Loopie Chick

Welcome home?

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0000

I have been away. Not just away from the blog, but away from home. The Italian and I took the kindern East to visit family (his and mine) and to immerse the children the joys of New England. We had a good trip, and more details will follow.

We returned at noon on Monday after a long day and only three and a half hours sleep the night before to find that one of the cats had used our bedroom as a litterbox the entire time we were gone. I opened the front door and Punkin said "why does the house smell like cat poop?" It was revolting. One corner of the bedroom was littered with poop (including several spots where it had spread and dried on the hardwood) and there was pee all over the room. (Where was the pet sitter in all of this? The pet sitter who came every day? Apparently she has no sense of smell).

We had to remove everything from the bedroom except the bed and the bookshelves in order to clean everything (especially the floor) before putting anything back. Fortunately our bed was unscathed, but the crib was a mess, the floors a mess, and several rugs a mess.

We spent most of Monday and Tuesday cleaning, and I was back at work on Wednesday. So today I'm off work, the kids are elsewhere, and I'm finally unpacking. And folding laundry.

I started a new project on my trip which I'm dying to show you, but I have no photographs yet, and it looks pretty unimpressive at this point anyway.

Off to the laundry!

Tired, pooped, beat, whipped...

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:26:00 +0000

I'm sure you know some others.

My parents just wrapped up an 11 day visit and I am tired. It was wonderful to see them and I'm fortunate to get the chance to spend the time with them, but it's also exhausting.

And it will only get worse.

Give your loved ones a hug and a kiss and enjoy their company as much as you can.

I'm going to try to pick up the mess that my house has become and go to bed.

A little of this, a little of that

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:08:00 +0000

Things are busy lately. I've been busy at work (we get busier in summertime), busy at home (2 small children - need I say more) and we've got visiting family to make everything busier. But I've got photos...

Buddy with the pillow in his pants that I blogged about the other day:

The stove with six pots of simmering pasta sauce:

What happens when you let a 7 year old loose with your camera:

I'm almost done with the body of Serrano but it just looks like a blob. I need to start a new project (upcoming family trip) and I think it needs to be lace. I'll have to think about that one.

That's all for now.

Beds, bedtime and sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:58:00 +0000

Like many people I don't get enough sleep. This week has been no better.

For the past seven or so years we have had one child or another in our bedroom. Punkin only moved into her own room (and out of the crib in our room) two days before Buddy was born, and he's been in our room ever since.

Until last Thursday night, when he and his sister and their father decided that he could sleep in the bottom bunk in Punkin's room (we only have two bedrooms). It's Tuesday now and it's been a tough slog. One night he didn't actually sleep until after 11;00, but last night was better (9:45) and tonight was even better (9:15). Except...

Punkin couldn't fall asleep tonight. She was weeping and being pitiful about how she doesn't like the top bunk, she misses the bottom bunk, she doesn't like to share her room, etc. etc. etc. Poor thing didn't get to sleep until probably 10:00, after snuggling with me on the sofa for a while (we had "Cosmos" with Carl Sagan on the Tivo, that will put anybody to sleep!)

Maybe tomorrow I can get them both to sleep before 9:30, just in time to have my parents in town for 10 days, which will throw our entire routine into chaos. Wahoo!

Friends and Food

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:30:00 +0000

We've been much more social than usual as of late, and as such we've cooked a few lavish meals that one and all enjoyed (or at least claimed too!)

A couple of weeks ago I cooked a vegan brunch (a first for me) which I have to admit was a bit of a challenge. Brunch for me is all about eggs and cheese and bacon, none of which is on the vegan menu. So I looked in a few cookbooks (yay libraries!) and ended up with blueberry coffee cake, cornmeal & blueberry pancakes, roasted potatoes and fruit salad. I was pleased with everything except the pancakes - they were weird. In any case we had a great time with new friends (an artist and a librarian - what's not to love!), they appear to have found enough to eat, and I am no longer a complete novice when it comes to vegan cooking.

Then last weekend we had a friend of mine from knitting at the library (hi Karen!) over for dinner, so I cooked 40 cloves of garlic chicken, roasted potatoes (the same ones) and caesar salad and broccoli. I had never cooked the chicken recipe before and I really liked it - the chicken came out tender without being rubbery, and the garlic flavor was really mild. I brined the chicken first (a favorite technique of the folks at America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated) and I think that helped. Once again everyone seemed to get enough to eat, and it was fun having a fellow knitting friend over to enjoy a meal.

