Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Sweater Purgatory

I'm being punished for being drawn to complicated patterns. Big time. I've been working on these effing sweaters for my mom, dad, and sister for MONTHS and I feel like there is no light at the end of this tunnel. Lookie:

First the Collette Pullover from Interweave:

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I'm still loving these colors together. I'm just going a little crazy, as I'm on the second sleeve, and I haaaate sleeves. Thank G-d we don't have three arms or I would give up knitting all together. (: My goal is to finish this sweater by Saturday - Only half a sleeve and the armpits up. Can I do it? Probably not.

How about Daniel from Twist Collective:

Daniel - Twist Collective 1


Daniel - Twist Collective

Don't let little Danny fool you. He is a big, man-sized sweater that will not go quickly like you'd assume. Man sweaters take forever. Man sweaters are not my friend. I still have TWO SLEEVES (barf), one front panel, and the neck to finish. I hate me for deciding to make sweaters for everyone this year.  

Wanna see my new yarn?  Okay, if you insist.

Berroco Ultra Alpaca

Can you believe this is corporate-ey?!  Berroco Ultra Alpaca in some beautiful color.  No idea what I am going to make with it.  Maybe the Central Park Cardigan or the Minimalist cardigan.  Or maybe neither.  I just love this color.

Malabrigo Worsted

And THIS is my new Malabrigo. Just feedin' the habit. It's a sickness. Don't judge. I will be making some leg warmers from Last Minute Knitted gifts using dark grey Kidsilk Haze to go along with it. Yummy.

Malabrigo Lace

Speaking of yummy. How DE-LISH is the color of this, aherm, Malabrigo (don't judge) Lace!?!?! I'm going to make another one of the sweaters that I made for Misha, but this time for a different niece. I am totally in love with how soft and gorgeous this is. I bought two skeins. Maybe there will be enough for moi!? (:

Well, that's about all the excitement for now. My 4th semester of law school starts in less than a week, so I'll probably be posting a lot more. When I don't have anything to procrastinate for, posting is less frequent. (:


Monday, January 5, 2009

Warm House, Warm Head


First dinner party and the first knit of the 2009 all within three days of the ball dropping!  Woosh!  Shall I tell the story in pictures?  Okay.

This year was our second-annual Hanukkah Party and was even better than the first year.... probably because I didn't do the shopping, cooking, and cleaning in the day following finishing my first semester of law school finals.  Instead, this year I shopped, cooked, and cleaned for 3 days and it was a much more enjoyable experience.  Okay, first up: the house (or apartment, I guess).

Hanukkah Party

After three days of cleaning, everything finally looked great.

Hanukkah Party
We got these dishes and napkins at Crate and Barrel the day after Christmas basically for free.  The after-Christmas sales kicked in before Hanukkah was over.  So we lucked out big time. (:  

Hanukkah Party - Office 1
Sorry for the gross quality of this and the next few photos.  Being in a loft, only the bedroom and living room have windows - we have to rely on very soft natural light coming over the "soft" wall (doesn't go to the ceiling).  As you can see, no soft light available at the time of this particular photo-op.  Anyway, our office has been an eye sore since we moved in August 2007.  We didn't know what to do with the wall space, since all of our "coherent" art was used up in the more general areas of the house.  

So finally I went allll the way out to Ikea and got some cheap fabric and frames and made some fabric boxes.  We also bought some metal dry erase boards - very industrial meets... uh... me (:  Our desk is actually our old dining room table.  We didn't want to spend a lot of money on a desk and after buying a new dining room table, we thought this one would do the trick.  Reduce, reuse, right?  Moving on.

Hanukkah Party
Thanks to track lighting (blegh), this picture is a little more passable.  We bought the three big posters (not Gaudi or Job) in a pack of 8 for $20 at Renegade in September.  They have been sitting on our floor since then.  Good, right?  Again, Ikea saved the day and we purchased these glass sandwich frames for $6 a piece.  I love deals.  The guitar is mine - a Valentines Day gift from my Great Aunt Evelyn when I was still in High School. (:

Hanukkah Party
Pretend this isn't blurry, please.  This is my little craft corner.  The table is actually a sewing stand: the top lifts up to show an amazing amount of thread and little compartments for all of my needles, scissors, etc.  The other two drawers are filled with ribbon and patterns.  Another keepsake from Evelyn.  Above the table are all of my knitting/sewing books.  I'm proud.

Hanukkah Party
More posters.  No big.  The stools got taken out of the kitchen to make more room and are not generally in such a ridiculous place.  

ON TO THE FOOD!

Okay, so I didn't take a lot of pictures of food.  Mainly because everything I made tasted great but looked... not so good. (:  Fried Latkes and Brisket do not photograph well.  But here is my menu:

Hanukkah Party - 7 Veggie Couscous



My Gramma's Latkes (in her own writing)


Our friends always pick up the slack by each couple bringing an appetizer, side, or desert.  This year the Aprils brought homemade spinach artichoke dip, Greenfields brought salads from Wildfire (my fave), and Engels brought a Trifle.  

If you are interested in making my Gramma's potato pancakes, you should know that they are a little different than what you are used to.  The condensed milk makes them a little sweet.  They are INCREDIBLE with either Sour Cream or Applesauce.  The recipe I included for applesauce is SO good.  My friends call it my homemade applesauce recipe.  Pff.  Thanks, but I couldn't take credit for this.  I use brown sugar instead of white.  People rave.  You should make it.  

ON TO KNITTING!

If you aren't familiar with what a "Secret Latke" is, it's the same as a "Secret Santa" but for the Jews.  Secret Santa in potato pancake form. (;  So my Secret Latke got a hand knit hat and I tried out labels for the first time! 

Pattern:  Sideways Grande Cloche
Source:  Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Burly Spun yarn
Yardage: Almost the entire skein

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A good start to my 2009 knitting, I think.  Hope you are all having a great year so far!