I know why now

Most top-down sweater patterns I see out there are raglans. I don't like raglans, I don't find them flattering and I don't like the fit. But now that I've been working on the bottom of my sweater, I've realized that most sweater patterns I see also have ribbing on the bottom. To prevent curling. Because I have major curling issues with my Tidewater Cardigan. I actually knit 1x1 twisted ribbing at the bottom, but it and the rest of the bottom rolled itself up. I guess it wasn't enough ribbing. But I didn't want that much ribbing, so what to do?

I ripped it out, and tried a trick I read on one of the Ravelry boards, where every here and there in your stockinette, instead of knitting a stitch, you purl it. And I just read about putting in a row of purl to prevent curling. Now I'm going to try a 3-stitch I-cord bind-off to match the collar, to see how that goes. I'm afraid blocking won't fix any curling issues I have, because it's too humid here. I'm also thinking that maybe for my next sweater, I'll have a lot of ribbing at the bottom.

On choosing a handwriting program

Bub's handwriting has been barely legible since he's learned to write. He's practiced a lot, writing me love notes everyday for a time, but still, his handwriting is lacking. And it's hard for him--when we work on math, he complains when I set him to write the problems out himself--he doesn't form the numbers and some of the letters the way you are supposed to.

So today I found myself researching handwriting programs. To my knowledge (if you know better, feel free to correct me), most public schools, around here at least, teach Zaner-Bloser or D'Nealian. I've found that Kindergarten teachers often feel very strongly about one over the other. Some of the swanky private schools use Handwriting Without Tears, as do many homeschoolers. I can't figure out which style HWT is (of the ones I looked at).

But today I found a new style, called Getty-Dubay, from Portland State University. Instead of using stick-and-ball formations, it's more elliptical and has fewer pencil lifts. Also, the cursive version is very similar to the manuscript version, making it easier to read, write and learn. Originally I thought we'd be doing HWT, but there seems to be a bit of coloring in the workbooks, at least at the lower levels, and Bub hates to color. And there are so many add-ons (the little chalkboard, the shapes you put together to make letters, the dough) I wonder if we really need all of that.

I ordered the first and second grade books today, this will be one of our summer projects. I guess we'll see how this goes.

Oh, sad day

I don't know what happened, my myImogen shrank. I wore it out to take a walk last night, and it was so tight in the shoulders that I was in pain when we got back. This is not the first item that's shrank--other items have included my Foliage hat, Hubby and Bub's ribbed top-down beanies, and my top-down aviatrix-y hat, but never something so big, requiring so much time and effort, and such expensive yarn! And we're talking about something that I hand wash in tepid water with Eucalan, treating it like a newborn baby.

And then I came to think of it (last night, as I was pondering), and I don't think I've successfully knit a sweater that fits me well. Owls ended up shrinking a bit and is too short in the torso, Whisper is just not flattering, Rockefeller is too big (and I learned that I really do hate acrylic-blend yarns), and my Hourglass sweater's neck hole is so large I'm planning on recycling the yarn for another project. My Vine Yoke Cardigan actually fits, I suppose, but I never wear it for fear of snagging or fuzzing the very soft Malabrigo Twist yarn. I hope my Tidewater Cardigan works out. It was made with zero ease, so I guess we'll see.

Oh, those ducks

Am I the only one who's noticed overly aggressive mating practices in male ducks? I've told Hubby about it when I've been a witness because I feel bad for the female duck, being badgered and chased by a swarm of male ducks, until the aftermath when she swims away, silently, and the drake goes back to his drake-friends, chortling and bragging and almost giving each other high fives.

A few days ago Hubby told me about an article he saw on reddit, about male duck genitalia. And yesterday he pulled up the articles for me, the academic one as well as the easier to read layperson one. (I recommend the layperson one; it has easy to find pictures and video.) This is one of those instances where I almost wish I never knew this about ducks (the corkscrew penises as long as their bodies, never mind the fact that it takes them a third of a second to get erect and ejaculate), because I have to add that to the duck rapes I've been witness to. I think it must suck being a female duck. I know I'm anthropomorphizing. But seriously, read the article.

A nice dinner

We went out to a nice dinner Saturday night and I took some pictures of the food because well, it'll last longer:

The swordfish, with some sort of corn relish:

Prime rib, with creamed spinach, Yorkshire pudding, and creamed corn:

 Bella something sorbet on cookies with mint:

 Creme brulee and chocolate torte:

The picture of my dinner is missing (it was taken on Hubby's camera rather than mine), I had New York Strip steak. It came with different colors of asparagus and potatoes. Very colorful.

