The best of summer

It's mid-July (almost) and summer is hitting its stride. I love dusk, when the fireflies come out. Usually, they make their appearance in early June, but this year, I didn't see them until the end of June and I had started to worry (you know, the bee collapse, frogs are disappearing). There's something magical about the flickering glow through the yard, amongst the bushes, up in the treeline. It's even more magical now that the boys are old enough to understand and appreciate how amazing it is. I've had them up late chasing fireflies twice: the first time was a Sunday evening after they came home from their first baseball game (minor league) with their father; the second time was a drizzly July 4th evening while their father and I were talking to the police and getting a report regarding the damage to his car (someone backed into his car, damaging the hood and grille).

We got a bit into the magic of fireworks, too: when we opened the door to the two police officers on July 4th, Boy E said, "Ooh, look at the fireworks!" One of the neighbors was setting off fireworks in his yard, which is illegal here. One of the police officers muttered, "I don't want to hear it." That's life in a small town! While the police officers were doing their best to ignore the fireworks and to avoid having to bust the neighbor, Boy E kept exclaiming each time one went up. Then the other police officer looked over and said, "Oh man, a roman candle!" Fortunately, we were able to "distract" them. But I have to laugh--they were trying their darndest to avoid having to go over and the neighbor, unknowingly, kept escalating the situation!

I also have a new treat this summer: I have been noticing a cardinal pair spending a lot of the time in the shrub (pretty much a tree) in front of my study window. My desk is under this window, so I spend a lot of time eyeing these birds. Yesterday, I realized there must be a nest, and was able to find it, shielded by a few leaves. Today, I watched as the fledglings shakily jumped to the edge of the nest and surveyed their surroundings. What a treat for me! I hope they stick around...maybe I should fill my birdfeeder.

On the knitting front, I once again cast on the Koigu Daydreams blanket (check out my previous troubles here. This round is on ravelry here. I've used ugrzanna's correction and knitabull's correction, and some math and rewriting of my own, and I think I'm getting somewhere. I'm about 10 rows in on the large center triangle and I finally have 4 points showing up--it should be a triangle when sewn...although that may be an ambitious prediction at 10 rows in.

I'm also working on my second Koigu Kersti garter stitch scarf. It's perfect mindless knitting, and great for working on when I'm waiting for the camp bus. I took pictures of the yarn yesterday with my iPhone, and I think I couldn't keep the iPhone steady enough, but it's a picture:



Oh, and I'm nowhere on Summer of Socks. So be it.

It's 9 a.m. and here's what I've accomplished

1. disciplined biting son at 6:30 a.m. and dealt with resulting hysteria;

2. disciplined son (not biting son) for waking up baby sister;

3. informed baby sister she is not coming out of crib yet and to stop screaming;

4. read 1/2 of discipline book to figure out what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it;

5. got myself washed and dressed (at 7:20 a.m.);

6. got sons ready for camp (use bathroom, put on sneakers, put lunches and water shoes in backpack, spray sunscreen;

7. play games with children and wave at garbage truck until camp bus comes;

8. bring in our and neighbor's garbage cans;

9. speak with contractor about parents' roof leak and get referral for my slate roof repair;

10. eat breakfast;

11. consult with sister-in-law (early childhood development specialist) about discipline;

12. watch the cardinal parents feed their young in the nest in the tree outside my study window.

Gee. that doesn't seem like much...it seemed much busier when I was doing it!

Anyway, last night, I finished crocheting Muno (of Yo Gabba Gabba fame) from this pattern:



I just need to embroider Muno's eye, mouth and teeth.

Two months in bullets

It's been a while since I posted anything of anything, so I think I'll just hit the highlights. Thanks to AmpuTeeHee for the idea!

Here it goes...ready?

* GI consults resulting in crash course in remedial toilet training for one boy with negligible success, leading to CHOP consult next week (hoping for the best and trying to avoid a breakdown (mine));

* a fabu 38th birthday celebration (mine) with great knitting swag and awesome party favors!;

* a disputed case of head lice based on purported evidence in one child 5 days before vacation resulting in all children being sent home from school and generalized but contained hysteria and chaos in the house, with the attendant shampooing of children, and washing and vacuuming of every toy and surface and bedding in the house. End result: no head lice in any child including the alleged patient by evening, and three boys with buzz cuts;

* a low blood sugar episode rolling into panic episode while traveling at highway speeds on the New Jersey Turnpike three days later. (Every time I get that damn anxiety under control it leaks out another way);

* a call from the police the day before vacation regarding what turned out to be a non-incident but raised anxiety levels of entire family;

