Sarah – Page 88 – Sarah's Journal

Stripes, Cables and Intarsia

Sarah Crafts May 9, 2006

Makes for a colorful knitting entry, no?

From left to right: Carrie’s striped vest, Carrie’s cabled poncho and Andrew’s sailboat sweater.

The striped vest turned out to be a really cute way to use up stash yarn. I think I could make about a dozen more of these and still have leftover yarn. Stash diving is fun – I was pretty proud to start a new project that was free!

The cabled poncho is something I actually finished last May, but I never blogged about it or took pictures of it. I was looking for something to throw over a little sleeveless dress Carrie was wearing the other morning, as it was going to be hot later but it was a bit chilly when we started out. This was peeking out of a pile of mostly finished stuff in my craft room, so I grabbed it and off we went!

The sailboat sweater was a gift for Carrie’s newest cousin. I finally got to meet him on Sunday, and what a cutie! I hope he likes the little fish on the sleeve. Every kids’ sweater should have a surprise on the sleeve.

Finally, I’m stuck with what to do next. Actually, I’m working on a really quick project that I sort of “owe” somebody, but when that’s done I don’t know what to do. I have a couple of socks-in-progress that I could pick up and do something with:

The purple one is really too small, so I’d have to rip it out to before the gusset increases (it’s toe-up) and add another inch. I even tried it on my mom’s foot, figuring I could finish them for her if they fit her, but no such luck. The orange one is probably fine, but I abandoned it for some reason I can’t remember. There are two others I know I’m going to rip out completely so I didn’t even bother taking pictures. Or I could start a new pair of socks entirely. Or I could pick another square for my Aran afghan. (Oops, I just realized I never posted the pictures of finished block #7 for that. Oh well, it’s too dark now.)

See, this is the problem with working on one project at a time. The pressure to pick the next “perfect” project is just too great. Sigh.

SockapalOOOza socks!

Sarah SockapalOOOza May 8, 2006

Look what I got in the mail today!

They fit perfectly, are extremely soft, and I just love the colors. Plus they have a pretty little cable alternating with the ribbing. This is the very first pair of handknit socks I own that I didn’t knit, and I think they fit better than any I’ve made! Thanks, Auntie Pita!

Also, Silke got the socks I sent all the way to Germany a couple of days ago. (Here is Google’s translation of her site. Um, I think the translator needs a little work. But since I never learned German, it’s all I’ve got!)

I definitely want to do this again. It’s a lot more fun (and motivating) to knit socks for someone else, and especially so when you know yet another person is making special socks for you at the same time!

Birthday Cakes and Gardening

Sarah Cakes May 7, 2006

I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, it’s just been a busy week. Denis was on a business trip until early Friday morning, so I was playing single mom to a toddler and two dogs. I honestly don’t know how people do it. I was desperate to have another adult watch Carrie for five minutes so I could have just five little minutes to do something by myself! The other thing I did this week was make a cake for my great-great-aunt’s 90th birthday party:

It’s not a great picture, but it turned out far better than I’d anticipated. If you don’t count the writing. I suck at writing on cakes. I can practice on wax paper and have it turn out perfectly, but the pressure of writing on the actual cake…I just can’t handle it. I actually ended up scraping off the writing and re-icing the top of the cake three times before I gave up and let it be whatever it was going to be.

As a gift, since my aunt is an avid gardener, I gave Carrie a watering can and let her have fun in the flowers I put in our front boxes. Most of the water ended up on her dress, soaked into her socks, and covering the random ants crawling around, but I got some really cute shots. I made the background on this one black and white so the focus was on Carrie and the flowers.

Bad Day

Sarah General May 4, 2006

This is how my morning has gone so far:

12:03 AM – Go to bed, realizing that reading a suspenseful book before bed when home alone is a bad idea.
1:22 AM – Must. Fall. Asleep. Soon.
5:42 AM – Wake to baby crying and making her “parched” noise that means she’s thirsty. Too tired to walk downstairs to get water. Offer to nurse instead.
5:57 AM – Encourage baby to go back to sleep despite obvious light outside and loud birds chirping. Damn birds. Baby insists, “Per! Per!”. Change diaper.
5:59 AM – Drop back into bed.
6:30 AM – Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.
6:37 AM – Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.
6:44 AM – Alarm goes off. Realize that dogs need to be taken out and fed soon. Hit snooze.
6:51 AM – Alarm goes off. Fine. Fine, whatever, I don’t need sleep, I’ll just make coffee.
7:10 AM – Showered, dressed, etc. Go downstairs.
7:25 AM – Dogs are fed, outed, etc. Start unloading dishwasher.
7:26 AM – Break two glasses all over counter, floor, and inside of dishwasher. Shit.
7:35 AM – All visible pieces of glass picked up off floor and out of dishwasher, counters wiped down. Don’t know what else to do about dishwasher. Thinking I should use the wet Swiffer to make sure there are no tiny pieces left on floor.
7:36 AM – Aaaargh! Dog pee all over tile in front of closet Swiffer is in. Shouldn’t have hit the snooze button that last time.
7:37 AM – Out of paper towels to clean dog pee. More in basement. God, I need coffee.
7:38 AM – As long as I’m down here, better move the laundry from last night before I forget and it gets all mildewy in the washer.
7:44 AM – Tile cleaned. Kitchen floor Swiffered. What on earth do I do about the dishwasher?
7:45 AM – Contemplate options: vacuum out dishwasher? Re-run dishwasher? Take out all dishes and rewash by hand?
7:46 AM – Decide to ignore remainder of dishes in dishwasher until it’s a decent hour to call mom and ask what to do. Start coffee.
7:48 AM – Blog.

It can only get better, right? Is the coffee ready yet?

Holy Legos!

Sarah General May 1, 2006

I asked Carrie’s Uncle Mike to show her how to build something cooler out of legos than I can come up with – because no matter how much I try I can only build the things that are pictured on the box, or a simple little wall. In response, he sent me this link. All I can say is…wow. There are people out there who have a lot more time on their hands than I do. And a lot more talent when it comes to building with legos. Not to mention, really, a lot more legos in the first place. Did you know there were clear legos? Why didn’t I have clear legos when I was a kid? Maybe if I had I’d be able to build cooler things!

Lots Of Progress!

Sarah Crafts April 29, 2006

Remember the doll bassinet I mentioned making for Carrie? Well, it’s done! I still need to make the little toddler-sized diaper bag to go with it, but all things in good time.

Some of the neat details are that I actually quilted the blanket and stuffed the pillow – the pattern called for each of those to be one layer of batting and two layers of fabric. I also skipped sewing a piece of cardboard into the bottom. That would make a well-constructed, washable project completely un-washable, plus when the cardboard inevitably got bent it wouldn’t look so great.

I started a simple stripey sleeveless sweater for Carrie to wear for the spring and summer. It actually went so quickly that I finished the back in two days. The benefit of no sleeves is that I can’t succumb to second sleeve syndrome. And the best part? I dove into my stash and came up with the yarn! Yep, if I keep doing stripey projects like this and the bunny, I’ll have knit through my stash in, oh, maybe 73 years?

Don’t be fooled into thinking that because you can’t see all those ends that I’ve already hidden them. They’re just tucked under the edges. But that’s because I’m planning on sewing them into the seams, really!

And although I am trying to stick to doing one project at a time, after I started the sweater for Carrie I got the yarn I had ordered for a Mother’s Day gift, so I’m switching between those two for now. Luckily, the mystery project is pretty small, since I only have a couple of weeks to finish it!

I also finished the June cross-stitch and brought that and November to the framer’s for stretching the other day. I’m on a roll for finishing things, and it’s a lot more fun than having tons of unfinished projects haunting me from my knitting bag. Now I just have to get up the nerve to pick FLAK back up and see if I need to rip the sleeve back…maybe after I’ve finished another couple of projects…

18 month well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up April 27, 2006

Vital stats:
18 months, 3 days old
21 lbs. 13 oz.
33″ tall

Carrie only gained 4 ounces from three months ago, although there didn’t seem to be too much of a concern over that – she’s still tracking along the 25th percentile curve for weight and around the 80th for height. This explains why all of the pants that fit her waist are more like capris, and the pants that are long enough fall down over her teeny-tiny rear. I should have such problems.

Only two shots today, which weren’t too traumatic. Carrie was pretty much mollified with a sticker and a cup of animal crackers. Oh, and the nurse got a good look in Carrie’s mouth, and that fourth 15-month molar is finally coming in (which explains the last couple of wakeful nights). So now Carrie has 11 teeth – we’re more than halfway there! (Right? A full set of baby teeth is 20, isn’t it?)

