Hello, Lover!

In between rounds of Fruit Ninja, Play-Doh fun, and having mini dance parties (ok, this last one is just me...and Dance Central), I broke out one of my Christmas presents and messed up the kitchen a bit. Nothing major. Just a lot of chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to get a feel for my new kitchen toy and since chocolate chip cookies are always in demand in this household (mainly by Brett, the Munchkin doesn't know any better...yet) I figured it wouldn't hurt to try to whip up a batch...or two...or three. Cause y'know, I gotta see how well this mixer can handle cookie dough.

I'm hoping that maybe next weekend I can really have a go at it and see what this bad boy can do. Brett had to work all weekend and was stuck doing work related things when he wasn't actually working, and since the Munchkin has yet to reach that stage where he can be occupied for longer than 5 minutes (if that) at a time, I really didn't want to try anything adventurous in case my attention was needed elsewhere...like when said three year old just needs me to watch him make his Mario stuffed doll toy (Brett was very adamant that boys don't play with dolls...they play with "toys" or "figurines") do death defying stunts off the window sill in the living room. Yeah, not really a good time to say, have condensed milk boiling away on the stove and you're waiting for the right temperature before it's considered burned. Or to have a bowl full of egg whites whipping away until it's at "stiff peaks".

Brett's still worried that I don't love my new mixer. Or even like it. I know, he's crazy. He thinks the fact that it's a black Classic stand mixer and not the Komen pink Artisan stand mixer that I've been lusting after forever, is the reason why I would shoo it away. Um...why would anyone who likes to bake, in their right mind, turn down a stand mixer? Any kind of Kitchen Aid stand mixer at that?? Yes, it's not my beloved pink. True, it won't matched the rest of my kitchen stuff. Yes, it's not the Artisan. But the thing is, I've always wanted a stand mixer to call my very own since high school. There have been several times where I myself have almost purchased the black Artisan because it was on sale at a very, very, VERY good price. But had to practice restraint due to the fact that I spent my budget on yarn. So as you can see, black was my next choice anyways.

I still remember my Mom's mixer, she's had it since the 70s and it's this weird browny green mustard colour and after how many decades it's still going strong. She used to churn out six loaves of banana bread at a time. I used to come home from school to the amazing smell of baking banana bread and find at least twelve loaves cooling away on our kitchen table. Don't worry, they weren't all for us. All my aunts, uncles, and cousins used to circle our house like hungry vultures whenever they caught wind that my mom was making unusually large banana purchases. Sadly, my mom no longer bakes banana bread. This fact makes me cry.

So I'm making it my mission this year to perfect my mom's banana bread recipe (if I can get it out of her head, that is...after over 20 years of baking at least six loaves every couple of months I'm sure the recipe has been tweaked and embedded in your brain). Another mission: to perfect the Madeleine cookie. I read somewhere that you should have a dish that you are known for. That you should pick a recipe and own it. Whilst I have yet to perfect lasagne (although, I'm rethinking that dish and wondering if I should pick something else...since technically the recipe given to me came from my friend Tyler, who seriously kills it), I think I could master the Madeleine. As if my plate wasn't full enough (ha ha ha...) I'm thinking of also getting down a marshmallow recipe down pat too. Over the holidays when the Rice Krispy treats were flying around here, a few mini marshmallows may have gone rogue. The Munchkin has developed a liking to them (yet doesn't like the regular sized marshmallows...so weird). I'm not really thrilled with him eating such soft pillows of corn by-products and stuff that I can't pronounce, and figured that if he's going to eat such things then I should make him a somewhat better-for-him version of it. Like using kosher gelatin. It would just make me feel a whole lot better about it all.

Completely off topic but topical to this blog, I've also been busy knitting away. I even had my first FO of the year come fresh off the needles last week! I have a few other projects pretty close to be done too. I'm so excited! I even wound up a few skeins of yarn when I woke up this morning. I think a new yarn winder and possibly a swift is in my near future. I've had my yarn winder for a few years now and it has served me very well, but now I think it's on its last leg of life. The poor thing can no longer handle anything heavier than a DK weight yarn (if I'm lucky), and has been winding up pretty messy cakes. You can just hear the contraption struggling to wind. As for my swift, it was my first major knitterly purchase (other than my interchangeable needles set) and it too has done its job for me fairly well. Unfortunately it can't handle the weight of yarn any more and needs the key to be jimmied with some tissue to make it stick. I think I can rig it so that it can last a few more months or at least bug Brett to make me one. I'm thinking the winder is on top of the priority list between the two and I'm hoping that with all this money that I'm "saving" from being on a yarn diet will be able to aid me in the purchase of a new winder. Anyone have any recommendations for a winder that can handle heavy use? I'd give my left nut for this one.

Anyhoo, I'm hoping to get some photos taken this week to show you some of my current WIPs and my lonely FO. The dreary grey weather that we've been having lately has put quite the damper on my photo taking opportunities. Today is suppose to be a nice day, but we'll see if I'll be able to get away long enough to snap a few pics. In the meantime, I have some yarn calling my name.

Chicken Dinner

What a weird name for a post title when all I'm doing is announcing the winner of my Stashdown yarn giveaway. But all I could think of was "winner, winner, chicken dinner"...sometimes I wish I could just turn off my inner dialogue.

First off, I just want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who entered the giveaway!! I wish I could give yarn to everyone who left a comment! But then I realized just how much that would cost in postal charges (it would seriously be up the wazoo) and in the end I would probably be dishing out more money to Canada Post than what all the yarn prices combined would be. And trust me, I think I've given Canada Post enough of my hard earned dollahs these past months!

Anyhoo, I digress. Some of your comments made me laugh right out loud, and I'm really glad that some of you have been inspired to "stash down" too and want to use a few ideas. I say go for it! I also love the different project ideas that came up. I think my most favourite answer by far came from Liisa, who claimed that she needed the yarn so that she could "make all the non-english speaking girls at work cry". I was taking a sip of tea when I read that and snorted, causing hot liquid to swish back and get stuck up in my nasal cavity. Ah, good times.

