The Girl

My daughter is 5 & we've known for some time she's a bit different than other kids her age. We've known for years really. I finally decided that it would be best to get an evaluation to see if she's just really quirky or if she's got something more clinical going on. Our state has these early childhood evaluations they do so I chose to start there. They listened to the concerns I had, talked to her old pre-school (who saw the same issues) & are doing a follow-up tomorrow here at the house. They will do a more in depth study of her history & then watch her play & ask her questions.

I have been homeschooling her, but I'm wondering if she need a more rigidly structured program than I can offer. (I am undiagnosed ADD, so it's just about impossible for me to design & stick to a highly structured program.) Her old pre-school called & they had an opening because a child moved. They've worked with her for the last 2 years & are very used to her issues. I am really glad she can go back there again this year. It's 3 days a week for 3 hours. We will still be doing kinder at home so she'll remain on the same grade level if she ever does go "real" school.

What I've been knitting lately

A Who Hat for the roommate, it's made with Stitch & Bitch line of yarn & is the bamboo blend one.

Some Bella Mittens for a dear friend who loves the Twilight crap. I'm running behind on them, but they will be done before the snow falls & that's the important part.

I just finished up this blanket square for a dear sweet woman who lost her husband suddenly. My heart breaks for her & I hope this blanket helps her feel the hugs from all of us knitters in the computer who are thinking of her & sending her love.

I also finished up a hat for my dad's wife & am still chugging along with the blue sweater as well as the red one.

Owl Hats for Everyone!

So I'm kinda on a hat kick again, but this time it's Owl hats. Isn't that the best hat pattern? (Answer: Yes, yes it is.) I made a newborn version using DK weight & it's so cute (not blocked yet, sorry).

I've cast-on another one in the adult size already, I love this hat.

I have been working on the blue sweater for a bit & I am doing a few mods on it; doing M1s instead of YOs for the raglan & no puffy sleeves. Well I was knitting along & had marked up my pattern to change those two things & was blindly knitting. One spot called for 2 rows of purls on the shoulder to help the shoulder sit better with the puffy arm going on. I knit them & then realized they'd look like crap with the flat sleeves so I dropped my stitches & picked them up again across both shoulders & they came out great! I was sure I'd mess up & have to frog the whole thing & start over.

Before:

After:

What's new?

Nothing crazy, but a lot of tiny things. I had my birthday & got some wonderful gifts. My roommate got me a pair of shoes & a small sculpture I was longing for.

My mom & dad both sent cash, so some of that went towards some new glasses (which should be here in a 2-4 weeks), about 1/2 of it went towards the tattoo savings fund & the rest went towards this

I found it at the thrift store & everything in the photo came with it, all for $35 + tax. I will need to get a sponge bar for it & figure out how to use it as I know nothing about machine knitting.

I finished the hat I was working on

I suck at blocking hats & I think it shows here. I do love how it came out looking like stripes, I adore this hat!

I went down to the farmer's market & found the most perfect tomato ever! I don't eat tomatoes & even I want a bite of this one.

It's more purple than the photo shows & it's really juicy. It was called a something purple or a purple something. I can't recall, all these heirloom tomatoes have funky names & I can't keep them straight.

Got some garlic too, look at these nummy things

So that's what's new here.

Uncluttering

When we first moved in to this home back in Feb we did so in stages. So for the first month we only had about 1/2 of out possessions & it was so wonderful to live so uncluttered. Once we got everything in here I decided I didn't want to live this cluttered anymore. I've been going through things & tossing out a kitchen sized garbage bag full of junk every other week & I have to confess it feels good getting the junk gone. I've done a few runs to the Salvation Army to drop off as well & plenty of things got tossed in the recycling bin as well. My goal is by this time next year to have about 1/2 of the possessions I own now.

I even got rid of a ton of books which if you've met me might shock the hell out of you. I am hoping to get rid of even more of them. I'd like to keep the series that I re-read often, plus the ones I've read to near tatters. Of course I'll keep a lot of my knitting books, but even some of those could be pared down.

Which brings me to yarn, I've 171 that aren't involved in any projects. I've no problem having a lot of yarn, but I would like to stash down a tiny bit. I'm buying 12 skeins off a friend who's doing a destash, but it's sweater quantity & I'd like a few more sweater quantities. What I'd like to reduce is the oddball single skeins.

I am surprised at the amount of uselessness I own. I had taxes from when I was 21, pretty sure one doesn't need taxes from that far back. I had bills from when my daughter was born, those I'm going to scan in & if she wants to have them to see what she cost she can. I am going to send my marriage licence to my son, he was the only benefit to the whole thing so maybe he'll think it's nifty.

I am planning on taking pictures of some of this stuff & scanning others in so I can still look at the stuff, but there is no way I need the physical item anymore. I'm kind of a packrat so wish me luck!

The Saga of The Red Hat

This is a long & sad story. I got this beautiful yarn in a swap on Rav

Pretty isn't it? I think it was my most coveted yarn in my stash. I wanted to make the perfect hat from it so I hunted for ages til I found the 16 Cable Hat & of all the slouchy hats it's the best one (that might be opinion rather than fact).

So I start knitting it up.

It was crocking like mad, but I figured it was just due to it being red & wasn't as bad as it seemed so I kept knitting along.

I got done with it & snapped a shot before I washed it.

Then I gave it a quick wash with some vinegar to set the color, you'd be shocked how much dye just poured out of this hat! It stained the pot, my sink was dark hot pink (I was able to scrub it out with BonAmi). This is the hat still wet after a few tries to set the color.

Yeah, doesn't even look like the same hat does it? I tried a few more times to set the color & kept failing.

Pretty hat for sure, but not the colors I wanted at all. I then gave it a bath with some OyxClean to see if that would help since it's not like it could get worse.

It's not properly blocked in this shot, sorry. It's still pouring out color & I'm not sure what to try now.

I do need to say the dyer was awesome when I told her what was happening. Best guess is this is just a dud skein. She was happy to refund my $ when she saw photos & I've got more of her yarn & would shop there again without hesitation. Often with smaller shops you either get people who just blow you off when you lodge a complaint or you get awesome people & she totally falls in to that group. There is no way for me to stress enough this was a fluke cursed hat & not the fault of the dyer.

What's New!

Well it's been a bit so I do have a few new things to report. First up is my birthday present to myself. I bought myself this nifty circular needle case from The Loopy Ewe

Isn't it cute? It's a Namaste circular needle case, I went with the color Lime. Right now it has all my needles in it, but I hope as I get more needles to have 2 or 3 of these so I can split up brands.

I'm working on this hat right now, it still needs a tassel on the back & either tassels on the front or i-cords if I'm getting low on yarn.

It's slightly more muted in real-life, my camera does this turn all red tones in to extra vibrant thing & I dropped out of the local camera club before I figured out how to fix that. I should pop in on a meeting one day & see if they can tell me what button to push to correct for that.

This is one of the 2 baby items I did. This one is for a friend who is due in Sept & doesn't know if she's having a girl or a boy. I just didn't want to knit in yellow or green, I fear the child will get enough of those & I think this comes off neutral enough.

As for the other baby item, you'll have to wait a day or two until they've gotten it in the mail. I don't want to ruin the surprise.