In Memory

Margaret Timms Franklin Saety

July 17, 1927 - May 27, 2007

Grandma, not a sweet grandmother in the traditional cookie baking sugar giving, spoiling rotten sense. But a woman who loved constantly.

Besides her children, and grandchildren she also loved;

Music - playing the piano, seeing the opera and the symphony

Ballet

Shoes - dozens of pairs, especially red ones, oh if only she didn't have such tiny feet.

She is survived by her sister Imogene, daughter & son-in-law Barbara & Kerry, son Don, grandaughter Alexis and grandson Jason.

If you have a second to think a nice thought about a really topnotch ladt today, please do.

I can sew! (50th post woohoo!)

Joel's grandma gave me her old sewing machine.

It's not very fancy, it can't do zig-zag stitch or button-holes or any of the cool stuff that even an inexpensive modern machine can do. *but* it is exceptionally cool looking (that counts right?) it was so sweet of Joel's grandma to give it to me, and it was *free* which is my favorite price. I moved it into the craft room last night. Hopefully when I go home today (I'm at mom's right now) I'll get some sewing done.

Like most things in Joel's family the machine has been exceptionally well cared for and it runs like a dream.

I'm just happy that all my belly-aching paid off this time. The funny thing is that I don't think I even mentioned to Joel how much I wanted one. I may have said something in passing but as he doesn't really understand my drive to craft and create, I usually don't tell him stuff like that.

Maybe I was just sending "get me a sewing machine" vibes into the universe... it's The Secret! It works! hehe



In honor of this being my 50th post I decided that what I really needed was a kitten heel red patent leather shoe. How else do you celebrate 50 posts I ask you? So I went to target.com and purchased this:
psst... click on the picture to get yourself a pair

Okay so I didn't really buy them because of 50 posts... but it sounded good right? I bought them because they remind me of my grandma (grandma loves red shoes) and I thought they'd look nice with my navy dress... even if red shoes are played out.

I will do something in honor of the 50th post though... I'll have a CONTEST.

It's easy, leave me a comment (say something nice... or maybe neutral) and I'll use one of them thar random number generators thingies to pick a name. I'll send you some yarn. Because I love you. Good yarn too.

I guess we'll say leave a comment by 5:00 pm Pacific time on Tuesday. Thanks.

Purchases!

I went shopping yesterday. I bought some Soak Citrus (I love the Soak woolwash, you should try it)

I also bought some Cider Moon yarn from Sheri @ The Loopy Ewe. It's Icicle - Taos, but it's all gone now, haha.

And some of the Lane Borgosesia laceweight (also from Sheri) in Black... to make a shawl to go with my dress to wear to Carmen this fall. maybe I should start that once it arrives huh? I'm still debating what pattern... more on that later.

So after I spent $50 at Sheri's I strolled on over to Knit Picks where I purchased 6 skeins of Telemark (3 Snow Leopard and 3 Aubergine) to make 3 pairs of of Pirate Mittens (arrgh!) for myself and my 2 homegirls. Rather than putting the year I will put "Lex" "Sha" and "Jess" on the palm of everyone's respective mittens. Clearly this yarn does not count since it was purchased for gift making.

Ditto for the 11 skeins of Wool of The Andes (Grass and Chestnut) purchased for felted clog making (a pair for my mom and a pair for Joel... say it with me now *awww*) I was going to do a contrasting sole on them, but then I decided to put leather soles on.

Then I bought Victorian Lace Today from which I hope to find a shawl to make for Carmen.

And we have sweater

Look at her... she's just so beautiful...

The sweater... not the girl. The girl looks like she's on drugs and doesn't brush her hair. I have no idea who that person is. I assure you that *I* do not look like I'm on drugs, I have a charming rather than creepy smile and I do brush my hair.

Here's a better view of the pattern on the sleeve.

Specs:

Pattern: Phoebe Pullover from knitpicks.com (based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage saddle shoulder sweater)

Start/End: 2/15/2007 - 5/18/2007

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of The Andes. 11 balls (not 12, definitely not 13!)

Size: 40" around and 26" from top of shoulder to bottom of ribbing

Needles: size 6 KnitPicks DPN's on sleeves size 6 36" AddiTurbo Circular on body

Mods: I decided not to do the mesh pattern on the shoulders and instead just do the straight lines of twisted stitches. I decided to do this because it is more aesthetically pleasing. It has nothing to do with it being really hard to do the mesh pattern on the wrong side while doing the saddle shoulders. Nothing at all. How dare you even suggest it. Otherwise, that's it.

I feel victorious. I must return to family obligations now... but I just wanted you all to know that I made the greatest sweater ever.

Finito!

I finished Phoebe on Friday
Blocked her on Saturday
Wore her on Sunday

Plus I took pictures!

But I haven't gotten them off my camera yet. Joel said that she makes me eyes look "really pretty" So that's nice.

Blogging will be intermittant at best this week. My grandmother is very sick. I'm spending most of my free time with her while I can. (This is not free time... I'm supposed to be working)

I'll get back to all you peeps later.

7 Things

Mia tagged me. And I want to play fair so, here's my 7 Thing's Meme that's been floating around. The deal is that you list 7 things about yourself and then tag 7 people.

