it's been awhile

Spring came & went. So did Expo. My hours at work went back to normal. Headed to Outdoor Retailer in SLC next week. Part of me can't wait, part of me doesn't want to go at all. It's all the same shit, different day. Work will never change until I can find something new with a chance for growth both personal and professional.

I'm back to knitting, a little bit. I'm sewing the heck out of little girl skirts, knitting breaks it up. Apple Pie Craft Fair is less than a month away and I've signed up for a booth again. Let's hope I don't lose money yet again. 90% of what I'm selling are skirts.

Summer is flying by, like usual. Someday I'll be able to take it off and enjoy it instead of cramming more than possible into each sunny day I don't have to work. This is the reason my house is a disaster area. I should be cleaning instead of writing, but whatever. Oh, to be 25 again with no cares in the world except why my cocktail glass is empty.

My irises were beautiful, until the rain beat the hell out of them. The bee balm is stunning this year. I may actually have edible tomatoes before the frost hits. I'm not holding my breath, though.

I start teaching part-time at BubbaLou's school this fall in exchange for tuition. It works out to about $10/hour, but it's worth it to keep BL at the same school. I'm hoping this will turn into something full time with a decent paycheck. Again, I'm not holding my breath.

Argh. I only seem to post when I'm feeling "off." I guess my journal has gone online. I need to find a babysitter and rediscover my life and the man in it.

Poll

If you knit, please go to BikerChicKnits and take her poll in the right sidebar:
"Have you ever lost a FO?"

Sheep in Rabbit's Clothes

Baa, Baa black sheep
Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full.

One for a sweater, one for a hat
One for an intrelac, felted door-mat.

(Hence the reason I wasn't busting into them for a little sheep marionette. We made due with cotton/angora leftovers.)

Isn't he cute? Started this morning. Finished this afternoon (with lots of laundry and visit from Dad in between the knitting.) Love instant gratification.

Ivory cotton/angora friend has already been requested. Maybe tomorrow.

Been awhile

The holidays were busy (as usual.) I cannot begin to describe how happy I am that they are over. Less than 365 days before I have to do it all over again, unless I decide that holiday dinner will not be at my house in 2010.

On a more fun note, check out BL's new hat:Soft pink, lavender, dark pink, cream. Makes me think of taffy, or frosting, or sorbet. Fluffy, girlie colors. 100%wool, OnLine is the manufacturer, lost the label so no idea what the name of this yarn is, my own pattern, size 10 needles, super quick knit. I think I cast on 60 stitches and it fits my 5 year old perfectly with a little grow room. BL gets to channel her inner Elmer-Fudd with the earflaps up. She's also very pro-pompom. Have I ever mentioned how much I am anti-pompom? Especially when you take the time to make the shaping of the crown of a hat spiral around and close tightly.It's hard to see, but I also have a purl stitches spiralling around the hat to give a little extra interest, especially while knitting it.

Next, please check out my little snowshoer:Yukon Charlie snowshoes...in metallic pink. These will fit her for several years and I love that all the straps are adjustable with big, easy to use with mittens, buckles. I was lucky enough to pick these up at OR last winter. She only got to use them a couple of times last winter and went around our property like a pro yesterday. She loved not sinking into the soft snow like Mama. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some snowshoes for myself this trip to OR.

The sunglasses are by Julbo. Another OR luck-out. I think I just saw them on the LLBean site. These are truly the best kid's sunglasses I've ever encountered. They fit well, actually protect her eyes from UV and bright light, and are pretty flexible (meaning she can't break them as easy as the cheap ones.) I must say, I also love the pair I have from them.

Next is my little figure skater:
BL's 2nd day on the ice this year, and her 2nd day on single blade skates. Day one she used milk crates to help her balance, day two no milk crates in sight. The warming hut (with all the free skate rentals) was unexpected closed, but another family had an extra pair of skates in BL's size we could borrow. Very nice of them and greatly appreciated. The warming hut finally opened and Mama got skates. Yesterday I took a hard fall on my left knee-cap (skating for the first time in over 20 years), the bruise is just starting to show up tonight and the swelling is going down. Got right back on the skates today, but the ice was very rough, bumpy and chopped up due to our January thaw this weekend. I skated very slowly and carefully. Temps have been in the mid-high 30's since Friday, so ice conditions today are pretty bad.

