New job

Not a whole lot of crafty news to report. I am nearly done with the Gryffindor socks I am making, which is good, seeing as how the recipients birthday is in a few days! They are turning out quite well for my first pair, although I would change some things for the next time I make them. For one, I think I will knit some elastic into the ribbing so they stay up better. For two, I would decrease in the ankle area so they are a little more snug. I am excited, I have enough yarn to make another pair of socks.
I got Glamour Knits by Erika Knight for Christmas and have decided to knit the chevron sweater out of it. It is beautiful. I looked online for some fine cotton yarn, and the cheapest I could find would end up costing me about $65.00. Well, that is a little more than I can afford to spend on yarn. So, I ended up frogging and dyeing two thrift store sweaters I had to get the yarn I want. It came out pretty nice colors, too. I wasn't being very specific with my colors, so I didn't test any of them, just guessed on mixing, but I like what came out.
I am also knitting some reproduction antique gloves for Plimouth Plantation. They need the for their re-enactors and can't make them fast enough. Someone posted on Ravelry that they needed volunteers to knit gloves and stockings, so I thought I would give it a go. I have never knitted gloves before, so this should be interesting.

In personal news...I got a job. Weird. I am a little hesitant about the idea, I haven't had a job for 3 years and I don't really want to leave Lillian for long periods of time, I am quite attached to her, but, I think it will be good for me. I will be running the alterations dept. in a bridal shop and also designing for their spring line. That part is very exciting as the line is sold all over the world. It will be very fun, I think. Lilly will go to my mom for the times I am at work. It is just part time, so it should be okay. I am going to need a new car soon, anyway, so this will pay for it.

Lilly smashed her mouth open yesterday, poor baby. She will play by the fireplace, no matter what I do, and yesterday, she fell on the hearth. Her mouth was open and she busted her upper gum right open. It bled like crazy, I felt so bad. It left a big cut and quite a bruise. I think it was worse because she has a tooth coming in right there as well, so there was additional pressure. She is pretty cranky because of it.
Lil has abandoned her love of Toby Keith in favor of Michael Buble. When the CD is turned on and she hears it, wherever she is in the house, she pauses and then squeals and makes a bee line for the front room. It is so cute, she wants to dance to it. I usually dance her around to the music, but last night when Mike turned it on, she started dancing herself. I love it, it is so adorable.
She has discovered 2 new sounds she can make. bababa and gagaga. She says baby all the time now. She talks constantly, which I love. I may not love it later when she is constantly pestering me with questions, but for now, I think it is terribly cute. She says mama now, as well. (about time!) She still does her royal wave at people, but is starting to learn the regular wave. I am kind of sorry, as the royal wave is very funny. She also has learned some of the actions to "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
Well, I think that is about it!

Craptastic Weather, Lovely spinning

Well, the weather here is dreadful. It has been warmish, well, anyway, not super cold, and we have a big, fat inversion. Yuck! It is so bad that they have to keep the kiddie winkies in at recess, the air is too nasty to breathe. Last night on the news there was a report on the top 10 worst places for air that day. The top three were here. My mom can't even laugh without practically choking to death from her asthma. Ewww. Fortunately (sadly), we are expecting a storm in a couple of days, that should clear the air.

Well, DH has been watching me spin off and on, and it occurred to him whilst watching, that my whorl on my spindle wasn't big enough. So, I got a bigger one, and what do you know? He was right! It speeded up my spinning a great deal once I got that bigger whorl on there. And made it much more even. I did learn on Ravelry that a lighter weight spindle is great for fine plies, but I was making worsted for Lillian's soaker, so I needed more weight and a bigger surface for the yarn to sit on. I also learned how to set the twist in my yarn, which I didn't know before. You have to whack it. That's right. Whack the crap out of it. So, I washed it, rung it out and smacked it a few times on the counter and it made quite a difference. The yarn is all lovely and pretty even and doesn't twirl up on itself anymore. Very exciting. I wound it into a lovely, twisty skein (another trick I learned on Ravelry) and it looks downright professional.

I got some llama/merino/tussah roving in the mail today from a very kind person and oh, is it soft. Not nearly as easy to spin as the wool, though. I guess llama fibre has a rather shorter staple than the merino, and I know the tussah has a much shorter staple. I had to switch back to the small whorl on my spindle to spin this yarn. Not only is it much softer and shorter staple, I am spinning fine plies to make plied yarn.

