Rolled

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Suzanne

Today’s photo prompt was Rolled — a tongue | a towel | a yoga mat

Even though they are twins, and people have trouble telling them apart at times, the boys are not identical. Will can roll his tongue, but Joe cannot. I wanted Joe to stick his tongue out at his brother, but he had a better idea: he suggested that he ROLL his eyes, which was an accurate representation of his opinion of the situation…

This cracked me up, and I thought it deserved an actual blog post.

So there you go: if you forget about Joe’s mole, you can check if they can roll their tongues. Will (with the double L’s, which match the L’s in roll) can do it, Joe cannot.

One pair down, eleven to go…

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Suzanne

Considering the fact that this pair was underway before the month started, I might have a bit of trouble with this whole “12 pairs of socks in 2012″ thing. In my defense, though, these socks are not small:

Those are size 14 feet, and that little wad of yarn? That’s the 7 yards left of the 405 yard skein that I started with.

The yarn is Socks that Rock Lightweight in Schwarzwald, a sock club color from last year. The pattern is Blunnie Socks, but modified: I did these toe-up, instead of cuff-down, and I made the legs quite a bit longer than the pattern called for. Mark’s feet are long, but they are narrow, very little meat on them (or on his ankles). But his ankle depth is enough that the cuff-down sock that was narrow enough for his ankles was too tight to go over his heels. He thought I was a bit nuts in wanting to switch and go toe-up, but the proof is in the pudding: I was able to do the narrow ankle, so the socks will stay up, but I used a stretchy bindoff that fits over his heels.

That’s the only finished picture I have of them, the man put them on and won’t take them back off.

Now to decide which socks to work on next…

Month of Letters, Day 1

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Suzanne

Today is day 1 of the Month of Letters challenge. I have stacked my deck — I have a bunch of partially made fabric postcards that I worked on finishing over the weekend, I bought a few cards, and I gathered up some stationery. I have a list and I bought stamps — so I’m all set to write postcards and letters and mail something every day this month.

I have 2 postcards and some other letters going overseas, so it seemed easy and logical to start with those at the beginning of the month, seeing as how they have the farthest to go.

I’m not going to show my postcards until later, though, as I’d like them to be a little bit of a surprise for the recipients. They aren’t spectacular, but they are kind of fun, and hopefully they will bring a bit of brightness to their stacks of mail.

Has anyone else decided to try the challenge out themselves? Anyone else interested in getting a bit of mail from me this month? Post a comment or send me an e-mail! To be clear: I am not asking you to send me anything in return. I mean, it would be nice of you, but it is not “required,” just in case you are hesitating because you think I expect you to be signing up to “swap” with me.

Forget about socks

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Suzanne

Instead of a sock of the month club, I’m thinking maybe I need a baby sweater of the month club.

Autumn Leaves by Nikki Van De Car

Needs buttons, but the knitting is all done. The yarn is superwash wool, and is a really pretty handpainted red — it has some pinks and oranges in it, but it does not want to photograph well. It’s like it freaked the camera out.

That sweater is the Puerperium Cardigan. Not that you notice the sweater, due to the extreme cuteness of my newest niece. My brother, sister, and I have 9 kids between us, and I might be biased, but we wound up with an awfully good-looking crew. They are all smart and polite and talented, too.

February mail challenge

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Suzanne

Mary Robinette Kowal is an author who has created a challenge to send something in the postal mail every day in February (well, every day the post office is open, so in the US that’s a 24 day commitment…).

Month of Letters

Letters, postcards, newspaper clippings, etc…photographs, maybe!

I can see this as being a source of inspiration for taking photographs, too.

I’m challenging myself to participate — I have a ton of fabric postcards that are partially made, I could finish up some of those, plus it might be nice to send some handwritten letters to old friends, maybe even to my own children.

I was also introduced to several apps that will let you turn your photos into postcards:

http://itunes.apple….d293657764?mt=8
http://postagramapp.com/
http://www.thepostcardapp.com/

Would you like a postcard from me in February? Send me your address and I’ll add you to my list! (I have a limited number of postcards and time, so it’s first come first served…)

Does this sound like something you might challenge yourself to do in February? And you need someone to send something to? How about me!

Suzanne Earley
604 West St
Traer, IA 50675

It is trivial to find my mailing address on the web, so I don’t have any qualms about posting it here. If you want me to mail to you, though, and you don’t want to post your address, you can post a comment and I’ll reply with an e-mail, or you can e-mail me directly.