Believe it or not, I have managed to get through 28 1/2 years without painting a single wall. I don’t know how I’ve done it. Especially since my parents were big fans of slave labor in the form of their children. God Bless them. Robby painted most of our condo as his wedding present to me (awww). We were (are) broke and this was something that he could do with minimal caashee. It was the best present ever. Especially considering some of the colors I choose…Red, red, red in the kitchen. Painting white walls red sucks. There are no two ways about it.

He got pretty far in the process. The only rooms remaining pre-wedding were our bedroom, office, and half of the bathroom. My job was to finish the bathroom. I almost accomplished that this weekend. One coat to go and we will have a FINISHED ROOM IN OUR HOUSE. Unheard of. A few things I learned about painting.

1. Don’t wear your favorite velour puma sweat pants. They will get paint of them.
2. Tie your hair back in a ponytail. If you don’t it will fall into the paint bucket.
3. Painting around and behind a toilet is not the most fun thing in the world.
4. Someone watching you paint behind a toilet will inevitably lead to hysterical laughter.
5. Wear a bandana around your hair. It will get paint on it.
6. Use your own paintbrush. You will get paint all over it.
7. I am one messy ass painter and should not quit my day job.

On to knitting news…..

So, Ms. Shapely tank is finito! Yippy! Thanks to the wonders of blocking it fits, like a glove. I actually like it! This is the first thing that I’ve knit for myself. As I was blocking I realized I made the wrong size. I failed to let my brain fully process the words…finished size XX”. Don’t know what kind of brain fart that was, but it was messy. Check out the difference. The left is blocked, the right is pre-block.

Pretty cool huh?

This is her all finished up. I call this pose my “Something sneaking is going on” pose. This is the face I had on in my pre-name change license. At least I got a few laughs out of it.

Shapely eh? This tank has shortrows at the bottom and up top. I still am not convinced that the ones up top are completely necessary. However, to really judge I’d have to make one without them. The short rows at the bottom give you this:

I finally figured out how to pick up the shortrow stitches invisibly. See…

Project Specs:

The pattern is free and available here. It was fun to knit once I acquired all the necessary skills. Picking up stitches was a two try effort. As was knitting through the short row stitches invisibly. I love this yarn. I used South West Trading Company’s Beyond. This is the second yarn I’ve used from the Company. The first was Bamboo. I will definitely find more projects for each of these. I knit this pattern exactly as specified. No changes. If I did it again, I would eliminate the shaping on the bottom. I prefer a straight edge along my waist.

I downloaded pictures from the reading last week. They’re blurry! I’ll spare you. Sorry about that.

Check out our wicked cool Halloween Invites. Robby designed these and we finally got them in the mail. We glued these back to back onto a piece of black card stock. I think they turned out really well.

Like Jo Knits I’ve been wanting to make a yarn swift for sometime. I’m an engineer’s daughter. What can I say? Any of them out there will tell you that their blood won’t allow them to consider paying SO MUCH MONEY for something that you could easily make. Or maybe not so easily make. Or maybe something that will take over your life and you will spend hours and hours perfecting the perfect angle at which the different slats of wood meet. I haven’t gone there yet. But this is what I picture when I consider the prospect of embarking on this journey of invention with my Dad.

Engineer’s daughters also know that you MUST budget at least an extra 3 hours onto any project, because it always takes that much longer to get perfection beyond any normal persons idea of perfection. However, engineer’s daughters will also tell you that they have never gone without, because all of those “If only this stupid thing would blankedee, blank” statements were always answered with – “We can make that stupid thing go blankedee, blank.” And that is the coolest thing ever.

Immediately after reading Jo Knits post I came across these instructions: Homemade Yarn Swift (via Boston’s Stitch ‘n Bitch Yahoo Group.) It’s kismet!

Guess what I’m going to build while home during Thanksgiving Weekend?

I went to the signing last night. Amy is sweet and it was fun to hear about the book’s birthing process. At first glance I wasn’t sure there was much in there that I was interested in. Amy went through each pattern and talked a bit about each. Now, I think that there are a bunch in there I’d like to try. Many of the patterns that are in there are from Knitty. However, most have been reworked. I took a few pictures; I’ll try to post them tonight.

