Ten on Tuesday and an update

10 Favorite Work Out Songs: This topic is rather timely. Part of my MS treatment includes working with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm working on hand strength and coordination at the moment and next week we will start on my walking and an exercise routine. So here we go...

1. Dragula  by Rob Zombie
2. O Fortuna by Apotheosis
3. Only by Nine Inch Nails
4. Du Hast by Rammstein
5. Breathe by The Prodigy
6. Machinehead by Bush
7. Blue Monday by Orgy
8. I'm Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphys
9. Bodies by Drowning Pool
10. Whatever by Godsmack

I think you can get a sense of what I like from that list. Someday I'll have to do a list about my painting music. I like to pair my music with the project. I try to do the same with my books. When I was painting Time After Time, I listened to the stories of H.G.Wells.  When I was doing these really beautiful blood red walls, Dexter is Delicious was the book of choice. For Pippin and all of it's medieval glory, it was the original Shannara trilogy.

I've been trying to write my update post for days. It has been that kind of week.
Last Tuesday I had to pick up Little Miss early from daycare because she wasn't feeling well, which we attributed to teething. Wednesday she stayed home with her Daddy. When I picked Little Dude up that afternoon there was a notice announcing that several of the other kids had hand, foot, and mouth disease. Sure enough that's what she had, in addition to the teething. Then in the wee hours of Friday morning Little Dude came down with a fever too. Normally that isn't such a big deal, but Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. 10 years was celebrated by caring for two sick kids. (I'm trying not to read anything into it.)

I should have known it was going to be a weird week when I went on our annual pilgrimage to Mass Sheep and Wool and Webs and bought nothing! Well, I did buy some lunch, but nothing fiber related. Partly because I'm facing a summer without a paycheck (again!). And partly because nothing really spoke to me. I had been hoping to get another Stitched by Jessalu bag but I just couldn't decide on what one to get. By the way, if you don't have one (or more) of her bags...get one. They are wonderful and beautifully made. Plus she has tons of sci-fi/geek ones. You can't go wrong. But nothing was really grabbing me. The same with Spunky Eclectic's fiber. And this is the first time I've ever left and not bought something for Ball and Skein. Though, she's got just what I've been hunting for to make my Mina scarf. But it's something I know I can order later. Webs didn't have any of the books I was thinking of, though I was able to peruse Vampire Knits. There wasn't enough in there that I would make to warrant buying it.

Despite my lack of stash acquisition, I've made significant of progress in my knitting of late. Actually, knitting is sanctioned by my occupational therapist to help with hand coordination. So, it's not just a hobby (addiction), it's good for my health (and that of those around me if they don't want to die).

It took me a week but I finally picked up the stitches on Bigger on the Inside. I finished the lace section and blocked it to make the picking up the stitches easier.

As I feared, it is one of those patterns where the number of stitches to pick up and the place they are being picked up from differ. In this case it was 311 over 400 rows. I won't go into what I went through to figure out how to do it evenly. I'll just say, this is a gift and my OCD was running rampant...and thankfully my husband is much better at math than myself. Honestly, that is the hardest part of this pattern. I'm nearly halfway through the TARDIS chart and it looks good. I'll be making a few changes when I make this one for myself.


Gaia is making progress too. She's a great project for when I don't want to think or I'm needing to set it down a lot (read keeping the kids from killing each other).

And the other fiber related news I've started spinning again. We can thank Little Dude for this one. My wheel was around and he had been playing with the treadle for a few days. Finally I said I'd show him how it is used, grabbed some fiber, and then proceeded to spin for about the next 5 hours, with breaks for dinner and getting said minions to bed. I finished a bobbin that night. I just did the second one a few nights ago and I hope to ply them sometime in the next few days. This fiber is some BFL dyed by my lovely friend The Painted Sheep. The colorway is called Pine Meadow. I was an idiot when I split the fiber and didn't bother weighing it so one of the bobbin has more than the other so it won't ply exactly the way I was hoping but I think it will be nice nonetheless. I'm happy to say that now that I am using better fiber, my spinning is much more even. The inherited wool that I had been using was partially felted and not that great. I'm glad I abandoned it. I'm not sure what this yarn is going to become yet.
 

Next on the project list is the caplet from Teva Durham's Loop-d-loop. I'm able to do this now because my lovely friend Peggy had the gigantic needles needed for this project and so graciously lent them to me. I've had the yarn for this in stash for years.

And a little bit of trivia. The background on the above photos is the floor I'm currently painting at work.

Ten on...what day is it??

I'll be damned it's Wednesday, isn't it. Well, here's my 10. I'm a day off...

10 Goals For This Summer 
A lot of these will seem similar to the spring to-do-list

1. Finish the hallways: I've a little more mudding and sanding to do. There are some tricky issues with the upper hall that may hold things up, but I want them at least primed, even if I haven't picked finished colors yet. 
2. Sew Little Miss a wardrobe. She's at an age where it will be easier to sew for her. She likes dresses, but she's also a climber and the two don't mesh well. I'm planning on making her some dress-like tops that won't catch on her knees when she's exploring. 
3. Finish rearranging my work space. My boss built me a new storage unit and I've brought over my flat file. It is really starting to come together now into something that is far more efficient and even somewhat aesthetically pleasing.
4. Not to get a wicked sunburn this year. 
5. Participate in the Tour de Fleece....more on spinning later. 
6. Overhaul my wardrobe...I'm done having minions and I'm through nursing. Now it's time to see what fits, what gets tossed and where I need to fill in the gaps. 
7. Make jam...preferrably from fruit we've picked ourselves. My son lives on PB&J. I'll save a lot on the jelly if I can make my own. In my quest to keep the sugar tamed in our lives, I buy jelly that is sweetened with fruit juice...better for you, not your wallet. I'm hoping to make enough to last the year. 
8. Grow a successful garden...a battleground between me and the rodents in my neighborhood. 
9. Knit or spin everyday. I'm learning the importance of keeping my hands active, and why not get something pretty for my efforts. 
10. Exercise. I'm starting physical therapy for my hands and legs because of the MS. The exhaustion is going to be my enemy in this area, but this is perhaps the most important thing on this list. 

And tomorrow I'll have an update with pretty, pretty pictures.

Ten on Tuesday

Today's Ten on Tuesday is a timely one. I'm on the verge of taking a bunch of time off to get a handle on some of the house projects. So, today's ten: 10 Items On Your Spring To-Do List.

1. Power wash the house- It needs it. Bad. Lots of green stuff growing on our siding. It just needs to be done. 
2. Wash the windows- after power washing, this is the next step. Luckily I have the type of windows that fold in for cleaning. 
3. Sand and finish mudding the upstairs hallway- I just want to get this done. I'm tired of half finished drywall.
4. Paint said hallway- then hubby can put up the fan.
5. Finish the drywall in the main hall- this is where there use to be two doors and now it's a wall. I've got to make it look good and then paint it. It's going to be my main picture wall for all the old family pictures. 
6. Finish power hook up in the upstairs- this is on my geek-boy's list since I don't play with electricity. But it's at the top of my list because then I can start finishing up there. 
7. Work on the flower beds- I've started this. We're using the mulch created by grinding out our stump for the beds. We're creating a new one along the back fence line, and when we replace the other window well, I'll tie together the front bed and the back one. (how's that for a run-on sentence?)
8. Replace the last window well- hubby has done the other two, so this might be more on his list than mine, but it needs to just get done.
9. Raised vegetable beds- I need to figure out placement, build and then get it ready for planting. 
10. Wash and put out all the out door paraphernalia- chairs, table, fire pit etc... basically set it up for a summer of fun. 

Lots to do. And lots more after that. I better get going. Especially on the projects leading me to having my own studio space. I have some big plans for the future, but I need my evil lair before I can implement them.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

And best wishes to my best friend who is off to give birth to her son! Good luck!

Update Monday

Let me just start off saying that the package of yarn arrived safely, but not after it had left the state to figure out where it needed to go. I really don't know what the mix-up was since the address on the package was correct. Watching the package tracking was sort of like watching the downloading bar progress and then jump back when you are really waiting on that information. But it came and here is what was in it:


The yarn is more of a blue than the photo shows. It is Lorna's Laces Solemate and it is destined to be come Bigger on the Inside. Unfortunately, or not, this particular shawl isn't for me. I'm making it for my sister-in-law, who surprised me with an amazing Dr. Who inspired present for my birthday.

