Boo!

We survived our Halloween fest! Amazingly, everyone fit in our house and seemed to be having a good time (apart from Sydney, who was pretty darn crabby for some reason). I created a photo album for anyone who wants to take a look.

I'm going to try to tackle the first meme I got hit with, which was the 20 things. Since I already did my 100 things, I'm going to mix it up a little bit and see if I can do 20 things about my hubby. We'll see how well I know him!

20 things about Bill
1. He has huge feet - size 14-15 - and has trouble finding shoes in his size.
2. Strangely enough, he has a shoe fetish and can't stop buying them (esp. athletic shoes).
3. His favorite brand is Nike.
4. He skipped a grade in elementary school because he's so darn smart.
5. He went downhill in high school and was an average student.
6. He spent all of his time playing sports - basketball, tennis, racquetball and running cross-country.
7. He went to college on the frigid plains of North Dakota.
8. He started out as an engineering major and then switched to business when he discovered how much he hated engineering.
9. He went straight into business school after college and got his MBA from the University of Minnesota.
10. He didn't have a passport when I met him.
11. I dragged him to Portugal, France and Africa. He took me to Spain.
12. He loves bad movies and bad tv, just like I do!
13. The longest he has stayed at a job has been 2.5 years.
14. We've been married five years and in that time he's had 4 different jobs.
15. Despite that fact, he's incredibly successful.
16. His secret dream is to be a high school history teacher (but be paid his current salary).
17. He is incredibly good at math.
18. He hates science.
19. Despite his hatred of science, he DOES know what a carcinogen is.
20. He is my soul mate, the love of my life, and I treasure every day that I've known him!

Okay, I'm going to pass this one on to Laura (to thank her for tagging me with the knitting meme that I'm going to do next), Erica, Heather, Sharon and (the other Socktoberfest) Chrissy!

The natives are getting INCREDIBLY restless, so I've got to run. I'll get to the yarn one tomorrow, I PROMISE. I have no idea who I'm going to tag with that one...I'll apologize in advance for any double-tagging I might do!

I'm such a bad blogger!

We have been crazed the past few days, so I haven't had much time for blogging. I will get to those memes eventually, I promise! I'm not ignoring you!

Friday night and Saturday morning were completely consumed by a really amazing seminar at Sydney's preschool called The Silent Journey. On Friday night, we spent an hour silently touring and observing classrooms from each of the levels, from preschool through junior high. It's pretty amazing what you pick up when you're focused on observing and not allowed to speak. Saturday morning we spent about an hour in each of the four levels "working" in the classrooms (i.e. doing the activities that the kids get to choose from). I thought Montessori was a good idea before I went through this seminar, but now I'm a total fan. It was amazing how advanced the concepts were, even in the preschool rooms. There was so much math, science and geography, even at a very young age. Bill and I talked about it afterward and figured that the fact that he was raised as a Montessori brat is why he is so much better at doing math in his head than I am. The math activities really help you break the problems down and visualize them as pieces (instead of just memorizing your multiplication tables, like I did in grade school).

Last night and this morning are going to be spent in a mad rush, trying to get ready for our crazy Halloween party this afternoon. I should be doing that right now, in fact! But first I have a few pictures to post.

Here is a progress shot of the baby Uggs.


What I didn't realize when I started them is that the fuzzy details on the sides and over the instep are stitched, not knitted in! It was a little bit of a pain to do all that stitching, but I perservered.



And yes, they stay on for about two seconds. They're a little bit better with socks underneath them. It would be really cushy to totally line them with the Plush, but I didn't have the energy (plus they'd just get kicked off right away anyway). I love how they turned out, but I'm not sure how much they'll actually get worn. As far as practicality goes, the baby socks win out, hands down!

Poor Owen is always having to deal with my knitting getting in his way.


He's okay with it as long as he gets to eat a yarn ball band every once in awhile.


I also started on Pasha for my secret pal (who I'm quite sure doesn't read my blog, and has a thing for penguins).