Then today we had friends of the Italian over for brunch. These friends don't eat mammals, so no bacon, but other than that it was open season. We had a chile cheese puff, roasted potatoes (we're liking these lately!), blueberry bread, scones, fruit salad and turkey bacon. The friends were charged with drinks, so we had Kir Royals, Mimosa and Bloody Mary's. Way too much food, but these are some of my brunch favorites, especially the chile cheese puff. We sat out in the backyard which was nice, especially as the kids got to run wild afterward and the adults could just sit and enjoy the meal.

Add in the pasta sauce that we made last weekend and it's been a busy time for cooking. I like to cook but find weekday meal preparation stressful. There's not a lot of time between when I get home from work and when the kids should be in bed, so it's a race against the clock to get something edible on the table. And I like to make good food; I was starting to feel lately that I shouldn't spend so much time cooking, that eating more pre-fab meals would be okay if it freed me up to spend some time with the kids. But then I thought about it some more and decided that I'm teaching the kids to appreciate good food that is good for them, and that is something that will serve them well in our society. If I can make the time as I cook to teach them about food and cooking, which I've started to do lately with Punkin, that will also serve them well.

Now if I could just find the time to exercise I could continue to eat like this!

Parenting Advice?

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:19:00 +0000

I understand that with age and experience come a different sense of perspective.

And I understand that when you're in the trenches of life it can be hard to see the larger picture.

But...

Over the course of the past seven years I have had a number of people say something along the lines of "in the greater scheme of things it doesn't matter if your floors are dirty or the laundry isn't folded, your children will only be young once".

In theory this sounds good. Savor the time with the children, don't worry about keeping an immaculate house.

Well, as anybody who has been here in the past five years can attest, my house is far from immaculate. And I try to enjoy the children as much as I can. But yesterday morning, when I spent 30-40 minutes changing the sheets on my bed which hadn't been changed in a week and a half so that I could dump out the four baskets of clean laundry onto the bed in order to find clean underwear for the Italian and myself, all the while trying to stop Buddy from jumping on any of the beds in the house and throwing piles of folded laundry onto the floor, never mind dealing with the dishes or figuring out what to make for dinner, I really didn't appreciate that phrase running through my head. The reality is there's a certain amount of stuff you can ignore, and a certain amount that has to get done. And while I would love to sit and play and gaze adoringly at my children in all my spare time sometimes there isn't very much that is spare once I get done with all the stuff that has to get done.

On a slightly lighter note, it was pretty damn funny when, after I spanked him several times for jumping in his bed, Buddy had the bright idea to stuff his small pillow down the back of his pants so it wouldn't hurt as much when I spanked him. I tried to explain that not jumping on the bed was an even better idea, since that would mean that I wouldn't spank him at all, but I leave you to guess how much that thought sank into his thought processes.

And one more thing

this is the scene I turned around to find a couple of weeks ago when I was home with both kids. They had taken the glider rocker's footstool, upended it and then dumped all of the bins of clothes from Buddy's changing table on and around the ottoman. Then they piled on top, which is when I took a picture. After I took the picture they then proceeded to dump several large bins of building blocks on top of all of that. And I wonder why the house is never tidy!

Spinning!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:29:00 +0000

I've been spinning!

Anybody want to guess how long it's been since I did more than 5 minutes of spinning at a time? I don't know exactly but it's probably been at least seven years (and by sheer coincidence that's exactly how old my oldest child is!)

I've been feeling the urge lately and finally found some gorgeous roving in my stash last week to work with. (This was harder than I thought it would be. Back when I was spinning more I tended to acquire more raw fleece than prepared fiber - there wasn't nearly the variety and quality of dyed roving available even a few years ago. But I didn't want to tackle a whole fleece's worth, I just wanted a smaller quantity of roving to work with. I'm easing back into this).

In the bag with the roving I also found a partly filled bobbin so I guess I have done some spinning recently, but I don't remember it.

I'm not sure but I think I purchased this at Stitches 2007. even though I knew I wouldn't have time to spin it for a while. I just couldn't resist the deep, rich color. This is not the best photo - I had the fiber in direct sunlight and it looks a lot more washed out than it really is. It's spinning up beautifully and easily, and I'm really enjoying it.

In related news, the reason I've had more time to spin lately is I'm stuck on Serrano. I'm at the point where I should divide for the armhole (the fronts and back are worked in one piece) and I'm not certain of the length. I need to slip it off onto ravel cord and try it on, which will require lots of pins and futzing, neither one of which is particularly compatible with Buddy. Wish me luck, maybe I'll get to it tomorrow.

I'm It

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:34:00 +0000

I've been tagged by my friend Jill so here goes:

What was I doing ten years ago?

May of 1998. The Italian and I had just recently bought our house, I was working for the evil empire (no, not that evil empire, that one) and hating almost every minute of it. I realized that even though I was doing a job that I was good at and paid well for I couldn't stand the shallow, pointlessness of what I did, and I was too young to contemplate spending the rest of my working life doing something I hated just because of the paycheck.

We didn't yet have kids, although we had two cats. At that point I was spinning and weaving, in addition to knitting, although the fore-mentioned soul-sucking job didn't leave me with much time to do anything other than work and commute. At least the weekends were mostly free. I used to think I didn't have enough free time - little did I know what having kids would be like!

Five things on my to-do list for today:

Well it's close to the end of today but there's a lot left to do:
feed the family
get the kids to bed
clean up the kitchen
read some more of John Adams by David McCullough
hang out with my man
fold laundry
put away groceries
(oops, that's more than five)

Snacks I enjoy:

Popcorn, pretzels, fruit (especially berries)

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

End world hunger, cure AIDS, spread peace and harmony...
Come on, this is kind of a pain in the a** question. Are we talking about what I would do for my family, or the world? I'd love to travel more, spend more time with my kids, all that good stuff.

Places I have lived:

Bedford, MA; Carlisle, MA; Santa Cruz, CA; Providence, RI; Belmont, MA; Menlo Park, CA

Tag?

Nobody. Do it if you want to, just leave me a comment so I can look!

Phew!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:24:00 +0000

What a busy, wonderful weekend. I can't believe how much we crammed into three days, and it was good.

Saturday morning we had some new friends over for brunch and had a great time. These new friends are vegan and we're not so I had some advance planning to do in order to figure out what to cook, but it turned out (mostly) pretty good.

Saturday afternoon I had a strong urge to go to Knitting Arts' going out of business sale (30% off everything). I bought a small quantity of yarn and a few books that I will blog about some other time. The store is a bit of a hike from us so I went looking for something we could do with the kids to rationalize/justify the trip and I came across Hakone Garden, a wonderful Japanese Garden in the Saratoga foothills with some beautiful landscaping. The kids had a lot of fun just walking on the paths, and I enjoyed experiencing nature first hand (instead of just out the window of the car).

I was so inspired by how much fun we had at the Hakone Garden that I decided that we would get more outdoor time. So Sunday we went to Rancho San Antonio and set out for a hike. We had a map of the County Park and the trails and I figured we would hike for 1-2 miles. We packed a lunch and set out at 11:30. Buddy was tired and hungry and very quickly decided he wanted to be carried by mama, and only mama. We went on for a while, then came to a fork in the trail. The Italian decided to take a trail that continued up the hill and off the map. We finally found a good spot for our lunch with an amazing view of the valley. After that the children had more energy and we tramped happily on until we came around a corner to find that the trail we were on appeared to continue up and over the hill and not in the direction we wanted to go. We had a bad couple of moments trying to decide if we had to backtrack (up the hill) or would we find a trail that led back in the direction we wanted to go. Fortunately another hiker came along and told us that there would be a trail back to the park entrance. Buddy only insisted on being carried a little more toward the end of our walk, and we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. We grabbed a more extensive trail map on our way out, and my best guess is that we walked about four miles, mostly up and down hills, and I carried 35 lbs of boy for at least 45 minutes of that!

Monday saw us all sleep late, and I woke up stiff and sore in places that I hadn't paid much attention to in years! Some Tylenol and a hot shower helped a bunch, and after a morning of laundry/dishes/tidying/playing we headed into San Francisco to meet a friend and go to The Exploratorium. The Italian took the kids there last summer for my birthday but I hadn't been in 14 years, and we had a blast. Punkin got to hang with our friend and the Italian and I kept track of Buddy and took turns looking at exhibits. Our friend's husband met us for dinner afterwards and we had a great time.

No pictures of Punkin - she didn't stand still long enough!

Busy, busy weekend, but lots of fun. I've been fretting lately that we spend too much of our weekend time doing errands and not enough time outside, so I'm glad we shifted gears this weekend. I have high hopes for continuing this trend in coming weeks.

On the knitting front I have been busy.

I finished these socks for my mom:

She picked out the yarn (Socks that Rock) on a previous trip and I picked a stitch and let her rip. They were fun and easy and she loves them!

Here are some progress shots of Cassie (which has since been finished):

Punkin has worn it a couple of times but I need to wash and re-block it (the two fronts are different lengths). I made a bunch of stupid mistakes on this one, including this:

It's subtle but if you look closely you can see that the yarn on this sleeve is two different dye lots. Yes, I mixed dye lots by accident when I bought the yarn. I ended up doing the sleeves in one dye lot and the fronts and back in the other. Duh, I hate making rookie mistakes. Once I've re-blocked it I will take some shots on Punkin and do a more detailed post, if nothing else just to document my stupidity.

