Check check one two one two

Hi again. Just testing to see if I can post from the Sidekick...if this
works, and if there is coverage way the heck in the middle of a lake in
rural northern Minnesota, we may just have a post or two next week.

Just for fun, I'm attaching the one photo I currently have stored on the
phone. If you can see it, that's Joe's dad holding Sophie when she was
much smaller.

Craaankay.

Yeah. Cranky. As in a giant, cranky ball winder that showed up in the mail today.



My good old basic Royal is stripped (you know, how they start making that clicking, slipping noise - it drives me crazy.) So I decided to step up a notch and this was it. Freakin' thing is huge, but it's nice because it has much better tension control, and hopefully it will hold out for a few more years.

But that's nowhere near the end of crankay around here. Sophie's teething something awful. I made the mistake of drinking two beers instead of just one last night at a barbecue, and woke up with a hangover this morning. argh. I had my share of cranky all morning, too.

But it's all good. I had a pleasant surprise this evening...I got an e-mail from my cousin Joe who I haven't seen or heard from in forever. He is the youngest of three boys, all about 10 years older than me and my sister. He used to give us piggy back rides, and we worshipped them. If you're reading, Joe, thanks for checking in. It was good to hear from you.

It's past my bedtime, and I've got about a million more things to do getting ready for our trip.

Pictures Again.

I have a nice mix of cute kid pictures (so many cute things happening this week!) and knitting and dyeing update pics as well - something for everyone likely to hang out around here!

We went to the fancy grocery store the other day - the one with the carpeted aisles where there is always a truck cart waiting for the girls to ride in. Actually, this was Sophie's first time riding in the truck part of the cart, and they had a blast! All through the store, other shoppers saw them and their faces just lit up.



Later that day, Sophie went down for a nap and Julie busied herself with the fish game - I think she was actually pretending to feed the fish.



I took the opportunity to graft the crotch of Sophie's leggings. They're still nowhere near done (actually, I've had to rip out the same five rows twice now), but I wanted to go ahead and get rid of the dangling scrap yarn holding the live stitches.

Before:



On the needles ready to graft:



After:



You can see in this picture what the gusset looks like. I closed up the holes as I wove in the ends later, and I think they're pretty tight. I hope.

This is what Sophie looks like at the end of many meals. She seems to love rubbing food in her hair. She's also been chewing on her fingers like crazy - those canine teeth are coming in again.



Because I firmly believe in setting a good example for my girls early on...



Um, at least she's reading? We were shopping at the much-less-posh grocery store later in the week, and I caved in and bought a trashy magazine. I think there was a picture of a puppy in one of the advertisements, and that's what she was looking at.

Even though I really need to be preparing and organizing for that trip next week, I've been playing with my giant box of yarn instead. These skeins were an attempt to satisfy a certain Packers fan in our midst. They are all the same except for the second blob from the left, which is a bit brighter. What do you think, Jaci? Which colorway is closer?



A closeup of the two colorways.



This picture is exactly what it looks like "I have goggles, Mama!"



Um, yeah, so there's some more yarn in the dye pot. Have I mentioned that this many-colored self-striping is a major pain in the ass? Well, it is.



I reskeined that cheesehead yarn this afternoon. It sure looks pretty all mixed up like that. Again, which version to you want, Jaci?



Here's my finished pile so far...the brown is coffee-dyed yarn, and it smells SO good.



This morning I took my Canadian friend out for a surprise. She's really into stationary, so we went to Uptown and checked out a couple of paper stores. I took this picture in Papergami (with permission). Their selection of washi paper was so beautiful all lined up along the wall. They had lots of other fun trinkets, including a red heart-shaped tape measure that I bought but did not take a picture of.



We also visited Paper Source, which was also fun, but a bit more of the chain-store experience. And Starbucks. Because it was right there across the street and we needed a good sit-down kid-free chat.

There is so much to do this week - cooking, packing, last minute shopping...

The girls

A few random observations on life with my girls right now.

Everyone in our family likes to give and receive raspberries. Not the fruit kind - the kind where you buzz your lips against a jiggly tummy or a juicy thigh. I have been razzing my girls since they were born, and it's always good for a laugh and a smile all around. I can't get enough of it, to be honest. One day a couple of weeks ago, Sophie lifted up my shirt as I was sitting on the couch, and I thought she was angling for a nursing session. Nope. She leaned down and gave me a raspberry. It was so incredibly cute. Julie has gotten in on the action now too, and it seems like we end up having raspberry time most nights before bed these days. I especially love it when the girls do it to each other. It's hilarious.

...

A conversation between me and Julie this afternoon as I was starting dinner:

J: I don't like cabbage.
Me: Why not?
J: Because if I liked cabbage then I would be a grownup.

So typical of Julie. So funny in the moment.

...

Sophie snorts when she laughs really hard. Sometimes, I do too.

Chaos Supreme

I'm trying to dig through my office room tonight. It's gotten to be utterly unbearable. I mean, it's gotten to the point where there is hardly an available surface for stashing one more thing that needs to be stashed, including the floor and the guest bed. It is so bad in here that I can barely think once I've entered the room. I come in here to retrieve one quick item, and some other important but forgotten thing catches my eye, distracting me long enough to forget what I came here fore, but not long enough to actually do anything about the thing that distracted me.

And then the girls come in. I can't be in my office for more than 15 seconds during the day without someone coming in and disturbing my mess. They bring in their toys and their sippy cups, they attempt to grab and play with all the treasures I've stashed in here. We all know what happens when the under-four set gets ahold of a ball of yarn, and it's not pretty. Sophie loves to turn the crank on my ball winder. Julie loves to climb up on the bed. I struggle to herd them out, and the cycle starts all over again twenty minutes later.

Cleaning up the mess is no small feat. Most of the things left out in my office are left out because they are somehow "pending." Mail that needs sorting and bills that need paid, letters that need responses, receipts to be entered into Money. There is an innocent-looking button sitting on my desk that a casual observer might believe could just be put in the sewing box, but no, it is waiting to be sewn back on one of my favorite pairs of pants.*

The floor is covered with a giant box of yarn, a few things that I still need to list on e-Bay, but won't till after the camp trip, a giant pile of stuff that I've bought to take to camp, and some other mystery debris along with the usual dust bunnies hiding under the desk. The table is covered with dye-related debris, bits and pieces of current knitting-related projects, and a bunch of stuff that is waiting for me to make a trip to the post office.

