Knitters Rock!

The knitting community really is amazing. Where else could you e-mail a complete stranger, ask a somewhat technical question, and without even really thinking about it they take the time to not only answer you, but do all the necessary math, calculations, etc. to make it all make sense. I think the rest of the world could take a lesson from us…

A+ for Mommy!

Marley's school is very big on rewarding good behavior. They have a whole rewards program, where the kids earn coupons and can redeem them for various little prizes. She was pretty happy that as of the 2nd week of school she had already earned 7 coupons. Although she couldn't really tell me what for.

The other night she told me that she had been called down to the office that day at school. I of course thought the worse. I guess it was a testament to her usually good behavior that she never even entertained the thought that she could be in trouble. When I asked what she thought she had been called down for, she said that she thought she was getting out early. Imagine the poor kid’s disappointment when she was given this:

Mommy got her own award! It's laminated and everything! Apparently my anal-ness in filling out forms means I had filled out her emergency cards “neatly and completely” enough to warrant my own award. Of course as soon as I saw it my (ridiculous) competitive streak kicked in and I grilled her on how many other parents got one. Apparently she wasn’t really paying attention, but she did know that she was the only kid in her class that was called down to the office. So I was at least the best parent in her class (or the whole school, as I like to believe). Maybe this makes up a little bit for the pigsty that she usually lives in? Maybe my real talent is filling out forms - not housework. A much more useful trait, if I do say so myself.

Anyhow...after thinking about it a little, I realized that this was a pretty strange award. First of all, we were asked to fill out the cards and send them back. This warranted an award? Doing what we were asked? Of course, I did it neatly, but this brings us to the second point. These cards are what the school uses when they need to get in touch with you when there’s something wrong with your child. Isn’t it in our best interest to fill them out as neatly and completely as possible? It’s kind of amazing that you would be recognized for doing something required and in the best interest of your child. And pretty scary that if they’re recognizing someone for doing this, it must mean some parents aren’t doing it – or at least aren’t doing it well.

But hey, an award’s an award, and Marley was pretty proud of me. I guess at 7 years old you still can be proud of your parents – not just embarrassed. Although I think she may be a little embarrassed about the state of our house...she told me the other day we needed a maid. Which I promptly agreed with!

First Day of School - Take Two

As my mother pointed out, I started the last post by saying how cute Marley was on the first day of school and then forgot to put the picture in. In my defense - I actually tried to put the picture in a number of times, but my computer kept kicking me off the 'net and wanting me to try dial up every time I uploaded the picture (no clue why). So I eventually gave up. For some reason pictures of (somewhat boring) knitting were acceptable, just not 7 year olds. So I'll try again..isn't she cute?


Tonight was her first soccer practice. Unfortunately she's a couple of years behind the other girls, having never played before. And as Toby says, overcoming my "non-sport" genes is a tall order for her. She wasn't too happy out there, really having no clue what was going on, but hopefully it'll get better as the season progresses.

In much more interesting news, she finally learned to knit on Saturday! She's always wanted to, and we tried before, but I'm really not a great kid-knitting teacher. But somehow it all finally clicked and we have this:

Not bad, huh? I realized part way through that I might be teaching her some bad habits. Every row or two she asks me to count to see how many rows she has done. It must be something in the genes. I will say this about loose knitting - you definitely get done with a scarf much faster!

In grownup knitting news...I've deep-sixed the ugly orange scarf. I finally realized that destashing doesn't have to mean actually using up your old stuff. Getting rid of it is just fine. As I've said before...life is too short to knit crap!

I am weak

I broke my no-buy today. It was Marley's first day of second grade. Isn't she cute? Anyways, I decided to take the whole day off, since I like to be there when she gets out on the first day. Once we dealt with the free-for-all at school that was the beginning of the day, I had until 2:30 to myself! This doesn't happen too often.

