Trippin'

Road trippin', that is.
Sara and I are off to AZ tomorrow. Lil' sis is off to grad school, taking only what will fit in the car. I'm just along for the ride (24 or so hours!) and then I will fly back.

I think I am ready for the road trip fun.

I've got Red Vines and an iPod filled with music and audiobooks (perfect with Sara's new car stereo!).

Our audiobook choices are:
First Test by Tamora Pierce
Mister Monday by Garth Nix
Gossamer by Lois Lowry


I also have socks started especially with mindless car knitting in mind.

(for details, click the picture)
I got this yarn with Project Spectrum's purple in mind, but there is so much blue and pink... is it purple enough to even count?


There is the possibility of a post from the road. We will have to see how it all plays out.

Diggin' Diggers

We are in the process of building a new deck which will wrap around the front of our house. A concrete crew came yesterday to demolish our front step, and came back this morning to dig footings for the new step and deck. They brought not one, but two "diggers".

This is how we ate breakfast:


The Bud has his own digger too:


He floored me at one point by running to get (with no prompting) his copy of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.

Kids make so many connections. It's amazing what is going on in those little heads!


It's hard to believe it has been 21 months:

I thought it was about time to update the growing video - the last time was January. Click here or the link in the sidebar.

Still Savoring...

I'm still savoring my HP that I picked up after midnight on "the night" so no spoilers for me, please.
I think I am subconsciously going very slowly knowing that this is it, there is no more. Book 6 I had finished the very next day. But I didn't have the Bud at that point (at least not outside my body - I was pregnant at the time).

We were also pretty busy this weekend running...



and running.



There was time for some digging...



and playing with my favorite nephew, the birthday boy.



And time to finish these:

I started these at the beginning of April for Project Spectrum. For some reason I kept getting distracted by other projects. I was very excited to cast on for these, but shortly afterward, I didn't like how the colors were playing out. Now after finishing, I have grown to like them. I think they will get a lot of wear.

I also had a little time to test out Calorimetry

I may make another of these for fall out of a different yarn. It's so fun and quick.


Now I am off to do a little more savoring.

I'm addicted

I'm officially addicted to the Sweet Baby Cap by Gro.
It's so cute and pointy.
I have been wanting to make this pattern for a little while. But I wanted to do it on 2 circular needles and I didn't have them in the right size. Also if I was going to buy needles, I wanted to get good ones (addi Turbos), and I needed time to justify the purchase. I finally sucked it up and plunked down the cash for 2 addi Turbo US 1 circs. I got one regular and one lace because they are different colors, and it worked well for me. I made the first one, and it turned out a little small since I used US 1 needles for the whole hat instead of changing to US 2 for after the edge. It would be a fine newborn size for a winter baby.

So for the second one, I sucked it up again and bought two US 2 sized addi Turbo circs, and changed needle sizes according to the pattern.

I think I may be a 2-circ convert - I didn't have the problems I have had on my socks with DPNs with hiding my needle breaks. I had taken to spiraling my needle breaks around with DPNs, which worked, but was a little annoying.


One change I made to the pattern was the ties - I like the look of the ties as described for this hat.
I think the twisty ties look pretty with the koigu - like long, skinny skeins.

After I finished the second hat, I wanted to immediately cast on for a third - they are addicting. But I restrained myself and put my new circs on my camo socks instead. They are both in the toe decreases now and should be off the needles soon.


Happy Harry Potter to everyone tonight at midnight.!

The Plan

There is a new movie in the sidebar (or click here) - it's quite short, in fact I think the titles are longer than the actual footage. I shot more video, but I really think you will get the idea of what was happening from the short clip.
Honestly we did not do anything to bring this on, but we were reinforcing it with laughter and taking video.
I'm positive the ability to do this well is genetic. I honed my skill with instruction from my cousin Randy - however I prefer the two palms on the mouth method (better control of air flow). My father is a master and uses no hands, just a magic, invisible elephant that squeezes under the couch (sorry I revealed your secret, Dad).

Natural Smile?

Netflix now has a "watch now" feature. You can stream all kinds of things up to a certain number of hours each month. It doesn't work for Macs (my computer), but Davin has a PC, so he was watching The Human Face with John Cleese. It's an informational series about, you guessed it, the human face. I only saw bits, but what I did see was very interesting.
Part of it was about a study involving yearbook photos. Apparently if you have a natural smile in your yearbook photo, it is an indicator of happiness later in life.
So of course I grabbed the nearest yearbook I could find...

