3 Grrrls Knit

My Project List

2012-01-08T15:48:00.004-07:00

Here it is the end of the first week of January and I have a finished object to show off:

This is the sock monkey posing with his friends that I sewed up for the girls for Christmas. I am closing in on finishing another project. The red scarf is now longer than I am tall, but my goal was to just knit until the yarn was gone. The ball is getting small:

Unfortunately, I keep seeing things I would like to make. Like this cute sweater:

Or like this afghan from the latest Lion Brand catalog:

Right now, I am planning on getting the yarn for the afghan. I think I will dye my own for the sweater. I’ll have to find a dk weight yarn to try out for it. I don’t currently do dk for my shop, so I don’t have any laying around to dye. That is probably just as well, because I did sort of promise myself to finish up some projects rather than starting new ones. And I don’t actually have a complete list of the things I have on the needles. I’ll try to list them all here:

1. Socks for Brent
2. Bunnies to felt for Easter (last year)
3. Bonsai vest
4. Purple mittens
5. Cathedral mitten
6. Gift Scarf
7. My socks
8. Hat for Knitter #3
9. Earth and Sky Shawl

I think that is all of the knitting projects. There are others that are abandoned forever. I just don’t care to finish them. They lost the luster and I am letting them go. I have a few crochet ufo’s, too:

1. Hello Kitty toy
2. Butterfly afghans for the girls (2)

My crochet projects are usually smaller and much more likely to get finished.

Starting the Year in Full Drool Mode

2012-01-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

I love watching period shows like Downton Abbey. I like to drool over the fabulous clothes and hats. Lately, I have been wondering why women quit wearing hats. I love hats. I’ve decided that I am going to buy some nice hats to wear than my floppy ones I use for gardening. They are wonderful, but not stylish at all. And when I say stylish, I mean that they are pretty much for wearing with jeans. I will need a nicer hat to wear with the pretty outfits I have sworn to wear this year.

Happy New Year!

Crafty Intentions

2011-12-30T21:23:00.001-07:00

My intention this Christmas break was to do a bunch of sewing. I was pretty successful with it a couple years ago. This year I have been a bit lazy with it. All I have sewn so far is Christmas dolls for the girls. They are from the Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang. I love her dolls. Maybe I will get to it and sew something this weekend.

Yesterday I finally had time to play with some of the new yarns I am going to be adding to my shop. It was kind of cool so see how the colors came out differently for the different fibers. They are finally dry, but no pictures yet. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures taken tomorrow. Today was far too gloomy for pictures.

I might finish the sock monkey tomorrow. I am pretty excited at the thought of being able to finish a project. I have both arms done. Now I just have the tail and the face left. They are all small stuff, so I might finish.

My First Real Hair Post

2011-12-28T22:48:00.002-07:00

After doing a bit of digging tonight, I found my hair measurements for the year. My hair has grown 3 inches since I started keeping track again in May. I’ve been measuring every month at about the same time of the month. This is the picture I took a few weeks ago to show how long my hair is:

I use sweet almond oil on my hair to keep it healthy and strong. Generally, I put it on the night before I am going to wash it. Right now, I am trying to decide if I should go back to using shampoo on my hair or not. My hair tends to be an ongoing science experiment.

The Coming New Year

2011-12-27T15:03:00.003-07:00

This is a project I’ve been working on lately:

It is a sock monkey I was making for Knitter #3’s birthday in October. She would like to play with it someday.

I have a few plans for the New Year. More knitting. More blogging. Weight loss. Getting in shape before I am 40 in the summer. That is my real goal. The weight loss will happen. I want to be able to say on my 40th birthday that I am finally fit again. I used to be before I had kids. What’s my plan? Well, I actually started about 2 months ago. Eating carefully, exercising, and being serious about it. The stars finally seemed to come into alignment in October, so I got started. And I can tell I am on my way. I feel so much stronger already.

I would also like to dress up a little more. I used to admire a blog where someone cataloged their cute vintage outfits. I like vintage. I am a huge fan of the early 1900’s. Need I say that I can’t get enough of Downton Abbey? I love the clothes, the hats. Not just the flashy outfits of the daughters, but the outfits you see the maids in when they are off duty. I am determined to make myself another skirt like my favorite denim one. Only not in denim. I recently was introduced to Sock Dreams by a friend on a long hair forum. That place has socks that make you want to wear a skirt!

I’ve decided to talk about my hair and hair care here a bit, so here is my hair:

Last summer I started using henna on it to cover up some horrible highlights I had put in a few years ago. I love the color. And since it is not chemical, I can do my eyebrows to match. I do the henna every couple months, but my eyebrows need touched up more often. Probably in a few years I will quit using the henna and let my natural color grow out before I start to really go gray.

Christmas

2011-12-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Long time, no blogging. But I love blogging. So I have promised myself I will get back into it. It seems like my blogging is linked to my knitting. If I don’t knit, I don’t blog. I just have not knit that much in the past year and a half. Knitting makes me happy, so I am going to make more time for it. I have a lot of unfinished knitting projects that I just need to finish. Can’t wear what you don’t finish…

Christmas was nice. I went to bed earlier this year than I have for several years. We didn’t have anywhere to be on Christmas Eve, which was nice. I also started wrapping presents 3 or 4 days before Christmas. That made things go better. My best present was either my brand new Dremel 4000 or my Kindle. I will go on about the Kindle first. My brother got it for me and it is something I never thought seriously about getting. I have lots of books in my house I can read. And there are always things more important than a grown up toy. I love it. I visited Project Gutenberg and acquired a few books. I haven’t looked in to how to download books from Amazon without a wireless connection. I have over 15 books loaded on my Kindle, so I won’t have to worry about it for a bit.

I asked Brent to get me a Dremel because I want to carve myself some hair toys. Something I really don’t talk about here at all is my hair. I have long hair. What most people would consider very long hair. It is my ambition to grow it much longer. Tomorrow I hope to starting playing around with my Dremel and start carving a hair stick out of a piece of apple wood.

New Knitting

2011-10-01T13:18:00.004-06:00

Have you ever just stopped and looked at your house and thought “How in the HELL did this happen?!” I’ve been taking a lot of hard looks at mine lately. One day my husband said our house has never been so bad, and he is right. So, I am embarking on a major, major clean out. It all really started with the mouse invasion. I kept thinking that our house is perfect for mice with all the junk and clutter. I started asking myself how many things in our kitchen could just GO. And I think if people would just put stuff AWAY then maybe we would find there is really tons of space in our house. I’m not sure how to get all of them on board with the putting away. Especially the husband. If think the kids will follow if the adults lead.

Anyone out there making things for Christmas yet? I have a project lined up for Christmas, but not started. I have grown to have mixed feelings about Christmas projects. I like life with few pressures. Especially since I make stuff for my shop. I used to be a knitting machine. Now days, I like to just enjoy myself when I knit. I don’t do many projects. Not compared to what I used to do.

This is the project I have been working on lately:

It grew all week:

I would like to get to this before the snow comes:

I’ve also been plugging away at this:

It is the Ollalieberry Ice Cream Quilt by Alicia Paulson. I am using it to make a new duvet for our down comforter. The other one has been shredding for some time. I am sewing over 500 squares together. It is taking FOREVER. I can’t wait for this step to be over so I can sew them into rows.

Here We Are

2011-09-24T14:57:00.001-06:00

Busy times these days. I’ve been working a lot on my etsy shop and preschool started back up a few weeks ago.This is the yarn I mentioned the last time I posted a few months ago:

Here are some ribbons I got at the fair at the beginning of August:

Yarny Things

2011-07-29T22:19:00.001-06:00

Dyeing yarn goes so much faster when you have lots of scurrying about to do. I am doing 3 skeins of yarn today for a mystery shawl kal. Rav link HERE. It starts the first and is NOT FREE. But it is only $4. Many of the mystery shawl knit longs used to be free, thus my all caps. It starts on Monday, so if you are interested, go check it out. My colors have turned out so well. I was especially worried about how the green would turn out. They are perfect. That never happens in yarn dyeing. Never. To have an idea of 3 colors in your head and have them all turn out just the way you want is amazing. Hopefully the shawl looks amazing! I have much winding ahead of me… I promise to post pictures of my yarn tomorrow.

I was beginning to wonder if I would finish my vest in time for the fair, but I think I will. If not, I am sure I can locate enough things around the house that I’ve made in the past year. It would be a bit embarrassing if I couldn’t come up with anything for the fair. This year, for us, the fair changes. The oldest is now in 4H. We have to go to the fair grounds almost every day. Wednesday will be a busy day. I will have my knitting, and cold things to keep us cool. There is just nothing more fun than a county fair! And let’s face it, rural counties have the best fairs.

Adventures in Steeking

2011-07-24T09:39:00.002-06:00

I am getting seriously annoyed with my isp. We keep getting these ‘problem loading’ messages. The connection is the only thing it can be. Sometimes it is for a minute or two, sometimes much longer. I am calling them tomorrow.

I’ve been doing the unspeakable. Steeking. I posted about steeking several years ago when I made a sweater for a very small knitter #3.

My mostly finished knitting sweater:

If you look closely, you will see a line of blue stitching on the left side:

And then I began to cut my knitting:

This was much more dicey than my previous steeking experience. Silk garden isn’t as sticky as an all wool yarn.

Here it is all cut and waiting to be picked up and knit:

Now I am knitting the neck. I’m part of the way up the first side.

Summer?! Where Did it Go?!

2011-07-20T10:13:00.002-06:00

In my absence, there has been much going on. Just last week we discovered there were mice in the house. I don’t think anything could make my skin crawl more than having mice. When I was growing up, my mother was constantly fighting the mice. When she died, no one fought them and we had a horrible mouse problem. I had an enormous freak out over the mice and had to clean the entire pantry top to bottom. This also helped rid us of the nasty pantry moths. That is a whole other subject. On that subject I will just say if you ever get them take the advice you read online to heart and just DO it. Airtight is the only thing that deters them. It will also keep the mice out if they come visiting. Our pantry is now VERY organized:

I’ve been knitting:

I am glad to see this thing nearly finished. It will be nice to wear this fall when it starts cooling off. Not that the summer has been hot here. Just in the rest of North America. Here in the PNW, we are keeping the woolies close to hand. Even here in the inland part of the Northwest.

I think I am not going to get access back to my Ravelry account. I changed passwords when they had the break in issue and couldn’t remember it. The email associated with it no longer exists. It has been well over a month since I was able to get into Ravelry as 3grrrlsknit. I haven’t heard from them in over 2 weeks and I even sent a “hey what’s up” message Sunday night. There were a lot of messages back and forth, but lately nothing but silence. I’ve created a Moon Stone Farm account there. I want my old account back, though. I am sad without it.

Even though I can’t seem to figure out where the summer has gone, I am beginning to look forward to fall and cooler weather. The need for sweaters and pumpkins. This fall will be different. I will be sending the littlest knitter off to school. I have always had her with me up until now. It’s only a few days a week and I will usually be at work on those days. I will adjust. We will have the other days together. I just think I won’t survive it…

Lately, I’ve been reading my books on fair isle knitting. They are fascinating. I love reading about it because it all involves my darling Shetlands. Fair Isle is part of Shetland. When I first read about it in the first book by Sheila McGregor some years ago, I never dreamed I would one day have my own herd of Shetland sheep. Even farther back, I remember thinking it would be wonderful to have some, but thinking they probably weren’t even in North America. At that time, they were, but not many. Not that they are terribly common now. But you can find them.

I hope summer has been great for everyone out in blogland!

It's June...

2011-06-01T21:51:00.000-06:00

This is the latest I have ever put tomatoes in the garden. Usually I do it in the middle of May. I was afraid to this year. Today I planted the tomatoes. By the time I was done, I didn’t want to do the peppers, eggplant, or broccoli. Or the seeds. I have 3 rows of tomatoes, but I don’t know how many. I didn’t feel like counting, either. Hopefully, I can get more done tomorrow.

Maggie’s whole world has been turned upside down. Her ‘rotten’ cousin follows me everywhere I go. And I let her. Maggie says “How could she?! That dog doesn’t work the woolies. She has no reason for being.” Maggie knows that the beginning and ending of all life is working sheep. There can be no other reason for living. She probably thinks there’s something wrong with me because I don’t stare at them all the time.

I am thinking again about posting patterns that I have written up. I am also thinking about starting a farm blog about the animals. Not sure yet.

Freedom...

2011-05-30T22:58:00.000-06:00

It is all so exciting now. School is out for me and Knitter #3. #2 gets out tomorrow. Knitting for the fair is in full swing. It is finally starting to warm up. We have 3 dogs for the month of June. We got a 14 foot trampoline. FREE! AND…. My younger brother/sister is bringing fabric back when s/he returns from a trip to Thailand. That is so freaking exciting!

Since I’ve brought up my younger sibling being transgender… I have to say that in a conservative state like this I worry about her safety and you will probably not see me bring it up again.

So, Sunny is ours for the next month! Some of you may have seen a picture of her visiting last year. Expect lots of pictures over the coming month. The sheep and most of the goats have not taken too much notice of her yet. However, tonight, Zoe and Belle freaked out when they saw her. I can just imagine what they were thinking when they saw a strange devil dog rushing at them… (Really she was just rushing to meet me) They didn’t turn tail and run for their lives, but I think it was only because I seemed completely unconcerned. And I am their mother who they always trust.

2011-05-21T22:29:00.000-06:00

The weather here is so nice right now. Makes you just want to be outside. So I have been. First of all, we went yard saling. And then I mowed the yard. We have a new lawnmower. It is one of those Toro Recycler mowers. High ratings with Consumer Reports. It is self propelled. To say it the Dick and Jane way: See Kathy. See Kathy run. See Kathy run after the lawnmower. I finally got used to it and didn’t feel as if I was being dragged. And I didn’t have to push and shove to get it up hill. Nice. Anyone who has a perfectly flat yard has not lived. I planned on fertilizing tonight after I put the birds to bed and turning on the sprinkler system, but it’s raining I hope someday our yard will look less like a patchy pasture and more like a lawn.

My knitting felt like it was going really well until I looked at the pattern. I’d gotten to the 15 inches needed before splitting the front from back when I noticed I was supposed to do some neckline shaping starting at the 10 inch mark. Oops. And it wasn’t the sort of thing that could be fixed by laddering down, either. I haven’t had that big of a rip in years. It would help if I hadn’t lost track of my pattern. (note that I don’t say ‘lost’)

Summer break is nearly upon us here. This week my baby, my littlest knitter, will graduate from preschool. My boss says preschool will be strange without our 2 youngest kids. They’ve always been there right from the beginning. I think we will get by without them. And if we think we won’t, we can just remember all the times they got crabby and were a pain in the you know where. Where was I? Summer. No schedule to stick to every day. Heaven.

A Long, Cold Spring

2011-05-16T08:57:00.001-06:00

This spring has been horrible around here. So cold the grass wouldn’t grow. When it warmed up, the ground had dried out and the grass didn’t grow. We’ve been getting some rain lately. This morning it was 37, the wind was blowing and it is still raining. The snow has been very slow to melt in the mountains. If it is 37 here, it is snowing up on the mountain. I’d rather it be warmer while it rains. Bring on the rain, I say. Last year was an amazing grass year. There was grass higher than my head, and I am average height. I’d be devastated if we ended up with NO grass this year. I could go on and on about grass issues, but I won’t.

I am working on my fair list now. I want to take several sweaters, but I have to make sure I can get them done in time. I think when I finish my current vest, I will start my Icelandic pullover. It seems like if I want to accomplish 11 in 2011, I should get on it and knit something. I also want to work from my yarn stash and my Ravelry queue. Somewhere, I have a fair book that lists all the categories. I find it interesting the categories our county DOESN’T have in knitting. Like shawls. Anyway, I would like to knit some smaller things if I can get the sweaters done.

