Possibilities. And a bat.

I see possible design patterns everywhere. I can’t stop myself. People in the street or at yoga or in the grocery store. Sometimes I stop random strangers and ask them for a picture and sometimes I try to snap sneaky pics without anyone noticing. I’ve been told I’m not actually sneaky though so who knows what they think I’m doing. One design I sketched while driving away from the person wearing it.  Sketching and driving has to be at least as dangerous as texting as driving….I won’t do that again. The folder on my desktop to hold these treasures is named “Design Ideas (people I accosted to take pictures)”.

It happens during show and movies too.  Not just clothing but a wall, a carving, a ring or earring, a landscape or even an evoked emotion from a scene.  At home I can shout to the husband – “Stop! Go back! I need a screenshot of that!” Watching a movie in the theater feels like a real risk since I might see something awesome and forget about it by the time the credits roll. Here are a few.

Every so often a design mimics a thing very closely.

And sometimes it is simply a piece I design with a specific character in mind. Beatrice (one of my favorite water vampires from a book series I love), Amy Pond (Dr. Who), Kaylee (from Firefly of course, also our golden retriever), Peggy Carter (anyone else bummed that show ended?), Groot, and others are all examples.

 

In other news – the husband found another bat.  The good news is that we’ve finally managed to keep them out of our living space. The bad news is they still find a way to hibernate in our attic. We relocated this one with the help of a wildlife biologist friend. The smaller boy and at least one cat wanted to keep it.

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Ruffles

Ruffles don’t usually have much to do with my life.  I live in a house full of boys and I’ve always been kind of a tomboy myself.  Scouting camp-outs and hikes are way more common in my life than a night out.  But somehow this fall the idea of a ruffled poncho really grabbed me.  It needed to be simple and top-down in construction. The ruffle couldn’t be too fussy. I wanted it worsted weight to knit up quickly. And no cables to detract from the ruffle.

But first I had to learn about ruffles since to my knowledge I’ve only knit one thing (a scarf) with ruffles in my life.  Plus I’ve worn zero things with ruffles (except that one knit scarf) since I was old enough to rip off anything frilly my mom put on me (a while before the age of 1 if the stories are accurate). And so began my Ruffle Tests.

Ruffle Test A (a simple increase row of knitting into the front and back of every stitch) was pretty blah, not very interesting and it curled.

Ruffle Test B (using knit and purl ribs for a pleated ruffle) sounded promising. But the effect wasn’t at all what I expected. I still wonder if I did it wrong since the idea intrigues me.

Ruffle Test C (added an additional increase row to Test A) started to get closer to what I wanted.  But it curled up on itself terribly so that was a no.

Ruffle Test D (back to the simple increase row from Test A with the addition of garter stitch) did not curl.  But again it wasn’t very interesting.

Ruffle Test E (the same two increase rows from Test C with garter stitch) looked about right. In fact, I loved Ruffle Test E! It had enough stitches to be a real ruffle without being fussy plus no curling at all.

Then came the real test of putting the ruffle on the poncho. Knitting it over a small test swatch starting with 20 stitches was easy. Test knitting it over 800+ stitches for a few rows at the bottom of the ruffle was a commitment. And I’ll admit that the bind-off was not for the faint of heart. But I love the finished garment and I’m naming it Fancy (for the ruffle of course). Now it is in test knitting and we need to snap some good pictures of it.

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December 1st.

So, this happened last week.  My husband coined a word in Orcish for me.  *Giggle, snort, blush a little.* He and the boys coined 3 words total by helping to kickstart Journey Quest Season 3 and also the 2nd Edition of the Orcish-English dictionary.  One boy coined a word for logophobia (an abnormal fear of words). The other boy coined a word for dexterity (it’s a rpg thing).  And the husband coined the word for knit.  So here it is in all its orcified glory:

knit (v.) = tamra (TAHM-rah)

In other news, I have a new camera!  Now I need to figure out how to use the thing.  Here is my first attempt at using all the buttons to blur the background:

Also, bonus points for me since the photo happens to be of a Christmas decoration with a shelf full of Santa’s blurred in the background.  You might even think I planned it that way since today is the first day of December.  But nope.  Just a happy coincidence.

Dear Cancer, You suck. That is all.

Normal life moves on even when it feels unfair. Late last week we got the news that a dear friend of ours is facing a fierce battle with cancer. So as she and her family started treatment this week, I try to smile for my boys through our normal busy week of activities and school.

On our schedule over the next weeks as the holidays approach I see ice skating parties, a first band program for the younger boy, a holiday band performance for the older boy, a debut singing and dancing part of a Russian Baker in the grade school Nutcracker and a host of other events. I know each one is important and huge for the boys. I know each one is a memory we will treasure. And I can’t help wondering how to help our friends not miss their own important events and memories as they fight.