Fuzzy Love

Pink, Yellow, and Green

The colors of Project Spectrum are about to change, and I have yet to post a thing about it. Let's fix that.

The Ballet T-Shirt still wasn't quite dry this morning (and this is Colorado, people; you only see wet in that picture because of sprinklers), but I put Olivia in it away. That may be why it has a bit of a curling issue on the lower edge, so next time I'll be patient and perhaps put something heavy on the bottom besides. It really is cute.

That curling you see above is not what I'm talking about; after a few minutes it rolled right up. I am still pretty pleased with it, but it's one of those sweaters in which every little stitch is highly visible, so any little wonky parts are jumping out at me (especially the cast on under the arms).

Anyway, in the name of Project Spectrum, I thought I'd take pictures of some of the more colorful things in my house - the books - and give you a peak into my bookshelves at the same time. Without actually showing you the bookshelves themselves, which are packed two rows deep and quite, well, stressful to look at. (I was planning to do this sometime, for PS, but then books came up yesterday, and here we are.)

Funny how not many of my green books are novels. Dressed for the Photographer is one of my favorite reference books - it pictures and describes fashion in 19th-century photography - as I inherited a box of old family photographs that periodically vex me (if I could just have my grandmother back for an hour...). And I just got In Stitches by Amy Butler. I don't have much in the way of sewing skills, nor do I have a place in which to sew other than the dining room table. But I'd like to be able to sew things and I've been carrying this book around a lot lately.

On to yellow (it's kind of fun to see my books this way).

Ah, a few more novels. I haven't read The Piano Tuner yet, but I will. But I actually think I enjoyed all of these other books. Empire Falls and Deliverance were both read in the last year. And looky, Hamlet was actually picked up for the first time since university (other than for a move).

And finally, pink:

Yup, that's all the pink I've got. It's another book that hasn't been opened since university (poor neglected Darthur). Mark will probably suggest that I use this knowledge to motivate myself to chuck the sad little thing, so it can sit abandoned on a used bookstore bookshelf, but that's not the way I operate. It's a quality book, even if I only read it when forced, and therefore I will keep it FOREVER. Although perhaps it could possibly be shuffled off to the basement.

Pretty much any book that comes in that 8ish by5ish inch book format attracts me (with a bonus for a book club guide in the back). Some of my favorite recent books have been The Time Traveler's Wife, The Bookseller of Kabul, and Devil in the White City. And one of my all-time favorites: An American Tragedy. Unfortunately none of those come in pink. Anyone have any favorites you'd like to recommend?

Anyway, I'm in a knitting slump right now and am strangely unmotivated to cast on for something new. Wait...[checking forehead]...no, really, I'm fine. Even infant sweaters are too much of a commitment, and the Heartbreakingly Stiff Baby Kimono sits unfinished with only a little bit of work remaining.

It probably has something to do with the trip to the Scotia I'm taking later this week. I leave on Wednesday evening, by myself, to clean out my mother's house (with my brother and aunt), visit a bit with family and friends, and do the Spring Sprint. I'm really dreading the house part and not sleeping well, even with those little pills I have. So, in the meantime, I've managed to commit to some purely functional, albeit colorful, dishcloths. How sad is that?

Random Stuff

Holly Jo tagged me for the eight random things meme, but you wouldn't be blamed for thinking this was any other post (Random? Me?).

1. I have to start each day with a cup of tea or the day just doesn't seem right. A good basic black tea, like English Breakfast. I also require a little bit of chocolate every day or I can get grumpy (most often just a small handful of chocolate chips).

2. Liam's birthday is coming up so I'm sending him in to school soon with a treat (pop-cycles). He also has to bring in pictures of: himself as a baby, his pets, and his family. We realized that - yikes - we hadn't taken a picture of the four of us together in over a year. Last night a friend tried for a long time to take a decent shot and this was the best one (guess who dressed himself?).

3. I am from Canada but have lived in the States for ten years so I'm loosing my accent. People used to recognize me as a Canadian right away, and then I got Minnesota for a while, but now it's rare that anyone says anything about how I talk (except for a few weird things like saying soother, not pacifier, and process, not prawcess).