I think it will be a fast, fun project that will keep me nursing my serious second sock syndrome a little bit longer. Poor Conwy!

The other day I walked into our tv room to find Sydney like this:


Fortunately she doesn't weigh very much! Do you think she still wants to be the baby?

There you have it...

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Don't I wish I was REALLY a knitting guru. I'm working on it...

I've got the baby Uggs done but no pics yet. Stay tuned!

Lactivist rant of the day

I didn't quite get the baby Ugg booties done last night, and I ain't gettin' 'em done sittin' here on the durn compooter, so y'all will jes' have ta wait until tomorry to fix yer peepers on 'em. No idea why I just started talking like a Kentucky coal miner...

I read this excellent editorial the other day over breakfast in my new Mothering magazine. The topic is breastfeeding in public and why it should be encouraged and supported. I thought it was an excellent discussion of the subject and had great reasons why moms shouldn't be expected to go hide when nursing their babies or just stay home so they're not caught in public with a hungry baby.

I will admit that before I had kids, I was a little bit uncomfortable around nursing moms. You know, you're not sure where to look, you don't want to embarrass them or yourself by staring or accidentally catching a glimpse of the dreaded nipple. But the author of the editorial raises the excellent point that the reason why people are so uncomfortable around breastfeeding is because they never see it. My husband used to get a little twitchy when my aunts would nurse their kids around him, but now it doesn't phase him at all when a woman whips out a boob for a hungry kiddo. My brother-in-law and father-in-law used to tiptoe around and make sure they didn't come in the room when I was nursing Sydney. Now with Owen, they're so used to it they don't even seem to notice it anymore. I've gotten much more comfortable with it as well. With Sydney, I rarely if ever nursed her in public if I could possibly help it. I just didn't feel right about it. With Owen, we're out all the time because I can't really keep Sydney sequestered in the house, and I've become pretty blase about nursing him wherever and whenever. I'm very discreet about it, but I'm not afraid to do it.

I think it's ridiculous that our society is so conflicted about breasts and breastfeeding. I mean, really, THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE FOR, FOLKS! It's pretty amazing to consider that a woman can sustain and grow a baby from birth to six months solely on something she's produced from her own body. Why is it that a woman can walk around on the beach almost completely naked, as long as those fearsome nipples are covered? And every night on television you can watch people be killed in a dozen different gruesome ways and nobody blinks, but Janet Jackson flashes her breast for a second during the Super Bowl and everyone goes ballistic? I'd much rather my kids see a boob than see somebody get shot or chopped up into little pieces...

Okay, I'm almost off my soapbox. I just hope that by the time my kids are grown, breastfeeding will be the norm rather than the exception. And that gay marriage will be the norm as well (but that's a whole 'nother soapbox...I'll spare you that one for today).

I am the cutest thing ever.

Hello! I've taken over Mommy's blog today to bring you some pictures of the cutest baby in the world - ME! Mommy just knit me up a new hat and it's as fabulous as I am. Here I am, modeling it for all you lucky duckies to see. Strike a pose!





And, just for Mommy, here's me with my face full of cereal. I like to spit out as much as I eat, just to make things more interesting...


Am I adorable or what?

Another FO and a little yarny goodness

These have been almost finished for a few months now and have been sitting around waiting for buttons to be sewn on. I was carrying them around in my knitting bag for awhile, and then they got lost. I was cleaning the office on Sunday and found them again. I sewed the buttons on immediately so I could finally get them off my list before they got lost again and Owen grew out of them before ever wearing them.

Here they are - baby sandals from Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino book, knitted out of(oddly enough) Baby Cashmerino.


Owen loves pulling on them and stretching them out to bizarre dimensions before finally getting them off his feet so he can chew on them. They may not be keeping his feet warm, but at least he's enjoying them!


I got my package of yarn booty yesterday in what seemed like record time. I guess WEBS sends stuff out a lot faster if they don't have to dig through their garage sale stock to fill the order...


I couldn't resist breaking into it. I need a little break from socks anyway, since October has truly been Socktober for me.