With Cassie finished I have picked up Serrano again, and remembered why I put it aside in the first place:

I got too clever when I did the waist decreases. I was trying to fit in the max patterning across the place where I was decreasing, and I ended up shifting the decreases significantly to the left. Duh, see earlier note about making stupid mistakes.
I have since ripped back 3-4" and am now almost up to the point where I separate for armhole shaping.

I've got another pair of socks on the needles but no photos yet. Nothing earth-shattering, just Cherry Tree Hill in a small stitch repeat, and this pair is for me!

There are still more projects that need finishing after I'm done with Serrano...

A Few Firsts

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:59:00 +0000

We had a few firsts this week.

On Monday afternoon Buddy had his first spin on a bicycle. It was a two wheeler with training wheels (so technically a quadricycle) that I got on Freecycle (and it's a little bit too big) and he rode like a champ. He's got that natural gross motor control that lets him accomplish almost any major physical activity. Alas, I have no photos because I was too busy running up and down the block after my little boy.

Punkin, meanwhile, was having her second try on a bike with no training wheels. We put the seat all the way down and took the pedals off so she could just roll along using her feet on the ground. Her bike is also a smidge too big so she wasn't entirely steady, but she got some good practice. She lacks the natural physical abilities of her brother (she's my kid!) so it will take her longer to practice. No pictures of her, either, but many thanks to our friend John who assisted through all of this!

The next big first happened on Tuesday, when Punkin got in trouble at school for the first time. It seems that one of the teachers chided her for sitting down during Phys Ed (did I mention she's my child?) and she said something typically 7 year old to one of her friends about said teacher. Somehow or another word got back to the teacher of what was said and Punkin got a talking to. Her teacher sent me an email with a heads up so I asked her about it that night, although it took some prying to get the whole story. We talked about it for a while, and the next morning I had her write an apology note to the teacher, which she then hand-delivered that day at school. Traumatic for her but not too big of a deal, and hopefully she learned something from it.

Knitting is happening. I'm almost done with Cassie, just have to decide how to close it. I'm having some trouble getting a zipper for the Ribby Cardi, and I'm making good progress on Serrano. I'm dying to start something new, but I'm even more motivated to finish a few things first.

Pics someday, don't know when!

Starting the day on a nice note

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:26:00 +0000

I had a lovely start to my day, thanks to my local garbage men.

No, really, I did.

I was getting the kids rolling this morning when I heard the doorbell ring (at about 7:05). Given how an early morning call started my day on Sunday I was a little apprehensive as I went to check who was there. I pulled back the curtain at the front window and saw a man in a safety vest walking away. It took me a second to realize that it was the garbage collection man, and two more seconds to make it out to the side of the house to drag the barrel to the curb.

The garbage man who had rung the bell came back up the street to take the barrel and asked me where it was - in the back? I said no, on the side of the house, to which he replied that he'd looked there but hadn't seen it. He said that with the dirty diapers and all he figured we would be happy to get rid of our weekly trash.

Let me make sure this is clear: the garbage man went looking for my trash barrel, and rang the bell to let me know that he couldn't find it. Does anybody else find this completely amazing? I continue to be impressed that he would go out of his way to help us out. I thoughts about calling the garbage company and letting them know how pleased I am, but then I wasn't sure if maybe they're not supposed to do that, and I wouldn't want to get him in trouble.

Maybe I'll bake him some cookies.

In other news, we're having record breaking heat around here today. It's frakkin' hot. And I don't like hot. Cold I can manage, but it was over 100 degrees here today, and it's still hot and stuffy. It's supposed to be hot again tomorrow, although not quite as hot as today. And I've just about finished the knee length wool coat I've been knitting for Punkin - perfect timing!

Time to go, gotta clean up after dinner and attempt to fold some of the mountain of laundry that has piled up. Punkin bought a half yard of white cotton fabric and some lace trim the other day, so she can make a lace trimmed hanky, a la Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I told her it has to be washed before she can start. Patience is not her strong suit, and she's been asking me every morning and evening if it's ready!

A Not so Happy Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Mother's Day started with a phone call at 6:48 am.

Phone calls that early are never good. I didn't get to the phone in time, but noted on the called ID that it was my father-in-law who had called, and then tried to go back to bed. When I told the Italian it was his dad who called he pointed out that his dad was unlikely to screw up the time change (calling from the East Coast) and that the other possibility was that he was calling about a family emergency.

I still tried to go back to sleep but the truth of what he said gnawed at me, so I got up.

