The Barefoot Cobbler

Snakes 4; Humans 5

2009-05-05T12:34:00.002-05:00

So far, there's still more of us than them around here, and we've become very careful walkers. Hanging out the laundry has more suspense than an Indiana Jones movie. Like morel mushrooms, I can't seem to see the snakes, even if I'm standing with my toe touching one. Luckily, my youngest has the eye, so she gets lots of trips out to the clothesline with me. The other day, I was carrying her into the house, and she was crying because she didn't want to come inside. And then she said, "Sn... sn... snake," through her sniffles. "Show me," says I, thinking it was a distraction technique. And she pointed to the woodpile I just walked by and, sure enough, clear as day, a big old snake with bands around his tail and an aggressive attitude. Honestly, if he had been poisonous instead of just a great actor, I'd probably be writing this from a bed with a call button.

But living in the country has its fantastic perks, which I am especially feeling right now. I can't wait to put the garden in, and we're putting in more veggies than ever. There are little seedings all over the house. I hope I locate a camera (I mean, I only have three) some time before I plant them, so I can show pictures. The trick is going to be finding time to take care of the garden, while also working nights this summer. I'm thinking that we'll incorporate gardening into the kids' daily schedule. They can pretend they're farmers growing their own winter sustenance. Oh, wait... Well, I'll call it "pretending," anyway. I have noticed that things are not as much fun for kids if they're true. Hence, my husband and I suppressing smiles whenever they say, "Hey, let's pretend we're poor and have to clean all the time!" Bless Cinderella and her glorification of housework...

Quasi-nature lover here

2009-04-28T11:54:00.002-05:00

Could it be? Is it really spring? I'm so excited! Of course, if I use the clothesline, it will probably snow... I did finish a very respectable hat recently, just in time for the warm weather =) Into the gift closet that one goes!

Hi, y'all. Things are pretty much the same here. I actually have more time for myself, since drama club is finished. I've been baking bread almost every day, vacuuming when the floor is dirty, checking kids' homework before it's actually due. Yikes! I'm starting to see how lovely my days could go if I'd quit filling them up! I did find a cool musician to share with you all. His name is Jonathon Coulton, and I can't seem to link to the one song I wanted to share, so I'll link his page. If you get a chance, listen to Code Monkey and Re Your Brains. They're so funny, and we sing them all the time around the house now.

We've got nature abounding around the house outside. I've spied two owls when I come home at 4:00 in the morning. I keep interrupting their hunting, but I kind of like the bats, so I'm divided on that one. Guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, and let them figure it out. (Yeah, I know. That's what people always do) We've also had an abundance of snakes around the house, messing up our outdoor playing time. We've seen exactly two snakes, to be fair, but that's an abundance to me. I'll go with one snake to help keep the mice down, but two snakes makes me think there aren't going to be enough mice (what with the owls and such), and the snakes are going to get the idea of moving inside the house. Lots of tasty snacks in here! *shudders*

I start teaching sign language today to 2nd and 3rd graders, as an after-school enrichment program. Arleta teaches knitting, that cool girl. She tried to switch to bracelet making or something, just to change things up, but there was too much demand for knitting. We had such a positive response with the spinning class we taught to the 3rd graders, I think we could do an after-school enrichment class on that some time. There are a bunch of 9-year-olds wandering around with CD spindles and bags of wool at the school. It is a wonderful sight to see!

Teaching Spinning

2009-04-14T22:50:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, Arleta, Melanie and I are teaching spinning to two classes of third graders. They've made their CD spindles and are ready for the wool! We did this last year, and this year we were asked to come up with an introduction about spinning, with the Navaho indians featured in particular. So I've spent the evening reviewing and learning about the history of spinning, when it started, how it came along with people adding better and better ideas. This is the sort of thing I love to read about now. Save your bodice-rippers and mysteries, give me something with wool =) And I always thought that Navajo spinning was more difficult than using a drop spindle, but I think that I get it now, how they work it with running the spindle down their leg for the twist. I'll have to try it some time.

I'll take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes! At any rate, I'm sure that I'll be having a fun time. Working with kids seems to be the direction my life is going in now, what with the drama club, after-school sign language classes and whatnot. I love recognizing that I'm in a good place in my life, with good friends around me. At any rate, pictures and a bunch of spinning coming soon!

An End To The Drama

2009-03-15T16:00:00.006-05:00

Ah, another glorious ending to a year of drama. Well, drama club, anyway. And it wasn't quite a year, but there's really no good way to gauge time when dealing with 18 preteens. The giddiness, the histrionics, the teasing - oh, and a lot of fun, too. I would say that, in the end, the kids had a great year. They don't have any idea of how much work goes on when they're not in class, but they certainly worked hard on their parts, and it really paid off. Our play was about many fairy tales mixed together, and we had a great time teaching the kids about comedy. In fact, one of our best practices was reading them "Who's on First?" Most of them had never heard the skit before, and they laughed through the whole thing.

Here's some pics from our big night. The first one is of the whole crew taking their bows, with an attempt at the wave, it looks like.

Then this one is of my husband and I, accepting our thank yous. I'm always surprised when the kids do that, because it isn't anything that we rehearse. Then they get together and do something sweet like writing us a thank you and reading it to the school, and you just gotta be happy that you spent the year running around, trying to get them to pay attention. Heh heh. I had little to no luck there, actually, but they put on a great play, anyway.

And now it's back to our life before drama (as in, back to the knitting!). I've cut down on the hours at work, so that I can do other important things, like pay bills and wash the laundry. I can't tell you how excited I am about getting back to the mundane things that keep a house going. It's been pretty haphazard here, and the only people that are allowed to come over have to really not care that they're stepping over dogs or sitting next to a pincushion. Remind me to say no to the next couple of opportunities that come my way. I'm looking forward to a little down time.

So Many Pretty Things

2009-01-15T16:26:00.002-05:00

I've been in knitting limbo for months! Working nights, trying to make dinner at least twice a week... these are the challenges I'm striving to meet. So knitting has taken a back seat. I'm working on a pretty purse for my mom, which I gave her on the needles at Christmas, poor woman. (I'm on the straps. Getting there) And I lost the purse for two days, so I couldn't work on it while my kids have been sick. (Cobbler rule #46: No coughing on mom) Today I decided to tackle the pile of clean laundry waiting to be folded, and boy do I wish I'd taken a picture. Because there, at the bottom, where the socks hang out, was the purse. Yay! Now that I've located both the purse and the pattern, I can get back to it.

But the point I was trying to write about was, as I was folding the laundry, I got to look at sweaters, and hand-sewn towels, and dishcloths, and I got to missing making pretty things. I want to cast on everything at once, and I can't do any of it. There are costumes to be sewn for drama club, the purse to finish, and a pair of slippers as a Christmas gift that I'm only halfway finished with. And I miss my spinning, which has been catching my eye every time I walk by it on the bookshelf. While looking for a box of clothes the other day, I happened upon an entire box of roving just waiting to be handled. Yikes! I have a sweater that I started for myself last fall, and socks that I wanted to give my daughter for the holiday. (Cobbler rule #47: Don't knit socks with the purls on the outside. Who likes to purl that much??)

But as I ease back into blogland, I'm enjoying looking at your pretty things, and getting back into Ravelry to look around at what's out there. Why, oh why, won't people pay us to knit?

A Little Update

2009-01-03T03:52:00.002-05:00

Things sure have been quiet here at my computer. That is totally my fault, since I've been avoiding it like a bad conscience. Has anyone else taken a break from blogland, and the longer you go, the harder it gets to log on? I don't even know if there are any important e-mails in my computer. But I'll make an effort here and hope that this will get me over the hurdle.

What has happened in the last few months? Hmm. The economy sucketh, and my husband lost his job. Rats. While that was going on, I really didn't have much to say, I'm sorry to report. Strange how lives can shift so quickly. But he found another job he likes really well, and the people are great. I took a job at a bakery, which is fun, but the hours are icky. I start at 8:00 at night and work until 4:00 in the morning. What with sleeping and pretending to do housework in the afternoon, I also didn't log on to the computer. My working has been hard on the kids, but I know they'll adjust. The only really bad thing I've noticed is that the youngest is getting bratty, because her sisters are always trying to make her happy so I can sleep. That's a negative. But things shall look up! Because we're a strong family, surrounded by good people, and luckier than many. I can still go to the kids' school functions, though sometimes I forget to brush my hair, and there are lots of dinners that come pre-packaged (who knew?) and that's a bonus to maintaining the facade of normal dinners. And I get to make donuts, for goodness' sake. That's a really fun job, people. Seriously. I likes it. My husband says paying me to bake is like paying Norm to taste-test beer. Heehee.

And there. I feel better already =). I'm was going to leave you with a blog entry my oldest wrote about Thanksgiving. She's trying to be my guest writer, while I'm busy ignoring the blog and most of the knitting, though I do have a nifty purse in the works and some thrummed mittens that have stalled at the cuffs. Sadly, I can't find her entry, but it was really cute. I'd give an overview of it, but I don't want to detract from her first public writing attempt. I'll see if she'll help me find it later on today. Happy New Year to you all! It's going to be a great one =)

Turkey...

2008-11-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

... salad sandwiches
turkey soup
turkey tettrazini
turkey and rice
turkey pot pie
turkey and gravy

*sigh* Any other suggestions?

HB, Arleta!

2008-10-01T05:28:00.006-05:00

Arleta had a birthday last week, and we're celebrating it on October 1st. Why? Because we weren't ready! When you're making hand-made stuff, it's hard to give it on the needles. It just doesn't feel like the same "ta-da!" you were looking for. For my part, I was bringing the cupcakes, and some handspun yarn. I've been plucking the bunny (that sounds nasty) for quite awhile now, and spinning a 50/50 merino/angora two-ply yarn. I'd do it while we were playing DnD, or I was at the knitting get-togethers, or in my Ten Minutes A Day spinning group on Ravelry. I'd have this stuff out and spin, spin, spin. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I was a little worried when I plied it together, because it didn't seem like my spindle was going to hold all of the amount, and I didn't want to give it to her in two cakes. But with a little care, I got it done. Then I washed it... erm... September 30th (yesterday), and stuck it in front of the fan to dry. That worked great, and it was done after several hours. Then I realized that I had forgotten to thwack it. My husband and I tried after it was dry, but it just wouldn't bloom the same. And there wasn't any time to rewash it for new thwacking, so I had to let it go and began to make my yarn cake. Now, I don't have one of those spinny things that winds your yarn for you. To make myself feel better about that, I've been working on making my yarn cakes look as if they came off of a ball winder (see? I remembered the name). I also wanted to measure how much yarn there was, so I ran it through a yarn meter (okay, a fishing line meter. Same thing) as I went.

It went very smoothly, but I had to layer the yarn so it wouldn't tangle as I was winding it.

I'm keeping my eye on my yarn meter as I go, watching the numbers go up. Suddenly, I realize that the yarn meter only goes to 999, and I'm about to roll it over. It's actually late enough at night that I'm wondering what I'm going to do. I had about decided to write down "1000" and then begin the numbers again when my brain caught up. I could just add 1000 to whatever number the meter gave me when I was done. I'm really glad I thought of that before I got out the pen and paper.

And when I was finished, here was the final number. That's a 19, sorry about the crappy lighting and bad angle. So that's 1019 feet of yarn, divided by 3 to get yards, and it's 340 yards. 340 yards from just under 4 ounces! I had to say that again. That's a lot of yarn to do on a spindle, if I do mention it myself. Very cool. And it's a bit nubbly, a bit of color changing, and a bit thick-and-thin. I love it. I hope Arleta loves it, cuz I love her. It's good to have her as a friend. Happy Birthday (belated), Arleta!

It's almost October!

2008-09-27T03:25:00.003-05:00

Life is moving along as normal here. I've been spinning and knitting, and enjoying it more lately. Somewhere along the way, my mojo has found me, and I'm very happy creating again. I didn't ever stop, really, but I was having a hard time being excited about my projects. But the Argosy scarf is almost done, and I can't remember a project I have enjoyed so much from beginning to end. I think I'm going to have to make a matching one for myself. I'm also contemplating some adult felted clogs, since Arleta has been trying so hard to show me how easy they are. I think they'd make a fantastic gift. I don't know if I could knit a pair in four days like she can, but they have a cool gift-giving factor that I can't ignore any longer. Ah, the siren call of a new project...

Each year, my husband and I help to host a pumpkin carving extravaganza at our church, and we'd better get on it. It's nearly October! I think we'll toast pumpkin seeds this year while we're there, and show everyone how to do it. We have a local expert come in and give the kids tips, hand them safety knives, and watch them go. Some parents get involved and are really creative with their pumpkins. I think there's an artist hidden away in all of us, and who can resist a big orange gourd for a canvas?

My daughter is having consecutively harder days in preschool. It's quite an adjustment, having to get along with other kids! She's a good-natured child, except for naptime, but her Id is present and accounted for at preschool. When I picked her up Friday, she was tucked in a corner, angry and crying. Her teacher had accidentally broken her marshmallow and toothpick construction, and there was no forgiveness in sight! It's a rare thing for one of my children to grump at a teacher, but it looks like this kid is the one. So I finally gave up having her grant forgiveness, and I took her to the store, where we bought more toothpicks and marshmallows. Then we spent the afternoon building a marshmallow building to be proud of.

And after that, my child solemnly informed me that her teacher said she could eat the marshmallows. I'm double-checking that on Monday, just to see how gullible I am.

Your morning laugh

2008-09-23T07:49:00.006-05:00

Every good laugh deserves to be shared. Honestly, this got funnier every time I watched it. The third time, I sprayed biscuit all over the table, and I knew it had to go on the blog. It's just supposed to be facetious, so no hate mail, please!

(Deleted so everyone can keep uploading the blog who have landlines. If you want to see the video, it's at this page)

2008-09-19T08:40:00.004-05:00

Thank you, all, for the birthday wishes. I appreciated all of the fuss and bother that was made over my birthday this year. The family even threw me a surprise party! How fun was that? Oh, and a note to self: Clean house more often. You never know...

And I'm so excited! The new Yarn Harlot book should be out soon, and as I was preordering it, I found the 2009 Calendar she's published. Woot! So I shall be very occupied when these items come in the mail, and the family will have to live off of the frozen dinners I am preparing in... well, preparation. I'm also starting a scarf for my oldest daughter, who is very difficult to knit for. Everything has to fit just so. When I brought home some red/pink roving from the last fiber festival, she right away grabbed it and asked for a lace scarf. I was so happy she wanted something from my needles, I just nodded and grabbed a spindle. The fiber was 2.8 ounces of Merino/Bamboo from Yarn Hollow, which is just great to spin, really. I've spun with bamboo several times now, and I think I'm an addict. (I'll let you know if my supply ever dwindles. That will be a sure tell.) It spun into 246 yards of a fine fingering weight. In parts, of course, because I'm not the most consistent spinner, it's nearly a laceweight. No matter, because the scarf is for show, not warmth, and it can be as lacy as it wants. The pattern is from Knitty, Argosy, and it's great fun to knit. I'm twitching to get back to it right now.

Things will be revving up soon for drama club and after school sign language classes, as well as teaching spinning to the third graders, which Arleta and I did last year. I am trying not to feel like I have to knit so much for the holidays. Everyone loves handmade gifts in my family, but I want to stay sane. Therefore, I think I shall sew this year, table runners and wallhangings, napkin sets, etc. They go faster than knitting, and will throw everyone a curve ball if they were expecting socks. If you all go crazy with knitting for the holidays, I will enjoy reading your blogs and allowing myself an extra cup of hot cocoa =)

Thirty-what?

2008-09-10T21:17:00.003-05:00

So today I am 39 years old. My last year of the 30's, and don't think that doesn't mean anything. But I had a great day, with parties and pizza and prezzies, which were knitting books and socks and roving and - well, basically a knitter's birthday! And my cool brother got me Spore, just released, which my husband and I were finagling a way to buy. Heh. As if I didn't have enough things working against me finding blog time.

One of the things that I like about bloggers' birthdays is when they put pics up of when they were little. All those 70's pictures (or 60's or 80's) are fun to look back on. So here's some pics of the younger me and my three brothers, back in around 1973 =)

Week 5 is the charm!

2008-09-08T08:39:00.005-05:00

Is anyone still with me on the Pushups Challenge? I've been in Week 5 for two weeks, did a do-over of Week 4, and I think I'll call this challenge done. After all, even if I can't do 100 pushups straight through, I'm still doing 137 pushups in under 15 minutes, and that makes me a winner in my own mind. I could do 13 pushups when I started this challenge with my husband's co-workers. I have better core strength from doing the pushups, and it's actually fun to drop down on the floor and do 40. So the contest went thusly: If you took a "before" picture, and are willing to send me that and an "after" picture, at whatever point in the contest that you're at right now, I'll take the entries and do a random drawing for some Noro sock yarn, a gift certificate to Etsy, and some stitch markers, once I get my friend to make me some =) And congrats to everyone who participated. It was harder than I expected, but what a great thing to do for yourself.

Here are some pictures of a new technique I've been doing. Well, it's not new, but it's new to me. It's called Cathedral Windows, and it's a way of turning fabric so you have a 3D effect. It is entirely hand-done, which I like, and it's harder than it looks, which I also like. I'm odd that way. These would work as potholders, but I'm thinking of them more as tabletoppers, trivets or little wallhangings. You could do a whole quilt this way, and I hear some people do. I just can't imagine turning all of those edges and tacking them down, in an entire quilt.

Send your pictures and comments on the pushup challenge to my email address. Careful, though. I'm likely to post the before and after picture of the winner. Don't worry, I'll post my own picture first =)

A rooster update, and a foray into the working world

2008-08-24T19:27:00.002-05:00

I was going to write "The farming saga continues," but we're really having a lot of fun with it. I drive over and try to keep up with the kids as we take care of the horse, chickens and cats. Then we buy some vegetables from a little boy who has a stand at the end of the road, then come home. Later, we smile at having an excuse to leave whatever event early so that we can put the chickens to bed and make sure all is well, also checking the vegetable stand for new prizes. That little boy has a way with plants. And can you get over the price of cucumbers this year?? And this little guy is selling cukes as long as your arm for 25 cents each. We're leaving him 50 cents each and still getting a bargain. Next year, half of the garden shall be cucumbers!

Pip the evil, doesn't-know-his-own-size rooster has been getting all territorial again, though. I'm not sure my husband took it really seriously (you know that feeling that they're patting your head, even if they're not touching you?) but he went over to help with him when I had to do the animals. I grabbed my camera. Heh heh. Now, it's my back-up camera to the back-up camera, so it's not great, and I couldn't get a picture of the bird in air attacking him. You'll have to trust me. It was a thing to behold. I didn't wish my husband attacked or anything, but I felt a certain smugness when the bird did what I expected it to do. Here's a totally sucky picture of him just before the bird flew up and tagged his hand with his leg spurs.

My hubby then chased that bird all around the yard, with Pip occasionally pecking for his legs, as the opportunity came open. You'll see that he believed me enough to wear protective clothing. We've all begun to make sure we're wearing jeans before we check the animals. My oldest, who doesn't like to wear a coat in the winter, has searched through her drawers for long-sleeved clothing. You're just not as nervous about little beaks or mosquitos when you're adequately clothed. Anyway, when Pip finally darted into the bushes to get away, my husband let him and called the game over. Then the bird crowed, and hubby went crashing back into the bushes after him. We heard a squawk and a lot of branches getting broken, and now Pip pretty much stays away when my husband is there.

See how I keep saying "my husband"? That's because the bird is in no way scared of me anymore, just the crazy guy who lunges at him.

I do have some knitting. My oldest daughter got a job this year at a beading shop, one day a week. I was proud of her for taking on the responsibility, and I was really happy with the owner for being so nice to her. My kid got to make a piece of jewelry a week, and the owner was really positive and always said how much she liked her. We decided to make her a present, and I asked what her favorite colors were. She said, "Purple, and Incredible Hulk green!" Whew! What was I supposed to do with that? But I actually found some yarn I thought I could work with, and made her some fingerless hand mitts to wear while she beaded in the winter. The yarn, Ella Rae Mosaic, was bulky, and I knit these with size 6 needles, so it was really a two-day project. I liked them, and they're very comfy. Then my oldest wrote her a Thank You card, and we slid it into the gift bag, along with a jar of homemade peach jam (still warm - mmmm).

With summer closing down, though, I dropped my kid off for her last day of work last Friday, then went home with the other two kids. An hour and a half later, she calls and is crying, "Mom, she fired me. Can you come and get me?" My daughter said she couldn't find enough work to do, and didn't understand how to do custom orders, and the boss finally yelled at her and told her she could go home. So I piled the kids in the car, in the pouring rain (that's important, since my daughter was waiting outside the shop), and went to get her, not sparing the gas. I know there are two sides to every story, and my patient husband has taught me many things about talking things over calmly, and reasonably approaching a problem. But a little voice from Carrie Past kept asking, "What person fires a kid on their last day?" I did, however, bring along the gift, since things frequently turn out for the best, despite my worries. So I come into the shop and the owner smiles at me, very pleasant and happy. In retrospect, I think she was faking it. I ask where my daughter might be, and she looks blank and a bit worried. You see, she let my daughter go outside twenty minutes before, and has no idea where she is. I take that in stride, and ask what happened before I got the phone call. "Oh," she says, "she was having a hard time staying busy, and wouldn't work on a custom order, so I had to keep giving her jobs to do." Okayyyyy. Sounds fairly normal to me. "Finally I said she could go home if she couldn't find enough to do." Oh, says I. She thinks she's been fired, did you know? "No, no," says the nice owner, "She can come back. It's a misunderstanding, I'm sure." So I hand over her gift and say, "This feels weird now, but we made this for you to say thank you. I'll talk to my daughter and give you a call."

At this point, I see my daughter outside on the sidewalk, and I skedaddle. After giving her a hug, I walk her to the car, and listen on the way home to a completely different version of things, where the owner's voice kept getting louder, and she was gritting her teeth, 'til finally my daughter was scared of her. When told she could go home, my daughter thought she'd been fired and left, which I totally get. I leave when people are gritting their teeth at me and tell me to go, too. So from what I understand, my daughter didn't know how to do custom orders, couldn't find any more beads to sort, and was faking being busy. Then she got spoken to from gritted teeth from an increasingly frustrated lady, and thought she was fired. What a rotten way to end your last day at work. She probably won't want a job now 'til she's 18. And I can't even imagine the bead shop owner is going to enjoy those mitts, no matter how cushy they are.

A girl of my word

2008-08-19T07:06:00.003-05:00

Some good friends of ours went on vacation (lucky devils) and asked us to watch their farm animals for two weeks. They have oodles of young chickens, five roosters (or so), and many hens, along with five (?) cats and a very pretty horse. Plus they have automatic feeders set up, and hay in the stable, and in general, they've made this job as easy as they can for us. All we have to do is make sure there's still food and water, and bring the little chickens into the coop at night so the raccoons don't get 'em. They're very fast, though, so, if they weren't in a fence, I'm pretty sure they could outrace a raccoon. No point testing it, though!

The story I have to tell is about one of the roosters, named Pip. He has a bad habit of chasing kids, and if you try to swat him away, he takes it as a challenge and flies at you. The first morning we were there, the kids came over and said, "Pip is attacking us!" I have a special sore spot for about anything attacking my kids, so I grabbed a near shovel and said, "Show me where he is." And by golly if he hadn't put himself right between my car and the chicken coop, which was where we had to go. He faced off with me for a minute, and none of my shooing and hand flapping was having any effect at all. Finally, he charged at me, and I had to swing the shovel, people. I mean, that beak looked pretty sharp, and he looked quite determined in his attacking of me. So I smacked him with the shovel, moving him back several feet, and then he charged me again. We went along like this a few times, til finally I yelled at him and gave him a good shove that picked him up off the ground and into the horse pen, where we both tried to decide if we were done. I don't even mind admitting that I was really, really mad. Yelling mad. Pick up a chicken and cook him for dinner kind of mad, if I had more than a passing knowledge of how to accomplish that. What I did know was that we weren't going to be able to go through this routine every morning to get to the chicken coop. Something was going to have to give.

