Randomness on Mother's Day

    Today is Mother's Day, and yesterday was my beloved Hubs' 50th birthday. Some years they both fall on the same day. And yes, I caught myself a younger man. After nearly 26 years, it makes no difference anyway.


   Our son, and my youngest child, Jesse, is away in the U.K. for a karate tournament. He should be back tomorrow evening, according to his fiancé. I know it's silly, but I was worried. This was a huge tournament, and even though he is an experienced martial artist, and holder of a 4th degree black belt, I still worry about him.


    Even though he was busy with his tournament, he managed to send his dad birthday wishes, and Mother's Day wishes to me. I can't wait to see the videos that were taken of his fights. He won 1st place in his division in sparring, but didn't win Grand Champion. I hear he lost the last fight for that honor. So he came close.


   I was looking through my photos today, and found a couple of funny ones. Sara had tried on a couple of my wigs and took photos of herself.

    I should get her to try all the others on too. There is also a very funny one of Jesse in one of my wigs, dressed in his paintball gear. Well I can't find that one. I thought it was in my files on my laptop.


    I had a ball babysitting for Owen this week. He's getting so big. He likes to stand up on your legs and all you have to do is hang on to him for balance. He's not good at balance yet. He can't even sit up by himself, but he loves to sit, and stand too.


    But you really have to be careful. The other day, after his daddy left for work, I Owen was sitting on my leg, and I looked away for a second. The little turd spit up all over his bib, and it puddled on my pants leg. Nice. No sound at all, just a wet feeling on my leg. I looked back and there it was!

    I seem to have lost any interest in crafting right now. I have made more than a few cat toys for the craft fair/flea market. I just realized that's next Saturday! AARRGGHH. Oh wait, I'm ready! No need to worry. Anyway, the cat toys are fun, and I hope I sell bunches of them. All other crafting is in a time out. That happens sometimes, you just don't feel like doing it for a while. Sort of like blogging.........


   

Catching up again

    It seems we have found the problem with my laptop. The power/charging cord was bad. Hubs and I went to Best Buy and got a new one, and so far it seems all better! There is only one little problem left. This blog site isn't recognizing the browser I'm using. That makes no sense to me, as I use Google as my browser, and Google owns the blogsite. As long as I can continue to post, it matters not to me.


   I did get to go visit with mom yesterday, at least for a while. Hubs had to go to the house in Fishkill to look at, and hopefully fix, a couple of problems they've been having. He dropped me off at mom's so we could visit. We had a nice time. Unfortunately, it wasn't as long of a visit as I thought it would be. It turns out that everything was OK at the house, at least for now.


    I recently purchased a new nook HD+. It's the big one. I love it so far. I love the touch screen, and I made it so that when I'm reading and turn the page, when I swipe the screen it looks like an actual page is turning. It really is the little things that make me happy.


    Since my laptop is back up, I've been busy transferring photos from there to my nook. I can use them for wallpaper! I need to get some photos of Chloe, Mason and Owen from far away, because of the scale thing. I put a close up of Owen as a wallpaper, and all I got was an eye, a nose, and part of his smile. It was scary looking.


   My days last week babysitting for Owen were lots of fun. He is such a joyful little boy. And at 5 months old, he loves it when you hold him up and he stands on our legs. He can actually support his weight, we just hold him for balance. He might be an early walker. I'm not sure if I should be happy for Sara and Mike, or sorry for them!


    Here is the latest photo of Owen, having tummy time.

    I am shamelessly adding the photo of Owen because it seems when I post photos of the grandkids, I get many more views!


    I was knitting on the legwarmers, but the new nook took my attention away from them. I do take them with me when I go to watch Owen. I hope to get some work done while he naps. Keep your fingers crossed, I might take a photo of them if there's any visible progress...

Two days with Owen

    This week was special, for a number of reasons. In case you don't remember, I babysit for my youngest grandchild every Thursday and Friday. He is the cutest patootie I have seen since his mom was a baby!


   We were having a great time together on Thursday, hanging out and talking to each other. Then he went and partially filled his diaper THREE TIMES! At least they were small ones, and easily cleaned up.


    He loves it when you talk to him, and sing to him. So yesterday, I made my own station on their Pandora, a 70's Rock station. Now I can really sing to him! He is so cute, and he really does sing back at you! I need to find a microphone shaped soft or chewy baby toy. This child is going to be a vocalist, as well as a drummer like daddy and grandpa.


    Next week I will be caring for Owen four days out of the five, so I will probably not be in touch. I'm sure I'll be a total basket case by the end of the week. Who knew that caring for a baby could wear you out so much? It's not like he's a toddler and running around and getting into everything! He pretty much stays where you put him.