* the discovery 22 hours before takeoff that previously packed suitcases are too heavy and damaged to take on trip resulting in crazed trip to purchase new luggage and repack same;

* a successful 10-day family vacation (husband around weekends only). Yes, I can wear high heels and take a fish off a hook. Three loads of laundry per day. Wake up 2-3 times per night for disoriented children/children who have fallen out of bed/children who are annoyed by the sibling who is sharing his/her room. Put in request for second vacation...alone;

* return from vacation one week before day camp begins and immediately call nursery school director to see if triplets can attend nursery school camp for one week (starting next day) until day camp starts;

* raging case of pinkeye (mine) following our association pool's season-opening pool party last Friday. Run halls of house screaming "Noooooooo!" and examining children's eyes (without touching them) to see who else is infected and would be unable to start camp;

* three head lice-free and pinkeye-free boys successfully start day camp on the bus;

* day 2 of camp = day 1 of toilet training for smart and completely uninterested two-year-old daughter;

* battle with insurance company and collection agency over unpaid bills medical bills from three years ago. Yes, I am the only one who has a clue about what's gone on for the past three years and the only party involved who is not in violation of the Fair Claims Processing Act (a specialty of mine prior to triplets) and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (as per husband) is me. Apparently, doctors do not know how to bill appropriately and insurance company does not know how to process claims properly and collection agency does not care. You will find my head exploded and my eyeballs stuck to the ceiling by tomorrow morning;

* repeat mantra of "take two steps away from your brother," "keep your hands to yourself," "we don't call names in this family" every five minutes until children are turned over to school/resort camp program/pre-school camp program/day camp bus counselors, and resume no later than five minutes after children are returned;

* Oh, some knitting and crochet:

The Topsy Turvy Doll (details can also be found here on Ravelry):




The picture of the purple dress shows the doll before I made the bonnet tie and hair--I'll post those when I can do another shoot.

I also finished the Loop garter stitch koigu scarf:




Who knew taking self photos in the bathroom mirror would be so hard? It doesn't help that I'm breaking out like a teenager for some unknown reason (what did I say about stress earlier?), so the position of the camera relative to my face is equal in importance to capturing the scarf.

In casting-on news, last month, Mom and I started our own Funky Monkey knitalong. In the race to the finish (because we're competitive in a non-competitive way), I made a crucial error:



Yes, in my race to get ahead of Mom while she was at work, I put the tail on the front of the body instead of the back. Apparently, my competitiveness overwhelmed my common sense, resulting in lost time ripping out. Here is the monkey now:



Now that I finished the Topsy Turvy Doll, I think this is the next on the list to finish. Oh, and I used the monkey as an excuse to learn Magic Loop (from the pamphlet, of course).

And, I joined Summer of Socks again. I received some great sock club yarns, just haven't been able to cast on yet (it takes more time than I thought to pack three camp bags and make three camp lunches every night). It's almost 9 p.m., so time to pack, then shower, then maybe wind yarn for first pair of SOS socks.

How to feel old, Part II

So, I think I'm finally over the trauma of nearly passing out at the gym in March (or was it February?). No, I haven't back. But after catching sight of The Couch-to-5K Running Plan on someone's blog, I decided to get back on the horse. Not yet fully recovered from the humiliation of nearly passing out at the gym, I hit my mom's treadmill. Whereupon, for the first time ever in my not-as-short-as-it-used-to-be life, I felt my ass bounce violently, the vertical manifestation of the tricep wobble. How did that happen?!

Has it been a whole month? I hardly remember the projects I mentioned in the last post. Well, I remember the amigurumi goldfish. I've now finished three of them, but can only show you the second one, knit in Lamb's Pride (I think), with sewn eyes because I couldn't find safety eyes:






Feeling slightly guilty, and much taken with the fun of crochet, I made a cupcake purse for Baby Girl from another Amy Gaines kit:



The only modification I made was to tie the drawstring ends together without the beads. Baby Girl is only 2-1/2 (although she thinks she's 4), and has a definite tendency to put things in her mouth. She's enjoyed the purse and has used it to carry her toy animal figures around (she likes them in pairs: "I need two for a family," she tells me). Boy M tried to poach it, so now Mom is knitting him a Buddy Bag.

The only downside to all this crochet: I've hurt my left shoulder. I think it's from having to manipulate the stuffed fish body while trying to crochet the last few rounds of decreases. But I'm done with fish for a while. I've actually cast on a new project, Blue Sky Alpacas' Eyelet Cardigan. I was on gauge right out of the box--shocker!--and made it too far into the pattern before I checked ravelry and found alltangledup's modifications which make a lot of sense. I'm just going with the pattern and trying not to think about it. I also can't make the sweater longer, since I raided Mom's stash for the yarn, and only have 4 skeins. I'm just hoping for the best!

