What, you're still coming here?

I've moved!!! Change your links! My new address is: http://somecallthemsticks.typepad.com We'll see you there!

Happy Blogiversary!!!

I can't believe I"ve been blogging for two years now. I've really enjoyed my stay in Blogland. I've got such great neighbors! (grin) As a gift to myself, I got myself a typepad account. I can't believe I put it off this long! It is such a great tool! So, for now I'll be working on transferring this site to that one. Make sure to change your bookmark or feed. My new address is: somecallthemsticks.typepad.com I hope to see you there! hah! Goes to show how much I know.... I just went back in my archives to double check my blogiversary date, and guess what? I was wrong! At least I'm 10 days early instead of 10 days late! We'll just extend the celebration till then. Maybe I'll make it my goal to have everything transferred to the new site by my official blogiversary....

I'm Baaaa-aaaack!

Whew! So I guess this has been the greatest annoyance test of our blog-relationship yet. But I'm back now. Okay? And I promise to never leave like that again. Really. Unless it is against my will, like this last time.... So I guess I can't really promise anything. Oh well.... Did you miss me? I've certainly missed Blogland. I hate to pop in and out, after it's been so long and all, but I have some motherly duties to attend to. Snack, Diaper, Laundry, etc. etc. Tonight is Downtown Night in Elkhart Lake, and we go every year. We can't wait until 5 o'clock, when all the festivities begin. I'm heading over to Nordic Accents in the middle of it all to pillage her collection of knit books and magazines. There's a rumor that she has one copy left of A Season's Tale by Kim Hargraeves (out of print), and it's MINE-ALL MINE! mwahahahaha! Please leave a comment, because I read all of your blogs, but my links went to the grave with my last hard drive. So I need to re-build my links. I'll farm through the more recent posts, but if you haven't commented in a while just leave one today. Thanks!!!!

We are experiencing technical difficulties

Like my hard-drive died. May it rest in peace. I hope to be back up, at the latest, by the end of the next week. In the mean time I'm blogging from my parents' house. I must not covet, I must not covet, I must not covet.... My dad has a really nice computer. Really nice. Now I'm off to cuddle my new niece, the latest and greatest part of my day.

It's Wednesday!

All Day! Let's see, where do I start.... How about with the best? I stumbled across a knit ring called teje-teje. My favorite ones are Buenas Puntadas, Cafe con Leche, Mi vida con Malgam, Viento del Este, Manos que Tejen, and Los Suenos. But there are many many more, and I have bookmarked them all! Tim and I have been discussing my returning to school to finish my degree (a BA with a major in Spanish and a minor in ?). I planned on starting to fill out the necessary paperwork this week I asked him to seriously look into transferring to an office in a Spanish speaking country, but you all know it's been impossible for us to move even an hour south of here, let alone leave the country. Oh well, it's a nice thing to daydream about.... Last night Tim picked up our box from the garden. So I took a few shots, nothing like Cara, I've got to learn more about my camera. We have onions, scallions, lettuce, sweet peas, zucchini, snow peas, garlic scapes, summer squash, and strawberries. All organic, all local, all delicious. I forgot to post last Saturday, but here is my photo for that day: Have you ever seen such a bright rainbow? It was so beautiful, and it seemed to be a triple rainbow. I can see two on the photo, but in real life there was a very faint one (maybe a reflection) between them. What luck to have a rainbow my first "Saturday" participating! (I really did take it last Saturday.) This afternoon we're off to see Mr Tom Pease, my daughter's new hero. He's giving 3 concerts today at Mead Public Library at 9:30, 11, and 2. We love his music, they are the only CDs Tim and I don't get sick of listening to in the car. He's hilarious. Iris's fav is the Belly-button song, she sings it non-stop. Last, but not least, I started the chevron linen hand towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting. No photos, because that would make sense, being a knitting blog and all. Tomorrow, when I have more progress to show. I absolutely LOVE this book! Not only are there great projects, it's a great read. It's the first time in a long time I sat down to read a knitting book. It may even force me to buy something at W*l-M*rt, my knitting group has threatened to follow me and post pics on the net. We'll see....

I guess I'm pretty happy anyway.

You Are 92% Happy

It's unlikely that you know anyone happier than you. You know how to be happy, no matter what life throws at you.

How Happy Are You?

No se....