    And now for a few photos. These are not new, just my favorites!

    I have been informed that this last one was not posed. He actually fell asleep like that!

An all projects update

   I am still knitting like a mad woman here. Unfortunately, every other project is in a time out. The Pi Shawl, the double knit pad for Owen, the legwarmers (remember them?), I'm sure there are more but I just can't recall right now. They are all in sleep mode and someday I will get back to them.


   Of course, in the meantime, I'm still working on the Huge Adventure Bag. This thing is taking on a life of its own. I am currently almost to the ends of skeins 7 and 8, with 9 and 10 ready to go. I still have 25 more rounds to go until I increase on the short sides for the handle attachment flaps. I would take a photo, but I really don't think it would make much sense to the eye. It would just look  like a giant mound of double stranded, purple stockinette, with four stitch markers  indicating the corners. 


    I'm still plugging away on the 36 inch circular needle. I did find a set of double pointed needles in the size needed, at Out Of The Loop, one of my favorite LYS's. I feel I should mention that Hubs actually volunteered to take me there! We were in Fishkill making a Sam's run, and he mentioned it, so off we went. While we were there, I decided to buy another skein of the yarn I'm using for the Pi Shawl, since I was concerned I would run out before I finished. Now I can make sure it's big enough to suit me.


    I may very well be out of touch for the next few days, as it's my turn to babysit little Owen tomorrow and Friday. I am out of touch with the internet while performing that task. I need to concentrate on the little guy. He's growing so fast! He's become so much more vocal, trying out his little voice! I have so much fun with him....

Babysitting and New Discoveries

    I know I've been lax and haven't written in a few days. But I was kind of busy. Wednesday, Kim H. thought that since it would be just the two of us for Stitch n Bitch, she proposed a road trip, not just breakfast. So we went to Out of the Loop yarn shop, a LYS down in the Fishkill area. I frequented this shop when we lived down that way.


   I found some absolutely luscious yarn that I had to buy, and of course I had to use it right away! I wound it up after I got home, and started my third Pi Shawl by Elizabeth Zimmermann. It's so pretty! I will take photos another day.


    I babysat all day for little OG Thursday and today. It still amazes me that I get so freaking tired just hanging out with a 3 month old baby! It's not like I'm chasing him around or anything. He just lays there! Granted, it's awesome now that he is laughing and smiling.


    The other day, as I was reacquainting myself with the directions for the Pi Shawl, I was flipping through the book Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Almanac. This copy is special, as it was a gift from a friend. So there I was reading her stories, and something caught my eye. It was a little ditty about double knitting, and how it makes a light yet cozy blanket.


    Now, I have done some double knitting, and while it's do-able, it's not easy. But as I read her instructions, it occurred to me that she is talking about doing the whole thing with only ONE yarn strand. Every other time I've seen it, it's always with two strands of yarn. I read it, and couldn't wait to try it. I had some heavy-ish weight yarn and grabbed my size 11 bamboo circulars and set to work. And guess what? It works! I am making a small sample as she suggests, and it works!


    The resulting fabric is soft and extra cushiony just as she said! I will take photos soon, so you can see what I'm talking about. Can you blame me for being excited? I am bursting with plans to make a blanket for my favorite son-in-law, as well as a wee one for his son.

Adventures in Babysitting

    I was thrilled that this week I was able to physically get to Sara's house and babysit for little Owen. I missed him last week. I told Hubs that by the time I see him he will probably be walking and talking and swearing! But he wasn't. He was definitely a little bigger, and much more responsive. Lots of smiling and laughing.


    I just can't figure out how come taking care of an infant is so exhausting! It's not like he's running around or anything. I am so tired by the time I get to go home. Yesterday, we had a special moment. He was getting fussy, so I decided to hold him for a while. I laid him on my chest kind of sideways, with his head in the bend of my right elbow. He seemed comfortable there, so I started rocking him. Out of nowhere, I started singing "Soft Kitty" to him. After I sang it once, he looked up at me and smiled! Then he closed his eyes and went to sleep. I sang that stupid song over and over again.


    Today I went with Sara to see my mom. She takes Owen every two weeks to see her. I went this time because I had promised mom I would come see her while Hubs is gone and I haven't gone yet. Besides, I wanted to get a photo or two of her holding Owen.

    And because he's so darn cute, here's a close up of Owen!

    There's more about what happened at Sara's, but it wasn't to do with Owen. I'm saving it for tomorrow!

After the storm

   At this point, all I can do is hope the storm is over. We must have over a foot of snow at this point. We have shoveled, and been plowed out. Maybe this afternoon I can get some work done on my legwarmers.


