Button & Blog Template Tutorial

Since I have no new knitting to talk about, I'm going to give y'all some tips on creating a new template for your blog. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll try to answer them! It should save you some time, it you're a complete neophyte like I was when I started... DISCLAIMER: I am absolutely not an expert at any of this! These suggestions are what I came up with when blindly playing around, and I ended up getting the results I wanted. Use this as a stepping stone to get to your final destination, but use everything as a suggestion, not something written in stone!

The first thing you need to do is get Adobe Photoshop. They have a 30-day free trial that you can download from their website, http://www.adobe.com. You also need to download winzip or PKzip to unzip the demo (there are details about this on the Adobe site). The download takes about half an hour over DSL, so be prepared to start it and then go do something else for awhile.

BUTTON
The first thing I worked on was my button. I started based on this post from Geeky Knitter. This is a great tutorial on how to create a basic button. I then went nuts and added a photo, which I used for both my button and my banner.

PHOTO
This was the part that took me FOREVER to figure out. Open Photoshop. Then go to the file menu and select File --> Open. Open whichever picture you want to use. I then wanted to put a new background behind the kids. First, I had to erase the background of the original photo. To do this, go to Filter --> Extract. This will bring you into a window where you use a highlighter (the button at the top left, which is the default when you come in) to go around the area of the picture that you want to keep. You don't have to be perfect in highlighting the edges, but you want to be as close as you can. Click Ctrl-Z if you screw up and want to undo. Once you have the outline of your picture highlighted, click on the paint bucket in the toolbar on the left, and then click in the area that you want saved. You then want to hit the Preview button on the upper right to see what your picture will look like.

When you hit Preview, the background goes to grey-and-white checks, which indicates that that area is transparent and will show whatever background you pick out in the next step. You will likely have some weirdness around the edges of your photo, which you can erase using the Cleanup Tool in the left toolbar (it's the 5th button from the top). You can also use the Edge Touchup Tool (right below the Cleanup Tool) to smooth out your edges. Play around with these two tools, using Ctrl-Z to undo whenever you screw up, until you're happy with how your picture looks. Also, remember that the picture will be much smaller in your banner or button, so little imperfections won't be too noticeable.

When you're happy with your pic, hit OK and your cut-out photo will be put into your main Photoshop window. Save a copy at this point so you are free to play around with the different sizes you'll need for your button and your banner.

Now you want to resize your picture to fit your button. If you want to crop it at all, use the crop tool in the toolbar on the left (it's the third button down in the left-hand column). Select the area you want to crop, and then click on the check-mark at the top right ("Commit current crop operation") to make it permanent. To resize, go to Help --> Resize Image. You will go into the Resize Image Wizard. Select Online in the first screen. In the second screen, you want to size the height of the image to fit in your button. I used 31 pixels as per Geeky Knitter's tutorial. The width will fill in automatically based on the height you enter. When you get back into Photoshop, your image will likely look teeny tiny. You can fix this going into the bottom left corner of the window and changing the percent number you find there to 100%. This shows you the actual size. If you don't like it, go back and do it over. Just make sure you note the final height you go with, if it's not 31, so that you can make your button the same height.

Once you get your photo sized the way you want it, go to the File menu and choose New. A window pops up that allows you to enter the dimensions of your new item, which in this case is your button. So, going with Geeky Knitter's sizes, you'd enter width of 88 pixels and height of 31 pixels. Leave everything else alone. The little white rectangle in the middle of your screen is your button!

Now to get your picture into your button. Go to the Window menu and choose Resize Wizard. This will pop up your little 31-pixel high photo. Click on the selection tool in the toolbar (the upper left rectangle thingy) and select the whole photo. Copy it using either the Edit --> Copy menu or Ctrl-C. Click on your button and paste. Voila! Your photo should now be inside your button. To move it around, use the arrow on the toolbar (to right button).

You can now go back and play around with text and background (Geeky Knitter's tutorial gives complete instructions on how to do this). And you have your button!

BANNER
The instructions for the banner are basically the same, except you will work with a different size file. My banner is 760x130 pixels, which I think is relatively standard (although I can't remember how I came up with this number, so take it as the wild guess that it is...). I resized my little picture to be 130 pixels tall, then played around with text and background until I was happy.

BACKGROUND I decided that I wanted a custom background as well. So, I whipped up a little square in Photoshop that I then used as a repeat to create my background. This is what the basic image looks like:


This is then repeated in your template to create a tiled background. I'll show you how to do this in a minute...

TEMPLATE
Now we get into the fun stuff - the HTML you'll need to change for your template. The first thing that you need is a place to host the images that you just created. I have my own website that I'm going to use if my design business ever gets off the ground, which is where I hosted the images. You might be able to figure out how to use the Blogger photo hosting, but I couldn't figure out how to get the banner to be full-sized when I uploaded it to Blogger. Get your images uploaded to the web, and get the URLs.

Next, you'll want to play with your template. I recomment going in and creating a new blog to play around with so you don't mess up your regular blog. I created "knittinmomtest.blogspot.com". Also, copy and paste into and out of Notepad so that you can backtrack whenever you screw up.

I started with the simplest blogger template, which was Minima. In the comments at the top, where the template designer's blurb is, I added text that my template was based on the Minima template (hopefully this will give due credit to the original designer).

First thing was to get the banner up. This goes in the very top of the body section of your template. I'm not sure how to put HTML in a post without it converting to HTML, so I can't really give you a good step through the code. Feel free to go and look at my template code by using the View --> Source option. I've put some notes in my code prefaced by CODE NOTE where I've changed things. Basically, I commented out the code between "div id=header" and "/div" and replaced it with a link to the banner image file.

Next, you want to get your background up. This is done in the head section, where the style sheet is (this is the loooong part of the code that sets all the fonts, backgrounds, etc.). At the very top of the style sheet, in the section titled "body", I put this as my first line: "background:#fff url("http://gardineryarnworks.com/images/bkgrnd2.gif") 50% 0;" The url is the link to my little background file.

A couple other changes I made to the style sheet - in the Header section, I changed the header width to 760. I may have changed the padding as well - I can't remember! In the Content section, I changed the content width to 760 and increased the main width to 510. This will make all of these sections as wide as your new banner.

You can also play around with your font colors on the style sheet. For example, under the body style, there is a section for link, visited, and hover. These will give you the color of your links. A good way to get the bizarre numbers that identify the different web colors is to go back into Photoshop. Click on the color picker and check the little box at the bottom that says "Web Colors Only". You then use the rainbow-looking column in the middle to choose which color you want (i.e. to get green shades, click on the green bars down towards the bottom of the column - to get red shades, click on the red bars at the very top). You can then click on the big square to the left to get the exact shade that you want. When you click, the top of the rectangular box to the right of the rainbow column will turn to the color that you've selected. Once you get the one you like, go to the box at the very bottom that's to the right of the # sign. That is your color number, and is what you want to put into the style sheet after "color:#". You'll also want to select the color of your headings which is in the h2 section. Basically, you want to scroll through the entire style sheet and look for anyplace that says "color:#..." and see if it looks like it's a text thing.

Play around, using the Preview option often to see what happens when you change different things. One thing I learned in my years as a computer programmer is change only one thing and see what happens. It's harder to figure out what you've done right or wrong when you change a bunch of stuff at once and then look at the results. So change one little thing, preview, and see if it did what you want. If it didn't, change it back (this is where your copy/paste into Notepad comes in handy).

Some other resources I found handy while playing around were Blogger's help on Template Tags and this page on style sheets which also has links to a couple HTML tutorials listed at the top.

