Baby Kimono!

I like this FO. This will be one cute baby gift if I do say so myself. I went on a ribbon hunt today at several craft stores and came home with a sheer lime green with white polka dots to go with this outfit. This is the Baby Kimono from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. I used Lily's Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn in Sunny Sky. This is a lovely soft worsted weight cotton. This went so fast. Especially after working with sock yarn. I felt like those needles were flying!

I really liked this pattern too. Easy and fun. I just can't say enough about the Mason Dixon book. I can't wait to try some more of the patterns from it.

Supervisor Widget

Yikes! Father of knitters, forgive me for I have sinned. It's been three days since I've blogged again.

Okay, enough of that. I have a finished object to show you, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's in the blocking stages right now and it's so cute! It's the baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting and it turned out perfect.

Now don't go gettin' any ideas. It's not for me. Nope, no bun in the oven here and if my hubby don't quit tickin' me off there won't even be any practicing for a blessed event either, thank you very much! Anyway, I'll have a pic. for you later (pics of the sweater - get your mind out of the gutter).

For now, here's a pic of Supervisor Widget as she sits on the desk above me as I type:

Dad doesn't need his wifi router working as much as I need a place to sleep!

Yarn dyeing and Hair!

Two subjects to write about today: Yarn dyeing and Hair!

First, Hair. I was completely put in my place yesterday. I'm a bit opinionated when it comes to children's hair, specifically boys hair and even more specifically, the length of it. I'm old school. I love to see a super short, clean haircut on a little boy. Nothing long, nothing shaggy. Well. There's this little boy that I know who has very long hair. If you didn't know he was a boy, you'd swear he was a girl. Of course, I was being snooty and looking down my nose at him, thinking that his Mom must just like that kind of thing and doesn't that make me better than her cause my boys have short hair? I feel like a total tool now. I was told that this little boy made the decision to grow out his hair for Locks of Love. What an amazing thing this little boy is doing. Some little child is going to be thrilled to get that red, curly hair. How much crap has this little boy had to put up (by people like me) with over this wonderful decision that he has made?

To defend myself at least a little bit, let me add this. I live in an area where redneck parents think it's a good idea to not only let their kids hair grow out for fun, but they let them do it Mullet style. ick! Let me add a bit more: I'm not against grown men with longer hair. Can we say Viggo Mortenson from Lord of the Rings, anyone????


Okay, on to Yarn dyeing fun!

1. I got some knitpicks Bare sock yarn - 2 skeins of it and couldn't wait for the fun to begin. I have absolutely no experience in doing this kind of thing, but couldn't wait to get started. I soaked the yarn in very hot water and let it sit for about 45 minutes.

2. Dye - for this go around (won't be my last) I used Dylon permanent fabric dye in Poppy Red, Royal Blue and Sunflower Yellow.


3. I knew I wanted a variegated yarn, so I used two quart jars per skein. I only wanted two colors, thus the two jars. I did two combinations: Red/Purple, Orange/Green.

I did not follow the exact directions on the dye packs. For the red I used one dye pack (it's powder). Purple - One Red pack and about half of the blue. This was gorgeous. It turned out a dark heathery purple. For the Orange color I used half of the yellow and about two or three tsps. of the red dye. The Green was fun. It turned out a fabulous moss green. To get it, I used the other half of the yellow and about a tablespoon and a smidge of the blue. As you can tell, I didn't get exact measurements. We (my Mom was playing too) just kept adding until we got the color we wanted.

I added the recommended amount of salt (4 tbsp) to the mixtures to help set the dye. If you do this, make sure that you cover your work surface really well. (Mom would have killed me if I had messed up her granite counter tops. It's fun to craft at someone else's house, but the repercussions could be hell if you mess up!)

4. So I place the dye jars close together in a big pan on top of a great big splat mat, then added the yarn. This yarn is a superwash sock yarn, so I didn't need to be as careful of it felting, but if you use other, beware. Make sure you do some research first. Warm water, not hot and don't agitate! I divide the hank in half and put one end in one jar and one end in the other. Make sure that you have used some twist ties or waste yarn to secure the hanks as best you can to prevent tangling. I didn't do this well enough and it took me forever to get out the tangles when I went to wound this into a ball.