You know how they say "cluttered desk, cluttered mind"? Well, that is all about me right now. I really must get back to work tyeing up some of these loose ends so I can forget about them and put their paraphernalia away.


*By the way, I have two pairs of pants from Eddie Bauer that keep popping their buttons. I e-mailed their customer support asking if I could purchase some replacement buttons because I've now lost the ones that hold down the flaps on the back pockets. They won't give me replacement buttons, but they've offered to replace the pants themselves! I am sorely tempted to take them up on this offer, and a shipping label is on its way to me now. There are two problems with the plan. One, I would have to mail back two of my favorite pairs of pants and await the new ones by mail. Since I don't have very many pairs of pants, this would severely cramp my style. Two, they don't have the exact same pants any more, even though I bought them this spring. I really like these pants. They fit well, and the style suits me. Plus, They roll up and pretend to be capris for summer-wear right now, but they are heavy enough to wear through fall and into winter. None of the current styles seem as perfect. So what I think I really need to do is find time to hit the fabric store, but replacement buttons and sew them on. It seems shameful, the thought of getting rid of perfectly good pants just because of poorly-sewn buttons.


Oh, and I did promise some answers to questions, didn't I?

Here we go, and this is totally random, so if you asked a question lately, you'll have to skim through and see if I got to yours:

I was cold-pressing the coffee because I had read a NYT article about it (I linked to it a while back, but don't have time right now to look it up again) that said it was by far the superior way to make cold coffee. Maybe my palette's not that refined, but I can't tell all that much difference.

The Waving Lace socks I knit for Sockapalooza were indeed pretty stretchy as far as I could tell. I couldn't try them on myself because my feet are much much longer than my pal's.

There are about a million different ways to do a provisional cast-on. The one I used for the leggings recently was a crochet-chain version using a contrasting color scrap yarn. I like that one for things knit in the round because it stays secure till you want it out, and then rips out like the stitching on the top of a charcoal bag when you decide to pick up the stitches. My other favorite is the eensy-weensy spider version, but I usually use that one for things knit flat (like my blankie squares) and mid-stream cast-ons (like the underarms of a sweater). There are videos and tutorials for both of these all over the Internet. Try You-Tube or just Google it. Sometimes provisional cast-ons are also called temporary cast-ons.

I still need to explain a bit better about the crotch on those leggings, but I need pictures and I don't have time for pictures. The mess is calling me!

Harry Potter Hangover

I feel like I have a hangover today. I haven't been drinking, I just stayed up till ^ahem^ a.m. reading the new book.

There have been times in the past when I've read a new Potter book cover to cover in no time flat because I was compelled by the story and *needed* to know what happened next. That was true for me this time to some extent, but I have to say I was driven by another factor this time.

I had just dug in to the first hundred or so pages by mid-day Saturday, and I stopped to take care of real life for a while. I made the giant mistake of checking blogs Saturday afternoon, assuming that most people would avoid talking plot for a while, and that those who did would post spoiler warnings. But I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.

A certain blogger, who shall remain nameless because I'm about to disparage her wholeheartedly, wrote a post in which she swore there would be no spoilers. She promised! Then, in the next line, she gave away one of the major plot points. I'm not going to even allude to the details because I have no desire to do to you what she did to me. But she gave away the answer to the question that everyone was asking at the end of book six.

And guess what? It did spoil things a bit for me. Because the anticipation is a huge part of the enjoyment. Plus, I now had the fear of another spoiler sneaking up on me before I could finish reading the book for myself. Which, along with the whole needing to know what happened next, is what kept me up till almost three this morning and left me dragging all day today.

But it was a good book, and I did really enjoy it.

On to a few other things....

Stitch N Pitch was a lot of fun. I went with my friends Melissa and Kari. The Twins lost, but we were busy chatting, knitting and snacking. The best part of a baseball game, as far as I'm concerned, is being part of the crowd. Singing the national anthem and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Eating crappy food and watching the crowd all around in the seats and on the big screen. I forgot to bring my camera, but I did have my Sidekick and its crappy camera with me.



With all the time I had sitting at the ball game and reading Harry Potter, I got quite a bit of knitting done on those pants. Here's Sophie trying them on this morning.



She wasn't pleased with the situation, but I was able to see that the legs are plenty long (as planned) and that I need more short rows in the back. Which means that I had to rip out a couple inches of knitting from yesterday to squeeze them in. Sophie wears cloth diapers, and when she's wearing them - baby got back.

Whew! I was going to answer some questions tonight, but I'm beat. Maybe tomorrow.

And the winner is...

Well, it's 9:36. I just came down from getting Sophie to sleep for the second time tonight. I'm not sure what her problem was, I'm just hoping she stays asleep for awhile.

I really want to thank everyone again who left such nice comments and who posted about the contest to their blogs. It was so much fun having e-mails flood in all week, and I only wish I had about two hundred books and skeins of yarn to give away.

Right now there are 212 comments on the Contest! entry. I am not doing this selection in any super-scientific fashion, but I am going to use the random number generator - hang on I'm opening up another tab - alright, I used this page and got the number 42. Okay, wait a minute while I go count from the top of the comments down...

Whew! I'm so glad the winner is someone who actually followed the rule of put your damn e-mail address in the damn comment - there were only a few who didn't, but it kind of annoyed me. I was very frustrated the last time I ran a contest and I had to go try to track people down through their blogger accounts and even then still couldn't find e-mail addresses for them. Sorry for the bitter showing through. We're celebrating, because....

Kala at Vegan Craftastic is the winner! Hey, Kala! We're practically neighbors! Maybe I can even drop the book and yarn off for you somewhere - or I'd be happy to mail it too. I really hope you enjoy them. I'm off to e-mail Kala and make sure she knows she's won.

Thanks again to everyone who played along, and I hope some of you stick around. I'll be busy dyeing sock yarn, knitting leggings (no, not leg warmers - PANTS!) for my girls, trying to stay sane while running around after my little ones, and about a million other things in the coming months.

Now I have to decide - am I going to buy Harry Potter at midnight, or wait till tomorrow morning? decisions decisions...

Better than Harry Potter...

What's even more exciting than the impending Harry Potter release?

A peek out the front door....



A giant box in the living room - yarn can actually be pretty heavy given enough volume!



