Erica’s Blog

Got this from Cee, who got it from dis gal, who got it from dis gal, etc., etc. (six degrees of Kevin Bacon????).  Anyhow, turn on your iPod, set it on shuffle, and jot down the first 10 songs it plays.  Here’s what the nano did for me today:

1. Let Her Cry - Hootie & the Blowfish

2. Let’s Fall in Love - Diana Krall

3. Feel So Different - Sinead O’Connor

4. Blue Train - Page & Plant

5. Tell Me What - Fine Young Cannibals

6. Summer Days - Michael McDermott

7. Fame - David Bowie

8. Long Way Down - Luce

9. The Kids Are Alright - The Who

10. Take The Money And Run - Steve Miller (acoustic, live, w/o the band)

Oh, and Hubby and Dani, consider yourselves tagged….

BTW, as long as we’re talking about Cee, check out her tres cool knitting needles on Etsy:  here.  Edited later:  Welllll, OK.  She seems to have taken them down for the moment.  To see them, go to her blog and scroll down.  Lurvely.  Watch her Etsy space for more soon!

Clearly, I’m feeling some kind of deep-seated knitter’s rebellion.  I’m neglecting Olympia, Adri’s scarf, and Noodles’ sweater.  I dunno.  Maybe I just needed a “quick finished object” fix or something.  Anyhow, here’s the latest batch o’ stuff.

 Started out as a too-big baby hat, ended up as a too-small hat, so it became a hat for Baby Erica, Thing Two’s baby doll.

 The last hat for my friend Donna.  Sometimes, ya just gotta make your baby look like an Easter egg.

 Our friend Suzanne is working with an established organization to provide care packages for parents in the intensive care nursery whose babies are dying.  They packets will contain a single-use camera, a list of resources for afterwards, a list of “Other parents in your situation have found it helpful to do these things….”, and…a hat.  I told her I’d make some in white for her, all either preemie, small preemie, or extra-small preemie in size.  This is the first one.  It’s really soft b/c the yarn is Caron’s Simply Soft Brites (as is the yarn in all the above hats).  [Yes, Zib, "petroyarns", but I gotta use up what I got.  Well, the "better" of the petroyarns.  The bulk of them will go to Goodwill or something.]

If you have a family of four, DO NOT allow yourself to run out of laundry detergent.  I repeat, DO NOT.  If you DO run out of detergent and don’t do laundry for two days, the resulting chaos will be…Well…just click on “Read More” to see…

The one good thing about it was that I put on the iPod, clicked on “Recently Added” (Bowie, Manfred Mann, Dave Edmunds, Bonnie Raitt, Seal), and turned folding laundry into aerobic exercise.

Took my pictures for Flash Your Stash yesterday.  Oh, my.  Took 14 pictures to get it all.  Wendy has inspired me to get rid of the big overflowing box of “misc acrylic”.  I mean really now, I’m never going to use it.  I may pull out the rug yarn to make a cat blanket for MarkyMark & Bobcat to use in their feral cat rescue, but that’s about it.  If I’m never going to use it, I’d rather give it to Goodwill and take the tax write-off.  Hubby was less than thrilled with that idea.

But you weren’t supposed to buy any new yarn until you used that up, remember?

Well, yeah, but all that acrylic was given to me.  It was free.  I’m never going to use it. 

That doesn’t count.

Sure it does.

Had Andrei all day yesterday b/c Bobcat had to go in to the office.  Some pretty funny moments.  It’s amusing to see the Things freaking out b/c he’s…being a boy.

Mommy, Andrei wants to cut Wormy in half!

Mommy, Andrei cut Wormy in half!

Mommy, Andrei cut up the pieces of Wormy!

Later, when Thing Two was in the kitchen briefly, she looked at me and calmly declared:

Boys just aren’t girl-like.

All I could think was “Give yourself a few years, and you’ll be REALLY glad of that!”

Attacking the miasma of doom that is Thing Two’s room today.  Ugh.  What a mess.  So far, she’s found one of Andrei’s toys and his bag of “just in case” clothes from his backpack.  Still no Shark Boy.  After we clean up, we’ll have go through and do our post-birthday purge. 

Edited to add:  Never found Shark Boy.  Maybe he’s in the car.  Maybe he’s outside.  Maybe Jenna ate him.