Unfortunately, he was correct. His aunt and uncle were killed in a car crash early Sunday morning. It was one of those senseless tragedies that strikes at random, and the family is worse for it.

It is unlikely that the kids and I will travel to the services (in Massachusetts) although I think the Italian is still on the fence about going.

On a much happier note, my three year old son just said to me "my like you a lot every day" (he says "my" for "I").

I needed that. I think I'll go play Mousetrap with him some more.

And I wonder why I'm tired...

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:21:00 +0000

today's schedule so far:

8:00 - pancake breakfast fundraiser for Punkin's school
9:00 - drop Punkin and the Italian off at Mandarin class
9:15 - purchase bagels and endure one of Buddy's raging tantrums (he didn't get exactly the cookie that he desired. I sat him down on the sidewalk outside the bagel shop and just let him scream.)
9:30 - stop at an estate sale, pick up a few things
10:00 - retrieve the Italian from Mandarin, bring him to estate sale (he likes these kinds of things)
11:00 - retrieve Punkin from Mandarin class
11:15 - go to Silicon Valley Open Studios to see my friend Moose's really great artwork (stopping first at a library booksale - more on that later). Hang out with Moose for a little while until Buddy started to come apart at the seams.
12:00 - go to Costco (always a good idea on a Saturday) to buy some groceries and grab a quick lunch.
1:30 - home, unload the car, try to get Buddy to nap (hasn't worked yet).
That brings us to now, 3:27. The kids are watching TV (it's part of the nap attempt process), the Italian is sacked out on the bed, and I'm sneaking a minute to do this.

What's left for today? A trip to the Computer History Museum that we had tentatively planned is probably out. We may still try to go to the WWII Trainers event at the Hiller Aviation Museum that Buddy would love. And we're due at a party tonight at 5:30, for which we still have to prepare food to bring.

Not all Saturdays are this busy, but enough of them are!

Beuller, Beuller?

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:07:00 +0000

Blogger wouldn't post my last post, so I'm trying again.

Granted, it wasn't a great post, but irritating nonetheless.

Hi

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Trying again to post this one...

I have been meaning to get back to this for quite some time. I keep waiting for the time to write a really kick-ass post, trying to explain why I've been absent and show what I've done for myself in all this time.

But that's why I've been gone so long - there's never the time to do anything kick-ass.

So instead I'm just here saying hi. I've been knitting - I've just blocked the pieces to a sweater I'm making for Punkin. I made socks for my mom, started a pair for myself.

I'm going to try to finish up some projects that have been lingering. I'm not going to start anything new for a little while.

The kids are doing fine, the Italian is busy, and I'm (mostly) getting through each day.

There, I've done it. Let's hope the next one is better!

I'm not dead yet

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:43:00 +0000

I'm still here, my head hasn't exploded yet.

The car has been replaced (another used Volvo station wagon).

The day care has been replaced (although the three and a half weeks of looking and the adjustment period to the new place has not been fun).

Some knitting has been happening, nothing much exciting.

Punkin turned 7 last week and has lost both top front teeth - she's growing up fast.

Buddy turns 3 this weekend.

That's all I've got for now.

Fun, interrupted

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:07:00 +0000

As many of you know (unless this is the first time you've ever looked at a knitting blog) this weekend was Stitches West. For the first time in many years I had decided to take a couple classes and really do a full-on knitting weekend. I had a class on Thursday afternoon, I was going to go to the Ravelry meet up, have dinner with friends, go to the Market preview, go again to the Market after work on Friday afternoon with Punkin, and class all day on Saturday, with more Market during breaks from class.

Everything started well. My Thursday class was good (Pattern Writing with Edie Eckman), and the Ravelry meetup was fun - I saw some old friends and make some new.

However, the rest of the plan did not work out so well. On my way to dinner I got a call from the Italian. He and the kids had been in a car accident (everybody is fine) and he needed me to come to the spot on the highway off ramp and get the kids. Which I did.

Friday morning was spent on the phone with the insurance company and the car rental agency. I went to work where they were sealing the floors in the lobby (the building is being renovated) and the stink was so bad I had to go to a different building for part of the day.

The Italian brought Punkin to me after work, when he informed me that the best guess of the body shop guy is that the car is totaled. I went to the Market with Punkin, who started right away with "I'm tired". At first I thought she was just worn out from the drama of the accident and we soldiered on. But when I sat down with her to take a break I realized she was feverish, so we headed home (making only a couple of stops to peek in booths along the way).

