I finished this last week, but I just haven’t found Honor, the sweater and the camera in the same room together.

I’m really happy with how this sweater turned out. Although, I did have a few issues with carrying the yarn (really, who wants to weave in all those ends?), I seem to have pulled it off. My favorite part was making the skull applique. I’m not convinced that the cheap-o felt will hold up, but I figure that at 20 cents a sheet I can just make him a new one when it wears out. I’m also toying with the idea of ironing interfacing to the back of tee shirt material and making an applique from that.

Stats:
Yarn: GGH Samoa – 2 balls of brown (I think?) and 3 balls of blue
Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Child’s Pullover
Needles: US size 9 denise and addi turbos

•I got these earrings in the mail last week. They are one of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

•Bic Mechanical Pencils – I love writing with a pencil; I feel that I write my best when using one. If I could find a pen that wrote like a pencil, it would make me SO happy.

•These shoes.

• my vintage theater chairs

•my camera

(I had a whole blog post written up earlier today and my wonderful, sweet husband logged me out of my mac user account. He does that.)

•Grey’s Anatomy. Enough said.

•Jack and Coke (or diet dr. pepper) mmmm, my most recent favorite alcoholic delight followed close by cosmos and mojitos

•Although I don’t generally go for chocolate, I will never pass up Lindt Lindor Truffles – milk chocolate only.

•My friends usually laugh at me when I go outside to join the boys, but I can’t pass up a good cigar. Acid Tea Infusion are my favorite.

•And of course, the guilty pleasure that I indulge in most frequently: Starbucks. I love me a decaf americano with half and half and whipped cream in the the winter. Summertime you’ll find me sipping a blended decaf nonfat iced latte with whipped cream.

Where to begin? There are so many it’s hard to pare it down to something manageable!

•The Chibi Darning Needle Set. I love the hooked needle, it makes weaving in ends and the mattress stitch SO easy.

•Mini Kacha-Kacha knitting counter. The thing I love most about this is that you can lock it. So many times Honor would come up and try to click it (loosing my place in my pattern!) and it would be locked, saving me (and him!) for certain doom.

•Misocrafty Sock Knitting Bag. I have two, and at least one (sometimes both) is in my purse at all times. I love it because it’s pretty and I’m never without my knitting.

•My mom makes these circular needle pouches. She made me one for my birthday and I use it so much. The nice thing is that I have ALL of my addi turbos with me in a compact pouch.

•While Addi Turbos are my favorite needles, I use my Denise needle set so much. I especially prefer it for knitting sweaters that call for multiple needle sizes. I just pop on the next size and keep on knitting. And I like that when I’m trying to get the gauge, I don’t have to worry if I don’t have the right size. (And hopefully very soon they will be back in stock at Tangle, things have been running VERY slow for the company with Christmas and TNNA.)

•Probably the most unexpected, I use Roller Pins a lot. I like them because they aren’t sharp and won’t break your yarn and they’re SO much bigger than regular sewing pins. I use them to pin two sides together when I’m seaming.

Monday
Rigatoni with Turkey Italian Sausage and Organic Marinara

Tuesday
Potato soup with turkey sausage and kale (didn’t make last week)

Wednesday
Chicken Posole

Thursday
Chicken Curry

Friday
Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday
Date night!

Sunday
leftovers or takeout?

I thought I would take this week to write about the things I use everyday and love. Today it’s kitchen stuff.

•The Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper makes the best popcorn! There are very few kernels that remain unpopped and it takes just a little bit of oil to make it work. I use this SO much.

•My Bodum Coffee Press. I use it almost every day, pop it in the dishwasher and it’s ready for the next day. Of all the coffee I drink, my favorite is out of the coffee press.

•I got my Wooden Citrus Reamer at Target for $.89. It’s perfect for juicing a lemon or two and I use it to juice my limes for cosmos!

•I bought my 5″ Calphalon Santoku Knife last year. It was the first nice knife I every bought, $30 and it was all I was willing to spend at the time on one knife. (I’ve always thought with kitchen tools that you should buy the best you can afford.) I use it every day and will take the extra time to wash it if it’s dirty rather than grab another knife.

•My friend Sarah made my butter bell. At first I wasn’t so sure about these butter bell things, but now I’m addicted. It submerges the butter in cold water, keeping it the perfect mix of cool and soft. I have to admit, it probably causes me to use more butter though!

•I recently purchased this pampered chef egg slicer. I’ve always been leery of pampered chef – I guess not so sure that it’s all they claim it to be. But I love the egg slicer. Last week when I made beef stroganoff, the egg slicer made it so fast to slice the mushrooms, even with the kids helping. I can’t wait to use it for strawberries.

If my site happens to go down (or Tangle too) don’t be alarmed, we’re just moving servers.

I’ve been knitting up a storm. I knit up a Calorimetry that ended up way too big. But I wore it any way sledding on Sunday. I just ended up tying it in a knot in the back.

I finished the cable eight top awhile back, but I’ve yet to take a pic of it. And I knit myself a Ruffles and Ridges Scarf (PDF) adding another repeat to make it wider and I used two balls of the Misti Alpaca in Cream to match my cabled hat.

In other knitting news, I found this great free knitting graph paper. And I just got in a big shipment of the favorite Malabrigo colors at Tangle. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier this week that there are a few things on sale at Tangle too, including the Very Best Sock Kits.

I’m still working on my Sweater Workshop Sweater after putting it down for several months. Mostly I’m motivated because I want my 32″ size 8 Addi Turbos out of it to knit Jim a pair of alpaca fingerless mitts and I’m too lazy to move the sweater onto waste yarn. Plus, I’d love to have another sweater to wear in these freezing temperatures. It’s a balmy 8 degrees right now with a slight hope that by Saturday our high will rise above freezing.

I’m off to boot the dog out of my seat, snuggle under a blanket, see what my TiVo has to offer me and work on my sweater.

6. Live your life. Are you surviving? or are you living a life of purpose.
7. Think about living your life with purpose, what does it mean? Does it mean that you’re living day to day or living with an end goal in mind. Does it mean that every thing you do is for a bigger reason, or are you floundering? A life that is lived with purpose has direction, is cohesive, is accomplished.
8. Don’t do things solely out of obligation. It’s not worth it.
9. Plan for the future. Make goals, live your life to fulfill them. Be hopeful, but realistic.
10. Make sacrifices to fulfill your goals, but never so much so that you lose YOU.
11. Make art. Make your life an expression of who you really ARE.

edit: part one is here.

Monday
Pizza aka fend for yourselves while I’m at my teachers meeting eating tasty snacks

Tuesday
Penne with broccoli & ricotta

Wednesday
Salmon tacos (because I didn’t make it to the store that carries the good salmon last week.)

Thursday
Beef Stroganoff – crock pot!

Weekend
Rigatoni with Italian Sausage (turkey) and broccoli rabe (if I can find it!)
Potato Basil Fritatta
Potato soup with sausage and kale

Snacks
Hummus with carrots and whole grain crackers
Frozen banana shakes (banana, milk and berries)
chips with cheese dip (jim)
Go-gurt frozen (thanks Jo for the idea!)