5 days until Christmas!

Well, my blog doesn't look like much knitting has been happening, does it? However, I have been knitting. And, I've finished the knitting for the Big Grey Blob sweater! Yay!

If you've seen me knitting on it Panera's, you have probably heard me say that I hate it. I hated knitting on it, it went on forever (I started last December. yes, in 2007), it hurt my hands...but it turned out very pretty. Sometimes, I design like that; I start with an idea, and by hell or high water, I'm going to make it work. (okay, and sometimes it just winds up in the frog pond, but i try to forget about those.) I think the recipient will like it, and that's what counts, right? (and if she doesn't want to wear it, I'm taking it back again. This sucker isn't ever going to Goodwill.)

I finished knitting. I'm still working the ends in, and I need to get buttons to put on it, and then, it will be completely done. Even bigger yays!

all pictures will be posted after Christmas, after the intended recipients have recieved their goodies. :)

more Little G facts

Have I mentioned that Little G is almost walking? She's been cruising around the furniture for some time now (almost 3 months) but lately she's been improving. She'll let go of the couch, and stand on her own, and clap her hands with a big grin. Or when someone puts her down on the floor, she'll stand there, and take 2/3/4 steps before she bumps down to the floor. You go Girl!

Guess what I did yesterday? Baked cookies!








Our La Leche League group was supposed to (cancelled on account of ice) have a cookie swap today, for the holidays. I made Gingerbread Men, although the weren't quite traditional. I didn't have any white frosting made up, so Big J kindly allowed me to use the black frosting that he had bought to make a panda bear cake (Big J and Little J are planning on making a
panda bear rice krispies cake. It's all THEIR project, i swear). They have little black eyes and smiley mouths,
and redhots for their buttons.

This morning, I gave the Littlest Girl one of the undecorated gingerbread. She's been gnawing on it, on and off this morning, and she seems to like it. Heehee...it's hard enough that big pieces don't break off, but she's making an incredible mess with slobbery
gingerbread crumbs...



I like making cookies, but with the little kids, it's hard to find enough time when I'm not holding/changing/watching a kidlet to be in the kitchen :( (hmm...wonder if an electric mixer would help? hmm...) However, the cookie swap was a big incentive to make cookies, and additionally, Big J picked up some refrigerated sugar cookie dough at the grocery store, so we're going to make that tonight. (I have a few different gingerbread men cookie cutters, and then I have Halloween cookie cutters. No Christmas ones. Big J says just use the Halloween ones, and "make Nightmare Before Christmas cookies" LOL!) So, we may have cookies on my cookie platter until after Christmas, which may be bad for our waistline, but it's really pretty!

The pictures to the right ----->
are the cookies I put on the table today. The ones in the middle are imported German soft gingerbread that I found at the Commissary, the ones on the right are the large size gingerbread men, and the ones on the left are the little gingerbread boys made with the littlest cookie cutter of my gingerbread imp set.




Speaking of imps, Little J was sitting at the table when everyone else was out of the room, just looking at the cookies. When I came back, several of the cookies were missing their eyes. He had been swiping off the icing and eating it!

I don't know if it's Christmas, Big J, or the little ones, but something is sucking up all of my time. We'll start eliminating things, and see what happens!

In other news, Little G has four teeth now! The two on the bottom, and now two on top.

We went to get Little J's Christmas presents out of hock (layaway) and Big J and I wound up stuck in traffic, from everyone leavinhg the Colts' game. Never again! It took twice as long as it should have to get home, and it was all the time we spent reaching the highway. I wonder if the Colts won?

knitting is proceding, if not apace, then at least plodding. Something will be done at Christmas, and we (royal we? who, me?) will photo said knitting on the recipients. Along with the knitting needles and skeins of yarn, if necessary.

30 Days until Christmas (minus two weeks, and a few days)

How long does it take me to write a blog post? well, today is 25 days until Christmas, and I started on 30 days 'til...

I keep telling myself that I'll be able to finish my knitting projects in time for Christmas, but when I look at a calender I feel nervous and nervouser.

I knit a little on the voodoo last night (while Big J was driving us to Lion King!). Meant to take a picture of them, to show y'all the colors, but I woke up and it's all cloudy and raining. If the sun comes out in the next week, I'll snap a quick pic.

