A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Not a whole lot of knitting lately . . .

but I did manage to dye up 4 lbs of sock yarn yesterday!

Not the clearest picture, but the colors are pretty accurate at least. So that is the preview shot of the new sock yarns which will be going up tonight (or sooner if I get a chance) The yarn is a 75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon blend. Each 3.5 oz skein is 430 yds . . . Next I’ll need to write a new sock pattern . . . but I’ve got to finish at least 2 baby gifts first!

Okay, time for Sunday dinner so I’ve gotta run.

fun, fun, fun

I’ve got a migraine today. So much so that cooking dinner wasn’t an option (and no, I really shouldn’t be sitting at a computer, but how else can I catch up?) and since MIL was out the little guy and I are having Pizza.

We don’t get take-out pizza often, maybe 2x a month or so. And we’re having his favorite, extra broccoli. Yup! Most kids pick it off and toss it on the floor, with him, its the first thing he eats!

Fiber stuff:

I got 2 giant boxes in the mail today. I don’t even want to think about what the shipping on them costs . . . something like $66 if that gives you an idea of how much stuff was in them.

I’ve got 2 new (to me) sock yarns that I will be winding off and dyeing up. A new worsted weight wool/silk blend that is very soft and lovely. And 2 whole bumps (22lbs each) of ecru and fawn colored corriedale cross spinning fiber. I’m hoping to get some yarn dyed on Monday if not tomorrow but that will depend in large part on whether this migraine goes away. I’m really hoping it does since I hate not being able to function.

Baby sweater update.

I’m working on the baby gift sweater for the little one I had thought would be arriving in April but turns out will be delivered early, like next month and very premie. This is such a little delicate thing, seems more like doll clothes than baby clothes. I’ve come up with my own pattern for it, using another of the Naturally Yarns, the Classic in 3-ply weight (8 st/inch on size 2.5mm needles) and once I work out the bigger sizes it will be another pattern for Inspirations. Actually, you could really play with it and do baby sweaters in sock yarns with this pattern, would be interesting to see what happens when done in a self-striping yarn. May have to give that a try and use pics of both versions for the pattern, could be a lot of fun. So far I’m only on my 2nd 25g ball of yarn so its a very low cost sweater, at least in the premie size.

Well, I should run, its just about time to head sticky off to bed.

Short post, then back to work.

Thanks everyone for the comments/emails about my food rant. Its nice to be able to blabber on and have someone actually “listening”! I really just get so annoyed with all the stuff they try to sell us as “food”. D read and article the other day in the NY Times that said if your great, great grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food you probably shouldn’t be eating it. Guess that sums it up pretty well, huh.

I got a new vacuum cleaner yesterday, finally. I’ve hated the one we’ve had for years now. D picked it out and used to be in charge of using it but since I’ve been a SAHM its been my job. We’ve had a really big clunky canister vac with a giant power head for carpet. Trouble is we have really small rooms and lots of big furniture so dragging that thing around was next to impossible. I’d vacuum one side of the room then have to move stuff and the canister to do the other side. And every time I’d use it I’d manage to get a new bruise.

Yesterday, after a couple of weeks of reading reviews on the web and talking to others about what they have/like, I finally just went out and got a new cleaner. I spent more than I really had wanted to but I went to Oreck and got their package with a really lightweight upright and their small canister that has the attachments. I came home and tried it out and it works great! The rugs are clean, I’m not bruised and I don’t feel like I’ve been through a wrestling match to get the job done. The canister has a shoulder strap so you can just carry it around to do the little stuff, like getting the fish crackers out of the sofa at the end of the day and the bare floor brush will pick up crumbs from the rug so I can just run around quick at the end of the day with the canister to pick up the day’s mess. And its quiet enough that it didn’t wake the baby when I ran it during his nap. The upright is louder and probably would wake him but that’s okay, I just won’t use that part after he’s asleep. So the house is cleaner and we’re all happier and even D admitted that if it helps me to keep things better picked up it will be well worth the $.

Fiber content

I got to do a little more on Fern last night after a few days off. I did about 4 rows. I’m using the technique I got from Wendy’s blog for doing cable stitches without a needle and it certain makes this faster and easier. Even with the added speed of this techinque its slow going since I keep getting interrupted by pets, husband and baby and since I’m doing both the front and back at the same time that slows down each row. I do think in the long run it will work out faster than doing them one at a time and means they should actually match! And you can be sure I’ll be doing the sleeves both at the same time as well. It really is the only way I seem to be able to get sleeves to be totally identical.

I really am enjoying working on Fern. Its a more complicated pattern than I’ve tried before with 5 different charts and I’ve gotten to the point in the pattern where there are 3 different row numbers to keep track of. You can bet I’m writing down pretty much every row as I do it! I took a picture of it a couple of days ago and if I get the chance to get the pics out of the camera I’ll post it later.

I also learned yesterday that D’s nephew and his wife will be having their baby early. She has diabeties and is having a tough pregnancy and they have apparently decided that the baby’s best chances are to be delivered early so he will be arriving at 28 weeks! Which, by the way, is next month!!! MIL wasn’t sure yet when the shower will be but expects to hear something soon. Guess I’ll be putting Fern aside for a few days to work on baby gifts. We also have a friend who is scheduled to deliver her little girl next week and I’m planning to whip up a sweater for her as well.

Speaking of baby gifts: As a knitter, how do you decide when someone goes on your list of people to knit a baby gift for? Do you keep it to family and very close friends? How about people you are more distant friends with or friends of friends you see at dinner at your mutal friends house? And what about knitting small gifts for mothers who are expecting in your child’s play groups?

