Dye Another Day

Here's what's been doing...

My quick and dirty niddy noddy that I made from a 1" dowel and a pair of screws. I have to hit the hardware store to get some rubber washers to make it a bit more permenant.

The making of the niddy noddy led to this...



Here are the individual colors and my method:

Burgundy

1 tsp Wilton Burgundy Paste Food Coloring
1/2 c vinegar
cooked on stovetop about 40 minutes just below a simmer

Red

1 tsp Red Red Paste Food Coloring
3/4 c vinegar
cooked on stovetop about 40 minutes just below a simmer

Christmas Red

1 tsp Wilton Christmas Red Paste Food Coloring
3/4 c vinegar
cooked in crockpot on high for 2 hours

Golden Yellow

1/2 tsp Wilton Golden Yellow Paste Food Coloring
1/2 c vinegar
cooked in crockpot on high for two hours

Leaf Green

1 tsp Leaf Green Paste Food Coloring
3/4 c vinegar
cooked on stovetop about 40 minutes just below a simmer

Blue

1 tsp Blue Paste Food Coloring
3/4 c vinegar
cooked on stovetop about 40 minutes just below a simmer

Violet

1 tsp Wilton Violet Paste Food Coloring
3/4 c vinegar
cooked on stovetop about 40 minutes just below a simmer

I wrapped my skeins, soaked them in a large bucket of water with some vinegar (less than a cup) for a good 30-45 minutes before starting. The burgundy was the first one I did and I had to rinse a bit too long to get the water to run clear so I increased the vinegar for the later batches. The golden yellow was half the size of the other skeins so I lowered the amount of dye and vinegar. As I rinsed each dyed skein, I also washed them using baby shampoo 2-3 times until there was no excess dye before hanging them to dry. I'm hoping to hit the post office today or tomorrow so I can weigh them and estimate the yardage for each color.

I also found a large ziplock bag with two more skeins of Fisherman's Wool - how cool is that? Variegation, here I come...

Note: I don't have the name of the other paste food coloring in front of me - will update later

Instant Karma?

My sister reminded me that today was free iced coffee day at Dunkin' Donuts. I decided that free muddy coffee was better than no coffee, so after Michael and I were done at the playground, we walked over. Of course when I got there they were out of ice and no longer serving iced coffee. Since I had my heart set on coffee, I decided to trek over to Starbucks and get some, also the extra walking definitely didn't hurt. I walk in, the cashier asks, "Iced venti hazelnut Americano?" I smile sheepishly and say yes, then reach into my pocket and - no money. I hastily call out that I don't have my wallet and to cancel the order to which I got a resounding, "Don't worry about it, it's on us!" from the staff.

It's not the multi-million dollar lottery that I was hoping for, but I'll take what I can get.

It's almost been two years...

and see how he's grown...

Got guage?

It's been so long since I've actually knit soakers that my guage is completely off. When I first started knitting them, I knit pretty consistantly at 5 stitches to the inch (blocked) on size 6 needles. Since much time and knitting has passed, I now knit looser - 4 stitches unblocked at last measure. All of the patterns I've written are based on 5 which means once again I have to do the math over and rewrite them. At least I didn't transcribe them into my knitting journal yet.

Creature of habit

I walked up the street today to hit McDonalds for lunch (I know, I know) and passed by our local Starbucks, planning on hitting there on the return trip. When I got into the store, the barista told me that he saw me through the window, made up my iced venti hazelnut Americano and waited for me to come in and get it. When I didn't appear, they tossed it - seconds before I walked in.

On the home front....

It light of the purchases I made last week, my stash has to start earning its keep. Here's what's been doing...

• Soakers
  
  
  I've dusted off the patterns and started working some up. Here is my first attempt at "shorties":
  
  
  Front View
  
  
  Side View
  
  The proportions look a bit off to me - it's supposed to be a size "small", which is pretty arbitrary to begin with. I made some changes to the pattern and after a lot of math and gnashing of teeth (and transcribing patterns to my knitting journal in pen and then realizing that everything was off) here's the reworked pattern in size medium. I'm just getting ready to kitchner the crotch and then do the legs:
  
  
  
  I am still torn about the waist - the size small has 1.5 inches of ribbing while the size medium only has 1 inch. I'll get some oppinions and then go from there.



• Loot from Maryland Sheep and Wool
  
  
  We bought a bag of fleece, but that hasn't been touched except to divvy it up between Knitty Mama and me.
  
  

  Cautionary Note
  Even though The Joy of Handspinning recommends that you scour your fleece in your washing machine - be very careful. I just spent $60 for someone to come and fish a small ball of fiber from the water pump in my washing machine. Needless to say, I will be scouring using a basin from now on.

  
  
  This is the beautiful fiber that I got:
  
  
  
  It's hand-dyed alpaca/silk/merino. If you are new to spinning - DO NOT TRY THIS FIBER - you will be spoiled forever. Anything else feels like straw, it's that beautiful to the touch.
  
  Here's a small skein (46 yards) that I spun and plied from this roving:
  
  
  
  Here are the spindles:
  
  
  Bottom Whorl Spindle
  
  
  Top Whorl Spindle
  
  I definitely prefer the bottom wholr spindle, but I used the top whorl for plying and it worked very nice.

There is more but the boy is making demands so I must dash!


"CHEESE!"

I can't stands no more!

and now for a whiney rant...

