joys of homeownership...and also more lace

On Saturday morning the phone rang at 6:46. It was the company we'd ordered topsoil from, telling us our dirt was on its way. The dump truck showed up about an hour later, and when it did, I thought, "boy, he must be making a bunch of deliveries with all that dirt!" But then he backed into our driveway and proceeded to empty the entire dump truck.

This photo does not do justice to the true quantity of topsoil we moved. This is 4 cubic yards, which is code for "a backbreaking amount" and we moved all but about 1/2 yard of it by lunchtime. The driveway, front walk, side-of-the-house walk, and back patio were all repoured before we bought the house, but were never backfilled properly, so the jagged lower edge of the concrete was exposed all over the place. We needed to shore it up and seed it, both to make it look nice and to ensure that the concrete doesn't heave from moisture in the coming years.

It sucked, but it's mostly done now. This picture cracks me up because the kids were so determined to help with their tiny sandbox shovels. Also funny: this is what I get when I tell my daughter to wear "old clothes." Quite a fashion statement!

The moral of the story is that I really hurt my wimpy body by doing such a massive physical job. I am sadly out of shape and come Sunday morning I could barely get out of bed, my back hurt so bad. The pain and stiffness continued for a couple of days, so I've been fairly useless when it comes to the more physical housework.

What a bummer, I've had to park it in my recliner with more lace!

I wasn't kidding in my last post...I'm fairly obsessed at this point. More lace! Must knit more lace!

I think I'm hitting a period of pretty, delicate work after several years of hearty, practical knitting and sewing. I also have the wild urge to do handwork, like embroidery and cross stitch.

Gosh this is fun. And it really flies off the needles, what with all those yarn-overs. I'm eyeballing my yarn to see how many more repeats I can squeeze in before I knit the edging. This should be an F.O. by next week. More details to come when I finish!

FO: summer mystery shawlette

I finished my mystery shawlette! Woot!

Actually I finished the knitting a week ago but I was lazy and smushed it into its ziplock bag to avoid weaving ends and blocking. I didn't know where to block it because we have hardwood throughout our house - no carpeting other than area rugs - so I wasn't sure where to pin it down. It turned out our dining room area rug has enough rubber backing that I could gently shove my t-pins into it.

I wish I had better photos but it's just me and the toddler here today. I tried to get a photo in the mirror but...no. Total fail.

What a nice project this was to work on! I used frog tree fingering weight alpaca, way less than two skeins. I'll probably make a special bonnet or booties with the remainder for someone I really care about...because hello, expensive, can't-throw-it-in-the-washing-machine alpaca. You know.

It comes just around my shoulders, so if I made it again I would add repeats to make it much bigger. But I love the pattern. Thanks, Wendy, for a fun knitalong!

I did not block this "severely" because I don't care for lace that is blocked so hard the stitches become distorted. In this photo I can even see a few areas where the stitches are pulled out more than I like to see. I love lace but I like it to have a little substance to it. Not a big fan of the cobweb weight, filmy lace.

But I've been bitten by the lace bug, now. It's going to be tough to work through my wips now that all I want to do it knit lace! I dug out my lace books and found a surprising amount of appropriate yarn to make lacy shawls and scarves. I might make that my summer knitting!

over the top?

Still clearing out the WIPs this week...Hubs went to a concert last night so I took the opportunity to finish up another project.

Daughter and I were in Joann's about a month ago when this fabric caught her eye, and we simply had to buy it for AJ. We had to, HAD TO I SAY!

Ok, it's a bit.....loud. But come on, he's 2. It's fine to be this loud when you're little, right? He desperately needed some summer pajamas, too. Serendipity, methinks.

This has become a favorite in my pattern collection. I've made 4 sets for Daughter and now 2 sets for AJ. I'm not so into the fussy collar on a set of pajamas, so I always make the collar-less version. Also, pockets? On pajamas? No thank you. We go simple around here.

Anyway, they're size 2, and use about 1.25 yards of 44" woven fabric, so they are fairly economical. I used 4 bright yellow plastic buttons from my stash o' buttons to save some money and a trip to the store. Also, that shade of green does not exist in any thread collection (trust me, I looked!) so I used up a spool of limey green, which blended in surprisingly well. Ah, it feels good to use something up. Actually, I've used up several spools of old thread lately that kind of matched, rather than buying new spools for new projects as I used to do. Sometimes good enough is good enough!

I can't believe I'm making size 2 pajamas for my son. Looking back at those old posts with projects for my wee Daughter blows my mind. Today was her end-of-kindergarten concert and party! What?!? How can it be?

I'm outta here before I get verklempt.

clearing out some wips

The weather is finally so indescribably gorgeous, I can't believe I'm inside typing this right now. It rained hard in the wee hours of the morning and my patio chairs are still wet, otherwise I'd be out there enjoying the warm sunlight and soft breeze. Especially since tomorrow it's supposed to be 90, which in my humble opinion is too hot to enjoy.

Luckily we have ways of dealing with it:

Look at my big guy! Almost 3 years old! Where does the time go? He loves to "make rainbows" with the hose and cool off at the same time.

I've got a few F.O.s to share. Late winter saw a flurry of WIPs started and cast aside as I struggled to entertain myself on cold, wet days. Of late I've been picking them back up and working my way through the basket of unfinished stuff.

Plain top-down socks to add to my collection. This is Regia "Galaxy" yarn and is supposed to look all outer-spacey. Pretty cool. Plus, I got it on clearance for $2/skein. VERY cool!

I know I showed this partly knit, but I don't think I shared the finished sweater. It's a February baby sweater, of course, made with exactly 3 skeins of Knitpicks telemark in the carnation colorway. I like this yarn enough, it's hearty and warm, but they say it is sportweight and calls for size 3-4 US needles. I knit it on size 5, I think (or was it 6? no, I think 5) and the thing could practically stand up by itself. Maybe it will soften after washing? We shall see.