I hope this is all useful! If it is, please feel free to link back to share this with others (please don't copy the text, though). If you find better ways of doing things, please add a comment! And most of all - have fun! I had a blast making my template, and I'll be very sad when my Photoshop trial ends and I can't play anymore. I'd be tempted to buy it if it wasn't $600 (!).

Enjoy!

Two things

First, happy birthday to my dear father-in-law. This is a little late, since his birthday was last Saturday, but sometimes it takes me that long to remember to blog about something!

Second, Owen's first tooth has finally popped through! His aunt Katie was the first one to feel it when he was gnawing on her knuckle the other day. You still can't see it very well (especially since he bites anything that gets near his mouth so it's impossible to get a good look in there), but you can sure feel it! It's very exciting, but I'm going to miss those cute little gummy grins... They grow up so fast, don't they?

That's all for today...I'm still taxed from coming up with the 100 things list.

100 Things...

Since the boy is asleep and the girl is at school, and I have nothing better to do, here goes...

1. My birthday is two days before my mom's, and six days after my grandmother's.
2. I was an expert downhill skier in high school.
3. I haven't skied much since I graduated from high school, sadly.
4. My parents both played in an orchestra when I was little, and I was let loose to run around backstage during rehearsals.
5. I was raised (mostly) vegetarian.
6. I'm now an avid meat eater.
7. My parents both eat meat now, too.
8. My parents divorced my sophomore year of college.
9. They are both remarried.
10. My husband and I got engaged three months after we met.
11. I spent half of that pre-engagement time overseas (without him).
12. I knew he was the guy for me when he flew to Portugal for the weekend to be with me, even though we'd only gone out on a couple dates.
13. We met on a blind date set up by our mothers.
14. I worked for a software company for six and a half years right out of college.
15. That software company went public in '99, and I had enough stock options to make me a paper millionaire.
16. The options weren't vested, so I couldn't cash them in.
17. By the time they started to vest, they weren't worth very much.
18. Bill and I honeymooned in Africa on a safari.
19. I was an avid world traveler in my 20s.
20. I have visited 17 countries on five continents.
21. I have NOT been to all 50 states.
22. My goal was to visit all seven continents by the age of 30.
23. I had kids instead.
24. I studied in Queensland, Australia for a semester in college.
25. Much of it was spent in a booze-induced haze.
26. I was a geology major in college.
27. I was a National Merit Scholar.
28. Bill and I are both members of MENSA.
29. We insult each other by saying "somebody has to be the stupidest person in MENSA..."
30. I can play piano quite well.
31. I played the trombone in high school.
32. I also sang in the choir - I was alto section leader.
33. I was one of the lead characters in our school musical my senior year.
34. I had an on-stage kiss - yikes!
35. We managed to get through it for several rehearsals and performances.
36. I learned to knit when I was about 10.
37. I did my first knitting on an old red pair of plastic knitting needles, one of which was broken in half and had a Battleship peg taped to the end to keep the stitches from sliding off
38. For the longest time, I though casting on WAS knitting
39. Despite my apparently high IQ, I couldn't figure out how the heck to make a piece of fabric by casting on
40. Crocheting made more sense to me, and I did that exclusively for years
41. I was a Tastefully Simple consultant for a short time
42. I discovered I hate selling things
43. I also discovered that I hate home parties
44. Actually, I like going to them, just not DOING them
45. I'm only halfway through this? Not even?
46. I'm bad at math
47. Despite that, I took two years of Calculus in college
48. I don't consider Calculus to be real math
49. Or maybe I should say, I don't consider arithmetic to be real math (because that's what I'm bad at)
50. I don't consider myself to be athletic even though I like being active
51. I hate football
52. My husband loves sports (except for baseball)
53. I don't let him watch football when I'm in the room. Or golf.
54. I will watch basketball with him, every once in awhile
55. We both love watching tennis
56. We are fanatics about watching the Olympics
57. We are also reality tv junkies
58. And bad movie junkies
59. I love anything directed by the Farrely Brothers
60. I am also a big fan of the Coen Brothers
61. And Christopher Guest
62. We like to watch the same movies over and over again until we're sick of them
63. My favorite is "Dumb & Dumber"
64. Bill's is "Blue Crush"
65. We are obsessed with American Idol whenever it's on
66. And The Apprentice
67. I can quote extensively from The Simpsons
68. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, is from Oregon.
69. Okay, #68 isn't about me, is it?
70. My point was that there are many characters in The Simpsons named after things in Portland - Skinner, Terwilliger, Flanders - and I get a little buzz every time I spot a new reference
71. We actually drove by Evergreen Terrace (the name of the street where the Simpsons live) a few weeks ago - buzz, buzz, buzz!
72. I'm skeptical that I can actually come up with 28 more things...
73. I've been to Paris five times
74. I bicycled across southern China in 1999
75. My grandparents owned a farm, which I practically grew up on
76. I had a quarter horse named Sally
77. We had to sell her after she started rolling over whenever anyone tried to ride her
78. I've baled hay, made maple syrup, fed chickens, gathered eggs, raised tadpoles into frogs, and given bottles to baby calves on the farm
79. I worked at the Dairy Queen in high school
80. I have my PADI Advanced Open Water SCUBA diving certification
81. I have been unofficially diagnosed with Menier's disease (an inner ear condition), which means I can't dive
82. I got my son's name from one of Elaine's boyfriends on Seinfeld
83. I can roll my tongue
84. My kids sleep with me
85. I don't like vegetables
86. I am a milk chocolate fanatic
87. I drink about six cans of diet soda a day
88. We bought Starbucks stock to make ourselves feel better about spending so much money there
89. I've moved an average of once a year since I graduated from high school
90. Bill and I have bought four houses and sold three
91. After this last move, we swear we're never moving again
92. I was a cheerleader for one year in high school
93. It was fun, but I didn't try out again the following year
94. In college I liked to make homemade salsa and pickles
95. My husband does all the cooking because I hate to cook
96. I do like to bake, preferably out of a box
97. I hardly ever wear makeup
98. I have never voted Republican, and can't imagine that I ever will
99. I've never dated a Republican, either
100. I am really glad this is over, because I don't think I can dredge anything else up!

Spork!

I managed to get a few more inches done on Spork last night at knit night and I'm well into the third color. Just a couple more inches, and I'm ready to start the decreases. Then I knit up a few rectangles, sew them all together, and make a trip to Fabric Depot for the nylon straps and clips. Then it's felt-o-rama, baby! Larissa mentioned that the mouth of the bag was still a little too wide in the original pattern, so I'm going to throw in a few decreases on the side rectangles to tighten it up a bit. I'm also going to knit up a little shoulder pad to ride at the top of the strap (like laptop bags have). I haven't yet decided which color. Do I make it brown so it's somewhat invisible? Do I make it periwinkle to match the middle stripe of the bag? Or do I get jiggy and make it striped like a miniature version of the bag? If I have enough yarn left, I might try all three and see which one I like best.

Here is my gratuitous Spork progress picture:


It would be really fun to knit this up in a few different colors. I think that playing with stripe funkiness is much of the fun of this pattern. I'm not entirely convinced that my colors are the very best choices, but I'm hoping that they'll look better when they're felted.

I also made a little progress on my mother-in-law gift.

Thanks for all your nice comments about my new template! It's like you're complimenting my child - sad what I get enjoyment out of these days, isn't it?

Check it out!

