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Sunday, July 23, 2017

Year SIX: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #30

Happy Sunday! Before we get rolling, I want you to know that I'm super pissed at Blogger right now. I had the entire post written with photos and edited and ready to go......and it decided to not save (even though it was telling me it was saving) so I lost everything. EVERYTHING! And I had to start over.

Not cool, Blogger, not cool. I don't have oodles of time to sit and redo everything you eat. ::sigh::


Finished Objects (FOs):
1. Pussy Hat: started January 10, 2017; finished January 16, 2017
2. Hermione's Everyday Socks (v2): started November 14, 2016; finished January 28, 2017
3. Frene Creek Farm Corriedale (spinning): started October 12, 2016; finished January 16, 2017
4. Pikachu Hat: started February 3, 2017; finished February 10, 2017
5. Trusty (v2): started December 22, 2016; finished February 24, 2017
6. Pussy Hat: started February 13, 2017; finished February 27, 2017
7. Pussy Hat: started March 2, 2017; finished March 8, 2017
8. Pussy Hat: started March 9, 2017; finished March 21, 2017
9. Pussy Hat: started March 21, 2017; finished March 30, 2017
10. FlockSock Yarn #1: started April 5, 2017; finished April 5, 2017
11. FlockSock Yarn #2: started April 5, 2017; finished April 5, 2017
12. #initiateknitdesign challenge from ArohaKnits: started April 3, 2017; finished April 11, 2017
13. Knit Picks Bare Palette Fingering: started April 9, 2017; finished April 9, 2017
14. Malabrigo Rios: started April 9, 2017; finished April 9, 2017
15. Nashua Creative Focus Superwash: started April 9, 2017; finished April 9, 2017
16. Pussy Hat: started April 13, 2017; finished April 30, 2017
17. Pussy Hat: started April 30, 2017; finished May 13, 2017
18. Messed Up Moss: started January 4, 2017; finished May 17, 2017
19. Pussy Hat: started May 19. 2017; finished May 23, 2017
20. Pussy Hat: started May 24, 2017; finished May 26, 2017
21. Baby Pussy Hat: started May 26, 2017; finished May 26, 2017
22. Pussy Hat: started May 26, 2017; finished May 26, 2017
23. Bugga Bare (2 matching): started June 3, 2017; finished June 4, 2017
24. Bugga Bare: started June 3, 2017; finished June 4, 2017
25. Bugga Bare: started June 3, 2017; finished June 4, 2017
26. Malabrigo Twist: started June 3, 2017; finished June 4, 2017
27. Malabrigo Twist: started June 3, 2017; finished June 4, 2017
23. Vanilla Socks: started March 30, 2017; finished June 8, 2017
24. Stormageddon's Vest: started October 17 2016; finished June 9, 2017
25. BMFA Handpainted Roving: started March 23, 2017; finished June 23, 2017
26: Malabrigo Sock: started July 3, 2017; finished July 4, 2017
27. Malabrigo Sock: started July 3, 2017; finished July 4, 2017
28. Sanguine Gryphon Traveller: started July 3, 2017; finished July 4, 2017
29. Sanguine Gryphon Traveller: started July 3, 2017; finished July 4, 2017
30. Bonbon for Miss C: started June 24, 2017; finished July 6, 2017
31. Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk Roving: started July 1, 2017; finished July 7, 2017
32. Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk Roving: started July 2, 2017; finished July 10, 2017
33. Miss Babs BFL: started July 11, 2017; finished July 21, 2017

While I do still have some Andean plying to do, I finished up the bulk of the Miss Babs BFL, so I'm calling it finished. The first two bobbins plied together was about 322 yds and the second two bobbins was about 306 yds, which is a pretty decent amount. It's hanging around a sport-DK weight (sometimes wiggling into fingering or worsted). It's a thick-n-thin, but we knew that was coming. Almost all my handspun has been that way. So, there's that. But, like I said, I do have some Andean plying left to do (one from each session of plying).



Works-in-Progress (WIPs):
1. Wink: started January 5, 2015
2. Oh, She IS a Bad Nut: started August 11, 2016
3. Fall in San Francisco (prototype 3): started October 4, 2016
4. Smooth Operator Socks: started October 13, 2016
5. Morvarch Aardvark: started January 1, 2017
6. Stomping Grounds collection: started February 26, 2017 (no project page)
7. Hat Design: started March 20, 2017
8. Vanillaish Rainbow Socks: started June 1, 2017
9. Twilight Socks (from blanks): started June 8, 2017
10. Garter Stitch Baby Blanket: started July 6, 2017
11. Veggie Socks: started July 6, 2017

As far as my knitting goes, I really haven't worked on much this week. I maybe knit a couple rows on the baby blanket and I know I knit on the Vanillaish Rainbow Socks during swimming lessons....but that was about it.

