Rainbow Bear Magic!

As some of you know, the boy asked me to knit him a teddy bear out of rainbow yarn for Christmas. Well, my needles broke on Christmas Eve day, with only half the head left to go, so I missed the Christmas gift deadline and then I had him, so I couldn't finish it up without him seeing it until this past week!



I finished it today and once I stuck a face on him, he came to life! Amazing, I know! He's quite a little playful fellow and wanted to go right outside to play in the backyard until the boy got home!


First, he ran right over to the lemon tree (that had recently been trimmed WAY back by my gardeners!) and started climbing around on the branches, playing peek a boo with me behind the leaves :)



When he got tired of that, he asked me to get the hoola hoop off the fence hook and he played with that for awhile. It was a little frustrating, because he doesn't have hips to spin it around, so he eventually gave up and lay down for a quick rest.



He looked to his left and spied the boy's bike standing there, so he hopped on and tried to ride it around. His feet couldn't quite reach the pedals, so I pushed him up and down the driveway for awhile until he said he wanted to do something on his own! (Gee, he sounds like a little kid already! :P)



I carried him around the back yard and there he spied the laundry line! He was using it as a tight rope, walking back and forth on it, doing flips...he's really a very nible little guy! While I was trying to catch a picture of him mid-flip, he almost fell off, but caught himself at the last minute...phwew!



His near tragedy sobered him up some and he walked back across the yard and up the stairs into the kitchen, where we both decided it was time for a treat :)



Rainbow bear had some honey....but just a little! I didn't want him to get sick on an empty stomach!



I had one of my fancy new Liege waffles that arrived yesterday from Belgium!

I can't wait to see what high-jinks Rainbow Bear gets into with the boy tonight once they're introduced to each other. I think I'll have a fire extinguisher on hand, just in case :P

A headless....

bear.

The boy asked for a rainbow teddy bear for Christmas. Sadly, my needle broke on Christmas eve day, when I was close to being done, so he sits here, headless, until after New Year's when I'll have time to finish him up.

And no, despite what my sweetums says, it's not a voodoo teddy bear :P
























While not knitting, I have been traveling extensively back in time, taking pictures of T-Rexs and their young :D

stash

I went through and inventoried my yarn last night, because I've been getting really busy in a arbitrary and random swap forum on Ravelry and needed to know what yarn I actually had anymore...my inventory sheet was woefully out of date.

All done and I added up the skeins and I have 282 skeins of yarn in my home :

I need to do some stash busting!!!!

Drops Babies

All these damn adorable baby patterns on Drops with adorable babies IN the kint items are REALLY making my uterus twitch.

Just sayin' :)

Despite how it may seem...

I have been being crafty! I am almost done with my green sweater-turned blanket-turned back into sweater :) I have about 2/3 of an arm left to go and then voila! I shall have my first sweater :) I also have almost a whole bootie knit and a swatch for a tank top. Of course, now that it's fall and summer is over, I'm not as motivated to knit a tank top, lol. I am hankering to start on a pair of fingerless gloves! My office is ridiculously cold (and this is coming from a woman who is always the "hot" one in a crowd!) and my hands cramp up and I can't type unless I have some sort of hand-covering :)

I also carved a pumpkin with my sweetie two nights ago! My sketch on the paper looked very spooky and menacing and then, transferred to pumpkin, it just looks jolly and Asian : Sweetie and I have taken to calling it Jackie Chano' lantern :)

Craftiness is still very much around me...I just had my camera stolen a few weeks back and so I can't take pictures of stuff right now and really, what's a cool crafty blog post without pictures?!

Usually never

I'm usually never preachy on this blog. I'm usually never political. I usually never talk in depth about the fact that I'm a big ol' dyke. But elections are coming up soon and I feel like I NEED to take a moment to urge everyone in California to vote NO on 8.

If 8 passes, people like me will have our recently won right to marry the person we love taken away from us. That's all it is. Two folks who LOVE each other wanting to have the same basic rights as everyone else. Being queer isn't going to be taught in school. Being allowed to marry isn't going to end the world. We've been doing it for several months now here in California and life is just going on the same as usual for everyone else.