I need take some new pictures of the lambs. They have grown a lot and their horns are starting to grow. In addition, one of them it turns out, is dark brown, not black. They are gray underneath like their parents. The reason they will not have names is because they can’t stay here. We will probably eat them. If there was a possibility one could stay here as a ram, we still would not want to play with him and make him a pet. Rams can be dangerous so you just can’t do that with them. The rule with rams is that they do not race up to you and tear snacks from your fingers. It is their nature to be aggressive since they are male and if your ram thinks he can run up and hit you like he does his companions, you will get hurt. Not good. Those sort of rams end up as sausages quite often I hear.

Something new: I’m learning to play the banjo right now! Last night, I started learning Angelina Baker because Knitter #2 is going to start learning it in fiddle class soon.

What Happened on the Night of April 1st...

2011-04-03T16:20:00.001-06:00

These little guys were really, really brand new when I found them Friday night. I never did see any big signs from Dolce. I’d been watching her all day. When I went out to shut them up and feed them, I found 2 little ram lambs. One wasn’t even all cleaned off yet. Since they are rams, they will probably not get names.

My new camera came Friday, too. I hope that my pictures will be really great now. I stayed up late last night reading the book to it. It is Canon Eos T2i. So far, I am in love with it. I’ve wanted a dslr for so long. It arrived just in time for soccer. Our first game is tomorrow night.

Today we did this:

We got in all the rest of the steel posts for our pastures. We have a few wood posts to set and then lots of fence to stretch. This project started about a year ago. I took that picture standing normally, just for the record. I hear sheep love running up hill just like fire does. Fortunately, not all of the pastures are that steep. However, they are still mostly sloping and our sheep and goats are expected to help keep the shepherdess’ house from burning down one of these summers when lightning starts a fire. We need more sheep. Let’s all pray Portia has ewe lambs.

Only Music Here

2011-03-31T21:08:00.003-06:00

No lambs. Yet. I think that Dolce is getting close. She looks like she must be terribly uncomfortable. The lamb is definitely dropping. However, I haven’t seen any tell tale signs yet. Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow is their due date and Dolce seems like the sort of ewe who follows the rules… When other sheep run out of the barn just for the sheer naughtiness of it, she stays and eats her hay.

My banjo came yesterday and nearly the first thing I did was break a string. Brent got me a set of replacement strings today and I am already learning my first song. I have the first part of it almost down. Tomorrow I may try to play along with the cd. I had no idea that banjos were so very heavy! Glad I got an open back and not one with a resonator. I was nearly sweating blood today getting the new string in and in tune. I was worried about snapping it like I had the previous one. I was trying to get all the strings in tune when it snapped on me. I am so glad I decided to learn to play the banjo!

Shorn!

2011-03-28T13:30:00.003-06:00

The sheep were sheared on Friday. They are now SMALL. Before Friday afternoon, when they were in the barn, there seemed to be no room to move around. Here are my poor, cold sheep:

Dolce, Portia, and Esme

Portia, Ruby, McLean and Skye

Naturally, at picture time, Lucy was being a bit silly and didn't get in the pictures. Today I will starting working with the fleeces. Brent built me a rack for skirting and drying (after washing) the fleeces. Skirting is when you remove bits that aren’t good. Hay, poo, felted bits, short bits that you couldn’t spin.

AND we are waiting for the lambs to arrive! Expect some lamby cuteness around here fairly soon. Dolce and Portia are the only ones bred this year, so my lambing will be short. I am anxious to see how many they will have and what color they will be. Of course, their color can change, too. Lucy went from being an adorable little black and gray sheep to being my adorable gray sheep. She is darker than the others. I will be interested to see what color it is as it grows out. This time of year is also the only time you can see all of Skye’s spots.

I haven’t been knitting much lately. Too many other things going on. My brand new banjo should be here on Wednesday. Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm is giving banjo lessons on her blog, so I decided to learn along. Best of all, Knitter #2 and I will be able to play together! I am not sure if I’ve mentioned here that she is learning to play the fiddle. We are both going to be learning by ear as soon as the banjo gets here. And I have finally broken down and am getting a new camera. I’ve wanted a dslr type camera for a long time. I always talked myself out of one because they are so expensive. Then a few weeks ago, I watched one of the girls running with a kite. All I could think was that I wished I had one of those cameras so I could have a whole series of photos of her running with that kite.

This is how my garden is coming along:

Mostly too cold and wet to get much done outside, but this is our start for the gardening year.

Just To Cheer Me Up.....

2011-03-20T22:01:00.003-06:00

I am way past due for posting around here. Lots of interesting things have been happening here. New dryer. Maggie’s birthday. Inability to find a sheep shearer. And that is a big one. Never thought it would be that big of a problem.

How about some pictures of sheepy, goaty cuteness?

The goats always seem to really want me to take their pictures. It's like they are saying "we're the good animals, see how cute we are?" (Ha! I have stories...)

This is Kisses. She belongs to my daughter in so many ways. They are both so girly.

The sheep. Most of them, anyway. They are not being anti social. They are watching a dog make an a** of herself. That would be Maggie.

McLean. Maggie's best friend in the whole world. A BAD sheep. He and Maggie destroyed a gate having good clean fun last year. Bad dog + bad sheep boy = destroyed property.

My Lucy. Lucy chose me. To be chosen by a sheep is special. I think I love Lucy more than any other animal I own. Look at that face! How could anyone not love her?! If I weren't against keeping livestock in the house, she would SO be living in my house. Lucy is the sweetest little thing in the whole world. When I first met her at Stonehaven Farm, she kept seeking me out. I would scratch under her chin and she would run away. And then she would come back. She was born last spring, so she isn't full grown yet. Right now, she is the smallest sheep. Soon, she will not be. On April 1, Portia and Dolce are due to lamb...

The Last Day of TV

2011-02-28T21:41:00.002-07:00

It is the last day of February and the last day of tv here. I think it will be much easier to have the tv off during the school year. By the time summer comes, the kids will be used to no tv and will not act as if it is some kind of hardship. We didn’t watch much tv when I was a kid. We decided to shut it off until football season comes back around. The state of television programming only gets worse as time goes on. And it will save us a lot of money. The only way to get tv here is to have a satellite dish.

I hope winter ends soon. I have never welcomed the coming of spring so much except the winter my father died. That year (2009) spring held so much meaning. Life, hope, and moving on. Winter meant death and desolation. Old pagan sentiments. They were right. This year, winter came early and I am anxious for it to leave NOW. I’d be even happier for it to leave if I lived in most of the rest of the country. We’ve missed out on blizzards and subzero temperatures here. I want to see grass growing. I’ve bought all the hay I can buy from Gilbert the Hay Guy. And I need to find someone to shear my sheepers. In a month, we should get a few lambs.

Since all the good times will soon be upon us, I planted tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant yesterday. There doesn’t seem to be any room left under the lights for broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I love gardening season!

Stash Problems...

2011-02-21T10:39:00.003-07:00

Hey, remember me? Since we last saw me here I’ve doing stuff like this:

And this:

This is a shawl I started in the fall but put down:

I really like the project, but there is nothing mindless about it. Not good knitting for dance or fiddle where I sometimes need to pay attention to what my kids are doing.

I knit a cute little flower and never took a picture before giving it away. I’ve been knitting quite a lot, actually. Last weekend, when I ran out of library books to read, I started reading in some of my Elizabeth Zimmerman books. Somehow, that lead me to the conclusion that I needed to use up some of the yarn and fabric I have because my work area is an absolute disaster. That and the fact that I couldn’t find my elastic last weekend. So here it is: Because I didn’t have enough library books to get me through the weekend, I had to buy some storage containers for my crafting/work area. Conclusion: Not checking out enough library books costs you money. Heaven forbid I read my own books… This has become a digression, I think.

Anyway, I decided if I knit up 30 balls of yarn I will have depleted my project supply enough to not feel ashamed of myself. In general, I don’t just buy yarn for nothing in particular. I buy yarn for projects and put it away. There is a certain sweater I have wanted to make for a very long time, and I have had the yarn for a long time. The sweater has been in my Ravelry Queue since October 11, 2007. I have probably had the yarn for longer than that. It seems like I don’t knit things that I have the yarn for. I find something I want to knit and get the yarn and knit it. Both of the sweaters pictured above were in my queue for quite a while. The one in progress I did have the yarn in stash for over a year. I have yarn that has been marinating around this house for a good long time. The funny thing is that when I got married nearly 9 years ago, I had no yarn stash and no fabric stash. When we moved into our house 7 years ago, there was no fabric stash and a very small remnant stash of yarn and fabric.

Obviously, I need to use what I have.

As for my fabric stash, I don't always buy for projects. Sometimes I buy for the sheer prettiness, so I have a vague plan to just use up some of the fabric I have on hand. The kids are bound to win this one.

Resolutions

2011-01-02T22:14:00.001-07:00

New Years has come, and so have the resolutions. I haven’t had any resolutions for the past couple years, and feel like I need them.

1. I will lose 5 lbs every month by exercising and eating right until I reach my goal.

2. I will make 10 new things for my etsy shop and get them listed every month.

3. I will keep working at using The Flylady to get myself uncluttered and organized.

I decided to leave out any knitting or sewing goals. The longer I knit, the harder it is to find new techniques to learn.

I didn’t end up making the resolutions post yesterday because I spent a lot of the day on this:

It is goat cheddar. It will now spend the next month to 3 months aging. In a few days I will coat it with cheese wax and store it someplace cool.

Lately it hasn’t been hard to find cool places. Our mornings have been in the single digits for days. This morning was actually up in the teens, but it is supposed to be colder tomorrow morning again. Strangely, the sheep and goats are very frisky in this cold. I understand the sheep being that way, but the goats I don’t get. Perhaps their minds are being twisted by the sheep…

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T23:05:00.004-07:00

I can’t believe the year is nearly over again. I’ve decided to set some goals/resolutions for 2011. I’ll post them tomorrow I hope.

Here is some yarn that came a few weeks ago:

This stuff is for the Lopi sweater I talked about in a previous post. I don’t think I am going to use the bluish stuff on the end. I think I have a skein of black I could use instead. That color is just not going to work.

I love Silky Wool. However, the Silky Wool I’ve used before did not have nylon in it. It is very pretty and is for a short sleeved cardigan.

These are mittens I made Gretchen for Christmas:

I like them and want to start a pair for me. I was completely amazed at how they look like they come from 2 different color ways. I wonder if mine will look that way, too.

And this is what I’ve been working on lately:

I have waited all this time to make my own washcloths. Why?! It is so fun! And it is eco-friendly and green.

We had a little party tonight. It is 11 and I am the only one still up. One kid was out by 9:15 and the other about half an hour later. They were really thrilled about getting to stay up late and having their supper in the living room. I made fried rice for supper. We also had pork and seeds and carrots with ranch to dip them in. I think one of the girls may have only had our secret family recipe chex mix for supper, though. I love making my own mustard for pork and seeds. Brent and I feel like it isn’t hot enough if we don’t want to cry when we eat it. So, store bought or restaurant mustard just doesn’t cut it. I find it a bit ironic that Brent likes really hot mustard because he hates anything with cayenne, jalapeno, or curry in it. He also loves horseradish. Of course, horseradish and mustard are different than hot peppers and curry.

I hope every one out there is having a fun and safe New Year’s Eve. See you next year!

Surviving the Holidays

2010-12-27T22:47:00.001-07:00

We have survived Christmas. Now, let’s hope I survive until next Thursday when school resumes…

Last week seemed like one nightmare after another. On the 23rd, my darling old dog-boy, Sam, started having these horrific seizures. Not the tame little things he’s had once or twice a year most of his life. We had to go to the vet and get some medicine for him. I tried to cut back on the medicine since he wasn’t able to walk, but I think he had a seizure tonight. We will have to suffer with a dog that can’t get around much for the next month or so. So much for spending the day making cookies with the girls. The next day, I almost forgot to make dessert for Christmas dinner. The presents all made it under the tree, and dinner got cooked.

I am very happy to spend this week knitting and sewing whatever I feel like. I spent a while this afternoon teaching Knitter #2 how to sew nice, small stitches by hand. I made her a sewing kit for Christmas and decided she should learn to hand sew the way Mary Ingalls did: sewing a doll quilt. She is doing great, too! I couldn’t sew that well when I was 7. I could crochet pretty well, though.

More Snow...

2010-12-19T20:14:00.004-07:00

I am finally feeling like Christmas is coming. For some reason, last week it just wasn’t settling into my mind that Christmas was around the corner and I needed to get moving with the Christmas plans. Now I am wondering if I’ll get anything made for the kids. AND we are wondering if Knitter #3 told her big sister what she’s getting her for Christmas. We did the shopping yesterday and suddenly this morning, the thing she is getting from her sister is what she’s going to ask Santa to bring her for Christmas. Knitter #3 didn’t tell last year. And she was only 4 then. I can’t get her to confess to telling, so I don’t know what to do.

I’ve been spending most of my crafting time working on a present for my boss, Gretchen. I don’t really think of her as my boss. Anyway, I’m almost done with the gift and will get some pictures of it before I am done.

I do have pictures of a project from last weekend:

Stewing on the stovetop

Filling the carboy

Beer! This is a Nut Brown Ale kit we got from Midwest Supply. It is due to be bottled up on Christmas. Providing it is ready, of course. I am going to have to start checking it with the hydrometer every day now. It will be exciting in a few weeks to taste our stuff.

And here is the yarn that I’d just gotten last post:

I joined 11 Sweaters in 2011 on Ravelry a while back. I am all kinds of excited about knitting a bunch of sweaters. There are a couple bulky sweaters I’ve wanted to do for ages and it is my perfect excuse to get with it and buy the yarn. One is an Icelandic Lopi sweater. It is from their No. 18 book. I don’t know if it is still in print because I bought mine right after I got married. The other sweater is this DROPS sweater. It is the bulky red, purple, and orange you see above. It is a short sleeve sweater and I am pretty excited about making it and wearing it this winter.

Keeping track of the balls of yarn I’ve used up in my sidebar has inspired me to try to keep track of how much I buy and how much I use. I am not going to try to count up all the balls of yarn I have. Just what comes in and what gets used.

It’s been snowing here again. Yesterday we had at least 5 inches and today, I am not sure. It has rained as well and that tends to ‘settle’ the snow. Plus it is snowing like crazy right this minute. If it snows too hard, I’ll lose my internet connection…

Yucky Weather

2010-12-03T23:02:00.001-07:00

I’d say happy December, but the weather is so crappy right now, I don’t feel like it. I slid all over the place even with my 4 wheel drive yesterday. We had a foot of snow Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday was a snow day. Yesterday school was back in and it was raining. Until I got to town, and then it started snowing. As far as I know, it’s never quit. Just like Tuesday. Except now it is foggy, too. It is great weather for staying home with warm drinks, knitting, a log on the fire, and a few naps.

When I posted pictures the other day, we had a couple inches of snow. Now my animals are nearly up to their bellies in snow. I hope this isn’t setting the tone for the winter. We don’t have room to keep them all inside all the time.

I’ve been on a yarn ordering spree this week and some of it has already arrived! If the sun shines tomorrow, I will take pictures of what came today.

Cyber Monday Shopping...

2010-11-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

Did any of you take part in some cyber Monday shopping. I did. And I am exhausted. Ha ha ha. I bought some yarn, some beer kits, and called it good. Because after all, that I may need to make a transfer from our savings account tomorrow. Beer equipment kits are NOT cheap. But they do promise fun…

Tonight I am staying up because some whiner around here thinks he needs clean pants and long underwear for work. How ridiculous. He’ll just get his clothes dirty again if I keep washing them. What’s a girl to do? Brent didn’t get home until 8:30 tonight, so I took pity on him. He’s expecting to work long hours all week.