• Wahing machine not draining during spin cycle - have a sneaky suspicion that this is being caused by a clump of wool in the hose from my scouring some fleece for the past two days
• Have done two courses (14 days and 30 days) of very nasty antibiotics (one kills off gut flora, the other is used as a prophalaxis for malaria) in an effort to get rid of my pelvic/uterine pain. Had a rash, nasty photosensitivity, no gut flora (see above), and merry hell wreaked upon my depression -- still have the pain though. Next step is a laparoscopy.
• Behavioral specialist doesn't feel Michael is autistic - still not sure how to feel about this one - choosing guarded optimism until he has a re-eval with the developmental ped next winter
• Water retention
• Fucking mice - I hate the little fuckers and am breaking my own rule about serious swearing to share this with all of cyberland

The boy is alternately crying "Cookie" and "Mommy" so I have to go

Woolapalooza '06

WOOO HOOO!!!!!! Maryland Sheep and Wool ROCKS!

Bought roving, bought fleece, bought sock yarn, bought spindles.

Had a deepfried twinkie and it was seriously one of the best things I've ever tasted.

Knitty Mama and I are already making plans for '07 - they involve a van, camping gear, and visiting all of the yarn shops in the DC/Baltimore Metro areas.

I managed to not buy a lucet or a kit to make my own silk. I only went $30 over budget.

Pictures coming soon - time to dream of knitting...

Just to give you an idea

of how my day is going...


Yes folks, that's RED gatorade that I forgot was in the cup on the desk. Can I get a do-over?

Slow on the uptake

Last night I was lying in bed and finally got that Mama C-ta is a play on mamacita.

Here's my list:

I thought "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" from South Park were just cookies.

Had no idea what the line, "Stupid English Kenigguts," meant from Monthy Python and the Holy Grail meant until I saw it spelled out as "Knights" on one of VH-1's "I love..." shows.

Firmly beleived that the chorus of CCR's "Bad Moon on the Rise" was, "There's the bathroom on the right," thanks to my father. Found out this was not the case when I excitedly announced what I thought was the name of the song at an eighth grade graduation party.

From fibergalss cows?

I just found this on one of my bulletin boards and I have to say I'm pretty pissed.

Dairy producers violating organic milk standards from Blogging Baby

Since milk still is a large part of Michael's diet, it's the one thing that I always try to get organic. This is especially annoying because at least at my Acme, Horizon is cheaper than the others so I tend to buy it instead when I can't get up to Trader Joes.

Froggy went a courting...

...and Jenn is great, uh hun!

It's been an age, but here is the craft update you've all been waiting for. Lo and behold - it actually includes a finished object!

Clapotis

What's done, being watched over by the Alien Queen plush.


Detail

I've been working on this for the past few weeks here and there. I'm almost done the end of the paralellagram and in another couple of rows, I get to start dropping stitches. It's being knit from Patons Merino yarn that I dyed with Leaf Green paste food coloring (~300g yarn, 1 tsp. food coloring, 1 c vinegar). You can take a look at the pattern I'm using here.

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Spinning
Slowly but surely, this is coming along. Here's what's doing...


My quick and dirty bottom wholr spindle and some corriadale cross roving that I got from The Lamb's Wool in Lansdale.


whorl detail


This is some plied yarn that I spun on Sunday and Monday (when I shuld have been working on the newsletter). It's about 48 yards and probably worsted weight. It's really underspun in several places, so that's something to work on. I'm thinking of dying it this afternoon to set the twist, I have a burgundy that I've been wanting to try out.


As if spinning the yarn wasn't enough, I had to go out and get fleece and cards to boot. I went to Jubili Beads and Yarns in Jersey thinking I was getting rovings for super cheap - but found out it was unprocessed fleece. I bought two pounds for good measure and picked up the carding paddles on ebay a few weeks ago. Once I get some stuff finished and the yarn stash tamed, I'm going to scour, dye, and card them. I am really psyched about what I can do mixing colors on the cards. I also picked up a copy of Spin It which has some very nice pictures and I ordered a copy of Spinning in the Old Way which looks like a great resource as well.

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Pot Holder

Since this has been given away, I can now post a picture. It's a crochet pattern that I adapted for worsted weight yarn from this vintage pattern. They work up very fast and make a great gift.

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Frogging


I picked up a Gap lambswool sweater from Good Will last month and this is the yarn it's yeilded. I really don't like the color (pale mustard) so I'm going to overdye it brown. With a bit of luck, it will become an Aran for Michael.

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The stash is still being organized and currently living is three different rooms of my house. I really need to get to work on the blankets that I'm making for Project Linus, and hope to have them ready to go in the next two weeks. The poncho is still sitting, waiting to be fixed or frogged - I still haven't decided. Next weekend is the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and the Koigu mill ends are calling to me...

Happy crafting all!

No Joy in his Soul

Being the person that I am, when I choose to deface public property, I use a substance that is easily removable, and almost always tend to write, "Frodo Lives!"

Friday evening, we were hanging out in the fountain at Rittenhouse. There was a piece of chalk, it was due to rain buckets that night, so I went to work. A man, we'll just call him "Suit" walked up to me and we had this brief exchange:

Suit: Why are you writing on public property?

Me: (finishing up writing "FRODO LIVES" in 12 inch high block letters) Because it's chalk and it will rinse off in the rain tonight.

Suit: Outrageous! (storms away)

"Get a life", "You are such a geek" or even just a quizzical look I could understand because all were very apt to the situation. Righteous indignation over the scrawling of an esoteric motto from the sixties, in chalk on a public fountain is a bit much.