I brought my unfinished Summer Solstice sock with me for the big friends' 40th birthday trip to Las Vegas. Tons o' fun, Vegas is! Good food, great company. A little Cirque du Soleil--Ka is amazing!--and my first try at gambling! I should just light the money on fire, though I was only $11 down. I didn't get to knit much, maybe a little on the return flight--my favorite airport experience was when the TSA guy, while contemplating whether I was going to be allowed to keep my metal KnitPicks dpns, asked me, "are you going to take them out during the flight?" To which I replied, "Well, yes, if I'm going to knit." He let me pass. I guess I didn't look that dangerous.

The boys' 4th birthday party was fabulous fun and went off without a hitch. Now we're on a school break, and we're trying to keep busy all day long. Fortunately, we have excellent, almost-summer weather, which keeps us outside all day long. The plus side is that the kids are totally knocked out at bedtime; the downside is that I'm also knocked out, which is not good for project progress. Did I mention that in the past two weeks, Baby Girl has come into her two-ness?

March Madness

Ever since college, March Madness always hit hard. I went to Duke, and Duke won its first Men's Basketball National Championship my senior year. Need I say more?

Although I never imagined that my March Madness would turn into what it is today. The triplets turned 4 (!) last week, so we spent the week celebrating--loads of fun but exhausting! And the first official birthday party with friends is happening next week...I have to wrap up those last details.

Also, last March nearly killed me with everyone, not just the kids, but everyone, being so sick. We're holding our own on that front. In comparison to last March, the stomach virus was a blip on the radar. And for more excellent news, we were at the pulmonologist today, and he reported that the boys seem to be outgrowing their asthma. Hooray! Though I'm not sure how long it will take me to outgrow the fear and dread that strikes each time someone starts coughing.

My knitting has been...neglected? I'm not sure that's the right word. I've been describing my situation as "Knitting Malaise." I'm dissatisfied with pretty much everything I've got on the needles. That's no mean feat: I have 3-4 pairs of socks in progress; a knitted doll that I picked up at Stitches East intending to make it for Baby Girl for the holidays, and am shooting to finish it for her birthday at the end of the summer; a Clapotis; a Tulip baby sweater; the Blue Sky Alpaca Cropped Sweater that I frogged and need to re-swatch (not that gauge was the problem); the Decadent Fibers baby blanket that I bought at Stitches two years ago and had to basically re-write the pattern; and, I'm sure there are others that are just not coming to mind. I was doing well with the Rockin' Sock Club Serendipity sock, but I'm not sure if the sock is too tight, I'm turning the heel and have messed up the short row wraps a few times, plus I think something in the stitch pattern may have hurt my arm, or maybe that was just the chair I was sitting in. I find myself toting around 6 or 7 projects but not even working on them, instead, I'm reading knitting blogs and cruising Ravelry. Or I find myself at the end of the day being just too tired to do anything without totally messing up the project, such as wraps on a short row heel.

But on Sunday, when I found myself at my mom's for several hours without a project, I raided her stash for something to cast on--thereby breaking my unvoiced intention for the year to not cast on a new project until I finished something on the needles. Instead of palming some cashmere, or one-of-a-kind handpainted fabulousness from her mini-yarn store, oops, I mean stash, I went for...crochet. Amigurumi, to be exact. This Amy Gaines goldfish, but a kit.

The goldfish is, obviously, adorable. The kit is so cute--it comes in a Chinese food takeout carton with yarn, safety eyes, fiberfill, sewing needle and a crochet hook. The pattern is clearly written and gauge seems to be irrelevant--great for a "jump in blindly" project. It's load of fun, except for the incredible splittiness of the yarn, which means I crochet really slowly. But there's plenty of room for forgivable mistakes. Like not weaving in the yarn tail from the beginning ring of the body. And mildly understuffing the body. And putting the safety eyes in asymmetrically. And sewing the tail on horizontally instead of vertically (mental note: check placement of eyes before sewing tail to body in order to determine proper alignment). And the best part...Boy E keeps asking if he can have it, and the other boys want one too. I guess I'm not doing that badly.

