roy g biv

So many of the blogs I like incorporate rainbows...in the blog design, the crafts shown, the homes showcased...

I am so drawn to these pretty blogs!

Rainbows are big right now.

And lately I've been grumping around, wondering...

Why don't I have any rainbows in my life?

I really like rainbows.

And I wanted to find some.

Duh.

They are everywhere!

whatever

Seriously? Seriously?

How does that even happen? It's just a little button! I picked it up to use it last week and that little piece of plastic just fell out. When did it break? HOW did it break? (It wasn't the kids, they don't have access to this tool, obviously.)

I don't think a rotary cutter is the kind of tool you want to mess around trying to fix with superglue or whatever (and I'm sure it wouldn't even work), so hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Joann Fabrics I go. 

Tomorrow. 

Because I don't have a car today. 

Our older car tried to kill my husband last week and it will now be dragged out back and shot. Just kidding about the shooting part; it will be traded in on a new car. Already has been, technically. We just need to do the actual physical trade tonight. Goodbye, 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport in "flame red." You have been a pretty good steed for nearly 11 years, but with your 103,000 miles and disintegrating engine, the time has come to call it a day.

Kind of a bummer that we are re-entering the land of car payments after 8 months without. You get used to that pretty easily! Oh well, at least one car is paid off. One payment is better than two. And we got an awesome deal.

Of course, all I want to do today is cut quilt pieces and/or go somewhere. 

new year

Wow. Another new year already. How can it be 2012? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

My baby girl will turn 7 soon. Impossible.

Well, I still can't quite understand how the holidays whizz by so quickly now that I'm an adult. This year we had the added bonus of our hot water heater failing one week before Christmas Eve, necessitating its replacement. And then we had the (planned) installation of two oversize, custom built, double-double-hung windows in our kitchen and dining room on the 22nd. Yes, the leaky crappy windows have been replaced! We requested a full tear-out and rebuild of the frame for both, so we will never have to worry about them. We saw some seriously gross stuff when they ripped out the 1966 construction, but thankfully no structural damage. We already feel the difference in temperature inside the house, and there's no more rattle when the wind blows.

There was minor panic when a few gifts did not show up on time (thanks a lot used booksellers, you charge me $3.99 to ship a book, and I ordered TEN BOOKS meaning I paid a small fortune in shipping even though they all came TOGETHER...yet they did not arrive in time for Christmas)...so Hubs was out with the Crazies late at night on the 23rd, picking up a few extra gifts.

All in all it was nuts, as usual. But the good kind of nuts - cousins who live hundreds of miles apart getting to play together for several days in a row, catching up with my sisters, giving and receiving gifts, laughs, hugs, more laughs. Yes, it was good.

And I nearly made it with my knitted gifts! I got an ornament knitted up for our amazing therapist, but she ended up cancelling our last session before Christmas. I guess I could have put that time toward Hubs' hat, which ended up being finished early last week. Oh well. He loves it and has been wearing it to work each day. And thank goodness...all that garter stitch was torture!

Now, back to regular life, I suppose. Daughter went back to school today. AJ is back to his daily speech therapy. It's fa-reezing outside (12 degrees F today, with wind chill below 0), so I just want to hunker down and knit cables. I have one order to finish:

3 soakers, 3 colors, 3 sizes. I'm always so grateful when someone orders from me. I don't make a lot of money doing this, not by a long shot, but it's nice when someone likes my stuff, orders it, and then comes back to tell me how much they appreciate the item. Lots of photographers order newborn diaper covers and a few times I've received photos of teeny babies wearing them for photo shoots. It's so sweet.

When I'm done with that, it's back to this. I've started another project to use up some stashed yarn. I want to do a Starmore sweater really, really badly but I don't have enough of any one yarn right now. This is a free pattern from Lion Brand that gets decent reviews, so I'm going with it since I have what the pattern calls for. The stitch definition leaves much to be desired...but hopefully it will block and wear well. Whatever, I'm enjoying it so far. Cables are addictive, so the 8-row repeat goes by quickly and it grows in length surprisingly fast.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you're all staying warm.

last minute finish (2 of 3)

Ok, so the ends on the second sock aren't woven in yet (just tucked inside for the photo) but I am calling this gift done!

These socks are for Daughter, and wow have her feet grown! I can't believe how looonnnnng I have to make her socks!

I was concerned about running out of yarn, so I coordinated a skein of Heart & Sole "watercolor stripe" with the same brand in plain ivory for heels and toes. It looks like I would have actually had enough to make it using just the stripe, but that's ok, they look nice like this.

On to a hat for Hubs. And maybe an ornament for our awesome speech therapist to go with the gift card and chocolate bar I got today.....

last minute finish (1 of 3?)

Wow, how is it December 20? Seriously, Christmas will be here and done in about 4 seconds. Not sure how that happened when it seems like the first day of school was, like, yesterday.

