One Crazy Fiber Lady

I have a major complaint regarding consideration, or lack thereof, that people show for others.  As most might know by now, I’m a single mother by choice.  My choice to have the kids on my own, with the accompanying 3 years of infertility treatments to conceive, has necessitated certain tradeoffs.  The first amongst them is my living situation.  I rent an apartment in a two family house.  Between the daycare expenses and various other costs of living in this area, I’m limited in my options.  Buying something right now is just out of the question.  Not to mention that my rent is awfully low and my apartment comes with a washer/dryer, central air and off street parking.  However, there is a major downside.  The other unit is owner occupied.  It is also not a side-by-side housing layout, but that the bulk of their unit is entirely over mine.  Wouldn’t be so bad, but there are 6 adults and 2 children (boys 6 and 13) living there, along with a rather loud cocker spaniel.  One of the women is now expecting too and there is a business being run out of the house.  Quite a number of their rooms do not have carpeting, but hardwood or tile floors so there is a considerable amount of foot traffic noise, creaky-arsed floorboards.  I’ve been running a fan in the twins room since they came home for the white noise cover of the banging, stomping and general racket above us.  I’ve complained on occasion, but to no avail.  The last time was a while ago when at 11:30 pm on a week night, they were having a party, singing loudy and stomping around on what I can only assume were wooden clogs.  I called to ask if they could possibly keep it down a bit as it was a work night and it was late.  I was pretty much told to lump it.

That’s the background.  It isn’t a new situation and I’ve learned to live with it to some extent.  I really don’t have an option until the twins are out of their darn expensive daycare situation.  What’s brought this to the point where I’m kvetching to all about it?  Two things.  Wednesday I woke up to a rather cold apartment. I contacted the landlords about it immediately when I discovered that my heat wasn’t working. A short while later a knock on the door brought news that the plumber was on the way to repair.  This was 9:00 am.  By 2 pm the man hadn’t appeared yet.  It was getting quite cold down here.  Thank goodness that the twins had "school" and were nice and toasty.  I fiddled with my thermostat, and noticed that while in years past (yup no heat every damn year as they don’t do maintenance on the units) the furnace would kick on even as no hot water circulated through the baseboards. This time, no furnace noise was discernable.  I asked to see if there was possibly a blown fuse preventing my furnance from kicking on.  There wasn’t.  While there though, I asked if I could check my furnance, just for giggles.  I did.  The power switch to the #$%@$@# thing had been turned off.  WTF?  I sat in the cold for hours, stuck to the house because some asshole turned off my furnace.  What did they care, their unit was powered up and they had heat.  That’s one.

That was also a couple of days ago.  I’m angry, but sort of over it as again, I’m resigned to the situation and beyond getting irritated, there isn’t much I can do about it.  That brings us to #2.  The $@$#@%^$$#%#@ trampoline that they bought for a Christmas present for their couch potato kids that don’t go outside.  Ever.  It sounds like a cheap motel room with squeaky bed springs over my head for hours on end.  WTF?  They obviously don’t fucking care that there are people living down here beyond my financial contribution towards their goddamned mortgage payment. I’m frustrated beyond tears, beyond screaming, at the blatant inconsideration towards me.  I’m stuck.  I can’t leave.  I don’t want to stay.  I feel like crying.

Oh fuck, they just woke the twins up from their nap.  A nap that they requested because they were tired, mind you!  What the hell can I do?  I think horrible thoughts like maybe someone will break a leg on the trampoline.  I wish evil thoughts on their PITA dog, who barks the moment a car drives by the house and when they all do leave (oh so rarely) #$%#@$ cries and whines the whole time they are gone. 

This just sucks.

While I don’t celebrate this holiday myself, I do want to wish all those that do a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you’ve been surrounded by all those important to you.  Yes, Hannukah officially starts tonight, but my family exchanged our gifts on the 18th (not fair speeding up the knitting end deadline either!).  The twins and I are sharing a quiet {snicker} day together at home and I thought I’d take a moment to post a long overdue update.

