Thematic madness

I saw on Facebook this morning that The Very Hungry Caterpillar turns 45 years old today. Once I tell Genevieve, she will insist that the Caterpillar needs a cake, to blow out candles, and sing "Happy Birthday" because now she gets the Birthday Protocol. (That is also in order of importance to her, by the way. Cake, candles, sing.)

KidBrotherSam and I both loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar as kids (and The Very Busy Spider, as well, for the record).

[Fun fact: for YEARS, KidBrotherSam would say "ca-li-pitter". SO CUTE.]

One of my favorite things about being a parent is sharing things that I loved as a kid with Genevieve. Specifically, books. I come from a family of "readers"- we had bought a library of books for Genevieve before we had clothes, diapers, or furniture. Reading is, obviously, a priority for us.

Ever since Genevieve has become independently mobile, we have had a rule: if someone is reading to you, you need to sit on their lap. (Or snuggle up next to them.) This works on a number of levels: we get the (increasingly rare) snuggle time, and she learns to sit and focus on one thing at a time. Also, snuggles.

[We have her give us kisses before reading a story, as a sort of payment. With toddlers, it's important to get payment up front. Toddlers have terrible credit.]

We are mostly moved out of board books, which makes me both sad and glad; sad that she's not a little baby anymore, glad because I don't find myself saying things like "Books are for reading. Let's get you a chewie for your teeth."

(Seriously. Our copy of "But Not the Hippopotamus" is so chewed that THERE IS NO ARMADILLO.)

And I, like one Mouse who is Given a Cookie, can not resist the logical progression of thematic madness. So, here we go:

If you read a DangerMouse "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", you might find Cascade Greenland on sale, in a nice, leafy green.

Once you have nice, leafy green yarn, you will find the pattern for a sweater with a leafy buttonband.

Cascade, by Raya Budrevich

Once you knit the sweater with the leafy buttonband, you'll block the sweater.

Because blocking is important.

Once you block the sweater, you'll need matching grosgrain ribbon to back it with.

From TheRibbonSupply on Etsy

Once you have applied the grosgrain ribbon, you'll need thematic buttons to match.

I know that he didn't eat grapes.

Once you find those buttons, you'll have an AMAZINGLY talented listener make you special buttons which blow the other ones out of the water, so you'll put those on instead.

Yes, they were a gift. No, she won't make more. (I asked, sorry.)

Once you apply the Special Buttons, you wait for the weather to accommodate the wearing of a sweater, and then stealthily snap a couple of pictures of a DangerMouse in her Hungry Caterpillar sweater.

The holes are great for counting. And sticking fingers in.

And it's not a picture, if you don't Gopher Grin.

And if you knit a Very Hungry Caterpillar sweater...

...You might need to knit an "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" sweater.

All hail

Last month, my sister-in-law asked me if I would take LittleJ's prom pictures. She told me the dates and times, and I agreed, because - why not? I have a camera, and enough knowledge to be dangerous.

So Saturday, I packed up my gear, got some inspiration from Pinterest, and headed over. I started taking pictures, and between the hair, the makeup, and LittleJ's natural beauty, all I could see is a 1940's Hollywood ingenue.

[Aside: I should really start calling her Not-So-Little-J, since she towers a head and a neck above me these days.]

It was a beautiful day, and it was a joy to capture all those small details and moments that really reflect how much LittleJ and RockinJ love each other. 

There really is nothing like young love.

The Rose Garden

The last part of the photo shoot was at the Rose Garden, which I - embarrassingly -  had never been to. There were *hundreds* of people there, using it as a beautiful and iconic backdrop for their photos. Fortunately, we were able to find a slightly less packed part for a few shots.

 

Inspiration from an iconic shot

All hail!

The icing on the cake? They were voted prom king and queen.

Tour de Bebé Sweater

Everyone is excited about the Tour de Fleece around here.

Even T.K. Is getting in the spirit.

Once I hit my goal of finishing the singles for my SPAKAL sweater, I desperately needed to spin something with COLOR. I knew that I wanted to spin for a sweater for Genevieve, but the rest of the details were a bit hazy.