Just when it was beginning to look like our snow would disappear again, they have threatened us with more. It seems as if winter is upon us once again. There probably won’t be more pictures like this one of Maggie for a while:

I honestly don’t know how she can cram herself in the top of that planter. The planter bottom broke out years ago, so we put it in the ground to look pretty with flowers growing in it. Some years, it works out nicely. I’m not going to call Maggie a flower, because she’s more like an out of control thistle. She’s awful cute and sometimes it is awful hard not to let her become awfully spoiled. Of course, the moment after I think what a sweet adorable little thing she is, she does something decidedly NOT adorable. Like digging a hole next to that planter big enough to plant a shrub in.

Snow

2010-11-28T21:03:00.002-07:00

I really hate when, through my own bad judgment, I lose half a blog post. I didn’t have to just flip the breaker without thinking to go shut off the computer… All in an effort to fix an outlet and get the Christmas lights up. We don’t have lights on the house yet because the roof is still covered in snow. I’m sure it will all melt off and Brent will be able to get up there to put them up.

This morning, I took pictures of our herd having breakfast:

Portia and Dolce

Friday, Brent managed to get a lot of work done on the sheep barn. It now has 3 walls completed along with windows. I am hoping he can get the 4th wall and door in so we can keep the sheep there. Things are a bit crowded and complicated up at the goat barn. The goats are spending their nights in a stall while the sheep are all crammed in the main pen. All so that the 2 newest girls can be separated every morning to get their grain. They’ve just been bred, so they get a bit extra in the morning for a while. Portia and Dolce are very keen to get sorted off every morning for a special treat: barley and corn. When they are off the special treat train in a few weeks, things will be less complicated.

I’ve been doing some serious thinking about Christmas stuff. I’d like to make the girls some slippers for Christmas, but I don’t want to put any extra stress on myself. There will be plenty of that without me piling more on. I’d like to keep myself on track with only having 2 knitting projects at a time. It has taken me years to get back to it. And I need to do the finish work on at least one project that is finished knitting. I think I’ll look through my ravelry queue and see what’s there. A while back I promised myself to try to knit from it instead of just adding things to it. What is the point if I NEVER make things I’ve put in it? I can’t say I NEVER make things from the list, but I make lots of things I’ve never bothered adding to the list.

PS. It seems I will be adding pictures later as Blogger is acting up.

PSS. Pictures! Yay!

What's Up

2010-11-23T09:29:00.002-07:00

I have more new sheep! Well, I’d bought them already, but Saturday we went and picked them up. Fortunately the weather was nice. I need to get pictures of them taken. I was so busy yesterday getting things ready for the winter storm coming in that I didn’t take any pictures. It snowed all day Sunday. Now the snow is all gone and the temperature is dropping. It’s been getting steadily colder since I got up at 6. We didn’t get any snow with the wind in the night. There was a cold wind that must’ve started about the time it got dark. It was dark when we got home, but it wasn’t when we left the dance studio and the wind wasn’t blowing then. No blizzard conditions for us. I should shut up now before something happens…

I’ve made a knitting decision. Any socks that I can’t finish in more than 2 years are probably not for me. Everyone else may love Monkey socks, but I just can’t get into them. They look cool, but they just don’t hold my interest. That yarn would be better off being made into something someone will wear. I started a pair of socks I’ve wanted to make for many years. I feel good about them and enjoy working on them. And I need more socks!

These are the felted mittens I made for the girls:

I am knitting cuffs on to them now.

I made this flower a couple weeks ago:

I saw something similar on Etsy and thought it would be a great way to use up remnants of yarn. It doesn’t take much. I just found a flower on Ravelry and crocheted it in, like, an hour. Voila! New kitchen scrubby. I love it.

Last week, I made several of these:

They are produce bags to use instead of the little plastic ones. I love the idea.

Someone asked how knitting was going with a broken finger. I managed to knit fairly well after the first few days. I did have to be pretty careful with my finger for the first couple weeks, but after that it didn’t bother me to knit at all.

A Rainy Day

2010-11-07T19:14:00.001-07:00

I feel like it has been ages since I posted. It’s only been a week, but I’ve tried to write posts several times this week. It was one of those crazy, weird weeks. I’m glad to be starting a new one. Even if it did pour rain all day.

I finally finished my mitten knitting and felted them today. And last night I crocheted a flower scrubby. I saw one on etsy and thought it was a great idea. So I found a bag of yarn and searched Ravelry for just the right flower. Today was not ideal for pictures, so none yet. The mittens won’t be finished until I knit the cuffs on. I hope I don’t regret doing them in a cotton blend later on this winter. I don’t think the girls would like the feeling of the super wash I have on their wrists. Of course, I can still change my mind and do the super wash instead.

Since I finished knitting the mittens I can get back to working on my Bonsai Tunic. I think it will go pretty quickly since it’s a vest. And I’m knitting it in the round, so no seaming. Happy times. No seaming, lots of knitting!

Happy Hallow E'en

2010-10-31T15:48:00.002-06:00

I hope you have all survived Halloween. Trick or treating was last night here, so for us, it is over. All except the candy binge. I prefer to let them eat it all as quickly as possible rather than meting it out over weeks. I just want it gone. And we mostly go to the relatives and call it good. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of candy. I do like to tell myself other kids get a lot more candy than our kids do. It makes me feel better about the whole thing.

Now that the costume sewing is over, I can get back to knitting. I will post some pictures pretty soon, but today I just don’t feel like doing anything that remotely feels like work. The costumes came out great. I feel the need for a wool sweater. I have one my brother gave me that I’ve been wearing out to take care of the animals. It is a scratchy Woolrich sweater he didn’t want anymore. He thought I might want to felt it. I probably will when I get something different to wear. Wool is the best in cold weather. I’ve knit several sweaters out of cotton blends in the past few years, but they are better in the spring when it is warmer. First though, mittens for the girls. I’m down to half a thumb and one mitten to go

Esme and Lucy

2010-10-26T08:18:00.003-06:00

Where have I been the past few weeks? Nursing the finger that Maggie helped me break the morning after my last post. Typing was a real difficulty until the past 3 or 4 days. I was shutting a gate when Maggie hit the end of her lead and it started slipping from my fingers. I started tightening my grip and the lead popped off my ring finger. And then I felt the pain. It is amazing how some little thing like that can suck everything out of you. My finger wasn’t broken so bad that I needed to go get it set. At first I even thought it was just a momentary pain that would go away in an hour. What really happened was I went and shut the sheep in the pasture and then went to the house. It sapped all my energy and I spent most of the morning laying around. It has not been fun.

These friends should prove to be fun:

New Girls

Lucy

Esme and Lucy are 2 of 4 sheep I bought Sunday. The other two, Portia and Dulce, stayed at the farm to be bred to a ram whose name is Loki. I can’t tell you how many times I have thought to myself that I should have renamed Skye “Loki”.

Esme

The new girls have caused loads of excitement around the barn. Today, Esme and Lucy get the barn and barnyard to themselves. Lucy is very brave and confident. Esme is not so much. She’s very skittish and will need more time to get used to things. Lucy is a very special sheep because she chose me. Almost as soon as we were in the barn with her, she came up to me and made friends. She is so sweet and so pretty. She was born this spring, so chances are that she will look differently after her first shearing. I love her ‘collar’. Shetlands are the prettiest sheep!

Sunday Morning Breakfast

2010-10-10T21:52:00.003-06:00

Biscuits with butter and homemade blackberry jam. Yum. I am not sure that sausage or bacon can improve that breakfast. Brent thinks differently. Men.

He’s been back to working on this little project:

A sheep barn. Hopefully it will be somewhat done soon. I would like to add some more ewes to our little herd before winter. He had just started the project when he got hurt and had to stop work on it for several weeks.

This year it was kind of devastating to not have a garden. I decided I could at least try a fall/winter garden. I’ve planted one bed:

I am also working on cleaning out the cold frame Brent built for me a few years ago. He’s never finished it but has now promised to get the lid fixed up for it. I am planning on planting spinach and lettuce in it. According to what I read today, I have planted nearly everything way too late. All I have to lose is seeds. The experiment begins…

Introducing Sylvester

2010-10-02T22:50:00.002-06:00

It’s been a while since any of the animals appeared here, so earlier this week I took some pictures of them:

Meet Sylvester. He joined our herd a few weeks ago. He is half Nigerian Dwarf and half miniature La Mancha. Which means he’s really more than half N.Dwarf. His father was not registered, but his mother was. Maybe we’ll get a registered herd sire some day. Sylvester’s job is to be handsome and keep us in babies. Every night, as I force him into the barn, I tell him it is his job to protect his women folk. He wants to tell me that he doesn’t like them and they really aren’t very nice. Little does he know how they will one day think he is the hottest, hunkiest dude ever.

This is Kisses and Hugs. They and brother Stanley are now hornless. In this picture they really wanted to know what the camera was for. It might have been edible.

Sylvester and Stanley. And the sheep. Sheep like to eat. Just ask the goats. Sylvester thinks sheep might be nicer than other goats.

And here is Skye. Mr. Cool. He’s the leader of the sheep. King of the connivers, really. Those three are always conniving.

The three that are now hornless are pitiful looking. Next year, my brother can hold the goats while I run the dehorning iron if he is around to help me. Otherwise, Brent will have to seriously toughen up. Taking them to the vet left them not feeling too great for a day or two. They’ve been staying in the yard for several days. They go back to the barn at night.

Tonight, all the animals are shut in the barn. The coyotes have been coming in very close the last few nights. I am pretty sure they trying to figure out how to get in and get all my delicious smelling livestock. Even though our barnyard is well fenced, last night I worried about the sheep. It sounded like there were at least 5 of them and I was thinking how nervous they must be making the sheep. If the coyotes don’t drift away real soon, I’m going to get a shotgun after them. They’ve never been a problem for us before, but we are experiencing an explosion in the rabbit population. And that means there are probably going to be more coyotes around to cause problems. Last night, Brent got up for another reason, and the coyotes split. I want to sneak out in the dark and shoot the shotgun off. Maybe they’ll get the idea and not come back. Coyotes are very, very smart animals and know how to take a hint.

The Witchy Hour Approaches...

2010-10-01T17:31:00.002-06:00

It was a busy week and I didn’t get to sew like I wanted to. Our dvd player decided to give up the ghost in the middle of a movie. Not just any movie. A movie the kids were watching. They were a bit disgruntled. Wednesday, Knitter #3 and I went on a mission for a new one. Now we are back in movie watching bliss once again.

I have managed knitting this week. Here are the things I’ve been working on:

Brent’s hat. It is this Boyfriend Hat. (There are several on Rav)

Oooooo. My monkey sock came out of a long hibernation recently. Let’s see if I can finish this one AND the second one, as well.

Today I started this:

Another crocheted Wolverine hat. This one is a cool spiral pattern that I love. It is called Moriarty and has adorable flowers you can make for it. I may have to have one for myself.

And look what came here today:

We’re going to make some herbal cures this weekend. I’ve always wanted to make stuff like lip balm, and this is the weekend I’m going to get started.

Sewing Again

2010-09-26T16:29:00.003-06:00

Today, I finally got with it and did some sewing. Several month ago, I cut a vintage Vogue dress out of a queen size flat sheet I had thrifted. It is beginning to take shape:

I am getting excited about what it is going to look like when it is done. I’m thinking about trying to finish a project every week. And I’ve got Halloween costumes to do very soon. The girls want to be Alice and Dorothy this year.

I didn’t finish any knitting or crochet projects today. I am trying to decide what to do when I finish Brent’s new winter hat. I could take up my Bonsai Tunic, or I could do some more small projects. I could start doing some stuff for the girls for Christmas. And they need mittens before the snow comes. So many things to choose from.

Saturday

2010-09-25T21:50:00.000-06:00

It is 3 months until Christmas. Anyone done their Christmas shopping? Not me. I have a sort of tentative list in my mind of things I could make. I have to be careful about paper lists these days. Knitter #2 can read anything, so I have to keep those kinds of lists hidden.

It isn’t every day you can boast you finished more than one project. And I finished 2 within a few hours today. The good news is the Wolverine hat is finished for good this time. It fits Knitter #3 perfectly. The other project I finished is a coffee cup cozy. We actually have some cups that get too hot in microwave. You can’t touch them to take a drink for several minutes after you get it out. I am wondering if the cozy will help keep drinks warm longer. I might have to do a semi scientific test on it.

This morning at 4, Maggie wanted out. She insisted she was going to die if I didn’t get up and let her out. She better not ask to go out at 4 am again. I have kids. I need all the sleep I can get. After she came back in, she kept trying to con me into letting her out again. I didn’t get back to sleep until about 5. I really, really like to sleep between the hours of 3 and 5:30. Our birds are pleasantly silent during most of that time, the coyotes have gone to take a nap, and the air is cool. I love it.

The Weekend

2010-09-24T21:22:00.000-06:00

The weekend… I love the weekend. I want to spend it being crafty. We’ll see how it works out. I had a setback on my second Wolverine hat. It came out larger than the first one, but was crocheted with a smaller hook. I have to read the pattern carefully and do some counting. I suspect I didn’t decrease somewhere that I should have. At one point today, I was finished with all the ends woven in. There is nothing worse than ripping from DONE.

Today, I decided to go for it and get some books on herbal remedies. I actually have some books on that subject, but I was looking for recipes and my books don’t have much of that. The stuff I have tells you ways to prepare a particular herb to use for certain things which is great, but I wanted something more.

Tomorrow morning, Maggie’s sister, Reese, is coming to visit. She is bringing her owner with her, of course. I got Maggie from Jodi. Reese is the pup she decided to keep. The dog at the top of Jodi’s blog is Maggie’s mother, Echo.

I’ve decided to join in the Holiday Bootcamp on Etsy. This is my pledge:

I, Kathy of 3 Grrrls Handmade, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere!

Don’t forget to buy handmade good for the holidays if you don’t have time to make presents yourself! Pretty soon the craft fairs will be popping up everywhere, and there is always Etsy. You can take the handmade pledge, here.

What I Did With My Weekend

2010-09-21T08:18:00.002-06:00

I started with these:

And made these:

So I could make these:

I spent my weekend making stuff like this. I made these to wear to our homecoming game on Friday night. Saturday afternoon, I made bows and flowers for the girls to wear for the Boise State game. We went to Grandma’s house to watch the game. It amazes me how clean men can keep it (language) when there are two little girls in the room…

Yesterday, I made 6 quarts of wonderful, tart plum juice. Today, school.

To Cut or Not to Cut

2010-09-19T20:25:00.002-06:00

This week is bound to less eventful. It has the bonus of my getting off morning class duty at work. Gretchen asked me to work in the morning class for a few weeks. I’d been looking forward to mornings free for errand running. Or getting in an extra workout.

This is the pink sweater:

It is still in that unseamed condition. It is more fun to knit than to sew up. And I have to seek out the closest possible match since I ran out of pink yarn. Instead of seaming, I’ve been knitting a coffee cup cozy and a new hat for Brent. I’m still trying to burn up stash yarn, and hopefully the hat will fulfill that little mission. The yarn is the leftover green from Soria.

Last week I decided I am ready to try working out again. Not just with the Wii Fit, but with one of my lonely Kathy Smith videos. I love Kathy Smith and enjoy her workout videos. So I am back on the workout wagon. It feels great. I don’t know why I have such a hard time keeping with a workout since I had kids. When I worked my tail off as a waitress, I couldn’t wait to get home and do my workout. I love how good I feel when I work out regularly. All that energy is fabulous. It seems like I’ve only managed to keep it up for more than a month once since the kids came along. Actually, when Knitter #2 was small, I got right back on it 6 weeks after she was born. I am determined that this time, it is going to work out.