How wine should be drunk

Really, it should be a jelly glass, but I don't own any.

Ba da dum...

John: What are these?

Me: Tongs

John: (touching tongs to my chest) Tongs for the mammaries!

I don't think there is a reply for that.

The Great Escape

We visited my friend and her son at their new house today. Michael was doing very well playing with her son - he's actually interacting with him and engaging in true parallel play which is a tremendous stride for him. At one point, I went down their basement to take a look and she was standing at the top of the stairs while we were talking about the potential of the space when I heard a car out front beeping its horn repeatedly. The rest is a blur, but apparently one of them (I insist it was mine and she insists it was hers) opened the front door and escaped onto the front street. I remember running up the stairs and down the street to scoop Michael up and bring him back to the house, thinking that I hoped the cats hadn't gotten out since I left the door open behind me. Once we were all safely ensconced in the house once more, my friend was definitely shaken. I just remember trying to find ways to laugh it off, saying that we just had to be more careful in future and insisting that it was probably Michael who started the whole thing.

The thing is that I have not been able to let this go all day. John called as soon as we got home and was aghast when I told him the story - I just thought it was funny, the boys were safe and no harm was done. As the day progressed I have been constantly questioning my response to the whole thing. Last summer, Michael escaped from the room where my mother's group was meeting. I remember looking around the room and my heart sinking down through the floor when I didn't see him. He managed to get down the hallway and was happily walking into one of the offices to pull books out of a box on the floor. From then on, I always try to be aware of where he is, especially with his tendencies to just take off in any direction. I have a few long skirts and I'm amazed at the speed in which I can hike them above my knees so I can chase after him, needing my full stride to keep up with him. A few weeks ago I went through the dilemma of using a tether on him because he still doesn't respond to his name and would dash out into traffic if given the chance (or he's giving every indication of doing so, I'm just not willing to test it yet).

My obsessive nature being what it is, I've been questioning myself all day about this - am I too cavalier about my child? On Saturday we put a box fan in the window to help cool the living room off and John expressed some concerns about Michael trying to stick his fingers in the mesh. I told him not to worry about it - if we made a big deal about staying away from the fan it makes it that much more attractive and the worst that could happen is his fingers would get bruised and he would definitely know not to do it again. On Saturday morning, we went to a playground and he picked up a piece of glass and I followed him closely to see what he would do with it - he actually put it in the trash can. I tend to watch and see, trying to reserve big reactions for things that really merit it so that he'll learn when I mean business. Sometimes it's a matter of I've had enough and as long as he's not actively destroying something of value or trying to ingest something poisonous, I'll let him do what he wants because I need a break. I've been finding myself questioning whether I'm being too lenient with him, using his delays as an excuse for permissive parenting.

I asked John what he thought about my reaction to the escape, once he overcame his own initial shock, and he was of the mind that I was being the calm, collected one - a role that I excel in playing. My mother told me that that is just the way I am, I tend to be very laid back about some things and this was just one of those situations, and one that my being freaked-out in would have only made things worse. Both arguments have merit, but still I obsess. There is no doubt that I love my child, that I would throw myself in front of a bullet for him. John even said that I was made to be a mother, that motherhood completes me in a way that nothing else in my life has. For whatever reason, I just feel like I reacted "wrong" and that I am "unnatural". I don't know - hopefully another glass of merlot will help me figure it out. Here's hoping that I don't have a hangover in the morning.

Partners

I am so happy that I am able to talk with my husband and that we communicate as well as we do with each other.

Thank you for making me the luckiest woman in the world, John.

Rainy day ants-in-the-pants

I just want to get out of the house today but it's raining! Whaaaa!!!

I have all of this energy and a fervent desire not to spend any of it doing housework.

Ah, well - off to clean the kitchen and bake.

This time I mean it!

I have just completed my first twenty-four hours sans evil. It was a hectic day, stress-filled day. One that screamed, "Sit outside and have a smoke while the boy sleeps - you deserve it!” Instead I ate two brownies and the better part of a container of Pringles. I started this in some merino that I dyed on Monday in a spring/leaf green color. I'm still debating whether I'm going to keep it for myself or donate it to a silent auction for a fundraiser my mothers' group is doing. I think I should keep it - I don't have anything made for me that I dyed myself. I also spun for a good hour while Michael napped and that helped tremendously. I got my big box of roving on Tuesday, but I'm making myself use up the last of the roving I got from PhilCon. It's just taking forever because my singles are super thin - it will probably end up being between lace and fingering weight once it's done. As soon as I get my carding paddles, I can conquer the two pounds of locks that I bought from a shop in Jersey, but that is probably getting a bit ahead of myself.

I've been flirting with getting myself some Koigu yarn. I really want a pair of striped stockings for next winter and I figure if I buy two hanks a month for the next several months I'll be able to do it. What better way to celebrate my being nicotine-free than cool striped stockings! Thankfully, the hanks are pretty slim and easy to hide so John won't know that I'm breaking my vow to not buy any more yarn until I use up some of my stash (love you sweeitie!). We won't even mention the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Maybe I can work on my landlord to accept knitted items in lieu of rent for next month? It only counts as embezzlement if it's a business (or you get caught), right?