I spent WAY too much time this past weekend making up a new template for my blog. Now, I don't know how to use Photoshop, and I don't know how to code HTML, so this was a huge challenge for me. One advantage - eight years of computer programming experience. And my obsessive nature doesn't hurt, either. I managed to get it figured out. I didn't get much knitting done, and my hubby had to pull me aside for a "why are you spending so much time in front of that stupid computer" talk, but I'm really happy with the results. And, I have a new button! I feel so bloggy. Let me know what you think of the new Knittin' Mom look! My geek itch has been scratched for a good long time, now (or else this will be like when you scratch a mosquito bite and it just makes it itch worse...).

So, no new knitting to report. I'm off to figure out how to add some progress bars to my sidebar...

I got your yarn p*rn here!

We had a delightful afternoon at the Flock & Fiber Fest yesterday. I got some wonderful yarn and a couple new toys. First up, Opal sock yarn and some Addis to knit it up with:


They had a sample sock cuff knitted from this Opal, and it knits up in such a neat pattern - I can't wait to try it!

I also found some gorgeous hand-spun and hand-painted yarn from a farm in The Dalles. She had a whole rack of yummy yarns - it was hard to stop at just four hanks, but I somehow managed to have a little self control! Here they are:


The green and brown is a lace-weight baby alpaca that I'm going to use for Fiber Trends' Pacific Northwest Shawl. I'm not really a shawl type, so I'm going to knit it up for my piano to wear. The pink is a merino/angora/kid mohair blend that is incredibly decadent. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, but I just couldn't leave it behind! It better be good - that one hank was $27 - yipe!

We also saw some very nice yarn producers. If only I could keep these in my backyard:






Owen really liked looking at the fuzzy bunnies:


And one woman displayed her knitted family. They were indeed life-sized! And yes, the baby is breastfeeding.




Sydney spent the afternoon with her Daddy. They watched some tv (talk about a chip off the old block):


Today we all took a walk. When Sydney wanted to be carried, Bill for some reason put her in the Baby Bjorn. Does this look bizarro or what?


I've also got some knitting progress to show you. First the gifts - here's Sue's, and here's Bill/Chris's. I also figured out what has been bugging me about Hopeful - I've just been doing too much darn knitting in the round. I picked up Spork and got most of the way through the second stripe:


It was kind of funny, because when I first started Spork, all that plain stockinette was really bugging me. But yesterday, it was just what I needed! That's why it's a good idea to always have multiple WIPs - you can switch back and forth depending on your mood!

I am feeling un-Hopeful today.

Owen woke up at 6:30, bright-eyed and ready to go. I tried unsuccessfully to get him back to sleep, then bagged it and brought him downstairs. He was perfectly happy trying to eat the animals dangling from his baby gym, so I tried to cast on for Hopeful so I could knit along with Miss McSpazzitron. But I couldn't do it!

I got out my ball of yarn, my size 6 circular, and sat down with the pattern printout. I cast on about 100 stitches and then realized that my yarn tail was long enough for about 20 more stitches (I needed another 116). I un-cast, at which point Owen started to yell that he wanted to be rocked back to sleep. After Sydney got up, I decided to try again. I picked up the yarn and needle, but I just couldn't do it for some reason. I decided that I'd just load the dishwasher quick, and make some coffee. Then I felt the need to fold the laundry that has been sitting in the dining room for five days. What? Me fold laundry instead of knitting? Then I decided that I needed to frog back a few inches on Sue's Xmas present since there was a spot on it that I didn't like and I knew it was going to bug me.

I don't know what's wrong with me! I never have trouble starting new projects. I think it's just the prospect of casting on over 200 stitches and knitting all those stitches enough times around to make an actual sweater out of them. Another reason to lose that baby weight - I could knit smaller sweaters faster and with less yarn! I think that it's also the idea of knitting a sweater with short sleeves when it has quickly become fall here. I'm less than excited about knitting something I won't wear until next spring...

We are heading to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival this afternoon (we being one of my knitting buddies and my mother-in-law). Maybe that will pull me out of my funk. In the meantime, I'm going to be a slacker on the Hopeful knit-along (sorry, Ms. Spazz)...

And now for some gratuitous cute kid pics... Here is what happens when you have an older sister and your mom is too lazy to put away all her stuff before you arrive:


Of course, there always is the chance that he will grow up to be our little princess...

And here is Sydney after her second day of preschool:


This is the girl who gave up regular naps shortly after her second birthday, and now we've had naps two days in a row! I like this!

I hope to have some good yarn p*rn for y'all tomorrow, or at least some goat and sheep pictures...

She survived!

She didn't want to leave, actually. I guess that's not too much of a surprise. After all, she got to paint, drink water from a blue cup and got pushed on the blue swing. These are the things she told me about in the car on the way home. She was in a great mood all afternoon and fell asleep on Grammy's sofa at 6:30. So, all in all, I think it was a success. When asked if she wanted to go back tomorrow, she said yes.

After spending a tense morning, waiting to go pick her up, I felt better when I got there and the receptionist told me "Oh, yeah, I heard there was a new little girl in Ms. P's class. Everyone says that she's just so cute, and fitting in so well..." That gave me the warm fuzzies!

Here is the post-first-day picture of her recovering with some Annie's spiral pasta:


And here is her brother, all smiley from having mommy to himself all morning!



That said, this morning was a repeat of yesterday's scene (except it didn't freak me out so much). This time she broke down in the hallway and did that toddler thing where they go completely limp and are impossible to pick up... I handed her over to the classroom assistant, who managed to sling her like a sack of potatoes (okay, that sounds worse than it really was - she slung her in a good way) and took her into the classroom. I high-tailed it down the hall and comforted myself with the fact that she's in good hands.

Bill and I went to a parent night last night that was run by the guide and her assistant. It was perfect timing, since they talked again about how to handle separation anxiety and the fact that it often rears its ugly head even when the child is doing perfectly fine once the parent is gone. I got there a little early and talked to Ms. P about Sydney's day, and how great she was when I picked her up, and Ms. P warned me that despite that, she'd probably be upset again the next few times that I dropped her off. I really like both Ms. P and Ms. G (the assistant), which makes this so much easier. I think I'm going to knit them some socks for Christmas, just to show my appreciation! Hmm - is that the excuse I need to buy myself Knitting On The Road? I think it might be... I can't wait until a few months have passed and Sydney is settled into the new routine. As much as I talk about being okay with it, I'm really trying to talk myself into it! I know it's good for her, but there's that feral mommy instinct that makes it really hard to do anything that seems harmful or upsetting to my child.

I am making some good progress on Sue's Xmas present - I will post some pictures when I get a little further and they're more exciting. I also FINALLY got my yarn from Knit Picks. So now I can knit Hopeful, in all my free time. I also got some Ambrosia, which is an alpaca-cashmere blend, which I hope to use for Branching Out. This will be the third yarn I've tried to use for BO, so hopefully the third time's the charm!

Well, I did it...

I abandoned my daughter at preschool this morning. It was NOT an auspicious beginning. She didn't want to wake up at 7:15 to get ready to go (seeing as how she's used to sleeping in until 9). She didn't want to eat breakfast. We managed to get a half cup of applesauce in her and nothing else. She didn't want to get in the car. It was too cold. While driving in the car, the sun was shining right in her eyes, which always makes her cranky.