On average, we seem to go out to eat every three or four months, and typically not a place as fancy as this, so it was a nice change of pace. The restaurant was somewhat far though, not in our local neighborhood at all, but we were gifted with a large gift certificate to the restaurant that would be expiring at the end of the month, so it was nice to get out.

Crafts with Math

So last week we were sick with the stomach flu and missed the field trip to Sea World. And the two weeks before that I had an allergic reaction to something at a kid's birthday party, so blogging has been low on the priorities.

This Monday we finished Story of the World (the first volume at least, which is available on Kindle) and by the end of this month or so we'll probably finish his math book so it's time to change gears. Yesterday we bought another set of kids' encyclopedias for the kids, and one of the things they teach you to do is how to build and use your own abacus. So we did that today.

The supplies (picture frame, beads, thumb tacks, string, etc.):

 Putting it all together:

 And the finished product:

You may have recognized the yarn from my Rockefeller Sweater. It's super thick and doesn't let the pony beads slide too much. In other words, it was perfect! So Bub had a lot of fun with us putting the abacus together, but perhaps not as much fun actually using it. It requires a bit of practice to get the hang of it, so I wouldn't say he's proficient yet, but it's nice to take a break from the daily grind of the math mini lessons.

Waldorf doll, FO (or, a re-cap)

The story in pictures:

The box the Weir kit came in:

 And everything in the box (the kit plus two extra skeins of yarn):

 Stuffed, the arms don't look as peachy as the head and body/legs:

 Everything stuffed and pinned:

Pulling the fabric back to make the face smooth:

Makes it look like Frankendoll from the back:

The head and arms sewn to the body, with pins for where I think I'll put the eyes and mouth:

A close-up:

The wig cap:

My doll's face:

With the crochet wig cap sewn onto the head, I've started attaching the three colors of yarn for the hair:

 And pulled into pig tails, it looks like this:

Now she needs a name and clothes. Sadly, Itty Bitty isn't sure what to name her either (it's her doll, after all, so she gets the honor), and I don't know how to sew, so I'm not sure what will be done for clothing, although she has two doll's sweaters now! She's due in class in two weeks though, so hopefully it's figured out before then.

My final thoughts: for my first doll, I'm glad I ordered the kit and I'm also glad I ordered the parts pre-sewn and with a pre-made head, which simplified things quite a bit. While the lightest skin color was abhorrently peachy in the kit, after the doll was stuffed she looked way better so I didn't need to freak out, in retrospect. I mostly used this flickr tutorial by toureasy47201 for the hair, and Ashetebeulah's tutorials for the eyes and mouth. I wish I had made the hair quite a bit longer (I started with 16" strands, and with a lark's head knot, was supposed to be ~8" long). That was more or less fine for the back/bottom of the head, but as I got to the top, I lengthened the strands to 32" (for 16"-length hair) and it still didn't seem long enough, so when I have the stamina, I may try redoing the hair.

I also plan on rouging the doll's cheeks with a Crayola crayon; I read somewhere that you can buy a special wax crayon for it, but my local crafts stores are pretty skimpy on doll making supplies and I think the regular crayon will suffice.

Also, I messed up on one of the eyes. I initially thought I was supposed to keep going through the head for every stroke, rather than poking through the head with the doll's needle, then changing to a ball point needle and kind of doing the eye all right then and there, and then switching back to the long doll's needle to get to the back of the head and make the knot (at least that's how I ended up doing it). And luckily, the crocheting for the wig cap was super easy, even for a non-crocheter such as myself. I enjoyed the process enough that I may someday make myself a doll.

A thoughtful gift

A few months ago my brother bought a bottle of Balvenie Caribbean Cask (for those of you that are unfamiliar with that, it's single malt Scotch whisky that was finished in casks that previously held rum) and I really liked it. I liked it so much that when my brother decided to leave it with us, I finished most of the bottle (not in one sitting, over several months). He was quite surprised when he pulled it out and saw its state. I didn't drink more specifically because it wasn't my bottle to begin with. Unfortunately, our favorite liquor store (yes, we're people with a favorite liquor store) has been out of it for awhile.

But apparently, Hubby told them to email him when they got it in again. And lo and behold, he got an email today, so he stopped by and voila:

 

I am now the proud owner of my own bottle of Balvenie Caribbean Cask, thanks to my thoughtful husband. What a nice surprise!