Pink Prickly Pear

In which I am fucking awesome.

Oh sure, little old Estonian ladies could probably knit lace like this standing on their heads, but just let me toot my own horn a minute...

 

Not the Sweet Pickles of my childhood.

When I wasn't pulling weeds, or coaxing the boy, I got a bit lost in this lovely site.  Their yarn looks scrumptious (yes, scrumptious) and hey, lots and lots of free patterns too!

I think I want to make a Puff Daddy first.

He is so close to walking it's not even funny.  I doubt you will hear about it here, because I suspect once he gets up on two legs I really won't ever have time for much of anything.

I would write something more substantial, but over the weekend I totally messed up my little gauzy lace shawl I've been knitting.  I spent a great deal of time yesterday un-knitting (I spend so much time un-knitting one would think it was a favorite pastime - you know, right up there with sweeping dog fur off the floor) and then re-knitting, only to realize that in un-knitting, I created even more of a total mess.  Aaarrrgggghhhh.  My knitting time is too limited to spend hours unpicking lace weight yarn.  Finally, the boy fell asleep on the way to karate, so I spent the duration of the class in the car, wrestling it back into a semblance of its former self.  In other words, it's all back together again, but I am now desperate for the opportunity to bang out some trouble free rows (and maybe stream MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen a documentary on food politics off the internet...).

 

Everyone needs a thneed.

D'anjou needed a little something to keep him snuggly on our misty morning walks.  I found a very simple little pattern and a stray ball of Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino.  For an errant leftover languishing in the stash, I'd say that is the perfect color for a certain little boy. 

Mini-pear had to try it on...full of mischief, that one...

Somehow, I manage to refrain from eating them up.  I'm baffled as to where I managed to unearth the time to actually knit something, but I did...

Adventures in toy making

 

So D'anjou dozed off long enough for us to finish our crafty project yesterday - a little fleece soft puppy named Brownie.  I've never sewed anything 3 dimensional, Mini-pear's only used the sewing machine once or twice before, but I think we did a pretty good job.  He is very, very soft and cuddly.

I want to make more toys!  First I need to work on my embroidery skillz (or lack thereof). 

Mr. Pear got crafty last night, cutting my hair.  Then he got crafty again this morning, as I was not very specific regarding what I wanted last night and ended up looking like a rather dishevelled Dorothy Hamill.  My Dorothy Hamill cut is gone and I have a servicable little flip.  I suppose I look more like Gidget.  I was actually very reluctant about getting it cut (I'm 35!  I don't have that many more years of long hair in me before I start looking like a Wiccan or an aging hippy) but it was doing that post-partum hair falling out thing (please don't tell me it's just me).  It was just too frustrating to be picking hair off everything.  I will probably still be picking hair up off everything, except now it won't be a foot long...

I haz godda cold...

...and it really doesn't seem fair. 

It quickly morphed from, "Huh, my throat's a bit scratchy..." to "Why woan my nose stob runnin'?" to "Holy fuck, I know exactly what this pain in my teeth means!"  Do you know what pain in one's upper teeth means?  No?  Well, aren't you lucky never to have experienced sinus pain so severe you've contemplated banging your head repeatedly against a brick wall in the hopes of cancelling the sinus pain out somehow...

Last night, after spending the greater part of the day either thrashing about on the bed in a sweat, or in the bath with as-hot-as-I-can-bear washcloths on my face, I finally remembered that last summer I discovered a cold medicine that not only alleviates my symptoms, but does not supplement my discomfort with paranoia and freakish auditory hallucinations.  Oh.  Duh.  I dissolved two disks in 4 ounces of water, took myself to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a remarkably clear head.  Mr. Pear, on the other hand, was clearly having a bad night.  He'd turned off the window fan, and was trying to tuck us in under not one, but two extra blankets.

This morning I was...89% better and the sinus pain is gone.  Ahhh.

Mini-pear, as per usual, was completely unaffected by our plague and thus spent the day bored out of her little mind.  Actually, she was a little less bored than she might have been, because the book fairy's been extremely active this summer.  The summer book fairy is my best friend!  Every time Mini-pear finishes one, another one just magically appears!  And then roly-poly pregnant mommies get a couple of hours to...hmmm, what have I been doing?  Drinking water and running to the toilet mostly.

Oh, I've also been knitting a little bit, but actually it's been hard to find a good position to sit and knit in for any extended period of time, so this project (and baby pear's quilt and various other projects I'd assumed I'd finish before he arrived) are a bit slow going.  I suppose I could sit on my big exercise ball and knit, but something about that screams dork to me.

The internet as emotional yardstick, geometry-girl, and is there a mathematical formula for one's personal poop velocity?

I live with a total maniac who refuses to let me take her picture anymore!  Thrasher!

She may be a total maniac, but we've been having a lot of fun over the last couple of mornings, making a quilt for her baby brother.  Mini-pear (A.K.A. geometry-girl) has been arranging and rearranging the squares into various patterns.  Too many choices!  Here's my initial idea:

But then mini-pear suggested stripes:


We also liked off centered concentric diamonds:
 

And lots of smaller diamonds:
 

I like  seeing how many different variations we can come up with, but I'd also like to make a decision soon.  My grubby little mitts are craving the meditative qualities of hand-quilting.

