Yes, I can craft things other than yarn

Flower wanted to make a "Christmas Tree" the other day. So I pulled out some glue, sissors, and construction paper and we did some crafty stuff. Lovey did them too, but he wasn't hanging around for pictures.

This is Mama Mary and Baby Jesus. Violet is very proud of her gluing skillz. :)
And here she is with her Christmas Tree. (Yes, I just started a sentence with "and". I know it's not proper grammer and I don't care.)

She arranged all those ornaments herself too.

I added this last picture because it made me laugh! It's the "I am smiling so hard it hurts" face!! Hee Hee!

Please don't think it's all crafts all the time around here. It's not. Although lately I have been trying to not give in to the "it's going to be way too much work and be way too messy and it won't be perfect" voice in my head that tells me not to even bother trying to do fun things with the toddlers. Really, if I just jump in and KISS (keep it simple, stupid) everything is fine. I am realizing that my toddlers don't want (or need) some long, drawn out, over explained lesson about what we're doing. They don't need it to be perfect either (and they don't have to be perfect). They just want some simple, creative fun.

[Insert Clever Title Here]

I started another pair of longies on Friday. Actually, as you can see, they are almost done.

This is the "Whales Road" colorway from Malabrigo. I think this is my favorite colorway EVER!! The pictures aren't great because the sun is missing (again, thanks a lot sun).

Wow. That picture really sucks. *shameful feeling*

This last one is probably the best, but still not as wonderfully awesome as the longies themselves are. I am so totally going to make a sweater some time in the future out of this - FOR ME. It's crazy beautiful for a blue/purple/green lover like myself.

In other news:

My 4 year old daughter has been desparately asking to make "Christmas cookies", which apparently is any sugar cookie cut into shapes, be it a heart even. So I finally gave in and made up a triple batch of dough. I *cut* corners (hahahaha) by just rolling the dough into balls and then rolling it in colored sugar crystals I had in the cupboard. Then I flattened them with a spoon and baked them. She thought it was awesome and had lots of fun rolling them in the sugar.

I like my cookies soft and chewy. So naturally, I did not bake them for very long to acheive this goal. My husband thought they were awful. Really. He would not even take the "extra" to work because he didn't want anyone to think I was a bad cook. Sometimes my husband can be very silly.

The kids like them. I think they're kind of ho-hum but that's because I would prefer chocolate chip, which is what the next batch will be.

And in other, other news:

1 week till Advent starts. I am taking the time (I hope) this week to prepare maybe 1 activity per week for us to do this year. Advent is historically a big FAIL around here as far as my wanting to celebrate the season/prepare with the kids/do activities to it actually happening.

Big Kids' Shirts

I also dyed some shirts for the big kids. Flower, when I asked her what colors she wanted said, "Pink." Anything else baby girl? "No. Just Pink." Okay.

Wobbers did his own. Turquoise, Fuscia, Green, and Purple. Never mind those marks on his face. He and his dad got into a marker fight and apparently Wobbs lost.

Lovey is wearing his shirt too.

Baby Shirts

I dyed the baby shirts. Six 3-month short sleeve, Five 6-month short sleeve, Six 6-month long sleeve, and Six 12-month long sleeve. I am not sure what happened to the other 6 month short sleeve, it's gone.

I only "tie-dyed" 5 or 6 of them and I did the other ones with "low water imersion". So the other ones kind of look tie-dyed (not really the exact effect I wanted) but they are not. I wanted a solid color that was kind of mottled, not super solid. I like them.

My favorite ones are the "solid" ones. Some of them looked really crappy when I was rinsing the dye out in the tub, and then they washed up to be my favorites. Others looked pretty cool in the rinse water and turned out OK.

The picture above has one of each color I dyed. (Oh, I actually missed a few, see below pics too.) Some of the colors got one of each size/style shirt and some just got 2. The tie-dyes are all unique.

The top shirt is straight up Fuscia dye done on all 4 shirts in a ziplock bag and squished around to get the effect.

