How to Make it Rain: 

(NOTE: This instructional guide is intended to produce droplets of water falling from the sky, NOT dollar bills.  For more on the monetary version of Making it Rain, please see the entry on Jones, Pacman 1A as a lesson on how to Make it Rain (Selectively).)

Step 1: Select a book you’d like to read.

Step 2: Take said book and any awake children left in your charge outside.

Step 3: (Optional, but further guarantees presence of rain) Water your garden.

Step 4: Sit down.  Rain should commence within 30 seconds if it did not already begin during Step 3. 

How to Make it Stop Raining

Step 1: Take your unread book indoors.  You have completed this “How to Make it Stop Raining” Guide!

I have pictures of knitting, the kiddo, and the garden, but flickr and our new internet are not friendly.  The new internet makes me curse a boatload. 

Spring is Sprung

Spring is sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where the birdies is?

I don’t know the origins of that little rhyme, but I heard it from my grandfather and my mom often when I was growing up, and now I always remember it when spring rolls around.  I get so impatient for spring and summer; in my mind, winter months are December through February and you bet I’m not happy if I see any snow after that!  Which ultimately means I’m setting myself up for disappointment every year.  I’m working on it.

Last week on a sunny afternoon, Dax “helped” me plant seeds for our garden.  We planted cilantro, lots of basil, tomatoes, summer squash, kohlrabi, peppers, and spinach.  I was surprised to see the pepper already sprouting on Sunday! Last year was my first attempt at a garden and I pretty much gave up.  I was hugely pregnant, it was very hot, I got a late start, and it just didn’t go well.  This year I remembered to start the seeds indoors and I’m spending more time at home so I want to really dedicate myself to the veggies.  I’m planning on planting the herbs and tomatoes in containers and the rest in our raised bed. 

Derrick thinks I am just going to kill everything, so it’s on like Cheech & Chong. I can’t resist a challenge.

On the knitting front: more and more and more secret knitting.  But when I feel like it is about to do me in, I sneak a few rows on my Monkey. 

I love turning heels.  It may be my favorite part of sock knitting. (It’s definitely not knitting twisted rib.)

After I finish secretly knitting secret things, I want to design a slouchy hat.  Do you think the world can sustain another?  Or will it upset the balance of the world, stretching the fabric of the universe until it can bear the weight of slouchy-hat-patterns no longer? We’ll just have to see what happens.  I was inspired by a hat that Russell Brand of all people was wearing in a photo (Russell Brand is a crude British comedian with a….curious fashion sense.  He played the rock star in Forgetting Sarah Marshall if you’ve seen it.).  So I’m thinking of knitting it in this yarn I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  I’ll swatch and see how it goes; it may be way too drapey for what I have in mind, something a little tam-ish. 

 Spa by Caron; 75% acrylic, 25% bamboo

Hobby Lobby (tha HL, if you roll like dat) has some interesting yarns.  I saw more sock yarns and “natural” yarns than last time I was there.  I wonder if the more “budget-friendly” yarn companies will be experiencing growth due to the economy?  Crafts tend to be pretty secure during recessions but I’d be interested to see if people are spending their money in different places and on different items.  I’m definitely going to make a conscious effort to support my LYS (as well as other local and independent businesses) because they are often hit hard. 

Okay, that was quite a tangent!  Got to get back to knitting!

xoxo, Katie

Learning

I used to think that whole pineapple was way too hard to cut up yourself, so when I wanted fresh pineapple I’d buy it in a tub at the store.  Then one day pineapples were on sale for a buck each at the store, so I brought one home.  And I did the most logical thing that anyone would do–let it sit on the counter almost too long and then make your husband cut it up, duh.  So I was still afraid of trying it myself. 

In the last week or two, I got a little obsessed with a delicious stir-fry recipe involving cashews, quinoa, and pineapple (from Veganomicon, the greatest cookbook I’ve ever had) and there were no tubs of precut goodness at the store so I brought home another whole pineapple and guess what?  It is not hard at all to chop up! I am no longer a slave to the precut pineapple! Aren’t we “afraid” of the dumbest things sometimes?  And then you just try it and wonder what the problem was all along? (See also: short-rows.)

Now I’m out of quinoa and that means I need to make a trip to Whole Foods but that would require a shower and that all sounds like too much for today.  I was telling myself that I could go there as a treat after I finished up my submissions for Twist, but little Dax is taking another long nap and I don’t think we’ll make it. 

I don’t think Dax is feeling well; he grabbed his ear a few times and has been awfully sleepy.  I also just learned that ear infections are typically not treated with any medications? Of course if he is acting sick I will take him to the doctor, but I just assumed that ear infections were treated with antibiotics.  The More You Know!

As I mentioned, I just finished up some submissions for Twist Collective.  I was so nervous working on them!  I really want to get into the Fall issue and swatching didn’t seem to be going too great, but maybe I’m just being to hard on myself.  I had to dump one idea I had because the yarn just wasn’t right, but it was a felted skirt that I definitely want to come back to.  I also need to get Illustrator or something to put together a more polished pdf.  (PDF and chart design is something I know little to nothing about and need to investigate for self-publishing too.)

This weekend I’ve got to finish up the crochet knitscene project, then it’s on to starting a knit knitscene project which should go pretty fast.  Right now, someone is waking from their nap and probably ready to play!