The Box of Broken Dreams

So anyway, about three months ago, I purchased the Stained Glass Bag pattern and a bunch of gorgeous Noro Kureyon yarn. I was so excited to start it, but I forced myself to wait until I finished some WIP or other. Of course, by the time I finished whatever it was, I was already excited to start something else, and I forgot about the Stained Glass Bag.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. We moved Jack into his "big boy bedroom" (formerly our guestroom) and I started planning to reclaim the small room where we had his crib as my craft room. This, of course, involved me going through my stash to organize things a bit and decide how I'm going to store it in the new space.

My stash is pretty small. I have two groups of yarn: the "good" yarn, which consists mostly of natural fiber (with an inordinate amount of alpaca), and the "craft" yarn, which consists mostly of manmade fibers that are left over from baby blankets and charity knitting, where washable yarn is preferred. I don't go into the craft yarn stash very often unless I need scrap yarn or the kids are doing an art project. The good yarn lives in a large basket and several small crates in my office. I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping it somewhat in control (if you ignore the many skeins of sock yarn I've accumulated in the last four months). Anyway, just as I was starting to feel pretty good about my self control, I realized something disturbing.

I have a coat rack in my office. There are several coats on the rack and a lot of bags. I don't really pay attention to the coat rack these days because it's summer here and there's no need for coats most days. As I was taking yarn out of the crates, I caught a glimpse of my old knitting basket hanging from the rack and pulled it down. It was stuffed with the Noro yarn I bought for the Stained Glass Bag.

Then I looked at the rack more carefully. There were many bags hanging from it (did I ever mention that I own a lot of Vera Bradley tote bags? It's another one of my little addictions). I started pulling them down. One bag had the yarn and a pattern for felted clogs. Another two bags held yarn and the unfinished projects to go with it. A third bag held all of my DPNs and most of my circular needles, because I still haven't gotten around to making needle cases for them (even though I bought the materials months ago). A few other bags were filled with more yarn that I'd forgotten about. It turns out my stash is a little bigger than I thought. I've just been tricking myself by squirreling it away.

It was kind of fun to rediscover the "lost" yarn and projects. It actually turned out to be a boon, because it gave me something to do while I let the problem of the gargantuan sleeve marinate for a bit. Now that the Stained Glass Bag is finished (providing me with another potential Christmas gift off my list), I'm kind of excited to knock out a few of the gift projects on my list before getting back to my regularly scheduled selfish knitting.

In the midst of organizing and rediscovering old projects, I happened to read something on Ravelry that seemed to fit amazingly well. Several knitters were discussing how they store their stash and their unfinished projects. One woman noted that her husband had boxed up all of her unfinished project and ugly finished projects and had labeled it "Box of Broken Dreams." Apparently, I have bags of broken dreams, or, as another knitting friend appropriately phrased it, an Island of Misfit Projects.

All of which leads me to present you with the following gallery of misfit projects and broken dreams:

The Calamitous Crocheted Sweater:



An alternative name for this finished object could be "I can't be bothered with sticking to one dye lot or checking gauge." I keep this project posted on Ravelry to remind myself what happens when you are in too much of a hurry to start something. The worst part about this project is that one of the pattern editors on Ravelry actually asked if they could use my picture for the online pattern. I gave permission, but noted that it was so ugly it would probably drive potential crocheters away. I never heard back again!

The Miniature Mitten, Part II:



Attempt No. 1



Attempt No. 2

See? Despite frogging and knitting with larger needles, it's still too small. Also, I've ripped this version back once because I forgot to make a thumb hole. I'm well aware that I will eventually have to frog it and start again. Perhaps this time I will be motivated to check my gauge.

And, last but not least, I bring you THE GARGANTUAN SLEEVE:



Yeah, I never got around to taking a picture of the horror that was the gargantuan sleeve, but you can kind of see it in this one. Tonight, I finally bit the bullet and cut off the end of the sleeve to reknit it. It was freakishly long. Trust me.

My Bad and Some General News

I have a long post written about some of my failure projects, but I have to take a picture of the gargantuan sunrise circle jacket sleeve, and somehow, I just can't seem to bring myself to do it! I can't explain it, but every time I see how long that sleeve is, I actually feel a little sick to my stomach. Seriously. Why didn't I stop knitting as soon as I saw how long it was getting? It's like I thought it would "ride up with wear."

That being said, I am bringing the mutant jacket to knitting night and forcing myself to finish the front hem. If that gets done, I'm going to cast on for the right sleeve and hope this time I'm not so much of a knittin' fool.

So, my apologies for not posting the longer, funnier post yet. I will do it tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. As soon as I can face up to the reality of the jacket mistake, I promise.

In other knitting related news: the Stained Glass Bag is felted and drying in the window as I speak. It looks lovely and it felted, but it barely shrunk at all, which really surprised me. I'm thinking about running for a second round of felting to get rid of a little more stitch definition. Usually, I run my stuff for 5-10 minutes and it's done. This bag went in for 20 minutes and I think it needs another go. I wonder if that's typical of Noro, or just related to the fact that I used towels in the washer instead of jeans, which is what I usually use. Anyway, I'm very proud of the bag and think it came out even better than I expected.

I got the kiddos a pool today and they are outside right now splashing in it with Grammy. Lily will turn five this week. It seems such a short time ago that she was born, it's almost frightening. We will be having a small celebration on her actual birthday, and then she will have a Little Pet Shop themed party this weekend. Unfortunately, only 4 kids can come. I always felt bad for kids born over Christmas because so many children are away at that time so a party is very difficult. It never occurred to me how many people are away during the summer, especially around July 4th! Jack, who was born in February, has a much better chance that his friends will be in town. I will be just heartbroken for Lily if any of the kids currently invited has to bow out.

Let's see, what else is new? I invented a kind of DPN project holder to try and sell on etsy. I love the one I'm using, but I need some feedback from other knitters on the length of needles they use. If you knit with DPNs, how long are they? I use 5 inches, but I think mine are short compared to most others. Anyway, once I get some of the bugs worked out and make some nicer sets (my prototypes are very primitive!) I'll post a picture here and put them on my etsy shop! If you haven't checked out my shop, you can go directly there by clicking the etsy icon on the side of the screen. Just some shameless marketing on my part. Gotta make some yarn money for my dream project (more on that another time, though).

I'm also having lots of fun with Google Analytics! It has a map that shows what part of the world my readers are from. So far, I have readers from the US, Australia, the UK and Iceland! I don't know why, but I get pretty excited seeing people from all over the place looking at my blog. I love comments, too (hint, hint) and would love to hear about your blog if you have one. I want to put some more knitting related blogs in my side bar and get rid of a few blogs I don't visit so often any more.

There's not much other news. I've been very knitcentric lately, so my next post will a kidcentric one. Lily drew a hilarious picture that must be displayed. And I'm going to post about my bad projects, I swear. Seriously.

