Category: Mom’s Blanket Cardigan

Mi Familia.

This is my blood.
This is my history.
This is my Popi.
He is my father’s father.
A patriarch: 10 children of which my father was the youngest.
Ramon Pena from Humaco, Puerto Rico.
He was a writer of songs.
He was a master at the French Horn.

Sadly I did not know him long but I know so much about him through stories and memories. There is so much history in his eyes.

I laugh every time I see this picture. He’s probably thinking, "boy my grandaughter is a chunky one!"  Let’s just say I was well fed! 😉

I had a lot of family reflection and bonding this weekend.  I spent Friday night going to clubs with my brother Andrew who was in from London.  We went to 48 Grove and PM, two very hip lounge/clubs.  It’s one of very seldom nights where I have stayed up until 4am dancing and drinking.  My body was PAYING for it on Saturday.  I slept well past noon only to crawl over to my parents house where I took shelter on the couch for the rest of the night.  Being at home lying on the a couch wtih my mother is one of the best places in the universe.  She has magical hands that always know the most soothing places to destress and calm me – especially when she plays with my hair.

Sunday was a much more productive day! I got two new knitting books: Alterknits and Holiday Knits – both I absolutely LOVE!!! They have given me all these ideas for Christmas presents and apartment fixtures. I promise no boring scarves! 🙂

I just love my green umbrella! It’s gotten a lot of usage this week, probably more than it thought. Poor thing was just sitting all nice, minding it’s own business, then WHAM! It decides to rain for a whole freggin’ week.

I feel like this picture reminds me of the cover of a Jack Johnson album. Only I have an umbrella and he’s got a hooded rain coat and it’s really f’in raining on him.  Still we’re both doing that stupid smirk on our faces, like we know something everyone else doesn’t know…  how about that the rain is Never Going to End.

I cannot tell you how glad I am it’s the weekend!!!  My brother is in from London and my friend Johanna is in town from NC.  We’re planning a fun night out despite the perceptiation.  We’re probably going to hit up some very trendy clubs tonight – which is something I don’t do often but LOVE when I do! 

All my cozy apartment stuff will wait until manana.  As will working on my mom’s sweater.  I haven’t even thought about casting on for any other projects.  Well… actually I do have one project sitting on needles that is still waiting for me to get all the proper yarn.  So I have two projects.  Still not too shabby.  I always think of my mom when I start to knit.  She is the most talented woman I know.  She spent two years at FIT when she was younger, studying fashion design.  What I wouldn’t give to be around during that time watching her putting together her own original pieces.  My dad talks about this "little yellow dress" she had worn on one of their dates.  Imagine, sewing together your date outfit instead of flipping through a cataloge.  I wish I had that skill! 

I have this fantastic picture of her with curlers in her hair, measuring tape around her neck and pins in her mouth.  She’s in her undergarmets piecing together what I assumed she was going to wear that very night.  Her hands are up around her face masking her embarrasement at being caught in the middle of her handiwork. I swear I can hear her screaming at the photographer.  I wish I could crack open that head and soak up all her talent and knowledge. Imagine!  Maybe one day I’ll finally get behind her Singer sewing machine, until then I’ll just be here clicking my needles away.

Enjoy the weekend everyone! Hey Sun, you want to f’in come out now?

The rain has caused pretty much every part of me to become a lazy beast.  At work I’ve resorted to reading other people’s blogs and google-ing.  On one such occasion I googled my own precious name: Margaux.

Not only am I a famous French wine but:

1. A teen book on Amazon (please read the summary! ha!)
2. A fancy resturant in Raleigh, NJ (just love that mood music)
3. A formula-one company (what ever that means…)
4. A french town!! (probably where the french wine is made….)
5. And one very interesting Blog title…

I used to think that my name was rediculously unique.  There were no cute little licence plates or keychains to be found at any tourist destination I visited.  And more often than not when I go to a resturant the -aux is the last choice of spelling when I get my name jotted down, they always go for the -ot!  I mean, I can’t stand Margot! Sorry my other OTers… but no.  And I always get that person who is reading it off a list somewhere and they slowly start off saying, "Maarrr, wait how do you say this?"

"Margo"
"No, really? That’s cool. Are you french?"
"No."  (long explination follows about how I was named after my grandmother Margarita…)
"Oh."