I adore the Berroco Plush (it's just so incredibly soft) and the Suede is kinda cool, too. It feels rough compared to the Plush, but it's definitely appropriate for this project.

All right, poor little neglected Owen is telling me it's time to wrap this up. Waaah! Waaah!

My first Conwy is done, and other stuff...

First we'll get the knitting out of the way. I managed to finish the first Conwy last night. Without further ado...




It turned out quite nice! I may have to make a pair for myself one of these days. I can make about one sock per week, so according to my hubby's quick mathematical calculations, I can make 22 pairs per year if I knit nothing but socks. That's a lot of socks!

I didn't get yesterday's post written because I was busy cleaning and decorating. I just realized that we have about two dozen people coming over next Sunday for our Halloween party so I really need to get the place presentable! Plus I bought a ton of decorations. They look pretty good. I'm going to put these all as small pictures since I have a gazillion. If you want a better view, you'll just have to move your lazy little mouse hand and click on them.

Here are some Chez Knittin' Mom Halloween Decor pics:




Okay, this last one was done by our resident gigantic garden spider. It's amazing how this web spans pretty much the entire width of our front yard. And it's so pretty when covered in morning dew.

On Saturday, Bill and his friend Nate ran a 15k race. It was at a local park which has great play structures, so the kids and I went out to play and watch them cross the finish line. Owen and his sister both really like the swings...




And here is a picture of the big winners with their participation ribbons.

This is where the picture would go if stupid Blogger would let me load it...

They ran a time of 1:17 which was under Bill's goal of 1:20, so they were happy. I think Bill was also pretty happy that he and Nate finished together. Nate used to run marathons and his fastest time was just over 3 hours (which is pretty darn fast). He hasn't been running for awhile, and Bill has been running pretty regularly for about five months now, so they're finally about at the same fitness level.

I have a few more pictures, but it's time to go pick up The Girl from preschool so you'll just have to wait until tomorrow. Or Wednesday. Or next week. Or whenever I feel like spending an hour waiting for Blogger to decide if it wants to upload them or just give me a blank page and no picture. Remind me again why I don't use typepad?

To all you Californians...

I realized that yesterday's post might've seemed a bit harsh to y'all. I definitely didn't mean it like that! I did meet some great folks while I was living in LA but none of them lived anywhere near me so it was hard to maintain friendships with them. I in no way meant to imply that all of the people I met in So. Cal. were uneducated and unfriendly. Hope nobody took it like that! We just lived in a bad area (as in, we lived in suburban hell and didn't meet anyone who had anything whatsoever in common with us). We picked a much better neighborhood in Portland - we could actually afford it here!

I also wasn't into knitting then, and if I would've been knitting and blogging, I could've met up with Jillian and Jen, both of whom I think I have much in common with. And one of my good mommy friends here just moved up from Huntington Beach this summer. Another one lived in Santa Monica for awhile. So I know there are plenty of good folks in So. Cal. - they just all lived hours away in hellish traffic!

I just went back and re-read this post. I have a baaaad case of exclamation-pointitis. I apologize that reading my posts is often like scanning the headlines in People magazine: Knittin' Mom Buys More Yarn! Husband Threatens To Cut Up Credit Cards! Bankruptcy Looms! How Will This Family Be Saved!

No real knitting news today. Turned the heel on Conwy last night and tried it on. It was very tight getting it over my heel, but it fits like a...well, a sock! I hope the person I'm giving them to has smaller feet than mine. Still no pictures since I forgot to plug my camera battery in until a few minutes ago.

I just can't help myself.

I know, I know. I have a problem. Hi, my name is Chrissy, and I'm a yarnaholic. (All: hi, Chrissy!)

The weather here has been getting colder. So, of course Owen needs a hat to keep his fuzzy little head warm. And something to keep his little feet warm. That's my lame excuse for going onto WEBS last night and ordering yarn for this - baby UGG booties and a hunting cap. I blame Crazy Aunt Purl for posting a picture of the booties on her cat and giving me the idea in the first place. I'm going to try to make some little matching mittens, too, since I should have a bunch of yarn left over. The ironic thing is that for the price of the yarn, I could've bought a real pair of baby UGGs. Plus, I was so close to the $60 cut-off for the 20% discount that I had to buy a couple skeins of this (color 119). I'm such a loser.

