davejenbarnes

I’ve had better quality cuts in the past but I’m happy with the length.

ETA (Edited to add) — I wasn’t mad when I took the pic, I promise.

I had a little knitting blog going but decided to keep everything over here and just make use of my categories. Ravelry is knocking my socks off. I mean, wow. Totally impressed with the knitting website. It is like a virtual knitting journal where I can keep track of my yarns, needles, books, projects (WIP - works in progress, and FO’s - finished objects) to-do list (queue) and friends. In addition, I can also look up a pattern and see what yarns other people are knitting that particular pattern in as well as find a yarn and see all the different patterns created with it. There’s also the discussion area and that’s where I found the “Want Progress Bars?” thread. Of course, I started watching that thread and jumped on it when Casey opened it up for new guinea pigs. Casey is the man behind Ravelry. What do you get when a knitter and a code monkey get married? Ravelry. It’s so cool, even David and some of his guy friends have been thoroughly impressed. And that’s saying a lot about a knitting/crochet website.

So, those are my current projects and I’m excited to be almost finished with the brown lap blanket. I’m on what I’ve determined is the last row but I hear that the bind-off row is a doozey (as in takes forever and uses miles and miles of yarn). I could finish the bib in an hour or so if I just picked it up since it’s so small. The soaker pattern is my in-the-car go-to pattern for traffic jams (gotta love living in Austin). And the Bonsai Tunic is waiting for me to brave the front half. Don’t know when I will get around to that because of all the “wanna-knits” I’ve got swimming around in my head.

James is in big-boy underwear (of course we are having pee-pee accidents left and right) and for the first time he is telling me when he goes. He comes running to me wanting to wear dry ones. He wanted to wear Lightening McQueen after he’d peed on them (I make him sit on the potty after every incident) so I put the wet ones back on him and he did not like that very much. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got (or he’s got) 12 pair of underwear and we’ll wear them at home (the diapers, even though they’re cloth aren’t making any progress whatsoever toward being potty trained or toilet learned or whatever you want to label it) and I’ll wash ‘em with Lowell’s cloth diapers. Overall, it’s less to wash a pair of underwear than a cloth diaper. Less bulk. Less space. Less work (don’t have to stuff his underwear).

When we first bought his potty (way back when) we had super success with it. He peed in it and pooped in it lots. Then when Lowell was born he refused. So we’re just now getting back into the swing of things as far as that part of growing up goes.

We’ve also started giving him rules. Like… Juice only in a cup, only at the dinner table. Water only in sippies. No fingers allowed in the juice cup (loves stuffing his hand into his beverage). No feet where we eat. Stuff like that. Trying to establish some manners in my little toddler caveman.

We went to Pfluger Park early this morning. I got a few good shots of the boys but it was hard to get good pictures being by myself with them both. Lowell is still very top heavy and James is still oblivious to where his feet and knees and hands are going so I didn’t get any decent pictures of the two of them together, though I did try.

I did, however get a great shot to use at Lowell’s wedding someday. Check out that bottom lip!

They fit! They fit!

I knit these without a pattern, without a gauge swatch, without measuring the baby and they fit!

Cascade 220 wool with lighter mystery wool detail on waist and cuffs, curly purly waistband. Size M

Here is where I found instructions for the cast-on. The only difference is that I alternated a Norwegian purl with a knit stitch to start with K1P1 ribbing. (If you don’t understand that and aren’t into knitting, just smile and nod)…

I found the cascade 220 to be not too scratchy and not too soft. I think it’s a great lightweight diapering yarn. We’ll see how it holds up to Lowell sitting and his leaning to crawl.

Congrats to our friends, the Ramseys, on the arrival of Luke!

As you can tell, he’s one rockin’ dude already.   Just like his dad.

So you’re probably wondering why the blog hasn’t been updated in what seems like forever.  One word: Ravelry.  All my computer time has been spent on either surfing Ravelry or photoshopping pictures for my bro.  And my non-computer time is filled with parenting and after the boys are in bed, knitting.  Yep, I am not much into the blogging these days.

We just had a James-free weekend as James went to my parents’ place for a train-filled weekend (they took him to a model train show in Temple) and we determined that one is not so much easier than two as we thought.  You hear, after you have your second kid, how much easier it is with one, how “I didn’t know how easy having one kid really was.” yada yada, but I say now, now that I know better, ease is much more dependent on the kids than the number of them.  Lowell was just as difficult being the only kid as it is when his big brother is around.  Someday when the grandparents take Lowell and leave James, then yes, it will be so much easier with just one kid.  for us, that is.

James came home a little more bruised, bitten, and probably taller than when he left.  I chalk that all up to being a boy and having a good time, though.  It also doesn’t help that he’s a boy that mosquitoes like.   He obviously had a good time because he is so in love with his grandparents.  Or maybe he wants more gummy bears.  :-P

Overall, James is growing up pretty quickly.  He now says Thank You for everything.  We’re still working on Please, but Thank You is a good start.  He’s been telling us Green means Go! and Red means Stop! and Yellow means Slow Down! for about 3 months now, so we’ve had a backseat driver since the beginning of July.  He wasn’t even two and already telling us the colors of the traffic lights and what we should do.  He’s very observant and has shown us that he recognizes more numbers and letters than we think he does even though we haven’t been formally teaching him any of them yet.  Today at HEB, (grocery store) he got 3 stickers from the balloon lady and when we got home and opened the little plastic balls to get the stickers, he said, Four!  Three!  One! and sure enough, he had a 4 a 3 and a 1 (the stickers that they hand out are all numbers).  His latest thing is getting to pick out what he wears each morning.  I must let him choose or he turns grumpy.

Lowell is sitting, though not longer than about 15 min at a time before he gets weak and topples over.  He still only can roll from tummy to back and reminds us of a turtle (stuck on his back, appendages flailing) when he does roll.  I know he’ll learn to roll eventually.  Not worried about it yet.  Boy can this boy eat.  He LOVES his baby food… so much so that I just gave up trying to make it all and just bought cans so I could concentrate on making everyone elses’ dinner.  I’d rather buy his and make ours than make his and buy ours.  At this point, I am not a good enough cook to do both… considering I haven’t been cooking (Dave is a great cook) very long (this is like the 3rd week in a row) it’s working out well.

I’ll try to post more pictures and stuff more frequently.  Thanks for checking the site.

Happy Birthday mom!  Happy Birthday Dad!

Love, Jen & Dave