Brent had a terrible shock the other day. His little girls announced they want to cut their hair. All because I told one of them she was going to get a little trim to keep it at waist length. He is not dealing well with it. He told me to tell them no. I don’t want them to hate long hair JUST because their father made them keep long hair. Neither one of them has ever even had a little trim. I haven’t decided whether to let them have some cut or not yet.

Just Another Tragedy Averted

2010-09-13T21:47:00.003-06:00

Poor Sam. This morning sometime, Maggie hit the gate and knocked it open. Then it slammed shut and bashed the latch around and it swung inwards where it stayed hanging open for quite a while. Sam is blind and half deaf. At close to 11, I went out the door to take some mail down to our box. I thought to myself ‘I hope Sam is asleep in the house’.

Obviously, he wasn’t or we wouldn’t being having this post. I wouldn’t post about how I found the gate hanging open in the exact same way for the umpteenth time. Anyway, on the way back from the mail box, the littlest knitter and I could hear a dog barking. It sounded like it was back in the hills and made me think of my mil’s very elderly dog that got lost and not found last week. And after a bit I realized it sounded just like Sam and that it was coming from the ditch. We had to come back to the house so I could get my rubber boots and the leash. Then traipse back to the ditch and find that Sam had fallen in at the worst possible place.

Our ditch has probably been where it is for 120 years. It is deep and narrow. It has probably been the death of countless animals over the last 100+ years. The ‘worst possible place’ is a spot with a very steep embankment that is impossible to climb if you have good eyes and young joints. I went down it as best I could and laid on my belly and spent the better part of half an hour trying to get Sam out and prevent myself sliding into the ditch. The best part was when Maggie arrived and thought I was having a relaxing, good time and laid on my back. I had a leash in one hand and a clump of grass in the other. I couldn’t even reach around and smack her to get her off me. It seems like I wiggled out from under her which nearly slid me into the ditch. I had to push her back up the embankment because she couldn’t get up on her own. Then the kiddo held her collar. It took a lot of sweet talking, but I finally got Sam to stick his head up twice in just the right place so I could get hold of his collar. The first time I was not situated right and had to let go of him. The second time I had my foot wedged in the right place and got him all the way up to the top. And then I got to the top. Most the time Knitter #2 was crying and saying she wanted to go back to the house.

After we came back to the house, Sam got a nice warm bath. It was really a shower and was probably the only one he’s ever enjoyed. He was pretty muddy and I’m sure the water in the ditch wasn’t all that warm. I’ve had Sam a long time. A lot longer than I’ve had Brent in my life. He’s the last living animal from the ranch. Sam knew what it was to lay under the calf table waiting for my uncle to toss goodies to the dogs while castrating calves. He knows all about what it takes to put an unwilling Angus cow through a gate. He’s the last link to another world and place.

Tomorrow, when I go to work, Maggie is going to be tied up. And I might barricade the gate just to be safe.

I also want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers for Brent.

What a Week

2010-09-11T22:57:00.000-06:00

As the title says, what a week! When it had just barely started it seems, it all went terribly wrong. I got a call at work from the ER saying my husband was there and he was fine. He’d fallen off a ladder. Falling from a ladder conjures certain images, none of which were what happened to my husband. He was working in a house, so there wasn’t far to fall. BUT. He slipped on insulation that was falling out of the attic he was working in and his tin snips were sitting in the top of the ladder where they have slots for people to put tools. His arm came down on the snips and he was cut very badly. He was lucky not to have cut an artery. They were working in a tiny little town probably 20 miles from the hospital. The guy he worked with (Isaac) tore Brent’s flannel shirt up to make a tourniquet AND drove one handed so he could help stem the flow of blood. And then Brent bled all over the ER while they tried to fix him. He lost a lot of blood, but didn’t need a transfusion. The ER doctor and Isaac both said blood was pouring out of Brent like WATER. The ER doctor repeatedly told us how lucky he was. I am glad that we will look back at this one day as that horrible time Daddy had to go to the hospital.

When you hear the words ‘emergency room’ 50 things go through your mind in an instant, faster than you could snap your fingers. It amazed me how fast I thought things like: the school should have called me, heart attack, crash, broken arm. Boy does the brain work fast in a moment of panic.

The accident ruled the week, but other things happened. Knitter #2 had her first fiddle class and got to bring a fiddle home. She’s getting a smaller one next Tuesday. Knitting happened. Monday night I started a coffee mug cozy. The rest of the week I worked on the hood of the pink sweater. It is going to have a big striped section because I ran out of pink yarn. The change I made so I wouldn’t have to seam the hood seems to be working out. I can’t wait to finish the sweater so I can make some small projects and feel like I’ve really done something lately.

I think I’ll go see if I can kiss Brent and tell him I love him a few more times before midnight. Not that he’ll remember it with the painkillers…

Something Finished?!

2010-09-05T22:41:00.001-06:00

So much time, so little blogging. Summer is officially over, even for me. And the weather has proven it. I’ve never been so cold in August as I was this year. It is possible I’ve been colder in September because it’s one of those months where funny things can happen.

I finished knitting projects! And I am finally working on the hood of the pink sweater. I’m thinking of altering the way the pattern is done, but I need to read through it first. Why seam when you can short row it? I’m just not good at following the rules, anyway.

What I really want to do is start a new project. But I have forsworn new projects until I finish up most of the ones I have. And I have 2 that are little more than freshly cast on. There’s the ill advised shawl/scarf and the Bonsai vest. Maybe something small and fast when I get the hood finished. Maybe some hats and mittens. I’m thinking about ripping the shawl/scarf out and making something different with the yarn. There is well over a thousand yards of my lace weight and I think I’d like to make something bigger with it.

Busy Day

2010-08-14T16:56:00.006-06:00

Today was a yard sale day and back to school shopping day. I had promised the girls they could get one new outfit for school, so we went to Ross and found them each an outfit. But first, we hit the yard sales and I found some prizes:

These little birdies were too sweet to pass by. They’ve found a home in my bathroom.

This little stack of fabric was a great find. I almost never see yarn at a yard sale. And if I do, it isn’t worth buying. Fabric is a whole different story. I got this stuff at a yard sale a while back:

And the pattern here is going to work out well with the plaid wool up above:

I got it at the same yard sale as the vintage lunch box. I love old metal lunch boxes. I got that one for 50 cents.

Sheets can be a great fabric find whether at a thrift shop or a yard sale:

The lavender stuff is for a dress for me, but the floral could be for the kids.

The sweater pictured with the wool fabric up above is going to be felted and turned into something. I am not sure what yet. I have some other wool sweaters from thrifting that I want to felt.

A while back, a package came in the mail all the way from Philadelphia. My blogging friend Eileen of Mama Sews Quilts sent us these ornaments:

They are so adorable! The girls wanted to keep them to play with, but I took them back after they got done showing them off to their grandmother.

And today these little goodies were in the mail box:

I bought them on Etsy from a seller right here in Idaho, Plum Street Fiber Arts. They are DK weight and have a bit of cashmere in them. There’s 230 yards in each skein, so I could make a scarf or hat out of them easily. I don’t think I’ll use them for socks. The yarn feels just fabulous.

The Results Are In....

2010-08-12T16:20:00.003-06:00

Where is the summer going? When the fair is over, I know the end is near and the dreaded first day of school is coming. Or depending on the day, I may be thrilled to see the first day of school…

The results are in:

Soria was my big winner just as I expected her to be. I wasn’t necessarily expecting the hat and skirt to do well, but I was pleased that they did. My new master plan is to begin planning now for next year. I would like to have an entry for every knitting category. And the planning is always the best part…

The past few days have been downright cold for August. I actually closed every window in the house last night because I was afraid we’d all be shivering by morning. We barely reached 70 yesterday in the late afternoon. That is pretty weird for this time of the year. I love it, though!

Maggie Rocks!

2010-08-02T19:58:00.002-06:00

Now that everyone left comments about my running, I’ve stopped running. The first reason was the combination of a sore ankle and a Great Pyrenees LGD. One morning, Maggie and I had to run like hell because the Peruvian guys at the sheep farm couldn’t stop the damn dog. I really thought I might have to let go of the leash and turn to face the dog all while screaming for my husband on the walkie talkie. Maggie can run a lot faster than me and she was pulling me. I didn’t feel I was going to be attacked, but Maggie probably was. The second reason is that Brent got a call from his former boss and has gone back to work. I’m trying to figure out how to make his coffee and lunch AND still be able to go for my run before he has to leave. It might work out if I can get up at 5:45 a.m. instead of 6.

Tomorrow is the day I take things to enter in the fair. I don’t have much. I didn’t get anything finished that I had planned on. I have my Soria vest, a hat, and the skirt I got all the nice comments on. I’m sure that will be plenty. Maybe this year, I can make some things just to take to the fair next summer.

I am keeping with my plan to just knit from my ravelry queue. It’s 4 pages long and I actually have the yarn for 3 or 4 of the larger sweater projects. Sock yarn is not really an issue. And my sock yarn collection is MUCH smaller than many knitters out there.

Here are some things I’ve been working on lately:

A 1950's Vogue dress pattern. I can't wait to get it made and wear it. I love 1950's dresses.

This is the first in a series of hats. I am planning on taking it to the fair, and I plan on making a couple more for the girls to wear to football games this fall. Red and white are our colors. In a small town, everyone wears the colors, not just high school kids.

These are the Bella mittens I was working on for the fair. I haven't gotten much more done on them. They are going to be nice to wear. They go almost to my elbows. I am really loving the lush look of the big cables. For me, lush is the only word to use to describe them.

In past week or two, Maggie has been turning into a real sheep dog. Tonight, she ran the sheep in for me. And she’ll be 5 months old in two days. I am amazed. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but I took the time with her so she could understand what I wanted. It took 2 or 3 tries before she realized I didn’t want her to bring them back to me. The speed of a border collie never ceases to amaze me. They are so fast and so smart it is no wonder 2 or 3 dogs can move a herd of nearly a thousand sheep. I am very pleased that my sheep are learning the fear of dog again. They came from a farm with 3 good border collies, but they became rather snotty about things after being away from dogs for a while. Maggie rocks!

Sewing At Last

2010-07-11T21:16:00.004-06:00

For the past week, I have been going to start running every morning. I intended to start on Monday, but I was too tired and opted to stay in bed. Later in the week I was downright depressed and wondering if getting goats was a huge mistake. (the milk was tasting horrible and it turns out one of them has mastitis) Then I snapped out of it and decided to quit being a wuss. So yesterday morning I started running. I run a mile from home and the mile back. Yesterday I think I probably ran a mile and a half of it. This morning, we (Maggie and I) ran the whole 2 miles! And we even got out of a trot and into a real run for part of it. I do not run on our driveway. Why punish myself? No one in their right mind would want to run UP our driveway. The faster we go, the better Maggie likes it. It turns out that I will probably never have to worry about her getting in front of a car. She runs as far off the road as she can get when we meet one.

Yesterday and today, I made a skirt. I could have done it all yesterday, but I decided to spend it playing in the kitchen. I bought the fabric a couple years ago thinking it would make a great skirt:

I’ve already worn it and pronounce it perfect. I used the skirt pattern from Sew U by Wendy Mullins. Instead of using a zipper and darts, I just made a casing and put in some elastic. I love this pattern. I made another one with it last December.

Here is Maggie at her very best:

Sound asleep. She loves laying there in front of the kitchen sink where a register blows out nice, cold, air.

One of Those Days

2010-07-08T22:30:00.002-06:00

Today has been one of those days you’d not want to repeat. It’s not that it was so bad, but it was not very great, either. It’s been downright depressing. I cut out a pattern for my Knitter #3 to have a dress and ruffle pants to go with. However, when I laid the pattern out on the fabric, there is just no way to get pants and a dress out of the 2 fabrics have. It is so disappointing. She will not care because she’ll get a pretty dress, but I had envisioned it with the pants.

I took some pictures of stuff today:

This is the wrap I have started. It was going to be a fair project, but I don’t think it is going to turn out that way. I’m going to track progress by the shrinking of the yarn ball. This project will only take a little more than half of it. I have a feeling that in the future, I will make my lace projects with fingering weight.

This is what our supper was cooked in tonight:

This is a casserole dish that my Grandmother had. It came with the first refrigerator they got when my Dad was in high school. Electricity came out our way in the late 40’s I think. The Grange paid for a lot of it, if not all of it. And we take it all for granted these days. Before that, they used iceblocks to keep things cold. I forget how they listened to the radio, but it seems like there was a battery with a hand crank.

Cleaning and the Desire to Knit

2010-07-07T23:37:00.003-06:00

Why does it have to be so hard to get kids to clean up after themselves? I remember when the girls were pretty good about cleaning up. These days, there is nothing but standing over them ordering them to pick up THIS and put it away. Right now I’m wondering if they will get enough done to deserve the movie I am dangling in front of them…

I really, really want to start working on my fair projects. The problem with knitting is it takes time. Sewing is a breeze time-wise. Here are some pictures of where we are with the projects right now:

The 21st Century

2010-07-06T21:06:00.000-06:00

I think we’ve got all of our movie and tv watching kinks worked out for now. The computer is now hooked up and set up for watching movies instantly on Netflix and tv online. Right now we are using Hulu. We have joined the 21st century. It is shocking. Now that we’ve done that, what can possibly be left?

Our 4th was nice. We had a get together at my husband’s uncle’s house. His uncle isn’t much older than him and has kids younger than me. We took cookies to uncle John’s suggestion for ‘the kids’. I was surprised and pleased when Brent’s cousin and her soon to be sister in law ate half of them. In Brent’s mother’s side of the family, most of the women won’t eat anything to speak of for fear of gaining weight. If I’d known people would eat the cookies, I would have taken more. I also always enjoy sitting at a table with other women that don’t dye their hair blond. I don’t want anyone to be offended by that if they do that. My mother in law doesn’t think anyone who isn’t blond is pretty. Naturally, half the women in that side of the family dye their hair blond. The same half that won’t eat anything. I think they are freaks. And I think that is the sole reason the dyeing blond thing annoys me. My mother in law’s attitude.

We went and watched our fireworks that night and they were lovely. They aren’t like something you’d get in the city, but there are perks. Picking your spot to park in an empty lot near the golf course, taking snacks and drinks to eat in the back of the truck, and waving at your friends as they drive by looking for their spot. One thing I really like is that there is no music blaring to accompany the fireworks. That is something I would hate. They do that in Boise. We saw some of it on the news the next night. Brent and I agreed that it was annoying.

I had a beastly job to do today. Dehorning the little goats. Brent was no help because he couldn’t bare thinking he was hurting them. Even when I told him they could get their heads stuck in a fence on a hot day and die before anyone found them. However, my little brother came over and we got it done. There is no worse job than one that involves the smell of burning hair and the cries of little animals. Better now than later, better a little pain than a horrible injury or death later.

He Went To Jared!

2010-07-01T22:19:00.002-06:00

I’ve had a pretty decent birthday. I was a bit surprised that the phone company couldn’t really tell me when my bill was paid up to until I asked lots of probing questions. The things we are going to turn off will go off next week. I thought they were already paid for another month, so I was surprised. I guess that is a bit more money saved. I haven’t told Brent his tv is going away in less than a week.

You may be wondering about the title of this post…

Technically, he sent his mother to Jared’s for this:

It is a Pandora charm bracelet. I love it. I will either never get another charm for it, or I will never get anything else from my family… I love that the charm says ‘Forever Together’.

There is nothing more fun than killing loads of time on Ravelry. This morning I went on the hunt for knit longs. I joined a couple for socks, one for washcloths and one for some project I couldn’t remember the name of until I typed this sentence. Versatility from the fall 2008 Knitty.

There is a bit of good news on the unemployment front. There is another bill up for consideration in Congress. But they are off on a 1 week vacation now.

My Favorite Piggy...

2010-06-30T22:23:00.003-06:00

These are my birthday flowers a day early:

We picked the roses when we went to get some hay this morning. The daisies are from one my flower beds. The vase is a pitcher that was my grandmother’s. It is definitely coolest pitcher I own. I have loved it since I was a child.

These fabrics are some I finally got around to washing today:

I got them a month or so ago to use to make summertime apron dresses for the girls. I decided to buy more of some of them because they told me they also wanted to be tops for Knitter #3. Funny how fabric can talk…

The Bad Word...

2010-06-29T22:53:00.000-06:00

Today Brent got the word that his unemployment will end in 2 weeks. This is crushing, but at least our house is paid for. I have to figure out how much money it will take for us to live every month. There are only a few things we can cut. We don’t go out a lot or do things that cost money. We can get rid of our phone and the directv. I suppose we could get rid of Netflix and the internet, but I think that would make for a lot of misery. Jobs here are so far and few between. WHAT THE FUCK IS CONGRESS THINKING?????

Dratted Summer

2010-06-27T22:50:00.001-06:00

We’ve been promised hot weather here, drat it. Apparently, we are going to have a summer after all.

The other night we got to town just as the rain quit. It was fabulous because the carnival was practically deserted. The kids rode some cars and the kiddie roller coaster, and then we found food to eat. Everyone else ate nasty corn dogs, but I ate from the booth set up by our local Chinese restaurant. The girl gave me tons of food. I was reminded why I love my fried rice. That stuff was terrible. There was a time when I loved it. I am so glad I know how to make my own Chinese food.

I am well into my first sleeve on the Pink Sweater. Tonight I was considering if I could finish another project this month, but I don’t think I can. I did decide to keep a count on the skeins of yarn I use up before September 1. There will be a count in the side bar along with the number of books I’ve read this summer.

The goat kids are getting super duper cute. They are just the cutest hopping along behind their moms out in the pen. Too bad Stanley can’t go out there. His aunt Zoe tries to bite him every chance she gets. Other than that, I can’t fault her. She’s a good mother and pretty easy to milk. Unlike her bratty sister, Belle. I bought hobbles for that wench, and that’s when the real trouble started. She managed to tear the things off and sat down so I couldn’t milk her at all. I got some great tips from the Goat Devoted group on Ravelry and from the Home Dairy Goat list on yahoo. This morning, we got enough milk to feed Stanley all day AND have nearly a quart for us. Very good.

I Couldn't Help Myself...

2010-06-25T17:26:00.001-06:00

It would seem that I am a big, fat liar. I started these mittens yesterday. Ravelry link here. They are supposed to be made with bulky yarn, but I did some swatching last night and am using Patons classic wool for them. It is worsted, but I went up a couple needle sizes and am satisfied with what I swatched.

I am nearly finished with the left front of the pink sweater. Next up will be the sleeves. Then the hood. After that, the ugly finish work. I almost never make a sweater with loads of seams to sew up. I am not actually sure why I did this time. Possibly it was because it is cotton yarn and I thought it might need the seams to help it keep its shape.

Tonight we are heading to a festival in town and it is currently storming. Hopefully it will be all blown over by the time we get there. Last night we decided not to go, and the storm never materialized. Naturally, it would be stormy tonight.

This afternoon, the UPS truck rumbled up my driveway and brought me a delightful box. The hobbles have arrived and we will see tomorrow morning how much milk I get out those goats. Zoe kicked a bit this morning, but I thought she did quite well for her first time. I’ve been able to get just enough to feed little Stanley out of Belle. I expect to get loads more tomorrow morning when she shouldn’t be able to kick or put her foot in the bucket. Maybe if I get copious amounts, I’ll post pictures.

Actual Pictures of Knitting

2010-06-24T09:34:00.002-06:00

Here are some delightful shots of unblocked Soria on Tulip:

I am not so sure how well stopping the texture where I did works. I opted not to do the upper band of color work. We will see how she does at the fair. I have no doubt she’ll be fabulous to wear in the winter.

My new finish project is the pink sweater:

I started working on it again just before the pocket shaping. When this one is done, I may start one of the other projects for the fair. I had considered starting one when I finished Soria, but I decided not to. I want to end up with fewer projects, not more.

I still haven’t taken pictures of the new babies. I keep forgetting to take the camera to the barn. This morning it was a disaster. I put both moms back in the main pen and then put their babies with them. Everyone was nursing the wrong mothers. That wouldn’t be such an issue, but the little ones need their colostrum. So I grabbed the new babies and put them in the stall they were in last night. But one of them was the wrong baby. This is a problem when they all look alike. Good thing the kids noticed he had blue eyes. I eventually got everyone sorted. Tomorrow the hobbles are supposed to arrive. Then we’ll see who puts their foot in the milk bucket. I am also going to start milking Zoe tomorrow. Hopefully, she is better about things than her sister.

Finished!

2010-06-23T23:10:00.000-06:00

Boy does it feel good to finish a project! I finished doing the neck of Soria last night. I was then going to settle in to reading a Tolkein book only to find I’d already read it. That was off-putting. Today I reserved the book I was looking for (The Fellowship of the Ring). And to keep myself occupied I got 3 medieval stories.

As for knitting, I move on to finishing the pink sweater. I have to see where I am with it, but I know I am at least half way through it. My fair plans have met with an obstacle. In the knitting categories, they have accessories. Not separate categories for hats, mittens, and scarves. Or shawls. It peeves me that they don’t have more categories in the knitting section. They always tell me that if they have entries for things they will open up categories for them. So I will take the stuff, but it still annoys me. I’m even thinking of making something crocheted to take.

Late Breaking News:

Zoe has kidded! 2 more black and white bucklings. What a downer. I wanted another doeling. I guess we can eat them. Guess we’ll see what next year brings. The year after, we’ll probably have 3 sets of babies if nothing untoward happens to Kisses.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T20:22:00.003-06:00

So much has happened since I last stopped in. We’ve had babies:

These pictures were taken on their first day. The black ones are bucklings and the white one is a doeling. That was Thursday. Their mother is mostly good. Except that she doesn’t want her smallest buckling part of the time and has developed a habit of putting her hooves in the milk bucket. This morning she kicked it over. I lost my temper at that little turn of events. I ordered some hobbles online this morning. I noticed yesterday that she was beginning to kick a bit. Hopefully the hobbles come very quickly and she learns to be a good girl on the milk stand. I really hope her sister behaves better than she does.

Last post, I promised pictures of my mitten swap package:

What a load of cool stuff! Thanks swap partner!

And I’ve decided to make some changes to the blog. For the first time since I started the blog, I am going to try out a new template. I’m not sure I like the way you come up with a new template now, though. I might have to change it every few days until I find something I like.

The Sun Came Out!

2010-06-06T07:36:00.001-06:00

This was a post for yesterday:

The sun is shining! And we all know what that means… Laundry day!

I have sorted out some of my ideas about the fair. Besides Soria, I think I will use my daughter’s pink sweater for my cardigan entry. If I can manage it, I could use some socks I was making for Brent as a sock entry. That would mean making the second sock, though. We all know what a deal breaker THAT can be.

Today I did some other fun things. Like mucking out the barn. It was going great until the sheep showed up. They are as uncooperative as goats. Maybe even more so. I had to give it up and come back to the house. And the meant it was time to finally pull out my Wii Fit Plus. I bought the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus last weekend. That thing is fun. I could seriously work out every day using that thing. I’m not sure it is really as good a workout as Kathy Smith gives me, but it is tons of fun.

There was something in the mail the other day. My ravelry mitten swap mittens. And goodies. Heavens, the goodies! Pictures next post.

Knitting Weather

2010-06-02T09:31:00.001-06:00

I am getting SO sick of rain. Normally, I wouldn’t say that. I live an arid region of the country. Enough is enough. I want to be able to mow my yard. I want to plant a garden. We have to take a dr trimmer to our garden so we can rototill it. And I am sick of being cold. In my memory, it has never rained on the last day of school. My daughter had to wear a jacket to school this morning! My animals are going to start thinking we live on the coast if this crap doesn’t stop.

I will try to look on the bright side if the sun shows back up.

I think today I am going to be knitting. Tomorrow might be a sewing day if I can get the swap mittens done. I have gotten the urge to finish the quilt for our bed that I started 2 or 3 years ago. I also have a quilt kit I bought for the girls’ room. It would be nice to make it before they start to dislike flowers and butterflies all over everything. Not to mention it is taking up a lot of space in my fabric stash. And then there is the fleece I bought to make a big patchwork blanket for their bed. Fleece really takes up a lot of space. Hmmm. It seems like I am really good on the thinking up of the great projects and not so good on the making.

I just thought of the bright side! Rainy days are great for knitting and sewing. How silly of me to forget that.

A Knitting Day

2010-05-31T15:43:00.001-06:00

Today is a knitting day. I have a mitten to finish for a swap. I made the color pattern up as I went with the first mitten. I was afraid it wasn’t going to fit her hand, so I had to rip half the hand back and lengthen it. I really hate when things like that happen. Just when you think you’ve hit the homestretch, you have to backtrack. At least it isn’t the sweater project I had a few years ago that I had nearly finished and had to rip completely and start over because it was too big.

I am probably going to take Soria to the fair this year. And I want to knit a lace scarf. What I would really like is for them create a division for shawls. I’m going to knit the Myrtle Leaf Shawl from Victorian Lace today. I’m thinking about getting some Malabrigo lace weight for it. I do have some lace weight yarn, but I don’t care for the color. I’m not sure if I will have the time to finish anything else to take to the fair. It is only 2 months away. Sewing is a whole different story. I’ll probably do some clothes for the kids for school and definitely an apron. It really annoys me that there something like 30 categories for crochet and about 10 for knitting.

The sheep are out in the front pasture for the first time today. Brent finished fencing it yesterday. It feels good to have some more pasture fenced for them. We are planning on building a shed for them, too. I don’t trust those wethers around my baby goats. I think in the future I will buy ewes.

School's Out!

2010-05-30T13:21:00.003-06:00

Wow, it seems like there’s been so much keeping me from posting. School stuff, outside work, inside work. Work, work, work. I just want to time to sew and knit! All this work business is for the birds. I need lots of leisure for knitting.

I am officially on summer break. Knitter #2 will be on break starting Wednesday afternoon. I plan on spending a lot of time knitting and sewing. I need to get some stuff made to take to the fair.

Here are a few things I’ve been up to lately:

I made dog treats:

They were training treats. The main ingredient is pureed beef liver. No shot after they were baked, because they looked like poo. My kids even thought so.

Knitter #3 and I made Rhubarb Pie:

Brent asked for it and loved it. He is now sold on rhubarb. Incidentally, I have the same rhubarb plants that I ate from as a child. It is a testament to how tough that stuff is. It grew unattended and unwatered at Dad’s for atleast 15 years. It is thriving here.

And lastly, something Brent built:

So I could get the goats trained to it for milking:

And hoof trimming which is sorely needed. Zoey and Belle are not real keen on it right now, but they will thank me later. Maybe. I grew up with cattle who never had to get their hooves trimmed, so I wasn’t expecting hoof trimming to be something I needed to do. I felt like an idiot when I realized I should have been trimming their hooves from the time they were little. Live and learn. At least their hooves aren’t really bad. I read that not trimming them can be crippling.

A Sad Loss

2010-05-09T22:00:00.000-06:00

This a crappy way to make a post after weeks of silence. Mother’s Day was fabulous until about 9 pm. My oldest aunt called to tell me that my aunt Jo died. It was a shock. Aunt Jo has always been my youngest child’s favorite person in the whole world. I haven’t told my kids yet. There is no easy or good way to tell your 4 year old that her favorite person in the whole world is gone. How do you even do that? I didn’t know anyone who died until I was 15. My poor kids have had 3 very special people die in the past year and a half. It is so sad.

We’ve had lots of good stuff going on, and maybe I can post about it soon.

Escapees

2010-04-11T21:39:00.005-06:00

My next post was going to feature pictures of our huge load of fencing stuff and a puppy picture. And maybe whining about not getting much knitting time because of all the fence building. Instead, it will include me regaling you about the sheep escaping. I would like to call it ‘The Great Sheep Escape’, but if I did, it would just guarantee an even bigger and more exciting snafu down the road. So I won’t. When I went to refill their water trough and get them in tonight, I had no sheep. I thought it was odd when not a one poked its head out of the barn. And the hole in the fence wasn’t real obvious. I was concerned that some weirdo might have stolen my sheep to eat them. I ran to the house and told Brent they were gone. Then I ran back up to the pen and found the hole. I felt better knowing they were just escapees. That was when they appeared, trotting, bucking, and just generally showing off how smart they were for getting out.

It is times like that when you really wish you had a sheep dog. Or fences. Or a bunch of panels you can set up to trick/force them back home. Instead, I had to be sneaky. I put big leaf of hay in the pen and then tore off a few chunks and threw it out to lead them in. Then I left them. They are now safely imprisoned in the barn. Smart alecs. Wanting real grass instead of boring old hay.

The goats were elated to see me when I went up to the barn. In fact, I think they were quite happy with the situation. Finally those sheep were GONE. Either that or they wanted me to know how GOOD they were compared to those naughty sheep. The goats apparently had NO interest in leaving.

Puppy interlude:

This picture is from Jodi’s puppy blog. Jodi also blogs here. Ain’t she the cutest? I can’t wait to have her cute little self here.

Now that you’ve seen the puppy cuteness, the down and dirty work:

The poor truck. We almost had second thoughts about taking it all in one load. But we did, and I am glad. Friday, we drove a lot of posts. Yesterday we did quite a few, too. Today we rested and just helped Brent’s mom. Here is a picture from Friday:

The dog in the picture is Sunny. She belongs to my little brother who is having an adventure in another country right now. The other black blob is Mouser, who has appeared here before. Once looking into a bucket containing a mouse. Sunny is a border collie cross and is a very fun dog. Unfortunately, not a trained stock dog. However, she is very sweet and she’s a joy to have for several weeks. I might not want to let her go home. It is really fun to have a dog I can take out of the yard with me. Sam is too blind to have out wandering around. Naturally, the kid and the man are mine. Knitter #3 and Brent. Hard at work.

April, Pups, and Easter

2010-04-04T15:39:00.003-06:00

This is how April started:

It accumulated over an inch that morning. You will note it was April 1. It snowed Friday and yesterday, too. WHEN is April going to arrive?!

Well. Yesterday we made a road trip to Nampa to meet someone we will love and adore for many, many years I hope:

This is the puppy I am getting to help herd the sheep. I think we are going to call her Maggie. She will be coming home in about a month.

It is Easter and we’ve had egg hunting. These are the eggs the girls dyed. I made dye with food coloring this year. They are our own home grown eggs:

In the past, I’ve bought eggs when we wanted to have lighter colored eggs. I just mixed darker colors since our eggs don’t allow for yellow or orange eggs. I am going to make notes about this year. I followed instructions on my food coloring box. Using less food coloring, I could have lighter, less intense colors. It doesn’t feel like easter to me without pink eggs. There is something appealing about the dark colored eggs, though. I especially like the experimental ones that came out a purplish black. Perhaps they are dragon eggs…

A funny thing happened the other night. My brother’s dog, Sunny, is staying with while he’s out of town. She is a border collie/spaniel cross. I was putting the sheep and goats up for the night when one of the sheep thought about giving me some trouble. Until he caught sight of Sunny racing up the fence line in the yard. Then he rushed into the barn. He knows what a flash of black and white dog means. There are 3 wonderful working border collies on the farm my sheep came from. I am so happy I will have one here soon!

