Look what I knitted! Yes, this is for DNP! No, I will not knit one for you.
Christmas Polar Bear
Something I Didn’t Have Time to Blog About: Taking Three Children to the Jobsite
I took three 6-year-olds to the Fire Station jobsite. Aren’t I brave? Actually they are three very responsible children with a lot of self-control, which is why they were invited. Plus they are seriously into architecture and construction. Well, the two boys are. DNP is not that into architecture and construction, but she asked all sorts of relevant questions. Almost every other person she knows is an architect. Poor child.
I Made Bread!
The olden days: dump ingredients into breadmaker. Set timer. The next morning hot bread comes out! This hot bread was totally making me sick!
Later: Udi’s. Which is fine, but sometimes you want piping hot bread!
A few days ago: Searching through my regular blogs, I found this post, and for the first time it was a recipe that looked simple enough and yummy enough to make. You can make all sorts of substitutions. I used sprouted brown rice flour.
Now: BREAD! Hot bread, right out of the oven. Bread that is so good that I have to hide it because I’m afraid everyone in the house will eat the whole loaf.
Reinactment of the Nativity (with Extra Devils)
One of my favorite Santa Fe traditions. Follow Mary and Joseph and their band of musicians (no wise men, no sheep) around the Plaza. At several intervals they sing for a room at the inn (in Spanish) and a devil appears in windows, on balconies and at portals and tells them to “Vayanse!” while spectators boo and hiss. Finally they are allowed to stay at the courtyard at the Palace of the Governors and we all go inside to have hot cider and cookies (either chocolate chip or biscochitos) and we listen to a choir sing Christmas carols in Spanish. (like Silent Night: noche de paz, noche de amor). Then have your photo taken with un diablo and go home to dinner.
Que viva!!
Something I Didn’t Have Time to Blog About: New Cardigan
This is my basic black cardigan. My own pattern, based on every other pattern I’ve ever knitted. I wanted something warm, but not too warm. Something basic, but not too boring. Something cozy, but not frumpy.
I partly didn’t blog on it, because I overwore it. Have you ever overworn anything? Like to the point that you’re a little sick of it, but it’s still the main thing you wear because it’s just so useful. It’s more like a uniform and less like something special that I knitted.
You know, I wore a uniform in high school. If you went to high school with me, you wore a uniform, too. I loved wearing a uniform because I never had to think about what I wore. I’m still into that uniform thing. If you went to high school with me, I’m curious to know if you thought the idea of a uniform was fab, too. And are you still into that uniform thing?
Here is a bonus photo of me wearing the Basic Black Cardigan while ice skating in California, just to prove how often I wear it. Look at the ridiculous expression on my face! And doesn’t DNP look like a pro?
Sewing
When Disney’s Next Princess came home and announced that she was going to be a praying mantis for Halloween, I didn’t even worry about it. I decided to wait and see what she wanted to be two weeks later (these things can change from “praying mantis” to “sparkle fairy” in an instant). The answer was still praying mantis. So I started looking up photos of praying mantises (manti?) on the internet. Elegant + Yuck = Praying Mantis.
Another two weeks, and I asked one more time. They have been studying insects in First Grade. Her answer was the same. “I am going to the fabric store,” I informed her. “So this is your last chance to change your mind.” Praying mantis!!
I don’t love sewing, and my sewing is really sloppy, but I love to design things. Even things that you need to sew. Or play kitchens, or fire stations. I once designed a toilet that had flexible hose so that you could move it to clean behind it (I am pretty sure this would be impossible in real life). I did many praying mantis costume sketches, and then went out for supplies.
I made the hat out of canvas first to get the fit right. I wanted a triangular front so that it would look more insect like. DNP was upstairs in bed, but not asleep, and I kept running up to try the canvas hat on her. I adjusted, recut, resewed, then tried it on her again, until it looked right. Then I deconstructed the whole thing and made it out of green felt. I measured her wrists for wristbands (they are so impossibly tiny!). I cut wings and sewed ribbon around the edges (don’t look at the backside, though). Extra legs.
If I had to sew another one of these, I would freak out from boredom, but the first one – the prototype – is always fun!
me: “Do you know what you want to be next year?”
DNP: “Well, if I was studying space, which I might be in Second Grade, I might be an alien. But I don’t know yet…”
Cool! Silver fabric!
No, I Do Not Need Glasses
The title of this post reminds me of a Charlie and Lola Episode. “I extremely, absolutely do not need glasses.”
What I wear while knitting or reading are not technically glasses. They are shaped like glasses, but the function of glasses is to change the focal distance of your eyes. I don’t need any change in focal distance, all I need is magnification.
