Eggstravaganza

I wonder how many posts in the blogosphere have had this title in the past week or so…

Anyway, we dyed eggs today and much fun was had. We thought we'd do it outside but things were blowing off the table and also there are about 1,000 gigantic bumblebee-like things swarming my house now that it's warm. I think they are living in the eaves or something. I got creeped out by them and wanted to come in. So we moved everything in and worked in the kitchen, which was probably better anyway.

I like to use food coloring, but Missy May really wanted some good old Paas, so we did both. She also painted the eggs with glitter paint, which was really pretty. I also like to put a little splash of oil in the dye to create a marbling effect.

I had a few extra brown eggs in the fridge so I threw them in the mix, but I have to admit they didn't dye well.

She also did some crayoning on a couple of the eggs before dyeing them. We had forgotten to use crayon on them while they were still hot (as seen in Jean's lovely post) so she didn't get the lovely melty wax, but the dye did resist the crayon a little. It's kind of hard to see though…

You can see some of my marbley efforts here. For the yellow and red one in the front, I put the

egg in the carton and dripped first oil then yellow dye, then red dye over it. M.M. said it looks like a hot air balloon.

Another thing I like is to wrap rubber bands around the eggs before dyeing them to make stripes and spirals. I didn't do very many like that today, though.

All done! Aren't they pretty? They're waiting at this moment to be hidden for the morning excitement.

One Down!

I got one sock finished; it's not perfect, but the imperfections are ignorable as far as I'm concerned. Sock #2 is about 60% done, the gusset, foot and toe to complete. The foot is always so interminable that I'm kind of dreading it but I will persevere because I got my second sock club package the other day and I really want to get to it! These should be quicker because it's heavier yarn, so presumably bigger needles, bigger stitches, quicker knit.

I'll put up pictures of my (beautiful!) new sock, but I want to take them when it's light outside.

Sock Club Saga

I love the color of the yarn, I love the look of the pattern, but it is not without its issues. The bobbles take *forever*, which is ok because, surprisingly, I think they're super cute. It's kind of hurting my hands to do them, which tells me I need to knit looser. So ok.

I am having gauge problems, totally unrelated I'm SURE to the complete absence of swatching I did. I'm doing medium socks on the recommended needle size and word on the internets is that it will be too big. On the other hand I tried going down to size small and it was clearly too small. So, whaddaya gon' do?

I am excited about these socks but I'm just a wee bit discouraged right now. I finished the first row of the second pattern repeat today and ended up with the wrong number of stitches. May not be able to stomach the thought of frogging all those bobbles but on the other hand I may not be able to stand the mistake.

Time will tell.

looooooove

Check it… more hearts. I am on a roll, baby, I can't stop. Somehow I started getting little holes along the edge (visible on the dark purpleish stripy one in this photo. I have no idea why. I swear I am using exactly the same process as in the earlier, non-holey ones. M1, no prob. I don't get it. Anyway, I have lots more to do - woohoo!

Soon I will (probably) start sharing photos and updates on my sock club socks. I can't express the excitement and deep satisfaction of participating in this club. I had no idea it would be so, I don't know, community-feeling, and exciting and stimulating. All I can say is, it's way more than 6 skeins of yarn and 12 patterns. I get it now.

more heart pictures

These pictures are terrible but I can't help it. These hearts are just TOO CUTE for me not to share. I did the dark purple one this afternoon in like an hour and a half start to finish. That is a major deal for me. Tonight I went through my yarn and came up with a whole bunch of other yarns to make them out of.

Little Knitted Hearts

Aren't they cute? I'm going to try to make one for everybody in my daughter's class.

I Am Covered With Cats!

They're all over me, flopped on my legs in the bed. I know we only have two, hut it seems like many more. What's with that??

I'm Baaaaaack

No promises or anything, but I'm gingerly putting my toes back in the water after a long blogging hiatus. I'm coming back for the purpose of writing about and displaying pictures of my knitting, not so much the kid stuff or life stuff at this point. So,

I've just finished a hat, navy blue, snowflake on it. No picture yet.