Time For a New Friend

2010-03-31T14:16:00.001-06:00

It is time for us to get a new dog. Sam is old and blind. He is in great shape, but he can’t do any sheep herding for me. And I’d like to get a dog before he starts to go downhill. Not to mention he loves having someone to hang out with. So, I am searching around to find a nice border collie. One to herd the sheep and goats when I need to and to be a fun friend for us all. And female. I’ve been around male dogs all of my life, but Sam has been a real trial. When he was young, he wanted to fight with every male dog he met, he wanted to bite almost everyone he met, and he’d get even with me when I left him home by peeing on things. He has mellowed with age, thank heavens. Sam was a good cow dog when we were on the ranch, though. I do not want another dog in my life that I have to watch like a hawk. Finding a decent sheep dog is not easy. Everyone thinks their dog is the best stock dog ever.

I am sad that we now only have 2 cats. Spotty passed away night before last. She was almost 17. My cat, Bob, does not admit to missing her. I know she does. She’s got no one to hiss at, now. They were the same age and Bob absolutely lived to give Spot a good hissing and swat at her. Brent said she was sitting out on the porch with her friend yesterday before he buried Spot. Our outside cat, Mouser, came in to look around the house last night. I think she was probably looking around for Spot. Spot started out life with my friend Hillary and then came to live with our family. She stayed with my Dad when I got married. When Dad died, she came to our house to spend her old age with her ‘sister’. I miss her even though her early morning demands for food were annoying.

Enough animal talk. How about some allergy talk? Mine are making me miserable. I’m back to taking Benadryl and I’m a zombie. Between the lack of sleep because of allergies and the medicine to help with them, I don’t really know what I am up to. All I know for sure is I am making yogurt and we have soccer tonight.

Just for the record, I am glad March is almost over. I am ready for a new season and a new outlook. I want bright flowers, sunshine, and fun.

Proof of Knitting

2010-03-23T17:01:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a hard day. We cleaned house. The children’s toys were forced back to their homes and room was made for our ‘new’ recliner. The kids’ room is still a nightmare, but at least you can see the floor in some spots. They wouldn’t clean their room until I told them they weren’t allowed in there while I was cleaning it. It worked like a charm. Of course, it was an accidental discovery.

How about proof of knitting? This is a pair of legwarmers for Knitter #2. She has ballet. Nice warm legwarmers just in time for winter to be over:

And this is Soria as of yesterday afternoon:

She no longer looks like this. If I actually knit, I could be done with Soria in less than a week.

With the legwarmers done and Soria nearing completion, I’ve been thinking about unfinished projects. I am thinking about getting out projects I haven’t worked on in a while. There’s a sweater for Knitter #2 that is about half done. And my Monkey Socks. And some socks for Brent. I may be in that place where I actually want to finish things. If that place really exists. Back in the old days, I only had 1 or 2 projects at a time and they always got finished. Then one year, I tried to make too many things at Christmas. I have had ufo problems ever since then. I don’t think I am prepared to discuss finishing the bear sweaters yet. I loved knitting the bears, but the sweaters and sewing the bears together was a whole different story. I have learned to love Christmas sewing projects since that year. I could go back to having 1 larger project and 1 small project. That would be so cool. I would feel SO on top of it then!

After we got done cleaning yesterday, I went through a knitting basket and found my Cathedral Mitten project:

What a tangled mess it was. I often wonder HOW knitting gets that way just sitting in a basket. Here is the pleasant, after shot:

I think I will finish my sock projects before tackling this one…

New Pals

2010-03-21T17:00:00.003-06:00

It’s been so long since I posted. Our trip to Seattle was great. When we got home, it was very spring. The grass had grown noticeably. And, the following Friday, we took a little road trip to the farm with the Shetlands. And these little darlings came back with us:

Skye

Skye, McLean, and Ruby

Ruby

I didn’t get a good shot of McLean, he seemed to get in most of the pictures, though. He is definitely the friendliest. He has no problem with letting give him plenty of scratching on the neck every morning. Skye and Ruby are a little more skittish. Sometimes Skye will let me pet him. The first few days were a real experience. I had to save the goats from the McLean the first night. I was afraid they were going to get super stressed and lose their kids. I had to let them out and have the run of the barn which was not good. Zoe still wants the run of the barn. McLean and Skye are wethers and Ruby is a ewe.

I got a little bonus from my new friend, Lois:

Kefir grains! I love kefir. It is going to be a nice addition to smoothies around here. We’ve become smoothie drinkers because Brent went in to the Men’s Health Check this past week. It’s been a hoot for his friends and siblings. You know this means the report wasn’t good, right? He has to go back to see the doctor in 6 weeks. In the meanwhile, he has to walk briskly 40 minutes at least 4 times a week, no more junk food, no fried foods, and they gave him some books on diabetes. His blood sugar was 120. 100 to 125 is considered pre-diabetes. The doctor says he has gained 30 lbs in 2 years. He has gained 20 to 25 of it in the past year. His cholesterol was also high. I’ve been telling him for the past year that he needed to quit eating so much junk and get off his backside and do something besides stare at the tv. Doctors are so much better at scaring men than wives are. He’s already lost 3 lbs. Since Tuesday. I’m pretty sure it’s his vastly lowered salt intake. The funny part was he’d just been to Walmart and loaded up on snacks he can’t eat anymore. Feel free to laugh. I am thrilled that he is embracing this new forced health kick. I will breathe much easier if he gets his blood sugar down below 100. If I ate the way he has in the past, I would weigh 300 lbs.

I finished a knitting project today, too! Pictures next post.

Gettin' My Thrifting Shoes On

2010-03-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve wasted my day packing and playing on the internet. I have all the stuff packed that I want to take to keep the kids occupied. So much for clothes. Well, we girls do have underwear. However, there is just one bag for all of us to put our clothes in. This is going to be interesting. Everyone can have just one pair of shoes. But a change of clothes and pajamas do seem important. I have a feeling that I will be rummaging in the closet for another bag. Plus, I want to go thrifting when I am in Seattle. They have better stuff up there than we have here. I plan to bring back as much loot as I can.

Speaking of thrifting, my sister in law, Cherie, has been buying sweaters and felting them to make mittens. Like these:

She really should sell them, but I don’t think she is going to. I asked her if I could buy some of her mittens last week when things were a bit too exciting. Then we never talked about it, and she told my husband she left me some mittens at his mom’s house on the counter. I love them. These obviously weren’t made from an all wool sweater, but most of them are. I’ve looked at similar mittens on Etsy and Ebay. Hers are way nicer looking.

Crazy Stuff

2010-03-02T20:21:00.001-07:00

I finally seem to be shaking that cruddy cold. I came down with it on Monday and spent most of Saturday in bed. Nice, huh? Needless to say, I didn’t knit much for the ravelympics. But I am not in it to actually finish. I am in it just to participate. Or at least pretend to!

I was touched with a little inspiration during the week and picked up some fabric to make some grocery bags at JoAnn’s. I’ve washed and folded the fabric and it sits gathering dust on the sewing table. I can’t really start anything just now because I am going to be really busy this week.

I think next week we will be going up to the sheep farm. I was happy to hear from the breeder that Mapquest had not been attempting to lead us astray. I don’t trust those things. They tend to send people a good 15 miles out of their way if they are coming to an address on our road. It tells people to go way up the state highway instead of turning in town and following a paved road out of town that our road intersects. 10 miles up the highway and then backtrack however many miles back. I actually tested the thing to see how I could get it to tell me to use our way to get to town, and it is an extra 15 miles by their calculations. And they have us 2.4 miles from the road right across from our driveway. Right across. Anyway, the sheep. I am getting a couple colors at least. I will get 3 if I can. I’d buy more sheep if I thought I could afford them. Like if Brent was working. I think 3 sheep and the 2 goats should do a good job of grazing off the grass around the house. The more I think about it, the more I think even more sheep would be better. We have plenty of property to graze. But I have to think of the facilities I currently have, too. We can add more later. They will still exist…

The craziest thing happened tonight. I was reading a blog post at The ADD Knitter and she made a reference to the Dionne quintuplets. I couldn’t believe it. They were the first quintuplets to survive infancy. They were born the same year as my father, 1934. My grandmother made a scrapbook for my Dad and uncle and she had pictures of them in it. She also said their childhood was a travesty. The government in Ontario took the girls from their parents to make money off of them. I couldn’t believe there was anyone under the age of 65 besides me that knew who they were. It was so cool.

Sad Goodbyes

2010-02-28T22:55:00.003-07:00

This is just a short post. I've been horribly sick all week. And sadly, early friday morning my mother-in-laws husband passed away. All of us are so concerned for her. She's lost her husband in the middle of moving house. Today was fits of cleaning interrupted with emails from Brent's uncle who was writing a very touching obituary.

Luane, we all love you.

Puppy Love

2010-02-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Brent never ceases to surprise me. He was all for me getting some sheep. And I was SO worried he would be unhappy about it. And then he suggested instead of fencing the whole place, we should just make the sheep and goats their own pasture. That was a bit surprising. Right now, I am waiting to find out how much the sheep are going to be. I could get some wethers right now if I want. But I might want to wait until summer and get some youngsters. It kind of depends on when we can fence a pasture and how much they are going to cost.

It is a week into the Olympics and I realized I had knit like half an inch of my project. I predict that I will not finish it in time. Right now it is at my MIL’s house. We went over this afternoon to help her and check on my SIL, Cherie. She is Brent’s older sister. They came over yesterday and Cherie woke up really sick this morning. She spent the day throwing up and having the dry heaves. They went to the ER late this afternoon and they gave her some things to help. The tests were inconclusive. Brent is convinced his mother gave her food poisoning. She is feeling better now and was able to eat dinner with us.

Cherie has the cutest toy Schnauzer. He is chocolatey brown with a bit of silver and is really tall for a toy Schnauzer. He isn’t much more than a puppy, so he is very fun. Scout decided we could be friends after I took him for a walk and then pulled all of the stickers out of his beard. We’ve had OLD dogs for so long, I’d forgotten how fun dogs are when they are young. My dog is very energetic, but he is also blind. Sam has tons of bounce, gets excited easily, and then runs into everything in the house on his way to the back door. His hearing is not what it once was, either. But it isn’t bad. He depends completely on his hearing to locate us, so it is very important. Considering Sam’s age, he is in incredible condition. He will be 15 this summer if I remember right. If I am wrong, he will only be 14.

My Day Off

2010-02-17T14:00:00.002-07:00

Today is a kitchen day. I need to make cookies or buy snacks. And the yogurt was begging me to be made. There’s no sun today, so going outside isn’t as fun. Of course, there is always the spinning wheel…

I filled this up finally and now I have a new, empty one on the wheel. When I fill the third one up, I will have to buy more. OR. I could do something with it. There’s always that.

Here is the second valentine dress, free of yogurt:

I really like how both of them turned out, but I still want to fix the sleeves on the second dress.

I’m tired of not seeing the sun. This dreary weather is the pits. I’ll have my fill of sun this summer, but a few hours now would be nice. That nice weather last weekend made a spoiled girl of me.

I’ve been talking to my husband about building fence and getting steers. It is my feeling that he is probably not going to be keen on buying an animal that he doesn’t get eat or drink of. Of course, I am sure he’s probably not going to be so annoyed that I have to not get any sheep. It is just another conversation that I somehow dread having. He’s been pretty grumpy about everything lately. He can’t do much outside and being out of work this long isn’t fun. But I think what really is bothering him is his mom’s pending move to the country. I love my mother in law, but she can be a royal pain in anyone’s behind. She always wants Brent to do something for her. Up until now, the house they have here has been a weekend place for them. They live in Boise, about 80 miles from here. They can’t really afford to live there anymore and her husband’s health is failing quickly. So, while she can be a horrible pain, we also feel for her. She has to get rid of a lot of stuff since 2 houses do not easily become one. Especially when the 2 houses are decorated in different styles. This morning he asked me to call and I think it was because he couldn’t take it if his mother cried again. The whole family is stressing over this.

Goaty Cuteness

2010-02-16T21:30:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to share some goaty cuteness today:

I don’t understand how anyone could not love goats. To know them is to love them. They have so much personality. My life was so boring before and I just didn’t know it. As born farm girl, I find that I need livestock to be happy. I am thinking about getting some Shetland sheep so I can have a diversified flock. Once on Ravelry I read that chickens are gateway livestock. First you get chickens, then other birds, which leads things like pigs, goats, and sheep. And the next thing you know, you have a horse and 3 cows, too. I thought it was very funny, but it is also quite true. I think I will stick with the smaller animals. I like animals that can’t hurt me that much. I was kicked in the chest by a Holstein once.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T12:36:00.002-07:00

I got both of the valentine dresses finished. They are both cute, but I only have pictures of the first one. The second one has yogurt on the front of it.

With this dress, I discovered the wonders of elastic thread. And with the second one, I discovered the troubles of elastic thread. It worked wonderfully with the first dress and not at all with the second one. I did everything the same. I suspect the difference is the weight of the fabric. I need to look it up online so I can finish the sleeves on the second dress.

Now I am considering what to do next sewing-wise. January is over, so I am free of my no yarn and no fabric buying diet. I have a vintage pattern that I started cutting out last summer. And I have a peasant dress for the girls that I cut out late last summer. I am leaning towards my dress so I can get all the fabric put to use. There is a lot of fabric with it. I can’t wait to wear it. It is definitely a warm weather dress. It is a poofy skirted halter dress from the 50’s. There is a little jacket you can make to go with it.

With my knitting, I am still working toward separating front from back on Soria. It seems to be taking forever. I haven’t had a lot of knitting time this past week. I starting making knitting time for myself yesterday. I also cast on for the Bonsai Tunic that was in the spring 2007 IK. It is my Ravelympics project. I am still casting on because I didn’t leave a long enough tail and I had to start all over. The Bonsai is knit in pieces, but of course, I am knitting it in one piece. I expect to have lots of vests to wear for next winter.

All the warm, sunny weather here has me anticipating spring. Spring fever has really set in. I ordered my garden seeds the other day from Southern Exposure and Territorial. I order more from Southern Exposure because they tend to have more drought hardy and heat tolerant varieties than Territorial does. That is very important around here.

The girls keep saying they want it to be summer. Right now it is hard to imagine it being so hot outside we won’t want to go outside after 10 am. I long for weather warm enough to wear tank tops and capris or shorts, too. When the heat finally comes, I will long for the short, cold days of December when the solstice comes. People are so fickle.

Have a nice, handmade Valentine’s Day. Make a valentine for your Valentine!

Thinking of Spring

2010-02-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a nice day to be outdoors. It was warm enough to go out without an actual coat, the snow is all gone, and the sun felt so good. I know that this weather isn’t going to last, but it felt so much like spring. In fact, it felt like a day in late March, but without the wind we almost always have at that time. And today looks like more of the same.

Last night I spent some time looking some stuff up on goat care at Fiasco Farm and found their gestation calculator. It looks like I’ll be getting baby goats for my birthday. I’ve been making a list of things I need to get. Like tattoo pliers and hoof trimmers. I’ve been such a slacker because I know I need to have this stuff on hand for when I need it. I was born and raised on a ranch. That’s probably why I didn’t think about getting it, actually. We always had the stuff.

I got started with the Valentine’s dresses yesterday afternoon. I got all the parts cut out for the first dress. I’m not going to cut out the second one until the first one is done. That way if I want to change something, I can. The girls pretty much wear the same size, Knitter #2 just needs things longer than Knitter #3. I need to sew the first dress today if I am going to get them both done by Thursday. Their parties are on Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday is Brent’s birthday. He told me the girls could get him presents, but I didn’t need to. So I bought him some fish for our tank. He’s been taking care of them and has complained that our Plecostamus doesn’t keep it clean. So I bought another one, some neons, and a couple Mickey Mouse Platys. By the time I got home, there were baby Platys. I don’t know if they snuck in with the water or if one of the fish had them on the way home. I put in some plastic grass for them to hide in. We have a 55 gallon tank that had less than a dozen fish in before I bought fish on Saturday. About once a year, I go buy a bunch of cool fish for our tank and usually most of them die. It is very annoying to spend $50 on fish to have only 5 or 6 fish a month later. And last year I went to a lot of trouble to make sure our tank was healthy before I went and bought fish. If these guys all thrive, I will go back for more fish. I love Mollies and Swordtails, but they didn’t do well for me last year. Heck, if we have a tank full of fish, I might be inspired to buy a new hood for our tank. I love watching fish.

