Five Years In Iraq, or, Spring Has Sprung!

Green sweater dress revisited

After I had Rob drag out the iron and ironing board for me last night so I could iron on all of Chloë's new Try-It patches, I decided to pull this back out and block the button bands to fit the rest of the sweater better = better sweater.

Steaming didn't work, which is what I ordinarily do, so instead I soaked it and pinned it. I've never done that before, since steaming has always worked for me.

And here it is again in the morning, after stretching all night. Not too bad. I feel steaming it would have relaxed the stitches a little better, but the fiber didn't take do kindly to that. It definitely looks better than it did before, so you really can't ask for more than that.

I was so happy to get the big kids back on their respective buses this morning. Sorry, no, I didn't miss them for a minute. Especially Jack, who started pulling his "I don't feel good, wah wah wah" routine when I told him the bus was here. Sorry kiddo, I know you better than that, and I know this is just a stall technique to stay home from school later.

I had a bad migraine (hello, redundancy) all day today, but I was so tired of doing nothing remotely creative or fun or interesting or edutaining with Sophia, I decided we should bake a cake.  A simple cake, from a box, but a cake. For no reason. Even though we're about to be inundated with birthday cake, "here in a minute," as Rob always likes to say. Hey, it was what I had on hand and simple enough for her to help with almost every step.

She poured in the cake mix, the water and the oil, and she let me do the egg. Shoulda been three eggs, but I only had one. And I handed her the rubber scraper while I went to get the camera, so I could take at least one picture of our process, and here she is licking it when I returned! I hadn't told her to do that part; she thought of it all on her own. Smart kid.

"Take a picture of the chocolate, Mama!" She still wasn't happy with this picture and insisted I take a very close-up one of the scraper (that's for you and your mother btw, Rob), but it didn't make the blog cut. Sorry.

Quintessential Sophia expression. I love the cresent-shaped bit of chocolate on her nose the best.

While the cake was in the oven, I took a quick shower and ran up and down the stairs naked to check on it. That was fun. Especially when I almost shut my dangly boob in the oven door.

When the other kids came home, I got them all ready for Chloe's Brownies meeting. Rob called to say he was home, so I brought him Jack. They both needed a haircut. More on that in a bit.

Sophia and I returned to Brownies and watched the girls paint cards for whomever they desired. Apparently they are earning badges with all the silly things they are always doing, but you could have fooled me. Anyway. I still had the migraine, and I didn't lift a finger to help clean up. I felt kind of bad about it, but only a little. Besides, it's the girls' job.

Margaret, our troop leader's daughter. She just kept walking up and staring at me, looking at me with an expression as if to say, "I know I've seen you around before, but I juuuust can't place you..."  Yes, Margaret. I have held you and fed you and cuddled on you since you were first born. But now, all of a sudden, we are strangers? Gah. Babies.

Heeere, Margaret-Margaret. *whistle* Heeeere, baby!

No dice. Just the stare.

Afterward, the girls gathered in a circle around Debbie (there were more of them, but some were out washing their hands during this shot) to finally receive their rewards from selling Fall Product back in Sept-Oct.

Chloe and Brett both sold a lot, the most, so they earned all the prize levels. Chloe earned the stuffed dolphin, a dolphin necklace, the little zipper cell phone (!) pouch, and a dolphin patch for her vest. I tried ironing that on tonight too, but it's not an iron-on. Shucky duck. Time to break out the sewing needles and thread. Blah.

So after Brownies, with Rob and Jack still not being home from the barber, the girls and I went to pick up a cappucino machine from a fellow Freecycler. It's like new! Except no manual. And she's not sure it works, but it should. I don't care, it's for Rob, and it's his problem now.

I had just enough time before going out to my evening meeting to throw this cake together. Does it not look awesome?!! I should totally lie and tell you that Sophia did this part, but it was ALL ME, folks.  I concocted this monstrosity. LMAO!! I'm thinking it was so crumbly because of the two eggs it was lacking, but it just completely fell apart when I tried to frost it, even with my wonderful Pampered Chef spreader thingy. Oy vey. At least it tasted good.

Rob came home with my butchered son. Apparently there was a miscommunication about how short I wanted them to go. I wanted his hair razored with 5 and 3 blades, but they used, like, 1 and 2s. He looks like a cancer patient, and I know that's not very PC of me to say, but I don't give a hoot. You'll see tomorrow; he just was not in the mood for a photo shoot this day.

I had to run then, to meet my knitting group at the new Panera. They voted to work on charity projects, and CARE Package won, so of course I had to make an appearance. Only three of us showed up to knit, with a fourth popping in for a minute to say hello, but we had a lovely visit together. It lasted two hours and went by very quickly.

And I learned something about myself that I did not know: I am a Continental-style knitter! What?! I knit like Europeans, not Americans. Apparently I 'throw' with my left hand instead of my right, and I move the yarn differently with my fingers and hands, and I'm a completely different knitter than others here. Also apparently, between that and the way I hold one needle under my arm as I knit, I am a very fast knitter. They kept commenting on the rapid progress I was making, starting a new half-front when I got there and finishing all but the last couple rows before we left - even with having dinner.  Well, yay for me.  But I'm still stunned about the "continental" revelation.  How did that even happen?! Huh.  I guess I just did it on my own, and there you go, and there it is.

But I totally screwed up while I was knitting and doing a lot of talking. You can see the blatant jaggedy zig line right there on the right half of the sweater! Why, oh why, didn't I just rip it out?? It's not too late. I still might. But I rather doubt it.

Instead, I came home and knitted one of the sleeves. I'll do the other tomorrow, and finish the sweater. Other than the painfully obvious mistake, it's a very cute sweater and a really fast knit. I'll do this one again - correctly.

Besides, I never worry when I make a mistake in my knitting, unless it's a truly fatal mistake. I like the Native American belief (or so I was told) that you should always put a mistake in everything you make, in recognition that only God can create perfect things. Isn't that cool?

So what do you think? Should I fix the mistake or let it be, giving the sweater some character?

Let me know in the comments. :)

Fin.