Perfect snowman snow now. I hope to have a snowman in my front yard tomorrow, carrot nose, red scarf and all. BL and Sy are both home from school for Civil Rights Day (that's what they call it in NH.) We're expecting 5-9" of fresh snow tonight that's supposed to be snowman snow also. My yard will finally look clean again!

Off Again

I leave for (hopefully) sunny California next week to attend Expo. It's the biggest natural products show in the nation. I'm working there for All Terrain and Borlind but that doesn't mean I don't have time to sample all the wonderful products and foods. There just isn't enough time to see or do it all. I've made a list of favorite vendors to visit and see if I can get any little freebies to bring home and stretch my tight "organic, natural, earth-friendly" budget. I'll try and remember to give you the details when I return.

In the meantime, check out my artic explorers.We got about another 14" on Sunday night. I don't mind the snow, not even lots and lots of it. I live in New Enlgand, I chose to live here, I don't bitch about winter. Except one thing...I'm so tired of being super cold. It was ZERO when I got out of bed this morning, definitely not walking the dog. Let's hope CA will let me warm up my fingers a little, if nothing else, I won't have to wear Darn Tough wool socks (the best socks in the world, thank you David O!) and Sorels.

I am almost finished the sweater I started a couple of months ago. It went super-fast (did the body in a few days) until I got to the sleeves. Sleeves are always the death of me, especially when you have to knit them on dpns. I have less than 20 rounds to go...think I'll finish it tonight? Not a chance, I think I'll pick up a scarf instead of going around in tiny circles. I'll finish the sleeve on my lunch break tomorrow, work in my ends, take a picture and let y'all see it. I never photo-ed this one in progress, so you just get to see the done deal.

I wonder what I will bring to knit on the plane to CA...that's a lot of opportunity to knit uninterrupted by a small child, dog or man. Maybe start the linen skirt for summer, or finish the lace scarf, or the wool scarf, or the white Rowan sweater. Finish something? Nah, it's getting closer to spring...start-itis has got me.

Happy, Happy to You!

Happy Holidays To All!

and to all a good night of putting together toys with no instructions and wrapping and baking and "yes, Santa is coming" and "no, I won't eat his cookies" and "if you don't go to bed now, Santa won't come" and swearing when you stab your finger with the screwdriver trying to put the %&*$#@ toy with no instructions together and finishing off the night with a shot of tequila to take the edge off before your little ones get up, which will be before you get to sleep.

Me? I'll leave the construction of toys to Sy because I'll be knitting until my needles go up in flames so I can finish the %$#*@ project I just HAD to make for so-and-so. I work well under pressure. Keep the tequila far, far away.

Check out the little elf hats I've been knitting like crazy (sorry the picture sucks, I was tired):I've also done a hoard of little elf mittens, but was too busy to take pictures of them before they were gifted. Take my word for it, they were almost too cute to look at.
The ??? for D. is finished and so wonderful. I will remember to take pictures and show you all after he gets it.
Okay, I need to get back to my lace scarf for so-and-so.
Please excuse the change in font and size, I don't know what is going on. And I've tried to fix it several times. I give up...let's consider it creative.

More puppies and a sweater

What a difference just one week makes. They're already 2 pounds heavier and their faces and bodies are starting to take shape. Only 150+/- pounds to go!

Worked my fingers to the bone to have BubbaLou's new sweater done for this. On the good side, it didn't rain like last year. On the bad side, it was WAY to hot to wear a sweater. It was almost too hot for long pants, but we survived. BL had loads of fun on the rides, but was sad she's still too small for the tilt-a-whirl. I wish my only disappointment was not getting to ride the big rides. Tough life for an almost 4 year old.

