Author: sajbat

Perfection Mitts

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Well, that didn’t take long.

Remember this hat? It took a lot less yarn than I thought it would, so I had plenty left over and thought it would make a nice pair of fingerless mitts.  I found this pattern, which I loved as you could unfold the mitts to be longer for extra warmth, or fold them back if you needed to use your fingers.

I wanted to make them longer than the pattern but wasn’t sure if I’d have enough yarn to make them even, and I didn’t want to knit an entire mitt only to find that I didn’t have enough yarn to make the second one as long as the first.  So I divided the yarn into two equal balls by weight first.  Then, I cast on with a provisional cast on, finished the mitt, and then picked up from the bottom and kept knitting until it was as long as I wanted, adding another cable to the wrist to fit with the pattern.  As it turned out, I had quite a bit of yarn left over and just started the second one from the bottom up.

Pattern: Axel Fingerless Mitts

Yarn: Cloud City Fibres thick and thin, 89 yards

Needles: 8

I don’t typically consider myself much of a perfectionist, except when it comes to knitting.  My sister said that part of the charm of handknits is the imperfections, but I think that if you’re going to spend that much time making something it should be perfect–otherwise, why bother? Of course, this is generally impossible and drives me batty because nothing I make is ever completely perfect.

In the case of these mitts, I did the first mitt as above and then cast off with a regular cast off.  When I started the second one, I realized that I could start in a tubular cast on, which looks so much nicer.  I finished the entire second mitt, and then couldn’t stand how the original one didn’t have a tubular cast on/off, unraveled it entirely and reknit it with the appropriate technique. Much better. See?

Now I’ve got 97 yards STILL left over, maybe enough for a little neckwarmer, perhaps?

Freewheeling

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The boy is fully riding a two-wheeler!

He had been riding a push bike for well over a year and had it down.  The idea is that the difficult aspects of learning to ride a bike are balance and steering, so a kid can figure those out first without bothering with pedals.  Then, when it’s time to ride a two-wheeler, you don’t even need training wheels.  At the suggestion of my friends Geoff and Karen who had their 4 year old twins riding without training wheels, we got him a 12″ bike for Christmas, and look!

(Excuse the music.  I couldn’t help myself)

A bit of a shaky start, and then he just goes!

It was pretty incredible to watch the first time it happened.  More than that, it just felt so BIG. I think that so far, the other achievements that we regard as milestones are all part of being a baby or a toddler.  But riding a bike is a big kid thing, and it signifies another level of freedom and ability.

I also realized that this is now the first time that he can go faster than we can.  Since, as I’ve mentioned before, history repeats itself, this worries me.  When I was six, my parents took me riding at the local park.  I rode ahead of them and climbed onto two parallel bars (part of the VitaCourse).  Dangling from one, I swayed to and fro, and then spied two elderly women round the corner.  I thought to myself, “I’ll show them what I can do!” and got on top of one of the bars.  I used to spin around the bar, like on the school playground, and was just short enough that I missed the other bar.  Unfortunately, I had grown. As I propelled my body forward, my forehead landed with a sickening thud on the second bar and I dropped to the ground unconscious, with a gash in my forehead and blood everywhere, which was the scene that my poor panicked parents saw as they rounded the corner.  Obviously, I survived, albeit with a rather large scar, but I’d rather not have to relieve that particular incident.

As he rode around the asphalt, it also made me realize that this is the first major leap into childhood, and by extension, into independence and pulling away from his parents.  It’s a bittersweet feeling when your child achieves something new.  On one hand, you’re just so proud of him, but on the other you realize that it means he needs you just a little bit less.  I know it’s not the last time this will happen, but it feels like it’s the first significant one. Or, as our friend John, father to teenagers, said, “This? This is nothing.  It only gets worse.”

Shocking!

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Does anyone else have the Sandra Boynton book, Blue Hat, Green Hat? (As an aside, how does that book get 87 reviews?! I mean, it’s about 10 pages long and has maybe 30 words?! People love to give their opinions on everything. Like I do with my blog. Anyway.)