I know, not exciting.



17 UFOs in 2017
1. Wink: started January 5, 2015
2. Oh, She IS a Bad Nut: started August 11, 2016
3. Fall in San Francisco (prototype 3): started October 4, 2016
4. Frene Creek Farm Corriedale (spinning): started October 12, 2016; finished January 16, 2017 **DONE**
5. Smooth Operator Socks: started October 13, 2016
6. Stormageddon's Vest: started October 17, 2016 **DONE**
7. Hermione's Everyday Socks (v2): started November 14, 2016; finished January 28, 2017 **DONE**
8. Trusty (v2): started December 22, 2016 **DONE**
9. Design: Susan's Hat
10. Design: Little Man's Baby Blanket
11. Design: Paradiddle Socks (aka Little Drummer Girl)
12. Design: Pacific Waves Hat
13. Design: Fall in San Francisco Hat
14. Stash Inventory (photos, in Rav database) **DONE**
15. Dystopian Novel
16. Doctor Who blanket (1)
17. Doctor Who blanket (2)



"OMGLSGWTFBBQ" Lists


Children's Items:
1. Stuffed toy for Mr. K (SIL's foster child)
2. Stuffed toy for Miss E (SIL's adopted daughter)
3. Stuffed toy for TAZ (brother's daughter)
4. Undetermined hat for Little Man
5. Undetermined hat for Stormageddon
6. Mittens for Little Man
7. Mittens for Stormageddon


Items for ME (selfish knitting FTW!):
1. Park Slope (fingering, specifically Mountain Colors Crazy Foot)
2. Worsted weight house socks (worsted, of course - maybe something like Lumberjack)
3. Classic Silk Mayfaire Camisole (Miss Babs Northumbria with modifications)
4. Evangeline (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
5. Lichen (Aran or Sport/DK; solid or semi-solid)
6. Moyen Age (fingering; one of my Vice Yarns? Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20?)
7. Ginny's Cardigan (DK; solid or semi-solid)
8. Drip Drip Drop (sock; solid or semi-solid)
9. Celtic Myths (worsted; solid)
10. Jag in Garter Stitch (DK; 2 colors)
11. Cobh (fingering; 2 colors)
12. Offhand Lace (bulky; solid or semi-solid)
13. Whitman (DK; any color)
14. Flax (worsted; any color - Misti Alpaca Harry Potter-esque one?)
15. Hoar Frost (Wollmeise that's wound in the bag)


Christmas/Charity Bin:
1. 198 Yds of Heaven (worsted; solid)
2. Comfort Food (Aran; solid)
3. Tombreck (worsted; solid or semi-solid)
4. Premie Spiral Hat (DK; any color)
5. Pumpkins & a Pattern (any weight, any color - gauge doesn't matter)


Designs:
1. Susan's Hat *started* - need new prototype & write pattern
2. Little Man's Baby Blanket *started* - write pattern
3. Paradiddle Socks - need prototype & write pattern
4. Pacific Waves Hat *started* - need another prototype & write pattern
5. Fall in San Francisco *started* - need another prototype & write pattern
6. Stormageddon's Baby Blanket - need prototype & write pattern
7. Cabled pullover (grey look-alike sweater) - need sketch, grading, swatch, prototype, & write pattern
8. Christmas stocking for Little Man - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)
9. Christmas stocking for Stormageddon - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)
10. Christmas stocking for Husband - need charts, prototype, & write pattern (maybe)
11. Stomping Grounds collection (everything: charts, prototypes, swatches, etc.) *started*


Spinning:
1. Miss Babs BFL
2. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt
3. Wash & start processing Alpaca fleece from Lambtown
4. Wash & start processing Merino fleece from Lambtown

Other:
1. Stitch markers
2. Make sure my vintage patterns are in Ravelry (Workbasket magazines, leaflets, etc.)



This week was Little Man's first full official week of summer vacation, now that he's finished with summer school. It was rather lovely in some ways...and then I remember why I like having schedules. The boys were fighting, as is pretty normal really, and we couldn't always do things we wanted but....we did what we could.

Speaking of schedules...Little Man has been sleeping in. Stormageddon has been waking me up before 7am every day this week. I'd like to sleep in, too, booger. ::grumble:: I suppose it could be worse. At least it's not during the school year and I have to drag both of them out of bed.

On Monday, the boys and I made the mile and a half walk to the park. We were going to meet with one of Little Man's classmates (and her mom because woo-hooo!) and let the kids play in the splash pad and at the park and such. Unfortunately, the splash pad is only on Wednesday-Sunday. So, I shot the mom a quick text and said it was turned off and she showed up with spray bottles and the kids had a blast with the water. We were there for a few hours and then we walked back home, whereupon I discovered that I got really sunburned. It's my own fault but I'm surprised I didn't realize I was burning.