    Yesterday I didn't get to knit at all, we were busy at doctor appointments, grocery shopping, and picking up meds at the drug store. Hubs needed blood work, so that took a while.


    The bad news is that my Jeep broke. I made it home from Sara's house Friday, barely, parked it and swore I wasn't driving it again until it was at least looked at. I didn't get to tell Hubs about it until Saturday evening after he got home from work. With husbands, timing is everything.


    Friday night he was too busy venting about work. I would just have added to the stress, so I made the executive decision to wait. In the end it turns out that once again my instincts were correct. It seems that my right rear wheel was falling off. Two of the studs were broken off, and the whole thing was wobbling when I drove. That would have been the "whoop whoop" sound I was hearing when I drove.


   The good news is that it's now all fixed. And Hubs can return all those other parts he bought before he realized what the problem actually was. After he came home with my repaired Jeep, he was freaking out that he hadn't noticed the problem. And the fact that I had mentioned to him twice that there was a problem.


    So I get to babysit for little Owen tomorrow. I can't wait to see him! I just hope the roads are all passable in the morning.

New Legwarmer Progress

    Yesterday I made some progress on the new legwarmers. I love that I can do them both together. While Owen was napping, I got three rows done, and it's nice and bright there, so I didn't have any trouble seeing the stitches.

                    

    Someone commented on facebook about knitting two things at once, so I will explain. Those of you who know already can skip ahead. First you cast on the stitches for one item (#1). Then using a second ball of the exact same yarn, cast on the same number of stitches on the same needle (#2). You knit the first row of #2 with its own ball of yarn. When you finish that row, drop that yarn. Then knit the first row of #1 with its ball of yarn. So you always knit all the way across, doing each piece with its own yarn.


    This method works especially well with sweater sleeves or other matching pieces, because they will both have the exact same number of rows. I once did this method one better, or so I thought. I did the two front pieces and the back of a sweater all together, but it didn't work out so well. I think I must have gotten confused, because one of the pieces was too short. Perhaps sticking to only two pieces at a time is a better idea.


   If my explanation is confusing, I apologize. If anyone feels they can explain it better, please feel free to comment.


    I am babysitting Owen again today. It's so cool getting to spend time with him when he's so little. Maybe I'll take some photos and post them over the weekend.


10 PM

    I just realized I should give credit where credit is due. My friend Jan Harrington, knitter extraordinaire, showed me how to do the two at once method. Thanks, Jan!!

Time for crochet while babysitting

    I had that for the past two days. I was babysitting for my newest grandson, and while he napped I had time to crochet. I got some more done on the first legwarmer. I think it's about 2/3 done now.


    Babysitting is quite an adventure in itself. First, I really hate having to get up at 5:30 am. I figured that I already get up that early two days a week, what's two more? It wouldn't have been so bad, except after the first day of sitting, I had an awful night of sleep. It was one of those god-awful nights where you wake up every 20 - 30 minutes? I think the best sleep I got all night was the 5 minutes after the alarm went off. I only know I fell back asleep because I was dreaming.


    Really, a newborn doesn't require that much work. But I was exhausted none-the-less. He really is a good natured baby, and doesn't really cry unless there's something wrong. The hardest thing is keeping him occupied for 5 minutes while his bottle heats up. But yesterday, he made my day...


    Sara went upstairs to get dressed. When she came back down, she brought Owen, who was still half asleep. She put him in his downstairs sleeping place. I left him alone in case he went back to sleep. After a few minutes, I looked in, and he was awake, so I leaned over and told him that Nana was here to stay with him today. He looked right at me and smiled!


    I was so very tired yesterday, and that's not a good thing. When I am that tired, I get extremely weepy. The littlest things make me tear up. It happened twice yesterday while I was at Sara's. And then again after Hubs got home from work and I was telling him about it. He just chuckles at me.

My first day with Owen

    Last Friday, my daughter Sara went back to work, after having her adorable little son Owen. She was understandably distraught. I got to be Owen's first all day babysitter. I'll be taking Thursdays and Fridays, while his other grandma is taking Mondays and Tuesdays. His daddy is off on Wednesdays.


    He was asleep when I got there. I really hoped he'd stay asleep until after mommy left, I thought it might make it a bit easier for her. He decided to wake up just before she left. So mommy got to supervise my warming his bottle, and we were settled into having it when she left.


    The little guy was pretty good. He complained most of the morning, I think he missed his mommy. At one point he looked right at me, and started to cry. I didn't take it personally. We had some good talks, and after his noon time bottle, he passed right out. He was still asleep when his daddy got home 3 1/2 hours later!