About the other projects...clapotis probably has one more inch to it. That's going slow even considering that I don't have much time for knitting. However...I found my knitting needles! The number 10's that I need for the Big Grey Blob sweater, so I can start to work on that. This morning, me and the little kids all went into the craft room, and I took everything out of every yarn related container (mostly plastic bags. what can i say, my stash containers are waaayy cheap) until I found them! found them in the knitting bag that I had already looked thru, hiding in the knitpicks catalogs and sock books. Naughty needles! I need to finish off the blob, because there is no way it's coming to Thailand with us. It's too big, and too heavy. I would have to bring along a suitcase just for it, and with what airlines are charging these days, I don't think so.

It was a fun weekend, even though I wasn't knitting ;). On Saturday, we did some shopping, and went into downtown Indy to Mass Ave Toys. That place is fantastic! They are the only store with this toy *** in the area. It's going to be Little J's Christmas present; sshh, don't tell!

Sunday we all went to church, and in the evening, we went to see The Lion King. After a farce of directions, and missing out on supper at _anyplace_, we were all enthralled. Even my darling husband, who complained about the "Can you feel the love tonight" scene,(geez, you would think he had never watched the cartoon) really liked it overall. I loved it! And Little Sister thinks that she will get extra credit in Band for going to see it.

Okay, I've mostly finished the post. The lastest update on our vacation plans is, we aren't sure if we will be flying to Thailand. With the protests at the Bangkok airport, the airlines aren't flying into EITHER Bangkok airport. We weren't supposed to arrive until the 5th, so, we'll see how that goes.

NOT working on the Big Grey Blob

This is terrible! I _finally_ brought the Big Grey Blob out from it's hiding place, and, when I took it out of the bag, I don't have needles for it! Eek! I had taken the needles out to try it on, and where they have gone, I haven't a clue.

Well, a small clue. I think that I used the needles for my fuzzy pi shawl, but they aren't in the bag I kept the fuzzy pi in, and I can't find them anywhere. This is causing my incipient OCD to rear it's ugly head...any psychics who could tell me where my 2 number 10 circular needles and a set of double points are? Or a hypnotist, maybe?

Captain Hook in French...

The little boy was looking thru a toy catalog, and ran across a pirate with a hook. Guess what the pirate's name was? "Captain Croche(t)"! yes, I started giggling uncontrollable. Imagine Captain Hook relaxing at night, crocheting on a frilly project for his significant other...

Regarding christmas presents, I cast on for the second of the pair of VooDoo today. I had both little kids in the car, and when we reached home, they had both fallen asleep. So, rather than wake anybody up, I sat in the car, listened to the radio, and knit a good two inches before Little Sister pulled up in the school bus, and could help me carry the littles inside.

I'm looking for other Christmas presents now...must go shopping if we're going to be traveling...one good thing about all this traveling is that I won't have to do much cooking for the holidays, i suppose. (actually, I like cooking, but it is a chore when I am wrangling two little ones too.)

45 days until Christmas

I've been working on Clapotis (when I'm not sick) and the yarn is gorgeous, but it's a pain to work with! It splits, it has little threads that try to come off, and when Little G grabs a handful off my ball of yarn, it tangles dreadfully. I spent half an hour, detangling the half-a-dozen strands that had wound themselves around my _circular_needle_cord_! Actually, clapotis may go back in the bag for a bit to become traveling knitting.

Tonight, I'm going to put in my knitpicks order for my remaining projects.

Let's see, what else should I tell y'all...if you're not into kids, skip this part. Little J is doing better at using the potty! He is now willing to use his potty chair by himself! This is very helpful, especially when he needs to pee, and I have to change Little G's poopy diaper...He's very responsible about it, emptying his potty in the toilet each time, and wiping out the potty. Now, if he would just use the potty to poop in, that would be perfect.

Little G is growing by leaps and bounds. She's at the stage that my uncles would have called "couch cruiser". (They had a whole list of cute names, that they made up when they were in college (i think) and I was really small. I don't remember them all...carpet crawler, rugrat, curtain climber, couch cruiser (lots of them seemed to start with 'c's. I wonder if they would remember the rest?) Anyway, Little G walks around the furniture, holding on, sometimes with only one hand. She likes feeding herself, which makes for fun and messy mealtimes. And it was so cute this evening, when she sat down and was looking "Pat the Bunny" for 15 minutes all by herself. And she didn't try to eat the book! :D

i hate being sick. can't knit, can't read. And can't sleep, because I'm watching the kiddos. photoey.

