Kitten-y Soft

I know I've shown you a few snaps of this kitty already, but I figured I'd put up the finished product for the record. This is, of course, the put-together book Kitty from Hilary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls. This kitty is the first softie that I've every made using the sewing machine (or any technique other than knitting, to be honest) and I'm very happy with her. Originally I was going to make a few of these and give them out to friends, but I don't think I'm going to have time (Aaron doesn't like the sound of the sewing machine and I can't sew when I'm with Ruby during the day), especially since I'm in the middle of the very ambitious and more difficult Make-Along dolls (also a wee wonderful product).

So, this little Kitty will be gifted to my Miss Ruby. I'm not sure if I'm going to put it under the tree or save it for her February 1 birthday. I think I may do a Makee-Along set for her as well -- definitely for the birthday though, as I don't want to take on too much. Christmas is already starting to drown me and it's not even December 1.

Self-Portrait Challenge: Glam Week #4

It seems that since I became a contributor on the SPC site, I've been participating less often. Not good. So, here is my portrait for the final week of Glam month. For some reason, this month I was invited to attend not one, but two all-ladies dress-up parties. The first was a house party which I knew would be attended by a number of rockabilly ladies and vintage collectors, so I squeezed into one of the '50s party dresses that I so favoured when I was young (the only one that still fits) and put on my pearls. This Saturday I was forced to abandon the dress I had chosen for ladies lounge night (too freakin' cold!) so I dug through Ruby's dress-up clothes (which she doesn't use yet, but they're in safe-keeping) to find this silver top. I don't remember where or why I bought this thing, but I do know that it cost less than $5. I threw it back on this morning for my glam photo -- eat your heart out Marc Bolan.

Speaking of glam, I do have a story to pull out of the archives that matches this month's SPC theme. While I've always like the stylin' of T-Rex and early-era Bowie, I've had a life-long fear of KISS. When I was a kid they used to advertise mail-order posters on the back of Archie and Richie Rich comics and there were always a few KISS shots pictured. I was terrified of them. I'd have to leave the comics outside of my bedroom door while I slept. When I first moved to Toronto and got my job at the magazine I had an opportunity to tag along on a Gene Simmons interview and I decided to go for it. You know how the best way to get over a fear of flying is to jump on a plane? It was kind of like that. To make a long story short, Gene (who was not, by the way, in make-up) turned out to be creepier and more horrifying in real life than he was on the back of the comic books. While I don't have nightmares about KISS any more, I still shudder to think about six foot six Gene Simmons coming up to me and running his grubby fingers through my hair. Ick.

Warm It Up

It's freakin' cold here. I don't know what the weather is like in the rest of the world, but we're hovering around minus 30 Celcius here and it's beyond cold. It's so cold that it's become funny. I was remarking to Aaron the other day that people tend to put up their Christmas lights and trees super early here -- I honestly believe it's a reaction to the cold. It's like the thought of Christmas warms people's hearts enough that they can deal with the bitter cold. Oh Canada, you are a cruel mistress.

Anyway, sometime last week I finished these women's wrist warmers, as seen in Last Minute Knitted gifts. Unlike the last pair of these I made (yes, I'm wearing the same thing in the picture for that post and standing in the same spot. Yes, I'm lame), I actually used the recommended yarn, Noro Cash Iroha. It's soft as butter, I tell you. I'm not totally in love with the colourway, but seeing as I whipped these up with a leftover ball from another project, I am in love with the economy of these psuedo-mitts. Will I keep them, or will they end up as an Xmas gift? Only time will tell.

Zut Alors!

Oooh boy. Young knitters, take this tale as a lesson as to why you should always check for gauge. So, I decided that I'd knit my Grandma a tam for Xmas. Berets seem to be a hat often favoured by older women and I figured if I purchased a fleece scarf in a similar colour it would make for a great gift. So, I printed off the handy beret tutorial from Petulant Feminine (thanks P! It's an excellent pattern and I highly recommend it -- any problems were created soley by myself) and grabbed some barely labeled yarn that I got for Christmas last year. It's beautiful hand-dyed wool that Aaron's sister picked up from an independent merchant and I had no idea what weight it was classified at or anything. So I started knitting. And knitting and knitting and knitting.