So, because a three year old toddler made it quite apparent that my undivided attention was completely vital to his very existence that I had to watch him do some sort of weird dance that involved random twirls and leg kicks to the sound of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song lest he shriveled up and turn into a wisp of smoke, I made Brett run the random number generator to pick a winner. The man makes me question his thought process sometimes.

To this moment I still don't know how he managed to get an answer that involved a decimal. I'm at a loss for words at this.

Ok, enough stalling! The winner is...

Comment #16:

Laura (culabrat)!!!

Since I got free yarn in the post the other day with another freebie skein soon to be on its way to me, not to mention that I've been feeling/seeing/hearing the incredible RAKs (random acts of kindness) lately on Ravelry and through other knitters in general, I decided to draw one more name! Hells yeah! So...

Comment #20

Kelly. K!!!

You get the other skein of yummy SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock! How you like them apples?? (You don't have to answer that).

Ok ladies, expect to hear from me sometime this weekend about where I should send these yarny yummies to. In the meantime I've got to do the Hotdog Dance with the aforementioned three year old before he loses it on me.

Happy weekend my yarn loving friends!! ♥

Two Against One

The Universe and the Yarn Gods are both scheming against me. They both want me to fail. The day that I posted about my Stashdown 2012 goals and plans, I got mail. Good mail. Well, what would normally be considered good mail on a day where I wasn't planning on reducing my stash. The mail? Check out the above photo.

Oh yes, that's a skein of yarn in a mug. A free skein of yarn. I can't even return it for a refund cause I didn't even buy it. The yarn is a gift. The icing on the cake: see this scratch ticket?

That's right. I won a free skein of Squoosh yarn, in any base, any colour of my choice. I won't lie, deep down I'm doing cartwheels of joy cause who can turn down free yarn?? Yummy free yarn at that? Only a freakin' crazy knitter who likes to knit with nothing but Red Heart yarn, that's who. If there is a person out there like that than I would like to meet them, solely so that I could slap them across the face with a skein of cashmere. Oh wait, that's not a punishment! That would be heaven. Ok, I'd slap them with a wet skein of Red Heart. Oh yeah. I could possibly be put in jail for that.

Both of these items came from the same company, in the same box. I think I'm being set up for failure here. You want a close up of what the yarn is?

That there, my friends, is a beautiful skein of Malabrigo Worsted. What am I going to do with it, I don't know. I have to be truthful here and say I'm not the world's biggest fan of Malabrigo Worsted. As sinfully buttery soft as it is, the single ply of this yarn pills and felts way too easily for my liking. I once had knit a project with this yarn back in my early knitting days and halfway into my scarf I saw that it was looking a little weird. It was starting to felt in the spots that were being handled a little more. Yeah, I wasn't impressed to say the least. Who knows, maybe I should give it another go? I've been eyeing up Veera Välimäki's newest collection, Follow the Lines, which uses nothing but Malabrigo yarns in all four patterns. But you know what that means. I'm going to have to purchase another skein of this stuff if I want to knit any of the patterns.

And this is how the vicious cycle begins...

How many more months until 2013? Oi...

Stashdown 2012

I'm sure a lot of you are well aware that I've had yarn on the brain for quite a long time now. I'm sure a lot of you are sick and tired of me talking about my stash and how I am feeling a tad bit smothered by the sheer amount of yarn that I have in my possession. I'm sure a lot of you are wondering why the hell am I complaining about having this "problem". Some of you don't even consider this is a problem. Well I think it is. Not only is my stash getting out of control, but so are my spending habits.

I've been organizing and re-organizing, and then organizing the stash some more in fruitless attempts at Tetris-izing it all to somehow make it fit within the confines of the closets they've been designated to. And yet, there are still piles of yarn at the foot of the bed, behind the couch, and under the computer desk. Bags of yarn have been stuffed into all the crevices on my side of the closet and caution must be given to anyone who dares to open the closet in the Munchkin's room, as yarn has been known to spring out in an almost comical way. Basically, my stash is starting to become a physical burden.

Then there's the psychological side. Oh yeah, yarn likes to play mind games with a knitter. Having so much yarn at your fingertips could make a knitter go crazy. You're constantly thinking about all the pretty yarn that you want to cast on. Like, yesterday. Nevermind that you already have 6 projects on the go. Why not cast on just one more project? The (evil) yarn is calling and before you know it, the wool fumes have gotten to you and you find yourself casting on for yet another project. Crap.

There are moments when your stash makes you have temporary amnesia. You are planning for a project and all of a sudden you can't think of a single.yarn.in.the.stash.that.will.work. So you go and buy some more yarn. You get it, knit it up, bask in the awesomeness, and then you see it in the corner of your eye - some yarn in your stash that is exactly like the yarn you just used. Or even worse, you see a gorgeous shade of yarn in a base that you know you'll just love. So you purchase some. Then when you go to dump it into the black hole that is your stash add it lovingly to the rest of your yarn collection, you realize that you already have 6 skeins of yarn that look exactly like the yarn you just bought. Want to turn it into a nightmare? That yarn you just bought IS the yarn that's already in your stash. Oh yeah. It's happened baby, and it wasn't pretty. Not pretty at all. You want to wake up screaming all sweaty? How about this: you.don't.return.the.yarn. You convince yourself that since you love the colour and base so much that you bought it twice, that you'll most definitely will be able to knit two (large) projects with it. I'm losing my freakin' shit here.

But then there are times where you don't even think about the stash. You have so many pretties that all of a sudden you get consumed with the thought that you need even more of the lovelies, which then turns into the crazed idea that you need to own ALL the yarn. Sharing?? What the hell is that??

Deep breath. See?? See?? What did I tell you? Yarn makes a knitter do crazy things. What's that? No, no...I'm not rocking back and forth, whispering all the names of yarn companies and their yarn-y line-up in alphabetical order. No, no. I'm just um...LOOK!! SQUIRREL!!!

Woah. Aaaanyways...

