Wa-la!

The Fan & Feather shawl is finished! Here it is blocking on my Dad's living room floor. I am a little sad this project is done, even after all my bitching and complaining. But! I have already started my next project, my present from Chauntel. :) Pictures to follow once I really figure out my new Christmas present.

Merry Christmas!!

A Christmas Tradition

Every year, my mom would either make or buy dated ornaments for my brother and I. She did this with the idea that one day, when we had our own families, we would have a set of sentimental ornaments ready to go for our own trees. Well, today I received a package in the mail. No, it wasn't a package from the grave but pretty darn close to it. My Aunt Karen, my mom's older sister, sent me one of her handmade ornaments. :) I have not been looking forward to this Christmas and one of the traditions I know I am going to miss are the ornaments from my mom. Among other things. But this package made my day and eased the ache in my heart just a little bit. Thank you, Aunt Karen!

173 down...

...and 16 to go. That's rounds, people. 16 rounds to go. 3 pattern rounds and 13 knit rounds. I am talking, of course, about the shawl. No need for pictures. It's just a big lump o'cashmere yarn on a long cord. I am aiming for finishing this up by Christmas... can I do it? The jury's still out. And I am off to see if I can get another round done tonight. I will, however, be taking a small break to feast my eyes upon the hot new James Bond. Have a lovely weekend!!

Just call me T-Puff

How is it that I can go to bed feeling fine and wake up the next morning with 20 additional lbs of...well, whatever it is fills your sinusii, in my head? I am squinting because my eyes are so puffy, my cheeks feel huge, and I keep saying, "Huh??" when people talk to me because I can't hear. If I turn my head too fast, it takes a second for my brain to stop spinning. OH! And when I get this clogged up, I have the ability to blow air out of the corner of my eyes. It's great! As soon as I lock the doors here at work, I am heading over to Longs to pick up some heavy duty sinus medication. I don't care what I get, just something that will bring my head up off the floor and get rid of this pounding headache.

So! I think I will spend the rest of the day knitting around and around on my shawl. I would post another picture of it but what's the point. It's a crumpled mess of yarn on a needle! I am on row 163 out of 189 and am up to 1176 sts on the needle. I am still living up to my promise of not working on anything else until the shawl is complete. The one knit Christmas gift I am working on? Well, it will turn into a Happy 2007! gift. :)

A close up

Helllooooo...anyone out there?

I haven't felt much like blogging lately but I have finally found my inspiration for knitting. It's the Fan and Feather shawl that has caught my love once again. Remember, waaay back when I decided to do some late night knitting math? Well, that was a Huge mistake. I have done maaaybe 4 rounds on it since that post. And all my other knitting has yet to captivate me like the shawl did. So I picked it up again this past week. And I remember why I love it so much. It takes an big amount of concentration and a lot of patience but it's going to be so lovely once done. I have knit on a few other items such as a pair of slippers for Sadie Jane and an Irish Hiking Scarf out of alpaca for a gift (it may be a late gift :) )

And I leave you with a picture of my 59 year old father and my 25 year old brother...wrestling. Why? I have no idea. Maybe we were all cooped up together just a little bit too long over Thanksgiving. :)

Overwhelmed

In my posting flurry yesterday, I completely forgot to tell you/show you this. I think the reason I forgot is that I am so overwhelmed by what Chaun did. She took this roving, Copper Moose Maple Sugar and made it into just about enough yarn for a sweater. And she did it in like 10 hours! I knew when she got her spinning wheel, I would be the recipient of trial and error yarns. And I thought that at some point, I would buy myself some roving and beg and plead for her to spin it for me. Well! Not only did she encourage me to buy the roving, she took my pound of fiber and spun it first and so quick!

A Realization

A year ago today, my mom was alive and well. Technically, she was sick; she had cancer at that point. But we didn’t know about it. And less than one year later, our lives are drastically different. It’s a very hard pill to swallow right now.

What's that girl, Tracy, been up to...

