It's a Pokeball!

I apologize for the lateness of today's post. I've been busy playing "Mom" today. There were teacher conferences and there was the wrestling of the two year old and the chauffeuring of the children. You know, typical Mom stuff.

I did do something fairly creative. I decorated a birthday cake:



This is the easiest child's cake that I've ever done. Hands down. This is one that you can "phone in", requires very little effort. It'll be a big hit with the 8 & under Pokemon lovin' crowd though, I assure you. The Eldest was very impressed. Personally, I'm just happy that I'm not having to get out all the decorator tips, bags and a bazillion different icing colors.

The Eldest originally wanted something that I can't even pronounce, some strange Japanese Anime Poke (pronounced Pokey for the Pokemon uninitiated) Monster. I said "Oh wait! What's that on that card?" It was just that easy.

I asked him what a Pokeball is for exactly, what does it do? "Oh, it just helps catch Pokemon." Okay then! That answers that question doesn't it? :P

Have a great weekend!

A current state of affairs

Well, here we are again. Not only did yesterday's hat get frogged once, but twice. I had so much trouble finding the right color combo for this had. I needed something a little more toned down that would work with my wardrobe and this is the current state of affairs (just a little farther along than yesterday's project.):

I like these colors much better. Now I have to find a project to use those other two balls of Noro yarn. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

The Eldest is still sick. He went back to the doctor this morning. It seems there's a virus going around and he was the third kid in today that had the same symptoms.

He's had the worst birthday week and now we keep getting call from a bunch of the other kids saying that they won't be able to make it for the party. We've got reservations (nonrefundable) for this party at a Monster Mini Golf place and now I'm scared that we'll be paying all that money for just the four of us to play golf. I would just hate it for him if no one came to his party!

Not so gratifying

Way back in March I made a Jaunty Cap out of Noro Silk Garden. While I loved the colors, the structure was rather limp. I had to dip it in liquid starch to get it to look right because when it was knit, I only used one strand of yarn and not two.

So, while looking today for a somewhat instant gratification project I decided to try the cap again. This time, I chose Noro Kureyon. I picked two different colorways just for fun. Now I'm not so sure that that was the best choice. Besides the fact that this is killing my hands, I'm not really feeling the love for these two together. I suppose it might grow on me, but I may rip it back and pair one of the colorways with some black that I've got in the stash to tone it down and make it wearable.



Of course I'm not very far in yet and might like it better later, but I doubt it.

Cute Little Fish Button Sweater

We got word over the weekend that the hubby's cousin and his wife finally had their baby. My first reaction was, Yeah! My second was, Oh No, they can't have it yet, the sweater's not finished! Well, it is now.

I know that I've stated that I don't particularly love Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns. Mainly because I prefer patterns that spell things out a bit more and don't assume that you are already an accomplished knitter. But I finally got around to completing one of her patterns, one that a billion other people have already made, the February Sweater:


I couldn't decide how I wanted to present it, so here's another pic:


The best detail of this sweater is the buttons. You have no idea how difficult it was to photograph one of these clearly enough to show the detail:


That's right, a fishbowl with a goldfish and tiny little bubbles. I adore these buttons. They're by JHB and I got them at JoAnn's. Cute huh?

Details:

Yarn: Cotton Ease in Terracotta. Used just over 1 skein.
Mods: None
Pattern: February Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Contest at My Place!

Today is the Eldest's 8th Bday* and I want to celebrate. Let's have a contest!


I'm giving away a pattern from White Lies Designs and some random yarn to be chosen by yours truly out of the stash. Said yarn won't be enough to make the pattern with, but it will be enough to play with.


That being said, every comment left will be considered an entry. Contest will end on October 1st (my Sister In-Law's Bday.)

*Truth be known, he's had a lousy b-day so far. He's had stomach issues for a week and had to go to the doctor on his birthday. He did get lots of attention from the nurses though, so I guess it wasn't all bad. The big party is scheduled for this Saturday, so hopefully we'll make it up to him then.

Would you do this?

