I posted before about a baby blanket I was knitting for some friends' new baby, Michael. Well, I'm finally finished and here's a picture of the finished product.
I mailed it out to them and it was a big hit. Eileen lurves handmade gifts, so she really appreciated it. Me and my knitting: keeping babies warm and cozy and happy one blanket at a time.
Unfortunately, I've been w/o a pc for a while, hence no blogging. My laptop is about 5 yo which, in human years, makes it about 94 yo. I bought a new power cord a few months ago bc the original power cord died. Its demise, I imagine, was hastened by first Edison's chewing on it and then Miles & Lizzie teething on it. Now the new one no longer works. The kits have stopped chewing on stuff like that, so it wasn't bco them. So once the battery ran down I was up the river w/o a computer.
I've since read the customer reviews for the power cord and it turns out that it stinks. Not that I had a whole heckuva lot of choice when it came to replacing the old cord; there only was the one power cord available. Hmm, I wonder if I could have ordered a non-Dell power cord that would work w/my pc.
Anyway, I've ordered a new laptop...bc my old one is, well, old...(not just bc the power cord doesn't work, silly)...plus, the sound no longer works on the old one...and the battery, which never lasted as long as it should, doesn't hold a charge well anymore. A Dell salesperson helped me build the laptop via chat. She tells me that the power cord that comes w/the new pc will work w/my old pc. The new one won't ship for about 3 weeks though, so I ask if they can just send the power cord out separately now seeing as I bought a new cord about 2 months ago that no longer works. No can do.
So I thought I'd just return the one I bought 2 months ago and get a new one; it's still under warranty. Someone else will get the old pc and they'll need a working power cord. And I did pay good money for one. Well, I ordered the new pc on Monday, 7/14. That's also when I started trying to find out how to exchange the non-working cord for a working cord. I'm still working on that. On the phone, I've been transferred around the world in 3 days. I just received a phone call from the Resolution Specialist who's responsible for seeing that my problem is resolved. She just told me that she cannot access my customer number...different departments have access to different accounts, customer numbers and data...yadda yadda yadda...she's forwarding my email and problem to someone in another department who allegedly can help me.
All this for a power cord. We're talking about a plug here, for goodness sake.
So anyway, no power = no puter for me. I do use Kevin's desktop some, although he needs to use it, too. He has to keep track of all his ebay auctions for funfmarks and dreimarks and grossens (sp? all) etc. His pc is even older than my laptop. As I'm typing this I occasionally delete something, highlight something, backspace something...it moves so s-l-o-w-l-y...I could make a light lunch for 12 in the interval.
But! I am excited about the new pc. I put it off for a while bc I don't really do jazzy stuff on the computer. I thought, do I really need a new one? I'll need to move stuff from the old to the new, e.g., approximately 3,000 cat pictures. How great would it be if all that stuff could be moved wirelessly? E.g., since both pcs are Dell, if Dell offered something where they accessed stuff on the old and moved it to the new. The new one has cool stuff...I could watch DVDs on my old one, but the screen was pretty small and then the sound went. I might actually watch a DVD on my new one. The mouse and printer are wireless, as is the keyboard although I don't think I ordered a separate, full-size keyboard. It has a webcam, which I have no idea how to use, but might be fun. It's really light. The screen's a little bigger than my old pc's screen. And and and it's red! Yes, it's the little things in life.
In other news, Kevin and I went out to Pittsburgh this past weekend to meet and be godparents to our newest niece, Sofia. Here's Kevin, my brother Greg, my SIL Marianne, nieces Gabi and Sofia:
A happy close up of Gabi:
Sofia:
Sofia at home, in the baby blanket I knitted for her:
She likes it, she really likes it!
Longtime readers may recall that Kevin and I are areligious. So how can we be godparents, you ask. Well, it's like this. Gabi's godparents are Marianne's sister and BIL. Technically, according to the church, they're Sofia's godparents, too, and we were just standing in for them (they live in MA). In practice, according to Sofia and her family, we'll be her godparents. That's a misnomer then, but I don't know what other word to use. Guardians?
We had fun while we were out there...it was nice to meet Sofia and see Greg, Marianne and Gabi again. I'll blog more on our visit and put up a photo album in the future.
Friends Eileen and Rich recently had a baby, Michael Richard. It was, therefore, time to get myself to Nonna's Yarn Cafe, pick out a new baby blanket pattern and get going before the kid outgrows itty bitty baby blankets. I went with Needful Yarns Kids Collection #500, baby blanket and cardigan (I'm not making the cardigan at the moment, although I will probably give it a try at some point in the future; it doesn't look too hard). The finished blanket would be 20" x 24", which is kinda small, so I doubled it.
The blanket is a basket weave (again...love that basketweave), with a repeating pattern of 8 rows. The edges are finished with a little crochet, which I don't know how to do, so I will probably either skip the edging or put fringe on it. I suppose I should learn how to crochet sometime; it seems to show up as finishing in a lot of knitting projects and they say it's pretty easy.
I ended up choosing 3 yarn colors bc the store didn't have enough of one or two colors I liked in the baby yarns to make the blanket. After having problems finding more yarn in the colors for Kevin's afghan, I decided to always buy enough yarn at the start of a project.
So. The yarn is 'Oh My!' by Plymouth Yarn in the following colors:
I'm using circular knitting needles: size 15 for casting on and binding off and size 13 for the body of the blanket. Yarn is used double, i.e., knitting two strands together as one, throughout.
Contrary to the photographic evidence, not all of my knitting projects come complete with a cat.
Here's what I've got so far:
Close up:
Even though I originally wanted to knit the blanket using one color, I think having stripes of multiple colors makes for a more interesting looking blanket.
I almost choked on my tapestry needle when she rung me up. I won't give up the gory details, but let's just say that I had to reach for the credit card to pay for it all. 'It all' includes the pattern and, since I'm such a knoob to knitting and don't have a lot of needles, the needles. The yarns I've used so far have been, I think relatively inexpensive or at least not out of the ordinary. Now that I think about it, maybe this particular yarn isn't very expensive, but since I had to buy 16 small balls of it, things added up. Oh well. You live, you learn. Next time I'll check the price before I choose the yarn.
I think it will be a lovely blanket, though; the yarn was very soft to the touch in the store and when I felt a display item made with it, it felt so soft that I was immediately sold on it. I think any baby would love this blanket. I wonder if it will get softer with use and washing?
Yay, Sofia's baby blanket is finished! It's my second knitting project and the first one I've finished. Kevin's afghan is my first project. I'm still working on that. I interrupted work on the afghan when I heard Sofia was coming along. We heard today of a friend's newborn son. I mentioned to Kevin that maybe I'd knit that baby a blanket and he asked, 'What about my blanket?' Seems like all my projects these days are blankets for babies. Just kidding, Big Guy.
Sofia was born two weeks ago. Here she is on her birthday.
Here's an picture of the baby blanket, although the colors don't show up accurately in this picture.
A close up:
You can kind of see the pattern in the blanket. And the colors are more accurate here.
I'll send that off shortly. I've asked big sister Gabi to give it to Sofia from Uncle Kevin and me. We'll include a little something for her, too. We want to make sure Gabi continues to feel how special she is to us even though there's a new baby in town.
If I'm so fortunate as to receive a picture of Sofia with her new blanket, I will surely blog it.
In this post, I mentioned a baby blanket I wanted to knit. I printed the pattern off the internet and ordered the yarn and needles the poster used (different color, though). I received the wrong size needles, but picked up the right ones and started in on it. Here's a picture from the pattern's link:
That's what the blanket was supposed to look like. My font got really big there. Hmmm.
Here's the yarn I bought (kitty was not included):
So I went ahead...whoa...that font's even bigger. Hmmm. Let's try this. No. Okay, let's try this. Okay, so. I don't have a picture of it, but the blanket did not come out as nice as the internet picture. I don't know if you can tell from the picture of the purple yarn, but it's not straight/flat; it's kinda wavy. I don't know what you call it, but it's got some texture of its own. When I knit it, the boxes were not nearly as distinct as in the picture. And I really wanted that textured look to it. I wonder if, bc the yarn itself has a texture, it made the pattern less distinct. I tried a few things: going to a smaller needle; going to an even smaller needle; something else someone suggested that I forget. But nothing worked; it didn't get that nice, distinct boxy look.
Soooooo, I'll be sending back the unopened yarn skeins and the wrong size knitting needles. Deciding that I needed professional advice on selecting an appropriate project, I took myself over to Nonna's Yarn Cafe in Denville, NJ. I had gone to Time to Knit in Boonton, but they've since closed. I do like to use local yokels, but forgot about the Denville place until after I'd already ordered the stuff online. I am glad I went to Nonna's. From their website:
Benvenuti! (Welcome)
Here we are in beautiful Denville. Two Italian sisters, Josephine & Nickie, who love to knit, crochet and bake! Our mother’s name was Rosalia and our children would call her Nonna, which means Grandma in Italian. She was the inspiration for our yarn café. Now she is our guardian angel watching over us and our dream.
Our dream is to make Nonna’s Yarn Café a very enjoyable gathering spot for all knitters and crocheters. Don’t worry if you are neither…once you walk through our doors you will want to be one or the other!
Anyway, the lovely ladies there were very helpful and set me up with a pattern, yarn (color #7021; scroll down to see the swatch) and needles, sizes 9 and 10. I use the larger needle for casting on and binding off bc I tend to knit kinda snugly. Using larger size needles keeps the cast on and bind off from curling. I use the smaller needle for the body of the project. Here's what it looks like so far:
Annnnnd, close up:
Mmmmm, I don't know that you can really see the texture on the one side. I'll try to get a better picture when it's done. And now, a gratuitous kitteh w/yarn shot:
Why? Bc I can.
I am still working on my blanket of different colored squares. I decided to break into that iot make this baby blanket bc babies are born in a rather time-sensitive manner. The cool weather will come around again and I hope to have the big blanket done by fall.
So anyhoo...........just hanging out, wiiiiiiiiiiiiide awake, wondering what to blog about. I have a number of things to write about, but I don't have the inclination to go into anything remotely heavy right now. E.g., I want to write about earnestness; demands on/requests for one's earnestness; how to best distribute one's earnestness; how to best distribute societal earnestness; etc. E.g., Alas, A Blog is on my blogroll. The peeps there post about a lot of issues. Some of the issues are important to me. Often, there are interesting posts about these issues. Yet more often than not, I end up avoiding Alas, A Blog and head straight to Apostropher in the hopes that the folks there have posted something that will make me laugh. Or at least not bring me down.
Yes, I agree that: racism sux; sexism sux; poverty sux; the war in Iraq sux beyond belief; that stuff sux sux; etc. But a person could get all the way from waking to retiring dealing with the vast vastness of suckitude that affects the issues they consider important. I feel that, if I think an issue is important, I should keep current. And do something on behalf of the cause. But just reading the current stuff about important issues could take me from morning to night. I can't be doing that. (a) It's unproductive. (b) What a fucking drag. And no, I don't expect issues like sexism, racism, etc. to be entertaining, but I also don't want to spend my waking hours on a permanent downer.
And then I think, Is it wrong to want to be happy most of the time? There are people who ignore the niceties of life iot devote more of their time and effort toward The Cause. I know those people are out there bc they've shared their passion and enthusiasm with me (and others). I know they're out there bc I've seen the sacrifices they've made iot better serve The Cause. I know they're out there bc I've smelled them. But I don't want to sacrifice such niceties of life as those that keep one's body odor at a socially acceptable level and one's teeth in situ. Call me shallow, but it makes me happy to have a few cats, a decent home, regular dental care and Dial soap (among yes, so many other things). I thought it doesn't take much to make me happy, but when I think about all the important things that need to be addressed and how much work it would take...maybe I could have a smell sandiwch* for lunch all week long?
But like I said, I don't want to blog about this right now. So, what else is new? The carpet cleaners come tomorrow to try and save the carpet upon which HG spewed his unearthly leavings. That linked photo, btw, does not do the spew justice. We moved the bed out of the guest room tonight, which should have the happy consequence of making it easier for the carpet guys to do their mojo in there. It did have the unhappy consequence of revealing a CSI-worthy splatter of what I think is Yoohoo. Does it strike anyone else as odd that a grown man drinks Yoohoo? And why would one drink Yoohoo when one could put chocolate syrup in milk and drink something that actually tastes good? As an aside, HG would often buy Hershey's chocolate milk. Now
I don't want to discourage anyone from buying Hershey anything (I have a little stock in it; your Hershey purchases will contribute in a small, but much appreciated, way to my retirement**), but I did mention that we had Hershey's chocolate syrup and he should feel free to use it to add to his milk and make chocolate milk. Milk is expensive. (I read an article recently about the recent increase in food costs. Recently. Dairy prices have increased 11% since this time last year.) Chocolate milk is even more expensive and stupidly so. Does HG think making chocolate milk is a good idea? No. Why? Bc apparently anything that would save him money and make him less poor is a bad idea. He didn't actually say that; I attribute that reasoning to him bc I also don't know why he'd spend $100/week on cigarettes and an untold amount on scratch off lottery tickets when he can barely afford pain medication, but wtf do I know?
In other news, although I continue knitting squares for Kevin's afghan, I have decided to interject a new knitting project: a baby blanket. I like alternating texture, like in this baby blanket. There's a little of that going on in Kevin's afghan, too. I hope to finish the blanket before niece #7 is born. I make no promises, however, as I previously tried to knit a baby blanket for an impending baby and it's still incomplete years later. Thing is, wrt that blanket, it was one of the first things I tried to knit and, quite simply, it wasn't on. So many mistakes! So many dropped stitches! So many lost counts! It's a wonder I found the fortitude to pick up needles and yarn again. Although an experienced knitter would consider the pattern easy, it was probably too involved for my first project. I'm a better knitter now; I hope it will go a little better and faster. I ordered the same type of yarn as the linked knitter used, but in lilac. Actually, I thought I decided on yellow (such a happy color), but my order confirmation tells me otherwise. Although ultrasound indicates that niece #7 is a girl, I thought it best to hedge my bets color-wise bc it ain't over til the pregnant lady screams. Plus, girls get so much pink stuff thrown at them in life (oh, that's another thing that sux: pink oppression) that I loathe to add to it.
And that reminds me of something else I consider blogging about: So often I hear/read people talk about what little girls like/want/expect/dream about/etc. And so often it's so not my experience. Pink was never my favorite color; red was my favorite color for the longest time. It might still be, although I must say I've grown quite partial to green, so much so that I can no longer be certain of my own favorite color. The whole princess industry passed me by: thoroughly uninterested in being a princess. Fairy tale weddings? No interest. Furthermore, I lacked (and continue to lack) any comprehension as to why one would like or want, nay, dream about this stuff. So yeah, sometimes I've considered blogging about my lack of girly cred.
So I've basically just blogged about some things I didn't want to blog about. I'm off to knit a few afghan squares and then call it a night before I start thinking about Issues of Great Import that require Immediate Attention.
*From one of the Tightwad Gazette books, a compilation of Gazette issues. A reader sent this in as a way to save money on lunch (based on a Monday-Friday work week):
**Why have stock in Hershey's, you ask? I like to invest in stuff I like or at least like the idea. E.g., I like Reese's peanut butter cups. No, actually, I loooooovvvve Reese's peanut butter cups. Those miniature ones are the death of me. I can eat them like potato chips. I think the saltiness of the peanut butter and the sweetness of the chocolate are set exactly so that the saltiness makes me want to eat something sweet and vice versa. It's a vast confectional conspiracy. I've also had stock in Rubbermaid (good products); Kellogg's (I ate their cereal); Coca Cola (anyone who knows me IRL knows of my most violent affections toward diet Coke). IIRC, I have stock in Celgene, a biopharmaceutical company. One of their products is Thalomid. Yes, thalidomide. It's now used for multiple myeloma. I think I have some stock in some other bio company that does some cool stuff like grow body parts out of some cool bio-material. I may not have that anymore. My investment advisor has my permission to buy and sell, so I'll have to ask him about that before he leaves for work tomorrow morning.
I took up knitting a few years back. My first project was a baby blanket for my then newborn niece, Gabi. She's 5.5 yo now and the blanket's still not done. It was a mess. That blanket just was not going to happen. Maybe I'll finish it for when she has kids!
Flash forward 5 years or so. Last summer, I decided I need a hobby. Kevin collects stamps, coins and the occasional old map. Other people collect figurines, toys, sports memorabilia, etc. Other people take up woodworking, jewelry making, sewing, etc. Now, why did I decide all of a sudden that I needed a hobby? Bc I was uber-pissed off about something at work and I decided that I needed something I could get lost doing, thereby taking my mind off the problem at hand.
When I started working at the town library, I had no idea the weird stuff that would happen. I thought that the library was so small that, really, it was going to be a very boring and quiet job. So very wrong. I'm sure I've blogged about the after school kids problem. Kids have nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, no transporation, so they come to the library. That's fine if they're acting normal. Some of them even do homework! But some kids think it's a rec center. As one of my co-workers put it, some of the kids have no idea that different behavior is expected and appropriate in different places. So, e.g., they think nothing of wrestling, skateboarding, dribbling, playing catch, etc. in the library. I remind you that the library is in an old house, so it's like they're doing all this in your home.
Last summer, I kicked this one kid out after several warnings for inappropriate behavior, some of which included playing catch with himself by bouncing the ball off the wall. He came back a short while later and started up again. I kicked him out again. He shot spitballs in my face.
I cannot describe how mad I was at the time. Even now, months later, I feel a little het up about it. And what I wanted to do about it! I don't know if I've ever felt such desire to hurt someone before. OMFG, I fucking wanted to fucking kill that fucking kid. And I am not exaggerating. I wanted to grab that kid by the throat, hold him up against the wall right there in the library foyer and squeeze with all my might until he breathed his last. I wanted to beat the shit out of him. I didn't want to slap him or pinch him or push him. I wanted to haul off and punch his stupid, grinning face over and over and over again until it was nothing but a bloody, purple pulp. Fortunately, I was not about to follow through on any of these desires, realizing that violence begets violence, beating the shit out of him wouldn't solve anything (although it would have made me feel really, really good, of that I'm certain), it would only further teach him that violence was the way to go and that whoever could beat the crap out of other people was successful, and all that good pacifist nonsense.
So, in my mind, I delegated my desires to others. I certainly wasn't going to beat the kid up, but if, oh, someone else were to beat the crap out of him, that'd be okay. If I came to learn that he'd met with some misfortune elsewhere in life, that'd be acceptable. And let me tell you, I would not be at all surprised if I read about him in the newspaper's police blotters of the future. I'm certain I've already read about him, just as an 'unidentified minor'.
What actally happened is that I banned the kid from the library for at least a month and after that, if he wanted to come to the library, he'd have to first meet with the director and his parent or guardian. He eventually did come back under those conditions, but then he threatened another staffperson. So now he cannot come to the library at all unless a parent or guardian comes with him and stays with him for each and every visit. He has not returned under those conditions. I actually do feel kinda bad for the kid bc I figure it must suck to be him. But it also sucks to be me at the wrong end of a spitball, being spoken to in foul language, being called a 'bitch' and told to 'kiss my ass', etc.
And this is when I decided to take up a hobby. I stopped by the knitting store, Time to Knit, just down the road from and right after work, got reaquainted with the whole knitting thing, decided on a project and got my supplies. Perhaps a hobby involving pointy objects wasn't the safest choice at the time, but I've managed to almost poke out only my own eye. I'm working on a lap blanket. It's a blanket for the den, to cuddle up under while watching tv or snoozing or to attract a kitty to your lap. It's made up of a bunch of different colored squares. I had originally meant them to be equilateral squares, but goofed up the height and width ratio. Oop. The squares are knit around the edges with a middle of stockinette stitch. Here's a bunch of completed squares:
Hmm, the colors aren't showing up quite right, but you get the picture. Two of the squares are turned so that you see the stockinette side and the other two so that you see the purl side. Once I've knitted all the squares I need, I'll iron them and then sew them together.
It's not a very challenging project, but that's okay by me. I want something I can relax with and sort of get of lost doing. I don't want yet something else to really have to think about. (I've been meaning to blog about my choice of film entertainment these days. After spending a day reading and thinking philosophy and/or working, I usually don't want to watch anything mentally challenging. So the DVDs I've been bringing home from the library these days have most definitely been on the lighter side, including animation.) I don't have that many brain cells to throw around.
Like all good knitters, I'm already thinking ahead to my next project(s). The current project will be Kevin's blanket. I think I'll then knit myself a complementary blanket, with some, but not all, color overlap. Mine will not be squares. I may do the traditional striped blanket. Or perhaps a solid with some knit-purl texturing. Well, I've got a little time before I go to work tonight, so maybe I'll make it time to knit.
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