As you can see, the thing is freakin' huge and looks more like a big poofy chef's hat than a chic beret. Unless my Grandma suddenly sprouts a head full of dreadlocks or develops an affinity for the music of the islands it just isn't going to work for her. But somehow, I like it. It's super warm (though kinda itchy) and I like that it totally covers my hair. It did slip over my eyes at one point while I was driving today and I should probably rip back the ribbing and reknit it on a smaller needle, but since I hate the feeling of tight winter hats, I think I'm going to keep it as is. I have a month to reattempt or I can always buy a felt tam at The Bay.

Automatic For The People

So, here it is. The Jess Hutch robot, knit for the little dude next door. Before I get to the grit, here are the specs (as if you didn't know):

Robot from Jessica Hutchison's Unusual Toys For You To Knit And Enjoy
Yarn: Cascade 220 in light blue, green and orange
Needle: U.S. #8 wooden straights
Mods: I stuck to a more solid colour scheme
Comments: Hmmm. I gotta say, this is the first Jess Hutch toy that I haven't been happy with. Sure, he's cute enough, but he doesn't have the same panache as say, Kate or Spherey. I blame it on the flat knitting and my own lousy finishing skills -- whereas the other toys (save for the ultra-simple Squarey) are marvels of construction with their round shaping, Mr. Robot is a slightly messy affair. I found that he was a bit of a pain to finish and I don't love the way the arms came out (that's a loose end at the top of the right arm -- I didn't have time to weave it in before I snapped the photo). I'm also not crazy about the way my less than tight intarsia looks with Mr. Robo stuffed fat. I think it'll be fine to give to the little boy next door, but I wouldn't hold it up as my finest work. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

Mmmm....Muffins!

So, has everyone seen Hannah's new blog The Recipe Box? Her idea is awesome -- to create a place to share family recipes with the rest of her blogging community. The first recipe posted was for Orange-Chocolate Chip muffins and being a fan of the dark chocolate/orange combo and an obsessive muffin maker, I had to heed the call. I think I would make them a little more orange-y next time out (maybe a whole orange's worth of juice rather than half), but they're really great and really easy. And they're fattened up with olive oil rather than butter. Olive oil! In a muffin!



This also, weirdly enough, marks the first time I've baked with self-rising flour. I can't get over how cool this bag of flour looks. I love it!

Thursday Love

I love making gifts. But even more so, I love buying gifts that others have made -- all the specialness, but a fraction of the effort (and often, not even a much higher price). I really love the local Christmas craft fairs. And while I do have a penchant for the hipster craft fairs like D.U.D.E. in Toronto and other such places that attract the blogger types, I also have a soft spot for the old fashioned community hall fairs with older folks selling their goods. I stopped by a fair yesterday that had a few hipster types (there was a table manned by a few cute indie-rock glass blowers) but I ended up forking my money over to the seniors.

In addition to a few other things, I bought Ruby this little wooded truck with tiles teaching her the ABCs and 123s. An older gentleman made it and was selling a variety of little trucks for a mere $18 each. His wife told me that their greatest challenge was coming up with new designs since the trucks were so sturdy and handed down from child to child, their customer base couldn't just buy the same thing over and over. I also hit the Ukrainian food stand and bought a bunch of frozen cabbage rolls which we ate last night. Our whole house now smells like cabbage. Um... yum!

Happy Blogiversary!

Hey! I've been doing this for a year! Well, a year as of yesterday actually. Anyway, last November, at the urging of my insanely talented friend Sam I opened the doors to Elizaboothy. I missed the feeling of writing (almost) every day (which I gave up once I stopped working to raise my daughter) and I also needed a kick in the butt to keep my craftiness going (ditto). And guess what? It worked! In the last year I've kept the knitting up, learned how to make socks and, most shockingly, finally learned how to use my sewing machine. The blog community has kept me so inspired -- I'm chomping at the bit to learn how to crochet, quilt and do just about 100 other things, so I can promise you that Elizaboothy will be going strong for the next while to come.

Speaking of sewing, I didn't get nearly as much as I had hoped done over the weekend because I was too busy cleaning up baby vomit and in more recent days, my own vomit. Damn you stomach flu! Ruby seems to have recovered but although I'm feeling much better I still can't keep much more than saltines down. Still, I managed to make some progress on my put-together Kitty (see above pic), I blocked Mr. Robot, started a pair of wristwarmers (which I made good headway on whilst waiting to get some bloodwork done this morning) and I bought fabric for my Make-Along set. It's that time of year and I love it.

W.I.P. Friday

Note: If you are a close friend or a member of my family and think that I may be making you a gift, I'd strongly suggest that you quit reading the blog until after the holidays. Don't say I didn't warn you. Leena, you're okay to keep reading.

Okay, I had to get that picture of my pouty lips bumped from the top post. Ugh. I haven't had many F.O. to show this week, but I have been working hard. My holiday frenzy continues and what you see above is the fruit of this week's labour. I've got a Jess Hutch robot (in Cascade 220) on the go for the baby next door, a Wee Wonderful Put-Together Kitty (not sure who this will go to, but it's partially to practice for my masterplan Make-A-Long set for Aaron's sister) and a secret Cash Iroha project, which I'll most likely blog about on some of my KAL sites. I expect all of these things to be done soon, so more deets to come.



And, the stupidly early cookie bake-off continues as well. We're having our holiday party early this year, so I have less than a month to finish all the treats. This morning Ruby and I whipped up some ginger snaps. Delish!

Self Portrait Challenge: Glam Week #1

I love make-up. I have a lot of make-up. Lately though, I don't wear very much make-up. When I used to work full time at the magazine, although our focus was on music we had a very tiny style section that warranted the editor in charge of it the right to solicit beauty companies for free product. It was great -- for four years I didn't have to buy shampoo, sunscreen, lotion, bubble bath or cosmetics. And we got good stuff too -- clinique, benefit, origins, cake, cargo, mac... it was like my own personal sephora,

While the make-up train made it's last stop ages ago, I still have a lot of the stuff left in my linen closet. I know that you're not supposed to keep make-up around for years and years, but I don't seem to go through it very quickly, even when I go through periods of wearing a lot of it. To glam it up, this morning I put on two of my fave lip products from my pantry -- Clinique's colour surge lipstick in golden mink and Benefit's It Was Just A Matter Of Time Lip Cream. Yum. I would never wear either of these colours out -- way too dark. But to glam it up, they suit me just fine.

Off And Running

Is it lame for me to have already started my holiday baking? As previously mentioned, Aaron thinks I'm nuts and annually begs me not to "overdo it" when it comes to my holiday prep. Since I'm not working outside the home (though the freelance stuff is starting to pile up) and Ruby's not a screaming infant this year, I'm already full on for Xmas. And it's frickin' November. And I don't even celebrate it from a religious standpoint. Am I turning into the crazy stay-at-home mom with no life?

I'll admit, when Ruby and I popped into Winners last week (to try on fancy high-heel shoes), I briefly contemplated buying one of those Christmas sweaters with bobbly snowmen and sparkly gift packages, but I stopped myself (and purchased something from the "junior trendsetters" section to overcompensate for my momentary lapse in judgment). And I've already baked about five dozen cookies that went promptly into the freezer -- the almond stars you see above and a huge batch of double-chocolate peppermint chip. But this isn't because I'm chomping at the bit for Xmas -- it's because I know myself. I know that I'm going to get busy and burn out sooner rather than later. And I want to get all this stuff done because I want Ruby to grown up loving the holidays as much as I do. Is that so crazy?

I knitting news, I signed up for Norovember since I'm currently working on a top-secret project in Cash Iroha, which I can't really blog about here. Button to appear as soon as I can take a moment without Ruby tearing up my office.