Since I posted last, I went to my office holiday party (12/16), had a wonderful playdate with Deb, celebrated the season with the family, started a 2 week vacation, and knitted my darn fingers off.  I detailed it all in my completed album so I won’t put too much here.  Most was finished at the last much to my cramped fingers dismay.  I took almost a two day rest and returned with the Diamond Fantasy Shawl using the Fleece Artist Merino that I don’t think I ever blogged but do remember getting it after Stephanie knitted hers.  I don’t have pictures of that yet, but will save that for another day.  I’ve finished three of the six repeats.  Anyway here’s pictures of the finished gifts:

(Photos link to album page with project info.)  The natives are getting a little restless and I need to speed this up and well, sorry, links are just time consuming, even if they are pointing to your own site.  We have here the Thuja socks, a Kerchief Scarf, Shetland Lace scarf and Handwarmers.  The socks, with their huge feet parts fit my father perfectly!  The other three were gifts for the kids’ teachers.  Nope, the Rowan Biggy Print didn’t end up as gifts for them.  Actually the Biggy Print will end up in the "Looking for a home" album shortly.  I do need to do a little cleaning this week of vacation now that all the gift knitting distraction is over.

Besides the gift knitting, I also finished up some knitting for the little people:

Again, these link to the project pages in my album.  Sadly the mittens are a tad overfelted and a bit stiff for the little monkey hands.  I bought them some new ones at the mall on Friday.  The socks?  Yup, finally finished those bad boys.  Serious case of SSS for them.  Can’t believe how long it took to finish these very small little socks.

I received some very nice gifts as well.  The first was on Saturday during the playdate with Deb.  Her description of it is fabulous and I just point you there   She gave me a wonderful holiday gift!

That is THREE skeins of Zephyr in my absolutely favorite  color, along with hand made beaded stitch markers.  LOVE IT!  I’ve always wanted to try the Zephyr.  Thank you Deb!  Thank you!   I think I’ll be using this yarn for the Anniversary Pi Shawl come January 21 (official cast on date is the 22nd) when Deb and I get together for an outing to Majestic Yarns followed by Starbucks.  I think I’ll be working on the Shetland Tea Shawl from Gathering of Lace.

At risk of blowing away my crazy fiber reputation, my favorite gifts are these.  Imagine my surprise when my mother had Alex and Kat each hand me a wrapped present.  Inside were these hand/foot prints that my parents had put together.  Story has it that Kat didn’t dig putting her hands into it and they had to wrestle her to get this done.  Like the Grinch, my heart grew several sizes larger as I looked at these.  I’m trying to find the perfect place to hang them.  I now also have a guide for making further mittens… which I might do with some thinner weight yarn and not go for the felting thing.  We’ll see. 

I think I’ll leave this here.  The natives need lunch and well, I need some knitting.  Hopefully the next post will be sooner, but I’m still on vacation and will be until January.  We all know how spotty I am about posting from home.  I also have a load of email to reply to and blogs to catch up on.  Again, a very happy holiday to you.

Craft on.

I got home last night to find a package waiting at my door.  I had to tamp down my eagerness to get it open until the twins were abed.  As there was no name above the return address, I suspected it was from my Better Pal (who had sent me an email to let me know it was on the way).  Oooh boy-oh-boy.  Thankfully the twins went down quickly as we didn’t get home until far later than normal.  I opened the box to find a lovely gift bag:

Isn’t it pretty?  I set about carefully unwrapping the contents.  I was smiling ear to ear by the time I finished.  I have a very wonderful better pal. She wrote a beautiful card that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.  I love the two little Hannukah bears.. excellent idea for two as otherwise the twins would probably fight over them   A box of Hannukah candies (in front of the bears), holiday tissues and gelt!  I haven’t had gelt in ages!  Those skeins of yarn, if you can’t read the tags in the bigger pictures, are Lane Borgosesia CASHMERE in my absolutely favorite color.  Cashmere!!  MY BP GAVE ME CASHMERE.  How cool is she??!?!?  Between the skeins is a chibi, now I can have one in my totebag and in my knitting basket.  Sweet.  Behind the card is a Fiber Trends pattern, Lacy Accents.  Mmmmm.  A girl can definitely get spoiled by packages like this. Thank you BP!  You so totally rock!