Clap

My Clapotis is zooming right along. I got to drop two rows of stitches last night. It was exciting, yet kind of scary. Even though the pattern calls for it, I still felt a little unsettled purposely dropping stitches all the way to the bottom of the work!

Of course, I had the usual pointless interaction with my husband when he got home from his weekly "guys' night out":

ME: Do you want to see my shawl?

JIM: (with absolutely no enthusiasm) Okay.

ME: See how pretty it will be? (said as I'm taking the project out)

JIM: Oh, yeah! (said before I even get a chance to spread the work on the couch)

ME: See how I dropped two rows of stitches? See?

JIM: That's really nice (still with a notable lack of enthusiasm)

ME: Feel this yarn, feel it! Isn't it soft?

JIM: Yep.

ME: This will be really gorgeous when it's done.

JIM: What is it supposed to be again?

At this point, I usually shove everything back in the knitting bag and walk away to prevent myself from poking him with pointy needles.

He does not have the love for yarn. We had knitting night on Tuesday and several of us commented on how most men don't "get" the whole fiber thing. I love the way good yarn feels, especially alpaca. I'm always saying I would knit sheets out of alpaca just so I could be completely immersed in it every night. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I have two skeins of alpaca yarn bought solely for petting with no project in mind. Most men also don't seem to get the whole "I made this from a ball of string" aspect of knitting. I still get a thrill of amazement watching a project emerge. I want to run around telling everyone "Look at me! I'm making this! Out of STRING! Can you believe it? I took some sticks and some string and made THIS! Come on, feel it...." etc. If you're reading this, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, please note that, although I WANT to run around saying this, I don't actually do it. I don't want people to think I'm any more odd than they already do.

I will say this for Jim, he does get my need to have my obsessive hobbies and he never complains about how much I spend on them. He'll even suggest I make certain projects and tell me to get the yarn for them. Which is why I should really make the wool clogs he asked for in March. I swear, I'm going to cast them on as soon as I get rid of the Clap.

Get rid of the Clap! ha ha. See what I did there? Yeah, I'm a huge dork, which is why I try to hide my crazy crafting thing from the normal parents. I'm thinking of my kids and the potential for their future embarassment.

I'll post a picture later when I actually have one. Until then, you can simultaneously drool and feel horror while looking at the picture in this post about the beautiful Blue Heron yarn I'm working with for this project. Mine is in the Chesapeake colorway if you are interested. I cannot not praise this yarn too much. It's just gorgeous.

I Can Hear You Calling

I have been pretty productive lately, knitwise. The gargantuan sleeve is still in the bottom of my knitting bag, but I cast on the Stained Glass Bag, which is a lot of fun. I have one more row to finish before I start the bottom and I think I can finish it this weekend.

That being said, I also have three sweaters, a pair of socks, a pair of mittens, and a stole on the needles that need to be finished up. That's not including the jacket-gone-wrong. Which brings me to the Blue Heron yarn.

Ahhh, the Blue Heron rayon metallic. I hate rayon and I'm not a fan of metallic yarn, but as soon as I saw the Blue Heron, I wanted to touch it. As soon as I touched it, I wanted to buy it. It's so soft and just has a hint of gold running through it. The colorway I bought looks like a peacock feather, with dark green, purple, and gold. I'd put up a picture for you, but pictures don't do this yarn justice. I spent more on one 550 yard skein of Blue Heron than I've spent on any other single skein of yarn I own, and I still think it was worth every penny.

For two weeks, the Blue Heron has been sitting in the basket in my office. I can hear it calling to me. It wants to be made into a clapotis shawl. I've been working very hard on the stained glass bag, but every day I've spent just a little time reading up on the Clapotis. I looked at a lot of different finished Clapotis shawls and read about modifications. I looked at all the Clapotis shawls people made with Blue Heron rayon metallic and read all of the comments. I printed out the pattern from Knitty and some notes from Ravelry projects discussing the modifications I want to make.

I started bargaining with the Blue Heron. First, I promised it I would make the Clapotis once the stained glass bag, circle jacket and socks were done. The Blue Heron was not amused. Then I offered to cast it on as soon as the circle jacket and bag were done. The Blue Heron just laughed mockingly and turned away. Finally, I begged the Blue Heron to consider waiting until the stained glass bag was done. The Blue Heron simply ignored me and kept up its siren call.

This morning, after a long struggle with my conscience, I decided that I could cast on the Clapotis this evening. I reasoned that the stained glass bag was almost finished, and I decided I would give the Clapotis to someone as a Christmas gift in order to justify starting yet another project.

I took out the skein, untied it and held it in my lap for a while. It is so beautiful that I started to wind it by hand just so I could touch it for a while. I quickly realized that even the beautiful hand of of Blue Heron rayon metallic was not worth winding for 550 yards, so I pulled out the ball winder and got it set up. I even convinced Lily to help me by turning the winder handle while I held the skein.

I am firmly convinced there is a knitting goddess. I think the knitting goddess would like me to balance out my selfish desire to knit things for myself with my selfless desire to make things for others. I think She is unhappy with the recent spate of projects I've made for myself. I think She totally knows that, even though I promised myself I would give the Clapotis as a Christmas gift, it's probably NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. In other words, you just can't fool the knitting goddess.

Several things happened as I started to wind up the Blue Heron (which was cheering me on, by the way). First, Jim cut his finger pretty badly and asked me to look up his injury on the internet to see if he ought to go to the ER. Second, while I was in the office looking up Jim's injury, Lily helped me out by winding some of the Blue Heron. The knitting goddess smiled somewhere. When I came back into the dining room and told Jim he should probably go to the ER, I saw this on the dining room table:



I worked on unwinding this knot (which is in the middle of the skein, by the way) from 3:30pm until 8:00pm. I stopped only to serve the kids dinner and to vacuum up the mess afterwards. At 7:00pm, I gave up and cut the yarn. I will end up with 3 skeins of this yarn -- the part on the ball winder, the tangled part, and the bulk of the yarn that was left in the skein after the knitting goddess struck me down. It is still not untangled. I was planning on casting it on tonight so that I would have something simple to work on when we have company tomorrow and Monday. I now think it quite likely that I will not finish straightening out this mess until well after our company has gone. As a result, I will be casting on the second sleeve of the circle jacket and working on that instead.

Jim did go to the ER and he's fine. He just needed a little super glue to fix up his cut. Of course, it took Melrose-Wakefield Hospital 3 hours to come to that conclusion. He would have been better off going to the walk-in clinic at MGH, even though it's farther away. I guess we both learned a lesson today. Jim's lesson: Unless it's an emergency, take the extra time to drive into Boston for medical care. My lesson: Don't mess with the knitting gods, you selfish bitch!

I've Been in a Terrible Knitting Accident

This incident is something I have to blog about, if only to get over the sick feeling I get in my stomach every time I think about it.

I have been knitting, on and off, for more than 35 years. Don't you think that should mean something? And yet, during the last seven months of really concentrated knitting that I've been doing, I seem to make more rookie mistakes than someone who's been knitting for less than a year. Sigh.

