So hey, remember me? I knit sometimes.

I had a brilliant blog post all written out in my head last night, you think I can even remember a word of it now? Hell, I don't even remember what it was about. This is my first completed project of this year. Twinkletoes from knitty. Miss Beans asked me for some ballet shoes last weekend and being totally broke but having a ton of the yarn you see there (from my failed Crumpets, if you're my one long time reader) I whipped up those little babies on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon while hanging around in the ninth bolgie of the eighth circle of Hell (also known as Chuck E. Cheese's). They turned out cute but a little small so I'll have to make another pair. She loves them though, she's barely taken them off to let me wash them and has even slept in them twice. In other knitting news: I received a large portion of Andean Treasure for my birthday which will become a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I'm still working on that damn Wavy for Hercules because I hate it and don't want to do it anymore. Why do scarves have to be so l o n g ? I'm working on a little baby set for the soon-to-be-baby-girl of RTK and Darth's barber who is a very cool guy. If you're in San Diego and need a barber, I can't recommend Lefty's enough. As far as news about my life... Well, it's never pretty, is it? My son got glasses so that's both kids are in glasses now. Neither RTK nor I wear glasses so we're a little baffled as to how that worked out. Our rent is going up so along with the price of gas and groceries we could really use a raise we're not going to get. You'll probably see me on the news when my moneymaking scheme goes horribly, terribly wrong. That's about it for the moment. Except, I've been collecting yarn for the Alpaca Lounge Pants and I think I've almost got enough. If I start them soon they should be ready for Autumn.

Yes, we have no bananas.

The conversation I just witnessed, to preface, Lola wanted a banana for breakfast and was told they were all gone. Darth: I'm gonna tell you a joke Lola, okay? Lola: Okay. Darth: Knock-knock. Lola: Who's there? Darth: Banana. Lola: No Darth, bananas all gone! Darth: No, you say, "Banana who?" Lola: Okay. Darth: Knock-knock. Lola: Who's there? Darth: Banana. Lola: Banana who? Darth: Knock-knock. Lola: Who's there? Darth: Banana. Lola: No! Bananas all gone! I can't wait until they learn "Who's on First". So anyway, things are chugging along here. I finished the dishcloths, the scarf, and my mom's necklace badge holder thingy. All that's left is the last half of SIL's second glove and a cup warmer for her boyfriend. I am so close. I wonder what disaster lurks just ahead to confound and destroy me. A plague of moths, perhaps? Our state breaking off the continent and drifting away into the Pacific? The zombie uprising I've been dreading for so long? I can't say what it will be but I know it's coming. It lurks outside my view in wait of the time when I cast off that last project to smite me. I know it. Ahem. In other news: I bought Mason-Dixon Knitting and returned it. I love it, I can't recommend it enough. I just needed that $30 more. I'll buy it when I have a 40% off coupon for Michael's. I don't know why but for the last couple years I've been compelled to make rugs. I haven't given in just yet but Mason-Dixon makes me really want to give in. Really. I'm rushing through the last of the holiday knitting so I can attempt my first crochet project. A little purse in One Skein. The rectangle one for those who have the book. I don't know why I'm so in love with it but I actually bought a hook. I promise I won't go over to the dark side, you all know how much I hate to crochet. Lastly, I realize that there are only 14 dishcloths on the tree. That's because I already gave my mom hers.

Pant Wranglin'

There should be a sporting event in which competetors attempt to get stretch pants onto bucking, sugar filled, screaming, two year olds who have missed their naps and firmly believe it to be naked time. I call this blood sport "Pant Wranglin'" and I compete for a personal best in it every morning. Okay, sometimes it's not until late afternoon, but you get what I mean.

Crap I forgot!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! In honor of this special day let me leave you with these delightful photos of the costume Kaylee made for Lola Beans to wear to the Gold Coast Pirate festival this weekend. Lola and Darth will be going as Elizabeth Swan and Captain Jack Sparrow. There's a hat too but I couldn't get a picture. Hopefully I'll have more luck on Sunday. Okay blogger is throwing a fit. Picture 1, Picture 2.

