A friend of mine is having a baby, so two other friends of mine and I set out to knit the baby an outfit. We didn't give ourselves much time. But, we did it, with perseverance and a plan. I did the arms on this little sweater and my friend Kristin did the rest of it. I know, it is very risky business to have two people working on the same knitted garment. Our gauges are a little different (I am a loose knitter), but I don't think it shows much. The pattern came from an Australian-published book, and it's funny you wouldn't think that knitting instruction would be very different between two English-speaking countries. Well, they weren't that different, just different enough to be confusing. Like, they say "increase at each end", which 2 out of 3 US knitters take to mean "increase at the end of the row" but which really means "increase at the end and the beginning of the row". I never thought I'd say it, but thank goodness it had a chart.

My other friend Ellen made the little denim pants from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and they turned out so cute it will kill you. If only I had a photo.

I am now a member of the tendonitis club. I was worried that this little sweater was what did it to me, and that I would have to give up knitting and mousing and other essentials. But no, it was that gosh-darn eliptical machine. See what you get for starting a fitness routine? If I rest it, it should go away and they I can take up the needles again. Thank goodness.

This evening I worked on the above with some good company, but that's not what this post is about.

It is my blogiversary, hooray! Two years ago today I made some random posts into the internets, not really sure of where I was going with it all. I'm really happy with where it's taken me. This little world is a nice little world. Thank you!

I am going to have a giveaway. I've been wanting to have a giveaway and so far as I can tell, giveaways are the best things about blogiversaries. I am not sure exactly what it will be, but it will be something I've made before. Leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a name on Sunday at 4:00 central time.

Happy Day to you,
Dorie

So it turns out that some of you are very knowledgeable about buttons! I think that the idea of the buttons being put there by some small hoarding child the best. It reminds me of something Beebs would do, so I think that's what I'll go with, just because it makes me happy.

As we've rebuilt the walls, we've thrown some random things into them. Catalogs, a cheap plastic toy, and in one we even put in a bit of a "time capsule". It was photos of us and the house and receipts and some random information all slipped inside a CD case I got free with some pharmaceuticals. "See, back in 2005, the drug companies gave people all sorts of things!"

Above we have the latest dose of washcloth evangelism. These went out to Elie's mom over the weekend. She taught me how to knit as a grown up. When I was little, my grandmother taught me, but I didn't have the patience. I'm so glad Helen helped me awaken my knitting fingers and put them to good use!

Today was a knitting day. Every day there are about 6 different things I want to do between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 PM, when I am in charge of me. At about 7:30 AM, I think I will do them all because I love 'em all. But if I actually try that, it is not a good scene. So I've recently accepted one activity per evening.

Tonight's was good. I cast on the LMKG chevron scarf yesterday, and it was fun to watch the pattern develop as Netflix kept my ears entertained. I know it's just the beginning of this project, but I think I could make a lot of these because I really like patterns of mysterious origin, like string quilts. With these types of things you start, but you do not know where it will end up. I have never done a mystery quilt, but I know I would really like to do one.

These yarns are not those yarns. They are the yarns Eva and I kool-aid dyed a couple of weeks ago. She did the pink and green, and I did the other two. I was amazed at how well the "handpainting" worked. I tried both the cold pour and the dip dye methods. It's really so much fun that I could do it all the time. Now what to make with this stuff...

This is what I was making with the yellow yarn. It's Calorimetry, and it's way too big even thought I made gauge and stopped the short rows early. I think I read way back that this happens with this pattern, but I decided to try it anyway. I guess I mostly just wanted to use the yarn. It's a really pretty yarn, but truthfully, I have too many yellow undertones for it to look good near my face. I keep trying to wear this color though. Here's post Christmas shopping with my mom & Eva:

ME: I think I'll try on this bold yellow sweater. (I put it on.) There, what do you think?
EVA (age 7): Well, it's not so much your color.
ME: Well no, but maybe it could be my color.
EVA: It's just, well, you look a little sickly.
MY MOM: (snicker) She's good.

It's OK. I think this yarn wants to be a bag anyway. Something like Erin's maybe? I'm frogging it.

I know I really fell off the old posting daily wagon. I just couldn't put two words together. The posts would have gone something like this: "Um, tired. Brain fried."

