Ok, maybe not every day

If I wrote a new post everyday, you'd stop reading because it would get really dull. You don't want to hear the minute details of stroller fitness from yesterday and today or a word-for-word account of our playgroup. Suffice it to say we had fun at everything (except remembering to wear a sports bra today would have been good).
In this picture you can see all 5 of her teeth.

Car stuff sucks

Suffice it to say, ugh. But, at least we're at home again instead of waiting for a few hours at the dealership. Although, in the shuttle back to our house, M. fell asleep, so it'll be a while before she takes a nap.

There is my promised picture of my dad's sweater progress. It's coming along nicely, but I'll be glad to have it done.
M. loves to not only look at picture books, but flip through my books while talking. It's pretty hilarious. She's doing a lot of talking, most of it we can't understand, but occasionally she'll say a word or two that we understand. However, she doesn't repeat them too often. The other day she was nursing and I thought she was done, so I put her down and she started crying. I told her, "If you aren't done, just say, 'not done.'" So she kind of yelled/cried, "Not do-o-o-o-o-ne." It was pretty funny.Oh, and if anyone is interested, I'm doing a small destash (mostly cotton). It's nice stuff, but cotton and I have issues.

Fat Tuesday Fun

Although I'm not really Catholic, for Lent this year I will be giving up a bit of nap time each day to bring you a new post. It won't be long, just whatever fits in 15 minutes. That way D. can get his daily M. update while he's at work.

I know it's been quite a while since I've written, so let me give you a quick update:

1. M. had surgery on February 12 to clear her blocked tear duct. It went really well and there have been no problems at all since then.
2. I started stroller fitness the week before that. I thought it would be mall speed walking. Um, no. It's a real workout, which I need. Nice people, too.
3. My parents and my sister came to visit last week. We didn't do too much exciting, just hung around playing with M. and organizing the house. It was wonderful to have them all here.
4. There is visible progress on my dad's sweater, I'll post a picture tomorrow.
5. I fixed a couple holes in a 2x2 ribbed hat for my mom. I've never mended my knitting before, so I was rather proud. If the yarn wasn't a slightly brighter red you never would have known there had been an issue. I also fixed a hole in the garter edging of a shawl of mine.

I'll end with a couple pictures of M. enjoying her (and my) books:

Those are the mittens I knit dyeing in Kool-Aid.








Um, and if you tilt your head you can see M. wearing the finished product. Did I show you this already? No matter.







And that is the cowl I made for her to wear with her pink hat. The mitts are Eco-wool on small needles, the cowl is Malabrigo worsted.






The pink felt is the lining to one of the hats. Love that picture.








And here is is wearing the tall Seussian pink hat.








My Knuck.








The orange hat after being lined. Love this picture, too.








Here she is giving kisses from near the Christmas tree. She gives air kisses all the time. She also loves Eskimo kisses; she thinks they are pretty funny.






Here is Mirabelle, I finally finished her to put her under the tree for M. for Christmas. And M. seems to like her, although Mirabelle is a little bit for her to carry her around really easily.






Apparently we are raising a small Mussolini, hopefully without the raging Fascist tendencies. She likes to orate, throwing hands and fists in the air to punctuate the yells. Or, if in her high chair, she'll pound the tray for emphasis.





M. figured out her sippy cup the day after Christmas. She had been working on it a bit, but really got it then and as you can see, she was pretty happy with herself.






Also during the break, M. started giving me toys to hold (D. also, but only one of us at a time). She contemplates which toys to have us hold, will rearrange them on us, step back, take one or all away, put others back or start over. It's like you're an installation piece. Hilarious to watch.

Goodnight, "Goodnight Moon"

This post was originally written 17 December 2008. Look for actual new stuff later this week. Thanks. And pictures, there will be pictures.

Last week, while D. was traveling for work, I realized that M. is now sick of "Goodnight Moon". While getting her ready for bed early in the week she got cranky when I grabbed the book off the shelf; so, I just recited it to her while she nursed. Well, on Thursday, during the diaper change/putting on pajamas part of bedtime, I was telling her that we were going to read a book, and she signed book and seemed really excited... but when I grabbed "Goodnight Moon" off the shelf she got cranky. So, I picked another book and she settled down and we read the new book. HOLY CRAP! I really had no idea that kids would get sick of things like that, let alone that she'd let me know. So, now we are reading an assortment of new books.

In knitting news that isn't (because it's sewing) I made the linings for her hats and sewed them in. I had to re-block the Dwarven Football helmet, because when I blocked it to make a pattern for the liner, I lined up the ear flaps, but that made a strange bump in the front.