51 days until Christmas

Yesterday, I didn't get any knitting done. none, zip, nada. I didn't even go to Panera's, for the normal Monday knitting night. I had been planning to, i really wanted to, but then I remembered Little Sister's band concert. It had been on the calender for weeks, but I mentally blanked it out...once I was there, it was really nice. Little G and I liked the highschool marching band, very entertaining. Little Sister's (8th grade) band has really improved a lot since the started middle school, too. You might think listening to a band concert would be great knitting time (Yarn Harlot has a post about that, in fact) but holding a squirming baby makes it almost impossible to knit. I don't even try anymore. There will be more concerts, I'm almost sure, for me to knit at.

Today, I cast on for Clapotis. It's about 5-6 inches along an edge. I don't think it's going to be as wide as the pattern calls for it to be - I'm already getting bored with the amount of purl stitches on the wrong side rows.

Looking at the one of Voodoo from Sunday, I decided that I'm not in love with my crochet edging. It's just a little too frilly. Back to the drawing board. When I get a chance I'm going to tink back the edging (can I use "tink" when talking about crochet? "tehcorc"?) and redo it a little less...irritatingly. (I don't like bobbly stuff on my palms. very irritating).

53 days until Christmas

Hey, I've a pair of Voodoo half-way done already! Kewl! I cast on 44 stitches originally, and changed the thumb opening to 8 st, instead of the 6 in the pattern. It was a little too tight with only 6. I finished the top with a crochet picot edging. Tomorrow, I cast on for the second of the pair. These are my easy knitting...I take them along in the car.

Things I need to do:

• Bring the big grey blob down from the craft room
• Put all the knitting bags from the bedroom INTO the craft room
• order yarn from knitpicks.
• Start clapotis

The Me meme (tagged from Cami):

4 Things I Did Today:

- Went out for breakfast with the family
- Spent time at the playground with Little J
- Listened to Big J reading his homework
- Wrote an actual blog post

4 Things on My To-Do List:

- Clothes shopping. Me, Little Sister, Little G. I hate shopping
- Take a nap. Please God!
- Grocery shopping. Just as soon as I think about what to make for supper
- Clean the clutter off my hotspots. I'm not going to tell you how many there are.

4 of My Guiltiest Pleasures:

- Trashy historical romance novels
- Sleeping in. With a baby and a three year old, it just dosen't happen these days.
- Going to the library/bookstore BY MYSELF.
- laying in the sunshine (yes, i'm really a lazy person)

4 Random Facts About Me:

- My eyes used to be blue. Now they're blue with brown around the irises. I have no idea when they changed.
- I can read paperback books and knit at the same time.
- I used to be able to name every bone in a dog's body.
- When I see books by C.S. Friedman, and Julie Czerneda (sp?) I'm compelled to read them. Seriously.


I'm not tagging anyone, so, don't worry about it :) If you would like to play, feel free to copy it from here.

Holiday Knitting

I've learned my lesson - no more planning to make knitted gifts for everybody. Really! I just have a few things to make, only a couple...

I've also decided that I will update the blog daily with my knitting progress (as well as interesting children happenings) to ensure I will knit daily, and also, (duh) I'll blog more often.

I've already started on a few projects, but today's post will outline my plans.

1. Finish Big Grey Blob sweater. (yes, this was supposed to be finished for last Christmas...no, I haven't worked on it much. I really hate this project.)
2. Christmas Stocking for Little G (need to order yarn from knitpicks)
3. Clapotis (I bought the actual Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb yarn for this. It was way more than I really should have paid for any yarn, but Clementine's sold it to me for a really good price for Lion & Lamb. (no Cami, I'm not blaming you, it's simply my lack of willpower when faced with lucious yarn))
4. Voodoo (at least one pair. Maybe more)

See, that's not too bad. Only 4. And I already have yarn and/or projects started for 3 out of 4. I can do this by Christmas, right? (Looking at it, I have some doubts. We have some serious holiday traveling to do, and Mommy dosen't get much knitting time when we're traveling by plane)

LLL conference

over the weekend, we went to this:


Big J had to be in Columbus for the weekend, and the rest of us went along. Big J decided at the last minute, more or less, so, I didn't register in advance. It was very educational, and I think it will be very useful, too. I picked up some nifty goodies from the vendors (baby spoons, baby carrier that Big J will use, a book I needed) and we chilled at the hotel. That is, Little Sister and Little J chilled at the hotel, watching tv for hours on end. Me and Little G walked around, and listened to seminars.