Michael has been turning the cuteness way up - an hour can't go by with you your being hit so hard with his cuteness that it practically knocks you over. He actually played with my friend's son yesterday and was talking to them this afternoon at lunch. He is just so incredible. Exasperating at times, with out saying, but still the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Off to bed...

Selling point

I saw an ad for a Dunkin' Doughnuts breakfast sandwich. One of the bullets is, "Real American Cheese"

Yes, folks - we have the real processed cheese food - none of that fake stuff here!

It makes me wonder what fake American cheese is.

Well that's annoying...

I popped onto my sister's computer yesterday to take a look at my blog. I typed in the address several time but couldn't get it to come up, then I went to one of my friends' blog and went in that way. Wouldn't you know I spelled the URL wrong when I created the blog and that every time I've typed it in an email or a message board post it's been wrong? Just one more reason why I shouldn't do things at 2 in the morning.

If the money wasn't already spent on wool...

I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

Guess I'll just have to make one myself.

Discipline, our first crossroads

This topic has been coming up a lot on several of the boards and blogs that I read, so much so that I now have a small tempest brewing in my head that requires writing about it at quarter to one in the morning when I really should be asleep.

Discipline for Michael right now consists of redirection or removing him from the situation that's causing the problem. Even though he's twenty-one months old, he's somewhere between twelve and forteen months developmentally, so I make it a point to react to him as such. This was a hard lesson for me to learn, lowering all of my expectations to what he's actually capable of doing. This has made my life so much easier and I believe his as well.

Since we still have a ways to go for other discipline methods to be appropriate for him, it's not something I've spent a lot of time reading up on. I've always know that I wanted to follow positive discipline methods - I never want my children to be afraid of me or John.

When I was twelve, I had a paper route. It was just the local weekly paper, probably about 30 houses on the route. Somewhere along the line, things got too much for me. My method of dealing with this was to ignore it - I stopped delivering and collecting and spent all of my energies hiding this from my parents because I didn't know how to say I wanted to quit. I had been threatened multiple times about getting my act together and was given many chances to redeem myself with the paper route or face ever worsening punishments. The threat that came before the paper finally talked directly to my mom was spanking, by my dad, with the belt. I can't remember where I was in the house when I heard her on the phone, but once I realized what was happening I got out of there as quickly as possible because my dad was home at the time. I ran out of the house, no shoes on, and rode my bike down to the park and hid until I knew he had left for work. I still got spanked, but by my mom who was nowhere near as bad as my dad would have been.

John brought home a copy of Blankie by Leslie Patricelli a month or so ago. We've read several of her other books to Michael and I've always enjoyed them. This book has a line in it about how "Blankie" stays with the child in time-outs. The first few times I read it, I didn't really think of what I was reading. Then I realized that it really bothered me - the child in the illustrations looks like a baby, and he's being made to have time-outs? So I started substituting other words, "Blankie sits on the steps with me." It's now gotten to the point that I don't even want to read it anymore because I am so bothered by it.

I expressed this to John a few weeks ago and he couldn't understand what the fuss was about, he'd just assumed we'd be using time-outs like everyone else (when Michael is old enough for them obviously). I had a hard time explaining to him why I didn't want to use this form of discipline, or punative discipline in general. He called me from work this afternoon to ask me if I had read Dooce yet - there was something funny that I sould take a look at. I read yesterday's entry and my skin is still crawling from it. I told him that I really didn't like what they were doing and again stated that I don't want to use time-outs as a form of discipline. He seemed honestly confused and couldn't understand why we wouldn't use them. To me they are no different in intent to spanking and serve to show the child that love and attention are conditional. Removing a child from an overwhelming situation and giving them some room to calm down is one thing, telling a child they have to sit still or leaving them alone for an arbitrary period of time until they are contrite is completely different.

I have serious heebie-jeebies right now. I think I'm going to spin for a bit and see if I can work my way through it. I'd talk with John about it, but he just went in to sleep with Michael so that's out. What a can of worms.

Goody two-shoes?

Saw this on Baby Likes Cabbage and had to do it.

You Are 26% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

I guess I'm not quite as good as I'd like to think. I actually re-did the test - the first time I came up with only 18% evil and I thought that was a little too good.

The number one reason...

to get my craft things in order:

So that when the bug bites me in the ass to make something I can actually do it!

I organized things (read: dumped them in boxes) before Michael was born and most of it hasn't been touched since. John has further complicated things by cleaning (read: pile my assorted boxes in a closet). I can find the c-clamp for the pasta machine, the pasta machine, and the handy attachment for making spaghetti and linguini. What I cannot find is the damned crank to make all of these things work together. I did find my extruder and by some miracle the box that has all of the dies in it, so I can make what I want to tonight - it's just going to take longer and not look nearly as cool.

Off to condition clay...

Channeling Walter Mathau?

You can almost hear The Odd Couple theme playing...

Note to self

Do not start organizing your yarn stash at 10pm and take an hour break to surf and blog. I'm not sure if I'm even going to bother going to sleep at this point - John is going to be furious with me.

Strange things heard on the radio...

We keep NPR playing softly on a radio in Michael's room at night. At midnight, they switch over to the BBC feed - nothing like listening to a glib British voice proclaiming it's 7am GMT at 2 in the morning. Last night, this is what I heard:

(mumble) Benedict (mumble, mumble, mumble) Vatican City

For whatever reason, my mind inserted the name "Dirk" in front of "Benedict" and I was wondering what the actor who played "Face" on The A-Team was doing in Vatican City and why the BBC was reporting on it.

