On a More Positive Note

Last night I made this Crochet Flower Hot Pad:

This was made using this free pattern. 

It was completed in just a couple of hours.  It's are really easy project that looks more complicated than it actually is.    It's a great way to use up extra cotton yarn from past projects.

Mods:
Did an extra round of sc to make it flatten out a little bit more.

Next time I make this, I will figure out a predetermined chain from the center point to connect the petals at. I didn’t do that on this one and it’s very noticeable.

Where did my comments go?

Dang it.  My comments section has disappeared.  The code seems to be missing from the new template that I put up on the blog.   I'm working on it now.  Keep you fingers crossed that I can get it back.

ETA:   It spontaneously showed back up for this post, but now all comments from every post I've ever made has disappeared.  I'm very upset about this and don't know how to fix it. Can anyone help?

Edited again to add:  Yikes!  Somehow, Blogger changed every post that I've ever written to not show the posts.  In order to get all the comments back up and running properly, I'm going to have to go back in and edit each and every one.  Why doesn't Blogger have a batch edit option?!!!!! 

Anyway, I'll ask you again and now you can actually respond.  :)   What do you think of the new look for the blog?

Milestones of A Four Year Old Boy

Today's been an eventful day around here.

First there was a yard sale where The Youngest found something that was right up his alley.  He's into vampires, ghosts, skeletons, anything macabre really.  He's weird.  He's also heavily into Mickey Mouse and friends.  So what does he find at a yardsale for .37 cents?  A 12 inch tall Vampire Mickey!

Then, The Youngest sold his soul to the devil.  We made an agreement.  For his entire life he's been dependent on a pacifier.  Over the past several months I've been helping him work towards getting off of it.  Scaled down for a child, it's akin to an adult giving up cigarettes.  His breathing quickens, his hands clench, his stress level soars and he starts shaking.  It's been incredibly traumatic for him, but the "papper" has to go.  It's disgusting and germy and I refuse to buy him another.  He's past the age of consent here.

Don't think I've been heartless over it.  It's been rough on all of us and watching him go through it has driven me to tears several times.  It's heartbreaking to watch your child go through something like this.

But he made a big decision today.  He decided (through some sneaky bribery on my part) to throw it away for a new toy.   He went through this:

To get this:

A real milestone for the little guy.

Changes

Notice anything different around here? 

Please be patient with the changes being made around here.  I'm far from being finished and will be tweaking periodically.  If you notice anything going all wonky, just ignore it cause I'm probably tinkering with it.

Like the new look?  Hate it?  Don't really give a hoot?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks!

Shea

Plants!

I'm still hobbling around here like an old lady.  My hamstrings have never been very flexible.  I guess that happens when you're a geek couch potato that likes to read, knit or play on the internet all day.    But despite the hamstring issues, I decided that I must not have been quite tortured enough because today I went and got these:

 

I'm pretty certain that after tomorrow's digging in hard Georgia clay, I'm going to need a boatload of ibuprofen.   Like I've said before, I do not have a green thumb.  I don't have a clue where I'll put any of this yet or if it will even live once I've touched it, but I'm going to try anyway.  I do know that this is the only time of the year that I get the gardening bug.  It's not a permanent hobby for me.  Once it gets really hot around here, the plants will be in God's hands alone.  Hope they're tough.  :) 

I've also finally gotten all the wax and goo off of these babies and will be doing something to them late this afternoon:

That's it for me today.  Have a great afternoon!

Really Perfect Green Apple Tank

I finally finished the Perfect Green Apple Tank!

And I finally like it too.  Way more sporty now and it fits like a dream. 

Pattern:  Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest by Stephani Japel
Yarn: Hobby Lobby's Love This Cotton! in Sage
Needles Used:  US sizes 5 & 7

Modifications:

1. To avoid the Here Come my Boobs effect and make the tank more sporty, I only did the ribbing on the sides and left the front and back stockinette.
2. Changed to smaller needle where the ribbing should have gone.
3. Also added waist shaping at that section by decreasing one at both edges of the stockinette on both front and back. Knit for 2.5 inches and then increased one at both edges of the stockinette on both front and back.
4. I-cord bind off to add a neat straight edge to keep the sportiness of the tank.
5. Used cotton instead of wool.
6. Only did the neck for 3 inches.
7. Took photo with my camera that matched the project. :P

Here's another slightly less blurry shot (sorry, the pics were taken at night and indoors) where you can also see the neckline:

I would not recommend this pattern for the beginner knitter, but only due to the amount of incomplete errata that comes with pattern.  Otherwise, this was a fun knit.

The Flying Plague

Yesterday I got the brilliant idea to work in my flower beds, which is laughable really, cause I'm so not the outdoorsy, green thumb-y kinda person.  I did have an ulterior motive though.

