Amy's neck cozy

The pictures don't do this yarn justice. It's Lumpy Bumpy Yarn by Charlene (Farmhouse Yarns) in Pecan Pie. 99% merino wool, 1% nylon and hand dyed. Made in the U.S.A. by an operation owned by a woman.

The pattern is Asymmetrical Neck Cozy. I knit some extra inches and a second button hole because I had enough yarn to do so and I felt like the pattern measurements, with this yarn, were shorter than I liked. I also decided to make it a symmetrical neck cozy. Again, with this yarn (the thick and thin give it a lot of texture and the colors are wonderfully rich and varied), I felt like there was enough going on that making it asymmetrical would be going overboard.

These were my first button holes :-) The button, which is pretty perfect, I found in the $1 jar at a LYS. I am very pleased with the way this turned out.

Christmas Eve

Growing up I always loved Christmas Eve. In a way, it meant more to me than Christmas day. That feeling of fullness. Of brimming over. I was so blessed. We are so blessed.

Sag made an Ugly Doll advent calendar.

I couldn't quite capture the loveliness of this Japanese Christmas stamp in this photo, but here it is anyway. Thank you Auntie Yoshiko.

Wall o'cards.

The lamp Sandy and Mike no longer needed, the lamp we desperately needed for just this spot.
Thanks, guys.

Our upstairs neighbor, Julia, has discovered a new passion: decorating cupcakes. How lucky are we?

Kung Fu Panda on dvd.

This year, when I cast the idea of handmade gifts to the kids, they not only nibbled, they went with it. Sag made Gem a lego kit. Gem was moved by the inclusion of an apparently very valuable piece.


Sag made Cap and me a holiday themed drawing and mazes.
Gem made Sag a stocking and me an Ugly named Frostbite. The handmade gifts from my children moved me to tears. Now, those who know me well, know that this is not that hard to do. But, truly, I am in love with these gifts.

We always give each of them a book for Christmas. This year's picks.


We also gave each of them a Playmobil set.

Gem really wants a small blue Wedgehead. I searched high and low, but he has been discontinued, so when I saw the big one, I got it for him with some trepidation. I needn't have worried. He was very happy.



They really do love their Uglies.

We opened gifts tonight because we are planning on leaving early tomorrow for Massachusetts. The kids are now in bed, Gem is hoping for a backrub to soothe away the excitement. Cap is taking a break from grading to eat a little something, hoping his tummy is past its revolting.

Me, I am happy. The candied pecans are cooling in the kitchen, there's a warm and wonderful glow in our home, it's Christmas Eve. Off to go rub my boy's back.

Roger's hat

Roger was my giftee and here is the hat I knit him. The pattern is called Thorpe and it was fun to knit (though the deadline wasn't).

Knittinghelp.com was invaluable (thanks Wendy) for the immediate visual info it provided regarding how to do certain steps/techniques. With each new type of project I am definitely picking up new knowledge and skill. There was stuff from having knit socks which came in handy for the hat (namely decreasing stitches).

I am very happy to have my first hat under my belt. Though not proud of the way I left the kids alone for much of the day it took me to knit this up. Ah well...

The yarn was Valley Yarns Shelburne. It's a mix of wool, acrylic and alpaca. I had such negative experiences with acrylic blends in the recent past, but really liked this yarn and would buy it again. It's soft and thick and holds together well.

Okay. That took a lot to go to the website to create the link and not linger to "window" shop...

Anyhoo, it's a great yarn and knit up a cozy hat that I wanted to keep. I'll definitely be knitting this pattern again.

Splash of bright

Sweet chili sauce has been an answer for me the past few days. This brand has a touch of "cloy" to it, but in a pinch it is getting the job done.


In other news, my heart is presently in Forks. I finished the third book of the Twilight series about an hour ago. It is inconsistent (compared, say, to the Harry Potter series), but when it is good, it is oh so good (I am pretty much in the throes of my own personal Edward-mania :-)

I am hoping to find the final book under the tree...

