Our Weekend

Hayden had an exciting weekend. His Grandpa, Patrick's dad Len, flew down to visit on Friday and Saturday. Hayden wasn't as nearly as shy with him as he tends to be with other people.

On Saturday, we went to Dauset Trails Nature Center. Hayden had a blast. We had never been there before and didn't realize how close it is to home. I foresee many more trips in the future. They have feed, either dog food or corn, at many of the exhibits. It's in gumball machines and you pay a quarter to get a handful of feed. Hayden loved feeding the animals, especially the ducks, geese and turtles.

We did have one small tragedy though. Hayden was trying to squeeze through the railing on the bridge and I grabbed his arm to pull him back. When I did this, it caused his beloved pap (pacifier) and keeper to fall into the pond. Of course, we have plenty of back-up paps but no back-up keepers. The only ones that we can keep attached are the ones from Babys-r-us so it's not simple to run out and get one. I came home and made a length of I-cord to attach it to. I don't have any diaper pins though and he pulls hard enough on the safety pin that it pops open, so this has not been a great solution.

Instead of knitting the instant gratification dish cloth on Thursday, I spend most the day plotting out dyeing some sock yarn. I ordered some Knitpicks Bare some time ago with the intention of dyeing it match my teal green scrubs. Shortly after that, I found Regia Crazy in the colors that I wanted so I ordered that instead. Then I decided that I would dye it match my orange scrubs. Of couse, after that I found some Opal Neon that's the perfect colors to match that so I ordered it instead. Now I have no idea what colors I want to dye which is why I abandoned the idea of dyeing for now.

Thursday afternoon I started on Hayden's Crayons and Chalkboard sweater vest. I had been putting it off because, honestly. the thought of Fair Isle terrified me. However, I have found it to be incredibly simple so far. Of course the thought of steeking is still terrifying but I'm not to that point yet so all is well. I am almost to the armholes.

It almost looks like a hat in the photo but it's to gauge. It's just 192 stitches packed onto a 16" circ! I'm using a KP US#3 which is sooooo sharp. I had to borrow a thimble from my mom because I tend to push on the tip of the left needle and it was wearing my finger tip out.

The best thing about this Fair Isle is that it has forced me to knit Continental, which I knew how to do but I throw so fast I felt like Continental was slowing me down. Now that I've had to do it, I've gotten much faster with it and I think I will likely switch to it permanently.

Friday, my Opal Neon arrived from The Loopy Ewe . This is the first time I've ordered from Sheri and her service is great! I ordered late Wednesday afternoon and my yarn arrived on Friday. You just can't beat that. Plus, she includes all these great gifts and samples. She sent a sample of Regia Bamboo and I think that will probably be my next purchase!

I immediately cast on Cookie A.'s Pomatomus Socks from Knitty, which is a great pattern for variegated yarn.

After taking these photos, I declared that I must have a new camera. I have two digital cameras. One usually takes good pics but the flash doesn't always work so photos come out dark and underexposed. Plus, Hayden dropped it and now you have to hold the battery compartment closed while you use it. The other camera doesn't have zoom and the flash overexposes everything. So I'm off to buy a new one today. Look for better pics coming soon!

A pound of string

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day. I was surprised to come home from work and find Kyle and Chelsea waiting to have dinner with us. Kyle was most pleased with himself for buying me "a whole pound of string". It's a 1 pound cone of Peaches & Cream in the Spring Garden colorway. Kyle had the idea of it and Chelsea picked out the color. It's really pretty. I told Kyle that I would make him some dust clothes to clean with. He didn't like that idea much.

Travis gave me a new desk chair. It's really nice and the old one was definitely on it's last leg. Here's a shot of the chair posing with the pound of string.

My gift from Patrick (and Hayden of course) was some yum yum as Hayden calls it. It wont be around long but I will surely enjoy it while it last. It's a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and it's to die for! Supposedly it's a limited edition item but this the third one I've had in the past 4 years so I guess it's not very limited. That's fine with me though, I hope they never stop making it!

One more photo of the pound of string. Of course, I included this one just so I could show off my little cutie. He's also sitting in the new chair but you can't tell because it's black. Ignore the orange jello on his shirt collar. He's not usually so dirty!

For a brief knitting update, I finished seaming the Ruffled Surplice yesterday and started on the belt. I don't know why I find knitting repetitive little rows of something so monotonous and boring. For example, I hate to make I-cord. This belt is a lot like I-cord and it's probably going to take me as long to knit it as it did the whole back of the sweater. I just have to make myself do it.

I still haven't cleaned up all my yarn vomit from the ball winding incident on Friday. I'd like to have it done tonight so I can cast on the socks to take to the dentist office tomorrow. Why is yarn vomit so hard to clean up? I'd much prefer to clean up human vomit. You just have to throw a towel over it, zap the patient with some Phenergan or Zofran or Reglan or Compazine and you're done. But yarn vomit has to torture you and takes hours to pick out and rewind. Why can't someone make an anti-emetic for yarn?!!

Random Ramblings

Well, it only took me about an hour of picking, pulling, detangling then winding to clean up my yarn barf to end up with a nice ball of yarn. I cast on my second sock Thursday night and got about a third of the cuff done yesterday. This one seems to be going a lot faster. Then again, the second sock always seems to go faster. I think that's why I like making one at a time because I can work out all the kinks on the first one then soar through the second one.

Speaking of socks, in my surfing yesterday, I found a simple pattern for toe up socks. I was so excited, I almost frogged the sock I had just finished and started over. I managed to quell my excitement long enough to find a good deal on some Regia Crazy on Ebay. It's a gorgeous colorway, I can't wait for it to come so I can try out this toe up pattern. It'll probably come on the same day that my Knitpicks order comes and then I'll hard time deciding what to work on first.

Travis and I met with his advisor after school yesterday and registered him for 10th grade. They have a crazy schedule for next year. Currently they are on block scheduling where they have eight classes total which are divided in half. One day they go to half of the classes for 2 hours each and the next they go to the others. Next year, they will only have 7 classes but will continue to have this block scheduling on Mondays and Fridays and have all 7 classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for 1 hour each. Everybody is going to be SO confused.

I cleaned the kitchen yesterday and accumulated several packages of bread--buns, loaf bread, English muffins, etc.--that were old and told Hayden that when Daddy got home from work, we could go feed the goats. He proceeded to carry the bread all around the house until Patrick got home. We went over to feed the goats and I handed him half of a hamburger bun to give to the goats. I turned around and he was standing there eating it! It wasn't molded or anything, just stale. I kept encouraging to handed to a goat but he wouldn't. Then Phoebe stuck her head through the fence and took it from him. He was so mad!

He continued to enjoy playing in his little play area again yesterday. He was up before I left for work this morning and Patrick said he begging to go out by 7:30. I think we've created a little monster!