We worked on our Halloween invites last night. We’re Late. We’re always Late. I’m slowly getting used to life with a Southern Man. They’re awesome though (Southern Men and the invites). It will be great to get them in the mail and get on to the next stage of party planning – The Food!

Oh, go check out this free toy a la Knit Wit. Erika Mulherin does some pretty cool illustrations.. I have it up on my desktop and it makes me want to go knit.

Editor’s Note: Robby had a strange experience on Friday. This is his story:

MY UFO STORY (OR HOW BUDWEISER SAVED THE DAY… AGAIN)
By Wendy’s Husband

Okay, here’s what happened (forget that I had another really long, stressful day that involved several near mishaps in this insane Boston traffic. Forget that I’m the second most paranoid conspiracy theorist I know. Forget that I’m a life-long insomniac and have constant hallucinations during the day from sleep deprivation. Forget that I’m researching all those UFOs (which are oh so very carefully) described in the Bible. Forget all that). I popped open an ice-cold Bud (in a can!) and Vladimir Guerrero smacked a big, fat grand slam and tied the game 6 – 6. I felt the collective stomach of all the folks at Fenway Park drop through the bleachers all the way out here in the ghetto. I looked at my beer. “Son of a crack,” I said.

Did my opening a beer just as Guerrero’s bat made contact with the ball jinx the Sox? I sulked. I tried to distract myself. “Don’t watch,” I said. I fed Kumar and Futureman. I fed Gabby and Rya. I started fishing through the dirty clothes hamper for my lucky sock hat and then it hit me. If it worked once… maybe it would work again. I waited and waited and waited. I tried to pick just the right moment. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I was dying of thirst. I looked at the “born on” date: SEPTEMBER 14. “That’s fresh,” I thought. I popped it open and WHACK! David Ortiz smacked a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 10th. Fin! Sweep! Series over! I looked at my beer. “Right on,” I said.

Gabby and I celebrated by working on our Halloween party invitations and chasing tennis balls from the living room into the kitchen and back. Rya celebrated by licking up the beer I had spilled on the coffee table. Usually she does this herself. (She’ll knock over a beer or glass of wine with her tail and then look at you as if to say, “Sorry… it was an accident. Well, here, I’ll just lick it up. No worries.” She’s the lickinest dog in the universe. She has several nicknames: Lickie, Lickie Lake, TJ Lickers. This week I made up a song that goes “Oh Lickie you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Lickie… hey Lickie.”)

Finally it was time to go pick the Bookish Girl up from the bookstore (I get to vacuum and shake out the rug). But just as I was getting ready to leave I heard this crazy wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub-wub sound coming from outside. Gabby ran to the office window to look out. “What the hell?” I thought. It wasn’t a helicopter, quite, but similar. I honest-to-God had this thought as I walked down the steps: What if there’s a UFO out here?

I stepped off the porch and onto the sidewalk and that’s when I saw it. It scared the hell out of me at first. It was the size of a small building, but rounder. And all lit up. It roared like the sea. It hovered directly above the housing project across the street. For a second I thought maybe the aliens were going to beam up the dudes that mugged me last winter and beat the hell out of them (or at least give them the anal probe). I squinted into the darkness and put my hand up to block out the street light.

There was writing on the side of the UFO but I couldn’t quite make it out. At first I thought it said: BEER. But then I realized I was just having one of those Homer Simpson-esque moments, some kind of mental Freudian slip. I stepped closer. The air hissed and cracked and buzzed like a Poulan. Finally I could see the writing clearly. The UFO had the word HOOD written on the side in great big letters. HOOD. I said the word over and over to myself. “Hood. Hood.” What the hell could it mean? Then I remembered a verse from the book of Ezekiel that says “above the heads of the creatures there was something that looked like a dome made of dazzling crystal and the word HOOD glowed hence.”

