It is good to be 4, recap…

Here is one of  the infamous banners created by Netter. This will be laminated and treasured. We love it! Madeleine loved it! It took up our whole living room wall. I drag friends and family into my house just to show off the banner. Sierra will be surprised that she gets one too. We will hang hers this Sunday.

Oh, see that ugly scratched up chair…it is a goal one day to reupholster it along with the one that is to the right in the picture (buried in blankets.)

Here she is with the doll I made her.   The doll surprised her and at first she wanted to hide behind it.  It was pretty funny.  She was happy that day. Then the next day decided she hated it, too much hair. Then a few days later she saw it in my room and wanted it back. She then slept with it. I think she likes it now, but I am ready to take it back and keepsake it any time.

What to do…

I need to update you about Madeleine’s birthday and provide you with pictures.  I have been so busy, I just haven’t had time.  I don’t know if I shared this tidbit, but I became a Girl Scout leader in April.  I am leading my daughter’s Brownie troop.  It is a blast.  This month we are making paperbag scrapbooks.

So, that is where I have been…sorry.

I did have a little crafty/crochet question for you…

If a pattern suggests using 1 ball of yarn, however then says to hold 4 strands together.

a.  Do you buy 4 balls and only use 1/4 of each ball?

b.  Do you buy 1 ball and then wind it into 4 balls?

c.  Some other variation (liking working 2 balls from each end…)

Just curious…

Oh, and Netter, the birthday banner was a hit.  I am going to cut out the 4th and have it laminated so I can use it every year!  It is truly awesome.  Hopefully I will upload some pictures this weekend.

Birthday Post

Today was my birthday.   It was better then last year. A friend of mine (non-yarn friend) gave me a basket full of yarn, knitting needles, coffee and a cheesecake. Coming from someone who is not a yarnie, it was an incredible thoughtful gift.

Tony made me a lemon cake. It was good, but not as good as my mom’s. I told him not to feel bad. Not many people can live up to my mom.

The girls gave me cards and then the girls and I went out to dinner. Sierra, of course, made sure everyone know it was my birthday. She even tried to make me wear her princess crown (she wore it the entire time in the restaurant.) I told her, “you know your mom, Sierra…she ain’t no princess.” When I was a little girl, I didn’t dream to be a princess. I wanted to be a cowgirl.

Madeleine’s birthday is Monday. I am hoping to be able to take her and a friend to Build a Bear. She is going to be 4 years old.

I knit a sock, with Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I just knit a generic sock, with a CO 64 st, size 1 needles.

The yarn had a problem though…the colors went from brown to a blazing pink! There was no gradual change and I started to question my ball of Noro yarn. I finally frogged back to the brown and cut the yarn. I then wound the yarn until I went through all of the colors to the next brown and lo and behold…it did not go right into a bright pink. So I joined the yarn there and went on with my knitting.

Here you can see the lovely blue that was cut out of the yarn in the above picture. The sock below looks much better.

I am trying to get Madeleine’s doll done. It hasn’t been easy making clothes for it. You think it would. However, I really gave the doll too much hair. She is top heavy and her head likes to flop around. It makes putting on doll sweaters difficult. Maybe she will leave it on? Or is that not much fun? I was hoping to be able to make the doll more clothes, but I think as long as she isn’t naked, it will be fine. Then I can make doll clothes at my convenience this summer, right?

Thanks all for the nice comments about her face.  This doll has been very challenging for me.  Seriously!  Please let’s hope that all the work I put into giving the doll hair isn’t for naught.  I spent hours giving that doll too much hair.  It would only take seconds for scissors to take it away.  Maybe this is too much doll for a 4 year old?

Doll Face

I finally gave the doll a face. It took me a couple of times to get the eyes right and the nose. The mouth was the hardest. I first started in red, but didn’t like it. I was trying to make them look like lips. Then, I finally gave that up and went with a pink smile. I am not good at embroidery, this is as good as it gets.