Yes. That is a stained glass Tardis candle holder. Which she made. So I think she deserves the first of these shawls that I knit. I'm about to the halfway point of the lace panel on the shawl. The pattern is a very interesting construction. You knit the lace section from one end to the other, increasing then decreasing as you go. Then you pick up stitches along one edge and knit the Tardis design down from there. I can't say that I'm really enjoying the lace section. It's an easy enough pattern but I just can't seem to get into the groove of it. Perhaps because I'm trying to do it while watching TV. I'll try listening to podcasts instead and see if that helps.

I'm liking the yarn so far. It's quite lovely to knit with and not turning my fingers blue while I knit, as often I find the deeper blues do. My only complaint is the condition of the skein. One of them wound perfectly. The other....

as you can see, not so much. I don't know why this keeps happening to me. I'm not sure if I blogged about the Rios debacle a few years back. Two of my three skeins did this. It is as if when winding the skein they went the wrong way for a few rounds and then back again. My husband has spent several hours this weekend working on this. He's like a vampire with a knot obsession, a real vampire, not the sparkly kind.

I'm making headway on Gaia.
 I really like this pattern. I'm further along than the picture here shows, but this gives you the idea of how the yarn split up when I separated the knots. Oh Noro, why? But the nice thing is that I can follow this pattern when I'm completely drugged up, so that's good.

And why was I drugged up, might you ask? I had my first infusion to treat my MS on Friday. I finally got my test back and found it was safe for me to begin treatment. I was armed with my two shawl projects, a book and my DVD player with some Babylon 5 and Pride and Prejudice (wasn't sure what my viewing mood would be). I took the day off, not knowing how it was going to effect me. And it's good I did. The first six doses of the once a month treatment include an IV dose of Benadryl, in case of allergic reaction. Now I regularly take Benadryl, and it doesn't have much effect on me. Well, Friday was a whole different story. That stuff hit me fast and hit me hard. I had been reading the pattern for Bigger on the Inside, and suddenly it was just a blur of letters to me. I spent much of the infusion napping...well I spent most of the rest of the day (and night) asleep. To be fair I had been hit with a small stomach bug that struck down my husband earlier in the week. It took him a day or so to sleep that off, so I think it was the one-two punch that knocked me out. Either way I was next to useless. I guess we will see with next month's infusion.

Mother's day was low key, but rather lovely. From Little Miss I received a version of the handprints poem and her prints on some nice watercolor paper. From Little Dude it was a box painted and decorated (handprint on top) and the poem inside with a bracelet that he strung. My husband gave me some flowers and a package of smoked salmon all to myself.

We had our trees worked on finally. The damage from Snowpocalypse left them in need of major attention. We had a lot of hangers that would drop whenever the wind picked up. I was terrified to let the kids play outside. We joined forces with our neighbor so that the tree company could come out once with the heavy equipment. In the end, we each had a tree removed. I'm sad to see the lovely old red oak go, but it needed it. Our tree guy is one who prefers to keep trees, if it is safe to. So when he says it should go, I trust him. It ended up that this particular tree was rotting down the center from the top down and and bottom up. The hadn't quite met in the middle yet. But now we have somewhere to put the big pirate ship playscape in our yard.
Here's a few pics of the felling of our tree:

That horrible moment...

when you are tracking a package of yarn, yarn you are desperately waiting for and it says this:

Your item was forwarded to a different address at 8:11 am on May 07, 2012 in Another town, CT zip code two digits off. This was because of forwarding instructions or because the address or ZIP Code on the label was incorrect. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

I think I'm going to explode. 

Tickled Pink

I'm sorry about the lack of posting. Blogger has changed again and I'm totally lost...and apparently so is a post or two. I'm very confused.

So I want to thank those who donated to team Pirate Robots. I was deeply touched by and it means so much to me. By the post title you might guess that we reached our goal. Not quite but we came close enough that I went pink anyway. We raised $1,734 out of our $2000 goal. (You can still donate until May 25th.)

I'm loving the pink. I'm not quite loving my hair's reaction to the bleaching. The ends took a beating and now my hair is very easily tangled. I'll be getting a cut soon...and we may work some purple into the color. Little Dude loves it and has requested that it goes purple next. He also wants it blue for his birthday party.

Life has been a little bit of a whirlwind lately. I've continued to have numerous doctor's appointments and tests. I'll be receiving treatment at phenomenal MS center very near to where I work. This place is truly amazing. They have state of the art equipment for just about any issue you could have with this disease. The staff is very warm and welcoming. I keep saying how lucky I am. It sucks having the disease but when we caught it and the fact that I am located near such a wonderful treatment facility, I really am lucky.

Now I've just got to fight the exhaustion that comes with the disease. At least now I know why I'm so damn tired all the time. Of course chasing down two minions doesn't help in that area either. Little Miss is really taking off on the whole walking thing. She's now shifted to more walking than crawling, and a lot more walking without hanging on to things. And she's really perfecting her climbing. She climbs EVERYTHING. I had to pull her off the front of the stove the other day. And when you tell her 'No' she just turns her head and smiles. Luckily I'm immune to such wiles. I keep telling her that I invented that look. She's also not afraid to express her opinions (not my daughter?!?!). Yesterday I tried to put her back into her pj's after changing her diaper first thing in the morning. She immediately started to complain and point to her closet. So I stripped her down and then held her up to her clothes. Little Miss pushed aside clothing until she found the dress she wanted and then grabbed onto that. Mind you, she's barely a year old!!!! I'm in trouble with this one.

With Little Dude we are still having Adventures in Potty Training. Last night/this morning what had a major set back. He sneaked into our bed a some point in wee hours without my husband noticing. Normally that's not so much a problem but he slept so deeply that he peed in our bed. The bed I had just changed the sheets on (for the first time in longer than I'd ever admit). Not how one likes to start their day.

On the knitting front, I've been knitting, but don't have much to show for it. I started a Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. In usual form I didn't bother with a gauge swatch and that came back to bite me, only because it is bigger than I wanted for the intended giftee. So I put it off to the side a day or so ago. I may continue on it or I may frog it.
What I did do, however was a little sit down with my Noro Kueyron Sock. I have a love hate relationship with Noro yarns. I think they are beautiful, but my god are they full of knots. I've not had a skein of Noro that has had less than two knots in it, which can really suck when working with their colorways. A friend of mine was knitting the Gaia Should Hug and came across a knot. She continued on and then realized that the next run of yarn had the color changes going in the other direction. This is the shawl that this yarn is destined for and when I initially wound the skein I ended up with 3 separate runs of yarn. It was very Goldilocks....I had the big ball, the medium ball and the itty bitty ball. So being the freak that I am, I sat down, rewound each ball and wrote down the colors as they would so that I could line up the color changes. Ok, a little OCD, but when it is the look that you want, go for it. I found that what I have isn't too far off and I should be able to make it work without too much variation from the intended gradation of color. The colorway is a lovely mix of maroon, orange, green gold, green brown and a deep and light purple.

I'm hoping to cast that on tonight.

The red vest is sitting alone until I have some coherent alone time to work the shaping on the top. My double heelix socks are...somewhere. I ripped back the cuff on the first sock and are staring to continue the striping pattern and teaching myself jog-less stripes as I go. I'm planning on a ton of projects because I've been listening to knitting podcasts and they are adding things to my knitting queue as well as my reading and watching queue. But another post about podcasts later. I must be off to liberate the minions from daycare.

Ten on Tuesday

I'm back for Ten on Tuesday.  Today's topic: 10 Items Pinned to your Bulletin Board. This would be have to be my work bulletin board since my studio is still in process of being moved.

Color sheet from the top three paint brands I use at work. I've recently learned that I must hoard these since they are no longer being made. Since our budgets are so paltry, I can't keep a can of every color in stock and rely on these sheets to decide on what I need to order for a show. 

A lovely drawing done by Little Dude. This one is purple crayon on newsprint.

A drill bit guide. Think knitting needle/crochet hook gauge tool, but for drill bits. 

The paint formula numbers for the black box theatres. Comes in handy when walls need repainting. 

Decimal equivalents chart-for the obscene amount of math required on the job. 