Estoy tan animada, porque encontre un ring de blogs de tejendo en Espanol. Es comico, porques estoy hablando cada dia de completando mi titulo de Espanol. Estudiaba Espanol por 7 anos, pero cuando nos casemos y nos mudemos aqui, no conoci ningunos hispanohablantes. Ahora tengo mi amiga Maria, y hablamos cada dia, pero 13 anos han pasado y mi Espanol es horrible! (como no puedes saber esto, leyendo mis errores....) Necesito regresar a la universidad, necesito completar mi titulo, y quiero mudarnos a Espana, o Costa Rica, o Ecuador, o algun lugar donde tienen una oficina de Compuware donde mi marido esta trabajando. Pero si nos conoces, sabes que tenemos problemas mudandonos una hora al sud de aqui, menos saliendo el pais.

Busy Busy Weekend! (last weekend)

I suppose, it must have been busy if I blog about it 4 days later! Tim took Friday off and we headed "up north" to the Green Bay Railroad Museum to see Thomas! It was the epoch of Harrison's 3 years on this earth, he was on cloud 9 the whole day! There were a ton of activities to keep the kids busy, and everything was reasonably priced. I highly recommend it! Unfortunately, while we were riding on the vintage 1917 passenger coach, which was full of spiders, I think Harry got bit. By the time we got home, the bite had started to swell and was the size of a silver dollar, with a purplish center. By the next morning, half of his shin was swollen, and the center was a yellowish color. I took him in to see his doctor, who just said it was just a nasty bite. I guess she has seen a lot of them this year. He was already on Clariten (antihistimine) and Augmenten (antibiotic) for a sinus thing he developed earlier in the week, so we were fine. Oh, and she mentioned it would get worse before it got better. Which it did. Fortunately for him, by Monday it was pretty much gone. Whew! Then my dad went into the Hospital Friday night. He has Cellulitis in his leg (he had a few moles removed earlier in the week.) They wanted to keep him, but he hates hospitals. So he went home... and was back Saturday night. They let him go home Tuesday. Cellulitis can be life threatening, so we were worried, to say the least. While I was visiting my dad Sunday morning, our Ford Escort (affectionately called "the Beast") decided to give up the ghost in the hospital's parking lot. So we are back down to one car. That's okay with me, it's summer, we can get around. The Beast was a tremendous blessing while it was with us, but won't be too sorely missed. That evening we had a Tornado Warning. "Cleaning the Basement" has moved higher on our to-do list after spending half an hour in the closet under the basement stairs. Yuck! We went up on our 2nd story porch afterwards, to look at the sky (like any intelligent adults would do) and I was "fortunate" enough to get a photo of a funnel cloud! It was definitely moving in a spiral motion, but slowly. Within 2 minutes it slowed to a stop and turned into wisps of clouds. I know I heard there is some connection between changes in barometric pressure and women going into labor, and now we have proof! My sister went into labor about half an hour before the funnel-cloud producing storm went through! Alicia Ellen was born early Monday morning!!!! Isn't she beautiful?? She is such a little peanut! Well, not so little-she was 8 lbs 8 oz, and 22 inches long! (My sister is 6 ft tall, and I think her hubby is 6'5"). About an hour or two after birth they discover Alicia has a Cleft Palate. Pretty much all of her soft palate and most of her hard palate are missing (basically the entire roof of her mouth). So we've spent the last 3 days learning everything we can about that. She will be just fine. And they will fix everything with one or more surgeries after she is a year old. Before she even realizes she's a human being, it will all be fixed. My sister is amazing, as well as her hubby, and they are doing a spectacular job. Alicia is healthy, and the "only" thing really affected for now is her eating. She is a little barracuda though, and seems to have adapted marvelously to the special bottles they will be using. My sis is a real trooper, and true to our heritage, producing more milk than a Holstein Cow. Which is perfectly perfect for little Al! The only knitting I've done in the past few days is this. For Alicia of course! I'm going to write up a pattern, because it turned out too darn cute! (I've got to learn how to adjust the flash on our camera!) I used Manos Cotton Stria, and size 5 needles. (Hah! I bet you thought there'd be no knitting content!) So now I'm enjoying a boring week of nothing but cleaning, cooking, and my favorite form of therapy, KNITTING!