A peek inside the box....



I'll still be spending my free time this weekend reading Harry Potter, but next week I'll probably be dyeing some yarn. There's no going back now!

By the way - I can't believe the contest is almost over, and I really can't believe how many comments we're up to - over 200!

Cold Coffee, Hot Legs, Faded Yarn

This week has been flying by, I think because I have had so many fun things to do so far - the Harry Potter movie Monday and teaching my class last night; and because I have fun things to look forward to this weekend between the last HP book coming out and the Stitch N Pitch Twins game on Sunday. Tonight I have updates on a few things I've mentioned lately, luckily all pretty positive.

First, I think I've come to satisfying terms with the iced coffee trials. I've given up trying to make a blended drink because all the ones I've made so far seem to separate with the ice on top and the liquid at the bottom, plus it's kind of a pain to drag the blender out and clean up the mess when I'm done. I think if I want a really decent blended drink, I'd have to go with a fattier milk or cream, which I'm thinking might cling to the ice better.

I am happy with the one I made today, though, and I'll give you the step-by-step process.



I have a four-cup french press from Ikea. I loaded it up with 1/2 cup of coffee grounds - yes, that is a ton of coffee grounds for the amount of water, but I wasn't getting strong enough coffee before I upped it to that amount. I use decaf Archer Farms French Roast from Target, and I usually buy the whole beans and grind it coarsely for the french press, but the last time I was buying coffee the girls were at the end of their ropes so I just grabbed a bag of pre-ground. I filled the beaker with water, mixed it up till the grounds were all soaked. I wrapped the plunger in plastic wrap because I wasn't sure if the metal would affect the coffee taste if they were exposed to each other for a whole day, and then I stuck the plunger in just touching the top of the water.

This whole thing sat on my kitchen counter for 24 hours, then I removed the plastic wrap, plunged the plunger and poured the coffee into a plastic bottle and chilled it in the fridge for a while. When I was ready to drink my coffee, I filled a glass half-full of crushed ice from my freezer door, poured coffee to cover the ice and then 1% milk to fill the glass not-quite full. I dumped in a generous squeeze of dark-chocolate Hershey's syrup (I'm not telling you what a generous squeeze is - start small and add more to your taste). That wasn't sweet enough for me, and so I added a heaping teaspoon of granulated sugar and stirred the whole thing up.

This was the first time I've made a coffee drink that I finally felt it satisfied my *bucks craving. I'm going to choose to believe that this was less expensive and fewer calories than the drink I'd get going through their drive-through, and I don't really want to hear otherwise. The good news/bad news is that it's a lot less convenient - good because I have to really want one to make it, bad because you have to plan to want one a whole day in advance.

On to the hot legs. I had to shoot this picture fast because although it's cooled off nicely and was a perfect day weather-wise here today, Sophie didn't really want even the softest fuzziest wool on her legs today. Leg one of the pants is done, and leg two is not far behind. It is a little big both in length and width, and that is intentional. We still have probably two more months before she can really wear them, and babies this age grow fast! She could wear them at this length without any problem at her current size, and I'd like to start her out in them a little big and let her wear them longer. Julie's will be the same way, although I'll feel less bad when she outgrows them because I'll be able to save them for Sophie. The joy of having two girls!



I'm thinking ahead to the joining of the legs together, and the one thing that bothered me about the pair I made for Julie last year was the small hole that developed on the back side of the join with wear. I've never been especially lucky with tension at joins on any garment - think between the thumb and hand of a mitten (argh!). Anyone out there have a super-duper tip? I'll try to post a picture of the problem area on the old pair tomorrow if anyone thinks that would help them help me.

Moving on to the faded yarn business. It's really not as bad as I expected after all the food-dye poo-pooing I read out there on the internet. I knit up a flat swatch with the Rainbow Barf I had left after making my socks. I sewed down the middle to secure it and cut a steek. The half on the left stayed in my office, out of direct sunlight. The half on the right I hung out on the clothes line in direct sunlight and all the weather that we've gotten for the last month - mostly sun, one or two small rains, and apparently a little tree sap or something that stained the pink and brown at the top (yuck!)



As you can see, almost all the colors held more or less acceptably. The two pinks near the top faded drastically, and all of the colors faded or changed in color at least a little bit. I think it could be a lot worse, and I have to wonder how many of the people out there dyeing with their "professional" dyes have left a colorcard swatch out in direct sunlight for a month or more. Everything I've heard tells me that there isn't usually a problem with the washing and air drying of these colors - it's the sunlight that kills them.

I think I'll avoid the worst-offending pinks, but I'm still left with a couple that did fine. When I next update my etsy shop, I may say something about this yarn is best used for socks and not heirloom projects, but I may not. I'm satisfied with the quality of yarns I'm producing, and I know I'm doing everything in my power to make them acceptable to my customers too.

I'm halfway through re-reading HP and the Half-Blood Prince, so I think I'll go hang out with that and Sophie's pants for a while. Magically, it's only 9:30 so I have a couple-few good solid hours before bed time!

Sockapalooza Socks Done

My Sockapalooza socks have been done for I think almost a week now, but I finally got around to blocking them today, so I took some pictures, and will post this blog entry to the pligg before I pack them up and get them ready to go out August 2. I'll have to mail them out before the revised mailing week because we're going to be out of town then.



These are knit with Schaefer Yarns Anne, and there was no colorway name listed on the label. The sock pattern is Waving Lace Socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks book.



I think they're pretty enough, and I really hope my pal likes them. In retrospect, I wish I had picked either a different yarn (something more solid and a lighter color) to show off the lace pattern better or a different pattern - maybe simple Jaywalkers - to show off the yarn better.

One last thing to note about this yarn - when I washed it, the colors ran and ran. This is what the sink looked like when they were on their fourth soak. I'll have to include a note to my pal to beware!



Thanks for looking!

Summer Fun

As usual, I have so much in my head to report - let's see if I can get it all down in the blog without boring y'all to tears. First, I just have to gloat. There are 143 comments on the contest post right now, and my e-mail keeps dinging to tell me another has come in. What a riot! Thanks everyone who is playing along so far.

I think maybe I should answer a few questions from those comments right away, since I'm mentioning them. The yarn I'm giving away is Baruffa FaRe, and it is a 100 gram skein, about 1350 meters. It is gorgeous and soft. My SP9 pal gave it to me, and it is one of THREE skeins I have from her. One is plenty to knit a stole or shawl, so I think I can afford to share one with a lucky winner.