Christmas prep felt extremely disorganized this year. As I explained it to someone this morning, it feels like a final exam where you're frantically scribbling everything you can into a blue book, and then the prof says "pencils down!" You're out of time so you're finished, even though you feel you could have done more, done better...but that's it, you have to just accept what you were able to accomplish and hope for the best.

Everything seems challenging right now because I constantly have to shove my son into his puffy jacket and then into his carseat, then put his boots/hat/mittens on when we get to the store (because of course he takes it all off in the car), lift and finagle him into the cart, try to get everything we need while not letting him see the gifts and stocking stuffers that are for him, etc, etc, etc. You know how it goes. Hopefully next year he will be in half-day preschool and I will be able to pull it together a lot better. 

I wanted to make more stuff for Christmas but it just didn't happen. AJ has his red sweater, Daughter has her black corduroy jumper lined with Laurel Burch cat fabric, my nephew is getting his framed sampler, my niece should have received her jumper, leggings and white sweater yesterday, and Daughter will be getting her Kina sweater:

Getting the color right was hopeless, believe me I tried. It's a pretty grape-y reddish purple in real life.

I used about 1.5 skeins of Wool Ease sportweight for this, and a button I've had for ages. All stash stuff. US 5 needle. It took a long time to knit. I hope she will wear it. I don't know...I've decided I'm not a fan of "shaping" made by enormous increases at the yoke, like in this sweater and the tea leaves/tiny tea leaves sweaters. I prefer a more fully fashioned approach. (So does Daughter...she never ever wears the tiny tea leaves sweater I made for her.)

I still have a pair of socks I'm hoping to finish for Daughter (one done, one started) and Hubs has requested a "slouchy, skater-type hat in a browny-grayish-green color" which at this time is a ball of cascade 220 heather yarn sitting in my knitting basket.

4 days to go...can I do it?

ho ho ho, it's a Christmas F.O.

Ok, I've got some cookies done, the tree is up and decorated, I not only took the kids' Christmas picture but I actually turned it into Christmas cards and sent them out. I think all the gifts are bought except for one or two little things, and now I just need to focus on finishing up the last of the knitted gifts for my own family members.

Still, I feel massively behind. And you? Ah, the holidays.

I'm psyched to have finished the last knitted gift to send away:

It's so cute and wee! This is a sweet, lacy cardigan for my baby niece to go over the tiny jumper/tunic I showed in my last post. It's from Leisure Arts "Baby Layettes Book 2" (#460). I used a skein of Stylecraft WonderSoft Baby 4 Ply that I found in my stash, and US 5 needles. This is one of those patterns where you get different sizes merely by changing needle size, so it can be knit on 4, 5, or 6 depending on what you want. I went with the middle size, which is supposed to equate to 3 months.

It's a little foo-foo and twee, but it was an interesting enough knit, and it cost me nothing since I had the yarn on hand (yay!). I have to go hunt down 3 buttons, which I'll do after it's completely dry. 

I put the blocking board on my dining room table to take a photo, and then I laughed and had to take this one - the "keepin' it real" shot:

Gross.

Hope your holiday preparations are coming along!

tiny (and frugal) baby tunic

Oops, once again I didn't mean to be gone so long. I was having, uh, mood issues. The combo of constant dark, dreary days, my general anxiety problem, and Hubs being away on a boondoggle business trip had me barely able to get out of bed and function, much less create and blog. But hey, today I feel myself coming out of it, hallelujah, so I need to take advantage. 

There's bread dough rising, I made a batch of muffins to use up the homemade applesauce that's been languishing in the fridge, and I managed to get a photo taken of the one handmade Christmas gift that's actually finished. Above you see a wee baby tunic for my sweet niece.

This is Simplicity 4243, in XS (7-13 lbs). The baby was 8.5 lbs as of last week when I spoke with my sister-in-law, so I figured this size should get her through Christmas. They live in SoCal, so I went with just the tunic (view D) rather than the longer dress. She can hopefully wear this with some little red leggings, which I hope to find pretty quickly so I can send them with the tunic, along with a white onesie and the white lacy sweater that I hope to finish in time (needs 1.5 sleeves and it is done). 

The frugal part is that this fabric was Daughter's Christmas jumper 4 years ago, when she was just 2 1/2 years old and I was about 5 minutes pregnant with AJ. Ah, the good old days, when I only had half the gray hair I have now. Anyway, I had maybe - maybe - a half yard of this corduroy. I had to smooth and adjust and smooth and adjust some more until the pattern just fit on the fabric. It was extremely simple to construct...just a front and two backs, a zipper, and some bias binding. I made that myself because I find the storebought stuff to be too stiff for tiny babies. Mine is just black quilting cotton cut 1.5" wide, folded in half, stitched to the right side, then turned to the back and topstitched. The only really tricky part was those tiny armholes. They did not fit around the free arm of my machine so there was some fabric gymnastics involved in getting that binding sewn down.

