Be careful, the bevvy you are about to enjoy.....

may be very hot!

so what you need is a coffee cosy!



I made this over the weekend. it's supposed to go on coffee like those from caribou, or panera. what is strange is that i seldom stop there any more. Coffee from a Shop was one of the first things to get the ax when i was making hard financial choices. (that particular one was hard on everyone else, as the adjustment from high-caff to half-caff was significant!)

but this is a fun project, and it's totally earth friendly, as it's reusable and not made of paper. it's even made from scraps, so the fabric was re-purposed. plus- machine washable. this is a prototype, so this one will probably stay with me. now i've got my legs under me with the project i'll make a few more for my friends who might like em.

sewing shermy

here is shermy, he is helping me sew.

a winter scene

A few months ago i took rather touristic shot of memorial park in my town. it was a summer shot. Today it is snowing (again), and i thought, hmm, it might be nice to have a winter shot.

I do rather wish the truck wasn't there, perhaps when i go out to shovel (again) I'll see if i can score one without the truck.

The proof is in the booking!

here it is! We really are going to the west of ireland for a few days! Well, all told, it's seven days, but the last day is taken mostly by getting back to the airport and returning the car (sniff!), so that doesn't really count.

but 'tis ok! Because we've got six days of green! We'll use Ennis as a hub, because it's almost exactly equidistant between Westport and Cork City. And did you know that at that time of year in ireland sunset is around 9.15 pm? it's true! lookee here if you don't believe me! That's super fantastic because even if places we visit don't stay open that late, it means we won't have to worry about driving on the very narrow roads in the dark!

hoo hoo! the letter arrived at it's destination!

yipee! Do you know what this is? This is the letter containing my application for a renewal passport! yaaay! that means the only thing standing in my way now is the possibility that i sent the wrong form, or didn't send enough cash. It's 75 clams to renew you passport. $75! but that's ok. it's valid for ten years, so that's only Seven.fifty per year.

so here's the plan- me mam and i are headed to the west of ireland for me birthday! yippee skippy! Everyone should turn 34 at the cliffs of Moher. We're gonna use the town of ennis as a hub, rent a car and go see the towns where mam's family came from. yaaay!

january again.

january is my least favorite time of year. well, january, february and march. the whole winter is just so stifling! I was able to plow through it for the last few years, the part time job at the pharmacy was good for distraction, but now i don't have that anymore, so i've got to think of something else.

tomorrow it's supposed to snow. blech. but at least it isn't until the afternoon. perhaps i'll try to get up early in the morning, and go to the gym. i've decided to really make an effort to lose ten pounds before the spring. So today i'm going to joing the gym. the gym three days a week, soccer two days a week. hopefully that will get me back into a bit better shape. we'll see!

here's the piccy

of all us four.

A few weeks ago, molly posted a snap of everyone in her family, along with their kids, and i thought it would be a good thing to post one of the four of us. it's just the four of us, the kids weren't allowed in this, because ma already has two other piccys of us, when sean was a few months, then again when he was around twelve, and now he's thirty (yipes). so we're running a bit late on the elapsed time, but that's ok. it's actually quite nice, we're all got real live similes on our faces, because someone of us said something funny, (probably at another's expense!) hee.

by the end, even the wise men were pooped

what a day. my whole family was over at me mam's. All four of us were there- even sean and i were both able to get the day off from the harrows of retail and service industries. Plus me sisters' husbands, and the great collection of kids. No one fought; not even the kids! Everyone left feeling safe, loved and singing holiday cheer. Yet, we were all as pooped as the wisemen (who knows where baltazar is. Perhaps he's still sitting at the last pit stop, unable to bear forging on home). Ma had to change up Christmas dinner at the last minute because there was a racket on Roast Lion (pork loin and eye of the round roasted in the same pan) so we had ham and chicken tenders. Nothing spreads holiday cheer like crispy chicken tenders with buffalo dipping sauce!

I love christmas. I love how secure it makes me feel. It's like the best day for positive reinforcement! i've got the best family, and even though we probably drive each other crazy, i wouldn't trade my family for anything in the whole wide world!

Merry christmas every one.

i'm a winter wimp.

i don't groove on winter. This particular winter so far has not been my friend. Last weekend, we lost power. This weekend, we have power, but we also have 19 inches of snow from the sky. Blech! How is this possible? every so often, i toy with the idea that i would like to move away from new england to a place where it does not snow so much. Of course, lisbon or dublin would be my first choice, but it's hard to score a work permit. perhaps somewhere south. For a time i thought kentucky or tennesee might be possibilities, but having just returned from there, i think i might have to reconsider. They are too.... foreign. That would be too stressful.