Fixed things and took a stab...

I fixed the problem with the Haloscan.

I've also decided to enter The Sock Yarn Stash of Epic Proportion! contest on Wendy Knits!. Here's my letter saying why I am deserving of some of her stash:

I should receive some of your sock yarn stash because I rarely knit anything for myself and I have very few socks and would love the opportunity to change that. A few months ago, I purchased a set of sock needles from my local craft store, but their selection of sock yarn is abysmal so they just sat and sat. I've since discovered several local yarn shops and as much as I love to colors of yarns available, I just can't get past the sticker shock of something that is just for me. So I sigh, pat it lovingly and visit it every few weeks. Besides, you could be secure in the knowledge that socks knit from your yarn are being worn with sandals by a quirky woman in Philadelphia who will not only love the fact that she is wearing socks with her sandals, but that she has such cool socks because of a very cool knitter.


Also, my 21 month-old has not yet had the chance to pull very thin needles out of my knitting and I would hate to deny him what every child should be able to do - remind me why I use two circulars and that I need to knit after bedtime.

I am cleaning up my downstairs stash - I have three going right now - the upstairs stash, the downstairs stash and the basement stash. It's been getting comepletely out of control - I have oodles and oodles of small balls of yarn and at least 5 lbs of wool. The ball winder is seeing much use tonight (thanks John!!!). I told John that I can't buy any more yarn until I use up what I have. We'll see how long that lasts. Actually, I am hoping to get some serious knitting done for Project Linus and I may knock off a few more bears just for fun to donate to the local children's hospital.

The stash sorting is half-way done...so much for an early bed-time.

Still not in bed

...and messing with things best left for daytime. Sorry things are looking a bit of a mess. I'll try to fix it in the morning.

Obsessings at 3am

You know what, I really need to go to bed. Here's a synopsis of what's floating around my head:

• Pregnancy
  I want another baby with every fiber of my being, I just question whther I an capable of handling one. There is also the desire for a VBAC ballanced with my last OB probably not doing them but having a great bedside manner (never said a word to me about being obese my entire pregnancy and ws never discriminated against for my size). There's the worry that even if I can get a VBAC that it would be unsuccessful due to baby's size and whatever effect the damage done to my pubic symphysis would have on a vaginal delivery. Breastfeeding, genetic traits, a car and my weight also being factors


• Balancing my own need to see my friends and Michael's need to nap in his crib (which in truth is actually everyone's need).


• That I am not the parent/wife that I want to be


• That I have yet to come up with a plan for world peace *wink*


• That I really need to stop worrying about these things that I can't control and, "be soft like water". Damn I need to start reading the Tao Te Ching again, I could really use some mellowness in my life and to not be so hard on myself.

Well off to bed...

I'm going to do it

I've been working on a pair of socks with some yarn that Knitty Mama brought back for me from here trek to deliver our bears and a thought popped into my head for a neat project. Further thoughts crept in and now I'm going to knit it up and submit the pattern to Knitty. I can't tell you about it here yet, but once I know I'll post full details. Wish me luck!

Oh the lengths that I will go to to avoid housework.

We have color-fastness!

I just finished washing and hanging the yarn I dyed last night and there was no bleeding! I can't wait for it to dry so I can ball it up.

Something wierd...

I'm sitting here, reading blogs when I should be in bed, when I just heard an electronic something say, "Do a little dance," - a sound clip from Invader Zim. I think it's some sort of alarm on John's iPod, but it's not something you expect to hear at 3 in the morning.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it does merit that many exclaimation points.

I think I have finally perfected my method for self-striping yarn. My hands are almost completely free of dye, my kitchen is not a mess, and the yarn appears to be color fast. It did take almost 4 hours to do, but if that's what I have to do, then that's what I have to do. Since it's quarter to three in the morning, I can't take the time to write out my full method, so I'll just leave you with this picture.

Euphamisms Run Amok

I'm not sure how it evolved, but we refer to my smoking as "Evil". When I go out back to have a cigarette, I say, "I'm going out to be Evil." Buying cigarettes is, "I'm going out to buy/get some Evil."

John, card that he is, has come up with something new. Now, when I am smoking he says I am "Felating Satan". Hopefully avoiding that and hand spinning will help me finnaly kick the habbit. Most of the things are in place and the final countdown has begun.

Bringing it home

Michael has been making leaps and bounds recently in his therapies- his vocabulary is exploding, he's starting to pay attention to other children and interact with them, and his receptive language is improving - he actually seems to understand us more and more and is actually able to communicate specific needs.

The other day I was out with one of my girlfriends and her son. We were at a local coffee shop and after she was done nursing him, she let him down so he could play with Michael at the table. Her son would start to wander off, as any fifteen month-old would and all she had to do was call his name and he would come back (pretty consistently too). She was explaining to me that it was an idea that she picked up from the The Continuum Concept - that if you do/say something with the expectation of your child following the direction, then he would.

As I watched her son walk about, I looked to Michael in his stroller, playing with Matchbox cars on the table. Michael rarely responds to his name and the times he does, I'm pretty sure it has little to do with recognizing that he is "Michael", rather he responds because he feels like it or to the tone. I've tried to do this many times with Michael, but it just doesn't work. I spend a lot of time just following him around when he's free, trying to keep him out of trouble. Michael is very focused when he's out and about, exploring everything he can. The problem comes when he finds something he's not supposed to do. One of his new favorite things is to push the elevator buttons at the Barnes and Noble. I have no problem with this, and am fairly happy to just ride the elevator up and down. Unfortunately, there's the emergency stop switch there as well, in an attractive shade of red. Once he's focused in on something like that, there's no distracting him and the entire book store (all three floors) knows when I won't let him play with something. The only solution for this is for him to go back in the stroller or on my back and more likely leave the book store.