But it worked! And it is so sweet and wee and soft. I love it and hope they do too.

wool soakers for sale!

I realize there are about 6 people who read here, but I'll throw this out there anyway, just in case (or if you know anyone who could use one)...

I've got 4 newborn wool soakers, available to ship right now, for sale on etsy. There are two in this oatmeal color (a tan/gray mix), one in petal pink, and one in royal blue. The pink and blue are marked WAY down to just $12 because they have been sitting here unsold for quite some time and I'd rather they be used by a newborn baby than sit in my house! 

My soakers are made with the same attention to detail I give to knitted items for my own children. Each is handmade carefully, hand washed in Eucalan lavender wool wash, and air dried. 

First class shipping to the continental US is always included in the price. These soakers are really cute, have very stretchy cuffs, and a tall waist for warmth, absorbency, and extended use as baby grows longer/taller. And they do not have to be used only with cloth diapers! They make a sweet cover for any kind of diaper, and are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

I've taken down my "custom order" slots for now because I have so much going on for the holidays (and many things I want to make for my own family) but I could definitely squeeze in one or two of these each week from now until Christmas (though for Christmas arrival, the item(s) would have to be shipped by the 19th at the very latest). If there is interest, please leave a comment here or contact me through etsy. I will also be attempting to add a few "scrappy" soakers using my leftover wool between now and the end of the holiday season. 

Real post coming soon! Thanks! 

fixed

My husband fixed the dryer. He found the part he needed on ebay for about $30 (1/3 of the price at the local appliance repair places) and in an hour it was back in working order. The hardest part was getting the panels off so he could access the innards. FYI, it was the igniter (gas dryer), and was not difficult to replace. So if you have a decent dryer that just stops heating, keep that in mind!

So I meant to update about my homemade laundry detergent experiment...not much to say, really. It's hard to get a handle on a per-load cost until I actually use up the borax and washing soda, so I can average it all. But so far it looks like, using the Dr. Bronner's soap bars which are hella-expensive, actually, I am coming in at between 7 and 10 cents per load. I've started on my second bar of soap mixture, but I don't think I'm going to buy the more expensive castile soap anymore. I'll try the cheaper kinds of laundry soaps (maybe Fels Naptha) or some Kirk's castile which is something like $1.29 at my supermarket (compared to $3.49 for Dr. Bronner's bars).

I don't know if I love the homemade stuff. It's ok, but I find I miss the "fresh" scent of detergent, however artificial that may be. And the clothes are definitely not as soft, not by a long shot.

Frankly, I'm not feeling very inspired about saving money right now. My husband and I were high-fiving after the dryer repair, and then he said sometimes he feels weird and awkward and almost embarrassed telling people he fixed his own appliance (he's done awesome money-saving tricks like this before...with our oven, with the cars...he is very handy!). This is because, he said, he feels it makes us look like we can't afford to just call someone to come and do it.

When did it become embarrassing to fix your own stuff? I mean, what a strange psychological thing that is. I mend and repair and patch. I'm not extreme about things; my kids get new stuff when they need it, my husband and I do too, but less often (I've recently had to replace some stuff obtained early in our marriage and felt resentful that it finally wore out!). I had a conversation with a family member awhile back during which I mentioned sewing buttons back on my husband's shirts when they pop off, and this person was incredulous, like, "why would you bother?" To him if a shirt loses a button it's broken, useless, done. I can't even imagine thinking that way.

Oh well, inspired or not, it is what it is. The holidays are such a difficult time for keeping the "wanties" at bay. I tried to make one final Target run for the year today but they didn't have what I needed...I might try another location tonight after the kids are in bed. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I pretty much avoid Target and W*Mart between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. I try to do online shopping as much as possible, gather my baking supplies early, etc., both to avoid the awful crowds/parking lots, and to stop myself from wishing for all the shiny, new stuff I see out there. So, one last run for hair dye and stocking stuffers, and then I'm going to try to take deep breaths, relax, and knit/sew/bake/craft my way through the next couple of months.

I'm really proud of Hubs for fixing the dryer.

2011 Christmas sweater - F.O.

Hubs has ordered a part for the dryer. Fingers crossed!

This year's Christmas garb for the children is underway. I always try for coordinating, but not matchy-matchy. This year I think I'm going with red, black and white. AJ will wear red:

This is the Knitting Pure and Simple neckdown children's cardigan...again. I wasn't sure about the hood but this Cashsoft Aran yarn is so, so soft and squishy and nice I didn't want to waste any or leave any behind as an oddball in my stash. It's 10% cashmere, people! What a lucky 3 year old.

