Cleveland Weekend Recap: Ballroom and Football.

So!  Lately every Monday I think to myself "wow.  that was an awesome weekend.  I really should write a recap."  And then I'm so worn out (and the kids are so worn out) from said weekend that I never finish it.  Sometimes I upload the pictures to flickr.  Sometimes I even get as far as starting the blog post.  But usually I don't have a chance to finish it.

NOT THIS WEEK. *shakes fist in the air in defiance*

(even though it's midnight)
 (and I had to break this up into 2 posts)

So this past weekend was funtimes. Fri night we finally took the kids to see Planes.  It was... not as terrible as Cars 2?  Let's put it this way - I wouldn't recommend it unless you have kids.  Unlike Toy Story 3 or Brave which AWESOME.  Also I can't even think about without crying.  Pixar just isn't at it's best with this franchise.

full disclosure:  I loathe Dane Cook.

Although I have to admit part of my distaste for this film is coming from the place of a jaded parent.  Every new character introduced I just thought "Great.  Now my kid's going to want that toy.  blerg."

Just what I wanted!  To give Disney more monies!  SOB.

 But the dude LOVED it and has been talking about it ever since.  Also serious crazy happened in the parking lot but I'll leave that one on twitter.

Saturday morning I got to do this:

Wait, what?

Yes.  I took my daughter to the Cleveland Dancesport Challenge.  See my cousin has gotten into ballroom dance lately and was competing.  So we went to support her.  As it happens one of my friends from the amazing knitting group that I never get to go to anymore was competing, too.

My cousin is in purple, my knititng friend in blue.

Both of them rocked it.  And it was super fun to learn about this whole culture that exists that I know nothing about.  Also there were vendors:

Somehow I took a picture of the simplest dress there.  This one doesn't even have feathers!  or fringe!

That afternoon we were all worn out from the day's activities. So we all took a family nap.  Those are the best.  And solid naps meant we could do something crazy that evening.  Like take all 3 of our kids to Ingenuity Fest.  BUT.  I'm going to talk about the entire Ingenuity portion of our weekend tomorrow to keep this from rambling on...

Sunday morning we spent tackling some organization projects that have been languishing.  Seriously I don't know what everyone does with ALL OF THE PAPER OMG.  Every day my kid comes home from preschool with another piece of nonsense / valuable piece of artwork.  Add to it the important parent handouts....  We're drowning in it and it's just the tip of the iceburg.  The thought of dealing with it when I have 3 school aged kids....

So if anyone has any school paper organization tips I'm all ears!  I did make some progress, though.  All of the art supplies have moved into a new ikea product in the basement.  And I have a home for the school stuff to live in.  Basically we went from this:

Hoarder cabinet of SHAME next to my kid's art table-turned-PILE OF COLORING AND WOE.

to this:

less craptastic cabinet of random next to an empty corner with a broken lamp.  PROGRESS.

Baby steps, right?

Sunday afternoon was spent as God intended:  Watching football and knitting, with a dog at my feet:

 Or for the expanded view:

I have to say.... watching a game with a team that is playing to win is pretty fun.  I hope the Browns play this angry next week.  It really felt like they had a chip on their shoulder.  And they should after all of the talk all week.  One player does not make a team.  That statement came though yesterday.

GO BROWNS!

wait.

Yay for a great fall weekend in Cleveland!

Proof I love my Husband.

So big Christmas wrapup post coming... along with some fun knitting stuff.  But all of that got put on hold because today the Steelers are in the playoffs.  Which meant that today the kids are wearing the new gear they got for Christmas.  Which means that I had to try to take a picture of them in their adorable matching outfits.  As I've mentioned before, my daughter does not usually wear matching outfits.

It went exactly as well as you would think it would:




My kids are crazy.


I"m glad I didn't fight the battle of the hair tie with my daughter.  Crazy hair is the least of our problems here:


Although it's certainly not helping anything.

I did catch a couple of cute smiles.



And a few shots where neither of them looks deranged:


Nothing amazing but good enough to print for Matt's desk at work.


