Hooray Sock #2! and a Happy Mother’s Day!

I finished the socks yesterday! I almost thought that I’d blown it too when I realized halfway through the kitchener stitch that I was doing it backwards. Luckily I was able to painstakingly lift the loops back on the needle and unthread the yarn. Bleah. All in all, I actually enjoy making socks, but man, if I can’t even make it through stocking stitch ankle socks with a world of problems, what hope do I have for lace?!? Heh. Anyway, I’m using some of the leftover yarn to make baby socks for a friend of mine. Size 0 needles are TINY!

Anyway, hope everybody is having a nice Mother’s Day! Here are a couple of pictures of my quirky nephew and jolly son that remind me why parenting is so much fun!

America’s Top Toy Model

So we got a call last night for L to participate in a photo shoot today for a toy catalog. She did it last year (She’s the Moses Basket Girl for the My Twinn Baby Doll.) How she got the job last year is sort of a funny story. My sister and her friends were all taking their kids and she really wanted me to come along, so I packed up the kids as is (crooked pony tails and all) to the casting call. So here was L in all her uncoiffed glory next to girls who had sequins and curling iron curls. And she got the call back. This year they just emailed us asking us to send a picture and of course L was sick for the first three months of the year so getting a good picture was sort of a trick. So anyway, we got the call and went in this morning where she spent 2 1/2 hours pretending to hand a play Happy Meal to a cute little boy through the drive thru window. She was a trooper because that’s a long time to keep doing the same thing. Especially when you’re 4. Here are some pictures of her getting ready and waiting in the wings.

Hooray Sock!

Yesterday I finished my sock! It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely wearable (unlike the gigantasock disaster of 2006). I think this particular yarn would do better on size 2’s instead of 3’s and that’s why the yarn overs on the heel seem larger than I’d like them. Anyway, I’m excited to start sock #2.

Last night we celebrated Leanne’s birthday over at Knit Knack and of course, I forgot to take a picture. I did take a couple of other ones though. 🙂 Here’s one of Karen working on her dishcloth. I was trying to get a picture of Leanne, the Sock Queen, showing Mary Kay a new technique, but my stellar photography skills failed me. Nachaele was taking pictures (hopefully better than mine) and Christie was working on a shawl that she purchased at the Creative Arts Festival.

Marly dropped by with her family, but I forgot to take a picture. Again. She and I met earlier today for a Mommy SnB at the Apex Center and she taught me how to single and double crochet. Woo! I’m such a yarn geek. Next thing you know I’ll be learning macrame and everybody will be getting flower pot hangers for Christmas. Grins.

Knitting Loves Crochet

So in between the never ending garter stitch of the Log Cabin
and the never ending stocking stitch of my sock, I have gotten the urge to learn to crochet. I’ve always been curious about it and love the way it looks as border, but ever since Yarn Thing showed me how to single crochet the edging on the Hippie Soaker, I’ve been obsessed. (Yes this is where the obsessiveknit thing comes from.)

I even bought Interweave Crochet (most of the patterns are so over my head!). I have to learn!

I have to make this sweater!
(I also need to make this sweater!) I’ve been playing around with some old acrylic trying to figure it out, but I think I’m going to have to ask for some help.

So funny story. We went to church yesterday (Sunday #2!) and they were video taping the service. Well, J chimed right in with his new ability to screech at superhuman pitches (he discovered the church echoed last week) so DH took him into the glass walled baby room while L stayed with me in the service. We were sitting in the back for a sneaky escape should we need one, so when communion time came around we were the very last people to go up. I received the bread and L got her blessing, but when it came time for wine, the server turned around and started packing up. So L and I are alone up at a the altar as some giggles started in the congregation. I leaned forward slightly and quietly said, “Psst!” Well our poor deacon saw me and was mortified and nearly ran across the floor bringing me the bread, which I’d already had. I quietly shook my head as she then waved the wine guy over. So I got my communion and the church got their morning giggles. The funnier part is that my family has been responsible for many many many congregation giggles since we were children. My brother had a habit of falling asleep when he was acolyting, my sister almost set her hair on fire (darn those 80s bangs!) and I had a habit of ringing the bell a little too loudly almost causing the poor elderly people in the front row to fall out of the pew.

