Buzz Lightyear!

No, my sweater still isn't done. I've had to rip the same spot at least five times due to my inability to read and follow all the directions at once and cable competently. Plus I just received a big pysanka order, one that should pay for much yarn once I'm done, and that takes precident over everything.
But I have good news too!
Several days ago, Monkey broke Buzz Lightyear's leg off in a fairly permanent way. Frantic internetting followed, as this 6 inch action figure has been Monkey's favorite comfort item for months. It turns out that the beloved Buzz is a Disneyworld/land only toy, not to be found anywhere in the world except a little stand in Tomorowland. Thank goodness for Ebay. The replacement arrived while we were at the store this morning, and after prying sad Buzz from the boy, momma spent a minute "fixing him" and now he is running around the living room with such utter delight as the opening sequence from Toy Story 2 plays.
It is really awesome to be able to make someone so happy with so little.

Uh oh.

My sweater, which was zipping along until about

20 minutes ago, may be in trouble. Look what just arrived on my doorstep.

SweaterWatch

The sweater is coming along well, I am just about to start splitting it up around the arms now. Yesterday I decided I didn't like how the increases which are there to create the illusion of a girlish figure were working out. The thought of frogging down several inches made me sick (and besides, it became Fall here this week. I need this sweater!) So instead I selectively ripped the offending section. It worked out quite well; now my increases are all measured and even instead of the previous half-assed "whenever I remember them" method.
On a much scarier note, Monkey came home from school yesterday with the skip in his step that children naturally develop when they are starting a break from school. NINE DAYS. His elementary school gives its kids an entire week off for Thanksgiving. He really hasn't been in school for very long, not quite two months? But I really have come to depend on those couple of hours every morning where I don't have to worry about someone finger painting the entire living room with lipstick in the time it takes me to use the bathroom. Do all kids get a week off for Thanksgiving now, or is it just us? My number 1 "I'm thankful for..." was school before they decided to pull a fast one on me.

Sweaterwatch 2007

I keep knitting but don't seem to be getting anywhere. Every night Lawyerboy is kind enough to tell me that it does indeed look like a sweater. But tomorrow is the 15th and I am only 1.5 skeins in, when I should be 2.5-3 to be on schedule.

I'm definitely behind and should probably quit my day job and start knitting full time if I want to finish this in November. The cables do look good though.

NaKniSweMo check in

Things are crazy busy and I only have a minute, but the sweater is coming along swimmingly. Five inches knit! I have no idea if this puts me on schedule or not. I've been futzing with the pattern to knit it in one piece with fake side seams, a la Saint Zimmerman. Color is this picture sucks because it gets dark here at 4:30 now.

NaKniSweMo

Like everyone else in the Second Annual NaKniSweMo I started today on the sweater I chose to zip through, with the thought that maybe by the time I finish it will be cool enough to wear (it was in the 80s here today). You would die to know how much debate I put into the choice of pattern and yarn for this sweater. I mused on the pros and cons of Rogue vs Twist for days (eventually Twist won.) Then I researched every single yarn on Ravelry, trying to pick what would be perfect in every way. It is not a house I'm buying. It is not a car or a career or any other item of great significance or cost. It is a freaking sweater. In the end I pulled my head out of my butt and picked Royal Purple Patons Classic Wool.
So here we go, my first adult sweater. I cast on tonight.

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

Happy Halloween everyone!

First time trick or treating! He really is happy, but has a hard time smiling for the camera-usually he gives this uncomfortable grimace while declaring "cheese" with enthusiasm. Hopefully it will cool down a little, I made his costume out of fleece and it is pretty warm and snuggly.

ETA: We ended up visiting 5 whole houses. Then he laid down in our neighbor's driveway, so it was time to go home. And it never cooled down at all, the AC is on now.

More baby stuff

Last night I knit a tiny hat to go with the cammo pants to send to my brother's baby. It is all packaged and ready to go now; I'll drop it off at the post office tonight so it can sprint for Idaho and hopefully will arrive the same time the kid does.

I have no idea if it will fit; it has been a while since I've played with a newborn.

I looked at a hat I knit for the monkey while I was pregnant and subtracted a little, because it was a little big when he was born.