So I called my friends on vacation - yeah, the very first day - and explained the problem. It went along the lines of "I think I'm going to have to kill your rooster" and them saying "Go ahead." Really, it was that simple. They knew that bird was a problem, and I think they were hoping that I'd take care of it for them while they were gone. After all, I'd said many, many times, "I do believe I would cook that rooster, if he were mine." And they'd laugh or say they were saving him because he made pretty little chickens. But I'd go so far as to say they encouraged me this time. And I'm not so far removed from how we get our food that I think it's wrong to kill a chicken, as long as it's quick. Quick was exactly what I wanted, too.

So I went back over there that night, armed with a determined attitude, even though I had never actually caught a chicken myself, let alone an attacking rooster. And I looked for that fowl. Really looked. Around the house, up in the trees, by the coop, in the bushes... I finally found him, among all the other roosters, making himself very small. Seriously. I looked at that bird, and he ducked his head and made a little noise. And it wasn't a challenging noise, either. So there I was, having said I was going to kill this bird, ready to do what I had to to make it happen, and he was acting like a rabbit. Rats. Or not rats, depending on whether I felt I had to do what I had set out to do. Was I a girl of my word or not??

In the end, though, I couldn't kill him. He was acting like we had reached an understanding on whether or not I could let the chickens out of their coop in the morning and put them back in at night. I haven't had any problem since, though we may need to have another discussion or two before the weeks are up. I guess I'm a girl of my word, as long as it doesn't involve smacking something not giving me a problem. Kind of anti-climactic, but a relief at the same time. My kids were grateful that my credibility was damaged, in this case, anyway - except for my middle child, who was really looking forward to having a chicken dinner.

This is a picture of Pip taken from behind a fence, which is where he is now hiding from me. He even ducks under the stairs every time I arrive, but gets braver the longer I'm there. Silly bird still doesn't know he's mortal....

I call a Mulligan!

2008-08-18T05:42:00.002-05:00

All right, all of you exercisers out there. I've been doing the 100 pushups program, and I'm at the end of the fourth week. Of course, it's gotten progressively harder. At first, my upper arms and chest hurt. Now they're feeling strong, but my stomach is getting sharp pains as I near the end of my pushups. Why? Am I holding myself wrong? Why in the WORLD would I be getting stomach muscle pains when doing pushups? Grrr.

Anyway, the fourth week doesn't look hard on paper, but it really kind of is. I can now do 25 pushups straight, which makes me happy, but next week is supposed to be another big jump, like Week Three. Or you can redo Week Four if you need to, before going on. I say, MULLIGAN. My husband and I are redoing Week Four, and will finish the six week program a week late. Still, when you do the entire set for Week Four's third day, you are doing at least 104 pushups! Cool! Now I need a sit-ups program - even though I haven't successfully done a sit-up since my third Cesarean - and I'll be happy. I can't say that my arms have appreciably changed, though, so I don't know that this "before and after contest" will be showing pictures of huge contrasts in musculature. Maybe I could take pictures like they do in the skin-care ads, and slightly change how I'm standing, or the angle of the shot, to make my arms look more ferocious. Yeah....

Garden Rated PG-13

2008-08-17T05:15:00.004-05:00

My carrots in my garden are really growing. I think I'm starting to understand why thinning them might have been a good idea. The greens are very, very tall. When you push down between all of that leafage, the stems of the carrots are packed in really tight, and they're starting to look uncomfortable. So I decided to thin them out just a bit, and pulled a few roots. The carrots are alarmingly large already, and I tried to tell myself they were done. But when we sampled one, it really doesn't taste ripe. So they'll keep growing, but really, I'm thinking people who know me are going to be receiving gifts of carrots.

And I figured out that some very interesting things happen when you let your carrots grow too closely together. They twist around each other, meld together to become more than just themselves. I would even venture to say that, with so little distance between themselves, they are communicating and perhaps evolving into something more.

Aren't they pretty?

So tell me, then, if you would, what is wrong with this carrot???

I know. I, too, thought the garden was rated G, but I was wrong. This aberration was well on his way to becoming a little carrot person, and what would have happened then?? We'll go to pull them, and they'll rise up like little root soldiers, well equipped (ahem) to conquer the garden and claim it as their own. And I'll let them, because, honestly, this is just too freaky to handle. Don't you think?

Happy Birthday To Mom (sing it with me now!)

2008-08-12T08:50:00.003-05:00

As with all birthday knitting, there has to be a story, right? I mean, cramming ten hours of knitting into a few days was going to be an accomplishment, any way I cut it. And I was actually cruising along on my mother's birthday present, making excellent time thanks to my husband, who took over all responsibilities. He appreciates handmade things, and since he wasn't working on it himself, he was contributing by letting me create without having to get up and make peanut butter sandwiches, or do dishes, or solve disputes between girls sharing a room... And I loved being able to knit and say, "Not now, dear. Mommy's working hard." Oh yeah, that was the best part.

At midnight before the last day of knitting, the actual witching hour, I was feeling great. I had probably 2 1/2 hours of knitting left before bind-off, and for me, that's plenty of time. Then I looked at the pattern again, finding my place, and my eyes traveled down a bit. And there, right there next to all my other instructions, were instructions of how to do twelve finishing rows to complete the design, before binding off. I mean, it wasn't hidden on the next page, italicized or even in small print. It was right there next to all of the other instructions I've been referring to since spring. I just couldn't believe it. At 20 to 30 minutes a row, since we were increasing constantly, I was looking at four to six hours of knitting, beyond my initial estimate. I stared at the wall for a minute, thinking, "I can't do it. It's actually not going to get done." Even after all of the stolen moments here and there, the gallons of coffee, the faking that I wasn't concerned about time, I was actually not going to make it. I explained the situation to my husband, who could tell something was up. He said, "No. You can do it. You can." And I figured, what the heck. I can at least try. If I give it to her on the needles, that's how it was going to get given, because at this point I was not going to go with a gift certificate.

And with my second wind, I knit for two-and-a-half hours, with my husband sitting beside me. If he wasn't actively cheering me on, he was at least staying up with me. Then we went to bed, I laid there staring at the wall for two hours, then got back up. I mean, who can sleep with that much knitting looming in front of you? And I knit the rest of the rows, finishing before church. My hands were a little shaky, probably from caffeine overload, but I just slowed down a wee bit and kept knitting. After all, the gift was for my mom, who not only gave birth to me, but she got me through the teen years and countless other traumas and bad decisions made by yours truly. I could give her gift a few more hours. And sleep? Pffft. I can overcome the need for sleep, short-term, anyway.

There I was, with over 400 stitches on the needles, counting carefully to make sure I'd done my last set of increases correctly. My daughters were watching Curious George, and my husband was making more coffee (good guy). Suddenly, the man in the big yellow hat started counting beans or something, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202.... frantically, I started counting out loud myself, 281, 282, 283, 284.... yikes! I wanted to laugh, but I didn't want to lose count, so I kept counting and didn't look up. And you want to talk nervous? Nervous is when you're getting down to the last bit of counting, and there are a small amount of stitches left, and you're just praying it comes out right. And it did. Hallelujah and thank the stars, at 413 stitches it was time for bind-off.

I will quickly go through the binding off part, how it was too tight, I pulled it out and redid it, it was still too tight, I cried a bit, then got on the Internet and looked for the amendment to the pattern that had to be there. Nope. Some folks had a bit of problem with the bind off, but there were no changes to the pattern. So after pulling it out twice, I sat down and just knit it like it said, thinking, "This is it. This is the way to do it, I'm doing it, and how it ends is how it ends." And all the time I'm writing my blog entry in my head, evil statements and grumblings that I was going to post to all and sundry about this terrible bind off. But just like knitting in a pocket on a sweater, when you trust the instructions and don't overthink it, it comes out fine. And so we get on to how it ends, the pictures.

Now, right here I had written: I give you (well, okay. I give my mom) the Kiri Shawl:

and normally would have inserted some pictures. But Blogger will. not. do. it. I am ready to throw the computer out the window, if it would fly through webland and smack someone at Blogger upside the head. So instead I will have to link it to my Flickr account, and you can travel and see if, if you've a mind to.

I knit it with Fino, Alpaca with a Twist, 70% baby alpaca/30% silk. It took less than a skein, even with an entire extra repeat. Due to my tight gauge this year, the shawl only came out six feet wide, which is what it was supposed to do without that extra repeat. But things worked out fine, even with the tight gauge, so I'm happy. Happy Birthday, Mom! I don't know how you made parenting look so darned easy, but you did a great job. Have a great day.

Short and Sweet

2008-08-09T05:26:00.003-05:00

I'm in withdrawal from Blogland. Old-fashioned week was very fun, and much canning was done. I also learned two things about my television. It's very quiet without it, and I use it to calm the kids down. When they get too crazy or start fighting, I'll distract them with a movie, and I didn't have my television last week! So outside they went, which was better for us all, really, because it got me out in the garden more, and they went exploring and fairy catching. Another fortunate event, because little beetley bugs are trying to eat all of my squash, and if we could only find some fairies and talk them into protecting the garden, that would be awesome.

My nephews also came up last week, and we have had so much fun just enjoying the summer. We got out to the beach and our local lighthouse, the waterpark, dragon-egg exploring (dragons and fairies are very popular around here), and in general used the summer for what it should be used for, and enjoyed it very much.

Now, poked here and there into all of the canning, exploring, gardening and swimming, were flashes of knowledge that a birthday was coming up. It's for my mother, and it's a big birthday. I'd post which one, but I'd better get permission first, even thought it's absolutely inconceivable that this number could be true. Anyway, it is coming up, and I knew what I wanted to make her. Well, first, I wanted to make her something, and I knew what she wanted, but it was a big project. And I didn't leave myself very much time. Well, I'd started her gift months ago, then set it down in favor of more immediate concerns, like teachers' gifts and - well, you know how it goes. In fact, I finally sat down a few days ago and figured out how much knitting was left, and it translated to ten hours of knitting. That's ten straight hours, when I had to pretend I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, and go visiting and adventuring and all that. So I've been trying to knit at night, after putting up freezer corn and taking a swipe at the dishes.

NO, it's not done. Geez Louise, her birthday is Tuesday, so I expect I'll be done some time Tuesday morning. I did however spend a couple of hours with Johnny Depp last night, enjoying his fluid pirating skills and the occasional scene with Orlando Bloom. Not so great for concentrating on knitting, but definitely I didn't fall asleep. Besides, I'd seen it before, so I could look up at the really good spots.

Now today is the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, and my family is running a free car wash for four hours. I've washed every towel in the house, and I need to stop and buy drinks and sunscreen before we go. Then most likely friends will come for dinner, and knitting will again be a midnight endeavor. Ah, the endorphin thrill of leaving things to the last minute ...

I'll leave you with a knitting picture. Arleta made bags for Mel and I when we went to the fiber festival. These bags are made from Cottonease, the colors they no longer make. She depleted stash for us! And these bags grow and grow as needed, and will hold a lot of fiber. It was actually impossible to fill our bags. It was cool. What a sweet friend, don't you think? She didn't even have time to make one for herself, and had to listen to people compliment ours all day. (No, no. We gave credit, and she had to explain the pattern again and again. I think she liked it).

I'm off now, but I feel better for having downloaded my thoughts. Hope you're having a good week!

Old-Fashioned Week

2008-08-03T13:32:00.007-05:00

At the beginning of summer, our family always sits down and makes a list of what we'd like to do before fall. It keeps us focused, and doesn't let the summer run right on by us. We also read to our kids every night before bed, and we've been steadily working our way through Anne of Green Gables ('til she got older and less appropriate for bedtime reading), Little House on the Prairie (oh, those exciting Indians), and Heidi. So coinciding with our list-making was the idea of living in an old-fashioned way, and boy gee whillikers, wouldn't that be fun? One of the things the kids voted for was to spend the first week in August living without electricity, playing old-fashioned games, such as marbles and - my husband's favorite - the "Seen And Not Heard" game. I made them old-fashioned dresses, started a garden, and we waited. Honestly, time slipped by, like it always does, as the summer is always so busy. When it was the first day of August, I started with my normal "Happy August!" and they reminded me of old-fashioned week. Whoops! Today? Really?

So we turned off the breakers in the basement, and the kids pitched in and spent the first night canning beans. I had more help then I could believe, and I began to understand why I really had had children. One of them was snipping ends, one was snapping to the correct size, and I was hot-packing them into jars. Oh, baby. Then we read by candlelight, the kids put on their nighties and went to bed, and my husband and I snuck down to the breaker box so we could play videogames on the t.v. We're bad, and sorry, and I'm sure it won't happen again, because the guilt wasn't worth conquering the galaxy.

What I didn't take the time to think about, but should have, was how peaceful things were going to seem this week. I laid down for a nap today, since washing dishes had made me crabby, and when I got up, I found my youngest playing with her stuffed animals. My second oldest was playing a kazoo, and my oldest was dancing in the living room in her long dress. Holy cow. I think I'm going to enjoy this week after all. I'll let you know for sure after I hang out the laundry...

Here They Are Playing Marbles

Fortunately, my spinning fits right in with this theme, so I can guiltlessly participate in the fun with the kids. I've gotten a fair amount done, but not just in the last few days, though it does seem to be all I feel like doing lately. Awaiting for washing in the tub, either before or after the kids are through with their baths, are the final amounts of the Marjoram colored wool, some purple and pink BFL, and a merino/bamboo mix that I scored at the fiber festival , but will blog about later. It's still on the spindle, but I've already begun another spinning of alpaca and French Angora. Life is good.

Finished Object Friday Saturday

2008-07-26T05:56:00.004-05:00

Due to my weak router, which apparently can't pick up my computer's signal if I move the computer two inches to the left, I now bring you yesterday's post:

And it's actually Friday! I've been busy this week, as has probably every one of you, what with summer, and gardening, and the general crazy-inducing effect of life. (That's not just me, right?) This week, my girlfriend Mel took Arleta and I cherry picking! I've never done this before, but I was keen on it. I had actually never seen how cherries grew in clusters. I thought they only grew two to a stem, like you see in pretty pictures. Well, they still take a very pretty picture, even when stemless:

Aren't those just about beautiful? Then it was on to cleaning, pitting and freezing them, a most enjoyable task if it's a windy summer day, so the bugs can't bother you too fiercely. They couldn't believe their luck at having cherries brought to them, so I had to work quickly. Earlier that day, I decided to try my hand at turning a batt into roving. This again was something I had never tried before, and I've only begun to read about it online. I thought it worked out just fine, even if I did break it in a spot or two:

And last but never least, the Chipmunk socks are done! They're a feather-and-fan pattern, but a chipmunk got into them while we were camping, and I could no longer call them The Camping Socks, so The Chipmunk Socks they are. They were done with Opal sock yarn, I believe, with 72 stitches on size 1 needles. I've been having troubles with gauge this summer. For some reason, I am knitting socks so tightly that I can't get them on my feet. These didn't even fit my oldest daughter, who thought she was going to get them, and yet another pair of socks goes to the eight-year-old. She walks around smiling, wearing twenty dollar socks. Grrr.

And now I'm off to do my pushups! I'm going to do them while the husband is off picking my oldest daughter up from camp. I'll look properly superior when he gets back, and he need never know how easy it wasn't.

Ow, Ow, Ow

2008-07-23T20:12:00.003-05:00

Yikesaroni, I did my second day of the HundredPushups program. It hurt, which is weird, because I wasn't sore at all during my rest day. Obviously, those muscles are only used in that certain position. Anyway, my involuntary cry of pain had the four-year-old responding thusly:

Then she laughed at us (husband and I), and I had to have her sit quietly while we struggled. When I was done with my set, she said, "May I get off my blanket now?" Well, I suppose.... it was pretty peaceful for a few minutes, there...

Now that it's over, of course, I looked over the program and realized I was supposed to rest longer before each set of pushups. Darn it. I'll have to look at that on Friday, make sure I get all my resties before the pain =) Anyway, I'm going to complete this program. I can do anything short-term!

Feel free to play along, and thanks for everyone who has signed up so far. Leave a comment if you want to join, and be prepared to post before and after pictures of your muscles. If you send me those pics at the end of the six weeks, I'll enter you in a drawing for some wooly prizes, and you can sit and knit with your monster-strong arms if you win! I, for one, am looking forward to poppin' off a bunch of pushups in a month or so. Good times.

Can you do 100?

2008-07-21T16:41:00.002-05:00

Today I'm starting a new program from hundredpushups.com. By the end of the program, I should be able to do 10 sets of 10 pushups, with a small break in between each set. I need this. I have never worked my arms, and as I gain and lose weight and gain it again, it really shows right there. So check out the site and join me! I can't wait to see the end result. I have never been able to do a pull-up, even in elementary school, and a pushup was something I only did when I wanted to feel virtuous. Well, I'd like to really see what I can do. This program takes you through small steps, week after week, and you gradually increase your core strength. And it's not a competition, but a bettering of myself, which I am all about. I have to admit, though.... it would be more fun if people did it with me.

Shall I do a contest? Let's try this: If you're willing to post a before and after picture, at the end of the six week program, on my blog, I'll enter you for a random drawing of a prize of wooly goodness. And we'll better ourselves together!

Let's play! Please leave a comment so I can keep track of who's playing along. And do invite your friends. It's much easier to be motivated if we're all having fun together. Okay, maybe not fun. Do it anyway. It's good for us.

Finished Object Friday

2008-07-19T05:55:00.005-05:00

I thought it was time for a Finished Objects Friday post. Well, yeah, it's Saturday. But for two weeks I've been trying to write this post, and Friday keeps getting by me! So this morning I thought, Meh, they'll understand if I write the post a day late, because most of you have been reading my blog for a bit, and know how scattered life can make me. My first FO is some Merino wool I spun for a friend. I finished it very quickly, 4 ounces with a spindle - it just took a matter of days. Then probably a month later I washed it up. Sorry about that, Mel. I don't know what happened there, except it took me at least that long to block a quilt as a favor to my mom, and she's my mom, for goodness sake. It might have something to do with the drudgery of washing, instead of the joy of creating. At any rate, here's a pic of the 285 yards of DK weight merino:

And of the quilt, which I made for my mom's birthday a few years ago. I sort of wish I hadn't fallen into the rabbit hole of knitting quite so far, because I did enjoy quilting.

Then I found the July Spinning Challenge on Ravelry, and decided to do Marjoram Spice. I know I showed it on the spindle, but here's the finished product spun up. It's 80% merino/20% silk, and it spun into such a fine weight yarn that it gives me pause. I want to knit cabled fingerless gloves with it, so I'll see if it blooms any when I wash it. Otherwise, I'll be on teeny little needles. I really like this yarn, though. It's pretty and soft, too soft for socks, but I'd spin it again in an instant. Maybe next weekend, at the Fiber Festival, I'll see some more of this mix and snap it up.

And last in the pic pirade, but never least, my Skull Hat, off the needles and ready to be blocked. Well, it's been off the needles for at least a week, so we'll see when the blocking thing happens. But I like this pattern. It's knit with Plassard yarn, a DK weight, with size 8 needles. I thought it would be too loose, but the ear band is doubled, and it fits just right. Love it. Into the gift closet it goes.

Now work with me here, kay? For an instant there, it was Friday, and now it can be Saturday again. Thank you. I knew you'd understand.

Spicy Spinning

2008-07-11T11:00:00.004-05:00

I joined a Ravelry group that picks a different theme of spinning a month, and July's is Spicy. A lot of people are running with hot spices, reds and chili pepper colors. I like earth tones, myself, so I went for a deeper spice. After several attempts to find the closest spice to what I was spinning, I picked Marjoram.

I'm three-quarters done with the spinning, and having a fine time. The merino wool has 20 percent silk mixed in, and it spins like a dream. I can do a long draw, and it spins up thin and consistent, which is a long-searched-for goal of mine. I'm very happy with it. The weight is coming out to a fingering, and cabled gloves or fingerless gloves (more likely) is what I'll knit with it, for the winter. It's been very relaxing to sit this summer and watch the hummingbirds out the window, and drop the spindle, wind it up, drop it down again.... I love these soothing moments, because so much of the summer is busy and craziness, managing everyone's schedule.

Last night was much fun, though. Friends came over, and we played a game that my husband made up, called Jedi. You make a circle on the ground, and give the person in the center one or two bats, whichever they prefer. Then everyone gets to throw balls at them, but they get to decide if just one ball can be in the air at a time, or more than that. They then use "The Force" (or instinct and fast reaction, as I like to call it) to hit the balls back, and try not to get hit themselves. If they do get hit by the ball, the person who threw the ball gets to be in the center with the bats. If the guy in the center hits the ball back and hits the thrower, the thrower is out of the game. It's pretty hard to get a person out by return volley, but not impossible. If the center person manages to get everyone else out of the game, they go on to Level Two. It's the same as Level One, but the title is the prize. We've never had a person get to Level Three, but the game is very exciting, and everyone is laughing and having fun. The only rule we had to institute is, if you hit the person in the center, that person has to say "Good throw," in a very happy, convincing way. Otherwise, you get grouchy pretty quickly if someone beans you with a ball. My daughter got hit in the face last night, and through her tears and smiles, she choked out, "Good shot." I was quite proud.

The husband and I arranged childcare and were going on a swimming date tonight, so of course it's cloudy and overcast this morning. That's the way the weather is up here in Northern Michigan. You can't count on it at all. I'm going to finish my spinning and get my entry on the Ravelry forum. Have a great day doing what you like to do!

First Socks!

2008-07-06T21:06:00.007-05:00

I have a good friend who has been waiting and waiting for me to write this blog entry, since I haven't yet convinced her to start a blog of her own. As a matter of fact, when you get done reading, if you feel like it, leave her a comment. She can read them here, and it will pull her deeper into the world of Blogland... At any rate, she's knit her first socks! It's very exciting, and her feet look so toasty and well-clad. She didn't even use a basic first sock pattern, but went ahead and knit the Jaywalkers, which I haven't attempted yet. I should, though. She has thoroughly shamed me.

What's so fun about these socks, other than the obvious fun of knitting socks, is that she did so much of them while intaking alcohol at our knit-togethers. I took some pictures along the way. There might be a mistake or two in these socks, but you'd never know it, and who cares? They're for your feet. Doesn't she look like she's having fun?

She was seriously bummed that we ran out of Kahlua, but it may have saved her heel....

And tada! The finished, cozy feet:

Good job, Mel. The only problem is, now everyone in your family wants a pair. Happy Knitting! I'm storing some extra Kahlua for your next casting on.

NOW I'm on Ravelry!

2008-06-30T08:24:00.001-05:00

My friend Arleta, the computer whiz, showed me how to use my Ravelry account - yay! I was accepted in January, I think, but I'm not a computer whiz, so I didn't figure out how to use it right away. Now I'm signing up for groups and reading and spinning while pages are loading.... And Arleta nicely signed me up as her friend, which somehow made me look rather lonely. One friend. I'm grateful for her, but if you're on Ravelry, too, drop me a comment, and I'll befriend ya. I don't know what you can do with that, view each other's blogs easier? But I'm interested in figuring things out! By the by, I'm CobblerCarrie, if you're looking for me!

