Cupcakes and Pacts and Things
Okay, last night I dreamed that I had the best cupcake recipe and in my dream I thought OH! I have to share this with my blog readers. It’s the best! Now, in real life, I’ve never made cupcakes, but I do remember part of this amazing recipe that I dreamed of. Ready? Two of the ingredients were: booze and chocolate. YOU’RE WELCOME.
Also can we make a pact, Fan Club? I want us all to make a promise to each other that we will never NEVER refer to the coming year as Y2K10. Not even ironically. At least not yet. I’ll let you know when it can be used ironically, but for now, let’s just pretend that little hiccup of popular language doesn’t exist.
Finally, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I don’t know why. Maybe because I don’t smoke or join gyms or really have nasty habits that need breaking. My size varies very little and I ride my bike as much as I want. But I do feel very hopeful for the coming year. Fancyhats is sick of reading about himself and he’s worried that you all are too, but I’m going to write about him anyway. This relationship is so much more than I could have ever expected from a relationship. I have three couple friends who have amazing marriages and I always said I wanted that. Sure they go through their hard times, but I always wanted their relationships. I also thought oh well, they’re just lucky. But now I have a relationship like theirs — a true partnership. I don’t know where it came from or why, but it’s made me so hopeful for everything else in my life.
My career is heading in an awesome direction and I’m so lucky to work with amazing people. My family life is exactly what I want it to be. My friends are…well…I just don’t even know what to say about them. I hope I am half the friend that they are to me.
2009 was a hard year. It was full of shake-ups and discord, but no matter how bad it got, my support system was stronger than I could have ever expected. I’m very grateful for that.
So many awesome things are the result of this blog. Friendships, working relationships, Fancyhats. New life (shout out to K8). So thank you to everyone who reads my tiny corner of the internet, and who comments or lurks or whatever.
Some pictures of awesome blogginess…
Here In Malibu
Kathryn and me at BlogHer
Kiala and me at Beer and Blog, also taken on the first day I met Fancyhats
Back Fence!
Crissy, Ken and Me in Boston
Fancyhats and Me, taken by Ken
Citron Progress and Christmas
Look at Citron! Oh so pretty and so very soft. I’m in the fourth section right now, which meant, at one point, I had more than 400 stitches on the needle. And there will be more. MORE. It’s a great pattern for mindless knitting. And the Malabrigo lace weight is heavenly.
I also decided that I would tempt the knitting gods and make Fancyhats a sweater. You know the sweater curse right? Well, I think Fancyhats and I are in it for the long haul, and if making him a sweater breaks us up, I’m going to lock myself in the house, acquire 3,000 cats and hoard furballs because THERE’S NO ONE ELSE FOR ME.
Here’s the other part of that — I suck at knitting sweaters. I’ve never successfully done it. And believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve knit several sweaters, none of which get worn. But I just can’t give up. I won’t give up.
I’m going to knit the Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Hybrid. I’ve never knitted an EZ pattern, and I feel like less of a knitter because of that. I’m thinking a nice tweed yarn will do quite well. KnitPicks has a tweed that’s merino/alpaca. Yum. It’s a heavy worsted, so the pattern may go by a little bit quicker. The problem with this whole plan is that I’m going to have to get my gauge. This is something I’ve never done before. And might be the reason my sweaters turn out like crap. But I will woman-up and figure that sucker out once and for all. The whole pattern depends on it.
This is all my tentative plan…because you know…I have the knitting ADD.
Our Christmas was lovely. We ate and ate and ate. And I think I’m still full. Sherlock Holmes was medium. I love London, and Jude Law made me appreciate blond men. Something I’ve never, ever gone for. I like swarthy men. Men with pretty, dark eyelashes and hazel eyes that sometimes turn green. I like men in sweater vests. SWEATER VESTS.
God.
Fancyhats went to work this morning. In a sweater vest. It’s been four days of us being together. And I miss him. Could you tell?
Back to Basics
This is going to be a knitting blog for a little while, maybe. I started out as a knit blogger five years ago. FIVE YEARS I’VE BEEN BLOGGING.
And yes, I’m going to keep blogging, but I need to hit my stride again, so knitting.
I saw the Citron pattern in knitty last week and I was in lurve. I even had the correct yarn in that delicious green! The first time that’s happened. Ever. I’ve never knit with lace weight yarn, and I can see the need for lace knitting needles. The needles I’m using are just regular needles and OH so frustrating to get in the loops and make all the necessary increases.
I may need to swing by Twisted and pick up some Addi lace needles.
Archie is heading down to California for Christmas with his dad. I’m sad we won’t be together for Christmas this year. And this is my first Christmas not in California. I’m wary about the whole thing. But I survived the solstice yesterday and I’ve been sitting under my sunlamp and so far there’s been no snow, thank god.
I guess this is part of the new life too.
Fancyhats and I are going to watch movies on Christmas, exchange gifts, eat extravagantly and go see Sherlock Holmes.
Also, I’m going to work on citron — the new obsession.
Shhh…It’s a Knitting Post
This is what I made the 4yo for Christmas. He has other things too, but I knitted him some poo. And embroidered poo on it.
I think this project would have turned out better if I had used a different yarn, if I had double pointed needles and remembered how to use them, and if I had any skill at all at knitting toys. The pattern is clear and very easy. I just didn’t have the skills or the tools to do it well. Also, I am not a toy knitter.
See? This is the last toy I knitted.
Moral of the story: go back to knitting socks and scarves.