Granny Squared

No questions, photos only please

No time or energy for a lot of words today, so just a quick pictorial review of where we are.  I've divided into two halves: Non-Yarn (or mostly pictures of Carol) and Yarn.

Non-Yarn

On Friday nights, we have pizza and movie night.  Carol and Tommy make the dough and create the pizza from whatever sounds good.  For Carol, that's often shrimp and goat cheese.  I love that, too, but tend toward veggie.  Sometimes, I ask for the old standby of Canadian bacon and mushroom, which Tommy easily accomodates with a trip to the store.  He likes lots of meat on his pizza, whatever kind it is.

Here's Carol making dough a few weeks ago:

 

Since she also likes to bake so much, we made gingerbread cookies a few weeks ago.  She loves to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes.  While I sort of insisted that we stick with the Christmas shapes of men, stars and trees for the batch I took to the office, I did allow her to go hogwild with the cutters and leftover dough.  She made dog bones, jack-o-lanterns, hearts, and even a few men and stars.

Here are the ones we delivered to work, and the recipe, which is the best I've ever found for ginger-snappy cookies. 

 
If you need to make something for Santa, these are the ones! 

The day after we made the dough, we did some more cooking when we tried the Krispy Kreme Copycat Recipe.  I've had this recipe in my file for awhile and only decided to try it when the cookie prep work took longer than expected (forgot about the whole chilling the dough thing!)

Anyway, I swore I would make something that I've never made before because it's the only way I can eliminate any of the recipes that I keep in my binder.  This is the place I organize the magazine tear-outs and internet prints and email sharings.  It's too big, so sometimes I just go through and purge recipes that I suspect I will never try.  On this occasion, though, my intention was to evaluate and eliminate.

Instead, we found that the doughnuts are GREAT and that I should definitely make them again.  Only, they should really be a dessert item rather than breakfast, because 1) I had to get up at 6 a.m. to start the yeasty process; and 2) seriously, doughnuts are dessert; they so are not a nutritional start to the day.

But aren't they pretty?

 

Sunday night, Carol and I went to "The Nutcracker" here in Seattle, where the sets are unlike any I've ever seen.  They were designed by Maurice Sendak and are just incredible.  If you are in Seattle and have not seen this production sometime in the last 20 years, make time to go.  If you're not in Seattle, make plans to visit us next year and we'll go.  Beautiful. 

Oh, and Carol loved the ballet.  She got a little squirmy toward the end, but she paid attention, was very quiet while asking questions, excited at all the right places and followed along.  We read a book before going, but the storybook is only minimally part of the show. Carol really did well for her first performance of this kind.

Here is Carol before heading out to the performance, in front of our tree.

 

And just one more picture of Carol for you.  She got some practice opening presents Sunday night when I decided I didn't like the way I wrapped a gift and needed to change it.  Tommy asked her to imagine she was excited and she had a great time exclaiming, "oh, my goodness, a watch!"  I won't tell you who the watch is for, but someone will love it.

 

You can see the new baby on the ottoman beside her.  That is Clara, who Carol chose as a souvenir from the ballet.  The name, of course, is to help her always remember "The Nutcracker," she says.  She really loves this new baby and even chose Clara to be the doll who rides in the airplane with her when travelling to Texas.

Yarn

Just a few things in progress right now!  OK, there's actually quite a bit, but I'm making great progress and love everything I'm working on so far.  Last night, I knitted for eight hours and stayed up too late, but I just love it so much.  I can't believe I never learned to do this before, and I really wish I had crocheted for Carol when she was a baby, even if I didn't know how to knit back then.  To make up for it, I'm planning to make the first sweater I knit for her, but in the meantime, I've got to finish all the knitted and crocheted gifts for Christmas.

Below, a picture list of everything I've done in the last three weeks:

• a hat for someone who's moving to a cold place who probably doesn't read this blog anyway, but will know it's him if he does! This is the A&F Knockoff Hat in Sundae.  Used almost the whole skein even though I added four stitches to the cast-on.  Tommy thought it needed to be a bit bigger around.