Dish Rag Tag 2008

The box for my team (Magic 8) arrived on my doorstep yesterday. What a nice surprise! I stayed up late knitting away at the dishcloth (which was a sweet design, and I think I have it memorized. Although, next time I might try altering it a little bit), and this morning it went in the mail again. We're not first, but we're not last, either.

I have pictures of our box:

First, a picture of the box, unopened, sitting on my table.

Here's a lot of little pictures, that show off the sides of the box, and the little notes that my teammates wrote on the box. I had to carefully take off some of the labels and tape so that I could read it all.

And this was what was inside the box. The all-important dishcloth, in a yellow/white/orange, a ball of dishcloth cotton in pink/purple/white, a pretty note from E., a little tin of Burt's Bees Hand Salve (hubby's already tried it out) and a nice needle case (the fabric makes me think of peacocks. and paisley. i really like it).

And here, is the dishcloth that I made to send on. The yarn made interesting slanted stripes across the dishcloth. I also made a little seed stitch mini-dishcloth, to tuck in the box as a treat.


Now, back to knitting on the little girl's jacket. Oh well, at least she'll be able to wear it in the spring.

Cami, I read your comments. I'll be in soon, I promise!

sharp!

Baby Girl has her first tooth! Guess how i found that out? heh...no, the story's not that funny. We were out to lunch, and when she was chewing on my finger, I could feel the sharp little toothiness. I STILL can't see it, but it's definitely there

I told a friend, and her first comment was, "I guess she's not nursing anymore!" Huh? No, don't worry, my baby girl still needs mama's milk. A baby that's actively nursing can't use her teeth for biting. Now, when a baby isn't really nursing, just playing...that's the time to watch out for biting.

I have one FO and one new WIP, and no pictures of either of them. The FO is a Japanese pattern that C. from my knitting group let me borrow. When C. went to Walt Disney world, she found two japanese knitting books, with a lot of cute patterns in it. The one I made, is a hat, with traditional Fair isle (Scandanavian?) snowflakes on it. I did it in green and creme Cascade 220. I love it! And I probably have enough yarn to make another, although I'll probably reverse the colors....

The WIP is Debbie Bliss's Little Bud cardigan. It's going to be very cute...but I'm not sure about all the dangling ends. Know any good sites for how to finish intarsia?

A real date!

On Friday, Big J and I went out for a date! really! We left Little J home with Little Sister (i paid her for her babysitting, because that's what you do on a date, right?) and Big J and I went out for dinner and a movie.

Dinner was at Yokohama Japanese restaurant, in Greenwood. We were early for supper, and i don't think they were quite ready for guests. We sat for 10 minutes before anyone asked if we needed menus or a drink :( But the food was quite good. And, we learned later, that they were short a waitress that night. (makes a huge difference, especially if it's 50% of your waitstaff) By the time we left, the restaurant was full, so if you want to eat there, make reservations!

I had ordered tickets to the ArtCraft movie theater in Franklin. They were showing Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Big J likes Monty Python very much, so I insisted he take me to see it. It's a good thing we didn't take Little J along; I had forgotten how bloody the movie is. We had a good time, enjoyed the little play and doorprize give-away before the movie, and the ambience. The theater is very nice, a small town version of ArtDeco.

When we got home (after stopping at BurgerKing. I was starving!) the kiddos were all still awake, but Little J fell asleep quickly, thank goodness. It was a good evening, and lots of fun.

knitting happiness

can you believe, I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was thinking of knitting. Really! I couldn't get out of bed, because the baby was asleep next to me (and she's fallen off the bed several times already, so I can not leave her on the bed. asleep or no.) so, i grabbed my handy ddandy cell phone and called Big J in the other room.