Now I'm off to read more about Angora bunnies and their owners.

WorldWide Knit In Public Day

2008-06-16T05:49:00.003-05:00

Did you know? Saturday was Worldwide Knit In Public Day. My LYS owner says Knit in Public day began just a few years ago, and what a great idea it was! Kids came with their parents, my good friends were there, and we got to play with a bunch of yarn and sharp needles. People driving by slowed down and smiled at us, and when we got tired of sitting too long, the kids and I had a tickle fight. Not just mine, either, but every kid there, because who can resist a good tickle fight?

A very nice woman came by and took our picture for the paper, which was so fun for the kids, and then we all sat with her and talked scarf patterns. I didn't get her name, but it's neat how there are just so many knitters everywhere. I hope our LYS puts one of these public events on again, and it would be even better if I didn't have to wait a year for her to do it. It was great to be somewhere and tell the kids that I was supposed to knit, and they couldn't keep asking me for stuff. Go play, kids. That's why we are at a park. In fact, I may just take this thing a little further and institude my own new rule: Get your own stuff while mommy is knitting. Heh.

Here's a quick snapshot of what I've been up to, while I've been avoiding my sock nightmares. On the bottom of the pile is my graph paper for designing dungeons for our kids to imagine they're fighting monsters through. In the middle is the new Spin-Off magazine, which has so much good information in it, great pictures and articles - basically everything I could want a spinning magazine to give me. Next to the top is my thoughts notebook, with Orlando Bloom on the cover. I don't open this notebook much, but I do enjoy it, anyway. And on the top, some merino/silk that I'm spinning thin (and probably too tight) to two-ply for some cabled gloves. I really hope the sheen stays after I've spun it, because it's such beautiful roving. The reason I think I'm spinning it too tightly is because, unlike my Orlando notebook, I actually open the spinning magazine. And apparently, as tight as I'm spinning this roving, it could end up like rope when I'm done. Who knew? I thought spinning tightly kept your yarn from breaking, but this makes sense, too. I have been to handspinning sites on the web, and I'm just not finding as much information as I'd like. So I'm doing what I actually prefer to do, anyway, which is learning what everyone else already knows. It's a character flaw, but I'm old enough now that I just try to embrace it and not feel guilty.

Called on accounta rain

2008-06-13T14:29:00.006-05:00

We took the last few days to take the family on a camping trip. This is an excellent idea by my husband, to get the kids out where they can only talk to each other and to us. This way, they can't walk into another room or turn on the ipod and tune us out. In fact, if they get too bored, they have to play a game with us. Heh heh. I loved this plan. Unfortunately, it has its disadvantages, as well, the most extreme of which was the public toilet, but also included a good crop year for mosquitos. We hiked in a mile and a half to our campsite, which my hubby had already set up for us. This is casa de Cobbler:

Nice, ay? Not bad for a campsite. I bought some Opal sock yarn and started a feather-and-fan pattern for my camping socks. It's not hard to remember, but not boring, either. I liked them. And this is a pic of them as I sat and knitted while everyone else slept.

And here's what I got done until everyone woke up that first morning. Nice.

And then I tried them on. And even though I knit with my regular sized #1 needles, and cast on 72 sts instead of my normal 64, they were still too small. And I realized I wasn't knitting my camping socks, but my older daughter's camping socks.

The second day, we hiked out and took some beautiful scenic pictures of the area. I admit I was distracted by scratching at mosquito bites and wiping sweat off my forehead. I had gone past even trying to look attractive. But still, nature was pretty enough by herself:

You can't tell by these pictures, but bad weather and tornado watches were on the way. That night, everyone slept in the same tent, and we feared for being struck by lightning. Actually, that was just me, but I was scared enough for everyone. It was kind of exciting, actually, in a sort of are-these-my-last-moments? sort of way. And when I finally laid down to rest, I heard a chipmunk or mouse or something trying to get in, scrabbling and scrabbling. I was the only one awake, and I admit that I felt a little smug that I was in a nice, warm, uninvadable tent, though I don't know where I got that idea. In the morning, I awoke and found a hole in the corner of the tent. And I said to my husband, pretty calmly, I think, "Doesn't this look like something got in?" And my husband and I looked and looked (I'm pretty sure he was faking calm for the sake of the kids, too) and we couldn't find an exit hole, which he said should have been there. So the assumption I got to was that the mouse/chipmunk/nature being was in the tent with us. That gave me the willies, but I kept poking around, and - though I had to take the picture outside once I'd found the camera - I did find this:

My sock yarn! Invaded! And of course I was pretty sure that the little invading creature was inside that mound of wool, but my husband scooped it outside of the tent, and there was nothing in it, but.. well, poop, to be honest, but I'm not skillled enough to identify the animal by its droppings, except that it wasn't a bear. What this means probably is that the mouse/chipmunk/whatever was in the tent with us when we were arranging sleeping bags and such for the night, and the scrabbling I heard was the beast trying to get out. Could you imagine if I had actually found my headlamp, which I was looking for and unable to find, and turned it on? Holy cow, I can't even. I'm terrified of small toothy things, and it's just a good thing that I didn't get a chance to scar my family with my screams if I'd seen the little beastie. In the morning, I fortified myself with my two favorite camping aids, which should have made everything better...

... except that it didn't stop raining. It just kept up. We hiked out (again) and I pretended we were just going home for a shower. But the rain got worse, and eventually my husband took a nap on the loveseat. Yes! I knew we were back in civilization for good. Sweet. And then, guess what I found in my front yard?

A little nature right there on the lawn. Here's a baby snapping turtle, fresh out of the shell. When he was scared (we picked him up), he didn't even pull his head into his shell. He just closed his eyes and hoped for the best. Cute little fella. Next year, we're at least going to find a drive-up campsite, so I won't be hiking around with a four-year-old on my back for an hour each time we go in or leave. You take your pleasures where you can get 'em, when you're camping.

I've found my people

2008-06-06T12:41:00.001-05:00

You know, I gotta admit, I worried for almost 24 hours as to whether or not I should post a picture of a squashed mosquito on my blog. I kept envisioning no comments left or, worse, people just saying Ewww and then wiping me from their "Subscribe" list. Instead, you were all very supportive, and no one typed me a message (although maybe you thought the words) about how disgusting it was to take a picture of a squashed bug in the first place, but that I then felt the need to share it with blogland showed how really bad things had gotten. Thanks, y'all, for making me feel at home. =)

Now, we've talked about karma here, and fate, kismet, however you view the world and its points, and I have a quick question for everyone: If a person (yes, me) truly hated camping, and the thought of it made her sweat, but everyone in the family (yes, mine) wanted to go on a family camping vacation, would I be building good karma points by smiling, sweating and going along? Or would the mere fact that I was hoping for karma points negate any possibility of getting them?

I'll read your thoughts in a few days!

My Poor Book

2008-06-04T05:54:00.004-05:00

If you've read my little blog for any time at all, you'll know that I'm a big fan of the Harlot. Aside from Arleta's Motley Wool, she was my first real introduction into blogland. I picked up her book, At Knit's End, at the bookstore and read just a couple of excerpts, and I was laughing right there at the book store. So I bought one for me and one for my friend, and in the back, it mentioned her blog. When I found it online, I read every single entry she'd ever written. I went back years. My family made their own meals for several days, and thank goodness it was summer. It was like reading her books, only more personal. Very, very funny lady.

So when her latest book came out, Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not," I really wanted it. But, as I have mentioned often, we're on a fairly detailed budget, and I wasn't going to buy it for just no reason. No, no. It had to be a prize, or something. So I promised myself, when I lost ten pounds, that would be my gift to me. That was a really great gift to go for, too. It wasn't a bag of marshmallows or a movie ticket, both of which would be over with pretty quickly. This was a gift that could be enjoyed again and again, calorie and popcorn free. So I waited, and cheated, and got back on the diet, and eventually lost six pounds, which was close enough, and I got the book.

I started reading it two days ago, and it was entertaining, just like I'd hoped. But I didn't want to read it all at once, because I'd worked really hard to get it, and I wanted it to last. So I set it down for the night. I'd pick it up later, since I was now in the mood for a little knitting. In the meantime, my oldest daughter found it and grabbed it up. (Have I mentioned how much reading gets done around here since we unplugged the television?) She asked if she could read it, and, since Stephanie is mostly G-rated (except she says arse all the time, but so do I, in an American sort of way), I said Sure. So the next day, she's reading in the car on the way to the dentist for my second daughter. We're all talking amongst ourselves, and I'm driving and half listening to NPR, and I hear my second kid go, "Hey, a mosquito!" Snap! My oldest kid goes, "Cool! I got it!"

Snap? What went "Snap"? I looked around, and she's holding my new Stephanie Pearl-McPhee book, and smiling triumphantly. I said, "How did you get the mosquito?" She said, "With the book. It was awesome! Look, it's on page 15. Gross, huh?" And she holds it out to me. No, I don't look. I'm too disgusted, and amused - gotta admit it - but pretty stunned, too. I took a deliberately blurred picture as proof of my kid's lack of respect for Ms. McPhee, because I didn't think you'd want to see the mosquito, either.

Now, dangit, if I ever get the chance to see Stephanie in person, I can't ask her to sign my book.

Promised Sock Pics

2008-06-03T10:58:00.004-05:00

I've been eyeing a sock pattern for a long time. Every time I saw this pattern, I made everyone around me come and look at it. It was so pretty. But I had to buy it, and that put me off a bit, because there are just so many sock patterns out there that I wouldn't have to pay for. But I kept looking at it, and when, at tax time, the government was shocked that we could live on the declared income, and sent some money back, I knew it was time. I bought the pattern and started the socks on Mother's Day. They're the Rivendell Socks, and I love everything about them. Yes, especially the name, because it's all about the Elven forests, and that makes me think of magic, and we're all about the magic here. But the color, the leaves, the cables intertwining... *sigh* So I went to our LYS and bought some Trekking Pro Natura, a fairly pricey sock yarn, and paid for it pretty much guiltlessly, since it was Mother's Day, after all. And I cast on and spent the rest of the day working the leaves and the cables, and it was just lovely. I was actually thinking of making these for everyone I knew, because I knew I would never get bored of this pattern. Never.

Then I tried it on. And even though I'd only cast on two less stitches than my normal pattern, and even though I'd used my normal size 1 needles, the sock wouldn't go around my heel. Just stopped there, looking at me like an old boyfriend I'd asked for money. "You want what?"

Darn it. But of course while I was showing this pattern to everyone in the house, they'd all been making the appropriate oohing and aahing noises for some time. My second daughter turned her big cow eyes on me and said, "It doesn't fit? Want to try my foot?" Yeah, okay, munchkin. I think I owed you some socks, anyway. And now the older one wants socks, and isn't it only a matter of time before the four-year-old figures out what's going on?

But anyway, that's my Rivendell sock story. I cast on yesterday (Startitis? Never heard of it) for these cute little socks, from Favorite Socks by Interweave Press. These are out of Sockotta, a sock yarn I never feel guilty about buying, and it's long-wearing and has pretty, bright colors. I'm really liking these socks. But, of course, even though I cast on the proper number of stitches, with my normal size 1 needles, these socks are coming out huge. I can't figure it. I'm still knitting, though, because maybe they just look big, and they're going to come out okay. After all, I didn't have a clue the Rivendell socks were too small until I tried them on. Clearly, my instincts can't be trusted.

Sunny days, Frosty nights

2008-05-30T08:20:00.003-05:00

It's been really beautiful weather around here, the kind you can get outside and start darkening your skin in. (Not that you should. We know too much about skin cancer now) Being Native American, I used to get really dark in the summer, though. In fact, the other kids and I would sometimes hold contests, putting our arms together all summer long, to see who could get the darkest. I won, because I put the time in, people! I worked for the honor. Oh, and I might have had a slight melanin advantage, but that wasn't my fault. Then, one summer, disaster. I was in Florida, with my awesome base tan, oiled up and laying poolside, and I clearly had not enough respect for Florida sun versus Michigan sun. Well, it's the same sun, right? But I burned, for the first time in my life, in my early 20's, and it was a good one, a most respectable burn. Apparently the sun tries harder in Florida than it does up in the north. The little old ladies at the pool were tsking in sympathy, because they knew what was coming before I did. My skin was pink that night, right through my tan, and my arms felt funny and kind of like the skin was too tight. I showed them to everyone around dinner, and we remarked on how odd it looked. I put Noxema on, just like my girlfriend in college, who had red hair, and knew from burns. Still, I spent the next week peeling and hiding out in the cabin. Worse than that, my skin hasn't been able to tolerate the sun since. I get nasty rashes that look like psoriasis on my arms, if the sun even hits them through the car window. I am, as my friend Melanie gleefully points out, an Indian who can't go out in the sun. Respect Ra, folks, is all I'm saying.

As for the frosty nights, my poor garden is trembling in fear! We're fighting the frost as best we can, with every Elmo and Care Bears plastic cup we've got. My garden looks so silly, I had to take a picture for the blog.

Go, little bean plants, go! And yesterday, in a frenzy of domesticity, I bought pepper and tomato plants, too many for me to ever use. I don't even like growing tomatoes, darn it. They get those disgusting horned tomato worms on them, always. Then the kids and I have to pick them off, and it's all just too gross. So if you live near me and want a tomato plant, please stop by. I got extra.

And finally, a teaser. I bought myself a sock pattern and great yarn on Mother's Day, but I'll have to show pics next time, as the kids have to go to school!

Pictures Update!

2008-05-25T12:46:00.004-05:00

It's really gardening season here, but the weeds are going crazy. So much for fertilizer - the grass loves it! So I've been uprooting and uprooting, but at least my daughter is helping me. We're really having fun, pulling up a little weed, then showing each other how much root was hiding under it. I know, at least, that I'm going to look back on this age with her and be glad we did things like weeding the garden. Then, when I'm older and remembering (most likely by reading my own blog), I can think, "Well, I didn't knit all the time!"

Besides gardening, we're cleaning up the house for the big birthday party tomorrow. The littlest one shall be four years old, and much to-do is being made of her. I've taken pics of her in her new party dress, which she has already stained, so she'll be wearing a shirt and skirt tomorrow. I've also taken a picture of the prairie costume I made for my oldest which, thankfully, I've been able to lend out to a friend already. It would have been too much work for something that will only be worn once. You'd think I could save it for the other two girls, but they've already become quite cavalier about my sewing, and they want their own dresses. We're suddenly very Anne of Green Gables around here, growing our own crops and sewing our own clothes. I do believe cancelling the satellite was the best thing I've done so far as a parent. They're reading all the time, building worm farms and trying to hatch dragon eggs. Right now they're following a map for buried treasure. All they need to find is an island with a volcano, to start measuring from.

Check out this picture of the kids playing tug-of-war in their dresses. Too funny! Only the boys let themselves get dragged through the mud, the girls staying appropriately proper, yet still kicking butt in the game. Heh!

And finally, yes, I do knit. Here is a picture of the youngest in a striped sweater. I don't even remember the name of the yarn, but it's self-striping, DK weight, and washable, of course. It's roomy on her yet, which is good, because she has several other sweaters that fit her right now. I don't really think of myself as knitting all the time, but when I look at the kids' closets, they're in pretty good shape. =)

I concede. Wait. Does that mean I give up?

2008-05-14T04:54:00.007-05:00

There has been a lot of discussion on blogs about the latest Interweave Knits, and it seems the general consensus is that there aren't a lot of good patterns in this one. Personally, I gotta say, I like this issue. I've found at least three patterns in there I would buy the yarn for now, except there's so much yarn in the ~~yarn room~~ back room. There's a couple of patterns I would like to wear, were it not for the fact I never really bounced back from the third baby. And the article about Elizabeth Zimmerman and Schoolhouse Press was really neat to read. I love how it seems like such a large business, but is still run by family, and just a few people, at that. The article on combining two different strands of color, knitting them together, and making a new color - boy, I read that article three times. My fingers are just itching to try it.

So I'm a fan. And I found the Brick Pullover sweater on Knitting Daily's email, went to my magazine, searched and found it. I like it. I don't know how I missed it on the first run-through, but I think it's pretty nice. I've finished the husband's last sweater. (no pictures? I wonder why... But would someone please explain this whole short-row through the shoulders technique to me? I think I need to learn it.)

I think I could knit him another sweater, anyway. This sweater. It looks pretty interesting, nice color, and I like how the sweater is put together through the shoulders. So I set it out casually the other night, when we were all outside. I had a girlfriend there, and she said she liked the sweater, so I showed it to the husband. He looked at it, started to say something, then stopped. Then he looked at me and said carefully, "It's ni-ice." Grr. So I showed it to mom for a third opinion. After all, what did he know about sweaters? But she really didn't care for it, either. Now, Mel and I can't be wrong about this sweater, but two other people with pretty good taste in clothes don't like it, so really, there's probably no point in knitting it. Unless anyone else agrees with me, and wants to knit it along or something? I really would have liked a reason to knit this sweater...

Today, however, I am sewing. I had to make a new dress for my youngest last week. Did everyone see Enchanted? The heroine from a fairy tale gets trapped in our world. She makes friends with city animals, finds her true love and - oh, yes. She makes her clothes from the things she sees around her, drapes, shower curtains... I suppose I should have seen it coming. My three-year-old took a pair of scissors to her prettiest dress, trying to alter it, because the gauzy overlay was bugging her. That was last week, and the only way I could calm her down was to make her another dress. This week, my oldest daughter is going to a village on a field trip, where everyone dresses like pioneers, brings an old-fashioned lunch - I'm thinking of packing her summer sausage - and watches reinactments of the good old days. I hope there's a spinning wheel, cuz I signed up to go and watch over four of four hundred children that will be at this event. (Light a candle for me, if you've got one) I'm nearly finished with her pioneer dress (needs a hem), and her bonnet (needs a brim), and I need to cut out her apron. It's okay, right? I mean, we're not leaving until tomorrow morning. Easy peasy. I'll hopefully remember to take pictures before she drags everything through the mud, since it's raining like crazy right now.

Then I am off to Maryland for the weekend! Whee! I think I'm a week or so late on the Maryland Sheep and Fiber Festival, but it's going to be a quick trip, anyway, to visit a friend. But if I could have managed it for the same weekend, I'd have been really torn on whether to drag my friend there or go to the festival and come back another weekend. =) (JUST KIDDING, Mary! I'd have dragged you there. Then I'd have made you buy a spinning wheel, because there's a better chance of convincing your husband it's just a decorate device than to convince mine.) So everyone have a good weekend, and I'll take pictures for the blog as soon as there's more finished product!

Now back to our previously scheduled program...

2008-04-27T19:02:00.003-05:00

That's what it feels like, anyway. Drama club is officially finished - phew! I can't even pretend that teaching drama to 20 11-year-olds isn't work. I'm not even sure if they were learning anything, because keeping that many kids focused is a feat in itself. It was good, though, and the play went smoothly. The kids were so excited and proud when they were done, we were all high-fiving each other after the curtains closed. Here's some pics:

Sea monster and pirate, scared pirates in background, in case sea monster decides to munch them.

A stream of pirates getting abducted on their way to an island.

Fairy costume (remember the last minute four-inch correction?), fairy in action, in a neat play called Sibling Switch.

And finally, the entire class, at least at the end of the year, except for some that were out with the flu. That was unfortunate, since they put in all the time, but got sick just at production time. We also lost some kids halfway through, because darn it, seven months is a long time to be in a drama club. Next year, I'm going to try to meet twice a week for half the length of time. That way, we might get less kids signing up, due to other commitments, and I'm sure it would be easier to each, say, eight kids instead of twenty to thirty. I have to say, though, that it feels really good to have kids looking forward to joining our drama club. My husband and I are fairly new at this, and I'm glad we're not bombing out with the kids.

I'm spinning some more sock wool for a friend, and it's going really fast! I can't locate my camera right now, but suffice it to say that I shall be making my own Lazy Kate very soon. I was going to wait until I could figure out how to put tension on the spools, but I think I'll just make one with a shoe box and some dowels. Anything would beat trying to spin off of two spindles onto a third...

I'm also ready to start some beaded socks, but my beads are too small for my darning needle to go through. How do you thread the beads on? Can anyone help? They're not seed beads, but I don't know exactly what size they are. It just seems like the hole is about as big as worsted weight yarn, so they seem appropriate. I'll welcome any and all advice!

Updates! Don't you love em?

2008-04-17T08:49:00.006-05:00

Here are some pics of the work I've been up to. We have the kids onstage for their productions, showing the fairy-ish (no wings) dress, and a chimney the kids helped me paint, as well as the sea monster costume. That actually came out better than I expected, since we started and cast off several ideas, and finally came up with this one the night before we needed it. I made a green poncho, put some black spots on it, covered it with green netting, and then affixed seaweed to it. It was all right =) Then we had a cap for her that I bought at a costume shop, and we were good to go. I hope a get a chance to take a picture of her when she's with the waves and the pirate ship, but I'd have to be able to be in two places at once. There's a picture of a bunch of pirates, also. For their costumes, we just cut fabrics for sashes, and then cut up t-shirts. They came out looking quite piratey. Of course, there are some excellent pirate costumes in the shops, but these came out fine, too. The fairy costume went together in one day. Then, when she tried it on, it didn't fit by about four inches! She said she'd actually taken her measurements with a piece of string and a yard stick - "Sorry." Well, me, too. So I took out the zipper, added the four inches, and had an off-set zipper in the back. It worked great, actually. We also made waves of foam board and painted them in the kitchen, but I don't have any pictures. We're quite an assembly line here.

There are so many lists of things that I should be doing. I just keep adding things I think of to my Wordpad document, then putting an X by the ones that are finished. I'm also carrying around a well-filled coffee filter, with things added and crossed off all over the place. As long as I don't lose my coffee filter, I'm in good shape. Actually, I'm having fun, but we're all very nervous about the production today. I was feeling okay until the kids started talking about how nervous they were, and now I am, too. Lol. The principal seemed totally surprised that he needed to set chairs up for parents and the community. I guess he thought the production was only for the school. So now I'm thinking, what if nobody comes?? I mean, we'll perform for the students, but we have another production Saturday night, and I'm wondering why we didn't make it for the afternoon. I guess I'd better start calling friends and making them come to my play =)

Last night I sat down and zoned out with a sock while watching the movie Juno. I liked it, and it threw me several curves. I wasn't expecting that movie to be anything like what it was, and I enjoyed it a great deal, anyway. Then my oldest and I had a good conversation this morning about teen pregnancy. I suppose she's old enough to have the talk, since her friends have MySpace accounts, boyfriends, and last week she said she was a sixteen-year-old in a ten-year-old's body. God help us. Here's a pic of the sock, just a basic pattern:

And see my arm? Heehee. Well, maybe you can't very well, but one of the kids swiped my script during the second performance, so I had to take notes on - well, on me. So even when I'm getting away from everything and knitting, I'm not really getting away from it. Three hours til we perform!

Prepare to be impressed

2008-04-14T08:45:00.003-05:00

I know how that sounds, really full of myself. Hopefully intriguing enough to catch your interest, though, and enough of a promise that I'll have to deliver. I had an idea for a different title this morning, and the rant went something like - I hate how people use catch phrases to describe catastrophes. The first two that come to mind are, "The humanity! (Hindenburg)" and "Houston, we've had a problem (Apollo 13)". These were terrible, scary events that people lived through. And it slays me when people say, "Ahhh, the humanity!" and laugh. So I was especially irritated with myself this morning, when, getting ready to take a kid to school, after getting approximately 2 1/2 hours of sleep because of kids with the flu or having nightmares, I caught myself thinking, "Houston, we have a problem."