So, about my terrible knitting accident. I have always admired the Sunrise Circle Jacket featured in Interweave Knits (scroll down the linked page a bit to see the pattern). Not wanting to buy the pattern, I put the jacket in my Ravelry queue and moved on to find great free patterns. I found enough patterns to give most of the people on my list some kind of handmade Christmas present. Awesome.

And then one day, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Knitting Daily advising me that the Sunrise Circle Jacket and several other patterns were going to be offered for a free download for 1 month. I immediately downloaded the patterns and put them in my home computer pattern archive. From that moment onward, it was like I could hear the jacket calling to me. I would imagine it in different colors and yarns before falling asleep each night. I looked up every single project on Ravelry to see what other people used. I found myself looking at yarn with that project in mind every time I went yarn shopping. After about a month of fantasizing about the jacket, I broke down and bought some beautiful tone-on-tone variegated yarn in cranberry red.

I next spent three days measuring myself and working out how to alter the pattern to fit my measurements. I rewrote the sleeve/front pattern to make a wider upper sleeve, which required a calculator and math (ugh). I ordered two skeins of backup yarn just in case I had underestimated the yarn requirements. I checked and rechecked my gauge, and then I cast it on.

Even though the pattern is primarily straight stockinette stitch, I had a lovely time knitting. The sleeve went so fast it practically knit itself! My rewritten increases changed the width of the upper sleeve perfectly. There was only one problem. I saw that if I continued with the full number of increases, the sleeve was going to turn out much longer than the pattern called for. Since the width was already looking fine, I cut out the last two planned increases. In all, I modified the sleeve width by only 6 stitches in width (about an inch and a half).

And then I got into a terrible knitting accident. The sleeve measured exactly what the pattern called for when I stopped the increases. When I held it up to my arm, it seemed a little short. My arms are longer than average, so I thought "I'll just add two and a half inches in length to make the sleeves nice and long."

Once I added to the sleeve length, I started on the circular front. It, too, was a lot of fun to knit and I enjoyed myself. I had, by that time, read some of the blog entries about the pattern and picked up some good tips to fit the pattern even better. Many entries mentioned that the sleeves were too long.

I had been noticing the extreme length of my sleeve with growing trepidation for some time. The yarn I'm using is part mohair, so I thought "The mohair is stretching the piece a bit -- it will shorten up when I wash it and block it." I found myself frantically measuring the piece against my arm every two rows or so. I tried holding the work in my lap so the sleeve couldn't "grow" anymore, but the sleeve got longer anyway.

Last Monday, I took it out to knit the final rows before starting on the front edge hem. The sleeve was gargantuan. I laid out my favorite sweater on the floor and then forced myself to lay down the sweater sleeve/front on top of it for comparison. I literally fell down on my knees when I saw the two together. The sleeve of my jacket is at least 6 inches longer than the sleeve of my favorite sweater. AT LEAST. I may be in denial and unable to truly see how much longer it really is, but I know for sure it is at least 6 inches. Were I to wear this jacket as knit, the sleeve would hang down completely covering my hand and then some! It reminded me of something a Dr. Seuss character would wear. When I held the sleeve up to my leg, I realized it could double as a capri pant leg.

I took it to knitting night and showed it around. Nobody told me I was imagining things as I secretly hoped. Everyone was simultaneously amused and horrified. I put the monstrosity into the bottom of my knitting bag and cast on something else to work on while I figure out what to do.

I've talked it over with other knitters. I've looked on the blogs and other resources. I am going to have to put in a needle to hold the live stitches, CUT a stitch in the sleeve and RIP OFF a good 6.5 inches. Then I'll just knit the 11 rows required to make the fold and the hem. Easy, no?

For some reason, the thought just makes me feel awful. I'm getting over it, though. I'm ready to take out the jacket and try to finish off the left sleeve/front tonight so I can cast on for the other side. I'm not going to add any length this time, though.

If I can make myself do it, I will post a picture of the gargantuan sleeve. Until that time, here is a great picture of the beautiful (and normal sized) jacket front. Pretty, no?

Climber Down! Climber Down!

Oh God. I can barely stand to write about this. I had to frog the Stole of Evil this morning. Again. All the way to nothing.

I had progressed to 1.5 repeats. All appeared well. On the last row, I came up with one stitch too many. I counted again, still 81. I spread out the lace to see where I might have been wrong. Couldn't spot it. No problem, I thought, I'll just frog back to the life line. Both life lines were securely in place. No problem!

Problem. As I was counting the stitches after retrieving them from the lifeline, I saw a HOLE. Not an unusually large yarn over, but a HOLE. And two tiny little dropped stitches inside it.

WAY down below the lifelines, near row 5 or 7, by my estimate.

Somehow, despite my careful counting, despite my life lines, despite EVERYTHING I have done to make this work, there were two dropped stitches. Impossible! Except...I did remember thinking that there was one place where the yarn split a bit and the stitches were on the thin side. Apparently it was too thin and it let go.

I am telling myself to be grateful it happened when I was only 18 rows from the start, but still.

I think the Stole of Evil knows I'm trying to conquer it and it's FIGHTING BACK. I'm going to sit down with it today for a few hours and have a stern talk with it. If it still can't behave, I'm afraid I'm going to have to put it in the naughty closet with the other bad projects until it has had enough time to think about its bad behavior and reconsider.

Do you hear me, Stole of Evil? This is your last chance before I hibernate you or possibly even trade you to someone else for better yarn that will behave. Don't mess with me!

Everest Base Camp

Well, I've picked up the Stole of Evil again, after a week-long hiatus.

This was my plan of attack. First, I gathered together all of the necessary equipment:

stitch markers
thread
needle
row counter
waste yarn
project yarn
pattern
post-its
lace circular needles

Amazingly, no sherpas were required, as everything fit neatly into my Lynyrd Skynyrd bag. I re-did the provisional cast on. I am very good at the provisional cast on now due to the numerous times I've cast on this project. I purled the first row and carefully threaded a life line through the stitches. I made sure to leave lots of extra thread at each end to avoid any accidental stitch dropping.

I started the pattern slowly. I said each stitch out loud as I worked it. I read somewhere this was a good idea, so I did it, even though I felt like a fool. It did force me to focus on the pattern. I was pleased to see that the first row of the pattern appeared to be correct. Just to be sure, I counted each purl stitch in the next row. Perfect.

I took another piece of thread and carefully threaded it through the stitches, leaving lots of extra thread on either side. I repeated the process. 4 rows done! I started to think maybe this project was going to get done. I completed the next pattern row and it appeared to be correct, but then, TRAGEDY. As I was purling across the row, I dropped a couple of stitches. I did my best, but when I counted, there was one extra stitch. I couldn't figure out where the mistake was, so I ripped back two rows and redid them. Success! Six rows! It only took me two hours.

