WIP Wednesday With Some Changes

Oh!  And I just realized my blogiversary was last week AND I just passed my 100th post. Can I get a WooHoo?  I'd kinda hoped to do a little more than just say "Well, how about that!" but...well....how about that???

Reading back over the past year, a couple things really stood out for me.  The first was my Wilburdog.  A year ago, he was one sick puppy, and I was on a feeding schedule with him of every four hours, around the clock.  I don't think I got a normal, uninterrupted night's sleep between January and July.  Never in a million years would I have thought he'd still be here, blissfully snoozing at my feet.  But he is, and not only that, he's eating and drinking normal amounts at normal times, his energy level is really great, and despite the fact that he has always had SAD in winter, he is having one of the best winters of his 13+ years.  YAY Wilbur!!!

The second thing I noticed was...holy crap did I start a lot of projects last year!!  And more than that, I started a whole lot of projects that are yet unfinished.  This guilts me to no end.  I've begun wonderful projects with beautiful yarn.  There really isn't a project I don't like in the group...I just got bogged down in them all.  So, my main focus for this year is to finish everything I started last year.  I will start projects that are fairly easily finishable, but my main focus is on the moldy oldies.  I also decided to get honest with myself and admit that I have about a dozen projects in hibernation and mark them thusly on Ravelry.  So my blog list only shows projects I am really, truly, actively working on and not something that's been sitting since last August but which I intend to finish...someday...

Sooo...with that in mind, here are my WIPs for the week...

Pattern:  Ten Stitch Twist
Yarn:  James C. Brett Marble Chunky
Colorway:  Wild Field
Purchased at:  YarnMarket
Needles:  #10
Date Started:  June 11, 2010
Progress:  80%
Dear gosh, yes, this is a serious slog, but it's a great project for watching TV (which I rarely do), and the color changes keep things fairly interesting.  I only have about 3/4 of the final round to knit, then the end shaping, and I'm done!  This was going to be a rug for the area at the bottom of our stairs, but I think it will get too much traffic, so am going to put it in my room instead.

Pattern: b18-21 Bonnet in rib in Alpaca by DROPS Design
Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Encore DK
Colorway:  Regal Red
Purchased at:  The Yarn Shop
Needles:  16" circular, #2
Date Started:  February 5, 2011
Progress:  35%
Made for:  Austin (of course...)
This is the second one of these darling little hats I've made.  BIG shoutout to Julia at Yarn and Ivories for recommending this wonderful baby hat pattern to me.  Thanks, Julia!!!  There are a few awkward moments with this pattern.  You start out by knitting a little over 4" of ribbing, then break the yarn and pick up a bunch o'stitches on the side of what you've just knit, knit across the row you've been working on, pick up another bunch o'stitches along the other side.  It's what makes it a hat and not a...well...not a Mohawk cover.  Those first few rows after picking up those stitches are a little tight and fiddly to work, then, at just about the point where I am in the photo above, it all becomes much, much easier, and this cute little hat just flies by.  There is also a wide range of sizes for this pattern so, if Austin likes these hats, I can make them for him for a few years.

Pattern:  Baby Boy 5-Hour Sweater by Gail Bable
Yarn:  Plymouth Yarn Encore Worsted
Colorway:  Medium Gray
Purchased at:  The Yarn Shop
Needles:  #9
Date Started:  February 3, 2011
Progress:  40%
Made for:  Austin
This is a fun and interesting pattern.  I don't know if I could knit it in five hours (even though I'm a pretty speedy knitter).  I bought some cute little buttons - red with a dog paw design for this one.  I bought this yarn, along with some blue and red, to knit a sleep sack for Austin, but I frogged it.  It was really cute but just didn't seem real practical to me.  So...more yarn for cute baby sweaters!