Notice that there is a little bit of no man's (or dye's) land between the colors? I loved that. The white turned a pretty light gray between the red and purple and a sunny yellow between the orange and green.


5. I let everything sit for an hour. Then I rinsed each hank in cold water and then in cold water and vinegar. I added the vinegar to make sure the dye set. I absolutely do not want runny socks when I'm finished with the final product. I'm paranoid that way. (I must also mention that the smell of wet wool and vinegar is not a lovely aroma.)

6. I then set the to dry out on the porch over night. My mom has a brand spanking new dryer that has a sweater shelf attachment and we put the still damp yarn on it to finish drying the rest of the way the next day.



7. Here's the final results in all it's yarny goodness. Um, I'm not a professional ball winder. Can ya tell? At least I got the job done. I can't wait to knit these up. I'm thinking of maybe doing the Sidewinders over at Nonaknits with one of them. Let me know if you like the way these turned out:

Summer Camp 2007 - Son Seekers Nation Vacation

Are ya feelin' the love?

I survived the week of Drama Camp 2007. It was a definite success! I had 30 fabulous kids (not one rotten one in the bunch!) and didn't have any discipline problems (mostly), yeah! The parents all seemed pleased. I found out from some of the staff up at the church that this is the most popular of the elementary camps that are offered. That makes me feel awesome! We had to turn some kids away. It would be lovely if we could expand the camp, but the problem is that I'm only one person. I can only handle so many kids at one time. If I had help that I could count on, life would be better. I did have some great interns (four college kids that helped out a bit).


Check out the next pic and see if you can find out what's wrong with the picture. I'll tell ya what's wrong, it's sneakin' away! Somehow Texas and Florida got together and said, "Hey, we don't want to be a part of this chicken farm production" and decided to leave. Love how the panhandles look more like feet than handles. Looks like Louisiana got in on the act. Male, the USA is definitely male. Obviously, my creative skills do not lean towards freehand drawing. All of my set stuff was done on the giant pink insulation that you can get at Home Depot or Lowes. We primered them, drew on them (my husband did the bus which is why it looks like it should) and then let the kids paint them. Hmm, shouldn't the USA be wider than it is tall?

Sneakin' away

Some of the kids during rehearsal

My Leads - check out the one on the right. Recognize him?

Two lonely cacti

I didn't get any pics of the actual production. I was a bit busy. It was quite funny really. I sit in front of them off the stage and mirror the choreography so that they can remember what to do and when to do it. Every single time I stopped, they stopped doing what they were supposed to do. When I messed up, they did. They'd all make great Lemmings.

my latest injury

I've been out of town and so out of the loop for the past few days. I'll have pics and lots of news tomorrow. I can say that this trip could have been better. I attempted to go swimming in the lake. It would have gone a bit better if I hadn't slipped on the ladder of the boat and got my hand caught in the handrail. My pinky is black, blue and swollen. It goes from numb to throbbing rather quick. Stupid me said "Oh, I can still knit. I don't use my pinky for that anyway." yeah, right. I got through a few rows of the baby kimono that I'm working on for a friend, then looked down at my hand. The pinky had gone a lovely gray/blue that completely clashed with the yarn that I was using. Time to put the knitting down for a few days. But! My yarn dyeing went "swimmingly" even if my body didn't. Will have pics of that later too. Maybe I'll photograph my lovely hand too for you. We'll see.

I also got a tummy bug as did my youngest child. Not fun. We're feeling fine now though. Except maybe for my poor pinky.

I'm pooped

I'm right at the tail end of exhaustion here folks. I've been getting up at 6am and staying up til late-thirty to get all the loose ends taken care of for the camp that I am teaching this week. This full-on instruction into the arts of putting on a full broadway style musical is a huge undertaking, especially fitting it all into approx. 15 hours! These kids are learning everything. Some even occasionally retain the info.