I knew that things might get iffy when she wanted me to pick her up right as we reached the doors to the school. I carried her down the hall to her classroom, and luckily we were the first ones there. The classroom assistant was already there, and the guide arrived right after we did. I put Sydney down, and she immediately started trying to climb back up my leg. When we went to new parent orientation, they warned us all about this kind of thing, but it's still SO hard when it's your baby doing it... The guide was trying to distract her with promises of painting and playing with the shapes she'd used during our visit on Tuesday. No dice. She started screaming "Want to take Mommy! Want to take Mommy!" The assistant gave me what I took to be a reassuring smile and sort of maneuvered me out the door, which she then shut. I could hear Sydney screaming as I stumbled down the hall, assuring myself that they're experts and she'll be fine. She won't have abandonment issues that will require years of therapy as an adult...

There are so many things I worry about. What if she doesn't get along with the guide, or the other kids? Will they expect too much from her on the potty front? What if she can't get her pants back up? I took a look at the toilets this morning, and they're pretty big - what if she can't manage them on her own? She still uses her little potty seat at home... What if she gets hungry, since she didn't eat any breakfast? What if she just won't settle down and stop crying? I know that she'll be fine, and she's not the first two-year-old to ever attend that school, but it's such a big step and she's still sooooo little.

I was going to take a pre-first-day picture this morning, but forgot in our rush to get out the door on time. I'll be sure to take a post-first-day pic this afternoon and post it, along with a full report.

The only other thought on my mind this morning is - Knit Picks, where the heck is my yarn???

Before I forget...

I heard from my Secret Pal a few days ago! I've been meaning to write about it, but I can never remember to write about all of the things I want to write about when I'm actually writing. So, hi, SP, if you're reading this! It's too fun to have a SP. I'm also really enjoying being a SP, but I can't talk too much about that, just in case the person I'm pal to stumbles across this site!

I was accessory to a felony yesterday (or maybe it was only a misdemeanor), but first some knitting. To see progress on Sue's Christmas present, click here. I also cast on for Spork:


As you can see, it's almost as long as my two needles combined, which makes it quite a squish to get it onto a single needle. So, it would've been much better on a circular, but I didn't have one handy when I got this started and I was (of course) too impatient and lazy to go upstairs and dig it out. It's on 10-1/2's, and I love how fast things knit up on the big needles!

So, on to the crime story. The crime was breaking and entering, and the perpetrator was my brother-in-law, aided and abetted by my father-in-law and myself. Okay, that sounds more exciting than it really was, since the house we broke into was mine... We have a really old door handle that has buttons on the side of the door that you can push to make it so the door is always locked from the outside (kinda like a hotel room door). Unbeknownst to me, Sydney pushed the lock button in before we left the house (since she can't resist getting her little poking fingers into anything and everything button-like). When we came back, the door handle was stuck tight. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was suspicious of the little lock button.

I packed the kids back in the van and headed over to my parents-in-law's. Fortunately, they were home and my father-in-law was willing to help with his big, tall ladder. We retrieved my brother-in-law (who was home from work sick) and headed back to the locked Chez Knittin' Mom. Fortunately, I had left one of the upstairs bedroom windows unlocked, so Chris climbed up the ladder, took the screen off, accidentally dropped a crowbar off the side of the roof (narrowly missing my father-in-law), and climbed through the window. I was very happy that nobody fell off the roof, and that I was able to get into the house without having to call a locksmith. And, I was so happy to get to my knitting! We'd gone to a movie matinee (which Sydney tolerated for about 20 minutes), and I hadn't brought my knitting. I was so happy to see my stash, I promptly got out my Lamb's Pride and cast on for Spork. After all, a girl could always use one more WIP, right?

Little Miss Bossy

We went to Sydney's school yesterday for her mini-orientation. Basically, we went to the classroom after everyone left and met her teacher (called a guide in Montessori-speak), who then tried to give Sydney a mini-lesson. The idea is that she will be familiar with one of the activities when she starts on Thursday and will hopefully be more comfortable in the new environment as a result. Bill and I were sitting in little tiny chairs at the side of the room, observing (and trying hard not to laugh out loud).

Sydney's guide was very patiently trying to show her one of the activity trays. First she led her to a little box of different sized cylinders, asked her if she'd like to work with it, and started to take it off the shelf. Sydney responds with "No, I want to see circles" and pulls out a different tray. They take it over to a little table and sit down to work with it. I can't remember the whole conversation that they had word for word, but I do remember hearing "No!" and "Don't do that!" more often than anything else. I was caught between thinking it was hysterical and being totally mortified that my daughter was bossing her teacher around. It was also a little bit too much like hearing my own voice coming out of her mouth...

After Sydney had worked her way through a couple different trays, peppering her conversation with various negatives along the way, the guide came over to talk to us and reassure us that she was going to be fine. There is a clause in the student handbook that says all new children are on a 3-month probationary period to make sure that they fit in with the "community". I have nightmares that I'm going to get a call from the guide in a couple months telling me that Sydney just isn't fitting in with all the calm, orderly little Montessori kids. When I'm thinking positively, I'm hoping that she will become one of the calm, orderly little Montessori kids.

Last night the Knitting Mommies met at Mabel's. There were eight of us there, knitting on various lovely projects and horrifying the tables next to us with our talk of potty training and diapering. One of the moms had just attended a cloth diapering get-together where a woman was selling patterns for wool diaper covers. Some were knitted, and others were made out of old wool sweaters. It sounded like a neat concept, and I think it could be even better if they were felted. Hmm...new design project?

We discussed cloth vs. disposables for awhile (most of the moms there use cloth, since Eastside moms are pretty crunchy for the most part). I used disposables for Sydney and never had a problem with them, but the idea of cloth has always been in the back of my head since I try to be a (somewhat half-a**ed) environmentalist. When Owen was born and both kids were in disposables, the sheer volume of diapers that we were throwing away was what pushed me over the edge. Sydney potty trained shortly thereafter, and I switched Owen to cloth. We used to have a trash can that was overflowing and would just barely make it from trash day to trash day. Now we can put it out once every few weeks. It made such an unbelievable difference! I will say that I use a diaper service - I could never keep up with the extra laundry (or the grossness factor) of washing them myself. And I may change my mind when Owen is older and his diapers are nastier, but for now, I love the cloth!

Okay, that is probably TMI (too much information). I will get back to knitting tomorrow!

More mini poncho pics

You asked for them, Karen, so here they are! More mini poncho pics than you can shake a stick at. What a bizarre expression that is...

Here is a close-up of the flower:


Here is a close-up of the neckline:


And here is the whole thing as it looks when it's on my stairs and not my somewhat well-padded self (gimme a break - it's baby weight! Now, how long can I use that excuse? Until the next one's in kindergarten, right?):


I'm still not convinced I'm a poncho person, and I feel ever so slightly like a tool when I'm wearing it in public, but I like it despite all that. One problem I discovered yesterday - the purse stitch is gorgeous but it catches on anything and everything (zippers, my son's toes, tree branches...).

For those of you who are wondering (and to further irritate my hubby), here is a picture of the scrape on the van. See, it's really not too bad. Just a scratch, really. And I'll say it again - he hit us! Does that make you feel better, my dear?


I've made some good progress on my Christmas gifts as well. Click here to read about what I'm knitting for the brother-in-law and father-in-law, and click here to read about what I'm making for my mother-in-law. Unless, of course, you are one of those people and don't want a spoiler!

Aren't you impressed with all my knitting? I'm impressed that my kids are letting me do all this blogging, quite honestly. Thank you, Noggin!

