Rainbows Everwhere!

Pattern: Easy Chunky Beanie by PassioKnit Kelsie - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Mainstays in Black & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Crayon Box - Needles: US 11 (8mm)

  I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle making the rainbow hats.  The Red Heart Unforgettable doesn't have a whole rainbow and also doesn't take as long to go through all of its color changes.  This hat fits me just fine in both length and width.  It fits Bill in width, but the length looks a little silly on him.  That meant that unless I wanted to limit who could wear these, I had to figure something else out.

Pattern: Easy Chunky Beanie by PassioKnit Kelsie - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Caron One Pound in Espresso & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Needles: US 11 (8mm)

  This one almost works, though it relies heavily on someone seeing the very top of the hat.  I don't hate how it looks, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 24 hdc - Yarn: Caron One Pound in Espresso & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Hook: M/13 (9mm)

  This one is a remake because the first turned out way too stiff.  I thought I could fix it with some soaking, but it didn't work.  I had also noticed that my knitted version with these yarns was also a bit stiff, but it wasn't too bad.  I swear the hook I was using was a 9mm.  I thought it was too small, but a 10mm was too big.  Between the two options I went with too small.  There are files to allow someone to 3D print a crochet hook, so I was considering that to make the 9.5mm I thought I needed.  When I looked at the hook again, after I was done and my ends were woven in, I saw that it said 8mm on it.  It's even a metal hook, so I don't have the excuse that the pattern on the plastic made it hard to read.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 21 hdc - Yarn: Main Stays in White & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Hook: M/13 (9mm)

  Before I committed to taking out the one before this, I decided to make another hat with the larger hook to see if it really made enough of a difference.  It really did.

  I put a poll on my Instagram asking if the rainbow wedges hats should have the rainbow going clockwise or counterclockwise.  Clockwise won.  The funny part about that is that when I make them, I'm making the wedges counterclockwise.  So then I had to make them in the VIBGYOR direction.

Pattern: Easy Chunky Beanie by PassioKnit Kelsie - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Retro Rainbow (doubled) - Needles: US 13 (9mm)

  I tried going up a needle size and used two skeins of the Bitty Stripes together to see how it would turn out.  One skein had two factory knots in the sample I made and that threw off the colors really badly.  At first there were only a few stitches between when the colors would sync up, but after all the knots it was starting to have whole colors become offset.  It would also end up a lot like the first knit one, so I took it out.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 33 hdc - Yarn: Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Hook: J/10 (6mm)

  Since this version goes through more color changes, I'm now wondering if a knit hat using only a single strand with a smaller needle would work better.  It has been added to the growing list of experiments.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 34 hdc - Yarn: Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Hook: J/10 (6mm)

  I was having pretty good luck with the factory knots so far.  When I ran into them they stayed within the color they were supposed to.  However, this one had a knot well into the pink that was yellow on the other side.  I had to take so much off to get it back on track.

Pattern: Easy Chunky Beanie by PassioKnit Kelsie - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Mainstays in White & Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana - Needles: US 11 (8mm)

  I wasn't sure what to do about this yarn since the jumbo skein is so much different than the regular.  However, I wanted to give this idea a shot.  It reminds me of funfetti cake.  I was worried it was going to be too busy, but then I noticed how nicely the colors were stacking on top of each other.  I had been slowly working through it by using it as the tentacles of octopi before this.  That was fun, but I wasn't totally in love with it, and it was slow going.  This hat turned out really nicely and I'm glad the yarn has another option, especially since I ended up with a second skein.

Pattern: Easy Chunky Beanie by PassioKnit Kelsie - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Mainstays in Grey & Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana - Needles: US 11 (8mm)

  I thought I weighted the yarn before I started so I could see about how much I used.  Somehow, I just put in a random number in my notes, either that or the remaining yarn grew heavier as I used it.  With the grey it reminds me of a hoodie I was going to knit for myself with alternating stripes of grey and neon colors.  I don't remember ever actually starting it, but I also don't know where that yarn is currently.

  I noticed that some of the hats had large yardage differences between the two yarns used.  For this hat I made sure to stop and untwist the yarn every once in a while.  I think that was the problem with some of the other ones.

Pattern: B186 Galway Diamond Hat by Plymouth Yarn - Size: 88 stitches - Yarn: Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Needle: US8 (6mm)

  There are some "interesting" things about this pattern.  They have you work in the round, but tell you to end on a wrong side row.  When working in the round, every row is a right side row.  The only way to have a wrong side row would be if you were going to flip the piece inside out when done, but then every row would be a wrong side row.  So it's either never an option or your only option.

  I also noticed that on the decreases they have you work k2togs after getting it down to a 1x1 k,p rib.  This would put the purls on top and wouldn't create a nice knit column flow.  To fix that you could either change the decreases to ssk, or work the rib p2,k2.  Since I wanted the tag to sit on a knit column when flipped up, I just switched the ribbing.  I also fiddled with the decreases, but that is just me trying to ease it a bit more and is probably not necessary.