My stats, so I can adjust accordingly when the kid arrives:

Yarn: the delightful Sugar and Cream, in sage green

15 1/2 in 4 inches, knit on hand made oak size 8 needles that are not nearly tapered enough.

CO 56 sts. K in round for 3 1/2", then close up the top with 4 sets of k2tog, ssk decreases. Tada!

Tiny pants

Tiny snugly pants!
My brother and his wife are expecting a baby any day now; hopefully before he starts helicopter training with the Army next weekend (which will include 6 weeks away from them). Tonight I whipped up a tiny pair of fleece pants to mail to them in Boise. I might be at the beach tomorrow, but the high there was only 50 F. Baby stuff is so fun, it's tiny and cute and when you use fleece--no edge finishing. Awesome.

Rain

Being right on the coast, we don't get very many tornadoes here- it's hard to get the right weather conditions for that kind of storm to occur. But this morning there was one that touched down in what passes as a city around here, and we had warnings until noon that included sirens and my weather radio freaking out. Yikes. Of course, this all happens an hour after Monkey got to school and Lawyerboy had left for a law conference in Atlanta.
Please bear in mind that I am not accustomed to this kind of precipitation crazy-ness. Before I got here I had lived in Utah for 9 years, where rain is so infrequent that spilling your drink counts as measurable precipitation.
So it was just me and the shawl sitting in my hallway with all doors closed. Obviously I didn't get sucked away to Oz, but I did get another row done on Adamas.

It's hard to take pictures of rain and give a good representation of how heavy and fast it is coming down, but this will give you a pretty good idea.

Not really about anything

Right now the air here is literally thick with butterflies. I took this picture on my lawn today, when I headed outside because I could count at least a dozen butterflies in my backyard.

Today I test-drove an adorable Corgi at the animal shelter near me. Sweet little dog, but not for me because she is no good with kids. At least this adoption counselor was nice; last time we took Monkey with us and that counselor was rather negative and didn't really want to send us home with one of the dogs (because all these dogs have way better options). This is the 4th time I've been looking and I'm just not having any luck. It is remarkably easy to fall in love with someone on Petfinder and have it not pan out when you meet him/her face to face.

So the corgi wasn't for me, but I kept thinking about her when I was running tonight. I hope she finds someone nice.

School

When did I turn into a once a month blogger? I had been doing much better earlier this year, but kinda fell off the wagon near the end of the summer. Bafflingly, part of my recent absence has been Monkey's first day of school. Holy smokes. Two weeks ago was the first day of PreK for my little guy, and I've been catching up from the week leading up to it since then. Seizure activity hasn't been the greatest, so we've been spending a lot of time with his Neurologist, who is a little over an hour away. Between that and meetings with everyone involved in the special needs program at our school I wasn't really home at all for literally a week straight. So after launching the little guy onto the bus (and having a good cry) I attacked the house and haven't stopped. Stuff that has been a mess since we moved in 10 months ago looks great now.

I also finished the Stag Bag! It is fantastic, beautiful and sturdy and is now my daily bag. It is one of very few things I've made that not-knitters have stopped to tell me they liked. Knit with Pattons Classic Wool, in about 1 1/2 skeins each of Chestnut and Peacock.The design is not as sharp and the colors are a little more muted after felting, which I didn't really consider a problem because it was pretty bright before. A great deal of puckering and weirdness from my first stranded knitting was resolved with some trimming of carries on the back after felting and some really severe blocking. Like everyone else, the back of the bag also was a lot larger than the front so check your gauge and/or knit a few stitches fewer in width across the bag than the pattern calls for (actually, you should probably just check gauge; who am I to tell you to adjust your pattern willy-nilly.) As you can see, I cleverly added my initials on the bottom-you know, so I won't get it mixed up with all the other turquoise and brown felted stag bags out there.

More finished objects coming! With my mornings alone, I am getting a lot done.