Saturday went relatively smoothly. The Italian stayed home with the kids and I took off for my class, Estonian Lace with Nancy Bush. The class was good - Nancy is clearly knowledgeable about the topic and I learned some stuff. Unfortunately, Nancy was also very under the weather, and the handouts she had revised before our class were full of errors, which made the whole thing a little less impressive.

I got some very restrained shopping done (knowing that you're probably going to have to buy a new car you can't afford certainly changes one's outlook on buying expensive yarn) and came home.

Today brought continued fever in Punkin and fever in Buddy, which we dealt with by taking the kids car shopping. Two test drives later we headed home to nap/rest the kids. I lay down with Punkin for a while and woke up when the phone rang. The Italian was on the phone for a few minutes, then was busy dealing with Buddy, who had soaked through his diaper during his long nap. Once he had taken care of that the Italian informed me that the phone call was from Buddy's day care provider (he goes to a home daycare) who is in the hospital and either has to have cervical fusion surgery or has a brain tumor.

Oh. My. Gods. On a good day I feel like I manage my life reasonably well. On a bad day I feel like I can barely keep things together (and I just have to ignore the giant pile of laundry).

Tonight I feel like if I don't keep both hands firmly pressed to the sides of my head it will just explode. So please excuse me while I go sit somewhere and hold my head.

New man in my life

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:14:00 +0000

I have a new man in my life. Not so new, actually he's been around since last fall, but I just recently discovered that my new man has an interesting fetish. A fetish I'm not particularly thrilled about.

Meet Pete:

(yes, he's sitting in the doorway. Cool trick, that.)

Pete is a part Maine coon cat who came to live with us last September, joining our household of two adults, two children, one bird and one cat. Pete was about 5 months old when we got him, so he's getting close to one year old now. He's a lot of fun, very affectionate, and great with the kids.

We used to have two cats, a part Burmese named Maddy and a part Maine coon named Max. We adopted them at the same time over ten years ago (pre children). Maddy is temperamental and cranky, Max was patient and an absolute love.
Here's Maddy, napping/grooming on top of a tub of laundry:

Here's a not so great photo of Max, who was really a stuning cat:

About a year and a half ago Max was hit by a car and killed. We were crushed, and Punkin was especially devastated. She quite literally cried herself to sleep for a number of days, and still misses her boy.

After living with just one cat for about a year, we decided to find another cat. Maddy is part of our family, but she's very touchy and not affectionate, especially with the children. I wanted the kids to experience having a pet that was friendly, one they could interact with, not just try to avoid. So we let our wonderful pet-sitter, who also works with a cat adoption agency, know that we were looking for another part Maine coon, and within a few weeks we got the call.

Pete's great. He's friendly, fairly tolerant of lots of kid attention, and he's incredibly soft. He's also big, loud, and a bit of a whiner when he wants something, all of which I can live with.

He also has, unfortunately, a wool fetish. This is not a good thing, and today he took it to a new level.

Pete's been going after my yarn since early on. I would find skeins of yarn on the living room floor, and one time he even jumped up and stole a skein of yarn out of my lap while I was dozing.

But today he's gone too far. I had a few minutes this morning and I did some hand washing, washing some things of Punkin's and a pair of hand knit Koigu socks. I took everything outside to the back yard, since it was dry and sunny out, and put things on the drying rack, including hanging the socks on the side with clothes pins. We went out to do some errands and came home several hours later to find this:

Yes, those are my socks, on the yard next to the house. Damn cat stole my socks off the drying rack and did who knows what with them before leaving them on the grass. I washed them again and then hung them up inside, out of his reach (I hope).

Damn cat, I wonder what he's going to get into next. Any guesses?

Finishing things

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:50:00 +0000

I continue to be on a tear (relatively speaking) to finish projects.

These are socks made for (and modeled by) the Italian.
Cherry Tree Hill Supersock is the yarn. The pattern is Wendy's toe up sock pattern with a stitch pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. The pattern was a slip stitch pattern so it contracted both lengthwise and crosswise. The socks required extra rows in the foot, are shorter in length and snug around, but the Italian says the fit is great and he loves them.

And here is the main reason that I love toe-up socks

This is all that remains of the skein of yarn. Very little waste, no?

I have started another pair of socks (of course):

This is another pair for my mother. Socks that Rock lightweight is the yarn, Jewel of the Nile is the colorway. I haven't worked with this yarn before and have always kind of wondered what all the fuss was about. It's a very nice yarn. It's very firm, almost cord like. The colors are just great - there's a lot of different colors which eliminates a lot of the pooling and flashing you sometimes get with hand dyed yarn, but the end result somehow avoids being muddy. I've actually knit a lot more since I took this photo - one sock is almost done and I've done the toe on the second sock already.