  At this gauge the full repeat is about 2,904 stitches.  From the crown to the top of where is brim is folded is about 4.75" for my head.  To get it to work the way I want I would have to work it with 100 stitches.  I think I'm going to give it a try.

Pattern: B186 Galway Diamond Hat by Plymouth Yarn - Size: 104 stitches - Yarn: Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Needle: US8 (6mm)

  I was worried that some of the colors wouldn't show up enough because they had such short stripes with the smaller size.  I'm really just confused why yellow and orange have such larger sections of color compared to the others.  I added a few more stitches than is suggested for the larger size because I wanted the number I had to be divisible by 8.  I liked how I did the decreases in the smaller one (repeating the pattern around the row):

 • p2tog, k2, p2, k2

 • p1, k2, p2tog, k2

 • p1, k2

 • p1, k2togs, p1, k2

 • p1, k1, p1, k2tog

 • p1, k1

 • p1, k1, k2tog 

 • p1, k2tog

 • k2tog

 • *k1, k2tog* until last stitch, k1

  I like how the sections came out, but I feel like I would need to work from the inside and outside to get it perfect.  Then there wouldn't be an upside rainbow on the brim and a right side one on the crown.  I will keep this pattern in mind for future hats though.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 24 hdc - Yarn: Main Stays in Grey & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Rainbow - Hook: M/13 (9mm)

  When I weighed this yarn it said I only had 77g of the rainbow.  According to the other one I made, that wouldn't be enough yarn.  I looked at how many color changes I had and decided to try it anyway.  I had 11g left once I was done with my hat.  I don't know if something was a mistype with the first one or what all happened to give me such a different number.  I changed it to a range, but I feel like those numbers are somehow not very helpful in the end.

  I think the crochet hats are my favorite style for the Bitty Stripes yarn.  You get the rainbow effect without having to worry about how much of the hat gets folded for the brim.

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. - Size: 7 sc, 25 hdc - Yarn: Main Stays in Grey & Red Heart Bitty Stripes in Crayon Box - Hook: M/13 (9mm)

  I was so excited when I got the perfect number for the chunky crochet hat in Rainbow.  I then remembered that I got two rainbow style yarns.  I compared the two chunky knit hats and the same number should have worked for this one too.  Luckily the chunky hats are faster to work up to try it out since I needed to add one more stitch to the body of the hat.

  As you have seen, I've been experimenting with the Bitty Stripes yarn.  It is so pretty, and I want to be able to show it off to its fullest extent.  I've been keeping track of how much I use for each hat I've experimented with:

Short Chunky Knit Beanie 75g total

~ Crayon box: 40g(73 yd) - Mainstays 35g(70 yd)

~ 23 or 24 rows before decrease

Long Chunky Knit Beanie(US 11) 129g total

~ Rainbow: 65g(119 yd) - Caron: 64g(128 yd) 

~ 10" before decrease

Long Chunky Knit Beanie(US 13) 120g total

~ Jumbo Mexicana: 65g(111yd) - Mainstays: 55g(110yd)

~ 10" before decrease

Knit Beanie(US 8) 84g(153yd) total [100g(182yd)]

~ 88 [104] stitches

~ 10" before decrease

Chunky Crochet 126g total [156-158g total]

~ Rainbow: 69g(126 yd) - Mainstays - 57g(114 yd) [Rainbow: 66g-82g(121 yd - 150 yd) - Mainstays: 70g-90g(140 yd - 181 yd)]

~ 7 sc, 21(24) hdc (5, 3, & 7) 6 sections

Crochet 119g(217 yrd) total [g total]

~ 9 sc, 34[35] hdc (7, 5, 3, 9) 7 sections

I Don't Know About You, But She's Feeling 22 (Months)

Week 91:

  She is having such a great time with the dogs being around.  She gets very concerned when they go next door and don't come right back.  She woof-woofs at them and pets them gently.

  It wasn't raining the second day at the cabin, so we went on a more adventurous hike.  She needed help to get over large fallen branches, but she walked up the hill to the ridge and along most of the ridge all by herself.  I held her hand as often as I could because I was worried she was going to trip and roll down the hill.  She did such a good job of it and only tripped when she wasn't paying attention to where she was putting her feet or when something was bigger than she thought.  When she was unsure she would say "Hep hep"(help) and I would go around the item and hold her hand from the other side or lift her over it.

  Walking down the road to the bridge and back was fun, but wet.  She discovered the joys of splashing in puddles.  I tried to keep her out of the deep ones and let her splash in the shallower ones.

  I got her mostly asleep for her nap, but she woke back up when I tried to transfer her.  She was very upset, even after I wished everyone a good nap.  She kept pointing to the door when I tried to lay down with her, so I got Bill in.  She kept trying to call to get the dogs to come in the room.  We eventually gave up on her Sunday nap.  Instead she snuggled on the couch with Funcle Mickey and they ate popcorn together under a blanket.