 

• Ruby Slippers from "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies."  Delivered to a new mommy today along with a hat from the same book.  These are so cute!  The buttons are from my Granny's button box, so they are quite vintage themselves.  Granny gave me ALL her buttons many years ago so I rarely buy buttons for anything. Nice pattern, can't wait to try something else out of this book.

 

• These are the Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties, which I showed you in progress in a prior post.  They came out pretty cool, if a little big.  The pattern is fairly easy, but I didn't read the directions properly and so did not change to a smaller needle size after making a matching rolled-edge hat.  Oh, well.

 

• Caleb's Snowboarder Hunting Hat.  Grrr... I still can't believe I'm making a hat so Kayla's boyfriend can have a warm and camoflauged head while out hunting Bambi, but I'm nothing if not a good sport.  Plus, they are going skiing in January, so I think I'll make them a pair of matching Texas Tech red and black snowboarder hats.  Maybe the lack of violence associated with those hats will cleanse me of this one?

 

• Isn't this yarn so beautiful?  It's Plymouth Alpaca Grande Hand Dyed in the orange-brown multi and I love it SO MUCH!  I'm going to make myself a vest out of it as soon as I finish all these other projects.  I can't wait to wear it myself, but this is a One Row Scarf for someone else who is moving to a cold place.  She's getting a matching hat, too, but I haven't started that yet.

 

• Kayla's Alpine Frost scarf in Raider Red.  She requested something in red, so I picked up this super-tiny Silky Alpaca Lace and started crocheting.  I should finish it sometime in 2012.  Doubtful this will make it into any Christmas wrapping this year.

• A much quicker Alpine Frost scarf done in a worsted weight with just 27 chains to start.  Done in about two hours and just needs to have the ends woven and be blocked.  Again, this is for one of these three people I know who are moving to a colder climate.   

• Here's the matching hat.  I learned to do cables and am so happy to see that it's not as complicated as expected! Should finish quickly as soon as I get back to it. 

So, not a lot going on around.  Move along now; there's nothing to see here.

The View

This is the view outside my office today.  It was the same yesterday. 

 

I love Seattle.  When I was in college, I wanted to live here.  After college, I wanted to live here.

I have no idea why.  In my imagination, everything in Seattle would be wonderful.  My life would be different.  My fun would be more fun.  I would write and report and take pictures.

Or maybe it was just the furthest I could get from Texas and still be in the US?

Now, everything in Seattle is wonderful.  My life is different from what it once was, but still the same.  In good ways.  My fun is as fun as it's always been.  And I write, report on our lives and take a lot of pictures. 

And I wish Seattle could be in Texas.

Too much to do

Not really, but I have lined myself up with several projects for Christmas.

 

Luckily, they are all just two to three hour patterns, and since I’m obsessed with yarn work right now, I estimate I actually have two to three hours of knitting time per day so should finish one item every three days.  That allows for the many, many mistakes I make.

 

For example, last night, I was working on this baby booty…

 

 

 

…when I got to the point of the pattern that called for knitting back and forth to create the toe.  Now, in crochet, I know how to go back and forth regardless of where the yarn lies.  However, in knitting, the yarn is always pulling beside my right needle.  Here I was with instructions that told me to turn and go back the other way, but when I turned, the yarn was by my left needle.

 

I have no idea why this was so difficult, but I made it worse when I went on youtube to find instructions.  These very complicated instructions combined with misreading of the pattern inevitably led to me ending up with an uneven booty and too many stitches on the needle.

 

AAAACCCKKK!

 

At midnight, I threw everything into the bag and gave up.

 

Today, I visited So Much Yarn, where wonderful, patient Lauren picked my stitches out, relocated the perfect number of stitches back onto my needles and showed me how to simply turn the booty and start knitting going back the other direction.  Pretty much the same thing I do in crochet, and no complicated process needed!

 

Once I got through another insanely scary new concept (yarn over – yes, I now know that it involves nothing more than dragging the yarn over the needle, but a few hours ago… eek!).  Where was that sentence going?

 

Ah, yes… once I got through the scary new concept of yarn over, I stopped knitting with supervision and started shopping.  I got almost everything I need for Christmas; just need to make one small purchase of something in a good hunting color.