So what's a knitter to do when they find themselves in such a predicament? Well, in order for me to curb my yarn shopping and accumulating, I'm partaking in Stashdown 2012 (imagine a deep, Hulk Hogan-like voice saying stashdown, with the end echoing a bit...and maybe throw in the sound of something really heavy crashing down at the same time). What is Stashdown, you ask? Well let me tell you, my dear friend. It's dedicating a certain amount of time (in this case, the entire year) to whittling your yarn stash (or any other stash you may have...I'm thinking of also doing a fabric version) down to either a pre-set amount or percentage, or to as low of an amount as you can humanly do so. There are tons of groups on Ravelry that are hosting a Stashdown of sorts and I was thinking of joining as many as I possibly could in hopes that being in so many groups would help me in my quest to well, get the stash down. Then I realized that having too many groups to check in with throughout the year would just turn me off and I will most likely fail in the most epic way known to man in the end. I foresee it not being a pretty sight. So I opted to join only one group's stashdown in hopes of avoiding such an epic downfall. Stashdown hint: You know you need to do a stashdown when you start padding the stash in preparation for the stashdown. Seriously, WTF? Who does that? Me. And I'm sure there are a whole lot of other knitters out there that have done the same.

The group that I joined decided to not have any complex rules, just simple guidelines with the main goal to reduce your stash down to "slightly hoariffic levels". You set up your own goals and you be the judge as to whether or not if you're failing. Easy peasy, right? Well maybe all down on paper! As the cliche saying goes: easier said, than done. I don't really have a set amount of yarn that I want to get rid of per se, my main goal is to have more yardage leave the stash than enter by the end of the year. Think it'll be hard? For me, I think so (I know some crazy people ahemMaeahem, that can totally do this challenge. I'ma thinking that I'll need to channel their willpower throughout the year to help me out). In general my rule is to knit more, buy less! But to break it down even further, here are some goals I'm going to work towards:

- the months of January and February are strict No-Buy months.

- instead of trolling for more yarn, these months will be dedicated to nothing but knitting (although, I just discovered that I have one bag left in the shop so I'm going to have to use a few knitting days to replenish my inventory)

- I'm allowing myself to keep my yarn clubs and spending the money to renew subscriptions - but no new clubs, unless I have moved out a lot of yarn from the stash

- I can only buy yarn if, and only if I need it to complete a project

- with the last goal said, I know myself well enough that I can't go cold-sheep and tell myself I can't buy any yarn whatsoever. This will only cause me to fail miserably. Therefore I'm giving myself a monthly budget of $50 for yarn. I can roll over this amount to the next month and ultimately "collect" enough to spend on a sweater quantity, but I CANNOT borrow from the next month's budget. Again, I know myself too well to know that this will end up in horrible failure. You might think that $50 is a lot for a monthly yarn budget, but really, you can't get a sweater's worth of yarn for that much (unless there's an epic sale going on or someone is destashing their yarn to the point where they are practically giving the yarn away for free), can you? Because my next goal...

- absolutely NO Knit Picks yarn purchases!!! The only Knit Picks purchases I am allowed to make are for more cables, tips, and as a complete, total, and utter dead last resort for yarn when knitting something for Brett or the Munchkin. But seriously, what does Knit Picks have on Patons Classic Wool, Cascade 220, or even Berroco Vintage or Weekend?? Absolutely nothing. Well, other than the fact that it can be much, much cheaper. Yet I need to remind myself that: I still have copious amounts of City Tweed in a lot of sweater quantities, I do not need more; I have a lot of their sock yarns, and I'm not even a fan of how thin their sock yarns are...the colours is what sucks me in; and even though Knit Picks yarn is friendlier to my wallet and I feel I can buy way more than if I were to buy a more expensive yarn, I always feel horrible when I get my order because the quality really doesn't compare to some of my snobbier yarns. Knit Picks yarns can be totally hit or miss. So far, there's been more misses than hits. I need to remind myself that it is definitely worth it to shell out a bit more money on a higher quality yarn - it's all about quality, not quantity. Knitting is so tactile that when you spend hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months knitting with the yarn you would want something that you love to touch, hold, and ultimately wear. Like my friend Andi and I agree on, in the end it's better to have spent a few more dollars on a quality yarn that will look good, wear well, and hopefully will last longer.

- cut down on single yarn purchases!! Unless I am needing a skein for a project. I have so many solo skeins in the stash with more coming from the yarn clubs, that I have plenty for socks and shawls so there really is no need for me to be buying any more. This will help out my $50 monthly yarn budget and will help me to save up for a purchase of a really nice yarn for a sweater. It's a win-win situation.

- minis swaps are ok. Cause that means I'll be swapping an entire skein of something from stash for a bunch of mini skeins in a variety of yarns in return. This could possibly help curb my urges to purchase one skein of sock yarns with the idea of using it towards my Beekeepers' Quilt.

- actually, swapping is ok. I haven't been swapping much anyways since postal costs can really add up but swapping isn't adding to the stash...just switching it up.

- if I really must buy a sweater's worth of yarn and will die if I don't have the yarn in my stash, then I must get rid of an equal amount of yarn from the stash either by destashing, donating, or...a giveaway!

Reasonable and realistic goals, no? We're only four days into the new year, so I can't say for sure. Ask me again at the end of the month. I think the keys to my success will be to avoid going to my LYS "just to see what's new", avoiding all online yarn shops and all yarn shop updates (I'm looking at you Wollmeise!), and stop looking at destashes. I'll also forewarn you all right now too that if it's a bit quite around here this month, it's because I'm busy either knitting or sewing...and maybe dancing (that damn Xbox is luring my attention away from my crafty endeavours!), so please, no hate mail as to why I haven't been around lately. Ok?

To help me kick off Stashdown 2012 I'm going to do an impromptu quickie yarn giveaway! My yarn hoarding will be your gain! The yarns I chose for this giveaway is one that I love dearly. Alas, whilst going through the stash I realized that I had several skeins of a certain colourway and the other I have already knit a project with. I also chose this yarn because I know several of you have either commented on this here blog, on my Ravelry project page, or had sent me a PM via Ravelry regarding the fact that you have not yet knit with this yarn but would like to.

So without further ado, the giveaway and the deets....

*** This giveaway is now closed...Thank you so much to everyone who entered! ***

The Prize: one lucky reader will win one of the above skeins! Those lovely skeins are, you guessed it, SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in colourways Boysenberry (left) and Nightshade (right).

How to Enter: leave a comment letting me know which colour you like the best AND what you would knit/crochet/weave with it.