The next one down is what my friend and I were calling a "light purple" - which was a purple we made with about 2 parts Turquoise to 1 part Fuscia with some Lilac thrown in. It turned out really pretty. The dye "broke" and the Turquoise shows through on it's own. I also have 4 of these.

The next is a tie-dyed one with Turquoise, Green, and Navy. Pretty too. Underneath that, another Fuscia snuck in.

The next one is straight Turquoise. I only have this one plain Turquosie shirt. I like it.

Second from the bottom is Fuscia/Purple. We put a lot of the "Light Purple" in the bag and then finished it off with some Fuscia dye. There are only two of these shirts (rats!!). They were really ugly in the bag, and even uglier when I was rinsing them. They are my FAVORITE of all the shirts now that they have been washed. Totally pretty and beautiful. For any of you "Malabrigo Junkies" out there, they are extremely (almost identical) to the colorway "Velvet Grapes" (which I now have to buy! ok, later I'll get some *stash busting* remember?).

The bottom shirt is Fire Engine Red dye. There are two of these. They are really pretty and actually came out of the wash matching my Geranio yarn, which is more of what I'd call a dark pink.



This is a picture of them all folded up in the lamp light last night. The one on the top with green, blue, red, and orange is a tie-dyed shirt done for Lovey. He likes it.

In the bottom left-hand corner of the picture is the "Dark Purple" we mixed up - Navy with Fire Engine Red. I have 4 of these shirts and they are not my favorites. It looked good in the bag, but came out kind of grey. I am thinking about overdyeing these. I am not sure how that would work out, but I am curious.



The top shirt here is the Fuscia/Purple that I LOVE. Then Turquoise, Fuscia, and the "broken" Light Purple. Very nice shirts.

Again, the Fuscia Purple. And the plain Fuscia next to it. Underneath on the left is the "Dark Purple" and on the right is a tie-dyed turquoise, green, and purple.

More shirts layed out. I tried really hard to get good pics of the colors. Unfortunately, it was raining today so I couldn't take them outside. These are all laying next to the patio door on the floor. There are some more tie-dye examples there in the background.

I had a lot of fun doing this. Now that I know how the colors turned out, I totally want to do more. I have more dye left (already mixed up). I will probably do some diapers soon. My legs hurt really bad from sitting on the toilet while I rinsed the shirts out in the tub. That took me all afternoon. I am not looking forward to that again.

I also made a shirt for each of the big kids. I'll put up another post with those pics in a minute. Blogger's 5 pics per post thing and all.

What do you think of the shirts??

Coming Up.....

Pictures of the shirts I dyed today for the new baby! (And one or two for the other kids.)

It is killing me to let them sit in the dye while it "exhausts" overnight. I just want to pull 'em out and see already.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I can rinse and then wash them.

If they turn out good, I'll be doing prefolds with the leftover dye!!

Tidepool

The yarn is dry and skeined up. Wonderful sunlight today!!

Inside with the flash....looks a little different. But still nice.

And another beautiful sunshine picture. You can see more on my stash page in Ravelry.

More Gratuitous Dye Pictures

Because Blogger limits you to 5 per post......

Yarn in the oven, baking in the dye goodness. (180 degrees for about 30 minutes or so, not an exact science.)

Yarn outside after bath.

Yarn again, looking very pretty I might add.

A Time to Dye

Today, my fingers ended up looking like this. Why? Well, lemme tell you.

It started with these characters. Green, Blue, Red, and Orange.

The Red (Blastin' Berry Cherry) and the Orange (Mandarina Tangarina) mix to make a "true red". I then mixed a little of that with blue to get a purple....it was more navy/grey than purple, but whatever.

I mixed a little green with some blue to get a turquoise-y color. And I mixed a few drops of the red with the blue to get a "true blue" color.

My original color idea was a purple/blue/turquoise skein.

I ended up with something a little different but still pretty. Here is is taking a nice bath after it came out of the oven.