A list of the days daycare is closed....so I remember to take those days off. 

The list of shows we will be doing next season.

My work scarf for when it gets two damn cold in here. This is one I don't care if I get paint on.

Various business cards, contact info and phone numbers. 

A bit of inspiration in sign form: 

We the willing 

Led by the unknowing 

Are doing the impossible 

For the ungrateful

We have done so much

For so long with so little 

We are now qualified 

To do anything 

With nothing.

That about sums up my job. 

So not really fun, but a little snapshot of my workday.

Walk MS

So after the revelation in the previous post, I decided to participate in the National MS Society's Walk MS fundraiser. Which turned out to be about a month from when I was diagnosed. I figure it's a good way to meet some other people in the area with the disease, as well as get my butt moving. It's going to be really important that I exercise now, though I still can't imagine when the hell I'm going to find the time.

So I started a team: Pirate Robots   (yeah, I let Little Dude pick the name)

And I set up a challenge: If we raise $2000 then I will dye my hair this color for race day.

Right now we've got $803. We've got $1,197 to raise in the next 7 days. (Less if you consider that I'd be getting my hair done sometime on Saturday).

If you can, please donate. MS is an area of research where they are making tremendous strides, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. I am lucky that there is an MS Center close to me for treatment. Others are not as lucky. Please help. Or if you are local, join the team and walk with us. If the weather is good, the kids will be in the wagon with us. And if you walk with us, I'll have some Pirate Robot headwear for you.

So there's my plea.


Tomorrow is my big appointment. I'm somewhat nervous, but mostly overwhelmed with all the information I've been reading.
And I've been knitting, so I'll have some crafting posts forthcoming.

All that it is

Hi. It's me again. I know I've been gone for about a month but I've been dealing with some medical issues. I've been pondering how to write about this, or whether or not to write about it. I've really been thinking about this blog and what I want it to be. I feel like I'm withholding so much of my writing because of my kids. Not in the 'they will one day read this way' because I'm no less strange in my daily life with them, but in a 'protecting my kids from the creeps of the world' kind of way. I'm struggling to find that balance. Plus I don't want to bore you with stories of my kids. I do that to people enough. So what do I want this to be....I don't know, but I want it to be more. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately and thinking of this blog. Podcasting is so not a possibility for me at the moment, and I totally hate the sound of my voice. So I'm left with the blog, and that's not a bad thing. I just need to figure out how to fit it into my life more. Little Miss is more mobile and weaned and I nearly have a space of my own at home, so a think a renaissance of my lovely little blog is on the horizon.
That being said I wonder if anyone reads it anymore.

So let me tell you the tale of my medical adventures lately. Since the birth of Little Miss I'd been experiencing weird twinges in my upper back at random moments. It was usually when I would sit down to nurse her. Later I discovered it was linked to the motion of looking down, which you do when you nurse, so that makes sense. No big deal, I filed it away to mention at my next doctor's appointment. It happened so randomly that it didn't worry me. Then in January I noticed numbness in the tips of my two middle fingers on both hands. A little more unsettling as my hands are my livelihood. And then it began to spread...a tingly numbness. When I was in the doctor's office for Little Miss, I made an appointment for myself. (side note- we see a family doctor who treats the whole family) I saw the PA in mid February and she sent me off to a neurologist to test for carpal tunnel regarding my hands, and felt the back issue was muscle related. At this time the back twinges were happening more frequently.
So I have the nerve conduction test, which in simple terms means they shocked me and stabbed me with needles. It was not a pleasant visit, perhaps made worse by the fact that the doctor felt no need to really talk to me at all. I'm sorry, but if you are going to poke the crap out of me and zap me, a little small talk would be nice. Is it really to much to ask?
That test came back negative. No sign of carpel tunnel at all, which is why it probably hurt so damn much. The PA kind of was taking a very laid back approach to the whole situation and just suggested I wear wrist braces and go from there. And here is the turning point for me. I'd hate to think where this would lead if I had just left it with that. But, you see, the numbness/tingling started to show up in my feet as well. I told her this and pointed out that my mother has MS. She consulted with the doctor and set me up with a neurologist appointment.
Off to the neurologist I go. Mind you, all of this is going on in the busiest part of our season. I was swamped at work with several shows and drama disasters left and right. Right off the bat I love this doctor, and it's not just because she has this lovely Irish accent. She's my age and has a son who's age falls between my two children. One of our first discussions was about breastfeeding, and I knew she supported my goals and concerns in that area. I was sent for a slew of blood tests (10 vials!!!) and an MRI. Ah yes, the MRI. I'm somewhat claustrophobic; not horribly so, but enough that the thought of being put in a tube surrounded with loud banging didn't quite thrill me. I have a co-worker who somewhat tweaked and ended up not having his. His experience actually helped me when I was in there. I kept hearing his voice saying "don't open your eyes", but then I'm getting ahead of myself. One of the questions they ask you is if you've ever gotten any metal in your eye. Why yes. I work building stuff. We weld, grind metal, cut metal and do all sorts of things with metal. I've gotten it in my eye. This is a problem when a giant magnet is going to be whizzing around your head and could pull that metal through the wrong side of your brain. Therefore I needed an X-ray to be cleared for my MRI. I warned them of this in my pre-appointment phone call. They apparently didn't get the memo. So, I'm sent of to radiology. I get a few X-rays. I sit and wait. The doctor sees something and wants a few more. The doctor still sees something, but isn't sure what it is so he wants a CT scan. I have the scan and then wait some more. They clear me for my MRI, so by the end of the day I've had 4 or 5 X-rays, a CT scan, and an MRI. I half expected to glow in the dark.
Off to the MRI. Apparently the patient before me freaked out because I saw the nurse walking a tearful woman back to the changing room saying that it happened all the time. That bolstered me some into not freaking out myself. They at least provided headphones and tuned it to my chosen radio station. I found it amusing that my job and it's proximity to loud noisy tools perhaps was the best preparation. The banging was a minor annoyance. The laying still for an hour was harder. Oh, and don't leave your ticket for the parking garage in your pocket.
That was a Thursday. I had an appointment with the neuro the following Wednesday. On Friday she called me and asked to see me later that day. Needless to say I somewhat freaked. My stomach pretty much dropped out and I had to force myself to eat lunch. My mind raced through all the possible options that I had been pondering. I have to say those were the worst moments. The uncertainty...the horribleness of my imagination (there is a downside to an active imagination)...the dreaded anticipation were all worse for me then the actual answer.
And that answer? Well, I have Multiple Sclerosis. It wasn't the worst thing on my list, but it wasn't the best either. My Mom was diagnosed with it 20 years ago, so I am no stranger to it. I am more fortunate in that we have caught mine very early and in that research in this area has made great strides since then. When my Mom was diagnosed, there were no real treatment options. You went into a lottery for a chance to participate in drug trials. Now there are several options, not without their downsides mind you, and several more on their way. My doctors, I have two neuros now, are being very proactive. I found out on a Friday. That Monday I began receiving treatment for my current flare-up. And soon we'll decide on the next course of treatment.
An so begins a new journey in my life. I've been surprisingly pragmatic about it, much in the way I handled Little Dude's 'accident'. Getting upset or depressed about it won't change things. It's best just to deal with it as it comes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not 100% with the situation. There are moments where the whole thing seems very surreal. Sitting in the hospital with an IV and a bag of steroids going into me made things far to real. But what else can I do. I'm a mother of two amazing and energetic kids and a full time scenic artist. I don't have time to wallow in self pity. I don't plan to submit.

*shrug*

I didn't post last week because every bit of free time was going towards Little Miss's 1st birthday party.

Yep. My baby is one. And we threw a quasi-big family party that included all the aunts and uncles, cousins, and most of the grandparents. (those that didn't make it were invited, travel just didn't work out). And for the day she had a lovely little party dress and *gasp* her Debbie Bliss Shrug. Have I blogged about this shrug. I know I posted a few snide fb comments about it. I have a love/hate relationship with Debbie Bliss. I love the *look* of her patterns. They are clean and classic and beautiful in a simple way. They are timeless. Then I go to knit them and I get extremely frustrated. For one, she seems to hate knitting in the round. I've adapted many of her things to get rid of unnecessary (to me) seaming. Then there is the lack of schematics. This shrug was desperately in need of schematics. I was lucky enough to find some at Redshirt Knitting. Another thing I've discovered about her patterns is that when you are asked to pick up stitches for edging, sleeves and the such, it seems as if she rolls some D&D dice to get the number of stitches you are suppose to pick up. The number never makes sense to me, nor fits in well with the area you are picking up from.