Well... :) Not a lot, I must say. I am stressing on the holidays right now. My dad and brother will be down here with me for Thanksgiving. We are spending it with my mom's family in LA. I am actually looking forward to it even though I know it's going to be a hard weekend to get through. We are also going up to Three Rivers to spend some time with my mom's friend Gail. We are spreading my mom's ashes at her place. That will probably be the toughest part to get through. I am very much looking forward to having my dad and brother here at my home. :) Believe it or not, they have never visited me here!! 'Bout damn time!
I am going through a bit of a knitting slump. I want to knit but I don't want to knit. I finished up two sweaters last week and now I am kind of floundering as to what to work on. I want to work on my shawl, if not to just knock down some of those 40 hours I calculated out. :) But I don't have the concentration to work on it. And I found out that I don't have that concentration the hard way. I have been working slowly on the Michael Kors sweater. I was on row 12 (I know, only row 12 but let me tell you somethin': this is not an easy, quick knit!) and I thought I was working the bobble section in the center wrong. And it was really bothering me so I ripped out the 12 rows. Turns out? Yeah, I wasn't doing it wrong in the first place. Which is why you see very little knitting and a big pile of curly yarn in the picture. So, instead I am working a new Clapotis. I am not really thrilled about doing another Clapotis but I am really thrilled to be working this yarn. It's Lorna Laces Lion & Lamb (I don't know the colorway) from Summers. I am literally clapping my hands in happiness at this very moment (I can be such the dork sometimes). She opened up her stash to Chaun and I. I can't tell you how thrilled I was that she did this. I am paying her for the yarn, of course! I will tell you this, Chaun and I almost came to blows over some of this yarn (okay, not really but wouldn't that have been funny if we had!!) This pattern was originally made with this yarn. It is ... wonderful. It's so soft and silky (without smelling of silk), I just can't put it down. And that's basically it. Just some basic knitting. Following this are some pictures of what I knit over the weekend.
THE Clapotis :)) It's a happy Clapotis! Or I am just happy working with it... whatever.

The second sweater I finished over the weekend. Oh Fine!!! It's not finished. I still need to sew up the pits and one side seam. But it's cute just like this, dontcha think???
This is going to be the cutest pair of slippers Ever. Made of Noro Kureyon. They will be felted this weekend.

I completely forgot to talk about this. It's the beginning of a glovelette that I knit for Julie and Knit & Pearl. It's made from Cash Soft. Shoot, I think that's the yarn. It turned out to be a quick knit, I think maybe 3-4 hours total? You should go and check it out. It's on display in her store. :))

This is the rest of the yarn I got from Summers. On the left is a dark purple Peace Fleece, middle is ohmygosh Crack merino yarn in purple, and then two more ohmygosh Crack yarns from hpy in wool.

It's the Michael Kors I ripped out for no reason. Chaun made a brillant observation on this sweater. Why do the back in pattern? Just do it in stockinette and call it quits.
So there you go. That's just about everything I've been up to. :)

Thoughtful gifts

I spent the Saturday I found out about mom's passing over at Chauntel and George's house. When I came into the house, I was inundated with hugs and gifts from Trevor, Sadie, and Tyler. :) Trevor drew me a great picture of Banjo Kazooie, Trevor and I. Sadie drew me a big heart and an "I Love You". Tyler? Tyler gave me a Lego toy. Now, I didn't really believe that he wanted me to actually take it home with me, I figured I was "borrowing" it for the day. So, I left it behind when I came home that night. I was informed yesterday when I arrived that I "forgot" to take it with me. So, here it sits, at my desk.

I give you...Tyler's thoughtful gift:

I just love these kids!!!

Can I get a Hell Yeah!

I present the Starsky:

What, you want details?? Well, I believe I started this waaay back in February and promptly got bored with it (I don't remember why really). I picked it back up in September and worked on it every great once in awhile. Finish work (weaving in all ends) was completed by Chauntel, my BFF. It's made out of Cervinia Sorrento yarn from Smiley's yarns. I don't remember how many skeins I started out with but I can tell you I knit it on size 10's. :) I love Love this sweater. Someday I may make another...

Then and Now

I thought I would share family photos with you today. I am in a sentimental mood (no surprise really) and I thought you might like to see what my family looks like. Then and now. In the first photo, I believe I was around 7 years old. Which puts it in 1983. My mom made all of our shirts (and my skirt!). In the second photo, the entire Anderson clan (7 children, 14 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren plus all associated spouses) gathered for a surprise 80th birthday party for my Grandma. She's the lovely lady in the rather overly large wicker chair. That was in 2001.

Thank you.

I want to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts, and prayers. My mom's passing was peaceful and she suffered none during that time. I am going back up north this Thursday to spend time with my Dad and brother. I appreciate all the emails and comments you all have made. :) It's such a good feeling to know that I have such wonderful friends.