1) By the time I graduated high school I had attended 7 schools in 4 districts (Yaquina View, North Clackamas, Newport Middle, Sunnyside, Sunrise, Kellogg, Franklin)

2)I had also lived in 11 unique residences in 3 cities (Newport OR, Clackamas OR, Portland OR) if people ask me where I'm from I usually say Portland and don't go into it. I'm not sure why.

3) Today I rode my bike to work for the first time, it was fun. 7.16 miles, most of which was on a scenic path along the river. A good time... good time.

4) I recently moved in with my boyfriend of 3+ years... so far it's working out pretty well, I haven't killed him yet, so that's a positive ;-)

5) I have a three-way tie for my all time favorite movies: Casablanca, The Godfather, and Office Space.

6) I love to cook, even if it's just Mac & Cheese (not from a box, of course). But I have difficulty following a recipe. I am not always a good cook.

7) I don't have a favorite book, I love them all unconditionally, if pressed I will usually say White Oleander by Janet Finch. You should read it for sure.

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you haven't done this, you should. And then throw me a comment so I can see who actually listens to what I say (if it's no one, I'll be sad, but I'll probably find a way to move on)

Look what I can do!

I can knit a sweater!

And take pictures of it.

Phoebe on Sunday. Despite being directly in front of a window, the color still turned out like poop. The Arctic Pool Heather is much more blue and not very gray at all.

I have completed the shoulder shaping and at the point in the picture I am ready to start joining the front and back with the sleeve pattern beidging the two.

Today I have completed the first shoulder and will start on the second once I get home. I hope to finish it tomorrow at knit night and do the collar on Friday, block the sweater Saturday and take pictures Sunday.

I believe it will actually fit me. The sleeves are a teensy bit snug... but not exceptionally so. The body has the perfect amount of ease and the sweater will be just the right length. Hooray!

Hi again (no knitting)

So I'm back, for the second time today. Apparently I have a lot to say. or maybe i've eaten too many chocolate covered espresso beans and I'm jittery. Whatever.

The opera Joel & I went to this weekend was The Magic Flute by Mozart (sung in German, with spoken word in English)

The role of "Queen of the Night" was played by Mari Moriya and she sang with such beauty and clarity and strength that her arias have been haunting me all weekend and all day. Especially Der Holle Rache Kocht in Meinem Herzen (Hell's Vengeance Boils in my Heart). I would really strongly encourage you to go to the bottom of the Wikipedia page and listen to a rendition of it. Even if you do not follow or care for opera you'll recognize the tune and I think anyone can appreciate the difficulty of the notes the soprano must hit in this number.

Listen, enjoy, please.

In other news... I need a sewing machine :(

I know in a previous post I mentioned getting one from Craigslist for a good deal. Well when I went to get it the "owner" was clearly a meth addict with a house stuffed full of things (most likely not entirely legally hers) so I politely declined to take the hot sewing machine off of her hands.

Then one of my flaker friends said I could come over and use hers, she then cancelled on me twice and I have since given up on that angle.

My mom has a sewing machine, the tension is *way* off. I considered using it anyway but decided I would be too mad if it snagged my fabric. It would cost $70 to tune it up, which is far more than the damn thing is worth, even running perfectly. Plus I don't have $70.

So... anyone in Portland want to let me use your sewing machine? I am but a poor pitiful crafter who wants desperately to make a couple of summer dresses. Have mercy on me. I'd even rent one if there were a place that lent them out for the day for cheap. Anyone know of such a place?

*sigh* it sucks to be broke.

Any Day Now

Phoebe is SO CLOSE to being done. I probably would have finished her this weekend if I could have spent the time taken up by getting ready for and going to the opera Saturday night (about 5 hours) and the time spent cooking/eating/cleaning/hanging out with mom on Sunday (6 hours).

I even have pictures! But they're trapped in my camera... I'll try to get to my parents' sometime this week and get it uploaded.

Right now I have finished the saddle shoulder shaping (which I like... it looks nice). I need to put the neck hole stitches on scrap yarn and start attaching the front and back. Which by my calculations will be about 26 rows of 32 stitches back and forth on each side.

That means each shoulder will be approximately 832 stitches, which is the equivalent of 4 rounds of body knitting. Although the shoulders are in pattern and the body was in stockinette... so I guess it's closer to 13 of the sleeve rounds. That would have taken me about an evening, I guess that means I have two more evenings of knitting before I can pick up the neck.

I think I'll only do about an inch of the 1x1 ribbing for the neck so that should take one evening or a lunch hour (half hour).

That means I expect an obscene amount of criticism if I am not finished by this weekend. Feel free to kick me out of the knitter's club. I will deserve it. Yup.

Ravelry.com love

I'm on Ravelry!

Violet invited me to beta with her a month or so ago but I never signed up because their site said they weren't compatable with IE and I'm much too lazy to download a whole new internet browser :)

Anyways, I'd heard everyone talking about it so I had to go and check it out. It seems to be doing just fine with ie and it is so awesome.

