My No-Grownup-Sweaters Diet

  I don’t knit grownup sweaters.  I still have one in progress for over a year.  The other one was a failure that will be frogged and re-knit into something for girly.  I don’t knit grownup sweaters for 2 main reasons: that much yarn is too expensive and it takes so long.  So, my new motivation for a diet is that I want to knit myself a sweater.  If I lose some weight (like 20 lbs at least), I could knit size S and M instead of L and XL.  That would save me time and money.

But…the kids are getting so big so fast!  Goozle is wearing a size 24 month!  Grandma C got it, but it’s fun because Grandma B goes to UW-Oshkosh! 

 

Girly is wearing size 3-6 months already.  The pink bunny is her favorite toy.  Both of them have practically outgrown their fancy pants.  I love Goozle’s jammies.  I think they make him look like Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

I’m on my 5th attempt at finishing the lacy thong.  That thing is a pain in the butt!    It’s a gift for my sister.  Hopefully, the 5th time’s a charm!

Knitters Treat

Knitters Treat Exchange Questionnaire1. What’s your favourite type of yarn?  soft worsted weight wool–most of my yarn is Cascade 220 and Malabrigo

2. What’s your least favourite type of yarn?
Ribbon yarn and bulky yarn
3. What’s the first thing you do when you visit a new yarn shop?  look to see what they have there, that they don’t have at my local yarn shop or say hi to whoever is working

4. What other crafts do you do / would like to do?  I recently started spinning, and I dabble in sewing.  I really want to make a Hawaiian quilt

5. What magazines do you currently subscribe to? none, but I usually buy Martha Stewart Living

6. Put this type of magazine in order of preference:
Knitting / Crochet / Other Craft / Food / Home / Fashion / Celebrity Gossip / Garden
Home (like Martha Stewart, right?), Food, Fashion, Knitting, Garden, Other Craft, Crochet, Celebrity Gossip

7. What items do you like to knit / crochet?
Cute little baby stuff!

8. Are you allergic to anything?no

9. What do you like to* smell of? Jasmine and grapefruit.  Nothing very strong; I don’t wear scented lotions or perfume.  I developed smell aversions during pregnancy that haven’t gone away yet.
(*This is not a typo. The question is: What do you like to smell of)

10. What’s your favourite way to relax?  taking really really long showers or if it’s nice out, sitting outside and drinking beer

11. You’re stood in front of a Victorian style sweetshop, an Italian cafe, an old fashioned bakery and a dainty tea room. Where do you go first?
Italian cafe

12. What do you come out with?
A cappuccino or coffee, but I would probably drink it there

13. Where do you go next?

bakery for some thick crusty bread or hard rolls

14. Any other words of wisdom for your pal?  I’m glad so many other people get as excited about yarn as I do!

Pretty baby, pretty yarn & a real job application

Girly looks kind of grumpy.  She’s in her 4th outfit for the day.  That’s what I get for putting her in too big diapers, I guess.  She likes to “talk” now.  She’ll grump until someone comes over to talk to her, and then she’ll smile and laugh.  I’m glad she’s out of the little, little baby stage. 

I picked up this pretty yarn the other day at Ben Franklin.  I was very excited about Ben Franklin!  There was only one skein.  I think it looks better in the ball than it does knitted up.  I don’t know what I’m going to make with it.  Any suggestions?

I applied for my first real job as a college graduate today at the university in the next town over.  It was a big step.  I don’t want to get my hopes up, because I probably won’t get the job.  My hopes are up anyway, though.  I took Goozle with me, and he stopped to smile at all the college girls.  They thought he was cute, too!  Since it was nice out, I let him run around campus for a while.  I want him to take a long nap.

I’m also signing up for the knitters treat!  I’ve seen these kinds of swaps in other knit blogs, and they sound like fun.  I explained it to N last night, though, and he didn’t get it.  He asked why I didn’t just go buy something.  I explained it’s like how his parents are going to get either an entrelac throw like this only in the natural blue colorway or throw pillows for Christmas, but they would never go buy them themselves.   Seriously, it matches their living room perfectly!  Plus they have one chair without an afghan since N’s grandma crocheted 2 nice big ones for the couches.  N thought they would really like that.  I’m good at picking out gifts for them. 

Speaking of the inlaws, they’re coming up tomorrow at 8:30, and the kids aren’t cooperating for me to clean.  Hopefully N get the kitchen done tonight, because I’m going to try to get all the laundry folded & put away.  So much for sleeping!  Hopefully it’s a slow night at work.