Here's the sweater. Cascade Sierra, cotton/merino blend. I got the two skeins of pink for 40% off, and was given the skein of blue. What can I say? Ya work with what ya got. Washer and dryer friendly, with good "bounce" to the yarn/stitches. Very kid friendly and tough as nails. Her other "sierra" sweater is going on its 3rd? year...it's a little short in places, but she wont' give it up. Needless to say, we've really tested the wash/dry factor.

Time...

Summer is melting away faster than an ice-cream cone in Bubba's hands. It started out so slow and wonderful and now I don't have a free moment of time. We're off on vacation for a few days at the end of this week, we're camping at the seaside. It will be Bubba's first camping trip...keep your fingers crossed for me.

I've been knitting off and on this summer. I'm still working on my white v-back sweater...it's a lot of stockinette on size 5 needles. I'm down to the sleeves (two at a time) and let me tell you, it's boring. Very boring. But the sweater will be beautiful in all white linen-drape (Rowan yarn my mom found on eBay for me...it's what the pattern called for and it's discontinued. Thank you and much love to you, Mum.) A good Mum will let you take your time in a yarn store. A great Mum will spend hours on the internet to find a yarn that's been discontinued for 3 years so that you can have the ideal sweater for summer. A great Mum will also understand and encourage your little fiber addiction. I like to call her the enabler. Her stash is still bigger than mine. I just finished a little sweater for a friend's new baby girl. Big sister will get a coordinating hat in the leftover yarn. I can' t very well not bring something for her (she got hand-knit socks for her last birthday...I know her Mom appreciated those little beauties.) Started another Rowan pattern in a hand painted rayon boucle yarn I got at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. Not my usual colors (shades of peach-pink and olive-army-forest green) but I thought it was too pretty to pass up. It will end up a simple cap sleeve shell with a banded bottom (what's on the size 3 needles.) The band is about 30" of k1p1 ribbing on size 3's. Ugh. It's the kind of thing I take along on long car trips 'cause it's mindless and boring. I also got some 4-ply 100% cashmere in ivory that is destined to be these gloves. Aren't they delicious? I saw this book (Knitting New Mittens and Gloves) when it first came out and didn't buy it, how many gloves and mittens can one person actually knit? Then I found that yarn and I figured it had to be fate...the gauge was "close enough" according to my memory of the pattern and thankfully I was correct. Sent man out with Borders coupon to fetch said book. Great man, like Mum will go out of his way to enable my little habit. Bubba has also found a pair of "elfin" mittens that she wants and there's another pair that make me think of hot cocoa that I will most likely make.

I also just finished knitting this. The pattern is, what else, Rowan's Alpine Shrug. I couldn't afford the Big Wool, so I used Blizzard (extra bonus-my local yarn store had a 20% off coupon in the paper!)

When I have the patience required to seam it, it will hopefully look like this:
On the non-knitting front, I've got more lettuce in my garden than I can eat. Lots of peas, carrots are coming along nicely, tomatoes are on their way, and I'll have more pumpkins this fall than Linus. My kitchen now has drawers to put things in, my porch ceiling is sky blue, and the old bathroom has been ripped off the house. The new bathroom will be framed out by tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to afford to put the fixtures in next spring...we'll see won't we?
The woman I was hoping to get "my dog", Irish Wolfhound for those not in the know, from didn't get the litter she was planning on, and she put me in touch with another woman who just bred. Keep your fingers crossed for me...I find out mid-August if there will be a puppy for my birthday this year. Visit here, Shanachie, to see her beautiful dogs.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

Yep, I just got back from sunny (but chilly) California. Now I'm leaving for Florida. I got a week at home before I'm off to do another show for the company. I guess they thought I did a good job at the last one.

My finger is healing. I can actually type again (at a real speed). I've been knitting for a couple of weeks. Its awkward, but I just couldn't not knit anymore. I knit the back of a vest on the plane ride to and from CA. I'm working on the fronts (cardigan style) both at the same time. I'm using a self-striping wool/soy yarn and I'm too anal retentive to have the fronts not match up. I'm finding I'm addicted to the striping yarns right now, I think it's the winter doldrums come to call and I need the color in my life. I'm also enjoying the wool/soy blends, they're very silky feeling compared to all wool. I will try to post some update pics when I have a little spare time. Hahaha.