And, I already have my next vamp lit lined up. Thanks, Mom!

(All matter of brightness needed to combat the conflicting emotions which accompany holing up at this darkest time of year with the ever marching on needs of children and the holidays...)

On the needles

I'm beginning to understand the reality and challenge of "knitting for myself".

I'm working on Danielle's baby blanket (which feels like it's going to take weeks), and now, suddenly, two more knits for others.

One is for Wednesday night. We're doing a "green" holiday gift exchange with our co-op dinner gang and I am knitting my person something with yarn from my stash. The other gift is for someone who has been on my short list of friends/family to knit for, especially since I recently found a great yarn which screamed her name in the sale basket at a LYS.

She got booted up to "now" when I heard that she found out her mom has cancer. Sad and terrible news. A lot of hope and love are being knit into this piece.





My honey. Taking a break from grading to go run some errands and gather us some dinner food.

Chrismukah in Queens on winter solstice

The universe aligned for us today. We were able to switch our celebrations around to avoid driving home tonight on icy roads.

We headed over to Queens this morning and were there pretty close to noon. It was festive and relaxed. The food (poached salmon, braised beef short ribs, creamy mashed potato casserole, green bean casserole, mixed salad, latkes and apple sauce) was terrific and it's always fun exchanging gifts (I received the set of novels on which True Blood is based).

My mom's tamagoyaki. This is one of Sag's favorite foods. He almost ate the whole plateful.

A sushi Christmas tree, my mom's stealth appie. Tunafish on the bottom, kanpyou (this link is a great post---I'm going to try to remember to do this for Setsubun in '09...the definition of kanpyou comes in the ingredients portion of the post) in the middle and mentai and cuke on top. Yum.

Sag and Sandy.

Gem and...I'm not sure what he's holding there.

That's Ellie semi-camouflaged in front of the speaker. It is very difficult for me to get a picture of her face, close-up. She is incredibly curious, often on the move, and loves to sing and dance. In other words, rarely still. Great for her, bad for my desire to archive that impish grin, the huge spirit infused with delight and confidence, and the drama. Oh, the drama.

The kids were very pleased with their loot. The ride back over the rivers and through industrial suburbia was punctuated by anticipation for really getting to play, read, and do.

I knew it would be hard, cruel really, to bundle them out of the apartment again once we were back, so we drove straight to Silke and Roger's.

We usually go to a local pond together to mark the solstice or equinox.

Tonight we stayed in. The grown-ups drank tea and talked computer fonts and politics. The kids played with a great set of dominoes which reminded me of the mah jongg tiles that fascinated me as a kid watching my dad play with his friends at my parents' seasonal gatherings.

We ate clementines and apples. Anna lit their lanterns (we made solstice lanterns together last year). It was a perfect glow that we all got to share together on this darkest day of the year.

Sing it with me now...

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,
this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!"

Metronome

A little catching up

The storage space is up and running! But I am still mostly sad.

I went to Marie's funeral yesterday and on top of the solstice (which has its moments of feeling like a gaping and sucking black hole---maybe it's PMS) it has proved to be a bit too much. The gratitude I feel for Cap holding down the fort and buying me the third book in the Twilight saga is barely scratching the surface of my void.

Here's the blanket I nixed for Bobo. It has found a great home with the Uglys.

These pics are from the bit of snow we had earlier in the week. We have since been socked with more.





Off to do some qi gong. This will help and I've been neglecting that fact.

Cooking and baking are on the day's agenda. Beef short ribs, brownies, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, sugared pecans... Tomorrow latkes for the solstice before heading over to Queens for a Chanukah/early Christmas family gathering.

Waiting for Google

My new photo storage capabilities are not up and running yet. Grr.

So instead of posting pics from being outside yesterday in the wet snow which was melting as we frolicked, I will do something else.

