Better a year late than never, right?

• Project: Jane Ellison’s “Beck” Sweater
• Yarn: Classic Elite Skye Tweed, 16.5 skeins
• Needles: US size 8 needles, Addi Turbo and Addi Lace circulars
• Size: 44
• Mods/Notes: I knitted a gauge swatch for this thing. I WASHED the swatch. I got gauge with said swatch. THE SWATCH. LIED. This beast grew into the craziest wide sweater EVER. I knit the size 44, and it was easily 10 inches larger around than that when I first blocked it. (This is partly my fault because I did not measure as I blocked, and I didn’t listen to my inner voice saying, “Huh. That looks…kind of big.” After the first blocking, the sweater fit ME very well (we have a Jack-Sprat-and-his-wife thing going on in my house), but was far too big for TSH. So I blocked it a second time, felted it very slightly on purpose, and now he says he loves it.

  I’m not entirely satisfied with the sweater yet — it rides up at the back hem because his spine is so curved, so I will attempt to tack on some short rows at the back hem to extend that down another three inches or so in the center; I overblocked the collar such that it is too big on one side, so I need to steam that back where it belongs; and I need to knit a couple of facings for the back side of the zipper, which I think I want to re-install as it’s buckling despite my careful insertion of it.

  Still. He’s wearing it, in front of friends!, even as I type this, and claims that he’s very happy with it. So I will call that a successful Valentine and a nice F.O.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square

We left on a Wednesday and returned on Sunday, and in between was a whirlwind trip that was part vacation, part logistical wedding assistance, part gluttony (oh, Etoufee, how I love you), and nearly all awesome.

Things in New Orleans that we need here: “Go Cups”. (Which, to the uninitiated, may sound like something terribly rude, but which are in fact, to those in the know, cups in which one absconds from a given waterhole carrying one’s alcoholic drink along WITH. It’s magic, I tell you.) The bride from the wedding we just attended. (if she wanted to bring her puppy and husband along with her, that’d be schweet, too, but we wouldn’t want to ask for too much.) Several other friends and loved ones. Old New Orleans Rum, formerly known as Cane Rum. Cafe Du Monde, damnnit.

Those earrings. GAH.

Things here that are not in New Orleans: My cats. Our house. My yarn/wool stash. My job. Etcetera.

So presumably that evens us out, right?

2:00 a.m., October 28th:

Evening of October 31st:

Photo by George Brett, Father of the Bride

Finished Object. On time/deadline. Happy Bride. TOTAL WIN, I tell you.

Project: Goddess Knits Samhain Shawl
Yarn: Handpaintedyarn.com laceweight in “Natural”, one skein
Beads: Glass “Pearl” drops purchased at Potomac Bead Company, Old Town Alexandria, VA; approximately 4 tubes/1300 beads
Needles: Addi Lace Turbo, US 5
Mods: Stopped short of last chart by about 17 rows, as shawl was immense and bride is petite; also? Totally out of time. Also didn’t block this nearly as brutally as I might have, again, because it seemed huge already.

Cast on for a wedding shawl for my daughter’s godmother with the only requests being that it be useable as both a wedding shawl and potentially a christening shawl down the pike. So we stick with the traditional wedding white/ivory theme, and go with white wool and pearl beads. No problem.

We, (this being the royal we) being obnoxious knitters to ourselves in ways we never fully understand until knee deep in kimchee, decide that “simple” is not the word of the day when knitting a potential heirloom. So we contact Goddess Knits, beg for a PDF of a serial shawl that doesn’t appear to be released in PDF as of that time, and because Goddess Knits is AWESOME, we get the Samhain shawl precisely as requested for a marvelously reasonable price.

Have minor qualm upon viewing that there are five charts. Some with “repeat center section six times” notations. Pshaw, we say to ourselves! That’s 175 rows from here, or something equally unfathomable! It will fine, and we have months and months to do this!

Cue music from that shark movie.

Shortening this rediculous saga, suffice it to say that the wedding is this coming Saturday. Our flight to New Orleans is tomorrow. We are feeling stubbornly as though we cannot block the shawl in our hotel room, despite the honorable traditions set by many amazing and fabulous knitters before us, primarily because we don’t think we can talk the TSA into letting us have our blocking wires with us.

So it’s now or never, folks. Ten or so rows to go, it’s GOT to get finished today and blocked tonight.

Apply Mission Impossible theme and…out.

Kidsilk Haze. YUM.