 

OK, I have no idea how my innocent offer to make Kayla’s boyfriend a hat for Christmas could lead to my support of the violence of hunting, but there it is.  I called to ask Kayla if a hat would be a good idea (yes) and for a color suggestion.

 

Green or brown, she says; Caleb needs to keep warm while he’s hunting innocent animals.

 

If you have any doubt how I feel about hunting, please take a look at this great scene from ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER, “My Cousin Vinny.”  Marissa Tomei expresses her feelings, and I have no desire to try to improve on her representation. 

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I completed this rolled edge baby hat to match the booties.  Pretty yarn, called Plymouth Happy Feet.  What a fun name!  Not something you’d use to kill a deer, but good times regardless.

 

 

Here's Carol modelling the baby hat:

 

 

 

And I completed Carol’s scarf, which just needed a little blocking to open up and look like a woven wonder.  That's what I'd call the scarf if I had to give it a name: The Woven Wonder.  Or, I know: The Woven Wonder, Woo Hoo!  Yeah, that's it.  Here she is wearing it with the matching hat.

 

 

And here she is again, with Tommy, wearing his Dallas Cowboys hat.  I chose a color to honor the ‘Boys – navy, blue and gray.  Thick and thin yarn.  Still can’t remember the yarn, but I keep meaning to look when I visit the store.

 

 

Finally, here’s a better picture of the Minnie dress.

 

 

And one of the Tinkerbell costume, which I made for Halloween.  She and Nathan (our neighbor who is modeling last year’s purchased Cinderella costume) are watching “The Bee Movie” for last week’s movie night.

 

 

Oh, and I just have to tell you about one more bit of craftiness.  This one is courtesy of Carol, who planned a birthday party for a younger boy baby doll.  Last weekend, on his first birthday, which occurs regularly around here, Carol baked a cake (you don’t want the recipe) and decorated her dollhouse.

 

This is the balloon she made.  All on her own. 

 

 

I know.  You’re in awe aren’t you?!  What kind of engineering genius comes up with something like this?  My four-year-old.  That’s who.

Keeping my solemn vow

I procrastinated as long as I could... about two days... but then I finally frogged Carol's scarf and started over.

 
You can see in this picture that the cables are now on both sides of the scarf.  It's still easy to crochet, but I have my vow to consider.

Remember when I said that I would work on Carol's scarf exclusively if I decided to rip it out?  Well, I have done that, and it's taught me something:

I like to finish things.

I have so many projects going right now that I haven't finished anything in several days!  Horror!

So, my new vow is to finish Carol's scarf.  Then, I'm going to finish Tommy's hat, the baby hat, my crocheted sweater, the other crocheted baby booty, the granny square afghan, the knitted scarf and a pair of knitted baby booties.

Not necessarily in that order.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to this.

You're so happy now, aren't you? 

Busy, busy, busy, yarn, yarn, yarn – and a bit about Carol

I’m officially obsessed with yarn.  So much so, in fact, that I am eschewing paper in favor of yarn.  It’s true: I’ve stopped scrapbooking.

 

I know I’ve gone longer than this without scrapbooking, but always before, I spent time thinking about scrapbooking; or reading about it; or wishing I had time to do it.

 

Now, all I’m thinking about is whether or not I can bring my hooks or needles to agency meetings because I can pay attention while I do this, right?!  And I wonder if the bus will be deserted enough for me to crochet or knit on the way home.  And at night, I say things like “Yes, we can watch that show because I can knit during it.  No, no cooking shows, I have to look up too much for that.”

 

Worst of all, Tommy told me he booked our Mexico vacation for next year, and all I seem to think about is “that will be a long flight… I wonder how many projects can I bring to work on while in the air?”

 

Even now, I’m thinking, “Who cares?  Post the pictures and use your lunch hour to knit!”

 

I’m sick.

 

Well, I will post some pictures, but briefly, for those of you reading just for a mention of Carol, I’ll give you a glimpse: 

 

I know, not a great picture, but it's from my phone.  Promise to do better in the future.