• qi gong

• knit some more rows on the baby blanket

• read some more pages of New Moon (some Twilight gossip found this morning here)

• eat something nourishing

• the ledger book

• there is new laundry to fold

• the bathroom never got cleaned yesterday

• make spaghetti and meatballs (Gem has a hankering)

• plan the day with the kids

Getting a grip

• clean the bathroom

• fold the laundry

• those dang thank you cards (how's that for gratitude?)

• some cooking and more cleaning

• pick names for co-op meal X-mas Eve eco-swap

• more cleaning

• hitting the ledger book

• digging, no burrowing, way down to work towards getting to the root of my problem with money

P.S. I did pay some rent to Google for more photo storage so I should get some more pics on here soon.

Love of the Irish

I lived in Massachusetts for about twelve years. I moved there with my born and (partially) bred Quincy boy in 1991 when I was 25. Having started this blog while living in Sacramento, where we moved when we left Massachusetts, I haven't waxed much, poetic or otherwise, about the state which I do consider home in many respects.

I spent most of my adult life in Cambridge and did some serious growing in that city that I love. (Cap and I would move back there in a heartbeat if we could.)

Tonight, due to some wrestling with yarn which ultimately proved to be not enough to finish Gem's second sock, I watched the whole of Craig Ferguson's late night talk show. (He could be a whole other blog post. I really like him. Maybe some day.)

Craig's second guest, after Carmen Electra (it's kind of amazing that I didn't change the channel, but thanks to the dang yarn challenge, I was too busy knitting to pick up the remote), was Dennis Lehane.

Dennis Lehane is an author who grew up in Dorchester, MA. He is probably most famous for penning Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone. I've read some of his books and have enjoyed them. They're not for the faint of heart. Bad things happen to children, etc.

He was on the show to support his latest book, a historical novel, about the 1919 Boston police strike.

Watching and listening to him talk about his childhood, hearing that familiar cadence, made me homesick. It reminded me of the very, remarkably few times that I have met Irish Americans since leaving Massachusetts and how the two individuals I can remember running into, were from Massachusetts. And how it lifted my heart to just be with them, as if I was holding a bit of my past with me for a bit, a treasure.

I never realized how true it is, that in Cambridge and Boston, and southeastern MA where we have family and spent the last two years of our life living in the Commonwealth, that Irish Americans are everywhere. I never realized, until I left, how much of a positive impact my contact with this particular subset of New England culture had had on me.

I don't want to go into hyperbole. But, I am full of appreciation and wonder.

Handmade

Gift for brother.

DVD case cover.

Blanket for baby (a gift---no impending arrivals here!)

Finding personal peace

Gem made his own Ugly Doll.

Baxter asleep amidst quite a bit of activity around him.

A secret Christmas gift handmade by Sag and now under the tree.

Star from Karen.

Moon from Cambridge.

Winged woman from Ben.

A bit of tension, though so much less than in years past, is natural at this time of year I guess. Moments like these, photographed above, help me refocus on the positive, the warm, the good.

After some fretting about the cost, our New Year's cards are ordered. It's a nice card which I think will please many. There are three pics instead of one. And there are images of us, not just the kids.

I forewent the decorating of the tree this afternoon so I could shop without the kids. I had some success. Mostly at the bookstore where I found some delightful books for nieces and nephew.

Cap is now feeling unsure about the new computer which is stressing me out. I'd like it to be our Christmas present to ourselves, as a family (care of the economic stimulus check). I'm just in a place where I want to be checking things off my list rather than taxiing around a decision.

I did go to a lovely baby shower brunch this morning at a local breakfast/lunch place I'd never been to. The food was really good. The conversation was nice, too. I always appreciate a gathering of women who are comfortable discussing menopause, circumcision, and academia, among other things, at a baby shower.

I want to go to sleep. And I will. But, the kids are pretty wide awake, in my bed.

Omelet

My omelet hit the spot this morning. I wanted something rich. Something that would stick to my ribs and keep me fueled through the day.

Two eggs with a dash of milk, a pan hot with safflower oil, leftover mushrooms sautéed with scallion, garlic, ginger, and a generous handful of shredded cheese. Over toast :-) Yum!

