and then it went horribly wrong...

i can't even explain it.

well, yes i can.  i think what happened is i missed a stitch when i bound off.  and when i was binding off the last swirl, the whole line of swirls was tangled up, and when i tried to fix it, the stitch finally slipped and totally came undone.  the funny thing is, i buried the live end somewhere in that mess and couldn't find it.  i tried for 10 minutes to salvage the yarn before giving up, snipping the whole mess away from the 2 last swirls.

and then when i tried to pick the yarn away from the new swirl (with the hopes of casting on and attaching to both the older and newer swirl, i knocked a stitch loose in that swirl.  so i decided, screw that, i'll just trash the last 2 (3) swirls, and start from scratch on swirl #5.

i have tried to find help and tips and tricks on making this shawl, and i'm coming up empty handed.  while there have been several shawls and scarves completed on ravelry, i haven't found any tips to help me from keeping the completed swirls from tangling and twisting.  the closest to a tip i found was a woman who knit her swirls individually and then attached them when all of them were completed (i am assuming she did this, as this is what her photos showed.)  the pattern doesn't say to do this - you cast each swirl on to the previous swirl.  pattern doesn't say to block after each one is knit (which is what i toyed with doing, except it would take forever to get the shawl done that way).  i'm thinking of using my new scarf fold-up to manage the string of swirls.  you would think that a pattern that has been harlotized would have it's own group.

soo...i lost 3 swirls.  but i have an extra ball of yarn, so hopefully it's not a big loss.

oh, and i'm knitting those swirls with pony rosewood DPNs.  they cut through the stitches like butter.  sweet.


can you believe this was once a prize in a gumball machine?

no, not the washing machine.  the fuzzy bunny decal.  yes, that's the playboy bunny symbol.  on my washing machine.

i can't tell you how old that sticker is, but i remember getting it out of a gumball machine when i was a wee girl (from weis, from saylors, who knows where).  it used to reside on my parents' washing machine for years.  when their machine died in the mid 90s, i peeled the sticker off and put it on their new machine.  during the summer from hell, i stole the sticker and transferred it to my own machine, and now that saint washie is gone, it now resides on the new one.

what baffles me is what gumball machine company sold playboy bunny stickers?  in a kids machine.  i know it was the 70s and things were fuzzy then, but still.  funnier still, is how my mom (ms. fussy) allowed me to put a sticker on a major appliance.  and a playboy bunny sticker at that!

so far the new washer is working fine.  i'm not use to the machine filling with water after i put the clothes in, but i guess that's how the washer decides how much water to use per load.


and some gratuitous kiddo pictures

why are the kiddos wearing st. paddy's sleepers in the middle of january?  becos they are outgrowing their clothes, and by the time march 17 actually gets here, they will probably be too small.

welcome to the sick house.  again.

the boy has bronchitis.  it only took 3 weeks to get him to the doctor and finally get him diagnosed.  he's been sick since before xmas.  every time i called the doctor to get him checked, i got "well, there's stuff going around, as long as there's no fever just give him tylenol".  TWICE.  i'm surprised i didn't catch hell from his teacher becos he coughed so much.  i've been sick for a week now too, and i really should go to the doctor too, but the thought of either finding a sitter for the kiddos or schlepping them to the doctor with me makes me not to want to bother at all.  i wish doctors made housecalls, spesh for big families or families with little babies.  i wish that was part of obamacare.  heh, if housecalls was included in the bill, i'd probably vote for it in a second, no matter what was in it!