Hip To Be Square

I didn't sign up for the national blog month post every day thing, but I may as well have. So much to post about! Tis the holiday season, I suppose -- I'm trying to crank out the small items and as of an hour ago, I've begun my holiday baking. It's so weird, I used to be very lazy about this stuff (i.e. did nothing), but I've been overcome by some weird desire to be super-mom. A friend once commented that as soon as Aaron and I had Ruby we somehow became The Flintstones, and despite my years as a Women's Studies' minor, it's true. Oh well, sisters, we've won our right to choose and I choose to bake cookies.

But I digress. I present to you my first holiday FO. This was one of my longest current WIPs -- I think I started it when we were still in Toronto. But, since I decided to give it to Ruby as part of her Xmas gift, it counts as a holiday knit. Ha.

Squarey from Jessica Hutchison's Unusual toys For You To Knit And Enjoy
Yarn Lamb's Pride Worsted in Orange You Glad, Lotus Pink and Limeaide
Needle U.S. 8 wooden straights (and DPNs for the limbs)
Mods put sleeves and pants on him
Comments: I love it. I didn't test for gauge, so I was amazed that the pillow fit perfectly -- I really thought I was going to have to polyfil this guy. But he's soft, cuddly and given Roo's love for softies these days, he'll be well loved. Given her affection for a stuffed Pilsbury Doughboy that she was given, I'll be glad to put a non-commercial buddy into her arms. As it is, I can't get her out of the grocery store without poking the boy on the frozen cookie dough display and watching Ruby giggling maniacally.

My Swiss Miss

Yesterday my friend Mark and I took Ruby to Walmart to get her Xmas portrait done. Usually I avoid Walmart like the plague (a gross, unhealthy, over-Americanized plague), but Mark and I have made it a tradition to take Roo to the Wally for the portrait. My main reasoning for this is because it's so flippin' cheap -- a package of 42 prints is only $19.95, and this includes the sitting (this is by no means meant to be an advertisement for Walmart). Of course, they don't give you a choice in which shot qualifies for the special and they take a bunch more which they later try to sell you for 10 times the price. But I do like the general cheesiness of the whole process and Mark enjoys his role as art director/Ruby wrangler.

What you see above is the dress that we chose as Ruby's costume. It came with a box of family heirloom hand-me-downs that Aaron's aunt Bobbie (the mother of the next youngest kid in our clan, Aaron's five-year-old cousin Maren) gave me after Ruby was born. I have no idea how old it is -- I've seen pictures of Aaron's 31-year-old sister wearing it when she was about Ruby's age, but it might date back farther to Aaron's aunt, who's about 50. Either way, it was made in Italy and it's absolutely beautiful.

As I very secretly predicted, the actual photo session was a bit of a bust. Ruby was fine and was sitting in front of the Swiss village background that Mark selected as the photographer set up her equipment. Right before she was ready to start snapping, Roo had a big freak out and refused to sit. We did everything we could to please her, including a walk through the hardware section of the Walmart. She continued her refusals. Finally, we bought a package of shortbread cookies and bribed her. She sat there, on the photo platform, happily chomping away, but would cry whenever she was without cookie in hand. So all of the photos feature Ruby holding a cookie and wearing a wide crumb-covered grin. I think they're pretty cute and will provide an suitably embarrassing story once she's older. Ha.

Pistachio Pudding Pie

In an effort to get more than a half hour's wear out of Ruby's clown costume (why did I spend countless hours sewing a costume for a toddler?) I hauled her down to Aaron's office today for his company's Halloween potluck lunch. While that in itself isn't really worth writing about, I've got to tell you about the dessert I made for the occasion. The official name of the dish is "Joanne's Dessert" (who Joanne is I'll never know), but in my family it's known as Grandma Ruby's Green Dessert. In reality, it's kind of a pistachio pudding pie.

Every year my Grandma Ruby makes two pans of this stuff for my parents' annual Boxing Day party, which is attended by about 60 of my relatives. We all love it. We wait for it. We take a serving along side our ham, just in case there's none left when we go back for dessert (this actually happened to me once when my cousin Cathy cut the squares too big). It's delicious. After my Grandma got hip surgery she wasn't up to making it last year, so I stepped in and whipped up a double batch. I was really excited about it because I got to use her special Green Dessert pans, which are metal and have a lid that slides in, making them really great for desserts that need to go in the fridge for a couple of days.



