Saturday, December 31, 2005

Thongs on dolls and other stuff

O.K. there is a great post on bloggingbaby.com right now about the Baby Bratz! dolls. For those in the know, they came with thongs this holiday season, which was apparently a mistake, according to the manufacturer. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but that just makes my back teeth ache. If you are going to lie, lie big and stick to it. If you are going to tell the truth, make it interesting and stick to it. Don't jump from one to the other.

In other news, I have a single New Year's Resolution: Trust my husband more. I need to stop going behind my husband like I'm his mom, and I resolve not to do that any more. NO MATTER WHAT!

Also, sickness in the A'tuin household is rampant, but seems to be winding down. Its seems as though both husband and baby has made a complete recovery, but I'm still sick. I'm mean really sick. Its moving from my nose to my chest and I often feel like I'm drowning in snot, and to top it off and making me really unreasonable, its time for "every woman's little monthly friend". I blame my husband and his "I have to go to work, so I can't help with the baby" attitude. I'll be more reasonable in about two days.

Please, Goddess, I just want to be able to breathe and knit without a sneezing fit.

Friday, December 30, 2005

New addition to the blog.

If you will look to your right, you will see a new link under blogs. It is for a podcast called Cast On. Its so cool! The guy who does the Panopticon blog, Franklin, has done a couple of pieces for her. And she has a great music sense, and I love hearing about her knitting, and her sweaters of course.

Yarn Harlot Friday and other things

What is Yarn Harlot Friday you ask? This is a new tradition whereby I choose a meditation from At Knit's End: Meditations for Women who Knit too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka Yarn Harlot, every Friday to use as a meme. Ya know just in case I can't think of anything else. Until I fall in love with some other bathroom reading, we'll be doing this every Friday.

So a random quote from AKE is:

"I will try other knitting needles, particularly if one type consistently sends me to the emergency room."

Hmm, I think what we are talking about here is keeping options open. Because remember, the definition for insanity is that you keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result even though you get the same result over and over.

Extrapolating from this might lead one to believe that by trying new knitting needles occassionally will be an effective charm against those nasty men in the white coats, sort of like an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Now that we are though being all yarn harloty, the baby is sick, she has cut a new tooth in less than a week, and hubby just got sent home becuase of a bloody nose and a cold at the same time. And this was supposed to be a quiet day.

Goddess give me strength.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Stuff and things

So I've done a little tinkering here and there, and I have to say that froogle.com is cool. Check out my wish list under my profile if you have too much and want to share the wealth. No, really, its cool.

I have a fiber stash, or at least the beginning of an idea of a fiber stash, and there is more yarn than I could comfortably knit in six monthes in this apartment--just not the yarn I need for several projects. We have enough string and needles that I've offered to give knitting lessons for the sons of a friend of mine.

Which remind me, the clog is finished and its picture will appear here soon, but its mate is going to have to wait for the postman.

Correction

That kid mentioned in the article about the pledge of allegiance is from Florida.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

So, maybe not the Spawn of Satan...

... just one of the minor imps. After sleeping most of the day, Freesia is in the best mood she's had in at least a week. Maybe now things will settle down.

In other news, the clogs are in trouble. I need another ball of blue yarn, so Aimee will be ordering soon, I suppose. One clog down and one more to go.

Oh, and a certain aunt of my husband's sent up a kind of late Xmas/Yule gift. She is wonderful, because I have more fiber. This means I finally have a fiber stash, because I got more before finishing what I have.

Also, I spun the same yardage in half an ounce that I did with my first whole ounce. Isn't that so cool? I still have an ounce and a half to go. I love the fact that 1 1/2 oz of fiber is so going to last me like a week on the drop spindle. I can't imagine rushing it, ya know? A spinning wheel is like way to fast. For $2.50/oz. I am completely amused for about three to four days when I am not knitting and Chris is home.

Flags, knitting, and baby

First, Freesia is bucking for Spawn of Satan again. Last night we had to go out at 12:30 in the morning to get more infant drops for ibuprofen and gas relief drops. Right now she is sleeping in because of her late night. On the one hand, I'm like, oh, so cute, and then on the other, I want to poke her with a sharp stick.

