Take Your Child to Work Day-- a day of overstimulation

Today was Take Your Child to Work Day at Hubby's place of work, but because Itty Bitty is still itty bitty, I was asked to tag along (it effectively also became "Take Your Wife to Work (to make her work some more) Day"). There were a lot of stimulating activities for the kids to do--singalongs, crafts, face painting, balloon objects (it's not just animals anymore, although Itty Bitty got a balloon pony--Bubby got a bow and arrow, and I saw a girl with a flower corsage and another boy requesting a katana), and a bubble show. Normally the food in the cafeteria is wonderful (I've only been there three times for lunch now, which admittedly, is not really enough to tell, but according to Hubby, who eats there every workday, it is pretty wonderful), but today, because of the kids, they dumbed down the menu.

There were bratwursts with hot dog buns, chicken tenders and fish sticks. And actually, by the time we got to the cafeteria (because we'd been waiting in lines for the face painting and balloon objects), all of the food was cold. It was disastrous--Itty Bitty would not eat the food, and I did but didn't want to. They had lunch boxes for the kids to take home, filled with local, and I presume, organic, fruit. Some of them looked kind of like oranges, but not exactly.

A few months ago I read an article about a new citrus fruit coming out that was supposed to be amazingly sweet and tasty and easy to peel. So I got quite excited, because I thought this was that. But apparently, it is not.

This is what we got:

 Which to me, looked like the Dekopon. But there was a little sticker on one of them, and apparently, it's an Ojai Pixie, which is different.

It was not as easy to peel as a Cutie, and the flavor was not as tart (or strong, perhaps?) as a Cutie, but it was pretty sweet and mild. No word on the elusive Dekopon though, I still haven't seen it in the market.

By the time you read this, my hair will be gone. . .

Last night I couldn't stand it anymore. My hair was too long. It was literally weighing on me. So I checked the Pantene hair donation requirements again, and they only require eight inches. I had more than eight inches!

In retrospect, a ruler for perspective might have been handy. But my hair, my friends, is gone. I don't have to put it up to go to sleep anymore. I don't have to put it in a bun to keep it out of my way. I don't have to worry about it getting caught in the car door or the seat belt mechanism. My Victorian/Pride and Prejudice stage is over.

This morning I had quite a time figuring out what to do with my hair, because while my hair texture is straight, one side had kind of curled while I was sleeping and no amount of water or combing could convince it to straighten and match the other side. So my current style is one in which Princess can match: pig tails (hers high, mine low).

FO--Bamboletta cardigan

I know, it would be cuter if I had a picture of the doll in the sweater. This sweater isn't what I expected though, because of the yarn. I'm afraid it resembles clown vomit (you know that yarn in your stash that you have that has all of the beautiful colors in it but then you knit it up and it was prettier in the skein?). Princess won't care, she loves that Bub dyed the yarn and that I knit it for her. But I don't even think it's going to match anything. Thus, I've already begun another doll sweater.

Happy Easter, to those celebrating Easter

Bub made me the focus of his Easter art projects:

 Lemon meringue pie's tarty goodness:

 And Bub's sad booty from an Irvine church's afternoon Easter Egg hunt.

We missed our city's sponsored one because Bub took two hours to eat a gigantic bowl of oatmeal and cinnamon bun. Reverse psychology always works on him, even when it doesn't work in his favor ("Finish your breakfast quickly so that we can make it to the Easter Egg hunt!"). Hubby found out about this other, church-sponsored hunt that some of his coworkers were taking their kids to, in a nearby city, where they were touting 40,000 eggs. So when Princess went down, the boys high-tailed it.

Now, while they might have had 40,000 eggs, they also had a proportional number of kids, eager to scoop up the bounty. And unfortunately, Bub was in the back of the line. He didn't even get to the green until a crowd of kids had mowed through it, picking up booty along the way. He ended up with three eggs. "But I see seven eggs in his basket!" Yes, you sure do. Because Bubby was so sad, Hubby suggested to him that they find the half eggs that the other kids had "missed", then they could put them together and have a few more eggs. Unlike our city's hunt, where it's divided by every two years and they just throw candy onto a field, the one Hubby took Bubby to was ages 4-10. And some of the bigger kids had a strategy of breaking open the eggs, dropping the candy into the baskets and leaving the empty eggs on the field (and more room in their basket for candy). So yeah, four of those were scavenged after the fact. I think this was the saddest Easter Egg Hunt I'd ever heard of.