Here is the finished product (minus drying and reskeining). I ended up using not only the blue, "purple" (I use that term loosely here), and turquoise/blue-green I made, but also the straight-up-from-the-packet blue (Berry-Blue) and the straight-from-the-packet green (Lemon-Lime).

I am calling it Tidepool. I really like it. Can't wait for it to dry so I can reskein it. And then cake it!! And then knit with it!!!!! (Probably some longies or shorties).

What fun did you have today?

Not feeling up to posting....

But here's some gratuitous knitting pictures and updates anyway.

Remember the "possessed" yarn? I am making some socks from it. I had originally started this sock on 9 inch circular needles. Today I switched to some DPN (double point needles) and I knit 2 inches of length pretty fast. On the circs I had done 1 inch in about 3 weeks.

I don't hate the circ needles....but the knitting does seem faster on the DPN. It's just a PITA to keep changing needles.

I do love the yarn though. It's very soft and quite pretty.


I finished the Lakehouse Longies. (More pictures and notes at the ravelry link to the left.) They turned out really nice. Technically, I am still "finishing" them, because the I-cord is not done yet. You can see it in the right side of this picture, being knit. But it's almost done.

I do think they are very boy colored.....but I am going to hang onto them until I have the physical evidence in my hands that this baby is indeed a girl. Just in case.

This is a nice picture without the flash. It kind of shows the colors better. I don't know. It's lots of blue with some teal, and a little orange.

I did seed stitch cuffs this time around. The longies are a size medium, so I thought it would be nice if I could roll the cuffs up. I also wanted a "gender neutral" style cuff....in case I gift them to a friend with a boy.

I think this last picture shows the color of the yarn the best. See that I-cord...still coming along. I know it takes forever to knit an I-cord. I have a friend who always crochets her cords. But the I-cord is just sooo good looking. I have to knit them.

I really do like these. Now the question is "What to knit next??". I have yarn for LOTS more longies. I want to do a top-down baby sweater. I am still knitting those socks. I need to embellish the Cutie Girlie Longies. I have yarn for pink/purple longies, rainbow/teal longies, red/gold longies, blue longies, green longies......I can't decide. Then there's the question - do I use the rainbow yarn I have left over to trim a pair of purple longies or use it for teal longies (as I just mentioned). A friend of mine had a baby a few weeks ago....should I knit her something?

So many decisions. So much yarn. What do you think?

8 Years In the Making......

We moved last summer to this new home in the boonies. Obviously, I am still not totally "unpacked".

I did, however, find a surprise buried deep down in a box that I was going through this week.

I started this baby blanket when my eldest was 2. He's 10 now, so that's a long time ago. We weren't sure we'd ever conceive a child together (he had a vasectomy while in his previous marriage) and I wasn't sure I'd ever finish it (the blanket). But, I really wanted a baby, so I started the blanket. (Just an FYI, for new readers....we have now conceived 3 babies post-vasectomy reversal. They do work. And God is soooooooo good.)

It's crochet (hate), acrylic (double hate), and I am pretty sure I bought the materials, including hook, pattern, and yarn, at Walmart. Uh-huh.

But, seriously. It's almost "done". It just needs a border. (Ok, the pattern calls for 118 rows, and I figured out which row I'm on (there are 6 that repeat, oh look parenthesis inside of parenthesis, cool) and it's about 84....so I just decided to get to row 6 and start the border).

It's big enough. It's some baby sport weight yarn in a pastel varigated (blue dominant, because I love(d) blue). It's not the *worst* yarn I've ever knit crocheted with (hey, at least it's not BlackRed Heart), but after using natural fibers it just feels....um....fake. I even took it out of it's "store bought center-pull skein" and wound it up on my ball winder thinking it might be less offensive if it at least *looked* like regular yarn.

I am happy to be finishing it though. It feels good to get things done. I am also very amazed at how fast the yarn is getting used up. I knew crochet takes more yardage than knitting but I wasn't prepared for this. When I wound up the skein I thought for sure, "I am going to have a TON of this stuff left. Maybe I'll make a February Baby Sweater and give it to some non-knitting mom." That is not going to happen.


