Kiss My Knits!

I dreamt last night that while my husband was off camping, my father-in-law hired a deprogrammer to come in and convince me to be less liberal.

Very strange.

Let me say up front that just for this post, I figured out how to make thumbnails linking to larger pics, because these pics are not for those with germ or dirt phobias!
Pictures clean enough to eat off of below the cut.

Bunny!

Pattern: “Lovable Toys” rabbit on page 104 of Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
Materials: Blue Sky Alpaca Sport held doubled for body, Valeria di Roma angora held double for inside of ears, polyfiberfill for stuffing, cotton embroidery floss for face.
Needles: 2 #6 circs

The bunny has reached its new owner, the lovely little girl in ‘s home, so now I can post it.

In spite of the name “Last Minute Knitted Gifts” this was not done last-minute. In the book, it’s under the “six to eight hour” category, along with a full-sized silk camisole and a cabled purse. I don’t know what kind of happy pills the designer takes to be able to knock these projects out “last minute.” This was, however, a good stashbuster since I already had the angora and a ball of the alpaca in my stash. I would have sworn I had two balls of alpaca, but I did have to snag another one at Charlotte Yarn when I was just at the neck.

I lengthened the legs and body a little, but really it’s pretty much according to pattern. I started out with very nice mattress seaming, then suddenly realized that half the niftiness of having a hand-knitted gift is that you can tell it’s hand-knitted. After that, I was a little more casual with the finishing.

This was the first time I’ve really embroidered, and it was fun. Fun enough, in fact, that I think I’m going to incorporate more embroidery in my work when possible. Special bonus: my mom is good with embroidery, so there’s my reference source.

This was an enjoyable project, even if there was a larger amount of finishing than I’m used to. All those bits had to be sewn together. The finished project was worth it, though, I think. I’m given to understand that the recipient is happily chewing on the ears. Mmmm! Angoriffic!


Bon apetit, Calla!

I e-mailed another mother to find out if she had gone to the Brownie meeting last night, and if so, whether it had actually taken place. She said she had assumed it wasn’t, so she didn’t go. She mentioned that she knew someone involved with scouting who said we should definitely report it, but said that she didn’t want to get the leader in trouble.

I responded that I sympathized, but I needed to worry about my child more than I needed to worry about the leader. She said, “I agree 100%, for the last 3 weeks I have had to console a crying daughter because the meetings have not taken place.”

Crying child? Mother instincts activated! My call’s already been placed to Scout HQ.

Last night, Emily was a little sniffly. She had some trouble sleeping last night, and even overslept this morning. Since she normally has to restrain herself from getting us up at 5am, that’s a big deal.

She says she’s too sick to go to school, and that her throat hurts. The thermometer doesn’t detect a fever, but my patented MomHands ™ say she may have a slight one. When told that staying home from school meant she’d have to stay home from occupational therapy, which she loves, she protested at first. When told it was an all or none proposition, she actually said she’d stay home from both, although she was sad about it.

She has a best friend at school named Tania. Best line of the morning: “Tania will miss me at school.”

It was a close call, but she’s staying home. Right now she’s lying on the couch under a blanket watching her current favorite video, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Thanks for recording this for us, Dad, it’s been a huge hit. It’s nice for her to have something comforting, since I think the photo to the left best illustrates just how Emily’s last couple of days have gone.

Good thing she got that perfect attendance ribbon yesterday at school, because she wouldn’t be getting it if the writing celebration really were next week.


Orders for: CA, CA, and CA.

While getting ready for bed tonight:

Emily: “Mommy, why didn’t you come to lunch today?”

I flash on that note that came home yesterday saying that there was a writing celebration on Wednesday, where the kids can have lunch with their parents and then go back to the classroom to show what they’ve written. Since the note said it was a Thanksgiving celebration, I had mentally filed it away as being NEXT Wednesday. Of course, now I realize it couldn’t be, since there is no school next Wednesday.

Me: “I didn’t know that was today, sweetie. I’m sorry.”

Emily: “Some of the other mommies came.”

Me: “I know. I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t realize. Would you like me to come and have lunch with you some other day?”

Emily: “Yes.”

Me: “Okay, sweetie, I’ll definitely do that.”

What was that I said about other people letting my baby down? Ugh.

On the up side, it’s pretty remarkable that she was able to express a sentiment like “some of the other mommies came.” And we spent a LOT of time together this afternoon, just hanging out by the swing out back, then later, playing like crazy.

Yeah, I still feel like crap.

