Little pink boy

I left Eli sitting on his Baby Bjorn little potty long enough to go to the restroom while G1 watched his baby brother. When I came out, this is what I found:

Fall fun

The kids wanted to do a craft today so I went to the Family Fun website and we did these. I think they turned out cute. G1 made the 4 on the top/left and middle column, Gigi, made the girl (bottom right) and the butterfly, and I made the leaf covered tree out of leaves :)

Longies that won't die

Not that I want them to die, mind you, but I can't seem to finish them. I had to frog them back down to cast on again because I decided that I really should single strand the elastic casing part because the front and back of the casing will equal double stranding. Then I'll pick up the 2nd strand when I start the main soaker part. I think I'll probably add 20 stitches to bring it back up to 100 as that works better with 50 stitches per leg plus an added gusset when I get closer. I might just stay on my tiny (like 2's I think) needles if it looks like my gauge is going to be too big on larger needles. I'd really love to finish these so I could start working on other things!

Longies in reverse

I frogged the Cargo longies down to the legs last night. I decided I'd try knitting down from the top, meeting the legs and Kitchnering the legs on. I sure hope that's going to work! I cast on 100 because I thought (from the gauge I was getting before I frogged), that that would be the right number for gauge, but it was still coming out too big (I'm aiming for 10" across) so I am trying it with 80 stitches. I also started on really small needles, but I'm ready to switch to the bigger ones now (4s I think) because my fingers are cramping up something fierce. I hope that works itself out soon!

Favorite/Useful Links

Here's a honkin' list of some of my favorite links or pages I visit frequently. I know that's probably pretty annoying for a post, but I can bookmark this post and have easy access to these sites. Pretty useful for me and maybe you'll find something you like too.

Computer stuff:
Color Scheme Generator 2
Color Blender
Zefrank Flower Generator - feed your creativity
Cool Effects:
Jonathan Yuen Graphic Design
phatterism
Human Clock
Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas - my kids have fun with this one
Elastic Tightrope Girl - a fun time waster
Fluid Effect - Photo enhancement that'll knock your socks off
Cheat Sheet Roundup - cheat sheets for developers
Webpage Dev Best Practices - good stuff for me to try to remember
Forestasia Screen Resolution Preview
Seamless Tile Tutorial - make your own wallpaper/backgrounds
Leaves of Time - pretty pen & ink wallpaper & seamless tile tutorial
Photoshop Matte Painting - neat effect
The Web Developer's List
Resources For Web Design
Ohloh beta - Open Source
OSSwin project Open Source
Open Source Wiki
The X20 Dimension - Open Source
Open Source Windows

Humor/Fun/Misc:
Florida Bird Flu
Chalk Drawings
Human Camera
Virtual Bubble Wrap
Dodecahedron calendar
The Cool Hunter
Web 2.0 computer parody
Strange and funny gadgets
Build Your Memory

Knitting/Crafts:
Knitting Help - how I learned to knit Continental
Recycling Yarn
Knitty.com - tons of great patterns
Marnie MacLean
Craft Ideas

Homeschool:
Teacher Xpress
Hunkin's Home Experiments

Thrifty Living/Housekeeping:
$10 Grocery List
Thrifty Fun
The House Keeper's Compendium

Progress Bars

Well, I think I've found something I can be happy with as far as my progress bars go. It's still based on the Bare Naked App code, but I altered the percentage bar image to allow for different images of what I'm working on. I still think it might be possible to get Indigirl's idea to work with CSS using a sliding door technique, but I can't figure out how to make the doors slide up and down as opposed to left and right.

TV free

Well, no more Rachel Ray or Good Eats or Caillou and I won't find out who wins Project Runway... our satellite service has just been cut off. That's the next domino I guess after our phone. Wonder what the next one will be? My company doesn't have work for me right now which isn't great. I'll have to see what else I can come up with.

Testing

I'm trying to get some of those nifty knitting progress bars to work on my page. So far I've been able to get the ones from cogknition to sort of work. For some reason Blogger isn't wanting me to move the page elements around or I'd move the status bar to the bottom of the sidebar. It also won't let me embed the javascript into the HTML of the page. I have to host it offsite somewhere. That is less convenient for me. What I'd really like is to get Indigirl's status bars to work in Blogger (anyone know how?). Hmm, it's dawned on me to try hosting Indigirl's script in a .js file offsite and see if that works.

[later that day...] Nope, didn't work, or at least I wasn't able to figure out how to make it work. So for the time being, I'm using the status bar css code from Too-biased. I also have an idea in my head of making progress bars similar to the pregnancy/TTC/children's ages/aniversary ... tracker bars that are out there, except the little knitting project images would move across the bar. I'll have to look at them a little closer to see if I can figure out how they are done. It's probably way over my head, but it sounds cool.