Even so, I have to find someone who wants the blanket. I thought about having a "leave me a comment and you can win the blanket" contest, but most of my crafty readers are knitters like myself who use good yarn. ;) (And it's just not quite done, yet.) You can check it out on Ravelry here.

Possibilities

I know my husband wonders why I have so much yarn. Sometimes I wonder to, but not usually. It's the possibilities - they are endless.

Every skein of yarn just has this thing about it....the unknown, the creativeness, the possibilities of what it could be.

Maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's just women. I think we are naturally born to create. God gave us the task of helping him bring new life into this world and I think that makes us naturally want to create. I know for me, the idea that every skein of yarn is a new beginning, a new adventure, a new possibility really gets my blood flowing.

Is it socks? A sweater? Will it warm someone's hands, neck? Will it be a new toy to bring a smile to a toddler's face? There is just so much it could be.


I mean, just look at those colors. They are soooooo mesmerizing. This is Paton's Kroy Sock Yarn. I've never used it before, but this color combination makes me want to knit it now. They call it "Clover Colors", which I think does it no justice at all.


Then you have something totally lush and seductive like this - Malabrigo Silky Merino, 50% silk, 50% merino wool. Malabrigo brand is known for it's softness anyway. But with that added silk content it is just as soft as a new baby's bottom against your skin. I can't wait to see what these skeins form into. Maybe a sweater for me (yes, I have enough of this for a sweater, it was on sale!!) or maybe a bunch of other projects, as shawl or two, some scarves, a baby blanket, I don't know. For now, I am just going to pet it.

The deep rich hues of this red have me thinking of tulips, and love, and hearts. Oh, and it is so cozy, and squishy, and cushiony.....oooooo......I just can't get enough of feeling this beautiful yarn. It's Madelinetosh Tosh Merino, a 1-ply 100% Merino Wool yarn. In case you can't tell, I love natural fibers. There is nothing like real 100% wool to keep you snug as a bug. This yarn is slated for trim on a baby sweater I want to make out of the same wool in a colorway called "Nutmeg".

Finally, Smooshy. Yes, the yarn is actually called "Smooshy". It's by Dream in Color. It's a fingering weight superwash wool, mostly intended for socks. But to be honest, I have no idea exactly what I will make out of this. The color is "Beach Fog". In the search I did on Ravelry to see what the colorway looks like knit up it was very blue/green. In fact, this skein has blues, greens, purple, and the slightest bit of an orangey-brown. It's to "dye" for (hee hee). I have a sock pattern this would go great with (Rivendell Socks), but I could also see this as a shawl, or some baby clothes, or I could just keep it on the counter and caress it every few hours for the rest of my life.

There is just so much you can do. I love that I can turn string into something wearable. I love the process and the finished product. I love the imagining and dreaming (yes, I dream about yarn and knitting and stitch patterns. I know, weird). The possibilities are what keep me coming back for more.

And no sweetie, it's not gonna stop.

Day After Mother's Day

I woke up this morning to find this awaiting me:


On the inside was this:

My Wobbers wrote me a poem! As in authored a poem just for me. :D It brought a smile to my face that has yet to even think about disappearing. I also really like the picture he drew of me. That's a lot of teeth I have. Hee hee.

Would you like to know what it says? Of course you would:

Would it be cool to have a mom who worked on the moon?

Who woke up at a quarter to noon?

A mom who would spray paint the moon

Then jump down cuz I had to be at school soon?

Oh how nice it would be.

Oops! I forgot! My mom is a midwife, a teacher, and the best part -

A Mom.

No mom is better than you!

Love Wobbers (okay, he put his real name), who will always be your baby.

And then on top of the picture he wrote, "Happy Day after Moms Day".

I especially like that he put in the poem something about going to school - because we homeschool. That's funny. I also love that I have to pull teeth to get him to do assignments, especially writing, and he wrote me a poem, on purpose, because he wanted to!!

Thank you Wobbers!! I can't believe you're 10! You are the bestest little boy a mom could ask for!