My Wrapped in Tradition is basically done, after some amount of futzing with it.
The first time I finished it I didn't like the way it flared up at the neck:

I ripped back about two inches and switched from size 6 needles to 5s, then after an inch switched to 4s. When I tried it on after binding off again it was too tight at the neck, so I picked out the bind off and used 5s to bind off. Then it took some fiddling to get the crochet picot edging right. The first time I picked out the bind off it was slow, the second time it was fussy, and picking out some of the picot trim required a pin to separate stitches. If you're going to knit with lace weight mohair, you'd better get it right the first time!

At this point it's pretty much done, although I don't have any finished photos. The only thing left to do is to mark the back. There is a very slight amount of front neck shaping, although it's hard to tell. I was thinking out loud about how to mark the back (sewing on a label?) and the Italian suggested sewing a bead at the back of the neck - brilliant! So that's all that is left to do on that. Photos when I can (good weather, decent hair, no kids underfoot and a husband who is available to take my picture? I leave you to figure out how often those elements come together.)

I've picked up Serrano again, but am having issues. More on that once I decide what to do.

Out the Window

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:32:00 +0000

So much for sleep training. With the return of the Italian and then Buddy getting sick (he ran a fever for a couple of days) all of the progress that I made with getting him to sleep by himself has disappeared.

Oh well, we'll get there eventually. Hopefully before he goes to college.

In knitting news, I finished the Seraphim shawl for my mother:

I hope she enjoys it. Her hair is a beautiful white with just a hint of steel gray in places, so I think the blue/purple will set off her hair nicely. She lives in a cold place and enjoys warm, cozy things, so I hope this finds some good use for her.

Photographing a lace shawl is a wickedly tricky business. I tried for a while to find a good solution (I'm not showing all the shots that were much worse than this) and am not thrilled with the results. I held on to the shawl for an extra week, hoping to get a chance to take some pictures on a person, but we've had crummy weather lately and the sun did not cooperate. I decided it was time to get the package on its way while I still stood a chance of getting it there on time.

The photography experience makes me appreciate even more the people who do it so well - Cara, Anne, and Bonne Marie to name a few.

With that gift out the door I have been gripped with an urge to finish other languishing projects. I am close to finishing my Wrapped in Tradition - I just have the crochet trim around the neck to do, although I think I need to undo my bind-off an re-do - it's too loose and it flares up at the neck. The socks that I've been making for the Italian just need to be bound off, and I have picked up Serrano after months of neglect. I have plenty of projects that I want to start, but I'm running with the urge to finish some, since that doesn't happen very often!

And now, because it's much easier to photograph kids than lace knitting, I leave you with a couple of pics of the kinder...

because kids in a tub are just cute

I was trying to capture that moment when he's still half asleep in the morning and his eyelashes rest against his cheek, but of course he wouldn't sit still.

That boy really works his sippy cup!

A Little Backsliding

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Bedtime was not as smooth last night as the day before. This is to be expected, but frustrating nonetheless.

It could be because Buddy had a nap yesterday (and he didn't the day before), or it could be that his daddy was home, or it could just be the normal variation of things, but we had more tantrum last night at bedtime. This has evolved into punching me in the head (he's only 2 1/2 but it still hurts) and pulling my glasses off and flinging them across the room.

Fortunately it didn't last long, and somehow a little bit of extra bedtime milk did the trick after about 15 minutes.

This morning we abandoned our usual Monday morning frenzy of grocery shopping in favor of a long walk, a trip to the park and a leisurely lunch. It's nice to take the pressure off sometimes and not be worried about getting somewhere in a hurry.

Off to pick up Punkin from school in and hour and a half, maybe do some grocery shopping after that. Or maybe we'll go hang out at the local library. Good times with the kids, got to enjoy that more.

Third time's a charm

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Bedtime last night was entirely civilized. I put Buddy in bed, gave him a bunch of kisses, and headed for the door. He gave it one try - "mamma, stay here, rocking chair!" and I just said no, Buddy, and I love you, and left him by himself. I left the door half open, and then sat quietly in the living room. He called out for me a couple of times, but no screaming, no climbing out, just falling asleep. It was wonderful.

I sat and read for a while (I was reading "Life as we Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer - wow, what a story!) and I just had to finish it. When I looked up at the clock, after reading for a while, I thought I read 10:30 and that seemed about right. Then I was doing something at the computer and realized that it was only 9:30 - I guess that when you don't have to spend the first hour of the evening dozing in a dark room with a grumpy child that you get to do something else with that time!

