For the First Time In a Long Time

For the first time in a very long time, I am alone in my house. No kids. I have not been here by myself since K was born over 4 years ago. The children are at vacation bible school this week, and quite honestly, it is very nice and extremely quiet - although the washing machine and several fans are whirrling away. Here is what I've been up to:

Above is a pair of handspun Alpaca fingerless gloves, very soft and pretty.

Below is some spun beautiful merino

And a beautiful 3ply merino in some gorgeous colors.

And another beautiful 3 ply, this one is targhee, I love these colors too.

And that is what I've been up to fiberwise....

Graduation

My oldest son, C, graduated from college this past week. And we are so proud of him. I could go on and on about how wonderful we think he is, but I won't. Ok, maybe just a little. It is such an amazing time when you realize he is out there in his own apartment, own job, own life, even moreso than when he was in college. He has been pretty independent for awhile, but now it is all official. Time really does fly .... just yesterday he was a little person on the swingset and now he is a great big person with all sorts of responsibilities and it is a little sad that we can't just shrink our children back to being children just for a moment or a day.

When C was little we lived downtown next to a park. We went and played their every single day, even cold days. And I would like just one more of those days with him. I am so lucky to still have little people to play with, but ..... you never have enough time (which is why my house is the way it is, so I can play). As a parent, you must take advantage of every moment you have with your child. Soon they won't hold your hand to cross the street, or want you to go on the slide with them, they will go off to play with others, won't ask you what to wear that day, won't want you to make breakfast cause they are having Mountain Dew for breakfast, so do it all while you can. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

And congratulations to C and to all of those people who accomplished something amazing and wonderful this year.

Knit to Quit

I have quit smoking. Again. A horrible habit that I started so many years ago...... and now I am breaking that habit. I have quit many times, but this time I feel different. I don't feel like I am missing something. So I think this is THE TIME. And maybe if I get brave enough to write it, I'll keep the quit going. At first, I didn't want to tell anyone, cause I might fail again, but now it has been a month and I am feeling pretty confident. And I am doing it by myself. The Husband is still smoking. I think that is the hardest part, that I could go get a cigarette from him anytime but don't - actually I have to avoid him at times.

I am knitting to quit. It is working. Well, that and nicorette gum, medication and cleaning house. Really, I have been cleaning out the basement. And the kid's closets. The kitchen cabinets. Drawers. Not deep cleaning, just getting rid of stuff. Let's face it, my house will never be that clean. Even if I hired a housekeeper once a week, I still wouldn't eat off my floor - lol! But I am slowly becoming less cluttered.

And to reward myself, I started the TKGA's (Knitting Guild of America) Master Knitter program. That is right, I am keeping with my yarn diet and not buying yarn with my extra cig money. Instead I signed up for this program and am excited to do it. Basically they give you instructions and questions, and you send in your knit samples and answers and they either pass you or give you suggestions and you resubmit. And you can take as long as you like.

So that is what is up with me.

Happy Birthday

Today we celebrate my father's birthday. It is a big special birthday this year, although he won't let us make a fuss or anything.

My father is wonderful! I really don't have the words to tell you how enormously special he is. He always read to me, every single night (when he wasn't working out of town). I remember reading the Little House series with him. And now my own son is reading that series. And I am enjoying it myself again. He played sports with us at a time not all father's believed girls should even play sports. I can still remember playing tennis with him against another father/daughter pair. And he was not too soft nor too mean nor too demanding, although I am sure I thought so many times. He is very wise and helpful, there are not enough words to tell you how many times he has helped me.

And he is an awesome grandpa. My children have had many adventures with him. From skiing to camping to fishing to Disneyworld - they are lucky children. They are lucky to live near him and get to spend a weekend with him once in a while. He has unending patience with them.

A father and grandfather are special positions in the world. Not everyone should be one, not everyone is a good one, I am so happy I got one of the best fathers ever.

Happy Birthday Dad. Love You. Thanks for not ever giving up on me.

A Little Hiatus

So that was the month of February, huh? It went really, really fast. So fast, I pretty much missed it. But now we are well into March. And we have a very special birthday coming up this week....so look for more on Wednesday.


K had her big 4th birthday back in that short month.
Isn't that precious? That doll came from Grandma B and came with a dress for K and a matching one for the doll. Must get that pic too. Many of K's cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents came for the big party. She is so lucky to have so many loving relatives. Grandma P even made the cake.




Knitting wise I have knocked off several pairs of fingerless gloves for some women at the husband's work. They love them.


And I tried sprinkle dyeing, and it turned out ok, I should have used more colors so it was brighter. But I like these results for a more muted coloring, with some green and pink highlights but next time I will not be quite as worried. I haven't done anything with it yet, it is just a 2ply, worsted and I like looking at it so far.



Life is good.

Hey Big Business - Quit Ripping Me Off

I'm on a rant today. And I've got two things that have been irritating me for awhile so your stuck hearing about them.