We're now past the halfway point. Tomorrow we start run-throughs and then on Friday we do the Tech Dress Rehearsal where we have the lights and mikes and everything. Friday night is the show. It's a dinner theater too which is really cool. Right now I just want everything to be over. I'm enjoying doing this, but it's just me and thirty kids doing everything. I'm pooped. Way too pooped to knit. One glass of an alcohol infused beverage and it'll be night night for me I think. Right after I finish the 30 tie dye shirts that the kids all started...

Snakes and Ladders is complete!

Yippee! It's done. The Snakes and Ladders Stole is now in the blocking stage. It's final measurements ended up being approximately 5.6' x 30". I am now a true believer. I didn't believe the people who said that blocking makes all the difference when dealing with lace, but I'm now a convert. This turned out gorgeous. I know the recipient will be pleased. Of course if she isn't, she'll lie and say she is, cause that's what Mom's do. Yes, the ends were wonky at the time of the photo, but they've been adjusted since. This is my first lace project. Yes, there are mistakes. Fortunately, I'm the only one who will ever notice. I figure that even for someone who knows what they're looking for would be hard put to find the mistakes on a moving target. And don't forget, I'm allergic to perfection anyway.

complete!, sorta

I got some yarn p@rn for you:

This lovely ball of merino sock yarn came from a lovely lady at ebay. She calls it Spruce. It's got a beautiful brilliant blue that keeps popping up every so often. The colors remind me of what you'd find in a peacock feather. So pretty! New socks are now in progress cause I couldn't wait. If you try and click on the pics below to get a better look, you won't. I couldn't get a clearer pic to save my soul tonight. But I tried!

Look Mom! I got toes!

Ahh! no foot!

knitting question and wieners

How long should a stole be? When is it finished? My Mom's birthday stole is at 5 feet currently. Should it be longer or am I finished?

I put in the question over at the knitty board and there seems to be some debate as to how long a stole/shawl should be.

a. Should be armspan length or height.
b. Depends on how a person likes the stole/shawl to drape.
c. Depends on the recipients "girth".
d. Length should be 60"-70" in length.
e. Object will stretch once it's blocked.
f. Object should wrap around shoulders and touch a person's waist.

I'd be interested in other people's opinions about this as well. Let me know what you think.


On a different note, Summer is now officially here! The last day of school was today and the Memorial day holiday is past us.

Over the weekend, my youngest got to experience a pool for the first time. He was fine until we put him in a life jacket, then he got mad:


Yesterday the kids played in a new sprinkler that we got. When we went in, the eldest complained that he "was so cold, he was freezing his wieners off." Evidently God now issues multiple weiners to little boys. Who knew?

no more wieners

upcoming projects and sheer wants

Just to show you how I'm procrastinating on that drama camp I'm supposed to be planning...


It's been a while since I have found a new craft that inspired me as much as knitting has. But I have found something that I really want to try. And it's knitting related. yeah! Today I went and ordered some superwash (cause I'm afraid of felting) wool sock yarn that I am going to dye. I can't wait. And then, I get to knit it up. woohoo! This is the best of all worlds to me. I get to play with colors, have fun with some chemistry (sort of) and then use the final product. I ordered the yarn from KnitPicks. KnitPicks has some awesome prices on yarn and their shipping is reasonable too. I'm planning on documenting the whole process just as soon as that shipment gets in, so stay tuned!

Now that I've ordered the yarn, I get to figure out what I will use as my dye. Will it be food coloring? easter egg dye? Not sure. I'm doing research on this over at knitty and craftster and various and sundry places on the web to decide.

I've also found some more knitting projects that I'm dying (not dyeing you'll note) to try. I know I'm late getting onto the Mason-Dixon Knitting book boat, but I went and reserved a copy from the libary. OMG! This book is fantastic! How will I ever afford all of the yarn for the projects I've ear-marked? I was lurking over at Cara's blog at January One and saw the miters she made for the mitered blanket. I must have it! I must knit it! That's what led me to this book. Then I saw the baby kimono, the spiral rugs, etc. I had originally planned on photo-copying the pattern for the mitered blanket, but now I want the whole entire book. Fabulous!




