Category Archives: Uncategorized

Red for me, Yellow for Daddy, and Purple for Mommy!

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Davey is very excited this morning.  He wants to go get his beanbag.  He’d talked with Daddy last week about the possibility of getting a beanbag.  This was initially Daddy’s idea.  The plan was that as Davey mastered part of his potty training, we’d get him a beanbag.  Somehow it has transformed into something he is ready to get right now, and now he also wants David and me to get one too.   He’s got our colors all figured out.  I guess we could get rid of the couches and go total beanbag.

We went out to Glenwood yesterday to Mama Pearl’s.  Davey promptly threw up as soon as we arrived, but after that he was fine.  It’s a hilly curvy road to Glenwood, and I always get carsick, so I think that’s what happened to Davey too.  But after that, he had a wonderful time.   We looked for tomato worms in the garden.  Pearl found one.  They are huge!  Davey was pretty fascinated by it.Davey played with Mitzi, (their Schnauzer), he played with a flashlight for a very long time, he watched Daddy and Papa Jerry build the closet, he ate cookies, he played outside, he wore himself out!

I didn’t knit much on my sock yesterday.  I did manage to knock all the stitches off one needle, and I still need to go make sure I picked them all back up and get that going again.  I am still trying to get my other thing done.  As soon as it’s done in the next few days, I look forward to getting back to my socks.  I very much like knitting the other things, but I am rather possessed by socks these days!

Time to go look at beanbags before it gets too hot to move!   Oh and a final picture of Davey having a cookie on the swing with Pearl.  They have the best porches at their house!

Mighty Muggy Monday

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Hard to be alliterative early on a Monday morning.  I started with moist, but I am not crazy about that word for some reason.  I am very happy with Mighty Muggy, because it certainly is.  Took Davey’s diaper outside at about 7:30, and it’s already too warm and humid.  Let’s not even mention how that makes his diaper trashcan smells.

David and I have realized that we are way behind on movies.  If it was made after November 3, 2007 (Davey’s birth day), it is likely that we never heard of it.  So we learned about and watched State of Play last night with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.  Good show!  Thank goodness for Netflix.

Roll in the Hay Sock update:  Cuff of second sock is over halfway done.  It’s going much more quickly this time as I kinda sorta know what I am doing.

Ok, it’s time to get the day rolling!  Davey has been kind of anti-breakfast lately, so it is a challenge to find something to eat.  I think so far he has had part of a hot dog bun.   Going to go see if we can do a little better than that for him!

I need to take some new pictures too.  But gotta have at least one photo, so here’s one I took last week of Davey playing “silly hat”.

Saturday Miscellany

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It’s a hot humid Saturday.  Trying to get Davey to take a nap, but he just started yelling, “Mommy, where are you?”  Not sure this will work out today.  He’s got a bit of a cold.  Seems to not be feeling too bad though.

Working on the 2 inches of ribbing on my 2nd sock.   In the next week I also have to finish the 2nd of two secret projects.  I can’t wait to show pictures of them.  Unless they are complete disasters regarding fit, and in that case, I won’t be mentioning them again.

This week we bought some local produce.  Typically when we buy locally grown things,  we just can’t wait to enjoy the wonderful fresh home grown flavors.  Well, we bought some green beans that we just couldn’t eat.  I cooked them until they were limp, and they were still tough and kind of hairy (fuzzy?).  I guess I need to learn how to pick out green beans.  That’ll be awhile though.  We are kind of scared of them for now.  In this case it was a good thing Davey wouldn’t try one, or he’d have been possibly ruined on them forever.   On the positive side, Davey had a great time helping me to prepare them.

Then the other day we were feeding Koko, Timber and Daisy some of Davey’s leftovers.  It’s not easy to take a picture of them standing together.  Sweet old dogs.

And then, I just love this picture of Davey walking.

And…he’s asleep!  Happy Saturday. 🙂

Sock One Complete!