For those of you who don’t have it memorized already, the basic premise (if you can call it that) is showing animals wearing clothes. The first three animals are wearing them correctly, but the last one is a turkey who’s got it all wrong. The girl finds this book utterly shocking, as you can see for yourself.

OH NO!!!

Wise Old Ravenclaw

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Believe it or not, I haven’t stopped knitting during the last few months.  I was making a few scarves for dear friends of ours and couldn’t post about it because they occasionally peek in on the blog and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

As usually happens when I give away something I knit, I manage to do so before I get the usual pictures of it to post on the blog.  Since I’m a full-time worker bee, full-time parent, and only part time knitter and blogger, these things get a bit of a short shrift.

Anyway.  Anne and Susan are two friends who I love for many reasons, not the least of which is that I now have someone in Denver to go see all the Sci-Fi/Fantasty/totally geeky movies that I love and Eric detests.  Eric will rarely go see any of these films with me and when he does, he’s one of those types that keeps asking questions like, “Why is that pointy curly thing sticking out of his head?” which just drives me up the wall.

So over the summer, we went to see the new Harry Potter movie and loved it.  At drinks afterward, I casually asked, “What house would you be in?” Susan immediately replied, “Ravenclaw!” I raised a quizzical eyebrow to Anne, who tilted her head towards Susan and said, “I’d be in whatever house she was in,” which was just incredibly sweet.  Now that I knew which house they were in, I could set off on making them house scarves.

The scarves in the movies vary from Year 1-2 and Years 3+, so I thought I’d make one of each and then they could decide which one they wanted to wear.  Also, then they wouldn’t have matching scarves, which is a bit too geeky even for me.  Ravenclaw house colors differ from the book (bronze/blue) to the movie (silver/blue), so I chose the book colors out of a sense of authenticity to the source material.  Yes, I do realize I’m talking about Harry Potter here.

My unwilling model for the Year 1-2 scarf.

And my lovely sister models the year 3+ scarf.

Pattern: Hogwarts Scarves (rav link)
Yarn: Cascade 220 colors 9449 and 7823
Size 7 needles

They’re knit as big tubes so they have no wrong side and are doubly warm.  The color switching was a bit fiddly for the second scarf, but I finally figured out the best technique, which was to add in the yellow, knit with the jogless jog method in the round while carrying the yellow along with the center blue stripe, shifting the row over one stitch at each color change to make each stripe 3 stitches high, and then break the yellow after the stripe bundle was done.  I combined this with the method of knitting in the end as you go along, which meant a lot less work at the end.  Here’s another great example where I meant to get good tutorial pictures and just never managed to.  Here is a link to the technique I used.

Anne and Susan were finally gifted the scarves on New Year’s Eve, and loved them as much as I hoped they would.  These were relatively simple, technique-wise, to knit but did take up a fair bit of time.  It feels sort of odd to have them finished, to tell the truth.  I always knew I had these to work on and now that they’re done, I’ll have to pick up a new project.  It’s sort of like that feeling that Eric mentions to me when he finishes a marathon–exhilarating but disappointing at the same time because once it’s over it’s sort of like, well, what’s next?

Merry Belated Christmas

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Late post–work kept me pretty busy last month, hence the downturn in posting.  I meant to have this done by Christmas but better late than never, I suppose.  And now on to the post itself.

When it comes to religion, both Eric and I are rather decidedly (mostly) non-believers.  Eric grew up in a relatively strict Christian household and studied the Bible quite a bit, and while much of the text still holds meaning for him, he is not a practicing Christian.  I was nominally raised Hindu, and a lot of the fables and tales still draw me, even if I don’t believe in the theology.

So what’s a mixed-race, secular family to do for Christmas?

I understand that, obviously, the holiday holds deep sacred meaning for many.  Even without that, it’s a pretty fun time: presents, trees, lights, songs, family.  In addition to the usual fun things, we are trying to develop our own traditions and pick up some that have been lost.