New design

Today I added the hamster (the kids really like it and with the allergies we all have, this may be the closest we ever come to having a pet), changed the template, and fixed my tags. With fixing my tags, it is now clear that this is mostly a knitting rather than homeschooling blog. On the upside, it's more a knitting rather than drinking blog.

Dolly has a face and a wig cap now

I think the title says it all.

Favorite Smoothie Recipe so far

So my brother got a blender to make his own smoothies and asked what I used for the smoothies I made. So I gave him my favorite smoothie recipe so far, but thought I would share:

2 oranges
4 Cutie tangerines
one leaf of red cabbage
3 teaspoon dollops of fruit-flavored yogurt of your choice (I do strawberry or peach)
~1/4 cup apple juice
mint
four ladles of frozen grapes, pineapple, strawberries or frozen fruit of your choice

Enjoy!

FO-Baudelaires

Behold, my Baudelaires:

They weren't hard, I just didn't work that often on them. The most stressful part was figuring out how many repeats to do before doing the gusset increases (for my foot length, the answer ended up being: six). Other than that, I did followed this pattern to a T (what does that mean, anyway?). I liked the little cables running up the legs in between the lace pattern and I liked how easy it was to read the lace pattern. I did Cookie A.'s Twinkle Toes oh so long ago, but these are much prettier.

I really like this yarn, Regia Stretch. It's soft and (obviously) stretchy. I'm glad I have 100 more grams of this yarn so I can knit another pair of socks with it.

Now that I'm done with these socks, I only have three concurrent projects: my Tidewater Cardigan, a Bamboletta Cardigan, and the Waldorf doll. The Waldorf doll isn't actually a knitting project, but I'm up to the part where I have to crochet a wig cap, and it's crafty, so I'm counting it. I think I only have so much space in my head for works in progress, it's like the desktop on your monitor--if you have too many, they get lost.

Anyhow, I realized last night that I crocheted the cap wrong--you're supposed to single crochet into the back of the loops/chain, and I was still crocheting into the front edge. C'est la vie. I really need to embroider the eyes and mouth in before that though, and I still have yet to determine whether the eyes and mouth are where they should be. If the eyes are too close together the doll will look angry; too far apart and the doll looks weird. And the mouth--for it to be truly in the Waldorf style, it shouldn't have much more than a line of pink, so that the child can pretend whether the doll is happy or sad or whatever emotion s/he wants. However, the Bamboletta dolls are really cute and they all have smiles.

The right sleeve of my Tidewater Cardigan is almost done, albeit without enough decreases for it to have zero ease:

That's the shoulder cap on the left, going down to the cuff (rather, where the cuff will be). The gradation isn't perfect, but there no longer is a pale patch followed by a noticeably dark patch. It's more gradual. Now I have to decide what kind of cuff I want. Originally I thought I'd do a small ribbed cuff, but now I'm wondering if I want to go fancy and do an I-cord bind-off or a sewn hem.

Edited to add: Actually, I did it right the first time. It took me ripping it all out and starting over again the way I thought was the right way, to realize it was wrong (which then meant I had to rip it out one more time to restart). I have a little crocheted wig cap now, but I have to embroider the eyes and mouth before I can sew the cap on.

They come up with the darndest things

Check out my new retainer:

In case you couldn't tell, it's translucent pink with gold stars. My last retainer, as a teenager, was this creepy synthetic pink flesh color. This is a vast improvement. Who knew a retainer could be pretty?

More (doll) progress

I thought it would take me all week, but it was just one aggravating afternoon:

 And a close-up:

Those are pins for the eyes and mouth, so that I figure out placement before I actually embroider them in place. The eyes and mouth are supposed to be an equilateral triangle. I find myself yearning to dig out my protractor and measure to ensure it's 60 degrees. Afterwards, I'll be able to move onto the hair--there's this spiffy wig making tutorial that I'm looking forward to trying, but then I'll just have to figure out if I want pigtails or one ponytail. Ah, decisions, decisions.

