A Whole Wack of FOs! (And it's not even Friday!)

We finally got our innertubes working again at the house, and - wow - do I have a lot to show you!

Some sewing:


This is the quilt I received from blogger Crafty Turtle in the BTRS Swap. She did a great job and I love it!


This is the quilt I made for blogger Mommy's Treasures in the BTRS Swap. Great colors - I had fun playing with all the patterns.


Another variation on Irene's Tote. Love this fabric!

Some knitting:


Bubbly Hand Towel based on "Bubbly Curtain" from Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters' Guide.(The first MDK book.)

And some recent knitting I don't have photos of yet! A February Baby Sweater, four Baby Bibs O'Love, and one of those k1p1 stripey scarves everybody's talking about. Looks like I have more photos to take!

*

Conversation With A 7-Year-Old Boy

Me: Honey, put away your clean clothes and then start cleaning your room. I need you to look for white socks. There were only two pairs in your laundry and there should have been about six.

7yob: I did find some.

Me: Great. Did you put them in the dirty clothes?

7yob: Well, I only found two.

Me: Ok. Did you put them in the dirty clothes?

7yob: No, I put them on.

*

Another Lap Quilt

I signed up for the current Bend-the-Rules Sewing Swap against my better judgement and consumed with guilt. I knew completing the Lap Quilt would be a stretch, plus my son needs a quilt done for his bed. But I had to sign up - they quoted my suggestion!

So I signed up and am ever-so-close, but alas I will be late. I didn't check the specs and thought flannel was an acceptable batting material. Stop laughing. I know it isn't. (Now I do.)

The reason I didn't figure this out sooner is that after I cut the strips for the binding, I saw how much fabric was left and got obsessed with making an auxiliary and completely optional item for my partner. (Beer may have been involved in reaching this conclusion.) Because - of course - she would rather have a semi-random additional object that she didn't ask for and isn't from the Bend-The Rules book than have her quilt back on time when she's been done with hers for weeks.

So tonight, instead of making the top-batting-backing sandwich and the binding as planned, I'm making the binding only. I'll probably be a couple of days late - not too bad considering the wreckage that is my life.

Oh, and my suggestion to use a bit of your own stash in the quilt you're making for your partner? My suggestion that they quoted which was why I signed up after all? I didn't use it.

Tornado Policy

My MIL sent me this very important notice:

NEW TORNADO POLICY for Detroit and nearby areas:
In case of possible tornadoes sweeping through Detroit and nearby areas, we ask that all residents take shelter at Lion's Ford Field.

We are certain that a touchdown will not occur there.

Thank you for your cooperation,
National Weather Bureau

Why I Love the Geekdad Blog

The Geekdad blog is part of Wired.com. Several geeky dads (and a couple geeky moms) contribute several daily posts to the blog. I currently have 120 of them bookmarked on Bloglines. You read that right - One Hundred And Twenty individual posts bookmarked!

The following little gem gets off to a slow start. They could have cut the first 40 seconds, in my opinion. But I was laughing out loud at a minute & thirty:



Dad or mom, if you tend toward geekiness at all (and if you're a knitter, that's likely), you should check out Geekdad.

New Project OTN

I'm not sure what I want to do for my next pair of socks, and my Tomato is in danger of becoming a UFO, but I felt like doing something quick and easy.

Usually this means a dishcloth, but I didn't feel like a dishcloth. (Some days you feel like a dishcloth, some days you don't.)

So I cast on for a kitchen towel following some of the MDK Bubbly Curtain pattern from page 47. Interesting thing about this pattern is that they say it is a 18-stitch repeat, yet the chart only shows 17. This messed me up until I decided it was a "design feature" and working for me. heh.

The cast on is 60 stitches, work 4 in garter stitch, then follow the Bubbly Curtain chart starting at the red line (Row 71), leave three st at each edge in garter stitch for stability and do three repeats each row. I'm on row 103 and so far so good.

Basic Sugar 'n' Cream on size 8 needles is giving me about 4 spi.

A Quick Knitting Update

Just a quick update on some projects, without pics:

Rainbow Socks for Mr. L are done! They will go in the wash before they go in his drawer because that Paton's Kroy is scratchy!!

Katrina's Scarf got frogged. Kinda accidentally. But not really. See, the project slipped off of its giant needles while in my knitting bag, so I decided to just finish the job. Still looking for a good pattern for the Lion brand Incredible ribbon yarn - maybe a Mason-Dixon scribble scarf? One good thing about this yarn - with a little care, it wound back up quite nicely without tangling and creasing.