This looks to be about a 6-9 month size. After I wash it and attach some vintage-y buttons, it will go in the cedar chest awaiting the birth of a baby girl to someone we love.

This week I was planning to keep chugging along on my hippy dippy granny square blanket but I got my first international order (!) and I'm knitting away on two oatmeal-colored soakers for a UK baby.

Patons classic merino in "natural mix" which is exactly the color of a bowl of oatmeal. Mmmmm...oatmeal.

After these are done and shipped off, it's back to the WIPs, both yarny and sewn (oh yeah, there's a pile of stuff cut out next to the sewing machine, too).

What are you working on this week?

more skirts

I blew off all my normal household duties yesterday (except for feeding children and changing diapers) in favor of a sewing mini-marathon. With only a few stops and starts I was able to complete two more skirts for my summer wardrobe.

This first one I've been referring to as my "Pier 1 bedspread" skirt because it reminds me of stuff we used to buy there back in the 90s. Not sure if this is a hit or miss fabric-wise, but I think it works with either an ivory or brown shirt.

(Waistband is straight in real life...the hanger distorts it!)

I chose the fabric for this next one because it has several shades of pink and red on a black background, which gives me lots of shirt options. I should have fixed this photo, as it's a bit washed out.

These are Simplicity 2226, my new favorite go-to skirt pattern. It's awesome. Both skirts took two yards (with about 5" leftover if you cut the pieces close, as I do). I used quilting cottons from Joann's. Each also takes one 7" zipper. The only other notions required are thread and a bit of interfacing for the waistband.

For the 3 skirts I made, I only had to purchase one zipper as I had some on hand. For the butterfly skirt I used a vintage zipper in the wine-red color of the darkest butterflies. It was purchased by my grandmother probably at least 40 years ago, based on the packaging. The zipper tape is a lovely soft fabric instead of the stiff poly used now, and flexes beautifully. I wish they were still made that way.

So, yay, I have new clothes! It's always so fun when a pattern actually works out.

skirts!

Did everyone have a nice long holiday weekend (in the US)? It's been almost non-stop rain here for weeks...there is water seeping into my basement because my poor yard cannot absorb any more. It stopped raining just long enough for me to plant 8 pepper plants, 2 basil plants, some lavender and the 6-pack of marigolds Daughter chose, all in the awful muddy garden. Then we got a rip-roaring thunderstorm that bashed the heck out of them. Oh well, fingers crossed, maybe we will get a small pepper crop. I also did a ton of housework trying to whip the house into shape, so I didn't have a lot of crafting time.

[sad face]

Anyway, I did have time to ponder my sewing plans whilst mopping the crusty kitchen floor. I've been hemming-and-hawing about the new Lisette pattern line that's made a splash in the online sewing community this spring. I was immediately drawn to these patterns because they are the kind of clothing I want to wear. Simple, clean lines, sweet fabrics that are available at a reasonable price point from Joann's...so many good things. But I kept on not buying the patterns, even when they went on sale for a buck. I finally figured out why. It's because the dresses I like best (Portfolio and Market) are the style that looks worst on my body type. [more sad face]

I am 5' 7" and relatively slender, with a pretty average bust measurement. I am also very short-waisted. My natural waist falls just below my bustline, honestly, it's ridiculous. My height is all from my legs. Because of my high waist, I am somewhat rectangular, by which I mean my waist measurement is not a whole lot smaller than my hips. So what? Well, that means a simple pullover dress with bust darts will inevitably look like a sack on my body. I need waist shaping in my garments to give the illusion of having more of a natural waistline. I searched the flickr groups for Lisette and saw a lot of cuuuuuuuute dresses, but I could tell that the bodies wearing them were shaped differently than mine. What a bummer!

But all is not lost! This story has a happy ending. The pattern companies are always coming out with new styles, and this year I got lucky indeed. I have a skirt that I simply ADORE, purchased last year at a thrift store. It's a full skirt with a yoke and side zipper, made of lawn with a matching lining. I would show a photo but it's in the wash because I wore it yesterday.

I wore that skirt at least once a week last summer because it's cool, comfortable, and extremely flattering. The flat, fitted yoke front elongates my waistline and the full skirt balances my upper body perfectly. Looooooooove. I thought, "I MUST HAVE MORE!"

I even thought of trying to draft my own pattern using the skirt as a guide. So many talented sewists do that, but I'm not that visual. I like patterns and directions ready-made. Thankfully I came across Simplicity 2226. Oh. Em. Gee. It's my skirt! Almost exactly!

I whipped this up in an evening over the weekend. It is very easy! It's also a "learn to sew" pattern, which might be really helpful for a beginner, though you have to install a zipper which is hairy until you get good at it (in my opinion).

I struggled mightily with the size I should make, as I always do. The sizing is based on...your natural waist. As we now know, my natural waist is up under my chin, so I can't go by that measurement. I want my skirts to hang lower, just over my hipbones. So I ended up cutting a humongous size and then bringing it in until it fit. I've re-measured the pattern pieces and I'm hoping I know the right size to go with now.

This is one of the front pockets. The pocket construction is flippin' incredible, I just love it. It's difficult to describe how it goes together, but it's so easy and so awesome. (And the waistband is sewn on straight - the hanger is pulling it out of shape in the photo.) I highly recommend this pattern if you like a comfortable full skirt. I have cotton to make two more and I intend to make fall versions too, using denim and corduroy.

