Month: September 2005

Who’s Calling?

Sarah General

I have caller ID on all my phones, but I’m not in the habit of screening my calls – unless it’s obvious from the number that it’s a telemarketer.

So the commercial I just saw for caller ID on your TV struck me as really odd. So…someone could decide that my call was less important than whatever TV show they’re watching without ever taking their eyes off the screen? I mean, really, how lazy can our society possibly get?

Though I suppose if you don’t have caller ID on your phones and don’t want those silly little boxes, and you have the digital cable and digital phone package that this comes with it could be a useful thing. But still… It just seems strange that anyone would screen their calls while watching TV. Then again, I am spoiled by the fact that I can pause my TiVo whenever I want. I do remember the phone always ringing during the last two minutes of the season finale cliffhangers…

Fiber Festival

Sarah Crafts

Carrie and I went to a fiber festival today!

fiberfest_goodies.jpg

I think I showed amazing restraint, coming home with just 8 oz. of fiber (who can leave a fiber festival without fiber?), a new drop spindle (to replace the one Murphy destroyed), one skein of sock yarn (to join the other 18 dozen skeins I already have), and a llama doll. Oh, and there was a sheep tape measure, but that was for my mom and I gave it to her before I took the picture. Certainly compared to Rhinebeck two years ago, I hardly bought a thing!

The blue/green/purple combo is a merino/tencel blend. The seller was tactfully trying to tell me it’s not so good for a beginning spinner, but I couldn’t resist it. I’ll practice before I try it! The rainbow colored top is wensleydale, which is good for a beginner. The spindle is a Bosworth, and is made from chochin rosewood. (It currently has some very basic wool on it so I could remember how to use a drop spindle!) And the llama doll is for Carrie.

The neat thing about the llama doll? I swear Carrie’s been saying “llama” all afternoon. At least, if I say it she’ll repeat the sounds. And if I ask her where the llama is she goes and picks it up. Could “llama” be her first word? I’ll see if she says it tomorrow too. (Although, technically, she says “duh” for duck and “daw” for dog pretty consistently too, so those could also be first words…)

Here are more pictures of our adventure. (Including fuzzy fibery animals!)

Barktober Fest

Sarah Dogs

It’s time for Barktober Fest again! If anyone is interested in sponsoring Molly and Murphy on their walk, there’s a donation page set up. We’re walking as a family this year, and we can’t wait to see how Carrie reacts to all the dogs. Dogs are her favorite creatures on this earth, and so many dogs in one place…I hope it doesn’t rain this year, because the camera will have to be very accessible!

barktoberfest03.jpg

September Challenge Update

Sarah Crafts

We’re halfway through September, so how am I doing on my goals so far?

  • Finish the ladybug sweater – possibly including knitting the matching hat. Not so good. I haven’t really done anything with this one yet!
  • Finish Devan – again, possibly including knitting a matching hat and/or socks. Done! Well, the sweater is – we’ll see about the hat or socks.
  • Start and finish the October cross-stitch Done and at the shop for stretching!
  • Finish embroidering the felt Christmas ornaments I started way back when. I can’t find the pattern so I’m winging it, but there were three (out of six) done and one part done when I picked it up. Now there are four done.
  • And if I can find yarn for it, I really want to make a Jayne hat (or two?) for the premiere of Serenity. One hat is done, and I have enough yarn for a second!

I think by the end of this weekend I will be able to knit the second Jayne hat, block the ladybug sweater, and finish another ornament. And maybe start the socks or a hat to match Devan – since that will be the sweater Carrie will wear sooner, it’s a higher priority than the ladybug hat.

I think finishing everything will be a stretch, especially since I still need to steek and sew the ladybug sweater, but we’ll see – it’s only halfway through September, and look how much I’ve accomplished so far!

Cheesy

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie has picked up another sign: “cheese”! This brings the total number of signs she does (mostly) correctly to four – the others are “milk”, “more” and “all done”. She also consistently makes the same hand motion (but not the correct one) for “play”.