My nightmare

Last night I dreamed about sewing. I may have mentioned buying a sewing pattern a while back. It took three weeks to get here but it finally arrived. I started cutting out the GAZILLION pieces yesterday. As I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, I even dreamed about it last night. I'm sure you know why: I HATE sewing. And yet, once again I've been compelled to embark on some large scale, disasterous, project involving skills I don't have (and in this case tools I've never even seen) because I'm a cheap bastard. I know, I know, the knitty Fru-Gal ladies of Cheapass SP would say that this insanity is a beneficial quality. Some crafters would say that handmade stuff is better because it's made with love. You readers would say that you love it when I decide to do crazy crap like make shoes because my fury amuses you. All of those things are fine I suppose but I just wonder why I feel compelled to spend rediculous amounts of time on doing things myself when I could have purchased what I needed for not much more than I ended up spending on materials. I'm just glad I'm using recycled fabric, if I had bought new I'd be in the mire so deep I couldn't see the sun. I thought knitting was expensive but hot damn! And I didn't even buy the expensive velcro stuff nor did I get any PUL. So what am I making, you ask? Cloth diapers. I know, at this point you're saying, "WHY!? Your smallest kid is two! You really have lost it, lady," but you'd be wrong. And no I'm not knocked up, thanks so much for wondering. The reason I'm doing this is because my two year old is about ready to use the potty and anyone who has tried to potty train (or "assist in potty learning" for the granola moms out there, a category which Red Todd Kidd is continually insisting I belong to) a kid in the last 10 years knows that super absorbant disposable diapers and ESPECIALLY Pull-Ups (or Easy-Ups, or whatever) impede the learning process drastically. With my son it wasn't until I took them away entirely that he even thought about using the potty. I'm not doing that again. The problem is that you can't get decent training pants anymore. Gerber makes some pretty flimsy ones that are good once the kid is pretty well done learning but what the hell are you supposed to do in the mean time? Let the kid pee on the sofa? I had a cat thast did that I'm not doing that again either. So I decided to make something. Something out of cloth so she can tell when she's wet and won't like it much but that will hold in the pee so I don't have to buy a bottle of that "Urine Gone" they advertise on tv at 3am. Sounds like a cloth diaper to me, how about you? Figuring this out I started pricing them and came across a site that sold "recycled diapers" made from old jeans and t-shirts. I was totally sold. I ordered the pattern and even started dreaming of buying the cottege industry licensing because, as you may know, I'm a psychotic masochist who feels the need to do as much sewing as possible because I hate it and don't know what I'm doing. Then I asked everyone I know to clean out their closets because this takes a LOT of t-shirts. I ended up with two laundry baskets AND a big bag full of old clothes that I had to cut up before I could cut them up. I'd also like to mention that the person who wrote the pattern doesn't know how to get the most from her fabric. I was only supposed to get like four liners out of each polar fleece sweatshirt but I managed five each. Though I didn't get as many covers out of the jeans since I'm doing the largest size and my pant legs weren't always big enough.But I digress, the point I was trying to make is that I spent about five hours cutting shit out and still have about five hours of cutting shit out to go. I assure you this is not my favorite part especially since the thumb numbing craft scissors incedint back in May, which by the way the sensation still hasn't fully come back in my thumb but I have been assured it will eventually. Where the hell was I going with all of this? I don't remember so I'll just sum up: I'm cheap, sewing is bad, potty training is hard, Pull-Ups are bad, cutting stuff out sucks, I still have a crap ton of work to do, the end.

In my absence

Okay, so I haven't been blogging, I suck. I've been trying to finish up some UFOs before my new needles from Knit Picks come and I'm forced to start a new project with them. Aside from that, here's what I've been up to:

It begins.