Mini Poncho Madness

I did it! The mini poncho is complete. Here it is, in all its glory:


It really didn't turn out to be as "mini" as I thought it was going to be. It's down past my waist in front and hits right above my elbow on the sides. I could've left it alone instead of pulling like crazy to get it to 13" wide when blocking it! All of the pink finishing was done w/ crochet, which was kind of fun. I'll always love crochet, even though knitting is my big thing right now!

I posted this awhile ago, but if you want the pattern it is free on the Interweave Knits website - click here to get it (in pdf format). The mini poncho instructions are on the second page.

We went down to the river this afternoon (the river being the Columbia) to do a little photo shoot for my Knitty submission. We got some great pictures - hopefully Amy and the gang will like them enough to accept my pattern! Sydney has a cold, so she was EXTREMELY cranky the whole time. Owen has the same cold but it's bothering him a lot less. Here is a cute-kid-and-husband pic:


And Mom, this one's for you - isn't he cute?


Before I forget, I want to thank you all for your very nice comments in response to my post the other day. You guys are too sweet! I've been meaning to thank you for days, but every time I sit down to blog, I forget. Something about that whole five hours of sleep a night for the last five months...it does bad things to the short-term memory.

Yesterday we drove to the big downtown post office to mail our Katrina victim care packages. As we were pulling out of our parking spot to leave, we got crunched! Bill was SO irritated - this was the second ding on the van in under a week. One of the first things he said after we were driving away was "Please don't blog about this." Sorry, honey, but it's all fair game! I will say that this accident was absolutely not his fault. We had backed out of our spot, and the guy in the opposite row backed right into us. Fortunately it didn't do much damage to either car. My inclination is to just leave the ding in there. Maybe people will give me a wider berth when I'm driving around in a dinged up van. I don't think it goes so well with the license plate holder I just got from Knitty, though.

How ironic is it that we got bashed right after we did our good deed for the day? Where's the karma in that? One of the packages that we sent was to a woman in Denver whose sister had been stuck in Biloxi and was coming to stay with her. She said that her sister had been forced to give her baby Gatorade for three days since there were no relief supplies and no formula. It just about killed me to read that. Fortunately he's 12 months old so he can eat other stuff besides formula. It makes me wonder about all of the younger babies that were stuck there, though. My next thought was that I am so glad I'm a nursing mama. My babies will never lack food as long as they're with me. Plus I don't have to get up in the middle of the night and go downstairs to fix a bottle... Anyway, I sent some nice bath stuff to this woman since she said that all her sister wants to do is take a nice, long, hot bubble bath. Who can blame her?

Racquetball Fever!

The family packed up and drove to Corvallis yesterday to watch Bill compete in a racquetball tournament organized by the Oregon State Racquetball Association. Here are a couple of action shots for your enjoyment (these are pre-game, since I didn't want to distract anyone with the camera flash during play):





Sydney really liked watching the play, but every time the ball made a loud noise (which was just about every hit), she'd laugh like a hyena. I had to take her downstairs so she wouldn't be a distraction to the game! Fortunately, my lovely mother-in-law was there to help watch the kids.


Bill lost his first match by a landslide, since he was playing in the A division (which is the second-highest). He ended up playing the 4th seed, who gave him a good thrashing. He won the second match in a tiebreaker - this one was 35-and-over A/B. This was an incredible match to watch - in the tiebreaker he came back from a 9-0 deficit to win. The bad news was that since he'd won this match, he had to play the next round at 8 pm. The kids were totally worn out (as was Sue), but they did great and behaved really well despite being stuck in the health club lounge all day. Next time, they will not come with! The club only had one glass court (the kind with the front wall glass so you can sit on bleachers and watch the play), and Bill never got to play in it, so it wasn't a very good setup for Sydney to watch her dad play. Bill lost the 8 pm match (which was against the top seed) in the tiebreaker. He probably could've won if he hadn't already played two matches earlier in the day. He just couldn't keep it together in that last game due to sheer exhaustion. It was so fun to watch him play - he could be really good if he practiced a little more (as in, more than never - yes, he enters tournaments even though he hasn't played regularly in 10 years).

I did manage to get a bit of knitting done in the car and when Bill took Owen in-between matches. I started on Christmas presents for either my brother-in-law or my father-in-law (I haven't yet decided who gets which color). Since the pattern isn't very clear on size, this first pair may be an experiment and end up going to me if they come out too small. To see more (and as long as your name isn't Bill or Chris), click here.

Today we are off to the post office to mail our Katrina care packages and then to the Goodwill Superstore to look for Halloween stuff. I was crazy enough to think I wanted to host a Halloween party this year, so I'm going to have to come up with decorations, treats, costumes, etc... Am I nuts or what?

Wow! Actual Knitting Content!

I had a little box waiting for me when I got home last night. Yes, another one... I got a couple things when WEBS was having their deal where they'd send 10% of each purchase to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina victims. Hey, it's a good cause and I'm getting yarn? How could I pass that up?

Here's what I got:


Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which I'm going to use for a design that's brewing in the back of my head...


This is Knit One Crochet Two Creme Brulee, which was on garage sale for $2.75 a ball! I'm going to use it for Katrina Rib, someday...


Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, which I'm going to use for Spork. The colors aren't quite as contrasty as I'd like (that's what I get for being lazy and going by the on-screen colors instead of schlepping to the store to see them in person...), but I think they'll look quite nice once they're all put together.

And if all that yarn p*rn wasn't enough, I've got the mini poncho out to block!


It ended up stretching out to a bit longer than the 44" it was supposed to be, but I think it'll be okay. The width was a little more difficult and took quite a bit of tugging. My cast-off edge was just waaaay too tight (I should've used a bigger needle there), but I think I got it to 12-1/2" or so (it was supposed to be 13"). It should look okay. Once it's dry, I get to do the hot pink crochet border, the flower, and then it's done! Hopefully it will be a FO by the end of the weekend.

I also found a cyber-lesson on doing socks on two circular needles here. I'm going to give this a whirl (and of course I'm going to do a really complicated pair that I've had sitting around instead of starting with an easy practice pair) and see how it goes. Since I seem to have no problem frogging anything and everything, I'm not too worried.

I don't know if y'all noticed the quiet little link that snuck into the Katrina Relief section of my sidebar... Been There is a great little blog where people who have things can post in the comments, and people who need things can then contact them. I posted last week, and I've already got a couple folks who lost everything in the hurricane who have contacted me for help. I'm sending a box of maternity clothes and toys to a family in Texas who have taken in a pregnant woman, her 2-year-old son and a 25-year-old man who are all refugees. I'm also sending some household goods to a woman who has been given a house, but has nothing to put in it. If any of you (like us) have given all the money you can but still feel like you want to do something more, this is a great place to go. It's going to cost an arm and a leg to send the stuff down there, but I feel like it's a better way to donate our excess household stuff than dumping it in the Goodwill bin (at least right now, when there are so many people who need so much). And since we downsized over 1000 sq. ft. when moving from California to Oregon, we have a ton of excess stuff we could get rid of (although not according to my husband, the pack rat, who wishes he'd kept every single object he ever laid hands on in his entire life)!

The Land of Blog

Since I don't have any knitting that I can show you (other than a mini poncho that is getting a little bit longer, day by day, and you've already seen what that looks like), I'm going to dedicate today's post to how cool I think blogging is. The further I venture into the Land of Blog, the more fascinated I become. It's crazy to think about all of these people, all over the world, writing their thoughts for everyone to see, often on a daily basis. I guess it's a way for all of us who secretly want to be writers but don't have the time, inclination (or talent) to actually get published. Plus, who doesn't like talking about themselves?

