Maybe it was Time Travel

The prospect of knitting a fingering weight cardigan in 30 days greatly intimidated me but I'm flying (special thanks extended to Doctor Who).



I have 24 rows of stockinette left (with some 350 stitches on the needles) plus the garter stitch trim. 

The pattern is Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier and makes clever use of short rows for front shaping.  The yarn is Madelinetosh Sock in "Ink"... the dyers of this line are true artists!

Perfect Timing

Over the weekend my alien/sci-fi loving son discovered Doctor Who which I had never seen before either.  Our search for a way to earlier seasons led us to Netflix... the depths of which was another new discovery for us.  Of course I'd heard of Netflix before, but had no idea what all it had to offer.

Even better, this discovery coincided with the cast-on date for my Vitamin D cardigan, which I had chosen for my Camp Loopy Project 3.  Good TV makes for happy knitting.

Family, Football and Fiber

After the NFL lockout and questionable forecast for the new season, we were definitely ready for some football!  Even more exciting was the call that our nephew, who had recently graduated from the University of Texas, had been picked up by the Seattle Seahawks and would be playing in their first pre-season game in San Diego... a mere 3 hours from us!
Football and Family in one fine day?!  One word... Awesome!

We got there early to watch John warm up.  Poor guy... we shouted and waved when he came on the field as if he was taking the field for his first Pee-Wee Football game.  He obliged us with a polite nod. 


And the proud Texas papa who was ready and willing to trade in his UT burnt orange for some Seahawks pride.  :) 



We had great seats in the 4th row!


Everyone had a fabulous time.


And you certainly can't let that nacho cheese go to waste! (Especially at stadium prices!)



My 17 year old brought along his sweet girlfriend.  (I love having a girl around!)


But then things got a bit confusing/stressful/exciting in the second half.  See, our nephew was supposed to play the 2nd half of the game.  (Still great.)  However, the Seahawks decided to score every time they got the ball in the 2nd half except once.  And thus the inner conflict.  See, we have been fans of our nephew much longer than we have been Seahawks fans... and, if I'm to be honest, we were a bit more interested in seeing John punt than seeing the Seahawks win.  But you can't actually root for your team to not convert a 3rd down... you can't actually want them to get stopped and forced to punt.  Can you?  Well, deep down inside, yes.  Apparently you can. 

But on bright side, we got to watch John play in a professional football game and his team has a 1-0 record for the pre-season.  Not too shabby. 

Our greatest disappointment was the absence of our oldest son who couldn't make it due to his own football practice.  Hopefully he'll get a chance to catch another game this season.

I worked on these socks on the way...


And am now about to wind yarn to start on my Camp Loopy Project 3 tomorrow.


I can't wait!

It's been a weird few days...

I got a bit hooked on the crochet thing and found myself spending whole afternoons trying new stitches, making potholders, and discovering the granny square.

Exhibit A: Easy-Peasy potholder (I'll be making more of these!)

Exhibit B: The Granny Square and Friend: In which I discovered that, unsurprisingly, Tahki Cotton Classic is much nicer to work with than Peaches and Cream cotton.

I had some notion here of attaching these two for some sort of... I don't know... trivet or potholder?  But that seemed to exceed my available knowledge so they've been put aside.

I really enjoy the craft... but struggle a bit with what feels like unproductive time spent creating useless objects (the potholder is too small).  But at least now I know how.

Then I spent a couple days yelling at the TV and lecturing anyone who would listen on all that is wrong with this country... while trying to consider any remotely possible positive impact of insulting the ones with whom you are trying to "compromise".  For some reason the whole thing reminds me of my sons "compromising" over what game to play.  Maybe the men and women of DC need their parents to supervise.  I don't know.  But I gave up watching.

At which point I became distracted by my peeling sunburnt legs.   In a very snake-like fashion which I've never seen before, the skin is slowly peeling away in a single layer with no sign of stopping.

Fortunately, about this time, I remembered that I needed to finish my Camp Loopy Project 2 featuring cables.

I love cables.

I also love this yarn, Madelinetosh Sock in "Silver Fox".  The pattern is BFF socks by Cookie A.

Which carried me over to yesterday and Sheri's announcement of Project 3... for which I needed to invest more time picking yarn and a pattern.

I did get some lesson planning done, so I don't feel entirely useless.  But pretty close.

A New Trick

Not too much here to get excited about, but after four years of collecting dust (I know cuz I blogged about it when I bought the book in July 2007), I finally pulled a how-to-crochet book off my shelf and did it.  I crocheted an almost square.

We'll call it a dishcloth.

It was fun to use a different technique... a bit addicting even.  So, please, if you have a favorite dishcloth/hot pad pattern, let me know!  I may want to do a bit more of this.  

Camping! No, really!

I haven't been camping in years... at least 6.  But in a moment of what I can only describe as profound forgetfulness, I exclaimed to one of my friends (who just got a new tent trailer), "Hey!  Let's take the boys camping next week!"  And within 24 hours she had managed to snag a spot at one of my favorite local beaches.  Favorite, in this case, meaning two things... very local and one of the only places I've ever camped.

