My Christmas list...just in case you need to get me that last minute gift

**Bernina 730E $8000
**Evolve New Wave Serger $2500
**Feet for Evolve $1000
**Other stuff I'm sure I'll need
with these two machines $1000 (better plan for, just to be safe)
**Cameo from Wild Ginger $3000
**Silk Fabric, paint, lace, etc. for my new collection, being launched later this year $1000
**Design-A-Knit Pro version 7 $500
**Some additional do-hickeys to go with my knitting machine (I'll address the fact that I'm going to start knitting with it again in my New Year's Resolution post) $500
**Yarn for knitting ...let go with $500
**Laptop I'll need to work with
all these machines $1200
**Professional shelving for my studio $4000
**New lighting for my studio $1000
**Wood floor for my studio
including installation $750 (just a guess, not for sure about this one)


Really...I'm just a simple girl with simple needs.

By the way, if anyone wants a Pfaff 7550 with tons of additional feet and the users guide, just let me know. Mine is about to get pitched out the window. We are no longer on speaking terms and I can't get quality work done with my current anger level at just seeing it sitting around my studio learing at me. I think it would be "better suited" (a term my sorority used) with a different partener.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

My camera battery I dead today, but I did grab a couple pics off the gazette website. They're small but I think you'll get the point. This storm is breath-taking! We've been under Blizzard and Avalanche warnings here since early yesterday morning.

Here's our family Christmas tradition:

We make paper gingerbread men to count the days from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Every year they're different. Most years they have a daily activity on them. When the girls were little, they didn't have things written on them...they "talked" to me and whispered in my ear what the daily activity was. Of course, back then it was so easy. Saying "you get to take a bath today!" would make them squeal with happiness.

The yellow one with the hat is "Jose". He told us he wants to stay and be the one to see Santa come down the chimney (across the room). The red guy next to him is superman. He's mad at the bad guys.

I'm a happy hooker

Don't know if you remember the alpaca sweater I made Kevin last Christmas, but it was frought with problems. First and foremost...it sheds. I know Kevin well enough to know that alone puts it off the "I'll actually wear this" list. Second, there were design issues and the sleeves are just way to long (and grow more when on) and would need re-making anyway.

So...I decided that the yarn was just too expensive and yummy feeling to not just frog the whole thing and do something with it. I started looking for a pattern for myself with the following criteria:

*bulky yarn pattern
*pullover sweater I could wear alone (so I don't have to de-shed a shirt underneath every time I wear it)
*trendy (hard to find in a bulky pattern)
*close fitting (my personal style, I just hate things that are baggy)

I about fell out of my chair when I found this pattern:

It's even in the exact same color as my yarn!

I rock.

Plain and simple.

From my previous experience with this yarn, I'm counting on this working up pretty quickly. So maybe I'll even have it done over Christmas break.






Which is cool, because here's what my mom's getting me for x-mas (including the yarn!) that I want to get started on very soon:

I'm making it in dark lilac alpaca/silk elegance. Yummy.

O.K. so.... (drum roll, please!)....here's my two ACTUAL FINISHED OBJECTS!!!!
That's me trying to figure out how to take a picture of a something on my person. This is about the best picture that came out. The lighting in my studio is horrible and I couldn't quite figure out how to angle the camera right in the mirror, but I think you get a good idea of the sweater. (someone do a tutorial on self picture taking, please!)

It's a mock rib and I really like how the design came out. Also, it's just super soft to wear. The sleeves, which I frogged in the first place because they were too small around, actually came out bigger around than I meant for them to be, but I'm leaving them as is (and, um...don't tell anybody, one sleeve is 1/2 inch longer than the other one!)

And here's the lace shrug. I'm thinking about turning this in to Knitty.com as it is entirely my own design. We'll see if I get around to figuring out how to do that. You can't see the lace really well in these pictures, but there's a ruffle lace that goes all the way around the neck and back and a different lace at the sleeve openings, more of a flat leave patterned lace.


Ooo, with the poor picture quality, you can't even see how bad my eye looks! It's my right eye where the shingles are (yes...still) and the inner part of the "white" is really all red. Oh, and I think I need a haircut.

My Superhero

I just this minute walked into my kitchen from putting the girls bed and found this. He's 4. That's really just all the explanation you need.

Also, just to prove I have been sewing:These are Quentin's beloved "Flash Poe-jammas". When he was 2, we were out of clean pajamas one night and just had these in the back of the drawer. They were at one point hand-me-downs somebody had given me when Olivia, our oldest, was a toddler. Both girls wore them only occasionally when they were 2. When we found out we were having Quentin I pulled out everything of the girls that could be saved back for a boy. That amounted to a few white socks without ruffles and an old Toad Suck t-shirt and these pajamas. (Um, o.k. are you back from the Toad Suck site now? That's a real site. It's the annual festival in my hometown. No kidding. Just let me know if you need a t-shirt this year.)

Anyway, on the night in question, Quentin absolutely would not put these on because they were not super hero related and in his world clothing options consisted (and still do!) of 1) super-hero, or 2) naked. So DH convinced him that they were "flash" pjs. He's worn them for nearly 2 years now and they are coming apart at the seams (as well as about 3 inches shy of his wrists and ankles). I gave it a good shot at mending the very large hole in the knee, but it just really didn't work.

Luckily, I found these at Hanna Andersson:
They are #2 on his Christmas list, second only behind the Batman Sword with a button.