I'm such a lemming!

I can't help it though.



Where the heck are you people from? I'm curious, you know. :)

And for knitting content... stay tuned! Tonight I'll be posting an update on Mom's French Market Bag and her scarf. (Both Christmas presents, but I don't think she reads this thing... plus she requested both and picked out the yarn. She's not much for big surprises.)

Thanks for all the compliments on Owen's sweater! I'm so stinking proud of that thing, I almost showed it to the mail woman yesterday. I showed restraint, though!

Now I'm trying to pick out my next "big" project. Perhaps something for my hubby dearest, or for myself? Still in the decision making process. Any suggestions?

A holiday in pictures... my Thanksgiving

My wonderful son, Owen, who loves to pray throughout the meal. Apparently the food needs blessing every couple of bites. Amen.

Jared is 11 now and was very excited about having us spending the night with at their house. I was excited because Owen loves playing with my brothers which gives me a little break.

Isaac lost one front tooth the day before Thansgiving and lost the other one the next day. He spent most of the day saying lots of words that contained sssssss. Hopefully this sweet six year old will sing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" for us!

My two boys were taking a nap together and I got some very beautiful pictures of them. This one is my favorite.

And the picture I'm most proud of! Owen's sweater is complete! Mom helped show me how to put it together (the benefits of taking Home Ec and having to learn to make clothes!) and I had it sewn up in about an hour and a half. The Knit Picks Wool of the Andes really softened up a lot after washing and blocking. I would definately make this sweater again, but perhaps with a different neckline and with some color added to a couple of areas.

Yay!

The child is still sleeping! Quick! Let's blog!

Warning: This post is high on word and photo content. For those of you with slow internet connections.... get DSL!
Bryan, Owen and I got together with my parents on Saturday to hang out. Bryan and Dad ended up taking Dad's new ATV out for a spin and Mom and I spent our time knitting together. Owen became Jared and Isaac's shadow, as usual, and spent his day feeling like a big boy.

Mom finished her beautiful scarf/shawl just a day or two before and I got to see it for the first time. She was kind enough to model it for me.....

and very quickly got into it! She cracked me up with some crazy poses, some of which you'll get to see in a day or two. I love the tassels on the scarf. They're done with ribbon and lace weight yarn. Mom did a great job!!!

While the men-folk were out on the ATV, Mom also taught me how to make a pie. It was a ton of fun! We had so much fun talking over this thing that I couldn't leave without a picture, or 10. More sharing of that later!


Here is the progress on my Irish Hiking Scarf! Isn't it beautiful? I love this thing and it gave me a chance to show Mom how to cable. I'm not sure if all cabling projects are like this, but I see more cables in my future!

We're driving down to Branson tonight and will be spending tonight and all day tomorrow with my family. Tomorrow I'll be helping with the food prep and hopefully Mom and I will get a chance to assemble Owen' s sweater because I finished it today!!! Can you believe it? It's the only thing I've been working on since Friday night and I finally finished it! I'm so stinking proud of myself!!! My first big FO. Woohoo!

Must run, Owen will wake up any time now and I need to get my cheesecake into the oven!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

A beautiful picture...

taken during my first Tornado watch while at home by myself. That's right across the street from my house, my view from my desk and front door. I love that!

Will I ever get used to tornadoes?

The cables, they are a flyin'!

Is it possible that I have already finished a little over 12" on the Irish Hiking Scarf???

YES!

They just seem to be flying off my needles! I love the cabling, by the way. Hubby dearest and Mom are both terribly impressed with me.

Speaking of Mom, she called me this morning with her first FO around her neck! The scarf is complete and keeping her warm and cozy. She is going to be starting on her next project tonight and is so excited about it! I'm so stinking proud of her!!! We're going to be spending Saturday with them and so I'll get some pictures of it and post it here, just so I can brag a little bit more. (The boys are going out to try the new ATV at the land my parents own... 650 acres of untouched land. They'll have fun. And the two of us girls are going to be knitting to our hearts content! It's a good day!!!)