I do have some hesitation about dyeing this wool, because I use food dyes, which are rumored to be less permanently colorfast than the "professional" dyes. I'm doing some experiments right now to test this out myself, but I'm not too worried about the problem when it comes to sock yarn - they're socks. They're going to wear out before the color fades, in all likelihood.

A shawl, on the other hand - a lot of work goes into knitting a shawl, and it could be an heirloom item. If it's going to be a certain color, it should plan on staying that color indefinitely, and I worry a bit about someone knitting some gorgeous shawl, then leaving it laying on the back of a couch or chair as decoration and maybe the sun hits it and suddenly it's faded and ugly in a matter of weeks. That would be devastating. Something to think about for the winner, and I wouldn't be offended if they just want the white yarn. It's also turning out that some of the colors are more stable than others, and I'll try to post about that later this week.

Oh, and someone asked what I plan to knit out of the book. To be honest, I don't have any immediate plans to knit anything out of it. It is a gorgeous book with so many amazingly beautiful designs in it, I value it as sheer eye candy - plus there is a lot of great lace knitting information there. Some day I will probably pick out a design, but there is way too much on my plate right now to add a new lace project to the mix. Those who've been around long enough may remember the lace scarf I was working on last winter. I was using it as my in-the-car project for when one or both girls fell asleep in the car and I was able to steal some quality knitting time without moving them into the house and waking them up. The last time I posted about this scarf was on February 28, and it looked like this:



I haven't worked on it much since then, so I still have a long way to go. I'm not giving up on it - I love the pattern and the yarn - I just got sidetracked by the lace socks I had to knit up as samples for a class I was planning to teach. I imagine when it gets cold out again, I'll remember how badly I need a new scarf and pick it backup. This pattern is from an old Piecework magazine. All that to say - no new shawls in the near future, and really before I do another shawl I'd like to knit a lace sweater. Maybe more about that later in the post. Still, I can pull out my Victorian Lace Today every now and then and dream.

Moving on to some of the other things I've been doing in the last day or so that keep me from knitting 24/7...

Yesterday we went to the park with our friends from across the street, and it was very hot. When we came home everyone needed a bit of refreshment, so I pulled out the homemade grape juice popsicles. They were a big hit, although Sophie had a hard time figuring out which end to hold.



I tried several times to turn it around and get her to hold the handle, but she kept grabbing the ice and trying to chew on the handle instead. After a couple of minutes, her hands got super cold and she cried for a minute then held on to the handle and ate the ice. It was really sweet. Julie had no trouble with hers - except that she really would have liked two or three more!



Today we had a play date in the morning, lunch and a short nap, a splash in the pool with the neighbors, another attempt at napping that failed utterly, a few walks around the block, and then finally, when I still had an hour to kill before Joe came home, I pulled out the bubbles. I have a love-hate relationship with bubbles. They are lots of fun. The kids love them. But they always make a huge mess, and I hate the feel of slimy-sticky bubble liquid on my hands.

Still, Sophie enjoyed them...


And Julie enjoyed them...



And we passed the time and it was good. I hosed them and the table off before we went in, and Joe still had to put them in the tub while I fixed dinner.

Backing up to last night, I did get to go to the Harry Potter movie, and it was good. I'm not going to give a detailed review - I had some thoughts both good and bad, but mostly I just enjoyed the experience of sitting in a theater away from my responsibilities with a bag of popcorn in my lap. I also had some knitting with me for after the popcorn ran out...



That's one ugly piece of knitting, I know! I'm knitting up a sample swatch of all the yarns we dyed up the other night. Some of the colorways will never see the light of day again, some may be reworked, and one or two may be real winners. We were mostly experimenting with laying the dye on the yarn in different configurations to get different kinds of swirl patterns, and also I wanted to add some colors to my color card. I do like the colorway on the far right, and maybe the one on the far left. The third from the left was pure science experiment, and the second from the right may be a good colorway, but I think it is the kind of colors a lot of *other* people like but that I just don't get. Still, it was good in-the-dark knitting because quality didn't count one bit, and I did drop a stitch and I didn't have to care. How rare is that?

Now I've got to finish printing out a pattern order for the store and get my materials ready for the class I'm teaching tomorrow night. If I'm lucky, after that I'll have time to do a bit more knitting and read a couple chapters of Harry Potter 6, which I'm re-reading to refresh my memory before the new one comes out on Saturday!!!

Contest!

I've been wanting to host another contest for a while now. It's so much fun to give gifts, and even more fun to shamelessly beg for comments. I don't really have a good reason for a contest, or even a very good game to play. But still, I want a contest. Because you know I don't have enough other fun things going on in my life right now.

I happen to have an extra copy of Victorian Lace Today. I bought one when it came out, then I recently got one as a gift. I also happen to have a lovely skein of laceweight merino in a very white. This yarn would be perfect for hand dyeing, or for knitting just the way it is. The winner of this contest is going to get the book and the yarn, with the option of letting me dye it for them before I send it (winners choice of color(s)).



Pretty sweet, huh?

So how do you enter? Well, just leave me a comment on this post and make sure to include your e-mail address. Comments not including an e-mail address will not count! It's okay to spell out some part of it to avoid spam collectors, but if I can't contact you easily, you're not winning the goods. Here's the twist - if you want a better chance to win, put a link to this contest on your blog. For every person who comes and comments on this post and mentions that they came here from your site, your name goes in the hat again. And, of course, they get a chance to win too. How hard is that? Not very hard at all.

Let's say you have till my kids are in bed on Friday the 20th to enter. That'll be some time after 8 p.m. Central Daylight Time. I'll cut it off and randomly select a winner as soon as I can make it to the computer.

Thanks for playing!

Editing to add that as of 9:32 CDT on Friday, July 20 the contest is over. I'll put up a new post shortly with the winner. Thanks again for playing!

So Far Behind

This is terribly cliche, but there is just too much to do and so very little time in which to get it done. I just spent almost two hours responding to e-mails as far back as the beginning of July.

I have about a million details constantly floating through my head these days. There is the normal stuff like playdates, errands and meal planning. There are the yarn dyeing and selling plans (there are some good ones - finding time to implement them is going to be a challenge!) There is the planning packing lists for camp - not only things like clothes, flash lights and bug spray, but also food stuffs for Julie since I don't know I can trust there will be food for her at every meal there and of course trying to figure out what knitting supplies to bring for the campers.

