Annie Knits

"Buddy, the elf. What's your favorite color?"

At about the 2 minute marker of this clip, Zoey Deschanel sings "You Better Watch Out" wearing the cutest hat. That is the beginning of the story.

Two weeks ago, a customer came into the shop looking for single ply white yarn to use for a hat she'd seen in the movie Elf. We decided on Malabrigo worsted and I said "Buddy the Elf. What's your favorite color?" about 20 times and she left.

One week ago, she returned with her construction of the hat. No kidding.  She, along with several Ravelers, had figured the thing out from screen shots and done it. OMG it's cute.

Yesterday, she brought me her pattern (gushing and over the top admiration serve me well at times).   So I had no choice but to buy the  yarn and cast on for the hat. It's just that cute.

Mine, obviously, will be a barn red for no reason other than hers is white and I want to be different.  And the red is better with my coat and hair.  The Knitorious Knit Night Knitsters helped me choose the color.  One of them, who shall remain nameless, also castigated me for the amount of progress made on said hat in one evening...  there were words.  ; )  I'm capable of speed when I'm fixated.

Epic Knitting Fail

Last winter I harbored a secret unreasonable love for the mobeius cast-on cowl.  I knit 5 of the things, two of which I currently own.  One is a lovely 24 inch cowl, unremarkable in it's cowliness, simple, utilitarian.  The yarn is a lovely brown, gold and turquoise (!! yes, really, Rachel and Kara) Fiesta La Boheme in the Taos colorway.  After I finished the cowl, I realized that I had enough for another since I'd also purchased the coordinating mohair, so I immediately cast on.  And on, and on... see above where I talk about an unreasonable love... it was more of a compulsion.

Hundreds of stitches on a 40 inch long needle later, I knew I had too much going on.  It took like a half an hour just to knit a round.  I soldiered on, fascinated and unable to aptly measure the thing due to its mobeiusness.  

As I came near to running out of yarn, I worked a row of garter, a row of yarn overs paired with knit two togethers and another row of garter.  I cast off using only a single ply of the matching mohair.  And I cast off.  And I cast off. 

The thing was ginormous, no longer a cowl, but a sort of never-ending scarf.  For which I thought I had no use whatsoever.  And unfortunately no reasonable way to undo due to the mohair...  I hid the thing in the living room cabinet and forgot about it.

Until I saw these in stores this fall...  and these  ... and these.

I dug that thing out  and wove the ends in quicker than snot.  Gawd, I'm a genius.

 

 

Snork!  The thing's 35 inches long folded in half! 

I wore it to the hockey game on Saturday night, paired with my gold leather coat (as close as I get to St. Louis Blues colors) and three women complimented it.  One asked where I'd purchased it and I got to say, without a trace of irony mind you, that I knit it myself.  Granted two of the askers were definitely hockey floozies as they were texting about hotels and hockey players (so I looked over their shoulders, nosy parker) but they were young and hip and I felt young and hip too.   Well, hip anyway.

Epic fail turns to Full of Win.

To top the whole thing off nicely, friend Rachel brought a hat to knitting yesterday which matches the monster  er... infinity scarf perfectly.   See?

 

So perfectly, in fact, that she insisted I keep it.  I acquiesced.

 

Full of wWin, I tell you!

Giving Thanks

When last we spoke, I was on the way to this gathering.  The time stamp on the photo is 10:17 a.m.   My sweet South Side parish gathers to feed its lonely and indigent each holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Holy Saturday) in just this fashion.  We fix food in the old school cafeteria, usually feeding about 120 people.  We begin preparations on Thanksgiving and then attend Mass.  This picture was taken after mass ; ).

Father John's homily was, for me, perfectly done.  In it he put aside the thanks we feel for the easy stuff:  good friends; loving family; hearth and home and safety.  Instead he concentrated on finding thankfulness and grace in life's complications.   It occurred to me that I'm thankful for this man, this priest, and that I should be thankful for the men who've come before him -- the one with a dark outlook on life, the one who rushed worship and would allow no more than one verse of any song to be sung, the one (who married Dear Husband and I btw) who was so gruff as to terrify me as a young girl. Their shortcomings allow me to better appreciate Father John's strengths.