 

This weekend, we went to Disney on Ice, giving Carol the chance to see her friends: Lightning McQueen, Ariel, Simba, Tinkerbell and others.  She had a wonderful time, and for the first time, wore the dress pictured above.

 

I made it back in early October, when I still held out hope that Carol would be Minnie Mouse for Halloween.  She has been saying all year that she wanted to be Fairy Godmother, which I think is an interesting choice, and which I am happy to accomodate. 

 

The problem is that there is no Fairy Godmother costume in the stores or in the pattern books.  Of course, it’s an easy costume to put together and Little Red Riding Hood would have totally worked – just in different colors.  Apparently, a four-year-old does not yet have the ability to envision Fairy Godmother when looking at a Little Red Riding Hood pattern, though.

 

While Carol was looking through the patterns books – after frowning at my idea – she found Tinkerbell (Simplicity 2872) and fell in love.  I did make that costume, which was a Halloween success, and will show it to you sometime, but after the Fairy Godmother mishap, I really hoped we could go for Minnie.  Her dots are just so fun!

 

I made the Minnie dress from a girl’s dress pattern (can’t remember which), just using the red fabric with white dots and some eyelet lace trim.  I used the bloomers from the Tinkerbell pattern and added a pretty white on white dotted underskirt, also trimmed with the eyelet.  Later, we found some black tights and a black T-shirt, which absolutely make Carol look like Minnie Mouse.  Especially when she adds her mouse ears, left from this summer’s trip to Disney World.

 

The dress is made so she can wear it to school or church or wherever, but it wasn’t until this weekend that Carol decided it would be the perfect ensemble for her outing to Disney on Ice.

 

Making those dresses, by the way, did distract me from both scrapbooking and crocheting for a couple of weeks.  Then, about the time I finished the dresses, it was time for me to start my knitting class – five weeks, which just ended last night.

 

The first thing I made in knitting, after a long swatch for practice, was this hat:

 

 

It was fun and easy to make since it’s just a circle of knit, knit, knit.  I had planned it as a hat for Tommy, but he thought it looked too purple (most blues look purple to him) and that the rolled edge was too girly.  He’s probably right, so I redirected it to Kayla, and mailed it to her today.  It’s extremely soft since it’s made from Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande. I think Kayla will enjoy it as Lubbock gets colder.

 

The hat (details hereon Ravelry) took just a few hours, and other than dropping stitches, which gave me practice picking them back up again, I only had one major mishap.  See the cute ribbing about two inches up on the hat?  Somehow, while knitting, I just suddenly started purling.  I did it for two rows before noticing and freaked out. 

 

Luckily, the wonderful ladies at So Much Yarn, where I’m taking my class, brought me back down to earth and told me just to leave the purls.  They add a lovely touch to the pattern.  I don’t think you would notice any of my other mistakes, so I’m just not going to tell you about them!

 

Other projects I’ve finished in the last few weeks while I’ve been yarning instead of writing:

 

 

Carol’s Earflap Hat, which she specially requested and chose the yarn.  The hat is from Interweave Crochet for Fall 2009.  I followed the teen hat pattern because it looks more like what Carol wants.  The pattern was easy to follow and the yarn is a-ma-zing.  It’s Cascade Yarns 220 Tweed and I love it.  Even though it doesn’t seem tightly woven, my crochet hook never split it and it makes the most beautiful stitches I’ve ever seen.

 

Have I said in this blog that I’m never going back to acrylic yarn again?  Well, that’s probably a lie, but WOW, this yarn feels SO NICE!

 

I’m also in progress on a matching scarf:

 

 

The scarf has a front and back because I wanted to use the nifty front-post-double-crochet I learned on the hat to make cables.  I started it and decided I like the look even though the pattern on the back is not the same. 

 

HOWEVER, this weekend, while surfing the internet for crochet patterns (yes, that’s how I have fun), I noticed someone making a scarf with front-post-double-crochet and BACK-post-double-crochet.  This should make cables on BOTH SIDES!

 

That is so smart!  I’m going to make a few rows of it on Carol’s scarf and if I like it, I’m going to frog the whole thing and start over.  This will slow down progress, which Carol will not appreciate, but if I go through with that plan, I’ll crochet on through until it’s done.  I solemnly swear I will not work on anything else until Carol’s scarf is done.

