NOW I'm on Ravelry!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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?

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...

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.