Colors

Today was such a nice day, I told N I needed the car.  My original plan was to go downtown (because things will be great when you’re downtown has been stuck in my head) and walk from one end down to the park at the other.  There is a labyrinth in the park that kids like.  I don’t think they do much meditating, but it’s still fun to walk in.  Goozle had other plans, though, and he kept turning around.  We went back and forth down one block and then around the block.  We got lots of compliments on his fancy pants! 

Since we were in front of the yarn store, I decided we should stop there.  A girl who knits really intricate stuff had a Print O’ The Wave Stole half done hanging there.  I really liked it, so they printed off the pattern for me.  I don’t wear stoles or shawls, so I think I’ll make it wider and longer and call it an afghan or maybe a baby blanket.

Then I told them about my yarn-dyeing ambition to have enough different colors to make a fair-isle sweater for one of the kids without going broke.  She showed me all her different colors that she had made with kool-aid. 

Anyway, another woman was there too, and we started talking about the color of yarn she was knitting with, because it’s the same color one of them was going to paint the dining room.  It made me want to paint.  I even know what color I would paint the living room: cinnamon.  I saw it on one of those redecorating shows.  I would paint the hallway a different color, but I don’t know what.  I have no desire to buy a house in the near future, but I really want to paint!  I had a dream when I was visiting my mom that I helped her tape the walls in her bathroom to paint them.  She’s going to make vertical stripes in green and I think dark pink and light pink.  That was a weird dream! 

So the ladies at the knitting store justified my not cleaning the house to dye yarn!  I think I might…

Some things I want to make

Here are some things I will probably make in the future:

Little Angel Top and a skirt like this  (scroll down) for Girly.  I want to make N some golf socks kind of like this.  I still need some size 0 needles for those.  I decided not to finish the longies for Goozle, because I keep screwing them up, and it’s starting to get warm out.  Instead, I think I’ll save the yarn and make him a jacket.  I checked out a couple more knitting books from the library.  One of them was Knitting Without Tears, so maybe I’ll make him a Tomtem jacket.  Here’s a pic of a cute one.  I want to make the kids fair-isle sweaters, but it’s so much yarn.  Maybe I’ll make them bigger so they can wear them longer.

I also want to make a Hawaiian quilt.  I know they’re really hard to make, but I found an online tutorial.  I’m going to make a canvas floorcloth for under the high chair, too.  When am I going to do all this?  I don’t know.  I haven’t even found time to type up my resume or work out!

Hopefully, I’ll get to both tonight, and then I’m going to try to dye some self-patterning yarn with food coloring!  That should be interesting.

Oh, and mom, if you’re reading, I think you should be able to leave comments without logging in.  You’ll have to try it!

A new blog

I started a new blog, because I couldn’t get the hang of the old one.  It only worked on the downstairs computer, and it’s easier for me to use the upstairs computer, especially if I’m slinging the baby girly.

I also was interested in this, and it requires a wordpress account. 

daddy sling

I made N a manly, daddy-sized sling.   He looks kind of grumpy here, and he probably won’t like his picture on the blog!

So I decided if I’m going to teach myself how to …

So I decided if I’m going to teach myself how to spin yarn, I should go get some books from the library. I was there with a toddler who had better things to do, so I grabbed 1 of 2 books I could find (it must be a very popular subject, since most of them were checked out).
The picture on the cover looks like what I spun last night! It’s the same color exactly. Weird, huh?

Here’s what the yarn that I made looks like all kn…

Here’s what the yarn that I made looks like all knit up on size 17 needles:

It’s really scratchy. Toward the top it’s more even, because that’s when I started to get the hang of plying.

More elaborating per request of mom–making yarn is really easy. First you take some fluff and tie it to a thing that looks like a top. Then you spin it around, and twist up the fluff, so it’s tight. Then you wrap that around the bottom of the spindle. After you fill up the spindle or get bored, you unwind it, and roll it into balls. To ply the yarn, you take 2 of these balls and put them in coffee cups and put the end through the handles. You tie the ends back on the spindle and spin it in the opposite direction and let the 2 strands wind up on each other. Yay, string!

I made yarn! It’s easier than I thought it wou…

I made yarn! It’s easier than I thought it would be. I got sick of waiting for someone to teach me how to spin, so I followed directions off of the internet.