The Rules: all comments must include either a valid email address or your Ravelry ID. Comments not containing either of these will be disqualified. Giveaway is open until Friday January 6, 2012 midnight PST (I told you it was going to be a quickie!). I'll contact the winner sometime the following day.

Good luck!

2012

Happy New Year to all my wonderful blog friends!

This is coming to you a day late. Oh well, better late than never, right? I had every intention of posting yesterday but then the day turned into one epic family day. How could I blog when my family and I are having such moments?? Exactly! We had a lovely day playing video games (even the Munchkin played...it's actually quite funny to watch a three year old trying to river raft and having the Kinect only capture his head half of the time), watching Gnomeo and Juliet (such a cute movie!), playing with all of the Munchkin's new toys, cuddling on the couch, and even taking down the rest of the holiday decorations turned into a fun event! I even managed to sneak away for half an hour to organize the stash a little (more on that later this week). Needless to say that the three of us were pooped by the end of the day and ended up going to bed before 9pm! I guess the Munchkin didn't want the great family day to end because I woke up this morning to discover that he had crawled into our bed and was asleep between Brett and I. So cute!

Anyhoo, now that the winter holidays are officially over, we'll be making the attempt at getting life back into a routine. So today is going to be spent running errands and getting the house back into tiptop shape, ready for what 2012 has in store for us. Since I haven't had much a chance to do any knitting the past few days I'm planning on squeezing in some knit time in the car while out and about today. I'm also hoping to get some baking done and trying out one of my (very generous) Christmas presents...a shiny new Kitchen Aid stand mixer!! I'm so excited!!

I'm even more excited that I feel a lot more energetic today than I have all December long. I know I should take it easy and not over exert myself, but there's just so much that I want to do! What's everyone's plans for 2012? Are you as excited as I am?

Happy 2012 everyone!!

PS: Note to self - I think blogging via iPhone isn't smart. It really screws up the formatting of the post. And it drives me insane that the font doesn't match the rest of the blog. Grrr....I hate html sometimes!

The Crafts of 2011

Or should I say 'the knits of 2011' since I really didn't do much else other than knit this year. Yes, I did a ton of sewing but it was all project bags for my shop. So they really don't count. I think I should make it a goal for next year to do more sewing that doesn't involve project bags. Yeah?

Anyhoo, when I first wrote down the list of projects and then made the collage I was kinda taken aback about having only 30 projects for the entire year. I mean, really? I had knit my ass off all year long and out of the 30 projects I only have 26 knitted items to show for the year?? But then I smacked myself. Knocked some sense into me. First off, I'm knitting. As all you knitters out there know (and you non-knitters should take note) that knitting is one of the most labour intensive crafts out there. Yes, you can fudge things left and right but really, unlike sewing, you are the one making the fabric. Knitting a sleeve could take hours of work, but in sewing those very same hours could get you an entire garment already...and then some! So really, I shouldn't be all hard on myself for only having 26 knitted FOs under my belt. Last year I only had 14 knitted items! I've almost doubled that amount in a year! I should be darn proud of myself!

I also need to remind myself that these 30 items are completed projects. Cause trust me, I have UFOs (unfinished objects) left and right all over the place! Throughout the year I had started a bunch of projects and either still have them on the needles or frogged them before they had a chance to even resemble anything. There's soooo many projects that I haven't even blogged about! Talk about secrets! Hmm...still on the needles...well, remember Phinney? I had started that pullover at the very beginning of the year. It was suppose to be my first project of 12 in 2011. Technically she's off the needles. All pieces have been knit, the only thing holding me back from completing her is the sewing up and then picking up the stitches for the collar. That's it. Really. What else is still OTN? A capelet, a pair of stripey knee-high socks (it was for a sock KAL with Hayley), 4 pairs of socks (a test knit, a stripey Skew similar to this pair, a variegated Skew like my first pair...can't you tell that I love Skews? Oooohhhh...maybe I should just frog the stripey knee-highs and turn them into knee-high Skews??? The wheels are turning...oh! I also have an ill-fitting-should-just-be-frogged-now pair of crap socks on the go too. Something tells me I should have a day where I do nothing but frog unloved projects that I didn't have the heart to deal with at the time).

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, projects still OTN...let's see...well there Brett's cardigan (which is a shoulder, collar, and buttonbands away from being done), the Dahlia cardigan (I was obsessed about it back in September and October, started knitting it as part of a KAL with some ladies in my knitting group, and never blogged about the actual knitting of it), an Audrey in Unst cardigan (again, not blogged...like, at all), and remember this bad boy of a yarn cake?

The blue one next to the normal sized cake? Yeah, that's currently being turned into a shawl slash wrap. Again, I haven't blogged about this project but I'm not even close to being even halfway finished and looks like a blob of blue. Doesn't make for pretty blog photos, that's for sure.

Then there's the projects that just need some finishings...like the jacket for the Munchkin (it just needs the icord closures) that I haven't had the heart to finish since he won't even wear the Thorpe I had knit for him, and another hat for the Munchkin (which again, I don't have the heart to finish...see previous item's reason for not finishing). My Hooray Cardigan should really be added to the FO list but it's still awaiting for some grosgrain ribbon to be sewn onto the button bands...and oh, some buttons too. We won't even talk about the projects I had knit in 2010 that just needs some simple sewing done to them that I thought I would do at the beginning of this year.

I've been trying to give myself pep talks about clearing out the proverbial knitting basket and clearing the knitting WIP clutter. I think it's starting to work cause I'm slowly getting antsy about turning those WIPs into FOs and reclaiming all my needle tips and cables back. Who knows, maybe I'll finally have a full set of interchangeable needles again? Wouldn't that be something?

I have a lot of plans and ideas for 2012. So much so that January is already looking to be a tightly scheduled month. I think I better go get a new day planner and start penciling in my plans and hope that my schedule is do-able. I hope someone somewhere will discover a way to add a few more hours to the day in 2012. Or am I the only person who's stupid crazy enough to put themselves on an intense crafting agenda?

A Mission Accomplished!

S-U-C-C-E-S-S, that's the way we spell Success!

