TGIS

Thank god it's summer!

It's all about baseball. DS1 is on his league's all-star baseball team. They have a game Tuesday night. They lost their first so depending on the outcome it could be their last or they could play again on Thursday. I'm hoping for the latter. He's done remarkably well this season and I'm insanely proud of him. He was Snoopy in his school's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown musical as well so we had a hoppin' spring.

DS2 played baseball as well so we were at the field almost every night after school and play practice!

I am headed back to the elementary school to teach and couldn't be happier. I need to get started on making awesome lesson plans. The new books are in my car.

My kids have kept me insanely busy with their schedules, but I guess that's what keeps me young.

My latest project that just finished blocking and drying today is a birthday gift for a friend that I hope to see this weekend.

Pattern: Citron

Designer:Hilary Smith Callas

Yarn: my own handspun targhee cross 2 ply (from a raw fleece)

Weight: fingering

Color: swimming pool blues (kettle dyed with BerryBlast Kool Aid and medium and dark blue Wiltons gel)

Needle: US6

Yardage: less than 600

I hope she likes it. It's only my 3rd project that I've made using handspun. The 2nd was this gift for DH for Christmas, which he wears but I'm not completely happy with:

Also not the most clear picture. That was with 3 ply BFL undyed except for the trim which was romney dyed with coffee.

I haven't knit or spun much in the past 2 years being at the JHS... Hoping that will change with the school change this year.

Well my list of summer projects is growing. And we'll have company for 7 weeks or so, so rather than type more I should get cracking.

YIPES... no FOs

lots on the needles, but nothing is finished!

The chrysalis is finished though. The cocoon is so strange looking. I guess the strange part was watching how it developed from the caterpillar. My pictures of it aren't that good because they were taken through the netting of the butterfly garden. But now it looks like part of the stick and if you didn't know there was a cocoon there, you'd miss it. Funny because where the head of the caterpillar was/is there are two protrusions that I'm sure will be the antennae of the butterfly. Right now they look like little horns. It completely turned to cocoon late Sunday/early Monday. It's brown. I've read that brown cocoons winter over, so if that's the case we have a long wait to see this butterfly... if not about 10-14 days.

Yesterday I received a lovely lambs fleece of a chocolate brown BFL cross (crossed with Border Leicester) I immediately washed it and it's just lovely.. hardly any grass or bits of VM.... DH decided that he'd like his vest from this fleece instead of the Targhee that I've been flicking all summer. I hope there's enough.. if not, I may have to come up with some creative stuff... either dyeing or striping or something. I spun up two weight samples.. it's really lovely...

My kids started school on Wednesday. It was DS1's first day of Kindergarten. He looked so cute! I can't believe how fast they grow up. I had to go back on Wednesday as well. But not Friday. The kids where I teach start Monday, and I'm not ready at all. This is definitely going to cut into my knitting/spinning time. Oh well... gotta make a living so I can buy more fiber!

Local flooding

and not from the noreaster that recently hit our area over the weekend. No, this was the 2 YO type. Apparently, he feels that his working mother doesn't have enough to occupy her time and shouldn't have a minute to park her arse to do anything selfish!

I was in the living room, checking my e-mail after having worked with 5-12 year old kids all day... about 150 or so today, taking DS2 to the pediatrician to have his strange reaction checked out (more about that later) Both boys were with me at the doctor. The day was long for all of us. At that time DD was home with DH eating pizza. We arrived about 5:30 and DH promptly left. I digress. So I'm sitting checking my mail from the past 2 days when DS1 calls from the kitchen, "Mom, you better come quick. We have a problem here. It's an emergency." So up I get and run the 25 feet to the kitchen. I see water pouring in on the kitchen floor from the powder room on the other side of the kitchen and I hear the toilet running as if it's flushing continuously...... ummmmm, I'd say there's an emergency!