No pictures today because my camera battery just died. You'll have to read my blather uninterrupted. I just received my new Dansko clogs in the mail yesterday. I'd originally ordered the size equivalent to women's 7.5-8 (I used to be 7.5 but have grown to an 8 after two pregnancies). They were too small, so I had to send them back and wait for the replacement pair (which just about killed me). They're finally here, and I love, love, LOVE them. They're like wearing bedroom slippers with good arch support - so comfy! And great for wearing with knitted socks. Plus they're an essential part of the east Portland mommy uniform, and I do like to fit in... Mom, you would really love these!

I've been meaning for awhile to write about how much I love Portland. We are never leaving! I'm amazed that it took us so long to get here in the first place. Aside from the mountains, the ocean and the Columbia River gorge all within reasonable driving distance, the city itself is one of the neatest I've ever been to. We've just started scratching the surface with our explorations, but we keep finding little pockets of great restaurants, shops, coffee houses, etc. all over the city. We live right around the corner from a few really good restaurants and a great coffee shop just opened up very close to us. Plus there are three or four others within walking distance. Quite different from the suburban hell we left behind in California!

I've also made so many good friends here in such a short period of time. More friends than I made the entire 2.5 years in California and probably more friends than I had back in Minnesota even. People are so friendly and like to get out and do stuff, unlike in CA where people kept to themselves for the most part (plus the people that we did meet we didn't really have anything in common with). The moms that I've met here are smart, funny, friendly and just generally great people.

Another funny thing about Portland is how different the city is on the two sides of the river. For those of you who don't know anything about Portland geography, the Willamette River runs right down the middle, just to the east of downtown. The east side is relatively flat, built on a grid (for the most part), and mainly has homes that were built in the early 1900s ringed by homes from the '50s on the outer edge. The west side is very hilly, forested and has crazy streets running every which way. Homes on that side are generally newer and can be much more expensive (as Everclear sings in that song whose name I can't remember - "I will buy you that big house way up in the West Hills...").

The two sides of the city seem ideologically divided to a large extent as well. The eastsiders are liberal hippies, the westsiders are conservative yuppies. This isn't true across the board, of course (we have a few Republicans over here, but they're definitely outnumbered), but there are definitely folks who don't cross the river if they don't have to! It's kind of funny, actually. We didn't really know this when we were moving here and only bought on the eastside because my brother-in-law's house is over here. Now we're so glad that we're here! We are total eastsiders, through and through. Not that we don't like to go to the westside occasionally, but for the most part we stick to our little corner of the city and find there's plenty here to keep us plenty busy. I though Minneapolis was a pretty happening town until we came here. It's unbelievable how much there is to do, see, eat, buy, knit, etc. Can you tell I like it here?

In keeping with my liberal eastside heritage, I'll leave you with this funny little thing from the folks at Google:

Go to Google and type in the word failure… then hit “I feel lucky”.

Hee, hee, hee!

Some Conwy progress

I am making some good progress on Conwy. In fact, I didn't blog yesterday because I was too busy knitting (imagine!). I'm really liking this pattern and am going to have trouble giving these socks away when I'm done with them. But I can always knit another pair, right? Anyone who loves socks should definitely buy Nancy Bush's Knitting On The Road. It's really a great bunch of patterns.

Here is a picture of the back with all of the decreases completed.


A lot of folks in the knit-along left out the decreases because they thought they looked like a mistake, but I don't mind them and like the way that it tapers the sock leg. I'm also finding the way this yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Purl colorway) is pooling to be very interesting - kind of like a tapering spiral around the leg. It distracts from the stitch pattern quite a bit, but I still really like the way that the sock is turning out. If I knit them again, I'll knit them in a less contrasty yarn.

