tryingtogrok.new.mu.nu

June 01, 2010

THREE MONTHS

Today was our baby's three month birthday.
Which means we made her a year ago, tee hee.
This year I made socks instead of a baby...

Or did I...

I do find myself often thinking that I'd like to just go ahead and aim for the second one now, to get all the infant years done at once. If life starts to get too cushy, I am not sure I'll want to go back to the beginning.

But I'm also not sure I want to take care of a baby while I'm pregnant.

I'm definitely sure that I don't have much say in the matter though, and we'll flip another heads whenever a heads comes along...

In the meantime, making us matching socks keeps me happy.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:30 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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March 11, 2010

20,000 LEAGUES!

Nearly three years ago, I had the idea to take this photo. I finally got to take it...and Baby couldn't have posed better if she were an actor! Well done, Baby. Way to make Mommy's dreams come true.

Posted by: Sarah at 12:14 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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January 17, 2010

KNITTING WHILE PREGNANT

I honestly used to think that knitting was the perfect activity for being pregnant. I imagined resting my hands on my belly and having a nice little shelf to work on.

Yeah, not so much.

I can't really sit up straight anymore without the baby shoving upwards into my lungs, or getting heartburn, or just feeling like I'm being scrunched to death. I can't find a good position for knitting.

Crochet works though, since it's one-handed and I can kinda do it in a Cleopatra side-lying pose. So when I have the energy for anything, it's mostly been crochet.

I wanted to make a pig. I found the perfect cute pattern. I started said pig and discovered he was gonna be about as big as a tennis ball. Cute, but not really what I envisioned for my child to cuddle. I want to try to size him up with some really fat yarn and see if that works.

I also managed to finally finish some lapghans I started ages ago for the VA hospital. My crafting group teased me because every week I would show up, not having made any progress since the week before. Slow going, but they're done, and just in time.

The second one is a lovely pattern found here.

I've also worked on some gifts for other people, but those can't be revealed until later...

Posted by: Sarah at 10:33 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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December 13, 2009

SHE WILL NEVER BE COLD

I finally started having the energy to hold needles for longer than 20 minutes, so I finished three baby sweaters for my very own baby recently. This is my favorite one:

And I know I swore that I wasn't going to do any knitting for anyone else's babies once I was concentrating on my own, but I can't stick with that and have a few things up my sleeve for two other gals.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:37 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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September 30, 2009

KEEPING GUARD

I was so touched to see that WifeUnit and her husband brought the little ewok I made to watch over their new son in the hospital. And that the ewok donned a hazmat suit to join baby in his incubator.

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September 29, 2009

KANGAROO SWEATER

I got my first homemade baby gift the other day. The Girl made an adorable baby sweater, one with a kangaroo pouch! So cute. And right around the same day, MaryIndiana sent a little kangaroo. And, voila...

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September 14, 2009

A PRESENT FOR A NERD BABY

I can finally post a photo of a recent baby gift. WifeUnit's husband is a Star Wars nut, and I have decided that I really get a kick out of making baby presents that are geared towards the dads. So when I learned they were having another baby, I went searching teh internets for a good pattern.

I'm a novice crocheter, but Lucy's pattern wasn't too hard to follow. I just had a hard time with the face fur: I made two heads and a couple different faces until I got the one I liked.

Maybe when the kid is older...this hat?

Posted by: Sarah at 05:16 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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July 29, 2009

IF YOU KNIT A KID A KANGAROO

If I had the energy, I'd be knitting my kid a kangaroo to go with the rest of the menagerie.

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July 20, 2009

PEEK-A-BOO

Stacy commissioned a baby blanket for her son a while back, and she put up pics of him with it. I sure hope he likes it! It looked so small while I was making it and so big now next to a little boy...

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July 03, 2009

PATRIOTIC CROCHET

My local crafting group has been making patriotic lapghans for the VA hospital. These are my contributions.