If 8 passes, regular everyday people like me, a single mom with a 6 year old son, won't have some of the same basic rights everyone else has. That's what it boils down to. Regular, everyday folks just living life, going to work, picking up the kid at the babysitter, making dinner, reading bedtime stories won't have the ability to legally marry the one person in the world that they love and want to spend the rest of their life with.

We are not second-class citizens. We have had our rights taken away from us long enough. It's time to take one step closer to the vision of the Declaration of Independance and recognize that all men (and women :P) are created equal and deserve the same rights. Please, if you are in California, vote NO on 8 in November.

Thank you :)

Blame a goddess

I saw this on a friend's LiveJournal and I HAD to go play with it at yearbookyourself.com. A lot of the results were truly horrifying : I figured out I look best as a 1950's woman and a late 1970's or early 80's man, lol.

Don't believe me?





And I just look freaky/funny as a 70's woman, LOL.

Picture pages :)

Finally took some photos of my goodies my Secret Pal 12 sent me!

Clockwise, from top left, you see the raw silk orangeish bag :) Next to that is the maroon comfy yarn, then the three Knit Picks Harmony classic circulars in size 1, 2, and 3! We cut to the left and see the cute orange and green washcloth she made me, on top of which is my new Harmony cable needles (so pretty!) and a grow a fish that is supposed to be for the boy, but...well...we might share it :P Above that is two more skeins of Knit Picks Comfy in a dark chocolatey brown and then in the middle is the cool, unusual scarf book!

Thanks again, Secret Pal :)

Got my package!

Mr. Mailman brought my package today from my Secret Pal 12 pal :)

Thank you so much, my sneaky friend, for the goodies inside! I'll try to post a picture soon. But until then, I'll tell everyone what I got with good ol' words :)

1) The book "Knitting New Scarves." It was on my Wist and looks like some really amazing projects in there :)

2) Size 1, 2 and 3 Knit Picks Harmony classic circulars. Gotta love more needles :)

3) An orange and green ballband dishrag. It's so squishy! Yay :)

4) A pretty orange raw silk pouch-thing. Inside was:
A really funny "Grow a Fish" toy for my son
Knit PIcks Harmony cable needles...*swoon*

5) 5 skeins of Knit Picks "Comfy" cotton and acrylic yarn. It's SO soft! Three are a deep maroon color and two are like a dark, chocolatey brown. Did I mention how soft it is? MmMmmMMmmmMmmm.

Thanks again, Katie :)

Sappy Mommy Alert

Today was the boy's first day of FIRST GRADE! I know he already had his first day of Kindergarten and his first day of Kindergarten at special ed. But but but! Somehow, Kindergarten is still a baby and FIRST GRADE is a boy.

The private school we got him into (got the green light at 4:30 PM on Friday, when the first day was today...nah, nothing like last minute, lol) is just great and I have such high hopes for the boy there! We met his teacher, the gagillion aids for his first/second/third grade classroom, his therapist and they were all very welcoming and friendly and spoke with the boy and shook his hand and he has his own desk and wrote his own name on the nametag and just. Gah.

Deep in PMS territory is no time for the boy to do something monumentous like this. Much crying and vaklempt heart squeezing abounds today :)

Don't question it...

There's a scene in a Will & Grace episode where Grace is devouing a roast chicken and Will makes some sort of negative comment. She replies, "Hey! Jews and chicken. It's real and it's deep."

That's me today. Except it's baklava.

"Hey! swedish-french-dutch-irish-english-native-americans and bakalava. It's real and it's deep."

Okay, maybe it doesn't work as well, but it's still just as true.