Lemonade

Pictures of my finished Stag bag up as soon as it is...well, finished. I can't really call it done while dripping water at the rate it currently is. With the generally high humidity here added to the tropical depression that dumped on us all week I'm all but wearing a snorkel.
Instead I will amuse you with craft done this weekend, making lemonade out of lemons. Monkey's brain keeps misbehaving so while he slept on my dark couch all postictal, I finally took a really precise profile photo of him. I tinkered a little in photoshop, resizing and increasing lightness and contrast in order to give the most distinct edge I could get. I printed the picture and went over my edge with a fine black pen, adding in things like his collar, shoulder curve and bottom line.
I used drafting tape to very carefully stick the print onto the brown paper and started cutting using my tiny virtually unused embroidery scissors. Piece of cake. I even used supplies from my stash (for someone who does not "scrapbook" I sure have a lot of paper here).

Closer...

Finished the body of the Stagbag yesterday, then seamed it up during "Dial M for Murder". Fifty million inches of i-chord or something to go and I can run it through the wash.
Monkey and I received a hugely important phone call today. The director of the special needs program in our school district called; Monkey has been approved for the program and registers next week! I'm mildly freaking out, he's to young to start school! I thought I was going to have another two years to prepare myself for kindergarten. Good grief, what will I do with my time?

Book club

I'm being punished for my sins of last night. Our regular flavored household madness has been joined by the 1 and 2 year old kids of a friend who called me, desperate and on her way to the ER, after throwing out her back. The kids are quite well behaved though; my bitching is purely superficial. I'm always shocked to see how very easy other children are. More disturbing than anything really, is seeing how normal children behave in such an intimate setting as compared to my little Monkey. He is doing really well, but it is...just not your average kid. But who wants average anyway.

Back to the sins anyway, they were worth it. Pretty mild as sins go. Last night a friend invited me to a book club-The Count of Monte Cristo. Hadn't read it, but still wanted to hang out so I crashed the party. I told Lawyerboy I'd be there an hour, hour and a half tops. Hahahahahahahahahah.

The hostess M., S. and I ended up sitting on the front porch until 1:30 laughing madly. Superbly fun time. It was so much fun my cheeks absolutely ached when I finally left.

Still knitting away on the Stagbag, endless rows of stockinette stitch stripes. I just barely moved on to ball #2 on both colors, so I should have plenty left over for a hat or something so I'll be all matcherific. Hopefully tonight will be a nice quiet night of video games and yarn, and I can finish up the body. Then about a zillion inches of I-cord and I can finally felt it, hurray! It should dry out by March.

Home!

Back at last from my epic trip! Actually I was back Sunday night, but Monday was spent doing all that stuff that piles up when you are gone, as was most of Tuesday. The parts of Tuesday that were not swallowed by laundry and grocery shopping disappeared into the time-suck that is Ravelry. I'm artmomma there too, stop by and say hi! I've spent an embarrassing amount of time looking up every project I've ever considered, to see how it looks on real people. I replaced my camera recently, and am slowly adding my projects to the collective.
More stories from my fabulous trip later, when I can pull my head together.

It's been another week and while I really did get stuff done, it is nothing to talk about (especially since my new camera is still in transit). The center panel of the Stag Bag is done, now I'm putting the chevrons around the sides. I finished sewing a hideous white skirt I am supposed to wear for my sister's wedding. It now brings the number of white clothing items I own up to one. I am hard at work putting together a veil for the afore mentioned sister, who's only request or description concerning what she wanted was "nothing poofy."
Seriously, that was all she asked for. Nothing poofy.
The mean older sister part of me wants to construct some huge elaborate fluffy number, attached to a tiara or something, to give to her before handing over the real thing. The kind sister understands that this could possibly cause her to freak the hell out. Realistic me says that there is almost no chance I could get it done before I fly out of here Wednesday.

Saturday

Only 10 rows left on the center panel of the stag bag. I knit a little on the beach today, but only one row because the salt water makes your skin kind of adhesive. Not so conducive to letting the wool slide through your fingers (although pretty favorable for letting Oreos slide into your mouth).

I was somehow able to amuse myself though.

Lots of stuff!

Where have I been for the last...oh, several weeks? Ugh, lets just let that go. It has been issue after issue for us, and you know how I hate to bitch.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ok, just one complaint and then I will let it all go, and move on to real content. Ever do something that you thought could totally improve your life in a small way and it just BIT YOU IN THE ASS? It turns out in about 1% of people taking Depakote, Zoloft lowers your seizure threshold.
But enough of that. It is over (hopefully).