So it's been sitting on my needles for a while.  All that was left was the ribbed cuffs on the sleeves. Enter the adorable dress I bought for my daughter's birthday party. The dress without sleeves. I figured that I'd just put a white long sleeve onesie under it. No biggie. Well my mother kept telling me how she saw these really cute shrugs and should she pick one up for Little Miss to wear with her dress. I kept saying, no, she'll have a onesie on. Finally I said to my mom, "You really don't want me to put a onesie on under the dress, do you?" I'll refrain from writing her response, but in the end I said "Fine. Don't buy her one. I'll finish the shrug I started ages ago. It should go with the dress." Actually it matches the dress perfectly. I couldn't have matched it better if I were trying. And she wore it and looked absolutely adorable. To do the cuffs I ended up just picking up on the sleeves, not paying attention to the pattern and did the ribbing.


Pattern: Baby Shrug by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Tesoro

Hey I finished something!

I did indeed. I finally completed Little Dude's hat/scarf combo.

 

 As you can see, he likes it.


Very much.


Very, very much.


This is the pirate pose. (it's an eyepatch)


Pattern: Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf
Yarn: Bernat Aspen Soft

I made some modifications to the pattern to make the hat a larger size to fit my older child, as well as to accommodate my OCD need for symmetry. I increased the length of the scarf. To make it fit my 3 year old, the scarf sections I increased to 22 stitches, the hat front to 22, and the back to 18. I also reversed the second scarf, both in placement of the cables as well as cable direction. I had a little flub that I turned into pattern variation. Between the first and second cables I only did a 6 row repeat instead of the 8 row. The rest I did the 8 row. I repeated it on the second scarf.

I also started something...or restarted. I've got 12 working days to start and finish our next show so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to resurrect Footprints in the Sky. So come read about my insane journey in the glamorous world of show biz.

Ten on Tuesday

I'm not going with the collective Ten on Tuesday topic since, I, in fact, did not watch the Oscars. I don't really enjoy award shows at all. I watched Dr. Who instead.

So I'm picking my own topic today.
10 Knitting/crafting goals for the year. I've been reading the Knitter's Life List and it has inspired me.

1. Finish my Double Heelix socks. These will be my first non-worsted/bulky socks. 
2. Make the comic-book quilt. I've been planning it endlessly in my head.
3. Spin- I want to finish spinning my 'crap' fiber and indulge in some good stuff.
4. Make some orange socks for Little Dude. They were a request....how can I not?
5. Pull out my two UFO's and finish them. Now that Little Miss is starting to wean, I have no excuses not to work on Kyoto and my Red Vest.
6. Finish the T-shirt quilt for my FIL. I hit a roadblock on this one and I need to get it done.
7. Do a project that requires steeking. Because nothing says courage like cutting up a bunch of colorwork. 
8. Design at least one knitting pattern. I'm thinking either child's dress or shawl.
9. Paint at least one non-work canvas. 
10. Start at least 4 new projects from my Ravelry queue. I'm up to 10 pages queued....I ought to start some of them. 

So there it is.
And I have a lovely story concerning Little Dude and a knitted item. He spontaneously decided to wear his Spring Vest this weekend.  I told him that I had made that for him. His reaction: "WOW!!! Thank you Mommy!" voiced first in absolute awe and then the sweetest gratitude. I love this kid.

Sick day

We're having another sick day here. Yesterday My Love and I split the day up and I was able to get to work for a few hours and get some painting done. Not so much today. So far I've gotten Little Miss to take a small nap while I wore her in the carrier.  She didn't register a temp this morning but she's still out of sorts. She didn't go to bed until 11:30 last night. I'm hoping I can convince her to take a good long nap later and get some stuff done. The question is: do I clean or do I craft? hrmmm...

Ten on Tuesday

I guess I haven't blogged in a week. I keep falling asleep on the couch once the kids are in bed so not much is getting accomplished. Plus Little Miss has a come and go fever. My charity project acquired a horrendous tangle that I sicced my husband on. He's crazy when it comes to knots in yarn. We did that this morning while waiting for the doctor's office to open. Well, here's my ten for today:

10 Things You Can See From Your Favorite Knitting Spot

1.  the TV - I usually knit in front of the TV and half watch what is going on. It's often just background and forces me to look away from my knitting periodically. 
2. The wedding pictures of my grandparents- I love old photos and i have a display of their wedding party and then individual portraits of all four of them.
3. The kids toys- this is also the main play room so we have toys everywhere from Little Miss's little music table to Little Dude's train table. 
4. The fireplace- it was one of the selling points of the house for me, though aside from the big October storm and power failure, we haven't used it in years. It's tough enough keeping the kids out of trouble without adding fire to the mix. But when the are old we'll fire it up again. 
5. 'the pretty desk' - this currently sits in front of the fireplace. It was a piece rescued from the prop storage clean out. The footprint of the desk is a trapezoid and doors and drawers are veneered in burled wood and book-matched grain. I love the piece.
6. The book cabinet- Another rescue piece (I prefer old furniture) filled with our various leather bound book collections, photos, and knick knacks.
7. The old treadle sewing machine- this folds into it's cabinet and us currently the table for the light in the front window. 
8. Our ugly couch- it's ugly but it was free. How ugly you say?? Think Marie's couch on Everybody Loves Raymond, minus the plastic of course. 
9. Our IKEA cabinets- we have these two odd alcoves in the living room that are deep and narrow and just shy of two feet. Luckily IKEA is metric therefore they just fit in there and we promptly stuffed them full of books and DVDs. Little Miss has taken to pulling all the DVDs off the shelves (and Little Dude has taken to scolding her for it.)
10. My framed posters- I buy a poster whenever I go to a new art museum. In here I have The Lady of Shallot and Pygmalion and Galatea.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Favorite Super Bowl Party Foods.
or should I just say party foods. Though the food, to me, is the only reason to go to a Superbowl party. I hate football. I hate it more than I hate baseball...and it's about on par with basketball. And frankly we can't go to these parties anymore because it starts too close to bedtime for the kiddos. But if you are going to do it, this is how it should be.

1. Buffalo wings- And I mean real Buffalo wings. Not the crappy knock-offs that I keep finding around here. I'm from Upstate NY. I know what a Buffalo wing is. It's made with Frank's Red Hot and butter. That's it. You can have other chicken wing flavors as well but you better have the original.
2. Tortilla chips and Queso- a must. 
3. Nachos- Loaded. with everything. 
4. Potato chips and French onion dip- Heluva Good is the only acceptable brand of dip.
5. Veggies and dip
6. Chili- if ambitious you can do both white and red. 
7. Pizza- delivered or homemade. in a variety of flavors
8. Ribs- need I say more
9. Spinach artichoke dip- another must (my recipe is called 'crack dip' by my friends because they accuse me of putting crack in it. It's that addicting)
10. Brownies- chocolate goodness in a non messy delivery system. 

So there you go. Enjoy the game. I'll be giving the kids a bath and then watching Die Hard. 

On the nightstand: Skein of the Crime, Heroes. Volume two
On the Ipod: Death Comes to Pemberly
On the Kindle: Knitter's Life List
On the needles: Double Heelix socks, Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf, charity scarf & hat,
On the wheel: nada
In the sewing basket: finished Marvel pillow case and blanket
On the easel: nada
On the shop floor: Time After Time

Update Monday

It was a weekend of contrasts.  Saturday was busy with my son's social schedule, which by the way is more active than mine. Sunday was spent at home cleaning and trying to keep the peace between the minions. Little Miss thinks the Little Dude is just amazing and wants to do what ever he is doing, and he just wants her to stop touching his stuff. And Mommy just wants 10 minutes of quiet and to finish a mug of tea while it is still hot....if she can find where she left it.
Now that Little Miss is nursing less and doesn't require being held all the time, I'm able to get some projects done. I finished a new pillowcase and blanket for Little Dude's nap stuff for school. I had noticed when I passed through school at nap time that his blanket was suddenly too small (when the hell did he get so big?!?). So we took a trip to JoAnn's and I let him pick out his own fabric. We started by picking out fleece for the blanket. Well, there was so much to choose from; everywhere we looked was a new superhero. First one he saw was Batman, then Superman, then Captain America, then Green Lantern (I'm raising my kids to be both Marvel and DC). Then I found it....the fabric with Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ironman. "THAT IS AWESOME!!!"