Yes, I'm channeling my inner cheerleader cause boo-yeah! I've accomplished the 12 in 2011 goal! Ohhhhh yyyyyyeah! Actually, I had accomplished this mission back in September but didn't realize it 'til now when I was going through all my lists and was trying to figure out the things I've completed this year. How awesome is that? It's always such a boost to find out that a goal you've been working towards all year finally comes to fruition. Even more so when you don't realize it until after the fact. Man, I feel good!

And to prove that I'm not lying I've made a list and linked them all to the finishing blog post. Without further ado, the projects:

1. Shalom

2. Ishbel

3. Queen Jaywalker

4. Sweet Monkey Socks

5. Plain Hummingbirds Socks

6. Blue Maile

7. Pebbles Maile

8. Sunshine Sunnyside

9. 220 yds. of Retro Heaven

10. Tahitian Tea Leaves

11. Georgia

12. Emelie

There's also a few "beyond 12 in 2011" in which I used really old stash yarn with patterns that were free, like:

The Munchkin's Thorpe

Stockholm

Both projects were knit using yarn that I had before I even considered myself a knitter! Yowzas! I'll admit it's an awesome feeling to get those out of the stash, even though I didn't even know that they existed. I'm thinking I need to do a complete and total overhaul of ALL my crafting supplies and do a thorough inventory. It also wouldn't hurt to toss the stash every now and then to remind myself of what I have.

I'm actually quite surprised at myself for keeping up with the whole 12 in 2011 goal. I honestly thought I would give up halfway through the year. I was definitely tempted to knit up every single new pattern the second they came out and was itching to cast on with newly purchased yarns the moment I got home or when they arrived, but I persevered and stuck with the plan. I mean, I had queued these patterns ages ago and for a reason (such as I really like them, or why else would I have queued them?), and have been wanting to knit them up for-evah. I would always feel guilty about casting on newer patterns that were at the bottom of the queue, so it does feel quite awesome to finally knit those 'top of the list' patterns! I'm also quite pleased that I did my 12 projects with three months to spare, even though I feel like I kinda cheated by knitting three baby sweaters. Oh well. I could have spent the entire year knitting nothing but dish cloths, wrist warmers, and bookmarks and then go around claiming that I'm on my two millionth project of the year. That's not what 12 in 2011 is about, but sadly some people started to view it as a competition. I'm just happy that I had knit every project from stash (most of the yarns were from when I was just starting to have a stash and when I was starting to shop at my LYS rather than Walmart), and that all of the patterns were either at the top of the knit-list, free, or were bought and then quickly forgotten and ditched when an even newer pattern come onto the scene. I had a game plan and I stuck with it. Changing only a few projects...like Shalom. The original pattern in mind was something that I had started knitting and ended up frogging before the yoke was finished - when I realized that the design was just all shades of wrong for me. The three baby sweaters were all suppose to be different, but who can predict that everyone was going to have their baby at around the same time? Not to mention that one of the patterns I had bought yarn for (gasp!) and therefore didn't count.

Since 12 in 2011 was such a success for me, I think I'll do a similar goal for 2012. This time around I plan on mixing up the patterns I queued ages ago with newer patterns...cause who knows how much longer my will power will last! I'm also thinking of going bigger...as in a sweater a month big. Oh yeah. I plan on going there. I guess that means I'll have to go through my Ravelry queue and really weed it out, add tags, and all that jazz and figure out what is do-able. While I'm at it, I should also go through my stash page and update everything. Ahhh...can't you tell that the new year is almost upon us? Is anyone else planning their 2012 knitting schedule? I can't wait to get started!!

December Obsessions

I'm still recouping from the Christmas weekend. I think my stomach has stretched enough to fit an entire turkey in there. Seriously. I think I have also eaten double my weight in chocolate and cookies. Oomph! That's the sound of me trying to adjust myself in the computer chair. Not a pretty sight. Trust me.

WTF? All of a sudden I'm holding a turkey sandwich in my hand! Before I pass out in a food coma, here are the five things that I've been obsessing about all December long:

1. Dance Central 2. I shit you not. Maybe it's the Asian in me. Maybe it's the gamer in me. Maybe it's both. But I LOVE dance games and would always go nuts whenever I see them at arcades. So when I heard that this was coming to an Xbox near me, I knew I had to have it. I'll confess right here, right now, I'll be up 'til the wee hours of the morning and will possibly spend my days the next few weeks months playing this game. I guess it's one way to burn off those holiday pounds!

2. The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Yeah, I could've clumped this with the first obsession but really, it deserves it's own place on the list. I know the ladies of my knitting group laughed at me when I told them that all I wanted for Christmas was one thing and one thing only. The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Seriously. No jokes. Although, both Hayley and Natalie admitted that they laughed only cause they want to play it too. I've been bugging Brett about getting an Xbox with Kinect just so that I can play Dance Central. Forget Wii, I'd break something with those controllers. There's a wristband on those bad boys for a reason. I wanna be able to get my groove on and not have to worry about whether or not if I'm holding the controller tightly enough so that I won't be destroying my TV, windows, or anyone's sheer amazement at my dance skills. Don't laugh. You'll see. If I ever get challenged to a dance off in some dark alley somewhere, I'll be prepared. If the Black Eyed Peas find themselves down a back up dancer all of a sudden. Yo! I'm ready. Don't hate.

3. Crofter's Organic Fruit Spreads. Holy crap, do I ever love this stuff! I seriously cannot.get.enough.of.it. I really don't like to buy store bought jam and try to get homemade whenever possible. It was a summer goal to learn how to make my own jam but never got around to doing so. Mainly cause I kept missing the prime fruit picking times at my local U-pick farms. I guess I could always use frozen fruit. But I think that'll ruin my first jam making experience.

Last winter I discovered Whimsical Preserves at a craft fair and was sad that I had only picked up 2 jars of their yummy jam and had to go a few month (gasp!) without any homemade jam. Then I found out that they were going to be vendors at an outdoor market that, I kid you not, just happens to be right outside my front door every Saturday during the summer. It kinda got sad cause the lady started to recognize me as I crossed the grassy knoll to get to her stall, and she would have my preferred jam all ready to go. You'd think I'd stock up to carry me through the winter months. Sadly, no. I totally missed the memo about when the last day of that market was. I've been a complete sad face since. Until now. Sometime in November I discovered Crofter's Organic at a snooty (and pricey) grocery store. Curious, I read the label and bought a jar. I was in pure heaven! HEAVEN, I tell you! I had to limit myself though, since this so-called high end market likes to charge an arm and a leg for pretty much everything in their store. So imagine my sheer surprise when a week later whilst roaming the aisles of a local grocery chain store that I discovered my beloved jam! And one week it was on sale!! Hells yeah I stocked up!