So, because I need to look at the fish to crochet it, I decided to rustle up a project I could work on while watching Dancing With the Stars, the last element of my March Madness. It's my number one guilty pleasure! So while the children were watching the Curious George movie, I re-swatched and cast on the Decadent Fibers Creme Puff jacket--I purchased the pattern from the Decadents at Stitches this past year, and the yarn from Karida at Neighborhood Fiber Co. It's superbulky--2 sts/inch on US 17. Maybe I can finish it relatively quickly and still wear it before it's seriously warm out. But I found a typo in the gauge: it said 2 sts/inch, 9 sts/4 inches. I did the math based on the finished dimensions and found that it is definitely 2 sts/inch. The directions for the back are a little confusing so I'm kind of revising them and hoping for the best. I'm knitting in the waist shaping and am hoping it works out. If not, and I have to rip it out, at least I'll feel that I only spent a few days knitting it instead of months. Oh, and in finding the link, I'm noticing that the Decadent's yarn does not seem to be thick and thin like the yarn I'm using. But my sister the style maven and Karida both thought it would work, so we'll see. Otherwise, I'll have to do some sort of pullover, but I'm not there yet. And as an extra treat, I'm using the perfect tote that I received in a swap from KaKi.

Hopefully, I'll get the knitting back on track. If not, it may be time to finish a sock monkey blanket from the Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet that I made about two years ago. I just have to seam the squares, which is ridiculously easy and fast, and crochet a few sock monkey faces. Mom needs to help me with that part, though. I've also been thinking of getting Babette out of storage, which, now that I see it's from the Spring 2006 Interweave Crochet, means that it's been in progress since Spring 2006. Oh boy. Did I mention that I have a Mountain Colors sweater in progress upstairs in storage in the attic? And that I bought it at the first Stitches show I attended in, oh, 1996 or so? Let's not go there.

Vacation? Did anyone say vacation?

Yeah, that was me. I got a stomach virus instead...for the whole family (except my husband--the one time working all the time actually works out). My parents won't even come over--and I agree with that. Yesterday, Mom was at Barnes & Noble and picked up some things for the kids and said she was going to drop them off at the front door. I asked, "What? Are you going to ring the bell and run?" And sure enough, the bell rings, my husband opens the door (I'm snoozing in bed) and I hear Mom shouting to him from the car in the road. We're set back at least 50 feet from the road! Seriously!

It started with Baby Girl in the middle of the night on Monday. The most plaintive and unusual cry of "Mommy" at 2:30 a.m., so perplexing to me that I went running in without my glasses. I can't see without my glasses. Pretty much blind. Really. So in my half-asleep and blind state, I made the mistake of reaching into the crib without looking. Enough said. Five minutes later, I had her in the bath. She was better by Tuesday night, and we were all in the clear until Thursday night, when I was felled by the bug. I spent the night on my cold, cold, tiled bathroom floor. I came to in the morning with blocks of ice for feet (mental note: when feet become ice, try sportweight instead of fingering weight hand-knit wool socks) and back and knee pain. I croaked to my husband, "You must stay home today." He took care of school drop-off and pick-up. Fortunately, I had an extra babysitter Friday afternoon, and my nanny was pre-scheduled to stay through Saturday morning because my husband had a meeting and I was supposed to make up my last sewing class. (Oh well, looks like I'm teaching myself how to sew a tote bag.) The bug hit Boy E at 4 a.m. on Saturday, Boy J at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and Boy M at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. I am an expert at late-night bath. And the saddest part: Boy M had missed me so, he was happy to be sick and getting a bath alone with me at 10:30 at night. That is, he was happy until he got sick again. And again. And again.

The good news is everyone is on the mend and is bouncing back better than me. Unfortunately, I have to be off my GI meds until Friday, and I have to call my primary care doctor to see when to restart my antibiotics for the burgeoning sinus infection I was so proud about nipping in the bud last Monday.

Suffice it to say, I don't have any knitting content to report. I just have not been up to knitting, for obvious reasons. I did catch up on my blogging today, though, and just bought this awesome sock kit at Unwind thanks to Lime & Violet's Daily Chum:

“The Red Thread” refers to this Chinese proverb:

“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but it will never break.”

Those simple lines have come to be the heartstone of many families adopting children from China.

The owners of Unwind apparently adopted their daughter from China, and 20% of the retail price will be donated to an organization that provides training for orphanage workers in China. How could I resist?

And for Lici: Yo Gabba Gabba is on Nick Jr. at 11:30 a.m. (I think) and this weekend was starting on Noggin (I didn't catch the time for obvious reasons). We TiVo it on Nick Jr., and my only issue is that the TiVo captures commercials, real commercials, which I don't like the kids to watch; there's no real commercials on Noggin (I don't count sponsorship messages or commercials for other Nick Jr./Noggin shows). Also, I may be taking liberties, but check my comments and email the Minister of Sparks and Lightning if you want to be on the blogger email list.