"Ribbit, Ribbit"

It took me a while in the knitting community to understand why tearing a project apart is called "frogging". Apparently, it has to do with the "rip-it, rip-it" you do when you rip or pull the stitches out. From that sound, which does sound like you are ripping fabric ('cause lets face it, you are) was born the term "frogging".

Today, I frogged. I went from this:

to this:

and this:

Now, instead of a completed sweater, I have three sweater parts and a pile of wound skeins. The second picture shows the body and two sleeves living there lives completely independent of each other.

It is amazing to me how little time goes into destroying months worth of work. All in all, it took me about 2 hours to rip the sweater back - and this was mostly because I had a lot of ends to unweave.

Now begins the process of re-knitting and re-designing this sweater. Obviously, if I was to make the "Seamless Hybrid" EZ sweater, I should have followed all of the percentage instructions given in the directions. But I didn't. Thus, ripping. Not fitting properly. All a learning process.

I have new skills to learn now. I am going to make a sweater with set in sleeves. What this means is that I will knit the body to shoulder depth and then *gulp* cut the fabric where I want the sleeves to go and sew them in where they belong. This, I am hoping, will prevent me from having to reknit the sleeves entirely. If that doesn't work.....well, we'll cross that path when we get there. Steeking. My new skill.

Yes, I am still here :)

I had all but given up on poor blog.

I have so many ideas, and so many things I want to tell you about, and write about, that I just couldn't wrap my mind around them all.

Then I got a lovely comment on my last post from Katherine. It was so nice, I decided I just needed to press on. Not only do I love blog, but the writing is sort of therapeutic especially when things get crazy.

So, without further waiting, I must share some simple updates with you. I will make a real effort for regular blogging from now on.

~~~Showers~~~

I am really not getting as many showers as I'd like. In fact, usually I cannot remember the last time I've had one even if I think real hard.

Today I finally took one. Is it bad that I was so exhausted from standing up in the hot water trying to shave my legs that I almost passed out?? It doesn't help that I have forgone any kind of shaving for so long that I had to go over one leg two times and the other three. Don't even get me started on the underarm hair. I should have just taken a chisel in with me to get it off.

Oh, and it's not that I like the unshaven look or that I'm a hippy. I just have small children, and I homeschool, and I'm busy. Events like shaving just seem to fall to the wayside. Um, showers too. If I get in the shower at all I am generally not concerned with the state of my body hair. I know that sounds kind of yucky, but that's the way things are.

~~~Knitting~~~

A whole lot of knitting is going on here. I don't have actual pictures to post on blog, because it takes forever to load them. But I have been loading my projects in Ravelry, with pictures. And guess what? They have a new feature that allows me to post a link to invite you to look at my project page whether you have a Ravelry account or not. :) I am sorry not to give you any eye candy here, but if you click on the links below you can see pictures and notes on the wonderful things I have been knitting. It's lovely. It also means I only have to wait one time to load pictures and then can share them with the ravelry community and you.

Sweater for Flower
New Baby Sweater
New Baby Hat
Cute Turtle Toy
Baby Diaper Soaker
Flower's Fingerless Gloves
Nighttime Diaper Soaker

As for the Sweater that will never die.....it's getting frogged back partly and reknit. You can read about details here and see some new pictures. I should have listened to my instincts on that one.

If you really want to see all my projects, and anything else interesting on ravelry, just join. It's free and really worth it.

I also have acquired quite a bit more yarn. It's a sickness I tell you. My project list has grown also since I am trying to only get yarn for projects I actually intend to make. Right now, the list looks like this:

Finish Wonderful Wallaby for Flower (almost done)
Frog and fix Husband Sweater
Wonderful Wallaby for Lovely
Longies for Baby in Malabrigo "Oceanos"
Longies for Baby in Malabrigo "Sealing Wax"
Sweater for Baby in Madelintosh Merino "Nutmeg" and "Scarlet"
Finish Nighttime Soaker
More size small soakers for Baby in random assorted wool
Baby hats
Wonderful Wallaby for Wobbers in Wool-Ease "Pines Print"
February Lady Sweater for me in Malabrigo "Verde Esperanza"
Rivendel Socks in some local Wool/Cashmere/Nylon blend in "Plum"
Baby blanket (maybe)
Something pretty out of Malabrigo Silky Merino
Finish Mitts Pattern and publish
Reknit that second mitt
Traveling Woman Shawl out of Mountain Colors Twizzle (which is what the mitts are made out of)