Pattern:  Noro Keyhole Scarf by Terri Decker
Yarn:  Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted
Colorway:  Verde Adriana
Purchased at:  YarnMarket
Needles:  #10
Date Started:  January30, 2011
Progress:  75%
Made for:  My friend, Ann, who is still having chemo
When I saw Ann in December, I asked her favorite color.  When I knit the hats for her last summer, I just picked bright, cheery colors not knowing if she really liked those colors.  I wanted to make something for her that she would really love.  She told me she'd love a green hat.  I set out to find the perfect shade of green yarn for her hat.  I thought this was it, then I found another shade of Malabrigo that is just perfect for Ann.  And since this yarn goes well with it, I decided to knit a matching scarf.  I'll show you the kickass hat on Friday.

Pattern:  Revontuli-huivi/Northern Lights by AnneM
Yarn:  Noro Sekku
Colorway:  Black/Grey/Brown/Green/Blue
Purchased at:  Temptations
Needles:  #6
Date Started:  January 15, 2011
Progress:  55%
People have a "thang" about these Noro Yarns.  There seem to be two camps:  the camp that thinks it's the greatest yarn ever, and the camp that screams "Clown Barf!!!" at the mention of the name.  I don't have a tent at either camp.  Call me a Noro Nomad.  I'll freely admit there are many colorways of Noro that make me chuckle at the sheer clownbarfishness of it all.  There are other colorways, like this one, that do catch my fancy.  I seem to be drawn to the colorways that have a lot of neutral colors mixed in with the bright, vivid shades.  I like that.  A lot!

This shawl has been fun to knit, but I think the needles are a little big for the yarn.  Kinda feels like I'm knitting with sewing thread at times.  It looks good, but is a little awkward to knit, especially the M1Ls and M1Rs.  It's an easy pattern, the charts are well done...and I'm really diggin' on the yarn.  Can't wait to get to the red!!!

Pattern:  Thermal Socks by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence
Yarn:  Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed Sock Yarn (Discontinued)
Colorway:  Soot (a.k.a. frickin' black...)
Purchased at:  Knit Picks
Needles:  40" circ, size #1
Date Started:  January 7, 2011
Can I get an "UGH!", somebody???  Four or five years ago, I bought these two sock kits from Knit Picks.  The theme was "Sock of the Month", and I ended up with yarn and patterns for a year's worth of socks.  Above, you see January's sock in progress.  I originally started this sock on New Year's Day of whatever year it was that I bought all this stuff with my goal being to knit the appropriate socks for each month.  I had never tried toe-up socks before.  After a couple hours of confusion and frustration, I pitched it all in a bag and threw it in a closet.

About a year ago, I rediscovered the Socks of the Month.  I think I remember blogging about sitting down with a book, a skein of worsted yarn and some #8 needles and just knitting toes till they became second nature to me.  I then knit the April sock - a cute little green pair with snazzy cabled butterflies.  They were a smashing success, and I love them to this day.  See...aren't they cute????

So emboldened, I decided to take my monthly sock challenge up anew with the new year.  Just to make it more interesting, I would also knit these socks on one circular needle (yet another skill I'd never tried before).  All would be going fairly well if the January socks weren't....well...black.  Actually, that's not true.  All would be going well if the yarn wasn't black, if there wasn't a weird, awkward pattern with lots of knitting and purling in the front and backs of stitches then decreasing them all on the next row.  Makes for a very laddery sock, IMO.  When I looked at some of the project pages on Ravelry, it seems like a lot of people had similar problems with this sock.  "Nice sock, NOT fun to knit" seems to be a popular opinion.  I concur.  Oh, and if I hadn't decided to tackle an entirely new technique while knitting a black sock in a fiddly pattern.

It took one evening and part of the next morning to get the hang of knitting two socks on one circular needle.  Yarn and needles flew across the room on several occasions.  Bad words were said.  Husband ducked several times and looked terrified when I brought them to the breakfast table the next morning.  But once I got it...I got it.  I can now do it in my sleep.  I think in the future I'll use 47" needles, but I'm cookin' happily along with this technique. 

