Category: Zombies

cute kids · Knitting · Zombies

Too Fast

Jen

Life marches on, as they say, and things at chez moi have been busy but fun. The Bigs have been taking a weekly nature class down in Ft. Lauderdale and T has been growing big and fast. Today she is 207 days old, or 6 months and 24 days. She is a proficient crawler and can pull herself to standing and cruise along the furniture. I’m serious. The last couple of days she has been practicing standing without holding onto anything. I anticipate walking by Christmas (or the New Year at the latest).

baby, staaaaaaaahp

And finally I’ve started been knitting again. I cast on and finished this pretty shawl to throw over T’s shoulders if we ever get any cooler weather here.

[ravelry]

I didn’t really have much of this hand spun  from last year’s TdF so basically it’s just the first half of Grandmother’s Favorite Dishcloth, knited until I ran out of yarn. It’s soft and cozy and should keep her shoulders nice and warm when those cold northern winds start to blow through and bring the temperature down below 75°. And yes that is considered cold down here. Stop laughing, it really is! Really!

cute kids · Zombies

And then this happened…

Jen1 Comment

I know it’s been a very long time since my last post. All I can say is that it’s because reasons. The biggest reason is this:

T was born on April 29th, 2013. She was 7 lbs, 2 oz, and 19 inches long. She is a very calm, chill little baby. The perfect addition to our family.

fiber · Spinning · Tour de Fleece · Zombies

TdF Day 4

Jen

I got a little bit done today. First I took the Qiviut/Silk/Merino blend off the niddy noddy and made it into a hank:

And then I plied up all that alpaca from yesterday:

Whew, there was a lot of it! It took almost 2 whole episodes of Hell’s Kitchen to finish. The first two bobbins are the thin and thick plied together, and the third bobbin is just the rest of the thinner single plied to itself. There was a lot of energy in it so I am going to let it rest for a day or so before putting it up on the niddy noddy and skeining it. I’m really happy w/ how came out and am already planning what to knit with it. (I’m thinking a hat and mitts set for my Totally Awesome Sister. Shhh, don’t tell.)

I was going to move onto this:

but then I realized that my kids might like to get fed at some point today. Heh. I did go ahead and split the braid into two semi/mostly/kind of-equal pieces and will probably start it later tonight. WOOOOO LE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRR!!!!

 

Knitting · Zombies

Catkin!

Jen2 Comments

At last it’s finished, and I absolutely adore it!

[ravelry]

The colors are so bright and cheerful!

And it is so warm and cozy, too! Now I can’t wait for it to get well and truly cold!

Exclamation!

Knitting · Zombies

Leatherhead

Jen3 Comments

It’s done, and about damn time, too.

This hat would’ve been done a lot sooner if I didn’t have to knit it so many times.

I hope my mom likes it.

Here’s how I did it:
Earflaps (make 2)
Cast on 9
slip 1, knit to end
slip 1, yo, knit 7, yo, knit 1
slip 1, knit to end
slip 1, yo, knit 9, yo, knit 1
slip 1, knit to end
slip 1, yo, knit 11, yo, knit 1

knit until there are 9 garter ridges

CO 14 sts onto the tip of the right needle. Knit across the second earflap. CO 16 sts onto the tip of the right needle. You should now have 56 stitches. Join and begin working in round. make 4 (or 5, my brim is a little too narrow) garter stitch ridges. Switch to Unoriginal Hat pattern.

work set up round
work rows 1-16 of chart
work row 16 again
work rest of chart

Decide the back of your hat isn’t long enough and do a row of DC along back edge for a back “flap”. Call it good because this thing is killing you.

rant · Zombies

Ranty Monday is Ranty

Jen4 Comments

Okay, I admit that I support the Occupy Wall Street movement and would definitely like to see more economic equality in this country, but this petition which was just emailed to me from Change.org pissed me right the fuck off.

Having to work on Thanksgiving day is nothing new. I’ve done it. My dad has done it. I’m pretty sure my mom has done it too. This guy is complaining that he has to “interrupt” his Thanksgiving meal to go to his Target job at midnight? Firstly, NO ONE IS STILL EATING THANKSGIVING DINNER AT MIDNIGHT. And if you are, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

Secondly, here’s a story for you: when I was in my late teens and early 20’s, I worked at a movie theater. I actually had to report to work at NOON on Thanksgiving day, and stay at work until 8 or 9 pm, because guess what? A surprising number of people like to go out and see a movie after they eat their turkey dinner. (Now that’s what I call “interrupting” a family meal.) Here’s another story: while I was in college, I worked in a call center for a local DirectTV/Internet provider (which also took calls for other local providers across the country) I had to report to work for my regular shift (I worked swing shift, so from 3pm-11pm) on Thanksgiving day, because guess what? People like to watch TV after they eat their Turkey dinner and sometimes they needed technical support and/or someone to order a pay-per-view movie for them. Oh and you know what? THE WORLD DIDN’T FUCKING END BECAUSE I HAD TO WORK ON THANKSGIVING DAY.

The fact of the matter is that the world doesn’t stop spinning because it’s a holiday. Some people are going to have to work while others are celebrating to keep the wheels of society turning. Doctors and nurses, truck drivers, train operators, police officers and firefighters, 911 operators, Chinese food restauranteurs and their staff, they all work on holidays. THAT’S JUST THE WAY IT IS. And frankly, unless you are living off family money, odds are that at some point in your working life, you will have to report to work on a holiday (I worked the concession stand at the theater on Christmas day, too, and believe it or not, we were SLAMMED).

