Well it's finally October, so now I can begin my countdown to Halloween. I promise I'll try and get some photos of myself and MiniMonster in our costumes.
I did, in fact, finish the sock, and there's only one slight problem with it. The problem being: It's so big I could probably fit both feet into it. Or at least one and a half feet. It fits Tilmani slightly better, so I might have just used yarn thats a bit too big for the pattern. I'll knit up the other one and he can have one seriously deranged pair of socks for the weekend, and/or for sleeping in. He joked that they could be his shield against my own 'Toes from the Crypt'. C_C
I'll try again to make some socks that are actually my size, but for now it's good to know that I can actually make them. Plus the pattern in the heel gave me a great idea what to do for a dressy shawl/wrap I want to make.
MiniMonster is still a little clingy, he's chowing down on some lunch right now. I gave him his yogurt and now he's trying some crunchier snacks to practice his nomming on.
I'm also seriously looking forward to the weekend, Tilmani and I will be trying to make an excursion to a yarn festival. *HEE*
I wish this picture hadn't come out blurry, because the expression is FANTASIC. Mini Monster is actually on our 'hearth' ((the bricks are level with the floor)) where I caught him trying to break into my yarn stash again. Yesterday he was bound and determined he was going to break in and... well I don't know what his plans were after that because he couldn't get past the zipper on the bag. So he flipped over and used a pile of quilt blocks I'm someday going to make into something for him as a pillow while he goofed around. Yeah quilting is one of those 'someday I'm going to' projects with an vague time line. Very very vague.
I also have, for those who requested it, more sock pictures! I successfully got the heel turned, even with picking up stitches to reconnect everything, which I admit is one of my least favorite parts of knitting. I'm pretty darn pleased with myself! The next big hurdle will be, I think, closing the toe, since one of the other things I have trouble with is the Kitchener Stitch, to make a seamless closed toe.
Mini Monster is down for a nap again so I'm sneaking in some knitting and blogging. I've got Cake Boss playing in the background, since I'm a little weird like that I guess and I kinda like having the background noise.
I haven't gotten around to trying to turn the heel yet but I think the socks look ok... so far. I'm using a pattern from "Patons Next Steps Four: Socks and Slippers". (The basic sock in superfine) and some Serenity Garden Yarn "Deborah Norville Collection" in "Gems".
This is that totally crazy yarn I mentioned before, the one I thought was self striping but kinda alternates. It's crazy, but kinda fun, court is still kind of out I admit. Tilmani thinks they'll be fun, so cross your fingers. They'll certainly be comfortable!
I also bought some orange and green yarn (Cotton Classic) to make some 'pumpkin' socks. I'm going to do the top edge, the heel, and the toe in the green, and the rest in the warm pumpkin orange. Simple, but they should be entertaining and fun.
--- I've heard a lot of debate about the Guardians of Gahool movie, and I gotta admit, the trailer is STUNNING, and I kinda want to see it. I never read the books but I remember hearing good things... but then again, I know how bad Hollywood can make a good thing. I mean look at 'The Postman'. Great book. Horrendous bastardization of a film.
So today was 'game' day. Turtle, Bear and... ok he doesn't have a nickname yet so we'll call him Luxord, because he looks kinda like Luxord from kingdom Hearts.
...No seriously he does. If he ever cosplayed he would get attacked by more obsessed Jailbait than he could shake a deck of card at.
...That's also probably why he doesn't cosplay. I don't think I would in his shoes.
Anyway it was game day, so we had another run of our Dungeons and Dragons game. We're a bit more adventure oriented than treasure oriented, even though the GM is having fun using an old set up from the very early run of the game, which was pretty much originally designed for dungeon crawling, and has turned it into a lot more stuff. Including a recent assassination attempt on the Castilian of the town, for reasons we don't yet understand, Necromancers, Wizards, Thieves, Dragons... and most of the group having their entire past sealed off for them, again for reasons we don't know, by an Wizard from a previous game we'd been part of. Somehow our sealed up memories have a lot to do with everything that's going on, but since all our attempts to unlock our memories have gone pretty badly, we're having to find any connections the long way.
My own character is also getting increasingly distressed, because he seems to have developed the uncanny knack for finding, and pissing off, anything in the area with necromantic powers. And one of them from the first few days of the game is back, by the looks of it, and he's probably still pretty mad about my Rogue turning his sentient-skeleton spouse ((He's an necromancer and a zombie, there's a fun combo for you.)) into a pile of bone chips.
We didn't catch the assassin, but we did find his hiding hole, and my rogue was happy enough to clean it out for him, especially of the bottles marked as antitdotes. We're not sure if one of them will cure the Castelian, but any shot at the moment is better than none. That and since I've taken all of the poison bottles he left behind, it might cramp his style for a while.