“Cheese” is sort of problematic, though, because I spent two whole meals with her today explaining that she couldn’t have more cheese after she’d eaten quite a lot of it. I think she’s just trying out the sign and making sure it works the way it’s supposed to, but I don’t think it’s good for her to have unlimited quantities of cheese.

She does know what good cheese is, though. We were making macaroni and cheese for dinner using Velveeta, so I tried to give Carrie a little taste of the cheese Denis had cut up…she spat it back out with a look of total disgust on her face. I had asked Carrie if she wanted cheese so that Denis could see her sign it – the poor baby was expecting cheddar or monterey jack and got icky Velveeta instead!

Counting My Blessings

Sarah General

I was going to write about how today was a really bad day. Our hot water heater started leaking at some point last night or this morning, and quite a few things in our basement got wet – not to mention that we’ve now spent a lot of money on a new hot water heater to be installed first thing tomorrow morning. It’s not a good time for it to happen, with school taxes due this month and Denis having important work commitments this week. Then again, when would be a good time for it to happen?

But the thing is, it pales in comparison to what people in the areas affected by Katrina have had to deal with these past several days, and to what happened four years ago today. It’s just stuff, it’s just money. My family is whole, and healthy, and fed. Since it had to happen anyway, I think today might have been the best time for it to happen – because instead of dwelling on this minor crisis I’m counting my blessings. There are so very many, and I am truly thankful.

Hanging Around

Sarah General

Today was “Hang Around Victor Day”, so we decided to hang around. Carrie got to see fire engines and alpaca, and met a dog named Sage who cleaned up the food she dropped at lunch. I was pretty good about not spending money at all the tempting crafty booths, although I did pick up a couple of cute things for Carrie at the local consignment shop. (I think I may be a kids’ clothes junkie.)

Oh, and I picked up a halloween costume for Carrie today. I feel a little guilty for not making her a costume, but I don’t think I could buy fabric and a pattern for that price and it’s really cute too!

Knitty and Knitting

Sarah Knitting

There are quite a few things in the new fall Knitty that appeal to me. I think the only thing that I might knit soon, though, might be this scarf. (So many projects, so little time…)

Oh, and after sleeping on it, I’ve decided that Devan is fine as is. Now I’m trying to decide whether to block before assembling. I can go either way on this. Blocking makes things nicer to seam up, but it’s not as though I need to stretch the pieces to the measurements they’re supposed to be, so technically I could garment block. Or I could just sew it up and let Carrie wear it and not block it at all…

And in other knitting news, I just finished up a hat. Yeah, you know how I pretend to be normal and all? It’s all an act. I’m really a total geek at heart, and in a previous life I used to go to, um, Star Trek conventions and so I guess it’s not all that surprising that I had to knit myself a hat for the premiere of Serenity. If you haven’t seen it, Firefly (the sadly short-lived TV show that the movie is based on) is an absolutely fabulous show.

Knit-Picking

Sarah Knitting

devon_fsTN.jpgThe pieces are all knit for Devan, but I’m waffling over the sleeves. This yarn only has one solid color stripe, the sort of magenta color, and it’s quite a short length. For the fronts of the cardigan it wasn’t a problem, but the sleeves are wider – so there are places on both sleeves where that color didn’t go all the way across a row. Since I started the sleeves in exactly the same section of the yarn pattern, they’re (almost) identical – meaning the places where the magenta color doesn’t show up on one sleeve it doesn’t on the other. Should be fine, right? Nope. Because…when you fold the sleeves in half and lay them down as though they’re attached to the sweater, the back of one matches the front of the other. (Clear as mud, right? There’s a good picture on the project page.) Anyway, I guess my choices are to: 1) ignore it, because it’s still cute; 2) rip both sleeves out and knit them in the round, eliminating the “pooling” effect of knitting back and forth; 3) rip one sleeve out and start it on the wrong side – theoretically, this would reverse the striping, but then I’d have to do my increases on the purl side and they probably wouldn’t look the same.

I think I’m over-thinking this…but I could use some advice. I’m mostly just afraid that it will look like I made a mistake, since not everyone will realize that it’s self-striping yarn and I have no control over where the colors go. In the meantime, I’m going to work on something else for a day or two so I can get some distance from the problem.