New Base Yarn!

So tomorrow Destination Yarn will be having a trunk show at Yarn Cravin'  Are you excited?  Because I am. The thing I"m most excited about?  I"m debuting a brand new base yarn.

Letter:
This next-to-skin soft base of 100% superwash merino wool is soft, durable, and sproingy.  The tight twist makes it durable enough to handle socks while the springiness makes it soft enough to be appropriate for lace and other garments.

In a word this yarn is SPROINGY.

Pictured in the colorway Lake Erie

I named it "Letter" because it is a bit thicker than my "Postcard" base.  While still a Fingering Weight it is 400 yards per 100 gram skein.  It knits up at 7-8 stitches on a size #1-#3 needle.

Pictured in colorway Paris Night

Picture a Koigu only superwash.  Yeah.

Pictured in the colorway Helsinki, Finland

It soaks up the dye like a sponge allowing for just fantastically vivid colors:

Pictured in the colorway Chartes Cathedral

I've been searching for this type of yarn for a long time. 

Right now I'm offering it in a selection of my standard colorways in addition to my usual Sock Yarn Postcard base.  However it won't be available online until after my show this weekend.

Top Row:  Chartes Cathedral, Helsinki, Copenhagen.  Bottom Row: Lake Erie, Ireland, Paris Night

Yay for sproingy yarn!

New Colorway - IRELAND

I've never actually been to Ireland. However it is, hands down, one of my most requested colorways. Apparantly there's something about it that just screams to be turned into yarn. So I turned to my favorite yarn research tool - flickr - to see what was up:

1. Ireland: green, blue... and sheep, 2. West Coast of Ireland, 3. Ireland: green and blue, 4. ireland

And immediately I got it.

1. Beautiful Ireland, 2. lush irish valley, 3. Lush Green Grass, 4. 199603 254 Ireland - Co Kerry

GREEEN. And not just green. But that very specific Emerald. It's... breathtaking. And that's just from the pictures. It must be even more vivid and lush in person. I think I captured it in yarn, though:

Ireland is now available at Destination Yarn! 

Just in time for Saint Patrick's Day.   And while this is not a true semi-solid I think the tonal nature of this colorway would hold up well to patterned stitches.  Celtic knots, anyone?

Also I will have this at my Trunk Show this Saturday at Yarn Cravin' - along with lots of other fun new things. Hope to see you there!

Kid's TV.

So I have more on how our daughter's been doing and how we've been surviving and all of that later. Right now? A brief aside. We've been watching a whole lot more TV than we normally do. When her painkillers wear off it's simply the best way to distract her. Especially in the middle of the night. I have some thoughts.

1.) I HATE the Disney Vault. No seriously, you guys, I motherfucking hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. Because right about now we would own the whole Disney collection* except we can't b/c of the vault. So we're stuck watching the same two movies over and over and over and over and over again.

Bastards.

2.) Oh the repetition. When I was pregnant the first time I bought our unborn child my favorite kids' movie ever. Sleeping Beauty. I couldn't wait to share it with my daughter. Now? If I have to watch "MOONIE, GIRL, NIGH-NIGH, MAN, UP" again you're going to find me in a corner rocking and muttering OnceuponaDream. So I added Beauty and the Beast to our repertoire (only one out of the damn vault) figuring that since both Matt and I had fond memories of it, it would hold up to multiple viewings. Un huh. Those songs? Haunt my dreams. Also as Matt asked me at 5AM the other night "Why does anyone even like Gaston. He's not that hot."

Also he's kindof a dick.

 3.) However, Disney is still King. I thought we could get away with some off brand animated kids movie and watched some generic princess something. Yeah. The songs were TERRIBLE. Also it may have resulted in me screaming things at the tv such as WAITING FOR A PRINCE IS NOT A VIABLE LIFE PLAN or IF A GUY EVER TREATS YOU LIKE THAT KICK HIS ASS TO THE CURB. Which, probably not the most productive way to teach my daughter about independence, standing on her own two feet, etc.

Calm down, mom.  I like primates but you have a long time before you have to worry about me dating one.

4.) RAWR CHOO CHOO. Yes. There is a television show called... wait for it... Dinosaur Train. Where Dinosaurs ride on a Train. It sounds completely random. Except that both of these are things that a toddler can get behind. I would love to have been in on the marketing meeting that came up with this one. 'Hey what's your toddler into?" "Dinosaurs and trains" "Brilliant. We're done here." Next up Helicopter Princess or Dog Car.

I can't make this shit up.