To explain, my husband and I have been dedicating a fair amount of time this school year to running a drama club production. Our play is this Thursday (3 days away, but who's counting?), and Saturday at practice, two kids asked for scripts. Apparently, they've lost theirs - who knows when? - and just realized we're really going to put them on stage. Ack. One of our drama club kids has meningitis, but doesn't want me to give his part to an understudy, he's determined to make it. My daughter has been sick with the flu for the last full week, which means I haven't been able to run around being detail mom. That's a shame, because I really enjoy detail mom. She's saved my bacon many a time. Then, of course, I got sick, so now I'm not only NOT detail mom, I'm resting mom. Get up a bit, make a list of things I should be doing, sit down and rest. The last four days have been like that. It's very frustrating when you've got a deadline looming.

This morning, I woke up feeling - well, better. You know what feeling better feels like, because you suddenly realize how bad you've felt. And as I came upstairs to check on my husband, he's just laying in bed. Just laying there. Like we don't have sixty things to do in three days. "Everything okay?" asks I. No, indeed. 'Twould seem he has caught the flu. Plus, he's not even trying to fake being okay to make me feel better. He's just sick.

Luckily, detail mom is back. (God bless her) I have to make a new sea monster suit today (the last one really wasn't right). I need to make a fairy costume, grown woman size. I have to make five pirate costumes (these are only cut up t-shirts). And I have to make a crossing guard sign for the second play we're performing. But I feel invigorated. I can handle it. And so I ran out to the store, bought more tulle, polar fleece and stencils, picked up some flu medicine for the husband, fed prescription flu medicine to my daughter (don't get me started on the cost, for pity's sake), and now I'm back writing a blog entry, basically promising a warping time miracle, to keep me honest. May detail mom last long enough to deliver!

If you get a chance, say a prayer and knit a stitch for me, ay? I believe in well wishes, and I'd appreciate any I could get!

Gauge is a harsh mistress.

2008-04-08T12:22:00.002-05:00

I've finally figured out how to get the photos off of my temporary camera, onto my old laptop, then saved to a datapen and moved to the new laptop, because I can't find the camera cable, and the little card thingy doesn't fit in the new laptop. Grr. Anyhoo, the husband's sweater! I had a totally lovely time knitting it, and that was mostly because I was secure, solid, happy in the knowledge that my gauge swatch had worked out great. I knit it, I washed it, I measured it, and it was perfect. So even though I'm knitting, and the sweater is looking way skinny, I'm enjoying myself, because this baby is going to block out. The front and back each needed to be 23 inches across. My husband has a 44-inch chest, and this gives him a teeny bit of ease, but not too big, cuz he's not into the bulky, too-big sweater look. Then I washed my pieces, pressed them out so you could see the cabling pattern, and got this:

That's a 26-inch across measurement, friends. 26. That gives him, oh, an eight-inch ease. Dangit. I'm going to have to feed him pasta for every meal for a month to make this work. I have walked by these pieces for the last 20 minutes, slinging bad words at them whenever my gaze happens upon them. Rotten measurements. Rotten sweater pieces. I have been mocked and defeated by knitting gauge, and I'm pretty ticked off about it. In fact, I remember a time when I didn't know what gauge was. I was thirteen, happily knitting sweaters for myself, for babies, for my mom, and everything was fine. There was one sweater that ended up too small, and I gave it to a neighbor, much skinnier than I. One sweater out of countless sweaters had an incorrect gauge, and I wasn't even trying. Then I get a little knowledge, start swatching, measuring, protecting myself, and kerblooie. Dangit.

Oh, and another lesson: Don't drink and knit. Some friends came over the other night, and I'm knitting on my handspun sock yarn, second sock. I lost my directions from the first sock, so there's a lot of comparison as I go. That's working out okay. It is, after all, just a sock. I turned the heel, moved on toward the cuff, got up the next morning, and found - well, the photos are blurry. (Let's blame the temporary camera) One of my socks has texturizing on the heel, and the other one (let's call it the drunk-knitting sock) has no texturizing at all. I can't pull out the yarn, since it's two-ply handspun, and tends to separate if it's abused too much. Now, I know, it's just a sock, and it's for me, as well, so this is not a big deal. But right on the back of the knitting gauge fiasco, and I'm pretty grumpy.

Still, though, and to move on past the grumps, here's a picture of my handknit socks.

You wouldn't even hardly think they were from the same skein, but that must be the random love of spinning your own yarn. Neat that they both stripe, though, and they're very comfy. Once I got over being disgusted about knitting in general, I started to feel pretty smart. I can make stuff. I can make my own socks. Hah! I feel pretty clever, actually. Except for the sweater.

April Update

2008-04-03T06:59:00.004-05:00

April 1st was a fun day around the Cobbler house. My oldest kids are ten and eight years old, and they've gotten behind this prank-pulling thing. April Fools' morning found us with Vaseline on our toothpaste, the toilet seat, door handles... looks like I'll be replacing our tub of ointment. Rubberbands were around the dish sprayer in the kitchen, and chocolate syrup was in our coffee cups. It all would have been so much funnier if I had just gotten to the coffee first...

I wish I had some pictures of the knitting party I had yesterday morning. Mel and Arleta came over, with kids, since it's spring break, and we knitted and ate, but not necessarily in that order. A lot of food seems to be required for a knitting party. It was fun, but I couldn't find my camera. Mel was wearing a sock as she knitted the second. I find that very good motivation for overcoming second sock syndrome. Then they accused me of never sharing new purchases with them, so I went and brought out everything knew I had acquired. And it seems that I haven't acquired anything new since the last time I showed them! Good for me. I feel very upstanding about this whole Mission Possible thing. And it's hard to justify yarn when your husband packs his lunch for work. However, it's very self-sacrificing of him, and I suspect he's doing it for the sweaters he gets in return.

In spite of my camera being AWOL, I have on picture of a finished object in my photo file. I have, sadly, gotten yet another laptop that I'm working on, so I now have pictures strung over three computers. It's irritating, really. If I lose the pattern I'm working on, I'll have to figure out which machine it's downloaded at. And I just figured out the pictures I wanted to show are on the other laptop. Grrr. Now I'll have to find my datapen.

I made a baby sweater for a friend of ours who had her baby at home, with a Dula. I'm so impressed. If I didn't have nurses running around getting me stuff after my third was born, I don't think I'd have eaten. But she looks great, so does the baby, and the sweater worked out fine. I just used a general cardigan pattern I picked up for free at Wal-Mart, then adjusted the collar and put in the heart lace design. Good, basic pattern, though. And I'm lucky I got this picture, as I was wrapping the gift when I realized that I hadn't taken a photo yet. How many times have I done that, even though I know I have a blog?? Arleta made a beautiful blanket for the little girl, and Mel is working on a baby nighty, which is so cute I can hardly stand it. Gotta make me one of those for the next baby gift. It's cool.

I'm finishing the sleeves on the husband's sweater, then it's weaving in all the ends. I love the feel of the Wool of the Andes, and the price was right, but I really protest all the knots. It seems excessive, to find a knot three feet from the end of a skein. Why not just end it a bit early, folks? Nobody's measuring the skein that closely. And there were knots throughout almost all the skeins, which are small to begin with, so it's taken 16 skeins to do the sweater. If I sound grouchy now, check me out after all the weaving in. =) But it's going to be an awesome sweater, so I'm looking forward to getting it done.

Gear up, folks. If you've read this far, here's your heads-up. I'm going to do another shawl knitalong this summer. I know others are doing them as well, and I don't think you have to do two shawls to be in two knitalongs. Just get your pattern in mind or start now and take pictures, and I'll post them with the others as we go through our knitting this summer. It's a great way to share, and I've got a shawl on the needles and one on the brain at the moment, so I'll have no problem with coming up with my own project. And, of course, by random draw, there will be a winner who receives shawl yarn, and some stitch markers coming someone's way, and any other prizes I can think of and gather. So start looking through your books! I'll announce more later, in a more dedicated entry. Happy knitting, and let's collectively wish for Spring! I know I'm ready.

Angora Love

2008-03-24T19:41:00.010-05:00

We were brushing our Angora rabbit the other night, and he was just giving wool like crazy. My husband brushed and brushed, and I watched in awe. Then I grabbed my spindle. I mean, how can you worry about screwing up Angora wool when the little guy keeps making it like that??? I had also read a great excerpt from this book about how to handle Angora yarn, and I thought I'd take pictures as I went along. Firstly, of course, the spinning. The book recommended that I spin tightly, at a worsted weight, but the wool clumped up on me when I wasn't spinning skinny, like I'm used to, so I went with the skinny, but spun it really tight.

Secondly, I had already on a spindle some thinly spun merino, treated so it was superwash. These two were going to ply together great, since apparently you put Angora yarn in screaming hot water and agitate it, completely at odds with what you would expect to do with wool, and since the merino was superwash, neither should felt. Well, the book said the Angora wouldn't felt. I wasn't at all sure, but I wasn't listening to myself. I was listening to this lady who wrote this book. heheh. I had to keep reminding myself that the little guy was just downstairs growing more wool, and it would be okay if I screwed it up.

So I spun it up.

Then I put it in hot water in the sink and agitated it, then shocked it in ice cold water. Honestly, that's what the book said, and I was just going on faith. Amazingly, it didn't felt, even with all of that mean treatment. But that wasn't the end of it, because the next part is the most fun. I got to thwack it hard against the counter, each side. It makes the Angora "bloom" and become all softy. It also loosens it all up, which is why it needed to be spun so tightly in the first place.

And then I had pretty yarn!!!!

So I made something with it.

The only thing for this bunny that didn't come from an animal was the beaded eyes. I even stuffed him with Angora. Now he's off as a gift, and my kids are bugging me for more. When I started to explain to my second child that he sort of took awhile, my first daughter whispered, "She just started it today." I've been outed. These little bunnies aren't hard, and I got the directions from this magazine. Since he was actually pretty fun to make, I'm going to make a couple more. I have another friend or two that could use a little Angora love.

Hurry hurry...

2008-03-16T08:27:00.003-05:00

I had a very entertaining post two weeks ago, which was to give everyone a snapshot of what life was about to be like. I think you'd have liked it. Then my silly network connection went down again, my computer couldn't find the Internet, and was so distressed by this fact that it locked up completely, ashamed of its failure. So I lost my witty entry, and I was so disgusted that I just continued on and decided to blog when I came out of the tunnel of frenzy.

Now imagine, if you will, two weeks ago, Friday. My daughter has graciously put off her birthday slumber party by two weeks, due to ~~mother~~ family commitments, and today is the day! She's excited, balloons are up, and we are about to have eight girls camped out on our living room floor. Whee! Just looking back on it makes me smile. We decided to make it an "Everyone's Birthday Party," since I hate when kids don't get gifts. (Oh, and I had overbought Webkinz at the holidays, and was looking to declutter the house I mean, share the wealth) Then I let everyone decorate the cake. All I did was fill frosting tubes and take pictures. See?

Now, doesn't that just look like fun? Okay, gross to eat, but fun to make. And the Webkinz were well-received, and the kids asleep by 11:30 p.m. I know, cuz I slept in the hallway, to protect them from all the extra dogs in the house crawling into bed with them. You may remember that we were watching five dogs at the time, due to different and varying circumstances in two different parts of our extended family. (They weren't no little dogs, neither. A Great Dane actually looks down on you when she asks you for a nibble from your plate)

Flash to the next day, kids delivered home after a waffle breakfast and mom's corny joke, "How many waffles can you eat? A waffle lot!" Told you it was bad. I cringe at the memory. Let's just put it down to lack of sleep, shall we? (A shepherd woke me up every half hour pretending to have to go to the bathroom all night) But later that day, we had a birthday dinner for my mother-in-law, who turned 60. That went off very well, due to preparation and handing most of the cooking over to my husband. A big though belated thank you needs to be acknowledged here to that fellow.

The next day we had organized a church youth event to a waterpark, of which I have hardly a picture, since I spent most of the time walking around getting Burger King orders to call into the restaurant, so we wouldn't have 60 people clamoring for food all at the same time. This event, too, was fun. It was a good weekend, though busy.

Then on Monday, my aunt passed away, and that was sad, but she had struggled with breast cancer for 20 years! I was impressed, thoroughly. That's amazing. But two dogs went home to my mom, who was caring for my aunt at the end. Thursday my brother took his shepherd/husky home. She's only one year old, and a bundle of energy, but we were still sorry to see her go. She's quite a sweet little muffin.

Whew! On to this weekend, which was our church youth's Easter Extravaganza. Since the waterpark, I had five days to organize crafts, activities, lunch and an egg hunt for 30 kids and their accompanying adults. Whee! (Well, "whee" is what you say when you're on a rollercoaster, and so I say "whee" a lot) I probably should have taken more than five days, but it was a bit of a surprise when the organizer said, "I'm not doing it. Too busy." So I'll forgive myself what looks like a lack of preparation and plan on being more on top of my game next year. Anyway, the event was crazy and busy and crafty, and hopefully everyone went home happy. My husband says any event that feels crazy with 30 kids was probably fun for the kids! =)

And now, finally, I can find my knitting. I can appreciate other people's knits. I can spin a little. And I can enjoy blogging again, both reading and writing. Well, until we get to the part where I start bending your ear about the drama club production in April...

Incommunicado

2008-03-04T09:22:00.004-05:00

Ack, and ack again. My internet has been down for more than a week, and so great silence has reigned from blogland. You're all talking, I just couldn't hear you. =/ And for some reason we can't ascertain, when you turn off the network hub computer, the internet comes through just fine. It took a bit to figure that out, and more than a couple of bad words, which I think I can be forgiven for, considering my addiction. And huzzah! I'm back, babee!

I was putting on my freshly washed socks this morning, and thinking, as I always do, "This is my favorite pair of socks." I love the fit, they're so comfy and snug and just right. They're STR, simple pattern, but they feel so good that they're the reason I make socks. Do you have a favorite pair like that, the pair that's doomed to get holes first, cuz you wear them so much? Well, these are mine, and because I blog, I took a picture:

I decided I couldn't possibly find a piece of carpeting without dog hair, since we're watching three other dogs, along with our own today, so I just gave up and put a dog in the picture. He looked very concerned to find feet next to him, didn't he? So I had to show him that socks next to ya can be good things:

He liked the lovin but, sad for him, once I snapped the picture, I got up and got on with my morning. Still, he's had a taste of handknit socks, and I'll probably have to watch him and my socks very closely now. Much like my first boyfriend, he's cute, but you can't trust him. Since I've started writing this, he's pulled down a pair of my daughter's pants from the clean clothes pile (of course) and made a bed with them.

See that nasty floor? I'll post pics of it on the internet, but if you came over, I'd keep you locked out til I got it vacuumed up. My standards are low, but apparently still there.

Oh, about socks... that's right. I got distracted. I found this sweet little pattern on Knitty, and I bought some beads the other day for socks, so it seems like a natural thing, along with this yarn. Pretty, no?

I was getting really excited about casting on, until I remembered these:

I better deal with Second Sock Syndrome first, I guess...

Scrapping my morning plan

2008-02-25T11:59:00.003-05:00

I'm probably going to regret this, but I couldn't bring myself to wake the kids up for school this morning. They've been so busy (for months, it seems like), that last night, coming home late from a birthday party, they both said they just felt like crying. Now, I'm sure that they're going to wake up and say there was something very important that they were supposed to do at school this morning, but right now I just can't bring myself to wake em.

The second sock is progressing much better than the first one. I think the uncertainty of knitting my first toe-up sock had me knitting slower. For the record, after avoiding toe-up sock patterns for years, I've found that I really like the technique. This one really seems to be clicking along. =)

Update:

I got to school with the kids, an hour late (it was worth it, says I. The morning was so relaxing), and I realized one daughter was looking really, really sad. Swimmy eyes, puckery mouth. What's wrong? I asked. Well, it seems that if you're tardy, you have to stay in for morning recess and do your work. And apparently the last time I called an easy morning (last year!), the teacher really grouched at her when she came in. This is my extra sensitive child, outside of whose classroom I sat for the first year of her schooling, so this was going to be a big deal. I sat for a minute in the parking lot, then thought, Screw it. I'll help them with their mountain of homework tonight. And here we are, having a relaxing morning at home. This is why, as much as I wish things were different, I am never, ever going to get Mom of the Year. Dangit. But I'd pretty much messed things up in January when I missed my oldest's dental appointment, so I was out of the running, anyway. *sigh*

I think, when I get my morning writing done, I'll work on my Ravelry set-up. I've been accepted for a couple of weeks, but haven't had a good chance to really figure out Flickr and such...

You could do that... or maybe brush the bunny?

Show'n'Tell

2008-02-24T08:48:00.003-05:00

I've got some items on the go that I'd like to finally show everyone. I've been trying to master the toe-up sock. I've been really nervous about it, and asked other knitters exactly when they started the heel, and such. It wouldn't be a big deal to rip out, but I've been working with hand-spun yarn. It is two-plyed, and due to an unfortunate event, that of a friend ripping back socks from sock yarn I had made for her, I had the chance to view said handspun that had been ripped. It separated in a sad way, and I was definitely trying not to rip my current sock-in-progress if I could help it. (Sorry about that yarn, Mel, but it was my first) =/

So I cast on with some yarn that I liberated from the husband's socks-not-to-be. (Sorry, hon. They just weren't fun.) And I started a toe-up sock from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, the Oriel pattern. I've poured over every step, from the provisional cast-on to the odd way she seemed to turn the heel. In fact, it was a bit like knitting a pocket on a sweater. I don't have to understand how it works, I only have to fanatically follow each step exactly as it is written. And it worked! The first sock:

Cool, no? Now, here's a funny thing about my handspun sock yarn. Well, I'll just show you:

See what it's doing? It's striping. Now, let me explain. I am not a proficient spinner. I am, in fact, the spinner that pulls out great whacks of roving and spins it pretty thin, then Andean plies it back on itself when I get too much on my spindle. Then I roll it in a ball, put it aside and do it all again, getting four pretty good spindlefuls from each 4 ounces of roving. When I Andean-plied this sock yarn, it started to stripe. I thought it would stop pretty quickly, but with each color, it kept doing that. I had to show my knitting pals, and they thought it was odd, too. I mean, I don't know enough to make striped yarn. And yet, here 'tis. Unexplainable, and striped. We're pretty sure my daughter has invited little helpers in the house, cuz we believe in all sorts of magical beings around here, who bring us good luck to things like knitting, and souffles, for instance.

And that is my Shows. Now, my Tell would be a story I have of a friend of ours, who used to play tournament chess, when he was, like, 11 years old. He was pretty good, played for several years, and he brought a crystal chess set yesterday for my ten-year-old. She loved it, and they sat down to play. When they set up the board, they realized they were missing a king and a queen, one from one side, one from the other. Our friend was duly upset, promised to stop by the store on the way home and get another set, just to replace the two pieces. We chuckled about the marketing ploy of companies getting people to buy two of everything, just to be sure they had enough. Very clever. But my daughter wanted to play, so she grabbed a couple of substitutes from my three-year-old. Suffice it to say, our friend, the championship chess player, was deeply offended:

I'm not kidding. He was not amused. But they played for over two hours, with him explaining each move to my daughter, indicating why one move was more desirable than another. And he didn't let her win, but carefully explained why he won, and she left the table happy, which is amazing in itself. She has little to no tolerance for anything but excellence in herself, and I admit that I expect something close to the same. I'm working on being better about that. But the game finally ended, and I got up to put it away. (Don't go there. I don't know why it seems to work that way, either) As I turned the game box over, I found - oh, wait. Another Show:

Heehee. Sure, why was it on the back? But it also gives me a little insight as to why no one can find the ketchup in the fridge.

Automation is my friend

2008-02-15T08:03:00.003-05:00

I'm glad to report that, due to sub-zero temperatures (fahrenheit), and an unheated laundry room, the washer was just frozen up. Thanks to you all for your commiseration on my handwashing. It was an interesting thing to teach my daughters, though, about how clothes used to be washed. They always tell me that they wish it was the olden days, back to log cabins and sewing by candlelight. I see their point, there is a definite attraction to simpler times. We like to sew here, and bake and craft, et cetera. But when it comes to laundry, I'll take a washer, thanks.

I've been doing some stealth knitting for a friend I promised to send a gift to. I got it done last night, the Fake Isle hat, with Noro Silver (I think) yarn, and alpaca - mmm, soft alpaca.... but it came out too small =/ So I'm casting on again today for a larger size. Here, however, is the grateful recipient of the too small hat:

Honestly, she would steal everything that came off of my needles. I'm glad she likes handmade things, though! If I could just get her to go sock yarn shopping, she'd have another pair of socks. I think it's very interesting how quickly kids get picky, when they know you can make them stuff. These potential socks can't be just any variegated color. She doesn't know what she wants, but it's nothing in my stash. On the other hand, this is my OCD child, and I can't exactly take her to the sock yarn room at my LYS. There is no way she would ever be able to choose a sock yarn. So, sadly, I'm left with the only other option I can think of: Buying a skein of sock yarn at a time and bringing it home for her inspection. Should she not like the one I've chosen, I'll have to put it in the stash and buy another, to try again. (Play appropriate sad music here)

In the meantime, we have a four-day weekend, no school! This is a good thing, because they get tired of the continual routine, and the roads are terrible. So we're going to get all domestic here again, make some cinnamon rolls, and - just to keep them honest about how drudgery works - washing walls. I swear no one has to wash walls as much as I do. How do they get foot prints so high up on walls????

Queen Domestic, or today I'm acquiring Man Hands

2008-02-12T11:46:00.000-05:00

Sadly, last night our washing machine broke. My husband is pretty sure he can fix it, just like he's pretty sure he can figure out how to use the pottery wheel and rewire the satellite. But he's a busy guy, so I know it's going to be at least the weekend before that machine can get looked at. Now, we're a family that likes to pretend we could get along without modern conveniences, and, with a family of five, you can't exactly wait on the laundry. So here's how I spent my morning: I filled the bathtub with hot, soapy detergent and water, then put an approximate load of laundry into the bubbles. Then I agitated, like my faithless washing machine would do. I agitated and agitated, then I called the kids over. We had a lot of fun, that first time. Then I hand-scrubbed socks, and rinsed... and rinsed, and rinsed. Then I wrung the clothes out as best I could, and dripped them over to the faithful dryer, and threw them in. Then I went back to the tub and started another batch of clothes. I let those soak until the dryer got done, and went and did dishes. When I checked the dryer a long time later, the clothes were still soaking wet. Grrr. So I pulled out the heavy stuff, draped it around the house, cleaned the lint guard and threw the clothes back in. They dried in an appropriate amount of time, and then I was back at the tub, agitating, rinsing, then dripping the clothes back to the dryer. This time I wrung them out much better. I did three loads of laundry this way, people. I'm afraid of getting muscular, manlike hands already, my arms have reached muscle fatigue, and we have all redefined "dirty." Slept in your pajamas? They're not dirty. Get 'em outta the hamper. In fact, I was making cookies (since today now seems to be domesticity day) and I heard my daughter spill something. Her older sister said, "Get a towel," and I yelled,"A paper towel!" Yikes.

So the clothes thing is going okay, and they're all folded neatly into everyone's pile, to be taken care of. My husband is going to come downstairs, and I am going to show him my accomplishment. I'm nearly as proud as if I'd knit socks. I can hear him now, praising me, thinking how cool I am to have gotten the laundry done. And then I realize that, yes, I got it done, with no help from the washer. In fact, I had become the washer. And as long as I was the washer, and working fine, the other washer was going to go on the backburner of things to do. So now I'm on strike, and will get back to my knitting.