Here's a conundrum: There will be somewhere around 60 campers. Some of those are kids too young to knit, but I'm not sure how many. Some of the campers probably won't be interested in knitting - there is another instructor that week teaching art-from-nature stuff, which sounds really cool, and then there will probably be some people like my husband who have no interest in anything crafty at all. Of those that want to knit, some will be beginners, others more experienced. How many sets of straight needles in sizes 4 through 7? How many copies, for example, of the Fiber Trends clog pattern and needles to match? Blah blah blah, and it all - yarn, patterns, needles, whatever other materials I need - needs to fit in one of the large Rubbermaid totes or less. Because I have to haul it all the way to northern Minnesota in our small car, then ferry it on a boat to the island on which this camp is located!

Oh, and then there are all the knitting projects floating around the house constantly vying for my attention - right now the pants for Sophie mostly have it because I need to write up the pattern and get a display model into the shop before the newsletter goes out if they decide to offer that class, and if they don't I still want to get the pattern written up to sell for Fall.

Now that I've got that off my chest, let's look at some pictures!

On Thursday, we were supposed to pick up our meat order from the awesome farmers that deliver to the Twin Cities once a month. We missed the dropoff time that is closest to us, and so we ended up driving all the way out to Stillwater to meet them. While we waited for them to get there, the girls got to run around a bit, and Julie had a great time climbing up on this big rock. She talked about it all the next day and has asked me several times when we get to go back and play on the big rock. Crazy kid.



Thursday night was the last session in my sock class. Here are a few of the beautiful works in progress that were present.



They were even prettier in person. Wednesday is the first of two sessions for my next class, Damage Control. I think there are probably a couple of open spots still if anyone is interested. If you constantly worry about making a mistake and not being able to fix it, this is a great class for you! (Sorry about the shameless self-promotion, but just so you know, the class already has enough people to go for sure, and I don't get paid extra for more students.)

On Friday, Sophie wore a couple barrettes in her hair for about fifteen minutes. As my readers who've been around long enough may remember, up until a few months ago she had a pretty shaggy head of almost-black hair, then she lost it all and regrew brown hair. Finally, it's almost long enough to decorate again - people sometimes have a hard time telling whether she's a girl or a boy. Still, it's too short for things to stay in very long.



Friday night, my neighbor-friend Laura came over and we had a little dye party. We experimented with a bunch of test-sized skeins of about 20 yards each. I wanted to play around and think up some new colorways before the big shipment of blanks arrive (still no word on when to expect THAT.) Laura had some great ideas, and we ended up with some really pretty stuff and some less pretty stuff.



I wound it all into little balls, and I'm going to knit it up into a test swatch to see how various combinations will look as an end product.



Here's the current state of Sophie's leggings...



That's the longer of the two legs, and I still have a few inches to go.

I've made plans with Laura to go to the Harry Potter movie tomorrow night after the kids are in bed, and unfortunately I can't work on the leggings in the dark because of the increases every few rows. I think I'm going to take that sample swatch and a few of the test balls with me instead. That way I can keep my hands busy after I'm done eating popcorn and candy and I'll also have a nice surprise when the lights come back up. I am SO looking forward to this movie, but not as much as I am the book.

Today we got together for a little walk and some coffee with our newly-returned canuk friends. I got a little giggle out of it when Jen said "Zed" instead of "Zee." I've really missed those little accent quirks, along with just being able to talk to my good friend about so many little things.

Julie and M held hands and ran ahead of us in their matching Crocs.



So sweet!

Oh, and hey, are y'all going to Stitch and Pitch? I am! The tickets came in the mail over the weekend, along with our coupons for freebie bags. I'm going with two girlfriends, and I *will* be drinking beer and eating nachos.

One more thing - I there's going to be a contest. I'm going to put it in a post all by itself in just a minute!

Create!

We had a wildly busy, fun day today. We started off running a couple of errands. First, to Michaels to get some craft supplies for home. Julie absolutely loves playing with glitter glue. She doesn't really use much control with it - she just loves to squirt it out of the tube and spread it all over whatever paper or object she's using it on. Today when we got home and Sophie went down for her nap, Julie went to town with the glitter, and these were the results...





She used up two brand-new tubes of the stuff in about ten minutes, but she was happy and she'd had her fix. We also stopped at Target and picked up some things for our upcoming trip to camp. Julie got a new sleeping bag, and she was crazy with excitement. Today was a jackpot day for her.

All summer so far, I've been trying to create a decent cold coffee drink at home - something that can satisfy my *bucks craving. Let me just say that they have the iced coffee drinks down - uh - cold. Even the local coffee shops and chains don't compare. My attempts at home have been pitiful. The other day I saw this article about cold press coffee (via Not Martha) and I decided to give it another try.



The result was not as good as the real thing - the giant pile of whipped cream they put on top doesn't hurt, and the girls LOVE it when I give them tastes of the whipped cream before I suck down the drink. But the one I made was still tasty and somewhat satisfying. Still, it seemed a bit watered down. I took the remainder of today's cold-press and stuck it in some ice cube trays. My next attempt will involve using frozen coffee in place of regular ice cubes. I'll let you know how it goes. Don't ask me about the recipe so far - I just splashed stuff into the blender willy-nilly.



Now for the best part of the day. Tomorrow, our wonderful Canadian friends are coming home from their extended vacation there. We are so excited, we could practically pee our pants (well, one of us does on a regular basis anyway, but you know what I mean.) Julie had been bugging me to buy her some of that sidewalk paint all summer long, so I this was a perfect excuse to give in.

We drove over to their house and did a little graffiti work. The girls had a blast, and we all ended up covered in chalky mess. I did a little Photoshop work to some of these pictures to blur out the names, but you can get the idea.



To the left of the H in home is my very lame attempt at drawing the state of Minnesota.



I am so not an artist when it comes to drawing. Knitting is the perfect outlet for my artistic streak.



Julie and Sophie had fun laying down the color.



I used Sophie's croc to trace some footprints down the path.





I'm banking on the fact that it's late at night and they're probably already asleep and will be too busy in the morning to be reading my blog before the get home and see it for themselves. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't rain between now and then. Can't wait for a play date!