Summer break. Today is the first day of it here. It's 9:30am and already the kids are devouring all snack foods in sight and generally driving each other, and me, crazy. Fabulous. I haven't been knitting at all. Instead I've been trying to keep up with the SP7 Questionnaire game and also working on one of my other incredibly nerdy persuits, an RPG. We've also been struggling to decide whether or not to move to San Jose, thanks to an offer given to Red Todd Kidd by his company. It's a lot more money but it's far away and something we had never even considered until this offer came up. Our goal has been Oregon, our purgatory has been San Diego, and this is way random. I don't think we'd consider it at all if it wasn't for the fact that we do know a few people there. My Uncle Elvis and Aunt Ivanna live there (in fact one of the apartment bulidings I found had a really familliar address, I realized it was their old place!) and I discovered Cpurl lives there too. Eh, I don't know. I'm completely on the fence about it. Not to mention it would totally give me away to my CASP! Nothing else is really happening here. Lola Beans has taken to eating frozen chicken nuggets but that's it. No other interesting stuff. As soon as that sewing pattern gets here, though, there will be plenty of ranting on the blog, of this I am certain.

Cupcakes, cute kids, and crap.

Okay, I never did get around to knitting on Tuesday. Lola Beans kept waking up and by the time I finally got a minute to myself I just ended up sitting on the couch watching VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest Child Stars (number one was Gary Coleman if you're curious). How sad is that? Since I have no cool projects going the pictures in today's post are going to be of Lola Bean's Birthday cake, which was cupcakes, and the kids eating them. No pictures of Miss Beans eating them since she slept through the whole party. Poor kid. Anyway, the cupcake tree there is how I managed to maim myself. All those little pictures of the Little Einsteins were made by me. Cut out with those fancy scrapbooking scissors. When I finished making them I noticed that my thumb was numb and tingly. Two weeks later it's better but still a bit tingly. I can't believe I pinched a nerve that bad on something so silly and didn't even notice until it was too late. I couldn't even knit for several days because I couldn't feel anything with my right thumb and it was just too weird. I'm used to it now but I really hope it goes away. The numbness not the thumb, that I'd like to keep. I'm kind of in a knitting funk right now. I don't have any deadlines left so I'm not pressed to work on anything. I don't really have any projects ready to start either. I'm just kind of "meh" about the whole thing right now. That's probably best since I have a major sewing project coming up. Yes, sewing, the bane of my existance. I'm going to make a few diapers and some adaquate training pants for Miss Beans since I'm sick of buying diapers and the Pull-Ups are the worst invention ever. I can't even begin to tell you about what a nightmare those things are for a parent of a stubborn child. All I'm going to say is that cloth training pants are uncomfprtable when wet and the kid will start going to the can instead of in their pants right quick if you switch to undies and make them help you clean up their messes. Maybe you think that's harsh and traumatic but I'm betting you don't know what it's like to have to do diapers for an infant, deal with a potty resistant three year old, AND clean up after an inconitnent cat day in and day out. There's literally only so much crap I can deal with without going barking mad and my limit is somewhere less than two small children and a cat. So anyway, I'm going to be doing some sewing and hopefully I won't sew my shirt to my project like that one time, completely forget seam allowances like last time, or give up in misery like all those other times. I should either take a class, buy a book, or just give up on sewing altogether, shouldn't I? Oh well, we all know I'm a crafting masochist so that's not going to happen. Makes more interesting blog reading for the lot of you I guess, silver lining and all that. *The boys in the pic are my son, Darth, and my nephew, Tank. Acoording to my sister the frosting made Tanks poop blue. Aren't you glad to know that?

Today's goals:

1) Eat three meals, none of which consist entirely of snack foods. --Did it! 2) Research and prep for purchase of big girl pants for Miss Beans. I'm so sick of buying diapers that I'm not going to do it anymore. --Bought a pattern! 3) Laundry. --Done and put away! 4) Dinner; make something that doesn't suck. 5) Get Miss Beans to bed before 9:30pm, try to get her to go to sleep in bed intstead of in arms. --Skipped her nap and down by 7:45! 6) If there's any time left, knit. --Off to do that right now! I rule! Formidable goals but I'm on track thus far. I had some toast for breakfast, I'm about to make some lunch, I've done some preliminary research on "Cloth Pull-Ups", I'm thinking about dinner, I've put a load of laundry in... I think I'm doing well. Last night Lola Beans put herself to bed but then she played in there and woke up her brother so I had to get her up and rock her. That didn't work either. At almost 10pm I took her in her room and put her in the bed and just sat there making her lie back down until she gave up and went to sleep. By the time I got her to bed no one else in the house was up. Sigh. Oh, by the way the diet plan from yesterday makes your tummy feel very rumbly, I'm going to have to rethink it.

