favorite (fictional) knitters, part I

Sure, everyone's heard of Madame DeFarge from A Tale of Two Cities, sinsterly knitting a register of people she has marked for death during the French Revolution. But how about more modern, more respectable, fictional knitters? In this and future posts, I'll share some of my favorites. These women aren't just knitters; they're revolutionaries in their own ways.

#1: Elizabeth ("Betty") Jean Rubble (nee McBrickle), and her best friend, Wilma Pebble Slaghoople Flintstone.

Whether they used woodpeckers' beaks or carved bone needles (which I believe was Wilma's preference), these two cavewomen were millenia ahead of their time. Most people remember Wilma and Betty as being typical stone-age hausfraus who devoted their days to vacuuming with mastodons and cleaning the breakfast dishes in their automatic pelicans. But these Bedrock babes were actually domestic trailblazers in animal skins. 

Fred and Wilma were the first couple ever to be seen sharing a bed on television, and Wilma was the first cartoon character shown during pregnancy. Betty and her husband, Barney, were the first TV couple to legally adopt a child, (their son, Bamm-Bamm).

And ... no matter how badly their husbands behaved, Wilma and Betty managed to remain (mostly) level-headed. Maybe it was the knitting that kept them so calm?

funny kid stories, part III

When I was looking for the picture of Andrea that I took back in college, I came across photo albums from the summer I spent in London and Paris when I was 21 years old. Ian and I spent a fun half-hour looking through them.

One of the last photos in the album is a picture of me sitting in the Parc du Champs de Mars beneath the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. There I am, looking '80s chic in my oversized leather blazer, Ray Bans, and mini-mullet. I know in that picture I've been awake for 48 straight hours, but even make-up free I'm glowing because I'm in Paris, because I'm in love, because I'm 21 years old, for Pete's sake.

Ian wouldn't let me close the book. He stared at that picture for close to five minutes, then finally looked at me and said:

"Wow, Mom, I never would have believed you could be so beautiful."

Thanks, kid. And God will get you for that, Ian.

funny kid stories, part II

There's a painting covering the wall of the parking lot for Seth's school. Yesterday, Seth remarked on it for the first time.

"Mommy, that's a beautiful painting."

"Yes it is," I agreed. Then being a teacher, and not one to pass up a teachable moment, I continued, "Do you know that when you paint a picture on a wall it's called a mural?"

"Isn't it bad to paint on the walls?" Seth wanted to know.

Hmm ... how to answer this one without subjecting OUR walls to future Seth scribbles?

"Well, when the owner of the wall says it's okay and you paint something beautiful, it's not bad," I offered.

"But it's bad to paint on walls," Seth insisted.

"No honey, when it's a mural it's not bad. It's art."

"Okay," Seth said happily. "Then my bedroom door isn't bad. It's a mural."

funny kid stories, part I

I was having breakfast with Seth this morning talking about this and that, when we somehow landed on the topic of taking care of your teeth and visiting the dentist.

"When I am older," he informed me, "I will go to the dentist all by myself. When I am older."

"Okay," I answered. "How old will that be?"

"Really old," he replied. "Really, really old. Like maybe 21."

first sale!

A huge thanks to my bonus mom ... my very first Etsy customer. She purchased the 4 Corners hat, seen here modeled by little sis.

Her most excellent reason for buying it? As she said,

"It looks good on curly red hair.  I'm making it mine."

Enjoy wearing it, stepmom of mine. I hope it gets cold enough in the desert to make the purchase worthwhile.

remember assembly day?

The white shirt, blue skirt and red tie? How about a knit version of it?

I found this little scarf on the Mason-Dixon blog. (Linked to a pattern on Ravelry, of course. Man, I love that website.) Ann Shayne of MasonDixonKnitting.com found her version of it in an old Martha Stewart Living magazine. Yes, it's a good thing.

I have to give my profound thanks to step-cuz for all her long-distance tutorials in Photoshop. Thanks to her, I was able to take this picture on my webcam and actually make it look good. Hey, Mich - whaddaya think of my Gaussian blur?

etsy ho!

I finally posted my first items on Etsy.com. I had wanted to put at least six items up for sale to start with, but I only have four I'm comfortable selling right now. And they're all wintery items, and as there are only a few more weeks of winter ...

Yep, it made sense to go live with just the four.