So, what do you think? Does she need eyebrows? Is the nose okay as just a poof?

Her hair is Patons Allure. It seemed to work well for hair and gave it a funky curly look without me having to curl yarn. I crocheted it on, just like you would fringe. I did the bangs and then around the scalp. Then, I worked from the back of the top of the head to the front. It got so thick that after awhile, I lost place where I was. The very back, I embroidered the the allure to make it appear there was hair on the back of her head, but hair doesn’t acutally hang from there. It is so thick, I just couldn’t add hair back there.

Plus, I don’t think Madeleine is going to care.

I attempted to make her a skirt, but goofed on the gauge and well, it looks more like a baby hat then a skirt. That is what I get for guessing if a worsted weight wool yarn doubled is equivalent to ggh davos.

Today, we went on a nice bike ride.  It is the first time I have ridden my bike (besides in my small neighborhood.)  The trail was short, but it was perfect.  It had a fun hill, a cool bridge, and then a small straight away.  Of course, going back up the “fun” hill, was not so fun and the small straight away was really, really long when riding back into the wind.

Sierra had a blast and couldn’t get off her bike.  So I rode with her around the neighborhood by the trail.  I should have gone back down the hill, but I have to admit, the thought of trying to go back up it scared me.  At one time, I was pedaling so slow, I thought a person could walk faster then me.  Sierra pedaled up and down the hill like it was nothing…KIDS!!

It was really nice that we all got to do that.  I am bummed I forgot my camera.  It won’t happen again, though riding a bike with a camera doesn’t seem too fun.  Maybe I need a way to attach my camera to my bike.

New Socks

I finally finished these! They took forever. I had single sock syndrome for awhile, but finally decided I need to be able to wear these.

I love them!

Patten: Rockin’ Socks! by Gail Marracci. - Cast on 72.  This is a generic sock pattern, which consists of a 2×2 rib cuff and a short row heel.  I have memorized the pattern.

Yarn: Trekking XXL 110

Needles: Size 1

Missed me?

I knit another clapotis. I used 4 different colorways of Cherry Tree Hill’s Silk & Merino Worsted. This was yarn I picked up at 50% off when my local yarn store went out of business.

I just rotated the balls and carried them up the side of the shawl. It worked out really well. I am amazed on how well the colors blended together. No one would know this was 4 different colorways. I can’t remember which ones they were. I thought I saved the ball bands, but can only find two, Spanish Moss and Country Garden. I think the other ones are Gypsy Rose and possibly Blueberry HIll.

I also knit a doll. It is from the Rebecca Magazine. You can purchase the pattern seperately, which I did. I couldn’t find the yarn in the pattern at any lys and didn’t want to buy online. So I bought Patons Grace, which is as close as I could get to the gauge that I needed. I was able to get it at a discounted rate at Michaels (when I still worked there.)

I knit this on size 0 needles. Yes, it was slow going and hard on my hands, but I did it. The hardest part though was grafting on the head, arms, and legs. In the instructions, there is not a suggested way on doing this, so I just winged it.

For the head, my main concern was making sure her head would be straight. I think I did okay. There is still a small angle, but it is hard to line up those small stitches.

For the arms, I grafted the top part of the arm and then also grafted the bottom part of the arm…so, it looks like the stitching is pretty continuous on the top of the shoulder and in the armpit. I did the same style of attaching the legs. Also, by sewing the arms and legs together first at the top, I think it gave them more of a bendable quality at those joints.

My grafting isn’t perfect, but I think I might take a close up picture of what I did later, so that if there is someone out there who is knitting this it will give them an idea on how to do it. I also think grafting them joints on using the same yarn as the doll makes a stronger join at the joints then any other type of joining.

Now I need to figure out how to embroider on a nice face (maybe it would have been easier to do this before sewing everything together?

I also have to figure out how to attach the hair.  I wish I could do curly hair to match Madeleine.  While I figured out how to get a nice curl, I don’t know how to keep it curled.   Oh, and I need to knit some clothes.