A Reader's Meme

Picked this up from another blog I read and thought it might be fun.

Here are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

I'm going to add one more note - * those you want to read but haven't. Feel free to grab this and mark your own.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell*
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel 2x
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife 2x
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books*
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West*
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King*
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility*
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels*
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune*
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything*
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values*
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

FOs! Sunday, July 13, 2008

Why, hello there. Have you been waiting long? I have some things to show you...



The Tracks socks. Also blogged about here and here. These are for me (neener neener). Finished 6/21/08.

Finally finished Baby J's Quilt. This should not take anyone else on the planet as long as it took me. Let's blame it on... certain people... bailing on their responsibilities, and leave it at that. Pattern is "Easy Lap Quilt" from Bend The Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. This is the second one I made and it was just as enjoyable as the first.



Next to the quilt is a Soft Turtle Buddy from the same book. He may be a "big sister gift." If you are making this turtle for the first time, you might want to make it larger than recommended, and pay close attention to the directions. Don't cut out all your pieces until you have read the directions thoroughly! I will make him again (but bigger); he is so cute.



He is going to be hard to part with. :(

I made some bags this weekend.

These are all variations on Irene's Classic Tote, from the Sew, Mama, Sew blog..



First one, made according to Irene's original pattern. Get the details at Make A Bag. Easy pattern, try it! I'm dying for a skirt in this fabric!

The next day, I made two more of these bags. These are so quick and easy of heavier fabric with no lining; great for making bunches of them. This may be my go-to pattern for shopping totes.



This is bit smaller than the original pattern and may be a teacher gift. We'll have FIVE teachers next school year, and that's just classroom teachers. Two each for the older kids and one for Mr. L.



Speaking of Mr. L, he needed a bookbag for his meeting books. This one has dividers in the front pocket to hold four colored pencils. (Click for big.) It's even smaller than the first two totes, and maybe just a little bit smaller than I intended. Oops!

On The Needles

Sorry, no photo. One sock pair in progress - Mr. L wants rainbow socks, so that's what he's getting. The yarn is Paton's Kroy in Paint Box - this yarn is way scratchier than Knit Picks Essential (my go-to sock yarn). Will it soften after washing? Stay tuned!

I have a sewing bug at the moment - gotta make more totes!

Be Still, My Beating Heart

Click here to see what is making my heart beat a bit faster this evening. Anyone have an extra $25,000 laying around?

How Californians See America

More fun from the people who brought us all LOLcats:


more graph humor and song chart memes

As my friend Chris would say...

... here's some information that will make you think less of me.

Or maybe more. Who knows?

62 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Tweaking the Blog, Tweaking the Blog

Da-duh!

Ok, if you heard in your head the same Beavis & Butthead soundclip that I heard in mine, you are in big trouble. Sorry.

Just messing around with the format. I found a template that is wide enough for LOLcats and other photos, so we'll go from here.

HHHHi, HHHHHHeather. HHHHHHow's it going?

more cat pictures

One of my favorite local radio stations is running a series of commericials for some jobs site. See how well they are working? I can't remember the name of the company! But the commercials are hilarious. They describe basic "types" of people found in every office. The one from the title is "The Bad Breath Close Talker."

Proof of Knitting

So here we have the first Trax sock and the cuff of Trax the Second. I must be the world's slowest sock knitter, people. The last Trax photo was uploaded to Flickr on May 5 and here it is June 1 and they still aren't done. Oy. Anyway, when I put this on I realized I overshot the cuff a bit, oops! Oh well, it will only be about 1/4 inch longer if that.

I seem to be spending my time in more physical pursuits lately like mowing the #%^*@)^% lawn and cleaning out closets. (But not doing dishes, apparently.) Must be burning off some nervous energy. Knitting mainly gets done during the kids' car pool and the little bit of TV I watch. Now that school is almost out, LOST is over, and the Red Wings are about to WIN the Stanley Cup - GO WINGS!, I wonder how much knitting I'll do.

Not that Stanley Cup Finals are good for knitting. Tighter tension, dropped stitches and flung projects (what do you mean FIVE ON THREE???) may be hazardous to your knitting. But it's worth it.

Did I mention? GO WINGS!!

Go Wings and Tigers!!
Originally uploaded by femaletrumpet02

Great photo by femaletrumpet02 showing the huge Tiger outside Tiger Stadium The Bank Comerica Park wearing a Red Wings jersey!

In Which I Promote Someone Else's Blog...