Snow- it's cold. it piles up everywhere, then it gets dirty and looks really gross. When it melts it makes a big mess. And when it snows, people inexplicably lose all their common sense. Myself included. Though i do my best to stay home with my neurosis, I try not to inflict my lunacy on others. Except this past weekend, i did decide to go to the grocery before the snow came. Well, it was only me and everyone else in town! and god forbid a person might have to walk a hundred yards to the door of the store. noooo! Instead, Let's all become Parking Spot Vultures. So the poor girl, stressed already by the thought of facing a whole long weekend of being trapped in the house with cabin fever toddlers, has to feel someone's hot lexus SUV breath down her neck while she negotiates with said toddler to get into the car seat, then put all the bread and milk into the trunk. All the while the blinker is flashing the maddening impatience!

It's funny how snow will turn otherwise pleasant, friendly and neighborly townies into crazed lunatics. Generally i try to keep a stiff upper lip regarding winter, but i have to admit, i lean toward the crazed side. Sigh. And yesterday was just the first day of winter. pooey.

nothing spreads holiday cheer

like a christmas clash album!


This gem (if a do say so meself) is a gift for my dear brother in law- he loves the clash. We even had a bit of hush at christmas a few years ago, because joe strummer died on 22 december, 2002. It only seems appropriate to give a gift of his music this time of year.

CBS Football:

for the love of god, and all that is holy, would you shut the hell up!

Please, just tell me the pertinent details of the effing play. don't provide me with color commentary- How bout this: you aren't all the god damned colorful. SHUT UP! I do not care that you used to play offensive line, and the cold windy rains didn't affect your play. I do not care if that referee blew the call. SHUT UP. Tell me who's got the ball, what down it is, and how far to a first down. i'd rather dead air than to listen to you pillocks so shut up!

buttony sweater progress

so, over the holiday and then the weekend i knitted like crazy. i'm hoping i'll be able to wear the sweater soon. That has taken a bit of a sidetrack though, since i've run out of yarn. pooey! Here is where i stand right now:


since now i am in neutral with the project, i decided to weave in the ends and add on the buttons. i'm quite chuffed with the button band.

i really wanted to make a pullover sweater; yet still have it look like a cardigan, though i'm not really sure why. So early on i knew i would have to make some sort of trompe-l'oeil, something that looks like a button band, but isn't, then at the top and bottom separate the halves out so they look like halves of a cardie. My idea was just a sort of concept, but i'm quite pleased to report that it TOTALLY worked! Have a look here:

adding thread to your bobbin

hey all, perhaps this is useful. loading a bobbin is pretty universal, though your machine might be sort of different than mine, the concepts are the same.

first, put your machine in neutral- on my little engine that could, i have to pull the whole purple wheel out away from the casing.

then un thread your machine so the spool is just sitting on the holder. then, find the turning point. on my machine it's the thing that looks like a screw just to the left of the tension lever. pull the thread around that, and then back toward the spool.


next, you take the thread, and thread it into the bobbin from the inside out, pull enough through so there's a bit to hold on to.


then you put the bobbin on the holder (you might need to slide the holder to one side or the other), and use the food pedal to spin it. you need to hold on to the little bit you threaded through, so it will be tight enough, and you don't want to go too fast, because it might tangle or go all wonky.

test

to see about the feedback buttons. There are buttons you can click on all the ravelry posts. blogger has incorporated them too. there are lots of neat features here on blogger. some day i'll go through them and have a look at them all. then you'll be bombarded with on-line fripperies!

a return to football!

yay! you must have been wondering where have all my silly sports gone? well, i've actually just got back on a team. last night was our first game. we smashed them. it was something line 15 or so to just two.

i think dave and dan had the most- but i lost track. next up was probably mick or perhaps jon, i only had one. but that's ok! it was very nice to get back on the field. i haven't played for many weeks, so i am slightly out of shape (100% out of shape) but that's ok, i let the young studs do all the hard work, and i celebrate the win. Just kidding!

a change of plans

for the buttony sweater! (hey, i'm nothing if not indecisive!)