Here is a shot of the front:


In other sock news, here is a close-up of the baby socks on foot:


I think he likes them!


And my gratuitous cute kid pic for the day:


It took awhile to get one without any naughty bits showing, but I think this is demure enough. Let me tell you, they both loved being in the tub together! Although Sydney was determined to try to drown Owen by dumping bottles full of water over his head. And don't worry - I've added code to my blog to make it so these pictures won't be cached forever. Sydney won't have to worry about someone finding them when she's in junior high, and since I added the code I haven't been getting hits on pervy searches anymore. Let's hope that luck holds!

Finally, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has been leaving such nice comments here. I really like to go and visit the blog of every person who comments, but lately there just hasn't been enough time. Or else I've gone to your blog, been about to leave a comment and been interrupted by earsplitting screams that required my immediate attention... Anyway, do know that I really love to get all your comments and I have the best of intentions to return the favor if I can!

The Great Google Search

1. Chrissy needs help. Well, this goes without saying...

2. Chrissy needs a new place to live. No! I am never moving again!

3. Her interest in the issues surrounding Chrissy's needs led Jane to write features about her, and other complex children. Hmm...

4. Chrissy needs a few friends - friends with open hearts, open arms and open wallets. Especially the open wallets!

5. I think Chrissy should ______. Chrissy needs ______. I want to _____ Chrissy. ?!?!

6. The Chris's and Gabe are moving home with us because Chrissy needs to be off her feet and on bed rest due to her pregnancy. Not again!

7. I was really beginning to feel that I'm over being hurt and lonely, that I can accept the fact that this is the way Chrissy needs it to end... Oh, the broken hearts I've left in my wake...

8. Does anyone feel as if Chrissy needs some perspective? Is there anyone that doesn't?

9. Chrissy needs to talk with Michael C. for his recommendations on adjustments to the University Standard furnishings. I'll get right on that.

And my favorite...

10. Chrissy needs your help signing up your friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to volunteer to help defeat George W. Bush. Yeah, baby!!!

I luv the 80s

Does it show?



Final score - 86.5, although I have no idea out of how many. We'll see if Bill can beat that...



And he does - score 117. Of course, he was older in (and therefore more influenced by) the 80s.

What was weird was how many of the wrong answers we answered the same way. Sometimes we're convinced that we share a brain.

Better Than Booties Baby Socks

Yay! Another FO! I have had one of these socks done for a couple of months now, but couldn't bring myself to do the other one until now. Thank you, Socktoberfest! The sad thing is it only took a few hours to whip it up (they're really fast, especially once you've got the pattern pretty much memorized). I also made one of the Itty Bitty Bears that shares the page with the socks (these are all from IK Summer '05). It's super fast and really cute. Sydney loves it. Without further ado...


Both the socks and the bear are knit in Koigu merino. Not necessarily the best choice for baby socks since it's hand wash only, but Owen's socks don't get very dirty anyway since he's not walking yet.

Last night our knitting group met at the Yarn Garden. They were supposed to have special chocolates to sample in the Sipperie as well as a sock-knitter's get-together. Well, no chocolates (although they did have killer peppermint hot cocoa that we all went nuts for), and no other sock knitters - we had the place pretty much to ourselves. I started on Conwy for my Knitting On The Road Along. I'm making it in Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock (surprise, surprise) in the Black Purl colorway. Here is a progress pic - the colors are gorgeous, and lookee! I'm knitting it on my new Addis!


That's not a shadow on the right side - that is the yarn color. I'll be interested to see how it looks as I continue to knit it up.

Owen had his six-month checkup yesterday. He's gained two pounds and is 17 on the dot. I can't remember what his height ended up being - I'll have to get back to you on that one. He also had to have three shots, poor little buggy! Of course that meant he was crabby and feverish all night last night. He's slept quite a bit today, but very fitfully so it hasn't really been a break for me (since I've had to run upstairs to check on him every five minutes). He's doing better this afternoon, but Bill is going to take Sydney to music class and I'm keeping him home, just in case. It's too bad, because he really loves the class - he's becoming a big music fan, just like his sister!