Thrummed mittens, nearly done:

Husband's sweater, moving nicely:

If the dryer breaks, I'm outta here.

Where did you go?

2008-02-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

I have been reviewing my emails and spam quarantine, and so far, I've found entries such as: "Rod Dodson is 85% in January" (good for you, Rod, but what?) - a question, "Is my partner happy?" (I hope so) - "Here is the best stock pick of the year" (sorry, no money to invest) - "Your email won!" (This one may be legit, since it was from a company I've ordered from, but I didn't receive it any time recently, so I assume the opportunity has passed.), and the always useful, "Something that will make her always want it now, and begging for more." I assume they're talking about cooking recipes....

However, what I didn't see is any emails from my comments. I thought you people had been pretty quiet! I'm not sure what the problem is, though. I've asked Blogger to send me the comments in my email, so I can reply and let you know I appreciate your thoughts. I have allowed cookies on my computer, to help Blogger fulfill my request. I have searched the ever-interesting Spam Quarantine file, and there are no comments from the blog. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be glad to try them. In the meantime, though, thanks for your comments, and I'm working on replying.

In knitting news, my daughters are very impressed with my knitting. So much so, in fact, that the second child has offered her "boy friend" (ahem) a pair of thrummed mittens for Valentine's Day. Yes, she did, and I'm pleased she likes hers. I'm flattered, in fact. I'm .... busy. So we had a little talk about appropriateness in offering gifts, and perhaps clearing it by the worker bee (moi) first, before promising the time of my hands. And after this useful talk, she added, "He likes green."

sigh....

You Make Me Smile

2008-02-04T09:57:00.000-05:00

This You Make My Day award has been moving through the Internet, and I think it's a fantastic idea. I smile whenever I see one of my favorite bloggers get one, because it's a really nice thing to acknowledge when someone makes you feel good. And now, JohnK from Napkin Please has given me one! I am pleased, very, very pleased, to be acknowledged. Thanks, John! Your blog makes me smile, too.

And now I get to play! There are many wonderful blogs that I read. I try to keep my blogroll around 100 blogs, as that is about all I can handle, and even then I sometimes can't read you all. Here are 1/10th of my favorites - You Make Me Smile!

JohnK of Napkin Please - back at you, John. I always enjoy your knitting comments and perspective. Also, there is a great video of John being interviewed about knitting. Check it out. He makes knitting sound clever and artsy, which I know it is, but so many muggles don't....

Arleta of Arleta's Motley Wool - You pulled me into blogland, and it's a great place to be. You are always knitting something, and knitting it to completion, which I really envy =) If I don't get to knit at least once a week with you and Mel, I start yelling at the kids, so please keep up the knitting mornings.

Laurie of Issues With Knitting - you know, I spend so much time praising you in Comments, I bet you're surprised I haven't knit you a sweater. Laurie is always helpful and friendly, very reassuring about any and all insecurities I feel free to write her about. Thanks, Laurie.

Dave of Criminy Jickets - you all know I love reading Dave. He's clever and inspirational. I always want to knit everything I see he's finished, and I frequently do.

Del of Cozy's Place - You are so entertaining, I sometimes laugh til I cry. That's a talent, girl. I hope you know how much joy you bring to people with your writing.

CarrieK of My Middle Name is Patience - Beautiful cats, beautiful handknits, and a good commentor, to boot, I always enjoy when Carrie does a new post. If she lived closer, I'd *make her come to our knit-togethers.

Jen at PieKnits - Jen is a great designer, and I'm so glad that she's being so frequently featured at Interweave Knits now. I get happy every time I see one of her designs. She's beautiful, and knits very fun stuff.

Kat of Kat with a K - Kat, you're informed in ways I can only hope to be when I grow into a better person. I enjoy reading your take on politics and what's going on in the world, and you knit, too! I'm very impressed.

Noolie of Noolie Knits - Noolie does what I can never imagine doing, and makes it looks easy. She is a pattern creator, and shares so much of her designs and life on her blog. And go check out her newest creation, the prettiest little girl, she looks like a Gerber baby, but with better eyes.

Norma of NowNormaKnits - A varied and interesting blog, it's not just about knitting, but about fashion and funny comments about her take on life. I like reading Norma, as she always gives me a smile.

Trek, of Trek Casts On - Trek always has interesting stuff to write about, frequently about her husband and child, who sounds adorable. I'd like to spend a day being Trek. She makes things sound pretty darned good in her world.

If I haven't listed your blog, don't be sad. I love 'em all, but I was limited. As it was, I had to pretend I can't count to ten. The Yarn Harlot mentioned once that she couldn't condone a lot of self-pity on a blog, unless it was done artfully and in small amounts. So in a head nod to Ms. Stephanie, I will only say, "Why can I only name ten???" But I'm pleased to get to name any at all. It's nice to know that people want to read what you have to say.

My friend is a busy bee...

2008-01-26T13:10:00.000-05:00

The other day, I had the most fun helping a friend of mine teach a spinning class to a whole whack of third graders. I love this age. They were so excited to learn about sheep and fiber, and how to make their own yarn. They kept asking, "When I'm done, can I knit with it?" Sure, says I, it's your yarn! It was a neat thing to watch, though we were really hopping around from one spindle to another, helping with overspinning/underspinning/dropped spindles. Arleta, another mom and I were showing technique, then the teacher dived right in with helping them draft, which was very sporting of him, as I don't think he had any idea what to do when he started. He's also very much a "sports" man, so I was doubly impressed that he got into the drop spindle. Here's some pics:

The lovely Arleta

A classful of potential spinners

Did I mention there were two classes of third graders?

Kudos to Arleta for volunteering to show this technique. It was pretty nerve-wracking for her, it being her first time and all. I have a feeling, though, with my kid going into third grade next year, she'll be asked to teach for the class again =)

Magician's Trick

2008-01-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took a class at our LYS. It was on double-knitting, and I just have to say, I love taking classes. I've been knitting since I was, oh, about 13 (though, since I'm only 20, that's just 7 years - heh heh). I've knit a lot of stuff. I've done fair isle and intarsia, set-in seams and raglan, button bands and rolled hems. In fact, I've knit about everything but a car cozy. Oh, and a double-knit headband. I missed that one, too. I love classes, with other knitters that have been doing neat things I've never seen. Firstly, I learned how to do a provisional cast-on. I've read about them, understood them, even tried them once or twice. But I really learned how to do them yesterday, and even though my hand was bent funny afterwards, and I might have had to tug at some split yarn a couple of times, I learned it. Never again do I have to think my way around that part of a pattern.

The double knitting, however, that was the trick. You do two separate skeins of yarn, two separate needles, after the provisional cast-on. Then you knit one stitch from one needle with one color, then purl one stitch from the next needle with the other color, then back and forth until all of your stitches are on one needle, but you have twice as many as usual. Then you continue back and forth, knitting and purling, from one skein to another every other stitch, around and around. It takes forever. If you're brave and not ascared of tinking, you can throw a pattern in there. See?

When you're done with the whole kit and caboodle, you separate them back onto two needles, and kitchener them closed. I'm not ascared of the kitchener, either, but that's going to be a lot of weaving. Still, you end up with a twice-as-thick knitted garment, and it's really neat. I know it has an element of magic, because I keep stopping and feeling it, seeing that the two sides are separate, even though they look like they should be intermingled. Very cool. And even though it will take forever, I want to make my daughter a hat like this. All last winter, she wore two hats, one on top of the other, so we're either to the felted garment point, or double-knits for her chilly little head. The temperature is down to single digits right now, completely different from two weeks ago and the springlike rain, and it's bitterly cold outside. This is the ideal knitting inspiration.

I spent all week putting off projects, waiting for the yarn to arrive for the husband's sweater. Then, at the last minute, I caved. I cast on for felted mittens, inspired by the Noro pair I made for my friend, RikiTiki. I want warm hands, too! Then I started the double-knitted headband, and of course, that's the day the yarn arrives. The manly blue color is inappropriately named Sapphire Heather. I have to say "inappropriately," because my husband says he can't tell all the boys the name. It's just "dark blue." Still, it's calling to me, and I have to finish at least the headband first. I don't mind having lots of projects on the needles, but it's hard to complain about the mess laying around the house when so much of it is mine.

So while I keep on with my inner magician, here's a picture of the "dark blue" yarn, waiting to be made into this. Happy knitting your own selves, and for goodness' sake, put on a hat before you step outside. Brr!

A Fuzzy Winner

2008-01-13T18:01:00.001-05:00

Thanks, everyone, for your New Year's Resolutions on the blog. I left my camera outside for the night, so it was cold and frosty when my husband brought it in. We didn't realize that it's like you're wearing glasses, and come inside. They fog right up. So the pictures are foggy, but this is my niece, who spent the night, drawing the name from the many commenters.

Lovely, sleepy looking fuzzy picture. You can still tell I'm not wearing makeup, dangit. Niece looks good, though. And here she's drawn the name!

What? You can't read it? Heehee. Sorry about that. The name is CarrieK, from My Middle Name is Patience. Her resolution was to get a start on Christmas, starting now. Well, this will help! Two skeins of Christmas-y, self-striping cotton yarn. When you knit it up, it looks like this:

Ah, a clear picture =) Congrats, CarrieK, and thanks for being such a good reader and commenter. We get commenting threads going back and forth and have a whole conversation. I love it. All of the other resolutions are quite enjoyable to read, also, if you have a moment.

Now, for a funny knitting picture. I'm felting a pair of mittens for my friend and commenter, RikiTiki. When I get done, she's going to cut my hair, which it badly needs. This was knit from Noro Kureyon, color 102 Y. Look how big it is! I've got to get my mom to felt them down to the appropriate size, but with the necessary felting, these should be really warm. Your hands actually sweat in these felted mittens. The pattern is from this book, and it's easy and fun. These mittens spring from the needles with hardly any effort at all, which is fun.

Mission Possible 2008

2008-01-11T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ooo, a knitalong! I do love a good knitalong. I can really get behind this one, too. You knit from your stash, one project a month, for the year. I can do that. Heyyyy, I've already done that! Do my daughter's hat and mittens count as one project or two? Probably one, unless I get desperate at the end. So, one down! My stash isn't huge, believe it or not. Something about a one-income house, five people.... it kinda makes me control myself, or they'd wonder why we were eating so much pasta while Mom's knitting away. =)

Actually, I think I've dodged the Kauni cardigan for now. My husband agreed that this was a beautiful sweater, from Knitting Daily. I just don't feel up to stranded knitting right now, but there's a lot going on with this solid color sweater. I'm ordering a deep blue yarn that may or may not remind him of the sea, but he likes anything he can relate to the earth, colorwise. Browns, tans, creams, greens - and he decided, since I wanted to knit a blue sweater, he could include the blue of water. So yay for knitting a new project! I'll still be knitting and spinning while I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive, but it will just be for-the-duration knitting, until my winter project arrives. I'm very much anticipating this one.

Oh, and two more days to leave your post for the Resolutions contest. Any old resolution will do, and I'll have whatever kid is sweetest to me that day draw a name from a hat and send the recipient some yarn! WooHoo!

First FO of 2008!

2008-01-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

My daughters had a sleepover over the Christmas holidays, just to break up the - well, the boredom, at the end there. I think it's because the first part of break is filled with visiting and wrapping, then opening and eating and playing... then the next week, after New Year's, there's so little to do. Mom wants to rest, but the kids are circling like vultures, looking for something to pick over. So we had a sleepover, lots of girls - seven, including mine. That's only four girls invited over, but all in all, it felt like a lot of girls. I told them with seven girls in one place, we ought to be able to change the world. All we needed was a lever... Anyhoo, my husband and I thought we'd back carefully out of the room when they started watching movies (Aquamarine was one, and that is the most preteen, hair-flipping movie I have ever had the pleasure...). After all, kids at slumber parties should get a little space to play truth or dare and giggle over cute boys, agonize over Hannah Montana or Miley, et cetera.

I should be honest here. We had a child monitor placed in the hallway. Shhhh.

But I was very pleased and surprised when they asked me to come down and watch Indian in the Cupboard with them. I mean, I guess nine years old is a pretty good age, when it's still cool to have your mom in the room. But since the holidays were over, I was without knitting, so I grabbed a random ball of wool and made some mittens. The ball of wool I grabbed happened to be orange, but it was just an extra pair of mittens, possibly to be given to the school. If they were warm, the odd color didn't matter, really. (Can you tell I'm not into orange so much?) But when I got them done the next day, my youngest loved them. "They don't have bumps inside," says she. The decreases in mittens drive her crazy - because, you know, I needed another obsessive personality in the house. Don't you hate it when you rub off on your kids?

So I couldn't just let orange mittens happen. They have to have a hat. (Oh, OCD, you are a friend of mine) So the next night, I cast on for an earflap hat from this book, wool stripes this time, to cuten things up. "Cuten" may not be a word. And the next morning - voila! All patterns should go so quickly. It might have been the stripes, but I finished it fast, stuck it on her little head, and let her pose. Sorry about the not so perfect picture, but posing meant laying on the bed, pretending to be asleep. My kids seem to love this pose more than any other.

See?

How cute is that kid and her bunny??? And here's a pic of what he's given us, which I now have no idea what to do with.

Neat, ay? Other than thrummed mittens, though, which are great, I'm not sure what else to do with the wool. I don't have any carders to mix it in with another wool, so I'm just saving it, until I learn more. I'm sure I'll be glad that I did. It is really the softest stuff. However, as soon as Dot (the bunny) saw the wool, he started crawling all over it. I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but it may have been amorousness. (I'm really making up the words today!) See all the hands holding him back? So we scooped him up quick and put the wool away. Funny how picture ideas don't always go the way you think, isn't it?

Final pictures, and I'll let you go! I'm spinning up some sock yarn, and had to show the progress. I think this is just so pretty. The wool is from Copperpot Woolies", 70% merino, 30% viscose, 4 ounzes, colorway 46. I've been wanting to make sock yarn for awhile, and I can't wait to see how much I end up with. By the by, the artwork for the backgrounds of these photos was done by my bunny-hugging middle child. Jackson Pollack, watch out!

A quick aside - Don't forget to leave your New Year's Resolution in the comments of this entry. I'll do a drawing this Sunday and send the winner some Christmas colored dishcloth yarn, to get an early jump on next year's holidays!

As I stumble to the blog...

2008-01-06T07:25:00.001-05:00

New Year's kicked my keister, folks! Too much partying, WAY too much. Speaking of too much, I'm realizing I'm overextended over here. With the New Year, I'm realizing all of the things that I juggle. I have Sunday School to teach (that's fun), and a home business (needs me more), teaching drama to our elementary school (way fun), being a mom (wheee!) and -- well, gosh, now that I look at it, that's not that bad. Surely I'm forgetting something, because I seem to be busy all the time, but scattered, scattered. So my New Year's Resolution is to take up Yoga, and I'm surely not the only one. When I was buying supplies at Borders (where so many good things come from), the salesman said, "What's up with the yoga sales today? Everyone is buying it." So there. Everyone is doing it, and I am, too. Do you know how rarely I'm doing what everyone else is doing??? Yes, mom, if everyone was jumping off a cliff, I'd be standing in line.... heh heh.

No, really, I'm excited about the yoga. I'm looking forward to getting more organized (heehee), since I really want to be that person that has got it all together. It's funny, though. The first afternoon the kids and I did yoga, we fell asleep on the floor. All of us. After the meditation, which I may not have been doing right, since I fell asleep. I find this all kinds of funny.

So someone else is probably doing this - I haven't been able to read any blogs since I've spent days sick from alcohol poisoning. But leave your New Year's resolutions in the comments, just for fun, ay? Don't type anything too embarrassing, because I'm going to do a random drawing in a week and give away some Christmas-y self-striping dishcloth yarn, in the hopes that someone else will get a jump on the holidays next year! And I'll post the winning comment/resolution up on the blog on the 13th. Happy New Year's!

Happy Moments

2007-12-26T10:36:00.000-05:00

I have a moment to share again - I was at a party over the holidays, and wearing a white sweater, dressy pants - just the right look for a casual party, you know? And I'm chatting away with a woman, and go to refill my glass of wine. The wine comes in a box, which I don't mind, and I'm not too proud to type that I drink boxed wine if that's what's tapped. I am, however, too stupid to figure out how to work one of these things. I twisted the tap part a bit, but that didn't work. Then I pressed on this little button on it, and red wine shot out of the spout, straight up into the sleeve of my sweater. My first thought - check to see if it got on the white carpeting. No? Excellent. Next check - did the lady I was talking to notice? No. How could she? It was only a glob of red wine up my white sweater, which I had to swab with a napkin up my sleeve. Very weird. She didn't say a thing, and in fact, we kept talking about our educational system here in Michigan. When I was young and figuring the world out, this was one of those things I decided showed a lot of class. If no one drew attention to the fact that I just dropped a crab claw, shot a cherry tomato off my plate while trying to cut it (to look classy, you know), or sprayed wine up my sleeve, those people are pretty cool. I am always glad to find myself at that kind of party.

Here's my second happy moment - I took that sweater out of the washer this morning, days after the event, and the wine came out! Huzzah! I have no idea why that even happened, but it made me smile.

Since the big holiday, and the pressure of the holiday knitting, is past, I've been spinning. I took a couple of ounces of Corriedale wool with sparkle, from Black Cat Handspun, to the in-laws and spun on the spindle. They love to watch this, and never fail to tell me how clever I am. That came out to 46 yards of two-ply, heavy worsted weight. I also washed up the Llama Llama Duck 4 oz. batt from Black Cat, as well. Remember how stressed I was, and I kept smelling this wool, trying to get relaxed with sheep smell? Well, I wanted it in a scarf, so I could bury my face in it in future stressful moments. I've washed the yarn, of course, but I now have the memory of it making me feel better, so it's special. It came out to 144 yards of thick and thin single-ply. Chunks of locks are in the yarn, and I love that. I washed both skeins in the tub, then snapped them sharply to get the extra water out, and laid them flat. I didn't weight them to dry this time, so I'm curious as to the difference that will make when I knit them. I'm trying to think of how I'll wash my handknits, and if the yarn that is weighted to dry will draw up when it is washed. I'll let you know.

For Christmas, I gave my mom a pair of thrummed mittens, which I somehow can't find the picture of. But it was a close thing that she even got them, because I loved these. I'll definitely be making myself a pair, but my daughters are claiming their pairs first. Never an end to the knitting list! In return, she gave me a lovely pair of handknit socks. Ah, gifts amongst knitters. It's a wonderful thing.

She also knit my daughters, nieces and nephew all sweaters. November and December had her very, very busy! I wish I had pictures of those, but I don't. I'll try to get them. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

A Soon-to-be Merry Christmas to you!

2007-12-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

It's 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and this is where I am at on my daughter's socks:

Am I stressed? No, and that's for several reasons. The first is that, when you live in a state of high stress, eventually its effect wears off. My body no longer wants to be stressed, so I seem to have become immune. Yay! I am also not stressed because the daughter that is to receive these socks loves handmade things in the disproportionate way that we wish every recipient loved our stuff. I will tell her that I was unable to finish the socks because I have to measure to her foot, and all will be good. I'm also going to knit a bit more, but not much.

Otherwise, the stockings are hung by the quilt rack with care, and I'll be heading to bed soon so I don't hold St. Nick up. From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

If you're a country bumpkin, sorry.

2007-12-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yay, we're getting close to deadline! I've got some great pics of the Xmas presents, but of course it's all stealth knitting, as I'm sure many people's are. We'll all be posting a lot after the 25th, won't we? But I'm doing well, only one gift to finish, and if I put a movie in tonight, it will all be good, babee. I'll be sure to get it done.

I have to share this story. I was at a Christmas party, sitting across from a very nice gentleman and his wife. We were discussing where they were from, making nice chitchat. And I said, "Oh, I believe there was a sheep and fiber festival this summer in your town. I missed it, though, and I was really sad." The wife sat up straight and said, "Oh, no, we didn't. There are way too many rich people from that area. There is no way there was a sheep and fiber festival." Heavy pause. I was trying to think of some way to nicely contradict her, in that there certainly was a festival, and people with lots of money were helpful at these things. That's when she waived her hand in front of her face and said, "If you're a country bumpkin, sorry."

Ahem.

Well, while I may indeed be a country bumpkin, I have in the past been a court reporter, legal assistant, manager at a document and film storage facility, et cetera, et cetera. I am now a country mother of three, grooving on getting back to nature and being kind to the planet. Every one of these things are important in their way, but I believe I am doing my most important work so far right now. And she waved me away. Well, what would you have done? I admit, my first instinct was to straighten her out. (At least her husband looked embarrassed, having cottoned on to the fact that I wouldn't have brought up a sheep and fiber festival if it wasn't something that interested me.) My second instinct, close behind the first, was to just freeze her out, making pointed conversation with everyone around her, as I'm not naturally a confrontational person. But really, it was the office Christmas party, so I smiled and asked about her children. Now, I'm not one to point out when karma owes me one, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to win on a lottery ticket or something for looking the other way on that one. Plus also, she hasn't felt my thrummed mittens. I should carry a set to pull out and show people who think knitting is for rubes. I am completely hooked on making these, and every single person who has tried one on sighs. Oh, yeah. They are so soft and squishy, they should have the power to enlighten the high-minded but socially challenged.

A picture for the knitting minded: I knit garland a few years ago from silver eyelash yarn, while watching The Wizard of Oz. Well, it took more than a couple of nights, but that's what I remember most, knitting cording while watching Dorothy. Pretty, no?

One more holiday event, down.

2007-12-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

It is an unfortunate truth that events that take weeks and months to prepare for can be over in a couple of hours. It happens to parties, birthing babies and, sadly, drama club productions. We had our Christmas program yesterday, and the kids got to perform three times, which was a happy thing. At least it wasn't just once, with all that preparation! The last few weeks before a performance, things aren't very joyful at drama club. I mean, we try to make it fun, but we really have to crack down on kids learning their lines. And it always happens that they do learn their lines in time, and it all works out great. And they are so excited and pleased to have been on stage, and performing with the lights and attention on them, and they are excited to do the next production. I swear, the week before, they would pass by me with nary a glance, they're so disgruntled with the hard work or the guilt, but after a production, I get the hugs! =) Very fun stuff. But it is over, and after Christmas break, we need to think about a spring production. But first a pizza party, and a chance to pat each other on the back. Whew! It's over.

I am WAY behind on my knitting. I've slashed my list of projects, so that many people are getting jam baskets or coffee baskets, instead, and I still have a scarf to finish, a pair of mittens and a pair of socks. However, here are a couple of dishcloths that I've knitted for my gram, who wants to gift them to her friend back home. It was such a compliment that she asked me to knit them, that I had to do it, even if it means giving a gift on the needles in two weeks. But I can finish, right? Sure, sure. I can still do it.

Ode to the Webkinz

2007-12-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

o, little Webkinz,
so sweet and squeezably soft,
When I found you in a Unicorn,
I didn't hold you aloft,
but tucked you surreptitiously
between my coat and purse,
Happily, gratifyingly
grateful I found you first.

Because I just passed by a lady,
walking really fast,
Hoping to find a Uni,
with a GPS and a map.

I won't tell anyone
about the score that I just found.
Someone might grab you from me
and trample me to the ground.

So I'll pay and take you home with me,
my sweet little pink amore,
I'll say I got you on the Internet,
not the last one in the store.

Busy, busy!