In other more national news, http://bloggingbaby.com has a wonderful article up about a Chicago kid who refuses to stand or recite the pledge of allegiance without a note from his parents about his religious objections. I can only say kudos to the guy, because hubby and I have talked about the same. And we decided that if and when the time comes (we are thinking about home schooling) we are going to excuse our child from pledging allegiance for political reasons. No child should be required to take an oath that they don't understand. Which is in essence what the required pledge of allegiance does.

Wouldn't it mean more if the first time your child pledged allegiance to this country, he or she knew what she was doing and was pledging their allegiance because they want to? Instead, you have classrooms full of "mornings are too early" zombies repeating it in a monotone. What do you think?

In other less political news, Aimee's first clog is almost finished. She is so brave. She just frogged like five rows of short rows then put ever thing back on the needles. I couldn't watch; it was terrifying. We only dropped one stitch, but I managed to go back and pick it up. Oh, and it is huge. I mean like my whole hand and then some. In fact when I was closing the bottom seam for the inner sole, my hand almost combusted because the wool is so warm. Pictures coming soon.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Baby stuff!

The baby is starting to mix her vowels up. She is no longer Ms. Oh and Ms. Ah. She is burbling! She is so smart and wonderful. More content later.

Oh, and I got an ounce of fiber yesterday. I managed to spin and ply half of it because of Chris. Oh, and those clogs I'm knitting for Aimee--I so messed up. She is going to help me rip out some short rows sometime today. So if you hear some cussing from the SE of your position, it is me.

Peace.

Monday, December 26, 2005

Lots of knitting and spinning going on

So I thought I would let you in on the stuff I knitted for Yule, and the spinning I've been doing. Pictures do follow.

So spinning first. This is a drop spindle my husband made for me.

Yes, that is yarn on it. That is the single before its been plied.

This is what it looks like when it has been plied.

Now all that's left is to set the twist, dye it, and get to knitting my baby some funky leg warmers.

For knitting, there is the following scarf and purse.


Yes, it isn't a set. I really like the purse. It is a garterstitch rectangle that has been folded over, and I used the I cord handle as a gusset type thingy.

I am not going to discuss my mother's scarf again.

I don't have a picture of my Dad's for some reason, but here is a picture of my hubby's. No, I'm not sure why he didn't have a shirt on under the jacket I made him take off, but I wasn't complaining.

Found the crack!

Hey, just a quick note as I went creeping around the blog world this midmorning. I was over at "Letters to Myself", and found this link. This is crack, my friends. We were compelled to expose the baby, but she was not amused.

More later.

Move in progress

So for the moment everything is on the move. I've moved here for better blogging with less coding, but I'll still be maintaining the other site for family news and pictures. So let's see how long it takes for me to pull my hair out.

So who wants to know how long it took my mom to pack away the designer scarf I knitted for her? Come on, guess! It took less than a week. I asked to take a picture of it today so everyone could see, and she couldn't get to it. Designer scarf? For keeping warm in the cold? Packed away?

Why do I try? Don't get me wrong, this weekend was actually pretty good, except for the wiggin the baby had over Dad's flying saucer toy. Oh, and for her all night wiggin last night. I'm still up however. I'm like running on caffeine that my body mined from the "grad school years."

You know I know that I'm over sensitive when it comes to my mom, but really, to just put it up. Its a designer scarf. Sure, I did most of the design work, but I followed one of the biggest trends out there right now. You know the big paddles with some sort of cool stitch connected by rib stitch. And this was cat's eye lace (Creative Knitting magazine, Nov 2005 I think). I've got other knitters in my knitting group saying its fantastic and wanting the pattern. Packed away where she can't get it?

O.K., I'm like over it know. Really, took some existential vallium. Really, I'm close to all right. Dad at least seems to love his scarf. I'm thinking about submitting the pattern for that one, cause of the way it came out. Of course, I could offer it for free because it really is basic. I'll need to sit down next time I have a moment and the scarf in question and figure out exactly how I managed that wave pattern. Its been awhile since it was knitted you understand. Its been under wraps since August.

O.K., I am now going to bed, because I'm going to start whining about Mom again. Still, she put it away in a closet somewhere. I know my mom, that means it will never see the light of day again. If its lucky she might move it to the spare room/her spare closet, but this is unlikely.

See ya later, kiddies.

Thursday, December 22, 2005