I splash through the water, the meantime, DS1 is running butt naked and crying frantically cuz he has to go to the bathroom. "Go upstairs" is my response. DS2 has drug a chair over to the counter with the pizza box and is helping himself to a slice, DD is standing on a chair screaming some unintelligible sounds that I still have no idea what meant. I make it back to the bathroom and open the tank which is almost empty... hmmmmm Guess I should turn the water off to the tank, so that was next. Now to clean up the floor. Where o where could the shop vac be? Oh where o where could it be??????? Quick call to DH... Of course, in the garage, and full of dry dirt... wonderful! Naturally, I didn't discover the last fact until I had carried the thing back to the house (did I mention our garage is detached??) so back I go to dump the dirt in the garbage can.... lug it back inside and attempt to put it all together. For some reason, there was no suction. I am still clueless as to why but after I cleaned most of the dirt and dust from the filter, the suction seemed to improve immensely. hmmmmmm

I put the contraption back to it's 'working' state and try the suction again. Voila, Houston, we have hit paydirt and the water begins to miraculously disappear off the floor and into the shop vac.... or so I think. How foolish I am! No, I look back and now there is a yellowish/brown water on the floor behind the shopvac... hmmmmm Turn it off again, take it apart, dump the little water that is in the conatiner out and try to discern the problem. I still at this time, have not determined what caused it, but temporarily abated the leak from the shop vac back to the floor, long enough to suck up the remaining water. Get a rag towel. Dry the floor, Dump the shop vac, rinse it out. Take it out to the garage to have DH pulling in and proclaim, "so what is the problem" "Oh, nothing dear. Just a little water play that got out of hand" Smile turn and storm away!

Return to the house, (now well past my children's bedtime) and tell the 3 to arise from the basement. Their father is home and he can deal with bedtime. Back to the toilet, DS2 has recently learned to use wipes. now I use cloth diapers, so normally we use cloth wipes, but we have flushable ones for the older 2 kids sitting on the back of the johnny. Well he was wiping himself (apparently mom didn't do a thorough enough job?) and putting the 'used' wipes in the hopper. I'd say he used half a box (they tell you not to try to flush more than 2 at a time) I pull the wipes out of the bowl with the bowl brush, put them in a platsic shopping bag (guess it's good DH 'forgets' the cloth ones we have whenever he does the grocery shopping) Put that out in the trash. Try to turn the water back on tp to the tank. I must have had Herculean strength when I turned the valve off to get the water to stop running from the toilet. Cuz now I can't budge it... great.. one more thing for the grown up male of the house to be annoyed with me about... because Lord knows I don't do enough!

ERR... guess there'll be no knittng tonight. Could have been worse, I could still be doing our taxes!

First FO of 2007

is the KAL from the Monthly Dishcloth Yahoo group from January



Pattern: Snowflake by Rainy Kimbrough
Yarn: Lily Sugar and Cream
Color: White
Needle: Knitpicks Options size 7

If I were to do this cloth again, I think I'd go down a needle size. It's a bit too open for my taste. I don't know if it's because of the size or because of the needles.. These were new to me from Christmas and I'm very, very happy with them.

I was so lucky to receive 2 sets off the Knitpicks Options needles, plus extra cables and tips... and being needle greedy, I think I'll keep both sets. The wallet is really nice, holds several ziplock pockets (of which they include a pair each of one pocket, two pocket and 3 pocket ziplocks that have hole punches to put in the notebook like center. There is a place for a pen or pencil, 2 open pockets for placing papers that you may have patterns written on or a gauge thing a big pocket on the inside of the other cover that has a zippered pocket on top! I'll store all my circulars in these.... Probably separating them by size. It'll be fun to finish putting everything away. I tried to fit it all (but my addis) in one holder, but alas, they don't fit. This fact also leaned me towards keeping both sets cuz the holder alone is $20.


The gifts my MIL bestowed upon me on their arrival from Argentina. 6 skeins of wool that is a sheep/llama mix. 4 of the medium tan color and 2 of brown. I think this will be too scratchy for clothing and her intent was that I make bags out it. So along with that are wooden handles for three purses, wooden buttons: 6 little ones for clothing and 3 accent buttons that can be used wherever I wish, AND a pin to close a wrap or shawl with. She knows I really love the wooden stuff..... what a great MIL I have!

The 3 Kings were here to leave 3 gifts for my children. They each got a color wonder book and markers. DS1 got 2 power rangers (he's enamored by them much to my chagrin) DS2 got wooden food and a flashlight and DD got a Little Mermaid audio CD and the card game Rook. One gift from each King... they were very happy this morning. DS1 was for the first time in his life anxious to go to bed last night so that the Kings could come and was upset that everyone else was still awake! He's turning into something else... sometimes the things that he says are so funny. He keeps us laughing that's for sure!!