2007-12-05T13:15:00.000-05:00

It has been a very, very frustrating couple of weeks. I feel like I've done nothing to refresh my soul, and it's all work, work, work around here. I try to remind myself of all the times I'm very happy, and that all things pass. There are happy times, there are frustrating times. But I don't think any of us refresh our souls like we ought to, or our parents wish we would. Don't you think that's true? I hope my children grow up, do their jobs, then come home and paint, or laugh at sitcoms, or go out and dance until they're sweaty. There should be some roundness with our days. Instead, when my 3-year-old wakes me up at 4:00 a.m., all I think is, "Oh, good. There's an extra hour and a half that I can get things done this morning." Bah, humbug. lol - I think that just put me in a better mood. hehe. I'm not really a "Bah, humbug" kind of girl, and now I'm smiling that I even typed it.

I've been working on a scarf with yarn my daughter picked out at our LYS. The last three days, all I'm thinking is, "Man, this is NOT pretty. I don't like this weird beige they threw in here." So I pulled it out to show at my knitting group this morning, and in the bright sun of the room, looking at it with my friends, I realize it's doing this:

Do you see? Yes, it's blurry, but see the argyle effect going on? What a happy discovery! It's criss-crossing with the beige and the blue and all. I like it! I can't even tell you what the name of this yarn is, since I didn't bother to keep the ball band. And I think I must be feeling especially curmudgeonish to knit for three days and not step back and look at what I'm knitting. However, I shall be going back and getting another skein for a scarf for myself. (This one's a gift) Isn't it neat how this argyle pattern works without my knowing anything about it, doing anything special, casting on anyone's suggested amount of stitches? I think that's pretty cool. And my, that beige shows up nicely.

Sock Reality

2007-11-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

I suppose it had to happen. It's happened to knitters all the world over. They've even talked about it, in front of me, but I've managed to block the reality of what they were saying. Until Wednesday, when I was sitting with my family, watching The Sopranos. (The kids were in bed, of course) I looked down, and - wah! A sock had actually gotten worn through! I'm so sad. And yet, it speaks a lot to the way blogland has changed me that I grabbed my camera and took a picture.

I've been knitting and wearing my own socks for a bit of time now, certainly over a year since I started seriously wearing only handknitted socks, and this is the first pair I've worn through. When I went to get dressed this morning, I looked at my socks very carefully, trying to decide which pair I could next spare to lose. Rats. Well, at least I have a reason to cast on again! Haha on me, when I wrote that I had enough socks.

And I've also decided that I don't like being caught up on my Bloglines. Now I'm reading your blogrolls, finding new bloggers through your comments. But that's okay, because I'm sitting at the computer knitting, anyway, and it IS fun to check out new blogs. I'm working on the felted mittens next, and hopefully buying more yarn later today. I love Christmas knitting, where I don't have to feel guilty about buying yarn! WoooT!

And because sometimes you're just too tired to take your coat off...

Stress Management

2007-11-29T13:29:00.000-05:00

When I retire, my day will go thusly: Get up at 9:00 a.m., make coffee. Mill around and listen to coffee perk, grab a cup and sit down to read email. First, delete all spam, then read six relevant emails I've received since yesterday. Laugh at jokes, move on to Bloglines, laugh some more, commiserate a little, and think how I should be knitting more. Then get up and make brunch, think about shopping or calling a friend, then sit and read for a bit. Mmmmm. By evening, be ready for witty conversation and a glass of wine, and some knitting. On Saturdays, I'll go for a walk in the morning, just as a nod at healthy living. Until then, I have to keep plugging along at my life, which is pretty much exactly opposite from my retirement scenario. I did, however, get some knitting done last night.

And here I will say that everyone has their own method for dealing with stress. I bet, if I sat and thought about how I dealt with the prospect of running out of yarn mid-project, I'd get a pretty good insight into my own stress management. I'm not doing that, though. I might not like it. But with the boot socks for the father-in-law, I had to worry about running out of the cream color, and when I was last at the yarn store, there was only one skein left. I ordered blue yarn there weeks ago, and it's still not in, so I didn't want to have to wait for more yarn. This, by the way, is Lamb's Pride wool, superwash, one grey and one cream. So about a third of the way through the second sock, I couldn't take it anymore, and I put the cream skein in a bag. Then I knitted and knitted and didn't let myself look into the bag to see what I had left. This way, if I ran out, at least I didn't have to experience the stress of watching myself run out. It could be a surprise, and whoops! I'm out. Rats. But no advance stress, see?

But actually, instead of killing stress, I was just living with the hum of nervousness that I'm going to run out, so I knit faster and faster. I didn't put that sock down until - voila! A second sock! And a bit of yarn to spare, thanks very much to the knitting gods. I believe I may even get a small hat out of the leftovers, if I combine the two. Huzzah!

I've also finished a bit of stealth knitting, which took all morning, but - nyah nyah - I'm caught up on my blog reading! Again Huzzah! I know it won't last, but I'm dancing in the kitchen. I finished reading my bloglines list! Yes!

It's all about the simple

2007-11-28T13:33:00.000-05:00

I dislike a lot of things, more as I get older. I am more tolerant of people and mistakes. That's not what I'm talking about. One of the things I really hate is the cost of cloth napkins. And if you know anything about me, you should know that I like things simpler. I like things old fashioned. Before I bought a shower curtain or a pillow case, I'd think whether or not I could make one first. And darn it, for six bucks I can make a dozen cloth napkins, which is sometimes less than you will pay for one napkin in the store. Homespun, my friends, is the answer. It's a woven cotton cloth, which you can find at JoAnn's, usually at a reasonable price. Two yards later, and I'm cutting squares, then pulling out the outer threads. It just doesn't get any easier, and the napkins look really good when you're done. I think they'd make swell gifts, with a jar of jam or something, and who doesn't like cloth napkins? They're kinder to the environment, and I think they look better on the table, whether it's your dining room or a picnic. There. That's my quick-gift-tip for the day. (It originally came from my mom, from whom many good things come...)

I love this time of year... Even though yesterday I didn't sit down except when I was in the car, I am still managing to keep up with the blog reading. It's a great thing to do, since I can knit while pages are loading. I can read what you all are doing, and be encouraged to raise the bar in my own work. Go, crafters! I've been inspired by embroidery, sewing, quilting, and knitting. The more I learn, the more I want to make gifts for everybody. So far, there isn't anyone I love that isn't getting something handmade this year. Cool, ay?

The Biggest Loser show had a factoid that most people gain seven pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since I've gained five of those pounds already, I thought maybe a short diet might be in order. Here's how it's gone so far today... half a creme-filled Long John for breakfast, three cups of black coffee. Note: Not a whole Long John, and I'm burning calories as I sit here vibrating from caffeine. Then later I took the kids to the dentist, and we hit Taco Bell on the way home. I don't really think the Supreme Burrito should have been part of the diet, but it did have lettuce...

So perhaps I'll do better tomorrow =)

What's on the needles?

2007-11-26T14:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic of the little brown socks I'm working on for my husband. I used the Yarn Harlot's most recent posted pattern, which fits exactly with what I wanted for a sock pattern. It's easy to remember, with a little visual interest that looks fancy. You just use a k2 p2 rib, then after six rows of that, jog over one stitch and do it for another six rows. I like how it looks.

I'm working on this sock because I left the boot sock at church yesterday, which was really too bad. I was on the toe and looking forward to starting the second one. At a rate of three days per pair (size 4 needles and worsted weight yarn helps) lots of people might get boot socks for the holidays =)

I Googled felted mittens for a friend of mine, which will be made with this Noro Kureyon yarn. These aren't a Christmas gift, as she bought the yarn and asked me to knit them, but I'm hoping to get a free haircut out of it =) If you have a friend who's a good hairdresser, make them mittens. That kind of karma can never go wrong.

Trials and Tribulations

2007-11-25T06:49:00.000-05:00

Okay, so far, just trials. Here's a picture of some Christmas knitting, waiting to be transformed into the tribulations part!

Pretty, ay? Boot socks, mittens, perhaps a scarf – my list is overconfident, so I'm trying to knit fast. See that beautiful Noro? Mittens, mittens. Mmmmm. But first, the boot socks. I'm afraid that I don't have enough yarn, and it's pretty pricey, so I don't want to buy more. So my plan is to knit as quickly as possible so I'll know if I need to buy that last skein of cream, before someone else does. Because I didn't want to waste time, I was a good girl, and made a gauge! I even washed it! I've only done this once before, but now that I know a bit more about knitting, it seems like a really good idea. My gauge swatch shrunk just a wee bit (half a stitch per inch and half a row per inch), but I made my sock with this shrinkage in mind. I'm racing along in my knitting, and about 11:30 at night, my husband looked over and said, “That looks a bit big.”

Yeah, it did. Having someone else say it really pointed it out. So I frogged it, quickly, while he watched and said, “Is that really necessary?” Well, it was only a couple of hours of knitting. Best to do it quickly. I went down a few stitches and began again. Then, after I finished the ribbing, the wee bit of alcohol had worn off enough for me to remember the stitch shrinkage. Dangit. It might have turned out okay when I washed it. But I kept knitting, because it really had looked big, and wool stretches after you wear it for awhile, I think.

I knitted like crazy yesterday, trying to get a sock done in a day, but I didn't get to the toe until this morning. I think when you're knitting like that, trying to get a whole lot done, you don't maybe try things on along the way, like you normally would. But I tried it on this morning to see if I should decrease for the toe, and the sock is really loose along my foot. REALLY loose. So loose that I'm thinking I might have fat calves, since it's fitting along my leg. I've never heard of anyone having to decrease for their foot, after the ribbing, so I stop and look at it, really hard. Yup, pretty loose along the foot. It might shrink in the wash, though, like the swatch. Then my subconscious stepped up and whispered I might want to count the stitches. So I did, and I found that after the heel gusset, I had decreased only to my original number of stitches, which was too loose, remember? I should have decreased more to get my second time around number of cast-on stitches. Grr. I quickly frogged again, then thought, “Oh, rats, I should have taken a picture.” Sorry, but you can imagine.

So I'm reknitting again today, and telling myself I am now a process knitter, since I enjoy knitting so dang much. But really, coming up on December, I turn into a product knitter, and I need stuff done. I need mittens done, and socks, and maybe a scarf. Yikes!

And by the way, it's really no good being a good girl and knitting your swatch, washing your swatch, measuring your swatch, if you are going to thereafter ignore your swatch.

Got socks?

2007-11-21T07:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I was actually not feeling well, so I sat in front of the computer and read blogs. It was nice to give myself permission to do that, even if it did take a headache and a bit of nausea to make it happen. (Plus, it was a fun party) So I'm feeling pretty caught up on the blogs, and just for fun (??) I counted how many sites on my blog roll I would need to read to be completely caught up - 51!!!!! Yikes! Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I love me a sense of completion.

Speaking of a sense of completion, I really have to share this photo. It's from at least a month ago, and I should have posted it before now, but here 'tis. I walked into my mom's house, and apparently it was sock washing day. She washes her socks when she's worn every single handknit pair but one, and so has to wash for more. Look at all these socks!!!! And that's not even all of them. We had to take three pictures to capture all of the socks hung around her house. Too cool.

They look even better when they're strung all over her balcony drying in the air, like a more recent incident, but the batteries were dead in the camera, darn it. But how cool is this? I have six pair of handknit socks, and really felt my feet were well covered. Knitting isn't a competition, but I do feel free now to knit extra socks and just enjoy having them. It would definitely make for less sock washing days, too. Go, Mom!

And a bunny update: Mr. Testosterone came out for a bit yesterday morning. I gave him toys to play with, and brushed him verrrry little.

He liked the toys, but got pissed off when I brushed him. *sigh* Like I needed another kid...

Tuesdays are for Drama

2007-11-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

As in, I can't find anything, because I've been cleaning my house so people can come over. Why doesn't it look like other people's pretty houses yet?

Oh, and some drama because one of my bunnies thinks he's tougher than me.... right now he's right. Poor little furry thing gets right under my guard, and you can't force him to submit to the brush, cuz that would be wrong, wrong, wrong. But it's all very frustrating. I do believe he's grown up and gotten his own personality, darn it.

And what in the world do you feed the kids when you don't want to fill the fridge up with leftovers before Thanksgiving???

And why can't I have the yarn I ordered from the store?!? I refuse to cast anything on, because I know I'm about to dive into a big project, so I just keep walking around working on the husband's socks. He'll be happy soon, though, cuz with nothing else on the needles, these babies should fly. The yarn I ordered is for a sweater for my second child, and she wants to design it. Now that I think of it, second grade was when my first daughter wanted to design her own sweater. Perhaps I should be discussing this with their teacher....

Oh, and of course Tuesday is for drama club, where 21 kids and *ahem* me, try to sort out what we're doing in two weeks for the Christmas program. Actually, my husband is there, too, but I'm meaner and yellier - is that a word? - so I feel like it's me and 21 kids debating for who gets to talk. He stays out of the way and calmly watches until I turn on him like a cat and hiss, "Do something!" Then he calmly gets their attention. *sigh* I had to have missed a class on communication somewhere along the way.

No knitting to show but a sad little brown sock... and this blue hat, which is too big. But I have accepted the challenge, thrown down the gauntlet, become a more determined individual. I will make this hat submit, since it isn't little and furry and doesn't have feelings. I will win. (It fits me great, but it's not meant for me, is it?)

That's enough drama for now =)

My new yarn security system

2007-11-19T04:44:00.000-05:00

Last minute, my daughters had a friend over today. They had some kind of fun, acting like I always did with my friends when I was little. It was fun just watching them sing and dance to our High School Musical cd, which is THE thing for preteens right now. Then they decided to install "lasers" all around the living room, to trip people up. I had to get out to take the girl home, and I can testify that it was no easy feat. Cool. Another use for yarn.

The birthday party was swell the other day. Here's the youngest, who gets more joy out of a birthday party than I've ever seen anyone get. Just standing next to the cake sends her into throes of euphoria. See how she smiles, and one eye shuts tighter than the other? All of my kids' eyes do that. I think it must be a sign of genius. Makes for interesting school pictures, though...

And here's a picture of the birthday lady, 84 and in better shape than I am, I suspect. She can pop up off the floor from doing puzzles with a grandkid, and I'd be heaving up onto one leg, trying to get good leverage. *sigh* But Happy Birthday to her, and I'm really happy, because she likes handmade things just as much as I do =)

And yes, I have been knittin'! I think I figured out the hat pattern, and so have been forging on. Let's hope when I get done it isn't a smidge too tight or vastly too big. If it's too big, I can fix it with elastic. If it's too small, it's back to frogville. And here's a pic of a pair of mittens I spit out this weekend, watching silly sitcom t.v., because I just couldn't stomach the Bionic Woman. I've never seen straight lines delivered so poorly. Couldn't watch it. I tried, though, so I can honestly say that I can't overcome the memory of Lindsay Wagner, and the way the bionic woman used to be....

A few things off the list...

2007-11-16T16:35:00.000-05:00

The thrummed mittens are done! And they were nicely well received, which even from a three-year-old was very gratifying. Here's a pic of them with the sun shining, which was a nice surprise today, and another picture from yesterday showing the inside, but no sunshine.

The wool came from a tan bunny and a blue-ish bunny, so the roving is two different colors. I decided not to care for my first pair, but it does look a little odd when you turn them inside out. Anyway, I don't have to worry about her little fingers being cold this winter!

I've also been working on a hat for my nine-year-old, to match her blue mittens. I started in the center top and kept increasing, thinking it was too small, and increasing some more. Finally, I strung it on some dental floss and placed it on her head. I'm glad I didn't just continue on knitting, because clearly this is too much. Why is it that I can't gauge my kids' sizes??? I kiss these little heads and hold these little hands every day, and still I'm constantly frogging. Very weird.

And finally here's Grandma's gift. I made a soap sock, several times, but the one in this picture was the keeper. Apparently, if you make your soap sock with too small of needles, it's hard to get the soap out. Goes quicker with the bigger needles, too, which was a nice side benefit at the eleventh hour. I also made three dishcloths, and included a bookmark my mom made. She gifted me with many, many, to give as I saw fit or keep 'em all, I suppose. Anyway, Gram will love it, as she does all handmade things, but also because it is really really pretty. Thanks, mom! I made two hand towels from some pretty Mary Engelbreit material, and threw in some soap gel from Bath and Body Works, and I call it done.

Now on to Thanksgiving! I'm having the family here, and feel a strong need to wash walls and stuff, which is a good idea at any time in this house. I know I don't see what goes on in anyone else's home, but does anyone else have the need to wash their walls every other week like I do? Seriously, you'd think the kids knew how to walk on the walls in their bare feet. Anyhoo, on to the holidays! Anyone else feeling any pressure?

Adventures with the Learning Curve

2007-11-12T07:02:00.000-05:00

Nice title, eh? Well, let me tell ya: I have decided to make some thrummed mittens. I want to make them for Christmas. I have access to roving (Angora, no less), and yarn, of course, and I've never made this gift before, so people will be excited (in my happy world) to receive them. So I decided to make a pair for the three year old, just as a tester, to see if I was doing it right. Now, I was going to write a blog entry about how spoiled my three-year-old was, getting thrummed mittens. That would have been cute. Instead, I'm going to write about jumping into a project without doing proper research. (Darn it.)

I looked up the Yarn Harlot's thrummed mittens, just to get a feel for what they looked like. I remembered enough of what she said to do back when I read the entry, enough to get started anyway. I did look up the thrummed mitten pattern, which suggested I could thrum anything, if I figured out a way to make space for the roving. So I went up a needle size and started knitting. Mmmm, Angora is soft.... This is a neat technique, where you take a bit of roving/wool, twist it in the middle and knit it along with your stitch. The inside of this mitten was so soft I wanted one for myself. Then, about halfway up the mitten, I ran out of roving, and had to get another baggie of it. I started to get a bit concerned. I have four sandwich baggies of wool from the bunnies, and I thought that would be enough for this project and at least one other. Plus, since the bunnies kindly keep making wool, I wasn't concerned. But this was a mitten project for a three-year-old, I hadn't even finished one mitten, and I was moving fast through the fluffy stuff.

I went back and peeked at the thrummed mitten pattern to see how much wool/roving they suggested for the child's size mitten, but to be honest, I never got that far. Instead I saw, and I quote, “Read This BEFORE Beginning the Thumb Gusset.” Rats. That had to be at least six rows ago. Apparently, they had a technique that was going to work easier than knitting the mitten, then the thumb. Oh, well. That's adventurous knitting for you, right? I went back to my mitten and knit on.

The little darling had gone to bed, but she has little bitty hands, so I started the decreases. Really, thrumming takes some time. It isn't smooth knitting. But it is fun, and very satisfying to stop and keep feeling the inside of your mitten. I must say though, this morning, when she tried it on and smiled at the softness of it, her fingers were sticking up through the top. Rats. I have to tink back and add some more rows for her freakishly long fingers. Now, I'm not losing my happy thoughts or anything, but tinking back thrummed mittens ain't all the fun you'd imagine it is. I can't stop now, though, because she really would hate normal mittens now that she's felt the inside of these. So I'm adding enough rows so she can wear them next year, too.

Here's a pic before anything bad happened, when I was considering the smug little blog entry I would write.

A little moment of peace

2007-11-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

I was having a bad morning this a.m., what with a creditor implying I hadn't paid my bill (yeah, I did), and time pressures and a to do list and a three-year-old in the testing phase (No! No! No! - that's her, not me). So I did what any sane person would do. I went and stuck my face in a handful of roving. I breathed very deeply, and did not think about going to the bank or washing my walls or anything necessary. I thought about the alpaca, and how sweet that animal is, and how this roving came from a very living, breathing, running around animal. It calmed me down quite a bit. Then I thought about how I would spin it, probably a single ply, as it's got lumps of pretty colors in it, and I want to keep those with the yarn. Probably relative chunky, just for something new, but maybe not so chunky that it couldn't go into a hat. I could wear this animal around on my head, and have this good earthy smell pretty close to my nostrils, for breathing in calm farm moments. And I actually felt better. I should write a magazine article, since there are so many about how to manage stress. Then I sent up a quick prayer, but I didn't feel like it was being received, since I only expect help from a higher source when it's something really serious. Anything else I'm probably expected to handle. Still, for good luck, I sent up a prayer and went and played Pirate Map with my daughter. This game involves whapping my leg with the “map” she's drawn, and saying, “Arrrr! Let's go, matey!” Good stuff. But I'm keeping my roving by me for occasional breathing, because it really has helped.

Speaking of good stuff, here's a pic of my kids throwing pizza pies last night. We had an unexpected night home, due to the sitter getting sick, and I didn't have a dinner plan. (Sitter was grandma, who was in charge of dinner, which is a good deal, if you can work it out) So with no real plan, we pulled out some sauce, pepperoni and a little flour and yeast, and I taught the kids how to make pizza. It was so fun, and I feel like I rarely get fun mommy moments now that they're in school. There aren't whole days to work around what needs to be done, so you can do crafts or go to the library. It was a very good time.

Why, yes, I have been knitting! I'll take pictures if we ever see the sun again, which won't be today, sadly. But I've been working on the gift basket for my grandma, and her party has been rescheduled to Monday (poor ill woman), so I have a few more days. So really, now that I've blogged all this down, things aren't so bad. They're pretty good, actually. Roving - I knew there was something magic about it.

Y'all are so nice!

2007-11-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

I have been getting more and more frustrated these last couple of weeks, as I type in search phrase after search phrase, trying to figure out how to wash the bunny wool after I've gathered it off the bunnies. Finally, I decided to bug someone who had no reason to help me. Every time I'm driven to this point, I cringe because I'm worried I'm about to annoy someone, but I don't know what else to do. I found the site of a lady who has many German Angora bunnies, and she seems to really know her stuff. (Hi, Leslie!) She lets them play outside and breeds them and shears them, even. So I emailed her and prayed she didn't mind giving me a little information, even though I am nowhere near Virginia, where she lives, and I can't possibly frequent her store for wool. And she emailed me back within hours, and was very encouraging! Every time (so far) I've had to rely on the kindness of strangers, I haven't been disappointed. It gives you a warm glow to think people will just help people, and there are so many more nice people out there than rotten ones. I gotta get out more, because the news has warped my sense of my fellow man. This woman also sent me a link to a very helpful English Angora site that had come up on none of my search phrases. Very weird. When in desperation you ask Google, “What do I do with my English Angora roving?”, you ought to get a couple of sites about English Angoras and their roving. Come to find out, it's actually called wool, when it's right off the rabbits, and guess what else? There's no washing involved! Heehee. You can spin it right away, or dye it, or whatever, because it's very clean when it comes off the bunnies. And there's different grades of wool, depending on which part of the rabbit it came from. The finest is from the back and sides, where the hair is the longest. The second best is from the bib and belly, as it's a bit shorter. (My, but it's soft, though) And the worst, and most unclean, comes from the back of the bunny, and is good for bird nest liners, not for spinning at all. Yay! So I promised myself I would blog about this, and put in my Google search phrase, in case someone else is desperate enough to type in “What do I do” in regards to Angora bunnies.

I guess it's going to snow here this week, and it's late enough in the year that it's probably going to be serious about it. So I need to make my oldest a hat to go with her mittens, and quit fooling around with trying to knit a pattern into the hat. It needs to get done! And I need to come up with some kind of gift for my grandmother, since we're celebrating her birthday this Friday, a week early! I never know what to get her, so I'm thinking a gift basket with dishcloths, soaps, something, something. I would welcome any thoughts anyone has on good gift ideas to make when you're down to the last few days.