... because, yes, there's something in it for me!

trek is running a quick weekend contest. Since I sub to trek casts on via Bloglines, I can win free yarn! (I typo'd it "yearn" at first - how appropriate is that?)

And since I'm posting about it here, I get a second entry. :D

And if one of you heads over to this post and lets trek know you came over from here, I get still another entry. Woot!

Lack of Progress Report

Well, it couldn't really be called a "progress report." Still working on the cuff of the second Tracks sock. It is a bit longer than last week. And that's all!

Not Feeling It

Quick update on some projects and then I'm off again.

What I'm calling the Tracks socks are one down, one to go.

I don't know if I blogged about it, but Katrina's scarf is in serious danger of being frogged for something simpler. Now that I have an idea of how far the yarn will go (farther than I thought), I think it will make a decent-size regular drop stitch scarf, and not the sloppy monstrosity it is.

Green Tomato sweater is cast on and has a good start. Haven't joined the neckline yet if that tells you how (not) far I am.

Just not feeling up to blogging right now. Off to read more Crazy Aunt Purl. She knows.

I Can Tell By Your Accent

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 20% Upper Midwestern 15% Yankee 5% Dixie 5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Michigan State Fair Entry Info

Entry forms are up at the Michigan State Fair website. You can follow this link to the page that has all the PDFs you will need to download in order to enter. You'll probably need the General Rules, Department 1 - Homemaking, Crafts and Hobbies for quilts and knitted or crocheted items, and the Entry Form. Have fun!

I'm in Favor of LOLsects

Edited to add caption because Blogger likes to cut off the edge:

"Praeing mantis needs to prae harder."


more cat pictures

I don't know why this cracked me up, but I laughed for several minutes.

We Have a Winner!

Ok, you're ALL winners to me! But, sadly, I cannot afford organic cotton for all of you. The Random Number Generator decided that the Random Last-Minute Belated Blogiversary/Earth Day Contest prize goes to Becky!

Becky, I sent you an email! Thank you to everyone who played along. The earth thanks you too!

In other news, no FOs last week, but we do have a WIP. Here is the sock I am working on.



The yarn is Knit Picks Essential in Blue Violet Multi. Taking the photo after sundown, which means the color is Not Right. It looks much better in real life.

Basic top-down construction on dpns. I was going to do a pair of plain socks but I got bored by the end of the ribbing and wanted at least a simple pattern to stave off ongoing boredom. It's a simple 9 stitch repeat as follows: ssk, yo, k5, yo, k2tog. Repeat for one round, then do a plain round.

You could probably do this with any number of stitches in your repeat. Just subtract 4 from your repeat number for the yos and decrease stitches, then knit the result as your plain stitches in the middle. Clear as mud? Here's an example with a 12-stitch repeat - ssk, yo, k8, yo, k2tog.

I know a lot of knitbloggers don't like flashing/pooling, but I actually like this. It's enough where it just looks like stripes to me, and I like how it breaks up around the heel/ankle. I am a little nervous about how it's blobbing up on the instep, but hoping it will work out. Trust the yarn.

Yes, I said I was working on 2-at-a-time on one really long circular. I am, but these are not those socks (duh). Trust me, you do NOT want to see those yet.

Why Knitting is Better Than a Broken Washing Machine

You know how when you come home from a long day to find that your ancient-of-ancients came-with-the-house-but-no-manual-7-years-ago washing machine has spewed water all over the floor for the second time in as many weeks, and since your husband of 17 years has decided to split, you grab your handy-dandy copy of Any Idiot Can Fix a Major Home Appliance With No Prior Experience Whatsoever - For Dummies, only to find that not one single reference work on the planet internet can tell you how to remove the top of your particular washing machine* to get at the part you have oh-so cleverly self diagnosed**, so you have to call him anyway and it makes you feel like a big, helpless girly girl-baby?

Yeah, that's frustrating.

Anyway, at least we have knitting! Here are, at long long last, Anne's Lacy Diamante Socks:




I'm calling them Anne's because they were supposed to be my project for the long-finished Anne of Green Gables Knit & Read Along. Remember how Anne thought diamonds were purple? Right.

The yarn: Bare by KnitPicks, dyed by Celena, received in a swap. Most excellent dye job, Celena!
The original pattern: Diamante by Deb Barnhill via Knitty.
Modifications: Used a figure-8 cast on. Did yarn-overs instead of make1s for a lacier look. I like that they are just a little lacy.

The other major modification (I'm still geekin' out about it! - Syndrome) was knitting them with 5 dpns instead of two circulars. Experience-free as I am, even I can see where 2 circs would be easier for this pattern, but it worked out.