"Dearest, can you look at a webpage for me?
"Sure, what is it?"
"It's a knitting pattern, google for 'kniity.com' and 'sheldon', and that should bring it up."
"Hmm...knitty.com, issue winter 2006....Sheldon the Turtle??"
"Yes, that's it. Can you print it off for me?"

and then he started reading off gobbledygook. I thought it was some sort of computer code, until I realized he was reading knitting directions, letter by letter! Try it, and see how wierd it sounds:

[Kfb] in each st. 12 sts.K all sts. [Kfb, k1] twice, [kfb] twice, [k1, kfb] twice, k2. 18 sts.all sts.[Kfb, k2] six times. 24 sts.


That's the first 5 rounds of sheldon. :)

My other happiness yesterday, was imaging how I could store my yarn/fabric stash. Grumperina had pictures of IKEA shelves on her blog, with glass doors...I'd prefer to have barrister bookcases, so that I could rearrange the stacks. And slide out drawers to keep my fabric in..that is a very happy thought.

Oh, now I remember my other knitting thought. I just recieved a stroller organizer from Amazon, and I realized that the water bottle pockets were just the right size to hold a ball of sock yarn! How serendipitous is that?

Rhonda, I'm not sure which of Cat Bordhi's socks I'm going to make, but I'm leaning toward Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks, because I want to try that slipped stitch. As soon as I actually decide, I'll put the project up on ravelry.

Knitting since I do't know when....

Did I post about the Ravelry Olympics already? I'm not sure..I entered two events, a WIP and a shawl. Due to small children occupying a large amount of my awake time, I didn't finish either projects by the closing ceremonies of the olympics (They had some way cool stuff at the closing ceremonies, didn't they?) but on Monday I finished up the shawl. Yay! It's a pi shawl, (over to the left. That's Baby G with her favorite new chew toy/shawl) made of Merino Stripes yarn from Crystal Palace yarns. I need to block it out - hopefully it will stretch from baby blanket size out to adult shawl size. Hmm...considering that blocking will involve lots and lots of pins, I'll need to do it without the small children around.

The WIP, a Baby Surprise Jacket, is going back into hibernation. I ran out of yarn for it. Im undecided between looking for more yarn (Anyone have Noro Kujaku? It's discontinued :( ) or frogging it.

Let's see...current project is a little boy sock. I'm making him ones that match the ones I made last winter. For little socks, they are taking a long time to finish.

I put in a KnitPicks order today. the next project I need to start is a little cardigan for Little G, from Debbie Bliss, and I think the DK superwash will work just right. I also ordered yarn to make Sheldon the Turtle (The boy put in a request) annnnd I ordered a pair of the new Harmony straight needles. I can't wait to try them!

And, I'm going to start a pair of socks from Cat Bordhi's book, as soon as I finish the Little boy socks. I can't wait! those patterns are amazing!

why are bandages so big?

The Little boy had a teeny tiny cut on his finger, and insisted on a bandage (not using the TM names, but it was a brand name bandage) and, when I fetched one of the cool fishie bandages out of the medicine cabinet, we had to wrap the bandage completely around his little finger to keep the huge thing on. Now why do kids' bandages not come in a super small size?

I'll write about knitting later, I promise.

Now, don't laugh, but the highlight of my life lately has been the Neil Diamond concert that Big J took me to. Really! We brought Little G along, but the other two kiddos stayed home, so, it was almost, like, a DATE! oooohh! Yes, very nice, even getting lost after the concert on the way home.

Big J was sitting next to someone he knows at work, and he didn't recognize her out of uniform. LOL! He thought it was funny, and so did I. The concert was really good, some of his old songs, some of the new ones.

Let's see, what else have I been doing...dealing with the kiddos, getting Little Sister ready for school to start, knitting a bit...I'm waiting for school to start. It's not her fault (not totally) but Little Sister is getting on my nerves. She's been a big help, but I want to tell her to go away! I haven't, and I won't, because I'm a grownup. (or so they tell me) Once school begins for her, Little J and i will get back into our normal schedule, and I plan on doing some preschool type stuff with him. It will keep us both busy and entertained.

