Tour de Fleece 2009

Haven't been over here in a while properly, sorry about that! Stuff does take over and some of that stuff is wool!

I'm doing the Tour de Fleece again this summer and although I have spun every day, I have only taken a few pictures:

The Tour started on the 4th of July, so I was the blanket saver at the park all afternoon and didn't bring the wheel. Photo is Spunky Eclectic BFL in Leaf Peep at about one ounce of singles. That skein is now done, fulled and dry and I've done another ounce or so. But my real Tour project is spinning laceweight 2-ply on the wheel for a handspun Tempest cardigan:

This is the third ounce of singles and I hope to finish them and ply today, Saturday, since it is a big mountain challenge day on the Tour de France as well as in the spinning group.

But of course, I am also knitting. I finished my Slinky Ribs sweater but don' t have a good picture yet as I need to go buy buttons (today). My car was in the shop all week so it was hard enough getting to work and swim lessons, without any side trips for the Mommy! But soon.

I also need a modeled picture of October Frost, since she is going to the Fair for three months on Tuesday.

As soon as I finished the Slinky Ribs knitting, I started on a project I've been chomping at the bit about for a long time and even started once before, a Tempest out of millspun yarn, Schaefer Anne that my mom gave me for Christmas:

This is the Left Front at about the halfway point, but it is now finished and I have cast on a sleeve. Unfortunately, I also spilled Diet Coke in my knitting bag last night and we have a little dampness going on and am praying for the survival of my Kai-mei sock and the ball of yarn for that which are now soaking.

So, busy with work, learning HTML from the very beginning and CSS to create a new website for my church, making videos of the kids, having fun!

Peace.

Congratulations!!

Senator Al Franken!! Can't wait to watch you on C-Span!

And here's the deal, Dems:

You can vote your conscience on the legislation.

But you MUST vote together on CLOTURE.  Understand?

Good.

Weird

I got another phone for the kids/house today. It feels odd to know they're old enough to go somewhere they might need to call me from...i.e., I won't be there with them. But that's one of the many differences between having and not having an office job, I guess. We really needed it yesterday when they were at the park and I was at work.

Spent the morning figuring out one (1!) formatting problem on the new website. This is going to take a while.

My Line in the Sand

No parent should EVER have to ask:

"Is my child sick enough to go to the doctor?"

EVER.

Well, it's been a long, been a long, been a long...

Been a long while since I did a real post, huh?

Between Vacation Bible School (my new day job) and its preparation/destruction, a charity golf tournament (volunteering), our big event for our Pastor and his family leaving town, and just recovering physically from same, I have been knitting but not writing about it. And not spinning AT ALL. Weird, I know.

I'm also teaching myself HTML and for a not-particularly-talented-at-math artsy sort of person, it's quite a daunting task.

But having achieved a decent looking homepage for our new website (the other part of my new day job), I think I will be able to get it up and running in time for the demise of our old website on August 31st or before. I would like it to be before if only so that I don't have to have them both updated every day. Of course, I don't have to keep the new one updated, I just have to work on it, but since I have to do some of that every day, I would rather it be the bulk of the website time, you know what I mean? The other one will die soon enough. As soon as I have all of our basic pages up, I'll probably go ahead and let the domain go to the new address.

During all of the above craziness I was in fact knitting! I think it's the only thing that kept me sane and calmed me down enough to go to sleep at night. There was one night there where I was literally too tired to go to sleep, terrible.

But (drum roll, please!) I finished the Fair Sweater of 2009:

October Frost from A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd, a beautiful book from which I would like to make everything that could be worn in my climate. And I'm pretty loose about that, having just knit a 3 pound wool sweater for SoCal.

Fiber: Oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester combed top from Paradise Fibers
Yarn: 3 ply, Aran weight, about 1500 yards, didn't measure WPI, just swatched.

The yarn took 7 weeks to spin and ply, the sweater 3 months and a bit, but I was NOT monogamous at all. Sock Madness 3 was in the middle of it and the occasional shrug and such called me away. I pretty successfully fought the call to cast on new things, though. And I'm very happy with the sweater. It goes to the Fair on July 14th (if I can stand it).

It's a lot easier to let a pair of socks go for three months than a sweater it took 5 months to make. Just saying. If I had a pair of handspun socks ready to go I'd probably bail on the whole thing. Lucky (?) for me, I don't.

So now the kids are home all day, I'm trying to work out stuff for them to do while I'm working (or work alternating with Daddy) and totally obsessing about HTML. And all I want to knit are laceweight cardigans. I have 3(!) at the front of my mind and the yarn in the stash. But what am I actually knitting?

Slinky Ribs from Custom Knits: I am now at about the 5" mark of the back and plan to knit this as a tank top for summer and add the sleeves in the fall.

Then it will be Tempest or a Featherweight Cardigan or Three of Cups...

OR ALL OF THEM. [insert evil villain laugh here]

Is there HTML code for an evil villain laugh?

This obsession, however, should lead to a return to the wheel, as enough laceweight to make any of these sweaters is well within spinnable yardage in a couple of weeks of concentration. And not a lot of fiber. Especially Tempest, which is stripes and so not as much of each color anyway.

I will close with a photo of my daughter's group at VBS:

Peace.

If...

If they pass "health care reform" with no public option, my bumper stickers come off and I go from the biggest Obama supporter to the biggest Obama cynic.

I am not alone.

I promise I'll be back!

When I can breathe again, i.e. Monday, June 15th.

End of school year/girl scouts/t-ball/dance classes/vacation bible school has just kicked my *ss.

Soon, yes, very soon!

Peace.

What is the deal with people?

Here's your scenario:

Your child has been caught throwing rocks at other children. One of those children has been injured and is bleeding rather profusely. You:

1) claim it's okay because "they were all throwing rocks" (they weren't);

2) try to get away before the parents of the injured child or her friends can confront you;

3) verbally assault said parents using profanity in a tirade of "how dare you speak to my child that way!"

4) apologize profusely to injured child and her parents in the (sincere) hope that they do not SUE YOUR ASS OFF.

One parent did #1 and #2. One parent did #3. One parent, luckily the parent of the actual thrower of said rock, chose #4.

Meanwhile, I'm icing the child's head and hoping for no stitches or CAT scans and my friend is being assaulted by the parent of a child who has already been bullying HER child for months at school with no consequences.

Oh, so unpleasant and unnecessary.

If your child has done wrong by another child, make them say they are sorry. Give them some consequences. You do your child no favors by not holding them accountable for their actions. This situation could have been TRAGIC, not only for my child, who escaped with a cut and a lot of tears, but for the perpetrator of the violence as well. Lawsuits and juvenile detention are not what you want for your child, either, I am sure.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the parents of bullies are bullies themselves and see no reason not to continue the behavior and teach it to their children. So sad, so wrong.

We are thanking God tonight that this situation did not end tragically. I wish I thought the other family was as well.

Peace.