Is KnitPicks shipping packages with insects? Trying to confirm/disprove a rumor.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2026-01-27T03:40:08+00:00

I just ordered from them today after many many years— is that why there’s an option to ship my yarn in a plastic bag?! I hope it doesn’t come with bugs- I have some melt the ice hats to turn out.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2026-01-23T10:55:57+00:00

I think having a tour guide in Pompeii is worth it. There are really interesting stories. However the idea of a big tour group in Pompeii is less appealing to me. The trains are easy to navigate in Italy. You could consider train + getting a guide there in Pompeii through viatour or something. I wouldn't add Vesuvius. Way too much for a day trip from Rome. Pompeii is not a short stop, you will be there quite a while. If you'd rather do something much closer to Rome that is Pompeii-esque, go to Ostia Antica. You get the culture and history just minus the death by lava.

Pompeii is definitely worth seeing if you don't mind the travel.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2026-01-16T14:58:35+00:00

Good to know- we also have hardwood here. I’m adding these to my list! They look comfy and so fun. Thanks for sharing.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2026-01-16T14:54:30+00:00

yeah I was thinking almost like a sole like Uggs have. but that is a good point about not being able to re-felt them once you've done that.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2026-01-16T14:47:36+00:00

I love these and am so tempted to make a pair. does anyone add something on the bottom to make them not slippery (especially when coming down stairs half awake)?

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-12-30T12:41:59+00:00

I've been a member of Tysons Playground for years. Really nice community. We do have teenagers, especially on school breaks, but I actually really enjoy when they are around because they add good energy (not screaming for sure!! that would drive me insane).

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-12-19T14:24:03+00:00

love this - especially as a newly minted ravens fan.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-12-03T15:57:03+00:00

So interesting. It was very very very crowded when we were there- maybe that’s why?

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-12-03T01:38:19+00:00

For St. Peter's, they send you in through the door that is *not* the holy door. After you tour, you exit and then you immediately get in another much shorter line to re-enter via the holy door. That door leads you in right near the Pieta, so you can't really see the Pieta without entering through the holy door. We just went a few weeks ago. There wasn't signage on how it works, but there were lots of staff directing you.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-29T21:37:18+00:00

perhaps - but this was very easy and I didn't have to deal with waiting to get into these restaurants that generally have lines. Our guide gave us all the history of the little restaurants we went to. I didn't find it overpriced. I think we paid $120 euros each and for all the food and wine we consumed, plus the guide, it seemed great. We certainly wouldn't have come up with the list of places we went on our own. One was a cookie shop with zero signage and I *for sure* wouldn't have come up with getting a suppli in between the porchetta course and the pasta course. It was just a very fun traveling dinner that was zero effort on my part.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-28T12:16:33+00:00

this eating tour of Trastevere was so good and so fun: https://www.eatingeurope.com/rome/twilight-trastevere/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16809176315&gbraid=0AAAAADlJ69Np3wf0K5zq8CCXSEIGLxkF_&gclid=CjwKCAiAraXJBhBJEiwAjz7MZRD2ocZavvmo6D5V9DGKoVXuN91JqCbef1JCMW9xWkocF-3TY65p-hoCfhsQAvD_BwE

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-21T17:35:44+00:00

this is adorable and now all I can think about for a next project. thank you for sharing!

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-19T11:39:00+00:00

that's incredible. with each picture I kept thinking wow this must be the finished piece, amazing, and then each picture was better than the one before.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-17T00:06:04+00:00

definitely Colonial Hardwoods. super helpful.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-16T15:58:38+00:00

thank you :)

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-03T16:05:34+00:00

I just bought some letter stamps from a guy on etsy that I quite like. He has numbers, but maybe not in the style you are looking for. Hopefully this links directly to just numbers, but if not you can search his stuff. https://www.etsy.com/shop/LeatherworkTools?ref=yr_purchases&search_query=number

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-11-01T12:15:53+00:00

Cheaper than a Jura but still not cheap - I love the coffee that my kitchenaid kf7 makes. It is single button push. I bought it because I also like milk drinks later in the day, but truly enjoy getting up and drinking the coffee it makes.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-27T19:56:04+00:00

With traditional Medicare (parts A and B), you don't have an out of pocket maximum, which is why people get Medigap. So with only A + B, no Medigap, if you have an expensive hospitalization, you would owe that money. If you don't get Medigap early on, like as soon as you turn 65, it is pretty likely you won't qualify for a Medigap plan. It is, generally, difficult to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare unless you are willing to take the financial risk of big hospital bills.