On the knitting front, the Big Grey Blob is going back into hibernation. I am so sick of knitting on it. So far, the sleeves and shoulder decreases have worked, but I'm going to have to make a change in the decreasing soon, and I'm not sure how to do it...My socks aren't finished yet either - about 5 rows of ribbing to go. I've started a Baby Surprise Jacket for Gloria, using my favorite Noro Kujaku yarn, and despite the tedium of garter stitch, it's coming along okay. I'm worried that I might not have enough yarn :( I'm also doing the Ravelymics over on Ravelry. I have one project that I will be working on during the Olympics, a pi shawl. I've this wonderful fuzzy yarn that I really want to have as a shawl, so...that's what i'm going to do.

Now, time to go feed myself. Later!

delayed yarn pictures

This is the yarn that I purchased at The Yarn Shop in Columbus, Ohio. Yes, it was awhile ago. Top picture is Plymouth Yarns Boku. It's a varigated yarn with long color changes, similiar to Noro, but not quite as vivid colors. I want to play with it and see. Middle is the Manos Silk blend, from manos del Uruguay. It's only 150 yds, but oh so nice. I've been pondering what to make of it, and I think it's going to be a pair of wristwarmers for me. Maybe Fetching (I haven't tried that pattern) or maybe Voodoo. Bottom is Arucania Ranco Multi, a fingering wt sock yarn. I'm getting tired of my current socks, and I'm looking forward to starting one of Cat Bordhi's patterns with this.



And also here, is a picture of Little G playing with one of the skeins of Boku. Future Knitter in training!

On the current knitting projects, the Big Grey Blob is getting bigger and blobbier (I am so afraid the shoulder decreases aren't going to work, and I'll have to rip this section out. If I do, it's going back into hibernation for awhile.) I'm 3 inches away from finishing the current pair of socks, and I won a blue ribbon at the county fair for Little J's Jaker sweater!

another contest, elsewhere

So I haven't been posting much lately. However, I have been reading other people's blogs, and I found this contest....Old Red Barn Co is giving away a quilt! It's gorgeous, but the contest ends today, so hurry!



Maybe I'll get a real post written later today..maybe, if the baby...

in the 1930's...

102 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Is this really an accomplishment?

Saw this on Melly's blog

 Ain't it nifty? It's a word picture of my blog. "Little" and "yarn" seems to turn up quite often. and I see that i need to stop saying "really". oh, really? 

today's updates

Well, we were up bright and early on a rainy morning to take our entries to the Johnson County Fair. (some time this week, I'll have to take Little J to look at the animals...) At the end of all our preparations, I had the Jaker sweater, raisin cookies, and a loaf of bread from my bread machine. Little Sister had a pottery box that she made in school, and a baby dress that she sewed up yesterday. The dress was a very cute blue and blueberry print. (i wonder if there's enough of the blueberry fabric to make another one? hmm...)

Little J was in a mood this morning. (no! no! no! i don't want to ____!! no! You get the picture) but we wrangled him into the car, and out of the car at Clementine's Dry Goods, and in the car again, and out at lunch and in again, and out at the two bookstores...by then he was asleep, and was so until almost we were home. Thank goodness! At home, he had a new video to watch (Teen Titians) and has been happy to sit on the couch.

I think my brain is fried. I know there's stuff I should be doing this weekend, but I can't think of what it would be...can you help me?

welcome to July

Life has been busy, I've been tired, and blogging has sorta slipped away from me. C'est la vie.

I've finished up Little J's Jaker sweater! All put together, and the ends woven in. Why do I always put off the finishing on my projects? It really dosen't take me very long (i learned hand-sewing as a little girl) and I have a warm fuzzy proud feeling when I'm done. I do not have any of my other projects finished up. :( I really hoped to finish up the Grey Blob sweater, and the socks, so that I could start new stuff, but I didn't get as much done at the conventions as I hoped I would.

Last weekend was InConJunction Convention, here in Indy. We had a hotel room for two nights at the convention, and it was a lot of fun. We were there on the 4th of July, and from our hotel room, we could see 5 or 6 different firework displays! ooooh...ahhh...it was so neat! The bigger kiddos could watch the fireworks, and Little G could sleep without firework booms waking her up.