  At one point she wanted to wear the blanket that Mickey was working on as a hat.  Then she tried offering it to Casey at some point for whatever reason she saw fit.  Luckily for the blanket, I'm good at catching her before she pulls too many stitches out.

  Monday morning she figured out how to slide the tab on the zip-bag to get her wheat puff out for breakfast.  She then wanted to put the empty bag into the recycling bin.

  She saw that I was opening something to drink.  She then ran back into the kitchen going "bah bah" and got her water bottle.  She then Cheers'd me with it.

  One of her in-truck toys squeaks when you squeeze it.  She hasn't been able to reliability get it to squeak when squeezing it with her hands, even being bigger now.  On the way home from the cabin she discovered that she can put it behind her neck and make it squeak by throwing her head backwards.

  She scratched at the bathroom door while I was in there and I asked who was there.  She said "Dada" but agreed when I asked if there was also a Miss Spud there.

  We went for a long walk on Tuesday.  We ended up going over a mile.  She was splashing in every puddle she could find.  We saw someone's mostly eaten apple on the side of the road but she decided to leave it without me having to convince her.  On our way back she squatted over some grass growing between some cracks.  She had to angle a few times to get it just right.  She needed a diaper change after that.  It seems she was studying the technique the dogs were using over the weekend.

  After I got home from knitting, she wanted to put on her butterfly wings.  She then spent a while "flying" around the house at top speed yelling Gah-Go.

  I asked if she wanted more to eat.  She then signed More and shook her head.  I asked if she was all done and she then signed All Done to me.

Week 92:

  When I was getting ready for knitting, Miss Spud kept me up to date on what was going on.  I had heard that Bill had to use the restroom.  She came over to where I was and told me "Dada go poo-poo."  That was her first sentence.

  At one point she's been wanting us to put her bedtime friends on her butt when we are saying Goodnight.  It started a bit ago, but it's getting persistent.  At first it was only one or two, now it's all of them.

  She wouldn't let Bill open the book until her stuffed Corduroy was there to hear his story with her.  I had him jump off her crib and along various things to get to her.

  Whenever she sees something asleep, like in her books, she makes sleeping sounds.

  She has added Snack and Cracker to her list of words.  Making sure she has the important ones.  She has also started saying All Done along with signing it.

  She wanted some crackers and I got her some to snack on.  When she saw me holding one she reached out.  I thought she wanted to Cheers them, but when I ate mine she started crying.  She then poured hers out and was more upset because they were no longer in her cup.  I showed her that we could put them back into the cup.  She then thought it was funny to grab them before me and eat them.

  When we went for a walk on Wednesday she was disappointed in some cars we saw.  She kept asking cars in driveways for a hug.  None were giving her a hug.

  I needed some ink to print a shipping label.  We went to Dollar Tree after since it was next door.  She had loved playing with the foam insert of the door jamb at the cabin, so I figured I would get her a thin pool noodle.  She wanted two different colors and carried them through the store as we looked for cheesy popcorn.  The guy in front of us at checkout was buying a bunch of cloth laundry bags and small hula hoops.  She waited in line so well, she really liked the straw hat the lady behind us was buying.  Before leaving, the guy in front of us gave us one of the hula hoops.  It was so nice.

  She was watching puppy shorts while I was emptying her diaper genie and she got to a video of a puppy crying. She started bawling and wouldn't stop until I showed her that the puppy was okay by finding a funny puppy video.

Week 93:

  She was so mad when she got her apple, got me to open the door to the back porch, but Tank wouldn't join her outside.  I tried carrying him over so he could see there were squirrels in the mulberry tree, but he wasn't interested.  She tried to meow-call to him to come over.  She went in and out while pointing for him.  She even tried to gently push him towards the door.  Nothing worked and she was so upset by it.  A wheat puff and snuggles with Dada while watching cow videos helped.

  When I got back from knitting I was able to convince Tank to go into the back porch.  Miss Spud spent most of the time running in circles yelling "Go go go!"

  It has been a while since we have taken Miss Spud to Rocky Horror.  We stopped in to say "hi" and she got to show off her animal sounds and some of her words.  She was a bit overwhelmed and tired so she didn't run around when we put her down.  Everyone was so impressed by how big she's getting and how good she is at animal sounds.  I want to be able to have her stay, but we know she won't fall asleep with everything going on, and she's starting to parrot words without knowing what they mean.

  We woke up to her being very unhappy.  She had gotten her right leg stuck in the bars of her crib.  Bill said her knee was stuck and wouldn't go back through.  I gently lifted her and the different angle helped up get it back through.  She stood on it right away but needed some snuggles to feel better.

