2007 was a busy year at chez fruity. We moved--twice, I learned to spin, tried lots of new knitting things, fell off the blogwagon, got back on, quit a job, started a new life as a full time mom....the list could go on from there but I think you get the point.

It doesnt end there! I have lots of plans for 2008! This coming year, I'll welcome a new niece or nephew, see my sister in law get married and try something new I'm not just quite ready to share with you all yet... but soon! Hopefully, if I can get everything together, next week.

Knitting was a little slow this past year. I never did get FO shots of everything I knit but heres most of it:

Sadly, Rogue is STILL not done yet, so I didnt really want to add it to the montage. I have about half a zipper still to sew in and I really would like to get it done tonight! Maybe the munch will actually go to bed early tonight so I can have a few hours to finish it up and work on a few other things I have going. I dont know how it happened, but I went from not having a thing going at all (other than the green shawl we shall not speak of...i'm putting that off until summer) to three things on the needles and several more planned. Oh well :) nothing like a new year to get a case of startitis going!

Not that the 50% off new years sale at the Woolie Ewe did much to help my desires...

Everything in the store was 50% off...I just couldnt resist.

It was nutty though....

but totally worth it.

Posted by fruitychick at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Mr. Fruitychick's car went haywire this morning (exactly 7 months after our super extended warranty ran out, I might add) and I spent the morning with him at the car dealership sorting things out.

Then we came back to the house where I had to surrender my keys to him so he could go to work...

So I spent the day with a crabby Munchkin (went to bed way to late, got up way to early and refused to nap)

Then, we had to return to the car dealership to pick up the car...where we waited....and waited...

Thankfully we have portable cartoons.

On the upside: a crabby munchkin means a lot of cartoons throughout the day, so I got some knitting done. Rogue is to the hood now! Woohoo!! I tried it on as is (no sleeves and the front curling something horrible and it is a little long but it is nice and comfy cozy. I can't wait to finish it! I'm a woman on a mission now and I want it done by the weekend!!

Posted by fruitychick at 06:28 PM | Permalink

I unpacked (yet another) box today and found my mom's old box of betty crocker recipes from the 70's. The thing is a classic--full of great section headings like "Men's Favorites" and "International Cuisine." I just love to think that there was a time that Tacos were considered an "international" dish.

Anyway.

I emptied the whole thing out to reorganize and flip through the recipes. There aren't any handwritten gems since my mom very rarely cooked from a recipe. Though her old betty crocker cookbook does automatically open to the best ever butter spritz cookie recipe.

Once it was emptied out, I found this at the bottom:

It took me a minute to realize what it said: Found 8/28/71. I don't recognize the handwriting though I suspect its my Grandmother's.

I flipped it over and found this:

A four leaf clover, taped to a scrap of index card. I wonder who found it more than 36 years ago. My Mom? She and my Dad hadn't even married yet. My Gramma? One of my aunts or uncles? I have no clue and I dearly wish there was a name on it. I do know it had to have come from my Mom's side of the family but it seems very out of place since my Gramma isn't a terribly sentimental person. I don't know what I will do with it but for now, I think I will tuck it back in the recipe box for safekeeping. It certainly kept it safe for all these long years--a little while longer won't hurt.

In any case, I hope it brings us luck as my Gramma was rushed to the hospital just yesterday after suffering yet another heart attack. She is stable now though the doctors want to keep her a few days. I've been waiting by the phone for updates though it sounds like only waiting is really going to tell us anything.

In the meantime, I am plugging away at Rogue...despite a near horrific accident involving a 18 month old getting a hold of the knitting while I went to grab a new drink. Thank goodness it is hearty wool because I didnt even notice it at first and jammed the whole thing back in the bag. It wasn't until hours later that I picked it back up and saw the horror:

Nearly half the sweater had been ripped off the needles but Rowan Scottish Aran Tweed came to my rescue by holding on to every single stitch. Its almost enough to make me believe in steeking without machine sewing first. almost.

Posted by fruitychick at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is absolutely awesome--I'd go on gushing about her for a while but I could write pages and still not express how loving, wonderful and amazing she is.

Also....Happy Halloween (my favorite ever holiday!!) from Petey (dressed up as the Munchkin this year):

Posted by fruitychick at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today, I am another step closer to being 30. Crap! How did this happen? I still have a little ways to go (I turn 27 today) but its weird to be in my "late" twenties when it seems like I was just in my early twenties a few weeks ago.

Today is going to be pretty low key for me. Mr. Fruitychick is off at work to attend the annual board meeting. Unfortunately, that also includes dinner, so he wont be home until well after 9, which leaves me pretty much alone with the Munchkin for my birthday but at least I didnt get a decapitated rabbit from the dogs this morning, so thats something.

We are going to go out tomorrow for an early dinner and I'll probably spend a decent amount of time perusing for the most AWESOME BIRTHDAY PRESENTS:

(a) a house. obviously not only for my birthday but we will make an offer on a new house here in the next day or two, so its kind of like a birthday present.