And doesn't this just capture the fun we had Thanksgiving morning... I did kneel down to make it seem as if the cold packs full of pie and cranberry sauce and jello were tottering above these friends, and they got a huge kick out of posing for the picture. 

I'm thankful for the aches and pains of aging, for the changes -- they've given me early morning baking and knitting time and they've given me empathy for those further along on the road than myself.  In addition, that empathy has given me a serenity in aging that some women don't get to acquire.

After preparing the food, we packed it into trays and our husbands, wives, children, and friends arrived to deliver the fruits of our labor.

It occurs to me that this providing should remind me that however tedious the shopping, preparing, cleaning up and related minutiae of keeping a well stocked kitchen are, they are the outward sign of the blessing that is my husband and his provision for our family.  I stay home and take care of us.  Sometimes the laundry and the dishes seem never ending -- but they are the outward sign of our prosperity.  I am thankful.

 

This friend is a member of our choir and a member of the small group with which I sing during Lent.  His talent with a trumpet and a harmonica (and various other instruments) is humbling.  It reminds me of the chance I've been given through this church to develop my own musicality.

Here are my men posing with the apple pie they baked to take to the family gathering.  It was a huge hit and they absolutely baked it together.  I only helped peel the apples.  Daughter is missing from the picture because she's vacationing in Florida for the holiday with a friend's family. 

The difficulties daughter and I have together as she passes through her teens are signs that she's growing into a woman I can admire.  For the eye-rolling, stomping, loud music, and tears I am thankful.  I guess ; ).

Here is Sister-in-Law (the brunette with the plate) and her son, her cousin and her cousin's children.  She made a fabulous meal and the kids made the gathering so much fun.  No hidden agenda here... pure joy at the little ones in my life.

Here are my In-Laws -- brothers and parents.  An easy "I'm Thankful" belongs here.  No one has better in-laws than I have. 

My own family celebrated in Ohio and I talked to them mid-day. 

I hope your day was as grace filled as mine was.  Thanks, Father John, for reminding me to search for the grace not only in the good we receive, but also in what appear to be life's difficulties or drudgery.  I think perhaps that therein lie some of the most precious gifts after all. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Yes, I'm up early this morning.   Surprise.

Ok, I'm up early baking this morning.  Big surprise.

Pecan pies are simple pies -- just a few ingredients in a very simple filling.  Therein lies the rub.  Simple means each ingredient has to be excellent.  My pie crust, friends, is not.  So I use store bought.  Cut out of the package and unrolled baby. Only Blogless Janet would be able to tell the difference.   Here are the crusts docked and ready to be baked blind.  (Dazzled you with cooking terms, didn't I?  Docked means poked with a fork ; ) and baked blind means filled up with something heavy like beans or rice and baked so that the shape stays the same.  I use a mixture of old rice and lentils which I keep in a zip bag for just this occasion.  It's years old.)

 

The crusts have been baked for 15 minutes blind and then uncovered and baked some more until golden.  They are ready to be filled... check out the time on the stove front.  Yeesh.

 

The pecans and sorghum in these pies are from my CSA, Fair Shares.  The pecans are yummy and I've got 4 more cups of them to dry roast for snacks.  The foil is a trick my mom uses to keep crusts, especially prebaked ones from getting too brown.  They sell fancy covers for just this purpose, but what would be the fun in that?  Then I'd miss out on all that foil cutting and cussing and re-cutting.  I'm all about the fun.

Any other year, on Thanksgiving morning, I'd be up baking pies too.  What I'm thankful for this year is the fact that in addition to these two pecan pies and the two pumpkin pies I'll bake later, I don't have to also make a 22 pound turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, twice baked sweet potatoes, rolls, gravy and set the table and have the house clean and have it all come out just right at exactly 5 p.m. this evening.  This year, that joy belongs to my Dear Sister-in-law.  Bless her heart.

I get to go over to St. Pius and make Thanksgiving dinners for our homebound parishioners and hang out and laugh with my friends.  I usually miss this Thanksgiving party because I'm home getting ready for family.  This year I get to do both.  Yay me.  I'm truly blessed.

One last thing.  My birth mother had hip surgery yesterday.  Send her your prayers and blessings, won't you?  This spring, she'll be hell on the golf course!

By the Donzerly Light

Um.  So by 5:30 this morning, I had made 36 pumpkin butterscotch muffins.  I used the pumpkin puree I received from my Fair Shares share last week.  Yum.

