The End of an Empire

Finally uploaded some pictures

Some evil, some beautiful, you decide!

First chronologically, a portrait of a father and daughter:

They had a great time at our school's Father/Daughter dance.

Next, my boy is Student of the Month for Academics in his First Grade Class:

Oops, I didn't realize I needed to do the red-eye thing, so I will update this when said First Grader gets off the computer where this picture resides!

But I am EXTREMELY proud of this! He has really overcome his anxiety about writing from last year and is doing very well.

Finally the fiber content.

The Third Grade class got a spinning demonstration on Wednesday and they all got to spin on my wheel:

They even got to work on "clockwise/counterclockwise." I'm planning to ply this up and make little butterflies for them to take home next week.

I've been knitting on the Illegal Top-down Raglan sweater. My excuse is sometimes I'm too tired to think about cables properly. Really! Last night it took forever to figure out which was the right side (was still in the seed stitch border). Heide wanted a picture so here it is as of this morning:

The yoke is handspun singles, the rest is Classic Elite Montera that my mom got me at the yarn store sale last year. I'm hoping to reach 20" of length by the end of the current ball so that I don't have to have 3/4 sleeves, but in our climate, it's no big deal anyway.

Mom, don't look unless you like spoilers!














Arwen has passed the halfway point:

I've started the Right Front, but it's very small and insignificant at the moment. Plus it looks just like the left side, so you've seen it already. I am really enjoying this sweater and would (may) make it again, assuming it is as nice complete as I think it will be. A very satisfying knit so far.

As I said yesterday, we had Thanksgiving on Friday and everything was delicious. And all the dishes are done in anticipation of Eternal Houseguest's return. I think if we move the feast again, I will find somewhere to volunteer on Thursday with the kids. It was nice to have a day off before the cooking and it would be even nicer to feel like we did something for others as well.

DH has been doing some "personal assistant" type work for a friend and I must get started with some projects that have been on the back burner. And I'm doing the spinning demo again on Tuesday for my friend Joy's first grade class. I need to make some lists, baby!

Hope your long weekend is happy and relaxing!

Peace.

Hope you had a Happy!

But we are doing ours today instead!

DH got some work for Thursday, which turned out to be great, and so we're eating Friday. I am currently waiting for the dishwasher to finish up so I can get started peeling potatoes, etc. I don't do a complicated dinner, but then again I don't get all frazzled anymore about it, either. Everyone enjoys, there are leftovers, all is right with the world. Eternal houseguest returns tomorrow, ho hum.

Saw "Enchanted" yesterday afternoon and it was quite lovely. Not too much. The animation at the beginning was very TV, though, not the usual Disney fare. I wonder if they were trying to make it seem very flat and uninteresting on purpose or were just lazy. I will inquire...

Too busy to take pictures, too tired to knit mostly. Two parties at school (one feast, one spinning demo), one concert (Andrews Sisters), me with the flu and pulled something in my back. Oh, and cramps. But all is going away that should and I had a nice day off BEFORE cooking the dinner, which I highly recommend.

Off to stuffing!

Peace.

Rationalizing Casting On

I'm sure you've been in this situation. Deadline knitting swims along, but needs a bit of attention. Not a lot, mind you, but a bit. You find that you are doing something that will involve driving and standing in lines a lot (e.g., Disneyland). This part may not be true: You have an Eternal Houseguest sleeping in the garage with your yarn stash. Ho hum. You NEED an absolutely mindless knit for the driving/line waiting. Your WIP's are: A Cardigan for Arwen (attention to cables needed, plus I'm only 7 rows from the short row decreases on the sleeve) and Pomotamus (no way!).

I can't go out there and get sock yarn for a stockinette sock unless Eternal Houseguest comes inside before 8:30 (LOL!). I have NO OTHER OPTIONS! I must CAST ON a yoked top down cardigan with handspun yarn! Handspun is the yarn stash that lives in the house.

You see my dilemma? Don't you agree I have no choice?!?!? So I'm taking my 134 yards of handspun singles to Disneyland, my 5's, my 8's and half a brain and I will have a lovely day, thank you. This sweater may never get finished but at least I will have a nice time waiting in lines (or with DD who doesn't like "scary" rides). When I run out of yarn, I'll switch over to Cascade 220 for the body or some Montera I have in the stash outside, but there's no way I'll get through all this, right? Especially if I do the Arwen in the car.

Wish me luck!

Peace.

A couple of finished yarns

I added these to Ravelry, of course, but neglected to put them over here as well. If you haven't asked for an invitation, you should. Huge time suck, but way worth it!

First up, Magic Carpet Ride:

Fiber: Superwash Merino
Vendor: Crown Mountain Farms
Weight: 3 oz.
Style: 2 ply for socks

This is a beautiful colorway by Teyani, who is unfortunately recovering from a horrific but healing hand injury. I hope she brings her colors back eventually, although Klaus's are fun, too!

And I finished the BFL dyed by DS:

Can you tell he loves green? Since infancy. Should be enough yarn for socks for him, which will get into the queue eventually. See Ravelry above...

Hope you're having a lovely day!

Peace.

Health Insurance Update

I just received notification that my children will be covered under California's Healthy Families program starting 11/11/07. Yes, that means we are using the SCHIP system. I've told them in no uncertain terms not to eat Aquadots, magnets shaped like dog poo, Thomas the Tank Engine, or cold medicine until after the weekend. The cold medicine part is unfortunate since DD is home sick today but apparently Tylenol actually works, huzzah!

Now, on to the grownups...

Thanks for your good thoughts (which we could still use for something else I can't discuss)!

Peace.

Post Halloween Update

I started the week highly motivated. Did a dye run on Monday which got me some nice purple, some nice green and some nice red. Not all in the correct combinations, however. And the green was supposed to be black. And the green that I went for, s**t brown, I kid you not. So I pulled the purple, combined it with the green and ended up with not enough purple and green yarn, but the right colors:

So next time, I do the purple again with the "black". But I might do them separately this time, just in case.

Of course my Italian Designer wants tams before Christmas from handspun that I have to dye the fiber for first to match her swatches! LOL!!!! Not going to happen. Arwen trumps all and I want to make either Fetching or Dashing for the teachers for Christmas, too. But I will persevere. You never know!

I also decided to participate in the blanket knitting for Oliver:

So here is a 4x4 square out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport. I will try to get another one done today, but DD is home sick so I don' t know. The deadline is the end of the month, so I should be able to get some more done here and there.

In other spinning, I decided to go ahead and spin up the other half of Spunky Eclectic's Celebration Shetland:

Was going for light fingering/laceweight, but seem to be getting sock yarn, as usual. Hoping for enough yardage for a Forest Canopy or something, though.

In other news, no news. Please keep sending good thoughts...

Halloween

We all had a great time on Halloween! Of course, it was a very busy day, parade at school, parties at school, church carnival, trick-or-treating.



Kids were extremely cute and/or creepy:











We've had a bit of a week, though, overall. Not much knitting got done. Lots of work, lots of time at school, lots of stress, my car in the shop and too expensive. We could really use some good thoughts from the blogosphere right now! But we are all healthy, thank goodness, and "stalking happiness."



Hope you had a great Halloween and have a lovely weekend!



Peace.