Oh, and SwissKnits - you always come up with the good questions. What size niddy noddy is a good all-purpose one, she says. I dunno. I guess it depends on what you're doing with it. I ordered the medium-sized Kromski from Mielke's a couple of weeks ago. It winds a 48" skein, and I was really just guessing what I wanted. I haven't really used it much more than to just try it out for a few minutes, but the resulting skein feels a little small - when I'm winding 450 yards at a time, that's going to make a pretty fat little skein. Also, I'm going to want to wind it up pretty fast as I'll probably be running around lawn chairs out in the back yard while the kids are playing in the sand box. I'm pretty tall, so I have pretty long arms and I think the large size niddy will be just as comfortable for me to use as the medium. So I went ahead and ordered a large Kromski a couple of days ago. It makes a 72" skein. I picked the Kromski ones because they were inexpensive yet decent looking. That's the best answer I have so far. But good question!

Oh, and about the old biddy next door. Yes, Biddy McTacky. Just so you know, I actually feel sorry for her myself. She leads a hollow shell of a life, as far as I can tell. The little stuff that I've shared with you is all actually kind of silly b.s. The thing that really led me to dislike her in earnest was the day when she stood in my yard and told me how much she disapproves of interracial relationships and mixed-race kids. While I was holding Sophie in my arms. Of course, she was talking about her (white) niece and her great-niece's (black) father. So I'm sure in her mind it's totally different than our family (or maybe not) and somehow acceptable to blather about shamelessly. I don't really care what the F she thinks of me, my yard, or my family after that. I just wish I had had the nerve to tell her to get off my property at that moment, instead of the much more mild, diplomatic "Oh, how very sad for you" that came out of my mouth. (I meant how very sad that she's a racist - I'm sure she thought I meant it was sad that she has a halfie niece.) Whew. There have been a few other things, but that's the worst one.

You know, I may just consider some long prairie grasses. I actually like the way some of those look. I have a good nine months to think it over.

Bushes

Ever since we moved into our house two years ago, we've been meaning to do something about the bushes. The old couple we bought the house from did a horrible job maintaining it, inside and out. We focused on getting the inside fixed up right away, but we held off on some of the outside work partly because of money, and partly because we were busy with two tiny kids.

This spring, we were all ready to deal with the dead, dying and just plain ugly bushes and shrubs. Joe and I were all set to get an estimate to have them ripped out, but then the hateful old biddy next door made some snotty comments about how all the neighbors were making bets on how long it would be before we got rid of the dead bushes. And this is a good example of the stupid mean passive-agressive things this woman does. None of the other neighbors care about our bushes. But her nasty little comment made me want to leave those bushes there indefinitely just to annoy her.

Here are the worst offenders...And take a look at the garage next door. That's the old biddy's garage. Nice fake butterflies on there, right?



This ugly shrub thing by the back door needed to go. I think it was just a giant overgrown weed.



This was our very own bramble patch. These bushes had no shape, didn't flower, and they were stuck right in the middle of our side yard with no apparent purpose. So typical of the former owners and the way they took care of the house.



This hedge along the front was deceptively good-looking from afar, but they were taking over the sidewalk, and we couldn't trim them back very far because they were all dead inside.



These three were providing potential cover for someone looking to break into my office room window, not to mention the fact that they were crazy shapes and falling down.



While I was taking the before pictures, I snuck a picture of the old biddy's front yard. This is the woman who complains about the state of our ugly bushes....that photo just speaks for itself!



Finally, I gave in and gave up the hate for the woman long enough to go ahead and agree to get rid of the ugly bushes. The crew showed up this morning, and an hour later we have a clean slate...









And a lot of gaps to fill in. I think I'll wait till next spring - partly to piss off the old biddy, partly because that's the best time to mooch plants off of friends and family when they're small and easy to split. Joe's parents have a ton of hostas at their house.

Here's a tiny little nugget of knitting content - I've been working on that second Sockapalooza sock this week, and making decent progress. I just want to get it finished up so I can move on to the other five things screaming at me for some attention.

Super Happy Weekend Fun

We had a pretty good weekend, and I have a few fun pictures to share.

Friday we hit the splash pad with Joe's cousin and her kids, then ate a little picnic lunch in the park. There is something about sitting on a blanket and calling it a picnic that makes just about any boring old meal special for a little kid. Also, for really little kids - Julie is almost past this stage - getting a whole piece of juicy fruit to eat and make a mess of all over their face is extra special fun.



The end of the week was pretty hot around here with highs in the 90s. Our back yard is super shady, though, so it wasn't too bad hanging around outside later in the afternoon. Julie finally got bored with the hose and Sophie took a turn, getting soaked in the process.



Climbing up the stairs after bath time.



Oh! Hey, look at this - this came in the mail on Saturday. It's a thank-you gift, and a very sweet one at that. Thanks, Chi! Totally over the top. Joe especially loves this kind of stuff, so I'm sure we'll enjoy it.



I love the fresh fruit of summer. We got our hands on some local strawberries - they're small, and had been sitting out all day so were not totally fresh, but the flavor was unbelievable.



It's all about the picnics. Lunchtime rolled around on Saturday and I was pulling random things out of the fridge - the same random things we have every day for lunch. Julie says "I want to have a picnic!" So even though it's 90 degrees out and humid as all heck, out we went and had a picnic.



And the girls love it. That's hummus all over their faces. They like to eat the hummus and leave the crackers.



Today the girls and I made a run to the mall and bought ourselves some Crocs. I never thought I'd jump on this particular bandwagon, but everybody and their brother seems to be wearing these ugly-ass shoes. They all say the same thing - they're really comfortable. What finally swayed me - well, there were two things. One was watching the super-cute little boy across the street toddling around in his - I have to admit that they look cute on little kids. Two was we're going to camp in a few weeks, and we could all use some shoes that are easy to slip on and easy to clean. badda bing.



I. Love. this picture.





I can just see these with handknit socks come fall. They'll be even more funky looking then.

Neighbors and Knitting

I have a lovely neighbor named Laura, who lives across the street from me. (For those of you who read often and may be confused by my constantly referring to two different families that live "across the street" - it's because we live on a corner and have two sets of great "across the street" neighbors). In the two years since our family moved into this house, we've really grown to appreciate how lucky we are to have so many great neighbors. Even the hateful old biddy who lives next door is good in her own way - at least they maintain their property well and do no worse damage than mean-spirited gossip and snipes. But that's another story.

