When bad things happen to good yarns

First I want to give a shout out to a few peeps out there. To the person who found me by googling "milf with loose stomach & skinny legs." Is that really what makes me memorable? And last but not least, to my wonderful hubby who is genius enough to build our computer from the ground up. Just not the very-important-to-apparently-only-me camera software that lets me download the pictures off the damn camera. Thanks, babe. Smoochies.

Yesterday I was trying to spend some quality time conversing with the older boy and we were talking all about presidents. Thanks to President's Day & the public school system he's been learning quite a lot about the presidents, past & present. For instance he can tell you how many teeth George Washington had (one, which he later lost), and who freed the slaves. He then informed me he wanted to be the president when he grows up. I told myself that he doesn't, really. Really? And then I asked him why he wanted to be the president. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "So I can have a bowling alley & swimming pool in my house! Of course, I'll have to do a lot of paperwork & boring stuff, but then I'll just go bowling after." I don't think he's ever even been to a bowling alley let alone tried to spin that brick of a ball down a tube trying to take out all 10 (or is it 11??) pins at the end. He has NO IDEA. Thank God.

I myself have been feeling a bit restless & like I'm running in circles. Is it just me, or does everyone go through those periods in life? I can't knit/spin/sew/etc enough to keep my mind from racing & my hands from feeling like they're not doing enough. I sit in my house knitting, reading a book, playing with my boys, cleaning, making dinner and somehow I feel like I should be doing MORE, MORE, MORE. This happens every so often and it drives me nuts. I haven't figured out a way yet to turn it off, but I sure do get a hell of a lot done when I'm feeling like this. Or else I just go lay down & take a nap with the babe to make it stop. It is a horrible panicky feeling, like I've left one of my kids in Safeway and remember on my way home. I do a visible check (Drake, check! Declan, check!) everytime we go anywhere because it took me so long to get used to having TWO kids to take care of. What, then, am I missing?

Drake is lucky enough to have grandparents who really actually care about him, the opposite of mine growing up. My only memory of my grandparents actually being fun, or even interacting with me is my grandpa buying me a lime ice pop at the museum of flight to shut me up while he spent another 1/2 hour staring at a plane hanging from the ceiling. They had no clue what to do with us. Drake's grandma took him to Disneyland last week. He had the time of his life and came home with Mickey ears that light up and flash. I saw him from a mile away at the airport when I went to pick him up. He is a lover of all that is tacky. While he was away the hubby and I also decided we needed a getaway. We stayed at a little cabin a block from the beach. It was awesome.






















And no, that is not my hair, it's a tree. Yes, I do use product and if my hair did manage to stand on end like that I'm quite sure the hubby would've left me at home. While I'm not fit for public viewing at times I hope I'm never THAT bad.

And onto the naughty yarn. Can you believe it had the nerve?

It took me a full day and many, many unmentionable words to subdue the yarn into a nice neat ball. It's lucky it's such beautiful yarn. I won it in a contest here, the only thing I have ever won in my life. Only fitting it bit me in the ass on it's way to submission. It is 100% cashmere from Hipknits, and the color is amazing. While it's not as soft as I would think 100% cashmere to be, the color more than makes up for it. I have since knit it into a little shrug, my own pattern, I'm calling Pink Fling. Very cute. Pictures and possibly a pattern coming tomorrow. I love it especially because I have a ton of fingering weight yarn and only so many socks one can make. It excited me to no end finding something else to make with it.

It doesn't take much around here.

Another one bites the dust

Can I just say how glad I am that Valentines day is over? A few years ago after getting into monster blow up fights we banned Valentines day from our house. Don't get me wrong, pink is still my favorite color and I'm a sucker for those little candy hearts. But the need to have a bouquet of flowers delivered along with a ginormous box of chocolates & attached teddy bear is no longer allowed. Because it grew to be expected. And when it didn't happen there was much arguing and hurt feelings. We learned the hard way that setting high expectations over silly things does not lead to a good outcome. Even if you get 12 dozen red roses delivered to your office you're still left looking for the box of chocolates.

We have had the best Valentines days ever since we banned it.

A few years ago we decided to rent a tandem bike and bike trailer and rode all around here. Not only were we met with smiles from all who saw us, we were also greeted with stopped traffic & people leaning out of their cars to point at us. You see, they decided to let us rent what I referred to as the Harley Davidson of tandem bikes. It was huge, had flames painted on the sides, and also happened to be bright banana yellow. In other words you could spot us from a mile away. Add to the fact we had a bike trailer strapped on the back and Mr. Drake had his hand poked out the hole waving to everyone and you had quite a scene. The hubby took the controls & manned the front spot most of the time, so I had every hair on his head memorized by the time we were done. It also meant I got to "pedal" quite a bit, meaning resting my feet on the pedals & letting him do all the work. He's twice my size, that means he should do twice the work, no?

About halfway through he offered to let me take control of the beast & sit in the front. What I failed to take into account is that while you might be sitting in the front, the bigger person still controls the bike. Whatever way they lean the bike leans. So while I was turning the handlebars AWAY from the ditch the hubby kept leaning TOWARDS the ditch and that is exactly where we ended up. In the ditch. And that was the last time he's ever offered to let me control any moving vehicle. Heh.

Best Valentines ever. No chocolates or flowers necessary.

So........you remember Chicago, the one out of Calmer mentioned a few posts ago? A little froggy visited my house and ripped her out. I wore it for exactly one day and hated it with a passion normally reserved for cleaning the toilet. Worse, I was embarrased to wear it. That just doesn't work with very expensive yarn. So I decided that anything made out of the yarn will remind me of that special time when I was in labor with Declan and I gave myself permission to rip. It has been reknit into the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature. I made a few alterations, including knitting the body & sleves in the round rather than flat & then seaming. Knitting anything with a yoke just screams "Knit me in the round" so I listened. And I gave it a bit of waist shaping as I like to think I have one. The sleeves ended up a little shorter than I normally do, but I really like the outcome. A fun knit, and really quite easy.















