midwest shower

My wonderful aunt dianne and cousin terri threw me a lovely shower at my mom's house on friday. It was so good to see everyone and the food was fantastic!

Logan

My friend tracy brought over my invitations, which she designed, on wednesday night and brought along the mr. cutie pants - logan. Logan is 7 months old (tomorrow) and is already crawling military style and about to take off. He's an incredibly good baby, but we're pretty sure tracy is about to have her hands full!

Buster Rhymes

multi-directional noro scarf

Right before I left for Wisconsin I had 150 essays to grade for the class I was TAing, about 100 one page essays for my advisor's arts and experience class to go over, and I needed to pack for my upcoming trip, so of course, I thought I should cast-on a new project right away. Friend, Vanessa, had just sent out the pattern for the multi-directional scarf, which I had been intending to use to stash bust some noro silk garden I've had for over a year. The attached picture is what I had completed the day before I left, when I only had about half of my grading left. I would let myself knit a few rows after I graded 5 exams, so that was how the day proceded: knit, grade, knit, grade, knit, pack, knit.... And so on. I completed the rest of the scarf on my airplane ride here, but was left with not knitting project, so I headed out to an LYS in the area and picked up some new noro silk garden in cooler colors to knit one for mom. The pattern is just too much fun. The increases and decreases and self-striping yarn make it a totally obsession worthy project and the end results are really nice.

it's getting cute in here

I'm at my mom's house. I am very busy, having lots of fun, and getting lots done. I have about a dozen things to post if I ever get a chance, but in the meantime enjoy this adorable picture of evelyn that her mommy sent me today. She's getting so big!

here come the brides

Apparently 31,000 couples are planning weddings for July 7th, 2007 according to the knot.com! On a normal Saturday in July an average of 12,000 couples take the plunge. As you all know, we are one of those 31,000 couples getting hitched on 7/7/7. If you're interested you should read this article about all the brouhaha surrounding the date.

cabled alpaca skirt

I have been wanting to knit a cabled skirt for a long time. I was never able to find a pattern, so after months of searching I decided to order some yarn and make the pattern up myself. While I have altered many patterns, and even made up a few small things here and there, I have never tried to design a large piece.

(Non-knitters may want to skip this section) I decided I would make the skirt from the top down, starting with an eyelet row so that there would be a drawstring to keep the skirt up. I made a swatch and determined that using size 7 needles I would get 18 stitches over 4" in stockinette stitch. I then took my own measurements and sat down with some graph paper and did some math. What I came up with is to cast on 144 stitches and increase every 7 rows and cable every 6 rows. The increases were a bit complicated, but I decided to increase 6 stitches for rows 7,14, and 21. Since there are 18 repeats (I started with 6 rows of knit, 2 purl = 8 stitches per repeat), I had to make one stitch in between every third set of purl stitches, until I had 18 repeats of 9 stitches. After this I increased 12 stitches every 7 rows by making two stitches in every 3rd set of purl stitches, but not rotating around - I had placed 6 markers and increased at each of those. And that's where I am now, knitting, purling, cabling and increasing away.

I really don't know if it will turn out, but I really hope so. I can tell already that it is going to require some serious blocking. It should be the perfect Santa Fe garment. The alpaca and cables will keep me cozy on chilly winter days (especially with a silk slip!), but it's still light enough to wear in fall and spring. I am pretty excited to see how it looks in the end.

a girl needs a good, practical pair of socks

The spring issue of knitty is out and it is rockstar! I want to do morestripes, only not striped; monica for little evelyn, but for when she is older; the little vestie for a little baby; the stylish and oh so lovely paper bag; and my ultimate dream: the clessidra socks. They are so gorgeous. I have never made socks before, but I have been thinking about making a pair for some time now. I want to make knee socks and these bad boys would offer quite the challenge. I have to say they are rather intimidating but so, so pretty. I think I may just have to go for it.

more cuteness

Here is little evelyn going for a ride in her hand knit hat and blankie. I just discovered that knitpicks makes a fabulous pima cotton yarn and I want to make something for her with it, but haven't decided what yet. I also need to get going on a project for the little ziemann-dow baby boy who is arriving sometime in may and I am sure emmet could use something too. So many babies, so little time, but they are so cute in hand made little things, as demonstrated by our little evelyn.

loop it back

A few weeks ago when I was visiting Tulsa, I had to make a trip to the LYS (that's local yarn store, for those who don't know the lingo), Loops. Loops carries a wide variety of beautiful yarns and is spacious and comfortable.

We went there to get jessica some yarn and sticks to complete her first project. She selected two skeins of gorgeous noro kureyon in a scrumptios self striping combonation of deep indigo, turquoise, soft plum, and a delightful pinky-peachy color. The newbie knitter is planning to make a simple garter stitch scarf, which will be beautiful because of the self-striping of the yarn.

As for myself, I was such a good girl! I only bought one skein of my favorite manos del uraguay in a rich green color that I plan on knitting into a hat for matthew to match his new scarf (photo to come soon).

warning: the cutest thing ever

i got the madnesss

So for anyone who knows me, and seriously if you don't, why are you reading my silly blog? Anyways, if you know me, and if you know the man in my life, then you know that march is our favorite time of year. Opening day is just around the corner, and march madness is in full swing. Yesterday was selection sunday, so it is time to fill in your brackets.

I have yet to decide who I'd like to see go all the way this year. Wisconsin has sentimental value of sorts, but they have looked terrible lately. Florida is hot, but I hate them. Mostly I hate joakim noah. How can the son of a swedish model be so god awful ugly? My apologies for uglying up my pretty blog with his face (in case you don't know, he's the "special" boy on the right), but I felt the picture proved a point I have been trying to make for a year now: if that kid wasn't 8 feet tall and good at basketball he'd most definitely never have gone to college. He'd be lucky to ask if you wanted fries with that.

So enough trash talk, let the games begin!

oh baby

Matthew is using our camera to document his trip to santa fe so pictures of that trip and our trip to tulsa, as well as photos of my latest finished project will be forethcoming, but until then enjoy a photo of me with little emmet malisch.

I ate what?

I wonder how many calories knitting burns? I hope thousands. It seems that recently numerous reports have been coming out about how terrible restaurant food is. We're not even talking fast-food items that most of us know are calorie laden disasters, but meals at sit-down establishments, some of which actually sound healthy. I am pretty educated about food, but I was shocked to learn that a meal of grilled salmon at the macaroni grill could be over 2,000 calories! Grilled salmon, the stuff everybody says to eat because it's fabulous for you, and still they found a way to make it terrible for you.

I think a splurge every now and then is wonderful, but now that people are getting 30% of their calories from meals they do not prepare at home it seems that restaurants need to start providing information for people so they can make educated choices, even if it does take some of the fun out of eating out.

I say save your money and buy your self some decedent, scrumptious and oh so delicious yarn!

Welcome to the world Emmet

Jessica Malisch went into labor in the wee hours of the morning in her own bedroom far away from the arlington target. Baby Emmet was born this morning and mommy, baby and daddy are all doing well. Since we are headed to OK tomorrow I will have to wait until I return on tuesday to meet the newest little Malisch.