Four Truths & a Lie

I finally won! Here are my four truths and a lie. If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, click here for the game details.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Congrats, Karen, for being the first to guess #4.

1. My college roommate is the daughter of a critically acclaimed novelist.
True - my freshman year roomate was the daughter of Maria Flook, author of a few relatively obscure but well-received literary novels.

2. I won a beauty pageant in high school despite the fact that I'm not at all the beauty queen type.
True - I was my town's "Miss", even though I was the total dark horse of the pageant. I had a huge advantage because I played a piano piece for my talent and two of the judges were piano teachers...

3. Both of my children were born via c-section - no natural births for me!
True! Sydney was born via c-section after 26 hours of labor, 8 of which were at 8 cm. My doctor told me I could keep going as long as I wanted, but she didn't think she was going to come out the old fashioned way. I opted for a scheduled c-sec w/ Owen to avoid going through unscheduled post-labor c-sec hell a second time.

4. I was awarded the Outstanding Senior Student prize in Social Studies after my boyfriend and I pulled a tipsy social studies teacher out of the ditch one night.
False! This happened to my best friend - not to me!

5. I can put my foot behind my head.
True - I have extremely flexible hips and can do this and the lotus w/ no problem along w/ lots of other yoga poses that give other people lots of trouble. It's funny because I'm not really very flexible anywhere else...

All right, Karen! You're up next!

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday our playgroup went to Old McDonald's Farm for their annual pumpkin pick. I knew the morning was going to be great when we pulled up and this is the first thing we saw:


This couple had a neat little booth with cute handknit sweaters, hats and a bunch of felted stuff. I picked up a bunch of these felted handmade soaps:


You wet the whole thing and the suds come right through the felt while the felt acts as a scrubby/washcloth thing. Too cool!

Sydney got to pet something wooly...


...and ride her first pony...


...and climb around in the haymow...


...and Owen took his first hayride.


We tried to get the kids together for a nice photo op in the pumpkin patch, but getting toddlers to pose nicely for a picture is like herding cats.


I managed to corral my little pumpkins long enough to take this relatively decent shot (apart from the fact that Owen looks like he's about to take a dive off my lap):


All in all, it was a great morning. Then, to end the day, we went to my friend A's housewarming party (she's the one who knitted Womb). They have a great family room in the basement where they've set up a projector that can play movies (or PS2) on the blank wall. It's a pretty sweet setup, and they had a yet-unreleased version of Dance Dance Revolution playing. I didn't try it because I was holding a sleeping baby (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it), but it looked like a lot of fun. Sydney really enjoyed it, especially running in front of the projector and then pointing at her shadow on the wall, yelling "Look at big Sydney!"

My big accomplishment for the day was....dun dun duh dunnnn...


Yes, the straight-laced socks are done! They need a little blocking and the sole is slightly too long, but I'm hoping they'll tighten up a little bit with washing. Again, the yarn is Knit Picks Essential in Pumpkin. Love it!


They're so snuggly and the lace creates a really interesting ventilation effect on the tops of the feet when walking around in them. I really liked this pattern and would highly recommend it (I'd also recommend working one sock at a time if you're retarded about 2 socks on 2 circs like I am).

Runs With Clippers

I had fun with these last night:


The unsuspecting victim:


Okay, okay, it was all his idea, but he's going to tell his co-workers on Monday morning that I did it to him in his sleep... Why anyone would want to get rid of this thick, gorgeous hair is beyond me! He's always whining that it's too hot (and if that's the case, why didn't he shave it off six months ago?).

It took about 10 minutes to turn this:


into this!


I was terrified as I buzzed the first strip, but it turned out looking pretty good, and it's oh so fun to pet.


In knitting news, it's all about the socks, blah, blah, blah... I'm hoping to have a complete pair to show you soon, but nothing yet.

I'll leave you with this picture of Owen helping his daddy eat some salad. It's an important job - can't leave it to just anyone!