“Holy Christ,” I thought. Was this the end of the world? If I had hair it would have been standing straight up. I stood paralyzed and watched the UFO until it drifted slowly away. I couldn’t wait to tell the Bookish Girl. Would she even believe me? I climbed in the car and raced toward the bookstore. What would I say? How would I tell her? And then in one of those rare moments that can only be described as an epiphany, it occurred to me that I could save the world by rushing home and popping open another Bud. “Honey, you’ll never believe what happened,” I said bursting into the bookstore. “What?” she said. “I’ll tell you as soon as we get home,” I said. “We’ve got to hurry.”

Editor’s Note: Needless to say, we’ve got a whole case of Budweiser in the fridge ready for tonight.

Windsor Button had a Columbus Day Sale yesterday, 20% off.

Yeah Windsor Button!

Lookeee at all the goodies. A treat for me, something for the sister, something for a new munchkin in incubation and something for Gus (cutie newborn pic of the little man.)

Three hours later and this is what I have.

Isn’t it the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? They’re UGG booties from a Knitty Gritty episode. Check out the pattern here. They use Berroco Suede and Berroco Plush. They have a cool “suede” texture to them. It was super easy to knit and if you’re patient any level of knitter could do it. Attaching the fuzz was the most difficult part. I chose to use the Plush yarn to pick up stitches along the sides and over the front. I then weaved another strand through these stitches. I switched the two suede colors by accident. The darker should be the sole. Oh well, I think it turned out pretty good! I’ll get started on to the second one soon.

Check out KatyKnits version. She did hers in one color of Suede. They are just as cute and if you don’t already have suede in your stash I am pretty sure you could get one pair out of one ball. Too cute!

Don’t forget! Amy Singer is at Circles tonight signing her book Knit Wit. It is a potluck. I’ll be there with bells on!

My first adult sized sweater. Yippy, dancing in the streets. Glory Be. How much fun is it? And how cute. The Pattern is the Big Sack Sweater from Stitch ‘n Bitch. The designer is Jenna Wilson.

Project Notes:

Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair. I like this yarn a lot. It’s soft and easy to knit with. There are some things I did not like about it. It is weak, this goes against the Knitters Review opinion. It broke very easily. Especially when seaming. It would just pull apart as I tugged at it to tighten up my mattress stitch. VERY FRUSTRATING. Otherwise, it’s a lot of fun. I mentioned this before, I am afraid that it won’t hold up to the wear of time. Stay tuned.

Pattern: 1 – The construction of this sweater is pretty straight forward. I did have some problems with the raglan shaping when I first tried it. That was user error. I was knitting at a different gauge than the pattern and I tried to make up for it during the raglan decreases on the front panel. Not possible. 2 – I added about 4” to the length of the front and back – it’s still pretty short. I can’t imagine what it would be like at the intended length. 3 – I also shortened the sleeves by 4”.

As far as I can tell there weren’t many issues with the pattern. However, because it was easy to understand…I didn’t pay too much attention. Click here for the errata.

There is a pretty large issue with the sizing. The arms are not wide enough to accommodate a male’s physique. I knit at size large intending to get a small for my lovely husband. Everything worked out according to the patterns schematic. I blocked and seamed. It’s super tight on him around his shoulders and upper arms. He refuses to take the thing off, he loves it. But that is because I made it and he is a good husband. I think it makes him look a bit odd. It fits me perfectly. Hmmmm.

Mistakes: I decided to include these so that I’m aware if I tackle it again and also because I’m a semi-beginner knitter I have this odd perception that the masters out there don’t make and don’t tolerate mistakes. I am usually pretty anal and glaring issues were corrected. Some things I left – 1. A raglan decrease on the sleeve one stitch too close to the end of the row. I put this on the back – you can’t tell in the sea of stockinette. 2 – Missed a cable. It was at the top of the neck. I didn’t realize until I had already bound off the neck. In the end, I like it better. It really sets off the neck nicely. 3 – The roll neck isn’t long enough. It doesn’t roll as dramatically as the sleeves and bottom. 4 – Seaming. Man there was a lot of seaming. It took and entire afternoon of football to seam this bastard. Some of my seams aren’t that great…but you know what, it’s a hand-knit sweater. It should look that way.