One of the final participants in the shawl KAL has finished! Liz has made a beautiful shawl called Cozy, and it looks just so great. If you get a chance, pop over to her blog and tell her. I'm going to call the Summer Knitalong officially done, and I'm very sorry if you didn't finish yours and you were playing. It's just time to admit summer is over. I am so glad that everyone wanted to play, and we got such beautiful shawls out of this fun event! This definitely won't be my last blog contest or game or fiber drawing, or however you want to categorize it that gets you excited. With my busy schedule as a stay-at-home mom, even though I'm always running, this blog gives me a connection with other people that I'm usually too busy to make with the folks I see every day. Here I can sit and concentrate on what you all say, what your thoughts are, how you like something. I think about blogs I've read while I do the dishes or read Pooh one more time. I have a lot of fun with this on-line talking and reading.

Now that we're getting only a month or so from the big holiday, Christmas, I'm wishing I had taken more time over the summer to keep up with the Christmas knitting. I got two hats completed. There's so much that I want to make, and there's no way I can do it by the holidays. Maybe I'll hit the candle store and make it easy on myself =)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T05:10:00.000-05:00

All right, all you witches and goblins, have a great holiday evening! Say thank you when you get candy, and check it over before you eat it, just like mom used to do. Put on your makeup and fake moles, draw some runes on your forehead, and party it up. This is the only year I can wear my cloak into the grocery store and have people think I'm cool =) May you have many treats, and not so many tricks!

Wherein I deliver...

2007-10-28T11:28:00.001-05:00

Here you go, folks! Costume pics, bunny pics, birthday party pics, and an alpaca! The last was an unexpected bonus, obviously karma at work for me, for once. =) I took brownies into the school for my daughter's birthday, and look who got to come into the school! It was another little girl's birthday, and her mom scored an alpaca to come for show and tell. I told them, they win. Is there a cooler class treat than that? This little alpaca was very sweet, and patient with all of the kids running up from behind to pat her, even though they didn't have to sneak a pat. That's what she was there for! Very, very soft roving on her, just waiting for a brush. But maybe that's just me...

And some costumes! I was going to do this big blog entry, showing the step-by-step creation, but instead, here's some finished products. The 60's poodle skirt girl and the mermaid were the ones that I made. The other costumes were purchased in previous years, and worn because the mermaid costume wasn't quite done when the first Halloween party happened. The littlest child kept changing her mind, and therefore is a princess, because I couldn't make a MagentaThePuppy/Pumpkin/SuperHero costume on such short notice.

And bunny pictures! We finally brought the fellows up into the living room, and it wasn't as catastrophic as I imagined it would be. They didn't go racing around or freak out. In fact, they acted quite a bit more loving than when I reach into their cage, invading their space. The girls were glad for a chance to really get to handle them, and for a good long time, too. I see many bunny outings in the future.

Aren't they beautiful?

And pictures of a little girl sleepover. My goodness, a sleepover has never gone so well. Everyone had a great time, and what with the pumpkin carving, leaf raking, movie watching and Barbie playing, not a child asked for their momma before dropping off to sleep. Excellent!

Scary pumpkins!

An Eighth Birthday! (Murphy's Law included)

2007-10-26T11:25:00.000-05:00

My second daughter is eight years old today, and I don't even know how that could be possible. She sure is excited, though!

It's been an exciting day already. After her dad left for work, but before school, she started crying that it hurt when she went to the bathroom, and she had stomach-flu-like symptoms. (That's all the further I'll go into that!) So we had to go to the doctor. I'm crossing my fingers the whole way in, because she wanted a sleepover for her birthday, and I've got four little kids coming over after school. It took a LOT of coordinating with all of the parents, so I could pick their kids up, and I do NOT want to have to do it all again in reverse. I get the birthday girl to town, and realize I don't have my wallet. No money for the co-pay. Could the doctor's office give a girl a break? Well, no, sorry. Can't get any help there. So I swung by the bank, where they actually know and trust me, and grab 20 bucks outta my kids' savings. Nice, eh? =/

Then to the doctor's, where there really wasn't anything wrong with her, other than a bit of stomach-flu-like symptoms. No UTI or anything, so a little Tylenol in her, and back to school. I'm crossing my fingers here that she raises her hand in time to make it to the bathroom. Something's gotta look up, right? And back home, to a house that needs vacuuming and a cake that needs decorating. In a rare moment of empathy, my three-year-old took an early two-hour-nap. In fact, she's still sleeping, and if she wakes up sick, I won't be surprised. Still, I know how to make an opportunity stick, and I swung around the house with the vacuum like I was selling Hoovers. Then I attacked the cake and half an hour later had this:

Not too shabby, eh? It was indeed fast and furious piping around that Barbie insert. Then I cut up some brownies to pass out at class later, and sat down to blog. lol! Sometimes you just gotta do something for yourself. I have 45 minutes before I have to swing into a gift store and try to find appropriate give-out gifts for 18 seven-year-olds. And all morning this rhyme has been in my head:

A dillar, a dollar,
a six-o'clock scholar,
why did you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o'clock,
and now you come at noon.

I heard this rhyme probably six years ago, when my oldest was watching Sesame Street, and I've puzzled on it off and on ever since. I know it was politically a slam at someone at the time it was created. I'll research it a bit when I get a chance. But as to how it applies to today, I keep coming back to it, and I think I understand now. It runs along the lines of my personal credo, "Fake it 'til you make it." A perpetually late person sails in even later with a, "Whew, I'm here early!" kind of attitude. I feel like I've been living this I've-got-it-together lie since the three-year-old was born. I run around and try to pull together parties and sleepovers and dishes and bill paying, and whenever I'm around anyone, I slow down, smile, and act like it's a breeze. I'm just faking it, people. I'm going to slow things down soon, honest. I really have to. This is crazy.

In the meantime, though, this was the fastest blog entry in history, and tomorrow I'll have pictures of seven-year-olds carving pumpkins and decorating cookies. Rock on, you moms! What would happen without us?

A whole lotta pumpkins, and a FO

2007-10-22T10:26:00.000-05:00

My husband and I organized a Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza this weekend. We announced it for weeks at church and with our friends, and I was still afraid no one would show up! But it ended up going great, with 31 people attending, which ain't bad for our first year. We're already looking forward to next year! We have a local master of pumpkin carving, who came and helped with technique. He tried really hard to get us all past the "triangle eyes" point, but mostly, that's what everyone did. We do love the classics here at the Cobbler household!

Some happy kid pics with pumpkins:

And, hey, I haven't shown any FO's in awhile. Remember that sweater that I didn't want to finish, because I was scared to block it? Well, finally, I put it together and decided to brave it. Before I could throw it in the tub, the husband tried the sweater on, and it looked great! No blocking required. I'll undergo another anxiety attack when it needs its first wash, so stay tuned! hehe

It's made of Fisherman's Wool, by Lion Brand, and it is so warm! Really, it's meant to be worn outside, when working or fishing on the lake. But to show his love for handmade sweaters, my husband is wearing and sweating in it at the office. Whatta guy. The sweater for this winter is going to be a Kauni-like design, but I'm doing a top down, pullover, no steeking kind of method. But he loved the colors and pattern, so I've got to get to yarn ordering. This looks like fun, doesn't it? Yeah, perhaps in different colors...

Bunny Love

2007-10-15T13:09:00.000-05:00

Poor little Angoras, whenever I bring them near their cage after petting them, they scrabble to get back inside. Their little claws are sharp.

At what point do you think I'll get clever enough to put on long sleeves when I handle the bunnies? Yeah, I'm not sure, either. Ouch. Actually, it only hurts for a second, but people look at you funny, like I'm a self-cutter or something, when I am wearing short sleeves in public. So it's long sleeves in public or at home, whichever I remember. =)

On the other hand, the bunny love also shows itself as this:

It's so soft, it's satisfying all by itself. But I really don't know what to do with it.

I was brainstorming earlier, and don't you wish that, when you got stressed, you didn't want to eat? I do. But when I get stressed out, I can't sleep, which leaves me awake and hungry. I got two hours' last night, then I woke up - wide awake - thinking of everything there was to do. Silly home business/church council/drama club/soccer mom life. Anyway, the point is, insomnia strikes me in such a way that I can't actually get up and do anything. I'm too tired. I can sit there on the couch, reading Patricia Cornwell and listening to every noise in the house. But I can't balance the checkbook or work on a shawl - see? Very frustrating. So it's daytime now, and my body says, "Sure! Go work!" Alas, with no sleep, everything's a bit harder. However, in exciting news, the Halloween costumes are ready to be sewn! This will be fun. We've got some good ideas this year. I thought the youngest would be easy - super hero. Cool, ay? Well, apparently the super hero is Super Why, and he's brand new from pbs. I'm thinking of taking last year's Superman costume, or Wonder Woman, whichever fit, and putting a felt decal over the chest. Will it work? It depends on how I sell it to her. =)

Fabrics awaiting transformation:

Charmed, I'm sure

2007-10-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

I don't know what your opinion is, but I'm starting to really love on my spinning. I think my yarn is coming out pretty uniform, and I hardly ever drop the spindle on my foot anymore, though that did happen yesterday. For the most part, I use spindles with blunt ends now. This yarn is 100% superwash wool, and I thought it spun up just fine, no clumps or anything. Could be the awesomeness of Boogie's prep work, but I've heard people complain about superwash, and I'm not finding it difficult. And I like the idea that I can give it as a gift. I don't usually give things as gifts that have to be handwashed, unless to another knitter, of course.

I should mention that all of the good wishes you all sent for the other day worked out great. At the last minute, the mom decided it might be a bit difficult leaving a 1 1/2 yr old kid with someone they don't know, and let me off the hook. The older daughter came over, we had a great time, and best of all, everyone got sleep! So thanks for helping with that karma, folks. I appreciate it!

As promised, here's a pair of mittens knit for a normal, reasonably sized nine year old. The yarn was dyed for me for my birthday by the ever spinning Arleta. Isn't it pretty? I have another skein so I can make a matching hat. The colors are blue, green and a bit of purple, and my daughter loves it. =)

Said tweeny mitten pattern is:

Gauge: 6 sts per inch, 8 1/2 rows per inch

One skein of worsted weight wool, size 4 needles.

Cast on 40 sts. Work K2,P2 ribbing for three inches, increase four stitches in last round (44 sts). Knit around for eight rows. Then knit 21 sts, place marker, increase one st in each of the next two stitches, place marker, continue knitting. Knit next round. In the next round, knit to marker, slip marker, increase in first stitch, knit 2, increase in stitch before next marker, slip marker, knit around. Continue alternating increase rows and plain knit rows until the thumb gusset has 14 stitches. Put these stitches on stitch holders. On the next round, when you get to the gusset, cast on two stitches and continue knitting around. 25 rows later (2 3/4 inches), you're ready for the decreasing, which I did as follows:

Even rows, knit around
Row 1: *K 8, K 2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 3: *K 7, K2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 5: *K 6, K2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 7: *K 5, K2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 9: *K 4, K2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 11: *K 3, K2 together* repeat around, ending with K 4.

Row 15: K 2 together all around. Leaving about 12 inches of yarn, cut from skein and pull through the stitches left. Weave in end of yarn.

Thumb:

Pick up 2 stitches from mitten, gather stitches from holders (16 stitches). Knit around for 16 rows (approx 1 3/4 inches), K 2 together around. Again leaving a tail of yarn, cut from skein, pull through the stitches and weave in end.

Repeat for second mitten!

These mittens obviously don't have a leftie and a rightie, and my kids like 'em just fine. This is a very basic pattern, of course, but adding designs and stripes can liven it up, if you wish.

Here's a picture of our drama club class. That's a lot of kids! I'm being all official in the background, and marking points for how they read, as we were at tryouts. Don't worry. They all made it. With this many kids, I'm thinking we can perform Wizard of Oz. Wouldn't that be fun?

You know it's bad when...

2007-10-12T06:34:00.000-05:00

I have been working hard all week, trying to catch up on the laundry. I finally made it to the bottom of the hamper, and I found two onesies and a lacy little sock. Could it really have been three years since I was last down to the bottom of the hamper with the laundry??? Holy cow! Suffice it to say, the third baby kicked my butt, and let's all go home. Where all the babies are. Yikes.

I need batteries for the camera! Batteries that don't come from the gas station, at five bucks a pop, and will wear out after six pictures. Grrr. I've been knitting mittens, cuz it's gettin cold. Every time I'm done with one of these little fellas, I smile and pat it and just look at it for awhile. They're so neat, with their little sticking out thumb, and I always think of the kids making snowmen when I look at them. They're as fun as socks, easier, what with no heel, and a quicker pay-off, even if I make adult ones. Could be the size 4 needles, but fun nonetheless. I used to really hate making the thumbs, but then I started saving that sort of knitting for when I was on the phone. It's very brainless, and I don't even notice that I don't like doing it. Now that I've been making mittens for a few years, the thumbs don't even bother me. Phone therapy. It's for more than best friends.

So I'll pick up batteries today, and more pictures of thumbs coming soon! I'll also post my super simple mitten pattern, which is an amalgam of patterns I've been using for years. Mitten patterns, plain knitted ones like I usually do, are not difficult. I've memorized mine, and if I need to add more stitches, it's not like I spent a week knitting something that doesn't work. My mom goes ahead and finishes the mittens in the wrong size and donates them to our elementary school. Mittens are that painless to knit, that she'll knit the wrong size, even if she knows it before the first mitten is done. Gotta love that kind of dedication to not ripping back.

Someone send a little luck my way. I'm watching a two-year-old for the whole night tonight and day tomorrow, and she's never been here before. Any little prayer will do, but if you send one for me to get any sleep, that would be most appreciated. Have a great day!

Having a moment

2007-10-09T05:17:00.000-05:00

My friend Angela was blogging about having God moments, and she invited comments from people that have them, and what they are. I commented that if I feel things aren't going the way I want, repeatedly, perhaps I am not supposed to be taking that path. I listen to that little voice that says, "Don't do that. I'm going to make things difficult if you do." The reverse of that actually happened yesterday morning. I had been trying, calling on many contacts, to get someone to watch my 3-year-old, so I could go on a field trip with my oldest daughter. I met with obstacle after obstacle (people saying "no") and decided I must not be meant to go. Then, on Friday, my husband said that he had Columbus Day off of work. Hey, thinks I, I'm not signed up to go on that field trip, but maybe I could pop in for a bit anyway. I didn't know if that was allowed, though, so I nipped in yesterday morning to ask the teacher. As it happened, a parent had just cancelled due to car trouble, and the teacher was very grateful that I'd be able to chaperone. For once, instead of being led away from something, I was led to it. It was neat, and a little unnerving.

The field trip was to the art museum, and it went great. I was in charge of 16 kids (!!!), and I am a head counter, so I let my natural inclinations take over, and counted repeatedly. And yay me, I discovered I only had 15 students (counted three times before I mentioned it to a teacher) within a minute or so of one wandering off. CSI Miami Monday night was about children being abducted from school, so I had all of my mom radar on. It was great seeing the kids learning about art being crumpled metal, or design drawings, or collages, or carved stone. They're a great group of kids and didn't cut up, even when the explanations went on for a long time.

In bunny news, our little Angoras have acknowledged me as both a friend and an accomplished ear rubber. They've also deigned to let me begin brushing them (I think they like to look pretty), and I'm getting the softest roving ever. I've also been hearing murmurs about a spinning group who might be able to help me figure out what to do with it now...

I'm off to enjoy the last of the beautiful weather for awhile. Happy Knitting!

I Yam what I Yam

2007-10-02T08:38:00.000-05:00

You know, people always say to me that I shouldn't let others' opinions matter. I should be myself. I can't make everyone happy, and I have to stop trying, or I'll never be happy. Well, I'm 38 years old, and today I finally accepted that I am who I am. I am a people pleaser. To put me in a position where I have to confront someone is like – well, like agreeing that I'm about to give the house away. It's not a good idea, but I'm likely to do it, if I make someone feel badly enough.

That said, I try really hard to stick to the rules, follow the law, stand up for myself. And this morning, when a parent was getting – well, let's say a little vehement - about whether their child was too young for the drama club or not, I just handed the phone to my husband. As I said, I know my limitations. I could tell the conversation immediately got calmer, more reasonable, in a “Let's find a solution” kind of way. I am convinced that one of the great injustices of our world is that men can say things women can't. They command more respect, and when they say something, people are more inclined to believe them. I can't question the automechanic or request a parent/teacher conference without ticking someone off. My husband can come in with exactly the same wording, and people would nod sagely. I'm not irritated with him. It's not his fault. Still, without him, I'm pretty sure I'd be marked as that b*tchy person who can't just keep quiet. But 'nuff about that.

Drama club starts today! Woohoo! We're having tryouts this afternoon, and I'm really looking forward to it. (Kids don't care if you get goofy or are too loud, at least elementary age kids, the little darlins) We'll start out with the rules, don't talk when a director is speaking, be on time, et cetera. Then we'll move into inflection exercises, which are so much fun. You take a perfectly normal sentence, like, “I have to feed the dog,” and put emphasis on different words to change the emotion of the sentence. I have to feed the dog? I have to feed the dog! I have to feed the dog? It's fun, and it gets their little creative brains moving in a nonthreatening way. Then we'll go on to showing emotions with our bodies (kids love this one), elation, anger, sadness. All of these exercises are fun, and the kids hardly realize that they're being slowly drawn out to perform. By the time they do realize it, Hey Presto! Performing in front of your classmates isn't as bad as you thought.

Oh, and here's another exciting thing. I visited a rabbitry yesterday! Why, you ask? (Oh, I knew you were going to) Well, these little English Angora darlings now reside at our house. If they were any softer and cushier, you'd try to use them for a pillow. The kids think we got them for their 4-H group (heh heh). But you know who's going to get them when they go off to college, so this was an investment I was totally into. By the by, anyone want any angora bunny roving? I have a feeling we're going to have some...

Happy Birthday To You....

2007-09-28T05:12:00.000-05:00

(key the off-note singing)

Happy Birthday to you! (How do you put in music signs???)

Happy Birthday, Arleta.

Happy Birthday to you!

Arleta shares a birthday with some notables, not the least of which is Moon Unit Zappa, Brigitte Bardot and Al Capp, who wrote the Lil' Abner cartoons.

Some pretty great events in history happened on the 28th of September, also. Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed his ship at what we now call San Diego Bay. The World Series was seen in all its colorful glory for the first time this day in 1955. In 1968 (getting closer), the Beatles rode the nearly seven-minute-long "Hey Jude" to the top of the charts for a nine week-run starting this day.

And at some sooner, but unnamed year (you're welcome, AR), our friend and friendly blogger came into the world, causing much mischief and entertainment. Have a great day!

Sewing isn't knitting, but...

2007-09-27T05:42:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not, at the Cobbler house, Halloween is just around the corner. Therefore, even though my sewing machine rarely sees the light of day, you will begin seeing tantalizing posts of ruffles and felt circles. My costumes take a fair amount of time to make, but they are good, baby. They're also a lot of fun to make, I can make sure the kids are warm enough for the weather, and they last longer than three wearings of dress-up afterward. I made my daughter a Snow White dress for her fourth birthday, and she wore it until she was seven, when I couldn't repair it any more. Literally, whenever it came out of the dryer, she put it back on her body. Luckily, she grew taller but not wider, so the dress just kept fitting. I'd post the picture of it, but all our photos are on my other computer, which has had a very inconvenient demise. I didn't do anything this time, but the electrical went out on our house that day, and we're theorizing that had something to do with it. If anyone else sews and wants to talk about costumes and making them, drop me a comment, ay? We could do some fun photo sharing.

The biggest loss of the computer is all of my addresses. Now I have to wait for people to email me, so I can send them messages, too. I'm not ignoring you all, but possibly you are ignoring me? Heehee. Anyway, that's why y'all aren't getting chatty notes from me.

A spinning pic! Here's my sample of the superwash wool. See how I don't have many even strands? Does that show in the picture? I don't care. I'm in love with the bright colors.

Here's a little idea I had to use up cotton dishcloth scraps. I'd use the spiral washcloth pattern and do each section in a different color. I thought it was really ugly when I was done, but it is growing on me, now that I've left it alone for a few days. But there were more ends to weave in than is reasonable for a dishcloth, so it will probably never be repeated.

Some Interesting Things!

2007-09-23T21:24:00.000-05:00

Surely, I think to myself, SURELY there is something interesting to blog about! Interesting interesting, not just informational. Then I went out with some girlfriends last night, one of whom is now the infamous Arleta, instead of the Motley Arleta. She makes delicious yummies, while I stop and buy chips to bring along. She shows up with curled hair and makeup on, while my hair is still wet from the last minute shower (sans makeup, as well). But it's not just her cooking, fashion sense and yarn dying that I admire. It's the way she will perform impromptu lessons on a bar dance floor, on the proper way to shimmy and shake, much to the delight of the band. OH, yeah. Go, girl. It's just as well I don't have a picture, as so far this has been a pretty “G” rated site.

I've been knitting dishcloths and mittens lately, as once again pattern following has become difficult. Drama club is revving up, so there will be more attention paid to that for a bit. Oh, and I've been spinning. I took my spinning to a birthday party last week, and to a soccer game yesterday, and finally one of my friend's husbands confided to her, "Carrie will spin anywhere!" Heh. It's good to be known for something.

Here's a photo of my kid's first injury in soccer. She got the wind knocked out of her. That's a scary thing, and to cheer her up, I promised to blog her misery. She laughed, and thankfully the game went on. She's a natural athlete, and very fun to watch. Plus I learned that it's perfectly okay to scream with excitement at a soccer game, where it's not necessarily allowed at a teeball game. See? I'm never too old to learn...

And I asked a little girl to take a picture of me spinning, as I'd like to just catalogue all the different places where I show off a spindle. Unfortunately, this is what I got. Lol! That's what I get for trying to show a pic of myself. Have a great day!

Knitting with Pain?

2007-09-19T06:14:00.000-05:00

I've been fighting an elbow pain for a couple of weeks now. And though I'm careful, and get repeatedly reminded by stabs of pain, I keep using the arm. I'm right-handed, and of course you reach for the coffee, pick up your kid, remove something from the oven, automatically with the dominant hand. The same hand your kid decided to suddenly hang her 35 pounds from, while you weren't looking. Ouch.

So I've been ignoring it for a long time, but yesterday, as I was knitting a dishcloth, I got a shooting pain up my right arm. It made me drop my needle, and I believe my mouth dropped open in astonishment, though it's hard to remember, what with the sparklies in front of my eyes. Dangit. Let's blame it on the cotton, shall we? Let's see... I'm 38 years old, been around the doctors offices a bit, and I'm thinking he'll tell me to stop using the arm and take anti-inflammatories. Do you think that that includes spinning? Could I learn to do that left-handed?

On a positive note, I actually read a magazine last night. Did you know there's some very good parental advice in these things? And an “Ask about Etiquette”section. Quite illuminating. And, yes, I do believe I could write children's books, but I don't think I want to be added to that company's mailing list...

I'm going to read blogs for a bit and live vicariously through you all. Has anyone noticed that I do that fairly often? Happy Knitting!

Pictures, and a winner!

2007-09-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

Huzzah! The missing camera has been found, which is a boon for you all, because I can share pictures of some neat stuff! But first and foremost, let me post a couple of pictures from the shawl knitalong, these from the very lovely, though bashful, Laurie of Issues with Knitting. She made a gorgeous red shawl, and had to wait a lonnng time for extra yarn to come in. It's an amazing shawl, isn't it? And the knitalong still lives!

I had 17 unique comments about decluttering, but I only had to draw from 16 names, because Marji said she didn't want anything added to her house. She doesn't know what she's missing, because first prize is....

These three skeins of Classic Elite Yarn, in the Desert colorway, go to Marlene of Wovenflame. Marlene decluttered medicine for her dog, who had died nine years after he last took the medicine. Whew. That sort of hanging on happens to me all the time. Second prize was a set of Arleta's wonderful stitch markers, and they go to Del of Cozy's Place, and may she have much fun using them! She's quite a fast knitter, so I know these will get put on a project pretty quickly. Her decluttering was at least three bags of trash from her kids' rooms, and she's not done. Go, Del, Go!