I put it down and went out to dinner. I started it back up this evening and managed to add another 4 rows in 2 hours (lots of ripping back, though). Due to the fact that I'm now putting in a life line after every two rows, I have 10 rows that are good. Two more rows and I will have finished an entire pattern repeat. Then I will have only 33 more repeats to go. By my estimate, if things continue as they've started, I will have the center of the stole finished in about 165 hours, give or take. If I can work on the stole 2 hours a day, it will only take me about 85 days to complete. Woo hoo!

Since this stole is my personal Everest, I'm hoping that the first couple of pattern repeats are like Base Camp. When climbers go to Everest, they spend weeks at base camp getting acclimatized to the thin air. They make numerous trips part way up the mountain, only to return to the base camp on the same day. Naturally, I'm slow at the pattern during my Base Camp stay because I'm getting acclimatized to the way of lace knitting. I'm making progress, but in baby steps. Once I get acclimztized, I'm sure (pretty sure) that I'll be moving along much faster.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself. My goal is to finish the stole before I go to Rhinebeck in the fall. No way am I letting a ball of yarn and a 12 row pattern kick my butt. No way. Now, it's personal.

My Personal Everest

When I first joined Ravelry back in February, I spent a lot of time looking at patterns and projects that other people were working on. In doing so, I noticed a few trends. There are sock people, Clapotis people, Entrelac people, color work people, and lace people. There are probably a few more people that I can't think of right now, but you get my drift. Most knitters seem attracted to one specific type of knitting over others. They might dip their toes in a different style of project every now and then, but they always return to their favorite.

My "thing" is color work. I like doing stranded knitting. I'm not sure why it appeals to me, but it's a combination of watching the pattern build as I go along and using multiple colors. It interests me and I love the end product. Once I joined Ravelry, however, I suddenly had access to all sorts of different projects that I'd never really thought about before. It turns out that felting runs a close second to color work in terms of enjoyment for me. There's something really satisfying about knitting a large, grossly misshapen object and then watching it magically shrink into its proper shape at the end. Socks are fun because they're highly portable and a quick knit. I've decided I'm going to keep at least one sock on the needles at all times for traveling purposes.

Ravelry also exposed me to techniques that I've never thought about. I taught myself how to knit in the Continental style, learned several different cast ons and increases/decreases and finally get the importance of gauge. Go, me.

Everything has been positive for me except one: lace knitting. It's my personal Everest. I'm a reasonably intelligent woman, I've been knitting for more than 35 years and I can do almost anything I try...except lace. I really suck at lace. It started with the Branching Out scarf. It's so pretty, and Knitty assured me it was an easy lace pattern. Apparently, the Knitty editors have never met someone like me, because that scarf was the bane of my existence for two months. I finally finished it, but I never once made it through a single pattern repeat without have to rip it back. There was also the Reid Sweater. I think I had to frog and cast on that project at least three times, and still haven't gone beyond the first repeat. That project is in the naughty closet so it can learn how to behave.

Despite those set backs, I somehow thought I could knit a lace pattern in lace weight yarn. For those of you not in the know, lace weight yarn is like embroidery floss, only, you know, made out of wool or alpaca or something. Do you see the contradiction here? I can't knit a simple lace pattern from normal sized wool on a size US 8 needle, but I confidently believe I can easily knit a whole stole using thread and toothpick sized needles.

Needless to say, I have not been successful. I picked a lovely stole pattern called Print o'the Wave. I bought gorgeous alpaca lace weight yarn and used my new provisional cast on skills to cast it on. I never made it through a repeat. You know what happens when you knit with lace weight yarn? It looks kind of like a snarly mass. A more talented knitter might be able to frog back a row or two, but if I do it, I can't tell where to pick up the stitches. Also, my bamboo circulars? WAY too dull for lace weight. Of course, I cast on and frogged at least twice before I fully comprehended these facts.

I went on Ravelry. I carefully read through various tips for lace knitting. Did you look at the stole I'm knitting? The end product is so beautiful, it kept me working on the project. I learned that using Post-it notes on the chart will keep you on track. I read that Addi lace circulars are key to easy knitting. I also learned that threading a "life-line" through a row you know is correct will prevent you from having to frog all the way to the beginning due to the impossibility of seeing the stitches. Frog down to the thread and pick up the stitches! Whee!

I cast on again, worked the first row and threaded in the life line. This way, there is no chance I'll have to redo the somewhat cumbersome provisional cast on again. Go, me. I knit a few rows, counted every stitch across the purl rows and made it to Row 7 of the chart. I finally got my lace Addis, but I was so exhausted from all the frogging and painstaking counting that I just wasn't up to working on the project any more. Everything went into the project bag and I put it aside for two months.

I knit a pair of socks with a lace pattern with relatively few problems. Hey, sock weight yarn isn't that much thicker than lace weight yarn, so maybe I'm getting better! I worked out my own lace pattern for a pair of socks and am knitting merrily along on those. I think I'm ready for the stole again.

Yesterday I made a bunch of pretty little stitch markers. I came up with a plan to mark the end of each pattern repeat across the row so that I would know where each section starts in the event that something went wrong and I needed to count stitches. I pulled out the stole at 5 pm and worked a row to put it on the Addis. The knitting went so much more smoothly! I zoomed through rows 8-12, and on Row 13...disaster. Something was terribly wrong. Counting back did not reveal the mistake, so I knew I had to frog. Sadly, I didn't think to move up the life-line at any point, so I had to frog back to the VERY FIRST ROW.

I started up again. I thought to myself, this is actually a good thing because now I'm knitting on the really good needles and I can make sure my tension is more even. It will actually make the finished project look better.

I knit three rows and frogged back to the first row. I knit five rows and frogged back to the first row. I knit 6 rows and thought "Ha ha! I'm going to move the life line so that I can actually make progress!" Smart move, no? I also thought "I'm going to leave in the original life line just in case!" Good plan.

Here's where everything went wrong. Instead of spending the 1 minute it would take to look through my bag for more thread, I just pulled the bottom life line out a bit and cut it in half. There was plenty of extra thread hanging out both sides. I put in the second life line and knit up to row 11. Something went wrong. No problem, life line!

I ripped back to the second life line and noticed that it had pulled through the last 20 stitches or so. Good thing I have the first life line as a back up. Except that my first life line has also pulled through about a quarter of the stitches. It dawned on me that I was going to have to rip back the entire stole again and do another provisional cast on. I frogged the stole, rewound the yarn and put the whole thing back into the project bag.

When Jim came home from his guys' night out, I said "Do you want to see all the work I did on my stole between 5pm and 11pm?" I pulled out the empty lace needles. Jim said "Not going to well, huh?"

Another Knitting Lesson Learned

Subtitle: I cannot read and I am an idiot. Oh yeah, and swatching is GOOD.

I've been working on a beautiful sock ever since I filed my taxes last week. The pattern is Pomatomus (named after a fish for the scale-like lace pattern) and the sock yarn is Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in the Garden colorway. I've provided the Classic Elite link, but the picture does not do this beautiful yarn justice. It has deep to medium greens, medium to light blue and pale pink shades, and the colors remind me of Monet's water lily paintings.