Too many appendages!

(As always, you can click on the pictures for larger views. This is especially helpful for the close up of the wings and stinger.) The ever versatile Kate pattern has yeilded yet another interesting toy at my house: a bumble bee. The main thing I learned from this experience is that insects have too many appendages and I won't be doing that again. I mean, finishing sucks why would I want to add MORE things to sew on? I suppose we all know the answer to that: the extreme cuteness! I intended to give this to Miss Beans for her birthday but when I finished it I set it down and Darth gave it to her. He was trying to be nice which was especially sweet since he's got the chicken pox right now(yes he had the vaccine and I'm gld because his case is WAY mild because of it), so I didn't have a fit about it. In any case she seems to like it so who cares if she got it a week early, right? Okay by now you're wondering what yarn I used and what changes I made right? Here's the scoop: Yarn: -Caron Simply Soft in Black and Caron Simply Soft Brites in Lemonade (I made a Tychus with the same two skeins of yarn and there's STILL leftovers enough for at least one more Kate). Needles: -Clover bamboo DPNs in size 7US, if I did another I'd even go down one more size to make the fabric that much tighter. -For the stinger and antennae you'll also need some size 3US needles. Changes: -No changes to the basic body of the pattern other than not doing as many colors in the stripes. -The legs and arms are also done as the pattern calls for with the exception of the stripes on the arms and the fact that there's two extra arms to make. -The antennae are done by doing a simple I-cord. With size 3 needles cast on 3 sts, knit across. *Slide sts to other end of needle, pull yarn tightly across the back and knit across. Repeat from *8 more times. On next row set up as before but k into fron and back of each st. Break yarn and using a large needle thread end through the sts and pull tightly. Secure as you se fit. I threaded the yarn down through the antenna and used it plus the cast on strand to secure it to the head of the toy. -For the stinger cast on 8 sts over 3 needles (use your size 3s again!), join to knit in the round and k 2 rnds. (On the next rnd dec 1 st at beg of 1st needle, knit to end of rnd. K 1 rnd plain. Next rnd K to second needle, dec 1 st at beg of second needle K to end of rnd.) K one rnd plain. Next rnd K to third needle dec 1 st at beg of third needle. K one round plain. Repeat section in ( ). When you have 5sts you can put them on 1 needle like I-cord if you like. When you get to the last 3 sts slip 1, K2tog, psso. Break yarn and slip end though loop and pull tight to finish it should create a nice point. You can weave the end through the stinger as for the antennae. Stuff the stuinger with a bit of stuffing to help keep its shape. I used my size 7 needle to get the stuffing down into the point. -For the wings cast on 14sts and join to knit in the round. K 2 rnds plain. On the next rnd *inc 1 sts, k7 repeat from *. Knit one rnd plain. Next rnd *inc 1 sts, k8 repeat from *. K 4 rnds plain. On next rnd K2tog around. Break yarn and thread through sts, pull tight and secure. Flatten out wings with the incs on edges. Using your contrasting yarn sew the wings flat. I also secured the wings to each other before sewing them onto the body but that's up to you. If you have any trouble with my directions feel free to contact me or make up your own! (This post brought to you by the : )

At tea parties in Hell they serve...

