Month: October 2006

My First Blow-Out

Sarah General

We had a fun adventure today. We had some errands to run, and the fastest way to get where we were going was to get on the Thruway for one exit. It was pretty windy (and cold) so I was fighting a little to keep the car steady. All of a sudden, I heard this big woosh and felt the car pull hard to the right. Apparently, you can really tell in a four wheel drive car when you suddenly get a flat tire! (I actually drove on a flat tire on the expressway for about 20 miles once in my old car, because it didn’t handle any differently at all and I had absolutely no idea I had a flat.)

I was sooooooo glad Denis was in the car, because even though I know how to change a tire, I couldn’t possibly have loosened those lug nuts myself. And did I mention it was cold? It would have been so much fun sitting on the Thruway waiting for a tow truck to come along and change a tire for me if I’d been with Carrie by myself. I didn’t even have my knitting! (Or gloves for that matter, but really, the knitting is way more important.)

Luckily, it was a clean puncture and I got us off the road really fast, so it was only $20 to have the tire fixed at Sears. Because if I understand correctly, four wheel drive vehicles have to have similar wear on all four tires, so with the 22,000+ miles I have on the car I would have had to replace all four of them.

Carrie kept asking me through the open tailgate, “Mommy, you ‘k?” as I was man-handling (woman-handling?) the spare out of the trunk and putting the flat tire back in. I was pretty surprised how not freaked out she was by the whole thing. Her biggest concern was that we were stopped, and she was still in her carseat, in her coat, and really, why on earth was she still in her carseat, in her coat no less, when the car wasn’t moving?!?

Must. Knit. Faster!

Sarah Knitting

Ack! It’s 36° right now – that’s 36° Fahrenheit, not Celsius! It was 64 this morning, just barely sweater weather. And now it’s almost freezing and Carrie doesn’t have a hat yet, because I just started knitting it yesterday. It’s snowing just a half an hour west of here! For heaven’s sake, it’s only October 12th! This is all because Carrie’s Halloween costume is the thinnest, flimsiest thing ever, isn’t it? (And it has wings, so she can’t actually wear her snowsuit over top of it.)

But back to the hat: I’ve gotten to the crown decreases, but it’s almost midnight and my head hurts trying to figure out where to decrease. See, I’m using a pattern, but I couldn’t get gauge (by a lot) and I adjusted the stitch count, and now I have to do some complicated math…and…I think I have to sleep on it. Not to mention that even if I finished the knitting tonight it’s a striped hat and there are at least four thousand ends to hide.

Poor Carrie. I wonder if last years’ hat still fits?

Mommy’s Little Brass Player

Sarah Carolyn

Last night I got out my horn to practice for tonight’s rehearsal. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I hadn’t practiced at all in the two weeks since the last rehearsal. In fact, I hadn’t really played at home at all since…springtime? Maybe? Practicing is not my forté.

Anyway. Carrie was fascinated by the horn, and kept sticking her face up into the bell and saying “Hi Mommy!” into it. Finally she announced “Mine turn!” and tried to grab the horn away from me. So I showed her how to buzz her lips against the mouthpiece. Then I put the mouthpiece back into the horn and held it up to her mouth. And she buzzed perfectly and made a really nice sounding tone come out of it! She did it several other times in between playing with her toys, so it wasn’t an accident.

I wish they made kid-sized horns like they have kid-sized violins. I’d be totally willing to indulge her interest in the horn if it weren’t a) much too big for her to hold and b) much too expensive for me to replace now that we only have one income. I wonder if they still even start kids on the horn in fourth grade anymore?

“You ‘K?”

Sarah Carolyn

There are times I wish I had a tape recorder on the baby monitor. This is the conversation I heard this morning before I went in to get Carrie:

“Whoa, be careful! You ‘K?”
“Yeah, I ‘K.”
“Need kiss? (mwah!)”
“Thank you!”

I guess she was either talking to one of the triplets or was having two of them talk to each other.

Oh, and Carrie learned the word “mine” over the weekend. Now everything is “mine”. “Mine socks”, “mine apple”, “mine, mine, mine!” I guess it had to happen eventually! (She does know it’s “Mommy’s knitting”, though.)

2mm Needles, How I Love Thee…

Sarah Knitting

Everything I’m knitting lately seems to use my size US 0/2mm needles. So many things, in fact, that I have to plan carefully the order in which I’m going to work on things so that I have a size 0 needle available when I need it. I’m thinking I should order another KnitPick’s size 0 circular or two – they’re certainly cheap enough to have extras! So what are all these fine-gauge projects?

A teeny-tiny hat and the most ridiculously cute booties ever:

baby_set.jpg

The yarn is some leftover Fortissima Cotton Colori, which is discontinued, but it is the softest cotton sock yarn ever. I have one more skein in these pretty baby colors, and I’ll be so sad when it’s gone. (For the record, one skein yielded a preemie hat, a newborn hat, and a pair of newborn booties, with about 6″ to spare.) And before anyone gets any ideas, these were a gift for a baby shower this past Sunday.

Another Devan sweater:

devan2_started.jpg

I didn’t take great notes the first time around, so I actually knit this much on smaller needles, realized it was much too stiff and figured out I had used a different size needle last time. Rrrrrrip-it! But using size 2 needles for the body (it’s still size 0 for the rolled hem) made a huge difference in the drape.

And last, but not least, the doomed entrelac socks:


The pattern, my friends, sucks. If I didn’t know how to knit socks in my sleep, and hadn’t knit entrelac before, there’s no possible way I could knit these socks. The pattern isn’t the problem, though, it’s the yarn. Who could possibly tell, looking at this skein, that the colors changed every single inch?!? This makes it impossible for there to be nice, defined squares, and instead I’m left with this variegated mess. I still want to make this pattern, and I still want to use this yarn, but they are not meant to be together. Better to figure this out now than before any long-term commitments were made…

Socktoberfest Questions (and Answers!)