I've just joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts 2010 Sock Club, with some trepidation about my ability to keep up with knitting that many socks, particularly along with the various other projects on the horizon. But even if I don't, I'll have yummy yarn with which to knit whatever else I choose at whatever point I choose, and I'll have new sock patterns to knit up anytime I decide with whatever yarn I decide. So, I'm plunging in.

Breakfast in Bed

M.M. brought me breakfast in bed yesterday morning. She woke up really early (why does that only happen on non-school mornings?) and to buy myself a little extra horizontal time I asked her if she’d get me a glass of water. Next thing I knew it was 40 minutes later and she showed up with a big tray. I couldn’t believe she’d managed to carry it upstairs.

It was ginger snaps – 3 in a little dish, plus the whole jar in case I wanted more, spelt pretzels – again, a few on a little plate and the whole bag, and a little bowl of broth, which she had made by mixing a bouillon cube with cold water. And, of course, the glass of water I’d asked for in our fanciest mug, with a thin delicate handle and a ring of gold paint around the rim. I was suitably impressed and delighted with all the effort she’d gone to, and she was so cute and excited to have done it all herself. I wish I’d had my camera to document the adorableness of it all. As soon as she’d delivered the tray she ran back downstairs to get me a little vase with a flower.

Happily I didn’t have to actually eat much of the breakfast… I shared with M.M., nibbled on a pretzel or two, guzzled the water and asked for a refill which she eagerly fetched. M.M. actually drank a lot of the broth and seemed to enjoy it despite the chunks of undissolved bouillon cube floating in the ice cold water.
I really loved it, and she really loved doing it. Win win, indeed.

Grief Sucks

Code id by nose,

Messy living room

Dirty dishes.

The recycling is not taken out.

Child put to bed late

Meals perfunctory, unplanned.

Mood: grumpy

Reactions: irritable

Affect: apathetic.

Low-grade internal refrain:

It's not fair! What happens now?!

Everything's OVER! Make it better!

Make it stop! Why is everybody bothering me?!

A Real Conversation in My House

M.M.: waaaahh, I don't want to be sick anymooooore!

Mama: Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry

M.M.: You're making me be sick! You don't want me to go on my field trip!

What can I say? It's true, of course. I love it when she feels horrible, cries, whines, snot goes everywhere. And I definitely don't want her to go on a field trip. Bwah ha ha ha!

Seriously?

Really? No. Really? Rain and/or clouds every day for the forseeable future? When we've already had rain and/or clouds every day since at least last Friday? No way am I dealing with this. 

update

… The package has departed Anchorage, Alaska on its continuing eastward journey…

FedEx

I am awaiting my brand new MacBook Pro, a replacement for the lemon of an iBook that exploded 4 times in the past 3 months. It was astonishingly easy to get them to agree that I deserved a replacement, and I'm so very excited. Thank you, Apple!

But I don't have it yet. I have been obsessively checking the FedEx tracking page every 5 minutes for the past two days. It's starting to really get to me. The damn thing's still in China for Pete's sake!

I thought about posting the link to the tracking page here, but I got nervous that it would lead someone to my door at the exact moment that the new computer arrived. The better to burglarize you, my dear. So I'm acquiescing to my paranoia that one of the zero readers of my blog will go to the trouble of coming all the way out here to rip me off. 

But trust me, it's still in China. And I will be checking again 5 minutes from now.

To-Do

Here is my to-do list from yesterday, a typical day with a 4 year old:

• Get Dressed
• Go outside, visit neighboring horse (take snack)
• Adjust P's high chair
• Re-hang fallen coat hook 
• Lunch
• Rest time
• Start Dishwasher
• Go to Target
• Mail Big Bear order
• Call about concert tickets
• Fold/put away laundry
• Work on organizing attic
• Call yarn shop

When I looked back over this list yesterday evening, I saw that I had actually accomplished close to nothing outside of basic child-care. Nearly all of the crossed out items were things I literally could not have gotten through the day without. Stuff that does not count as, you know, productive. Getting stuff done. Making the list smaller. Today's list is essentially the same. This is why I got out of the food service business: you spend all day working your fingers to the bone, walking your feet off, and the next day it all has to be done again. Sisyphean.