Aren't contests fun? The best part about this one for me was how many comments I got from people I hadn't ever received a comment from before. *Waves* I really appreciated everyone entering - Thanks!

Since I've found my camera, I also took a picture of my spinning. I've got lots of little samples going on. The blue was a two-ply of Corriedale with a little sparkly stuff mixed in. It's from Black Cat Handspun, and she has great customer service, plus she's on Etsy, which is a fun site. The pink is a bamboo laceweight I'm working on. I picked it up at the fiber festival, and that's all I can tell you. I should keep better notes. I can't believe how thin it is. Bamboo strands must be pretty long, cuz I can draft a seriously skinny line with this stuff. The pretty orange/yellow and white roving is on my new birthday spindle, and it's a superwash wool. I wanted to try a superwash, just to see how it handled. It came from Spunky Eclectic (thanks, Amy!), and it was so soft. I loved working with it, and will now order more... The red roving is from Knitterly Things, and I bought 12 ounces, just to see if I could get enough to knit a scarf, gloves and hat. One of my experiments is to get a general idea of how much yardage I'll get from different ounces, so I'll know what to order in the future. (There's probably lots of information about this on the Internet. I'm that lazy, that I am not looking it up, but figuring it out for myself... help.)

Monday, Monday....

2007-09-15T05:11:00.000-05:00

That's the day the contest ends. Have you entered yet? Look around and see what you haven't thrown away for years, or let me know what you have thrown away that was kept an insanely long time. If you do that on this blog entry, you'll both make me feel better about my own packrat tendencies, and you'll be entered for my contest! I'm going to let it run for a week, which should be ended on Monday then, and then I'll do the drawing for loot! I've enjoyed the entries so far a great deal, even though my plan of no crafting/just cleaning hasn't happened. Hehheh. I was doubtful of that plan before it even got underway...

I am exactly six things behind on my list of things that should have been done by now, and I haven't even added the knitting items! Those are more fun to talk about, though. I'm remaking the Hermione mittens, actually going down two needle sizes, so they'll fit my daughter. They should be warm, warm, warm... Last year she doubled up on her hats and mittens, wearing two at a time, poor little muffin. Her hands shall be warm this year, if I have to felt mittens myself! (No. I'm lying. If it comes to that, I'm taking them to mom...)

I never finished my Interweave Bonsai tunic, since I haven't lost the seven pounds that might give me a chance of looking good in it. I carry weight, well, all over, but right in the belly is what would be the problem with this tunic. It's so pretty! But it is not fun imagining it finished, if I can't wear it...

The husband's sweater from last year needs to be washed and blocked! But I'm scared... I have blocking issues. What if it blows up to be huge?? I didn't understand about washing your gauge then, your Honor... How do I get out of this problem?

So, in a head nod to procrastinators everywhere, in carrying on the grand and noble tradition of denial, I'll be taking my spinning to soccer practice. It just looks so cool.

Murphy's Law (Carrie's?) #2

2007-09-10T10:39:00.000-05:00

All the good stuff happens when you've misplaced your camera. I had a birthday party yesterday (38 yrs old now, thank you very much), and got so many nice gifties. My mom made me gloves out of sock yarn, self-striping, and they look so cool. Pictures as soon as the clapper on my camera starts working. The gloves came with a matching hat, also very smart looking. She also bought me a gift certificate (for yarn) and a spindle! (Thanks, Mom!) My brother gave me a coupon for baby sitting time from him - yay! Then later in the evening, my husband and I smashed up grapes for wine, which would have made such a good picture. No, we didn't use our feet, but just the smell of the fresh grapes took me back to my childhood. Mmmm, smashed grapes....

Oh, and the kids gave me a pet rock, and The Sims 2 computer game, and a can of beets. The beets were taped to the video game, and I thought it was to disguise the gift so I wouldn't guess it. Apparently, though, at some point in the past I'd complained that no one else in the family liked beets, so I never got any. My daughter remembered that and made sure I got my own can of beets for my birthday =) Funny, no? I have a great family. Even better, the three-year-old kept saying, "We got you beets" before I opened my gifts, but I just didn't understand what she was saying, or why my husband kept laughing. Hee, hee. Now I get it.

I also knitted bookmarks, one for a friend's birthday later this week, and I have to get it in the mail (along with her book). So there shall be no pictures of that one =(, and it's cute, too. I got the bookmark idea from Criminy Jickets, where a lot of my inspiration seems to come from. He's got a great blog, with lots of good gift ideas, so check him out, if you haven't already.

As to the contest of what's the oddest/oldest/silliest thing you've kept and need to throw out, please leave those comments on the actual blog entry, to be entered in the drawing. That will make it much easier for me to keep track of and draw names, so thanks! We're getting some great responses, very funny, and I don't feel so badly about some of the stuff I've failed to throw out.

Now I'm off to recover from too much cake, and deal with the umpteen birthdays that are coming up this month. You may gather from the sheer number of births around here that November and December are very chilly months. Have a great day!

Murphy's Law, and a contest

2007-09-08T06:23:00.000-05:00

Well, there you have it. The kids are off to school, doing well, and you're looking forward to a bit of time around the house that's, well, quiet. And then - blam! You're descended upon by some new flu germ that you've never fallen prey to before. I spent yesterday on the couch, alternately throwing up or leaking tears from the effort of trying not to. At 1:00 o'clock, I realized I had a problem. I couldn't go get the kids, and everyone else related to them was working. So I had to call my husband home, which he arranged with complete grace, even though he had to conduct a meeting from his cell phone as he went to get them. And then I crawled back to the couch and went to sleep. All during this incredible day, when I was wearing a path from the couch to the bathroom, my three-year-old raised herself. Seriously, she pottied herself (who knew she could?), and brought me granola bars to open for her. I did manage to get up once and get her a jelly sandwich and some water, but that's as much as I could manage.

The point to this entry, other than garnering sympathy, is I had some serious time to lay there and look around me. (I couldn't manage any knitting, and reading was sporadic.) As I'm looking around, I realize my house is a flat out mess. It gets like this whenever I don't work on it constantly, picking up and decluttering. Every day it's the same thing, put things back in their niche and in the hamper, drawers, fridge, cupboards, wherever it belongs. It occurred to me that my house was FULL! Too much stuff. And so I'm considering (it hasn't been fully decided yet) taking a week off from crafting, and using that time to move things out of my house that we don't use. Seriously, I opened a drawer for a girlfriend the other day to give her baby bibs. I had a baby bib drawer, and the littlest one is three. I have been avoiding this for too long. But I'm just considering it, because it sounds like no fun whatsoever. But I think that I'd be happier if my house was less messy, and more peaceful, as I knit. I'd probably lose many guilty feelings of the things there are to do, while I sit and craft.

But this sounds like no fun, you know? So - hey, I had some time - I thought I'd try to make it a bit more exciting. Why don't all of you look around your house and find something you should have thrown out long ago? Then leave me a comment about what it was. I'm entering my baby bib drawer, two years overdue. I'll be very interested in reading what everyone else has collected but should have gotten rid of, and I'll do a drawing and send the winner a prize. Don't worry. It won't be stuff I need to get rid of, but some verrah nice yarn, I'm sure. And a second runner up will receive some of those awesome stitch markers from Arleta. She does a really nice job. So leave me your comments! And don't worry. I'm not delirious. I'm really feeling much better today.

Remind me next year...

2007-09-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

The kids love school. They loved it, can't wait to go back, didn't want to come home. Please remind me of this next year, in whatever way seems suitable, when I once again over-worry about the little darlins. Thank you in advance.

Happy Monday! Now take a deep breath...

2007-09-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

That's for me, anyway. The kids go to school tomorrow, and I woke up with total anxiety on Saturday. I shook my husband awake and explained we didn't have lunch boxes yet. After a bit of discussion, he asked if there was any reason he couldn't go back to sleep now? Well, I was up, anyway. A trip to Meijers was made on Sunday, and lunch boxes were bought. Good prices, too, I might add, which is not what you'd expect two days before school starts. They could have charged me an arm, leg or pile of roving, and I'd have had to hand it over. (Well, my roving collection is getting pretty sweet. They could brown bag it...)

After much arguing with the girls about whether or not their clothes were comfortable, or if the tag placement made them absolutely unwearable, I told them a little story. It's a true story about a woman who bought her children two outfits each, and she washed whatever they weren't wearing. There was no arguing in the morning over what to wear. This began a whole new discussion with my husband about why our kids need so many clothes. Do we really need to impress? Will they be shunned if their clothes are just clean, but worn overmuch? Probably/maybe/it could happen - or maybe not, even. School can be a harsh place, as I remember it. Kids judge each other and compare themselves to a standard that is amorphous and constantly changing. The only way to really win is to not care about "stuff," and that's so hard to teach, what with t.v. and peer pressure, from family as well as friends. But kids who don't care so much about how they look - as far as keeping up with fashion, I mean - were the kids who always impressed me in school. I wish my little beans well in that environment, and hope we can just keep them grounded in what's important. In the meantime, though, all clothing manufacturers should print the information on the shirts, as some do already. It takes away one more thing to argue about in the morning.

Wish me luck! I'm sure they'll do fine. I'm considering moving into a cave, just to avoid all societal pressure. Too extreme, do you think?

The Knitting Zone

2007-08-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

I finally took a break this morning from all of the school preparations, housekeeping, parenting and home business nonsense, and picked up my knitting. With Spongebob in the background, and my three-year-old laying by my feet, repeatedly dropping Pooh Bear toys on her head and saying, "Ow. Ow. Ow," at last I reached the blissful state that concentrated knitting can give you. I zoned out, following a pattern (Christmas gift - I can't show you) that I had to concentrate on. I couldn't even stop to answer the phone, as I might lose my place. Ahhhhh. Wonderful peace. Can't you just feel the stress losing its hold on you for a minute? I've been trying to get near my knitting for more than one row for days. Honestly, I think this is better than Xanax.

Back in the stress-giving world of nonknitting, I took my kids to the school openhouse last night. My oldest daughter is in a class with many of her friends, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. School can be hard, and all the worse if the people around you close you out. Thank heavens I don't foresee a year like that for her this year. My younger daughter's best friend moved away this summer, and she doesn't have a single friend in her class. I'm a little concerned for her, even though she's a friendly child. She gets very nervous about school, and this year she keeps looking around and seeing things she did with last year's friend. It's almost like she's the new kid at this school, and has to find a friend to hang with. And it's not that she's not likeable. So far she hasn't found anyone she likes that well. She'll loosen up, and I'm sure things will work out.

In the meantime, I am gearing up for the activity that comes with entertaining a three-year-old by myself. If I lived closer to Del, we could throw our kids together with some Hostess cupcakes, and not have to turn into circus clowns to keep them happy. (Right now my little one's being Super Monkey on the back of the couch. Gotta go.....)

A Beachy Picture For You

2007-08-29T06:51:00.000-05:00

How's this for a way to spend an end-of-summer day? We live by this water and can visit it all the time, so of course we only go there a couple of times a summer. Locals. It's terrible to take this huge body of water for granted, isn't it? But we make the most of it when we can get there. You can find Petoskey stones on this beach, when the waves aren't knocking you around. Seriously fun.

I have a picture here of a Webkinz, posing with some spinning that needs to be two-plyed. He felt he wasn't getting any blog time, and was beginning to feel unimportant. Poor little guy. I'm trying to figure out how many yards I get out of two ounces, four ounces, et cetera, of roving. Only my experiment has come to a screeching halt, because, having successfully kept the house clean for an entire week (last week, not this one), I have lost the spinning. I've looked everywhere. Now I've thought back on it, and the last time I remember seeing it was at church, when I was being a maniac about the dishrag tag. Haven't seen it since. I wonder what happened between there and my home? Because I'm pretty sure I brought it out to the car with me, and there was no big bag of spinning and knitting laying on a table when I was at church on Sunday. Seriously, I need a homing device that helps me find things once I clean.

Pretty, no? My mom and I also took a turn at making spindles. (Don't you love that my daughter wanted to try a very small flower pot?) They came out okay for us being newbies, and I'll likely try again. I need more spindles. I've misplaced one.

Tagged!

2007-08-23T12:51:00.000-05:00

Finally, my package for the Dishrag Tag came, and it was the most joyful 90 minutes of my week. After opening it up, I found a very awesome dishcloth, nice and large, and some gifties! A mini-stocking blocker and instructions for making those itty bitty little socks, as well as stitch markers and extra dishcloth yarn! Yay, and many thanks to Carol!

As fast as I could, I knitted up one of the skeins, and put in two fresh ones, plus the dishcloth, to send to Kathy, for her turn. I also put in a soap sock and some stitch markers made by my good friend Arleta, who graciously agreed to run home for me and get them, so I could get my package to the post office sooner. You gotta love friends.

Then, in complete disregard of my husband's opinions on the matter, I tossed all the kids at our knitting group on top of the car and let them pose with the dishcloth. They had fun, and it took me back to the summers of my youth, when people didn't care if kids climbed all over their cars. Paint job, schmaint job. He can consider this, in effect, telling him that I put kids on the car, since he should be reading my blog like any other good husband. Heehee.

And here's some picks of Arleta's new obsession, spinning (and winding), and the box that she takes everywhere with her, cuz she doesn't want to be caught without her roving. So cute! It just makes me happy seeing all of those colors, most of which, by the way, she dyed her very own self. She's a wizard with color, I tell you.

And as to colors and wizardry, I have to recommend Amy from Spunky Electric. She has a huge selection of rovings, yarns, et cetera (those are the two I search through), and her customer service rocks. She's answered many questions for me, even when I had a tight hold on my purse strings, and she's always been extremely quick to respond, and very friendly. When I have money, I spend it on her. That's my plug for the week, and I'm not the only one who thinks she has a great store. So check it out, if you're an on-line shopper.

Back to the Basics

2007-08-22T04:53:00.000-05:00

It's fall, folks, or close enough to count. I've been canning peaches, which is a sure sign. I've also been spinning. This is what mohair looks like, when you're not very good at washing it so that it doesn't have any wrinkles!

I've been baking bread and making pies and cleaning the house, and I don't know what all. My husband says I'm all a-glow, and he'd think I was pregnant if it weren't scientifically impossible. So why the nesting instinct? It's gotta be these

soon to be riding this.

Another school year about to make my life as crazy as possible. So I thought I'd start spending a few minutes a day sitting quietly, trying to figure out how to avoid being so busy. (It's not going well) They've already joined soccer, 4-H (bunnies), still in choir, and we teach a drama club. Hmmm. Friday night football games, and our week's all sewn up, folks! And it's a testament to our summers that I always want a few more week with the kids. I love snow days as much as they do =) Here's a couple of pictures of the summer camping trip. We live in a beautiful area, and this view is less than half an hour away. It's been a great summer, the best one yet.

So I'm not complaining. I'm just trying to get my head around the idea of fall.

Hey, shawl knitters! Anyone else have any pictures they'd like me to post? We've got a couple more weeks here, and then I'm doing the final fiber drawing, and a little shawl recap. It was fun, wasn't it? Let me know if there are any more updates, and I'll take care of those. In the meantime, I've got another water balloon fight to plan.

When they don't know you're listening

2007-08-16T07:39:00.000-05:00

Last night, my seven-year-old was on the phone with her friend, who has recently moved to Maryland. I am a fly on the wall, or nearly so, as I'm invisibly working on my computer around the corner. Here is the conversation, as I heard it:

"Women are multi-talented. We can multitask. My mom multitasks all over the place!"

Pause...

"At night, when she reads to us, she holds the book open with her foot, reads us a story, and knits, knits, knits. It's amazing! That's three things she's doing at once! She's holding the book open with her foot, reading, and knit, knit, knitting."

I'm cringing a little at the picture, but proud that she's proud enough to brag on me to her friends. Needless to say, at reading time last night, I hunted around until I found a pair of mittens to start. Plain knitting is really almost a must for reading time. =)

I have some photos from the Relay for Life the other day. Arleta was face painting away. She does a beautiful job, and it was so hot! I beat feet out of there when I saw how red my daughter's face was. Here's some pics! (Sorry about the face you're sorta making, Arleta, but you still look pretty, this shows the left side of your face, which you wanted to see)

Here's some final pics of the birthday party. I thought it was cute that the kids were putting the candles on the cake. Very crazy, leaning candles.

And here's the princess herself. Isn't she pretty? I'm so proud of my mom. If you've been reading this blog for any time, you know that. She raised us four kids on such a small amount a year, you'd call me a liar if you knew. And put herself through nursing school, and somehow stayed connected and on top of every little thing we tried to get away with. Oh, and she's still in charge. She made me cut her hair one day, with no notice. She had really long hair, but she was determined I was going to cut it! So this is the final look, and aside from the fact that she probably could have gotten it cut even shorter, this is what she got. I saved it for Locks of Love, so now I need to figure out how to donate it. If you know, pass me some information, ay?

In the meantime, happy knitting!

Sun, fun, and a Happy Birthday to Mom!

2007-08-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

I have two blog entries in the works - yay me! The first I wanted to share, though, was Friday, when my nieces stayed the night, and Arleta and her daughter came over. Water balloon fights! Whee! All was going well, until Arleta suggested I wasn't wet enough, and they ganged up on me. *sigh* What could I do? I had to go and get the hose to defend myself. There were just too many of them, and only the one of me. Actually, Arleta got much more soaked than I did, and she was probably a better sport about it. And afterward, nice tasty summer watermelon. Only a few more weeks of this sort of action, so we're enjoying it all we can.

That morning, I decided to work a bit on my Christmas gifts, and got out the Hermione mitten to go with the hats I made and put away. I put it on, added stitches to the thumb, tried it on again, decided it needed to be a bit longer... then decided that either my hands were large-ish, or I hadn't worked gauge out correctly. I have always believed myself to be fairly normally put together (thanks, mom!), so it had to be gauge. I tugged out the mitten and cast on again. The Hermione pattern is much fun, and I'd suggest it to anyone. This mitten was just too snug for me, and I couldn't deceive myself any longer about it. "Blocking out" isn't a theory that works well with mittens, since they'll just revert to their previous shape when you actually use them in the snow. *sigh*

I did put some girls to knitting their own gifts. Look at the concentration on their faces! Much good comes of passing these things on. In a few years, I see many gifts coming my way... *crossing fingers*

And on a final note for this part of my entry, look at the neat stitch markers! Arleta makes and sells em, very darned reasonably, too, if you're searching for a cute little gift. She has an Etsy shop, also. I buy these things and tuck them in all over the place. One of these goes to my mom (Happy Birthday, Mom!), and one goes as a prize to the Dishrag Tag.

And, last but never least, let's all join together to a hummed rendition of Happy Birthday to Mom.... as she's a great lady, and works very hard to always be there for all of us. If there was a medal for "Heart", she'd be wearing a load of them. Thanks, Mom, for everything! Have a great day!

So Many Pretty Things

2007-08-08T05:32:00.000-05:00

This shawl knitalong has been so much fun. I can't even tell you. It has gone far beyond anything that I may have expected of it, though I didn't really think of the ending when I was at the beginning, you know? Just seeing people finishing up and showing off their work is so inspiring! I am now a shawl addict, and I've only finished one myself. But I've gotten to enjoy many, many more. And I love the pictures where people are modeling the shawls. They look so happy!

With everyone finishing up and getting close, does this mean that summer is almost over? Now I wonder if we should have been knitting slower, make summer last longer... Oh, don't look so nervous! There's weeks and weeks left. No reason to go school clothes shopping yet. Deep in denial is a good place to be.

Asa from knittingnutter has nearly finished her shawl - just binding off! This is the most current picture I have, but I'll be putting up the new one as soon as she does!

Brigitte is four rows from finishing Kiri!

LaurieM is working on the border of her Frost Flowers and Leaves.

Tala's Luna Moth shawl is racing along.

Here is Cheryl with her curved shawl, which is looking great.

Jen of Out of the Basket has finished her Cozy shawl, and her daughter looks lovely posing with it. Beautiful work! Congratulations on being done!

I am so very, very impressed with everyone's knitting. I keep chattering on about it while my husband is trying to work. I'd better go now. Great job, you knitters! Keep rocking on!

Fiber Acquisition

2007-08-02T07:25:00.000-05:00

It was the first fiber festival I've ever been to! I went with my very good friends, Mom and Arleta. See? A picture. Proof. I met Jae, who designed an awesome shawl. It was in the fashion show (there was a fashion show - fun!). It's an amazing design, I can't even imagine all the work that went into it. It's a huge, beautiful shawl that's just what I want next. She's still working on the pattern, though.

My shawl got worn around, and people were very kind about commenting on it. Arleta got more comments than I, however, as she was very clever, and made an "Arleta's Motley Wool" t-shirt. She's really pretty well-known in the fiber world. We had to keep wandering on to the next booth without her, she met so many people that knew her.

In one of the booths, a very nice lady showed us how to knit with roving. Spinning left out! Apparently it's not necessary, after all =) She was nervous about me taking a picture (apparently NOT a blogger), so I blocked out her nametag. The knitting with roving was really neat, though, and she was making a scarf. And once I thought about it, why not? I sucked all the knowledge I could from her, and then my mom bought the roving to actually do the technique, and make a hat. Because, honestly, if I bought something from every person I begged for knowledge, I wouldn't be making my house payment this month. (I cleverly waited to pay the house payment until after the festival, just in case)

I plagued all spinners I saw, and I learned a bunch. I can now spin as fine as a thread, without predrafting a long line of roving first. Very neat. I bought several spindles and many rovings with materials I hadn't worked with before (like, anything not just merino), like bamboo and silk and tencil (what is tencil?). I really wanted the roving with the bunny fur worked in, it was so soft. But, unfortunately, I'd already borrowed twenty bucks from my mom, and I thought I'd better stop. I've thought of that roving ever since.

I was very excited to find sheep shearing. I have seen it when I was younger, but it had been awhile. The sheep was very docile, but I was informed it was because this man was sitting on his head. I'm so easily impressed. This festival has nearly convinced me to buy hand carders. I feel like I'm being sucked down into a yarny black hole, and I might as well give up and buy an alpaca.

And here's the big ta-da! I met - *met* - Sharon from Aurora Alpacas*! She designed, as you can see from the picture, the Dragone shawl. I was so excited, it was like meeting a celebrity. (Yes, just like that, because she is one) I fussed on her, called her a genius, made her pose for a picture, and basically embarrassed Arleta, who claims I told her I loved her. *ahem* Moving on....

She was so nice! We chatted about her other designs (she has three in the works), and she showed me her Pegasus shawl (knitted on #2 needles - ouch), and I bought a very pretty pattern, Misty Morning, from her. Speaking of buying things, here is my fiber acquisition:

Merino and Bamboo, spins like a dream. May end up being laceweight for the Dragone shawl.
Merino and Tencel, I'm trying to figure out how to spin it so it's not variegated, but solid colors.
Alpaca and Bombyx silk, I am scared to spin. It feels so soft, it's like hair, silky, silky. I had to own it, but I'm not sure when I'll get the nerve to spin it.
And camel roving! From - well, wherever this particular camel lived. I'm impressed. I only bought an ounce, but it was only four bucks, and it'll be fun to try something really different. I'll have to spin it along with something else, which, again, I haven't done before. I'm sure I'll update with pictures, though!

For now, I'm spinning the Merino/Bamboo, and a neat Mohair, which is going to have to stay single-ply, as it will be SO chunky if I two-ply it. But enough pictures. That was my weekend! How was yours?