I'm enjoying the pattern and the beautiful yarn and it's been a real pleasure to work on the sock. I have only a few inches left on the first sock, and I've carefully worked out how to reverse the pattern on the second sock to make them more symmetrical (don't ask! I should never read blog comments on Ravelry). My only concern has been the fit. The Alpaca Sox yarn has a bit of nylon in it and is pretty stretchy. The Pomatomus pattern is basically a twisted rib variation, and is pretty stretchy. I've tried the sock on a couple of times and the leg is pretty slouchy.

Hmmm. I wonder why? Let's see, the pattern calls for US 5 needles. Doesn't that sound big for a sock? It did to me. Of course, consistent with my solemn oath after the sad demise of the Bunny Mitten, I have been swatching all of my projects. Size 5 needles gave me a gauge that was about 3x larger than called for. I swatched on 4s and was still above gauge. I swatched on 3s and got pretty close to gauge, so that's what I'm knitting with.

I knit pretty tight on DPNs, so I was kind of surprised to go down needle sizes. I usually go up. Hmmm. I wonder why?

Last night, I went to my local knitting group. As I was basking in the love for my sock and the yarn, there was some inquiry into the size needle I was using. Apparently, it looked larger than usual to some people. I agreed. It's normal to see 1s and 2s for socks in sock weight yarn. I pulled out the pattern and read it. "It says "5 US." I said. No one could believe it. They asked "Did you check the site for errata?" I did. "Haven't people complained that the sock runs too small?" Mine isn't small -- if anything it will be a bit large.

Later that night, Paulette, who I've now appointed my knitting guru, sent me an e-mail gently advising me that the pattern calls for US size 2 needles. She was so curious about the odd needle size that she looked up the pattern on Knitty when she got home.

This is what the pattern read: 1 set of 5 US #2/2.75mm double-point needles.

I must have read the pattern ten times and I saw "1 set of No. 5 US DPNs" Sadly, what it actually says is "1 set of five No. 2 US DPNs." No wonder the gauge was so off! And, true to form, I had to go up a needle size to get gauge. Unfortunately, as I've gone along on the sock, I think my gauge has gotten looser. Now I'm worried there will not be enough yarn for the second sock!

I've been struggling back and forth all morning -- frog it and start with smaller needles to get a better fit? Live with the slightly slouchy fit, since I'm halfway through the project? I think I'm going to live with what I have -- I don't have the intestinal fortitude to frog that entire pretty sock.

I will say this again -- Gauge is Good! I am so glad I swatched for this project. I don't even want to think about how crazy these socks would have looked on No. 5s!

I'm a Block Head!

Seriously. I have been knitting for, what, 35 years and I never really blocked my projects! Well, that's not technically true. I have (sort of) steam blocked a few things in the past. It's all a part of my instant gratification attitude towards my knitting. You know, the one with the little voice that whispers in my ear "Why swatch? It'll be just fine without."

Well, that's all going to change from now on. Now that I have plenty of time to spend on making more complex projects with nice yarn, I'm willing to take a little more time on them. I've always said that when I knit, I'm more about the journey than the destination. Being on Ravelry, and featuring some of my projects on my blog for friends and family to see, however, has made me a little more conscious of how my projects end up. I'm still mostly about the journey, but I want the destination to be a nice place, you know?

So, on to my adventure with blocking. First, I read up on the process at a few different places. I got the best advice from Eunny Jang's blog (while you're there, check out her Print O' the Wave stole, which is currently on my needles). Then I read a couple of threads on Ravelry to figure out the best way to pin my project. A lot of people block on a guest bed or a carpeted floor. With the kids running about, I didn't think either of those options would work, so I ended up buy a cardboard presentation board from Joann Fabrics. It's the kind of thing a kid would use to show their project at a science fair, if you know what I mean. It was very inexpensive, it folds up, and it will be easy to stick pins into. Also, I can move it to a safe place when the kids are around.

I used a few binder clips to hold two plastic bags over the cardboard. For my current project, the Stag Bag, I didn't need a lot of surface area, so I used the cardboard folded up. The binder clips not only help the plastic stay in place, but they keep the board folded!

I used the enamel soaking/rinsing basin for my wool dyeing to soak the bag. Because I'm a dweeb, I documented it here:



Here are some shots of the bag pinned on the blocking board:





Isn't it pretty? My stranded color work looks so much better after blocking. There are still a few loose stitches in the graphic that make the stag picture look uneven, but I'm hoping to tighten them up a bit after the piece dries. I'm inordinately proud of this project, to the point that I made Jim come over and love on the bag for a bit. Yes, I actually forced him to compliment me on it for several minutes.

I'm a Felting Fanatic

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Originally uploaded by lilybug1

As Jack would say: "WOOK it! WOOK it!"

Look at my pretty knitting basket. After completing Jill's purse kit, I was itching to try another felting project. Thank goodness that I'd done Jill's project first!

I got this pattern for free on Ravelry. The knitting portion of the project was very easy to follow. I worked the project on 32" circulars and the only alterations I made were to make it a few inches taller than described and instead of purling in rounds after completing the bottom, I knit in rounds to practice my continental style. I doubt that knitting rather than purling made any appreciable difference, though.

Once it was complete, the directions said "Felt." If I hadn't done Jill's project, I wouldn't have known what to do! Felting knitting is completely different than felting wool fabric, which I do for my rug hooking projects. For one thing, felting wool fabric takes a lot longer and requires a cycle in the dryer. Felting knitting only takes 1 or 2 five minute wash cycles and there is no dryer involved. I formed the shape by pulling the project over a bucket. It stands open on its own.

Love it.

This is How I Felt

Ta-da!

I finished my first felting project, and I've decided I need to do more, more, more!



Here it is as it looked after my vacation.

My crafty sister-in-law Jill gave me a felted handbag kit of her own creation for Christmas. It came with the yarn, the needles and a lingerie bag for felting the project. I knit about half of the bag during my vacation, but then sickness and life in general intervened, and I didn't really pick it up again until March. Since it was knitting in the round, and it was on giant size 15 needles, it served as the perfect project for me to practice my newly learned Continental style knitting. I think I finally picked up the knack, since my left hand doesn't get tired out any more.



Here it is in its knitted-but-unfelted state.

This project could easily be done in a weekend and is just perfect for beginning knitters and/or beginning felters (like me). I couldn't believe how fast the bag shrunk in my washer! I only ran it for 10 minutes total and it shrunk to about 2/3 of its size. The variegated colors of the yarn sort of ran together and look like an impressionist painting. As soon as it is dry, I'll update this post with a picture of the finished object.

I opted to knit a longer I-cord for the handles, since I wanted a small shoulder bag rather than a handbag. With two kids, I don't really have a free hand that often. Now I'm wishing that I felted some crocheted flowers to decorate the front of the bag -- I may try to add them later. I'm definitely going to add a closure of some kind across the top.

A+ on the kit, Jill!



Oskar thinks the bag is his, of course!

