The Wandtke Family

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Another Green Fairy Quilts Giveaway!

She's giving away a layer cake this time.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

No good deed.

Saturday night I took Finn to a birthday costume party for a boy at his school who is turning 5. This party was from 6:30pm - 9pm. Let me just mention again that this boy is turning FIVE. Somewhere in my marriage contract it apparently states that the horror that is children's birthday parties are my sole responsibility; my attorney must have missed this in the prenup. I have not ever nor do I think I ever will enjoy children's birthday parties. I actually feel that it is a very huge accomplishment on my part that I have shown up for all of MY children's parties for the past fifteen years. I think I should be given some sort of recognition or prize for this...

This party took place in a tiny house. There were about 15 - 20 children there all hopped up on frosting and punch. It was not wonderfully organized. There were a lot of adults there too. Some were family members to the birthday boy. None of these family members offered in any way to help the mother of the b'day boy. The mother of the b'day boy got tears in her voice and screeched, "Could somebody help me please?" after the candles were blown out. None of these family members came to her assistance in any way other than standing in her teeny tiny kitchen in the way of anyone who had any kind of business in there. (In my defense I offered to help her 3 times she should've taken me up on this)

I have a cold the kind where your eyeballs actually hurt and feel like they will burst any moment. I know exactly how I came to have this cold. Since I began living like this person http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_in_the_Plastic_Bubble it is very easy for me to trace illness' to their source with the efficiency of someone on CSI. The birthday boy in question had a hacking cough, looked more than a little fevered and was hacking all over his cake right before and after he blew out the candles. I could actually see the bronchitis coming off of him toward me. To add insult to injury there were clowns. Children do not like clowns. Clowns are scary. It doesn't matter if they can make balloon animals, they are still scary. If they try to handy out candy to you the proper procedure is to scream and run away, these are the strangers your parents told you never to take candy from! These clowns were also drinking beer from punch cups and were related to the b'day family. This actually explains a lot.

On the upside. Finn and I made new friends there. We are going to meet at the park for a playdate. I knew I wanted to be this woman's friend as soon as I noticed from across the room her ability to look absolutely astonished while rolling her eyes at the same time. It takes years of practice, hard work and talent to develop a skill like that. Most people have to start practicing in junior high or high school in order to be able to produce this expression so effortlessly.

My brave protector!

Finn is saying, "Well, I can't see it!"

This is NOT Gilbert.

I am finding reasons to love her anyway.

We left this party at eight o'clock so we could go home and have ~~terrifying~~ sweet dreams of happy clowns.

(Blogger will not let me display my pictures how I want them to be displayed. This is not my fault. I am rolling my eyes and giving up.)

Houston, we have a problem...

The purple/turquoise handspun became fingerless gloves and there are three problem with them. #1 - Different skeins knit up to different gauges, this means that the gloves are two different sizes. #2 - When washed the dye bled out like it was coming from a femeral artery. #3 - I blocked them out on the back table to dry because knitting takes weeks to dry inside my house for some reason and now one side of each glove is purple and the other side is a sort of sea green color. I believe this may be because the late afternoon sun hits this table in spite of it being covered by a ~~tarp~~ awning. This leaves me with a choice I can either take this as a design feature and act like my yarn was so self patterning it happened on it's own. Or I can leave the gloves out there for todays afternoon sun to try and sunbleach them evenly.

This hawk has been sitting on my neighbors house looking into my back yard. I have my newly washed hand knits out there drying. I think he's contemplating stealing them. I don't know what he would want with my socks... maybe he will take the gloves though and we can pretend like they never happened.

purple

not purple

badness

Friday, October 15, 2010

Could this really be worth it?

I don't think so...

One word describes this "ca-ca"! The locks don't seem very long, it chock full of VM and filth. I even went so far as to try washing some of it first thinking it would be easier. I actually wonder if perhaps this is from the under parts of the sheep as how can a sheep possibly get this nasty?


after wash

I'm not really sure if this is worth the trouble. Please advise.

The conversation I had with Finn regarding this nasty nightmare is as follows:

Finn: DID YOU KILL A DOG?

Me: No. Why?

Finn: How do you have the dog fur?

Me: It's not from a dog. It's from a sheep.

Finn: Why did you kill a sheep?

Me: I didn't kill a sheep, if I did there'd be more blood, less poo. The shepherd which is another name for sheep farmer shaved the sheep and gave me his fur which is actually called "wool".

Finn: Why did the guy shave the sheep? Now the sheep is going to die.

Me: No the shepherd shaves it when it's getting warm out so the sheep would not be hot and it grows back before it gets cold out.

Finn (with a distrustful look on his face like he thinks I'm certainly telling him a big fat lie as well as killing animals in cold blood to steel their fur): Why do you need that sheep fur for that's "yuck"? (you have no idea kid!)

Me: People spin it on their spinning wheels and make it into yarn so they can do their "needling" (Finn's word for knitting)

Finn: The sheeps gonna die.

This kid will probably never wear anything I needle for him ever again. He has a point though, the dog fur is definately yuck!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Autumn Addictions

Autumn table runner made entirely of scraps I had lying around. (That makes it free!)

Single from purple roving

I was a little leary of investing in a spinning wheel not knowing for sure if it was an interest that would pass once I "used up" my curiosity. I am thinking now it's definately a hobby (obsession) I'll enjoy for the rest of my life. I love how it keeps suprising me. I love how autumn makes you want to make things even if your particular weather doesn't feel very fall like.

Three 2-ply skeins made from the singles

Merino otherwise known as "Lassie Fur"

Hated the single it wasn't spinning up like I thought it should

Then loved the tweedy look of a 2-ply skein!

Unfelted slipper

Slippers overdyed then felted

Mine are on the right

I really didn't care for how the slippers finished up, it just wasn't the way I pictured. They were supposed to be red not rusty orange but when you're dying with Kool Aid it isn't an exact science I guess. They were knit as a gift for someone who saw my felted slippers and said they wanted a pair, but I'm thinking they're not good enough now and when I tried them on to sort of shape them after felting they were way more comfortable then the ones I made for myself. Next time I think if I over dye I will do it before the knitting.