Tour de Fleece

Natalie,

So I jumped the gun on Tour de Fleece. While I knew your birthday was the 28th and the Tour started on the 29th, somehow in my mind, the 28th became the 29th after I wished you happy birthday. All of my day 1 spinning was done the day before. Whoops.  The good news is that I spun an ounce in 1 day.  Instead I chose to not spin Saturday to make the same number of days as everyone else. If only there were more hours in the day.

Loving the Roadbug

I did some more knitting even though I promised I would slow it down some.  The gauge is crazy on the Abotanicity sweater.  Crazy  tell you! Who gets 52 stitches/40 rounds on size 3 needles in k2p1 ribbing?  I'm at half that! I would like to point out that I didn't make a gauge swatch either so I literally am knitting this on the fly and making adjustments as I go.  What I did was knit until Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters said to divide for the sleeves. Easy enough to do because my increases according to the original pattern make a clean, visual cue for the sleeves caps. From there I kept knitting until the ribbing covered my bust line plus a few inches. Then, I finally started the lace.  After about chart repeats the pattern is getting easier to follow. I still need to check the chart every other row but it's getting easier! I am so tempted to stop on the lace, leaving it on the needles and begin the sleeves. After all sleeves take FOREVER!!! No really, but that's how they feel because the rest of the sweater is knit and all that's left are sleeves... ugh. If I start the sleeves, I can't take it to work any more; I'll need to take something else. Hmm, I do have Darling Niece's Christmas mittens on the needles right now. The one needs a thumb and the other needs everything but a cuff.  Possible.

Lace complete with pretty stitch markers

I'm loving the new job.  The division manager stopped buy and asked on Friday what everyone was working on and then said when we got to a stopping point, take off.  WAHOO!!! At home reading about welding. Of course I may start the sleeves just to do something other than just ready very dry, very boring welding books published by the American Welding Society. It's not the books fault, author's fault, just very dry subject matter written like a text book. I'm refusing to read upside down for work material. It was bad enough I had to do it sometimes for college just to stay awake through the texts. 

Books I already looked through for welding details

On the home front, I am a genius! The boys refused to nap Saturday.  Eventually (3 hours after I tucked them in) I ended up removing DS1 from the shared bedroom and put him down in my bed. I check on both boys after 5 minutes and they were out cold. After 2 hours, I don't think they moved an inch from where they finally fell asleep. I must confess that I cheated at dinner. They had peanut butter sandwiches and the proper way to eat a PB sandwich is to pull it apart, eat the peanut butter by using your fingers and driving a choo-choo through the sandwich. I have no idea how I'm going to remove all the peanut butter from the toy train's undercarriage beyond driving it all over my carpet. 

Choo-Choos  like Peanut Butter Too.

Cookie Messes are the best!

Rachel!

This week has been crazy! Simply because there are not enough hours in the day, I'm signing up for something new.  Lately my back has been sore and the one wrist is swollen again.  What does one do with sore muscles and swollen joints? Watch yoga YouTube video clips and attempt to follow along. I'll make the commitment to roughly once a week right now or until I really figure out how to have 32 hours days in 24. One of my favorite moves so far ends up making my back snap, crackle and pop for doing nothing more than laying on the floor!

As a result of the swollen wrists, I'm not knitting as much (gasp). Instead I've been reading whatever books are downloadable through the iPad and my local library. Nothing has been worth of a review or can be deemed as good literature. I've also been visiting the library with the boys and we find some of the neatest books.  The book we returned last weekend was Can You Make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas and it has EVERYTHING in it. There are giant frogs, the chicken dance, giggles, and so much more.  It's almost too active to be a bedtime story. Our new book is Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas---Hmm I'm seeing a trend that I didn't notice before. Really I didn't. 

Oh, DH did get his cookies for his birthday after all.  By the time the batter was mixed, I was so tired that I just made the cookies into a cookie bar. Did you know that it takes forever to mix cookie dough with many, many, many interruptions? The least of which was when DS1 was yelling that DS2 was eating the kitty's food. That would be the third, yes I said THIRD time he's been caught eating the kitty's food.  I don't get it and probably never will. Hopefully it's not just a statement about my cooking abilities. For all the rest of the interruptions, you'll have to give me a call so I can mimic the voices and mini explosions involved for you!

As always, I make some of the best messes while baking.

I guess I could stick to the crafting; I know I'm better at that. So far this week, I have laid out my quilt top and have decided what I'm going to do next. The blocks of four will be sewn into another block of nine. Trust me, it makes sense. So when I have enough blocks of four for another block of nine (36 pre-cut 5" x 5" fabric) the three bigger blocks with be sewn together. THEN and only then will I lay the quilt top on a bed for scale. I can resist the urge to check it out now on my king bed.  Denial isn't just a river in Egypt right?

Not the final picture with the final layout but the only picture of a police car included for scale.

Only 4-6 more rounds are knit on my Abotanicity sweater.  At this rate, next year is when I'll finish the sweater. Getting back into the swing of the lace took a little while but I have been off a lace kick lately. Perhaps I burnt myself out with a lacy blanket, shawl, and lacy/holy socks several months ago. I made it roughly a quarter of the way through the Haruni shawl before I ripped it out.  There was nothing wrong with the pattern, just something off with the combo of yarn, needles, pattern, and knitter.  Pretty sure the knitter was the wrong choice.