Since he's been making such great progress, it's been very easy for me to forget/talk myself out of the fact that he does have autism. It may be mild, he may be an incredibly personable and loveable child who makes great eye contact when he wants your attention, but it doesn't change the fact that he is on the spectrum. Yesterday, I was really reminded of this. Our local Early Intervention agency paid for me to attend a conference for early childhood educators and therapists. I choose to attend a seminar about teaching autistic children. Most of this past week, I was telling myself that I didn't really need to go, that there was nothing really wrong with Michael - he's catching up, isn't he? Hell, I've even been putting off calling his service coordinator about the behavioral specialist's recommendations because I've done such a good job convincing myself that he's fine.

The first two hours of the seminar were spent going over what autism is and the signs and symptoms of it in toddlers and infants. Those subtle deficits that I am so bad at explaining to people were all there, glaring reminders that this is my son. The video clips they showed were all of pretty middle-of-the-road children, not the ones that you picture when you think of autism - children who were just like my son. I wasn't in the best of places to be yanked back to reality so forcefully like that - Michael's sleep has been atrocious and I got 4 hours the night before. I was also there surrounded by educators and therapists who just don't have the same personal investment in it that I do. During the break, I had a long talk with John and was able to remind myself just what I need to do and get back to that place where I wasn't explaining away his behaviors as quirks to myself. The seminar as a whole was very informative and makes me wish we lived in Maryland so I could get Michael into one of their programs. I also came away with some tricks I'm going to try out with him.

It's hard to believe that we only got the formal diagnosis three months ago. I've been so many places emotionally, that it feels like years. My best hope is that I can find that happy medium where I'm not obsessing about the autism but not ignoring it either. John just got home from Lancaster, so I must take my leave. Again, my most abject apologies to Strunk and White.

This is very scary...

I just found this article on one of my AP boards and it is so scary.

Dead child's mom sought discipline tips

It always amazes me what people will use the Bible to justify.

Shameless self promotion (AKA Crafts Update)

Here's what's been doing on the crafty front, with lots of pictures to use up valuable bandwidth.

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The bears...






This was the first one I started. It was knitted using worsted-weight acrylic yarn and size 8 needles.





This was the second bear I started. It was knitted using a combination of worsted weight acrylic and Lino Brand Homespun on size 8 needles.





Bear number three. This was knitted using worsted-weight acrylic, Lion Brand Fun Fur, and two Moda Dea novelty yarns on size 6 needles.





Bear number four. Knitted using Patton's Cha Cha and Bernat's Boa yarns on size 8 needles.


They were all fun to sew (maybe with the exception of the furry one - he was a bit of a pain). I gave them lots of hugs for the kids who will receive them. My friend has decided to make a day trip and drive them down to Virginia tomorrow. Travel well my friends!

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Here's what I've been knitting for myself...


It will be a poncho, knitted out of Lion Brand Woolease Chunky Yarn on my homemade needles (~size 13). It's about half done, but you may notice a slight pucker at the yarn join...


I screwed up and knit a row of stockinette in my moss stitch border and I only realized it when I laid it out to take the picture. How might this have escaped my attention for an entire hank of yarn? I only work on it while I'm putting Michael down for naps and bed. At best, I'm working on it in a dim room during the day with the shades drawn, at worst I'm knitting by the light of a 25 watt bulb. As soon as I can dig up my size J crochet hook, I'm going to ladder the stitches down and try to fix it. If that doesn't work, then I'm going to have to frog two weeks worth of work. Not pretty no matter how you look at it.

I dropped a decent amount of money at my local yarn shop this afternoon on a kit and some needles. The kit makes up a felted tiger lily which look pretty cool. I'm hoping to make these up to give as Christmas presents next year using the odds and ends of my hand-dyed yarns. I also got a pair of size 11 needles to use with the wool/silk/cashmere blend I picked up two weeks ago for a scarf. I have an idea of what I want to do with it, I just have to chart out the stitches.

I also have to really get to work on the blankets I'm making for Project Linus. My granny-square one is about 2/3's complete (barring weaving in the ends and sewing it together). The one that people have submitted squares for has a long way to go. A.C. Moore's ran all of their yarn 1/3 off last week so I picked up several skeins of Carron's Simply Soft in a bunch of neutral colors to make up the rest of the blanket. I'm also going to use a lot of the leftover yarn from the bears project and my stash to liven it up. I'm hoping to come out with something that looks like a cool crazy-quilt, but not too much like I just used odds and ends of yarn to throw it together. The size blanket they are in the most need of is of course the largest so I have a decent amount of work in front of me. Thankfully, there is no real deadline on this one, so I can take the next month or so to get it done. I want to knit myself an Aran sweater for next year and this will give me experience in knitting and designing cables.

Hopefully the boy will cooperate and sleep well tonight. I had a glass and a half of wine last night and four hours worth of sleep. Cranky toddler, mini hangover (I'm a lightweight), and no sleep do not make for a happy mom. John is in there now, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take over soon.

Happy crafting and give someone you love a big hug to let them know!

