Sunday, March 27, 2011

Operation Diaper Covers

Title blatantly stolen from my friend Shelly at Wool and Chocolate..... I have a small admission to make. I have not been using wool on my baby. There. I said it. Yes, she has been wearing wooly tops, hats, boots, and pants. But I have not been using said longies as diaper covers. Why? Well, I got lazy. PUL is sooooo much "easier" to deal with. No damp feeling. No lanolizing. Everything goes in the wash. I've been putting longies over the PUL to keep her warm. It's still dang cute. But it has come to bite me in the @$$. Or rather, it has gotten Rose on the legs. Her legs have a nice, scaly rash all over where the diaper wraps have been rubbing. It was just a little bit. But now it has fully encompassed each thigh. It's obvious what it's from and it cannot be ignored any more. Back to wool. In an interesting twist.....I do not have enough wool knit up in the correct size for diaper cover use. So, I am knitting like mad. I have planned and started some scrappy longies, made from some Paton's and my own handdyed WoTA and Fisherman's wool. I hope they are really, really cute. I also am like this close to buying the Sheepy Skirty Pattern. The other Sheepy Time Knits patterns are around $6.....but this one is $12. Twelve. So, I am hesitant. I mean, I know how to knit a soaker. Attaching a skirt cannot be THAT hard, right? Although, in an effort to not have to think much, having a pattern is nice. But really, it's knitting. I can get through a skirt (read "tube of fabric flaring or pleating to the other end) without a pattern, right? Then I start thinking "Do I even want her to wear a skirt at this point?", because diaper soaker/skirts tend to be on the short side. So, yeah. It's complicated. Oh - and all that Malabrigo I have for scrappies? I think it's going to be a Tomten Jacket. So, no pants from those for now. And switching back gears again - I think I should at some point knit some shorties. I mean, AT SOME POINT, spring/summer has to show up. Right? Right? It can't stay COLD AND SNOWY forever, can it? Seriously. There was a day last week where it was 60. 6-0 (F). And then, there was a thunderstorm that resulted in 4 inches of snow. A thunderstorm. I am not kidding. And now it's below freezing again. Sheesh. Oh, yeah. You want pictures. Um, I am working on that. Really, I am. Sorry none today. :(

Monday, March 21, 2011

Moving Right Along

I am trucking right on my Tomten Jacket. I love this design. Another thumbs up for Elizabeth. I should be starting the hood today. Isaac's birthday isn't until the end of April, so I am good on time. This jacket is so cute I will definitely go the the library so I can upload a photo when it's done.

~Oh. And our March choices for the yarn club are in. To die for. I am trying to decide how much I want (I already figured out which color I want).

Friday, March 18, 2011

Knitting Geekiness (yes, that is a word)

I am über-excited tonight.

I bought a new fabric shaver.

I plan on shaving pills off my woolies for hours on end tonight!

If you don't knit, you wont get it.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

I try to smile......

when, as I am washing dishes, my toddler picks clean dishes out of the rack and places them back in the water in the sink.

Thanks buddy.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Problem With Socks

I like sock yarn. I like socks. I like knitting socks. I like heels and toes and all the different ways you can knit them. (I am learning the short-row heel right now, pics later this week if I can.)

The problem?

The intense let down when said sock does not fit right.

It seems like I just can't win. I even tried knitting little baby socks for Rose. The sock just isn't right. I always seem to mess up the foot length and end up ripping back the toe like 5 or 6 times. Or the leg is too tight and the ankle too loose. And how the #%&@ do you do calf shaping (or any kind of.paired decreases in 2x2 rib?!

Anyhow. I really do like knitting socks. I just wish I could get a comfortable and well fitting finished object from it.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Some Random Thoughts Floating Around In My Head

~God made 11 year olds to give us the opportunity to practice patience.

Or to bring us closer to Him in our suffering. I haven't decided yet.

~I am sick of sleeping with my 2 year old. He is disruptive at night. It is annoying. I am an attachment parent at heart, so I am not really sure what to do about this and I also feel a little guilty for saying it.

On the bright side, my annoyance paid off tonight and everyone was asleep and in the(ir) bed(s) at a normal hour: 2 year old at 8 and the 4 year old at 9. Feels good.

~If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I hate HATE Daylight Savings Time. I will spare you my semi-annual rant and instead share a good joke I saw about DST on Facebook:

I was talking with an old indian about the reasons for Daylight Savings Time. He thought for a moment and replied, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it on the bottom, and have a longer blanket."

Brilliant.

~Cleaning the house is much easier if you (a) have a schedule and (b) treat it like a job.

A schedule means I don't have to worry everyday about vacuuming. I can worry about it on Tuesday because that is when I will vacuum (unless an entire box of cereal gets dumped on the floor, then I'll vacuum today). It also means the crappiest job of the week gets done on Monday - the bathroom. Oh how I loathe cleaning the bathroom.

