Why Mommy Needs a Drink.

1. Thought oh, I'll make dinner. I have all the ingredients for mini pesto/prosciutto pizza cups.
2. Can't find the muffin tin in which I make the mini pizza cups.
3. Can't find any cookie sheets on which to bake pizzas.
4. Realize I don't have any mozzarella that is not in the form of string cheese. Tear up string cheese to put on pizzas.
5. Decide to make mini pizzas on the pizza stone in the oven. Brilliant!
6. Read instructions on pizza dough container. Preheat oven to 475 (F)
7. Assemble pizzas.
8. Put pizzas on pizza stone.
9. Read instructions on pizza dough container. Set timer for 13 minutes.
10. Child spills huge glass of water all over everything in dining room.
11. Oven starts pouring out smoke.
12. Mommy starts to go insane opening windows and trying to remember where the smoke detector is so that I could turn it off.
13. Child starts going "what's happening? Can I help?" and getting underfoot.
14. Mommy moves fan from bedroom into kitchen, whacking child in the head in the process, due to item number 13.
15. Fan does not help.
16. Mommy remembers the pizzas. Opens the oven to take a look. After the smoke clears, realizes that all of the pizzas have burned.
17. Daddy, who has been recovering from a respiratory illness, comes home to find the house full of smoke. Starts coughing.  Not good.
18. We scrape the tops off the pizzas and eat. The tops were good, if a little smoky.
19. The apartment still smells of smoke.
20. Begin consumption of alcohol.

Epic Pattern Reading Fail

So I started on the Snapdragon Flip-Tops on Sunday, and had a long day of knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping and knitting... I kept reading half of the line on the pattern and not to the end. Smart, I know. And then I'd get to the following line of the pattern and nothing would match up. Sigh.

Finally on Monday morning, I just ripped the whole mess back to the ribbing, and reknit the silly thing. Looked much better. I'm now on the second mitten, which is going fairly smoothly, now that I got most of the bumps out of the road on the first and second go-rounds.

No pictures yet. Sorry. It's been crappy weather lately, and I've been at work a lot, so I haven't had any time to get pix.

On a totally different note, I have many many back issues of Interweave Knits to give away. After we moved the last time around, I swore that I would purchase all of the Interweave Knits magazines on CD and get rid of the paper copies, just because they are so darned heavy.

I have all of 2009 and 2010, so if there's one you want (or if you want the whole shebang), drop me a line and I'll ship them off to you. Yes, I will ship internationally, however, if I do that, I won't send them all at once, just because the postage will be so ridiculous. I'll probably only send two at a time in the fancy flat rate international envelopes.

First come first served. Leave me a comment letting me know what you want and how to contact you for an address.

Knitted Flip FLOPS

For the amusement of all (But especially Ms. JMac), I present knitted flip flops:

The pattern is Felted Flip Flops by Kelly Jensen. $6 USD on Ravelry.

See, J? Knitters can knit ANYTHING.

I'm going to cheat on Bruce's sweater

This morning, after sitting down with a cup of tea and reflecting on the fact that I can sit down with a cup of tea and not melt instantaneously, simply because the temperature today is considerably more civilized than it was three days ago.

I was writing a sentence with a point...

Oh yes, so after sitting down with a cup of tea, I determined that knitting on Bruce's sweater right now was driving me insane, and it was time to cheat.

So a year after I made my Snapdragon Tam (which I love, and was the first piece I broke out as soon as the weather got cooler):

I am making the matching Snapdragon Flip-Tops:

Photo Courtesy of Ysolda

And as Bruce just pointed out, I did the hat in the color that Ysolda suggested, which I think is a first for me. However, the color is just so bright and cheery and is so wonderful to wear in the dregs of winter that I couldn't resist. The mitts will match.

I have about three more pairs of Snapdragon mitts to knit for other people after I get done with this pair. One out of madtosh and another out of malabrigo silky merino. However, I'm a little concerned how well the silky merino will hold up as mittens.

Anyway, so yes. I am cheating. I have informed Bruce of this. I'm sure he's disappointed in me, but I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with myself for staying monogamous for a whole month almost.

Duh

I totally forgot that I can share my mystery project from earlier this month. I made a baby blanket for my friend Jorie, and even managed to get it done in time for her baby shower.

Both she and the baby's father are of Scottish heritage, so I decided on yet another Hap Blanket (by Ysolda) for her gift. Though honestly, this probably won't be the only baby gift I make her as there are some super cute patterns out there for kiddos.

Here's my latest Hap (rav link):

Two patterns of great awesomeness

While browsing around on Rav, (and fantasizing about new projects) I found these two patterns which were released recently and look awesome.

First, Octopus Mittens:

Heck YEAH!

Secondly, the super cute Winter's Tree cardigan:

Here's another version:

Yes, I am still working on Bruce's sweater. I've finished one sleeve and am working on the second. Should be done with sleeve two in a few days. Then onto the yoke and collar.

Mystery Project Done

Pictures of my latest FO can be found on Ravelry here. (Sorry, the link is only for Rav members).

I'll be able to post pictures of it next week.

Bruce's sweater is still green, and still in stockinette and 3x2 ribbing. I'm not complaining. I just had to set it aside to work on the secret project before I had to give it to its recipient.

In actual knitting news, I recently acquired a copy of Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who is also known as Yarn Harlot.

Yes, the book is funny. Yes, it has lots of excellent knitting advice. Yes, unfortunately, it is making me desperate to knit another pair of socks. Which I shall be doing while I am knitting on Bruce's sweater. I'm thinking of using some of the Socks that Rock yarn I got in Oregon and knitting some plain vanilla ones.