Not cookin' along happily with the socks.  I've decided that I'm using these socks strictly to perfect my technique on circs and don't care a whit what they turn out like.  I eliminated those fiddly K1fb rows.  I tried ribbing for a little while, then discarded that idea and just knit on in stockinette.  The yarn is so dark, you really can't see what's going on there anyway.  The little cables are kinda nice.  We're now a week into February and I'm only a quarter of the way through January's sock.  Good thing I made the April sock last year - I'm going to need the catch up time!

And if you thought THIS post was long...wait till you see the FOs on Friday!!!

P.S.  Here's a wonderful tidbit:  Allison at Alaskan Purl is having a BIG destash sale.  She's already unloaded some amazing yarn that I was seriously coveting, and I'd better get over there and stake my claim before y'all beat me to what's left.  Go!  Buy yarn!  You'll like it!

Ten on Tuesday - Ten Favorite Oscar Winning Movies

Oh, this should be fun (she says sarcastically)!  I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that wasn't part of some 24-hour Cary Grant or Gene Kelly film festival on AMC.  Truth be told, I refuse to watch any movie where anyone bleeds or throws up, so that severely limits my choices.  My philosophy of movie watching is this:  I want to be entertained.  I don't want to be grossed out, pissed off, scared to death or driven to wrist-slitting depression.  Just a little entertainment, please.

I went to the Oscar database and looked at all the films that have won Best Picture.  There are 82 of them (very quick count, may be a little off).  I've seen 30 of them, and not all of them would count in any way as a favorite movie, but here are my ten best.

1. Lawrence of Arabia.  Yes, there is blood, especially in the newer release (ugh...).  Part of my love for this movie is due to the fact that, when I was 14 and passionate about movies, my father took me to see it at the newly restored Ohio Theatre.  Oh, and Peter O'Toole...
2. Out of Africa.  Meryl Streep.  Beautiful costumes.  Nuff said.
3. Annie Hall.  For the lobster scene.  And the cocaine scene.
4. Rocky.  Probably wouldn't see it now, but during the summer of 1977, my roommate and I must have seen that movie 20 times.  Had the posters, too.  And the soundtrack.  DA DA Dadada Dadada Dadada...
5. Oliver!  OMG...Oliver!  Dad and I saw this at The Midland in Newark when I was 12.  Ron Moody's Fagan is still one of my favorite movie characters.
6. My Fair Lady.  Audrey Hepburn.  Great songs.
7. On the Waterfront.  Young, gorgeous Marlon Brando.  Amazing performance.
8. An American in Paris.  Gene Kelly.  Best dancer ever.  I'm still in love with Gene Kelly.
9. How Green Was My Valley.  Classic tearjerker of a movie.  Everyone dies, but it's beautiful.
10. The Deer Hunter.  Lots of violence.  Went to this movie with friends back in 1979.  Didn't know anything about it.  I was totally freaked out and traumatized, but loved the story, REALLY loved Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep, and (knowing when to clamp my eyes shut) saw the movie a couple more times.

Wow...I did it!  What I learned from this is that most of the movies I really love were not Best Picture winners.

Tidbits From a Very Scattered Week

Yup, we had an ice storm.  Last Tuesday, to be exact.  It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been because after about an inch of ice had fallen, it warmed up and rained for a few hours and melted a lot of it before getting cold and snowing.  We never lost power, though our cable/internet/phone was out for about 18 hours.

We only have one tree left, a pine tree, and it weathered the storm beautifully.  However, the hood of our car was dented from a big limb from one of the neighbor's trees, and another one of his trees came down in his back yard, taking out all of his power lines. 

The kids lost power, and they camped out at our house for a day until it was restored.  Wilbur was happy to have a doggy playmate for a day, and Pete and I got some quality baby-holding time.  For as stressful as it was for them having their power go out with a ten-day old baby and having to pack up everything (babies and dogs have a lot of "things" to pack!) and come here, we were able to laugh and say it will be a really good story to tell Austin when he gets older. 