I am hoping to finish this doll by Madeleine’s birthday, May 5.

Speaking of Birthdays (mine is coming up on May 2nd…the big 34…,) I won a contest a few months back. Netter made my daughter’s the COOLEST BIRTHDAY BANNERS EVER!!! She also sent them little birthday goodies, lollipops (these cool long stemmed ones) and even birthday ribbon/buttons.  Birthday months is coming up and I can’t wait to hang up their banners.  They are going to be so surprised!!  Tony was really impressed by how creative and perfect the banners were.  Thanks Netter!!  Sorry I took so long to blog about it.

Now I need to start planning some parties that are inexpensive, yet fun.  Last year we didn’t do parties.  We just took the girls to Discovery Kingdom.

This year, Sierra has lots of school friends and she is really wanting a party.  Madeleine would be jealous if she didn’t get one, too.  She doesn’t have many friends, since she isn’t in school.

Finally, I am sorry that I have been missing. I won’t bore you with some of my personal issues, but I am dealing with them. I had to make some changes recently (I quit caffeine.) That was a biggie, but I needed to for my own health.

I had to drop the class I was taking. I hate posting that here because I am embarrassed, mad, sad, etc. about having to quit again. I was doing good in the class (88%), but I missed some days when I had the flu and then I had some rough spots a few weeks ago.  After some thought I decided I needed to simplify my life for the next few months.  I am in a much better place now.  I am considering summer school (I registered,) but I may just take the summer off too.  I don’t know.

Tony and I are doing good.  The girls are healthy and happy.

Random

• We are all feeling better.
• After sleeping for days straight with the flu, then not sleeping two nights ago.  I went to bed last night at 9pm and  woke up at 5am.  So now I am a morning person?
• I bombed my test.  I don’t know the grade, just know it is bad.
• We did blood sugar lab in my school.  Everyone’s was in low or normal range.  Mine was high.  I ate 2 hours before taking the test.  Now I am embarrassed, scared, and worried about it.  I think I am fine.
• My job at Michael’s as a knitting teacher has been terminated.  It wasn’t a personal thing.  All teaching positions (except Wilton’s) is being term’d.  I am going to tell my ladies this Friday.  This makes me sad.  I have grown to love them as my “grandma’s.”  (I was getting use to the money, too.)
• I feel like cleaning the house.
• I had a dream I was on survivor. However, we slept in cabins, with bedding, ate normal food (even with desserts) and I think we even had tv.  We had winter boots and jackets.  It was the “winter version” of survivor, so it seemed prudent we had the amenities we did.  I found the immunity idol, actually…I found four of them.  I didn’t know where to hide them.  I played hackey sack.  I had an ally.  Then, when I was caught moving the immunity idol, I tried to make another ally.  One girl tried to talk about plus-sized people and they all looked at me.  I told them my life story, and they all cried.  I just looked tough.  Then, I had this realization I was being filmed and tried to remember if I picked my nose or if I pulled the underwear out of my butt.  I became self conscious of standing in on place and decided I would look better outside the cabin.  I found it weird that people would drive up to our wooded area in cars, but I just needed to ignore them.  Family members would show up, too.
• Thankfully, I woke up and am not on any type of reality tv show.
• I can’t believe it is 6:30am and I have been enjoying the house while everyone sleeps and am well rested.
• I need coffee.  (I should give it up, but don’t want to.)
• This is just twilight zone like…normal just isn’t my, well…normal.

A little flu in your eye?

Sorry to have left you hanging with the last post.  I was going to come back and post about my wonderful valentine weekend at the beach.  Tony took Thursday, Friday and Monday off work, so we thought we would have a nice time looking for shells, riding our bikes (I got a new one)(thanks to the recommendation of Claudia)(and…yes, I will blog with a picture of it when I am feeling better)  and all of those fun things we love to do when we ge free babysitting.  We were even planning on having a date night at a fancy schmancy restaurant.