So i did a bit of a swatch with bobbles over the weekend. Blech! they are a drag to knit. i'll try again when the yarn arrives, but i'm leaning toward no-go. then i considered a cable collar, and cables around the hem, and then more narrow cables along the sleeves. one something like leabhran's Coronet Hat.

but then i learned that cables often curl in, side to side- the crossover of the cable causes the pull. so that's not so appealing either.

so then i thought, perhaps a scallop edge might look neat. This one is
KnitsByRachel's Scallops Pattern Dishcloth (it's about half way down)

I'll have to try them both out.I'm sure i'll go with the scallop edge, or the bobble, as planned, since the cable is WAY more work. not the cabling itself, that's actually pretty easy, once you get your legs under you, but cables run vertically; and collars, hems, and sleeve edges run horizontally, so you have to knit the cables off line, then graft them on to the sweater. blech!

I expect the yarn to arrive today or tomorrow (hurry, kind postman!) so i'll have to give some ideas a try then. More news when it happens!

Actually, while looking for the owners of the pics, i found Coronet Cuffs.


Methinks they look pretty neat, I'm leaning a bit toward that pattern for the colalr and cuffs!

arrrgh! the suspense is killing me!

so yesterday i placed an order with my favorite online yarn shop thus far knitpicks. i got Wool of the Andes Kettle-Dyed



in the colorway soot.




but now the suspense is killing me! i simply cannot wait for the package to arrive! arrrrgh! i'm going to make myself another buttony sweater. I learned some valuable lessons from the last one so this one will be more successful i think.

initially i was going to post a long dissertation about my intended modifications to the buttony sweater. Dear readers fear not. I came to my senses before doing so, lest your eyes glaze right over.

Instead, have a look at this person's great posting Not for the first time i'm embarrassed by my lacking language skills. She did a really great job on hers, and her photos look soooo good. I hope mine turns out half as nice.

so the order is placed, i just need the string. Hurry kind postman, Please don't delay! i need to make that sweater, and i simply can't wait a day!

update:
Your Knit Picks order shipped 11/14/2008! Your order number is 80894.

Items Shipped
Qty Item # Item Description Price
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 24289 Soot Kettle WotA @ $3.49 = $17.45

Hee. This makes me giggle

Candids are tricky things.


you can see that this sweater is a tiny bit too roomy. That's ok; according to my sisters, too roomy is way better than too tight.


Snaps of children's clothing on hangers is nice and all, but snaps of the children are better! i'm pleased, now i get to have Roo on my blog too!

Mini Minnesota Vikings Fan

my friend molly will have received the package by now so i think i'm ok to post this. so they like their vikings in minnesota, i like that, we like our patriots here in new England, it's like we're all kinfolk. Now, the grape-flavoured vest took far less yarn than i expected. But what to do with the rest? Allow it sit around, taking up space, mocking me for my poor planning and foolish, wasteful spending? No silly! Make it into something!



As a matter of fact, i also had some yellow leftover from kristen's sweater too. It's perfect Vikings yellow! How utterly serendipitous! So. I used the same pattern as kristen's. i'm a bit nervous, because i think the one for Riley Roo is a bit too large. but it's the 2-3 year size, and i followed the destructions exactly! Well, mostly i followed them exactly. i did the sweater top down, on one needle, rather than doing as pieces and seaming. it's really easy to do it that way. send a message if you need advice. I'd like to reemphasize my complete love of the Peace Baby!Pattern
It's well worth the investment of a donation to the worthy cause, and the pattern is really useful.



Perhaps Molly will be able to email a snappy snap of the sweater in action, dear readers, so you won't be stuck with just an ugly maroon hanger.

separating good carbs from...

better ones!

There is something sublime about tasty baked goods. like spaghetti and meatballs, they are comfort food, at it's most effective.

I love brownies, but i'm moderately particular about their texture. i like them to be dense and fudgey, but i also like them to have a bit of chewiness to them too.

so on sunday i had this inexplicable urge to make chocolaty brownies. I tried to talk myself out of it, but succeeded only in making the craving worse. I searched my cupboards for brownie mix. even an ancient box. nope, nada. Then i remembered an old every day food magazine dedicated to brownies. tada! but alas, it called for 8 oz of chips, and i only had about 4 (strangely, i did have cocoa in the house). no probs, i found a jar of nutella hazelnut spread tada!

so they came out fantastic! my oven runs a bit hot, so next time i'll have to cut back the temp, but these came out so nicely. it's 100% as easy as making them with a box. no more brownie box for me. the only added step is melting the butter and chocolate together.

yummy!