And no, this is not a paid endorsement at all, I'm just amazed at what these two ladies have done with this book. HMMM... Think someone could come up with a mitered sock?

Brag time!

Eldest accepts his reward from the principal

HE DID IT! HE DID IT! My boy did it! He was the top reader over the entire school. A kindergartner took the prize. Do I sound like a proud mama or what? I AM!

To put things in perspective:

1. The boy read over 80 books (mostly chapter books) from 2/28/07 til 5/25/07.
2. He came home from school, did his homework, would read one book, eat, bathe and then read one or two more books and then go to bed. He had no free time. He gave it all up to try and win this contest.

This is the first time he's ever devoted any effort towards anything that he really wanted.

The prize? A Nintendo DS Lite. (they give good prizes don't they?)

I remember being in a readathon when I was growing up and the prizes they had? a certificate and possibly a book. that's it.

It was kind of pitiful though. What happened to the upper classes? I would never have let a kindergartner beat me to the prize when I was in fifth grade. They got really lazy. The two runners up in the pic above both received $50 gift certs. to Toys R Us.

Eldest with the other top readers

Thanks to this contest, my little reader is already reading 4th and 5th grade books. Good for him!


Here's the latest photo of my WIP:

See? I'm still knitting.

gratuitous hawk photo

ok. First deadline (consignment sale) is gone and was a fairly good success. Except, of course, for the items I was trying to sell. I put in all that work throwing the sale and made a measly $3 bucks. Oh well, maybe next time will be better.

I've done no knitting. zip, zilch, nada, zero. I'm assigning the knitting project as deadline number three. Number two (drama camp) comes on June 4th.

In lieu of having anything important to show you today, I leave you with a gratuitous hawk pic. that I took while he was hunting chipmunks in my front yard.

Gratuitous hawk

tractors, graduation and gardens

Yuck! There's clouds of smoke around here (Atlanta) that have travelled all the way from the wild fires on the Ga/Fl state line. That's quite a ways folks! Smells awful.

AAAHHH! I'm overwhelmed! The first deadline approacheth! I have managed to get some more knitting done though, just no pics of it. The stole had become approximately 3.5 feet in length. I'm getting there!


Anyway, we had an awesome weekend. We skipped town and went to the lake. The eldest got to drive a farm tractor and loved it. The owner of the tractor is a cousin in-law.

Check out the serious expression on the eldest's face.

He also graduated kindergarten on Friday. The results of his reading contest will be announced on this coming Friday, so he only has three more days to read his little heart out for it.

The proud grad

Remember I promised some shots of my In-Law's gorgeous garden/front yard? These are just a few that I got. The first two were taken from their front porch. We thought they were absolutely nuts for tearing up the yard to put in a garden. Boy, were we wrong!

Kitty Bulimia

Have I told you about my kitty, Widget, that suffers from Bulimia? I think she's worried about her weight. Seriously. She rushes to the kitty bowl, eats like there's no tomorrow (daintiness be damned) and will then purge for all she's worth. Not immediately of course. She waits 'til we're not looking then finds interesting places for her, ahem, purging.

My hubby's favorite place for her to purge is the dog's water bowl. He sounds like a sailor everytime it happens. This is not a bowl per say, it's one of those bowls that has a giant bottle that looks like it belongs on the water cooler at work. So, it ain't easy to clean.

One of the others is our taupe colored carpet. She purges, then let's it lie in wait til it's allover cold and squishy. She then finds a good vantage point and waits til the stupid humans step in it in their bare feet. Yecch!

Well, a girl's gotta look after her figure somehow. Did I tell you she also likes practical jokes?

Don't look now, but your toe's an inch away from my latest joke.

Deadlines!

Ok. Time crunch is beginning. I've got two major deadlines coming and haven't really done much to get everything going. That's okay though, I work better under major stress. really.

Deadline 1: A uniform consignment sale at my eldest's school. I am heading this thing up and so far have no helpers and very few participants. Not really thrilled about this one. This happens May 24th.