4. We were cleaning up yesterday because friends were coming over for dinner and Liam was anxious to help. I asked him to get changed and then he could clean the kitchen table, but the order got a bit mixed up and I found him like this (oh yeah, he's nekid under there):

5.  I've knit on and off since I was a kid, but not obsessively until my mother needed brain surgery. I traveled home and my aunt Sue had some of that Regia self-patterning sock yarn. My friend Kelly says she can tell how stressed I am by how much I knit, which makes me think I need one of these shirts.

6. Two things I find really funny are here and here (especially this one):

7. I read a lot and, although I get a lot of books from the library, I like to own and keep forever books I really enjoy. I have to admit this is getting rather unwieldy.

8. I don't have a terribly good memory, so I take pictures of everything. It's not uncommon for me to take over 500 pictures in a week if we are on vacation. This sometimes annoys the hell out of Mark, but it did ensure we were early adopters of digital cameras.

Okay, done. I tag Cathi, Stefani, and Jannett.

Not enough randomness for you? I finished the Ballet T-Shirt. It's taking forever to dry so I'll get Olivia to model it tomorrow.

How I Torture My Children

But now I know it will fit over her head.

Crafty Goodness

As I write this, Olivia is momentarily spellbound by Andrea Bocelli singing a lullaby to Elmo. The girl really has no interest in television other than anything with Elmo, whom she loved at first sight, and I have to admit that song really is worth stopping for (take a listen). Yet here I am, not stopping, because uninterrupted computer time is rare around here.

Note: If you are not interested in knitting, now would be the time to skip ahead, guilt-free (even you, Mark) until you see a picture of Liam.

Thank you for all your nice comments on Rusted Root. The more I wear it, the more it is relaxing and repoofing. So I'm pretty pleased with it (I'm actually wearing it right now). But let me tell you, those increases for the ol' hips were very necessary. When I read the part of the pattern that basically says, now knit until it's the length you want, I thought, "Oh my. Where I want this sweater to stop is waaay wider than my waist." So if you are contemplating a Rusted Root of your own, keep this in mind (unless you have no hips and then feel free to keep that to yourself).

Since finishing it, I wanted some quick projects, so I started a couple of little baby things. First of all, I'm making one of those little Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimonos from Mason-Dixon Knitting that are all over the place.

Now, it is very cute and very fast, and you can't beat a project that costs $2.50 (the Sugar 'N' Cream was even on sale), but I'm not sure about how a sweater in kitchen cotton is going to turn out. Right now it feels stiff and very unbabylike. I'm also a bit worried that, once it is washed, it will end up softer but also grungy and sad-looking, even though I don't expect anyone to be scrubbing pots with it. We'll see. I did the stockinette version with a gauge of 18 stitches to 28 rows, so when I do another one I'll pick a different yarn.

But the best part of this project? Shopping for ribbon.

I have a couple of others too, but I can't find them amongst all the yarn that is covering every surface around this computer (I'm still scrounging for time to get the whole yarn stash into Ravelry). But let's just say that I'm now in danger of amassing a ribbon stash. Michael's sells three-yard spools that I seem to find irresistible, although I think part of my love is for the wooden spools themselves. I thought the one that Olivia got a hold of  - can you guess which one? - would be especially cute on a chocolate brown kimono. Lord knows I know enough pregnant people, so I imagine there will be more of these little sweaters in my future.

Also newly on the needles is a Ballet T-Shirt from Loop-d-Loop. Brace yourself; this picture has a whole lotta pink in it.

I swear, I have no idea where those needles came from. The sweater is for Olivia, as I really don't think I could wear the adult one and I think it makes a much cuter girl's sweater anyway. I honestly intended to get a shade of blue or green, but there was a sample in the store in just this shade and somehow this is what came home with me (it's called Pink-a-boo, for god's sake). But it will be very ballet-like and, on 6.5mm needles, fast.