My Little Shawl Addiction

This is the latest in my little shawl addiction. Another Flower Basket from Evelyn Clark. This one is out of Misti Alpaca in Moss Green. I got the yarn from a Secret Pal. I can't remember if it was SP 3, 4, or 5, but I do remember who gifted this wonderfully soft laceweight! I'd like to make this one a few repeats larger than my last Flower Basket, but I am unsure how much more yarn that will consume. I only have these two balls. Right now I'm on repeat 7. Actually, I'm not sure how many repeats I'm even supposed to do. I know it's 6 or 7, I'll have to dig around for the real pattern. I copied it into my graph notebook, it's a little bigger that way and easier to see. (I'm getting old, or blind, or both!) But now I have to find the original. I seem to have enough yarn left for another couple repeats. I think. It's deceiving, because each row takes more yarn than the last. The pattern says if you want to make it bigger, just do 2-3 more repeats of the lower basket pattern, but it doesn't say "but then you'd better buy more yarn!" Is that assumed, or will I have enough??? I don't want to repeat the Birch mistake. Oh well, if this is my biggest problem today, I'll be fine. I'm still working on this other project, and then the next shawl in line is this. I think I might even know what the shawl/scarf after that will be. I stumbled upon Trinket yesterday. I can tell it wants to come live with me. Isn't Cracksilk Kidsilk Haze addictive wonderful?

TNNA

Shhhhhhhh, I have a headache, from a "yarnover". (not in the technical sense of the word, I mean something similar to a hangover, except it comes from binge-ing on yarn....) (and I think TNNA would qualify as a "3 day binge.) For those of you that have never attended a TNNA trade show I'll try to explain it. Basically anyone that sells anything to do with yarn goes and sets up a booth there. Now, you'll know from other markets, like Stitches, that a conventional booth space is 10 x 10 feet. TNNA had booths numbered starting at 100 and went up to 11,000! Most companies use 2 spaces, but some used more. For example, Rowan/Jaeger/Nashua used 17 spaces. This is a wholesale event attended by 1) Companies selling things (like Rowan, Dale, Unicorn book distributors), 2) Buyers buying things (like retailers, your local yarn shop), 3) Designers (promoting, and looking for the latest yarns for their new books, patterns, etc.), and 4) Teachers (like me!) The Yarn companies had their wares displayed creatively (my favorites were: Alchemy, Rowan, and Dale of Norway, Mountain Colors, oh ok, all of them were my favorite!) And you really had to be careful not to make eye contact lest you be drawn in and subjected to the seller's whole 'shpeal. It was HUGE! My feet started hurting by the second row, and it really took an entire 3 days to walk thru it all. And yes, by the end of it, I know it's hard to believe... I was sick of looking at yarn! (gasp!) I know, unbelievable, but it's true. The first day, you want to just want to throw it all on the floor and wallow in it, the second day you re-visit your favorites, and the third day you go back to the second half see whatever you've missed. Photos are not allowed. Otherwise I'd have taken thousands. I only have two to even prove I was in Indianapolis this past weekend: I could have been blogger-paparazzi and taken photos of Melissa Leapman, Vickie Howell, Anne Modesitt, Amy Singer, Lucy Neatby, Cat Bordhi, Kay and Ann, and more (everybody was there).... but I thought that would be in bad taste. So, you get pics of the Fountain and the RCA dome. Sorry. I even had intentions of a sock-mascot for the trip. Unfortunately, the poor sock was shoved in my purse when we arrived, and didn't resurface again until we got home. Poor sock. I got to spend a little time with Lorna, who will from now on be referred to as "My Angel of Clarity." It was a great weekend. I really feel focused on what I want to do with my whole "knitting career" (stop laughing, I can dream, can't I?). I feel as if a millstone has been lifted from my neck, and the pressure I place on myself is gone. Life Lessons Learned. As far as my opinion of the future of knitting, based on this show, I can offer the following: Novelty yarns are no longer center stage. They are taking their proper place (IMHO) as fringe and embellishments. And may I say, gorgeously used this way. There is even a trend it seems to use more and more natural fiber in the novelty yarns. Silk, and other luxury fibers, are center stage. As hand-crafters we are finally deciding that Knitting is what we love, it's our hobby and we're proud of it! We're learning how to not be afraid to spend a little money (for goodness sakes, look at what a golfer spends!). Look for things like Buffalo, Bactrian Camel, and others to become more mainstream. Ribbon. Ribbon is big. Hand-Dyed Silk ribbon, Merino Ribbon, ribbon, ribbon, ribbon. Beautiful Ribbon. All found at Your Local Yarn Shop in the next month or so. Excuse me, but I think I need to go lie down in a dark room for a bit.

