Stormwatch 2008

So all the local news casters and websites and everthing are on HIGH ALERT. Interviewing the salt truck guy and whatnot. Because of this:

Oooooh 3 inches! Scary!


And we might get another 4 or 5! Whatever will we do?


Dude it’s Cleveland. Snow in Feb. should not be this big of a deal. Although I guess I understand it being a logistical nightmare with the debates in town… still. I don’t think this amount of WINTER WEATHER WARNING graphics is ever necessary.

Anyways! I went on a fantastic ski vacation this past weekend and I’m still sore and whiny from it. So sore in fact that last night I was too sore to knit. Not even kidding. I have no idea why my hands would be sore from skiing but they are. I’m also too sore to put together the blog from the weekend (uh huh) so instead I’ll distract from the lack of content with some shiny objects.

Shiny #1 – A beautiful Row Counter Bracelet and set of Stitch Markers from the Crimson Orchid:

I won this set in a contest over on Shut Up I'm Counting. This blog is a new discovery for me and I’m glad I found it because she cracks me up.


Thanks, Cass!!!

Shiny #2 – Malabrigo Silky Merino:

It’s like the original Mmmmalabrigo only shinier. And silkier. And possibly even more awesome.


I won this skein back in November during Mmmalabro cast on week on Ravelry. It was a prize in the “Most Creative Photo” contest – I was an honorable mention for receiving multiple votes but for different photographs. Here are the 3 that I entered in case you’re curious (I think I’ve blogged all 3 of these before but whatever. Shiny!):

Tasty Treats


Malabrigo and Roses


Blocking

After receiving the skein I immediately put it away so as not to be distracted from my Christmas knitting. But now in honor of Project Spectrum Fire and Malabrigo March I’d like to make something with it.

So the skein is only 150 yards of goodness. I was thinking about some sortof lacy scarf thing but is 150 yards even close to enough? Any ideas on what to make with it? I’d love some suggestions b/c I’m really stuck.

And according to the local news I won’t be going anywhere for awhile.

Goodbyes, Mittens, and Lunch.

So one of my good friends and rowing teammates is moving to Seattle. Sadness is sure to ensue, however lots of fun was had giving her a proper sendoff:

The girls


Jackie with the guys


Matt doing the Muppet run, of course.

Some karaoke happened which is never/always a good plan:




And Osam and Alyson came into town for the occasion for the first time since he moved back to the ‘nati:


I know Jackie will do well and this is a big promotion and all... but we're so going to miss her.

Anyways that marks 4 weekends in a row that we’ve either gone out of town (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati) or had friends in town (Joel/Ellen, Osam/Alyson) and this weekend we’re headed to Holiday Valley for a big skiing extravaganza.

My point? I don’t feel bad that I haven’t had a chance to block these yet:

They’ve been done for about 2 weeks now and I’m really just not happy with them. The colorwork is uneven and imperfect and I didn’t quite catch on to the whole knitting with two colors on double pointed needles thing until the end of the second mitten.



I’m hoping a severe blocking will fix them but I’m not holding my breath. I just hope I don’t have to rip them back at all. Boo to that.


In other news I’ve been having fun playing with all of the features of my new phone. The most fun for me is that it has a built in walkman so I can listen to NPR on the bus. The most fun for you is that it has a pretty decent camera on it:

Just a random pic of Jessica and LB (she was in town for the day) at Teahouse Noodles one of my fav. lunch spots. I love this place. So tasty. Their rica rica sauce is mmmmm.

I’m still holding my breath for a camera that also happens to be a phone with a decent flash but until then this one is ok…

And finally – thanks so much to both Claudia and Andi for nominating me for a Make My Day Award! You guys are just too kind!!!

+ Juliet

I finished Juliet:

Think this means that Leo will want to make out with me in a pool?

Probably not considering he only dates supermodels. Although my Romeo was trying hard to get me to act like one for this photo shoot….

But I was so NOT down with the posing b/c you can’t see the sweater very well and that was sortof the point.

So anyways the details:

Pattern: Juliet from Zephyr Style. Here is my project page on Ravelry.

Needles: size 10.5 Knitpicks Options Needles.

Yarn: about 4.5 skeins skeins of Patons Shetland Chunky in Soft Teal – 121 yards per skein of 75% acrylic, 25% wool.

Modifications: Hmmm…. I don’t remember all of them but basically I knit a little bit smaller than a medium top part with the small bottom part. I didn’t want the skirt to flair out an insane amount and I didn’t want the top to be too big. So I just did the raglan increases until it fit and went from there. Also I lengthened the garter stitch part so that it ended just under my bust. I did 9 repeats of the lace in total after that. I decided with just a simple closure instead of 3 buttons like the pattern says. I’m pretty happy with how it looks although I think I want to tighten up the clasp a little… we’ll see.