I have one last baby sweater to mention: the Baby Surprise Jacket. Inspired by the beautiful versions here and here, I picked up a copy of The Opinionated Knitter yesterday (since my library doesn't have one). What a book! I'm thinking this sock yarn by Lonesome Stone will work nicely:

Okay, non-knitters! Here's the picture of Liam:

One of the few school supplies Liam needed for his preschool class was a disposable camera. Last week we got the camera back and, of course, immediately raced to get the pictures developed. Few of them are of terribly high quality (the camera's fault, not the teachers'), but they're still very cute and full of memories for Liam.

Since I do have a few scrapbooking supplies in the basement that I have no intention of ever using (let's just say that blogging fills the need), we decided to make a scrapbook of Liam's year and got to work immediately. With the addition of some puffy letter and school-type stickers (oh, so much fun), we've got a pretty nice project going. I stick down the photos; Liam does the rest.

Liam tells me all about each picture and I jot down his captions, which I'll add to each page as we continue. Way better than throwing them all in the picture box where they'll never ever be seen again, huh?

Surprises

Surprise number one:

Mark sat down with Liam and made a list of all the things Liam loves about Mommy and Mark stuck these little signs all over the house. There are things like cuddles and talks and that I'm good at playing games. That sign in the picture was the first thing I saw when I got out of bed (stuck to a painting of my hometown's skyline) and it immediately made me cry.

Surprise number two:

Liam has been achin' to go back to the local pottery place ever since he saw one of these gnomes in the store window. Mark took him back last week and let Liam pick out whatever he wanted to give me, and they painted it together. So now I am the proud owner of my very own gnome, who I suppose will live out amongst the sunflowers, at least until winter.

Surprise number three (it's a biggie):

A trip to Vegas, baby! Mark conspired with my friend Kelly and Jenn's husband Bill (no surprise for Kelly, unfortunately) to send the three of us to Las Vegas for a weekend next month. Kelly lives outside Seattle, and we've been talking about a trip together somewhere, sometime. We did it once before, two years ago, when we met up in San Francisco. And who cares where, right?

But Jenn just sold her house and is trying to find another one and all our summers are getting booked up with visits and then school starts in August and you know how it goes, right? So Kelly, Bill, and Mark buckled down, picked a date, and booked it. And so we're going! It came as a total surprise to me, even though there was much telephoning and messaging going on. I gather I'm not that hard to fool.

Although there were definitely sad moments yesterday thinking of my mom , thank goodness I also am a mom, because you know how those little people are the light of your life? It helps. A lot.

Well, of course the trip helped too.

And god help me, that gnome cracks me up.

Blown Away

I'm sorry; I haven't posted in a few days because I honestly haven't known what to say. $1055. One thousand fifty-five dollars. I didn't even dream of a number that big, but that's how much has been donated in my Mom's name. Thank you. My god: thank you. For the donation to a good cause, for helping me be the NUMBER TWO fund raiser in Halifax (I know it looks like Ms. Hicks Hicks is ahead of me, but if you click through you'll see I'm kicking her ass), and, most of all, for honoring my mother.

I know that I've beaten this topic into the ground, but it still amazes me the good things that continue to happen around my mother's death. I know, a person with a little more...what: faith? god? something in them wouldn't be surprised, but my mind continues to be boggled. Imagine: most of the money donated came from people whom have never met my mother. And some came from people that have never met me or my family (in person). As much as Mark calls my blog friends my "imaginary friends," they are real friends, a concept that was explained better than I ever could do it over here.

It all helps remind me that I am surrounded and supported by really wonderful people, and I am so so grateful for them. But you know that, right? (And you're probably sick of hearing it and hoping I'll soon move on to another topic. Like shoes, maybe.)

But still, I have been a little nervous about tomorrow. My brother, for example, is planning on tidying up my mom's long-neglected yard with some buddies and then going to get drunk. Well aware it could be a difficult day (or at least have difficult moments), Mark started the special stuff today. First off, he was wholly supportive of my taking off with a friend for a long lunch and pink toes:

Pink toes! Even though that meant he had to run a Saturday's worth of errands by himself with both kids. Jenn and I got to have a whole conversation with little to no thought-train derailments; a rarity in our worlds. Plus we got to eat ahi.

While I was being pampered and stuffing my face, Mark planned, shopped for, and then cooked a scrumptious meal that we ate out on the deck (my favorite place). It was a happy summer-time meal, with blueberries in the salad and corn on the cob.