One such tradition ended many, many years ago, in a flurry of pierogi dough being flung across the kitchen.

Eric’s grandmother was Czech, and as such would make pierogies every year for Christmas.  They can have meat, but Nanny made them in her traditional form, as a peasant food with potato, cheese, and prunes.  It’s a bit of an involved process, but Eric remembers how much he loved making them with his Grandmother while growing up.  After his grandmother died, Eric’s mom, Cheryl, continued the tradition until one fateful day when Eric and his mother got into a fight whilst making pierogies.  Enraged, Cheryl began throwing pierogies at Eric across the kitchen.  The original fight has long been forgotten, but ever since that year, Cheryl simply purchased the pierogies instead of making them herself.

A few years ago, we decided to pick up the tradition again, and now the boy is old enough that he can practially make them all by himself.  This year, we tried a fusion pierogi–potato bhaji filling in the usual dough, to sort of combine both of our ethnic backgrounds into our own tradition.  We have not, as yet, made a prune filling out of lack of demand.  We use a very old, very traditional, very…well, okay I downloaded the recipe from the Food Network website–Polish Pierogies by Emeril “Lagaski.”

First you sift the flour, crack the eggs, and then mash everything up.

The boy has gotten really good at cracking eggs and rarely gets any shell in.

Then you roll the dough out and cut circles out of it.  The boy uses his own little rolling pin and does a nice job.

Then you carefully stuff the pierogies.  Note the look of intense concentration on Eric’s face.  This is not a job for the faint of heart.  Too little filling, the pierogi doesn’t taste that good.  Too much, it explodes when you boil it.

After stuffing and folding over, you use a fork to press around the edges and seal them.  The boy kept calling this “forking” and would cry out, “I want to fork them!”  This caused our inner twelve-year olds to giggle uncontrollably.

Then you have the perfectly plump pierogies, ready for boiling.

After all of that, we boiled the pierogies and then stored them in the fridge.  We eat them on Christmas Eve, sauteed with onions until they are crispy golden brown.  Sadly, I do not have any pictures of the finished pierogies as I was struck with a horrific flu virus and spent the next two days in bed.  I only got to eat 3 of the 5 dozen pierogies that we made and those tasted like cardboard because of my head cold.  I was told by the other consumers, however, that they were quite tasty.

It’s a pretty involved process, to be sure, but we all love doing it and next year the girl will be able to do a bit more than just eat them.  Something about making pierogies has come to mean that it’s the holidays.  Another tradition we have is that I always make souffle for Christmas dinner, though of course I couldn’t get out of bed to do it this year. Maybe next year I’ll post about that one instead.

I like the idea of creating memories for our children around the holidays, so that when the kids grow up, they can remember how we used to spend the whole day together, talking, laughing, making pierogies, and how eating them will always remind them of home.

What holiday traditions do you have?

Batteries Not Desired

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As Christmas approaches, it is with no small amount of dread that I await presents for the children.  Despite the many, many times that we’ve told well-meaning gift-givers otherwise, we inevitably receive numerous toys that are a) electronic, b) loud, c) have no redemptive value and more often than not d) all of the above.  I still don’t understand why people buy these things.  First of all, the packaging requires a small saw to extricate the item.  The kids go gaga over them for about, oh, 5 minutes and then once they’ve figured out that pushing a button does the exact same thing every single time, the toy is relegated to the bottom of the bin, but not before Eric and I are tearing our hair out in sheer annoyance at listening to a plastic flower shriek, “I love you!” for the 500th time.

Even toy manufacturers have fallen prey to this notion that more bells and whistles is better. Remember the classic “See n’ Say” of your youth? You used to point the arrow to the cow, pull a string, and the machine would say “The cow says ‘moooooo.'” The toy now has 2 flip pages with all sorts of sounds, a “quiz” mode that is too difficult for the intended age group, and a lever that is too hard for little ones to pull.  Same thing goes for the classic corn popper toy–now with lights, music and number counting. (Though can be purchased in its old incarnation, unlike the See n’ Say.)