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May 27, 2009

DREAM JOBS AND NIGHTMARE JOBS

I realized my dream job yesterday. The yarn section at my work just got renovated, so I was hanging new signs, project sheets, and yarn swatches. Hanging in front of the yarn is a sample of knitting so that customers can test what the yarn looks and feels like, something like this:

I had the thought that someone has to make all these little 4"x4" samples. How fun would that be? Dream job.

(I realize they're probably made by machine. Humor me here.)

I also realized that my dream job is decidedly NOT to take all those little squares and sew them together into a big blanket.

Last November, our store collected rectangles for Warm-Up America. It was then my job to single crochet all 56 rectangles together. It took me forever to find the motivation, but the final product is pretty neat.

But definitely not my dream job. I'll make the squares all day long, but someone else can do the finishing.

Posted by: Sarah at 01:30 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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April 27, 2009

PEAS IN A POD

When I visited CaliValleyGirl, we discovered that we both love peas. Neither of us knew this about the other before. So when I found this pattern, I just had to make them for her.

She said her son loves playing with them. I think they turned out really cute.

(And learning this new blog system is gonna be the death of me. It took me forever to figure out how to upload this pic.)

Posted by: Sarah at 06:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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March 23, 2009

FINALLY FINISHED

This bag has been sitting handle-less for, oh, two years. I finally sewed the handles on today.

Made with Patons SWS from this pattern.

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March 18, 2009

MATCHING FRONTS

The Unliberaled Woman commissioned a baby sweater for her niece. I used the Bernat Baby Jacquards yarn and think it ended up pretty cute. And, to toot my own horn, look at how well the patterns on the two fronts match up!

And then she paid me an outrageous sum of money for the little sweater, which was super nice. I want her to hire me to knit for her whole family; she pays way better than my current job.

Check out her blog, whydonjcha. She's feisty.

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February 28, 2009

FOR A BOY OR A GIRL

Remember the gender-less baby I was knitting for? The sweater and blanket got finished and delivered.

The buttons are little puppy faces. I think it turned out really cute.

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January 22, 2009

I HEART THESE OWLS

In knitting news, I have been shirking my vow to knit two rows per day on the aran. I am still working on the second sock. I have been commissioned to make a baby sweater for a friend. I am making a child's chemo cap, which is horribly depressing.

But I want to push everything aside and start on this immediately.

I am in love with that sweater.

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January 16, 2009

IN PROGRESS

Sock knitters will notice that the colorways on the two socks match up exactly, which gives me so much joy.

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January 08, 2009

LEGAL DERP

OK, so here's where knitting and government meet:

The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act Â– passed hastily to bar poisonous foreign products Â– also will require millions of American homecrafters to have each of their products tested at huge cost, ranging from $500 to $4000 per product Â– including their old stock which was manufactured before this law had even been thought up.

So government tried to do a good thing by banning lead toys from China and those beads that turned into the date-rape drug. But they derp-ed it up and forgot to exclude those of us who make baby things from home.

We in the group I belong to are unsure how this affects us. We do not receive monetary donations and we do not sell our items. But we better not be legally barred from making our preemie donations to the local hospitals because of some stupidly worded law. And I don't want people selling on Etsy or Ebay to be affected either.

Kuhr says all the homecrafters of the US 'will become criminals from February 10 if they continue to sell their homemade stock without the required certificate of compliance to prove that it had been tested for dangerous contents such as lead'.

From now on, while I'm knitting my preemie caps, I will be saying in a Beavis voice, "Breakin' the law, breakin' the law."

But seriously folks, we're running out of time before the law takes effect. I plan to make a complaint, and if you are a crafter, I would urge you to do the same.

Formal complaints against this act must be lodged before January 20 2009 Comments must be labeled: Section 102 Mandatory Third-Party Testing of Component Parts'. Lodge complaints to email Sec102ComponentPartsTesting@cpsc.gov

Posted by: Sarah at 11:56 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 I read about this yesterday with regards to how it would affect thrift stores and others in the 2nd hand market. Yard sales will still be okay. I am glad that there has been such an uproar about this, and I hope they change the law.

Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at January 08, 2009 12:10 PM (irIko)

2 This doesn't make any sense! You, for example, are using products that have been purchased and thus should already have been tested before being put on the shelves. Why do they need to be tested again?!?

Posted by: Kiki at January 08, 2009 03:16 PM (P1eqB)

3 OK - I've sent my complaint as logically and politely as I can. I agree with Amritas that it's much more likely ignorance than malice; after all, isn't there some law about unintended consequences, to begin with? ;-)

Posted by: kannie at January 08, 2009 07:46 PM (iT8dn)

4 1. Can I get some gloves with MORE lead in them? Would be great for self defense... 2. if you get arrested, have the hubby post the location. I need some shoot-house practice, anyway. 3. If you ignore the law, like the 20 million or so illegal immigrants, likely the gummint will see it as a problem that's just too large to deal with. 4. Under the new administration, you'll be safe. Just mention one of these tried and true excuses: a. It's for the Children b. It's to help mother gaia, these are all eco-friendly yarns and stuff, made from free-range sheep's wool and all-organic polyester. c. I only knit Che-berets d. It's part of my islamic heritage! You are the infidel! Appease me!

Posted by: Chuck at January 09, 2009 05:46 AM (bQVIy)

5 Okay, so I read about this on HotAir too. And they have a video of a bonafide liberal who realizes "Oh, maybe over govt. regulation DOES hurt business." La - di - freakin - DUH! http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/09/video-regulation-fan-discovers-inner-libertarian-when-it-hits-her-pocketbook/ Imagine that, increases in regulations/inspections actually then increases operation costs among businesses and then businesses decide to pull back or not do any business at all to avoid these additional costs. Businesses are in existence to make money first, social-appeasement second. Non-profits are about social-assistance first, money second. ItÂ’s not rocket science! While I do think not having lead in toys in a good thing - politicians have a tendency to write bills without thinking about real-world ramifications. That's usually because our politicians are ambition-driven law students who have spent their life campaigning but not actually working in the business world. The only thing these types of bills do in terms of a benefit are making it seem like some nimrod politician actually did something in office so he can have a talking point come the next election term. That's why people, especially small business advocates, have a problem with govt. intervention and regulation. We need politicians who know a thing or two about economics from practical experience, not just a Harvard econ 101 class. That way when regulations are created (like safety restrictions on children's toys) there is a way to achieve the mail goal - safety - without interfering in business and job production in our economy.

Posted by: BigD78 at January 09, 2009 11:25 AM (W3XUk)

6 BidD is correct...too many politicians are totally disconnected from the world of those who make and sell things. Too high a proportion of them are lawyers and/or have spent their entire careers in "public service." Sarah, I just linked this post at Chicago Boyz.

Posted by: david foster at January 09, 2009 12:59 PM (ke+yX)

7 I've been following this for quite sometime now. It's pretty ridiculous b'c it's so very vague on so many items. Even the labs you need to send the products to haven't been certified. The list is quite endless. Hopefully they'll get to work and modify this, I understand not wanting lead in kids' products but this law is taking it to an extreme. :-/

Posted by: Penny at January 11, 2009 03:27 PM (5y/PV)

8 > But they derp-ed it up Technogeeks already had a term for this: MUNG It's an acronym. It stands for MUNG Until No Good

Posted by: obloodyhell at January 12, 2009 11:40 PM (IdgIO)