Would you do this to your child? Would you put your precious little angel in this terrifyingly ugly size 4 overall/short set? As far as I was concerned, this won the prize for scary clothes that were for sale at this weekend's consignment sale:

Scares the heck outta me!

Not anyone's day.

I vote that we have a day "do-over". We go back to bed, reset the alarm clock, and pretend we're in the movie Groundhog Day and begin again, except this time our day goes a lot better. Okay?

The Eldest is still having some stomach issues. It hasn't all been completely faked. I think I know what part of the problem is and we're hoping to solve it with a combination of potent fruit juice and Miralax. What is it with young boys deciding they're too busy to stop and go to the bathroom once in a while?

So the stomach issue thing started our day. While that was going on, I was trying not to laugh at the Youngest imitating his brother. What ever the monkey sees, the monkey does. He saw the Eldest holding his hand over his mouth trying not to throw up (plumbing stopped up one place, must come out another. I know - gross isn't it?), so he proceeds to walk around holding his hand over his mouth too. Eldest was not amused.

Finally checked everyone into school late and I started to work at the consignment sale. Then I got a call from my parents. They were supposed to go to school today and have lunch with the Eldest for Grandparents Lunch. They were driving two hours from Alabama to do this too. Guess what? They ended up with two blown out tires. So I handed off my job at the sale to someone else and headed over to the school. My baby was expecting someone to have lunch with him and by golly he was going to get somebody there!

I had several Grandfathers tell me I was the youngest looking Grandmother they've ever seen. :) Now I know why so many women go for the Sugar Daddy types. They're so polite, complimentary and conscientious. Someone remind me why I married a younger man?

My parents are still coming over (eventually) so now I have to dash around the house and pick up stuff and pretend that I'm an accomplished housewife even if they know better.

Have a great weekend!

Savings!

This post is gonna thrill you guys silly, I just know it. Ah, not really. I'm being totally sarcastic.

This week I've got my hands full with a children's consignment sale. Remember the last time I mentioned the sale? I won't show pics again, I promise, it's very redundant from sale to sale. I've been swamped with preparing for it and working at it. By the time the weekend is over I'll have spent approximately 22 hours working there.

Well, today I got to shop it. Here's part of the loot that I got:

Here's what's so exciting about these piles of clothes. These are full fall/winter wardrobes for both boys. There are 45 items. I did not picture the couple of toys (4) /movies (4)/sleeping bag (1)/toy organizer (that retails at Target for 59.99.) That brings the total up to 56 items total. I spent $211.00. That's only $3.76 dollars per item, and some of these are upscale clothing lines like Talbot's, Children's place, Gymboree, Kelly's Kids, etc. too!

Let's say you bought all these at retail prices. The minimum that you would spend on these would be $10 per clothing/movie and $59.99 for the organizer. That's $609.00. I saved $398.99!

I'm so excited!

I have to confess - there's been no knitting/spinning or otherwise done this week. I'll have to make up for it next week.

Faking Sick

Ever have a day where you long to march the children out to the back wall of the yard, hand them a blindfold and last cigarette and dole out the ammunition to the neighborhood firing squad? Me too. Today was one of them.

The Eldest's Issues: Was already out one day of school due to stomach issues. Took a second one today when I had to work up at the children's consignment sale. So I took him with me and made him sit and read while I worked. And Lo and Behold, a Miraculous Recovery took place. I was ready to strap on that blindfold right then. I even got him to admit that he had lied about how he was feeling. He'll be living on electronic restriction for a while now. No tv, computer, handheld games, nothing, zilch, nada.

The Youngest's Issue: Had my first "talk" from the teacher. He won't listen to them, tells them no, is disrespectful, yadda, yadda, yadda. I tried to warn them...

Make your own find it game

When I find a particularly clever product in the stores, I like to see if I can make my own. Not necessarily for saving money (cause it doesn't usually happen that way for some reason) but for the challenge of making it myself. The creative process drives me to take up the challenge. I just can't help myself. It's especially bad since I have kids.

I found a product that I really liked. Find-It Games. You can google the name and find them quite easily. They are clear tubes with wooden end caps that contain lots of tiny little toys and other odds and ends that are hidden amongst a bunch of recycled plastic pieces that look like sprinkles. They come with a game pad that contains a list of the things you must find in there. There are several themes such as the Beach and the Zoo.