Speaking of making things for baby brothers, I got sucked into the vortex of online cloth diapering discussions and product reviews.  Mini-pear's diapers are long gone, happily recycled onto friends who have undoubted recycled them further along their happy little eco-friendly journey.  I know we used pre-folds and tried various covers, but I can't for life of me remember which brand eventually worked.  I think I'll probably just make our own pre-folds and wet bags, but I'd love to remember which covers worked so well.  Some of them really didn't, and I don't want to make that (expensive) mistake again, but then so much is dependent on factors as variant as leg chub, and the degree to which your baby enjoys unfastening velcro, and the velocity of one's excrement that perhaps what worked for mini-pear wouldn't work for - gosh, we need to come up with a pear moniker for the boy!

*****

I also live with a nerd.

Mr. Pear and I were reminiscing a bit this morning.  We had some friends back in DC who used to throw down some wicked theme parties.  For Truck Stop, we went as a couple of long haul bible thumpers.  For part of our costume, we got those iron-on fuzzy letters and made Truckin' for Jesus t-shirts.  Mr. Pear pointed out that we went to that party nine years ago, "You were just a couple of months pregnant..."

And then, in a softer voice (that I'll swear was almost choked up sounding), "The internet was so young back then..."

The internet: an emotional yardstick for nerds.  Cute nerds with shiny,floppy hair who massage my lower back upon request, but nerds nonetheless.

 

It's not her birthday yet!

In spite of this, my mama opened her birthday giftie! 

No more surprises, so I can post a pic;)  It's mini-pear modeling, so the actual shawl is not quite so big.  I think it would be nice if it was big, though.  I think this would be really snuggly knit on much bigger needles with fat slubby handspun, but I also like this smaller, delicate version.

I had some fun with this as, over the years, I've discovered I quite enjoy knitting lace, although I'm still not sure if I'd be so enamored with it as a garment if not for the technical and rhythmical process of knitting lace.  Maybe lace is just not quite my style...yet.  I think I'd wear this though - with a little t-shirt and jeans, or with a little elegant shoulder-less dress.  At any rate, what I am most proud of is that I made a few mistakes knitting this project, yet I did not have to rip it all out and start all over again.  In fact, I think one would be hard pressed to find the (now corrected) mistakes.  It was tricky and shoulder-clenchy and I made much use of my crochet needle in the correcting, but this project (and the corrections in particular) have left me feeling like I can knit anything.  Even if I have never made a hat, or the blanket I had in my head when I first approached little Australian Alice at the knitting shop in Chapel Hill and asked her if she  gave lessons.

Knit one, purl two...rip...

Now that he's opened his present, I can share a photo of my very first pair of socks!  Once I got accustomed to using little tiny double pointed needles, these were a breeze.  Well, except for the kitchener stitch on the toes.  I looked up diagrams in all my knitting books and watched little online tutorials and I'm still not entirely convinced I did it right.  Now I know why knitters get hooked on socks and go through periods of knitting nothing but socks and wearing nothing but hand knit socks (well, on their feet, I mean).  I put these on so I could snap a quick pic and really didn't want to take them off! 

You might think I'd move on to a project with more of an immediate gratification factor, but I decided to knit up a baby sweater I've had bookmarked in an old copy of Interweave Knits for years.  Knitting for babies and children can go pretty quickly, but not when you're knitting them up on size 2 and 3 needles.  It is going to be very pretty though;)

Speaking of knitting for baby, can anyone point me in the direction of their favorite baby knits?  Not necessarily looking for free stuff, just cute stuff that's not knit on gigantic needles (I think little babies in bulky knits always look a bit overstuffed and uncomfortable).  I adore Debbie Bliss, but having worked on a couple of her projects, I always seem to end up saying, "Now why did she do it this way?  Surely, it would have been easier to just..."  It seems I'm proficient enough to notice when it could be done more efficiently, but not necessarily while initially reading through the pattern.  She just seems to leave a lot of finishing.  A lot of hats with seams to sew, as opposed to knitting them in the round.  I had planned on starting the holiday sweatshop early, but I think a better use of my knitting time this summer knitting for baby;)  One of the nicest things about knitting for someone else, is all the time you spend thinking about them while you are knitting and I think spending some time thinking warm happy baby thoughts will be very nice indeed.

Hmmmm, babies.

Mostly...

I've been learning how to knit socks on needles slightly larger than toothpicks.  No pictures to share as they're meant to be a present.  Well, if they turn out alright.  It's kind of like taking your first ever batch of cookies to a bake off or something.

I've also been spending a great deal of time ferrying Mini-Pear to various classes.  Driving is not conducive to knitting, but waiting for class to get out?  That's an excellent time to listen to a podcast and wrestle with the jumbo toothpicks.

Various Lists (a little mundane, but you're not just here for the profane, are you?)

Math class, Science class, Karate, 2 different flavored park days, 2 different flavored book clubs, Theatre class, Kids Fitness

Excess Baggage, This American Life, Lonely Planet, Women's Hour News and Politics, Radio 4 Choice and Fresh Air

The former are Mini-pear's various commitments this spring, the latter, my preferred podcasts at the moment.