FO: Gathered Pullover

Wow, two posts in one weekend! I'm a wild woman!

I finally have something finished! Woohoo! May I present....The Gathered Pullover!


Here are the specs:

Pattern: Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason - Interweave Knits Winter 2007
Yarn: Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb in Charcoal
Needles: KP Options US9/5.5mm
Skills Learned: Magic Loop (I'm hooked!)
Mods: Knit an extra inch before and after the cable motif, also added an extra inch and a half to the sleeve length.

This sweater took me a long time to knit, only because I've been too tired most evenings to even look at it! I liked the knit, the pattern was straight forward and easy to follow. I did not like the seaming. It's one thing to seam something that is straight and the rows line up perfectly, it is something completely different to seam a round hole where sometimes the rows run the same way and sometimes they don't (armpitts and shoulders - I'm looking at you!!!). It makes me not want to do set-in sleeves again, but I know that the more I do them the better I'll get at it, so I must try again!

Now my goal is to finish up the second sock that has been hanging around since last summer, then I'm thinking about Green Gable by the Zephyr gals. I already have the yarn from my failed attempt at Rusted Root.

Thanks for checking in! I'm off to bake some muffins with Maeghan!

I've Lost My Mojo

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. I really haven't had a lot to say. My mind hasn't been very creative lately, as all I want to do after the kids finally go to bed is curl up on the couch in a comatose state and vegetate. I'm tired. But there is an end in sight (at least a temporary one) as most of you already know. I've successfully applied for a part-time job for over the summer. I will only be working Sat/Sun in July and August. That means no daycare for the kids, yipee! I'm really looking forward to being able to spend the summer with them, and hopefully de-stress myself in the process! Maybe my creative side will make a bit of a comeback! This means, Charmaine, that this is the perfect summer for you guys to come for a long visit...hint hint!

The Gathered Pullover has been coming along very slowly, but I'm happy to say that I've finally finished the knitting and it is blocking as we speak. Well, actually, it has been blocking for about a week now, but I haven't gotten around to doing anything with it. It's in a bad spot too, pinned to my bedroom carpet, I had to warn the kids that when they make their nightly sojurn to my bed, they need to try and avoid it!

We spent Easter Sunday at Darren and Robin's where we enjoyed a fantastic Easter dinner (thanks Panago!). Kevin, Connie, and wee Ryder came too, it was fun to be with everyone and play Guitar Hero (my first time). Owen, of course, was a natural!

It was really good to spend some time with my nephew Gage as well. I hadn't seen him since before Christmas! Way to long! Isn't he cute?

This afternoon we are throwing a bowling birthday party for Miss Maeghan. She's a wopping 7 years old now you know. 7 going on 17 for sure! Haha! I'll try to make another post soon with a finished GP and some birthday stuff. Take care everyone!

Pink Eye and a Sleeve

I've had the pleasure of staying home with a very cranky 4 year old these past two days. Owen has pink eye....mmmmmm....yummy. It takes two of us to pin him down to put the drops in. It's looking much better today, though, and I think he'll be back at daycare tomorrow.

I've finished the body on the Gathered Pullover. I tried it on the other day and it actually fits quite well. I don't love the line of decreases/increases in the middle, but I lowered the cable motif by an inch and now that line falls right under my bust so it's not so noticable. I've seen a couple on Ravelry where the line cuts right across the center of the bust...it looks a bit strange. I was going to remove it all together, but, being small chested, I thought I might need it to help draw it in a bit.

And I taught myself "Magic Loop" to knit the sleeves in the round on one long needle. It's quite fun actually, much easier than I expected. I do find it hard to push the stitches back onto the needle however, it seems to be quite a snug fit. I'm sure it would be much easier if I was doing work with a smaller needle, mine is a US 9/5.5mm.

Swimming lessons start again tonight, I'm sure the chlorine will kill anything coming out of Owen's eye. Maeghan can't wait, she is such a little water bug! Well, I better go figure out how to fix the vacuum, my house is a stinkin' mess!

I'm back!

Well, actually, I have been back since Sunday but have been way to busy to even think about posting! Let's just say that when mommy leaves town for the weekend not a lot get's done! Aidan did a fantastic job with the kids and the house, but apparently there is a lot of little behind the scenes stuff that I do to prepare for the week that he doesn't know about. I have felt about 5 steps behind all week long, and still haven't caught up!

Phoenix was wonderful! The weather was gorgeous (warm...at least 18 degrees the whole time!), I was wearing short sleeved shirts outside in January! What a novelty! Ted took such good care of us. We ate out at some pretty cool places (cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory...heaven!), and spent a lot of time relaxing and just hanging out.


Friday night we went to a murder mystery dinner. It was fun, but I was nervous the whole time that I was going to get chosen to go up on stage...I'm not very brave in front of other people! They probably didn't pick on me because my bra was hanging out the whole time! (see below picture) (thanks for telling me girls! Yeah right you didn't see...nice try!) Thankfully that didn't happen, and we laughed a lot and had a great time!