  Bill got her lawn mower out again.  She's started pulling it next to her instead of pushing.  She kept saying "wah" before she just took herself and her lawn mower on a walk.  Bill saw us when we were on the other side of the cul-de-sac.  We went down our street, down the corner, across the street, and to the next intersection before I could convince her to turn back.  I asked if she knew what Dada was up to and where we could find him.  She spent the whole trip back calling for Dada.

  Bill gave her two pieces of cheese.  He said that one was for her and the other for me.  She almost put both in her mouth, but then handed me one of the pieces.

  After dinner she started chewing on one of the wooden people that go with her color match bus.  I got her one of the teething necklaces I got her when she was first teething.  We spent some time right before bed watching funny dog videos while she chewed on her teething necklace.  I'm glad she is getting some use out of it because she was never impressed with it before.

  She saw me put some slices deli meat into a wheat puff.  After that she tried to do it as well.  She got it onto the puff just fine, but then had problems eating it.  The first time the ham ended up on the bottom, so it fell off.  The second time she didn't fully bite through the ham, so it all came off with that bite.  She got the hang of it before too long.

  She discovered that the hack to being able to carry more rocks on our walks.  When we go on our walks that are over a mile we pass a mailbox with a bunch of small smooth light colored rocks.  I let her pick out one and with everything else she's found before that it works out.  It turns out she can claim more rocks if she puts them in my pocket.  I had to tell her to pick one from all the ones she grabbed and that we had to leave some for other people.

  We were out of apples and though I was going to be at Wegmans for knit-night, we needed one for the morning.  We went to Safeway and she picked one out from the big piles on display.  I wasn't fast enough to help her and the one next to it fell when she pulled down her choice.  It fell right into her upturned face.  It hurt but she didn't cry for too long.

  She has been practicing jumping in her bed, but only managed to get both feet off the ground on a hard surface once before Thursday night.  She was able to jump multiple times getting both feet into the air.

  Since figuring out how to make a kissy sound, she has been giving more things kisses.  She puts her tongue between her teeth and makes a 'tsuh/tsk' sound.  Now she gives kisses to me, Bill, Tank, animals in videos, and all of her toys.

Week 94:

  She didn't want to eat her lunch in her wagon today.  The ladies were nice enough to let her eat in the small saucer chair.  She tipped it over at one point trying to reach toys, but didn't hurt herself.  She went back in the second I picked it back up.  Then everyone sitting near her provided her toys to play with.

  I had left her banana on the table because she was acting like she was full from her chicken sandwich.  I was working on something on the computer around bedtime when she brought something over to me.  She had found her banana and tried to eat it corn-on-the-cob style.  She had managed to mostly get through the peel, but not well enough to get to the fruit.  I peeled it for her and held it while she took bites and ate the whole thing right before we went up to bed.

  I read online that you shouldn't ask them a yes/no question if no isn't an acceptable answer.  Like, you shouldn't ask 'Do you want to put on your shoes?' if you need to leave to be somewhere.  Lately, sometimes when I ask if I can see something she found, she tells me Nope and runs away with ur, laughing.  It is pretty funny.  I then let her go because that helps her to know she has some say in the matter.

  I was woken up by her crying and saying Oww at 4am on Monday morning.  I was afraid she had gotten her leg stuck again so I went in.  She was just laying on her side, and popped up when I went in.  She was upset her bedtime friends were uncovered and that her blanket was in a ball.  I gave her a hug and told her I could fix it.  I asked if she could go back to sleep and she laid back down.  I rubbed her back until she was feeling better.

  When I put her down for her nap on Monday I had the idea to tuck all of her bedtime friends in and then tuck her in as well.  I put her friends in a row and put her blanket over them.  I then laid her down and quickly put the blanket over her.  She seemed very confused.  I watched the monitor and she just laid there, a but confused.  She was out in no time since she wasn't able to play with her friends laying down like she was.  That was the fastest it's been in a long time.

  I gave her a few leftover onion rings at lunch.  She ate one by dipping it into hoisin sauce and licking it off until finally taking a chomp.  The last two she tried on as bracelets.  After taking them off and putting them back on a few times she took a bite out of the larger one and held it on the top of her head.  I asked her if she was the Onion Ring Queen.  She thought that was funny.

  She wanted to be under the blanket Tuesday night, but then things went wrong.  Before we got her to lay down she kept trying to stand on her water bottle.  I told her that if she didn't get off I would need to take it.  I took her off of it and she tried to hand it to me.  I told her she could keep it since she got off, even if I was the one to lift her.  She didn't want it anymore and we put it on the railing of her crib.  We tucked her in and left, but soon after she started crying for real.  We went in an everything we tried would calm her for a second before she started crying again.  I asked if everything was wrong and she nodded her head.  The answer was for Bill to hold her while we told all of her friends goodnight together.  Then she was under the blanket with her water bottle on one side, her baby on the other, and Bucky laying on her stomach.  We asked if that was good and she nodded again.  She started meowing for Tank, since he wasn't upstairs with us, but didn't fuss any.