Mitten Murderer

My Rabbit mitten is dead, and I killed it.

I've been blathering on and on lately to everyone about Ravelry and how great it is (you should check it out). When I'm not busy doing that, I'm working on several knitting projects, solely for the purpose of posting them on Ravelry where I can share them with everyone. When I'm not busy blathering or knitting, I'm either (1) out buying knitting paraphernalia, (2) making my own knitting paraphernalia, or (3) thinking about knitting and buying or making my own knitting paraphernalia.

You might say I'm somewhat obsessed. I often knit instead of doing things like eating meals or sleeping. But that's not my only problem. You see, I'm also a bit of a perfectionist and that means that I spend a lot of time ripping back my work in order to correct one wrong stitch.

Which leads me to today and the Heinous Murder of my Rabbit mitten. It started when I decided my next project would be a pair of mittens. Mittens are, in my past experience, a fun, quick project that will be done in a couple of days. I was going to use the Squirrel and Oak pattern from Hello Yarn because it's so darn cute. Then I started thinking how much more fun it would be to make my own design. I was looking around for a way to make my own chart and realized that Hello Yarn helpfully provides blank charts for the same style mitten. Since it is close to Easter, I thought of doing a rabbit and designed mittens with a bunny on one and a carrot on the other. I splurged a little bit on the yarn and bought a cashmere/merino blend wool that feels like butter on your skin. Today, I knit furiously and finished one of the mittens. It was so pretty (if you ignore the poor photographs):





Too Tight! Too Short! Aaaaagggghhhhh!

Why did this happen? It could possibly be because I Didn't. Bother. To. Swatch. WHY do I keep starting projects without swatching? Why? I know that my gauge is wonky. It's been wonky for the past 30+ years. Why would it change now? Depending on the yarn, the type of pattern and the alignment of the moons, I either knit too loose or too tight. I know this about myself, and yet once I have the yarn in my hands, I get impatient and want to start knitting. Despite the fact that I am usually quite pessimistic, a little optimistic voice pipes up and says "It will be fine! Just do it!"

Which leads me to the Murder. After I finished the main part of the Rabbit mitten, I tried it on. It fit, but it was a little tight and WAY too short. I started picking up the stitches for the thumb, but the little optimistic voice had turned nasty on me and was now saying "You spent a lot of money for that yarn and now you'll never wear these malformed mittens. Rip them!" So I took a couple of pictures for posterity and frogged the entire thing. I'm going to go up one needle size and DO A SWATCH to see if I can get the correct gauge before starting them again.

I did learn some valuable lessons. First, I had a really hard time picking up the live stitches for the thumb, mostly due to the fact that I used a fuzzy piece of scrap yarn to hold them. Next time, I'm definitely using mercerized cotton. Also, I'm going to make a few small changes in my design that I think will improve it quite a bit. And I promise I'm going to swatch everything from now on. Really.

We Call Them Pirates

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Originally uploaded by lilybug1

My latest knitting project, let me show you it.

This is a hat I'm working on for Jim. I am enjoying it so much. It's a quick knit and the two color pattern keeps it interesting. Jim likes the skull and crossbones pattern, but he expressed a minor fear that people might think he was a role-playing game geek if he wears it. Duh...people would think he was a pirate geek, which is so much cooler!

This hat required something called a provisional cast on. I've never heard of it, but Ravelry had a helpful tutorial in its wiki, so I used that as a guide. Basically, I did a cast on that incorporated live stitches on a piece of waste yarn directly under the cast-on stitches. I've knit the outside of the hat, and the next step is to turn the hat upside down, put the live stitches on a circular needle, and knit the lining of the cap in the other direction! I have to pick up a US 1 circular needle before I can start the lining.

The only thing I would change about this project is the needle size. I used worsted weight wool instead of sport weight, and I think the hat would be a bit more roomy if I'd used US 4 needles instead of US 3. I tend to knit a little more tightly when I use two colors than I do when I'm working with one. Also, Jim's head is a bit larger than normal (this probably explains my two giant-headed babies). I'm going to wait and see how the fit is once the lining is stitched in. I may have to knit a second hat in a larger size for Jim and keep this one for myself!


If you are interested in this pattern, it is available for free here. If you visit Hello Yarn, check out the rest of the free patterns. I'm thinking of doing the Squirrel and Acorn Mittens next. And get thee to Ravelry, knitters. It is so worth it.

Lily's Branching Out Scarf and Other Projects

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Originally uploaded by lilybug1

So I've been on Ravelry for several days and it's motivated me to get a few projects done. One of my projects is the Branching Our Scarf from Knitty.com. I've actually been working on this scarf since before Christmas.

It started when I joined the December Gift Exchange (DGE) on my parenting board. Basically, each person who signed up was given a random person to buy for. The person who bought for you was not the person that you were buying for, so it was like a Secret Santa program in that respect. Anyway...my DGE pal Renee sent me some beautiful moss green yarn along with the other presents in my package. I hadn't worked on a knitting project in a while, so I hunted around and found the Branching Out pattern. It was billed as a relatively easy lace project that would work with pretty much any yarn.

I took the project to California with me and started working on it. At first, I couldn't get past the first three rows of the lace pattern. No matter how carefully I worked, I always ended up short of stitches. It didn't help that the yarn was so fluffy that it obscured the pattern. I ended up throwing in the towel after working two or three repeats of the pattern and ripping them back about eight times.

Fast forward to January. I'm back home from our Christmas trip and I figure my problem with the scarf pattern was that the yarn was not ideal for lace work. I pick up a skein of inexpensive yarn with a little less fluff at Michaels and start the scarf over. Surprise! I end up having the same problem following the pattern.

I'm nothing if not tenacious, so I recast the moss yarn and give it another go. Nope. Still can't seem to follow that pattern. I tried it with some worsted weight wool. Nope, still can't do it. I tried some multicolored chenille yarn. Nope. I tried solid chenille yarn. Nope, still can't get through an entire repeat without ripping back.

I put the project away for a while and then bought some cheap ecru cotton yarn from WalMart. On the way home, I checked out a new yarn store and bought some gorgeous alpaca lace weight yarn. I figure one of these yarns is going to do the trick.

Sadly, my gorgeous alpaca yarn required much smaller needles and I quickly saw that working in a smaller stitch was just exacerbating my problems with the pattern. I put the alpaca aside for another project and pulled out the cheap cotton yarn.

I wish I could tell you that I was magically able to follow the pattern, but I still had problems. The cotton was much easier to work with in that I could see the pattern clearly and it was easy to rip back a few rounds to correct whatever problem was going on. I started with the cotton on Sunday and finished it up today. That being said, I still had to rip back at least three rows every repeat of the pattern! I decided that the finished project was going to Lily, because it was a perfect excuse to make a much shorter scarf than originally planned. Lily loves the lacy look and was pleased to have the scarf.

