little bit of crazy leaking out

So, here is my dilemma:

I really want to make Grumperina’s new Sarit Hat, for my friend J, for her b’day in Feb.  Grumperina is using Rowan Cashsoft DK for the pattern, I have no Rowan Cashsoft DK in my stash and I am participating in the Stashalong.  I could use another yarn, I guess, I have some pretty light pink Cascade 220 in my stash and since it is a light worsted I bet I could get gauge with it, but it isn’t as nice and soft as the Cashsoft. This is for a gift folks.

and here is the REAL dilemma:

I think there is a loophole in the rules of the Stashalong!

(2) You have 3 months and during that time you cannot add to your stash in any way(things ordered before January 1 but not yet delivered do not count–hence the early warning–get it out of your systems, ladies). Of course realistically there is no way to police this, so the honor system is in place.

Do you see it?  If you buy something and knit it up immediately is it ever added to your stash?  Could I buy the yarn, knit up the hat and gift it and still be following the rules of the Stashalong?  Or, would this be one of those ‘letter of the law’ vs. ’spirit of the law’ things?

The new Spring Ottobre is up on their site.  I am so excited, but now I just have to wait for it to get to my mailbox from Finland. *sigh*

You can see the ‘all deisgns’ pdf, here. I am loving this issue, so many cute things.  I think I have to make: cute coat #22 for Daughter, shirts #25 and #33 for Son; skirt #12, leggings/bloomers #13, and shirt #21 also for Daughter.

Maybe I’ll actually use up some of my fabric stash . . . who’d a thunk?

Over at I’m Knitting as Fast as I Can, on Friday, she posted about the bright, ugly, interesting baby sweater she was knitting . . . here is proof that kids will wear just about anything.

This morning my daughter put on a pale-ish green cotton velour dress, that’s fine, with plaid bloomers in primary colors on a white background, “hmmm . . . you sure you want to wear that today, honey?” “yes, mama” . . . bright green socks with equally bright flowers, her purple and white coat and a bright pink knitted hat, with fun fur.

Holey moley, they’re gonna send CPS after me for letting her out of the house like this.

I don’t know whether to cry of throw up. 

We have been having trouble with our family computer so I went out and bought an external DVD/CD recorder to back up our family photos and such.  I installed it, but not without some problems.  

I went to burn some knitting pod casts so I could listen to them other than while sitting at the computer, they were gone. I re-downloaded them last night.  This morning I went to backup some things and discovered large portions of ”My Documents” were gone, all the knitting patterns I had downloaded weren’t there, but I can get them online again.  The patterns I had bought and downloaded, gone too, can’t get them again. Worst of all, all my photos are gone . . . nothing . . . no photos . . . no pics of our trip to the beach last summer, but mom has pics she took; no birthday pics; no pics of pets we lost this last year; no pics of the kids just being kids; all gone. 

The only photos I have left are on my blogs, thank G-d for those.

Yesterday ended up being quite a domestic day for me.  I as looking thru the new Everyday Food and decided I needed to poach up some chicken breasts.  I know a strange thing to need to do, but I cooked up a bunch of chicken breasts, chopped or shredded and put them away so I can have cooked chicken ready to go for use in recipes. 

While the chicken was poaching I decided to make soup for lunch . . . yummy I love homemade soup.  So the kids and I had home made soup and homemade bread for lunch.

Oh, yeah, I made Swope Bread Wednesday night, from a recipe on the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat flour bag, not to bad for a quick bread, not as light as a yeasted bread, but so much easier.

As I was getting ready to make dinner I was looking in the ‘frig and saw a tube of Grands-style biscuits that needed to be used so I made turnovers with the chopped chicken I had cooked up earlier, frozen veggies and some leftover cheese sauce from the night before.

Now, don’t go thinking this happens every day at my house . . . ha, not even close, but I have been on a bit of a domestic run lately.

I finished the Hermione Mittens on Tuesday and I finally have an OK picture to post.  I thought getting a good picture of Socks was hard . . . sheesh, that’s nothing to mittens.

pattern: Hermione Mittens
yarn: Cascade 220
needles: Clover Bamboo
started: Jan 6
finished: Jan 10 
notes:  I made no modifications to this pair of mittens.  I really like this pattern over all.  Since the pattern is for such a long and slim mitten I wear them with the cuffs turned up, I think they fit me better since I have thicker wrists and forearms.  On the next pair I knit, and there will be another, if they are for me I will use a bit heavier yarn.  A true worsted or aran instead of the Cascade 220, which is a lt. worsted, will give the mitts a bit more room and I will start the pattern further up, like row 8 or so, to cut out a bit of length.  If I knit them for someone else I’ll prolly just knit them as written.

edited to add:  These mittens qualify for three KALs; Warm Hands, Another Weasley, and Stashalong. and  I resorted to having my just turned 6yo take the picture of the mittens . . . yeah, that was fun.

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This is what I have been working on since Tuesday, a Knitting Pure & Simple top down sweater for Daughter.  Sorry the colors look so bad in this picture, I promise they aren’t that bad in real life.