Tub Time!!

There, I've done my Mom Job and have embarrassing photos to show their respective prom dates.  :)

My Partner in Crime

Everyone has one of those friends.  One of those friends that when you're together, stuff just happens.  Good stuff, bad stuff, crazy stuff.  Stuff that becomes the stuff of inside jokes.  Stuff that's not so funny.  Stuff that if it happened to someone else, it WOULD be funny!

My friend like that is Tracy.  Tracy and I met in college, and stuff's been happening ever since.  We met living in the same dorm, and one night she gave me refuge from a bully.  And we've been brewing trouble and jinxing ourselves left and right, since 1997.

Tracy was here the night that our dog Joey got skunked.  In the winter.  DISGUSTING!!!!  It was not a proud moment in our house.  By the way, it's a true friend who will shuck down to her skivvies with you to wash the dog in ten boxes of douche.  And sit with the stinky dog while you're at CVS, scurrying before the close to buy the aforementioned ten boxes of douche.  (Side note:  you can't help but notice that when the clerk finishes ringing you up and you have that much douche, they do NOT tell you to "have a good day!")

When we hang out together there's parking tickets.  Car accidents (nobody hurt)  Vomitious children in cars.  Boyfriends beamed off to another planet. (Well, it felt like that at the time!)  Inside jokes about dusting under your bed and telling your friends that their breath is bad and they need "to put an altoid in it."  So when this afternoon I got a work call and went to work for some drama, it wasn't surprising that Tracy came with me!  The drama was really my fault, since she made a comment at lunch about it being quiet for us and I said "Don't worry.  The day's still young!"

Everyone should have a friend like Tracy.  A friend that perfect strangers assume is your sister.  One that will know that they have to bail you out of jail with a single codeword.  A friend that is always there for you, to tell you how it really is.  A true friend!  :)

Happiness Is....

...listening To the Big One entertain the Little One. Those combined giggles and screeches of joy are priceless!

...having plans on a Friday night. My knitting friends are coming over tonight for snacks and dessert. And of course, knitting!

...a short work day on a Friday, after a long, trying week.

...taking Steps to add "years to your life, and life to your years."

Happy weekend, everyone!

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Wordless Wednesday: Sitting Pretty

Magic Trick

I've finally finished my Lucy scarf, and it came out looking like this:

Huh.  Not quite what I expected.  Two balls of fingering-weight yarn and it is kind of short and scrunchy-looking.  I'm not a tall woman, so a shorter scarf is OK but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind....

That, my friends, is where blocking comes in.  Having never "blocked" something, I had to read up on the subject.  The Yarn Harlot sings the praises of blocking, and her stuff always looks amazing.  So she must be onto something.  So out comes my dog-eared copy of Stitch n Bitch, so I can figure out what to do.

First, Lucy gets a bath.  SnB calls for wool wash or some mild shampoo.  Having no special "wool wash" I opt for the mildest thing I can find:  baby shampoo!  Here goes nothin'!  I always say a prayer and cross my fingers whenever I'm about to do something that seems nutty like this.  (like closing my eyes and hoping for the best while plunging a knitted item to be felted in a washtub of hot, soapy water)  In reviewing blocking techniques, I especially liked the line "Agitation is to wool like garlic is to a vampire." 

Lucy needed to be rinsed twice. She also demanded the use of three towels!  I also learned an important lesson:  wet wool STINKS.  The smell of progress is not a pretty smell.  Luckily it dissipates quickly.  Either that or you hold your nose every time you walk by it while it dries!

I set up the ironing board in the dining room, as there isn't a lot of clear table space in a house with two adults and two children.  I laid it out on the third towel of the night, and gently tugged it into shape.  I checked it several times, then allowed it to dry overnight.

Voila!  Just like magic. Blocking....I'm now sold!

"Where a Kid Can Be a Kid!"

Will (finally) got enough stickers on his sticker chart for using the potty for a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  Rather than all of us go, it was an outing with just Will and Daddy.  Will's seen the commercials for there for a looong time, and we live pretty close to one so whenever we pass it he demands to know when we're going!  So this afternoon, the two of them went off on their adventure.  Sean and I napped and knitted.  (I'll let you guess who did what) 

Two hours later, I had a little boy who was very excited to tell me all about the fresh cheese pizza Daddy got for them and the foam rocket launcher he won playing games!  However, when Daddy prompted him as to what he would like to earn for his next prize he announced that he was done with using the potty and never going to use it again!  He quickly changed his mind when I brought home a "Slinky Dog" from Toy Story and announced that was going to be his next prize for using the potty.  His response was "I want to use the potty right now!  And I'll fill it to the ceiling!!"

Who said a bit of bribery is a bad thing??  I just hope that he doesn't expect to get rewarded for using the toilet when he's in second grade....

Adventures in Felting

I made a felted bag for a friend who's moving to Texas at the end of the month.  Seems like all of my "knitty" friends are moving.  And none of them are moving altogether close by!  (Texas, South Carolina, Philly....) 
We all got together for our regular Wednesday night meetup, only we presented her with little handmade gifts and our best wishes in the Lone Star State.  The only problem is....what do you knit for a friend moving to Texas??  Due to the heat and humidity in Texas, one has little use for the usual things that one might knit.  Gloves, scarves and hats?  No thanks!

I've been in this predicament before, and I knitted that person a felted clutch.  This time, I wanted to do something a little more special.  So I knitted a Booga Bag. I had some wool yarn just kickin' it in my yarn stash from my first trip to Web's, when I just bought some yarn and didn't know what I was going to do with it.  It turns out that this particular yarn felts really, really well!

Wait....what's felting?  Oh, yeah.  Felting is when you knit something in a wool or wool blend, and then wash it in hot water.  If you've ever washed a woolen sweater or scarf in hot water, you know what happens.  It shrinks.  Then you probably curse up a storm and then throw it away, cause really, there's nothing you can do to fix it.  Felting is doing this on purpose.  It turns into a really neat fabric, just like heavy felt!

Allow me to demonstrate:

  Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky.  Incredible stuff for felting.  I used the center and right yarns for this project, in charcoal and fuschia.

The knitted body.  Notice that the stitches are loose and you can tell that it is a knitted bag.  I also made i-cord for handles, which is a cool technique that produces a long "snake."

Extreme Close-Up!   Woah!!!!!!  (Waynes World reference for you, free of charge!)

Making the holes for the i-cord handles.  This was a little harder than I thought that it would be.  It's really just stabbing the bag with a couple of double-pointed needles, but it was the placing of the holes that hung me up.  Check out the felting up-close and personal.  :)

Voila!  The finished product.  Fuzzy, fuschia and fun!  It's a little bag, big enough for a skein of yarn, a short set of needles and a pattern.