5.) My kid is not an idiot. She's just small. So much of the television out there treats my kid like she's straight up dumb. Not Ok with that. And Dora? Fits squarely into this category. Seriously, this is a billion dollar franchise with an entire song that is "I'm a MAP!" That's the entirety of the lyrics. I'm a Map. NO.

and by friend I mean "gullible kid whose parents will spend a fortune on my licensed merchandise"

6.) There's a reason Sesame Street has endured. And it's not their many marketing strategies. It's moderately educational**, the characters are relatable, and it doesn't make me stabby in any way. So bring on OOOR (elmo), COOKIE, and BIRDIE. Also every time I see the count I think of this and that's always a win:


7.) DJ Lance is a rockstar. That is all.

So wow. That got alot longer than I thought it would. Clearly I can't wait for a time when she can roam around without ending up in pain and I can turn the damn TV off.

I would roam now if you'd let me.  Screw what the doctor says.  Girl's gotta MOVE.

*We would own the whole Disney Collection except, of course, for Snow White. When I was a kid we took my two cousins to see this movie thinking it would be perfect for little girls. And both my mom and I were HORRIFIED. Have you ever seen this movie? The whole premise is that she's going to cook and clean for 7 little men until her prince comes along and rescues her. So many things wrong with this. So many. I vowed then and there that my kids would never be allowed to see it. I think I was like 12 at the time.

** Just a heads up. TELEVISION CANNOT REPLACE EDUCATING YOUR CHILD. Right now Nick Jr's whole schtick is "It's like preschool on your tv." Um. No. It's not. Stop it. I'm not that gullible. Even if you call your product Preschool or Einstein or whatever it's still just TV. And the end result is not an Einstein it's a kid who's quiet and sitting still for once. Market it that way. I'd respect you a whole lot more.

Toddler Fracture

So toddlers fall down.  Alot.  And most of the time our kid just giggles, says BOOM, and goes back to playing.  If it scares her she might run over to me for a KISS. But sometimes toddlers fall and twist their leg.  And then this happens:

Pictured:  Classic Toddler Fracture of the Tibia.

In other words, our little girl broke her leg on Sunday.  It wasn't in any dramatic accident with a ridiculous story to go along with it.  She was in our living room, rocking her baby doll, with both me and Matt right there, and lost her footing.  It was an incident so minor that at first we thought she was crying because she was overtired.  Obviously we figured it out when she wouldn't put any pressure on the leg and flinched whenever we touched it.  Even at the Emergency Room we were thinking more along the lines of "sprained ankle" than "Broken Leg"  But apparently this is a common thing for toddlers.  So much so that the actual injury is called a Toddler's Fracture.

I can't believe how many MOONIES (movies) MOMMY is lettimg me watch!

Just because it's a common injury does not make it suck any less.

Seriously I never get to watch this much tv ever.

So the good news:  The break is at the center of her tibia.  The fracture is not at a growth point so there will be no issues with growth or future problems with walking or anything like that.  It's a clean break so they didn't have to do any sort of surgery or put pins in or whatever to set it.  And her cast is PURPLE

Also my PURPLE LEG does not prevent me from making COOKIES

The bad news:  She is now in a full leg cast and will be for the next 4-6 weeks minimum.  She can't walk on it at all - not something easy for a toddler who is always in motion.  And really not something easy for a mother who is 31.5 weeks pregnant and who has been having lots of back pain this time around.  Carrying her everywhere is just not possible for me at this point.  We're going to be stuck on the couch.  Alot.

This is fun for today but good luck entertaining me TOMORROW.

At least I have a tray to line up my TROLLS

Even though she has been in alot of pain she has been a complete trooper throughout this while thing.  She's one strong little girl.  She even told the guy who put on her cast THANKYOU BYEBYE when he left the room.  This is a horrible thing to have happened but she (and we) will get through it.

CHEESE TROLL

Let's just hope it's closer to 4 weeks than 8.

A Saturday in Cleveland

So after a couple weekends in a row of working/working to get get our house ready for the baby we decided that even though it probably wasn't the most responsible plan SCREW IT. We needed a fun family adventure more than we needed to get anything on our Giant List 'O Shit to Do done. So we spent the day here:

Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. Pic from here.

My brother and his wife got us a membership there for Christmas this year and this was the first chance we've had to go.  First up we went to this month's Kid's Show at the Planetarium:  Giants in the Sky.  It was really, really cool.  I highly recommend it.  However most of the stories of the constellations are based on Greek Mythology.  So the poor dude running the show had to keep explaining "these are just stories, this isn't real" because mythology?  Not exactly the tamest subject for the under 10 crowd.

Pictured: a whole lot of incest and woe.