 

Of course, I’m not going to swear on my life or anything.

 

Finally, I’m knitting a scarf for myself out of the softest Berroco Inca Gold.  This yarn is yummy and feels so nice in my hands and on my needles.  Unfortunately, the pattern is really just for me to practice changing between knits and purls and so it is both challenging and boring.

 

 

It’s challenging because I have to count and remember to switch.  It’s boring because I’m so slow, I chose a small yarn and I don’t get to see big progress like on the bulky rolled edge hat.  But I like it anyway, and appreciate the practice.

 

It must be working, because last night, in my final beginner knit class, I actually recognized that a stitch felt funny and realized I’d forgotten to bring my yarn to the front between the needles so that I could purl.

 

I know I said “final beginner knit class,” but I’m not graduating since I’ve decided to sign up for another series.  Although Teacher Lauren (so patient!) said I could go on to intermediate, it seemed better just to stick with beginner so that I won’t look longingly at others’ more advanced projects and start something that I can’t finish.

 

Plus, the intermediate class would get interrupted with my Christmas trip to Texas and I don’t want to miss anything.  Beginner ends just before I fly south… with a big carry-on bag full of yarn, sticks and hooks!

 

 

And then we danced

Mostly all words last time, but tonight I took time for pictures.  After dancing, of course.

 

When I arrived home, Carol was sitting on the ottoman with her toy xylophone in hand waiting like a cat at a mouse hole.  “Dance, Mommy, dance!”  Tommy told her to push the button, so she ran over to the stereo and started the CD.

 

He had cued up something slow and easy from Willie Nelson.  Carol played and sang along to her own internal music and we danced.  Much of the rest of the evening was filled with dance, including Carol learning to twist. 

 

After the dancing and dining portion of the evening ended, I stopped to take pictures of my works in progress (easier than getting the external hard drive, hooking it to my work computer and pulling out the pictures I already took – our home computers still are incommunicado, but Tommy’s on track for repairs of at least one!)

 

Here’s the progress on my first crocheted sweater, the Mesh Trellis Sweater:

 

 

 

OK, I know I’m not going very fast on this one, but it’s quite easy.  I just have been doing too many other things so haven’t worked on it much.  I did finish the body and sew together the sleeves while Mother was in town over Halloween.  Then, when I went to New York last week, I made the first sleeve, which was much easier than I expected in the third-time’s-the-charm scale of easiness.

 

Yes, I had to rip it out twice before I finally managed to do it right.  I think this is due to my lack of experience in crocheting clothing versus any deficiency in the book, “Crocheted Gifts.”  The instructions state that I should start the pattern for the sleeves in the double chains from the body, but I misinterpreted that as “just use the legs of the double chains to hook on anywhere you want because that will be a lot easier than attempting to crochet into the sides of a double chain.”  That was strike one, and resulted in ending the first sleeve row with too many stitches in the pattern.

 

Strike 2 was when I realized I was supposed to start my sleeve under the sleeve instead of at the shoulder seam.  Makes sense, and is quite obvious if you look at the schematic, but I didn’t do that until I got to the sixth row and had to make the first decrease.  The decrease seams are under the arm instead of right up on top of the sleeve where anyone would be able to see them.  Seems logical, and I’m sure I’ll remember it the next time I make a sweater with a similar pattern.

 

Oh, well, third time really is the charm.  And I’ll get over to the second sleeve… just as soon as I can take the time to try it on to see if the first sleeve is long enough.

 

Brief interruption to put Carol to bed.  Have I ever told you what songs I sing to her for lullaby?  She loves “Old MacDonald,” which has been a favorite since she learned about the animals sometime in her second year.  Then, we have “Baby Mine,” which I learned from watching “Beaches” while nursing Carol during her first weeks of life.  Nothing surprising there, right?

 

The other two songs that round out my repertoire are “The Gambler” and “A Case of You.” 

 

I know, “The Gambler,” right?! 