I’d much prefer toys that encourage some degree of creativity and free play, since those are the ones that seem to have the most lasting value and are well tolerated by parents.  Truth be told, the favorite “toys” at our house are the cardboard boxes, couch cushions, and blankets which can be manipulated into forts, space shuttles, cars, houses and so much more, and also anything that involves dress-up.  I’ve had many house calls by the “doctor,” repair jobs by the “worker,” and trips to space with “Neil Armstrong” than I can count. Puzzles.  Puzzles are also a hit.

Anyway.  As an act of guerrilla parenting this holiday season, I encourage you to cut out the warning labels below and take them with you on your next visit to the toy store.  Slap them onto anything that pertains, which is probably most everything there, and think about the the real caution labels that should be put on today’s playthings. (Taken from Make Digital Magazine, full link pic below large ones)

Look Inside >>
Volume 07

Happy Blogaversary to Me!

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Yesterday was the official day, but I was post-night shift and in no shape to blog using polysyllabic words.

Let’s see what I managed to write about in the last year:

At wordle, you can put in anything you want and generate a wordcloud where the frequency of a word used in the source relates to the size of the word in the cloud.  The one painfully obvious thing that jumps out at me is that I clearly use the words “really” and “just” waaaaay too much.  I mean, they rate more often than my kids! My husband was quick to point out that he rates below not only “boy” and “girl,” but also well below “yarn” and “knitting.”  I refuse to comment on that for fear of incriminating myself.

The truth is, the wordcloud is a pretty good little snapshot of what I do with most of my time.  I confess, I wish there were some better words/phrases in there to make me seem cooler, like “humanitarian,” “novella,”  “drag queen,” or “hiking Kilamanjaro” but that’s just not where things are right now.  To borrow a phrase, so it goes.  While it may seem narrow in scope, I’d like to think that the world I’ve constructed around myself is rich in depth, humor, love, and fun.  And now I’m getting all cheesy, which simply isn’t allowed.

Let’s see what comes in the next year, and if I can manage to shift the cloud  bit further to the cool side.

And with that, we’re off to a “Harmonica” party, where the boy gets the honor of lighting the first candle!

Just Happy Cleaning Windows

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Both of my children attend a Montessori school, where one of the basic philosophies is that children’s play is valuable work and should be regarded as such.  To this end there are various “practical life” stations in the classroom where the kids have scaled down versions of adult activities, like laundry hanging, dishwashing, and sweeping.  (I’m waiting for the class to have a few more useful ones, such as “cooking dinner” work, “putting self to bed” work, or “zymurgy for toddlers.”) One of the favorites is always “window washing” work.  I’m not sure why this is such a big hit, though I think it’s partly because it’s simply fun to spray a water bottle.  I purchased a set recently from a Montessori supply website, though I could probably have just put the whole thing together with stuff from the dollar store.

My intention was primarily for the girl to use it, but the boy grabbed it and proceeded to wash every window in the house.

The girl got into it, too:

She particularly loved the squeegee, and once when the boy tried to use it, she snatched it back from him and proceeded to whack him on the head repeatedly with the hard plastic side in a fit of rage. This landed her in time out rather quickly.  The boy, to his credit, never cried or lashed out at her, but instead walked over and sat down in front of her.  “It’s okay, sweetie pie,” he said. “I’m your brother and I love you.  Can you say sorry and give me a hug?” They gave each other a hug and promptly returned to window washing, while I got teary-eyed.

On another occasion, the girl picked up a towel and began to wipe off the fridge, completely of her own volition.  Seriously, this must be how they get the school clean.  I wonder if they’re licensed for child labor.  Should I notify the authorities?

