That Giant Sweater

I swear I feel like I'm knitting for a Giant.  My husband is a smallish guy.  I can't imagine if I was knitting for my Dad or someone of similar size.  I feel bad for all too many knitters I know that have more gigantor husbands right now.  I tried on the shoulders for the Helicopter Guy (I need something to call him on the blog.  That's his new name) and asked if he liked it.

Here's our conversation.
Me - "Do you like it?"
HG - "Yes of course I do.  If I didn't it wouldn't matter now though, you have this much done."
Me - "I'd rather start over, then knit a whole sweater you won't wear."
HG - "I'd wear it even if I didn't like it, because you made it for me."

I appreciate the sentiment and all, but really?  At least I know he loves me that much.  But the whole point of knitting is making something someone will get some use out of.  Granted I do make a lot of things I won't wear (mostly shawls) but they are always gifted to someone who will.  God help me, if he doesn't like this sweater, I'm giving it away to anyone that does.  Even after all the work.  Next time I pick a sweater for him it's going to be more of a "masculine" color (although he loves red), and more of a gansey type pattern.

I'd love to say I've been concentrating on the sweater too, and I was till I ran out of caked yarn.  I need to cake more and the only place in our house right now that I can put up the swift is on our TV stand and we were in the middle of the movie.  So I moved to something else.  Finished my Arm Chair KAL project and will share that on Friday.  Also ripped out one pair of socks, and plan to rip out another as well.  I'd really like to finish Miss A's sweater, which won't take too long.  Then as far as moving knitting I'm thinking Helicopter Guy's sweater, a sweater for myself, and a cowl I think I will be test knitting.  Of course if our household goods get packed a while before our move date, then I will have a lot of time for knitting.  More time than I might be able to handle.

All Too Fast

Things are happening fast around here.  I might be having my household goods packed up in as little as a week to two weeks.  It's a bit of a whirlwind and I'm trying to prepare for the idea of a few weeks in this house (and the next) without our stuff.  We are planning to drive both cars so everything we have will have to fit in the two cars.  This means no furniture.  Maybe a camp chair or two, and an air mattress.  This is where the dilemma comes in.....where is my toddler going to sleep?  She's too small for an air mattress, plus we'd have to buy one.  And if it was just a night or two she would be fine on the floor, but for a possible month or so?  I needed something else.  And of course I turned to Pinterest.    I saw a lot of tutorials for these types of sleeping mats made out of pillows.

But I didn't want something that was going to take up so much room in the car, especially because at the time we weren't even sure if we would have to pack everything into one car.  These sleeping mats are made from pillow cases and pillows, so I started brainstorming.  What is soft, can roll up smaller and will be comfy enough for Miss A to sleep on?  Thats when I thought of my yoga mat, which was a thick foam one, not the thin grippy ones).  Honestly I would prefer a new thinner one for yoga, and the one I had was ripped up from the cats. So I decided to upcycle the one I have for Miss A. 

I let her pick out some flannel material (which I of course used a coupon to buy)!  She picked out some owls - takes after Momma!  The mat I had already had velcro straps at the end so I put buttonholes in the bottom to pull the straps through.  I cut the end off so it was more appropriately sized for a toddler.  Attached some coordinating material at the top and stuffed it with polyfill. It's by no means professional, but  I'm very happy with my final result.  I'm not the only one happy with it.  Miss A hasn't left it for longer than 10 minutes the whole morning!  I think she will be more than happy to sleep on it.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Just a few pictures to show you why I'm excited as can be to move to West Point.  Maybe I've just been in Kansas too long, but the leaves, the sky, the water.  It all just gets my heart pumping!  I can't wait!

Sweaters Galore

I have sweaters on the needles.  In fact, I have a lot of them.   And a whole bunch in the queue.  This was normal, but suddenly I have even more in the immediate queue, and a promise to finish my husband's before the first snow fall.  We live in Kansas, so I assume your immediate reaction is...."ehh, you have plenty of time".  Well this particular sweater has been on my needles for possibly close to 2 years, and I'm not fighting the environment of Kansas here.  I'm talking about the first snowfall of New York.