For me, blogging scratches that writing itch that I've never been able to really reach before. For awhile, I thought about trying to become a published writer. I even wrote a couple short stories and sent them off to magazines (where they were promptly and rightly rejected). Problem is my writing is not very good. If I weren't me, and read a story I'd written in a magazine, I would not be impressed. But I like writing. I've also never been able to keep a journal regularly, probably because nobody ever reads it, so it seems pointless. There are other things I'd rather do (like knit, or read something written by someone who can write...). But here, where I have potentially thousands (or even millions) of readers, I'm inspired to continue forming thoughts into words. My daily writings are not profound, or even particularly eloquent, but I have fun writing them (unlike when I was trying to craft short stories, which I found similar to trying to reason with my 2-year-old).

The other great thing about blogging is reading others' blogs. I have found so many great knitters and just fun people out in Blog Land. I find gazillions of great projects and ideas that I want to try. I just wish I had more time to read other blogs - I could spend all day just reading what other people are doing with their knitting needles! You can see the blogs that I try read regularly in my sidebar, and I will be adding more as I have time (and find more cool ones - like Aloha & Oreos, and bits of knits, two great blogs from Hawaii that I've just discovered). I love the small blogs where the blogger (like me) gets all excited when I leave a comment and comes to visit my blog - this has been a great way to strike up little intra-blog friendships. I also have a few of the "hit list" blogs, like The Blue Blog and Crazy Aunt Purl, which are in everyone's sidebar and are great, but I find I don't visit them as often as I do my old standbys - Musings of a (mostly) self-taught knitter, Adventures of a Knitting Spazz and Neglecting my Kids - which I try to get to (almost) every day, even if I don't always leave comments (sorry, guys!).

To make a short story long...blogging is neat.

Now that I think about it, I guess I do have a little knitting to talk about. I got my Master Knitter Level 1 packet in the mail yesterday. It requires 16 swatches and a report (with references) on blocking. I feel like I'm back in school! It sounds like the judging is pretty tough. I've been taking the TKGA correspondence course Basics, Basics, Basics to prepare for the masters, and I've gotten good reviews on the swatches I made for that class, so I'm hoping that my knitting will be up to snuff. I can't wait to get started, but I also need to get my Christmas presents made up and finish writing up the Knitty pattern. I am running on no caffeine, since Owen decided that he didn't really like it, so sacrificing sleep isn't such a great option anymore...

Doh!

Last night, as Bill was backing my beloved van out of the driveway, he had a momentary brain fart and forgot that he'd parked his car behind it. I was in the dining room and heard a crack, and then some loud cursing. Fortunately the damage was minimal - just enough to break in the van's formerly-pristine bumper. The really sad thing is that there is a rear-view camera on the van. It doesn't help if you don't look out the rear-view mirror OR at the navigation screen when you're backing up... I bet he won't do that again for awhile, and he's going to be so pleased to see that I've chronicled it here for everyone to see.

The NE Knitting Mommies met again last night, and Womb came along for a visit. Here she is, hanging out with Sydney's monkey:


Isn't she cute?

I did a few more inches on the mini poncho. I would've gotten a lot more done, but after knitting several inches I noticed a row waaaay back that just didn't look right. I don't know what happened, but I frogged back and knit it over. I had to argue with myself for several minutes before I did it, but I knew it would irritate me so much if I left it that way. I'm not going to post another picture, since it looks exactly the same as it did last time (only longer).

I luv Target

No knitting today, since I'm still working on my top-secret, soon-to-be-submitted-to-Knitty item. I will say that it's turning out great. Oh, and I swatched up my Knit Picks Shine for Hopeful, and it's lovely. I'm going to order the rest of it today.

Yesterday we took a trip to Target. When my husband and I go to Target together, it's always a dangerous thing. We can't seem to get out of there without spending at least a hundred (and usually several hundred) bucks. We don't go there too often! This time they had a gazillion fun things, including these slippers which my husband bought (and actually managed to fit his huge feet into):


Since we love all things Simpsons, these were a total find. Sydney loves to wear them, too (which is hilarious since they're almost as long as her arm). I had to laugh when I saw this picture and saw the little yarn worm on the carpet by his left foot. He asked me nicely just the other day if perhaps there was a better thing to do with my little leftover pieces of yarn than stuff them in the corners of the sofa where Sydney can dig them out and distribute them all over the house...

We also got Sydney her halloween costume. She got to try it on last night for Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Katie & Uncle Chris, who all came over for dinner. She was so delighted she could hardly stand it.


For those of you who don't have toddlers in the house, this is Blue from Blue's Clues, her second-favorite TV show. The only thing better than being Blue for Halloween would be if she could've been Maisy. She also had to show off her new boots:


We got her a couple other cute little pairs of shoes to wear to preschool, which starts next week! I can hardly believe it - my little baby, going off to school. I think it will be really good for her. She needs more stimulation than she gets around here, fighting with her brother and watching television all day. Now I need to figure out how to get Owen to sleep in until it's time to go pick her up, and I'll have quiet mornings all to myself! Somehow I don't think that's likely, but hey, a girl can dream, right?

A package of yarny goodness

Okay, I'm going to try to recreate my post from this morning. Stupid computers! I was so excited to share the little package that my mailman left yesterday afternoon. My Knit Picks order FINALLY arrived. Do they ship via horse-drawn carriage? It seems like their packages take for-ev-er to get here.

I got this:


which I'm going to use to make these for my father-in-law and brother-in-law. The grey is going to be swatched for Branching Out.

I also got a couple hanks of lace yarn:


I was going to use the brown for Branching Out, but I ended up frogging the little bit that I did because it was too fine to really show the pattern off. So, these are going in the stash for now. They are both gorgeous, though.

And, this:


The orange is going to become a pair of socks, and the pink Shine is going to be swatched for Hopeful. I'm not sure that it's stretchy enough, but I might go for it anyway since I really don't want that form-fitting of a sweater. I can't wait to get them all started.

Which brings up a point I was thinking about last night - I am an adulterous knitter! I get really intense about a project (or two), but then when a pretty new yarn comes along, I get totally distracted thinking about how to get it on my needles. I start feeling like something is missing from my life if I don't have at least three projects going... What does this say about me?

Speaking of which, the Fall Knitty is out. I allowed myself to look, which might've been a big mistake. I'm trying to control myself. But check out Josephine, and Lacey, and Falling Leaves, and Samus... I really didn't want to look, but I couldn't help myself. I can't believe all these patterns are free.

I also have a strange affinity for frogging. I managed to get Culvert totally frogged yesterday. Here it is now:


I think it's because I love the yarn, and if I'm only so-so about the finished product, I'd much rather get the yarn back out so I can make it into something as lovely as it deserves to be. The work that I put into the failed project doesn't really bother me, since I really do use knitting as therapy. However, I don't think I'd be able to relax if I had great yarn trapped in a lousy sweater. And I really love that GGH soft kid! I was worried about how it would frog, since it can be really sticky. It got de-fuzzed a bit when it was coming out, but it survived quite nicely. I got inspired while fondling it and am now knitting up a little secret something that I'm going to submit for the Winter Knitty.

Okay, here goes...I'm going to try to publish... But first, I'm going to copy this message so that I have it if Blogger tries to obliterate it again!

Aaaargh! I hate Blogger!

I had a lovely post all written, and when I went to publish it, it erased it! Gone. Poof!

I'll write later, but right now I'm too depressed!

Thank you, Miss McSpazzitron!!!