 

Then we rounded the corner to the fabrics and I was astounded at the number of superhero fabrics (thank you Avengers movie). He picked his favorite and I decided that I need to make a quilt. Well two actually. I can't have Marvel and DC together in one quilt. (My husband thinks I'm nuts). I'll be fabric shopping soon.

I've been trying to get knitting again. I started the Double Heelix socks way back in July. After a rough start and some abandonment I'm almost done with the first sock.

I've some things to say about this pattern but I'll wait until I've finished. I have some ideas for the second sock and I want to give them a try first.

I also cast on for the Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf last Wednesday. I've been wanting to make this for my son. I showed him the picture and said he liked it. I asked what color he wanted, "PURPLE!" was the reply. It's his favorite color (mine too!) and I'm not the kind of parent who is going to have a conniption fit about my son liking purple. I grabbed a skein out of my stash and asked him if he liked it. He preceded to hold and hug it for about 3 hours. (I think he liked it).  I'm having to make a few adjustments because the largest size is still too small for him.




It is coming along well, and once again this weekend I proved that I can do cables while on Percocet. I might not be able to walk normally, but damn it, I can cable.

Then there's my perpetual use-up-the-stash, leave-on-the-back-of-the-couch, knit-a-few-rows-here-and-there project. I'm clearing out my stash of the yarn I bought before I knew better. Well, some of it I bought. A lot of it I inherited from various people. I'm making mostly scarves, but also some hats and gloves for the mitten tree at the library.



That's all the knitting for now. I'm hoping to cast on a dress for Little Miss's upcoming birthday soon.

I thought I'd keep a running list of what I'm reading, listening to, and working on. Here it is.

On the nightstand: Skein of the Crime, Heroes. Volume two
On the Ipod: finished The Time Machine, podcasts : Wait, wait don't tell me, Car Talk, Geek Girl Crafts
On the Kindle: Knitter's Life List
On the needles: Double Heelix socks, Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf, charity scarf & hat,
On the wheel: nada
In the sewing basket: finished Marvel pillow case and blanket
On the easel: nada
On the shop floor: Time After Time

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

We've been sick. And by we, I mean the entire household. And by sick I mean the plague that has hit most of this area that involves a lot of congestion, mucus, coughing, more coughing, nose blowing, sinus headaches even more coughing and general malaise. I still have an occasional touch of the cough, but I am fairly healthy now.

Life has busy. The holidays went well. We did the grand tour of our hometowns, connecting our children with as many grandparents, and aunts and uncles as possible. In typical baby fashion, Little Miss was more enthralled with the bows then the actual gifts. Little Dude is at the perfect age for Christmas and there was constant chatter about Santa and excitement in opening gifts.

My birthday has come and gone without much celebration. (I can't believe that I'm 35 now) My Love had to work all day but he popped home for dinner. He did bestow upon me the lovely gift of ear protection I can plug my iPod into. I've been wanting this for a while now and I love them to death.

Work is exceeding busy and I hope to resurrect Footprints in the Sky soon. The problem of being really busy often means that I'm lax in taking pictures.


The minions are wonderful. Little Miss is my delight. She's such a happy girl, but isn't afraid to express her opinion. She's recently learned to shake her head 'No' and uses it often. She would love to eat big people food, but at 10 1/2 months old she still has no teeth. But that doesn't stop her from trying. She'll pound the table in proper Viking fashion when she demands her Cheerios. She's also on the verge of walking. Just this weekend she started walking along walls that don't have handholds and around doorways. You can see her think about trying to cross some wider spans but then she decides against it and crawls. But don't think that slows her down. She's crazy fast with the crawling. And yes, I dress her in pink and skulls. My Love gets a kick out of the flashes of my girly side in the way I dress her.

Little Dude just amazes me more every day. He really enjoys painting (go figure) and building things. His imagination has no bounds. I'll have to post some of his artwork. To the left he is painting a picture of the Hulk. (Yes, I have passed on my love of comics to him as well). I love how the pants are just a purple line across the page. Here you see him painting Hulk's toes.





 
This is a vampire he made out of one of his Christmas presents. Like I said....imagination galore. He recently learned about the differences between boys and girls, so we tend to have a lot of discussions about who has a penis and who doesn't. I just about died the morning he asked me if mine had been cut off. Everyday is a new adventure with these two.

Beyond that from a crafty/creative standpoint it has been slow. On my needles I have the Double Heelix socks from Knitty. I'll be giving my review of that pattern later. I've been trying to clear out my stash of yarn-I-bought-before-I-knew-better by knitting scarves and hats for charity. They are basic and boring and things I can stick on the back of the couch and knit a few rows while the kids are playing. My socks, by no means fall into that category. I've got a long list of things that await finishing...mainly my Tilted Duster. I've knit it all, I have fabulous buttons. I just haven't sat down and done it. Of course finding time to do it without 'help' is a challenge as well. I've been itching to spin but the wheel is hidden upstairs in my eventual studio, but that space is still lacking in power. My Love requires a full day off from work to complete that project, so who knows when that will happen.

Honestly I've been doing more reading of late. And in all forms. I'm not sure if I mentioned, and I'm too lazy to look back and see, that I started listening to audiobooks while I work. Beware, this can be addicting. Very addicting. And the nice thing is that if a book sucks, and some of them have, at least I still did something productive in that time. We were also graced with a Kindle Fire this Christmas, by some very generous parents. I never though I'd take to an e-reader, but it's not bad. It is especially nice for those nights where Little Miss requires a lot of rocking to fall asleep. You know those nights where they're out until you lay them in the crib and then they are wide awake screaming. Yeah. Love the Kindle those nights. And I still have a stack of traditional books all around. Right now I'm working on no less than 4 books. I'll be doing a post on books soon as well.

I've also found the joy of Podcasts recently as well and I've been inspired in all sorts of ways. Now if I can just manage to stay awake after the kids go to bed, maybe I can accomplish something. 

Well there it is. I have some scenery calling to me.

Ten on Tuesday

Today's topic:  10 Movies I Want to See Right Now 
(but won't because I have two kids, no money, and limited babysitting options)
Honestly I can't remember the last movie that I saw in the theatre. I'm thinking it was The Dark Knight, so that should tell you something. Frankly, I don't even know what's playing now so I'll list 10 movies I want to see in the theatre. I'm trying to keep this to things released recently.

1. Melancholia- I fell in love with this from the trailer. It seems so visually beautiful. I like Kirsten Dunst and I find the whole thing just very intriguing.
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo- I recently listened to the audiobooks of the whole Millennium series. If you've not read them, get your butt to the library and get your hands on them. They are excellent. I'm curious to see how it translates to the screen. I'm already not thrilled with the casting of Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger. What little I saw of him in the trailer doesn't work for me, but that won't stop me from seeing the movie. 
3. Underworld: Awakening - I like this series and I love my vampires. I like that this series goes into the origins of werewolves and vampires.
4. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - yeah, so it might not be true by the book Sherlock, but the first movie was fun and enjoyable. And Jude Law was just dashing. 
5. The Artist- I can't resist a period piece. Plus I've heard good things and I adore old black and white movies.
6. Hugo - I can't think of a reason not to see this one.
7. The Muppets- well duh! It's the Muppets. We were considering this as Little Dude's first theatre movie but he still doesn't seem quite ready yet.
8. The Ides of March- strangely enough, I really do enjoy a political thriller. Especially in an election year. 
9. Jane Eyre- a book I have read over and over and over. I've yet to see a movie version I really like.
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- before I had kids I'd see these movies on opening night. I adore the books. I'm so-so on the movies. The books set a very high bar. I don't like some of the choices the movies have made but they are enjoyable nonetheless. 

So there it is. 

Today is what??