Do you know what today is???

Well, besides being the day before I leave for TNNA. Remember this day? Well, today was the last day of school. I put her in the same outfit as the first day of school. (It's her favorite dress.) She does have a different back-pack though. And the shoes are considerably grubbier (if that's even a word.) They had a bridge-crossing ceremony, a mini-graduation. I didn't even cry. I was too busy snappin' photos like I was a member of the paparazzi. Here she is, walking out the door. Next year she'll be in Kindergarten, at the Elementary School with all of the Big Kids. Afterwards, we went out for a special lunch, Iris' choice of restaurant. Can you guess where we ended up? Why, Il Ritrovo of course! Iris loves the Fonduta al Forno. It's basically a crock of gooey melted mozza with herby and saucy goodness, draped with prosciutto sliced so thin it's transparent. All of this is nestled in a bed of baby greens tossed with cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella balls, and a vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar that has been aged 25-35 years. It's eaten with toasted, homemade Italian bread. The girl has good taste! I'm bursting with pride! Now pray that I'll survive the summer!

Hello!!!

Hello!!! Hello!!! Hello!!!! Hello!!! Wow, quite an echo over here, huh? I'm still alive, although from all internet activity one would think I fell of the face of the earth.... Honestly, the first 2/3 of last month, I was being internet-lazy and home-diligent. I decided, after annual birthday reflection, to become a disciplined person. I implemented a cleaning schedule and new budget. I was gaining ground on laundry, I was making a weekly menu. I made it to the YMCA more often than in the previous 3 months. Plus I did some spring-cleaning things like shampooed my living room carpet, washed a few walls. I redecorated the bathroom. My schedule was kept lean, and my focus was my family. It all went to pot last week during Dear Hubby's week of vacation. For some reason, we are useless together when it comes to disciplined living. My house is messy, the dishes are dirty, I'm canceling the Y-membership, budget? ( or more like what budget?), and now I'm back to blogging. There you go. As far as knitting, it's been blah lately. Putzing here, putzing there. Nothing major or serious. I'm hoping to reverse that by starting a Little White Lies design sweater this week. It looks like it will be the perfect jolt. Nice gauge, a little lace to keep things interesting, and a crochet edging to really livin' it up in the home stretch. I might be over optimistic, but I think it will go quickly. I'll have a lot of time to work on it this weekend at the TNNA trade show in Indianapolis. I'll be there Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Lorna and I are planning on bumping into one another at some point during the weekend, but other than that, my weekend is open and free. If you're going too, it'll be easy to find me, I'll be the one pushing my bottom jaw around in a wheel barrow. From what I hear, this trade show is kinda a big thing. I'll give a full report on Monday. So, for better or worse, I'm back.

Happy Birthday to Me!