On to real live craft content!
Finally, I take some pictures of the fantastic kitty quilt that Amy sent me, instead of just stealing the one she took. Adorable! The focus on my camera is broken, so there is a real art to taking pictures with it (if by art you mean walking closer and farther from the object in question, hoping to come up with a photo or two in the sweet spot.)


See this? Hand quilted. What an amazing woman.







Here is the quilt I sent to Julie. Most difficult to part with thing I have ever sent away for any swap. Luckily, I have lots of little strips all waiting for assembly left over-I made enough for two (or maybe even three) so the color patterns would really be random.

Due entirely to inspiration by another Erin I've started knitting the Stag Bag. Considering the volume of crap I carry around for the Monkey, and the need for instant gratification that ordering yarn just doesn't have, I picked up some worsted weight wool at ye olde local craft store with the intention of felting it when finished. This should also help cover any multitude of sins, which is especially good because I have never done any color work previously. I couldn't even tell you what kind of knitting I'm doing. It has two colors, and it looks like berber carpet on the back. The carries are amusingly long, because I couldn't figure out how to wrap the carried yarn. I just keep telling myself that the felting will fix everything. Notice anything amusing? My stag is marching to the beat of a different drummer, as I started the pattern on a purl row but still jumped into the pattern on the bottom right. Knitting lace has me programmed.

Ravelry

Just checked, and I am #10407, which is a mere 4249 from the top of the list on Ravelry. By the time I get in, everyone will have knitting robots that use fantastic space-age polomers that breathe or insulate perfectly and self-adjust to best match the color of your eyes.

EEGs and CATs

Finally, Monkey is back at home from more than a week of back and forth hospital trips. More stuff has been glued to his little head than he deserves (did you know when they are measuring your head for an EEG they use medical grade LIPSTICK!?! Bright red, no lies). But he is finally at the point where his EEGs look more like brain waves and less like tsunamis, hurray! But I feel so emotionally burned out that I can barely function. Luckily I have my fabulous doll quilt from Calico Cat hanging by my desk to cheer me up! It arrived...I'm not sure when. Some time while Monkey was in-patient again, and Lawyerboy brought it up to the hospital and it was the most cheerful bright thing in the entire beige hospital. Amy, I am so impressed by your hand quilting skills! Kitty cats in bright colors! I couldn't hope for anything more perfect. Plus, Amy admitted to me that she has in excess of 900 different cat prints which is possibly the greatest stash-related confession I have ever heard. Thank you Amy! I adore this quilt!

Happy 4th

Happy Birthday America!
Since we saw fireworks at our home on Friday we didn't torture the monkey by making him stay up late to see more on the 4th. But interestingly, as firework time time began and we could hear distant explosions, I had to listen really carefully to tell if they were fireworks or actual C-130s blowing stuff up on the range. Rockets red glare, indeed.

Real Justice League

Lawyerboy has been way more crafty than me this week. I screened a dozen tshirts for his law office to wear for our Base's Independence Day celebration, but he helped built his team's boat for the cardboard boat regatta.



It was awesome. Their boat wasn't the best looking one (there are some seriously creative people here),










But they did win! And they looked awesome doing it.

Moooooooommmmmm!!!!

Yesterday, after a noisy day of mysterious peeping, we found a nest full of brand new Mockingbird chicks in our front yard.

They are adorably hideous.

Holy smokes, look at those necks.

Their beaks are downright freakish.

But I seem to recognize that look...

Doll Quilt

Please forgive my crummy taken-on-the-floor-of-my-craft room picture; I just finished my Doll Quilt Swap quilt top! Now I need to figure out what the devil I'm doing for the quilting part of the operation.

It seems I am also prepared to make another quilt (or two) from all the strips I cut and sewed.

Yikes, Stripes!

Some time last week the Monkey and I charged into the fabric store, intent on purchasing 1/4 yard of a bazillion different cotton fabrics so I could get to work on the Doll Quilt Swap. Within 5 minutes my cart was full of a dozen choices. But then I started to doubt-Is it too modern? Too pastel? Too something that my non-blogging swapee is not going to like? How am I supposed to stalk this lady so I know what to pick? I picked up and put back approximately every single bolt of fabric in the quilting section before choosing a half dozen fabrics I hope she loves, or at least doesn't dislike.

