I’m so silly.

I’ve just been grocery shopping. It was fun! Although, I think someone ran over a squirrel in the commissary parking lot. It was hard to tell, there was this little gray pancake with a long, curved, slightly furry line coming out of it. Perhaps someone just dropped a pipe-cleaner in some gum. I doubt it, but who can say?
Anyway, they’ve put up all of the Thanksgiving ingredients and many of the Christmas ones, which (although I wasn’t buying any) put me in the holiday mood. I spent the whole shopping trip singing - albiet a bit under my breath - that song from that Rudolph movie they show every year. You know the one - “It’s the most…wonderful tiiiime…of the yeeeear.” I couldn’t find a link to just the music, or to a Christmassy video with the song but you can put this up in another window and listen while you do something else (Please excuse the giant robots.) so you can get your Christmas on!

Now, Mom, I know that the rule is ‘no Christmas carols before Thanksgiving,’ and I know that many people (myself included) have strong feelings about the way that stores try to sell you Christmas trees in September, but somehow ingredients for Christmas have slipped through the cracks. It’s the loophole!

Don’t blame me. Blame the nutmeg.

Speaking of baking, I picked up five gorgeous Granny Smith apples while I was shopping. I had meant to get a few for snacking, but they were so big and beautiful that I got five (I can only assume I was under the influence of the nuts and egg nog), and I have an urge to bake something with them. We’re trying to eat healthily, though - anyone have apple ideas that are not swimming in sugar? Please do share, but for now I’m going to listen to the song again.

TooManyHooks is brought to you today by the letter ‘H’

…and the number ‘3!’ ‘H’ begins such words as ‘happy,’ ‘hallelujah,’ and ‘hoo boy, I’m glad I finished that project!’ 3, of course, represents the number of weeks I’ve spent on it. (I mean, I didn’t work 3 weeks straight on it, but I didn’t let myself start another project until it was done. Aside from the smock. But let’s not speak of that.) Wanna see some pictures?

Too bad. That would spoil the surprise, now, wouldn’t it?

Once I finished, I immediately flung myself into some knitting. (Well, I mean, before that I may or may not have gathered it up and danced around the room giggling like a maniac. Allegedly.) Or, I would have, but I had a problem. You see, we had thought that we would be moving into our house this coming weekend. We’re not - probably the next weekend, they had to redo something. If we were moving this weekend, I would work on the smock in whatever free time I had between the throes of packing and moving and still somehow being a mom. Now we have an extra week of ‘almost normal’ squished in the middle, and I was not about to go two and a half weeks with only one project. I knew exactly what I wanted to knit (I’ve been twitching to knit for a week and a half or so - I think it’s a reaction to the creative challenge and tiny pieces and weird shapes I’ve been crocheting. Give me some order and mindlessness!) My yarn and needles were still accessible (you may recall that I was waiting until I finished The Project to seal up the yarn box) but there was oooone major setback.

The book I needed was in a box. At the bottom of a box, actually. At the bottom of a box on the bottom of a stack of book boxes.

What to do, what to do. I actually dithered for almost five minutes about whether or not to move the boxes, unseal that particular box, and unload it to get at the book. Can you guess what the answer was? Of course I went in after it. I’ve been knitting (as the children will allow) ever since.

You don’t get to see that either, though. Don’t act so surprised - it’s almost November!

People Don’t Blog Enough

Yeah. That’s right, I’m talking to you. You bloggers who are reading this instead of posting something. How am I supposed to procrastinate effectively without my daily reading material? No, no apologies needed, you just go post something, then come back. I’ll wait.

Doo-deedoo…

No, I’m still here…

Okay, good. Like I said, I’ve got to have something to read - I get bored when I’m shirkin’ my workin’! On to the post, then.

Today was a good day, in terms of mail. I got a package of paperbacks that I bought on ebay (fiiinally ;)), and I got a package from my grandmother. She sent a lovely bedtime book for Max, and a quilt for Charlie. I think she is taking it upon herself to single-handedly provide baby quilts for the entire clan (she made mine! I still have it. It’s covered in hot-air ballooning teddy bears). It reminded me of a thought I had around the time when Charlie was born - a crafty woman’s child will never go cold. Apparently the same goes for grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, lo - even until the fifth generation’s toes are nice and toasty. Or something like that.