I know he has more surprises in store for me tomorrow (Liam is just itchin' to tell me about them).

And I wish for you lots of good surprises too. Happy Mother's Day to you and your mom.

(Oh, and yes, I finished Rusted Root).

Walking For Other People's Mothers

And fathers and kids too, I suppose.

I'm going back to the Scotia over Memorial Day weekend to pack up my mom's house. I chose Memorial Day weekend because vacation-day-challenged Mark gets a free day and I am not taking the kids. They don't need to see this. But then I have a way of anticipating that these things are going to be absolutely horrible. I certainly don't think it will be fun, but I'm also learning that a few good things will probably happen along the way (remember, I put my faith in strange places).

Anyway, that weekend is also the day of Halifax's Spring Sprint, which is a run put on by the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada to support brain tumor research. My aunt did one in London (Ontario) yesterday and she found it sad yet comforting, tiring yet exhilarating, and overall, right. She also made over $1500, which isn't too shabby.

So I'm going to do the walk too. I know I'm setting myself for an emotional weekend, but hell, what's new about that? And I'm doing it because Mom was sure that a cure would be found before she died. There's a guy (Dr. Lee) stopping brain cancer in mice right now and Mom said a million times that soon Dr. Lee would be ready for her.

So, you know where this is going, right? If you can spare a bit, I would very much appreciate any donation you'd like to make. No big deal if you don't, but I'd love it if you did.

You Take the Big Guy, I'll Take the Fish

That's a really old Kids in the Hall quote, so I don't expect anyone to get it. I'm not even sure if it's right, actually, but that's what we say around here from time to time. Since this post seems to have an ongoing theme of crazy, I think it works.

Anyway, we had parent-teacher interviews last week with Liam's preschool teachers. Of course everything was glowing, wonderful, amazing. Of course.

Except, let's say, his reluctance to wait his turn to talk. Or to even put up his hand. He is quite good at saying, "Excuse me!" but it is said over and over and over and over and over until you think you might just loose your mind. Come to think of it, his dad also doesn't wait his turn sometimes.

So Ms. Sue had a suggestion: use some item to signify a person's turn to speak. Keep each turn short, of course, since we are talking about a three-year-old here, but no talking is allowed without the item. You can then put up your hand to request a turn. Obviously that seems a bit crazy to do, say, around the house, but we decided it was just a little bit crazy to do it tonight at dinner.

Since we didn't have a conch shell, we used a fish.

A beer opener fish, but a fish none the less. Turns out it was actually fun. Olivia was exempt, although she certainly wanted a turn with the fish, and the rest of us took great pleasure in (silently) catching someone talking out of turn. Its certainly not something I want to do all the time, and I really do want to hear what Liam has to say, but I would also like to get a word in with Mark. If it takes a fish to do it, so be it (as long as it's fun).

Moving on. I do have sad news. A certain husband of mine (he who shall go unnamed) machine washed AND dried Isabella and the Happy Hen Sweater. Although Isabella looks a bit man-handled, the Hen is most definitely a half-size smaller and slightly felted. Even if you are not a knitter, and therefore did not put hours and hours of slightly-crazy-yet-loving care into the items you wear (as SpongeBob's grandmother says, putting "love in every stitch"), I still imagine you'd be pretty pissed if someone carelessly tossed your delicate dry-flats into the drier. So yesterday afternoon said husband was the victim of a rather teary phone call that turned a bit nasty at the end.

After work, my husband showed up with this:

That's a sympathy card there. On the inside it says {snicker, snicker}, "May time soften the pain until all that remains is the beauty of the memories....and the love, always the love."

I've gotten a lot of sympathy cards lately and the shock of this one made me cry, it was so damn funny. The Frappachino and the flowers helped too.

I haven't actually been doing a whole lotta knitting lately because I've been glued to the computer. Or rather, I've been glued to a new knitting site: Ravelry. Karma was sweet enough to send me an invitation and I don't think I've closed my browser window since (ahem...I know I haven't). It's used to catalog all the projects you've done and the patterns you want to do and the needles and yarn you have. You can even see what everyone else has/has done. It was started up by a knitter and her husband and they have been really clever about it. Since I do have a bit of librarian in me (so sad, but I did have my books arranged alphabetically for a while) and a whole lot of accountant, I couldn't wait to get in there and, well, organize myself.

