Gold!

Pattern: Twisted Cardigan by Sarah Montie HandKnits
Yarn: Rowan Cork, colorway “Bug”, overdyed with Berry Blue Kool-Aid
Needles: U.S. 13
Started: Feb. 12th, During the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics
Finished: knitting - 4 PM Feb. 28th on the airplane; sewing the front together - 8 PM Feb. 28th during the Closing Ceremonies

I did it! I finished my sweater during the Olympics, even though I spent the last day traveling on an airplane (hence the hotel bathroom FO shot). And… I’m not totally in love with it. Sigh. I think the problem is really that I should have made the Medium instead of the large. I just always assume that I need the bigger size, but in this case I really didn’t. I got gauge, and it’s to the measurements in the pattern, it’s just too big on me. I think I’m probably going to go in, take out the seams and take away a few inches from the shoulder area… that might make it fit better. Actually, I think I’ll try wearing it all day first just to make sure that my impression is correct. It’s supposed to be cold and windy tomorrow in southern California, so that will be a good test.

Otherwise, I thought it was a great pattern, I loved the yarn (especially in my new colorway), and it was a pretty quick knit with enough to keep it interesting. I’d recommend the pattern, just make sure of the fit!

So… I’ll take my gold medal, but I’m not 100% sure that this sweater is actually finished.

Four years ago, I tasted gold… two years later I did it again (a little less ambitious this time to be sure, but with a 5 month-old baby and packing and moving across the country, still impressive; didn’t manage to make it on the blog, but here’s the ravelry link).

Here’s where things stood on Feb. 12th at 5 PM:

Ready for Cast-On!

After browsing through about 30 pages of cardigans on ravelry (Love Ravelry! Love it!!!), I finally found the Twisted Cardigan, which involved cables (yay!), knit sideways (fun!), in bulky yarn on large needles (Huzzah! I’m ambitious but not stupid… I do have a toddler) and I knew that I had found my Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics project. For those not familiar, I have challenged myself to complete a knitted garmet during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I cast on with the Opening Ceremony, and my goal is to compete it before the Closing Ceremony. Here’s my progress so far:

A front and a half!

Of course, while working on the right front (the second piece), I realized that I missed a few increases on the left front (the first piece I did), so I’ll need to rip back a bit… to just before I bound off for the side seam. But I’m still making good progress!

Calling for a bulky-weight yarn, this project also helped me check off another criteria for a project, by knitting with yarn from my stash. A few years ago (three, to be exact), I purchased some Rowan Cork (back when it was being discontinued) from E-Bay. I haven’t done anything with it since. One of the reasons was the color. Although I do lie the brightness of “Bug” (OK, it’s closer to acid green), I wasn’t feeling it for this sweater. So I grabbed some Kool-Aid, and this is what I got:

Before & After

In Progress

Finished Product

Of course, my knitting progress might be set back a little bit because I need to finish dyeing… but Dan brought home the Kool-Aid I needed tonight, so I should be back on track. Wish me luck!

Um… help?

On Sunday, Raley visited Santa for the first time (we missed it last year, I guess). She wasn’t entirely sure about the man in the red suit (apparent in the photo!) but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, if not a smile. Santa was impressed with her; he confided that 9 out of 10 children who are introduced to him and give him “the look” burst into tears. The two boys right behind us (the younger about Raley’s age) did - hysterical screaming. I’m glad they weren’t right in front of us!

We’re up late packing up the car; tomorrow we start our drive to visit my sister in Colorado for the holidays… 10 whole days of vacation! Hooray! We managed to get all of the presents wrapped and everything in bags and boxes; now it’s just a matter of making it all fit. Then a 17 hour drive with a very active 21 month old. Wish us luck!

Happy holidays! I hope you get whatever you asked Santa for this year.

Halloween:

For Halloween, Raley was a monkey.  I made her costume (one of my first sewing projects since moving to California!).  We went to a Halloween party at a local historic site, and took some pictures in the cactus garden:

Monkey in the Cactus

So long, monkey!

I get a “Where the Wild Things Are” vibe from those pictures, do you? And before you ask, no, I haven’t seen the movie yet. Haven’t seen very many movies in the past 21 months, actually!

Raley got to visit with three of her grandparents in California, as my father and Dan’s mother both had business trips out this way (well, northern California, but that’s close enough to justify a little side trip!), and Dan’s father tagged along.

Then in November we took off on our Thanksgiving vacation. We were planning to visit Dan’s brother Sam in Oxford, England, and fly direct from LAX. Those plans changed when Dan’s grandfather passed away the week before. It was a loss - 91-year-old WWII prisoner of war with a great sense of humor and some really funny stories. But we were able to change our flights to be via Chicago and got to be there for the funeral. So we got to spend some quality time with many family members, including Raley’s great-grandmother and great-uncle and both sets of grandparents and uncle Sam. Despite the sad circumstances, it was good to get together.