Please forgive the morning "I haven't had a shower yet" hair. And bad picture.
















I've got a busy day ahead of me, which includes stocking up on all that V-day chocolates on clearance. Guess it's not so bad after all.

My little helper

My little helper loves to help out his good old mama. He carries my yarn around for me
















And makes sure it is nice & moist.















Makes for great knitting.

He would love to help me out even more by carrying my knitting needles around for me, but I've gotta draw the line somewhere.

He just discovered how to pull himself up to standing this week, and man has it rocked my world. The places that were previously safe are no longer. The ottoman & couch used to house a great deal of hidden treasures: knitting, books, toy cars, and random choking hazards such as stray buttons, tapestry needles...you name it. In other words - sit at your own risk. When we bought a new couch last year we kept my stashing habits in mind and got a rather big one. We each get our own cushion, and because I was pregnant at the time I got two. One of my cushions was usually piled high with pink wool & Yarn Harlot books, but I just used the other one for sitting and life was good. My stash is no longer safe however, and now I have to find a new home for it. Please tell me I'm not the only one using the couch as a resting spot for WIP? I hate change, even little change, and that means I hate thinking of a new spot for my stuff. I'm sure the hubby will be happy as he's been impaled with a dpn more than once when carelessly throwing himself onto the couch.

Because of my little year long haitus there are a lot of knitting projects to show & tell. A LOT. I'm laughing because I went back and read my archives and most of the knitting projects I was working on? Stuffed in the back of my closet. I tend to start things and never finish them. Okay, I'll confess. A good portion of my stash fits into this category. BUT if I ever need to clothe my family in a hurry I've got it covered. Most things are at least half finished.

Here's another one of my spinning/knitting projects. I bought this gorgeous merino/silk roving & just started spinning. And then I realized I was making thread. I ended up having to ply it four times to get a yarn that wouldn't take me the rest of my life to knit up. My mom says I'm a freak.














Maybe I agree. But at least I'm a freak with pretty things.

Technology loves me

Or better yet, it loves the new usb cord we're using. I guess the old one was from around 1982. Possibly 1983. We just got a new camera for christmas and for a while it was very happy to download the pictures onto the computer. And then one day when I plugged it in a message popped up saying it couldn't recognize the device, and if it keeps happening to get a new device. Riiiigghhhttt. Like me plop down another $300 just so you can see the damn device.

Anyway, my technology loving hubby tried plugging the camera into everything with a hard drive we own (which is many) and on every singe one of them it offered the helpful advice to get a new device. So we tried the cheapest fix, a new usb cord. And now the camera and computer love each other again.

So here is the long awaited picture of my hand dyed handspun:















And here is what I made with it:
















I looked all over the internet to find a copy of the pattern to buy, but couldn't find it. So instead I printed out this picture
and used it as my guide. I'm just about finished with the second one and the pattern has been reduced to chicken scratch, but I declare my efforts a success. If I did it again I'd use smaller beads, but I started it when we were snowed in the house and I couldn't convince the hubby that smaller beads were worth risking life & limb for. We later decided the Starbucks down the hill WAS worth it, and consequently got stuck on the hill. Heh. We probably deserved it.

Got Yarn?

My Drake never fails to amaze me with his lack of interest in the good stuff. Good stuff to Drake = fast cars & cartoons. Good stuff does not = yarn. Or fiber. Or even *gasp* STR for gods sake. So when told him we were making a quick stop in Tacoma on the way to grammy's we intentionally did not mention it was for this. Because we are smart parents and like to delay the whining for as long as possible.

We parked in the closest free parking available because I am cheap and parking $ takes away from yarn $. As soon as we walked in the door his little ears & eyes started checking the place out. He knew something was up. There were spinning wheels set up and everyone was doing that thing with their hands. Knitting. And talking. Knitting and talking at the same time. Which, while he sees on a daily basis, he understands that most normal people don't do. He started asking questions at that point, but we quickly hushed him with harsh threats, like no cartoons. The minute we walked into the vendor room though did not fail to make his thoughts known. "YARN??!! More YARN?? You have enough yarn. Mom, I demand you to walk back out. You are not allowed to buy more yarn."

Think he hangs out with his dad much?

I guess to a kid who lives in a house stuffed full of yarny goodness a room full of yarn is pretty unimpressive. No matter how big said room is and how much yarny goodness is possesses. Being the wonderful hubby he is, he quickly scooped both kids up and went on a walk. Living in Seattle you can't go on a walk without passing a Starbucks, so they stopped in to treat themselves. And that is where my dirty little secret spilled. Damian went to the counter to order himself a well deserved treat when Drake piped up "Mom needs a grande white chocolate mocha, half decaf. Organic milk."

Oh, god. Busted.

I did finish seaming up Chicago mentioned in yesterday's post. And while I'm not really convinced I like it yet, I'm gonna keep on telling myself I do. It was while doing the buttonholes that I realized something. The directions on the button band said to knit 3, cast off 2 and repeat till the end. Wait a minute here....whaaa? That's......1,2,5,6,9,10....18 buttons?! 18 freaking buttons? So today I get to go try and find 18 buttons that will transform this thing from blah to amazing.

I'm surprised it took me this long to realize. I'm the type who does not like surprises. When I start a book I read the first chapter, turn to the end to read the last chapter, and then proceed onto chapter two. I have to make sure it ends the way I think it will, and if not prepare myself to accept the wrong ending. It just dawned on me last night that's why I love Julia Roberts movies so much. There is no need to fast forward to the end, I already know what's going to happen.