The week drawing to a close

Tomorrow, Cap and I will be seeing this play. In honor of our 19th anniversary. I am excited.

Today I woke feeling heaviness in my chest, but I think it was remnants of being up so late last night rather than a cold. In any event, I feel fine now. (Though I haven't been practicing much qi gong, I have been taking my herbs at full strength, making and drinking nourishing teas and cooking with scallions, ginger and garlic. Taking care of one's self should always taste so good!)

Some new, sale yarn that I ordered while in FL arrived and I cast on for another stealth project. This is replacing the first attempt which I worked on while in FL until I decided, nearly halfway through, that I hated it. This revised project is looking and feeling really good. I'm doing stripes for the first time!

I picked up the place this afternoon which felt good. I feel like I am returning to normal bit by bit.

I fear there may be no, or perhaps, few, photos until we get the new computer, or decide not to get a new computer (which I really hope is not the case). If we aren't getting a new computer, then I'll rent more storage space from Google.

Wow

Our internet has gone out three times since we got back from Florida. Prior to this, it's gone out maybe three times in the two plus years we've lived here. I discovered it "down" around 7pm and tried jiggling it, but to no avail.

I stayed up later than I thought I would tonight. I knitted away on one of my unnamed projects while catching up on two episodes of House. Then I continued knitting while I talked to Cap about his day and semester (today was the last day of classes and his late day so he arrived home around 11pm).

I decided to give unplugging and replugging various black boxes a try one more time before going to bed to see if I could jiggle the internet back on. It worked, so I went online. I hoped and expected to have heard from Wendy on Rav and went there first. I was not disappointed. Then I went to my e-mail account and was delighted and stunned.

There were e-mails from Diane and Basha, two very dear, very old friends (Di=22 years; Basha=16 years), who I have not been in contact with for awhile. Di it's been 6-12 mos. But, Basha, it's been a number of years. She has a 2 year old I didn't know about!

The marvelous thing is that I've been thinking of both of them a lot lately. How sweet to hear from them tonight. I love life!!!

I'm so jazzed I don't know if I can sleep...

My new tea

While at Wendy's I tried a new tea. And loved it. It's Tazo Tea Organic Chai. A dollop of honey and a bitty swig of whole milk and it's tea time, anytime.

I tried chai a long, long, time ago, (all together now), in a galaxy far, far, away. And didn't like it. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to try it again, but I am glad I did.

A rabbit named Edward

Elsa chose this book to give to Sag for his birthday. Then in Florida, Wendy told me Sophia had been deeply moved by it. I read it this morning in an hour of quiet solitude at home.

It is that rare, wonderful book, the ones you wonder about and wait for without knowing what they are or when they'll come.

The illustrations were also beautiful and perfectly balanced with the story.

Knitting on Colbert

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Highly sensitive

Jamie lent some books months and months ago. I took one of them to FL with me and it was eye opening. I only read a few pages, but it made an impression. The book is called The Highly Sensitive Person and you can read about it here.

It has already helped me defuse a personal interaction I had recently, and it is giving me insight into Sag...not Gem, as I had thought.

I think it's going to be an interesting tool of clarity for me.

Just a taste

Hm. Ran out of free storage space over at Picasa. I may rent more space for $20/yr, but am also thinking that I may not need that space once we get our new computer...

In the meantime, here is the first fraction of photos in a slideshow.

Back home

What a rush to step out of the airport doors into the familiar, cold wintry air. My heart was dancing as wildly as the children's bodies were. They were a blur of ringing laughter, jumps from shiny silver surfaces to painted, lettered spots on concrete, rolling and knocking about like the cubs they so resemble at times.

Then, even stronger surges of emotion as our house came into view, as we clambered up the stairs and burst back into...home. We were in the door by 9pm, thanks to Roger for the pick up.