CRUMPETS! This pattern is the bane of my existance! I swatched. I really did. If my new digital camera were here I'd show you the swatch. The perfect sized swatch that I did. And I'll be damned if several inches into the thing I didn't realize that not only had I twisted my cast on for the first time EVER but it was a lso a good SIX inches bigger around than the size I was knitting was supposed to be. Before I even got to that point, the tearing-it-out-while-screaming-obcenities-and-shaking-my- fist-at-the-sky point. I had issues with this pattern. It calls for a picot cast on but omits the two sentence directions for said cast on. They do include two pages of pictures of some kid wearing the finished item which, however cute, are not helpful to ANYTHING having to dowith this pattern. There's a detail of the pattern stitch given but no detail of it with the beadwork. Speaking of the beadwork, they don't mention anything about prestrining the beads until you're supposed to start slipping them into place. I just think that in a four page pattern that prints in a 12 point font and includes two pages of pictures, a few sentences to say, "Hey prestring the beads and to do a picot cast on you cast on five stitches, bind off two, and repeat until you have the right number of stitches for your size," might have been nice. I'm not sure what my gague problem is yet but I'm going to go get some new needles tomorrow. I'll get a pair in the same size I was using but with a shorter cable as I may have ben stretching it, and another pair in a size smaller in case that doesn't solve the problem. If I end up knitting this thing on needles a size smaller AND have to knit the smallest size in order to get it to come out at the medium size I will not be a happy camper especially since, as I may have mentioned, I SWATCHED! Damn that adorable pattern! Ahem. As I mentioned, I'm getting a new digital camera. Red Todd Kidd and I (as predicted) are giving it to each other for our birthdays. It should actually arrive on my birthday (Wednesday). I'm actually typing this on one of RTK's b-day gifts: a snazzy light-up keyboard. It's still pretty stiff so forgive my typos. I got some birthday gifts of my own this weekend. A couple of new westerns for the ol' movie collection. That's the current genre I'm into. I'm going to be running a Western themed RPG here pretty soon (my other nerdy hobby) so I've been watching insane amounts of westerns. I have decided that Clint Eastwood is about the coolest guy ever. Anyway. I've also decided that since I never read anymore, I'm going to switch out the "What I'm reading" thingy on the sidebar to a "Movie(s) of the Week" thingy. I promise someday I'll read again. I just can't do it when Lola Beans eats my books. Seriously, she's eaten more than one.

Hide the yarn, Sarah's on the loose.

Soooooo. I decided to make Crumpets for Lola Beans' birthday. Very cute. I thought to myself, hey, I have some DK weight yarn around here. Turns out it was KP Merino Style in Storm. Didn't much care for it for Miss Beans so I thought I'd over-dye it and make it sort of a verigated purple. Did I mention I've never dyed anything before? Well, inexperience has never stopped me from jumping into the wading pool head first before so I gathered up some Kool-Aid packets and went to town. It didn't go as I had hoped. Then I decided I'd try something just for you, my readers. In the history of knitbloggers I have never heard of anyone trying to bleach a bad dye job and re-dye it (like I've done to my poor hair in the past). So I have four (yes four) skeins of Merino style sitting in a bleach soak in the sink as I type this. I'm afraid to go look at it's progress. Okay, it's time, I'll keep you posted. Edit: So far it doesn't look much different but it's wet. One of the skeins is a bit greenish now. The rest look a tad lighter but like I said, they're still wet. I don't know if it was the bleach or the fact that I rung them out (because I don't care that much anymore) but they did full slightly. I ran my fingers through them a bit and they're fine now. They're hanging in the garage to dry. I'm off to shop for back up yarn. Toodles.

Woohoo!

Steelers won the Super Bowl! At first I didn't think they came to play but when they finally got on a roll... It was awesome. Being with some real Steelers fans when it all went down was a fun experience. Great day, great day. Oh, and I put Lola Beans' hair in little pigtails for the first time yesterday. Too cute. I have a better pic but it from before she put on her steeler shirt. I also have a cute on of her demolishing a Klondike bar. Okay, I'll post em. Hang on.

