Peekaboo Baby

I am the Muffin Man!

Luka has a fascination with the Muffin Man. I sang this song to him months and months ago. His dad eats a New Morning Bakery carrot bran muffin about once a week. He LOVES to pull the top of the muffins off and eat only that part. He LOVES to walk around the house with a pillow or a book or a box on his head singing *I am the Muffin Man!* at the top of his lungs. The box works well for peekaboo baby too.

The Backstroke Boy

Noah swims with the Corvallis Aquatic Team. He has been doing this since February. He is really enjoying himself. His body (while still very slender) is developing quite a abdominal six pack!

Noah was in his first swim meet today. He swims backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. He did much better than I thought he would do. (This kid is constantly amazing me!!) As he was still just 8 years old he was able to swim the short(est) course.

His 25M backstroke time was 29.52. He DQd in 25M breaststroke but had a time of 39.56. I beleive he didn't touch the wall with both hands at the same time.


His 25M freestyle time was 59.48. When he dove into the water his goggles slid down his face to his neck. He popped up and swiped his eye and kept swimming. He stopped again(!) and caught his breath and finished the race. He said later that he *just couldn't breathe* and I suppose he was a bit reaked out. HE FINISHED THE RACE!! I am so proud of him for doing that!!


I am just so amazed and proud of this guy! He really is a great kid ... kind, helpful, thoughtful, funny, warm and caring, smart. He gives good hus too. I am so lucky to be in his life.

Nursing a baby

Luka Boy nurses his baby. This boy just LOVES his milky!! He is a loving daddy/mommy. He carries the baby dolls around and tucks them in and tells them stories and sings to them. 

Melissa's Handpaint Hat

Here is a picture of Melissa sporting her handpaint hat. I just finished it today. I made it a tad bit big hoping she would have room to grow into it (and of course hoping against hope she doesn't lose it!).





I used a fun and easy decorative ribbed border called *Slip Stitch Scallop* from Knitting on the Edge by Nicki Epstein. The basic hat pattern came from Knit Great Basics by Vicki Square.

Fuzzy Fuzzy Yarn and Scarf

Here is a quickie scarf I knit on size 35 needles. It zipped right up in no time flat. Four or five rows of garter stitch then a a row of K1, YO repeated across the needle and the next row regular garter stitches with the YO's dropped.

I won this Annie Blatt ribbon yarn and fuzzy eyelash yarn at holiday open house. It isn't what I would normally purchase but it will come in handy some Monique in Blue kind of day. 

Hand Paint Yarn

On Saturday we went to visit our friends the H-Ds. They live about an hours drive away from us. Andy and the kids brought rockets and the trebuchet. I brought Cascade 220 natural yarn and a few dyes. The dads and kids went outside on the property to launch things. The moms stayed inside to dye yarn and tyedye clothing. We had so much fun chatting that the dyeing started rather late. No clothes were dyed but yarns were.

I dyed two skeins in each colorway for each child. I hope to knit a hat and mittens from each colorway.



Here is the pink and purple yarn for Melissa. She LOVES her pinks and purples.

Here is Luka's blue and green. I think this will make a merry little hat and mittens for him.
Here is Noah's camo in green and buff. He has become quite enamored of camo. I swear he wears his camp pant almost non-stop. I may have to get another pair for him so we can wash the pair closest to the state of standing up in the corner on their own.



At some later point in the evening the kids came in to watch. the H-D boys and Noah took a turn at hand painting yarn too. This is Noah's skein and wound ball of hand paint yarn. I think it looks dreamy and soft and yummy to knit.

We are trying to figure out what he wants to knit it up into. Maybe he'll give it as a gift to someone?

Another Finished Project

I had so much fun knitting this little project up ... last year. I finished it today. What this means is I didn't want to work in the million little ends or sew the pieces together. I hate sewing together pieces I have knit. I don't know why that is but it is.

It is so cute I should be kicking myself. Luka could have worn this all the last year. Now he will get to wear it for a few months and it will need to be put away for another time ... like when he starts having kids of his own. Yikes! The kid is TWO!!

Here he is modeling his sweater. He does look cute in it. I may have to make another one for him soon. I used the Devan pattern by Holli Yeoh from Spring 2004 issue of Knitty.com. She called for a fingering weight of yarn. I used the Regia 6 ply (or something similar) and adjusted the pattern. It worked great! It is washable!

The Boys Get Their Haircuts

Here is Noah getting his hair cut. The barber is Bob of the Orange O in Corvallis. Bob cut Andy's hair when Andy was in high school and college. Andy fell right back into getting his hair cut with Bob once we moved back to Corvallis.