10/7/06 - Ok, well, now I'm on my 3rd experiment, this time going with Bare Naked App's %-age bar. Now just wish I knew what he meant by "In our case a PHP script handles all the math for us." Wish I could figure out an easier way than to figure it out in Excel.

The Sling Thing

Here's a pic of my 2nd Beth Mei Tai. My first one was quite a bit smaller and also ended up with a lopsided flap so I made sure to make this one big enough for Eli and made sure the top straps are where they are supposed to be. The floral material is some I got from Freecycle and the denim was from a thrift store denim skirt. It's very long, but if I roll it once on the bottom, it fits Eli ok. I really like how it turned out.

First food

Up to this point, we've been waiting for signs of readiness before giving E "real" food (not that breastmilk isn't real) and I think today was it. Up to now we've just let him lick certain fruits (banana, pear, apples), but he never really got more than a taste. I had E on my lap while I was trying to eat my lunch (vegetarian chicken noodle/vegetable soup mostly made by G1 and cornbread fritters made by me) and every time I brought my spoon up to my mouth, E tried to grab my hand and corral it over to his mouth. So I mashed up a little banana (like one slice), added a little breastmilk and started feeding the hungry baby bird. He lasted a few bites before the novelty wore off, but at least he felt like he wasn't missing out on anything.

The fritters turned out ok, were very quick and I'll make them again if I need something to go with soup and don't have time to wait for muffins to bake. I threw together some a.p. flour, corn meal (didn't measure), salt (was closer to 1/4 tsp. but needed to have been 1/2 tsp. at least), 1 tsp. baking powder, some oat milk, oil (a ratio of about 3:1), 1 egg, mixed it all together, added some flour coz it was too thin, didn't want pancakes, and poured into an oil sprayed pan. We had them spread with a little jam and they weren't half bad.

New home away from other home

I think I'm going to give Blogger a try, my free hosting will be running out for my other blog next month so need to find a new home. This is as good as any I suppose :) I'll see if there's any way I can migrate all of my old posts over here for the sake of simplicity. Also curious to see if I can change the look of the page (template). Guess we'll find out. So here goes nothing...

Cargo woes

I really want to love these pants, and the legs look great, but I haven't enjoyed them much since I switched to circs and started knitting the hips. I'm double stranding this section and now I'm thinking maybe I should have decreased a few stitches at first as it looks like the hips/bottom section is going to be too big. I don't know if I should frog back and do that or if I could just try shrinking the top part of the pants when I'm done... I just don't know. I'll have to take some pics of them. I'm really thinking that if I did these again, I might like to try knitting them from the top down. I know I'd have to hand stitch the leg hems, but that is the least of my concerns. Yup, I think I just decided it for myself, there's frogging in my future (grumble grumble). The pants legs are measuring at the medium size, but the hips are measuring extra large. Oh sad... I'll see what gauge I'm getting on my needles double stranding (just checked, it's 4.5 stitches / inch as opposed to 6/inch of single stranding... quite a difference!) and figure it out from there. I'd rather that than get them finished and end up hating them. I know this sounds almost certifiable, but I've actually had the crazy thought of doing the soaker part from the top down and then grafting the legs on. Would that work? I wonder...

Change in schedule, change in life

E decided a few weeks ago to start waking me up at 7:30 am instead of the usual 8:30. He doesn't want to nurse, but usually needs to go potty and just can't get back to sleep (or can't stay asleep). So one less hour of sleep a night for me. I really must condition myself to go to bed around 10-ish so I can handle the diminished sleep!

Our lives are about to take an interesting turn I think. We have been not even making enough money to qualify as subsistance living for the last few months. Before that (going back 3 years), we've been trying to get our Curves franchise up and running and living on credit/savings/stocks/retirement... till it started to make money. Well, it was starting to do that when Katrina hit. That put a dent in the economy and led to a mass Exodus of our members. Our club started losing money each month and made us bleed red ink at a faster rate. Now, we're at the end of the road. We have no money, are starting to sell anything that we might have with any value (anyone want a dining set, entertainment center, antique dresser & dressing table...?) just so we can eat and pay a few utility bills. We've given up paying our credit cards and our mortgage payments (the house is about to be foreclosed on). Our phone is off, we're behind on our auto insurance, our elec. bill is coming due in a few days and we don't have the $$ to pay it. I'm working part time from home doing data entry and that money would really help if we got to keep any of it, but it has to go into the club. DH stays busy from morning to night trying to make the club work and can't work a 2nd job into his schedule. There are several scenerios that might happen. One is that we'll get foreclosed on, but the foreclosure proceedings will take several months in which time we'll be forced to declare bankrupcy so DH can get out from under the Curves contract and get a regular (paying) job, 2) some friends of ours who run a motor home business might loan us a used motor home which would allow us to sell our house and avoid foreclosure, 3) we're still holding out for a miracle, 4) these same friends might be starting up their weight-loss bar production business in January and if they do, would offer DH a job which would probably lead to us moving up to upstate NY. We'll for sure have to sell off a bunch of stuff (fine by me) and whittle our stuff down to just the necessities. I'm cool with everything as long as we can still manage a place to live and don't ever have to go to a shelter. That I would like to avoid. I wish there was an easier way for DH to get out from under his Curves contract, but I don't think there is. In spite of it all we are at peace, we feel very thankful that we've gotten this far and that we are healthy. I know that no matter what happens, God will still be with us. It could be that He is sharpening us and strengthening us for a greater purpose. Anyhoo, I think I'll end my novel now before it ends up taking up the whole page.