Lacy part along the bottom and pretty stitch markers!

How's your knitting coming along?  All work and no knitting makes for a long day!

Me!

One Knitter at a Time!

Rachel,

I wish we had been able to meet up before I left PA. Totally not fair that you are always the one to make the drive, but you just have a dog instead of full house! Such is life and you have an open door policy at my house-except to where I keep the yarn! When we moved, I gave away an entire garbage bag FULL of acrylic yarn and only on occasion do I regret giving it away.  I still have enough for the crocheted afghan that I keep promising myself I'll finish-some day. Like you, I taught a lady at work to knit. Only because she and I see each other 5 times a week, she gets a little more instruction. I've showed her how to purl now that she has 2 garter stitch dishcloths finished. Never dreamed she would continue beyond a single dishcloth.

Taking over the world one Knitter at a Time!

First and Second Dishcloths made by my co-worker!

Remember how I said I wouldn't go crazy if I took up sewing and I would start with something small like a pillow case?  You might as well start laughing now. I have roughly half the top of my coffee table's worth of a quilt top pieced together. I have another set of blocks ready to be sewn together for the same surface area.  Go me- one coffee table top cover!  With my next paycheck, I think I'm going to duck out again for another Moda Paint Box Batiks at my local yarn store that carries quilting supplies. What was I thinking?

Morning set of quilt blocks

This weekend I took the boys out to play on the tennis court at the apartment complex. We had a good 45 minutes where they ran around like chickens and I knit a little. Who would have thought that it would be a huge perk to move back into an apartment complex because there's a fenced in area that I can let the boys run free? They were so tired when we came back inside, DS1 vegged on the couch watching cartoons and DS2 crawled into bed.  I wasn't sure where he went because when I stepped out of the kitchen with a ready lunch, DS2 was no where to be found.  He put himself to bed and was OUT like a rock.  I shook him and called his name to wake him.  Perhaps if he wouldn't get up at 5:45 AM (that's right- the buttcrack of a chicken) he wouldn't have been so tired.

Second set of quilt blocks today.

DH was grocery shopping at the time and spent way too much money! Of course, we need to re-stock the shelves after moving and not dropping $500 in one trip just on staples. Some day I want to open the cupboards to see them full and still not have anything to make.  I'm debating my energy level tonight after the boys go down for the night. DH asked a while back for cookies but we didn't have the brown sugar or the chocolate chips. Now I have the stuff but not the cookies yet. His birthday is this week so that's a cheap and easy birthday present for him and will be on time/early. Perhaps I'll go all out and make 2 batches of cookies! Probably not.

Me

Toddlers......

Hey Natalie,

Work had the company picnic for just the employees yesterday. Apparently when you work for a company that appears to care about their employees, they do lots of little things to make working there GREAT! So the picnic featured the Minute to Win it games; talk about hysterical! My boss ruled the moving cotton balls from one bowl to another using just Vaseline on his nose.  As always, I work in a mostly male environment so there were some pick up basketball games. If I was in better shape and played basketball more recently than Jr. High, I would have joined them I fear. Think DH and I can find a park sometime to play a little one-on-one. Granted it would be funny to see me at 5 foot 5 inches taking on his 6 foot 3 inches.  Hey! I can be scrappy and I know I can distract him with a kiss!

Even though I got off work a little early Friday, the boys wore me out! Today hasn't been much better. DS1 and I went to the library. We did better than I thought we would, until the parking lot. DS1 didn't want to hold my hand so I ended up dragging him by the wrist and manhandling him into the car seat. Pre-baby, I would have looked at anyone doing what I did with disfavor- I am so sorry! Now, I understand. Not only did he throw a fit at the library parking lot, DS1 refused to nap today. Both boys did not nap worth anything today. They went down at noon and at 5 I let them up. Yes, bed time was early!

Even with the various fits that I've been so lucky to deal with, I did manage a little crafting! I managed to sew all of 8 quilt squares together! The quilt is not going to be of high quality simply because I am making it up as I go. Eventually I will need to find out how to sew batting and backing to the top I'm making. Aunt is still doing her Longarm Quilting right? Or do you think I should tie it like the quilt Mom helped our great-grandmother make out of the band uniform scraps? Yes, I still have the "Ugly" quilt; I love that quilt. Do you realize that if Mom was 10 when she helped make it, it's now over 40 years old and still in good shape?

Latest Quilt Blocks

I hope some of the sweaters I'm knitting last that long. Finally I finished the bust line portion of the Abotanicity sweater. So far the lace portion is giving me fits but I'm also so used to k2 p1, rinse and repeat so now having to pay attention is kicking butt. Before too long, I'll be back in the swing of lace! Perhaps I should ask on Ravlery's Knitmore Girls' group if the lace portion will qualify for their Summer of Lace and Beads Knit-A-Long.  Joking, I have way too much other knitting stuff going on.  I'm still pushing for the Must Stash Podcast's sweater KAL and Tour de Fleece. Yes, I still consider myself a crocheter too. I have a blanket that is currently residing in the closet.  Some day it will come out of time out and grace my couch. You, of course, will think it's ugly because it's a roll of the die to determine color and number of rows in that color. I like it so far, all 6 inches worth of it. Maybe I should bring it out of hiding; think DS1 is old enough to crochet?

