read a few hundred pages for class
• Frantically written a response pages to those few hundred pages
• Volunteered and stressed over the election
• Finished a and blocked a shawl for a friend’s mom (project will be posted after the receipient receives it)
• Started reading another book for a book review due this Friday

Care to see what I thought was in order, knitting wise?

This

My first ever all stockinette socks. I’m making this with a heavier yarn, Shaefer’s Lola. This is going to be the epitome of comfy for me seeing as how my feet are always cold and I live in a fairly drafty apt. With such a choatic week, it’s refreshing to see something so simple and have it bring me so much joy.

I spent this past weekend up in Rhinebeck NY for the New York Sheep and Wool Fair and man did I have some fun. What I liked most about it was the fact that it was finally cold out (YAY!) and a vast majority of people had on many of their finished objects and were wearing them in a really appropriate setting. (Still don’t understand why people wear heavy sweaters to MDSW…isn’t that the fair where you’d show off a shawl or something lighter??) Any way, I’ll have more pictures of the weekend up in a later post because I want to show off my first ever adult sweater!

Here is Rogue

Pattern: Rogue by Jenna Wilson from The Girl From Auntie
Yarn(s): Cascade 220 Wool, 6.5 Skeins, 1430 yards
Colorway(s): 9419
Needle(s): US 6 / 4.0 mm
US 8 / 5.0 mm
Casted On: February 18, 2008
Casted Off: October 18, 2008, literally on the way to Rhinebeck
Modifications:My friend Steph gave me a heads up that the sleeves were a little too short on her so I added some extra rows to mine. Since this was my first adult sweater, I played it strictly by the book. If I were to do this pattern over again (which I think I will. Not anytime soon but I think I will), I would add some length to the sweater. Right now, it’s fine but an extra inch would have been nice. (I think I was nervous to see if I had enough yarn.

This was a very fun knit. I finished it with a belief that you can never have too many cables

Ok well maybe you can have too many but this sweater certainly had a great amount and I had so much fun making it. (Thank you Ms. Lindsay for taking wonderful photos at Rhinebeck)

Like I said, I literally sewed the sleeves in on the way up to Rhinebeck. Ms. Darsana showed me a fantastic way to do it but if you look closely you’ll see the sleeve on my left side is slightly off so I’ll have to resew that but other than that, I’m one happy knitter.

October 14, 2005, at this time, I remember being so giddy at work. I could hardly sit still. Not only was it a Friday, but it was also the day Layla and Luna were coming to live with us. We don’t know their birthdays so today is the closest thing to a birthday we have. They are the best and sweetest and funniest kittehs a young couple can ask for.

Jermaine had always wanted to have an all black female kitteh and fell in love with Luna the first time he saw her picture:

And really, how can you not?? I thought I had a picture of Layla from the petfinder.com site but I can’t find it. But Jermaine had seen Luna’s pic and already started to contact the foster mom and coincidentally I fell in love with Layla, who happened to be in the same home with Luna.

These are some photos we took the first day and weekend we had them.

Luna took about a week and a half to get used to us as she doesn’t adjust well to change. We were really good to show her affection when she did pop up and now she can’t stop!

Layla was very curious about her new home and explored. I remember her falling asleep between Jermaine and me the first night (now I depend on it hehe)

The first night we had them, family members kept calling and invited themselves over to meet the new Johnson and Walker. This is a favorite photo of mine of Courtney getting to know her new neice, Luna. She has two darling big and rambunctious puppehs and you can just tell from her body language that she is saying to herself, “Be gentle….be gentle…” And here is Dianne getting acquainted with Layla during an afternoon of quilting. They became quick friends.

This is my favorite photo from their first weekend. For a while, the girls fought over this chair and I started to get concerned. But it was the only thing they fought over and mom mentioned “If they’re fighting over something, that means it’s worth it for them.”

This was the first of a lot of snuggling for them.

These three years have been great with them. They truly feel like our children and make our lives so much more enjoyable. We have Layla, the marriage counselor teddy bear. When Jermaine and I are talking…about anything, Layla is there as if to moderate. And teddy bear? She’s always up for a hug.

Luna is a crazy ninja kitteh with a huge superhero complex. Now just trust me when I say that she’s a ninja. It’s rather hard to get a photo of it. But this kitteh still certainly does some entertaining things.

And, mind you, in both these pics, she’s out cold!

I think I’m speaking for Jermaine here, when I say, that we are the luckiest people to have such caring darling kitties. Thank you for taking care of us and being the greatest daughters for us!

I firmly believe that partners of the fiber-obsessed deserve some props. They put up with a lot! I saw this meme on the internets and thought I’d interview my Jermaine about my hobbies

1) What is your favorite thing about my spinning/knitting?
It’s a quiet creative thing for you to do and it makes you so happy.

2) What is your least favorite thing about my spinning/knitting?
You get slightly obsessed when you’re at a “crucial moment” in a project

3) What is something I have knitted, that you recall is good?
My fingerless gloves…the socks you made me…I love ‘em!…and your socks drying in the bathroom….the sweater you’re working on….you should be very proud of that.

4) Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Yes! [interviewee contemplating] Put in proper perspective it’s quite affordable though in comparison to other hobbies you could have had like Carrie Bradshaw

5) Do you have a stash of any kind?
Trading card game cards

6) Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public?
No.

7) Do you know my favorite kind of yarn or fiber?
You like skeins from The Loopy Ewe. [interviewer: coughchristmascough]

Can you name another knitting or spinning blog?
Interweave Knits and Ravelry [Interviewee has noted that I have a certain look on me when I'm surfing Ravelry. It's like a Oh-the-possibilities! Type of look.]

9) Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go?
I don’t mind so long as it doesn’t take too long. [Interviewee mimics me and him on date night]
Jermaine: Laura, we need to get to the movie theatre
Laura: oh but lemme smell it!!
(Whatever man, there’s a reason I bought him the PSP!! Keep him occupied while I’m in yarn shops. Teehee)

10) Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Yes. A swatch gives you color combinations.

11) Do you know the difference between tops and batts?
Interviewee and Interviewer response: Wha??

12) Do you read my blog?
I don’t stalk you. [Interviewer points out that reading blogs doesn't constitute as a form of stalking] Well I don’t need to see the progress you make on your progress through your blog-you show me daily. [interviewer-right on]

13) If I didn’t knit, what would be different?
Less needles to step on! No More Mr. Prickly! (This has been a huge gripe of Jermaine’s since I started quilting. He’s stepped on his fair share of pins. Ouch)

14) Anything you would like to add?
[Still salty over #13] Laura pick up your needles plz. I bought you a needle holder for Christmas. You do make amazing things with your needles though! Love it!

Rogue Update:
I finished the body and hood. (This was my second time doing the hood because I didn’t do the proper decreases the first time around)

I’m doing the second sleeve and might just have this done for Rhinebeck. Hopefully it’ll be cool enough to wear it.