You see, we’ve recently signed back up for the playgroup that we were in briefly last year. Now that we have a 2nd car again . . . we are finally getting out more often. Several of the Moms in the group are expecting. At least two of them are women that I got fairly friendly with last year when we were going to the group and could see myself being friends with. One also has a son close in age to mine and they have a blast together. I’m debating knitting newborn size sweaters for them (One’s due in April, the other in September so they can probably actually use sweaters) but I’m wondering if I’ll hurt feelings of anyone else if I don’t knit for other Moms in the group. This is a fairly big group and their are always 2-5 moms expecting it seems so I’d have to keep up a steady stream of sweaters to knit for them all, and most of them I don’t really know well yet. What do you think? Would you knit for the 2 moms and give them the stuff on the “sly” and just hope no one got upset? Would you knit for all of them? or would you just have a not knitting for playgroup policy?

I’m also working on (had trouble falling asleep last night while thinking about) a gift that will be relatively quick and easy but fun as an “older sibling” gift since at least one of the babies I know I’m definately making something for has an older sister and I don’t want her to feel left out. I can’t share what it is yet as it will be a pattern I’m designing for Inspirations Yarn but I can tell you its going to be a whole lot of toddler fun!

I’m hoping to dye up just a bit of sock yarn today. I want to do a couple of “Solo” colors as I prefer socks that are mostly one colorish. So I’m off to wind some sock yarns from cones to skeins so I can get working. I’ll post the new batches once they are photo ready.

Off to the salt mines

Warning: Rant ahead

Okay, so I’ve been working up to a bit of a rant for a few days now and just hadn’t had a chance to post it.

I do the bulk of the grocery shopping around here. Not all, but the big shopping trips. And I’m trying to do better about not spending a small fortune every time I step foot in the store. Not easy to do these days. As part of that effort we’ve been getting the Sunday Globe and I flip through the coupon sections for things we actually use. . . . I also take the 4 sale flyers from the local shops and go through to see what things are on sale.

I don’t try to buy every single thing we use on sale. My main focus for the sale/coupons stuff are things like toiletries, paper goods, laundry & dish soap and coffee. These all tend to be expensive and we use them often enough and in large enough quantity to make it worth the effort of hunting around for the good deals.

Anyway, so this past week I was going through the flyers and coupons and it really struck me how most of the stuff that the coupons are good for, particularly the things that tend to also be on sale are really C.R.A.P.

See, we’ve also been trying our best to eat healthier. I’m not talking crazy healthy where you never have sugar or a cookie or anything. Just healthier. Our main focus for that is trying to not eat things with Hydrogenated Oils and with corn syrup, especially High Fructose Corn syrup. Do you have any idea how hard it is to avoid those two things? They are in everything these days!

We don’t buy nearly as much of the prepackaged convenience foods as a lot of people I know, but there are some things that we have been buying like breads that really are rather basic and you really have to read the labels to avoid that stuff. Even the breads that advertise as healthy have lots of things that really aren’t so good. For example, D went to the store the other day and got a few things and decided while he was there to grab a pack of the “fresh baked” muffins from their bakery section. Okay, muffins are a good breakfast, aren’t they?

Not these! While we were eating them the next morning we made the mistake of turning the package over and actually reading the label. Each serving had 200 calories and 10 g of fat. Okay, not great but . . . then we looked at the serving size/ servings per container. Would you believe they expect a person to only eat 1 /3 of a muffin?????? Have you met anyone over the age of 3 who only eats one third of a muffin and calls it a meal????? Yeah, so if you eat one whole muffin (and some of us eat more than one) but one whole muffin is 600 calories and 30 grams of fat!!!!! That is 1/3 of the calories I’m suppose to have for the day and 1/2 of the fat!!! And we haven’t even included my coffee in that count! CRAZY!!!

I’m getting to the point where my grocery shopping theories are: If it has packaging its probably bad for your, the more packaging they put on something, likely the worse it is for you to actually eat it. And if the packaging contains any kind of health claims, again, likely not so good. If they are adding “good stuff” to it, like added fiber or vitamins, it probably means they alredy took out the parts that actually were good for you to start with, like whole grains. If the expiration date is say, after your baby is likely to be out of diapers, probably not good for you. For that matter, if it isn’t dairy and they feel the need to put an expiration date on it, likely not good for you. If it says any of the following: “Quicky, Easy, Healthy, New & Improved” on it, its probably CRAP.

Here are some of the things we’ve recently cut from the list of things we buy. Most crackers and prepackaged cookies, with the exception of the “goldfish” crackers from PF which don’t have the really bad stuff and do make a good, if messy, portable toddler snack; Pancake syrup - full of corn syrup. Bisquick - my boys love it for waffles and pancakes but its full of Hydrogenated oils; Most icecreams are full of corn syurp and other junk; anything but plain old scala bread from the store bakery and the occasional bagel; almost anything except veggies from the frozen section; anything that takes more than a minute or a pair of scissors to open.

What do we actually still buy? We shop around the edges of the store mostly, down produce across the meats/fish into the dairy and a quick stop for the scala and a few of the whole grain breads (read carefully) and we don’t go down most of the center isles. Pasta, coffee, canned tomatoes to make sauce (not the jarred junk) and a few things like that. Yes, its more work to cook, but we are foodies and enjoy a good meal so we’d rather take a little extra time and eat something that isn’t as likely to kill us in a few years . . . not easy but worth the effort.

Okay, thanks for letting me rant. I feel much better. Yikes, its later than I realized. Time to go whip up some dinner!