The colorway is "poppy" which isn't too important to share as the yarn is discontinued (probably why I got it for around $2/ball). I used nearly all 8 balls, which is weird. That's A LOT more yardage than the pattern calls for in the 2-4 year size. I used size 8 and 9 needles. The buttons are a new style I've been loving from Joann's - I used them on my most recent cardi for myself as well. They look just like leather but they are plastic! And therefore much cheaper. And also washable.

The remaining yarn is there in the photo, and I'd say those balls are about the size of clementines. Mission accomplished...8 balls from the stash are knit up and gone. My guilt-o-meter can go down a tad.

*4-letter-word!*

I was ready to do a post last night about my homemade laundry soap experiment, and then when I went downstairs to finish the day's loads, I found a lump of wet stuff in the dryer. Huh, I must have forgotten to start it. So I started it, and came upstairs to knit awhile. Soon I noticed I could no longer hear the dryer running...odd. It usually takes longer than that.

You can guess what's coming, right?

Nothing, no drying action whatsoever. The stupid drum turns but there is no heat. I let loose with a few choice swears, then had to tell my husband that the dryer is out of commission. Here's hoping we can fix it ourselves if all it needs is a heating unit of some sort.

I have the detergent info plus a couple of projects to share, but right now I have to go check the drying rack and various hangers scattered throughout the house to see if my clothes and towels have dried even a little bit. Aaargh!

whoa

I can't believe it's November 10th. What a week we've had over here.

It was a record-breaking 70 degrees for a couple of days (but back to freezing cold now with snow in the forecast).

The kids are sick, and AJ's ear was draining this morning. Thanks, ear tubes, for that up-close and personal look at infection. Blech!

On the bright side, we have a new niece! My bro and sis-in-law had their first baby in the wee hours of this morning. She is beautiful and all are well.

Unfortunately, overshadowing most everything, my little sister called off her wedding that was supposed to take place in a warm, tropical place three weeks from Saturday. It's such a sad, sad thing. They do love each other, but she just did not feel it was 100% right. My heart breaks for her (and for him) but I am fiercely proud of her for doing the right thing. I won't lie...it does free us up a bit financially, and eases some stress about the holidays and paying for the two windows we have to replace. But still, I feel awful for her.

So I've been puttering along, working on some stuff.

I appreciate the kind suggestions and offers about the red sweater yarn famine disaster, but it got rrrrrripped and restarted immediately, before the comments came in. There was really no saving it, and this way AJ gets a nice warm new sweater to wear for Christmas pictures. I think I have enough to make the hood, too.

Oy. What a week.

re-do

While going through my pile of forgotten knits, I found this sweater I started for AJ a year ago:

The pattern is this one, and I love it so much. The biggest size is age 3-4 so if I want it for AJ I have to make it, like, right now. When I started it a year ago I figured it would last for 2 winters. I had 8 balls of this beautiful Rowan yarn, a rare special treat that I got on mega clearance.

I started it, I liked working on it, but I tossed it aside. Last night I resurrected it and worked a couple more inches of the back. As I worked along, I thought, wow, this is a great knit! I like these cables! I'm really enjoying this! Why did I quit working on it?

Oh. Whoa. Stop the presses. I glanced at the remaining yarn and realized that there was no way I would make it with only 6 more balls left. Thaaaaaaaaat's why I quit last year. Now I remember that I realized this yarn shortage problem and was so frustrated that I just folded it up and figured I'd deal with it later.

The thing is, I still can't figure out how much yarn I would really need to make this sweater. I have 400 grams of my yarn which is 8 balls X 95 yards each. That's 760 yards. The yarn called for is 400 grams at 115 yards per ball, which is 920 yards. That's a 160 yard difference, whoops. What was I thinking? I don't know. Still, I can't understand it because even if I left off the hood, I can tell I'd never make it with my yardage. The cables just eat up the yarn too quickly.

Oh well, whatever, now I'm going to rip what I've done, wash the yarn and hopefully unkink it...it's been knit up like this for a year so it will be a mess. Instead I'm going to use this beautiful yarn for a top-down raglan cardigan with a hood, and hopefully use dark wooden toggle buttons purchased here. That place has the best price on lots of a dozen buttons that I've ever seen, and they are beautiful. I want to use this yarn up now because it is so, so lovely and once AJ gets just a little bigger I will no longer have enough to make a big enough sweater.

So this will be AJ's handknit under-the-tree gift, and Daughter will get her purpley sweater. I still want to make that pretty cabled cardigan, though...maybe if I get some yarny gift cards for Christmas.....

it's beginning to look a lot (or at least a little) like Christmas

I started making my Christmas knits list this morning. As usual it has too many things on it and I will never finish them all, but it's at least a place to start. 

I am dying - dying - to buy new yarn. I browse around the interwebs and see other knitters' beautiful yarns and projects and aaaarrrgh, I want to place a humongous Knitpicks order and get a big box of loveliness in the mail.