That's right, today's my birthday. 31 years old. Tim and Iris brought these home for me last night. I also got a balloon, card, and some jewelry! Have you ever seen this before? I'll bet most of you can guess what it is!A needle gauge! I He found it at The Sow's Ear in Verona. I love it! It looks like an abstract artsy pendant, almost tribal. Actually, it is kinda tribal, isn't it? The tribe of the Knitters. And now for Midwest Masters! What a great time! Uni and I started out late on Saturday morning. An hour and a half late. My first class was a Color Theory class with Ruth Lantz. It was really great. It was like sitting around the kitchen table with a bunch of girl-friends. Ruth has such a relaxed, yet structured teaching style. Her handouts are excellent! And the class was so much fun! 6 hours (well, 4.5 hours for me) of playing with color, markers, scissors, magazines, and all. I learned a ton about color. I made an announcement in class that I would be going to Zuppa's for lunch, and asked if anyone would want to go with. A group of six decided to go, including the teacher. That's when I remembered that I had Tim's car, and it hadn't been cleaned in a while, in fact it was kind of gross. Well, Ruth and Sharon rode with me, and they were both very gracious. I spread Tim's coat over something I assume was spilled ice cream, and she rode to Zuppa's and back that way. She was very gracious! Isn't her jacket amazing! It is crocheted out of some silk merino from La Lana in Taos. That night was the fashion dinner. Amy Detjen emceed. I sat with Chris from Stumbling over Chaos, and two very famous non-blogging blog readers, Carla and Jodee. We all went back to my room to knit a while after the dinner. Unfortunately our knitting time was interrupted after an untimely incident (my underwire broke! I must have been knitting too fast!) So I had to cut it short while I went to Kohl's for a replacement. That night I got to sleep in a very lovely hotel room, ALONE! Uni even had her own bed. It was glorious! And after a good nights sleep, I started out with Meg Swanson and Amy Detjen in E.P.S. updated. I highly recommend it! They are just a wealth of knowledge, and you always walk away knowing so much more than just the assigned topic. They really make you feel like you can do anything. Meg looked at my Olympic sweater and said I did a really good job. I needed a photo to preserve the moment for all posterity. Uni loved the treats we got in class. My afternoon class was with Ruth again. We discussed using cables and lace together. Again, great class. She is just a born teacher, and she is so talented. Everything she designs is so current, yet absolutely classic. It was great to hear her explain things. We had beginners and people that had been knitting 50 years in that class, and we all walked away empowered, not overwhelmed, and everyone learned something new. Kay was in the class with me. I adore Kay, she works at Yarns by Design. I always look forward to seeing her! I left right after my last class. I was mentally and physically exhausted. As I was leaving the city, I saw something laying in the road. It was a wet, white lump. (It had been raining all weekend) Not 50 feet away was another. This one was green. I gasped, they must be someone's beautiful sweaters from this weekend! I was so moved, I pulled my car over on the side of the road and put on my hazards. Cars were whizzing by at 60 mph. I waited until it was safe and ran to the middle of the highway to rescue the first sweater. When I reached it, I realized it wasn't a sweater. It was a hand crocheted afghan. I rescued the other lump, another afghan. They were beautifully done. I folded them neatly and laid them on the side of the road. I could only hope whoever lost them would return for them. I felt terrible leaving them, but I consoled myself with the thought that they meant a lot to whoever lost them, and this way they might back-track and find them. If I took them home, they'd never be reunited. If anyone you know lost two beautiful afghans, you'll find them at the intersection of 114 east and hwy N just out of Neenah. (There were a pair of wet and soggy pink undies on the ground in the parking lot where I went to turn around, but I left those there. They weren't hand-knit.)

and the Winner is.....

None other than... Christine at Shteeni's Knits! I guess I was a little over-dramatic, I don't know how, but there were only 199 pins in that thing. I guess when you are searching your house high and low for sharps, pinning and measuring and pinning for almost 2 hours, it seems like more. As for Midwest Masters, it was a lot of fun! Yarns by Design always puts together such great weekends! I have a lot of pics, and tons to share, but right now I have to feed my children lunch. I'll post more later. Other excitement this weekend, Iris' guppies had babies Friday evening. We started with 8 (I'm guess there were even more before we noticed) and we are now down to 5. They got moved to their own tiny 1 gallon tank. I had to put a piece of paper toweling behind them so you could even see them. I took the picture with my new camera, I'm lovin' it! Like I said, more later....

Whew! (sigh) Birch is done!

Here she is, all pinned out! It's huge! In the pic, from the bottom corner of the shawl up to the upper right corner of the pic is the diagonal corners of my king size bed. It took a trillion pins, seriously. I used all of my pins, and then I dug out the pins I have from my grandmother. Then when those were gone, I use all the sewing needles I could find (about four packs.) When those were gone, I found some hat pins, used those. Then I found a tomato, with more pins. I used up those too, even the ones holding the felt leaves on. I used Every. Single. One. I wonder if my grandmother every thought her granddaughter would be thanking her for saving every single pin/needle/skinny-sharp-object she every came across in her entire 85 years (even the crooked ones), a year and a half after she was gone. A legacy of pins. I soaked her for 20 minutes with some Eucalan in luke warm water. Then I rolled her up in some towels and danced on her (that felt good.) And by the time I finished blocking her out (2 hours later) she felt dry, so I spritzed her with a little more water, opened the bedroom windows and shut the door. So how many pins do you think are in this thing? I know, let's have a contest! Leave your guess in the comments. You'll have through the weekend, I'll see who's closest on Sunday night when I get back from my weekend of Yarn Fun. The winner will get a skein of Knitpicks Dye-Your-Own fingerling/sock yarn and some packets of Kool-Aid dye. Tomorrow I will be getting up at 5:30 so I can leave by 6:30 so I can be in time for my class at 8. That's right! Midwest Masters is here!!! I'm starting off with Tricks to working and designing with Color with Ruth Lantz. Then Sunday I'll take E.P.S. updated with Meg Swanson and Amy Detjen, and in the afternoon I'm signed up for Xs and Os, with Ruth Lantz again. Will anyone else from blogland be there?