Anyway - oh, what the heck. Here are some photos. First we have a concerned Charlie, with his new blanket featuring clouds and stars and rainbow-colored flying zebras -

Followed by a Max who (although you can’t really see it here) was hamming shamelessly for the camera. Dragons and castles and bears, oh my! Yummy.

Anyway, it’s a good thing Grandma is providing quilts for these kids because…I don’t really quilt. She taught me how when I was a teenager - I even have a few in various stages of progress - but I just don’t do it. I think the problem is the lack of a proper workstation. The last time I worked on a quilt was actually before Max was born - it turns out that taking the sewing machine out, setting it up, working with it and then putting it away before the kids get up is a terribly inefficient use of crafting time. That may no longer be a problem in the new house - the nursery has a lovely walk-in closet with a full-sized window, and there’s plenty of room in it for my sewing table.

Did you hear me? The nursery has a walk-in closet with a window. No lie.

That closet is actually the reason that Charlie will be sleeping in that room and not the one Max is getting. Everyone knows that “nursery” is just another name for “mama’s room that she puts the baby to sleep in.” When he’s old enough for a big-boy bed, he’ll be moving in with Max whether or not there’s another baby yet, since I think that sharing rooms is a valuable part of being a sibling. Besides, I want my workroom. Even if my workroom is only a walk-in closet, it’s bigger than the one I have now (and by that, I mean a corner of the couch).

Besides, it’s got a view.

Anyway, I hope you posted something, or I’m going to have to go pack more. Or - heaven help me - clean something.

Sigh.

I’m just…tired. Our house (you remember we’re moving, right?) is almost finished, and so we’ll be moving very soon. Which is nice, the house is beautiful. But we’re to the point that almost all of my pattern books are packed up, and most yarn not currently in use is in a box. Turns out that I have a lot of yarn (mmm, could use more, though. :D).

In between the kids and packing, I’ve been able to get SOME work done on my ’secret project’ (although the smock has, sadly, been on hold for almost a week). Because I’m using a lot of different colors, I’m really trying to finish up soon so that I can pack all the yarn I have draped across my sofa. I am…ALMOST 2/3 of the way through, and despite the fiddlyness and frustration, I think it’s one of the best things I’ve created in a while. Look for the pattern some time before the end of the year, you lucky, lucky ducks, you.

As for Bitacle…bleh. Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. I don’t delude myself that they made/are making millions off of my work, I sincerely doubt they’re stealing my traffic, since you pretty much have to search for my blog and Bitacle together to find their copy. I had someone tell me that their ads have been pulled (which is what we wanted, really, if they won’t delete the content they stole) so…just bleh. *UPDATE* Apparently, they have lost their Google advertising. So that’s good. Here’s an article from Plagiarism Today about Bitacle’s future. I’m going to try to set it aside for now, and not think about it. Bleh. (/update)

I’m tired. Hopefully the blog will be back to chipper, photographically documented yarny craft content soon - but I’m going to busy for a few weeks.

My. Blog. Has. Been. Stolen.

So has Eunny Jang’s. So has Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s. And Kim’s. And Amy’s. And Grumperina’s. And Donna’s. And Tara’s. And Jessica’s. I could go on, but I just can’t go on.

I. Am. So. Angry.

My first thought - aside from, ‘wow, check out the company I’m in’ (seriously, apparently I’m popular enough to get robbed just like Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) - was something along the lines of a slowly smouldering fury. In case you don’t know what I’m going on about, let me explain. There is a site out there called ‘bitacle’ that steals blog content wholesale (writing, pictures, the whole shebang), surrounds it with ads, and then sits back and collects the admoney. They don’t even have to update, because they use blog feeds. They’re about to steal this post from me as soon as I publish it. I’m more than a little sickened.

They’re making money off of pictures of my babies.

As for my blog-friends (or, some of them, stalk-ees) I mentioned, many of them don’t seem to know. I just heard about this today - I will be notifying as many people as I can. Worried that your blog may have been stolen? (Apparently they’ve stolen more than 14,000 blogs, with the number growing every day.) Go here. I got results searching for pieces of urls (toomanyhooks got me to mine).