I dug around in my stash for a bit and found a couple of bumps of fiber that I picked up at the CogKNITive Fiber retreat.

FreckleFace Fibers BFL "Enchanted"

I knew that 4.2 ounces wouldn't be enough, so I dug a little more and found a coordinating bump of fiber:

FreckleFace Fibers BFL "Midnight Moon"

But it still wasn't juuuuuust right, so I fished a little deeper and came up with a third bump, which I think will tie it all together nicely.

Abstract Fiber BFL "Maleficent"

Spinning BFL is wonderful; it's a longish fiber that is both silky and soft, and the SMELL. Mmmmm! It's the browned butter of the fiber world.

I've been making amazing progress - it practically spins itself! I can't wait to get it all plied up and start a (not-so) tiny sweater for my DangerMouse.

Spinning wheel goes VROOM!

My peleton awaits.

Tour de SPAKAL

On the podcast, we are doing a SPAKAL (pronounced like spackle)- a SPin-A-Long-Knit-A-Long . I declared that we would ALL be spinning for a sweater between March and September.

Rambouillet X from a ram named "Carbon"

Spinning for a sweater isn't something unusual for me- I usually spin for 2 or 3 sweaters every year. You know, that I actually knit. (Andrew: this has ZERO bearing on how many fleeces I buy - or should be buying - every year.)

Awwww yeeeeeeah.

A lot of the podcast listeners have asked questions about spinning for sweaters. My mother is a big proponent of learning through doing. We were all going to do this project together, and learn from it, and we would like it if it KILLS US. (Or something like that.)

24 oz of singles

My initial Tour de Fleece goal was to spin the last half of my singles- 12 oz. I hadn't had a chance to spin much before and I really, truly thought that spinning 12 oz would be a stretch.

I knocked that goal out of the park. Currently, those lovely singles are waiting to be swatched.

Next stop: plying. Those singles all have lofty goals, the main one being to grow up into this sweater.

Eadon by Susanna IC

Vive le Tour!

A matched set

This last Saturday was all about Big and Little. (Which totally reminds me of Grover Monster's Near and Far bit.)

I'll admit it. I am a HUGE fan of matching stuff. When KidBrother Sam and I were little, Mom used to make us matching outfits. If Mom sewed me a dress, she sewed a matching one for my stuffed pig, Perfect. I LOVED it.

So, I'm knitting a few matching mother-daughter sweaters for Genevieve and me, starting with the Garter Yoke Cardigan, out of my handspun:

Also, matching dimples.

I loved knitting these sweaters. I think I might make matching ones in another color, once she outgrows this one. (That should be in about 12 minutes, for the record.) The thing I may love best (about the sweaters) is that my buttons are the same as the ones on Genevieve's sweater- except that mine are a little bigger.

TOES!!!

You may have noticed that she's wearing a hook bracelet. In Andrew's family, there is a tradition that when you go to St. Croix (and everyone does, eventually), you get a hook bracelet. Hook bracelets are worn at all significant family functions.

You can imagine how charmed and delighted I was when we opened a gift from Andrew's Uncle Ted (and family), and it was the tiniest hook bracelet you've ever seen. Given how big Andrew's hook bracelet is, I found it even more adorable, and an incredibly thoughtful gift.

The Biggest and Littlest

When I was taking these pictures, I also noticed that Genevieve's outfit has a crab on the butt, and Andrew is wearing one of his Portland, ME lobster shirts. Total coincidence.

(Yes, I know that crabs and lobsters are totally different, but you see how they're *kind of* the same, too, right?)

Peas in a pod.

Down to our accessories, we're a matched set.

Oatmeal and butter

This weekend was challenging, and I am the only one to blame for it. Before I get into the challenging bit, here's something that is going really well:

Oatmeal CVM from Patti Sexton, Monterey Wool Auction 2010

Plying! I spun 9 oz of CVM singles on a borrowed Hansen Minispinner while I was expecting  DangerMouse. Since I'm getting ready to start my SPAKAL spinning, I thought I should ply the TWO sweaters worth of singles I have resting on the plastic weaving bobbins. (This is, for the record, the only issue with using the plastic weaving bobbins for storing singles.)