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I finished my first Roll in the Hay Sock.  Yay!  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  Ideally, I could have probably gone down a  needle size for a slightly snugger fit.  I  have a giant foot too, so a person with a regular size foot would definitely want to gauge and adjust.  (yep, pawning the gauging off to those with little feet!)  Here’s photos:

Now it’s time to knock the second sock out!

Davey is playing and playing and playing and playing and playing with Oma and Opa.  We went to Ouachita this morning and walked around.  He “fished” in the fountain too:

He enjoyed walking with Oma and Opa:

Happy Friday!

Are Oma and Opa here yet?

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Oma and Opa are coming today.  (my parents).  Davey says, “it’s so exciting”.  He keeps asking me when are they coming?  They are just staying one night.  He will not like them to leave tomorrow already, but he will be happy to see them.

Sock number one is almost complete!  I hope to finish it today. First however, I had to take care of the mountain of laundry on the guest bed, as that might have presented a sleeping problem for my parents.  The mountain has been folded and put away.   However,the laundry never quits coming, and it’s just the 3 of us!  David would explain though that we are in Arkansas in the summer where showers and a change of clothes are required 2-3 times daily.

Davey just came up to me very happy to show me that he found a pacifier.  I am trying to keep them away from him except for nap and night time.  He will probably find them in various secret places until he is 5 years old!

I am thinking about this yarn for my Two To Tango socks that I plan to start next week:  http://www.knitpicks.com/cfyarns/yarn_display.cfm?ID=5420134 In “Blue Yonder” and “Springtime”.

Here is what these socks will knit up to look like: (ideally!)

Which reminds me, I never posted an image of what the first socks are going to look like (except in a different color, and maybe not quite as perfectly knitted!)

Ok. the mountain is returning.

Heel Flap, Turn Heel, Shape Gusset

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Moving right along on my sock!  (A Roll in the Hay) Yesterday I knitted the heel flap.  I did a slip stitch heel, and I just thought it looked so nice with this yarn in particular.  Here it is!

Next, I turned the heel:

I am fascinated by the heel of a sock.  You take a tube, add a flap, pick up stitches and make this cool heel.

So now I am working on “Shaping the Gusset”.   If that term doesn’t make a person feel like a “real knitter”, nothing will!

It occurred to me that after I finish this sock, I need to knit the other one.   That’s a problem when I am already looking longingly towards the next pattern.  I don’t suppose that I could work my way through the book, knitting only one sock from each pattern.  What if I promised to come back and knit the second ones later?  I know, bad bad idea.  The second sock should go much more quickly though now that I have figured the pattern out.

And then I will start a pattern called Two To Tango!  It involves a little color work where I will knit little fishies!

It’s pretty cool outside today (relatively speaking).  Davey likes to go downtown and “stroll”.  He gets in his stroller and we wander around town. So I think we are going to go do that now before it gets too warm or the sun comes back out.

Finally, this morning, David and Davey were building.  I was trying to take pictures of them, and Davey kept saying, “Mommy you startled me!” everytime the flash went off.

Davey loved the giraffe they built:

Her Bags are packed…she’s ready to go.

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Frazzled hot sweaty Arkansas Christina is all set to go to London.  I know this is a little weird, but I couldn’t stand to seal her up in a plastic bag for protection.  I had to leave it open at the top which kind of defeats the purpose of protection.  I didn’t much like taping her in the envelope either.  Maybe quite a bit weird.  But Davey and I are getting ready to take her to the post office.

I am through with the leg of my Roll in the Hay Sock and am starting the heel flap!  I made it through the transition row! There was some errata for that row as well that I found on ravelry.  I was able to figure out it though without too much trouble.

I will take pictures of the heel process.  I love making the heel of a sock.  There are several ways to do it, but I only know one. (Although, as I work my way through this book, I have a feeling I will learn others.)  I do a standard heel, and it is just such fun.