I realize that 90% of you now think I'm crazy (including my husband, who was dumbfounded last year when I found LibraryThing and started schlepping books back and forth from the shelves to the computer). I'm afraid I can't do anything about that. But if you are at all crazy in that way, I encourage you to sign up.

The little knitting I have been doing has been on Rusted Root. You gotta love being able to try on the top-downs. I'm now reasonably sure I'm making the right size. Phew.

We've Committed

We even have a little white coat to show for it.

And matching pants and belt. Later I learned that rolling up the cuffs is frowned upon in the Taekwondo world. Oops. So is washing the belt, apparently.

So, Liam has been formally welcomed into the world of Taekwondo (meaning I finally forked over a credit card). I still had some misgivings, but one of the instructors sat down with me for half an hour and answered every question I had. Question #1: sure you guys talk about integrity and honor and all that, but aren't you really just teaching kids how to hit and kick each other? I think he got the idea that this would not be my first choice of activity for my child.

Turns out that, at this age, Liam will only be taught self-defense, and it should build confidence, dexterity, and flexibility (although he can already bite his own toenails). Sure, I could probably have talked him into something else, but I'm kind of running out of reasons why I should.

Check out his new moves (damn our slow digital camera):

Salutations Spring!

Or is it Salutations for Spring? Or Salutations to Spring? Charlotte isn't very clear about this.

Anyway, Liam and I picked up the Charlotte's Web movie yesterday. I cried again, but not nearly as much as I did at the theater, and Liam was sad too and gave me cuddles when Charlotte dies (that magnum opus part gets me every time). Man I love that story. Hopefully Liam will be up to chapter books soon because I'm aching to start.

We had a beautiful weekend here in Denver. So beautiful that we couldn't help breaking out the BBQ and having dinner outside on the deck, even if it was just hot dogs. Who am I kidding; I love a good hot dog. I also love eating outside on the deck, and now that Olivia doesn't need to be strapped into a high chair to eat, we'll get to do it a lot more this year. No flowers yet (maybe next weekend we'll go to the nursery and transplant the sunflowers), but we did get to see the buds of spring leaves.

So, in the spirit of spring, I thought I'd share our recipe for perfect (we think), oven fries. They are so tasty and easy and satisfy a craving.

All you do is get a bunch of baking potatoes: one per person if they're medium-sized, one for two people if they're huge. Slice each potato in half (don't peel them), then slice each half into three, four, or even five wedges. The thinner the wedges, the more oil will be absorbed and (I think) the better the french fry (and the less healthy the french fry). If you do three wedges, the fries will taste more like a baked potato. Do what you like.

Toss them in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of kosher salt, a clove or two of minced garlic, and, if you are feeling wild and crazy, a pinch or two of cayenne pepper. Seriously toss them together. Then lay them on a baking sheet (I usually spray the pan with Pam first, because you can't be too careful) with a cut side down. In the oven at 400 degrees for about thirty minutes, until they look nice and brown, flipping them once about half-way through. (They're also great with sweet potatoes, although I can't remember if that required more cooking time or less.)

The visit was especially exciting because our friend Eric (of the pictured-above Allison and Eric) has been learning how to knit. More specifically, I've been teaching him how to knit. Well, really specifically, I lent him needles, some kitchen cotton, and my copy of Stitch 'N Bitch (which has such great instructions), got him started and sent him on his way. Everything else he's done by himself. You see, Eric has one of those engineer's brains, and he must understand how pretty much everything in the world works. So, what has he done?

Um, a really big dishcloth. Which he cast on for by himself! And it's done beautifully, with even stitches and a nice little knit/purl stitch pattern that he thunk up. Next up, a diagonal dishcloth of a more appropriate size, then the cat bed from the book. I'm so proud.

And I've been plugging away at Rusted Root. I like this project, really I do, and I think I'll love it when I've done with the sleeves and my stitch count goes down by about a third.