Laura and I have become friends over the last couple of years, and we have some things in common like children the same age, similar beliefs and outlooks, and actually, other friends. As with most people I meet, I'm sure Laura knew from just about the first time we met that I like to knit. Because I *am* a crazy knitter, and if I'm not in fact knitting something as I talk to you, I'm pretty much guaranteed to mention my crazy knitting at some point in our first conversation. Imagine my shock and surprise, then, when a few months ago Laura grudgingly admitted that she knits "a bit." As my jaw dropped open, she explained that she didn't want to say anything to me because she knits differently (I think kind of mirror-imaged to standard right-handed knitting) and maybe something about not being as good as me or whatever.

And the whole reason it came up in conversation at all was because I was in the middle of winding another long skein of yarn for self-striping, and it turns out she'd been experimenting with food dye and yarn herself! And suddenly the already-cool neighbor became even more interesting because now we have something really awesome in common! But it gets better.

Yesterday, Laura presented me with a set of the stitch markers she's been making. They're really cool because they're meant for smaller needle sizes, and I've never seen ones like this before - they're made out of beading elastic so that the loops fit in between your stitches on the needle better and don't get in the way as much while you're knitting past them. They're very simple, but they're a new idea and I think they're super cool.



Now, I have to admit...I'm not really a stitch-marker-lovin' knitter in the first place. I see lots of knitters who love to place that stitch marker to mark the beginning of the round pretty much every time, even if they're using double-points, so they know the beginning of the round is right there at the beginning of the needle on the side where the cast-on tail is hanging down. That's not me. I usually only use markers if I'm working on a pretty complicated pattern like lace or if I'm using circulars and need to either mark beginning of round or where decreases go.

Having these new markers hot in my hands, though, I really wanted to try them out. First, I have to show you my normal preferred method of marking increase/decrease spots on double-point-needle tubes.



I love those little Clover coilless safety-pin type markers because you can use them either on the needle itself or, as pictured here, right in the fabric. As you're working around, you don't have to slide them from one needle to the other but your fingers brush it in the fabric to let you know that something interesting is going on in this spot, and you only have to move it up every once in a while. Very functional, but not all that glamorous.

So I tried putting my cute little marker in its place, and it really is cute. These markers look so "mod" or almost art-deco with their square little crimping things next to the round beads. I love their tiny size matching the tiny size of the yarn and needles. I'm not very good at accessorizing myself, but hey look I can have the perfect accessory for my knitting!



Those are, by the way, the legs for Sophie's pants, working their way up towards the knees. Yes, I cast on provisionally so I could create the picot hem by folding over on a row of YO-K2Tog and then knitting the cast-on stitches together with the live stitches. I meant to find a good resource explaining it before typing this post, but sorry I forgot. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something for you.

Here we have a pant leg in progress that has gone a little over the top with the accessories...



That's a yarn bra on the cake of yarn and a point protector on the needles. I just got the point protector in the mail while I was taking these pictures during lunch today. I had ordered them from Mielke's while I was ordering the niddy-noddy (which did finally come just like I wanted - they were very apologetic about the mix-up and sent it out right quick when I let them know.) And it was a great deal. Only three dollars! That's a lot less than other similar double-point needle protectors I've seen on the market.



Here's Pomatomus wearing the green ones I bought at the Yarnery a while back for at least double the price. And speaking of Pomatomus, here's where it stands at the moment. I'm well past the heel and gusset, and it's straight on to the toe. It's on hold till I get a little further on...



Baudelaire! Which is just past the heel going in the other direction, and now straight on to the top of the cuff for this one.



And here is an overview of the current small-project collection floating around our house at the moment.



And there's only one problem. As much as I want to keep knitting on Pomatomus and Baudelaire, because I think I could finish one or maybe both of them before class next week, I think I need to cast on for another sock. Sockapalooza socks need to go out on August 2, and I haven't started the second sock yet. The first one only took me about a week, I think, but I want to have the second one done and blocked with time to spare, especially since it's time to start thinking about the pre-camp to-do list. I think tonight's couch time will be devoted to Sockapalooza.

But anyway, I've digressed. Back to my friend Laura. It turns out that not only is she a secretly quite-good knitter (an a modest one at that) but she also has a blog that she's been keeping from me for more than a year! And on top of that, she does other cool crafts like stamping and beading and I'm sure all kinds of other stuff that for some reason she's been secretive about. I don't know whether to hug her or shame her for not telling me sooner. Because I found all of this out, and suddenly she's opening an etsy shop full of really neat stuff that I want to buy. You should go check it out, because you, too, could become the new owner of some super-cute teeny tiny stitch markers - and for not very much money!

And now I have to add that I started this post LAST night and didn't get to finish it because Sophie woke up and I was tired so I just went up and took her to bed with me. I'm so behind. Now, before someone wakes up or my time runs out, I'm going to sign off and go start in on the first season of The Wire, which I borrowed from the library and I only have one week to watch all five DVDs.

Super Independence Day Picture Post!

We had a very nice American Independence Day holiday here, and I hope you had a good day too, no matter where you live. I took a ton of pictures today, and boy oh boy are you in for it! No knitting in today's post, I'm afraid. Just perhaps a tease at the end about tomorrow's very-knitting-related post.

First, while I was downloading photos, two pictures that I meant to write a post with yesterday but, um, didn't. Because I was too busy vegetating on the couch with my socks and the final DVD of season 7 of the Amazing Race. I am so hooked on that show, and I was so relieved when the people that won that season won. It was a good season. For some reason, only seasons 1 and 7 are currently available on Netflix, but 2-6 are supposedly going to be available some time in the foreseeable future. I have them in my saved queue. No spoilers! But back to those pictures.

Julie "doing paperwork" while Sophie napped yesterday.



Sophie the moment I walked in her room after her nap yesterday.



Don't you just love that "rarin' to go" face? I do.

Alright, so now we're caught up on gratuitous kid photos. Let's get on to today's business. The ritzy suburb to our south (Edina) had a Fourth-of-July parade this morning. We made plans with family to try to meet up and do the parade together, which only semi-worked, but I'm glad that the plans at least got us to the parade at about the right time. It would have been nice if we had gotten there early enough for a front-row seat on the shady side of the street instead of a second-row spot on the sunny side of the street. But the girls didn't seem to mind, and Joe and I sucked it up.