Oh la-la, fritta-ta

We watched Rachel Ray (30-Minute Meals) last night and she was making some kind of veggie soup and an olive frittata and since I didn't have anything else planned, I decided to chop right along with her. Well, needless to say, she's a way better chopper than I'll ever be and I was behind even tho I didn't have zucchini and I wasn't making the fresh ginger tea. Oh well, the frittata turned out not half bad (tho I made my own addidions/omissions) and the soup was pretty good too. Here's a pic of the frittata, fresh out of the oven.

It was basically 6 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt (maybe a little less), a couple handfulls of pitted green (not Spanish! these are homestyle and very mild) olives, sliced, a couple good sized scoops of cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of parsley on top. I cooked it on the stove till it just started to set. Then I transferred it to a 425° oven till puffy and toothpick-done. I don't think the kids were as impressed as I was, but I liked it. Then again I'm fairly easy to please when it comes to food and I do have the added advantave of having adult tastes. Her recipe called for roasted red peppers which would have been really nice if I had had them. Oh well... I have to work with what I have.

Kids' room

(Eli just urped over me big time...yuck!)

Well, something had to be done with the kids room, it was taking my life into my own hands just to go in there at night to check on them before I went to bed. Land mines everywhere, what our housekeeper (from when we lived in Africa '84-'90) called "bombs and missiles"... anyway, the kids and I got down to business yesterday. I had G1 crawl under Gigi's bed and push everything out from under it. Then I was on the outside, chucking things as quickly as I could, putting some things in the "toys" box and other things in the "dirty clothes" or "things that aren't clothes, trash or toys" box. We put all the stuffed animals on their beds. I got the trash out and the dirty clothes out. Then it was time to vacuum. The room looked much better at this point. Then I went and got a bunch of empty shoe boxes and we started sorting their toys into them. Cars into one, animals into another... Then last night I made up some labels for the boxes and their drawers... I hope I can remember to make them stick to it! I also put a box in their closet for them to put their dirty clothes in (instead of strewn all over their room).

These are the boxes under Gigi's bed now. I covered the labels with clear contact paper so that even if the boxes change, the labels won't have to. I used double-sided tape to attach them onto the boxes.

I also labeled G1's drawers so that hopefully he'll be better about putting his clothes away and knowing/remembering where everything is.

















Gigi even got a place for her myriad of purses.

Roll over, roll over...

Well, I guess E is now officially a roller-over-er. I haven't actually witnessed it with my own eyes, but DH said that he rolled over two times this morning when I was at Pilates class. How cool is that? Makes me a little sad tho coz it means little boy is growing up. Too fast for my liking!

The first bite

Well, E finally tried to bite me a few times a couple of days ago and I think he was sufficiently impressed by my response. He hasn't tried it again...yet.

Ugh, these cargo pants are being super tough on my fingers. The legs worked up really quick and easy, but joining the two (with gusset in between) and trying to work the first few rows on a circular needle, ... just not working all that great. I know it will relax up and get easier. Hope it happens quickly. I figured how I'm going to do the gusset. I cast on 10 stitches between each leg (instead of 5) using a crochet provisional cast on. Then I decreased 2 stitches on each side for the next 2 rows (leaving 6 instead of the called for 5). This gives me 2 extra stitches, and my gauge is going to be a bit bigger because I'm double stranding the yarn in the soaker part of the longies. I'm thinking that if it's too big, he'll either grow into it, or I can dip that part in boiling hot water :o) I'll figure it out. I'll add a few more rows to the crotch to match up both sides.

Apple Season

Some friends of ours, who live just down the road, brought us a 1/2 bushel (or so) of lovely upstate New York apples yesterday. They are absolutely lovely. This came on the heels of G1 (5) attempting to shoplift an apple from the grocery store the day before because we didn't have any money to buy food (we were there for WIC) and he really wanted apples. I had a heart-to-heart talk with him about how that's not ok, we can't take things that don't belong to us... yada yada. I think God's grace poured out on us via our friends and their apples. I really hope thru this that DS learns that God cares for us and provided us more apples than we'd maybe have been able to afford, but in His time. Here's a card that the kids and I made to give our friends at church tomorrow:

It says: "You two are sweet as pie..." I cut out the holes of the pie so that the apples that the kids drew would show thru.