My SP sent me a sweet card in the mail. I tell ya', I love this girl! I needed a pick me up yesterday, and she did it. I think I might have an idea of who she is, but I'll have to wait for confirmation until after the first of December, because that's when she mailing out my final spoilage and revealing who she is!

Speaking of SP6, I've been compiling my final package for my so-deserving Sp and it is almost ready for mailing. I'm hoping to stop by my LYS late next week to pick up a couple skeins of yarn to add to the package and then we'll be ready to mail it out! My SP is going on a fabulous trip next week and I'm terribly jealous, but I hope that she has a fantastic time and will enjoy her gift when she gets back.

Tonight I cast on for Owen's sleeves. We got in Friends: Season 10 and Scrubs: Season 2 so there is plenty to watch while I knit into the night! Last night we watched the first disc of Friends: Season 10 and two episodes of Scrubs: Season 2. I laughed so hard that my abs hurt a bit, but it was a great night. I needed to laugh.

You hold your breath in, You pull your needles out

You tuck your chin in, And you rip the yarn right out. You do a lot of froggin and your mind spins all around. That's what its all about! Hey! That's my version of the Hokey Pokey... but retooled for knitting. You like?

Time to follow the journey of Brianne, as she mutters to herself about paying attention while frogging large portions of projects. Today's project is the Debbie Bliss Stockinette Sweater that has been a work in progress for quite a while. Brianne made the mistake of starting on the sleeves at 1am on a night when she was so emotional that she had no right to be working with pointy objects, lest she poke an eye out while using a kleenex to wipe her eyes. Due to puffy eyes, she didn't clearly read the directions, which led to the eminent frogging of both sleeves.


These are the sleeves in question. They were both worked at the same time on size 7 needles. They were beautiful, if you don't count that they were only increased on one end of each sleeve instead of on both ends of each sleeve.


These are the sleeves post-frogging. I love the color of this yarn, its Wool of the Andes in Chestnut from Knit Picks and it has been nice to work with. This pile scared me just a bit. Those were once sleeves, you know.

This is a bit more manageable to look at, not quite as overwhelming! Hello yarn which will once again be sleeves!


And this is Pepa's Christmas scarf! It's the Irish Hiking Scarf done in Elsebeth Lavolde Silky Wool. What I'm the most proud of is that it has CABLES!!!!!!! I CAN CABLE!!!!!!!!!! I'm the most talented knitter in the whole entire world!!!! (Or maybe just the most talented knitter on the block... but definately the most talented knitter in my house. That's for sure.)

Mom and I met up for a post-op follow-up appointment with my doctor yesterday and afterwards we went to my LYS, Simply Fibers, to look around and I of course had to bring the scarf with me to show off my newly acquired skill of cabling. I love the ladies there because they pretended to be incredibly impressed with me, which made me feel fabulous.

I realize that I didn't blog at all about the wonderful birthday package that my SP6 spoiler sent to me. She was so thoughtful and even included a Halloween cookie for Owen that he loved and devoured immediately! I've been so blessed by her, and not just because of the spoiling packages, but also because of her emails to me and her prayers. *Hugs to you, SP!*

So back to the scarf! Owen will only be asleep for another 30 minutes and I'd love to get a few more repeats done on this puppy!

Have a doubt? Check it out!

If only I had done this before I actually started knitting the sleeves for Owen's sweater. Because if I had done some checking online about how to knit sleeves.... I wouldn't be looking at having to frog 8" of sleeves (for a grand total of 16" since I'm working them two at a time). I'm so frustrated but glad that I've learned the lesson.

Here's where I made my mistake. I read the instructions and where it said "bar increase one stitch each end of the row at the third and following 6 rows". So of course I only increased at the end of the row. Do you see where I have a problem?

I don't have the heart to frog the sleeves tonight... so I think I'll start on the Irish Hiking Scarf that will be Pepa's Christmas present! Thanks, Jen, for the suggestion! I've never done cables before and I think that I'm up for the challenge!

By the way, I restrained myself and didn't bring any knitting at all to the conference! It was great though, because it allowed me to actually talk with people and by the end of the conference I had 5 new friends! Yay for me! Brianne has friends in this strange new land!!! *grins*

Warning! Pictures ahead!

