It was a weekend of food and family as we celebrated Mom's birthday! I ran around with Kate & Al in Saturday morning, shopping and picking up the ingredients for Chili All Day — the best chili recipe ever.

After I roasted the beef, got the chili going on the stove and arranged for its care, I ran around with Annie to do some more shopping and, well, we treated ourselves pretty nicely for Mom's birthday… chair massages for both of us, new MAC blush for me, a new sweater for Ann. It was 6:00 by the time we were finished, so we had to hurry home for chili!!

Mack, infused with the sweetness of a 6-year-old boy, made it a point to come and tell me that he not only tried my chili, he ate it and he liked it!

The boys picked out a beautiful cheesecake birthday cake. It was frosted on the sides and had raspberry jam on the top. Mack sat next to Mom while she cut it… and helplessly watched it tip off the pedestal stand and land on the table right in front of him. He's pretty lucky it didn't land in his lap!

Not just sweet but smart, too, it took mere seconds for Mack to suggest that next time slices be taken from alternating sides to keep the stand balanced.

Here it is, "reassembled," if you will, for Sunday brunch. The candles make it. It tasted just as good!

Today, it is not only my mother's birthday, but also their 27th wedding anniversary. They spent their honeymoon weekend in Door County with temperatures hovering around -25F; today, we're looking at near 50F! It's mostly sunny and quite lovely.

Happy Birthday, Mom! XO

I am so happy to be knitting some Hundertwasser hexagons — three full ones in the near-upper right, so far, another with just a scrappy bit. I have not yet tired of the hexis.

They are pictured here with some paint chips under consideration for the kitchen. It hasn't been painted since it was finished — quite a few years ago! It's a very dark, velvety, maroon-y red right now, and I love it… it's just been quite a few years.

Mack was arranging the hexagons today and asked me if I could make a sweater for "Topper," his new hamster.

Anyone?

 

• Last Friday was our 27th wedding anniversary! (Can you believe it? I can't.) We celebrated by going out to a supper club that I pass by nearly everyday but have never been. The NY Times wrote about Wisconsin supper clubs a couple of months ago. They are everywhere and, yet, there are not as many as there used to be. We had a good time — typical — and that is to say that it was terrific!
• On Saturday, I finally cleaned up and put away the rest of Christmas… though I noticed a couple of stray shepherds yesterday. There's always something…
• I multi-tasked and dyed some yarn at the same time.
• On Sunday morning I asked myself what I should do before getting into things and my answer was, "Go to the gym!" So I did.
• As I was slowly pedaling, cooling down, watching all the counters reach their marks, I took more notice of what was going on around me and almost couldn't believe my eyes. There was an elderly lady going at a much more leisurely pace than I on one of the more recumbent-style bikes in front of me and, I swear on a stack of Opinionated Knitters, that she was knitting! I didn't want to startle her (she had headphones on), but that so made my day.
• When I told Ali, her response was, "I want to do that, too!"
• I swear.
• I doubt I'd ever have created a "knitting department" at the coffee shop had the girls — and especially Ali — not fallen so hard this year down the rabbit hole that is knitting. It's just awesome.
• Yarn was dyed on Sunday (my first with cash-mmm-ere).
• Roasted Tomato Sauce was thawed to make lasagna — enough to carry me through a few workday lunches, too.
• I'm not sure what I did on Monday… recovered from the weekend, I guess.
• It was my baby sister's birthday… AK-47!
• Out of work early on Tuesday, and I hit the gym again!
• I also went to see Beauty & The Beast in 3D with Katie and Ali. Maddy was supposed to come, but we had to go late and she was pooped. It was my first-ever 3D movie! It took a few minutes to get used to the glasses and all, but I'm glad I went. I'm sure it's been at least a decade since I watched it (on the VCR… heh), but I remembered every single word from the first. I think that movie was on a non-stop loop at our house for a while back in the day!
• Wednesday morning was Chi Kung at the coffee shop. I ended up sitting and chatting with some of the ladies afterwards until 12:30 — I had just enough time to run home and change my clothes before meeting Mom at the coffee shop, as planned, at 1:00!
• Book club was on Wednesday night. I haven't actually read a book for club in quite a while, but the next one looks interesting to me… One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd. History, women, pioneers, the west… I'm a Little House girl… what's not to love?
• It's on order and, meanwhile, I'm concentrating on magazine articles and other short reads. I am a pretty monogamous reader, so "can't" start another book right now.
• It seems silly when I write that. Perhaps it's time to rattle the chains of some of these weird quirks (that I seem to notice more and more). They're not the boss of me!
• I was out of work early yesterday, too, and hit the gym again!
• I'm going to meet with a personal trainer a few times to see about adding other things to my workout. Weights or something.
• And the knitting continues…