I really wonder how I think I am ever going to hold down a job. Other than, you know, needing to eat and all. 

Lace-Leaf Hat

I finished this hat for my cousin who recently had brain surgery (apparently completely successful, thank goodness) and had to have the whole back of her head shaved. It's still not warm enough to be going around with no hair on the back of your head! This hat is springy in color and design, but warm and cozy enough for cold winter nights, made from half-llama, half-wool Cascade Pastaza. Hooray!

Contraption

James helped us hook the trailer up to the bike yesterday afternoon. It's a good thing he did, because I would not have been able to figure out how to do it in 100 years. In fact, I spent about 100 years trying one afternoon last fall. So then we rode home! Note the garbage can strapped to the back of the trailer. And if you enlarge many times, you can sort of see M.M. peeking out of the window of the trailer. Ha ha!

It was good fun riding, and I felt all green and earthy and shit, but I gotta tell you: it was embarrassing how strenuous it was for the old thighs and lungs. I had to push it up the little incline steep alpine slope after the turn towards our house. 

We went for another ride today, just to show that I'm no lightweight when it comes to sticking to my health-related resolutions. About 4/5 of the way to the mailbox I thought my legs were actually going to explode then and there, and I had to rest or die. When I got off the danged contraption I almost collapsed, and I was seriously worried about making it home. But I was determined to make that mailbox, dammit, and I persevered after a lengthy rest. By then we were right there at the gloriously smooth pavement, so (after another, even lengthier rest) I threw caution to the winds and went as far as the first road sign on the real, big road. It was a lot easier on the tarmac than on the dirt lane. 

We played some not-very-challenging hide and seek on the side of the road, waved to the two cars that went by and started back for home. On the way home, when I stopped to push the bike up the little incline steep alpine slope M.M. decided to 'help' me push the bike, and then,  (halleluia!) to run beside the bike as I rode! This meant that not only was she wearing herself out, but I didn't have to haul her 35+ pounds with my wet-noodle quads and burning lungs. 

Tomorrow will be 3 days of it… let's see if I can do it. 

Short Row Heel

Is there anyone out there who can knit a short-row heel in one go? I'm sure all those serious, real, knitters do it without thinking. I am not capable of this. All that counting – how can you keep track? The stitches, the rows, the yarn overs… the high numbers. It's not like a little pattern repeat where you have to count to six, or even 12 or 14. This is, like counting to 27. 

Except in my case. I got to the end of the decreases last night (on the second RPM, if you're wondering). I read the pattern. It said that when I ran out of stitches on the decreases I'd be up to 27. Wanna know how many I had? 18. Not even close to 27. How the hell did I lose 9 whole stitches. It makes no sense. 

So anyway, of course I'm going to have to rip and reknit. At least once more. Probably more, because that's just the kind of knitter I am, and because while the short-row heel mocks me, I love the finished product. So cute! So perfectly shaped! So clever!

Sea Change

I seem to have become a different kind of knitter. I have always loved the tiny needles, the skinny yarn, the eensy weensy stitches. Now, having worked on the bulky Christmas hats for the past 6 or 7 weeks, I have no more patience for the slow tedium of those little fussy kinds of projects. I'm all about the chunky yarn, the double digit needle sizes. Laziness? I suppose so. The instant gratification (or more-instant, anyway, since nothing about knitting is exactly instant) is so much fun! Finish a project in a few days instead of a few weeks or months! 

Also, it's harder to break those big mother needles. 

Of Primary Importance

"The economy is by far the most important issue facing the country"??? 

Someone on NPR just told me that's what South Carolinians said in exit polls at the primaries today. 

???

The environment. Healthcare.

These are the two most important issues the next president will have to cope with, in that order. The economy is a minor fraction of a footnote. The economy goes up and down. No, it's not good right now. Witness my lack of income for the past several years. But it's a pendulum and it will swing back.

Unless, of course, there is a catastrophic global climate crisis, like Florida being underwater, or honeybees failing to pollinate, oh, say, everything in California. Or unless more millions of American children and old people simply no longer receive health care because it is unavailable and unaffordable. I could see either of those scenarios turning apocalyptic and having a deleterious effect on the economy. 

Jeez, come on people!