(b) a DRUM CARDER!! woohoo! I'm thinking of the Strauch Petite. So do I need the extra brush? Is there another one I should also consider? I dont know a ton about drum carders so any advice is appreciated!

Posted by fruitychick at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love being surprised. Not that I always should be, sometimes I just forget and then something (perhaps something I even planned) turns out to be a surprise.

This weekend, Mr. Fruitychick took Friday and Monday off from work to spend a long weekend together. I knew this planned time off existed but I didnt know it was going to exist this weekend--until, oh I think thursday night. Anyway, it was a lovely surprise. Mainly we just vegged around here and caught up on sleep (as an aside--how long does it really take to "catch up on sleep" after you've had a baby? Munchkin is nearly a year and a half and I still feel like I could sleep for weeks...then again, she is still getting up in the middle of the night so maybe I'm not making as much catching up progress as I thought). We also journeyed out and went to the library where Munchkin had an absolute ball. She will sit and flip through books by herself for an hour if left to her own devices and will listen to you read her a book all day. Needless to say, she was absolutely amazed by the library. We went on Friday and again yesterday because one trip to the library is not nearly enough....

While the munchkin napped and Mr. Fruitychick played on his finally-received-back-from-the-microsoft-repair-department-Xbox, I started a little knitting:

I bet we can all guess what that is, right? I've started Rogue now several times but just never really loved it before--mainly because I seemed to start it when the weather was starting to turn warm again. Not this time, baby. It was 51 yesterday and I'm in full sweater knitting mode. I will finish this thing.

Of course, I might get distracted by this:

(French Girl Patterns--Desiree)

I'm usually not a bulky knit kind of girl but this sweater just calls to me. I heard my LYS was having a 50% off sale on Gedifra this week, so I trudged over there to see if they had enough Gigante to fit the bill....they didnt and I almost caved and bought the full price Rowan called for in the pattern but I didn't. I did come home to do a little browsing and found the Rowan Big Wool in the Garage Sale over at Webs. Woohoo! The sweater will be mine!

There will also have to be distraction from Rogue long enough to knit the Chicken Viking Hat. Munchkin and Mr. FC are heading up to visit his family around Thanksgiving and Munchkin absolutely has to have a brown roasted turkey butt hat for the occassion. Yarn already purchased (cascade 220 from The Woolie Ewe).

I think those are the only distractions I'm aware of now but I'm making no promises.

In the old knits I never blogged about/photographed category this week, we have the Thrummed Socks:

A Fleece Artist kit purchased from Colorsong Yarns, I believe. Knit up during the Great Power Outage of the Winter of 06. It was sooo bitterly cold in the house we could see our breaths. It wasn't until the third day I remembered I had a pair of thrummed socks 80% done in the knitting pile. I picked them up, finished them, grafted the toe and, like magic, the power came on 20 seconds later.

I love these socks though I dont get an opportunity to wear them that often. They aren't really "walking around" socks and it is rarely that cold in our house during the night to wear them. They sure are delicious when I get the chance though. I'm even thinking of making another pair with Merino thrums instead of the kid mohair that came with my kit but I'm not sure what will hold up the best.

Have you made thrummed socks? What thrum fiber did you use? Did they hold up well?

Oh--keep your fingers crossed today. We close on our old house in Georgia this afternoon and as soon as that happens, we can make an offer on the new house we found here! The closing was already pushed back from yesterday and I'm really hoping there aren't any other problems.

Posted by fruitychick at 09:18 AM | Permalink

Whew. That sure was close. I've been getting a heck of a lot of spam comments lately so I was going to try to install some type of utility to "fix" the issue. Ha. A few hours later, movable type wouldnt even load to let me log in any more.

yikes. Anyway--half a day later, the hosting people have it fixed. I thought I was going to lose the whole blog and have to reimport every post and picture again but it is magically still here. whew. That was a close one. I can't say enough for my hosting people; I've had a few problems in the past and they've always solved the issue within a day. Usually less.

That, unfortunately, hasnt been my only technical problem. My nifty new phone that I've been snapping all my photos with has decided it does not like the internet anymore, so I can't send photos to flickr directly.

I'm giving up on the tech issues for the time being. I only have one more repeat on the second monkey sock then its all toe, baby! I'm so close to an FO I can taste it!

Posted by fruitychick at 03:27 PM | Permalink

Its been absolutely beautiful out lately. This is our first spring in Georgia and I couldn't be more pleased with the weather. I know we are in for some hot days when summer finally arrives but, for now, I'm just enjoying the great scenery.

I've been chugging along on a few KAL projects lately. First up are the Rocking Sock Club socks.

I've finished the first and, though I'm not ready to rip it out, I do admit the cableing does making the cuff rather tight. Its fine once you get it on but getting it over your heel is a bit of a problem.