Doll part progress

The first time I stitched the arms to the neck/shoulders, one arm was noticeably longer than the other. So I ripped out my stitches, and redid them, taking care to ensure the arms were the same length.

Unfortunately, I neglected to ensure they were the same level, so one is a bit higher than the other. The front:

 and the back view:

So the left shoulder is a tad higher than the right shoulder, but my fingers hurt and if I have to restitch this one more time I'll feel like throwing a temper tantrum. I'm hoping Itty Bitty doesn't notice. As it is, she's been asking everyday "Hey, where mah doll?" After all, we've talked about this long enough, she expects results! I can honestly say she had no idea it would take this long. The next step will be to the head/neck/shoulder/arms part to the body. But maybe another day, I'm exhausted.

Ever wanted to try a Neti Pot?

I got sick over the weekend, or maybe it's allergies. Anyhow, after staying outside for five hours at a birthday party, I ended up with a sore throat and post-nasal drip (lovely, I know). But it's gotten worse, much worse. I've just about lost all sense of taste and smell, I've lost my voice and I have a low-grade fever. Of course, that doesn't mean I can take a sick day (stay-at-home moms don't get sick days, it's not in the benefits package). Instead of laying in bed, resting, you still have to do pretty much everything you normally do (feeding and cleaning up after children, explaining things and answering their plethora of questions, etc. ad nauseum), which sadly, now takes even more energy to muster.

Yesterday my brother visited and I told him while we were out and about, that I wished I had a neti pot because I was now desperate enough to try it. (I'd first learned about neti pots about ten years ago and was fascinated with the concept, but the thought of water going up my nose was a strong deterrent to my curiosity.) After all, I couldn't eat, drink or sleep at this point. At which my brother replied "Are you sure Dad doesn't have some at home? What's in that NeilMed box?" And lo and behold, there were not only neti pots but some type of squirt bottle that uses the same solution that looks like an adult aspirator. It was based on that (and the fact that the squirt bottle's nozzle was larger than my nostril) that I decided on the original plan, the neti pot.

Mine happens to be blue plastic and it looks like a hospital-issue tea-pot:

It was easier to use than expected (I was kind of expecting a disastrous outcome) and I actually felt loads better after using it. But (and of course there's a but) it doesn't last. I still couldn't sleep last night. I used it again this morning and I'm still stuffed up half an hour afterwards. The results are fleeting. I'm not sure how often you're allowed to use one of these every day, but I suspect that I'd quickly go over the maximum. So now what? Claritin and Zyrtec don't work on me, and Sudafed (the real stuff) makes me high and anxious so I avoid that as well, which only leaves Benadryl at night (makes me drowsy; not conducive to good child-rearing).

Doll making, continued (today, the head)

Yesterday I finished restuffing the arms, and then I sewed down the skin to the head:

So this is the back of the head, with the skin whipstitched to the head. Also, I pulled the fabric tight and stitched it in place so that the doll wouldn't have any wrinkles. I think I also wrapped string around to make the neck at this point:

And this is the bottom view (it's not pretty):

So yesterday I stitched the arms to the neck/shoulders, only to discover that the arms were not even and the left arm was now shorter than the right arm. I could not let it go. So I undid all of my stitches, evened out the arms, and started stitching.

But by then, there was a groove in my index finger nail and my fingers were very sore and tired. So if I have time today, maybe I'll get the arms and head connected. Otherwise, it'll bleed into the work week. After all, this doll has a deadline if I'm going to use it as my class project.

The making of a doll

So after going to Jo-Ann's today and not being able to find any flesh-toned, cotton knit fabric, I settled for the peachy stuff in my kit. After stuffing, it wasn't as bad. Behold:

 The sewn body parts, with the arms stuffed.

 All of the parts stuffed.

 The yarns I'll be using for hair.

But then I noticed that I still had half of the batting left. So I re-stuffed the feet, legs and body. And still had this much batting left. So I guess I'll also re-stuff the arms, but I'm not sure how much I'll have left. And I have no idea how much to stuff. And hopefully this weekend, I'll put it together.

A word about stuffing. Boy does it suck. I've been scrunching/gathering the limbs like you might to put a sock on, then putting some stuffing in that's been rolled in layers, so that it doesn't get lumpy, but how do you get the limbs to be evenly stuffed? And again, how stuffed should it be?