My brother and his daughter both want to learn to spin, plus he is wanting to do some needle felting. I asked my dad if he knew any sheep farmers from whom we could get raw wool, and funny enough, one of his good friends is a sheep farmer! Dad lives in a very small town. Anyway, he is pretty sure he can get us a big bag of wool for pretty cheap. I am excited, as I also want to try my hand at carding and hackling wool. Should be interesting, and probably stinky. ;)


In personal news, baby takes after her daddy in many ways. This kid is a comedienne. She knows when she is being funny and deliberately tries to make us laugh. Tonight's amusement, however, was not intentional. Baby has been peeing a ton lately, so when I change her cloth diapered bum, I like to let her bum dry out for a bit. So tonight, I changed her and left her diaper off. Well, she loves to be nekkid, so she promptly took off with a giggle. Daddy was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. I warned him she was coming and he said it was fine. She likes to "help". So a few minutes later, Dad says, "what is that stink?" Looks down and lets out a yell. Baby poo'd on the floor. He calls me in, I walk in and promptly dissolve into laughter. Not only had she poo'd, she stepped in it with her socky feet and looked quite amused by it. I picked her up under her arms (I didn't want the poo on me!) but I couldn't stand up straight, I was laughing so hard. I asked DH to take her socks off, and he gave me this exasperated look, which just made me howl all the more. He saw I wasn't going to be much use, throws me another dirty look and stomps off to the nursery to get wipes to clean the floor. I manage to make it to the nursery with the baby and wipe her butt off and get a diaper on her. Laughing my head off all the while. When we went back into the kitchen, DH said "you think it's funny she poo'd on the floor? Well, she peed in the dishwasher!' That was it, I couldn't take any more. I don't need to do my crunches tonight.

Not so much

Alas, I spoke too soon in the last entry. Definitely not spring. I think I angered the weather gods, because we got nailed! It was a ridiculously bad storm, causing road closures and above all, SCHOOL closures. Shock of shocks. I didn't think that sort of thing happened in Utah. I have lived here 33 years and never got a snow day. Sigh. Anyway, it was crazy. My stepdad, brother, and other brother all work about 30 miles from here. It took my stepdad and one brother 3 1/2 hours to get home and my other brother 5 hours. The first two were on the freeway, the third on a highway.

It hasn't warmed up much, sadly. I am so sick of the cold and being stuck inside. Baby is sick of it too, she wants to go out and play!

Spring?

In crafty type news...
I made a spindle for spinning! It is very cool. I will post a pic here soon, but I don't have my camera at the mo'. I bought some merino roving at the LYS and started spinning. It is much easier than I had anticipated, very exciting. There is, of course, much more for me to learn, but I do have the basic idea down. I quite enjoy it. I have one sock done for my SIL, but it is a bit largish. Baggy. I think I will wash it in hot and block it and see if I can shrink it a tad. Turned out very cute, though. Hand knitted socks are much comfier than I had anticipated.
Whilst at my mom's today I made a dress for a client. I should have done it ages ago, but things kept getting in my way! It is just a casual type dress, but it turned out well, and I think it will look nice on her. Can't fit it as she lives in CA, but hopefully she will send me some pics. Tomorrow I am going to make a couple of shirts for Lillian and some interior dec stuff for another client. It is nice to sew at my mom's house because she can keep Lillian entertained, but I do not prefer her machine! It is much slower than mine, I have a super speedy industrial.
I intend to get a lot of sewing done while my mom recovers, simply because she does entertain Lil. And Lil keeps her entertained, which is good, as mom is having a hard time with the enforced idleness.

ETA: here is a pic of spindle and partly done spinning.


