Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Amateur Night

Here we are, another New Year's Eve. As I have done for the past several years, I plan on ordering Chinese take out and watching football until Dick Clark makes his triumphant return to the Times Square sidelines. Then I'll look at Kato, say, "That man never ages," guzzle some bubbly, and go back to my knitting. I get nothing out of New Year's--just another night.

Yep, I'm a New Year's Scrooge. And proud of it.

I'll leave the partying to the kitten:

He's pumped.

As for the more important items on our agenda this evening, I'm really making huge progress on the Murphy cardigan (that's the official name of the pattern in Knitters). It's time for sleeve purgatory:

The handspun is beautiful stuff. This is the pansy roving I got from Paradise Fibers a while back. It doesn't have nearly the sturdiness of the teal wool, but I don't anticipate it to be a problem. The zipper closure should help stabilize that front edge, which really likes curling despite its garter stitching.

Remind me of this when I'm cursing the zipper, OK?

Time to order some Kung Pao--Happy New Year, everyone!

Chanel No. 5? We don' need no stinkin' Chanel No. 5!

Remember that gigundo bag of alpaca fleece I was given to spin a while back? Well, over the Christmas weekend, I decided to seriously try to spin some yarn out of that fluff. In a couple of evenings, it has become painfully clear to me that this stuff needs to be washed with something beyond Eucalan to remove the barnyard.

I'm thinking something along the lines of Clorox.

This evening, I did manage to get 150 yards of alpaca spun. Here it is:

Yes, that is cat shampoo it is soaking in. I figured it was for animal hair, so it couldn't hurt. Now, this is the spinning arena after the plying was complete:

It's a disaster area. There is dust and dirt all over the wheel, the drop cloth is loaded with short cuts of alpaca and varied hard poop-like material, and the smell is, well, memorable (both in the living room and on me). I'm thinking the rest of the bag is heading to the washing machine for a good soak and spin before I attempt any more of this insanity. But that may have to wait given what my Mom and Dad got me for Christmas:

It's two whole pounds worth of gorgeous wool/silk/sparkle fiber from Bountiful Spinning, which will spin up plenty for a sweater. Woo hoo! The photo really doesn't do this blend justice; it is absotively beautiful. Of course, that isn't all I have under my tree at the moment. My brother (who nearly fell over when he opened up that bobblehead), gave me a couple of really cool things. In addition to three bottles of wine (wrapped in my nephew's football socks), he gave me this:

That would be an A.J. Hawk jersey tailor made to be worn on January 2nd when the Buckeyes take on Notre Dame. He also handed me a box which stated on the outside, "Open if you were a child of the 70's." When it was opened, it revealed this:

There were dozens of candy varieties, all of which were things I grew up with. Who knew they still made Zotz?? My father got a box also as a child of the 50's--that was pretty cool. Doesn't help the diet much, but I guess I can pace myself.

Oh, I nearly forgot Mom's impulse buy:

The photos of the cat personals in this book are a real hoot. I'm just a bit concerned that Mom felt the need to get me a book about desperate singles. I could write that myself.

As for the knitting, I did finish up the denim handspun pullover, but it will have to wait to be worn until I lose another ten pounds or get a boob reduction. That was intentional; I did make it a size smaller than I usually do. I did start up another sweater yesterday to use up some stash. The pattern is from a recent Knitters Magazine (I believe it was the fall issue).

I'm using some teal blue wool and some handspun. So far, here's the progress on the back:

This one should be awesome. I wasn't 100% sure if the handspun would work, but it looks great! My only issue at the moment is the freaking zipper. I hate zippers. I hated them as a sewer, and that disdain hasn't disappeared over time. Thankfully, I'm taking a finishing course at Stitches West. The rest of the sweater should be done by then. Maybe I can be the class example.

Well, I think it's time to kick back and watch my new favorite studmuffin, Mike Rowe, on Dirty Jobs:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. What happened to my lust for Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel? It's still there. It's just that Mike Rowe is single with a hairy chest and a college degree. That covers all my criteria. Sadly, he lives in San Francisco.

Knowing my luck, he's gay.

I'll just go drown my sorrows now.

Merry Christmas to all!

There's always one

No matter how hard I try, there is always one person who throws a small wrench in my holiday gift-giving. Now, without any effort on his part, my nephew is the fly in the Christmas ointment. More specifically, my nephew's gift suppliers are said fly. Every other gift is wrapped and ready to go.

My nephew presently will open up a nice pair of socks.

Not good.

I have received assurances from the three providers that his gifts will be here by Saturday. I'm starting to sweat just a little bit. To top it off, one of the presents was shipped on December 10th from California--it hasn't arrived in Ohio yet. I'm guessing it's coming with the Three Wise Men. You know, gold, frankincense, myrrh, and a Kramer t-shirt.

Mom's extra fiber hasn't arrived yet either, and it was shipped Priority Mail from Vermont last Tuesday. Nice job with the 2-3 day delivery, USPS. The longer that box of homespun remains unwrapped, the longer Kato has to barf in it. Again, I am a little sweaty.

I did manage to finish up all of the pieces of my homespun pullover over the weekend.

Can't get inspired to sew it up, though.

I also finished up a sock that has been languishing in the back seat of my car for about a year or so:

The time seemed right. Hopefully, the second sock will be done by Christmas Eve.

That's if I can stay awake. I'm pooped. All that sweating, you know.