Allright. So, my friend Sarah was on the phone giving me all this stash talk about how her stash is too big, and she really doesn't want an entire piece of furniture to store her stash in and blah-blah-blah. So, like, she wants me to go over and like, I say OK, and then I'm there and she is totally stashing me! She had this big pile of nice unwanted yarn, and she was all like, take it if you can use it. Um, yeah, why don't you just stash me to my face. OMG, I had no idea she was like that. Well, maybe I did.

And then she told me how she stashed Erica behind her back the day before, and I just don't think that's right.

Ahem. The above conversation with myself inspired by the deposition episode of the office. Because I just watched that, and talking trash is different than talking smack.

This yellow yarn made my fingers twitchy. Sarah doesn't know what it is. It came via a friend on a Mexican artists commune. Figures.

I'm back to knitting for myself. The forecast sweater made some admirable progress during our car ride back from NJ. That is, until it made me feel ill some place in the hills of Ohio. I've tested the limits of car knitting, and it seems I can only knit int the car in flat, straight places. Hence, knitting on the commute to work in Illinois is just fine. (No, I'm not driving. Elie's driving. I'm knitting.)

It was so exciting to actually put this on and find that it will fit just perfectly. I should always be so lucky. If I keep up this pace, I will certainly be done by February, which is some sort of arbitrary deadline I gave myself. You know, I want to wear it before it gets warm. Oh, wait it was 60 degrees outside today. What's up with that! It was enjoyed by all, though. Eva spent the entire day outside with the neighborhood kids. At some point I threw a PB&J and a water bottle out to her just so she wouldn't pass out from hunger, thirst, exhaustion, etc.

I think I have a new favorite LYS. Too bad it's not at all "L".

For Christmas, my dad got me a certificate to his local yarn shop. (No, he doesn't knit.) I really liked the place. It's called Wooly Monmouth because it's in Monmouth County, NJ & the store logo features a really cute mammoth knitting with its huge tusks. It's owned by another Dori (but she's "Dori" and I'm "Dorie"), which is actually a real somewhat exciting thing when hardly anyone has your name. You know how when you walk into a small needle shop you can tell pretty quickly if these are your people? It had a good vibe there. They were out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts in the shop, but I couldn't remember what the gauge was for the hourglass sweater, so she called a friend and asked her to look it up for me. Nice people!

So, I got to go on a bit of a spree! I bought the blue yarn to make the hourglass sweater, and I bought some koigu because I'm always looking at its pretty colors. I'm going to use it to make the chevron scarf, which reminds me of a patchwork quilt--you have many colors and you're not sure where one will meet another, but they all come together and look beautiful.

These were probably the most planned gifts of any I made this year. I made a set of three white cotton washcloths in basketweave stitch for both my grandmother (Lib) and my stepmother. I thought they would both be tickled to have them & I think they were. I've said it before and I'll say it again, hand knit washcloths are just so great. They're both "spa" and utilitarian, and just oh so nice to use. It's possible that I'm a Washcloth Evangelist. Let me append that to all my email footers.

With the washcloths, I also gave a couple bars of soap which I bought from someone at Urbana Farmer's Market. This woman has both goats and bees and she makes soap with her goats' milk and beautiful candles from the beeswax. I am so in awe. The soaps come in pretty unisex fragrances like lavendar, tea tree oil and oatmeal. They are Elie's favorite and I like them a lot too, although I tend to stick to Dove most of the time. Yup, there's nothing like tallow to keep the sensitive skin smooth. I think it still has tallow in it anyway. It's a kinda gross thought, but it think it's why it works.

I almost forget something on purpose, just so I can go participate in the cheery grocery experience, and say hi to the other people there who have forgotten things. Everyone knows what everyone else is up to, and it's just a sneak public appearance in what is a mostly private day.

The Forecast sweater is coming along. It's being put aside now and then for a bit of Christmas knitting. I was really proud that I'd hadn't messed anything up profoundly while knitting that sweater, then I realized I had in fact made a mistake. If you look at the sweater on the knitty site, you'll see it has a nice, tight, uber bumpy cable. Mine doesn't. I read the chart wrong. Every row is charted, and I assumed that the wrong side was not charted. Isn't that the way it usually is? Anyway, it still looks pretty, just different.

Happy Thanksgiving!