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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Not Quite Once a Day Well, we've made it to Thanksgiving with Oma and Opa in Minnesota. Baby A took her first plane ride and fell asleep after about 40 minutes of fussing... but what with the "get there 2 hours early" and "pay to check any baggage, including a portable crib" and the "stand in huge lines at security"... and my personal favorite, TAKE OFF A BABY'S SHOES AT SECURITY. Because that's the new terrorist threat... explosives in BABY SHOES. Sheesh. So anyway, we all made it to Oma and Opa's, and have been having the best time. Oma gave Baby A a cookie, Opa let her play with his glasses, and they gave her an old cell phone (battery removed) because they felt bad that she couldn't play with the "real" cell phones. In other words, they have been spoiling her rotten, and she has been loving it. They have quite a lot of experience spoiling grandkids... here's a picture of Baby A and all of her cousins. She is the 10th grandkid on this side of the family (and there's 1 great-grandbaby!)  And there has been a bit of knitting while Oma and Opa have been Baby A-sitting.... I'm working away at the back of my grey cardi, and am making decent progress:  I'll probably be ready to start the shaping for the armscyes by the time I get home, which is good because I didn't bring the pattern with me. I just know I need to keep going until I get to row 93... I'm on row 47 now, but I probably won't get much knitting time tomorrow or Friday. 0 comments || # Thursday, November 19, 2009 Delivery DifferencesDuring the day in our neighborhood, we usually see 3 different delivery options - USPS, UPS, and FedEx. All drive trucks, all come to various doors dropping off things, and all are usually men.So can anyone explain why Abby completely ignores FedEx, barks a few times at USPS, and goes COMPLETELY INSANE at UPS? I'm not talking about a little barking - she'll chase the UPS truck through the neighborhood if we see it while we're on a walk - she'll bark at UPS trucks she sees on the road when we're in the car... what did UPS ever do to Abby? And how can she tell the difference between the UPS truck and the FedEx truck? Is the little doggy logo on the FedEx truck part of some kind of doggy-FedEx peace settlement? 0 comments || # Tuesday, November 17, 2009 UghS has the ick, and yesterday poor Baby A spent a grumpy couple of hours feeling miserable with a fever. She seems to be recovering a whole lot faster than S, thankfully......but now my throat is a bit sore. At least we don't leave for Minnesota until next Tuesday. 0 comments || # Sunday, November 15, 2009 Actual Knitting!If you head outside today, watch for low-flying pigs - the Redskins FINALLY won a game, Baby A slept through the entire night for the first time in MONTHS (stupid teeth), and I managed to finish the left front of my new knitting project! I'm working off of a Sirdar pattern (Donegal Tweed DK 8336), which I had purchased in the very early days of my knitting. When I pulled out the pattern to cast on, I noticed that it had (shudder) drop shoulders. Ew. EW EW EW. I'm sure drop shoulders look good on someone out there, but NOT ME, unless I'm dressing up as a linebacker. So a little bit of math and a few experiments yielded a satisfactory set-in sleeve design.  The yarn is the scrumptious grey cormo cross I bought at Rhinebeck 2008, and apparently a love of cormo runs in the family:  And while I watched football and "knit" with Baby A, Abby and S took it upon themselves to absorb some excess solar energy. 
0 comments || # Thursday, November 12, 2009 Canine RoombaBaby A spends a lot of time "eating" various finger foods. By "eating," I mean she holds them out and feeds them to Abby, or sometimes scatters bits of food all over the living room.Poor Abby. Whenever she sees Baby A's little snack container come out, she knows she'll have to spend a good long time meticulously inspecting every inch of floor for any errant cheerios. It's hard work, but someone has to do it... 
1 comments || # Tuesday, November 10, 2009 In Which I Resort to a Book Review I've spent the last week or so devouring "Will in the World." It's billed as a biography of William Shakespeare, but as so much of Shakespeare's life is speculation and guesswork, the book ends up being more a chronicle of the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked. The author speculates about how the events and attitudes of Elizabethan England may have influenced Shakespeare's writing. Although a familiarity with Shakespeare's most popular plays is definitely helpful in following the author's arguments for how each work was shaped, it is by no means necessary. When I started this book, I thought it would be a waste with too much speculation - "Shakespeare may have done... may have seen... may have thought...." But as the narrative unfolded, I became entranced with how the author wove together a narrative based equally on Shakespeare's words and the historical records of the world in which he lived. All in all, a fascinating read! 0 comments || # Monday, November 09, 2009 Sleepless in DCWe're on day 3 of hard-core teething and accompanying lack of sleep. In the 12 hours that Baby A was "in bed" last night, we spent about 6 in the rocking chair trying to snuggle through the teething pain. I'm so tired that I'm actually looking forward to going to the dentist today because at least I'll get to lie down in the chair.Right - enough complaining. Let's think happy thoughts. Like "homemade, whole grain graham crackers." MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. 