But I did two things this morning to dissuade myself. First I went through the pile o' knitting that lives in the corner of my bedroom. This no man's land is a dusty pile of projects that seems to keep growing as I start things and abandon them in favor of new, shinier ideas. They're all viable projects, but I get bored and toss them aside. Naughty! So today I sorted out all the in-process items, as well as the yarns that I've pulled from my stash as I browse knitting books. That mostly adjusted my attitude.

Then AJ and I went out for some groceries at Target and BJ's (our club store, for those of you in other parts of the country). We needed a few big things like a case of toilet paper and a case of juice boxes for Daughter's lunch box, and I am starting to pick up holiday baking items like butter and brown sugar when I see them for a good price. When we got home I went to the white board and filled in my purchases, coming in right at $0 for groceries, and taking a solid hit in the "discretionary" column (t.p. and pullups went there this week to preserve more money for edibles). Wow, is everything getting more and more expensive, or what? 32 juice boxes are $10.99 (Juicy Juice brand, the second-least expensive ones next to Minute Maid which my kids don't like). I think for Christmas I will get Daughter a small Kleen Kanteen ($9.95 at Amazon) and she can take water sometimes. She always asks for it, but I don't have a good, leak-proof, BPA-free water bottle to send in her lunch box. The Kleen Kanteen is expensive, yes, but I think it is a good investment as she will use it for years.

So anyway, a shopping trip where I reach the end of my budgeted allowance for the week is always sobering. 

It will be a stash-based Christmas this year. Much as I would love to buy new materials, the fact is I have enough already to come up with gift knits. It may not be my first choice, but it will certainly do.

I do, however, think inexpensive patterns are fair game. After all, it is much less spendy to buy a $4 pattern to go with the yarn I already have than to buy $30-$50 worth of yarn to match a pattern. In that spirit I purchased the Kina pattern (Ravelry link). It calls for sport weight yarn and I happen to have some that has been marinating in the stash for years.

It's Wool Ease sport in the boysenberry colorway...and I had 6 of them at one time. I've used maybe one skein? I got them at a Tuesday Morning store, probably about 6 years ago now. Yep, I bet Daughter was a baby when I got these because I thought I could use this color for a little girl. There were 6 of these and 3 off-white and they were a steal. I have to say, this yarn knits up really nicely for being only 20% wool. I used to use it quite a bit for baby sweaters but they discontinued it a long time ago. Wish they would bring it back!

Anyway, it's sport weight yarn with size 5 needles so it's slow going. But the pattern is so cute, I am committed to getting it done and under the Christmas tree for Daughter. Oh, and the color is really more of a reddish purple, not the grapey shade in this picture. I just couldn't get it to photograph correctly in today's light. I'll try again when there's more to show.

What about you? Will it be a handmade holiday season? What are you working on?

Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!

We didn't really start "observing" Halloween in our little family until about 2 years ago, when Daughter was 4. Prior to that she was too little to know what was going on, and we lived in a somewhat rural area where no one trick-or-treated. When we moved to our current house (almost 2.5 years ago now, what?!), Daughter was 4 1/2 and wanted to dress up and trick-or-treat. That year and last year, also, she just put on some princessy dress-up clothes from her play stuff and went as a princess. Or a fairy. Or a fairy princess, I'm not sure, it depended on when you asked her.

This year, in 1st grade, it was a bigger deal to her. We started discussing ideas a few months ago. I tried to think of what we already have and what I could easily and cheaply make. It occurred to me that both kids had black shirts, and Daughter has several pairs of black leggings...what could we do with that?

A hunk of red fabric with black spots later...we had Ms. Ladybug:

I simply took the piece of fabric and hand-pleated one selvage edge (that sounds fancier than I mean it to...I just pinched it in inch-by-inch and pinned it like crazy), then cut a long strip of black cotton 2.5" wide to make a binding and ties. I just pressed it in half, then pressed the sides in about 3/8" and applied it just like you would apply store-bought bias binding to a neckband or armhole. Then I just continued the topstitching all the way to the ends to create ties. Pretty simple. The hardest part was hemming the other three sides. This slippery fabric is awful to tame. I got a fabric glue stick but it didn't hold at all, so I had to just slowly double-turn the raw edges, pin, and stitch slowly. In the end it looks kind of shoddy, but it's only a costume so I'm not beating myself up. Oh, and to make it seem more like a ladybug "shell" I whip-stitched black ponytail holders to the sides, which go over her wrists to hold the cape out when she moves her arms.

We added a black headband with twisted pipe cleaners for antennae, and red cheeks with black dots. Voila!