I barely did any knitting yesterday.  I turned the heel and finished the gusset on the second sock for dad, so it is coming along.  Now I just have acres of foot to do before the toes.  Damn big feet.   I have alternate plans for teacher gifts now thanks to Cate.  Last week she posted about the Rowan Biggy on sale at Webs and that link to the mittens.  I succumbed and placed an order on Thursday.  Friday I received an email that 4 of the 6 skeins I ordered were out of stock, as were the huge dpns I needed.  They’d be back in some 4-6 weeks.  Uh, not good for the deadline for "IT".  Long story short, Cate risked massive stash acquisition and picked me up some as they still had it in the store.  Rhys, who works not too far from my home, came by Tuesday night on her way to do a training and delivered the yarn (along with a fabulous care package of 2T clothes that H & E have outgrown).  Thank you both very much.  So now I have 6 skeins of Rowan Biggy to knit a coupla mittens out of.

Speaking of mittens, I’m 75% of my way to finishing off the mittens for my short people.  I could have finished them last night, each mitten really only is about 45 from cast on to finish braiding but I was distracted comparing cell phone carriers last night instead.  Probably not the best way to deal with "IT" but the contract with Verizon Wireless is up and I want a new phone   I’m getting one of these bad boys and will be trying out T-Mobile.  I’ve heard mixed reviews on them.  I’ll have 15 or so days to try it out and see if the service is acceptable for where I need it.  Oh and for those who already have my cell number, I’m transfering it to the new phone/carrier so don’t delete it yet.

Anyway..work.. knit.  Big thanks again to my BP, Cate and Rhys!  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have pictures of finished and blocking monkey mittens.

Craft on!

Lots has been going on since I last typed.  Been busy just about everywhere and sadly the time for blogging has been drastically cut into.  I’ve had a pretty big project at work, which is still going on.  Compound that with the fact I’m off the last two weeks of the month.  I have 8 vacation days to use before 2006 as we’re a "use them or lose them" outfit.  I ain’t losing them, so I’ll be on vacation from Dec 20th through the end of the year.  Weeeee.  It does mean that I want to get as much done on this project before disappearing for almost two weeks though. 

Friday dumped 7.5" of snow on my beloved home.  I awoke to hear the town’s whistle announcing school was closed.  This was followed by a telephone call from the kids’ daycare teacher telling me the center was closed.  Saved me a call.  Kat was running a fever Thursday night so we wouldn’t be going to school anyway.  Darn.  Friday was a pretty miserable day.  I did get pictures of the finished gauntlets though…

Nice to have them done especially since they put my teeth on edge.  Project details are here.

The package from Joann.com arrived on Thursday with the much needed WoolEase to make the socks for Dad.  I cast on for the first one after I got the twins down.  I worked on it on and off all weekend and finished it Sunday night.  It’s a nice pattern, but damn those are huge socks!  I’m used to my little Size 5 (EU35) feet and the little tiny toddler feet.  Not these huge honking man feet.  But one down, one to go.  I’m a few rows short of the heel stitch on the second one.  I’m pretty sure I’ll have these ready for Sunday’s Family Hannukah Get-Together, especially since I started it yesterday afternoon.

During lunch, I took a field trip to Seaport Yarn to pick up some Lamb’s Pride Bulky to make the twins new mittens.  Last year’s Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby mittens were fine when they weren’t outside doing much, this year, however, they’re playing in the snow.  My dad keeps pestering me that they need heavier mittens.  I did some surfing and turned up the Lovikka pattern.  Looked great and would fit the bill perfectly.  I had a chance meetup with Cassie at Seaport.  I couldn’t stay long and had to get back to the office.  But not before buying two skeins each of Lamb’s Pride Bulky in Rosado Rose and Blue Boy.  While the kids watched some tv before bed, I had most of the first mitten done (started it when we got home).  It took me about 45 minutes to do each one.  Sweet.  I’ll knit the second pair tonight and get them into the washing machine ASAP to felt.  I think I’ll make the hats, but right now, neither needs a new hat.  I might make myself a pair of these bad boys with both colors so we all coordinate.  Awww how cute.  Blech.  I love the braided tassles.