I skipped blogging Thanksgiving week because it was a holiday and frankly I had enough to do. I have hosted Thanksgiving in one form or another for the last 11 years; ranging from years where we've had as many as 13 guests, to subdue years where I didn't even bother with a turkey (last year). I don't do this because I love the holiday. My husband's schedule often traps us here at this time of year, so it is up to me to hold with tradition. I'll often take in 'orphans' at the theatre who are far from their families and otherwise have nowhere to go.

But this year was a lovely holiday. I cooked my turkey on Wednesday....which was the best decision ever. It take so much of the stress out of the day. Little One is crawling now and showed of her new found skill to a set of grandparents that were visiting for the holiday.

And last week...well it sort of imploded on itself. I'm hoping to be back on track now.

Ten on Tuesday...oops Wednesday

I missed Ten on Tuesday yesterday. I had planned on doing it last night but got caught up making baby food once I got the little ones to bed. Husband is in his load-in week, so I'm all alone with the kiddos. I made a batch of carrots, apples and pumpkin but the last one was a epic fail.

So, Ten Ways to Use Fresh Cranberries.
This is a topic after my own heart. I love cranberries. I'll go through about a bag a week. When they are in season I try to buy enough to last me the whole year.

1. Eat them right out of the bag...raw. They are so good and tart and I love the pop they make in your mouth. I'll grab a handful almost every time I open the fridge.
2. Make cranberry relish. It's one bag of cranberries, one orange (unpeeled) and one cup of sugar. Grind the cranberries and the orange and mix in the sugar. All done. I drain the juice and drink it separately.
3. Cranberry sauce. Throw them in a pot with some liquid (I like to use apple cider) and cook. I like adding this to my oatmeal in the morning.
4. Toss some into your salad. Throw some walnuts and Gorgonzola too and you've got a great salad.
5. Dry them. Though I used my dehydrator for this and they took quite a while.
6. Scones. So many great cranberry scone recipes out there.
7. Pie. One of my favorite recipes that I make most years is Cranberry Pie with Hazelnut Crust from Mary Engelbreit's Tis the Season cookbook. I think I could eat the whole thing in one sitting. It's wonderful with some tea or coffee and some knitting on a cold day.
8. Bread. Lots of great quick bread recipes. Pairs well with orange or pumpkin.
9.Jam/jelly/preserves. Considering my 3 year old's new obsession with jelly on everything, I'll be taking this one to heart.
10. Going old school with this one: string for garland. One for the string, two for me.

Snowpocalypse

I don't know how many of you heard, or how many of you were affected but we had some weather relate hell here in Connecticut last week.

Now I know snow. I grew up in Upstate NY. Boy do I know snow. I've seen it in October and I've seen it in June. I've lost my car in it. Not, 'oh-where-did-I-park-my-car' losing it. No, I mean, 'it's-in-the-driveway-but-I'm-not-sure-where-and-only-found-it-when-I-hit-the-roof-with-the-shovel-while-digging-out" lost my car. The storm October 29th was unprecedented. I will admit we really didn't prepare as well as we should have. Of course we heard snow and didn't really pay attention to the forecasts.

We'd yet to hit peak leaf season here. Many of the trees were still green, especially the oak, which tend to hang on till the last minute. My maple, which is the first to turn and lose it's leaves, was halfway shed. Well, the snow came, wet and heavy and in abundance. The trees didn't have a chance. We lost power around 3pm Saturday after it flickered on and off for about an hour or two. Of course after the power went out he peed his bed during nap and she pooped all the way up to her neck.

Little Dude was napping when we lost power, and when he woke up I told him that we were going to have an adventure. And boy was I right. We spent Saturday night listening to the trees being ripped to shreds around us. Our neighborhood is called Timber Village for a reason. I can't explain how exhausting or surreal it is to lay in bed all night hearing crack!!! and then bracing for the impact. We were exceedingly lucky. For most of us in the neighborhood the trees fell around our houses and cars. One guy down the street did have a branch breech his roof, but it could have been much worse. Some people in the state had trees go right through one or two stories of their houses. The swing-set in the neighbor's yard (that our kids play on) took a double hit and is currently unusable, but still fixable. The thing is these were perfectly healthy trees. The weight of the snow on the leaves just started to rip the oaks apart. (We have mostly oaks in the yard). Our beech shed a few more large branches, as it does every major storm. The branches in our maples were so bent over that they looked like weeping willows. Our neighbor's weeping cherry was peeled like a banana.

And with all these branches came down the power lines and the phone lines. No phones, no power. Luckily we are on town water, for many we know have a well. We also have a gas stove and old water heater that has a constant pilot light. It may be inefficient but it means we still had hot water. Many of our friends weren't so lucky. My husband's shop is a 1/4 mile from the power station and they rarely lose power, so we took as much of our fridge and freezer we could stuff into the one in the break room.

So Sunday came and went with no power. Then Monday came...daycare and my work were closed. We pulled the mattress from our bed into the living room where we have a fireplace and had both kids sleep with us. We spend the day in my husband's breakroom where there was heat and power. We had a cookout that evening where we attempted to cook as much as we could from our big freezer before we lost it all. A lot still ended up in the dumpster. Tuesday came and still no power. Wednesday I took the kids over to the Painted Sheep's apartment for baths and to do a load of their laundry. For though we had hot water, the house was just too cold to bathe them especially since they were both sick. The smoke from the fireplace and lack of humidifier turned J's hint of a cold into croup. Wednesday night we drove by daycare and saw that they had power. So Thursday and Friday the kids had a touch of normalcy and went to daycare. Thursday I hit the laundromat with some of our essentials. By Friday evening power was creeping closer and closer to our neighborhood. We saw the trucks all around us and decided to go out to dinner (not like there was much of a decision. We had limited food in the house) and prayed that when we returned it would be back on. When we got back home everyone had power except our block!!! Once again we huddled together in our mattress in the cold. I convinced my husband not to do a fire that night since the smoke was causing more issues than the heat it was generating. At 4:35am Saturday morning, just after changing Little Miss, we were blinded by bright lights all around us. We had thought that we had shut everything off but suspect that Little Dude just might be responsible for the blinding light show.

So now we have heat and light (and TV). It took all weekend to do the mountains of laundry with some still remaining. The cloth diaper pail was near toxic. We lost so much food. I lost an entire day's worth of breastmilk and had to use the freezer stash. I now have nothing in reserve. I can't let the kids play in the yard until we get a tree company out to get the remaining broken and hanging branches.

But we are alive, our house is intact, and now we are saving for a generator.
How was your Halloween?

Resurrection

It's time to bring this back to life. I've often thought of this little blog. I've endlessly written posts in my head during the months I've been away from it. I just never made it to the keyboard to give them life. So I'm back. And there's so much to tell.

I guess first and foremost would be the birth of my beautiful daughter back in March. Introducing my little princess Miss A.

She came to us with more warning than her brother did. I woke on Sunday March 5th feeling different. I told my husband as such. We put our babysitter for Little Dude on warning and I had Braxton Hicks much of the day. I went to work as usual the next day and about mid-morning I called my doula. No sign of my water breaking, but I was having contractions about every hour or so. I wrapped up the project I was working on, had lunch with all my co-workers and told them that I didn't expect to be in the next day. My husband met me at home at the end of my work day, (yes, I worked a full day while in labor) we picked up Little Dude, hit the grocery store, had some dinner and then called the babysitter, the doula and the doctor. The babysitter came as we were putting him to bed, and he didn't want to let Mommy and Daddy leave. We arrived at the hospital around 8:30pm and Little Miss arrive at 12:13am on Tuesday, March 8th.

Little Dude adores his sister. He's such a good big brother. He informs everyone that she belongs to him. She's such a happy baby. She's a little girl who likes to watch what is going on around her. She loves to watch her brother. She has recently taken notice of the cats, much to their dismay. She's my delight. Especially in the morning, when I'm surrounded by grumpy boys, I love seeing her smiles and giggles.

Today she's 8 months old and here's what she looks like

Isn't she a cutie? Can you blame me for wanting to spend time with her instead of writing blog posts?

Hey, it's my birthday!

And in proper fashion, I am sick...again. The joys of being pregnant in the winter.

I've been very busy since my last post. The holidays arrived with a vengeance and we all survived. I did finish the Fetchings for Little Dude's teachers and they all loved them. I really liked the Malabrigo Rios. My only issue was how poorly they were skeined. Even using my swift winding them was a trial. One skein was so horrible that it took 4 people several hours to untangle it.