Valentine's Sewing

2010-02-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, when I was looking at patterns online, I decided the girls need Valentine’s dresses. I knew the V-day fabrics would be on sale, and I had found the perfect pattern that was on sale. Sadly, they were all out of that pattern. Fortunately, I have tons of dress patterns. I looked one up in the book and found it in the drawer to get the yardage off the back of the envelope. I’m going to add an underskirt with an eyelet ruffle to make them super girly. Not just regular girly.

I’ve used this pattern before. I made a dress for Knitter #2 when she was in preschool. It was WAY too big for her then, so I haven’t used the pattern again until now. She loved the dress, but I had to take it away because it developed a tear at the top. Every dress that I’ve made them that called for you to stay stitch from each side has done that unless I overlapped the stay stitching. Nothing is more off putting than to have a dress be worn 3 or 4 times and then it rips. I don’t buy cheap fabric for their clothes. I want the clothes to last. I’d like to see their kids wear the stuff, too. Providing they have girls to wear the dresses…

Gardening season will be upon us soon. It would behoove me to see if I even have any tomato seeds. If I don’t, I really need to order some. You can’t assume that just because you bought Brandywines and Mortgage Lifters last year that you will be able to get them this year. 2 years ago I bought them to augment our tomato patch and last year they were not to be had at any point in the garden planting season. And this year I have promised myself I won’t kill my baby plants like I did last year and 3 years ago. Hopefully this year the garden will thrive. I bought a book on drip systems to help with that problem. And if we have a bumper crop of grass hoppers, I think I will herd some chickens into the garden. They can’t harm it more than the grasshoppers did last year. I’ve never had chickens devour my entire garden.

A Bagel-y Day

2010-02-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today I made bagels. Yummy. Knitter #2 will be very happy. She loves to have half a bagel for breakfast. I’m worried my yeast is starting to get old, so I used a bit more than I usually do. Since my bagels came out fine, I have to draw the conclusion that it IS getting old. I like to buy it in large quantities because it is cheaper, but then I slack off on baking and it doesn’t get used up fast enough. This means I need to bake more, obviously. Or start buying in smaller quantities.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about doing different things with my hair. I love my hair, but I also want to change it. I think it was back in November that I had highlights put in. I don’t think I will do that again. They look nice, but I like the darkness of my hair. I rather like having my hair match my nearly black eyes. Now I am thinking about adding some bangs. I haven’t had bangs in something like 15 years. I’ve spent the last 3 months looking for pictures of people with hair like mine. There is no point in getting my hair cut to look like something it just isn’t. Like straight as a rail. My hair is wavy, and I have always loved really straight hair. I never used to understand what people meant when they talk about how important a woman’s hair was to her. When I was young, I would regularly cut it all off. Now it doesn’t grow so fast and I worry about even having some bangs cut. Oh, to be 20 again. But just for the hair.

A few days ago, I told my cousin I would pick her up on my way to JoAnn’s because they have Butterick patterns on sale this weekend. Well, probably all week. Anyway, I keep a list of patterns I want. Today I checked my list and there weren’t any Butterick patterns on it. Ha ha, joke’s on me. I am so desperate to be away from my kids and Brent, that I spent the morning looking for Butterick patterns that I might want. I did find some Vogue patterns I want, so it’s all good now.

So Long Chester

2010-02-04T18:16:00.002-07:00

Yesterday we took Chester home and did a dance. He’s a nice enough goat, but he doesn’t smell very pretty. Not that he smells really bad. And once the fun part of visiting the girls was over, he started treating them the way bucks treat other goats. One of the girls was afraid of him by the time he left. Right after he came, I made a decision about how things are going to be set up when we have a buck. The buck pen is going to be well away from the girls’ barn and they will go visit him. I don’t want that smell in my milking area. Milk is sensitive to odors. Anyway, happiness and girliness reigns in the goat barn once again.

My Soria vest is coming along nicely. I’m starting to get impatient to wear it. I have mere inches to go before I get to divide for the front and back. If it hadn’t been so gloomy today, I would have pictures.

A while back, Heather of The A.D.D. Knitter said something about doing the Autumn Rose Pullover for the Ravelympics. I not only dared her, I double dog dared her to do it in 2 weeks. An entire sweater on size 2’s in 2 weeks? I think she is crazy, but I will be so in awe of her if she actually pulls it off.

Vest Obsession

2010-01-23T14:49:00.003-07:00

When you make cinnamon rolls for breakfast, the rest of the day just goes better than if you just had cold cereal or toast. I spent my morning with a good book and warm mugs of tea on the couch. I hope yours was just as nice.

Yesterday I finally sat down at the sewing machine and got out the button hole foot. I got all my buttonholes done and now I have a bunch of buttons to get sewn on. I also dug through the stuff still piled around from when we painted and found my patterns. They are patterns for dolls that I have made up myself. And I got a fabulous idea for bunnies to make the girls for Easter. I don’t know when it is this year, I’ll have to check. A couple years ago, I made them some cool bunnies that I had seen in an embroidery book. I’m thinking of making some even cooler bunnies using the pattern I drew up for the first ones. Speaking of Easter, my Mom had the coolest Easter basket when I was a kid. My Aunt Icil made these baskets from a pattern in a magazine once upon a time. It was crocheted with variegated thread, starched, and dried on an upside down bowl to give it the shape. It was beautiful. If I could find the pattern, I could make some this year. I copied the pattern once upon a time and I think I came across it some time in the past year. Or maybe my mom had gotten a copy from my aunt and I found it. If I am lucky, I will be able to find it again. I wish I had a picture of the one Mom had.

Anyone out there joining the Ravelympics? I went hunting for it last week and signed up. I am going to make myself a Bonsai Tunic from the Spring 2007 IK, page 67. I am making mine with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted. I got the idea when I ordered some yarn last summer and was sent the worsted instead of the bulky I ordered. For the past year, I’ve been working up to an obsession with knitting vests. For a long time I have admired More Stripes by Amy King for a long time. And the Bonsai Tunic. And Talia. Obviously, when Soria came along, I was going to be obsessed with it. Anyhoo, last summer I was ordering yarn for Talia and Versatility (strangely, not a vest) when I was sent the “wrong” yarn that seemed like it would be great for a Bonsai Tunic. I don’t have yarn to make More Stripes yet. Maybe a I could knit a few more before buying yarn for another! I started into my vest knitting in August when I knit this fabulous little vest from DROPS:

I love it, but if I make another one, I won’t bother with the buttonholes and buttons because I prefer it unbuttoned. It fits so well that I don’t really need the buttons and it adds just the right amount of warmth when it is cool.

Wow. I have a lot links for this post. Maybe after that I should knit a vest.

7 Stitches

2010-01-20T21:45:00.003-07:00

It is so wet here right now. We’re having all this warm weather that is melting the snow off and quite a bit of rain, as well. The rivers are not flooding yet, so horrific local stories on the news. Just the news from Haiti. We donated some money to the relief effort. Brent isn’t really one to talk about doing things like that, but one day he asked me if we could. I am so thankful that we don’t have horrific catastrophes here in Idaho. The only thing we live in fear of is fire.

Sunday night we had a trauma. The girls were running back and forth and the unspeakable happened. One of them fell and got hurt. Emergency room bad. She has 7 stitches in her face until tomorrow morning. When I was helping the nurses and doctor bind her up with a pillowcase and blankets, I told her it was like when you wrap a baby up tight in blankies. She liked it for about 30 seconds. Once it was deadened things improved. Today she finally seems like her normal self. And I lived through it, too.

We finally had enough sunshine that I was able to take some pictures today. So first we have a progress shot of Soria:

I am loving this project. Sometimes cables can be taxing and not fun. I really enjoy the 1 row out of every 4 that I get to make cables. Many thanks to Heather, aka The ADD Knitter for her compliments on Soria a couple days ago.

We went and did a little shopping today and I found these at my favorite thrift shop:

I am going to alter them. I am pretty sure the girl who rang it all up wondered why I was buying so many black purses. I will show pictures one of these days when I collect everything I need for the project.

Here a couple things I’ve made lately:

I made a bunch of the tissue covers for my etsy shop. This one is the prototype that I am keeping. The other thing is a little credit card wallet. It is small and perfect when I don’t want to carry my purse with me. Perfect as long as I have pockets, that is. I think it will be handy in my purse for keeping track of my Bi-Mart card.

Opening Shop!

2010-01-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on a whim, I pushed a button on Etsy and re-opened my shop. It was just that easy. I had made some scarves last month for it and took the pictures. And did nothing. I guess I wasn’t ready until yesterday. Apparently, it is the right time for me, because I’ve made a bunch of small things besides the scarves in the past 24 hours.

The goats have settled in and seem to all be happy. This morning, I did notice an odor about the buck. I expect it could give you a headache if you were exposed to it enough in an enclosed space. The new trick is getting the girls to stay in the barn while I close the door. I can’t give them grain while the buck is here because he can’t have grain. Grain is how I trick them into staying out of my way while I lock them in. They thought apple chunks were just plain mean tonight. Possibly worse than nothing at all.

When I get several repeats of my cables on Soria, I will show a fabulous picture of them. A picture, anyway.

Goat Freaks

2010-01-14T22:32:00.001-07:00

Strange to make 2 posts in one day, but it seemed warranted. My goats are freaks! We went and picked up Chester, the buck I chose to breed them to, and brought him home late this afternoon. Thank God we got him here a good hour and a half before dark. Those girls acted like they’d never seen another goat before. They acted like he was the devil incarnate and he was desperate to make friends with them. Poor Chester. And when he followed them in the barn, I thought someone was going to get hurt. Belle and Zoe were so desperate to escape, I thought Belle was going to maim herself. Fortunately, by dark they decided they could be within 10 feet of him without dying. This was SO not the reaction I expected. I expected standoffishness. I hope the barn is still standing in the morning and that everyone is ok. He is a nice little guy. And he doesn’t even smell all that bad. To be honest, I didn’t even notice an odor. Perhaps in a few days it will stand out. Maybe I can manage a some goaty cuteness type pictures in the next few days.

And to Rima, thanks for the nice comment on my sewing!

Colorwork: Finished!

2010-01-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

I’ve finally finished the color work band on Soria and have knitting away on the cable pattern. I don’t think I’ve done this particular cable before, so I’m getting to do something new. Many years ago, I made an aran sweater from a kit. However, I never wear it because it is rather ill fitting. It is a raglan sleeve, v-neck cardigan and it just doesn’t fit right in the shoulders. Someday I will probably unravel it and make a sweater that fits better. I still have the leftover yarn from it.

This afternoon we are going to pick up a buck to breed our does to. He is young, but was a cute baby. I’ve seen his baby picture. The woman we got our girls from boards him and thinks he will be a good buck. She bred some of her does to him, too. His name is Chester. I’m hoping we can get him here and set free with the girls before dark. As soon as class is done this afternoon, the kiddo and I will come home so we can head out to pick her sis up from school and hit the road. Chester lives about 35 miles from here. Maybe more. Brent is supposed to have the truck and carrier ready to go when we get home. The nice thing about minis is that you can use the big dog carriers for them instead of having to have a horse trailer.

Pictures of cables soon…

Maintaining Control...

2010-01-08T15:05:00.005-07:00

I was looking at some sewing projects last night and saw a dress someone had made that was slightly different than a pattern I have. And I suddenly needed to make that dress. And I knew what I wanted to line it with. Some silky stuff I saw a while back that would feel as cool as a mouthful of lemon curd on a hot summer day. And then I started to think I would want to call it my Lemon Curd Dress. I don’t have the fabric for it, and in my mind I am already wearing it… How will I survive a month of not buying fabric?!

The other day, we hit our favorite local thrift store. I found my new favorite jeans there and I some old floral sheets that were screaming to be dresses. I made them all mine. I wish I had seen this tutorial before I had left, because they had some nice purses that I could have upcycled for gifts.

But hey, this used to be a knitting blog. In case people doubt that I still knit, I decided to get pictures of both projects I’ve actually been working on in the past week. I am starting to see the light of day with the color work on Soria:

And these are the Little Ballerina Legwarmers:

If it weren’t for Facebook, I would have a lot more time for knitting and sewing. Last summer, when my older brother was here, he introduced me to Farmtown. And until I got high speed, I couldn’t really do anything with it. Now I am planning my crops so that they are ready to harvest on my days off. I’ve had to get tough with myself about the time I am spending there. I do have a whole other life away from Farmtown, afterall. It is like Ravelry. It sucks me in and 5 hours later I wonder where the time went.

Lastly, it is January. That means I have to start planning the gardening. I need to start my plants soon. And I think I am all out of tomato seeds necessitating a visit to my favorite seed people at Southern Exposure. I love them.

Lots of Sewing Projects

2010-01-03T20:01:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year. Tomorrow is going to be my last day before I go back to work. The super taxing 5 hour a week job. How will I survive?! Right now, I am just praying to get over this horrid cold I’ve been suffering through. It’ll be nice to breathe with my nose again. I am very happy to say my tail bone is feeling much better.

I think I’ve done pretty well with my plan to sew my way through my stash. I’ve all but finished 3 tops (2 need buttons and buttonholes), 2 skirts, 2 little girl nightgowns,1 bag and cut out another top. I think my plan now will be to finish up some projects. There was a bag on the sewing machine when I started my foray a couple weeks ago. It is a much more involved project than the bag I whipped out today. Here are the projects I’ve finished since I last posted:

The black top the that was kicking my a** the last time I was here. When it has buttons we’ll see if I can wear it out in public.

This pink one is the same pattern, but with longer sleeves. It is the third top I’ve made with this pattern. I love it. It is Simplicity 2936.

This bag came from the last summer’s June issue of McCall’s Quilting. The pictures that show how to stuff it inside the carrying pocket were a bit confusing to me. But the instructions were fine. It is supposed to be a shopping bag. There are also supposed to be buttons on it to close it. I haven’t picked them out of the button box yet, though.

The next top will be made with the shirt pattern from the Sewing U book by Wendy Mullin (as in Built By Wendy). The skirt pattern was great, so I have high hopes about the other patterns. I’d like to have her book on knits, too.

Maybe I will show some of my knitting next post…

Fun Hurts

2009-12-31T14:29:00.002-07:00

I was SO sick with a cold yesterday that I can’t remember the last time a cold had me down like that. And then we went sledding and I hit my tailbone so hard on a bump that it hurts like crazy when I get up from sitting. I had forgotten how thrilling it is fly down a hill at lightning speed. In spite of all that, I managed to finish my skirt and get most of the way through a top.

My skirt:

This skirt is McCall’s 5390. I love, love, love it. I might have to put it on later when I don’t have to go out in the snow anymore. Obviously, I am going to have to make a top to wear with it…

This is my top so far. I had some facing problems and got as far clipping the curves before I discovered things just weren’t right.

I’ve decided to do away with the facing and try to come up with a creative solution. I am probably going to trim away some of the fabric, stay stitch all over again and use some bias binding.

This is our cat, Mouser, out helping us sled:

She didn’t offer to actually go down the hill with us, but she was there to hang out. She also helped the kids build this snowman:

Hope everyone has a happy New Year!