The show in CA was called Natural Foods Expo West. Overwhelming does not even describe it. There must have been well over a thousand companies/vendors represented, maybe 2,000. All with all-natural/organic product. Amazing. I have an all natural/high fructose corn syrup-free household (except for Canada Dry ginger ale and Hershey's chocolate syrup...I can't find an all natural one that actually tastes right in milk) and this show was like going to heaven. I spent my lunch hour mostly in the section of the food vendors, sampling foods, collecting business cards and educating myself. Note to self: "raw" granola/snack bars are not so good. Kashi makes the best frozen pizza I've ever eaten. The roasted vegetable kind is fabulous, now I just have to convince my local grocery store to carry it! I could go on and on about the food, but I won't. Except that I have a guy in CA sending me organic chocolate for eating and baking...and he sent me home with a 5lb bag of organic cane sugar (yep, took it home in my suitcase.) I met some of the nicest people, and discovered some of the most amazing products on this trip. I hope they let me go next year. And I hope it's not 55 and windy again!

I got the chance to work with one of our wonderful demo people at the show (D). She's pregnant and due in May (and about the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen!). We had great conversations about our different baby experiences, breastfeeding, parenting styles, potty training (her son is Bubba Lou's age). I used the Dr. Sears "Baby Book" a lot because I really liked his and his wife's philosophies and D actually has Dr. Sears and his sons as her pediatricians. One of them actually made a house call on a weekend so she wouldn't have to take her son to the ER. Amazing, although I can't even imagine the bill for that!

I sent my good friend Abbie over at DamselDesigns a birthday present before I left. She posted about the felted bowls I sent her...I'm so happy they are loved. Do you want a big red one for the kitchen? I am contemplating doing up a bunch more (they're quick) and trying my hand at Etsy (okay, okay already). I might even embroider a few, but I like them simple...there's just something so homey about them with out being kitschy. And hey, they're washable.

I'm going to try to post more often after I get back from FL and my life resumes it's "normal" schedule...no promises. I like sleep too much (I refuse to get up before Bubba does), and knitting, and baking. And there's that thing called work I have to contend with.

Keep your fingers crossed for us in the great white north that spring comes quickly and I don't get anymore snow...I can actually see my entire driveway now! The snow in my front yard is still past my knees, though. And it's dirty looking now. It just has to go away. Like Marvin K...will you please go now?

Busy As A Bee

For starters, I found a job. I'm now working in the offices of Borlind of Germany, a high-end, natural skin care line from...you guessed it, Germany. The best part is that they gave me the schedule I want so Bubba is now in daycare only 3 days a week. Very nice product, very nice people. They're sending me to Anaheim in March to help out with Expo West, a HUGE natural foods/products show. Should be a lot of fun, a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I've only ever worked a show from the buyer's side of the table.

I've been busy on the knitting front. Everyone I know is having babies! A friend of mine just had her second daughter (her first is one of Natalie's first friends, they're a week apart.) I knit her up the little kimono from "One Skein". And two of the girls I work with now are due any day, so I knit up hats for their impending little ones. Also out of "One Skein". I just love that book, especially when I need a special gift that won't cost me an arm and a leg and knits up in a weekend (or an evening.)

One of the ladies I work with is having a girl, the other is having a boy. Hence the Valentine's color scheme...I just couldn't do blue in February!

I also visted my local yarn store...they sent out a "Superbowl Weekend Sale" email. 40% off ALL LOBSTER POT YARNS!! INCLUDING CASHMERE! For those of you who don't knit, or buy yarn, Lobster Pot is a small, small company in Cape Cod that produces beautiful yarns that are hand-dyed in actual lobster pots. The colors have wonderful New England names like "boiled lobster," "drawn butter," "hydrangea," "cape cod sky." I could go on and on. Anyway, I hit the store at 10 sharp and snagged all the boiled lobster and salt rose cashmere I could afford. Two skeins of each! And one each for Mummie, as well as some seagrass. This yarn is soooo soft, I keep rubbing it on my cheeks. I think the pink is going to become a hat, the red? Any suggestions?