Our daughter loved the show.  She walked in, pointed out the moon, and then told me matter of fact STARS.  YEAH.  We've been to a planetarium once before.  Kid remembers everything.  She sat still and was quiet throughout the show (whew)....  Until we learned about Ursa Major and Minor.  Then she screamed out BEARS!

D'oh.  But at least it made sense.

Then it was off to the Main Event:

TAIL.

Which she reacted to by running around like a crazy person pointing and saying RAWR, TAIL, CHOMP, WHATSTHAT in a blur of red hair and sparkles.

 

And yes. She picked out her outfit herself. I've pretty much resigned myself to every photo of her taking during this time period to be in her OHWOW skirt.  Or her RAWR (dinosaur) pj's.  

I think her fav. of the day, though was looking out the window at the DUCKIES

There was even a robin hanging out with them.  Isn't that supposed to be the first sign of spring?  

He's standing on a giant block of ice.  Not very reassuring.

I even remembered to get a family picture to prove that I was there (as the one who usually works the camera we have a million pictures of Matt with her.  It's like I don't exist. Right.)

Not too shabby.  Even if it looks like the T-Rex is going to CHOMP Matt.

After our fun at the museum we hit the point where we needed YUMS stat.  So we stopped at Mi Pueblo for lunch.  Have you had their Mole sauce?  Because, dude, so, so, delicious.  Also delicious?  Xiango.  Yeah I'd never heard of it before either.  Until the chef sent our daughter one because she was so cute and well behaved.  Uh huh.  She gets free desserts b/c she's cute.  

I can't say I disagree with him.

Not only free dessert but cheesecake wrapped in dough, fried, and then covered in ice cream, strawberry and chocolate sauce.  I think she would have licked the plate if we let her:

Mommy and Daddy might have considered it, too.

All in all a wonderful day.  We're going to pay for it a bit today, though.  Which means I need to stop with the procrastinating and get to the dye pots.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Great Lakes, Ice, and Yarn

So right about now the lake looks something like this:

Pic taken by my dad from Edgewater Park

Another pic from my dad.  I'm glad he's willing to freeze for shots like this one!

So when the Yarn Cravin' sock club asked me to dye for Feb/March I thought that the perfect compliment to their previous installment - "Lake Erie":

Was exclusive for the club, now available here!

Would be "Frozen Great Lake"



I love how it turned out! And it makes me really happy when I can take something that isn't necessarily pretty on it's own - like a slushy, frozen, tundra of a Great Lake:


And turn it into really pretty yarn.

Unfortunately this colorway won't be available to the general public for awhile. In the meantime if you want something ice inspired check out Helsinki.

I'm also very excited to announce that I will be having a Trunk Show at Yarn Cravin' 

It's my first show outside of the Cleveland area which is a big step.  I hope to see you there!

Snow Days Skirt.

So I spend a solid percentage of my life doing and redoing and redoing the same things over and over again. With a toddler and a puppy it's easy to feel like you're on an endless treadmill constantly running but never getting anywhere. So when we were on day 4 or so of it looking like this outside:


And me receiving yet another "I'm working past bedtime" phone call I decided SCREW IT.  We're in survival mode. And for me the fastest way to get off the treadmill and feel like I'm actually being productive is to do something, anything, that won't be undone in 10 seconds. So I turned to the google, found this tutorial from Sew Much Ado, pulled some shirts out of the bags to donate, and within 15 min had turned this:


into this:


Yay scraps! About an hour and a half after I finally got her down I had this:

Cute, easy, basically free, possible to accomplish after even a late bedtime, and best of all not going to be immediately undone.  Exactly what I needed to feel human again.
 


Of course I violated the cardinal rule of "always let the toddler pick out their own outfit" while trying to photograph it so what I really ended up with was this:

yeah.

NO CHEESE. OFF. (translation: stop taking pictures of me in my misery and get this skirt that I did not choose off of me)

Luckily I remembered cardinal rule #2 "distraction can cure almost any woe".

Look it's my doggie!

I love my SLEEPY DOT.

By the time we got home from our adventures she straight up loved the skrit. Twirling around in it and saying WOW. It's all about choice these days with her.

The sunglasses (aka EYES) were clearly her own choice.

Also she is currently obsessed in a way that only a toddler can be with helicopters. I got her her very own matchbox one thus BLOWING HER MIND.

COPTER BOOM WEK (translation: helicopter, boom, wreck. she says this every time she drops it. hilarious)

And that's about all I've got for right now. Tomorrow? There will be yarn.

Oh and I'm trying to participate in the online blogging communities more so....