Of course I spent the rest of the evening doing dishes, laundry, vacuuming, picking up, etc., getting ready for the Italian's return. Not that he hasn't seen the house messy plenty of times, I just wanted him to come home to a nice house. It's nice to have him back.

So no knitting to speak of last night. I have put the needles back in Wrapped in Tradition (I took the size 6 bamboo circular points out of that project to make Seraphim) and plan to finish that next. It's very close, and if I get it done quickly I will still have a chance to wear it this winter. I'm also working on the Italian's socks, one just needs to be bound off and the other is almost at the heel (toe up, so I still have to do the leg).

Since I have no knitting pictures to share, I'm giving you a random photo (to go with this rather random post)

Last fall we took the kids on a field trip to the Muir Woods and had a great time looking at creatures large and small. One of the special finds was a large cluster of ladybugs scuttling along the tops of the fence rails. Punkin put down her hand and let one of the bugs crawl on, and I managed to get one in-focus shot. I love the contrast of the bug's colors against her pale skin.

Getting there

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:05:00 +0000

Tonight's scream fest (oh wait, I mean sleep training) only lasted for 35 minutes. Compared to last night's 75+ minutes, that's a huge improvement!

Seraphim has been bound off, so all that's left is to sew in the ends and block. I have to figure out where to block it, but I think I'm going to try to get that done tonight.

The Italian comes home late tomorrow night, so just one more day. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day - Mandarin class, school ice skating party, possible sleepover for Punkin - I'm tired just thinking about it!

Must sleep tonight...

A Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:54:00 +0000

Once a year my dear friend Jill comes to my neck of the woods for work, and this year she came a day early to spend a little bit of time with us last weekend.

We had a lovely time. I picked her up at the airport on Saturday morning (she made it here in spite of our terrible weather). On the way home we went to Amazing Yarns. This is a lovely shop. It's built inside the house of one of the owners in the Emerald Hills part of Redwood City, and it's a beautiful area. The shop was open in spite of the fact that she had no power, which made it a little bit dark but not as bad as you would think, because the building has lots of skylights. We admired lots of yarn, and I was sorely tempted by some Mountain Colors wool to make the Koolhaas Hat, but I decided to wait until I had a chance to thoroughly inspect my stash for possibilities.

We had hoped to go into San Francisco that afternoon but the wind, rain, and hail (yes, hail) made us opt for a quiet afternoon at home instead. And a quiet afternoon we did have. Punkin decided she wanted to make a quilt for her doll, so we worked on that together for a while. Here's the layout we decided on:

It's her first quilting project (and only her second sewing project) and she's already got almost half the blocks sewn together - by hand!

and here are Punkin and Jill working on their projects on the sofa (made possible by Buddy's afternoon nap)

We exchanged Christmas presents. The kids and the Italian got some great toys, and I got this!

I had almost bought one for myself after reading Rachael'spost about them, but decided not to. I love it!

And what's the backdrop for the abacus bracelet?

I promised a progress shot, I just didn't realize I would be almost finished by the time I got around to photographing it! This is the Seraphim Shawlthat I am making for my mother out of Malabrigo Lace. It is wonderfully soft, and almost finished - I am binding off. I hope to get it washed and blocked today, but don't know if that will really happen.

I'm excited to finish this, I hope my mother will enjoy it. Her birthday is in early February, but I'm going to go ahead and send it as soon as it's finished and photographed.

I'm also excited to work on something else - maybe I'll finish Wrapped in Tradition, or the Italian's socks, or Buddy's sweater...

We had a lovely rest of the weekend. On Sunday afternoon we went to Artfibers, a lovely shop with beautiful yarns, and I didn't buy anything. After that we met up with some friends and walked around in Chinatown and North Beach (that's San Francisco!) and then had a great dinner. Great weekend!

It was good to have a great weekend, because the Italian has been away this week and it's a long slog doing the solo parenting thing. Especially since I decided to do some sleep training and Buddy didn't fall asleep until 11:15 tonight...

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Beach!

noreply@blogger.com (Marie) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 06:38:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon we received a package from my parents. Included in the package was a large, dragon-shaped kite, with a very nifty kite string winder tool. Buddy, who wasn't around when we opened the package, was very interested in the kite string winder. His dad explained that it was for a kite, at which point Buddy started talking about going to the beach, to fly the kite. I don't know what the Italian promised him, but certainly nothing more concrete than "yes, we'll go to the beach again at some point".

Fast forward several hours later, at 3:30 in the morning to be exact. After getting to bed late and having a fitful night, I was awakened by the sound of my 2.5 year old yelling "beach!" It seems he really wanted to fly the damn kite, and woke us all up to tell us about it!

A mind is a terrible thing. And it must be stopped.