Here's the inside of the card with all of their apples. I hope they like it!

Me and my forgetfulness...

I was going to make bread last night so DH could have some to take to work with him this morning. I got as far as mixing the ingredients together, then forgot about it. Ugh. At least I hadn't added the yeast (I don't proof). So I went ahead and warmed it up this morning, added the yeast and finished making it. If I had added the yeast yesterday, it would have been a lost cause. As it is, the bread has little blobs of dried pre-dough here and there throughout, but most of it is edible. Just glad I didn't waste a whole batch, that's always painful.

E is definitely teething. He's getting much more animated in his movements, jerks around, he doens't stay content as long as he used to. I wish there was something I could do for him other than let him knaw on my fingers/shoulders, his sling, or his little chewy toys (or whatever else makes it in his mouth), but not sure what would help. I think they are almost thru so hopefully he'll feel better soon. I'm very pleased that he so far hasn't bit me while nursing. If/when he does, he'll just lose his oxygen supply for a startling second or two while his face gets smooshed into his food supply. Worked like a charm with G2, but I can hope that it won't come to that! :)

I've started the cargo pants from Knitty in black wool. I have one leg finished, now I have to see what I need to do next. I think I'm supposed to work the next leg (maybe put the stitches on holders or something unless I have the same size needles). The legs go so quickly which is nice. Hope to be ready for the body part of the longies this weekend. I'm using size 4 needles instead of 7s called for because my yarn is either DK weight or light worsted and I wanted the stitches to be nicely snug. I'm making the largest size, but it's coming out like the 2nd smallest size which should be just a smidge bigger than E which should hopefully tide him over till spring.

I'm so impressed

We were at church yesterday from about 9:30 am till 6:00 pm (Sabbath School, church, potluck, children's choir practice, Adventurers (G1 is an Eager Beaver & Gigi is a Little Lamb) and E didn't poop anything significant the whole time we were there. He just held it. I did take him to the potty during church, but the potties were too busy for him and strange looking and the folding potty seat that I had brought just wasn't working. So he finally did pee and pooped a tiny bit, but that was it. Of course I put him on is potty as soon as we got home and he very gladly went. Poor kid. He could have gone in his diaper, it would have been completely understandable, but I'm just so impressed that he chose to, and was able to, hold it. If we have any more days like that, I'm trying to figure out how to take our potty seat to church. There's an old house near the church which is used for the pastor's office... so maybe I could take my potty seat over there. It would be a lot quieter and I'd have a private bathroom to clean out the potty seat in.

Church pants

There are 3 pairs of longies that I really want to make for E this winter. Two in Knitty's Cargo pants in khaki color thread and black (minus pockets for Church), and the other is Knitty's Blu jeans in denim colored thread. I still have to get the khaki and denim thread, but I was able to find a sweater yesterday that will work nicely for the black pants. I can't wait to start them!

Ebony and (fake plastic) Ivory

G1 is always amazing me on the piano. Yesterday or the day before he wowed me by playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in 6 flats! He's also trying to harmonize with the left hand and comes up with legit harmonies which is pretty cool! I think we're going to try to start formalizing his piano learning a little, get him a book or start teaching him the notes (flashcards), something like that.

ECing

It's going so well. Eli didn't do much this morning but pee in the potty. Then we were out all morning till 1:30-ish. When we got home I took off his wet diaper, put him on the potty and waited. He didn't do anything at first, probably because I was bustling about trying to make sandwiches for the older two, but when I came over, sat down beside him and gave him my attention, he performed. I praised him when I heard the first "ppptptpt" and he gave me such a big grin and even threw in a giggle for effect. He acted so pleased with himself. I love EC :o)

Teething?

I think Eli is starting to teethe. He's been waking up at 7 - 7:30 every morning when he had been sleeping in till 8 or 8:30 (boo hoo!). He goes potty, he nurses, and then proceeds to get a little crazy. Babbling away, grabbing for my fingers to gnaw on, twisting his body, arching his back, just can't sit still. He's also much more vocal and fussy at night when he wakes up to eat. I always change him real quick (something he doesn't much care for) so I can put him back down as soon as he's done nursing. At least he goes back to sleep nicely as soon as he's done. My last two started teething around 4 1/2 months so he'd be right on track if this is the case. He hasn't bit me yet, but he does this crazy thing when he's almost done nursing where he turns his head, but doesn't exactly let go until I get yanked out of his mouth (um, ouch?). He'll do this several times before I decide he's done. I need to decide he's done a bit sooner, huh? lol

Next project

Now I am on the increase section of the Warm Heart Woolies Plain Wrap using the recycled yarn from the DKNY sweater. The last soaker I made out of it turned out nice, sturdy, slightly stretchy/springy. I think it will work well for the wrap. I hope I'm not making it too small. E is actually more of a medium in most sizes, but for this one I'm doing newborn size because I've heard it runs large, and I want to be able to pull it nice and snug, maybe use snappis... I tried it with some acrylic back in the days before I had any wool, size medium, and it was looking so gigantic.