The mini-poncho gauge saga continues. After my rant yesterday, my blogging buddy Miss McSpazzitron whipped up a little purse stitch swatch to prove that, yes, you can get gauge on size 7 needles. You just have to be patient and stretch it a little! I'd knit a few inches on my 15s, and when I took a closer look, the middle part was stretching out to be quite a bit wider than it should've been. The bottom edge, however, was exactly 13", right where it was supposed to be.

So...I finally was successful when I cast on using a size 15 needle and switched to 9s for the rest of the knitting. It's working beautifully - nice even stitches, good gauge, and it knits up wicked fast. I managed to blow through a whole skein yesterday! Here it is, in all its glory:


Here is the stitch detail - gorgeous!


I am lovin' me the purse stitch. Thanks again, Miss Spaz! You are an angel (and a darn fine knitter). And thanks to my kids, who both miraculously took naps yesterday (even though Sydney doesn't do naps anymore), at the same time, so I could purse-stitch in peace. And thanks to our playgroup buddies Daniel & Annika, who wore Sydney out yesterday morning so she'd nap for two hours in the afternoon, allowing me to do some knitting...

Last night we met up again with Daniel & Annika and their parents for dinner. We tried to go to the Laurelwood Brew House, a lovely little place that has killer burgers and a nice little kid play area. We knew it was going to be an ugly wait since it was Friday night and we had a party of seven. When we signed in, we were told that it would be about 20 minutes. Over an hour later, we finally got seated. It was about 8 pm and the kids were all hungry and cranky. We sat at the table for another 20 minutes, and nobody came over to even take a drink order. The wait staff was all avoiding eye contact, for whatever reason. We must've done something to tick them off. We finally decided to just ditch the place and headed back to our house for pizza. It ended up being a great time - the kids all played nicely (this is a much bigger deal than it sounds), Sydney actually ate some pizza (this is also a much bigger deal than it sounds), and the grownups got to have a conversation without yelling to be heard. So, we managed to get our lemonade-from-lemons points for the night AND we learned never to go to Laurelwood on a Friday night with a big group.

I decided to be selfish...

Well, I mulled over my stash, and decided to knit something for myself. I started on the Mini Poncho from the fall IK. Now, I definitely don't consider myself a poncho person, but there was something about this one that caught my eye. I really love the lacy stitch. I got a little bit of a start on it last night:


I do have one question, though - the pattern calls for a size 7 needle. What the heck is up with that?!? I read the pattern, diligently got out my 7s and cast on 10 stitches. Hmm...10 stitches to 4 inches? That's going to be interesting. Maybe there's something about the stitch that I haven't figured out yet that will stretch it way out. I knit a few rows in pattern. Hmm, 2 inches. Not even close. I pulled out some 10s. 2-1/2 inches. Tired of swatching the same thing over and over with no progress, I broke out the 15s. Finally, my 10 stitches made it to 4 inches. I don't know how ANYONE could get gauge with this yarn (I am using the yarn they called for in the pattern - KnitPicks Andean Silk) and size 7 needles. I am a tight knitter, but I don't think I knit that tightly...

I finished sewing the seams on Sydney's cardigan yesterday. I wish I could show you all a picture! It turned out really great. But, I want to keep my publishing options open, so it has to be a secret for now. I will give away a couple of hints, though... I used The Knitter's Book Of Finishing Techniques to assist with sewing on patch pockets, and they really turned out great. I've only seamed using back-stitch and whip-stitch before, and weaving seams makes such a HUGE difference in how the finished garment looks. I figure that if I'm going to become a master knitter, I'd better get my act together as far as finishing goes! I would recommend that book to anyone who needs a little help with their finishing. I am going to submit the design for the Winter 2006 issue of Creative Knitting. We'll see what happens! If they don't go for it, I may reknit it in a different yarn (it's in Plymouth Encore now, chosen for its extreme washability) and submit it to IK or Knitty. It is pretty exciting to have my first sweater design turn out so well, and Sydney looks adorable in it. It will be great for preschool, if nothing else!

I got a tag all the way from Hawaii!

I got tagged for a meme by my Knittyheads webring neighbor, Keohinani (how's that for an awesome name?. As if my kids weren't already annoyed enough at me for all the time I spend on the computer, here go the answers:

-----------------------------------------------
ten years ago: I was a newly-minted 21. I was just starting my senior year of college at Macalester, majoring in Geology. I'd just returned from a semester abroad in Australia and was about to hit my senior slump big-time.

five years ago: I was 26 and newly married. We were living in our first house in south Minneapolis and I was in my 4th year working as a software designer. My company had gone public the previous winter and my stock options paid for a great big wedding and awesome honeymoon on safari in S. Africa and Botswana. However, by now the stock had hit the skids and I was no longer a paper millionaire! It was nice while it lasted (the options weren't vested yet, so I never could've actually SPENT a million dollars...).

one year ago: I was a couple months pregnant with Owen. We were desperately trying to figure out how to move from So. Cal. to Oregon to be closer to my in-laws. We were busy cleaning the house and fixing it up in order to put it on the market (we did things backwards - sold our house in CA, bought our house in OR and THEN Bill got a job up here! It could've really backfired on us, but we were lucky!).

five snacks:
-----------------------------------
-doughnuts
-Pirate's Booty
-chewy Chips Ahoy
-salted peanuts
-Cool Ranch Doritos

five songs I know all the words to:
------------------------------------------------
-Free Fallin' by Tom Petty
-We Are The Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner (kid's song)
-Mamma Mia by ABBA
-Triangle Man by They Might Be Giants
-Who Can It Be Now? by Men At Work

five things I would do with $100 million:
-------------------------------------------
-buy a big house on the ridge a few blocks from our current house
-pay for college for the kids
-have more kids (and hire a part-time nanny to watch them while I knit!)
-buy condos in Hawaii, Jackson Hole and on the Oregon Coast
-never feel guilty for buying yarn!

five places to run away to:
-----------------------------------
-Paris
-Queensland, Australia
-Hong Kong
-Italy
-Cape Town, S. Africa

five things I would never wear:
----------------------------------
-a bikini
-hip-hugger jeans
-hot pants
-fur
-anything that's impossible to wear without your bra straps showing!

five favorite tv shows:
----------------------------
-Knitty Gritty
-NUMB3RS
-House
-The Simpsons
-Curb Your Enthusiasm

five biggest joys:
----------------------------------------
-my husband
-my kids
-knitting
-gardening
-traveling someplace new

favorite toys:
-----------------------------------------
-my computer
-my ball winder & swift
-the navigation system in my new minivan
-my digital camera
-my son's toes


five people to pass this on to:
-----------------------------------------------------
Since Keohinani already tagged Karen, I can't send it to her, so...
Miss McSpazzitron (quick, before Karen gets her)
Mamma (because she neglects her kids to blog, too)
Jillian (because she's another knitting Geologist)
Rainberryblue (founder of the cool Momma To A Boy webring)
Ideaphoria (because she's next in my Pacific Northwest Fiber Bloogers webring)

Culvert was a flop...

I know y'all are going to be disgusted with me, but I'm thinking of frogging Culvert. I stayed up late to bind off the neckline last night (how could I have gone to bed with just a decrease row and the bind-off left?), and it wasn't the success I was hoping for. It is pretty darn cute (please ignore the desperate need for blocking and finishing):


However, there are a few problems. The main one being, I ran out of yarn for the top part before I was able to get it to the measurements in the pattern. I don't know if knitting another couple inches would've made a huge difference, since it wouldn't have changed the general shape or size of the neckline, but it might've given the shoulders a little more oomph. As it is, I can't keep the shoulders on my shoulders, and the days when I can wear an off-the-shoulder top are gone (at least until Owen's weaned, if not forever).