And for AJ...well, we continued the bug theme:

Don't ask me what I was thinking, knitting a Halloween costume! I mean, sewing is more reasonable, it goes really fast, comparatively speaking. This little vest actually took a lot of time and energy, and the sacrifice of one of my Denise interchangeable needle cables. I used Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn in "Oakland black" and "Pittsburgh yellow" and - get this - size 13 needles. I am not meant to knit at that gauge! It was like wrestling rope around tree branches. And 2/3 of the way through, my Denise cable snapped right off. Luckily I had reached the armholes and separated the work to knit the front and back, so I was able to switch to a shorter cable. Still, it was a bummer.

Anyway, I designed this myself, if you can call it a design...it's just a bottom-up vest knit in the round, and I bound off about 2 stitches per armhole and knitted it up to the neck, which is kind of a boatneck style, I guess. One shoulder has extra rows and buttonholes, so it can be opened up to get it over AJ's head. 

Add in some inexpensive black sweatpants from Target, and a yellow headband with silver sparkle balls for antennae, and we have a bee!

Side note: last week when I finished this, AJ told me he didn't like it and wasn't going to wear it. It took some serious bribing/threatening to get him to wear it for a Halloween party over the weekend, but once he realized it was his ticket to getting candy, he was ok with it.

Trick-or-treating was a hoot. At the first house, AJ stood stock-still and wouldn't move. At the second, he made it to the door but hid behind my legs and wouldn't let the lady put the m&ms into his pumpkin bucket. By the third house he figured it out, and by the time we were heading home he was pushing his sister aside to ring the doorbells, yelling "twick-o-tweat!" and dragging me along by the hand. "Come on, Mom! We can get MORE candy!"

parade o' gifts...sidelined

Aw, dudes, I am so frustrated with myself right now. I finished up an adorable baby package for my bro-and-sis-in law who are expecting their baby girl in two weeks (squee!), and then wrapped it up without taking any pictures.

I ask you, what kind of blogger does that?!? I am so lame.

Oh well, I can still tell you about it. Along with some store-bought Gerber gowns and a Captain America little golden book (the dad is a pretty big fan...has a C.A. tattoo, even), I made this sweater in pink, some coordinating booties, and a small quilt.

The quilt...oh, I wish so much I had photographed it. Those of you who have hung around here for many years might remember this quilt. Gosh, was it that long ago already? Anyway, I had all that fabric separated from my main stash, and a lot of it already cut into 2.5" strips, so I figured I'd use it for a baby girl quilt. But when I opened the bin, I found lots and lots of finished quilt blocks, leftovers from that original quilt. Score!

So I made a mini version, using a 7 X 7 layout. The blocks are 6" so it ended up about 42" square. I used the same franken-binding from the original, too...still had several feet of it so I just added strips. It came out so sweet and cute. *kicking self for forgetting pictures*

Mmmmkay, that's done. Tomorrow, Halloweeeeeeeeeen! I have a bee and a ladybug to show you!

parade o' gifts (part 1)

Yeah, so, um...Hubs was gone on a work trip all week and got home at midnight last night...and a good thing, too, because I was just about at the end of my parenting rope. I don't know how those of you with traveling spouses do it. I bow down to you.

So I'm a little cranky. And also tired, because I don't sleep too well when he isn't here. I stayed up way too late each night working on a Christmas gift for my nephew. I mentioned it awhile back, and now it's almost done:

I love looking at this - it actually helps a great deal with my crankiness because I'm the queen of unfinished stitchery, typically, but this one is going to get done! I worked it each night until my eyes burned and I started making mistakes, and I was tired enough to fall asleep. 

I need to finish my nephew's name, work a few backstitch outlines (the propeller, the sail), and then carefully steam out all that awful hoop-burn. And frame it.

Now to go hem a halloween costume and finish up some baby gifts for our new niece who will arrive anytime...and then there are a few more Christmas items to work on...this time of year the crafts all sort of blend together, the end of one flows right into the start of another. I still need to make a rough list of all I hope to accomplish. 

Busy!

walk it like you talk it

So I've been really curious about homemade laundry soap for a long time. Like, a long, long time. Years.

This weekend I finally went for it. Detergent is pricey, peeps! Is homemade cheaper? I'm going to find out. Does it work? So far - and I've only washed 5 loads - the clothes seem clean.

I will admit that there were a few moments, as I sat on my basement floor grating a bar of soap into a recycled yogurt container, when I wondered if I'd gone off the deep end. But then I felt super awesome scooping a tablespoon of my homemade mix into the machine.

I used 2 cups of Borax, 2 cups of washing soda, and one grated up bar of Dr. Bronner's castile soap in tea tree (chosen both for scent and anti-bacterial properties of tea tree oil). Some recipes say use 1 tablespoon per load, some say 2...so I split the difference and have been using 1.5 tablespoons in large loads. I knew it wouldn't make suds, but I still watched for them anyway. Nope, no suds. But the clothes do seem clean, they have only the faintest scent of the tea tree oil when they come out of the machine, and really don't smell much after the dryer.