Last, but not least, my kids are heavy into "reading" now.  Not a big surprise.  I’m a big reader and was really really happy to get the gig working where I work.  Excellent employee discount!  They helped themselves to some "reading" material off my shelves this weekend.  Get a load of the mix.  The three on the left were Kat’s choices.  Pretty good choices if you ask me.

Well that’s it for the moment.  I’m toiling away trying to complete "IT" on an accelerated schedule!  Oy vey.  Though Friday night, I skipped knitting as I was too tightly wound to do that.  The kids were just exhausting.  I spun instead!  I finished a second bobbin of the BL/Wensleydale roving.  Now I have to empty my third Woolee Winder bobbin and ply the babies.  Add that to the list.

Craft on!

My seriously geekier side came to the fore last night.  While I had planned on doing some spinning, hoping that the lanolin in the CVM fleece would counter my chapped hands, I got distracted.  Big time.  Yesterday’s comment from JessaLu regarding her problems with Firefox and Shockwave Flash reminded me of a similiar report from Cassie that her browser was crashing when she loaded my blog.  While I use Firefox (as well as Maxthon – an upgraded IE), I wasn’t able to reproduce the behavoir myself.  I deal with software bugs almost daily and when two users report a problem, there is probably something to it.  JessaLu’s mention of Shockwave gave me a starting point.  I googled to see if there was a known issue with Firefox and Shockwave. 

I found this:

Flash 8 crash issue

An issue can occur with the Flash 8 player, where Firefox will crash
often when that plugin is installed. Most people should keep Flash 7
installed instead, but this workaround should allow you to use Flash 8
without crashes:

• Uninstall the Adblock extension if you have it, or alternatively, disable Object tags.

• Go to about:config and change the value of browser.sessionhistory.max_viewers from 3 to 0.

Naturally I went hunting on my computer to see what version of the Flash player I had.  Not surprisingly, I turned up Flash 7.  This meant that the problems folks were having started after I put the progress bars (swf files) back onto the sidebar.  While there is a workaround, or even a geekier approach to rolling back to flash 7, I wasn’t content with simply pointing out that info.  I wanted to make the page loadable.

I pulled out my rusty Javascript skills and added a browser detection script around the SWF code.  This was accompanied by considerable amounts of mutering and swearing over the course of a couple of hours last night.  Finally, about a half hour after I usually go to sleep, I had it.  I modified all my progress bars in the WIP section with code that switched between the swf progress bar and simple colored text depending on whether you are a Firefox user.  At 11:38pm I emailed Cassie to ask if she could test it when she got a chance.  I was elated when she wrote back that it was fixed!  Makes this geeky girl happy.  Unfortunately, while this will prevent crashing while loading my blog, it won’t help the Firefox/Flash8 combo from crashing elsewhere.  Maybe I’ll get to spin tonight

I finished the second of the wristwarmer/gauntlets yesterday during lunch, but didn’t get a chance to photograph them.  I’ll get to that tonight.  I hope.  I went back to working on the Big Booga Bag for my commuting knitting.  I consulted with my commuting buddy regarding the whole teacher gift situation and he suggested just the morning ladies.  They are with the kids for the bulk of the day, not to mention, their identities are fixed.  The afternoon is where a variety of girls come into the picture and I can name at least 5 different ones who’ve been there since September.  While I’d love to give gifts to everyone who participates in the care of my children, I just can’t.  Though, I did see this yesterday… 

Craft on!

I’m creeping ever so close to finishing off another of the gift knitting.  The wrist warmers/gauntlet (call them what you will) are a mere 5 rows from completion.  I probably could have finished them on the bus this morning (yup, running late once again), but I got to chatting with the lady next to me and gave her a lesson on reading the train schedule.  She reciprocated and gave me a few hints on the horridly confusing bus schedule.  Worked out well for both parties. 

I have no pictures of the WIP, so use your imagination and picture a 2×2 ribbed tube with a hole for a thumb. In White.  I’m using that Pingouin Pingorex Baby on my Bryspun needles.  I’m not entirely sure what size they are, but vaguely remember them being a US2.  I cast on the second gauntlet last night on the train home.  The combination of this ack-rylic yarn and the bryspun needles was producing a squeak and crinkly feel that really set my teeth on edge.  I’m vowing to finish this as soon as physically possible so I can get away from the crinkle-squeak.  Ick. Thankfully they are quick and I knit a great deal of it on the couch last night catching up on my "tivo’ed" shows before bed.