In actual knitting news, I finished the first Knuck (except for the weaving in of ends). I really am enjoying making these! I wish I had started making these sooner, they are really great! I love the textured cuff. The only reason I haven't made these before was that I was afraid they'd be too fiddly with all the fingers and worried they wouldn't fit. The part that took the longest was the crab stitch to finish it off. Something about a small hook and dark yarn that got splitty (but wasn't splitty while knitting).

Knitted Christmas Stocking

Last year, before the Bean was born, I decided to make him/her a stocking for Christmas. I was going to design it and it was going to be colorful Fair Isle with a corrugated rib cuff. I got as far as the cuff before I put it down. I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do, so I put it down. When M. came, there wasn't a whole lot of time for silly things like knitting, and since she was going to be not quite a month and a half old at Christmas, I didn't think she'd notice.

Skip forward to this fall. I started thinking about the stocking again. This time, however, I decided to make the Scandinavian Stocking with no variations (other than yarn substitution and color). To do a really nice Fair Isle from scratch would be much easier with some sort of knitting design software, to fool about with the colors. I could knit swatches, yes, but, no, not going to happen.

So, I started knitting and I thought a bit about yarn dominance. What that means is thinking about which color pops in two-color knitting. What you want is for the pattern to show up sharply against the background color, and it's just a matter of which yarn comes from below (since one will when you are knitting with two colors). This site has a great description and even has pictures. Since I hadn't checked out that site for a while, I had gotten which yarn would be dominant mixed up in my head. The great thing is, after only a couple rows I could tell my pattern didn't look great, so I came down to the computer to check, and sure enough, my pattern color was coming over the top of the background color (the wrong way). So, I ripped the couple rounds I did (without taking pictures) and worked them again, and what do you know ... it looks so much better. It was worth a few ripped rows to see the theory in action in my own work.

She still won't have a stocking this year, but I don't think she'll notice.

Checked out the new Knitty and was impressed, there were four patterns that I immediately put in my Ravelry queue. That doesn't even include the sock patterns, which I like, but who are we kidding.

I've finished knitting the Aethelwyne mittens for M., but now I can't find my needles to sew in the ends. Silly, I know, but as soon as I can get them sewn in, I can dye them with the lemon-lime Kool-Aid I bought.

I started a pair of Knucks for myself because as I was sitting at the computer, I realized I was cold, specifically my hands. A picture will come when there is something worth showing. I have finished the fingers and joined them. The next time I make a pair (I am enjoying them) I'm going to do the joining on two circular needles instead of two double points... it's rather akward.

Oh, and here's a fun thing, I won a contest on La's blog and got the prize in the mail on Saturday. What a way to perk up a day! Not only did she send a skein of her Dizzy Blonde yarn, which is deliciously soft and beautiful, but all sorts of other goodies! Yummy lavender rosemary soap, bath fizzies, a Dizzy Blonde tape measure, and a pretty card! And last but not least, a zombie sheep! Not only are the eyes a little odd, but it has a thing in it that is supposed to sound like a sheep "baa-ing" and is really creepy and I LOVE it! M. was a little creeped out at first, but as you can see, she has overcome her aversion to the zombie.
In other M. news, her signing is just improving by leaps and bounds! Just this morning she signed "banana". And she's walking amazingly well, even in the new size 5 (which is a little big) snowboots she has. The cutest thing (ok, they are all the cutest) is that she will give air kisses... making a little fish face and smacking. I melt.

UPDATE: I found my darning needles!

LP Cover Meme

Saw this on Melissa's blog and thought it was too fun to pass up. To make the cover you need photo editing software... Or just list your results. The photo came from ~buzzybee~'s photos on Flicker.

Step 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The name of the article is the name of your band.

Step 2
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the last quote is the name of your album.

Step 3
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third image, from left to right, is your cover art.

Fun, eh? I might decide to have many bands and albums.

Ok, so here's the Ninja Bean:And here is her showing voting pride:
In knitting news, I'm making progress on the Beaded Shawl in the latest Vogue Knitting and on my dad's sweater. No pictures of either because unblocked lace is a mess, and the sweater hasn't changed except there is more of it to see. I also finished a scarf for my mom I started years ago. There was a limited amount of yarn (I dyed it at a fiber fair a couple years ago), so it's a short scarf that you'd wear under a coat. I'm hoping a wash will soften it, otherwise my mom might want to line one side of it, because it's not really soft (and considering she finds cashmere itchy...).