The fabric arrived too late to begin sewing before we left for our trip. We wrapped up the fabric and presented the gift and expressed our intentions. I started off well with the piecing but then hit a huge snag that is going to require me to pull everything out and start over. I had to step away from that project. Part of the problem is that it is a t-shirt quilt and even with interfacing the knit fabric of the t-shirts are problematic to quilt with.

I've also tackled my sewing pile. I've discovered that my biggest impediment to keeping up with my sewing, other than the all consuming 2 year old, is lack of a decent place to set up my machine. I don't really have somewhere that I can set up with good lighting and enough room to work. The upstairs, which is to become the office/fiber & art studio, won't be done before the summer. There are two rooms ahead of it in demand of completion. But I am making due in the meantime and have made much progress in the last week or two.

I'm in frantic gift knitting mode with a bevy of babies being born all around me.

I'll soon have pictures of all of this, once I clear off the camera card....which is once again full. I really let the photos get out of hand this year. I had been intending it as one of my summer projects, but with the Little Dude unexpectedly home with me all summer, there was little opportunity. Right now I'm just trying to organize the mass files and make my back ups.

So being my birthday I usually consider my intentions for the year. I'm liking the concept of intentions as opposed to resolutions.

• The big one would be a successful pregnancy, birth and surviving the increase of our family. 
• The second on the list has to be completing the Little One's room. My husband threw himself full force into the project. Right now it needs some electrical work and the closet framing before the drywall goes up. Then it is my project for a while. I'll do all the mudding and painting. He'll do the work on the floor. I've got a light fixture to pick out, window treatments to make, and some other decor stuff to deal with. Right now I'm trying to find fabric I like, as well as the light fixture. Our low ceilings, while helping with keeping heat costs down, limit my choices. 
• Keep going on the sewing list. I need to finish my WIP list before starting anything new, excluding any of the above projects for her room.
• Try to keep up on the personal knitting. With pregnancy and nursing, sweater projects will have to wait. But socks and shawls are definitely doable. 
• De-clutter the house. We a made a big dent recently and it felt great. It's time to let go of a lot of this stuff. I can't handle it anymore. Some days I'm ready to sell the lot and start over. 

I think that's enough to start with right now. Plus my knitting beckons me. 

Ten on Tuesday

KThis one is a timely list. Since the week of Thanksgiving, one or more members of the household have been sick. This weekend the Little Dude had the stomach flu, which killed all our plans. I had it yesterday...and let me tell you, it is so much worse when you have a Little One kicking your already tender digestive tract from the inside. Now we're 10 days till Christmas and I've done almost nothing.
So here we go:

10 Things On Your To-Do List

1. Knit Fetchings for Little Dude's main teachers at daycare.
2. Buy DnD gift cards for his teachers as well. (only his three main teachers are getting the added knitted gift)
3. When fabric arrives for quilt, wash, iron and cut as needed.
4. Sew quilt
5. Christmas shopping...I'm ashamed to say we haven't done any of this yet. 
6. Decide if I'm going to bother doing any cookie baking at this point and do it if I am.
7. Address Christmas cards and send out.
8. Wrap gifts.
9. Try and get out to see Santa and get the yearly picture.  Illness has thwarted this twice.
10. Pack for our road trip

There's so much more but I'm limiting it to the ten right now. 

Ten (or more) on Tuesday

10 Favorite Holiday Shows

A ten on Tuesday topic after my own heart. Much to my husband's chagrin I adore Christmas movies and I plan on passing that love down to our kids. These are some of my favorites but in no particular order:

1. White Christmas--one of my top favorites. Don't know why but I love it. 
2. A Christmas Story--who doesn't love this one? (and shame on you if you don't). How could you not love lines like "You'll shoot your eye out!" and "Oooohhhhh Ffffuuuuddddgggee."
3. Nightmare Before Christmas--a fitting movie for two holidays and Tim Burton to boot. I have CD memorized and I sing along. 
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer--yes it's hokey stop motion but it's one of my favorites from childhood. I love the Island of Misfit toys. Burl Ives singing "A Holly Jolly Christmas" is one of my favorite Christmas songs...it always gets me in the holiday spirit.
5. Miracle on 34th Street--the original only
6. The Santa Clause--I'm not a huge Tim Allen fan but I love this movie. I've only seen bits and pieces of the second one so I can't really rate that one.
7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas--again another classic. Narration by Boris Karloff...come on! Frankenstein's Monster narrating Dr. Seuss....how can you go wrong?
8. It's a Wonderful Life--to be completely honest I never saw the whole of this movie until several years ago. I know, I'm a freak. 
9. Home Alone--and possibly the sequel. 
10. The Bishop's Wife--Carey Grant...need I say more?
11. The Family Stone--I love this movie no matter how much it makes me cry
12. Mickey's Christmas Carol--this has a special place in my heart and my Little Dude has already watched it twice. (He's very into Mickey and Donald right now)

So there you go. I'm ashamed at how few of these I own, but I plan on rectifying that. The Little Dude misses most of these when they are on TV because they tend to start at 8pm and he's in bed (hopefully) before then. What is your favorite?

Plugging away

I've been to busy knitting to post.

I've finished the back and two fronts, blocked them and stitched them together. I finished and blocked the sleeves last night. So I've got the skirt and the collar left. There's a lot of knitting in the skirt. I'm not sure I'm going to make my goal to wear it Saturday, but we shall see. I might get the collar done first and get the sleeves on and at least have a bolero for now.

I am enjoying the pattern. It's not a difficult knit by any means and I really do like the yarn. I think I have a new stock wool.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Ways to Have Fun on Long Car Rides

1. Knit- the obvious answer
2. Read- I've never understood the people who can't read in the car. I've always read on car trips.
3. Audio books- This is how we survived a long road trip with a 1 year old. Thank you Harry Potter.
4. Talk- Sometimes it's the only chance my husband and I get to catch up on the random things in our lives.
5. Sleep- a necessity when you are the back up driver.
6. NPR- Love them
7. Take some fun sidetrips....or just get off the highway and the same old rest stops to have lunch and pee in a really awesome local diner. The best hint to finding the best local grub is to check the license plates in the parking lot. If they are local plates...eat there.
8. Wear comfy clothes. 
9. DVD player....this has helped us with longer trips with a very active toddler.
10. Make sure you like the people who are in the car with you. 

Several people have asked where I get the topics....well I get mine from Carole Knits.  I found her through my friend, The Painted Sheep.

Race to Rhinebeck

So the yarn came Friday, but frankly I was too exhausted to do anything but open it and admire.

Saturday I started my gauge swatch. I needed 17 stitches over 4 inches. On the recommended 10 needles I got 16 stitches. On a 9, I got 18 stitches. WTF! A little more finessing I went with the 9's and seem to be making gauge. I cast on the back and set to it.
Sunday night I finished the back
Last night (Monday) I finished the right front and knit the left front to the armhole.

This project is my marathon knit. I the same spirit as the Tour de Fleece and the Olympic challenges, I plan on wearing this thing to Dutchess County Sheep and Wool at Rhinebeck. I'm also thinking I should have ordered another skein of yarn, but I think I can make that up in the sleeves. Being of petite stature I find that the sleeves are often too long.  I probably can adjust the skirt of the sweater as well, for the same reasons.

Anywho...tonight's plan is to finish the left front, block the completed pieces and start the sleeves.

Wish me luck.

Need a lift...

It's a rainy gloomy day. I know better but would love to find some wool in my door when I get home. That would be just the thing to cheer me up and occupy my evening with more interesting things than laundry and dishes.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things in My Refrigerator Right Now:

1. A quart of apple butter that I made this weekend. 
2. Organic milk for the Little Dude
3. Some of my Mum's homemade sauerkraut. Best. Kraut. Ever!
4. Jug of apple cider for hot mulled cider...one of my autumn indulgences. 
5. Inglehoffer cream style horseradish- the hottest horseradish sauce out there determined by our delicious but unscientfic tests at work. Good for clearing out clogged sinuses.
6. Portabella caps waiting for some gorgonzola and carmelized onions to become the perfect dinner. 
7. Pure maple syrup from Vermont...some things I don't compromise on. Maple syrup is one of them. 
8. Orange juice. I'm pregnant. I inhale the stuff. 
9. Green olives. My husband's latest passion has been vodka martinis. 
10. Greek yogurt.