Bob is a get down to business guy with lots of great stories and information to share.
This is the start of Luka Baby's transformation into Luka Boy. It is happening late. By that I mean all of my kids have gottentheir first hari cut when they turned two years old. Not Luka. We took him to several haircuts for Andy and Noah to show him how it is done. We talked to him about getting his hair cut when he turned two. We asked him if he wanted toget a haircut. He said *No!*. Of course. The other kids were thrilled. He was less so. This day he finally said *Yes!!*. We called Bob.


Bob works incredibley fast and efficiently. I am always amazed at what a great job he does while seemingly expending so little energy. He is a true artisan. He makes it look easy. I know it isn't easy. Especially with 35 poundsof squirming, thrashing, kicking, mewling Luka Baby in the chair.

Despite the handy little chair and railing attachment for the capture and stilling of squirming little ones Luka needed to be held firmly in place. One would have thought each little starnd of hair was shreiking as it was cut!

The finished product. Bob could cut the will to nose pick out of him. Tada! Luka Boy!

Now he walks around proudly telling everyone how he is *No baby. I'm a big boy with a haircut!*

I just love this kid. He is so yummy when he isn't picking his nose.

Preparing My Taxes

 
Need I say more? The exciting part about this is that WE WILL get our taxes filed BEFORE the 15th of April and dispense with the annual extension (or two). YEAH us!!! 

The Baby in the Crate

These are the rolling crates I use to move my books around. Luka Baby has climbed into one for some rolling fun. This is right before his haircut and transformation into Luka Boy.

Three Little Birds

Here they are my three little birds. We've caught them in the act of eating chocolate doughnuts. I suspect they aren't completely awake yet. The scowls aren't normally part of the demeanor.

Today is the day ...

of lots of snow on the ground when we woke up. Notice my daffodils in the left foreground? They are blooming and dying in the snow. The vivid pink and yellow primroses are no where to be found. They were so lovely and promising. Now they are virtually erased. Rats!

Meet *Snowy*. He came for a short visit but melted away as soon as he could escape the madness at our house. Notice the cute orange nose? Melissa was sure it was important that a 2 foot snowman have one!

Noah had a blast making snowballs to toss around the yard.

It is DONE!! Here is a picture of the front (L) and the back (R). It was a perfect day to sit curled up on the sofa to finish my Knitting Olympics project. I used a generic tank top pattern and modified it with the cable panel of my owndesign (though I picked the elements out from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns). I added a small section of the cable panel to the back of the tank to provide detail and make the tank a bit more fitted.

Here is your intrepid knitter wearing her creation. Michele down at my LYS took this picture of me. It was one of the only pictures without me doing my interprtation of the Wilson Family Slow Blink. You know the look. The one that makes me appear totally droopy eyed and stoned.

Happy, happy, happy day!

Trebuchets Ho!

Here are Noah and his buddy Frey. They have built a simple and effective trebuchet. Melissa is in the background watching the goings on with rapt attention. I think she is wondering how to send her brother on a flight too.

I am busy working on and finishing my KO project. Almost there!

It is ALL Over

The knitting Olympics have come and gone.

I am not finished with my project.

I spent the last days helping Noah do his project. I spent the next days getting prepared for the Portland Yard Garden and Patio Show. I am selling Usborne books in a booth at this event.




This is a picture of Mara and I in our beautiful, colorful, exciting booth. Who wouldn't want a child's book at an event like this??

I spent my days and nights working the booth with Marvelous Mara. The whole family came up for some Portland fun while I worked.





This show was awe inspiring! Even I wanted to go out and dig around in the yard (if you knew me and my yard you would KNOW how much this isn't me) . This picture is of a GINORMOUS lake that they created in the middle of the exhibition hall. That is a waterfall in the middle of the far side of the lake. The trees would look well grown and developed in any yard. It was amazing!!

In any event ... I spent not one moment of time on my KO project. I fought off the migraine from H*LL on Saturday too.

Knitting Olympics on Hold

My lovely and most cherished older son, Noah, has picked up a little work. He is so excited for this project!

He is working for a woman by the name of Sara. She owns/operates a website called Yarn of the Month. She is also hard at work writing a book of knitting patterns. (I am looking forward to this book. I think she has a great style.) She is between a rock and a hard spot. She needs to write and knit and write some more to get her book ready to go to the publisher. She needs to get yarns ready for her Yarn of the Month business. She has hired Noah.

