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.........


   

I will not felt anything ever again....

   You see the photos, you see the pattern and think "Yeah, I can do this, it's not that hard!". Well, at least for me, it never turns out the way it's supposed to. After 11 skeins of wool that were not on sale, after putting all other projects in a time out, and after knitting like a mad woman for days on end, it's finally over.


   The giant purple bag came off the needles, and I took this photo:

    Then I folded it up and put it on the shelf. I wasn't going to felt it right away. I would rather felt it when Hubs isn't home, because he complains that I'm using the hot water and therefore using our oil unnecessarily.


    Well..... I couldn't wait. Last night I put it in the washer with a pair of youngest son's old denim shorts and three tennis balls that I have expressly for the purpose of felting. I had to run them through twice. This morning, I threw the whole mess into the dryer and hoped for the best. This is what I pulled out of the dryer about an hour ago...

    I put the yardstick in so we could all have a reference point to the original photo. It shrunk too much up and down, and not enough side to side. I am unhappy. I stuffed it with a couple of sheet sets so it had some dimension:

    I am seriously considering cutting a few inches out of the middle to make it shorter. I shall have to think on this for a while. In the meantime I think it's going in a time out of it's own....

Knitting and crocheting news

    I haven't worked on Sara's sweater since we got back from Massachusetts. I think it's time for her to try it on. While that project is on hold, I took a few days for myself. But Monday, I went to see my friend Bonny, who needed my help with a sweater she's currently crocheting.


    I got there, and helped her, and saw the amazing sweater she's working on. I liked it so much, I asked her to copy the pattern for me. I went back and got it yesterday, and started working on it last night. At first, of course, I had to stash dive to see if there was any yarn in there I could use for this new sweater. I found more than enough of Simply Soft, a skein of white and three skeins each of light gray and dark gray. Right now, I'm very broke, and not having to buy yarn is a plus. I decided to use what I had.



    The pattern is basically a big giant round circle, with holes for the arms. You go back after the body, and make the arms. This version is called the Pinwheel Sweater, and it's someones crocheted version of a circular knitted sweater. The crocheted version was a free pattern, Bonny found it on Crochet Pattern Central, I think.



    Now, the pattern that Bonny gave me has holes in it. I started making the sweater according to the pattern. After 4 or 5 rounds, I stopped and took a good look at it. I decided I didn't like it with the holes. So I frogged it, and started over, with the standard circle pattern from Lion Brand Yarn's website. It'll be easy enough to do without the holes, as I've made that pattern before.


    Note: on the Lion Brand site, the pattern is for an afghan. I've made it as an adult size, and a baby size afghan.


    I am using the white in the center, then going to the light gray, then the dark. I decided not to make it all stripey, just solid "blocks" of color. So it will look more like a target. Bonny's  has the holes, and she's making it all stripey. It's really very pretty. I can't wait to see it all done.


    I was going to take some photos for you today. I had my circle all laid out and smooth, then I couldn't find the camera. It took me a few minutes to remember where I had put it. I found it, and turned it on. Or, rather, tried to turn it on. It seems the battery is dead. AND being broke, I don't have the money to go out and buy another battery. They are kind of expensive.  So you are out of luck for now. Hopefully soon, I can buy a battery and take some photos of the crocheted sweater.