EyeKnit

Is it me, or did everyone from Gray's Anatomy age like 5 years since last season?

So I do need to rip & re-do the freakishly small sleeves. I just wasn't ready to deal with it at the time. So, I started something new:



A sweater! Of my own design! (If you can call "knit a square with a neck hole" a design). I have already re-configured my mental paradigm of what exactly a properly sized sleeve should look like. Trust me, these will NOT be freakishly small. The yarn is leftover from the blanket for Malinda, plus a few colors I threw in (OK bought just for this purpose).

And here is photographic evidence of my boy's genius.



We bought this puzzle last weekend at a garage sale (from Matt Rose, apparently). Sam is totally intrigued with it-- he loves all the states, and talking about them, and figuring out where they go. Anyway-- it's a tough puzzle, even for me (I'm from New Jersey-- how the hell am I supposed to know where Kentucky is?)-- but Sam makes us help him with it over and over and over. Tonight, I was getting dinner ready, and Sam did the entire Southwest all by himself. So impressive, my boy.

And by the way, looking at this, I feel totally justified thinking (until a few years ago, thanks to Joel's map of the world shower curtain) that Alaska was an island. I mean, every map we US kids ever see shows Alaska just like this. I think I figured out from the weather there that it is *not* right next to Hawaii... but how was I supposed to know it was ATTACHED TO CANADA??? :o

I sewed the shoulder seams & did the neckline for the green sweater. The sleeves are done... although I think I have once again succeeded in designing something with freakishly small sleeves. Everything matches the intended measurements... they just look so small. I'm going to pull out some of Sam's store bought 12 month tops & see what the sleeves are supposed to look like. I may re-knit these.

Tonight, the mother & her boyfriend are coming over for Rosh Hashanah dinner. We've ordered vegan cornish hen. I'm having flashbacks to the Great Tofurkey Disaster of 1996. Hopefully this will be better. I can't imagine it being worse. Jonathan has declared that our back-up plan is Dominos... "and this time, we WILL order if we need to."

Hey, look! That's my toe in the bottom right corner of the picture! Gee, haven't seen that guy in a while. I think I need a pedicure.

Anyone in NJ area want a full size mattress set or cute pair of chairs?

They're free to a good home... I would love to think that they'll be knitted in/on. The only catch? You have to pick them up soon. Like before this weekend. Let me know if you want them.

3 WIP's... 3 progress shots.



I think the orange blanket might be big enough. I was originally planning to trim it in some contrasting color, but I think because the edges are straight & the top/bottom have some wave to them, a trim wouldn't look good. Fringe is so... not. So, I may just end. Anti-climactic, if you ask me. The fact that I didn't settle into the pattern for the first couple of inches is glaringly evident to me... I'm hoping it will not be quite as evident to the mommy recipient. I trust the baby recipient won't care. But I hate to send something I could have done better.



I had a lovely afternoon in NYC with my friend Leora yesterday. I took the train into Manhattan, met Leora for lunch at a cute little vegan restaurant called Blossom, had a nice slow-paced lunch, walked in to Washington Square park, and just relaxed and chatted a bit before heading home. It was a nice break from everyday life. I worked on the 2nd sock on the train to & from.



And I am working on the sleeves for the green sweater. Considering a large box of yarn arrived at work today, I'm anxious to start new projects... but will try to control myself to finish something else before I do.

In addition to doing a multitude of crazy other things, I really have been getting a lot of knitting done. I almost don't want the new TV season to start!



I grafted the sock I did in Disney-- and thanks to Carriellen, no donkey ears! I like the pattern a lot-- it's the More Fun Than Cables pattern, and I'm using Sockotta yarn, which I love the feel of, but these wide stripes of color just don't do it for me. I will say though that even just trying it on for the picture got me in the mood for handknit sock weather to arrive... I will start the 2nd sock tomorrow, so I can work on it Monday on the train to NYC-- I'm meeting Leora for lunch!

I'm on a hunt for Regia Silk in charcoal gray, to make a solid pair for Jonathan. Do they not sell this in the US? I may just have to order a LOT of it, to justify shipping from a Canadian site.



I also finished the front of the Svale sweater, and started the sleeves. I also ordered (among other things) Svale in pink to make a sweater for the baby, and in a khaki/beige color to make a sweater for Sam... it just feels SO nice. Webs is just loving me.

And then, today, I found these at a town-wide garage sale in Metuchen!



Gotta love garage sales of people who teach knitting. Most of the magazines were free-- the pattern books were 25 or 50 cents each. She had some Plymouth Encore for a quarter a skein, but I really really REALLY don't need un-assigned yarn right now, so let it pass.

Ack! It's not even 9:00 a.m. and I'm exhausted.

Today is Rachel Day at the office... so the plan was for me & Sam to make traditional "-Day" brownies last night. I also have a $10,000 Pyramid type game in my head that I need to get out onto paper so we can play for Rachel Day. No problem.

Then he comes home with a note from school that they're doing a project (making edible school buses) and the ingredients include twinkies... can I send a vegan alternative!?! (Why can't a school project ever include VEGETABLES??? Why are the ingredients twinkies, oreos, icing, twizzlers, and (eew) CheezIts?)

Jonathan is at a continuing education lecture last night...

SO... I stop with Sam on the way home to find Twinkie pans... none at the first store, none at the 2nd store... fortunately, they had a mini-loaf pan that I figured would be close enough, and supplies for injecting the filling into the Twinkies... bought it all, without the 40% coupon that we always have. Grr. Get home, make Sam dinner, eat dinner... then bake brownies with Sam (he's so cute when we bake), figuring the Twinkies would take more work & I'd do them after he went to bed.