Oh, and I have to mention the fabric! I like loud, large-scale prints for summer with solid color tops. This fabric was on the red-tag clearance shelf at Joann's. It's a "premium" quilter's cotton, but was marked down to $5/yard. Over the weekend all red-tag fabrics were an additional 50% off. So I took the last 2 yards, which is exactly what I needed, making this skirt a whopping $6 including the zipper, purchased with a coupon. I got a couple more cottons off the same rack, and by using vintage zippers from my grandma's stash, I am psyched to be getting two more skirts for about $10 total. People, I am all about saving money by sewing. I really, really love to save bucks by making stuff myself. And I'm extra excited to get these high-quality fabrics because they are a heavier weight, so they are not see-through, and they have a lovely soft hand. The designs are printed straight and they are woven well so there's no distortion when you cut, gather, or stitch.

Those two skirts are on my to-do list for this week, so hopefully I'll have a "finished" post soon.

In other news...

My mystery shawlette continues apace. I'm caught up and excitedly awaiting the final instructions this Thursday. What a fun knit! I'm mentally shopping my stash for yarn to make another.

summer mystery shawlette knitalong

I've never been one to join stuff. Don't know why, exactly, but if everyone else is doin' it, I probably won't. Weird! But this time I'm a-joinin' in the fun.

For years I've had two beautiful skeins of fingering weight alpaca following me around. It was purchased when I was a relative newbie to serious knitting and I think I thought I would make socks from it (?) which would be unwise, as it doesn't have any nylon and would probably not wear too well! It's gorgeous, neutral, and soft as a cloud. When I saw Wendy's post about a summer mystery shawlette knitalong, it all came together in my mind - finally, a use for my pretty alpaca.

I don't really have much use for shawls, though I might use a shawlette as a scarf in cool weather. Truly I'm a practical knitter at heart and prefer hearty, workhorse yarns for warm sweaters, socks, and accessories.

But it's also fun and challenging to stretch my skills and make something beautiful, just because:

The first two "clues" of the mystery have been released and I've completed them. I'm pretty sure there are a few errors in there, but what mom with two young kids can knit perfect lace? I'm not worrying about it, just enjoying the pattern. I'm not going so far as to put my work on Ravelry like many others (see, not much of a true joiner) but I've browsed around on the site, and it is fun to see this made up in all the different yarns people choose. In fact, my own mother is also knitting this! I'm so psyched that we're both making this and I can't wait to see hers.

The next clue is released on Thursday in time for Memorial Day weekend. Maybe I can talk Hubs into taking the kids to the park for a couple hours so I can, you know, "get some housework done" (knitknitknitknitknit).

birthday gift sewing

On Friday we got home from the hospital around lunchtime. We all ate a bit, then Hubs (who is suffering from a sinus thing) crashed on the couch, and AJ crashed in his crib for a monster nap, so I decided to start the birthday outfit I intended to give as a gift on Saturday.

Nothing like waiting until the last possible minute.

I used Butterick 4176 in a size 2.

{As an aside, let me just say that I have no concept of appropriate sizes to sew for other people's children. When I asked my friend to measure her daughter's chest so I could make the right size, I almost fell over when she gave me the exact same measurement as Daughter...who is SIX YEARS OLD. Folks, believe me when I say I have some skinny kids.}

I must recommend this pattern if you have little girls in your life. It's easy and it's adorable. However, I must also recommend you trace the pattern pieces carefully, which I did NOT do. I therefore ended up with a dress back, and more of a "tunic" front. Somehow my pieces were off by about 2" which really cannot be fixed (I had pinned and cut them). There was nothing to do but chop off the bottom of the dress front and make the whole thing into more of a tunic-length top.

But I didn't feel I could just give that piece with a lame story about how I screwed up at the very last minute. So after bedtime on Friday I made a late-night dash back to Joann's and thankfully they had a bolt of coordinating fabric so I could rescue myself with some wee matchy pants.

I washed and dried the fabric Friday night while I finished stitching the top, and then whipped up the pants on Saturday between our zoo outing and the birthday party. I used french seams throughout both pieces so there are absolutely no raw edges except for the crotch seam, which I zig-zagged for strength and to prevent lots of fraying.

I love this pattern. It just comes out so cute every time.

Here's the back, with the sweet coordinating blue button I found in my button stash. I did purchase the fabric for this because it was a gift, and because I don't have many cuts of fabric in my stash that are appropriate for toddler garments.

The rest of the weekend was devoted to house-and-yard-work while I dreamed of the eleventy-billion projects I want to do. I went shopping in my yarn stash and came up with two lovely skeins of alpaca yarn, and for the first time I am joining a knitalong! I've pretty much been a lifelong anti-joiner so this is a big deal for me. I'm off to watch Doctor Who with Hubs and knit a few rows...I'll be back with more on that soon...

late night ramblings

My son had his 7th surgical procedure this morning. He received his 3rd set of ear tubes to relieve the pressure from the sticky mucus that has been building up behind his eardrum. Not only is that gunk at risk of becoming infected, it also affects his hearing, his speech, and how comfortable he feels on a daily basis, so it had to be done.

I pray it was lucky number seven - as in, the last one. I don't know how many more times I can take it, truly. And I'm starting to worry about the effect of all this anesthesia on my little boy and his developing body and brain. When we walked in I was able to greet the recovery nurse by name, because our son has woken up with him twice before. He didn't remember us, which I completely understand. For me a day like today is terrifying. For him it's, you know, Friday.

So I've been up since 5 a.m. (we had to be at the hospital at 7, which is when we usually get up), I spent 4 hours at the hospital, I feel like I've barely eaten because since AJ couldn't eat, we didn't either, and I'm just totally out of whack. In fact I just looked at the calendar and was startled to discover it's still Friday.

I'm having a late-night snack of cinnamon toast and tea with lots of sugar and cream. Turns out I was starving. I just finished the top half of a little outfit I'm sewing for a special birthday girl whose party is tomorrow. We're going to the zoo in the morning with my best friend from middle school and her family, then to the birthday in the afternoon. I'll finish up the outfit in between and try to remember to take a photo.