Then we flew over to England (on the same flight as Sam) and spent a lovely week touring the countryside. I think Dan and I are a bit more ambitious doing driving tours than many people… our biggest was the day that we visited Stonehenge and Tintern Abbey in Wales, driving through Bath enroute, starting and ending in Oxford. Raley was a good sport for most of the time, but she was kind of fed up with being in her car seat by the end of the trip. But I think she’s a future roadtripper anyway… got to start them young!

Here’s a few of the photos… you can see the entire set on flickr.

Stonehenge

Rollright Stones

Tintern Abbey

the Tiny Explorer tackles the hedge maze at Blenheim Palace

And finally, some gratuitous Raley:

Joe Cool!

Like my hat?

Peek-a-boo!

This is my frowny face.

Until next time! And maybe even some knitting…

Raley is now 18 months - almost 19. She’s not the biggest talker… she doesn’t say a lot of words, and refuses (refuses) to say the word “mama.” She knows the word, knows who it refers to, but just won’t say it. Instead everyone is “dada.” Oh well… it will happen, right? But although she doesn’t say a lot of words, she does know/understand a ton, including some pretty obscure ones…

Other recent “hobbies” include trying to fit into small spaces (although it doesn’t always end happily):

I can totally fit on this bookshelf!

I fit into this cat carrier, but then decided I didn’t like it!

So, yeah, taking that last picture might qualify me for “bad mom” status since I took the picture before helping her get out, but it’s all for the blog!

Climbing to the highest places possible:

Linus says, “Wait a minute! Whose perch is this?”

And stacking things:

Taller than Raley!

This last picture merits some explanation… one of the kitchen cabinets that we hadn’t put the childproof locks on yet is the pantry/food cans. While I was in the kitchen with her, she started taking cans out of the cabinet one at a time. Then she stacked most of the cans (the bottom of the stack). Then we went and ate dinner and played for a while and I left the stack of cans and didn’t think about it. Then I had to step out of the room for a second (bathroom break, I think). When I came back around the corner, she was in the hallway carrying that jar of salsa (OK, I didn’t really realize that glass jars were in that cabinet!). She took one look at me and giggled and then raced into the kitchen towards her stack. I immediately envisioned broken glass, cut toddler, mayhem, etc. So I raced after her, but in the seconds that it took me to get in there, she had placed it right at the top - too big to totally fit on the can of olives, so it has a jaunty perch. But perfectly balanced! We went into the (more childproof) living room, and then I snuck back in to take a few photos :). And then we bought the locks for the jars/cans cabinet.

So that’s the Raley update. I have whale pictures and crafty things, too… we’ll see if I can get them posted before Halloween (but don’t hold your breath!).

Anyway, one of the highlights of the summer was a visit from my sister Jenna for a week and a half, and my brother-in-law Reid for a too-short 3.5 days. Jenna, being a good blogger, has already blogged this trip here and here (as well as the vacation/drive home to Colorado) so I’m just playing catch-up.

Hello aunt and uncle!

Needless to say, we had a great time, and it all went by much too quickly. With Jenna I had a great partner to explore LA’s fabric district - Michael Levine’s annex ($2/lb of fabric!) is one of my new favorite stores. Jenna also came to one of our Mommy & Daddy & me swimming classes. Raley likes to splash her hands (occasionally feet), she likes to do “Humptey Dumptey” off the wall (into our arms of course, and then turn and grab the wall - a safety tip), trying to drink the pool water, and she loves to sing the “Tick Tock” song (”tick tock tick tock, I’m a little cuckoo clock; tick tock tick tock, now I’m striking 3 o’clock - whee! whee! whee!;” on the words you swish them back and forth and on the “whee!” you lift them up into the air; repeat from 5 to 1 o’clock for tons of fun!). The rest of swim class (kicking, paddling, putting her face in the water) she could leave - I don’t think we have a future Michael Phelps on our hands here. But we all have fun and it gets us in the water once a week.

We also went to Sea World with Jenna and had a great time (duh). Raley enjoyed the killer whales:

Can I touch it?

and I enjoyed the Commerson’s dolphins:

These are not “baby killer whales”

I mean, Tursiops are great and all, but it’s great to see something different once in a while. I also mixed some work and pleasure by going to talk to some folks in the rehab area, which is not part of the general public part of the park so Jenna and Dan (and Raley too) got to see some of the behind-the-scenes parts, which was fun.

Raley’s highlight of the day, though, was in the kids’ Sesame Street area, in the toddler arena. She impressed me with her persistence and calm under pressure in dealing with the bigger (meaner!) kids:

And it all works out in the end. Way to go, buggle*!

We also went to the OC Fair, where much fun was had, especially in the petting zoo. Raley had a special fondess for the pot-bellied pigs, to the point where she’d weave past the goats and sheep in order to get close to them. Which she succeeded in doing:

Pat a pig!

After that we saw pigs all over the fair, including a spectacular sand sculpture, Mount Pigmore. No better opportunity for a family photo!

Think Pig!

After the fair, we were inspired to practice “Old Mac Donald.”