So, I'm left with the decision to finish up a cute-but-impractical sweater, which I will rarely if ever feel gutsy enough to wear in public, or salvage the beautiful, expensive yarn and use it for something else. I think I am going to salvage it. I already have a couple things in mind - a pair of Cargo pants from Knitty for Owen out of the All-Seasons Cotton, and some sort of striped shell for me out of the mohair. I can go pick up a couple balls of a contrasting color (I'm thinking red or orange) and design something up myself. It seems I'm having better luck with the things I design these days! I might try to modify Grumperina's Tivoli pattern. We'll see! For now, it's going to the end of the list while I work on designs (seems like everything's due at the end of September) and Christmas presents!

I got wonderful news from one of my NE Knitting Mommies - there is going to be an LYS opening in NE Portland this month! There is a god, and s/he is listening to me! It is going to be about two miles from my house, which means that it will no longer be a major expedition when I need to pick up a little yarn, a few needles, a little more yarn... I'm sure my husband is less than thrilled with this development. Although he does admit that my yarn habit makes feel less guilty about his athletic shoe habit! We are going to need to build him a shed in the back yard for his shoes one of these days... He can't stop buying them, and the fact that he has size 14 feet means that each pair takes up more than its fair share of space in his closet. Of course, I can't really blame him - his feet are so big that he really has trouble finding shoes in his size. When he finds them, he feels like he has to buy them!

Yesterday, my kids actually played together for awhile.


I am so excited that Owen is getting old enough to entertain Sydney (and vice versa)! This scene (no, Sydney did not lose an eye) allowed me to finish a few rows on Bill's Xmas gift #1. If you are not my husband, click here to get a sneak peek! No cheating, honey!

Now that Culvert is off the needles (and is going to die an agonizing death), I've got to decide what to start on next. Hmmm...decisions, decisions! Do I make something for me? Do I start on another Christmas present? Do I reknit Cow? I'll let you know what I decide.

SP 6 questionnaire answers

Here they are - the answers for my very first SP ever! (SP = Secret Pal, for those family members stumped by all of my knitblog lingo, and it's someone who gets your name and sends you fun goodies for a few months.)

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Yes, I would say I'm a yarn snob, although I don't mind acrylics THAT much - I can use them to make machine-washable stuff for my kids.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I crochet occasionally.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
We are a smoke-free household, but anything else is fine.

4. How long have you been knitting?
Since birth? No, seriously, probably about 20 years.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I have a short Amazon wishlist, which I will be adding to...(and I have no issues whatsoever w/ second-hand books or whatever).

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
Vanilla, green tea, cinnamon - anything spicy!

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
Oh, yeah! Especially milk chocolate (don't like the dark stuff, though).

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
Counted cross-stitch, and gardening (when I can find the time).

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Pretty much anything but country.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?
I pretty much like 'em all. My favorite is probably dark purple.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Married w/ two kiddos - 5 month-old son and 2-1/2 year-old daughter. No pets (apart from the kids).

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
I want to knit for a living!!!

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
I really like GGH soft kid mohair. But really, anything of decent quality will do. I'm not a huge novelty yarn fan but I will use them occasionally as a carry-along.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I don't really love working with cheap acrylic.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
Socks! And little kid sweaters.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Anything with an interesting pattern (aran, fair isle, lace). I like to work on things that exercise the ol' brain a little bit.

17. What are you knitting right now?
A cardigan for my daughter that I designed myself (and it's turning out great - yay!), a sweater-in-the-round designed by Jenna Adorno and a secret gift project for my hubby.

18. What do you think about ponchos?
I don't think of myself as a poncho person. I just bought the yarn for the Mini Poncho in the winter IK, but it's rare that I see a poncho that I like.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
I use them both.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo!

21. Are you a sock knitter?
Yes!!!

22. How did you learn to knit?
Learned the basics from my grandmother, taught myself the rest.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
A couple of months, if you can believe it...

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
Anyone from The Simpsons.

25. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas!

26. Is there anything that you collect?
Simpsons chotchkes, frogs.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Creative Knitting, Interweave Knits

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?
Knit One, Felt Two

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another??
The Fiber Trends felted clogs pattern, ChicKnits Ribby Cardi

Hot Mom Pics?

I got a new site meter yesterday (check it out at the bottom of my sidebar). This one tracks all sorts of cool statistics, like where your visitors are from and how they got to your site. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on one of the links and discovered a visitor to my site had gotten there via the search "hot mom pics". I'm not sure whether to think that's funny, or a little bit scary! I do indeed have all three of those words in there (hot referring to the temperature outside), so I guess I need to be more careful about what I'm writing!

To anyone looking for hot mom pics - you will be sorely disappointed with this site. If I was ever hot, those days are long gone. I do know a few people who manage to maintain their hotness through pregnancy, nursing and chasing toddlers, but not many (and I am not one of them). I am also not ugly enough or fat enough to be even remotely kinky - basically I'm pretty much average and totally uninteresting to anyone besides my husband. So look for your hot mom pics elsewhere!

Now if they would've been looking for hot knitting pics, that would be a different story...!

In other exciting news, I sent off for Level 1 of the TKGA Master Knitting certification program. This program has three levels, and once you complete them all you are a Master Knitter. I can't wait to get started and see what I can learn to improve my knitting. I think that this will be an invaluable step on the road to becoming a professional knitwear designer. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive!

I should be getting plenty of fun stuff in the mail soon - a box from Knit Picks, a box from WEBS, and now my Master's Level 1 packet. Yahoo! The mailman is going to wonder why I'm lurking around whenever he brings the mail for the next few days.

My daughter just fell in the toilet...

Yes, she did. She forgot to put her little potty seat on the toilet before sitting down, and ended up taking a swim in the bowl. Not a pretty sight! Somehow she managed to keep her clothes completely dry - I'm not sure how that happened. Ah, the joys of potty training.

On the knitting end of the stick, I managed to get the cow about halfway frogged yesterday.


The sleeves are rolled into those pretty little balls, courtesy of Ball Winder & Swift (yes, I consider them proper nouns because they are so awesome). I have to say, frogging intarsia really sucks! All the different colors are all wrapped around each other, so you have to do a lot of picking with the darning needle to get them all sorted out. I have a bunch of extra yarn, so I'm half considering just leaving the rest of it intact as an exhibit in the failure hall-of-fame.

Last night, the NE Knitting Mommies met at my house to avoid any problems with Labor Day closures. It was so comfortable, we're going to do it every week. My husband even suggested that we meet here more often so it gives us more incentive to keep the house clean! Now our 30-weeks-pregnant member can stretch out in the recliner instead of sitting in a hard straight-backed chair. We had a great time knitting felted bags, eating brownies (yes, I baked, but it was from a box so don't give me too much credit) and playing with Ball Winder & Swift. That sounds a little x-rated, doesn't it? I can assure you, it was all good, clean fun.

Yesterday the family & I went to OMSI to the annual Reptile & Amphibian exhibit.


Do you think this python could've made pretty quick work of Sydney? Good thing he was behind glass, although she really wanted to get in there with him. The Princess allowed us to look at the frogs and snakes for about 15 minutes before she dragged us up to the science playground so she could play with scissors.


And here I am, modeling the latest in babywearing chic (along with my new glasses, which I love!):


Okay, Owen is going to burst a blood vessel if I type for a single minute longer. Toodles!