Yep, I actually get to enjoy a real Autumn this year.  That's right, we are moving back to New York.  Not home, not Rochester.  In fact I have a promise to myself that I will never move back there by choice.  When you think Army & New York duty station you automatically assume Fort Drum (if you have military experience).  Nope - dodged that bullet.  Not heading to Fort Drum, we in fact are moving to West Point!!   Typically we in the Army think of that as a school, not a duty station, but with the prestige they have and all the VIPs that visit, of course they have helicopters.  So naturally they need people to run and take care of them.  So yay for us!  It is seriously such a great opportunity for my husband, not to mention the proximity to so many different family members in the area.

Did I mention all the yarn shops in the area?  Oh, and you know....Rhinebeck?  An hour away?  So the race is on.  Finish at least one sweater, before I start a Rhinebeck sweater. This gives me options - My daughter's Owlet sweater, my Sophia, or my husband's Emilien.  The smallest would be the Owlet, of course that might be taking the easy way out.  And there are contenders in the lead for my personal Rhinebeck sweater and I have the yarn for all three.  Which one?

The Artemisia Sweater.

Or Owls.

Agnes Pullover.

New Endeavor

It all started when the girl next door came to babysit.  She asked if my daughter had Barbies they could play with.  Well, honestly I had never even thought to buy her a Barbie.  And I think she's at the right age to start.  Not everyone is a "Barbie person" but she was one of the only dolls I played with growing up and definitely the one who's memories are still picture perfect in my head.  I loved playing with them.

So of course the next time I went out, I bought her a Barbie.  Just a cheap "swimsuit" one to see how well Miss A played with her, or even if she showed any interest.  Well that Barbie rarely leaves her side.  She went in the bath, pool and bed with her.  But I felt like her "clothes" really should cover a bit more and decided I needed to make some Barbie clothes.  Found some patterns on Pinterest and it all started from there.

I am obsessed with making Barbie clothes now.  They are so cute.  So simple.  So fast.  And, they take up all my scraps!!  And really, don't they make her look a lot more classy?  I've decided to continue making them.  Again and again.  And sell them.  I'm finally at the point, after years of people telling me to, that I'm making an Etsy shop. I plan to sell Barbie clothes, but also other small accessories.  Maybe handspun yarn, maybe some dyed yarn.  And definitely some shawls.  I have a problem knitting shawls I never want to wear.

Then the hard part came.  Coming up with a name.  Something not too specific as far as craft.  So ideas are Annabug Alley, Annabug Lane or Sew Lovely.  Please share any suggestions, or opinions!!  I would appreciate any feedback!

An FO Friday Post.

Armchair Travel KAL

It's that time again!  Of course it's time for another KAL!!  I'll be joining Maria of Subway Knits Podcast, along with some other swell folks in this KAL which has anything and everything to do with her upcoming trip to Greece!!  Don't I wish it was me.  But if you can't travel it's best to live vicariously I say!  The gist of it

Knit a pattern or use a yarn to knit something inspired by Greece while I share the places I go and explore over the next two months

Pop on over to the Subway Knits blog or Ravelry page to learn all the details.  And if you don't know about it already, it means you don't listen to her podcast.  Word of advice?  Do it!  I've been inspired by yarn from my stash diving adventure - this beauty:

I've just started and by just started, I mean I'm still on the cast on.  So take that as literal as it comes.  I cast on once or twice yesterday for Coquille out of the French Girl Knits Accessories book, but the main stitch for this hat I'm making is brioche and I sat and stared at my knitting for 2 hours (while being distracted by Veronica Mars of course) because I couldn't figure the first stitch out.  I think it was because the cast on wasn't working well for me. I'm hoping to plow through this project.  It's just this and a pair of vanilla socks that I'm currently giving my attention to.  Join us for WIP Wednesdays!

Bitten

The crafting bug sure has bitten me.  It's definitely come back in complete full swing since I've returned home.  I honestly can't say if it has put me in a better mood, or if I'm crafting more because my mood has drastically increased.  I'm not sure, but it is what it is and I've been happy!  It started with the Ball.  Well everyone was preparing for the 4th of July weekend, I was stressed out.  In a good way.