Let's start with my vacuum. I bought a vacuum about a year ago when the old one, the one that was my grandmother's and probably could have withstood a nuclear war, gave up. Now I know I should have just had the old one repaired. Shoulda, coulda, wish I woulda ... But I bought a new one. Nothing special, just a regular dirtdevil featherlite from Target, sale price $45. Note the price - pretty good deal.

Here are my issues. The first one is that the featherlite is anything but... it claims to weigh 11 pounds. That may be true, but they aren't 11 pounds of easy to maneuver, pliable, throw it on your hip material. It is 11 pounds of hulking, giant pieces of hard, unmovable plastic. And it is so heavy on the stairs. But this isn't my biggest issue with my lovely vacuum. My big issue is the price of the filter I am required to buy. That lovely little filter is ..... wait for it ..... 27 bucks. Yep, the filter is half the price of the vacuum. That filter is to be replaced every year. The bags my old vacuum took were like 5 bucks for 3. Thanks dirtdevil, you got me. You and me, stuck together. Sure, filters last longer, but not when your husband throws it away the one and only time he runs the vacuum and then you realize it a week later when you go to vacuum and it is running funny and naturally the trash guys picked up yesterday and ... hence you are now out $27 bucks. LOL - that is what some dirtdevil guy is doing right now, cause I am going to be stuck buying his filter once a year (although I am sure he would recommend more often) for a long, long time.

Now my other irritant. Laundry detergent. Hey, have you ever actually read the directions on the side of your detergent? Of course not. You have been doing laundry for as long as there has been dirt, you don't even remember when you started doing laundry, it just has always been there, always will be, there won't be one day you won't have laundry in your basket or your machine (unless you are nudists, in which case, this probably doesn't effect you as much). Anyway, that little plastic measuring device and/or the lid you use for a measuring device have little lines on them. And guess what, the highest line is not for a large load of wash - NO - it is for an extra large, sometimes extra, extra large load, like something at the laundromat that when you were in college you stuffed all your clothes into and gave it all the quarters you had and came back later to some semi-clean clothes.

I never filled up the laundry measurer to the top, but for crying out loud, it basically needs to be half full for a regular load of laundry. Hey Tide, I don't need bubbles following me down the street during a rainstorm. This has been bothering me ever since I taught C how to do his laundry and actually looked at the directions.

Why can't these companies just do honest business? Just include the laundry dispenser for regular loads - if I do a giant load, I'll use it twice. And the filter thing - that is just wrong. It can't be more than $2 worth of material and .50 worth of Chinese labor on this thing and I am being generous, so someone is making $25 dollars or so on my filter and yours.......

Snow Day?

Well, it isn't really a snow day - there is no accumulated snow here. But it is a cold day - no school due to severe cold. I know, I know, I also walked to school in blizzards uphill both ways. What can I say? I even stopped the neighbor girl from walking up to school, no one really expects to stay home just cause it is really, really cold. Although a big smile came over neighbor girl's face.....

So I have lots to little stuff to catch up on. Yesterday I finished Mom's Cardigan (the Mom in that being me, not my mom, sorry Mom!) . I just had buttons to put on, and I don't know why I hadn't done it. It wasn't difficult. The sweater is made of Rowan Magpie Tweed wool, which I bought 2 summers ago at Judy Ditmore's moving sale. So, that kept with my yarn diet, although I started it way before the yarn diet. And I wore the sweater yesterday afternoon, cause it was so warm and cozy.

I have my fingerless gloves on as well in this next picture, cause it was chilly and I was knitting. My little shadow, K, is of course with me.



I plied some yarn I spun from my latest fiber purchase at Distaff Day. Let's remember that purchasing spinning fiber is not the same as purchasing yarn, although the results do end up the same. More yarn. But handspun yarn is special, it has the love of me in it. Whereas millspun yarn only has the love of machines, until it is knit, then of course, it will have the love of the knitter in each stitch. That is what you get when you handknit articles - love in each and every stitch.

There we are winding up the new spun yarn on my niddy-noddy off my jumbo bobbin, which really is jumbo. Sometimes, I think they come up with words that are just meant to sound silly - niddy-noddy? Really? No one could come up with a better name? How about skein winder? I mean, we have a ball winder to wind up yarn into balls? Wouldn't the next logical step be a skein winder to wind up yarn into skeins? No, instead we call it a niddy-noddy. Let's face it, if I told you I am going home to use my niddy-noddy, you would think I am going to do something that is not proper for a knitting blog. Niddy-noddy, indeed.

Poor hubby has had to go out in this freezing weather, no cold days off for him. He wore his wool socks today even though he works indoors, it really is that cold. I also have my wool socks on. Love them. So far we have had stew and chili during this cold spell, it makes the house nice and warm and cozy, which brings a big smile over the husband's face...

Ahhhh, I guess that is enough random ramblings and showing off for today. Happy Cold Day to you!