 

Well, it all goes back to 1998 when for some reason, “The Gambler” got stuck in my head, but it kept turning into “Lucille.”  (You know, “four hundred children and a crop in the field.”)  So back in 1998, I looked up the lyrics to both songs on the Internet, printed them and kept them at the ready for any time I needed to burst into Kenny-Rogers-song.  You never know when you might have a sudden “bar in Toledo” emergency.

 

Anyway, I didn’t know the words to any nursery rhymes or lullabies when Carol was born in 2005, but I could vaguely remember the words to “The Gambler.”  Of course, they kept turning into “Lucille,” but lucky for me, I had chosen to scrapbook the entire episode and knew just where to look in my albums for the lyrics to both songs.  (Being a scrapbook packrat, I had actually saved the original printouts from 1998.  Don’t ask me why.  It’s just what I do.)

 

So I re-learned the words to “The Gambler” and have been singing it to Carol since she was just a few days old.  She calls it “the train song” because “on a warm summer’s evening, on a train bound for nowhere…”  We’ve had to revise the lyrics slightly in the last year.  Carol doesn’t approve of smoking (we’ve done our jobs well!) so instead of “drank down my last swallow and then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light,” our Gambler “bummed a stick of gum and started to chew on it.” 

 

It works fine.  No criticism because the beat doesn’t flow. 

 

Finally, we sing “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell because I love it.  Every since I saw Nicole Kidman sing it poorly in “Practical Magic,” I knew that I, too, could sing that song poorly and out of tune.  Again, the Internet came to my rescue with lyrics and I learned all the words when I got the soundtrack. 

 

That was back way before Carol was born, but since I listened to that CD all the time (when I wasn’t talking to Amy on the phone during our hour-an-a-half commutes when I lived in Texas), I already mostly remembered those words when Carol needed them.  I just grabbed the CD, played it a couple of times and was off to the races.

 

You should hear Carol sing whenever “A Case of You” shuffles onto the CD player.  She knows almost all the words, too.

 

My reading and musical interlude is over.  My baby is sleeping.  And now, I’m off to spend time with my husband.  I’ll tell you more about crochet and knit tomorrow.

 

I know when to walk away, and I know when to run.

 

No pictures

I know, I haven't posted in a while, but it's the crazy job I have where every October I must drop my life into a backpack while I spend all my time PLANNING for the end of the year and the next year.  We live and die by the quarterly results and while being so far down the global organizational food chain should make this less stressful, but you know what rolls downhill.

It was stupid of me to get married in October, but we set the wedding date while I was working for a fun, but soon-to-be out-of-business privately-held company.  By the time of the wedding, I had changed jobs so I just had to get my own reconciliations done before I left to get married and my domestic publicly-traded corporation was able to get on fine without me.

Oh, even I know that accounting is not brain surgery and my company gets along just fine without me anytime it has to, but it's best to be around in October.  That way, when you fly to New York to present the plan to the board, you know what's actually IN the plan.  Therefore, we don't do anniversary trips anywhere close to our anniversary. 

We were able to have dinner at this cool place, Bizarro Italian Cafe.  Have been twice and love the food and atmosphere; however, I do not recommend whatever special appetizer we had that was "sealed in duck fat."  Yes, I should have known what that would mean, but seriously: a thick layer of congealed duck fat?  I don't think so.  Tommy enjoyed it, but even he pushed much of the duck fat aside to get at the yummy, meaty dip-stuff underneath.  Yes, I said, "meaty dip-stuff."  I can think of no other way to describe it.

Speaking of wonderful dinners, while in New York, I visited Le Grenouille with my boss, his wife and the leader of another one of our offices.  Wonderful company, beautiful place, lovely food.  I really did like it, but I have to say that Lampreia, which Ron and Bonnie also took me to has (a better website and) better food.  Sorry, NYC, Seattle wins this one.  I fully intend for Tommy and I to visit both restaurants, but Lampreia's chef-owner Scott Carsberg is incredible and I'm happy to say we'll be able to hit that spot very soon

 since I hope to avoid New York until at least February.

Anyway, I have been crocheting and knitting and you can guess which one is less stressful.  Knitting is driving me crazy because I cannot recognize the stitches or how to correct errors.  Maybe someday.  At least for now, I'm happy to keep going around and around on a hat, but I'm confounded by how this circle is turning in to stockinette when all I do is knit?