Because I'm a masochist, I decided to go ahead and cast on my next project, which is a lace patterned cardigan for Lily. I'm working this project in a much nicer quality mercerized cotton and on much smaller needles. The pattern is another that I got form Knitty. Unlike the scarf pattern, however, which had both written instructions and a chart for the lace pattern, the sweater pattern only has the charts. I'd avoided using the chart for the scarf because it looked too complicated to me and I'd never worked from a chart before. In fact, I may have even said "I'm not using that newfangled looking thing." I might have even said that out loud.

Unfortunately, I'd already shown Lily the cardigan pattern and the yarn, so I couldn't turn back from that project. I bit the bullet and sat down to figure out the chart. Guess what? Knitting from the chart is a breeze and I haven't had any problems with dropped stitches of pattern mistakes so far! It's so much easier to work from the chart. That'll teach me to fear trying something new when it comes to knitting.

Lily loves her new scarf and posed for a picture so that I could post it here and on Ravelry. After a few months go by, I might try knitting another of these scarves from the chart. It really is a quick project...or would be without all the frogging.


So there you have it.

A Busy Weekend For Us

Wow. We've been really busy! And it's been fun.

On Thursday, Jack and I dropped Lily off at school and then headed over to the butcher shop. I've probably mentioned that one of our money saving life changes was to purchase meat and fish directly from the butcher and fish market. The prices are slightly less and the product is so much fresher. Anyway, I go to both about once a week, and Jack always comes with me. On the way, Jack kept talking about the Book Man and getting frustrated because I couldn't understand him. When we got out of the car at the butcher shop, Jack pointed to the store and said "Book Man give a lolly?" Ah HA! Book Man equals Butcher Man! Jack always gets a candy or lolly from the butcher, so it's an event he clearly looks forward to. In fact, as soon as we walked in and I ordered, Jack grabbed my hand and said "Where my lolly?" One track mind.

After picking up some stew beef and ground pork for Jim's awesome chili, we went to check out the yarn sale at Michaels. I got some good deals on worsted weight wool, which I plan on using to make Jim a hat and mittens. I also picked up the yarn I'm going to use for Lily's pink cotton sweater, which will be my next project after I finish crocheting my blue sweater (I have a sleeve and a half left).

Once we got home, Jack played and I spent some time updating my Ravelry account. I love Ravelry! I put up photos of my works in progress and my yarn stash, and joined some discussion groups. I was thrilled to find out that there is a Monday Night Knitting group that meets a few minutes away from my house in Saugus. I'm probably going to head over there tomorrow night to (hopefully) make some new crafty friends.

I also got online and taught myself the continental style of knitting. I'm working on a felted bag that Jill (my sister-in-law) developed, which is all knitting since it is worked in the round on a circular needle. I've been practicing with that project.

Thursday night was my monthly scrapbooking crop. I didn't get much done, but really enjoyed hanging out with my girlfriends and gossiping about the goings on in Melrose. I hadn't seen my friend Kelly since before Christmas, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Apparently, one of the men working on the house next door to us walked outside, looked at Kelly standing in her driveway and then PEED right in front of her. Good to know, since the kids play outside when the weather is warm enough. I would prefer to keep them away from crazy construction workers who expose themselves. Yuck.

Friday morning, the snow started coming down pretty fast. We ended up getting at least 9 inches by the time it ended. Jim's office closed at 2pm so that the workers could get home before rush hour when the snow was predicted to be at its worst. We spent Friday hanging out and playing together as a family while it blew snow outside. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday, the kids played outside in the snow. I worked on some stuff around the house and made good progress on my blue sweater project. In the afternoon, we all went to the North Shore Mall and picked up some baby gifts for our friends John and Wendy. The kids each had some fresh fruit salad and a croissant for early dinner and then we headed home. Jim had to go to his annual fraternity banquet that evening. He ended up staying out until 3 am catching up with his friends from college.

Jack had a bad dream on Saturday night and was able to tell me about it. I heard him calling "Mama! Papa!" over and over, so I went upstairs. When I asked him what was wrong, he said "Fiahfucks! Fiahfucks!" (his way of saying fire trucks). I asked where they were and he said "Fiahfucks outside my winnow! They outside my winnow." Needless to say, there were no frie trucks outside his window or anywhere near our house, so he must have been dreaming. He fell asleep pretty fast after I rocked him and calmed him down.

Lily and I had a little Girls' Night after Jack got to sleep. We talked about the sweater I am planning to make for her, about kindergarten and some other things that Lily was worried about. The parents of her close friends just got separated and are living apart. Lily is very worried that Jim and I will stop loving each other or move into separate houses. I assured her that was not the case. If Lily is this concerned, I can;t even imagine how confused and scared her friends are! Lily and I drew some mermaids together and then she went right off to sleep. I spent a quiet evening working on my knitting projects and watching movies.

Today I went to my new hair stylist for the first time. She is the mother of one of the little girls in Lily's ballet class. Her hair always looks very cool and her salon is not as expensive as my current place, so I asked for her business card. I basically told her to do whatever she wanted with my hair and I absolutely love it. The color is gorgeous and the cut is exactly what I wanted -- and I didn't even discuss it with her. Not only that, but she got my hair done much faster than my other stylist so I had a little "me" time walking around the North Shore Mall, where the salon is located. I ended up picking up some clothes that were on sale at Gymboree. Lily apparently went almost directly from a 3T to a 5, barely pausing to wear size 4. All of her shirt sleeves are suddenly too short. Sadly, she has inherited my mother's and my monkey arms. She was also in dire need of new pajamas, which were also on sale.

We spent the rest of the day at home, playing with the kids. Lily is really into making up puzzle games right now. She draws a picture and hides either letters or numbers in the drawing, and then we have to circle the hidden characters. She's pretty creative in making them a part of her drawing. She also drew a picture of herself eating a purple plum, and wrote "POML," which she explained was the word "plum." We were very pleased that she basically got all of the sounds and we helped her figure out how to put the letters in the right order. Then she figured out hello by spelling "HLLO." She is getting very good at writing and spelling by herself. My favorite message was "Mama is the beast of all Lily," written when she was mad at me. The actual message read "MAMA BST OL LILY." I was very proud of her work even though she thinks I am the beast of all. Unfortunately, she also used her new spelling and writing skills to write all of our names in black grease pencil on the cloth seats of our dining room chairs. She wanted us to know where we were supposed to sit. She wrote Jack's name on his plastic high chair tray, so only three chair seats are ruined. Since I'm planning to paint the dining room anyway, I'll just add picking up some cloth to recover the seats to my to do list.

Jim and Lily are drawing up some plans for a garden. Her other new interest is drawing plans for houses, aircraft, playgrounds and other places. She draws pictures to explain how these things will be used. Maybe she'll become an architect?

Greetings from Sick World!

Now we have flu in the house. Who knew that even if one gets herself vaccinated and vaccinates both of her children, she can still get the flu? I admit, I knew on some level that the vaccine didn't cover every strain of flu, but I figured the odds were slim to none of catching something. We think I caught it from the neighbor's boy, who was actually taken to the ER for his because it caused a terrible asthma attack. Anyway, between that and the lingering Cold of Doom that keeps going around our house, there hasn't been much motivation for me to blog lately. I'm just praying that neither of the kids comes down with it, because there was much vomiting involved and I really don't want to go through that again, even as a bystander.