His job is to take the regular skeins of yarn from the manufacturer and rewind them into smaller skeins. These then get placed into a mini zip lock bag with the yarn information (name, gauge, needle size, etc.) placed on sticky label. He LOVES this job. I love getting a preview of the yarns! We both hope he does a good enough job for her so he can continue this for a while.

He has had a number of days to complete this project. He put it off to the last moment. I will be putting the Knitting Olympics on hold to help him out. Next month (if there is a next month) we will do a better job of planning out his work load.

Knitting Olympics - Day 9

This was a most uneventful day of smooth knitting. Hurray! I could use more of these types of days. Here is the pic of the progress made to date. Tommorrow I start the bind off for the armholes.



This is how we started the day ... Baked Oatmeal. Yum, its a baked cookie for breakfast! It must have been what I needed to get the day off to a good start. Never dismiss the importance of breakfast.

Knitting Olympics - Day 8

Here is the progress after day 8 of knitting. Not to bad if I say so myself. NO mistakes today!! Yahoo! I can not adequately express how happy I am about this.

I have knit 72 rows of pattern (79 rows from cast on). I am 3/4 of the way done with the main body of the tank. I think I can have the main body finished tomorrow. I may yet get this project done before the Olympic flame is extinguished.

Notice the three chocolate disks on the right of the knitting? Those are my Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. They are my reward for a knitting job well done. Happy knitting. Happy tummy. Good night.

A Little Bit of Fun - Rather Than Knitting

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Wild n warm n woolly!

1. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find wild n warm n woolly!
2. A lump of wild n warm n woolly the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
3. The smelly fluid secreted by skunks is colloquially known as wild n warm n woolly.
4. Wild n warm n woolly is actually a fruit, not a vegetable.
5. There is actually no danger in swimming right after you eat wild n warm n woolly, though it may feel uncomfortable.
6. The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal wild n warm n woolly.
7. If your ear itches, this means that someone is talking about wild n warm n woolly!
8. It takes 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun's surface to wild n warm n woolly.
9. The average human spends about 30 days during their life in wild n warm n woolly!
10. In the 1600s, tobacco was frequently prescribed to treat headaches, bad breath and wild n warm n woolly!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Knitting Olympics - Day 7

I wish I knew how to make my own buttons. I would have to make a Team*Girl Scout Cookie* button. In my frustration and shame last night I downed most of a box of Tagalongs trying to assuage and balm my hurts. It worked marginally well and I am not hung over today. It could be a cute button.

Here is what my knitting looked like this early morning:

Again I had to rip back a selection of stitches to reknit with the cable needle the correct way. I think I finally have the hang of this pattern and am pretty well able to follow it without actually reading it step by step and row by row. I have for all intents and purposes knit and reknit the back section at least twice. The front hasn't caused me any trouble. I am so glad to be DONE with the back detail!!

Here is my knitting so far. I have completed 51 rows of pattern and an additional 7 rows for the edge. I am realizing I am actually half way done with the body of the tank top! Tomorrow I will have a few hours kid and distraction free so I should get lots more done. Maybe this will go faster than I thought it would. If I can just keep from making cabling mistakes I should be home free!

Please Someone, STOP ME!

Ok! I need some serious intervention. I realize I need some intervention. I may never get this close to real consciousness again.

Who let me near a calculator? Get me away from them, quick! Oh my ... let's go over the amount of time it will take me to get this tank top done. I knit at a rate of about 8 minutes per round. I need to have at least 13.5 inches done before I get to the shoulders. I am knitting 30 rows per 4 inches or 7.5 rows per inch. I need a total of101.25, let us round it to 101 rows, to get there. 101 rows times 8 minutes per row equals 808 minutes or 13 hours and 25 minutes. Divide this evenly over the 9 days left and I need to get in 1.5 hours of knitting a day. PHEW! Much more manageable!!

Who let me have a cable needle? Didn't they realize how very dangerous thos e things are?!!The unmitigated repeat disaster is on the detail on the back of my top.

I am happily looking back on 29 rows of pattern. I have made one whole repeat and am well started on the next repeat when I notice ... I did a C4F rather than a C4B down on row 6! What am I going to do? Should I move forward and hate the mistake and hate the top and never wear it because it will always cause me to wail and gnash my teeth in the outer (and inner) darkness? Should I try to salvage those two mistakenly knit cables and move forward once again. I am going to try to get those flipping cables fixed.

Wish me luck! I'll be starting in the early morning before the kids wake up. Maybe a little or a LOT of coffee and some quiet will help?