Animal sounds are Raley’s go-to words… she knows the sounds that cats, dogs, cows, monkeys, and snakes make (interesting combo, huh? no sheep, horse, or even birds!). Old MacDonald is a perfect combination of two of Miss Raley’s favorite things - animal sounds and music. She likes music so much that she even learned how to climb on a chair and turn on the radio so she can dance (and then Mommy can rescue you before you fall off the chair!). I’ll leave you with this:

*”Buggle” is her nickname. We’re not quite sure how it came to be, but it did and it’s sticking. There are subderivatives, like “Sluggle” = sleeping buggle, “bug”, “bugglicious” etc.

Gardening:

Gad-zukes! (sorry, couldn’t resist)

From our 4 zucchini plants, these were the first 5 harvested. I didn’t really realize that you can actually pick them at any time - I was kind of waiting for them to fall off. So yeah, they’re big. For perspective, at her last dr appointment, Raley was 31.5″ tall (75th percentile), and a wee 19 lbs, 14.5 oz (5th percentile). Yep, still riding in her backwards facing carseat - poor thing. Anyway, she’s a little on the small side, but those are still some big zucchini! We’re still working out quite how to use them all - so far we’ve had lots of pasta dishes and veggie casseroles. If you have any recipes, send them my way!
In addition to the zukes, we’ve harvested 2 cucumbers and at least 40 cherry tomatoes. We also have 5 eggplant plants (with a few tiny little purple eggplants just starting), 2 heirloom tomato plants that have some greens and 2 bell pepper plants that were late additions to the garden (filling in spaces where others died).
I’m very excited by my garden bounty - in our Maryland house we just didn’t have enough sun for anything to grow (8 full oak trees will do that to you - great for shading the house, bad for garden!).

Whale watching:
This past weekend we went whale watching in Santa Barbara. We put Raley in the Ergo carrier so that whoever was carrying her (wound up being Dan) could have both hands free for the boat - definitely worth it. Luckily for us, Raley took very well to the boat and didn’t have any problems with seasickness (our friends’ 2-year-old wasn’t so lucky - poor thing; there’s really nothing you can give them at this age and she just had to sleep it off). Raley did fall asleep for part of the trip, which is to be expected given the Ergo and the soothing motion of the boat and drone of the engines (half of the passengers on the boat were sacked out about halfway through), but she did see the whales (she pointed and said “DA!):

Thar she blows!

We saw both humpbacks (above), including 2 breaches, and several blue whales (always impressive!). And we had some fun times with common dolphins:

Such a fun trip.

Happy boat family

On our way up to Santa Barbara we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center (in Ventura) where we had fun looking at their displays. Raley and I rode a dolphin (the closest we’ll ever come to riding a real dolphin!):

Dolphin!

And Raley was really impressed by the elephant seal - a model of a full-grown bull (male).

Wowee! Look at that!

I’ll save our trip to Indiana for the next post. I’m away from home at a conference, which might bode well for my blogging efforts - we’ll see.

P.S. Yep, I got a haircut - what do you think?

Front

Back

It has a front door, a parapet, a slide and a secret door exit (behind the fireplace!).

So here’s Raley giving you a tour of Château Raley:

This will keep her happy for some time, but at some point I think Dan and I Raley might need a cottage… or two (must have village houses for the serfs to live in!). I’ll keep trolling Craigslist!

P.S. For knitters with kids (or who know people who have kids - and who doesn’t?), have you seen the new online mag for kid knits? Check out Petite Purls!

First, I think this video pretty much sums up Raley’s personality.  In 12 seconds.

People always comment on how happy Raley is, and the fact is that in public she is usually very happy. She loves people, she loves activity, and she is most content when there’s a lot going on for her to observe, and sometimes participate in.  We usually reply to those people, yes, she’s a very happy baby, except when she’s not… basically, she has two moods: happy and irate.   And it changes so quickly!  In case you were wondering what provoked that mood change, the answer is absolutely nothing.  That’s just how she rolls.  After I stopped filming, she actually continued crying for about 15 seconds, and then went back to waving her hands, and then happy again.  You just never know!

And here’s a longer one (in happy mood) for your enjoyment.

Dan and I often comment about what a beautiful language RaleySpeak is - you can hear some of it at the beginning of the movie.  It’s a lot of g’s and l’s and many words along the lines of glihglihgleegihl.  Too bad there’s only one fluent speaker, and she can’t yet translate for us, so we have very little idea what most things mean.  No mamamama or dadada for this girl!   She does have a few words so far, most of which revolve around animals: kitty (pronounced ga-gih), piggy (there’s a guinea pig at daycare; this one sounds almost like piggy), cat (gah), woof woof (ooh ooh when she sees a doggie) and sometimes doggie.  She said “airplane” once but mostly just makes a sign (we live under a runway, so she gets lots of opportunity!).  She has additional signs for “want” and “up.”  She steadfastly refuses to say “mama” or “dada” or anything similar, although she definitely knows who they mean!