2 rows of lace counts has heading into lace right?

Until Next Time!
Me.

Dear Natalie,

I know you have a lot on your plate lately but geez what I wouldn't give to trade you children some days! The other day, not one but BOTH of my boys were jumping over their chairs. Of course only being 3.5 years old and almost 2 years old,  the jumps were small and only tipped the chairs over. Naturally they do stuntman activities while I'm "out of sight" doing something else. I caught the tail end of a jump when I rounded the corner unexpectedly with an armload of junk to put away.  What is like not having two male toddlers and a husband to pick up after?  Sometimes I envy you and other days I wouldn't want to trade places! 

Stuntman Prop

The black eye I told you about the other day, it never turned into the true black eye like I thought it would. DS2's eye was just a little puffier than the other when he woke up in the morning. I'm very glad about that but then he had a low grade fever! Some days the poor kid can't catch a break. The fever has not slowed him down any so I guess I will keep an eye on him.

Remember when we moved from Philly to Birmingham, I donated my huge kitchen table and chairs to a charity? My in-laws brought a small table and chair set that actually fits in my new kitchen! The problem has been my sewing kick! The machine has been living on the table ready to go but I can't seem to turn it on every day and sew one piece of fabric to another. When I do have the time, I crank out a few simple quilt blocks or a project back for my knitting, but it's not every day. My goal is to clean off a portion of my desk this weekend. Since I have a 6-foot folding table for a computer desk, the sewing machine should fit nicely on the end. Wish me luck since my desk appears to be a catch-all.

Oh! Fiber Goodness!  I know you are not into knitting, crocheting, or spinning but I am! I have a count down started at work to the start of Tour de Fleece. Of course I haven't told more than a couple of people and by a couple I mean everyone. I am so excited to have my new spinning wheel (a Merlin Tree Roadbug in case you were wondering) bought for me by DH and the boys. When we moved, I took the time to play quite a bit in the evenings after the boys went to bed. I'm still no where near where I should be to actually spin a pretty yarn but I am having fun with it and that's all that matters. Wait until I spin up something so pretty for you from the BFL fiber bought at The Woolery.

My Little Roadbug

Work is going well. I just wish I didn't need to learn the theory behind welding without actually trying to weld anything.  I know I was always Dad's welding assistant, but some days just looking away and closing my eyes wasn't enough.

There's always so much more I can say but I fear that it's time for the next phase of the evening. Until then, Brat!

Your Darling Big Sister (Please don't throw something at me!)

The Start of This Madness

So I've been toying with the idea of a crafting blog while working full time as an engineer plus being a Momma to two darling boys. Today, I'm going for it!

Since I have a lunch hour that's fairly flexible, I knit over lunch. Typically I spend about 20-30 minutes eating and the remaining 30-40 minutes doing something more fun- fun for me that is. With the flexibility at my work place, I could leave the 30-40 minutes early. I choose not to! Instead I work on craft related projects because some days that's the only me time I have.

Tonight appears to be a perfect example.  Darling boys and I made it home tonight to eat some leftover pizza because Darling Husband (DH) is working tonight. After dinner there has been one situation after another. Darling Son 1 (DS1) proceeded to chase the kitty around and around and around the house. I needed to step in long enough for the cat to locate a hiding spot. Next, the trash needed to go out to the dumpster and Momma Can't Leave for 30 seconds! I stepped back inside to a hero's welcome.  Lastly, Darling Son 2 (DS2) fell and bumped his head against the end table where only the biggest of cuddles can fix it.

However, the fun and crafty stuff is going to be the main purpose of this blog. Everything else will be cheering me on from the sidelines! Today over lunch I added a few more rows to the Abotanicity sweater.  So far there are a few to several modifications I am making to the sweater.  I am unable to match the required gauge so I'll cast on the medium size and knit until I reach the appropriate length per Ann Budd's book Knitter's Handy Book of Top Down Sweaters. Then I'll divide out for the arm holes as defined by the increases and hope for the best. Wish me luck because what can go wrong? Of course all these modifications may have been unnecessary if only I had knit a gauge swatch in the first place. Such is life.

My Abotanicity

Recently I have picked up sewing too.  Never before have I shown an interest in sewing. When DH and I married years ago, I requested a sewing machine for Christmas because DH kept ripping seams out of his pants and I was tired of fixing them by hand. The machine had never been used. Roughly a month ago, I pulled the machine out of it's box, picked up some pre-cut fabric squares, and VROOOM. "Do it AGAIN Momma!" My helpers love the sewing machine noises.  I assume it sounds like their toy cars.  As a result, I've made a few bags from a fat quarter and have roughly half a coffee table's worth of a quilt top made.

My little previously un-loved sewing machine

Now, upon further review, DS2's bumped head may actually be a black eye. Anyone know of a cure for black eyes?