Today has been somewhat of an adventure as well. Last week, we forgot L’s backpack for preschool and she’d had to use a plastic bag. This week, we made a point to make sure it was in the car. While I was strapping L in, I smelled something horrid but couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from. It had rained on our trash so I thought it was just the garbage smells drifting over. When we arrived a school, I remembered to check her backpack to make sure it was empty. It sure wasn’t empty. My little nephew had been playing with it last week and apparently had left his sippy cup of chocolate milk in there. Which now had exploded sour milk all over the inside of her backpack. It was a lost cause. L had to use a plastic bag again and J and I made a trip over to Target to get her a new one. I felt I deserved a Starbucks even just to get the smell of sour milk out of my nose. We weren’t in the store 10 minutes before I dropped my coffee all over the floor in the middle of the electronics section. The sales lady was very nice about it, but I felt very bad. Like they really needed to have to clean up somebody’s mess in the middle of stocking the shelves. AND I lost my coffee. Sniff sniff. Hopefully the rest of the day perks up.

Mochimochiland

Ok. These have to be the funniest knitted toys I’ve seen in awhile.

Sleepy Snake and Mischievious Mouse

I’m seriously thinking of making the hippo.

Backwards Yarn Over, Schmackwards Yarn Over

I am not, by nature, a quitter. So last night during CSI until about the midnight showing of the classic Twilight Zones on Sci Fi, I worked and worked on my ankle sock. I switched yarns to some Trekking I picked up at Yarn Art down by my sister’s house. I really like the colors as they’re knitting up. Anyway, as I, once again, worked the yo short row heel, I had an epiphany. There is no such thing as a backwards yarn over. At all. There is a knit side yarn over, and a purl side yarn over. I think where I got confused is the designer calls purl side yarn overs backwards and inadvertently wrote “backwards” on the knit side. If I had looked at the pictures more closely and disregarded the backwards part, I would have been better off. I finally figured out that wrapping the yarn around backwards (or clockwise, which was how I interpreted it) on the purl side causes the stitch to be twisted. So the heel has a couple funky parts but not enough to frog. (I just couldn’t rip it out again!) And now I’m pretty confident that I understand how to do it for the other sock. Hooray ankle sock!

Psychedelic Soaker and Riata

I tried and tried and tried to get a good picture of me wearing my new vest yesterday but I just couldn’t get the lighting/angle to get a shot of what it really looks like. It’s so weird how things can look so differently on film than they do in real life. (Or perhaps I’m deluding myself and that’s what it really looks like but I prefer to believe the former.)

So anyhoo, here’s Bob the Bear modeling the finished Psychedelic Soaker (sounds better than Hippie) and some lovely Brooks Farm Yarn that Knit-Eat-Sleep brought me. I think one of my favorite things about becoming a knitter is the wonderful people I have met in the last year. (Prepare for a little gushing.) Knitters truly are some of the most fun, generous and yet diverse people I’ve ever come across. (I hear there are even Republican knitters! Heh.)

It’s so nice to have people who completely understand the quirky things that we knitters do.

Like knitting at stop lights. Trains. During lectures. During sport events. At the mall.

Almost being late for an appointment because you’re in the middle a particularly difficult bind off.

Understanding that there is a definite relationship between coffee and yarn.

The sharing of new techniques (or old ones for us newbies).

Support for steek cutting!

And many more things I can’t think of this morning. Not enough of the above mentioned coffee.

Uh oh. J is wandering around the house shouting “Baa! Baa!” I’d better go give Bob back. Ah. Much better.

Mommy SnB

I met Yarn Thing over at the Apex Center for a little knitting and kid playing. She’s so fun, a great addition to our Arvada Knitters. Since I apparently think I’m the Bionic Woman, I walked there, pushing the kids in the double stroller. I shouldn’t complain though because the walk really is beautiful and I really needed the exercise. It’s funny how dandelions can be pretty when they’re not on OUR lawn. I’m also glad I got out this morning because now the rain is a coming down. Time to get back to my Log Cabin, though I think I’ll finish up a little soaker for my friend’s new baby first. I had some leftover Paton’s Merino, so I’m making her a hippie soaker.