I noticed the towels seem slightly less "fluffy" - I can see the individual loops in the towels more when I am folding them. Also, the whites are slightly less blinding because homemade soap is just that...soap. It is not detergent and lacks the surfactants and whiteners of commercial detergent. But then I thought about the kids my daughter goes to school with, and how I've noticed they often have two different socks on, or one sock inside out, or dingy socks from being washed with darks and colors. And I relaxed about it, because who cares if her white socks don't blind you when you look at them?

I still have a small box of Tide for the tough jobs that my soap won't handle...and again, I just started this experiment so we'll see how it goes. My son has an oral-motor weakness that results in a lot of drool-soaked shirts, which, after sitting in the laundry basket for a few days, can really stink. I've found, up to this point, that only super-expensive Tide gets them back to wearable condition. But who knows? Maybe I can come up with something better (and less expensive).

So far I've spent 10 bucks. But I've only used a fraction of the Borax and washing soda. I'll have to purchase new bars of soap once in awhile, and I'm keeping a rough tally of how many loads I wash so I can see if this is a savings or what. (I'm a stay-home mom of two kids, one of whom is in school...I can manage to keep count of my loads with a scrap of paper and pencil next to the machine, it isn't hard.)

I know, I sound like such a weirdo. Bear with me...I'll report back with my findings.

breaking the habit

I've been experiencing a really introspective couple of months.

The first week of September my husband and I embarked on a new and very strict budgeting plan for our family and our future. A little helpful info: we are the only ones in our generation of family and most of our friends who live on a single income. It is a good income, but after taxes, 401K contributions, and insurance premiums (which are all deducted from Hubs' base pay), it's actually a fairly modest amount of money for this part of the world. And we are very avid news-watchers and we pay a lot of attention to what is happening in the world and our country. Both Hubs and I have developed a healthy fear of "the future" and feel it very, very important to save as much as we can, or at least avoid debt at all costs. We are working diligently to pay down our student loans (I know, again with those g-d student loans), and have begun paying extra on our mortgage each month to shorten the payoff time and reduce total interest paid over the life of the loan (we believe we will cut off 7 years with the small additional amount we are paying).

Anyway, our new plan centers around a little whiteboard that hangs on the fridge. We went over our spending with a fine-tooth comb to find out exactly how much we "spend" per week (dividing things like the yearly total electric, gas, mortgage, etc by 52), then subtracted all the relatively unchangeable ones from our weekly net income. What was left was our groceries-household supplies-medical-and-discretionary amount. It is a pretty small amount!

So on the whiteboard we have two columns. One is "discretionary" and each week it starts with a set dollar amount that we chose based on what we think we spend on un-categorized "stuff" like copays, PTA membership, school pictures, haircuts, etc. - things that change, ebb, and flow and are not the same week to week. This is also the column for take-out pizzas, starbucks drive-thru runs, etc. The other column is straight-up groceries. And that number is also pretty small...less than $100 per week for our family of 4.

Some people might think $100 is a lot. But if you break it down and think about it, that's $25 per family member for 7 days. Break it down further and it's $3.57 per person per day. Seriously, right? That is not a lot of money living in America in 2011.

Each time either of us spends money, it is written on the board and subtracted from that original number. At the end of the week we cheer ourselves if there's anything left, accept it if it is $0, and vow to do better if we've gone into the negative. Occasionally it happens...we had a week with a couple of medical copays that took a big chunk of column A, and that's ok. We have a little cushion in savings to deal with it. That is not the problem.

The real problem, it turns out, is breaking the habit of unconsciously spending. I was chatting with a friend about finances, in general terms, a few months ago and I stated that it wasn't the nickel-and-dime stuff that was harming our finances, it was big things like surgical copays (often several per year anywhere from $500-$1000 each), and surprise repairs needed on our 10 year old car. And to an extent that is true, but it is also the smaller spending. It is the Target run, that evil, evil thing we all do where we go in for contact solution and come out with $50 worth of stuff. We ALL do it, we can't seem to help it, and you just know Target corporate loves us for it.

It's also definitely the coffee drive-thru, the McDonald's run when I just can't face making lunch, the take-out pizza, and yes, the spontaneous yarn purchases, even though they are "cheap" craft store yarns.

When you create a system of obvious responsibility, like Hubs and I have with our little whiteboard, you start to understand your spending habits quite a bit. For example, I have long been in the habit of constantly monitoring the cupboards and fridge, and immediately replacing things either when they run out or just before. No interruption of service here, nosirree. Things are pretty constantly stocked in our house. Now, we keep a pretty simple fridge and pantry. I have friends with entire closets and several basement shelves PACKED with foods they'll probably never use, because they don't shop with lists, or whatever. I've gone shopping with one girlfriend who basically just wanders the aisles, never sure of what her family really needs, so she always overbuys. We're not like that. I use a list and coupons and try to only buy what we'll actually use. Interestingly, this friend and I both eye each other with total awe. Neither of us can fathom doing it the other way.

