Woe is Boo

Crossposted at the other blog

Dear Boo,

Welcome to the life of the middle child. It's now almost 3 weeks after your birthday, and I'm finally getting around to your letter. Poor neglected thing...

It's been quite a year for you. You started off your fourth year by exhibiting a strong tendency towards incandescent and uncontrollable meltdowns, usually without warning. That phase persisted for a while, but things finally took a turn for the better. You've really blossomed over the past few months, and even more so since the wee dog arrived, interestingly enough. About a week after he came home, we had a conference with your teacher, who said "Getting a dog has been so wonderful for her!" We were kind of surprised - how much of a difference could a week make? But apparently my plot to irritate the crap out of all the other parents in the school* by bringing the puppy to pick up and drop off had resulted in a nursery full of kids who only want to talk about puppies. It seems that this trend has given you a whole burst of confidence - you're engaging the other kids, initiating games, joining in with the others. All good things, particularly for someone who has always been happiest playing by herself. It's good to see you branching out kiddo.

On our way to school on your birthday, I asked you if you being four was different from being three. You thought about it for a minute, and said seriously "Oh yes Mumma, I'm much older now." You sure are growing up sweetpea, and I can't imagine how you're going to be grown up enough to start school in the fall. You can't be that old, can you?

I love you Sunny Sunny. Welcome to the world of four.

Love,
Mama

* Wee dog comes to school several days a week, and I've had more then one parent indicate that this is making life difficult for them at home. Sorry! But only a little bit...

FO: Smaug and Boo

I finished my first installment of my Self-Imposed Sock Club (SISC) on Monday, wove in the ends and blocked them. Ta da!

Pattern: Smaug by MoragOgg
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock, colorway "Vinca Minor", approximately 1.25 skeins
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm, magic loop
Start/finish: 1/1-24/1/11.
Comments/mods: This was a nice pattern - enough to keep me moving on it (aka not bored silly), but an easy stitch pattern to memorize. I made one modification on the toe - I continued the purl ridge down the sides of the toe, just because I liked the continuity.

I knit these just as written (60 stitch sock) and, as a result, they are waaaaay too small to fit me. I wanted a modelled shot, but Boo's arms were as close as I could get.

At least you can see the stitch pattern a bit better...these will go to some deserving soul with more petite feet.

In an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime convergence, I actually finished two pairs of socks this month.

These are for Boo, toe up, no pattern to speak of, short-row heel, an inch of 2x2 ribbing, find right spot in ball, repeat for matching stripes. I started these on our three-day trip to Copenhagen just after Christmas, and finished them a couple of weeks ago? I think? Anyway...Month 1, two pairs. It can only go downhill from here!

FF: One week, two sweaters

Sweater #1:

Sweater #2:

Not surprisingly, Devil was uninterested in modeling her sweater, although I have managed to get her into it voluntarily. But Boo was happy to put her's on for our grey and drizzly Sunday visit to HMS Belfast.

Both sweaters: top down raglans a la Barbara Walker.
Needles: US 10/6.0 mm for bodies, US 8/5.0 mm for ribbing on the Technicolor Dreamsweater
Yarn: handspun from girl-dyed top (colorways Mermaid and Clown Barf). I used all of the Mermaid yarn and 95% of the Clown Barf.

These were great fun to knit, and have only increased my conviction that I will be much happier when I do most of my knitting from handspun rather then commercial yarn. It's so satisfying. I am also pleased that Boo's dye job ended up as a very bright, but perfectly 3-year-old-appropriate sweater. She loves it, and it makes it really easy to keep track of her in a crowd!

I've got to go back and fix the collar I think - add ribbing all the way around instead of doing a little Peter Pan deal - but then it will be time to move on to the next project. Spinning seems to be falling by the wayside these days, in favor of actually using up some of the stash. I think the next sweater should be the IM Aran, but a new Knitty (and a new Norah Gaughan pattern) is very tempting!

Fiber Friday: A pile of Clown Barf

Before we went off to the States, I managed to finish up most of the singles from Boo's dyed top.

A few days and some chain plying later, and I have three skeins of lovely squooshy yarn in the "Clown Barf" colorway.

Spun at 9:1, short forward (worsted) draw, plied at 7.5:1.
Total yardage: 381 yds/8.2 oz, 8-13 wpi, ranging from 700-800 ypp. Hopefully enough for a wee Boo sweater sometime this fall (as per the list). After ending up with some 4 Ounce Challenge yarn that was a bit too overplied, I made a conscious effort to chain ply this only more loosely. Going down to the biggest whorl on the flyer helped a lot too.

I have a new toy to play with in spinning. I discovered (probably through a post on Ravelry, but I honestly don't remember), plans for a PVC skeiner/swift. I was all fired up to build it, but realized that, instead of the $10 quoted in the plans it was probably going to cost me £50 to build. Umm, no. So I tabled the idea until our trip back to the States. A $20 trip to Lowes and some fun with a pipe cutter later, I had a lovely skeiner that wound off the clown barf in expert fashion. A far cry from my cobbled together 2x4 and CD swift that I never, ever use. It's all I can do to keep from winding all my yarn into cakes and then back into skeins.

So the girls' sweater yarn is done, just in time for school to start next Tuesday. It's pretty exciting. The girls even think so too!

Growing

There are definitely lots of things growing around here at the moment. Camellias,

Magnolias,

Tulips,

Laptop bags,

Cherry blossoms,

Pitcher plants,

Handspun sweaters,

and children.

Given the last, I'm embarking on another craft for a few days - sewing new summer dresses for the girls.

You'll be glad to know, however, that there are some things that are shrinking around here, i.e. my massive ball of purple top.

I'm now down to only 4.5 ounces to go. And since I'm imposing a moratorium on knitting for the next few days (my wrist is acting up again), I'm hoping against hope that it will get finished this week. Then I'll take a week or so before embarking on Neverending Plying.