I've also been baking. BubbaLou likes to help. Lick the bowl, that is. Chocolate chip cookies.

Speaking of cookies, one last goodie before I go. Sy got this enormous vase for me just before the holidays. It stands about 2 feet tall and about a foot or 14 inches across. I'd been looking for one that wasn't $250, and my bargain hunter found me one. Too late to fill it with pumpkins, I chose to use all my cookie cutters instead. I collect them, but only the all metal ones. I've got snowflakes, martini glasses, flamingos, camels, almost every animal imaginable, a high-heel shoe, a hand, as well as the classics...heart, bell, tree, snowman, star..anything goes, I love them all. These are one of my favorite things in the "whole wide world," as BubbaLou puts it. They are ultimately destined for a special wall in my kitchen, but until then I just love them in the jar on my table.

If we ever get the walls painted, you'll get to see them in all their glory. I'm actually framing them all , like a giant picture. Who says cookies aren't art? And yes, I do use them. Frequently. Bubba Lou thinks its great fun when I have to dump out the entire vase to get one on the bottom!

Am I Out Of My Mind?

This is what I'm thinking of starting. I have the yarn on hold so I can decide if I'm completely crazy or just a little mad. The photo doesn't do it justice. The bottom 2/3rds of this top is LACE. Beautiful, colorful lace. I've been doing miles upon miles of stockinette stitch these last few months and it's killing me. Please, give me some yarn overs. Yet another Rowan project. I can't help it. It's like crack, I just can't get enough and I'll go broke buying yarn and magazines. Thank goodness I work for a yarn store...I think.

I do love this top, though. It makes me think of the ocean. The lace pattern has such a pretty wave, almost like seashells. The color doesn't hurt either, but I'm having a hard time deciding between the blue in the photo and a pink/red/white combo that the yarn comes in. Damn. I wish all decisions were this hard. And that I didn't just get my credit card bill with the nasty balance from Home Depot I just transferred. I think I will be dead before it's paid off, and before this house is done. I wonder what will kill me first, the interest I'm paying or the remodel?

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home....


Bull. Give me a nice hotel.

Aaahhh, Spring!

It is 80+ outside today and sunny! When I step outside I can smell the apple blossoms (we have 4 very old apple trees). Next week I'll get to smell the lilacs. Our wild strawberries are flowering, I have wild violets everywere, and Sy found forget-me-nots yesterday. The rhubarb patch is growing like crazy, too bad I don't care for it. Last summer when we moved into the house, it rained so much that almost nothing bloomed or had already gone by. It's nice getting these pretty surprises this year!

My Rowan summer tweed sweater is almost done, I just have to set in the sleeves. My Noro daria bag is almost done, I just have to sew up the lining and put it in. Bubba's hoodie is done, unless I decide to rip out the trim around the hood. Ugh. A lot of "almost". I think that's worse than having miles to go..
...
This is the sweater front, and the trim before seaming. The seaming I did on this sweater is AMAZING! My mom couldn't find the seam at first glance, and even then she had to feel for it. Hooray for me!! I can't wait to wear this!



This is the bag. Noro Daria is a rayon wrapped cotton cord. Very stiff and slippery. A challenge to work with on a good day, but so pretty when it's knit up. Very shiny and slick. The photos don't do it justice. The color way I picked is pale pink, aqua, and several shades of green. Instead of seaming the sides, I'm lacing them with aqua ribbon. Very girly, especially with the lucite handles!

Makes me want to cast on something new. Right Now. Socks? White sweater? I should do Abbie's little baby kimono, but that won't take me but a couple of days to do. Hmmmm, I think I could go for a little instant gratification right now.

Did I mention I work in a yarn shop? Yep, like an alcoholic working in a brewery, taste-testing. At least I can buy a few skeins and still drive home! It's crazy, I now have home projects and work projects and they never (read:hardly ever) get knit up in the other.

Okay, I'm off to knit in the sunshine and bugs.