Selfies and Pie

Today my son took his first selfie. I'm not certain whether to be proud of him, or terrified. The way he views the universe is so different than what I grew up with, that I worry sometimes about him completely surpassing my own understanding of the cosmos. He has an almost instinctual understanding of how a touch screen works, can navigate through netflix on my xbox and phone and apparently can operate my digital camera without putting his finger in front of the lens (most of the time) and getting halfway decent pictures. Especially considering he hasn't even reached his third birthday yet. Here are a few shots from his 'photo shoot' including a picture of me he took after carefully setting himself into position to take my picture, and instructing me to 'say cheese'

I remember when my own mother got her first digital camera. I was a good deal older than three, I can tell you that. But my point is that technology and the world is changing at an ever accelerated rate ever since both the market revolution and the industrial revolution that I wonder what the end of our journey as a species might be, or even the next few stops might be. And it is important to remember that two hundred years ago, life did not change at this rate. You were born to your parents who likely had lived in their town for their whole lives, working a family trade or farm. As their parents had done, and their parents stretching back to the very distant agricultural revolution before written history.

Another thought for the day; isn't it interesting that the 'revolutions' from history that truly changed the world rarely involved wars and death and beheadings; but the cultural revolutions that forever changed the world.

Also I made pie today; and it was gooey and delicious.

New Goals and a life update

Obviously I am not good at this; look at how many posts I've made since I created this... ok don't do that. You'll make me feel bad. I want to set a goal of posting once a day though. Just once a day. To keep whoever is reading up to date on how Calvin and I are doing.

So let me catch you up on this cool Friday, cool pertaining to the weather in northern Indiana today.

My husband and I made a few budget decisions that were difficult this past week, mostly shuffling around priorities so we could afford a used window air conditioner. Our apartment is not what you would call big, in a moment of curiosity I actually used MATH (gasp!) to figure out our square footage. It is between 350 and 375 sq ft. Wow that is tiny, good thing we aren't big people! This also meant that buying a window air conditioner would be an economical way to keep my whole house and family cool for the summer and the nights were already getting too hot to sleep. Since we've bought it and installed it, the temperature hasn't soared past the mid 70's. I'm not happy about this.

I also finished a blanket. I am a prolific crafter and getting more so every year, in fact this blanket marks my 38th finished project if you only count knitting and crochet. But I have tried NUMEROUS times to make a blanket and thought my limited attention span was not going to allow me to actually make a blanket. This has not stopped me from designing a blanket along with my little sister to help teach her to knit, and eventually when I get around to a photoshoot and some in depth pattern layout will hopefully help others to learn. But thanks to this amazing find I actually finished a star shaped baby blanket. I was all set to give it away, but then I took this picture, and I don't think my little boy cares so much about the colors of the blanket but that his mommy made it for him.

This has inspired me to stop procrastinating and cast on for a sweater for Calvin. I can knit this 100% superwash wool in part thanks to the weather being so cool again, but also because when it does warm up again (and it had better!) if I need to I know I will be able to knit next to the window unit. This is keeping me from a panic attack about the purchase of said unit.

In other news, my husband is stepping up at work over the next month in a huge way. His manager's father very recently passed on, a few days ago and hubbo is taking on all of her hours. I won't be seeing much of him, and he will probably be grumpy for a while. I need to remind myself that I love the stuffing out of my grumpy bear. I've written it. It will be remembered. Hopefully.

I just want to say one more thing; that link up there that helped me finish my blanket? It is a link to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on youtube. It finished production a few months ago in March and I can't believe I'm only discovering it now. If you haven't watched it go do so now! Right now!! My little sister and I agree (both of us being HUGE fans of Pride and Prejudice) that this is such a good adaptation that in some ways it surpasses the original source material. The character portrayals are amazing, the relationships explored are gripping, the storyline is still so gripping you will forget you are watching an adaptation and just start watching a vlog that involves you in the emotions of these very real people. You might even cry, I know I did. That's all for today. I should be back tomorrow, and if not hopefully Calvin didn't run me over with one of his cars.

Here is a link to the website with lots of good stuff on it: link
And a link (again) to youtube: youtube channel
And one to their store for cute little posters when you fall in love and want to show your nerd love: link
And their tumblr

Crochet Tutorial

I had to learn this technique from my grandma and thought I'd share it. This is a technique for weaving in your ends in crochet that is a piece with a right and wrong side where the wrong side has the possibility of being seen, like a blanket or sweater. I took a few quick pictures of this technique real quick to show you.

You will need; your crochet with ends hanging off. As you crochet when changing from one color to the next leave a good 2 to 3 inch tails and pull snug before moving on and leaving the ends hanging from the back of your work. As you can see I have quite a few to work with. You will also need a yarn needle, I prefer metal ones since they have more of a point on them. And a pair of scissors

Thread your needle with an end. 

Move up a little and pass your needle through the back bumps of your dc (or whatever stitch is there).

Pull tight and repeat, moving down and left one (or up and right)

Repeat once more (you can do more than three but I find running through three rows on this slight diagonal leaves a very firm fabric in tact.

This is the end woven in on the back side before cutting it down. 

All cut and difficult to find

Right side of fabric. Dare you to try and spot the end from this side. Difficult huh?

There is also the option of carrying the old thread for a few stitches after you change colors, as demonstrated here and here (scroll down to the bottom picture) This works great for amigurami projects and toys and for those people who just don't like a lot of finishing work at the end of a project. But I'm a little weird in that I am both a crocheter and a sewing enthusiast and sometimes at the end of a fiber project I like the feel of a sharp darning needle in my hands. So there you have it. A short tutorial on how I finish my ends in crochet work.

And for a Calvin update; he's almost three and I am finding each day new and exciting, and infinitely more difficult than the last.