I am not in any of the photographs because I do not wear Steelers gear unless they are in the Super Bowl.

Go Browns! (and Steelers too, I guess)

Are you ready for some football knitting?

So kickoff on football season is one week from today and we are getting EXCITED. Matt has been watching all of the coverage he can get his hands on, our fantasy teams are set, and even the baby is good to go:

My mom knit the sweater for her.

Don’t the little football buttons just make it!



My fantasy team is looking good this year… although the competition is going to be stiff this season. We took things seriously and there were hardly any draft decisions made based on player hotness:

Pic from my draft. Funtimes were had.

Although Tony Romo went pretty late since noone wanted him on their team after what he did to Jessica.

So while I’m not really in the business of dying sports team yarns I got a bit caught up in the frenzy and this happened:



And I couldn’t very well dye Sixburgh without also dying Believeland:

EDITED TO ADD: I sold out of Believeland! Thanks guys! I actually had one skein that wasn't listed because I was saving it for me. So since there was demand I listed it this morning. It's the last one, though!



Because although I agreed to raise my child as a Steelers fan (in exchange for Matt agreeing to raise her Catholic. Marriage is all about the compromises) I do still know where I came from.

And since I was on a roll I had to dye the one place that I think should def be represented by its team colors:


Those fans are the most insane I’ve ever encountered. (here’s the post where I tailgated like a Buckeye, and the one with the Ohio State Superfan Hat pattern)

And since I was just in northern Wisconsin for vacation (unblogged) I figured I may as well do a colorway for the cheeseheads, too.


The cool thing about that one is that the landscape matches their team colors. So it works both ways.

Anways I had fun doing this but not enough fun to make this a part of my regularly scheduled programming. So these colorways are limited edition. I’ve listed what I have and when they are gone, they’re gone. Knit something fun for the superfan in your life - available at Destination Yarn!

My only question now is do I use this yarn to knit for Matt or the baby?

It’s ok mommy, I have enough Steelers gear. See how cute this bib is?


I wonder what it tastes like...

Random Catchup Post

Just a list of random because writing an actual coherent post kindof makes my head hurt right now.

1.) I am 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Yes, I’m still puking. Yes, I know that should have stopped by now. It hasn’t. But it’s less frequent so let’s move on.

2.) In other pregnancy news….Our kid is the size of a peach.

3.) My fantasy football team kicked serious ass this week. Like 120 points of solid ass whooping. I now in first place in my league. Matt’s in first place in his league too but his team isn’t anywhere near as awesome as mine is (120 points!!! Michael Turner is my hero)

4.) Vampires rule. If you don’t have HBO and haven’t seen True Blood you have failed at life. Go get it now and try to catch the pilot before the next episode on Sunday. It’s totally worth it. So far show is amazing – every bit as good as the books. Although I’m reserving my complete judgment until a few weeks from now when we get to meet Eric. Mmmmm… Eric.

5.) The new 90210 was AWFUL. As my friend texted me “The only use I have for this show is to find out who Kelly’s baby daddy is, otherwise it’s terrible.” I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the baby daddy will be whoever they can convince to make a guest appearance first.

6.) I’m a bit obsessed with the Large Hadron Collider. It’s fascinating. And it worked! Crazy. Makes me want to be a physicist. The most hilarious article I’ve found on it is here:

The 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World

7.) Despite my best efforts to kill it my garden isn’t doing too terrible. Since for the past few months I’ve been asleep or puking going outside in the heat to weed and water was not on my priority list. So we have a pathetic amount of homegrown produce this year – It’s sad, really.

But my flowers are actually surviving quite well. Especially the sunflowers:


Zinneas:

And Cosmos which are as tall as the sunflowers!:

My Dahlias are blooming like crazy:



And I’m pretty sure my morning glories are too although I haven’t been outside in the garden in the morning at all to enjoy them … I’m hoping that next year I’ll be able to get back into the garden thing.

8.) We went camping last weekend with about 30 of our closest friends. It was SO much fun. But I’m going to try to write a whole other post on it… that may or may not happen.

9.) I have been feeling well enough to do a bit of dying… so a shop update and new colorways should be coming soon!

