Category Archives: Family

The Fieros

I just wanted to share something that I am very excited about– my husband’s band, The Fieros are currently a Featured Artist (“Indie Spotlight: Heavy Rotation”) on iTunes!  If you want to check out their music you can listen to snippets of each song on iTunes (click here), or download the whole album for pretty cheap.  Joey is the singer and guitar player, and his brother Aaron plays bass and co-writes the songs.  Their drummer, McKenzie is an amazing drummer and has toured with some pretty big acts, including Regina Spektor, St. Vincent, and the band he is currently on tour with, Midlake.  These guys are all really good musicians and really good people to boot.  Plus, they think knitting is cool.

I am so very proud.

FO: Joey’s Smokin Cardigan

I finished this sweater a week and a half ago, but was only just now able to photograph it.

Smokin Front

I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  I had to fudge the pattern numbers, as the smallest size yielded a 42 1/2″ chest, and Joey wanted a pretty slim fit.  I cast on 130 stitches with the goal of a 36″ chest allowing for a bit of negative ease in order to achieve the slim fit.

smokin back2

This was a great, quick-to-knit pattern that was very easy to follow.  For the yarn, I chose Cascade 109 Tweed in a bright turquoise color.  I think it’s a cool, funky cardigan that will keep Joey warm this winter.

Smokin Front2

The other day, Joey emailed me a link to this similar sweater by Ben Sherman.  He said the one I made is “waaaayyy better.”

Smokin Pockets

I completely agree!

Pattern: Smokin’ by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed

Yarn: Cascade 109 Tweed LE

Needles: US 10 1/2″ Knitpicks Harmonys

Started: May 09

Finished: September 09

Going Home

Joey and I went back to Texas last week to visit our families since we didn’t get to see them over the holidays. It was a really nice trip and we enjoyed seeing both our families.

We visited with the cows:
ranch4

We got to watch Daisy prove that she’s a farm dog now:
ranch3

And we rode the horses:
ranch2

City Slickers

City Slickers

You might recognize Doc, the darker, taller horse. My parents have had him for about a year now. They recently got another horse named Scooby. Scooby has lung disease and wheezes a lot, but he is a really sweet and gentle horse and I’m glad that he has a nice family to take care of him. I discovered that when he’s trotting and you squeeze your legs to try to keep from falling off, he runs faster like horses are supposed to do when you squeeze their sides!

Doc had an itchy face and found the perfect place to scratch it:

doc11

doc2

doc3

I was a little too busy to get any knitting done. I tried a little, but its hard to carry on a conversation when you’re keeping track of armhole and neckline decreases, all while maintaining a waffle stitch pattern. I hope to finish off the body this week and start on the sleeves…

I think I can count on Henry's help.

I think I can count on Henry's help.

Distractions

 

Although it was only two small projects, I’m proud to say that I’ve finished my Christmas Knitting!

 

"Pfffft!"

"Pfffft!"

Henry even helped!

henry-knitting

I had to put my Shredded Wheat Scarf on hold while I knitted the Christmas gifts, but as soon as I was done, I felt a strong desire to start something new.  Something that’s been floating around in my brain since it first started getting cold around here…

iheartny2

Uh oh.

W…W….Wool!

I can’t believe I’m doing this.  I’m Christmas knitting.  I swore off knitting Christmas gifts after my first Christmas as a knitter, when I bought so much yarn and had planned a hand-knit for almost every member of the family.  Of course I failed miserably, not even taking into consideration the amount of time it takes- especially for a newbie knitter.  

But there I was, trying to figure out what on earth I was going to get my parents for Christmas (even though my mom said that they didn’t need me to get them anything).  She did mention that my dad would wear a snowcap and that every time she knits a pair of handwarmers for herself she ends up giving them away.  What’s a knitter to do?  Of course I want to knit something for my parents.  