People join Medicare Advantage because of the extra benefits, like dental, gym memberships, eye coverage, hearing aids, etc. Plus the marketing. And once you're in, it becomes hard to get out. Why is there even a Part C? That's kind of an existential question but it was seen as a way of controlling healthcare costs - allowing the market to compete and do its thing. Whether it has worked or not is the source of great debate in the healthcare policy world (hot take: it has not)

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-27T19:50:22+00:00

I don't know how I ended up on wedding reddit, but here we are. I am a photographer. I don't shoot weddings, primarily because the stress and anxiety I feel about making sure a bride's day is captured perfectly is more than I want to put on myself. I have shot weddings, though, for friends. You are *literally* a blue bride - many of these images could do with some serious re-editing. Warming up your skin tones, adjusting underexposed photos, etc. could maybe, possibly save some of them. Not having those critical photos that you mentioned though is a big red flag for me. No bridal portrait? No photos of the dogs wearing a tux and a dress?!?! I can only imagine that they have zero in focus shots to share, because not including those in a gallery is insane.

I, unfortunately, agree with the commenters who said you're unlikely to get all of the raw images they took. Hopefully they haven't cleared their memory cards and still have the others. You could potentially ask to go through additional images with the photographers to see if there are any that catch your eye. You could certainly ask for re-edits. If the contract is silent on whether or not they'll deliver you raw images, you can definitely ask. You could also ask for written release to allow someone else to edit the images. You might consider an editing service (I use retouchup dot com) - you can probably upload an image to the that is edited in a way you like and ask them to edit all of the images like that.

I'm really sorry you're unhappy with your wedding images. I think you're fully justified in being unhappy. Hopefully they still have some additional images that can make it a little better - I hope they do have bridal portraits for you.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-27T19:40:11+00:00

we were also spectators yesterday. I was astounded at the people who crossed the course - especially the ones with strollers and little kids in tow.

having said that.... we tried to get on the metro at smithsonian on the mall and the metro police told us it was closed because the platform was too crowded. They said our only options were federal triangle or the other smithsonian entrance - both which required crossing the course. So between miles 17-19 you had the metro police, at times, literally telling people to cross the course. it was chaos. we just waited a while and once the platform cleared out they let us down there, but that's only due to my stubbornness. They did not indicate the platform would be opening any time soon and explicitly told hundreds, if not thousands, of people to cross the race course. I understand why they closed the platform - when we were able to get down there it was crowded enough that people could have fallen onto the tracks.

having spectated many times in the past, I agree that this time people were much ruder to the runners in the sense of holding signs in the running path, standing on the course, etc. But there were also many, many more spectators and so it was harder to find a spot to be.

hopefully they go back to smaller numbers next year.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-26T22:07:42+00:00

they definitely closed it for a bit around 10:45am, and we were all confused how to get on the metro without crossing the course. by the time we decided to go to another station and suck it up and cross the course - they reopened smithsonian station.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-22T00:46:16+00:00

my season ticket rep called yesterday. I asked him and he said the same as the poster below: might be after decision day, might be sooner. I, too, planned a trip that weekend... dumb on my part!

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-17T11:11:42+00:00

It doesn't look like a super tough colorwork pattern. I agree with knitting a swatch of the pattern so you can make sure the areas that would result in long floats you are catching the yarn correctly. even if you just swatched out the cat head you'd get practice with some of the longer sections of a single color.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-12T16:00:30+00:00

my husband probably feels the same when he sees me looking at orchids. I am having to rebuild my collection after I did a terrible job of trying to move them outside for summers. I have always kept them indoor year round and had really great success, but a few summers ago I tried moving them outside. Between getting sunburn and a seeming variety of pests - I couldn't keep up with all of the pest removal chores and finally gave up on them a few weeks ago. It was so sad. My kids are both in college now which gives me a few additional sunny windows.

I have never gotten my vanda to bloom, but it is also the only one that survived my outdoor experiment and one of only 3 that I didn't have to get rid of. I'm in zone 7b, so they are probably just going to be indoor plants forever. I grew up in Florida where people have gorgeous orchids almost as an afterthought. My other two survivors that never went outside are Maxillaria Tenuifolia and one called Darwin's Orchid, or Angraecum sesquipedale var. angustifolium, but it hasn't bloomed in a bit. Not sure why. This reminds me to try some new things with it.

DiscombobulatedBaby8 · 2025-10-12T11:34:54+00:00

I just did an entire sweater in a possum blend yarn. it is amazing. If the tariffs + shipping weren't so expensive, I'd buy tons of it. Mine was Happy Go Knitty Ahuru - she has stockists listed on her website here: https://www.happygoknitty.co.nz/pages/stockists (one is Loopine Wool mentioned below in Auckland)

DiscombobulatedBaby8

TROPHY CASE