Also, check out StopBitacle.org.
Here is someone’s plan for action.
Also, they apparently hotlink all of the images. See here for Plain Jane Mom’s anti-hotlinking tutorial.
Still confused? Here is an excellent post by Lorelle on Wordpress.

Today’s post was supposed to be a half-whimsical, half-serious one about Eunny’s disappearance (it’s been a month), but if she found out about this, I could see why she might stop posting. Fuming. Seriously, just fuming.

Oh, and congrats, Bezzie - you’ve been immortalized in yarn. The pattern didn’t mention you, but you know there’s not a girl at the coffeeshop that didn’t see that and squeal, “Bezzie!”

My Favorite Yarny Tale

‘Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of’ - no, wait, wrong story. Something very exciting indeed has happened in toomanyhooks-land, and so (in the hopes that this will help oblitera- I mean, alleviate the formatting nightmare of shame that is my previous post) please read on to hear a wonderful yarny tale (complete with pictures!)

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who liked to crochet. She crocheted hats, she crocheted toys. She crocheted sweaters, and she crocheted scarves. She loved to crochet! One day, this young woman was cruising around the internet, when what should she find but this book:

“Oh, dear,” she said. “I love that book. I want that book. I must have that book!” So, she bought it, not caring whether any other pattern in the book was good, because she was going to make the beautiful little dress on the cover. The young woman waited, and she waited, and she waited, until one day a package arrived! She ripped the packaging open, and withdrew the book.

“Huh?” she said.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “It looks like a different version. Well, that doesn’t matter, as long as it has the pattern I want.” So she looked, and she looked, and sure enough, there was the smock.

“Well, that’s all right then,” she said. “Let’s see what kind of yarn it calls for.” She looked, and she looked, and then she realized that the yarn was not available in the United States - not locally, anyway - because although they had converted the stitches to American conventions, it was still an English book. Undeterred, she looked for a sub. “Red Heart Baby Fingering should do fine,” she said. “I even have some. Oh, it’s not enough for the whole thing - but I can start now and buy more later. Oh, but I don’t have the right hook. Oh. Darn.”
Not long after that (really, not long at all) she went to Walmart for yarn and a hook. To her surprise, she couldn’t find the Baby Fingering anywhere. She looked high, she looked low, but there was none to be found. “Where could it be?” she wondered aloud as she checked out, hook in hand.
Somewhat later, the young woman happened to be exploring the Coats and Clark website when the awful truth was brought home. The Baby Fingering yarn had been discontinued. “Oh, no!” she cried. “That’s the only fingering yarn I have ever seen! What yarn will I use now?” So, for many sad months, the young woman looked, at Walmart and Michaels and Hobby Lobby and even Joann’s, but she just couldn’t find a fingering yarn. “Oh, well,” she said. “I’ll have to make an internet order, but I don’t have a daughter yet, anyway. It would be silly to do it now. I’ll just wait.” And so the book sat on the shelf, unused, for well over a year.
Then, one day, she went to Walmart to buy some Softee Baby in Lemon and Mint:

(Doesn’t that sound delicious? And I like mint, especially for baby things - no matter what Crochetme says…)

…when she saw something amazing. Her Walmart was carrying Bernat Baby! She stopped. She stared. She dove in with both hands! And, in the end, she bought skeins and skeins - enough to make the smock both in Antique White -

- and Baby Green.

“Hurrah!” she said. She brought the yarn home, and introduced it to the book. “We’ll start tonight!” she declared.
There was only one problem. The hook she had bought, so long ago, was the wrong size.
“Oh, not again!” She couldn’t believe it. Still, the next day, she took one more trip to Walmart. Battling Saturday traffic, forging her way through the crowds, she bought the only thing standing between her and a little smock WIP - the hook! And a candy bar. But that’s beside the point! She returned triumphant with her size 4 steel hook, and she crocheted happily ever after.

The End.

And the Madness Spreads

*Edit* Bah, these pictures are too wide. It’s aesthetically not pleasing! */Edit*

So silly. Thanks for the link, Bezzie!

It’s interesting - I can really see the facial resemblance to Michelle Rodriguez. I look like pretty people!