0 comments || # Saturday, November 07, 2009 The Power of Handmade BlanketsMy maternal grandmother died when I was in elementary school, but I remember her crocheting blanket after blanket whenever she was sitting down.She made one such blanket for her granddaughter some 30 years ago. Do you think she imagined that her great-granddaughter would eventually be wrapped in that same blanket? 
0 comments || # Friday, November 06, 2009 The Knitter's DilemmaLast night, S came upstairs and asked if he could have "one of those Mr. Rodgers sweaters, you know, with the opening in the front." A quick peruse of Ravelry led to a couple of possibilities, but S basically wants a plain cardigan that's "not too thick and warm." Also, no "cables or ribbings or whatever makes it bumpy."I pointed out that we could probably buy him a nice, plain sweater for less than what it will cost to buy the yarn for me to knit it for him. Plus, that way I wouldn't have to gouge out my eyes with my knitting needles on the 4 billionth stitch in a plain stockinette 42" chest cardigan. He looked at me and said, "but then it wouldn't have that extra special Maevie touch!" We're going to start looking at yarns. 0 comments || # Thursday, November 05, 2009 Start them EarlyKnit Happens is a lovely yarn shop - not only do they sell meSo is it any wonder that Baby A has unique preferences when it comes to toys? She could, of course, play with the toys that have been carefully designed to entertain a baby of her age. She could also help Elspeth play with some yarn.  It was at this point that poor Elspeth realized that she could no longer pull yarn from the ball. After a brief tug-of-war, I managed to wrest the yarn from Baby A and return it to its rightful owner.  On my own knitting front, there is slow but steady progress on my raglan pullover. I'm weaving in the ends and getting ready to pick up for the collar - good times. I'm forcing myself to complete all of the finishing on this sweater and on Wild Apple before I even wind yarn and swatch for my next project. Well, maybe I'll do a quick swatch so I can wash it and let it dry... but I can't START the project until I get all of the finishing done. Do sleeves count as "starting?" What if the swatch is a sleeve? 
0 comments || # Wednesday, November 04, 2009 Dear Sleep,I miss you. Let's make plans to see each other soon!Love, Maeve Seriously, last night I fell asleep before 9. SIGH. Such wild and crazy nights make for very poor knitting blog fodder, and leads one to scrape the proverbial barrel. My big plans for today? Puppy walks, Knit Happens, and an emergency trip to the pet store for cat food. Barrel, you have been scraped. 0 comments || # Tuesday, November 03, 2009 Three in a Row!Today's post is brought to you by the phrase "sleep deprivation." Yeah - after 4-5 very scattered hours of sleep last night, I'm barely coherent. Thank goodness for stockinette in the round.And thank goodness for crappy quality cell phone pics that show off a hand-knit covered baby. I love colder weather!  Oh, and for all you Virginians, VOTE!!!! Baby A and I went this morning, and she helped by trying to eat the paper ballot. 0 comments || # Monday, November 02, 2009 Managing to Post 2 Days in a RowNot that I've got much. No knitting progress to speak of thanks to spending naptime doing chores. Only thing exciting today so far has been a trip to Target that involved finding S boxes of Count Chocula, Booberry, and Frankenberry cereals.But I can finally answer a burning question.... what happens when you routinely expose impressionable babies to yarn store Yeah, that's right. They go straight for the good stuff. 
0 comments || # Sunday, November 01, 2009 New Leaf for NovemberI'm not sure that I can fully commit to the 1 post a day idea for November since we're traveling for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to at least post more often than once a month. Perhaps once I'm knitting something more interesting than a top-down raglan in the round in stockinette, I'll be more motivated.Because my current knitting is so boring, I'll attempt to distract with cute baby with handknits. I made this sweater for her LAST year, but either Scandinavian babies are gigantic, or the sizes were rather off, because it fits her THIS year. (and she's outgrowing 12 month size clothes, so it's not that she's small.) But WOOT! Handknits that still fit!  (and yes, that is her chicken. poor chicken!) She is also just about standing and walking on her own, so Daddy has to learn to stop leaving tempting closet doors open. And see her sweater? Another handknit from last year that still fits. This one was a gift, though, so it's even better!  Handknits were decidedly not in evidence yesterday for Halloween - before it started raining, it was in the 70s, so we were able to stage a bit of a photoshoot with our little jack-o-lanterns.  And yes, we did force Abby into her bee costume again. And she hated it just as much as each previous year. But if she's going to insist on charging the door like a barking maniac every time kids come for candy, she's going to have to put up with dressing up so she's less scary. I still think she's plotting to kill S in his sleep in repayment for the indignity. One of our neighbors dressed up their dog like a princess... pink sparkly "dress" and everything... so I don't think Abby has it too bad! 
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