Interesting read

Found this article this morning. You do have to regsiter to read it, but check out Bug Me Not to get log-in info.

Silent Struggle: A New Theory of Pregnancy

Something really cute

Another cop-out blog entry, but oh so cute...

I've been knitting teddy bears to go to kids in Jamaica and I was finishing them this afternoon. I was sitting on the couch with my bag of fiber-fill beside me when Michael came up and started handing me little handfulls (just the perfect size) to finish stuffing the bears. I love doing charitable sewing to begin with, but it really warmed my heart to know that Michael helped me make them.

Off to bed for real this time - the pictures will be here tomorrow.

How do you get involved?

I just wrote this on a thread on one of the AP boards that I frequent and felt it deserved to be here as well.

I've been doing a lot of small things - they may not be on the scale of attending major protests, but I am a firm beleiver in the ripple effect - one small action can influence a lot of people. Aside from just trying to make my own world a better place and modeling behavior for my son, here are a few of the things I've done and do.

- I participated in a bin drive for Katrina refugees coming to Philly. I made up two bins - one for a woman and one for a small boy. This was one of the first times I ever did something like this and it was intensely personal for me. I made the bin up for a plus-sized woman, knowing how I as a heavier woman would feel if there was nothing available for me. I went the extra mile to purchase items that would make me feel better if I was in that situation.

- I don't purchase clothing that has crocheted trim on it. It may sound like splitting hairs, but crochet cannot be done by machine and I know how much work goes into making something and there's no way the person who made it got a living wage for his/her work.

- I boycot anything overtly made by Nestle. I don't buy many brand-name products to begin with so I'm probably doing the full boycot anyway.

- I do a lot of charitable sewing. I just finished several knitted teddy bears that are going to an orphanage in Jamaica. I've been giving them lots of hugs so they can spread some love to children who really need it. I'm also organizing the making of some blankets for Project Linus. In the next few months my knitting club will be making hats for cancer pateints as well. I love the feeling of making something that will bring some joy and comfort to someone who really needs it.

- This past Christmas I donated books to the Starlight Starbright foundation drive in lieu of presents for some of my friends. I figured that a child would benefit a lot more from my gift than they would from another $10 chotchke (?sp).

- I don't shop at Walmart and support local businesses when I can.

I plan to make donating time and/or money/gifts a regular part of our daily life so my son can grow up knowing that even something as small as a donated book can make a world of difference to someone else and that Christmas isn't the only time of year to think about those who are in need.

While most of these don't have much effect on the international level, I do keep abreast of current affairs as much as possible from less biased sources (NPR and BBC) so that I know what is going on in the world. I also vote in every election and take the time to research the candidates as opposed to just voting on party lines. I have written a few letters to my congressmen and senators on issues that I want my voice heard on. Even though it would be hardship with finding childcare, I also look forward to the next time I am called for jury duty so I can let my voice be heard there as well. I feel that one of the best ways to influence the system is to be a part of it - apathy doesn't accompish anything.

I feel there is alot that you can do that make a lot more of an impact than being another head at a protest.

It took up all of the writing time I had tonight so nothing dedicated for the blog. There is much to write about, but it's after midnight and I have to ravish my husband before the boy wakes up again - OK, who am I kidding? I have to finish my glass of wine, crawl into bed, be at the exact moment of falling asleep and then drag my ass, blankets, and pillows into the boy's room to sleep on the air matress on the floor next to his crib.

Ah well, such is life.

I can't deny it any longer....

He really is a little boy now...

I forgot how much of a pain this is

I opened a geocities account with my yahoo id so I could post the bear pattern pdf. In an effort to not think about smoking, I decided that it would be really cool if I set up a dedicated portfolio site so I can show off all of my artwork and keep better track of my dyeing projects. Of course I've gone off all half-cocked and threw together a half-a-dozen pages. I further hacked the blog skin so there's about 100 lines of unneccessary (I don't know how to spaell the damned word and I'm not cutting and pasting into Word to spell check it so just deal) in-line CSS commands in it. If things work out on Thusrday afternoon/evening, maybe I'll take the laptop out and design a dedicated css style sheet and build my integrated site. It'll mean doing it the hard way - a browser window and wordpad, but it will keep my mind occupied and I really should get all of this stuff together.

It's late, I need to go to bed.

The kindness of strangers

I was at one of the plethora of Starbucks in town this afternoon when someone brandishing a $5 bill asked me if I had 5 ones. I told him sorry, no. Then he told me how he'd been in the hospital, his car had been booted and he was trying to get home to Malvern. He even had parking tickets and a train schedule. I ended up giving him the two singles I had in my wallet.

I'm usually a sucker for these types of stories, and he was very beleivable. In retrospect, I know I was conned because Malvern isn't in zone 6 and the fare isn't $7. He had good props though.

I'm not too bummed. Lord knows if I found myself in that situation, I would want to find someone like me to help me get home. He made a comment about good karma before he left, and I'm sure he'll get his somewhere, someplace just like I'll find mine.

Fun Fur - NOT

I went to A.C. Moore's this afternoon and of course got more yarn to make bears with. I now have four in various states of completion and I want to have them done by the weekend. We shall see...