On July 2nd, we had my husbands Redeployment Ball.  My first (and at the time I also thought my last) super formal military ball.  I found out a few months ago and of course my first thought was I need a dress!  Well since I was stuck at my parents for longer than I would have preferred a project was a good distraction.  My Mom and I immediately found dress pattern and material.  We made my ball gown together. I learned a lot from her.  It's nice to have support.  I hemmed it when I returned here.  Then made my handbag solely myself, which makes me super proud!   I used the Ziplet Zipper Pouch from the Craftsy website.

(of course the pictures are awful quality from my iPhone.  the camera came in the mail that night)

This really should just be the start of a lot of posts.  Both finished objects and WIPs.  Looking forward to sharing more zoo.  Hopefully lots of better pictures as well!

Quick post - White Balance

Learning how to use it.  Learning how to edit photographs.  My camera does some editing.  This editing I did on Flickr.  Apparently my iPhoto is out of date.  Trying to decide if I should download something new, use Flickr or Picasa.  If anyone has any say that'd be great.  I'm not about to spend $80 on a photo editing software though.  This post isn't as much for you readers (if there are any) as it is for me to really see how different these look on my blog.

Original:

Flickr Edit:

I'd say I'm doing a good job learning.  Will hopefully be getting a FO Friday post up today as well.

New Blog - New Camera

It's Work In Progress Wednesday.  And it's been a while since I've chimed in on the subject.  I pulled all my WIPs out a week or so ago (you don't want to see - it's ugly) and decided what I want to finish and what needs to be frogged.

One of the projects I was excited to get back to was Ysolda Teague's Follow Your Arrow Mystery KAL.  I started this project when it was released in January.  First Mystery KAL I ever did and I stayed on schedule with her clues!  Until the last one. I got stuck.  I frogged again and again because I couldn't get my numbers straight.  Apparently I lose the ability to count when it comes to my knitting.  So I put it away for a week or so, then had to go home for 6 weeks.  The way this KAL worked was that each clue had 2 options, so there were so many possibilities for different outcomes.   This week I decided the best course of action was to rip out the last clue and pick the other option.  And it sure is going swimmingly.  In fact, it seems to be swimming off my needles. That is, when my daughter doesn't decide my highlighter tape on my chart is a sticker for her to pull off and wear. Halfway through the chart already and prepping my blocking area.

Now as you've noticed there has been a blog makeover.  I have a new camera to go with the new blog.  I've been using the Photography Tutorial developed my Eskimimi (if you don't follow her blog, go do it now!) and playing a whole lot.  The hard part is trying to figure out how to work my camera. It's still a point and shoot, I wanted something I could throw in my purse.  But it's definitely an improvement on our old cameras and my iPhone which I've been depending on for a year now.  It is a Samsung WB350F.  We decided on this one after playing with a friends on a camping trip.  I love it and let me tell you, the fact that my camera connects to WiFi and is a touchscreen blows my mind.  And the zoom on this thing is pure genius.  I'll share my best picture of my WIP, but I still have some work to do.  Especially figuring out how to use my white balance.  A step up though, from the past, don't you think?

  FYI - I plan to change my URL feed.  Please check back and be aware that the old one will no longer work!  

What's In a Name?

So my first blog was called Sudden Expression because it was a place I wanted to express anger towards certain people in my life without them knowing.  This was years ago and later used the same name to coin my Ravelry screen name.  So when I wanted a knitting blog I wanted to connect it to my Rav name (for some unknown reason).  I seemed to think my "readers" needed to connect the two, or something.  Because you know, I had such a big following.  I laugh out loud since I honestly wonder sometimes if anyone besides a certain select few ever reads it now.  But for a long time I've really been disconnected with it and wasn't really happy that the name wasn't somehow knitting related.  I mean yes, you can stretch it and say that your knitting is an expression of yourself, but I've been telling myself that for too long.  So I've decided on a name change.  I almost changed platforms (from Blogger) as well, but I've done that in the past and honestly don't want to lose my content.  So hopefully a name change and a little revamp will make me happy.  So, welcome to Sip 1, Knit 1.  My new home.