I'm so thankful my kids are ok, and that all our problems have been pretty small problems in the grand scheme of things.

That was pretty random, I guess. Just wanted to get those thoughts out.

curating vs. creating

I read a blog post recently that made me stop and think about how I approach my hobbies. I can't recall where it was, so I apologize to the originator of the topic, but it was about "curating" vs. "creating."

I have stashes of both yarn and fabric. Some of it is very, very old. I can point to some stuff that I've had since before I met my husband (10 years ago). What's up with that? Why haven't I used it? And will I ever?

I really got to thinking about what that means. How many of us just buy stuff because it appeals to us at the moment, but it never gets made into anything useful or beautiful? Has this always been a problem for crafters? I mean, who hasn't come across or heard about someone's Grandmother's attic stash of vintage fabrics or trunks of yarn that have been sitting in the corner of a basement or closet for umpteen years?

Is it the norm to do that? I wish I could say I just buy yarn or fabric for a specific project and use everything I spend money on. My mom has always been like that and we've had discussions about why people "build a stash." Mom thinks that having a shoebox-size plastic bin of sock yarn is excessive...and then I showed her my underbed storage box. I have enough sock yarn in there to make at least 15 pairs of adult socks, I bet. And that might be a small stash to some people! I've also been to the fabric store with my mom and picked up a few cuts of calico just because I think they are pretty, and she's always asking "why? What will you use it for?"

I always answer that it's pretty, it's a basic, I could use it for a quilt or a sundress for Daughter or something...some day.

But what it boils down to is I'm a collector. And, sadly, I'm pretty good at it! I can shop a clearance sale like nobody's business. I recently picked through my yarn stash to see what I had for baby sweaters (there's going to be another friends & family baby boom soon), and I came up with a heck of a lot. A shocking amount, really, and some of it has been hanging around far too long. Because while I "stock up" on these "stashbuilders" using sales and coupons, I find I rarely turn to stash when I need to make a gift. Because stash is boring to me. Shopping for new stuff is fun! When someone announces a pregnancy my first thought is toward going out to buy supplies to make a gift.

So while I do knit and sew quite a bit, I am more of a curator than a creator. I curate a collection of yarns, fabrics, embroidery supplies, books...and I get so bored with it, as you would if you looked at the same collection day after day.

I think it also speaks to our rampant consumerism. How many blog entries or ravelry pages have you seen with someone's yarn purchases for the week or fabric stash additions? I've been guilty of it myself...nothing much to write about, nothing created, so instead I show off what I bought. Big deal. Why are we writing about that? And why are we buying so much stuff, anyway? Not that it's wrong to purchase supplies, that isn't what I am saying at all...if you pull fabrics for a quilt or garment and something is missing, by all means buy a yard of something snappy to make the project sing. And if you're fresh out of pink baby yarn but your cousin is having twin girls, of course it is sensible to get what you need.

But to just keep buying stuff...for "some day?" I'm starting to feel a little ridiculous about it, myself. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is. That's probably not the right expression. But you get the idea.

It's time to use up some stash, FOR REAL. And I've set up a tasty reward for myself. I received the new and updated version of Aran Knitting for my birthday. If I can wrestle my stash under control by the end of the year, then I plan to buy myself a Christmas gift of lovely yarn to make one of the designs from that book. It's kind of subjective, I guess, because I don't have a particular amount I'm looking to reduce...I'll just kind of know when I feel like I've reached my goal.

Look, I've already started:

We all know this one, yes? A February Baby Sweater, of course. I had 3 balls of Knitpicks Telemark sportweight wool in the carnation colorway. That's 309 yards of yarn. I'm using a US 5 needle and I think it's going to come out just right.

And here are two roughly 0-3 month sweaters, knitted using free patterns from here, each taking one ball of baby sport yarn. The light blue is Bernat Softee Baby (US size 4 needle), the navy is Lion Baby Soft (US size 5 needle). The cream bonnet, which needs blocking quite badly, is from a Leisure Arts layette book and is made from some sort of fingering weight acrylic baby yarn on, I believe, a US size 3 needle.

The only person in my life who is actually pregnant right now is my sister-in-law, who is due at the end of this year. They find out the gender next month and then I'll know what to focus on. But I am pretty sure my sister will have another, my other sister who is getting married this year will surely have one or two, and our good friends are hoping to add to their family soon as well. So having a stash of little sweaters (rather than a stash of baby yarn) will serve me well.

I am even hoping to pull some coordinating fabrics from my bins to make some little pull-on pants or sundresses or little quilts to go with some of this knitted stuff.

I may still purchase some "supplies" this year. If I need something to finish a project or for a very specific gift, I'll head to Joann's. But I'm excited to stop curating and start creating.

blowin' in the wind

Do you use Pandora? I didn't know what it was for the longest time (one of my husband's favorite ways to tease me is to say "you're so analog") but I finally tried it out. At first I hated it because it never played what I wanted. But then one day I typed in "Peter, Paul and Mary."

I'll also ask you this: is there something that just takes you instantly back to your childhood? A food, a smell, a sight or sound? Well, for me it's 60s-70s folk music that my friends' parents listened to. (Not so much my parents - they were/are pretty straight-laced and were never hippies.) The PP&M Pandora station is so awesomely perfect I can't even describe it. John Denver, James Taylor, CSN (sometimes with Y), Jim Croce, PP&M of course, Cat Stevens...ooh, how I love Cat Stevens. If I'd been a teen in 1976 instead of an infant, I'd have plastered my room with Cat Stevens posters and played his music nonstop on the record player.