Baby Beetons

Bonus Post! Two in one day? You bet! Here are a few pics of Baby Girl's handwarmers. I saw the pics of Mrs. Beeton from Knittytm and thought they might be cute for my little one but didn't have any yarn the right weight and was NOT going through the hassle of beading handwarmers for an 18 month old. In my typical fashion I just jumped right in with some leftover Panache and Andean Treasure (they match a lot better in person) and ended up making a simple project INCREDIBLY complex. To do these the way I made them requires use of size eight and six DPNs all at the same time. It's like double knitting but even more unwieldy. Anyway, here they are. They're a tube with ribbing at both ends and a bit at the wrist. The ruffle was joined double knitting style. There are small buttonhole openings for her thumbs but I don't think she'll wear them that way. In fact, I don't think she'll wear them at all. But hey, I tried.

Overalls of Shame update

I've almost finished the bib of the Overalls, I'm on the buttonhole row. I had to take a little break to knit my anemic baby girl some hand warmers. Yeah she really is anemic. We went to the doctor yesterday for her 18 month visit and she got stuck seven (one finger prick for biliruben test, six shots) times. Hard for any mom to watch but even better was that we did The Boy's 4 year old check up at the same time and he got stuck five times (one biliruben test, for shots). Yesterday was not a fun day. At least now we know why she's always got freezing hands. She's on an iron supplement and a multivitamin, no big deal. I think the main reason she was iron deficiant was because she was refusing to eat while she was sick for like a month. Anyway, back to the Overalls. All that's left is the back straps and the finishing. I've decided that instead of doing a single crochet edging around all the edges (I'm still not getting the crochet thing despite my SP's Crochet for Dummies book, perhaps someone should write: Crochet for Inept and Blithering Idiots who Don't Know When to Get Someone Else to Do it) I'm going to do I-cord binding with Fun Fur. Oh the humanity! For your viewing pleasure I've included a rejected proof from our family photo shoot. This pose was rejected on the basis that I look like I'm going, "S'up?"

At long last...

Yes, that's right, finally the pictures of the Princess Leia costume I've toiled so endlessly upon. As you can see I never did put a hood on it and I gave up on the belt (actually I never gave it a realtry, too hard) using silver ribbon in its stead. I think the general idea is still conveyed. As always, you can click on the pictures for a larger version. Darth's fourth birthday party was a success. He got SO much stuff! Lots of puzzles which was very neat. He had a blast though he only stayed in his costume for a half hour. In fact everyone ditched their costumes by 2:00. My sister's Yoda costume for her son turned out great. It was a big hit, too. It was all just sickeningly cute. Please note his authentic, light-up, Yoda lightsaber. It's tiny! Darth got his very own Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader color change lightsaber for his birthday and today he was playing with it, hitting the button to change the color and saying, "Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Good. Bad..." Happy Halloween and may the force be with you!

Wanna see what I look like?

Since it's Monday and both kids have come down with a cold, I'm going to take it easy on all of us and have this entry be mostly pictures. We (Red Todd Kidd, Me, the kids, My sister, her husband, their son, and my little brother) went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend and got our pumpkins. The kids had a GREAT time, especially Darth. Best of all no one barfed on any of the rides. I still have quite a bit of knitting to do for Darth's birthday. I broke down and started another Bubby so that the kids wouldn't fight over the first one I made. I have one more leg to go and then it's sweater. I have some more knit picks sock yarn leftovers (that's what the first one was made out of Sock Landscapes in Yukon) in the Sock Garden Zinnia. Should be pretty cute. I have to say the Bubby pattern is much better the second time around. I've used it as more of a guideline than a pattern and it's working beautifully. In fact I may have to give Darth the second one since it is a birthday present and all. He should get the good one right? Besides Lola is totally in love with the one in the blue sweater, I don't think she'll go for a swap. Plus Darth's current favorite color is red so his should get the red/orange/yellow sweater. (That's not my husband -----> that's my brother-in-law with my nephew that's 3 days older than Lola) Which brings me to the other knitting I have to churn out right quick. Darth's slipper boots. We went to our LYS on Saturday and he picked out a hank of Eco Wool in red. Lucky us all cascade was on sale for 20% off! I wish I could have bought a bunch of stuff but I had to spend $$ for Darth's birthday so just his wool and some to finnish RedTodd Kidd's Satchel. That's right, I aim to finish that thing next week after the birthday party is past and things calm down.