I've been looking for kitchen containers that would work if I glued the end shut, but just couldn't find one that would fit my budget. I didn't want to spend a fortune on this project. I also haven't quite found the filler to use in place of the plastic sprinkles.

But I got my hands on a tutorial today that is so much more clever in my opinion. She uses plain rice in hers, but you could use a bunch of cheap beads as filler or even color the rice to make finding the toys more difficult.

She also makes hers out of cloth bags and clear vinyl. I like this idea a little more when dealing with kids. This will be much easier for a younger child to hold and if they decide to wop their big siblings up side the head with it, ala The Youngest, maybe it won't hurt quite as bad.

I have tons of scrap children's fabrics from my quilting days and have been looking for a way to use it and this would be perfect. I'm also going to make a bunch of small rice/bean bags for one of the Youngest's class parties out of some of the fabric as well.

I can't wait to try this. This would make some great birthday and Christmas gifts too, and not just for children. I know plenty of adults that would find this amusing as well if you can put in some neat stuff for them to find.

Just thought I'd pass the idea along...

Weddings, Knitting, Crafts & KIsses

All in all, I've decided that weddings are way more fun when they're not yours. There's no pressure on you and no planning. If you have a few "liquid refreshments", no one will really care cause you aren't going to be the one saying the vows.

We had an absolute blast this weekend.

I got some knitting done in the car. Would've gotten farther if I hadn't chosen sock yarn to make a scarf with. Why, oh why, didn't I use worsted weight??



First (after driving a bazillion hours to Tampa from Atlanta) we got ourselves (me, dad, mom, & bro) all cleaned up real pretty for this informal shindig:When we got there, I got the professional photographer's panties all in a wad because I wanted to take pics of the bride in her wedding shawl that I made, dammit and that's what I did. I couldn't have cared less that he was upset. I was very careful not to have my flash interfere with his, so in my opinion he could just go and stuff that camera where the sun doesn't shine. (I held that opinion for the rest of the wedding too.)

Didn't the Wedding Stole turn out perfect with her dress?



Oh yeah, and she was lovely too! As was her Mom:Couple of things I really liked about the ceremony:

1. Informal and fun. No stuffiness here. An example? The bride & groom wore flip flops. (The pastor did too and he also wore a Hawaiian shirt but I didn't get a pic of that.)

2. An Arts & Crafts moment was included - Instead of a unity candle, they used "Unity Sand". One color of sand for each of them was poured into an engraved glass bottle during that part of the ceremony.


3. And last, but not least, "The Kiss" was WAY HOT:
The groom is definitely a cutie. Sorry, his brother is married too.

Why me?

Nothing I've touched has gone right today.

I tried to add new stuff & sync the ipod for the trip, my computer went haywire.

Tried winding a hank of Colinette Jitterbug yarn in to a cake, ended up with yarn barf to fix.

Tried to make the Youngest happy with a hotdog for lunch. Nope, didn't work either.

Sigh.

I still have to pack, clean house, get the Eldest out of school and say goodbye to him and the Youngest as I travel to Florida for a good 'ol hurricane in the background wedding.

I'm planning on doing a new scarf on the way down. I hope to finally have something to show for my knitting efforts on Monday.



See you then!

Making Tweed Yarn

Remember this colorway of roving that I blended together, the Midnight in the Garden one?

Well, I've been itching to try my hand at making a tweed yarn. So, I got out the ghetto hand cards (Dog slicker brushes) and using this tutorial from David and this tutorial from Abby, got to blending the Midnight in the Garden roving.

I had so much fun doing this. I made a bazillion rolags and took them with me to the folks' place this past weekend. I got about half of it spun up and guess what? I made tweed singles! This was so cool. I had been scared to blend the roving, scared of losing all that beautiful color. But I didn't.