It's just such great music...sweet melodies, poetic lyrics, safe for little ears to listen to...and it takes me right back to lying on my stomach on my friend's living room floor in front of their console hi-fi. They had green plush carpet and I thought that was awesome rich-people stuff (we had gold and avocado shag, awwww yeah).

Anyway, I now have a sweet wood-paneled family room with a sectional that needs some sprucing up (we are ripping out that awful paneling as soon as we can afford to, but that will be awhile). So to go along with my awesome hippie music I'm making a little something...a "period piece" if you will.

I love, love, love hippie stuff but I won't go so far as to rock a granny square poncho (or skirt)...though I do have several patterns for them. This will be a blanket for my drab 1966-style family room.

I've made 16 blocks so far, and since I don't have a truly vintage stash of 1960s olefin yarn I'm using the next best thing: Red Heart super saver acrylic. Oh yes. Kinda plastic-y, kinda unpleasant, but the colors are so great. I couldn't help myself and started joining the blocks today (using the join-as-you-go method, which can be easily found by googling).

In order to keep this from sinking into total 70s polyester-ville, I'm joining the blocks with a deep teal color. Back in the day they were always joined with black, right? Gosh, didn't everyone have a granny-square afghan in their house sashed with black? I think they were practically required 4o years ago. I can't wait to see this brightening up my brown, brown family room.

"Country road...take me home..."

to blog or not to blog...

...well, that IS the question.

It's been two months since I put anything new in this space. Why? I'm not sure. I've certainly thought about it a lot in that time. I've completed a few projects and thought maybe I should take some pictures and write about them. We've gone on a few outings that were fun, and I got some good enough photos where you can't see my kids' faces clearly and I could certainly post about that.

But I'm not sure I want to. My kids are pretty big now (Daughter just turned 6 and AJ is over 2 1/2) so I feel very conscious of their privacy. I don't even tell close friends and family all the quirky things they do. And I have pretty minimal crafting time due to a really messy, rambunctious kid blasting around the house all day. When naptime and bedtime come, it's a mad scramble to clean up the kitchen, straighten the house, run that last load of laundry, and then I crash. I still squeeze in knitting and sewing time, but it's not huge, and when I have that precious free time I want to use it to create things, not write about creating things (I think). Life has done a 180 with this little boy of mine...he is nothing like Daughter, who would happily play nearby while I worked on something creative. He's just not a content-to-self-entertain kid, which is perfectly normal and ok, but it limits my time to do what I want.

However! I am also crazy-addicted to my hobbies. I don't know a single person in real life who is as obsessed as I am with making stuff. I am constantly frustrated and disappointed when trying to make new friends (like at birthday parties or school events) when I cannot find one mom who likes doing crafty stuff. I belong to the local chapter of knitting guild because even though it's me and about 200 grannies, at least the meetings are filled to the brim with women who understand what I do and why I love it so. Perhaps something is wrong with me that I haul a knitting project everywhere I go. Maybe it's completely abnormal that I can't seem to pack my sewing machine away for even a few days without feeling twitchy and getting it back out.

And that's where blogs and the internet come in. I can't find my people here in my real life, so I find them out there, in cyberspace. When I stumble upon a new blog I like the first thing I do is search their "about" page to see if they live geographically nearby. Nope, never happens. So I keep going back and absorbing all I can from these amazingly crafty women I'll never meet.

Now, there are some downsides to this, for me at least. The very best blogs, or I should say the blogs I enjoy the most, are the ones where the writer posts photos of her family, her home, her projects, herself - the really open ones that tell the whole story. I love this! But I'm not willing to do that myself. So sometimes I feel like I can't hang, you know? I feel I cannot truly participate in the world of craft blogging or mom blogging without being more free with my life. I'm sure it is boring to simply look at photos of kid sweaters or mittens or sundresses with no context, really. Right? Or no? I guess I can only say what I prefer, and that's the "whole story."

Also, I don't have the latest and greatest camera, not by a long shot. So many bloggers take such amazing photos with their Nikon XXX12345 camera or their Canon blah-blah-blah with the super special lens and here I am with my 10 year-old Canon Sure Shot A40, a camera so old and outdated you can't even get the drivers without doing an extensive internet search. It's like being in high school again and not having the cool sneakers or a trapper keeper when everyone else does. I also cannot afford to create with the same high-end supplies many crafters use. $10/yard quilting fabric is simply not in my budget, nor is $20/skein yarn, and I do get jealous sometimes when people show their stash.

Aaaaaaaaaand, along those same lines, there's some real nastiness showing up in the entire blog community of late. People are having a real hard time keeping their comments kind, often showering bloggers with judgmental wrath. Sure, I judge people - really, who doesn't at one time or another? But I don't feel the need to blast someone in blog comments (or on my own blog) who chooses to live differently than I do. No one is making me read these blogs, so if I don't care for someone's page, I simply click away and remove it from my bookmarks. Easy as pie and no feelings get hurt.

So, you see, I have a real love/hate thing going on here. My life has done a huge series of flip-flops since I started my little blog as a young newlywed with a 6 month-old baby. There are days when my PTSD from losing a child and going through what I went through with my son takes hold and I have nothing good to say to anyone. There are days when I browse my blog list and just feel angry and sad that my life "doesn't measure up." Then there are days of great inspiration when I love all the projects I see and feel I am part of an awesome group of creative, obsessive, loving, busy, intense moms who I really, really wish could come over to my house for a sewing/knitting/crocheting/embroidering playdate with their adorable kids.

Um, so...yeah. Where does that leave me? I'm not sure. I know that at the very least, I've enjoyed having a place where all my projects are catalogued. I don't want to keep a crappy blog, that's for sure, but I don't know if I have it in me to create an awesome one.

What to do...what to do...

let's hear it for COLOR!