Doodlepants are Done

I finally finished the Doodlepants this last Saturday evening. I think they turned out quite nice. I wasn't sure how the acrylic would function, but I guess it did ok. I wouldn't use it for night, but for daytime, it was ok and they will be fine as pants with another cover underneath. Just need something to keep bub's little legs warm during the winter. I still need to add a drawstring. I think for the next ones I'll use smaller needles for the waist, then increase a few stitches for the hips. Also, I might make a taller waistband. I think I'm going to add some seed stitch at the bottoms since he's going to grow out of them pretty quickly if I don't. I smile at the short rows because they make me think of a sock puppet. I probably should have spread them out a little more (ya think?), but I kinda like 'em too :) I widened the crotch so that it would be more roomy.

Latest soaker

I really like how this one turned out. I made it from the WoollyBabies shorts/longies pattern that is no longer hosted online. It might just be that the site is temporarily down. I was thinking I might have to frog some of it because I went totally overboard on the short rows (or so I thought). But it actually seems to be just roomy enough and it looks really cute on E. One thing I would do differently next time would be to cast on looser or on larger needles. This was my first attempt at a gansey gusset and I think it turned out nicely. I will probably be adding more of these to soakers I make in the future. I still need to make a cord for the drawstring, but E isn't mobile yet so I have a little time. The wool is from the rescued sweater I snagged awhile back. I haven't even lanolized it yet and it's working great so I know with a proper lanolizing, it should be awesome!































My next project is to start on some Aubrey Doodlepants out of some acrylic yarn that I have (don't have enough wool, boo hoo). I kinda missed out on the WSG knit-along, and would still like to do it. If I run into any glitches, I can always check the messages from the KAL and get help :).

Little throne, little prince

So E's Baby Bjorn Little Potty arrived earlier this week and I've been trying him on it as I think of it and usually inbetween each change just to get him used to it. Yesterday and today he pooped in the potty and not his diapers so I'm pretty stoked! I think he likes it or at least he really doesn't seem to mind it. For the winter, I'm thinking of making some fleece turtlenecks

for his potty so it won't be so !shocking! to his little behind. :)

Love it

I finally finished my pumpkin soaker and I love how it turned out. E wore it to church last week and got tons of compliments. Here are the pics. The color isn't quite as strong/redish as it appears here, at least on my monitor. If I had it to do over again, tho, I would make the rise a bit higher.

Soaker update

I didn't join in on the WSG doodlepants knit-along because I couldn't think of what yarn to use. Most of the yarn I have is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes and I just have enough of each color to make soakers, not longies. So, I've started a WoollyBabies soaker with some yarn I got from a dismantled thrift store sweater. It might turn out big, if it's too big, I think I'd like to shrink it down a bit. It will probably make an awesome night-time soaker. I'm went a little crazy with short rows so we'll see how that turns out. I wanted short row practice and since the yarn I'm using is varigated weight, it really won't show if I don't do it right. I supposed it really ought to do a practice short row swatch and get it right before I do many more :o)

Germies be gone!

Well, after a very long phase of all of us being nice and healthy, G1 has broken the cycle. He was not feeling great yesterday morning, then when I came back from my sewing class in the afternoon, I found him on the floor, cuddled up under a blanket. DH said he had a fever. Poor guy, didn't feel like eating much, was rather listless and was ready for bed with no complaints at 7:00 (SO not like him!!). He woke up several times last night and wet the bed pretty good. Tonight during supper he couldn't get warm enough (this was after a nice warm bath) so he took another hot bath before going to bed. He couldn't get warm so I put about 3 blankets on him and told him he'd get warm and would probably get hot coz that's what fevers do. Well, the next time I went in to put DD to bed, he was out from under the covers and was hot. I told him not to throw the covers too far because he'd likely need them again as he'd probably feel cold again before too long. He didn't believe me, but I'm sure I'm probably right. He complained of a sore throat this evening, but so far no coughing or runny nose (I'm praying it doesn't go any further than this). Also, G2, E and I seem to be ok for the most part (meaning E seems to be a bit snuffy, but not too serious; I think he'll be saved by breastmilk).

Beautiful laughter

I was holding Eli on my lap, helping him stand on my legs and holding on to his chubby arms while I gently rocked him back and forth in a glider at Church a couple of days ago when I bumped him in the face with my nose and he let out a rather uncoordinated laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. It's amazing how something that I've been thru 2 times before is still magical and exciting. Eli is also really trying to sit up. If we prop him in a sitting position, he fights to stay like that as long as he can before becoming the leaning tower of baby. He's now 17.5 pounds (yikes!). He weighs the same as my friend's baby who is about 8 months old. I don't think my last two were this weight till they were 8-10 months old either. This baby is just my super-chunk.