I love a good parade. When I was a wee kid, my sister and I were in a baton-twirling marching group called the "Missouri Tigerettes" (oh, how I wish I still had access to those pictures!) and we marched in all the local parades. This parade was a lot like those, only because it was in a ritzy suburb of a major metropolitan area, it was by far bigger and better.

There was a choo-choo train.


There were several old-fashioned fire engines - I only took a picture of one, but how many old-fashioned fire engines do you really want to see?



Lots of horses. One horse in the very first horse group of the parade took a giant crap while they were waiting to move forward (we were standing right at the beginning of the route). The crowd applauded profusely when the guy with the giant shovel came along to clean it up. Then, a guy from the next entry stepped in the pile and cursed loudly right in front of all the kids. Classy.



There were many marching bands. I love marching bands, and I mostly managed to take pictures of the dancers and cheerleeders, and not very good pictures at that.



Oh, but hey - the drum section! They're the best part.



Some of the marching bands were less formal than others. I think this one may have been the Edina High School Alumni. But I'm not sure.



Clowns! Limitless clowns. At least clowns are less scary when viewed from a distance at a parade and are forced to move quickly on.



A local group of pediatricians had a float, and they were handing out popsicles. Julie and Sophie slurped theirs down with glee. It was hot out there!



There was a small fleet of old fashioned bikes.



Ooh look! More dancer/cheerleaders - they were with a marching band.



There was a quite large fleet of "alternative vehicles" which were pretty cool.



Followed up by something called a "Pedal Pub", which was really cool. It's a giant bike, and all those people are pedalling, except the guy in the middle who is steering. Joe liked that one.



There was a giant group of jugglers...this is about a fifth of them.



And another marching band!



More clowns.



And a clown playing an organ-type instrument.



There were Morris dancers, including this guy wearing a hobby horse.



There were grandmothers marching for peace, which I loved...but not as much as the dignified war veterans, of whom I did not manage to snap a picture. As against the war as I am (very!) I am just as supportive of our troops, and I was a little surprised to find tears trying to well up in my eyes as I gazed with gratitude at the men who have fought for our country. I'm such a sap. There weren't as many vets in the parade as I would have expected or hoped for, but each time some came along, the crowd all stood and applauded heartily, and at those moments I felt a little true patriotism for almost the first time since GWB sent us to war.



There were many other entries, including many local politicians and candidates for office. Near the end there was this interesting group of superheroes, who willingly posed for the camera. Gotta love the cheese!



The parade was over, and it was time to head over to Joe's cousin's house for lunch. They had been grilling beer-can chicken - yum!



And someone made a really good pasta salad...



and I got to help the in-laws roll a giant pile of kim bahp.



Isn't my father-in-law cute? He was doing the slicing. Let's have a closer look at that giant pile of rolls...



I as much as I could at lunch, and Joe's mom sent a giant Tupperware home with us for dinner. Kim Bahp doesn't refrigerate well, so you pretty much have to eat it the same day unless you want to be really disappointed with the results.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, forcing the kids to take naps which they desperately needed, then hanging out in the back yard with the girls, throwing those popper things on the ground and watching them enjoy the little "bang" sounds. Joe took a rare-for-him nap, and some of our awesome neighbors invited us over to their yard for a slice of watermelon with their little party.

I couldn't have asked for a better holiday.

Now, here's the tease for tomorrow. Neighbor Laura gave me this:


I'm going to test it out tonight and give you a report tomorrow. You'll see - it's really cool.

Mega Weekend Catchup Post

No posts over the weekend...we were too busy having fun, and I was just too tired by the end of the day to think even semi-coherently.

Let's start off with a little Friday video. It was Julie's last swim lesson, and I caught the three girls in Julie's class having a little fun on an inner tube together.

Also on Friday, there was a little casting on. Provisional casting on...





Then, moving on to Saturday...

There was a bike ride to Lake Calhoun. This time, I pulled the trailer because I wanted the challenge and because Joe was tired and, to be honest, barely willing to go. Julie didn't really want to go on a bike ride either, so I bribed her with the prospect of frozen treats.



She chose the rainbow pop, I chose an ice cream cone to share with Sophie. No way was I going to share a single scoop.



Joe doesn't like ice cream, so he had a Powerade.

We moved on down to the playground, and Sophie did some exploring.



I took a whole series of photos of her trying to and eventually succeeding in getting under these ropes. So funny.



Joe playing along and trying not to be too much of a sourpuss.



And maybe he even had a tiny bit of actual fun.



Back in the trailer for the ride home, staying well hydrated. By the time we got home, I was feeling the burn, but pretty much in a good way.



There was a bit more knitting, and the provisional cast-on came out...



While Julie cooled off in the sprinklers.



Sophie was a little tired and cuddly, so I took her in and put her down for a nap. God, just looking at that picture...the feeling of that smooshy toddler hugging me and laying her head on my shoulder right under my chin...I hope I never forget how wonderful that feels.



During bathtime (notice the towel backdrop) the edges were knit together...



And suddenly I had a cute little picot cuff for a toddler pant leg. Along with a brand new supply of mindless knitting. Yay!



Also on Saturday, I got my reveal package from my SP10 pal. My favorite part of the package is the Malabrigo lace. Pink! There are also some blocking pins - always handy - a couple of packets of coffee (Joe will drink those since I'm still nursing and still not drinking caffeine), a card making kit and a copy of Victorian Lace Today. Thanks, Linda!



I'm not telling when this happened.



Nor this:



I couldn't resist - they were so close to done I had to go ahead and finish them. Then, some strange force compelled me to do this:



That's the beginning of another plain sock, from the top down. Really, I wanted to see how this yarn would knit up colorwise. So far, it's looking pretty random.

But speaking of the hand-dyed yarn...Michelle over at SwissKnits started knitting a sock with her Juicy Melon yarn. I am so excited to see it - it's swirling just like I thought it would. I'm really hoping I get to see some more pictures of things knit up with my yarn.

Oh, and I was wondering where that giant shipment of yarn got off to...so I called Kraemer this morning to find out that it's backordered. It's not going to be here for two or three weeks. Just when I'll be scrambling to get ready for camp. Oh well, it will give me some time to catch up on some of the other things I need to be doing.

Time's up! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.