There's a kids' album that I swear no one else has ever heard of except for me - it's called "Start Dreaming" by a fellow called Mr. Ray. And my favorite song on it is "Roy G. Biv." The rest of the album is super excellent, too, and I highly recommend it if you're bored with whatever kid music you've been listening to. You can preview the songs using the Amazon link I posted, or buy the songs individually for 99 cents. But you should buy the album. Seriously, it's really good. I tell everyone about it and I always just get weird looks...no one ever knows this music and it's a shame because it's done in a grown-up style, so it's very tolerable for repeated listening.

So I've been singing that song about the colors of the rainbow non-stop since starting my rad drying mat:

And check it out! It's finished! Just what I was hoping for...super bright, very easy, and quick to crochet. I finished last night just after dinner, trimmed the threads and voila! I think it's so pretty that I didn't even want to put dishes on top of it. But I did, obviously, and it works great.

To recap:

6 balls of Sugar & Cream yarn (2.5 oz size), purchased at Michael's for $1.25 each

Size K crochet hook

Chain 46, then work back across 45 stitches using single crochet

I think I worked maybe 12 rows of each color? I'm not sure, I just made sure each segment was the same width before changing colors. It seems I used about 1/3 or so of each ball, maybe a bit more.

Now I'm blowing off today's chores to start the coordinating dishcloths. Kind of a bad idea...you should see my house after ignoring work in favor of crochet all day yesterday. No wait, you shouldn't see it. No one should. It's pretty disastrous in here. I suppose I could at least fold the huge pile of clean laundry that I removed from the recliner (so I could sit and crochet) and dumped on the sofa. Yes, fine, ok, I'll do that much.

But then it's back to the rainbow. :)

ps: I guess I am on a crochet kick because I really want to make one of these for every kid I know right now:

(picture from Lion Brand website)

making my own cheer

Thanks for the great vacation suggestions! I've done a lot of NE travel and we are thinking of heading south a little bit...maybe Colonial Williamsburg? Any thoughts on neat places to see in PA as we drive? Please keep the ideas coming!

It's soooooooo dark right now, and cold! You can sense the seasons struggling to change, but Old Man Winter is desperate to hang on. Now we've got a rain/snow mix thing happening, though the temps are more moderate. AJ was able to play outside today, pushing wheeled toys up and down the driveway. He got a skuut-type bike for Christmas from my in-laws, which needs to be assembled, but when I looked in the box today, there are no instructions. Par for the course with my in-laws. They rip the tags off everything, never give a gift receipt, and I'm guessing they opened the box with the balance bike and somehow managed to misplace the assembly instructions. I guess Hubs and I will have to spend an evening trying to figure it out ourselves.

Anyway! As I was working on the endless laundry yesterday I noticed that a) I wash a lot of dishtowels, and b) our towels and kitchen cloths are starting to look a little...rough. This thought popped into my head: gee, wouldn't it be neat to have a dedicated drying mat next to the sink, so I don't have to keep using regular dishtowels?

And the uncontrollably impulsive side of my brain answered, ABSOLUTELY! You should make something bright and fun!

So AJ and I went to Michael's, where Sugar & Cream yarn is on sale for $1.25.

Oh my gosh, isn't that just about the happiest thing you can imagine right now? After reading all these Waldorf-y blogs over the years, the idea of making rainbow stuff has taken strong hold in my brain.

The plan is to crochet (FAST!) a drying mat for the kitchen counter, and then use the leftovers of each color to make coordinating washrags (and turn the current collection into dustrags, as they are seriously discolored, faded, and gross).

And because I veer from impulsive to overthinking, I started pondering color order:

Traditional ROYGBV?

Or something different, a little out-of-order?

OMG, seriously, do I have an off switch? 'Cause I could really use one. I annoy myself.

A traditional rainbow it is. I started this just before lunchtime, and it is 2:00 as I write this (and I have fed a toddler, taken him to the potty, and read naptime stories). So obviously it's quick. The yarn calls for a J hook, but I am using a K because I tend to crochet quite tightly and I don't want this to curl up. It's 45 chains wide, and I'm working about 3" of each color, which should give me approximately an 18" long mat.

I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I crochet. It's just so fast and uncomplicated. I really do like it and should do it more often as a break from knitting. Plus I can more easily keep and eye on (and interact with) the children when working a simple single-crochet project like this.

And the colors! Good fun on this dreary day.

life stuff...and a question for you!

Dear Winter,

It is really time for you to go now. No seriously, we have had just about enough. GO AWAY.

We had this one nice day a few weeks ago, and the kids made the most of it, romping around in the melty snow, playing under the huge pine tree in our yard, and generally soaking in the nice temps. (Also, trashing their clothes almost beyond saving...thank you, Tide Stain Release!)

But since then we've pretty much had snow on the ground. These are tough winters, the ones with no thaw from Thanksgiving straight through till March. We often get a long, late autumn, with no snow up to or even on Christmas, or some nice warmish days in January, up into the 40s or even 50s. BUT NOT THIS YEAR! And it is starting to wear on me, big time. I'm feeling so utterly housebound - it makes me think of the Ingalls family in "The Long Winter" and I wonder how on earth they didn't all go screaming insane.

It's just that when everyone is sick and playdates get cancelled and it is truly too cold to spend much time outside...well, it gets really boring and frustrating for everyone involved. I'm so, so tired of hearing my own voice as I snap at the children (again and again and again): stop it! don't push him! quit pulling her hair! if you can't agree on a video I'm turning the TV off! etc, etc.