ACK!!!!!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!! I have only 3 repeats left to go on Birch, and I RAN OUT OF YARN!!!! Seriously! I mean, seriously!!! I could just spit nails. Update: I just called Bahr Creek, and they have 2 more balls left in this color. Thank goodness it's Thursday (knitting night tonight) I'll be able to finish it tonight and block it tomorrow. I want to be able to wear it to Midwest Masters this weekend!

Knitting and knitting and knitting...

The first and last 6 inches are always the worst! I have 129 sts still on the needle. According to the pattern, I will be decreasing 10 sts every 8 rows. If my calculations are correct, that means I still have roughly 96 rows to go. (129-the last three sts of the last repeat=126, oh heck, round that to 120. 120/10 sts dec. every repeat=12. 12 x 8 rows per repeat= 96. For those of you who wonder how I got that number....) I know that the last few rows will have less than 10 sts, and the rows are becoming shorter every other row, but still!!! My devotion to this project is waning. The repitition is rubbing my patience raw. I still love it, and I'm still plugging away at it. Other interesting facts for this project are: I'm on my third ball of Kidsilk Haze in Jelly (and I highly doubt I'll finish it). For needles I'm using US sz 8 Crystal Palace Bamboos. My addis were too slick. My LYS is waiting for their shipment of Lantern Moon circs! I can't wait to try them. The next shawl I have in mind is another Flower Basket out of Silke Tweed. This little skein has been teasing me for days now. I had my sock class on Saturday. Never mind that I already have a few "in process" sock for demos, no, that wasn't good enough. I was itching to cast on just one more.... Isn't it pretty? I think I'll dub it my "Orange Dreamsicle" sock. (Ignore the little bit of green in it, it's not "Moldy Dreamsicle", it's "Lime and Dreamsicle" or something like that.) Do you think it would be too weird if I took it to the YMCA with me this morning and knit on it while I'm on the treadmill? I have such a hard time walking slow enough to keep my heartbeat low enough to be in the "fat burning" zone. Maybe if I'm paying attention to my knitting, it'll help. As long as I don't trip and go flying off the thing....

Tax Return = Stash Enhancement

Two skeins of Trekking XXL, colors 136 and 131, Recycled Banana Fiber Yarn (silk made from bananas?) and two skeins of laceweight Soy Silk by Pastimes. The purpose of the sock yarn is obvious, and the banana sock will become crocheted sandals. But I don't know what to do with the Soy Silk. There were only two skeins of each colorway, and each skein is only 530 yards. It is super thin. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't think I'll be able to make a shawl from it, maybe a stole or scarf? And here is the progress on Birch. I'm down to about 200 sts per row. I think that means I'm a third way done in length, but probably more than half done in the number of sts left to knit. Hooray! I love it, love it, love it! So far, potty training has been a challenge. The first two days were great, the last two were terrible. We're going to hang in there for now. I think I'll give it a few weeks. I hope he catches on soon.... Check out my Knit Group's blog, I actually updated it!

One little meme.....

I have time for one little meme.... Name five places, other than your house or a knitting store, where you have knit: (honestly, it would be harder to think of 5 places I haven't knit!) 1) In the dentist's chair 2) McDonald's playland 3) The Movie Theater (I don't remember which movie, but I do remember the project!) 4) At a rock concert 5) At a red light (on several different occasions) Thanks Vicki, and Kat!

Get on Board the Potty Train!

We have jumped aboard the Potty train, and I don't anticipate being back to blog before Saturday. I'll spend the week sitting next to Harry, while he sits on his little throne. 3 jelly beans every #1, and a Take-Along Bob the Builder team member for every #2. (We needed major incentive, hopefully this will work.) On the upside, I'm spending a lot of time sitting and waiting (you know how it goes) and Birch is keeping me company. I'll post some photos on Saturday to show our progress (of Birch, I don't think you want to see our other progress!). Have a good week, and wish us luck!