So I decided to go to Webs, since I'm looking for a new organizer for my knitpicks interchangeable needles. I love the needles themselves, but the case is awful. After searching a little bit, I decided to check out stick sacks, which the website said Webs carried. Of course they didn't, but when I was there I was sucked into this scarf (sorry Mom, it's a Ravelry link and probably won't work for you.) So I bought the pattern and the yarn (Jojoland Melody) and it was a disaster. All the hexagon's are made from the outside in either on dpn's or magic loop. I tried both and both were awful. I had some suspicions reading the pattern before I bought it, but the store sample sucked me in. That seems to happen alot. So now I have MORE yarn I need to deal with in my use-up-my-stash frenzy. It's really a gorgeous fingering weight superwash merino, but without any nylon in it I'm scared to try socks. I've always wanted to make a fingering weight clapotis, so we'll see...

Speaking of destashing, I've started another Ribs & Ruffles scarf in some pretty hideous Adhoc Salsa yarn which I originally bought to make Marley a beach sweater, but she outgrew the one I was making before I finished it. I can't decide if it's kind of nice or just awful. If nothing else, it's awfully bright:
I also started a new pair of socks for Marley. I'm using some knitpicks yarn I got for myself originally, but didn't really like (in fact this yarn caused my original knitting hiatus last year). Hopefully I'll be able to overcome this in a kid size pair:


Here are my finished Franklin socks, for posterity's sake:

And the pumpkin hat I made for the pedicurist my mom and I go to:

I think that's it for now...unless I start something else new...

Scarves and socks and why I don't buy stash

In the four years I’ve been knitting, I’ve tried almost all there is out there to knit – bags, sweaters, lace shawls, scarves, washcloths, socks and probably a few others. Oh yeah, even felted flowers. It’s kind of funny to me that after trying everything at least once, I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to two favorites – socks and scarves. Pretty basic things, but the things that make me the happiest to knit. And since this is my hobby and therefore pretty much all about me, I guess I’ll knit what makes me happiest. I do have an affinity for lace shawls as well, but let’s be real, how many places do I go that these are even somewhat practical??

Having just finished a pair of socks and started a new scarf, I was musing over what about these things I like and I came up with the following:

Socks

1. They’re portable, which is my #1 craft priority.
2. They’re full of little victories – getting the leg done, the heel turned, the foot…
3. They can be pretty mindless – I’m partial to stockinette.
4. They have very little finishing.
5. They’re a huge hit as gifts.

Scarves

1. I absolutely love wearing scarves in the winter, especially squishy ones – like the Clap.
2. Also portable.
3. It’s fun to try out new patterns/yarn/techniques.
3. They’re also pretty mindless.
4. No shaping and very little finishing.
5. Also a popular gift.

Seems like I have a few prerequisites overlapping here. Funny thing is that I love stockinette socks, but don’t think I could handle a whole stockinette scarf.

The new scarf I started is the Ribs & Ruffles. I actually started it with some of the called for Misti Alpaca I had which has made it through all of my destashing (it’s just soooooo soft), but I want to get a pair of knitpicks size 13 needles (they’re on their way as we speak (or write). I will have to make it a little wider though, since it was pretty skinny as written.

Right now I’m working on this:

It’s the same pattern (with a few tweaks) in Classic Elite Wings. This yarn is why I don’t buy stash. I bought it a few years ago at a Webs sale with no project in mind, and it’s been bugging me ever since. Everything else I buy has a purpose – at least to begin with. Very rarely does the yarn and the original project actual coincide, but I can handle that (see above re: this being all about me). Non-earmarked yarn just makes me twitch. I’ve tried a few projects with it, and haven’t really liked anything. Hopefully this will be “the one”. I like it so far – it’s very squishy and sort of ribbed, but involves no purling (win-win in my book).

I tweaked it by adding 5 garter stitch rows before each decrease to make the ruffle longer and started with 124 stitches which gave me 31 stitches for the body, so it’s a little wider.

In other news…catching your kid’s summer cold really stinks.

My mom the blogger...

My mom has a blog - Debbie's Blog - how weird is that? Every now and then she surprises me and is actually pretty computer savvy. Of course her not-so-savvy moments are pretty funny. Like when she decided to check out "this facebook thing" and somehow ended up in my account sending an e-mail to an old boyfriend of mine - with my name and picture attached. Luckily she at least signed it "Deb" so he knew something weird was going on. The whole situation was a little awkward - funny, but awkward. But then she set herself up on her own page all by her self. Maybe she's getting the hang of all this computer stuff. The best news is that what she can't figure out my dad (the former programmer) will, and then I reap the benefits of that, without having to do the work. A win-win situation!