Hard to keep the personal and the crafty crap separated, they seem to blend!
In very happy news, we have had a delightful warm spell! It had been around 45 degrees for most of the day for 3 days in a row. So nice. I can wander around outside without a jacket. Of course, it won't last, we will get hit with the snow again, argh. But it is highly enjoyable for now. A lot of the snow has melted off of the back lawn and is completely gone from the driveway. The evil, evil driveway upon which my mom slipped and broke herself.
Lilly has teeth! Two adorable little teeth on the bottom. She got them about a week or so ago, and they are so cute. Getting them in was a bear, though. Ooh, she was cranky. I think she is getting more on top now, as her upper gums look very swollen and she can't seem to keep her fingers out of her mouth.
She is pulling up to everything now, without any problems. She also lets go occasionally for a brief moment. I think she will be walking soon. It is crazy how much happier she is now that she can crawl. She doesn't need me to hold her all the time and is becoming more independent every day. I love it. I can clean a little more now without her freaking out on me if I walk out of the room. She still does it sometimes, especially if she is tired, but not nearly as much. I expect her to become even more independent when she can walk. It will be much easier for her to follow me from room to room.
She is finally starting to say Mama. I have been trying to get her to say it for a while, but she is rather hung up on daddy. She howls it when she is whining/crying. It is pretty funny. She is learning the hand motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and Popcorn Popping, which is terribly cute and always claps at the end of the song.
Mom taught her to dance to I've Got No Strings, and now she dances to anything if you hold her up and jig her around. Her feet get going like crazy and she giggles nonstop. It looks like she is tap dancing. Hysterical, I got it on video today.
I wish I remembered to write more often, as I know I forget stuff she does that I will want to remember, but oh well.

News from the home front

So, I have been reading (too much) on Ravelry, world's best website, and have learned a few new things I would like to try.

The first among them is spinning. I can't afford a spinning wheel at the mo', but there is drop spindle spinning as well. Can't afford to purchase one, but found a link that teaches how to make one, easy peasy. So, I will make a spindle. I don't have any fibre to spin, but I know you can also spin multiple plies together to make a thicker yarn, and i have some lovely wools and cashmeres that are thinner than I want to knit with, so I am going to ply them together to see how it works, and if I end up with a heavier weight cashmere yarn? Fabulous.

I started knitting some mittens for Lillian today. She won't keep her arms in her blankie, no matter how tight we wrap her (little Houdini) and the heat is so low at night that her little hands freeze! This morning when I got her out of bed, her hands were purple, they were so cold. So, mittens it is. I am making them with a long ribbed band so she can't pull them off too easy. I will post those when finished.

I have another soaker almost done, very cute, pink and blue. I quite like it. I bought a thrift store sweater today and frogged part of it and washed the yarn, so I can knit her either another soaker or perhaps some capris. Or maybe a skirty. Haven't decided yet. I finally found a free pattern on Ravelry for a skirty. Tons of soakers and longies, but only one free skirty. Go figure.

I also received some lovely sock yarn from Elann today. Great prices and very nice yarn, I will order some more, I think socks will make some good Christmas gifts and you can never start too soon.





In personal news...

We have been getting insane amounts of snow lately. Yesterday we got about 8", crazy. I haven't seen this much snow since I was little. Then it thawed a little today and melted some puddles, which promptly turned to black ice when the sun went down. Not cool.

My mom is making Lillian some summer clothes, tonite she made the cutest pair of sailor capris and was on her way over to try them on Lil, when she stepped on a lovely spot of black ice and down she went. Broke her ankle clean across. She is at the hospital right now getting it set, and she will have to have surgery to pin it back together. Ugh. Not fun. I will be taking care of her for the next couple of weeks. Not that I mind that, I don't at all. I hate that she is hurt and has to have surgery when they don't have insurance. I keep thinking that we have had enough of pain and injury, etc. Wrong. It keeps coming. I guess the Lord is trying to toughen us (all my fam) up for something. I sometimes think it is harder to deal with issues that affect one's family members than it is to deal with things that affect oneself.

In happier news, the new First Presidency of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) was announced. Thomas S. Monson is the new President/Prophet, Henry B. Eyring is 1st Counselor and Dieter Uchtdorf is 2nd Counselor. Very cool, happy to have them, interested to see what direction the Lord wants them to take the church.

That is all for now, I am very stressed, but as President Hinckley said,"It will all work out". I just have to have faith in that and let it.

Soakers

I have become addicted to knitting wool soakers. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are knitted covers for cloth diapers. They are waterproof, naturally anti-bacterial and dang if they don't look adorable on Lilly's tiny bum!
Such a quick and fun knit. I finished one that I like to call "Cherry Bumb", I will post a pic of it soon. Now I am working on a pink and blue one that I will embroider rosebuds on.
These are so cute that I am thinking of coming up with my own pattern and making them and posting them on ebay. All babies' bums should look this good!