So my scarf is on hold while I crank out a couple of gifts.  Here’s a peek at my dad’s snowcap-in-progress.

dadshat1Nothing too flashy or showy- that’s not his style.  I’m probably pushing it with the stripes.  I’m using the same pattern I used for the R2D2 hat, but  changing the stripes up a little and definitely not doing the duplicate stitching.

And I have to show off my new nephew in his February Baby Sweater:

 

Doesn't it look like he's trying to say "Wool"?

Doesn't it look like he's trying to say "Wool"?

My sister said that this is the first time he hasn’t cried when she dressed  him.  I’m so proud.

A Long Way From Home on Thanksgiving

Well, I had my first Thanksgiving away from home.  I don’t know what to think- it was Thanksgiving, but not Thanksgiving.  We did have some new traditions to enjoy, like watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from a friend’s office on Broadway and 57th Street.  

dora

hello-kitty1

energizer

I roasted my first Turkey yesterday, too.  It was juicy and tasted like Turkey, so I’m calling it a success.  We had all sorts of friends over and it was a really nice day.

I guess I’m just really feeling the distance because there’s a new little person that I haven’t been able to meet yet:

levi

This is little Levi Spencer, my new nephew.  Can’t wait to see him modeling the February Baby Sweater that I knitted for him.  (Ahem…. Kasi, that means you need to send me some more pics!)

Oh, and Henry wanted to tell you guys that he started his own blog…

houndstail

http://ahoundstail.wordpress.com

 

3 Things

First things first: I am so happy that I get to snuggle with this cute face again:

Henry thoroughly enjoys the golden beanbag.

Henry thoroughly enjoys the golden beanbag.

Henry made it into NYC yesterday and we’re all excited he’s here. I think the plane ride wore him out, though.
Secondly, Joey and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary last week. We had a great evening out and had to snap a pic with the date in the background as we passed by this building on our way home:
This photo took 14 tries.

This photo took 14 tries.


Lastly, I am knitting an R2D2 hat for my friend Josh. Right now it is just a striped hat, but it will become R2 by the magic of duplicate stitching. I had originally started making it using stranded knitting but it just wasn’t working out. My strands weren’t long enough to accommodate the amount of stretch when wearing. So this is really R2-2.0:
Bee-boo-bop-beep!

Bee-boo-bop-beep!

The Conversion

First off, how bout a little back-story?  About two years ago, I signed up to be a vendor in a local Dallas craft bazaar with my mom and sister.  We were in a mad rush to knit up all sorts of armwarmers, scarves, hats, and felted purses.  For about three months straight, I was knitting every spare moment I had.  I think the wool-fumes must have gotten to my brother in law, Aaron, cause one night he asked me if I would show him how to knit.  I quickly cast him on for a felted purse and taught him the knit stitch.  He picked it up pretty quickly, but had trouble with knitting way too tightly.  I promised him it would be okay, since we were going to felt the purse and you wouldn’t even be able to see the individual stitches after the felting.  So along he went, knitting in the round (he didn’t even flinch!) with some Lamb’s Pride Bulky for a few weeks.  And out came a great-looking grey felted purse that he allowed me to sell at my bazaar.

I thought that had gotten the knit bug out of his system, because he didn’t immediately want to cast on for another project.  He seemed content with what he had made and left it at that.  Now flash forward to about a month ago:  we are all hanging out watching tv or something while I am showing off the first of my Stripy Socks for Joey, and he mentions he thinks he wants to knit himself a scarf for this winter.  And to my even bigger surprise, our other roommate Eric chimed in that he thought he’d like to give it a try as well.  (I’m sure they were inspired by the excitement of a FO.)  So we made plans to head to the yarn store the next night to pick out yarn.  

I already told you guys about how inept they were with the swift and ball-winder, so I’ll just jump right to the progress shots I promised:

Eric knitted a few rows, got frustrated because there was some weird mistake he didn’t know how to fix, and ripped.  All hope is not lost.  I think if I cast on and get him going again, he’ll give it another shot.

And here’s Aaron’s progress.  He even stayed up late the other night, probably thinking “one more row…” Folks, I think that’s called a Conversion.