Except for one little thing.

Madeleine got the flu.  Then Sierra.  Then me.  Fever, chills, aches pains, cough.

We are all recovering, but we didn’t go anywhere over the weekend and Tony spent his vacation taking care of the family.  The next time he gets sick (the weekend before,) I am sleeping on the couch as I swear he must have coughed in his sleep and I got it.

Also, next year I am getting a flu shot.  I would much rather deal with being slightly sick from the flu vaccine then getting the flu again.   I have read online a lot of people are out with the flu now.  It is a bad year for ye ole influenza bug.

Tony’s boss said to him last week, “Tony, when I look in your eyes, I see the flu bug.”

It is our big joke, since it happened around valentine’s day.  “When I look into your eyes hunny…”  Said all lovingly.  “I see the flu virus.”

Sadly, that has left zero time to study for big, looming test on Wednesday.  Can someone please prepare me for Membrane Potentials, how vision works, and other sensory physiology information.   Sorry again, my knit and fiber blog has nothing related to that…  I am hoping to feel better by this weekend so I can get to Stitches West. 

Pee’d off

I have been meaning to share this gem of a story.  The other day  I heard the neighbor’s dog barking very loudly and some voices near the front door.  I live in a townhouse and my front door is pretty close to the neighbor’s front door.

I innocently opened my door to see what was going on, only to see this man dressed in black, pee’ing behind the neighbor’s garbage can but on their house.  Yes, he was about 6 feet away from me pee’ing on the neighbor’s house (or maybe towards the ground there…I didn’t go and examine.)

Even worse, he saw me see him.

Those who know me personally would think that I would have said something.  I am a pretty direct person.  However, I have to tell you that I was so shocked that I just said “GROSS!” and came back in the house.

Thank goodness the girls weren’t with me when I walked outside.

The next day, I saw the neighbor-lady of the house and I told her what I witnessed and described the man and his car, time of day, etc.  She also said “Gross!”

That whole day I had that image in my head.  I kept wondering why he just didn’t take two steps into their backyard where it is fenced to go.  Or, better yet, why didn’t he just go in there house to use the restroom.

Sadly, this is the second time in about a year that I have witnessed someone pee’ing outside our house.

I told my husband that maybe we should get a little sign.  You know, some people have “Beware of Dog” or “No solicitations.”  Our will say, “No Pee Zone.”

Okay, enough about that.  I have no knitting stuff to share.  I can tell you I finally re-organized my yarn desk.  There was some major yarn creap all over my house as well as my desk threw up yarn onto itself and it became one tangled mess.  It is all fixed now, thanks to Target’s canvas cubes.

In school news, I got a C on my first test.  The class average was a D.  I got an A on my second test.  I am divorcing my lab partners and will get new ones at the next lab.  Basically, they want to speed through the lab and get it done quickly.  I want to take my time and learn.  It is hard for me to compromise this.  One of my lab partners told me “that is how life is, some people are just faster at learning than others.”  So…that is how life is, huh?  I am thankful she tried to teach me that lesson.  I let her know that while she might believe that, I will still be asking for new lab partners.

Don’t you worry about the C grade.  I am not.  I still have the option to drop one test score.

Finally, I wasn’t feeling good a week or so ago with bad back pain, headaches, sore throat, chills…type stuff.  After a few days of sleeping and not knowing what was wrong with me.  I even at one time thought the screws in my back were unscrewing.

It ends up I had the flu, probably a mild version of it.  Tony got it over the weekend and was bad.  He rarely gets sick, but when he does it is absolutely terrible.  He even missed 2 days of work…GASP!!  (He is a workaholic, so that is rare.)

Hummingbird or Woodpecker?

My father took pictures of this outside his kitchen window and asked my mom to send them in an email, with the subject: Large hummingbird disguised as a woodpecker.

Sierra and I had a great laugh. So, here is a Monday laugh for all of you.