The mohair disappeared, but all spread out it makes the rolag look iridescent like the film on a bubble. In the singles, it gives it a surprising sheen if held in the light a certain way. The base of the singles is now a pretty charcoal gray and there are little bits of orange, turquoise, lime green, pink and dark blue scattered throughout. When plied, I should have a pretty heathery charcoal tweed to show off.

It turned out so much better than I expected:

Click to enlarge and see the pretty singles!

Check out all the little bits of fluff in the rolag behind the bobbin. It was almost impossible to get a good pic of the rolag, this was the best I could do. It's amazing how in dull light it looks like steel wool. Looks much better here.

As for the "W" tank top, I finished the first side. As for the second, I had completed about half of it when I realized that I had made a huge honkin' mistake in it and had to frog back to the first wedge and that's where it stands now. I'm hoping that I can make some inroads on that this weekend on the really long drive we have to FLA.

Aren't the colors beautiful?

Up to You Know Where...

I'm up to my eyeballs (or as my Dad would say, up to my butt in alligators) with goings on this week, so I apologize if there is little knitting or spinning wise.

Here's what's going on:

1. My cousin's wedding is this weekend and is approx. 10 hours away from me in Clearwater, FL. So I'm doing laundry from last weekend's trip, packing and pre-cooking so the children don't starve while their Dad keeps them. Dad doesn't cook. I don't think he even knows how to use a can opener.

2. The big children's consignment sale is coming up and all of the items (all 300 of them) I'm selling are due bright and early on Tuesday morning. Each item has to be on hangers, ironed, and tagged. Did I put this off until almost too late? Why, yes, I did.

3. The Eldest's birthday is on the 15th so I've been trying to party plan. It's going to be a combination of Pokemon and glow in the dark Monster Mini Golf. I'm very unprepared for this, but I did get the place booked today.

In My Knitting World:

I'm getting start-itis again. Every time I think about taking a trip I start spending oodles of time going through Ravelry and my stash to see what I can do. Forget that I already have two WIPs on the needles, okay? oh, and that the baby that one of them is for is due any second now. Ack!

SO. Please forgive me! I hope to have tons of FOs for you after the weekend. Keyword in that sentence is hope...

Labor Day Weekend Fun

I hope that you had fun over the weekend. For me, it was a great, restful holiday weekend.

We went to my Uncle's farm (to hand deliver the Wedding Stole to the bride's mother) and saw some "Houseys" to use the Youngest's term for horses. He's got a bunch of Arabians that are absolutely gorgeous. This is one of the "babies" he has:

They are all like great big dogs. If you go out into the pasture you'll be surrounded and each one of them will be competing for attention. It's really very cool. We fed them pears straight off the tree while we were out there. It made us very popular with the four footed crowd.

The kids also spent their time exhausting my parents dog. Here's pic of her in her favorite resting spot, on top of the back of the couch (she's weird):

And something really cool was waiting for me in the mail when I got home. Two patterns from White Lies Designs: the Easy Lace Jacket and the Madeline Shawl Jacket. I won these in a drawing from the Sexy Knitters Club for doing a Knit a long over there. Way cool!

I'll have an update on the W tank top and some spinning stuff done over the weekend as well for you tomorrow. See ya then!

Off again!

The kids and I are off on a three day weekend at the lake while Daddy goes out with his drinkin' buddies for a guys' weekend. He hasn't had one of those in years. He's so excited, it's kinda cute.

Have a safe and fun Labor Day! See ya Tuesday.

Fleece fun

Well, I played hooky with the knitting last night. Didn't pick it up once. However, I did play with other sheepy stuff.

I decided to go ahead and wash all the rest of the fleece from the fleece study that I'm doing. Every time I would open the cedar chest, it smelled like a farm. I really don't want all of my yarn and fiber smelling like the farm, so out it came.

This is what my dining room table looks like now.

And it stinks to high heaven. Smells like wet, stinky sheep fur. Yuck.

Here's what I've learned so far with the fleece study.