Charlie…Charlie looks like people with hats on! I totally see the resemblance to Lauri Ylonen - whoever that is. Greg was pleased to see Tiger Woods and David Beckham on the list.

*sings* Everybody, Everybody Sleeps…

My husband is asleep. My toddler is asleep. My baby is asleep. This is unheard of. So, what do I do? Do I run off to the kitchen to wash the dishes?

No…

Perhaps then, the laundry?

No…

Well, am I picking up th-

No! Just…no. I’m saying hello to the internet! Hello, internet! I have crocheted a wee bit more, but I still can’t post any pics of my project. Therefore, to stave off nopictureitis (a common malady seriously detrimental to a blog) we’re going to have a Show-and-Tell Wednesday.

Greg and I went shopping this weekend, so I could buy a new shirt (I am in desperate need of nice-casual attire). We went to Ross, which was a madhouse, but I came home with this:

(Why am I such a ham? The world may never know. Oh, and I’ve just realized it looks like I’m scratching my head. I’m not, I was brushing my hair back. I was! Shut up.)

While I was shopping for a shirt, Greg wandered aimlessly (and unsupervised) through the store. To my surprise, he did not come back looking to buy a giant inflatable motorcycle-riding Santa. He had found this:

You may be having trouble seeing the words due to the glare - it reads: “No Success Can Compensate for Failure in the Home.” It’s a very famous quote (at least in our church) by David O. McKay, a prophet and former President of the LDS church. Needless to say, we were pretty surprised to see it in a random retail store. We bought it, and it’s hanging on our wall now - that’s something that we, as parents, try to remember.

And, before we conclude Show-and-Tell Wednesday, I have to wax romantic about my new shoes.

I love my new shoes. They are the cutest shoes I have owned in years. (Seriously, it’s been so long since I’ve worn a heel that I’ve been practicing in them.) They are cute, and I love them, and they are brown and cute and my cute brown shoes and hey! Did you notice? They go with my new shirt. Okay, I’ll stop babbling now.

Working Without Progress

I’m “up to” a lot of things. Crocheting, for instance. I’ve been crocheting a bit. I say a bit because even though I’ve devoted quite a bit of time to a little project I’m making for someone who could use a pick-me-up, the total mass of stitches completed is quite small. I’ve decided that I really despise assembling small pieces, which, strangely, is the type of project that I seem to do the most, or be the best at. Odd. Still, it does not make for an impressive stitch-count, nor does it provide the theraputic relaxation that comes from working on something very simple very fast.
Let’s see, what else. There are the kids, of course. Max is learning more and more every day (Greg and I were teaching him some karate just last night, in fact - too cute) and Charlie is growing like . . . something clever that grows a lot . . . and both of them soak up time and attention like a fresh dry diaper. (Seriously, those things are crazy absorbent.) We’re going to the zoo tomorrow! Which should be fun.
Then there’s the house. We are moving. Soon. So, there is quite a bit of cleaning and packing to be done - which has not been done - and even though at the end we will be in a nice, new, shiny, bigger, house of our own, it’s a lot of trouble.

But in the midst of all this, let’s not forget my own personal pet project: I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was four, and though I started strong (with the adventures of Space Poodle), since those days I’ve lost a little steam. I’m going to give it a shot this year, and see what I can really do with one month and 50,000 words.

That is all.

SH-SH-SHAAAAAAAAAA!

HiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiYAAA!

Okay, now I’m bored. See how I entertain myself? Fun, though. You should try it - yelling and striking karate poses while your camera timer snaps shots is lots of fun, although it yields surprisingly few useable pictures. I finished my ribbed raglan bolero today (I don’t know what to start now - hence the boredom). Observe the front -

…the back -

Cute, yes? And perfect for this time of year, when one might begin to consider wearing a second (short-sleeved) layer outside (ah, but in the evening. We don’t want heatstroke…) For the first time, I find myself wondering if I should have swatched. What will happen to this particular yarn and pattern stitch when I wash it? Will it shrink? Will it grow? Will it care? I’m not terribly concerned about this sweater, but - let’s just say that suddenly, for no apparent reason, I’ve realized how much time, mony, energy and effort could be wasted without a swatch.

I still hate swatching.