Being a working stiff sucks, but seriously? You’re going to publicly petition your company and risk not having an income during the holiday shopping season because you didn’t feel like working the graveyard shift at Target on a Thursday night? No, I shall not be signing your stupid petition because you are a dumbass.

Moreover, if you have a problem with Target opening at midnight for Black Friday, don’t go shopping at Target at midnight. Stores are pushing back the start of the holiday shopping season because people are playing along with them. If it costs them more money to open the store at midnight than they make from having the store open, they won’t do it anymore. Got a problem with the whole “Black Friday” thing in general? DON’T PLAY ALONG. Stay home! Do your shopping during the month of December or on November 1st or throughout the year. Seriously people it’s not that hard.

Knitting · life · Zombies

So Many Plans

Jen4 Comments

Yesterday I cleaned the house. Really cleaned it, for the first time in a good long while, thanks to that dreaded fatigue I’ve been struggling with. I put stuff away, I pulled out appliances and wiped the counters behind them. The only thing I didn’t do, even though it’s long overdue, was clean out the fridge and wash it. I spent most of the afternoon and early evening on it, so by the time it was bedtime, I was pretty pumped, and bubbling with plans for today. As I lay awake, trying to fall asleep, I made a list of all the stuff I would do today:

Finish Laundry
Clean Bathrooms & Bedroom
Warp Loom
Wind off a bunch of yarn
Sew pants for E
Sew some drawstring bags
Clean off my desk
Do some NaNoWriMo prep work

I’m pretty sure at this point that my list was over-ambitious. It took me a really long time to fall asleep last night, and I didn’t sleep well. It was one of those nights where I was aware of trying to sleep (or being asleep) for most of the night. I was too excited about doing moar stuff!!! To top it off, I got up early. Blargh. I did do most of the laundry, which helped a bit with the mess in the bedroom, and I managed to tidy up the bathrooms too. I spent the rest of today trying, rather unsuccessfully, to nap. Everything else was just icing, but dammit, I like icing.

Ah well. How about some knitting then?

[ravelry]

I love this colorway from the Yarn Pirate, but when I got it up to the right number of stitches for my toe, it became kind of muddied. See how pretty it is right in the first 3/4″ of the toe? I wanted my whole sock to look like that. Hence the slip stitch pattern. It helps, but not as much as I would’ve liked.

[ravelry]

Catkin is coming along too, but since it requires all of the concentration forever, I haven’t really worked on it in a couple of days. Furthermore, it looks all bunched up and lumpy there because, clearly, my needle is too short. You’ll have to wait for the finished product to see it in all of its orange and turquoise glory. Yes, I did just say orange and turquoise glory. IT WILL BE GLORIOUS I TELL YOU!

 

Halp! · totally awesome sister · Zombies

She Was Robbed

Jen2 Comments

Apologies in advance if you have heard this story already because you follow me on G+ or are a friend on Facebook.

Yesterday my sister arrived home from work to find her apartment had been broken into. Stolen were her camera, her old Blackberry, her blender, but, the hardest loss was her MacBook Pro. She can live without the camera and her old Blackberry, but, as a deaf person, she relies heavily on her computer to communicate. On many levels, her computer was the only thing of value she owned. The loss hits her especially hard since she lives within a very tight budget (as we all do nowadays) and she will be unable to save enough money replace the computer for many years.

I never thought I’d be the type of person to post a plea for money on the internet, but at my urging, she has set up a ChipIn.com page. If you can help out, even a little, it would mean a lot.

Also, here is her blog post about it. Please read her story and consider helping if you are able.

grumble · Knitting · Zombies

The Sweater Killer is Serial

Jen7 Comments

Very nearly a year ago this happened. Well, it happened again, only this time it was to this sweater.

I’m so upset, I don’t even have the words. I swear, I didn’t wash it any differently this last time than I have since the day I finished it. I put it in the water (lukewarm!) and it was only slightly fuzzed, and when I pulled it out it was felted. I don’t know if it’s my washing machine, agitating my wool on the sly, or if it got too jostled when I pressed it down into the water, or if it’s the crappy Wool of the Andes yarn. Blaaargh, I’m so frustrated and sad for my sweater. I loved it so much. :-(

life · Zombies

A Day of Laundry

Jen2 Comments

I admit that my regular routine gets a relatively late start around here. But, ordinarily, getting a load of laundry going by 11 am is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, because I can do the laundry at my leisure. Except today when, on the second load, the washing machine started making a strange noise and stopped agitating and stopped spinning and basically stopped doing anything except being an extremely large bucket. After calling for a repair appointment (which is a whole week away dammit), I packed up all the laundry in the house and the kids and myself and we headed out the door for the local suds n’ duds. It was about 130 by the time we got there and even though I was able to use as many washing machines and dryers as I needed, it was still 330 before we got out of there. And by the time I got home and put everything away (and folded the previous laundry loads I had done), it was 6 o’clock and I had no plan whatsoever for dinner. Laundry jacked my entire day. But, on the bright side, I did ALL THE LAUNDRY IN THE UNIVERSE today and shouldn’t have to even think about it again for a couple of days (at least). This frees up time for knitting, which is always a good thing.