But the thing is, with the constant replenishing, I never had a real handle on what I spent. I thought I knew, but it turns out I was waaaaaaayyyy off. Now that I am writing it down and subtracting it each time I shop, I am pretty shocked at what I was spending.

It has changed the way I work in the kitchen, and also the way I approach all my shopping. Turns out I have a bad, bad spending habit that needs to be broken. I would go so far as to call it an addiction. I can feel it, it is painful, breaking it is difficult beyond belief. But it's working, slowly but surely. It's only been about 7 weeks but I'm adjusting my attitude. All my son's long underwear still fits from last year, so despite how adorable this year's designs are (at Target, naturally), only Daughter got a set because she actually needed them. AJ will make do with his size 3T until he actually outgrows them. Daughter's drawers are overflowing with clothes, and she does not really need anything right now. So I will stay away from the racks, I will quit plotting and planning what I want to make for her. Homemade stuff is not a moneysaver if the children don't actually need the stuff.

I was browsing at Joann's this week because of those midnight madness coupons, but I just couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. Seriously, this is a major thing for me. I stared at the yarns, I fondled the fabrics, I perused the notions...but no, I just kept thinking about my husband at his desk, the whiteboard on the fridge, the retirement savings we want to have, the house we want to pay off....and as I held the skeins of yarn in my hand thinking how cute AJ would look in a sweater made from it, I realized that first of all, he doesn't need any more sweaters as he has several, and second, every time I put a homemade wool sweater on him these days, he cries and says, "take it off!" So I put the yarn back.

Lifespan being what it is these days, and Lord willing we meet that number, Hubs and I (and all of us) will need to make enough money in the first two-thirds of our lives to support us in the last third. Think about that...if you want to retire in your early 60s and have a nice lifestyle, you have to earn and save all that money NOW.

Take-out pizzas are not worth screwing up our retirement. Starbucks is definitely not worth screwing up our retirement. Hoarding yarn is not worth screwing up our retirement.

That doesn't mean "never shop." It doesn't mean "never buy anything ever." For us it just means "evaluate this purchasing decision really carefully in light of our goals." Sometimes a take-out pizza is a great thing. Sometimes going out for coffee with your friend or spouse is just what you need. And if my kid needs a new sweater I'm definitely going to be all over it, making something warm and lovely with wool purchased using coupons.

And right now it means taking a beautiful, crusty loaf of wheat bread out of the oven, which will be served with our dinner of Farmer's Breakfast to use up leftover ham, the potatoes that are about to start sprouting, the eggs that were on sale this week, and the little bit of cheddar that's left. I wanted to go to the supermarket this morning, but that column is at $0, and I know I can make it until Sunday with what's on hand. Now I just have to make it a habit.

a new sweater for me

Sorry for the long absence, but I've been knitting feverishly on several projects at once. I started a sweater for myself a month ago, and got really hooked on it so I've spent all my free time working madly to finish it. If you saw my house you could totally tell I've been blowing everything off in favor of knitting (it's a mess, seriously). 

Before I share the photos, I need to point out that my photographer is 6 years old and takes photos by carefully, carefully setting up the shot, then jerking the camera and yelling "CLICK!" while pushing the button. So you can imagine how hard it is to come up with at least one or two decent shots. She tried hard, so I'm grateful...this sweater really needs to be shown while being worn as the pattern does not show up well laying flat.

It hasn't been blocked (I finished late last night) but I can see it needs to be. The pattern is available here for free. It's a good pattern, but not for a beginner. The chart is not numbered, and is a bit difficult to follow. I changed it a tad by lengthening the sleeves - I started with 41 stitches instead of 51, and then just followed the directions as written, increasing to 61 stitches and knitting plain rounds until I got the right length. The sweater is knit from the bottom up, then joined so the yoke can be knit in one piece. I also did not bind off the underarm stitches. Instead I put the required number of stitches on holders, then grafted them together when I was finished knitting. And finally, rather than knitting the garter edges called for, I chose to skip them and add 2X2 rib button bands after knitting the entire sweater. I think it's a neater finish.

Isn't the pattern pretty? I am so pleased with the way this came out! 

And guess what I used to knit it? You got it, cheap reasonably priced wool. This sweater took just under two skeins of Lion Fishermen's Wool in Brown Heather. I got it with coupons at Joann's, making it $5 per skein. I actually bought 3 skeins, figuring I'd need that much for an adult sweater, but I didn't even break into the 3rd. The buttons are faux leather, so they were only $1.25 for a card of 3, and I bought 3 cards with coupons. 

So the total cost of this very warm, heavy wool sweater was $13. I'm just sayin'.

And knitters (crocheters too!), if you're not checking out the Garn Studio website you are really missing out. They have hundreds of free patterns available, and I especially recommend the baby patterns. They'll knock your socks off.