Don't let the rain stop you

The boys don't. Rain, sun, cold, wind, whatever, they are out back usually riding some sort of vehicle. Here they are today:









And B found the biggest, deepest muddiest puddle at Z's school today and jumped into it repeatedly. Fun! And boy am I glad I had another pair of shoes and socks for him in the car! I wish I had the camera with me though.


And a picture of the 1st sleeve. The problem with increasing is that you feel like you are really making progress and slowly you aren't making as quick a progress and it starts to feel like you are losing steam instead of almost doubling your stitches to knit each row LOL!

Visiting the frog pond

I have no photos of my progress on the sleeves of the sweater because I started one and knitted about halfway through when I realized I was doing it wrong and if I kept going the way I was, the sleeve would be almost 2 times too long. I misread the instructions, which is funny since I kept reading them over and over because they sounded wrong to me. They weren't, I apparently had a mental block against them. So I ripped it all out and need to start over again tonight. At least I figured it out before I knit the whole sleeve.

It has also been raining here for 2 days straight, and showers are expected for at least the next 3 days. I guess instead of spreading out the rain, we've decided to get this winter's all at once. I am actually thrilled about it because I broke ground on the other side of the garden bed to work in the compost on Friday afternoon and then I spread more compost over the top and this rain is really helping to prepare the beds.

I ended up not going to the Guild meeting. I just felt too weird about it I guess.

Now on to the sleeves!

So for the 1st time in a month, I was able to make it to knit night. Woohoo!! I had a great time getting out of the house, talking to actual adults and knitting with other people who were knitting. It is fun to see what other people do and choose. It is so inspiring and companionable. And so I was able to make great progress on the sweater front and I wove in the ends this morning!

And this afternoon was spent double digging compost into the badly neglected part of the garden. And yikes! It was bad. Clay lumps we had to beat into submission with bricks in order to break them up. I spread more compost on top and will be working that in probably on Sunday.

This weekend (tomorrow!) is the meeting of the Spinners and Handweavers Guild and I really do want to go, and yet I feel foolish because I am such a wannabe spinner. I get the idea of it, but I have none of the tools. Well I have some unspun dyed wool. And I practice (sort of) spinning in my fingers and wrapping it around my finger to keep the fibers twisted as I go, but that is really pushing it to call it experience on any level. Also, I don't know anyone who goes and I generally feel slightly out of my element even considering it, like maybe I should get at least a drop spindle and practice for a month before going in. But then again, how do you get started without jumping in at some point or another? I do wish I had the people from my LYS around me that I did before I moved (like Sheree - ::wave::) who are experienced and also know me and so I'm not some weirdo pumping them for information. Well, at least an unknown weirdo!

Seedlings and sprouts

It has been a busy week. We've been gardening a lot getting the yard ready for springtime planting. which means compsting and amending the soil, digging out the old beds where the dirt has tranmogrified to stone, and pruning back the rose bushes. I've started a gardening journal to help me remember what I've done and what needs doing and what seeds I've planted and how to care for them. The picture above is the page from the journal with the seed packets from the chamomile and the Oregano. Thos packages got a little wet and compromised the seeds while we were planting/starting just a few other things. So now we have a huge number of chamomile and oregano seedlings on their way. I'm sure they won't go to waste.

And B is heavily into teething, which makes him quite the challenge to live with. 2 year molars and the terrible twos are extremely challenging to deal with together especially. Hurry teeth! Plus the poor guy is still dealing with eczema on his face. We've cleared up the body eczema, but the face stuff is being persistant. I think he also has a wheat allergy (along with me. I'm finding that I get migraine symptoms when I eat wheat in things) :(

Here are pictures of my two adorable boys slinging their babies. Ez wanted to sling his baby Pokey which of course led to B wanting to sling his baby puppy.





As for knitting, I've made good progress on the sweater. I'm about halfway throught the stripes at the top of the front of the sweater. I might finish it tonight actually. And then move on to the sleeves. No pictures though because I haadn't taken any and I really didn't want to lose the little time I had to update this post-lunch pre-nap while the boys were riding bikes/scooters with getting the camera out.

It isn't finished...

but the intarsia is!




It isn't the greatest picture, but my choices were blurry without the flash or clear with the flash, but you could see through the stitches to the comforter. In the interest of clarity, I chose the flash.

