the schedule problem

After NaBloPoMo I made a resolution to blog at least once a week, preferably twice. I haven't posted in two weeks now. On Christmas I got a Wii Fit and have been using it every day and getting up early in the morning to walk before I do the Wii Fit exercises. The side effect of that is that I really need to go to bed earlier or I can't get up to walk. The side effect of going to bed earlier is that I have a lot less computer time, which is probably not a bad thing.

So I guess I'm back to my sporadic posting schedule. I expect that everyone understands why. Exercise trumps blogging, right?

I have a lot less knitting and crocheting time but I have managed to finish a couple of things recently. A new crocheted bathmat for our downstairs bath.

finished bathmat

And a pair of fingerless mitts for Niels to wear while scootering to school. They are styled after the mitts Ash wears on Pokemon.

finished mitts

I haven't destashed at all yet, but we do have a destash party planned with my BobaKnit group. The week after that Purlescence is having a yarn swap so if anything is left we can all take it over there.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Advertisement

NaBloPoMo Day 2: reading and knitting

I have to confess that I don't have much more knitting to post about today. I knit a few rows on my Anhinga sweater with my brief kid-free time today. I will be settling in to do a couple more after I write this post.

What's really on my mind today is kid's books. Niels is reading at an end of 3rd grade/beginning of 4th grade level but is only in 2nd grade so I am on the look out for books whose writing challenges him but whose subject matter is something he can handle. Our latest find is The Magic Thief. I read it first to make sure it wasn't at all scary and I thought it was a wonderful book. It's told from the point of view of the boy, Conn, who picks the pocket of a wizard and steals his locus magilicus, his magic stone. He ends up as the wizard's apprentice and, of course, adventure follows. At the end of each chapter there are bits from the wizard's journal and Conn has left notes at the bottoms of the pages written in the runic alphabet of the City of Wellmet, where the story is set. That was Niels' favorite part! We have the second one on request from the library but the third one doesn't come out until next May.

I was at the library today and found The Far Flung Adventures – Fergus Crane. The cover and illustrations really appealed to me and the cover says that the dust jacket is a map, which made me wish I had purchased it. If Niels likes it I might buy the others from the same series, if they all have maps. The site I linked above with the review of Fergus Crane is also a good find. Lots of reviews of newer children's books with a recommended age level. I will have to poke around there for other books for Niels. The authors of Fergus Crane are more well known for their Edge Chronicles books. I took the first of those out today too but they look like they might be a bit too mature. I'm going to read the first one to see if it's too scary for Niels, who tends to be sensitive to scary stories.

Does it count as blogging every day if my blogging is not at all about my usual subject? I'm going to go with yes.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

birthday pictures

Mom came through with some pictures of Stefan's birthday party. He's not looking at the camera, but such is life.

Read and post comments

niels’ sweater

Niels was finally well enough to be willing to model his new sweater today. Not well enough to go to school, but well enough for modeling.

He loves his new sweater, even without the tie.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

yarn swapping and sweater finishing

Purlescence had a yarn swap today and I made out like a bandit.

I also brought home one skein of yarn that I had to pay for: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious silk in the sapphire colorway. I've been lusting after this yarn for a while and I have plan for it, so home it came. This photo doesn't do it justice, believe me.

IMG_0634.JPG

I had all the yarn out on the floor in the office (an advantage of cleaning up the office is that I can use the floor, even if it's just for poorly lit photo shoots). Stefan decided that all the yarn spread out looked like a garden and started arranging it and stuffing some of the balls into shoes. The ones he was stuffing into shoes are actually sock yarn. Smart kid, eh?

stefan arranged a garden of yarn, in his words

The last thing I brought home was two grocery bags full of sparkly, fluffy, shiny yarns for the kids in the Textiles class to use for weaving. Kids love sparkly, fluffy, shiny yarn for weaving. We found last time that the ribbon yarn works particularly well because it lays flat and makes the project faster and the stuff we had was variegated which gives the piece more interest for the kids. I think they'll love the stuff I got.

While I was waiting for the end of the swap (to collect the stuff for school) I finished sewing the hem of Niels' sweater. It's all finished except for the i-cord tie. I am not going to make the i-cord tie, though. I am going to go to JoAnn and buy some sort of cord for the tie. I don't see a point in knitting four feet of i-cord so that one foot of it shows. Also, it seems likely, as Anabel pointed out, that Niels will decide he needs a rope for something and pull it out. At least if I have store bought cord, I can go buy another. PIctures of the sweater will come later, after it has blocked and the recipient has recovered from his current flu-y illness and is in a sweater modelling mood.

I don't know how many yards of yarn I took over because some of it was old yarn from my grandmother and I didn't know how many yards it was. Not counting that yarn, and including a fluffy yarn I'm donating to the weaving projects, 2274 yards of yarn left my house today. Unfortunately, 3417 yards came in. That's a net gain of 1147 yards. I did put a few more balls of yarn into Niels' sweater but I thought my stash total would go up. I figured out why it dropped so much between my last two calculations: Ravelry changed the way they count your yarn so that if you put something in a project it subtracts it from the total in your stash. Even so, my total has dropped again and I'm not sure how. I now have 43867.3 yards or 24.93 of yarn that's down another 6 miles and over my goal for the year. That seems wrong somehow. I must be missing something. I'll figure it out eventually, I suppose. I'm still going to aim for using up 5 more miles of yarn this year, because I think I can! I already used up almost a mile in Niels' sweater.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

finished shedir

I finished my Shedir a couple of days ago. I really liked this pattern and this yarn (Calmer). Niels and Stefan wanted to model it too.

I started another chemo cap but I'm not crazy about how it's going. I think I might change it.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

niels’ art

A friend asked about Niels' drawings when I described them to her recently, so here is one.

I put notes on the Flickr page from Niels telling me what was happening here. The arrows are where the rocket ship moves and the crossed out ones "we don't use."

Read and post comments

lightning bolt man cape done!

I finished Niel's Greatest American Hero cape from New Knits on the Block last night. He has decided already that he likes the playsilk capes better because they don't choke him. Never knit for a five-year-old! I'm hoping that I can find a solution for the tie that he doesn't mind, since that is the problem area.

Now that I have my 6s back, I can start on Erik's seamless hybrid.  

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

more hat pictures

Niels was more willing to keep the hat on than Stefan, so I took some pictures of him in it. It's too small but he still appears to enjoy having it on.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend