momtourage

Knitting slowdown

I've only finished one knitting project since I've been up here in Maine - horrors! Luckily it was a nice warm, machine washable-wool sweater for Hank. Perfect for those surprisingly chilly evenings. I just used a dropped sleeve pattern from my beloved Ann Budd book. And some more of that seemingly endless supply of extra Lamb's Pride superwash. At least now I'm down to only enough left for striped projects.

Boy, it seems like I am always knitting up something painfully practical. Everytime I see something unusual I think perhaps I should be a little bit more creative. Maybe I'll do so when the kids stop outgrowing stuff every few months.

Summer Project: Root Veggie Alien

This is an easy project Sam and I did recently. It's a great way to get the kids engaged at the market when you are shopping and then again at home. This project needs very little supervision for your 4+ y/os.

SUPPLIES
> Toothpicks
> Root Vegetable
> Marker
> Camera

At the grocery have your child pick out their alien's body shape(s): a potato, a jicama, parsnip... it should be sturdy, cause as cool as a star fruit would be it will wilt in 24-36 hours, not as much fun. Once at home have 'em go at it. Toothpicks act as legs, tentacles, arms… "shooters" are Sam's favorite. The marker can draw on a face, or get creative with "googly eyes", etcetera.

At this point in projects we offer Sam the digital camera to document his work/play*. For this project he captured images of his aliens (mostly battling) with his small plastic toys. He winds up creating elaborate, imaginative stories and his perspective, as seen in his pictures, is jaw-dropping cool. The act of photographing inspires the play and visa-versa. During this exploration we take notes about the action (alternately, you can take notes when reviewing the shots), and then we assemble a few images with his words on the computer to create a short story. You can also kick it old school and use a analog camera and make a trip of going to the photo store to get the film developed. Your child can practice writing out their name, address and phone number on the envelope too boot!

Freshly done alien.

When cavemen attack!

Sabertooth Tiger with their friendly amigo "Octopus Banana".
Notice the ice-age mammal spearing poor O.B. in the pie hole ;-(.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

I had every intention of joining in the public knitting festivities, (the nearest location for me was at the Brooklyn Museum of Art) but it was so hot today. The kind of really sticky heat that comes before an intense thunderstorm. I gave it a miss. I knit in public a lot anyway, often toting smaller projects around in my shopping bag where they get all mixed up with pens and loose change.

So in deference to knitting in public day, which I did miss (why is it in June though?) I am posting a picture of my latest finished project. The pattern started as a sporty sweater with a tie collar from Twinkle's Weekend Knits but I made several changes. First of all, I didn't have enough yarn (I used Cascade super-bulky, by the way) to do the 4 dark, 4 light rows of stripes, so I alternated 4 dark with 2 light. Secondly, I guessed that the tie collar would 1) get stretched out 2) be annoying to wear and/or 3) look foolish on anyone except the model so I did a plain old, 2 round 1x1 ribbed crew neck.

When it was finished I was quite pleased with the results. Until I tried it on. Too small!!! As in way too small - I looked like a poorly filled stuffed animal, busting at the seams. Luckily I have a much smaller friend (pictured) whom fit it perfectly. She was happy and I was happy. The sweater is not languishing in my closet and I accomplished some serious stash busting. That weighty yarn takes up so much storage space that it was as if I had knit 3 worsted weight sweaters. Hooray!

Helpful Hints

We weren't daily newspaper readers when I was growing up, but my dad did get the Lewiston Sun Journal every Sunday. I have fond memories of copying pictures from the comics section with my silly putty while he read and related the latest goings-on in Maine. It took me a while to appreciate the hard news stories in the main section, but I often took a gander at Hints from Heloise.
(My dad never read these aloud.) I vaguely remember cleaning advice utilizing lemon juice and baking soda (probably not at the same time). Reading Heloise instilled a sense of the mysteries of household science in me. That, along with repeated viewings of commercials featuring scrubbing bubbles, the Tidy Bowl Man and the aggressive yet affable Mr. Clean, was what the realm of domesticity meant to me for a long time. Until I had to start cleaning and cooking for myself.

So when my mother-in-law forwarded me the following comment from a friend, I almost deleted it without thinking - after all, haven't years of practice and hard work honed my domestic skills enough? Luckily I skimmed it and now I share this wisdom with you. After all, who ever looks at the ends of a box?

"Go look at the ends of your Saran Wrap and your Aluminum Foil boxes. 
Did you ever know 
there are push in TABS on the ends of those boxes to keep the roll 
from popping out of the box when you tear it off???
 
When a friend sent me this little heads up I immediately went and 
checked out my boxes. 
Sure as HECK...there ARE PRESS IN TABS on the ends of the boxes! 
Also, on one box it reads: Press here to lock end". 
Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. 
How long has this little locking tab been there?
I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one,too. 
I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had
one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll 
has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up.
 
I honestly feel like an idiot!! So... go push your tabs in and join 
the 21st century! 
I wonder if I am
the LAST PERSON ON EARTH THAT DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS FEATURE???
 
Was I??"


Ummm - nope. But was I?

a new kitchen

I'm copying oneofhismoms and showing before and after photos of our new home:

Pink Pictures for a Gray Day

It's raining again! Which I guess is extra good news since I just discovered that the DEP can draw water from the Hudson River to replenish NYC's water supplies if the reservoir gets too low. I know that water (even waste water) can be recycled and purified enough to be safely drinkable, but still.

Anyhow, here are some nice pink pictures to brighten up this gray day.

Sam and the azaleas, yesterday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I kept him out of school again as the
class was going on an all-day farm field trip and I didn't think he was up to it. We have a follow-up appointment with his surgeon on Tuesday so I am just trying to keep activities to the minimum until then.

This is a baseball shirt and hat that I knit for my stepsister's baby. She is due in June. It's a great pattern from Knit 2 Together but I adapted it a bit to use up some Rowan All Season cotton I had on hand. I love how the entire raglan shoulder opens up so there's no head squishing anxiety when putting it on. There's supposed to be a kangaroo pocket but I was afraid I'd run out of yarn, so I skipped it and ended up having enough left over for a simple roll-brim hat. I guess I'm not that great at eyeing quantities. I never even peeked under the cover of this book until about a month ago as I found the concept (a celebrity comedienne knitter?) and cover photo (a sweater knit for 2) to be off-putting. Finally I spied a deeply discounted copy on Amazon (new for $5.50) and snapped it up. Turns out it is a great book with lots of patterns I will love to knit. Who knew?

Stash Busting

Back in February, I asked my knitting aunt if I could borrow some of her tried and true kids' sweater patterns. She promptly arrived with a handful of black and white patterns on card stock by Melinda Goodfellow of Yankee Knitter Designs. And you know what? I'm hooked. The patterns are very clearly written, versatile, and just old-fashioned enough to be highly appealing. And no typos or other mistakes in any of the 4 I've done thus far.

Since then I have finished a green English Rib Pullover and Channel Island Guernsey for Sam, a blue Fisherlad Guernsey for Hank and an oatmeal Guilford Guernsey for someone's (ahem) July baby. I've also started on a blue English Rib Pullover for Hank, mainly to use up all of the Lamb's Pride superwash worsted in my stash. Now that I have found the gauge (I had to go to a size 4 when the suggested needle was a 7 - sigh) I'm sticking with it until all that yarn is gone.

I don't know if I got a bad batch of it or it's just the way the yarn is, but this worsted weight seems a lot more like sport weight to me. I know I am a loose knitter but honestly, 3 sizes down?

Here's a detail of the stitch patterns - I like how they break up the sweater but are not so complicated that they prevent me from watching old episodes of Arrested Development while I knit.

On the needles now. I finished the back and am just starting the front. The rib pattern gets a little dull after a while but it knits up into nice thick sweaters - warm but not unduly bulky.

By the way - maybe it's because my kids are a little on the tall (and skinny in Hank's case) side, but I found that adding an extra inch to the overall body length provided a better fit.

Your Cheating Heart...

I'll admit it. I cheated on the food coop yesterday. Emboldened by the temporary use (2 1/2 weeks!!!!) of a car, I decided it was time to take a trip to the Fairway over in Red Hook. After all, hadn't friends and neighbors been touting its many glories since the day it opened? Besides, the idea of throwing all of those heavy items in the trunk of a car rather than strategically carrying them or wrestling them into an overstuffed granny cart seemed heavenly.

I had to move the car at 8AM, right when Fairway opened, and it was quite an easy drive over there. We have walked to the soccer fields a couple of times, plus my little sister from a mentoring program used to live on Dikeman so I know my way around. I parked right in the front row by the ramp for easier unloading, grabbed my cart and entered to face a towering bounty unlike the one that I am familiar with. Reminding myself not to overspend, I forged ahead.

But you know what? I have been shopping at the coop for so long (and okay, I do hit the sales - especially of pasta and canned tomatoes - every other week at Steve's C-Town) that I was in shock over the prices. I barely bought any produce. (I am used to buying organic at a low price.) Though I did get some very tasty mandarins in a plastic box. I knew the prepared foods would be my downfall, budget-wise, so I zipped past into cheese-ville. Wow the prices were low, I thought. Before realizing that many were priced by the quarter pound, not pound. I got a few unusual choices to mask my disappointment. By the time I entered the aisles and aisles of boxed and canned goods I was about ready to leave. But not before I had thrown a few boxes of foods I should not be and would not be otherwise buying into my cart. (The marshmallow cookie things from Quebec spring to mind.)

At the check-out there was a problem. None of the scanners were working and the very nice employees were apologizing profusely. They had to add everything up on a calculator by hand. It didn't bother me or any of the other early morning customers, but I hoped they wouldn't have to spend the whole day doing that. People can be extremely surly even when they work at a place  (yes, I am thinking of the coop) and I could just sense some bad tempered shoppers coming along. We did get 10% off our bills, which was a great surprise and certainly helped my total to enter the realm of reasonable.

The throwing the stuff into the trunk part was great. And it wasn't a problem to unload. But then I had to troll around for parking again. After about 15 minutes I gave up and went to a meter. As I moved the car a second time in an hour, I decided my flirtation with Fairway was officially over.   

Cownundrum, or The Post About Milk In Which I Try To Avoid Using Cow Puns

Not unlike many of my neighbors and peers, I've been paying between a quarter and a dollar extra per half-gallon to feed my child organic cow's milk since he began drinking it.

My reasons for this are a little foggy (not unlike my reasons for many of my parenting choices.)  I don't like the idea of extra hormones being pumped into my baby's body.  I do like the idea of the cows being treated well.  Part of me thinks it tastes better.  I know organic farming is better for the environment than non-organic, though many argue against the farming of cows at all, but that's another blog. Now that I'm pregnant, I laugh in the general direction of anyone who suggests that I shouldn't drink cow's milk.  I dream about the stuff. Ummm... oh, and I buy it because for some reason it makes me feel good.

I was pretty happy going along buying the least expensive carton I could find... scouring the stores, really, for organic milk bargains.  I was pretty pleased with the invention of "ultra-pasturization,"  so I could buy several half-gallons at a time and it wouldn't go bad.

Then I spoke to one of my friends who is just slightly on the more aware side of her grocery consumption.  I told her about the bargains to be had at Costco -- three organic half-gallons for eight bucks!  Unheard of!  In my neighborhood, one half-gallon can go for $4.60.  She replied, "I haven't read up on the Costco milk, so I haven't bought it."  Normally I would think, "Ok, so she has to read about food before she buys it?  That's a little too cautious for the likes of lazy old me."  But this conversation came on the heels of another conversation I had with my co-workers who think I'm silly for shelling out any extra dough for organic milk.  Their kids turned out just fine on regular milk.  How do I even know if it is really organic... organic... organic? That last phrase repeated in my mind the way Marsha Brady's cry "Oh my nose!" repeated in that one Brady Bunch episode lodged deep in the psyche of anyone my age who was allowed to watch tv as a child.

How do I even know if it is really organic... organic... organic? 

When my friend said that it came back with that same shrill Marsha Brady cry. 

So I googled "organic milk Costco."

Oh boy.  Football to the nose right before the big date time.

It turns out that pretty much all of those cheap brands are pretty much big fat liars.  They have an organic stamp from the FDA, but they violate the codes without blinking an eye.  They have 4000 cow farms!  Their idea of "pasture time"  is less than a walk in the prison yard.  Yes, they feed the cows organic grain.   But they get the calves from non-organic farms that do really gross things to their feed.  Yes, they don't have the hormone problems of non-organic cows.  But they are gross.  F'ing heifers.  (Sorry.)

One of my other friends said that she mostly cares about the fact that she's not feeding her son the hormones.  The other stuff doesn't bother her.  That's ok.  It bothers me.  It bothers me that they are taking foggy-headed parents like myself's best intentions and using them for profit without honestly delivering the goods they promise.

I don't know.  Read what the Cornucopia Institute, who did the study, has to say and tell me what you think.

I think I'm willing to pay the extra quarter for happy cows and honest farmers.

Knitting Spree

I have been on a bit of a knitting spree this winter, trying to work down my stash and also exploring techniques that I normally may (lazily) avoid in favor of a fast, easy knitting fix. The latest project was a Lopi cardigan for my mom' s birthday. I had a few problems with the project from Best of Lopi.  First of all, it was nearly impossible for me to  match the gauge. I had to go down to a size 8 needle (and 6 for the rib) in the end. I know I'm a loose knitter, but I really got tired of switching  needles and  endlessly swatching.  Secondly, the pattern  was vastly sized. Now, this is for my mom who does like  a looser fit than I, but a 44 inch chest for a size small?! In the end  I fudged the numbers  and split the difference between a child's large  and  a woman's small, ending up with a  40 inch chest which, when she tried it on, looked just perfect.  The bulk of the yarn was from my stash, the brown being purchased when I was working on  the Knitting To Go deck, so it was a good  4  years old. Needless to say, I was one skein short. I knew I could never match the dye lot  so  I added a little wider of a (contrasting color) stripe to the sleeve pattern  and just barely finished everything but the button border. I even had to cut off a particularly long tail to bind off the last sleeve. Then  I crossed my fingers and ordered anther skein from Webs. I had gone this far - what else could I do?  Surprisingly, it was a nearly perfect match. I don't know if that's because Lopi is  super consistent with their dyes or because I was extremely lucky.  I'm not questioning it.

Now that I have finished this, there is no excuse for me not to finish my step-dad's  traveling cable  birthday sweater.  This is a project that has been sitting, half finished, under my bed  for over a year.  Maybe I will set up a  work schedule. If I knit 5 rows a day, it will  be done by May.  That's very doable.