Sleepless

That's me tonight and it has been happening way too often lately. Not sure if it is cabin fever (I've been home ALL WEEK with no outside adult interaction due to a sick baby) or this cold that makes lying down not pleasant. Usually when this happens I go out to the living room and knit. But at the moment there is a snoring male in every room of the house! So here I sit on DH's laptop in complete darkness except the light of the computer screen...sniffling... wanting to be tired. HOPING that DD sleeps in tomorrow! Tomorrow night is "Girl's Night" out -- California Pizza Kitchen and Ethel's Chocolate lounge at the Fashion Show Mall! YAY! Hopefully I won't be too tired and cranky to want to NOT go. I organized it so I really need to be able to be there. Plus I obviously need to GET OUT!

I did manage to work on the donkey from the nativity tonight and I finished the body. We finally got rid of the old couch. So now I'm down to a reasonable amount of furniture. We've been living with 2 adults, 2 teenagers, 2 cats, 1 baby with 2 couches, a rocker/glider, and an overstuffed chair with an ottoman in a 900 square foot apartment. TOO MUCH!

I took a tiny bit of NyQuil... it's going to kick at any minute, I just know it!

What is that thing?

This litte one (who just turned 1!)....



Got this for her birthday from me....



Her grandma thinks I should make these porcupines and sell them. I have yet to include an "this a hedgehog" with the gift because I'm curious if the receiver will know what it is!

The Bunny, the bunny, oh I ate the bunny!

That title is for all you Veggie Tales fans....

Here is the Fiber Trends bunny in Cascade 220 pre-felting. Thanks to March Madness, I was able to finish it quite quickly. Thanks to a teething baby, I have yet been able to felt it. But I hope to accomplish that today.

So now I'm debating what to cast on next. Cousin Dani will be 6 at the end of April so she will need a hedgehog, but all I have is blue yarn to cast on with. She may have to deal. I also am WAY behind on the nativity so I may finish Mary before anything else. I spent an entire HOUR in front of the TV with nothing to knit...debating what to pick up next.

It has finally cooled off in Vegas -- low 70s instead of the high 80s. Much nicer for March! And only 1 week left until Spring Break! Woo Hoo! Next Tuesday is state proficiency testing so the boys both have the day off and DH is taking the day off and we head UP UP UP to the snow for the day (the boys are from Hawaii and have never seen it).

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Our littlest leprechaun (and the only one at home today!).

We will be ensconced in front of the March Madness today (with a run to McDonald's for Shamrock Shakes), which means I will be knitting! I'm working on a Fiber Trends bunny pattern in purple Cascade 220 for Sarah for Easter. Hoping to get it done this weekend (riigghhtt!!).

Knitting for Teenagers

We added two new members to our family this week -- both teenage boys. They needed a place to stay and we happen to love them so here they are. I want to make them something... but what do you knit for teenage boys? The older one likes Harry Potter, but I'm not sure it's "cool" for a boy to wear an HP scarf (now a teen girl could totally get away with it)plus it's getting to be warm here (88 degrees yesterday). They did like the purple hedgehog and mentioned making a blue one so it'd look like Sonic the Hedgehog (it's a drive-in, fast food place in parts of the U.S.). A new group of people to knit for.... hmmmm.....

Laying the Hedgehogs to rest.....

The second hedgehog is done. I've named her "Henrietta". Love the way the colors turned out. This was also my first time felting Cascade 220 and all I can say is "WOW!!!". I will be felting lots of Cascade 220 in the future. Speaking of which, the next project is another Fiber Trends pattern -- a rabbit for Sarah for Easter using that same purple Cascade yarn as the hedgehog.

Off to cast-on the rabbit~

P.S. I saw on a blog that you can knit the hedgehog pattern in to a LADYBUG!! HELLO!?!? Why didn't someone tell me and can anyone tell me HOW to do that?? I assume you just use black yarn for the body and then red for the short rows

Hedgie v.2 (and a donkey)

The second hedgie is on the needles. The front knits up so fast! But then I let the poor little gal languish as I dread picking up the stitches to start the back (I am HORRIBLE at and DETEST picking up stitches, but it is a necessary evil in knitting). This one has to be done (and felted and dried) by March 24th in order to meet it's owner -- 1 year old Alison! I am in love with the color (even though DH has pointed out that REAL hedgehogs aren't purple and multi-colored -- no imagination, that one!), but then I love multi-colored and rainbowed anything!




Pulled out the SnB book last night to actually "learn" how to pick up stitches. Huh. Who knew it could be THAT easy! No more dreading for me!

Notice the hedgie's photo shoot background... our (DH and I, not the hedgie and I) anniversary was on Tuesday. Pretty flowers and lots o' cards!

Also on the needles... the donkey for the nativity. Let's see... I'm supposed to have 3 sheep and Mary completed. HA! Now it wasn't all my fault. Our group didn't like the "flesh" colored yarn for Mary's face and appendages so we needed some time to find a good color (ended up using cream and adding blush). And after the hedgehog I need to do a bunny for one sweet girl in Philly and then another hedgehog for a birthday at the end of April. Poor, poor, little donkey...

Do you like my donkey "model"?? Move over Vanna... Felix is in the wings!

Book Review: The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

I thought I would do something a bit new and review a knitting novel I just finished. I say "review" but really, it's just my opinion and you can take it or leave it. Let me say also that prior to learning to knit, I was an avid reader. I'd read a book a day, easily. But once I learned to knit -- I didn't want to waste precious knitting time reading. Now I just read occasionally and mostly non-fiction works.

"The Knitting Circle" revolves around the story of Mary and a recent loss in her immediate family (I'll try not to give too much away). Mary joins a knitting circle in order to not deal with life and try to find something to fill the void she now feels in her life. As the book evolves, we meet the other members of the knitting circle (there are about 8) and learn about their lives.

I had several issues with this book. First, the book deals entirely with tragedy. Every single character had a significant tragedy -- the book is laden with death -- and the one character whose story ends with life is highly underplayed. Second, there was a bit (not a lot, but a bit) of sex in the book that I felt was misplaced and misused. It was like the obligatory sex scene movie makers throw in whether or not it's necessary. The book was written well, but it's not brilliant and it's certainly not the best writing available on the market.

Is the book worth reading? Maybe, but I'd choose Debbie Macombers Blossom Street books over this one in a heartbeat. The knitting theme is there, but it's certainly not cheerful. I'm sure people out there use knitting as therapy (I learned to knit while in the bouts of a serious depression), but isn't there some joy in life and in knitting??

Give it a try and let me know what you think! I'm awaiting "Friday Night Knit Club" and will let you know what I think of that as well!

In the queue(ueueue)

I'm a good speller. Really. I just can't figure out "that" word in the title.

I felt the need to blog, but I don't feel like sorting through the 500 pictures (really, we have 500) on the camera right now to go to the end to get to the recent knitting pictures. So I'll dig something up to post with this. So for today -- a list of items I plan to knit between know and Christmas:

1) Hedgehogs for Friend, Cousin1 and Cousin2 DD1 and DD2

2) Pants for DD

3) Log-Cabin blanket for... me!

4) Finish the clogs for DH

5) SOCKS FOR EVERYONE!!

6) Christmas stocking for Middle Sis

7) Booga Bag

8) Finish the Sushi Wallet

What I need to buy: yarn for almost all of it (except the clogs and stocking)!!

I took the camera to Wal-Mart and the pictures are now on 2 CDs -- I just want to make sure that they are actually on there before I delete the memories to free up room for new ones!

Off to find a picture to put up....