The next part is closing the skin fabric over the "neck", then sewing the arms' shoulders to the "neck", then fitting that inside the body and sewing that all together. Wish me luck!

WIP--Tidewater Cardigan, a sleeve, still a sleeve

Behold, my first sleeve is (still) coming along:

I think the variegation looks better this time around. But now the only question is whether I should slowly add in one of the blue skeins? How much yarn does it take to do a cardigan? I have no idea. Because if it's 300 grams (or, 1260 yards), I'm fine and I don't need that blue skein. But if I need more, I should start adding now. So how do you know?

It's here, it's here!

I ordered it Sunday night, and my Weir doll kit has arrived (along with the extra yarn for hair I ordered). You see that peachy fabric? That's supposed to be the skin. It's very peach. I'm wondering if it'll be less so after it's stuffed?

 And right after my local postal worker dropped it off, the UPS man arrived with my yarn from WEBS' anniversary sale order from a few weeks ago:

 Believe it or not, all four skeins of the Noro Silk Garden Sock (S324: pink, purple and green) are the same color and dye lot. And six skeins each of the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (six in 106-Blackcurrant, and six in 79-Thundercloud).

It feels like Christmas! Sadly, I'm still working on a cardigan for the yet-to-be-made doll, and then I'll be busy making the doll, so I suspect sweater-knitting will be on the back burner for awhile. A lot of the time when I order from WEBS, the color on the screen totally does not match what arrives. This doesn't happen with any other vendor, just WEBS, so I always double-check colors on other sites. But all of the yarn colors look nice and flattering and I can't wait to knit the sweaters. And make the doll.

I wasn't sure if I should go for this kit because I learned that there was such a thing as a button-jointed doll, but it seemed like way more work and skill than I was capable of, and I don't have that much time, so a kit with a pre-made head and pre-sewn limbs is the way to go for me. The kit even comes with doll clothing patterns! I don't know how to sew, but maybe I will learn now.

Teamwork (aka playing well with others)

Bub was pulling his little sister along in a wagon/cart? A few weeks ago in class. I had to take a picture, because him doing nice things for her doesn't last (the picture lasts waaaaaay longer). Today he pushed her on the little airplane toy when she asked him to. And then, he made her push him.

Waldorf dolls

So this morning I came across Waldorf dolls. These actually remind me of the dolls my aunt made for myself and my cousin (her daughter) when we were younger, except with longer limbs. That was my favorite doll growing up (sadly the doll was lost after my parents moved houses many years ago) because it was the only doll I had that had black hair. Also, it was kind of a skinny doll, and I was a skinny child, so there was a resemblance.

Anyway, now I have a daughter and I've come across these dolls (there's a Ravelry group for people who make these dolls), and I can't help but wonder if my daughter would appreciate one. I found someone on Etsy who does customized Waldorf dolls for $190. And this is the doll my daughter says she wants (I don't always trust her*, after all, she's only two). But I suppose my question, and it's rhetorical, is this: if I tried to make one of these dolls myself, how badly would I mess up?

*--A couple nights ago Itty Bitty asked for more rice on her plate. I told her she could have more rice when she finished the rice that was already on her plate. She told me she'd eat it, and to trust her. . . where and when did she learn that term? This week she also demonstrated that she understood tomorrow too, as in "Tomorrow I want to feed the ducks at the park." We went to the farm instead, but it was still a pretty cool sentence.

Rip, reknit, repeat

So my right sleeve has been bothering me, because the variegation hasn't been working out, see:

 There's a huge light patch, before it looks "normal". But look at my five skeins:

 Different lighting, what can I say?

 So I ripped the sleeve out again. But then I started thinking--the two newest skeins (the brown ones) kind of match the first skein from the first group, so that could be three skeins to knit the sweater with, leaving aside the two too-blue skeins (in the pictures above, the top middle and right skeins), right? But if I were to do that, I'd have to get rid of all of the blue yarn that's already in my sweater:

 The left sleeve cap, which as you can see pooled blue:

Thus, a huge frogging project last night. But it'll be all right, because I'm assuming I'll eventually have the sweater I more or less envisioned. I just have to figure out how and when to alternate the skeins I have now, any suggestions?