…it's what's for lunch today! After I ate, of course; I must keep up my strength.
The Olympics continue. The "Other Front for *My* Habu Sweater" event is underway.
I'm feeling a little scattered, a little behind, and I'm not sure what happened to my calendar. How quickly the feeling of organization — heh, "organization" (period) — flies right out the window! Must take some breaks from Olympics over the weekend to pull things together and get a grip.
It's going fine — we've had some crazy good fun few days — and it's all going fine.
In the Olympic finishing department: I haven't begun sewing up Mom's Habu vest — I think I'll save that for tomorrow morning. We might have lunch together, and maybe I can have it somewhat together by then — see how it's working. This one seems like it should be so easy, but I am really struggling — it just doesn't seem like it should be working, even though I've checked and measured things numerous times, and Mom herself has given the nod. Skeptical, I am.
In the Olympic knitting department: I'm almost finished with one of the fronts for *My* Habu sweater. I was mistaken the other day in thinking that I was further along. The picking up where you left off in regards to a Japanese knitting pattern that hasn't been worked in almost a year isn't quite like riding a bicycle, but it came back to me much easier than expected. I'm getting very excited about finishing this one! It's much less problematic than the vest.
In the comment department: Shelley wrote the other day that she "…can't imagine being on the cusp… I would have done an all-nighter and strutted the new piece each time. How can you walk away from the prize?" When DH walked through the kitchen on Saturday as I was working on slaving over steam-blocking the vest pieces, I said "THIS is why I can walk away. I hate this part. THIS is what makes me a PROCESS knitter!" I absolutely love having and wearing a piece that was made from my own hand, but that is definitely not my main motivation for knitting. As my good friend Margene likes to say, It's the process!
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I'm not sure what's going to happen next in the daughter department…
…except that among some of the newly created departments, there soon will be a new son-in-law department! Yep. Ali + Kevin, sitting in a tree… or standing under a bridge, as the case may be!
Funny, I never really thought of myself as a mother-in-law — and it's weirding me out a little. I've seen myself as mother, definitely; grandmother, certainly/anticipatingly; mother-in-law, not so much – maybe because I've never had one, myself – though my mother is one, and my husband has one, and my sisters talk about theirs. It's the weirdest thing… but also, hey, so kinda cool, eh? I'll be a mother-in-law — a good one, I hope, like Glinda-The Good Witch, I can be Vicki-The Good Mother-In-Law.
Surely, only bad mothers-in-law are ugly.
I've been dieing to tell you about the cookies and the blog and photography. You may recall that I attended a cookie-decorating workshop in December with some friends and two of my daughters. We had a wonderful time and decorated some amazing cookies; the girls (Katie & Ali) were inspired to bake and decorate cookies for Christmas gift-giving; and we've embarked on a quest for the Perfect Sugar Cookie recipe. The old family stand-by recipe by that name is perfect in many ways (soft, chewy, and sweet), but not in the way of decorating.
About a month later, I had an email from Dawn at Dawn Koehler Design — she'd stumbled upon my corner of the internet and loved the photos I'd taken. She was there the whole time, of course, and was mostly amazed at the images I'd captured "all from the little corner of the dining room!" She was looking for someone to take photos of new designs for updating the website and I agreed to give it a go!
All of the cookie photos, save one, on this page are mine (as is one of the salad photos)! There's a wonderful meeting area upstairs at the coffee shop; I moved all the chairs and set up my backdrop stand to form a makeshift studio, and we spent a day and a half shooting cookies. After a couple of attempts with studio lighting that neither of us was thrilled with, I snapped a few using available light and voila! Very happy baker/designer/decorator, very happy photographer!! And I have now taken to calling it "my natural light studio." Dawn has often worked as a photo stylist in her career, and it was fascinating to watch her work — the planning, attention to detail, all the stuff she brought with her!! Paper and textiles for backdrops, stands and props, tools — she brought her iron and ironing board! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.
Yesterday, Dawn brought a friend over to the coffee shop for lunch and asked me to meet her there so she could deliver this:
She had another, adorable little bouquet for Ali, too.
So far, I've resisted. So far… HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!
Early last week, DH made dinner reservations at Caffe Mario in Green Bay and we had the MOST wonderful meal last night. We were greeted at the door by Mario, himself, and shown to our table by his wife, Virginia; she is an artist friend of DH's from way back. Wonderful people, fabulous atmosphere, terrific food — every time I go there, I wonder why I don't go there more often! DH began with bruschetta, followed by lasagna (him) and cannelloni (me) (we shared, of course), and we even saved room for dessert — I had tiramisu, of course. One little piece of bruschetta and most of a cannelloni came home with me for today's lunch — or something…
Because I'm actually making Chili All Day Half-the-Day today! Maddy's home this weekend and I feel compelled to make something to send back with her, and chili's the thing this time. She has to leave before supper, so it'll be a late lunch. As soon as I hit "publish," I'll be dashing off to the store (though I'll probably wash my face and change out of my 'jammies, first).
On the Olympic side of things: I pinned out Maddy's sweater — the best part is how happy she is that it's finally getting done!! I also steam-blocked (as instructed) the crap out of the pieces for Mom's Habu vest and hope, hope, hope that it all comes together as it should; I'll be starting the sewing up today. The thing that makes it so difficult — for me — is that the pieces are knit in all different directions and we all know that stitches behave differently than rows and it just sort of gives me fits. I've just got to plow through and trust that it'll work; it will or it won't, right? I can only do my best. I also cast on (104 stitches — good move not attempting that on Friday night) for one of the front pieces for my Habu sweater and made good progress while watching short-track speed skating and moguls.
Citius, Altius, Fortius!
I took a little Happy Hour detour on the way to the Knitting Olympics last night. I managed to do everything I'd planned to do except for casting on my Habu sweater, due to the counting. I probably could have done it, but why take chances. I took the sleeves off of Coup d'Etat. Maddy's "Fitted Jacket" had a little soak.
I'm going to pin it out RIGHT NOW!
I gave each sweater a two-letter code and indicated whether buttons were required (because I will need to shop) — and made a rough plan. I'm going to have to double check a couple of patterns – not only the button situation, but also refresh my memory as to required finish knitting for each project: button bands or collars? button bands and collars? pockets or just pocket flaps?
There's an all day – 8-9 hours, at least — photography workshop on the 27th to keep in mind, but even so, I think I can do it. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! I should have a finished sweater to wear to the workshop. I should have two or three to choose from!
I've planned it a little heavy toward the beginning of festivities and a bit lighter toward the end, just so I have some space to make adjustments and move things around, if needed. I'm gonna need some space, man, in every imaginable way. Finish work can be brutal on my hands, wrists, arms, elbows, shoulders, neck, back, hips, knees, ankles, feet… maybe I'm exaggerating… a little. I might need to pace myself, though; maybe I should book a mid-way massage.
The desired outcome will be a finished vest for my mother, a finished sweater for Madeleine, THREE finished sweaters for me (or two finished and one frogged), a finished baby sweater, and a gold medal!
Tonight's events: I'll be filling the sink during Opening Ceremonies to prepare Maddy's sweater for blocking; removing the set-in sleeves from Coup d'Etat to prep that for re-soaking, re-blocking, and re-sewing; and casting on for the front (or back, I don't remember which I've already done) of my Habu sweater. Do you think that's too much? Heh.