In craft news...I FINALLY FINISHED MY FRANKLIN SOCK!!! Thank God, I thought this one was going to be the death of me. I do like the end result, although I don't think the fabric is as soft as I would like. Maybe once it gets washed it will be better. I decided to make a pair for Marley next (quicker gratification - she has the smallest feet around here, but not by much. The poor thing has her father's feet). I'm using some knitpicks yarn that was actually the cause of my last non-knitting rut. I wasn't crazy about it, but I figure it'll be better in a smaller sock. I even did a (very little) swatch, but I think they lie. I measured her ankle while she was sleeping (which was interesting, trying not to wake her up) and it was 7". My gauge was 8.5/inch. Which comes out to 60 stitches around. The socks I just made myself were 64 and none too tight. So I compromised on 56 and I'll rib the leg. Hopefully that will work. After knitting so many socks I can't understand while I still have issues with gauge. I have a degree in Chemistry - gauge math shouldn't be such an issue! I even added a square to my sock blanket with the Franklin - I'll try to take some pictures soon, but now I gotta go to bed!

Talk like a pirate - with gas

So Marley has always had this little accent when she talks. I have no idea why, and we are so used to it we hardly notice it anymore. I think it's gotten better, but there are a few sounds she still has trouble with, mostly her "R"s. For instance, most people think she's saying Molly when she says her name is Marley. (As an interesting aside, when Marley was born Toby was attending Ohio State, and there were a few Asian students in his program. They really had trouble with "Marley", I guess for them the R and L sounds were pretty interchangeable. I felt kind of bad, since they really tried hard to pronounce it).

Anyways, we try to work on the sounds when they come up in conversation and the other day in the car we were working on her R's. I was saying "AAARRR - like a pirate" and she was working on it. Of course when I realized what word we were using for this little exercise, I turned to Toby and asked, "how bad is it that we're practicing her Rs on the word FART?” Apparently no bodily function is off limits when it comes to teaching your children how to talk better.

Happily a day or so later I got a call from Marley..."listen Mommy, AAAAARRRRRRRR". Once I figured out what she was saying I was pretty proud. Apparently using pirates with gas as a teaching tool works quite well.

I crafting news…one quilt is pretty much done. I just have to baste down the points on the 2 short sides so they’re straight. Here it is before I added the partial rows, modeling courtesy of Sunny the cat (who was actually quite annoyed with me when I made him get off).




As for the other one, I’m thinking that if my brother ever gets on the ball and actually proposes, this would make a much better wedding shower gift than Christmas. So I’m not going to rush too hard to finish it (I might be a little “quilted out” for now). AND I’m actually knitting again – I’m on the gusset of the second Franklin sock that’s been languishing in my knitting bag forever. I’m also almost done with a pumpkin hat I need by September 4th – plenty of time. I actually made it to Webs for drop in last week, which was great. It’s been too long since I’ve been there.

PS – I’m doing pretty good on my “craft no-buy”. I did have to buy a new pair of DPN’s for the pumpkin hat, since I couldn’t find mine. But with a coupon there were $2.76 at AC Moore. I think the house fund can manage it…speaking of which, only 1 more week to pay for day care!! Yeah!!

Mid-Year Resolution

So Toby and I have been talking lately about buying a house. It seems such a daunting task, but millions of people do it, so we figured why not us? (The most obvious reason of course being that it costs a RIDICULOUS amount of money around here. I’ve seen what house prices look like in different parts of the country. While I know we’re by no means the worst, we’re definitely not the best. Especially if you want a decent school system. But that’s a rant for another day…)

Anyways, I figure it’s time to start cutting costs around here, and the most obvious one for me being all of my craft-related expenditures. I think I’ve been pretty good lately – most spending is done at the beginning of a new obsession, and I haven’t had one of those in a while. But I guess I should still make a little mid-years resolution – No new craft expenses for the rest of the year (!) With 3 exceptions, of course (this is the part where Toby rolled his eyes…)

1. Deleted - super secret project

2. I will probably need more paper templates for the quilt I’m making Mark and Janelle. I think I’ve figured out the way to utilize what I have the most, but eventually I will run out. Seeing these are about $3.50 for 100, I figure I won’t break the bank buying a few more packages.