Thank you.

Cheap books for a small price.

Having subscribed to Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits magazines, I now get many "Buy My Product" type mailings. They are like the ColumbiaHouse cd offers. You know, buy a certain amount for a certain cheap price and you ONLY have to purchase 20 more at full price in 6 months to fulfill your end of the deal. Well, I decided to get online to Crafter's Choice and see what they had to offer. Their special deal was 3 books for $1 a piece (plus shipping and handling) and you only have to purchase 2 full price books in the next year. Not too shabby! I actually ended up with the above four books for $15 (somehow I got an extra book for $1). They arrived yesterday and I am very very excited to have them. Especially for that price.

I have taken the week off work to just be quiet and mellow. I have spent some of it shopping with Chaun (Ross, Target, Bath&Body Works) and the rest of it knitting. I got started on the T&QWoolease sweater I mentioned in a previous post. It took some wheelin' & dealin' but I was able to get the required quantity of yarn for under $30. Not too bad! I expect that sweater to be done sometime this week. I am also working on the Starsky. One more front and I can sew it together and pick up the stitches for the lapel. After those two are done, I am going to get started on the SWS sweater that Chaun designed and also the Michael Kors sweater that I posted about way long time ago. Yes, those will be very nice fall sweaters to have. :)

Flash

See Flash.

See Flash sit on my knitting.

Who is this Flash? Flash belongs to Jerilyn. Jerilyn is a good friend of my family. With Dad being home for the past few months, Jerilyn took to leaving Flash at our house so she didn't have to take him on her travels (she travels for her work). He has become a family member. He is a strange dog in that he grew up around cats. So, he acts like a cat. Case in point: if I left ANY knitting lying around, he would find it and sit on it. If I tried to take it away, he wouldn't move. He would just look at me as I struggled to push his dead weight off the item. Really quite funny.

My Mom 1949-2006

I love you Mom.

Get to know me

Four Jobs I have had:
(all these jobs are in sales)
American Tourister (luggage store)
Big Dog Sportswear
Starbucks
ProSource Floorcoverings
Four Movies I could watch over & over:
(I won't cheat like Chaun did...)
Lord of the Rings movies
Disaster movies (Armageddon, Independence Day)
Jurassic Park (all of them)
Alien (all of them)
Four Places I have Lived:
Hawthorne, CA (0-5)
Cameron Park, CA (5-25)
Roseville, CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Four of my Favorite Tv Shows:
Project Runway
CSI (all of them)
Grey's Anatomy
Any cake/cookie/sugar sculpture competition on Food Network
Four Places I have been on Vacation:
Idaho
Bryce & Zion Canyons
Europe
Hawaii
Four of my Favorite Dishes:
Ranch Dressing (can that be considered a food?)
Eggs scrambled up with bacon and ham
Garlic Bread
Pig Ribs
Four Websites I visit daily:
Bloglines
HPY
My news page, myway.com
Hm, I guess I only have three. Pretty limited by the dialup connection...
Four Places I would rather be right now:
At my parent's house
At Chauntel's parent's house in Idaho
Somewhere where noone knows me and asks for nothing from me :)
Rhinebeck with everyone else elbow deep in yarn & sheep (I could do this one too)
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Yeah, noone. :)

This post contains NO knitting. Hope you can handle a Mom post. :)

So far, I have taken a very pragmatic and sensible approach to my mom’s bout with cancer and her impending death. But at the same time, I still wonder why. Why my family? Why are we having to go through this at this time? I have lived a pretty charmed life. I have never experienced the death of a close loved one. In fact, I often joked with my mom and dad that I was laying down the law that they were to never die. A few weeks ago, it hit me that this is not the last time I will be dealing with this. Not only in my life, but in the lives of everyone around me. That thought actually made this whole ordeal a little bit easier. To see it as the cycle of life. Maybe that’s why I am going through this. To be able to offer support as we grow older and people in our lives start to pass away. Noone can understand what this is like unless they have been through a similar situation. I don’t know what the true reason is and I may never know. But the thought that maybe I can help someone I love get through this horrible experience…it just makes it a little bit easier.