We did end up joining the museum, and that's fun on the days we can go. And I've been leaving the house every single day with AJ, even if it is just to drive around a bit and go for a donut and coffee. We go grocery shopping a few times a week, hit the drug stores with our coupons for good sale items, browse Joann's and the other craft stores, and get donuts or bagels together. Sure, it's kind of bad for my pocketbook, but it is better for my sanity. Until we can go outside and wander the neighborhood, or go to the park, or spend the afternoon at the wading pool with lots of other kids, it will have to do. I wish we could do something a bit more...I don't know, educational? Valuable? We'd go to the library to get books or participate in story hour, but my 2.5 year old destructo-bot would unshelve all the books and disrupt the story hour. He's just not quite ready for that yet (maybe in the autumn when he turns 3). For now it's strictly outings where he can be trapped in a cart or the stroller.

Daughter was off school for a week recently and it nearly killed me, trying to keep them both from destroying the house or hurting each other. They are just so bored, and have pent-up energy to spare. Winter kind of sucks for little kids! I know so many people lament the growing up process, and chastise those who "wish childhood away" but good heavens, I have had enough of the toddler years. (And did I mention we are potty training? Aaaargh!)

I know it's just a phase for both of the kids, but right now it's tough. There are very few activities I can come up with that suit both a 6 year-old and a 2.5 year-old. They can paint together...sort of...until AJ uses the same brush for all the paints and wrecks all the colors or Daughter starts hoarding paints so AJ can't reach. If I try to start an activity with Daughter, or play a game with her, AJ will either disappear and get into something dangerous, or try to wreck the game/activity. And if I try to sit down on any piece of furniture in the entire house, my son wants to crawl up and sit directly on top of me. Which wouldn't be so bad if he could sit still. But he writhes and tickles and pulls at my hair and just won't settle.

I'm grasping at anything that will cheer me up these days. That means blowing off my responsibilities (nuggets and potato smiley faces for dinner again, kids!) so I can sew or knit. Making sundresses gives me hope that nice weather is around the corner, hooray! And I find that utterly losing myself in a detailed sewing project (like this somewhat complex dress pictured above) is like a meditation for me. Sometimes I play music or NPR, but often I just sew in silence after everyone has gone to bed, or during naptime when AJ is sound asleep and the house is nice and quiet.

*****

I do have one nice thing to look forward to, and it is this: Hubs and I are planning to take a little vacation together, just the two of us, which we have not done since our honeymoon in 2003. For real. Our marriage could use a little attention (no problems, per se, just a need to reconnect) after these last few troubled years taking care of kid issues, and we're going to head out for, oh, maybe a 5 day weekend journey or something like that. We plan to drive and keep it budget-friendly (because of Hubs' work we can get hotel discounts), and want to do something peaceful and quiet (no big cities). We're thinking sometime in May, and somewhere on the east coast. Where would you go? I'm looking for ideas!

chapeau

Just in time for Spring...I finished a hat for myself!

Haha, Spring my foot, it's sure to be freezing and snowy here for many weeks to come. This hat came off my needles yesterday morning and has already been put to good use. It's the basic cabled hat from Cables Untangled. I used less than one skein of Patons Classic Wool in jade heather (it is really a bit more green than this photo shows). Doesn't look like much sitting on the table, but when it is worn and the cables and rib open up, it looks nice (in my opinion). Oh, and I did knit the cables and decreases correctly at the crown. This picture makes the top look terrible but really it looks pretty good, I promise.

It is telling that as soon as I finished the hat, my son grabbed it from my hands and pulled it on his own head. I guess I do make rather a lot of knitted items for the kids.

But no, this late-winter chapeau is for mama!

Mmmmmm. Warm.

early spring sewing

Oh boy - less than 1 week of February to go, everybody! And as our typical weather pattern around here is to get just one last giant wallop of a snowstorm in March, it is safe to say we are truly almost done with winter. And yes, sometimes we still have snow flurries until the end of April, but we also have had high 80s on Daughter's mid-April birthday.

My point is, spring is SO coming. We had a couple of truly lovely days at 50 degrees last week. The packed snow melted away, and the children were able to play outside. I can definitely feel the difference in the sunlight, can you? Just like in late August and September when the sun slants differently in the afternoon, so too does the sun seem higher in the sky and just...I don't know...friendlier, I guess, as February winds down.

So like I said before, while there is still knitting to be done, I am preparing for warm weather.

Here's one of Daughter's new dresses for 2011, nearly complete. Just needs buttons/buttonholes, and a hem. She has requested that it be "down to her ankles" so that is what she shall have. We are thinking this will be worn for Easter, along with the white cotton cardigan I fully intend to knit. Easter is very very late this year, so I'm thinking it will all get done.

And this is just for fun - a 3-tier gathered skirt for Daughter. I am desperate to use up chunks of fabric before she gets any bigger. This is some floral quilter's cotton I got years ago when I worked at a quilt shop, along with some (Michael Miller?) red pindot left over from another project. I don't know what the pattern is...my good friend Karen sent me tracings years ago when we made these for a charity project. But gosh, it is so easy and could be drafted in no time. It's basically 3 rectangles, each roughly double the size of the one before. Cut two of each on the fold, sew them into tubes, and gather them onto each other. Add a hem and a casing for elastic and voila! A super cute, simple skirt. Daughter is actually wearing it right now - with tights and long sleeves of course. (It is, oh, about 9 degrees out today.) I look forward to having her help me pick out some more matching prints from the stash to make up more of these cute, simple wardrobe staples.

priorities

Sometimes it's so hard to decide what to spend our hard-earned money on. Yesterday I decided I wasn't going to just sit around the house with the kids during the mid-winter break, so I asked my mom if she wanted to go to the science museum today. They have an awesome kid area that's huge and entirely hands-on.

It cost $24 to get in for me, my mom, and my two kids. Now I'm kicking myself for not just spending $50 and getting the full year membership, which would entitle us to get in anytime. Dur. Stupid.

I have trained myself to be so utterly careful about our finances that I sometimes don't allow for frivolity. Not that an explorations lab at the museum is exactly "frivolous" but it's also not a true necessity in life, so I tend to talk myself out of spending the cash.

