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  • w o n d e r p a n t s !!

    Exciting News! I’m releasing my new and incredibly improved WonderShorts and WonderPants pattern tomorrow at the introductory recession-adjusted price of only $10! It’s a 17 page e-booklet people!

    It will be in my store and on Ravelry and also at the Ky Baby Knits Anniversary stocking paired with yarn. There are some coupon codes floating around. There’s one in the WonderPants pattern support forum for people who have earlier editions of the pattern ($4 off). And I’m going to do the same Social Networking Discount Experiment as I did with Perfection Pants, explained here ($2 off). Those codes will only work in my store, sorry — Ravelry doesn’t work that way yet.

    Thank you for helping me spread the word. This newly revised pattern is full of gorgeous photos and detailed diagrams, some previewed here. It explains the “magic loop” method of knitting two legs at once with one long needle. It also teaches short rows and contains instructions for accommodating hard-to-fit babies. The pattern can be worked in worsted, aran, and bulky weight yarn, and there are four sizes to fit every baby and toddler. Pockets and cuffs are explained in detail. This pattern is worked with no seaming and no grafting – entirely in the round. There is extensive explanation and also a “brief version” at the back for the expert knitters who don’t need all the hand-holding.

    Of course there is ongoing free pattern support at the wooly wonder forums — www.woolywonder.com/forums.

      Continue reading

  • Hello from partly sunny but quite warm Palm Beach FL. Free wireless internet! You get one blog entry – very short.

    I uploaded a few miscellaneous photos to my flickr page, but if you want to keep up with the moment to moment thrills, follow me on twitter. Photos include Passover, Family In General, visiting at Mindi’s house, bowling on Easter, Eli beating Grandpa at tic-tac-toe and a few shots taken by Eli at home when I let him use my camera one day. See if you can sort what is what. Twitter interactive thingy is inserted below so you can click the button to follow me. It’s a flash widget, so I don’t know how it will work on your assorted devices and feed-catchers.

    We’re enjoying some married people time while our kids enjoy their grandparents in New Jersey. Last week we celebrated Passover with the family and now we are celebrating being married for 12 years. Our anniversary was a while ago, but that is what we are celebrating.

    Today is dedicated to beach time and knitting and a fancy dinner.  I am making great progress on my February Lady Sweater now that I have come up with a chant to help me remember the lace pattern.  It helps, now I don’t have to think about what stitch comes next. The thing that was slowing me down was forgotten and misplaced yarn overs.  I tore out several inches on the trip down here – too many mistakes. Yeesh! Tomorrow Scott’s taking a fishing trip and I am going to visit some area yarn shops, I think. Anyone local to Palm Beach want to meet up?

    I’m getting emails on my phone, but I’m trying to keep my laptop off for this trip, this blog excepted. I’ll be home next week!

    xo xo

  • oh, thank goodness.

    Today, my big spring project at school was completed: The Kindergarten Passover Extravaganza. We learned as much as we could, did great crafts and had a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, and I am so glad it is over! The kiddies were adorable and it is such a pleasure to throw them a big party each year to celebrate the holiday. I didn’t manage to cover the unit on slavery vs. freedom as it pertains to Fair Trade Chocolate this year. (Get your fair trade slavery passover info here.) Oh well, that fight will have to be resumed next year!

    Meanwhile, I have been in an absolute fog the past three weeks. You may remember I started taking ye olde pill to kick the butt of those ovarian cysts? Well, guess what, those crazy ol’ hormones about sent me over the edge.  Nausea! Radical mood swings!  Exhaustion! Wheee! Thanks but no thanks, I’m flushing the rest of these babies down the toilet. (Oops, sorry shared water resources!) Ok, I’ll just leave them in the drawer, but the point is I am so done with that. And lo and behold, immediately after stopping, I am a normal human again. My ovary might explode, but at least I’m not insane.