I spun this woolen, because the staple length is on the shorter side, and if I thought I loved spinning it, it wasn't as much as I'm loving plying it. I just need to set it and pick which Hannah Fettig sweater I'm knitting out of it. Plying this makes me feel really accomplished and incredibly talented.

It also makes DangerMouse sleeeeeeepy.

(This is important to point out. I'm not just being a bragger-sandwich.)

I spent Saturday in the kitchen. Between baking sugar cookies for Easter dinner with my in-laws and doing prep for Easter brunch (at our house), my kitchen was a'bustlin' with activity. I really, really missed cooking and baking and it's so satisfying to be able to get back to it.

I pulled out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and looked at the recipe for sugar cookies. We were looking to make cookies that look like these:

Image stolen from justcrumbs. But seriously, go check out her etsy shop.

So. Sugar cookies. I looked at the recipe, and the recipe says it will make 3 dozen 2" round cookies. My cookie cutter was a 3" egg, and my brain mangled the math. I read "3 dozen 1" round cookies".

So I quadrupled the recipe. QUADUPLED.

"This is SUCH a good idea!" I kept saying, "I'm so excited to be baking! And they're going to be SO CUTE."

That meant using 10 sticks of butter. Somehow, this made PERFECT SENSE to me. I went along, cheerfully mixing, rolling out, and refrigerating the dough. Then it was time to cut out the cookies and bake them.

I made use of Andrew and his excellent spatial skills, so he did the cutting out, and I fired up my oven to the "convection" setting. (Three sheets of cookies baking evenly, simultaneously. It makes my heart skip a beat. But that might be the butter talking.)

After AN HOUR of cutting out cookies, Andrew asks how many more we're planning to do. It was at this point that I realize, we will have OVER ONE HUNDRED 3" eggs. That we're going to decorate.

Andrew may have voiced some concern about halfway through, to which I kept insisting, "This is STILL a good idea."

After the cookies were all baked (minus the scraps, which Mom rolled and froze for later use), I looked at the stack and nearly wept at the idea of having to ice and decorate all. These. Cookies.

This is only some of them.

Andrew had the great idea to only decorate the 48 cookies we were planning to take to Easter dinner, and it was an INSPIRED idea. We set up an assembly line, and iced, ear-ed, eye-d, and tail-ed the cookies.

I felt really stupid pretty, and to be totally honest, I was pretty hard on myself. Straight-up abusive. To his credit, Andrew insisted that it was STILL a good idea, the cookies were delicious, and hey! When have we ever had a hard time finding people interested in eating my baking?

Lesson learned? If you're tired and having a "pretty" day, have someone ELSE check your math.

Unless, of course, you have neighbors like ours, who told me that they would *cheerfully* take one for the team and help us out with the extras. It's definitely a tasty, tasty way to get closer to your neighbors.

AlaKAZAM!

There has been lots of baby talk on here as of late. I'm still amazed at how much time and attention tiny people (who seem to spend most of their time sleeping) require. Lest you fear that I have forsaken my love of All Things Fiber-y, I offer you a little proof that I have not.

Skeptical Houdini Socks for Andrew

I decided to try knitting a pair of Houdini socks for Andrew- mostly because they're really, really satisfying to knit - and partly because I know he likes his socks snug, and these totally fit the bill. He was skeptical that he would like the fit of any socks that weren't ribbed from cuff to toe (the one problem with having a man who knows his knitting), but I assured him that he would love the fit of these.

I can't explain *why* these fit better than a sock with (for example) a short-rowed heel, but they do. Someday, over a mug of coffee, I will ask Cat to explain it to me, and I will finally see the light. (I promise to tell you what the secret is, as soon as I know.)

These are further than they appear in the photo (first sock is DONE!), and I had Andrew try it on. I have a feeling that one Tall and Handsome Man will be having a serving of Crow with a side of Humble Pie shortly.


There are so many things I love about these socks; especially the yarn. Oh Regia, yarn of my heart. What I may love most is the bold 10-year warrantee on the label. Way to throw down the gauntlet, Regia.