If I had an extra hand (how useful!) I could hold a magnifying glass while I knitted. Because I’m lacking the extra hand (bummer!), the magnifying glass is inserted into a frame which sits in front of my eyes. Not glasses – just a convenient magnifying glass holder!
See? (pun intended)
Additional supporting evidence: I bought the magnifying glass holders at Walgreens. Seriously, you can not buy something as serious and medically necessary as glasses for ten bucks! And they did not require a prescription; people who have to wear glasses get a prescription for them!
If you agree with me, please comment. If you disagree, leave me out of it, and just send a message to David.
A Story about a Shower Valve
I have been knitting the same thing forever. It’s making me crazy! I want to knit this, but because of the shower valve I’m still working on a shawlette I started on September 10th! I can’t even fathom that it could take me more than a month to knit a shawlette. Stupid shower valve.
Here is the story of the shower valve: Once upon a time, the shower became very difficult to turn on. Like – you know how sometimes the lid of a jar is impossible to turn and you have to put a rubberband around it or knock it on the countertop to get it to turn? Except you can’t really knock the shower valve on the countertop.
Of course my first inclination was to open the thing up and start poking around inside. I got as far as removing the set screw, and then I couldn’t pull off the handle. So I called Charlie Drysedale, the Best Plumber in Santa Fe. He said I had to order a part from Grohe, which I did (using the old line “Hi, I’m an architect…” to get better service), and Grohe were very nice and said they were shipping out the part. They sent it out quickly, and Charlie even fit me in between appointments and fixed the valve today.
I am realizing this has become a story about how nice everyone was about getting the stupid shower valve fixed, which is not what it’s supposed to be! It’s supposed to be about how for at least a month — while I poked around, called plumbers and distributors — I was using muscles in my hand that I did not know I had just to be able to take a shower.
Here is what happened: I think I sprained my hand repeatedly every morning for a month playing tug of war with the shower controls. Seriously. It hurts even to type this. My next rolfing appointment is not until the end of October; my hand is going to be rolfed back to functionality, but not until Halloween.
Until then, in order to be able to do things like typing and autocad (and jar-opening), I have to limit my knitting to one repeat a day.
I am Still Here
Hi. I know I haven’t written much lately. I was busy making a Convention, and then after the Convention I was busy sleeping and now I am busy making the money that I did not make because I was making a Convention.
I made the Convention with a small handful of other architects. We are all volunteers, and, no, we did not get to go to the Convention for free, which is why if you called asking if you could go to the Convention for free, we told you that you couldn’t.
I wrote myself a letter to be opened in case I ever consider volunteering for something like this again (next time the State AIA Convention is in Santa Fe: 2015). I’m not including it here, because it was written in the spirit of hysteria and bitterness, and it makes me sound like a crazy person. But I think that in 2014 (we begin planning for these things a year in advance), it will be very effective.
So, now that I’m less hysterical and bitter and I’m making money again, I can tell you the good part of being involved in something like that: working with the other volunteers (that small group) and feeling like I was making a difference (even if I wasn’t). I guess I’m still a little bitter, so check back with me later.
The other good part was that many people expressed their appreciation. That’s Disney’s Next Princess with the huge bundle of sunflowers they gave me at the end-of-Convention reception. She is wearing a hand-knit cardigan, of course.
Yes, I Sew
A long time ago, I was busy working on a deadline, trying frantically to finish an autocad drawing. My boss came up to me and held out a piece of paper with some hand-scrawled notes. “I can’t type,” he said. “I need this typed; you type, right?”
“Why don’t you ask the secretary to do it?” I suggested.
“We don’t have a secretary,” he reminded me. (Shortly after that, we hired a secretary).
This story has always been my reminder NEVER to tell anyone that I type. This was over 15 years ago; now, with computers, everyone types. Not everyone, though, took Mrs. Jenkins 8th grade typing class. Those of who did probably type faster than the rest of you (remember NEVER tell anyone that either!).
The other thing I have to remember NEVER to tell anyone is that I can sew. I am happy to sew for children, even children who aren’t mine. I fixed Alexandra’s apron and I sewed Indie’s cat whiskers back on her winter hat, and I was happy to do both.
For a child who is mine (DNP!) I am even happier to sew on a moment’s notice. So when I realized that we didn’t have a bag that I deem cute enough for her morning snack, and First Grade starts tomorrow, I found some cute fabric and started sewing.
It is a drawstring bag. It is lined with contrasting green polka dot fabric. It goes with her new lunch box and her water bottle without being too matchy-matchy. It was designed to be large enough to fit a go-gurt sideways (see?). And it is ready for the start of First Grade. I love you, Disney’s Next Princess!