We were “warned” not to push Carrie too quickly with her letters and numbers when we mentioned that she’s starting to recognize and say them. Um, I have no problem not pushing her – in fact, until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea she even knew what letters and numbers were. I certainly haven’t done anything to force that knowledge into her head. Since she does seem to be interested now, I’m giving her opportunities to count and I bought a magnetic letter set so she could play with that while I’m doing stuff in the kitchen – but it’s not like I’m planning on drilling her on letters and numbers for hours every day!

Stuck Valves And Sousa

Sarah Music April 26, 2006

I think I need to bring my horn to the repair shop. The trigger that switches from the F horn to the B flat horn isn’t working properly. I thought it was just that I hadn’t oiled the valve recently enough (though I knew I had) but my band director thinks it’s actually something mechanical about the valve. Sigh. I really hope it doesn’t cost too much, but it needs fixing for sure – there were a few times I was scrambling to use a different fingering since the valve just wouldn’t work. That’s fine for slow passages or notes that I have a rest before playing, but not so great for eighth-note runs!

And speaking of band, we got our music for the June concert tonight. And we’re playing my favorite song of all time again! (You really need to read that last sentence with a healthy dose of sarcasm.) I think at this point I can play Stars and Stripes Forever with my eyes closed. Heck, I can even play it with only three out of four valves working on my horn!

April Showers

Sarah General April 25, 2006

On Sunday we all went to a baby shower for Tina’s daughter Lauren. It was a lovely shower, and Lisa and I had fun making the little jungle animal cupcakes for it. I gave Tina a little sweater set I knitted a couple of months ago but never blogged about since I wanted it to be a surprise!

Oh, and Jenny posted pictures of the shower including a few of Carrie after eating half of a chocolate-frosted cupcake. Amazingly enough, no clothes were harmed in the eating of that cupcake.

Eighteen Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates April 24, 2006

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are 18 months old! We celebrated by going to your last session of Babies Love Books at the library. As of today all of our scheduled activities are over for the summer, with the notable exception of playgroup.

This morning you absolutely shocked me by picking up your letter “D” alphabet block, pointing to the letter, and saying and signing the letter “D”. Then I showed you “A”, “B” and “C”, and you named those as well. I stopped there, because I’m a little frightened. Aren’t you too young to start recognizing your letters?!? You’re starting to really get good at counting as well, and will often count your toes when you’re barefoot. Sometimes you end up with 6 toes on a foot, but I think it’s just because you can’t wait to get to “8, 9, 10!” I have to admit, I haven’t kept very good track of what new signs you know this month, but you’re starting to try to sign the letters and numbers, and we just got the next set of Signing Time DVDs with all kinds of animals on them so I bet you’ll learn a lot over the next few weeks. I can think of 100 words you say now – I know there are some I couldn’t remember when I wrote them all down though, so there’s probably quite a few more. I can’t believe that just three months ago you barely said three words.

Now that the weather is warmer, we’ve been going outside and playing with chalk and bubbles, and swinging on your swing – it’s very cute when you say “wheeee!” every time I push the swing. The funniest thing in the world to you is when we’re on the deck with the bubbles and the dogs, and Molly jumps up on her hind legs and snaps at the bubbles. You love being outside so much that when I have to take the dogs out and it’s raining, and I leave you indoors, you cry like your little heart is broken in two. I think I’m going to have to get you rain boots and a slicker so you can go out and play in the puddles.

“No!” has become a rather frequently used word in your vocabulary. Sometimes you get in a mood where you’ll say “no” to everything, even things that you want. Luckily, it’s still cute. We’ll see how cute it still is in a few months!

You really want to do everything yourself now. You point to your chest and say “tee” – which is your name for yourself apparently – when you want to do it instead of letting me. So far you can get your pants on most of the way, your shirt on with a little guidance, and your socks on pretty much on your own. You blow your nose – and toss the used tissue! – and wash your face on your own, and you get a turn at brushing your teeth and hair after I do it. And if it’s bath night, you can feed yourself an entire container of yogurt!

I love hearing you wake up every day. You almost immediately start calling for “Moddy” and “Mercy”, and you talk to your dolls and laugh at whatever they say back to you. You’re always so happy to see me when I come to get you each morning, and your smile brightens up my morning too!

Love, Mommy