As long as I had the soft yarn out for the chemo caps, I cranked out some baby hats for my friend Donna.  Her baby shower was last weekend.  I didn’t go — still not up to baby showers — but I wanted to give her something for her little girl.  I especially love the argyle one.  Once I clued in that in the round I had to knit the “wrong side” rows in reverse, I was fine.  My friend Ning found it so relaxing to watch me knit that she nearly fell asleep!  Donna’s husband Todd should really like that one b/c it’s like a golf sweater, and he’s a golfer.

I’ve had a headache since yesterday.  Woke up in the middle of the night last night with it at full-migraine state and had to run to the bathroom twice to throw up.  Exhausted most of today, and the headache came back.  Two Excedrin Migraine (max daily dosage) and three or four Tylenol.  Pounded the caffeine b/c it tends to help.  Didn’t knit a stitch today.  Didn’t bake for the teachers.  Ordered groceries too late to get them today.  Didn’t do chores.  Didn’t even get a shower!  Tomorrow will be better, right?

Parent-teacher conference today.  Thing One is doing great in reading, as always, but has fallen behind in math.  Not good.  They can get a 1, 2, or 3 in each area on her report card.  Her reading-related stuff is all 3’s, but her math stuff is mostly 1’s.  Time to do the flash cards every day and push the math computer game.  Why is it that when she’s got a weak area like this, I feel like I’m failing?  Logically, I know she can’t be good at everything, but this isn’t a matter of her getting a B- instead of an A+, you know?  It’s really going to hold her back if she can’t get a handle on this basic math stuff.  Suggestions, anyone?  (Me, I didn’t hit the wall on math till seventh grade and the psycho math teacher….)

JenLa have tagged everyone for this scavenger hunt meme, so consider yourself tagged also:

1. A blog which you think people have not discovered. IMBKARH (Oh, I don’t know.  Maybe everyone out there reads all the same blogs I do.  Then again, maybe not.)

2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically.  Lu’s blog

3. An unusual or weird animal picture.  OK, I got tired of trying to find a truly weird one that’s actually on a knitting blog.  So, this one’s only sorta weird.  (Click on “Read More” to see it; it’s the second picture.)  In case you can’t tell, it’s a squirrel sliding down a pole b/c the owners of the birdfeeder put Crisco on the pole to keep the squirrels out of the birdseed….

4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family members or co-workers.  OK, half the world has seen this, but it’s so classic!  (It was hard to choose for this one.  Almost any post from Wendy or Zib would qualify for this one!)

5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.  The ABCalong.

6. Something you’d like to knit.  Preemie-sized cupcake hats. (One of about a thousand different items on my “to knit” list, but I wanted to give Wool Winder the publicity.)

7. A picture of something you consider beautiful.  (Click on “Read More” below to see; it’s the first picture.)

8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person.  Dani’s blog.  (It was hard to choose, trust me!  I didn’t pick Wendy or Zib b/c at this point it looks like I’ll for sure meet Zib this summer [unless the bird flu gets really, really bad over there], and I might meet get to meet Wendy, HWWV & Girlfriend, too!)

9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.  Helga’s blog.  (It’s in German, but if you click on “Translate This Page” in the left-hand sidebar, you’ll get a somewhat readable English version.  Somewhat.)  Helga’s part of our Tuesday night knitting group, and she’s amazing!

 Chemo caps for my pal Gretchen, a mom from Thing One’s school.  I’ve been kind of in my own little world the past few months, and I just figured out last week that she’s got cancer and is going through chemo.  The good news is that the chemo is “insurance”; she’s doing pretty well.  Anyhow, I really like her, and she’s done a lot for the Things (books, a game, hand-me-downs), so I wanted to do something for her.  Here are the caps I cranked out.  Dontcha just lurve Thing Two’s expression in the pink one? 

PINK:  basic 2×2 rib w/decreases; Caron’s Simply Soft Brites (from my “yarn for baby stuff” box); US size 6 16″ circ & dpn’s

GOLD:  this chemo cap pattern; Lion Brand Wool-Ease; US size 6 16″ circ & dpn’s

BLUE:  cross between the chemo cap pattern and this pattern; Lion Brand Micro Spun (hat tip to Wendy for suggesting a microfiber cap); US size 5 16″ circ & dpn’s

I really do love the pinwheel effect of the decreases.  I wish I’d taken more of a close-up on the pink ribbed one b/c I was so proud of myself for managing to maintain the ribs while I decreased.