And now I am at the mercy of UPS, Fed Ex and the USPS

As of today at lunchtime, I am officially DONE with my Christmas shopping! Woo hoo! And for the first time ever (I think....the alcohol over the years may have squelched a neuron or two), I did not buy anything in person. God bless the internet. Now, I am laying in wait for about five different gifts; I'm expecting two by Friday, the other three should be early next week.

Life is good. I celebrated with a glass of chardonnay. Some spiked egg nog will be later.

Of course, Christmas isn't quite done yet. Mom's gift is nearly done:

This is two pounds of bulky weight corriedale spun over last weekend by yours truly. I'm thinking it should be plenty for a sweater, but I ordered another 1/2 pound from Copper Moose this afternoon to be safe. If it's too much, she can make mittens. Mom's a resourceful person.

My niece's socks are done; they are bee-you-tee-full, so she'll say. Unfortunately for me, I was caught knitting them by my nephew when he was in town for the Browns game two weeks ago. His pathetic comment: "I like socks, too." Nice hint. So, I dug through the stash (soon realizing that no one ever needs that many purple socks) and started up on "manly socks." The first should be done sometime this evening:

I guess it could have been worse; I could have been working on an aran sweater. Only issue here is that this stash has to wait until the second sock is done:

This handspun will wind up as a simple pullover, I think. It's too pretty to try to get all fancy pants about it. It's about time I worked on it; the stuff was the FIRST decent yarn I ever spun. The first bobbin of singles was completed the first day I had the wheel (that's about a year now). Just a little slow, I know. For what it's worth, I asked Mom for fiber for Christmas. I need to free up space in Ikealand.

Oh, and by the way, screw political correctness...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

In anticipation of Christmas photos, Grady is working on his profile:

Mr. DeMille, I believe he's ready for his closeup.

A quick entertainment, if you will

Christmas gift fun and games

There is something about Christmas that brings out the best in me. Perhaps it's the whole thing about giving, love, thoughtfulness...

Nah....I think I enjoy the lying, sneaking, and deception more.

First of all: the giving, loving part of Christmas. My niece's first ever sock from Aunt Lee Ann is done. It's uber cool.

I wasn't sure about this pattern at the start, but it wound up looking just fine. The photo really doesn't portray the hot pink and purple as nicely as it is in real life, but you get the picture. Just imagine socks that are perfect for a 12-year-old girl with a room painted in foot-wide vertical stripes in lime green and grape. Yep. These will work.

As for the lies, deception, and sneakery, you'll need a bit of background. Years ago, my brother and I, in a fit of creative lunacy surrounding a Cleveland Cavs basketball game, created a character by the name of Sweet Eddie Putnam. Sweet Eddie was, and I quote, "The Greatest One-Armed Shortstop Ever To Play The Game." Don't ask how we came up with him; neither of us remembers. The saga of Sweet Eddie includes:

1. A wife, Belle...well, actually, the former Sweet Belle Pepper
2. A son, adopted from overseas, Sweet and Sour Putnam
3. A teammate, Nat Hartman, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of a slave
4. The legend of "The Tragic Quarry Accident," where the arm was lost
5. The catch phrase, "When he ran the bases, the angels wept and women swooned."

This (and much more too stupid to share) was all created in the span of about four hours. No, we are not right in the head. That's part of our charm.

Anyhow, that next Christmas, I surprised my brother with his very own, historically accurate (c. 1920) Sweet Eddie jersey. I made it from wool flannel, appliqued on a name and number, and added green piping. It was fabu. Two years later, after a lot of covert ops at my parents' house the few days before Christmas, I was given this:

Yep. It's a Sweet Eddie memorabilia cabinet. Not only does it sport the jersey, but there are historic photos (that's my brother as Sweet Eddie), a bat (my grandfather's), an autographed ball (signed by my sister-in-law's teenage nephew), and an action figure (a carefully repainted Walter Johnson figure) complete with a baseball card.

This is the baseball card:

I had been one-upped. The following year, I received Sweet Eddie Salsa (complete with Sweet Eddie and a photoshopped sombrero and cheesy bandito moustache on the label) and Root Beer. The time was now for me to return the one-uppance. This year, Sweet Eddie arrives to the new millenium.

You are looking at the one and only Sweet Eddie Putnam bobblehead doll. I found a site online, Whoopass Enterprises, which specializes in custom made bobbleheads. It arrived yesterday. The likeness to my brother (and Sweet Eddie) is uncanny. He's going to freak.

It only took four years, but the one-upsmanship is complete. For now.

Just in time for the snow

I finished the Autumn Cardigan!

I figured I had a little bit of time before the sock yarn arrived for my niece's gift, so I plowed through the last sleeve and sewed up the thing. Here's a little close-up of the neckline:

After all was said and done, the pieces wound up matching pretty closely. It ain't perfect, but neither am I. Of course, I finished up a cotton sweater right after blowing about 7 inches of snow out of my driveway in 23 degree weather. Perfect for cotton. Needless to say, I think the next sweater will be from wool.

Before that, however, my niece needs a pair of socks. Her Lorna's Laces (in Girly Stripe...so appropos for my drama queen niece) arrived in the mail this afternoon:

The pink and purple are so obnoxious perfect. I'm going to do the Jaywalker pattern from MagKnits, which looks pretty cool. The stripes should really stand out.

She'll have them on her feet within seconds of opening the gift--that's a no-brainer.