Up next?  Not sure.  I just checked my Joann.com order status and the package with the much needed Wool-Ease shipped Fedex 2day yesterday.  It is scheduled to deliver tomorrow.  Woo.  I’ll probably return to the second Big Booga Bag until tomorrow night when I can get a start on the socks for dad.. or finish off Alex’s sock finally.  Time is more critical on the BBB though.  Especially if you consider I haven’t a clue how many teachers are in the class.  I know of at least 5.  There are 3 morning (8-3) and at least 2 in the afternoon (x-5:30).  Fewer teachers in the afternoon as a bunch of kids don’t stay all day.  There’s a chart on the wall in the room where the three morning teachers are listed with a bunch of kids under them.  My pair for the first time are listed under the same teacher, last year they were divided between the two morning ladies.  But I don’t think they divide the work between the teachers depending on which kid it is.  Does this mean I need to give 5 gifts, one for each teacher?  This is going to get expensive (above and beyond the exhorbitant daycare cost) and means a lot of knitting!  Though I wonder if I can convert the pattern somehow to being one that is machine knitting friendly. I could always handknit the bottom, whip the sides out on the machine, sew the works together and get felting.  Suggestions are quite welcome.

In another bit of news, I’ve been hired to put together a blanket for a coworker to give as a baby gift.  Remember the Super Secret Surprise Baby Gift that I made for my coworoker?  Well another coworker asked if I could knit a blanket for a friend.  I told her about the SSSBG that I’d made Marina and forwarded a picture to her (blogs are good for something!).  She loved it.  As we discussed price, which I suck terribly at evaluating beyond the cost of materials, I had the idea that a crocheted blanket would take less time to make, but yet could be just as nice, if not better.  I set about finding a good pattern.  Mel had her heart set on something similar and since I couldn’t find one, I decided to modify the pattern to crochet rather than knitting.  Last week I did some experimentation and have something very workable.  I’ll be using the same yarn that I made Marina’s blanket, the TLC Cotton Plus, in the same colors as the baby is thankfully a girl and as a bonus I have a serious stash of this, and a size J crochet hook.  Yes, I can crochet, I just generally choose not to.  I have bad memories from the 60′s and 70′s of granny squares.  {Shudder}  The test square took me far less time to crochet than the knitted version, no surprise, that I don’t think I’ll come to resent this project for either the time I need to allocate to finish it rather than knitting something else, nor focus on really what it means as an hourly wage in compensation.  I’ll be getting to work on it after the holiday knitting is done.  Somewhere around then the EZasPi anniversary shawl KAL will be starting, along with the FLAK (Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong) over at AranKnit gets started.  I have stash yarn for both projects, what I don’t have is TIME!

Speaking of EZasPi.. remember the SLW Contest and my handwarmers that I designed as an entry?  I took second place in the Socks and Gloves category!  Woooooo.  I put in my wishlist for prizes and should know shortly what goody I’ll be getting!

That’s about it for now… got to get back to work

Craft on!

Lookee here.  We have us another finished object as I creep closer to finishing my holiday knitting:

I finished the hat for dad after my bath last night.  I dig this pattern and hope dad likes it.  I love a good, quick, enjoyable knit and this project fit all those requirements.  I would have been happier not knitting it on the Denise needles, but I was limited as to what was in the house and available.  I magic looped the crown reduction section.  I’m glad I found the sock pattern yesterday.  I placed an order at Joann.com for some WoolEase to make them, even splurged for the upgraded shipping and they are taking their time to get the package out.  Pissing me off no end.  I think I’ll head to P&S Yarns at lunch to pick up some so I can start the socks sooner rather than later.  Heck in the 3-4 business days that Joanns is quoting me, I could have the darn things done freeing me up to go back to the teacher gifts.  In the meantime, Mom’s Gauntlets have come out of the Holding pattern and back into active WIP’s.  I should be able to finish that silly second one with a minimal amount of time.  Maybe I should finish that up while I wait for that package.  If it doesn’t come by the time I finish, I can always go to P&S then.  Yeah, that’s the ticket. 