9 > I was thinking the same thing myself, but the paranoid might object by pointing out that homecrafters could mix dangerous materials along with safe, store-bought ones. So expensive tests would be needed to verify the absence of toxic content. Next up: Restaurants will have to send out any dishes to be tested before serving to customers for bacterial, chemical, or other adulterants. This will be passed because someone inadvertently fed a child something and they got sick. ============================ IT'S ALL TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN!!! Surely you CARE about THE CHILDREN, don't you!?!?! ============================ I'm put in mind of an interchange in an old SF book from the 80s: ------- "Marxist truth!", sneered Skashkash. "Marx himself didn't believe it!" "[Prove it!]" "Very well," replied Skashkash. "First, Karl Marx held two values above all others -- the revolution and scientific truth. Second, Marx, a man of undoubted genius, died without ever finishing his magnum opus, 'Das Kapital'. A genius does not die without finishing his life's work - I could cite you examples as nauseum - but Marx lingered for years without finishing 'Das Kapital'." "So what? He got old and sick and couldn't write, but what he wrote was the truth." "No, the reason that Marx never finished his work was that his two prime values, revolution and scientific truth, were in conflict. He had, as you will doubtless recall, set up a progression of social orders, from chatel slavery, to feudalism, to capitalism, to what he called s o c i a l i s m - a kind of unspecified utopia. In fact, there was another step after capitalism available for his study, but he suppressed it, because it was incompatible with his notion of revolution. He called it the 'Oriental Mode of Production' and it was amply demonstrated in Chinese history. It is capitalism made subordinate to the state by means of innumerable petty regulations. You could describe it as enlightened petty despotism, or as symbiosis of the individual and the collective. Had Marx elected to follow scientific truth instead of revolution, he would have predicted what happened in the U.S. after the Great Depression. He would have been a major prophet." - Alexis A. Gilliland, 'Long Shot for Rosinante' -

Posted by: Obloodyhell at January 12, 2009 11:50 PM (IdgIO)

10 P.S. there comes a point beyond which spamguards are stupid and useless: "Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content: c i a l i s" Note that I inserted spaces to get it past the spamguard. The offending componentof the post? "S o c i a l i s m" ----=======-- :-/ If there is a way to do it, you need to add spaces onto the ends of the offending term. And that's not going to stop any bot with a clue, but neither will it as-is.

Posted by: obloodyhell at January 12, 2009 11:54 PM (IdgIO)

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January 07, 2009

ARAN PROGRESS

I'm getting better at the aran pattern; at this point, I am even able to listen to music and sing along whilst knitting. No TV though. But tomorrow night is the Fedex Bowl, and I think I can aran during football.

Don't worry; 2009 won't only be knitblogging.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:18 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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January 01, 2009

CHRISTMAS KNITTERY

Some more photos of recent projects. These are some of the little mitten ornaments I made this year. These two were for The Girl, who was the one who sent me that awesome bracelet, and my mother.

And these are juggling balls I made for my friend. I love how they turned out. Who woulda thought of writing a pattern for juggling balls?

Posted by: Sarah at 02:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.
--The Count of Monte Cristo--

While our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending.
--Deskmerc--

ABOUT SARAH

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Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, WWII, and the Star Wars Trilogy.
--Bart Simpson--

If you want to be a peacemaker, you've gotta learn to kick ass.
--Sheriff of East Houston, Superman II--

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind.
--Jed Babbin--

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
--President John F. Kennedy--

War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours.
--General Patton--

We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over.
--Full Metal Jacket--

Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed.
--Dick Cheney--

The Flag has to come first if freedom is to survive.
--Col Steven Arrington--

The purpose of diplomacy isn't to make us feel good about Eurocentric diplomatic skills, and having countries from the axis of chocolate tie our shoelaces together does nothing to advance our infantry.
--Sir George--

I just don't care about the criticism I receive every day, because I know the cause I defend is right.
--Oriol--

It's days like this when we're reminded that freedom isn't free.
--Chaplain Jacob--

Bumper stickers aren't going to accomplish some of the missions this country is going to face.
--David Smith--

The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results.
--President Bush--

Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.
--John Galt--

First, go buy a six pack and swig it all down. Then, watch Ace Ventura. And after that, buy a Hard Rock Cafe shirt and come talk to me. You really need to lighten up, man.
--Sminklemeyer--