I missed knit night again last night. Dh just can't seem to make it home in time for me to go. I don't know what I'm going to do about that, because it is pretty important that I get out of the house and mingle with adults every now and again. But lately it has worked out to once a month at best. But then again, he isn't trying to blow me off, it just doesn't seem to work out for him. I suppose I need to find a babysitter, but as I mentioned in the last post, B is so hard to put to bed, that I dread how a babysitter might handle that. And if I put him to bed before going then I may as well not bother, because I'll get 15 minutes at most. *sigh* I'm sure we'll figure out something, but until then, I need to get out of this house without a toddler along for the ride.

Curing a tough night

Last night the toddler who shall remain nameless was truly awful to put to bed. Brought me to tears if the truth be told. Bedtime is a struggle with him. Naptime too. All of my attempts to adjust this problem have been met with unmitigated failure. He is an incredibly strong-willed child. Makes Z look wishy-washy. (HA!) He doesn't tucker himself out with screaming, so frankly I think CIO would never work with him. Last night he was so out of control he was physically hurting me, so for only the 3rd time in his life, he was deposited in the playcrib to cool off. Yeah. Like that worked. After a full hour of screaming (no it was not all done in the playcrib) he finally fell asleep being held and holding on to my hair for dear life. Well, he holds on to my hair like that every night. Drives me crazy. The sheer force of his will astounds me. He must do every thing himself. Get a cup, get the juice/water from the fridge, open the bottle, pour the drink, close the bottle put it back, put the top on the cup. And that is just one drink. All day it is like that. But since he isn't even 2 yet, he doesn't have the manual dexterity to do everything he wants to do. So by the end of the day, I'm exhausted from the tantrums, he's exhausted by the tantrums and his brother is annoyed because so much time is spent dealing with his little brother.

So after he went to bed, I grabbed a soda (which I rarely ever do) and parked myself on my bed and watched Top Chef. (hazing? Are you joking. Moron) And knitted. And unknitted. and then knitted some more. And then watched Beauty and the Geek. (don't even ask. Total crapfest last night.) And knitted. And then wove in a boatload of ends, because that is how an evening should end. LOL

Let the tangles begin

Last night I reached the actual colorwork part of the intarsia chart and everything I've read about intarsia has come true. Primarily that no matter what you do, no matter how many bobbins you make, the back of the work becomes a tangled mess. So last night I stopped at this point (since the next row begins a new color and the aqua above the green ends for a few rows) and wove in a whole bunch of ends. I also became pretty good at carrying a color behind the work over at the little aqua spot on the other side which will become the scoop of the track excavator. The biggest challenge I had was the small aqua spots in the middle of the green area. They tended to pull slightly. But they seemed to do so in the picture from the book, plus they will be embroidered over a little, so I am calling this one a design element.


And this is a photo of the winter nature table which acquired gnomes yesterday. The gnomes were quite popular yesterday afternoon and walked down their stone path to their home at the bottom of the tree quite a lot. And a bunny appeared from nowhere to hang out in this inviting wintery place.

For a change of pace

...a little sewing!



I made an apron/smock for B from the pattern in The Children's Year for painting and cooking. DH thinks it looks a little like a dress, but since it is only a smock for around the house, I'm not too worried about it. I'm actually particularly pleased with it because I picked up the fabric from the local independent fabric store on the clearance rack for $2 and then I got the bias tape from a box of cast offs at a flea market for a quarter. For some reason I am intimidated by the sewing machine even though I worked for 2 summers in a fabric store, another summer apprenticing in a costume shop (and many many more years at least helping to sew my own costumes for plays, musicals and operas - sometimes entirely by hand without a pattern on the floor of my dorm room) Not to mention that I watched my mother sew clothes and costumes my entire life, with much of that time spent being the one doing the pinning and cutting and general grunt work although I remember loving it. So I really do know my way around a sewing machine and fabric store quite well.

Last night I went to my local B & N and browsed through the sewing books that are in vogue right now and decided that I could do well without them. Almost all of the sewing advice and getting started stuff that I thought I would need from them I happen to know already and the patterns aren't things that my Dh would like generally for household things, so I held off for now because there are a few books coming out soon(ish) that I am more interested in. Like Bend-The-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol, whose blog I enjoy. And then there is the as-yet-untitled (at least for me to know) book that Soulemama has written which I will most definitely be buying.


Here are some more boy/apron photos for the fun of it. And just because I am curious, why do my children think that the camera pointing at them means it is time to stick out their tongues. Is this a standard kid response to cameras? :

Domestications

Dinner last night was one of the boys favorites - homemade individual pot pies. I use frozen puff pastry instead of pie crust and make the filling from scratch. Mostly because finding kosher pot pies is an extremely unlikely accomplishment. Plus it isn't really so hard, just a touch fiddley. I don't think it photograped particularly well though.