Milestones / Braggy Mommy

Gigi (3 yo) has just started saying her Ls and I'm almost positive I heard some correct Rs come from her mouth. She also pretty much has the concept of rhyming. She sometimes mixes up rhyming with matching (as in she thinks that matching colors rhyme), and sometimes says things like "ice cream rhymes with 'i'" when she really means ice cream starts with 'I'. But she was coming up with rhyming words the other day and really grasped it I think.

A couple weeks ago G1 (5 yo) was complaining about the gums beyond his last left lower molar (say that 3x fast) so I took a look and discovered that his 6 year molar was peeking through. G1 is really doing great with his reading, surprises me a little more every day. We just got a freecycle piano the other day (I will never accept a full upright piano again, it about killed the guys who agreed to help move it, poor poor guys, "I'm SO sorry!!!") and G1 played a song on it today that he had never played before. He seems to be really good about picking up tunes by ear. I think he definitely has a talent for piano.

Eli is really in loooooove with Mommy and I'm in love with that! The other day I was peeling potatoes in the kitchen and DH asked me if I was looking at Eli. I said "no" then glanced up and saw Eli just looking at me and grinning at me over Daddy's shoulder. He's always ready with a quick and dimply smile and he's such a good baby. I can put him in his swing and he very aggreably lets me run a quick run of laundry or empty the dishwasher before picking him up again. He also goes to sleep without a fuss and doesn't nurse exorbitantly (not so that I get to feeling used up), yet he's quite the chunky little Budda, definitely thriving. He could quite possibly be the perfect baby. :o) Eli is quite the talker too, he's so funny when he's talking, gets very animated.

Christmas in August

I went and picked up a box of "craft items" from a Freecycler and boy did I hit the jackpot. Well, I guess the yarn could have been wool and the circular kit could have been Denise Interchangeables or KnitPicks Options, but overall, I feel like I got a really great present.
Bummer it's not wool, but pretty colors, maybe I could knit some charity items. The white thing is a corner turner or some such thing.

Crochet hooks, circular knitting needles, thread, needles, dpns, a bunch of scissors, some embroidery floss.

Ribbon, lace, picture frame keychains, pliers, wire cutters, gathering tools, latch hook, funky scissors, sewing rulers, manicure kit (?), needle threader, strip of magnetic tape, 3 tweezers, a seam ripper, some embroidery floss, small container of pins, more dpns, crochet hooks, 2 or 3 look like ivory, one even has grain lines like maybe it is, not sure tho. The pic on the right is a closeup of the manicure kit. There was this glass thing in it, I had no idea what it was. That was until I found it broken on the floor (G1 sat on it). I tossed it and then noticed an old lady perfumy smell coming from my fingers. Ugh! A perfume sample from who knows how many years ago is not something I wanted on my hands and in my carpet. Oh well, now I know what it is, lol.
Misc. sewing supplies (ribbon, lace...), large yarn needle, bells, dpns, dpn end caps that look like mittens, stapler, Mary Englebright iron on transfer, some attachments for a Kenmore sewing machine, hot gun glue, metallic gold & silver thread, stitch holders

Circular needles, Boye Circular needle kit only missing 1 size one needle point, stitch holders, crochet hooks, needle case with needles inside, more needles in packaging, small whet stones, very large (curved tip) yarn needles (G1 was duly impressed!), buttons, knitting stitch counter (2). Not sure what this pink and white thing is. The pink part snaps out of the white part. Maybe something for making circular knitted or crocheted things? I just can't imagine. Also, the little ivory looking toothpick thingy next to it... I have no clue.

And here is a 100% wool DKNY sweater that I snagged from the thrift store. The wool is rather chunky and uneven looking with thick and thin bits. I hope it will work well for a soaker. It will be dyable so that will be fun.

Soaker Sack

I just finished a soaker sack for E. I used it last night and it worked great, made diaper changes really simple. It's a Curly Purly waistband on both ends with stockinette in the middle.

Chef Boy R G

G1 has taken to cooking meals or parts of meals. This particular day (last week sometime), he decided on the chinese veggies and tomatoes. He cut the tomatoes (with supervision), put the veggies in a pot and added some salt. I made the rice. He "set" the table with the towels and put the spoons next to the bowls because it looks nicer than putting the spoons in the bowls. I think he did a great job for 5 yo.

Brussels Sprouts, Yum?

I get a certain feeling of glee when I think about how much my kids love their Brussels sprouts. I mean, they think they are a delicacy or something. They call them baby cabbages and ask for seconds and sometimes thirds.