    At school the K students sang a song about Passover: “These are the things we need at the seder table…” and it goes on to enumerate the important items, haggadah, three matzahs, seder plate, etc.  The song insists, “But the people around the table are – WHAT WE NEED THE MOST!”  Eli, Sam and I had a great conversation about this in the car. Eli actually brought it up, wondering why the song would say such a thing.  I asked him what HE thought was most important. Eli said the song was just crazy, what you really needed was the food, and you could eat it by yourself.  But Sam said, no, it’s the people that you need to make the memories and remember about how “we were slaves” and tell the important stories and be together.  And this ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, captures the Essential Sam and the Essential Eli. Well, to be fair, let’s give Eli the benefit of the doubt that he’ll mature out of this egocentric phase. It’s a developmental phase, right? He’ll want to save the world too, some day, right? Anyhow, this made me think about what great thinkers my children are and how glad I am to have them in a school where they are challenged and encouraged to ask questions and come up with their own answers.

    Sam, to me earlier this week: Mom, are we going to see our family soon?
    Me: Yes, Sam. 
    Sam: Good, because if I don’t have Grandma Linda’s chicken soup soon, I don’t think I can survive!!

    Finally, unrelated: The cover pattern on the new Vogue Knitting by Shiri Mor is gorgeous!  I think I may have to make it for summer! Right now I’m into the February Lady Sweater. That’s going to be my travel knitting. I guess I should pack soon.

    I’ll be on and off email the next two weeks! When I get back: new Wonderpants Pattern!

    A Zissen Pesach! May your matzah always be accompanied by large portions of fruit.

  • wonderpants

    I had so much fun improving my perfection pants pattern, I decided I needed to improve my wonderpants too. It was the first pants pattern I ever wrote, and it needs some re-tooling.  It is coming along beautifully.  The pattern will be re-issued and available for your knitting adventures on April 20th. The pattern will be featured at the Ky Baby Knits anniversary celebration.  Lindsay, the Ky Baby Knits mama is a WonderWAHM and a great photographer — she’s taking the photos for me and knitting the sample!

     

  • bloggy bullet points

    Yeah, I blew it completely on “blogging every day in March” – so sue me. 

    Here’s the brief news:

    1. Someone related to me is sick in the hospital with unknown ailment and fever.  In order to protect the privacy of said individual I will not add details.  Please make your refuah sheleimah/get well wishes out to “to whom it may concern.”

    2.  I submitted a pattern to a lovely knitting magazine and am eagerly awaiting their delighted acceptance.

    3.  Sam and I had/have a cold.  Now Scott and Eli have a cold.

    4.  Food tastes terrible and I’m nauseated from either a)hunger or b)new medications. 

    5.  In a panic of hungry desperation for comfort food I made two big pans of lasagna and chocolate chip cookies tonight.

    6.  Missed all my gym classes this week. 

    7.  Finished a scarfy thing from Laura Chau’s Just Enough Ruffles pattern … I think I like it.  Don’t have pics yet; will post details … whenever I get a good picture. Dumb pictures pre-blocking are on my flickr.

    8.  Reclaimed a cute green hat I knit for Sam by sewing a giant crocheted flower on it.  Mine.

    9.  Kindergartners are cute.  Even the sniffly snotty ones. Especially when they love all over you.  Even if they give you a cold. 

    10.  Colds make you really tired.  I wanted to make a George Costanza hidey-hole under my desk today and sleep.  Or maybe it’s the new meds making me tired?  Or maybe worrying about anonymous family member?  Who knows. 

    Ten’s a good number.  Carry on!

  • march madness

    Me:  Eli, why aren’t you wearing any pants?
    Sam: Because he won’t give me back my Chinese Money!
    Scott:  It’s NOT CHINESE!  It’s Japanese! 
    Eli: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

    madness 012   madness 011

    Gosh, looking at these pictures, I realize the menorah is still out on the kids’ table.  Gettin’ on Passover, guess I can put that thing away. 