By Thursday, the roads were pretty clear, so I ventured out to...buy yarn!  After all, babies NEED knitted things, especially in winter.  Oh, and just a few things for myself...I need knitted things, too, ya know!

Encore DK in Regal Red

Encore DK in Grayfrost Mix

Malabrigo Rios in Arco Iris

Jojoland Melody in Wine Tasting (Seriously?  I've never seen red-orange wine before...)

Jojoland Melody in Christmas Wreath (which looks absolutely NOTHING like a Christmas wreath...)

I'll leave you to think about this...what's up with the way Jojoland names their yarns???  Christmas Wreath...really?  Rusty orangey wine?  Who knows, perhaps they'll look different when they're knit up.  I'm curious enough to move them to the front of my stash queue. 

Ah well...knit on, even if the color names don't make any sense to you...that's my plan!

Ten on Tuesday - Ten Things on Your Bedside Table

Ten?  Really?  I usually don't have a whole lot of stuff on my night table - maybe it's because my night table has two nice drawers that hold a lot of stuff.  From left to right, here's what's on my night table:

1. My glasses case.  It's a cheap little sunglasses case I picked up at Target for a buck, but it has a cute floral pattern, and I like it.
2. My alarm clock.  Good grief that thing is old, but it keeps right on keeping good time.
3. Just between the clock and #4 you can barely make out my tube of Burt's Bees Rejuvenating Lip Balm with Acai Berry.  I'm not on the acai berry bandwagon, but this is the best lip balm I've ever used.  I have tubes of it stashed in every room, my purse, and a few coat pockets.
4. A lamp.  Got these lamps at Lowe's a few years ago and really like them.  It's hard to find a lamp short enough for me.  Our bedroom is a finished attic, so the side wall you're seeing there is only four feet high.  In fact the top of the headboard just about hits at the edge of the wall.  These lamps fit perfectly without having to be moved way out to the edge of the table.
5. If you look carefully, you'll see a little square thingy leaning against the right leg of the lamp.  That's my white stone from the White Stone Ceremony at church.  Written on it is my word, my focus for the year.  I keep it there so I can be reminded first thing in the morning and check in with myself the last thing every night.
6. Picture of Pete, taken on a trip to Adams County waaaaaay back at the beginning of our courtship.  How far back?  He still had that big, wild, musician hair, that's how far back!
7. A votive candle that I almost never light.  Lavender.  Smells nice.

Things you don't see today but are usually somewhere on my night table:

1. A tin of Burt's Bees Lemon Cuticle Cream.  Love this stuff.  It's in the top drawer right now.
2. A bottle of Norfolk Lavender Roll-On Perfume.  Sometimes, if I'm having a hard time going to sleep or am feeling unsettled at bedtime, I'll roll a little of this right under my nose so I can go to sleep enveloped in the scent of lavender (without burning the house down as the candle might do).
3. Books.  I love to read in bed.  Sometimes I get a whole paragraph read before falling asleep.  Then my husband puts the book on the night table when he goes to bed, and I take it downstairs with me in the morning.  

Unrelated to night tables, but I want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments on my post about Austin's birth.  I do want to clarify that, while I am old enough to be Raechel's mother (Thanks, Yaya...I'm blushing!), she and her sister are Pete's children from his first marriage, and they have a good mother who loves them very much.  I'd like to claim them because they're brilliant and beautiful, and I adore them...but I can't.

Today, many of my blog and IRL friends are being slammed by bad winter juju.  We're getting an ice storm here in Columbus.  Funny thing...Pete's birthday is next week, and we almost always have either an ice storm or a blizzard (sometimes both!) right around his birthday.  Wherever you are, stay safe, stay warm, stay dry...and keep knitting!!