  She was having some big feelings on Thursday morning.  First I wouldn't give her the last big wheat puff.  She then got some fruit gummies and I opened them and put them in the cup she brought over, but they didn't stay in the cup when she turned it upside down.  She then spent some time scream/yelling while throwing her gummies around.  She didn't want to share a wheat puff piece with me.  We put the gummies back in the cup a few times but they kept falling out when she failed while holding the cup.  I got her some peanut butter puffs and that solved our crisis.  She then sat on Bill's lawn chair while eating her peanut butter puffs and watched a squirrel go by.  Tank had been outside with us but bailed the second it got too loud out.

Week 95: First Part

  We spend our morning watching Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home while she ate her apple.

  She kept wanting Bill to join us on a walk, so we didn't get too far this trip on any of our outings.  She did run around and get some energy out though.

  On our second night I had to go and get her white noise playing.  When I got back around the corner she gave me Corduroy to say Goodnight to.  She then squiggled herself under her blanket.  She wanted to cuddle with Bucky and her baby.  We then gave her kisses with our hands and left.  She wasn't upset that most of her friends didn't get a good night.

  On Father's Day we took her down to see some cows at Tom's place.  We had to look around some, but we eventually found them.  She was excited and mooed at them.  Some even mooed back!  She wanted to cautiously get closer to them, but they wandered off as we did.  Before heading back for nap time we stopped in at Tom's place and she got to meet a dog.  She was so excited that she could pet the dog.  She had to supervise Bill back at the cabin a bit with the tractor before she would go inside for her nap.

  Bill hadn't been feeling the best while we were at the cabin.  He passed it on to the rest of us.  On Monday Miss Spud had a runny nose and was sneezing a lot.  When I wasn't quick enough to wipe her nose, she would run her tongue across her top lip.

  When Bill got her on Tuesday morning, the whole bottom of her face was covered in snot.  He brought her over to snooze with us since she was awake and unhappy very early.  She laid down with us under the covers, but didn't go back to sleep.  She was pointing to everyone's elbows and poking my cheek or my nose.  She kept saying Hi-eee to me when I would look at her.

  I think I had what Bill had at the cabin, so I'm glad that she likes playing fetch.  On the back porch I will throw a basketball stress ball and she laughs while going to get it.  That has helped when it's too hot to go for a walk or today when I'm low energy and it's raining.

  After her nap she saw her knight plushie was in the kitchen.  She said Baby and wanted me to let her get it before I closed the gate.  She smoothed his cape and made sure he was okay before she brought him back into the playing area.

  I don't know if it's because she isn't feeling the best, but Tuesday night she kept fussing instead of going to sleep.  She kept trying to switch out which bedtime friends she was snuggling with.  She ended up falling asleep sitting up and then tipped over onto her side.

Safety Hats for Safety Heads

Pattern: Boyfriend Hat by Stephanie Nicole Bennet - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Flame + I Love This Yarn in Neon Orange + Loops & Threads Soft Classic in Neon Orange + Big Twist Value in Varsity Orange - Needle: US 8 (5 mm)

   I don't know why I only grabbed one skein of the Red Heart Super Saver in Flame when I saw it at Ollie's Bargain Outlet.  Trying to find more was a bit of a struggle.  I then got I Love This Yarn in Neon Orange, but the skein is smaller than the Red Heart.  I also got a skein of Loops & Threads Soft Classic in Neon Orange.  The Loops & Threads yarn is a slightly different color but is the brightest one so far.  It will be interesting to see if anyone prefers one color over another.

  It may not have been needed, but I added 10 more stitches to the body of the hat.  When I did the math 100 stitches wouldn't have been able to fit Bill's head, but 110 stitches would.  I also worked the body of the hat until it was 7" long instead of the 5.5".  I also worked the decreases differently; I wanted them to be more centered and not as slanted.

  The Loops & Threads yarn was a smaller skein than the others, so I wasn't able to get two full hats out of the one skein I had.  I did have some of the Red Heart leftover, so I used that for the last bit.

Thickness: Loops & Threads > Red Heart > Big Twist > I Love This Yarn

Softness: Big Twist > I Love This Yarn > Loops & Threads > Red Heart

Brightness: Loops & Threads > Big Twist > I Love This Yarn > Red Heart

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 19 (0)
Yarn Out: 36 (0)

Total: -17

Mint Chocolate Chip

Pattern: Side To Side Ribbed Hat by Sally L.M. with Star Stitch - Size: 8 sc top - Yarn: mystery - Hook: US J/10 (6 mm)

  I wasn't totally sure how I was going to transition from the ribbing to the star stitch and back to the crown ribbing.  I worked a chain two after the third hdc, and then worked it similar to the rest of the star stitches: one loop from the chain, one from the foot of the previous stitch, one from the same stitch the last stitch is coming out of, and the last two out of the next two spaces.  I saw star stitch with either a half-double crochet row or a single crochet row as a second row.  I went with single so the sizing wouldn't be too off from the edges.  If I make another one, I will try using a hdc on the second row of the pattern.

