Help me out, you guys!

Ok, so Justin brought home a laptop bag from work one day. It had gone through quite a lot of people before he got it, many of whom had left the company by the time the bag made its way to him. He didn't know who all had it before he did and there's really no way to find out. Anyway, he was cleaning it out and we found these (click to make them bigger):









He was just going to throw them out, but I didn't have the heart to let him. I know it probably sounds silly, but I just keep thinking that these are somebody's memories, ya know? Plus, it looks like she's around my age and I look at these pictures and some of the stuff looks so familiar. Some things were universal in the late 70s/early 80s. Dark wood paneling, ugly linoleum flooring, shoddy ass Halloween costumes, those shorts with the split on the side of the leg and the white stripe up the side... So, while I might sound like a sentimental spaz, I really can't stand the thought of throwing these pictures away.

Alright, so, here's where the "help me out, you guys" comes in. What should I do with them? Here are pictures of the back of them too.













Thanks for any suggestions you might offer!!!

The One With All the Washcloths...

Ok, so a long long long long long time ago, my girl Kathy and I arranged a trade. She was going to make 2 custom necklaces for Sebastian's preschool teacher and teacher's assistant as their end of the year gifts. You might recall that Sebastian is in kindergarten now. Um, yes, it was that long ago. In May. So, anyway, Kathy was going to make the necklaces and I was going to knit some washcloths for her. So, I looked around on Etsy to see what the going price for a knitted washcloth was and it was about $4. Meanwhile, the necklaces were going to be $60 altogether. So, do some remedial math and you get 15 washcloths. Yeah, that's a lot. But, it was fair, so I set out to knit 15 washcloths. And 7 short months later, here we are!!! Yay!!! Haha!!! OMG, I'm such a horrible person. Kathy held up her end of the bargain like a champ and she got those lovely necklaces to me before the school year was over, just like she promised. And here I am, being a slacker and whatnot and taking forever to get the washcloths to her. I suck. BUT, I did finally finish them and I actually mailed them off today!!!! Wooohooo!!!! In case you're curious, here are pictures of the necklaces Kathy made for Mrs. Brandy and Mrs. Tish (Sebastian's preschool teacher and teacher's assistant).






Lovely, right? They both loved them, of course. And now, for a ridiculously long blog post complete with pictures of all 15 washcloths. There's a theme here. Most of the washcloths are aqua, chocolate brown, or taupe. Or a combo thereof. You'll notice that these first two are not. That's because the first two are especially for Julian and Charlotte, Kathy's 2 kids. Julian is 3 and Charlotte is a little over a year old. So, this one's for Charlotte:



It's the notorious Ballband Dishcloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting, miniaturized so as to be baby-sized.

Ok, the one for Julian requires a bit of explanation. I used a technique called double knitting to make it. What ends up happening is that you get a totally reversible item. One side is the exact opposite of the other. Neato, right? The pattern I used is actually a scarf pattern, but I just did 3 repeats of the pattern, rather than the 20-something you'd have to do for a scarf. This is the Uncle Argyle pattern from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. Julian is always dressed in something really preppy, so argyle seemed appropriate. Honestly, when is argyle not appropriate? I already had the book and I'm working on a scarf using that pattern for Justin. This is possibly the cutest washcloth ever. If I had to sell it, it would cost approximately $79. Double knitting is no joke, I'll tell you that much. It's quite painstaking. Anyhoo, here it is:



And the other side:



Cool, huh? Red is really hard to photograph, by the way.

Ok, moving on. Here we have a random stripe pattern in simple stockinette with a crocheted ruffle border:



Next up is a modified version of the Mason-Dixon Washcloth, also from Mason-Dixon Knitting, as you could imagine. The original pattern is a hexagon. Since a hexagon is just 6 triangles put together, I figured that if I took out 2 of the triangles, I'd have four triangles, which would equal a square. And I figured correctly. So, here's that one:



Ok, this is a set done in the Twin Leaf Lace Cloth pattern. It's from one of the blogs I have linked in my sidebar, Smariek Knits. The two together:



Chocolate alone:



Aqua alone:



This one is called Synchronicity. I likes me some cables.



Ok, so these next two may look familiar. Heh heh. <------That's my sheepish laughter. Remember way back when I was making some washcloths for Sebastian's preschool teacher's assistant? Well, I never mailed them. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator. By the time I finally decided to mail them, I had lost the address. But, I did give Kathy full disclosure so she knows these were originally made for Mrs. Tish. She liked them and didn't care, so they went in the mix. This first one is a modified version of a pattern called Staggered Fern.



And this one is called Traveling Vine, courtesy of Smariek Knits.



This next one is called Lacy Mock Cable:



Next is one called Swish With a Twist. It was available for free when I used it, but apparently you have to pay for the pattern now. Lame.



Next we have another set. These are both done in the Double Lattice pattern, again from Smariek Knits.



Aqua alone:



Taupe alone:



Next is the Embossed Twining Vine Leaf pattern from Smariek Knits (can you tell I like her patterns?):



I don't know what's up with the color in that picture, but it's the same aqua used in some of the other washcloths above.

Last is a full-sized version of the Ballband Dishcloth:




Ok, so there ya go. 15 knitted washcloths! I really hope Kathy likes them!! And that's it till next time! Lots of Christmas knitting to do:)

A quick hit of nostalgia...

