RIP, RIP, RIP

RIP, RIP, RIPPING along and not the rest in peace kind of ripping either.  I'm talking the ripping of stitches, many, many stitches.   Over and over again. 

Problem the First:  I decided to make my first officially designed sweater as complicated as frigging possible.   Cable panel, check.  Waist shaping, check.  Square neck, check.  Six sizes so far, check.  

Problem the Second:  Math are hard!  Ya know, maybe, just maybe, if someone (oh, I don't know say, a teacher maybe) had told me that there were real world practical applications for algebra, I just might have paid some freakin' attention the first time around!  Who knew that I would be using algebra in designing sweaters 24 years later?  If you do the math, you'll find out when I was in tenth grade.  I'm not just going to tell you the year though dammit. If I have to have a math headache, then the more the merrier.  I say that with love of course.

Problem the Third:  Gauge hates me.  It bit me.  Twice.  The second time resulted in six freakin' inches extra.  I put it on the dress makers dummy to look at my knitted sample and the damn thing fell off!  See, the gauge wasn't 4 stitches per inch, it was really 4.25 per inch.  That tiny quarter of a stitch makes a really big difference and don't let anybody tell you it doesn't.

Problem the Fourth:  I'm making every design blunder in the book.  It's annoying, but by God, I guess I'll learn this stuff the hard way huh?  The hard way always makes this stuff stick in my brain easier anyway.

Problem the Fifth:  Relates to Problem the Second.  I found a place online that could figure this whole algebra thing out.  However, not wanting the easy way out, I decided to reverse engineer their results (so that I could build my excel spreadsheet properly) in order to figure out how to really do this math.  My brain hurts now, thank you.  I did figure it out though.

Now, Go back and after each of these Five Problems, place the the words:  Great, just great, now I have to rip it back again.

Yeah, I might have miss-titled the name of this post.  It should read: RIP, RIP, RIP, RIP, RIP.  At this rate, my yarn will fall apart and I'll have nothing to knit my sweater with.

What A Bully

Day four of the sick child.  Still has a fever.  Has quit vomiting, but now is a snot monster.  He's nasty and has an attitude.  God help me.

*********************************

You know those playground bullies, the ones that steal your milk money?  Yeah, we've got one of those around here:

This was taken right before he ran her off from the food.  He's also the one that blocks the entrance to the potty when she has to go.  Oh, and he blocks it when she's trying to get out of the box too.  What a bully.

Save Some, Earn Some

 Not much going on so far this week.  The Youngest has been sick and has managed to taint me with his little germs and now I feel like dog dirt.  Crafty stuff will resume shortly, I promise.  Until then, Check these out:

 Save Some Dough:

1.  Here's an awesome deal over at Amazon that will be perfect for gearing up for Christmas: Amazon Mom

What you get:  3 Months of Amazon Prime Free!  You get free two day shipping which is totally awesome.  And, for every $25 you spend in the Amazon Baby Store, you get another month of free shipping.  There is also also a great discount: 30% off select diapers and wipes. 

You don't have to be a Mom necessarily to qualify, just a caregiver or someone out to help a new parent.  Sweet.

Earn Free Stuff:

 2.  Swagbucks:  You've heard me mention this one before.  I absolutely adore this site for earning Amazon Gift Cards.  So far I've earned around $200.00 to use over at Amazon.  Christmas will be very good this year for my boys!  I'll be combining my gift cards and using them with the free Amazon Prime shipping mentioned above.  I know a few of you have joined through me and I'm curious, how well has Swagbucks worked for you?

3.  Irazoo:  This is similar to Swagbucks, but you only search and win, there are no special offers to do.  It's much simpler, so if you don't want to do all the extra stuff on Swagbucks to earn the free Amazon gift cards, this is the place for you.  They do give out codes like Swagbucks does (they're called Treasure codes on Irazoo) and you need to be on their Facebook page to get them.