1. Most raw fleece is gross. It contains, poop, urine, dirt and various vegetable matter.
2. I used extremely hot water to help melt the grease off of it. That worked best for me. I've read all sorts of stuff about using cold or luke warm water, but the hot did the job. On most of these I had to do three washes and three rinses.
3. I don't like the power scour or fiber wash stuff. The one product that really worked to get the dirt and grease out? Dawn dishwashing detergent.
4. If you are doing a bunch of samples, have more than one lingerie bag handy (I did) so that you can do two at once. Takes forever with just one.
5. Be ready to shoo the cats off the table at least a hundred times. They are incredibly fascinated with wet sheep fur. The dogs prefer the disgusting poo filled fleece. Cats are definitely more intelligent than dogs and that's just more proof of it right there.

I've only spun up two of the fleeces in the study so far. As soon as the samples on the table are dry, they'll go into a labeled gal. size ziplock bag and will be put away until I can get around to carding or combing.

A card came in the study for each type of sample fleece. You are supposed to wash and clean the fleece, card it, spin it, knit a swatch from it and then attach the sample to the card. That's what you're supposed to do. I don't know that I'll do that.

I will spin it up and I will take notes on the cards. But I feel like swatching would be a waste of perfectly good yarn. I will probably use it in some small projects instead. I would rather do the work and have a product to show for all the work I've done. Does that make me a bad student? :)

Free at last, free at last, etc...

Oh Glorious Freedom! The freedom of having all the children in school (for at least 3 hours twice a week anyway.) You have no idea how great it feels.

The funny thing about it? Another mom, who happens to be my best buddy and has a kid in the same 2 year old class as The Youngest, hooked up with me to go play while the kids were in school. We dropped them off and then looked at each other as said, "Now what are we gonna do?" We were completely at a loss. Neither of us are used to having zero children hanging on us!

We opted for coffee and a pedicure. What fun! Caramel lattes, Massage chairs, Pretty toes and Adult conversation, who could ask for more?

As far as knitting goes, I have just a little more to go and I'll be finished with the first half of the W tank top. I'll have an in depth report on that tomorrow. For now, I'll leave you with the Youngest's first day of school pic. It's the only one that I was able to get, he's not one for standing still and smiling. Notice the lovely bruise above his right eye. A big brother, a ride-on bus, a beanbag and a plastic table were all involved. Don't ask. :)

Selfish Project!

After knitting lace for someone else for the past month and a half, I began a purely selfish project for myself:

I heart these colors

This is one quarter of the W sweater by Kristi Porter. I'm using the Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn in Heather Haze. This is knit sideways with tons of short rows. I love how this is striping, how the colors fade into each other. And, a bonus of sorts, how the stripes are vertical. Gotta love slimming vertical stripes.

There are two pieces to the tank. I'm about halfway finished with the front (or the back depending on which side I like better.)

I had to frog a portion of it. The pattern isn't quite clear on the short row stuff. If I had been paying attention and remembering how to do short rows on socks, I wouldn't have had to frog and start over. I forgot to pick up the wraps on the stitches and the wraps stuck out like a sore thumb because of it. Oops. So, after a few colorful words once I realized what had happened, it got ripped back and I began again, this time remembering to pick up the wraps. Can't I have just one project go without any mistakes made in it? Just once? Please?

It feels like I'm flying through this pattern. Of course, that could be because I've been immersed in lace weight yarn for the past month and a half too. Let's hear it for the instant gratification projects! Yay!

Ride like the wind Bullseye!

The Youngest has discovered Toy Story 2. Notice the Woody doll on the back of the horse. :)

'Tis Done!

The Wedding Stole aka Baltic Sea Stole is finished! I'm so proud of this project. I hope the bride loves it as much as I do. I'd keep it, but I can't fit into my wedding dress anymore, won't even fit over my thighs. :)

Here's two shots I managed to get with all the poor weather that hurricane Fay has dumped on the Southeast. Please click to enlarge for a more intimate view!

Artsy Pose

Atop the table pose

Details: Baltic Sea Stole by Faina M. Letoutchaia
Needle Size: US 8
Yarn: Ovation by S. R. Kertzer, colorway: 2140, used 3.1 skeins
Beads: white pearl glass E beads purchased from the evil WalMart.
Made for: my cousin Emily's Wedding
Began: July 7, 2008
Completed: August 21, 2008