I love this "fruit spread" in quite an unholy way. I love it so much that it makes me lick the butter knife I use to spread this goodness on my toast. Yes, I know, it's a butter knife and therefore cannot cut me. But still, it's a knife here people! This jam is making me live on the dangerous side. Not only is there actual chunks of fruit in the jar, but there's absolutely NO preservatives, corn syrup, fructose, cellulose gum, or weird crap like that. The no corn products is what really does it for me. I still shudder at those freakin' ads that used to be on TV, where the American government was trying to convince everyone that high-fructose corn syrup is actually good for you. Yeah um...corn products in general aren't good for you. Your body can't digest it. And sugar shouldn't be man-made chemicals and that highly processed. Don't even get me started on cellulose gum.

I love Crofter's Organics so much, I'm even letting the Munchkin finally have jam on his toast again!

Oh, disclaimer here: please note that Crofter's Organics did not pay or ask me to give my so-called review on them. But if someone from this company just happens to be reading this, I will accept cases of fruit spread. Just saying.

4. Houndstooth Sorel Boots. I was dreaming about them all November and for most of December. Then just as I was about to buckle and buy them already, I found this pair. On sale. Oh yeah. You bet I high-tailed it into the shop, waving my credit card like a crazed boot addict. The weather has been pure crapola here, which means that it's been grey and not so great for photo taking. So I give you an internet-found photo rather than one of my actual boots. Mine came with awesome bright yellow and black plaid laces, but I'm in the process of finding some pink laces....ooohhh...

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Melissa on Pinterest

But just to be sure, I made sure to try on the pair that I had originally wanted:

I knew that if I didn't try them on, I'd always be wondering "what if?". Do you ever get that? Where you see something that you totally heart, but didn't get cause you couldn't justify getting it and then later down the road you find yourself thinking about that item, all forlornly? Yeah, that would have been the case with these. So I tried them on. They were pure awesome sauce but didn't hold a candle to the tall boots. I love these boots. They've already paid for themselves. They are sooooo comfy and sooooo warm! Which, if you've been reading my blog all month, is a must as I've been freezing my butt off all December long!

5. Yarn. OK, so this one is nothing new. I'm sure you were expecting this one. But really, I've been thinking about yarn all.month.long. Twenty four seven. Not just any yarn though, more specifically: my stash. Yeah, yeah, so I acquired quite a bit of new yarn during the month but now I think I've reached my limit. I know my house has. I'm starting to get overwhelmed by the fact that I have a lot of choices. I've been thinking up of a game plan on how to get some control over the stash, besides stop adding to it! I smell a goal cooking up. Just to forewarn you.

Source: threebagsfull.ca via Melissa on Pinterest

Some honourable mentions: warm woollies and Polartec, and most of all - my bed. I seriously think I've slept through the entire month. I've been so extremely fatigued, so beyond exhausted, and feel like I've been battling my eyelids all December long. I'll get spurts of energy (which I would expend on Dance Central sessions) here and there, but to tell you the truth, December was a blurr due to being so sleepy. I'm looking forward to getting my thyroid treated next month (actually, excited isn't the proper word for how I really feel about finally being able to deal with my thyroid issues, but I'm too tired to come up with a better word) and am thinking that maybe, just maybe 2012 will be much, much, MUCH better for me health-wise. YAY!

'Til then, you'll be getting nothing but sleepy posts from me. Oh well. I'm off to make more coffee.

Holiday Hangover

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas day. Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a fabulous December 25th! I don't know about you, but I'm suffering from a major holiday hangover - as in I've had too much excitement, too much to eat, too much to drink, too much Dance Revolution...just too much of everything. Add in the overly enthusiastic excitement of a three year old and his newly acquired Mario and Luigi stuffed dolls, an Innotab, train table and enough toys to hold over a small daycare...oh yeah, my head has exploded all over the Christmas tree (cause I'm not going to go into detail about my headaches over that Innotab).

I'm off to chug coconut water and regular ol' water like there's no tomorrow and hoping that I can keep the Xbox off...but something tells me that Mama's got her dancin' shoes on...I'm hoping to take a few days off and maybe getting some rest in there somewhere. If you don't hear from me in a few days...just listen for the house blasting the Black Eyed Peas...I'll be there getting the dance party started...

Merry Ho Ho Ho!!

Just dropping in to say Merry Christmas to everyone!! I hope you're all having a wonderfully merry day filled with love, laughter, yummy eats, and squishy yarn with dearly loved ones and friends!

I plan on spending Christmas day eating (both a ton of sweets and turkey galore...not necessarily at the same time), cuddling, and possibly knitting! ♥

It's Just a Random Kind of Week

Yep. Another post of random thoughts in point form. Sorry. I had started writing a post about the progress of Brett's sweater and even had a clever title and everything for it. But then my fatigue set in and I couldn't gather up enough energy to keep writing...at one point I had to keep getting up every 10 seconds to shake myself and try to fight my eyelids from closing. So instead of a post about one awesome subject, I give you a post about a bunch of awesomeness, written throughout the day.

- I received the most beautiful skein of yarn in the mail yesterday (it's the photo above). It seriously took my breath away. It's a skein of The Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga! in Strawberry Crab (all links are to Ravelry, as I'm not sure how much longer the SG website will be up for). I got it in a swap last month and even though I have this colourway in another base, I stalk and troll for this colourway on the interwebs like you wouldn't believe. Yes, it's a seasonal colourway and yes, Cephalopod Yarns will be carrying over this colourway to the new company in Bugga! but I suck at stalking shop updates. I will even go as far as saying that Strawberry Crab completely and totally triumphs over MadTosh's Tart. Oh yeah, I went there.

- are you surprised that I'm talking about a yarn that's not SweetGeorgia?

- the photo is just eye candy, as I'm sure most of you are here for the knitting content - of which there is a lack of.