Then, the weekend before that (Thursday to Sunday) was Origins Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Also fun, although walking the convention center gives me lots of excercise. One thing I really like about Origins is the family room. They have board games, scheduled events, and toys for the little kids to play with too. We spent quite a bit of time in there. Besides that, I did do one thing memorable. I signed up for a field trip to The Yarn Store. About 10 ladies went, and we invaded the shop. Much yarn! I was overwhelmed, and the yarn insisted I buy it (y'know, i need to stop listening to the yarn. It's _EVIL_). I have four 50g skeins of Plymouth Boku (it's supposedly similiar to Noro? it was a little cheaper) a skein of Malabrigo worsted weight, and a skein of Arucania sock yarn. I'll have pictures up at some point. But really, i have sufficient yarn for quite a while, I need to stop acquiring more stash!

We don't have much planned for the immediate future. I need to have my car registered, go to the library, maybe see the talk by the Iditarod champion at the librrary...

In a week (not next week, the week after) Little Sister goes to camp for a week. Dropping her off will be interesting...Big J isn't going to be able to go there, and they like to have a parental unit go to the kid's cabin with them. The problem is, the cabin that she's in is the very farthest away from the parking area. Up a hill, too. And I'll have to walk with Little J and Little G. heavy little kids. Oh well, we do what we have to.

Then in August, there's another gaming convention that Big J wants to go to - GenCon, in Indianapolis. He's not sure that he's going to be able to take time off, but we're already registered for it. So, the kiddos and I will probably be driving to it.

And that's life.

when do we get a vacation?

Tomorrow! Wednesday we leave for Columbus, Ohio. We'll be attending at the Origins Gaming convention. (I would really have liked to be there for Stitches last weekend, but we couldn't manage two weekends in a row.) Big J is attempting to have us at three different gaming conventions this year - to make up for maybe not being at ANY next year (He's going to be away at classes, diffferent stuff) We'll be at InConJunction here in Indy next weekend, too.

I've got a list a mile long of things that still have to be done tonight, but, of course I'm planning to take knitting along. Remember the Big Grey Blob of doom? I'm going to dig that out of the closet to take along and finish (I'm trying to finish my UFOs :) ) I've a shawl planned to work on, and socks to do too.

(The Jaker sweater is almost done! The neck ribbing is halfway done, and then I need to sew in the sleeves. Yay!)

Nice breastfeeding ad!

KnittingmomC on Ravelry pointed this out. It's on the Motherwear blog, and is a public health announcement from...ireland?scotland? one of those.

http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com/2008/06/my-favorite-bre.html

Dinos Escape!

I had forgotten to post this earlier. When we visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum, Little J and Big J insisted on examining the dinosaur that was breaking thru the wall. if you look very closely, they're standing under the dino's (apatosaur?) neck. Me, I was holding Gloria, and I wasn't going to walk all the way over there.

Summer berries

These are pictures of mulberries growing on the way to (or from) the library. I love them (they grew on my grandparent's farm), but I can't get Jaiden to even try eating them, so I only get to eat a handful when we go by. We went by them this morning. I'm doing my part to help the enviroment (and save on gas money) so we walked to the library. It's fun taking the time to see everything along the street, but, when I forget we're walking and check out a stack of books, it's hard to get us all home. I carry Little G in the baby sling, so I have two hands free, but one is busy holding Little J's hand. (I think I like this whole blogging with a cell phone. I know the photo is blurry, but at least it IS a picture on my blog, and I'm publishing today.)

Pretty socks! and shoes, too?

Over on Diva Knitting, she was talking about clear converse tennie shoes, to show off handmade socks. I may have to get a pair, just to wear these socks with!




Here are the socks I'm making from Colinette Jitterbug. I only have one sock done (same sock in both pictures), but that means I only have one left to do!

This week in our world...

It's been over a week since my last post?! eek! Well, I've got pictures and stuff to share

Last Wednesday Little G learned how to roll over from her back onto her tummy. She still doesn't like being _on_ her tummy, but she can use it to wiggle around.



And, she grabs onto toys and holds them. (and shoves them into her mouth...)