The most appealing part of these socks might be the complete lack of a wretched heel flap. It seems to take me a year to knit a 2 1/2" square of fabric, but 12 inches of stockinette tube and seven inches of ribbing? I can knit *that* in ten minutes. (Not really ten minutes. Allow me some hyberbolic license here.)

I am enjoying the knitting on these socks so much that I'm actually *excited* about knitting a fresh drawer of socks for Andrew.

Somehow a drawer full of socks seems less daunting than finishing the sleeves on the sweater. It's all about perspective these days.

Forty-two Squares

I've been spending a lot of my time taking pictures of Genevieve. About a month ago, I took pictures of her on the Love Blanket _TM that a few of our podcast listeners made for her.
 

Diaper cover by Zookies.com. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

I know that a month is FOREVER in baby time (Genevieve has filled out considerably since this shoot), but these are some of my favorite pictures of her. Every time we use this blanket, I think of all the well-wishes, anticipation, and love that was knit into it.

I love her duckling hairdo.

It's the perfect size for snuggling under on the couch or the glider, and because it's superwash wool, I don't have to worry about handwashing it. You know, because Things happen. And knitters plan for these sorts of Things.

The square her feet are on is a square with BABY FOOTPRINTS!

It has directionality, and because I'm me, I insist that we show off the pretty side, and right side up. (There's even a Star Trek square. This is how well our listeners know us.)

DangerMouse: 1 month, 8 days old

It's so cheerful, that it brightens up whichever room we're using it in. (Usually the living room.) Until the past couple of days, it hasn't really been cold enough to take it out of the house and show it off. Given that the high the last couple of days has been in the low 50's, that is changing. Oh boy, is it changing.

Both the blanket and the baby are super-snuggly.

Despite the fact that I only managed to finish a hat for her before she was born, Genevieve has made off with a HUGE haul of knitterly loot. Every time she wears a hat or sweater that one of her knitting aunties has made for her, I make sure to tell her how well-loved she is, and how excited we all were to have her join us.

This goes even more so for the Love Blanket _TM. I tell her that people who *have never met her* were SO excited that she was going to be born that they surprised us with a blanket - just for her. Thankfully for me, Genevieve is good about sharing it.

 For now.

Dessert first

When last I left you, amazing readers, you were staring at a pot of poison green, turned emerald green wool.

Apple Green Malabrigo, mmmmm!

Apple Green + Blue dye = Emerald green

Remember? Good.

I refused to be deterred by a little thing like the color not being exactly right, and instead took Judith MacKenzie's advice on overdyeing, which is to keep dyeing until you get a color you like. This is what I ended up with:

Yes, they are drying in the back of my car.

Much better. Since the skeins were still damp when we started our adventures yesterday, I set up them up to dry and utilized the back of my hatchback in a way I'm *relatively* certain the manufacturers didn't intend. Added bonus: my car smelled delightfully like wool all day.

Our adventures ended up at Purlescence, where many of our adventures end, and after socializing for a bit, one of the skeins was dry enough to wind and cast on:

This is the most color accurate photo of the yarn. Coastal Knits in the background.

It's not navy, but I LOVE it. I got my sweater started, and I'm not *quite* at the "coasting" portion (get it? COASTING!!!!) of the sweater, but I am enjoying knitting it more than it should really be legal to enjoy knitting anything.

Especially since there are three sweaters waiting in limbo for finishing touches on my dining room table. There's nothing like having dessert first.

Beauty is pain

One of my mother's favorite sayings is "Kill me, but make me beautiful". It's a cultural saying, but in an age of waxing, threading, and other painful beauty trends, it has never been more relevant.

My Sothia, fini.

That's how I feel about knitting ruffles. I love how they look. I love wearing them. I love adding a little extra bounce to my step to make them swing when I walk. I also find them utterly painful to knit.

Not literally, of course. It's not like faggoting, which is the natural enemy of my carpal tunnels. It's just... a lot of knitting. Which is a silly, because I'm usually itching to knit something else. Which is technically, THE SAME KNITTING.