Once I actually had some fabric in my hands the work has been really fun. I decided on a roman coin design, and actually got up early (well, earlier than everyone else) to sew strips together Saturday morning. It is coming together so quickly, I should have the top finished in the next day or two.

Unless something comes up, which it never ever does in our home. Nope, nothing but smooth sailing here. We never, for example, spend an afternoon binging on white chocolate mousse and crying after a stressful meeting with the Psychologist evaluating Monkey about speech and behavioral therapy where he screamed for the entire 1 1/2 hour appointment.

Donuts

I had the weirdest experience this morning. While getting the Monkey ready for yet another speech evaluation I promised that if he hurried and got in the car early I would get him a donut. Donuts are possibly the ultimate treat for him, and he actually hurried. So we stop at a donut place on the way to his appointment and rush in, asking for one glaze donut (least messy). So the guy grabs him a donut, puts it in the bag and says "$1.26". One twenty-six? How can it be one twenty-six? "With tax" he informs me. But the sign says one donut, 59 cents. How can the tax on one donut equal one twenty-six? "$1.26 with tax," he tells me again, and I begin to think that this might be the extent of his English. All I have in my wallet is a single dollar bill, and he doesn't take credit. Aaaaarrrrrgggg. I'm short on time and confused and frustrated, and Monkey is thrashing around. Finally he takes the dollar and tells me I'm fine. I'm not fine, but I'm in a hurry so I flee instead of pressing the issue. I buckle Monkey in his car seat and race off, tossing him the little bag with the donut. He happily munches away as I drive, completely perplexed. A stop light or two later I turn around to check on him, and he hands me the paper bag, which you have of course guessed by now, contains another donut. Man did I feel like a genius. This poor donut guy must have thought I was a complete idiot. On the other hand, if you work at a donut shop you may need a better understanding of the phrase "One donut please."

Opportunity

Recently I was suckered into offered the opportunity to become one of the leaders of our church Young Women's group. As much as the thought scared the crap out of me, I accepted anyway and am having a surprisingly good time. And the nice part of being in charge you make the decisions about what activities to do. So when I have a pet project come to mind, I can just set the minions girls on it. Recently I heard that Skip to My Lou was collecting tiny blankets to send to China with her nephew. He is traveling there with Hope's Heart in order to work in three orphanages. So I bought some fantastic fuzzy flannel and some satin, and in one short evening of music and pizza rolls we cranked out 12 little blankies. I got them in the mail that night, and at the end of the month they will be on their way to China.

Doll Quilt Swap

Before I even had a chance to post about it, the Doll Quilt Swap has filled up. Holy smokes, I am glad I heard about it early. I do much better in my life (crafty and otherwise) with solid goals with deadlines. I am impatiently waiting for the next sale at the fabric store, so I can go in and make some poor employee cut 1/8 yard of a dozen fabrics.

I finished this skirt last night with more space between finish time and deadline than usual (I needed it finished by Sunday, as I'm tired of wearing the same black skirt to church). I love it! More girly than usual for me, but when you buzz your head you sometimes have to step it up in the female department. Skirt assembled with a few tips from this snappy tutorial, and pattern drafted with lots of help from geometry, my friend and yours. Pictures taken inside on the self-timer because there was a fantastic lightning storm going on. I feel especially smug because I used <$8 worth of broadcloth.

Sticky

Monkey and I have plans to hide inside the rest of the afternoon eating Popsicles. It rained really hard this morning, but it turns out that precipitation does not equal cooling trend here in the South. Here, you just have hot rain. You can see how humid it is in this photo. It was so wet this morning that even thought the rain had stopped the water in the air was making the light do strange things.
These hot pads and towels are now on their way to California, to be prizes for my little sister's bridal shower. I felt like a bum for not trekking across the country for her big party and volunteered to make something for the winners of assorted silly shower games. The hot pads are inspired by Denyse Schmidt's beautiful quilted oven mitts. Only not so complicated. Initially I intended on accompanying each towel with a rectangle and circle hot pad but at some point I remembered that I had a deadline and circles are rather difficult to edge with bias tape (if anyone knows of a good tutorial let me know, as it stands I have three beautiful circular hot pads that are finished except the edges). So congratulations, Little Sister! I wish I could be there with you but plane tickets for the Monkey and I cost an entire paycheck, and that would make me feel like a huge jerk. Give your boy a kiss from me. Wait, never mind. Give your boy a firm handshake and a heartfelt congratulations, and I will see you in August for your big day.