Pattern: Subtle Twist by Jennifer Tallapaneni (pieKnits) - Yarn: Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in Oak Tweed (doubled) - Needle: US 10 (6 mm) 

  Instead of the pattern they suggested, I just worked a 2x2 rib.  That meant that I had one more section than other people would and I started on row 3 of the chart.  I also worked an extra row of *k2tog, k1* at the top.

  Tank gets prescription food and I usually order it from Chewy because it's easy to order it and have it just show up on my doorstep.  Chewy usually sends the vet a message and it gets approved pretty quickly, so I didn't feel the need to have a picture of it on file.  For the last order I got a call from Chewy saying that the new policy of my vet is that the customer needs to get a prescription and then take a picture for Chewy.  I thought that was weird, but I could easily get it done.

  When I mentioned about how weird it seemed at the vet the guy at the check-in desk explained it to me.  It seems that Chewy sends a message and if it isn't approved fast enough, they send another one.  This would be fine except that it's about every ten minutes.  Sometimes the vet isn't in the building and so they were getting multiple requests for each order every day.  He said they've gotten over 200 messages per day from Chewy on many days.  This led to many people getting multiple bags of food and getting charged for all of them.  The incident that led to the change was when a lady order 10 doses (1 box) of a medicine for her dog.  Chewy ended up sending 10 requests for the order.  It was really busy that day and the doctor was just approving when they could.  The 10 requests all got approved and instead of just getting their 10 doses, they got 10 boxes and Chewy charged her over $3,000 for it and wouldn't take a return.

Pattern: Subtle Twist by Jennifer Tallapaneni (pieKnits) - Size: 64 stitches - Yarn: Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in Oak Tweed and mystery yarn - Needle: US 11 (8 mm) 

  I was really excited to work this color combination.  It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

  I was hoping to be able to find out what the mystery yarn was when I got to the center.  I know some people like to include the ball band on the center of the cake/ball.

  My mom and I went to Michael's to get some brown yarn for some upcoming hats and saw some interesting things.  We saw a guy take off his shoes at the curb and then run over the hot parking lot with his bare feet to go to BJs Wholesale.  We then saw someone in a Tesla try and squeeze past someone while backing out of a spot and back into the person behind them.  It was hard enough to rock the other car and leave a sizeable dent.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 19 (1)
Yarn Out: 36 (1)

Total: -17

Time for T.A.P.S. Again

   I dropped off all of the donations last Wednesday and here are the totals with some pretty pictures:

Jan:

6 water bottle holders

10 baby monsters 

 My Mom:

4 water bottle holders 

1-16 Frazzles

17-39 Frazzles

Tammy: 

1-26 water bottle holders 

27-52 water bottle holders 

53-78 water bottle holders

79-90 water bottle holders 

Me: 

Lion Brand Ice Cream Yarn in Cake Batter - Red Heart Unforgettable in Gossamer - Baby Bee Sweet Delight Prints in 324 Sprinkles - Red Heart Super Saver Metallic in Silver - Caron Simply Soft in Ocean - Red Heart Super Saver in Camouflage - Coats & Clark Red Heart maypole in 782 Country Berry

105 Worry Worms

Red Heart Super Saver Metallic in Silver - Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana - Baby Bee Sweet Delight Prints in 324 Sprinkles - Caron Simply Soft in Ocean - Red Heart Super Saver in Camouflage

105 Octopi 

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 18 (0)
Yarn Out: 35 (0)

Total: -17

The Big 21 (months)

Week 86:

  I peeked on her when I was hoping she had finally decided to nap.  She had her legs in a V position with some of her bedtime friends under the fabric of her sleep sack.  She was then moving one leg, then the other to reveal some of her stuffies and then the others.

  She has tried to play with Tank quite a few times.  She will swing around a shoelace I have for Tank to try and catch.  However, she doesn't understand that he doesn't want to play with it as she swings it around as hard as she can.  He has tried to play with her even through the danger.

Week 87:

  I love watching her look at the pictures in her various 'First 100' books when we ask her where something is.  She doesn't always know what we are talking about, but she will look them all over before taking a guess.  She's getting better at them the more we do it.

  Every time we go down the diaper isle at Safeway she likes picking out a new stuffie.  This time she tried to put the giraffe into the shopping cart so we would get it for her.  She was distracted by picking out flavored waters with Bill and I was able to put it back.  I keep meaning to make a Floppy Ferret for her to bring with her when we are shopping.  I like the idea of bringing something I made because if we lose it I can make another.  She was also very happy to carry her pack of cheese sticks.

  Before her naps she has been pointing to the bears on her Boppy.  For the big bears I made a deep roar sound, for the little ones I make a happy roar sound.  She has started copying me on it after confirming which ones make which sounds.

  She tried to walk from the table to her highchair again, but they were farther apart this time.  It didn't go the way she wanted, but luckily she didn't get hurt.

