My dear husband and I traveled the length of Ohio during our Christmas Vacation.

It was, like, our job.

We left Boston on a Friday. Drove to Rochester and stayed until a Monday and drove to Kentucky and stayed until a Thursday and drove to Cleveland and stayed until a Friday and drove to Rochester and stayed until a Saturday and drove to Boston and collapsed in a fit of insanity. All told we spent approximately 40 hours in the car.

1 week off + 40 hours in the car = in was our job.

Fortunately my dear husband agreed to drive during most daylight hours. This left me with a bit of yarn and some needles. My new Denise Interchangeables to be specific. Here we begin the parade of objects that came out of that trip. You’ve seen some projects already. My dad’s Christmas scarf being one, and my boyfriend’s mittens being another.

These…these are awesome.

We have here Kate Gilbert’s Gifted Mitten Pattern. Ahhh, I screwed up these as well. Somehow I was able to screw up the same exact way during the production of the second mitten. Voila…they look the same. Miracles never cease.

These are for a person yet to be named. I know where they’re going. They were made just for a single soul. I really wanted the stripes in the mittens to be uneven and seemingly random. I am far to anal for such insanity. Teen Knitting Club book inspired me with a pattern they have for a hat. (By the way, this is a pretty great book. Very well done.)

The number of rows in each color corresponds to the recipients birthday. I’ll let you know where these are going when they get there. In the meantime, to use a random example say you wanted to knit a pair of these for, let’s see, ME! you would find out MY! birth day and year. March 3, 1976.

The most glorious day of the year. 3-3-76.

For a three color mitten – Color one would be three rows. Color two would be three rows. Color three would be seven rows. Color one would be six rows. Color two would be three rows….get it? If you really want to go crazy you could include the full year 1976. 1 – 9 – 7 – 6. What would you end up with? A very special pair of mittens for a very special person – ME!

No sleep till – Brooklyn !
Foot on the pedal
never ever false metal

Engine running hotter than a boiling kettle

My iob ain’t a job
it’s a damn good time

City to city I’m running my rhymes.
On location
touring around the nation

By the time I get home the only thing I can really manage is to eat and cruise the internet. Knitting time has been restricted to my commute. (Which almost led me to the brink of insanity this morning. I moved to New England to escape the perils of crazy people who don’t know what to do with snow.) Reading time is limited to those few minutes between my body hitting the flannel sheets and my brain shutting off.

And blog reading? Well, this is only done with strict safety procedures in place with all members in full compliance.

I introduce to you THE BROWNS HELMET. Brought to you by Rob, Browns fan extraordinaire. We scoured the streets of Cleveland for Browns paraphernalia and franklin, I think we hit the mother load with this item.

Have you all seen these little videos?

My current favorite is “At Home with the kids.”

Robby came across them a few months ago and we constantly laugh at their memory. He pulled one up today. Creepy and funny all at the same time.

BTW – thanks for all of the bloggy support…you guys rock the cash bar.

Have you all seen these little videos?

My current favorite is “At Home with the kids.”

Robby came across them a few months ago and we constantly laugh at their memory. He pulled one up today. Creepy and funny all at the same time.

BTW – thanks for all of the bloggy support…you guys rock the cash bar.

Have you all seen these little videos?

My current favorite is “At Home with the kids.”

Robby came across them a few months ago and we constantly laugh at their memory. He pulled one up today. Creepy and funny all at the same time.

BTW – thanks for all of the bloggy support…you guys rock the cash bar.

Have you all seen these little videos?

My current favorite is “At Home with the kids.”

Robby came across them a few months ago and we constantly laugh at their memory. He pulled one up today. Creepy and funny all at the same time.

BTW – thanks for all of the bloggy support…you guys rock the cash bar.

Six months of marriage and a few bagel bites into a celebration my husband looks at me and says, “How about a romantic evening?”

How do I reply?

“Oh honey, how about a night of cuddling and sleep.”

Should I be worried?!

As many of you know, I started a new job this week. It’s fun and energizing and motivating and enthralling and just plain damn busy. For one reason or another I had a copiuous amount (or is it copious amounts? For crying out loud will someone get my grammar lessons for my damn birthday. Which by the way is March 3rd. I’m a big fan of the birthday. Full ones and half ones. I may get out a P.O. box for the occation. Kidding. Really. Kidding.) of time on my hands.

Enter blogland. The savior of my blindingly boring day. I love my blog, I love my fellow bloggers. Inspiration, good humor and kind words all in one place. And now, now I can’t even find time to check bloglines with its updates screaming at me.

I’m thinking about you all…I’m almost through all of your shanananananangins and will hopefully find some way to balance the demands of a new job and the posting/reading of my lovely blogs.

I have been knitting. Maybe I’ll just start posting pictures….

Two observations about the new job:

A – Elisa is evil. She failed to remove the scary offending clown on January 19th in the Knitters Calender that we both have. I realize now why she wanted me to work with her – so she can scare the bejeezes out of me. That and tempt me into trips to the yarn store during lunch.

B – Do I really want to be a part of an office community that has a sign “Please flush after use” over the toilet? I realize that PhD’s can be a little flightly…but, really, is this necessary?!

On the knitting front

We’ve got leg!

These are the no-sweat pants from Interweave Knits. A fun knit for a fun girl..

Whew. Note to self: do not EVER quit your job. It’s no fun for anyone. However, I must say that I made up a new sound yesterday after hopping off my last commuter rail trip to the southern tier of Boston.

“I don’t have to work there anyyyyymoooooreeee”

Repeat, say, 1,000 times and you get the feeling that’s pulsing through my blood right now.

A quiz:

Which one of these things doesn’t look like the other?

The pattern is Kate Gilbert’s Gifted pattern.

It’s lovely to knit. My boyfriend Caleb picked the colors and I miraculously turned the yarn into a single mitten before his eyes. I made a few modifications and/or forgot to do some things in the pattern. In spite of that it all looked pretty good. The one exception was the thumb. The thumb was super long. This kid could have picked up a ride from the Polar Express with that thumb sticking out. Sorry, no picture…use your imagination!

What is a knitter pressed for time to do? Cut the thumb. Green Eyed Girl recently did this with a silly looking sock. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Totally liberating. I highly recommend it.

I left sweet boyfriend Caleb’s side and went off to finish the second mitten. I got the thumb right this time. But I forgot what kind of modifications were made. Alas…two mittens made for someone who is very confused…

Seeing as he’s two and likely to loose them in the first millisecond of wearing them – they’re getting sent off to him mama tomorrow.

I leave you with this:

Our cat futureman…who has no shame.