Ya know, just a small list. Should be able to get that all done before the baby comes in September. Right? Uh-huh. Suuuuuuure.

~~~Baby Weight~~~

I am 20 weeks along. And ya know what? I have yet to gain a single pound with this pregnancy!! I am very excited about this and not for reasons of vanity. I know I will have a much easier time with this pregnancy if I do not pack on the pounds. I will be more comfortable, healthier, and have an easier time feeling normal again after delivery.

I have in fact lost weight during this pregnancy. Lost weight. And it's staying off. I have done nothing to accomplish this. I am not on purpose doing anything different. I am not exercising. Not trying to eat less. Not eating more healthy than I have been. I will say I do not feel as ravenously hungry this time around. I am not making a cake every other day, like I did when I was pregnant with Lovey, and consuming the whole thing myself. And I am knitting a lot. That must be keeping me too busy to gorge. I feel like it's great because I am just eating a normal portion of food when I sit down, instead of enough to feed 2-3 adults. (Seriously, I have been eating like that for the last couple of years, enough to feed 2-3 adults per sitting....it's kind of gross when I think about it.)

So, because I am not shy about my numbers.....I am going to share some with you. I wouldn't want you to think that I am some thin or skinny mama happy to not be gaining weight. I've got some to lose.

Pregnancy #1: 18 years old, 125 lb. I lost about 10 lb in the first few months, then went on to gain it back plus 65 lbs. (One month, in just 4 weeks, I gained 35 lbs. Seriously.) Delivered a healthy 8 lb 4 oz boy and I weighed 190 lbs at delivery.

In the next 2 years, I lost most of the pregnancy weight and was a reasonably healthy 140-150 lb. woman. Then I met my husband. We were very happy and both put on about 20 lbs over the next 2-3 years. Uh-huh.

Pregnancy #2: 25 years old, 170 lb. I also lost about 10-15 pounds at the beginning of this pregnancy. I delivered at 198 lbs, a 7 lb. 10 oz. baby girl.

Pregnancy #3: 27 years old, 190 lb. I lost 15 pounds at the beginning of this pregnancy. I delivered at 214 lbs, a 7 lb 4 oz baby boy.

I had been hovering around 220 lbs. for the last year.

Pregnancy #4: 29 years old, 216 lbs. I weighed myself as soon as I got the positive pregnancy test at 12 days post-conception. I dropped down to 205 lbs by 10 weeks and have remained there since.

I am very excited to not be packing on pounds and I hope I can keep it up. By this point in my other 3 pregnancies, I had already recovered from the lost weight and then some. So this is new to me and wonderful. At least I think it's wonderful. ;)

~~~~~~~

That's all I have today. I hope you enjoy those links. Oh! I almost forgot! Those teeth finally came in and Lovey is back in all his wonderfulness. The Brute seems to have disappeared for now.

Craziness (is that a word?) is....

Staying up until 1 am in da mornin' knittin' a stuff'd turtle (jus' 'cause you know yo baby girl gonna love it ta-morrow!).

Damn, he cute too.

Ramdom Thursday

This is the last week of single parenting. The last week of no one to warm my feet on in bed. The last week without my husband. I am happy about that. I still think Thursdays suck.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I have finished my mittens. Remember? Like 3 months ago I was working on a "pair" of mittens. I knit one mitten, ripped it back, and knit it again. I got the pattern just right (although the thumb on that first pattern needs to be moved over about 6 stitches).

I picked it up last week and knit the second one in about 2 days. My son said, "Hey Mom? How come that first mitten took you like a month to make and you just finished this one in two days?" I explained that I was writing a pattern the first time and the second time I just had to read it and knit.