Deadline 2: I am directing another Drama Camp this summer. This one is very intensive. The kids get a full on crash course in musical theater. They learn about building sets, making props, costumes, choreography, scripts, solos, etc. In approximately 15 hours they do all this and then show their parents and invited guests what they've learned by putting on the play. It's a dinner theater is well, so they get to learn about starving while their patrons eat and watch. This will be my third time direction one of these camps. It's very rewarding. I've had several of my students go on to community theater and school plays. I can tell you now I will be absolutely wiped out at the end of the week. This will be June 4-8.

Have I done much for the camp? um. not really. I've partiallly designed the set that we will make out of insulation that goes on houses. I've bought tshirts for them to tie dye for costumes. That's about it. My stomach is in knots.

I've decided to accept the tiny "villager" part in the summer broadway show. Still supremely miffed about it, but am attempting to get over it.

For your amusement, here's a pic of me in a past broadway show: Suessical. If you ever get a chance to see this done by a reputable theater troupe - Go see it! It's more skewed for adults and is absolutely hysterical! See that pink door there? My beehive wig hit it every single time I went through it. Foot high hair and small doors are not a good combination.

ooooh! Beehive hair! orange legs!

Still working on the stole. Will have an update soon when there is significant change to photograph.

Mother's day and cat beds

Happy Mother's Day!

Mine's been great. I got to sleep late (always a huge plus), at least til 8:30. The main reason? The baby slept til 8:30, which never, ever happens. Then we went to the in-laws and had a fantabulous dinner; filet mignon, basil grape tomatoes, creamed spinach, twice baked potatoes and to top it off was the most wonderful cheesecake I've ever had in my life. I was bad and had two huge pieces of the cheesecake and I'll be paying for that for the next month.

I finished the silly socks! Yeah! I also got in some time with the stole. I have until June 22nd (my mom's bday) to get that done.

Silly socks on the Silly boy's feet.

I know that most people have fancy cat tents or home-made cat beds, but really, why have those when you can have something that is obnoxious, doesn't match any other furniture, and takes up a quarter of the living room floor?

Super heroes and Silly Socks

I know why God put me on this planet. It was so that I could torture and annoy my children. Now, I'm not talking real "torture" here folks, don't go thinkin' anything crazy like that. I love my kids, I really do and I really enjoy picking on them. I can't help myself. I blame my Dad.

Take tonight for instance. It was my prayer night (we alternate who listens to my eldest's prayers every night). I seem to have this genius that tells me to get my kids all wired out and all right before bedtime. pure genius. After the prayers and tickle fest, I started in on his super heroes. Now this kid is obsessed with super heroes. Wants to be one of course, The super race car driver hero with super powers, the kind that avoids possum roadkill at the speed of light or some such. Anyway, at this age, it takes nothing to get them arguing, so I started in calling him Blunder Woman. There were many "I'm NOT Blunder Woman!"s. I progressed to talking about FatMan and StuporMan and of course there was more tickling til he couldn't breathe. I then got my kiss goodnight and walked out and left him to try and calm back down for sleep. Ahhhh. I'm feeling better now.

We had a pretty busy weekend. On Sunday eldest had his final soccer game and trophy night. Could someone PLEASE explain to me why boys feel the need to grab themselves during an entire game of soccer? Especially when they're goalie, standing by themselves where everyone can see them really well? Is it testosterone poisoning? I had to send his father over there to tell him to quit grabbing himself. Got a couple of blackmail pictures out of it though for his later dating years. :)

As far as knitting goes, yes, I have been doing it. I am still working on the second sock, but should be finished with it soon. Then I can go back to the stole that I need to get finished by late June. Curses on the distractions of silly socks! They were a good break from staring at patterns though.

Silly boy with Silly Sock

Pancakes and Snapdragons

When we were growing up, we used to be so excited when my mother would cook us up a big 'ol batch of pancakes. Not in the mornings however, but for supper! Now, as a mom, that's what I do. It has completely become my "cop out" meal. That's my go-to meal when I either don't have much time to cook or when I'm feeling lazy. It's also super cheap. If you're trying to stretch out your grocery budget, this is a great recipe to do it with. Not necessarily nutritious, but tasty!