I used 2mm for the foot, 2.5 for the heel and most of the leg and 3 mm for the top of the leg. I tried it on after I'd done three cable crossings (1.5 pattern repeats) and decided it was going to be too tight if I continued with another cable crossing, so I did a few inches of ribbing and called it a day. I'm pretty happy with it--its a sock I would have never chosen to make if I hadn't joined the club and that was my whole goal in signing up.

Second, a pair of socks for Socktopia.

The theme I chose for march was "whats on TV?" I took inspriration from my current favorite show, Survivorman. This guy is great--he's like Steve Irwin but, instead of animals, he is a survivalist. He usually spends about 1/3 of the show trying to make a fire, so I whipped up some Flame Wave socks (from the new Favorite Socks book) in Lorna's Laces Flame colorway.

Finally, I started a pair of socks for Miss S. I had some leftovers of the Lemongrass Socks that Rock from my RPM's so what better than mini-RPMs?

Miss S, by the way, is an excellent sock model--so good she can do it all in her sleep.

Anybody interested in the pattern? Its really adorable. If you are, just leave a comment and I'll type it up and post it to the site.

Posted by fruitychick at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, I survived the in-law visit. It was long and weird (I don't get along with them very well). And did I mention the long part? It actually wasn't as bad as we had feared--so I guess I would put it in the "not good but survivable" category (despite it being too long--did I mention that?). While they were here, my site apparently went down and I just got it fixed today...

Yesterday was Miss S's 1 month birthday and, as a present, she got a shot at the doctor's office. I have a little bit more sympathy now for those parents who don't want to immunize their children. I swear that shot was harder on me that it was on her. Its all over now though and she isn't due for another series of shots until her two month checkup. The doctor said she was doing really well--she has grown like a weed and is up to 7 lb, 13 oz (from 6 lb 12 oz 1 at birth)

In other news--our move was delayed a few weeks since we just really weren't as prepared with Miss S as we thought we would be. The date is now set for august 10thish, depending on when the packers/movers are finished. I'm hoping they will leave us with enough evening left to get a start and get through the city. Of course, we still don't have a destination yet since we are still hoping on getting an offer on our house before we move (which means we will be able to buy a new house down there instead of finding a temporary apartment). Sound like a scary schedule? indeed it is but I am remarkably calm about it all....

I've actually done a fair amount of knitting in the past few weeks. After Miss S has her nursing time with me, she gets to visit BottleMan (aka Daddy) and I get a little downtime to knit and lay on the couch. I'm only partially dissappointed I haven't been able to exclusively nurse. I didn't really expect to be able to in the first place and I must admit that the sharing of responsibility with the hubby and the little bit of downtime I do get are very nice indeed. I've finished two baby sweaters and started a pair of socks for myself. No pictures yet--even though I've been taking a gazillion of them, very very few of them are of anything other than Miss S.

My favorite picture so far? I think its this one:

Posted by fruitychick at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been hiding a dark secret from everyone and its finally going to come out: I'm a total plant addict. I might even have more plants than yarn. well--actually probably not but I have a lot of plants and I seem to gather more of them just like yarn. I've mentioned it a couple of times here and there but gardening--houseplants, outside plants, anything that grows--I've just got to have it. I love knitting but this spring its been hard to distract me from flowers and trips to local nurseries.

I had been wanting to start a gardening blog to keep track of my plants--how they have been growing and to track my results as I try to find that perfect spot for them in my house. But then I realized I have a hard enough time keeping up with one blog--so this one will just have to be multifunction. gardening and knitting are perfect together really--its all about making something wonderful with your hands, talent and no-how. neither requires and immense investment: sticks and string/dirt and seeds. I'll get all my gardening links up on the right hand side bar and the knitting stuff will stick to the left side. I hope you guys enjoy the additional pictures of the flowers and things that will be appearing around here.

Posted by fruitychick at 03:09 PM | Permalink

These are some of the best search terms I've gotten so far:

knit pattern for clothing for goldfish do your goldfish really need clothes?

how to make roses out of coke cans you must have way too much time on your hands.

launcher for peanuts hmm...I watch the punkin-chunkin stuff whenever its on tv and I do have a weird desire to go and see one of the contests live but--peanuts?

grow giant size tomatos mmm....tomatos.

rowan porn wow. i'm not even really sure what to say to that one.

and finally:

macadamia nuts can cause temporary paralysis dog Seriously, they really can--my dogs were victim to this (yes, they are ok now for anyone that is new around here) but DO NOT EVER give your dogs macadamia nuts. there is some type of chemical stuff in them that will paralize your dogs (it can be temporary or lethal, depending on how much they eat) my little guys had to go to vet and have their tummies pumped. I never knew about it either--consider this your heads up.

knitting update soon!

Posted by fruitychick at 06:15 PM | Permalink