Get Sam to bed... "I want you to lay down with me for a lot and lot of 5 minutes"... sure... EEK! Wake up 2 hours later on his floor, exhausted. Jonathan's home, hear funny highlights from dorky doctors at "Beyond Lubes: Treatments for Dry Eye"... now after midnight, hearing about lubes for 2 hours must have gotten Jonathan all riled up... or *something*... needless to say, no further baking got done...

OK... up at 7:30 this morning... sure, plenty of time to bake Vegan Twinkies... locate recipe...

Vegan Twinkies

Jennifer, I love you. You saved me. How did we live before the Internet???

Start noodles for the kid's lunch... pull out ingredients... all bowls/measuring utensils still dirty from last night's brownies... locate other ones... Sam wakes up mid-mixing, furious that I dare bake without him... appeased by promise to give him some batter (the highlight of vegan baking!)... wants oatmeal NOW (with NO apples, and NO bits!)... boil water for oatmeal... noodles done... Sam eating oatmeal... continue work on Twinkies, which at this point are going to be Twinkie-shaped cakes with no filling, because we're running late... I figure Sam won't miss the filling by the time they add oreos & twizzlers & icing... SHIT, we have no vegan white icing...

Twinkies in oven, Sam eating batter, send Jonathan out to the store for icing... wipe oatmeal off of Sam's face & out of his hair... attempt to wash yesterday's school-project tempera paint off his arms with a washcloth, rather than sending him back to school like a walking sandwich board that says "My Mommy Doesn't Bathe Me"... moderately successful. Sam dressed, Twinkie-shaped cakes done, lunch loaded into backpack, including special ball that he *had* to take to school, and pictures from Disney for him to show his friends... note written to teacher "Twinkie-type thing enclosed, vegan icing, feel free to share with other kids, Twizzlers & Oreos okay, use Wheat Thins instead of CheezIts"... Jonathan back & Sam out the door.

Whew. Okay, it's 8:50... dishes in dishwasher, and now all I need to do is get the Rachel game done, shower, and head to work.

Single moms, I salute you.

I told Jonathan I need the night off tonight... anyone want to hang out someplace and knit???

We're back from a great trip to Disney. We took a whole week off & truly enjoyed the rest. This is the first time since we opened the office that we have been able to go away, trust that the "baby" was in good hands, and RELAX, without checking e-mail and constantly calling in. I thank our staff for that!

We stayed in a beautiful resort-- Cypress Harbour. We had a 2 bedroom suite-- 2 bathrooms (1 with jacuzzi that was cool, but went unused), living room, dining room, and full kitchen-- which meant we were able to have breakfast in the room every day, and a couple of lunches & dinners as well. Sam had high fevers the first few days & had to be taken to the afterhours pediatric clinic, so we spent more time than expected in the room, but it was all okay.

We did 2 days in the Magic Kingdom. The week after Labor Day was apparently a great time to go-- almost no lines at all for any of the rides. Sam loved all of the rides, especially the Flying Dumbos... he was TERRIFIED of the 3-D "Philharmagic" movie & had to be carried out screaming... we all loved the night parade & especially the fireworks. Really really cool stuff.



We also spent 2 mornings at Sea World. Sam was into animals, much moreso than he had been previously. He liked the dolphins, especially seeing them jump, and getting to feed them fish. He liked Shamu. He liked playing in the fountains. He had a tantrum outside Shamu Stadium, and as a result, we missed them showing the space shuttle launch on the big screens. We did make it into the stadium in time to see the shuttle flying off in the distance-- which was pretty cool. Jonathan was really into the shuttle launch, so I was really sorry we missed that. We didn't know they were showing it-- if we had known, we would have cut the watermelon-related tantrum short & dragged Sam into the stadium. Feh.



Another highlight was Universal Studios & Islands Of Adventure. Our guidebook didn't make it seem like there was much there for kids-- but we went, figuring Sam would like the Barney show. Well. Sam LOVED the Barney show (which was SO underdone & stupid). AND, after the show, Barney came out to take pictures with the kids... for a while, Sam was the only kid there, and Barney hung out & played with him for like 10 minutes. That was pretty awesome.



At Islands Of Adventure, Sam loved the Dr. Seuss land... his favorite was the Cat In The Hat ride, where he was amazingly amused by Thing 1 and Thing 2. Between you & me & the whole internet, I always thought Alison was a little nuts for knitting those sweaters for her boys... but I've gotta say I'm tempted... you could see Sam in this, right?



I did manage more knitting than I expected (sick kid will do that for you)-- I finished an entire sock (great pattern, not my favorite yarn), and added another ball and a half of yarn to the crocheted blanket. I think it might be getting a little bit bigger. I'll get photos of those up soon.

For now, I'm enjoying Stacie's visit (she's in NJ til tomorrow-- go to her blog & ask her to tell you why), and trying to catch up with work & e-mail etc. Ack!

At least now there's a reason why the orange blanket is staying the same size. It's been in the trunk of my car for a few days while I knit obsessively on the sweater.

I took pictures outside last night (or was it yesterday morning? or this morning?) Anyway- at some point, it was light out, so I took pictures of the sweater-in-progress outside to give a truer representation of the color. Nice, right?



Sam came outside with me to help, and got upset that he wasn't in the pictures. Smart little dude-- figured out a way to make sure he was included!



Then suddenly the boy who does not wear what I knit decided this sweater should be for him. "I can wear this one soon?"



Wellll... not that one... but rest assured I'll be working on another one just for you :) (And yes, I'm fully aware he won't wear that one either)