Meandering to the Point.

I bought a new fangled printer the other day.  I had a good one, but the cartridges were prohibitively expensive.  It needed 3 toner cartridges immediately but would take 6 weeks for them to come and they would cost over 200 bucks.  For not much more money, I bought something much more manageable for me, a supertank printer.  They take more cleaning and maintenance but will be much cheaper to use in the long run.  The old printer will be perfect for Keith.  He seldom prints and find inkjets dry up before he uses cartridges up.  The laser is a much better choice for him. Plus, he doesn't mind the pricier toner cartridges.

I don't print much anymore.  There is almost always an electronic device that can handle patterns charged and ready.  I did do a fair bit of printing through the house sale process and with tax time, but those are done, one forever and the other for a good long while.  The only thing I print regularly is photos of my kiddies.

I've never been much for posed portraits.  I love action shots.  They reveal so much about people.   Like Isaac's pure joy.  The shots of him are in the sprinkler, on the soccer field, climbing the tree. I hear his laugh in every one.  And Carter at the bottom of the slide.  He was going to catch mom, but ran away giggling instead.  Completely in love with that little boys laugh.  He is the little fella at the bottom with the yellow pants and up close, the look on his face, quite clearly expresses 'Seriously mom?'.  You can see his impish sweetness in his eyes in the backpack picture too.  And my Marcus, who is always running somewhere. My Marcus who was at the beach this summer and finally got over his fear of that big water.  He cried when they had to leave.  My Marcus who is so good about his glasses and his eye patch, and doesn't let those things stop him for anything and who expresses the world in one eye and then two.  I want blue glasses like he has.  And Cassie, my princess.  That picture of her sleeping on the floor?  She is wearing Spiderman gloves, because she isn't just a princess, she is a Spiderman princess. The photo of her in the blue shorts and top?  She is catching a giant bubble and the look on her face is just everything. And down to the bottom, her walking stalwartly through the new fallen snow.  She knows what she likes and she means to get it. 

It should be noted that I have stolen these from my daughter in laws feeds.  These pictures of joy and happy little and not so little people mean so much more to me than anything.

Today I am finishing up my dress project for Cassie.  I know I talked about it last week, but it took a long time to think it through.  The top was completed a few weeks ago, but it has taken me some time to get the skirt clear in my head.

Cassie asked for sleeves and when she has tried the top on, she said I did it just right.  Which gives me just a little pressure to make a skirt she really likes too.

Even after I had my sewing station cleaned and tidied and ready, I had to stop and think about it.  I read and pondered and debated over the details.  How to get the gathers to sit smoothly at the empire waistline? Do I need gathers? How long should it be?  One layer or two layers?  The fabric is quite lightweight.  Yesterday, I worked up enough gumption to start.  

And with two exceptions, it went remarkably well.  I chose to do a full circle skirt.  I could avoid gathers, at the join.  Gathers could so easily make the bottom of the knitted top look wonky and messy and fussy.  Cassie doesn't like fussy at all.  By going with the full circle skirt, my princess gets full twirl skirts she wanted and still keeps the clean lines she seems to prefer.  Twirl factor is important when you are 4 and soon to be 5.

The only thing left is to join the skirts to the top and then to hem.  The joining is a bit of a problem, and I dearly wish I had the time to get a copy of Mason Dixon's Knitting Outside the Lines.  This dress is inspired by their sweet little Jane Austen Dress .  It would be nice to read what they advised for joining before I start but my local library is very small and doesn't have any knitting books and I just don't think it is important enough to drive all the way to the city to pop in to their library for.  I checked to see if this book is available digitally, but it doesn't seem so.  I've always wanted the Mason Dixon books and while the first was done in audio format, the second is pretty much out of print.  If I want it, I am going to have to get second hand copies, it seems and that is going to take a while.  It would have been a great resource to have right about now.  Oh well.

Today I finish this project for my Spiderman princess.  It's such a delight to me that she is really looking forward to this.  The boys don't put any importance on things grandma makes, even though they do like it the scarves and mittens and socks.  This dress is awaited and that is sort of cool.

And is, I guess, the point of  this whole post.  That this whole project has been sort of cool.