3. Rhinebeck – I figure this one doesn’t even need any justification. But even so, in the past I really haven't come home with toooo much, comparatively at least, so I figure I’m pretty safe there.

So there it is – and now that it’s out there, hopefully I’ll be able to stick with it! Of course I really need to address a few other areas (namely the fact that we eat out way too much and my new troll bracelet that needs a few more charms), but we’re taking baby steps I guess.

In crafting news…I’m plugging away at both quilts. Here’s where we’re at with Mark and Janelle’s – plus a bunch of partway finished flowers…


I’ve also started 2 baby pumpkin hats for gifts. They always seem to go over well.

I guess I don’t really have this blogging thing down yet. I haven’t quite figured out where people find the time, between working full time, kids and actually doing the crafts they’re blogging about. We've had a family wedding and a while learning to make pickles escapade I wanted to address, but never got around too. Guess I’ll have to work on some time management skills…

It may all go downhill from here...

So last night my MIL and I hit Southampton Quilts to look for a beige grout color for my brother's quilt and more paper templates. She also took me to the Apollo Grill for dinner. Waaay more money than I would have spent for dinner but the food was great, the atmosphere was so tacky it was cute and she was paying. What's not to love?

Anyways, I did find a great beige, but don't have a picture since I'm at work (shhh!), but trust me it's pretty. So I figured out yesterday I need 630 (!) hexagons of this color, so I started cutting them out. Well, I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to count the squares I had cut out of the other colors just to make sure I had enough. I mean, I was pretty sure I did, I am pretty anal about these things. But I did change the size I was making half way through the planning stage and had to redo the math pretty quickly, so I just wanted to check things out. Thank God I did now and not when everything was almost finished since I realized I was 3 red squares short. 3! Out of 210! So close and yet so far.

I studied the pattern for a while to see if I could fudge it somewhere, but as anyone who knows me knows, I really am not a fudger. Just goes against my grain. Then I almost went over to my MIL's house to see if there was anymore. I'm pretty sure there wasn't, but maybe...but then I realized it was 10:00 PM and she might not appreciate me skulking down in her fabric room (yes, it has it's own little room) when she was probably asleep. So guess what Toby and I will be doing on "date" night tonight after we drop Marley off at my mom's? Yep, stash diving to find 9 more inches of red fabric.

The only good news in all of this is that of all the colors in the quilt, I'm least committed to the red. I like it ok, and it was free, but it's not really perfect. I know my MIL doesn't really like it. And I've only completed 1 flower so I could probably just use another color if I had to. But what a pain in the neck...

How did we survive before this?

This whole myspace/facebook age is amazing (how old does that make me sound??) Apparently I signed up for facebook awhile ago and totally forgot about it. My old college roommate who I haven't spoken to in forever found me on it. Then I found a few more old college and high school friends and then more found me through them. And myspace totally rocks my extremely nosy world. I get pretty annoyed when people mark theirs private though. Why shouldn't total strangers have access to your life (just kidding). It's all really pretty neat. How the heck did we survive before this? Oh yeah - something to do with paper and stamps and way too much work...

Doing the math...

So the other GGQ I’m working on is for my brother, Mark, and his girlfriend, Janelle, for Christmas. Well at least I’m hoping the quilts for them. Strangely enough, they have a green couch and I have a green couch. So far I’m loving this quilt and think it would also look great on my green couch. But I will be strong and at least try to give it away when I’m done.

This is another MIL’s stash quilt. It’s actually really pretty fabric which she had earmarked for another project that she finally admitted she’d never get to. I usually don’t get to steal earmarked fabrics, but she made a very kind donation since it’s (supposed to be) a gift. She didn’t have enough of one of the colors, so I will have to buy one, but that’s still a lot better than buying it all!