Today was a series of moments. Disconnected in a way, but grounding. An early morning trip to the store alone for me, frenzied grading for Cap, lots of playing, watching tv and reading for the kids. Catching up on my blog reading. A visit with Danielle and the boys. Vinny. An hour to myself afterwards which he always encourages me to do, but I rarely do. This twilight I said yes and browsed alone in one of my local yarn shops, as well as, one of the bookstores. (Spending was reined in to a minimum though not to nil.)

After dinner the kids read and read and I caught up with some of my "stories" (of the boob tube variety). Survivor: Gabon (my true guilty pleasure to which I will finally 'fess up), Top Chef: New York, 30 Rock, The Office and How I Met Your Mother.

Tomorrow? Unpacking. Laundry. The accounting of the vacation spending. Walking the dog (we have Baxter for a week :-) Thank you cards. Baking. Settling back in.

The photos from our trip? Sometime this week, I hope.

Last full day

...as I was corrected this morning. The kids and I were lolling around in bed talking about what we'd like to do today, our last day in St. Pete. Last full day, said Gem. True that.

We have been busy, our days long, going way into night.

Today the kids will go to the Y with the dads. Wen and I will drive about running errands (Sophia's birthday is next weekend and I want to give her her gift before we leave, and there's a child-size Red Sox cap which needs to be retrieved from the yarn store), getting our last alone time fix in, and going here for lunch.

Cap's back from Orlando which is very nice. Tonight chicken salad is on the menu and a luminaries walk in a nearby neighborhood is planned, as well.

Gem said this vacation "flew" and I'd have to agree with him. We're due back home tomorrow night. I'll be posting pictures at long last sometime next week!

Vacation continues

We spent the day at Busch Gardens yesterday which was a lot of fun. Which is good because it cost a lot of money. No, no, it was good for many other reasons and I shall not dwell on the financial cost...

The kids are falling asleep fast and like logs. We're much more active than we are at home, with lots of outings. This afternoon they hit the pause button, though, and eschewed the library with its promise of Star Wars books we may not have in our own library and they have been playing quietly together downstairs while I get some computer time in.

Note to self: they are not missing tv/computer time so much (at least not to the point where they whine or even talk about it out loud with me), but I am. No, I'm not whining or talking about it out loud, but when I'm at the computer, like right now, I am reveling in it. And last night, as I knit some in bed, I kind of wished there was a tv in front of me.

It seems I am channeling a bear preparing for hibernation. I have been eating a lot. The light is hitting me in its diminishing brightness earlier and earlier in the day and, boom, I am propelled by an internal signal which directs me to eat...

Eventually and possibility

Sag has been using these two words a lot lately, incorporating them into his lexicon and world view.

He is, in ways big and small, beginning the process of leaving his little childhood...

Talking and knitting

Yesterday afternoon Wendy and I had the chance to go out for a cup of tea. We stopped at Julie's first to drop off her CSA split share and it was cozy to chat in her kitchen. Her sister, due to return to Knoxville, was there also.

We continued on to Hooker Tea on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg. My tea, the Earl Grey de la Creme, was disappointing. Too vanilla-y, not enough EG-y. But, the baked goods were yum. A German choc cupcake and a choc chip scone.

And boy, did I talk. Clear evidence that e-mail and the phone serve me only so much. It was like a dam being pried open. Wendy's strong and she could take it, but seriously. It was a torrent of words, a swirl of feelings, and quite cathartic, for me.

Last night, I pulled out some knitting for the first time since getting here. A gift item which I have to be discreet about, just in case someone is reading this...which I'm pretty sure she's not. Anyway, I worked on it for about 3 hours and could not get it right. The pattern is 144 stitches across which made for some labor intensive unraveling the three times I did so just last night.

This morning, back in the land of internet access, I have figured out what I think my mistake has been. And I'm excited to continue on.

But, there's something else. I am wowed by a deep sense of wonder. Last night, I was a bit frustrated, but honestly, I was much more baffled. And persistent. I am realizing how knitting is revealing to me reserves of patience and love for learning, and for myself within this process of learning, that I would not have thought present in me.

It's a great thing to experience at age 42.