...first I said "whew" and then "wow, was I cool!"


I think I have CADD (crafty attention deficit disorder) lately because I have started yet another project. I won't reveal it now, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but here is a close up teaser. (If you are super curious, you can click on the photo and see another shot in flickr)



Lastly I will introduce you to my son, Sir Elton John.

This is his second pair of sunglasses. His first pair was used in an experiment to see how far the bows would bend open.
Sadly, they did not survive.

FOs - 2, WIPs -1

No I didn't actually finish any of the socks I am working on.
Instead I have been sewing and crocheting (I can still crochet!).
I have been thinking about the last book coming out very soon, and I was inspired by Kat Knits, so I picked up a crochet hook for the first time in awhile and made a yellow ball with wings. Some might call it golden. You know, it's the thing used in that sport by those characters from that book series.

It was an amusing HP diversion.

My other finished object is a little, lined draw-string, sock project bag. It's just big enough to have a yarn cake at the bottom and a sock in progress stashed on top.


My "work in progress" is nearing completion. It is another project bag design. I just have a few finishing touches left. Sewing is a little complicated for me right now. My craft room with my sewing machine is next to the Bud's room. Sewing often makes just a bit too much noise during naps, so we will see when the finishing touches get added. The sewing I got finished happened while Davin and the Bud went out for a walk.


You may recognize the fabric for these bags from a skirt last summer.
I have a little connection to a housewares store that uses Marimekko fabric for displays. I won't tell you the name only that it rhymes with "plate and stairwell". So for most of my sewing projects I draw from my Marimekko stash. I also often end up using the same fabric for multiple projects - I have a skirt that matches my ottoman cover. :)

"ain, ain, ain, ain"
Over the weekend we took the light-rail down to the Great Mall of the United States (aka the Mall of America). Really the whole purpose was to ride the train with the Bud, but our excuse was stopping at the Lego store to pick up a flat duplo board for building.
The Bud was pretty excited about being on the train, or as he says "ain". He was saying "ain" to anyone who would listen. And now every time we walk out the door now he asks, "ain?" We may have to take another trip.

Here he is yesterday cleaning and wearing his ladybug boots.


A little shop talk
Thank you to those of you who supported my shop over the weekend.
I would love to know what you think of my stitch markers. Based on initial feedback I restocked with more color options and markers with multiple beads.

One question that I have is whether to make one marker slightly different? I have seen many sets sold with one that looks different to mark the start of a round. Personally this doesn't matter with how I end up using stitch markers. I usually only use one on a sock, so a set for me would be spread out over multiple projects.
Thoughts?

Welcome!

Welcome to those of you stopping by from Shelly's blog.
I'm still blushing!

I can't believe it, but this is my 100th post!
In honor of this landmark and some new visitors, I will take this opportunity to share 5 things about myself:

1. I started this blog originally to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and family. I am horrible at keeping in touch, especially if it means calling someone. Some call it my "phone phobia" - it's not really that bad. It just means that generally I don't choose to pick up the phone and make a call unless I have a strong need. I have gotten better. I do enjoy the fact that now I have an assistant at work who makes many of my calls for me. I love my job!

2. Speaking of jobs... I do have the best one. I am a library media specialist at a k-8 school. I teach students and staff about books, finding information and technology. So many things I love.

3. The star of the movies in the sidebar menu is my son, Radley (aka The Bud, The Budlet, or Rad Man). He cracks us up daily, and occasionally there is video footage.

4. I like to make things. Sometimes it's about a challenge, sometimes it's about having an idea and making it come to life, and sometimes it's just about keeping myself busy with something creative.

5. And for number five I will link to earlier posts... the story of Orinda and the reason for 5.

I've never done a meme before, but if you would like to "take 5 to share 5" - consider yourself tagged. :)


Edited to add:
I just realized that any embedded links in the last few posts were all linking to my own blog instead of the intended page - even though the code looked right (curse you, blogger). I think I have resolved the issue - blogger doesn't want me to think for myself apparently. I wasn't trying to artificially boost my stats, honest! :)

A Very Nice Day

When I studied in England, the highest compliment I ever heard my flat mate Wei Li from Singapore give was "very nice". And when she said it, you could tell it meant something greater, a superlative.
In that same spirit - yesterday was a very nice day.