Progress on SarahScott’s wedding shawl continues slowly, but hopefully not TOO slowly as it’s got to be done before the Halloween wedding date.

For the moment, that’s all I’ve got to share; I really do hope to be back with a vengeance after this house purchase has been done. Updates as they occur!

Today, the sellers accepted our offer.

Holy CRAP, we’re buying a house!!!!

Our House!

Und now iz ze time on schprockets ven ve FREAK OUT! But in a good way.

So Maryland Sheep and Wool festival dawned this year and I attended with a dear friend, husband, and daughter in tow. Although I adore all the people with whom I attended, it reminded me that when I go to festivals, I really ought to attend alone, with a game plan, and if I happen to meet cool people there, so be it.

At any rate, the major lack of attention span that resulted from having my husband and daughter along left me with the single most tragic case of camnesia I’ve yet to experience: I met Amy Singer and I have absolutely no proof of the encounter.

Dear Amy Singer:
I’m the one who accosted you across from the Cormo people to introduce myself, and gave you vague directions to Tess’ booth, including the brilliant phrase “Just look for the mob!” as if that actually delineated anything from anything else.
Dorkitudinally Yours,
Liz

NOT a house we're buying; just an image of one I loved

Through a series of circumstances, some of them happy and some of them not, we were finally able to go through our credit reports this year and make everything good that needed goodness. And after a very long haul, some seriously unhappy times, and all that jazz — Today, we’ve finally received an honest-to-goodness pre-approval letter for a mortgage.

Another house I'm not buying; it's just COOL. Also, image from Flickr, not mine. If anyone objects I'll gladly remove it.

This is a dream come true for us — to be in a position where we can purchase a home that is really, truly ours instead of paying somebody else’s equity, etc. I don’t know how many folks reading this may be able to relate to this, but the credit rating system in this country can make one feel like a second, third, and tenth-class citizen for mistakes made more than a decade ago, so to have managed to claw our way to a Magic Number that would get us the equally magic pre-approval letter feels like the Biggest Deal Since Having A Baby.

The Owens House from the movie Practical Magic

I have no idea where we’ll ultimately end up; we’re hoping to stay here in Alexandria, VA, but we’ve looked as far as Fredericksburg, VA and Baltimore, MD, so the options are many and varied. But it’s a gigantic relief to have gotten such great news after such a long, difficult slog!

2) That I will have daily ideas for Things I Should Blog, but do nothing because of items 1 and 1a.

3) That my blog shall always lay dormant should I keep preventing myself from just getting online and typing, already.

4) That incorrect usage (or lack of usage) of punctuation will always make me crazy. (You’re/your, there/their, apostrophes connected to esses where they don’t go, or NOT connected to esses where they OUGHT to go, etc.)

Hence, I hereby make myself the following manifesto:

1) If you have something to say, say it, already, nevermind the pictures.

B) Do try and TAKE more photos, though, okay? (See what I did there? Oxford comma! I don’t care WHAT style book says not to use it, I refuse to give it up.)

III) Have some FUN with your blog again, won’t you? It’s gotten dead around these parts!

So. I may be a YarnGeek, but I am likewise a geek of many other things and topics, so expect to see a little of everything in this space.

Things I need to remember to talk to you about:

• Kombucha
• On Being a “Starter”
• maybe touch on Bodily Sovereignty as it relates to recent news, mabe not; haven’t decided if that’s going to be far too volatile a topic for this space
• Teen in the Army Infantry
• Home buying process
• My soon-to-be-a-Kindergartner
• Whatever else comes up!

Here’s what’s been going on: My eldest stepson moved out about a month? two months? ago. My youngest stepson joined the Army (!!) infantry (!!!!), graduated from basic training two weeks ago, spent a week with us during which he got his first tattoo (see below), and then flew to Kentucky to report to his unit for the beginning of what he hopes will be his career in the U.S. Army.

Meanwhile, my husband and I are dealing with the mortgage pre-qualification and approval process (We’re pre-qualified but won’t know about pre-approval until Monday at the earliest), the conundrum of where to live when we do purchase a home of our own, and the assorted fun times ensuing when digging out paperwork of various sorts.

Then this weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which I’ll be attending ala famiglia on Saturday, and Monday is my seventh wedding anniversary, for which we’ve planned absolutely no celebration whatsoever.

If anybody needs me, I’ll be over in the corner trembling and nursing a bottle of scotch. See you on the flip side!