She then made the sign for milk, so I handed her a sippy cup thinking she must be thirsty.  She instead proceeded to do this:

See? She realized that the fridge wasn’t actually dirty when she was cleaning it, so she purposefully dripped milk on it and then wiped it off, which gave her a great deal of satisfaction:

The thought process mystifies me–I wish I knew exactly what was going on in that little brain.  Does she need to feel that her work is purposeful? Or did she just want something to wipe off?  I’d like to think that it’s the former, since really, don’t we all want our work to be meaningful?  It reminds me of the Van Morrison song, “Cleaning Windows,” in finding happiness and satisfaction in simple, purposeful work.

Or maybe, sometimes spilling milk is just making a mess for the fun of it.

Embrace!

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There’s a new exhibit titled “Embrace!” at the Denver Art Museum.  They invited artists to install installations and paint paintings throughout the building–directly onto the walls of the museum itself.  Check out the link to the Daniel Libeskind building–I think it’s stunning.  One of the interesting features is that there are no 90 degree angles in the building–the walls all jut out at odd angles to one another, and the pieces in this exhibit all take inspiration from and use that to their advantage.  Come April, these works will be painted over, only to remain in pictures.

The DAM is incredibly kid-friendly and we’ve had memberships since the new building opened.  On weekends during winter and every day during the summer you can check out kid-sized backpacks and art tubes with activities in them.  Some galleries have “I Spy” cards to play with the paintings, and there are interactive games on every floor.  In one work entitled “Bubbloo,”  a  light projector casts bubbles on the floor and kids (and adults, if you can get around the kids) run around to stomp on and pop the bubbles.  The central area of this piece is flanked by large beanbag chairs, and on most days you can lounge on these and watch a chaotic slew of children frantically try to pop all the bubbles first.  Occasionally this leads to a closed-head injury, but hey, it’s all for the sake of art.

I took the boy to see the new exhibit, and it’s really, really cool.  A disclaimer: taking pictures of a fast-moving kid (the boy) in a low-light setting (the museum) and without a flash yields a lot of blurred pictures.  Think of it as a purposeful design element.

In what used to be the gift shop is a piece titled “¿Being Home?” The artist asked immigrants to Denver to say one word that described their experience, and then did this:

Being Home? by Rupprecht Mathies

See all the big words hanging from pegs on racks? Those are huge pillow words that you’re encouraged to play with, and the boy had a ball with them.

Next was a very cool installation “Chamber,” where there’s a big room with projected words and images that flit about you in a dark space, meant to be reminiscent of being inside a fireplace, only with technology instead of organic flames.

Chamber by Charles Sandison

The boy found this to be a bit overwhelming and didn’t want to spend a bunch of time in there.

The DAM  has little stations where you can do art activities.  These change on a regular basis so there’s always something new, and they’re related to a piece nearby.  This time we found an area where there were cut up pieces of cardboard, a hole puncher, brads and twist ties encouraging you to repurpose this found material into art.

You can see a bit of the piece it relates to behind the boy in the pic above, and here’s a larger shot.

Rain Has No Father? by El Anatsui

The artist flattened liquor bottle tops and connected them with small copper rings to create this large undulating form, which the boy said reminded him of the mountains.

After all of this we were both a bit hungry and so went into the atrium that connects the old and new buildings, in which one can buy coffee and snack, which I did.  They have wooden blocks there for kids to play with that mimic the Denver Central Library, which is right outside the window.

Denver Central Library

The boy used this as inspiration for his own library re-creation:

And then a map of his Denver:

Denver Map-click to see captions larger

I have NO idea what “the clock place” is, but that’s what he insisted on.

After this we walked over to the Library, checked out some books and headed home.  We didn’t get to all the pieces in the show, so will have to go back at some point, but I highly recommend going to check it out if you get a chance, and take the kids! It’s been fun to take the boy (and now the girl) to the Museum and watch how their reaction to the art changes as they grow, from just sleeping in the carrier the entire time (philistine!) to playing with the light bubbles to now actually being able to have opinions on which pieces he likes and doesn’t.  And let me tell you–my kids are quite opinionated.