You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting
--General Curtis Lemay--

If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight!
--Patrick Henry--

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.
--President George W. Bush--

are usually just cheerleading sessions, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing but a soothing reduction in blood pressure brought about by the narcotic high of being agreed with.
--Bill Whittle

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.
--General George Marshall--

We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.
--Buzz Aldrin--

America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.
--Dinesh D'Souza--

Recent anti-Israel protests remind us again of our era's peculiar alliance: the most violent, intolerant, militantly religious movement in modern times has the peace movement on its side.
--James Lileks--

As a wise man once said: we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Unless the price is too high, the burden too great, the hardship too hard, the friend acts disproportionately, and the foe fights back. In which case, we need a timetable.
--James Lileks--

I am not willing to kill a man so that he will agree with my faith, but I am prepared to kill a man so that he cannot force my compatriots to submit to his.
--Froggy--

You can say what you want about President Bush; but the truth is that he can take a punch. The man has taken a swift kick in the crotch for breakfast every day for 6 years and he keeps getting up with a smile in his heart and a sense of swift determination to see the job through to the best of his abilties.
--Varifrank--

In a perfect world, We'd live in peace and love and harmony with each oither and the world, but then, in a perfect world, Yoko would have taken the bullet.
--SarahBellum--

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
--Ronald Reagan--

America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for. It will probably be interesting, and it is sure to be large.
--E.M. Forster--

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
--Mark Twain--

The Enlightenment was followed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, which touched every European state, sparked vicious guerrilla conflicts across the Continent and killed millions. Then, things really turned ugly after the invention of soccer.
--Iowahawk--

Every time I meet an Iraqi Army Soldier or Policeman that I haven't met before, I shake his hand and thank him for his service. Many times I am thanked for being here and helping his country. I always tell them that free people help each other and that those that truly value freedom help those seeking it no matter the cost.
--Jack Army--

Right, left - the terms are useless nowadays anyway. There are statists, and there are individualists. There are pessimists, and optimists. There are people who look backwards and trust in the West, and those who look forward and trust in The World. Those are the continuums that seem to matter the most right now.
--Lileks--

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
--Winston Churchill--

A man or a nation is not placed upon this earth to do merely what is pleasant and what is profitable. It is often called upon to carry out what is both unpleasant and unprofitable, but if it is obviously right it is mere shirking not to undertake it.
--Arthur Conan Doyle--

A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself.
--John Stuart Mill--

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference."
--Dave Grossman--

At heart Iâ€™m a cowboy; my attitude is if theyâ€™re not going to stand up and fight for what they believe in then they can go pound sand.
--Bill Whittle--

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
--Alexander Tyler--

By that time a village half-wit could see what generations of professors had pretended not to notice.
--Atlas Shrugged--

I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, "That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too."
--Alabama Worley--

So Bush is history, and we have a new president who promises to heal the planet, and yet the jihadists donâ€™t seem to have got the Obama message that there are no enemies, just friends we havenâ€™t yet held talks without preconditions with.
--Mark Steyn--

"I had started alone in this journey called life, people started gathering up on the way, and the caravan got bigger everyday."
--Urdu couplet

The book and the sword are the two things that control the world. We either gonna control them through knowledge and influence their minds, or we gonna bring the sword and take their heads off.
--RZA--

It's a daily game of public Frogger, hopping frantically to avoid being crushed under the weight of your own narcissism, banality, and plain old stupidity.
--Mary Katharine Ham--

There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
--James Madison--

It is in the heat of emotion that good people must remember to stand on principle.
--Larry Elder--

Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.
--from a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt--

The world economy depends every day on some engineer, farmer, architect, radiator shop owner, truck driver or plumber getting up at 5AM, going to work, toiling hard, and producing real wealth so that an array of bureaucrats, regulators, and redistributors can manage the proper allotment of much of the natural largess produced.
--VDH--

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.
--Marcelene Cox--