10.) Dexter continues to be Sultan of the Couch.

And that’s about all I’ve got for right now…

Ohio State Superfan Hat Take 2

Hmmm…. Well I wrote this back on Monday before the game but got distracted and didn’t get the photos together until right now. Things have, um, changed a bit since then what with the loss and all…. But I’m still going to post it b/c I like this hat even if all of the people who would want to wear it are depressed right now:

Well as I’ve previously stated I don’t really care either way about Ohio State. But there is a huge game tonight so I thought I’d at least mention it…. Our plans for game night are pretty tame since several of my friends and I have decided that while we’re not going to give up drinking as a New Years Resolution because that would be completely unsustainable with our rock’n’roll lifestyle we were at least going to run next to the wagon and hop on whenever our livers got tired. Which would make us hop ons. Which of course means that George Michael is probably driving the wagon. Seriously, why do they cancel all of the really good shows? Why?

Anyways! Not what I wanted to blog about…moving on…

Way back in June I knit a hat for my friend’s sister’s yet unborn baby in an attempt to lure the kid out. It worked and the hat was much loved – although the new baby’s three year old big brother was super-jealous. So my friend had him call me (cutest phone call ever, btw) and ask if I would make him his own hat. A gray one. And since I knew his whole family was Superfans I threw some red stripes in and he had his very own Ohio State hat. It’s adorable. I actually have pictures of him posing in his hat but I feel weird posting pictures of someone else’s kid – even if his mom did give me permission. So yeah… the hat went over huge. So huge in fact that his dad (really a Superfan) hinted strongly that he would like one in his size. I made him one for Christmas:


The pattern is my Ohio State Superfan Hat only modified a little bit to accommodate a bigger head. The original hat fits me and I figured for a guy I should add some stitches.

So… here’s the new, improved, guy-sized,

Superfan Hat Take 2:
Lion Brand Woolease in Oxford Gray and Ranch Red. You won’t need very much of any of it – about half a skein of the gray and ¼ skein of the red.
Size 7 circular and double pointed needles (or just the DPN’s)

Using the Long Tail Cast On and Oxford Gray, Cast on 88 Stitches
Knit 9 rounds of K2, P2 ribbing

Stripe 1: Knit 5 rounds plain in Oxford Gray
Stripe 2: Knit 5 round of Ranch Red

Repeat stripes 1 & 2, 2 times more. you will have 3 red stripes at this point.
Knit 6 more rounds in Oxford Gray (hat should measure 6 inches from cast on edge)

Knit 9, K2tog around
Knit 1 round
Knit 8, K2tog around
Knit 1 roundKnit 7, K2tog around
Knit 1 roundKnit 6, K2tog around
Knit 1 roundKnit 5, K2tog around
Knit 4, K2tog around
Knit 3, K2tog around
Knit 2, K2tog around
Knit 1, K2tog around
Knit 2 tog around

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches, draw together and tuck in end. Tuck in the rest of the ends.

Because really...there’s always next year, right?

Fast as fast can be

So last Thursday I cast on for the Back to School U-Neck (or on Ravelry) I’ve wanted to make for awhile:


Super-fast knit! I’m already to the waffle stitch part!



And it’s not like I’ve been doing nothing but work on this… To sum up or weekend: furniture shop, clear out the yard for winter, housewarming party, hangover, Panini’s for the big game (serious bummer right there - good thing my fantasy team won - that takes the edge off of it a little bit), grandparents for Sunday dinner. It was super-busy with not much of the knitting.

And yet somehow I’m already halfway done:



I think this proves that if I concentrate on one project and don’t let the malabrigio distract me I can make noticeable progress. Funny that.

Anyways now that I’ve said it’s a quick knit I have a feeling the rest of it is going to take for-ev-er… especially since I plan on adding short row bust shaping in addition to the vertical darts in the front. I have no idea how this is going to work with the waffle pattern but can’t be that hard to work around b/c 2 of the 3 rows are just knit. There’s got to be a way to do it…

Think there is any chance of me finishing by Thanksgiving?