What I Did Over My Four Day Vacation

I swear to cats, four day weekends are the best. I get so much done!

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. I cooked our 19 pound free Shoprite turkey. And now we'll be eating turkey well into 2012.


Mr. Mooch likes to enjoy his juice box out of a champagne flute. A regular juice box is so pedestrian.

On Friday, I made my Christmas cards.



I stole the idea for these cards from here.

Saturday, we traveled to northwestern Nueva Jersey and got our Christmas tree.



Fresh-cut trees last so much longer than those darn tree-lot trees!

Finally on Sunday, it was a momentous occasion!



Chunky's 10th birthday! Gah, I'm way too young to have a 10 year old! Ha ha!

His cake was a football cake. Thank goodness these boys ask for simple cakes!

I also finished a ton of Christmas knitting, but alas, you can't see that! Sorry!

Now I'm counting down to my next 4 day weekend--only 12 more workdays to go. Of course that 4 day weekend will probably be peppered with phone calls from the office!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Chief Whinesalot!

May your turkey be moist and your pumpkin pie delicious!

What I Did With My Weekend (On Wednesday)

Oh where to start!

First was Saturday--the day of taking this:



And turned it into this:



It's a baby blanket for Baby Bez 3.0.

The top is just a simple "scrappy circles" (sewn on there so that the edges of the circles are raw and will eventually ravel) pattern.

But my favorite has to be the back:



Minky!! Holy crap that stuff is so soft!! And warm.

There's no batting, but I did tie the front to the back.

Not the girliest colors in the world. I still find myself gravitating to uber-girly colors only about half the time.

Sunday, I hooked up with Chris for a trip to the Lion Brand Outlet.

The LB Outlet store is nestled in the New Jersey that the jokes about New Jersey are made of.



It's located in Carlstadt, NJ which I seriously believe is just one giant industrial park nestled in the shadow of NYC.

Which is where the LB Outlet was--you drive and drive past warehouses and down rutted roads, past tons of parked tractor trailers--and then you reach the LB Outlet.

Inside, after you go thru the doors that have crocheted and knitted cozies on the handles...you're greeted by a ginormous knitted work of art.



I'm not sure what was my favorite--the argyle giraffe or the giant snake!

There are rows of deeply discounted bags of yarn that Lion Brand carries.

When you fill up your cart, you'll find this seasonal display by the register:



A giant ice skating lion and a snow-lion (and another penguin!). Again, all knit!

I walked away with a TON of yarn for less than $100. I highly, highly, highly recommend a trip to this outlet if you ever find yourself in northern New Jersey and have the urge to see where Hoffa might be buried and satisfy your cheap-yarn craving at the same time.

Blinky Slippers

And so the additions go on.

Today I give you little itty bitty baby shoes/booties/slippers, whatever...



The details:

Pattern: Magic Slippers

Yarn: Remember those unisexual colored Koigu mill ends I bought for Moochie's Tulips Baby Sweater? Well I let one girly mill end slip into my haul. This is it!

Needles: US 2

Notes: Now I'm not sure why the one slipper has kind of a boxy looking toe. But no worries. These will probably fit Baby Bez 3.0 for approximately 3 seconds. If even.

Just like the booties I have saved from the boys. Those booties now hang in my rearview mirror.

Chunky's pair were a late gift from a friend (knitted, but not handmade--or if they are by some nameless Asian person in a sweatshop overseas), and because they were late, they never fit Chunky.

Moochie's pair are a pair gifted from a real knitter that fit him for approximately 2 seconds.

Which is why I knit these pretty much with my mirror in mind.

One of the frighting things I learned at my 19 week ultrasound is that this girl has huge feet. Like 3 centimeters (and that was 2 weeks ago) long. Doesn't seem like much, but her femur measured 2.9 cms. Good lord.

How is it that Dr. Mad Scientist and I are breeding these freakishly tall or large featured children??

2X The Girliness

I cast this sweater on before we knew the sex of Baby Bez 3.0.



I thought it would be a nice unisexual color. Hmm.

Kind of.

I think Chunky summed it up best when he said the color was kind of "groovy."

Details--

Pattern: Tulips Baby Sweater (pretty ubiquitous if you google for the pattern, so I'm not going to link).

Yarn: Socks that Rock, Fire on the Mountain

Needles: US2

Notes: I made Moochie a Tulips sweater from Koigu mill ends I bought on my first (and only!) trip to Maryland Sheep and Wool. I wanted to do the same thing for Baby Bez 3.0 except with yarn from Rhinebeck.

However, everything at Rhinebeck was either to girly or too boyly (this little girl's already going to have a lot of boy stuff to wear/play with/use).

And then it hit me--Jen, our wonderful chauffeur/tour director gave Chris and I "raffle" prizes for our little trip to Rhinebeck. Just like the big tour buses do when a yarn store charters one for a fiber festival pilgrimage. Ha ha! Thus the groovy Fire on the Mountain Tulips baby sweater was born.

I've already got a hermetically sealed bag of girly clothes and handknits for Baby Bez 3.0.

I've been waiting 10 years to knit this stuff for my own kid! Ha ha!

One Hump Or Two?

Yesterday I packed up 2/3rds of my boys (the big hairy one I married stayed home to do end-of-the-quarter-grading) and drove to Central Jersey to help celebrate my friend Chris's "special" birthday.

I won't give away what number this was for her, but I will now reveal part of her birthday present.

First you have to know that she's got a penchant for camels.

So I made her these:



Hee hee!

I have to say my favorite stitch markers are some that are just like this--some tiger tail wire, a focal bead and some crimp beads. They don't snag and they fit pretty much any size needle.

Unfortunately, I ordered her other present a smidge too late. This is Part #2 of the "special" birthday present. I got the "shipped" notice the day of the party--so she had to settle for a picture of the listing and an IOU!

Happy Special Birthday Chris!

Harry Pottater

Chunky's school had a "Dress A Potato" Contest.

Of course he was supposed to turn his tater in on Monday...instead he brought it in today, his first day back at school (hooray!).

Basically, you decorate a potato like your favorite character from a book.

Here's what he came up with.



Of course I helped with the scarf--ha ha!

Knitting and potatoes--what more is there to love?

Drumroll Please!

In case you're not connected with me on Facebook--today was the day of the big unveiling.



The streak is over. It's a freakin' GIRL!

Woah nelly!

I'd post the labia pics for my dear Poops, but I've got a sleeping cat on my lap and no scanner. It's freaking hard to take pictures of these pictures with a regular old crappy point and shoot.



She looks kinda freaky in this picture, but she's totally got her Daddy's smirk.

The technician was nice enough to give us a couple of 3D pictures. Apparently, she doesn't do that for everyone--just the cute babies that pose well. Ha ha!

Good lord! I don't even know where to begin! A girl! All that cute girly stuff I've only ever knit/sewn for other people the last ten years!!!