Below is the recipe for Joanne's Dessert, a.k.a. Grandma Ruby's Green Dessert. It's one of those great mid-century recipes that will cause any organic chef to recoil in horror -- basically a step above dump cake -- but I love it. If you make it and love it, let me know -- I'll pass it on to Grandma Ruby.

Joanne's Dessert

1st Layer

1 cup flour
1/2 cup margarine (I couldn't do it, so I subbed with softened butter)
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

Press into 6 by 12 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool.

2nd Layer

2/3 cup icing sugar
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 large container cool whip (I believe it's the 12 oz size)

Mix together until creamy. Spread over crust

3rd Layer

2 pkges pistachio instant pudding
2 1/2 cups cold milk

Beat. Spread over cheese layer and refridgerate for 20 minutes

4th Layer

Spread remaining 1/2 container of cool whip over pudding. Sprinkle almonds slivers on top. Refrigerate. Enjoy!

Boo!

It's still another day until Halloween, but I thought I'd put a picture of my little pumpkin up today. Oh, how she's grown since last Halloween when we carried her around in a sling to go trick or treating. Unfortunately I don't think the TNT is going to go off too well this year -- ever since I was a kid, Halloween in Calgary was always ruined by a major snowfall. We got a dumping on Sunday, and it's cold as can be, so I don't think Ruby will be out for too long tomorrow. It's not like we let her eat candy anyway, but she's got to get some use out of the costume, right?

I'm pretty happy with the costume -- for my first real sewn garment, I'm pretty pleased. She loves it too. It was a struggle getting it on for the party we went to on Friday, but she's been begging to wear it ever since. Aw, my little clown. I'm glad you like it.

Listen Up

I don't often write about music in this space. Not because I don't listen to a lot of it or because I don't think about it, but because writing about music is how I make my living (in addition to chasing a toddler, of course) and making what you do as your living into your hobby as well isn't all that fun. But, I feel like it is my mission as someone who likes music to tell the handful of people out their who drop by this blog about Woodpigeon. As a seasoned music critic very little impresses me anymore, but Woodpigeon actually amaze me.

Okay, here's the story: Woodpigeon comes from the mind and heart of Mark Hamilton, who happens to be a very good friend of mine. He's the art director for Ruby's annual Walmart Christmas shot. For about a decade, I thought that Mark had a great visual eye, that he knew a lot about the cinema and that he was an excellent photographer who recorded much of his life with a camera. I didn't know that he wrote songs. Nobody knew that he wrote songs -- he didn't sing them in public. A couple of years ago while we were living in Toronto, Mark sent Aaron an MP3 of one of his songs, asking if it was good enough for him to bother continuing. As a trick, Aaron played the song without telling me who it was and I said I thought it was great and we should buy the album of whoever it was. I couldn't believe it when he told me that it was my quiet, unassuming friend Mark.

I try to be supportive of all of my friends who make music, but I often catch myself realizing that if they weren't my friends I probably wouldn't be as charged by their music. I find myself asking if I could hold them up to Belle And Sebastian or Fleetwood Mac or some other band that I worship and the answer is always no. After seeing Woodpigeon play their CD release party at a soft seat theatre last night, the answer for them is "yes." I was moved to tears. (Oh, and their opening act, Aaron Booth was pretty tear-worthy too. And swoon-worthy as well, if I may add. Check him out at the link on the side panel). So please, if you have an opportunity to see or hear Woodpigeon, please take it. You can check them out online here.

Back to suburban crafting tomorrow. I promise.