  She thinks it's funny to make sure I join everyone at bed time.  If I'm still in my computer chair she will push on my butt until I stand up, and then guide me to the stairs.

  When I went to go check on her when she was supposed to be napping I noticed she had gathered all of her bedtime friends.  She had gotten up and gathered everyone together so she could show them the big truck that was outside.  The neighbors across the way were getting a FedEx delivery.

  On the way to the cabin she decided to stay up, even though we got a late start and had multiple slow downs.  By the time we got the food put away and Tank mostly set up she was very energetic and very tired.  She was very unhappy with us after we only read one book and left her.  In the morning she managed to sleep through the guy installing the remote connection for the mini-splits.

  Before dinner on Thursday she was running up and down the ramp to the cabin.  She was also going "Wheeee" during it.  I had started doing that with her in the car going around corners and at the grocery store when we turn corners.

  The way she wants her bedtime friends to currently be is to have Bucky on the top of the walls of her crib.  At home that's fine because it's a wood top with a ledge.  At the cabin, we put her in her playard, which doesn't have a wide ledge.  Bucky tends to fall down if she is moving around too much or tries to interact with him.  She then screams like he has been hurt and wants us to put him back up.  Bill helped by laying in the room with her for a few minutes.

  While waiting for Bill to finish making dinner, Miss Spud and I walked down to the mailboxes and back.  She liked the small stream on the other side of the driveway.  She also collected a ton of sticks and a few rocks.  We had to keep stopping so she could hand me a few sticks and pick back up the ones she dropped.

Week 88:

  We went to go visit all the animals down the road from us.  There was: Gillie(youngest), Donny, and Marie (goats); Pepper and Piggy Pig (pigs); and Wilbur and Wayland (donkeys).  She had a lot of fun feeding the animals.  Donny was licking her hand to get some of them.  At one point Gillie became grumpy and was headbutting the fence, she thought it was funny until he hit it hard enough to knock her backwards.  She just needed a quick snuggle until she was back to feeding Donny.

  I have been getting a cone on top of my cup of ice cream at Smiley's.  Miss Spud and I both like it.  This last time we were there she would delicately take it from me and eat the ice cream off the cone piece before eating the cone.

  Bill asked her if she could say Mama.  She said "Mmmm" from her cow moo and "Ahh" from her sheep bleat.

  She's getting so good at saying words.  She can say Baby now along with Bubble!  She is also getting better at showing us that she understands our words.  When I ask her for a hand when we are walking, she will raise one so we can hold hands.  She can also point to her ears, head, cheek, tummy, knees, and toes.

  She was running around and I told her that she needed to put on pants to go on an adventure.  She sat down and lifted a leg for me.  I then asked what shoes she wanted to wear.  She ran over and grabbed one of my flip-flops.  She then brought it over to me and laid it down before pointing to my foot.  She also brought me the other one as well.  When I asked again she picked out her little sneakers and sat on the floor.  I asked if she could sit on the stair to put on her shoes.  She got up and went over and sat on the bottom step.

Week 89:

  We went to our craft group at the church.  It was a lot less fun this month because the preschool that uses the outside space put padlocks on all of the gates to get in to the playground area.  There was a swing by the church entrance, but that was fun for only so long.  She spent the rest of the time there playing with the toys they had and giving toys to other people for them to play with.

  She was trying to help get herself dressed for the day on Mother's Day.  She pulled a shirt out of her hamper and tried to put it on over her PJs along with a pair of pants.

  After dinner she decided to amuse herself by drooling and watching it run down her stomach.  After we all had some chocolate, she spit chocolate drool and watched that.  Bill had to clean past her belly button when we got her out.

  I was peeking in on her from time to time to see if she had fallen asleep for her nap yet.  At one point I saw her touching her fluffy puppy's nose and then her own.  At another point I saw that she was sitting there with the blanket over her head, like a ghost costume.

  She has started saying Ahh Goog.  We were trying to figure out what it was.  I thought it was All Good.  However, it's probably Oh God because Bill will say that when she's getting into everything.

  Bill went out of town again and this time Miss Spud insisted that Tank take his place as the second person to wish everyone a Goodnight.  After he came in, she held her bedtime friends out to him and made distressed sounds until I carried them over to him to sniff.  He was a good sport about it and even let me pick him up so she could pet him some before bed.

  At one point a while ago she would pretend to be asleep when I would try and get her PJs or sleep sack on.  At that point I would comment that she must already be asleep and put her outfit on her like a blanket.  At one point I started also saying Ha-shoe while she was curled up in her usual sleep position.  She thinks it's so funny that recently she's started making Ha-shoe sounds when she does it.

  I asked her if she wanted to pick her apple on Thursday morning.  She nodded, smiling, and then giggled when she found the gate to the kitchen open.  She then got distracted by the wheat puff snacks.  I got one out while she picked out her apple.