The laughter may begin....

Birch, sadly, missed her Easter debut. I did manage to use up an entire ball of Kidsilk Haze (229 yds is nothing to sneeze at), which means it's about a third done, and I'm two repeats into the second ball. It became evident Friday evening that I was perhaps delusional and maybe a little over-confident setting an Easter goal. But I knit on. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I accepted defeat. At which point I stopped speaking to Birch, and shoved her into my bag. We haven't spoken since. I'm feeling a little guilty about that, and thought about pulling her out this afternoon for some quality time, but I'm still too upset. I have a class tonight (Cast-ons. Usually I'm crunched for time in that class, but tonight I only have one student. And we pushed back the start time 15 minutes. It'll be a nice relaxing evening.) Maybe after class we (the shawl and I) will be able to make up and move on. I guess I can accept some of the blame, I mean, Birch can't exactly knit herself....

Easter!

This is a totally non-knitting post. Just an excuse to show off my kids! (Wait, there isn't a pic of Harry, I guess it's just "kid") Easter is the most important Holiday for Christians, and we like to make a big deal of it. I also use it as an excuse to dress my little girl like a doll. The night before Easter, Iris looked like this. Because every mother-daughter relationship needs one bad experience with curlers, right? At this point she still thought they were hilarious. She never put up a fuss, but half of them were out of her hair by morning. That night, mommy & daddy put the Easter baskets together and hid them. (We don't do the Easter Bunny. My mother thinks we are terrible parents for this, that we are robbing them of all the fun of childhood, but who need a giant rabbit with a thing for eggs when you have an Amazing God that sent His only son to die for everything you ever did wrong so you can spend an eternity in the most Glorious Perfect Heaven? Not to mention the whole Raising from the dead on the Third Day?!? And it Really Happened! What can be more exciting and "magical" than that???) The next morning we decided Harrison's cold was too bad to go to church, so Tim stayed home with him while Iris and I went to church. Our Church holds Easter services here. It is so incredibly beautiful. We sat in the balcony (for most of the time, it's hard for a little person to sit through an hour sermon, so we took a little walk half way thru.) Iris said to one of her little friends "The Lord is Risen!" to which her friend (4 yrs old?) replied "He is Risen indeed!" Too cute! After a very yummy lunch at my parents', we headed home. It was a good day.

Pirate Booty & Project Spectrum

The pirate booty has arrived! It turns out that my unbelievably creative Pirate Pal was none other than Allison Graybeard of Perknitious! I can't believe the thought and detail that she put into this! Especially my new buddy "Pirate Lil". Lil even has a story. Listen to this: She used to be a sweet little girl named Lilac, but when the Pirate ship of Capt. Bill, First Mate Phil, and deck-swabber Will pulled into town, she couldn't resist the pull of their eye-patch-wearing, tattoo-sporting life on the high seas. She packed her warmest scarf, shortened her name, and signed on as lookout. She likes to yell "MAN OVERBOARD!!!" Everything was pirate themed, down to the tissue paper and ribbon. She made a gazillion of little origami stars (because stargazing is the best part of a pirate ship) and had me smiling all afternoon. As far as Project Spectrum, I've been holding off posting, because I was going to gather all of my yellow and orange yarn like I did for March. Except I don't have any. Well, I have some. I have had six skeins of Rowan's All Season's Cotton in a nice mellow gold color. It's had nine lives. It was a poncho, it was another sweater, and most recently it was the Child's Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Except it was too big. I didn't want to show you a sweater that was going to be ripped out anyway, so I ripped it first. But then I didn't want to show you a pile of yarn, you've already seen that. So I cast on the correct number of stitches (thank you Edie Eckman and Where do you get those numbers?) and knit up to the armholes. Well, everyone knows that once you've knitted to the armholes you're half way done. So I thought I might as well finish it. So I did. (Except for the buttons/beads.) I still had some left, so I found something that would use up a little of what was left. Meet Uni: She's taking over the third floor of the doll house. That is the sum total of my yellow/orange yarn. Pathetic, huh? So lets move onto GREENS! I'll save the total stash pic for May 1st, but I'll show you what I've started: BIRCH and I plan to have it done for Sunday. Stop laughing, I can too.