We have been plagued with mosquitoes this past couple of years.  I'm talking the seas turning red and first born dying kind of plague.  The kids are trapped inside the house all summer long because these big mean SOB's will attack and then suck you dry before you can even blink once.  Evil.  I'm still not sure why God created these little buggers.  They're one step away from snakes and spiders on the scale of evil creepy crawly flying things.

So, in an attempt to drive them out of our yard or at least to prevent them spawning in our yard (do mosquitoes spawn?) I decided that every bit of ivy in the back yard had to go.

I could have taken the easy way out and sprayed Round up all over it and walk away, but that would have been way too easy and made too much sense.   Instead, I got my gardening gloves on and began pulling it all up by hand.  This ivy went all the way around our back deck, under the deck and was climbing the trellis on the deck.  It took me four hours to get rid of it all.  During that time I found one ball, two bubble blowing sticks and my rose bushes.  I still have thorns in my body from the bushes.  I also weeded and mulched the beds that go around the deck.  We got smart on the ivy covering our privacy fence and used the round up spray on it.  We were afraid to pull it and then have our fence come down too.

Most of the ivy in the neighborhood is in our neighbor's yard.  It's hopeless to get them to do anything, but that's a rant for another day.  So all we can do is try and make our yard a mosquito free zone and hope that they don't come drifting over the fence.  Fat chance.

Today, I am hobbling around like a little old lady.  Aching back, hamstrings and hands.  I sound like a little old lady too.  Don't ask me how I'm doing, you might get a complete list of complaints.  Did I mention that I was allergic to exercise?  Yeah, I got symptoms galore.  :)

I did bang the heck out of my right hand while dealing with ivy and rose bushes yesterday and it's led to knitting complications today.  Couple that sore hand with knitting with cotton and you won't get a whole lot of progress.  I am putting (very, very slowly) an i-cord bind off on the tank sweater.  I'm hoping to get that finished by tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I'd do it myself, except the fingers on my hand are rebelling at the very thought.

Nutrition and Lying to your Children

I have figured out how to get my extremely stubborn and hard headed four year old to eat what's put in front of him.  I have to lie to him.

For example:

He loves grits (he is Southern after all) so at Thanksgiving when he wouldn't touch the Turkey Dressing, I told him it was "Thanksgiving Grits".  He ate every bite without argument.

At a restaurant one time, he demanded Coke.  He is never allowed Coke or any other caffeinated beverage.  He loves invisible koolaid though, so I asked him if he would like to drink some Invisible Coke?  The waitress walked away laughing and brought him back a Sprite and he was thrilled.

The latest incident was last night.  I had made a "from scratch" lasagna, down to the last pasta noodle.  It was fantastic, but guess who wouldn't touch it?  Until, that is, I told him it was Melted Pizza.  The boy dove in and ate it like it was good!

Makes me feel so clever.  Yep, clever in deed to have outsmarted a four year old.   There comes a point in life that you take what triumphs you can, especially with a kid who knows everything.

Tank Progress

I'm catching up on my Green Apple Tank Sweater.  It's slow going, but less slow than it was when it was all ribbing.  At least now there's a good mix of ribbing and stockinette to keep me from getting too bored. 

Here's how it looks at this moment:

There's about 7 more inches to go on this.  Then I have to figure out what edge to put on it to keep it from curling.  Or maybe I'll just let it curl, not sure what I'll do yet.  I do know that around the neckline I'm going to have to put some type of finish on it.  My cast on ended up being very sloppy and it's really bugging me.  I also do not know how I'm going to correct that as of yet.

It's all a learning process and I'm learning quite a lot.  I love the way knitting keeps you humble.   Just when you think you know so much, something jumps up and bites you on the behind.  I now know not to use that cast on in the future (sort of a back loop hybrid) when starting a project.  I also now know what not to knit for a ahem 39 (plus one) year old in the too sexy sweater department.  Every sweater teaches me so much.  Maybe more than I really wanted to know. 

Beginner Geek

I spent my day wrapping my head around learning some new skillz.  The Eldest's teacher asked me to come up with  a sign for their school's glass and plastic recycle bins.  The school is being a guinea pig for the school system with this project and it's super important that the whole program works.  If it fails here at the school, then it won't be used by the school system.  So, I wanted to come up with something a little nicer than just plain text in a word document.  I think I've nailed it, but we'll see if the teacher likes or not.  If not, it's back to the drawing board for me.   I am getting mad crazy with my GIMP skillz!
 
I've spent my entire day doing this.  Geeks around the world are laughing at me right this minute for spending so long on what probably should have been a 20 minute job.  An entire day of not doing housework that desperately needed to be done.  An entire day of not knitting, crafting, reading or anything else that I would rather have been doing.  Go ahead and picture me pulling out my hair.