And since these took me so long (which is in NO WAY the fault of the designer - they knit up pretty quickly when I actually worked on them), I have decided to try something new:


Yikes! But then, maybe I'm just being a big girly girl-baby.

* Speed Queen AA4410W, unknown vintage. I'd guess 1980s.
** Probably a blocked drain. (I was wrong.)
*** Have you noticed an upswing in the amount of footnotes in blogs lately? No? Ok, just me then.

Validation... I needs it.

98%

Your creative fluency score is: 1637.


Click Here to participate in the "Uses of Objects" study that generated my score above. It's fun! Plus you can win stuff.

It's Bad When You Forget Your Own...

Happy Belated Blogiversary to...

ME!

4/18/07 - first post.

Random Last-Minute Belated Blogiversary/Earth Day Contest - Leave a comment on THIS POST including...

1. One change you have made in the past year to tread a little lighter on the Earth
2. Your favorite color(s)

by April 30 to win an "Organic Nettie Kit" (enough organic cotton yarn to make a Nettie bag). Open to US and Canadian residents. (I just don't trust the mails any farther than that!) Winner will be chosen at random on May 1.

As I Emerge From My Chocolate-Induced Coma...

... I realize I have a TON to share with you!

First of all, feralmama received her scarf! Here's a photo of me wearing it (so glam)...


And a detail shot (please ignore my chins)...


Yarn: Cotton Fine by Brown Sheep in Barn Red, Salmon Berry Red (discontinued?) and Tea Rose - held doubled
Pattern-ish: Anniversary Scarf by Nicky Epstein for Vogue Knitting. Of course, I didn't follow the pattern exactly; I think it is designed to be more of a necklace? I wasn't crystal clear on the directions, so I did my own thing as usual. The flowers and the main scarfy part are wicked easy, basically garter stitch and yarn overs, and very fast, so try it!

Next, we present the Yarn Harlot!


I'm the one on the left. (If my hair was up to its usual misdeeds, we would look more alike.)

In our very own Ann Arbor last Friday. She is wicked smart and hilarious. Go see her. (And buy her books).

Unfortunately, I arrived a mere hour and 25 minutes early, which landed me in the upstairs overflow room. I actually considered not staying (let's repeat that: I actually considered not staying, yikes), but I remembered she would still sign my book afterward, so I stayed, and of course I am so glad I did. Her speech/talk/presentation/convo was amazing; now I know what to call it when I get so carried away knitting that I forget what pattern row I am on - theta state.

Here's some photos of the overflow room:


If you look on the large size at the far right corner in the way back - that's Joe in the kilt, who Stephanie blogged about. Very nice kilt hose and sweater.


Smile, you're being blogged!


View from my seat - better than it looks.

I met a very nice knitter named Christine, of whom I completely failed to take a picture with my camera, although I hope she is happy with the ones I took with hers.

So, theta state - big revelation to me. Yes, this actually happened on the &*^$# Lacy Diamante socks last night. You would think, after knitting an entire other sock and 3/4 in this pattern, after knitting the 12-stitch, 12-row repeat 42 36 15 1/2 78 93-1/2 times (yes I counted) i would have it PERMANENTLY ETCHED ON MY BRAIN. But, no. Last night I finished a plain row and had zero clue what pattern line I was on. In fact, I knit an entire wrong line & its companion plain row based on where I thought I was, only to tink back 144 stitches this afternoon to fix it. One more repeat, then it's the ribbing and DONE. Maybe by tomorrow... nice thought.

And... (drumroll) I got my MMRAL&SE box from Bassett Knitter! She totally spoiled me...


We have a Clapotis (now I don't have to knit one myself - woo!), Vogue Knitting Ponchos book, a *little bit* of chocolate, a cute card with a picture from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits (one of the first knitting books I ever bought), leftover project yarn, TWO SKEINS OF LOUET EUROFLAX OH MY GOODNESS I CAN NOW DIE HAPPY, a selection of teas, a packet of Cosmos seeds and some dried pansy "real flower confetti."


The chocolate fumes alone were enough to induce a coma. (Servings: 1.)

It amazes me how someone I have never met knows me so well. Do I really mention chocolate all that much on here? Did she know I drink tea but not coffee unless absolutely necessary? Did she know cosmos are some of my favorite flowers?

Amazing. Knitters rule.

My Sticker

Crazy Aunt Purl has a hilarious post today about bumper stickers. Read the comments, but you might want to put down your beverage first.