- speaking of updates. I caught the last Wollmeise update of the year and was so darn proud of myself for not purchasing a single skein during their regular update. The grab bag update though...that's another story. Moving on.

- I vowed to not buy another skein of yarn this year. So what did I do? I went and joined the Cookie A 2012 Sock Club. I've been weighing the pros and cons of this club for weeks and finally, in a moment of weakness I caved and joined. But now that I think about it, how could I not join it?? I mean, think about it: this club involves knitting socks, baking cookies, and hand-dyed yarns. You get recipes here people. Cookie.recipes.with your sock patterns. And yarn. I'm a sucker. I know. True, I have knit only one Cookie A pattern in my entire knitting career but I do have several more patterns awaiting in my queue. I love the fact that each shipment comes with 2 patterns - an easy one for times when your brain can't function and a more advanced pattern for when you feel like challenging yourself. I see more sock action coming this way in 2012.

- speaking of socks, I think I need to get going on getting back onto the sock knitting wagon. I had always aimed at having at least one cardigan/sweater, one shawl, and one pair of socks on the needles at all times. I was doing so well there with this too. Until I hit a pattern that I just couldn't get motivated on. I had started Aquaphobia back in April but after what felt like months of knitting and only producing half of the first leg, I lost steam. That, and I've been in utter denial that the sock is a bit tight on my tree trunk leg. To tell you the truth, I think I just need to bite the bullet and frog the sock and either cast on again using a larger needle size, or scrap the project all together. I think for now the half finished sock will have to sit in time out in the proverbial knitting basket.

- I should really finish the second sock of the test knit socks that I was working on. It's a beautiful sock using beautiful yarn. I guess the above mentioned sock made me lose my sock knitting mojo.

- I need to get back my sock knitting mojo.

- having a sock-in-progress would have totally helped me out the other day when I was at the doctor's office. Brett's sweater is now officially too big to carry around and my other WIPs are either awkward to knit on (as in too many yarn cakes to have to worry about), involve too much counting, or require chart reading. I really need a small mindless knit on the go. I'm actually quite shocked that I don't have such a project on the needles.

- another shocker: the other day when we did our weekly grocery shop, the Munchkin fell asleep in his car seat. So I opted to stay in the truck with him. Um, yeah...guess who completely forgot their knitting at home?? I don't know who was more shocked about this, me or Brett. I always have a knitting project in my handbag. Not sure how I didn't this time around. And let me tell you, this will never happen again!! I was bored beyond belief! Not only did I waste time just sitting there doing nothing, but my phone was dead! I couldn't even surf Ravelry. That was an hour and a half that I will never get back. I could have gotten so much knitting done during that time. So sad.

- the progress on Brett's sweater? I finally finished the sleeves and joined them with the body. I had more issues with the sleeves. Nothing big. I just had to keep telling myself that this cardigan wasn't for me and that I really did need to knit them longer! After a few rounds the thought that I needed to stop increasing would creep into my head and that this cardi was going to be massive...on me. Yes self, not for you. Bad girl! This is Brett's sweater! Now that I'm working on the yoke shaping I'm hoping that the next bit will go by super fast.

- I know i'm not going to get Brett's sweater finished in time to wrap it up and give on Christmas Day. But you know what? I'm totally content with that. I really am. Another reminder to myself: the only pressure to get this done is from no one but myself. Brett doesn't care if the cardigan is under the tree or not. He's even told me to take my time cause he understands how much time goes into knitting. He didn't have to, but I still made him read the Yarn Harlot's blog post about the gift of time, since there's a difference between knowing how much time goes into a knitting project versus having the time to knit.

- I think Brett got it cause last night he wrapped all the gifts without me asking. It wasn't the best wrap job, but really, will a three year old even notice how crisp the corners are?

- I've been falling asleep while reading the Munchkin his bedtime stories. The past few months he's been wanting to read only two books from his book collection. This one and this one. My friend Leana gifted them to the Munchkin a few years ago and he absolutely loves them. He now refers to all dogs as "Walt-tut". I'm thinking he's going to like one of his Christmas gifts.

- Oh, another reason why Brett's cardigan won't be under the tree in 3 days: both of my wrists are starting to hurt. I don't think this has anything to do with knitting too much, but more from the result of my current medical state weakening the muscles in my body. I mean, last night I couldn't open an already pre-opened jar of tomato sauce. I became one of those sad people that you see on infomercials who are all down and overly dramatic that they can't do insert action here until a nifty gadget comes along to assist them with it. I ended up running hot water over the jar lid before using this handy contraption that came free with a Chatelaine issue.

- so glad I didn't get rid of that thing. Even though I laughed at it.

- we've tried three times to go see Santa and three times we've been denied. Why? Once Santa had to go on a lunch break and the elves had allowed only a certain amount of kids in the line up, claiming that each kid gets x amount of time with the fat Dude. The second time the line up was so long and the elves decided that there were too many people that they could potentially still be there even when the mall closes. So they asked the last half of the people in line to leave. Starting with us. The last time, Santa had to go on a quick potty break and we were dangerously close to the lunch cut off time AND the Munchkin was starting to get grumpy cause he was hungry as well. I'm afraid that this year will be the year that the Munchkin will not get to sit on Santa's lap. This fact makes me sad. The Munchkin couldn't care less either way.

- Brett made a pan of Rice Krispy treats using the special Christmas version of the cereal. Half of that pan may have fallen into my mouth.

- I'm hoping my energy comes back real soon so that I can work off these extra holiday calories!

Winter Wonderland

Ok, so it's not really a winter wonderland here. We don't have snow (yet), and the weather, albeit a little wet at times, has been quite mild and very West Coast-y lately. Which is nice. Really nice. But I've still been wearing long johns underneath everything. Well, I've stopped wearing long john pants, as they were starting to bunch up in weird random places under my jeans. But long john shirts? Oh yes, a definite must! I even stopped by MEC yesterday on our way home to pick up some new ones. Ones with a Polartec layering (I have no idea what my current ones are made of) and I can tell you right now I'm absolutely loving it!