Don't know what GIMP is?  It's a free, open source program that is very similar to Photoshop.  Did I mention it was free?  Yep, I love that word, "free".  My second favorite word is "sale".  You can download it here. 

But how to you use it?  Well, like I said, I'm still wrapping my head around it.  I've also been using my google-fu to get lots of Gimp tutorials today.  My Google-Fu is strong.

The Silly Mommy and the Circus Clown Hats

Once upon a time, it was determined that there would be a Circus Day at preschool.  A very silly Mommy raised her hand and volunteered to make Clown hats for all the children to wear.

The hats began their life as stiff sheets of 11 x 17" felt.  Their transformation began as they were folded carefully, cut, then glued together to form a cone and a giant PomPom was glued on top:

More PomPoms miraculously migrated to the bottom of the hats while the silly Mommy sat sucking on the thumb that had hot glue migrate to it.

Little shapes of sticky felt appeared and stuck themselves to the sides of the hat along with more PomPoms and a few sticky backed gems until the hats were completed.  Then, they were fruitful and multiplied and tried to take over the silly Mom's kitchen:

There they still sit.  Waiting for the big preschool Circus Day.  The silly Mommy has had to build a big barricade around them for their own protection.  The cat really likes PomPoms.

The Scream of the Green Apple Sweater

Sometimes the knitting gods work with you and then on the other days...

I've been working on my Perfect Green Apple Sweater aka the Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest by Stephanie Japel.  However, it's turned into the Less Than Perfect Green Apple Sweater now.

Why?  It's sexy isn't it?  Yes, yes it is.  A little too sexy perhaps.  I got to the point where I needed to try it on again to see where it hit at the waist to determine if I needed to add an inch or two.  So, on it went and then I took a really good look into the mirror. The ribbing begins right underneath the breasts and the stockinette might as well be lit up in blinking neon for all to see.  This sweater screams, "HERE COMES MY BOOBS!"  That would be great if I was A) in my early twenties or B) on the lookout for another man or C) a prostitute on the corner, but I'm not in my twenties (I wish) or on the lookout for another man nor am I a prostitute on the corner asking the gents if the wanna date! 

This is not the first time that I've tried it on to make sure it was fitting.  Why, oh why, was I in such denial then?  I could have saved myself a lot of work and tedium by cutting out all that damned ribbing!  I knew something wasn't quite right but I kept telling myself that it was just because it wasn't finished yet.  Yeah, it'll look better when it's finished.  Right.  Maybe it's just a case of being a blond knitter. 

There are three solutions to this problem.    Take a look at what it looks like now:

1.  I  can either frog the whole thing and call it quits.
2.  Keep it and hope that I one day miraculously get my "twenties pre-babies body" back and will look smoking hot in the tank top and all men will swoon over me.  Do men swoon?
3.  I'm leaning towards number two, but don't think that will happen and so will most likely take door number three.  This is where I frog it back to just before the bottom ribbing begins and then continue the stockinette all the way down while leaving the ribbing on the sides and adding a little bit of waste shaping to make it fit better. This way I can ignore my craving for a "twenties pre-babies body" and will look smoking hot in the tank top and the men will still swoon over me.  Yep, that sounds like just the thing. 

Now to go rip out several hours worth of work.  Sigh.

A Trip to the Farm

Our last day of Spring Break fun was spent at two lovely little farms that belong to family members.   Little being a relative term of course.   Both farms are about 25 acres each and have horses, cows, a few chickens and a couple or three donkeys.  Check out this house on my cousin's farm:

The barns for the farm are across a good sized pond.  On the other side of the farm you can see this:

Oh, and look at this old copper washing machine that we saw in the barn.  Thank God for modern appliances.

We also saw this cute little fellow poking his head through a wall in the stalls:

And of course, if you are on a farm, you have to drive a tractor don't you?

I got a souvenir from the farm as well.  As soon as I turned by back on one of the cows, she decided to lick the side of my pants leg.  Yuck.  Cows have slimy dirty tongues.

Apparition Yarn

There's been no knitting while at the lake.  Not because I didn't bring it, but because I've been playing with this:

It's been forever since I've gotten out my wheel, but I was inspired on this trip.   The first fiber that I spun was 4 ounces of 100% merino from the KnitWitch from her Essoterica line in the "Apparition" colorway which you can see in this post.   Yes, it's been almost a year since it was purchased.  I'm a little slow to get things done, okay?

Here it is pre-drafted into some little bird's nests:

And here are the singles from it:

Finally, it was Navajo plied into this:

It's still on the bobbin and hasn't been blocked yet.  I'll probably wait until I get home to finish up the yarn that I make while I'm down here at the lake.  It's a lovely yarn and the pics aren't doing it justice.  Once it's finally finished I'll be sure and show you how it ultimately turns out.