Yarn Shopping

I opened up the Sunday paper this morning. And after reading many interesting articles (see, I am up in Sac and the Sacramento Bee actually reports national and world news), I got to the ad section. Would you like to know what I found there? I bet you would.... Five, that's right, FIVE Michael's ads. :)) Which means five 40% off coupons. And after I got over my amazement of the quantity, I read the ad. Right. All of their yarns are on sale from $2-$4. I think Michael's is trying to tell me something. Buy yarn. And they are oh-so-subtle about it. And the first thing I did after reading that ad was to try and figure out a way to get to my nearest Michael's today. Unfortunately, it's not possible. I am on Mom duty while Dad is at an overnight golf tourney in Nevada. I might be able to make it there tomorrow after he gets home and before I take off for the airport. But if not, I know there is a Michael's in Ventura. I know you are wondering why I am so desperate to get to this store. See, Lion Brand recently came out with their new catalogue. And it's wonderful! There are so many things I want to make but the one item I know would be quick and easy is this sweater:
It's made out of WoolEase Thick n' Quick. Which is normally $6 a ball. And if I have to pay $48 just to make a sweater, I would rather just buy one pre-made. I know, how unknitterly of me. But if this yarn is really on sale for less than $6 (remember, their ad states $2-$4 for all their yarns), then I can save $16 and do it myself. I am a freak for sweaters like this. Simple, easy, goes with everything...

Well, that's the plan right now anyway. Let's forget the numerous projects I already have on needles. I am about half way done with the Clapotis and 1/4 done with the Candle Flame Scarf. Those are the only two things I brought with me to work on. I do have pictures but I don't have the cord to connect the camera to the computer.

Kalah is coming over today for a yarn winding party. Well, she has 3 hanks of lace to ball up and that's it. :) But it gives us an excuse to hang out, eat pizza, drink beer, and talk knitting. I hope everyone has a nice, lazy day!

PS: Suzie: I am sorry I wasn't there at knitting for the cuddle fest. I was actually on a plane trying to cuddle with the cute guy I was sitting next to. Unfortunately, he wasn' t nearly as interested as I was in cuddling. :))

Candle Flame Scarf. A test knit for Chaun. And let me tell you, she didn't have to beg hard at all to get me to do this. :) I miss knitting with hpy's merino worsted weight.

Another Clapotis. It's a good lightweight fall shawl is what I have found out.

This is a future knit project. The yarn is VerdeAzul (again, from hpy) and the project is from Gathering of Lace. But considering I still have ...oh...39 hours or so left on the Fan & Feather shawl... yeah. This one is for 2007, I think.

Projects. It's all about the projects.

Following this post at some point today will be pictures of the current projects. I hope... Not really sure how this is going to work in Beta.
Anyway. I have my list of projects on needles:

Shinano sweater-knit in the round with Noro Shinano.
*Starsky-from knitty knit in dark red Cervinia Sorrento.
Babette-crocheted blanket from Interweave Crochet. Knit using Wool of the Andes.
Brown Cherry-Chaunwear designed sweater. Knit in the round with WotA and Merino Style.
Nameless Legwarmers-my pattern, knit in Andean Treasure.
*Candle Flame Scarf-Chaunwear designed, knit with hpy Rosa Vieja.
Fan & Feather Shawl-from Gathering of Lace, knit with cashmere yarn from Colourmart.
Homespun blanket-knit with 3 strands of Homespun on size 19's.
*Clapotis-yes, another one, knit with Marino Fondo from hpy.

Old Projects on needles:
Kyoto-from knitty, knit with CottonEase.
Ruched Silk Blanket-knit with silk, not sure where the pattern is from.

All starred projects are being worked on daily. All other projects (except the Old ones) are sitting in the Knitting Area. And there you go! I sure would like to see what all y'all are working on... only because it makes me feel less...obsessed. :)

New and Improved

Welcome to my new blog. I made the change because ... well, there has been a lot that has happened in my life in the past 6 months. I have been feeling that some major changes are going to result from my mom's illness. I don't know yet what they are but I decided to start with the small things that I can control. Such as the blog. Blogger has come out with Blogger Beta which is SO much easier to use. I don't have to go into the template and actually change the code. And I am not so Slow and Steady anymore. I did receive some suggestions of changing the name to "Slow & Steady to Fast & Furious" but considering my recent math calcuations... I am not feeling so fast and furious. :) But the name is still up for consideration. If anyone has any suggestions, I am very open to switching out the name. Just comment and lemme know!