And here is the little boy, chilling with his baby sister:


Monday was Knitting night at Panera's, and it was the swap day for our DishCloth Swap. I had forgotten my list of who was knitting for who at home, but luckily, C. called up her husband and he was able to get it off the internet. Yay for C. and husband! The one on the left is the one I knit, and the one on the right is the one that I recieved. Interesting that they are both blue, isn't it?




I gave over the baby sweater for A's new baby to C. at kniitting. I had finally sewn on the buttons (note to self: check the size of the holes in the buttons because you're going to put YARN thru there) and I had hoped A would be at knitting. No such luck, but the sweater ws awfully cute.



I had my hair cut about a week ago (sorry, no pics of me) and it's much much shorter. I haven't gotten comments on it, and i realized why: most people didn't know how long my hair had been. It was down to my bottom, but I always wore it up.Now, it's barely to my shoulders and very cute. Or so my husband tells me! :)

Okay, that's enough randomness. Back to the Jakers Sweater!

Little J pictures

Is little J cute, or what? The top left picture is him intently destroying a piece of chocolate cake at the Our Lady of Greenwood Church festival last weekend. The other pictures are from today. We walked over to the local grade school and played on their playground. Hmm...i don't think it's visible in the top right picture, but the front of his overalls, and the front of him, were covered with dirt because he had fallen at the bottom of a slide. He had fun, in spite of the dirt! I also learned, that he's grown big enough to sit on a regular swing by himself. He was talking to himself while he was sitting on the swing, "forward, back, forward, back" (not that clearly, but that's what he was _trying_ to say.)

Interesting!

In the last month, I've had exactly 100 people visit the blog. Why do round numbers tend to occur in random events? hmmm...

Maybe next month, we can have 200?

quick update, illustrate later.

It's been raining, a lot. It's not flooding at our house, but if you go a couple blocks away from here there was a lot of water in the streets. At least 6 inches of rain came down (I'm going by how deep the water is in the baby pool. And I had just emptied the pool, darn it). Can we say Noah's Ark, anyone?

This morning, we took Little Sister to the airport to travel to Kansas. It turned out to be a huge hassle, she wound up flying on standby, but she did reach Kansas safely. She's going to be gone for two weeks, and I already miss her.

I've finished a knitting project. (one. one project. In a month. This is so sad.) I did the last segment on a circular dishcloth that I knit for our local knitting group's dishcloth swap. I've decided I like the pattern: it's really easy, and turns out very pretty.

Sucessful expedition to Hoosier Hills Fiber Fest

Indeed, it was a successful adventure, full of interesting encounters and lovely treasure.

This post may be a bit fragmentary, as I'm typing it in the bedroom, while supervising the little boy who is supposed to be going to bed because he had a temper tantrum....deep breath...but I do have pictures! Not of the Fiber Fest, itself, sadly. (I really should have had a photo of Little J petting the little black lamb. So cute! Or Little G and the lady who kept running into us and loving on the little girl. (mental note to self: bloggers and shutterbugs keep their cameras with them at ALL TIMES)) but of the loot we brought home.

Little Sister went along, and was in charge of herding Little J, so, as a for her being so rewardhelpful, she was presented with a drop spindle of her own, and pretty fleece to practice with.The pretty wool, (blue and silver) she has to share (officially) but she's taking it to Kansas with her, so we'll see how much is left when she gets back home. The smaller drop spindle is mine. I want to try spinning some lace wt yarn, with the new little spindle.

I have some pretty roving and a silk hankie to spin. The roving has a lovely sheen - it's a merino/alpaca blend. I've 3 oz each of a brown and a grey. Wonderful! I think that this is what I want to make lace wt yarn out of. (I don't spin. I tried once last year. I have a niggling feeling that the universe is going to curse me for my hubris in boldly attempting lace wt, but I'm going to try anyway.) I'm thinking of lovely lace scarves...

I grabbed three skeins of handdyed yarn from the Creatively Dyed booth. Her name on ravelry is Creative, and the yarns were wonderful! All different colors, and different yarns...her daughter was with her today, too. Her daughter's birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Little D!

And, I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have one more item, non-wool/knitting related. I stopped at Clementine's Dry Good's booth (Cami is evil!) and the proprietress convinced me to buy a baby sewing pattern. It's such a cute little dress! I'll have to stop in to Clementine's soon to look for material for it.