    Looking for pants coupons?  Scroll down to the next entry.  No pants here. 

  • spread the word: PERFECTION PANTS PATTERN UPDATE!

     
    Sound the Alert!  Sound the Alert! 
    Coming on March 17th:
    the beautifully updated Perfection Pants pattern! 


    See a few more of the lovely photos from the pattern over here:  Perfection Pants on my Flickr!

    The new pants pattern will be available in the wooly wonder shop (http://www.woolywonder.com/store) and also in my ravelry pattern store (http://www.ravelry.com/stores/pamela-grossman—wooly-wonder).  On Tuesday!  The new pattern will be selling at the recession-adjusted price of $12.  Additionally, there are some deals

    Deal #1:  Current pattern holders will find a coupon code in the Wooly Wonder Perfection Pants Pattern Support forum to purchase the pattern at a discounted price. ($4 off) Thank you for your continued support!

    Deal #2:
      Social Networking Discount Experiment: Place the information shared in this blog post onto your blog (cut and paste the whole thing, including the picture), facebook (“share on fb”), twitter (just place a link to pamelamama’s blog entry) or other social networking location, forum, etc (be creative!) and email me a link or screen shot… (my contact-us page) I will email you a coupon code of your very own to use in my shop. (And they told two friends, and they told two friends,and so on…) ($2 off)

    The pattern won’t be available for download until Tuesday, so thank you for your patience and for helping me spread the word!  Knit your own darn perfect-fitting baby pants – now with an updated, beautified, clarified, but still chatty and loads o’fun pattern.

  • tonight’s insanity

    Since I went ahead and registered for “sculpt in four weeks” Sarah and I felt obligated to continue attending classes.  We arrived with our crabby and achy selves and were met by our adorable and welcoming yet hugely badass instructor Victoria, and our gym-addicted buddy Tanya, the big show-off. (Tanya, need a photo of you being the teacher’s pet right here.  We can get that one next week.)  Sarah and I are improving for sure, but some things are just not do-able for either of us. There might have been cries of “I need a pulley!  Someone get me a jack!” And I do believe I heard someone mutter, This teacher is surely the reincarnation of Torquemada! but that might have been my imagination. At one point Sarah was just sitting on her mat looking around, and Victoria asked if she needed more clarification about the moves and Sarah said, “No, I’ve just decided I’m going to be a fatass.” 

    We made it through the class and Sarah was starving.  “I wish I had a cheezeburger.”  So we got her a cheezeburger.

    We felt very guilty about eating extravagantly after exercises.  And also about being shlubby in the nice restaurant:
    guilty

    But not that guilty.
    she can haz cheezeburger

    On the way home, I heard Fat Bottom Girls on the radio.

  • today, my <3 belongs to Sam

    Today for Purim, Sam dressed as a tube of toothpaste. He wrapped himself in a piece of my fabric, and made the letters C R E S T on paper, colored them and cut them out. We affixed them with tape and later, staples to reinforce. On his head:  a lampshade. This was all his idea, inspired by research he did on the internet.  He was SO proud of his work – so proud that it was home-made. His class nominated him as one of the best costumes in third grade, so he went on to the all-school competition where he placed third overall.  Sam was so pleased. He is really loved at school.  And while we’re talking about Sam — today a parent came up to me and said that Sam had noticed her preschool son was very interested in some toy Sam had won at the Purim festival.  So, Sam gave it to him.  The mom couldn’t believe what a nice kid Sam is, and made a point to come and tell me.

    Hooray for Sam!   
    These pix will have to do for now:
    See him?
    theresam

    Enlarged:
    tubatoothpaste

    Crazy old Sam!

  • topsy turvy adar

    today: dark! snow and hail! thunder! lightning!

    tonight: light! blue sky!

    blah! this day was too confusing like a waking dream.

    I hope this weirdness resolves soon.