Ordered...

and now waiting. I've got enough Blackberry to make my Duster. I'm holding off on the other for now. I didn't want to wait while I made up my mind. I guess I'll finish up my socks until this comes. I'll be stalking my mailbox.

Well I'm exhausted and hungry so I'm going to eat and then crash. Let us all pray that the Little Dude sleeps in tomorrow morning.

Almost there....

with a decision. I meant to order last night, but the night did not go as planned at all. Immensely irritated (read severely pissed off) at having to miss Stitch n Bitch and knowing I won't be able to attend the next few weeks I was in a mood. I turned my irritation towards housework and vacuumed before I picked up the Little Dude from 'school'. After we played outside I made dinner for the two of us (Pasta!!!) and after much fuss and tears and pleading for "Down!" he ate it. I also did three loads of laundry, stacks of dishes, set the dishwasher to run, bathed the Little Dude, put him to bed, mopped and cut my husband's hair. And even though I was rather furious with him, I refrained from shaving something into the back of his head. That's true love.

Once all these were accomplished, I settled down in the bed with my laptop to surf, and write and order away while waiting for the diapers in the dryer to finish....and I promptly fell asleep. My husband pointed out that once the screen saver pops up, it's probably best to go to bed. So I did and my yarn remains unordered. I've narrowed it down to a few color options: Currant, Blackberry, Lullaby and Indigo Heather. I'm leaning towards Blackberry.
I might order two sets to make another top from my queue. I've been wanting to make the Ballet Wrap by Nora Gaughan for quite a while but it falls in to the pile of items that my stash cannot supply. Plus it works well with a baby bump and seems like much of it is rather mindless knitting. Again, I'm slightly stumped on color. I might go more neutral as it is something that I would layer with a ton of other things. Or stop being practical and go with one of my other options (Currant or Hollyberry or Claret Heather) and have fun with the color.

We'll see what the night brings.

Decisions, decisions...

I'm still debating on a color for my Tilted Duster. I've decided that I need to order tonight, if I'm going to do this. I've banished the idea of a neutral. I've got too much of that going on in my wardrobe. Besides, if I've had to stop dying my hair funky colors because of the Little One then I might as well wear them.

I'm still looking at the Wool of the Andes. My top choices are the following:

Currant
Blackberry
Lullaby
Hollyberry
Winter Night
Indigo Heather
Amethyst Heather
Evergreen

I'm just stumped. This is the dilemma I have with online ordering. It's hard to pick when they aren't right in front of me. Looking through Ravelry I've noticed that several people have used Amethyst Heather, so that has moved that color on down the list. Any guidance, suggestions, or opinions would be appreciated.

Ten on Tuesday

I've nearly forgotten about these.

10 Ways to Have a Happy Birthday:

1. My number one rule is that I wear a tiara on my birthday. Hey, it's your birthday. You should be Queen. This tradition started when I spent way too much on my wedding tiara, but it was the only gold tone one I could find. So I rationalized it by saying I'd wear it at every opportunity, and I do...only I have a collection of 7 or 8 by now. Even if I'm wearing respirator, ear protection, and goggles my tiara graces my head every birthday.
   
2. Cake--a must. And the birthday girl/boy gets to choose the type. That's the rule in our house. Even if it means I'm making the pain-in-the-ass-to-make cheesecake that my husband loves and spraying myself and the kitchen with chocolate every year, so be it. He gets the cake he wants.
   
3. Do something you wouldn't do on a normal day. Even a little something....just to make it special.
4. Fill the day with people you like (and avoid the ones you don't) even if it means taking the day off from work.
   
5. Calories don't count on your birthday.
   
6. If possible, sleep in.
   
7. Make the day about celebrating you, not some abstract number.
   
8. Look at pictures of your childhood birthdays....this is always fun. Share them with family and friends and reminisce or just laugh at the clothing/hair styles.
9. If you have your mom in you life, have her tell you about the day you were born. My mom finally wrote it down and sends me a revised document every year as she remembers more details.
   
10. Indulge in something special just for you. Something you wouldn't normally buy. Hey, you survived another year. You've earned it!
    

Fall is in the air....

and making me ponder going off of my very strict yarn diet. The chill in the air makes me long for hot cider and warm knits. My needles are longing for some wool and my stash just isn't allowing me to knit what I would like. With Rhinebeck looming in the near future I have a strong desire to wear the Tilted Duster as I peruse the stalls. Frankly, I've settled on getting the yarn I'm just stuck on the color. I'm looking at Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. The colors are lovely and the price is right. Just what color do I go with??? A rich brown or charcoal?? Or do I abandon my neutral kick and go for a lovely jewel tone....if so then what? Blue to go with my eyes or a woodsy green??? A deep red or a glorious purple??? I better decide soon if I'm going to manage this in time for Sheep and Wool.
I've been eying this pattern since it was printed. I know several people who made it and have admired it on several knitters at various festivals. I'm always cold, as my husband will attest to, so I never can have too many sweaters/hoodies/jackets. Plus, I think it'll be the perfect pattern to accommodate the new baby bump I'm sporting.
In all the stress and strain of the summer we achieved something thought we could manage on our own....namely getting pregnant without jumping through numerous hoops and much heartache. Yet here we are. The Little Dude with be a big brother come this March.
And speaking of the Little Dude, I'm happy to say that his new 'school' is working out very well. He's very happy there and they just love him to pieces. He's learned so much in just the month he's been with them. He's counting to ten and getting much better recognizing letters. M (said with a slight growl) is still his favorite. His hands are better and better all the time. It's even hard for me to notice the discoloration that had been left.
I've been silent here since I went back to work myself. I confess to the mixture of being back on the job full time and the pregnancy has knocked me on my butt. I'm often falling asleep after Little Dude goes to bed. I'm going to have to fight that urge if I'm going to get my Tilted Duster done.

Off to stare at some color swatches...and maybe a few kits. If I'm going off the diet I might as well splurge my way to free shipping.

Not an encouraging beginning

I had mentioned before that I was going to start the Eva raglan sweater. I've been swatching over the last several days and I'm not happy. It has nothing to do with the yarn or the gauge but the pattern.

The English version is full of confusion and inaccuracies. First off it wants you to swatch in M3 but never explains what the hell M3 is. Luckily my friend NutmegOwl, who is familiar with French patterns was able to explain. M is short for stitch. M3 would be the third stitch pattern given in the instructions. Excellent...then it took me a little while to find a needle size...whatever.

So I swatch and swatch...and learn to cable without a needle to make it easier... and something doesn't seem right. Well that would be that the damn chart is wrong. I've had it on this pattern. Luckily some Foliage I traded for arrived and I'll make some boot socks while I figure out what to do next. I'm not sure I want to continue with this pattern at all.

Ishbel

So I finished a project for myself....and I love it. You know, I could get used to this knitting for myself thing. Here she is.



Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda
Yarn: Ball and Skein Super Sock 416 in Atlantic





Thoughts: I love this pattern. I did the small stockinette section and the large lace, which left me a small amount of yarn left. Perhaps enough for some baby socks. I did the lace without a lifeline and had a few mishaps but nothing major. I had pulled out the needle on accident at one point, dropping maybe a dozen or so stitches, but they were easily recovered. I did have to do some tinking to deal with some mystery stitches (both appearing and disappearing ones) but nothing too drastic. I would definitely knit this one again.







I have some more of this yarn in a different colorway that is going be yet another Ysolda shawl. I'm also looking to start the Eva raglan pull by KatyTricot...but there are some issues with the English version of the pattern. I've written a few people on Ravelry for insight. I really have to say though, if it were my design and there were a bunch of questions posted about my pattern, I'd put the damn information on the main page. If enough people are having issues, there is obviously needed information that needs to be made readily available. I may just give up on this one and jump right into the Tilted Duster. The only thing is that I'm not sure I have enough of anything in stash for it.

On the Foliage front I'm arranging some trades on Ravelry so that I have enough boot socks for work this winter. I'll have to find a replacement yarn.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things to Take on Vacation:

Frankly my last true vacation, one that was to somewhere we really wanted to go and didn't require a mandatory relative visit, was my honeymoon 8 years ago. I don't feel qualified to answer this week.