Except for the two rows when I somehow starting purling.  Luckily, the nice ladies at the yarn store told me I should consider that part of the design and just keep going.  Thank you, ladies.

I crocheted a hat for Carol -- maybe I told you that last time.  Sorry if I'm repeating myself.  The hat is cute so now I'm making a scarf to match.

I am also still working on my crocheted cardigan and got through one arm while on the plane back from New York last week.  I just have to try it on before I finish off the ruffle cuff.

And in knitting, I am also making a scarf that alternates knits and purls so I can practice switching back and forth and concentrating a little while I knit.  The scarf makes a waffle pattern and should take me forever since every time knitting frustrates me, I put it down and pick up my crochet hook, where everything just falls into place.

Tommy took all the pictures off the camera and loaded them onto the external hard drive, so I can't just grab them off my camera right now and load them for you to see.  However, while searching for photos, I came across this of Carol in one of her new outfits.

Enjoy:

 I'll show you pictures of everything else later.

Scallops so sweet

Yay!  I finished my first really nice, wearable item, Linda's Sweet Scallops.

And, as you can see, I blocked for the first time ever.  I hooked the last stitch over two weeks ago, researched blocking silk (pin and mist lightly with water, let dry) and was rewarded with a beautiful scarf that I can't wait to send to Aunt Linda.  Or maybe, I should say, I obviously can wait because it's been wrapped and on my credenza at work for two weeks.  Oops.

Anyway, you can see the details here (Ravelry), but my modifications were minor.  I used silk thread instead of any kind of chunky yarn, and I joined the two halves by crocheting rather than sewing.  When I finished the first half, I just went back to the beginning and started crocheting the second half. 

I wrote about that previously; I still think the circles in the middle are quite lovely.  Even if you don't like them, they would be hidden at the back of the neck because they are the center of the scarf.

My only other modification was on the edging.  The pattern calls for a row of single crochet up both sides, followed by a row of half doubles and another of single.  That may look wonderful with another yarn, but you can see from the picture above that the additional edging would have made the side pattern jut out at a right angle from the end scallops.  I think it looks better with scallop stopping at the edge.

The scarf is gorgeous and if I get a picture of Linda modelling it, I'll post it so you can see the whole thing.  My only complaint is that the silk does not make the kind of floaty scarf I envisioned her wearing with a pretty blouse, but it should work perfectly with a coat or jacket.  And when I send it to her (which I promise to do today!), she'll see a note that says she is free to re-gift it if the color or style is not perfect for her.  It will be perfect for someone.

Off to a meeting now.  I'll write more later and tell you about the adorable ear flap hat I made for Carol.  I learned front post double crochet and made cables!  Woo hoo!!

The best laid plans

So, I did not finish Linda's Sweet Scallops over the weekend.  Instead, I did this:

So what is that?  It's Carol posing like a mannequin.

We went shopping for hours on Sunday because someone has outgrown all her clothes.  And no, it's not me.  We got pajamas, such as the nightgown pictured above, dresses, tights, shoes, leggings, pretty much everything the four-year-old needs to dress herself in the cooler weather that has arrived.

I sorted all Carol's clothes late in the summer, looking through all the ones I saved from last winter to see which would fit her this year.  While it seemed like they would be OK just two months ago, now, it turns out that they are just a tad short.

What's annoying is that everything is just a tad short in the stores, too.  Size 4 is a perfect fit (which means it won't fit in two weeks) or slightly too small.  Unfortunately, Size 5 is way too big, with floppy arms, pants that drag the ground and waists that have to be pulled tight with those adjustable button loops.  We're going with way too big because I expect that in a couple of months, that will be just right.  Until then, "did you cinch it?"*

Carol thinks shopping is fun because it involves touching every item in the store, alternately stating, "I want everything here" or "I don't want anything in this store," and discussing everyone she sees.

• Why is that girl chewing gum?
• Why is that baby crying?
• How old are those boys?
• Why are those chefs wearing red hats?
• Why is that girl wearing boots?

And FYI, that's all in the space of two minutes.