Timeline: January 6 – Feb 17. Although in all fairness I finished the knitting part up in a few weeks and then it sat sadly waiting for me to block it and decide on the buttons for another few weeks. It’s a quick knit if you do the finishing part right away!


The Verdict: I like it. It’s trendy and fun and was cheap and quick. All good things. I think if I had it to knit again I’d only do about 7 repeats of the lace. It’s pretty long and seems to be stretching longer with wear. Washing it might get it back to normal, though.

Also? Leo was way cuter back in ’96:

I had my hair done exactly like that for prom. Oh yes I did.

And thanks to googling for that image I discovered the existance of and now own the Red Curtain Trilogy Box Set on DVD. Rock.

Fire and Ice

So I’m a little disappointed with my photographs of the finished fire yarn:


They’re all just a little... flat. In retrospect I should have taken them outside or used my window sills instead of just trying the white sheet background:

But I threw this together in the 10 minutes of daylight that are left when I get home from work so I guess it’s ok under the circumstances. I am NOT however even a little bit disappointed with the yarn... I love it.

Crazy insanely love it.


This was my first major spinning project. My grandma bought me the fiber waaaay back last May at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival. It’s 1lb 3 oz of space dyed superwash merino and I’ve ended up with about 400 - 500 yards of worseted-ish yarn.


I was concerned that I under plyed it because after taking it off the niddie noddie (I left each plyed skein on there for a couple days) it seemed really stretched out… washing it solved that problem completely and now it’s super floofy:

And amazingly soft. I don’t know what it wants to be just yet…I think I’ll pet it for awhile while I ponder.

So in order to keep up the eye candy portion of the blog here are some photographs that my dad took of Lake Erie frozen over:

Edgewater marina is completely iced in:

I love the seagulls in the photo:


Amazing that in a few months we’ll be waterskiing!




Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Have a Wicked Valentines Day!

I don’t know how another week has slipped by with no posting or reading. Feb has been nuts.… how about a list?

1.) This past weekend Matt’s brother Joel and his girlfriend Ellen came to town. Funtimes were had, indeed. Friday I made a biiiig pot of chili and we had a “family game night” with them and my brother and his girlfriend. Poker was the game of choice - because winning money from relatives is always a good time.

2.) Sat night was Rockband Party Part II. And since Matt’s bro was there and my bro was there clearly we needed to form The Family Band:

We are rockin' it like the Jackson 5.

Maybe more like Hanson.

There are many more pictures on Carolyn’s flickr site but I won’t subject you to them – although the series of Matt trying to take the guitar away from me so I wouldn't press buttons before the game started is pretty hilarious. It ended in this:

I’m smug, Matt’s annoyed, and Andy is … drunk.

Also? Carolyn has a video of me mocking my brother because he couldn’t keep up. He was playing bass on easy. And he plays guitar in real life. So there was clearly no reason that we should have kept getting booed off stage…. luckily it’s not on youtube. Yet.

Aaaah siblings.

3.) So I was having a really crappy day at work the other day. That happens. So I gave in to the temptation and went to Starbucks to get some motivation in non-fat chai form. And I found this:

Just a book, right?

Nope. It’s a Book Crossing book!

Bookcrossing is this superfun website where you get to release books into the wild and then whoever finds them can log them in and track their journey. Totally made my day. Especially because…

4.) Tonight along with 2 other couples we are going to see the musical of Wicked! So excited. We don’t usually do anything for Valentines Day so I’m really looking forward to it.

5.) In blogging news – Dove Knits has nominated me for a Make my Day award.

Thank you so much!! That really made me smile – especially considering that I haven’t been so much with the blogging lately.

6.) In yarnish news – go check out Tricia's new store Earthly Hues. She uses all natural dyes a lot of which she actually grows herself (her garden is AMAZING). Very, very, cool. I can’t decide which colorway I want to buy! But I think the indigo roving might be calling my name…

7.) And finally… In order to alleviate some life/work stress I’m focusing it all on this:

The Brit Killing Sweater is alive and kicking.

I have the back and front completely done, am 75% done with one sleeve, and decided to knit this one to that point so that I’m sure to make them match when I start the armhole shaping. Somehow knitting something extremely complicated makes other things seem… less so. If I can knit cables like these I can certainly deal with whatever crap I run into elsewhere, right?