Now back to our previously scheduled program...

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?

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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

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

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

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!

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!