While we were doing this: MiniMonster got out for a short walk and enjoyed the fall weather, and got to show off his skeleton shirt, pumpkin hat and nice orange coat. The orange coat was actually a coincidence but it looks pretty darn cute with his pumpkin hat. I think I might have to make him a new one at some point. Once he came back we jokingly assigned him the role of being a Kobold, since they're small, prankish, and occasionally noisy, and he was pouncing away in his bouncer so hard it was hard to hear anything for a while.
I think he kind of got a kick out of that, or at least that everyone was sort of including him in the action, though he got impatient around his dinner time, understandably, and we broke things up on a break out of the Dungeon area in which we'd uncovered the assassin.
He did have a little bit of an upset after everyone left though, he crawled across the floor and jammed his fingers on, or under, part of his Bouncer and was very upset, though fortunately not seriously hurt. We then had a bit of a debate as to weather he was injured enough that it counted as a free pass to go after and play with the lap top, or if he was ok with cuddles, kisses, and some 'Hint' water in his bottle to cool his mouth (We think he's teething again) and his fingers. He thought it was an equivalent exchange, I said it wasn't. I won, but not without an argument.
I also got a little knitting in. I'm trying to knit a sock using "Premier" yarns sock yarn in 'Gems'. It's... knitting up very interesting. It started out looking like it was going to be self striping, then broke into a big band of jumbled colors, now seems to have gone back into something kind of like self striping. I'll take a picture tomorrow when the lighting is better.
We made Hungarian Goulash for the group, and that completely disappeared, which is a great sign of a successful dish. Apparently the Spice Cake I made for Tilmani and a potluck late last week also went over very well. It was Spice Cake with Cream Cheese frosting and homemade apple butter layered in the middle. Those who tried it said it came out great, which was a relief. It leaked apple butter overnight before it went in to work, and I was worried it wouldn't come out well, but all reports say otherwise. Nice to know something I made didn't turn out a disaster!
I have one last giggle for everyone before I stop writing for the night. Tilmani found this one and I had to laugh, even though i only saw the very tail end. You'd have to be a little familiar with Pokemon to get part of it, but I've always noted that the game would be hugely different if the Pokemon, most of which wield some kind of elemental power, some of which are ridiculously HUGE (like Gyradros.) Were actually as dangerous as they really should be.
((I actually played a 'serious' version of pokemon as a RPG once. It was a ton of fun. My trainer actually only had one Pokemon, an Absol, which are a pokemon with an scythe like blade on their head and impressive claws. He also only had one hand, specifically BECAUSE of that Pokemon. It was actually an fun game while it lasted.
I should probably switch to blogging in the evening, since apparently my pork loin plans didn't go quite... well. As planned.
I picked a different brand than last time, and it took longer to cook than the package indicated, and while it smelled good, it really didn't -taste- that good. The delicious smell pretty much stayed surface only, and the pork loin itself was sort of dry and overall, barely flavorful. The Apple-Bourbon one we had last time was about a hundred times better.
Tilmani made pancakes this morning though, to try and make the weekend get off to a good start since last night I ended up so frustrated at everything going wrong at the tail end of the day I ended up in kind of a funk-mood.
It seems to have worked. Mini Monster, who had a dash of apple-butter in his oatmeal (Homemade), and two pieces of plain pancake, is talking to his pacifier, and punching the buttons on an musical frog thing that was originally for his car seat, but never got hung. ((I rediscovered it under the laundry yesterday. It's kind of surreal when you put the laundry pile down on something and from somewhere in the depths you hear perky music, and slowly realize that in the pile of stuff that somehow never made it to the closet, is a musical gizmo.
The pancakes were delicious. :3
I'm also watching Tilmani play "Resonance of Fate". It's a little hard to figure out at first what the story is, so I actually cheated and read the Wiki, but it's a pretty cool game. Sort of steam punk and with some pretty funny dialogue. Vashyron and Leanne are my favorite out of the three protagonists. It is a shooter game though, so that might put some people off, though most of what's getting blown up are mutants and machines.
Might write some more later. My half finished cup of coffee is calling.
The guys showed up to start working on the chimney this morning, I can hear them around the back of the house thumping around as they work. Good deal, we need to get that fixed to make sure we don't have problems down the road if we use that chimney. Chimney fires are not your friend and all that, and that thing clearly had some alarming issues. When everything's over, they'll be gone.
We also picked the color for the roof shingles, we'll be getting a nice warm brown one that'll look really nice, though that's not yet underway.
