Silicon Granola

Last Weekend Sucked!

2007-08-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was pretty awful. Most of the weekend was spent nervously watching the path of Hurricane Dean as it threatened DH's mother and extended family in Jamaica. Fortunately Dean ended up taking a path which left the damage to Jamaica much less then originally predicted but still not good. My MIL ended up loosing a bit of the roof and will most likely be without power until this weekend at best case. This will make life very interesting since DH, the Fussopotamus, my parents and I are all going to show up there on Saturday for our much anticipated first visit of the Fussopotamus to his father's home country.

Somewhere between the Hurricane tracking we also made a run to urgent care on Saturday because DH had a fever of 103.9!!! He had been really sick since Thursday and it became apparent on Saturday that it was serious that we should see someone about it. He got some antibiotics and is now feeling much better but still sick. As he say, "It's now just a normal sick, not an I'm dying sick."

The weekend drove me into a spate of selfish knitting and subsistence on chocolate. I put aside the pullover I was working on for the Fussopotamus [It looks to be on the big side anyway, I was aiming for fitting him this winter but it looks more like a couple winters from now...] and banged out a Luxe neck warmer and have now started on a shrug.

Ravelry Rocks!!!

2007-08-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

I got my Ravelry invite! Actually it turns out that I got an invite in June but the Hotmail spam filter ate it. Booo Hotmail. Fortunately I have been able to convince myself that taking today to inventory of my stash, current projects and knitting books is in line with my house cleaning goals.

2007-08-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

I tackled the kitchen today. I started by taking everything out of all the drawers, shelves and cabinets and putting it on the living room floor.

I then steeled my self for the effort with a really big cup of coffee.

The whole effort was a pretty big success. I managed to clear off a whole book case, liberate a drawer, several shelves and the stupid lazy Susan....I hate that shelf I found a candy bar in there from the last owners of the house! I don't know if I ever want to put anything back in there.

I organized the dry food as well and cleaned out the fridge but still need to do the freezer. When my husband came home and looked he said, "Wow, I forgot that the shelves in there are clear not frosted!" Ew.

Extremely Overdue Home Makeover

2007-07-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

I am a women with a mission. My house needs a lot of attention. It doesn't need any walls knocked down or other serious renovations, it just needs a hell of a lot of organization and baby proofing. I have dreams of purging a lot of the extra junk out of the house. I have around two and a half weeks before the big family vacation and then I go back to work. It's now or never. Here is the list of what I need to do.

A playroom for the Fussopotamus.
Reorganize the kitchen and baby proof it.
Baby proof the living room and bedroom
The basement...

First on the list is a place for the Fussopotamus to play. He is getting increasingly more mobile. He sits himself up, he crawls [thankfully still slowly] and he even has started pulling up to a stand. Technically he has a room but he has never used it because he sleeps with us. I never really went through the nesting urge during pregnancy. I don't know if this was because the Fussopotamus arrived at 38 weeks or if it is just because of my innate laziness. Over the months the FoP's room turned in a collection point for baby related things that we aren't using. Here is the before picture.

Here is the room after cleaning. I still need to get rid of those white cube things and I think we may need more toy and book storage. This was just a first pass. Next I would like to add a little decoration and fun to the room.

Sick Day

2007-07-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sick. Today is my first real day off since I became a mother. Don't get me wrong I have been sick before but I have never had a day where I could just rest. The fussopotamus started daycare last week and is adjusting really well. I'm not scheduled to go back to my full time job until September. I am still volunteering at MadCAP but since I am not getting paid and I really don't want any of the kids there to get sick 3 or so days before they perform I decided to stay home.
It feels really weird not to be doing anything. I have to stifle the urge to do work around the house because after all the whole point of me staying home is that I should rest and I really need it. I hate being sick.

Just in time for the 4th, a long sleeve sweater!?

2007-07-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Top Down Raglan Cardi
Yarn: Almost 5 skeins of Cascade Sierra 48 spring green.
Needles: Clover #7 24" circular and double points.
Comments: Hooray it's finally finished! Well mostly I should block it and it still needs buttons. I'm pretty pleased with it. It fits well, although it is a tad small because I am still suffering from delusions that I am going to loose more of this baby weight. This is the first sweater I have knitting for myself that I will wear. I even wore it already to watch the fireworks on the 4th.

No the sweater isn't finished but...

2007-06-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

I'm still knitting the sleeve of that cardigan. No I haven't been knitting more washrags, but I did cast on a baby sweater the other day because the cardigan is too big to travel well. Really what has been taking up my time is MadCAP! I am choreographing Magical Land of Oz and Charleston for them right now. Check out the performance blog here:

MadCAP Performance blog

Classy

2007-06-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

I was driving along yesterday and saw a car sporting a "support lap dancing" ribbon bumper sticker. Now that's classy.