Here's mine, although it is not on my bumper but inside my computer desk:



I guess I'm angry but cowardly.

Bee My Honey

This beautiful, hard-working little girl was buzzing around the yard on Tuesday.



Love that macro setting! Look at the large version - you can see the individual pollen grains.





The fly in the background was hanging out on that same crocus the whole time. I think he was still trying to thaw out from the cold, although it was around 70F on Tuesday. The large version is pretty awesome for the fly detail.


This was actually my first photo of the bee. Isn't that the cutest little bee butt ever?

And the beauty shot...



How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!

-- Isaac Watts

FOto Saturday - April 5, 2008

"FOto Saturday?" Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you want to see pictures or not?

Earth Hour 2008

An hour spent technology free led to getting these done:

Candy Sox


Candy Stripe Socks a.k.a. Candy Socks a.k.a. Candy Sox - either way, they're done! My daughter put them on and said, "They fit right now." Thankfully, I have some of this yarn left over and knit them top down, so if they are too small next year, I can (ideally) unravel them from the toes back and add some length. We'll see if that actually happens. Anyway, yarn is Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in #6946 "Crush." Size 2 (US) dpns. Basic top down instructions from Knitting Rules. These turned out ok, maybe a little ladder-y. The only thing I am really disappointed about is that they could have matched. I was afraid of running out of yarn, so I didn't try to match them and it turned out the pattern was only about 1/2 inch off. Bummer. What's our motto for this year? Say it with me now:

Fearless Knitting.

Hey, I'm trying!

My MMR&SE swap scarf is winging its way to Manitoba as we speak, so no photos until it's safely in Feralmama's hands. I already outed myself as her "secret" swap knitter, so no harm done there. But she really should be the first to see it, dontcha think?

I cast on for another Vogue Knitting scarf from their 25th anniversary issue, the Flounce Scarf by Laura Bryant using Lion Brand Incredible in Purple Party. I'm not sure if I love it, tho. I'm guessing the yarn they used in the original may have had a little more "body" to it - mine looks a tad droopy. But nice colors!

The Diamante Socks are still stalled at the second sock's wrap & turn, but since they are the ONLY socks I have OTN, I think I may be remastering (ha!) the W&T this evening.

Baby's J's quilt is machine quilted, just needs the binding to be made and attached.

The next big project is my Green Tomato. Remember, fearless!

Hard to Resist a Good Douglas Adams Reference

see more crazy cat pics

First Daffodils

The blog First Daffodils 2008 features photos of daffodils from all over the Northern Hemisphere. Lots of pretty pictures, and they liked mine, too!

Another FO!

Earth Hour + caffeine-induced insomnia = finished Candy Stripe Socks!

Not sure if it was worth being up until 4 a.m. tho.

Photo to come!

Fade to Black

Tonight is Earth Hour, where millions of people around the world (hopefully) will be switching off their lights and other electrical appliances from 8pm - 9pm, whatever their local time.

The kids should be in bed by then, so I'll be curling up with a soy candle and some knitting.

Also posted at Make A Bag.

FOto Friday, March 28, 2008

Here's what my 6yo son's been working on over spring break:


Wii made from Lego. Inspired by a YouTube video.

The Walk-Through Paper Trick was not as impressive as I'd hoped. I need to find a better audience.


Maybe if I try it in 3D. Oh, wait.

We got two more inches of snow overnight. This weather can take a flying leap. I like snow... IN THE WINTER.


Pretty shadow.


Daffodils: We're here! It's spring, everybo... What the heck?

Baby J's Bib O'Love


Jumped off from MDK's Baby Bib O'Love - garter border with creamy stockinette center and reverse stockinette "J". Now I need to make one with an N - a much trickier letter to graph (maybe - think fearless!). Subversive Knitting has a great tutorial on single-crochet edging. It was quick and easy and I will do it again! It really helped tie the bib together since the straps were a different color than the main bib part. I might even give this to the intended recipient. Yarn: Sugar n'Cream in random colors.

Baby J is also supposed to get a quilt, which is actually cranking along pretty well and is at the sandwich stage.

Oh, and a Mystery FO! I finished my scarf for the MMRA&SE! I love how it turned out. I'll try to get a couple photos before I send it off to the frozen north.

A couple weeks ago I dropped a bomb here about my marriage, then switched to radio silence on the topic. Well, it's official, kinda. He's decided to move out. It's been a long time coming, actually. I was not completely shocked, and even the kids seem to be doing pretty well. Not sure where it will all end up, but I'm trying to get my papers and finances in order so I can be as prepared as I can be for whatever comes next. So that's that. This is not going to turn into "Tinky McSeparated" or anything, but thought you might appreciate the update.