  She had fun on our walk today.  At first she was keeping an eye on Tank while I opened his Chewy box.  After that she had so much fun helping me bring the recycling to the bin at the curb.  Once a quick diaper change was done, we actually went walking around.  She's gotten so much better at staying in the sidewalk.  She pointed out the neighbor's big trucks and everyone's mailboxes.  When it was time to head back she waved to some of the neighborhood kids getting home from school.  I had to carry her in because she kept wanting to turn back when we got close to our driveway.

  She has been pushing back her nap or skipping it way to often lately.  I think she's been feeling the effects because when I was getting her ready and wind down she moved my hand so I could stroke her hair.

  We went to Kyuramen again.  This time one of the other servers gave Miss Spud a fist bump and she managed to give one back.  She was a bit unsure about it.  Later that same server brought her a Maneki Neko keychain.  She loved how the gold pot spun on its paw.

  She is having more and more fun putting on lotion.  She asks for many daps on her hands, arm, and now legs.  She's getting better at using her whole hand to rub it in instead of just her fingertips.

Week 90:

  We started her nap even later than we normally do after knitting, so dinner was even later.  When we were deciding what to have she took the tinted lip balm out of my pocket, took the cap off, and mangled it with her finger.  I offered a trade for the cap for that in exchange for a regular lip balm.  She didn't want to give up the cap, but we got it figured out.  She then proceeded to have a meltdown if we tried to take it from her.  After a few minutes she dropped it on the other side of the baby gate.  She was laying there, reaching through, like she was trying to save her best friend in a dramatic film.  Her face was covered in tears and snot.  She managed to get it back and everything was okay again.  She was also a lot happier overall after some fruit gummies.

  I went to go and get her before we went out to dinner.  She hadn't napped yet and when I went in she handed me her diaper.  I doubt checked and found her checks flapping in the breeze.  I had to change her sheets and spray her mattress a bit because of a wet spot.

  We dropped off the donations to T.A.P.S. together.  She wasn't sure what to make of the giant escalators or the glass backed elevators.  She was very quiet and held tightly to my finger.  She wasn't sure if she could trust the luggage cart.  When I was done unloading the bags I didn't see her next to me, where I had left her.  She had moved to put me between herself and the cart.

  I had to use the bathroom about halfway through her nap and she was standing up and looking at me when I came out.  I said "Shh, you're asleep" and after giving me a blank stare, she laid back down and went back to sleep.

  Most of the trip to the cabin was spent taking shoes and socks off and putting them back on.  She can sometimes put her sock back on, or her pull on shoe without a sock, but not her pull on shoe with a sock.  When we went to get out to get ice cream we couldn't find her other shoe.  After pulling her one sock and shoe off, put on her other shoes, I found it behind her head.

Week 91: First part

  When she woke up there were dogs visiting.  She tried to let Gremlin sniff her apple, but she took it as an offering.  She was having a great time chasing Caley.

  We had a pretty fun, if wet, short hike.  Miss Spud got carried some of it, but had a great time.  We all had to dry off when we got back.

Apparently I Don't Look Hungry

  I was getting dinner ready after letting Tank on my back porch when I heard some weird sounds.  When I went out to look; either the fox, Tank, or both were making unhappy sounds at each other.  It's screened in with bars, so unless there was suddenly a big rip in the doorway, there was no way for them to easily get at each other.  I got Tank inside and the fox ran off when I came out.  Tank's tail was puffed all the way out.  The foxes came back to the stairs and sniffed around, and Tank kept checking the door to the porch.

  One of the foxes came back on the porch, sniffing cautiously.  The other stayed at the bottom of the stairs.  After some more checking on both parties' parts; one fox went under the porch, the other curled up by the tree near the porch stairs, and Tank got a snack before wondering off and taking a nap.

  There was the incident with Mother's Day.  Then when my mom, Mary, and I were at a ramen place I wanted to try the Omurice.  I was going to compare how it is to the ones I get at anime conventions.  We asked about my food not long after the other food has come out.  We were told that they only have one chef working on them, which makes sense to me.  When our waitress asked about desserts we asked again about my food and she seemed shocked that I hadn't gotten it yet.  The manager came over and apologized since everyone else was done and my food was just getting out.  It ended up getting comped, which was very nice of them.  He said he was thankful that we were understanding and said most people would have really torn into him about it.  He also said he was going to talk with the kitchen staff about it.

  It was nicer than the ones at the conventions.  The egg is less cooked and cut open at the table where the ones are the conventions is drawn on by the maids.  The fried rice was of higher quality, and I got it with curry sauce.  It tasted just like Golden Curry, which is my favorite curry.  I would definitely get it from them again, even with all of the wait time I had.  The next time we go, Mary wants to try and get one of their themed private rooms.  It doesn't cost more, but it means a longer wait time when they are busy.

Yearly Yarn Tracker:

Yarn In: 18 (0)
Yarn Out: 35 (6)

Total: -17