And by 6:15 a.m., I had the batter for my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Butterscotch cookies made and portioned out on cookie sheets.

 

By 7:30 or so I had 36 muffins and 50 some odd cookies.

 

And a cranky husband and son who apparently, as deeply as they both sleep (like the dead I say), cannot sleep through a an early morning marathon butterscotch pumpkin chocolate oatmeal baking session. 

 

Sheesh.  They had to be up by then anyway to drive to Columbia for the Mizzou game with friends.  And they have cookies and muffins for the car! 

 

Just for grins, the Aran Wrap Cardigan and her progress.  With early morning sun slanting across her.  Yum.

See the bananas in the first picture?  They want to be banana nut muffins, don't you think?  They're not brown enough yet, but I bet by about 4:30 Monday morning, they'll be just right.

What Should Be And Isn't

What should be finished is this baby sweater.

 

It isn't and that's a shame (shame on me) because it's recipient was born over the weekend.  Welcome little Niece... she looks like a redhead to me.  Here she is with Grandma.

 Mom and baby are perfect and healthy and fine.  I told Dear Sister to just cross her legs for awhile when she called to tell me that her water had broken and she was at the hospital -- that the baby's knitting wasn't quite finished and that if she could just hold off for a few days I'd surely be able to muster the will to work on it.  But to no avail.  That baby was done... stick a fork in her ; )  Gawd, I love fresh baby.

Isn't she beautiful?

Her lack of a sweater is a testament to my weakness for cables and aran weight yarn this month.  Witness nearly 32 inches of holycrapIcan'tstopknittingthisthing!  (The color is more true to life behind the baby sweater.)

 

It's the Aran Wrap Cardigan from last winter's Vogue.  Dayum.  I love this pattern.  And I love the warm charcoal Cascade Eco-Wool with which I'm knitting it.  I'm linking you to the author of the pattern because she has lots of pictures of the finished product.  This handkerchief front is really the silhouette this season (ahem, don't I sound like a fashion maven?  Thanks Fug girls!) and knit in this yarn it's something I could actually get finished and wear while it's still in fashion!  

Stats:

• Begun November 7.
• Aran Wrap Cardigan, Vogue Magazine Fall 2008.
• Cascade Ecological Wool, color 8400.  I've just begun the 2nd skein, but I've still got half the sweater, the sleeves and the apron of double sided cables across the bottom of the sweater -- all 60 some odd inches of it...  Those are gonna be some lllooonnnggg rows of ribbing.
• Size 8 Lantern Moon circs purchased after I killed my last pair of size 8 Addi Naturas.  Deborah said I deserve them.

The cable-crossing error I made early on is clearly visible in this photo, but I think it won't be a big deal on the swingy front of the sweater.  At least I hope not.  The mistake is this close to keeping me up at night, but having no desire to drop down 50 or so rows of celtic knots is roughly the same as taking an Ambien I'm guessing.  We'll see, won't we.

Something else that is unfinished in my life is the dang leaves falling from the 20 trees living in my urban acre of grass (used to be 21 but we had one removed this year).  That's not counting shrubs, bushes, or perennials.  That's 20 deciduous trees.  Three of whom are likely 100 years old.  Yeesh, there are a lot of leaves on the ground in my yard.

Hubster, the kids, and I worked some over the weekend to get many of them to the street (well this weekend it was mainly hubster, but the kids and I helped a lot last weekend).  By Saturday evening, all the streets in the neighborhood were narrowed to one lane  by a gauntlet of leaves.  (The city puts up signs to warn of imminent  in-street leaf pick-up and we all scurry to comply.  Otherwise we'll have to bag them... yikes.)

Sunday morning at 9 a.m. this piece of construction equipment rumbled back and forth in front of our houses gobbling huge piles of leaves ...

and dumping them into trucks and dumpsters.  Next a giant loud leaf-sucking machine made the rounds clearing the rest of the piles.

Monte prefers to experience his tractors from behind plate glass, thankyouverymuch.

And finally.... my burning bushes are SINGING, aren't they?

 

And now, it's a dreary, rainy Monday morning.  I am scheduled to sing at a funeral today.  Perfect weather for it, I guess...