But then you look at the ruffle-in-progress, how far you have to go, and if you're me, you feel like Brent Spiner in Independence Day. You might also have done a dramatic re-enactment for your family, shaking the shawl in front of you and rasping out, "Kiiiiiiiiiiiiill meeeeeeeeeee" in the creepiest voice you can muster. So creepy that both dogs decide it's time to leave the room.

So you knit and knit and knit. Then you knit some more. You decide that you will NEVER knit another ruffle EVER again so long as you LIVE.

You knit a baby hat and a baby sweater in the meantime, because sometimes you just need a relationship break from a project, you know? It's me, not you, Sothia. But since it was LOVE with Sothia, once you finished your dalliance with a baby hat and sweater, you come back, refreshed and ready to commit.

And you will commit, wholeheartedly. After what seems like an eternity, you begin the bind-off. You stay up really, really late because all you want in the world is the satisfaction of finishing this project. And also, Kit Kats.

I can feel your ruffle envy.

You double your yarn for the bind-off, because you LOVE how substantial it feels, and then spend the remaining 60% of the bind-off wondering if you have enough yarn to finish. You then decide if you run out of yarn, you're abandoning this project forever. Thankfully, you have enough (and a little leftover, even!) and that particular set of events doesn't transpire.

You go to bed, and the next day, you realize that you have a GORGEOUS shawl. You consider turning up the air conditioning so you can wear it around the house, but instead decide to weave in ends and take pictures of your beauteous shawl.

In my mind, this wrap will make me six feet tall. It's the "V".

You look at the colors, the beautiful ruffle, you feel that rush of accomplishment and pride at a job well done, and you say to yourself, "This wasn't so bad. It was really fun to knit."


"...Maybe I'll knit another one."

Heart, spine, and lenses

This week, we had the Money Shot ultrasound. You know, the one where you get to see The Junk.

I'm not going to lie. I had some high expectations for this appointment. First, Andrew and I had placed a friendly wager on which sex the baby would end up being (I won, for the record). Second, this time we were promised something that looked less like a legume and more like ... something you'd put in a onesie.

(Let's be real for a moment, not even the VeggieTales had a legume. Legumes are hard to love.)

The ultrasound tech was really nice; she made sure that I was able to maintain some of my modesty, and in a moment that was *truly* worthy of an adult film, with no warning, she squirted me with warm ultrasound jelly.

"It's warm!" she exclaimed, very pleased that she didn't shock me with cold, unexpected ultrasound jelly.

I laughed my crazy nervous laugh, gave Andrew a sideways look and said, "Yes, yes it is."

So. Back to the magic.

She starts the ultrasound, and it was a lot like watching a post-modern French film. And you don't speak French because your mother told you that living in California, you'd use Spanish more. Ahem.

The tech was friendly, and was walking us through the ultrasound, pointing out things as if we could clearly discern them. Andrew, his usual helpful self, was making noises like he could actually interpret was was really just a Rorschach to me. I *might* have called him out on this. Perhaps in front of the tech.

At one point, there was clearly a foot and a leg, and I felt like a Rhodes scholar being able to point at it and I say, "I know what that is!" Truly, it's the small victories.

Towards the middle, she asks if we want to know the sex, to which we said, "Yes, please!"

She does a quick screen capture, types "girl", and there it is. Our SharkBean is a girl. Check her out:

Not a shark. Probably.

"How can you tell?" I asked, because really and truly, I couldn't. So she shows us a shot which is the equivalent of SharkBean sitting on a photocopier, commando, at an office holiday party. Which I most certainly hope she does not do. EVER.

(For those of you who were hoping to see some cute baby butt cheeks, Andrew and I had a LONG discussion about invading SharkBean's privacy and posting pictures of her junk- or lack thereof- on the internet. I was rooting for y'all.)

What surprised me the most is how truly awesome ultrasounds are- SharkBean's little bones glowed on the GIANT monitor, showing us that they're all growing the way they should, and also, that she has a big head already (whimper) and the long Lockwood legs (woo!). We saw a healthy little heart, a developing brain, and eyes complete with lenses.

The pièce de résistance was towards the end of the ultrasound, where SharkBean was kicking away, and moving like crazy. Andrew looked at her hands and their movements, and I KID YOU NOT, said, "It looks like she's knitting."