Here's my Mom's recipe with my modification:

1 egg
1 cup flour (I use self-rising for a fluffier pancake and since I like my batter a bit thicker I add a 1/2 cup more)
1 cup milk

Mix all together in a med. bowl with a whisk til blended. Spray a frying pan or griddle with cooking spray and Heat on Med-High. Once the pan is hot, spoon or ladle onto the pan. The amount is up to you, depends on the size you like your cakes. Let it sit for a minute or so. You should see holes popping up all over the pancake. When you do, flip it over with a spatula. When both sides are a nice golden brown, you're done. Pop that puppy on a plate and smear with butter and syrup!


Here's a pic of some pretty snapdragons from my MIL's gorgeous garden. I swear she and my FIL have green thumbs that rival the jolly green giant's. One day I'll get a shot of their garden that they ripped out their whole front yard to plant. (We thought they were nuts at the time, we were wrong.)

Mr. Testosterone Reader

Well, I've discovered that it is possible to repeat mistakes without trying. : sigh : But, at least the silly socks will match up at the cuff.

******

In other news, at my eldest's school, they have a Principal's Reading Club. Obviously, this promotes reading. There is a reading contest that is sponsored by Scholastic. At the beginning of the year a rumor began floating around that the grand prize winner would get a Nintendo DS. So my kindergartner, being the nintendo fanatic that he is, decided to become competitive. The testosterone kicked in and he decided he wanted to WIN that thing. The kids have to read a book off the approved list, then take a quick 10 question multiple choice test to receive their points. I'm not sure, but I think only the top reader in each grade gets a prize and that is a gift certificate to Toys R' Us. Well, let me tell ya, Mr. Testosterone reader is in FIRST PLACE. Not just in Kindergarten, but over the whole freakin' school!

Now, I've tried very hard not to be one of the Scary Moms. I have encouraged him, but not pushed or demanded that he get his reading done each night. (I don't want him committing suicide later on because his parents expected perfection 24/7) He has done this all on his own. The cool thing is what this has done for his literacy. If the principal only knew. This kid is reading on a high 2nd grade/ low third grade level. He's in KINDERGARTEN for pete's sake! Chapter books. wow.

Mr. Testosterone Reader in Action! (He was very annoyed with me for interrupting his reading to snap a pic.)

The first sock is finished!

Woohoo! I finished the first sock! It's far from perfect, but I'm proud of myself anyway. It actually looks like a sock. Yeah me! Now, on to the second sock! Did ya like all the exclamation points? Today, their my specialty.

Now ya wanna hear about the huge mistake I made at the toe of the sock? I finished up the toe with the kitchener stitch and was patting myself on the back, when I noticed something a little wonky. I wish I had taken a picture of it, you would have laughed and laughed. It seems the finished seam was perpendicular to the toes! (Catch the homophones in the last sentence?) Not sure how I did it, but it took forever to fix. So, I spent my afternoon frogging and correcting.

the corrected sock

Cat day!

Today is cat day. It seems our household has acquired a porch kitty. She showed up a couple of weeks ago and never went away. I made the stupid mistake of giving her some food cause I felt sorry for her and she took up roost. Pros: No more mole infestation in the yard. They make awesome cat toys that fly up high in the sky and bounce when they land. cruel, I know, but true. My hubby had to go out and lay one to rest this morning at around 6:45ish. He was not happy. She's also camouflaged. She lays in the leaves and mulch and blends right in. Cons: one more mouth to feed. May end up with many mouths to feed. Think we need to find her a new home. Here's a couple of pics of her. Check out the first lucky shot. I caught her with her tongue hanging out.

mleh! so there!

Can't see me, I'm blending in with the concrete.

This is Tiger, our blockhead. He hates for you to mess with him. Loves to be petted, not messed with. I'm not sure what he was on last night, but he let me pile blocks all down his back and then on top of his head!

I feel so humiliated - look what she did to me!

On the knitting front, I'm almost done with the first sock! Updates to come.