You can list your current projects, your yarn stash, your needle inventory, your "wanna do" projects and soon your library of knitting goodies. There's also goodies for designers that I have yet to check out.

You can link to your blog, browse other people's projects, it appears that there's even a yarn trading area either up or in the works (I haven't looked too closely yet), link to pictures from Flickr, start -alongs. It's still in beta and I guess they have something like 3,000 people in the queue to send invites to (they are making sure they can handle that much traffic before they let them in... good idea!)

So come see me and definitely think about joining once it's 100% open. I plan on doing much photographing over the weekend to update all my projects and stuff. Yay for the internet!

Best Girlfriend Ever

That's me :-)

I made a winner of a meal last night and the title of best girlfriend ever (BGE) was graciously bestowed upon me.

I thought I'd share with you the secrets of my masterpiece so you to could become a BGE or BBE or BWE or BFE... whatever.

The menu:
Rachel Ray's Cognac Steaks from 2,4,6,8 (the "Aren't We Fancy" supper for 2)
Caramelized Onion and Bacon salad
fresh French Bread from New Seasons bakery

Steaks:
Two 1" thick New York Steaks (raised in Oregon, from Oregon Country Natural co-op)

Season one side liberally with pepper, pat into the meat. Place in a Medium High pan with 2tbsp Olive Oil and sear 3 minutes on each side (for rare). Remove from heat and cover with tin foil to keep warm.

Add a cup of coarsely chopped onions and 2 cloves of garlic to the pan (more olive oil if necessary) season with salt and cook for 5-7 minutes until soft but not browned. Remove from the burner, add 2 shots of cognac and return to heat, allow the cognac to flame up. Once the flames die down add about 3/4 cup of beef broth and 1/4 cup half and half. Cook until reduced by half. Serve over steaks.

Salad:
6 cups washed chopped spinach
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (if you don't live with someone who thinks tomatoes are evil)
3 strips bacon
1/3 cup sliced onion (either rings or strips)

Cook the bacon to very crispy. Drain the bacon grease and add 2 tbsp of Olive Oil to the pan.

Add onions to oil, stirring frequently, cook for 10 minutes. Remove onions and place on a paper towel to drain. Remove pan from the heat, to prepare dressing add 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp dijon mustard, whisk until mixed. Very slowly whisk in another 4 tbsp olive oil, set aside.

Combine vegetables, and crumble bacon over the salad. Mix in dressing. Top with onions before serving.

So go, make, and become the BEST GIRLFRIEND EVER. Be sure to serve with your SO's favorite beverage (mine is a gin martini).

The 13th ball

I'm so close to being done with Phoebe.

I finished up the second sleeve this weekend. I did about 13 inches in a week... without trying that hard. If only that had happened, oh... 4 weeks ago.

Now I have about 3 more inches of boring stockinette tube to finish for the body, then I join the three pieces together at the armpits and continue up the shoulders to the neck. Hurray!

Here's where I'm concerned. I purchased 12 balls of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Arctic Pool Heather for this project. I am currently using the 8th ball (50% finished), on the body. I used 1.5 balls on each 19" sleeve and have so far used 4 full balls (probably 5 once I'm done) on 17" of body.

Does this sound like 4 balls will be enough to finish once I join at the underarms and work up to the saddle shoulders then complete the crew neck? I really think it is, but since this is my first sweater I don't feel 100% confident. Do I need a 13th ball?

The thing that's keeping me from just getting some spare yarn is that I'm sure if this isn't enough all I'm going to need is one more ball. But since it is KnitPicks that means I'd have to pay $2.50 shipping on a measly $2 ball of yarn and that hurts my heart a little. Am I the cheapest person alive? I think maybe I am. *sigh*

So the only comments I want to see right now are "Yes Lexy, you will definitely have enough yarn to finish that sweater. Don't worry about being 6 yards short and crying yourself to sleep because you're a cheap idiot who doesn't order an extra skein. You will have enough yarn"

Ya' dig?

P.S. I do realize that if I do not order the yarn, I will be short, and if I do order it I will finish not only without using the 13th ball, but with 20 or 30 yards left on the 12th one. I'll accept this in time.

Nooooo!

Dammit!

I tried to leave my sockapalooza pal a seceret comment on her blog and the damned thing automattically put in my blog address in the comments.

So if you're here, Ruth, look away! Don't come back! I know NOTHING.

I hate autofill...

Luckily I have posted nothing about here sock here or on the blogger blog... hopefully nothing will be spoiled. And I suppose I'll just have to refrain from posting in the future. I'm really mad that I gave myself away in the first week. I love a freaking surprise.

Damn my idiocy sometimes.

The View From My Desk

These are the horrific results of a girl with too much time on her hands and a camera phone :)

The top picture is what I see when I look to the left. Watching those trees bloom all Spring has brought me an unreasonable amount of joy. I really try to make a mental note of them almost every day so I can think back to how they looked bare and with little buds and everything.

I'm a nerd, I know, no need to rub it in.

The bottom one is what I see when I look over the top of my computer (why would I do that?The whole world is here in this box) And it's a really bustling little corner here in The Pearl, it brings me much people watching time when I'm not doing anything. Like right now.

So, what do you see from your window?