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. *licks my fingers, loaded with honey and flakey little pastry bits*

Yay

My pal got her package finally and she liked it :) Yay :)

The preceding post was brought to you by the letters P, M and S :)

Grumpified

I sent my Secret Pal 12 Pal's package a bit late due to some extenuating circumnstances that I kept her in the loop on. Because of this, I sent a MASSIVE huge awesome package for July and August all together. I sent it Fed Ex so she would get it ASAP. and she hasn't received it yet. I keep checking the tracking every day. I even emailed her and told her it was in her town, she just needed to either be home to get it or go over to FedEx at night and pick it up. And yet, I check tracking again this morning and for the third morning, it wasn't delivered, it is still in FedEx custody. I don't know how many times they will attempt delivery before sending it back to me. I'm frustrated and impatient and I want my pal to get her DANG package!

This hasn't been the best swap for me, so far. Ah well.

*grumble grumble grumble grumble*

How to knit dissapointment

I have been knitting like the wind on my circle cardigan the last few days. I finished the body (per the instructions) and started in on one sleeve. In my excitement, I tried it on with just the one sleeve hole opened up and I am pretty much 100% sure it isn't going to fit in any way.

But I followed the directions exactly! and they are based on my own measurements, so how the HELL can it be wrong? I think the error comes in with the fact that you're supposed to knit the front portion the same size as the back. Well, I have a lot more of me on the front than the back...you know, these breastual things...so I think I should have knit a LOT more on the front. As it is, the sides of the cardigan, when pulled taught, don't even come to my nipples :

I also think I made an error. The directions had me making a circle the diameter of my back plus 1"(which I did) and then knit in some waste yarn for the armholes, which would be done later. Well, the directions for where to put the arm holes were VERY sketchy and just didn't make any sense and, rather than email the pattern designer to clarify, I just assumed I knew where they should go and put them there. Now, the cardigan isn't right. You're supposed to wear it one way for a longer back and shorter shawl part and then you can flip it to make a shorter body and larger shawl part. Well, my arms are in the middle, so it's just...even and floppy.

As much as I wanted to have this cardigan, I think I am going to unravel the arm that I've knit thus far, kitchener up the arm holes and then call it a throw blanket and send it to my sister for her birthday.

*grump grump grump*

When can't I ever seem to knit clothing correctly? *feeling really down on myself today*

Jam fan

Saturday, someone gave me a whole flat of raspberries! I LOVE raspberries, but I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them before they went bad. So, what did I do? I decided to make freezer jam for the first time in my life. I threw in one container of blackberries, just for the heck of it, but otherwise, it's amazing, delicious, fantastic raspberry jam! YUM!!!!!!

The whole time I was making it, I was remembering the Friend's episode where Monica makes Jam and Joey sits there and eats it with a spoon. Having only ever had store-bought jam and jelly before, I couldn't understand why he would do that. Yuck. Well, licking the spoon on my freezer jam while I was cleaning up, I now know why. Hot dayun, that's some AMAZING stuff! I almost wished some of it didn't set so I could pour it over vanilla ice cream :D Delish :)

Yay for jam :) My son even asked for a jam and peanut butter sandwich for lunch today, instead of the usual peanut butter and banana sandiwch :D

It's so different than jam in the store. It's slightly creamy, but firm and not too sweet and tastes like real raspberries with a tiny hint of blackberries at the back of your throat. God, it's good. I need to invent things to eat it with :)

Anniversary presents

Yesterday was my partner and my third anniversary :) We went out to dinner at our traditional anniversary restaurant in Berkeley and had a wonderful time! Why am I telling you this? Because guess what I got for my anniversary present?

A swift!!!



And you know what is even cooler? My partner MADE it for me...like, from scratch! He's been taking wood working classes on the weekend as a hobby and he wanted the first real thing he ever made to be something for me and this is it :D :D :D

It is so pretty and wonderful and special and spiffy and I LOVE it almost as much as I love him :D

Yay for anniversaries and love :)

New Specs

Guess I need to change my icon up there because I have new specs! The sweetie and I were joking last night that, what with my new eyeballs and a hands-free phone thingie in my ear, I'm turning into a cyborg! Oh no! I wonder what will be next.