Saturday night we headed down to the site of the Super Bowl where they had live music, fireworks, and huge crowds! It was fun to be a part of all the excitement. We hit a fantastic wine bar, sat outside drinking and eating chocolate fondue, and just talked and talked. It was so good to do that with my very best friends again. It has been way too long! I really miss Charmaine and it was so wonderful to get to spend some time together. Hopefully she'll be back this summer to escape the Arizona heat, and we'll get to see her and the family again! Thanks Ted for a great get-a-way. I enjoyed every minute of it. Except for the part where Connie couldn't stop barfing...but I must say, she is a very graceful vomiter, it could have been worse!


Not a lot of knitting got done this week, but I'm hoping to make up for that this weekend. Gathered Pullover....here I come!

Snow Day

What could be better?


A foot of snow fell overnight. Schools and daycares were shut down, commuting extremely treacherous. What could be better than staying home? What could be better than the pure joy on the faces of children as they careen down the hill on a tobaggan?

Except maybe the beauty of it all. There is nothing prettier than snow on a bare tree.

WIP and some goodies....

Finally I have some down time where I can update the old blog! We've been extremely busy since school was back in session. Work monopolizes WAY to much of my time, and the kids have started skating lessons on Thursday nights as well. Add that to the soccer practices, games, and ballet, and it seems we are barely ever home! I've been working on the Gathered Pullover for the last few weeks. I've had to rip back a few times because of a dropped cable stitch, and then because of some indecisions, but I am halfway through the cable chart, and hope to make some progress in the next few days. Here it is as it stands right now...


I've also done some baking...I know...I don't bake...but part of my New Years resolution was to provide healthier food choices for my kids. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to have cooked everything from scratch, but I'm going to start trying, and my first effort is these Banana Bread Muffins. It is the same old recipe as I have made before, but I have made it healthier by adding whole wheat flour and flaxseed meal. They turned out fabulous! So good in fact that I had to take some pictures of them and give you all my recipe.

Shannon's Healthier Banana Bread Muffins

Preheat Oven to 350F

1 1/2 C. banana (3 large bananas)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 C. milk w/ a dash of lemon juice
1/4 C. melted butter
1 C. white flour
3/4 C. whole wheat flour
1/4 C. flaxseed meal
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
sprinkling of cinnamon
chocolate chips (as many as you want...chocolate is healthy...who said so? I said so!)

Mix wet & dry separately
Add wet to dry
Mix just to combine (don't over mix!)
Add the chocolate chips
Bake 30 minutes and enjoy!

The next time I make them I will decrease the white flour, and increase the whole wheat flour accordingly...the more whole wheat the better, I'm just not sure how they'd turn out if I went completely whole wheat, or if my kids would eat them!

Aidan cooked us a fabulous pasta dinner the other night. Maeghan loved hers so much she asked me to take a picture of it to put on my blog...here it is.

Dang it was good!

In other news, Owen got his first black eye in a street hockey game the other night. He's hilarious, he was really upset until I got out there, and then he didn't want me to look because he wanted to be a tough boy in front of his friends! He wiped his tears a way and went back out to the game. He's a pretty tough kid! I think his friends might think that he has a strange mother, though, since when they came to get me they could see me taking pictures of muffins through the window. Who takes pictures of muffins? Apparently me. I'm just disappointed that the pics didn't turn out better. Anyways, I have to go pick up the kids from school.

Only one more week to the Fabulous Girlfriend Getaway! Woot woot! More on that in the next post!

FO: Calorimetry

First FO of 2008...woohoo! I decided I just wanted to do something quick and easy...instant gratification...so on New Years Day I cast on for Calorimetry, finished it in a few hours, and then cast on for a second one for Maeghan the very next day! I think they both turned out very well, but if I ever make myself another one it will have a slightly larger circumferance.

Here are the specs of mine:

Pattern: Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf from Knitty Winter 2006
Yarn: Patons SWS color "Natural Earth"
Needles: 5mm/US 8's KP Options
Mods: I changed the cast-on from 120st to 92st because I have read that most people find it ends up way to big if following the original pattern. I repeated row 5 11 times instead of the original 15. Next time I will increase my cast-on st to 96.

Maeghans:
Yarn: Patons SWS color "Natural Plum"
Needles: 5mm/US 8's KP Options
Mods: I cast on 88st for Maeghan's and repeated row 5 10 times. It fits her perfectly.

Surprisingly I don't find this yarn itchy at all...I've read that some people do, and since I'm sensitive to the itch factor, I was pretty uncertain how I was going to like it, Maeghan doesn't think it is itchy either.

I can see myself making many more of these as gifts...so fast, so easy, I enjoyed every minute of it! I do think though that Maeghan looks way better in it than I do, she is just one of those people that looks great in any type of head gear. So now that I got that out of my system, I'm ready to cast-on for Gathered Pullover...well, at least swatch for it anyway!