We spent the afternoon lounging poolside.



Radley is in love with his new shoes. He woke up yesterday, and wanted to put them on right away.


In the evening the Bud went to grandma and grandpa's for the night and we did what the Phish song instructs and went to dinner and saw a movie - but not in that order.

We rarely see movies in the theater anymore, so it was tough deciding on what to go see. We have definite theories on what are "big screen" movies. Generally it's the big budget, blockbuster, action movies we think are enhanced by a big screen/theater setting. That's not to say that those would always be our favorite movies, just that they deserve a big screen and good sound. Although, I would say that there are some "vista" dramas that are "big screeners" too.
So anyway... what do we pick to be our one date movie of the summer? Why, Transformers of course. (Just in case you didn't pick up on it, that was all a lead up to say "please don't judge us for picking Transformers"). I have to say that it was very fun. There were a few times where I was struggling to maintain suspension of my disbelief, but effects were awesome. And who doesn't love Optimus Prime? Except in the movie his semi-trailer doesn't appear from nowhere when he transforms. *sigh*

After our high-brow entertainment we went to dinner at the restaurant at the new Guthrie, Cue. It was after the show had started, so the restaurant was emptier and more relaxed, and our table was outside overlooking the beautiful stone arch bridge.

Great view.
Perfect weather.
No mosquitoes.
Fabulous food.

My favorite part was the 30 year old tawny port we had with dessert - it was like buttery flowers on my tongue.

We hadn't been inside the new Guthrie building yet, so we walked up to the Endless Bridge. I was surprised that when you are inside, you don't feel like you are walking out on a huge cantilevered bridge. It just feels like a little balcony.
The night view was beautiful.


Very nice.

New Annoying Video!

I was reminded this past Sunday (ahem, you know who you are) that there hasn't been a new video in awhile.
I captured some footage today that cracked me up, so here you go. The link is in the sidebar - just a bit farther down now. Or you can click here.

Let me know your vote - is it cute or annoying? Does it get cuter or more annoying with repeat viewing?
I have to say I was thankful when Davin pulled a bait and switch and hid "the item" post-recording.


Enjoy.

Call me Tinkerbell (actually, please don't)

I have been working on my fakewalkers and the camouflage socks. I am making progress, but I have been working on a few other things too, so not that much progress.
It doesn't help that I kept trying to "just knit a few rounds" of the fakewalkers before going to bed. Not that keeping track of the pattern is very hard, it's just that when I am tired, I make mistakes. The pattern only happens every other round, so I wouldn't realize my mistake until I had come back to the pattern again. Then I would be too tired to deal with a mistake until the next day when I would tink-tink-tink (hence the title) back to fix it. It felt a little like two steps forward and one step back for awhile. Then I just decided to make a rule that I could only work on my fakewalkers during daylight hours. I am much more sane, and I just turned the heel on #1. Making that rule made the camo socks the after dark socks, so it helped me get some done there too.

One thing that has been slowing my progress down on my socks has been opening an Etsy shop. I just made my first sale today. I frequently have had crafty urges, but have reigned them in thinking what will I really do with the resulting stuff. Start an Etsy shop of course.

After I started knitting, I was frustrated with the stitch markers I was using. They were rigid and flippy. They also seemed to disturb the yarn connecting the two stitches it was in between. So I raided my beading supplies and found some beading elastic (from a creative urge many years ago) and came up with a pretty simple, lightweight design for really small needles.

I've been making a few of these during naps and have put them in my shop along with some paper tags I have made from pages of a hurt mother goose book.


In Bud news:
We had another run to Urgent Care last Thursday - lots of coughing and not wanting to eat or drink. It looks like pneumonia in the same area of the lungs again. (It helped that the radiologists finally figured out that the x-ray was backwards). Since this is the third episode (each a month apart) of what seems to be the same problem, we are going to see a pediatric pulmonologist at the beginning of August. I hope this will help us get to the bottom of things.

Over all the Bud is his happy self.
One new favorite activity is pushing his babies around the driveway.

Our new favorite word of his: Rhino (it sounds like "I know") - it's darn cute.

Happy 4th everyone!