Have I mentioned recently how very cool my parents are?  Well they are.  Sunday night, after they got home from pizza dinner at my place, Mom called.  Since we were expecting a "significant snow event" Monday night into Tuesday, and the twins go to Mom’s on Tuesday, they should just stay over Monday night.  This way I wouldn’t have to schlep them out in the storm, just get myself to work.  Twist my arm.  Give me a night off   Naturally I jumped at that, I ain’t no dummy.  I packed up a bag with their jammies, change of clothes and their snowduds for the event.  I had dinner with them, played a bit afterwards and then gave them some serious hugs and kisses.  I had a bonus night to myself.  I took a nice hot bubble bath with a glass of wine (a nice white merlot that the nice man in the liquor store suggested) and settled on the couch for some tv and knitting afterward.  It was a beautiful night.  I tried a new gel (Biolage Gelee – thanks for the suggestion Deb!) and had super hair this morning.  Here’s a look at the new curly do, and without kids, I had a chance to apply some makeup.  Oh yeah, I’m wearing Twist today, as even though the "significant snow event" was a bust, it is awfully chilly regardless (except the picture of hair and twist looks pretty crappy)!

Those dopey fringy bangs, a result of the last haircut, will be grown out.  In the meantime, I’m trying to ignore them.  Please feel free to join me.  I just ordered a copy of Curly Girl to get further assistance with the ‘do.  Curly is way easier than straight! 

Craft on!

Today is Monday so it must be picture day.  Holding true to form, I have loads of pictures as it was a pretty decent weekend.  Saturday marked my first delivery from Peapod.  One word.  Sweet.  I had opted for the wider delivery window to get reduced delivery charges, we weren’t going anywhere else anyway so it didn’t matter.  Delivery was at 12:00 when a big truck pulled up out front, two people got out, collected bags from bins in the back and carried them all into my kitchen.  I scanned the beautiful receipt pages, signed the form and we all bid each other a lovely day.  There was a small hitch.  As the twins and I unpacked, I noticed that there was very little greenery.  I checked the remaining bagged stuff against the receipt and other than the bananas, none of my produce had been delivered.  I caught the truck before they left.  The nice man checked the back to make sure they didn’t overlook anything, apologized and directed me to call the 800 number, which I did.  They apologized a number of times, credited my order for the value of the produce and scheduled a delivery for Sunday morning between 7 and 9.  They arrived, in the snow at 7:15.  There really was no harm, no foul as I had veggies to feed the monsters and didn’t notice the additional day.  Wasn’t like they forgot something serious like milk or {shudder} diapers.  All in all, I’m quite happy with it and will order from them again.

After the grocery arrival, a little lunch, an aborted nap, Mom and I took the twins to buy snow boots as the forecast accurately predicted snow for Sunday.  While I’d be happy to never see the hideous white stuff again, it was coming and the monkeys needed to be properly protected.  Mom stopped off on the way over and picked up snow pants for the pair.  How’s that for a bad memory from the past?!  SNOW PANTS.  Hated the damn things when I was a kid and was I going to subject my kids to them?  Oh yup.  Anyway, we took them boot shopping. Oh and learned a very important lesson.  Kat needs a nap.  She melted down as I first tried to get a pair of boots on her, she really wanted to try on some very lovely pink dress shoes, and then as I tried to force her back into her coat.  Poor thing.  Was asleep as soon as the car engine started again.  Alex had a pair of hand-me-down boots so he was spared the indignity in the store, but was checking out the shoes anyway.  He kept trying to wear baby girl sandals.  Mom pretty much trailed him through the toddler area replacing shoes that he took out. He also had a thing for removing that crumpled up paper they wad into shoes.  Odd kid.  Anyway, they were pretty silly after dinner and I got a good photo op as they curled up on the kitchen floor with their respective blankets.

Sunday, besides the bonus Peapod delivery, brough snow.  Dreaded by this adult, unknown to the short people.  Late after breakfast, I bundled them up and brought them outside for a new experience.