I took some pictures (of course) to show off my new specs (of course). I LOVE them :) I can see so well and everything's so shiny and clear and I still get a kick out of the fact that the lenses are hydrophobic :P I want it to rain now, so I can see the water not stick :P

The pretty pose:


The non-smiling pose:


The cheezy grin, black and white artsy pose:


The Grrrrrrr, growly face grumpy pretend pose:


And the driving in the car and you can see the transition lenses working but it's early in the morning and my hair is still wet pose:


Also, I wanted to share two new additions to my bike :)





Adding these to my already schnazzy bike makes me a happy fraggle!

culinarily creative

I know, I've been a bad blogger and SP 12 participant. It's just that I usually blog at work and the last week and a half has been RIDICULOUS! I was working till 8PM many nights, planning for a big company functioning I was throwing. And now it's over! yay! I am knitting away on my circular jacket, it just rocks :)

But I don't have much else to share that's crafty, except....

cooking!

I decided to get brave and make the boy some gluten free/casien free mac n cheese for lunch today. It used to be his favorite food and I know he's been missing it a lot since we started him on the GF/CF diet several weeks ago.

So, I started by cooking some brown rice pasta (Trader Joe's). Then, I melted some casien-free butter type stuff (Earth Balance) in a pan, added some gluten free multi-purpose flour (From Bob's Red Mill) and made a roux. I cooked it for a bit, then added a bunch of soy milk. Cooked it for awhile more, till boiling and slightly thick, then added pepper and a wad of casien-free grated cheddar cheese type product (Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet). I whisked vigorously while the cheese-type stuff melted (takes a little longer than real cheese, but it DOES melt) and it lightly boiled and thickened. Then, I poured some over the pasta and set it in front of the boy.

Two bites got a "MmmmMmmMM!" and a thumbs up. When asked if he liked it, he smiled, gave me nod and rubbed his belly. He ate the whole bowl :)I'm just thrilled :)

Now, I had a LOT of sauce left over, so I poured it into a container and put it in the fridge. I think it will solidify a la velveeta and I can cut some off, re-melt in a pan and have cheese sauce whenever he wants mac n cheese or cheese sauce on brocolli, etc :)

I'm just SOOOOO happy this worked really well and he loved it :) Yay for me!

Week three SP question & WIP

What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

Well, MY stash is just the perfect amount of stash, of course :P I have alpaca, wool, wool blends, silk, acrylic, cotton, bamboo, soysilk, and some misc. stuff. Three shelves in my fiber center and three space bags in the closet. Because, of course, I buy new yarn for any project, lol. Stash is just to inspire and pet :)

In other news, I decided to frog my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I had finished the body and was about to start the arms and I realized, ya know...I hate this thing. It's too big, it's mis-shapen, it's just ICKY and I hated knitting on it. So, I sat down and ripped it all out and made a bunch of adorable yarn balls. I already had another sweater in mind, don'tcha know :)

I'm making the Circle Swing Coat found here (if you're on Ravelry) http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/circle-swing-coat. I cast on a few days ago and it's so totally fun to knit and I'm just really enjoying it. I need to knit about three more inches in diameter on the back, then I get to set up the arms and do the front.

As you can see here, I am doing it mostly in one color, Dark Horse Fantasy green multi, but I have two skeins of the same yarn in black/grey multi that I think I'm gonna do the last few rows in for an interesting edge :) I am doing an occasional stockinette ring in between the garter stitch rings to further enhance the circular nature of it :)

I just LOVE it :)





The above pictures were taken with my camera phone on the hood of my car whilst waiting to give blood. They were running an hour behind, so I got a LOT of knitting done. Unfortunately, my blood wasn't good enough, so they sent me away. I'm anemic :( I see Iron pills in my future today :)

SP 12 week two question

As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

I can't think of a specific thing as a young child...perhaps being able to ride my bike around the neighborhood all day with my friends? Perhaps summer camps? But I know once I hit my teen years, the BEST thing about summer break was getting to sleep in as late as I wanted :) I would sleep until noon or 1:00 PM, then take a long bath and read a book and then stay up until 2 or 3 reading and talking with friends on the phone :)

I'm a night owl by nature :)