Depending on who you are, or what your circumstances are, $50 may sound like a lot of money or a drop in the bucket. My problem is that right now I am sitting at my kitchen table and right next to me is my leaky kitchen window. The wood surrounding it is literally rotting, and when the snow melts or it rains hard, water actually drips into the house. It's in terrible shape after 40+ years and it is next on our list to be replaced (we've already done two exterior doors that were in similar shape). So whether you think fifty bucks is a lot or a little, it is still a chunk of that window repair and could go toward a project that really needs doing.

However, after spending the morning with my happy, busy children in a beautiful, enormous, high-ceilinged, bright and airy room filled with station after station of educational and fun toys, I've forced myself to re-evaluate my priorities. I could save the $50 and sit here in the boring house, trying to get my kids to play and stay away from the boob tube, or I could just spend it and take the short drive to the museum anytime we want, 7 days a week, rain or shine. I can be with other parents, my kids can interact with other children. We can have fun and feel engaged in community, which is sorely lacking for us.

It's a leaky window vs. our sanity - kind of a no-brainer, isn't it? The home repairs will wait. There is fun to be had right now.

hope springs eternal

Winter in the northeast US is kind of like pregnancy. You know for a fact that it will indeed end. And February is, for me, like being 8 1/2 months pregnant...you've passed the point of truly enjoying it and just want it to END ALREADY. So thanks for the commiseration yesterday. Today the sun is blazing, and while it's still only in the 20s out there, I am cheered by the thought that Spring is really not all that far off.

Anyway, I am preparing for it in my own way. By making stuff, of course. Yes, there is still plenty of time to curl up and knit with hearty wool (and plenty of time to wear those woolens), but it's nice to brighten things up with some advance Summer sewing!

I bought these patterns last year in preparation for this year's clothing needs. Daughter is very tall and leggy, and all the dress patterns I have are really too short for her to play comfortably in without flashing her business, if you know what I mean. As printed they are likely going to be a bit too long, but I had what I thought was a genius idea - after all, what would Caroline do? She would sew rows of horizontal tucks around the lower skirt, right? Then the dress could be let down as needed. Of course, excess fabric could be cut off and the dress hemmed that way, but then that extra length is sacrificed and the dress is useless in the future. If I do the tucks, it will last longer, because Daughter doesn't grow much as far as weight gain, but she does get taller and taller.

I want to be smarter and more efficient with my scrap management as I go forward. I bought 2 yards of this pink calico at Joann's, and cut what little remained into various size squares and strips, ready to be used in a quilt or whatever. I hope to do this with all the calicoes I'm using this Spring and Summer. Otherwise all the crazy scraps from dresses, tops, and shorts get jammed into a big bag or bin - where they just sit, getting more wrinkly and less appealing. A nice, neat box of squares is definitely more tempting.

And it results in a lot less waste! This is what remains from that 2 yard cut of fabric. Mostly selvage edges and tiny strips. (Yes, they could be used in string quilts, but I don't make those.)

I hope to finish this dress up today and make a start on another. Or maybe I'll make tea and curl up with more knitting. We'll see where this sunny day takes me.

busywork

No one really tells you, when you become a stay-home mother, that it is pretty much a totally boring job. It's also largely thankless, but we mostly know that, I guess. After nearly 6 years of stay-home-ness, I am bored out of my mind. In the dead of winter in a cold climate, there is little to look forward to each morning...making meals the children will not eat, cleaning up after the children, watching PBS, playing playdoh, painting with watercolors, doing mountains of laundry, listening to the wind rattle the windows, more cleaning up, etc, etc.

I've scheduled many playdates this winter in an effort to combat the cabin fever, but inevitably someone gets sick or something comes up and either I cancel or our friends do. We've all been sick since Christmas, almost non-stop. We were on the upswing for about a week, until Daughter brought home another nasty virus from Kindergarten. AJ just managed to squeak in for his surgery last week, though his nose was stuffy. Another couple of days and he'd have had chest congestion and a fever like his sister. Luckily those symptoms showed up after the surgery day. He is, in fact, sound asleep right now (11:45 a.m.) and has been since 10:30, because he barely slept last night. He was restless and feverish, crying almost constantly. Which means Hubs and I are exhausted as well.

It's just a crappy, crappy time of year. I'm going through the motions but barely getting anything done. It's all too easy to just sit and browse the internet for hours on end. I grab a ball of yarn here and there and work on something, but I'm not feeling inspired. It's all just busywork to pass the time.

Here's the marled sweater I showed a couple weeks back, now finished:

Knitting pure & simple neck-down cardigan, size 2-4. My little boy is getting big! This took nearly a whole skein of lion fishermen's wool. US 9 needles for the body, US 8 needles for the ribbing.

It went really fast and was pretty satisfying, so look what I found in my yarn trunk:

Another orphan skein of fishermen's wool. Another neck down raglan? Sure, why not.

I'm making an attempt to cheer up and look forward to spring:

This yarn has been hanging around since I was pregnant with AJ, waiting to be made into socks for Daughter. I'd better do it now, as her feet are almost too big to squeeze 2 socks out of one skein. I'm hoping to put these in her Easter basket. We try to go really minimal with the Easter candy because no matter how we beg and plead with my in-laws to lay off, they inevitably show up with enormous baskets filled with chocolate and junk. So I go with one very small chocolate figure, some jellybeans and m&ms, and some sort of useful item (like socks) or a book or something.

I'm pleased with myself for actually working through my stash a bit so far this year. I keep most of my yarn in my old college footlocker, and I can now close the lid easily, without sitting on it. That means some yarn is definitely gone. With little else to do and sick/post-surgical children lolling around the house, I might as well keep cranking out the knits, using up all that yarn I've been collecting for so many years.