My daughter’s troop has had exactly one girl scout meeting. The next two meetings were cancelled. One was the morning of the meeting for no reason I ever heard, and the second that evening when we showed up and saw a sign on the door saying that the leader had strep. I and a couple of other mothers left e-mails and called her at work and on her cell (she did give us those numbers) to see if there was a meeting tonight. No response on any front. I decided that based on history, there probably wouldn’t be a meeting, so I didn’t go. I didn’t think Emily would mind.

Wrong. I told her earlier that I didn’t think there was a meeting tonight because the leader might still be sick (which I am assuming is the case) and she wasn’t thrilled, but she accepted it. Fast forward to 6pm, when she asks again about Girl Scouts and really, really wants to go. The meeting starts at 6 and is a good 10 minutes away in rush hour traffic. Grr. So we had our own little Girl Scout meeting at home, with a song and a snack and such.

I’m really losing confidence in this woman. I get that things happen, and being sick is out of her control, but there are eight to fifteen little girls and their families relying on her, and the communication is not what it should be.

The parents of these girls have a fair amount invested here. My mother and I have spent money and time on materials, and I spent an entire Saturday taking training on Girl Scouts and the Brownie age level. Some of the mothers, myself included, have offered to help. The leader needs to either take that help, get it together, or drop out.

I’m sure the frustration will pass and I’ll feel more charitable again later. I just get angry when other people let my daughter down.

Monitoring treasure distribution in Dragonrealms, I see a player find a goblet of Dalesian white wine on a low-level creature.

[Tvini] How did an entire goblet of Dalesian white wine survive a battle intact to be found full on the ground?
[Arnimas] Those Dalesians are reknowned for their durable glass-blowing methods?
[Adera] The critter used to be a waiter?
[Tvini] Hee! Both good answers.

Personally, I like the idea that our goblins moonlight as busboys at the Viper’s Nest Bar. Great visual image.

Off to get the kiddo from school.

I got a call back from my local yarn store, Charlotte Yarn, who had placed the order for the orange cones for me. Apparently there was a mixup with the order. When I ordered the orange, the store ordered the orange with the mill, and they have a written record of that, but the mill wrote down yellow. So when I got two big cones of yellow a couple of weeks ago, I assumed that since it was my correct yellow shade, it was from an earlier order, and the orange would still be forthcoming.

Wrong! The mill shipped the incorrect color, and – here’s the kicker – they won’t be spinning more of the orange for three months. Cue anguished screaming here.

Well, God bless Remy at Charlotte Yarn, after we talked about how I had 25 orders in line and the four skeins I was picking up in Davidson was just not going to cut it, she got back on the horn to the mill. They’re shipping 16 skeins and pricing them at the same level as they would for a mondo cone. Yay!

A terrible misunderstanding, but thanks to Remy’s persistence and the mill’s willingness to fix their mistake, things are back on track. I’d still rather have the cones, but under the circumstances, I’m happy with the resolution. I went from “crap, I’m going to have to start turning orders away, and doing a lot of legwork to fill the ones I’ve got” to “yay! Jayne hats for everyone!” in the space of about a half hour this morning.

Unfortunately, this all happened at the same time as a meeting with a potential new speech therapist for my daughter, and it drove thoughts of that meeting right out of my head. I’ve left a very apologetic message for the lady. I have a feeling I’m going to be on my cell phone a lot today.

But you know what? I like crisis mode. I really function well with the extra adrenalin. I miss that about TV. I don’t like drama in my personal life, but a little crisis now and then keeps the old blood pumping.

And NOW it’s time to head up to Davidson!

This morning I logged into Dragonrealms to document a new kind of flower that had been added, and got to poking around Theren. I hadn’t been to Gealeranendae College before, so I hadn’t seen the blackboard with the notes on how to create a gerbil launcher. I love finding those little touches that you really have to look for.

On the Jayne hat front, I would have sworn that I had two more large cones of orange yarn, but I do not. I’ve put a call in to my supplier to find out when my next order will arrive. It’s always tough to tell, since basically I have to wait for the mill to spin more of that color, and they only do that every six weeks or so. I have enough to fill my kit orders, but nonetheless, I’m probably going to be trekking up to Davidson to snag a couple of individual skeins as a safety net. It’s not an issue with finished hats right now, since I’ve got a few non-Jayne hat orders currently at #1 in the queue.

When I started this, I never thought I’d be in a position where I’d get nervous if I was down to less than a thousand yards of any given color left, but by my rough estimate I’ve used about 70,000 yards of yarn on the Jaynes, or about 40 miles if you want to think about it that way. Atsa lotta naked sheep.

I’m off to eat breakfast and hit the road!