Which brings me to point (b). If I want the house to get clean I have to treat it like I would if I were employed and had a supervisor. Only, my supervisor is God because I don't see anybody else around here holding me accountable. It is easy to get, I don't want to say lazy because that's not true, but distracted would be true. There is no one hanging over my shoulder all day to make sure I Get Things Done. Now, when I'm not getting things done, I am not eating bon bons and getting a massage. Generally me being distracted involves nursing the baby and getting stuck under said sleeping baby while being forced to watch "Barbie Mermaidia" on repeat for a few hours while I demand reheated leftovers from my 11 year old because I am starving trying to tandem nurse all day.

If you're wondering what brought on my thoughts for cleaning......it was my husband nicely asking me when the last time I vacuumed was and why he is always doing the laundry on his nights off. (I am still letting him do the laundry sometimes.)

And for kicks......here's my cleaning schedule:

Monday: Bathroom (counter, sink, tub, toilet, floor, wash rugs)
Tuesday: Vacuum and swifter upstairs (living/dining room, bedrooms)
Wednesday: Kitchen Floor (scrub)
Thursday: wash kitchen rugs
Friday: Vacuum downstairs (TV room, woodstove area)
Saturday: Vacuum stairs and entryway (husband or the boy does this)
Sunday: Laundry catch up day

These are just the "big" things. Stuff like laundry, dishes, kitchen counters, etc get done (I'd like to believe) everyday.

I suppose that could have been its own post.

~I am part of the Reductio Sock swap again on Ravelry. I have knit my mini sock but still need to knit another mini item. This round's theme is Ministry of Magic. I am stuck. Any ideas?

~I finally got the right size needles to knit my club yarn and started a hat for Rose. Because it's March. In Wisconsin. And its cold. At least, I am telling myself that even though I should probably just wait and knit it for next year.

~I think I might be able to use this android phone as a modem after all. There is an app on the phone called "wireless.modem". It has directions to use it. I am going to give it a go this week and see if I can load some photos onto Ye Olde Blog.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Celebrities on Ravelry

I haven't posted in a while. This touch screen keyboard is not as comforting to type on as a real keyboard. I love the click-clickety sound of the keys as I speed along able to type as fast as I can think. With this thing it's all thumbs and auto-correct and, well, it doesn't encourage me to blog. But because I love all of you soooo (auto correct there turned my soooo into Solo then sloop, wtf?) much and love reading your blogs, here I am.

Oh. Was I supposed to actually discuss my title?

Yes. Celebrities on Ravelry. I have been meaning to posy about this. Warning, I am using all caps here because it's just that exciting and cool.

MEG SWANSON TALKED TO ME ON RAVELRY. WHEN I FRIENDED HER SHE FRIENDED ME BACK. I AM FRIENDS WITH MEG SWANSON! REALLY! MEG SWANSON TALKED TO ME IN A FORUM ON RAVELRY! I KNOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT EITHER!

Ok. Seriously though, it was soo cool I almost peed my pants. I am sure I embarrassed her because I couldn't help but shout out to her about how great it is to see real knitting legends interacting with us regular folk and the fact the she really is just nice regular folk too. (If you are a knitter and you don't know who Meg Swanson is.....well.....I just can't help you.)

I keep thinking one year I'd like to go to Knitting Camp. I can't link to it but you can find details on the Schoolhouse Press website. It is actually geographically not a difficult place for me to get to. And I'd get TO MEET MEG SWANSON FOR REALZ. Sorry, giddy excitement got the best of me again. I hear at Knitting Camp they have actual garments that EZ and Meg have knit out for you to see, touch, and feel - no armored guards around or anything, right out in the open. Wow.

Yes. I am a geek. I am ok with this.

So that is my little bit of knitting celebrity stuff.

In other knitting news: the Tomten Jacket was knitting up too loose and too large. After completing appx. half of it, I frogged the whole thing and started over. I changed from size US 5 (3.75mm, I think) to US 3 (3.25mm). Much better. Yes, I am a very relaxed knitter.

I also never posted about getting my February yarn shipment, or at least never posted pictures. I can't do pictures now, but the yarn is nice. I thought it would be more of a worsted weight, but it is definitely heavier, aran weight for sure (just like Mandie (yarn pusher) said it was, duh). It is a beautiful deep saturated purple color with a little magenta called "Grapes of Wrath" on a base called "Fleckity" which is 1 strand of superwash plied with 2 strands of non-superwash. Very interesting. (If I already blogged about this, I apologize for the redundancy.) I actually had to buy some needles in order to knit with it. The size 6 needles were giving me a far too dense fabric (and those are HUGE for me to knit with, I am used to smaller gauge needles and worsted weight yarn, my standard needle is a 5) and the size 8 needles are far too flimsy fabric. So I stopped by JoAnns after grocery shopping and ran in for some 7s, a size I was sure I would never need to own. They only had straights (bleh) or double points in 7s, so I bought the double points. I really wanted a 16 inch circular but I must have seen those at Michael's. The plan is to knit a gnomey hat and pullover for Rose.

I will get the hang of this phone and hopefully post more.

Onward knitting.