• Project: Just Enough Ruffles (Just Enough Ruffles, by Laura Chau)
• Yarn: Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller Alpaca Love; (3) balls, color 3520-Peacock Feather
• Needle: US 9 (straights) (yep)
• Start to Finish: January 22, 2011 – January 25, 2012

• Notes: I'm a "firm" knitter (I've loosened up, I think, so I won't say "tight") and only had to break into the third ball of yarn on the second-to-last row. I think that with one less short-row repeat, I could make this with two balls and no one would notice. As it is, though, I'm thinking there's enough yarn for some matching hand warmers!

 

• Project: Hug Me Tight! (Hug Me Pullover, a free pattern by Coats & Clark)
• Yarn: Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller Washable Ewe; (3) balls total, (1)in each color: Green Apple, Dragonfly, and Earth
• Needle: US 7
• Start to Finish: December 27, 2011 – January 20, 2012
• Mods: Many, beginning with the yarn. The pattern was written for a 10.5 needle and I used 7, so it was a much tighter gauge and math had to happen. I took good notes and wrote it up; if you're interested in what I did, shoot me an email {vknitorious (at) gmail (dot) com}.

I substituted Washable Ewe for Alpaca Love, the specified yarn, and I love how it turned out. I don't think Washable Ewe had been introduced when the pattern was released, but it makes much more sense to have a kid sweater knit in washable yarn.

You may recall that I washed all of the pieces of this sweater in the machine prior to blocking. This is the fourth item I've knit with Debbie Stoller's Stitch Nation yarn and, I have to say, I'm a fan. The only one I haven't knit with yet is Alpaca Love, and that's soon to change.

It's made by Red Heart, you know. (I know!!) I haven't knit with Red Heart since I was in high school! I love that they're making at least some yarn that is not only affordable but also real — wool, alpaca, bamboo, cotton. I have carved out a corner at the coffee shop and have begun to carry — and sell — it and other selected commercial yarn, as well as some of my own — along with a limited variety of needles, notions, books, and patterns! I've been thinking about doing it nonstop for months, have talked about it a little… and decided it was time to plug my nose and jump in. I can't be there all the time, so I'm not setting the world on fire, but I am having a lot of fun and I sure am keeping busy… carving out a niche, as well, I guess. At some point, I may sell some of my things online, but I'm not really set up for production dyeing and I still need the paycheck and benefits that comes with a full-time job, so we'll see. Meanwhile, find me on Facebook: Make.Do at kc&t.

Ideas will emerge.

 

I'm on a new schedule at work where I take off a couple of hours early a couple of days a week; the idea is to use that time to hit the gym and still get home before bedtime. Heh. I normally work a 10-hour day and, well, I figure I'm doing good most days if I have the energy to throw in a load of wash when I get home — especially in this dark time of the year. I do much better in the energy department in the warmer, brighter months.

Yesterday, I made my first-ever playlist at jog.fm for cycling; actually, it's my first-ever playlist .period.!

It made for a most enjoyable 36 minutes! I am iDeprived, so I purchased all the MP3s from Amazon, stored them on the cloud, and downloaded them to my phone.

• Cosmic Love – Florence + The Machine
• How You Like Me Now – The Heavy
• Fly Away – Lenny Kravitz
• Forever [Explicit] – Drake
• What I Like About You – The Romantics
• Want To – Sugarland
• Panama – Van Halen
• Beat It (Single Version) – Michael Jackson
• Little Lion Man [Explicit] – Mumford & Sons

Wow, a pretty eclectic list, eh? That's how I RPM! I meant to do them in reverse order, but that's how they landed in my phone and I didn't take time to fiddle.

It was soooooo cold last night, but we had Knit Night at the coffee shop, anyway. I wasn't the only one to brave the cold and we ended up with a nice group. It's never the same group, and I love that! I worked on seaming the little striped sweater and I should get that finished today!

Happy Weekend!