Hurricane season

My first official day of Hurricane season has so far gone without a hitch. There is still time though. Anyone else notice that the 5th Atlantic hurricane/tropical storm is going to be named Erin? I advise you to watch out for that one.

I really do still knit, although my thoughts have strayed from my sweater and Adamas shawl; it is just too stinking hot to sit under a big pile of wool right now. The project of the day is a pair of socks for the Dulaan project-a pair of Horcrux socks, to be exact. First pair of socks made following someone else's instructions, instead of making it up and flying by the seat of my pants like I usually do. This is going to be one sturdy pair of socks, I'm using the worsted weight yarn called for and size one needles. Six, maybe seven stitches per inch? Who knows; I didn't exactly gauge this one (gasp!) The yarn is a ball of Nature Spun worsted in China blue or Nordic blue or Someothermeaninglessdescription blue, overdyed with a smidgen of red to make it less flat.

Carnivores

If we are going to live in such a buggy part of the world, at least the predators here are adorable.

(Make no mistakes, there are some EPIC insects here. Without the frogs et al. we'd be screwed.

Seizures

Late late late posting tonight because a certain husband has been playing Age of Empires for approximately five hours. Not the awesome Memorial day activities I had planned. Of course, my awesome plans didn't include waking up at 5am when the monkey had a big seizure.

I was really hoping his brain had forgotten how to have those.

It wasn't terrible, just terribly disappointing. The on-call Neurologist upped his meds. Now we restart the clock, counting down to when he has been seizure free for two years and we can see if he is fixed. This does mean that lots of the small privacys and freedoms he has gained are gone again; no more swimming, or sitting in the bath alone for a moment or playing in the backyard without me.

He is doing well now; he slept in late and seem completely unaffected by his early morning workout. I am a mess. I was together enough this morning to throw my knitting in my backpack though, in case I ended up back at the hospital for three days like last time.

Shorts!

While I have been getting a lot accomplished, this last week or so has been rather difficult so you haven't seen any of it. So, in synopsis (of the crafty parts):

McCall's #M5393
97% Cotton, 3% Spandex
Fabulous pattern, but the body measurement/size chart on the back of the package are a dirty lie. According to the chart I should have been making a size 12 or 16 off of hip and waist measurements, respectively (I am shaped like a cardboard tube). Instead I made a size 4 and was delighted at the fit. A much better estimate of the size you want comes from the finished garment measurement chart. Size 4 called for 6 inches of ease at the hips, and really, who wants that?

McCall's #M5393 again, this time in shorts

100% Cotton duck, plus some cute fabric savaged from a bandanna for the inside of pockets, flaps and waistband.

Boxer shorts, pattern drafted directly onto the fabric with a piece of chalk. Something this simple I don't use a pattern for, just a tape measure. Piece of cake. Used some fabric I've had in my stash for 12 YEARS (seriously, I remember buying it.) Cotton? Polly? Some sort of blend? Who knows! I've used it for some small projects, but still had an embarrassing amount left over, especially since the color/print seems a little...intense for me now. So I made a pair of boxers for kicking around the house in.

Crazy

I am going to need a nap today.

The night before last was long and sleepless, thanks to my boys. When Monkey wasn't having dreams that required my frequent reassurance and tucking in, Lawyerboy was snoring. Most of the time I'll rub his back until he stops (seriously, he is the only person in the world who snores while sleeping on his stomach) but that usually wakes him up and he was getting to work at 6am the next day, even earlier than usual. By the end of yesterday I was tired enough to be having muscle spasms in my eye (normal for me) and in my butt (not normal). Laying there somehow this shaky, twitchy feeling made me feel hugely anxious, like I was going to have an anxiety attack (yes, sometimes I suffer anxiety that I might have an anxiety attack-awesome! Self-perpetuating worry!) So I did some 1am yoga and then wasted an hour or so reading about how to play the didgeridoo.

You would be amazed to know how often I recall my nights during the light of day and think, man, I really am crazy.