Monday Morning Rumination

So, clicking around inside the blogs listed on my Bloglines this morning, I came across this post:  Roger.

The blog is not one I read regularly.  Instead, finding it is the result of the meandering we all do through our friends' postings.  Usually, I'm a quick clicker, but this post gave me pause.  The juxtaposition of the story about giving McDonald's to a homeless man with the pictures of her cute kids just being kids is a powerful one.  Also powerful is her comparison of his plight to her own.  Super bare soul here, and the piece made me tear up just a little.

God knows, I encounter people at my car window every day.  The freeway exit near my home is a favorite car panhandling spot.  I never give money to these folks, even the man with one arm and the same cruddy Starbucks cup day after day.  I just don't roll down the window.  I could give money and I usually have some on me, but, as Piece of Cake points out in her post, I've had nasty interactions with panhandlers and I just don't engage anymore. 

I do look them in the eyes when I shake my head, but I don't interact verbally.  Maybe in a McDonald's line, I'd behave as Laura did, but probably not.  Her interaction though, and the telling of it, are powerful reminders of the plight of some and the nearness to that plight of many.  Food for thought.

On that note, but on a more international level, for you locals, our church, St. Pius V on South Grand and Utah Place, is hosting a Ploughsharing Crafts Fair Trade sale this Thursday, November 12th, from 3 to 9 p.m.  The founder of Ploughsharing Crafts will give a presentation about the nature of fair trade at 7 p.m. in the church basement, but you can shop anytime.  Actually you can continue shopping after mass on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning as well.  How about doing some of your Christmas/ Hanukkah  shopping where it will do some good?  I'll remind you as Thursday approaches... hope to see you there!

Keep the Caffeine Coming... It's Not Over Yet!

Whew, this was a busy day chez Annie.  Here's the family day by the numbers with pictures where appropriate.

• 9:00 a.m. -- I had to be at choir practice for and then attend our church Mass of Remembrance where I sang with our choir.  Sad and holy, it's a service where we remember members of our church family who have died this year.  
• 9:00 a.m. -- Dear daughter's friend was to arrive at our house so that she and DD could attend her school Powder Puff homecoming football game and parade.  Friend arrived at 9:10 and they missed the parade.  Since I couldn't be in two places at once, Husband was cast as chauffeur, photographer, and head cheerleader. 

• 11:30 a.m. -- I arrived home, ate a quick lunch and went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for my submission to our parish Chili Cook-off... set to take place tonight.
• 12:10 -- Husband droped girls off at the South City Diner with strict orders to be home by 2 for the manicure and pedicure appointments one of the moms has made for them. 
• 1:15 -- I arrive home with groceries as Husband departs to take Son to a soccer game which is set to begin at 2.  Coincidentally, that is the same time Husband's haircut is scheduled to begin.  I stayed out of that, but soccer was played and a haircut was had...
• 1:30 I begin my chili and take seventeen phone-calls concerning everything from Boyscout pizza delivery ("The check's in the milk cooler... leave the pizzas on top.") to stranded friends with car trouble ("Call back if you can't find someone else, I can't leave this chili on the stove alone!") to an update on the soccer game's progress to updates on the girl's difficulties getting the check split up at the restaurant.  The door bell rings twice -- once for Boyscout popcorn and once to deliver the neighbors Boyscout pizza because they aren't home.
• 2:00 -- A parent picks up three of the girls to take them to get their nails done.
• 3:30 -- Husband and Son arrive home HUNGRY.  Sandwiches and chips.
• 3;49 -- Husband and I deliver the chili to church for the cook-off.  I enlisted his help because 2 gallons of chili in a crockpot is danged heavy.
• 4:15 -- Girls are home again and the music is cranked up high... Taylor Swift mostly. 
• 4:50 -- I begin constructing three up-dos.
• 5:30 -- I finish the up-dos and start makeup. 
• 6:03 -- Pictures!  The masks are their tickets into the dance.  No boys for this crowd -- boys get in the way of the dancing and the shrieking apparently.

• 6:15 -- Husband and I arrive at the chili cook-off with Dear Son in tow and meet two of his friends there.  The boys really got into the judging, each trying 13 or 14 offerings and rating them.   There was a baby there ; ) .  Husband voted for my chili -- I think I'll keep him.   (Sorry, bad iphone pictures.)

