11/26/2002

Zoe and Ella ended up sick on the morning of Zoe's big 5 party and we had to postpone until next week. How sad! Ella has croup, which was treated with a wonderdrug at Children's hospital and she hasn't barked since. Who knows what Zoe had? A fever. Kept her home on Monday (her real birthday) -- she'll have to take her cupcakes in to Kindergarten today. She took the whole thing pretty well, thankfully. So I'm in total party limbo now with sagging decorations, and a half frosted cake -- now with a couple of slices out. It looks vaguely obscene in its partial nudity, but at least I know it was tasty! Needs a little more orange-curd filling between the layers... didn't want to go overboard for fear of it being "yucky" to five year olds. Will have to rebake and reclean. Ah, well.

On a happier birthday note, my dear friend's baby arrived yesterday. Welcome Leo! He is the recipient of a little hat and booties. I never photographed them though. Perhaps he will model them for us -- he weighed in at over nine lbs, so they ought to fit soon!

Made the mistake of going by the knitting store AND the european children's clothing store on Friday. They should not be next to one another and I (a devoted tightwad and thrift-shopper 95% of the time) should be thoroughly restrained or sedated before venturing anywhere close to them. I was looking for something for Zoe, sort of -- I had only been semi-successful in my mall adventure for gifts (silly me for thinking it would be easy!) Ended up buying a coat that was marked down more than 75% and will be worn by both girls over the next, say, 6 years. So really, a bargain.

Yarn store, less of a bargain. Bought some sort of celery colored Fizz and Aura which I made into a scarf using a bias technique the yarn lady had models of (and a flyer for). The flyer came from EFFECTIVENESS by design. Essentially, after you cast on, you increase on one side and decrease on the other, so the scarf is knit a bit diagonally. Adds a bit of interest to a plain garter scarf. Plus, it encourages one to put a tassel and bead on each end. This is pretty glam. Aside from the aesthetics, I think the bias helps the scarf remain shapely.

Susan, the yarn lady, is totally knowledgable and helpful, so what happened was a fluke: She suggested that I'd need two Fizz per Aura. This was not true. The Aura was actually slightly shorter than one Fizz. The scarf was plenty long at 20 stitches x 1 skein, so I am hoping to return my un-used Fizz. Or trade it in for some of the rainbow sherbet colored one. My plan for that would be to make a sweater with some tutti-frutti ribbon yarn that I scavenged from the clearance rack at Ross once and use the fruity Fizz for cuffs and hem. Perhaps also a small removable neck/scarf/tube thing. This would be for Ms. Pink and Sparkly Five. No suprise there.

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