There were other mistakes. But you get my drift. It’s not perfect but yet it looks pretty damn awesome. This was completed as part of the Man-a-Long. We’ll take a full spread of pictures with the goal of kicking some butt in that portion of the competition.

I do have a question… the back seems to be shorter than the front. The back is not shorter. I blocked both sides to the exact same length. Is this something that I did when seaming it? Is there some trick to preventing this? Store bought sweaters don’t have this issue?! Any thoughts? I know you’re out there. I need wisdom people!

Rya loves the sweater (disclaimer: Rob is the family photographer, he is at work. I’m lucky this is even in focus)

Finished Hoot today. So good. A fun book, quick read and truly entertaining. I would highly recommend it for kids and adults. It even has an environmental slant to it!

Picked up Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott tonight. I love Charming Billy and am really looking forward to this book.

I may delete my virtual nightstand. Our bookshelves at home are filled with books I haven’t read. I really just need to choose books and read them as the mood strikes me. Of course the exception to that rule would have to be bookclub books.

I’m working on the decreases for the raglan sleeve of the Big Sack Sweater. This is the final piece. Tune in Monday for the finished sweater (knock on wood!) I hope it fits.

I forgot to bring my knitting with me yesterday! Yikes. That’s the worst. The last time I forgot it I truly regretted it. I ended up sitting in my car at the airport for TWO HOURS waiting for husband Rob to get into the airport and get off his plane. The fact that I was able to sit in one spot for TWO HOURS without the poooolice asking me to move along is pretty huge. It was a TWO HOUR time period with nothing but me and NPR. I didn’t have a book, knitting, or even a graham cracker to nibble on. It was horrible. I almost went crazy. The rest of the day I griped how I had TWO HOURS to get something done and I wasted it. Man, I gotta get a grip and learn to relax.

No knitting content to speak of. I did pick up the Shapely Tank this past weekend. It’s just waiting to be seamed, all done otherwise. First glimpse tells me it’s going to be small…small, not huge like I thought? Anyone know of a teenage girl not afraid to wear a hand knit tank? The final block and seaming may help me out a bit. I’m not holding my breath though.

To continue with the Introductions…

This is Gabby. She is 10(?), but Rob won’t let me tell her that. She is the silent matriarch of the family. Rya (our other sweet love) will go to great lengths not to disturb her. She is easily brought to action with the word snack and walk. In fact, she will hug you (for real) for a snack. Gabby also goes by….Gabbiligoo, Gawby, Goo-Goo, and Gabalicious. Ain’t she a sweet face?

I finished reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and my friend Erin’s manuscript yesterday. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was okay. I think that it was incredibly well written. Michael Chabon is talented. I didn’t really like the characters and this makes it hard to love the book. There are plenty of other books where the characters are flawed and unlikable but somewhere you usually find some characteristic that endears you to them (The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch is one that immediately comes to mind.) This doesn’t happen here. The story follows a young adult boy through his summer in Pittsburgh. He’s tormented by familial history and has picked up a new set of friends. Each of these people is rich in character, a few are likeable, but overall I can’t quite figure out how they mesh together. I think Chabon plays with characters a bit, trying to bring out qualities in each that somehow mirror the protagonist. I’m not quite sure he pulls it off here and well as he does in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Each of these characters challenges Art, the protagonist, but not in a way that is clear. All in all, a good read but I don’t know if I’d recommend it. If you’re a Chabon fan, it’s worth picking up.

Here’s an interview with Chabon on powells.com.

Erin’s manuscript is impressive, her first novel. She’s got a talent for writing in a clear and concise manner. I’m looking forward to talking with you about it all Erin!

I needed a quick read before my bookclub meets next week to pick our next selection. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen has been in the bookcase for awhile. It’s a book geared toward the 10-12 age range. Just about exactly what I can handle right now. I haven’t read Hiaasen and this may be a good start.