Sporting mom’s handknits, they made their way outside.  Kat is modeling the lovely hat I knit for her last year, refusing to wear this year’s.  Alex is sporting the mittens from last fall and a hat I’m pretty sure was knit by Laurie as a baby gift.  Kat refused initially to put her mittens on, but eventually traded blankie (yup the blankie that got lost twice at Maryland), for her mittens.  This year, she doesn’t like the thumb-hole for her thumbsucking.  I’ll have to add a thumb there for her.  Now, she wears the mitten over her whole hand so the thumb doesn’t stick through.  Can never tell with this kid whether she’d like something or not.  She does keep me on my toes!  While I personally hate snow and wouldn’t mind never seeing the hideous stuff again, I have to admit I enjoyed seeing it through their eyes.  I helped the boy next door make this snowman for the twins.  We even took a walk to a friend’s house about a block away.  Kat stubbornly refused to walk home and I had to carry her.  Princess she is.  I learned something else, outside is good.  For the first time in seemingly weeks, they took a good nap without much fuss after lunch.  I’ve got to stock up on warm things as we’re going to do this outside thing again!  Anyway, my folks came over for a pizza dinner with the twins.  All in all, it was a good weekend.

As this is also a knitting blog, I have knitting projects to show.  First up, is a finished object!  I completed the Shedir hat for Grandma Phyllis during naptime on Sunday.  This was another great pattern by Jenna.  That makes 3 of hers that I’ve done (Big Sack and Banff being the others).  She has some amazing designs.  My fingers are a little tired from those rows where just about every stitch trades places with its neighbor, but the results are definitely worth it.  I hope Phyllis likes it.  I still get nervous giving knitted objects as gifts.  That’s never stopped me before though.  I just enjoy the process of knitting.  Yeah, that’s it.  Anway…  I’ve seen this hat here and here.  While I do need a new hat, I decided that I’d make another gift hat first.  Sorry for the somewhat lousy picture.  I’m using Cascade 220 (from stash – woohoo) in black to make the Man’s version of the hat by Amy Boogie.  This is going to be for my father.  The man may never be cold, but mom agrees, he could use a good hat for snowblowing and shovelling days.  I started it during the same nap that saw the end of Shedir.  I have to keep this pattern around as I want to make one for myself after all the holiday knitting is done.  As of the end of this morning’s commute, I’d completed 6 of 8 pattern repeats.  Nice.  Hope dad likes it.  Mom also suggested that he would like a pair of handknitted socks.  I cringed though as he has very wide size 11 feet!   Yeah.  I barely have the attention span to make it through a pair for my 4.5/5 feet and look how long Alex’s little toddler socks have been on the needles.  I started those bad boys on 11/14! No way those are going to happen with fingering wool.  Any pattern suggestions for a quicker, heavier yarn for HUGE feet?

That does it for the crafting update.  Thanks to suggestions from Deb, I’ve decided to quit fighting with the curl in my hair.  I’ve been trying the brute force method of making it straight.  Except for the wonderful ceramic pressing iron, every other method finds it either frizzy or wavy again by the end of the day.  What if I went for curly?  Seems like an easier go, wouldn’t it?  Heck it takes curl and holds it like nobody’s business so it really was a bit of a no-brainer.  Deb introduced me to NaturallyCurly.com and their bulletin boards.  No pictures yet, but my oh my, does it ever work.  I’m wavy/curly with far less effort than straight!  Woo.  Makes me wonder why I fought it for so long.

Craft on!

[2:55pm - edit:  I was just doing a little blog reading while waiting for the object I'm writing to compile when I found that a new Knitty is up.  Clicking my way through the patterns what do my little eyes spy?  Thuja:  socks for men in a worsted weight yarn.  Dude, dad is getting socks afterall.  Now to find the yarn... ]

I really don’t have much today.  Been working, got a new big project at work.  Been knitting.  Its cold out.  I hate winter.  Since I haven’t posted in a bit, I figured I’d drop by, let y’all know I’m alive and post this tiny bit of filler.   

Brainy Kid

In high school, you were acing AP classes or hanging out in the computer lab. You may have been a bit of a geek back then, but now you’re a total success!

Geek then, geek now.  At least geeks are cool now.