The new yarn I bought today was all various forms of fun fur. I've knitted with the Lion Brand Fun Fur before, and knit at the recommended guage, it's pretty loose. Since I have to stuff these and don't want to line them, I decided to knit on size 6 needles. I decided to start off with Bernat's Boa yarn in a beautiful mottled brown. This went pretty well. The I changed to Patons' Cha Cha in black. This did not go so well. Imagine fun fur with a perm. I'm sure it knits up fine on size 10 needles, but on size 6 it's a nightmare. I frogged the leg and decided to do it in the round. It's still a pain because I have to keep track of my stitches very closely. We'll see how it turns out.

MacGyver it up!

Yes, I know the pop culture reference but I have no idea if that's how the name is spelled and I'm too lazy to look it up.

What can you do with:

• a Dremmel


• Dowels


• a plastic rod


• a Lactina pumping kit

I bet circular needles is the last thing you would think of. They came out pretty well. The tubing really likes the yarn, so it doesn't slide as easily as it should. I also picked a bum dowel because the shaft of the needle is nowhere near as smooth as it should be. I used the Dremel to shpe the needle points and it was fantastic - much better shaping in a quarter the time. I have to put the boy down for a nap so I appologise for any glaring spelling errors and again, my humble appologies to Strunk and White.

Bear Drive

For those not lucky enough to have Word or lucky enough to have a MAC - you can download a PDF version of the pattern here. It's quick and dirty, but to get you started it should do well. I'll get a prettier version up later.

Random Rant

Dianne Sawyer annoys me - tremendously. She needs to stop being on the ABC Nightly News and go back to whatever program she normally anchors. She is the female version of Tom Brokaw (another person who annoys me). It's like she's doing a parody of herself. ARRRRGGGHHHH!

I miss Peter Jennings.

Bang your head

Another one to check off the list.

Michael was running up and down our hallway this evening as is his wont (how's that for a $.25 word?) when I heard him fall and start to wail. He's been in a pretty foul mood most of the day so I chalked up his reaction to theatrics since he's been throwing tantrums left and right. I brought him into out office and sat down with him so I could finish what I was doing on the computer when I brushed his bangs aside. There on his forehead was a lump about the size of a robin's egg and a nasty purple color to boot. Thankfully the ped's office just gave me the normal head injury protool (and that says something that I not only know it, but that I can call it "normal"). He seems to be his normal self and shook off the injury pretty quickly. My favorite part of this protocoll is that I am to wake him up after sleeping for two hours and then in another four and was told by the nurse that I may want to "keep him close" tonight. Ha! if she only knew exactly how much time I spend sleeping on an air matress next to his crib.

The ironic part of this is that I hurt myself similarly when I was nine. We were supposed to go to Sesame Place with my sister's preschool class and I ran back to the house to get something, tripped over my foot and slid head first into a fence post. My mom was cleaning my knee up and muttering about delays when I complained that my head hurt. She replied, "I guess so, you screamed loud enough." Then she brushed aside my bangs and saw the egg forming on my forehead. My sister and brother went to Sesame Place, while I spent the morning in the hospital getting head X-rays. I'm pretty sure my mom and I shared the same feeling there. Probably not for the last time either.

Things of craftiness

Beware or we shall knit you a cozy! mwuahaha *sinister music plays*

This week has been one for charity sewing. I have 5 bear-halves done (two of them are actually for the same bear - thus one whole bear is almost done). I've been going through my stash and each time I find a color/yarn combo I have to make it up. I want to have them all done (blocking, sewing and stuffing) by next Friday. I always seem to need several projects going at once, but I'm starting to run out of double-pointed to keep unfinished work on so I'll have to finish these three before moving on. As soon as I kirchner them and block them, I'll post pictures.

The buffalo yarn scarf is still sitting, nicely folded, on the desk waiting for the ends to be woven in and then to be fluffed via the washing machine and dryer and then blocked. I have no idea when this will be done.

I've finally finished the first ball of yarn on my poncho. I'm knitting it in Lion Brand Woolease Chunky yarn (a yummy brown/orange heathered color) on my homemade needles (exactly between a size 13 and 15). They are straight needles and I know it's going to start to be very uncomfortable to use them for much longer because of the weight. This is a real pickle for me. I have size 13 circulars, but they are that much smaller than the current needles and I would be honor bound to frog the whole thing and start from scratch. There is also the fact that the lace-rib panels aren't symmetrical, but that only bugs me slightly. I'm thinking of trying my hand at making my own circulars. I have a *really* crappy size 8 plastic circular that I bought from Joanne Fabrics (how crappy do you say - it was only $.99, that's how crappy) that I can steal a filament from. I don't think it would be too difficult, and I could get the taper right on the needle points (the current ones are too shallow) and stain them a really cool shade of fuscia. I've already frogged this poncho twice and I really don't want to start from scratch again.

I'm also awash in granny squares for a project for our local children's hospital. Actually, I need to do some more research on it - I don't know if we are going to donate it to them directly or go through Project Linus. Michael was having way too much fun with them and managed to loose one. He would stack them all up and move them from place to place in the house like one obsessed. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when I put them safely away in their ziplock bag. God help me when he learns how to open one - nothing will be safe.

The boy is here and letting me know that I must pay attention to him once more. Complete tangent, but the damned doctor’s office still hasn't called me with his MRI results yet. In their defense they still have fifteen minutes, but it's a major pain because I put off going to the grocery store for this.

It's done

I've just spent the past three hours updating my database for my mothers' group in preparation of handing this madness off to someone else. I really don't see how anyone can do the job decently by themselves - I know I've been doing it half-assed for a few months now.

Oh weel, the new membership VP has my sympathies.

I have to go to bed before John kills me.