So Monday morning we took her 4 boys and my 2 youngest on a grand 14 mile trek to the local beach campground.  It's actually a beautiful site because we camp nestled in the mountains.

 With lots of shade and oodles of kids.

Yet just a skip, hop and troll through this tunnel...

and you're at the beach!

The water was the most amazing blue!

And while some of us (my youngest and I) don't care much for the sand...

This little guy loved it!

It was also educational.  For example, we learned about Stinging Nettle...

which causes a stinging, itching rash upon contact.

I was reminded that cool breezes do not negate the need for sunscreen.

And my creative friend Keri showed me how to start a campfire using some Fire Starters she'd made using dryer lint, melted wax and an egg carton!  You simply stuff dryer lint in an empty egg carton, then cover with melted wax (she may have even used broken up crayons, I can't remember... but just google Egg Carton Fire Starter and you'll be set).  When they are dry, you just light a couple and stick them in the fire pit under the wood.  And voila...

 

you are ready for s'mores.  Which help them forget about the Stinging Nettle.

While the boys splashed and explored, I read Shanghai Girls on my Kindle (excellent read by the way), knit dishcloths and worked on my 2nd Camp Loopy project...

BFF socks from Cookie A's Knit. Sock. Love. for this month's cable theme.

So, overall, I'm glad I forgot that I'm not a camper at heart and enjoyed a couple days at the beach.  Who knows... maybe in about 6 years I'll do it again.  :)

Knitting for Love (And using hair color on children)

Tonight's the night!  Harry Potter fans everywhere will participate in the insanity of forgoing normal resting hours in order to be among the first to see this last installment at a midnight showing.  Not me.  While there was a time, back in the day, when sleep was just a novelty with no real significance and midnight movies were all the rage... I am now much too old and am doubtful that any level of excitement could keep me awake for a 2+ hour movie at that time. 

D, however, is fortunate to have a friend whose parents faithfully take their children to such significant movie premieres.  They are either insomniacs or much younger than me... I'm not sure which... but I am so grateful that they are including D in their family outing tonight. 

D wanted to be Ron Weasley.  For those of you not familiar with HP, Ron often wears sweaters handknit by his devoted mother.  I'm thinking.... Yes!  I can do this. 

However, Ron is also a redhead.  D is blond (see above).  Enter Clairol Jazzing temporary hair color in "Red Hot".  In spite of the fact that I have never had anything better than a mildly disastrous experience in my many attempts to use beauty supply store products on my own hair, not to mention the whole trauma of possible outcomes of putting anything called "Red Hot" in his hair... I was determined to make this boy a redhead.  And, after an exhaustive search, this was the only option we could find. 

So, I started with a very small area in the back which was a good decision because boy did it turn red!  We left it in about 10 minutes, rinsed... and it was gone.  Completely.

Then I tried a larger section, rubbed it in real good, left it in for about 20 minutes, rinsed... and it vanished like Houdini.

With a pesky (and often dangerous) sense of determination creeping over me, I dumped half the bottle on his head, rubbed it in, covered it with a small plastic garbage bag, left it in for 25 minutes, rinsed and shampooed (according to the very vague you-should-probably-be-a-professional directions).  And...

in the right light he had a subtle strawberry blond tint to his hair.  Certainly no Ron Weasley and far from "Red Hot".  (Yes, he will hate me for that picture... but after all the knitting with acrylic yarn and hours spent playing hairdresser, I feel I'm within my motherly rights to post it.)

So this morning I woke up, got a Venti Iced Mocha, and stared down the bottle of Jazzing.  Once again, I attacked his hair.  Section by section, I coated it thoroughly... daring it mentally to betray me again.  Then I pulled out my hairdryer, got his hair nice and warm, covered it again with a plastic trash bag, and stood there for 25 minutes fanning the hair dryer over his head.  I then pulled the plastic off his stiff "Red Hot" hair and we headed once again to the kitchen sink.  I rinsed thoroughly and opted for conditioner only instead of shampoo.

The results....

Perfect!  We couldn't believe it!

The Weasley Sweater pattern can be found in Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel or, I believe, free on the internet.  (Try google.)  I was able to find the chart for the letter "R" here.  I knit the child's medium and adapted the pattern to knit in the round.  I used just over three skeins of Bernat Waverly in "Incense" for the body and a bit of one skein in "Gypsy Gold" for the "R".  Having become a total yarn snob, this 100% acrylic yarn wasn't my first choice but it met all the criteria for this project... right gauge, color, and price (apx $3.50/skein).

Regardless of my opinion of the yarn, D loves the sweater and swears it is the most comfortable thing he owns.  I bit my tongue and soaked up the gratitude. 

I could further reflect on the possible social influences that oddly provoke a sudden Harry Potter movie-going interest among older teenage boys, but I fear that might really land me in some trouble.  So for now, I will attempt to decide on a cabled pattern for my 2nd Camp Loopy project which I will start tomorrow.  What do you think?  Socks or gloves?