 

• 7:15 -- Husband left the cook-off to get the girls from the restaurant and take them to the dance.   I dragged three very full boys home to play flashlight tag in the dark until they had to go home.
• 8:15 -- Husband ferried the boys home as one of them has a (get this!) 10:00 p.m. soccer game.

It'll be my job to retrieve the girls from the dance at 10:00 and stay up until their parents come to get them (scheduled for between 11:00 and 11:30, but we all know how schedules can go awry...

No knitting yet today, but there's still time.

p.s. to Ruth -- I was not in the top three but I received favorable reviews when I shamelessly pumped other chili eaters for compliments.  Father John's sister won the judge's first prize, and his friend placed in the top three aaannnddd his mom won the 50/50 raffle (hmm, Divine intervention or the fix is in... you choose **grin**).  The people's choice award went to just the chili of which Dear Son had just purchased an extra pint to take home (a local judge and chili aficionado apparently).

Ahhhh, Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am!

That title, by the way, needs to have a little bit of Bowie 1970's glam rock behind it... Suffragette City, baby!

And seriously people, the fact that I started this sweater Tuesday night and it's finished this morning requires a bit of head banging, don't you think?  And it is perfectly happy to be knit on in the wee hours of the morning... Another plus!

 

While I'm not really a big needle, big yarn kind of girl, this thing is kind of cute on... in a middle of winter/Eskimo kind of way.  The big yarn adds like 4 inches at my bust and that's not a bad thing.   Nobody is more surprised than I am.  And don't forget ... it took less time to knit than a dk weight hat.  Woot!

Specs:

• Very Cherry shell from Knitty issue 3, size large, but I decreased more at the waist as my gauge is just a hair larger than the author got with the original yarn.
•  Handspun Rambouillet  from Hello Yarn originally ordered as part of this shawl kit which is a very thick to very thin novelty yarn ... the dimples it creates in the finished product disappear (mostly) in the wearing.  The color is just about right in the picture.  I'd call it Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Sundae if someone asked me to name the yarn.
• Size 13 needles (damned telephone poles... my hands ached or the sweater'd have been finished last night).
• Knit in three days flat.

Yes indeed, a nice little midnight snack of a sweater. 

Whatever.

Stockport is finished and seamed.  She's still a little damp, but I've tried her on and she's fine.  I wish I could figure out how long to make sweaters so I liked their length...   This one's schematic showed what seemed like a long enough sweater (according to measurements of sweaters I like) and the sweater matches the schematic.  So then why do I want it to be 2 inches longer?  I dunno.  It's a thicker sweater, very thick in fact.  Not that I don't love the weight of the thing.  Maybe with wearing it'll grow.  Whatever.

I couldn't get a good picture of it on me either... too much flash in the mirror, not enough flash in the dark hallway where the mirror is located. Plus, I'm not wearing my favorite jeans and my red patent leather boots which will be perfect with this sweater, but instead a long-sleeved  polo son doesn't like for school and sweats.  Whatever.

Specs?

• Stockport  (Raveled here)  from Rowan Magazine number 46, size large.
• Nashua Creative Focus Chunky, Carmine colorway.
• Size 10 needles.
• Time?  Oh, about two weeks... with lots of ripping back.

I have to say that for a relatively easy pattern this one kicked my hiney.  I must have ripped each piece back several times, including the SECOND sleeve!  Gawd, I'm distracted.  Or cocky.  Whatever.

Next up?  The Aran Wrap Cardigan  (Raveled again -- sorry if you can't get to it)  if I can get hold of the pattern (it's in Vogue Fall 2008 -- can you find yours, Kim?).  I've got the yarn and the inclination.  Baby knitting, though, is still on board and sister hopes the birthday is imminent.  I hope the baby is a girl like everybody says ... 

While I'm waiting for the cardigan pattern, I've worked my way most of the way through this little snack of a sweater.  I'm knitting using the yarn from a Hello Yarn Shawl kit  (mine is gray, blue, brown, and cranberry) I got a couple of years ago which is of a similar gauge to the Colinette Point 5 used in the first piece.  It's a super chunky sweater.  Maybe not great for my chunky self, but maybe just fine.  I'm on the hip increases after only 3 and a half hours of knitting, though, so you know... Whatever.