There are also apparently some guys from the town working on the road again. Last time they came through they dug huge holes in the road and pulled up rocks bigger than the mini monster, filled them in, and drove away again. Until today.
They've come back, dug everything up, including these big trenches across the road that drive everyone crazy, only this time they haven't fully filled things in so the rock holes and the trenches are all notable, tire munching dips in the road. I'm not -exactly- sure what they think they're doing, and they certainly haven't explained themselves, but if they don't come back and fill them in again, I'll send Tilmani a note to make sure he knows about the holes before he comes home.
---- Knitting: Still slooowwly trucking on the Christmas Stocking. I've lost my groove a bit so I haven't gotten as much done, but I'll have to see if I can pick it up again and finish. I hate loosing my groove in the middle of a project, but I guess it happens to the best of us.
Cooking wise: Well I made, and seriously over-spiced meatloaf last night. *ugh* Rookie Mistake. So tonight I'm going to go a little simpler and make a marinated pork loin I got at the supermarket. Tomato Basil marinade, it sounds good anyway. I think I'll make some roasted potatoes or something to go with it. It can't all be Goulash and Baked Potato Soup, but it'll be tasty anyway.
My email inbox was also the recipient of an interesting, and kind of weird sounding recipe for "Curried Apple Soup". It seems simple enough, I just can't quite get my head around weather or not it would be good. It did make me laugh though. Most of my life I've pretty much hated soup and chili.
What are my current favorites in the household menu? Soups and Chili.
----
Monster Wise: He's doing good. He didn't sleep so well last night but he's catching up this morning, and after he did finally get to sleep last night he woke up in a fantastic and very social mood this morning. He was all smiles, giggles and big hugs. He's really getting into the idea of hugs, though big ol' sloppy Monster kisses are still uncommon enough to be a little thrilling.
He's also the subject of an interesting debate, since something Grandma S. found online clashes with my baby book. ((Regarding weather or not kids his age could/should have whole grain bread.))
Her article says no, but my baby book, and my good friend who actually made a point of studying children and their growth, say yes, they're just fine with Whole Grains, and if they weren't, hundreds of generations of kids would have had some big demonstrable digestive problems because White Bread, which Grandma S. says is the only kind he should have, is a rather recent invention. Anyway I haven't seen the slightest problem from Monster sampling some thin strips of Whole Grain, in fact he thinks it's marvelous. It's also a seriously interesting result if he sneezes. ((Have I mentioned he also is still getting over a cold?))
It did raise an interesting point of discussion though, that it can be hard to track down when something on the web was actually published, and it's also a great point as to why you should double check any sources on the web. I know the currency of the information in my baby book, since the contents are updated and checked with the edition, and I also have a second backup source. The online article is from an unverified source, with no quoted reference material and unknown qualifications from the person actually citing that opinion. It also goes against generations of babies gone before.
Of course then again, not too long ago, all things considered, people were proclaiming that cigarettes were good for your heath and were soothing for coughs.
Common Sense seems to be pretty flexible on some fronts.
Finished the Purple Panda I was knitting ((A Fuzzy Mitten pattern)). It's my first actually commissioned knit, and I'm pretty pleased with it. Since it was for a baby shower and therefore obviously for a very SMALL recipient, it had to have yarn only detailing, and I used mostly "Moon and Stars" yarn.
Red Heart yarn tends to come with a hefty bad rap, it's super saver yarn is unpleasant to the touch, though is, by all reports, very sturdy and softens up eventually, and most of it's available colors are stark and a bit gawdy, especially once you've become a bit spoiled by the affordable luxury yarns of KnitPix or the fantastic arrays many Local Yarn Stores carry.
For Kids toys though it's hard to beat Moon and Stars for quick and plushy soft, and importantly, very washable and not that pricey.
Mini Monster absolutely loved the feel of it, and when we let him handle the partially finished Panda, it was a small battle to get it back again. As you can see in the photos, I replaced the original head design with the Intarsia version provided by the lovely FuzzyMitten blog. It came out much much better, and I'm going to be much happier making a couple others, including one for Mini Himself.
He got to see both Grandmothers again today, Grandma S and Auntie Roo came by to drop off stuff, including the footie-PJ's that Grandma S got for him. The most amusing of the set was a gray pair with earth moving equipment stitched on the front. I joked that it was cement colored to keep him in one place at night. ((he was unimpressed by the joke.))
Nana J also came by, while we were waiting for Grandma S and Roo. Her's was an unexpected drop by, but it did let me send off Purple Panda and his care card. ((I included washing instructions as well as what he was made of, and a mention of where the design came from.))