Getting Scrapy

2007-06-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I got a little time to sneak off and do some scrapbooking. Hooray! So I started a book to house some of my favorite outdoor memories from this summer. We went camping the weekend before last and it was the FoP's first trip. He really loved it even with the rain and the cold! We are going again this weekend.

Please don't ask me...

2007-06-03T08:44:00.001-07:00

As a new mother there are some questions I am starting to get really sick of being asked. I know they are asked with all the best intentions but after hearing them over and over I just want to scream!

"Is he sleeping through the night?" From day one people start asking this and I'm not sure why since I'm pretty sure newborns aren't meant to sleep through the night. What gets me about this question now is that if I answer honestly then it usually leads to question 2. For the record he is not sleeping through the night, not even close, and nearly 6 months of interrupted sleep is taking it's toll but we have not reached a point of desperation that would require us to rethink our parenting style and we are already employing all the methods that we are comfortable with.
"Have you read/seen Mr/Ms/Dr XYZ's advice on how to raise the perfect child?" The answer to this question is YES. I have looked at the happiest baby on the block, the Baby Whisper, Dr Sears, Mothering magazine, What to Expect from blah, Parenting and on and on. If I hear about that damn women who was on Oprah again I am going to explode. My child must have missed the memo because although he makes a lot of interesting noises and I am beginning to understand what they mean they are not in fact the noises that the women mentions. The fact is there is a lot of good advice out there but no panacea.
"What's wrong with him?" Nothing is WRONG with him, he is a baby. He may currently be one or more of the following, hungry, sleepy, wet, hot, cold, bored, teething or he may just feel like screaming his head off right now and rest assured we are working on it. Thank you for your concern next time could you please phrase it in a less accusatory fashion? Perhaps one that does not imply there is something WRONG with either my child or me?

Thanks I just need to get that off my chest.

An Unwise Investment

2007-06-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

I bought Twinkles Big City Knits today and I doubt it was a wise investment. Not because I don't like the patterns and I will most likely knit something out of it. It is just that I have this nagging feeling that the patterns in the book will not look nearly as good on my barely over five foot and twenty some pounds heavier then the BMI says I should be frame as they do on the waifish bean pole models in the book.

I finished the left arm of my cardigan. It seemed to go painfully slowly. I doubt the washrag breaks helped that much. Only one more sleeve to go!

Progress

2007-05-17T13:07:00.001-07:00

Green Cardigan WIP
Originally uploaded by reinoakujunkan.

I finished off the body of the Green Cardi last week and then decided it was time to take a washrag break. On the needles there is the second washrag. The first is already in the sink. I am loosing my steam on the washrag though since KJ was wearing one of her cardis [Same pattern] today and it so made me want to wear mine!

Bad blogger, no cookie for you.

2007-05-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a bad blogger. I realize it has been a while since my last post. Really not much has been going on. I have been knitting exclusively on the cardigan and have been making slow but steady progress. I am done with the shaping and almost done with the body. I might need to take a break before I do the sleeves but I am a little worried if I do I wont get back to it. I have a little trouble with that...the list of projects in the side bar is just what I have most recently worked on. In the basement of our house I have the following:

One sock and a matching ball of yarn! This was the very first sock I knitted and now I have a serious case of second sockitus. Part of the trouble is that even though the first sock fits beautifully it is so itchy it feels like my foot is on FIRE when I put it on. Not a great motivator to finish the second sock.
The Portland pullover from IK fall 2006 in Knit Picks Suri Dream. I have the body done up to the point where you join the sleeves and both sleeves are on the needle halfway done. I have thought about getting this back out and continuing as a break from the cardigan but there are a couple of issues...I'm really not sure I will like the way the sweater looks in the end, it isn't easily washable and it is getting to be summer.
A disaster of a cowl in some yarn that was on sale at JoAnn. The yarn is worsted weight and way to heavy for a cowl. There is no way I will ever finish knitting this but I have been too lazy to rip it out because I haven't need the needle and the yarn is kind of ugly.
A bulky cabled scarf. I started this the evening before that the FoP was born. I cast it on because I had finished the baby hat and booties I was working on and was sick of doing baby knitting. I got through 3 or 4 cable twist and then got too sleepy and went to bed. My water broke at 1am and I haven't touched this scarf since. I doubt I will ever get back to it since it was turning out kind of ugly.

Sigh, even after going through that list I still want to start some new summery projects. There were some nice looking things in the spring and summer issues of IK...

Happy Birthday KJ!