I cook them in a little water, some palm oil (or you could use butter), some nutritional yeast flakes, some vegetable seasoning powder, and garlic salt. Yum.

Post baby hair loss

Aack! My hair is falling out in great gobs. I just brushed my hair and got enough to stuff a dollhouse sized pillow. I think it probably always happens to me after having a baby, but there just seems to be so much of it and I know hair grows back, but I have been growing those hairs for so long. I hope the shedding lets up soon!

Cheepo diapers

I got a glimpse inside my el cheepo box-store variety, most-people-use-them-for-burp-cloths diapers yesterday and I was disgusted to be greeted by a layer of poly fluff. Here I was under the impression that the innerds were just more birds-eye cloth, but no, just a non-absorbant, just to keep it soft, layer. Grrr. I will just have to make some more of my own diapers. Hmph!

Circular Fun

Inspired by Ev's tutorial on making your own circular knitting needles, I decided to try making my own. DH had the car so I couldn't go bopping down to the hardward store so I had to think outside the box. My grandma had given me a bunch of old knitting needles. Some of them were useable, others not so much. I took two of the old (maybe size 10 or 11) wooden knitting needles and chopped them in half:

Then I drilled holes in the flat ends of the DPNs, sharpened them, sanded them with 150 and 400 grit sandpaper, rubbed them with olive oil & wax paper (what I had on hand), cut a length of 50 pound fishing line (100 pound would be better if they make such a thing) folded the fishing line over at the end so it would be snug inside the hole (as the smallest drill bit I found was still too large for my cord), and glued them in. My 5 yo promptly pulled out the line, but that was before it had time to set. I'm hopeful that they will actually stay in once they've had enough time to dry and harden. I also made a set out of some bamboo chopsticks that will be in the range of 8's or 9's. I want to make a market bag with the larger set. I've been needing a set that size for awhile now and can't wait to try them out.Here's the finished product:

Soakers & Slings

The night before last, E slept from about midnight to 7. Probably the longest stretch he's slept since he was born. He was back to nursing about every 2 hours last night tho. He's really starting to "talk" and carry on conversations (well has been since he was about 2 months or so). He's getting really smiley, is very observant, people comment on how alert he looks and that he doesn't look like a baby anymore (he's only 3 months, sniff, guess he's a fast grower-upper). He has strong legs and very good head control.

I put my newly finished Tickle Turdle free crochet wool wrap on him last night, I had heavily lanolized it the day or so before using it (at least I thought I did, it was pretty sticky until it dried), but we still had a bad leak with it this morning. No diapers were peeking out anywhere. I'm hoping that it will start to behave a little better after it's second lanolizing, but I was a bit disappointed. I thought it looked thicker and more "bullet-proof" than any of the others that I've made so I was rather surprised. Right now I'm working on a sleep skirt, basically just the Curly Purly soaker without leg holes or crotch and just keep going to around the calves or ankles with a little ribbing at the bottom. Haven't worked out exactly how it's going to go yet, so far I've got the first 3" or so of the waistband done and have done 2 or 3 short rows and changed to larger needles. Hopefully it will make nighttime changes a little easeir. We'll see.

I made a Beth Mei Tai for him yesterday and I guess I could have gone with a little more height so maybe I'll have to make another one. I also want to try the Man Tai if i can find enough material for everything. I also stayed up later than I should have experimenting with making some receiving blanket/microfiber towel prefolds. I think they turned out pretty good, but now I'd really like to try some old baby towels (is that the same thing as stretch terry?) and microfiber towels after reading Paula's blog.

My computer ate my handwork

I think there's some sort of odd conspiracy to keep these pics off the net for some reason. I have taken pics of these two soakers 2 or 3 times so far and only have these pics to show for it. Currently I'm doing a deep search of my computer with Picasa in hopes that I'll find them buried somewhere very remote, but till then, here are pics of my very first soaker (the striped one, a Curly Purly knit-in-the-round soaker) and a soaker that I rescued. The peach one was a Freecycle hand-me-down that accidentally got into the diaper wash and felted & shrunk up pretty good. It used to fit my 3 yo DD, but now it sorta almost fit E with a little prefold peeking out here and there so I added the green ribbing to provide better coverage. Now it works quite nicely. The peachy orange yarn has wisps of green in it so hence the green color I chose. The Curly Purly soaker is very nice, but also too big for E so I'll probably make a smaller one soon. So far I've really liked that pattern as well as the Ottobre pattern. I'd like to do both of them again, but would also like to try some of the other patterns out there as well. Currently I'm working on a wrap soaker. After that I might try the Tickle Turdle Wrap. Since it's crochet it should work up quickly.

Jackpot

DH has been cleaning in the basement and moving some things over from storage and he brought home a container of clothes that I'm almost positive I looked in, but apparently didn't. Anyway, when I opened it up, I was met with the happy image if a bag full of ex-burpcloth prefold diapers. Hot diggity! I have been here wishing I had a few more and now I'm sittin' pretty with as many diapers as I could ever need. How cool is that? Oh the simple pleasures...