I Get It

Okay, I get it. I get why you all like Noro so much. I've always passed the Noro in the shops and thought "Why do all the bloggers love this stuff so much? The colours are wacky, the thickness inconsistent and it's rough as all hell." Well, I get it now. Noro is great -- it just has to find the right project. And here it is:

Child's Rainbow Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in two different coloured balls (I threw out the bands, so I can't tell you which numbers)
Needle: U.S. #9 aluminum
Mods: none
Comments: This pattern is GENUIS. It really plays out the sheer craziness of the Noro colour combos and it's a real crap-shoot as to if portions of the scarf are going to look like vomit. I started one ball from the outside and one from the centre-pull (just because) and I think I ended up getting a much better colour combo than if I'd gone the other way. Now I want to do this over and over again just to see what combos I can get. I was really addicted to knitting this scarf and I'm sad it's over.

In other news, as you can see, my camera is back from its trip to Florida, as is my husband. So, hopefully, post-Halloween of course, things will be less stressful around here soon. Hopefully.

Camera Shy

My camera has been whisked away to an exotic locale, so there will be no pictures of anything for at least a few days. It's too bad, because I'm feeling a creative wave hitting me. I've been furiously knitting and sewing away, trying to get Ruby ready for Halloween/winter. I'm also aware that I announced the commencement of holiday knitting well over a month ago and have not one gift to show for myself. That's all coming to an end. Xmas presents, articles to warm my family's extremities -- bring 'em on. And yes, that blasted clown suit will be done in time. Mark my words.

I'm also feeling kind of inspired because I finally got my copy of Craft magazine in the mail today (Canadian subscriptions are always a bit slow). Very inspiring indeed. And it reminds me, I've got some robots to knit...

My Little Kitten Has Found Her Mittens

It was pointed out to me recently on a crisp day that my child's hands were freezing. Last winter (and the winter before) Ruby had yet to join the realm of the walking, so she was bundled up Maggie Simpson-style with her hands pretty much bound inside her snowsuit. So, I totally forgot that little kids need mittens in the winter. Ruby's Nana thoughtfully purchased her a couple pairs, but a kid can never have enough mittens and like any good knitter mum, I decided to cook her up a pair.

I've never done mittens before -- kid or adult size -- and who would have known they were so easy? After months of sock knitting, they were a total cinch. Here are the specs on these little kid mitts:

Ruby's Mittens adapted from the Bold Banded Mittens from Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits For Tots
Yarn: Schachenmayer Nomotta Bravo Baby Soft
Needle: U.S. 3 bamboo for the cuffs and string and U.S. 5 acrylics for the body
Mods: I sort of just used the pattern as a basic mitten recipe. I took another one of Zoe Mellor's books from the library and there were a couple other fancy mittens, but all with the same basis. She also recommends doing a braid for the string, but that was way too much of a pain. I started doing some icord, but it seemed a little bulky, so I knit a flat three-stitch band to string the mitts together.



It's funny, I went to a posh LYS that carries a lot of brand name yarn because I was going to splurge and use the Rowan that the pattern called for. After searching through the piles of DK yarns I decided on this Bravo Baby stuff, which cost a whopping $3.50 and is totally washable. Hooray. As you can see from the above photo, my back garden has transformed into a virtual winter wonderland, so Ruby will be needing the mitts. Still, she prefers to prance around the house while wearing them as a scarf -- very chic.

W.I.P. Friday (The 13th)

Happy Friday 13th! I plan to spend my evening eating hotdogs and celebrating my friend Jane's birthday. Hooray!

Speaking of scary days, I've been hard at work putting together Ruby's Halloween costume. Let me tell you, this learning how to sew is a steep learning curve. But the clown suit is looking pretty good so far and I'm thinking that I may actually finish before the party she's attending on the Friday before the actual Halloween day. In the last couple weeks I've learned how to do gathering, set in sleeves (with easing!), do an elastic casing, collar facing and much more. It's sloppy and won't fit very well, but clowns are supposed to be goofy looking, right?



And as an added bonus pic, here's a shot of Ruby in the ruby red slippers that a friend of ours bought for her in Las Vegas almost a year ago. They fit a lot sooner than I expected them to (despite having a tiny body the Rubester has enormous feet for a girl her age) and my girl was tap dancing around the house all morning. She loves walking in heels -- I don't get it.