When I saw The Neverending Story for the first time, Barret Oliver's portrayal of Bastian struck such a chord with me that at the tender age of 7, I vowed to name my future son after his character, Bastian. Ha!!! And I totally did it! Although anyone who knows me well knows that I have a strong aversion to shortened versions of names being given as full names, so I went with the full version of Sebastian rather than Bastian. Either way, Barret Oliver holds a special place in the heart of this 80s child.



Anyway, I also truly loved another of Barret Oliver's movies--D.A.R.Y.L. Alright, people. Tell me you don't get a tear in your eye when you watch this. I know for a fact that Phoebe, Penny, and Esther will get it. Kathy, I don't know if you loved ol' Barret like I did:)

Some ranting and a movie recommendation.

Ok, let's start off with the ranting so that you'll be good and primed for the awesome movie recommendation at the end. Bethany had a chorus performance at school last night. The parents were supposed to have their kids there for 5:45 so that they could be all set up and ready to go at 6:00. PUHLEEZ. That so didn't happen. We got there at 5:40 and they proceeded to warm up ON STAGE, in front of the audience of parents. WTH? Since when do they do warm ups in front of the audience they're performing for? Plus, toss in the tidbit that we had no idea that they were warming up and we just thought the chorus director was seriously OCD and was stopping the performance repeatedly because he was unhappy with their execution or something. It was like, "hey, remember us-THE AUDIENCE??????". Anyway, we finally figured out that they were warming up when the kids tromped offstage and sat down. Then, cue the high schoolers who were going to be performing. Um, what???? High schoolers will be performing also? Since when? Oh, and what's that you say? The high schoolers will be going FIRST???!!!! Ok, that may not seem like such a big thing unless you consider the fact that Dorian was being the devil incarnate and we were in the 7th circle of HELL. By the time the damn warm ups were over, we had been there for a freaking HOUR. And Dorian was not happy. He was highly annoyed and kept saying OW!! really loud, when no one was touching him or doing anything to him. I'm sure everyone in there was getting my physical description for the CPS hotline. Also, he kept repeatedly tapping my arm while saying "get up!!". I gave him an old, but working, cell phone to play with and he decided it was a good idea to slam it against the back of the seat in front of us. So, I took that away and he cried. Very loudly. So, I gave him a marker and paper to use. He promptly threw the marker down and it rolled under the seat in front of us. After I contorted myself to pick that up, I put it back in my bag and gave him a little stuffed animal. He threw it down. You see where this is going? It was freaking horrible. And all of that was BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE started. The damn high school got up to sing and Justin and I had a furiously whispered conference about who was going to take Dorian out of the auditorium so that we could quit ruining everyone's night. I finally agreed and said "FINE, I'll take him" through my clenched teeth. Know how when your kid is misbehaving in public, especially in a venue that requires silence, and you feel all instantly super stressed out and sweaty and flustered? Yeah, it was like that. So, I ended up taking the little sucker out of there for the duration of the high school performance, which was cut short because some girl fainted. Anyway, I came back in for the middle school performance and Dorian continued to be a bad ass, but I was NOT going to miss Bethany's portion, so we just dealt with it. Ok, so THEN the chorus director stood directly in front of Bethany THE ENTIRE TIME. Every now and then, I got a glimpse of her right eyebrow and eye and, if I was lucky, part of her right cheek. After every song, Justin and I would look at each other like "oh good, only _______ more songs". It was so uncool. I really wanted to enjoy the performance, but in reality I just wanted to slam my head into the seat in front of us (by the way, I'm sure the guy that was sitting there hated us). Plus, every time I looked over, Justin was doing one of these:




And I'm pretty sure that every time Justin looked over at me, I was doing one of these:



By the time we left that joint, it was 8:10. So, then we still had to eat and go to Wal-Mart. We went to Chili's for what was supposed to be my birthday dinner. Woo. Hoo. Can you feel the celebratory vibes from where you're sitting? Yeah, it was no good. Dorian was all in a tizzy from his enforced semi-but not really-silence/stillness from the chorus performance. So, he continued to be the devil. And Justin was pretty much ordering alcohol as we walked in the door. We ate, we went to Wal-Mart. We didn't get home till after 10. Dorian usually goes to bed at 6:30, Sebastian at 8:30, and Bethany at 9:30. Good times.


Ok, now for the movie recommendation. We have a 14 day free trial of Netflix and we used it to watch this movie:




It was EXCELLENT!!! I had no idea that breakdancing was so international. The first 15 minutes or so kind of detailed the history of breakdancing and then the central plot started. It's a documentary film and it basically follows a few of the teams that are performing in the Battle of the Year contest. The Battle of the Year is the biggest contest around for breakdancing and it's held in Germany. So, they got in depth on several of the different team members and it was really interesting to see the different cultural takes on doing breakdancing for a living. There was some pretty fascinating racial undertone stuff about the team from France. And of course, the dancing was freaking AMAZING. Some of the dancing just defies gravity and boggles the mind. I highly recommend this movie. It would even be appropriate for kids, except there's some cursing at the end when they're all performing at the Battle of the Year. Trash-talking and whatnot. So, there you go. As promised, some ranting and a movie recommendation. Till next time.