In other news, the back of the Big Dig Sweater is done and now sits on a stitch holder awaiting its brothers so it may be joined into a sweater. So I'll cast on for that later and get to work on it. The intarsia chart comes really fast into the front side (row 11 or 12) and so you know what I will be trying to figure out tonight! ::gulp::



And in goals to be accomplished this year, I have been working at getting our emergency preparedness stuff together. I've got bottled water and canned food for about 5 days socked away. I have some batteries, but I still need to get a separate first aid kit to keep with it and get a small supply for the car as well. I cleared out our old stash of stuff when we moved since the dates were getting close and I just haven't added more to it.

Another thing that I've wanted to do for a long time has finally made it into the forefront of what I want to do. This is the year that I will learn to spin. As a part of this, I am going to be joining the local Handweavers and spinners guild. They have a loaner program with some wheels, so I figure I'll put my name on the waiting list and in the meantime I will learn to spin on a drop spindle. I have an opportunity to acquire a full fleece come summertime and I would really like to be able to really make use of it. Plus, I have been drawn to spinning for some time now, but I keep pushing it to the back burner so I don't have yet another passion that costs money. But I really enjoy my work with fiber and I guess since I have few enough things that I really enjoy doing, and I get such a true sense of accomplishment from my current work, I should give over to this a little bit. If I love it, I'll cross the purchasing of a wheel when I get there. And I'll pump my spinning friends for advice and recommendations along the way. Because really if you have an obsession, you should really share it!

Post 100! I suppose that is some sort of accomplishment...

The Big Dig sweater is really moving along, although this picture is awful, but then again, so is the lighting today. I reached the stripes and did the armhole shaping decreases and now have about 4 more inches of stripes to do before I bind off to a stitch holder and move on to another part (the front I guess).



And felted balls seem to be the thing today! My Ez and I did these today during B's naptime.



And then we took a break for snack!

Knitting Content Ahead

So I've been knitting - lots. But I am so caught up in doing it that I haven't been posting much. That and getting back into routine with school and such.

So here's what is going on aronud here: First I finished B's socks and hat.



Socks FO Report:

Pattern: my own very basic sock pattern. Top is a 2x2 rib and the bottom is stockinette

Yarn: Lorna's Laces sock yarn watercolor colorway

Needles: crystal palace bamboo dpns size 2

Kind of BTDT since I just finished Z's, but these took forever because I could not get motivated to finish #2. Once I buckled down to get through the ribbing and turned the heel, I got the last one done in an evening. They fit beautifullly though.

Hat FO Report:

Pattern: Kind of my own pattern for this too. But it is a basic watch cap style hat without the foldover brim because I wanted to get 2 hats out of the ball of yarn. Also knit in 2x2 rib.

Yarn: Lorna's Laces worsted in Watercolor colorway

needles: Skacel DPN's size 7

Cute as a button on him, (I'll try to pin him down for photos later) but it won't last long as it *just* fits him now. I haven't decided if I will rip it once he outgrows it (in a month or two) or give it away and knit another larger one for next year. Z decided he does not want a hat from this yarn.

Here's the next big project on needles - a sweater for B from Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids



And here's the progress I've made so far:



I have about 6 1/2 inches in (mostly) stockinette for the back and I'm coming up on the striping around the top in another 3 inches. My goal is to have this done for Bs birthday in March but it will be too big for him since I chose to make the size larger so he could grow into it. This is a cotton sweater, so it will work for most seasons around here in SoCal. I am quite nervous about the intarsia on the front, but also pretty excited as this is my very 1st sweater after more then 5 years as a knitter.

One negative is that the sweater in the picture appears to have an orange truck, but the two yarns offered for that color are both reds. I ended up choosing the 1st color listed (poppy) because it seemed for appropriate then the 2nd (whose name I can't recall) as is was a much more maroonish color and darker and poppy was at least bright although nowhere near orange. And the only orange I could find in cotton glace was more of a cantaloupe color. Not at all in keeping with the other colors.

A big thank you to Great Grandma

It is like a holiday in and of itself. The last few years my grandmother has sent Hess truck to Ez which usually arrives right after the holidays. And exactly long enough past them to be extra special. And of course the present is the year's Hess truck, which is always a big hit and remains so for the entire year. (and the old ones are still as loved as the new ones)

Today is Hess day here at the house. I wonder if we need a cake? LOL

A little reminder for myself

Intarsia How-to video