I did move the thumb over 6 stitches and it turned out perfect!! I really like it. So now, of course, I am going to frog the first mitt (again!!) and reknit it with the thumb in the correct place. If I don't it will bug me every time I wear them.

I am also going to write up the pattern all nice and readable like and post it here.

The best part is that out of my 100 gram skein I still have 40 grams left. The means it took just over 1/2 skein - which also means I have 1 and almost 1/2 skein of this yummy, soft silk/wool yarn too make some kind of matching project. Awesome.

I'll have to write a shawl/scarfy-type pattern now.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I have also been working on the sweater that will never die, aka The Husband Sweater. I have just broke into the 10th (!!) skein of yarn. I have one more available (since I learned my lesson with #8 and #9 to just order two at a time instead of one). I may not need the 11th one, but we'll see.

I am finally working the saddles across the shoulders. Holy crap, my husband is a big guy

~~~~~~~~~~~

What is up with 10 year old boys? It's like a girl, but worse. Their hormones just show up out of nowhere and they become Mr. Sassypants. Ei-yi-yi.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My three year old has been getting angry lately. It kind of upsets her. I don't think she's used to such a strong emotion. Recently, she yelled VERY loudly at my ten year old. Then she turned to me and said very softly, "It's ok, Mama. I not yellin' at you. I yellin' at Wobbers."

Ha!!

~~~~~~~~~~~

My son found a long lost lone Dora the Explorer VHS tape downstairs. I am now being tortured. As in right now. Wow it's loud.

~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of VHS: I implore any of you, again, to let me know if you've seen Blue's Clues "Blue's Birthday". I still get asked about that almost everyday.

Yum, New Yarn

I was rather surprised when my son told me the mail lady was at the front door and needed a signature.

"You have a package."

Um, where's it from?

"Ontario."

Huh?? Ok?

I signed. I looked at the return addresss. It was from the Sweet Sheep Shop. I didn't order anything from the shop. Hmmmm.

Wait?! Oh yes! I did sign up for a Pay It Forward on the Sweet Sheep Blog. And this must be the PIF to me!! Weeee!!

So, I opened it up to find a *beautiful* skein of handspun, hand-dyed bulky "rambouillet" (google it, cause I can't link, but it's a breed of sheep) yarn, colorway "garden". It's greens and oranges, pinks and reds, and a little yellow/sunshine thrown in. (Yes, I realize I am posting no picture. Yes, I know blogs aren't quite as interesting without the pics. I'm sorry. I am restricted by the blackberry.)

Now I am just petting it and looking at how pretty it is.

Nice way to end the week.

Oh? The week, you ask? How's it going?

Let's see.....about the same. Sick of single parenting, tired, and eager for my husband to return tonight.

I managed to see my midwife this week and the same day I had a surgeon remove a lump from my arm that has been growing and living there for about 5 years.

Midwife says get some Vitamin D, baby is doing great, and keep trying to eat. I managed a complete emotional breakdown in her "office" (her house) and she admitted that I look like I'm not doing so good. It was actually nice to hear someone say that, mostly because everyone keeps saying "Oh, you'll be fine. It will get better." I love my midwife.

Surgeon says the lump looks like a lypoma, a benign, fatty tumor. Sending it for pathology just to be safe. I say, "Gee. My arm is effin' sore." And it is. Seriously.

Oh, and my best friend ended up with a mastectomy. She's getting through each day, sometimes an hour at a time.

Eat. Sleep. Knit.

This is my favorite new online yarn shop. $5 shipping, or free shipping on orders over $75. Seriously.

And you know right away if they have the yarn you want in stock or not - which I love. How do I know? Because when you click on "add to cart" it tells you right away....."We do not have that quanity of yarn - we only have 2 of that item" or whatever they have. You don't have to wonder if you're going to get an email later telling you that they only have have 1 skein of the yarn in that you ordered 7 skeins of, and would you mind getting the other 6 skeins in 2-12 weeks??. Anywho....