Ok, time to go say bon voyage to mini-me.  Oh, I started re-reading A Walk in the Woods last night by Bill Bryson.  I read it probably 10 years ago.  I made the mistake of starting it right before I went to sleep.  David was already asleep.  Bill Bryson makes me laugh so much.  I was trying to not wake David up, so laughter tears were just rolling.  He is magical in his humorous writing.  I love him.  I guess I am stating the obvious when I say that I highly recommend this book.  As an added bonus, I am learning a lot about the Appalachian Trail.

Davey is feeling totally recovered an is back to his normal energetic self.  Yay for that.

Ok, now I am getting the hang of it.

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Ok, the Roll in the Hay socks are progressing nicely.  I have got the hang of the pattern!  Here is what happens to me a lot in knitting.  What at first seems almost impossibly hard to figure out next becomes very simple.   I guess maybe that’s life in general huh!  So I am just going right along on my sock.  Basically it’s a k2 p2 rib with these triangles thrown in for good measure!

Here is something else I am excited about.  Stitch London teamed up with London’s Science Museum  for this Who am I? project.  Crafters are encouraged to knit, crochet or sew a mini version of themselves.  Once complete, I am supposed to send it to London where it will be part of an exhibit in the museum.  You can read more about it at: http://www.stitchldn.com/stitchyourself.html

So,  I finished mine this morning.  It’s time for her grand unveiling.  I have created “Frazzled Hot Sweating Arkansas Summer Christina”.  She is wearing her standard t-shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks.  Hair styling is an impossibility, so she has made an attempt to pull it back into a ponytail.

Now I have to mail her to London.  This makes me kind of sad.  However,  I bet it is lots lots cooler in London and not as humid.  She’ll probably be very happy that I sent her!

Here she is! (please don’t make fun of her funny left arm.  She’s really sensitive about it.)

Friday and my pattern begins to emerge

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We just drove in from Texarkana this morning.  We spent the night there last night with Davey’s Pa.  Davey just loves to play with his Pa, and they had a great time.  We went to Chick Fil-A and played in the play area there.  Later we went to the park, where Davey played with several kids. (They are all friends to him.  There are no children who are strangers to him!)  The highlight (maybe for me the most!) was feeding the ducks.  We fed them an entire loaf of bread.  These ducks were practiced in the art of getting bread.  Many of them could catch every bite you threw to them in mid-air!  We’d look up and see more ducks running to us just as fast as they could waddle.  That was a funny sight!  Davey loved it.

I didn’t knit much on my sock, as I have to concentrate  as I get used to the pattern which is now just beginning to emerge:

I plan to work on it more this afternoon.  Should probably be doing that while Davey is taking his nap.  He fell asleep on the drive home.  Even let me carry him in without really waking up.  I put him on the couch and he is sleeping away.  So much playtime and fun just wore him out!

Davey with his Daddy and Pa.  We were getting ready to leave.  He was pretty tired!

Modified Wheat Pattern

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Modified Wheat Pattern – it’s fun!  The pattern intimidated me a little bit at first.  I have to pay attention, but throughout the row you always settle back to 12 stitches that match up with your k2 p2 rib, so you can always figure out where you are.  There is a chart too, but I am a chart chicken.  I write out my rows on notecards to help me focus on one row at a time.  That helps me immensely.

And bamboo.  I think bamboo is just the coolest.  Literally!  When I pick up a ball of bamboo yarn, it always feels cool to the touch.  It is knitting up so pretty so far, and I don’t have any problems or worries about splitting.

We went walking last night on a trail near our house.  It’s a paved trail in town, but there are sections of it lined with bamboo.  I would love to learn about how it gets from pretty green stalks of bamboo, to the cool yarn with which I knit.

And now a little about Davey.  We got him some new googles to wear to the water park.  He loves them.  The first photo is a little blurry, but I wanted to show how he always wants to hold his mouth as he gets used to his new goggles.  I included a profile pic as well!