Vicious Cycle
To gym or not to gym, that is the question.  Going to the gym will make me less tired but I’m too tired to go to the gym… oh the paradox!  I can’t even guilt myself into going.  It’s the freakin’ rain.  Yes! I will blame in on the rain, yeah yeah.  Ahh Vanilli where are you?

Boy this was pretty damn random today…

It just won’t stop raining. It’s been pouring since Saturday and everything is WET. We have two garbage cans outside of our front door that keep tipping over and spilling their bounty under our front door.  I have a feeling soon we’ll have some swamp friends to come and visit!

I mean look at the view outside my front window:

You can barely see outside!  Plus, hmm I should be drinking up my wine 😉

I got out of work "early" today – which is actually the time it says my day is over on my contract.  It’s a rare day that I can actually pull that one off but this rain has kept me from being anything but productive.  I just felt that I could stare straight at my home computer rather than my work one.

I’ve also got an itch to finish what I started.  I’m pretty new to this blogging site thingamabobby but am doing my best to try to make some new friends on this thing – not to mention amuse the friends I’ve already got! Hello out there!  So the one blog that got me started on this kick, whether she knows it or not is Cara over at januaryone.com, and she just finished a beeeeautiful cardigan!

I am now pumped to finish my mom’s blanket cardigan.  It’s coming out slowly but here’s a few picks of the almost finished back.

I’m hoping I finish it soon. There so so many other things I want to start. 

25

Gah.  I am practically a quarter way through my life.  Actually considering the average life span is around 75 – I’m even MORE than a quarter way through my life.  That fact alone is enough to make me cringe.  Fuck me.

I was a basketball player in high school and one quarter of a game is HUGE.  It can change the tempo, the momentum, the winner.  And my "1st quarter" is done. The buzzer has sounded and I’m offically in the 2nd quarter which makes me think what my ‘half time’ is going to be like.  I’ve worked up a sweat, put some points on the board and have managed to make a few assists, three pointers and steals.

Ok ok, enough with the basketball analogy, but seriously – 25 feels OLD to me. (All those who are older than 25, I’m sorry – but I’m sure you felt the same way when you were my age.)  I even found a GREY hair this weekend!!!!! And yes I pulled that shit right out. 

Mom’s Sweater

So I’m almost done with the back of the sweater I’m making for my mother and I’ve come the realization that I don’t have enough yarn.  I’m making the Blanket Cardigan from the Sarah Dallas Knitting book and it said it required 12 balls of the Rowan Wool Cotton.  I’m almost done the back and have used 4 balls already! I still have the two front sides and the sleeves and I have only 8 balls left!   There’s just no way…  I’m hoping that it won’t matter what the dyelot was since it’s black yarn… thoughts?  I’m going to go as far as I can with the yarn I have and see what happens…

Ok, so remember how I was going to tell Everyone how I played like Tiger Woods today???
Well, I guess Mother Nature had another idea. Sadly, the rain kept my father and I from playing my very first round of golf. Although I was truly bummed, I was also kinda happy because I really do STINK at Golf.  This will give me a little bit more time to practice before I truly have to step out onto the fairway.

But even though we couldn’t play I had one of those nice father/daughter bonding days.  We started off going to breakfast at a great pancake place called Stacks in Rutherford.  I indulged in the sliver dollar pancakes while he got the corned beef hash and eggs.  We’re hearty breakfast eaters. Just you wait for Sunday french toast breakfast… soo good.

After that what was supposed to be an all day shopping event turned into a Oops-I-never-got-my-inspection-sticker-renewed event. 

Yeah, that little square that sits in the lower left hand corner of your car needs to be renewed every two years.  There was a nice big 8 in the middle and this year’s date sprawled across the top.  Silly me, that means it expired in August.  And yes it’s October.
I guess a ticket for something like that is oh about $150 big ones!  HA! I cannot believe I didn’t get pulled over for that – I even had asked a cop for directions the week before and nothing!

So after waiting a couple of hours for that to get fixed we finally got on the road to best buy to get me a brand spanking new camera!
I’m so pumped! I can finally put more pics up here on my Blog!

Will start tomorrow once I figure out how to do it… haha