If you look at the link to the fiber that I purchased last year, besides the Knit Witch yarn, you'll see another bit of roving as well.  I'm currently getting it predrafted and ready for spinning now.  8 ounces of luscious softness.  70% wool and 30% seacell in a wonderful coral based colorway.  I'm having a ball spinning yarn this week!

The Trip to Podunk

Today we took the boys to Cheaha State Park.  It's part of the Appalachian mountains and is the highest point in the state of Alabama and it's a beautiful "little" park, if your definition of little is 2719 acres.    It's also one of the oldest parks in the state. 

The pics are not great.   I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone camera.

This old building's stone work was lovely.  The kids kept getting put out with me for making them stand still to take pics.

It got a little sunny at the park too.

Later we enjoyed driving an hour longer than we should have thanks to getting lost coming down the mountain.  One wrong turn and you end up in Podunk, AL.  I wouldn't suggest doing that.  The Clampett's will be glad to see you though.  Oh, and their neighbors, Ma and Pa Kettle.  

I'm exhausted now and am going to go sip on my Margerita.  Night all!

Easter Fun

Day One of Spring Break began with Easter Day at the lake:


The men folk went fishing:

 Mommy made them all look bad, I caught a catfish.  It wasn't exactly what I was fishing for, but who worries about that anyway?  No fish were harmed and all were thrown back.  Please don't sic PETA on me, okay?


We also proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that my Mom's cat is demonic (and we did it on Easter too):

There was also some Easter Egg hunting:

Oh, and there might have also been some booty shaking, but we're not going to tell the Pastor that the booty shaking was done on a Sunday:

Easter Decorations

We've completed the final decorations for Easter.   What do you think of them?

You wouldn't believe how long he left that egg up on top of his head, at least 10 minutes.  The cat decorator thought this was fabulous fun:

The photographer snuck in a Toe Floof pic, just for herself:

I'm off to the lake for Spring Break & Easter.  Posting may be sporadic at best next weekend due to poor internet connections and speed there.

Have a great Easter everybody!

Easter is Upon Us!

Easter is upon us and preparations have been made.  Tell me if you can guess what these are:

No, it's not giant teeth.

What about this, know what it is?

It's definitely not giant Calamari Rings.

These?

They could be pickets for a cute little picket fence, but they're not.

When those not-pickets were being cut up, there were some pointy shaped leftovers.  See what the Youngest did with them (check out the cape too):

Okay, I'll have mercy on you.   I bet you can guess what they are now:

Yep, Bunny Ears.  The Youngest's class party is today and I was scrambling to get these made in time. 

I used one giant (36" x 60") piece of white Foamies and two of the regular (11" x 17") size pink Foamies to make them.  At JoAnn's they were charging $.99 per (11" x 17") sheet.  At that price, this project could get expensive real fast when you need enough to make 12 hats.  But I found the giant roll of white Foamies on an endcap on the aisle and they were charging only $7.99 for it.

I would have needed 3 regular white sheets per child (12 kids).  Ouch.  Without the big roll or a coupon I would have paid $38.00 for 12 hats or $3.16 per kid. 

With the roll and a 40% off coupon the Total price for 12 hats = $6.80 or $.56 per child.  Much better.

The bands that go around the head was 4" x 20" and was stapled together at the back of the head (smooth side of the staple to the inside please.)  I made a template of the white part of the ear and drew it onto the big sheet.  I made a smaller template for the pink part of the ear.  Assembly of the ears was done with regular glue and then the ears were stapled onto the back as well.  I'm a big fan of staples, can you tell?

Super easy Easter project and they turned out darned cute if I do say so myself:

Sheepy Dinks

I'm still on a Shrinky Dink kick over here at House O'Shea.  These are so much fun and can be pretty useful too.  Wait a minute.  Shrinky Dinks?  Useful?  Well, in this case, they are.  Except I prefer to call them Sheepy Dinks.

Sheepy Dinks Gift Tags:

More gift tags:

Yet more:

And these?  These are destined to become stitch markers:

Yep, Shrinky Dinks and Stick Figure Sheep.  More fun than they have a right to be!

A Look At My Ravelry Store

Hey All!  For those not in Ravelry, you can now see my small portion of it here.  They are allowing me to be one of the testers of this and I'm tickled to death to be able to show it to you.  You won't be able to see all of Ravelry yet unless you are a registered user, but it's cool that they are letting everybody get a taste of it now.

They are planning on opening everything up to the public eventually, but for now registration is required.  Which is not a big deal since if they'll let me in, they'll let anybody in!  If you are a knitter, crocheter or spinner, I encourage you to join.  The pattern database alone is worth it, not to mention being able to see how patterns work up on real people.  Then there are the forums, groups, etc.  Very cool.