Monday afternoon, Stormageddon had his first audiology appointment. He's had five ear infections since last September (the most recent one being in May, I think). He's met with the ENT (the same one that did Husband's big surgery in March) and the first step was determining whether he could actually hear and if he had fluid behind is ears and such. He can't hear squat (which we suspected anyway) and he has fluid behind his ears. Sooo, ear tubes are in his future. He was rather uncooperative during his appointment, which also was not surprising. Poor kiddo :(

The sunburn meant no gym for the rest of the week. Sunburn + sports bra + sweat = OUCH! Tuesday, we ran some errands because there wasn't much else we could do.


We have a newish doughnut shop not far from our house. We've been there at least one other time and I decided we needed another visit.



Apparently Stormageddon likes to wear chocolate as well as eat it.




Also, Stormageddon only wants to eat the chocolate and maybe a little bit of the actual doughnut....Little Man, on the other hand, gobbled his doughnut right up.

On Tuesday, I also managed to harvest our first cherry tomatoes of the season and I saw a fluttery little......moth? Butterfly? I don't know....but it was hanging out on one of our other tomato plants, asking to be photographed. I obliged.




Since our first tomatoes, we've had a few more ripen that need picking (bigger ones, funnily enough).

Little Man has also been all about dressing up this week....as Mario (as in Super Mario Bros.). Yeah, I don't know what he's doing with his fingers, either...I think he sees other kids do it in photos and thinks is the cool thing to do. I don't have the heart to tell him he looks silly at this point. And yes, I drew the mustaches. And yes, I used washable marker. I'm not totally reckless...





On Wednesday, Husband went salmon fishing about 10 miles off the coast.


He actually caught two fish but the other one had to have it's head chopped off and given to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. It was chipped so they need the chips back and they can track where it came from and where it went and all the good things in a fish's life.

He became dinner.


While Husband and his friend were off fishing, I took the boys to Dharma Trading Company in San Rafael. I've been trolling their website for maybe the last 3-4 months. We had some time so up we went. I came home with dyeing supplies and I might do a separate post about that but, in the meantime, I'll just say that I bought seven containers of dye (I shouldn't have to buy dye for like a year now) and a bunch of yarn to dye. I think I came home with eighteen things to dye (I say, "things" because there are sock blanks in there, as well as skeins of yarn). I'm going to have to start selling things in order to fund my newest hobby....

Thursday was a pretty normal day. Little Man had swimming lessons, Husband worked from home, the usual...and nothing terribly exciting. That's the only time I did any knitting this week.

On Friday, I took the boys to the San Francisco Zoo. We have a membership and we've done the math: if we go to the zoo four times in a year (even if it's just me and the boys), the membership pays for itself. I have no problem going to the zoo every couple of months. I'd go every month if I thought the boys wouldn't get sick of it.


Apparently no one in the car was interested in taking a selfie with mom. ::sigh:: Little Man did say that he was trying to be a Weeping Angel but I think he was just being a booger.

We were a little early (the zoo opens at 10am). Little Man was being helpful by carrying the diaper bag (backpack). Of course, it was heavy and I wound up carrying it but he tried....



We took mostly our usual path around the zoo...meaning we went to the African Region first. When we first arrived, the giraffes were still inside (the zookeepers were getting food out for them) but by the time we swung back around, they were outside.

We also stopped to look at the gorillas...several times. It's one of the bigger enclosures and there are viewing areas in probably a dozen different spots.


Little Man would be a teeny little gorilla.

After the African Region, we went to the Lemur Cafe (which is, of course, next to the Lemur area) for a quick lunch before it got crazy busy. Then we continued on our way. The flamingos are right across from the cafe so we swung over there. They've done some work to more fully enclose the flamingos. I think there were problems with people feeding them because there was basically a chain-link fence between people and the birds so now there's a wall with viewing glass. No big deal for us, really. We went through the Primate Discovery Center (read: chimps, lemurs, monkeys, etc.) and then to the pachyderm building.

The zoo also has a special exhibit right now in the pachyderm enclosure (which has not housed pachyderms since 2004, when the last one, a 38 year old with chronic health issues, was moved to a sanctuary). They have several throughout the year but the current one is a tarantula exhibit, with tons of information as well as several live ones.


Unfortunately, there were a lot of summer camps visiting the zoo on Friday so photos of a few things were difficult to come by, particularly in the tarantula exhibit.