Knitting Olympics - Day 6

Today I added the ticker on the side of the blog. ACK! Better than 30% of the time is past. I am no where near 30% done with the tank top. Maybe a mini tank top that will barely skim the bottom of my breasts would work? No, I think not.
















Today I completed row 18 of the pattern (row 25 from cast on). It takes me at least 8 minutes to do a row uninterrupted. I better get going on that. I need 405 rows to get to the 13.5 inch mark where I can start the neckline and armholes. I have 380 rows to go. At this rate it will take me 3040 minutes or 50 hours and 40 minutes. I have 10 days to go but need to have some time to do the shoulder straps and a wee bit of time cushion (a day should be good for that!). Anyway 50 hours and 40 minutes divided by 9 days means I need to get a solid 5 hours a day of knitting in. I wonder if I can knit while I sleep?

I better get some sleep now so I can hit the needles tomorrow. Wish me luck! I need to sneak in more days and/or get a tad bit faster.

Knitting Olympics - Day 5

It is a fine, cool, sometimes snowy (but not sticking) day here in Knitting Olympics town. I am off to a slow start but I have started. Things appear to be going smoothly. I am warmed up. My needles are flying (for me). The kids are lost or rather lost to me as they are downstairs with Andy playing and shreiking to their hearts content (it is Valentine's Day after all).

I have decided to ignore Team *Hey! We're Drinking Here!* for the evening and concentrtate on the Team USA Knitting. Alas! I have been co-opted by Team *What Was I Thinking?*

At 10:56 PM this evening I sighed with contentment and pride. I had finished row 21 of the top (which is actually row 14 of the pattern as there are 6 rows of 1x1 ribbing and a single row of knitting first). All my stitches were even and nary a dropped stitch. It appears I am off to a smashing start.



No, wait! On closer inspection it appears I hve crashed headlong into the first gate and have created a HUGE snowball which is careening down the slopes taking down everything in its path. ARGH! This is the point that Team *What Was I Thinking?* takes over in my life (once again).


I neglected to increase evenly by 6 stitches in the center back portion of the top at row 10 in the pattern (which is how I will now describe the top - by the row in the pattern rather than the row from the cast on - just add 7 rows). I foolishly left out the cable pattern for 5 rows over 40 stitches on the back of the tank top. My clever little detail is ruined! All is ruined! My Olympic Knitting dreams are completely and totally trashed! Wailing and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness can be heard far and wide.

What is this? Do I dare beleive it? Have I chosen to pick it up and go on? No. Have I chosen to tink over 5 rows and over 1000 stitches? No! Have I chosen to drop 34 stitches, increase by 6 stitches, and reknit in pattern for 5 rows? YES!!!

I can not belive it ladies and gentlemen! I have chosen to and successfully dropped 34 stitches, increased by 6, and reknit in the cable pattern the 40 stitches for 5 rows!!! Amazing! And done in less than 45 minutes.


If I fail to complete the course I KNOW I am a winner for successfully challenging myself and completing this tinking project in mid tank top.

Please keep your applause and cheering to a dull roar. It is time for bed. The little ones are asleep (and we want to keep them that way).

Tommorrow I am definately joining Team *Hey! We're Drinking Here!*. It can't get any worse, can it?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines Day!
It is going to be a good one.

Red roses from me to you.

Knitting Olympics

I am a participating in the Knitting Olympics.

Well I DID finish the hot water bottle cover but it isn't my Olympic Knitting project. I am an Olympic Knitter from TeamUSA :

and part of Team *Hey, We're Drinking Here!* (always an alternative to admitting I have no idea what I am doing):

as well as Team *What Was I Thinking?!*:

After finishing the HWB cover last night I finally cast on my tank top and knit 1.5 rows to discover I got my 1x1 ribbing wrong (then wrong again so it is back to right by the end of the round) in the first row. I had to unknit then reknit each stitch on row 1 so I could then make my second row stitch for over half of the top. ARGH! What a dope! I probably should have pulled the whole thing out but I had successfully cast on and marked over 200 stitches and wasn’t about to re-do all of that.

So the score for me is: Day 4 and I have cast on and knit 2 rows of 1x1 ribbing.

In my favor is the fact that I still had to knit my swatch *and* make alterations to the basic tank pattern, and also re-write the cabling for in the round.

Did I mention I don’t actually have TV reception/cable/satellite so I can not watch the Olympics at all? Weep for me. I need to go to the library to get a book on tape or hook up the MP3 player to the stereo to listen to Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. That should count for Olympic Knitting fare!