This is going to be highly picture involved as I realize that I've been bereft in providing pictures lately. For those of you who care complained to the management.... this post is for you!

These are the projects that are up and coming on my project list. From left to right: Heather's Christmas Present, Pepa's Christmas present and 1/2 of Mom's Christmas Presents.










Heather will be getting the Soleil tank from Knitty.com. It is my first foray into any kind of knitting that requires yarn overs. I'm a wee bit nervous about it.










This is my so soft knitting therapy scarf that I did last week. And this is my back door that leads to the back yard.
















Even Owen's chair loves the scarf! It's the perfect color of denim blue and Owen's denim chair has found it's (fraternal?) twin.











This would be the scarf/shawl type thingy that I started working on . I basically did it because I was looking through my stash and found these yarns that I couldn't really do much else with... plus I was avoiding Owen's sweater.

I took a ribbing pattern that Mom was using and altered it slightly.

P2, K6, P2, K6, P2, K12, P2, K12, P2, K6, P2, K6, P2

Thankfully, I finished the stupid thing last night as I was more than tired of it! Honestly, there wasn't much purpose in knitting it and I'll probably donate it someplace. I have some missionary friends in Romania who I've been knitting baby items for that will now find a scarf/shawl thingy in their box as well!

I'm still working on Owen's sweater. Yes, I know. Had I not done the scarf/shawl type thingy I would have been done with Owen's sweater and on to other things already... but I couldn't help myself.

The goal for the day is to finish the increases on the sleaves. Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday morning I'll be at the Women's Conference at James River church with my Mom. I know I'll be bringing knitting with me for the breaks... would it be sacreligious to knit while the speakers are talking? Meh. I won't chance it! I think it'll be the perfect time to start Pepa's scarf. Now to find a pattern! Any recommendations?

Facing facts

Yarn therapy is not cheap. It's not something that you can just throw a couple of bucks at and be done with. Especially if your therapy is moving you through two days of doctors appointments. And also especially so if you are bringing your crafty Mom with you, who doesn't buy cheap stuff in general and who snatches up obsession with a passion. This means that on Monday and Tuesday you will spend an astonishing amount of time in local yarn stores fondling all kinds of yarn. This also means that you get to spend much of Monday night, most of Tuesday and some of Wednesday morning helping your Mom learn to knit.

This is why I love my Mom and why she is perfect to have around in times like this. Say you're in an ultrasound room waiting for the technician to come and do your ultrasound and you're really anxious. This is when my Mom will say, "How do you make buttonholes in knitting?" when she really has no interest whatsoever in buttonholes but knows it will make you think about something else. Say you're still in that ultrasound room waiting for the doctor to call back with your news. This is when my Mom will say, "Tell me about the different kinds of yarn. Is acrylic softer than alpaca?" when she knows from much time spent crocheting that it is an absurd question.

And when you get the news that your baby isn't alive anymore and that you're going to have to talk about what to do now... That's when my Mom says, "Do you want to go home?" and when I respond, "No. I need to hold some yarn." And she didn't blink an eye. Of course. Yarn. How simple.

So we went to my favorite LYS, which is now her favorite LYS, and we held yarn. She also made her first knitting purchases. 7 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and a pair of Brittany needles. (I told you she wasn't cheap!) I found some ridiculously soft yarn to make a ridiculously soft scarf from because I knew that I'd desperately need some therapy knitting to take with me places over the next few days.

I finished my so soft therapy scarf on Wednesday night after my Mom left my side for the first time since Monday morning. We had worked on our projects together on Monday night, while crying at my house... on Tuesday morning while watching Little House on the Prairie reruns and ignoring the afternoon agenda... on Tuesday afternoon while waiting at the doctor's office and at the hospital waiting for my pre-op exams... and on Wednesday morning while waiting to be called to the outpatient ward, while nurses asked questions, while techs drew blood and put tags on my arms.... and then Mom knitted while I was in surgery and was knitting when I woke up from the general anesthetic.

She's called every day since then and we've talked about how I'm feeling, and of course about knitting. And she's already planning another visit to the yarn store.