Other news since I last posted? Not much. At all. Sorry. Brett's brother was visiting for the weekend so it was more about entertaining (and cleaning up after them!) than anything else. Yesterday I didn't even knit a single stitch! Pure craziness, I know! I just didn't get the chance. From the moment we woke up it was go, go, GO! We took the Munchkin on a stroll throughout the downtown core, sans stroller, and it took us forever to get anywhere. Not that we were in a hurry to be anywhere in particular. We finally made it to our end destination goal, which was the outdoor skating rink at Centennial Square. We all rented skates (and a helmet for the Munchkin) and had a blast skating the afternoon away! This was the first time the Munchkin has ever gone ice skating and he looked so darn cute in his little bobsled skates! Sadly I was so lost in the moment that I didn't take any photos. I'm sure we'll go skating a few more times before the rink closes for the season. Neither Brett nor his brother could remember the last time they laced up a pair of skates. I think the last time I was on ice like that, it was probably when I was in middle school when one of my closest friend's made me go with her to the Nelson hockey team's "skate & meet" (her family was a billet for the team for as long as I could remember and I think they stopped once we hit grade 10...I think having too many teenagers in the house was making them crazy).

I haven't had the energy to do any sewing either, but am hoping to get some bags made this week for a possible Boxing Day sale. Don't quote me on that though. It's a goal to have more items in the shop for Boxing Day, but not sure if sewing is in the cards for me this week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe I can fight the fatigue and get the chance to spent some QT (um, that's quality time...sorry, I've been in abbreviating everything lately) with my lovely sewing machine.

In the meantime, on the knitting front, I'm still plugging away on Brett's sweater. I haven't been project monogamous in ages and I think it's making me go a little crazy. I've been eyeing patterns left and right on Ravelry, staring longingly at the skeins of yarn that I have on my nightstand (I know, I'm weird like that...most people have books or magazines on their nightstand, I have yarn) that are patiently waiting for me to wind up and knit with, and I've been prepping projects for the new year. Brett thinks I'm crazy, but I got such a kick out of doing the 12 in 2011 where I made myself knit the patterns that have been in my queue forever (but had always been sidetracked with newer, shinier patterns) and had knit the yarns that had been sitting in my stash for longer than a year, that I decided to do it again next year. So I've been going through my queue and printing up patterns, diving into my stash and finding yarns for each of those patterns, and then very Martha Stewart-like been putting them into large Ziplock bags...all labeled and ready to go. I've even contemplated putting all the bags into a bin and then blindly grab a bag when I'm ready to knit a new project. Kinda like a surprise kit....

I told you I was going a little crazy! I really need to get Brett's sweater finished...for the sake of my sanity!

PS: Sorry for the random photos of skates...they were the only photos I took of our day of skating...all taken on my iPhone. But I couldn't have a photo-less post!

A Very Random Thursday

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages! But in reality it's only been a few days. I think this week is crawling by, which is a good thing when you've got a lot of crafting to do. That is, if you are actually using that time to craft. I haven't. I feel like I've wasted this week due to not feeling 100%. If anything, I've been feeling a bit discombobulated. So I give you random photos that I took with my new iPhone, along with random thoughts for today...

- I've been feeling quite fatigued all week and have spent more time napping than crafting...or housework.

- all day yesterday I thought it was Thursday, so today feels like Friday to me.

- I'm a little bummed that today isn't Friday.

- I'm s.l.o.w.l.y plugging away on Smokin'. How far away is Christmas?

- I've been doing pretty darn well in not knitting anything other than Brett's sweater. But I am getting the evil eyes from all my other WIPs. I think I need to either zip them back up in their bags or shove them into the yarn closet for now.

- is it sad to say that I'm pretty stoked about knitting up Brett's cardigan not only cause he's finally letting me knit him something other than a hat, but the fact that I'm getting a bag of yarn out of the stash? We're talking about 16 balls of yarn here!

- I think my stash is starting to overwhelm me.

- I found out that my current medical condition has made me go from heat tolerant to cold tolerant. Now I know why I've been extremely and overly cold these past few months. Definitely explains why I just can't seem to get warm!

- I've resorted to wearing the fancy long johns that I wore when I lived in Finland under everything. Even when I'm home.

- I've rarely left the house all week due to the fact that I'm freezing cold and being outside just amplifies that.

- I'm feeling so freaking cold that I've even contemplated ditching my usual warm winter jackets for the puffy North Face coat that makes me look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

- when I go to bed at night I end up just lying there, tossing and turning. I can't seem to turn my brain off. I don't even know what's been plaguing my mind. It's just in constant think-mode and all that I've tried has yet to result in anything. This has been happening all.week.long. Does this happen to anyone else? I keep a notebook that I like to jot random things down into so that I can sort them out or refer to later. Kinda like an inspiration book. I've been filling that book up and I'm not even sure if half of it makes any sense.

- I've been staying away from the computer as much as possible these past few days, cause I always get sucked into the time warp of surfing and am always amazed as to how much time I've wasted. By staying away from the computer, not only have I gotten a lot accomplished than I normally do in the day time, but my wallet is starting to like me too!

- I've come up with a "crafting schedule" and am going to test it out next week...since Brett's brother will be visiting this weekend. It'll be interesting to see if it'll work out.

- I've also come up with a rough draft of my "crafting plans" for 2012. There are so many patterns that I want to knit up, so many sewing projects that I want to do, but always get sidetracked or spend more time trying to figure out what to do next than actually doing it. I'm hoping that by listing my project priorities that I'll get more done and less procrastinating.

- I'm hoping to bake some sugar cookies today, but can't seem to find my piping bag and tips. I was really hoping to learn how to "flood" cookies today. Might have to go the "poor baker's" route and just use a Ziplock bag with a corner snipped off.

- I was hoping to bake a ton of cookies, but fear that I'll eat them all before I'm able to give them away.

- I need to find the cable to my camera.

- I realized that my notions case is getting too small and I'm needing more stitch markers than normal. I could remedy this by either knitting up all my current WIPs and reclaim those markers back, or start using a second case...I do have extra cases in my yarn closet, but I'm thinking I might have to make a trip to the closest sports department and check out the fishing tackle box section...what does everyone else use?

- with my monogamous knitting, there's not much to blog about knitting-wise.

- I'm hoping my next blog post will be more exciting!