They also have a "yarnathon", which is a yarn marathon. They keep track of how much yardage you buy and you get prizes and discounts and stuff when you hit milestones, like 1 mile, 5 k, 10 k, half marathon, etc. It's pretty cool.

And, if you visit their store from my link (which I may just be adding a link to the sidebar as well) then I get more yardage. So go see. It's awesome!!

Knitting On

Update:

The first Mitt is done, except for the thumb. I tried doing it and it came out with holes next to the gusset. I ripped it out and will try again when I have the brainpower to wrap myself around that problem-solving issue. Other than that, I LOVE it!! It came out just the way I wanted it to. And I think I may publish the pattern (humbly) when it is done.

The little twists are so pretty. The sizing is much better. It's warm and soft and cozy. And while I prefer the look of gloves to that of mittens, I think these will be infinitely warmer, especially on those below 0 days (we had LOTS of those last year). I am very hapy with my decision.

While my brain relaxes, I have been working on the Rainbow Hat. Plain stockinette in the round is mindless and enjoyable - a wonderful change from all the thought and effort I put into the mittens, writing down every details as I knit and reknit.

*sigh* And I am still hard at work on the Husband Sweater. One sleeve done, about 5/6 of the body completed too. The lace shawl is again on hold, but what's new?

Oh, new!! I have been commisioned to finish a pair of socks. Ok, my friend was given this pair of socks to finish for HER friend like a year ago. She still has them. They are toe-up and my friend has worked them both past the heel-turn. She just had a baby and is feeling guilty about them not being done. She asked me if I would/wanted to finish them and I accepted.

The yarn is so pretty. I think she said it was Cherry Hill Yarn, or something like that. They are being knit with a nylon thread held together with the yarn. I am supposed to knit the leg with a lace pattern (after I decrease the gusset stitches). Any ideas? She just wants something "lacy". That's all the description I got.

Pictures will come when I can get my laptop to some wi-fi, promise.

The Mitt That Was, And Is

So, remember this post. Well here's the offending mitt:

I know, I know. "Really MamaMidwife," you ask, "what's so wrong with that (other than it's missing a thumb)?? It looks nice."

Yeah. I know. It appears that way. But no. It's not. If I didn't rip this puppy back, I would notice all the things I didn't like about it's look and it's fit. That would just not be right, not quaggle as my confirmation baby would tell me. See the 3 rows of ribbing going up the back? I ended up not liking that.

The thumb is in a wonky spot and it's got too much give and room.

On the bright side, I LOVE THIS YARN. I could knit with it forever. I could rip this project out a hundred times and reknit it and be ok with that.

What is it? It's Mountain Colors "Twizzle", which is 85% wool, 15% silk and it is OhSoSoft. Really. (I tried to google you a good link for it, but it's useless. Just look at my pictures). I believe the colorway is "Mystic Lake". I got it on sale for about 15% off at my LYS a while back. I love it. Did I mention I love it?? I have only 2 skeins so I am being very stingy with anything I knit with it coming out perfect.

You recognize this picture?? Yep. There's the Rainbow Hat II in the background. And in the foreground is the mitt cast-on and started again. I took these Friday (12-18) so I actually have quite a bit more done than this.

Here's a shot of my crafty spot in the living room, and my son's Roald Dahl book in the pic. :) I am new to this whole "blogging my knitting" thing, so if I have skipped any details you want to know, just ask and ye shall receive. Love to talk about my crack. Hmm, it doesn't sound so good when you say it like that.

And because I am a REAL dork......here is a picture of my knitting notes. This is where I decided what to do for the new mitt. Really, I am a little geeky with this. This is the 4th page of notes just for this one mitten. When I get it the way I want it maybe I'll have to make an official "pattern". That could be fun.

Knit on, friends.

** Edited to add: Ok, so in that first pic.....what's bothering me also is that I made a nice long cuff, but forgot to make the end of that nice long cuff a little wider than the top - 'cause arms get wider as you go up from the wrist. Make sense?? Hope so.