Wardrobe Refashion for 2010

2009-12-29T16:51:00.003-07:00

I decided to do Wardrobe Refashion again. Current signups close on the 31st. It could be the answer for my desire to reduce my fabric and yarn stashes. Of course, it doesn’t explicitly say you can’t buy new fabric or yarn. That is in the gray area where it is just left up to you. I am signing up for 6 months. Wardrobe Refashion isn’t even hard for me, because I don’t buy new clothes all that often. I tend not to like what I find in the stores, so I like to make my own.

My Pledge:

I Kathy pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 / 4 / 6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle pre-loved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings!

Signed Kathy.

And the button:

More Sewing and Knitting

2009-12-28T14:28:00.002-07:00

My skirt has been a little more challenging than I thought. I’m still working on it today. I was hoping to have a fabulous picture of it to post today, but I won’t. The pleats were pinned, taken out, ironed, pinned, taken out, ironed, pinned, and then sewn. I hope I like the fit of the skirt, because it looks great and I’d like to make it again and again. We’ll see.

Instead of fun skirt shots, lets have vest shots:

I love this vest and I can’t even wear it yet. I’m using Patons Classic Wool for it and it just has a nice, soft feel. The thing I hate about using merino is that it can be horrible about pilling. This isn’t the merino, but soft = pilling sometimes. Hopefully this stuff won’t. I’ve only used it for felting in the past.

I found a wonderful crocheted poncho on the DROPS site the other night, but it is only in kids sizing. The largest size is for 12- 14 year olds, so I think I can size it up enough for me. I am not as good at figuring things out for crochet with my brain, so I may have to go with the experimental method. That would be where I start it and rip it out when it isn’t right.

This morning when I was sewing, I came up with the idea of not buying any yarn or fabric until February. I thought it might help me whittle the stashes down. It pertains more to the fabric than the yarn. I am really good about not buying yarn, but I have a real fabric weakness. A few years ago, I had no fabric stash to speak of. Now, I have a fabric storage problem. However, I do feel like I’ve been doing some serious damage to it since school let out for the holidays. Here are the nightgowns I made the girls for Christmas:

What I've Been Up To

2009-12-27T19:06:00.002-07:00

The day after my last post, I got sick and couldn’t even lay in bed and knit. I felt nauseous most of the day and just slept. It felt worse than being pregnant. That morning I had been happily playing at the sewing table, and half an hour later I went to bed. In the evening I was at least able to sit in the chair and watch tv. I didn’t feel well enough to walk across the room and get my knitting, though. The next morning I was almost myself.

Anyway, here are the Solstice gifts I got for the girls:

Aren’t they adorable? I love them for the dark, gothic look they have. They are in a plastic sleeve, so the strange stripes of color aren’t real. We are going to hang them up in their room. I bought these on Etsy from the The Black Apple. I love Emily’s creations.

I decided to go ahead with sewing a project a day while we are off from school. I’ve done pretty well with it so far. On Christmas night, I made myself a denim skirt. Today I am making myself a skirt from McCall’s 5390. I will show pictures of it tomorrow. Before Christmas, I made myself a top that didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. It is very off putting because I had really looked forward to wearing it. I think it is too short and can’t think of any way to make it look better. Right now it is set aside until I can bear trying to wear it. Maybe it isn’t really as bad as I thought it was.

Before Christmas I got the trainer for my bicycle. I rode it 20 minutes the first day and decided to jump it up to 40 minutes the next day. That was a HUGE mistake. My legs felt fine, but my backside hurt so bad that I couldn’t get on it again for days. I haven’t been on the bike since the middle of the summer. Bicycle seats are one of those things that can do you in if aren’t used to them. Now I am working up to 40 minutes from 20. And then on up to an hour.

My Soria vest is going well. Right now I am well into the band of color work at the bottom. I love color work.

Christmas Makes Me Tired

2009-12-22T17:25:00.002-07:00

Preparing for Christmas is such a tiring thing. Staying up late to finish projects that can only be done when kids are in bed, wrapping presents, etc. ad nauseum. I felt accomplished when I finished the Manchester United scarf and got it in the mail. In fact, I felt so good about it, I started a project for me. Just like that. Here is the scarf:

And this is the beginning of Soria:

Soria is a pullover vest in the new Knitty. I don’t think I’ve ever just seen a pattern I loved and started it. Generally, I make myself finish some other huge project first. This time, I had some yarn in stash already, so I didn’t have to buy all of it. I saw the pattern on Saturday, got the yarn Sunday, and cast on for it Monday. My goal is to finish it as soon as possible. Just because I can. I’d like to finish it by Christmas, but I think that would be pushing it.

I decided to go for that making one thing every day during our vacation. So far, it has worked out pretty well. I have 2 nightgowns that only want sleeves and a tablecloth for Christmas. Tonight I want to finish the nightgowns after the kids are asleep. And maybe kick out some pillowcases. Starting tomorrow I will be able to work on my sewing projects during the day because they won’t be gifts for the kids. It will be nice to get some things sewn up.

I intend to knit a bunch of stuff from my Ravelry Queue. I put stuff on my list because I want to make it, but I don’t always look there for my next project. And many of them are small projects. There is at least 1 sweater on that list that I actually have the yarn for. For now, I want to concentrate on the small projects, though.

Last night we had a solstice celebration. I made egg rolls and some other goodies for dinner, and we had a candle we lit to burn all night until the sun came back up. I believe it will last for another 10 solstices if I never use it for anything else. I way over estimated how big the candle would need to be. I had a gift for each of the girls. Pictures tomorrow.

Winter Came Knocking...

2009-12-15T20:50:00.001-07:00

Winter has definitely arrived here. Last week it was bitterly cold, this week we are getting snow. It is wet, heavy snow. The kids will definitely be able to build a snowman with this stuff. It’s 3 in the afternoon as I write, and it has been snowing since about 2 am. We still have tv, but the internet is not working.

My work on the scrapbooks is coming along. I figured out how to put the pages together and made the covers. And I got started cutting out the clip art I downloaded. If there is school tomorrow, I should be able to work on them. Knitter #2 is way too smart to trick or fool. She always wants to know what I am making and who it is for.

School gets out for Christmas this Friday. I am thinking about seeing how much sewing I could get done over Christmas Break. Maybe a project a day. I have fabric for a lot of small projects. Tea towels, bags, skirts, aprons. I could probably put together a little girl’s dress in a day. My fabric stash is way worse than my yarn stash and it would be nice to make the things I planned with the fabric.

This morning I got the bikes up on the porch before they got buried in snow. A good thing, because the neighbor that plows our drive might not have seen the little ones. Mine is big and red, so it wouldn’t be an issue. And I am going to be bringing mine in the house pretty soon. I ordered a trainer from Bike Nashbar after my brother mentioned getting one. When the weather got bad, he started riding his bike in his garage. I’ve never gotten the hang of riding my bike, so maybe riding it in the house will work out for me. It has huge tires and my old one had pretty small tires. Anyway, I am very excited to get the trainer.

Christmas Decorating

2009-12-12T21:03:00.003-07:00

What is it about decorating for Christmas that makes you want to harm your offspring? This morning when I was getting the tree and lights ready, I sent them to clean their room. The only spot I could see that was cleaner was about 2 feet x 2 feet. No one got a reward for cleaning. After they got done decorating their share of the tree, I forced them to put on boots, pants (they were wearing dresses), and coats. And then I shoved them out the door to play in the snow. By that point I didn’t want to see them for a good long time.

Today, I actually began to wonder if I was supposed to put up our tree today. It was, of course, trouble with the lights. I keep the tree lights with the tree. Half of them worked. I found more lights, and half of them worked. However, in some cases 2 halves make only 1 half. I plugged the 2 working strings together and they worked. I put them on the tree and then only 1 of them worked. I finally settled on 2 different sizes of colored LED lights. Good thing I caught that after christmas sale last year!

I am still not finished decorating the house, but it is nice that the tree is done. This is what I played with later:

I love making wreaths. After a little dismantling and some putting back together, I had this:

I used a couple packages of garland to fix up my wreath. I was sick and tired of seeing the wicker. The big bow is something I made a long time ago.

Now I feel in the Christmas spirit. Listening to Christmas music all morning also helped. There is now no reason to not get into my Christmas projects with gusto. Especially since Brent brought home a new color ink cartridge for the printer today. Girly scrapbooks, here I come!

And the Work Commences...

2009-12-09T15:58:00.002-07:00

At some point this afternoon, I began to wonder if I was making the best use of my crafting time. I spent about 3 hours searching out and copying free clip art for the scrapbooks I want to make for the girls. I think I did well. We will see if it is enough to fill up 2 little books.

Here is the Manchester United Scarf I am making for my niece:

I have decided I have spent enough time playing the perfectionist game and will leave the black stripe the way it is. Future black stripes will have only 2 rows so I can avoid the yucky mix I have in the edging.

Last night I cut out the elf doll pattern:

And this morning, after much looking, I found the nightgown pattern. It says you need 2 1/8 yards of fabric. As I recall, the night gowns were really long, so it will be easy enough to shorten them about 6 inches. The ones I already made are floor length on the girls.

And look who we got a letter from!

It is SO exciting to get an actual letter from Santa. Way cool!

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

2009-12-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

I was going to get a picture of the scarf to post, but I didn’t think of it when I got home. It’s occurred to me that I need to get on it if I want to get stuff made for Christmas. This afternoon I was reading Angry Chicken and she mentioned she’s been making gifts. For someone who prides herself on making lots of gifts, I am not doing so hot this year. I intend to get to work on that as soon as I get done with this post. And tomorrow. I can get some stuff ready tonight at least.

We had a double whammy of bad news today. None of our fixes for the hot tub have worked. It is the pump. Fortunately, pumps can be repaired. Our other bad news was on my husband’s unemployment. It has been cut and we now have to live on less than $1000 a month. I am glad the house is paid for. I am pretty sure we can live on that, but if not, there are things we can cut back. Somehow, Christmas always seems better when I feel like we are desperately poor. Making cool stuff for the kids gives me a feeling of triumph. A bit like I’m sticking it to The Man.

Ripped It

2009-12-06T19:27:00.002-07:00

Today we made a little shopping foray, so I took my scarf project along with me. I ended up ripping it all back to the end of the garter stitch so I could do a garter stitch edge. Less thinking required at each end that way. I wanted it to be some mindless knitting, afterall.

I’ll have to get some pictures and get it up on Ravelry. My internet connection has been my excuse for not getting stuff like that done over the past 6 months, so now I must do better.

I also bought some felt and flannel today for a doll project. Last night I found the coolest dolls at Wee Wonderfuls. I may make both of them elves. In my house, there is no making just 1 of anything. Hopefully, I can get them done for Christmas. I think I need to get things done extra early this year because school gets out a week before Christmas. I’m not knitting the girls anything. I’d like to make them pajamas/nightgowns, but I need to locate the pattern again. Then I will have to see if I have enough fabric to make them. I don’t really want to buy more fabric. It might be fun to piece some stuff together to make them.

I Love My High Speed...

2009-12-05T21:41:00.001-07:00

I can’t express to you how exhausted I am. And I have basically done nothing today. There is a cold wind that has been howling outside for most of the day. I felt sorry for the guy from Wildblue that came to put in our satellite today. But I am loving my high speed internet. I went wild this afternoon, reading blogs that I haven’t read in months. My feet are icy cold, though.

We must be starting a new round of sickness in our house because Knitter #3 went to bed at her own request at about 5:30 tonight after crying and saying her tummy hurt. She asked me if she could go to bed. Poor baby. And my husband has a sore throat. He probably has the bug that stole my voice earlier in the week.

We do have the needed parts for our hot tub if we can just put them in. Well, we hope they are the needed parts. There is always the possibility the pump is bad. I really hope that isn’t the problem because it is supposed to get REALLY cold this week and I am worried the heat lamp will burn out on us. If we get the problem fixed, I guess we will find out how long it takes the tub to heat up in cold weather. I expect it would take 2 or 3 days this time of year.

Perhaps a night like this would be a good time to start reading a book with a lot of snow and ice in it. I checked out Smilla’s Sense of Snow from the library a few days ago. I have the movie, so now I will see if there are any similarities or if they changed any important facts. Sometimes novels made into movies bear little resemblance to the novel. What I really dislike is when they change a few important points. Like when The Firm was made into a movie. In the movie, the main character cares about being a lawyer. In the novel, he just cares about making of lot of money so his family will never do without again. To me, that ruined the movie. That and casting Tom Cruise in it, heh heh.

It's Cold

2009-12-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it is already December. The year is almost gone again. Maybe I will make some resolutions for the next year. I like making them because they give me something to work towards and I enjoy that.

Monday, I got the scarf I am making started. I am pretty sure that person has never seen this blog, so I am not worried about talking about it here. I am wondering if I should rip back a bit on it and change the edge. Right now I am slipping the stitches, but it is starting to look like it might roll more than I would like. If I rip it back, I am going to use moss stitch for the sides.

This week has been total craziness AND I lost my voice for two days. The best news all week has been the internet guy is going to come on Saturday and there isn’t currently any nasty weather scheduled to mess it up. Our dial up connection continues to be a joke and I am not going to even attempt to post any more pictures until we have a better connection.

The weather has suddenly turned seasonal on us and it is freaking cold out. It wasn’t until the past couple years that I started to hate the cold so much. And I need a warm coat to wear out and about. I have a coat, but it doesn’t come clean when I wash it. Any bit of dirt that gets on it is there to stay. I haven’t seen any I like so far. Coats look ugly as sin this year. It is supposed to be 13 degrees here next Tuesday morning, and I am NOT looking forward to it.

Cyber Monday

2009-11-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

This morning I took part in a little Cyber Monday shopping. I have never had so much trouble doing anything online. For some reason, I couldn’t keep an internet connection. One time I was connected for less than 2 minutes. I was relieved when I finally got my purchase made. Hopefully, this afternoon will be better. I really hope that we are able to get our high speed set up next week.

Last night I thought I’d wake up with no voice this morning. I slept very little most of the night. There is nothing like waking up every half hour to cough. Naturally, I was sleeping sound when the alarm went off. At least Knitter #3 let me have a 20 minute nap after lunch.

I had hoped that I would be able to finish my new bag over the weekend, but it was not to be. It is a messenger bag with some nice sized pockets for stuff. Like yarn or ballet clothes. Maybe by the end of the week when Knitter #2’s ballet performance happens. They are being little soldiers from The Nutcracker. It would be very nice if I only had to carry one bag into the Festival of Trees where they are performing.

I Still Knit

2009-11-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

I need to start a Christmas project really soon or the recipient will not get it in time. We have to send the holiday box to Seattle fairly soon and I haven’t even begun my niece’s gift. I guess I should get on it. The girls are going to be getting these cool scrap books that were inspired by something in preschool. All of a sudden this year, everyone is making fancy pages for the preschool pal books. Each class has a preschool pal (stuffed animal) and a spiral notebook where their parents write what they did during the week with their pal. I love the heavy pages this year and was inspired to make them some cool books. I just need to find cool pictures for the pages now. I will probably leave some empty pages for them to decorate themselves.

I’ve been working on a sweater for Knitter #2 for a month and a half now. It is coming along nicely:

There is ribbing along the pocket edges that I will need to do before I sew it up. I am halfway through it now. This will be only my second hooded sweater. When I was pregnant with Knitter #2, I made myself a Elsebeth Lavold sweater that had a hood. Hooded sweaters attract me for some reason.

Anyone out there still eating Thanksgiving leftovers? I am tired of them, so we’re having pizza tonight. There is nothing better than homemade pizza. Like Chinese food, I no longer care to buy the stuff. I like what we make here at home so much better. Eating out just doesn’t measure up anymore. I’ve been making my own pizza for at least 15 years, so I’ve had plenty of time to perfect it. MMMMMM pizza…..