In other news, I have a few new interests that I want to share. First, I'm really excited about joining Ravelry.com, which is a forum for people who love to knit and crochet. I'm still on the waiting list for my invite, but I should be on-line there some time next week. I've found several projects to put in my queue and I'm currently working on two knitting projects and a crochet project. A bunch of the cool ladies from my parenting forum are already on line and we've been talking about and trading projects already, so I think belonging to a forum dedicated to needle arts will be fun! I bid on a set of 15 pairs of bamboo knitting needles (0-17) in anticipation and won the auction for $14.97 (including shipping). All of my old needles were destroyed in the Great Flood of Our Basement in 2006. So I encourage everyone who knits to join and friend me once you get on (or e-mail me to let me know if you're already a member). C'mon, it's fun!

My other interest right now is decluttering. My mom found a great blog where a woman is trying to get rid of 365 things in a year by donating, selling, free-cycling or throwing them away. I think it would be fun to document my own attempt to declutter, so I may start posting about that once a week. It will be a motivation to get rid of all our extra junk. I'm proud enough that I emptied and organized (1) our nightmare of an office; (2) the guestroom closet; and (3) Lily's two bedroom closets. This is the first time all of the closets on the first floor are neat enough that I wouldn't mind a stranger walking in and opening them. Even better, when I need to lay my hands on something, I can quickly find it in one of my anal-retentively labeled IKEA storage boxes! It gives me an overwhelming sense of omnipotence, I have to tell you.

My third interest is collecting Adams Calyx ware in the Regent pattern. You can see several examples of it here. The pattern was my great grandmother's, and she gave my mother all of her china. Since the pattern I chose at 23 when I got married no longer matches my taste, I decided I would add to my mother's collection. After a couple of months of eBay, I have 4 complete place settings (teacup, saucer, bread plate, salad plate and dinner plate). I've found I can get them much cheaper on eBay than on Replacements.com. I think I'll save Replacements for those items that are particularly hard to find, like the cream and sugar set and the salt and pepper set. I'm going to ask Jim to buy me the teapot for my next birthday/Mother's Day/Wedding anniversary extravaganza! It's a little dear, so I figure it could count for all three presents.

Anyway, these are my latest obsessions. The crocheting project (a sweater for me) is the only thing keeping me sane as we enter week 8 (or is it 9? 10?) of being bound to the house by sickness and/or bad weather.

Also, I know I keep mentioning all of the terrific pictures I have to show here and upload on my Snapfish account, and then leaving you all hanging. Someday soon I'll gather the fortitude necessary to get them on my computer and uploaded. You know from experience that uploading pictures to my blog can become an epic battle between me and the force of evil that is Blogger. The thought of doing it now just makes me too tired for words. I have a movie to show you, too. I'm really nervous about that one because I've never tried to upload and post a movie before.

AND....now that you have patiently waded through my personal news, here's what you were all really waiting to read: Two stories by Lily as well as an in-depth interview!!!

The Bird

Once upon a time there was a bird. He flied in the sky, but he was hungry. He saw a berry tree, he went down to it. He liked the berries on that tree. He was so happy he called his friends over. The end.

lily mama (typed by Lily herself. I believe it is meant to show that she made up the story and I typed it for her.)

Lily: I want to tell about a good thing. I want to tell another story.

The Shy Kitten

Once upon a time there was a shy kitten. He would not go near a house. He knew somebody would get him out because that was a house where no one liked kitties. So he went to see his friend, Butterfly. And he helped Butterfly gather nectar for his family. Then he helped him gather the flowers. He went through the flowers and took some flowers for his mom and gave them to her. The end.

lily mama (typed by Lily herself)

Interview with the Author, Lily Deeds

Mama: How did you like having Emma (her neighbor friend) overnight this weekend?

Lily: I liked it.

M: What did you do?

L: I played with her.

M: what did you play?

L: I played makeup.

M: How did you play makeup?

L: We put it on by finger, but we washed it off.

M: What else did you play?

L: I liked playing with her.

M: What time did you go to sleep?

L: I don't know.

M: Did you stay up late?

L: No, we stayed up all night.

M: Were you tired the next day?

L: Yes.... No.

M: Is it yes or no?

L: No.

M: What is your favorite color?

L: Pink.

M: Why?

L: Because I like the color it makes.

M: What is your favorite food?

L: Ice cream and cake! (Makes slurping sound) Lots of sweet stuff is what I like!

M: What is your favorite cartoon show?

L: Whatever you say my favorite cartoon show is... Secret Squirrel and Adam Ant. I like Secret Squirrel, he's secret!

M: What do you think about your brother Jack?

L: I think he is a very odd baby.

M: Why?

L: Because I like how funny he is.

M: What does he do that's funny?

L: He pretends to go to work. He pretends to go to work.

M: What is your favorite book?

L: If you say so, my favorite book is Lily's Plastic Purse.

M: Why is that your favorite?

L: Because she has glasses with a chain like Mr. Slinger, her teacher, and she has shiny coins that are jingly, and when her purse is open it makes music!

M: Are we done with the interview?

L: No! Ask me another question, like "How do you like your cat?"

M: How do you like your cat?

L: I love him because he's a soft friend.

M: How do you like having parties here?

L: Because I do like them here, because there's cake and there's always a balloon to take home.

M: What do you think will be different about you when you're five?

L: Because I'll be five years old and I won't really know. Because I'll be bigger than four.

M: What do you think kindergarten will be like?

L: It will be fun but I haven't got used to it yet, so I'll try it a few more times.

M: What's your favorite thing to do at preschool?

L: Color!

M: What kind of things do you like to color?

L: Paper, but they have lots of drawing inside things.

M: Are we done with the interview?

L: No.

M: What kind of things to you draw on the paper?

L: Lots of fun things, but there's lots of things to color inside of.

M: Who are your friends at school?

L: All of my friends. All of the friends in school are my friends.

M: If you could buy any outfit, what would it be?

L: It would be a pretty dress. A white dress with pretty yellow flowers and a tiara that was purple with pretty little gems on it. If my cat wored [sic] a dress it would be so funny. I would like it if my kitty Oskar would wear a dress. It would look do funny on him!

M: What thing to you hate the most?

L: I hate the most because... because I don't like to go to bed.

M: What food do you hate the most?

L: I hate the most dinner, because it doesn't taste as good as dessert.

M: What color do you hate the most?

L: None.

M: What clothing do you hate the most?

L: None.

What's your favorite number?

L: 4. Because it's me, I am four!

M: What's your favorite letter?

L: Oh, L. It's in my name!

M: Is there anything else about you that you'd like to tell

L: Yeah, I like how pretty my hair is.

M: Is that it?

L: Yeah. Now you can write some of your stuff. You can write a story or something.