   I kept busy watching a show on Hulu that Sara thought I might like. It's called The Misfits. I watched all of season 1, and a couple shows from season 2.  Just before daddy was due home, I turned the show off, and put the baby tunes on.


    My biggest question is this: I didn't do much all day, why was I so exhausted?  Perhaps it was because I didn't get to have my usual morning coffee. I did bring some of the chocolate chai tea I had found, but only had one cup. I can't wait to see how it goes this week.  

Legwarmer Update

    Today I was working on my legwarmer. I crocheted while I watched Arrow on Netflix. I had been interested in that show, but never got to watch it. It was good, I hope there is more than one season. I just finished watching the season 1 finale.


    Also today, I went to watch my grandson Mason, who is 3. He is getting to be quite a handful! Very physical, and I'm so *not* a physical babysitter. Oh well, he'll learn. While he was napping, I worked on my legwarmer. Here are some photos, see if you can see how much more has been done:

    That is the whole thing. The next one is just the top, or knee end. The white stitch markers are where I added short rows to the ribbing to make it wide enough.

    Then the bottom, or ankle ribbing.

    So as you can see, I have made some progress. It's not all Lazy Kim's Cat Toys. I'm getting there; perhaps slower than I'd like, but I'm still getting there!

More Adventures in Babysitting

    Let's start with a knitting project update. I found the WIP, crocheted/knitted purse to be felted. I took it with me babysitting today, but did not get to work on it at all. My youngest charge actually fell asleep in my arms, and I walked in to put her into bed. As I laid her down, her eyes opened, and less than a minute after I exited the room, she followed me out. She didn't succumb again.


    I thought, just for a short while, that she was gonna pass out in that last half hour before her dad came, but NO. She lounged, but her eyes never closed. I was watching like a hawk. Although, today I did teach her a new word! And that word is "awesome". Her mom heard it before she left for work, and her dad heard it too, before I left for the day. It felt really good.


    I also tried to get her to say her name, her dad tells me he asks her what her name is and she tells him. So today, I asked her what her name is, and she said "Lia". She leaves off the first syllable. So I asked her if she can say "mama", which she did, then I tried again with her name, Malia. Again all I got was "Lia". It's a start.


    This afternoon, while I was in the rest room, I heard strange noises from the living room. It sounded like she was rubbing a toy on the wall. I thought it was no biggie. But when I re-entered the living room, I find her with a pen in her hand, scribbling madly on the wall! She was really pissed when I took it away from her, and told her "No!".


    Now I have a couple of days of relaxation, I will not be needed again until Thursday. That should give me some much needed time to return some water bottles. They are really piling up. I have found that early morning is best for that task. I just hope the new Stop n Shop, that they are building across the street from the current one, has more bottle return machines...


   

Adventures in Babysitting

    What a week it's been. Monday, Miss Malia decided to throw her wooden blocks all over the place. I had had enough, especially since a few had come close to making contact with my face. I started picking them up and putting them in their bag.


   Naturally, she objected to this, loudly. I got her to stop by picking up a block, and showing her the number on it. I asked her "What number is this?", and she would answer me, then I'd put it in the bag. I tried to get her to help me, but she wasn't buying it. She did, however, get every number correct. I even took a 6, turned it upside down, and asked her "Now what number is it?"! She got it right, she yelled "9!". I kept flipping it back and forth, while she laughed. "6! 9! 6! 9!". Remember, she's now 20 months old. Eventually, we got all the blocks put back in their bag.  She did start crying again when I closed up the bag. But she got over it quickly.


    This morning, I went to watch the Cherub. I seem to remember her mom, my good friend Kim, telling me to make sure she got all her before school stuff done. This morning, however, the Cherub wasn't cooperating. She told me more than once that she didn't need reminding. I told her that I thought it was part of my job to do so. When we picked her mom up from work, I made a point of asking Kim if it was indeed a part of my job to make sure she gets her before school stuff done.


    It turns out that I was right, but it's a good thing I checked, I wasn't really sure. In the process, I royally pissed off the Cherub. Perhaps I could have waited and asked Kim when Cherub wasn't around, but I am not good at waiting for things like that, I tend to forget. I just hope she will get over her snit, and we can still be friends. After all, she is my BKF (Best Kid Friend).


    Today was unusual, in that I went right from watching Cherub to Miss Malia's house. My alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. and I left my house at 6:10. I finally got home at 3:40. It was a very long day. Made even longer by the fact that I had intended to go to bed early, but one of my very favorite movies was on, so I had to watch it. It was People Will Talk, starring Cary Grant, from 1951. It's an absolutely awesome movie.


   All this, and it's only Wednesday! What other exciting things are in store for me the rest of this week?