Now this is the point where we skipped a few of our "usual" things. We usually go see the penguins, the hippo, the rhino, and onto the big cats (lions, tigers, snow leopards, etc.) but we skipped that and went to the South American area, saw the anteater and the guanaco before stopping at the little steam train. Stormageddon is somewhat uncooperative if you take him out of his stroller and then try to put him back too soon and Little Man wanted to ride on the train....so he asked me, very politely, "Mama, do you trust me?" to ride on the train alone. So, he rode the train without us and he behaved perfectly and was excited and loved it.


And, of course, while he was on his travels, Stormageddon and I took a selfie.


After the train, we had a snack and continued around to see the grizzly bears, the new wolf exhibit (we've seen them before but it's still new), and we discovered that the polar bear had died in April. To be fair, Uulu was 36 years old...but it was still sad. We saw the sea lions being fed, which really fascinated the boys. They've never seen it. Actually, I don't know that I've ever seen it.

That was followed by a trip through the South American Tropical Rainforest & Aviary building (translation: reptiles & birds).


A lot of the birds are allowed to fly freely throughout the building. Don't misunderstand me, there are a few that have netting over their area because they're a huge flight risk (toucans, for example) but many can just go about as they wish.

I have a love of frogs. This one is a Panamanian Golden Frog and he was posing perfectly. And he's cute.



And my love of Harry Potter dictated that I take a photo of the Plumed Basilisk, which is definitely more lizard and less snake.



A few zoo trips ago, we got to learn about Oliver, the boa constrictor. He was busy sleeping on Friday and someone asked why I kept referring to him as, "Oliver." It's not like they have name cards on the signs identifying the animals so I had to explain that his name was, in fact, Oliver.

By that point, the boys were about done so we had a quick walk through part of the Outback Trail (read: Austrialia/New Zealand) and then we headed to the playground. I let the boys play for about an hour and Stormageddon was getting grumpy so we decided to start heading out. And then I noticed a sign pointing toward an area of the zoo we had not yet explored in five years of living here. I think I knew deep in my subconscious that there was something over there but I have always avoided going toward the area because it takes you right past the carousel and I didn't particularly want to deal with the meltdowns of not getting to ride it....but, I took a chance. It's the Exploration Zone.


Prairie dogs! I love me some prairie dogs! When I was a kid and went to the zoo back home, this was one of the enclosures I can clearly remember and I was always sad that I hadn't seen one since I was a kid...and there it was. Both boys were fascinated because they've never seen anything like them.

There were also meerkats but they were all sleeping/hiding so we didn't see them.

In addition to them, there was also a red panda exhibit (he was sleeping) and a little "family farm" which was really just some farm animals that were sort of in a petting zoo kind of thing. The goats and sheep could come and go from their pens but there were also donkeys, ducks, a hatchery, and a very well-endowed horse.




In addition to that, there was also an insect zoo. It had plenty of tarantulas but also caterpillars, bees, beetles, cockroaches, and ants.



Little Man oscillates between being fascinated with tarantulas and being scared of them. This was one of the moments when he was kind of scared, for some reason. Weirdo.

There's also a nature path where there are docents (mostly teenagers) that have a few of the smaller animals out and you can learn about them in a closer setting. There was a box turtle, a tortoise, a hedgehog, a baby ferret, a chinchilla, a screech owl, and a few others. 

I'm glad we swung over that way.


Any trip's success can be determined by whether these two sleep in the car. The fact that Little Man is almost seven years old means the chances of him falling asleep are growing slimmer every day....but he fell asleep on Friday :) Score!

Yesterday, we did a bunch of random stuff around the house: laundry, cleaning, dishes, more cleaning, packing......

Yes, packing.

We haven't told the boys but we're taking a trip to Los Angeles/San Diego today (coming back on Tuesday). Where are we going while we're there? Well, tonight we're eating at Medieval Times. Tomorrow, we're going to Disneyworld. On Tuesday, we're going to Universal Studios (read: Harry Potter)....and then we're driving home. Soooooo, the boys have no idea. Little Man has been begging me to tell him and I've not cracked :) 


So, I expect next week I'll have plenty of photos and I might just have to do a separate post.....we'll see :) I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

2 comments:

  1. Love prairie dogs! Saw them, in the wild, in a prairie dog town in South Dakota. We have one place here that has meerkats...I adore meerkats.....hope you have a wonderful trip!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh gosh, you had to rewrite that whole post??? That happened to me once and I called up to my boyfriend in a panic, he said "Hit Control + Y"...and I got my post back. It doesn't always work but it's the "redo" control.

    Your photos are beautiful! Your poor little kiddo...I've had bad ear infections...I hope the treatment helps him. And poor you! I still talk about the "sunburn of '89"...I went to the beach and back then, I didn't "need" sunscreen...omg I was in so much pain and peeling for weeks. You're right ANY bra + sunburn = SQUEEL! Enjoy your trip!!! :)

    ReplyDelete