Sarah Knitting

Lolly posted some questions for the Socktoberfest participants. I would have answered them days ago, except that life keeps getting in the way! So, without further ado:

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I taught myself how to make socks with the book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I admit I saw the same yarn on someone else’s blog and was overcome by an urge to make myself the same fabulous green stripey socks!

What was your first pair? How have they “held up” over time?
I made these socks in February, 2003. They were a tad bit loose, so they’re not the first handknit socks I reach for in the drawer, and they tend to get a little less wear than the other socks I’ve knit. That being said, they’ve been worn and washed many, many times and they still look great. (And I *gasp* dry them in the dryer…)

What would you have done differently?
Measured better? I’m really picky about socks being too long and bunching up in my shoes. I didn’t know that until after I knit my first pair of socks, though!

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I haven’t really found a sock yarn I haven’t enjoyed. My favorites are probably Austerman Step, with aloe right in the yarn, and (of course) Koigu. I also really like the wool/cotton blends I’ve used, though I haven’t actually made myself a pair of those so I don’t know how they hold up.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I knit socks with the Magic Loop method. I used 2 circulars for the first few pairs but found the extra needles hanging off the sock to be annoying. I also didn’t like having to sort out which end I needed to pick up next. (And forget DPNs. I consider them a necessary evil for a very few things, but you won’t catch me using them by choice!)

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
Um, I have no preference. Short-row is faster, but flaps are more easily customized. I’ve done both types on both toe-up and cuff-down socks, and I think they each have their uses. I tend to use short-row when making socks for other people because I think they fit a wider range of heel shapes.

How many pairs have you made?
Counting the “secret” pairs I haven’t published on my blog yet? How about the tiny baby socks I made for Carrie that she only wore once before she outgrew them? Including all of those, 19 pairs. I think – well, somewhere in the 18-20 range, anyway. Many of those can be seen on my sock page. Note that I’m not counting the (at least) four pair of socks in various states on needles in my craft room…

Tune in tomorrow when I should have a picture of my latest sock-in-progress, which I will then be ripping out mercilessly. It’s a very important lesson in choosing the right yarn for the right pattern, which I did not do. It’s also a very important lesson in trusting your instincts and not continuing to knit when you know it’s not working out!

Apple Picking!

Sarah Carolyn

This morning we went apple picking with Nana and Poppy. Carrie had a fabulous time riding in the wagon, riding on Poppy’s shoulders, picking and eating apples, and trying to pick up giant pumpkins.

20061007_trees.jpg

For more pictures of our apple-picking adventures, click the picture above or just click here! (Kodak EasyShare Gallery, sign-in required.)

No Willpower

Sarah Knitting

Yesterday Carrie and I went to a come-and-play class at the recreation center. The recreation center is right next door to the local yarn shop. We walked over, really just to show off her orange cabled sweater (I had bought the yarn for it there).

I came home with some really fabulous sock yarn (isn’t it all fabulous?) and a kit for a felted backpack. No willpower. In my defense, the kit was packaged really temptingly, and it’s all my favorite colors…

Tasty Stuffed Squash Recipe

Sarah Food

Since we’re done with the first group of freezer meals but just put the second batch in the freezer we’re winging dinners this week. For some reason I was craving squash, so Carrie and I went to the farmers’ market this afternoon and picked up some acorn squash and carrots, then headed to the grocery store for couscous and garbanzo beans.

If you like stuffed acorn squash, try this recipe. It was delicious! I added some finely chopped red onion and some diced apples to it just for fun, and I didn’t quite have enough cumin – I had no idea I was nearly out of it. The stuffing all on it’s own is quite good. Couscous isn’t one of my favorite foods, but mixed with all the veggies and raisins it was fabulous.

That probably concludes my creative cooking for the next few weeks. Except maybe some sort of zucchini something-or-other, since I have two largish zucchini that need something done to them soon. Hmmm….where are those muffin tins…?

Need More Hours

Sarah General

I’m starting to feel like I just don’t have enough hours in the day. There are so many things I should be doing right now that I just can’t figure out where to start. Obviously, the fact that I’m not currently doing any of the things that need to be done isn’t really helping the situation. And the sad part is that they’re all mostly self-imposed things, so I’m doing this to myself.

It would help if Carrie would actually go back to napping three straight hours – now I’m lucky if she naps for an hour and a half. This is an abrupt change, and I’m really hoping it’s only temporary, but considering she’s the last nearly-two-year-old I know who actually sleeps slept so long I’m guessing it’s permanent. I also know that I’m lucky she even still naps – I am was blessed with a really good sleeper. I’m also guessing the waking up at 7:15 thing is not temporary either – it was closer to 8:00 just last week – leaving me with no time to even shower in the morning. Trust me, that’s a bad thing. Aside from the unmanageable hair that makes it really obvious when I haven’t showered, I spend the day in a fog if I don’t get to stand under the hot water for at least a few minutes. I’ve started looking forward to gym days just so I can take a shower when I’m done working out.

Without my nice hot leisurely morning shower and without my customary break time when I can do constructive (crafty or otherwise) things, spending every day with a toddler who has more of an opinion about how her day should go and is becoming much more vocal about getting her way is starting to feel a little overwhelming. Then again, I thought that last year when she dropped to one nap, so I’m sure it will even out eventually.

In the meantime, I guess I’d better start shopping for Christmas gifts, because until I can find a way to sew while actively watching and playing with Carrie none of my remaining gift plans are going to work out.