Through the magic of Microsoft Visio, which I have at work but have used much more for craft related endeavors than actual work, I was able to map out the quilt, which is another variation of the GGQ which looks like stars:


Even though I’m really trying to finish my other quilt, I did let myself make one flower and some of the star point triangles:


Pretty, huh? The picture really doesn't do the fabric justice. I love fabric with gold in it. I still need a beige to go around the outside. I’m going to try to get it soon, since I don’t want to be left doing all the beige at the end (this is tedious enough to begin with, even mixing it up a little with the colors).

Being the completely anal person that I am, I finally did the math on how many hexagons I’m going to need to make a quilt that’s 5 flowers wide by 7 flowers long, which I’m hoping works out to a good size:

Centers – 38
1st Layer – 210
2nd Layer – 426
3rd Layer – 630
Triangles – 436

This adds up to a whopping total of 1,740 hexagons that each need to be cut, basted and then sewn together. I must be nuts. But I really like the fact that since it’s not a scrappy design I don’t have to think too hard about it. I’m sort of in the zen zone of basting.


At least I will be until I run out of the paper backing and either put some flowers together so I can take out the papers and reuse them or (much more likely) buy some more. Hopefully when I buy the beige fabric.

In a perfect world I’d love to give them a finished quilt for Christmas, but realistically I’m probably looking at giving them just the finished top since even if I got the top done relatively soon (which is a joke in and of itself) it takes forever to get them quilted. But that’s okay – Mark and Janelle are used to me. Last year I gave them each 1 knitted sock for their birthdays (which happened to be right around the same time).


They eventually got the other one.

Of course all of this might be moot for awhile. Toby’s cousin’s wife is having a baby which I think I need to make a pumpkin hat for. She’s due in December and at first they said they’d be having a shower the Saturday after Christmas, which gives me plenty of time, even given as craft-fickle as I am. Last I heard the mom-to-be’s mother wants to have the shower on Labor Day weekend. For a baby due in December. Doesn’t that seem a little early? And who wants to go up to NH for a baby shower on Labor Day. Maybe I’ll just be sending a gift…

Well here I am...

Here it is, the inaugural post (well actually not really since I posted a testing123 post last year and that's as far as my first blog attempt went...) But this is the REAL first post, regarding my project du jour, my Grandmother's Garden quilt - with a twist. My MIL started doing one of these and of course I had to join along (see title above re: fickle crafter). I tried my hand at quilting before, but never liked being tied to a sewing machine. I need my crafts to be pretty portable and "done in front of the tv"-able. Hence my addiction to sock knitting.

But the Grandmother's Garden quilt seemed to satisfy most of my requirements. I could do it anywhere, with a little pre-planning and it was all done by hand, which I really like. There's a great tutorial of how to make one here so I won't get into the specifics of how to do it. Needless to say it's pretty tedious and time-consuming. Right up my sock-loving alley.

Most GGQ's look sort of like this:

















With a connecting color or "grout" as I called it, in between each of the flowers. I didn't really like this at first, so I tried something different, without the grout, which gives me this:

It's a pretty crappy picture, but this is what it looks like without a connecting row. I kind of like the more modern look this gives.

The strangest thing about putting the flowers together this way is that the rows sort of go on the diagonal, with partial flowers used to fill in where you need them. Again, I like this modern twist, but I know it makes my MIL twitch when she sees it (I figure it's good for her). Trying to figure out how many more flowers I need to finish it is a little tough though. By my best guess I need 3 more whole diagonal rows and then a bunch of partial rows to square it off. I have quite a few flowers finished, and we'll see how far they get me. I'm pretty much ready for this to be done, since I've already started another GGQ for my brother and his girlfriend for Christmas - a not scrappy and more traditional pattern, but that's for another post.

Oh yeah I forgot the best part of this quilt. I'm using all different fabrics - no flowers are the same. I'm reusing about 10-15 different yellow centers, but I'm trying not to put like centers next to each other. Anyways, I haven't had to spend a dime on any fabric - it's all my MIL's scraps. She probably has enough fabric to make a million of these quilts. I'll eventually have to pay for a batting, backing fabric and the quilting, but for now it's nice to have a "free" project.

Well I guess this is probably long enough for an inaugural post. I tend to ramble when I type as well as talk I guess. Hopefully I'll be back - I definitely have enough projects to ramble on and on about.