Oh la la... stitch markers!

For the longest time, when my knitting instructions call for placing a stitch marker, I've just used a loop of yarn in a contrasting color... not very glamorous. So, recently I came across the idea of stitch markers made from wire & beads and since I had all the supplies, I went to town. Here are my creations:












The loops are all the same size tho the camera doesn't make it look that way. Now I can knit in style :o)

Crochet Bind Off

Since my first soaker (a Curly Purly out of Wool of the Andes wool), I've been testing out binding off methods. I wanted to find something that had some give to it, and I wasn't satisfied with simply binding off the "normal" way with larger needles. Then I stumbled upon the Single Crochet bind off and some directions (found here) that said to bind off two, chain one and voila... a very nice bound off edge that has plenty of give to it. At first I was trying to do everything with two knitting needles, but when I swapped the right needle for a crochet hook it got very quick and easy.

Finished!

Hooray, finally got the knit-as-fast-as-you-can-along soaker done. I took it to a sewing class this afternoon (went to knit while socializing more than anything) and got it finished up to the point of sewing up the green seams (forgot to bring the green yarn with me). Then finished sewing it up when I got back home. I have to say I don't think I'm very good at joining edges of garter stitch. Oh well, hopefully it won't be too obvious. So, without further ado, tada! Will see if I can get my little guy to model it tomorrow.

Had this bit done before I went to the sewing class at 3 p.m.

Progress Report

I dreamed of knitting soakers all night after finishing up late late last night, er, this morning. Anyway, when I finally dragged myself out of bed this morning, I went straight to knitting (around making blueberry pancakes for the natives) and have finally cast off the front waistband (a little floppy for my liking so I'll probably try another "stretchy" bind off next time). Now just need to knit the legs and sew everything up and I'll be done. All in all, it's been a pretty fast project.

Ottobre knit-as-fast-as-you-can-along

Ok, so I started this knit-along in dead last place. I took my knitting to a church social tonight and knitted through a mango-under-your-neck [chin] relay and at least held the knitting thru a balloon-held-between-two- people's-heads-while-running relay and knit until DH couldn't stay up to watch any more TV with me (when we finally got back home) and it really is a bit late so I'll post my progress so far. At least I've gotten down to the part where I start to decrease for the legs. I'm using some of my birthday Wool of the Andes wool on some dpn's that I bought in Africa and have had for a coon's age. Still some of my favorite needles.

My favorite wrap soaker

Here is my favorite daytime soaker, made from a recycled 100% Wool Marino sweater (using the pattern found here). It's SO soft and cuddly. I wish it held up a little better before getting saturated, but it usually does fine for daytime use. Wish I had 6 of them as Eli's soakers do tend to get pooped on just a little too often. I do have 4 other soakers from this pattern (that I can think of off the top of my head), but they seem to be in constant airing out or poopy rinsing/drying rotation. Can't wait till I can make (knit) some from scratch. Soon I hope. I think the wool fairy is bringing some for my birthday ;)

So Far Behind

Well, the baby's here, my computer crashed, had to reformat twice, and ... excuses excuses. I'm baaaack. Baby E made his arrival on a cool and rainy (I'm struck by the irony of the page name) May morning, in our living room, in a fishy covered inflatable pool. I had possibly the best (albeit the longest) birth yet. My midwife and her apprentice attended and everything went flawlessly. Daddy caught the baby and big brother and sister watched with Grandma from the couch. I didn't have really long or hard contractions for the bulk of the time and things only started to get rough after my water broke, but then about 15 minutes later, E was born, all 9 pounds 1 ounce of him. Big baby! but thank God no tearing. He took to nursing just fine. I had to make myself latch him on properly tho, after the first night, as things were starting to get a little ouchy in that department. But all is well now, he latches himself on and even lets me sleep at night (well, a little more than the last two anyway). He was smiling within the first week of his life though the smiles were very fleeting. He was really smiling by 5 weeks (pretty normal I guess). I started out EC'ing him and he did great at the beginning. I am still trying, but sleep deprivation of late and his getting used to going in his diapers is playing a factor in our success or lack thereof. I want to get him a Baby Bjorn Little Potty as that would ease the strain of holding him while I wait to see if he needs to go. He's my first cloth diapered baby. I was way too intimidated and overwhelmed by all the choices to do it for the last two, but this time finances or the lack thereof, insist that I do. I've had great fun making diapers and wool soakers (so far only out of recycled sweaters). I started out with a bunch of fitted pocket and AIO diapers, but then decided that I liked plain old prefold diapers as well or better than the fancier diapers. I just learned about tie diapers so have made a few of those. We'll see how I like them to see if I want to make any more.