2007-04-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday KJ. Thank you so much for being a great friend and for teaching me how to knit! This blog wouldn't be here without your influence.

Something is wrong with this week.

2007-04-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

There is a blizzard outside. We are suppose to get a foot of wet icky snow over the next 24 hours. That is just one of the many things that have gone wrong this week and it's only Wednesday. Maybe it is the impending Friday the 13th? I guess nothing has really gone all that wrong things have just been a little off. Here are some of the adventures.

Panic Button
Yesterday I was coming home from a nice afternoon out and was in the process of moving the FoP out of his stroller and into his car seat when I some how managed to hit the panic button on my key chain. After the FoP was secured I go about trying to shut the darn thing off and try everything I can think of. I lock and unlock the doors several times, using the key chain, using the key and using the switch. No luck, the horn is still blaring and echoing around the mostly empty parking ramp. I even get in a start the car. Nope. I throw the stroller in and start driving. You think that would do it but no. I drove past a man who gave me a bewildered look. He may have been trying to decide if he should offer help or call the cops. I thought to try locking and unlocking again but missed and hit the switch for my busted window instead. It made a loud clunk and the window suddenly slid halfway down into the door and would not roll back up. Eventually the alarm stopped on it's own and slunk out of the parking garage and after a couple of tries the window did go back up. So I guess no harm no foul. I did make an ass of myself but that is nothing new.

Yarn of Arachne - Part II
This morning KJ and I went back to my local yarn shop for help with the yarn. It took 3 experienced yarn shop professionals somewhere around 3o minutes to untangle the skein. One of them did say that they had an even worse experience with the Cascade Sierra. So if you are you are think of using this yarn for a project be warned. The other skeins had some close calls during winding but are now in ball form. The sweater is knitting up beautifully so I think the trouble will be worth it.

Pooplosion
If you really hate gross stories stop reading now. After the yarn shop KJ, the FoP and I ventured over through the piling blowing snow to have some lunch with another friend. The FoP has become a once a day pooper and since we had left the house early I kind of expected it would happen while we were out and about. What I was not prepared for was the shear massive size of the pooplosion that was impending. The FoP had poop from the nape of his neck to the tip of his toes! Thankfully the diaper bag was stocked with an emergency outfit but I did have to ask the waiter for plastic bags to cart the dirty cloths home in. The FoP was also fairly angry about being totally undressed and wiped down in a public restroom. He screamed so loud that KJ who was out at our table heard him and came to lend a hand with the clean up. After that there really wasn't anything to do but go home and take a bath.

Work
Although I am on leave from work right now and will be until the fall, I check my work email and try to keep up a little with what is going on. I write code. Apparently I sometimes write buggy code. A question came across in email this week about a bug in my code that while not a big deal has me slapping my forehead and wondering what the hell I was thinking when I wrote that code. An uncomfortable feeling since I don't have access to the code in order to fix the issue or even do some real debugging. I did my best to remember and give suggestions via email but really I want to hop in the car and go over there and fix it.

I also recently took a personality test for work. Yes, my company required it. It said I was a perfectionist. Go figure.

While I wrote this post
The FoP awoke from his nap rolled on his tummy as he is apt to do these days and took another sizeable dump. It is now hours later and he is back to napping so I am off to my knitting!

Yarn of Arachne

2007-04-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

I went to my local yarn shop on Wednesday and bought enough skeins of Cascade Sierra in spring green to make a lovely top down cardigan. However, I forgot to wind the yarn into balls. So yesterday I went over to a friends house to use her swift and ball winder. Little did we know the yarn was cursed. The first skein we tried to wind became hopelessly tangled. The second skein did OK up until the end when it managed to get tied into at least one true knot and squeeze in between the gears of the ball winder. We just gave up after that and I will got back to the store sometime to have them help me wind up the rest. After all I only need one skein in order to start the sweater.

Yummy, Yummy

2007-04-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Fussopotamus looks pretty evil in this picture. Really he is a very sweet boy but he does like to chew on things and to think he isn't even teething yet!

Lace-up Fingerless Gloves

2007-04-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

Pattern from Alterknits.

Yarn: Manos Del Uruguay in turquoise. Laced with a yarn sample form PippiKneeSocks.

Comments: An easy and quick knit. It was easy for me to put down and pick up without forgetting what I was doing. That is an important feature of any pattern I knit right now since the fussopotamus could awake at any moment. They keep my hands warm but I do find the Manos a bit itchy. They also get a little slouchy and tend to bunch.

Hello World!

2007-03-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hello world of blogging. I'm here to blog. Why am I here to blog? Primarily this will be a knitting and crafting blog. We will see if anything else develops over time.