Possibly the saddest Bubby ever.

I hate this pattern. It's confusing in places. It hurts my hands to knit with fat yarn on skinny needles. Thus my Bubby is possibly the saddest looking Bubby anyone has made. His head is pointy, his arms are crooked (and sideways), his legs are different lengths, his feet are weird, his eyes are misshapen because I suck at embroidering faces on things, he's just a sad, sad little bear. I knit him a sweater to hide his crooked sideways arms. So sad. Doesn't he look depressed? To top it all off Lola Beans loves the sad little thing. It's not for her, it's Darth's birthday present, she can't have it! I have enough yarn to make one for her. And a little verigated red/yellow/orange sweater. Crap. Add another thing to the list.

Updates.

The Leia Costume The Leia dress is all but finnished and relativley without incident. The first one was too smal so I just threw it on top of the remaining fabric and cut around it. All that's left to do on it is the hood and the belt. I'm not sure how to do the belt so I'll probably do it at the last minute and it will look terrible. I added leather soles to the boots. Lola Beans is wearing them now since it's cold out. The Weather It was raining so hard a little while ago that you couldn't see across the street. Weird. The Dentist When I went in yesterday he told me that what is causing my pain is one of ther following things: a) The tooth he put a major filling in really needs a root canal, this was always a possibility or b) My TMJ has been aggrivated by all the dental work (holding my mouth open super wide for so long, and then clenched tightly closed when I sleep) or c) A combination of a and b Delightful. The solution to this is to either have a root canal or get an orthotic and see if either of those help. So I get to go have a(nother) root canal today because I'll get instant results with that. Then we can talk price on an orthotic. I cannot afford this. Literally, I can't. I may have to pull my son out of preschool because his tuition is exactly the amount that the monthly dental bill is going to be after the root canal today. In Other Knitting I have started a Bubby for Darth for his birthday out of the leftover Andean Treasure from the Leia hat. I have made little or no progress on Wavy. I pulled Elizabeth I off the needles. I put the Garish Sock on stitch holders so I could use my size 3s for Bubby. I will be starting some felted boots for Darth for his birthday. He requested red ones. It gets mighty cold here when you can't afford to turn on the heat so I'm happy to oblige him.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

God I hate sewing. I hate everything about it. I hate cutting out patterns. I hate not being able to find the good scissors. I hate cutting out the fabric with the teeny-tiny scissors that for some reason are the only ones that can cut fabric. I hate lugging the sewing machine out of the top of the closet. I hate trying to find the bobbins. I hate winding bobbins. I hate trying to sew around a curve. I hate having to iron all the seams. I hate having to start all over because I did something stupid 15 minutes in to a three hour project. I hate sewing. I think this is because I'm not any good at it. I have no formal training. I have no innate ability. I also have a friend who is a sewing godess. She called me this evening and in the course of conversation revealed that she made a Victorian bustle skirt in one night, without a pattern. I'm sure it's perfect, or at least looks it. She probably looks even taller and thinner and more fabulous in it too. Because she's just one of those people that's good at everything and always looks fabulous. If I didn't love her, I'd hate her. But you can't hate Kaylee. She's too awesome to hate. In fact, if she were here she'd have made this whole damn Leia costume for me in a half hour without so much as a complaint. I'm alternately wistful and bitterly jealous. Especially when the first thing Red Todd Kidd asks whenever I start any project that isn't knitted is: "Did you call Kaylee?" Regardless of how valid a question it is or how poor my sewing skills are or how much I hate sewing it still bugs me that he thinks I can't do anything without her help. So what if it's totally true! He shouldn't know it and he certainly shouldn't say it! What a jerk. As you may have guessed. I drafted out my paper bag pattern for the Leia costume. Twice, as a matter of fact. The first time I didn't account for seam allowances. Yeah, I totally rule. I've gotten so far as cutting out the fabric pieces. Tomorrow comes the ever more entertaining task of ironing all the pieces and sewing them together. Sigh. I wish Kaylee was here...