I love shopping with my baby, but it's a trial!  By the time I got home, I was so exhausted, there was no crocheting or sewing or anything else in my immediate future. 

I did manage to make dinner, but that was only because we'd planned on having the old stand-by Wallace Family Red Rice Recipe with a side of beans, and Tommy's not allowed to make Red Rice anymore.  Somehow, he manages to mess up this simple recipe by undercooking or overcooking or oversalting (how the man who is morally opposed to using salt manages this I don't know) or adding too much cheese.  Now, I make the Red Rice and he just adds more cheese to his own plate.

It's bad enough that he ruined the beans by adding some kind of meat and spices to them.  Beans should be beans and something smoky, like ham or bacon or even hot links, and salt and pepper and that's it.  I have no idea why he thought it was acceptable to adulterate them during the cooking process so that they became something else.

If you want something else, make something else, but don't make something else and then tell me that you've cooked beans.  Because you haven't.  And now my hopes for my yummy Red Rice and beans dinner has been dashed.  Alas, on Sunday I made do with just Red Rice. 

After dinner and then reading to Carol, we both fell asleep on her bed and then I woke up for a little TV before conking out.  Oh, I did manage to match all her new dresses up with tights and leggings.

Yes, dresses and tights and leggings only.  Carol reminds me greatly of Kayla, who also at about this age decided she would not wear jeans, and never did again until she was eight years old.  So for those of you who are out there buying clothes for Carol, make a it dress with matching tights or leggings.  And as a favor to me, nothing I need to iron after it comes out of the dryer.

*Unfortunately, I cannot locate the SNL skit with the Gap girls when they use this phrase, but those of you who've seen it, can imagine it.  You're doing it right now, right?

Linda's Sweet Scallops

OK, so after buying my first nice yarn and then starting a sweater (which I decided should be for myself instead of Kayla due to the burnt orange color!), I couldn't resist buying some more nice yarn and starting another project.

This yarn is so gorgeous and delicate.  It's 100 percent silk Louisa Harding Mulberry in seafoam.  I found a beautiful scarf pattern that is usually done in something chunkier, but I thought this silk would really show the pattern.  Plus, I wanted to make something that looks a little like lace, and I think the Sweet Scallops Shawl by Lion Brand just fits the bill.

Of course, the hard part of making this was deciding for whom I would make it, but I finally settled my Aunt Linda.  I think she'll like the delicate nature of the lace, the sheen of the silk and the seafoam hue.  I can just see her wearing it with just the right blouse to work, or pairing it with a jacket for a rare chilly day in Texas.

I've been working on it for about three weeks and want to finish it up this weekend so I can pop it in the mail.  I think it's so pretty, I took a new picture just to show the progress. 

The scallops point to the floor when you wear the scarf so you make it in two pieces and stitch together.  I read a hint from someone else who just joined the second half to the completed first half.  I think this is really the best way to do it as it makes tiny little circles just at the midway point.   The cirles add a nice touch.

I can't wait to finish.  I worked on it a bunch on the plane yesterday, which was really stupid.

I had to get up at 4 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. flight to Los Angeles for all-day meetings to work on 2010 planning.  (Yes, we start that now!)  And then I flew back at 7:30, arriving in Seattle at almost 11 p.m. since the flight was delayed.  With two hours there and back, I really should have slept, but instead, I watched "Tin Cup" on my iPod and crocheted. 

I'm tired now, but instead of taking a nap this afternoon with Carol, I am cutting out the pattern to her Tinkerbelle costume.  Or I'm supposed to be.  Instead, I've been jacking with this blog.

Well, Tink shouldn't take too long.  I made Minnie Mouse last weekend in just a few hours and it was really a dress pattern that I just did in red with white-polka-dots.  I'll show you a picture later when I get Carol to model it.

Tommy's out looking at cars again for Kayla.  He seen a lot of really crummy ones, but finally found something decent.  Unfortunately, it didn't have power windows or cruise control.  OK, power windows she can do without, but there's too much long distance driving in her future to be without cruise control.  He's off to view yet another one, so I probably should think about making dinner for us tonight.

But seriously, do I have to?