How to Freak Out Your Kids

Found this link for the classic Walk-Through Paper Trick while over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. Who says you can only learn knitting things from knitting blogs? Ann & Kay seem to love the web fun bits as much as I do; they are a great source for this sort of thing.

Anyway, I can't wait to show my kids this trick tomorrow so I can blow their little minds!

What do you mean, "Is that good parenting?" Of course it is!

Knitty Alert!

Spring Knitty is up! (What? You read the articles first?)

And don't forget MagKnits. Check out that cute little dress! I need to find a toddler girl to knit for...

FOol Friday

Ok, that's a tease because there are no Finished Objects to show this Friday. The horror!

The baby bib is done knitting but needs ends woven in, a button, and maybe a crochet edge to tie the mismatched top and bottom together (don't ask). Just gotta figure out how to do that crochet edge thing.

I have, however, been sewing like a FOol today. Working on baby J's quilt that I finally decided to start. The quilt top is done, just need the backing so I can sandwich it up and start quilting. Machine quilting.

FOr more FOolishness... The kids are outside playing in the snow. Yes, snow. We have at least 2 inches on the ground and more coming.

Happy Spring, everybody!!

How's Your Geography? (And spelling?)

Here's a fun little quiz I picked up reading Stretch Mark Mama. The problem for me was that I could remember countries like Luxembourg and Leichtenstein, but heck if I could remember how to SPELL them. And you better be able to type fast too. Go for it, and shoot me a comment to let me know how you did.

60

And you might want to memorize this song before you go.



(YouTube video embedded. Link.)

It helped me, except I couldn't spell Kazakhstan! And the quiz didn't like "West Xylophone." Go figure.

"Algeria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Dominica..."

FOto Friday!!! March 14, 2008

Long time, no see!

Yes, it's been a long time since I had a FOto Friday, and I'm sorry this one will be kinda lame. See, I'm cursed lately with a raging case of startitis. But since there has been absolutely no proof of knitting since January, I'll show you all the stuff I'm working on. Click for bigger, and fear not the ugly!


Here we have the World's Ugliest Dishcloth, lol. This was born of a burst of premature spring cleaning back in January, using all my odd cotton ball ends. A lot of this yarn came from Target knitting kits bought on clearance. What? You can tell?


The "Someone's Ready For Spring" dishcloth, also finished in January using Sugar 'n Cream Lime Stripes and Hot Purple. It's REALLY BRIGHT, but it will fade. Right now, the colors remind me of the violets we had in the backyard last spring - every shade of purple-into-white with those bright green leaves. Pretty.


A kinda FO - stalled since December or January. We'll call it January. This is the basic sweater for the Jimmy Neutron sweater. No, the yarn is NOT really that pink. It's more of a cranberry, but wouldn't photograph right, even with my hotcha new Olympus. (Which I never did download the software for, by the way. I just plugged it into the Mac to see if iPhoto or Preview would recognize it and they both did, woot!) Ok, so yeah, my own pattern, could use a tighter neck. Also needs the Jimmy Neutron insignia stitched onto the front, but other than that, it's finished. Yarn: Wool-Ease in Cranberry.


Here's a progress photo of the Lacy Diamante socks taken on January 18. I made this one bigger so you can see the stitch pattern and because Celena's sock yarn is so purty. Go buy some!


Same socks, taken today. Stalled (again) at the wrap-and-turn. (I think I can, I think I can!)


A flower from the Vogue Knitting 25th Anniversary Scarf by Nicky Epstein. This is for the oft-mentioned Miss Marple Read Along and Scarf Exchange. Shhh! It's secret knitting! In fact, this cherry-blossom pink flower is a bit of a red herring. hee! Yarn: Cotton Fine by Brown Sheep Company. This color is Tea Rose.


Candy-Stripe Socks for Miss M (aka Girl). Pattern: Basic Top-Down Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules. Moda Dea Sassy Stripes in Crush.


Start of Possibly the World's Ugliest Log Cabin Florescent Kool-Aid Dyed Extravaganza of a Fambly Binkit. Hee.


And... last but not least... the project I started last night instead of the quilt I've been planning for months... a bib for Baby J. He might get two. And maybe the finished MDK Baby Kimono. Pattern based on MDK's Baby Bib O'Love, but stockinette with garter border and a reverse stockinette J in the middle.